Guilty Gear 2: Overture released

[Blackgenma]

It's 6 J's.

He says that he sucks compared to most of the remaining players, but he hasn't been able to play nearly as much as them, so that's not surprising.

He did tell me he tries to friend everyone he plays against, but some people's friendslists were full when he sent the request. Thanks to his dedication, there is someone to teach the occasional new players he said has shown up recently.

Teach? Man, people really need to just play the campaign mode to learn the bare basics of playing. It's so dumb how I run into idiots who play without even touching campaign mode and don't know what they are doing.

Oh, and glad to hear your uploading some new gg2 videos panda, thanks alot.

[Ayumu Gardevoir]

He says that he sucks compared to most of the remaining players, but he hasn't been able to play nearly as much as them, so that's not surprising.

Guessing he hasn't played me.

[PandaKingEX]

I'm starting to put the matches up now. It's going to be a while before they are all up, but I will try to get as many up as I can up today. I know Tobal wanted to see some more high level matches, and I have some of those here. edit: Alright, I put up a few matches. I will add some more tomorrow.

[Blackgenma]

great to hear panda. looking forward to the rest of those videos.

by the way, they recently updated the game to version 1.46, but the official website has not put up another pdf file explaining the changes. now all the games I had in my replay file are now useless.

seems like JJJJJJ2 now has a silver account. I guess he won't be doing any matches online until he gets it upgraded. online is super dead, and I don' have the patience to make a room and sit on my butt for god knows how long waitng for a match.

I can totally understand why panda quit this game, seeing as he got so good, but he has NO ONE to use his skills againsts, unless he wants to stay up in the early hours of the morning to fight the japanese. we got about a 12 hour time lag, when it's 12 am for us, it's around 12 pm for them roughly. I know becaue I spoke to someone in japan (who spoke english) and asked them what time it was.

anyway, I'd llike to ask you guys, who is your favourite character among the playable GG 2 cast to play as? for me, it's Sol, because I can dig his totally awesome but difficult style of RTSD gameplay. switching between him and Paradigm is alienating, but fun.

EDIT: random tought. you know what would make hunchback extreamly useful? if it blew up under any cercumstance after it dies, than it would totally be worth everything it costs. man, that would be awesome, along with giving Sol a stratagem skill. he needs a stratagem skill badly, it would make him considerably more deadly.

you guys ever give the GG2 updates pdf files a look over at gg2nd.jp? at one point, Dr. Paradigm had 500 health. reading it really does give you a sense of apreceation of their attempts to balance the game. looking at the game now, I'd say it is fairly balanced. my only gripe is with sol's useless unit's like Gigant and Pencil guy. I'm sure every character has usless units in some form or another though, so whatever.

[Kyosuke Kagami]

I found this fairly interesting video of a bunch of preview footage before the game came out. You will notice some things that never made it into the final game, like Sol doing a fire tackle move, Sin does beak driver in the air, and some other stuff.

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7504509

I still remember when, in the first GG2 footage, the announcer still says "Let's Rock" instead of "Mission Starts" :/

[PandaKingEX]

I still remember when, in the first GG2 footage, the announcer still says "Let's Rock" instead of "Mission Starts" :/

They still say "Let's Rock" when playing a versus match.

edit: I put up 2 new matches today. I'll put some more up tomorrow.

[Blackgenma]

KEEP EM COMING PANDA! that Sol that you versed didn't seem all that, when you started releasing blades, you pretty much dominated him. the new update (1.46) seems to have added a new graphical effect when using the Healing Rod, as well as a new status symbol. you and your units get this awesome purple aura glow, like Dimitri's aura glow from Capcom's Darkstalkers, and the status symbol you see is a purple hour glass. the official website STILL hasn't released a pdf detailing what they have updated specifically. random Gigant crap did you know that the Gigant upgrades change Gigant's soldier type attributes? try giving him no upgrades, and have him face a ton of springbacks or some other mobile, they will eat him alive, because they are mobile, and because Gigant sucks. now give Gigant the Melee upgrade, and it will make Gigant a giant melee unit. in other words, those springbacks, all 20 of them, will die a horrible death. try the melee upgrade on some armors now, notice they really don't flinch or seem to have any trouble fighting the USELESS GIGANT? of coarse not! ARMORS> MELEE ANY DAY! now give the Gigant the mobile upgrade. not only does it not takes a week for Gigant to move to adjacent ghosts, but he punches more rapidly too! that may seem all fine and dandy, but use it on those armors, and you'll see his new boxing skills will blow his fat opponents right off their feet. I'm assuming the armor upgrade makes him more....uh...armorish, but since his new gimmick is a battering ram, it knowcks down oponents very quickly, and the full potential of the thing cannot be exploited. that is, unless you use it on another big 'ol armor unit like the bone bitter. Armor upgrade gigant will DESTROY bone bitter dragon of unpleasant breath, with it's insanely damaging battering ram/pike thing. yeah, you gotta keep it upgraded, but Gigant will own it. now take this new found information and try your hand with Gigant, and you will see HE IS NOT WORTH USING, he will bankrupt your mana. only pull it out if you want to be different or if your dead set on finding a use for him that Sol's other elite units do not already have. the upgrades for Gigant are necessary for him to be of any use, in other words, your going to have to baby sit the unit, coming back to constantly upgrade it. random tidbit, the missile attack for Gigant is the only attack in the game that inflicts the fear status that I know of, and it is annoying. when doing the epic bone bitter battle, the damn dragon kept running away because of the missiles. I wanna test out upgrades more though, just for the hell of it. end of Gigant crap. because no one really comes on this thread anyway, I will rant on my misgivings in my personal experience with this game. only read if your bored. I do not own an Xbox 360, so I leave my copy at a friends house who lives in a city over thats not to hard to get to provided I have nothing to do for a weekend, and god knows I don't have anything to do in the summer. we recently been playing this game a lot, trying our hands on free missions on hard mode with different characters, taking turns on owning the computer in exhibition mode, and having a blast doing teaming up and fighting level 5 computers in 2 vs 2 matches, trying to learn the best strategies for each map. he is actually a better player than I am, and is getting getting adjusted to playing in split screen from the team matches we were doing. even after admitting he was really enjoying himself, I propose, "lets verse each other, just once before we stop" and he's like "no". WHY!?!?!?! in our history in versing each other, he wins 90 percent of the time, but he doesn't want to verse me, only taking turns playing and teaming up with me against level 5 computers (with reduced mana, because they are CRAZY without mana reduction). so, the online is dead, and I have reliable competition sitting right next to me, and he doesn't want to fight me. split screen is inferior to single player due to the screen being crazy cluttered, and not being able to separate your units, but it is still a viable method of playing, and it's not like he can beat me without trying, as I can get him in master battles. I just don't get it. poopy:arg:. that's the end my rant.

[Jam-Kiske]

xD Oh you. Once I get my money I'll be getting this game for my own amusement... when will that be? I have no idea.

[Ayumu Gardevoir]

I would help, but if I don't then you'll get better than me in two days anyway. If I do, then you'll never progress as long as you listen to what I say, then you'll quit listening and sky rocket in skill. (or quit playing, whichever comes first) ask Panda

[NeoVid]

Well, JJJ returned my copy, thanks to his 360 being too close to dead to play it without freezing. As soon as I tried playing again, I found out he left my game too scratched up for my 360 to run. He will pay.

[PandaKingEX]

The graphical effect update sounds nice. Did you try to see if it applies to other area type moves as well? I usually had a hard time telling exactly which servants are actually in stuff like healing rod, since all you get is a small little ring that can be hard to see in a cluttered situation. The graphical effect seems like a pretty useful addition to the game.

[Jam-Kiske]

Well, JJJ returned my copy, thanks to his 360 being too close to dead to play it without freezing.

As soon as I tried playing again, I found out he left my game too scratched up for my 360 to run.

He will pay.

Is it one of those cases where it's scratched and only a certain 360 will read it?

My old xbox #Reload is like that. ;.;

[Blackgenma]

the healing rod was the only graphical effect that I noticed and the only thing different that I noticed in the update in general.The effect also is present in free missions, I noticed this in the mission "protect the gate". as for other items, I have not seen anything new. this also applies to anti-rods, which would have also have been a great candidate for a graphic effect. I'll do some testing later, but I honestly would like them to just release a PDF file so I can see some character changes. Some of the changes tend to be subtle, like Sol's brute strength special move taking only 10 percent tension bar reduced from it's previous 13 percent, same with hunchback summon and it's tension summon cost (13 reduced to 10 as well.) are good examples of previous character changes in older updates.

EDIT:it always strikes me as a surprise when someone who isn't Neovid, Ayumu or Pandaking post in this thread, I kinda forgot that people read threads for the hell of it, as I do it all the time. this thread was more active just a few months ago, back in April, I never thought blazblue would kill this game so thoroughly for the american audiences, guess arc fans just want their fighting games huh?

for those of you who want some good info on this game, some of the earlier post in this thread has it, including how to beat survival mode. don't be afraid to go digging in there.

oh, and panda, before you forget, what is the general strategy for playing as each character in regards to servant battles if you do't mind posting that? for example, Sol is a pure rush down character, as I've heard you say and I have seen such in the few good videos online. Dr. paradigm is a mix between rush and defense (Hn tappu seems to play like that from the 2 matches I seen from him), while Valentine is a defensive character, and because I don't know didily about valentine, so I'm just going to go with that. give us a sentence or two on who each character is meant to be used in a general sense, I asked this because I don't know how Raven or Izuna generally work, and those are characters I'm interested in playing. I'm not bad with raven at all, I play him like I play sol, where I rush, just not as frantic, but I don't know if he's designed to do that. I am TERRIBLE with Izuna in general, I have some info on him from the time flamemasterAJ posted a very short guide on him, but thats about it. I don't know nuthin about the guy, because I never really sat down and tried to learn him like I did paradigm. due to the many servant types and master abilities for Ky and Sin, am guessing they are the most flexible of the group, do they have any specific strategy?

you don't have to post this if you don't want to, I'll post my limited knowledge on each character if you can't be bothered with it. school starts soon, and until then I got NOTHING to do.

[Jam-Kiske]

I'll have to go digging when I get my game and money... Oh joy.

[PandaKingEX]

I'll post up on some character strategies tomorrow.

[Blade]

Man it surprises me how huge this thread got. I've played GG2 but never really got the hang of it, even with the Tutorials, I get lost on maps easily or run out of Mana too quick, that and I can't defend my Masterghost for crap. Guess I'm too used to fighting games.

[Jam-Kiske]

That will probably happen to me. I'm the kid who plays nothing but fighting games after all...

[PandaKingEX]

This game really isn't easy to pick up at all. You have to genuinely want to get good at it, and put forth the effort, and considering how dead the online is, not a lot of people really want to take the time to find matches and get better. I think Tobal and I are pretty much the only ones trying to play seriously. All the other Americans that do play are pretty casual. One thing that I found pretty interesting, though is that some of my Japanese friends had told me that I was talked about quite a bit over there, which I was pretty surprised to hear. It's kind of cool that they recognize me as good player, but I think it would be awesome if we we got some more good players over here, so that we could compete against them in a tournament, or something. I still have one GG2 goal that I want to achieve, which is to beat Kimera Cryin at least once. He is the only player I can never beat no matter how many times I try. One thing I always wonder is why the gap between him and the other Japanese players seems so large. At first glance he seems like just another really good player, but his strategies are so well thought out. He pretty much never makes a pointless move when it comes to summoning and navigating his servants around the battlefield. btw. I know another fairly decent American player, and his name is Kou2007. He is actually Japanese, but he lives in America. He is a sol and sin player, and he plays regularly. I'm not really sure how often he would want to play with anyone, though. He's a kind of weird guy that randomly pops into games, and leaves after 1 or 2 matches. He also leaves his status on away at all times, so you never actually know when he is available, since he never turns his xbox off. So yeah, if you want to try and contact him for a match, then maybe he would be good practice, since he is pretty much the next best player besides me. I also know that he talks with the Japanese players often, and he probably knows what sites they have all their information on, so I might ask him about that sometime.

[Ayumu Gardevoir]

All the other Americans that do play are pretty casual.

I'm guilty of that.

[Blackgenma]

yeah, in order to get the hang of things, you need both practice and learning by example. even when you read some of the very little info on gamefaqs and here, and watching some great videos, it eventualy comes down to practice. I think the only reason this thread is still active is because of panda. if he didn't post here, I wouldn't have bothered posting either. Don't forget about those character stratagies panda! just a sentance or two on each character would be fine if your feeling lazy. my buddy Raul (boundary) is pretty good, better than me, but he's no where as interested as I am with this game.

[Ayumu Gardevoir]

Oh freaking, I need to learn how to play Valentine like a defensive character...

[Blackgenma]

Alright, since no word from Panda, I'm gonna stick to my word and post what I know about each character and their general strategy in servant battles. this is beginner friendly, as I am not too great of a player myself.

Sol Badguy Basics Guide

Sol Badguy is a relatively simple character to learn, yet difficult to master. He is a primarily offensive character; his theme is being a strong master, but having weak normal servants. In low-level play, this is not too big of an issue, but the higher the competition, the more glaring his servants weakness become. Sol has to do most of the work he himself, and his skills are based around self-buffs.

Sol has 3 regular servants consisting of Melee (Drill), Armor (Blade) and Ranged (Pencil Guy). Sol doesn't have a standard Mobile or Magic type servant, making him vulnerable to armors. He has 5 Elite units, Melee (Firewheel) Mobile (Engulfer) Armor (Gigant) and 2 magic types (Red Queen and Blockhead). For the most part, Sol's Elites are pretty effective, and is one of the only three masters that have a Melee Elite, which I like to call an "anti master" elite that is good at combating an enemy master.

Sol basic strategy is to rush the opponents like a madman, trying his best to control as many ghost as possible and finding a clear path to the master ghost as fast as he can. Because of his weak tribe (army) Sol doesn't want his opponent to build up a strong army, so he has to deny the opponent of ghost to build up mana. Sol's units are also not very cheap in their cost in mana, so you want to have as much as you can get.

In the beginning of a match, your going to want to know what you want to control, and where you want to slow the enemy servants down. You pick your drills destination as fast as possible, and when they spawn, you pick them up right away (either 2 or 3 of them) and place them where you want them, whether it's to have early control of a ghost, or to slow down enemy forces, both is desirable. If you want to slow the enemy down, place them at a ghost directly in front of the enemy master ghost. Unless you separated each and every drill and tell them to stay at the ghost you plan to drop them via the organ menu before they spawn (yes, I have seen a player do that, it was impressive) your going to want to tell them to stay put using right on the D-Pad right when you dump them off. All characters use this strategy, but it is absolutely essential for sol, and he'll be doing this through out the match.

When playing as sol, you transport your units where they are needed the most manually (meaning you yourself pick them up and dump them off) and when you aren't doing that, your either killing a bunch of servants your self, or attacking the enemy master. Consider your servants main purpose to capture and maintain ghost, and to inch closer to the enemy master ghost (and you speeding up that process). Your primary concern is their safety, meaning you kill whatever might slow them down, or kill them. For the beginning of the match your best off spamming drills, and unlocking the Blade, but not using them yet for the first round, or at least until you see fit. Spamming drills and placing them where you want, as well as protecting them is effective, you need to make holes in the opponent's defenses. If a large group of servants are slowing down your drills, or a very strong few (like armors) the last thing you want is for the drills to die. You either pick them up and dump them to the closest ghost that is closer to the enemy master ghost and go back to kill the enemy servants, or you tell them to retreat. Remember that servants have an advantage when fighting at a ghost that is theirs (defense boost) so even if you don't have the time to save them at the moment, they should be able to hold their own for a while when they retreat provided there isn't a master attacking them.

There isn't much to say about drills, because you pretty much have no choice but to use them. They are pretty weak, and have two different attacks, a switchblade attack that hits upward (hey, it helps with juggle combos!) and a more powerful charge were it sticks it's drill into the opponent, making them fly away. The damage output is nothing to write home about. When upgraded with blackhead, its drill becomes massive (read; disproportionately huge), and does more damage. With the upgrade, it receives powered up melee attacks. The upgrade doesn't help them too much, because the unit's primary problem it that they are pretty stupid, and un-aggressive, and the upgrade doesn't change that unfortunately. Still, you have no choice but to use them, luckily, their stupidity does not allow them to be overtaken by mobile units at least; the drills will soundly defeat them.

A good technique I have seen in using drills are leaving one at every ghost you own. So If the enemy want to get some free mana by stealing a ghost that you passed or are not currently protecting, they have to deal with your drill first, slowing them down.

Blades are a lot sturdier than the drills, and also a lot slower, so be sure to pick them up! When I use sol, I always unlock blades before any of the elites, as they are a great help in sol's army long term, just keep in mind to make good use of them, as they are expensive. When upgraded with blockhead, they have these flaming pinwheels on them, hitting whatever is close to them, called offense cloak or barrier. That's all it upgrades Blockhead provides for the Blade, it's actually better than it sounds.

Pencil guys are Sol's Ranged units. Ranged units are strong against Melee and Magic, and as far as this guy goes, he's not as offensive based as Sin's ranged unit, or as defensively powerful as Raven's and not as annoying as Izuna's, but he has some tricks up his sleeve. Besides shooting enemies with a gun, and saying funny puns ("I'll give it a shot") its hits will poison the enemy, and it can toss stun grenades. Remember that these guys are back up for drills and blades, like any other range unit, and are not designed to be sent at a horde of Melee by themselves, even against the likes of valentine and raven (who's two out of three normal forces are weak to ranged) because an enemy master can just swoop along and take them out no problem, not to mention they capture ghost slowly. Pair them up with drills and blades to make your forces more substantial. They’re also not bad protecting the master ghost with a few drills. The blockhead upgrade makes the gun really big, and makes shots explode and damages multiple enemies when the bullet hits.

Basically, when your sol, your running all over the place to maintain the map. Use Sol's dragon install as a tool to kill servants quickly when it is at 100, or to give you an edge against other masters. (USE VOLCANIC VIPER ON THEM!) Sol’s dragon install changes depending on the amount of resources your units have accumulated, resources are represented by the gear symbol underneath you maserghost health. Resource is collected when your normal servants fight. For every 25 resource you have, the stronger the dragon install becomes, 100 dragon install being extremely powerful. I’m not sue about the lower level dragon installs, but you cannot dispel Sol’s 100 dragon install, so don’t be afraid to use it, because he enemy can’t get rid of it. Your special moves are enhanced in that mode, your volcanic viper does 300 damage on a clean hit, and it good chip damage. Your sword has extended range, and you can lock opponents down with (L) 4x, 6x, sidestep repeat, and your gunflame travel much faster, can be fired more rapidly, and comes out insanely fast. Your overdrive does over 1000 damage in 100 dragon install, so bust it out on an elite unit for a quick kill. If your in a pickle, and need a power boost, as long as you have 25 install, go ahead and use it, it can save you when used in opportune moments.

When facing other masters, or a large group of servants, use crimson jacket, particularly in a combo of (L) x, x (activate crimson jacket) when you start up crimson jacket, it's initiation hits whatever is around sol, it can even be used by itself to snuff incoming attacks. if you want to get a free combo off that, use (L) 8x to slide into them, and modern cancel when you hit them, allowing you to combo a (L) x, x, into whatever you see fit. Crimson jacket is a self-buff skill that will raise Sol’s defense and provide some knock back resistance for a limited time. The knock back resistance and increased defense will allow you to be more offensive, and the increase in defense is significant. If you want a super crazy strong Sol, use crimson jacket while using dragon install. It will give you good results. Unlike dragon install, this can be dispelled, so investing In a mouth zipper is a smart choice.

Sol's Minion summon "hunchback" is a Mobile unit. It’s not extremely useful, so you never really need it, but it can help you in confrontations when taken out at just the right time. When facing a group of servants that has a lot of units that are weak to mobile, in other words; Armor and magic servants, it performs pretty well in providing you and your servants back up. It’s chili ball attack shocks enemies, does good damage to armors and magics, and holds them in place, so you can combo them whilst it's attacking with chili ball. The effectiveness of its attacks are increased when it's fighting magic and armor, to the point where it can make fighting those servants much easier. I once killed a bone biter at full health with nothing but tossing hunch backs at it, and it died relatively quickly considering it was under attack by minions. It has quick recharge time, so you can have up to 3 out at once. When you summon it, Sol tosses it like a little ball, and it hurts whatever it hits, and when it disappears from being out for a certain amount of time, it will blow up like a bomb, but if it's killed before that point, it will not. It’s role in master combat is minimal, due to the fact that it is slow and is not very aggressive, but it isn’t something master can simply ignore. You should draw the enemy master's attention away from the hunchback and pressure their back against the unit, so they can get smacked (hopefully with chili ball instead of the Melee attack) and provide an opening for you. There are also times where my opponent ignore the unit, precedes to combo me, and gets interrupted by the hunchback mid-combo. Overall the unit is helpful, and is not too expensive in terms of mana to purchase and tension to summon.

The elite servants that are the easiest to use are Fire wheel, Red queen, and Engulfer. Fire wheel is very strong Melee elite unit. It shouldn't have problems against most units, and isn't something a master would want to fight when at a ghost of it's own. It gets from point A to point B relatively quickly, if there’s something you want to tackle a master with for backup, this guy is your prime candidate for it's damage output. An effective Elite to bring out for the extra muscle it provides.

Red queen is an offensive magic type. It travels the map super fast, captures ghost quickly, and fights well, not to mention she does great damage to armors and is VERY cheap. Her health goes down by itself, so she wont be around on the map for long, which is why she's so cheap. According to the game, she increases the defense of allies around her. Not a bad choice for a first elite to bring out.

Engulfer is Sol's only mobile, and moves around the map just as fast as fire wheel does, and it's no slouch at fighting either, though it is not as strong as fire wheel. He tears through armors with no problem, so if armors are giving you a problem, you want this guy. He has the ability to seal the enemy master's item slots, so he can help a bunch when facing enemy masters, as they wont be pulling out special skills or items on you, and it can lay the smack down on them to along with you.

Gigant, as I stated in my earlier rant about it, is not good to use. He is an enormous armor unit that costs a large amount of mana, and is reliant on upgrade Kits, which cost additional mana. With out the upgrade kits constantly being fed to him, he is a very slow and weak unit. He already costs 400 to unlock, and is even more expensive to summon on the field, and when you get him there, unless you want to keep him at your masterghost, it is going to take him forever to get anywhere without a mobile kit, which already costs 100 mana to purchase. He is extremely slow with out a mobile kit, and he is a very high profile unit, the enemy can see him coming a mile away. The upgrade kits are temporary and cannot be compounded, so when you use a kit, he's stuck like that until he reverts back to his original form. I'm confused as to why Arc system work made this unit as unwieldy and expensive as they have, it takes a lot of effort to make this guy useful, and it is a shame, because it's a very unique unit, there is none other like it in the game. It’s upgrade kits actually change the type of unit it is, in other words, using a Mobile upgrade kit turns the Gigant into a Mobile unit, and it will display mobile unit attributes (travels faster, attacks more rapidly, has an advantage over armor units). If your going to use it, it does well at your master ghost with an upgrade if your losing the map. I recommend never using the ranged upgrade though, it is far too unreliable, and has a good chance at hitting absolutely nothing, wasting your mana. if you somehow manage to get it to the enemy master ghost without the enemy master noticing or servants guarding it, give the Gigant the range upgrade, and watch it annihilate the master ghost. When placing him to defend the masterghost, in most cases, the Melee upgrade is the most effective against normal servants, hits a wide radius around it for big damage, also the best choice for dealing with masters. Mobile against armored normal servants. for elites, I'm not too sure, but the armor upgrade does the most damage to other armors, so you can experiment with it on other elites or normal servants, as I have not tested everything there is to test on the upgrades.

Blockhead is a elite magic unit, whose primary functions are to upgrade and to support Sol's standard units. It can transfer health to normal servants at the cost of it's own health, it upgrades normal servants to enhance certain features, and it shoots out a spray of energy ball-like projectiles that hits with a wide radius. Basically, it makes your normal servants more formidable. The upgrade it gives varies from unit to unit, but the upgrade for the Blade and the Pencil Guy are very good, making them much stronger and reliable. The Drill, however, not so much, because even though their attacks are stronger, they are still as stupid and un-aggressive as they always are. For what it’s worth, you'd rather have are strong stupid drill than a weak stupid drill.

Though some may advise against using certain units, all of them do have their advantages; I don't believe there is JUST one-way to play each character. The way I have seen PandaKingEx and Kimera Cryin play Sol, they Rush, and they Don't use Pencil Guys, Blockhead, Hunchback or Gigant (well, I've seen Kimera use it for mastghost defense, but that’s all.) they are the most effective Sol's I've seen, but I believe you can make use of servants they don't use (at least Blockhead, Pencil Guy, and Hunchback. I don't know about Gigant.) Sol seems a relatively simple character, but that really not the case, the methods of play I've seen seem like they can be destroyed by good servant play (I saw Kimera's Sol absolutely destroyed by Guilty blood's Paradigm. all Kimera did was spam drills, and eventually, Guilty blood unleashed the armors, and it was all over. different story when Kimera played as Valentine) in order to compete with other characters in servant battles, I believe your best off using as many tools as Sol has, and he has a lot of them, So be bold, and give his shunned units a chance and come up with some crazy strategies. Otherwise have fun hunting down masters over and over. At least there’s no debate Sol can accomplish that no problem.

Master Abilities

When it comes to master fights, sol is a close-range fighter, so you’re going to want to stay in the opponent's face. Sol has the best poke in the game, his (L) x kick. it will pretty much go through everything as long as it is pressed fast enough and he is close enough to hit. It beats out Izuna's and Raven's pokes no problem, and they have among the best pokes in the game. Sol has a wide range of moves available to him; the only problem is that all of them have short range with few exceptions. (L) x is not the only move you can come in with, some times it's better to come in with (L) 4x or 6x to stop them from side stepping, even to stop them from coming in. they Can be combo'ed like so

(L) 4x, 6x, 2x, 8x - my favorite! I call it the "bandit revolver" combo!

(L) 6x, 4x, 2x, MC, x, x, *2x, into whatever you want. *You can side step if you want.

(L) x, x, x, 8x, 2y, y – this is not related to the two combos above, but I like it too much not to put it up. It’s a cheap combo that easy to do and delivers good damage, with the potential to add more damage at your leisure. You don’t need to modern cancel to connect 8x with 2y when juggling the opponent in the air with 8x.

Gun flame juggles the opponent, and it's easy to hit them with a bandit revolver after it, so a decent and cheap combo would be (L) x, x, x, y, 8y. It’s cheap in tension and does good damage. It’s fantastic for it's crowd control when dealing with servants too.

Don’t forget his brute force (lock on 4y and 6y) is great for catching people when they want to escape you BnBs! A good example is when someone blocks your (L) x, x, x, so instead of finishing the combo, do a (L) x, x, 4y or 6y. Guess the right direction where they will try to side step and they'll get punished. it is easiest to escape Sol's (L) x, x, x after the second hit, so remember that. if you don't want to risk a miss with brute force, just stop at the second hit and side step. it is also fantastic to use when you predict the opponent will sidestep. If you didn't know, after the first lock on x, you can press 2x for a punch that has good guard break properties and can be repeated, a good combo would be (L) x, 2x, x, (break guard) and hit them with whatever you want. I recommend a (L) x, x, x. it’s simple and it works.

The way to approach a master is either 1) walk towards them, 2) dash towards them 3) run to them, 4) jump towards them, 5) air dash to them, 6) bandit revolver to close the gap and attack them at the same time. Don't underestimate the ability to jump and air dash, as it is the only way to dodge and counter attack certain moves, like horizontal attacks and projectiles, Ky's Stun edge is a good example.

Speaking of Bandit revolver, it covers a lot of distance quickly, and cost almost NO TENSION! It can even be used for escaping. the Bandit revolver has great guard break and does chip damage, so toss it at the end of a blocked (L) x, x, x, and it should break guard. An excellent special move for Sol.

Tossing out a gun flame to oncoming opponents is good too (for example, when they run at you), but otherwise, gun flame isn't a reliable zoning tool. Gun flame helps for crowd control as I said before though. (It hits enemies directly behind and to the sides of Sol too!) When used sparingly, you can catch an opponent off guard with it, so don't think it's completely useless outside combo. An interesting note is that it can cancel out just about every normal projectile in the game, including Ky’s charged stun edge, which is more than twice as strong in damage output.

The Volcanic Viper is probably the biggest reason why Sol is such a deadly Master. It is a reversal of sorts, it's a jumping uppercut that can go through attacks (it has uninterruptible frames) and does lots of damage. It can be EASILY combo'ed into, but it cannot lift opponents in the air all of the time ((L) 4x, 6x, 2x, 2y is a good example of a bad combo for Volcanic Viper) Sol can even do it in the air, which is crazy. to use it as a reversal, block an attack and right afterwards, hit them with a volcanic viper. air reversals can be done too, recover in the air from a combo and if the opponent is in the air too, you can smack them with a volcanic viper very quickly. you can do a y after the volcanic Viper without MC too.

Break Down is a good aerial stomp, it has an explosion when Sol lands, so it's a good crowd control tool, and it can hit master's from behind if done correctly.

Toss out a hard attack (8x while in free mode (locked off) it will break right through the opponent's guard (in most cases), and does good damage and has good range. Useful fact about sol's hard attack, it does good damage to ghost and master ghosts. Give them a good smack with it. You can go bananas on a vulnerable master ghost by hitting it with the hard attack, then modern canceling it into another hard attack, and repeating it until you are empty of tension. It’s also great at damaging servants and providing crowd control as it sends servant's flying.

I've seen combo strings along the lines of (L) x, 4x, 2x, MC, x, x, x, into whatever, I'm guessing you can extend it or change it how you please. This is a pressuring thing I've seen PandaKingEX and Kimera Cryin do, it seems...like a block string to scare the guy into thing he can't escape or something, leading to a guard crush perhaps. I really don't know, but try it out and see what you can do with this pressure game. You can mess with the guard break punch in different ways too, such as:

(L) x, 2x, 6x, 2x into whatever you please (the animation for the 2x in to the 6x looks really cool by the way. spin around!)

a good combo that takes a lot of tension, but does great damage is (L) x, x, 2y, x, x, 2y, y. it is untechable, meaning the player cannot escape from it once they are in it. Takes about half they're health away, along with half of your tension.

Another major way that sol damages opponents and gains tension at the same time is juggling masters with (L) 2x uppercut, side stepping to the left, and 2x again. Repeat until they float very low, than finish it off with a Volcanic Viper. You can put this in a combo, such as (L) x, x, x, (F) walk forward, x, y, (L) (left side step) 2x, side step, 2x, and continue the juggle and finish off with a 2y.

The (L) 2x uppercut itself is a good anti air tool; it whacks enemies right out of the air, so pull it out on jump happy opponents if you don't want to spend tension on a Volcanic Viper.

The first combo regarding the uppercut loop is a little difficult and may be unpractical unless you master it, so here's another way to combo into the uppercut loop. (L) x, x, x, 8x, MC, x, x, 2x, (start loop, when they are low enough, finish off with a volcanic viper) if done correctly, you'll do around 320 damage and have plenty of tension thanks to the uppercut loop.

You can apparently perform a (L) x, x, x, (step forward) and follow up with another x, *x, x. I have done this before; it is VERY hard to do consistently. Another opportunity for the uppercut loop after the*x, you can also side step before you input the x if you want.

Sol can also perform an air combo loop on air born opponents. Launch them in the air, jump after them and do (L) x, x, x when you land, jump, air dash, and do it again, because you'll find that the last hit of the air combo causes the opponent to ricochet of the floor. You can do about 3 air combos in a row with this method I believe.

When your opponent is out of tension to burst, and you have full tension, make sure you’re close to them, and do a (L) x, x, (Tyrant Rave) for a guaranteed kill. Tyrant rave is Sol's overdrive and is done by pressing A and X button at the same time in case you forgot. Can only be preformed with max tension.

if you want to run away from a fight, hit the opponent with a (L) 8x, and blast drive out of there while they are on the floor. You can link a volcanic viper from a 8x, and also continue juggles with a MC from a 8x.

Remember that Sol has a ton of options and tools for taking down masters, and doesn't just have to be aggressive, he can be played other ways too in master fights. He’s very flexible, and has a wide variety of high damaging combos. His Servants are bad, and it can’t be helped, but they are not useless and neither are his personal skills. With proper strategy from the player, Sol’s tribe can be a handful to deal with, and Sol himself is able to get a lot done, provide great support and lead the tribe effectively.

END OF GUIDE

EDIT: I looked up some of the recent GG2 vids uploaded on Nico video, and found some great stuff, including a great technique that these players used with the Rapid fire item.

First, A video that showcases the graphical effect that the update has added (despite the update PDF claiming that there was no changes made and that it was simply to prepare for the Europeans who would play on Xbox live.)

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm8105715

next, is an INSANE comeback in a very epic match between avatar thine (raven) and kimera cryin (Sol), I will link the last round, where the comeback takes place, but I recommend you watch the entire match, linked on the upper parts of the page.

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm8116893

it is also worth mentioning the technique used in the video above, where your used rapid fire, and if the opponent blocks it, you go in his face and do a hard attack, while he is pressured with the rapid fire still. it's pretty much a guaranteed hit. another thing worth mentioning is that in the match, raven used his not there skill, and Sol countered with gun flame, and got a clean hit. I forgot what round it is, but it shows how the hit box behind sol is put to use with gun flame.

another match between Kimera and Thine.

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm8109457

theres also a video with Kimera's view. here it is.

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm8117689

Kimera died too much, he was starting to take over the map too.

[Blackgenma]

in that comeback video, Kimera Cryin air dashed right out of a Cyclone burst. Is that possible?, is that some glitch he abused? he isn't pulling a....geez, should I say it?....a.....FLAMEMASTERAJ HAX!? (300 damage Volcanic Viper my ass! what the hell is a "parallel movement trigger" anyway? never heard of such a thing in my life. where did he get that term from, did he make that up?)

[Ayumu Gardevoir]

FLAMEMASTERAJ! man, I haven't seen him online in forever either.

[Blackgenma]

....whut? no comment on my guide? did it's length intimidate you? if he's gonna be pulling 300 damage hard attacks and volcanic vipers, without telling us how, we don't need him online.