Jump Force Tips & Tricks
Get Around Faster With Your Lobby Vehicle
In Jump Force, you’re going to do a lot of running around in the main hub area, Umbra Base. Whether it’s getting to the next mission, or checking out the four different shops, you’ll want to get around as quickly as possible. Luckily, the game gives you a fun way of doing this that you might not know about.
By hitting down on the D-Pad you can select between three different lobby vehicles to use; a motorcycle from Dragon Ball Z, boat from One Piece, and floating frog from Naruto. After picking one, your character will jump in the vehicle, letting you speed around the entire area much faster than just running.
Even better news is that you can talk to NPCs and interact with all the shops and kiosks while still riding the vehicle. This means that, realistically, you don’t ever even have to get out.
Jump Force Tips & Tricks
Make Sure to Equip Ability Skills, J-Skills, and Support Skills
Jump Force’s story, and much of its gameplay, revolves around a leveling and skill system. There are a few different options to keep track of here; Ability Skills can enhance your abilities and provide you with positive boosts in battle, J-Skills boost the parameters for your whole party, and Support Skills can be equipped on each Shonen Jump character to boost their power.
Support Skills are one thing that you’ll have to remember to equip, as you won’t really be able to do so at the beginning of the game. These skills cost SP to equip on each character, but characters only gain SP as they level up. Each level will add 1 SP to their permanent pool, with Support Skills deducting a certain amount from that pool.
Because of this, you likely won’t be able to equip a ton until later in the game. However, Jump Force’s story can get pretty difficult, and Shonen characters won’t stand a chance later on if you haven’t equipped them with skills.
J-Skills are Ability Skills are similarly important. Ability Skills are mostly gained by buying them through the shop, and they can then be upgraded with materials that you get by logging in every day or through Free Missions.
J-Skills, on the other hand, are primarily gained as rewards through Free Missions, so they aren’t too hard to gain either. It’s definitely a lot to keep track of, but if you’re looking to finish the story of Jump Force, you’ll absolutely need to keep all of these skills in mind.
Jump Force Tips & Tricks
Make Sure to Keep Your Ability Gauge Charged and Use Awakening
While you have plenty of basic attacks and throws to use, the bread and butter of Jump Force’s combat comes with abilities. Each character comes with four abilities mapped to R2 plus the face buttons. These abilities cause serious damage, and if you effectively combo them with your other attacks, you can really hurt your opponent.
However, if you want to use a lot of abilities you need to make sure you’re managing your ability gauge. By holding down R2 you’ll charge the gauge at a fast rate, and each ability has a gauge requirement in order to use. Most of them require at least one charge in your gauge, but some will require two charges.
Make sure you’re taking time to charge up your gauge if the enemy is across the battlefield, or even while they’re recovering from one of your attacks. Similarly, you’ll want to keep your Awakening Gauge in mind as well.
The Awakening Gauge is wrapped around your character portrait in the top left, and it charges a little bit as you attack, and a lot as you take damage. When the gauge is at least 50 percent full, you can enter Awakening by clicking R3, or you can use it to unleash your 4th, most powerful, ability.
The better idea, however, is to always use your gauge to enter Awakening, as this will increase your power and ability damage temporarily as the gauge drains. Instead of just wasting the gauge on your ability, enter Awakening and use it, then when the gauge is almost depleted, launch your 4th ability. By doing this you’ll be able to maximize your damage output.
Jump Force Tips & Tricks
Guarding Is Incredibly Important
Guarding, done by holding R1 (RB), is more important in Jump Force than even other fighting games. Every single attack in Jump Force, except grabs and Smash attacks, can be blocked, and this includes abilities and Ultimate Abilities.
Timing is everything in Jump Force, and you need to know when to guard, when to attack, when to dodge, etc. Make sure you aren’t just going all-out on the offensive, as a player that plays smart defense will be able to completely dominate you. The better idea is to mix up offense and defense.
Go all out on an attack, then drop back and play defensively until you get an opening. If you time your guard exactly right as well, you can execute a Teleport Dodge. This means hitting the guard button exactly when the enemy attack lands.
The Teleport Dodge will transport you right behind the enemy, with a chance to unleash your own combo. This is especially useful when the enemy has you caught in a Rush Combo, where they knock you into the air. If you manage to hit R1 at the exact time of one of their blows, you can turn things around and get them into a rush combo.
It’ll take a bit of time to get the feel for how Teleport Dodges work, so you might want to knock out a few training matches while you try to get it down.
Jump Force Tips & Tricks
Manage Your Mobility Gauge
Another vital aspect of Jump Force’s combat is your Mobility Gauge, which lets you chase enemies, dashing towards them at high speed by pressing L1. As you use chase, the gauge will deplete, and once it’s empty you’ll have to wait for it to recharge before you can use anything again.
Chase is incredibly useful for closing in on enemies quickly, especially if it’s a character that has really powerful ranged abilities. However, perhaps the more important use of the gauge is Escape, letting you teleport out of an enemy’s combo.
When your opponent has you trapped in a deadly combo, you can press L1 (LB) to teleport out of it, provided you have something in your mobility gauge. This takes up a huge amount, however, over half of your gauge, so you’ll only be able to use it twice in a row at the most.
This is why it becomes incredibly important to manage your gauge and not blow it quickly. A lengthy combo can take off a ton of health, so you want to be able to Escape it at all costs. It’s generally a better idea to use your gauge mostly for escapes, and sparingly for chase.
Use these two mechanics in tandem with guarding and Teleport Dodge and you should build the perfect defense.
For more tips and tricks make sure to check out our Jump Force guide wiki. You can also see our official review, or 10 anime we hope get added on as DLC.
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