Advanced Gameplay Discussion/Strats

Ok, so the game has been out for a bit of time now, so I think it's time we started having some serious discussion. Most of us here have messed with beat me ups before so it's gonna be interesting to see what we talk about. Anything gameplay related goes here. Talk about Strikers, Tech attacks, tactics, move properties, and any broken stuff you may have found out. Feel free to ask questions too. I want this to be a community effort with this thread.

I'm gonna start off with some stuff I noticed when I first played the game and give out basic tips too then talk about some of the cooler stuff I noticed.

At lower levels, crowd control is entirely based on movement as well as how smart you are with character placement. So hanging on the outskirts of enemies and trying to get them to one side is huge. So I found the best way to do that was just to run to one side of the screen where enemies were and do a jump in attack. Running jump ins do more damage and seem to have higher priority then normal jump-ins. Make sure to land with the attack facing the opposite direction you ran in. You want to hit the enemies towards the center of the screen away from the edges, so you can bunch them up. When you land you go right into your combo finisher. This is just great for making sure you don't get swarmed on all sides.

Another trick I learned was that when you do the sidestep and your character is airborne you can do an air attack then immediately follow with a finisher. Just a fast easy way to knock enemies back if they are slightly above or below you. Even better when you are at the very top or bottom of the screen since you won't actually move, but you still have fast access to your finisher.

Comboability is pretty insane and I love it. So of course being a competitive fighting game player, the first thing I looked for were some infinites. And I found some although none are insanely broken since you can't infinite bosses. Set-ups are pretty standard. They are all corner/wall based. Just launch then timed button presses on the light attack button will do it. You can set-up off of few things actually. Grapple combo near wall, launcher near wall, mid screen launcher then running jump kick to another launcher then juggle. That's all I can think of for the infinites right now.

Just going to move forward with some other things I noticed. When I first got the counter attack, I thought you needed to be frame perfect but you really don't. There is quite a bit of leeway for this to come out, and it seems to have some invincibility on it as well so that's really great. The dodge roll also has a TON of invincibility. Start-up is instant too. I really don't think it has any vulnerability frames since you can right into blocking after it ends. So only landing in an unblockable hitbox would mess you up after the evade move ends. So it's really great for getting out of tight spots and staying on the outskirts of mobs. And call me crazy but I think Judo throw might have a little bit of invincibility as well. Can anyone confirm that for me.

Of course I have way more to say, but like I said I want this to be a community effort, so feel free to post anything gameplay related here so we can get some discussion going.

Nice stuff. So far u covered alot of thing i do in game in trms of combos and handling crowds all good tips for any one not in the know on crowd control and combos tho so far the only character i'm so so in combos is Ramona but i make some nice launcher juggle ones with Scott and Kim.

i did an infinite on Gideons final form with kim's fireball. it moves so slow that is so easy to time it so that its right on top of him when he recovers from being knocked down. i dont know if if its not possible for the enemies to block right away or what but it works on Gideon. i havent tested it on any other enemy or boss because i didnt care enough.

It might just be that Gideon himself does not block and now that I recall, you can also infinite some bosses with Scott's tech 1 as a wall juggle although timing is tricky since he sends them flying in the air at high speed it's hard to tell when they will come down.

"Counter" is the trick that takes a lot of getting used to, but is highly effective against most bosses.

The timing is such that you should actually wait until you see the attack launched before pressing Circle. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that mashing works very well, as it takes a frame to get out of the defensive position, and you'll end up just holding the block, or more likely getting hit.

With average strength:
Counter can OHKO Patel
Get Lucas to summon the Skateboard in one hit (if you haven't softened him up)
Does not work well against Todd, since he's most vulnerable when 'police'd' (crouched, not attacking)
Does not work well against Roxy because of the sword
Can two-shot the twins (and is the easiest way to get the Trophy), they do a long, full-screen sidekick together and it is very easy to time
Works on GGG1, but not while he is White, he also has unblockables
Does not work on GGG2
In fact, during form one, if you counter the elecballs, you will still get hit by them
Same goes for the form two long fist and the large skull (haven't checked small skull)
Works well on GGG3, but not against the sword-wave

It cannot block Rexzilla's fire, or any swords, but can defend the Alien blasters and (Alberta? Final level blonde chick) wand blasts. I haven't gotten it to work on flying enemies either, but it does work against jump attacks.

Nickels go flying when used, in addition to normal money released by enemies.

The counter works against Gideon's second form's attack (where he just throws out a straight right punch). If you're near him, you'll inflict damage. This was how I beat him the first time by spamming counters and being aware of his other attacks so I can remain close. You can also counter the alien's blasters and the paparazzi's camera flashes.

The counter should OHKO most enemies (unless you're starting out and you're uber weak). On Average Joe difficulty, enemy HP range from 20, 24, and 26 with the larger guys at 44. Most damage I've done with a counter is 90. Are counters capable of criticals? I doubt it... :(

The low attack (down + square) not only works as an OTG, but also as a makeshift launcher. Before I had other abilities, I would combo square and then down + square to hit the enemy off their feet, dash (put the d-pad back into neutral), juggle follow up. Depending on how close or far you are with this, you can work your way to the corner, etc., or miss since you may be too far away.

You can attack up to two times while in midair. Once by pressing X again (assuming you've leveled up and gained the ability), and a second time by pressing square or triangle. I would typically sidestep, press X, and then hit square right after it. You can press triangle here too, but you'll most likely miss since it's a diving attack.

I'm hoping to be able to mess around with the dive kick for juggle potential after hitting someone with X, diving downward, and then continuing with a ground juggle string...

Anyone know of a way to consistently sidestep diagonally...? It seems like I need a lot of momentum to do it...or sidestep while sliding to a halt from a dash.

Actually, you CAN counter Raxzilla's flame attack, I've Counter KO'ed a few with it. The main thing is, however, you cannot counter at the TIP of the flame, but if you are close to the middle of it, you can counter and your attack will be able to hit the enemy.

It's also fun to counter projectiles and have someone else get hit because of it. I abuse this in the Frying Tengu with those Fireball Ninjas.

And evade is godly for getting around quickly, especially Kim's since her cartwheel goes about 1.5x the normal roll distance.

Ha, leave it to one of the best Sagat players to analyze what the designers probably thought was supposed to be a simple control scheme!

Great stuff though. What else?

After a running dive I have done a jump kick then landed with a launcher and comboed from there, but it seems really spacing dependent and I'm the most consistent with it with Scott. Running dive is actually a great way to break up groups since one dive can hit more then one person, and you bounce back up making it crazy safe on block and you can just keep doing it.

Also OTG loop for when you need to kill one enemy is do low attacks then pick them up and throw them on the ground to reset the wake-up timer then low attack, rinse repeat till dead.

rahmed: Hahah, thanks for the props. Just trying to do my part and I love stuff like this.

I'd really like to know what some ppl are doing for ko's in zombie mode.

I've been using kim for her health recovery and fast hand slap tech. I'll usually jump or roll to the wall then fast hand slap away from it. It's pretty safe, but isn't aggressive enough... I get about 400 ko's in 30 mins.

I've been thinking of trying out ramona b/c she gets weapons and hyper easy.

I was almost going to start a thread like this, so I'm glad someone else did.

Most of the things I use most have already been explained. But I'll try to add a few things if they haven't already been stated.

These are all Scott specific things I know since I just finished maxing out his stats last night.

One thing I've noticed is the state of your character after the Dive Kick. You're basically launched back into the air so you can continuously Dive Kick a big crowd of enemies ( right before the fight with Envy in Stage 3 comes to mind ) until you miss or hit out of it. You can even turn yourself around if you come to a wall while Dive Kicking yourself crazy.

Also I think it was mentioned earlier, but a Dashing Dive Kick into Jumping Light Attack can combo into launcher easily if close to the wall. You can then use Tech 1 forever if you time it right. I was able to take out Todd Ingrim with this tactic once. Looks really awesome. I also juggled Gideon's final form till he died.

Tech 2 is good for crowd control if there isn't anyone extremely close to you. Don't want to get hit during it's slow start up.

I've been able to Jump-in Light Attack -> Launcher -> Dash Launcher a few times, but i'm not sure how it works and why. I think it has something to do with the stunned state of a weakened enemy that was probably getting up while i was pushing Light Attack after dashing in.

Just a quick question, does anyone use the left analog stick to dash? I set it to dash automatically when hit and it's a lot easier to use than timing the double tap on the D-Pad. Anyone else use this?