Overview
Fortune Summoners is a highly neutral based game that punishes panic and rewards skill. As the AI is set to answer based in your inputs rather than code, this results in your attacks being blocked/evaded while they inch you closer to the corner. Most of the time you can barely escape, but that stops being effective once the enemies start getting better anti-air options and one in every three enemies can inflict Freeze/Stun/Sleep/Confuse. So its best to master Arche’s movement to control the neutral.
Beginner
What’s Neutral?
Neutral is positioning where the spacing advantage and disadvantage is the same for both characters. Pushing the spacing in your favour with Arche’s attacks/movement will determine most outcomes.
Arche’s Moves
Walk/Dash – Forward/double tap. Press the opposite direction to do a brake. Note the length of time to turn.
Slide – tap down while running. Not much use.
Jump – Hold longer for a bigger jump with a lot of midair horizontal control. Combine with dash for a huge full screen jump. Enemies have anti-air attacks that deal more damage and they WILL snipe you out of the air the instant you jump, so se this sparingly. Take this to heart: Jumping when your HP is low will kill you.
BEGINNER
Slash/combo slash – bread and butter combo.
Jump Slash – Your best friend for every flying enemy in the game. There is no move in the game that can counter enemy anti-air, so limit usage to aerial opponents especially bees.
Anti-air – Tap up and attack. Does more damage to aerial enemies and has a short recovery, making it the best move in the game. Randomly throw it out at neutral to catch jump-ins. Use it on bats when they swoop in and bees when they spread sleep powder.
Block – Straight forward block. If you tank too many unblocked/more blocked attacks in a few seconds, you get disarmed and knocked down. So get comfortable with reacting on enemy attacks. Don’t be afraid to hold block while attempting to leave a room. Can’t defend against jumping attacks and magic. Hold the line with this to protect Stella and Sana while they cast magic.
Backroll – Spacing tool with a few invincibility frames. Turning is slippery and takes time so this is the better combat option. Use this against big moves and jumping attacks you don’t have time to anti-air. You can chain these together to create space while you heal.
Forward Roll – Short forward roll with invincibility frames and slips around enemies and turns you around. Use this to escape when you’re in the corner. You can also buffer a roll during blockstun to escape enemy attack spam.
Heal Button – Heal the character with the lowest HP or with a status effect with the appropriate item, with priority on keeping them alive. In battle, a bar for healing will charge and heal once full. If pressed during this, it will cancel. Using items like Honey and Cake requires the Rare Item use setting to be switched on. Don’t be afraid to run away while waiting for the bar to charge. If used outside of battle, the heal will be instant. You can also heal through the menu. Obviously if you run out of items you can’t use this, so always stock up.
Jump Kick – The best move in the game. Starts up in 1 frame to be the best long distance option. Combine with a dash to make the distance go even further. On hit Arche will do a backflip back into neutral making it safe in most situations and its so fast that it generally can’t be anti-aired. Use this to start up your offence on far enemies, while unarmed, catch enemies trying to backdash, to extend your combo, hit flying enemies, and quickly close in on enemies trying to cast magic. Chaining jump kicks together is also a viable escape option if you can’t jump up. When flanked, I use this to kill an enemy at low health then chain into a forward roll to turn around while creating space.
Intermediate
INTERMEDIATE: Get used to to blocking/rolling/healing and you can deal with 90% of everything in the first half of the game. As you can probably see now, Fortune Summoners is a very ground based game, making effective spacing tantamount to success. Once you’ve mastered the tools above, you can move onto advanced movement.
Thrust – Tap down and attack. The fastest short range option in the game. Has more range than the slash but less recovery than the wide slash. Poke enemies with this if you’re not sure they’ll block or at the end of your combo.
Wide slash – Tap forward and attack. Bigger version of the thrust. Use this as a combo ender or to catch a jumping opponent too far for the anti-air to catch. Has a huge recovery animation so use this sparingly.
Snap thrust – Tap back and attack. Thrust behind Arche and turn her around. Spins her around in 1 frame and attacks at the same time making it your go-to for when you’re flanked. Use it as an alternative to turning. Combo this into another Thrust.
Down thrust – Jump and press down+attack. Arche’s only guard break option in the early-mid game. Get comfortable with shorthop into downthrust. Using this from a long jump will usually miss.
Advanced
ADVANCED – Once you learn these moves you’ll see your game speed up significantly and you as a player making intelligent moves consistently. Experiment as much as you can! These are Arche’s lategame options.
Flip slash – Very tricky to execute, but a very rewarding anti-air option and even better anti-flank option that covers a wide area while creating distance. On controller, gently push the controller back without going the full distance then tap down and press attack all in one motion. You can chain them into each other.
Full Moon – Jump and tap up+attack. The most busted move in the game. Arche will do a quick 360 degree slash in the air. Huge hitbox, can chain intop itself, hits backwards and upwards and does a ton of damage.
==>> MIRROR MOON: Before an encounter, have Sana cast Shield + Mirror Image + Forcefield then swap back to Arche, run in, and spam Full Moon to decimate every late game enemy comp.
Unison/Buster Tornado – Arche gets a fireball on all her ground normals and a tornado special with a fast startup. Other than the triple jump, completely trivialized by Mirror Moon.
If you have any questions, please ask!!!! I love this game and only wish there were more like it