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Six things that make Tōkon different from every other tag fighter. Read these before you touch a button and the rest of the game stops feeling random.
Your team shares one health bar
All four characters draw from a single Vital Gauge. Tagging out does not give you a fresh life bar. When it empties, the round is over.
Pick order assigns jobs
The slot a character lands in fixes their assist type: Leader, Shooter, Vertical, Assault. The same four heroes in a different order is a different team.
Matches begin 2v2
You pick four, but only your Leader and one partner are live at the start. The other two have to be unlocked during the fight.
Losing a round helps you
Drop a round and a locked teammate joins automatically. More teammates means a bigger shared health bar and more assists, so comebacks are built in.
You can skip motion inputs
Every special can be thrown with a single Quick Skill button. Motion inputs do slightly more damage and build more meter, so they're worth learning later, not now.
One button makes a combo
Link Attacks let you mash the same attack button into a full autocombo string. It's a real, usable route, not a training-wheels trap.
Do this first, in the game
Open Startup Battle. It's split into Basics (movement, attacks, blocking with one character) and Assemble (assists, switching, team actions). If you've played fighting games before, skip Basics and go straight to Assemble, because the team layer is where Tōkon is actually new.
Controls
Eight jobs, whatever you play on. Pick your setup below and every button shown on this page changes to match — including in the combo routes further down.
Set your own labels
Type whatever your buttons are actually called. Everything on the page updates as you type. Nothing is saved once you close the tab.
Pad layout
Stick & leverless
Quick Skills vs. command inputs
Tōkon gives you both, on every character at once. A Quick Skill fires a special with one button press. A command input is the traditional motion and pays a small bonus in damage and Skill Gauge.
Start on Quick Skills. Spending your first week fighting the controller instead of the opponent teaches you nothing about the game. Convert individual moves to motions once you can already win a round.
Your first combos
Link Attacks are autocombos: press the same attack button repeatedly and the character routes it for you. Each button ends somewhere different, which is the actual decision you're making.
Light route. Ends in a Skill and can trigger a Break, which transitions the stage and moves you toward unlocking your full team. This is the route to mash when you're near the wall.
Medium route. Ends in a Super Skill for 50 Skill Gauge. Use it when you actually want the damage, not every time you touch someone.
Heavy route. Ends in an Ultimate Skill for 100. The most expensive ender and the one to save for closing out a round.
The upgrade. You aren't locked to one button. Climbing light → medium → heavy gets more damage, and calling a partner mid-combo with Assemble Rush lets you keep going after the Skill. This is the first "real" combo worth drilling in Training.
Confirm before you commit
Start strings with Light. It's fast, it's safe-ish, and you get a moment to see whether it hit or was blocked before you spend meter on a Super ender. Mashing Heavy in neutral is the fastest way to hand a good player your round.
What Link Attacks won't do for you
They are how you get damage in your first week. That is all they are. Mashed into an opponent who is holding guard, a Link Attack gives them your turn back: the string carries no low and no mixup, so blocking it costs them nothing and they act first when it ends. The route that wins games against people who mash is the same route that loses them against people who don't.
The manual string above is where you're headed, and there's a step in between. Experienced players recommend → ↓ → against a guarding opponent instead: it threatens a low, and it still confirms into the full combo when it lands.
Players disagree about when to teach this. One camp holds that autocombos only teach mashing and that new players should learn blockstrings from the start. The other holds that movement, blocking and knowing what an assist does carry you further than any combo, and that autocombos are fine scaffolding until the fundamentals are there. Both camps agree on the part above: know that the string is giving your turn away, and don't build your whole game on it.
Defense
This is where most new players actually lose. With a shared health bar and assists holding blockstrings together, sitting still and holding back is not a plan. Two escape tools share the same input, separated only by whether you're already guarding.
Guard
Hold away from the opponent to block standing. Hold down-away to block low. Learn which of your opponent's moves have to be blocked low before you learn anything flashier.
Assemble Counter +
Pressed while not guarding. Your character backsteps defensively, and if an attack comes out during it, you fire back automatically. It's a read, not a habit.
Crossover +
The same input, pressed while you are guarding. A teammate crashes in to interrupt the opponent's pressure and buy you a turn. This is your answer to being pinned in the corner.
Anti-airs
Jump-ins are how most new players lose. Pick one button per character that reliably beats someone jumping at you, and back it with a Vertical assist — that's what the slot is for.
If you feel like you can't get out
You're not imagining it, and it's the most common complaint from new Tōkon players. Being stuck in blockstun forever is usually a sign you haven't spent Assemble Gauge yet. Crossover exists precisely to break a blockstring that an assist is holding together — burn the bar instead of guessing on the mixup.
Team roles and assists
The thing the tutorial glosses over: your four characters don't just sit in a queue. The order you select them in locks each one into a role, and that role decides what their assist actually does.
Leader
Your point character. The one you control at the start and whose full moveset you'll use most. Pick this for who you want to play.
Shooter
Called with neutral or forward. Throws a projectile. Covers your approach and controls the ground in front of you. Speed and size of the projectile is everything here.
Vertical
Called with down. Hits upward. Your anti-air insurance and your combo launcher. Boring until you fight someone who jumps at you constantly.
Assault
Called with back. Draws on that fighter's signature abilities, so it varies the most between characters. Usually your best combo extender and pressure tool.
Why this matters more than who you pick
A character can be excellent in one slot and a waste of a slot in another. Hulk is one of the strongest Leaders in the game and one of the worst Shooters, because his projectile is slow and small. Iron Man is the reverse: the best Shooter assist in the game, attached to a Leader who falls apart when someone gets close to him.
So build in this order: pick the Leader you enjoy playing, then fill Shooter, Vertical and Assault with characters that are good at that job — not with your next three favourites. The cards below rate every fighter for all four slots.
Assist into switch
Call an assist and a brief Switch? prompt appears. Press during that window and you take control of the teammate who just came in. That's the rotation the whole game is built around.
Learn assists first, switching second. Panic-tagging in the middle of pressure is how a shared health bar disappears, because the incoming character can be hit on the way in. There's also an Aerial Assist: call anyone while you're jumping and you get a different attack from them.
When to call an assist
On a confirmed hit to extend a combo, to cover you while you approach, or to buy space when you're stuck. Not on cooldown. If your assist gets caught, your whole team eats the punish together.
Reading the HUD
Three resources, stacked. Knowing which one you're spending is most of what separates a coherent player from a mashing one.
Your team's single health bar. It doesn't reset when you tag. It does get larger as you unlock more teammates.
Sits under your health. One chunk each for Assemble Smash, Assemble Counter, Crossover and Super Assemble. Unlocking teammates raises the cap, so a full squad can defend more often.
25 for an EX special, 50 for a Super Skill, 100 for an Ultimate Skill. At 150, with your full team unlocked and the opponent near defeat, it powers Tōkon Assemble.
Unlocking your full team
The mechanic that confuses new players most. You start every match with two of your four fighters. The other two arrive through play.
2v2
Leader plus Shooter. Smaller health bar, one assist direction, no Tōkon Assemble.
3v3
Vertical joins. Health pool grows, anti-air coverage opens up, Assemble cap rises.
4v4
Assault joins. Maximum health, all three assists live, and Tōkon Assemble becomes possible.
Earning it on offense
Drive the opponent toward the boundary and land a wall-splatting hit or a Break-capable route — the Light Link Attack string is the reliable one. The stage transitions and a teammate joins.
Earning it by losing
Drop a round and the next fighter joins automatically. It's an intentional catch-up mechanic, so being down a round genuinely isn't the disaster it looks like.
Tōkon Assemble
The team ultimate. It needs all four characters unlocked, 150 Skill Gauge, and an opponent close to losing the round. Treat it as a finisher you set up for, not a button you look for from the opening bell.
Character guides
Every fighter rated for all four slots, plus what they're for and the thing that will trip you up. Tiers are slot-specific: a D in one column doesn't mean a bad character, it means don't put them there.
Building your four
Start with the Leader you actually like — the developers' own advice — then fill the three assist slots by job rather than by favourite. A shortcut if you want one: a fast projectile in Shooter, a big quick upward hit in Vertical, and whatever has the nastiest signature move in Assault. The Year 1 pass adds four more fighters and a stage, with Phoenix Cyclops confirmed first.
Team builder
Pick four fighters in the order you'd pick them at the character select screen. This checks whether each one is any good at the job their slot hands them, tells you when the same four would be stronger in a different order, and gives you a link you can send to someone.
What the score is and isn't
It's a rough sum of how well each fighter suits their slot, weighted toward the Leader because that's the one you actually play. It can't see matchups, your execution, or whether you enjoy the team — and it's built on one outlet's launch-meta read. Use it to catch an obvious mistake like a slow projectile in the Shooter slot, not to pick your main.
A first-week plan
Five short sessions. Don't try to learn every system at once; each one assumes the previous stuck.
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Session 01 · About an hour
Startup Battle, all of it
Both halves, Basics and Assemble. Then pick one character you like the look of and play an Episode Mode chapter. You're learning where things are, not winning yet.
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Session 02 · Training mode
One combo and one anti-air
Drill the Light Link Attack until it's automatic, then → → → Skill. Set the dummy to jump at you and find the button that stops it.
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Session 03 · Character select
Build a team on purpose
Using the cards above, put your Leader first and then fill Shooter, Vertical and Assault by job. Play the same four in the same order all session so you learn what each direction gives you.
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Session 04 · Casual matches
Assists only, no switching
Play real people. Call Shooter to cover approaches, Vertical when they jump. Ignore full tags entirely. Expect to lose; you're building the habit of using a partner at all.
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Session 05 · Casual matches
Add the corner, the switch, and Crossover
Push toward the wall on purpose to trigger Breaks. Press on the Switch prompt. And when you get pinned, spend a bar on Crossover instead of holding back and hoping. Then start converting Quick Skills to command inputs, one move at a time.
Glossary
The vocabulary you'll hit in menus, tutorials and every guide written about this game.
- Assemble
- The umbrella term for everything involving your non-Leader characters: assists, tags, counters, crossovers.
- Leader
- The first character you pick, and the one you start the match controlling. Also called your point character.
- Shooter / Vertical / Assault
- The three assist roles, fixed by the order you pick your team. Projectile, anti-air, and signature-move respectively.
- Assemble Assist
- Calling a teammate in for one attack while you keep control of your current fighter.
- Aerial Assist
- The different attack you get when you call a teammate while jumping.
- Assemble Rush
- An assist called mid-combo that lunges in and lets you keep the combo going.
- Assemble Counter
- A defensive backstep that automatically counterattacks if the opponent swings during it.
- Crossover
- Calling a teammate to interrupt the opponent's pressure while you're blocking. Your main escape tool.
- Link Attack
- The autocombo. Press the same attack button repeatedly for a preset string.
- Break
- A stage transition triggered near the boundary that also progresses your team unlock.
- Unique Attack
- The character-specific signature button. Completely different from fighter to fighter.
- Skill
- A special move. Fired with Quick Skill or a command input.
- Super / Ultimate Skill
- Meter-spending finishers at 50 and 100 Skill Gauge.
- Tōkon Assemble
- The team ultimate: full squad, 150 gauge, opponent near defeat.
- Ease of Use
- The star rating on the character select screen. More stars means friendlier to learn.