The conditions to use an Astral Heat, a flashy finishing move, have also been changed. Instead of requiring it to be the final round, having 100% Heat, and an opponent having 20% health or less, it now only requires it to be the player's match point round and an opponent being within 35% health, in addition to the aforementioned requirement of one free burst. Barrier Burst has been replaced with Break Burst, a similar ability but with different penalties.
Break Burst can only be performed twice in a single match, and its second use only becomes available if the player lose a round. It no longer permanently drains the character's Barrier Gauge or gives the player the "Danger" penalty. A free unused burst is required for Astral Heats. Bursts have different properties depending on when they are used, as the offensive "Gold Burst" has high bounce and combo-ability, while the defensive "Green Burst" will provide invincibility for the entire burst motion, at the cost of permanently halving the character's maximum primer points.
All lost primer points due to Green Bursts will not recover until the next round. The Guard Libra system which utilizes a tug-of-war gauge has been replaced with the new Guard Primer point system. Each character has a certain number of points (e.g. Tager has a maximum of 10 primer points while characters like Carl or Ragna have 4 and 5 respectively). These points are depleted whenever moves with "Guard Break" properties (e.g.
Jin's "Gale" or Hakumen's "Forward C") are blocked. Upon depletion of all points, the character is immobilized for a certain period of time known as Guard Crush. Barrier blocking can be used at critical times to prevent a Guard Crush by consuming 50% of the Barrier gauge instead. Primer points regenerate over time or after all points are depleted.