• If you'd like to contribute, please feel free to do so! Just link the video along with the time that Valkenhayn appears in the video (using the '&t=xxx' format if necessary), and I'll update this post with that video.
• Discussions are welcome
• Dates are in written in MM/DD/YYYY format, by Tournament date. If no tournament date is present, upload date will be used.

 

• - Uma no Hone
• -
• -

 

 

[02/13/16] 『HOWLING MOON II』 Suya (VK)

 

[02/13/16] 『HOWLING MOON II』 Uma No Hone (VK)

 

[02/07/16] Hima (VK) Match Analysis

 

[12/13/15] Boku Zen (VK) vs Doctor (LI) / Tsubaki / Chimepi (HK) / Monster Hunter Cross Ojisan (HI) | Part 2 with Monster Hunter Cross Ojisan (HI) + Training Mode

 

[12/??/15] Hima (VK) vs Nu-13 / Azrael

 

• j - Jump

• sj - Super Jump
• AD - Airdash
• IAD - Instant Air Dash
• jc - Jump Cancel
• sjc - Super Jump Cancel
• CH - Counter Hit
• FC - Fatal Counter
• RC - Rapid Cancel
• OD(LvL?) - Overdrive Level
• 6C(1) - First Hit Of 6C Only
• tk - Tiger Knee (In Valkenhayn's case the input is 2147)
• w[ ] - Wolf Sequence
• h[ ]  - Human Sequence
• CT - Crush Trigger
• (CS: ) - Character Specific Combo
• (CO) - Only Works On Crouching Opponent
• (AH) - Only Works On Aerial Hit
• xNRepeat ??? - N amount of times
• DMG - Damage
• HG - Heat Gain %
• [x%] - Heat Required

Press A+B+C+D while standing or airborne to activate overdrive. Overdrive costs an entire burst gauge and places Valkenhayn in a temporarily powered up state. Overdrive lasts longer the less life you have remaining. Combos in this thread that use overdrive will list the required level of overdrive which will range from 1-10. The duration of overdrive for Valkenhayn is calculated by the following table:
 
                                                  
 
                                                     Please note that cancelling a move into overdrive splits it's duration in half.
 
                                                                                                 Overdrive Levels: 
 
                                                                                        Health (%) 100-90 = Level 1
                                                                                        Health (%) 089-80 = Level 2
                                                                                        Health (%) 079-70 = Level 3
                                                                                        Health (%) 069-60 = Level 4
                                                                                        Health (%) 059-50 = Level 5
                                                                                        Health (%) 049-40 = Level 6
                                                                                        Health (%) 039-30 = Level 7
                                                                                        Health (%) 029-20 = Level 8
                                                                                        Health (%) 019-10 = Level 9
                                                                                        Health (%) 009-0 = Level 10

N/A

Midscreen:

• N/A

Corner:

• N/A

N/A

Welcome to the Valkenhayn strategy guide. The aim of this guide will be to help you guys get a better understanding of Valkenhayn by identifying the easy options in Valkenhayn's steep learning curve. If you are looking to use Valkenhayn, understand that Valkenhayn is a very aggressive character with a lot of great pressure and mixups with the use of the wolf form. Combining Valkenhayn’s long range human pokes with wolf mobility and limitless mixup and pressure options is vital in stabilising play with Valkenhayn. This is traditionally what makes Valkenhayn quite intimidating to newcomers. Transforming back and forth during combos, properly utilising wolf movement and conversing wolf movement will take some time getting used to, but it really does pay off.

Please be sure to familiarise yourself with:

CPEX Valkenhayn Combo Tutorial - By Boku Zen Especially useful to beginners.
Valkenhayn Wolf Brake Tutorial - Useful for learning wolf brake for mixup.
CP Valkenhayn Wolf Movement Tutorial - Useful for getting used to Wolf movement and other approaches.

CP Valkenhayn Wolf Meter Management Tutorial - Very Useful even though it's CP!!

For reference:

[w] means wolf, so you'd conduct the input while you're in wolf mode.


A little bit about myself:

Hi, I’m Kiba (AKA Keebs). I picked up Valkenhayn in CS1 because I generally like wolves/beasts (a favoured archtype), and I love his movement (but I won't be surprised if you don't believe it!). Tao can move freely without worrying about meter, but I'm more of a dog lover. For a little more insight, my name (Kiba) also means 'Fang' and yes it goes well with the fact that I use Valkenhayn. I'm always looking for ways to improve my Valkenhayn, and I do try to help others, but I generally shy away from that because I feel that the knowledge I have on Valkenhayn is quite inadequate. However, with all your help we can help other make this guide better. There aren't a lot of us here and this forum started quite bumpy but I hope you guys feel differently this time around with it. I would appreciate any help you guys can provide as this is a community effort, and again thanks for everything from the CS1 days.

I’ve just started using Valkenhayn but I’m not sure what my first steps are, what do I do?

I would suggest for you to go into training mode and get a feel for his normals in both human and wolf form (this is where you'll use the wiki to aid you). I'll take this time to explain Valkenhayn's drive. Pressing 5D/j.D transforms Valkenhayn into a wolf and not only is he more agile, but he also gains a completely new moveset. While he is in the werewolf form, the purple bar above your heat gauge will slowly deplete. Whilst, you are in human form, the gauge will regenerate slowly, but note it only regenerates when you are on the ground and not in the air. If the gauge reaches 0, you will be disabled from transforming until the gauge refills to the max again. Direction + D allows Valkenhayn to travel at a very high speed, but this will deplete the gauge faster so it is important to conserve your wolf gauge for optimal pressure and look for resourceful methods of wolf gauge use. You also cannot block in wolf form, so it is mandatory you are constantly moving around to make it very difficult for the opponent to land a hit. If you are hit in wolf mode, you will revert back to human form. Because wolf movement is now done with direction + D you also need to be aware that if you want to revert back to human you need to make sure you set your stick (or pad) back to neutral otherwise you'll accidentally initiate another movement which will drastically reduce the wolf gauge.

Unlike other characters, Valkenhayn cannot dash, inputting 66 will make him forward hop. However, the wolf can run back and forth. You’ll realise that when you’re trying to move in you’ll mostly rely on wolf movement. I would also recommend that you get used to moving in wolf form, whether it's dashing or using D + directional command (AKA Rasenwolf) to quickly move around. Valkenhayn can also use rasenwolf to move backwards. 7D and 4D will allow Valkenhayn to move back and then lunge forward just like the other input commands. This will slowly give you an idea on how you should be managing the wolf gauge (also explained below). If you are low on wolf meter, you can either replenish the gauge by using a command grab (236C), or you’ll have to stall in human form for quite some time, putting you on the defensive + limiting your offensive actions. This is not what you want, especially since Valkenhayn has lower health than most characters and his defensive options are quite weak. While on that topic, let me take the time to explain wolf cancelling. Let’s take 236A for instance. If you press D + direction input right after the attack, you’ll transform into wolf and move in your designated direction. If you cancelled it into 5D, 6D, 8D or 9D, remember that the wolf will not stop moving until you press another button. You can do this after any special attack you used in human form, and you can also do it after 6B and 6C.
Now that you have a feel of Valkenhayn’s normals, you can then press on to get a feel for his specials and distortions, so you know what they’re capable of. Do not worry about frame data for now, because that is not a priority, but please remember that this information acts solely as a basis to help new players. So if you’re an advanced fighting gamer learning frames as you go may be your style.

A good choice would be to use challenge mode to get a grasp of his combos. I would not recommend looking at the combo thread just yet. There are a lot of combos there and it may be daunting. Challenge mode has the advantage of showing you a demonstration of the combo. Don’t worry about trying to complete all of the combos, prioritize the first few combos before moving on. This time around, some of the challenge mode combos are even really useful!

Your staple + beginner combos will be the following:
 

• 5B > 5C > 236A
• 5B > 5C > 236B > 236B
• w[5A > 5B > 5C > 6D > j.A > 5D] > 5B > 2C/5C > j.B > j.B > j.C - First do this by practicing the transformation into human mode after j.A and following up with 5B.
• Corner Only: w[5A > 5B > 5C > 236A > 5D] > 5B > 2C > j.B > dj.B > j.C

 

Useful Tools:

• Basic Pokes: 5B, 5C, w[5A], w[5C]
• Jump Cancellable Normals: 5A, 5B, 2C, w[5A], w[5B]
• Anti - Airs: w[5B], 2C, 6A (Situational but can be effective)
• Air to Air Pokes: j.A, j.B, w[j.A]
• High Attacks: 6B, j.A, j.B, j.C, w[j.A], w[j.B], w[j.C]
• Low Attacks: 2B, 3C, 236B, w[5C]
• Wolf Cancellable Attacks: 2A, 2C, 6B, j.C (OD only), 5C, All Specials (236A, 236B (>236B), 236C, j.214B)

 

After getting used to Valkenhayn's combo theory you'll start to have your own preference of what combos you want to do. Every Valk player has their own preference and it's not wrong for you to pick up your own style. Valkenhayn has a lot of variety.