ARCADE STICK BUTTON/LAYOUT GUIDE: Dragon Ball FighterZ 

"i like pressing a lot of buttons in versus games, it makes me feel very good" Amen

Glad the DBZ fandom is embracing the FGC movement with my boy Max leading the charge.

With the MvC3 style layout, when I go to hit H + S, I use my ring finger on H and thumb on S. To me it feels pretty natural, I just keep my index on L, middle on M, ring on H, and thumb on S, it feels like typing, each main button has a finger and I move the middle and ring fingers down to hit assists.

YO I LEGIT NEEDED THIS THANK YOU MAX

I use the Second method. I realized how comfortable it was for me when I was messing around with the settings. I didn't know it was actually a real default control setup for some game since I'm fairly new to stick. I only did it because it worked well for me when playing DBZ. Great video Max.

im old and i never heard of this game, it looks good

max is the best RU-vid channel

Thanks soo much! Im so glad I watched this. I just got my first fightstick today (Qanba Obsidian) and was having the assist problem with the furthest buttons. Your layout makes soooo much more sense. Cant wait to try it out.

Only got a fighstick just cause it looks like a lot of fun. Its fun to re learn stuff youre used to. For me at least. So used to a pad i just want something to spice up my gameplay

Max I'm glad you're doing these tutorials it's been a while, I hope you do more since there are many people that are new to fighting games thanks to DBFZ.

After years of putting it off and playing on pad, I finally got myself my first arcade stick and so far it’s an absolute blast, might give that MvC2 layout a go but so far doing manual rushes, dashes, vanish and even manual supers feels so satisfying on stick! I can see why folks like yourself swear by them, Shine On max! ^^

Just got my arcade stick and I was waiting for this

Why I my watching this i don't have an arcade stick :v

Can you talk about applying pressure when the opponent is guarding. Like when to use assists and what strings work best. Im sure its character dependent, but would be nice to have a general understanding. Keep up the great work Max! You make my days dood! Thanks again.

Watched this video 3 years ago, and I swore to myself I'd get an Arcade Stick. Today, I finally scored a Mayflash F500 Elite. You were right about the muscle memory, but now I have the reflexes to actually guard. I can't wait to see how far this baby can take me

Been using the second layout since back in Blazblue Calamity Trigger and other late 2000's air dashers. Has always stayed faithful with almost any fighting game I play, works really well for this game too. Also finally someone who hates shortcut buttons as much as I do! Definitely more satisfying to press the combinations manually.

Really wished you got into the Dragonball series Max. The nostalgic feeling of my childhood resonates with this game so much I feel like youre missing out. Good vid btw

That second layout is what I was using through both betas and since release, and it works great. One other positive is that to do default R2 supers, L2 might be inconvenient for lots of fast reaction moments, but as a hotkey for a super, L2 is an easy way to enter it quick.

Thank you for this wonderful video cuz I just had gotten a game pad and needed help understanding how I should use it so thank you

Sticking to one layout for multiple games would help me out a lot that's for sure! Thanks for the video max!!!

Max, this was an EXTREMELY helpful video. I hope you do more (or that I can find the ones you already made :) for all the best fighting games. And the extra camera aimed at the fight stick…B.E.A. UTIFUL!

Thank you for taking the time to record and uploading this video. As this can help me, because I am wanting to create content with this gem of a game. This video will help me, in my ordering an arcade stick; and that will be my default method of playing this game. I prefer my buttons being all in one place and not all over plastic.

I just picked up the game and a fightstick and was thinking about changing the button layout to the first configuration you described. I had the same thought made me feel like it be more technical/fun to do dragon rushes and grabs manually after sometime with the game. Great video great advice thanks.

Dude, thks for doing this vid, I was one of who asked the button layouts. Htaks for listening to feedback! Love ya!

I prefer the Type B Blazblue and Guilty Gear style. Most anime fighters use that so it works for me.

Definetly going to give that first layout a shot. Thanks!

After years of watching you I finally plan on getting my own fight stick.

@Maximilian Dood awesome fightstick. Love the orange

I like the third style you chose. I use all 8 buttons on my arcade stick. for the two extra buttons you dont use I have the top mapped to the rush (to make up for the annoying heavy special timing you alluded to) and vanish on the bottom button, works pretty well and I like the 1 2 3 layout of the attack buttons.

New to using a fightstick, so I haven't really thought about switching up the shoulder buttons until now but I've actually been running a setup where L/M/H are X/Square/Triangle, and circle is special. Not sure if it's any better, but it's just what made sense to me as the layout.

This helped allot max great video dood

Great video Max! I use the third layout and I play on a hitbox (24mm buttons instead of the usual 30mm for arcades). The smaller buttons make the H+S super dash issue not a problem at all :)

Thank you sooo much!! I've never thought of this layout you use! :D I actually ended up with the 2nd you showed like GG, which is nice, but I'm gonna try the first one and check which one is more comfortable to me. ^ ^

This is a great set up thanks.

I gotta thank you for getting me off playing piano chords to super dash, like I literally just got comfortable doing that through repetition and am just now getting over it

This video helped out a lot, thanks Max!!!

Awesome video Max. I normally if i am gonna use an Arcade Stick is swap the hard's around with the Light's so Hard punch n kick buttons is nearest too the stick and the Light punch n kick is on the 3rd row of buttons and the extra buttons on the 4th row are for what ever.

Thank you so much I tried all of them and they all worked so well

I use the exact same 6 button layout as Max. It works very well for me.

Nice i like that too will set up this lay soon mvc2 style for sure

I've been playing DBFZ with a mix of MvC2 and BlazBlue style. I instantly knew I wanted the BlazBlue style of Light/Medium/Heavy on the top buttons and Ki on the X Button, but I don't like reaching for the Circle and R2 buttons for Assists so I throw them on L1 and L2. I'm also weird because I play with all four fingers of my right hand on all four attack buttons all the time (I don't use my thumb) so for me it's perfect, but for more traditional Stick players like Max it would be difficult to handle. As long as it works for me and I can build muscle memory from it, that's all that matters.

As always, VERY INFORMATIVE.

I just came here to THANK you for your video. I have the same preference like yours when it comes to these fight sticks. That's why I was sticking to my rather inexpensive MadCatz Fightstick Alpha which realy does the job miraculously, and it has 6 action button layout with the other two being on the top side where you can't actualy press them to play much only use them in menus or stuff. But having the preference of using 6 buttons on a fightstick made me migrate back to the controller in some fighting games while returning to the fight stick, when the game allowed me to do so. And Your video simply put my mind to ease that I wouldn't reduce my options if I switch to my little Alpha for this game. Thank You! (Gonna subscribe... what the hell...)

I'm a controller scrub. I have a fight stick, and I think it's REALLY awesome, I really love fight sticks, but if I'm playing for reals, I'm way better on controller because I never had access to arcades growing up and all I had was home consoles. Good stuff with these vids Max, I love watching them even though I don't really need them!

Hey Max! I watched this video and i followed your button layout and it does make me feel very comfortable as this is my first 2D Fighting Game.. I was wondering if you can also do a button layout for Blazblue Cross Tag Battle as well. Keep it up with your videos!

Personally I use the default layout, but I might try this layouts. Thanks for the suggestions Max.

Thanks, Max. I knew someone on RU-vid would have a video for this. Of course it was you.

Don't get your stick sticky.

For those who use R1 for heavy, I've discovered you can kind of plink with heavy and ki blast. If you hit them separately but really quickly you'll still get the super dash.

You're a true OG max! I also need to use mvc2 style to play this lol

Max giving the wisdom once again he is our King Kai

Thank u so much I bought a arcade stick and I’m learned so this help so much!!! Thank you

You should do a hand cam video with the arcade stick in Fighterz for a couple matches. Would be cool to see how fluid the button presses turn out to be while playing.

I use your same layout and have all my sticks modded with 6-button face plates. I hate that last row and it's never necessary for fighting games. Feels great to get those buttons out of there.

Thanks for the guide, Dood!

Thank you Max, I took my buttons off to make a 6 button stick so I wasn’t sure if I could even play this on mine.

Great advice! Subscribed!

Thanks bud, this was actually very helpful. “Liked”!

I use the GG layout described but I use my fourth buttons as assists, that is to say: My top row is L, M, H, A1, bottom row is Ki, grab, dash, A2. I really like it, I never use my grab or dash buttons unless im doing a sparking, and the thumb/ring finger slap for dashes is SO satisfying.

Will max be streaming fighterz tonight???

Pretty great for all the newcomers and any new stick owners, I use the Marvel 3 layout my self, only drawback is having to use L1 for Super dash, but it's not too big of a deal.

Nice Layout Guide and I think I will try the MvC2 Layout. Is it possible a video about how to hold an arcade stick correctly or how you hold the arcade stick in battle? I have a huge problem to execute the instant air dash correctly oder more than one "hadouken-move" in a row at faster speed. This would be awesome.

I've been playing the default way, but I can definitely get behind how Max plays.

Use your thumb and ring finger to simultaneously press H + S using the second button layout. Index finger hovers around L and middle finger around M. Middle and ring fingers go down to press assists 1 & 2, in general.

thanks bro this helped me a lot. its a lot better than my guilty gear setup also love your videos

Thumb + Ring Finger for the GG style layout too, Max

Also another awesome thing for fighting games is get you a controller with extra buttons and map them for shortcut inputs

Hey doodz, if you or your friend change ur fighter name it seems to fix the “no rooms found” error. it worked perfect for me so it worth a try

I have one button layout too which utilizes L1, the 4th button. Basically its the same as the MvC3 layout but this is what I call the "Neo Geo" layout. All of the strength base buttons light, medium and heavy are at the first 3 buttons on the stick while the special button is in the 4th button. Assist 1 and 2 are mapped at thr first last two buttons (on PS, its X and Circle).

7 minutes of Max teaching us how to play with our sticks

I like to set the outside two buttons as play/record shortcuts for training mode.

Getting the reformatted madcatz fightpad when I pick this game up. Can't use fightstick, always preferred pads.

It's funny I switched mine to your first button config a few days ago. Assist being on the final 2 buttons. Was crazy to me.

I use the MvC3 style, that's one of the first games I started using fight sticks with so that's most comfortable for me. I don't find doing the Chase manually difficult at all but I also have it mapped to L1 which is only a slight movement with my pinky to get to. Sparking isn't any more difficult either as the way my hand sits with this style I just slap down and and my index, middle, ring finger and thumb are already sitting over all the attack buttons.

I usually use the default Aracde layout.

I use the one with the LMH on top since I'm used to Blazblue and UNIEL and that''s the layout I use for them. Super dashes took a little bit to get used to but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. And losing muscle memory is 100% true. I got my stick at the end of the year since a friend of mine sold it to me for $60 and it took me about a month to get competent with it since I wasnt used to the movement with the stick. It took me a lot of sessions of Shovel Knight to get used to movement and it took me like a week to get quater-circles and over crazy anime game movements down.

Thank you man, could you do a video in witch you show how instant air dash with arcade stick?

This is perfect thank you! Ive got a hori fightstick mini and my hamds are hulk hands and i hate using the last two buttons.

Look my homie whoops me up at the rec center every day so I was searching for this video hard ash

I use a sort of NeoGeo-esque layout. Light, Med, Heavy, Special left to right on the top row. Assist 1 and 2 on O and R2 respectively.

Thank you, Max!!!!

Just got myself a new arcade stick and after watching this I prefer your first layout a lot vs the second you mentioned. Without using the 4th and 8th button though, how would you do supers? Lvl 1 and Lvl 3. As always thank you for your content dood

I have been using the first layout since I got my fightstick and now its gospel! I sometimes accidentally make myself charge up, I have big hands so I sometimes rest my thumb on the special button, while trying to jab. I did map the last two buttons to the top being vanish and the bottom being sparking though.

Ive ended up settling on the "Guilty Gear" layout with a twist - basically assists 1 and 2 are on the outer buttons and out of the way, and I use the traditional medium kick and heavy kick buttons for dragon rush/super dash macros. I'm fine with doing the super dash stretch where needed, but should I need to I've got one button for RB, one for RT, and for sparking blast it's just a case of hitting the two together.

@5:20 try using ur thumb and the anular finger (ring one) for chasing so you have index and mid fingers free to press low and mid attack buttons

6:38 just got my fightstick and hes completely right switching is no joke its basically starting from the beginning again but overtime you can gain that muscle memory back

Thanks Max!

@Maximilian Dood the MvC3 layout players use thumb and ring finger to hit homing dash.

I use the mvc3 layout, and it’s a simple workaround to get the rush. I use middle, ring, and pinky on the top row, and index on the first button of the bottom row. It actually feels more ergonomic that way anyways lol. So, rush is just index and pinky, and they’re already on the buttons

thanks max for the very helpful video! i personally like the marvel 2/infinite style, very used to it

You should do a fight stick buying guide too, my god, it's such a zoo finding a proper stick. I bought a Hori Fighting Edge, after hearing like 20 reviews about it, then sent it back near immediately because I didn't realize Hayabusa parts are just friggin' loose. It comes feeling like worn out parts already - despite, admittedly, I loved that metal topdeck. If you customize a fight stick hardware how you like it, I will freakin' buy it, because I'm losing my mind going through parts trying to figure it out. The Maximillian Dood Stick, my god, take my money. I'll keep shoppin', but I'd love to hear you come up with your "perfect" deck.

A "dexterous" move. It does not take "the ability to use both hands with equal skill level". Good Vid, Max!

Nice vid. I do light-square, med-X, heavy-triangle, ki-circle

this is very useful thanks for the tip Mah Dood

This helped a ton thanks alot :3

You must master your joystick like a fisherman masters bait

my preferred button layout is light on cross, medium on square, heavy on triangle, and special on circle. although i also dont have a problem using the L1 and L2 buttons lol

Haven't played the game a lot, because... you know... Monster Hunter. But I also felt like using all 8 buttons was a little overwhelming, I kept pressing the wrong button. So I've been using the same 6 button layout and it really helped me out.

I played around with a lot of layouts during the beta, and settled on something really weird: L, H, S M,A1,A2 seems counter-intuitive, but it matched the way I was used to hit-confirming in mvci, how I was used to dashing and grabbing from skullgirls, and I honestly like vanish being a diagonal input, just so I don't accidentally blow my meter.