Introduction

Garou: Mark of the Wolves is the most recent game in SNK's Fatal Fury series. Considered by many to be SNK's answer to Capcom's Street Fighter 3 series. Ports of Garou are available for the Sega Dreamcast, Playstation 2, as well as the Neo-geo AES home console and MVS arcade hardware. Garou Splash Screenshot

General Button Configuration and Notation

A = LP = Light Punch
B = LK = Light Kick
C = HP = Hard Punch
D = HK = Hard Kick
b = Back
f = Forward
bb = Backstep
ff = Dash/Hop Forward (hold f after ff to Run for some characters)
u = Up
d = Down
db = Diagonal Down-Back (Defensive Crouch)
df = Diagonal Down-Forward (Offensive Crouch)
ub = Diagonal Up-Back (Backward Jump)
uf = Diagonal Up-Forward (Forward Jump)
dp = Dragon Punch Motion (f, qcf)
rdp = Reverse Dragon Punch Motion (b, qcb)
tk = Tiger Knee Motion (qcf to uf)
qcf = Quarter Circle (d to) Forward
qcb = Quarter Circle (d to) Back
hcf = Half Circle (b to) Forward
hcb = Half Circle (f to) Back
360 = fully rotate directional pad once
720 = fully rotate directional pad twice
set = hold directional pad in designated direction for 1 second

Game Mechanics

The overall feel of Garou is far more in line with Capcom's fighters than any of SNK's other fighting game line-up. If you've had difficulty adjusting to the King of Fighters series, Garou may be much more to your liking.

T.O.P.

Tactical Offense Position: When selecting your character, you can designate a 1/3 portion of your life bar for T.O.P. When your character's health is within this portion you will also notice that your character will begin flashing. While in this portion you gain the following benefits:

Enhanced damage to all of your attacks.
Faster meter build up.
Slow regeneration of health.
T.O.P. Move becomes available.

T.O.P. sizes other than 1/3 of a life bar are available in home console versions of Garou and are usually ignored in competitive play. The shorter the T.O.P. is, the more damage can be dealt (max of 1.75x), conversely the longer your T.O.P. is, the less damage can be dealt (min of 1.25x = standard arcade setting).

T.O.P. Moves

CD while in T.O.P.

All characters in Garou have an extra move that becomes avaialbe to them only when they are in T.O.P. (the orange region of the health bar). T.O.P. Moves tend to do a decent amount of damage and almost always deals substantial guard crush damage.

Super Moves

S Supers - Level 1 Supers - Available with 1 or 2 Super Stock
P Supers - Level 2 Supers - More powerful version of S
Hidden Supers - Level 2 Only Supers - Available to only 5 characters:

Rock Howard
Kim Dong Hwan
Khushnood Butt
B. Jenet
Gato

Feints

Feints are partial attack animations that can be done in either of 2 ways:

f AC
d AC

Feints show the first few frames of animation and sound of a special or super attack, but do not follow through with the actual attack. While they can be used for mindgames to make your opponent think you're going to go for a special move, they truly show their power when used in combos, since you can cancel out of certain normal attacks with feints. This is called a feint cancel (FC). Since the feints are very short and can be cancelled by anything, this will often allow you to recover from a move faster, and even give opportunites for linking more normals than would otherwise be possible. For example with Terry you can do stand C, then hit f AC (since the f AC feint cancels the stand C from its recovery animation and also moves Terry foward as well), stand C again, f AC, etc.

Brake Moves

AB during beginning frames of brake move animation.

Every character has one designated special move that can be broken or "braked" (only Tizoc and Kain have 2 different break moves. Be sure to note that some of these brake moves may be button specific as opposed to any P or any K). At the appropriate point(s) in the special move, inputting the brake command (AB) will tend to allow the character to recover faster, making the move far safer if blocked, and allowing more extenstive combos (mostly juggles) if hit. Brake moves are some of the easiest methods of hit-confirming a combo to super in the game. All characters have a "hit brake" timing, but only Grant has a true "whiff brake" timing in addition to this.

Hit Brake - a hit or grab is registered before the move is broken (Tizoc is an exception to this because his brake moves will cause him to backstep, but he still only has one timing for each of these).
Whiff Brake - no hit or grab is registered before the move is broken (only Grant has a whiff brake).

Character	Break Moves	Command
Rock Howard	Evac Toss	360 C (near opponent)
Kim Dong Hwan	Sandblast Bash	dp P
Hotaru Futaba	Tiger Tail Kick	qcb K
Khushnood Butt	Koho	dp P
Hokutomaru	Sonic Blast	qcf K
Kevin Rian	Hell Trap	qcf K
Freeman	Morbid Angel	hcf K
Tizoc	Olympus Over (D Version)	qcb D
	Poseidon Wave (C Ver)	rdp C
B. Jenet	The Hind	qcf K
Gato	Lighting Fang	dp K
Kim Jae Hoon	Steam Stab	set d, u K
Terry Bogard	Power Dunk	dp K
Kain R. Heinlein	Schwarz Recht	set d, u K
	Schwarz Panzer	set b, f D
Grant	Raven Razor	dp P

Just Defend (JD)

While Standing - tap b.
While Crouching - tap db.
While Jumping - tap ub, b, or db (note: if you jump back, simply keep holding back and you will automatically JD your 1st hit).

By defending an attack just before it connects, you can "just defend" it. JDs can be done in succession on multi-hit attacks or combos. JD windows are normally 7 frames wide, and give you the following benefits:

Air Defense: There is no air blocking in Garou, but you can JD in the air. (Note: you can not JD during any short jump.)
Gain Life: Regain a small amount of health for a successful JD, even against moves that would do chip damage when blocked (the more damaging the move, the more life gained).
Shorter Block Stun: If an attack is JD'd, the block stun is reduced by 2 frames, allowing you to recover faster.
Guard Cancel (GCL): Completing a special move (including T.O.P. Moves) or supers during a JD will cause a GCL, immediately ending the block stun and going into the attack's animation. The motions of the command can be buffered before the JD occurs, or done entirely during the JD if you are fast enough.
No Guard Meter Loss: JD'n a move will not bring you closer to a guard crush (GCH) like blocking will.

Guard Cancel (GCL)

An essential counter attacking system in Garou (there are similar counter attacking systems in other fighting games, but without the added stipulation of JD). GCLs can only be performed during JD frames (while you flash blue). During a JD, a counter attack of your choosing will cancel frames in the JD animation, allowing you to counter attack. Only 3 kinds of attacks will let you cancel JD animations:

Special Command Moves
Super Moves
T.O.P. Moves

Short Jump

Tapping and releasing up, up/towards, or up backwards, will allow a short jump. Short jumps are fast and great for putting pressure on an opponent, but it is not possible to JD during a short jump.

Evasion Moves (HEM & LEM)

High Evasion Moves (HEM)
d AB

All HEMs have mid-upper body invincibility.

Low Evasion Moves (LEM)
AB

All LEMs register as overhead attacks (except for Gato's) and have lower body invincibility.

Ground LEM (GLEM) - character stays on the ground when performed
Aerial LEM (ALEM) - character leaves the ground when performed

All characters have either a GLEM or ALEM. Both HEMs and LEMs are often cancellable like normal moves. All attacks and special moves have the same hitstun and blockstun; if a move would leave you at +4 frame advantage if blocked, then it will also leave you at +4 frame advantage if it hits. Evasion moves are an exception to this rule. In almost all cases, the attacker will be at a better frame advantage if the evasion attack is blocked instead of hit.

Counter Hits

All modern fighting games make counter hits (being hit while trying to execute a move) slightly more dangerous than normal hits. Garou makes them much, much more dangerous than normal hits. A counter hit on the ground normally causes a spinning stun where the opponent is reeling for a very long time, in the area of 20 frames (1/3 of a second). A counter hit in the air can cause a pop up stun, where the opponent is susceptible to juggle follow ups. Some counter hits on the ground (OTG) from certain specials will also cause this pop up stun, allowing for easy juggles to super.

Guard Crush (GCH)

Blocking, but not JD'n, a move reduces a hidden guard meter for your character. When the guard meter is close to empty, your character will flash red, more strongly the closer you are to being guard crushed. When this meter empties, you are 'guard crushed', and your character reels back, completely vulnerable for a short time. Your guard meter instantly refills to full when this happen.

Ground Recovery (Rolling)

When knocked down, you can press a button before hitting the ground to allow your character to roll in the direction of your choice, in the distance of your choice, and stand faster. Note: it is not possible to roll after getting grabbed or when hit by a super.

A: short roll towards opponent
B: short roll away from opponent
C: long roll towards opponent
D: long roll away from opponent

Advanced Mechanics

Feint Cancel (FC)

FC'n is the cancelling of normal moves with feints. This is an extremely useful feature that is fairly unique to Garou. The only character who can not do this (because he does not have any cancellable normal moves), is Grant. FCs have numerous functions:

Normal move recovery.
Creating chains that would otherwise not be possible.
Move buffering.
More intricate mix ups (leading into high/low games, grabs, etc).

GCL Methods

GCL Upon Reaction
For people with decent to insane reaction speed, this method of GCL'n offers the player the ability to hit check (that is, actually see the hit received during a JD and decide to GCL). The easiest of commands to use for GCL upon reaction is probably qcf, simply because it is not that complex a motion and therefor does not take long to execute. It can be rather difficult to GCL with set commands, but definitely not impossible with a few set buffering methods.

GCL Upon Anticipation
By far the superior method of GCL'n. Just about all commands can be done ahead of time just before you JD. Upon JD'n all you need to do is hit the appropriate attack button to initiate a GCL, therefor you can also hit check with this method as well. Qcb is a somewhat special instance of this method. Instead of doing the command and then tapping back one more time, just time the qcb to end at back at the momement of a JD and then hit the appropriate attack button to initiate a GCL.

Shortcuts for Fully Rotational Grabs

Shortcut for 360s
It is possible to tk (135 NOT 270) instead of 360.

Shortcut for 720s
Tk x2.

LEM Cancelling

GLEM Cancelling aka "Rock's Kara Evac Toss"
Only 3 characters have GLEMs (Rock, Tizoc and Gato), but only single hit GLEMs are cancellable, making Rock the only character who can perform this (Tizoc and Gato have 2 hit GLEMs). The most practicle application of this is to run up, press AB, and kara cancel (whiff cancel) into 360 C. The reason this is so advantageous is because the AB is somewhat slow, thus giving you a good amount of time to kara cancel without actually hitting your opponent. The AB also keeps Rock grounded, which is especially helpful since it is quite easy to accidentally jump while doing a 360 or even tk command.

ALEM Cancelling
Some characters with ALEMs can cancel into aerial moves, thus similating a short jump and allowing the character to execute the aerial move fairly close to the ground (note: most of the time you will want to make sure that you kara cancel into your aerial move).

Command Buffering

Commands can be buffered into either normal moves or feints.

Buffering Into Normal Moves
ex1: Kain (comboing a stand C into his S kick super, by buffering the command, qcf into C)
1) qcf C
2) qcf B

ex2: Khushnood (comboing a stand D into his rising uppercut, by buffering part of the total command, f, into D, and completing the command with qcf P)
1) f D
2) qcf P

The disadvantage of this method is that if the character you're using already has a move with the command you're trying to buffer as well as the button you're trying to buffer into, this method will not work.

Buffering Into Feints
ex: Rock (comboing a stand C into his S kick super, by cancelling C and buffering qcf with a f AC feint)
1) C
2) qcf AC
3) qcf B

The disadvantage of this method is that some combos require such fast cancel timing that the slight delay you get with buffering into a feint will not make the combo work.

Pseudo Short Jump Methods

1) ALEM Cancelling
ex: Tizoc (kara cancelled aerial grab from ALEM low to the ground)
1) AB
2) qcf A

2) Backstep Cancelling
ex: Hokutomaru (aerial projectile low to the ground)
1) bb
2) qcf P

3) Prejump Command Buffering
ex: Hotaru (aerial qcb K low to the ground)
1) qcf
2) j
3) K

Setting Methods

Anytime that you are required to set in order to perform a move, you will almost always want to do so in the db position (because this allows you to set for both b and d directions, thus allowing you to do moves that end in either f or u respectively).

Doing a Setting Special Move after a Standing Normal
1) set db
2) stand normal attack (can be done in neutral position)
3) complete set move with the last part of the total command
4) immediately press the appropriate attack button to execute the set move

GCL'n with a Setting Special Move
Technically speaking, most special moves and supers can be buffered into a JD (meaning, that you can do the command for a move and store it in a JD just before you tap to the appropriate defensive position). Because of this, you can also store your "set" as well as the completion command. Simply tap the appropriate attack button upon successful completion of a JD once you've stored your set and command.

Basic Strategy

To come.

Advanced Strategy

To come.

Game Versions

The Characters

note: names in () are for japanese version