There’s a lot to take in if you’re to play competitively at marvel vs. Capcom 3. Nzism’s fluxcore returns once again with nine tips to bring you up to speed.USING ASSISTSMvC3 is a three-on-three game; the only time you fly solo is when two of your characters have died, so for most of the game you have assistance. Some assists throw projectiles, provide you with extra tools such as low-hitting moves or overheads, or even give you Hyper meter! Use hitting assists can cover your own unsafe moves or to help you gain or maintain the position you want, but also try to use your moves to cover the assist so they don't get punished. Assists can be useful offensively or defensively, and many can be used to extend your combos.PUNISHING ASSISTSIf your opponent uses their assists unsafely, make sure you punish them for it. Assists are punishable while they come in to perform their move, but afterwards they’re temporarily invincible. When hit, assist characters take 60% more damage than usual, so catching them in a combo can be incredibly painful. Even just a simple Hyper combo can devastate an assist, and projectile Hypers such as Deadpool's Happy Happy Trigger or Ryu's Shinkuu Hadouken can punish assists from full screen away.TAGGING OUTWhen your point character is severely injured, tag them out so they can regain their red health. MvC3 has four methods of doing this, with varying levels of safety and benefits: Crossover Attacks, Team Aerial Combos, Team Hyper Combos and Crossover Counters. Each is useful in different ways, and some are dependent on your assists and assist types. Keeping as many of your characters alive as possible is very beneficial, so incorporate all types of tags into your game, but use them safely!PICKING YOUR TEAMTeam synergy is incredibly important in MvC3, and often switching one character out for a utility character can vastly improve the performance of your team. Rush-down characters benefit from some kind of projectile helper assist to aid them in getting in on the opponent, and keep-away characters often need assists that fill holes in their game (such as anti-air or additional projectiles). Also consider the way your Team Hyper Combos and Crossover Counters work with each other when choosing your team.MOVEMENTAs in any fighting game, positioning and movement are very important skills, so make sure you are used to the whole range available to your character. These may include: ground dashing, air dashing (sometimes in eight directions!), super jumping, double jumping, wall jumping, flying, and more advanced versions like wave dashing or tri-jumping. Full use of your movement abilities can extend combos, create tricky mix-ups, and allow you to escape pressure and damage from your opponent.OFFENCEUse all the movement options available to you along with smart assist usage to get in on your opponent if you need to. This is a fast-paced game, and there are lots of opportunities to confuse your opponent and open them up for big damage. Characters with air dashes can call an assist, jump and then airdash over the head of the opponent, then attack them from the other side. In general, pinning the opponent with an assist and then performing high/low or left/right mix-ups is very strong. Throws are also very good in this game, so use them (and combo afterwards if possible).DEFENCEA character like Magneto tri-jumping and hitting you with jumping or crouching attacks can be very hard to block. One defence against this is to block in the air wherever possible. There are no high or low attacks in the air, so you are safe from that mix-up. Always block away from the opponent's main character, even if their assists are hitting you from the other side. If you are forced to block attacks, use Advancing Guard to push the opponent off you and give you a brief chance to escape or counterattack.SNAPBACKSUse Snapbacks to bring in opposing characters that you'd rather deal with sooner rather than later. Phoenix is the most obvious example: you want to take her out before she has five Hyper meters to stop her from becoming Dark Phoenix. Score a hit early in the game, combo into Snapback and bring in Phoenix, then hopefully kill her before she gains the five meters. Snapbacks are also useful if an opponent's assist has a lot of red health; snap that assist in, and all their red health becomes permanent!X-FACTORThe most important mechanic in MvC3 is X-Factor. It gives you a hefty speed and damage boost, and can be used to make ridiculous comebacks or mitigate otherwise fatal situations (since block damage is negated), but you can only use it once per round. Generally, save it for when you are down to your last character, because that is when it lasts longest and has the biggest impact. Other good times to use it are when you catch two or even all three of the opponent's characters in a combo (because you will most likely kill them all), or if using it will win you the match.