UMVC3/Hsien-Ko

Overview Combos Strategy/Counterstrategy Resources Data

Introduction

Hsien-Ko, a recurring character in the Darkstalkers series, is a form of undead known as jiāngshī. She underwent the transformation willingly, in an attempt to free the cursed spirit of her mother. While Hsien-Ko transformed into a monster, her twin sister Mei-Ling transformed into the paper charm that she wears on her forehead. Wearing the charm serves as a limiter on Hsien-Ko's powers, preventing them from rampaging out of control. In Japan, she is instead known as Lei-Lei (レイレイ)

In UMvC3, Hsien-Ko is a painfully slow support character. Although she lacks most good mobility options, Hsien-Ko can create a defensive wall using her Henkyo Ki (421X) projectile, which reflects and nullifies the opponent's projectiles on contact. Her moveset if difficult to play effective neutral with, but offers several tools for combo extensions and pressure if she does gain momentum. She is most notable for her Rimoukon (623XX) install hyper, which grants Hsien-Ko 5 full seconds of unlimited hyper armor. She can use this armor herself to bully her way in, or tag out to provide her teammates with a fully armored assist which can lead to very oppressive setups.

Strengths

Weaknesses

Incredible Assist: When enhanced by Gold Armor Install (623XX), Senpu Bu (buzzsaw) is one of the game's best assists. It reaches horizontally across most of the screen while having full hyper armor and causing a massive amount of lockdown. Synergy Potential: High potential for DHC, THC and Hard Tag synergies by utilizing her multiple OTG-hitting hyper, or her install hyper, to further support her teammates. Negates Zoning: Can survive indefinitely against many zoning patterns (excluding Astral Morrigan) by hiding behind her Henkyo Ki (421X) projectile reflector.

Awful Mobility: Hsien-Ko has some of the game's worst mobility, with very slow and awkward dashes and airdashes. Most characters can simply run away from Hsien-Ko and wait for her to overextend or run out of resources. Heavy Resource Consumption: Burns through resources quickly, as she wants to be in her Armor install whenever possible, needs her hyper combos to hit OTG, and has poor damage outside of X-Factor. Weak Projectile Game: Anki-Hou projectile is effectively random and becomes significantly less useful if Hsien-Ko gets poor item rng.

Unique Mechanics

Hsien-Ko's grounded forward dash works differently from any other character's dash:

From frames 1-15 of Hsien'ko's forward dash, she stands in place. Her dash can be canceled in any of the normal ways (crouching, jumping, or attacking) but if she does so, she will not have moved at all. As a result, Hsien-ko cannot wavedash or plinkdash forward in the way that most characters can. However, she can still plinkdash backwards in the normal way.

From frames 16-30, Hsien-ko fades out of view. During this time, she is invisible, invincible, and quickly advances forward a fixed distance. Unlike most dashes, she can pass through the opponent during this time. Her dash can still be canceled as normal, and canceling the dash partway through with an attack is an effective way to cross-up an opponent.

From frames 31-50, Hsien-ko reappears at her destination. These frames effectively serve no purpose, and should ideally be canceled as soon as possible.

Health	900,000
Invulnerable Reversal(s)
Grounded Magic Series	Full
X-Factor Damage Boost (1/2/3)	25% / 45% / 65%
X-Factor Speed Boost (1/2/3)	15% / 25% / 35%
Air Movement Options
Air Actions	Air Jumps?	Air Dash?	Flight?	WallJump?
1	No	2-Way	No	No
Minimum Attack Scaling
Normals	Specials		Hypers
20	20		50

Move List

Assists

Senpu Bu
Buzzsaw, Swing
Assist A

Damage	Startup	Active	Recovery
25,000 x5	53	35	117, 87
On Hit	On Block	Guard	Properties
-	-	Mid	-
THC Hyper: Chireitou. Hsien-Ko throws a chain and uses it as a grappling hook to swing across the stage, forwards and then back to her original position. Has great range and a massive amount of active frames. When enhanced by Rimoukon (623XX) install hyper, this assist is almost impossible to contest. It acts as a powerful lockdown tool or combo extender. However, it becomes much less threatening without Gold Armor, as it has quite slow startup and the hitbox is only average, making it vulnerable to being sniped.

Henkyo Ki
Assist B

Damage	Startup	Active	Recovery
70,000	36	60	124, 93
On Hit	On Block	Guard	Properties
-	-	Mid	Reflects other projectiles, Priority: Low, Durability: 5
THC Hyper: Tenrai Ha. Hsien-Ko creates a projectile-reflecting barrier in front of her, which lasts 60 frames (the same length as her M version when on point). Because Hsien-Ko appears behind the point character when called for this assist, it does not actually protect the point character from the front for very long, and can not be effectively used to advance forward either.

Anki-Hou
Assist Y

Damage	Startup	Active	Recovery
70,000 or 80,000	41	-	120, 89
On Hit	On Block	Guard	Properties
-	-	Mid	Varies, Priority: Low, Durability: 1
THC Hyper: Chireitou. Hsien-Ko tosses a semi-random item in the same arc as her point M version. Unfortunately, it is not modeled after the H version, and thus not an overhead attack. Please see the point version of this special move for a full description of each item's properties.

Ground Normals

Stand Light
5L

Damage	Startup	Active	Recovery
40,000	5	3	10
On Hit	On Block	Guard	Properties
-1	-1	Mid	-
-Good range for a light normal

Stand Medium
5M

Damage	Startup	Active	Recovery
60,000	7	5	20
On Hit	On Block	Guard	Properties
-2	-2	Mid	-
-

Stand Heavy
5H

Damage	Startup	Active	Recovery
33,000 x3	10	7	21
On Hit	On Block	Guard	Properties
-1	-1	Mid	-
Triple-hitting poke with solid range and very good frame data.

Crouching Light
2L

Damage	Startup	Active	Recovery
40,000	5	3	12
On Hit	On Block	Guard	Properties
-2	-2	Low	-

Crouching Medium
2M

Damage	Startup	Active	Recovery
60,000	10	7	18
On Hit	On Block	Guard	Properties
-8	-8	Mid	-
Not a low. Decent anti-air hitbox. Significantly worse frame data than Hsien-Ko's other normals, so chain out of it whenever possible.

Crouching Heavy
2H

Damage	Startup	Active	Recovery
70,000	12	20	8
On Hit	On Block	Guard	Properties
-	-5	Low	,
Hsien-Ko advances forward (very slowly) while attacking. As a sweep, it places opponents in an airborne state, which is important for gong loops and many other common combo routes.

Launcher/Special
S

Damage	Startup	Active	Recovery
75,000	11	5	21
On Hit	On Block	Guard	Properties
Launch	-3	Mid	,
-

Aerial Normals

Jumping Light
j.5L

Damage	Startup	Active	Recovery
42,000	6	6	18
On Hit	On Block	Guard	Properties
+5	+7	OH	-
-

Jumping Medium
j.5M

Damage	Startup	Active	Recovery
63,000	8	6	31
On Hit	On Block	Guard	Properties
+11	+11	OH	-
Decent when used after an instant airdash to set up a quick overhead. At this height, Hsien-ko can connect a falling j.5S before reaching the ground, leading to an easy conversion.

Jumping Heavy
j.5H

Damage	Startup	Active	Recovery
33,000 x3	13	12	26
On Hit	On Block	Guard	Properties
+16	+16	OH	-
Multi-hitting attack, which can be used to manually adjust Hsien-ko or her opponent's height during air chains by (not) delaying the rest of the combo.

Jumping Special
j.5S

Damage	Startup	Active	Recovery
70,000	9	6	31
On Hit	On Block	Guard	Properties
+15	+15	OH
-

Command Normals

Rantetsu
6M

Damage	Startup	Active	Recovery
70,000	10	11	13
On Hit	On Block	Guard	Properties
-6	-6	Mid
Horizontal poke. Although it has worse frame data on hit/block than most of Hsien-ko's normals, this can be mitigated by utilizing its jump-cancel property. Jump-cancel 6M into an instant airdash normal allows Hsien-ko to maintain pressure, although it is weak to pushblock.

Edoga
6H

Damage	Startup	Active	Recovery
80,000	15	7	19
On Hit	On Block	Guard	Properties
-3	-3	Mid
Upward-angled attack. Despite appearances, this will hit even crouching opponents except at very long range, while still having a decent anti-air hitbox. Like with 6M, this move can be jump-canceled on contact, greatly enhancing its offensive potential. Deals heavy hitstun, making it useful in many combo routes. 6H xx 421M combos on airborne opponents, which is an easy loop in the corner. 6H -> instant airdash -> j.5L also works as a tight link.

Special Moves

Anki-Hou
236X

L Toss

M Toss

H Toss

A bomb randomly tossed by Anki-Hou

Opponents hit by a Bonsai Tree or Star are dizzied.

Damage	Startup	Active	Recovery
70,000 or 80,000	17	-	28
On Hit	On Block	Guard	Properties
-3	-6	Mid or OH	Varies, Priority: Low, Durability: 1
Hsien-ko tosses a semi-random projectile in an arc. The angle of the arc is determined by button strength: L - Tossed effectively straight across the stage horizontally M - Tossed at a slightly higher angle. The projectile will travel roughly 80% of fullscreen distance before hitting the ground and becoming inactive H - Tossed at a very high angle, staying airborne for about a full second before landing about 25% of fullscreen distance in front of Hsien-Ko. The H version of this move hits overhead. Every frame, the projectile which will be tossed by Anki-Hou is cycled in a fixed pattern. It is technically possible to guarantee specific items to appear with frame-perfect timing, but in practice the item tossed is random and not controllable by the player. The following items are considered normal and have no special properties: Axe, Cat Doll, Chun-Li's Bracelet, Chunk of Meat, Kunai, Oil Drum, Shuriken, Sword, Yashichi Damage for the aforementioned items is 70,000. The Stun Rod and Snowman All cause noticeably larger hitstun than standard items. The snowman causes a "freeze" effect to occur on hit, but this is entirely aesthetic and does not differ from the hitstun caused by the other two items. Stun Rod and Snowman damage is 70,000. The Samurai Doll This item causes staggar on a standing opponent. If the opponent is airbourne there are no other attributes. Samurai Doll damage is 70,000. If the RNG is in favor, Samurai Doll can be looped into a non-TAC infinite on a standing opponent. The Bonsai Tree and Star Both cause a 120-frame stun on hit against grounded opponents. Against airborne opponents, they cause a special variant Hard Knockdown in which the opponent can be hit OTG by any attack, excluding throws. As a result, Hsien-Ko can convert a hit with either of these into a full combo, with the caveat that she needs to close the distance despite her poor mobility. With frame-perfect timing, Hsien-Ko can chain these special item tosses into themselves, for an non-TAC infinite combo (the video is from vanilla MVC3 but still works in UMVC3.) The Bonsai Tree and Star are not subject to hitstun deterioration. Bonsai Tree and Star item damage is 70,000. Hsien-Ko has three variants of the bomb item, which have 3, 6 and 9 second fuses respectively. The bomb itself does not have a hitbox and can not harm opponents while traveling through the air. Bombs can also be pushed around by special and hyper attacks from either player. If Hsien-Ko tags out while a bomb's fuse is counting down, the bomb persists on the screen and does not explode until the fuse as reached its intended duration. After the fuse finishes counting down, the bomb creates a small explosion which can hit OTG, and causes a Hard Knockdown. Note that unlike a similar bomb special from Viewtiful Joe, this explosion cannot affect Hsien-Ko or her teammates. If one bomb interacts with another of Hsien-Ko’s bombs the interaction will prematurely cause the interacting bombs to explode regardless of remaining duration of the fuses. This can be used to create unique OTG combos. There is no limit to how many bombs can technically be on screen as long as the fuse timer is active and the bombs do not interact with each other. All versions of the bomb item are not subject to hitstun deterioration. Bomb item damage is 80,000.

Senpu Bu
623X

L +	Damage	Startup	Active	Recovery
	25,000 x5 - x10	29	35-70	1
	On Hit	On Block	Guard	Properties
	+20	+20	Mid	Mashable,
M +	Damage	Startup	Active	Recovery
	25,000 x7 - x12	33	40 - 80	1
	On Hit	On Block	Guard	Properties
	+22	+22	Mid	Mashable,
H +	Damage	Startup	Active	Recovery
	25,000 x8 - x13	37	40-90	1
	On Hit	On Block	Guard	Properties
	+19	+19	Mid	Mashable,
Hsien-Ko tosses a chain into the air and then uses it as a grappling hook to swing forward across the screen. If the button used for the special is pressed repeatedly, she will also perform a second swing back towards her original position, adding additional hits and active frames. Because this move forces Hsien-Ko on a fixed arc of travel, it is effectively immune to advancing guard. An opponent can still pushblock this move, but doing so will not move Hsien-Ko or alter her trajectory, and thus it is very difficult to escape once blocked. Combined with its huge frame advantage on block, Hsien-Ko can use this move to start approach and start an offense with minimal risk. Senpu Bu has lengthy startup, which can be accommodated by using it during her install hyper. With the hyper armor granted by her Gold form, she can not be knocked out of this move's vulnerable startup. All versions of Senpu Bu are not subject to hitstun deterioration.

Henkyo Ki
421X

L +	Damage	Startup	Active	Recovery
	70,000	10	10	30
	On Hit	On Block	Guard	Properties
	-18	-6	Mid	, Priority: Low, Durability: 5, reflects projectiles
M +	Damage	Startup	Active	Recovery
	70,000	12	60	32
	On Hit	On Block	Guard	Properties
	-16	-10	Mid	, Priority: Low, Durability: 5, reflects projectiles
H +	Damage	Startup	Active	Recovery
	70,000	14	120	36
	On Hit	On Block	Guard	Properties
	-14	-14	Mid	, Priority: Low, Durability: 5, reflects projectiles
Hsien-Ko smashes her gong, creating a barrier projectile that very slowly travels forward. If used in the air, Hsien-Ko halts any aerial momentum she had and hovers in place while summoning the gong, then falls straight down after the recovery. Henkyo Ki will reflect standard low-priority projectiles back towards the attacker. It will not reflect beams but will nullify them. It has no effect on projectiles fired from hypers. The barrier's lengthy active frames (especially in the M and H versions) give it some unique combo potential. By having it hit later than the initial active frame, it can be made to be significantly plus on hit despite the listed frame data, allowing Hsien-Ko to link other attacks afterwards. Hsien-Ko can also place this above an opponent who is knocked down and cancel into an OTG hyper. This will add free extra damage and prevent her Tenrai Ha hyper from wasting ground bounce. All versions of Henkyo Ki are not subject to hitstun deterioration.

Houten Geki
63214X

L +	Damage	Startup	Active	Recovery
	96,000 (8 hits)	9	2	18
	On Hit	On Block	Guard	Properties
	-	-	Throw
M +	Damage	Startup	Active	Recovery
	144,000 (12 hits)	5	2	22
	On Hit	On Block	Guard	Properties
	-	-	Throw
H +	Damage	Startup	Active	Recovery
	192,000 (16 hits)	2	2	25
	On Hit	On Block	Guard	Properties
	-	-	Throw
Command grab special, mainly for tick-throws in the middle of her lengthy blockstrings. Lighter versions are slower but have longer range, while heavier versions are faster with short range. 63214H in particular has VERY short range. On a successful grab, Hsien-Ko deals decent damage to the opponent, switches sides with them, and ends with the opponent in a hard knockdown state about two character lengths away. She can follow up these grabs with her Tenrai Ha hyper (214XX) and may be able to extend further depending on spiked ball RNG.

Hyper Combos

Chireitou
Swords
236XX (1 bar)

Damage	Startup	Active	Recovery
60,000 per hit (up to 6 hits)	30+5	145	44
On Hit	On Block	Guard	Properties
-	-1 ~ -18	Mid	, , Priority: High, Durability: 1 per projectile.
Hsien-Ko causes giant blades to appear from the ground, stabbing upwards. Six blades in total appear, progressively further away from Hsien-Ko. If the move is used in the corner, most of the swords will appear off-screen, wasting much of the damage and hitstun potential. If possible, use the passthrough property of Hsien-Ko's forward dash to move the opponent out of the corner before activating this hyper. When used midscreen, this move does formidable damage and is very advantageous on hit. It combos for so long that Hsien-Ko even has time to hard tag to another character, who may be able to pick up with an additional combo extension. The projectiles will not disappear if Hsien-Ko is hit.

Tenrai Ha
214XX (1 bar)

Damage	Startup	Active	Recovery
50,000 + 35,000 x8 - x16	13+3	97	39
On Hit	On Block	Guard	Properties
-	-6	OH	, (first hit), , Priority: High, Durability: 1 per projectile, mashable
Hsien-Ko slams the ground with a weight, which causes several spiked balls to fall down and barrage the opponent. Once the weight has landed, the balls will fall even if Hsien-Ko DHCs out. The initial hit is an overhead, although this is mainly a one-time gimmick as opponents can always react to the hyper flash if they know this. The spiked balls are semi-random in terms of where they appear and where they bounce. With good RNG, this hyper can hit late enough for Hsien-Ko to link a normal afterwards, making it a useful but inconsistent combo extender. When possible, start by performing an M or H Henkyo Ki and then canceling it into this hyper. The meaty gong hit will add free extra damage and negate the ground bounce of the first hit. If done properly, Hsien-Ko can then link Tenrai Ha into itself to dump meter for very large total damage.

Rimoukon
Gold Armor
623XX (1 bar)

Damage	Startup	Active	Recovery
-	20+0	300	21
On Hit	On Block	Guard	Properties
-	-	-	300 frames of Hyper Armor
Hsien-Ko enters her berserk state. For 300 frames (5 seconds), she has full Hyper Armor and can not be placed into hitstun by any attack. However, she still takes damage and is vulnerable to throws. Hsien-Ko does not build meter for the duration. Although powerful, this install has a very short duration compared to many other install hypers. This can be mitigated by tagging Hsien-Ko out after activating the hyper, either via DHC or Hard Tag. Rimoukon, like all install hypers, will last indefinitely so long as Hsien-Ko is not the point character, and her assists benefit greatly from having permanent hyper armor.

Universal Mechanics

Ground Throw
6H, 4H

Damage	Startup	Active	Recovery
80,000	1	1	-
On Hit	On Block	Guard	Properties
-	-	Throw
Standard ground throw that results in the opponent knocked down.

Air Throw
j.6H, j.4H

Damage	Startup	Active	Recovery
80,000	1	1	-
On Hit	On Block	Guard	Properties
-	-	Airthrow
Standard airthrow that results in a hard knockdown.

Snap Back
+/

Damage	Startup	Active	Recovery
50,000	2	11	13
On Hit	On Block	Guard	Properties
-	-1	Mid	Snapback
Animation and hitbox based on 6M. Very active and very short recovery compared to most snapbacks, although range is only okay.

Hard Tag
Hold 14f /

Damage	Startup	Active	Recovery
30,000	-	20	34
On Hit	On Block	Guard	Properties
-	-16	OH
-

Team Position

Hsien-Ko's quirks make her difficult to place on any fixed team position. Ideally, she would take the Second or Anchor position in order to support her teammates with Senpu Bu assist, only being brought in via a DHC to Tenrai Ha (214XX) so she can start fighting with some momentum and avoid having to chase down much faster opponents. However, Senpu Bu is only notable as an assist when enhanced via Hsien-Ko's gold install hyper. This requires her to enter the stage at least briefly in order to activate it and then retreat to safety. Methods for doing this differ by team.

Some people will start Hsien-Ko in the point position, with the intention of getting her armor active and tagged out as quickly and safely as possible. This could either be done by lasting long enough to build a second bar and DHCing Gold Armor into a safe hyper, or by canceling Heavy Gong (421H) into armor and then immediately hard tagging behind the projectile.

Notable Synergies

Morrigan: A DHC from Hsien-Ko's Rimoukon install to Morrigan's Astral Vision (22XX) is very difficult to punish, and leaves Morrigan in prime position to start her zoning game. Not only does Morrigan now have her double projectile hyper online, she is permanently supported by Hsien-Ko's very oppressive assist.

Players to watch: Mothman (Chun/Hsien-ko/Morrigan, in ratio tourneys) SauceBoss (Felicia/Hsien-Ko/Morrigan)

Chris: Chris can use either of his level 1 hypers, especially on hit, to safely allow Hsien-Ko to activate her install via DHC and then escape. Chris can also make good use of Hsien-Ko's assist even without the gold upgrade. Since Chris excels at keeping the opponent in blockstun for long periods of time, he can call her and safely protect the startup, which reduces the value of the armor. Chris can also call Hsien-Ko alongside an OTG 2H, which gives him OTG extensions even deep into a combo.

Players to watch: LLND (Chris/Hsien-Ko/Ammy or Chris/Hsien-Ko/Dante)

Other Players to Watch: PZPOY (Hsien-Ko/Doom/Vergil)

Alternate Colors

Color 1	Color 2	Color 3	Color 4	Color 5	Color 6	Alt Color

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