Introduction
Darkrai is a mostly defensive binary state character with a very strong field phase and an overwhelming Bad Dreams Rising or “nightmare mode” state. In field, he excels at setting traps and punishing approaches by his opponent, and with a victorious field and a nightmare mode achieved, his good mobility, arsenal of invulnerable moves, filthy okizeme and strong chip damage make a nightmare darkrai among the most fearsome characters in the game.
However, he does have notable weaknesses. On the whole, his frame data is extremely slow, both in field and in duel. While he is good at punishing approaches in field, his lack of long-range counter pierces and otherwise fast projectiles make forcing the opponent to approach him difficult. This is not even to mention how he struggles against characters with longer-ranged options that have no need to approach him in the first place.
Furthermore, if he fails to attain a nightmare state, his duel phase is laughably weak. While nightmare can subsist without good frame data, the lack of mobility, invulnerable options, and setups in a “regular state” duel means darkrai can truly struggle if he does lose field or otherwise shifts without nightmare.
Darkrai has air control when jumping.
- Darkai can move forwards and backwards during a neutral jump.
- Darkrai can increase the distance of a forward or backwards jump by holding the direction.
- Darkrai can halt the distance of a forward or backwards jump by pressing the opposite direction.
Also known as Nightmare Mode, BDR, or NM for short, Bad Dreams Rising is a special kind of Duel Phase that Darkrai can only enter by landing a Dark Void on the opponent or Phase Shifting from Field to Duel while in Burst Mode. If the latter criteria is met with a Guard Break, Darkrai will instead shift into regular Duel Phase.
Like entering Duel Phase, entering Bad Dreams Rising resets both players' Phase Shift Points to 0. While in BDR, Darkrai undergoes the following changes:
- Darkrai's movement is enhanced across the board, gaining a slight increase to movement speed and teleporting dashes. Darkrai's Forward Dash is also able to pass through the opponent.
- All of Darkrai's Pokemon Moves are powered up, and he gains access to two new ones: Nightmare, an intangible burst option, and Dream Eater, a powerful command grab that siphons the opponent's resources and ends Bad Dreams Rising.
- Darkrai's Rifts activate on their own, but no longer deal chip damage.
- 5Y, 2Y, j.Y, 5X, J.A/AA/AY, and 5A can all be cancelled into Teleportation by pressing R.
- Weak moves (besides Rifts) ignore the Light Armor present during Burst Mode.
- Darkrai can no longer break the opponent's guard.
Bad Dreams Rising ends in the same ways Duel Phase does, but it can also end early if Darkrai is hit by a Grab attack that doesn't Phase Shift, or the first hit of Mewtwo's Psystrike.