All games:[edit]
Body Blow Attack[edit]
By pressing 
+
your character will execute a body toss attack who can make a distance attack, you can also make a defensive counter but it consumes 1 charge.
Safe Fall[edit]
While you are falling down, just press 
+
to your character roll after the fall.
The King of Fighters '99 and 2000:[edit]
3 Fighters and 1 striker[edit]
Unlike the other games, now, you fight with 4 fighters and 1 fighter can be used as a Striker during the match replacing the Team Assistance from the other games, to call a striker, you must press +, every striker had different attacks and consumes 1 striker gauge, the first fighter had 3 striker gauges, the second had 4 striker gauges and the third had 5 striker gauges.
POWER Gauge[edit]
Like in Street Fighter Alpha, both players start with a 3 charge gauge and this gauge will fill when a player use a special move, attacks the opponent or if takes damage, any charge enable the player to make a Desperation Move who can deal too much damage for the opponent.
Counter and Armor Modes[edit]
With an MAX Level POWER Gauge, you can activate Counter Mode by pressing ++ and Armor Mode by pressing ++, Counter Mode increases your power and you are able to strike with the Ultra Death Blow and Armor Mode increases your defense and you are able to counter attacks even the enemy attacks but Counter and Armor Modes will disable to use Desperation Moves.
Slide[edit]
Pressing + will make your character slide who can make you dodge any attack and you can make an additional attack by pressing any button in the slide, holding backward and pressing + will make a quick dodge (except for projectiles).
The King of Fighters 2001, 2002, Neowave and 2002 Unlimited Match:[edit]
Rolling[edit]
Pressing + will make your character roll dodging upper attacks and depending the direction can roll forward or backward.
The King of Fighters '99 only:[edit]
SDM Moves[edit]
If your life gauge is flashing (20% or less) and you had an charge of POWER, you will be able to use Super Desperation Moves, an more stronger version of the original Desperation Move, with 2 or 3 charges of POWER, the Super Desperation Move will consume all charges.
The King of Fighters 2000 only:[edit]
Change your original Striker into a Extra Striker[edit]
When a fighter from the player is being chosen as a Striker, you had the option to change it to a Extra Striker (Except for Zero), who make a different attack, you can also change the Extra Striker to Maniac Striker by highlighting the Extra Striker and press up, left, left, left, right, right, right, and down.
Refill a Striker Bomb[edit]
By had at least 1 POWER charge and 1 missed Striker Bomb, press START to refill it, it will consume 1 charge of POWER.
SDM Moves[edit]
Unlike KOF '99, SDM Moves had been changed and you can only execute it when POWER Gauge is in MAX Level and press + (
) or + (
).
The King of Fighters 2001 only:[edit]
Use how many Strikers you want[edit]
Depending the number of Strikers, the number of POWER Gauges will increase,
- 0 Strikers: 4 fighters and 1 gauge, its impossible to use MAX DMs.
- 1 Striker: 3 fighters and 2 gauges, MAX DMs will consume all the gauges.
- 2 Strikers: 2 fighters and 3 gauges.
- 3 Strikers: 1 fighter and 4 gauges, its more easy to charge.
You can call the Strikers by holding left, down and right with the joystick and the buttons +.
Striker call consumes 1 gauge.
MAX DMs[edit]
MAX DMs uses 2 gauges and like in KOF 2000, you must press + () or + () but depending of the DM, it does not need and , like Yuri's "Shin Yuri Satsu".
The King of Fighters 2002 and 2002 Unlimited Match only:[edit]
MAX DMs[edit]
Unlike the 2001 edition, in the 2002 edition, to make a SDM you must activate a gauge with + and you must press + () or + (), it consumes 2 gauges and it can also refer as a MAX DM by an ★ symbol.
MAX2DMs/HSDMs/Hidden Super Desperation Moves[edit]
When you had at least 20% or less of life and 2 or more POWER Gauges, you can execute Hidden Super Desperation Moves, an upgraded version of the SDM and like the SDM, uses 2 punches or 2 kicks, but many times is a combination of buttons in other and for K9999 uses left, right, left, right, left, right, left and right in air, every character had one HSDM
The King of Fighters Neowave only:[edit]
Mode Selection[edit]
Like The King of Fighters '97 and The King of Fighters '98, The Neowave edition had selection of 3 modes:
- Super Cancel: The POWER Gauge had 3 charges in max and you use the same things you've learned in KOF 2002 and 2002 UM but without gauge activation.
- Guard Break: The Power Gauge had 2 charges in max and you use the same things you've learned in KOF 2002 and 2002 UM.
- MAX2: The Power Gauge will slowly fill and you are restricted to use SDMs.