Moblin

Mugen is gonna be super useful in 2.0, and it's also the only thing we'll have to learn that's any different. Hakumen's BnBs and confirms either doesn't exist anymore or haven't been changed at all. So I'm glad it looks like a very deep mechanic this time around. I'll be saving my burst even more than I do now when 2.0 hits. I can't wait to 3c CH > 3C for a nice two hit combo on Amane, old school

Can you combo into Mugen from 6a air CH? like maybe 6a CH > mugen > Gurren?

Mixup in Mugen is actually pretty sick. Enma > iad Agito for the crossup is great. Sucks that Poro dropped the first combo. It's gimmicky, but it's really hype to do that at the end of your health bar. It seems even stronger in 2.0. Maybe Hakumen is supposed to be an install character this iteration lol.

In 2.0, Mugen's shippu does more base depending on how many stars are used during the combo, right? Does the wave from OD shippu count as stars towards the minimum damage if you have Mugen going at the same time?

That 3k shippu was pretty good. Confirming that Hakumen is really going to be an All-or-Nothing character. Make your confirms count guys :P

Idk, I'll have to find it again. But it probably used OD, I just forgot that it did because it's been a couple months since I saw the vid

You can get 7-8k off 2a in the corner with OD, it all just depends on the situation. Seems like Hakumen is gonna be even more about hard reads. I'm excited to learn the new Mugen combos though. A gameplan I'm going to try out is getting the opponent to burst early and then being conservative until I can get a mugen starter, which should be manageable since 2a CH > 6a > Mugen does 8k.

It's your decision, but I would save your burst for later in the round on the off chance you can get a 2d/5c/3c CH. You can steal rounds very easily, but you do give up the momentum disruptor that you can use against Bullet. You almost have the IAD > j.a, j.c thing down - every time you whiff it and the j.c doesn't come out it's a huge opening where hakumen is not putting out any hitboxes. But you do try to use it in a lot of good ways. Go into practice mode and do it 10 times in a row. You could use barrier blocking more to push bullet out and give yourself some breathing room. Every time you use it he has trouble getting in, but you don't use it nearly enough. You could work on your loop execution some more, but with 2.0 coming out you may well well not. Work on confirming off of your 2b, even if it's just 2b (normal or counter hit) > 2a xwhatever > 3c, it pushes them slightly to the corner, let's hop in on their knockdown and set up some better oki. You got like 3 CH 3bs in a row and didn't get knockdown or combo off them at one point. Every time I saw you get CH Agito, the follow up was dropped. j.B later and 5c faster when you hit the ground, cuz it could have ended a few rounds single handedly. Also he crispness of HD frame rate is amazing

No projectile invuln is definitely going to suck, but I think it's because they really want him to cut projectiles more than anything else. He has 2 options to deal with projectiles in CP2.0: Block or Cut them Right now we can Block, Cut them, Counter them for a free star, and kishuu through them. Too many options for a character that is supposed to have a hard time with zoners after all, I suppose. Kishuu will still go under Ragna 5b and it's safe on block so I could care less

I know kishuu will lose its projectile invuln after 2.0, but will it still be head-body invuln?

I can't stress how good IAD j.a > J.c is in neutral and in anti-jumpout pressure. Every Hakumen should know how to do this. Here's the breakdown of what it is: At midrange, Hakumen can IAD over the opponent and land on the other side. While doing this, using j.a immediately after airdashing and then buffering j.C will cause the J.C to come out perfectly every time before you hit the ground, hitting most of the cast. Going through the list of uses: Neutral game Immediately using j.a and then buffering j.C always puts you at the exact right height to hit most characters standing as you fall with j.c. It's too fast for them to anti-air on reaction, and if they time it late then you airdash right past them and hit with j.C j.a will hit them out of any airgrab attempt if they do manage to hard-read the airdash. Confirmable into Hotaru for pretty meter-efficient damage and corner carry. If j.c hits, it confirms into Enma on normal or CH, and it's completely safe if they block it. Haku pressure (aka stay next to me so you can block my 2a some more) Every Hakumen hates when they up-back. After they've pushed you out of Renka range they are free to start trying to up-back while you are forced to either hop in or kishuu. Here's another option. If they do jump + barrier block: the J.a is very good air pressure against most of the cast and can lock them down with combinations of j.a and j.b while you both hit the ground, allowing you to continue pressure. If you are pressuring your opponent, and they have barrier-blocked you to a moderate distance away where most Hakumens kishuu or hop forward, you can use this technique instead. If they backdash: if the j.a doesn't hit them, you can go into j.b for an instant jump in as soon as they come out of their backdash that they will either get hit by or have to block, and a j.B jump-in is one of the best ways to start Hakumen pressure. If they do nothing but continue to block: The j.C as you land on the other side of them keeps them locked down where you have the option to either reset back to neutral or kishuu forward and continue pressure while looking fancy. J.C blockstun = 18 frames, kishuu = 18 frames, so you're at +0 when you do this perfectly, which isn't hard to do when the j.C is buffered after j.a to be perfectly timed close to the ground. As a defensive maneuver Don't use this if you are close to the corner. IAD'ing over your opponent into the corner is pretty dumb and most of us aren't dinguses. When you are stuck in the corner: lots of opponents like to jump and throw out a hitbox or jump > airgrab when they suspect that you want to IAD out. J.a beats a ton of these very cleanly. Alternatively, if they throw out a regular normal, you IAD over them, whiff your j.a, and then hit them with a falling J.c for a fast, reliable side-swap situation. Overall, It's a convenient option select that functions as an anti-jumpout or neutral spacing tool that tricks your opponent into getting hit or trying to beat it. Try it out sometime and, especially, report back if any character has reliable moves that beat it in neutral.

Those are great. I still need to grind out Mugen combos in this version, since they've been useless forever now I never bothered. One thing I've noticed as well is that lots of times when I use 6a AA successfully, they'll be counter-hit out of the aerial but still get staggered on the ground if they're low enough. Which is interesting and also increases the chances for a 6a > Mugen confirm. Has anyone seen an air-hit 6a > Mugen confirm though?

Nah that's just a fuzzy guard. It'd be broken is Hakumen could 5a standing people. And by broken I mean decent

Things I noticed: Poro seems to use 6a like it's safe on block. Enma seems like it's safe on block. Big damage is still possible, but Hakumen's optimal playstyle is a bunch of 1k-2k combos from hitconfirms off of j.a, and weird confirms that are harder for the opponent to block. One round Poro ended it in about 20 seconds and he never did more than 2k per combo. He doesn't use any special followup after using a successful counter, although I thought a few instances 2d > Kishuu would have helped him a lot in the Nu Matchup. Is that possible to do anymore? Like some others mentioned, Hakumen's burst is even more important now and you should use it only when you're about to lose to save for OD confirms. 6a > 6b is a common combo route now, which I actually really like. It's fun. j.2a seems like a good jump in. Seems like most of the games are just making people respect Hakumen's pressure and landing a bunch of weak hits like j.a, j.b and letting it add up and keeping the advantage until then with good reads and good reversal baits, and good meter management. I feel like Hakumen is more about fundamentals than before.

I've always wanted to use j.2a as a jump-in, this is the first time it won't float Hakumen up when it hits something. The hitbox on that move is amazing. It has outspaced many characters' anti-airs and beaten them clean where any other aerial move would fail - in my experience. Airdash mixup is one of my favorite things about this game as well. Hakumen's is especially rewarding too. j.b >j.a >land > 2b works every time off an airdash, not to mention you can triple over head with: j.b > j.a >TsubakiHotaru Which will get a lot of players.

The loop was silly imo. It took my local FGC like 6 months to learn how to burst during the BnB reliably because it auto-baits so ridiculously well. Not to mention prohibitively difficult under pressure - I had to practice it for hours. I don't think that timing for the j.2c will ever leave my brain. There was always that extra rep you could get if you felt cocky, and I always felt cocky and sometimes dropped it. For the sake of 100% optimization. That being said, I do hope some other BnB is found besides the silly staircase he's got going now. Things I find interesting and exciting: new 4c New special cancels out of counters j.d shenanigans - less recovery time means more shenanigans More damage from big confirms like Zantetsu and OD combos Better Hotaru combos, as those are one of my favorite confirms to do with Haku 6b is unchanged, able to be RC'd. Leads to more damage than before with an OD combo thanks to zantetsu buff.

Same here. I will also miss doing Raw Enma on a read from neutral and confirming it into guaranteed 6-7k unburstable damage. Now they at least have a small window to burst before you can overdrive on almost everything.

Ok, that makes sense. It's also a bummer. Does Renka still force stagger if you hit the opponent with it while they're already on the ground?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZZh-GkT630 This is the Haku combos vid someone posted earlier, I had a question about something I noticed: The combo at 3:42 in the video Where he OD cancels the 2c: I wonder if there was a reason he didn't jc the OD for the longer duration, since I'm sure it's possible with 2C being jump cancellable. Only thing I can think of: I wonder if the miniscule amount of time it takes to hold up after the 2c and then ODC the jump eats up the untechable time of the first 2c, which would definitely suck. This would be really good because as it stands, Renka is no longer the move to start IAD combos with, which seems to be one of the more optimal combo routes for corner carry now. Because: Haku seems to do average damage midscreen again with an emphasis on corner combos. (OD still does obscene amounts anywhere). In fact grounded 2b > Gurren is like the only way I've seen so far. It seems possible to do the j.b > j.2a, land 5C in the video, or at least j.b > j.a, land 5C. They must not have thought it was optimal because it's not in the video, or it's not possible. Instead they go for j.b > j.2a, land 2c > Staircase

I was hoping 2d > Kishuu cancel would help with getting out of a few projectile/trap setups, but then Kishuu lost its projectile invuln. Agito might be more useful after the patch. Currently, there is a very specific time and spacing where it will beat out Koko's 6a. But then Haku is way too far away to get a good combo from it. One of the changes makes it so Hakumen is closer, thus combo opportunity for correctly calling out 6a now. Other than that: 3c fishing is one of my bane's in the matchup, and if a quicker 4c will actually hit her out of startup of 3c, the neutral would become so much easier. I'll also get around to watching your GFs sometime today hopefully

Here's a question: What specifically about Kokonoe's changes in CP2 will help in this matchup?

Really? No more dropping down into whatever move they choose for a free Fatal... Do you have a link?

@Mac: I would predict, since both take 4 stars to start: Renka(1) > Enma will do much less damage than Renka(1) >CT simply because of CT's amazing p2. But either way, 2 stars or 4 stars, get them in corner and hopefully get a j.C > Hotaru link somewhere. And with 5 or more, Zantetsu's bonus Proration will let us blow up anyone midscreen with starter > Gurren/Renka(1) > Zan. @.ShotS: Good analysis. He'll still be a heavy mistake-punishing character rather than a read-based, or mixup based character. I would love him to be more read based, but I'm still looking forward to messing around with him when the patch hits. Which, doesn't even have a US release date does it?

Renka sweeping their legs out from under them made way more sense than staggering... Looks like Hakumen is just kicking people in the shins now edit: It might be worth it to just let the second kick in Renka fly now, do an IAD combo to the corner, where we can actually do meter-efficient damage à la Extend. I see 2 good confirms from Renka midscreen, but they either use (2) or (4) No 3 star combos like renka (1) kishuu, loop like CP1. (2) starter --> Renka --> IAD combo or (4) Starter --> Renka --> CT --> Whatevs, might be 5a > 6b, might be staircase.

Oh my god, why is kishuu not projectile invuln anymore. Why