By being initiated in the Art of Balling, your mind may begin to fathom the possibilities of these dark arts, letting your humble Robot tap into a lite version of Guilty Gear's Venom ball combos.

(Multi-ball super when, Ivy?)

The most important parts for you to remember, is the four tenets of balling:

• THE BALLER'S DI AFFECTS THE REMOTE BOMB
  
• REMOTE BOMB CANCELS MOVES
  
• REMOTE BOMB HAS A HITBOX

...and most importantly, the fourth tenet; a warning.

• REMOTE BOMB IS JANK

Very rarely, some strange things might happen! Be ready, and prepare for that. In exchange, your balling mastery will make you much harder to approach, and to be able to expand upon your combos, and damage, with experimentation.

With your introduction to balling, you are on your path to expand your mind, or go insane.

Welcome... To the Art of Balling.
We shall go over the four tenets in more detail.

Tenet one: THE BALLER'S DI AFFECTS THE REMOTE BOMB

As you may or may not know, your attacks affect the ball in different ways.

• TRY-CATCH dunks the ball.
  
• PING and VACUUM launch the ball towards you. (VACUUM can also launch away, if you hit it with the close hitbox.)
  
• THUNDER CLAP gives excellent control over the ball, and delays launching due to its hitstop.

There are many more examples, but it is up to you to learn how to use them.

The person hitting the ball has further control over the ball; DI.
Even as a Ninja you can show your balling mastery. As long as a Robot is on the court and gives you the opportunity to ball, you can apply these techniques.

However, since you're most likely to ball as the Robot, here are some examples of this.

• TRY-CATCH, with no DI as mentioned, dunks the ball straight towards the ground.
  
• With UPWARD DI, the bouncing is minimised, and stops in front of you.
  
• With DOWNWARD DI, the inverse happens; the ball violently bounces a fair distance upwards.
  
• With FORWARD DI, the ball is shot forwards.
  
• With BACKWARD DI, the ball goes, as you guessed it, backwards.

Various amounts of DI give varying effects, and it is up to you to experiment on how it changes your moves, and the ball's trajectory.

Additionally; the aforementioned DI influence also applies to hitting around Ninja's powered-up shuriken, caltrops, Cowboy's bullets, and their ricochets, if you are controlling either of them.
Certain attacks, such as the initial hit on Cowboy's bullets are also controllable as the opponent, as well!
Do not be afraid in your balling; do so with confidence, as the "ball" is naught but a concept - anything can be a ball if you can believe in your skill. However, do be wary of this being used against you.

With your newfound control over the ball, we can move on to the next tenet of balling.

Tenet two: REMOTE BOMB CANCELS MOVES

By attacking the ball, it allows you to interrupt some of your moves early.
With the additional precision from the previous tenet, you can set up your ball in better positions.
With those better positions, you can interrupt your attacks without using a free-cancel.

As soon as you unleash an assault upon your dear ball, it acts akin to a free-cancel-- without the cost, letting you attack without the risk of whiffing.
Be careful, as you may be vulnerable to certain attacks from a particularly brave foe. You can only interrupt your attack on the turn your opponent can choose another move, just as a free-cancel does.

However, these properties shift if used during a combo. Instead of acting like a free-cancel, hitting the ball will now act similarly to hitting the opponent, allowing you to cancel your attacks on hit.
This means you can reposition your ball swiftly as the opponent is stunned, if you have the time to spare.
Do note however, that, unlike interrupting your attack, your moves are restricted to the follow-ups your attacks normally have, and some moves don't hit-cancel to begin with.

You needn't limit it to only your ball, either. Certain projectiles work similarly, even if you destroy them. Ninja's kunais work this way, being destroyed on hit, but still granting you the swiftness to interrupt your attack.

By learning the intricacies of the Art of Balling, you can cover more space than before, and even punish things you might not have been able to. Launch a direct assault on your opponent's brain with your cancelled moves and innumerable amounts of ball DI.

With the second tenet of balling, we'll move onto the third; brawling on the court.

Tenet three: REMOTE BOMB HAS A HITBOX

With speed and precision comes power. You can cover areas with your ball that you can't normally hit. Even just setting the ball can be used to cover certain options.

TRY-CATCH only works on an airborne opponent, but since hitting your ball spikes it downwards...

• You put a hitbox in front of you, while putting a grab in the air. Since TRY-CATCH will hit-interrupt, you won't have to spend a free-cancel for this.
  
• Be wary of your foe trying to parry your attack if they're already in the air, or the ball if they walk towards you.
  
• However, certain angles allow them only to normally block, limiting their attacking options on the ground.
  
• If they're in the air, fearless, or foolish enough to try to parry your TRY-CATCH, they're risking blocking OPTICAL BEAM if close enough, or even being hit with an unscaled KILL PROCESS.
  
• Finally, even if they do attempt to parry the bomb, detonating makes it unparriable four frames after toggling, which would force them into blockstun, potentially giving you +3 frames of block advantage.

Your ball won't last forever, nothing will. Eventually it might get kicked away, unlikely to be seen again. You may be attached to it after learning the basics of balling, but let it go, and combust it. There will always be more balls.
Occasionally, you might be able to use MAGNETIZE, and have your ball return magnificently, in a beneficial trajectory, but sometimes it is simply too far gone.
MAGNETIZE is also especially helpful in turning your balling into something else entirely, allowing you to ball quickly, and repeatedly, giving your moves a bit more range while the ball returns to you. Additionally, by hitting your opponent with a magnetised ball, they'll become magnetised as well, and pulled in by your magnetic attraction.

You needn't forget you can detonate your ball at any time, increasing your pressure and denying area to your foe. Not to forget its capacity for massive damage.

Your ball can hurt you, especially with its explosion, but if you can weave it into your combos... it'll hurt your foes even worse.
Not only does the explosion deal a lot of damage normally, it still continues to output impressive damage late into a combo, as well.
Start trying to weave your ball into your combos, and you might just pull off some criminal stuff.

An easy example to get you started is THUNDER CLAP. You can use REMOTE BOMB to set a follow up to a later attack, or even just bounce the ball off their dome if you use an Instant-Cancel, or, sometimes, in certain instances, even just Wait can work, if you think you have enough time before they hit the floor, or fly away from you.

• On DI away, if early in the combo, you can hit them with the ball directly, and many attacks afterwards will allow you hit both your opponent, and the ball at the same time. However, later in the combo, you may need to use another move, instead of setting a ball.
  
• With DI towards you, your opponent stays very nearby, acting similarly to DI away early in a combo.
  
• On downwards DI, EARTHQUAKE can hit, if you're close enough, and the ball can be set behind you.
  
• DI up?
  ...
  They die.
  Your foe takes a slow, leisurely trip to the ground, letting you set up whatever you want.
  Even KILL PROCESS can be followed up with your bomb's explosion, if you use your DI to bounce the ball in the right place.

Moves like (air/ground) OPTICAL BEAM, (air) KICK USER, BOOT and the aforementioned THUNDERCLAP make great opportunities to set your ball on the court, due to their long hitstun, giving you plenty of time to figure out a trajectory while you reposition for your next hit. Others like them allow you to get creative with your balling.

By having REMOTE BOMB near, or on your opponent while you combo them, you will hit them additional times with your ball, dealing a bit of damage, while also changing the effect of knockback, and DI on your opponent. Detonating the bomb while the bomb hits a foe makes it explode instantly. Additionally, using any of your grabs will delay the detonation until it ends, allowing for explosive follow-ups off of Throw, EARTHQUAKE, OVERFLOW, TRY-CATCH, BOUNDS CHECK, and even KILL PROCESS.

REMOTE BOMB can even be used as your opponent is knocked down, forcing them to block the detonation as soon as they get up. Depending on the speed of the ball, it can cover multiple options: Getup due to the explosion on impact, Hold if the ball lingers on them long enough, and sometimes even certain Tech Dodge directions without needing your input.

It's important to note that it has to hit fairly soon, within three frames to guarantee it. Pay attention to when it hits, as a ball hitting at four, or even five frames can still be beneficial to you, but your opponent will still have a few risky options to escape. The previously mentioned balling techniques, and MAGNETIZE can be useful in repositioning the ball, if it needs it.

Notably, COMMAND: GRAB and a grounded KICK USER can simplify things, as they cause a hard knockdown, and you won't need to worry about their wake-up options. COMMAND: GRAB needs the corner, or a DI read, but does plenty of damage to make up for it. Successfully forcing your opponent to block the detonation rewards you with +3 Block Advantage, or can restrict your opponent's options to risky ones, if it doesn't hit immediately. Just be careful to not detonate yourself, too.

An especially important interaction to remember is that MAGNETIZE reactivates the REMOTE BOMB'S hitbox, even at range. This can extend your combos further, or even potentially deceive your foe into thinking that a blockstring has ended, or that the threat is gone just because they managed to parry it.

Something that needs to be learned through experience and experimentation, is learning what moves benefit most from the ball and how it influences your combo, and block strings. However, for some ideas, here's some specific coordinates on some special, high damage combo set ups, provided by SHARSHABIIL:

bomboverflow:
While airborne, setting your ball at the values X: -0.05 Y: 0.3 can allow a follow-up flipped OVERFLOW to restand. Adjust your flight directions to modify OVERFLOW's throw direction if needed.

TGB/try catch bombo:
X: 0.18 Y: -0.58 Will allow for an incredibly consistent follow-up detonation after a TRY-CATCH, near guaranteeing some way to continue the combo.


In the corner? You don't want to be caught in the corner with a Robot who knows how to ball, especially during a combo. I would know, it happened to me.

The final tenet, tenet four: REMOTE BOMB IS JANK

Sometimes the prediction says you'll get hit by an action, but then it turns out you don't. The prediction doesn't like the Dark Art of Balling. While you can rely on the prediction most of the time, be ready for some oddities.

Here are various words of caution for aspiring ball practitioners.

• Your ball can occasionally be parried while blocking an attack, such as CHAIN SAW. Be careful.
  
  
• Don't forget your opponent can also ball, especially if they know of the techniques within this manual... However, you can detonate your bomb before they can hit it, making it unparriable after four frames have passed, and causing it to blow up near instantly if they do attack it. Although, they can always bring their own ball to the court.
  
  
• Your opponent can still parry your attack, or attack you directly before your ball cancels it, so try not to be too obvious of what you want to do.
  
  
• DI and combo scaling increases faster while balling on an opponent because of the double hits. Be swift and hit hard.
  
  
• Additionally, be careful of an undetonated REMOTE BOMB making your combo drop with DI. If you're not sure, it can be safer to detonate it.
  
  
• Going into DRIVE lets you take advantage of being able to interrupt WHEELIE, JUMPSTART and BOOST, however, it may be much harder to dribble the ball in a car, depending on your situation.
  
  
• Over-focusing on balling can make you miss openings you might normally punish. Balling can overwhelm your opponent, but you must also not overwhelm yourself.
  
  
• You may want to set your Ball in the air, due to the increased flexibility in movement and placement, but, upon falling to the ground with a shockwave, be wary of caltrops. Your mighty tremor will bounce the caltrops around, but the Ninja still has DI control over all of them. Potentially turning your graceful landing into some form of telekinetic attack against you.
  (This applies to all projectiles, but is especially notable with the landing shockwave, due to it hitting all of the caltrops set.)
  
  
• Check Gust.
  
• CHECK GUST.
  
• CHECK GUST!

This is to the extent I can condense my experiences in balling. Hopefully this inspires more Robots to incorporate these techniques, and expand upon them further.
(Or those looking to get a sick ball combo on a Robot.)

I know not the future of balling, nor the influence on Robot, but I am hopeful.

My gratitude to you, reader, for learning the Art of Balling.
Now go, experiment with this information, and ball on some foes. I believe in you.

Additional thanks to:

• SHARSHABIIL, for mentioning bomb oki, being able to get it after COMMAND GRAB; and for the nefarious OVERFLOW and TRY-CATCH set-ups, plus coordinates.
  
• switchsurf, for reminding me of the differences between neutral/combo balling.
  
• Breakable, for noticing I used "tenant" instead of "tenet."

(Current guide revision is up to date with version 1.9.19.)