Moves that let you buffer your next input in the air
Spoiler:
There are certain moves that let you buffer an OL input as long as you're in the air. It's easier to time if you press the button as soon as you're airborne.
Dragon Sword
On wall and During Flying Bird Flip X
Talons
Flying swallow on nonhuman enemies
On wall moves
Probably others.
Dragon Sword
On wall and During Flying Bird Flip X
Talons
Flying swallow on nonhuman enemies
On wall moves
Probably others.
Spoiler:
You might have noticed that the second hit in the Dragon Sword sometimes causes Ryu to do the spin move at the end of YYY and wondered why that happened.
Well wonder no more. The reason this happens is that the third hit of YYY and the second hit of the X counter are exactly the same move. How do I know? If you do YYY and an enemy ends up behind you Ryu will do the backwards slash in the X counter.
The only other move I know of that's like this is the second hit of ->YY with the Talons.
Well wonder no more. The reason this happens is that the third hit of YYY and the second hit of the X counter are exactly the same move. How do I know? If you do YYY and an enemy ends up behind you Ryu will do the backwards slash in the X counter.
The only other move I know of that's like this is the second hit of ->YY with the Talons.
Spoiler:
In most cases, if the next button in a string is y, timing the press after the buffer window and before the recovery animation triggers an OT instead of the next move in the string, (assuming the enemy is delimbed.)
Basically, just delay your Y press on a delimbed enemy.
I don't think this works with XY launchers.
Strings I've tested this with.
The Y finishers in the Scythe, Lunar, and Vigoorian Flail X strings.
Dragon Sword: XXY, YYY, On landing X, Running YY.
Kusarigama: ->XX (this one's kinda weird because there's no Y press), XXXXY
Tonfa (not as useful here because of Heavenly Justice but still an option): ->XYY, YYY, XXYYY (only with the second Y press I think)
Useful applications: * = input delay to cause the cancel.
Dragon Sword
OL XX*Y: OL X has a high delimb rate and the second X press gives you time to react to whether or not you delimbed an enemy. If you're confident you can skip the second X press.
Y*Y: If a delimbed enemy is just out of reach of an OT you can use this to really quickly and safely close the gap.
YY*Y: The second Y press frequently takes off legs so I always delay my third Y press when using this string.
Lunar
XX*Y: The second X press has a pretty high delimb rate so I always delay the Y press.
Kusarigama
->XX Hold Y
Basically, just delay your Y press on a delimbed enemy.
I don't think this works with XY launchers.
Strings I've tested this with.
The Y finishers in the Scythe, Lunar, and Vigoorian Flail X strings.
Dragon Sword: XXY, YYY, On landing X, Running YY.
Kusarigama: ->XX (this one's kinda weird because there's no Y press), XXXXY
Tonfa (not as useful here because of Heavenly Justice but still an option): ->XYY, YYY, XXYYY (only with the second Y press I think)
Useful applications: * = input delay to cause the cancel.
Dragon Sword
OL XX*Y: OL X has a high delimb rate and the second X press gives you time to react to whether or not you delimbed an enemy. If you're confident you can skip the second X press.
Y*Y: If a delimbed enemy is just out of reach of an OT you can use this to really quickly and safely close the gap.
YY*Y: The second Y press frequently takes off legs so I always delay my third Y press when using this string.
Lunar
XX*Y: The second X press has a pretty high delimb rate so I always delay the Y press.
Kusarigama
->XX Hold Y
Spoiler:
I've seen people do this before but never seen it explained. You need to understand this to understand the next mechanic.
Basically hold the left stick (as if you were running) and press Y when you land. It doesn't matter if you jump straight up or in a direction. Because Y, ->Y, and running Y all translate into OTs this mechanic lets you perform an on landing OT.
This is insanely useful in chapter one when you only have the lvl 1 dragon sword. XYX OLIRY and Y Counter X OLIRY are legitimately better than the izuna drop in a lot of situations because you're less likely to be grabbed.
Also one of the best things about the kusarigama.
The only exception for this rule is with the lunar. The same input results in an OL ->Y which is likely a carryover from NGB. Ryu auto targets an enemy with the dragon sword and tonfa (and others) when you do this.
Basically hold the left stick (as if you were running) and press Y when you land. It doesn't matter if you jump straight up or in a direction. Because Y, ->Y, and running Y all translate into OTs this mechanic lets you perform an on landing OT.
This is insanely useful in chapter one when you only have the lvl 1 dragon sword. XYX OLIRY and Y Counter X OLIRY are legitimately better than the izuna drop in a lot of situations because you're less likely to be grabbed.
Also one of the best things about the kusarigama.
The only exception for this rule is with the lunar. The same input results in an OL ->Y which is likely a carryover from NGB. Ryu auto targets an enemy with the dragon sword and tonfa (and others) when you do this.
Spoiler:
This is where it gets interesting.
Adding in air x to your jump changes your OL property which allows you to instantly do a running X move. The OL input can't be buffered but there's no startup time when you press the button.
This works with every weapon except the dragon sword to my knowledge.
It also allows the lunar to do an OLIRY as long as you don't buffer the Y press.
Adding in air x to your jump changes your OL property which allows you to instantly do a running X move. The OL input can't be buffered but there's no startup time when you press the button.
This works with every weapon except the dragon sword to my knowledge.
It also allows the lunar to do an OLIRY as long as you don't buffer the Y press.
Spoiler:
So I'm sure it's pretty common knowledge that you can cancel a string by holding block which causes Ryu to automatically enter a block stance if he's hit.
I haven't really tested this but I accidentally hit the block button right when an enemy was about to hit me mid string and all of a sudden a counter attack came out. I was pretty surprised.
Would this work with guard resetting?
A friend who played the game way back told me it was possible to either counter attack or OT if an enemy was about to hit you after letting a UT go. I haven't been able to find anything about this or make it work myself but I suspect this might be the same thing. He also said it might've been patched out so idk.
I haven't really tested this but I accidentally hit the block button right when an enemy was about to hit me mid string and all of a sudden a counter attack came out. I was pretty surprised.
Would this work with guard resetting?
A friend who played the game way back told me it was possible to either counter attack or OT if an enemy was about to hit you after letting a UT go. I haven't been able to find anything about this or make it work myself but I suspect this might be the same thing. He also said it might've been patched out so idk.
Spoiler:
This is more on the strategy end of things but I haven't seen many (or any) people who properly differentiate between this move's variations. There are two separate startup animations of different speeds and they have different delimb rates on nonhuman enemies. It's really hard to say for sure but it seems like the delimb rate is tied to the startup animation speed.
Fast startup = high delimb rate. Slow startup = low delimb rate.
The move grabs enemies up close differently from those far away. If they're far away Ryu does an animation where he pulls the enemy in and if they're up close this animation gets skipped. You're invulnerable either way so it doesn't really matter. If the grab kills an enemy you get different camera angles for the head cutting animation depending on whether or not you have to pull them in. Not really relevant to anything I just thought it was kinda neat.
Most of my testing on nonhuman enemies has been done on gajas so there might be some blindspots in my observations.
-> Hold Y: Slow startup animation. Use this when further away from human enemies after creating space with larger hitboxes (ETs/UTs for instance)
X Hold Y: I'm pretty sure the only reason this variation was included was to be consistent with the way -> Hold Y and X Hold Y work with the dragon sword. I can't think of any reason to use it.
X ->Y: Fast startup. Cuts off a leg which is good because the enemy isn't knocked away so this move can be chained into an OT by holding Y. Not as reliable because only one X press means the enemy is less stunned so they can get out of the grab. You generally want to use this grab after stunning a human enemy with a shuriken or something to reduce the probability of them escaping. This one doesn't seem safe at all against nonhuman enemies.
360Y X or OLX X: The grab part is the same as X ->Y. This variation is insanely powerful against nonhuman enemies given the high delimb rate, fast startup, and the fact that it can be used OL. You get super quick access to an easy delimb and it can be used from a distance so you don't have to risk getting close to enemies with lots of super armor.
XX ->Y: Fast startup. This one cuts off an arm and pushes human enemies away. Nonhuman enemies don't get pushed away so you can hold the y button to automatically chain into an OT. Much more reliable because either the second X press keeps the enemy stunned or the enemy evades the second X press and the grab subsequently catches them. Very infrequently will an enemy escape this grab but it does happen.
Fast startup = high delimb rate. Slow startup = low delimb rate.
The move grabs enemies up close differently from those far away. If they're far away Ryu does an animation where he pulls the enemy in and if they're up close this animation gets skipped. You're invulnerable either way so it doesn't really matter. If the grab kills an enemy you get different camera angles for the head cutting animation depending on whether or not you have to pull them in. Not really relevant to anything I just thought it was kinda neat.
Most of my testing on nonhuman enemies has been done on gajas so there might be some blindspots in my observations.
-> Hold Y: Slow startup animation. Use this when further away from human enemies after creating space with larger hitboxes (ETs/UTs for instance)
X Hold Y: I'm pretty sure the only reason this variation was included was to be consistent with the way -> Hold Y and X Hold Y work with the dragon sword. I can't think of any reason to use it.
X ->Y: Fast startup. Cuts off a leg which is good because the enemy isn't knocked away so this move can be chained into an OT by holding Y. Not as reliable because only one X press means the enemy is less stunned so they can get out of the grab. You generally want to use this grab after stunning a human enemy with a shuriken or something to reduce the probability of them escaping. This one doesn't seem safe at all against nonhuman enemies.
360Y X or OLX X: The grab part is the same as X ->Y. This variation is insanely powerful against nonhuman enemies given the high delimb rate, fast startup, and the fact that it can be used OL. You get super quick access to an easy delimb and it can be used from a distance so you don't have to risk getting close to enemies with lots of super armor.
XX ->Y: Fast startup. This one cuts off an arm and pushes human enemies away. Nonhuman enemies don't get pushed away so you can hold the y button to automatically chain into an OT. Much more reliable because either the second X press keeps the enemy stunned or the enemy evades the second X press and the grab subsequently catches them. Very infrequently will an enemy escape this grab but it does happen.
Spoiler:
You can hold Y and Ryu will do OTs so long as there's a delimbed enemy next to him.
This mechanic is hinted at in the Scythe's move list by the downed enemy move.
This mechanic is hinted at in the Scythe's move list by the downed enemy move.
Spoiler:
Maybe this is obvious but I wondered why this was even an option for the longest time.
The launcher at the end automatically targets an enemy you aren't in the process of attacking if one is available.
Probably still useless lol.
The launcher at the end automatically targets an enemy you aren't in the process of attacking if one is available.
Probably still useless lol.
Spoiler:
Maybe obvious to a lot of people but each separate hit in shuriken cancellable multihit moves can be cancelled. Probably useful for approaching with kusarigama ->X but I need to look into that more.