Maintaining a neutral distance

Learn to master neutral distance in BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle. Discover techniques like footsies, jumps, and air dashes to control space and create offensive opportunities.

Maintaining a neutral distance is crucial in BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle. This is the range where neither player has an immediate advantage, but both can choose to approach. Mastering this allows you to create uncertainty in your opponent's mind about your intentions, making them hesitant to commit to an approach.

To maintain neutral distance, you have three primary options:

1. Footsies: Make small, precise adjustments to your position by walking forward (6) or backward (4) one or two steps.
2. Neutral/Vertical Jumps: Utilize normal jumps (8) or high jumps (2,8).
3. Instant Air Dash Backwards: Perform a 7, 4 input for an instant air dash backward, immediately followed by a dash+guard (66, 1 or 4+AB). This helps you gauge movement and dash ranges, and can reveal the effective range of your air attacks.

Characters with projectiles can also be effective in neutral. Always ensure your projectiles are used at a safe distance to avoid punishment. Air specials, including projectiles, can also be used. To perform them as soon as you leave the ground, use the tiger knee technique: input the special move's motion followed immediately by the jump motion (e.g., 2369X or 2147X).

The neutral game is about unpredictably entering your effective range while avoiding the enemy's. You need to anticipate enemy approaches and be ready to counter or block. A balance between offense (approaching or threatening to approach) and defense (evading or countering) is key to winning neutral.