Movement and Neutral Options
Rapid Seismo
Seismic Hammer is Viper's primary tool for playing neutral at medium-to-long range. It has a great hitbox at each of three spacings, and its Jump Cancel property means that Viper is very advantageous on Hit or Block, and very safe even on whiff. Although it has poor durability, this is mitigated by that fact that seismos appear underneath the opponent, circumventing their own projectiles to attack directly. In order for Viper to escalate Seismo from a minor annoyance to a serious neutral threat, a Viper player needs to be able to do two things:
- Rapidly chain together Seismo inputs in order to maximize the amount of coverage Viper can produce.
- Confirm M or H seismos into pressure on block or a combo on hit.
General concept for jump-canceling Seismic Hammer into itself. Use repeated tiger knee DP motions to buffer up-forward (or Up, it doesn't actually matter, but up-forward will be easier for most controllers) during the seismo motion.
Note that you do not Tiger Knee the initial seismo. Because the jump-cancel window only consists of three pre-jump frames, it is almost impossible to complete the full DP motion within that window. Thus, instead of thinking of the sequence as Seismo -> Jump Cancel -> Seismo, it makes more sense to think of the inputs as Seismo -> Buffer input for next Seismo -> Jump Cancel -> Finish Input.
Tutorial for rapid seismos on hitbox-style button controllers
Alternate technique for Seismo spam, in which Viper jump-cancels her 623X into a Focus Attack, instead of going directly into another Seismo. Focus Attack can be canceled directly into another Seismo.
The Focus Attack variant is more mechanically lenient than "pure" rapid seismos, as you have the entire duration of the Focux Attack charge to input each seismo, if you are okay with attacking slower. Perfectly performed FA seismo is not meaningfully slower than perfect pure Seismos. Because Focus Attack is not considered a special move, Viper can also call assists during that gap to further enhance her offense (it is technically possible to call an assist during the pre-jump frames of pure rapid seismos, but again it is much more difficult).
Additionally, Viper can dash cancel Focus Attack, and then transition from that dash into another Seismo, into plink dashing, or into essentially any grounded option. This is called FADC Seismo and is an important tool to master. The inputs for FADC Seismo would look like:
623X > 8XS > XX > 623X > 8XS > XX > 623X etc.
Alternatively, you can use this input sequence as a shortcut:
623X > 8LMS > 5LM > 623X
In other words, input a Seismo, then double tap LMS, once while holding the stick up, then once after letting the stick return to neutral. Then cancel your dash into another Seismo and repeat. The forward movement will mostly negate any attempt to pushblock Viper's seismos, which would otherwise be a strong counter-strategy as even the H version does not quite reach full screen.
Sufficiently fast and well-spaced Seismos will "jail" the opponent (halt any upward momentum from their jumps, preventing them from escaping to superjump height). It will also shut down many of the opponent's long-range zoning options, and discourage assist calls while protecting your own assists. Broadly speaking, Viper's goal in neutral is to use M or H Seismo to lock the opponent down and set up her own approach covered by an assist, then set up an offense using the frame advantage from L Seismo. The example videos below demonstrate how to use Rapid Seismo techniques in conjunction with assists to confirm a long-range hit or transition into rushdown offense.
with Strider Vajra assist
with Doom Plasma Beam assist
Viper Ball
Video Timestamp: Fullschedule explains the Viper Ball
When Viper performs Air Burn Kick (j214X), she retains some of the aerial momentum from her current jump arc into the special move. This momentum is still preserved if she feints the Burn Kick. A very specific input allows Viper to quickly get a burst of aerial forward momentum from a grounded state.
To perform the Viper Ball, input a regular Burn Kick input on the ground, then Tiger Knee to Up-Forward and complete the motion upon leaving the ground. Critically, you must not touch Up-Back or directly Up during this motion, or Viper will not gain the forward momentum and will only perform a small hop in place. This makes the motion for Viper Ball deceptively difficult, especially on stick-based controllers - it must be done both quickly and very precisely.
Performed properly, Viper Ball is superior to an instant air dash for quick forward movement. It is faster than Viper's IAD, allows her to block while moving forward unlike an airdash, and preserves her airdash/doublejump for an additional movement option after approaching to make her offense more unpredictable.
Viper Ball can be performed with any strength of Burn Kick. L Version stays lowest to the ground, allowing for the quickest and most easily confirmable overheads. H version travels much farther horizontally, letting Viper approach from a much more surprising distance, as well as perform cross-ups. You can also Viper Ball with EX Burn Kick: 2149S~S, which travels the farthest and is very fast, but this consumes a full bar of meter, and the meter will be used even if you botch the input, making it risky to attempt. You can also choose not to Feint the Burn Kick and simply let it connect as a relatively fast, long-range overhead attack.
Viper Ball is most commonly followed by a Down, Down-back or Down-forward airdash plinked into j.L to quickly return to the ground while attacking.
M Thunder Knuckle Chart
| Character | Raw | In-Blockstun | In-Hitstun | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amaterasu | Whiffs | Whiffs | Hits | - |
| Arthur | Hits | Whiffs | Whiffs | Whiffs after H normals. |
| Morrigan | Whiffs | Hits | Hits | - |
| Rocket Raccoon | Hits | Whiffs | Whiffs | - 2M > 236M doesn't combo - 5H/2H > 236M hits later into active frames than normal, making it easy to miss cancel window. |
| Viewtiful Joe | Hits | Hits | Whiffs | - 2M > 236M doesn't combo - 5H/2H > 236M hits later into active frames than normal, making it easy to miss cancel window. |
Mixup Theory
Viper's close-range offense consists mainly of alternating between a very fast standing Low in 5L and a very fast overhead attack in j.L.
5L is a 5f Low and is -1 on block. It is not Rapid Fire and does not combo into itself. 5L > 623L on block can technically be mashed out of by opponents with 4f or faster attacks, but it unlikely to be contested.
jL is a fast Overhead that is typically used after a downwards airdash in order to quickly land and hit confirm into mashed 5L on hit or block. Performed perfectly, Superjump > j.2XX > jL is a 14f Overhead against normal-sized crouching opponents, which is extremely fast. Note that Viper's air movement and cancel window for diagonal air dashes are slower than the window for her cardinal dashes. At 9f dash startup, j.3XX or j.1XX airdashes plinked into jL will not come out, the L input must be delayed slightly. In order to access an Overhead jL as quickly as possible from the air, use a j.2XX Downward airdash instead. Viper can quickly access jL from a grounded state by using Jump-Canceled Seismos or Viper Ball (2149X).
623L when jump-canceled or FADC'd is roughly +22 on block. If Viper can connect a close range Seismo, then following up with 5L, 2M, or jL is airtight. Additionally, opponents attempting to Chicken Block out of Viper's offense will be jailed by the Seismo and brought back down to the ground.
Basic mixup sequences using these tools include:
623L sjc. j.2XX/j.3XX ~ jL, land, 5L for a fast Overhead.
623L sjc. j.2XX/j.3XX > Delay jL, land, 5L / 6H Fakeout Overhead into either Low or Throw. If performed midscreen, Viper will not be in throw range after an Airdash Down, and must use Down-Forward instead.
623L sjc. 2149H~S, 2XX ~ jL, land, 5L using Viper Ball to quickly cross-up with a similar High/Low/Throw offense on the opposite side.
623L > 8LMS > 5LMS, 2M > 214X FADC Seismo to maintain grounded pressure, then cancel 2M Low into an Overhead Burn Kick. When not pushblocked, 214L and 214M will hit same-side, while 214H will hit cross-up.
j.3XX > jL, land, 2149H ~ S, j.2XX ~ jL Transition from a fast Overhead jL into Viper Ball to cross-up and attack again.
623L ~ S, 6H Feint Seismo into throw. Loses to people mashing pushblock against seismos.
Other Offensive Tools
214H is a reasonably fast overhead with surprising horizontal range. 6M > j214H and jS > j214H are frametraps that will connect even if the opponent pushblocks the initial hit, and can catch an opponent mashing airdash or other buttons after blocking a meaty oncoming.
236M and 236L can be used as fast cross-under options when paired with an assist call. Especially on incoming, call an assist and Thunder Knuckle under the opponent to ambiguously steal the corner and force a left-right mixup.
Unblockable Setups
Certain assists can keep an opponent trapped in blockstun long enough for Viper to fully charge her [XS] Focus Attack Unblockable. Thus, it is possible to get an opponent situation where, once they have begun to block the assist, the Unblockable hit is inescapable. The most standard Viper Unblockable setup looks like this:
(Call Assist) + 623S jc. [8XS]
623S as a meaty on an opponents incoming will jail them into the assist call on both Hit and on Block. This costs meter to perform, but has the fewest ways of possible to escape. Possible ways to escape this setup are:
- A well-timed pushblock on the EX Seismo itself. Once the Seismo blockstun has been overridden by assist blockstun, pushblocking will not help.
- A character with a frame-1 invuln air hyper may be able to juke the setup by mashing reversal hyper. Characters with applicable hypers include Phoenix, Sentinel, Morrigan (Level 3), and Spider-Man
Alternatively, 623L can be used as a meaty, which does not cost meter to attempt. The downside of 623L is that the opponent can choose to take the hit instead of blocking, which will juggle them high into the air, but does not cause enough hitstun for them to fall back into the assist. Meaty 623L also loses to the same escape options as 623S. Instead of using 623L, Viper can also meaty with an airdash button like jS, then land and begin charging Focus Attack, which is functionally the same.
Lastly, Viper can choose to perform no meaty attack at all. For characters with any form of aerial mobility, including double jumps, airdashes, and air-ok teleports (which is most of the cast), this gives them a fairly reliable window to escape. However, some characters, such as Nemesis, have no options for air movement, and choosing not to meaty them removes the option for that character to escape with a well-timed pushblock.
Assists that are well-suited for Viper unblockables include Tenderizer, Vajra, Cold Star, Jam Session, and Repulsor Blast. Also, Trish's Round Harvest hyper can keep an opponent locked down long enough in specific setups.
Viper Unblockables are most commonly done on the opponent's incoming but can technically be done any time that Viper is close enough and can jail an opponent into a relevant assist attack.
Counterplay
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