TITANIUM BEAST!!!

I fully agree. In any case, one use of air BR FRC I like is that you can use it in certain combos that would otherwise not be safe to Burst while still dealing a lot of damage. Example, any ground chain into 2HS, normally you would combo to Grand Viper for Tensionless damage, but if your opponent has Burst and you are close enough, you can combo into TK BR and FRC it, holding back in case they Burst. This makes the combo Burst-safe while still giving you the opportunity to start a damaging juggle.

Sol's 2D goes under HOS's 5S(f) so that's not really a viable option to stop 2D spam. My advice would be to watch him closely to see how he spaces his 2D and then backdash to make him whiff. As far as 2S frametraps, just IB 2S and most of those problems will go away. It would help if you outlined how he is using 2S, though.

Is it just me or is this game really picky about double tap motions? Sometimes I can't dash for the life of me, seems like you have to be really precise with your taps.

Reposting this since I lost my archive when my HD died on me. Could someone please upload this HOS combo video called Crimson?

Secretz trick for easy CC after 2D: Do 2D and hold the button down, then do Charge motion and release the D button. This gets you the fastest CC automatically and makes the followup combo afterwards much easier.

We've seen this happen as well. It is clear that the command grab is being broken because he goes into the startup animation of the bite, then the opponent bounces off like they broke it.

69H overlaps with airdash command. And a simple combo question like this doesn't need a new thread, period.

2 hit ID is easy, the key is to doublejump after the first attack and quickly throw the second attack before you fall too far. Here's how I do it: Dust, hold 8, j.H, tap 8,9H, land, combo. Try that. And please avoid making redundant new threads in the future.

This is now the General Discussion thread. Any general questions about Sol (normals, specials, FRCs, etc) should be posted and discussed here. Any more new threads about such topics will be deleted and the offending poster will be warned.

Ok, I have moved all posts not made by myself or WUT from this thread into the new Discussion thread I created. The goal of this thread is to have an uncluttered and easy-to-read guide for new players to access. I would really prefer not to have a bunch of posts that players have to shuffle through for information, as that would defeat the purpose of this guide. I will only post here to notify of updates/edits (I assume WUT will do the same). All discussion and suggestions should be limited to the Discussion thread. Any posts made in this thread will be deleted or moved to the Discussion thread.

I merged this with General Discussion since I didn't feel it was important enough to warrant its own thread.

Off of level 2 BHB, you have enough time to do a dash-buffered Fafnir, so all normal followups should be possible. 2S-5HS -> IAD combo should be feasible from almost any range; the problem with your first string is that you do too many hits before the BHB. I recommend no more than 2 hits tops, and 1 hit is ideal (ie 5K -> BHB, which is a good pressure string anyway).

You know what's even better than that? 2S into 6K! =/

I find this untrue. Unless the opponent is very high in the air, neutral tech -> throw will beat the tech trap Gun Blaze after level 1 BRP pretty much every time. That's my experience with it. Most players will just tech out of the corner anyway if they think you will Gun Blaze. With the longer untechable time of the j.D compared to a level 1 BRP, you can still tech trap them if they tech forward, whereas this is not really feasible if you use BRP.

1. Always be prepared to block when you tech. In the case of your Slayer example, you would FD his 2S to avoid being comboed again. 2. Try not to tech at the earliest possible moment. Alter your tech timing to be a little bit later or a lot later, depending on what you think will mess up your opponent's trap timing. 3. Remember that techs are invincible on startup. You can use this to avoid imprecise tech traps using slow moves with long recovery. 4. Neutral tech when possible. Forward and backward techs are faster (ie you can tech earlier than when you can neutral tech), but you "bounce" into the air and leave yourself open to more tech traps. Neutral tech reaches the ground faster than either of these techs, so when you have room to use it, do so. This will force your opponent to think through their tech catches and keep you from constantly eating "free" damage. Also, this is a more generic type of question as opposed to a question specific to HOS, so please, in the future, post something like this in the general forum and not here. If you post here again with this type of question, I will delete it without responding.

There's no real reason to "mix up" your combos, you should go for the most practical and most damaging combo every time if possible. This changes depending on the situation, but typically if you have a choice between doing a small combo into a mixup or a big high damage combo, you would go for the high damage. For example, in the BnB you listed (K-S-HS -> lvl2BHB AC FRC) the opponent does not have time to slip recover, so you can run up and do any combo you like. There's no reason to do a mixup there, you're just sacrificing damage. Then there's the fact that you can link a dashing Fafnir from lvl2BHB easily, so if your opponent doesn't have Burst, there is no reason to do the AC FRC at all, just dash Fafnir after the lvl2BHB hits and do a juggle for huge damage. As far as your Gun Blaze juggles, one thing I want everyone to keep in mind is that it is rare to see any HOS player ending their juggles with a special like lvl1BRP because simply ending it with j.D gives you a better tech trap; j.D is untechable for longer and you recover faster from it than you do lvl1BRP, so you can put yourself in position to trap them more easily. Now then, if you've already done over 200pts of damage on someone and you are willing to use a lvl3BRP to tack on an extra 20 or 30 pts of damage, you are wasting your charge. Yes, you may be "maxing" your damage on that one combo, but you could have easily saved that level 3 for your next combo to do another long 200pt plus combo and end the match. So you're actually reducing your overall damage dealing capability in the match. This is not what maximizing your damage is about. The Sol command grab combo you listed is misleading because it doesn't cost any extra resources for him to do that combo and the damage difference between the two is actually pretty big due to clean hit properties on Sidewinder.

A lot of characters can reverse/AA airdashes on sight pretty easily, so I'm not seeing the mixup. Airdash is only good when opponents are otherwise occupied (ie in recovery from doing something they shouldn't have been doing). Do other stuff, it's better and safer.

Ok, I see it now. It's a note attached to one of the pictures in the character strategy section for HOS. The throw invincibility is also listed in the initial color section where all moves are pictured and briefly discussed. Good to know.

The errata mentioned on Arcadia's website refers only to the backdash data in the very back of the book. Nothing else is mentioned.

I honestly think AD PPP is not a good tactic to use very often. Airdashing in general is risky and too easy to reverse against. I don't see it done very often at all in matches either.

AD PPP will also get 6Ped or reversed. Doublejumping is a better option, though this leaves you open to being airthrown more easily.

HOS needs meter/charge to make his mixup truly intimidating, and it isn't the same sort of blatant 50/50 mixup that many characters have. Like I said, he does have a lot of options and they can be intimidating, but they are more focused around tricking the opponent into making a mistake as opposed to being a straight guessing game. reaVer: the problem with trying to do late j.HS on most characters in open play is that you leave yourself open to simpler anti-air options like 6Ps and whatnot. You can do j.HS earlier to stuff those moves and get CHs for combos, but then you leave yourself open to the invincible reversal again, as well as possibly getting IBed and thrown when you land if you are too close. This option is more realistic on wakeup because you can jump while the opponent is knocked down and unable to do anything aside from reversing on wakeup, which is where the late j.HS's effectiveness is shown.

WUT: I like that j.HS mixup, I'll have to try it out when I get to play again. Reversal-safe oki is always good. I also like your analysis of HOS's wakeup game, very spot-on. HOS has always been about forcing your opponent to make mistakes and then punishing them, rather than straight mixing them up with 50/50. Not as straightforwardly effective as most characters' mixups, but it can be more intimidating if you can pull the mindgames off since the opponent has to worry about the sheer number of options you have.

You're further away because if you CC immediately, you skip the part of 6K that has the forward sliding momentum. You can see this with other moves as well, this is why I said above to slightly delay when you cancel 6K into BHB; the sliding movement of 6K will carry over to the BHB and you will slide forward as if you had just done a dash-buffered BHB. Cancel into BHB immediately and you won't move forward at all. I would say the only reason you would have timing issues with CC would be because you are not accustomed to the recovery so you don't know exactly when you can move.

I've noticed that Potemkin players are opting out of 6HS oki now and going instead for really meaty Slide Head at the unblockable distance. Remember that you can reverse this with Fafnir for free if you are in range. As far as 6HS oki, I would always SV it unless I see the opponent has meter to FRC the move; there's no reason to IB and attempt a backdash or jump away when you can reverse for free. You can also do Gun Blaze under 6HS on wakeup, but if the 6HS is done early enough, his fists will retract before the flame becomes active, so be careful when using it.