JackG

Keep him zoned. Use max range 6b if he's approaching from the ground and 6a if he's trying to IAD in or just approach from the air. Use your cannon to anti-air/zone him. A consistent 'summon pumpkin, shoot cannon, wind forward, summon frog if he isn't out, repeat' is a pretty handy start. You really have no need to approach him head on unless you're sure you can do it safely (like if he's blocking frog or something)

Hakumen Matchup Statistics Japanese Ranking: 5-5 in nobodies favor, ever Personally: God kills a kitten. Punishes: Anti-airing: Zoning: Their game plan: Strategy: Char specific details:

Oops, never noticed that. Updated the guide to reflect it. Regardless, I don't think the extra 100 damage would still appear to do half of anyone's health. On the note about Rachel, she does indeed have the ability to initiate full screen with cannon+wind. However, this is a whole lot less threatening than Nu's or Arakune's full screen shenanigans. While Rachel has a pumpkin, frog, and poles out, it certainly can be a pain to approach her. I'll still take it over the other two any day though. honestly the hardest part is finding the holes in her pressure strings (her 3c is +frames, can be cancelled to plus frame specials, and her 3d>j.2c mixup is also safe assuming you don't counter it beforehand) and getting around her 6a/6b.

Well like I said, It could have also been negative penalty, represented by vertical red lines on the character.

Well I honestly haven't played this matchup at all until last weekend at the Austin qualifiers, in which Copper Dabbit destroyed me. The latest Japanese rankings list this as Hakumen's worst matchup at 2-8 (I'm under the impression it probably is, if not V-13) A few initial impressions; really don't jump around when you're cursed unless you're using barrier, because those bugs are GROUNDED for some reason... Also don't be afraid you use your CA, because you'll have plenty of bar. Getting in is the hardest part. Will post more when I get my hands on the game and can play

false, take a look at this link: http://s1.zetaboards.com/blazblue/pages/01/#hb many characters are evenly divided throughout all of their health. Jin, Noel, Taokaka, and Rachel all have a 50/50 division. Bang is the only character divided into 75/25, though for the most part they don't matter too much. Basically I'm just showing this to explain why a bunch of you are all like "ZOMG my 6C did 60% at the start of the round no joke!"

I'm gonna have to try it, but I was under the impression his counters aside from 6d do give you one star each, but that's only if you hit the opponent with the counter. AKA you're not allowed to counter full screen projectiles and get stars, but then again you can autoguard projectiles with your C moves for stars.

Are you just making things up? V-13 is tied for the second least amount health in the game, and bursting increases damage by 50%, not 30%. V-13 has a disproportionated life bar though, meaning visually the last 20% of her life is closer to 3500-4000 health, instead of 2000. That means when you hit her earlier on it appears to do more damage than it actually is.

- You can counter anything, projectiles included (which her staff counts as) However, whether or not Litchi is HIT by the counter depends on how close she is and which counter you use (they have different ranges) -If you are knocked down and she activates distortion drive, hold down-back ]D[ while you get up for a guaranteed counter. If you are in the air, just hold back and block it, but if you have barrier use that to be safe and avoid being hit with a grounded attack in the meantime. -Again yes, it works against projectiles. However, your opponent has time to jump away from the followup attack if you super counter a projectile. The super counter freezes the opponent if you counter a direct move from them, but not a projectile.

You can hit him out of 5d dash cancel as it's relatively unsafe, but any Ragna worth his salt won't just pressure unsafe stuff willy nilly. Unfortuntely I haven't been able to play this matchup too much yet, but I know that if he pressure something into 2b>3c, if you IB 2b you can 2d his 3c fora big damage. Also you can 6d his 6b all the time, but you have to train yourself to see it.

No, Hakumen's 6c does 1640 damage. There is no random number generation involved, so I'm not really sure what you experienced. Maybe you were in Negative Penalty/had bursted, Negative penalty denoted by red lines going up and down your character.

Thanks, I almost forgot about the feet invincibility bit on 6b. I already listed in the guide that 6b counterhit is long enough to follow up with a jump-in, landing j.c into 2c/5c whatever. Still working on editting it and all that jazz when I get a bit. I hope you guys don't mind that it's locked now, just want to make sure it's complete before I get a bunch of comments on it. In the meantime, you guys can comment on it in this thread like reaVer did.

block and punish; simple as that. Noel's drives are annoying for beginners, sure, but they are all unsafe when you end so just figure out how to block it appropriately and when it ends, do a bread n butter. Also I feel the title should be changed to "How to be an hero" since I can't NOT read it like that

And now just in case, a final one

yet another

another reserve

---------- Specials: -Note, the number in parenthesis is the number of stars required. There are 8 levels total. (1) - Guren: 236A: Lunges forward and thrusts with the hilt of his sword. Wallbounces opponents if they were airborn or knocked down. Doesn't launch standing opponents. Useful for combos on launched opponents, as you can connect with a 6C and optional super afterwards. on the ground it is an ok combo piece if you were to say, do 2b>236a>623a~a. Alright to cancel your largely frame disadvantaged moves as a frame trap. Kishuu: 623A: A command dash of sorts. Has upper body invulnerability, so can be use to avoid certain attacks off the ground. Covers more distance than his normal dash, and can be cancelled into as a combo extender. Decent for tick throws every once in awhile, but it fairly telegraphed so use it sparingly. (2) - Renka: 214B: Does a double kick combo which launches the opponent on either hit. The first hit is a low attack, and even reverse prorates (120%.) Has a fast startup of 9 frames, so rolling to the other side of your opponent and cancelling into Renka is a decently fast crossup low which can lead to big damage in the corner. Enma: After Kishuu, press A: Cancels the command dash into an uppercut. Launches opponents on hit, and can be jump cancelled on hit or block. Useful for damage maximizing combos for only a total of 2 stars. Can also be used as a counter hit bait due to its upper body invulnerability. Hotaru: j.214B: Hakumen does a diagonal kick upward, stopping air momentum. This move is insanely useful. Has shoryuken invulnerability (frames 1-14 invincible) but recovers quickly such that it's completely safe, makes for a great move if you really need one more hit to end the match. The move is jump cancellable and resets jump options, making it decent for extending mid screen air combos for more damage (j.B> j.C > j.214B > j.C.) On top of all of that, the move is considered GROUNDED even though it's in the air. This property is generally only given to 6A's and dragonpunches, and what it means is that it's unblockable in the air unless they IB or barrier. (3) - Zantetsu: 41236C: Massive overhead slash for the first hit (must be blocked high), followed by a sweeping slash (must be blocked low). Safe on block, and does huge damage. can be comboed into from 214B(One hit), throws into the corner, and 5c during ground state. The damage output from this special alone is huge, making the stars always worth it when it's a guaranteed hit. The 'mixup' portion of this move is good at first, but players tend to adapt to watching for this overhead quickly as Hakumen doesn't really have blockstrings. Tsubaki: j.214C: Downward sword slash which knocks down opponents on hit. Can be used as an air combo ender, to knock down the opponent, or tigerkneed (2147C) as a quick overhead. If done low enough to the ground you can pick up a combo afterwards. ---------- Supers - cost 4 stars Shippuu: 632146C: Huge downward sword slash which releases a projectile wave. You can charge this move and it becomes unblockable -- however, you aren't invincible while charging, and the opponent can just jump over it. If you predict their jump, you could try releasing it at the exact moment their jump startup occurs, but that's a guess that isn't in your favor. This move can still be cancelled into other specials, as long as it hits/is blocked. The projectile wave deals signifigantly less damage than the initial hit of the super, but luckily the sword slash has great range so typically it's the part that connects. Good for comboing off of 6C if you have the meter to spare. Yukikaze: 236236D: Counter super, active on the first frame and counters mid and high atttacks. If it counters successfully, Hakumen does a long charge up and moves forward quickly with a big sword slash. If you counter physical attacks, you freeze the opponent (even if they Rapid their attack) making it a guaranteed hit. Countering projectiles causes the counter to work, but the opponent can move out of the way. The slash is unblockable, so generally they have to superjump out of the way to get it. There is a faster version of this attack that activates when you hit with it in the first active frame of countering and (I believe) when you reversal it. Mugen: 214214B: Costs 8 stars, and Hakumen goes into a long super animation. From there his meter starts draining quickly, but while you still have meter you get infinite specials and supers. You cannot rapid cancel in this mode. This is the mode where the infamous 100% combos originated, but it's fairly unpractical. It is confirmed that 6D > Mugen > Combo works. ---------- Frame Data Dj Asakura has kindly provided us with the frame data for all of hakumen's moves, found here: http://dustloop.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6125 Frame data is useful for knowing how fast moves are, how much recovery time they have, how much damage they do, how safe/unsafe moves are, etc. If you have trouble understanding what each of the notations are, you can find their descriptions here: http://s1.zetaboards.com/blazblue/pages/01#frameterms ---------- Character Specific Statistics Here's all the cool ins and outs about Hakumens, some things probably surprising and will change they way you play him. Let's start out with health. Health: Hakumen 12000 8400(80%):3600(20%) Hakumen is tied with Bang for the second most amount of health in the game as 12000. Hakumen is one of the characters that has a disproportionate lifebar, meaning visually his life goes down faster at first, but slows down as you get closer to the bottom. This isn't really that relevant, but could affect some time-out scenarios. Although Hakumen has the second most health in the game, with an absence of guts like in GG I don't think the healthbars are nearly as important. Hakumen only has 16.66% more health than V-13 (10k, second lowest in the game), so take from that what you will ----- Guard Libra: Below the timer is Guard Libra (10000 points total). When guarding or forcing your opponent to guard, this gauge will shift. Once it is about 20% left to one side, that character turns blue when blocking. Note that within Guard Libra does not recover for 300 frames after blocking a move, getting hit or a knockdown. Then it recovers 7 points per frame until the character blocks or getting hit again. When it fills up completely to one side, the guarding player will undergo a Barrier Crush and will be stunned temporarily. Each character has a different rate of Guard Libra reduction. (Higher rate = better defense, vice versa) Hakumen: 140% Hakumen has the second highest rating, next to Tager's 150%. This means that it takes 1.4 times as much pressure to guard crush Hakumen versus your standard 100% rating character. This is nice, but fairly necessary as you'll find yourself having to block fairly often with hakumen, especially at the start of the round. ----- Walking: Believe it or not, walking is an important concept, even at the higher level of play. Since Hakumen has a non jump cancellable hop-dash, walking can sometimes be your safest form of ground approach. Hakumen has a walk forward speed of 6400, and a walk backward speed of 4100. He has one of the slowest walk backwards speeds, but that isn't really too relevant. However, he has the 5th fastest walking speed which is quite beneficial, especially against characters like V-13 and Rachel. Dashing: Hakumen shares the same unsafe dash hop that Carl does, and it's frame data is the following: 16 Frames 3~11 airborne, 6~11 air special move cancel possible. Cancelling his dash can lead to interesting counterhit-bait setups (2a, dash j.214B for mashing opponents) and a decently fast overhead (dash j.214C.) Being in the air of course means you cannot be thrown as well. Back Dashing: Baackdashing is performed by hitting back twice, causing the character to hop backwards and (hopefully) out of harms way. Hakumen's data is the following. Total Frames-Invulnerable Frames-Distance--------Notes ------27---------------0----------270000--------5~15 airborne,8~15 air special move cancellable 0 Invulnerability frames, that is probably the first time I've seen a backdash with no invulnerable frames on it. Tack on that it's one of the longer backdashes at 27 frames with a mediocre distance traveled, and you have a backdash that you should NEVER use. the special cancel is interesting, but not really useful when you could simply tigerknee the special or do the dash forward special cancel instead. All in all, not really ever worth it. If your opponent is up in your face and you're panicking, jumping up back and using barrier is usually your safest bet. ---------- System Mechanics Instant Guard AKA Instant Block AKA IB: Instant Guard is a bit harder to do than the basic one, and more rewarding to return. By holding back to defend an attack within 8 frames, your character flashes white to indicate you instant block successfully. The differences between Instant Guard and Basic Guard are: 1) Recover from guard stun 10F quicker in the air, and 5F quicker on the ground (for a level 5 move) 2) The hit back effect of the attack is halved 3) Able to guard the air unblockable 4) Fixed 3% increase in Heat Gauge everytime you Instant Guard (Hakumen gets 1/3 of a star) Instant blocking is extremely helpful, and on Hakumen especially. He gets more bar than other cast members for IBing successfully, which as you know is a necessity for his damage output. Additionally, the reduced guard stun by IBing makes certain pressure strings that were once safe, unsafe. With even a 1 frame gap between opponents' blockstrings, Hakumen can use one of his instant speed counters (usually 2D or 6D) for massive damage. And finally, instant blocking the final hit in a guard string can both leave your opponent close enough to you/in enough frame disadvantage to punish with a 2a > combo. All in all, IBing is a very fundamental aspect that should be implemented in your game. ----- Advance Input In this game, if you hold a button, the game repeats its input for 5 frames. Using this system properly, you can easily connect some combos that require timing, like with Hakumen '3C (CH) > 2C > Air combo' works, but the timing is a bit tight. Another common use is to hold down the button after blocking or during wake up so the moves can execute immediately afterward. This is useful for force guard wakeup scenarios (holding down-back ]D[ to ensure you reversal 2D against Litchi's super, Jin's C Fireball). This is also useful for frame traps, in which you may only have a few frames to get a counter out before you're put in more block stun. For example, Tager loves to pressure 5D/5C into B sledge. Sometimes it's a bit tricky to get the counter out in between hits, but with the advanced input feature you'll find it much easier. Playing the game, you'll find that IB'ing certain strings of moves makes even the most basic of guard strings punishable. For example, IBing Jin's 5B will make his 5C unsafe, so you can throw a 2D inbetween if he does 5B (IBed) > 5C.

So here it is, the guide for damn near everything you'd want to know about Hakumen! Height: 208 cm Weight: 155 kg Blood Type: Unknown Origins: Unknown Birthday: Unknown Hobby: Unknown Likes: Order Dislikes: Black Beast Hakumen was one of the six heroes who battled against and defeated the Black Beast. Afterwards, he was locked away in the area where the Sheol Gate was located beneath the grounds of the area. Hakumen follows a code of honor, and says that his sword will purify the world of sin and vanquish that which is evil. ---------- Let me just preface this with a few of Hakumens pros and cons (sorry 4r5) Good -Large normals, most on hit/counterhit can lead to big damage -Hakumen benefits from IBing more than any other character, as he gains 1/3 of a star per instant block. -Can special cancel his specials, allowing for unique combos and setups. -His C moves have projectile autoguard during their active frames, and give you a star per projectile autoguarded. Bad -Gets zoned easily, even with meter. -Lack of combos without meter, relegates him to not doing much at the start of the round. -Even with meter, a lot of his combos are still less than many other characters while still having less options. -Lack of gatlings, leaving pressure with Hakumen something to be desired. That being said, if you think playing Hakumen is right for you, then read on! ---------- Notation - A, B, C, and D are used to represent those respective buttons. - The numbers represent joystick postions in the following manner: 7 8 9 4 5 6 1 2 3 With 2 being down, 5 being neutral, 6 being forward etc. Specials and supers can also be represented with this notation (i.e. 236A is quarter-circle forward A, standard fireball motion.) ---------- NORMALS 5A: A standard looking jab. can cancel into itself or 2a, which can be further canceled into 214b if you want to spend meter. If you hit an aerial opponent with it, you can connect with a j.a to combo as well. It has a 5F startup, which is tied for the fastest in the game. +3 on block, making it fairly decent for frame traps. Unfortunately it won't hit most characters if they are crouching, so it's difficult to find a great use for this move. Best use I have found for this is as an anti air while being crossed up. 5B: Hakumen does a kick reminiscent of Ryu's standing Medium Kick. Is the fastest move that can successfully gatling into 623a~a. This move suffers the same problem as 5a in that it doesn't hit most crouching opponents, so you'll find yourself not using this very much. It is +0, so at least you won't be punished for using it. 5C: Hakumen lifts his sword up and slices downward. This move is insanely useful for a number of reasons. It has a 14F startup, so with its speed and reach it's good for stuffing a lot of opponents moves at range. As an opener to a round it's a great choice for those reasons, and will catch jumps too. On an aerial opponent, 5c will knock the opponent down, allowing you to either stop and take the knockdown or follow up with 623a~a or 236a. It's -12 on block, so try not to have it blocked too close to you. Very useful for autoguarding full screen projectiles for a free star. 6A: Hakumen's anti air, very similar looking to Slayer's 6p. This move has a 11F startup, 3~13 invincible from head attribute attack (meaning if you're doing this to an aerial opponent while they're attacking, you're pretty much guaranteed to counterhit them out of it). On hit to a ground opponent it staggers for 31 frames, allowing you to follow up with pretty much anything. If that all wasn't good enough, it's +2 on block and can gatling into 6b (One of Hakumen's only gatlings.) This allows for interesting frame traps and mixup after jump ins (Try [blocked] j.c > land 6a >6b OR 6a > 66 > throw.) Unfortunately 6A does not special cancel so a blocked 6A > 41236C does not work. 6B: Hakumen does a little stomp that almost looks like an overhead, but is actually a low. It knocks down opponents both on the ground and in the air. It is -9 on block, so don't throw it out too much without a follow up to make it safer. Useful for mixup, and can be followed up with a combo in many scenarios. On a Counterhit you get a huge bounce, and can follow up with a jump in, falling j.c > land 2c > etc OR 6b (CH) > 6c > super if you want unburstable lazy big damage. On top of all of that, it is foot-attribute invincible, so it's a great counterpoke against people that love to mash on 2a and the like. 6C: Hakumen does a huge sword swing, has a large startup (17F) and huge recovery, as well as being -14 on block. Does a massive 1640 damage, but can be held (charged) to do 1740 damage. The big uses of this move are for combos after 236, and 6c is Hakumens only move that combos into Shippu super without CH. This move is generally only good outside of combos against Tager, as he has a hard time coming in and punishing it. On a Counterhit, you get 6c (CH) > 6c > Shippu. 2A: A 6F startup low jab, also being +1 on block. Since this move will hit crouching, It's generally the best go-to quick poke for quick punishes. Great for frame traps after a landing blocking j.c if you don't think you have enough time to do 6a. Does not hit low. 2B: Hakumen sticks his foot out and hits low. It has a 9F startup and is even +2 on block. Great for frame traps and mixup, especially if you can hitconfirm 2b >214b. 2C: Hakumen sticks hit sword upward while crouching. Looks very similar to Ky's 2H. A great anti air as well as combo tool. Jump cancellable on hit, but not block. -18 on block, so avoid using this for pressure. 3C: Hakumen crouches and does a quick sword sweep on the ground that hits low. Has a 9F startup and reaches decently far, making it a great counterpoke as well as a quick low. On hit it knocks down, but you can't combo off of it. On counterhit, you can follow up with 6b, 5c, or 2c optimally. This move is -16 on block, so if you're too close you run a risk of getting punished for throwing this out. j.A: Hakumen stick his hand out at a slightly downward angle. Can gatling into itself and late into j.b. Not terribly useful, but can be used to combo off of 5a on an aerial opponent. j.B: Hakumen sticks one leg out pointing downward, looks like Johnny's j.k. is jump cancellable, so it can make for somewhat decent pressure and mixup. Has good potential to cross up as well. For comboing purposes, it's useful to combo with when j.2c wouldn't allow for a follow up. j.C: The scrubhammer move of Hakumen, he does a big slash in the air all around him. It is fairly slow with a 14F startup, but has a huge hitbox and usually a good damage payoff on counter hit. Also shares the attributes of the other C moves for autoguarding projectiles. Good for ending air combos and using it in the middle of other combos. j.2C: Hakumen's move that allows for corner "dustloops". He thrusts his sword hilt downward, pushing back the opponent in the air when hit. Near a corner, you can repeat multiple times for pretty big damage. Midscreen, you can do 2c > j.2c > airdash > j.c oftentimes if they are close enough to you. Not really useful to use on opponents on the ground. Although it doesn't state it in the frame data, this move can also autoguard projectiles in its active frames. Drive:Zanshin: A type of counter. If performed at the right moment, your opponent's attack will be negated, and Hakumen will retaliate. Does not work against throws. If used against projectiles, the counter will catch the projectile and the retaliatory attack will come out, but unless the opponent is near Hakumen, the opponent will not be damaged. Here is the difference between the counters: 5D: Vulnerable at the start, but has the longest active period of all the counters. Catches overheads and mid attacks. If successful, tosses the opponent behind you, dealing 1700 damage and giving you 1 star of meter. Counter starts on frame 7 and lasts for 12 frames. Gives the biggest damage payoff but is the hardest to hit most of the time. Mostly only useful for REALLY slow attacks (Jin's 6b, Tager's charge B sledge) But oftentimes can be hard to react to overheads with. Can also be useful against opponent's trying to cross you up with aerial moves. 2D: Active immediately. Catches mid and low attacks. If successful, tosses the opponent behind you, dealing 1020 damage and giving you 1 star of meter. Active on the first frame and lasts 7 frames. Useful on wakeup against force-guard situations (Jin's projectile, Litchi's spinning staff super) Because holding down-back and D allows you to option select guarding and blocking if you don't get the reversal. Also good for frametraps like Tager's 5C > B Sledge. 6D: Active on the first frame and lasts 7 frames, like 2D. Counters high and mid attacks. Deals 0 damage and building 0 meter, but has a long enough falling animation to jump in and connect with a falling j.C into whatever, tensionless or non. This counter is especially useful against those ground overheads that you react to. Instead of simply blocking, try to get in the habit of using 6D and punishing. j.D: Active immediately. Catches any attack that can hit you while airborn in frames 1-9. If successful, tosses the opponent above and behind Haku-Men, dealing 1610 damage and giving you 1 star of meter. You can't combo off of it, but it is still useful for baiting opponents' 6A's and Dragon punches. Also good to stall your airdash momentum.

The main difficult things combo wise with Hakumen are I think the 623a~a followup with falling j.c into ground 2c. That seems to be most people's problem. So easy combos then - 2a>214b>236a>6c (optional super after the 6c) 6c (CH) > 6c > super j.c (CH on aerial opponent sort of high) > j.b > dj j.c > j.214b > dj j.c or if you're closer to the ground j.c (CH aerial) > 5c > 236a > 6c (optional super) Anyways the list goes on. I'll get that combo thread updated soon enough. For now, you can look here for some basic (not really damage maximizing, but I guess that's not really what you wanted anyways) http://s1.zetaboards.com/blazblue/pages/hakumencombo/ notations a bit different but you get the idea.

Generally my punish for her 623d is 5c>623aa combo or 236a>623aa combo depending on how close I am, if I IB it, how fast I can react to it, etc. In terms of countering, you can counter 6a with staff pretty easily I think, but for longer range moves like 6b oftentimes you won't be close enough for the counter to even hit her, so at a certain range it just isn't worth going for. When Litchi does her combo and ends in knockdown into spinny stick super, hold 2d and downback (denoted ]1d[) While you are neutal teching (do not roll, you'll get hit). At best you get a reversal instant counter, and at worst you miss the reversal (which it shouldnt be too bad with the 5 frame buffer window) but since you are holding downback so you'll simply end up blocking anyways.

copying over from the previous thread:

Litchi Matchup Statistics Japanese Ranking: [finput][/finput] yet Personally: Punishes: Anti-airing: Zoning: Their game plan: Strategy: Char specific details:

Few updates: Just finished posting the layout for all the character matchup forums. Most of them are bare right now, but if you have questions about specific matchups or character you can just post your questions up in those forums. I'm working on some of the guide stuff now, hopefully most of your questions will be answered so bear with me on getting that up.

if the combo beat turns black when you hit with j.c, it means you are doing the j.c too late. If it is turning black when you do the landing 2c, you are doing j.c too early.

Bang Matchup Statistics Japanese Ranking: [finput][/finput] yet Personally: Punishes: Anti-airing: Zoning: Their game plan: Strategy: Char specific details: