Order Jeff

After some experimenting, it seems you can just combo into steel rain off of 6D in FRKZ, probably just better to dash super though. I'll figure out specifics sometime this week and post the info.

j.D is also a very effective tool against ice car. Promptly j.D after you jump and you will hover very low off the ground, higher than the ice car hit box. The car will push you along but not hit so he cant RC to make it safe and you will slam him down for the counter hit. I am not sure of a good followup at this point but 2B > 6C might work. I prefer this to 2D because you dont actually need the guard point, and with lag, I am a few frames late with my 2D for the GP quite often. Lower risk, lower reward, but quite a bit safer imo. Also, off an A ice car, some Jin's will DP asap once recovered. More often than not, they strike the GP and eat it anyway, but if I had done 2D and he stopped short, I would be the one dining on a heaping helping of pain.

If Rachel ever fires out a lightning rod, Daifunka can standalone punish from near full screen range due to its early projectile invulnerability. Also works if she does an aerial rod from a little under 1 jump height. If she fired a short rod and you didn't activate in time, you may get hit. A smarter player may use wind to pull the shot back and down to get you, but if so, they shouldn't be able to land much more than that because they will get pushed back by their own wind. I play Soniti, amazing Rachel player, all the time and can punish nearly any cannon shot, especially from half screen. If you are at half screen distance or closer, they can't do crap. I felt this was worth mentioning because Rachel players often feel they are safe at long range just tossing these out. It also works on her setting out George if you recognize the animation within a few frames of startup and not quite fullscreen distance. Pumpkins should be punished at halfscreen only if you are certain of the first few startup frames.

On carl, the combo, j.2C (CH?) > 2B > 2C > 623C (Press all but D right as the grab connects and hold) > 41236D > D+D+D+D+D, will initiate astral and be fatal from 74%hp and 68 meter. I think it goes up to 75%hp but I wont commit to it right now, cant remember exactly. Played a Carl online specifically to pull this off and he must have been pissed when I did. Another strat I think would be good for astral when your spark bol is too close to a corner is to do any combo into collider, dont walk forward, 6C, 41236D, then B sledge. The delay from the sledge makes them cross you up and tech so during the sledge buffer the initial D's (lol initial d) astral and start to barrier, when they try to punish spam D and stop blocking when they try something with a lot of recovery. Nailed a Ragna, Jin, and Rachel with this just now. I really hate giving up rounds to test these on players but it is really good testing imo.

Oh well, I threw that out there without looking because my family was leaving for a movie. Apologies for repeating what you guys already posted.

Hey guys, I don't really play Tager, and this might have been posted already, but I have found ways for you to easily combo into his astral. If you have a few character lengths between you and your opponent you can hold back and A+B+C to sort of sneaky barrier prep, then spark bolt while still holding the three other buttons. After it launches, spam tap the d button until activation. If they are hit, then stop hitting it and it will combo into the astral. If not, hold it to magnetize then towards you and try your best to time the grab. If they are too close, wait for the D spam until they cross you up or dont go for the astral. Also, if your opponent has around 5.5k(carl) or 6k(nu-13) hp remaining, only two I have tested this on, and you have 80 meter, if you land a grab, proceed with the magnetic air grab cancel, but right as you grab them, hold A+B+C, it won't RC yet, then spark bolt and spam D as usual with the immediae release upon activation. Always grab towards the closest corner so the air grab will point them back into open space, gives enough activation time for your astral off the wall bounce. I will see if I can find any more extended combos for use at higher opponent life or less meter. Pretty much anything off a spark bolt seems to work. Thanks. -Bringer of candy. Tasty, tasty candy.

If you are magnetized, launched, and Tager is using his anti-air grab, you can tech really late and use the magnetic momentum to close the gap very quickly, buffer the dp motion then command grab right as you land in front of him during his recovery. Very high risk but also high reward imo, plus if you pull it off you look totally pro.

My bad, I meant to write that you could do it anytime off an floating wall bounce, which I have never had trouble getting to work.

Anytime you can use Daifunka and have 100 meter, you can instead activate Fuurinkazan then Daifunka because you have a few frames of time before your opponent resumes play. And technically, you only need two seals for that combo since the 2D and j.D add seals. Probably also needs to initiate off CH.

I am fairly certain that you can super when you palm strike while you're enemy is airborne. Start the super right at the top of the wall bounce and it should work. Such a combo is something like 2D(CH) > j.D > V > 2B > 623B > 2363214C?

The second part of Noel's ground super is guaranteed if the gun barrel impacts the opponent at the start, otherwise it stops early.

What do you mean "refreshes itself?" If you mean do you get more nails? No, likely you just used the umbrella with many nails left, the number of hits ranges from 19 to 116 with nails from 0 to 12. If you mean that the combo resets, then yes, the number of hits from the nail super will make your opponent autotech and restart, unless they block. In which case they can either burst or dead angle, or eat and unblockable final hit.

It really depends on your opponent. Pro players are always ready to break grabs but may screw up, decent players might be able to react in time, and scrubs you can just roll around all day with run up dp grab. Considering the potential damage gain of the grab vs the meager amount from the palm strike, it may well be worth it, but as I said, good players aren't gonna fall for it much. You also give up Oki if they break it.

In my experience, the best nails to damage ratio for both setups falls in the 2-5 nail range for maximum efficiency. Any more and the grab combo reaches maximum proration with nearly 60 left to go, ceasing to deal any damage, and the opponent can tech out of the 6D super combo after around 25 hits which is accomplished with 1 spare nail, more are just beneficial for setups and pressure. If your opponent has already burst and you land the 6D combo, on many characters, not Rachel I am certain, you can follow up the umbrella with a dash super which should initiate, then they can tech and block. If this happens, the last hit of the super becomes unblockable and deals 3.35k without frkz and 4.2k? while frkz is active. This is burstable however, so this loses effectiveness against those not in the danger state. Dead angles are another method of escape so just be aware of your opponents skill level and meter.

In Fuurinkazan, 6D (CH) > 214214B will combo and deal around 3k-5k depending on nails left and character you are fighting. Seems to work with a non-CH 6D but timing is a lot more strict. Might be more worthwhile to just dash super but it you have enough nails, the super will auto reset and give a nice pressure setup. As the combo continues your enemy is pulled out of the corner and up which can be tech punished by waiting then 8-dash> 623C which puts them back into the nail rain. Also, if you happen to have 100 meter and land an aerial command grab, if you RC the last hit and promptly steel rain super, it will add 1-1.6k, from a straight command grab does a max of 5883 from proration and average around 5300 on most characters. Not great damage for 100 meter, but can be a decent finisher. I have won several ranked matches using this as I spend a lot of time running around at low health while in FRKZ. Just a very special tool for your belt I guess.

As an effort to prevent infinites and full life combos, after around 60 hits the proration automatically is set to about 1 damage per hit regardless of the attack I believe.

Just figured out that you can combo most characters into steel rain while in Fuurinkazan off any ground D counter hit, but works best in the corner off of a 6D CH. They will begin to climb into the air so I like to j.D and j.C after they tech out of the top, it kinda pushes them back down into the top of the umbrella for max hits, and while in FRKZ you can get maybe 3-4 j.D in you do it just right. Tested it on Jin, Ragna, Rachel, Tager, Litchi, and Nu. If you have 100 meter you can RC the first hits of the super to jump and repeatedly j.D even faster which lets them tech inside the super for guaranteed block or CH and punish. Also, I tested double jump command grab right as they hit the top of the umbrella, it catches them at the end of their tech invincibility and sends them back down into the rain. From my testing, the first part of the setup does anywhere from 3k to 5.5k depending on the character and how many nails you have left. If they tech and dont block, continuing the reps of j.D can deal massive damage. In one session, I managed to kill Ragna from full life in training mode by 6D(CH) in the corner with a buffered 214214B before the 6D hits then j.D reps. Against people i would trade an 8 air dash for a 6 to cross them up in the air and continue with j.D. So, yeah, I would say the best use for this is for a combo and followup pressure in the corner while in FRKZ or with 100 meter and 12 nails, unblockable setup.

Hm, if you JC, will you always actually jump? I often do the followup while standing and I don't think I am hitting 9 first.