The King of Fighters 2002/Whip

Movelist

Command Normals:
1. Whip Shot - f+Ax5
- Whip does a forward swipe with her whip, which has good horizontal range. Can be done up to five times
- causes alot of guard crush damage. It is possible to get the opponent's guard crush bar flashing in only two uses of this move (each one doing five hits)
- does good damage overall, and is not punishable if the opponent has no stocks to guard roll. However, if they do have stocks, she can be severely punished before the last f+A by just guard rolling it
- cancellable on the last hit
- free cancellable out of on all hits but the last

Special Moves:
1. Strings Shot Type A "Code: Yuuetsu" - hcb+A(can be held)
- overhead on the second hit
- hard knockdown on the second hit
- supercancellable on the first hit
- free cancellable out of on the first hit

2. Strings Shot Type B "Code: Chikara" - hcb+B(can be held)
- if it hits, the opponent is pulled close to Whip, allowing her to followup with pretty much any combo
- supercancellable on the first hit
- free cancellable out of on the first hit

3. Strings Shot Type C "Code: Shouri" - hcb+C(can be held)
- low attack on the second hit
- hard knockdown on the second hit
- supercancellable on the first hit
- free cancellable out of on the first hit

4. Boomerang Shot "Code: SC" - hcf+P
- hcf+C whiffs against most crouching opponents, except Whip, Seth, Maxima, Daimon and Chang. In combos, if you are not fighting one of these characters, then use hcf+A in place of hcf+C
- supercancellable on the first hit
- free cancellable out of on the first hit
- hard knockdown on the second hit

5. Hook Shot "Code: Kaze" - qcb+P(air)
- unpunishable if she lands on the ground. However, after blocking the move, she can easily be hit out of the air as she's coming down. Even worse, what they hit her with will be a counterhit. There are a variety of counterhit combos that the opponent can punish Whip with in the air. For example, Clark can do Close C(1), dp+A, qcf+P to punish

6. Assassin Strike "Code: BB" - dp+P/K
- Whip throws her whip into the air, pulls herself up off the screen, and lands
- the location of where she falls is determined by the button used. A makes her drop almost exactly where she started from, B makes her land about a quarter screen from her current location, C makes her go another quarter screen, and D almost full screen
- it is possible to crossup the opponent with this move. However, it has such horrible recovery time that it really should never be used
- hard knockdown on the last hit when she comes down
- free cancellable out of into Hook Shot qcb+P(air) when she comes down

7. Desert Eagle - rdp+P, tap P rapidly
- Whip takes out her gun and shoots at the ground. rdp+C shoots further than rdp+A
- this move has the ability to hit an opponent on the ground. It is best used after a throw. rdp+C might miss after a throw, so use rdp+A instead
- Whip starts with a random number of bullets in her gun, up to a maximum of 7. When she has wasted all of her bullets, she will reload on her next use of the move, resulting in very long recovery time
- it is possible to combo with this move multiple times, by tapping P. However, this is very risky since you can easily run out of bullets, getting yourself killed when she starts to reload her gun

DMs:
1. Sonic Slaughter "Code: KW"
- if the first hit of qcb hcf+P misses, the other hits do no damage and do not suck the opponent into the DM. This means that if she does do the DM and it whiffs on the first hit, the opponent can fearlessly run into her while she's still swinging her whip, without getting hurt and punish her badly

SDMs:
1. Sonic Slaughter "Code: KW"
- same properties as the DM version, but more damage

HSDM:
Super Black Hawk - b B C b C
- Whip pulls out her, yells "Game over" and fires it
- the gunshot is unblockable and goes full screen. It can be rolled, or jumped
- she is invincible during the entire move, except to throw
- if you run up right beside her, the gunshot whiffs

Notes::
- cancellable normals are close A, close B, far B, crouch B, close C, crouch C, close D, far D, jump B
- whiff cancellable normals are crouch B, close C, crouch C, close D, far D
- CD is cancellable into command moves, specials and DMs
- free cancellable into moves are hcf+P, hcb+P/B, dp+P/K and qcb+P(air)
- free cancellable out-of moves are f+Ax4 on all hits, dp+P/K on the last hit, hcf+P on the first hit and hcb+P/B on the first hit
- close B and crouch A are low attacks
- close A whiffs against low crouching opponents like Iori, Chin, Choi, Athena, etc

Combos

Anywhere:
1. (hcb+B), Close BB, ~Close A(must be very close to connect), Crouch B, hcf+C/qcb hcf+P - 35%/45%
2. (hcb+B), Close D, f+Ax5, hcf+A - 40%
3. (hcb+B), Close C/Crouch C(1), hcf+P - 35%
4. (hcb+B), Close C/Crouch C(1), qcb hcf+P - 50%
5. f+C/D throw, rdp+A - 20%
6. CD/Jump CD, hcf+A - 25%

Corner:
1. (Opponent in corner, Whip full screen away) qcb+A(air), CD, hcf+A(switched sides) - 38%

Counterhit:
1. Jump CD(counterhit), CD, hcf+A - 40% (Corner)
2. CD(counterhit), hcf+A - 33% (Corner)

Maxmode:
1. (hcb+B), Crouch C(1), BC, Crouch C(1), qcb hcf+AC - 55%
2. (hcb+B), Crouch C(1), BC, Crouch C(1), hcf+C, (S)qcb hcf+AC - 65%
3. (hcb+B), Crouch C(1), BC, Crouch C(1), hcf+C, (C)hcb+A(hold for split second and release), (C)hcf+C, (C)hcb+B, walk backwards slightly, Far C(1), (C)hcb+B, Close D, f+Ax5, hcf+A - 85% (Corner)
4. (hcb+B), CD(counterhit), BC, hcf+A, (C)hcb+A(hold for split second and release), (C)hcf+C, (C)hcb+B, Close BB, ~Close A, Crouch B, qcb hcf+AC - 80% (Corner)

Strategies

-Whip's main offensive comes from her jump attacks, which are some of the best in the game. Her jump CD is very high priority. Her forward jump C is a great crossup attack especially when done early off a jumpin, since it acts as an instant overhead and very ambigious as to which direction to block. This can be abused by repeatedly hyper hopping over the opponent with jump C, which is very difficult to counter. Her jump D is fairly high priority and is two hits, and thus even if it is done early during a jump, it is still possible to combo after it with a close B. Mixing up jump crossup C and jump D with her close B (which hits low) gives her a good high/low game

-Her jumpins can also be used very defensively as well. Her vertical high jump A and C are great for intercepting jumpins as they have huge horizontal and vertical range. Jump A has less horizontal range but hits opponents above her as well

-Whip has one of the best standing CDs in the game, due to it's invincibility. This invincibility should not be overlooked. From testing, it is able to ALWAYS counterhit any counterattack on wakeup that does not have invincibility. This includes all rush DMs, and dp moves. Against moves with invincibility, if timed and spaced correctly, it can still win, or in the usual case, the stand CD and the invincible wakeup move will whiff. However, Whip is able to block immediately after her invincibility from the move is gone, which means if both moves whiff, she can still block and punish. This works against Ryo's dp+A and Athena's hcbx2+P, although it is suggested that you keep maximum distance from the opponent when fighting against those moves.

Of course, if the opponent knows that a move with invinciblity will beat the CD, you could try baiting them into doing the move by purposely mistiming your CD attack such that it whiffs just as they get up. This may trick a good player into reacting to the CD on wakeup, and since you will be blocking, you will have the opportunity to punish. Of course, this "trick" works as a general strategy for any character, but it works especially good with Whip if the opponent is aware of how good her CD attack is. Make sure to keep your distance with this move when fighting grapplers, as you can still be thrown out of it if close.

The stand CD is best used as an attack on the opponent's wakeup, but it can also be used as a ranged poke, as well as after a jumpin (although it would be recommended that the jump attack does not hit too deep, so that the stand CD is spaced). Cancel any CD that hits as an anti-air, into hcf+A which combos. Using it as a poke totally destroys Billy because it is able to hit him out of his crouch A, f+A and hcf+P with ease, and Whip doesn't even have to be anywhere near Billy.

Assuming the opponent is not careful when fighting Whip (or just doesn't know about the stand CD invincibility), she will almost always counterhit the opponent. It is possible to combo hcf+A after a counterhit CD, and it is not required that you actually cancel the stand CD into hcf+A (but rather, do hcf+A as soon as she recovers from stand CD). Supercancelling the hcf+A to DM will also connect. Cancelling the CD into maxmode and going for her corner maxmode juggle combo also works. If the opponent is being very careful against her stand CD, then you can create more mindgames by throwing on the opponent's wakeup instead of doing the CD. In addition, if the opponent rolls forward, through the CD, Whip recovers first and is able to throw the opponent.

Her stand CD can also avoid a variety of counters. CD counters will sometimes whiff, depending on who the character is that's doing the counter. May Lee's hcb+K counter also whiffs on the first hit, and be blockable on the other hits (allowing you to roll out during the counter, and combo her). If Yamazaki does hcf+K to counter the CD, Whip can actually hit him with a qcb hcf+P or hcf+C, while he is in the process of executing his uppercut punch. It does not seem possible to evade Billy's counters though.