TLDR Special Edition - X Factor and What it Means to Your Frames

Yay!  A special thing I had planned for everyone!

I figured that since I kept mentioning how things are "normally not able to be punished" I should really talk about what I mean by that.  So let's dig in shall we?

Your average character has a 5 frame L somewhere.  What this means is that you can punish any move that is -6 on block or more as long as you are in range.  This is why I talk about moves that are -4/5 as "relatively safe" because your average character can't punish it.  I'll make this easy for everyone though and use a character I've already covered so you have their frames on hand.

Wesker

Crouching	Startup	Active	Recovery	On Hit	On Block
Cr.L	5	2	11	+2	+1

This is Wesker's Cr.L, which is a 5 frame move.  Some characters, however, have 4 frame moves.

Firebrand

Crouching	Startup	Active	Recovery	On Hit	On Block
Cr.L	4	2	12	0	-1

Here we have Firebrand, who happens to have a 4 frame L.  All this means is that he can punish slightly more things than Wesker (range permitting, his Cr.L has almost none) into a hitconfirmed combo.

So then you might be asking yourself who/what qualifies as a slow normal.  The measuring stick for this (in my case) is Hulk.  Hulk has a horribly slow L at his disposal that you really have to work around to make it do something for you.  How slow is slow though?  9 frames, or 7 in some cases.  Dormammu has a 7 frame L, for an example.

I wanted to get all of that out of the way because this article is about how X Factor changes up all of this, specifically level 2 and on.

On average a character gains a 20% speed boost at XF2, which means quite a bit for your average 5-Frame-L character.  In that case specifically said character's 5FL becomes a 4FL, and in XF3 a 3FL in some cases.  In this game specifically a 3FL is a very powerful tool and only occurs naturally (no XF) in very few characters.  I'll include a list of characters and their L speeds at the end of this article.

So what does all of this mean for you 4FL characters? Well, for them XF2 grants a 30% boost which still takes them down a frame to 3FL status.  In XF3 though it is rare for any of them to drop down to a 2FL.  Characters like Firebrand, Joe, and Chun Li fall into this category but only Chun Li amongst them gains a 2FL.

The translation of most of this is that with XF2/3 characters many more moves can be punished than normal.  Things like Captain America's St.S (-4 on block) while normally punishable by the tiniest fraction of the cast is easily punishable for many characters even in XF2.  So it's something to keep in mind when you're checking your options against certain members of the cast.

That really covers it all for this article.  I'll punch up that list really quick so you guys can see who has what speed L, but have a great Christmas (or whatever holiday happens to be yours this time of year) and a Happy New Year.

Character	Frames (Startup)	Position
Captain America	4	Crouching
Deadpool	4	Standing
Doctor Doom	5	Standing
Doctor Strange	4	Standing
Dormammu	6	Standing
Ghost Rider	7	Both
Hawkeye	5	Both
Hulk	9	Both
Iron Fist	5	Both
Iron Man	5	Both
MODOK	5	Crouching
Magneto	5	Standing
Nova	5	Standing
Phoenix (Dark)	4 (3)	Crouching
Rocket Raccoon	4	Both
Sentinel	7	Standing
She Hulk	7	Both
Shuma	4	Standing
Spiderman	4	Standing
Storm	5	Both
Skrull	6	Both
Taskmaster	5	Both
Thor	7	Crouching
Wolverine	4	Standing
X-23	4	Standing
Akuma	5	Crouching
Amaterasu	3	Standing
Arthur	6	Standing
Viper	4	Crouching
Chris	6	Both
Chun Li	4	Both
Dante	8	Both
Felicia	4	Standing
Firebrand	4	Crouching
Frank West	6	Both
Haggar	7	Standing
Hsien Ko	5	Both
Jill	4	Standing
Morrigan	4	Both
Nemesis	8	Standing
Phoenix Wright	6 (5 in TB)	Standing
Ryu	5	Both
Spencer	6	Standing
Strider	4	Standing
Trish	5	Both
Tron	7	Standing
Vergil	5	Crouching
Joe	4	Standing
Wesker	5	Both
Zero	4	Crouching

*Note that this is not a guide to a character's best punish, it simply lists their fastest normal and the position it is used from as a reference.