Injustice 2 guide

There is a ton of single-player content in Injustice 2 even after you’re done with the story mode. With experience and gear grinding and the multiverse mode that features all the addictive trappings of a mobile game, there’s always an incentive to keep playing.

Polygon’s Injustice 2 guide will touch on those points, but first and foremost it’s going to be a guide to actually playing the core fighting game underneath all the dressing.

Injustice 2’s basic tutorials only spell out the buttons you need to press to do certain moves, not the how or why. Like our previous guide for Street Fighter 5, this guide will explain the underlying concepts of the fighting game and get you ready to play against human beings.

In fact, this knowledge will even give you a major edge against the computer opponents in single-player. Really understanding Injustice 2 will make even the grinding richer.

Table of contents

• Characters: With such a wide roster of characters (and more coming!) it’s tough to choose one to concentrate on. To help you along with your decision, this section will break down the roster by fighting style.
• What am I trying to do?: This seems like a dumb question — you want to hit the other player until they’re out of life. But this itself, like a quest in a role-playing game, is a goal we need to break down into components.
• Controls: Injustice 2’s controls are built for an 8-button gamepad like that of the Playstation 4 or Xbox One, though the buttons are fully customizable and friendly to whatever controller you’d like to use.
• Basic attacks: Let’s look at the three basic attack buttons in Injustice 2 and what they do.
• Universal attacks: There are certain Injustice 2 attacks that are so essential to fighting that they’re basically the same for all characters.
• Special moves: Every character has an arsenal of special moves at their command that require simple directional taps followed by an attack button.
• Character power: The last attack button is character power, which we’ve decided to give its own section. This button does something entirely unique for each character.
• Knockdowns: All about recovery, wakeups and cross-ups.
• Super meter: The notched bar at the bottom of the screen is your super meter, used for a number of different actions. Putting it to effective use is another key to victory.
• Long-range combat: Before you can land a punch, you have to get close enough to do so. Your opponent won’t make this easy, and you shouldn’t make it easy for them, either. Plus projectiles and pokes.
• Attack strings: A major part of what makes Injustice 2 unique among 2D fighting games is the attack string system.
• Combos: Injustice 2 is a combo-heavy game: You can chain almost any hit into big damage with a cancel or chain. Of course, if you don’t know how to do that, you’re losing out on a lot of damage and potentially a lot of wins. Let’s fix that problem.
• Character level, gear, XP and stats: Injustice 2 adds some systems that are reminiscent of online shooters, MMORPGs and especially mobile games (note that Injustice is a hit on mobile). These add a lot of hours of play value to the single-player side of the game.
• Frame data: In this section, we’re going to dangle a little bit of advanced theory in front of you.
• Moving on: Once you understand the core concepts, it’s time to start studying and researching on your own.
• Achievements and trophies: Every achievement and trophy in Injustice 2.