Blackgenma

HN tapuu does not use get out of here (often anyway), and he's the best paradigm user I've ever seen. he fills his inventory with other stuff like mouth zipper and dispel. if he does buy the thing, it's later in the match, meaning he does not rely on the move. but I'm not the best paradigm user I have ever seen and I use it because I suck. I only do it to pick up mofos I've drop on the ground. using it on a standing opponent is VERY risky since you have to be so close, and I have never once used it successfully against a standing opponent. it's also good to use on some servants you want to kill faster that you knocked down. most servants that aren't a elite armor can be thrown with the skill what I always do is pick them up after a roll, or do the only freaking combo that I do with paradigm without using assistant Bonnie. (L) x, x, x, MC, forward step, 2x. you need to input this fast as hell in order for it to be unblock-able. and if they avoid a knock down, no free throw for you. apples and (L) 2x pokes work too. my guide has some solid tips for fighting with paradigm. it gives you pretty much all the essentials. you just need to work your game off from there. just rely on good set ups with your gate gunner if you don't want to spend inventory space on get out of here, and work from there. as for winning with Sol, the best method of winning with him is the fastest method you can come up with. if that means going to the enemy master ghost with a S-drive and going bananas on it, than that's what you do. Kimera's Sol gameplay is freaking amazing though, he's so strategic. damn, I gotta make that video topic again. EDIT: heavy feet kicks ass. I see no reason not to use it. mouth zipper and rapid fire too.

oh, so it does work. well, I tend to unleash bandit revolver when I feel that the opponent thinks they are safely outside of Sol's reach (and thus are in a false sense of security somewhat). it's hard to describe how I feel when it's the right time to let a bandit revolver fly, but I do it when they are in a position to only get hit by the second move, unless I short dash into it. you'd be surprised how many times I catch people with bandit revolver in this fashion. though, when I miss the technique the first time, I have to wait a while before I pull something like that again, otherwise I will get predictable, and they will side step. a lot of players tend not to expect a lone bandit revolver. EDIT: also, bandit revolver goes over some projectiles, like Ky's stun edge, and Sin's beak driver. another reason why's it's useful to move in at the right time. on an unrelated note, if this game had a tier list, I think Sol would be squarely at the bottom of it. I'm not sure about anyone else though. he's the only character who was constantly improved through the updates, while everyone else was always getting toned down. not giving him a low-level anti armor unit was a fucking stupid Idea. even so, this game is surprisingly balanced. good Sol players win lots of battles. Sol is deceiving, he seems like a beginner friendly character, but thats not really the case; on closer examination, he's more along the lines of an advanced character. I can't tell you how much easier it is to win with the likes of Ky than it is with Sol. your units actually do stuff that doesn't involve dying.

currently having an issue with editing a post in the guilty room. won't process the edit. strange. I have tested it out on a separate post of mine right here on this thread and got the same result. Edit: it works now, please disregard.

Isuka isn't so bad that you can't have fun with it. I mess around with it time to time and fight level 999 computers in a 4 player free for all. it's clunky thanks to the turn button, but there's some entertainment to be had with the game. it's the only 2d fighter of it's kind. and yeah, the boss is ass.

Did you guys know if you MC the second hit of a bandit revolver, if the first hit didn't make contact, you can continue to combo? in other words, it behaves like Ky's stun dipper. you can use it to move in, and combo someone. either that of it must have been my imagination. will test validity of this.

4r5 is pretty much right on the money. Isuka does not make a good party game unless everyone in the room is familiar and knows how to play GG. party games are supposed to be simplistic, and Isuka is pretty complicated, if anything, you'll just frustrate those your playing with. I don't know too many people who'd enjoy button mashing in that game due to it's format. I played the game with someone who plays GG and he's was like "WTF is going on"? but Isuka is pretty cheap now, so even if you do get, you wont be losing much.

aedesyr, if you thought you died fast against me when you played as valentine, your in for a surprise if you use paradigm. not to mention I know paradigm pretty well, since I sub him, and have plenty of experiance fighting decent ones online. I saw this cool replay of guilty blood vs HN tappu, both paradigm, on ganymeade. it was super awkward, but it was pretty cool too. of coarse HN Tappu won. but regardless, we must have a paradigm vs paradigm battle. we must. WE MUST.

Panda, when you get the money for this game, I got dibs on you. we need to do some SERIOUS training. (on the weekends...sigh) than I will turn around and CRUSH AEDESYR as a show of affection to him afterwards. (and it will be in servant battles no less!) you guys who will participate in this "night of shananigans", we should do some 1 on 1's if anyone is interested. get in a little serious competition before we bullshit around. (if I can even be there...damn my social life! stop interfering with GG2!)

I'll try. I hope I can be on. EDIT: goddammit, I'm collecting videos for my new GG2 video thread, but it seems like some of the old videos....lost quality or something. I don't know, it's hard to explain, but videos that where once clear are now...fuzzy, with shit quality. I not sure whether it's the computer I'm using at the moment or not (currently using a public computer), but this is making collecting the videos a pain in the ass. I don't know why nicovideo gets wonky like this. but the old GG2 video thread will be back regardless. it'll take a while, but it'll be back. for my personal reference: Nocturnal Rites combo video. http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm8044588 featuring Sol, Sin, Izuna and Ky. inputs for Sol (L) x, x, x, 8x, 2y, y. 7 hits, 279 damage. the guy didn't Modern cancel the 8x into the 2y. (L) x, 2x, 6x, 2x, j, y, (land) 8y. 8 hits, 202 damage. (L) x, x, j, 8x, MC, air dash, x, (land), x, x, MC, (F) x, x, (L), x, x. 10 hits, 264 damage. the guy locked of after the 2nd MC and locked on mid free combo, so the combo remained a free combo even after locking on. (L) x, 2x, 4x, (right side step) x, 4x, (right side step) x, 4x, (right side step) (L trigger) 4x, (L) x, 2y. 11 hits, 266 damage. the vid cuts off early, so I could be off about it. (L) 2x, 8y, (forward step) x, x, (left side step) 2x, (right step) 2x, (left side step) 2x, (right side step) 2x, 2y. 10 hit, 348 damage. cuts to Sin, Izuna and Ky combos. Ex Sol combos (L) x, x, x, 8x, 2y, *MC, 2x, (right side step), 2x, left side step, 2x, j, x, 8x, 11 hits, 350 damage. *MC so Sol never leaves the ground. (L) x, x, j, 8x, (MC) (air dash), x, (land) x, x, x, (step forward) x, x, (left side step) 2x, (left side step) 2x, (left side step) 2x, (right side step) 2x, (left side step) 2x, 2y. 16 hit, 404 damage. (L) 4x, 2x, MC, 2x, 2y, (land), x, x, x, 8y. 9 hits, 321 damage. I plan to post up the Sin combos again (that I posted up in the video thread, which is sadly lost) AND the Izuna combos on the video.

be my guest.

Raven Basics Guide Raven is a downloadable character available for purchase for 400 Microsoft points. He offers a different style of master combat, and shares the same units as valentine, but has different personal skills, and fights vastly different. Since he has Valentine’s servants, I will only cover his master abilities. For his servants, check out the valentine guide. First I’ll start with his personal skills, he has 4 of them, 2 for masters, one for attacking servants, and a minion. His not there skill is a teleportation that teleports behind the locked on target, if you press x while doing it, you will do a unblock-able 6x kick. It can be dodged a verity of ways, so use it to punish for the best results. If it hits, free air combo for you. The next skill is a slowdown spell. It will slowdown the movement dramatically on the target that is locked on. It takes a while to use and can be interrupted easily, but it has long range, so do it at a distance. The opponent can still run away if you’re too far, and if you fight another Raven and he pulls this on you, your better off running if you can, a dispel will clear it up though. Slow fields are the next Skill, and it's primarily for wiping out servants. They make servants slow, and have the same status effect as Raven's magic elite. You can control the way raven throws the two needles with a direction and the l trigger. L trigger and hold back so Raven can throw them split apart, for large crowds. This is a helpful skill to help take servants. Raven's minion, the little Bird, is a weak minion, but, thanks to Suzaku's translation skills, I have found out that it steals tension form enemy masters. How annoying, that's just like raven to do something like that to you. I need to test how effective the thing is, but its purpose is to steal tension from enemy masters and serves as a distraction for servants,. It's a mobile type minion, but it does such little damage and dies so quickly, I don't think it matters what type of unit this thing is. Now for Raven’s fighting style. Raven has a distinct style in master combat, and doesn't have too much flexibility on how he should be played in that regard, but he has answers for most situations he's in. When playing Raven, he has very short range, and thus most not approach the opponents carelessly, or he will get snuffed. So the best way to attack is to punish and counter attack, and when in close range, smack the some (L) x, x and usually finish with a 4x without Modern Cancel (MC). His (L) 4x and 6x can be used to stop side steps, the (L) 6x will launch the opponent, can hit grounded enemies, but cannot be combo'd into from (L) x, x on masters without MC, or they will block. I think you can possibly pull an air combo off from (L) 6x with a MC. when you see an opportunity, like to punish a whiffed attack, move in with a (L) 8x, into x, x standard combo. DO NOT spam 8x, it is not safe on block, once blocked, the opponent can side step and punish. His (L) 2x is a launcher that has some invincibility, but has VERY short range, use it as a planned counter if you can, than jump into a air combo, no MC needed. His (L) 8x in the air is decent for punishing and moving in, and can be MC into his standard (L) 8x, x, x combo. Raven's power attack ((F) 8x) is decent for crowd control, and breaks guard. Standard combo for Raven I use. (L) 8x, x, x, 4x, MC, 8x, x, x, 6x. All of Raven's special moves are needle-like projectiles. Y is a anti air, and launching projectile with decent range, it has some (short) startup time, but interestingly enough, even is Raven is interrupted mid way of starting animation, the attack will still come out, unlike his (L) 8y. if you MC the y special, you can follow up with an air combo. It can be side stepped. (L) 8y is a standard projectile, has startup time and recovery time. When the projectile actually comes out, it's pretty fast, and does a little over 100 damage when it comes out, and has good range. Use it to poke and punish when you see an opportunity, like sneaking up on an unsuspecting master. You can actually MC into another (L) 8y, so if your close enough, and you have the tension to spare, smack the opponent with another one. On an odd note, if you are as close as can be when you shoot this projectile, the projectile will miss the opponent, not that you should ever be that close when you shoot the thing. it can be interrupted and punished if jumped over, and it isn’t hard to side step if seen coming. The third special move he has is his (L) 4y and 6y, three needles attacking his left and right respectfully. They are primarily to punish side steps it can also offer up some limited and weak crowd control. It can be MC into other (L) 4x and 6x no problem. His mid air y special attack is a projectile that shifts its aim to its target. It can be used to punish, and to end air combos. Like the other projectiles, it can be MC into another air Y, so if they are in the air, hit the opponent with two (or three?) of these for extra damage. Raven's overdrive has short range, and cannot kill a opponent with full health (does about 400 damage). It hits all around him, and hit's opponents above him. If you want to catch some one with this, hit them with a (L) 2x before hand, and combo into it. There we have it folks. Raven is a character with a strong master and reliable servants. His fighting style is close ranged, and is good at pressuring and punishing, but his options are not the most diverse and he’s bad at crowd control. Overall, he is one of the easiest characters to play and perhaps one of the simplest. He's worth the 400 Microsoft points in my opinion, because he’s pretty fun and effective to play. END GUIDE

Ky Kiske Basics Guide Ky is unlocked by beating the game's campaign mode on any difficulty. He has the same servants as Sin, but he has different personal skills and drastically different style of master combat. He also is the only master who does not have a minion. I will not cover his servants, for information on them, check out Sin's guide. When it comes to master combat, Ky's a very technical character, who has a large and confusing mix up game unless your opponent is familiar with the character and his move list themselves. Despite his complexity, he's really no better than the other characters, he relies on stringing together long combos, and most do not require him to use tension. There are moves that can be blocked when stringed together, so he's not as good as he may seem, but he's not a bad character either. Ky has a series of pretty much endless attacks, but they work under certain circumstances usually. So example, his (L) x, x, x, x can be blocked after the first hit, EVEN IF THE FIRST HIT CONNECTED. I know, odd isn't it? So how do you make it work? Turn it into a (L) x, 2x, x, x. the 2x, what I like to call the magic grab, is what makes most combo strings work on hit for Ky. and if the guy blocks? He can side step right out after the first (L) x. so what do you do than? Well you can hit him with a 6x or a 4x, depending on what side he will side step to avoid the magic grab. You can also try coming in with different moves, like 6x for example, to throw your opponent off guard instead of the plain old (L) x, or (L) 2x. K has decent mix up game. I don't like Ky's (L) 8x, it can't really be combo'd into anything, and it isn't that fast. (L) 2x can be used as a hit confirm, or be made into a small combo that goes to Vapor thrust. (L) 2x, x, 2y. To use it as a pole and hit confirm, get REAL close to the guy, hit him with it, and wait for a bit, and combo into the standard (L) x into whatever. The combo I always use when I get a clean hit is (L) x, 2x, 4x, 6x, 2x, charged stun edge, or a j, x, x, x, combo at the end instead of the Charge stun edge. The second 2x is Ky launcher. When the first hit of your combo is blocked, don't do the magic grab; follow up with something else or back off. Take advantage of Ky's mix up. His vapor thrust is a decent special move, it can be combo'd into easily, and can be used to counter the opponent's combo on block, mid combo. It’s really just like a volcanic viper, only worse. It has less range, less damage, and can't be done in the air. Not as reliable as volcanic viper as a reversal (counter) either, but its there, so take advantage of it. Stun edge is a quick projectile, it's pretty good overall, since it comes out so fast, it can catch enemy masers off guard and use it for your mix up game. Make good use of it. The aerial version kind of stinks though, I don't recommend using it. Stun dipper can be used in combos as a finisher and can catch opponents at a distance. It can also be used mid combo by canceling the first hit, but I don’t know any combo’s using the move myself. Holy brand is a decent crowd control tool, but it's very hard to use otherwise. If your going to hit a master with it, you need to predict when and where the enemy master will sidestep. It can use in combos, and the properties of the move will change slightly when using the L trigger (L trigger side step, holy brand towards the opponent is how it’s used in combos). Honesty though, it's very hard to use this move on masters effectively on a consistent basis out side of combos. Special skills! His charged stun edge is a fantastic move in combos and killing servants, and it doesn't cost a lot of tension. Use it. The Soul diver (I think that's what it's called) is a defense buff for your units, it activates very quickly, knock back any opponents that are near by, is cheap in mana cost, and tension, and your nearby units get knock back resistance, like Sol's crimson Jackets, only Ky doesn't get buffed. I like using this skill; you don't really lose anything by applying it often to advancing forces as often as possible. His other skill, divine gaze, is a healing spell that also adds experience to your units, with no benefit to Ky himself. It cast a lot of mana to buy (220 I think), takes forever to actually cast (5 seconds?), the radius around Ky that the spell effects is very small, the amount it heals is tiny, and only adds about half a level worth of experience for the units. To top it all off, it has a very long charge time. Don’t use it, it's terrible. Overall, Ky is a pretty good character, he's got reliable servants, every class of unit available to him, has a unique and tricky (but difficult to master) combat style, and can buff his unit defense up. Not a bad character at all. END OF GUIDE

Valentine Basics Guide Valentine is a difficult master to play as; she excels at mid range combat, as she has a variety of effective projectiles, and as powerful servants to back her up and act as a shield to protect her. She is however, pretty bad at close range, and although she can fend for herself close up, she isn’t as dangerous as other masters in the game, this is also evident with her 460 health, and her generally low damage output. She’s great at killing servants, and has powerful crowd control, but with her shortcomings as a master, she’s a potentially easy kill. Her servants are very strong, and are the primary muscle of the character, unlike a Sol. The Valentine’s tribe is around the second strongest in the game after Paradigm's, but works nothing like any of the others. Having only one of the low-level basic unit types, they have to make heavy use of support troops to have any chance against most armies. It can be summed up that this tribe’s has unbalanced servant types, but the individual abilities of each servant are excellent. This tribe is reliant on its elite servants more than the majority of the tribes, and the order in which the servants are contracted is very important. Raven shares this tribe. Candy is the tribe’s excellent melee unit, having more special abilities than any other in the game, all of them useful, and increasing their survivability, making them one of the better defensive units. These are the only low class basic servant that this tribe has, so your going to need to supplement the with the proper amount of support units early. The lower their health is, the more damage they do. These units have the highest attack damage amongst the standard melee units, and move across the map rather quickly for a melee. They are also extremely aggressive, making them annoying to fight in droves. Gateau Skin is the tribe’s range unit. There’s really nothing that special about Gateaus, it does have a special attack that will strike any nearby enemies one recovery from a fall, which does nice damage. Not very impressive compared to, say, Twin Triggers, but as ranged units can tear up melees, you'll need these guys right away to get yourself the advantage in troops early in the game. They are available from the start, no need to contract them. Professor Blancmange is the magic unit of the tribe; you'll need to unlock these guys right away against most opponents, as they're your only counter to armors, which will smash your army otherwise. This alone means you'll make very heavy use of these guys most of the time. Their ability to slow enemies really wrecks armors, as they likely won't reach the professors before being torn up by magic attacks... if you have enough professors to do the job. Their slow spell can be a big help when facing masters. Charlotte is the tribes elite armor unit, and the only armor unit in the tribe. This is a reliable unit, being annoying to kill, faster than most armors, and even though nowhere near as deadly as Bonebiter, still an enormous pain to fight against in a group. Getting rid of Charlotte usually requires the enemy Master taking care of it in person... and with Charlotte's low cost, it will be back soon even if they do. Charlotte has low damage out put for armor, and regains a minute amount of health when it hits an enemy. It’s wide swing attacks cannot be interrupted. When it is alone, don’t be surprised if the enemy master takes it out rather quickly, it can be easy to handle alone, even DR. paradigm can destroy this guy one on one no problem if the opponent if familiar with handling these. Mille-feuille is an elite mobile, and the tribe’s only mobile unit, Mille is the most costly unit you get, and is very worth it. Once you have him unlocked, your Master should carry Mille at all times, immediately tossing him into any fight you run across. His summoning of really nasty mobile minions is invaluable, as if it uses his summon near any dead servants, his minions will be able to teleport and cause long stuns, as well as staying even if you pick Mille back up. As a bodyguard elite, Mille might only be matched by Heaven's Libra. Éclair is your elite ranged might be the least useful of your elites, but is the hardest-to-kill ranged servant in the game. Éclair fires basic shots fairly slowly, but they have an extreme range and great tracking. Also, its high HP is complemented by a defensive retreat it uses on occasion when forced into melee range. When ordered to head to a Ghost, it fires shots that reach from an insane distance to the Ghost, but it uses that skill rarely enough that you shouldn't count on capping anything by surprise. This thing absolutely destroys magic units by the way, can kill Heaven’s Libra before it even thinks of putting down its staff. Miss Tiramisu is An Elite Magic. Can be a very annoying unit in the game to fight against, as her basic attack is a huge ball of energy, and she has the unique ability to keep units from being able to attack at all with a curse. Unfortunately, she doesn't always use this on the enemy Master when she has the chance. Her basic attack makes her devastating to armors, and that alone is likely to make her a necessity not long into a match. Master Abilities Valentine has 460 health, is the only character who can double jump, and her air dash goes further than anyone else’s. Her start up for her blast drive is the slowest in the game. I’ll cover her personal skills first Brownie is her Minion. It’s an armor unit that follows Valentine and gets in the way of attackers. They will counter attack what hits them. They’re Very helpful for valentine. Zest is an attack where her balloon blows up, takes a good amount of tension. I've seen this used at the end of 8x loops and combos. It’s also good for old fashion crowd control. Bye Bye is a teleport skill that takes you to your masterghost; you can escape a fight easier that way. It’s a cheap skill, handy for getting away if you feel the need I suppose, since her blast drive start up is so slow. Valentine fighting style is composed of very close range melee attacks with some quick and varied projectiles. She works best by playing defensively, unlike Sol; she should spread her units out slowly and stay with them as a lead. Her melees back her up very well, and she can sit back and blast away with her projectiles until the enemy manages to come close, where she can attack with her melee strikes. The standard (L) x, x, x, combo isn't bad, but the first strike has very short range. On the third hit, she will jump, so you can MC it and hit them with a 8x for more damage. I'm unsure whether you can enter the 8x loop with the combo though. (L) 4x doesn't have the range that the (L) x second strike has, but it goes into her launcher, where you can strike the enemy a few times, and finish off with the 8x loop, hit the opponent with 8x, and the second valentine touches the floor, jump again and repeat as much as possible. This is her biggest source of damage. she can also finish some of these combos from this attack with zest. An example. (L) 4x, x, x, 8x (zest) (L) x, x, x, MC, 4x, x, x, 8x, (land) (left step) 4x, x, *x, x, 8x, (zest) (L) 6 x is where she spins Lucifer. A good move to do on servants, as you can charge the move by hitting x rapidly, which will hurt anyone the swing will hit. Stop pressing x and aim, valentine will unleash a heavy strike that can't be blocked. Not bad for masters thanks to it's range, but if the block and side step, make sure you MC the move to be safe. (L) 2x is to stop side stepping mostly, but can be used as a roundabout way to attack. Try sidestepping to either direction and use this. if you hit twice in a row, you will dizzy the opponent. I' suggest using the L trigger if you are going to use it from a side step, and once you hit, MC and do it again to stun. Her 8x on the ground is heavy hitting and good for attacking servants. I'm not too sure about attacking masters though, there’s not much you can follow up with it. Good for knocking them back. Here’s a combo utilizing this move. (L) 8x, MC, 8y short and sweet. Her hard attack sweeps and breaks guard. It’s great for crowd control and for mixing it up against masters. You can combo from this move as well with a jump x. Her aerial x combo is very good, extremely reliable, and can go into 8x loops. She has 4 projectiles, y which is weak and straight, 2y, which are two shots from the left and right, good for mix up and hiding behind a ghost. 8y is a heavy and strong projectile with start up time, great for servants and r short running masters, or for sneak attacks. Don’t spit this one out randomly; you can be punished for it. All of Valentine’s projectiles can be jumped over, so keep that in mind. Her air Y is a series of shots with splash damage. Great for servant crowd control, and not bad to whip out on masters every once and a while you see them get careless. Even if you miss the shot initially, she will slowly follow her target. That’s all, she's a tricky but reliable character, her units are very annoying, and help her out greatly. Though she weaker than the majority of the masters, she’s not as weak as Paradigm, who has almost no combos. Just beware of her shortcomings and cover your vulnerabilities. Her servants are good but their types are unbalanced, so be sure to know what you are doing with them, she relies on them more than Raven, as she is not as good at close range fighting as he is. End of Guide

Dr. Paradigm Basics Guide Dr. Paradigm is about the hardest character to play as. He’s the worst master when it comes to master battles, has no air dash, 450 health, and cannot deal big damage easily, and is restrictive in his almost nonexistent combo game. Even with all these faults, he is a VERY dangerous character, and he is ironically one of the best characters when it comes to crowd control. His theme is the exact opposite of Sol, weak master, but strong, reliable, balanced and relatively inexpensive Servants, and useful personal skills. Paradigm has three normal servants, and four elites, his normal servants are the frogs (melee) the dogs (mobile) and the turtles (armors). Notice something? He doesn’t have support types, only the three standard types of servants. He’s the only character who has this arrangement. This is a benefit to paradigm though, less troops to purchase, and truth be told, he doesn’t really need support types, because they are only there to support the standard servants. Because he has all the standard servants types, he has no weakness like Sol and Valentine, who both have unbalanced servant units. At the beginning of the match, he’s the only master who can have four groups of servant s out right away, and his Mobile units are available from the get go. The frogs are quick, annoying, and dependable for Melee units. There really isn’t any problem with this unit, and is perfectly fine to spam this unit similar to Sol Badguy and his rush tactics. It helps that the unit is pretty cheap overall in it’s cost for mana. Bowers are available from the start, and are a pretty fast mobile unit. They can help in the capture of ghost thanks to they’re speed, and can be annoying to face for masters in large crowds. These guys can be used as quick master ghost defense, because they are cheap, fast and aggressive. Thanks to this guy, armors won’t be a problem for you to take down. They are strangely units that don’t speak to you updating their status, they only bark, so you actually need to read what they say to see what’s going on with them. The last normal unit he has is his turtles, which in all honesty, aren’t that great for armors. They are slow and un-aggressive; their attacks aren’t very deadly, and are not very hard for masters to take down, but that doesn’t mean they are useless. The turtles have high defense, and they don’t have a problem with facing a large number of units thanks to their rolling attacks. They are also good for taking down servants that are weak against armors, they just aren’t shining examples of how good armors can be, similar to Sol’s drills and their poor performance as a melee unit that can barely fulfill it’s job. On an unrelated note, they have the funniest/most annoying English voice for a unit in the game. “The enemy’s weeeaaak.” Paradigm’s Elite units are all useful, but some are better than others. He has Leonard (melee) Bone Bitter (Armor) dual horn and spirit seeker (magic types). His Leonard packs a punch, and adds to the overall effectiveness to a group of servants, but can be easily destroyed by an enemy master who is familiar with it. It’s not a bad unit at all, and is very useful to carry around with paradigm, because its damage out put is not something masters can ignore, and if they are careless, the Leonard can easily kill them. It’s just that Paradigm’s other elites can be more effective. I’ve heard that it also does well defending the master ghost, so you can try that out. If you don’t want to use it as a defensive unit, there’s no problem using it to help push across the map. It can be really deadly in a group where the master cannot focus on the unit itself, just be aware the enemy master could set his sights on the unit and kill it. The Bone Bitter dragon is one of the best elite armors in the game. It is with out a doubt one of the first things you should bring out whenever possible. It moves across the map at an acceptable speed, has great crowd control, can poison enemies, and lower their attack power. It doesn’t require a huge amount of tension to summon either, considering how helpful the unit is. When low on health, it will eat nearby frog units for health, so pair it up with them. It isn’t invincible or unstoppable by any means of coarse; so don’t fool-heartedly throw it into a bunch of mobile units supported by magics. Dual horn is a turtle that is very annoying for enemies to deal with. It’s freezes targets, and those targets really can’t do anything about it. This is another Ideal elite unit to carry around for back up thanks to its freeze. It also shoots ice attacks at enemies as well. It’s great for sending it with other troops as extra muscle. Can be used however you see fit, similar to pretty much any of Paradigm’s elites Lastly is the Elite Spirit Seeker. It’s a magic unit; it can turn capture units into ammunition for a long cannon attack, and can release little dogs as minions. The capture cannon it has is an interesting feature, it’s a very long-range attack, and with it, it can attack enemies who are stationed at ghosts adjacent to one where it is placed, it hits pretty much everything stationed at the targeted ghost. So can essentially use it as a long-range support unit, helping with defense or aggressive assaults by staying at a ghost alone positioned next to ghost you want it to defend or help attack. If assaulted, it will release bower jr. minions to protect itself. The capture cannon uses capture units for ammunition. A very unique unit. Dr. Paradigm’s personal skills are extremely useful. His stratagem is a godsend, making all his units on the field, including himself travel MUCH faster. It’s the probably the first skill you want to buy, and you want to buy it early. Paradigm doesn’t really need the skill, but it makes him even more dangerous and effective with his troops. When ever I have this thing on and blast drive, I always crash into stuff, so be aware that paradigm’s a little harder to steer in blast drive while going super fast. Get Out of Here is an attack personal skill for paradigm, and a very powerful and useful one at that. It’s the game’s one and only grab attack. It’s unblock-able, does good damage, works for all enemies that can be picked up by masters, and can pick enemies off the ground. You must be VERY close to grab with this attack so be aware and try not to miss. You can actually do combos with this thing, so if you are skilled with the personal skill, it’s worth investing in. Aegis field is a force field that surrounds paradigm and nearby units, increases their defense, while the barrier itself is protected against projectiles. I have almost never seen the better players use this skill, paradigm has better things to shove in his Item slot, but that doesn’t mean it’s a useless skill, just a bit situational. I can only recommend you use it at the enemy master ghost, or during an intense servant battle, with enemy magic or ranged in the vicinity. Paradigm dies fast enough with out a defense reduction, so don’t be too quick to brush this technique off due to it’s situational uses. Gate Gunner is Dr. Paradigm’s personal minion; it’s a ranged unit. It can increase the attack power of nearby units, and stay in one spot and shoots enemies and ghost. It’s a very helpful unit, providing Paradigm with some much-needed backup in fights and letting him have temporary control over ghosts, it also has a short item charge time. It’s either the first or the second skill you should purchase, depending on how you see fit, definitely something you want if enemy masters are giving you a hard time. It allows you to make openings for apple drops and assistant Bonnie traps. Master Abilities There’s no two ways around it. Just like Sol is lacking in servant strength, Dr. Paradigm lacks in master strength. This does not mean that Paradigm is just a punching bag, far from it, but he definitely is at a disadvantage against every other master in the game. You need to be aware of everything Dr. paradigm can do, and use his tools to the fullest. His (L) x is a very good poke, capable of snuffing incoming opponents, and has respectable speed and range. He can follow up with the standard (L) x, x, x combo if he gets a clean hit. In the (L) x, x, x combo, I believe the second hit give the opponents a minor slow status effect, and the magic circle in the end give them a oil barrel status effect, which I’ll get into later. Even though his first two attacks on the combo have good range, the last attack is relatively close ranged, and thus, will not always hit. Learn to recognize when the last hit will not reach, so not to leave your self open and whiff it. You must keep in mind that his standard (L) x, x, x, combo is NOT safe on block, it can be side stepped right after the first hit, and paradigm sure takes his time with that magic circle attack, so he will most likely get hit if you spam the combo on block. There are some options you have when it comes to dealing with a blocked (L) x. The best option would probably be to simply back off once it’s blocked, but there are other alternatives. If your certain of the direction the opponent will try to side step, try either a (L) 4x, or 6x after the first hit to catch them. The (L) 4x, and 6x have different properties; the 4x attacks opponents to Paradigm’s left and front, is very short range, and will blow the opponent away from you. His 6x hits opponents from behind, his right, and in front of him, and takes it’s time completing it self, whereas the 4x comes out much quicker. The 6x doesn’t launch the opponent away from you on hit, and your allowed to continue the combo with a magic circle. When moving in, you can use (L) 4x or 6x for mix up and to stop sidesteps out right, the 6x can go into a combo, but the 4x will launch the opponent away. Decide which direction the opponent is likely to side step and chose the appropriate attack. Personally, I think you should use 6x often, and 4x for when you feel it can score you a hit, and some breathing room; use these moves in your master game often and you’ll get good results. (L) 2x is a magic circle with slightly different properties. It has great range (including horizontal and vertical range, so you can even hit someone in the air with it), and is actually a better strike than the circle that comes out at the end of the (L) x, x, x, combo. Beside coming right out without a combo, it can also know down your opponent, potentially giving you the opportunity to run, set up an assistant bonnie trap, or pick them up with the Get Out of Here throw skill. Use the (L) 2x when opponents are moving in, when you’re right outside striking melee range. The circle takes a little time to come out though, so do it ahead of time. Paradigm’s (L) 2x is a vital tool; so don’t let it go to waste by never utilizing it. His aerial x is a little shockwave type thing that comes out of his bubble, use it to counter attack and keep master off. If they block, just modern cancel and do it again, or MC and land with reduce recovery time. Not the best attack, but its something. (L) 8x is his apple drop attack; it’s great for taking down servants, especially elites from a distance. You can occasionally catch masters with it when they whiff or do something stupid and punish them, or keep them at bay from a safe distance where they can’t retaliate. The best time to hit them with it is when they are distracted by other units. It isn’t a good attack to spam due to how long the attack takes to come out, and the recovery time afterwards. The attack can be done in the air too, when it’s preformed, paradigm stays in the air for the duration of the attack. Try using it as a ranged aerial counter attack, great for countering projectiles. Use the move in conjunction with the L trigger (parallel movement button) and Paradigm will drop the apple directly in front of him, instead of where the opponent is. Use this to catch people with the apple where you predict where they will move (as opposed to where they currently are) and drop it on them. Mix it with the lock on apple to trick your opponents. Although it is not a move you should do often, try stepping forward towards an opponents in their face, and shoot an apple, they might step back in order to avoid what they think is a (L) x strike or a grab, and they will jump back directly into the apple. Paradigm’s hard attack is a roll, performed by pressing 8x in free mode. His roll is fast, covers a lot of distance, has good crowd control, good priority and is a viable tool for escaping. It cannot break block like other hard attacks, and it is not safe on block, so you shouldn’t become overly predictable with it. You can try MC it on block to protect yourself, and even try a grab on the opponent right after. A nice tactic is to walk away from an opponent, and to charge with this attack when they move in. It’s a great move to use. Assistant Bonnie is Paradigm’s main special attack; it’s kind of like his signature technique. With assistant Bonnie, you place a bomb down according to where Paradigm is facing and the direction you point the analog. 2y to place it right in front of you, 5y to have it a way ahead of you 8y to have it far from you etcetera. Than you place down the “trigger” for the bomb in a similar fashion. The “trigger” is a green projectile that goes towards the bomb, hitting anything it touches, and pushes them towards the bomb. When it makes contact with the bomb, it will blow up, hitting anything nearby with unblock-able damage. This move is the ultimate crowd control move in the game that isn’t a overdrive when combined with the “oil drum” status effect. Certain moves, such as the magic circle moves, give targets a status effect of an oil drum, where they will increase the size and damage of the explosion of a bomb when they get hit with the bomb’s explosion. You can take out entire armies with this move, it AWESOME. You can cross up enemy masters taking advantage of the trigger’s attributes and pushing properties. Even if the trigger is blocked, it will still push the master towards the bomb, and eventually pass through them. The best way to use it against masters is to place the bomb next to you. Even without you summoning the trigger, the bomb will eventually explode, so it is a decent form of insurance, even if the opponent doesn’t give you an opportunity to use the trigger. With the bomb next to you, shoot the trigger behind the opponent, it will come to the bomb, and they won’t be able to block it, and get dragged into the explosion. If they have the oil drum on them, more damage for you. It can also work with the bomb and trigger switching places, but it is less likely to work. If you do manage to hit the enemy master with the bomb from behind or a good distance away, you can finish off the blast with an apple drop, remember to keep in mind that they might try to circle or side step the trigger, so you can benefit from placing the trigger to the side to mix it up and be less predictable. Same as the apple drop, your best chance to hit with this is when the enemy is focused one other targets. Dr. Paradigm’s aerial Y is a strange green projectile. It throws itself at whatever you lock on, and does splash damage, as well as distributing the oil drum status effect. The range on the move is pretty good, and Dr. Paradigm stays in he air for the duration of the attack. Combine this with Assistant Bonnie to annihilate servants, and unlucky masters who manage to get hit by it. Dr. paradigm had a unique aerial special attack, is 8y in the air. He does an aerial version of his roll. It’s great as a counter and as an escape, like the ground version, it knocks down opponents on hit, but unlike the ground version, it requires tension. Good for escaping and for countering whiff attacks you jump over (must be done as quickly as possible for that purpose) Paradigm’s overdrive is summoning a powerful magic Elite unit, called Kokopelli summon. It’s very strong, and a great tool for many situations, like at an enemy master ghost for example. It can be damaged by dispel, but it won’t kill it from that alone. I’ll leave you with a paradigm Combo. (L) x, x, x, MC (forward step) 2x, (step forward) (Get Out of Here) Last thing to remember about master combat, is to fight around your units and don’t be afraid to run away. Items are your friend, especially with this guy, so buy them and use them well. Be wary of strategies designed to go after Dr. Paradigm continually, it’s pretty much Sol’s best chance to beat Dr. Paradigm, and it’s not something to ignore. Dr. Paradigm can’t compete with the rest of the cast in master combat, but even with his 450 health and no air dash, he can still manage is own. His Servant play is pretty much unmatched, his crowd control is fantastic, and his personal skills are great. Get really good with operating the organ and using your troops, and master the art of combat and all of his tools, and your looking at one of the game’s most effective characters. End of Guide

Izuna Basics Guide Izuna is a character that has a good master, and with decent and diverse units. Izuna himself is a pretty potent master, with fantastic range and special attacks, but his damage out put is lacking. His servants have good variety, so the tribe it self doesn’t have a specific weakness, but his units are not very strong individually. His all around characteristics make him a flexible character like Sin and Ky, but he is much more difficult to master than Sin, he’s a technical character similar to Ky. Izuna’s normal units consist of Melee, Armor, Mobile, and Range. His Elites consist of Melee, Armor, Magic, and Range. Melees are kappa, which have solid stats, and have a cool ability of counter attack. You will notice this if you fought the kappas before, so it really helps when masters are beating on one, and get hit by it’s counter attack, that does big damage. It also helps against fighting other units. However, it is not a guarantee that it will always pull off a counter attack when hit, and even when it does, there’s a chance that it will be dodged. Kappas can be potentially routed by drills (sol’s awful melee unit), they are not extremely reliable, only relatively so, so keep that in mind. His armors are pretty light footed for armors. I forgot their name, but that doesn’t matter. The attack more rapidly than any other armor unit, and can annihilate the weaker units with ease, but they also have very poor defense for armor units. Easily done away by masters and units that have an advantage over it. His mobiles…well, they are mobiles, and they do what mobiles do, which is me fast, kill magic and armor nits, and have bad damage output and defense. If you thought Izuna’s armors were bad with defense, wait to you see this unit. This unit doesn’t have anything special about it that I can think of, it’s a solid unit, and no doubt useful for what mobiles do, but doesn’t really excel at anything among the mobile units in the game. They prioritize support units when fighting, so they will go after support units first. Izuna’s Range units are actually pretty good. They have a strange projectile skill, where they shoot a satellite, and then shoot their target, the satellite, usually shot to the side, shoot and disappears. It adds more pressure to the opponents. It’s not as powerful as twin triggers (sin’s ranged unit), but it’s definitely not weak. At higher levels it can shoot more projectiles. It dies quickly just like any other range unit in the game. His Melee elite unit Tengu, does good damage. Has a useless ability that catches an opponent in a tornado where they can’t do anything. It does not work on masters. It’s a decent unit overall. It’s probably the worse of the three elite melee units in the game. His range Elite is also a decent unit. Its attacks are damaging, and it’s great to use as back up for Izuna. Because it is a support unit, it’s going to get killed relatively quickly when facing stronger units, especially a master. His magic elite is very potent; it can freeze enemies, and adds knock back resistance to nearby allies. Good for carrying around with you for it’s freeze. Doesn’t do too much damage though, and it’s a support unit, so be wary of it getting targeted and annihilated. His Elite armor unit is like a Gigant (Sol’s Armored elite), that’s not as expensive to maintain, but his limited uses in comparison. It’s main function is being a big tank that moves very slowly, and capturing ghosts with it’s big hammer. It ignore units, and does not attack them even when hit. When the unit walks, it creates shockwaves that hurt nearby enemies. When it reaches half health, it will fall to it’s knees (which creates shockwaves) and produce little minions to attack enemies. If it reaches the enemy master ghost, it will do about 80% damage to it in one hit, and destroy the protective barrier on it same result for he Gigant with a range upgrade, only it is more reliable with it’s targeting and doesn’t cost an upgrade like the Gigant). It about the most expensive unit (I think it’s tied with the Gigant) I don’t recommend using this thing, it will burn a hole in your mana, because it cost over 800 mana to bring out, it’s very slow (EXTRA SLOW), cannot be used for effective defense, and due to it’s nature, the enemy master will put his sights on it, and kill it as fast as possible, making you waste your mana. On to Izuna’s personal skills. He has a magic minion. It slows down enemies, and targets nearby masters over all other enemies, so pulling it out against an enemy master is a good Idea. Other than that, I have no Idea if it attacks directly, if it does, I have not noticed. Use it to fight masters and armors. He’s got a projectile that raises the attacks of his units. Use it when your units are marching to the next ghost, because they are usually in formation for multiple units to touch your projectile. Not a bad skill. Izuna has a special dispel skill that cost a lot of mana, but once you buy it, it charges very quickly and is very effective for removing status effects and killing minions in exchange for tension. It will not destroy traps, such as mines and bananas though, so it’s not better than dispel in that regard. It’s useful, but expensive. Also, just so you know, you cannot dispel Sol’s dragon install, so don’t bother trying, you will pay if you do. Izuna has a gimmick where he can turn invisible. It’s cheap, and not totally useless, despite that it may look that way. It’s a great tool to use when you want to run away, as master’s can’t lock on or see you, neither can they’re servants. It’s also great for recon trips, in other words, you can go and see what the enemy master has in his territory with absolutely no risk, and he won’t be able to see you checking out his stuff, but this is mostly useful for running away. If you hit an enemy while you are invisible, you will lose your invisibility, but you will do increased damage with your strike. I recommend you use a hard attack on an unsuspecting master if you plan to use if for sneak attacks. Master Abilities Izuna is an overall great Master, with solid normals and great Special attacks. He’s got good range, fast pokes, a double side step, and although his high damaging combos are limited, he does have them. His only his only problem is overall lack of power, and sometimes his double side step gets him into trouble due to the nature of it (against raven’s pressure game and sometime it strangely backfires when trying to dodge Sol’s kick. You side step, and his (L) x kick follows you. I don’t know why this happens, it just does, Sol’s (L) x kick is insanely good) and with the exception of maybe one or two combos, his damage out put is not anything to write home about, even those few combos that do massive damage, they are very situational, and even when everything is going perfectly, it can still miss. With those hiccups, and the lack of a consistently powerful pressure game like sol and raven, he’s still pretty versatile and probably one of the best Masters in the game. Izuna has a wide range of normal (L) attacks, so much that I have not gone through them all. His standard (L) x, x, x, is a great combo, the first hit is a fast poke with great range. The second strike can be jumped on block, and the third strike can be side stepped to your right. He’s got a (L) 2x kick that he can use to set up opponents for (L) 8y and performing a move that keeps opponents on the ground for a long time when you do (L) 2x, 2x, the kick will knock them over, and the second strike will keep them on the floor longer than a banana. To set up for steel wasabi, do (L) x, x, 2x, 8y, has nice damage out put. Also (L) 2x, (side step) 2x, 8y works too. His (L) 4x is something I use to punish a whiffed attack or for mix up, it’s good for pressure as well. If the opponent simple stands there guarding and you perform a (L) forward step, 4x, you will cleanly break their guard. His (L) 6x is strange, it’s very damaging for a two hit move, but I don’t think you can use it for many combos. Unless you side step to the right, the second hit will almost always miss, because it leans to Izuna’s left rather than in front of him. The best application I can suggest is to punish, nothing more. His (L) x, 2x, x, combo launches, so it’s good to use in combos and juggles. His (L) 8x is a little lacking, and very dangerous to use out in the open, so it should only be used as an extension of combos. Even though it launches, you must jump and attack very shortly after landing the move. A decent way to use the combo is (L) x, x, x, MC, 8x, j, x, into whatever you want. His free mode x, y, launches, and can be used in combos, also great for mixup, when someone intentionally approaches you, and expects you to attack with (L) x, x, x, planning to jump after the second strike and counter attack, will get hit doing so. Can be combo’d into with (L) x, x, x, MC, (F) (walk up to them) x, y, (L) j, x. Yeah, I know, complicated stuff. His air combos of standard x, x, x are decent; they have nice range, but don’t do too much damage. There are better ways of hitting launched opponents than with a standard aerial x, x, x. try at least a x, x, 8x, Izuna’s aerial 8x is an amazing move, does great damage. Izuna’s aerial 8x has a wide range of uses. It great for short, tensionless combos, such as (L) x, x, j, 8x. It should work perfectly fine as long as long as you perform the 8x as soon as you jump. That combo is what I like to use to kill servants, and to kill Elites, I just do j 8x directly, kick them t get back up, and repeat. Also great for master ghost damage, just do the move, and MC the last hit, jump and repeat till your out of tension. Do (L) 2x, 8y on normal servants when you want them dead fast. It is worth noting that Izuna’ jump 8x can be dodged by jumping at Izuna, right in his face. I know, that makes no sense, that means you can do (L) x, x, j 8x, and on the part where you jump, if the opponent jumps too, your 8x will go right through him, leaving you vulnerable (L)y is a slow, homing projectile that does weak damage. Use it for traps and set ups, and to stop incoming opponents in their tracks. (L) 8y is steel wasabi, repeated stabs, it can be used in combos, and can be done as long as you mash the y button, and it will eat up your tension. A very powerful attack for Izuna, don’t squander it, you’ll waste tension and you’ll be vulnerable if you miss, and it’s not hard to dodge when you see it coming. (L) 2y is his long-range horizontal slash, which is good for mix up, and is the best crowd control tool in the game. Spam it against groups of normal servants, and it will do wonders for you. It has start-up time, and can be jumped, so pulling it out randomly on a defensive opponent will get you whacked. (L) 4y or 6y is his homing dive attack. He flies around and rams into the opponent. It can be done in the air and combo’d into. Just jump and press a direction and y to have Izuna do the move in that direction. When you hit the opponent with it, they will go flying, and no matter where they go, the move will chase them- for the most part. When you strike, you can MC and attack to keep the pressure on or can follow up with a steel wasabi if you hit them with the move (I don’t remember if you need to MC to do that, but I don’t think you have to.) The biggest issue wit this move is that it has NO PRIORITY OVER ANYTHING. Though it is kind of hard to it Izuna when he does the move, any attack will knock him out of it. ANY ATTCK. The other issue is that although it will follow the opponent, and he cannot sidestep it to dodge, he can jump right before the move makes contact with him, and Izuna will stop, leaving himself slightly vulnerable. In other words, last second dodges will effectively escape the flying kamelia or whatever you call this move, this is true for the aerial version too, air dashes can escape this if it’s close enough. The Last special move is his most peculiar one. (L) Jump y. it’s a freeze barrier that freezes whatever the tip of the barrier touches. So you can jump, freeze the guy; go around him, and free combo. When in the Ice, if the opponent was blocking, and you attack hi front, he will block your attack, It’s also worth mentioning that when frozen, the opponent has higher defense, and that he won’t be frozen for a very long time. It eats up about ¼ of your tension, but it’s a great move to pull out. It can be dodge by the opponent if he jumps at Izuna, and is inside the barrier that Izuna creates. Not touching the tips of it, so don’t abuse the attack. Opponents who are familiar with it will keep and eye out for you spontaneously jumping. They can also just smack you out of the air very quickly if you jump; some characters have moves that can do that, like Sol’s (L) 2x, or his Volcanic Viper. And that concludes our Izuna guide. He is a very technical master to learn with a varied tribe, but individually weak servants. His master abilities are among the best in the game, but he must be played well if you want to see why this is the case, as it’s not obvious like it is for Sin and Sol. The reason his units are weak are is because he himself is so strong, use his personal strength and take advantage of his unit’s quirks and variety to get the most of the character. END OF GUIDE

Sin Basics Guide Sin is an extremely simple character to learn seeing as he does not have many combo options. He has very effective long rage poking style that will deal loads of damage with very few attacks. His tribe arsenal consist of all low-level unit types, and three elites. Ky shares his tribe His swordsman (Melee unit) has average attack and defense. It is meant to be an all-around unit with no exceeding capabilities. Gauntlet Body (Armored unit) is a very sturdy unit with exceeding offense and defense stats. It has a launcher that is effective on units, but techable by masters. Springblock (Mobile unit), though it is a weak unit, excels in it's specialty. It has the ability to weaken armored units' defense with it's Steel Antler skill, making this unit a deadly force against all armored units in the game. Wise Man (Magic unit) is considerably weak in both attack and defense power, but does the job as a support unit. It is able to heal and supplement the offense and magical defense stats of your units. Twin Trigger (Ranged unit) is a very good support unit. It is quite lacking in defense, but it makes that up with offense and range. It has a three consecutive shot skill that offer quite a bit of protection. These units are deadly to masters in groups, but can be taken out with ease. Convict Hammer, Quadro Bailiff, and Heaven's libra (Armored, Ranged, and Support unit) are Sin's elites. Convict Hammer has an aura that will increase the attack of all nearby units and can also use dispel, so enemy buffs and minions will not be a factor in a battle involving Mr. Convict. The amount of health that this unit has is very high. When it all stacks up, this unit is very dangerous and is definitely a force to be reckoned with. Quadro Bailiff is Sin's elite ranged unit. Though considerably weak, it offers a big advantage with ranged attacks. It has some set-up time in which it readies itself for attacks. It is very easy to predict his attacks since he gives you warnings, along with very long 'stare' times. Overall, it is a decent unit with decent stats. Sin's magic unit, Heaven's Libra is one of his most useful units. It has an ability to place canes that lower enemy defenses dramatically. Anything caught within the cane's magic field will not be considered a threat to any of your units. It literally turns anything and everything into GARBAGE defense-wise; this including enemy masters. It also has the ability to raise ally attack speeds. It is a great unit in any scenario with good stats. This is definitely the first elite you would want in the fray. When it comes down to the melting pot, sin is an easy master with good units. They do not suffer any serious flaws and are pretty effective. Sin can accomplish his objectives in a very flexible way. The effectiveness of his strategies depends on the skill level of the player, but that can be said about all characters. He can be played as an offensive character, or defense. Sin's skills are extremely useful on any situation. Patecatl Stain restores the life of any allies it passes through. The amount of health that is restored is no joke (you almost give your unit(s) a complete heal, assuming they are your basic units). This makes this skill extremely useful for assuring your mana does not go to waste. Phantom Barrel takes the life of nearby units and turns it into a powerful projectile. Though strong and useful, I don't find myself using it very often. Exciter is an attack buff that turns sing into a killing machine. This is a must bring to every battle, seeing how it makes sin turn into a broom, and the enemy units into dust. Sin plows right through them in a matter of seconds. As for Humming Sword, it is a mobile minion with a high stun rate. From the limited testing I've done with it, and what little I saw a skilled player do with it, it has some uses. It stuns enemies, including masters, and pokes for decent damage, so it can be an effective back up for Sin. It can also capture ghost quickly. Master Abilities. Sin's is an extremely powerful master, who is proficient at crowd control and attacking at a distance, we'll say about mid range. He has simple to input combos, and very high damage output, but he is slow with close range attacks, and his options are severely limited once he runs out of tension. Sin has 480 health as opposed to the standard 500 health. Sin's two signature attacks are his beak drivers, but for the sake of simplicity, we will cover the details of those moves later, right now lets focus on his normals, which, by themselves, are pretty lack luster. (L) x, x, x, combo stops jumps and is his main bread and butter when you aren’t trying to blast them to hell and back with a beak driver. if all three hits connect, you can jump and follow up no problem, with little chance of the opponents teching out. Here’s a combo that I do all the time. (L) x, x, x, j, x, x, (air dash) x, x, y. stupid easy to input, hard to escape, great damage. You can combo into beak driver with (L) x, x, y. Sin's (L) x, x, x, is slow, and can be sidestepped pretty easily, if you get a clean miss, there's pretty much nothing you can do about it, and it isn't hard to sidestep his first hit. If the first or second hit is blocked, the opponent can side step out of the combo and punish, if you don’t take the proper action to attempt to stop them. you it requires that you properly predict when the opponent will try to jump out if he hits, and what direction. You can stop sidestepping by attacking with a (L) 4x, or 6x mid (L) x, x, x. for example, if the opponent wants to side step to my left after blocking the first hit of my combo, I do (L) x, 4x, and blast them with a beak driver. (L) 4x is a slow, and wide horizontal sweep with his staff, made to stop sidestepping. it can be jumped over and punished, and if done at too close of a range, it may be out right snuffed, thanks to relatively long start up time. It can punish sidestepping from either left or right, but if the opponents side steps to the right, he has a greater chance of blocking or interrupting the move. Izuna can actually outmaneuver this attack, double sidestep to your right, and punish you for cleanly missing you with the attack. You can cancel the recovery time with a beak driver if you hit an opponent, whether they are blocking or not. (L) 6x is short ranged and launches, and can punish side step to your right only. You can follow up with an air combo after hitting with it. A quick close range move, you can also combo into a beak driver if the move lands. (L) 2x is a leg sweep, and is pretty much a desperate move when some one gets in your face, although one of sin's fastest moves and cannot be sidestepped, it can be snuffed (sol’s (L) x kick is faster, and will snuff it no problem). it can also be jumped over and punished. Very short range too. Can be followed up with a beak driver on hit. His aerial normal can be interrupted and inputted again by an air dash, letting you do combos like (L) j, x, x, (air dash) x, x, x. his power attack in the air is a stomp. (L) 8x. (L) 8x is a vault kick, where he kicks the enemy by vaulting himself with his staff and kicking him. He’s hard to hit while doing this, and you can implement this in combos. Longer range than any of his other normal. His power attack is a lunging spinning kick, which has high guard break properties. It can be blocked outright, unlike other character’s power attacks, like Sol’s for example. Beak driver (L) y is a fast mid range poke that can be combos into another blast by hitting y again. This move is the Sin's signature move, and is what makes him so deadly. It is very fast, and can be comboed into many different ways. When you get someone with it and the block the first hit, you can take a gamble and hit y again anyway, there’s a good chance if they attempt to escape the blast they will get hit, even f they block it, it will do good chipp damage. The only clean way to avoid getting hit with the subsequent blast of the beak driver is for the opponent to jump out of the attack, where he may or may not be able to punish, I really don't know if he can in the situation. This move tales little tension and can lead to high damage combos. Though it is very fast, it can be sidestepped and jumped over. You can follow up these two combos off the beak driver blast. (L) y, y, j, (air dash) x, x, y - very easy to do, decent damage (L) y, y, (F) 8x, (L) 8y. - Easy, but decent timing required. big damage. (F) - Free mode, lock off. Jump y is "poke it like no tomorrow". Put it at the end of air combos. (L) 8x is big beak driver. it has more start up time, does more damage, and cannot be jumped over. This mover can be used to finish combos, or get quick big damage for punishing. It is easier to be punished for missing this move, and it is easier to side step. (L) 2x is a catch counter like the one Axl low has in GGx2 AC, where if the opponent hits you with a move when it is active, Sin will counter the move. But it does not activate immediately, so you must have adequate time to use it, best when recovering fro getting up if Sin doesn’t catch his opponent, he will be vulnerable for a short time. Can be followed up with beak driver. Use this move with caution; you don't want to miss with it. (L) 4y and 6y are big energy orbs that sin leaves in place for a bit. I think they are used to limit enemy movement, and to prevent them from getting close to you. They can also be used for mix up purposes and in combos (but I do not know any combos involving them personally) you can direct them directly in front of sin by starting them up with (L) 4y, than moving the stick to the 8 position. Activate these balls too close to the enemy and they will smack you as Sin takes his time creating these. And that’s it! Keep away from masters and conserve you tension. With Sin, it kind of all or nothing, if the opponent can't get the drop in on you up close, you can destroy them with Sin's easy combos, but when they are in Sin's face, his options aren't too good. Someone like Sol can destroy sin up close if they are familiar with everything he can do. With out tension, sin is pretty awful, so beak driver when you can and go for big damage combos while you can, and struggle to not get overtaken in close range combat. END OF GUIDE

Sol Badguy Basics Guide Sol Badguy is a relatively simple character to learn, yet difficult to master. He is a primarily offensive character; his theme is being a strong master, but having weak normal servants. In low-level play, this is not too big of an issue, but the higher the competition, the more glaring his servants weakness become. Sol has to do most of the work he himself, and his skills are based around self-buffs. Sol has 3 regular servants consisting of Melee (Drill), Armor (Blade) and Ranged (Pencil Guy). Sol doesn't have a standard Mobile or Magic type servant, making him vulnerable to armors. He has 5 Elite units, Melee (Firewheel) Mobile (Engulfer) Armor (Gigant) and 2 magic types (Red Queen and Blockhead). For the most part, Sol's Elites are pretty effective, and is one of the only three masters that have a Melee Elite, which I like to call an "anti master" elite that is good at combating an enemy master. Sol basic strategy is to rush the opponents like a madman, trying his best to control as many ghost as possible and finding a clear path to the master ghost as fast as he can. Because of his weak tribe (army) Sol doesn't want his opponent to build up a strong army, so he has to deny the opponent of ghost to build up mana. Sol's units are also not very cheap in their cost in mana, so you want to have as much as you can get. In the beginning of a match, your going to want to know what you want to control, and where you want to slow the enemy servants down. You pick your drills destination as fast as possible, and when they spawn, you pick them up right away (either 2 or 3 of them) and place them where you want them, whether it's to have early control of a ghost, or to slow down enemy forces, both is desirable. If you want to slow the enemy down, place them at a ghost directly in front of the enemy master ghost. Unless you separated each and every drill and tell them to stay at the ghost you plan to drop them via the organ menu before they spawn (yes, I have seen a player do that, it was impressive) your going to want to tell them to stay put using right on the D-Pad right when you dump them off. All characters use this strategy, but it is absolutely essential for sol, and he'll be doing this through out the match. When playing as sol, you transport your units where they are needed the most manually (meaning you yourself pick them up and dump them off) and when you aren't doing that, your either killing a bunch of servants your self, or attacking the enemy master. Consider your servants main purpose to capture and maintain ghost, and to inch closer to the enemy master ghost (and you speeding up that process). Your primary concern is their safety, meaning you kill whatever might slow them down, or kill them. For the beginning of the match your best off spamming drills, and unlocking the Blade, but not using them yet for the first round, or at least until you see fit. Spamming drills and placing them where you want, as well as protecting them is effective, you need to make holes in the opponent's defenses. If a large group of servants are slowing down your drills, or a very strong few (like armors) the last thing you want is for the drills to die. You either pick them up and dump them to the closest ghost that is closer to the enemy master ghost and go back to kill the enemy servants, or you tell them to retreat. Remember that servants have an advantage when fighting at a ghost that is theirs (defense boost) so even if you don't have the time to save them at the moment, they should be able to hold their own for a while when they retreat provided there isn't a master attacking them. There isn't much to say about drills, because you pretty much have no choice but to use them. They are pretty weak, and have two different attacks, a switchblade attack that hits upward (hey, it helps with juggle combos!) and a more powerful charge were it sticks it's drill into the opponent, making them fly away. The damage output is nothing to write home about. When upgraded with blackhead, its drill becomes massive (read; disproportionately huge), and does more damage. With the upgrade, it receives powered up melee attacks. The upgrade doesn't help them too much, because the unit's primary problem it that they are pretty stupid, and un-aggressive, and the upgrade doesn't change that unfortunately. Still, you have no choice but to use them, luckily, their stupidity does not allow them to be overtaken by mobile units at least; the drills will soundly defeat them. A good technique I have seen in using drills are leaving one at every ghost you own. So If the enemy want to get some free mana by stealing a ghost that you passed or are not currently protecting, they have to deal with your drill first, slowing them down. Blades are a lot sturdier than the drills, and also a lot slower, so be sure to pick them up! When I use sol, I always unlock blades before any of the elites, as they are a great help in sol's army long term, just keep in mind to make good use of them, as they are expensive. When upgraded with blockhead, they have these flaming pinwheels on them, hitting whatever is close to them, called offense cloak or lazer barrier. That's all it upgrades Blockhead provides for the Blade, it's actually better than it sounds. Pencil guys are Sol's Ranged units. Ranged units are strong against Melee and Magic, and as far as this guy goes, he's not as offensive based as Sin's ranged unit, or not as annoying as Izuna's, but he has some tricks up his sleeve, and can take a beating. Besides shooting enemies with a gun, and saying funny puns ("I'll give it a shot") its hits will poison the enemy, and it can toss stun grenades. Remember that these guys are back up for drills and blades, like any other range unit, and are not designed to be sent at a horde of Melee by themselves, even against the likes of valentine and raven (who's two out of three normal forces are weak to ranged) because an enemy master can just swoop along and take them out no problem, not to mention they capture ghost slowly. Pair them up with drills and blades to make your forces more substantial. They’re also not bad protecting the master ghost with a few drills. The blockhead upgrade makes the gun really big, and makes shots explode and damages multiple enemies when the bullet hits. The elite servants that are the easiest to use are Fire wheel, Red queen, and Engulfer. Fire wheel is very strong Melee elite unit. It shouldn't have problems against most units, and isn't something a master would want to fight when at a ghost of it's own. It gets from point A to point B relatively quickly, if there’s something you want to tackle a master with for backup, this guy is your prime candidate for it's damage output and super armor. An effective Elite to bring out for the extra muscle it provides. Queen is an offensive magic type. It travels the map super fast, captures ghost quickly, fights well, not to mention she does great damage to armors and is VERY cheap. Her health goes down by itself, so she won’t be around on the map for long, which is why she's so cheap. According to the game, she increases the defense of allies around her. Not a bad choice for a first elite to bring out, as later in the match, she will be less useful as stronger units become available for the opponent. You don’t use this unit to fight, just use it to capture easy ghosts quickly, while you yourself can focus on other matters. Engulfer is Sol's only mobile, and moves around the map just as fast as fire wheel does, and it's no slouch at fighting either, though it is not as strong as fire wheel. He tears through armors with no problem, so if armors are giving you a problem, you want this guy. He has the ability to seal the enemy master's and servant’s item slots (yes, servants have item slots and it can seal them, how it effects the servant is up to the individual servant) with this ability he can help a bunch when facing enemy masters, as they wont be pulling out special skills or items on you, and it can lay the smack down on them to along with you. Gigant, as I once stated in an earlier rant about it, is not easy to use. He is an enormous armor unit that costs a large amount of mana, and is reliant on upgrade Kits, which cost additional mana. With out the upgrade kits constantly being fed to him, he is a very slow and weak unit. He already costs 400 to unlock, and is even more expensive to summon on the field, and when you get him there, unless you want to keep him at your masterghost, it is going to take him forever to get anywhere without a mobile kit, which already costs 100 mana to purchase. He is extremely slow with out a mobile kit, and he is a very high profile unit, the enemy can see him coming a mile away. The upgrade kits are temporary and cannot be compounded, so when you use a kit, he's stuck like that until he reverts back to his original form. I'm confused as to why Arc system work made this unit as unwieldy and expensive as they have, it takes a lot of effort to make this guy useful, and it is a shame, because it's a very unique unit, there is none other like it in the game. Despite it’s problems, it can be useful. For the sake of defense, it’s a pretty decent unit. It does not stagger when hit, has loads of health, and feature a homing missile attack that locks on to six different targets at once. These missiles give enemy servants the status effect of fear, which causes them to retreat involuntarily. The effect is halved on Elites. When moving the Gigant from point A to point B, you should place the Mobile Kit on it, it will move much faster with it on. For offense, give it the armor upgrade; it’s his most damaging and offensive upgrade he has, he charges the target with a battering ram/spear and can give you good results when you need it to deliver some damage. The melee upgrade is better suited to defense. He’s stays put and swings all around him, hitting those near by for decent damage. I cant ever recommend using his range upgrade, it does high damage to master ghosts, but the Gigant aim is ridiculously inaccurate; the chances of him missing your intended target with the laser are high, and one shot per upgrade is all you get. Blockhead is an elite magic unit, whose primary functions are to upgrade and to support Sol's standard units. It can transfer health both you and ally servants at the cost of it's own health, it upgrades normal servants to enhance certain features, and it shoots out a spray of energy ball-like projectiles that hits with a wide radius. Basically, it makes your normal servants more formidable and keeps them alive, while shooting support fire. The upgrade it gives varies from unit to unit, but the upgrade for the Blade and the Pencil Guy are very good, making them much stronger and reliable. The Drill, however, not so much, because even though their attacks are stronger, they are still as stupid and un-aggressive as they always are. For what it’s worth, you'd rather have are strong stupid drill than a weak stupid drill. I’ve also seen this used to help support Sol himself as he single handedly fights groups of armors. This is the only unit in the game that can heal allies. Let’s talk about Sol's personal skills, which can really help him. Use Sol's dragon install as a tool to kill servants quickly when it is at 100, or to give you an edge against other masters. (USE VOLCANIC VIPER ON THEM!) Sol’s dragon install changes depending on the amount of resources your units have accumulated, resources are represented by the gear symbol underneath you maserghost health. Resource is collected when your normal servants fight. For every 25 resource you have, the stronger the dragon install becomes, 100-dragon install being extremely powerful. I’m not sue about the lower level dragon installs, but you cannot dispel Sol’s 100 dragon install, so don’t be afraid to use it, because he enemy can’t get rid of it. Your special moves are enhanced in that mode, your volcanic viper does 300 damage on a clean hit, and it good chip damage. Your sword has extended range, and you can lock opponents down with (L) 4x, 6x, sidestep repeat, and your gunflame travel much faster, can be fired more rapidly, and comes out insanely fast. Your overdrive does over 1000 damage in 100-dragon install, so bust it out on an elite unit for a quick kill. If your in a pickle, and need a power boost, as long as you have 25 install, go ahead and use it, it can save you when used in opportune moments. a sure fire way to get a volcanic viper off someone who turtles is (L) x, 2x, x, 2y. When facing other masters, or a large group of servants, use crimson jacket, particularly in a combo of (L) x, x (activate crimson jacket) when you start up crimson jacket, it's initiation hits whatever is around sol, it can even be used by itself to snuff incoming attacks. if you want to get a free combo off that, use (L) 8x to slide into them, and modern cancel when you hit them, allowing you to combo a (L) x, x, into whatever you see fit. Crimson jacket is a self-buff skill that will raise Sol’s defense and provide some knock back resistance for a limited time. The knock back resistance and increased defense will allow you to be more offensive, and the increase in defense is significant. If you want a super crazy strong Sol, use crimson jacket while using dragon install. It will give you good results. Unlike dragon install, this can be dispelled, so investing in a mouth zipper is a smart choice. Sol's Minion summon "hunchback" is a Mobile unit. It’s not extremely useful, so you never really need it, but it can help you in confrontations when taken out at just the right time. When facing a group of servants that has a lot of units that are weak to mobile, in other words; Armor and magic servants, it performs pretty well in providing you and your servants back up. It’s chili ball attack shocks enemies, does good damage to armors and magics, and holds them in place, so you can combo them whilst it's attacking with chili ball. The effectiveness of its attacks are increased when it's fighting magic and armor, to the point where it can make fighting those servants much easier. I once killed a bone biter at full health with nothing but tossing hunch backs at it, and it died relatively quickly considering it was under attack by minions. It has quick recharge time, so you can have up to 3 out at once. When you summon it, Sol tosses it like a little ball, and it hurts whatever it hits, and when it disappears from being out for a certain amount of time, it will blow up like a bomb, but if it's killed before that point, it will not. Its role in master combat is minimal, due to the fact that it is slow and is not very aggressive, but it isn’t something master can simply ignore. You should draw the enemy master's attention away from the hunchback and pressure their back against the unit, so they can get smacked (hopefully with chili ball instead of the Melee attack) and provide an opening for you. There are also times where my opponent ignore the unit, precedes to combo me, and gets interrupted by the hunchback mid-combo. Overall the unit is helpful, and is not too expensive in terms of mana to purchase and tension to summon. Sol seems a relatively simple character, but that really not the case. In order to compete with other characters in servant battles, I believe your best off using as many tools as Sol has, and he has a lot of them. So be bold, and give his shunned units a chance and come up with some crazy strategies. Otherwise have fun hunting down masters over and over. At least there’s no debate Sol can accomplish that no problem. Master Abilities When it comes to master fights, sol is a close-range fighter, so you’re going to want to stay in the opponent's face. Sol has the best poke in the game, his (L) x kick. it will pretty much go through everything as long as it is pressed fast enough and he is close enough to hit. It beats out Izuna's and Raven's pokes no problem, and they have among the best pokes in the game. Sol has a wide range of moves available to him; the only problem is that all of them have short range with few exceptions. (L) x is not the only move you can come in with, some times it's better to come in with (L) 4x or 6x to stop them from side stepping, even to stop them from coming in. they Can be combo'ed like so (L) 4x, 6x, 2x, 8x - my favorite! I call it the "bandit revolver" combo! (L) 6x, 4x, 2x, MC, x, x, *2x, into whatever you want. *You can side step if you want. Gun flame juggles the opponent, and it's easy to hit them with a bandit revolver after it, so a decent and cheap combo would be (L) x, x, x, y, 8y. It’s cheap in tension and does good damage. It’s fantastic for it's crowd control when dealing with servants too. Don’t forget his brute force (lock on 4y and 6y) is great for catching people when they want to escape you BnBs! A good example is when someone blocks your (L) x, x, x, so instead of finishing the combo, do a (L) x, x, 4y or 6y. Guess the right direction where they will try to side step and they'll get punished. It is easiest to escape Sol's (L) x, x, x after the second hit, so remember that. If you don't want to risk a miss with brute force, just stop at the second hit and side step. It is also fantastic to use when you predict the opponent will sidestep. If you didn't know, after the first lock on x, you can press 2x for a punch that has good guard break properties and can be repeated, a good combo would be (L) x, 2x, x, x, into whatever. The guard break punch combo can be hit confirmed int (L) x, x, x after the third hit. It’s hard to do, but it may be worth it. The way to approach a master is either 1) walk towards them, 2) dash towards them 3) run to them, 4) jump towards them, 5) air dash to them, 6) bandit revolver to close the gap and attack them at the same time. Don't underestimate the ability to jump and air dash, as it is the only way to dodge and counter attack certain moves, like horizontal attacks and projectiles, Ky's Stun edge is a good example. A desperate but functional method of moving in is Sol’s (L) 8x, modern canceled on impact. And followed up with (L) x, x, into whatever you want. This is good, thanks to the extra range the (L) 8x provides. If you don’t know what to combo after the (L) x, x, you can try a simple (L) x, x, x, 8y. or you can try to do a 2x juggle after (L) x, x. Speaking of Bandit revolver, it covers a lot of distance quickly, and cost almost NO TENSION! It can even be used for escaping. The Bandit revolver has great guard break and does chip damage, so toss it at the end of a blocked (L) x, x, and it should break guard if you’ve been keeping up the pressure. Catch people with it when they think they are out of Sol’s range. Practice using Bandit revolver while short dashing to give Sol some real nasty reach. When used at the correct timing, bandit revolver can go over some attacks, like projectiles. If the first hit does not land, but the second one does, modern cancel that hit to continue attacking the opponent without them blocking, great for dealing with characters like Sin. Over all, bandit revolver is an excellent move. Tossing out a gun flame to oncoming opponents is good too (for example, when they run at you), but otherwise, gun flame isn't a reliable zoning tool. Gun flame helps for crowd control as I said before though. (It hits enemies directly behind and to the sides of Sol too!) When used sparingly, you can catch an opponent off guard with it, so don't think it's completely useless outside combo. It also has strong potential for mix up in your combo strings, for example, people tend to side step right after the usual (L) x, x string, so, instead of simple stopping there, do a (L) x, x, y. the Gun flame cannot be side stepped point blank, and if they try to side step, they will get hit with it. You can also toss it out in a string, and f the opponent simply blocks, Modern cancel the Gun flame and combo into the (L) x, 2x guard break punch for an easy guard break. The opponent won’t see it coming thanks to the Gun flame in their face. An interesting note is that gun flame can cancel out just about every normal projectile in the game, including Ky’s charged stun edge, which is more than twice as strong in damage output. The Volcanic Viper is probably the biggest reason why Sol is such a deadly Master. It is a reversal of sorts, it's a jumping uppercut that can go through attacks (it has uninterruptible frames) and does lots of damage. It can be EASILY combo'd into, but it cannot lift opponents in the air all of the time ((L) 4x, 6x, 2x, 2y is a good example of a bad combo for Volcanic Viper) Sol can even do it in the air, which is crazy. To use it as a reversal, block an attack and right afterwards, hit them with a volcanic viper. Air reversals can be done too, recover in the air from a combo and if the opponent is in the air too, you can smack them with a volcanic viper very quickly. You can do a y after the volcanic Viper without MC too. Break Down is a good aerial stomp, it has an explosion when Sol lands, so it's a good crowd control tool, and it can hit masters from behind if done correctly. If blocked, be sure to Modern Cancel the move to be safe and surprise the opponent with a continued assault. Toss out a power attack (8x while in free mode) it will break right through the opponent's guard (in most cases), and does good damage and has good range. Useful fact about sol's hard attack, it does good damage to ghost and master ghosts. Give them a good smack with it. You can go bananas on a vulnerable master ghost by hitting it with the hard attack, then modern canceling it into another hard attack, and repeating it until you are empty of tension. It’s also great at damaging servants and providing crowd control as it sends servant's flying. I've seen combo strings along the lines of (L) x, 4x, 2x, MC, x, x, x, into whatever, I'm guessing you can extend it or change it how you please. This is a pressuring thing I've seen PandaKingEX and Kimera Cryin do, it seems...like a block string to scare the guy into think he can't escape or something, leading to a guard crush perhaps. A decent pressure and mix up tactic I really don't know, but try it out and see what you can do with this pressure game. You can mess with the guard break punch in different ways too, such as: (L) x, 2x, 6x, 2x into whatever you please (the animation for the 2x in to the 6x looks really cool by the way. spin around!) A good combo that takes a lot of tension, but does great damage is (L) x, x, 2y, x, x, 2y, y. it is untechable, meaning the player cannot escape from it once they are in it. Takes over half their health away, along with half of your tension. A preferred combo of mine that is as reliable, but a little harder to input is (L) x, x, x, y, j, x, 2y, y. takes about one third of your tension for over 300 damage. If done exactly as I have written down, the opponent will not be able to escape the entire combo. Another major way that sol damages opponents and gains tension at the same time is juggling masters with (L) 2x uppercut, side stepping to the left, and 2x again. Repeat until they float very low, than finish it off with a Volcanic Viper. You can put this in a combo, such as (L) x, x, x, (F) walk forward, x, y, (L) (left side step) 2x, side step, 2x, and continue the juggle and finish off with a 2y. The (L) 2x uppercut itself is a good anti air tool; it whacks enemies right out of the air, so pull it out on jump happy opponents if you don't want to spend tension on a Volcanic Viper. The first combo regarding the uppercut loop is a little difficult and may be unpractical unless you master it, so here's another way to combo into the uppercut loop. (L) x, x, x, 8x, MC, x, x, 2x, (start loop, when they are low enough, finish off with a volcanic viper) if done correctly, you'll do around 320 damage and have plenty of tension thanks to the uppercut loop. You can apparently perform a (L) x, x, x, (step forward) and follow up with another x, *x, x. I have done this before; it is VERY hard to do consistently. Another opportunity for the uppercut loop after the*x, you can also side step before you input the x if you want. Sol can also perform an air combo loop on air born opponents. Launch them in the air, jump after them and do (L) x, x, x when you land, jump, air dash, and do it again, because you'll find that the last hit of the air combo causes the opponent to ricochet of the floor. You can do about 3 air combos in a row with this method I believe. In order to have good results, attack just as the opponent techs in order to “tech chase” them. Sol can perform this air combo loop out of a modern canceled cyclone blast. Simply air dash right after modern canceling and proceed to attack mid air. When your opponent is out of tension to burst, and you have full tension, make sure you’re close to them, and do a (L) x, x, (Tyrant Rave) for a guaranteed kill. Tyrant rave is Sol's overdrive and is done by pressing A and X button at the same time in case you forgot. Can only be preformed with max tension. If you want to run away from a fight, hit the opponent with a (L) 8x, and blast drive out of there while they are on the floor. You can link a volcanic viper from a 8x, and also continue juggles with a MC from a 8x. Remember that Sol has a ton of options and tools for taking down masters, and doesn't just have to be aggressive, he can be played other ways too in master fights. He’s very flexible, and has a wide variety of high damaging combos. His Servants are bad, and it can’t be helped, but they are not useless and neither are his personal skills. With proper strategy from the player, Sol’s tribe can be a handful to deal with, and Sol himself is able to get a lot done, provide great support and lead the tribe effectively. END OF GUIDE

III. Master vs. Master fights. All right, the last section on controlling your master is engaging enemy masters. I will give you some basic information so you can build your game off from there. The primary way to get good at masters only is just fighting enemy masters and try out different attacks and strategies, much like a fighting game. This section can turn into something massive, but I’ll keep it light. When engaging enemy masters, lets get what not to do out of the way first. Do not attempt to fight them without locking on (with few exceptions). Though there are moments where locking off will be helpful, such as performing a power attack, the majority of the time you are fighting, you want to be focused on the enemy master. Do not waste you tension, be conservative with it, or you will find yourself in a position with limited options. Do not charge into enemy masters who are surround by their units single handedly, you won’t win in most cases. And finally, when you are beating up their servants and they come up to engage you, do not ignore them, you will pay for it. When fighting, you need to know what your character can and cannot do, and what your opponent can and cannot do, as with any fighting game. To be honest, the masters vs. master fights are for the most part, like 3d fighting games. You utilize pokes, spacing, and all that other jazz, but you should know the basics of dodging at least, and know that there is more to dodging than just sidestepping. Vertical attacks can be sidestepped, but not jumped. Horizontal attacks and be jumped, but not sidestepped. Projectiles can be avoided and punished by jumping over them. Some attacks can be avoided by stepping backwards. Be careful before needlessly sidestepping and jumping, because your character is vulnerable for the most part right after doing them. If you are going to punish a attack you jumped over, most characters must attack right after jumping, and usually with a direction + x, as that is most character’s air to ground attack. Be sure you predict, dodge/counter, and punish, and practice those combos! Needless to say, you shouldn’t expect your opponent to be predictable, and you shouldn’t be predictable. All characters have attacks to stop side steps and have a way to deal with jumping opponents. There are ways to break guard for every character, learn them and incorporate them into your game. Keep in mind that you have servants to help you, and your opponent has servants to help them. Don’t be surprised if your opponent pulls out an elite when engaging you, as he might be carrying the unit around as a bodyguard. If your out numbered, your best chance is to create an opening for you to retreat. If you want to run, don’t just turn your back and try to blast drive, look for an opening and short dash away (using the L trigger) before you blast drive. Some characters can use attacks to cover more ground to run (like Sol’s bandit revolver, or Ky’s stun dipper) if you just turn tail and try to run or blast drive right away; you will most likely get stuffed. Make use of the super back step when running away, and the short dash when chasing the opponent. Remembering that servants are a factor, you can use nearby servants to your advantage, and if the opponent has servants and you don’t want to run, use crowd control while keeping the enemy master pinned down to give yourself some breathing space. Items and bringing along an elite unit is a good Idea as well. Make sure your back is not exposed to an enemy servant while fighting. Cyclone blast is important to escape combos, and if blocked, it can be canceled with modern cancel to keep you safe. You can also air dash away if the cyclone blast is modern canceled. Try not to be too predictable with your bursting times, as players may predict a blast on your behalf and may simply block it, and if you don’t have the tension to modern cancel, you will be punished. Try a similar tactic regarding opponents blasting as well, predict and bait it, than move in and punish. Keep in mind with a full tension bar you can Cyclone blast only twice. Teching (air recovering) in the air, though usually a good idea, in certain circumstances, can lead to big damage. To let you know, Izuna has an extremely damaging combo what requires the opponent to tech in the air in order to complete the combo, otherwise, the damage is severely reduced, so be aware of that. I don’t know any other character that has a combo like that. There are also times when an opponent is teching, and you are performing an air combo, your character will “chase” them mid-combo and their tech will be for naught. I’m not sure how to avoid this, but you can try to lock off when being hit with an air combo, and try to air tech in a fashion that when you tech, you can air dash away from the opponent (to the side for example). You can also cyclone blast, or simply not tech when you think they will attempt this, they will work also. Teching to avoid knockdowns is a good way to escape unnecessary damage, and to prevent the opponent from using that opportunity to escape mid battle. It’s also good to use if you blast drive into a wall as it will save you time. Get used to teching to avoid a knockdown, unlike air teching, it doesn’t have a negative consequence.) Though you may not notice this, when you lock on and jump, your character actually jumps towards the target, instead of straight up. An interesting tidbit of information, this means you can continue air combos without air dashing to the opponent, saving the air dash for furthering the combo in the air. Modern canceling is an extremely important tool. Use it for shortening recovery time on moves to protect your self and to extend combos, whom would normally be impossible to extend otherwise, be creative and make the most of it. Also remember you can cancel the animation of attacks earlier by sidestepping, back stepping and jumping. You cannot cancel attack animation with the forwards step however. There are Items that can help you in a fight, so I’ll put down the Items that are help with fighting. Bananas and land mines are traps set to either slow down your opponent (banana) or do massive damage (land mine). A trick with land mines is if you place it where a dead body of a servant is, the corpse will cover it, and the opponent wont be able to see it. Rapid Fire puts mid range pressure on the opponent, and can be useful for those who love to keep their distance. If the opponent blocks the rapid fire, you can modern cancel the animation of using the item, short dash to them and do a power attack (or another attack that breaks guard depending on who you are using) which they wont be able to escape. If they do get hit, I’m pretty sure you can follow up by MC the animation and short dashing towards them for a free combo off the rapid fire. Bombs do unblockable damage, and are great for those who keep their distance as well as blow up those who hide in the servants. Mouth zipper comes out very fast, and can be considered a poke or fast projectile that stops those who rush in. If it hits, the opponent cannot use Items, and this can be a great boon to you. Heavy feet slow down the opponent greatly, and comes out as fast as the mouth zipper with similar properties. The opponent will be easier to fight with this and they won’t be running away in with this status effect on. Lastly is Dispel. Dispel is practically a necessity, it gets rid of status effects (bad ones on you and good ones on the opponent), minions, Items and what not. It’s something you should ALWAYS buy, and is great for bailing you out of trouble. There are other Items that are very useful too, like healing rods, S-drives, P-drives, elixirs, and whatnot. I’ll explain capture cannon Item for you due to its effectiveness. Capture canon turns capture units into indestructible little balls of doom, they are encased in a pink barrier and it cannot be destroyed easily (but it CAN be destroyed). It captures ghosts quickly and does a lot of damage to master ghosts, so if you are gong t raid a master ghost, and you have a ghosts next to the enemy master ghost, use a capture cannon, it can make destroying the master ghost considerably easier. The final thing I have to say about master fighting is to pick and chose when and where to fight, because it is VERY important. Fighting on the enemy’s side of the map can slow down the advancement of their units, but it also puts you at greater risk. Fighting on your side reverses the situation. There are times where fighting the enemy master is not in your best interest. Be sure when you fight an enemy master, it’s the best thing to do at the moment, because there are times that after you defeat the enemy master, you lose a part of the map because you were distracted. Never be distracted from what’s going on in the map, and don’t be afraid to run away, whether it is because you are being defeated or other matters requires your attention. Just make sure it is safe to run, and if the opponent runs, there are times where you should follow and times where you should just let them go and focus on capturing more ghosts. (NEW!) Taking advantage of Replay mode. Because some people may find it difficult to improve, I will write a small guide focusing on how to properly use replay mode to your advantage. I do not want the players to be discouraged into thinking that replay mode is useless due to you not being able to view what the player does in the organ. While you cannot see what they do in the organ directly, you can still see the consequences of their actions in the organ, and if you pay close attention to the replay, you will miss almost nothing at all. The largest advantage that replay mode presents is the ability to see the mini map and both opponent’s tribe’s an actions through there. From the beginning, you can see what each player does and handle’s their first move, and if you are watching a replay of a mach you did yourself, you may be surprised at who your game play looks like when your not engaged in the game. It’s much easier to point out your mistakes when watching replay mode, and whether you won or lost the match, the reasons you did so will become clearer, especially since you have a complete view of what’s happening in the mini map at all times. A good way to see why you lost a match is to view the match from the perspective of the opponent. Now say your are watching the actions of the opponent, or maybe your viewing a replay of a match you did not participate in (these replays can be found in the leader boards), how do you know what the players are doing in the organ? Easy, there are a few indications of their actions. First, when they summon new units, the unit’s appear on the left hand side of the H.U.D. You should be familiar that all your unit’s and their status appears n the left of your H.U.D., so when you see the player as gone into the organ, give the list of units a glance. When the player purchases and item, the Item shows up in the inventory slot, it’s not very difficult to see that. As for orders to servants, just look at the mini map and follow the marches of the servants. You’ll find it harder to follow the actions of the players without access to the organ, but this doesn’t mean it’s impossible to figure out what they’re doing; just keep your eyes on the details I mentioned and you’ll get a lot out of watching replays. If you chose to do so, you can wander the replay map as a chimaki, and view any area of the map at any time. You may think that there is no point to this, but it’s a potentially useful feature. You will be able to see what happens between servants when a master is not present, and this good to give you some interesting information about the properties of servants. This can teach you whether certain combination of servants work well together, how much of an advantage being positioned in a ghost they own provides, see just how useful elites can be and against what types of opponents etc. There’s a plethora of servant data can be collected, and unlike a session in training mode, this is real game data, so it’s more valuable than training mode test. Be sure to take advantage of this feature. Replay mode is one of the best features of the game, and is an invaluable tool for improving. Take advantage of it. A Quick Summary On Priorities, Tools for Practicing and Closing. So there’s a lot to this game, and a sure fire way to make sure the game is not too daunting is to split up what goes on and prioritize what you need to focus on. Here’s a quick summary on what to prioritize and focus on. First and foremost is your master ghost. Never leave it completely vulnerable. Second priority is the map and your servants. They are the key to victory; you wont be wining matches unless you’re aware of what’s going on in the map. Protect your servants, you spent mana on them, don’t let it go to waste. The last priority is your master. Don’t waste your skills and spend all day in the organ, and don’t go in a situation where you are likely to die unprepared. Lets cover tools to practice real quickly. You have campaign to teach you the basics. You have free mission, which can help you in learning how to act fast in the organ in some missions and killing servants effectively with various characters (put the missions on hard). Going through them with a desired character, you can learn a lot about the particular character. You have exhibition mode, be creative in how to use it for practicing purposes, such as learning strategies for map layouts and such, and general match up info, but keep in mind that the computer is very stupid. And you have training mode for everything else, where like in exhibition and free mission mode, you should be creative in order to get the most out of them mode for practice purposes. That’s all I have to say. This game is big and deep, so take your time and take it slow. Get use d to operating the organ and commanding your troops in free mission and campaign, don’t rely on the handicaps, and when going through free missions, do them on hard so you get something out of it (they are also a lot more fun on hard mode). The best way to get better is simply doing matches when you’re accustomed to the game, and seeing what the opponent does and testing what works. Just remember to not get too down when you lose and watch the replay to see what the opponent did so you can learn. Practice up and enjoy. Special thanks Thanks to the Japanese players who upload their videos on nico video, my buddy for letting me hog his xbox360 to play this game, Nevoid for helping with the Valentine guide and to the gamefaqs guys for sharing a ton of strategies for the game, like FlameMasterAJ, Antikirby and PandaKingEX, and anyone else who I forgot.

Guilty Gear 2: Overture Basics Guide. (1.2) (Fixed a grammar mistake, added paragraph on avoiding knockdowns, and a new section on using replay mode) This version of the guide will no longer be updated. the most up to date version can be found at: http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/xbox360/file/942201/58409 Hello. I’m going to give some information to help you understand how to play Guilty Gear 2 Overture and use it’s game play system to the fullest. I’m linking to the game’s U.S. website so you can download the instruction manual and get the most basic explanations of the game’s system and how the different characters and tribes basically function from it. I will try to explain how you apply the game’s tools in actual game play. Lets start with just what this game is all about. Link to the instruction manual PDF: http://aksysgames.com/gg2/system.html The game’s single player content is primarily a glorified tutorial to prepare you for the game’s Multiplayer. The Multiplayer is Guilty Gear 2 overture’s primary focus, much like many RTS and fighting games. This guide is focusing on the multiplayer and how to get better at grasping the game engine. After This basic strategy guide, I will put down basic strategies for each character, which will cover the uses for their tribes and master combat abilities. A Basic Rundown of Multiplayer I’m going to give a very, very basic description of how multiplayer works. If you already know how multiplayer works, than feel free to go ahead and skip this section. So what are you supposed to do in Multiplayer? The main focus of multiplayer battles is to destroy the enemy master ghost while protecting your master ghost. You can also win by critical downing the enemy master four times, but that’s not the main focus of the battle, and is more likely something you achieve while trying to destroy the enemy master ghost. There are many a variety of ways to accomplish this, but it’s primarily done through summoning and contracting servants, capturing ghosts, acquiring mana, and reaching the enemy master ghost with your servants and crushing it. Your master cannot capture ghost easily, and in most cases cannot damage the enemy master ghost while there is a barrier on it, that’s what servants are for. Servants can capture ghosts quickly and destroy the barrier on master ghost, and your master can damage the master ghost properly once barrier is destroyed. The power of the enemy master ghost’s barrier is also reduced the less ghosts he has, so capturing ghosts is vital as it helps for that purpose as well. Your going to need mana to purchase things in the organ including servants, so don’t bother trying to skimp out on capturing ghosts, because it will guarantee your loss. So summon servants, tell them to do stuff, like capture ghosts, and get you more mana, and when they run into enemy servants, they fight, and you help them kill those servants too. As far as the enemy master goes, he is something that you cannot ignore. Masters are the most powerful unit in a tribe, and although your objective is to destroy the enemy masterghost, ignoring the enemy master will give you tons of headaches, and will make things much harder to deal with. You CAN avoid confronting the enemy master for the most part and still win, but that’s extremely hard to do and will require some top notch strategy on your part, and if you had top notch strategy, you most likely wouldn’t be reading this basic strategy guide. There is something very interesting concerning the masters of tribes. They are the largest threat to your tribe, but the are also the greatest liability of their tribe as well; needless to say, the same applies to your master. Masters can dominate any single unit in the game, and can destroy a majority of your servant’s single handedly, while transporting his servants around the map, dumping his troops at ghosts that are deep in your territory, slowing the advance of capture units and your servants and giving you all the headaches that you are giving him. So you’re going to find that, time-to-time, you’re going to want to kill the bastard (and he’ll want to kill you as well of coarse). When the master dies, it’s extra bad for the tribe for a number of reasons, which is why the master is a huge potential liability. Killing the enemy master is good for you for a number of reasons. First of all, he stops giving you trouble temporarily, second of all, you can kill his units without fear of him raining on your parade temporarily as well. Thirdly, his master ghost receives damage from its master dying (or as the game calls it, receiving a “critical down”) and it’s barrier also is reduced, each consecutive death will do more damage to the master ghost and reduce the barrier further than the previous death. This allows you to take advantage of this, and if his master ghost is unguarded, you can go there, bring some units, dump them off (tell them to stay with the d-pad) and proceed to beat it up. If it’s the third critical down, you can most likely destroy it if you get there fast enough and provide the ghost isn’t well guarded. Given some time, the masterghost’s barrier will refill itself, so you must act quickly, before the enemy master comes back, and many a time, that may be impossible. The fourth and final benefit of critical downing an enemy master is that his fourth critical down will destroy his master ghost. Keep in mind that the opponent is fully aware of this and will obviously try to pull the same stuff on you for the same benefits. Killing enemy masters is a smart, and very powerful tactic, but you should not focus on that alone, unless you can absolutely destroy your opponent in master combat. So here’s a quick summary of the basic strategy of multiplayer. You purchase and unlock Servants to capture and control ghosts, these ghosts give you mana, so you can buy more servants and items to help give you an edge. You kill enemy servants and transport your servants to block the flow of enemy capture units to ghosts, and to slow enemy servants marches, while stopping the attempts of the opponent to do the same to you. All of this is to get your servants a clear path to the enemy masterghost, to destroy it, all the while making sure you don’t leave your masterghost vulnerable. Finally, you stop the actions of the enemy master by attacking him and killing him when you deem it appropriate, and take advantage of his critical down to push your forces more aggressively, or safely regroup. Remember, your primary objective is to make sure what’s going on in the map is in your favor at all times, and whatever you do yourself should not distract you from what is going on in the map. Organize and Prioritize to Decide Your Actions Ok, so you read the instruction manual and you understand the basic idea of how Guilty Gear 2 overture plays. Now, how do we play effectively? There’s so much going on at once, you can’t keep up with it. The easiest way to simplify the game is to prioritize what you should focus on. The game can be broken down to what’s going on in the map, and what’s going on in front of you. Both are extremely important, but there is an order to things. Consider it like this. What you do and where you go depends on what goes on in the map. With the exception of maybe the very beginning of the match, where you take preemptive action depending on your objective and the map your on, you will be using the map as your guide to your actions at all times. This means you NEVER ignore what happens on the map. Operating the Organ Dealing with the map means dealing with the organ, something you will have to get used to doing on the fly, it just takes time and practice to know when and where you can pull it out. When your good enough, provided that you will not get destroyed by doing so, you can pull it out almost anytime, even if your facing an enemy master, just be brief about it, or you’ll die. There’s no short cut to handling the organ, you will eventually figure out the layout of the organ, and how to operate it quickly with practice. Since it is such an important tool for victory, I will give you a quick guide on it. Left on the D-pad will open the organ. Simply brining it up will show a more detailed map than the mini map. From here you can see where your units are, and give them new orders, such as telling them to go to a new location, place them in groups, separate, or delete them. From here, if you press x, you open the purchase window. You can purchase items through 4 different tabs. The first tab is for summoning and contracting servants. The second tab is for buying the character’s personal skills, each set of skills are exclusive to every character. The third tab is what I call the permanent Item tab. You see how each stage has different times and weather effects? Well the significance of that, is each stage version has different Items available in this tab that, regardless of how much you buy, the Item will always be there for sale, in never ending supply. This is where you will find the usual healing items and such. Learn what each stage effect has available in this tab, as they are consistent from stage to stage. The Items in evening Bel Canto valley on this tab are the same as evening Illyria. The final Tab is the random Item tab, where you will find items that are not in the permanent Item tab are. Unlike the third tab, this tab is not already stocked with Items; it will fill up with Items over time instead. And once you purchase an Item here, it will disappear, and you will have to wait and see if it comes back or not. The more effective an Item is, the less likely it is to spawn. You will see bananas spawn more than resurrections. On the organ screen, if you press y, you will open the sell window. Here you can sell anything in your Item slot, even servants you picked up. This is good to use when you need mana and you have things you don’t need, or servants you don’t want to simply delete for no return on your mana. Get used to pulling out and putting away the organ after doing what you need to do, as fast as possible, and your game will improve immensely. Command and Look After Your Servants The basic strategy in using your servants relies on the map you are on and the servants you are using. Take time to familiarize your self with each map, and what each ghost connects into. Look for potential shortcuts for quick raids on enemy master ghosts. The basic strategy on pretty much every map is to spread your units through every route and potential opening to your master ghosts, which is a mutual route and potential opening for your opponent’s master ghost. Things get a little more complex in 2 vs 2 matches but even in that format, you are expected to take care of your side of the map, and to attack the opponent closest to you. In every map, it almost always boils down to you master ghost having 2 to 3 ghost directly next to it, and each respective ghost next to your master ghost has a path connected to it. So on the defensive end, prevent the enemy from advancing in those pathways that connect to ghost adjacent to your master ghost. But maps aren’t simply two to three paths ways, some paths intersect. It is those intersection that you want to keep an eye on, is if you are planning to have some fall back defensive strategy at all, separate a unit and leave it at that ghost which acts as an intersection. If there is a break in your defense and your opponent tries to slip past some units by using an alternate pathway, they might try to take advantage of an intersection that connects two paths. This way, you have a greater awareness of what’s going on in the map and thing are less likely to slip by you. Be aware of paths that lead to the enemy master ghost with very few ghosts in between yours and theirs. It can be a quick and direct ticket to victory and defeat. Vital pathways such as those should always be defended. Leaving behind a servant at some of the ghosts you have conquered is a decent tactic and can act as a safety net against an opponent who is trying to steal stray ghost from you. Don’t worry TOO much about servant types. It can confuse and distract you. As long as your servants won’t get annihilated, simply put together the servants that compliment each other’s weaknesses and send them out, they should do fine (armors and mobiles are a good example). Unless you see a big opening in your servant types (such as having only melee and range out, both vulnerable to armors), don’t go crazy with them. And if there is a weakness in your servant types, do your best to cover that weakness yourself. Only contract additional servant types that you are certain you can make use of effectively. Elite servants can be brought out any time you deem necessary. That means you can bring one out in the first round you if you want. If you use it well, it can really help you push the enemy back, as well as do a lot of damage to an enemy master ghost quickly depending on the elite servant you use. Be flexible when commanding your servants, and make sure you protect them from dying. If you see a large force that will certainly destroy a group of your servants tell them to retreat, fighting at ghosts that belong to them gives them a defense boost and will give them a better chance at surviving, or at least give you more time to get there and save them. If an enemy master is attacking them, making them retreat will cause the enemy master to waste time chasing them. While on the offensive, try your hardest to find or create openings to your opponents master ghost. Some times players can get careless, so while they are advancing upon you master ghost on one side of the map, there might be an opening that they might not notice, and you can advance units at that point. You need to be quick to take advantage of this though, or you can lose the opportunity. Setting up a distraction is not a bad idea either. If your on the defensive and a ghost next to your master ghost is occupied by the enemy, if you decide to send a group of servants there to engage them, make sure you don’t leave your master ghost unattended. If your not willing to separate your units, just leave them at your master ghost where they have a better chance at putting up a fight. Number one rule is to never leave your master ghost at risk. Last bit of advise to give is, while the match is winding down, and you may be dominating the map, make sure you either have servants protecting your master ghost or are at least at ghosts adjacent to it. The enemy may try to pull a desperate win strategy where they drop a significant force at your potentially unguarded masterghost. Just having a small group of servants (and depending on what they bring, a reliable elite) can be enough to repel their attack and provide ample time for you to get there and contain the situation. You have no idea how infuriating it is to lose to such a tactic, so keep this in mind at all times. Using Your Master Effectively So, we have seen and explained how what goes on in the map, whether it be in the mini map or the organ, should dictate your actions in the organ when commanding your servants, now lets concentrate on the meat of the game play, the master unit. As The Master, you control the most powerful unit in your tribe, but, unlike your servants, your not going to be sitting at a ghost, picking your nose while you fiddle around in the organ. You need to move around the map and either transport units, kill enemy servants and masters, protect your units, and create openings in your opponents defense as well as steal ghosts. There is SO much to master play on the strategy end, much of what you learn to do and use will come through practice, trail and error, experience and watching what other players do. I’ll try to give you some basic guidelines of what you should be focusing on. I. Concerning the transportation of units Transporting your servants and cutting off the flow of enemy capture units and slowing the marches of enemy servants, as well as gain early control of essential ghosts. One feature of the GG2 that give the strategy a deeper level of complexity is the ability to pick up and drop off your units, as well as emergency commands. In the beginning of a match, the first thing you should concentrate on is quickly giving orders and deploying servant as fast as possible. As soon as your servants spawn (they always spawn to your left first) pick them up and drop them off at key ghost, whether you pick up only one unit or three, the number you pick up depends on what you plan to accomplish. If your unsure of your skills, and are new at this, try picking only one up, than as you improve and get better, pick up two to three units at the start of the match. What you can do with the units depends on your strategy, for example, if you want to control a central ghost in the middle of the map before the opponent does, drop off the unit you picked up and tell them to stay there via emergency commands (right on the D-pad). That strategy is more along the lines of defensive. A more aggressive tactic, is picking up two to three servants at the start of a match, and dropping them off at ghosts adjacent to enemy master ghost, cutting off all their capture units and halting the marches of the servants. Or you can use do a mix of a offensive and a defensive strategy, by both getting early control of central ghost, and partially cutting off enemy units. Keep in mind that enemy masters will use similar tactic on you, so be ready to counter them. Some masters, such as Sin and Paradigm, can use minions to gain temporary control over ghosts. Transporting units serves purposes besides just getting a head start at the start of matches. You can carry and drop units mid battle to ghosts that you see open, but your servants aren’t near it, or are taking too much time to get there. If your units are halted by a big force, and you don’t have the time to fight them with your units, pick them up and dump the off at the closest ghost so they can continue on their way. You can go back and clean up the enemy servants you left behind. It’s worth noting that emergency orders are only temporary, and if you want an individual servant to stay where it is indefinitely, you should separate it and order it through the organ. You can drop units off with out stopping if you run into a capture unit before you drop the unit off. This will make your trip MUCH faster, be sure to tell them to stay unless you are fast enough and skilled enough to give each Servant individual orders before they spawn The last reasons I can think of to carry your units are, that you can pick up and drop units at the enemy master ghost, provided the conditions are right, you can have a victory on your hands. The final reason is you can carry elites to where they are needed the most and carry them around for the sake of being a bodyguard. When you confront an enemy master, drop the elite and tell it to stay with the emergency orders, and you’ll have some back up to fight along side with. II. Killing designated enemy servants The next major objective for Masters is killing enemy servants. Which enemy servants you should focus on are simple. The ones that your servants have least chance of winning against, and enemy servants that hold ghosts that you really want, those are the ones you should be focusing on killing the most, but it really falls down to what you want to do in the end. What specific Enemy servants you want to kill should depend on the character you are playing and what enemy units give you the most trouble. For example, if you are playing Sol Badguy and you see oncoming armor units, it’s in your best interest to get rid of those armor units as fast as possible, so go kill them yourself (because Sol does not have any regular units to counter armors other than armors). If you have no inherit tribe weakness, look for large groups of enemy servants to tackle and reduce their numbers to make it easier for your servants to fight. Another surefire target are Elites. Elites are very powerful, and unless they are overwhelmed by enemy units they are weak to or do not have an advantage over, they will harass and tear through your army, unless you conduct damage control and get rid of them yourself. Target and kill elites, unless you have ghosts you need to maintain or capture and have higher priorities. The last groups of servants you want to go after are the ones that are attacking important ghosts, or are protecting ghosts you want to capture. That’s pretty much all I have to say on that subject. The rest is all based on your personal judgment. I’ll give you a quick guide to killing servants to help pull this off. You have free mode attacks that are centered on crowd control and do weak damage, however, not many characters have reliable free mode attacks. The ones that do (Sol and Izuna come to mind) have certain combos in free mode that do a fantastic job of creating some breathing space, so take advantage of characters with decent free mode attacks. The main attacks you will be using to kill servants as fast as possible are locked on combos, that for the most part, have nothing to do with spending tension with few exceptions here and there. Besides finding locked on combos that provide good crowd control or damage out, characters have special moves to help with crowd control, so find a good combination of free attacks , power attacks, locked on attacks and special moves to tear through servants. You can practice fighting servants in general free missions and specific servants in training mode to come up with good tactics for getting rid of them.

you see, I did that with my guides on GG2, so that's safe, but I never suspected the forum to crash like this, so I didn't make a backup for the links posted in my GG2 video thread. there was also combo inputs for certain videos, so there was more than just links in that thread. I'm certain now, the GG2 video thread is about a month old. it was posted around the end of October. I think making an announcement of backing up some important posts would be nice, so this doesn't happen to anyone in the future. theres no guarantee that the work posted on this site will stay safe, as I have just witnessed.

that was said primarily to put him on the spot. I can't stand it when someone says they will do something and they break their word. pisses me off to no extent and pretty much invalidates whatever they say they will do in the future. if your not going to do something, don't say you will. honestly though, I'm more concerned about my video thread. it would be one hell of a waste to simply let it vanish. I can only restore a fraction of what was there, but if it isn't brought back, I will slowly but surely get working on putting it up back to speed. I myself used it a lot, which is ironic because I'm the one who organized it. EDIT: I decided since I type walls of text, I should title the majority of my post. should help those sick of reading the crap that I write.

it was in the guilty room. I have the feeling I'm out of luck. EDIT: oh, you said when, not where, my bad! uh, about a month or so ago. the latest is about two months. I'm not too certain the exact date, but roughly around a month or two.

MY THREADS! THEY HAVE DISAPPEARED! WHY!? I had two threads in the Guilty room. Guilty Gear 2: overture basics guides and GG2 video thread. I can replace the basics guide thread but I can't replace the video thread. someone PLEASE tell me they can recover that thread. I had a lot of hard work put into it.

you will have fun with paradigm until you fight someone on the map. then the fun ends there. Even really good paradigm players get rocked at master fights. BUT I WILL LOVE HIM ALWAYS. Izuna's giant armor unit is more reliable than the fucking Gigant. less flexible, sure, but more reliable, and hell, depending on how you use it, cheaper. I need someone to make character vs character guides. I wrote enough guides already, I just want to focus on getting better. I forgot to put this in my Izuna guide, I will put this in there: (L) forward step, 4x will break an opponents guard if they just stand there. Xithmos said he would make an Izuna tutorial video focusing on masters only, but because Xithmos is a lazy bum, we should disregard what he says he will do. he's about a week late or so with that project. EDIT: I just noticed my two GG2 threads in the guilty room have gone missing. I can only replace the basics guides thread, I never made a backup of the video thread. if it can't be replaced, I'm going to be very sad.