Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite is finally here, and we’ve been playing with the seemingly infinite (note: definitely limited) team and Infinity Stone possibilities. The Infinity Stones are a brand new addition to the series, and they offer a bunch of unique modifiers and abilities that can completely change the way your team works, if you play it right.
There’s six stones to play with, and they all offer a range of different uses depending on your characters and the situation you’re in. Here we’ll give you an introductory course on how to use the Infinite Stones and the kinds of combos you’ll be able to pull of with them.
Marvel vs Capcom: Ultimate Guide: How to use the Infinity Stones
You can change your controls of course, but by default you’ll activate an Infinity Surge by pressing L1/LB, and activate an Infinity Storm by pressing both L1/LB and R1/RB. Your Infinity Surge is a quick move that can usually have potential to extend or start combos, while the Infinity Storm is a full activation that you’ll need a unique Infinity Stone meter to use. Luckily, you only need to fill it half way to activate your Infinity Storm.
Power Stone
The Power Stone is the first stone you’ll get your hands on, and luckily its Infinity Surge ability is very straight forward, and very useful. The Power Stone Infinity Surge will activate a heavy bounce which will fly your opponent to the other side of the screen, bouncing them off the wall, and into your path. From here you can easily use a special move, a super or active switch to your partner. Heck, even all of those in a single combo, if you have the skill.
The Power Stone Infinity Storm is also pretty self-explanatory — each of your hits will do more damage, and knockback your opponent more, also inflicting more hit stun. The Power Stone might be good for fans of Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, as to-death combos have already been proven to be possible with the Power Stone’s Infinity Storm.
Reality Stone
The Reality Stone’s Infinity Surge is nice and easy — using it will unleash a slow-moving projectile which will home-in on your opponent. You can use this for added pressure in combos when you’ve been knocked back by an Advancing Guard, or even use it as a combo opener if you can cross-up your foe before they know what’s happening.
The Reality Stone’s Infinity Storm, meanwhile, adds extra elemental attacks to each of your four buttons. Your Light Punch will send out a small projectile, your Light Kick will freeze the ground on the stage, hurting your opponent, your Heavy Punch will fire a blast of, well, fire, right across the screen, and finally, your Heavy Kick will bring down a lightning strike on your enemy’s position. If you’re hitting buttons fast and comboing, you won’t even notice all the extra damage being piled on by these effects — best of all, almost all of them hit from a big distance.
Mind Stone
The Mind Stone’s Infinity Surge is particularly good against defensive opponents in Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite — this works as a Command Grab, where you’ll do a small amount of damage and throw your opponent to the floor. It doesn’t sound fancy, but on their wake up the opponent will be dizzy, as if stunned, for a couple of seconds. This is more than enough time to start a massive combo to do big damage.
The Mind Stone’s Infinity Storm is great for really racking up that damage after you’ve stunned them, too — once activated, the stone will continuously fill your Hyper Combo Guage – that’s the meter for your supers. Basically, you can start chaining massive super into massive super, using all of the moves at your disposal, as long as the Infinity Storm lasts.
Also: Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite Character Guide: Who’s Who and How They Fight
Space Stone
The Space Stone Infinity Surge is for getting your opponent close to you — using it will do just that, drag them towards you. Not bad if they’re trying desperately to make space (ha!) but it’s a double-edged sword – it’s a fairly long animation for the Space Stone, and unlike other Infinity Surges it doesn’t hurt or inflict any hit stun to your opponent, leaving them free to hit you during it.
The Space Stone’s Infinity Storm makes up for it though — activating this will trap your opponent in a cage, rendering them unable to get away from your barrage of attacks, and knock-back won’t save them either. Great for really unleashing hell with your partner and supers.
Soul Stone
The Soul Stone’s Infinity Surge lashes out a whip-like projectile at your opponent, and the nice thing about this is that it’ll sap away some HP for you to use yourself. You can combo into it, and it’s good at range, but usually if you need health, your opponent isn’t likely to be giving you an opportunity to use the Infinity Surge.
The Infinity Storm on the Soul Stone, however, is absolutely perfect for when things are starting to feel helpless. The Storm will bring out your partner to fight alongside you, mimicking the buttons you press. And if your partner is dead? Well, it’ll revive them, too. Only with a little chunk of health, but in a tight situation this can lead to a super, an active switch, and potentially a victory.
Time Stone
The Time Stone’s Infinity Surge is there for when you need to make distance, and your character’s dash isn’t enough. Some characters with better movement won’t make much use of this stone, but for the less mobile, the huge dash — which will pass through projectiles — will be a big boon in approaching your opponent.
The Time Stone’s Infinity Storm meanwhile will allow you to get more creative than ever with your combos. Seriously, moves that just shouldn’t combo into one another will be able to combo into themselves, let alone special moves and supers. Mix it in with your active switch and you can keep combos going throughout the entire duration of your Infinity Storm.
