How Understanding I-Frames and Hitboxes Can Make You Better at Gaming

If you’ve spent any time reading posts online by serious, hardcore gamers you’ve likely seen the terms “i-frames” and “hitbox” bandied about. If you felt too nervous to ask what the heck any of that means, I’ve got a quick noob-friendly explanation that might just make you die less often in both online and single-player games.

What Are I-Frames?

If you’ve ever watched speedrunners do their thing in games like Dark Souls or marvel at how professional fighting game players can seemingly take punishment but no damage, you’ve seen mastery of i-frames in action.

The “I” in i-frame stands for “invincibility” and the “frame” part refers to animation frames. So, in short, there are certain frames in a game character’s animation cycle where it will not take damage.

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The simplest example is the humble dodge-roll, or in some games a quick dash function. So, if you time it so that your character’s i-frames coincide exactly with the moment an enemy’s attack connects, they’ll do zero damage.

What’s a Hitbox?

Speaking of enemy attacks connecting with your character, games use “hitboxes” to figure out if your character has taken a hit and therefore must also take some damage. Your character has hitboxes, the opponent’s attacks have hitboxes, and what’s important to understand is that the hitbox doesn’t necessarily conform precisely to the character sprite or model.

Some characters are known for having small hitboxes, making it easier to dodge and avoid attacks, while others are notorious for having outsized hitboxes, which can often be a disadvantage. Game developers will sometimes adjust or fix hitboxes in later patches to games.

In the case of some bullet hell games, the hitbox is actually a little smaller than the character sprite or model, giving you some leeway. Expert players can use exact knowledge of those limits to thread the needle when literally the entirely screen is covered in moving projectiles. Just look at this maddening gameplay footage of Touhou 8.

They Matter More for Some Genres

Knowledge of i-frames and hitboxes matters most for fast-twitch, real-time action games. Obviously, they’re completely irrelevant for turn-based games like Baldur’s Gate 3. However,Soulslike games (e.g. Dark Souls, Sekiro, Bloodborne, you know the rest) make mastering moves like the dodge-roll and its i-frames crucial.

Sometimes, i-frames are used in a very obvious way by game designers. For example, it’s common for platform games to give you an invincibility period after taking damage or falling into level hazards. The character flashes indicating you’re invincible and you have a second or two to get out of Dodge.

Learning Your I-Frames and Hitboxes Can Make You Invincible

If you know your character’s i-frames and hitboxes intimately, and also know the same things about your opponent (human or AI), you’ve moved on to another level of play entirely. Of course, finding that knowledge can be a tough quest in itself.

Some modern fighting games, like Street Fighter 6, have a comprehensive frame data meter built in, which will literally show you at which points in an attack animation your character is invincible.

However, most of the time you have to learn this based on information posted by other players who have painstakingly worked it out frame-by-frame, or by figuring it out yourself by playing and paying close attention.

Timing and Practice Is Everything

Being armed with knowledge is only half the battle. Once you know where the i-frames and hitboxes for your game are, you need to practice the application of that knowledge.

Fighting games, at least, usually have a practice mode where you can train getting your dodges and blocks right over and over again, but in games like Dark Souls you just have to keep playing the game.

The good news is that there are extremely skilled gamers that create guides to pass on their skills. For example, YouTuber Elbethium demonstrates how to avoid damage, such as in this dodging guide for Elden Ring.

So with the wisdom of the gaming elders, and some time on your hands, you too can work towards those no-hit runs, or at least figure out how to cheese past that one boss you’re stuck on.

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