DLC UPDATES
I am not able to dedicate the time to update the guide for Usagi and Karai or possible changes, such as dodging, right now. Please note some information may be out of date due to the DLC release.

-----

This was all tested in game compared to using the first hit of a jab as a comparison.
Controls are listed based on an Xbox layout:

• A - Jump
  
• X - Attack
  
• Y - Special
  
• B - Backflip

Most attacks cause enemies to do a standing flinch from being hit. Moves that causes knockdown or knock away are noted.

• Low knockdown means follow-up is almost impossible
  
• knockdown leave a small window for follow-up before the enemy touches the ground and becomes invulnerable
  
• high knockdown pops the enemy up to head level, and they bounce once off the ground before landing and becoming invulnerable.

ATTACK SPEEDS
While I haven't been able to get consistent frame data for everyone's X X X X combo, there are a few things of note:

• Holding a direction to start the first hit does a lunge, which is slower then a standing jab but gets more reach and gives some vertical travel.
  
• April, Mikey, and Raph can usually get all 4 hits on a boss during hit stun and get away.
  
• Leo and Casey and usually get all 4 hits on bosses during hit stun, but they'll probably get hit for it.
  
• Don and Splinter rarely get their 4th hit before the boss retaliates from hit stun.
  
• Startup for the first standing jab seems to range from hitting on frame 3 to frame 11, with the slower attackers being at the disadvantage.

BACK KICK
While doing a combo on an enemy, you can press in the opposite direction to do a back kick. This move has super armor (no knockback or flinch) and deals 1 damage.

Bug: getting hit by Dirtbag's head lamp attack while doing a back kick will cause him to freeze the rest of the fight.


CHARGE ATTACK
Holding the attack button to charge grants super armor. Your turtle will still take damage, but will not flinch or be interrupted. Foot Soldier (including whip users) or a Wheelie Robot CAN grab you.

These attacks will only damage you while charging:

• Big Mousers chomp (no grab)
  
• Leatherhead chomp (no grab)
  
• Rahzar's burp cloud (no stun).

These attacks will remove your combo/partial super charge BUT not grab or hurt you while charging:

• Mousers & Rats (everything they do)
  
• Mecha Mouser's stretchy arm grab
  
• Pizza Monster (jump out of the ground attack)
  
• Rat King's rushing grab
  
• Slash's Grab
  
• Dirtbag's headlamp (Bug: this will freeze him in place the rest of the fight!)
  
• Super Shredder's grab (but why would you be charging an attack here?)

INSTANT CHARGE ATTACK
All characters can get a full charge instantly after a full X X X X combo or a backflip attack (B+A). In both cases the button must be held on the last attack input. Doing so correctly your character will enter the charge state and immediately 'DING' for a full charge. Easy for backflip (only 1 button press), but requires a little more finesse on the 4 hit string.

The hit before charging MUST connect with an enemy or object to get the instant charge.

Raph can't do this to standard enemies, as his backflip hit has huge knockback. But he does get 1 extra damage on the move.


DASH & RISING ATTACK CANCELS

The lag from final hit of the 4 hit combo can be interrupted by doing a dash attack or a rising attack.

Rising attack (jump + attack) cancelling is useful on Bebop, Rocksteady, Groundchuck & Dirtbag, Tempestra, Leatherhead, and Krang to avoid their melee attacks. It has situational use to escape incoming attacks from regular enemies as well without giving up damage output entirely.

Dash cancelling is the key to maximizing damage out and really shines on 10 HP enemies, Chromedome, and the final 2 bosses. This is how to do it:

X, X, X, X, dash, X, repeat

The lag of the final hit of the standard combo will be interrupted by the dash attack. As a bonus, it speeds up the next standard combo after the dash attack. On Chill/Okay difficulty starting with a dive special and going into this combo loop allows every character to 2 cycle Chromedome and 4 cycle the final boss. The first boss on the final level is often -just- out of reach of dash attacks, so it only works based on character and boss position.


JUMPING AS A 'DODGE'
Doing the rising attack seems to give iframes (invincibility) until the apex of the jump is reached.
Supposedly there are a few iframes at the start of the rising attack animation. I have cannot confirm the source of this, but the way it behaves in game does seem to support this.

Jumping puts your character above most of the hitboxes from enemies very quickly. The jump animation begins by frame 2 and can be buffered towards the end of active moves. A regular jump allows you to move vertically, allowing escape from moves using a rising attack would still be hit by.

Rising attack does the same thing, but you cannot move vertically at all. The payoff is you deal extra damage.

In some cases, attacks that normally grab will still hit the player during a jump. Similar to charging an attack, the player will not be grabbed. Big Mouser chomp, Leatherhead's chomp, Pizza Monster's out of ground attack, and Mecha Mouser's long arm attack behave this way.

Pre-DLC
1.46 seconds (106 frames) Raph
1.52 seconds (112 frames) Mikey
1.57 seconds (117 frames) Splinter
2.11 seconds (131 frames) April
2.18 seconds (138 frames) Leo
2.28 seconds (148 frames) Don
2.40 seconds (160 frames) Casey

Dimensional Shellshock DLC
2.15 seconds for all characters except Karai
2.42 seconds Karai no boost
1.48 seconds Karai max boost

This information was provided by one of the devs on the official TMNT:SR discord.

(The characters are) not invincible for the whole anim duration. Well at least it's how it's supposed to work. Most of those subtle characters differences seem to be dictated by the slight animation differences and how the frames are split up in those. A few seem to be oversights/mistakes from what I can see.

i-frames - how many frames of animation the character is invulnerable.

vulnerable frames - how many frames of animation the character can be damaged while the animation completes.

This is how much damage objects and hazards can do to enemies. Some of the 1 damage items can hit an enemy multiple times, like the floor spikes in stage 15.


*This is a guess based on how much damage it does to the player. The only time I know of where a sewer lid -might- be available to hit an enemy with more then 4 HP is at the end of level 4.

Boss hit points are the same for single player Chill and Okay difficulties. Gnarly difficulty appears to double boss HP, but I have not tested this on all bosses.

2023
9/2 updated changes to taunts and super moves for DLC patch. Information is from Greenalink's YouTube channel. Please support them!
https://www.youtube.com/@Greenalink

2022
6/24 Added charge attack info
6/25 Added instant charge clarification, jump interaction with enemy grabs
6/28 Added Back Kick section because of super armor on the move.
6/29 Updated Casey's throws to include 3 damage for Left/Right version.
7/1 Added Dash & Rising attack cancel section to general combat
7/16 Added Boss HP, backflip frame data, and object/hazard damage to enemies sections.

Thanks to khaosklub for:

• Info on unique properties of Donatello's directional hit 1.
  
• Possible iframes on jump attack
  
• Super armor instead of iframes on Leo's double jump attack.
  
• Contributing most of the info to the charge attack section regarding immunity to grab and damage.

falseboo (TMNT speedrun discord): pointing out the instant charge attack section didn't mention the requirement of hitting something first to activate.

Shirakani suggested added a section on dash attack cancelling info.