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= Advanced Strategy = | = Advanced Strategy (WIP by Shock/Sinala) = | ||
Classic Sub-zero (updated 11-8-05) | |||
Classic Sub-zero is ranked very low in competitive play, around 20, I don't have an exact number to give him, because he can of course be use skillfully and be an annoying menace due to his two containment moves, super fast, long range slide, etc. He is a defensive character, and you should focus on baiting freeze or ground freeze scenarios, but it is possible to go on offense with him and he has a few tactics here and there. Watch out on his 4 hit pop up because if you are a hair slow on it the last hit will miss leaving him hugely open. Of course don't forget he's a male ninja and has really great normals. | |||
Male Ninja Basics moves: | |||
The Male Ninjas have excellent basic moves, good height and range on everything in relation to their sprite proportions, their roundhouse is extra wicked and can connect in almost any situation. The only thing that can be weird about them is their aaHPs. Sometimes they tend to miss in situations where you wouldn't expect them to and this is due to kara canceling with run to speed the last hit up, in this situation, often you can do aaHP,LP and it'll work, with slightly less damage, otherwise, always take an extra small step in before doing aaHPs. | |||
The Deep Freeze is an age old move that still has some benefits to it. It has a hit limit of 1, but breakable to 2, allowing up to 3 freezes per combo, but it's tricky timing and usually not worth it. Some characters are easier to glitch hit counter rule break than others, like the Robot Ninjas, Jax, and Stryker. You can use the freeze as an anti cross up. Scout a cross up jump kick, perhaps in a run jab situation, and run under their jump, and do the freeze as they kick, it'll freeze them in air and set up a decent combo. It's got a little more start up than unmasked Sub-zero's freeze and that hurts it a bit. The freeze is OK for zoning, watch for jumping backwards opponents and freeze as you see them jump. Often times the freeze will hit in a situation where they are physically standing on the ground but cannot block, so watch for these situations. It will look like you should do an aaHPHP combo, but really you should go for a JK starter into his pop up combo. Take note that sometimes characters can be nabbed by a freeze when ducking, especially in close range, especially Shang and Kano. If a person does a JK, block it and instantly do a freeze as soon as they hit the ground. This is uesful because it's rare a person does a jump kick and lands and doesn't continue pressure, the chance of them landing and just blocking are slim, and often time it happens more than once. This will either work almost everytime, or they will stop doing random jump kicks altogether, making them chance their strategy and psychologically giving Sub the upper hand. Sub can freeze within the amount of time it takes for them to land, and even if they block, he's relatively safe. It doesn't work quite as well as unmasked Sub-zero but still useful. | |||
The Ground Freeze is a neat and somewhat unique move. A common tactic I see overabused is run jab, run jab, ground freeze. Sometimes the person will lock up and wind up slipping, but it's their own fault. It's always counterable, and harshly at that. You might be able to get away with this once a match, maybe even once a round if you do one early on and then late in the last match, but it's probably better to do it when they have less than 50% life left because that will be a guaranteed victory if they do manage to not avoid or counter it. You can try doing something like, 4 hit pop up, deep JK, let them hit the ground, run jab LP to get them blocking and semi stuck, ground freeze. This move also has a hit limit of 1, but breakable at 2, and it's very difficult to do for some reason. You cannot do freeze, aaHP, freeze, aaHP ground freeze because the game looks at it very mathematically. When you freeze them, you cannot ground freeze. If you already have one hit out before the freeze, and go to glitch break a second hit on the frame it connects, the game never sees them as unfrozen during the time the ground freeze would be activated, and a frame too late means the game has accepted 2 hits and locked the ground freeze. The ground freeze cannot be done if your opponent is within a certain distance from the wall with their back facing it (about a character body width), so if you are trying to do ground freezes and they aren't coming out, that might be why. The real factor here is their actualy collision box, which moves slightly back and forth during their stance, and sometimes you can let them stand there, do a ground freeze, and nothing will happen several attempts in a row, but then it will work. (just some technical data) | |||
The Slide is good for adding damage to combos, as a wake up, but don't over abuse it, as it's easily punishable. It's the fastest of the three slides with the most range, so it's easier to link into juggle combos. Sometimes you can stick one in for free after an upper as people tend to jump away, or sticking in an extra slide after one because often times people do not anticipate a second slide. Also watch for some misbehaving frames with Kung Lao, Sonya and the Female Ninjas especially. The slide will sometimes simply not hit them at all like Nightwolf's shoulder tackle against a blocking Stryker for example, so if you have someone at danger, a slide is not always the safest route to victory. It is possible to break through the recovery of a comboer while blocking and slide inbetween hits, for example the female ninjas kick combo. It has a point of lag in the middle where you can actually go from standing block to ducking block, and if you time it right, the slide will come out here and you can beat them to their next hit. It's a great way to end a match if they are on danger, run in for a chip damage combo that will beat you, and you interrupt their last hit with a slide and win. | |||
Classic Sub has one semi-infinite, he can relaunch: Sheeva, Robots, Kabal, Nightwolf, Kung Lao, Jax, Sub-zero, Shang Tsung, Male Ninjas, Liu Kang, Sonya, and Kano | |||
Basic Juggles: | |||
1. aaHP, freeze, aaHP,HP, JK, slide 5 hits 43% | |||
2. aaHP, ground freeze, JK starter, HP, HP, D+LP, D+HP, JK, slide 9 hits 51% (try a deep JK, to standing HK at the end for 55%, might be more of an advanced juggle) | |||
Advanced Juggles: | |||
1. aaHP, freeze, cross up JK, standing HK 3 hits 36% (sometimes you can get a second JK for 3 hits 37%) This combo is good against characters whom you can't always basic combo #1 against due to collision boxes. | |||
2. aaHP, freeze, aaHP, freeze, aaHP,HP, JK slide 6 hits 50% | |||
3. aaHP, HP, ground freeze, JK starter, HP, HP, D+LP, D+HP, JK, HK 10 hits 62% | |||
Corner Juggles: | |||
1. freeze, (reposition if necessary) HK starter, HP, HP, D+LP, D+HP, JK, RH, run in HK 8 hits 57% | |||
2. aaHP, freeze, aaHP,HP, JK, HK 5 hits 50% | |||
3. aaHP, freeze, aaHP,HP, JK, RH, slide 6 hits 60% (or LK on some characters for 6 hits 65%) | |||
4. if too close to the wall to reposition try aaHP, freeze, JK, RH, run in HK 4 hits 54% (slide or LK is good too, or a straight up JK to start, will all result in slightly lower damage) | |||
********************************* | |||
Ermac | |||
Ermac is a high tier top 10 character, he is ranked 8th but in the right hands can be considered top 3 as his combo/juggle ability is unparalleled in terms of average damage per combo coupled with the relative ease. He is played very much like Human Smoke, except without air throw tactics. His average combo ability is around the 50% or more on anyone at anytime. I will list many specific character combos in his juggle section. What you are going to try and do with him out of the ordinary teleport methods is anti air HP counters on jump ins and what you can do with that is cancel the HP with block so you cannot be accidentally hit and if you do hit your HP you still have plenty of time to cancel with a Telekinetic Slam (TKS). Watch out against Kano and Nightwolf JKs because they tend to still over prioritize aaHPs if you don't time it right, instead aaRH them. Against agressive players you can throw out a TKS sometimes after a blocked auto combo, and they will get snagged by it. Against jumpy or overly aggressive players you can stick in a TKS after an aaHK if you so choose to use it over the aaHP, and often times it will get them on their wake up. Don't over use it. Run and knee jab mix ups, teleporting away from and landing next to are a must but watch out because players can scout the teleports and position themselves to get in the way of what you might think is a safe teleport, punishing you for it. His walking speed is slower than Human Smoke's so multi jab juggles need to be timed more rigidly. The only combo you should ever use midscreen is HK, LP when rushing down, and off starters. | |||
Male Ninja Basics moves: | |||
The Male Ninjas have excellent basic moves, good height and range on everything in relation to their sprite proportions, their roundhouse is extra wicked and can connect in almost any situation. The only thing that can be weird about them is their aaHPs. Sometimes they tend to miss in situations where you wouldn't expect them to and this is due to kara canceling with run to speed the last hit up, in this situation, often you can do aaHP,LP and it'll work, with slightly less damage, otherwise, always take an extra small step in before doing aaHPs. | |||
The Telekinetic Slam is one of the most broken and unique moves in the game, however you need to learn how to max out the combos off it. Its properties are a little unorthodox, as it does damage, but does not count as a hit in a combo (unless you hit them before the first bounce in which it doesn't do damage). It does not activate damage protection and has a limit of 4 hits before it is locked, and this means 2 usages per combo are about the norm. There are ways to stretch it to 3 uses but they have to be absolutely perfectly time with no room for error so it's not worth getting into because you really can't get any more damage than normal this way conventionally. Your standard set ups are going to be either hit, TKS, hit, hit, hit, TKS -or- TKS, hit, hit, hit, hit, TKS, etc. Make sure to try and labor the 3 hit succession just a bit to elapse the time limit inbetween uses, which isn't noticable usually. Good set ups for the TKS are anti air HPs if someone JKs early, this the perfect time to aaHP and cancel to a TKS. From here a guaranteed 78% damage combo is possible on almost every character, more difficult on some than others, but on characters like Shang you need to be slightly more rigid with the timing and max out about 75%, otherwise it's not worth trying the extra hits, and on a lot of characters 82% standard counter from a standing aaHP is possible. Remember that the TKS doesn't count as part of a combo it also doesn't add to the damage for some reason, so for every TKS you use in a combo, add 5.5% to the end damage read outand 3% in DPed combos, generally two should always be used in a combo so that's 11%. In the corner you can set up a TKS combo off an aaRH easily. Remember to run cancel all your jabs during juggle combos to allow more time for extra jabs and JKs. It is possible to glitch cancel (on the frame of contact) up to 5 hits before a TKS, but it is not recommended | |||
The Teleport Punch is a great move if used for escaping and overall positioning and manueverability. If you use it too much players will see your patterns and counter by getting in the way of it and blocking. If you are experienced enough with the placement and timing you should be able to teleport almost anytime it is available (it has a small time limit between usages) and not get punished. Use if when you are getting up to escape run jabs, HKs or knee starting combos. Ermac turns invisible when he does the teleport punch and is still actually on the screen moving until he lands or shows up on the other side of the screen. If you are air thrown or Bike Kicked, for example, before you leave the screen Ermac will stay invisible until he is hit by another move. Take advantage of this, an invisible Ermac is an even dealier Ermac. Try only to teleport when you have 2/3 of the screen behind you or at least a total of 2/3 screen distance between you and your opponent in some manner. This would mean, you can have half a screen behind you and your opponent is standing right next to you, you'll wind up landing about sweep distance away behind them. It is best to try and get the placement down to land right next to them even if they are blocking, this sets up free throw potential and/or rush down. Watch out for counter sweeps, LKs, HKs or uppercuts if you rush in immediately. Utilize the teleport punch as a combo extender but try not to actually hit them with it as it activates damage protection. Its limit is 4 hits before it is locked, has a small window of time limit recharge and you can stretch it out to 2 uses per combo if done right. A good way to start a DPed juggle combo would be to aaRH an incoming JK and hit a teleport punch on the other side before they land. After this do a TKS, wait, RH, again, teleport punch, TKS again, to standard finish of choice. Do not use the teleport punch as a safe guard chip hit when someone is on danger because it only does about 2% chip damage and danger can mean the person has 4% life left. It is common to see people lose matches they should have won because of this. In order to connect his teleport punch on characters like Shang Tsung, Liu Kang, female ninjas, Robots Ninjas, and Sheeva in mid screen standard combo situations, after his HK, LP pop up, jump forward and wait until he starts coming down on the flip to JK, then instantly cancel to the teleport punch. This makes him line up better with them. You can also glitch cancel the teleport punch if you want to get fancy. | |||
The Green Spark is a standard, slow starting fireball and is only good to use as a combo terminator. In most cases if you realize you're not going to be able to get 3 aaHPs at the end of a juggle (it's noticable on how the aaHPs connect after the second TKS) you can subsitute aaHP,HP, aaLP, fireball and that will usually connect and is compenstable upon reaction. There are no tactical uses for his fireball. There is never a time when a fireball can be used as a last resort on a jumping back opponent with him when a teleport punch would be better and more of a guarantee. In general the fireball leaves him too open because it takes him forever to recover, you can jump over it easily, and he stays in one position. | |||
Ermac can relaunch all characters in the game like Kano and Human Smoke. Some characters are more difficult than others, in order to best line him up, you should do his pop up, pause slightly before jumping forward, and punch at the last possible moment. | |||
Basic Juggles that work on everyone: | |||
1. HK, LP, JK, teleport punch, TKS, aaHP,HP, fireball 7 hits about 42% | |||
2. (for a punisher) aaHP,HP, JK, teleport punch, TKS, aaHP,HP, fireball 7 hits about 53% | |||
3. punch starter, HK, LP, aaHP, TKS, aaHP,HP, fireball 7 hits about 43% | |||
4. (for a punisher) aaHP, TKS, aaHP,HP, aaHP, TKS, aaHP,HP, aaHP, fireball 8 hits 69% | |||
Advanced Juggles: | |||
These are maxed out combo situations that work faithfully with little risk of failure on all characters except Shang, Sonya, Liu Kang, and Sheeva. Adjustments are required for the slightly lesser damage combos on the specific opponents mentioned with usage of one less HP, or a fireball instead of a JK at the end, downgrading the combos by about 15% | |||
1. HK, LP, JK, teleport punch, TKS, aaHPHP, aaHP, JK 8 hits about 47% on Sub-zero, Jax, Stryker, and Male Ninjas, you can walk in after the HK, LP, and do a RH, then teleport punch, perform the TKS motion backwards because the teleport punch usually juggles behind him, for 48% | |||
2. punch starter, HK, LP, JK, TKS, aaHP,HP, aaHP, JK 8 hits 52% | |||
3. (for a punisher) aaHP,HP, JK, teleport punch, TKS, aaHP,HP, aaHP, JK 8 hits 58% | |||
4. aaRH, teleport punch, TKS, aaRH, teleport punch, TKS, aaHP,HP, aaHP, JK 8 hits 62% | |||
5. (for a punisher or counter to a jump in attack) aaHP, TKS, aaHP,HP, JK, TKS, aaHP,HP, aaHP, JK 8 hits 82% | |||
6. (Opponent at Midscreen) TKS, aaHP,HP, teleport punch (miss), aaHP, JK, TKS, aaHP,HP, aaHP, JK 8 hits 82% | |||
7. try and stick in an otg (off the ground) HK LP after his TKS for some neat looking juggles HK, LP, JK, teleport punch, TKS, HK, LP, aaHP, fireball 8 hits 46% | |||
Advanced Corner Juggles (watered down): | |||
1. HK, LP, JK, RH, (or aaHP), TKS, aaHPHP, JK, RH, HK, (or LK) 9 hits 64% (58%) | |||
2. punch starter, HK, LP, RH (or aaHP), TKS, aaHP,HP, JK, RH, HK (or LK)9 hits 66% (60%) | |||
Corner 100% juggles: | |||
1. TKS, aaHP,HP, JK, aaHP, TKS, aaHP,HP, JK, RH, LK (works on just about everyone and is good if someone does a projectile in the corner and Ermac is about half screen away) | |||
2. aaHP, TKS, aaHP,HP, RH, TKS, aaHP,HP, JK, RH, LK | |||
3. aaRH, TKS, aaHP,HP, aaHP, TKS, aaHP,HP, JK, RH, LK | |||
4. suJK, TKS, aaHP,HP, RH, TKS, aaHP,HP, JK, RH, LK | |||
************************************** | |||
Jade | |||
Jade is lower end mid tier character ranked roughly around 16. You're going to want to stay on the ground with her, abuse her return boomerang, projectile protection whenever needed or even as a distraction, run jabs, ground combo chip, but throw in pauses and then stick in a standing HK to get people who rush when they suspect you are stuck in a broken combo. Throw out her dash kick every now and then as it is very safe in many situations except the obvious ones, ie: vs characters with containments. Always does her 4 hit HP HP D+LP D+HP combo, and add an unblockable sweep after it on everyone, which will do more total damage than her 7 hit combo which is nerfed for human players for some reason, doing 10% less than the CPU. On some characters you can stick a standing LK after the 4 hit combo, like Jax and the Robots, on Sheeva you can stick in a standing HK, and even on Jax with rigid timing. Her overall juggling and combo ability is extremely limited, she has no useful or damaging juggle combos, although huge, impossible to set up, theoretical, corner combos for her do exist. Just remember to abuse the suddenness of her moves and stay on the ground. Double dash kick counters are fun to do for 22%. Also there's the weird hit boxes the female ninjas have which can make certain juggles harder to do on them. Many characters cannot do their HP beginning to a combo if they get a starter, lowering their overall damage effectiveness helping her out slightly but not a whole lot. Double run jabs in the corner are great, watch for openings to get her combo. | |||
Female ninja basic moves: | |||
The female ninja uppercut is average, nothing to write home about, their standing HK is great for far away jumpers trying to stay out of range for anti air HPs, it doesn't have as much height as some other characters, but the collision detection is a good distance from their body hit box, so it has good priority. Their LP jabs hit lower than most so they can run jab Stryker when he's ducking and blocking, and they good range. HP jabs have average range, sweeps are silent which is a plus, and they have some distance to them, however are slow on recovery compared to the fast sweepers leaving them potentially open. Ducking LK has some decent pointiness and distance, standing LK hits a bit lower than usual. Their roundhouse is very close range, better off going for a standing HK on jump ins, but the RH can often be used in run underneath jump in situations because the placement is perfect for that. Their jump punch has limited range and is close to their body, bad for cross ups on ducking blocking opponents. | |||
The Dash Kick is fast, in fact sudden, and is also extremely safe in many situations that it shouldn't be. There are very few close range attacks that can hit Jade while she's in her recovery frames, but projectiles always work, however the start up time for most projectiles is too long to capitalize even if done immediately from too far away. The best way to counter her dash kick is to anticipate it, not block it and run in with a counter combo, or just simply uppercut. This move can be used repeatedly, similarly to Nightwolf's shoulder tackle, and it has a limit of one hit before it is disabled, two can be done in a row in a combo. It's range is about half screen, and best used when you are very close to your opponent as it's very difficult to block upon reaction. After her autocombo is blocked, you can stick in a dash kick to counter a rush down, or you can use it against crossovers sometimes. It can hit some characters who are ducking like Kabal and Shang Tsung, and sometimes you might want to stick in a ducking LK after her 4 hit combo, then a dash kick as they are getting up, it's either going to hit as they are getting up, or be blocked, and is relatively safe, except against Kabal for instance. Use the dash kick to counter virtually any attack if you block because it's that fast. This is all part of her pitbulling strategy. Occassionally stick in dash kicks after run jabs in the corner, specifically watch for openings when they are about to jump, setting up small juggles. You can also glitch cancel it to 2 hits before it, for example, aaHP, aaHP, dash kick, however not useful. | |||
The Boomerang is used for zoning. She has 4 types, straight across, upwards, downwards, and a straight across return which is the best one to use, but remember to watch for players who will expect return spamming and just duck, so stick in a downward one, or on jump aways stick in an up one. Jade is not so much about damage, but chipping away and this move makes certain of that. You can spam the boomerangs for eternity so long as you time them right, remember to not abuse them against teleporters and watch for opponents who will trade a hit like an uppercut and use it to remove the recovery. Against characters with containments they can do the uppercut, get hit by the return boomerang, and then freeze/harpoon, etc, creating big damage. Mix up the usage of the boomerang, don't depend on it, make them make mistakes. Throw in dash kicks here and there against some characters while using return boomerangs to keep them guessing. | |||
The Projectile Protection is very useful in it's intuitiveness. Jade is temporarily immune to all projectiles except Sindel's scream, Kitana's Fan Lift, Sindel's air fireball, and a few other special case situations. You can use the PP to remove recovery time from push back in the corner with juggles, increasing damage slightly if you are ever in the situation where a ninja teleports and winds up in the corner. You can also use it to stop the push back on triple run jabs in the corner. This way your opponent will try to get out and capitalize, but you will instantly recover and can counter-counter them with a dash kick, standing HK, sweep or autocombo and set up further tactics. | |||
Basic Juggles: | |||
1. jump punch starter, HP, HP, D+LP, D+HP, standing HK 6 hits 40%, standing LK, or sweep will do less damage but connect on more and more characters respectively. | |||
2. (for a punisher) aaHP,HP, aaLP, boomerang, 4 hits 30% | |||
Jade has no useful advanced juggles, but here's a few that can work if you are in the right situation. | |||
1. (in corner against opponent trying to jump out) Dash kick, Dash kick, LK 3 hits 35% or sometimes HK for 37% | |||
2. (opponent in corner) RH, dash kick, HK, 3 hits 43% | |||
3. (as a corner punisher) aaHPHP, PP, JK, RH, HK 5 hits 60% | |||
4. (Jade in corner) run under a jump, RH into corner, dash kick, RH, HK 4 hits 60% | |||
**************************************** | |||
Jax | |||
Jax is considered at the bottom of the top tier barrel ranked at #10. He's a sweeper, a zoner, a back breaker-er, and ground combo crusher. He's got a lot of options but he struggles against teleporters and other top tier characters. Take advantage of old tactics like standing HKs, ground pounds, sweeps, watch for cross ups and hit the back breakers, sweeps, keep away with missiles, sweeps, rush down with run jabs and the 7 hit combo but be careful on male ninjas and some other characters because often times the 7 hitter will whiff on the D+HP (HK, HK, D+HP) leaving Jax open for a free counter, in some cases disastersouly damaging because he is the easiest character to juggle, oh yeah and sweeps. Play as cheap as possible with him, perhaps even turtle or read other players, and play safely because he can be annoying to rush down due his range. | |||
Basic Moves: | |||
His LP run jab game is questionable because they hit slightly higher, allowing more chance for him to be uppercut or ducking LKed, his HPs hit high as well, and set up easy air juggle aaHPHP, JK, air throw for about 44%. His standing HK has good range and moderate height, excellent for anti airing half screen jumpers. His standing LK also has good range and positioning. His sweep is among the fastest in the game, abuse it. His ducking LK is a hair slower than some, but has good distance again. His RH has very limited range, but good height, useful for run under RH situations. His uppercut has a lot of height and range, but some characters can slip through it on cross ups, which is when you should for an anti cross up backbreaker. All of his air attacks are very good. | |||
The Gotcha Grab is a sudden, fast move that is very safe to throw out randomly and the only real way to punish it consistently is to sweep when it comes out. There are obviously other ways to scout and punish it, so don't rely on it as a certain way to catch someone but it often does get people off guard and against blind rush down. With exact timing you can stick the Gotcha Grab in his 7 hit autocombo midscreen against Jax, and unmasked Sub-zero for a bit of extra damage that isn't really worth the effort, 51% with a punch starter, vs guaranteed 47% on everyone with a sweep instead, 47% with a LK on most characters, and 48% with a HK on a bunch. It is very useful for punisher combos, and in the corner off his autocombo, which can be extended significantly against many characters. | |||
Single and Double Missiles are great zoning moves because they take up a lot of space and move Jax backwards, so if someone jumps over one he is generally safe. In UMK3 they added charge time to the single missiles, and this also effects the doubles. If you fire a single missile, you have to wait a few seconds before you can fire a double, or another single, and vice versa. They were too broken in MK3 and decided to add this limitation to balance him. You can still use the double somewhat for zoning, or avoiding certain attacks with extra protection. You can mix the single missile with run jabs, and the double missile will hit teleporters from full screen as they go off screen. | |||
The Dashing Fist is a sudden move that can be useful to an extent, used as a wakeup particularly when getting up. Try to buffer the move without making your movements known as it is easily scoutable in that situation. In certain set ups, the Dash Fist will make Jax bounce off the opponent and move backwards, making him slightly safer than he would be normally. Do not over abuse it because it hits high and is easily duckable and punishable. It is possible to use this move to get you closer to an opponent as a method of dashing, but it is inadvisable, and you can also use it to extend corner combo juggles. It is also useful to get you out of certain situations and go back into zoning or sweeps. Sometimes you can use it as anti air and it generally makes Jax wind up right next to the opponent so you can go into run jabs, a combo, or sweep strategies as well. When used as anti air it can cause some glitch type scenarios where it will make Jax and his opponent push off eachother in opposite directions either facing towards or away and can create some opportunities for other tactics. There is no limit as to how many Dash Fists you can do in a juggle, nor is there a time limit inbetween so you can literally just frames a couple of them in a row in the corner as a humiliation juggle after his 7 hit combo. | |||
The Ground Pound is another returning move from MKII, but it was given more start up frames to balance it, however it is still useful, and unblockable and only avoidable by jumping. It keeps your opponent on guard at all time and might put them in bad situations when they might not want to be in the air. Not many people actually use this move in UMK3 because of how much slower it is than the MKII version, but when used properly it becomes an annoying factor in a match, particularly if you time it to connect as soon as they hit the ground on a jump, this will force them to jump if they see it coming and they have to immediately decide whether they are close enough to counter the ground pound with a jump kick or a jump punch start to combo, straight up, or backwards. If you time and space it right, you will be on the advantage when they land on their second jump and be able to once again resume your now nasty, cheesey sweeping and back breakering techniques. | |||
The Backbreaker is his golden move, because it is perhaps the most useful move in his arsenal, even though simplistic in usage and design. Air throws have tremendous zero frame priority in MK like regular throws in just about any game, including MK itself, but you can't avoid them in air or tech hit, and they generally do significant damage, in the mid-high teens and this is for one move that sets up tactical scenarios, generally accompanied by a JK before hand, increasing damage to about 30%. Whenever someone tries to cross up jump punch or jump kick you as you are sweeping them to a bitter end, anticipate it, and immediately, unhesitantly and committedly, jump forward, or straight up and tap block, and you will backbreaker them right back to the ground, then immediately return to the sweep fest. This tactic is also used with Kano and perhaps even more so. Even when you aren't sweeping, watch for any possible chance to get a backbreaker because it is also a psychological move. It makes people rethink what they are doing if you get them with it, 2, 3 or 4 times in a row because they think for some reason their cross up is going to work this time. Always remember to tap block a few times while you are in the air even if you aren't in a natural situation where you would instinctively backbreaker someone because chances are you'll hit it. Remember that Robot Smoke's radius for his air throw is very large, pretty much 360 degrees around him while Jax's has a bit less area to deal with. | |||
The Multislam is simply a special throw, in which you perform a normal throw, and tap HP several times to get 3 more slams. There isn't much more to it other than you can go back into sweep tactics after it! | |||
Basic Juggles: | |||
1. aaHP, Gotcha Grab 6 hits 27% (add an extra aaHP, but requires stepping forward a bit depending on the opponent) | |||
2. (as a punisher) aaHP,HP, JK, air throw 4 hits 44% | |||
3. Add a HK on Male Ninjas, Sub-zero, Jax, Stryker, (Robots, Sheeva require a small step forward), and a few other characters, for 39% instead of 33% on his 7 hitter, leaving off the last B+HP, a standing LK works on a lot more characters, for 37%, and a sweep will work on everyone also for 37% and sets up tactics, you can do his Gotcha Grab with perfect timing on Jax and unmasked Sub-zero for a few more %. | |||
Basic Corner Combo - Juggles: | |||
punch starter, HK, HK, D+HP, HP, BL, LP, B+HP, with your choice of finish: | |||
1. HK - 50% | |||
2. RH - 51% | |||
3. gotcha grab 13 hits - 53% | |||
4. uppercut - 54% | |||
Advanced Corner Combo - Juggles | |||
punch starter, HK, HK, D+HP, HP, BL, LP, B+HP, with your choice of finish because certains combos work more faithfully on specific characters: | |||
1. RH, HK - 10 hits 59% | |||
2. JK, Backbreaker - 10 hits 59% | |||
2. aaHP, dash punch, HK - 11 hits 60% | |||
3. aaHP, dash punch, aaLP, gotcha 16 hits 65% (against Robots, Kung Lao, Jax, Sheeva...) | |||
4. JK, aaHP, dash punch, HK, 12 hits 68% | |||
Corner Juggle Punishers: | |||
1. aaHPHP, dash punch, HK 4 hits 40% | |||
2. aaHPHP, dash punch, aaLP, Gotcha Grab 9 hits 52% | |||
3. aaHP, JK, aaHP, dash punch, HK 5 hits 56% | |||
3. aaHPHP, dash punch, JK, backbreaker 5 hits 58% | |||
4. aaHP, JK, aaHP, dash punch, aaLP, Gotcha Grab 10 hits 68% | |||
********************************* | |||
Kano (updated 9-28-05) | |||
Kano is ranked #4 of 23 in UMK3 by popular consensus. He is the best sweeper due to his options. You have the knife uppercut which hits ducking opponents, very useful, the regular cannon ball which is instantaneous, and the vertical ball is equally as useful, off a sweep. Air throw is very good, but low damage, he can link his close range HK easily off a sweep as a wake up, so can Jax and Sonya, but Kano can get it on more and results in about the same damage mid screen for all three if they do. | |||
Basic moves: | |||
His jump kick is nice and pointy, leaving little room to be countered by simple moves, his uppercut has good distance but sucks if someone jumps to land in close or tries to cross up so you're better off going with the air throw. His sweep is super quick, his standing HK is great anti air when you need it fast. His jabs have little range, his ducking LK is awkward and clunky but gets the job done. His jump punch is very round and ball like, easy to counter since the collision box is so close to his own. His knee lift is more like a close range low kick, almost as useful as Nightwolf's obvious stomp. The roundhouse hits pretty high and has average range. | |||
Sweep when safe, look for cross up jump kicks, if they do, jump straight up and air throw em back down, go right back into sweeps, run and knee jabs are good, don't do too crazy on them they are easy to counter. | |||
When rushing down, never go for any combo except HK, D+LP, D+HP, if you connect it, do walk in, aaHP, JK, air throw, it's 3% less than if you did it with HP, HP, D+LP, D+HP, and when rushing in, the HP whiffs, so it's worthless. If you connect a jumping HP, do the 4 hit pop up, aaHP, JK, air throw, for 48%. | |||
The manhandle is really only useful in combos, it has almost no purpose other than a risky wake up mid game, it's rare you see it connect and it leaves you wide open. I love players who abuse it against scrubs because they don't know what to do when the manhandle is ineffective. If you do get the mandhandle miscreen, it is possible to juggle a LK, or cannonball off it. | |||
He has two infinites in the corner that work on some characters, you can mix it into his corner combos off launchers. You can simply repeat the mandhandle over and over, which requires insane timing, and also, aaLP manhandle works as well, but increasingly difficult as the LP tends to still get some push back, making it harder to complete. | |||
Kano can relaunch every character in the game, something like Ermac and Human Smoke. This is done by performing a launcher combo, jumping along with the opponent as they are flying, and as you are about to land, connect a linked HP, which is unblockable if they are close enough to the ground but are still considered in air, and then the autocombo is free. It is useful against certain characters, as some are easier to relaunch than others. Difficult/pointless relaunch attempts are Stryker, Sindel, Female Ninjas, and Male Ninjas. Everyone else is pretty easily relaunched by Kano. | |||
Sometimes you can use the regular ball as transportation against turtles and zoners, it gets you right on top of them and sets up the chance for a wake up pop up combo. | |||
Use the vertical ball to land directly ontop of turtling opponents by surprise sometimes, because as soon as touch the ground you can throw, beating out any attack they try if they aren't holding back, and often times when you land on someone and they don't try anything they aren't holding the proper direction to prevent throwing anymore and it's almost a free throw. Don't over abuse this tactic because it doesn't take long to start scouting it and positioning for easy counters. It is a similar concept to Sonya's bike kick however she doesn't go into a real punishment mode off it. The vertical ball is also a good method of escape from run jabs, and is an ideal anti air move obviously, as almost nothing can stop it except air throws. | |||
Always remember, sweep, sweep, sweep. | |||
Useful combos and juggles: | |||
Basic Juggles: | |||
1. JP, HP, HP, D+LP, D+HP, aaHP, JK, air throw 7 hits 47% | |||
2. JP, HP, HP, D+LP, D+HP, aaHP, knife throw 7 hits 40% (Knife uppercut 42%, mandhandle, 45%) | |||
Advanced Juggles: | |||
1. JP, HP, HP, D+LP, D+HP, deep JK with LK and charge LK, mandhandle, release for cannonball, 8 hits 57%(can be done midscreen on some characters) | |||
2. (In corner especially against teleporters) aaHP, JK, aaHP, mandhandle, cannonball, 5 hits about 63% | |||
3. JP, HP, HP, D+LP, D+HP, aaHP, JK, cannon ball 8 hits 50% | |||
4. aaHP,HP, JK, cannonball 4 hits 43% (BP) | |||
5. (in corner) JP, HP, HP, D+LP, D+HP, JK, HP, mandhandle, cannon ball 9 hits 60% 6. (as close to corner as possible without being pushed back) JP, HP, HP, D+LP, D+HP, JK, RH, manhandle, cannon ball 9 hits 66% | |||
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Kitana (updated 12-23-05) | |||
Kitana is a mid tier character in UMK3, right around 15 give or take, which is still a far cry from her status of MKII combo queen possible top 3. Her damage was drastically reduced due to the fact her fan lift activates damage protection, and if you connect her fan in a combo any hits after it are also damage protected so you're best bet is to try and not use the fan lift unless it's use for drastic anti air prediction. In punisher combos you're better off try to go for the aaHP's without the fan to air juggle resulting in about 50%. Run jabs are her game, the female ninjas have really great placement on their run jabs, and remember to abuse the hell out of double run jabs with her. Remember to use the sneaky 3 hits of the kick combo, leaving off the last B+HK, and lacing in a standing HK if they try and capitalize on what they think is a broken combo. On all characters except the female ninjas, Sindel, Sonya, Sheeva and Shang Tsung, you can stick an unblockable just frames sweep at the end of her fan combo, for example, JP starter, HP, HP, B+LP, F+HP, sweep as soon as you possibly can is 41%, and very easy. Her overall comboing ability is limited, low to average damage (25-50% at a time, yes at this point 50% damage is average since it's half a bar and 100%s and infinites are possible). Don't forget about the weird hit boxes the female ninjas have which can make certain juggles more difficult, and also a lot of characters cannot do their HP beginning to a combo if they get a starter, possibly lowering their overall damage effectiveness helping her slightly but not much. Kitana has some throwing tactics as well, along the lines of Cryax and Robot Smoke. Her throw ends early and your opponent is very close to you so can run in and attempt another free throw depending on if they are doing to try and jump over you or not, or go right into run jabs, or run behind them before they get up and attempt a cross up of sorts, try and stick her kick combo in there as well. | |||
Female ninja basic moves: | |||
The female ninja uppercut is average, nothing to write home about, their standing HK is great for far away jumpers trying to stay out of range for anti air HPs, it doesn't have as much height as some other characters, but the collision detection is a good distance from their body hit box, so it has good priority. Their LP jabs hit lower than most so they can run jab Stryker when he's ducking and blocking, and they good range. HP jabs have average range, sweeps are silent which is a plus, and they have some distance to them, however are slow on recovery compared to the fast sweepers leaving them potentially open. Ducking LK has some decent pointiness and distance, standing LK hits a bit lower than usual. Their roundhouse is very close range, better off going for a standing HK on jump ins, but the RH can often be used in run underneath jump in situations because the placement is perfect for that. Their jump punch has limited range and is close to their body, bad for cross ups on ducking blocking opponents. | |||
The Fan Lift is a criminally pathetic waste of a containment. If you look at it from the perspective that "free damage is free damage" then fine, use it. But I would say avoid using it almost altogether unless you scout a jump in and lift them but the most damage you're going to see midscreen is about 28 - 30%. It would have been fair to not have damage protection on fan lifted moves but kept the damage protection on the post fan throw moves, or perhaps only damage protect post fan throw moves if you get a fan lift before it, but I'm getting off the point here. This would have brought her tier level up considerably. Whenever you might not be rushing down with her, always remember to buffer the fan lift so you can perform on command if you so wish to use it. It is possible to get an aaHP before a fan lift but it is not very practical, however the normal limit of hits before the fan lift is disable is 0, meaning you can't combo anything before it under normal circumstances. If someone is in the corner, watch for jump escapes, this is a good time to use a fan lift and if you connect it, you can set up moderate damage, around 40% on just about anyone. | |||
The Fan Throw is still a great move and she can use it almost exactly like she did in MKII. Remember to throw them low to the ground so she lands quickly and can block or counter. A commonly over used tactic is fan throw from full screen, run in behind it and expect to get some free chip damage. Against experienced players this is not the case. You will most likely get swept or even take an uppercut, or counter containment during your labored journey to small amounts of damage. What you might want to do is try a fan throw followed by her wave punch from time to time. That will get her in close to them a lot quicker, putting the fan right over their heads as she lands and making it difficult to counter with an uppercut and standing up after the fan to HPs timing is critical, and from there run jab city to kick combos, or simply a throw to beat out their counter move, or mash out a ground combo as soon as you land as well. Don't over abuse this tactic because it is almost the exact same concept as running in after a fan throw, use both and mix it up, keep them guessing. If they jump to avoid the fan throw they will get hit by the wave punch, if you don't do the wave punch watch for the jump in and set them up for a fan lift. Remember to only use the fan in air, and never ever on the ground. Occasionally throw one high if you expect a jump in. Her style is almost hit and run but you can change it to hardcore offense anytime you get in close with those run jabs. You might want to try an early or deep jump kick, pausing to a late fan throw in order to bait someone's counter, this way you can nip them with a fan on a close quarters JK. | |||
The Wave Punch is a pretty neat move that is great anti air for jumping forward, straight up, or back opponents. It's easy to scout and the D, B HP motion is easy to pull of instantly if you see someone so much as leave the ground. Battering someone down with Wave Punches can have the same psychological effect as air throwing someone on cross ups constantly, it forces the person to change their strategy, possibly to something they are unable to keep up with. You can use it for mobility to an extent, but expect to be punished for abusing it. You can sometimes juggle a LK or HK in the corner after her wave punch depending on the character and how high it connects. It is sometimes usefull against some poor priority crossover jump kicks. | |||
Kitana has no known infinites. | |||
Basic Juggles: | |||
1. punch starter, HP, HP, B+LP, F+HP, sweep 6 hits 41% | |||
2. fan lift, JK, air fan throw, wave punch 4 hits 22% | |||
3. JK, fan throw, uppercut 3 hits 33% | |||
4. (in the corner) fan lift, JK, air fan, RH, run in HK 5 hits 30% | |||
Advanced Juggles: | |||
1. aaHP,HP, JK, air fan, run in, aaHP, wave punch 6 hits 53% (you can add an extra aaHP on Stryker Jax and Sub-zero for example, or aaLP,LP or some other characters adding a little more damage 55-56%) | |||
2. (corner punisher would have to start about half screen distance from the corner) aaHP, HP, JK, air fan, aaHP, wave punch 7 hits 60% | |||
3. (same set up as 2.) aaHP, HP, JK, air fan, RH, run in HK 7 hits 65% | |||
If closer to the corner, single aaHP is also possible and results in 6-7% less damage but more than acceptable damage for Kitana. She has many variations here and there on her juggles, these would be mostly ideal situations. | |||
********************************** | |||
Mileena (updated 9-22-05) | |||
Mileena is considered a low tier character, probably around 20th of the 23 in UMK3, and third in terms of the three female ninjas. She has overall low combo damage, not much in terms of options, almost everything revolves around the roll which activates damage protection miserably. She, like Cyrax, requires a lot of effort to be a force in the game, and there are some expert players here and there who can use her, however she still just doesn't cut it against most top tier characters. Fortunately the female ninjas have strange collision boxes making it harder to juggle them, and maxed out combos are unlikely in most cases, watch for slip ups and counter based on their character design. Some characters cannot get starters on them at all, and both ground attacks after a JP or a straight up JK will whiff, however in the corner a lot of these characters are able to get starters on them, but still some cannot, it depends on how close you are when the jump attack connects. | |||
Female ninja basic moves: | |||
The female ninja uppercut is average, nothing to write home about, their standing HK is great for far away jumpers trying to stay out of range for anti air HPs, it doesn't have as much height as some other characters, but the collision detection is a good distance from their body hit box, so it has good priority. Their LP jabs hit lower than most so they can run jab Stryker when he's ducking and blocking, and they good range. HP jabs have average range, sweeps are silent which is a plus, and they have some distance to them, however are slow on recovery compared to the fast sweepers leaving them potentially open. Ducking LK has some decent pointiness and distance, standing LK hits a bit lower than usual. Their roundhouse is very close range, better off going for a standing HK on jump ins, but the RH can often be used in run underneath jump in situations because the placement is perfect for that. Their jump punch has limited range and is close to their body, bad for cross ups on ducking blocking opponents. | |||
The Roll is an interesting and complex move to say the least with lots of uses. It is by definition a containment move as well, similar to that of Reptile's forceball, however Mileena's distance from the opponent and positioning is not always exactly the same making juggle combos for her difficult to guarantee. Mileena can run in sooner depending on what frame she is in when the roll connects. The roll can be used to prevent anti air cross ups if timed correctly. As the player jumps over you, buffer F,F,D instead of B,B,D and do the roll as they start the air attack, you will roll under them, causing the occasional forward flip towards Mileena reaction which is ideal, enabling better juggle combos. It is relatively easy to perform the flip towards roll by timing the contact just on the opposite side of the oppent as they fall, try this during punishment combos with aaHP,HP, B,B, pause, D, HK for the late roll and ideal spacing. The roll can also be used on a delay, so you can buffer B,B, D, wait a good second and then surprise with the roll as if you were the CPU and didn't have to perform any motion, similar to usage of Stryker's baton throw, which can abuse the same delayed button hit concept. There are many players who abuse the roll constantly, and pay for it, please do not be one of these players. It is possible to abuse the roll and be successful, it just takes good judgement on placement. The roll can also be used as a wake up to escape run jabs, smilar to Kabal's spin and Sonya's bike kick, but if it is expected, a simple kara jab will block it and set Mileena up for a punisher combo. The roll has a limit of 1 usage every other hit and is locked at 3 hits, so that means you can combo 2 legitimately. | |||
The teleport/drop kick is a very slow attack and should be used as a total surprise, perhaps no more than once a round, it is easy to scout, predict, and counter, and any time you can use it in a combo, you could do 2 or 3 more hits with something else resulting in higher damage. | |||
The sai shot is still spammable as it was in MKII in terms of speed, however it is not as effective. The Prophet says "It looks like she's aiming at airplanes or something with them." What he means is, they are way too high in the air when she releases so they are easy to avoid, and he would be right. You can still try to spam them, use them in combos as well, for zoning, etc. | |||
An underused tactic the female ninjas can abuse is by leaving off the last hit of their kick combos if the opponent blocks the first three, and pausing ever so slightly, then doing a HK as they try to rush in, which happens very often. Even if they don't it hits blocked which does slightly more chip damage than finishing out the combo and doesn't give them as much time to recover and counter, setting up other situations in your favor. | |||
As far as I have tested, Mileena can only relaunch the robot ninjas, and Kung Lao, even Sheeva can always block her relaunches, others may be possible, as I sort it out I'll post it. | |||
A couple of corner tactics you can use with Mileena: You can charge HP for the sai shot while run jabbing with LP, if you see them try to jump out of the corner you can jump back and release HP hitting a sai shot knocking them back into the corner, and you can also try to juggle again before they hit the ground. Also look for chances to use the roll in the corner, don't just throw out a random ball because of the likelihood of it being blocked, but watch for an attempt to uppercut and buffering B,B while jabbing at times. | |||
Basic Juggles: | |||
1. punch starter, HP, HP, HK, HK, D-F LK, aaHP, drop kick 8 hits 37% | |||
2. punch starter, HP, HP, HK, HK, D-F LK, JK, sai 8 hits 40% | |||
3. roll, R, aaHP, roll, R, HK, 4 hits 24% | |||
Advanced Juggles: | |||
1. aa(HP,HP), roll, RH 4 hits 31% | |||
2. (from ground up directly infront of opponent or a cross up jump kick), JK, roll, aa(HP,HP), JK, sai shot, 6 hits 39% (leaving out the sai shot might make the combo easier and will result in about 5% less damage and this can be applied to all other combos ending in a sai shot) | |||
3. (off a flip towards Mileena punisher set up) aa(HP,HP), roll, aa(HP,HP), JK, sai shot 7 hits 41% | |||
4. aaHP, JK, roll, R, aaHP, HK 5 hits 42% | |||
5. aaHP, JK, roll, JK, sai, 5 hits 44% | |||
6. aaHP, JK, roll, R, aaHP,HP, JK, sai shot 7 hits 50% (doable on male ninjas, Kano, Jax, Stryker, Sub-zero, etc) | |||
7. (near corner) aaHP, RH, roll, R, aaHP,HP, JK, sai shot 7 hits 52% | |||
******************************* | |||
Nightwolf | |||
Nightwolf is ranked #5 in UMK3. He is devastatingly fast, has exceptional damage combos off a simple rush down with no set up required, his attacks are useful, have little recovery, or have no limit. Definitely a top tier character to say the least. His rush down is virtually unparallel in the game, and his mix ups are quite useful. He's a very easy to use character overall. He cannot autocombo starter on the female ninjas with either his punch or kick unless in the corner, and combos against them are not as easy, so that hurts him against them. His stomp also misses them quite often, so look for counter players using the female ninjas to exploit Nightwolf's collision box weaknesses because damage is the key with him and they are less susceptible. Nightwolf can run through sweeps if timed properly and begin his autocombo. Never do his 5 hit autocombo that ends in a HK. Rush down is extremely important. | |||
Basic Moves: | |||
Uppercut is solid, overall good priority and placement, HK has range, but not as much height as others, RH is average range, good for run unders, if you can time an air air roundhouse with him, you're better off countering with an aaAxe, aaAxe, aaHP, JK, or the likes for more damage and the same amount of effort on the initial counter hit. His sweep is virtually identical in range to the male ninjas, and has the same speed/start up/recovery, which is average. His LK hits a little lower than usual, and has a little less range. His run jabs also has just a little less range than others, his HPs are about average range, and also hit a little lower. His ducking LK has good range. JP has good cross up properties. The close range kick is a stomp that hits extremely low and is very useful, his close range punches hit very high and miss constantly so always rush down with stomps. | |||
The Axe Uppercut is a great and unique move, considered a containment move because you can always get at least one free hit after it. It is possible to combo multiple axes, usually in any combo if you do two axes with some kind of extra juggle hits you will result in almost 45-50% even without a starter. It is an amazing cross under tool, anytime someone cross up jump kicks you, you can do the axe the opposite way and it will hit them on their way down even if they are attack, it's almost fool proof and very hard to recounter it unless it is baited and even still it can hit, it's like Kabal's spin only not as much damage can be done after using it. Remember that if you do an axe uppercut in combo and it misses Nightwolf is vulnerable and characters can capitalize on this. During his blocked combo it is sometimes better to leave out the axe because he can even be beaten out of it in that situation. | |||
The Shoulder Tackle is your friend. It has very little recovery, but it is not invincible, it can be abused, but it can be scouted, it all depends on zoning. It hits ducking blocking characters except Stryker who is completely immune to it, and occasionally some characters can duck and block while it is coming and not get hit for chip like Kung Lao, and Sonya for example. It's good to finish juggle combos with as it does about the same amount of damage as a HK/JK and gets them into position to set up more tactics. Don't do the tackle from too far away because it's easily beaten by sweeps and try not to buffer it with obvious stepping. Sometimes it is useful to buffer it with running steps, so, hold run, tap forward, release run then forward again and tackle to get in close. The run in creates a defensive posture for the opponent and they will attempt to counter based on running velocity but when you change the run into a tackle you are coming in with a move instead of being totally vulnerable. If someone is ducking and blocking you can usually get two tackles out before they are comfortable to release block and try to just duck it and counter, so you should then skip the tackle and run in with his combo and get them sleeping. Make sure you mix this up a lot and don't fall into a pattern yourself or people will pick up on it. The tackle is also surpsiringly good for anti air especially in extremely close range, or even as an anti cross up, it will move backwards and somewhat appear to track the opponent. In the corner it is easily possible to get mulitple rams if you run jab and the opponent tries to jump out of the corner. Time a HP or LP jab to hit them in the air, then another HP, cancel to tackle, tackle for up to 4 hits 42%. This is a very special case scenario when they are in the corner but it's entirely possible. | |||
The Projectile Reflection move is pretty much what you see is what you get. You bounce projectiles back to your opponent. This move can get you in a lot of trouble, especially against Kabal. Players like to use it against the purple ball but a smart Kabal player will place the ball to scrape of Nightwolf's head and plow through him with a spin, severely punishing the overzealous Nightwolf user. It's best to use this move against characters who have a containment projectile like Sub-zero and Cyrax because this results in a free HK starter to autocombo, resulting in hideous damage of upwards to 60% and beyond. It will not reflect the harpoon or Stryker's Riot Gun for example. | |||
The Bow and Arrow is a tiny projectile with unreasonable vulnerability and recovery. If you connect a move before the arrow, it will start up extremely fast, making it a lot easier to combo with, and even still it does very little damage. In any situation where you can combo an arrow, you can combo something else that does more damage. The fast arrow is active any time your opponent is in non neutral recovery frames, so you can send it out after an uppercut when they land as they get up and sometimes they will jump right into it, or after a roundhouse early to keep them where they are on the defensive, as offense is Nightwolf's main game. If your opponent is jumping away you can sometimes keep them pinned temporarily at full screen with fast arrows off a just frames concept. This is a pretty much worthless tactic and the arrow should be used very little as there is only one major purpose for it and that's to knock opponents back down before they even get up, also a predictable tactic. It's a match winning move for when someone is at danger and can't even block it. | |||
Nightwolf has a corner infinite that works on Kabal, Sektor, Cyrax, Robot Smoke, Sheeva, and Kano. You can repeat his 3 hit kick combo over and over. The timing is incredibly easy, you can wait until they completely touch the ground and for whatever reason it still hits. It was designed to whiff but apparently these 6 characters have slightly larger collision detection when laying on the ground. Abuse this against corny Kabal players in the corner. If you can lead them there and get them into the corner, kara jab them and try to make them spin you while you are close to the corner, and then break out the infinite on them. | |||
You can also use this infinite concept these character midscreen after an autocombo as a sleeper or wake up detector. A lot of times people like to jump away, uppercut, or wakeup when you get in close and try to rush down, however, Nightwolf can combo after the axe uppercut combo with his stomp before they have the chance to do any of this on these characters. Even though this is blockable you might find many anxious players who will receive a double combo at least once. For example, HP starter, 5 hit combo, axe, axe, walk in, sleeper stomp 5 hit combo, axe, axe, HP, JK is 15 hits 76%, and that's a very easy combo for just ONE instance where the person chose to escape rather than block. On Kabal in the same situation it is considerably easy and beneficial to get an extra HP Axe in both combos resulting in 18 hits 90%. Again, this results just because they tried to do something like wake up spin you when they can't. This kind of damage will make a Kabal player extremely cautious, eleviating you from having to worry about being wake up spun so much, but still it is a good idea to look out for, as often times Kabal is chosen intentionally to counter Nightwolf. | |||
Basic Juggles: | |||
1. punch starter, HK, HP, HP, LP, D-F HP, Axe, JK or tackle 8 hits 51% | |||
2. aaAxe, aaAxe, JK 3 hits 24% | |||
Advanced Juggles | |||
1. on male ninjas: punch starter, HK, HP, HP, LP, D-F HP, step in, Axe,Axe, HK 9 hits 56% | |||
2. on Jax, Stryker, Kabal, Sub-zero: punch starter, HK, HP, HP, LP, D-F HP, Axe, aaHP, Axe, JK 10 hits 60% | |||
3. on all other characters your best bet is punch starter, HK, HP, HP, LP, D-F HP, Axe, jump kick 8 hits 51%, it's over 50%, so you only need it twice, if you get more than that one, you still need to get it again so it's a waste of effort. | |||
4. on some characters: punch starter, HK, HP, HP, LP, D-F HP, Axe, run, aaLP,HP, tackle HK 10 hits 56% | |||
5. punisher combo on Scorp, Smoke, Ermac, etc: aaHP,HP, JK, arrow 3 hits 38% | |||
6. super corner punisher starting if Nightwolf is about halfscreen from the wall, aaHP,HP, JK, aaHP, tackle, tackle 6 hits 64% | |||
*********************************** | |||
Reptile | |||
Reptile is a top tier character, generally ranked #6 but in the right hands he can be brought up a few notches with bigger juggle combos few players have mastered. Invisibility plays a big role in Reptile's tactics, use if as often as possible, but use it safely. Run jabs to pop up combos, sneaky close range slides, abuse of general male ninja basic properties are also a must. Zone like Hell with the forceballs, make sure you make your opponents make mistakes, it's very easy, just watch out against teleporters because Reptile has a harder time against them than Kabal. Remember his Elbow Dash can be used as a transit move, like a self terminating dash, it is twice as fast as run and advanced players know exactly when he will stop. | |||
Male Ninja Basics moves: | |||
The Male Ninjas have excellent basic moves, good height and range on everything in relation to their sprite proportions, their roundhouse is extra wicked and can connect in almost any situation. The only thing that can be weird about them is their aaHPs. Sometimes they tend to miss in situations where you wouldn't expect them to and this is due to kara canceling with run to speed the last hit up, in this situation, often you can do aaHP,LP and it'll work, with slightly less damage, otherwise, always take an extra small step in before doing aaHPs. | |||
The Forceball is a very unique and solid move. In UMK3 he now can do fast and slow forceballs which makes him a "force" to be reckoned with...You are going to want to abuse the Hell out of this move, mixing them up as much as possible. You can alternate fast the slow, or slow then fast instantly, but inbetween usages of the same type you have a slight lag time to wait, essentially the amount of time it takes for the slow ball to travel full screen. This can be overcome by timing the alternating forceballs well enough so that they come out in a steady, spamming stream. You can keep people locked down with them if they are too afraid to advance after each, or you can force them to jump. If you do a slow forceball and they attempt to jump forward over it, time it so you can take a step in and RH them into the forceball, setting up a potentially deadly juggle combo. If you do a fast forceball and they attempt to jump over it backwards, as in, they are on the opposite side of the screen, and jump backwards to clear it, you can do Reptile's Elbow Dash move so the whole screen moves with them, and they will land on the Forceball. A tactic similar to this can be used with Cyrax's net, by doing his air throw or running in after a net when they jump, they will land in it because the screen moves. You can mix them in with run jabs similar to sticking in Classic Sub's Ground Freeze, it'll catch them on a wake up occasionally. The only unobvious vulnerability the forceballs have is that they take many frames to actually get out of his hands and do damage and the desired effect, so you can actually push Reptile as he's doing them and the forceball, specifically the slow one, will just go behind you. Also remember that Jade can run through them, she is often a counter character to Reptile, and Nightwolf can reflect them. Against a Nightwolf counter player, try and make them use their reflection move and time a fast forceball to hit right as he loses the move's ability. In more specific situations, you can do a slow forceball against him, and as they do the reflection, jump kick or JP into a combo depending on distance, so he will land on it, setting up neat looking combo scenarios. The Forceball has a very strange limitation to it, technically you can use 4 forceballs in one combo, 2 of each, alone. The amount of hits before the forceballs are disabled is 3, it can be glitch canceled to 4 and this happens quite often when someone is hitting F, F and HPHP to juggle and cancel to forceballs on the second volley. It is a good idea to use "Fake Forceballs" in a similar way you might use stepping in some games. Tap back, or forward quickly, but in an exaggerated fashion so the person will expect you to do a forceball, when you don't, and they jump forward, set them up with an aaHP to forceball combo, or just an aaRH or uppercut works as well. It's a good psychological tactic and it is surprising how well it works even at high levels. | |||
The Acid Spit is a very high, low damage projectile with significant start up and recovery, at least in comparison to it's MKII counterpart. Use it against backwards jumpers, or mix it in with forceballs from full screen to keep players pinned down. | |||
The Slide is a semi useful move, as it can get you out of rub jabs and is a decent wake up move to catch people sleeping, sometimes you can even stick in a second one and people tend to not expect it. The only problems with Reptile's slide are it's slow, and has short range. Classic Sub-zero's slide is about 3 times faster with at least twice the distance. You can sometimes use it to get out of cross ups but it can get you into trouble. On Sonya, the Female Ninjas, and Kung Lao, the slide will often push them when they are blocking. It can cost you a match if you aren't carefully timing it to make sure it will hit and not be blockable, but if used in mid gameplay, if they stop blocking too soon, it will still hit them. | |||
Invisibility. It is what it says it is. Be invisible as much as possible and do it only if you are safe, like after an autocombo, RH or uppercut. Know where you are on the screen, so it is best to understand the distance you will land if you jump forward or back, throw out some kicks if you're not sure where you are and if they hit, you know how close you are. Air throws will not make Reptile reappear. | |||
The Elbow Dash is generally not to be used as an offensive move. On rare occassion you can catch people off guard with it, and many times if they block the first lap of it, you can attack them right as they recovery from the block stun and beat them to their next attack with a pop up combo and set up a deadly combo juggle. The most important aspect of this move is transit. You can use it at any time, as much as you like. It is a faster version of run essentially and he stops on a dime usually in very good places because he turns around right as he passes the opponent's axis. That coupled with running in right afterwards gets you right next to them, enabling rush down scenarios with rub jabs. You can use it to run under jumping attacks and avoid all kinds of situations and it's very useful to get out of cross ups. If someone goes to cross up jump kick or jump punch you, try and scout it and buffer Reptile's Elbow Dash backwards, this way you will run under their attack starting from a ducking position, and wind up behind them. If you connect an anti air roundhouse, use the dash move to get right on top of them before they even hit the ground. It is the same concept as anti cross up spinning with Kabal, but much less rewarding. If you can keep up a good Dashing game, especially while invisibile. Another integral part of Reptile's Dash, is to use it in juggle combos. It seems very intentional that they gave him a limit of three hits before his forceball is disabled, and a 3 hit pop up combo, extra recovery on his pop up, with the fast forceball being just fast enough to hit any opponent unblockably if done on a just frames concept after said pop up, which flips them to the perfect height to do anti air HPs, and then this move makes Reptile run back and forth under the falling opponent, lining up perfectly to get more each time, just out of sync enough to not be an infinite. A truly remarkable set of coincidences. Learn this, it's what makes Reptile dangerous, without it, he belongs in the lower end of the top tier. The Elbow Dash also does a tiny bit of damage for some reason during certain situations when you move across the opponent, so if they are on absolute danger, an elbow dash will win it for free. | |||
Reptile cannot relaunch combo anyone even though he has a pop up. It is too slow on recovery so he cannot jump as they are moving upwards. | |||
Basic Juggles: | |||
1. jump punch starter, HP, HP, D+LP, HK JK or Uppercut depending on opponent 6 hits 34, 35 and 38% | |||
2. HP, HP, D+LP, Fast Forceball, Uppercut 5 hits 34% | |||
3. Slow forceball, aaHPHP, fast forceball, uppercut 5 hits 33% | |||
Corner and juggles: | |||
1. Slow Forceball, aaHPHP, fast Forceball, aaHPHP, JK, RH, LK 9 hits 50% | |||
2. HP, HP, D+LP, Fast Forceball, aaHPHP, JK, RH, LK 9 hits 51% | |||
3. aaHPHP, Fast Forceball, aaHPHP, JK, RH, LK 8 hits 52% | |||
4. RH onto Slow Forceball, aaHP, Fast Forceball, uppercut 5 hits 47% | |||
5. aaHP, JK, aaHP, fast Forceball, aaHPHP, JK, RH, LK 9 hits 68% | |||
Maximum, or most reccommended Dashing HP Juggles on all characters via his 3 hit pop up to Forceball: | |||
1. Vs Shang Tsung - aaHPHP, aaLPLP, Uppercut 9 hits 45% | |||
2. Vs Female Ninjas - (aaHPHP, dash)x3, aaLPHP, dash, Uppercut 13 hits 3. 57% | |||
4. Vs Sheeva - (aaHPHP, dadh)x4, Uppercut - 13 hits, 58% | |||
5. Vs Sonya, Stryker, Sindel, Unmasked Sub-zero, Kung Lao, Nightwolf and Kano - (aaHPHP, dash)x4, aaLPHP, Uppercut 15 hits 63% | |||
6. Vs Male Ninjas - (aaHPHP, Dash)x4, aaLPHP, dash, D+LP, Uppercut - 16 hits 65% | |||
7. Vs Robots - (aaHPHP, dash)x5, aaLPLP, dash, Uppercut - 17 hits, 69% | |||
8. Vs Kabal and Liu Kang - (aaHPHP, dash)x5, aaLPHP, dash, Uppercut 17 hits 69% | |||
9. Vs Jax - (aaHPHP, dash)x6, aaLPHP, Uppercut 19 hits 75% | |||
Side note for Jax, you can do Reptile's pop up, Forceball, get as close as possible and do a single HP, then start aaHPHP dashing for a Triple aaHP to start the combo. It also should be noted on some characters if you get his pop up combo, you can set them up afterwards for a Triple aaHP when you touch the wall with Reptile, allowing for extra juggles, adding upwards to 20%. | |||
Punisher Set Ups for dashing punches: | |||
1. Vs Kano Cannonball - aaHP, forceball, aaHP, forceball, (aaHPHP, dash)x3, aaLPHP, Uppercut 13 hits 60% | |||
2. Vs Mileena's Roll or Teleport Kick - aaHPHP, dash, aaLP, forceball, (aaHPHP, dash)x3, aaLPHP, Uppercut 13 hits 63% | |||
3. 3. Vs Ninja Teleport Punch - aaHPHP, move F, aaHP, forceball, (aaHPHP, dash)x4, aaLPHP, D+LP, Uppercut 16 hits 72% | |||
4. Vs Robot Teleport Uppercut - aaHP, forceball, aaHP, forceball, (aaHPHP, dash) x5, aaLPLP, dash, Uppercut 17 hits 71% | |||
5. Vs Stryker Baton Dash - (aaHPHP, dash)x3, aaLPHP, dash, Uppercut 9 hits 72% | |||
6. Vs Kung Lao Dash Kick - aaHP, forceball, aaHP, forceball, (aaHPHP, dash)x5, aaLPHP, Uppercut 17 hits, 72% | |||
7. Vs Liu Kang Bike Kick - aaHPHP, forceball, (aaHPHP, dash)x6, aaLPHP, Uppercut 18 hits 76% | |||
Other set ups for dashing punches: | |||
1. slow forceball, aaRH onto forceball, aaHP, fast forceball into the most dashing punches you can get on whatever character it is, should generally result around 65% | |||
2. slow forceball, aaHPHP, fast forceball, into dashing punches | |||
*********************************** | |||
Robot Smoke | |||
Robot Smoke is ranked 7th in UMK3. Your main game is going to be run jabs, watch for cross up jumps and nab air throws, anti air HPs to teleport uppercut combos, wake up spears are good sometimes, but most of all, GO INVISIBLE! The Robot Ninjas have some juggle advantages and vulnerabilities in terms of taking hits, watch for them. They can be relaunched by just about anyone with a launcher combo, easier than most, and they are harder to juggle in certain situations, particularly for Ermac and Human Smoke. Kung Lao can spin them and I believe Nightwolf after his autocombo in the corner when it is performed on the "just frame" so not only will you take the 34% or more from the auto combo but you're stuck in the corner infinite. Anyone who can get a ducking LK after their autocombo in the corner on anybody can get a standing HK after their combo on them, for example: Liu Kang, HP starter, 7 hit combo is 38% + standing damage protected HK is 46%. | |||
Robot Ninja Basic Moves: | |||
Standing HK is topps, uppercuts are somewhat bad in the sense they tend to miss in crucial situations similarly to Kung Lao's, for instance you have to take a step in if you want to counter a punishable move sometimes to hit an uppercut. The robot Ninja roundhouse is late on the hit and has some funky corner issues, good range, low height, better on far away jump ins, but if you can time an aaRH you might as well try and aaHP to teleport uppercut. LPs are really good for double run jabbing mid screen, they keep in tight on the opponent because you have to be closer to connect them. Sweeps have good range and recovery is the same as female ninjas. JK is good, jump punch is kinda tight and ball like, and is easily counterable. Ducking LK is quick and pointy, excellent to get out of runjabs or prevent them. Straight up JK is a great set up to cancel quickly with a teleport uppercut, just make sure it connects, and you have minimum 59% and a free invisibilty. | |||
The Harpoon is an essential move as it is a very quick containment and relatively safe to do from full screen depending on the who the opponent it. It's great on wake ups as it seems to have a hit box infront of him before it even comes out, so you will see the Harpoon simply appear beyond the opponent and already snag them without warning. You can try doing a three hit combo and then throw out a harpoon afterwards for mix ups on jumpy players. It can be linked in juggle combos with a normal limit of 4 hits before it, and can be broken to 5. It can counter many simple standing attacks for free, if you block them much like Sonya's leg grab (see air hyper viper beam techniques in MvC2 lol). You can also link it in the corner off his autocombo, using a just frames concept. Try: Jump in HP, HK, HK, LP, buffer the harpoon as the LP hits, nab them, then 5 hit combo, ducking LK, for 11 hits 45%. | |||
The Teleport Uppercut is a bit overrated on it's on, and definitely overabused by casual players, getting them into a lot of trouble. It has so many cons I will get in depth with. You should really only use this move if you link it off an anti air attack, or to punish full screen projectile turtles, in essence, any situation where you know it's going to hit and not be blockable. If you feel the need to do this move, you can use it almost like a dragon punch would be used in Street Fighter if you suspect an early jump attack by doing it as they jump and before they land, however, in any situation where you can get that, you're better off going for the aaHP first to add 6.5% there, and then you will knock them high enough to easily get another 6.5% from a second aaHP or even a third after it, or depending on the character, possibly even a JK before the harpoon. It has a strange punishment area, and sets up smaller, modified versions of normal punishers, but punishable nonetheless. If you can scout a cross up JK or JP, you can buffer the FF motion and get them in the middle of their cross up. If you're too late, it's blockable, so you might be better off going for an air throw and deal with the lower damage potential, if they don't attack, it usually misses. If it's going to connect off a juggle, it always hits from the left side, so if you counter an attack on the right and cancel it to the teleport uppercut, it hits the opponent as they are falling into it, sometimes making extra juggle hits after it easier, otherwise it will almost always come up behind opponents. You can use it to bait attack an air attack by jumping in and attacking early, and do it right as you would normally expect to take a standing HK, but teleport out of it's range, it's possible to still block it however, so you might want to try baiting within the range of an uppercut counter situation, because the uppercut will hold until the uppercut connects. It's limit is 1 hit before hand, and breakable to two on just frames, but is hardly worth the effort. Be careful with overuse, it can be easily snuffed before leaving the screen by many moves like a LK, ducking LK, harpoon, freeze, sweep, uppercut if it's used as a fake out from the air, etc. Even after it leaves the screen on the way back up it can be snuffed with a ducking LK or a well timed uppercut, by specific characters only I believe, like Stryker. You can time a ducking LK to miss and avoid being hit by it completely and counter it as well. This is a nasty trick to use against a Robot Smoke player who goes for it as a last hit of chip damage kill, to beat them specifically. | |||
Invisibility is great. It's kind of self explanitory, you're invisible, you're | |||
opponent cannot see you, it makes it harder to attack you and a lot of times it will make the other person do risky attacks merely to get you to appear Know where you are on screen, know how to set up certain attacks, know when it's safe to use. The recovery time isn't much, but regardless, it's pointless to try it if you're going to get hit immediately. You can do it anytime you connect a spear between that and the combo, after a roundhouse, or an uppercut. It's good to do after uppercuts because many times people will see it happen and immediately go to hit you with a jumping attack, and this sets up big damage. Be invisible as often as possible. His air throw has the biggest range of all the air throws in the game. It can stop an asteroid. Use it on cross attempts, it's not quite as useful in sweep situations as Jax or Kano's, but the extra large radius helps him a lot. It is nearly impossible to beat out an air throw happy Smoke player in the air. It's good to link in combos because it does a lot of damage, about twice that of Kano's, aaHP, JK air throw does a little more damage than aaHP, harpoon, 5 hit combo, so in situations where the aaHP, JK, air throw is possible, go for that instead, it also sets up more tactical situations in your favor, and the air throw has a certain level of psychological advantage to it. | |||
Basic Juggles: | |||
1. JK, teleport uppercut, aaHP, spear, HP, HP, LK, HK, LP 9 hits 37% | |||
2. teleport uppercut, aaHP, spear, HP, HP, LK, HK, LP 8 hits 47% | |||
Advanced Juggles | |||
1. aaHP, teleport uppercut, aaHP, spear, HP, HP, LK, HK, LP 9 hits 54% (59% with Straight Up JK, 63% with a JK) | |||
2. aaHP, teleport uppercut, aaHP, JK, air throw 5 hits 58% (63% with SUJK, 67% with a JK to start) | |||
3. aaHP, teleport uppercut, aaJK, spear, HP, HP, LK, HK, LP 9 hits 63% (68% with SUJK, 72% with JKto start) | |||
4. aaHP, teleport uppercut, aaHP,HP, spear, HP, HP, LK, HK, LP 10 hits 60% (65% with SUJK, 69% with JK to start) | |||
5. (in corner) PS, HK, HK, LP, spear, HP, HP, LK, HK, LP, D+LK 11 hits 45%(the spear is incredibly risky) | |||
6. (in the corner) aaHP, teleport uppercut, JK, aaHP, spear, HP, HP, LK, HK, LP, D+LK 11 hits 71% (76% with SUJK, or 80% with a JK to start it) | |||
************************************* | |||
Shang Tsung | |||
Shang Tsung is a low tier character, near the bottom, perhaps in the 20s, but the fact that he has an infinite at his disposal and large easy morph combos off a single ground eruption, with some effort means he cannot be last even though basically he is less capable than most. Shang's lock down, keep away, and zoning pressure can be absolutely insane if you commit to a gameplan with him. Your strategy is going to be constant double fireball to ground eruption traps and set ups. His ground combos are limited, no pop ups, significant recovery time on his comboed roundhouse, etc. Remember, if you are Shang Tsung, you are also, at limited durations, Kabal, Kung Lao, Kano, Ermac, etc. If you mix these characters up with others like Reptile and Kitana who have completely different strategical defense, you'll have your opponents guessing, and adapting constantly. It is theoretically possible to beat people without morphs just using his lock down and basic moves, because the important ones are good. His collision boxes are the most awkward and unique in the game. Many juggle combos simply do not work on him, so take notice that people will have to significantly modify combos on him, generally doing a lot less to him. This is an advantage against some characters. Also, he has a hard time ducking certain projectiles if you're a hair late, watch out for this. | |||
Basic Moves: | |||
Shang's basics are kinda mixed. He definitely has a sluggishness about him in general, but that's really only his ground combos. They have significant pauses in them that result in breaks constantly. However, his uppercut, standing HK, and RH are ideal anti air attacks, and your choice is up to you or the situation. His uppercut's range and height is excellent, however during his duck and rising frames he tends to get stuck, so aaUppercuts need to be anticipated a little sooner, or you have to wait just slightly to allow their jump attack hit duration to pass. Kano and Nightwolf will often times snuff his uppercut so it's better to go for the standing HK which is high and pointy, his RH is also high with good range. Sweep range is a little less than to be expected. Stand LK is good, his ducking LK is also good. A lot of his basic moves are similar to that of the Male Ninjas. His run jab game is decent, sometimes you can try and stick in a single fireball after a few run jabs. His JK is very good, his JP is ok. His straight up JK is pretty nice. | |||
The Flaming Skulls (fireballs in the general gaming world) have existed since MK1, but in MK3 they were changed significantly. They were originally small and fast moving, now they are slower, and longer. You may notice certain fireball amounts are better for different set ups and combo opportunities. Double fireballs are a good bet, Shang seems to recover quickly after them compared to the height they usually bounce off the last one. If you do 3, the 3rd might not hit them right and Shang winds up unable to capitalize, so stick to usage of 1 or 2. Fireballs have no limit of usage, and no pre set hit limit when they turn off, you can stagger their usage by placing two hits inbetween them, much like Stryker's riot gun. For example: in corner, aaHP,HP, double fireball, JK, aaLP, double fireball. This is not a conventional in game combo, but it demonstrates the moves limits. Try to stick in single fireballs anywhere it's safe if you're not going for morph game, the situations are similar, like after a roundhouse, or throw. | |||
The Ground Eruption (GE) is a very interesting move, similar to his fireballs, but sets up free juggles if they connect. Mix up cross patterns of single or double fireballs and GEs in effort to lock your opponent down, watch for their move, pin them down, keep them guessing, keep it constant, don't let up, and ultimately set up GE combos. Another great thing about the GE is that it's a free morph opportunity as well, and you can set up great juggle combos off them easily, but pulling them off is up to your own abilities. The GE has absolutely no limitations whatsoever and can be continually used over and over with no break inbetween, setting up difficult, but doable infinites. Remember in order to really benefit from the juggles, the GE has to hit the characters well placed. If you do one from full screen as Jax is about to do his missile, chances are the third will GE will miss so you will need to watch for this and compensate combos. Against non teleport characters sometimes it's a good idea to do two GE's in a row, because they will often times run through the first two and get hit by the third, as they go up on the third, RH them into the following GE. Most characters will get juggled by all three GE's from a full screen distance, Robots, Female Ninjas, Shang, Sheeva, Kabal, Sindel, Sonya, Kung Lao, Liu Kang, some (Stryker and Male ninjas) will only get hit by one, the rest get hit by 2, so set combos up accordingly. In order to get the full juggle you have adjust the distance slightly, but generally there is not enough time to do this so you need to pay attention to where they get hit. This really only applies to grounded opponents. | |||
Morphs are probably his best tool overall because of versatility and strategy changing at your command. If you know how to use a lot of characters, you might like playing as Shang just for the challenge of being him at certain times. Morphs last approximately 16 clock seconds in 1 on 1 gameplay and have no limit of usage. Keep your characters varied, look for free morph situations. Generally after a RH, or especially an anti air RH, a morph is free, so have an idea of who you would like to use in those situations. Uppercuts have a reasonable amount of morph safety, as do juggle Fireballs, and the GE is obviously the safest. It is possible to use morphs to cancel corner push back and possibly continue combos, but you have to make sure you are paying attention to morph times. | |||
Shang has a few variations of the same infinite using his GE. The easiest way is to start with one hitting all 3 fireballs, then run Shang to the middle and do another, as the character hits the last fireball which goes up just behind Shang, he will be hit into the second fireball from the second ground eruption, getting knocked back over in front of Shang. Repeat this as much as you like til you get to a wall. It's also possible to knock them the other way into fireballs coming up from behind in a similar manner, but doing the GE a bit late. Another way to do it, is if the person jumps onto the first GE, run almost to the other side of the screen and GE as they are landing. You have to make sure the last hit knocks them behind you, so walk into the middle, let it hit them over, then run and buffer the next GE to hit as they fall. | |||
Basic Juggles: | |||
1. aaHP,HP, double fireball 4 hits 28% (sets up GE lock down or if they jump as soon as they land they will get hit and it sets up juggles, morphs, and infinite combos) | |||
2. GE, aaHP,HP, double fireball 7 hits 43% | |||
3. (near corner) aaHPHP, double fireball, uppercut 5 hits 50% | |||
Advanced Juggles: | |||
1. aaDouble Fireball, GE, aaHP,HP, aaHP, double fireball, 10 hits 65% | |||
2. (near corner) aaHPHP, double fireball, JK, HK, 6 hits, 59% | |||
Morph and GE related Combos of various degrees of difficulty: | |||
1. aaDouble Fireball, [Ermac], teleport punch, aaHP, Lift, aaHPHP, aaHP, fireball 8 hits about 47% | |||
2. aaLP,(BL,HK for Kabal morph) spin, aaHP,HP, JK, air fireball (JK on some) (and now you are safe as Kabal to terrorize for about 12 clock seconds) 6 hits 47%-48% | |||
3. GE, [Kabal] aaHPHP, JK, air fireball 7 hits 57% | |||
4. GE, [Jax] aaHPHP, JK, air throw, 7 hits 59% | |||
5. GE, [Nightwolf] Axe X4, aaHP, Axe, aaHP, Shoulder Tackle 11 hits 60%(varies on the characters, for example against Kabal, Sub Stryker or Jax, the full combo isn't that difficult, but against Shang it would be impossible) | |||
6. GE(2 hit), [Sindel] scream, aaHP, scream, aaHP, scream, HK, HP, HP, D+HP, aaHPHP, JK, air fireball 12 hits 69% | |||
7. GE, [Ermac] JK, Lift, aaHPHP, aaHP, fireball (JK on some) 8 hits 67-71% | |||
8. GE, [Liu Kang] aaHPHP, JK, Air Fireball, Dragon Kick 8 hits 70% | |||
9. GE, [Reptile] - as many aaHPHP whiff elbow dashes, as possible on whatever character you're against, for example, GE, [Reptile] aaHPHP, whiff dash X3, uppercut, 10 hits 75% | |||
10. GE(2 hit), [Ermac] aaHP, JK, lift, aaHPHP, aaHP fireball or JK 8 hits 68-73% | |||
11. GE, [Kung Lao] into various spin, or aaHP, JK, whiff dive kick infinite combos | |||
12. [when aware of being Sub for a while] aaHP, freeze, or aaFreeze, aaHP, freeze (kill whatever time is necessary) [Shang][Kung Lao] to infinite variations or Ermac and anyone of his various ridiculous combos. | |||
************************************ | |||
Sheeva | |||
Sheeva is a low tier character, hovering around the final shuffle of rank in the 20's of 23 playable characters in UMK3. This is more of a what not to do with Sheeva, than a "here's all the sectret tactics to win with Sheeva" guide. She has only 3 special moves, none of which have anything about them which is all that swift. She has no containment unless you count her throw as one since it allows free moves afterwards and is similar to Cyrax's yet unique in it's own way, then once again relimited by her as a character. She has a huge damage mid screen 42% autocombo, which is 51% with a JP starter, and that is one of her most useful assets. Her collision boxes are also a bit strange because she is bigger than the rest of the cast but she becomes more compact when in air. She is vulnerable to a lot of situations because of her collision area, like attacks that would normally miss. She gets stuck in her ducking frames while blocking if you are hit, which can be helpful so you can buffer certain tactics. If you continue to hold down while blocking she will stand up repeatedly while being run jabbed. | |||
What you are going to try and do with her in terms of rush down is go for her 4 hit kick combo which catches people sleeping quite often, and look for other wake up opportunities with her special moves. Remember her throw allows a free standing HK afterwards, and in the corner some decent juggles are possible. Her normal juggling capability is extremely limited, perhaps the most limited in the game in terms of damage. The best midscreen punisher you can get with her on a Ninja Teleport Punch is aaHP,HP, aaHP, fireball, which is 4 hits 35% and that even requires you to run in a step before hand. She gets hammered on cross ups, so your best bet is to stay out of them. She is highly succeptable to relaunch combos, but she can often block them in situations when they would normally connect. The only combo you should go for off a JP or JK starter is her 7 hit combo for over 50%, but if you feel you must throw some spice into her game I will list a few alternate combos at the bottom. Something you can do with her launcher is do the pop up, then aaHPHP, cross up jump and as they land and attempt some rush down. What she boils down to is playing very basic, and very safe, watch for the smallest possible chances to take advantage of. If you practice with Sheeva, most of the other characters will seem a lot easier to use afterwards possibly make you a better player. Take note that Sheeva has quick recovery time when receiving attacks, you can immediately follow up and attack someone, as if she gets a head start. She can be hit but low projectiles, Jade's Dash kick, etc, while ducking very easily. | |||
Basic Moves: | |||
All of Sheeva's basic moves have reasonable range, but her surface area allows her to be hit by attacks in certain cases rather easily, defeating the purpose of her being tall, and lankier than most characters. Her standing HK is ideal anti air, and her RH is only good when a character is jumping from about half screen distance. Her RH also has considerable lag to it, like Sub-zero's. Her HPs hit normal hit, LPs hit a bit high. Her sweep is a bit short on range. Her jumping attacks are average, but again her large target makes her easily counterable. Her ducking LK is very quick, pointy, and has range, so use it to get out of run jabs. Her uppercut is pretty nice and meaty but watch for late JPs, she will get snuff everytime when going to counter with it. | |||
Her Fireball does decent damage for a standard projectile, and is a bit higher than normal, so you can try to use it to hit opponents at slightly different placement in the air, meaning you can do it sooner on a jump away and catch them before they land. You can add the fireball to juggle combos easily, and it's recovery time isn't as bad as some. | |||
The Teleport Stomp is a tricky move to understand in terms of using it. Many people abuse it and you can avoid it simply by walking backwards, then punish Sheeva with a combo. Your best bet with this move is to use it when someone is locked in place by a move, like a standing HK rush down, teleport just before they do it, and you will connect the stomp. You also might want to try and use it to get out of the way of run jab rush down, if she is hit on the way up she can be juggled though (however limited generally) but she leaves the screen very quickly, and often times the upward movement makes the person react with a standing HK that will miss. If someone jumps away and is going to land at full screen distance, do her teleport stomp and it is almost impossible to miss it. If in the corner and run jabbing it is possible to throw in a teleport stomp. It's avoidable but try and time to counter a counter. | |||
The Ground Stomp is a nearly useless move, as there is no way to hit it on someone as long as they hold up+back or forward except off an aaRH, which it can combo as 2 hits, but you have to be extremely on the ball with it. If you counter someone with an aaHPHP and stomp just as the right time, it will hit them on the way down, but it is again easily escable. If they only hold up, there is a chance it will connect, and chances are they didn't know they can't do that and will learn. Use this move has a wake up on occasion mixed up with teleport stomps, but you can't abuse either move at all in any way against someone with the least bit of skill and knowledge. You can try to mix this up with run jabs but it can get you into trouble. The only thing it will do is make the other person jump and there is a good change they will jump towards you and cross up with a jump punch starter. If you are successful with a stomp while run jabbing, stick in a HK as the might jump away the next time instead. After a regular RH, or moreso and aaRH, stick in the stomp as a wake up. If they jump forward Sheeva has a chance to counter, otherwise she's reasonably safe except against teleporters, who probably won't be jumping at you that much. | |||
Sheeva has a launcher combo, however it takes an odd arch and therefore she cannot relaunch anyone. | |||
Basic Juggles: | |||
1. Throw, HK, 2 hits 28% | |||
2. aaHPHP, JK or fireball 3 hits 28% | |||
3. aaHPHP, RH 3 hits 30% | |||
4. punch starter, HP, HP, LP, F+HP, aaHP, JK or fireball 7 hits 46% | |||
5. (in corner) punch starter, HP, HP, LP, F+HP, JK, aaHP, fireball 8 hits 54% | |||
Advanced Juggles: | |||
1. (for punishers) run step, aaHPHP, aaHP, JK or fireball 4 hits 35% | |||
2. punch starter, HP, HP, LP, F+HP, aaHPHP, JK 8 hits 49% | |||
3. (in corner) punch starter, HP, HP, LP, F+HP, aaHP, JK, JK, HK 9 hits 61% (you can add another aaHP for 10 hits 64% in the middle depending how far you are from the corner and what character it is against, and this makes the rest of the combo easier due to extra height to play around with, regardless a difficult show combo for a worthless character) | |||
Corner Throw Juggles: | |||
1. Throw, ducking LP, uppercut, 3 hits 33% | |||
2. Throw, ducking LP, aaHP, fireball 4 hits 33% | |||
3. Throw, ducking LP, JK, aaHK 4 hits 37% | |||
4. Throw, ducking LP, RH, HK 4 hits 38% (on Robots and Sheeva) | |||
5. Throw, ducking LP, JK, aaLP, fireball, 5 hits 40% | |||
*********************************** | |||
Sindel (updated 11-10-05) | |||
Sindel is ranked #9. She has easy, powerful combos, a small hittable area, an air special attack, a containment move that acts as decent anti air, and some other unique properties that I will get into later as well, but her normals are kind of lacking, generally in range. Overall what you're going to look for with her is setting up situations to abuse the Scream, jump away air fireballs can work to an extent depending on whether your opponent has a teleport or not, and some run jab game is good as well because you can get 43% (or more) on any character from a standard knee to launcher combo. Very few characters can relaunch her. The only combo you should ever go for during rush down is her HK, HP, HP D+HP combo. | |||
Basic moves: | |||
Her uppercut is good to counter attacks that are very much directly over her head, but it otherwise has a very narrow range to it, causing a lot of undesirable situations when you think an uppercut might be guaranteed. Particularly when they land in close range, it often times misses. Her roundhouse has reasonable height, but short on range. This makes anti air roundhouses nearly useless with her against most characters, but you can use it for a run under anti air roundhouse quite easily since it hits so close to her. If you are in a situation where you might want to use an anti air roundhouse, go with an anti air HP instead because you can link a scream, or 3 or 4, off it. Her HPs have slightly less range than some, her LPs are normal. Her HK is good anti air, as are most in MK because of the distance a character's collision box is from the hit box of the kick. Her standing LK hits about normal height, even though she's smaller than most characters. Her sweep has nice range, deceptively more than most characters, even though it may be by pixels, but so is everything else in this game. Her ducking LK is about average in terms of speed and pointiness, but she may still be open to some characters' knee combos after doing one if the second isn't timed right. Her JK is nice, but her JP is a bit close to her hittable area, she has a reasonably good cross up game with them. | |||
The Scream is a vital part of her defense. It has some recovery time to it if it's blocked so don't throw them out too often or you'll be punished. It's an excellent anti air move and you can link many aaHPs off it if you sequence them right. Abuse it in all punisher combos. The rules for the scream are kind of strange because you can easily break it's rules based on it's own programming flaws. The standard amount of hits you can do before it without glitching it is 2, and it has no discernable time limit between uses. So that means, for example, aaHPHP scream should be the most you can do before it at once because if you do aaHP,HP,HP you cannot do a scream. If you do a single aaHP followed by a scream, the scream removes the hit from the combo counter, but still adds the damage for some reason. This means you can do as many single punch to scream repetitions as you can throw out before they are too close to the ground to juggle. If you do two aaHPs, followed by a scream, it will count and store these two hits and their collective damage as part of the full combo, but you can still do a single aaHP after these two and scream because it doesn't add another hit until two are done consecutively. The counter at this point still recognizes 2 comboed aaHPs, but the damage of 3. You can then do another single aaHP scream, or, 2 aaHPs and then the scream is disabled for the rest of your combo. By doing a single aaHP, canceling to scream when starting a punisher combo, you can easily allow yourself to following it up with 2 aaHPs after, knocking them a lot higher, and easily enabling a 4th aaHP followed by yet another scream. Remember to try and cancel the HP as soon as it hits without double scream backfiring, or canceling too late and having the scream miss, or have them land too low to abuse it more. The occurance of unorthodox hit counting is not limited to just aaHP or LP attacks, but they are the only conventional means for comboing a scream. In essence, for a standard punisher combo, anyone should be able to get aaHP, scream, aaHPHP, scream, aaHP, scream, to auto combo/juggle. An interesting note on the scream in terms of countering is that you can run into it and block it and get a full combo afterward. If you see someone do a scream you have a couple seconds to think of the best way to punisher her for it. Generally what you can do is teleport behind her and take advantage that way, but most of the time people just do a free projectile. Try running into her scream and blocking it right at the edge because it has a moving hit box, now you have a very short time to run in again and combo her. | |||
The Firebreath is kind of slow when used normally, but after a grounded jump kick it comes out SUPER fast like Nightwolf's Arrow for example. It is not recommended to use for zoning, even though I see people try it all the time. She has a great deal of recovery and an opponent can easily see it start up, jump over it and counter her. It is pretty much only good to use if someone is jumping away and connecting it will win you the match. Using it combos is kind of pointless because as well because it would only serve to terminate what could be a better combo, and leaving her slightly vulnerable afterward, at least putting her on the defensive which is not where you want to be. A corner Scream tactic you can try that ties in with run jabs: If you go to run jab and someone while they are in the corner and they try to jump to get out of it, watch for this because you'll LP them and juggle them, after this LP, stick in a quick aaHP with the intent of canceling it to the scream, you can then easily run in and get another aaHP scream, while that scream holds them, walk backwards as they descend to allow enough room to get her pop up combo to corner juggle, resulting in possibly over 65%. | |||
The Air Firebreath is a very useful, but also very dangerous move. Many players can easily scout when you are going to jump straight up, or jump in and fake out for an air fireball. Don't fall into this pattern because they will run under uppercut you everytime. Use it for zoning and keep away, but don't use it that much (try not to at all) against teleporting characters because it's just too easy to counter. You can use it to allow her to hover over projectiles like Sub's freeze but you have to time it right or she'll come out of the fire frames and drop just enough to touch. If you do a naked JK, sometimes you should cancel to a fireball if the JK is blocked because they will try to counter you and then get hit by it. Use it to terminate juggle combos after a JK to add a bit of extra damage, as this is standard. Anytime you anticipate a double JK scenario, try and cancel the JK as soon as it connects as if you were Kung Lao canceling to a dive kick collision situation. It is sometimes better in general usage to wait until Sindel is close to the ground before firing it to reduce her falling recovery time and also bait your opponent into running in early, expecting the air fireball at maximum height. For example, using it against Kabal, do an early jump kick, make them try and spin you, and cancel the JK with a fireball, beating Kabal's spin. | |||
Flight is a unique move to UMK3/MKT. It is subsequently useless in nearly all tactical situations except as a taunt. The flight , if intended to actually get her in air to fly around and do air fireballs has so much start up before you can move, and so much vulnerability when you get there still, it really is pointless to even try in a match. What you can do with it is, perform the motion, then instantly cancel it with block before she even leaves the ground. It makes a woosh sound and she sort of dances in place, and has a profound psychological effect on the other player. She can also instantly block pretty much any attack and it makes your opponent rush in so there is no risk at doing this, and sets them up for a decent possible counter if they do rush in blindly. You can perform multiple flight cancels in a row by doing B, B, F, HK/BL/HK/BL/HK/BL. Don't do this too much because that means you're not attacking and attacking is the goal here. Another use for the flight is to extend corner combos by linking aaHPs off it and stopping the push back or "ice skate" in the corner. This is an extremely difficult skill to perform with her, and adds only a few percent to a corner combo if you do it once, and it has to be done perfectly to do it over and over. It is not advised. | |||
Sindel has one real infinite, made famous by DreemerNJ, which is the previously mentioned and notorious "Flight Cancel" infinite. It is performed by doing an aaHP, or LP, canceling with her flight move the instant it hits, and then doing another aaHP or LP. It is incredibly difficult. Test it out and you will realize even 2 volleys of this infinite can be annoying to get at times, 3 is pretty much the limit as far as I've heard anyone get except DreemerNJ. | |||
Sindel can relaunch infinite Sheeva, Kung Lao, unmasked Sub-zero, Jax, Nightwolf, Kabal, Cyrax, Sektor, and Robot Smoke. Her relaunch sometimes requires crazy timing. You have to pause very slightly before jumping after the launcher and wait until the very last instant before they hit the ground to relaunch them, often times it will look like it's going to miss, but it will connect. It's easier to mash out her 3 hit pop up right after, but it's also possible, and stylish, to stick in her HK before the second launcher combo. | |||
Basic juggles: | |||
1. punch starter, HK, HP, HP, D+HP, JK, air fireball 7 hits 50% | |||
2. aaHPHP, scream, HK, HP, HP, D+HP, JK, air fireball 8 hits 54% | |||
Advanced Juggles: | |||
1. punch starter, HK, HP, HP, D+HP, aaHP, JK, air fireball, 8 hits 53% (you can substitute aaHP,HP on Jax, Stryker, Sub-zero, Kano, Nightwolf, the Robots, etc for 9 hits 56%, with reasonable reliability, and most characters whom it is sometimes difficult to get two aaHPs, you can easily get two aaLPs, for 55%) | |||
2. (for a standard mid screen punisher combo) aaHP, scream, aaHP,HP, scream, aaHP, scream, HK, HP, HP, D+HP, aaHPHP, JK, air fireball 11 hits 73%. | |||
In the corner you can get multiple scream and HP combinations resulting in very close to 100% damage, and it is very much worth learning. You can try her flight cancel infinite but it is not recommended. | |||
Super advanced corner combo: | |||
1. HK, HP, HP, D+HP, JK, aaHP, flight cancel, aaHP, flight cancel, JK, air fireball 9 hits 54% (doing a little more than ending her popup in JK, RH, run in HK, which is difficult to line up because of weak RH properties.) | |||
************************************ | |||
Sonya (Updated 11-19-05) | |||
Sonya is a mid tier character in UMK3, ranked around number 12. She is very fast, a great sweeper, has a lot of options and ways to play her. You can rush down or turtle with her, but rush down is your best bet. Another thing you're going to want to look for is guranteed openings for the leg grab which is essentially a free uppercut that allows you to get right on top of your opponent afterwards. Her combos are pretty simple and powerful, and she's a little harder to max out juggles on then most characters but not the level of Shang Tsung or Sheeva where you really have to overcompensate for them. Her ducking LK is golden, and will be explained in depth later. Rush down with run jabs, into her 5 hit pop up, throw in some knee jabs here and there, and remember to abuse her speed and leg grab. | |||
Basic Moves: | |||
There are some awkward properties here and there on her moves. For one her uppercut hits strangely and deceptively, and it has an extra recovery frame, it looks like the made hers stop one frame too early, but I suppose that makes it hit just a tad earlier. Her roundhouse is high and short on range, and does connect on the frame you would expect it to, the whole move is pretty sudden. It's better for run under roundhouse set ups than normal anti air, so you should go for a simple standing HK, which hers is very good. Her sweep is in the top 3 with Kano and Jax. Extremely little recovery time and sets up traps. Her jabs are slightly short on range, making clean aaHP contact difficult at times, but still works on punishers. Her ducking LK is perhaps the best in the game. It's very pointy, with great range and her hit box is incredibly small while doing it because she ducks so low to the ground. If you time it correctly, it is nearly impossible to hit Sonya with any attack except ones that are intentionally low like a Liu Kang Fireball, Ermac's lift or Mileena's roll. People who are aware of this tactic will sometimes pick characters to counter it but there are ways around it. In the unlikely event someone will pick Mileena to roll through your ducking LK cheese, throw out a couple, and they will attempt to roll, since you expect it, simply block it and punish with aaHP, JP, leg grab for 37%. Against Liu Kang try to bait a ducking fireball, and when they do, don't LK, jump over the fireball for a free 52% combo. You can snuff with it any sweep practically inbetween sweeps, any incoming JK contact can be avoided with it and then counter them as they land. Remember you cannot simply mash on D+LK and expect results, you have to recognize your opponent's character's strengths and weaknesses and ultimately take advantage of every little mistake. The ducking LK can also get you out of cross up situations easily with little risk. Her ducking HK can be used a really humiliating anti air attack as well. Her straight up JK can catch some characters if you do it on the way up in a jump, her regular JK is great, it's one of the best in the game. She can snuff lots of attacks with it, including Kabal's spin, frontwards or backwards. Her JP is decent, misses often on wide cross ups. | |||
The Leg Grab is probably one of the most important moves in her set. It has great range, massive damage, quick as hell, can punish just about anything from a good distance and is useable in combos. It has a strange damage protection property in UMK3. Naked, the leg grab does about 21%. If you connect a grounded JK into a leg grab, it does 10%. If you combo more than 2 juggled hits before it, it does 5%. If you combo it in an auto combo with more than 2 connect hits before it, like HP, HP, U+LP, it does 3% damage, acknowledging the fact that any juggle hits after an auto combo are DPed and it has it's own special DP as well. There are many situations where an attack leaves someone open for a leg grab even when Sonya blocks it. Watch for situations, or even try to set them up, so a combo will miss, or get a laggy hit in the middle if blocked, this really is only useful in combos where you can actually switch from standing to ducking and blocking, 3 frames of vulnerability, only 1 abuseable so this has to be done in a situation where there are more than 3 available frames, hence the delayed or stuck hit. If timed correctly Sonya will appear to break through the combo and snag them with a leg grab. Also simply watch for combos that suddenly stop and always be ready to stick in a leg grab because it's free damage and puts Sonya on the offensive. The leg grab can beat out sweeps from close range if they start at the same time, so against a sweep crazy Kano or Jax, throw out a leg grab on them right as they go for one. You might also try simply running through the sweep and getting her knee lift before the sweep connects. The main concept is to abuse the hell out of the leg grab at every opportunity, and mix it up with those nasty ducking LKs, then switch it up on them after a leg grab connects and go for the rush down. A standard punisher combo getting use of the full leg grab damage would be, aaHP, JK, leg grab, and it has to be timed well or the leg grab will be blockable, and it has a decent amount of recovery time, but on the other hand it also has a strange collision box when recoiling, making a lot of close range attacks miss on her. The leg grab must be blocked low, like a sweep, and does no chip damage. | |||
The Rings are a standard projectile, slow start up, she holds the pose for a while, but it has quick horizontal movement. It would be inadvisable to use the rings as a zoning move because she leans forward and is wide open for punisher autocombos. You would be better off using it sparingly, and perhaps as a last resort to hit a jumping away opponent for a win. | |||
The Upward Bike Kick is a great wake up and anti air move. Many people will abuse it in close range situations and it can get you out of run jab scenarios if timed properly, like Mileena's roll. Another good use for it is to get out of cross up situations. If someone run jabs you and exhausts their run bar, they might go for a cross up JK to let some run recharge and continue to run jab until you give up the hits in attempt to counter. At this point your choice of escape is either a ducking LK miss or snuff, or, buffer the bike kick as they jump by hitting F,F, D instead of B, B, D, this way as they cross up you will snag them with a bike kick. The timing is tricky, but it's a good psychological tactic and will prevent them from doing so much crossing up in the future. For a move that leaves the ground, it has almost no punishable frames so the only real escape to spammed bike kicks would be to duck and not block, allowing Sonya to go over you and trying to punish her on the way down, perhaps with a containment set up. It has a limit of one usage per combo and can be done after any amount of hits. | |||
The Wave Punch is a good anti air move, and you can use to keep constant jumpers on the ground even if they are jumping away. It is useful for mobility to some extent but not entirely advisable because it can get her into trouble. You can also use it in combos, particularly in the corner. It's possibly to juggle a LK or even a HK after some corner combos on certain characters after the wave punch. | |||
Sonya has an unsubstantiated ground infinite using her leg grab and running in with a LP jab as they get up. I have personally gotten it to work on some characters but the timing is very difficult, I don't even understand how it works. There's no point in even trying it like Sindel's flight cancel infinite. | |||
Sonya can relaunch Sheeva, Robot Ninjas, Kano, Kung Lao, Nightwolf, Jax, Sub-zero, Sonya, Shang Tsung, Kabal, Sindel, Male Ninjas, and Liu Kang. On some characters you can follow their flight path instantly as the combo finishes and relaunch them, but on others you must pause for an instant before jumping, aligning the collision boxes properly. Some characters are not worth attempting relaunching because the timing is too rigid. | |||
Basic Juggles: | |||
1. punch starter, HK, HK, HP, HP, U+LP, JK, leg grab 8 hits 48% | |||
2. aaHP,HP, leg grab 3 hits 34% | |||
Advanced Juggles: | |||
1. punch starter, HK, HK, HP, HP, U+LP, aaHP, JK, leg grab 9 hits 51% (can add an extra aaHP on some characters like Jax, Sub and Stryker for 10 hits 54%) | |||
2. punch starter, HK, HK, HP, HP, U+LP, deep JK, HK 8 hits 52% (on some characters like Jax if you get a deep bleeding JK you can stick in an aaLP, JK, Leg Grab, for 10 hits 58%) | |||
3. aaHP, JK, Leg Grab 3 hits 43% | |||
Corner Juggles: | |||
1. aaHP, RH, Leg Grab 3 hits 45% | |||
2. punch starter, HK, HK, HP, HP, U+LP JK, HK, HK 9 hits 59% | |||
3. punch starter, HK, HK, HP, HP, U+LP, JK, RH, HK 9 hits 60% | |||
4. punch starter, HK, HK, HP, HP, U+LP, JK, JK, HK 9 hits 60% | |||
5. punch starter, HK, HK, HP, HP, U+LP, JP, JK, aaLP, Wave Punch 10 hits 60% | |||
6. punch starter, HK, HK, HP, HP, U+LP, JK, aaHP, Wave Punch, LK or upward bike kick on some characters 10 hits 62% | |||
************************************ | |||
Stryker | |||
Stryker is a mid tier character, between 13th and 15th, with seriously powerful combos. He is a major zoning character and has a lot of different and useful specials moves. He can be a major force in the right hands, but like all other skill-to-use characters, he is ultimately defeated by top tier characters. He has a larger than average juggle zone, so he is massively vulnerable to punisher combos off his Baton Throw, not many characters can relaunch him, and he has huge juggling potential with the riot gun. His ducking blocking collision box is really small. He can't be run jabbed by many character, but likewise, for whatever reason he can't run jab many of them either. Try to stay on the ground with him, he doesn't really need to leave the ground to win much like Kabal and Reptile, unless you are juggling. | |||
Basic moves: | |||
Nice range HK, solid uppercut that can hit Shang and Kano while they are just ducking, a trait shared by some other characters, good range sweep, good range HP jabs, slow, deceptive hit area roundhouse which can be used as anti air but only in extremely circumstantial situations, if you can hit the Roundhouse as anti, you're better off doing an aaHP,HP to riot gun, dashin, HP,HP and try another riot gun, etc, average range, but quick ducking LK, excellent range JP good for wide cross ups if they are available, nice JK very similar to Jax. | |||
The high and low grenades are essential to his zoning. Make sure you mix them up and try to guess when they are going to jump to knock them back down with the high grenade and keep them second guessing themselves but try to never throw out a grenade that will totally miss or you'll get punished. They are great anti air and anti counter turtling since they can hit very high and very depending on distance. Only use them in combos if you plan on terminating a combo for whatever reason. | |||
The Riot Gun is very fast, and not always easy to punish depending on how close the opponent is when he blocks so often times it's safe to throw out randomly but make sure they are going to run into the tail end of the contact so Stryker's recovery time is shorter incase it is blocked. This sets up the chance to counter a rush down on their way in. Simply put, don't use it in close range if it's going to be blockable. It's good for wake up or after a knock down and the person is suspect to jump away out of sweep range. It is fast enough to counter virtually any close range attack for a simple psychological punish. It is a juggle machine because it counts as containment in air, similar to Cyrax's net but inside they wobble away from you so you need to utilize the baton dash sometimes to get close after it, setting up juggles. | |||
The Baton Trip is virtually worthless unless it used as a surprised last resort hit to win a match because Stryker recovers at almost the exact same time as the person does when they get up and hold down, and he can be uppercut for chip by everyone for free after it at the very least, and Kabal for example, can connect an uppercut on him for free or spin him for free if it connects. | |||
The Baton Throw is a very interesting move. It for some reason, like Sonya's leg grab, has it's own self damage protection properties. It's normal damage is about 19%, if you connect more than 3 juggled hits before it, it will do 5%, if in a pop up combo, it does 3%, .5% on contact and 2.5% on the landing. Weird. Anyway, it's great for early anticipated cross ups, so if someone goes to jump over you, if you buffer the F,F you can snag them as soon as they leave the ground, uppercuts in general can be used the exact same way, but there is a zoning advantage for Stryker by using the baton throw. It is MASSIVELY punishable since it's kind of slow and can be blocked from such far range at start up, it's better to stick to using it as long distance anti air or anti cross ups. | |||
Stryker has two infinites. One is semi, the other is true. The semi infinite is his cross screen aaHP,HP riot gun, which cannot be done to every character, for example: Shang Tsung. His true infinite is in the corner, any variation of jump attack, aajab, riot gun, so, for example: 4 hit pop up, JK, aaLP, riot gun, probably the easiest and most effective incarnation of it, occasionally there might be times where Stryker is too close and a straight up JK can be useful. Make sure you allow enough push back off the jab to create distance when the riot gun hits, preferably on the way down towards the end, reducing recovery time, allowing Stryker to JK later, landing sooner, jabbing sooner, repeating the infinite ideally. The infinite can be starter off his regular pop up in the corner, or if his other infinite is forced to terminate you can attempt to continue infing with the true inf off it. For doing his cross screen infinite against some characters, it is a good idea to do aaHP, run cancel, step in, aaHP, instead of aaHPHP. On the male ninjas for example, do his pop up combo, labor B,F so he actually takes a full step in but do it soon enough after the pop up so they land on the riot gun instead of being hit by it at all too late, baton dash-miss, and repeat, this way the character is low enough to ground to get hit by the gun in a good position but still be close enough to continue cross screen juggles. If you do the HPHP they will be too high for the riot gun to connect right. You'll notice the best way to get this is to have the gun connect well after it's been fired, essentially landing right on top of the gun's collision area. This way you have started elapsing the time it takes inbetween uses of the gun, which is very brief, but it's crucial in this combo. | |||
He can relaunch the Robot Ninjas, Sheeva, and Kung Lao. | |||
Basic juggles: | |||
1. aaHP,HP, baton throw, 3 hits 32% | |||
2. aaHP,HP, riot gun, baton dash (misses), uppercut 4 hits 36% | |||
3. jump punch, HK, HP, HP, LP, riot gun, run in, aaHP, JK 8 hits 50% | |||
Advanced juggles: | |||
1. jump punch, HK, HP, HP, LP, riot gun, baton dash, (misses) aaHP,HP, riot gun, repeat til corner, up to 80%+ depending on the opponent on how far from the wall you can begin, and for example 90%-100% on Jax as well because you can get 3 aaHPs on him. | |||
2. in corner (HK, HP, HP, LP, JK, aaLP, riot gun, repeat til satisfied or capable, and terminate with any variety of attacks) | |||
3. aaHP,HP riot gun, baton dash, repeat for inf. | |||
(more characters to come) | |||
2-24-06 | |||
= Game Versions = | = Game Versions = | ||
Revision as of 06:04, 24 February 2006
Introduction
Game Mechanics
Basic Strategy
Advanced Strategy (WIP by Shock/Sinala)
Classic Sub-zero (updated 11-8-05)
Classic Sub-zero is ranked very low in competitive play, around 20, I don't have an exact number to give him, because he can of course be use skillfully and be an annoying menace due to his two containment moves, super fast, long range slide, etc. He is a defensive character, and you should focus on baiting freeze or ground freeze scenarios, but it is possible to go on offense with him and he has a few tactics here and there. Watch out on his 4 hit pop up because if you are a hair slow on it the last hit will miss leaving him hugely open. Of course don't forget he's a male ninja and has really great normals.
Male Ninja Basics moves:
The Male Ninjas have excellent basic moves, good height and range on everything in relation to their sprite proportions, their roundhouse is extra wicked and can connect in almost any situation. The only thing that can be weird about them is their aaHPs. Sometimes they tend to miss in situations where you wouldn't expect them to and this is due to kara canceling with run to speed the last hit up, in this situation, often you can do aaHP,LP and it'll work, with slightly less damage, otherwise, always take an extra small step in before doing aaHPs.
The Deep Freeze is an age old move that still has some benefits to it. It has a hit limit of 1, but breakable to 2, allowing up to 3 freezes per combo, but it's tricky timing and usually not worth it. Some characters are easier to glitch hit counter rule break than others, like the Robot Ninjas, Jax, and Stryker. You can use the freeze as an anti cross up. Scout a cross up jump kick, perhaps in a run jab situation, and run under their jump, and do the freeze as they kick, it'll freeze them in air and set up a decent combo. It's got a little more start up than unmasked Sub-zero's freeze and that hurts it a bit. The freeze is OK for zoning, watch for jumping backwards opponents and freeze as you see them jump. Often times the freeze will hit in a situation where they are physically standing on the ground but cannot block, so watch for these situations. It will look like you should do an aaHPHP combo, but really you should go for a JK starter into his pop up combo. Take note that sometimes characters can be nabbed by a freeze when ducking, especially in close range, especially Shang and Kano. If a person does a JK, block it and instantly do a freeze as soon as they hit the ground. This is uesful because it's rare a person does a jump kick and lands and doesn't continue pressure, the chance of them landing and just blocking are slim, and often time it happens more than once. This will either work almost everytime, or they will stop doing random jump kicks altogether, making them chance their strategy and psychologically giving Sub the upper hand. Sub can freeze within the amount of time it takes for them to land, and even if they block, he's relatively safe. It doesn't work quite as well as unmasked Sub-zero but still useful.
The Ground Freeze is a neat and somewhat unique move. A common tactic I see overabused is run jab, run jab, ground freeze. Sometimes the person will lock up and wind up slipping, but it's their own fault. It's always counterable, and harshly at that. You might be able to get away with this once a match, maybe even once a round if you do one early on and then late in the last match, but it's probably better to do it when they have less than 50% life left because that will be a guaranteed victory if they do manage to not avoid or counter it. You can try doing something like, 4 hit pop up, deep JK, let them hit the ground, run jab LP to get them blocking and semi stuck, ground freeze. This move also has a hit limit of 1, but breakable at 2, and it's very difficult to do for some reason. You cannot do freeze, aaHP, freeze, aaHP ground freeze because the game looks at it very mathematically. When you freeze them, you cannot ground freeze. If you already have one hit out before the freeze, and go to glitch break a second hit on the frame it connects, the game never sees them as unfrozen during the time the ground freeze would be activated, and a frame too late means the game has accepted 2 hits and locked the ground freeze. The ground freeze cannot be done if your opponent is within a certain distance from the wall with their back facing it (about a character body width), so if you are trying to do ground freezes and they aren't coming out, that might be why. The real factor here is their actualy collision box, which moves slightly back and forth during their stance, and sometimes you can let them stand there, do a ground freeze, and nothing will happen several attempts in a row, but then it will work. (just some technical data)
The Slide is good for adding damage to combos, as a wake up, but don't over abuse it, as it's easily punishable. It's the fastest of the three slides with the most range, so it's easier to link into juggle combos. Sometimes you can stick one in for free after an upper as people tend to jump away, or sticking in an extra slide after one because often times people do not anticipate a second slide. Also watch for some misbehaving frames with Kung Lao, Sonya and the Female Ninjas especially. The slide will sometimes simply not hit them at all like Nightwolf's shoulder tackle against a blocking Stryker for example, so if you have someone at danger, a slide is not always the safest route to victory. It is possible to break through the recovery of a comboer while blocking and slide inbetween hits, for example the female ninjas kick combo. It has a point of lag in the middle where you can actually go from standing block to ducking block, and if you time it right, the slide will come out here and you can beat them to their next hit. It's a great way to end a match if they are on danger, run in for a chip damage combo that will beat you, and you interrupt their last hit with a slide and win.
Classic Sub has one semi-infinite, he can relaunch: Sheeva, Robots, Kabal, Nightwolf, Kung Lao, Jax, Sub-zero, Shang Tsung, Male Ninjas, Liu Kang, Sonya, and Kano
Basic Juggles:
1. aaHP, freeze, aaHP,HP, JK, slide 5 hits 43% 2. aaHP, ground freeze, JK starter, HP, HP, D+LP, D+HP, JK, slide 9 hits 51% (try a deep JK, to standing HK at the end for 55%, might be more of an advanced juggle)
Advanced Juggles:
1. aaHP, freeze, cross up JK, standing HK 3 hits 36% (sometimes you can get a second JK for 3 hits 37%) This combo is good against characters whom you can't always basic combo #1 against due to collision boxes. 2. aaHP, freeze, aaHP, freeze, aaHP,HP, JK slide 6 hits 50% 3. aaHP, HP, ground freeze, JK starter, HP, HP, D+LP, D+HP, JK, HK 10 hits 62%
Corner Juggles:
1. freeze, (reposition if necessary) HK starter, HP, HP, D+LP, D+HP, JK, RH, run in HK 8 hits 57% 2. aaHP, freeze, aaHP,HP, JK, HK 5 hits 50% 3. aaHP, freeze, aaHP,HP, JK, RH, slide 6 hits 60% (or LK on some characters for 6 hits 65%) 4. if too close to the wall to reposition try aaHP, freeze, JK, RH, run in HK 4 hits 54% (slide or LK is good too, or a straight up JK to start, will all result in slightly lower damage)
Ermac
Ermac is a high tier top 10 character, he is ranked 8th but in the right hands can be considered top 3 as his combo/juggle ability is unparalleled in terms of average damage per combo coupled with the relative ease. He is played very much like Human Smoke, except without air throw tactics. His average combo ability is around the 50% or more on anyone at anytime. I will list many specific character combos in his juggle section. What you are going to try and do with him out of the ordinary teleport methods is anti air HP counters on jump ins and what you can do with that is cancel the HP with block so you cannot be accidentally hit and if you do hit your HP you still have plenty of time to cancel with a Telekinetic Slam (TKS). Watch out against Kano and Nightwolf JKs because they tend to still over prioritize aaHPs if you don't time it right, instead aaRH them. Against agressive players you can throw out a TKS sometimes after a blocked auto combo, and they will get snagged by it. Against jumpy or overly aggressive players you can stick in a TKS after an aaHK if you so choose to use it over the aaHP, and often times it will get them on their wake up. Don't over use it. Run and knee jab mix ups, teleporting away from and landing next to are a must but watch out because players can scout the teleports and position themselves to get in the way of what you might think is a safe teleport, punishing you for it. His walking speed is slower than Human Smoke's so multi jab juggles need to be timed more rigidly. The only combo you should ever use midscreen is HK, LP when rushing down, and off starters.
Male Ninja Basics moves:
The Male Ninjas have excellent basic moves, good height and range on everything in relation to their sprite proportions, their roundhouse is extra wicked and can connect in almost any situation. The only thing that can be weird about them is their aaHPs. Sometimes they tend to miss in situations where you wouldn't expect them to and this is due to kara canceling with run to speed the last hit up, in this situation, often you can do aaHP,LP and it'll work, with slightly less damage, otherwise, always take an extra small step in before doing aaHPs.
The Telekinetic Slam is one of the most broken and unique moves in the game, however you need to learn how to max out the combos off it. Its properties are a little unorthodox, as it does damage, but does not count as a hit in a combo (unless you hit them before the first bounce in which it doesn't do damage). It does not activate damage protection and has a limit of 4 hits before it is locked, and this means 2 usages per combo are about the norm. There are ways to stretch it to 3 uses but they have to be absolutely perfectly time with no room for error so it's not worth getting into because you really can't get any more damage than normal this way conventionally. Your standard set ups are going to be either hit, TKS, hit, hit, hit, TKS -or- TKS, hit, hit, hit, hit, TKS, etc. Make sure to try and labor the 3 hit succession just a bit to elapse the time limit inbetween uses, which isn't noticable usually. Good set ups for the TKS are anti air HPs if someone JKs early, this the perfect time to aaHP and cancel to a TKS. From here a guaranteed 78% damage combo is possible on almost every character, more difficult on some than others, but on characters like Shang you need to be slightly more rigid with the timing and max out about 75%, otherwise it's not worth trying the extra hits, and on a lot of characters 82% standard counter from a standing aaHP is possible. Remember that the TKS doesn't count as part of a combo it also doesn't add to the damage for some reason, so for every TKS you use in a combo, add 5.5% to the end damage read outand 3% in DPed combos, generally two should always be used in a combo so that's 11%. In the corner you can set up a TKS combo off an aaRH easily. Remember to run cancel all your jabs during juggle combos to allow more time for extra jabs and JKs. It is possible to glitch cancel (on the frame of contact) up to 5 hits before a TKS, but it is not recommended
The Teleport Punch is a great move if used for escaping and overall positioning and manueverability. If you use it too much players will see your patterns and counter by getting in the way of it and blocking. If you are experienced enough with the placement and timing you should be able to teleport almost anytime it is available (it has a small time limit between usages) and not get punished. Use if when you are getting up to escape run jabs, HKs or knee starting combos. Ermac turns invisible when he does the teleport punch and is still actually on the screen moving until he lands or shows up on the other side of the screen. If you are air thrown or Bike Kicked, for example, before you leave the screen Ermac will stay invisible until he is hit by another move. Take advantage of this, an invisible Ermac is an even dealier Ermac. Try only to teleport when you have 2/3 of the screen behind you or at least a total of 2/3 screen distance between you and your opponent in some manner. This would mean, you can have half a screen behind you and your opponent is standing right next to you, you'll wind up landing about sweep distance away behind them. It is best to try and get the placement down to land right next to them even if they are blocking, this sets up free throw potential and/or rush down. Watch out for counter sweeps, LKs, HKs or uppercuts if you rush in immediately. Utilize the teleport punch as a combo extender but try not to actually hit them with it as it activates damage protection. Its limit is 4 hits before it is locked, has a small window of time limit recharge and you can stretch it out to 2 uses per combo if done right. A good way to start a DPed juggle combo would be to aaRH an incoming JK and hit a teleport punch on the other side before they land. After this do a TKS, wait, RH, again, teleport punch, TKS again, to standard finish of choice. Do not use the teleport punch as a safe guard chip hit when someone is on danger because it only does about 2% chip damage and danger can mean the person has 4% life left. It is common to see people lose matches they should have won because of this. In order to connect his teleport punch on characters like Shang Tsung, Liu Kang, female ninjas, Robots Ninjas, and Sheeva in mid screen standard combo situations, after his HK, LP pop up, jump forward and wait until he starts coming down on the flip to JK, then instantly cancel to the teleport punch. This makes him line up better with them. You can also glitch cancel the teleport punch if you want to get fancy.
The Green Spark is a standard, slow starting fireball and is only good to use as a combo terminator. In most cases if you realize you're not going to be able to get 3 aaHPs at the end of a juggle (it's noticable on how the aaHPs connect after the second TKS) you can subsitute aaHP,HP, aaLP, fireball and that will usually connect and is compenstable upon reaction. There are no tactical uses for his fireball. There is never a time when a fireball can be used as a last resort on a jumping back opponent with him when a teleport punch would be better and more of a guarantee. In general the fireball leaves him too open because it takes him forever to recover, you can jump over it easily, and he stays in one position.
Ermac can relaunch all characters in the game like Kano and Human Smoke. Some characters are more difficult than others, in order to best line him up, you should do his pop up, pause slightly before jumping forward, and punch at the last possible moment.
Basic Juggles that work on everyone:
1. HK, LP, JK, teleport punch, TKS, aaHP,HP, fireball 7 hits about 42% 2. (for a punisher) aaHP,HP, JK, teleport punch, TKS, aaHP,HP, fireball 7 hits about 53% 3. punch starter, HK, LP, aaHP, TKS, aaHP,HP, fireball 7 hits about 43% 4. (for a punisher) aaHP, TKS, aaHP,HP, aaHP, TKS, aaHP,HP, aaHP, fireball 8 hits 69%
Advanced Juggles:
These are maxed out combo situations that work faithfully with little risk of failure on all characters except Shang, Sonya, Liu Kang, and Sheeva. Adjustments are required for the slightly lesser damage combos on the specific opponents mentioned with usage of one less HP, or a fireball instead of a JK at the end, downgrading the combos by about 15%
1. HK, LP, JK, teleport punch, TKS, aaHPHP, aaHP, JK 8 hits about 47% on Sub-zero, Jax, Stryker, and Male Ninjas, you can walk in after the HK, LP, and do a RH, then teleport punch, perform the TKS motion backwards because the teleport punch usually juggles behind him, for 48% 2. punch starter, HK, LP, JK, TKS, aaHP,HP, aaHP, JK 8 hits 52% 3. (for a punisher) aaHP,HP, JK, teleport punch, TKS, aaHP,HP, aaHP, JK 8 hits 58% 4. aaRH, teleport punch, TKS, aaRH, teleport punch, TKS, aaHP,HP, aaHP, JK 8 hits 62% 5. (for a punisher or counter to a jump in attack) aaHP, TKS, aaHP,HP, JK, TKS, aaHP,HP, aaHP, JK 8 hits 82% 6. (Opponent at Midscreen) TKS, aaHP,HP, teleport punch (miss), aaHP, JK, TKS, aaHP,HP, aaHP, JK 8 hits 82% 7. try and stick in an otg (off the ground) HK LP after his TKS for some neat looking juggles HK, LP, JK, teleport punch, TKS, HK, LP, aaHP, fireball 8 hits 46%
Advanced Corner Juggles (watered down):
1. HK, LP, JK, RH, (or aaHP), TKS, aaHPHP, JK, RH, HK, (or LK) 9 hits 64% (58%) 2. punch starter, HK, LP, RH (or aaHP), TKS, aaHP,HP, JK, RH, HK (or LK)9 hits 66% (60%)
Corner 100% juggles: 1. TKS, aaHP,HP, JK, aaHP, TKS, aaHP,HP, JK, RH, LK (works on just about everyone and is good if someone does a projectile in the corner and Ermac is about half screen away) 2. aaHP, TKS, aaHP,HP, RH, TKS, aaHP,HP, JK, RH, LK 3. aaRH, TKS, aaHP,HP, aaHP, TKS, aaHP,HP, JK, RH, LK 4. suJK, TKS, aaHP,HP, RH, TKS, aaHP,HP, JK, RH, LK
Jade
Jade is lower end mid tier character ranked roughly around 16. You're going to want to stay on the ground with her, abuse her return boomerang, projectile protection whenever needed or even as a distraction, run jabs, ground combo chip, but throw in pauses and then stick in a standing HK to get people who rush when they suspect you are stuck in a broken combo. Throw out her dash kick every now and then as it is very safe in many situations except the obvious ones, ie: vs characters with containments. Always does her 4 hit HP HP D+LP D+HP combo, and add an unblockable sweep after it on everyone, which will do more total damage than her 7 hit combo which is nerfed for human players for some reason, doing 10% less than the CPU. On some characters you can stick a standing LK after the 4 hit combo, like Jax and the Robots, on Sheeva you can stick in a standing HK, and even on Jax with rigid timing. Her overall juggling and combo ability is extremely limited, she has no useful or damaging juggle combos, although huge, impossible to set up, theoretical, corner combos for her do exist. Just remember to abuse the suddenness of her moves and stay on the ground. Double dash kick counters are fun to do for 22%. Also there's the weird hit boxes the female ninjas have which can make certain juggles harder to do on them. Many characters cannot do their HP beginning to a combo if they get a starter, lowering their overall damage effectiveness helping her out slightly but not a whole lot. Double run jabs in the corner are great, watch for openings to get her combo.
Female ninja basic moves:
The female ninja uppercut is average, nothing to write home about, their standing HK is great for far away jumpers trying to stay out of range for anti air HPs, it doesn't have as much height as some other characters, but the collision detection is a good distance from their body hit box, so it has good priority. Their LP jabs hit lower than most so they can run jab Stryker when he's ducking and blocking, and they good range. HP jabs have average range, sweeps are silent which is a plus, and they have some distance to them, however are slow on recovery compared to the fast sweepers leaving them potentially open. Ducking LK has some decent pointiness and distance, standing LK hits a bit lower than usual. Their roundhouse is very close range, better off going for a standing HK on jump ins, but the RH can often be used in run underneath jump in situations because the placement is perfect for that. Their jump punch has limited range and is close to their body, bad for cross ups on ducking blocking opponents.
The Dash Kick is fast, in fact sudden, and is also extremely safe in many situations that it shouldn't be. There are very few close range attacks that can hit Jade while she's in her recovery frames, but projectiles always work, however the start up time for most projectiles is too long to capitalize even if done immediately from too far away. The best way to counter her dash kick is to anticipate it, not block it and run in with a counter combo, or just simply uppercut. This move can be used repeatedly, similarly to Nightwolf's shoulder tackle, and it has a limit of one hit before it is disabled, two can be done in a row in a combo. It's range is about half screen, and best used when you are very close to your opponent as it's very difficult to block upon reaction. After her autocombo is blocked, you can stick in a dash kick to counter a rush down, or you can use it against crossovers sometimes. It can hit some characters who are ducking like Kabal and Shang Tsung, and sometimes you might want to stick in a ducking LK after her 4 hit combo, then a dash kick as they are getting up, it's either going to hit as they are getting up, or be blocked, and is relatively safe, except against Kabal for instance. Use the dash kick to counter virtually any attack if you block because it's that fast. This is all part of her pitbulling strategy. Occassionally stick in dash kicks after run jabs in the corner, specifically watch for openings when they are about to jump, setting up small juggles. You can also glitch cancel it to 2 hits before it, for example, aaHP, aaHP, dash kick, however not useful.
The Boomerang is used for zoning. She has 4 types, straight across, upwards, downwards, and a straight across return which is the best one to use, but remember to watch for players who will expect return spamming and just duck, so stick in a downward one, or on jump aways stick in an up one. Jade is not so much about damage, but chipping away and this move makes certain of that. You can spam the boomerangs for eternity so long as you time them right, remember to not abuse them against teleporters and watch for opponents who will trade a hit like an uppercut and use it to remove the recovery. Against characters with containments they can do the uppercut, get hit by the return boomerang, and then freeze/harpoon, etc, creating big damage. Mix up the usage of the boomerang, don't depend on it, make them make mistakes. Throw in dash kicks here and there against some characters while using return boomerangs to keep them guessing.
The Projectile Protection is very useful in it's intuitiveness. Jade is temporarily immune to all projectiles except Sindel's scream, Kitana's Fan Lift, Sindel's air fireball, and a few other special case situations. You can use the PP to remove recovery time from push back in the corner with juggles, increasing damage slightly if you are ever in the situation where a ninja teleports and winds up in the corner. You can also use it to stop the push back on triple run jabs in the corner. This way your opponent will try to get out and capitalize, but you will instantly recover and can counter-counter them with a dash kick, standing HK, sweep or autocombo and set up further tactics.
Basic Juggles:
1. jump punch starter, HP, HP, D+LP, D+HP, standing HK 6 hits 40%, standing LK, or sweep will do less damage but connect on more and more characters respectively. 2. (for a punisher) aaHP,HP, aaLP, boomerang, 4 hits 30%
Jade has no useful advanced juggles, but here's a few that can work if you are in the right situation.
1. (in corner against opponent trying to jump out) Dash kick, Dash kick, LK 3 hits 35% or sometimes HK for 37% 2. (opponent in corner) RH, dash kick, HK, 3 hits 43% 3. (as a corner punisher) aaHPHP, PP, JK, RH, HK 5 hits 60% 4. (Jade in corner) run under a jump, RH into corner, dash kick, RH, HK 4 hits 60%
Jax
Jax is considered at the bottom of the top tier barrel ranked at #10. He's a sweeper, a zoner, a back breaker-er, and ground combo crusher. He's got a lot of options but he struggles against teleporters and other top tier characters. Take advantage of old tactics like standing HKs, ground pounds, sweeps, watch for cross ups and hit the back breakers, sweeps, keep away with missiles, sweeps, rush down with run jabs and the 7 hit combo but be careful on male ninjas and some other characters because often times the 7 hitter will whiff on the D+HP (HK, HK, D+HP) leaving Jax open for a free counter, in some cases disastersouly damaging because he is the easiest character to juggle, oh yeah and sweeps. Play as cheap as possible with him, perhaps even turtle or read other players, and play safely because he can be annoying to rush down due his range.
Basic Moves:
His LP run jab game is questionable because they hit slightly higher, allowing more chance for him to be uppercut or ducking LKed, his HPs hit high as well, and set up easy air juggle aaHPHP, JK, air throw for about 44%. His standing HK has good range and moderate height, excellent for anti airing half screen jumpers. His standing LK also has good range and positioning. His sweep is among the fastest in the game, abuse it. His ducking LK is a hair slower than some, but has good distance again. His RH has very limited range, but good height, useful for run under RH situations. His uppercut has a lot of height and range, but some characters can slip through it on cross ups, which is when you should for an anti cross up backbreaker. All of his air attacks are very good.
The Gotcha Grab is a sudden, fast move that is very safe to throw out randomly and the only real way to punish it consistently is to sweep when it comes out. There are obviously other ways to scout and punish it, so don't rely on it as a certain way to catch someone but it often does get people off guard and against blind rush down. With exact timing you can stick the Gotcha Grab in his 7 hit autocombo midscreen against Jax, and unmasked Sub-zero for a bit of extra damage that isn't really worth the effort, 51% with a punch starter, vs guaranteed 47% on everyone with a sweep instead, 47% with a LK on most characters, and 48% with a HK on a bunch. It is very useful for punisher combos, and in the corner off his autocombo, which can be extended significantly against many characters.
Single and Double Missiles are great zoning moves because they take up a lot of space and move Jax backwards, so if someone jumps over one he is generally safe. In UMK3 they added charge time to the single missiles, and this also effects the doubles. If you fire a single missile, you have to wait a few seconds before you can fire a double, or another single, and vice versa. They were too broken in MK3 and decided to add this limitation to balance him. You can still use the double somewhat for zoning, or avoiding certain attacks with extra protection. You can mix the single missile with run jabs, and the double missile will hit teleporters from full screen as they go off screen.
The Dashing Fist is a sudden move that can be useful to an extent, used as a wakeup particularly when getting up. Try to buffer the move without making your movements known as it is easily scoutable in that situation. In certain set ups, the Dash Fist will make Jax bounce off the opponent and move backwards, making him slightly safer than he would be normally. Do not over abuse it because it hits high and is easily duckable and punishable. It is possible to use this move to get you closer to an opponent as a method of dashing, but it is inadvisable, and you can also use it to extend corner combo juggles. It is also useful to get you out of certain situations and go back into zoning or sweeps. Sometimes you can use it as anti air and it generally makes Jax wind up right next to the opponent so you can go into run jabs, a combo, or sweep strategies as well. When used as anti air it can cause some glitch type scenarios where it will make Jax and his opponent push off eachother in opposite directions either facing towards or away and can create some opportunities for other tactics. There is no limit as to how many Dash Fists you can do in a juggle, nor is there a time limit inbetween so you can literally just frames a couple of them in a row in the corner as a humiliation juggle after his 7 hit combo.
The Ground Pound is another returning move from MKII, but it was given more start up frames to balance it, however it is still useful, and unblockable and only avoidable by jumping. It keeps your opponent on guard at all time and might put them in bad situations when they might not want to be in the air. Not many people actually use this move in UMK3 because of how much slower it is than the MKII version, but when used properly it becomes an annoying factor in a match, particularly if you time it to connect as soon as they hit the ground on a jump, this will force them to jump if they see it coming and they have to immediately decide whether they are close enough to counter the ground pound with a jump kick or a jump punch start to combo, straight up, or backwards. If you time and space it right, you will be on the advantage when they land on their second jump and be able to once again resume your now nasty, cheesey sweeping and back breakering techniques.
The Backbreaker is his golden move, because it is perhaps the most useful move in his arsenal, even though simplistic in usage and design. Air throws have tremendous zero frame priority in MK like regular throws in just about any game, including MK itself, but you can't avoid them in air or tech hit, and they generally do significant damage, in the mid-high teens and this is for one move that sets up tactical scenarios, generally accompanied by a JK before hand, increasing damage to about 30%. Whenever someone tries to cross up jump punch or jump kick you as you are sweeping them to a bitter end, anticipate it, and immediately, unhesitantly and committedly, jump forward, or straight up and tap block, and you will backbreaker them right back to the ground, then immediately return to the sweep fest. This tactic is also used with Kano and perhaps even more so. Even when you aren't sweeping, watch for any possible chance to get a backbreaker because it is also a psychological move. It makes people rethink what they are doing if you get them with it, 2, 3 or 4 times in a row because they think for some reason their cross up is going to work this time. Always remember to tap block a few times while you are in the air even if you aren't in a natural situation where you would instinctively backbreaker someone because chances are you'll hit it. Remember that Robot Smoke's radius for his air throw is very large, pretty much 360 degrees around him while Jax's has a bit less area to deal with.
The Multislam is simply a special throw, in which you perform a normal throw, and tap HP several times to get 3 more slams. There isn't much more to it other than you can go back into sweep tactics after it!
Basic Juggles:
1. aaHP, Gotcha Grab 6 hits 27% (add an extra aaHP, but requires stepping forward a bit depending on the opponent) 2. (as a punisher) aaHP,HP, JK, air throw 4 hits 44% 3. Add a HK on Male Ninjas, Sub-zero, Jax, Stryker, (Robots, Sheeva require a small step forward), and a few other characters, for 39% instead of 33% on his 7 hitter, leaving off the last B+HP, a standing LK works on a lot more characters, for 37%, and a sweep will work on everyone also for 37% and sets up tactics, you can do his Gotcha Grab with perfect timing on Jax and unmasked Sub-zero for a few more %.
Basic Corner Combo - Juggles:
punch starter, HK, HK, D+HP, HP, BL, LP, B+HP, with your choice of finish: 1. HK - 50% 2. RH - 51% 3. gotcha grab 13 hits - 53% 4. uppercut - 54%
Advanced Corner Combo - Juggles punch starter, HK, HK, D+HP, HP, BL, LP, B+HP, with your choice of finish because certains combos work more faithfully on specific characters: 1. RH, HK - 10 hits 59% 2. JK, Backbreaker - 10 hits 59% 2. aaHP, dash punch, HK - 11 hits 60% 3. aaHP, dash punch, aaLP, gotcha 16 hits 65% (against Robots, Kung Lao, Jax, Sheeva...) 4. JK, aaHP, dash punch, HK, 12 hits 68%
Corner Juggle Punishers: 1. aaHPHP, dash punch, HK 4 hits 40% 2. aaHPHP, dash punch, aaLP, Gotcha Grab 9 hits 52% 3. aaHP, JK, aaHP, dash punch, HK 5 hits 56% 3. aaHPHP, dash punch, JK, backbreaker 5 hits 58% 4. aaHP, JK, aaHP, dash punch, aaLP, Gotcha Grab 10 hits 68%
Kano (updated 9-28-05)
Kano is ranked #4 of 23 in UMK3 by popular consensus. He is the best sweeper due to his options. You have the knife uppercut which hits ducking opponents, very useful, the regular cannon ball which is instantaneous, and the vertical ball is equally as useful, off a sweep. Air throw is very good, but low damage, he can link his close range HK easily off a sweep as a wake up, so can Jax and Sonya, but Kano can get it on more and results in about the same damage mid screen for all three if they do.
Basic moves:
His jump kick is nice and pointy, leaving little room to be countered by simple moves, his uppercut has good distance but sucks if someone jumps to land in close or tries to cross up so you're better off going with the air throw. His sweep is super quick, his standing HK is great anti air when you need it fast. His jabs have little range, his ducking LK is awkward and clunky but gets the job done. His jump punch is very round and ball like, easy to counter since the collision box is so close to his own. His knee lift is more like a close range low kick, almost as useful as Nightwolf's obvious stomp. The roundhouse hits pretty high and has average range.
Sweep when safe, look for cross up jump kicks, if they do, jump straight up and air throw em back down, go right back into sweeps, run and knee jabs are good, don't do too crazy on them they are easy to counter.
When rushing down, never go for any combo except HK, D+LP, D+HP, if you connect it, do walk in, aaHP, JK, air throw, it's 3% less than if you did it with HP, HP, D+LP, D+HP, and when rushing in, the HP whiffs, so it's worthless. If you connect a jumping HP, do the 4 hit pop up, aaHP, JK, air throw, for 48%.
The manhandle is really only useful in combos, it has almost no purpose other than a risky wake up mid game, it's rare you see it connect and it leaves you wide open. I love players who abuse it against scrubs because they don't know what to do when the manhandle is ineffective. If you do get the mandhandle miscreen, it is possible to juggle a LK, or cannonball off it.
He has two infinites in the corner that work on some characters, you can mix it into his corner combos off launchers. You can simply repeat the mandhandle over and over, which requires insane timing, and also, aaLP manhandle works as well, but increasingly difficult as the LP tends to still get some push back, making it harder to complete.
Kano can relaunch every character in the game, something like Ermac and Human Smoke. This is done by performing a launcher combo, jumping along with the opponent as they are flying, and as you are about to land, connect a linked HP, which is unblockable if they are close enough to the ground but are still considered in air, and then the autocombo is free. It is useful against certain characters, as some are easier to relaunch than others. Difficult/pointless relaunch attempts are Stryker, Sindel, Female Ninjas, and Male Ninjas. Everyone else is pretty easily relaunched by Kano.
Sometimes you can use the regular ball as transportation against turtles and zoners, it gets you right on top of them and sets up the chance for a wake up pop up combo.
Use the vertical ball to land directly ontop of turtling opponents by surprise sometimes, because as soon as touch the ground you can throw, beating out any attack they try if they aren't holding back, and often times when you land on someone and they don't try anything they aren't holding the proper direction to prevent throwing anymore and it's almost a free throw. Don't over abuse this tactic because it doesn't take long to start scouting it and positioning for easy counters. It is a similar concept to Sonya's bike kick however she doesn't go into a real punishment mode off it. The vertical ball is also a good method of escape from run jabs, and is an ideal anti air move obviously, as almost nothing can stop it except air throws.
Always remember, sweep, sweep, sweep.
Useful combos and juggles:
Basic Juggles: 1. JP, HP, HP, D+LP, D+HP, aaHP, JK, air throw 7 hits 47% 2. JP, HP, HP, D+LP, D+HP, aaHP, knife throw 7 hits 40% (Knife uppercut 42%, mandhandle, 45%)
Advanced Juggles: 1. JP, HP, HP, D+LP, D+HP, deep JK with LK and charge LK, mandhandle, release for cannonball, 8 hits 57%(can be done midscreen on some characters) 2. (In corner especially against teleporters) aaHP, JK, aaHP, mandhandle, cannonball, 5 hits about 63% 3. JP, HP, HP, D+LP, D+HP, aaHP, JK, cannon ball 8 hits 50% 4. aaHP,HP, JK, cannonball 4 hits 43% (BP) 5. (in corner) JP, HP, HP, D+LP, D+HP, JK, HP, mandhandle, cannon ball 9 hits 60% 6. (as close to corner as possible without being pushed back) JP, HP, HP, D+LP, D+HP, JK, RH, manhandle, cannon ball 9 hits 66%
Kitana (updated 12-23-05)
Kitana is a mid tier character in UMK3, right around 15 give or take, which is still a far cry from her status of MKII combo queen possible top 3. Her damage was drastically reduced due to the fact her fan lift activates damage protection, and if you connect her fan in a combo any hits after it are also damage protected so you're best bet is to try and not use the fan lift unless it's use for drastic anti air prediction. In punisher combos you're better off try to go for the aaHP's without the fan to air juggle resulting in about 50%. Run jabs are her game, the female ninjas have really great placement on their run jabs, and remember to abuse the hell out of double run jabs with her. Remember to use the sneaky 3 hits of the kick combo, leaving off the last B+HK, and lacing in a standing HK if they try and capitalize on what they think is a broken combo. On all characters except the female ninjas, Sindel, Sonya, Sheeva and Shang Tsung, you can stick an unblockable just frames sweep at the end of her fan combo, for example, JP starter, HP, HP, B+LP, F+HP, sweep as soon as you possibly can is 41%, and very easy. Her overall comboing ability is limited, low to average damage (25-50% at a time, yes at this point 50% damage is average since it's half a bar and 100%s and infinites are possible). Don't forget about the weird hit boxes the female ninjas have which can make certain juggles more difficult, and also a lot of characters cannot do their HP beginning to a combo if they get a starter, possibly lowering their overall damage effectiveness helping her slightly but not much. Kitana has some throwing tactics as well, along the lines of Cryax and Robot Smoke. Her throw ends early and your opponent is very close to you so can run in and attempt another free throw depending on if they are doing to try and jump over you or not, or go right into run jabs, or run behind them before they get up and attempt a cross up of sorts, try and stick her kick combo in there as well.
Female ninja basic moves:
The female ninja uppercut is average, nothing to write home about, their standing HK is great for far away jumpers trying to stay out of range for anti air HPs, it doesn't have as much height as some other characters, but the collision detection is a good distance from their body hit box, so it has good priority. Their LP jabs hit lower than most so they can run jab Stryker when he's ducking and blocking, and they good range. HP jabs have average range, sweeps are silent which is a plus, and they have some distance to them, however are slow on recovery compared to the fast sweepers leaving them potentially open. Ducking LK has some decent pointiness and distance, standing LK hits a bit lower than usual. Their roundhouse is very close range, better off going for a standing HK on jump ins, but the RH can often be used in run underneath jump in situations because the placement is perfect for that. Their jump punch has limited range and is close to their body, bad for cross ups on ducking blocking opponents.
The Fan Lift is a criminally pathetic waste of a containment. If you look at it from the perspective that "free damage is free damage" then fine, use it. But I would say avoid using it almost altogether unless you scout a jump in and lift them but the most damage you're going to see midscreen is about 28 - 30%. It would have been fair to not have damage protection on fan lifted moves but kept the damage protection on the post fan throw moves, or perhaps only damage protect post fan throw moves if you get a fan lift before it, but I'm getting off the point here. This would have brought her tier level up considerably. Whenever you might not be rushing down with her, always remember to buffer the fan lift so you can perform on command if you so wish to use it. It is possible to get an aaHP before a fan lift but it is not very practical, however the normal limit of hits before the fan lift is disable is 0, meaning you can't combo anything before it under normal circumstances. If someone is in the corner, watch for jump escapes, this is a good time to use a fan lift and if you connect it, you can set up moderate damage, around 40% on just about anyone.
The Fan Throw is still a great move and she can use it almost exactly like she did in MKII. Remember to throw them low to the ground so she lands quickly and can block or counter. A commonly over used tactic is fan throw from full screen, run in behind it and expect to get some free chip damage. Against experienced players this is not the case. You will most likely get swept or even take an uppercut, or counter containment during your labored journey to small amounts of damage. What you might want to do is try a fan throw followed by her wave punch from time to time. That will get her in close to them a lot quicker, putting the fan right over their heads as she lands and making it difficult to counter with an uppercut and standing up after the fan to HPs timing is critical, and from there run jab city to kick combos, or simply a throw to beat out their counter move, or mash out a ground combo as soon as you land as well. Don't over abuse this tactic because it is almost the exact same concept as running in after a fan throw, use both and mix it up, keep them guessing. If they jump to avoid the fan throw they will get hit by the wave punch, if you don't do the wave punch watch for the jump in and set them up for a fan lift. Remember to only use the fan in air, and never ever on the ground. Occasionally throw one high if you expect a jump in. Her style is almost hit and run but you can change it to hardcore offense anytime you get in close with those run jabs. You might want to try an early or deep jump kick, pausing to a late fan throw in order to bait someone's counter, this way you can nip them with a fan on a close quarters JK.
The Wave Punch is a pretty neat move that is great anti air for jumping forward, straight up, or back opponents. It's easy to scout and the D, B HP motion is easy to pull of instantly if you see someone so much as leave the ground. Battering someone down with Wave Punches can have the same psychological effect as air throwing someone on cross ups constantly, it forces the person to change their strategy, possibly to something they are unable to keep up with. You can use it for mobility to an extent, but expect to be punished for abusing it. You can sometimes juggle a LK or HK in the corner after her wave punch depending on the character and how high it connects. It is sometimes usefull against some poor priority crossover jump kicks.
Kitana has no known infinites.
Basic Juggles:
1. punch starter, HP, HP, B+LP, F+HP, sweep 6 hits 41% 2. fan lift, JK, air fan throw, wave punch 4 hits 22% 3. JK, fan throw, uppercut 3 hits 33% 4. (in the corner) fan lift, JK, air fan, RH, run in HK 5 hits 30%
Advanced Juggles:
1. aaHP,HP, JK, air fan, run in, aaHP, wave punch 6 hits 53% (you can add an extra aaHP on Stryker Jax and Sub-zero for example, or aaLP,LP or some other characters adding a little more damage 55-56%) 2. (corner punisher would have to start about half screen distance from the corner) aaHP, HP, JK, air fan, aaHP, wave punch 7 hits 60% 3. (same set up as 2.) aaHP, HP, JK, air fan, RH, run in HK 7 hits 65% If closer to the corner, single aaHP is also possible and results in 6-7% less damage but more than acceptable damage for Kitana. She has many variations here and there on her juggles, these would be mostly ideal situations.
Mileena (updated 9-22-05)
Mileena is considered a low tier character, probably around 20th of the 23 in UMK3, and third in terms of the three female ninjas. She has overall low combo damage, not much in terms of options, almost everything revolves around the roll which activates damage protection miserably. She, like Cyrax, requires a lot of effort to be a force in the game, and there are some expert players here and there who can use her, however she still just doesn't cut it against most top tier characters. Fortunately the female ninjas have strange collision boxes making it harder to juggle them, and maxed out combos are unlikely in most cases, watch for slip ups and counter based on their character design. Some characters cannot get starters on them at all, and both ground attacks after a JP or a straight up JK will whiff, however in the corner a lot of these characters are able to get starters on them, but still some cannot, it depends on how close you are when the jump attack connects.
Female ninja basic moves:
The female ninja uppercut is average, nothing to write home about, their standing HK is great for far away jumpers trying to stay out of range for anti air HPs, it doesn't have as much height as some other characters, but the collision detection is a good distance from their body hit box, so it has good priority. Their LP jabs hit lower than most so they can run jab Stryker when he's ducking and blocking, and they good range. HP jabs have average range, sweeps are silent which is a plus, and they have some distance to them, however are slow on recovery compared to the fast sweepers leaving them potentially open. Ducking LK has some decent pointiness and distance, standing LK hits a bit lower than usual. Their roundhouse is very close range, better off going for a standing HK on jump ins, but the RH can often be used in run underneath jump in situations because the placement is perfect for that. Their jump punch has limited range and is close to their body, bad for cross ups on ducking blocking opponents.
The Roll is an interesting and complex move to say the least with lots of uses. It is by definition a containment move as well, similar to that of Reptile's forceball, however Mileena's distance from the opponent and positioning is not always exactly the same making juggle combos for her difficult to guarantee. Mileena can run in sooner depending on what frame she is in when the roll connects. The roll can be used to prevent anti air cross ups if timed correctly. As the player jumps over you, buffer F,F,D instead of B,B,D and do the roll as they start the air attack, you will roll under them, causing the occasional forward flip towards Mileena reaction which is ideal, enabling better juggle combos. It is relatively easy to perform the flip towards roll by timing the contact just on the opposite side of the oppent as they fall, try this during punishment combos with aaHP,HP, B,B, pause, D, HK for the late roll and ideal spacing. The roll can also be used on a delay, so you can buffer B,B, D, wait a good second and then surprise with the roll as if you were the CPU and didn't have to perform any motion, similar to usage of Stryker's baton throw, which can abuse the same delayed button hit concept. There are many players who abuse the roll constantly, and pay for it, please do not be one of these players. It is possible to abuse the roll and be successful, it just takes good judgement on placement. The roll can also be used as a wake up to escape run jabs, smilar to Kabal's spin and Sonya's bike kick, but if it is expected, a simple kara jab will block it and set Mileena up for a punisher combo. The roll has a limit of 1 usage every other hit and is locked at 3 hits, so that means you can combo 2 legitimately.
The teleport/drop kick is a very slow attack and should be used as a total surprise, perhaps no more than once a round, it is easy to scout, predict, and counter, and any time you can use it in a combo, you could do 2 or 3 more hits with something else resulting in higher damage.
The sai shot is still spammable as it was in MKII in terms of speed, however it is not as effective. The Prophet says "It looks like she's aiming at airplanes or something with them." What he means is, they are way too high in the air when she releases so they are easy to avoid, and he would be right. You can still try to spam them, use them in combos as well, for zoning, etc.
An underused tactic the female ninjas can abuse is by leaving off the last hit of their kick combos if the opponent blocks the first three, and pausing ever so slightly, then doing a HK as they try to rush in, which happens very often. Even if they don't it hits blocked which does slightly more chip damage than finishing out the combo and doesn't give them as much time to recover and counter, setting up other situations in your favor.
As far as I have tested, Mileena can only relaunch the robot ninjas, and Kung Lao, even Sheeva can always block her relaunches, others may be possible, as I sort it out I'll post it.
A couple of corner tactics you can use with Mileena: You can charge HP for the sai shot while run jabbing with LP, if you see them try to jump out of the corner you can jump back and release HP hitting a sai shot knocking them back into the corner, and you can also try to juggle again before they hit the ground. Also look for chances to use the roll in the corner, don't just throw out a random ball because of the likelihood of it being blocked, but watch for an attempt to uppercut and buffering B,B while jabbing at times.
Basic Juggles:
1. punch starter, HP, HP, HK, HK, D-F LK, aaHP, drop kick 8 hits 37% 2. punch starter, HP, HP, HK, HK, D-F LK, JK, sai 8 hits 40% 3. roll, R, aaHP, roll, R, HK, 4 hits 24%
Advanced Juggles:
1. aa(HP,HP), roll, RH 4 hits 31% 2. (from ground up directly infront of opponent or a cross up jump kick), JK, roll, aa(HP,HP), JK, sai shot, 6 hits 39% (leaving out the sai shot might make the combo easier and will result in about 5% less damage and this can be applied to all other combos ending in a sai shot) 3. (off a flip towards Mileena punisher set up) aa(HP,HP), roll, aa(HP,HP), JK, sai shot 7 hits 41% 4. aaHP, JK, roll, R, aaHP, HK 5 hits 42% 5. aaHP, JK, roll, JK, sai, 5 hits 44% 6. aaHP, JK, roll, R, aaHP,HP, JK, sai shot 7 hits 50% (doable on male ninjas, Kano, Jax, Stryker, Sub-zero, etc) 7. (near corner) aaHP, RH, roll, R, aaHP,HP, JK, sai shot 7 hits 52%
Nightwolf
Nightwolf is ranked #5 in UMK3. He is devastatingly fast, has exceptional damage combos off a simple rush down with no set up required, his attacks are useful, have little recovery, or have no limit. Definitely a top tier character to say the least. His rush down is virtually unparallel in the game, and his mix ups are quite useful. He's a very easy to use character overall. He cannot autocombo starter on the female ninjas with either his punch or kick unless in the corner, and combos against them are not as easy, so that hurts him against them. His stomp also misses them quite often, so look for counter players using the female ninjas to exploit Nightwolf's collision box weaknesses because damage is the key with him and they are less susceptible. Nightwolf can run through sweeps if timed properly and begin his autocombo. Never do his 5 hit autocombo that ends in a HK. Rush down is extremely important.
Basic Moves:
Uppercut is solid, overall good priority and placement, HK has range, but not as much height as others, RH is average range, good for run unders, if you can time an air air roundhouse with him, you're better off countering with an aaAxe, aaAxe, aaHP, JK, or the likes for more damage and the same amount of effort on the initial counter hit. His sweep is virtually identical in range to the male ninjas, and has the same speed/start up/recovery, which is average. His LK hits a little lower than usual, and has a little less range. His run jabs also has just a little less range than others, his HPs are about average range, and also hit a little lower. His ducking LK has good range. JP has good cross up properties. The close range kick is a stomp that hits extremely low and is very useful, his close range punches hit very high and miss constantly so always rush down with stomps.
The Axe Uppercut is a great and unique move, considered a containment move because you can always get at least one free hit after it. It is possible to combo multiple axes, usually in any combo if you do two axes with some kind of extra juggle hits you will result in almost 45-50% even without a starter. It is an amazing cross under tool, anytime someone cross up jump kicks you, you can do the axe the opposite way and it will hit them on their way down even if they are attack, it's almost fool proof and very hard to recounter it unless it is baited and even still it can hit, it's like Kabal's spin only not as much damage can be done after using it. Remember that if you do an axe uppercut in combo and it misses Nightwolf is vulnerable and characters can capitalize on this. During his blocked combo it is sometimes better to leave out the axe because he can even be beaten out of it in that situation.
The Shoulder Tackle is your friend. It has very little recovery, but it is not invincible, it can be abused, but it can be scouted, it all depends on zoning. It hits ducking blocking characters except Stryker who is completely immune to it, and occasionally some characters can duck and block while it is coming and not get hit for chip like Kung Lao, and Sonya for example. It's good to finish juggle combos with as it does about the same amount of damage as a HK/JK and gets them into position to set up more tactics. Don't do the tackle from too far away because it's easily beaten by sweeps and try not to buffer it with obvious stepping. Sometimes it is useful to buffer it with running steps, so, hold run, tap forward, release run then forward again and tackle to get in close. The run in creates a defensive posture for the opponent and they will attempt to counter based on running velocity but when you change the run into a tackle you are coming in with a move instead of being totally vulnerable. If someone is ducking and blocking you can usually get two tackles out before they are comfortable to release block and try to just duck it and counter, so you should then skip the tackle and run in with his combo and get them sleeping. Make sure you mix this up a lot and don't fall into a pattern yourself or people will pick up on it. The tackle is also surpsiringly good for anti air especially in extremely close range, or even as an anti cross up, it will move backwards and somewhat appear to track the opponent. In the corner it is easily possible to get mulitple rams if you run jab and the opponent tries to jump out of the corner. Time a HP or LP jab to hit them in the air, then another HP, cancel to tackle, tackle for up to 4 hits 42%. This is a very special case scenario when they are in the corner but it's entirely possible.
The Projectile Reflection move is pretty much what you see is what you get. You bounce projectiles back to your opponent. This move can get you in a lot of trouble, especially against Kabal. Players like to use it against the purple ball but a smart Kabal player will place the ball to scrape of Nightwolf's head and plow through him with a spin, severely punishing the overzealous Nightwolf user. It's best to use this move against characters who have a containment projectile like Sub-zero and Cyrax because this results in a free HK starter to autocombo, resulting in hideous damage of upwards to 60% and beyond. It will not reflect the harpoon or Stryker's Riot Gun for example.
The Bow and Arrow is a tiny projectile with unreasonable vulnerability and recovery. If you connect a move before the arrow, it will start up extremely fast, making it a lot easier to combo with, and even still it does very little damage. In any situation where you can combo an arrow, you can combo something else that does more damage. The fast arrow is active any time your opponent is in non neutral recovery frames, so you can send it out after an uppercut when they land as they get up and sometimes they will jump right into it, or after a roundhouse early to keep them where they are on the defensive, as offense is Nightwolf's main game. If your opponent is jumping away you can sometimes keep them pinned temporarily at full screen with fast arrows off a just frames concept. This is a pretty much worthless tactic and the arrow should be used very little as there is only one major purpose for it and that's to knock opponents back down before they even get up, also a predictable tactic. It's a match winning move for when someone is at danger and can't even block it.
Nightwolf has a corner infinite that works on Kabal, Sektor, Cyrax, Robot Smoke, Sheeva, and Kano. You can repeat his 3 hit kick combo over and over. The timing is incredibly easy, you can wait until they completely touch the ground and for whatever reason it still hits. It was designed to whiff but apparently these 6 characters have slightly larger collision detection when laying on the ground. Abuse this against corny Kabal players in the corner. If you can lead them there and get them into the corner, kara jab them and try to make them spin you while you are close to the corner, and then break out the infinite on them.
You can also use this infinite concept these character midscreen after an autocombo as a sleeper or wake up detector. A lot of times people like to jump away, uppercut, or wakeup when you get in close and try to rush down, however, Nightwolf can combo after the axe uppercut combo with his stomp before they have the chance to do any of this on these characters. Even though this is blockable you might find many anxious players who will receive a double combo at least once. For example, HP starter, 5 hit combo, axe, axe, walk in, sleeper stomp 5 hit combo, axe, axe, HP, JK is 15 hits 76%, and that's a very easy combo for just ONE instance where the person chose to escape rather than block. On Kabal in the same situation it is considerably easy and beneficial to get an extra HP Axe in both combos resulting in 18 hits 90%. Again, this results just because they tried to do something like wake up spin you when they can't. This kind of damage will make a Kabal player extremely cautious, eleviating you from having to worry about being wake up spun so much, but still it is a good idea to look out for, as often times Kabal is chosen intentionally to counter Nightwolf.
Basic Juggles:
1. punch starter, HK, HP, HP, LP, D-F HP, Axe, JK or tackle 8 hits 51% 2. aaAxe, aaAxe, JK 3 hits 24%
Advanced Juggles
1. on male ninjas: punch starter, HK, HP, HP, LP, D-F HP, step in, Axe,Axe, HK 9 hits 56% 2. on Jax, Stryker, Kabal, Sub-zero: punch starter, HK, HP, HP, LP, D-F HP, Axe, aaHP, Axe, JK 10 hits 60% 3. on all other characters your best bet is punch starter, HK, HP, HP, LP, D-F HP, Axe, jump kick 8 hits 51%, it's over 50%, so you only need it twice, if you get more than that one, you still need to get it again so it's a waste of effort. 4. on some characters: punch starter, HK, HP, HP, LP, D-F HP, Axe, run, aaLP,HP, tackle HK 10 hits 56% 5. punisher combo on Scorp, Smoke, Ermac, etc: aaHP,HP, JK, arrow 3 hits 38% 6. super corner punisher starting if Nightwolf is about halfscreen from the wall, aaHP,HP, JK, aaHP, tackle, tackle 6 hits 64%
Reptile
Reptile is a top tier character, generally ranked #6 but in the right hands he can be brought up a few notches with bigger juggle combos few players have mastered. Invisibility plays a big role in Reptile's tactics, use if as often as possible, but use it safely. Run jabs to pop up combos, sneaky close range slides, abuse of general male ninja basic properties are also a must. Zone like Hell with the forceballs, make sure you make your opponents make mistakes, it's very easy, just watch out against teleporters because Reptile has a harder time against them than Kabal. Remember his Elbow Dash can be used as a transit move, like a self terminating dash, it is twice as fast as run and advanced players know exactly when he will stop.
Male Ninja Basics moves:
The Male Ninjas have excellent basic moves, good height and range on everything in relation to their sprite proportions, their roundhouse is extra wicked and can connect in almost any situation. The only thing that can be weird about them is their aaHPs. Sometimes they tend to miss in situations where you wouldn't expect them to and this is due to kara canceling with run to speed the last hit up, in this situation, often you can do aaHP,LP and it'll work, with slightly less damage, otherwise, always take an extra small step in before doing aaHPs.
The Forceball is a very unique and solid move. In UMK3 he now can do fast and slow forceballs which makes him a "force" to be reckoned with...You are going to want to abuse the Hell out of this move, mixing them up as much as possible. You can alternate fast the slow, or slow then fast instantly, but inbetween usages of the same type you have a slight lag time to wait, essentially the amount of time it takes for the slow ball to travel full screen. This can be overcome by timing the alternating forceballs well enough so that they come out in a steady, spamming stream. You can keep people locked down with them if they are too afraid to advance after each, or you can force them to jump. If you do a slow forceball and they attempt to jump forward over it, time it so you can take a step in and RH them into the forceball, setting up a potentially deadly juggle combo. If you do a fast forceball and they attempt to jump over it backwards, as in, they are on the opposite side of the screen, and jump backwards to clear it, you can do Reptile's Elbow Dash move so the whole screen moves with them, and they will land on the Forceball. A tactic similar to this can be used with Cyrax's net, by doing his air throw or running in after a net when they jump, they will land in it because the screen moves. You can mix them in with run jabs similar to sticking in Classic Sub's Ground Freeze, it'll catch them on a wake up occasionally. The only unobvious vulnerability the forceballs have is that they take many frames to actually get out of his hands and do damage and the desired effect, so you can actually push Reptile as he's doing them and the forceball, specifically the slow one, will just go behind you. Also remember that Jade can run through them, she is often a counter character to Reptile, and Nightwolf can reflect them. Against a Nightwolf counter player, try and make them use their reflection move and time a fast forceball to hit right as he loses the move's ability. In more specific situations, you can do a slow forceball against him, and as they do the reflection, jump kick or JP into a combo depending on distance, so he will land on it, setting up neat looking combo scenarios. The Forceball has a very strange limitation to it, technically you can use 4 forceballs in one combo, 2 of each, alone. The amount of hits before the forceballs are disabled is 3, it can be glitch canceled to 4 and this happens quite often when someone is hitting F, F and HPHP to juggle and cancel to forceballs on the second volley. It is a good idea to use "Fake Forceballs" in a similar way you might use stepping in some games. Tap back, or forward quickly, but in an exaggerated fashion so the person will expect you to do a forceball, when you don't, and they jump forward, set them up with an aaHP to forceball combo, or just an aaRH or uppercut works as well. It's a good psychological tactic and it is surprising how well it works even at high levels.
The Acid Spit is a very high, low damage projectile with significant start up and recovery, at least in comparison to it's MKII counterpart. Use it against backwards jumpers, or mix it in with forceballs from full screen to keep players pinned down.
The Slide is a semi useful move, as it can get you out of rub jabs and is a decent wake up move to catch people sleeping, sometimes you can even stick in a second one and people tend to not expect it. The only problems with Reptile's slide are it's slow, and has short range. Classic Sub-zero's slide is about 3 times faster with at least twice the distance. You can sometimes use it to get out of cross ups but it can get you into trouble. On Sonya, the Female Ninjas, and Kung Lao, the slide will often push them when they are blocking. It can cost you a match if you aren't carefully timing it to make sure it will hit and not be blockable, but if used in mid gameplay, if they stop blocking too soon, it will still hit them.
Invisibility. It is what it says it is. Be invisible as much as possible and do it only if you are safe, like after an autocombo, RH or uppercut. Know where you are on the screen, so it is best to understand the distance you will land if you jump forward or back, throw out some kicks if you're not sure where you are and if they hit, you know how close you are. Air throws will not make Reptile reappear.
The Elbow Dash is generally not to be used as an offensive move. On rare occassion you can catch people off guard with it, and many times if they block the first lap of it, you can attack them right as they recovery from the block stun and beat them to their next attack with a pop up combo and set up a deadly combo juggle. The most important aspect of this move is transit. You can use it at any time, as much as you like. It is a faster version of run essentially and he stops on a dime usually in very good places because he turns around right as he passes the opponent's axis. That coupled with running in right afterwards gets you right next to them, enabling rush down scenarios with rub jabs. You can use it to run under jumping attacks and avoid all kinds of situations and it's very useful to get out of cross ups. If someone goes to cross up jump kick or jump punch you, try and scout it and buffer Reptile's Elbow Dash backwards, this way you will run under their attack starting from a ducking position, and wind up behind them. If you connect an anti air roundhouse, use the dash move to get right on top of them before they even hit the ground. It is the same concept as anti cross up spinning with Kabal, but much less rewarding. If you can keep up a good Dashing game, especially while invisibile. Another integral part of Reptile's Dash, is to use it in juggle combos. It seems very intentional that they gave him a limit of three hits before his forceball is disabled, and a 3 hit pop up combo, extra recovery on his pop up, with the fast forceball being just fast enough to hit any opponent unblockably if done on a just frames concept after said pop up, which flips them to the perfect height to do anti air HPs, and then this move makes Reptile run back and forth under the falling opponent, lining up perfectly to get more each time, just out of sync enough to not be an infinite. A truly remarkable set of coincidences. Learn this, it's what makes Reptile dangerous, without it, he belongs in the lower end of the top tier. The Elbow Dash also does a tiny bit of damage for some reason during certain situations when you move across the opponent, so if they are on absolute danger, an elbow dash will win it for free.
Reptile cannot relaunch combo anyone even though he has a pop up. It is too slow on recovery so he cannot jump as they are moving upwards.
Basic Juggles: 1. jump punch starter, HP, HP, D+LP, HK JK or Uppercut depending on opponent 6 hits 34, 35 and 38% 2. HP, HP, D+LP, Fast Forceball, Uppercut 5 hits 34% 3. Slow forceball, aaHPHP, fast forceball, uppercut 5 hits 33%
Corner and juggles:
1. Slow Forceball, aaHPHP, fast Forceball, aaHPHP, JK, RH, LK 9 hits 50% 2. HP, HP, D+LP, Fast Forceball, aaHPHP, JK, RH, LK 9 hits 51% 3. aaHPHP, Fast Forceball, aaHPHP, JK, RH, LK 8 hits 52% 4. RH onto Slow Forceball, aaHP, Fast Forceball, uppercut 5 hits 47% 5. aaHP, JK, aaHP, fast Forceball, aaHPHP, JK, RH, LK 9 hits 68%
Maximum, or most reccommended Dashing HP Juggles on all characters via his 3 hit pop up to Forceball:
1. Vs Shang Tsung - aaHPHP, aaLPLP, Uppercut 9 hits 45% 2. Vs Female Ninjas - (aaHPHP, dash)x3, aaLPHP, dash, Uppercut 13 hits 3. 57% 4. Vs Sheeva - (aaHPHP, dadh)x4, Uppercut - 13 hits, 58% 5. Vs Sonya, Stryker, Sindel, Unmasked Sub-zero, Kung Lao, Nightwolf and Kano - (aaHPHP, dash)x4, aaLPHP, Uppercut 15 hits 63% 6. Vs Male Ninjas - (aaHPHP, Dash)x4, aaLPHP, dash, D+LP, Uppercut - 16 hits 65% 7. Vs Robots - (aaHPHP, dash)x5, aaLPLP, dash, Uppercut - 17 hits, 69% 8. Vs Kabal and Liu Kang - (aaHPHP, dash)x5, aaLPHP, dash, Uppercut 17 hits 69% 9. Vs Jax - (aaHPHP, dash)x6, aaLPHP, Uppercut 19 hits 75% Side note for Jax, you can do Reptile's pop up, Forceball, get as close as possible and do a single HP, then start aaHPHP dashing for a Triple aaHP to start the combo. It also should be noted on some characters if you get his pop up combo, you can set them up afterwards for a Triple aaHP when you touch the wall with Reptile, allowing for extra juggles, adding upwards to 20%.
Punisher Set Ups for dashing punches:
1. Vs Kano Cannonball - aaHP, forceball, aaHP, forceball, (aaHPHP, dash)x3, aaLPHP, Uppercut 13 hits 60% 2. Vs Mileena's Roll or Teleport Kick - aaHPHP, dash, aaLP, forceball, (aaHPHP, dash)x3, aaLPHP, Uppercut 13 hits 63% 3. 3. Vs Ninja Teleport Punch - aaHPHP, move F, aaHP, forceball, (aaHPHP, dash)x4, aaLPHP, D+LP, Uppercut 16 hits 72% 4. Vs Robot Teleport Uppercut - aaHP, forceball, aaHP, forceball, (aaHPHP, dash) x5, aaLPLP, dash, Uppercut 17 hits 71% 5. Vs Stryker Baton Dash - (aaHPHP, dash)x3, aaLPHP, dash, Uppercut 9 hits 72% 6. Vs Kung Lao Dash Kick - aaHP, forceball, aaHP, forceball, (aaHPHP, dash)x5, aaLPHP, Uppercut 17 hits, 72% 7. Vs Liu Kang Bike Kick - aaHPHP, forceball, (aaHPHP, dash)x6, aaLPHP, Uppercut 18 hits 76%
Other set ups for dashing punches:
1. slow forceball, aaRH onto forceball, aaHP, fast forceball into the most dashing punches you can get on whatever character it is, should generally result around 65% 2. slow forceball, aaHPHP, fast forceball, into dashing punches
Robot Smoke
Robot Smoke is ranked 7th in UMK3. Your main game is going to be run jabs, watch for cross up jumps and nab air throws, anti air HPs to teleport uppercut combos, wake up spears are good sometimes, but most of all, GO INVISIBLE! The Robot Ninjas have some juggle advantages and vulnerabilities in terms of taking hits, watch for them. They can be relaunched by just about anyone with a launcher combo, easier than most, and they are harder to juggle in certain situations, particularly for Ermac and Human Smoke. Kung Lao can spin them and I believe Nightwolf after his autocombo in the corner when it is performed on the "just frame" so not only will you take the 34% or more from the auto combo but you're stuck in the corner infinite. Anyone who can get a ducking LK after their autocombo in the corner on anybody can get a standing HK after their combo on them, for example: Liu Kang, HP starter, 7 hit combo is 38% + standing damage protected HK is 46%.
Robot Ninja Basic Moves:
Standing HK is topps, uppercuts are somewhat bad in the sense they tend to miss in crucial situations similarly to Kung Lao's, for instance you have to take a step in if you want to counter a punishable move sometimes to hit an uppercut. The robot Ninja roundhouse is late on the hit and has some funky corner issues, good range, low height, better on far away jump ins, but if you can time an aaRH you might as well try and aaHP to teleport uppercut. LPs are really good for double run jabbing mid screen, they keep in tight on the opponent because you have to be closer to connect them. Sweeps have good range and recovery is the same as female ninjas. JK is good, jump punch is kinda tight and ball like, and is easily counterable. Ducking LK is quick and pointy, excellent to get out of runjabs or prevent them. Straight up JK is a great set up to cancel quickly with a teleport uppercut, just make sure it connects, and you have minimum 59% and a free invisibilty.
The Harpoon is an essential move as it is a very quick containment and relatively safe to do from full screen depending on the who the opponent it. It's great on wake ups as it seems to have a hit box infront of him before it even comes out, so you will see the Harpoon simply appear beyond the opponent and already snag them without warning. You can try doing a three hit combo and then throw out a harpoon afterwards for mix ups on jumpy players. It can be linked in juggle combos with a normal limit of 4 hits before it, and can be broken to 5. It can counter many simple standing attacks for free, if you block them much like Sonya's leg grab (see air hyper viper beam techniques in MvC2 lol). You can also link it in the corner off his autocombo, using a just frames concept. Try: Jump in HP, HK, HK, LP, buffer the harpoon as the LP hits, nab them, then 5 hit combo, ducking LK, for 11 hits 45%.
The Teleport Uppercut is a bit overrated on it's on, and definitely overabused by casual players, getting them into a lot of trouble. It has so many cons I will get in depth with. You should really only use this move if you link it off an anti air attack, or to punish full screen projectile turtles, in essence, any situation where you know it's going to hit and not be blockable. If you feel the need to do this move, you can use it almost like a dragon punch would be used in Street Fighter if you suspect an early jump attack by doing it as they jump and before they land, however, in any situation where you can get that, you're better off going for the aaHP first to add 6.5% there, and then you will knock them high enough to easily get another 6.5% from a second aaHP or even a third after it, or depending on the character, possibly even a JK before the harpoon. It has a strange punishment area, and sets up smaller, modified versions of normal punishers, but punishable nonetheless. If you can scout a cross up JK or JP, you can buffer the FF motion and get them in the middle of their cross up. If you're too late, it's blockable, so you might be better off going for an air throw and deal with the lower damage potential, if they don't attack, it usually misses. If it's going to connect off a juggle, it always hits from the left side, so if you counter an attack on the right and cancel it to the teleport uppercut, it hits the opponent as they are falling into it, sometimes making extra juggle hits after it easier, otherwise it will almost always come up behind opponents. You can use it to bait attack an air attack by jumping in and attacking early, and do it right as you would normally expect to take a standing HK, but teleport out of it's range, it's possible to still block it however, so you might want to try baiting within the range of an uppercut counter situation, because the uppercut will hold until the uppercut connects. It's limit is 1 hit before hand, and breakable to two on just frames, but is hardly worth the effort. Be careful with overuse, it can be easily snuffed before leaving the screen by many moves like a LK, ducking LK, harpoon, freeze, sweep, uppercut if it's used as a fake out from the air, etc. Even after it leaves the screen on the way back up it can be snuffed with a ducking LK or a well timed uppercut, by specific characters only I believe, like Stryker. You can time a ducking LK to miss and avoid being hit by it completely and counter it as well. This is a nasty trick to use against a Robot Smoke player who goes for it as a last hit of chip damage kill, to beat them specifically.
Invisibility is great. It's kind of self explanitory, you're invisible, you're opponent cannot see you, it makes it harder to attack you and a lot of times it will make the other person do risky attacks merely to get you to appear Know where you are on screen, know how to set up certain attacks, know when it's safe to use. The recovery time isn't much, but regardless, it's pointless to try it if you're going to get hit immediately. You can do it anytime you connect a spear between that and the combo, after a roundhouse, or an uppercut. It's good to do after uppercuts because many times people will see it happen and immediately go to hit you with a jumping attack, and this sets up big damage. Be invisible as often as possible. His air throw has the biggest range of all the air throws in the game. It can stop an asteroid. Use it on cross attempts, it's not quite as useful in sweep situations as Jax or Kano's, but the extra large radius helps him a lot. It is nearly impossible to beat out an air throw happy Smoke player in the air. It's good to link in combos because it does a lot of damage, about twice that of Kano's, aaHP, JK air throw does a little more damage than aaHP, harpoon, 5 hit combo, so in situations where the aaHP, JK, air throw is possible, go for that instead, it also sets up more tactical situations in your favor, and the air throw has a certain level of psychological advantage to it.
Basic Juggles: 1. JK, teleport uppercut, aaHP, spear, HP, HP, LK, HK, LP 9 hits 37% 2. teleport uppercut, aaHP, spear, HP, HP, LK, HK, LP 8 hits 47%
Advanced Juggles 1. aaHP, teleport uppercut, aaHP, spear, HP, HP, LK, HK, LP 9 hits 54% (59% with Straight Up JK, 63% with a JK) 2. aaHP, teleport uppercut, aaHP, JK, air throw 5 hits 58% (63% with SUJK, 67% with a JK to start) 3. aaHP, teleport uppercut, aaJK, spear, HP, HP, LK, HK, LP 9 hits 63% (68% with SUJK, 72% with JKto start) 4. aaHP, teleport uppercut, aaHP,HP, spear, HP, HP, LK, HK, LP 10 hits 60% (65% with SUJK, 69% with JK to start) 5. (in corner) PS, HK, HK, LP, spear, HP, HP, LK, HK, LP, D+LK 11 hits 45%(the spear is incredibly risky) 6. (in the corner) aaHP, teleport uppercut, JK, aaHP, spear, HP, HP, LK, HK, LP, D+LK 11 hits 71% (76% with SUJK, or 80% with a JK to start it)
Shang Tsung
Shang Tsung is a low tier character, near the bottom, perhaps in the 20s, but the fact that he has an infinite at his disposal and large easy morph combos off a single ground eruption, with some effort means he cannot be last even though basically he is less capable than most. Shang's lock down, keep away, and zoning pressure can be absolutely insane if you commit to a gameplan with him. Your strategy is going to be constant double fireball to ground eruption traps and set ups. His ground combos are limited, no pop ups, significant recovery time on his comboed roundhouse, etc. Remember, if you are Shang Tsung, you are also, at limited durations, Kabal, Kung Lao, Kano, Ermac, etc. If you mix these characters up with others like Reptile and Kitana who have completely different strategical defense, you'll have your opponents guessing, and adapting constantly. It is theoretically possible to beat people without morphs just using his lock down and basic moves, because the important ones are good. His collision boxes are the most awkward and unique in the game. Many juggle combos simply do not work on him, so take notice that people will have to significantly modify combos on him, generally doing a lot less to him. This is an advantage against some characters. Also, he has a hard time ducking certain projectiles if you're a hair late, watch out for this.
Basic Moves:
Shang's basics are kinda mixed. He definitely has a sluggishness about him in general, but that's really only his ground combos. They have significant pauses in them that result in breaks constantly. However, his uppercut, standing HK, and RH are ideal anti air attacks, and your choice is up to you or the situation. His uppercut's range and height is excellent, however during his duck and rising frames he tends to get stuck, so aaUppercuts need to be anticipated a little sooner, or you have to wait just slightly to allow their jump attack hit duration to pass. Kano and Nightwolf will often times snuff his uppercut so it's better to go for the standing HK which is high and pointy, his RH is also high with good range. Sweep range is a little less than to be expected. Stand LK is good, his ducking LK is also good. A lot of his basic moves are similar to that of the Male Ninjas. His run jab game is decent, sometimes you can try and stick in a single fireball after a few run jabs. His JK is very good, his JP is ok. His straight up JK is pretty nice.
The Flaming Skulls (fireballs in the general gaming world) have existed since MK1, but in MK3 they were changed significantly. They were originally small and fast moving, now they are slower, and longer. You may notice certain fireball amounts are better for different set ups and combo opportunities. Double fireballs are a good bet, Shang seems to recover quickly after them compared to the height they usually bounce off the last one. If you do 3, the 3rd might not hit them right and Shang winds up unable to capitalize, so stick to usage of 1 or 2. Fireballs have no limit of usage, and no pre set hit limit when they turn off, you can stagger their usage by placing two hits inbetween them, much like Stryker's riot gun. For example: in corner, aaHP,HP, double fireball, JK, aaLP, double fireball. This is not a conventional in game combo, but it demonstrates the moves limits. Try to stick in single fireballs anywhere it's safe if you're not going for morph game, the situations are similar, like after a roundhouse, or throw.
The Ground Eruption (GE) is a very interesting move, similar to his fireballs, but sets up free juggles if they connect. Mix up cross patterns of single or double fireballs and GEs in effort to lock your opponent down, watch for their move, pin them down, keep them guessing, keep it constant, don't let up, and ultimately set up GE combos. Another great thing about the GE is that it's a free morph opportunity as well, and you can set up great juggle combos off them easily, but pulling them off is up to your own abilities. The GE has absolutely no limitations whatsoever and can be continually used over and over with no break inbetween, setting up difficult, but doable infinites. Remember in order to really benefit from the juggles, the GE has to hit the characters well placed. If you do one from full screen as Jax is about to do his missile, chances are the third will GE will miss so you will need to watch for this and compensate combos. Against non teleport characters sometimes it's a good idea to do two GE's in a row, because they will often times run through the first two and get hit by the third, as they go up on the third, RH them into the following GE. Most characters will get juggled by all three GE's from a full screen distance, Robots, Female Ninjas, Shang, Sheeva, Kabal, Sindel, Sonya, Kung Lao, Liu Kang, some (Stryker and Male ninjas) will only get hit by one, the rest get hit by 2, so set combos up accordingly. In order to get the full juggle you have adjust the distance slightly, but generally there is not enough time to do this so you need to pay attention to where they get hit. This really only applies to grounded opponents.
Morphs are probably his best tool overall because of versatility and strategy changing at your command. If you know how to use a lot of characters, you might like playing as Shang just for the challenge of being him at certain times. Morphs last approximately 16 clock seconds in 1 on 1 gameplay and have no limit of usage. Keep your characters varied, look for free morph situations. Generally after a RH, or especially an anti air RH, a morph is free, so have an idea of who you would like to use in those situations. Uppercuts have a reasonable amount of morph safety, as do juggle Fireballs, and the GE is obviously the safest. It is possible to use morphs to cancel corner push back and possibly continue combos, but you have to make sure you are paying attention to morph times.
Shang has a few variations of the same infinite using his GE. The easiest way is to start with one hitting all 3 fireballs, then run Shang to the middle and do another, as the character hits the last fireball which goes up just behind Shang, he will be hit into the second fireball from the second ground eruption, getting knocked back over in front of Shang. Repeat this as much as you like til you get to a wall. It's also possible to knock them the other way into fireballs coming up from behind in a similar manner, but doing the GE a bit late. Another way to do it, is if the person jumps onto the first GE, run almost to the other side of the screen and GE as they are landing. You have to make sure the last hit knocks them behind you, so walk into the middle, let it hit them over, then run and buffer the next GE to hit as they fall.
Basic Juggles:
1. aaHP,HP, double fireball 4 hits 28% (sets up GE lock down or if they jump as soon as they land they will get hit and it sets up juggles, morphs, and infinite combos) 2. GE, aaHP,HP, double fireball 7 hits 43% 3. (near corner) aaHPHP, double fireball, uppercut 5 hits 50%
Advanced Juggles: 1. aaDouble Fireball, GE, aaHP,HP, aaHP, double fireball, 10 hits 65% 2. (near corner) aaHPHP, double fireball, JK, HK, 6 hits, 59%
Morph and GE related Combos of various degrees of difficulty: 1. aaDouble Fireball, [Ermac], teleport punch, aaHP, Lift, aaHPHP, aaHP, fireball 8 hits about 47% 2. aaLP,(BL,HK for Kabal morph) spin, aaHP,HP, JK, air fireball (JK on some) (and now you are safe as Kabal to terrorize for about 12 clock seconds) 6 hits 47%-48% 3. GE, [Kabal] aaHPHP, JK, air fireball 7 hits 57% 4. GE, [Jax] aaHPHP, JK, air throw, 7 hits 59% 5. GE, [Nightwolf] Axe X4, aaHP, Axe, aaHP, Shoulder Tackle 11 hits 60%(varies on the characters, for example against Kabal, Sub Stryker or Jax, the full combo isn't that difficult, but against Shang it would be impossible) 6. GE(2 hit), [Sindel] scream, aaHP, scream, aaHP, scream, HK, HP, HP, D+HP, aaHPHP, JK, air fireball 12 hits 69% 7. GE, [Ermac] JK, Lift, aaHPHP, aaHP, fireball (JK on some) 8 hits 67-71% 8. GE, [Liu Kang] aaHPHP, JK, Air Fireball, Dragon Kick 8 hits 70% 9. GE, [Reptile] - as many aaHPHP whiff elbow dashes, as possible on whatever character you're against, for example, GE, [Reptile] aaHPHP, whiff dash X3, uppercut, 10 hits 75% 10. GE(2 hit), [Ermac] aaHP, JK, lift, aaHPHP, aaHP fireball or JK 8 hits 68-73% 11. GE, [Kung Lao] into various spin, or aaHP, JK, whiff dive kick infinite combos 12. [when aware of being Sub for a while] aaHP, freeze, or aaFreeze, aaHP, freeze (kill whatever time is necessary) [Shang][Kung Lao] to infinite variations or Ermac and anyone of his various ridiculous combos.
Sheeva
Sheeva is a low tier character, hovering around the final shuffle of rank in the 20's of 23 playable characters in UMK3. This is more of a what not to do with Sheeva, than a "here's all the sectret tactics to win with Sheeva" guide. She has only 3 special moves, none of which have anything about them which is all that swift. She has no containment unless you count her throw as one since it allows free moves afterwards and is similar to Cyrax's yet unique in it's own way, then once again relimited by her as a character. She has a huge damage mid screen 42% autocombo, which is 51% with a JP starter, and that is one of her most useful assets. Her collision boxes are also a bit strange because she is bigger than the rest of the cast but she becomes more compact when in air. She is vulnerable to a lot of situations because of her collision area, like attacks that would normally miss. She gets stuck in her ducking frames while blocking if you are hit, which can be helpful so you can buffer certain tactics. If you continue to hold down while blocking she will stand up repeatedly while being run jabbed.
What you are going to try and do with her in terms of rush down is go for her 4 hit kick combo which catches people sleeping quite often, and look for other wake up opportunities with her special moves. Remember her throw allows a free standing HK afterwards, and in the corner some decent juggles are possible. Her normal juggling capability is extremely limited, perhaps the most limited in the game in terms of damage. The best midscreen punisher you can get with her on a Ninja Teleport Punch is aaHP,HP, aaHP, fireball, which is 4 hits 35% and that even requires you to run in a step before hand. She gets hammered on cross ups, so your best bet is to stay out of them. She is highly succeptable to relaunch combos, but she can often block them in situations when they would normally connect. The only combo you should go for off a JP or JK starter is her 7 hit combo for over 50%, but if you feel you must throw some spice into her game I will list a few alternate combos at the bottom. Something you can do with her launcher is do the pop up, then aaHPHP, cross up jump and as they land and attempt some rush down. What she boils down to is playing very basic, and very safe, watch for the smallest possible chances to take advantage of. If you practice with Sheeva, most of the other characters will seem a lot easier to use afterwards possibly make you a better player. Take note that Sheeva has quick recovery time when receiving attacks, you can immediately follow up and attack someone, as if she gets a head start. She can be hit but low projectiles, Jade's Dash kick, etc, while ducking very easily.
Basic Moves: All of Sheeva's basic moves have reasonable range, but her surface area allows her to be hit by attacks in certain cases rather easily, defeating the purpose of her being tall, and lankier than most characters. Her standing HK is ideal anti air, and her RH is only good when a character is jumping from about half screen distance. Her RH also has considerable lag to it, like Sub-zero's. Her HPs hit normal hit, LPs hit a bit high. Her sweep is a bit short on range. Her jumping attacks are average, but again her large target makes her easily counterable. Her ducking LK is very quick, pointy, and has range, so use it to get out of run jabs. Her uppercut is pretty nice and meaty but watch for late JPs, she will get snuff everytime when going to counter with it.
Her Fireball does decent damage for a standard projectile, and is a bit higher than normal, so you can try to use it to hit opponents at slightly different placement in the air, meaning you can do it sooner on a jump away and catch them before they land. You can add the fireball to juggle combos easily, and it's recovery time isn't as bad as some.
The Teleport Stomp is a tricky move to understand in terms of using it. Many people abuse it and you can avoid it simply by walking backwards, then punish Sheeva with a combo. Your best bet with this move is to use it when someone is locked in place by a move, like a standing HK rush down, teleport just before they do it, and you will connect the stomp. You also might want to try and use it to get out of the way of run jab rush down, if she is hit on the way up she can be juggled though (however limited generally) but she leaves the screen very quickly, and often times the upward movement makes the person react with a standing HK that will miss. If someone jumps away and is going to land at full screen distance, do her teleport stomp and it is almost impossible to miss it. If in the corner and run jabbing it is possible to throw in a teleport stomp. It's avoidable but try and time to counter a counter.
The Ground Stomp is a nearly useless move, as there is no way to hit it on someone as long as they hold up+back or forward except off an aaRH, which it can combo as 2 hits, but you have to be extremely on the ball with it. If you counter someone with an aaHPHP and stomp just as the right time, it will hit them on the way down, but it is again easily escable. If they only hold up, there is a chance it will connect, and chances are they didn't know they can't do that and will learn. Use this move has a wake up on occasion mixed up with teleport stomps, but you can't abuse either move at all in any way against someone with the least bit of skill and knowledge. You can try to mix this up with run jabs but it can get you into trouble. The only thing it will do is make the other person jump and there is a good change they will jump towards you and cross up with a jump punch starter. If you are successful with a stomp while run jabbing, stick in a HK as the might jump away the next time instead. After a regular RH, or moreso and aaRH, stick in the stomp as a wake up. If they jump forward Sheeva has a chance to counter, otherwise she's reasonably safe except against teleporters, who probably won't be jumping at you that much.
Sheeva has a launcher combo, however it takes an odd arch and therefore she cannot relaunch anyone.
Basic Juggles: 1. Throw, HK, 2 hits 28% 2. aaHPHP, JK or fireball 3 hits 28% 3. aaHPHP, RH 3 hits 30% 4. punch starter, HP, HP, LP, F+HP, aaHP, JK or fireball 7 hits 46% 5. (in corner) punch starter, HP, HP, LP, F+HP, JK, aaHP, fireball 8 hits 54%
Advanced Juggles: 1. (for punishers) run step, aaHPHP, aaHP, JK or fireball 4 hits 35% 2. punch starter, HP, HP, LP, F+HP, aaHPHP, JK 8 hits 49% 3. (in corner) punch starter, HP, HP, LP, F+HP, aaHP, JK, JK, HK 9 hits 61% (you can add another aaHP for 10 hits 64% in the middle depending how far you are from the corner and what character it is against, and this makes the rest of the combo easier due to extra height to play around with, regardless a difficult show combo for a worthless character)
Corner Throw Juggles: 1. Throw, ducking LP, uppercut, 3 hits 33% 2. Throw, ducking LP, aaHP, fireball 4 hits 33% 3. Throw, ducking LP, JK, aaHK 4 hits 37% 4. Throw, ducking LP, RH, HK 4 hits 38% (on Robots and Sheeva) 5. Throw, ducking LP, JK, aaLP, fireball, 5 hits 40%
Sindel (updated 11-10-05)
Sindel is ranked #9. She has easy, powerful combos, a small hittable area, an air special attack, a containment move that acts as decent anti air, and some other unique properties that I will get into later as well, but her normals are kind of lacking, generally in range. Overall what you're going to look for with her is setting up situations to abuse the Scream, jump away air fireballs can work to an extent depending on whether your opponent has a teleport or not, and some run jab game is good as well because you can get 43% (or more) on any character from a standard knee to launcher combo. Very few characters can relaunch her. The only combo you should ever go for during rush down is her HK, HP, HP D+HP combo.
Basic moves:
Her uppercut is good to counter attacks that are very much directly over her head, but it otherwise has a very narrow range to it, causing a lot of undesirable situations when you think an uppercut might be guaranteed. Particularly when they land in close range, it often times misses. Her roundhouse has reasonable height, but short on range. This makes anti air roundhouses nearly useless with her against most characters, but you can use it for a run under anti air roundhouse quite easily since it hits so close to her. If you are in a situation where you might want to use an anti air roundhouse, go with an anti air HP instead because you can link a scream, or 3 or 4, off it. Her HPs have slightly less range than some, her LPs are normal. Her HK is good anti air, as are most in MK because of the distance a character's collision box is from the hit box of the kick. Her standing LK hits about normal height, even though she's smaller than most characters. Her sweep has nice range, deceptively more than most characters, even though it may be by pixels, but so is everything else in this game. Her ducking LK is about average in terms of speed and pointiness, but she may still be open to some characters' knee combos after doing one if the second isn't timed right. Her JK is nice, but her JP is a bit close to her hittable area, she has a reasonably good cross up game with them.
The Scream is a vital part of her defense. It has some recovery time to it if it's blocked so don't throw them out too often or you'll be punished. It's an excellent anti air move and you can link many aaHPs off it if you sequence them right. Abuse it in all punisher combos. The rules for the scream are kind of strange because you can easily break it's rules based on it's own programming flaws. The standard amount of hits you can do before it without glitching it is 2, and it has no discernable time limit between uses. So that means, for example, aaHPHP scream should be the most you can do before it at once because if you do aaHP,HP,HP you cannot do a scream. If you do a single aaHP followed by a scream, the scream removes the hit from the combo counter, but still adds the damage for some reason. This means you can do as many single punch to scream repetitions as you can throw out before they are too close to the ground to juggle. If you do two aaHPs, followed by a scream, it will count and store these two hits and their collective damage as part of the full combo, but you can still do a single aaHP after these two and scream because it doesn't add another hit until two are done consecutively. The counter at this point still recognizes 2 comboed aaHPs, but the damage of 3. You can then do another single aaHP scream, or, 2 aaHPs and then the scream is disabled for the rest of your combo. By doing a single aaHP, canceling to scream when starting a punisher combo, you can easily allow yourself to following it up with 2 aaHPs after, knocking them a lot higher, and easily enabling a 4th aaHP followed by yet another scream. Remember to try and cancel the HP as soon as it hits without double scream backfiring, or canceling too late and having the scream miss, or have them land too low to abuse it more. The occurance of unorthodox hit counting is not limited to just aaHP or LP attacks, but they are the only conventional means for comboing a scream. In essence, for a standard punisher combo, anyone should be able to get aaHP, scream, aaHPHP, scream, aaHP, scream, to auto combo/juggle. An interesting note on the scream in terms of countering is that you can run into it and block it and get a full combo afterward. If you see someone do a scream you have a couple seconds to think of the best way to punisher her for it. Generally what you can do is teleport behind her and take advantage that way, but most of the time people just do a free projectile. Try running into her scream and blocking it right at the edge because it has a moving hit box, now you have a very short time to run in again and combo her.
The Firebreath is kind of slow when used normally, but after a grounded jump kick it comes out SUPER fast like Nightwolf's Arrow for example. It is not recommended to use for zoning, even though I see people try it all the time. She has a great deal of recovery and an opponent can easily see it start up, jump over it and counter her. It is pretty much only good to use if someone is jumping away and connecting it will win you the match. Using it combos is kind of pointless because as well because it would only serve to terminate what could be a better combo, and leaving her slightly vulnerable afterward, at least putting her on the defensive which is not where you want to be. A corner Scream tactic you can try that ties in with run jabs: If you go to run jab and someone while they are in the corner and they try to jump to get out of it, watch for this because you'll LP them and juggle them, after this LP, stick in a quick aaHP with the intent of canceling it to the scream, you can then easily run in and get another aaHP scream, while that scream holds them, walk backwards as they descend to allow enough room to get her pop up combo to corner juggle, resulting in possibly over 65%.
The Air Firebreath is a very useful, but also very dangerous move. Many players can easily scout when you are going to jump straight up, or jump in and fake out for an air fireball. Don't fall into this pattern because they will run under uppercut you everytime. Use it for zoning and keep away, but don't use it that much (try not to at all) against teleporting characters because it's just too easy to counter. You can use it to allow her to hover over projectiles like Sub's freeze but you have to time it right or she'll come out of the fire frames and drop just enough to touch. If you do a naked JK, sometimes you should cancel to a fireball if the JK is blocked because they will try to counter you and then get hit by it. Use it to terminate juggle combos after a JK to add a bit of extra damage, as this is standard. Anytime you anticipate a double JK scenario, try and cancel the JK as soon as it connects as if you were Kung Lao canceling to a dive kick collision situation. It is sometimes better in general usage to wait until Sindel is close to the ground before firing it to reduce her falling recovery time and also bait your opponent into running in early, expecting the air fireball at maximum height. For example, using it against Kabal, do an early jump kick, make them try and spin you, and cancel the JK with a fireball, beating Kabal's spin.
Flight is a unique move to UMK3/MKT. It is subsequently useless in nearly all tactical situations except as a taunt. The flight , if intended to actually get her in air to fly around and do air fireballs has so much start up before you can move, and so much vulnerability when you get there still, it really is pointless to even try in a match. What you can do with it is, perform the motion, then instantly cancel it with block before she even leaves the ground. It makes a woosh sound and she sort of dances in place, and has a profound psychological effect on the other player. She can also instantly block pretty much any attack and it makes your opponent rush in so there is no risk at doing this, and sets them up for a decent possible counter if they do rush in blindly. You can perform multiple flight cancels in a row by doing B, B, F, HK/BL/HK/BL/HK/BL. Don't do this too much because that means you're not attacking and attacking is the goal here. Another use for the flight is to extend corner combos by linking aaHPs off it and stopping the push back or "ice skate" in the corner. This is an extremely difficult skill to perform with her, and adds only a few percent to a corner combo if you do it once, and it has to be done perfectly to do it over and over. It is not advised.
Sindel has one real infinite, made famous by DreemerNJ, which is the previously mentioned and notorious "Flight Cancel" infinite. It is performed by doing an aaHP, or LP, canceling with her flight move the instant it hits, and then doing another aaHP or LP. It is incredibly difficult. Test it out and you will realize even 2 volleys of this infinite can be annoying to get at times, 3 is pretty much the limit as far as I've heard anyone get except DreemerNJ.
Sindel can relaunch infinite Sheeva, Kung Lao, unmasked Sub-zero, Jax, Nightwolf, Kabal, Cyrax, Sektor, and Robot Smoke. Her relaunch sometimes requires crazy timing. You have to pause very slightly before jumping after the launcher and wait until the very last instant before they hit the ground to relaunch them, often times it will look like it's going to miss, but it will connect. It's easier to mash out her 3 hit pop up right after, but it's also possible, and stylish, to stick in her HK before the second launcher combo.
Basic juggles:
1. punch starter, HK, HP, HP, D+HP, JK, air fireball 7 hits 50% 2. aaHPHP, scream, HK, HP, HP, D+HP, JK, air fireball 8 hits 54%
Advanced Juggles:
1. punch starter, HK, HP, HP, D+HP, aaHP, JK, air fireball, 8 hits 53% (you can substitute aaHP,HP on Jax, Stryker, Sub-zero, Kano, Nightwolf, the Robots, etc for 9 hits 56%, with reasonable reliability, and most characters whom it is sometimes difficult to get two aaHPs, you can easily get two aaLPs, for 55%) 2. (for a standard mid screen punisher combo) aaHP, scream, aaHP,HP, scream, aaHP, scream, HK, HP, HP, D+HP, aaHPHP, JK, air fireball 11 hits 73%.
In the corner you can get multiple scream and HP combinations resulting in very close to 100% damage, and it is very much worth learning. You can try her flight cancel infinite but it is not recommended.
Super advanced corner combo:
1. HK, HP, HP, D+HP, JK, aaHP, flight cancel, aaHP, flight cancel, JK, air fireball 9 hits 54% (doing a little more than ending her popup in JK, RH, run in HK, which is difficult to line up because of weak RH properties.)
Sonya (Updated 11-19-05)
Sonya is a mid tier character in UMK3, ranked around number 12. She is very fast, a great sweeper, has a lot of options and ways to play her. You can rush down or turtle with her, but rush down is your best bet. Another thing you're going to want to look for is guranteed openings for the leg grab which is essentially a free uppercut that allows you to get right on top of your opponent afterwards. Her combos are pretty simple and powerful, and she's a little harder to max out juggles on then most characters but not the level of Shang Tsung or Sheeva where you really have to overcompensate for them. Her ducking LK is golden, and will be explained in depth later. Rush down with run jabs, into her 5 hit pop up, throw in some knee jabs here and there, and remember to abuse her speed and leg grab.
Basic Moves:
There are some awkward properties here and there on her moves. For one her uppercut hits strangely and deceptively, and it has an extra recovery frame, it looks like the made hers stop one frame too early, but I suppose that makes it hit just a tad earlier. Her roundhouse is high and short on range, and does connect on the frame you would expect it to, the whole move is pretty sudden. It's better for run under roundhouse set ups than normal anti air, so you should go for a simple standing HK, which hers is very good. Her sweep is in the top 3 with Kano and Jax. Extremely little recovery time and sets up traps. Her jabs are slightly short on range, making clean aaHP contact difficult at times, but still works on punishers. Her ducking LK is perhaps the best in the game. It's very pointy, with great range and her hit box is incredibly small while doing it because she ducks so low to the ground. If you time it correctly, it is nearly impossible to hit Sonya with any attack except ones that are intentionally low like a Liu Kang Fireball, Ermac's lift or Mileena's roll. People who are aware of this tactic will sometimes pick characters to counter it but there are ways around it. In the unlikely event someone will pick Mileena to roll through your ducking LK cheese, throw out a couple, and they will attempt to roll, since you expect it, simply block it and punish with aaHP, JP, leg grab for 37%. Against Liu Kang try to bait a ducking fireball, and when they do, don't LK, jump over the fireball for a free 52% combo. You can snuff with it any sweep practically inbetween sweeps, any incoming JK contact can be avoided with it and then counter them as they land. Remember you cannot simply mash on D+LK and expect results, you have to recognize your opponent's character's strengths and weaknesses and ultimately take advantage of every little mistake. The ducking LK can also get you out of cross up situations easily with little risk. Her ducking HK can be used a really humiliating anti air attack as well. Her straight up JK can catch some characters if you do it on the way up in a jump, her regular JK is great, it's one of the best in the game. She can snuff lots of attacks with it, including Kabal's spin, frontwards or backwards. Her JP is decent, misses often on wide cross ups.
The Leg Grab is probably one of the most important moves in her set. It has great range, massive damage, quick as hell, can punish just about anything from a good distance and is useable in combos. It has a strange damage protection property in UMK3. Naked, the leg grab does about 21%. If you connect a grounded JK into a leg grab, it does 10%. If you combo more than 2 juggled hits before it, it does 5%. If you combo it in an auto combo with more than 2 connect hits before it, like HP, HP, U+LP, it does 3% damage, acknowledging the fact that any juggle hits after an auto combo are DPed and it has it's own special DP as well. There are many situations where an attack leaves someone open for a leg grab even when Sonya blocks it. Watch for situations, or even try to set them up, so a combo will miss, or get a laggy hit in the middle if blocked, this really is only useful in combos where you can actually switch from standing to ducking and blocking, 3 frames of vulnerability, only 1 abuseable so this has to be done in a situation where there are more than 3 available frames, hence the delayed or stuck hit. If timed correctly Sonya will appear to break through the combo and snag them with a leg grab. Also simply watch for combos that suddenly stop and always be ready to stick in a leg grab because it's free damage and puts Sonya on the offensive. The leg grab can beat out sweeps from close range if they start at the same time, so against a sweep crazy Kano or Jax, throw out a leg grab on them right as they go for one. You might also try simply running through the sweep and getting her knee lift before the sweep connects. The main concept is to abuse the hell out of the leg grab at every opportunity, and mix it up with those nasty ducking LKs, then switch it up on them after a leg grab connects and go for the rush down. A standard punisher combo getting use of the full leg grab damage would be, aaHP, JK, leg grab, and it has to be timed well or the leg grab will be blockable, and it has a decent amount of recovery time, but on the other hand it also has a strange collision box when recoiling, making a lot of close range attacks miss on her. The leg grab must be blocked low, like a sweep, and does no chip damage.
The Rings are a standard projectile, slow start up, she holds the pose for a while, but it has quick horizontal movement. It would be inadvisable to use the rings as a zoning move because she leans forward and is wide open for punisher autocombos. You would be better off using it sparingly, and perhaps as a last resort to hit a jumping away opponent for a win.
The Upward Bike Kick is a great wake up and anti air move. Many people will abuse it in close range situations and it can get you out of run jab scenarios if timed properly, like Mileena's roll. Another good use for it is to get out of cross up situations. If someone run jabs you and exhausts their run bar, they might go for a cross up JK to let some run recharge and continue to run jab until you give up the hits in attempt to counter. At this point your choice of escape is either a ducking LK miss or snuff, or, buffer the bike kick as they jump by hitting F,F, D instead of B, B, D, this way as they cross up you will snag them with a bike kick. The timing is tricky, but it's a good psychological tactic and will prevent them from doing so much crossing up in the future. For a move that leaves the ground, it has almost no punishable frames so the only real escape to spammed bike kicks would be to duck and not block, allowing Sonya to go over you and trying to punish her on the way down, perhaps with a containment set up. It has a limit of one usage per combo and can be done after any amount of hits.
The Wave Punch is a good anti air move, and you can use to keep constant jumpers on the ground even if they are jumping away. It is useful for mobility to some extent but not entirely advisable because it can get her into trouble. You can also use it in combos, particularly in the corner. It's possibly to juggle a LK or even a HK after some corner combos on certain characters after the wave punch.
Sonya has an unsubstantiated ground infinite using her leg grab and running in with a LP jab as they get up. I have personally gotten it to work on some characters but the timing is very difficult, I don't even understand how it works. There's no point in even trying it like Sindel's flight cancel infinite.
Sonya can relaunch Sheeva, Robot Ninjas, Kano, Kung Lao, Nightwolf, Jax, Sub-zero, Sonya, Shang Tsung, Kabal, Sindel, Male Ninjas, and Liu Kang. On some characters you can follow their flight path instantly as the combo finishes and relaunch them, but on others you must pause for an instant before jumping, aligning the collision boxes properly. Some characters are not worth attempting relaunching because the timing is too rigid.
Basic Juggles: 1. punch starter, HK, HK, HP, HP, U+LP, JK, leg grab 8 hits 48% 2. aaHP,HP, leg grab 3 hits 34%
Advanced Juggles: 1. punch starter, HK, HK, HP, HP, U+LP, aaHP, JK, leg grab 9 hits 51% (can add an extra aaHP on some characters like Jax, Sub and Stryker for 10 hits 54%) 2. punch starter, HK, HK, HP, HP, U+LP, deep JK, HK 8 hits 52% (on some characters like Jax if you get a deep bleeding JK you can stick in an aaLP, JK, Leg Grab, for 10 hits 58%) 3. aaHP, JK, Leg Grab 3 hits 43%
Corner Juggles: 1. aaHP, RH, Leg Grab 3 hits 45% 2. punch starter, HK, HK, HP, HP, U+LP JK, HK, HK 9 hits 59% 3. punch starter, HK, HK, HP, HP, U+LP, JK, RH, HK 9 hits 60% 4. punch starter, HK, HK, HP, HP, U+LP, JK, JK, HK 9 hits 60% 5. punch starter, HK, HK, HP, HP, U+LP, JP, JK, aaLP, Wave Punch 10 hits 60% 6. punch starter, HK, HK, HP, HP, U+LP, JK, aaHP, Wave Punch, LK or upward bike kick on some characters 10 hits 62%
Stryker
Stryker is a mid tier character, between 13th and 15th, with seriously powerful combos. He is a major zoning character and has a lot of different and useful specials moves. He can be a major force in the right hands, but like all other skill-to-use characters, he is ultimately defeated by top tier characters. He has a larger than average juggle zone, so he is massively vulnerable to punisher combos off his Baton Throw, not many characters can relaunch him, and he has huge juggling potential with the riot gun. His ducking blocking collision box is really small. He can't be run jabbed by many character, but likewise, for whatever reason he can't run jab many of them either. Try to stay on the ground with him, he doesn't really need to leave the ground to win much like Kabal and Reptile, unless you are juggling.
Basic moves:
Nice range HK, solid uppercut that can hit Shang and Kano while they are just ducking, a trait shared by some other characters, good range sweep, good range HP jabs, slow, deceptive hit area roundhouse which can be used as anti air but only in extremely circumstantial situations, if you can hit the Roundhouse as anti, you're better off doing an aaHP,HP to riot gun, dashin, HP,HP and try another riot gun, etc, average range, but quick ducking LK, excellent range JP good for wide cross ups if they are available, nice JK very similar to Jax.
The high and low grenades are essential to his zoning. Make sure you mix them up and try to guess when they are going to jump to knock them back down with the high grenade and keep them second guessing themselves but try to never throw out a grenade that will totally miss or you'll get punished. They are great anti air and anti counter turtling since they can hit very high and very depending on distance. Only use them in combos if you plan on terminating a combo for whatever reason.
The Riot Gun is very fast, and not always easy to punish depending on how close the opponent is when he blocks so often times it's safe to throw out randomly but make sure they are going to run into the tail end of the contact so Stryker's recovery time is shorter incase it is blocked. This sets up the chance to counter a rush down on their way in. Simply put, don't use it in close range if it's going to be blockable. It's good for wake up or after a knock down and the person is suspect to jump away out of sweep range. It is fast enough to counter virtually any close range attack for a simple psychological punish. It is a juggle machine because it counts as containment in air, similar to Cyrax's net but inside they wobble away from you so you need to utilize the baton dash sometimes to get close after it, setting up juggles.
The Baton Trip is virtually worthless unless it used as a surprised last resort hit to win a match because Stryker recovers at almost the exact same time as the person does when they get up and hold down, and he can be uppercut for chip by everyone for free after it at the very least, and Kabal for example, can connect an uppercut on him for free or spin him for free if it connects.
The Baton Throw is a very interesting move. It for some reason, like Sonya's leg grab, has it's own self damage protection properties. It's normal damage is about 19%, if you connect more than 3 juggled hits before it, it will do 5%, if in a pop up combo, it does 3%, .5% on contact and 2.5% on the landing. Weird. Anyway, it's great for early anticipated cross ups, so if someone goes to jump over you, if you buffer the F,F you can snag them as soon as they leave the ground, uppercuts in general can be used the exact same way, but there is a zoning advantage for Stryker by using the baton throw. It is MASSIVELY punishable since it's kind of slow and can be blocked from such far range at start up, it's better to stick to using it as long distance anti air or anti cross ups.
Stryker has two infinites. One is semi, the other is true. The semi infinite is his cross screen aaHP,HP riot gun, which cannot be done to every character, for example: Shang Tsung. His true infinite is in the corner, any variation of jump attack, aajab, riot gun, so, for example: 4 hit pop up, JK, aaLP, riot gun, probably the easiest and most effective incarnation of it, occasionally there might be times where Stryker is too close and a straight up JK can be useful. Make sure you allow enough push back off the jab to create distance when the riot gun hits, preferably on the way down towards the end, reducing recovery time, allowing Stryker to JK later, landing sooner, jabbing sooner, repeating the infinite ideally. The infinite can be starter off his regular pop up in the corner, or if his other infinite is forced to terminate you can attempt to continue infing with the true inf off it. For doing his cross screen infinite against some characters, it is a good idea to do aaHP, run cancel, step in, aaHP, instead of aaHPHP. On the male ninjas for example, do his pop up combo, labor B,F so he actually takes a full step in but do it soon enough after the pop up so they land on the riot gun instead of being hit by it at all too late, baton dash-miss, and repeat, this way the character is low enough to ground to get hit by the gun in a good position but still be close enough to continue cross screen juggles. If you do the HPHP they will be too high for the riot gun to connect right. You'll notice the best way to get this is to have the gun connect well after it's been fired, essentially landing right on top of the gun's collision area. This way you have started elapsing the time it takes inbetween uses of the gun, which is very brief, but it's crucial in this combo.
He can relaunch the Robot Ninjas, Sheeva, and Kung Lao.
Basic juggles:
1. aaHP,HP, baton throw, 3 hits 32% 2. aaHP,HP, riot gun, baton dash (misses), uppercut 4 hits 36% 3. jump punch, HK, HP, HP, LP, riot gun, run in, aaHP, JK 8 hits 50%
Advanced juggles:
1. jump punch, HK, HP, HP, LP, riot gun, baton dash, (misses) aaHP,HP, riot gun, repeat til corner, up to 80%+ depending on the opponent on how far from the wall you can begin, and for example 90%-100% on Jax as well because you can get 3 aaHPs on him. 2. in corner (HK, HP, HP, LP, JK, aaLP, riot gun, repeat til satisfied or capable, and terminate with any variety of attacks) 3. aaHP,HP riot gun, baton dash, repeat for inf.
(more characters to come) 2-24-06