A BK Dictionary.
Sometimes when I write or talk, I use words or phrases that are hard to understand, especially if English isn’t your first language. Whether it’s slang, fighting game jargon, memes or even Japanese, I oftentimes find myself saying things that only me or a close friend of mine would understand.
This page will serve as a glossary of words that I may use in my guides and forget to define. Think of it as a BK Dictionary. If I ever use a word that isn’t exactly easy to understand, reference this page.
This page may also contain definitions for common words or phrases used on the internet in gaming circles.
When you attack a boss/enemy, you gain the attention of the boss. If you are dealing high damage or if you are the first one spotted in a team of players, the boss is most likely to target you and may even ignore your teammates completely. The act of gaining attention on yourself is called drawing aggro. When you have the aggro, you are the target the boss wants to kill.
This is also sometimes called ‘Hate’.
When you try to trick the opposition into doing something you want them to do so you can take advantage. For example, if you know that a boss has has a certain long range attack that leaves them very open to damage, you can stand far away to try to bait them into doing it so you can capitalize.
You can also use this for someone who is trolling online and trying to bait people into responding.
Refers to someone who only recently started to care about something once it became mainstream or popular. This is often used for someone who pretends to have a deep knowledge about something they only found out about a month ago. “You just jumped on the bandwagon”.
Fighting Game slang. This means you just got fucked up. Plain and simple.
Other synonyms include: Folded, Pwned, Laid up, Clapped, Wet, Schooled, Freed Up
Essentially an older person who likes to complain about younger people or often talk about how good things were back in their day. I’m probably guilty of this to some extent.
Broken is a word that’s usually used to refer to something that is not properly balanced or unfair. Its breaks the balance of the game and is thus broken.
Not a word I use very frequently and is used very loosely online.
A buff is a skill that increases your stats. This can refer to spells or passive skills.
When talking about a balance update, Buffs refers to a character/weapon getting changes that make it considerably better.
This refers to the act of ending the recovery of an attack early by canceling the attack into another attack, guard or a jump.
If I’m using a huge sword and I drop it to the ground with an overhead attack. I would be able to cancel into a jump, guard or another attack without having to pick the sword up first and swing it again.
This refers to the act of helping players who do not pull their own weight. Either they are Free, under-leveled or are against putting in effort to level themselves. Carried players tend to not learn how to play the game properly. Carried players also almost never thank the players who carried them or won’t acknowledged that they were carried.
I also call this solo-but-in-a-team play.
“Can you help me level?”
“Sure thing. Don’t worry, I used to work as garbage collector.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean I’m used to carrying trash like you www”
Someone who just plays games for fun. Sometimes also someone who thinks all games must be made for their attention span and/or skill level :V
This is what I call it when a boss topples over or does an attack with a really large opening and gives everyone a huge opening to deal damage.
Christmas Time is when everyone should drop what they’re doing and punish the monster. Other holidays may be used to describe Christmas Time.
…The blood of the cursed 「3½ Horned Demon」 of the forgotten「Kurenai Clan」 inhabits my right hand. It is capable of befalling the destruction of the 「Literal World」. Thus I keep it sealed under this brace called the 「Elysian Shawl」and only move under the guise of darkness lest the agents of 「Revelation Xanadu」 seek out to silence me.
Ahh. The wind is troubled. As is my「Partitioned Heart」 which can only recall the hatred I harbor for the 「Otherworldless Ones」 that took my eternal lover’s life. Alas, I have no choice but to continue moving forward. Even if it means embracing my tragic 「Fate」 in which I am doomed to eat the 「Dreams」 of the hopeful to sate the hunger of the demonic power flowing through this right hand.
8th grader syndrome. Delusional behavior or a discrepancy between what is dream and reality which causes a young person with an identity crisis to believe they have some sort of special power or existence. When in actual fact they are just a normal person acting like a weirdo.
This can also be used as an adjective to describe the story of a work. If it uses a lot of strange terms that don’t really make sense and has any of the themes present in the passage above, or even if the story is just really out there, it’s probably chuuni.
In a particular match-up, if the weapon/character you are most familiar with doesn’t perform well in the match-up. Opting to pick a different weapon/character that performs considerably better just for the sake of the match-up is called a Counter Pick.
Release day or the very first time you are trying a game.
A debuff is the opposite of a buff. Its a skill that lowers your stats or an opponents stats. Status Ailments like poison, confuse and silence may also be considered debuffs.
Refers to the act of buying the same game more than once. Whether it’s in a different language, different platform or different version. You can also triple-dip.
Damage per second. We generally talk about “High DPS” which essentially means that something is able to put up a high amount of damage over a short period of time.
Another word for perversion or lewdness.
I use this to define a cut-scene or movie that occurs when you advance the story in a game.
This word is used to refer to a specific sequence or action that is not easy to perform. There may be a strict window to the button presses, or the inputs itself may be complex or difficult to do.
Easy-Peasy. A breeze. A Piece of cake. Rakusyo. Generally means its too easy for words.
I often use this term sarcastically.
A term coined from God Eater. This is a Special Skill where, if you take a hit from an attack that would normally kill you, you will survive the attack with 1 HP.
A Firm Stand may have some additional parameters needed for it to work.
A Frame is a unit of time measurement in gaming. In a game that runs at 60 Frames per Second (FPS), 1 Frame is 1/60 of a second. In other words, its a fraction of a second.
Usually when talking about Frames it refers to an incredibly small window in which to do something. A 1 Frame Link is the act of inputting a sequence within 1/60th of a second which is incredibly difficult to do. 1 Frame links are also refereed to as ‘Just Frames’.
Frames is sometimes written with ‘F’ as a unit of measurement.
Fighting Game slang. A word used to describe a player that is so bad at the game, it would take almost no effort for a seasoned player to beat, or better than them. They are a free win.
This may also be applied to characters or bosses.
Fighting Game terminology. Consider a situation where you are being pressured on your wakeup. Your opponent can attack you both High and Low to mixup and break your guard on wakeup. But if you think carefully, the Low attack will come out faster than the High attack because High attacks are traditionally slower (in 2D Fighting Games games)
Now, with this knowledge you may opt to block both attacks by blocking Low first, then switching to a High block at the point where the projected High attack may hit you.
Fuzzy Guarding refers to a situation where you are unsure what kind of attack you need to guard against and you are attempting to block against it anyway. Whether it actually comes out is a different story.
This loosely refers to the 6th sense a player may acquire after playing a countless number of games. Its sort of an intuitive prediction ability gotten from playing and understanding how games are designed and work in practice.
Have you ever played a game where there’s a part where you have to diffuse a number of bombs within a timer? Has it ever happened where after you diffuse the 4th or 5th bomb you say to yourself “There’s probably only one more” and then sure enough, there’s only one more.
If so, that’s game sense.
Essentially when you dictate who or who not should be allowed access to a medium. A good example would be when you complain about bandwagoners starting Metal Gear Solid 5 without playing any of the others. Gatekeeping is usually an elitist thing to do, but sometimes it’s warranted because fuck dem kids.
Godlike. Usually a compliment of the highest form.
Good Game or Good Games.
Even if it the games weren’t good, you still have to say GGs.
Good Job.
A high level weeb meme. It essentially means lol.
To explain the term, in Japanese slang 草(kusa/grass) is sometimes used in place of ‘www‘ for laughing at something. The reason? Because www looks like grass.
Yeah, that’s it. Grass.
See: www
When you perform tedious tasks repeatedly to earn levels or equipment or to even learn how something works.
This is a part of getting and while some people hate it, you need to be willing to do it to get better.
This refers to an attack that allows you to automatically block incoming attacks during a portion of the attack. Not to be confused with Super Armor.
Guard Point is like if I was charging in with my shield. The shield will hit you and block your attacks simultaneously.
Going HAM (Hard as A Motherfucker). This basically means that a boss or player is going really crazy and hitting really hard. Its essentially means that things are going especially well for the one who is going HAM. It also means that the ones who are on the receiving end of the one going HAM are getting bodied fiercely.
Fighting Game slang. In tag games, this refers to a situation where you messed up and both/all your characters got caught on screen in a combo and may die. Its truly a heart rending situation for one player, but a wonderfully great present to the other.
I may use this term in an instance where you can potentially mess up badly and lose everything at the drop of a hat.
Fighting Game terminology. When you take damage, your character flinches in pain and is unable to do anything before they recover from that animation. This is called hitstun. It essentially allows the opposition to take advantage while the character is stuck taking damage.
Blockstun is the same as hitstun, but it refers to when you are guarding against an attack and you have to first recover from the guard before you can do anything else.
I use this word very often and almost never mean it in the conventional sense. In Fighting Games, ‘hype’ refers to any single moment that encapsulates a high degree of excitement. The reason why its hype and not just ‘exciting’ is because there are usually many different things going on in the background that are necessary for that moment to be possible, but the players adapt to this seamlessly and still pull off great feats.
A perfect example is Kazunoko at GGXrd EVO 2017 Top 8. His opponent threw out a bomb that hits both players. The bomb was unsafe so he punished his opponent for doing it. But his punish was not going to go far since the bomb blast was imminent. But Kazunoko has the presence of mind and insane skills to adjust his punishing combo so that he could jump cancel and block the bomb and subsequently pick up the punish without missing a beat.
That’s hype. A moment of excellence that is so esoteric that players of that game won’t even begin to understand what’s so amazing about it.
I sometimes use ‘hype’ loosely to refer to anything that’s exciting or looks unconventionally interesting.
IDPTG (I don’t play this/that game)
IDPTG is an Option Select that is used by scrubs as a seemingly viable reason as to why they lost, why they don’t do well at the game or when they want to humiliate someone who actually plays that game.
Its an ancient excuse used by gamers that allows them to disassociate themselves from doing well at the game for whatever reason because “I don’t play that game.”
In Before. A meme term generally used to predict the next part of the conversation or something in the near future.
“Lol, inb4 ‘imagine f(x)'”
The ‘imagine function’. When you use the essence of irony to make a point or mock someone. Also known as sarcasm. A good example would be if someone says something blatantly wrong like “The Sky is Gold”. A use of the imagine function in this case would be “Imagine this being wrong” or “Imagine the sky being gold.”
Invincibility/Invulnerability Frames or DP/Dragon Punch attacks
This refers to an attack or a dodging move that momentarily renders your character invulnerable to attacks. It basically means that you can’t get hit during a portion of the move.
Sometimes the taking damage animation has invul itself so you don’t continuously take damage.
A DP refers to such an attack, but the attack has a long recovery time that makes the prospect of doing it risky and unsafe.
Means “In Real Life”. Do you even internet?
This refers to a knockdown.
This generally refers to a gameplay situation where there are one or more correct answers, and if you do not know what they are can get punished for it. A very basic example is to think of a situation where a boss does an attack that is unblockable normally, but can be perfect guarded. If you don’t know the attack is unblockable and you tried to block it normally, you failed the Knowledge Check.
Online slang for Go Kill Yourself. Usually said by salty boiz.
This refers to a character or a weapon type that is incredibly good but its greatness isn’t publicly known. Usually means something that needs a bit of skill or a trick to use but when used effectively is surprisingly great even when compared to existing great standards.
A character/weapon type/magic spell or anything that is seemingly useless or requires a sizable amount of effort to be worth using. Being Low Tier generally means that there is a hell of a lot of things better than it, so much so that trying to learn to use it means you will struggle more than succeed.
See: Top Tier.
Fighting Game slang. This refers to when you make an amazing comeback with 1HP.
You have nothing but a pixel in your lifebar, but you’re putting in the worlds work into defeating something and you just will not die no matter what.
This refers to the idea of dedicating yourself to a certain character/weapon type/playstyle as the Main thing that you play that game with. Generally refers to focusing on learning one thing very closely while ignoring the options for the time being.
A word I made up. Refers to a character/weapon type/playstyle or even a certain skill that is so effective and easy to use, there is a real danger of instantly Maining it and picking up bad gameplay habits as a result.
Most Main Traps are things that are super effective during story or on easy things, but start to not be as useful in endgame or in high difficulty situations.
This is the prospect of studying how A fights against B. You are to consider all the advantages, disadvantages each variable has and think up ways to either bend the match-up to your favor, or how to survive in an unfavorable match-up.
This word generally refers to how a game is played beyond the given rules of the game. It’s the kind of strategy that players may use to play the game proficiently. Meta can even evolve to the point where its about a game within a game.
Meta is an interesting topic where a game that is fun on the surface, may not be as fun at a higher level or vice versa. Sometimes the Meta is just about spamming one move very effectively, or sometimes its about fifty other things going on in the background you may not even understand if you don’t play the game to that level.
Fighting Game terminology. This refers to the act of using varied attacks in other to break through your opponents guard. Attacking high when they are blocking low and attacking low when they are blocking high is the idea.
A 50-50 mixup refers to any situation where one of two things can happen. This doesn’t only apply to fighting games, but can apply to a boss’ attack patterns as well.
A Crossup is when you break an opponents guard by going behind them. Bosses may also do this in certain games.
This refers to a Newbie. A new player who doesn’t know left from right and is still learning how to play.
Generally refers to new players of a series and is generally used with a certain level of distaste because no one likes a noob.
Not a word I use very often. Also not to be confused with a scrub
Something that heavily appeals to new players and may even be the entire reason they purchased the game. But in reality its something that is kind of crappy or unnecessarily hard to use. Both cases lead to the beginner being unsatisfied.
Noob Traps are scary because you may never know you are caught in the noob trap.
In a balance update this refers to an existing character/weapon/skill having its abilities reduced and lowers by the developers. Sometimes a nerf is a response to things that were overpowered, but these days its generally a response to the playerbase complaining that something is overpowered.
Non-player Character. Can be a quest giver, villager with one line of text, or even a key character in the story who isn’t playable.
Wakeup game or setups. This refers to an opponent or boss attacking you as you recover to keep you under pressure. It means that you have to be on the defensive or take risks to get out of pressure.
This refers to killing something/being killed in one hit. Whether you are under-leveled or whether the enemy is just that strong, getting One-Shot is sometimes shocking, hilarious or unexpected.
You can also get Two-Shot and Three-Shot. We stop counting after three.
Generally refers to something that tips the balance of the game in its favor. Something that’s overpowered is something that’s just so undeniably good it overshadows other things in the game. Sometimes OP is used as a synonym for Broken.
OP can also be used as a compliment to refer to a player who is good at the game.
Fighting Game terminology. This refers to the action of doing multiple inputs together and having different desirable results come out that depend on the situation.
For example, Guarding is R1+O in AccelSword. If I map a Counter Skill to R1+Triangle and then press R1+O+Triangle every time I guard, I will get a counter if the counter is not on cooldown and a block otherwise. This is an Option Select.
Its a very advanced technique that takes advantage of inputing multiple commands at the same time to cover multiple projected answers to a given situation.
Slang use: An Option Select (OS) can also be used to refer to a carefully worded excuse. The most common one is saying “I don’t play this game (idptg).” before or after a match. This way, you have an excuse for why you lost or you can make your opponent feel bad if you made them lose. Its a single phrase that single-handedly covers responses to multiple outcomes so its an IRL Option Select.
This is an emoticon of a man on his hands and knees in despair.
O is the head, R/T is the body and Z is the legs.
My daily bread.
When you over-celebrate after performing something in order to spite the others who lost to you/couldn’t do what you did.
Not all pop-offs are to spite people. Sometimes you’re just generally happy to succeed and want to jump around screaming “I DID IT!!!!!”
Power-leveling is the act of getting high level players to help you level up. Most of the time it ends up with you getting carried by strong players. This may result in you not learning core fundamentals needed to be good at the game because you’re letting the strong players kill everything.
Not exactly a respectable way of getting to level up, but many people who play online gaming are very anti-grind so to each their own.
Attacking after your adversary has just done an unsafe attack. A Punish usually comes after a good read.
This is what I call it when a boss gets angry and increases its abilities. Sometimes bosses have exclusive attacks in rage mode. Rage Mode generally needs a trigger (Like the boss losing HP) and generally has a set duration.
A Read is what I call a very accurate short term prediction in a fight. If you can predict your opponent’s next attack before it does it and punish accordingly, you will be at a huge advantage.
Reads are usually backed by experience and knowledge of the game.
This refers to an attack with relatively short recovery time which allows you to dodge or attack after performing the attack. It’s a low risk attack and the opposite of an unsafe attack.
When you are mad about something. Usually used for someone who is irrationally upset.
Sandbagging is when a player does not perform at their best on purpose. They chose to play at a level lower than what they are capable of or they don’t try to be as good as they normally are.
A bad player with a bad attitude. I think it’s very important to understand that new players are not inherently scrubs, and that the bad attitude part is what really defines the term ‘scrub’.
Not a word I use often.
Fighting Game terminology. This refers to the concept of performing a continuous sequence of pre-determined attacks and setups to keep your opponent either in pressure or in a combo. Setplay can be a sequence of Reads, Punishes, Predictions and Okizeme that keeps the opponent on the ropes. Setplay generally exploits an opponent’s lack of match-up knowledge to keep them in a consecutive series of disadvantageous situations until they die.
Setplay usually means that you are in a position of control, gaining momentum with each action and your opponent has to find a way to break the momentum or else they will die.
Literally “Tied-Up Play”. This refers to the prospect of placing limits on yourself to make the game more difficult and enjoyable. Good examples of Shibari Play is to only use Rank 1 weapons, take no damage or to use no healing whatsoever.
Shibari comes in many forms but any time you refuse to do/use something in order to make the game more difficult for your personal enjoyment, it’s Shibari Play.
When you shamelessly over-advertise a product or yourself. Most of the time, the advertising benefits you financially.
Aiming to complete a game or a mission in the most time-efficient way possible. Sometimes this may use glitches, bugs or exploits, but sometimes this may use high level optimization and mad skillz.
A character with alarmingly low HP. Often dies in one-shot.
Startup time refers to the amount of time it takes for an attack to be in its actual attacking portion. It’s how fast you can swing your arm before you hit something.
Recovery time refers to the point where after you have done an attack and now need to go back to the position where you can perform another action. It’s the time you need to pull your arm back after throwing a punch.
Refers to the act of keeping a boss/opponent in hitstun or keep it downed or flinching continuously so that you can deal your damage without consideration for what the opposition is doing.
This refers to an attack that allows you to power through incoming attacks. Not to be confused with Guard Point as you still take full or a portion of damage. Your attacks just don’t get interrupted.
Short for technique. This describes a particular strat or method in which a player would do something unconventional to achieve a desired result. High Level Tech or Advanced Tech is as it sounds: abstract methods used by high level players.
See: Meta.
Refers to the input of Street Fighter Sagat’s special move of the same name. It means the act of doing an air/jump move, a fraction above the surface of the ground. Sometimes it evens looks like you’re doing a ground move due to how low above the ground it takes place. But it is without a doubt, an air move with all of the properties of an air move.
TK moves often have a level of execution barrier to them.
A character/weapon type/magic spell or anything that is especially great and requires a less-than-average amount of effort to be used effectively. Something being Top Tier generally means that there is a not a lot of things better than it, so much so that using it will see you succeed way more than struggle.
Top Tier things don’t always have to require low effort and top tier things are sometimes balanced out by making them hard to use.
See: Low Tier.
“The Time Has Come and So Have I”
The time has come and so have I
I’ll laugh last cause you came to die
The damage done – the pain subsides
And I can see the fear clear when I look in your eye.
I never kneel and I’ll never rest
You can tear the heart from my chest
I’ll make you see what I do best,
I’ll succeed as you breathe your very last breath.
Lyrics to Nero’s DMC4 battle theme. My mind always trails off whenever I hear someone say “The Time Has Come” and I always have to say the next 12 bars.
The opposite spectrum of a Casual. Someone who plays a game to be better at it and beat other people. They will use developed strats or tech to Knowledge Check you. Winning is important to them.
…Or at least I think so? Honestly not too sure about this term because these days, it’s kinda just used for anyone who takes a game seriously. As if that’s a bad thing, and we are all supposed to be mediocre free players who never improve at anything because allegedly finding enjoyment in self-improvement is wrong and bad.
I’m probably a tryhard and that’s why I can’t define this too well.
Tryhards are also refereed to as Sweats or Sweaty. The term ‘sweats’ makes me laugh til my sides hurt.
This is a situation where the opponent puts you in a situation where you straight up can’t block or your guard will break if you try to guard.
There are often other ways around Unblockable attacks. Sometimes the answer is Perfect Guards, a Perfect Dodge, or even using moves Invulnerable Frames. But in some cases, an Unblockable Setup can be fatal. Especially if you don’t have match-up knowledge to understand what the answer may be.
Negative Fun. When something starts to be the opposite of fun. This means that its something that has the opposite effect of enjoyment on your life. Grinding or something that ruins the fun of the game can fall into this category.
The opposite of hype. This refers to something that isn’t just boring, it kills the prospects of itself ever being exciting. It may even kill the prospects of something else being exciting.
A risky attack with a very long recovery time. Using these kinds of unsafe attacks recklessly will get you punished and killed. Unsafe attacks generally need to be used on a good read or in conjunction with a cancel of some kind.
w is short for 笑う (warau). Its more or less the Japanese equivalent of ‘lol’.
I generally use this when I’m making a joke or not being serious.
This refers to when you are knocked down, and you have to get up afterwards. The reason why this is important in games is because when you knocked down, you are not able to attack or block and your very first action has to be getting back up before you can do anything. But while you have to get up, your opponent is free to do whatever they want and to keep you in pressure, they will attack you as you wakeup.
See: Okizeme
An anime, game or 2D character that does not exist, but weebs like to think of the character as someone special to them. The word comes from Japanese pronunciation of the word “Wife”. Waifu is generally used for female characters while male characters have the term Husbando.
Initially this word some actual real definition about how it’s used for people who denounce their own culture, but nah, this word is just used as a derogatory term for someone who likes anime or japanese culture. I find this word funny as hell so I never use it seriously.
When you completely miss an attack.
When you punish someone for completely whiffing an attack.
The literal term doesn’t make a lot of sense when translated to English, but yarikomi refers to Endgame. Its the action of finding things to do in the game even after the main story is over. This could be grinding for better gear, learning how to get better, playing online, doing side-missions or finishing up the trophies/achievements.
The beauty of yarikomi is that you give yourself personal tasks to perform in the game and clearing them gives you enjoyment.
A game with no yarikomi is a game with no endgame. Its a game where they’re practically nothing to do after you clear the main story and you’re likely to shelf it after a few more days.
Literally “The Absolute Territory”. Without talking about the origin of this word, zettai ryouiki refers to the section of skin visible between thigh-high socks/knee-socks and a skirt. Its an alluring region of flesh that is more visually stimulating than hot pants and ankle socks.
The allure of zettai ryouiki stems from the human eye’s natural ability to follow straight lines. This makes the region of skin visible between the straight horizontal lines of the kneesocks and the skirt appear more vividly. But the skirt is not an actual straight line, its an umbrella shaped curve that holds a treasure land all straight men would like to visit. This makes the appeal of zettai ryouiki incredibly strong and worth noting. Even in the dictionary of a website dedicated to gaming.
For more information on the grades of zettai ryouiki, follow this link.
My sarcastic face. I am 200% being sarcastic when using this. I also use hearts or stars to show blatant sarcasm. Don’t get mixed and go thinking I’m being serious.
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