The King of Fighters '98/Daimon

File:Daimon98 stance.gif

Introduction

Goro Daimon was previously known as just "Daimon" before the King of Fighters tournament. The name means "Die, man".

Just before the first KOF tournament, he defeated Goro, prince of Shokan in hand-to-hand mortal combat, taking his namesake as a trophy.

Anyone who could defeat Goro is extremely strong, so as expected, Goro Daimon is a top tier character.

Colors

Gameplay Overview

Daimon does a ton of damage, has very high priority normals, very effective throw mixups, and is top-tier. Even from an anti-air he can do 30% or so thanks to ground pound OTGs and juggles. He has very good defense (ie takes less damage than average) and is basically a wall of pain. His only disadvantage is that he has a very large sprite. He has combos/tactics that vary from requiring nearly no execution skill to requiring godly execution. He is a decent character for a beginner.

In-depth Analysis

Movelist

	Frames	Advantage	Cancel	Block	Hitbox		Notes
Standing Close
	4/4/5	+3/+1	C	HL			Chain: repeatable
	7/4/9	-1/-3	C	HL			Chain: -
	4/4/13	+3/+1	C	HL			Fast, cancelable, great as a meaty. More range than close D, so you can use cr.A, cl.C as a block string.
	4/8/14	-2/-4	C	HL			Best meaty, and if not too meaty or out in the open, you actually have a good amount of time to hit-check hcb,f+P off of it. Same speed as close C, cancelable.
Standing Far
	4/5/6	+1/-1	C	HL			Fast, really good anti-air against short hop. Chain: ender
	4/5/10	-3/-5	C	L			THE POKE! Fast, low, long range, cancelable. You can do repeated st.Bs, but if you think they will hit a button in between, cancel into hcf+C. You can also combo this into hcb,f+P if you're in range, which most people forget about. Chain: ender
	9/9/16	-5/-7	-	HL			Nice and big, stays out a long time. Can stop short hops.
	5/6/16	-2/-4	-	HL			Fast, high priority, one of the best anti-air normals in the game. It can also punish things like incompleted Iori rekkas. It will whiff over crouching characters, so watch that.
+	15/4/26	KD/-8	S	HL			Big ass cancelable move. often used to cancel into his qcf+K counter and bait CD counters.
Crouching
	3/5/5	+2/0	C	HL			#1 poke if you're too close for standing B. Cancelable. Chain: ender
	4/5/6	+1/-1	-	L			Good poke if you're too close for standing B as well. Links into super easily since it has a long animation/advantage. Chain: ender
	5/4/19	-3/-5	-	HL			Fast, good range. Probably better options though.
	4/7/12	KD/-1	C	L			A sweep! Can be meatied pretty easily.
Jump
	5/13/-	-/-	-	H			Pretty good air-to-air.
	8/17/-	-/-	-	H			Stays out for a long time, can be used as a crossup if it's very meaty, or your opponent is close to the corner, or in the corner and you are player 2. Good setup for his grab mixups.
	9/8/-	-/-	-	H			Crosses up, has a pretty hefty hitbox (what doesn't?).
	7/7/-	-/-	-	H			Godly jump move. Good for jumping in, or air-to-air jumping back. Can be used as an instant overhead (short hop only).
+	15/4/-	KD/-	-	HL			CD in the air!
Command Normals
f+	22/4/26	KD/-12	-	HL			Not overhead! Active frames and last two start-up frames cancel projectiles.
df+	3/4+9/16	KD/-11	S	HL			Great anti-air. It doesn't beat as much stuff as standing D, but it will trade with most things, enabling you to perform a ground pound combo. Remember if it trades, you will have to re-buffer your qcb+B/qcf+B afterwards so the ground pound will hit OTG.
Command Normals
hcf+	5/7/41			HL			A Overhead Slam (hcf+A) Beats pretty much everything above the top half of the screen, his arm is not hittable. It can be air blocked if the opponent is jumping up or back, though. Can be comboed from d/f+C on an opponent in the air. Ends in a back turned, un-rollable knockdown, and sets up for a meaty (unblockable) Ground Pound (dp+A).
hcf+	12/4/37			HL			C Overhead Slam (hcf+C) Catches ground pokes, but is punishable by some fast long range things. Good to use as a combo ender if you aren't comfortable using hcb,f+P. Can hit OTG. Ends in a back turned, un-rollable knockdown, and sets up for a meaty (unblockable) Ground Pound (dp+A).
hcb,f+	0/1/35			Grab			Ragdoll Toss (hcb,f+P) Instant, long range, comboable throw. Not rollable, and sets up for a meaty (unblockable) Ground Pound (dp+A).
dp+	8/1/23			Grab			Trip Slam (dp+K) Slower grab with invincibility. You can even use it to go through fireballs. This is his main weapon in attack/throw mixups. Set it up by doing it on your opponents, wakeup, after a sloppy jump-in, or whatever. Not rollable, and sets up for a meaty (unblockable) Ground Pound (dp+A).
dp+	27/1/44			L			Ground Pound (dp+P) C version is a ground pound fake. It is 'blocked' by crouching, but there is no blockstun. You don't even need to hold d/b, just crouch. This can hit OTG (on the ground) after an anti-air d/f+C canceled into a non-blockable move (like a throw or utility move). It is also unblockable if done as a meaty attack, but the window is small and the setups vary from character to character. The knockdown can be rolled, but if they miss, you can combo a hcf+C in the corner.
dp+	35			--
qcb+	16+17			--			Ground roll (qcb+K) Invincible during the roll, but completely vulnerable at the end of the roll. Usually used for the ground pound combo bug or to gain meter after a knockdown. Can be canceled into to roll through some auto-guard moves or CD counters.
qcb+	23+18			--
qcf+	2/12/15			--			Counter (qcf+K) Will counter any mid/high hitting normal attack or CD counter. Usually used to cancel into to make moves safeer (like standing CD) and to bait CD counters at the same time. Ends in a back turned, un-rollable knockdown, and sets up for a meaty (unblockable) Ground Pound (dp+A).
DMs
hcbx2+	0/1/35			Grab			Super Ragdoll Toss (hcbx2+P) Instant good range super throw. Does damage. MAX version does more damage.
hcf hcf +	14/1/11			Grab			Super Armor Throw (hcf hcf + K > hcf + K > dp + K) A slower throw. DM version has autoguard on few frames. SDM version has super armor until recovery (ie you will still take full damage from any hits). The followups switch sides every time, and are timed as the previous part hits. MAX version does more damage. If you don't follow the first or second part, you can do a hcf + C (OTG) on the knocked opponent, however it will do less damage than the folow-ups on KOF98 (in KOF97 use hcf + C instead of the third part on the DM actually does more damage), so you should only do this if you missed the follow-ups...

Fastest Attacks

• 0F: C throw; D throw; hcb f + P; hcb hcb + P
• 1F: -
• 2F: qcf + K
• 3F: cr.A; df + C
• 4F: cl.A; cl.C; cl.D; st.A; st.B; cr.B; cr.D
• 5F: st.D; cr.C; hcf + A
• 6F: -
• 7F: cl.B
• 8F: dp + K
• 9F: st.C
• 10F: -

Normal Throws

• b or f+C - Unbreakable (mashable), forward knockdown, face forward, un-rollable.

• b or f+D - Breakable, reverse knockdown, back turned, rollable.

• b or f+C (just outside of normal throw range) - Breakable, forward knockdown, back turned, un-rollable.

Combos

As I stated above, his combos range from easy to extremely difficult depending on what you're comboing into.

• cl.C / cl.D > df + C (optional) >
  • (S)DM Super Ragdoll Toss (hcb hcb + P)
  • Ragdoll Toss (hcb f + P)
  • C Overhead Slam (hcf + C)

• cl.A, cl.A / cr.A >
  • (S)DM Super Ragdoll Toss (hcb hcb + P)
  • Ragdoll Toss (hcb f + P)

• cl.A / cr.A >
  • df + C
    • (S)DM Super Ragdoll Toss (hcb hcb + P)
    • Ragdoll Toss (hcb f + P)
    • C Overhead Slam (hcf + C)
  • dp + K (Point blank.)

• cr.B,
  • (S)DM Super Ragdoll Toss (hcb hcb + P)
  • Ragdoll Toss (hcb f + P)

Link combo.

• st.B >
  • (S)DM Super Ragdoll Toss (hcb hcb + P) (Not too far.)
  • Ragdoll Toss (hcb f + P) (Not too far.)

• dp + A / f + A / Anti-air df + C / st.CD / j.CD / cr.D,
  • hcf + C (OTG) (If not too far.)

Must not cancel the first move (if it is cancellable), otherwise hcf + C will miss because opponent will not be on the floor yet. Except for f + A, opponent may do a recovery roll and in this case the hcf + C will miss, however you have time to wait to see if they will do a recovery roll before using the hcf + C ;).

• Anti-air df + C > A Overhead Slam (hcf + A)

Depending on distance and height you don't need to cancel to combo, you may follow with hcf + A after recovering. In fact in some situations you can trade and still do the hcf + A after recovering :). Depending on spacing is easier to a st.D instead of hcf + A.

• Counter-hit: Anti-air df + C > qcb + B, df + C > A Overhead Slam (hcf + A)

The qcb + B is only to move close to opponent and may be skipped if you are already close or in the corner. On MAX, close to the corner, if first df + C hit high (second part animation) and second df + C hit low (first part animation), it's possible to do a third df + C (second part animation), but the timming is difficult, and it's even hard to follow with hcf + A after. If you are close to corner is easy to use hcf + C (OTG), as in the combo above, instead of hcf + A, but opponent may do a recovery roll to escape... Depending on spacing is easier to a st.D instead of hcf + A.

• Anti-air df+C / st.CD / cr.D >
  • qcb + B / qcf + B (miss) / dp + K (miss) / hcb f + P (miss) / dp + C
    • A Ground Pound (dp + A) (OTG)
      • hcf + C (OTG) (Only if first move was st.CD or cr.D. If not too far.)

Ground Pound bug combo. You may use both (S)DM as the second move, but it is just for show off, as you will be spending metter with no benefits (acctually you will end up doing less damage if you use a SDM as MAX mode will end...). The hcf + C will always miss if the first move is an anti-air df+C (don't know why, because hcf + C will hit when the first move is an anti-air st.CD or cr.D...). If the first move is a st.CD you will normally only be close enough to do the hcf + C in the corner. Be aware that if the first move is cr.D, and the second move is qcb + B you may switch sides if you were too close, but this is the the only combination that normally enable the hcf + C out of the corner. On the previous combo instead of ending with A Overhead Slam (hcf + A), you may follow with this combo/bug (from the second move).

The cr.B link into super is a good way to combo into it without having godly execution. Just perform it like f df d db + B b hcb + P.

It is possible to perform his Ground Pound (dp + A) on the opponent's wakeup with such timing that it cannot be blocked. Here is a list of unblockable Ground Pound setups after various moves for different characters: unblockable Ground Pound setups

The df + C has less range than hcb f + P (for example, df + C miss after st.b but hcb f + P can combo), and df + C > hcf + C does just a tiny more damage than hcb f + P (almost the same out of MAX), so in general its better to just hcb f + P instead of df + C > hcf + C on combos.

Strategy Corner

• MAX: cl.D > hcb f + P

deals just a tiny less damage (~ 1/3 cl.A) than

• cl.D > DM hcb hcb + P

Keep this in mind, when you need to decide whether to trigger MAX or keep meter for a DM.

The King of Fighters '98: The Slugfest