Guide

Game tech chase systems explained

Harbor Siege shipped directional tech rolls to fix helpless corner knockdowns. Defenders loved them — mash back roll and escape. Attackers hated them: a single meaty normal covered quick rise but whiffed on every back tech. Ranked telemetry showed attackers winning only 41% of post-knockdown guess wars despite holding frame advantage. Players called oki “solved for the defender.” The problem was not the rolls; it was that the roster had one oki layer per knockdown ender and no tech chase routes to punish delayed, neutral, or forward tech on reaction.

Tech chase is the attacker's side of the knockdown read game: layered setups that cover multiple defender recovery options without guessing blindly. It includes meaties that beat late tech, run-stop shimmies that catch forward rolls, throw routes that beat delay mash, and corner carry that preserves advantage after a correct read. Tech chase sits between okizeme timing and wake-up option design — attackers need a decision tree, not a single button. This guide covers tech chase taxonomy, coverage matrices, delayed and neutral tech punishes, throw tech chase, corner geometry, the Harbor Siege refactor, a technique decision table versus meaty-only oki, pitfalls, and a production checklist.

What tech chase is

Tech chase (sometimes called oki layering, knockdown conditioning, or ukemi trap routing) is any attacker sequence designed to follow a defender's tech direction or timing and retain pressure. It is the offensive mirror of defensive tech rolls: if rolls create escape vectors, chase routes close them.

Tech chase is not one move. It is a layered protocol the attacker executes after a knockdown:

Establish advantage — knockdown with known frame advantage at the victim's expected rise point.
Present threat — meaty, empty hop, or projectile that forces a defensive choice (block, roll, reversal, delay).
Branch on response — forward dash catch, delayed low, throw, or shimmy punish the option the defender picked.
Carry or reset — re-knockdown in corner, or accept midscreen reset if the read failed.

Without chase layers, tech rolls reduce to a coin flip: meaty beats no-tech, roll beats meaty. With chase layers, wrong rolls become full combos and correct rolls still cost mental stack — the defender must track which oki layer the attacker committed to.

Tech chase vs related systems

System	Who acts	Primary goal
Tech roll	Defender	Change spacing / invuln through oki
Meaty oki	Attacker	Hit on frame 1 of rise
Tech chase	Attacker	Punish rolls and delayed tech on reaction or conditioning
Throw tech chase	Attacker	Tick throw or kara route after expected tech direction
Reversal bait	Attacker	Block or parry invincible wake-up, then punish recovery

Defender options attackers must cover

A complete tech chase matrix accounts for every option in the wake-up taxonomy:

Quick rise / no tech — default stand on timer expiry; beaten by standard meaties if advantage is long enough.
Back tech roll — creates distance; needs forward dash, run-stop normal, or projectile to catch end of roll.
Forward tech roll — crosses up or closes gap; needs backdash block, throw, or low hitting behind.
Neutral tech — minimal movement; often beats crossup meaties; needs straight meaty or throw.
Delayed tech — input held until late in window; beats early meaties; needs delayed low, empty hop, or wait-and-punish.
Reversal — invincible attack; needs block bait or parry route (see reversal guide).
Mash jump — avoids throw; needs anti-air or meaty hitting jump startup.

Designers should not require attackers to cover all seven on every knockdown — that makes oki unsolvable. Instead, knockdown enders should telegraph which subset matters: hard knockdowns might disable forward roll, forcing a three-option game (back, neutral, delay) that chase routes can cover with two layers.

Layered oki and the coverage matrix

Production teams document oki coverage matrices: rows are attacker layers, columns are defender options, cells mark hit / block / whiff / punish. A minimal two-layer chase for midscreen soft knockdown might look like:

Layer	No tech	Back roll	Forward roll	Delay tech
Meaty medium	Hit	Whiff	Block	Whiff
Forward dash → low	Block	Hit	Whiff	Varies
Delay throw	Throw	Whiff	Hit	Throw

Healthy matrices have no dominant defender mash: if back roll beats every layer, defenders never learn. If meaty hits every no-tech and forward dash catches every back roll, attackers need not guess — but defenders still have forward roll and delay as outs. The chase game lives in conditioning: show meaty twice, then dash catch when the opponent expects another meaty.

Layer timing must respect knockdown duration. A dash chase that arrives after the defender already stood and jabbed wins nothing. Author explicit chase windows in frame data: “Forward dash low active frames 18–24 after KD impact.”

Delayed tech and wait-and-punish routes

Delayed tech is the defender's answer to early meaties: hold tech input until the meaty whiffs, then roll through the attacker's recovery. Attackers counter with:

Delayed meaty — active frames aligned to late tech window; risks reversal if mistimed.
Empty hop into low — baits delay then catches rise with fast low; see safe jump timing.
Walk back, react — high-skill route; attacker retreats to bait roll then forward dash; requires readable roll animation.
Projectile oki — fireball on knockdown covers delay and forces block at range; weak to forward roll unless paired with dash.

Delay tech becomes oppressive when the tech window is longer than the attacker's fastest chase tool. Cap delay viability by shortening late window or giving attackers a universal delayed low with bounded startup (e.g. 22 frames max from KD).

Throw tech chase and strike-throw layering

Throw tech chase routes throws after a predicted tech direction. Classic pattern: opponent always back rolls from your sweep ender — you run forward, tick throw at roll recovery. Variants include tick throw after blockstring, kara throw after forward roll, and shimmy that whiffs throw to bait reversal then grab.

Throw chase must respect throw break and mash jump. If jump beats throw and throw beats roll, the defender at throw range faces a real triangle. Designers gate throw chase with slightly longer throw startup than the fastest meaty so jab checks exist before grab threat is real.

See grab and throw systems for break tech and proximity rules; tech chase is the knockdown-specific application of those routes.

Corner carry and stage geometry

Midscreen tech chase resets to neutral on a correct back roll — acceptable trade. Corner tech chase must preserve trap value: back roll travels less distance, wall stops movement, and forward roll may cross into corner throw range.

Corner chase tools:

Forward roll punish — low or throw as opponent rolls into corner; high reward because back roll is weakened.
Meaty jump-in — covers back roll that barely clears the attacker; watch for reversal.
Corner-specific ender — knockdown that leaves opponent in outer corner with back-to-wall roll disabled.
Carry routes — combo that sideswitches then re-knockdowns to maintain corner; see corner pressure.

If corner back roll still escapes to midscreen, corner knockdowns lose meaning. Scale back-roll distance by distance-to-wall or clamp roll at wall contact with extended recovery — the same rules documented in the tech roll guide, but tested from the attacker chase perspective.

Harbor Siege tech chase refactor

Harbor Siege's post-tech-roll metrics (ranked, 9,800 knockdown sequences):

Attacker oki win rate 41% (target 52–58%)
Back roll rate 67% of all techs
Meaty-only usage 89% of attacker oki attempts
Corner round wins after KD 38% attacker / 62% defender

Combat patch changes:

Added run-stop low chase to three rushdown characters (18f startup, hits back-roll recovery frames 6–10).
Published delayed throw route on sweep ender (+4 on block if delayed tech whiffs meaty).
Corner: back-roll distance −35% when within 2 units of wall.
Training mode oki overlay showing chase windows and defender tech direction on replay.
Tutorial mission: “Meaty then dash catch” with input grading.

Post-patch metrics:

Attacker oki win rate 54%
Back roll rate 51% (mix of forward and delay rose)
Layered oki usage 47% (meaty + chase branch)
Corner round wins after KD 51% attacker / 49% defender

Player surveys shifted from “oki is broken” to “I need to lab matchups” — the intended skill expression outcome.

Technique decision table

Approach	Best when	Weak when
Meaty-only oki	Quick rise only; no tech rolls; teaching beginners	Directional tech, delay mash, competitive ranked
Two-layer chase (meaty + dash)	Soft KD midscreen; back roll dominant meta	Forward roll crossup without OS answers
Throw-heavy chase	Defenders mash roll into throw range; grapplers	Jump mash meta; throw break OS strong
Projectile + dash chase	Zoners; delay tech prevalent	Characters with fast forward roll invuln
Reversal bait layer	Meterful defenders; reversal every wake	Low reversal damage; bait costs too much HP
No tech chase (reset neutral)	Hard KD with huge attacker disadvantage	Corner trap design; players expect pressure

Common pitfalls

One meaty per roster. Every character uses the same timing; defenders lab once globally.
Chase tools slower than tech recovery. Dash arrives after defender jabbed — chase feels fake.
Forward roll never punished. Defenders always roll in; oki becomes escape simulator.
Delay tech uncounterable. Late window longer than any delayed attacker option.
Corner back roll still reaches midscreen. Corner carries no threat; players avoid center stage unnecessarily.
Chase routes not in training mode. Players discover dash catch from streamers, not your tutorial.
Identical KD advantage on all enders. No reason to use knockdown routes that enable chase vs reset.
Online rollback desync on chase timing. Dash catch hits offline, whiffs online; trust collapses.

Production checklist

Build oki coverage matrix per knockdown ender (attacker layers × defender techs).
Author at least two chase layers for soft knockdowns used in neutral.
Publish chase window frame data (dash, delayed low, throw tick timing).
Verify forward roll punish exists for every character with forward tech.
Test delayed tech vs delayed meaty and empty-hop routes in lab.
Scale corner back-roll distance or clamp at wall with punishable recovery.
Add training mode replay overlay: tech direction, chase window, hit result.
Tutorial: meaty then dash catch; throw after predicted back roll.
Balance hard KD: shorter tech window or no forward roll to limit matrix size.
Serialize chase branch inputs for rollback netcode determinism.
Telemetry: track oki win rate, tech direction distribution, layer usage.
Survey corner KD rounds separately from midscreen — geometry differs.

Key takeaways

Tech chase is attacker-side oki layering that punishes tech rolls, delay mash, and wrong-direction reads.
Coverage matrices document which meaty, dash, throw, and delay routes beat which defender options.
Delayed tech requires delayed attacker answers — not earlier meaties with the same timing.
Corner geometry must weaken back roll or chase routes cannot preserve trap value.
Harbor Siege raised attacker oki win rate from 41% to 54% by adding dash-catch and delayed throw layers plus corner roll scaling.