Dante

Dante
Voiced By	Tim Phillipps
Universe	Devil May Cry
Appears in	DmC: Devil May Cry
Rival	Nariko
Tier	A/B

Dante is the main protagonist of Devil May Cry 5. He is depicted as a half-angel, half-demon hybrid known as Nephilim that hunts demons. He was introduced as a playable character in Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale before the release of DmC 5.

Dante is currently ranked at the bottom of high tier due to his impressive combo ability and vast array of practical techniques. He is the only character capable of obtaining a Level 2 super in two combos and has two practical ToD's . In addition, he has high mobility because of his cancelling abilities. His combo ability is further extended by his Empty Cancel , considered by most Dante players to be his most formidable asset. He is also able to effectively apply block pressure on his opponent due to his guns' ability to trigger blockstun and angel dash. Dante does have several flaws, however. Dante is an extremely difficult character to master at the competitive level and requires a lot of dedication. His playstyle is very linear and requires close-to-perfect execution to break out of. His neutral jab is also very unsafe when whiffed, allowing characters to punish him very easily if it is used at the wrong time. Furthermore, Dante has a very mediocre air-game, and his prime projectile, Ebony and Ivory, offer minimal AP gain (although he possesses a much better projectile in his aerial arbiter). Overall, Dante has average match-ups across the roster.

Attributes

Summary

Dante is the epitome of high-risk, high-reward. Although, he has very extended combos and kill confirms, his playstyle is very unsafe. The most notable example of this is his neutral jab which can easily be punished with a super or attack leading to an AP burst . Dante's airgame has been improved due to the recent patch but is still very mediocre. Some of Dante's moves have absolutely no application as well, such as his grounded down triangle move. Dante's bold cancelling capabilities, however, make up for his flaws. All of Dante's square moves can cancel into triangle moves which cancel into circle moves. This is symbolized by the orange circle that surrounds Dante as soon as he cancels an attack with another. Furthermore, his angel dash can be cancelled into another square move. This allows the empty cancel to work; the player must rapidly press a series of inputs that allow Dante to "cancel" the angel dash and extend his combo or confirm a level 2 kill. This system of high-risk, high-reward is what defines Dante as a character.

Moveset

Ground Attacks

Square

•  - (Rebellion Fury) Dante swings Rebellion rapidly. Can switch directions between jabs. 3 hits causes a crumple , 4 hits causes an eject roll (5-10-25-45 AP with all four hits, 25 AP with 3 hits). On aerial opponents, the third hit is an eject tornado .
•  - (Tremor) Dante swings down the arbiter, causing a mini-launch . Can be substituted as the fourth hit of neutral square. (20 AP)
•  - (High Time) Dante swings up with Rebellion. Can be used after first three swings of neutral square, is jump cancellable . Prime source for setting up most of Dante's aerial combos. (20 AP)
•  - (Karma) Dante swings Osiris in front of him. Like neutral square, direction can be switched. Highly punishable move; more practical to use neutral square. 3 hits; first causes a buttdrop , second causes a mini launch, and the third causes an eject tornado. (10-10-30 AP)

Triangle

• Note: All triangle moves do not cause hitstun and thus do not directly trigger an AP burst. 
•  - (Ebony and Ivory Quickshot) Dante fires Ebony and Ivory in front of him; auto-tracking. (10 AP)
•  - (Gun Flurry) Dante spins downward, firing Ebony and Ivory. (1-10 AP)
•  - (Rainstorm) Dante jumps upward, firing Ebony and Ivory; causes an autojump. (1-10 AP)
•  - (Ebony and Ivory Rushdown) Dante rushes down while firing Ebony and Ivory. (10 AP)

Circle

•  - (Parry) Dante parries with Rebellion; counter that causes a buttdrop. Ideal for starting square combos. Can be cancelled into from triangle or angel dash. (20 AP)
•  - (Flush) Dante throws a fireball out of his arbiter. 15 AP armor; cannot be used to start a combo. Can be cancelled into from triangle or angel dash. (20 AP)
•  - (Shredder) Dante spins Osiris vertically, causing a full launch . Can be cancelled into from triangle or angel dash. (5-5-5-5 AP) 
•  - (Angel Dash) Dante dashes forward; cancels into rebellion fury, hunger, and all other circle attacks. Dante is considered grounded during its use. (No AP gain)

Aerial Attacks

Square

•  - (Aerial Rave) Dante swings with Rebellion thrice in the air. Causes an eject tornado (5-5-30 AP)
•  - (Helm Crusher) Dante comes down with Rebellion. Causes a hard knockdown . (20 AP) 
•  - (Roulette Spin) Dante swings upward with Rebellion twice. (10-10 AP)
•  - Dante swings Osiris in front of him four times. (5-5-5-20 AP)

Triangle

•  - Same as grounded version. 
•  - (Descending Rainstorm) Dante does the rainstorm but upside down. 
•  - Same as grounded version but with less upward movement.
•  - Dante rolls forward in the air and fires Ebony and Ivory. 

Circle

•  - Same as grounded version.
•  - Same as grounded version but with less recovery time for comboing opponents.
•  - Same as grounded version. 
• - Same as grounded version. 

Grabs 

• - (Hammer Punch) Dante jumps and punches his opponent into the ground. Good for okizeme setups. 
• - (Payoff) Dante punches opponent into the air, causing a mini launch. Only grab that can be followed up with a combo. 
• - (Kicker) Dante roundhouse kicks the opponent to send them flying, causing an eject tornado. 

Supers

•  (Level 1- Rebellion Triple) Dante swings Rebellion three times and launches a fireball. Can be cancelled into any triangle move 15 frames after fireball is thrown. 
•  (Level 2 - Stinger) Dante dashes forward and stabs with Rebellion; can be turned around during the first five frames of activation. Has the ability to punish landing lag but loses to a lot of supers, including level 1's. 
•  (Level 3 - Devil Trigger) Dante goes into Devil Trigger form; enemies float for six seconds, and every attack kills except angel dash.

Taunts

• Taunt 1: 
• Taunt 2: 
• Taunt 3: 

Combos

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Grab Combos

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Mix-Ups

Block Pressure

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Grab Resets

See grab reset ,,,,,,,,, OR  OR 

Kill Confirms

Level 1: 

Dante has no universal midscreen kill confirms - they are either character specific or require a wall .

Corner

• , (turn around),
• ,,,,

Character Specific

Kratos

• ,,

Level 2: 

Most of Dante's kill confirms are focused on his level 2.

Midscreen

• , Empty Cancel,
• ,
• ,
• Aerial , (Note: Must be performed from a distance)
• , , Aerial , Jump, Aerial ,
• , , , Empty Cancel, , , Hunger Cancel , (Note: Impractical)

Corner

• , , Aerial ,
• , Hunger Cancel, Aerial , Aerial ,

Tech

Multiple Aerial Gun Cancelling

While in the air, Dante can cancel from guns into more guns up to 3 times, and then cancel into angel dash to get away or to bait. A practical use of this is triangle, side triangle, down triangle . This usually nets the most AP and is the safest. 

Covering Ground 

Dante generally has a hard time moving in on and dealing with zoners. Dante has options that allow him to cover more ground in less time than them than a running opponent. While a raw angel dash is an excellent tool for avoiding attacks and punishing supers, the startup and recovery make it only slightly faster than running in terms of traverse time. A faster solution is shorthop into an aerial ebony and ivory rushdown and then cancel that into and aerial angel dash after the flip. This is much faster than running.

Jab Spacing

Dante's jab is among the fastest jabs in the game and outranges those of every other character save Kratos and Dan. In addition to this, the hitbox is very decieving. When coupled with the ground angel dash, Dante can cover huge distances to almost instantly catch opponents off guard or punish landings.

Rebellion Side-Switch 

Dante can cancel angel dash into rebellion fury. While doing this, Dante can chamge direction. By tapping the opposite direction of the angel dash just after hitting square, Dante will swing rebellion behind him. This is practical for crossing up blocking opponents or for Oki. 

Air-Ground Combo Starting

At a certain distance, Dante's hunger rekka has a big hitbox. The second input of hunger, Dante swings Osiris twice. The second time he swings Osiris has gigantic range and can be followed up with an angel dash to start a combo. Another air attack that has great range is the last hit of hunger. It can be cancelled from rainstorm at will, which makes it useful against slower characters.  

Double Parry

Dante can parry twice in quick succession by doing a shorthop into parry followed by a parry after landing. This can confuse opponents who move in to punish the first parry.

Empty Cancel Turnaroud

Dante can empty cancel in one direction and land facing the opposite direction. This is used mainly for crossing up opponents and executing the air arbiter level 1 confirm. The inputs are as follows: up-back triangle; forward circle; down-back circle. 

Frametraps 

Dante has 2 very good framtetraps on blocking characters. The first comes from the disjointed hitbox on the hunger poke. This can be used to poke on a blocking character and then dash in for a frametrap. The trap is only escapable by Kat's jab, a parry, or a roll.   

Mine Countering

Dante players of all levels have trouble dealing with mine characters. Dante can cancel from angel dash into counter, so for all mines Dante can cancel just as he hits it. This works best on mines with small vertical hitboxes like Sackboy's, Big Daddy's, and Evil Cole's.   

Using Rainstorm to Avoid Grabs

The only counter to grabbing is being in the air. Dante's rainstorm puts him in an aerial state without the normal 10 frames of a jump being considered grounded, so if Dante is getting grabbed on wakeup he can backwards rainstorm-angel dash through the opponent as soon as he wakes up and then use the empty cancel side switch to punish the whiffed grab. Dante can also avoid grabs by doing a naked empty cancel. Because of the rainstorm and empty cancel, Dante has amazing defense against grabs and can use this technique to punish grab- resetters. The most notable example is avoiding Ratchet's grab setup due to the invincibility frames on wakeup.