The Basics
WIP
Practical Combos
The below combos are a great starting point for learning Imp. A combo is considered "practical" if it has few or no opportunities for an opponent to counter out of them. Thrill Kill has a lot of flashy combos, but switch between low and high/mid attacks frequently enough that most opponents will be able to shut them down.
Punish Strings
Punish Strings are combos that only have a single attack height (usually all highs/mids, very rarely all lows). These are important since they give zero opportunity for your opponent to counter out of them once you've landed the initial hit, making them excellent for counter-hitting an opponent who has overextended with an attack. The downside is that because there's no mixups present in the string, they can be easily blocked and punished, so you're advised not to use them in neutral fishing for a hit against a defending opponent.
7 hits, 35 damage.- A hard knockdown string off of Imp's 4f startup jab. Excellent for punishing an attack that has slow startup.
- The link needs to be input quickly.
--> 
--> 
7 hits, 40 damage.- Stilt Spin Kick's great range makes this a potent mid-stage juggle. It has 8f of startup, so it's harder to stop things before they happen with this string.
- In every other string, Back Flip Kick's startup is usually not fast enough to keep a combo going except for this string, which strangely cuts sooner into its startup animation than any of Imp's other strings.
Mixup Strings
Mixup strings usually switch between high/mid and low attacks early in the combo. These can be a character's most damaging combo strings, but you give your opponent an opportunity to counter out every time a combo switches from high/mid to low or vice versa. The best mixup strings usually have a single low/high mixup early in the string to get around an opponent's block, and then no further height switches, or multiple versions of the same string that mix up when the switch heights to keep your opponent guessing which string you're about to use.
/ --> --> - 8 hits, 52 damage.
- Lost Balance's 4f of startup and huge amount of active frames makes it one of your best traps if you're good at reacting to your opponent getting hit and firing off a combo string quick enough.
- /
- 10 hits, 49 damage.
- Shuffle this string in to keep your opponent guessing when to parry high.
- 7 hits, 36 damage.
- Crouch Jab has a longer range than it appears, allowing you to nab some damage from afar while low profiling some attacks.
- / --> -->
- 7 hits, 54 damage.
- This string is very hard to input since the link timings are very tight, but your reward is a very hard-to-react-to, high damage string. Lost Balance gets a ton of bonus damage resulting in this string's high damage.
