Digital Watches

Placeholder for general/consensus information! Feel free to discuss this matchup in this thread though.

Placeholder for general/consensus information! Feel free to discuss this matchup in this thread though.

Placeholder for general/consensus information! Feel free to discuss this matchup in this thread though.

Placeholder for general/consensus information! Feel free to discuss this matchup in this thread though.

Placeholder for general/consensus information! Feel free to discuss this matchup in this thread though.

Placeholder for general/consensus information! Feel free to discuss this matchup in this thread though.

Placeholder for general/consensus information! Feel free to discuss this matchup in this thread though.

Alright, booked a flight. I'mma get on getting a hotel room sometime in the next few days. Anyone looking for +R teammates and/or people to split a room with?

I'm trying to make this. Anyone got a place to stay that is not a hotel room? Also, as per the announcement article, if there's a +R teams thing, anyone looking for a teammate? Let me know.

Silly impractical fuzzy setups GO: 6P-j.P will fuzzy guard against Zappa or taller. j.P combos into S michael if you're super fast. Also 5P combos into j.P into Michael. So that's cool.

I think Blade's on to something. Unfortunately, most fighting game VS modes have a pretty repetitive story, mostly made up of combat that doesn't make sense. After all, how does a guy who Sol just punched in the stomach and lit on fire a bunch of times in a row get up and keep fighting? And for that matter, how come you can get knocked out and then play another match after you've already lost? These are confusing continuity errors, lapses in realism, and outright plot holes that someone needs to address. Fortunately, GG's story provides us with a powerful tool for doing this: Time Shenanigans. When I'm playing a bunch of matches in a row, sometimes it gets really hard to keep up willing suspension of disbelief. I mean, after taking all of those beatings and losing all of those times, people just get up and fight again, like nothing happened and nothing was resolved. Fortunately for me, I play a character who travels in time, so I can justify all of this as Axl being stuck in various time loops that cause him to fight people over and over again. Unfortunately, while this works for people who play Axl and I-No, it's a lot more confusing for people who play any other character, leaving us a greater challenge while resolving these plot holes. Luckily, Robert A. Heinlein has a foolproof solution that ties up all loose ends. Given that time travel seems to factor into the storyline of every character in versus mode, it's easy to conclude, as I have argued before, that every character in the Guilty Gear continuity is a clone, descendant, or alternate-universe version of Axl or I-No (Or possibly these two are in fact the same character as well), and thus have untapped time-travel potential that causes them to loop through time without even knowing it. This is clearly the story that's being conveyed, and is the compelling narrative that keeps me interested in GG.

Ugh this is so hard. H counterhit, 66 5H, 6H, 2S will connect on everyone, but the timing is really tight. Goes into everything meterless, carries from matchstart position to corner for a bloop that does about 260 on sol. I'm too hungry to doublecheck the exact combo I did. A more practical confirm is just 66 c.S-TK FB Bomber, which has much the same carry and followup potential, but costs 25% meter and does about 30 to 40 less damage on average.

From completely fullscreen, Michael FRC Saperia K just barely makes the K connect if you're super fast, then you can combo from it with e.g. K-c.S-j.S-j.swordH, j.H

Also, ID combo: 5D, Homing jump FDC j.H, 6H

Actually wait, wtf? I can't seem to get a second michael sword to come out after FRCing michael sword before landing. Like, j.H Michael (FRC), j.S(1), dj.S(1) Michael doesn't happen. Is that a thing? Can you only have one per jump, or am I fucking up?

Things from a jump-in j.H that's too high to continue with a ground string: j.H-j.swordS(FRC), j.S, 6H, whatever rejump combo j.H-j.swordS(FRC), j.S or j.D, dj.S(H or D), whatever Also, I've been toying with relaunch combos using j.swordS FRC. For example: Whatever-> 6H-sj.S(2)D-j.swordS(FRC), 6H -> Whatever combo. I'm not 100% solid on my followups yet, but I'm noticing this tends to do about a zillion damage.

Okay, finally got a PS3 to test with again. So first of all, the reason you can't jump after the FRC is because you're probably TKing it with a superjump. If you do the motion 4123658S (FRC) then you'll get a normal jump TK, which will let you double jump. Unfortunately Justice's doublejump is too big to really set up fuzzyguards (Except like, j.D dj.H) with, but you can do a superjump forward TK j.Sword FRC and get two air normals before you land (e.g. j.KS or j.KP or j.PK), which will also fuzzy guard. Also, for the setup into fuzzy first-hit 6P, j.S actually works a lot better than j.H, because it pushes them out less and thus will work more reliably from more distances. Additionally, some cool blockstrings/mixup from crossup j.D: j.D-dj.H (Fuzzy guard) j.D-2K (Low) Crossup j.D-2K will also combo, as will crossup j.D-dj.H, but j.D-dj.H doesn't go into anything, so if you confirm the hit with the j.D you should probably go into something else. Crossup j.D into j.sword can connect or not based on your spacing. This can lead to some shenanigans such as: j.D-j.swordS, j.D-(Whatever else you were gonna do from j.D, including aforementioned fuzzy stuff). This will hit as another overhead on the same side j.D-j.swordH, j.D (Re-crosses up, but more reactable. Can also do j.H instead of second j.D). From far enough away, you can throw a j.S and not re-cross up, which is another mixup that goes into damage. Furthermore, you can do crossup j.D-j.swordS (FRC), which has some cool properties, since you can get aforementioned fuzzy stuff off it, but also, you can get huge combos from it since Crossup j.D-j.swordS (FRC) 6H will connect from some distances, and as far as I can tell, crossup j.D-j.swordS (FRC) 2H will connect from any distance the sword still connects from.

Also: Shit, I can't test this until I have my PS3 in front of me but... with 4F startup isn't j.P going to come out before low TK j.sword FRC lands? I'd think j.K ought to work too. I don't actually know how long you float. But anyway this could be a pretty good high-low since it falls pretty fast and 2K confirms into damage now (As presumably would a low j.P or j.K (Both of which hit high) You can probably also do fuzzy guard mixups from this setup (If it works). May well be able to do j.K->dj.D (What's doublejump startup again?) At any rate, K-dj.K or P or S should almost certainly work, which would WCS combo into what, saperia or another j.sword FRC?

Man, I've been mad loving the shenanigans this character offers. Stuff I've been doing in matches: - Low j.H into 2K/Fuzzy 6P mixup - High N.B. FRC, saperia, let go of bombs for crossup as soon as they're out of blockstun - Combo into j.D->j.swordH (Doesn't combo) recover into tech trap airthrow. - j.swordS FRC as a fast-fall - TK Swords to beat lows. - Aforementioned Empty TK Saperia ... throw

If you've been watching a lot of +R vids, you may have noticed that there's this character that wins a lot in Japan called Axl Low. So you've said to yourself "This guy seems OP and cool, I'll play him. I wonder if there's an easy place to learn my tech?" Then you get on Dustloop and look for information on the Axl forums. Wouldn't it be nice if there was just a quick guide that tells you what you need to learn? Well obviously now there is, and that's probably why you clicked on this thread. In the interest of being more quick and simple, I'm not going over trivial stuff like movelists. You can look that up in the game, or on the wiki, or whatever. This guide won't be covering many specific combos, matchups, or situational tactics, because there are threads intended to discuss that stuff in more depth. In fact, even most specifics of how to do the stuff in this guide will probably be discussed in more depth later in other threads. This guide is about things you should learn and mentality you should adopt if you are picking up this character and want to be competitive with him. Step 1: Learn to block Nothing will bring up your success rate with Axl better than learning to block. Learn when it's not your turn to swing, be patient, and just block attacks. Block low, wait for overheads, FD in the air. Axl has bad reversal options, and there's not really a way around that. Pay attention and learn to react fast. If you are playing against good players, you should be blocking a lot. And since we're playing Guilty Gear here, this also means that blocking is hard and you need to be doing advanced defense most of the time. FD stuff when you need space but not time, IB when you need time but not space. Learn to backdash at the right times. Axl's backdash is horrible compared to most of the cast. It's also your only invulnerable thing besides your super. It's your best option in a lot of situations, so you have to use it. Learn to smell throws and jump them or DP them. Axl doesn't have a 5F jab, so tick throws are a huge weakness you're going to have to cover. Get in the habit of running forward and FDing, then letting go of the buttons so you can instant block. It's a tool you need badly. If your defense isn't good, you're going to have a bad time as Axl. There are lots of guides out there about defensive options in Guilty Gear. I wrote an article about FD and IB a while ago, and there are other resources for it. Every character in the game benefits from good defense, but as Axl, you do not have the benefit of safe options designed for defense. You've got to use the system mechanics available to everyone, and get as much out of them as possible. Step 2: Learn your gatlings and meterless knockdown combos. Especially in +R, where Axl got the ability to combo from e.g. f.S, 2H, 2P, 3P, 5P at max range, etc., you need to know what you can chain into what, and what combo you do to get the bare minimum knockdown combo into rensengeki (Rensen. [4]6S. The green thing. Very important move.) (Or kokuugeki (j.63214S. Big ol' circle in the air. Also pretty important) if you're too far to get knockdown). If your throw combo to guaranteed knockdown is throw-rensen, that's fine. Do that. Knockdown is great in GG. Did you know that 6K can chain into 6H? That 2P chains into f.s now? That f.S-rensen is a real combo from most ranges? Nearly any hit can confirm at least two ways into rensen. You should be able to get knockdown from almost any normal you hit with, and at least 120 or so damage from the things you can't. With no meter. Did you know you can't combo c.S into 5H on a standing Kliff? Now you do. You're welcome. A key advantage Axl has over a lot of characters is his ability to get a knockdown off of a lot of situations. You don't always need or want knockdown, but you should know when you can get it, and how to do it. Most of the time, this involves confirming a short combo. So you should know how to do that. Step 3: Convince yourself that this is not a zoning character. I've heard a ton of definitions of zoning, and until we nail down a real operational definition of the term, it's not that useful to talk about things using it. So I'm going to define it for my purposes here. Zoning means making parts of the screen unsafe by throwing out moves. It helps a lot of those moves happen to be projectiles that last longer than it takes to spawn them, but that's not necessary. You may notice that this definition is super broad, and that by that definition, every character in at least Guilty Gear, and probably most fighting games, can zone sometimes. Axl has some great zoning tools from mid-range in f.S and 3P. But then, Axl can do literally anything well in mid-range. Against lower-mobility characters, 5H is a pretty good zoning tool too. That being said, Axl is a pretty terrible choice of character if you want to zone a lot. There are several very effective zoning-oriented characters in Guilty Gear, and Axl is not one of them. His moves tend to cover a few but not many of your opponent's choices, for the most part are not very disjointed, and while they do have a lot of active frames, they also have a lot of recovery. The only projectiles Axl has access to take longer to recover than they stay out, and FRCing the summon will make them disappear. If you're playing Axl in a neutral game and throw out a move that does not connect, 90% of the time you have fucked up in a big way. You will more than likely take moderate-to-serious amount of damage and/or be at a severe disadvantage. Basically, you just don't have the tools you'd expect a zoning-focused character to have, and pretending you do is a great way to lose. If you like zoning a lot and want to pursue a zoning-oriented playstyle, there are plenty of great characters for it in Guilty Gear. I've been picking up Justice lately, and she's hella fun. Testament, Faust, Zappa, and Ky are also decent picks, and there are even ways to play characters like Slayer or Jam to be more effective at zoning than Axl is. Obviously no one's perfect and I'm not saying you should never try to throw out moves, or even that zoning isn't sometimes an effective way to play. Just that I see a lot of people try to play Axl like he's got a lot of real zoning tools, and they tend to get wrecked. The zoning mentality of controlling space with hitbox and constraining your opponent's decisions is a good thing to learn about, but trying to play Axl and focus primarily on zoning will not lead to success. Step 4: Start tracking and punishing So if Axl's not a zoning character, what are all those long range moves for? Two things: pressure and punishing stuff. We'll talk about your pressure later, punishing is more important. Generally, when people talk about "punishing" in a fighting game, they mean hitting someone in the recovery of their move. A true punish is one that they literally did not have time to do anything about (In GG, technically punishes on block are less guaranteed when the opponent has meter, because of RCs). I'm invoking the concept because it's the mentality you should adopt in the neutral game with Axl. Except instead of punishing them for not having you in enough frames of stun to recover, you're punishing them for being in the wrong place. For initial intents and purposes, your primary tools for this purpose are 2S, 6K, 5P, 5K, f.S, and 2H. Think about where those moves hit, how fast they come out, and what positioning they punish. Practice being essentially a targeting system. Spend matches watching your opponent, trying to predict where they're going to move, and sniping them with one of those 6 tools. Wait until you are pretty certain that you know where they're going before you throw something out. Remember that if you don't hit them, you've just guessed wrong and it is going to be bad for you. Your opponent will either hit your chains and get damage, or at the very least get their approach uncontested. In actuality Axl has a ton more tools than that for this playstyle, including Kokuugeki, Rensen, Rashousen, 5H, 3P, j.K, H Benten, airthrow, etc. You can punish things like a midscreen backdash with rensen or raeisageki, a lot of approaches with Kokuugeki, any long-range setup with Rashou, etc. Axl can play entire matches just by tracking the opponent and punishing them for their position in space. If your opponent techs or bursts in a predictable way, that means you know where they are. If you are calm and throw out the right punish, you get your damage or at least your pressure because of their positioning. Guilty Gear's neutral game is in large part about movement. Most characters have a ton of movement options available to them, ways to cancel movement options, and lots of attacks that have weird trajectories, and sometimes can be FRC'd and are then more movement options to deal with. A lot of high-level matches have sections in them that are just positioning, and exchanges get won because of smart movement decisions. Jam has a move that's just a weird movement option with recovery. Japanese players use it a ton. It's a really good move. Being able to punish movement and positioning options is a very strong niche for a character to have. If you get into the mentality of punishing your opponent for their position on the screen, you will be a stronger Axl player. Step 5: Learn Rensen FRC. Just do it. People bitch about FRCs a lot, but they're really not that hard, and they add a lot to your gameplan. Axl in particular has a lot of great FRCs. Axl Bomber has an FRC now, and it's a great way to maintain safe pressure from the air, or get from the air to neutral on the ground faster than your opponent. Kokuugeki and Benten (S) are extremely strong tools for poking once you get their FRCs down, making them safe. Raeisageki's FRC gets you both damage and mixup. 3H FRC is a great way to bait out reversals on okizeme. Learning any of these FRCs will give you a little boost to your overall ability to win games, but you shouldn't practice them at all until you have Rensen FRC down. Rensen FRC is a 2F window in a pretty intuitive place, but since you're going to be confirming it from a bunch of things, you should probably learn a few different timings, since hitpause is going to fuck with your timing if you're doing what sane people do in airdashers and buffering the special input into the pause. Learn to rensen FRC from neutral, from 2K (Level 1 hitpause), K (Level 2), f.S (Level 3), c.S (Level 4), and 5H (Level 5). Then practice it from every other special-cancellable move Axl has. The timings should correspond 1-to-1 with what level the move you cancelled from is. If you can do the FRC visually instead of by muscle memory, you'll have an easier time, but you should really just drill it into your head and make sure you know it. I can't stress how important it is to have this down. Rensen FRC gives you a tool that reaches about halfway across the screen in 15 frames, gives you a huge launch that you can always combo from, is +33 on normal standing guard, and now that we're in +R, builds up the opponent's guardbar. If you can't FRC rensen, you lose almost all of your ability to keep up pressure, about 80-90% of your ground confirms into damage, and you are unsafe in situations where you should be completely safe. There is no one execution thing you need to learn that is more important to Axl's gameplan than this move. Just learn it. You should have that shit on demand, 100% of the time. There's no way around it. You need to learn rensen FRC to play Axl. Stop being a baby and learn it. Step 6: Get a feel for mid-range and how to put yourself there. Axl operates optimally at mid-range. For all intents and purposes, I'm declaring mid-range to be from about 3 to about 5 character widths away, or, more usefully, from the absolute max range of your 5K to the max range of rensen FRC. Most characters have somewhere between 0 - 4 tools that work well in this range. Axl has about 20. Axl's pressure at mid-range is amazing, because while a ton of his moves will connect, most characters don't have something fast enough to hit with in any gaps you may leave (or they might make by IBing). Axl has stronger mixup than most characters at mid-range, with a ton of lows and three overheads that will hit from that range, one of which is an ambiguous crossup, most of which can consistently confirm into damage given 25% meter. Rashousen feint is relatively safe at that range, and rashousen will still hit extremely quickly. You can do a string into rensen FRC a lot of ways from mid-range, especially with 2P chaining into 2S and 2H chaining into 2D now, and once they block a rensen FRC, your pressure is pretty much freestyle. Additionally, Axl's tools are optimized for reacting from mid-range. If someone is trying to get in from mid-range, you have plenty of breathing room to react and punish with e.g. a 623P for fast approaches, a 2K to go under things, a f.S to stuff ground moves, or a 5P or 6K to punish jumps, or a rensen to punish backdashes, etc. You have faster moves and more options than almost every character at that range, so they have to either try to get in, get out, or hit you with a very limited option set. That gives you an advantage you don't have when the opponent is farther away or closer in. Even better, your anti-air tools at mid-range will get you really good damage consistently. While you can get decent short confirms by hitting with a long-range anti-air attack, hitting at mid-range means that you get to confirm into whatever combo you want, including meterless knockdown or carry-to-corner bomber loop setups. Mid-range gives you optimal damage for your anti-air punishes. Even if your opponent happens to FD your anti-airs at mid-range, that means they've blown some meter to still be stuck in your pressure, because you can pull them to the ground by continuing to chain 6K and 2S, then mix up into rensen FRC, rashousen, raeisageki, or 6H. My point is, you want to be at mid range pretty much all the time. If you're closer than that, you want to back up, and if you're farther away than that, you want to approach. Once you've gotten tracking your opponent and throwing out the correct punishes down, work on always being at mid-range. Learn ground strings that will keep you there no matter how they block, even if it means cancelling into that rensen FRC or rashousen on reaction to a green flash. Learn to approach or retreat in the air while covering yourself with j.S. Use backdash and running FD to keep yourself where you want to be. Learn to corral your opponent to mid-range if they block something, using the many movement options and pull/push tools available to you. Axl is a mid-range-specialized character, and thrives at that distance. Get there, stay there, force your opponent to be there, and you will win more. Step 7: Use unblockables and fear to confuse your opponent and make them jump. Axl's pressure is pretty great now. As long as you have meter, you can keep folks in blockstun for a long-ass time, and you also have some real high-lows you can throw in, such as 2H-{2D/5D}. But your mixup is still pretty subpar. Ambiguous stuff like Kokuu or Raei crossup are slow, and your fastest grounded overhead is still 23 frames. Sure, if you're doing the mid-range thing properly, you can get a lot of false gap tricks working, but you don't have crazy unreactable millia stuff, so people who are patient can just wait you out and make you waste all your meter or get to a point where you have to stop attacking. And of course we all play fighting games here, so you know what that means. Gotta go for throws! Axl's got a lot of cool tools for going for throws. j.P, 3P, 5K, and 2K are all good ticks, a blocked rensen FRC gives you enough time to run in and throw, and you've got an FRC on raeisageki that lets you land pretty fast and throw people too. Your option-select throws with S or sometimes 6P, K or 5H cover the jump-out option, and you have some interesting baiting tools, such as 2K and 623P to bait out throw-invincible reversals. It may be weird to think that Axl relies on throws because he's ostensibly trying to operate outside of throw range most of the time, but it is a pretty strong option in Guilty Gear in general, and you have the tools to utilize it. Did I mention you've got a full screen fake command grab? Rashousen ([4]6H) is an unblockable move that travels the full length of the screen fairly quickly. It's really annoying to deal with, but more importantly, it is a grab-like option that knocks down and puts them in mid-range automatically. Knockdown is great in GG. It also isn't beaten by jumping at the last second or being throw-invincible, and it will hit limbs, because it's not considered a throw. Because of this, one has to jump early to avoid it. It's really punishable on whiff, but it also has a free break that puts it in a shorter recovery animation and cancels the move. This is important, because this means Axl can fake a rashousen and get the opponent to jump. Jumping is exactly what Axl wants everyone to do, especially at mid-range. Rashousen is a very important tool for Axl, especially since they buffed its recovery and range in AC+R. There's a lot of weird mixup to learn as Axl, but rensen-rashousen-feint mixup is a staple of your gameplan, and, conveniently, something you should mainly be doing from mid-range. How do you beat blocking well? Throws. How do you beat throws? Jumping. What does Axl want you to do? Jump. It's just science. Step 8: Optimize your damage (Advanced combos). Axl is a high-damage character, but you can play him as a low-damage character if you don't learn any non-basic combos. We have a combo thread and I and hopefully others will fill in specifics later, but some good stuff to practice: - (Any launch that takes less than 7 hits), 5H-6H, 2S. This is new in +R and is how you get your non-situational big damage. It's a tough link, especially at certain distances, but you should learn it anyway. - (Air combo into corner), Kokuugeki 6FRC6 Bomber, 2S. Bomber loops are harder this game, and you will have some trouble getting corner-carry combos to work compared to AC. This is one of the more reliable and damaging ways to connect with the bomber into the corner without putting them too high first. - JI S Raeisageki (Hit FRC) Airdash ... j.H, whatever. If you're punishing or fishing with this move, you can confirm it into damage! All it requires is a 1F FRC! Only sometimes useful but pretty good to learn, as I don't know a better way to confirm a non-into-corner Raei hit into any real damage. Also, you're going to want to learn to do character-specific combos, but we'll talk about that in the combo and matchup threads. Anyway, hope this was helpful to all you hypothetical new Axl players out there. I'll try to periodically update this guide as I learn new stuff and/or realize some of the stuff I told you is actually bad. NOW GO WIN TOURNAMENTS. I want to see Axl winning more stuff.

I'm picking up Justice a bit as an extra character.

Messing with a few situational bomber (FRC) 5H-6H combos into the corner. It'll almost certainly work a lot of times you won't be able to confirm off the bomber otherwise. More testing necessary. One setup is IAD j.HD Bomber (FRC) 5H-6H-2S. Confirming the fuzzy guard often leads to supoptimal damage because you have to throw 5K to keep the combo going since they're launched so low but you're still so high up. You can land the 5H without the FRC if you do it super low, but this will make the combo more consistent, and it's much more damage than doing the safer 5K confirm, so I think it's often going to be worth the 25% meter.

Confirmed: Axl's 5H still has upperbody invuln from frame about 9 to 16.

I notice I can land TK S Michael FRC 6H off of basically any JCable normal except P. I imagine this might be useful? It seems like it'd cut down on some guardbar scaling from some of the other confirms listed off of small hits, at the very least. I'm also curious to know how big a string can confirm into the 2H, c.S link. Additionally: In the corner I can land (Whatever, I've been mainly using throw) 6H, 22{K,D,H} (FRC) 6H. I haven't been messing with justice for very long, but here are a few other conversions that connect and might be useful: 2K-2D-22P (FRC), 6H H (And presumably anything, I'm not good at this FRC yet so it's hard to test)-623K (FRC), 2H, c.S Anything but P - TK 41236S (FRC), 2H, c.S Anything but P - TK 41236S (FRC), 41236H (Possibly too low to combo from though) Also, from a lot of the screen positions where 6H-41236H, 6H doesn't work, 6H - TK 236D, 6H does. Once I'm better at justice combo enders, I can probably give some full damage figures.

Alright, so basically I haven't messed around with this enough to know definitively what variants are going to work differently, but I suspect that going for 3P-2H-2D as a confirm is going to overall hurt your damage if you're going for anything larger than like, BnB into Kokuu. It's more hits and most likely more GB- than something small like 5K-{c,f}.S or 5K-2D. Basically, if you know you have meter, have confirmed the 5K, and want to confirm into something bigger, and you haven't already committed to the 3P, it's more likely going to do harm than good. As for conversion into bomber loops, I haven't had problems this game, including in matches, but that's possibly because I already use more advanced technology to make sure I get loops, like j.6P-FB, Airdash Bomber, and sj.D-Kokuu-6FRC6-bomber (For when you're already pretty close to the corner). It may be that to get that conversion, learning that stuff will become more important than in AC, where Kokuu was a lot more reliable as a confirm and extender and bomber gave more leeway. Anyway, point is: There's going to be a break point where doing that long-ass confirm is going to seriously hurt your damage. I know I am getting way more than 160-ish on my midscreen combos, so that may be why that is. Also: Grats on getting that Sol variant to work, I tried that and couldn't get the rensen followup to be untechable.