Fatal Counters are, put simply, a more dangerous and more useful version of normal counter hits. They are done exactly the same way as normal ones, A.K.A hit your opponent out of their attack's startup or recovery. Fatal Counters however, not only give bigger hitstun or additional effects, they also increase the untechable time for the rest of the combo by around 2-3 frames. What this means that certain combos become easier during a Fatal combo, and there are also combos that can ONLY be done during such a combo, like Jin's 5C > 6C on standing. This guide will use numpad notation so if you don't know about it, read it up before continuing!


Jin successfully Fatal Counters Noel with his best Fatal Counter move, Sekkajin (22C). The text Fatal Counter can be seen under the Heat counter.

However, Fatal Counters are not as easy as one would think. Most Fatal Counters are either very unsafe on block or slow to startup (Ragna's D Inferno Divider and ground Blood Scythe respectively), have SMP (Relius's 6C), hard to force an FC situation with (Terumi's 6B) or just won't be landed most of the time due to their impracticality (Arakune's 6D, j.C, Amane 6C or 6B, Rachel's 4B). For characters with good Fatal only routes however (Ragna, Jin for example) it is actually worth it to "fish" for them whenever you can, that is, exploiting any opportunity for making the enemy think that it's their turn to attack, then Fatal Countering it.

Fatal Counter does NOT :
-Prevent or slow down untech time decay, after around 8-9 seconds the enemy will still instatech everything expect supers.
-Directly increase the damage of a combo, but they do allow more damaging followups.

Here you will see a list of most characters' Fatal Counter moves. Not all of them are listed here though, but if they are, some tips will be given as well. Expect to scroll a lot.
You will also see something I call Guaranteed Counters, which basically means punishing an unsafe move with a FC move (FC = Fatal Counter). Not all FC moves can guaranteed counter, read below to check.
This part of the guide will also use numpad and button notations. This means that directions will be referred to as the numbers on your numpad (22 for example is down twice) and ABCD means light, medium, heavy and drive attack respectively.

Ragna : D Inferno Divider (launches enemy, no invuln, better than Scythe), Blood Scythe (will happen once every three full moons, VERY slow, you must condition your opponent or frame trap them. No guaranteed counter into this). Enables 5A > 5D combo path on air enemies and 5C > 6C combo path on grounded ones. Inferno Divider can guaranteed FC anything that recovers slower than 6 frames (most supers and specials)

Jin : Sekkajin (22C, best Fatal, VERY fast, only works at close range), Yukikaze (Judgement : Snowstorm, 50% Heat, 236236D, counter move, very risky at times, must Rapid to continue combo). Unlimited Jin's FC is 5D instead of 22C. Enables among others, the 5C > 6C combo, but doesn't help with combos like the corner Rehhyou (623C) or midscreen ice car second hit-hits only (236B-C, first hit whiffs, it's kind of a specific combo though) however. Sekkajin can also be used to guaranteed counter a lot of moves provided they don't Rapid cancel as it has a very fast speed, rivalling most C attacks as well.

Arakune : As far as I know he has these Fatals, j.C (jumping heavy) and 6D headbutt on the ground . However, Arakune doesn't really need Fatal for his combos or gameplay nor do either of these starters provide anything meaningful when landed. This doesn't mean you shouldn't use it when the opportunity comes as this unlocks the 5A > 5D combo path, also 5A > 6D. Sadly, Arakune has no way to leave an opponent grounded after Fatal Counter as j.C knocks down and 6D launches and is mainly used as an anti-air.

Litchi: 6D with staff is the only one I know of. She also doesn't really get many new combo paths though.

Tager : j.2C and ground 6C. j.2C is very deadly because of it's speed, and 6C has range but it can be only confirmed into Spark Bolt from far away. Among others, makes the incredibly dangerous 5C > 6C (notice a pattern here?) and the j.C > j.D combo paths available, the former can be looped with certain attacks for HUGE damage, and j.D is untechable until next Sunday.

Hakumen : 6C (auto-Fatals on full charge), Yukikaze (same as Jin). Once again, Haku mainly uses hard knockdown combos and moves with already high untech time (hard knockdown timer not affected by Fatals) so he doesn't need them much.

Valkenhayn : 6B and 6C, both in human form only. and vertical wolf cannon (236C) in.... wolf mode (Duh!). 6B is very dangerous, as it gives him not only very easy high damaging Nacht Rosen combos, but also the only way to meterlessly (apart from the 25 heat spent on it) combo into his Crush Trigger, further increasing damage. Go for 6B FC whenever you can, it is not hard to frametrap into it. 6C is bad outside corner and midscreen you get no options after it and you also lose oki. Enables 5C > Nacht Rosen combo path on grounded, and 2C > 6C on airborne with low untech time decay. Vertical wolf cannon won't FC, EVER, expect if you are antipicating a crossup and you do this fast enough to not get counterhit out of it, but most of the time you will trade hits. Vertical cannon also can't hit an opponent standing next to you (expect in Overdrive).

Hazama : Serpent's Rapture is no longer FC :( Instead of this, Hazama has 6B and 6A as his Fatals, but neither are needed too much, albeit they can help to finish that last j.C loop or whatever.

Rachel : j.2C Fatals when done from very high up, even on normal hit! 5C on ground is her other Fatal, which is actually quite easy to land due to it's speed, as well as 4B iirc. I don't think she gets too much new stuff either.

Lambda : 5C on ground and Act Parcer : Cavalier. Former is amazing when used with frametraps and unlocks 5D > Cavalier combo path, while the latter is quite risky but incredibly rewarding if it does hit. (WARNING : If you start an FC combo with Cavalier, do not use it later on in the same combo!)

Amane : 6C and 6B. These options are drastically different, 6B is mainly used in frametrapping and a way to make you airborne mid combo and to create space, while 6C is used to control the airspace very far away from you. 6C isn't that great but 6B grants you a modest combo (which translates to around 1400-1700 damage in most cases as Amane as his average combo damage is pretty low and most of the time you will deal huge chip and barrier damage instead.

Terumi: 6B and 6D are his Fatals, 6B > Overdrive cancel > 632146D (Serpent's Cursed Sting, at 100% heat) deals incredible damage. Other than that, Terumi can chain most stuff into 6D and it will connect (they do not without FC). Your best bet to FC with this is to frame trap your opponent and make them think it's safe to attack or as a DP/unsafe attack punisher. 6D is a bad starter and leads to nothing midscreen.

Relius : Gad Leis, 2C (not sure of this) and 6C. 6C is good when it Fatal Counters but it has SMP (same move proration : opponents untech time will drastically decrease when the same attack is used twice in a combo, not all moves have this) so do not 6C again in the same combo. GL fatal is also awesome, it provides plenty of hitstun to followup your moves with, enables the 5C (2 hits) > 6C combo path, makes certain things (air combos and 2C > 6C > A lugia > 5A > 2C combos) easier and, like always, enables otherwise impossible things, so experiment with them!

Characters I don't know much about (and I am looking for players who can help me with them!) :

Bullet : Likely charged 5C is her only Fatal Counter move (it doesn't take much time to charge however). On the other hand, it allows the 5A > 5B > charged 5C > 5A... loop, which, while it doesn't deal much damage, is quite annoying to be the receving end of it. Also allows 5B to combo into charged 5C in general, while also allowing charged 5C to combo into 3C. Charged 5C into 3C > astral after an FC combo is amazing to perform and look at!

Carl : 6C (Carl's move) and Con Anima (63214 D release, Nirvana's (doll) move). I don't think Carl gets anything new either but does make his air combos easier and able to go on longer.

Celica : 2C and 5D. Celica must have been following her "orphans' (Ragna and Jin) way" as for her, the same, now well known (if you've been reading so far) 5C > 6C combo path becomes available, which can lead into a fully charged Lanche Quiche afterburn combo if done correctly. Also allows air C to combo into air D for re-land combos.

Azrael : 5C and 6C are both Fatals, and if the opponent is careless they will be landed quite often. 5C has long range and 6C can be used in frame-trapping (5C can also, but 6C moreso). 5C Fatal can be chained into 6C to get a combo, and 6C Fatal can be combo'd into a sweep into Sentinel Dump or can link into Tiger > Cobra > Leopard chain near corner. Other than those, Azrael's moves have high untech time so it's unlikely that you ever need to fish for Fatals, but on the plus side both of these moves leave the opponent grounded.

Makoto : Damn, squirrel girl doesn't mess around! All of her drive moves (literally, maybe expect Big Bang Smash) are Fatal Counters at level 3! That's around 8 Fatal moves, and most of them are quite fast or easily frame-trap-able! If the opponent is standing, it enables the Stargazer route on standing or makes air combos easier.

Makoto, cont. : The Stargazer route is available on crouching enemy too but a Fatal also allows it to connect on standing opponents, and air combos are made easier or otherwise impossible things can be done (like always). As good as it is to have tons of Fatal Counter moves, Space Counter doesn't fatal (lol) and only Cosmic Ray and Lander Blow are the only moves which leave the opponent standing (Ray is predictable and Lander Blow can only be done after Lunatic Upper, which doesn't Fatal, so you'd need an idiot who would try to mash out of a delayed Lander Blow).

While Particle Flare does so too you either need to Rapid first hit (as Makoto goes into a long recovery animation if not followed up) or go into an air combo (second hit launches).

Kokonoe : 2C, 6C and j.2C are all Fatals. I don't play Kokonoe however so I can't give tips about their use. Also j.2C is not convertable whatsoever without a Graviton as you need to link 5A to followup a TK j.2C fatal, and j.C staggers so it's better to followup instead (it doesn't Fatal however). She does get the 5C > 2C combo path which can lead to 236B and some other stuff I prob don't know about.

Kagura : Neutral stance A (Dragon's Blast) and forward stance B (Dragon's Mirage) are his Fatals. Kagura mainly focuses on juggling with moves that already have big untech time and he has a noticeable lack of gatlings so Fatals for him are quite useless.

Bang : 5C, 3C are both his Fatals. Allows 5B > 2B > 6B to loop twice before you must use something else. Doesn't really get anything else useful however and 5C forces crouching which doesn't allow you to use most of Bang's combos (many involve 6C,which whiffs on crouching).

Platinum : Quite likely the only character with 1 fatal move only, her 6C. It's ridiculously bad at it though, as it doesn't lead to anything interesting (Plat doesn't have that much combo potential anyway, at least not without items) so it's best to simply leave it as a combo tool and not fish for an FC starter.

Mu : 6C and fully charged Sword of Destruction (63214C hold). She doesn't get too much interesting stuff, but 6A will now combo into 6C easier given the right circumstances, and also makes it easier for 6B (1) to ground an opponent (which is the only way to combo into her Crush Trigger without a Rapid!). Other than these, her combos get easier, that's all.

Izayoi : Izayoi, are you kidding me? Why didn't Ragna or Jin get such easy Fatals? 2C and 6C in Normal Mode, and 3C and Astrea in Gain Art are her Fatals and they are.... ridiculous. 2C and 6C are extremely easy to frame trap into, and are quite fast too, so they can be easily used as punish starters. 3C in GA has surprising range which can catch people off guard easily. And finally, 2C and 6C in normal mode leave the opponent GROUNDED for some very painful combos.... allows GA 5C and 2C to combo into GA 6C, allows GA 6C to COMBO INTO ITSELF! On the minus side.... you can't combo after FC 6C, literally... and you still can't do 6A > saber (that would've been cool though)

If you've read to the end, congratulations and many thanks for doing so! I hope you learned something new, and if you did, go out there and Fatal Counter some players online!

Changelog : (probably won't be too long)

2016/10/27 : Guide first created
2016/10/28 : Updated the Fatal list with Celica, Carl and Bullet. Also put character names in bold to find the characters' sections easier
2016/11/13 : Updated Arakune and Jin's sections, added Azrael and Makoto sections. Began a part 2 section.
2016/11/27 Yes it took this long. Updated the guide with Bang, Kokonoe and Kagura's sections but the rest of the characters are ones that I am unfamiliar with.
2017/04/18 Why am I coming back after almost half a year I dunno... at least I added Platinum, Mu and Izayoi's info. Can't do Nu, sadly, literally don't know ANYTHING about her. I think we are done now.