Start here
Five 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.
Matches begin 2v2
You pick four fighters, but only your point character and one partner are available 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 into the design.
You can skip motion inputs
Every special (a "Skill") 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.
The corner is progression
Pushing an opponent into the wall can trigger a Break: the stage transitions and you get closer to unlocking your remaining fighters. Positioning pays you twice.
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.
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. Costs meter, so use it when you actually want the damage rather than every time you touch someone.
Heavy route. Ends in an Ultimate Skill. 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 you 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.
Defense
With a shared health bar, every hit you eat costs the whole team. Two team-based escape options exist beyond blocking, and they use the same button combination, separated 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 costs resources, so it's a read, not a habit.
Crossover □ + ✕
Same buttons, 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 an opponent jumping at you, and practice it in Training until it's reflex.
Assists and switching
The Assemble button calls a partner in for a single attack while you keep control of your current fighter. Which partner shows up is decided by the direction you're holding.
Assist into switch
After you call an assist, a brief Switch? prompt appears on screen. Press the tag button during that window and you seamlessly take control of the teammate who just came in. That's the rotation the whole game is built around.
Learn assists first and 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.
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 team eats the punish together.
Reading the HUD
Three resources, stacked on top of each other. 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 and pays for team mechanics like Assemble Counter and Crossover. Your unlocked-teammate count raises the cap.
Spent on Super Skills (50) and Ultimate Skills (100). At 150, with your full team unlocked and the opponent near defeat, it powers Tōkon Assemble.
Unlocking your full team
This is the mechanic that confuses new players most. You start every match with two of your four fighters. The other two arrive through play.
2v2
Point character plus one partner. Smaller health bar, fewer assist options.
3v3
Third fighter joins. Health pool grows and a new assist angle opens up.
4v4
Full squad. Maximum health, all 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 is genuinely not 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.
The roster
Twenty fighters at launch, in five story teams of four. You are not required to use a preset team; pick any four you like. Difficulty labels come from the game's own Ease of Use star rating on the character select screen. Launch coverage confirmed the top and bottom bands; no fighter in the base roster is rated one star. The eleven in the middle are marked unconfirmed rather than guessed at.
Fighting Avengers
Team 01- Captain AmericaThe tutorial character and the cleanest place to learn, and the game agrees — five stars. Shield throws that ricochet give him a tool at every range.5★ Easiest
- Iron ManRepulsor fire from a distance. Pairs well with a rushdown partner who forces the opponent to move.Mid — unconfirmed
- HulkFive stars. Enormous damage from simple inputs, and he shrugs off hits that would interrupt anyone else.5★ Easiest
- Black PantherAgile close-range pressure built on speed rather than reach.Mid — unconfirmed
Amazing Guardians
Team 02- Spider-ManMobile and combo-friendly. Fast enough to punish mistakes without demanding hard execution.Mid — unconfirmed
- Ms. MarvelFive stars, and called out by the developers as one of the friendliest starting points on the roster. Stretchy limbs mean generous range without demanding precision.5★ Easiest
- Star-LordRanged blasters and rocket-boot movement.Mid — unconfirmed
- Peni ParkerFights from the SP//dr mech using drones and traps placed around the screen.Mid — unconfirmed
Unbreakable X-Men
Team 03- StormTechnical and elements-based, and flagged by the developers as taking longer to master.Mid — unconfirmed
- MagikTeleports through Dark Portals and swings the Soulsword. Movement-heavy.Mid — unconfirmed
- WolverineFive stars. Straight-ahead close-range rushdown with a simple gameplan that works immediately.5★ Easiest
- DangerTwo stars — among the hardest on the roster. Screen control with mines, drills and lasers. Powerful, but a lot to manage at once.2★ Hardest
Knights of Doom
Team 04- Doctor DoomMixes science and sorcery, including a Nullify Shield that parries incoming attacks.Mid — unconfirmed
- MagnetoSpace control, hurling metal debris to keep opponents where he wants them.Mid — unconfirmed
- Green GoblinTwo stars. Glider mobility and pumpkin bombs from above, with positioning demands that punish autopilot.2★ Hardest
- CarnageFive stars, which is a surprise for a symbiote-blade character — the tools are built to tear through defensive play without complex execution.5★ Easiest
Samurai Outriders
Team 05- Ghost RiderTwo stars. Heavy hitter with the Hellfire Chain and a risk-reward Vengeance meter to manage on top of everything else.2★ Hardest
- BladeFive stars. An aggressive hunter with swords and stakes whose offense is easier to run than it looks.5★ Easiest
- LokiIllusions and counters. Rewards players who like to bait.Mid — unconfirmed
- DeadpoolSwords, guns and fourth-wall gags in one unpredictable package.Mid — unconfirmed
Building your four
The developers' advice is blunt: start with the character you actually like, then expand. If you want a structure anyway, put one close-range fighter next to one ranged fighter so you have an answer at both distances. The Year 1 pass adds four more characters and a stage, with Phoenix Cyclops confirmed first.
A first-week plan
Four short sessions. Don't try to learn every system at once; each one here assumes the previous stuck.
-
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 the Episode Mode chapters for that team. You're learning where things are, not winning yet.
-
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.
-
Session 03 · Casual matches
Assists only, no switching
Play real people. Call your 2nd teammate to cover approaches and extend hits. Ignore full tags entirely this session. Expect to lose; you're building the habit of using a partner at all.
-
Session 04 · Casual matches
Add the corner and the switch
Now push toward the wall on purpose to trigger Breaks, and press the tag button on the Switch? prompt after an assist. Once that feels natural, start converting your Quick Skills to command inputs one move at a time.
Then keep going — week two
Once that fourth session feels comfortable, Week Two: The Team Layer picks up where this leaves off: extending combos with Assemble Rush, why your assists keep getting punished, how to order your four fighters, and the Break economy that decides who reaches 4v4 first.
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-point characters: assists, tags, counters, crossovers.
- Assemble Assist
- Calling a teammate in for one attack while you keep control of your current fighter.
- 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.
- 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.
- Point character
- The fighter you're currently controlling.
- Skill
- A special move. Fired with a Quick Skill button or a command input.
- Super Skill / Ultimate Skill
- Meter-spending finishers at 50 and 100 Skill Gauge respectively.
- 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.