Soulcalibur VI/Astaroth/Introduction

Introduction

Astaroth stands proud as Soulcalibur's big-body representation, using his massive axe for long reach and huge damage, and subjecting his victims to a stunning variety of command grabs at close range. He is the primary grappler character of the game. With the way throws work in SoulCalibur VI, Astaroth is a very strong character as the grappler character, able to force 50/50 interactions and control the flow of battle with the threat of the immense damage he can put out. Being a big hard hitting character, he does suffer from the usual archetypal downfalls of having few quick moves that make his defense difficult to master against the right opponents.

Strengths	Weaknesses
High damage Long-ranged attacks Massive variety of command grabs to keep the opponent guessing Plus on command grab break Can break throws from behind	Worst block punishment in the game Limited repertoire of fast attacks Huge hurtbox Lives and dies by good reads and decision making

Unique Mechanics

Revenge

While not necessarily unique to Astaroth, he is perhaps the most notable user of the Revenge mechanic. Similar to armor in other games, attacks with the Revenge property can absorb a counterattack without interruption, powering up the Revenge attack in the process.

Command Throw Breaks

This is also not something unique to Astaroth, but a large influence on his gameplan. Any time a command throw is broken, the character initiating the throw ends up at +6, allowing them to continue their turn. Given that he has the most command grabs out of any character in the game, this becomes a key component to his gameplan and utilization of his moveset.

See Strategy for a full strategy breakdown.