In character action and competitive fighting mechanics, Startup frames are wind-up animations before damage occurs. Active frames instantiate collision hitboxes that connect with opponents. Low startup attacks beat heavy telegraphed strikes unless invulnerability or hyper-armor is triggered.
Action games allow cancelling the trailing Recovery frames into a subsequent strike, dodge, or air dash. If the hitstun imposed by Move A exceeds the startup time of Move B at the cancel boundary, the sequence is a True Combo—the target has zero escape frames.
Successive hits in an extended chain suffer progressive damage decay (scaling down to a 30% floor) to prevent one-shot loops. Launches apply positive vertical impulse to target physics; heavy downward finishers trigger ground bounces or hard knockdowns.