Advanced - The Arcana Gauge

Now we're getting to the good stuff.

Before anything, I'll go into more detail about the Arcana Gauge. When you start a match, you'll have 1 bar of it to spend, the YELLOW segment - the rest of it will be gREYED out. If you use meter, there'll be a RED area which refills while you aren't using meter. (The speed with which this happens is based on the arcana you're using, remember.)

If you do damage to your opponent, or take damage, your yellow area will increase - but ONLY if there is no red bar. If you're still recharging your gauge, you can't build any more meter.

In short, using meter constantly early on in fights stops you from building more meter to use in later rounds. This means later rounds typically have much flashier combos and more ornate setups than round 1, so there's a strategy to consider here.

IMPORTANT NOTE: THE ONE EXCEPTION TO THIS SYSTEM IS THE METAL ARCANA. WITH THIS, YOU CHARGE YOUR GAUGE MANUALLY USING 4E.

First of all, there are Super Moves. These are simple enough, just stronger versions of moves you already have. They're performed with an appropriate input followed by A+B - not any two attack buttons, specifically A+B.

Now, let's talk about Homing Cancels. Given that the top Arcana Heart forum in the west is named after it, you can guess it's a pretty damn important system.

You should already know the basics of homing and how it allows you to close the distance on your opponent. However, you can also cancel into a Homing move mid-combo and pick it up for extra hits and way more damage. Think of it like an FADC in Street Fighter except you can do it IN THE GODDAMN AIR.

You can Homing Cancel out of more or less any move, even charged moves like 5E. One of the easiest ways to do a Homing Cancel combo is to finish your combo with a sweep, then Cancel with 6D and pick the opponent up into an air combo before they hit the ground.

Homing Cancels can also be used on defense, but that's a whole different kettle of fish. See Guard Cancels for more information.

Homing Cancels cost you 1 bar of Arcana Gauge.

Finally, every character has a super move called a Critical Heart. They're basically ultimates, with varying degrees of usefulness. Most of them aren't really worth the effort at high-level play, but DAMN if they don't look good. Critical Hearts require 3 bars of Arcana Gauge. Like Supers, they're a command (typically something along the lines of 641236) and A+B.