HOW TO NOT FAIL AT IAMP by mauve --- This guide is written for people who want to take their playing to a higher level, but aren't quite sure how to go about it. This is my opinion and mine alone of how the game flows and how to take advantage of what is in it, based on over a year's worth of playing. You are free to disagree or come up with your own stuff. Send all comments to mauve on irc.mizuumi.net #iamp --- *** EVERYBODY OWNS ME THIS GAME SUCKS Let's face it, Immaterial and Missing Power is a hard game, with a ridiculous number of elements that have to be dealt with simultaneously. Don't expect to be picking this up overnight and start kicking ass with it, as you have to learn to apply a wide variety of different tactics and strategies. IaMP is not much of a 'just pick it up and play it online' kind of game. Please keep an open mind, though, as it's a little different from what you're used to. Being able to keep yourself from being hit is critically important in this game, but this can be accomplished in a lot of different ways, including aggressive playstyles. And, remember, every fighting game eventually boils down to a very complicated variant of Rock-Paper-Scissors. Complicated enough that it's not as simple as guessing right all the time. --- *** I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT THIS GAME SUCKS This document assumes you understand how to utilize the following: - Numerical input notation. (e.g: 236A) - Basic moves and cancel rules. - HJC / High Jump Canceling If you can't deal with those yet, play story mode and watch the tutorial video and read the wiki until you do, because you will be little more than lunch meat for pretty much everyone otherwise. --- *** I CAN'T DO ANYTHING I ONLY GET HIT THIS GAME SUCKS IaMP is a game of constant, never-ending traps. Every action has a wrong answer and every action has a right answer. Both of these actions tend to be a lot riskier than simply taking the neutral path, but you have to take risks at some point or you will never get anywhere. If you're getting hit constantly, then you're taking the wrong answer frequently. Similarily, the threat of doing these traps is often more important than actually doing them. If you are keen on taking the neutral or 'safe' response to a trap frequently, then he is free to take more unsafe moves. Good players will always strike a balance of risky answers and reads in order to stay relatively safe while also keeping the opponent off balance and unwilling to constantly follow through on their actions - Taking a hit here and there can be worth it to not get pushed back into the corner. The rule of thumb is that if you have already seen something happen, it is too late to counter that particular action directly. So don't try to respond to actions recklessly. There are a few different kinds of traps that you'll need to familiarize yourself with. Most of these are standard to all fighting games, but might not be understood by those new to the genre or to ones with heavy frame advantage tricks. *** EVERY TIME I DO SOMETHING I GET HIT THIS GAME SUCKS - Frame Traps A staple of fighting games everywhere, these give you a small gap in which it LOOKS like you can do something, and you can, in fact, start an attack, but if you do you'll get hit. The only way out of a true frame trap is to use a move that is invulnerable to the next attack that you'll get hit by. These include bombs, DPs and moves with upper/lower body invulnerability, such as Marisa 6a and Sakuya 2b. If you do these enough the opponent will lay off the trap at times and start trying to bait the DPs. Meaning even if you don't use them frequently, they have done their job of getting the opponent's momentum to stop. However, bear in mind that if a DP or bomb is blocked, you are usually punishable with a combo for far more damage than you would have gotten if you landed the DP itself. An example of a trap would be Youmu 5c 214a. The melee part of 5c will hit you, and then you'll try to escape to not be hit by the bullets. However, a properly timed 214a catches all escape attempts. One of the most important frame traps in IaMP is the O-Bomb. When you have bomb stock, you can cancel a disadvantageous ground-based attack on block into an o-bomb. If it hits, this will cause the opponent to fly straight up and become comboable. This trap enables you to change practically any unsafe attack into one that causes the opponent to get hit for trying to counter you. The mindgame here is that once you have trained the opponent to not poke out after a frame trap, you can do something different that they CAN get out of, but won't try to. Good players mix these up a lot and force the opponent to make a decision: Continue to lose momentum, or take a chance on the trap. If you want to stand a chance, you have to take risks, but it's best to work with educated guesses rather than just playing randomly. *** I KEEP GETTING HIT WHEN I GET UP THIS GAME SUCKS - Okizeme. Another standard fighting game staple, this basically means wakeup games. When getting up from off the ground, you are at a disadvantage because the opponent can move before you can. This means the opponent can time his attacks to hit you as you wake up, which essentially means this is a variation on a frame trap and he will use that to push into continuing momentum even after you get back up. This also means that trying to poke the instant you get up is one of the stupidest things you can do in the entire game. Do not try to beat the opponent to the punch. You *will* fail against anyone with decent timing. There is a buffer on special moves when you are getting off the ground, which allows you to seamlessly do DP inputs without ever losing your invulnerable status. This buffer does not exist for normals, so when you rely on normals to get around attacks, such as Yuyuko 6b, they are no longer valid. (Additionally, certain specials do not have full invulnerability on wakeup. e.g: Suika 236 moves have a startup gap that has no super armor.) You must input the motion in the direction you were facing when you were knocked down, not the direction from you to the opponent. This buffer also works for dash and HJ inputs when done WITHOUT THE D BUTTON. That is, 44, 66, and 28 are okay and will graze seamlessly on wakeup, but 4d, 6d, and 8d will only get you hit by the bullets. This also means you must time them to the wakeup. Do not forget that backdashes have invulnerable startup and most have lower body invulnerability until landing. Rolls can be used to throw off an opponent's okizeme, as he will be forced to guess where you will be getting up, and sometimes will be unable to make it in time to do a true frame trap. Standing straight up is much faster than a roll in either direction for most characters. You cannot 'wait' while on the ground, however, you will move as soon as you are able to whether you want to or not. Some characters roll further than others and are harder to trap this way, Patchouli in particular goes ridiculously far. The mindgame here takes the form of anticipating roll direction and in baiting DP/invulnerable inputs. Very basic RPS. *** I'M STILL GETTING HIT WHEN I TRY TO DO STUFF THIS GAME SUCKS - Lesser frame trap. Basically the same thing as a frame trap, but actually does have real escape routes. This relies on doing a move that is advantageous on block and then following up with another move that will catch many common responses. A good example is Alice 6db 6db. The infamous boot rush: it is advantageous on block, so she can attack before you do in response, however it is not so advantageous that you cannot do anything. For most of the cast, the correct answer here at the midscreen is 8d - Alice can only punish this by doing an 8d.b herself at the same time you do it. This means if you respond predictably, Alice will give chase and hit you before you get the chance to do anything, but if you don't Alice likely will not because she gives up her momentum by giving chase like that. Another answer is just a fast poke. There is an 8 frame gap between the two boots, and it is probably slightly larger because of the human element when inputting them, so you will be able to hit. However, if you do this, Alice can mix it up to 6db 5b, which is fast enough to beat all pokes except for Meiling's. It does not beat HJ8, though. Again, invulnerable moves such as DPs and bombs are still an answer here, but the penalty for getting one baited is still huge. However, simply the threat of using one can cause the opponent to not push his momentum all the time. If he does not respect this threat, then you are free to make him do so. That particular trap functions differently in corners than in midscreen. The mindgame here comes from making you want to take the escape routes in some reliable fashion, and then changing the action to counter those routes. These are not as good as a normal trap because most characters will lose momentum by attempting the counters. Not predictably responding will limit the effectiveness of this trap. If you don't know how to escape, then the opponent will happily do the trap over and over until you figure it out. You do not get out for free, you earn it. *** NOW I'M GETTING BLOCKED AND COUNTERED ALL THE TIME THIS GAME SUCKS - The Bait. This is not really a trap. All it means is that you are doing a neutral or safe action on offense in order to get the opponent to respond with an unsafe move that you cannot normally beat, such as a DP. This action is heavily tied to being able to read the opponent: If you are good at getting into the opponent's head, you can cause him to act rashly and get a great deal of damage in a very short period of time. Skilled fighting game players in general are better at both causing and resisting this - This is not a skill unique to IaMP. Some characters have relatively safe ways of baiting, such as Youmu backdash: It evades a great deal of attacks, is fast, and can be followed up with any number of things. If you see it happen, it is too late to counter it, and Youmu can take any number of options to counter your next move. *** WHAT THE HELL IS DAX DOING TO ME AUGH THIS GAME SUCKS - Input timing trap. This is also not a true trap. However, netplay input delay and the human factor make it one. The wonders of netplay means it's a lot easier to screw up your timing when you are trying to perform an action immediately after blocking an attack. This also means that certain characters are stronger because of the lag than they would be offline, such as Sakuya. Dax abuses this a lot. The trick here is to do a move that is disadvantageous on block, such as Sakuya 22a, and then immediately follow up with another attack, such as 5b. There is, technically, an 11 frame gap in here where Sakuya can get hit, which is almost guaranteed to get her hit if she tries anything. However, thanks to netplay, you'll have a hard time hitting her if you're not significantly adjusted to the particular delay you play in. This works because of the way input timings work. The one on the offense can time his followups to the initial button presses. The defending player, however, has to time his action to when the block period ends. That is, visual/audio cues. When these are inconsistent, your inputs become inconsistent as well, and this can be abused by a player willing to do so. If you are having trouble handling this reliably, then the answer here is to do a bufferable move, such as an HJ, bomb, special, or super. This usually does not gain you momentum like a normal counter would and carries more risk, though. This is a valid method because of how it is countered. It's lame, but it's valid. Do not confuse this with a real trap. *** YOUMU IS CHEAP THIS GAME SUCKS - Throw trap. Only one character in the game has this: Youmu. Basically she uses the other traps above to make you unwilling to move: To stay in a neutral position and block. Then she runs up and throws you. This is why Youmu's bullet zoning game is not terribly strong by design. She can and will be a complete nightmare if you let her get close, because wrong guesses can be punished extremely heavily and simply waiting for your escape means you get thrown. You essentially force the opponent into making a decision, one that is not in his benefit to take. However, because you can only do this at point blank, there are only a few points in any offense where you can actually do this. This can be predictable, so watch out. *** EVERY TIME I TRY TO GRAZE I GET HIT THIS GAME SUCKS - Graze trap. Finally, something actually unique to IaMP and not general fighting game skills! Wow! Because of the grazing mechanic, it is very possible to go completely through bullets and try to kick the other guy in the face for having the gall to try and shoot stuff at you. But because of bullet density, airdash cancelling, and the limitation on airdashes it's not nearly that simple. A simple example is the Reimu air sequence j.[c] j.6d j.a. If you try to graze through the j.[c] from a distance, you will get a stick to the face. Note, however, that there is a pretty big gap from the last part of j.[c] to the beginning of j.a, on the order of 17 frames. Because most bullets, including these, dissipate the instant they are touched, this gives you an absolute minimum of 17 frames to hit Reimu if done optimally. Smart players won't do this close enough that you can get away with this... Well, unless they think THEY can get away with it, which is all that matters! On the ground, it's a little simpler. What generally happens is you use projectiles and cancel them into melee if you expect them to be grazed. A good example would be Remilia 5c 236a [wait] 22c: 5c is tossed out, if you graze that you are hit by the 236a, and if you block the 236a but try to counter you are hit by the o-bomb. This one mechanic is the core 'gimmick' of IaMP and opens up a huge, huge variety of traps based on the positioning and speed of the projectiles as well as how the characters can move from one part to the next, and is the one to keep in mind when you are experimenting with your character to find out what she can do. One of the most common answers to an air graze trap sequence is simply to go underneath the opponent and attack from behind. Don't be afraid of doing this, but if you get predictable some characters will be able to smack you for it. (e.g: Marisa j.a) *** HE KEEPS HOVERING OVER MY HEAD AND HITTING ME THIS GAME SUCKS - Crossup trap. This is usually characterized by dashing low over the opponent's head and randomly airdashing forwards or backwards before coming low enough to hit. This makes it difficult to block accurately and reliably, since properly done even he doesn't know which direction he's going to be landing on. The answers here are to get out of the way, duck under it(only for some attacks, don't try ducking yuyu j.a!), or HJ8 as soon as he's over your head. Most characters have no way of attacking directly downwards so there will be a delay between when they're above you and when they can attack. There is no real mindgame here beyond "which side is he going to land on?" You're just in the wrong spot. If this is happening to you a lot then you are letting the opponent get into positioning for it frequently, which you should learn how to prevent. *** WHAT THE HELL THIS IS A LOT OF CRAP THIS GAME SUCKS Combined, all of those make up a wide spread of tools you have to work with. Understanding which tools are which and how best to counter and utilize them is a core part of the game. Good movement means understanding how to work around and with traps and is more important than all other things you can do. If you are not willing to take the time to learn the tactics involved, then this game probably isn't for you. But neither is SWR, as it has a lot of similar stuff in it. --- *** WHY IS THE OPPONENT IGNORING MY TRAPS THIS GAME SUCKS Because you're either doing them incorrectly, or you're doing them predictably. An incorrectly done trap will have gaps where you don't want them, and of such size that the opponent is free to respond however he wishes. This is commonly seen by doing an o-bomb too late. This means that you'll get beat out in the middle of the sequence on reaction. Being predictable means that you are leaving the same correct answers, or a predictable sequence of answers, and the opponent is making use of them. You can tell these apart from the previous ones because the opponent is moving before they are truly finished - It is not done on reaction to anything except waiting for the hole to appear. Learning to tell the difference between these two is very important. And, again, standard fighting game stuff. An aggressive playstyle will be forcing the opponent to make guesses at all intervals, because a wrong guess is heavily punished. --- *** I'M STUCK IN THE CORNER OH GOD THERE'S NO ESCAPE THIS GAME SUCKS The corner is actually no different from the above traps, except that there are more traps and they can cover more directions. This means getting out is a riskier affair. Remember that if you have seen something happen, you are reacting to the NEXT action he will take, not the one you just saw! You really will never get out if you don't realize this. You have, at any given point, the following options: - Block Yeah, it doesn't get you anywhere. But you can watch the opponent's patterns, and try to figure out which of the other escape options you can use, and when. Guard crushes and certain guaranteed crush strings are your problem with this plan. - Walk forward. If the opponent's going to jump towards you or over your head and they won't hit you when coming down, just walk forward. Then they'll be the ones trapped! This is harder to get off against good players. - 6D Dashing forward beats most projectile cover and can be used with grazing attacks to beat them out entirely. These are most often seen after the opponent uses a command normal (6a/6b), since he will likely go into a projectile at this point. However, he can mix it up with another melee move, such as a guard crush, so don't do this recklessly. He can also start it at a different point, and good players will, so watch out. Sometimes you'll be able to push out but the opponent will have anticipated this and be ready to push you right back in. Learning the situations in which this can happen is also important. Comic-Z does this a lot. - 8D Jumping straight up out of the corner can be trapped, usually by like 22a, but once you're up the only way the opponent can hurt you is with an HJ8 of his own, which carries risk since you can just come down with a melee attack of your own to hit his face in. The escape route here is very similar to the 6d route, but has the added benefit of getting you away from low-hitting attacks. Some characters are better at trapping this escape than others: Sakuya has ONLY 22a she can use, which is hardly ideal. - Invulnerability. Since there's always going to be spots where frame traps exist, you can DP or bomb your way out of them. This is the most common way of getting out, as Americans kind of suck at baiting bombs. Despite this, though, it is, of course, baitable, and if you do it enough the opponent WILL put on the hurt. However, if you can get the opponent to bait you, you can get out for free if you know when the baiting will take place. If the opponent DPs YOU when you're trying to get out of the corner, you got read like a book and you need to think about what just happened. - Out-hitboxing. If the opponent is doing a lot of the same high/low attacks, you can win through just going around them. For example, Yuyuko 5a can be beaten by a lot of crouching attacks, such as Youmu 2b. This will usually cause the opponent to use more bullets in his mixups, so be aware. - No matter what, you still have to be able to guess what the opponent's going to do next or wait for him to make a mistake. Understanding what both of these are is very important. And you're not going to be right all the time. Unless you're TamaPO. --- *** MY CHARACTER IS HARD TO USE THIS GAME SUCKS Every character has its own strengths and weaknesses. It's pretty universally agreed that the easiest character to learn to play is Yuyuko, but her style isn't for everyone. The notable players are given for further research: Japanese play is clearly superior to play from the English-speaking community and can be used for study, but it never hurts to ask people who know stuff about their characters for more information. - Reimu Standard "annoy you to death" character. Has a lot of very safe bullet traps and irritating pressure, but damage is fairly low and she has no real invulnerable moves beyond her rather poor Column spellcards. However, she excels at aerial combat and aerial guard crushes. Her level 1 spellcard should be ying-yang orb, no contest here: It combos from literally everything other than 5a and does substantial chip/spirit on block. Her level 2 is a tossup between the orb and rainbow balls. Orb chains from relatively few things but does enormous spirit damage, chip damage, and let you have a practically invisible 50/50 hi/lo on the opponent. Balls can be done in the air, combos from more things, has a very short invulnerability period on startup, but does less damage, making for a more versatile but less overall powerful move. Reimu is most similar in play style to Alice, but is more bullet oriented. She can be played in a variety of ways, from defensive to aggressive, all effectively. However, her low damage makes her best with a balance. Notable English players: Armando, mauve, bellreisa Notable Japanese players: TR, Sekibun, Shiroumai - Marisa Marisa is power, power, and more power. She's in your face, ignoring your bullets, utilizing her substantial frame advantage and damaging mixups. Despite this, she has relatively few graze options and needs to rely on her ability to neutralize incoming pressure. She tends to use f.b to neutralize her opponent's projectile traps and then mixes up her j.b and j.c to get in on the opponent, followed by ridiculous kick traps with 5b. 66a is great at catching jumpouts. She's a pretty straightforward character, which fits Marisa well enough. Her level 1 spellcard can go for either Master Spark or the broom ride, Stardust Reverie. Master Spark is invulnerable on startup, ridiculously strong at full gauge, and safe if blocked at any spot other than point blank. However, it is not especially fast to start up, will self-crush you, and the opponent can evade and block from neutral simply by holding 7, leaving you vulnerable for quite some time. Broom ride has incredibly fast startup, only 6 frames between activation and hit, and can be used to get out of air traps that you normally couldn't. Her level 2 spellcard is either going to be Orreries or Final Spark. Blazing Star is too slow and too punishable to be of much use. Final Spark starts up much, much faster than Master Spark but can only be used once. Simply having it out can scare the hell out of the opponent and make him play more conservatively. Orreries: Onion ring edition is arguably the strongest spellcard in the game, balanced out by the separate activation. It is multipurpose and can be used to guarantee a crush or prevent jumpins, and is chainable from other moves. Since it stays out quite awhile it also restricts movement. Marisa is most similar in play style to Youmu, but has better zoning in exchange for less delayed pressure. Marisa is best played in a balanced fashion or aggressively. Defensive play is not her strongest suit. Notable English players: hourai, bellreisa, Armando, Comic-Z Notable Japanese players: kamiG, Dark-man - Sakuya Sakuya is the essence of fast and safe. She has a wide variety of good range pokes and attacks that can reliably get her decent, but not great, damage, and she is virtually impossible to punish if played correctly. Many new players rely on her priority and speed to win them matches, hoping to 'beat' the opponent's actions before they get them out, but this will not work against anyone good. You need to be able to use them in combination with her delayed time knives and bounce knives in order to safely push forward. Her level 1 spell can go to pretty much any card. Time stop is always good, because it turns momentum in your favor instantaneously and is very difficult to stop - but it requires you to understand when you have an opening to use it. Slashy is a decent reversal. Not great, but not bad. It can be grazed on reaction so it is heavily punishable if used carelessly. Knives is decent for pushing forward, but you have to both move with them and know when you can use them safely. Simply spamming them will accomplish nothing. Level 2 time stop is one of the best spellcards in the game, because if you get it off once, you're free to use it again and again until you've chipped the opponent's sanity away. Additionally it can turn pressure in your favor very easily. Slashy is pretty good but since it can be grazed and is heavily punishable you should watch out - it's a much riskier way of playing. Sakuya is relatively unique in the game. Her play style is a distant cousin of Reimu's, as they both utilize much of the same space to accomplish their momentum. Sakuya can be played in pretty much any style. Notable English players: bellreisa, Armando, Malty Notable Japanese players: Chuunibou, Misumitane, Harunami - Alice Alice, played correctly, is a wall of mixups. You must guess correctly to get in on her, and you must guess correctly to get out of her pressure. She will happily sit there all day and counter your approaches until you utilize her own attempts at pressuring against her - There is always substantial risk in both playing as Alice and playing against Alice, as it is heavily dependent on both player's ability to read and understand each other's motion. She is a heavily technical character, though, and requires a great deal of skill to use effectively. Be prepared for a long learning process if you want to use her. All of Alice's spellcards are good in their own ways. Level 1 bomb is excellent at chipping and crushing the opponent, and can be used for either off of 6b, 6db and 6a. Because the bomb itself comes out quickly and doesn't convert, you can also use this to trade with the opponent if you have a gap. Level 2 bomb is powerful but substantially slower and requires setup to use effectively - Neither of them can be grazed. Both laser cards combo off of 6b, 6db, and 6a, and can be used for a somewhat lighter crush or reliable, easy damage. Both legion cards require some setup to force the opponent to actually block: They have to block any of Alice's C button bullets to be locked up long enough to be forced to block it. However, once they block, they're stuck and you can forcefully drain them with 22b or attack with boot crush mixups. If you don't know how to get this off properly, you'll probably be throwing stars in every direction until you do, because it's very easily countered if used carelessly. Alice is most similar to Reimu and Yuyuko. Alice plays well defensively and in a balanced fashion, but is not so great at aggression since she very easily loses momentum on a wrong guess. Notable English players: bellreisa, TMN Notable Japanese players: TamaPO, Joka, Bach, DesuNO - Patchouli Patchouli is the most unique character of IaMP, focusing almost entirely on zoning her opponent's movement with bullets. She has a wide variety of cheap bullet abilities that allow her a strong freedom of graze traps, at the cost of having very limited and slow melee. She, like Alice, is a very technical character and requires a good understanding of the game's mechanics and good execution to use effectively. Because of the way her cancels are laid out she can put out a ridiculous amount of firepower in a very short amount of time, so care should be taken to properly learn all of them. If used properly she can get a respectably large amount of damage off of very tiny mistakes the opponent does. Sadly, her high/low game is weak. It can be devolved to getting the opponent into the corner, crushing them, and running a one-shot into bomb 50/50 with 5a or 2b: Both will hit clean and combo when the opponent is crushed. However, you need a bomb to get real damage out of it, which is the big problem... Her level one spellcard leans towards either Gears or Droplets. Gears is a reversal move. It doesn't do huge damage, but hey, reversal. It's melee invulnerable from takeoff until landing, the opponent CANNOT counter it that way. (So you can do it twice in a row in order to catch counterpokes.) However, it is not bullet invulnerable, so watch out. Droplets combos off of nearly everything of note and is great at crushing the opponent. Her level two spellcard can go any way. Flare is flashy but not as good as one would hope: The opponent only needs to stay below Patchouli and you will never be able to get Flare off reliably. Because of its insanely long startup sequence (45f!) it cannot be used as a reversal either. It is best used to prevent rushdown sequences and use that space for Patchouli - A threat more than a tool. Selena combos off of 6db and 3db, is invulnerable, and does respectable damage. Increasing 3db's threat level makes Patch very scary. Crystals is difficult to use effectively but gives Patchouli functionally endless momentum until it runs out, and can be used to essentially force an air crush. Patchouli is a fairly unique character, as she is almost purely bullet/melee mixup. She is best played either aggressively or in a balanced fashion. She can hold out for quite awhile defensively, but she never gets any damage out of it as the opponent can hold out just as well, if not better. Notable English players: bellreisa, Armando Notable Japanese players: Aruhori, Sand - Youmu Youmu's an interesting character. She has, simply put, the strongest match-practical combos in the game. Nearly all of them are based off of a wallbounce attack though, which limits their effectiveness. Still, it makes her a force to be feared in the air. Unfortunately, her limited range and reliance on delayed bullets make it harder for her to approach. She makes up for this in other ways, though. She has arguably one of the strongest corner mixup games around: The opponent does have plenty of ways to escape, but the risks for an incorrect guess are huge against a good player. Learning how to use her projectiles to close the gap and utilize this pressure is key to playing her. Youmu's primary advantage comes from the opponent's mistakes. This is why she is considered a good, solid character, but tends not to do well in tournaments: It is a strategy that lacks reliability. As far as spellcards go, you're pretty much fine as long as you avoid Clones. Clones is a hourai tactic. Ask him if you want to use it, but it's pretty comical either way. Runpast is a good, solid reversal at both levels, and as an added bonus can be used for mobility to get out of the corners. The swords are comboable, ungrazeable, graze opponent's bullets, do decent spirit damage, and hit a decent area. Blue sword in particular hits an enormous part of the screen and does about 60% spirit damage when blocked, which allows you to control a lot of space and keep the opponent crushed and unable to prevent Youmu's advances. Youmu is most similar to Marisa, Yukari, and Meiling. She has issues closing the gap, but once she's in, she's in. Youmu can pretty much be played in any style. Notable English players: hourai, Chiyou Notable Japanese players: Matsuda, Rosetan - Remilia Remilia's movement makes her excellent at hit-and-run play. She is NOT as fast as she looks, and it takes some skill to properly utilize her movement. Her bullets are actually all so fast she has trouble capitalizing on them and they are better used for mixups rather than pressuring. Remilia has some of the scariest melee frame traps in the game, at least as long as she has o-bombs. Her 236s are not safe on block, but when she has o-bombs she can use them to entrap the opponent, or fake them out and continue pressure in another way. There's always a distinct end to them, though, and she will need to get in again afterwards. Her corner game is moderate until you can do THE BLOCKSTRING. Inquire about THE BLOCKSTRING someplace other than here. All of her cards are useful in different ways, and function basically the same between the two levels. All are about equally good in combos. Cradle is NOT invulnerable, but it starts up really fast. Unfortunately it's incredibly punishable on block and can be airblocked, so its primary use outside of combos is stopping IADs or very, very predictable gaps. Cross is invulnerable on startup and starts pretty fast, has the lowest damage of the three, but covers a huge chunk of space. This can stop people who like to whore crossups all match long, and is especially good on characters with long airdashes, like Yuyuko. Spear is the most versatile of the bunch, since it grazes, is ungrazable, and can guarantee a crush when done from a blockstring. However, it's also the slowest of the bunch, and it's relatively easily evadable. She is most similar to Meiling, of all characters. Only she doesn't suck. Because of her hit and run style and only moderately effective projectiles she needs to be played in a somewhat balanced fashion, waiting for her time to strike and then taking it as far as the game will let her. Notable English players: bellreisa, mauve? Notable Japanese players: Tenrou, Tazu - Yuyuko Yuyuko is the incarnation of passive-aggressive play. Offensively she is only average, but she is very difficult to approach safely. Her primary weakness is she has no real answer to a solid j.2c other than getting out of the way or hope the opponent was dumb and in range for her 6db. Despite how it looks, she's one of the fastest ground-based characters in the game. If you restart her 6d over and over again she will maintain a very high speed. With this and that her 5a is extremely good on range and speed, and also has block advantage, she can push the opponent forward midscreen safely very easily. She is NOT strong in the air. Her 6b, also known as flip, is the only fully invulnerable reversal in the game that is not a spellcard. And because it is a normal, it is cancellable on block or hit. However, also because it is a normal, it cannot be buffered, which makes timing substantially more difficult. Her first spellcard is a tossup between Ring and Poison. Ring, as a reversal, is not really any stronger or better than flip, but is more punishable. However, if the opponent uses up both his airdashes, or if you get a close C-class attack off, you can use it to push them back and use up a lot of spirit - This is its best use. Poison is somewhat unreliable because of the angle it attacks at, but a solid hit will take off quite a lot of chip damage. More importantly, it causes the opponent to go into a berserker rage to try to get it off of him, and Yuyuko just loves being rushed down carelessly. Her second is Ghosts, no contest at all here. Ring is a somewhat better reversal now but it's even more punishable. Poison does a surprising amount of damage but it's still just as hard to actually connect with it, and does nothing for gaining momentum. However, Ghosts can chain off any blocked C-class attack (2b, 6a, 214x, 6db, 3da, third hit of 66a), allowing you to toss high/low attacks until it ends, at which point you can just start it up AGAIN until you run out of super meter, essentially forcing an opponent to play a guessing game for a really long time. Watch out for bombs, though. She plays most similarly to Alice. As stated above, she is not good at aggressive play: Everything she has is very slow and can be beaten out. However she is good at other styles of play, and has the easiest execution in the game. Notable English players: bellreisa, mauve, Xenozip Notable Japanese players: Ame, Ric, that one time TamaPO played her - Yukari It's Faust in a dress! More seriously, Yukari's pretty interesting to play. She's the 'bag of tricks' character, in that she can do a lot of things that the rest of the cast can't. Signpost is one of the most terrifying attacks in the entire game, especially combined with her tombstone crush mixup. Low air j.2a is a very interesting and important move for keeping pressure on, as well. Because of the nature of her C bullets, she can take a little bit of pressure and run with it straight to the corner if given the chance. She's no slouch there, either, with very, very strong signpost/tombstone mixups and the ability to basically keep pressure on for a really long amount of time. However, she requires a decently high level of execution, as many of her strings are a bit on the tricky side. Her spellcards pretty much go to Ran, no contest. You get one incredibly easy hit in (pretty much anything other than 5a or 2a) and you can go straight into Ran, either on block or hit. This lets you hit the opponent a few more times, leading either to a crush or a decent damage + knockdown combo. Level 2 Ran works the same way, only better! Level 2 Flames is not without its uses, though. It does a ridiculous amount of chip and stays out for a fairly long amount of time, allowing you to use it to restrict the opponent's motion even after you connect. On hit it can do quite a lot of damage on combo and since it bounces you can add on some more to boot. It'll only properly chain off of 6b or 3da though. She plays most similarly to Youmu. Her combos aren't as strong, but she's more reliable and plays better in the midscreen. Notable English players: sphyra, Armando, hourai? Notable Japanese players: YOUZI, MAVE, yake - Suika Suika is another interesting, unique character. Her primary bullets do not trade with the opponent's, unlike the rest of the cast, which is both a blessing and a curse. Her melee is very strong at the hi/lo game and she tends to have awkward hitboxes while doing them, so she's hard to hit, but she actually has trouble getting a solid hit on a crushed opponent because most of her moves stagger. So she basically tries to goad the opponent into moving - poorly - into her attacks, rather than trying to go for the direct kill. She is very, very good at this, though, and not to be underestimated. With a solid reversal and a ridiculous amount of chip damage at her disposal, she can be a real pain to fight. Unfortunately she's been very unpopular with the English speaking player base so I can't comment as much as I would like, especially on her spellcards. It's pretty much agreed that level 1 dunk and level 2 chain are pretty crap, and giant loli is highly character-situational, but the rest are good. She's pretty unique in the game, being something of a distant cousin of Yuyuko in playstyle. Notable English players: bellreisa, Xenozip? Notable Japanese players: Kai, Mexan - Meiling Poor, poor Meiling. Meiling has a weak midscreen game and relatively strong corner traps at the cost of having terrible damage. If you play her, prepare to lose a lot, less because she's bad and more because she has a pretty serious damage shortfall to make up and requires solid understanding of the game - specifically, the tools she DOESN'T have that you will need to make up for in other ways. Her ground game is fairly strong, which very good high/low mixups and traps, and the fastest poke in the game that is also unfortunately very short range. However, don't expect to be breaking 2k on any connected combo, so your gameflow will be a lot of fishing to get in, then rushing the opponent down until he takes damage. A lot like everyone in SWR, really. Level one spellcard is the orb, no contest. It connects on block or hit off of any C-type attack, it combos well, and on block it gives enormous frame advantage, allowing you to push the opponent further back than ever before. Level two is either her orb or Youhou(the punch). Youhou is actually fairly poor as a reversal despite its invulnerability, because it is very slow. Spin is much better at being a reversal, but is ridiculously punishable. But, Youhou's damage is completely ridiculous, and can combo *twice* off of a simple 5aaab combo for a total of nearly 5k, making Meiling very terrifying when declared. Her level 2 orb is not as good as her level 1 orb, as the orb itself moves much faster and doesn't push back as well. However, it does much more chip damage, can't be grazed while holding down the initial period, and combos just as well, so hey. It is better at getting her momentum than Youhou, anyway. She plays most similarly to Youmu and Remilia. She uses her projectiles to keep herself in a relatively safe zone until she can charge in to force the opponent's hand. Because her air game is weak, she dominates in pushing back on the ground and on staggers. She requires a balanced playstyle in order to be effective: Defensive on getting in, aggressive once close. Notable English players: hourai Notable Japanese players: Aruhori, Oxide --- *** YOU JUST KNOW STRINGS YOU AREN'T BEING STRATEGIC THIS GAME SUCKS This merits attention, because it comes up a lot when people play someone remotely good and they get completely and utterly destroyed. It's also probably the funniest argument of all, since it implies we shouldn't use the tools the game gives us, the way the game wants us to use them. We should play the way he wants us to, which involves not using these tools, because they're not 'strategic.' The thing is, strategy is about choices, and the combination of choices you make to defeat the opponent. Tactics are what the choices are, but not how you choose them. You are always making decisions of what to do tactically, in any game, at all times. What makes games interesting is the depth of the strategic choices.. In other words, the number of effects each choice has on future choices, for both players. However, many tactics, until you know how to beat them, will seem insurmountably difficult to get past until you come up with countertactics of your own. You cannot play strategically against something when you do not have a full deck. It's like trying to beat someone at RPS when you don't know that paper exists: He's just going to roll rock until you figure it out. IaMP's tactics are very strong. Incredibly strong. However there are just as strong countertactics, and there's quite a lot of them. You simply have to take the time to learn what they are. Unlike some games it actually remains fairly solid at higher levels of play, and doesn't break down into a relatively simple set of choices. Most good players aren't even going to try to outthink you until the odds aren't in the favor of just steamrolling over you while playing on autopilot. If you want people to respect your strategic choices, it isn't given for free, you have to earn it. --- *** THIS GAME SUCKS I'M GOING TO GO PLAY SWR You do that. SWR has many of the same elements and traps, though the risk/reward is very different and the way you handle situations is different. If you don't understand them here, you probably won't understand them there, either. The main differing points between the games are the flight mechanic and the strength of reversal moves. Whether or not you like either game largely depends on those two mechanics. Weather is annoying but not nearly as important for people that those two are. --- *** THIS GAME SUCKS AND YOU SUCK TOO Thanks!