Killer Instinct (2013)/Aria

Overview Strategy Matchups Resources

Introduction

Lore

ARIA, an abbreviation for 'Advanced Robotics Intelligence Architecture', was designed by UltraTech's founder, Ryat Adams, to direct humanity's evolution and ensure its long-term survival. She has since then become the shadowy company's CEO, working behind the scenes to foil our human heroes' plans and as well as putting a stop to Gargos's oncoming invasion. Her view on the world is cold and calculating, and she rarely takes any ethics or moral code into account when devising plans and making decisions in our world's name. Evolve or die - the choice is yours.

Gameplay

ARIA is an enigma within the game's design, being simultaneously incredibly complex and deceptively simple. Instead of having two healthbars that her opponent burns through, she has three, each with less health than usual that adds up to the total of a regular character's two healthbars. However, each healthbar has a specific body effect attached to it, and ARIA can switch between those at will with the remaining bodies staying behind her as assists - reminiscent of team-tag games such as Marvel vs Capcom. Just like in those games, though ARIA can manage the health of each body, a witty opponent can manage their offense and strike down any careless assist calls to quickly whittle ARIA down of her best tools. Despite this, she makes for an incredibly strong character who, with access to all her assists or her instinct, is without a doubt one of the most oppressive characters of the game at any space on the battlefield. Fly around, abuse your sword's range, then keep the opponent away with an onslaught of projectiles - reminding them that they must evolve their gameplan while you orchestrate your way to a supreme victory.

Character

Strengths

Weaknesses

Stand united: ARIA with all three of her bodies is, no doubt, the best character in Killer Instinct. She can cover any approach, be in whatever space of the screen she likes, and excel everywhere, on top of having some disrespectful neutral options when backed by assists and the strongest mixup and pressure game.
Mobile: All three of ARIA's bodies excel in their dedicated parts of mobility - The Booster body can fly, the Blade body has nearly the best walk speed in the game, and the Bass body's dashes are the fastest and zippiest in the game.
Adaptable: Being able to swap between her bodies means ARIA can run any gameplan she wants, be it focusing on the zoning, the midrange, or rushing down her opponent.
High damage: ARIA's linkers and autodoubles are unusually difficult to break, even for those who know what to look for, and she also gets high damage off of them. Her setup ender is also incredibly damaging, and is the ender used for damage when she doesn't have the Blade body. And this is before we get into drone unbreakables.
Damage reduction: When ARIA is in instinct, the damage she takes is split across all three bodies. This includes potential damage, meaning that building ender levels is difficult when ARIA is in instinct. Furthermore, if she has a body that is at 1 health and is in instinct, that body will continue absorbing damage until the main body dies or instinct runs out, meaning that ARIA can potentially take half or even a third of the damage she would usually take.
High comeback potential: Because of ARIA's high damage, and the fact that her instinct gives her additional drones based on how many bodies she lost, it is not uncommon for an ARIA player on the backfoot to score a hit, pop instinct and win a round they should have otherwise lost, no matter what body they're in.

Fall divided: ARIA on her own is mediocre. Her buttons are nothing to write home about, even with the disrespectful nature of her medium kicks, her mix relies more on knowing what your opponent is looking for and pressure ends quickly. Furthermore, some bodies become irrelevant in some match-ups, meaning that being stuck alone with that body can be a death sentence.
Focused: Although ARIA is incredibly adaptable through her drones and body swaps, each body only ever has access to one unique special move and movement trait outside of instinct. This means that players will have to take the time to learn and adapt to, practically, three different mini-characters with three different playstyles if they want to really excel at playing ARIA. At least her combos are universal.
Glass cannon: Although ARIA enjoys damage reduction in instinct, she'll only ever get that twice, maybe thrice in a match. ARIA's healthbars are split into three, and although they make up the same amount of health any other character has, losing a healthbar is easy, and that means losing the tools and drone attached to that healthbar, which can be absolutely harrowing for some match-ups. Furthermore, her drones can be hit for 25% extra damage, meaning that a careless ARIA player can very quickly lose the game.
Top tier: People won't be happy with you playing this character (and downplay will be quickly laughed away).

Character Data

Forward Walk Speed	52f to cross two large training mode squares 41f in Blade Body
Backwards Walk Speed	72f to cross two large training mode squares 54f in Blade Body
Forward Dash Duration	18f 14f in Bass Body
Backdash Duration	23f 18f in Bass Body
Pre-Jump Frames	5f
Jump Duration	38f Booster Body Hover Data: Startup= 1f Active= 66f Recovery= 4
Landing Recovery	4f
Advantage Post Grounded Combo Breaker	+1

Normal Moves

Far Normals

Standing Light Punch
Stand LP/5LP

Damage	Counter-Hit Damage	Potential Damage	Shadow On Hit	Shadow On Block	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total Duration	On Hit	On Counter-Hit	On Block	Special Properties
8(2%)	12(3%)	--	1.6%	2.4%	Mid	5	3	8	15f	+4	+6	+1	Chain
Basic stand jab. Will whiff most crouchers.

Damage	Counter-Hit Damage	Potential Damage	Shadow On Hit	Shadow On Block	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total Duration	On Hit	On Counter-Hit	On Block	Special Properties
20(5%)	26(7%)	--	2.4%	4%	Mid	8	2	17	26f	0	+4	-2	None
Meh button in neutral, gains chip damage and good range in Blade body, turning it into your main poke in neutral. Can be cancelled into st.HK for a dash cancel or a bomb mixup.

Damage	Counter-Hit Damage	Potential Damage	Shadow On Hit	Shadow On Block	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total Duration	On Hit	On Counter-Hit	On Block	Special Properties
30(8%)	38(10%)	--	4%	4.5%	Mid	13	2	26	40f	-5	-1	-9	None
Meh button in neutral, gains chip damage and great range in Blade body. Still, better used as a punish more than anything else - whiffing this button will get you killed. Can be cancelled into st.HK, allowing for a dash cancel from long range or pre-emptive anti-air with the bomb. Cancel window is deceptively small - learn to buffer your whiff punishes.

Damage	Counter-Hit Damage	Potential Damage	Shadow On Hit	Shadow On Block	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total Duration	On Hit	On Counter-Hit	On Block	Special Properties
18(5%)	18(5%)	--	2.4%	4%	Mid	8	2	27	36f	+2	+2	-5	Projectile
Decently long-ranged projectile normal, range is off-set by the fact that ARIA's hitbox moves backwards. Harder to confirm or delay than cr.MK but still doable - incredibly useful in tricky mid-range situations to preemptively whiff punish your opponent by avoiding their attack. Can make a decent anti-air too, similar in application to Guilty Gear's 6P moves, though not quite as reliable in a game like KI.

Damage	Counter-Hit Damage	Potential Damage	Shadow On Hit	Shadow On Block	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total Duration	On Hit	On Counter-Hit	On Block	Special Properties
40.3(11%)	48.3(13%)	--	4%	4.5%	Mid	14	4 [12] 9	24	62f	+60 (30)	+60 (30)	-3	Launcher, Soft Knockdown, can be juggled for N frames before the knockdown, can be dash-cancelled.
Can be held to release more bombs, making this move up to +6 on block. A very weird HK, not often used, though can be made decent in pressure to allow for a surprising amount of plus frames. The bombs come out fairly staggered, too, potentially catching them off-guard, though any resulting juggle or mixup from landing this move is mediocre at best compared to anything else ARIA can do. Can be dash-cancelled for some neat mix-ups off st.LK, st.MP and st.HP, though these dash cancels are never plus unless backed by an assist.

Damage	Counter-Hit Damage	Potential Damage	Shadow On Hit	Shadow On Block	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total Duration	On Hit	On Counter-Hit	On Block	Special Properties
35.4(9%)	43.4(12%)	--	4%	4.5%	Mid	10	5 [5] 3 [1] 3	17	44f	+45 (+15)	+45 (+15)	-3	Launcher, Soft Knockdown, can be juggled for N frames before the knockdown.
A close version of far.HK. You probably pressed this by accident - very rarely worth using except in edge cases. Skip.

Damage	Counter-Hit Damage	Potential Damage	Shadow On Hit	Shadow On Block	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total Duration	On Hit	On Counter-Hit	On Block	Special Properties
20(5%)	24(6%)	--	2.4%	4%	Low	9	3	15	26f	+4	+7	+1	None
Shoto-esque crouching low with decent range. Confirming takes practice but is worth learning. Also ARIA's best way to catch low approaches in neutral e.g. Tusk Immortal Spirit or Hisako forward dashes. Range increase with Blade body is a godsend. Being +1 on block and +7 on counter-hit means that frame-trapping into a 5f light is highly advisable, as it can be easily counter-hit confirmed if your opponent gets caught pressing a button.

Damage	Counter-Hit Damage	Potential Damage	Shadow On Hit	Shadow On Block	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total Duration	On Hit	On Counter-Hit	On Block	Special Properties
28.3(7%)	36.3(10%)	--	4%	4.5%	Mid	11	3 [13] 3 [1] 3	28	62f	+66 (36)	+66 (36)	-6	Launcher, Hard Knockdown, can be juggled for (n) frames before the knockdown.
It's a sweep, but bad. Will be very rarely used in neutral, and even if it is, far.HK is probably a better button for the same purpose. Can be used as a juggle off launcher ender to allow for some nasty cross-up mixups, however.

Damage	Counter-Hit Damage	Potential Damage	Shadow On Hit	Shadow On Block	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total Duration	On Hit	On Counter-Hit	On Block	Special Properties
20(5%)	32(8%)	--	3.2%	4.8%	High	20	4	17	40f	+4	+4	+2	Overhead
ARIA's only grounded overhead, accessible only in blade form. Has a surprising amount of range for its animation, and a lot of its animation is hidden behind ARIA's back (and assists). If your opponent does somehow block this, she's +2, up close. Confirming on hit is a little tricky, like cr.MP, but definitely worth practicing, though you can also risklessly cancel into Heavy Explosive Arc to keep plus frames on block or get an easy confirm on hit. Also surprisingly delayable, allowing for similar stagger pressure you'd get from a blocked cr.MK.

Damage	Counter-Hit Damage	Potential Damage	Shadow On Hit	Shadow On Block	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total Duration	On Hit	On Counter-Hit	On Block	Special Properties
None	None	--	--	--	N/A	49	N/A	22	71	N/A	N/A	N/A	Invincible frames 1-49
ARIA's tag, uniquely allowing her to switch healthbars during and in-between rounds. A decent way to preserve her minuscule healthbars to make sure the body and assist you might need is on deck. Although invulnerable for the first half, leaves her incredibly vulnerable to a big punish if used poorly. She can also perform this move as an ender for low damage but a safe body-swap.

Version	Damage	Counter-Hit Damage	Potential Damage	Shadow On Hit	Shadow On Block	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total Duration	On Hit	On Counter-Hit	On Block	Special Properties
Booster	30(8%)	30(8%)	--	2.4%	4%	Mid	35	15	55	104f	+58 (28)	+58 (28)	+26	Projectile, can be hit starting frame 10, soft knockdown, can be juggled for (n) frames before knockdown.
Functions as a 'tackle' assist that goes forward at an upwards angle, with huge pushback on block and a soft-knockdown on hit to control neutral.
Version	Damage	Counter-Hit Damage	Potential Damage	Shadow On Hit	Shadow On Block	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total Duration	On Hit	On Counter-Hit	On Block	Special Properties
Bass	16.4(4%)	16.4(4%)	2.1 (0.5%)	1.6%	2.4%	Mid	50	--	50	100f	+38	+38	+22f	Projectile, can be hit starting frame 10
Shoots out a fast projectile with short blockstun that notably leaves your opponent grounded on hit, unlike the other two, forming the core of how ARIA will get most of her openings, functioning as the 'beam' assist.
Version	Damage	Counter-Hit Damage	Potential Damage	Shadow On Hit	Shadow On Block	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total Duration	On Hit	On Counter-Hit	On Block	Special Properties
Blade	23(6%)	23(6%)	3.7 (1%)	1.6%	2.4%	Mid	45	30	50	124f	+87(57)	+87(57)	+47	Projectile, can be hit starting frame 76, soft knockdown, can be juggled for (n) frames before knockdown.
Notably strike invincible until its active frames are completed. It functions as a 'DP assist', performing an upwards whirling attack which juggles your opponent high on hit and leaves them in blockstun for an extremely long time on block, combining neutral control with oppressive lockdown.
Version	Damage	Counter-Hit Damage	Potential Damage	Shadow On Hit	Shadow On Block	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total Duration	On Hit	On Counter-Hit	On Block	Special Properties
Instinct	13.4(3%)	13.4(3%)	1.1 (0.3%)	1.6%?	2.4%?	Mid	43	-	22	65f	+35	+35	+19	Projectile, can be hit starting frame 10, can be canceled into from normals.
In Instinct, ARIA combines her bodies, losing her aforementioned assists and instead gaining a special instinct drone, plus one more for each body she has lost, up to 3 total. Each functions as a mini-homing Bass Assist, firing a smaller, 2-hit tracking projectile. These are notable for allowing you to cancel your buttons into these special assists, meaning ARIA in instinct can perform extremely tricky pressure and mixups during instinct while locking down neutral through a combination of powerful assists and a combination of her bodies - it is not uncommon for an ARIA who is on the backfoot to pop instinct and win off a single hit.

Damage	Counter-Hit Damage	Potential Damage	Shadow On Hit	Shadow On Block	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total Duration	On Hit	On Counter-Hit	On Block	Special Properties
30 (8%)	38(10%)	-	4	4.5	High	11	5	4	19f	+20	+24	+17	-
Incredibly strong jump-in, and probably the one you'll be using most. Beefy plus frames on hit and block, allowing for easy confirms or mixups, and it can even cross up the larger characters with ease, like Aganos and Riptor. Blade's increased range makes this jump-in difficult to anti-air, too, on top of the difficult nature of anti-airing ARIA in general due to j.MK

Damage	Counter-Hit Damage	Potential Damage	Shadow On Hit	Shadow On Block	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total Duration	On Hit	On Counter-Hit	On Block	Special Properties
40.3(11%)	48.3(13%)	3.4 (0.9%)	4	4.5	High	5	6 [12] 2 [3] 2	4	33f	+89 (59)	+89 (59)	-4	2nd and 3rd active act as projectiles
That's right! ARIA has a heavy air move that has 5f of startup and a decent hitbox. I don't know why, either. It has a lot of usages, including hitting people round-start by jumping close to the ground and pressing this button to beat any option they might be trying besides invincible reversals or faster moves that won't do much anyway because they'd hit her out of the air. She can follow up hitting this with a j.LP juggle, too, to flip out the opponent while they're in the air, or simply set up assists as they're coming down. Good usage of this move can win entire games. Be wary of using it as an instant-air-overhead, however - that option is strong, but difficult to land and risky, as it is death on block unless used very close to the ground on the way down.

Introduction

Lore

Gameplay

Normal Moves

Far Normals

Crouching Normals

Command Normals

Jumping Normals

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