Avion892

First, you have to lock your opponent down. Summon A, B, or C bugs over by your opponent to hit them if they tech or force them to block. To get over to them quickly you can wall teleport, j.6C, or use Arakune's now faster forward dash. 3C is also handy to get you over and possibly even start a combo, if you're the proper distance (enjoy it, it's basically the only time it will ever be used). Once you're close, assuming you've kept them blocking with bugs, you can begin your mixup and pressure. 6A is your general overhead, but 6C is useful because of of its good starting proration and the fact that it removes a guard primer. j.C is extremely fast and also has fantastic starting proration; it will lead into a high damage combo if you confirm it (also removes a guard primer on block, though people rarely seem to be able to block it). Dives are also good to throw out to keep up pressure or break a primer (again, make sure to use bugs so that there is no gap in your pressure -if you're not careful, your opponent can hit you in the recovery from the dive). 2A is your standard low, but a 2B or 4B after a 6A can be be used to trick them too. 2C is also an excellent low, as it's fast, leads to high damage combos, and breaks a primer. If you use it, be SURE you that your opponent is being sufficiently pressured with bugs so you're safe during the long recovery if the 2C is blocked. You can also use Arakune's feints (mostly 214A and 214C) or forward dash for a crossup, or use 236B to turn invisible and make your mixup harder to see (be aware it will disappear once Arakune touches them with a move; hitting with bugs does not remove invisibility). Another good idea to throw out there is a tick throw, which often works and leads to big damage if successful. Simply walk up to your opponent after something like a 5A or 2A and grab them. Be sure however that you do it in a short gap in their blockstun from the bugs, or else they'll get the purple !! and can break out very easily. If your opponent somehow manages to block all these ridiculous mixup and pressure tricks, it's pretty likely that all the j.C, 2C, 6C, dives, and D bugs will break their guard, in which case you get a free combo. For the highest damage combo, I'd recommend j.C, 2C, or just calling a D bug to start the combo (I could be wrong on this, I don't know exact starting proration values, but I believe those are 100%, except j.C which I believe is now 90%). 6C might also be a good starter in such a case but again I could be wrong. Confirm your hits into your C/D bug loop. Remember that you can't use the same move in between your C/D bugs anymore due to same-move proration being added. Use j.236C, B and A dive, and 6C rekka in your loops. You can definitely do a full combo without repeating any of those moves (repeating them in the same combo will result in lower overall combo damage). Finish it off with his laser super, and I usually follow that with a 5D > sj.A > j.C > j.D for some recurse if possible, though there are other methods of recurse. If you're really fancy, I believe it's possible to stop your loop early and work in an air super for full recurse, but that's pretty tricky if I recall correctly (I don't have CS2 yet). /walloftext Hope that helped you!

I'm attempting to learn Noel. I understand her pressure strings, some standard drive combos, etc. Is there any good BnB combo on a standing opponent if I hit with any of her normals? I know I can do (5A) > 6A > 6C > air combo or (5A) > 6A > 6C > j.D >drive combos, but when I hit with 5B, 2B, 5C, or 2C, is there anything I can really do out of that? It seems like I just get a few hits and have to end it with 5C or 2C. Does it lead into a drive combo in any way? Or should I hit with 5C/2C and then go into drive mixup and pressure to try for a higher damage combo? Thanks in advance.

I remember being extremely indecisive with picking (as I usually am), but eventually I settled on Arakune because I really liked his character design. It was unique and his moves looked cool; he was totally different, and blobs are cool. I really liked his personality and back story - a scientific genius who goes insane and loses his body in pursuit of ultimate knowledge. His crazy laugh and incoherent babbling were infectious and I quickly grew to love the little squiggly guy. Being top tier didn't hurt, and anyone who can get Litchi to fall for him has to be awesome. I ended up subbing Nu because for some reason comboing with swords felt very fun and satisfying. Plus, she was also top tier and that's always a nice bonus. I've since picked up Ragna as well since playing zoner characters gets boring sometimes, and personally I find him fun to play as.

Thanks Skye, that was really helpful. However they all assume my opponent is in front of me, ready for mixups and crossups. If I curse from cross-screen, which is often the case, I am still clueless as to how I'm supposed to lock my opponent down and get close enough to mixup and start the loops from them. I know wall teleport will be usefull, but what bugs should I use, how should I approach, etc.? My opponent always seems to get combos in through the enormous holes in my almost nonexistent pressure. Or if I randomly hit with a bug, which seems to happen often, do you have any general tips for confirming the hits so I can loop? Just summon basically all the bugs where they are and use j.6C or wall teleport to close in?

I have some very general questions. I have my precurse Arakune down just fine, but once I get a curse I'm completely lost. I try to lock them down with bugs but most of the time there are huge holes in my pressure and I end up just spamming bugs trying to hit. When my opponent is cursed, how should I approach so that I can lock them down? What bugs in general do I use for lockdown? A and B and sparingly C? Also, any tips on hit confirming? I get random hits from bugs often but can never confirm them and hold my opponent down long enough to get close enough to actually combo. Once I start a loop I'm fine, it's just lockdown and hit confirming I'm terrible at Kind of important things, I know. Overall once I get my opponent cursed I cannot do anything without great amounts of luck. Any tips?

No, that makes sense. I've dive canceled in CT before with the j.2B, but that was into 5B. I guess I thought you had to use j.2X to cancel it, where X is the neutral attack you want to cancel into. That made a lot more sense when I was trying it, I swear Still, thanks. Do you double tap or triple tap the j.2B to make sure you get it or do you just get a good sense of the exact timing?

I have a question, how exactly do I dive cancel into 5D, such as after a j.C? I cannot seem to do it. Can someone give me a decently in-depth explanation?

Yeah it takes a little to get used to the timing but it's not that hard. Usually you can go for two reps, or you can do a third rep but you have to stick a 6A bug in between the 6C and the 5C (first and second hits). It's a lot more tricky and you'd probably be better off just doing the two reps, then into recurse. Standard recurse, after your 2B and 6A bugs, is j.6A > 6A bug > j.9 > j.C (hold C) > j.D. The trick is to have the 6A bug hold them in hitstun to get the j.C, and to wait to release C so that your C bug doesn't prevent the j.D from hitting. It's easier than it sounds really. As for its own thread, it's not a huge deal but people tend to get more annoyed at unnecessary threads based around a single question than off-topic posts in preexisting threads. For example this question probably should've gone in the Arakune Beginner Guide or Arakune Combo Discussion threads, but it's not a huge deal. I've just been lurking for months and only recently began posting So I'm not exactly the most knowledgeable person either.

Does this really need its own thread? But to answer your question, I summon a 2B bug and then a 6A bug immediately after inputting 2C. So yes, you're supposed to hold a direction for the bugs (you can use back, neutral, or forward inputs for the bugs. The only reason I use 2B is because I'm already holding down from the 2C). I'm pretty sure you could also do B and C bugs with later timings, that is, after they've been knocked to the ground, but I don't like that as much.

In addition to a decent ground normal I'd like to have j.D trade and hit low again also Maybe I'm just being greedy but I don't think it's unreasonable considering his other nerfs.