Spark

I haven't been able to get the IAD j.A > j.B > 2C combo to work on Rachel. The j.A seems to whiff a lot of the time and when you do get it to hit it's way too soon so j.B has to be done sooner, but then 2C won't connect.

From what I've seen it's only impossible on Rachel, but for a lot of the characters the timing is really close.

They did this because all of Hakumen's counters do 100% guaranteed damage, if you could 6D Carl over and over again it would do huge damage to him every time you caught the super. That's why 2D bounces higher now and 6D has further push back.

You have to airdash without landing.

Place holder Punishes: Anti-airing: Zoning: Their game plan: Strategy: Char specific details:

Place holder Punishes: Anti-airing: Zoning: Their game plan: Strategy: Char specific details:

Place holder Punishes: 3C - On IB can be punished with 236B, 3C, 2A, and etc. 4B - Really annoying to punish even on IB. 236B might reach, 3C most likely won't. Though if for some reason they don't just hit with just the last hit you can IB the first hit and 6D in between. j.214D - On IB can be punished with 236B, or 3C. If they do it too high you can punish with slower stuff. 236C - On IB can punish with 3C or 236B. 632146D - If she has 100% meter use 6D otherwise block and punish with whatever. 236236D - Not a punish, but you should 2D or 6D through all of it. It prevents her from getting any mix up from using it. You can do 2D 2 times or do 6D 3 times while the super is out. Anti-airing: Lambda jumping in on you shouldn't be super common unless you blocked 236D/DC in which case you can't really anti air her. If she does jump in normally for some reason, 5A should work fine as her jump ins don't have much vertical range. Zoning: Lambda is pretty much in control of this fight for the entire match, except for when you either get in or if you cut something and make the orb. If you do manage to get the orb use this chance to get, do not just hide in the orb. If Lambda hits you with a D attack while the orb is behind you the 2nd D attack will likely be absorbed by the orb, so it's likely her combo will drop. So it's good to keep this in mind. Their game plan: Basically most will zone with D moves fishing for free damage. When you are knocked down they will either use 236D/DC to force you to block a mix up or use 214D/DC to maybe get a mix up and break a primer. At mid screen if you block 5C they can do 4B(2nd hit only) overhead or 3C low. Which unless you are in the corner or they have 50 meter they can't do anything off the low. If you block 2C they might be getting ready for a TK j.214D overhead or feign into a 3C, which for either without 50 meter or corner they can't really get anything out of. Also new in CS2 is the 5C > 2C and the 2C > 5C chains, so keep that in mind. Strategy: First thing to keep in mind is that as Hakumen using reversal 2D/6D will keep you from ever having to block 236D/DC or 214D/DC on wake up. So you don't have to worry about losing primers to 214D/DC or mix up from 236D/DC. Regarding 236D/DC you can fit 2 6Ds or 2 2Ds in there if you counter it as soon as you can. 2D is safer, but doesn't go as far and depending on when you actually counter you might not be able to get a 2nd one. 6D is more risky, but you can grab Lambda if they already preemptively jumped at you ready to mix you up. Trying to get in: This can be pretty annoying as 6D will hit you out of your dash, air dash, and forward/neutral jump. 5D will hit you out of dash, 623A and forward/neutral jump if you're unlucky. 2D will get you at the end of your air dash if you do it. Ok so the things to know are that 5D is not jump cancelable, goes into all of her other Ds, is special cancelable and is negative on block and so is it's follow up. So your options on block are: If she does> 214D/DC: Jump up and cut it (to gain some ground) or 4C her if your fast and she's close enough for a combo. 236D/DC: Jump up and over it for your free j.2C. 6D: If your crouching it should whiff and you get to ground dash in for free. 2D: She'll do this if she thinks your IAD in after blocking the 5D, it's pretty risky and if she whiffs it you can dash in for whatever. 4D: If she's close you can try to 623AA her before it hits you. Or you can 6D or if you're fast 5D it and if she does 4DD it will go through you and you get to IAD/dash in for free. If she does not do anything it's like you just blocked a 5D and the situation is reset. 236A: She's going in for a string into mix up most likely so get ready for it. 236B: You can try to counter it, but it's safer just to IB and start your pressure. 236C: IB and punish. Nothing: Dash in, but it can be risky because she can do a delay 6D to catch this. Ok if you block a 6D mid screen it either means you were in the air or you were standing. If you were in the air than she can pretty much get a free guard primer from you by doing some air Ds into j.214D and there's not much you can do about it. If you're on the ground and she jump cancels into her j.2D she can try to break a primer with j.214D, but if you IB it you can 214A at her and punish it if she did it too high. If not than you're still right next to her. If she does the j.214D fake into another j.2D you can 623A in between and this should put you right next to her as she whiffs j.2D. I didn't mention this earlier, but after IBing Lambda 2C you can 5A which will beat TK j.214D/DC if she's close and is safe even if she AD backwards and does j.2D because you'll recover in time. But be careful as this will obviously lose to 3C. Even knowing all of this it is important to never give Lambda any free damage, either from trying to cut her 5D/6D/2D which can work is not a very risk to take, or just not blocking them and getting randomly it. Every time you get hit by 6D in the air that's at least 2k damage you're taking that you didn't need to take. Remember her gravity field is not a DP anymore so you have more freedom to do what you want once you get in. Getting in is just about taking it slowly(ie. walk forward a little and then crouch to dodge 6D), waiting for her to whiff swords and not taking any unneeded risks. Char specific details: If you 236236D her 4D and she does the follow up sword she cannot jump out of the way of the super in time. Her 5C is considered purely a projectile now, so she can move after you 236236D her 5C.

Punishes: 623B: On IB is punishable with 3C if you have no meter or 236B if you want to spend meter. At 16 frame start up if you're quick you can 2D, or 6D it too. 2C: If he ends his block string here punish it with 2A if you IBed it. Any drive attack: If Bang auto-guards any of your attacks you can just use 2D on reaction to all of them and just counter him. This will even work on j.D. 236236A: 6D it during super flash if you're on the ground and (delay)j.D it if you're in the air. Otherwise it's only -10 on IB so you can only get 3C or 236B as a punish. 2363214C: If point blank then do 5D during the super flash for an unavoidable punish if he has 100% meter. Otherwise do your standard 5C (CH) > whatever. 632146B: If you can't doge it, then you can 2D x N for the entire duration of it, or IB it all for a ton of meter. If he does it on wake up, you can throw him out of it and then 2D for the entire duration of it/IB it. Else if he just does it mid screen for no reason IAD over to him and j.2C > whatever. Anti-airing: 5A and 5B: Can work depending on the situation. 2C: Works best when Bang is on the way up, otherwise it will probably lose to most jump ins. If he j.Ds your 2C cancel into 623A to go right under it. 5C: Can work on occasion and when it does you get huge damage, but it's very risky. Zoning: j.2A: Works great for cutting nails and can be useful as an air to air poke. On hit you can air dash after it and get a small combo. j.C: Works for cutting nails, but it's better to use j.2A for this because of it's way faster recovery. This will pretty much out range all of Bang's normals in the air. If he j.Ds this and teleports in cancel into j.214B. 5B: Will beat out Bang's 5B on the ground. Though 3C will go under it and 2B has a odd hit box so it can avoid it. Though those 2 moves are risky to use as pokes. Strategy: Hakumen can almost always kill Bang for using his D moves outside of combos, so he can't really rely on them in this match. The nails can be countered or cut for very little risk so he cannot approach from full to mid screen with them. While he can't approach with nails he still has more mobility than Hakumen so if he guess around a poke correctly he can still get in instantly. Mix up and pressure: Since he has a command grab if he's point blank with 5A and 2As FD to keep him out of range. He can't even combo off one of his standing overheads 6B without CH or RC, so you don't really have to worry too much about it. If you think a command grab is coming the safest option is to TK j.214B as it will beat the ground command grab and the air command grab if he thinks you are going to jump. His other overhead 5C hits Hakumen faster because he's taller when he's crouching, but it is a fairly telegraphed overhead so it shouldn't be too hard to block. However it is jump cancelable so Bang can use it to TK D nails and get back in for more pressure, or IAD over you for a cross up and continue pressure that way. His 6A is plus and is jump cancelable, so it is one of the more common ways to reset pressure for Bang that you have to watch out for. It's kind of slow, so people tend to stand up when they see it and expect an overhead. If you get used to seeing this and countering it, it would greatly hurt Bang's pressure. D nails from full to mid screen are pretty much useless against Hakumen because you can just cut or counter like any other projectile. But if they're used in a block string it can be dangerous because you're forced to deal with at least 1 mix up after blocking them. The only way to avoid this is to try to guess when Bang is going for D nails in his pressure and counter them. Char specific details: j.B: This will work as an instant overhead on Bang.

Place holder Punishes: Anti-airing: Zoning: Their game plan: Strategy: Char specific details:

Place holder Punishes: Anti-airing: Zoning: Their game plan: Strategy: Char specific details:

Place holder Punishes: Anti-airing: Zoning: Their game plan: Strategy: Char specific details:

Place holder Punishes: Anti-airing: Zoning: Their game plan: Strategy: Char specific details:

Place holder Punishes: Anti-airing: Zoning: Their game plan: Strategy: Char specific details:

Place holder Punishes: Anti-airing: Zoning: Their game plan: Strategy: Char specific details:

Place holder Punishes: Anti-airing: Zoning: Their game plan: Strategy: Char specific details:

Punishes: 623C - If you poke at her on wake up with just the tip of 2B if she DPs at best it will clash with 2B and you'll be safe. Also only the last 4 frames of this move are not in CH state, so if you block this you pretty much get the CH punish of your choice. This move has invincible auto-guard so if you try to counter it on their wake up your counter will actually get guarded though you'll still be at advantage after wards. 632146C - 6D, 2D, 236236D during the super flash if they have enough meter to RC. Anti-airing: 5A - In general Mu's air attacks do not cover very far below her. So when she jumps in whether it's with j.B or j.C she has to wait on till close to the last second to use it making it easy to 5A her out of her jump ins. 6B - No longer punishable on IB in CS2, but on IB is negative enough that you get to start your pressure or go for a mix up. 623A(A) - When she's jumping in with j.C at a range where 5A won't reach her, you can use 623A instead to go under her and throw/start pressure or do the follow up and try to hit her out of it or out of the landing recovery. 63214C - The lower level versions of this move are punishable at -10 before IB, but if you don't IB you might be pushed too far to punish. Zoning: j.C - Has more range and is faster than her j.C and 5C, but if she hits you she has an easier time following up with a combo. 4C - Ok for cutting her (j.)236A, but as a poke it feels kind of risky. Hitting with it gets you ok damage and gets you in, but if you mess up you can take big damage. j.2A - Good for cutting her projectiles in general. Their game plan: Using her drive lasers and command lasers to force you to deal with her mix up. Charged stein shots can break primer, same with 63214C and stein explosion. Strategy: Mainly do what you can get to close enough to start your pressure. Keep in mind as long as you get her to block a j.C or a 4C the steins won't shoot. If she uses the charge laser it counts up from newest stein to oldest. If none of the steins are in the ground that means you can command dash under the charge laser till it reaches the final stein and homes in on you. Though it's only a good idea to do this if you're trying to dash under a stein and counter it to catch Mu, otherwise cutting it is much safer and still helps you get in. If she uses stein explosion on wake up against you just counter it to avoid the primer loss. If stein explosion is not done on wake up you can try to cut them or counter them to use them against Mu. In this match up you are almost never forced to block any projectiles on wake up which greatly weakens her oki. She has no command grab, and her only ground overhead is fairly slow and (usually) only leads into damage in the corner. Dealing with her block strings: Anything into 6C: There is always a gap, so no matter what normal she uses before this you can always 6D 6C, if she's too close than you catch her with 6D if not then you don't really lose anything for countering it. 3C: After 3C watch for the jump or a stein cancel if she stein cancels if you IBed 3C you can 3C her, else if she jumps you can try for the air throw or attempt to anti air her. If she decides to do a special after 3C she is almost always going to be in range of 3C unless you've been FDing her block strings. 2C: Same deal as 3C except that she can chain it into 6C(try to 6D this), 3C(look above), or back into 5C if she hasn't already. 5C: Same deal as 2C except that she cannot jump cancel this and while it is punishable on IB you're never going to be close enough for this to matter. Stein placement: Usually not punishable, but it means her pressure is done unless she jump cancels into more stuff or she decides to special cancel into something in which case if you stuck out a move on reaction to the stein placement you will probably beat out the special. Char specific details: j.2C > 5C > 5C (impossible without fatal counter?) j.2C > 5C > 2C (still possible) When you 236236D her 6C she's stuck in place and cannot dodge the counter.

Place holder Punishes: Anti-airing: Zoning: Their game plan: Strategy: Char specific details:

Place holder Punishes: Anti-airing: Zoning: Their game plan: Strategy: Char specific details:

Will post more as I play more. Punishes: 6A - Can be punished with 5A without IB. 236236B - If he has 100% meter punish with 2D, 6D, or 236236D during superflash other wise use whatever. Anti-airing: 5A - Still works alright though with how much damage Hazama can do I'm not sure it's worth the risk. Zoning: j.2A - Still the best move for cutting chains, although the risk vs reward for cutting a chain is kind of bad. 623A - Still goes under his 5D, but it doesn't go as far as it used to. Their game plan: Strategy: When Hazama hits you with his stance overhead he can actually combo off of it on Hakumen. So don't just block low all the time and ignore the overhead. Char specific details: Hazama has no moves that are purely projectiles, so if you get your astral he actually has nothing that can beat it. Hazma cannot cancel the chain if 236236D catches it.

I've cleaned up the match up sub forum because of CS2 coming out, so all the old threads have been moved to the archive board. I'll try to have a thread up for each match up by the end of the day. Though there really isn't much for me to say because I've had the game for like a week.

Punishes: Any summon - Make sure to never let Rachel summon anything for free whether it's the frog or the pumpkin, always j.C or 4C or just hit her if she's close enough to you when she summons. Anti-airing: Rachel's air to ground normals will usually lose to Hakumen's ground normals as they don't have that much reach. But most Rachel's will only approach when they have the pumpkin out so AAing her can be a pain. Zoning: j.2A - Really good for cutting cannon shots, which with the orb out will make it a lot easier to approach her. j.C - Can be used for cutting cannon shots, but better for knocking Rachel out of the air when you see her summon or attempt to approach. 4C - Can work when it comes to cutting cannon shots on the ground, also if you space it right it will cut the cannon shot right as Rachel shoots it causing the orb spawn and hit her. Their game plan: Will fill out as I play more. Strategy: If you're right next to Rachel doing a block string and George is about to activate you can cancel your A or B normal into a counter to catch George in the middle of your block string causing you to hit Rachel with an unblockable. Also throwing Rachel, even if she breaks it will cause George and the pumpkin to go away. FD when Rachel is right next to you so she can't hit you with j.A as an instant overhead. Char specific details: Due to her larger OTG hit box you can hit with 6C in some situations where you normally would not be able to. 3C (CH) > 2B > 214A > IAD > j.A > j.B doesn't seem to work on her.

Haven't really gotten a chance to play much against Jin, so I'll fill this in as I go. Punishes: 6A - Has to be IBed to punish, and even then the only thing you can get is 5A or 2A. 5D - Also be sure to counter this on reaction. Anti-airing: TK j.214B - Still pretty much beats anything. Zoning: Their game plan: Strategy: Char specific details:

Punishes: 214D - While they sped this attack up it is still 28 frame start up, so 6D it when you see it. Will fill in with more info as I play more. Anti-airing: 5A - Can be risky, but can still work if they do their jump in really late. 5B - Can also work, but is situational. TK j.214B - Now easy to do and will pretty much beat anything. 623A - If they do their jump in too early you can dash right under their attack, or even go behind them if they're jumping at you too closely. Zoning: j.C - Still has great reach completely out ranges Ragna's j.C, though the extra landing recovery means you have to be more careful using it. 4C - Still feels really bad, at max range you can't really combo off of it and even though it needs to be air FDed you can't get anything off of it on air hit anyway as far as I know. Also got longer recovery that is still all in CH state making it even more risky to use. Will fill in with more info as I play more. Their game plan: Will fill in with more info as I play more. Strategy: Will fill in with more info as I play more. Char specific details: j.B will work as an instant overhead on Ragna and canceling into j.214C lets you combo off it corner or mid screen.

Maybe.

6C has repeat prorate, so that's why that combo doesn't work anymore.