JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future/Petshop/Strategy

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General Strategy

Damage

Most of his moves to spite all of them using his stand, cause no chip damage what-so-ever, presumably due to the fact that Petshop's gameplan revolves around unblockable setups.

Petshop lacks terribly high damaging normals, but his icicles are what really carry him. On their own, icicles already deal quite a lot of damage, and even when scaled in combos they will continue to take out chunks of your opponent's healthbar and allow extended combos. Whilst you can zone with Petshop and still do well against most opponents, most of your damage will come from your combos, most of which will kill your opponents.


Flight

Petshop is unique in the way that he can move as freely in the air as he can on the ground. All special and super moves can be used anywhere on the screen, and most of his normal moves do not change, apart from losing their Air-UB properties when flying and being unable to walk-cancel moves. Additionally, he can dash in six different directions.

Keep in mind that while flying, you are making yourself vulnerable in some matchups as you cannot block in midair and your roll will lose a lot of it's invincibility frames.

Air control can be used to avoid the opponent or even cripple their gameplan in certain matchups. Characters like Old Joseph will have great difficulty bridging the gap and bringing you down.


Icicles

]x[ - Petshops best special. Arguably one of the strongest specials in hftf. This special allows for unblockables, strong mix-ups, strong area controlling, “guard cancel” like defensive option. I could go on but you get the point. This move operates by holding A B or B for 90 frames to create an icicle. Each attack button will change the position of the icicle, A being closest and C being farthest. You are not limited to one either as multiple in any combination can be charged. Now that we have explained how it works, let's start going through the former list and explain each point in detail. One of petshops claim to fame is his ability for unblockables. People will point this to be petshops issue that makes him banned which is only half true. Lots of characters can punish unblockables by outpoking, rolling, or abusing iframes to avoid them. Still a really strong and OP option for unblockable oki where you can perform 41236s to counter any attempt to stop your unblockable on wake-up. Because it only takes 90 frames to charge an icicle this allows for strong mixup options to stagger pressure and allow for safe 3c options where you cant be punished. Petshop has THE strongest area control by charging AB or ABC. The opponent will always be at risk when attempting to navigate under icicles with the threat of unblockables or approaches being stopped by them, unless your character has an IAD. Icicles can be charged while blocking. A strong but not perfect defensive option that can punish a button you blocked with an icicle which can be converted into a full combo bnb. Its important to know when its safe to charge on block because good players may read that you are charging and will attempt to grab you. I know this is a lot of information but icicles are just as flexible and freeform as you play petshop to allows fast charging playstyles or just ways to compliment how you want to play petshop.


Unblockable Gameplay

Petshop can create icicles overhead by holding A, B or C--which hit high--and possesses numerous normal moves which hit low. This allows him to create a situation where the opponent cannot block properly by hitting from both directions at once.

Many cast members have tactics like this (Polnareff, Vanilla, D'bo, etc) however, where Petshop differs is that he commits himself to nothing while charging his icicles.

Since Petshop can block freely or negative edge into special moves and supers while they charge, the icicles function as deadzones for your opponent. They will never stand under an icicle because you can unblockable them if they try to defend or counter them if they try to attack.

This allows you to stay safe at any range simply by holding a button or two in with good positioning (or during your rush-down), to start, extend or reset combos. Additionally, since the icicles all appear in the same spot in the corner, a knockdown leads to a devastating okizeme mix-up on opponents.


Unblockable Reset

Thanks to petshop's 214X, he is able to get a meterless ToD on any stand-on character from blocking. When 214X is the 9th or above hit in a combo, due to launcher scaling it will cause a knockdown.

Stand-on users, however, go through a short "trip" launch animation rather than being knocked down.

Because of this, you can launch the opponent slightly with 214X on the 9th hit or over in a combo and immediately stand crash and ground the opponent with an icicle. This will reset the combo, meaning your opponent cannot escape and you can continue the combo without and scaling or IPS.

Below is a video that goes more in-depth into this tech
Petshop UB reset video by Vyon


Recovery

Petshop has one of the best recoveries in the game.

If this motherfucker gets the opportunity to tech on the ground then god help you. Petshop's grounded recovery allows for instant followups with supers and specials, meaning you'll get access to more punishes leaving certain opponents with less options against you, especially in the corner.


Okizeme

Petshop also happens to posses one of the strongest Okizemes in the cast. After the untechable launch into knockdown from 236S (Which is used to end most combos), you have time to generate two icicles above your opponent and hit them with a meaty 41236S. When 41236S hits meaty, you can follow up with different options depending on the scenario:

  • If the 41236S meaty is not blocked: 662A 2A ]BC[ 665C [BC] 665A 5A 5A 5A ]C[ 3C ]B[ 236AA - the two 2As will be enough to push an opponent under at least one of your icicles after they are possibly pushed too far away to be hit by your B icicle. After that you can combo into 665C and continue the rest of the combo from there. Make sure you DO NOT use AA6BC or 2S after your meaty is not blocked, as your opponent has a few frames of hitgrab immunity on wakeup, and if an opponent does not block a meaty they will still have that immunity until the combo drops.
  • If the 41236S meaty is blocked: 662A + ]BC[ 5C [BC] 665A 5A 5A 5[A] ]C[ 3C ]B[ 1S ]A[ 236S... or 2S + ]B[ 236S [B] ACS*n ]B[ [C] ABS*n 41236S (meaty)... - If your opponent blocks on wakeup, you can follow up with an unblockable while they're in blockstun. This will allow you to get another combo or to Oki loop them with 2s 236s.
  • If the 41236S meaty is Guard Cancelled: 2S + ]B[ 236S [B] ACS*n ]B[ [C] ABS*n 41236S (meaty)... - Doing 2S will allow you to duck under most GCs at full range, however it would be risky to follow up with a 662A against a GC. Be aware that this Guard Cancel counter may not work in the corner depending on positioning

Make sure that you start holding [B] and [C] towards the end of your 236S to ensure that the icicles are ready by the time you hit 41236S meaty. Holding B and C means that you have icicles available for each one of these options, as when 41236S is not blocked your opponent will be pushed too far away to get hit by releasing your B icicle unless they are in a corner. Check the Petshop Oki guide below for more details
Petshop Okizeme Guide by Vyon

Teleport Glitch

Petshop's 3C is vulnerable before he's come out of the ground all the way until the attack ends. The glitch, therein, happens if the opponent manages to counter your teleport with a throw. Since Petshop hasn't actually appeared out of the ground yet (but can still be thrown, because he's so close to your opponent), his visibility state will not be reset to visible until he is grabbed or teleports again, although the ice from his attacks will still be visible.

Thanks to this, you'll usually be allowed to hit a combo easier than usual due to less observant opponents not being able to tell where you are. You may face some smarter foes who will be able to tell where you're heading as the screen zooms in and out, however.


Ghosting

Wanna win the Kak Matchup? It's normally a 5:5, but I can let you in on a little secret that tips the balance in your favour. Just don't tell anyone okay? Petshop has some super secret cool tech similar to Avdol's ghosting ability. All you need to do is dash into midair, roll straight away, then hold 2. It works with 447ABC[2] and 669ABC[2] and you can build icicles from the buttons you press while rolling. If you do this correctly, the game gets confused by trying to make you crouch in midair and thus it just freaks out and removes your hitbox and hurtbox. While ghosting, you cannot move or attack, and if you get crossed up you will be brought out of the ghosting state and stuck in a midair crouching position for a few frames. Now I already hear you saying "But this sounds pretty shit!!! I can't even move or attack what's the point? It sounds like it's just a free set of icicles that is extremely dependant on the scenario!" and to that I would say you're partially right! In some matchups this will hinder you rather than help you, but if you do this in a matchup where it would otherwise be favourable for your opponent not to approach you and you have the lifelead, it can cause them to either have to wait out their loss or approach. This particularly shines in the Petshop:Kakyoin matchup, as now you posses a tool to get that dumb net camper out of his little corner. More often than not, they'll attempt to IAD j.C xx 214x to cross up and get you out of it (Providing they know what they're even fighting), but you should be able to interrupt them by dunking an icicle on their head and following up with a midair 665C. If they wait out the icicles before approaching, you can attempt to hit them with a 214AA or AA6BC to iframe through their attack and punish them.

Ghosting isn't the only use this glitch has. When you do 447ABC or 669ABC the game considers you to be on the ground still while the roll takes place. So far some other discovered uses for this glitch are:

  • 447/669ABC [4] - Midair blocking
  • 447/669ABC 2A - Performs 2A while in midair
  • 447/669ABC 2B - Performs a weird version of 5C with the hitbox of 2B
  • 447/669ABC 2C - Performs a weird version of 2C, with the hitbox much lower than normal
  • 447/669ABC 3C - Burrows underground and a version of 3C with no hitbox comes out. Timing this correctly will remove your hurtbox briefly before you reemerge in midair. You can use this to counter opponents who attempt to cross you up while you ghost.

None of these moves that can hit opponents will retain their grounded Air-UB properties, however.

Fullscreen Unblockable

Petshop has a unblockable that can be done from fullscreen. If both players are in opposite corners from one another, letting go of [ABC] then rapidly inputting 41236s + 236aa causes the screen to shorten and the unblockable connect. You may ask why 41236s and ]x[ causes a unblockable? Well its actually the screenpull basically pulling the opponent into a hitbox without preblock getting involved, making it unblockable. Keep in mind while its a cool trick its still highly punishable by any cast member who has answers to petshops zoning like Sdio's book.

Petshop fullscreen UB video by Dane and Voltage

Game Navigation

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Boingo
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Petshop
Rubber Soul
Shadow Dio
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