New Guilty Gear player trying to learn it

[FallenRX]

One day on XBl i decided to randomly download trials for other fighting games and see how i like them,mainly because a friend of mine wanted me to get KOF 2002 because he wanted someone to play with,so not only did i get a trial for that i decided to try other fighting games and i heard alot about guilty gear, and also heard its hard to learn,so randomly decided to get the trial for GGXXAC+ ,and i fell in love with it, the characters, the design(especially as a anime fan) ,and the kickass soundtrack, so in the end i decided to get that instead because how much fun i was having.

ive played mainly UMVC3 and SF for my fighting game experience and im decent at both.

I wanna main Sol Badguy because he looks awesome and i like his rushdown playing style,also the fact he seem easy for a new player.

so any tips for a new GG player like me,or tips on how to effectively use Sol, i hear it hard to get into because all the vet keep smoking the newer players, but im willing to put effort to learn.

[Digital Watches]

Although it's a complicated game, Guilty Gear has a bit of an exaggerated reputation of being hard. What I would specifically tell you to do as a new player is this:

First and foremost: Get familiar with your movement options. Neutral game in Guilty Gear is very strongly centered around movement, so getting a good grasp of it will help you understand the whole game, not just your own character. Sol has very normal movement options for Guilty Gear. He has a run, a double-jump, and an airdash. Get very comfortable moving around the screen. I specifically suggest practicing two technical kinds of movement: instant airdashing and dash braking.

An instant airdash is done with 956 or 754, which is to say, a forward or backward jump, then letting the stick go to neutral, then hitting forward or backward again. This is a little tricky and most players need to practice it a little before they can do it reliably. A forward instant airdash is a quick and universal way to approach when you are at advantage and want to attack. A backward instant airdash is a relatively safe way to build some distance from your opponent if you have space to do it safely. These are not the best tools for every situation, but they're good tools to have in your kit, and more importantly, they're tools that a lot of characters use and you want to be thinking about how to deal with it if someone does it to you.

Dash braking is cancelling your run on the ground with Faultless Defense. Running forward slightly and then braking is the safest offensive option available to most characters. It gains you distance at very low risk, and it's crucial to the neutral game in Guilty Gear. Practice braking as quickly as possible after starting your run. You will want to be blocking low almost all of the time, so the specific motion you should practice is 6561P+K. That is, double tapping forward to run, then hitting down-back and tapping two buttons simultaneously to FD. If you aren't sure what you should be doing with a very small window, this is a very safe bet.

While you're still thinking about movement, you should drill into your head where your throw range is, and remember that throws are instant. Throws are a big part of this game for the same reason that movement is, and I would consider remembering throw range to be a part of the movement game in high level Guilty Gear.

Secondly, get familiar with your character's normals. You want to know what distances you can cover and how quickly, where you're invincible, and what you get from landing your attacks. Sol's 5K starts up in 3 frames and has a great anti-air hitbox. Sol's 2D is low-profile and reaches pretty far in front of him. Sol's 5H has a ton of range. Sol's j.H recovers in the air and thus allows you to airdash afterwards. Play around with your normals some. A lot of the difficulty in Guilty Gear is knowing your matchups, and what you should be doing against specific other characters. The first and most reliable way to have a good idea of how to do this is to be very familiar with your own character. You should be thinking of this in a defensive context: What moves can you get away with throwing out when you have 5 frames? When you have 2 frames? When you're 5 character widths away? When your opponent is way above you? When should you block instead of attacking? What range is your character comfortable in? How fast is your character? Compared to other characters? Watching match videos can help with specific matchups. Don't try to watch what the players are trying to do, just watch what happens in the match. When Sol throws out a move against Testament and loses, what move did he throw out? Did he lose because he threw it out too early? Spaced it wrong? Or did Testament just choose an option that beat it cleanly? Same with when he throws out a move and it wins.

Third, get an idea of your character's offensive gameplan. What are you trying to land? What do you get off of it? A lot of people say Sol plays kind of like a grappler. This is because he has a very good command grab that nets him a lot of damage when he lands it. You should know some setups into your command grab, and then learn how to get some damage from it. You should know what Sol's lows are and what they'll beat out. You should know that Sol has three slow, grounded overheads (5D, 236[K], and 214K), but that most of his high-low game comes from air approach with his air normals. You should know that Sol has a fireball that he mostly uses to keep up pressure. You should know that Sol has a very invulnerable dragon punch that's useful for setting up frametraps with. This is where watching match videos is extremely useful. You can watch other players to get a good idea of what setups people generally use, and how you would use them differently. Once you're to this phase, I suggest looking at any footage of Japanese Sol players you can find.

On a specific note, one major pattern you'll notice in Guilty Gear is that okizeme is a big deal. Okizeme, if you don't already know, refers to the situation where your opponent gets knocked down. You should definitely know what you want to do when you get a knockdown. You should also know how to get a knockdown from a lot of situations, or at least from a lot of moves that you commonly throw out. This is more important than knowing your big-damage combos. It is a very valid and strong move in Guilty Gear to confirm a sub-optimal damage combo in order to secure a knockdown. I would seriously contend that if new players learned their okizeme setups and knockdown combos before they learned their huge damage confirms, they would start reliably winning matches against stronger players sooner. So do that.

Once you get those three things down, you're an intermediate player. The rest is all about learning matchups and playing headgames. Play against whoever you can find to play against. If you have trouble with a specific matchup, try to figure it out in this same order. What are the opponent's movement options like? What do they use them for? How big and how fast are their normals? What can you throw out to beat them from neutral, and when? What is their offensive game like, and how do you block it? At this point, it's helpful to watch match footage of the specific matchup between Sol and whoever you're having trouble with.

I think this is the best and fastest way to learn Guilty Gear. Good luck!

Edited January 6, 2014 by Digital Watches

[TheRealBobMan]

Watch Kusoru play for motivation.

[FallenRX]

Although it's a complicated game, Guilty Gear has a bit of an exaggerated reputation of being hard. What I would specifically tell you to do as a new player is this:

First and foremost: Get familiar with your movement options. Neutral game in Guilty Gear is very strongly centered around movement, so getting a good grasp of it will help you understand the whole game, not just your own character. Sol has very normal movement options for Guilty Gear. He has a run, a double-jump, and an airdash. Get very comfortable moving around the screen. I specifically suggest practicing two technical kinds of movement: instant airdashing and dash braking.

An instant airdash is done with 956 or 754, which is to say, a forward or backward jump, then letting the stick go to neutral, then hitting forward or backward again. This is a little tricky and most players need to practice it a little before they can do it reliably. A forward instant airdash is a quick and universal way to approach when you are at advantage and want to attack. A backward instant airdash is a relatively safe way to build some distance from your opponent if you have space to do it safely. These are not the best tools for every situation, but they're good tools to have in your kit, and more importantly, they're tools that a lot of characters use and you want to be thinking about how to deal with it if someone does it to you.

Dash braking is cancelling your run on the ground with Faultless Defense. Running forward slightly and then braking is the safest offensive option available to most characters. It gains you distance at very low risk, and it's crucial to the neutral game in Guilty Gear. Practice braking as quickly as possible after starting your run. You will want to be blocking low almost all of the time, so the specific motion you should practice is 6561P+K. That is, double tapping forward to run, then hitting down-back and tapping two buttons simultaneously to FD. If you aren't sure what you should be doing with a very small window, this is a very safe bet.

While you're still thinking about movement, you should drill into your head where your throw range is, and remember that throws are instant. Throws are a big part of this game for the same reason that movement is, and I would consider remembering throw range to be a part of the movement game in high level Guilty Gear.

Secondly, get familiar with your character's normals. You want to know what distances you can cover and how quickly, where you're invincible, and what you get from landing your attacks. Sol's 5K starts up in 3 frames and has a great anti-air hitbox. Sol's 2D is low-profile and reaches pretty far in front of him. Sol's 5H has a ton of range. Sol's j.H recovers in the air and thus allows you to airdash afterwards. Play around with your normals some. A lot of the difficulty in Guilty Gear is knowing your matchups, and what you should be doing against specific other characters. The first and most reliable way to have a good idea of how to do this is to be very familiar with your own character. You should be thinking of this in a defensive context: What moves can you get away with throwing out when you have 5 frames? When you have 2 frames? When you're 5 character widths away? When your opponent is way above you? When should you block instead of attacking? What range is your character comfortable in? How fast is your character? Compared to other characters? Watching match videos can help with specific matchups. Don't try to watch what the players are trying to do, just watch what happens in the match. When Sol throws out a move against Testament and loses, what move did he throw out? Did he lose because he threw it out too early? Spaced it wrong? Or did Testament just choose an option that beat it cleanly? Same with when he throws out a move and it wins.

Third, get an idea of your character's offensive gameplan. What are you trying to land? What do you get off of it? A lot of people say Sol plays kind of like a grappler. This is because he has a very good command grab that nets him a lot of damage when he lands it. You should know some setups into your command grab, and then learn how to get some damage from it. You should know what Sol's lows are and what they'll beat out. You should know that Sol has three slow, grounded overheads (5D, 236[K], and 214K), but that most of his high-low game comes from air approach with his air normals. You should know that Sol has a fireball that he mostly uses to keep up pressure. You should know that Sol has a very invulnerable dragon punch that's useful for setting up frametraps with. This is where watching match videos is extremely useful. You can watch other players to get a good idea of what setups people generally use, and how you would use them differently. Once you're to this phase, I suggest looking at any footage of Japanese Sol players you can find.

On a specific note, one major pattern you'll notice in Guilty Gear is that okizeme is a big deal. Okizeme, if you don't already know, refers to the situation where your opponent gets knocked down. You should definitely know what you want to do when you get a knockdown. You should also know how to get a knockdown from a lot of situations, or at least from a lot of moves that you commonly throw out. This is more important than knowing your big-damage combos. It is a very valid and strong move in Guilty Gear to confirm a sub-optimal damage combo in order to secure a knockdown. I would seriously contend that if new players learned their okizeme setups and knockdown combos before they learned their huge damage confirms, they would start reliably winning matches against stronger players sooner. So do that.

Once you get those three things down, you're an intermediate player. The rest is all about learning matchups and playing headgames. Play against whoever you can find to play against. If you have trouble with a specific matchup, try to figure it out in this same order. What are the opponent's movement options like? What do they use them for? How big and how fast are their normals? What can you throw out to beat them from neutral, and when? What is their offensive game like, and how do you block it? At this point, it's helpful to watch match footage of the specific matchup between Sol and whoever you're having trouble with.

I think this is the best and fastest way to learn Guilty Gear. Good luck!

Wow thats quite alot to take in but ill try my best to master it,

[SIne]

kishitaka, roi, NOB, koro chan are really good sol players to watch for reference

also remember to visit the sol forum. Lots of videos and techniques and information there

[Klaige]

One day on XBl i decided to randomly download trials for other fighting games and see how i like them,mainly because a friend of mine wanted me to get KOF 2002 because he wanted someone to play with,so not only did i get a trial for that i decided to try other fighting games and i heard alot about guilty gear, and also heard its hard to learn,so randomly decided to get the trial for GGXXAC+ ,and i fell in love with it, the characters, the design(especially as a anime fan) ,and the kickass soundtrack, so in the end i decided to get that instead because how much fun i was having.

ive played mainly UMVC3 and SF for my fighting game experience and im decent at both.

I wanna main Sol Badguy because he looks awesome and i like his rushdown playing style,also the fact he seem easy for a new player.

so any tips for a new GG player like me,or tips on how to effectively use Sol, i hear it hard to get into because all the vet keep smoking the newer players, but im willing to put effort to learn.

My Youtube series: Instant Air Dash TV is designed with players just like you in mind. I highly recommend checking out the link in my signature and watching the videos while you learn, I break down all sorts of things for players of all levels, but earlier episodes are especially useful for players new to GG.

Hope this helps.