The Basics

What is Killer Instinct?

Killer Instinct is a 2D fighting game published by Microsoft Studios exclusive to Xbox One. It is directly connected to Killer Instinct and Killer Instinct 2, fighting games developed by Rare in the mid 90s which were released for arcades, Super Nintendo, and Nintendo 64.

The current version of Killer Instinct was released as an Xbox One launch title in November 2013, developed by Double Helix Games. It launched with six unique characters and expanded to eight by April 2014, pulling seven characters from classic KI and adding one newcomer. This completed “Season 1” of Killer Instinct, at which point development switched to Iron Galaxy Studios in mid 2014. Season 2 launched with new content on September 23, 2014, and is now in full swing; a new set of eight characters (four returning from old games, four newcomers) will be released, one character per month, until April 2015.

There are currently 12 characters in Killer Instinct, each of them a unique mix of traditional fighting game archetypes and new ideas. Check out the Characters page for more details.

Killer Instinct is a free to play game. The entire game can be downloaded for free, with access to a rotating free character which can be played in all modes, including online. You can purchase individual characters for permanent use, or all eight characters in a season at a greatly discounted price. You can own all sixteen Season 1 and Season 2 characters for $40 total, making the full package very competitively priced among other fighting games. Cosmetics for the characters and other non-essential extras are also available for an additional cost.

Health & Damage

Your goal in Killer Instinct is the same as any fighting game; do damage to your opponent until their health bar is fully drained. In KI, this means working your way through two different life bars, the first green and the second red. When a health bar is drained, it disappears from the screen until the current combo is completed, and then the next round starts after a brief pause. The camera and character positions are not reset, and the players are free to move around (but not attack) while the announcer says "Ready" (if you were KOed in the corner, this might be a good chance to reposition yourself). The player who performed the KO does not get any health back and must fight on with their current life bar.

The various health bars of Killer Instinct. Notice the regeneration rate for the white health.
When you drain your opponent's second life bar to 15% remaining, he will enter danger state, which indicates he is susceptible to an ultra combo and an instant end to the fight. When a character's second life bar is fully drained, the match is over. Time outs and draw games follow the same rules as SFIV. All characters have the same amount of health in Killer Instinct, and there is no stun in the game.

When a move is performed outside of a combo, or as the first hit in a combo, it does an increased amount of damage compared to when used at any other time. This design decision rewards stray hits in footsies and encourages players to anti-air effectively and start punishes with strong-hitting moves. Counter-hitsA counter-hit is granted to a move when it strikes an opponent during the startup of one of their attacks. also do extra damage, around 25% more. Hits performed in the middle of a combo will do a portion of their damage as white damage, which will linger on a player's health bar and slowly recover while they are not being hit. For more details on how to cash out this white damage, see the Combos section. Killer Instinct also employs damage scalingDamage scaling occurs when subsequent hits in a combo do increasingly less damage as the combo gets longer. Useful for keeping the damage of long combos in check. in the middle of combos.

Movement

Orchid uses fast walk speed in combination with well-ranged pokes to start her offense. Glacius has poor ground mobility to balance his excellent zoning.
Movement in Killer Instinct is very similar to a traditional 2D fighting game. Every character can walk forwards and backwards; the speed at which they do this is character specific and strongly influences their footsiesFootsies is a concept where fighters try to position themselves on screen at a range where their best moves will barely connect, while their opponent's best moves will barely miss. It often involves walking back and forth and trying to hit your opponent when they miss an attack. game. Because there are fewer characters in KI compared to SFIV, the walk speed difference can seem quite vast. Orchid’s walk speed covers more screen units per second than any character in SFIV, for instance, whereas Spinal and Glacius walk at speeds similar to Makoto.

Every character can jump, and like SFIV, you cannot block while jumping, making each jump a large commitment. Most characters have strong anti-airs that do good single-hit, unbreakable damage, and some may lead to more combos depending on resources spent. Against the characters with strong anti-airs, you can expect to lose 15-17% on a poor jump, or as high as 30-35% if the opponent spends multiple resources and gives you a chance to combo break.

Jago’s forward jump has 4 pre-jump framesDuring your character's pre-jump frames, you cannot be thrown. If you are hit with an attack during pre-jump, you will remain on the ground and open to a full grounded combo. , 40 frames while in the air, and 4 frames of landing recovery, for a total of 48 jump frames. KI runs at 60 frames per second, so Jago’s forward jump takes about 4/5ths of a second to execute. Compared to SFIV Ryu’s 4 + 36 + 4 = 44 total frames, Jago’s is slightly longer. Zoners like Glacius and grapplers like Thunder suffer from floaty jumps similar to Dhalsim and T. Hawk but do not come equipped with mid-air mobility mixups like a teleport, short jump, or Condor Dive special move. All jumps are subject to trip guardTrip guard allows you to cancel the landing recovery of your jump into blocking. This lets you avoid being punished when you land, typically by long-range low moves like sweeps (hence the name of the term). However, if you attack during your jump, you can no longer cancel your landing frames, which means you can be briefly punished when you land. rules like SFIV.

Sadira’s multiple jump arcs and wall cling specials give her unmatched air mobility. Maya can cancel her forward dash into a jump which covers much of the screen.
Not many characters can approach from the air using multiple angles. Sadira is the only character with a double jump, but it’s a powerful one, as she is able to perform any combination of back, forward, or neutral jumps, as well as cling to the wall using special moves, or even slam to the ground using a perfectly vertical (but unsafe on block) dive kick. Maya also can choose to jump at two different arcs, but she must make the choice while on the ground. Kan-Ra has situational mobility options, including a super jump, and can also perform a vertical dive kick during any jump. These three characters are the exceptions; no other character can meaningfully adjust their jump arc for the purpose of avoiding anti-airs.

Every character except Glacius can dash forwards and backwards by quickly tapping a direction twice. Most forward dashes are nothing overly special; they compare quite favorably to SFIV dashes in terms of speed and distance. The one exception is Sabrewulf, who is able to forward dash through opponents, making his forward dash an exceptionally powerful mixup tool. Thunder’s forward dash in instinct mode gains special properties as well, such as invincibility and increased distance and speed. Like SFIV, backdashes are fully invincible from frames 1-7 for all characters who can dash, making them a reversal option on wakeup.

Jago’s dashes are Ryu-like. All backdashes are fully invincible for 7 frames.
Sabrewulf can dash through opponents to create terrifying left-right mixups.

Blocking

Blocking is identical to SFIV. Characters can block high by holding the direction away from the opponent, or block low by holding both down and away. Most attacks in the game can be blocked either high or low, but all jump-ins must be blocked high and most crouching kick attacks must be blocked low. There is no air blocking in Killer Instinct.

Okay, but how do I hit someone?

Normals & Specials