There are two types of bursts in Skullgirls, Red and Green. Both are activated by pressing any button after IPS has been triggered. The IPS can therefore be trigger in two ways. Both rely on the concept of Combo Stage, so I’ll explain that first.

In training mode, Combo Stage is shown at the bottom of the attack data box.

There’s three (four) parts to it: The first number is the current Combo Stage. The second is the current IPS bar. The third is the maximum value of 240. (Four, the maximum value reached during the last combo.) When starting a combo, if it’s from an aerial move, the Combo Stage starts at 1, and if it’s from a grounded move, the Combo Stage starts at 2. It goes up whenever your characters state changes between air and ground, or whenever a special move is used. Starting at stage 3, the IPS bar begins to fill each attack. The bar will rapidly deplete after not getting hit for a short while. Combo Stage stops at 5; any more state transitions will not increase it further.

Also starting at stage three, Combo Stage Starters will begin to be tracked. In training mode, turn Attack Data to Advanced, and they’ll be shown underneath the clock.

The upper half circles represent buttons used to start aerial stages, and the lower half circles represent buttons used to start grounded stages.

Now I can explain the two bursts.

Red Burst

Red burst happens when your opponent is too repetitive with their stage starters. Look at this Squigly combo,

2LK 2MK 5HP~HP
2LK 2MK 5HP~HP 
2LK (Can burst) 2MK (bursts)
...

The first repetition doesn’t add any starters, because Combo Stage 3 hasn’t been reached yet. The second one adds grounded LK at as starter, marking the lower half of that circle red. In the third repititon, since grounded LK was already used as a starter, LK is marked as white and enables Peacock to burst.

Changing the second starter to 2LP would allow the combo to go for slightly longer:

2LK 2MK 5HP~HP
2LK 2MK 5HP~HP 
2LP 2MK Launcher
Air stuff until green burst

Green Burst

Green burst triggers when two conditions are both met:
1. The IPS bar is full (240+/240)
2. A new Combo Stage is started after 5 has been reached

You can see that happen here at the third air string starting with j.MP:

Notated:

2LK 5MK 5HK 623K~K
j.HP adc j.HP j.214MK
2LK (now at Combo stage 5, but bar isn't full) 2MK 5HK 623K~K
j.LK adc j.HP j.214MK
2LP (bar is now full, waiting for next transition) 5MK 5HK 623K~K
j.MP (can burst) j.HP (Bursts)

Resets

As the attacker, both types of bursts can be avoided by resetting the combo, i.e. dropping it for a short moment and then continuing, preferably at a point where it’s ambiguous what you’ll do so as to make it difficult to block. This resets the Combo Stage, but if done long into a combo, the bar may still be quite full.

Here’s a relatively simple example. From the above Fortune combo, after launching, Fortune can choose to:
- Delay j.214MK or use j.214HK to reset with a high
- Not do j.214MK at all and land with 2LK to reset with a low
- Not do j.214MK at all and land with a grab to reset with a grab
- Do a delayed airgrab

And here’s clips of those options:

reset214HK:

reset2LK:

resetEmptyGrab:

resetAirGrab:

Note how these reset the combo counter and combo stage. These are all points at which the defender can block, tech, or use an invincible reversal.

Sidenote: in the last one, the j.HP adc j.HP triggers burst because doing adc raises the combo stage.

UI Elements

Blue ?! means you got hit high while blocking low, orange !! means you got hit low blocking high, broken heart means you got counterhit.