Emuchu

The safe jump timing on j.S depends on what you knocked down with. If you knocked down with BR, I believe you can take a half-step forward and meaty a j.S with enough time to block reversal Vapor Thrust. As far as anti-Ky oki goes, he's more-or-less completely free to a meaty 2D placed outside of throw range. Ky's 2P is a lame button to mash on wakeup (he should really be mashing OS throw if he's gonna do that) and loses to all meaties and safe jumps. Vapor Thrust, although a true reversal, hits really high up, and completely whiffs on low-profile attacks like Sol's 2D, giving you a free CH 2H on his way down. Jumping out loses to meaties. You can just 2D him on wakeup until he learns to block or backstep on wakeup, since it's really to your advantage if he has to burn 50 Tension for a reversal Ride the Lightning, not to mention the 2f reversal buffer means people have trouble with reversals in the first place, so you can catch a lot of mashers with meaty 5K. Once you convince him to stop mashing reversals, you can go into the usual Sol Badguy stuff, like blocked 2K into either tick-WT or 5K to catch jumping. TLDR, meaty 2D beats 3/4 of this player's wake up buttons.

I took these combos to the lab, and here are my findings: Midscreen: 6B(2) > 5C > 2C > 5D, 5B > 5C > 236D, 6[A] > 22B, 5A > 5B > 6C > jc > j.5C > j.6D > j.236D |> 236B (3107/22%) 6B(2) > 5C > 2C > 4D, 5B > 6A > 5B > 5C > 236A, 665C > 6C > j.9D > j.236D |> 66B > 236B (3103/22%) 6B(2) > 5C > 2C > 4D, 5B > 6A > 5B > 5C > 236A, 665B > 5C > 236B (2884/20%) So in their fully extended, non-Noel forms, the 5D version beats the 4D version by... 4 points of damage. I will say, though, that I find the 665C > 6C part to be really damned tricky to pull off--I was practicing on Izayoi, and you need to get the dash-5C just right so that Kokonoe's head is right under your opponent's butt, but before they tech out, which means holding the dash for a smidge. Anyhoo, just for fun, here are the Noel variations: Midscreen: 6B(2) > 5C > 2C > 5D, 2B(1) > 5C > 236D, 6[A] > jc > j.5B(2) > jc > j.5B(2) > j.5C > j.6D > j.236D |> 236B (2889/20%) 6B(2) > 5C > 2C > 4D, 2B(1) > 5C > 236A, 665C > 6C > j.9D > j.236D |> 6B > 236B (2995/21%) 6B(2) > 5C > 2C > 4D, 2B(1) > 5C > 236A, 665B > 5C > 236B (2728/19%) The 4D combo here wins by a bit, but I think I'll stick to my 5D combos for now.

I have to agree with Rhythmic. Those two combos work on everyone including Jin, unlike the 6B > 5C > 2C > 5D > 2/5B stuff. Hintalove's combo won't work on Noel or Jin, either. Question for Rhythmic: What's the optimal combo for everyone + Noel? After the 6[A], the 22B, 5A whiffs for me and I have to go for j.5B(2) > jc > j.5B(2) > j.5C etc., instead.

Thanks, Pen_Ninja. That sounds pretty difficult... I have enough trouble consistently landing a 2C or 6B after a Black Hole.

I looked around for some Blazblue Wikis, but... I can't figure out what "fall damage bonus" is. Can you explain it to me? I assume it's some sort of bonus applied for combos that involve a floor bounce or something?

I haven't been at Kokonoe all that long (just picked up the game around when the patch came out), so take everything I say with a grain of salt, but I think she's a bit of a "momentum character." In neutral situations, her approach options are either short-ranged or on the slow side, so you're going to lose to the rush characters if you engage them directly (i.e. Ragna 5B/6A). Worse is that she has no reversal options besides her fireball distortion, so if someone gets on top of Kokonoe, she has difficulty getting away and fighting back. Koko has good mobility and lots of toys, though, so you want to create space by airdashing and either set up traps to obstruct your opponent's forward progress or use the range of her 5C and 3C to poke. If you have the time, 22B and aerial j.214X are good for controlling the momentum of your opponent. You can sit behind a 22B and wait to see how they try to get around it, or you can steer j.214X with a graviton to force them into a lengthy block-stun, and then teleport over to begin pressure. I also save her Bursts, as I still haven't figured out anything useful to do with her Overdrive, and Koko needs all the defensive options she can get. Where Kokonoe really shines is in her ability to turn the fight into a 1-player game a la Marvel and Skullgirls. If you ever score a hit, I recommend always trading in optimal damage for knockdown and oki setups. Kokonoe can force her opponent to constantly wake up into traps and is very good at shutting out both rolls and reversal options, especially in the corner. This forces your opponent to have to actually block Koko's wakeup mixups rather than relying on reversals, which is really difficult for a lot of players. It's thus easy to earn respect from your opponents once you have a bit of momentum going, since they fear getting punished for reversals and rolls (and not pressing anything, actually), so Kokonoe very often gets away with doing lots of unsafe stuff like 3C knockdown into double traps or obvious dash-in meaty 6B and other goofy stuff like that which would normally get Inferno Divider'd instantly if it were anyone else. Currently, I think of her like CSII Hazama (I skipped EX, and I haven't played enough Haz in CP to know if his game is still the same): 1. Run away 2. Poke and shenaniganize from a mile away 2. Be a jerk and cause frustration and mistakes 4. Score a single hit or force blockstun, and move in 5. Confound with unrelenting lockdown pressure 6. End every combo with knockdown into traps into more number 5. 7. Flee at the first sign of trouble 8. Whenever you get into trouble, Serpent's Infernal RAPTURE (or in Koko's case: "Boom.") (PS: Sorry for being American, Haz players) Hopefully someone more knowledgeable can come along and share their knowledge, because most of the stuff here is about combos and oki and not so much about playing Kokonoe's neutral and disadvantage games.

This is a pretty great combo! I was fiddling around with it, and found an improvement. If you use 6D instead of 9D, your opponent will float lower off of the 6C and allow you to connect both hits of j.5B for about 100 more damage. The combo works with your back to the wall using 4BC, as well, although the timing is a bit trickier because of 4BC's higher wall bounce. Corner 4/5BC > 6D, 5C > 2C > 6C > jc > j.5B(2) > j.236D |> 22B, 5B > 6A > 236B, 5C [3862/27%] 5C > 236C [4141/29%] 5C > 236C (w/50% Heat) [5141/29%] Note: You have to dash after 6D if your back isn't touching the corner when doing a back throw. Input jc as a neutral jump. Delay j.5B to the peak of your jump.

=3 No problem! Spread the lab findings... for SCIENCE!

I find this link to be pretty loose, actually. Are you buffering the 22B before the 6[A] connects? You have to input the B as early as you can to open up the window for 5A. Also, is your opponent close enough? Some combos into 6[A] can push your opponent out of range of the 5A if you don't start the combo kissing them.

I've been playing around with Kokonoe's 1.1 Black Hole setup, which go like so: [whatever] 236B, 5B > 6[A] > jc7 > j.5B(1) > j.5C > j.9D > j.236D |> 22B, 5C > 214A , 5C 632146D For whatever reason, though, I have a lot of trouble picking up with 22B, 5C, even jamming out the rest of it as quickly as possible and delaying the j.236D. I find the sequence much easer to pull off with a j.5B(2) instead of a j.5B(1), which knocks my opponent a little higher, so I want to ask if there's any particular reason that j.5B(1) is used. Tested on Ragna. P.S.: What's the correct way to notate "jump cancel backwards"? EDIT: Spent some time in the lab and answered my own questions. Certain characters are too thin for 22B to connect if you use j.5B(2) over j.5B(1). My problem with the setup was not buffering 22B enough; I didn't realize how quickly Kokonoe lands after the j.236D.

6A 22B, 5B 5C combos are some of the hardest links to pull off. I usually just settle for 6A 22B, 5A 5B, instead, which sacrifices around 100 damage if I recall. To maximize your chances of success, you have to make 6[A] connect with your opponent as high as possible to increase the link window for 6[A] 22B, 5B, so don't waste any time after the j.5C j.6/9D j.236D sequences. And better still, use j.9D over j.6D to give yourself more time. On the other hand, I find 2C 5D combos to be fairly easy links once you understand its quirks. 2C 5D, 5B is the optimal link, there, but it's limited in its range and will whiff if you get them with max-range 2C. 2C 5D, 2B has a better range, but you lose out on damage, and without the step forward from 5B, you'll whiff the 5A of the 6[A] 22B, 5A sequence and have to settle for 6[A] jc j.5B(2) jc j.5B(2) j.5C j.6/9D j.236D. Also, 6B(2) 5C 2C 5D, 5B always whiffs on Jin and Noel, even with a run-up, and 6B(2) 5C 2C 5D, 2B always whiffs on Jin, so if you're using those two as your training dummies, that would explain the whiffs.

Yeah, I tested it. I had the same problem with the training dummy teching right as the j.236D hits, but I believe improving the speed of your execution solves it, similarly to how input speed can affect Hakumen's BnB loop. The delayable parts of the combo are 5B > (22B connects) > 6C and 6C > jc > j.C, and the only way to I could get the training dummy to tech out of the j.236D is to introduce both of these delays into the combo, so you have to make sure to gatling these inputs early. Correct me if I'm wrong, though, it wouldn't be the first time that training dummies and humans behaved differently in a game.

Honestly, the visual cue is "do it as fast as possible." You can watch your opponent, I suppose, as the j.236D should come out just as they're hitting the wall. Or you can pay attention to Kokonoe's animation for j.D, and make sure you input j.236D as it's ending; there shouldn't be any pause between her two remote control animations. It should feel like a single motion, "D236D," and again, the whole j.C > j.D > j.236D sequence should be as fast as possible.

SMP severely penalizes the untechable time, but it isn't a free escape in this case. If you input the combo as fast as possible, they won't instant-tech out of the j.236D. Swapping the 5B with 2B means that your opponent is too far for the 6[A] > 22B, 5A to connect, so a little bit of ad-lib is required: 6B(2) > 5C > 2C > 5D, 2B(1) > 5C > 236D, 66[A] > 22B , 5A > 5B , 6C > jc > j.C > j.6/9D > j.236D |> 236B [3107/22%] (Note: Invalid against Jin, Noel) jc > j.B(2) > jc > j.B(2) > j.C > j.6/9D > j.236D |> 236B [2889/20%] (Note: Invalid against Jin) Thing is, I still can't get 2C > 5D > 2B(1) to work on Jin. I think he's just too thin for this, so what can I get out of 6B(2) > 5C > 2C > 5D > 236D? So far I'm doing: 6B(2) > 5C > 2C > 5D > 236D, 665B > 5C > 3C > 236A [2600/18%] 66C > jc > j.B(2) > j.C > j.6/9D > j.236D |> 236B [2806/20%] (Note: 236D, 66C is a really tight link)