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Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 – Competitive Character Guide
Xbox 360
Competitive Character Guide by PWXShock
Version: 1.5 | Updated: 05/24/06
May 24th, 2006 e-mail firstname.lastname@example.com for questions. This is the most complete reference guide for all the characters in UMK3 by me, Shock (Sinala, MK2KungBroken), with sources from professional Chicago players Lex, and MOE30W, also with help from ded_ (Bulgaria, aka Psykosonic). If you want to be good at this game, you have to read all of the general tactics information, if you want to be amazing at this game, you have to read information on at least the top tier, and then developed your strategies for characters you prefer using. Use this in conjuction with my juggle and comboing guide, however there are the most essential, and some difficult in game combos listed in this as well. Everything you absolutely need is here. Current Tier List: (debatable) 1. Kabal 2. Human Smoke 3. Kung Lao 4. Kano 5. Reptile 6. Ermac 7. Nightwolf 8. Robot smoke 9. Sindel 10. Jax 11. Sonya 12. Kitana 13. Stryker 14. Scorpion 15. Unmasked Sub-zero 16. Jade 17. Liu Kang 18. Sektor 19. Classic Sub-zero 20. Cyrax 21. Shang Tsung 22. Mileena 23. Sheeva Abbreviation Key: PS = Punch starter KS = Kick starter U = UP D = Down B = Back F = Forward HP = High Punch LP = Low Punch HK = High Kick LK = Low Kick BL = Block R = Run aa =Anti Air JP = Jump Punch JK = Jump kick RH = Roundhouse INF = Infinite otg = off the ground Based upon Lex's guide from Shoyruken.com Ground Combos: Blocked ground combos are very good for two reasons, chip damage and position. You should almost never finish a ground combo unless you want to use the last hit as a positional setup of some kind. Stopping a ground combo before the last hit keeps you close so you can continue the rushdown. 99% of all ground combos push the opponent back on the last hit. example character: Jade When someone is blocking, run in and do her knee combo (HK, HK, LK, HK). Stop on the 3rd hit to remain close, and then go into run jabs. The reason for this is you can get more guaranteed damage from the chip hits and continue rush, resetting the trap, and to make sure they are blocking throws and not trying to counter attack. Restart the leg combo, stop at the 3rd hit, then mix it up, maybe stick in a standing HK or a dash kick. This is a lot better than completing the initial ground combo and pushing the victim back, allowing them to counter attack easier, and continue assaulting them. Blocking: Blocking in MK is different from virtually every fighting game. Obviously, there is a button for block, rather than holding back, which eliminates the need for proximity blocking entirely, and you can buffer moves easily while blocking. A not so obvious concept about blocking in MK is frame update. Character sprites are behind by one tick in MK, so you can block things upon the frame they connect. There is a similar concept in SFA3 called "Blue Blocking" which your character turns blue and it takes away less guard stun meter. You can essentially Blue Block sweeps and low hitting attacks in UMK3 by tapping D+BL on or just before the frame the sweep will connect, and your character will not have to duck, enabling them to counter faster, or sometimes duck half way, and stand back up instantly. It is a good idea to learn how to block only when absolutely needed, so you aren't stuck in standing back up frames after releasing block, rather, releasing block at the end of the contact and standing up while unblocking. Run: In simplest usage, the run bar depletes obviously when you press the run button and forward, and you continue to run by holding forward, not forward+run. You can hold run and tap forward repeatedly to take small, medium, and large running steps. If you hold forward+run after the run bar has been depleted in any situation, the run bar will not refill until you release either forward, or run. Run bar is depleted in slightly different delegations for an aaLP or HP, a little more for aaLPLP or HPHP, and on moves like the Teleport Uppercut, and Liu Kang's Bike Kick. After a pop up combo, you can walk forward and let the run bar begin to fill up, once you get a sliver of green, you can take a "run burst" and get an extra HP before many juggle combos. Run jabs: You can cancel a LP or HP by tapping any other attack button, however, run performs no action when you tap it (except if you hold it even without run meter you can no longer do special moves) so there is no chance of throwing out a HK or LK or blocking, and you can create a rhythm to continue advancing forward, or doing a double LP, cancel with Run. What this does is it forces the LP or HP to retract the instant it completes it's contact frame, rather than holding it, reducing the total jab duration by 1/3. It may not seem like much, but it is in the heat of battle. The best way to run jab is to keep your meter from emptying for as long as possible. This means you should hold forward, and alternating tapping run and LP, and releasing forward briefly during the LP, so the run meter doesn't drop anymore than it has too. This is a very offensive tactic and dramatically changes the game when used effectively. Not only does it give you multiple chances of landing a throw, but its really good chip damage and it moves the victim towards the evil, evil corners. Doing more than 2 LP run jabs in the corner will result in push back, so try to keep it to a pace of 2, and mix up with other attacks when you see an opening. Watch for early counter ducking LKs or uppercuts. Kara jabs: Canceling a LP or HP with block can be a very good idea against characters with fast wake up moves, specifically Kabal. Essentially, you should make it a point to throw out some LPs, in effort to bait a spin out of Kabal, and cancel that LP with block so the instant the spin happens, you will go into block frames. As long as you are holding block on or before the frame of contact, the spin will not be able to connect, even if you hear the jab sound, nothing will come out, you will just block. This also sets up the chance for snuffs and throws out of special moves, especially one that require a forward tap. The LP will either connect, you will throw them, or you will block. As long as you are dong this properly there is very little chance a surprise move will get you. You might want to try practicing against Kabal players, try to get a basic combo or a sweep to knock him down, then run in and labor an obvious LP. This will generally cause the Kabal player to react with a wake up spin. On the average player, the Spin will plow through them, but if you kara jab rather than run jab, the spin will be blocked and you can punish Kabal. This tactic works well on just about any character with a special move like this. Corner Runjabs: Once you have someone backed into the corner and blocking, run up to them and tap LP, run, LP, run, or LP,LP, run etc. to throw out really fast run jabs. They will be in the corner, and they will eat pixel after pixel of block damage. Don't do more than 3 jabs in succession or you will suffer "pushback". The only thing that the victim can really do is escape with a special move (teleport, fly kick, square punch, etc), uppercut, or crouching LK. If you can sniff out when they are going to try to do any of those, do a knee or special move, preferably a containment. If they block a knee you will be pushed back, so do it wisely to keep them trapped in the corner. Try to throw out 4-6 run jabs then knee, because thats usually when people realize that they are losing a lot of energy to chip damage. If the knee hits, continue to run jab and keep them locked down. Also, don't forget to hold back while you do the corner run jabs so that they can't counter throw. If you are under corner run jab pressure, after the first 1 or 2, try and spam on HK, and you have a good chance of sneaking out a knee lift on them right as they are about to do another run jab. Throw Defense: Hold "Back" and you will not be thrown. Up+Back, Down+Back, Down+Back+Block also works. Many people complain about throws, but throw prevention is pretty easy in MK, and it's been this way from MK1 through MK4. Crossups: Im sure you all know have an idea of what this is. Its purpose is a little different in UMK3. The main purpose of this is to "flip" the controls of the victim, setting up potential cross up throws. It's also useful to crossup and try for a jumping HP starter to ground combo, which if timed correctly, can snuff uppercuts. There are a lot of character specific tactics for jumping HP linkers, for example, Kabal can often times land within the collision area of an uppercut and start his combo without getting hit, or Jax and the female ninjas can cross up while still in the air, and connect a jump punch starter with their foot behind them, because the attack started before you crossed the other player's axis, but the collision box became hot after, thus putting it directly behind them. Another cross up concept is the reverse hitting in general. You can time sweeps to connect behind you if someone does a shallow cross up to try and land for a cross up throw. The opponent will land right behind you, and you if you time it right, the sweep will be out in front of you, and your back side will touch them. This also works on standing LKs very often in similar situations. Crossup Throws: This tactic is best used while an opponent is being defensive. The best way to describe this is when you are at jump distance, do an early jumpkick, so you land directly on top of the victim, without hitting them. You will land overlapping the victim's sprite. If you hit LP right as you land, you will have a very good chance of connecting a throw because they have to hold back to prevent the throw, and the direction is pretty hard to determine in such a close situation in a small amount of time. A good example of this is with Kano's upward Cannonball. You can place this move to descend directly on top of your opponent, and this results in a free throw very, very often if they don't have time to counter you before you land, which is limited generally to an uppercut, followed by their rush down, and your choice of counter uppercut, or Cannonball wake up. Special Moves: All special moves in UMK3 are "taps". For insance, Ermac's lift is Back, Down, Back HK. Most street fighter players interpret this as a Dragon Punch motion. It can work like that still, but keep in mind that all you need to do is register the BACK switch, then the DOWN switch, then the BACK switch, and hit HK. No fluid motion is needed and you will find your game improving as you become faster, but more labored in your direction hitting. This game was made for switches and not 360's. A lot of players have trouble juggling with moves like Kitana's Air Fan, or even Kabal's air fireball. It's pretty easy to do once you understand how "taps" work. After an aaHP,HP, punisher, hit Forward+UP+HK for the jumpkick, then hit Forward+HP+LP to toss out the fan instantly, and very high, enabling a good follow up juggle. Remember that you can generally buffer move directions with a pause, and while blocking to hide your movements, and then pressing the activating attack button shortly after. Punishment Mode: When certain moves are blocked, they will roll up into a ball and float right next to a player setting up a punisher juggle. Blocked moves that cause this are Kano's regular Cannonball, The Ninjas' teleports, Kung Lao's dive kick, Mileena's Roll, and Stryker's Baton Dash. Other characters who have a definition air punishment set up are Sektor and Robot Smoke's teleport uppercut, which has somewhat limited options to punish depending on who you are using, Liu Kang's Bike Kick, and Mileena's Drop Kick. Other punishment scenarios to look for are against Liu Kang's Dragon Kick, Kabal's Spin, Sonya's leg grab, Reptile's Elbow Dash and Ninja Slides. All of these, when blocked, make them stay locked in place, generally very close to you, free to be countered, but only within a very brief time. This is not much longer than the amount of time it takes you get out of blocked so you must react quickly. Anti-Air: Commonly referred to as "aa" directly in place of the attack which would be used as anti-air. These are attacks which are used to take someone out of the air. It is very important to understand every character's best aa opportunities. A standing HK is a very simple and effective way to anti air someone. Look to use this in close range if someone tries to jump away from a run jab scenario, but also sometimes use the run jabs to juggle into a special move. Some characters can aaHP others out of the air very easily, setting up decent, to super high damage combos. Off a single aaHP, Ermac can achieve 82% on almost every character, but Jade can only get 18% when countering a jumping attack. Some characters should go for RHs on their aa's because it will set up combos, traps, or other tactics and set ups. The best simple form of aa is the uppercut. Try and scout early JKs, run under, and uppercut them from the other side. It is a great psychological tactic. Run under RHs work well also with certain characters who hit high on the RH. Some characters have special moves which serve this purpose, like Ermac's lift. It can be used if the person jumps from far away, which can be baited by use of a non side switching teleport punch. Sindel's scream is excellent anti air, as well as Kano's upward ball. Kabal's spin can be used as anti air from even a ducking position. Damage Protection: This is a very necessary concept in games with single moves that do as much as 21% and no air hit-limit juggle combos. It is a safeguard that makes attacks do approximately half their normal damage (chip damage is generally 25% normal damage). Grounded Jump Kicks activate damage protection, so anything you connect after a JK will do half damage. Certain special moves activate damage protection, like Male Ninja Teleport Punches, Stryker's Riot Gun, Mileena's Roll, etc, while others do not, like Robot Ninja Teleport Uppercuts, Harpoons, and Shang Tsung's Ground Eruption. Cyrax's and Sheeva's Throws can be juggled off of, and they both activate damage protection. In MK3 they did not, and you could score reasonable damage off them. This was a pointless change, as they are now even more crippled than before. Stryker and Sonya's command throws (the Baton Dash and the Leg Grab) have their own damage protection built in, in which the move itself is reduced to half damage after 3 hits combo before it, and if you get them in an autocombo, they will do 1/4 their normal damage if the combo goes beyond 3 hits. Kabal's spin is the only attack that can turn off damage protection. If you do his pop up combo, and only the uppercut connects, spin them and let them fall to the ground. On the way to the ground do aaHPHP, JK, air fireball, and you will get the full damage for the juggle, plus 1% for the uppercut in his combo, and 1 pixel from the spin, totalling 45%. Example character: Human Smoke Block a teleport punch from Another Human Smoke,and he goes into punishment mode. If you are mid screen, do aaHPHP, JK, teleport punch, harpoon, 3 hit pop up, aaHP, JK, air throw. The result is (with the air throw counting as a hit and adding damage) 11 hits 68%. To break this down completely and understand where the DP comes into play: aaHPHP = 13.6%, JK = 15.6%, teleport punch = 9.5% (activates DP), and now your harpoon does 2.5% intead of 5%, and the 3 hit pop up do 9% instead of 19%, (the remainder of the hits do what they should do after his pop up). Your new combo is aaHPHP(13.2%), teleport punch (miss)(0%), aaHP (6.6% and replacing the teleport punch which does 3% more), JK (15.5%) harpoon(5%), 3 hit pop up(19%), aaHP, JK, air throw. 11 hits 78%. Even if you do aaHPHP, TP miss, aaHPHP harpoon, the combo will do 1% more than the other. This is not always a usable combo because it depends on how close to the edge of the screen Human Smoke is, but it shows that the same amount of hits, with one hit doing less damage than the DP activating alternate move, will result in more damage. Example character: Sonya aaHP, JK, leg grab 3 hits 43% (no DP) JK(DP), aaHP, leg grab 3 hits 29% aaHPHP, JK, (personal DP)leg grab, 4 hits 33% Example Character Ermac: JK, TKS, aaHPHP, JK, TKS, aaHPHP, aaHP, JK 8 hits 52% (counting the slams' damage) aaJK (meaning while both players are in the air) TKS, aaHPHP, JK, TKS, aaHPHP, aaHP, JK 8 hits 91% (again counting the slams damage) - identical combos, huge damage difference because the JK hit in the air. Pushback If you block a normal attack in the corner, the attacker gets pushed back to just under jump distance (with the exception of LP jabs, as you should know by now). If you juggle someone in the corner with two LP/HP jabs, or a jab after just about any other hit, you will be pushed back, but you can cancel this with any special move. The same thing applies to when you throw out 3 jabs in succession and they are blocked, the third punch frame will freeze and you will be pushed back. At any time during the "iceskate", you can cancel out with a special move. Corner Resets This is going to be difficult to explain in text, but I will do the best I can. So back to what I was saying about crossup throws, when you land on top of them and the sprites overlap, if you dont throw, the attacker will "ice skate" out of the overlap. Theres rules for this when it happens in the corner, and its very useful to know. Let me start out with mock up of the starting positions: p1 - player one's starting position p2 - player two's starting position p1c - player one corner p2c - player two corner | - wall |p1c p1 p2 p2c| p2 backs p1 all the way back into p1c so that he can't go any further. Now, when p2 jumps on top of p1's sprite, he will always be pushed back out of the corner and p1 will remain in the corner. p2 will not be able to get behind p1 while p1 is backed all the way into p1c. so, if p2 is backed all the way in p1c, and p1 jumps on top of p2's sprite, then p1 will be in the corner and p2 will be pushed out. So why is this useful? Read about kabals corner trap below and you shall see. example character: kabal its kabal vs. kabal. im p2 and I back p1 all the way into HIS corner, and he blocks. I start the corner rj's while waiting for him to let go of block. once he does, I hit him with the flash (B, F + LK) then the corner reset pushes me back OUT of the corner. Instead of doing the uppercut combo (which will push me back on the final hit), I continue to rj until he lets go of block and i hit him w/ the flash once more. Again, the corner reset keeps him trapped in the corner, but this time I sweep him. The most common reaction to this is to "wake up jump" out of the corner. So after I hit him w/ the sweep, I hit LP to juggle him immediatley after he jumps, and I get pushed back cause its a juggle. THEN, I cancel with the flash during the "iceskate" and spin him in the air. Since his forward jump brought him out of the corner a little bit, and he was NOT all the way back into the corner, I DON'T get pushed out of the corner. Instead, he's hovering off of the ground and I get flipped around, setting me up for an easy 2xHP, JK, Fireball juggle for 42%. Fake Ducking: When rushing down someone, an interesting tactic to use is a fake duck. Run in, duck outside of normal attack range, stand up and run in again after they attack and counter with a combo, or at least a standing HK. This is a great bait move to throw in every now and then if you are having a hard time getting in for run jabs. You must be very fast and aware of placement for this to work, it is good for a character like Nightwolf, or Sonya. Glitch Canceling: Many special moves in MK have a number of hits you can do before that move is locked. Moves like the Harpoon and teleport punch have a limit of 4 hits and the moves are essentially turned off. MKII did not really have a feature like this, but they start implimenting time limit usage on moves, which still exists in UMK3. You can cancel a LP, HP, JP, or JK on the frame of contact, into a special move with a hit limit, one hit beyond that limit. In other games this technique is referred to as "Just Frames" meaning essentially you have just one frame in 60 to get this to work. Example character: Scorpion Block a teleport punch, counter with aaHPHP, delayed JK, teleport punch, run in, aaHP(glitch cancel on contact frame) - harpoon. You have just broken the rules and done 5 hits before a harpoon. Other examples of moves with hit limit cancels: Kitana's Fan lift (0) Sub's Freeze (1), Mileena's Roll (2), Reptile's Forceball(3), Ermac's Telekinetic Lift(4). Sindels' scream has very strange properties. The scream itself has no legal limit, if you connect a single aaHP or LP between screams, you can continue doing screams until they are too low to the ground, however the general hit limit is 2. If you juggle 1 HP, scream, 2HPs, scream, you can continue doing single HP, dancing on that last hit limit. After this, you can glitch cancel her scream multiple times: aaHPHP(limit reached), aaHPHPgc, aaHP gc, etc. This concept in general is a very advanced tactic and you should stay away from it in game until you know what you are doing, but the easiest character to practice this with is Sub-zero, as you will see more gcing with him than anyone. Relaunch combos: What you must do is do a pop up (launcher) combo and then jump as they arch in the air. Right before they land you have a small window to connect another jump punch that fools the game into thinking they are on the ground, making them stand up and sell the attack standing instead of being juggled. If you mistime it, they will either be juggled by the jump punch, missed, or they will be able to block it. Not everyone can relaunch every character due to collision detection. Kano, Ermac and Human Smoke can relaunch everyone. Sonya, Kabal and Classic Sub-zero can relaunch a lot of characters, and so and so forth. Some characters are very hard to relaunch, some are easy when it's the computer, like the Robots and Sheeva, because they don't block until the combo breaks and their vertical collisions are taller than others. This means they are touching the ground and still hittable for longer duration, but they are in blockable frames longer as well, so ultimately they have just as small a window to legit relaunch. With characters like Sonya, Ermac, Human Smoke, and Kano, you must pause after their pop up before jumping forward since they recover faster than Kabal and Classic Sub-zero. With the latter, you can just hold Up+Forward after the pop up and getting relaunchers with them is very easy. In general, this is another advanced, somewhat cheap tactic, and generally not worth it unless you have mastered the timing. Off the Ground: (otgs) For some reason at the end of an autocombo, you cannot block on the last landing frame, or even completely lying on the ground which is why you can sweep after Jade's and Kitana's 4 hit punch combos and Jax's 7 hitter (minus the the last hit), or ducking LKs in the corner after many combos. The ducking LKs can result in free counters however, so do not use them against someone like Kabal, how can just allow you ducking LK and spin you immediately, Robot Smoke, who can teleport uppercut for free as well. Nightwolf has a 3 hit kick combo and the first hit is very low to the ground, allowing him to hit the Robots, Kabal, Kano, and Sheeva while they are laying completely on the ground in the corner within the duration of time you have before they can block. In any other situation, if you hit someone while they are lying on the ground, or in the first landing/blockable frame you will instantly appear blocking if holding block. If you connect a standing LK or HK after an auto combo the opponent will appear standing and selling the hit, unable to block. For characters like Sonya, Jax and Kano, their sweep recovery is very fast and wake up otgs are possible, however blockable. If you get a sweep close enough, you can start an autocombo with a knee lift directly afterwards, and it is very difficult to react in time to block it. Liu Kang can do this to some extent as well with his kick combo, so can Nightwolf and Kabal. That's it for now folks. Enjoy the read, and start playing. Classic Sub-zero (updated 11-8-05) Classic Sub-zero is ranked very low in competitive play, around 20, I don't have an exact number to give him, because he can of course be use skillfully and be an annoying menace due to his two containment moves, super fast, long range slide, etc. He is a defensive character, and you should focus on baiting freeze or ground freeze scenarios, but it is possible to go on offense with him and he has a few tactics here and there. Watch out on his 4 hit pop up because if you are a hair slow on it the last hit will miss leaving him hugely open. Of course don't forget he's a male ninja and has really great normals. Basics moves: The Male Ninjas have excellent basic moves, good height and range on everything in relation to their sprite proportions, their roundhouse is extra wicked and can connect in almost any situation. The only thing that can be weird about them is their aaHPs. Sometimes they tend to miss in situations where you wouldn't expect them to and this is due to kara canceling with run to speed the last hit up, in this situation, often you can do aaHP,LP and it'll work, with slightly less damage, otherwise, always take an extra small step in before doing aaHPs. The Deep Freeze is an age old move that still has some benefits to it. It has a hit limit of 1, but breakable to 2, allowing up to 3 freezes per combo, but it's tricky timing and usually not worth it. Some characters are easier to glitch hit counter rule break than others, like the Robot Ninjas, Jax, and Stryker. You can use the freeze as an anti cross up. Scout a cross up jump kick, perhaps in a run jab situation, and run under their jump, and do the freeze as they kick, it'll freeze them in air and set up a decent combo. It's got a little more start up than unmasked Sub-zero's freeze and that hurts it a bit. The freeze is OK for zoning, watch for jumping backwards opponents and freeze as you see them jump. Often times the freeze will hit in a situation where they are physically standing on the ground but cannot block, so watch for these situations. It will look like you should do an aaHPHP combo, but really you should go for a JK starter into his pop up combo. Take note that sometimes characters can be nabbed by a freeze when ducking, especially in close range, especially Shang and Kano. If a person does a JK, block it and instantly do a freeze as soon as they hit the ground. This is useful because it's rare a person does a jump kick and lands and doesn't continue pressure, the chance of them landing and just blocking are slim, and often time it happens more than once. This will either work almost everytime, or they will stop doing random jump kicks altogether, making them chance their strategy and psychologically giving Sub the upper hand. Sub can freeze within the amount of time it takes for them to land, and even if they block, he's relatively safe. It doesn't work quite as well as unmasked Sub-zero but still useful. The Ground Freeze is a neat and somewhat unique move. A common tactic I see overabused is run jab, run jab, ground freeze. Sometimes the person will lock up and wind up slipping, but it's their own fault. It's always counterable, and harshly at that. You might be able to get away with this once a match, maybe even once a round if you do one early on and then late in the last match, but it's probably better to do it when they have less than 50% life left because that will be a guaranteed victory if they do manage to not avoid or counter it. You can try doing something like, 4 hit pop up, deep JK, let them hit the ground, run jab LP to get them blocking and semi stuck, ground freeze. This move also has a hit limit of 1, but breakable at 2, and it's very difficult to do for some reason. You cannot do freeze, aaHP, freeze, aaHP ground freeze because the game looks at it very mathematically. When you freeze them, you cannot ground freeze. If you already have one hit out before the freeze, and go to glitch break a second hit on the frame it connects, the game never sees them as unfrozen during the time the ground freeze would be activated, and a frame too late means the game has accepted 2 hits and locked the ground freeze. The ground freeze cannot be done if your opponent is within a certain distance from the wall with their back facing it (about a character body width), so if you are trying to do ground freezes and they aren't coming out, that might be why. The real factor here is their actualy collision box, which moves slightly back and forth during their stance, and sometimes you can let them stand there, do a ground freeze, and nothing will happen several attempts in a row, but then it will work. (just some technical data) The Slide is good for adding damage to combos, as a wake up, but don't over abuse it, as it's easily punishable. It's the fastest of the three slides with the most range, so it's easier to link into juggle combos. Sometimes you can stick one in for free after an upper as people tend to jump away, or sticking in an extra slide after one because often times people do not anticipate a second slide. Also watch for some misbehaving frames with Kung Lao, Sonya and the Female Ninjas especially. The slide will sometimes simply not hit them at all like Nightwolf's shoulder tackle against a blocking Stryker for example, so if you have someone at danger, a slide is not always the safest route to victory. It is possible to break through the recovery of a comboer while blocking and slide inbetween hits, for example the female ninjas kick combo. It has a point of lag in the middle where you can actually go from standing block to ducking block, and if you time it right, the slide will come out here and you can beat them to their next hit. It's a great way to end a match if they are on danger, run in for a chip damage combo that will beat you, and you interrupt their last hit with a slide and win. Classic Sub has one semi-infinite, he can relaunch: Sheeva, Robots, Kabal, Nightwolf, Kung Lao, Jax, Sub-zero, Shang Tsung, Male Ninjas, Liu Kang, Sonya, and Kano Basic Juggles: 1. aaHP, freeze, aaHP,HP, JK, slide 5 hits 43% 2. aaHP, ground freeze, JK starter, HP, HP, D+LP, D+HP, JK, slide 9 hits 51% (try a deep JK, to standing HK at the end for 55%, might be more of an advanced juggle) Advanced Juggles: 1. aaHP, freeze, cross up JK, standing HK 3 hits 36% (sometimes you can get a second JK for 3 hits 37%) This combo is good against characters whom you can't always basic combo #1 against due to collision boxes. 2. aaHP, freeze, aaHP, freeze, aaHP,HP, JK slide 6 hits 50% 3. aaHP, HP, ground freeze, JK starter, HP, HP, D+LP, D+HP, JK, HK 10 hits 62% Corner Juggles: 1. freeze, (reposition if necessary) HK starter, HP, HP, D+LP, D+HP, JK, RH, run in HK 8 hits 57% 2. aaHP, freeze, aaHP,HP, JK, HK 5 hits 50% 3. aaHP, freeze, aaHP,HP, JK, RH, slide 6 hits 60% (or LK on some characters for 6 hits 65%) 4. if too close to the wall to reposition try aaHP, freeze, JK, RH, run in HK 4 hits 54% (slide or LK is good too, or a straight up JK to start, will all result in slightly lower damage) Cyrax Cyrax is a low tier character, ranked around number 20 in UMK3. Overall he is the worst of the three Robot Ninjas, however like Sub-zero, with some effort he can be a beast. Your main strategy with him is going to revolve around zoning with his bombs and the net, which has a big collision area and leaves little room to punish him from full screen. Cyrax's problem isn't the damage he can deal, but it's the methods of doing it which generally require a lot of tactics surrounding them. Take advantage of his high damage 6 hit auto off a net for 42% with the jump kick starter, or go for tactics with a roundhouse, setting up bomb scenarios against non teleporters. Go for his 3 hit kick combo mixed in with run jabs. Some downsides overall to the the Robot Ninjas are: they have some juggle advantages and vulnerabilities in terms of taking hits, watch for them. They can be relaunched by just about anyone with a launcher combo, easier than most to time, and they are harder to juggle in certain situations, particularly for Ermac and Human Smoke. Kung Lao can spin them and I believe Nightwolf after his autocombo in the corner when it is performed on the "just frame" so not only will you take the 34% or more from the auto combo but you're stuck in the corner infinite. Anyone who can get a ducking LK after their autocombo in the corner on anybody can get a standing HK after their combo on them, for example: Liu Kang, HP starter, 7 hit combo is 38% + standing damage protected HK is 46%. Also, watch for openings for the air throw, which is a very neat and under used move. Try mixing up bombs and nets in the corner with run jabs to keep your opponent locked down, and when they move go for the air throw. Cyrax can juggle many characters off his regular throw with a LP to net, the damage thereafter is limited but none-to-less it is still damage. His throw also has it's own tactics because it lands strangely. You can try to run to the other side of your opponent before they get up and go for another throw on the cross up, which if timed right is 50/50. If you are unsuccessful you can go into run jab tactics. Cyrax is a lot of fun, but overall far too much effort to be successful. Robot Ninja Basic Moves: Standing HK is topps, uppercuts are somewhat bad in the sense they tend to miss in crucial situations similarly to Kung Lao's, for instance you have to take a step in if you want to counter a punishable move sometimes to hit an uppercut. The robot Ninja roundhouse is late on the hit and has some funky corner issues, good range, low height, better on far away jump ins. LPs are really good for double run jabbing mid screen, they keep in tight on the opponent because you have to be closer to connect them. Sweeps have good range and recovery is the same as female ninjas. JK is good, jump punch is kinda tight and ball like, and is easily counterable. Ducking LK is quick and pointy, excellent to get out of runjabs or prevent them. The Net is his primary containment move. You can often times trade a hit for it, like a jump kick or jump punch can be snuffed with a well timed net. If you do a net from full screen and your opponent jumps backwards to clear it, run forward with Cyrax right as he recovers and they will land in the net, setting up his 6 hit with a starter, or a roundhouse to bombs. You can buffer a net to escape run jab scenarios as well because it only needs a couple frames and doesn't even have to be on the screen yet to be active. Use the net in juggle combos to extend them a bit. The net has a limit of 2 hits before it is disabled, and can be broken to 3 with some timing, you also must pause briefly between connected usage. For example: aaNet, aaHP, net, aaHP, net (the nets do not count as part of the combo) and now finish it accordingly. An active net disables bombs, and his air throw, but not his teleport. Watch for when the net connects and the opponent is touching the ground. Generally a person will be holding block in this situation and the net will not connect, but there are many occassions where things are happening too quickly, but the point is, you should go for the 6 hit autocombo with a starter. The Net is also excellent against sweepers. You can trade a sweep for a net very easily and it's worth it. The Bombs are a very unique containment move and are a big part of his zoning strategies. You can set bombs up in patterns to do big damage combos, as they remain dormant for a few seconds each. There are two types of bombs, normally referred to as "close" and "far" but a better terminology for them would be "midway" (no pun intended) and "tracking" because the B,B version makes the bomb land midway between Cyrax and his opponent, and the F,F version, always lands where the character was upon the command input for HK. They have a number of limitations. Two bombs can be on screen at once, they can be done instantly after one another, a third bomb can be out in a succession after the first one goes off, but not if another bomb/general hit connects after the first bomb, thus reconizing a limit of 1 hit before bombs are disabled. For example: aaHP, instant bomb drop, compared to aaHPHP, no bomb drop. A bomb cannot be done while a contained net is active, but can be dropped after one in the same manner as after an aaHP from a contained air net, because the net doesn't count as a hit in the combo. Your best bet with bombs would be to do something like: place a midway bomb from long distance which generally keeps the opponent at bay unless they are a teleporter and they will wait until it explodes, then a tracking bomb or a net to make them move around, particularly towards you so you can throw out a HK, RH or even aaHP, JK to snuff them, and make them land back on the bomb, setting up an easy 53-56% or upwards to 68% juggle depending on the character. If they jump backwards, try and use the net follow tactic by running towards them and making them land in the net. You can also try doing things like dropping a midway bomb, and running to it, stand over it so you can safely plant another bomb, your opponent will be hesitant to move near you because the other bomb is about to go off. From here you can start doing mix ups and mind games with the bombs and keep your opponent off their game. A good tactic is keeping someone locked down on a bomb, and letting off so they will jump, then HK them back down to set up a combo. The teleport is a dangerous move. Cyrax is very vulnerable during it both in air, and briefly on the ground. It is useless for transit against someone like Kabal, as a spin will totally whipe him instantly, or a male ninja because of their containments. Use is sparringly for escapes but never over abuse it. It is rare that you can make use of it during juggle combos except to get out of the corner to the other side of someone when you want to exploit a corner juggle. For example: Cyrax in corner, aa net, aaHP, net, teleport, aaHP, net, aaHPHP, JK, aaHP, air throw -7 hits 63%. You can also use the teleport on projectiles with significant recovery to get close and counter, but it's not as fast as something like Kung Lao's teleport which works the same way but invertedly. Cyrax's air throw is strange, as it is a command throw. The motion is D-F, BL, and then press LP while you are in the air and near your opponent. It has good priority when activated, but that leaves a lot of room for error as it has a specific route to travel towards the opponent and where he is under them depends on how well it will connect. If you do an air throw while someone has left the ground through the ground, like Sektor, or Kung Lao, it will cause some funny glitch scenarios. Use the air throw to extend juggle combos, and use it as transit moreso than the teleport because it is fast and hard to punish, not to mention overtly unexpected. The best way to use it to get close to your opponent would be as they are falling, this way it creates a very obtuse hyperbola, causing him to get close to the ground faster than it would be if they were high in the air and he has to float a bit. Use it after roundhouses and JKs to get in close very fast if you are not using bomb tactics. Making Cyrax fast, maneuverable, accurate, and vicious is the key to making him win. Basic Juggles: 1. aa net, aa(HP,HP), net, aa(HP, HP) air throw 5 hits 41% 2. throw, aaLP, net, aaHPHP or JK, air throw 25-26% Advanced Juggles (There are tons of bomb variations that require set ups): 1. Bomb, RH into bomb, aaHP,HP (another HP possible on many characters) air throw, 5 hits 56-63% 2. aaHP, net, aaHP, net, aaHP,HP air throw 5 hits 41% 3. aaHP, net, aaHP, net, JK, air throw 5 hits 41% 4. aaHP, aaHP, net, deep JK, aaHP, air throw 5 hits 50% 5. (corner) aaHP, aaHP, net, JK, RH, air throw, 61% 6. (corner) aaHP, net, JK, net, JK, RH, HK (or air throw) 5 hits 69%-70%, only works on some characters, situation generally does no present itself, but some position can be done in the corner while they are in the net, timing is crucial Lucky Far Tracking-bomb with predropped Mid-bomb setup: 1. bomb(far away) connects with bomb(mid) dropped soon after, then a third bomb dropped instantly after the first (essentially juggling off each bomb towards you) RH onto third bomb, aaHPHP, aaHP, air throw 8 hits 84% Ermac Ermac is a high tier top 10 character, he is ranked 8th but in the right hands can be considered top 3 as his combo/juggle ability is unparalleled in terms of average damage per combo coupled with the relative ease. He is played very much like Human Smoke, except without air throw tactics. His average combo ability is around the 50% or more on anyone at anytime. I will list many specific character combos in his juggle section. What you are going to try and do with him out of the ordinary teleport methods is anti air HP counters on jump ins and what you can do with that is cancel the HP with block so you cannot be accidentally hit and if you do hit your HP you still have plenty of time to cancel with a Telekinetic Slam (TKS). Watch out against Kano and Nightwolf JKs because they tend to still over prioritize aaHPs if you don't time it right, instead aaRH them. Against agressive players you can throw out a TKS sometimes after a blocked auto combo, and they will get snagged by it. Against jumpy or overly aggressive players you can stick in a TKS after an aaHK if you so choose to use it over the aaHP, and often times it will get them on their wake up. Don't over use it. Run and knee jab mix ups, teleporting away from and landing next to are a must but watch out because players can scout the teleports and position themselves to get in the way of what you might think is a safe teleport, punishing you for it. His walking speed is slower than Human Smoke's so multi jab juggles need to be timed more rigidly. The only combo you should ever use midscreen is HK, LP when rushing down, and off starters. Male Ninja Basics moves: The Male Ninjas have excellent basic moves, good height and range on everything in relation to their sprite proportions, their roundhouse is extra wicked and can connect in almost any situation. The only thing that can be weird about them is their aaHPs. Sometimes they tend to miss in situations where you wouldn't expect them to and this is due to kara canceling with run to speed the last hit up, in this situation, often you can do aaHP,LP and it'll work, with slightly less damage, otherwise, always take an extra small step in before doing aaHPs. The Telekinetic Slam is one of the most broken and unique moves in the game, however you need to learn how to max out the combos off it. Its properties are a little unorthodox, as it does damage, but does not count as a hit in a combo (unless you hit them before the first bounce in which it doesn't do damage). It does not activate damage protection and has a limit of 4 hits before it is locked, and this means 2 usages per combo are about the norm. There are ways to stretch it to 3 uses but they have to be absolutely perfectly time with no room for error so it's not worth getting into because you really can't get any more damage than normal this way conventionally. Your standard set ups are going to be either hit, TKS, hit, hit, hit, TKS -or- TKS, hit, hit, hit, hit, TKS, etc. Make sure to try and labor the 3 hit succession just a bit to elapse the time limit inbetween uses, which isn't noticable usually. Good set ups for the TKS are anti air HPs if someone JKs early, this the perfect time to aaHP and cancel to a TKS. From here a guaranteed 78% damage combo is possible on almost every character, more difficult on some than others, but on characters like Shang you need to be slightly more rigid with the timing and max out about 75%, otherwise it's not worth trying the extra hits, and on a lot of characters 82% standard counter from a standing aaHP is possible. Remember that the TKS doesn't count as part of a combo it also doesn't add to the damage for some reason, so for every TKS you use in a combo, add 5.5% to the end damage read outand 3% in DPed combos, generally two should always be used in a combo so that's 11%. In the corner you can set up a TKS combo off an aaRH easily. Remember to run cancel all your jabs during juggle combos to allow more time for extra jabs and JKs. It is possible to glitch cancel (on the frame of contact) up to 5 hits before a TKS, but it is not recommended. The Teleport Punch is a great move if used for escaping and overall positioning and manueverability. If you use it too much players will see your patterns and counter by getting in the way of it and blocking. If you are experienced enough with the placement and timing you should be able to teleport almost anytime it is available (it has a small time limit between usages) and not get punished. Use if when you are getting up to escape run jabs, HKs or knee starting combos. Ermac turns invisible when he does the teleport punch and is still actually on the screen moving until he lands or shows up on the other side of the screen. If you are air thrown or Bike Kicked, for example, before you leave the screen Ermac will stay invisible until he is hit by another move. Take advantage of this, an invisible Ermac is an even dealier Ermac. Try only to teleport when you have 2/3 of the screen behind you or at least a total of 2/3 screen distance between you and your opponent in some manner. This would mean, you can have half a screen behind you and your opponent is standing right next to you, you'll wind up landing about sweep distance away behind them. It is best to try and get the placement down to land right next to them even if they are blocking, this sets up free throw potential and/or rush down. Watch out for counter sweeps, LKs, HKs or uppercuts if you rush in immediately. Utilize the teleport punch as a combo extender but try not to actually hit them with it as it activates damage protection. Its limit is 4 hits before it is locked, has a small window of time limit recharge and you can stretch it out to 2 uses per combo if done right. A good way to start a DPed juggle combo would be to aaRH an incoming JK and hit a teleport punch on the other side before they land. After this do a TKS, wait, RH, again, teleport punch, TKS again, to standard finish of choice. Do not use the teleport punch as a safe guard chip hit when someone is on danger because it only does about 2% chip damage and danger can mean the person has 4% life left. It is common to see people lose matches they should have won because of this. In order to connect his teleport punch on characters like Shang Tsung, Liu Kang, female ninjas, Robots Ninjas, and Sheeva in mid screen standard combo situations, after his HK, LP pop up, jump forward and wait until he starts coming down on the flip to JK, then instantly cancel to the teleport punch. This makes him line up better with them. You can also glitch cancel the teleport punch if you want to get fancy. The Green Spark is a standard, slow starting fireball and is only good to use as a combo terminator. In most cases if you realize you're not going to be able to get 3 aaHPs at the end of a juggle (it's noticable on how the aaHPs connect after the second TKS) you can subsitute aaHP,HP, aaLP, fireball and that will usually connect and is compenstable upon reaction. There are no tactical uses for his fireball. There is never a time when a fireball can be used as a last resort on a jumping back opponent with him when a teleport punch would be better and more of a guarantee. In general the fireball leaves him too open because it takes him forever to recover, you can jump over it easily, and he stays in one position. Ermac can relaunch all characters in the game like Kano and Human Smoke. Some characters are more difficult than others, in order to best line him up, you should do his pop up, pause slightly before jumping forward, and punch at the last possible moment. Basic Juggles that work on everyone: 1. HK, LP, JK, teleport punch, TKS, aaHP,HP, fireball 7 hits about 42% 2. (for a punisher) aaHP,HP, JK, teleport punch, TKS, aaHP,HP, fireball 7 hits about 53% 3. punch starter, HK, LP, aaHP, TKS, aaHP,HP, fireball 7 hits about 43% 4. (for a punisher) aaHP, TKS, aaHP,HP, aaHP, TKS, aaHP,HP, aaHP, fireball 8 hits 69% Advanced Juggles: These are maxed out combo situations that work faithfully with little risk of failure on all characters except Shang, Sonya, Liu Kang, and Sheeva. Adjustments are required for the slightly lesser damage combos on the specific opponents mentioned with usage of one less HP, or a fireball instead of a JK at the end, downgrading the combos by about 15% 1. HK, LP, JK, teleport punch, TKS, aaHPHP, aaHP, JK 8 hits about 47% on Sub-zero, Jax, Stryker, and Male Ninjas, you can walk in after the HK, LP, and do a RH, then teleport punch, perform the TKS motion backwards because the teleport punch usually juggles behind him, for 48% 2. punch starter, HK, LP, JK, TKS, aaHP,HP, aaHP, JK 8 hits 52% 3. (for a punisher) aaHP,HP, JK, teleport punch, TKS, aaHP,HP, aaHP, JK 8 hits 58% 4. aaRH, teleport punch, TKS, aaRH, teleport punch, TKS, aaHP,HP, aaHP, JK 8 hits 62% 5. (for a punisher or counter to a jump in attack) aaHP, TKS, aaHP,HP, JK, TKS, aaHP,HP, aaHP, JK 8 hits 82% 6. (Opponent at Midscreen) TKS, aaHP,HP, teleport punch (miss), aaHP, JK, TKS, aaHP,HP, aaHP, JK 8 hits 82% 7. try and stick in an otg (off the ground) HK LP after his TKS for some neat looking juggles HK, LP, JK, teleport punch, TKS, HK, LP, aaHP, fireball 8 hits 46% Advanced Corner Juggles (watered down): 1. HK, LP, JK, RH, (or aaHP), TKS, aaHPHP, JK, RH, HK, (or LK) 9 hits 64% (58%) 2. punch starter, HK, LP, RH (or aaHP), TKS, aaHP,HP, JK, RH, HK (or LK)9 hits 66% (60%) Corner 100% juggles: 1. TKS, aaHP,HP, JK, aaHP, TKS, aaHP,HP, JK, RH, LK (works on just about everyone and is good if someone does a projectile in the corner and Ermac is about half screen away) 2. aaHP, TKS, aaHP,HP, RH, TKS, aaHP,HP, JK, RH, LK 3. aaRH, TKS, aaHP,HP, aaHP, TKS, aaHP,HP, JK, RH, LK 4. suJK, TKS, aaHP,HP, RH, TKS, aaHP,HP, JK, RH, LK Human Smoke Human Smoke is a top tier character, ranked #2 of 23 available characters in the game. He has one of the highest combo potentials for starting a combo on the ground. Essentially, 2 mistakes and you are done. The only thing that makes him better than Ermac in terms of tactics is his air throw, but the air throw alone brings him tier level up dramatically. Male Ninjas can play a nice defensive game and he is one the best to make use of that with because of the available damage he can deal in those situations, not unlike Reptile and Ermac. They all have huge damage opportunities on defense, but it is possible to rush down with them as well. There is a common misconception that Human Smoke is just a clone of Scorpion, who is gray and smoking, with no difference in moves. In reality, Human Smoke is much more powerful than Scorpion because he has pop up combos, and he also has a slightly faster walking speed, which makes certain juggle combos easier. His damage range is anywhere from 10 to 35% more at any given time in the same situation as Scorpion. Run jabs and safe teleports are your game. Make sure to only use his HK, LP combo when rushing down, or off a jump punch start. Many players will use his 4 hit combo (the one Scorpion should use) because of reflex. Remove that from you brain because it is worthless. Anti air HPs and roundhouses are a must, and can easily link into 50%+ combos, make sure you have the timing down, and know which characters can be anti air HPed easily. Mix up his run jabs with knees, for example, double run jab, run in, knee, run jab, knee, knee, and keep them guessing, but watch for an opening to set up his pop up combo. Don't forget about his airthrow, and try and get them low on cross up attempts. When run jabbing, sometimes an opponent will jump away, watch for a juggled LP and get them with a harpoon afterward. Also pay attention to collision detection. For some reason when male ninjas duck and block, a lot of distance gets between them and the attacker, causing their combos to miss, like Jax and Kabal. When Jax's first punch in his combo, or Kabal's uppercut misses, capitalize on that with a harpoon, or run in and combo. Male Ninja Basics moves: The Male Ninjas have excellent basic moves, good height and range on everything in relation to their sprite proportions, their roundhouse is extra wicked and can connect in almost any situation. The only thing that can be weird about them is their aaHPs. Sometimes they tend to miss in situations where you wouldn't expect them to and this is due to kara canceling with run to speed the last hit up, in this situation, often you can do aaHP, LP and it'll work, with slightly less damage, otherwise, always take an extra small step in before doing aaHPs. The Harpoon (or Spear, I tend to throw both words around randomly) is an essential move as it is a very quick containment and relatively safe to do from full screen depending on the who the opponent it. It's good on wake ups as it seems to have a hit box in front of him before it even comes out. You can try throwing out a harpoon afterward a combo for mix ups on jumpy players. It can be linked in juggle combos with a normal limit of 4 hits before it, and can be broken to 5. It can counter many simple standing attacks for free. You might want to also get the feel down for players who jump back and snag them on a landing. Anytime you connect a Harpoon with Human Smoke, it means at least 50% on every character. Learn the best combos for specific characters, but most of them are vulnerable to his bread and butter 56%. A situation where you might be able to consistently connect a spear would be when running jabbing, then doing a teleport punch without leaving the screen. At this point a lot of players try to jump in, hit a spear right as they are coming down, into a convenient combo of choice. You can also just throw out a spear as weak up at this point on characters who don't have teleports. The Teleport Punch is a great move if used for escaping and overall positioning and manueverability. If you use it too much players will see your patterns and counter by getting in the way of it and blocking. If you are experienced enough with the placement and timing you should be able to teleport almost anytime it is available (it has a small time limit between usages) and not get punished. Essentially think of the screen's width as 1 unit, and then if there is more than half of the entire screen behind you and the opponent combined, you are safe. Use if when you are getting up to escape run jabs, HKs or knee starting combos. It is best to try and get the placement down to land right next to them even if they are blocking, this sets up free throw potential and/or rush down. Watch out for counter sweeps, LKs, HKs or uppercuts if you rush in immediately. Utilize the teleport punch as a combo extender but try not to actually hit them with it as it activates damage protection. Its limit is 4 hits before it is locked, has a small window of time limit recharge and you can stretch it out to 2 uses per combo if done right. Do not use the teleport punch as a safe guard chip hit when someone is on danger because it only does about 2% chip damage and danger can mean the person has 4% life left. It is common to see people lose matches they should have won because of this. In order to connect his teleport punch on characters like Shang Tsung, Liu Kang, female ninjas, Robots Ninjas, and Sheeva in mid screen standard combo situations, after his HK, LP pop up, jump forward and wait until he starts coming down on the flip to JK, then instantly cancel to the teleport punch. This makes him line up better with them. You can also glitch cancel the teleport punch if you want to get fancy. His Air Throw is very useful on jumpy opponents, remember to tap block in air a few times any time you leave the ground just incase they do as well. Use it on cross attempts, it's not quite as useful in sweep situations as Jax or Kano's, but still possible to do. It's good to link at the end of juggle combos. Human Smoke has one sketchy infinite, in which you can perform his bread and butter combo over and over by intentionally breaking it at the D+LP. The window to achieve this comboable break is approximately 1 frame. It is almost worthless to try because you can throw away a match trying to do this. The combo breaks and allows you to perform his Teleport Punch and Harpoon over and over each rotation. Human Smoke can relaunch every character in the game, like Ermac and Kano. This is done by performing a launcher combo, jumping along with the opponent as they are flying, and as you are about to land, connect a linked HP, which is unblockable if they are close enough to the ground but are still considered in air, and then the autocombo is free. It is useful against certain characters, as some are easier to relaunch than others. Difficult/pointless relaunch attempts are Stryker, Sindel, Female Ninjas, and Male Ninjas. Everyone else is pretty easily relaunched by Human Smoke. Basic Juggles: (this is adding 1 hit and about 7% for air throws in damage protected combos and 14% for regular combos since the game does not count them as part of a combo) 1. HK, D+LP, D+HP, aaHP, spear, HK, D+LP, D+HP, JK, air throw, 10 hits 48% 2. HK, LP, JK, teleport punch, spear, HK, D+LP, D+HP, JK, air throw 10 hits 53% 3. jump punch starter, HK, LP, teleport punch, harpoon, HK, D+LP, D+HP, JK, air throw 10 hits 55% Advanced Juggles: (Harpoon makes corner combos easier to set up) 1. jump punch start, HK, LP, deep JK, harpoon, HK, D+LP, D+HP, aaHP, JK, air throw 11 hits 62% 2. (on male ninjas, Stryker, Sub, Jax, Kano etc) HK, LP, RH, teleport punch, harpoon, HK, D+LP, D+HP, aaHP, JK, air throw 11 hits 57% 3. aaRH, teleport punch, aaHP, aaHP, harpoon, HK, D+LP, D+HP, aaHP, JK, air throw 11 hits 62% 4. aa(HP,HP), teleport punch miss, aa(HP,HP), spear, HK, D+LP, D+HP, JK, air throw 11 hits 68% 5. jump punch starter, HK, D+LP, D+HP, spear, Run close to corner if already near, HK, D+LP, D+HP, JK, JK, air throw, 11 hits 65% 6. aaHP,HP, JK, teleport punch, harpoon, HK, D+LP, D+HP, aaHP, JK, air throw 11 hits 68% 7. aaHP, HP, teleport punch whiff, aaHP, JK, harpoon, HK, D+LP, D+HP, aaHP, JK, air throw 11 hits 78% (BP) Corner punishers: 1. (very close to wall) aaHP,HP, harpoon, HK, D+LP, D+HP, JK, RH, HK 9 hits 60% 2. (very close to wall) aaHP, RH, harpoon, HK, D+LP, D+HP, JK, RH, HK 9 hits 71% 3. (very close to wall) aaRH, harpoon, HK, LP, harpoon, HK, D+LP, D+HP, JK, RH, HK 11 hits 72% 4. (half screen distance from wall) aaHP,HP, JK, aaHP, harpoon, HK, D+LP, D+HP, JK, RH, JK 11hits 83% 5. (sweep distance from wall) aaHP,HP, JK, RH, harpoon, HK, D+LP, D+HP, JK, RH, HK 11hits 93% You can add two HPs before the final JK, air throw to the Robot Ninjas, Jax, and Sub-zero, but it is very difficult to time, and two LPs on male ninjas, adding only 1% to the finished combo. Jade Jade is lower end mid tier character ranked roughly around 16. You're going to want to stay on the ground with her, abuse her return boomerang, projectile protection whenever needed or even as a distraction, run jabs, ground combo chip, but throw in pauses and then stick in a standing HK to get people who rush when they suspect you are stuck in a broken combo. Throw out her dash kick every now and then as it is very safe in many situations except the obvious ones, ie: vs characters with containments. Always does her 4 hit HP HP D+LP D+HP combo, and add an unblockable sweep after it on everyone, which will do more total damage than her 7 hit combo which is nerfed for human players for some reason, doing 10% less than the CPU. On some characters you can stick a standing LK after the 4 hit combo, like Jax and the Robots, on Sheeva you can stick in a standing HK, and even on Jax with rigid timing. Her overall juggling and combo ability is extremely limited, she has no useful or damaging juggle combos, although huge, impossible to set up, theoretical, corner combos for her do exist. Just remember to abuse the suddenness of her moves and stay on the ground. Double dash kick counters are fun to do for 22%. Also there's the weird hit boxes the female ninjas have which can make certain juggles harder to do on them. Many characters cannot do their HP beginning to a combo if they get a starter, lowering their overall damage effectiveness helping her out slightly but not a whole lot. Double run jabs in the corner are great, watch for openings to get her combo. Female ninja basic moves: The female ninja uppercut is average, nothing to write home about, their standing HK is great for far away jumpers trying to stay out of range for anti air HPs, it doesn't have as much height as some other characters, but the collision detection is a good distance from their body hit box, so it has good priority. Their LP jabs hit lower than most so they can run jab Stryker when he's ducking and blocking, and they good range. HP jabs have average range, sweeps are silent which is a plus, and they have some distance to them, however are slow on recovery compared to the fast sweepers leaving them potentially open. Ducking LK has some decent pointiness and distance, standing LK hits a bit lower than usual. Their roundhouse is very close range, better off going for a standing HK on jump ins, but the RH can often be used in run underneath jump in situations because the placement is perfect for that. Their jump punch has limited range and is close to their body, bad for cross ups on ducking blocking opponents. The Dash Kick is fast, in fact sudden, and is also extremely safe in many situations that it shouldn't be. There are very few close range attacks that can hit Jade while she's in her recovery frames, but projectiles always work, however the start up time for most projectiles is too long to capitalize even if done immediately from too far away. The best way to counter her dash kick is to anticipate it, not block it and run in with a counter combo, or just simply uppercut. This move can be used repeatedly, similarly to Nightwolf's shoulder tackle, and it has a limit of one hit before it is disabled, two can be done in a row in a combo. It's range is about half screen, and best used when you are very close to your opponent as it's very difficult to block upon reaction. After her autocombo is blocked, you can stick in a dash kick to counter a rush down, or you can use it against crossovers sometimes. It can hit some characters who are ducking like Kabal and Shang Tsung, and sometimes you might want to stick in a ducking LK after her 4 hit combo, then a dash kick as they are getting up, it's either going to hit as they are getting up, or be blocked, and is relatively safe, except against Kabal for instance. Use the dash kick to counter virtually any attack if you block because it's that fast. This is all part of her pitbulling strategy. Occassionally stick in dash kicks after run jabs in the corner, specifically watch for openings when they are about to jump, setting up small juggles. You can also glitch cancel it to 2 hits before it, for example, aaHP, aaHP, dash kick, however not useful. The Boomerang is used for zoning. She has 4 types, straight across, upwards, downwards, and a straight across return which is the best one to use, but remember to watch for players who will expect return spamming and just duck, so stick in a downward one, or on jump aways stick in an up one. Jade is not so much about damage, but chipping away and this move makes certain of that. You can spam the boomerangs for eternity so long as you time them right, remember to not abuse them against teleporters and watch for opponents who will trade a hit like an uppercut and use it to remove the recovery. Against characters with containments they can do the uppercut, get hit by the return boomerang, and then freeze/harpoon, etc, creating big damage. Mix up the usage of the boomerang, don't depend on it, make them make mistakes. Throw in dash kicks here and there against some characters while using return boomerangs to keep them guessing. The Projectile Protection is very useful in it's intuitiveness. Jade is temporarily immune to all projectiles except Sindel's scream, Kitana's Fan Lift, Sindel's air fireball, and a few other special case situations. You can use the PP to remove recovery time from push back in the corner with juggles, increasing damage slightly if you are ever in the situation where a ninja teleports and winds up in the corner. You can also use it to stop the push back on triple run jabs in the corner. This way your opponent will try to get out and capitalize, but you will instantly recover and can counter-counter them with a dash kick, standing HK, sweep or autocombo and set up further tactics. Basic Juggles: 1. jump punch starter, HP, HP, D+LP, D+HP, standing HK 6 hits 40%, standing LK, or sweep will do less damage but connect on more and more characters respectively. 2. (for a punisher) aaHP,HP, aaLP, boomerang, 4 hits 30% Jade has no useful advanced juggles, but here's a few that can work if you are in the right situation. 1. (in corner against opponent trying to jump out) Dash kick, Dash kick, LK 3 hits 35% or sometimes HK for 37% 2. (opponent in corner) RH, dash kick, HK, 3 hits 43% 3. (as a corner punisher) aaHPHP, PP, JK, RH, HK 5 hits 60% 4. (Jade in corner) run under a jump, RH into corner, dash kick, RH, HK 4 hits 60% Jax Jax is considered at the bottom of the top tier barrel ranked at #10. He's a sweeper, a zoner, a back breaker-er, and ground combo crusher. He's got a lot of options but he struggles against teleporters and other top tier characters. Take advantage of old tactics like standing HKs, ground pounds, sweeps, watch for cross ups and hit the back breakers, sweeps, keep away with missiles, sweeps, rush down with run jabs and the 7 hit combo but be careful on male ninjas and some other characters because often times the 7 hitter will whiff on the D+HP (HK, HK, D+HP) leaving Jax open for a free counter, in some cases disastersouly damaging because he is the easiest character to juggle, oh yeah and sweeps. Play as cheap as possible with him, perhaps even turtle or read other players, and play safely because he can be annoying to rush down due his range. Basic Moves: His LP run jab game is questionable because they hit slightly higher, allowing more chance for him to be uppercut or ducking LKed, his HPs hit high as well, and set up easy air juggle aaHPHP, JK, air throw for about 44%. His standing HK has good range and moderate height, excellent for anti airing half screen jumpers. His standing LK also has good range and positioning. His sweep is among the fastest in the game, abuse it. His ducking LK is a hair slower than some, but has good distance again. His RH has very limited range, but good height, useful for run under RH situations. His uppercut has a lot of height and range, but some characters can slip through it on cross ups, which is when you should for an anti cross up backbreaker. All of his air attacks are very good. The Gotcha Grab is a sudden, fast move that is very safe to throw out randomly and the only real way to punish it consistently is to sweep when it comes out. There are obviously other ways to scout and punish it, so don't rely on it as a certain way to catch someone but it often does get people off guard and against blind rush down. With exact timing you can stick the Gotcha Grab in his 7 hit autocombo midscreen against Jax, and unmasked Sub-zero for a bit of extra damage that isn't really worth the effort, 51% with a punch starter, vs guaranteed 47% on everyone with a sweep instead, 47% with a LK on most characters, and 48% with a HK on a bunch. It is very useful for punisher combos, and in the corner off his autocombo, which can be extended significantly against many characters. Single and Double Missiles are great zoning moves because they take up a lot of space and move Jax backwards, so if someone jumps over one he is generally safe. In UMK3 they added charge time to the single missiles, and this also effects the doubles. If you fire a single missile, you have to wait a few seconds before you can fire a double, or another single, and vice versa. They were too broken in MK3 and decided to add this limitation to balance him. You can still use the double somewhat for zoning, or avoiding certain attacks with extra protection. You can mix the single missile with run jabs, and the double missile will hit teleporters from full screen as they go off screen. The Dashing Fist is a sudden move that can be useful to an extent, used as a wakeup particularly when getting up. Try to buffer the move without making your movements known as it is easily scoutable in that situation. In certain set ups, the Dash Fist will make Jax bounce off the opponent and move backwards, making him slightly safer than he would be normally. Do not over abuse it because it hits high and is easily duckable and punishable. It is possible to use this move to get you closer to an opponent as a method of dashing, but it is inadvisable, and you can also use it to extend corner combo juggles. It is also useful to get you out of certain situations and go back into zoning or sweeps. Sometimes you can use it as anti air and it generally makes Jax wind up right next to the opponent so you can go into run jabs, a combo, or sweep strategies as well. When used as anti air it can cause some glitch type scenarios where it will make Jax and his opponent push off eachother in opposite directions either facing towards or away and can create some opportunities for other tactics. There is no limit as to how many Dash Fists you can do in a juggle, nor is there a time limit inbetween so you can literally just frames a couple of them in a row in the corner as a humiliation juggle after his 7 hit combo. The Ground Pound is another returning move from MKII, but it was given more start up frames to balance it, however it is still useful, and unblockable and only avoidable by jumping. It keeps your opponent on guard at all time and might put them in bad situations when they might not want to be in the air. Not many people actually use this move in UMK3 because of how much slower it is than the MKII version, but when used properly it becomes an annoying factor in a match, particularly if you time it to connect as soon as they hit the ground on a jump, this will force them to jump if they see it coming and they have to immediately decide whether they are close enough to counter the ground pound with a jump kick or a jump punch start to combo, straight up, or backwards. If you time and space it right, you will be on the advantage when they land on their second jump and be able to once again resume your now nasty, cheesey sweeping and back breakering techniques. The Backbreaker is his golden move, because it is perhaps the most useful move in his arsenal, even though simplistic in usage and design. Air throws have tremendous zero frame priority in MK like regular throws in just about any game, including MK itself, but you can't avoid them in air or tech hit, and they generally do significant damage, in the mid-high teens and this is for one move that sets up tactical scenarios, generally accompanied by a JK before hand, increasing damage to about 30%. Whenever someone tries to cross up jump punch or jump kick you as you are sweeping them to a bitter end, anticipate it, and immediately, unhesitantly and committedly, jump forward, or straight up and tap block, and you will backbreaker them right back to the ground, then immediately return to the sweep fest. This tactic is also used with Kano and perhaps even more so. Even when you aren't sweeping, watch for any possible chance to get a backbreaker because it is also a psychological move. It makes people rethink what they are doing if you get them with it, 2, 3 or 4 times in a row because they think for some reason their cross up is going to work this time. Always remember to tap block a few times while you are in the air even if you aren't in a natural situation where you would instinctively backbreaker someone because chances are you'll hit it. Remember that Robot Smoke's radius for his air throw is very large, pretty much 360 degrees around him while Jax's has a bit less area to deal with. The Multislam is simply a special throw, in which you perform a normal throw, and tap HP several times to get 3 more slams. There isn't much more to it other than you can go back into sweep tactics after it! Basic Juggles: 1. aaHP, Gotcha Grab 6 hits 27% (add an extra aaHP, but requires stepping forward a bit depending on the opponent) 2. (as a punisher) aaHP,HP, JK, air throw 4 hits 44% 3. Add a HK on Male Ninjas, Sub-zero, Jax, Stryker, (Robots, Sheeva require a small step forward), and a few other characters, for 39% instead of 33% on his 7 hitter, leaving off the last B+HP, a standing LK works on a lot more characters, for 37%, and a sweep will work on everyone also for 37% and sets up tactics, you can do his Gotcha Grab with perfect timing on Jax and unmasked Sub-zero for a few more %. Basic Corner Combo - Juggles: punch starter, HK, HK, D+HP, HP, BL, LP, B+HP, with your choice of finish: 1. HK - 50% 2. RH - 51% 3. gotcha grab 13 hits - 53% 4. uppercut - 54% Advanced Corner Combo - Juggles punch starter, HK, HK, D+HP, HP, BL, LP, B+HP, with your choice of finish because certains combos work more faithfully on specific characters: 1. RH, HK - 10 hits 59% 2. JK, Backbreaker - 10 hits 59% 2. aaHP, dash punch, HK - 11 hits 60% 3. aaHP, dash punch, aaLP, gotcha 16 hits 65% (against Robots, Kung Lao, Jax, Sheeva...) 4. JK, aaHP, dash punch, HK, 12 hits 68% Corner Juggle Punishers: 1. aaHPHP, dash punch, HK 4 hits 40% 2. aaHPHP, dash punch, aaLP, Gotcha Grab 9 hits 52% 3. aaHP, JK, aaHP, dash punch, HK 5 hits 56% 3. aaHPHP, dash punch, JK, backbreaker 5 hits 58% 4. aaHP, JK, aaHP, dash punch, aaLP, Gotcha Grab 10 hits 68% Kabal (Updated 3/16/06) Kabal is far and beyond the #1 character in UMK3, and for that reason, I will get into a bit of counter Kabal strategies as well. He defines the top tier. There are many specific tactics that need to be used against him to stand a chance, and these tactics can be spilled over into general gameplay as well. He essentially dictates the match and really the only way to beat Kabal is to frustrate him and force mistakes. You really have to take advantage of jab canceling with block, in which you bait spins out of the Kabal player, and the result will either be a snuff, a block, or a throw. You should try to stay on the ground against him as much as possible because the spin dash will get you everytime, particularly in cross ups. Teleporting Ninjas Ermac, Human Smoke, and Scorpion can give Kabal a lot of trouble, with Scorpion having the least chance due to his low damage combos, also Sub-zero seems to be a good counter for him as well as Nightwolf. What makes Kabal even more dangerous is he can turtle as well as rush down, to both extremes, and mix it up in game constantly. Expert Kabal players can place jump away kick to fireball traps low enough to the ground to not be hit by teleport punches. He has ok damage combos starting from a knee lift, and good damage basic juggles off a simple spin. Serious damage can be dealt in the corner with multiple JK air fireball juggles. His rub jab pressure is unparalleled because of the Spin Dash always lurking around, even though his damage was slightly reduced from UMK3, the ease of him getting 3 combos becomes very apparent when you just don't feel like being stuck under run jab pressure and a spin plows through your ducking LK. Counter run jabbing Kabal will usually result in you being thrown because of some awkward throw priority in that situation. When a Kabal player begins his rush down specifically run jabbing like crazy, you might want throw out an uppercut before the first run jab even comes out, also try uppercut him when he lands after a JK and watch when he does his 5 hit combo because if it is even slightly slow the uppercut will miss and you can capitalize on him. What you want to do as Kabal is run jab pressure as much as possible. Stick in knee lifts every now and then, watch for guard breaks and spin, or combo, if you spin, make sure you add a jump punch or jump kick to his autocombo. You can play keep away by doing low air fireballs and watching for spin opportunities if they leave the ground. His game pretty much revolves around the run jabs and spin set ups. Corner runjab pressure should be in the form of double run jabs (LP,LP run, LP,LP run as fast as possible) and occasionally stick in a knee lift for his combo, but don't do the pop up combo, do the 4 hit kick combo, as it does 24% vs 15% for the 5 hit, and the same rule applies if you get a spin in the corner, and cannot push them out to set up a multiple JK air fireball juggle, except you should add a jump kick starter. You can stick a ducking LK in after the 4 hit kick combo in the corner, and if they attempt to rush out after the stun of the kick, this is a good chance to get a spin, or a RH to a spin in the corner, which can hit certain characters and make them end up standing and not in the air, and it is unblockable. Jump Kicks also can cause this scenario, so watch for it and make sure that they are not actually on the ground before trying a juggle combo when you will get his hook swords instead. Basic Moves: Kabal's run jabs are excellent, and compliment his rush down very well. His standing HK and uppercut are very good and useful. His standing LK has about average range as does his sweep. His JK and JP and excellent in many situations, and his roundhouse is fantastic for long range anti air, keeping him out of snuff range. It's up there with Kung Lao but not quite as good as Liu Kang's which has height and distance. His ducking LK is a bit short on range, but on occasion you might want to stick a random ducking LK inbetween run jabs to entice your opponent to attack, and wake them up with a spin. Take advantage of his own cross up ability, as Kabal often times will land next to someone without getting hit by a counter uppercut, and in from there you can sneak in a JP to combo. The Spin Dash is probably Kabal's most important special move. It's collision box and collision start up are very large/fast and ultimately broken. The only things that can beat it out are usually accidentally timed jump kicks, or intentional run jabs that turn into accidental throws. There are a few other moves here and there that can beat the spin, but generally not timable. You can throw Kabal out of the spin from any distance with perfect timing, but expert Kabal players will not do random spins if they know it has a chance to be blocked. Expert Kabal players also tend to have a "Psychic Spin" ability in which they know exactly when you let off your guard. Utilize the spin on cross ups by performing the motion (B,F LK) backwards, as (F,B) and hit LK as soon as they cross Kabal's axis. It is a good idea to get good at performing the motion while ducking, as that is it's most useful feature during cross ups. The spin has a limit of 1 usage per combo, and 1 hit before it is locked, breakable to 2, for example (aaHPHPgc) Spin after a teleport punch on male ninjas. In MK3 he could spin twice in a row for no particular reason but that was removed. The Saw Blade is disabled while the spin, wobble, or drop out duration of the Spin Dash is active, this was also changed from MK3. Use the spin after an anti air HP, or a high contact air fireball to set up big damage mid screen juggles. After an anti air spin, it is easy to get 42% on just about everyone except Shang Tsung with aaHPHP, JK air fireball. If you spin on the ground, a generally good damage combo is jump punch starter, 5 hit pop up, JK air fireball. If you decide to go for tactics over damage, you can do a deep bleeding JK instead of the fireball, and go back into run jabs, even if it is late and gets blocked and this sets up more chances to get another spin. If you spin someone in the air who has an air move, like Sindel, or an air throw, once they drop out of the spin they can escape the drop with that air move, so don't waste time and let them drop if they are too high or they will be able to surprise counter you. When you do a pop up combo with Kabal, sometimes the combo lags slightly depending on where they are when the first hit happens, and it looks as if the uppercut isn't going to come out. If your opponent releases block to capitalize the uppercut will hit. Spin them as they are falling, but do it somewhat low to the ground since you only have one hit in memory for the combo. Let them drop out and then do aaHPHP, JK air fireball, but make sure they will not be able to drop-counter. The point of doing this is because the remainer of the combo will now do full damage, and the Spin will also have done a whopping 1 pixel of damage, for a total of 45%. This also works in a much simpler scenario, after a grounded JK. When it connects, immediately do a spin when you touch the ground and spin them before the hit the ground, afterwards you can do his aaHPHP, JK, air fireball for 59%, vs 36% with the damage protection. Use the spin on occasion as wake up, but players with counter Kabal knowledge know to bait that wake up spin with a fake run jab, canceled to block. The spin can plow through a standing HK or LK after Kabal is knocked down, so watch for that, and you can also counter just about anything with the spin after you block. You can also break out of the wobble frames (not the spinning frames) with any special move, but Kabal players should never allow this to happen. The Fireball (Eye Laser) is another integral move in Kabal's arsenal. You can use it to zone because Kabal can instantly touch the ground after a low one, or you can use a high one to knock a jumper down, in which case you should watch for a free air spin, setting up and easy 56% combo. You can use the air fireball to bait an uppercut counter on a jump in and avoid the contact, enabling you to then run jab pressure. Nightwolf can give Kabal trouble at times, but if you notice they are reflecting your low air fireballs, intentionally do one that will go over, or through Nightwolf's head and spin him. Use the air fireball in corner juggles to extend them up to 3 times on anyone with the right timing, being high JK contact, low air fireball contact, rejump, repeat. You should never use the ground version of this move except to extend a combo, but only use it if it's going to finish them because the recovery is long. It is also a useful tactic to use the air fireball's push back on Kabal to get him safely over projectiles one jump backs. The Saw Blade is generally useless. If you do happen to catch someone with it on the ground, you can't do anything after it anyway because they can block. If you get someone with the saw in the air as they leave the ground to jump over it, you can spin them and do his bread and butter combo for 53%. The Saw Blade has a limit of 2 hits before it is locked and has no useful comboing scenarios. If Kabal is hit at anytime while the Saw Blade is out, it will disappear and not connect on the opponent. Kabal can relaunch combo the Robots, Sheeva, Sub, Nightwolf, Jax, Kung Lao, Sonya, Kabal. Basic Juggles 1. Spin, jump kick starter, HK, LK, HP, HP, D+HP, JK, air fireball, 9 hits 41% 2. aa spin, aa(HP,HP), JK, air fireball 5 hits 42% 3. aaHP, spin, aa(HP,HP), JK, air fireball 6 hits 49% Advanced Juggles: 1. near corner, spin, jump kick starter, HK, LK, HP, HP, D+HP, JK at peak, pause and fireball just before you hit the ground, then JK immediately again, pause slightly, air fireball, JK, airfireball (you should be able to get at least 2 JK airfireballs on every character) 2 volleys is 11 hits 56%. 3 is 13 hits 70% and you can stick an unblockable sweep at the end on some characters resulting in a maximum of 14 hits 76% 2. aa spin near corner, aa(HP,HP just out of corner pushback range) JK, airfireball 2 or 3X depending, can result in 72-100%, on 2X, stick in a running HK at the end, for 86%. 3. Spin, jump kick starter, HK, LK, HP, HP, D+HP, R, aaHP, JK, air fireball 10 hits 44% (works on male ninjas, jax, Stryker, and Sub-zero, add a second aaHP on Jax for 11 hits 47%) 4. aaspin, JK, aaLP, JK, airfireball (on male ninjas, Jax, Sub, Stryker) 5 hits 50% 5. aa air fireball, spin, aaHPHP, JK, airfireball (on male ninjas, Jax, Sub, Stryker) 6 hits 61% 6. aaSUJK or aa air fireball, spin, JK, aaLP, JK, airfireball (on male ninjas, Jax, Sub, Stryker) 6 hits 61% 7. aaHP,HP (glitch/just frame cancel to spin), aaHPHP, aaHP, JK, airfireball (on Scorpion, Smoke, and Ermac block teleport punch especially easy, hit them before they fall out of the spin because they can escape) 8 hits 62% 8. JK (grounded) spin, wait till they fall out of the spin, HP, HP, JK, air fireball 6 hits 59% Kano (updated 3-12-06) Kano is ranked #4 of 23 in UMK3 by popular consensus, however, in current competition, with upgraded combos, Reptile is fighting for this spot. He is the best sweeper due to his options. You have the knife uppercut which hits ducking opponents, very useful, the regular cannon ball which is instantaneous, and the vertical ball is equally as useful, off a sweep. Air throw is very good, but low damage, he can link his close range HK easily off a sweep as a wake up, so can Jax and Sonya, but Kano can get it on more and results in about the same damage mid screen for all three if they do. When rushing down, never go for any combo except HK, D+LP, D+HP, if you connect it, walk in, aaHP, JK, air throw, it's 3% less than if you did it with HP, HP, D+LP, D+HP, and when rushing in, the HP whiffs, so it's worthless. If you connect a jumping HP, do the 4 hit pop up, aaHP, JK, air throw, for 48%. Kano has various air combo finishes for a variety of character scenarios. Always remember, sweep, sweep, sweep. Basic moves: His jump kick is nice and pointy, leaving little room to be countered by simple moves, his uppercut has good distance but sucks if someone jumps to land in close or tries to cross up so you're better off going with the air throw. His sweep is super quick, his standing HK is great anti air when you need it fast. His jabs have little range, his ducking LK is awkward and clunky but gets the job done. His jump punch is very round and ball like, easy to counter since the collision box is so close to his own. His knee lift is more like a close range low kick, almost as useful as Nightwolf's obvious stomp. The roundhouse hits pretty high and has average range. The air throw can be abused much like Jax's backbreaker. Sweep when safe, look for cross up jump kicks, if they do, jump straight up, forward or back, and air throw em back down, go right back into sweeps, run and knee jabs are good, don't do too crazy on them they are easy to counter. Air throw is ok to extend combos but only adds about 5-10% depending on Damage Protection or not. He has other options after his pop up which are better than using the air throw, however the air throw allows him to more easily go back into what Kano does best, and that's sweep. The Manhandle is really only useful in combos, it has almost no purpose other than a risky wake up mid game, and it's rare you see it connect and it leaves you wide open. Players abuse it against scrubs because they don't expect it and it has a psychological advantage otherwise due to the exaggerated manner. If you do get the mandhandle miscreen, it is possible to juggle a LK, or cannonball off it. Use it especially after corner juggles follow by a HK or cannonball for extra damage. The horizontal and now a vertical Cannonball are very useful in UMK3. Use the vertical ball particularly for anti air. From after a close blocked sweep you can use it to land directly ontop of turtling opponents and as soon as touch the ground you can throw, beating out any attack they try if they aren't holding back, and often times when you land on someone and they don't try anything they aren't holding the proper direction to prevent throwing anymore and it's almost a free throw, or a 50/50 situation. You're going to want to make sure that during Kano's decent it is tricky to guess which side he will be on, or else this will not be effective. Don't over abuse this tactic because it doesn't take long to start scouting it and positioning for easy counters. It is a similar concept to Sonya's bike kick however she doesn't go into a real punishment mode off it. The vertical ball is also a good method of escape from run jabs, and is an ideal anti air move obviously, as almost nothing can stop it except air throws. The regular Cannonball is a fast moving attack that you should use in close range as a wake up, or to counter virtually any standing attack within close range as well. You can also use it as transportation against turtles and zoners, it gets you right on top of them and sets up the chance for a wake up pop up combo as long as you stay out of blockable range. You can also use it to extend combos as well. The Knife Uppercut is a low hitting attack with some decent range. You can use it in juggles, as a wake up on ducking opponents, or sometimes as an anti air if you are too far away for a HK, or roundhouse. Kano's recovery vs the opponent's when it is blocked is very close to being the same, but Kano generally ends up vulnerable afterwards. The Knife throw is a standard, no frills projectile, except it has quite a bit of start up animation before it becomes an actual object so it's easy to avoid. It's a bit higher than others, like Sheeva's fireball, making it easier to duck, but it is a bit better at hitting opponents when they jump back. You should probably not use it in juggle combos, as there are better options than it in all situations. He has three infinites in the corner that work on some characters, you can mix it into his corner combos off launchers. You can simply repeat the mandhandle over and over, which requires precise timing, and also, aaLP or HP, cancel to Manhandle works as well, but is increasingly difficult as they tend to still get some push back, making it harder to complete. Kano can relaunch every character in the game, like Ermac and Human Smoke. This is done by performing a launcher combo, jumping along with the opponent as they are flying, and as you are about to land, connect a linked HP, which is unblockable if they are close enough to the ground but are still considered in air, and then the autocombo is free. It is useful against certain characters, as some are easier to relaunch than others. Difficult/pointless relaunch attempts are Stryker, Sindel, Female Ninjas, and Male Ninjas. Everyone else is pretty easily relaunched by Kano. Basic Juggles: 1. JP, HP, HP, D+LP, D+HP, aaHP, JK, air throw 7 hits 47% 2. JP, HP, HP, D+LP, D+HP, aaHP, knife throw 7 hits 40% (Knife uppercut 42%, mandhandle, 45%) 3. aaHP, JK, air throw 3 hits 31% Advanced Juggles: 1. JP, HP, HP, D+LP, D+HP, deep JK with LK and charge LK, mandhandle, release for cannonball, 8 hits 57%(can be done midscreen on some characters) 2. (In corner especially against teleporters) aaHP, JK, aaHP, mandhandle, cannonball, 5 hits about 63% 3. JP, HP, HP, D+LP, D+HP, aaHP, JK, cannon ball 8 hits 50% 4. aaHP,HP, JK, cannonball 4 hits 43% (BP) 5. (in corner) JP, HP, HP, D+LP, D+HP, JK, HP, mandhandle, cannon ball 9 hits 60% 6. (as close to corner as possible without being pushed back) JP, HP, HP, D+LP, D+HP, JK, RH, manhandle, cannon ball 9 hits 66% Kitana (updated 11-11-05) Kitana is a mid tier character in UMK3, right around 15 give or take, which is still a far cry from her status of MKII combo queen possible top 3. Her damage was drastically reduced due to the fact her fan lift activates damage protection, and if you connect her fan in a combo any hits after it are also damage protected so you're best bet is to try and not use the fan lift unless it's use for drastic anti air prediction. In punisher combos you're better off try to go for the aaHP's without the fan to air juggle resulting in about 50%. Run jabs are her game, the female ninjas have really great placement on their run jabs, and remember to abuse the hell out of double run jabs with her. Remember to use the sneaky 3 hits of the kick combo, leaving off the last B+HK, and lacing in a standing HK if they try and capitalize on what they think is a broken combo. On all characters except the female ninjas, Sindel, Sonya, Sheeva and Shang Tsung, you can stick an unblockable just frames sweep at the end of her fan combo, for example, JP starter, HP, HP, B+LP, F+HP, sweep as soon as you possibly can is 41%, and very easy. Her overall comboing ability is limited, low to average damage (25-50% at a time, yes at this point 50% damage is average since it's half a bar and 100%s and infinites are possible). Don't forget about the weird hit boxes the female ninjas have which can make certain juggles more difficult, and also a lot of characters cannot do their HP beginning to a combo if they get a starter, possibly lowering their overall damage effectiveness helping her slightly but not much. Kitana has some throwing tactics as well, along the lines of Cryax and Robot Smoke. Her throw ends early and your opponent is very close to you so can run in and attempt another free throw depending on if they are doing to try and jump over you or not, or go right into run jabs, or run behind them before they get up and attempt a cross up of sorts, try and stick her kick combo in there as well. Female ninja basic moves: The female ninja uppercut is average, nothing to write home about, their standing HK is great for far away jumpers trying to stay out of range for anti air HPs, it doesn't have as much height as some other characters, but the collision detection is a good distance from their body hit box, so it has good priority. Their LP jabs hit lower than most so they can run jab Stryker when he's ducking and blocking, and they good range. HP jabs have average range, sweeps are silent which is a plus, and they have some distance to them, however are slow on recovery compared to the fast sweepers leaving them potentially open. Ducking LK has some decent pointiness and distance, standing LK hits a bit lower than usual. Their roundhouse is very close range, better off going for a standing HK on jump ins, but the RH can often be used in run underneath jump in situations because the placement is perfect for that. Their jump punch has limited range and is close to their body, bad for cross ups on ducking blocking opponents. The Fan Lift is a criminally pathetic waste of a containment. If you look at it from the perspective that "free damage is free damage" then fine, use it. But I would say avoid using it almost altogether unless you scout a jump in and lift them but the most damage you're going to see midscreen is about 28 - 30%. It would have been fair to not have damage protection on fan lifted moves but kept the damage protection on the post fan throw moves, or perhaps only damage protect post fan throw moves if you get a fan lift before it, but I'm getting off the point here. This would have brought her tier level up considerably. Whenever you might not be rushing down with her, always remember to buffer the fan lift so you can perform on command if you so wish to use it. It is possible to get an aaHP before a fan lift but it is not very practical, however the normal limit of hits before the fan lift is disable is 0, meaning you can't combo anything before it under normal circumstances. The Fan Throw is still a great move and she can use it almost exactly like she did in MKII. Remember to throw them low to the ground so she lands quickly and can block or counter. A commonly over used tactic is fan throw from full screen, run in behind it and expect to get some free chip damage. Against experienced players this is not the case. You will most likely get swept or even take an uppercut, or counter containment during your labored journey to small amounts of damage. What you might want to do is try a fan throw followed by her wave punch from time to time. That will get her in close to them a lot quicker, putting the fan right over their heads as she lands and making it difficult to counter with an uppercut and standing up after the fan to HPs timing is critical, and from there run jab city to kick combos, or simply a throw to beat out their counter move, or mash out a ground combo as soon as you land as well. Don't over abuse this tactic because it is almost the exact same concept as running in after a fan throw, use both and mix it up, keep them guessing. If they jump to avoid the fan throw they will get hit by the wave punch, if you don't do the wave punch watch for the jump in and set them up for a fan lift. Remember to only use the fan in air, and never ever on the ground. Occasionally throw one high if you expect a jump in. Her style is almost hit and run but you can change it to hardcore offense anytime you get in close with those run jabs. You might want to try an early or deep jump kick, pausing to a late fan throw in order to bait someone's counter, this way you can nip them with a fan on a close quarters JK. The Wave Punch is a pretty neat move that is great anti air for jumping forward, straight up, or back opponents. It's easy to scout and the D, B HP motion is easy to pull of instantly if you see someone so much as leave the ground. Battering someone down with Wave Punches can have the same psychological effect as air throwing someone on cross ups constantly, it forces the person to change their strategy, possibly to something they are unable to keep up with. You can use it for mobility to an extent, but expect to be punished for abusing it. You can sometimes juggle a LK or HK in the corner after her wave punch depending on the character and how high it connects. Kitana has no known infinites. Basic Juggles: 1. punch starter, HP, HP, B+LP, F+HP, sweep 6 hits 41% 2. fan lift, JK, air fan throw, wave punch 4 hits 22% 3. JK, fan throw, uppercut 3 hits 33% 4. (in the corner) fan lift, JK, air fan, RH, run in HK 5 hits 30% Advanced Juggles: 1. aaHP,HP, JK, air fan, run in, aaHP, wave punch 6 hits 53% (you can add an extra aaHP on Stryker Jax and Sub-zero for example, or aaLP,LP or some other characters adding a little more damage 55-56%) 2. (corner punisher would have to start about half screen distance from the corner) aaHP, HP, JK, air fan, aaHP, wave punch 7 hits 60% 3. (same set up as 2.) aaHP, HP, JK, air fan, RH, run in HK 7 hits 65% If closer to the corner, single aaHP is also possible and results in 6-7% less damage but more than acceptable damage for Kitana. She has many variations here and there on her juggles, these would be mostly ideal situations. Kung Lao Kung Lao is ranked #3 of 23 in UMK3. A top tier character to say the least with incredible maneuverability and high damage juggles, with infinite possibilities. On the defensive, you have to force people to make mistakes, like leaving the ground. This sets up spin opportunities and then leads into juggle infs and respins. Watch for certain characters who can outprioritize the spin, like Kano. His jump kick will often times beat out the Spin's collision box range. Your best bet is to keep moving, using low to ground dive kicks and staying away from the teleport unless you are guaranteed they will not be able to counter you, and so you can connect a JK to powerful 7 hit autocombo afterward. Early jump punches canceled to Dive Kicks are also useful. Basic moves: His HP can be used as anti air to set up the damage protection-free version of his infinite, but you have to commit to that HP connecting, and it's not so easy since it doesn't hit quite high enough for most characters. His LPs are good for run jabbing but as to what you can do when they release block is limited to his 3 hit kick combo. His standing HK and RH are excellent anti air, his standing LK has somewhat less range than others. His sweep has slightly longer range than some and his ducking LK is quick and pointy, very good for escaping run jabs. His uppercut has a very weird collision area. It will miss often times, especially against the teleport uppercut, so rather try to go for single aaLP, JK, whiff dive kick to infinite if possible. It also sometimes miss at extremely close side to side range, for instance when a Robot Ninja or Sindel lands right next to you, and is bad for direct overhead crossup snuffing but will connect just as they pass behind you. In situations where you see an uppercut available, it might be better to opt for his spin. The Spin is his most valuable move. It sets up all his options. From a spin, it is time to deliver whatever variation of infinite combo you wish. There is no limit to the amount of spins you can do in a combo, which is very broken and dangerous, however, you must place one hit between each spin usage to allow for another. The Spin can be used in some cases almost like a Dragon Punch, but it's collision box, even though improved since MK3, still has some awkwardness to it, so try and figure out the best way to time a counter spin. Oftentimes it is a good idea to allow them to pass over you, and do the spin in reverse. Utilize the spin in corner juggles. You can link the spin to the end of his 7 hit autocombo in the corner on the Robot Ninjas and Nightwolf, and if you catch someone just off the ground in the corner with an autocombo so that the entire combo juggles them, it is quite easy to then link a spin on just about anyone with the extra falling height. Utilize the Spin to get your opponent out of the corner in juggle combos if you don't wish to be repetitive or "lazy" with your now already broken infinite combos. What you must do is allow Kung Lao to pass the other character's axis in the corner after whiffing a dive kick, so that when the spin connects, it sends them out of the corner. You might also want to try performing the F-D-F motion backwards while still in the air, and hitting the F+Run the instant you hit the ground. You can also allow your opponent to fall a bit and be sure that they are to your side, and as quickly as possible perform the Spin normally. Try to stay away from using the Spin too much. It is possible to bait people with it from cross screen by just doing the Spin action without tapping at all, you will recover quickly, but if you tap Run during the spin at all, you will be held in spin animation longer. The Dive Kick is another very important move, and what's more important is learning how to miss it well than even hitting it. It is a great transport move and if you do them low to the ground it confuses your opponent and it's very hard to hit him and intentionally get in the way of to block it. "Whiffing" the Dive Kick is essential to performing Kung Lao's cross screen infinite variants. It is a good idea to do the Dive Kick instinctively after connecting jump kicks, or using it to avoid an incoming counter jump kick. There is no limit to how many Dive Kicks you can do in a combo, but remember you don't want to be connecting them. Use it sparingly against opponents for damage, as it puts him in punishment mode when blocked. Try to do the Dive Kick and land next the opponent or behind them, and go for the 3 hit kick combo if they are ducking. The Hat Throw is a slow projectile that has an arch to it, so it cannot be easily ducked or swept under. Kung Lao, Sindel and Sonya can easily ducking LK under it from a variety of distances. Sindel and Kung himself can duck it from a very large half screen window considering the move is generally not designed to be duckable. You can use it to add variety to corner combos, but it doesn't really have much other use, you might be able to stick it in with run jabs every now and then but this sets up nothing and runs the risk of being blocked and countered. The Teleport is a questionable move. Some people know how to use it, some will never know. The best way to use it is on a baited projectile, and countering into the jump kick to 7 hit combo. If you ever do a teleport while your opponent is neutral, you asking to get countered. Spamming on the attack as he's coming up will sometimes help against people, but it is inadvisable because you will most likely not land the 7 hit combo. You can use the teleport in the corner to make his juggle infinites look more elaborate. It possible to teleport out of the way of sluggish run jabbers, but it is all in all just better to use ducking LKs. Basic combos juggles: 1. aa Spin, R, aa(HP,HP) hat throw, 4 hits 25% 2. aaHP, JK, dive kick 3 hits 31% Advanced Juggles: 1. spin, R, aaHP,HP, JK or JP, whiff dive kick, aaHP, repeat across screen 2. (In corner or from previous combo) spin, JK, spin (inf, and there are tons of moves you can throw in for variety, Kung Lao can spin off just about all his normals and the hat throw) 3. aaHP,(HP- may be necessary) JK, whiff dive kick (repeat til corner or dead) 4. 7 hit autocombo, juggle spin, straight up jump kick, whiff dive kick, spin out of corner, into cross screen infinite variation. Sheeva, Shang Tsung, and the Female Ninjas all are slightly harder to juggle infinite than others, you must be more selective about how you hit them, specifically doing a certain routine against them, whereas against other characters you have a lot of freedom to change things up. Liu Kang Liu Kang is a another one of those lower end of the mid tier characters, ranked in the neighborhood of 17th, who can be a pain in the right hands. He has a number of options to play around with, wake up bike kicks, dragon kicks, air fireballs, High/Low Fireball mix ups and the roundhouse of God. Mix up run jabs with his 4 hit kick combo, and when midscreen always do his 7 hit combo rather than his pop up when it is available for free, or off a jump punch starter. The 7 hit with a jump punch does 39%, and his pop up combo to JK, air fireball, dragon kick does 32%, not worth the effort. In the corner it is possible to link a sweep, standing LK or HK after his 7 hitter, and sometimes it is a good idea to throw a low fireball out after the 7 hitter, and mix that up with a high one once in a while to keep them guessing. The only time you will want to use his pop up combo is in the corner to set up multiple airfireball juggles, as it is elatively easily to compensate for the lost damage, but not by much. He has a very nice punisher that requires a bit of timing, aaHPHP, JK, air fireball, dragon kick in this case, without the double damage protection of his pop up combo, does 56%. It is a very useful tool to counter Human Smoke and Ermac's damage if you catch a blocked teleport, make sure you take a running step before you do the HPs, and cancel the second HP with the run button to allow yourself more time to get the JK high in the air. Abuse his roundhouse as much as you can, and try to link dragon kicks off it mid screen for some psychological advantages, as it is very easy to know when you will connect a Liu Kang roundhouse. Everynow and then throw out a wake up bike kick from close range, similar to Kano's cannonball. Basic moves: Liu Kang is the only character in the game to use his rear fist first to punch, subsequently, this has no affect on his juggling ability. His jabs in general are pretty normal. His sweep has normal range, but a bit of recovery to it. His uppercut is pretty good, but his HK hits noticably lower than some. His JP and JK are very high, similar to Kung Lao's in MKII and has an easy time beating out others because his forward and back jumps are a bit higher than everyone else's. His ducking LK is not as good as say Sonya's, or Kung Lao's, but it gets the job done, as well as his ducking LP for run jab escape. The straight up JK is a little short on range. His roundhouse is amazing. It has ridiculous range and is almost impossible to not connect it. Use it often, and use it well. It is possible to juggle a Dragon Kick off it if you happen to hit it close enough. The Dragon Kick is a fast, horizontal air attack with some strange properties. If you are too close to an opponent, the Dragon kick will go over them and land instantly on the other side, this might actually be something you will want to use because it will create some temporary confusion but as long as you know what the situation is you can take the upperhand. If the Dragon Kick is blocked, Liu Kang will land, and then go into a double animation where he is vulnerable to ground combos for an instant, timed to coincide with the recovery of the other character. You basically want to use it to extend combos, and occasionally as a wake up or a sudden attack. Like any move, it becomes easily scoutable with overuse. The Bike Kick is used similarly to the Dragon Kick, except it can possibly lead to further damage in the corner, and occasionally you can combo a standing LK off it mid screen if you get it out right on time. If you get it in the corner and are overlapping your opponent when you land, it is easily possible to get his 7 hit combo off it with a sweep for 47%. From there you can run jab and mix up. The Bike Kick is a very good wake up attack because its collision starts up quickly. Do not over abuse this or people will bait it, and Liu Kang will go into punishment mode when it is blocked. You can use it to extend corner combos as well. The Low, High Fireballs and Air Fireballs still have some use, but limited to generally full screen tactics and zoning. You can throw out a low or high fireball after his 7 hit combo to keep them pinned down, and air fireballs are good as well for pinning down, but try and keep them very low. Air Fireballs can also be used to extend corner combos, by doing JKs as early and high as possible, then doing the Air Fireball as low as possible, enabling you to rejump and repeat a few times. Unfortunately since all his attacks are double damage protected after the pop up, his corner combo damage is very low for the effort it takes to do them. Liu Kang has a hard time relaunching characters because of the height and arch of his jump, but it is still possible to relaunch combo Jax, The Robots, Sheeva, Kung Lao, Nightwolf, Sub-zero, Kabal and Shang Tsung, but it is hardly worth the effort as the added damage for just one relaunch is about 13%. Basic Juggles: 1. jump punch starter, HP, HP, B+LP, aaHP, JK, airfireball 7 hits 28% 2. aaHP,HP, JK, air fireball or Dragon Kick 4 hits 42% 3. Bike Corner (in corner), HP, HP, BL, LK, LK, HK, LK, sweep, standing LK, or standing HK depending on opponent 9 hits 47-48% Advanced Juggles: 1. aa(HP,HP), JK, air fireball, dragon kick 5 hits 56% (BP) 2. jump punch starter, HP, HP, B+LP, late JK, airfireball, dragon kick 7 hits 32% 3. jump punch starter, HP, HP, B+LP, deep JK, aaHP, JK, air fireball 8 hits 32% 4. (close to corner as a punisher) aaHP, JK, air fireball, RH, Dragon Kick 5 hits 66% 5. (close to corner as a punisher) aaHP, JK, air fireball, aaHP, high fireball, standing HK 6 hits 69% 6. (Half screen from corner as a punisher) aaHP,HP, 3X JK air fireball (over 100%, and you can leave off the 3rd JK air fireball and replace it with roundhouse, dragon kick if you don't have them high enough off the juggle) 7. (Near corner), jump punch starter, HP, HP, B+LP, JK, air fireball 3X, aaHP, fireball, standing LK doable on just about every, but very difficult in concept, 13 hits 50% (you can also finish it with RH, run in HK, or RH dragon kick also for 50%) Mileena (updated 3-12-06) Mileena is considered a very low tier character, probably around 22nd of the 23 in UMK3, and third in terms of the three female ninjas. She has overall low combo damage, not much in terms of options, almost everything revolves around the roll hich activates damage protection miserably. She, like Cyrax, requires a lot of effort to be a force in the game, and there are some expert players here and there who can use her, however she still just doesn't cut it against most top tier characters. Fortunately the female ninjas have strange collision boxes making it harder to juggle them, and maxed out combos are unlikely in most cases, watch for slip ups and counter based on their character design. Some characters cannot get starters on them at all, and both ground attacks after a JP or a straight up JK will whiff, however in the corner a lot of these characters are able to get starters on them, but still some cannot, it depends on how close you are when the jump attack connects. An underused tactic the female ninjas can abuse is by leaving off the last hit of their kick combos if the opponent blocks the first three, and pausing ever so slightly, then doing a HK as they try to rush in, which happens very often. Even if they don't it hits blocked which does slightly more chip damage than finishing out the combo and doesn't give them as much time to recover and counter, setting up other situations in your favor. Female ninja basic moves: The female ninja uppercut is average, nothing to write home about, their standing HK is great for far away jumpers trying to stay out of range for anti air HPs, it doesn't have as much height as some other characters, but the collision detection is a good distance from their body hit box, so it has good priority. Their LP jabs hit lower than most so they can run jab Stryker when he's ducking and blocking, and they good range. HP jabs have average range, sweeps are silent which is a plus, and they have some distance to them, however are slow on recovery compared to the fast sweepers leaving them potentially open. Ducking LK has some decent pointiness and distance, standing LK hits a bit lower than usual. Their roundhouse is very close range, better off going for a standing HK on jump ins, but the RH can often be used in run underneath jump in situations because the placement is perfect for that. Their jump punch has limited range and is close to their body, bad for cross ups on ducking blocking opponents. Their JK is one of the best in the game. The Roll is an interesting and complex move to say the least with lots of uses. It is by definition a containment move as well, similar to that of Reptile's forceball, however Mileena's distance from the opponent and positioning is not always exactly the same making juggle combos for her difficult to guarantee. Mileena can run in sooner depending on what frame she is in when the roll connects. The roll can be used to prevent anti air cross ups if timed correctly. As the player jumps over you, buffer F,F,D instead of B,B,D and do the roll as they start the air attack, you will roll under them, causing the occasional forward flip towards Mileena reaction which is ideal, enabling better juggle combos. It is relatively easy to perform the flip towards roll by timing the contact just on the opposite side of the oppent as they fall, try this during punishment combos with aaHP,HP, B,B, pause, D, HK for the late roll and ideal spacing. The roll can also be used on a delay, so you can buffer B,B, D, wait a good second and then surprise with the roll as if you were the CPU and didn't have to perform any motion, similar to usage of Stryker's baton throw, which can abuse the same delayed button hit concept. There are many players who abuse the roll constantly, and pay for it, please do not be one of these players. It is possible to abuse the roll and be successful, it just takes good judgement on placement. The roll can also be used as a wake up to escape run jabs, smilar to Kabal's spin and Sonya's bike kick, but if it is expected, a simple kara jab will block it and set Mileena up for a punisher combo. The roll has a limit of 1 usage every other hit and is locked at 3 hits, so that means you can combo 2 legitimately. Also look for chances to use the roll in the corner, don't just throw out a random ball because of the likelihood of it being blocked, but watch for an attempt to uppercut and buffering B,B while jabbing at times. The Teleport/Drop Kick is a very slow attack and should be used as a total surprise, perhaps no more than once a round, it is easy to scout, predict, and counter, and any time you can use it in a combo, you could do 2 or 3 more hits with something else resulting in higher damage. The Sai Shot is still spammable as it was in MKII in terms of speed, however it is not as effective. The Prophet says "It looks like she's aiming at airplanes or something with them." What he means is, they are way too high in the air when she releases so they are easy to avoid, and he would be right. You can still try to spam them, use them in combos as well, for zoning, etc. You can charge HP for the sai shot while run jabbing with LP, if you see them try to jump out of the corner you can jump back and release HP hitting a sai shot knocking them back into the corner, and you can also try to juggle again before they hit the ground. As far as I have tested, Mileena can only relaunch the robot ninjas, and Kung Lao, even Sheeva can always block her relaunches, others may be possible, as I sort it out I'll post it. Basic Juggles: 1. punch starter, HP, HP, HK, HK, D-F LK, aaHP, drop kick 8 hits 37% 2. punch starter, HP, HP, HK, HK, D-F LK, JK, sai 8 hits 40% 3. roll, R, aaHP, roll, R, HK, 4 hits 24% Advanced Juggles: 1. aa(HP,HP), roll, RH 4 hits 31% 2. (from ground up directly infront of opponent or a cross up jump kick), JK, roll, aa(HP,HP), JK, sai shot, 6 hits 39% (leaving out the sai shot might make the combo easier and will result in about 5% less damage and this can be applied to all other combos ending in a sai shot) 3. (off a flip towards Mileena punisher set up) aa(HP,HP), roll, aa(HP,HP), JK, sai shot 7 hits 41% 4. aaHP, JK, roll, R, aaHP, HK 5 hits 42% 5. aaHP, JK, roll, JK, sai, 5 hits 44% 6. aaHP, JK, roll, R, aaHP,HP, JK, sai shot 7 hits 50% (doable on male ninjas, Kano, Jax, Stryker, Sub-zero, etc) 7. (near corner) aaHP, RH, roll, R, aaHP,HP, JK, sai shot 7 hits 52% Nightwolf Nightwolf is ranked #5 in UMK3. He is devastatingly fast, has exceptional damage combos off a simple rush down with no set up required, his attacks are useful, have little recovery, or have no limit. Definitely a top tier character to say the least. His rush down is virtually unparallel in the game, and his mix ups are quite useful. He's a very easy to use character overall. He cannot autocombo starter on the female ninjas with either his punch or kick unless in the corner, and combos against them are not as easy, so that hurts him against them. His stomp also misses them quite often, so look for counter players using the female ninjas to exploit Nightwolf's collision box weaknesses because damage is the key with him and they are less susceptible. Nightwolf can run through sweeps if timed properly and begin his autocombo. Never do his 5 hit autocombo that ends in a HK. Rush down is extremely important. Basic Moves: Uppercut is solid, overall good priority and placement, HK has range, but not as much height as others, RH is average range, good for run unders, if you can time an air air roundhouse with him, you're better off countering with an aaAxe, aaAxe, aaHP, JK, or the likes for more damage and the same amount of effort on the initial counter hit. His sweep is virtually identical in range to the male ninjas, and has the same speed/start up/recovery, which is average. His LK hits a little lower than usual, and has a little less range. His run jabs also has just a little less range than others, his HPs are about average range, and also hit a little lower. His ducking LK has good range. JP has good cross up properties. The close range kick is a stomp that hits extremely low and is very useful, his close range punches hit very high and miss constantly so always rush down with stomps. The Axe Uppercut is a great and unique move, considered a containment move because you can always get at least one free hit after it. It is possible to combo multiple axes, usually in any combo if you do two axes with some kind of extra juggle hits you will result in almost 45-50% even without a starter. It is an amazing cross under tool, anytime someone cross up jump kicks you, you can do the axe the opposite way and it will hit them on their way down even if they are attack, it's almost fool proof and very hard to recounter it unless it is baited and even still it can hit, it's like Kabal's spin only not as much damage can be done after using it. Remember that if you do an axe uppercut in combo and it misses Nightwolf is vulnerable and characters can capitalize on this. During his blocked combo it is sometimes better to leave out the axe because he can even be beaten out of it in that situation. The Shoulder Tackle is your friend. It has very little recovery, but it is not invincible, it can be abused, but it can be scouted, it all depends on zoning. It hits ducking blocking characters except Stryker who is completely immune to it, and occasionally some characters can duck and block while it is coming and not get hit for chip like Kung Lao, and Sonya for example. It's good to finish juggle combos with as it does about the same amount of damage as a HK/JK and gets them into position to set up more tactics. Don't do the tackle from too far away because it's easily beaten by sweeps and try not to buffer it with obvious stepping. Sometimes it is useful to buffer it with running steps, so, hold run, tap forward, release run then forward again and tackle to get in close. The run in creates a defensive posture for the opponent and they will attempt to counter based on running velocity but when you change the run into a tackle you are coming in with a move instead of being totally vulnerable. If someone is ducking and blocking you can usually get two tackles out before they are comfortable to release block and try to just duck it and counter, so you should then skip the tackle and run in with his combo and get them sleeping. Make sure you mix this up a lot and don't fall into a pattern yourself or people will pick up on it. The tackle is also surpsiringly good for anti air especially in extremely close range, or even as an anti cross up, it will move backwards and somewhat appear to track the opponent. In the corner it is easily possible to get mulitple rams if you run jab and the opponent tries to jump out of the corner. Time a HP or LP jab to hit them in the air, then another HP, cancel to tackle, tackle for up to 4 hits 42%. This is a very special case scenario when they are in the corner but it's entirely possible. The Projectile Reflection move is pretty much what you see is what you get. You bounce projectiles back to your opponent. This move can get you in a lot of trouble, especially against Kabal. Players like to use it against the purple ball but a smart Kabal player will place the ball to scrape of Nightwolf's head and plow through him with a spin, severely punishing the overzealous Nightwolf user. It's best to use this move against characters who have a containment projectile like Sub-zero and Cyrax because this results in a free HK starter to autocombo, resulting in hideous damage of upwards to 60% and beyond. It will not reflect the harpoon or Stryker's Riot Gun for example. The Bow and Arrow is a tiny projectile with unreasonable vulnerability and recovery. If you connect a move before the arrow, it will start up extremely fast, making it a lot easier to combo with, and even still it does very little damage. In any situation where you can combo an arrow, you can combo something else that does more damage. The fast arrow is active any time your opponent is in non neutral recovery frames, so you can send it out after an uppercut when they land as they get up and sometimes they will jump right into it, or after a roundhouse early to keep them where they are on the defensive, as offense is Nightwolf's main game. If your opponent is jumping away you can sometimes keep them pinned temporarily at full screen with fast arrows off a just frames concept. This is a pretty much worthless tactic and the arrow should be used very little as there is only one major purpose for it and that's to knock opponents back down before they even get up, also a predictable tactic. It's a match winning move for when someone is at danger and can't even block it. Nightwolf has a corner infinite that works on Kabal, Sektor, Cyrax, Robot Smoke, Sheeva, and Kano. You can repeat his 3 hit kick combo over and over. The timing is incredibly easy, you can wait until they completely touch the ground and for whatever reason it still hits. It was designed to whiff but apparently these 6 characters have slightly larger collision detection when laying on the ground. Abuse this against corny Kabal players in the corner. If you can lead them there and get them into the corner, kara jab them and try to make them spin you while you are close to the corner, and then break out the infinite on them. You can also use this infinite concept these character midscreen after an autocombo as a sleeper or wake up detector. A lot of times people like to jump away, uppercut, or wakeup when you get in close and try to rush down, however, Nightwolf can combo after the axe uppercut combo with his stomp before they have the chance to do any of this on these characters. Even though this is blockable you might find many anxious players who will receive a double combo at least once. For example, HP starter, 5 hit combo, axe, axe, walk in, sleeper stomp 5 hit combo, axe, axe, HP, JK is 15 hits 76%, and that's a very easy combo for just ONE instance where the person chose to escape rather than block. On Kabal in the same situation it is considerably easy and beneficial to get an extra HP Axe in both combos resulting in 18 hits 90%. Again, this results just because they tried to do something like wake up spin you when they can't. This kind of damage will make a Kabal player extremely cautious, eleviating you from having to worry about being wake up spun so much, but still it is a good idea to look out for, as often times Kabal is chosen intentionally to counter Nightwolf. Basic Juggles: 1. punch starter, HK, HP, HP, LP, D-F HP, Axe, JK or tackle 8 hits 51% 2. aaAxe, aaAxe, JK 3 hits 24% Advanced Juggles 1. on male ninjas: punch starter, HK, HP, HP, LP, D-F HP, step in, Axe,Axe, HK 9 hits 56% 2. on Jax, Stryker, Kabal, Sub-zero: punch starter, HK, HP, HP, LP, D-F HP, Axe, aaHP, Axe, JK 10 hits 60% 3. on all other characters your best bet is punch starter, HK, HP, HP, LP, D-F HP, Axe, jump kick 8 hits 51%, it's over 50%, so you only need it twice, if you get more than that one, you still need to get it again so it's a waste of effort. 4. on some characters: punch starter, HK, HP, HP, LP, D-F HP, Axe, run, aaLP,HP, tackle HK 10 hits 56% 5. punisher combo on Scorp, Smoke, Ermac, etc: aaHP,HP, JK, arrow 3 hits 38% 6. super corner punisher starting if Nightwolf is about halfscreen from the wall, aaHP,HP, JK, aaHP, tackle, tackle 6 hits 64% Reptile (Updated 5-17-06) Reptile is a top tier character, generally ranked #6 but in the right hands he can be brought up a few notches with bigger juggle combos few players have mastered, now ranked 5th, and fighting for 4th in a close race with Kano. Invisibility plays a big role in Reptile's tactics, use if as often as possible, but use it safely. Run jabs to pop up combos, sneaky close range slides, abuse of general male ninja basic properties are also a must. Zone like Hell with the forceballs, make sure you make your opponents make mistakes, it's very easy, just watch out against teleporters because Reptile has a harder time against them than Kabal. Remember his Elbow Dash can be used as a transit move, like a self terminating dash, it is twice as fast as run and advanced players know exactly when he will stop. He has several infinites that are available on many characters, look into trying them out as it will increase Reptile's chances of winning dramatically. Male Ninja Basics moves: The Male Ninjas have excellent basic moves, good height and range on everything in relation to their sprite proportions, their roundhouse is extra wicked and can connect in almost any situation. The only thing that can be weird about them is their aaHPs. Sometimes they tend to miss in situations where you wouldn't expect them to and this is due to kara canceling with run to speed the last hit up, in this situation, often you can do aaHP,LP and it'll work, with slightly less damage, otherwise, always take an extra small step in before doing aaHPs. The Forceball is a very unique and solid move. In UMK3 he now can do fast and slow forceballs which makes him a "force" to be reckoned with...You are going to want to abuse the Hell out of this move, mixing them up as much as possible. You can alternate fast the slow, or slow then fast instantly, but inbetween usages of the same type you have a slight lag time to wait, essentially the amount of time it takes for the slow ball to travel full screen. This can be overcome by timing the alternating forceballs well enough so that they come out in a steady, spamming stream. You can keep people locked down with them if they are too afraid to advance after each, or you can force them to jump. If you do a slow forceball and they attempt to jump forward over it, time it so you can take a step in and RH them into the forceball, setting up a potentially deadly juggle combo. If you do a fast forceball and they attempt to jump over it backwards, as in, they are on the opposite side of the screen, and jump backwards to clear it, you can do Reptile's Elbow Dash move so the whole screen moves with them, and they will land on the Forceball. A tactic similar to this can be used with Cyrax's net, by doing his air throw or running in after a net when they jump, they will land in it because the screen moves. You can mix them in with run jabs similar to sticking in Classic Sub's Ground Freeze, it'll catch them on a wake up occasionally. The only unobvious vulnerability the forceballs have is that they take many frames to actually get out of his hands and do damage and the desired effect, so you can actually push Reptile as he's doing them and the forceball, specifically the slow one, will just go behind you. Also remember that Jade can run through them, she is often a counter character to Reptile, and Nightwolf can reflect them. Against a Nightwolf counter player, try and make them use their reflection move and time a fast forceball to hit right as he loses the move's ability. In more specific situations, you can do a slow forceball against him, and as they do the reflection, jump kick or JP into a combo depending on distance, so he will land on it, setting up neat looking combo scenarios. The Forceball has a very strange limitation to it, technically you can use 4 forceballs in one combo, 2 of each, alone. The amount of hits before the forceballs are disabled is 3, it can be glitch canceled to 4 and this happens quite often when someone is hitting F, F and HPHP to juggle and cancel to forceballs on the second volley. It is a good idea to use "Fake Forceballs" in a similar way you might use stepping in some games. Tap back, or forward quickly, but in an exaggerated fashion so the person will expect you to do a forceball, when you don't, and they jump forward, set them up with an aaHP to forceball combo, or just an aaRH or uppercut works as well. It's a good psychological tactic and it is surprising how well it works even at high levels. The Acid Spit is a very high, low damage projectile with significant start up and recovery, at least in comparison to it's MKII counterpart. Use it against backwards jumpers, or mix it in with forceballs from full screen to keep players pinned down. The Slide is a semi useful move, as it can get you out of rub jabs and is a decent wake up move to catch people sleeping, sometimes you can even stick in a second one and people tend to not expect it. The only problems with Reptile's slide are it's slow, and has short range. Classic Sub-zero's slide is about 3 times faster with at least twice the distance. You can sometimes use it to get out of cross ups but it can get you into trouble. On Sonya, the Female Ninjas, and Kung Lao, the slide will often push them when they are blocking. It can cost you a match if you aren't carefully timing it to make sure it will hit and not be blockable, but if used in mid gameplay, if they stop blocking too soon, it will still hit them. Invisibility. It is what it says it is. Be invisible as much as possible and do it only if you are safe, like after an autocombo, RH or uppercut. Know where you are on the screen, so it is best to understand the distance you will land if you jump forward or back, throw out some kicks if you're not sure where you are and if they hit, you know how close you are. Air throws will not make Reptile reappear. The Elbow Dash is generally not to be used as an offensive move. On rare occassion you can catch people off guard with it, and many times if they block the first lap of it, you can attack them right as they recovery from the block stun and beat them to their next attack with a pop up combo and set up a deadly combo juggle. The most important aspect of this move is transit. You can use it at any time, as much as you like. It is a faster version of run essentially and he stops on a dime usually in very good places because he turns around right as he passes the opponent's axis. That coupled with running in right afterwards gets you right next to them, enabling rush down scenarios with rub jabs. You can use it to run under jumping attacks and avoid all kinds of situations and it's very useful to get out of cross ups. If someone goes to cross up jump kick or jump punch you, try and scout it and buffer Reptile's Elbow Dash backwards, this way you will run under their attack starting from a ducking position, and wind up behind them. If you connect an anti air roundhouse, use the dash move to get right on top of them before they even hit the ground. It is the same concept as anti cross up spinning with Kabal, but much less rewarding. If you can keep up a good Dashing game, especially while invisibile. Another integral part of Reptile's Dash, is to use it in juggle combos. It seems very intentional that they gave him a limit of three hits before his forceball is disabled, and a 3 it pop up combo, extra recovery on his pop up, with the fast forceball being just fast enough to hit any opponent unblockably if done on a just frames concept after said pop up, which flips them to the perfect height to do anti air HPs, and then this move makes Reptile run back and forth under the falling opponent, lining up perfectly to get more each time, just out of sync enough to not be an infinite. A truly remarkable set of coincidences. Learn this, it's what makes Reptile dangerous, without it, he belongs in the lower end of the top tier. The Elbow Dash also does a tiny bit of damage for some reason during certain situations when you move across the opponent, so if they are on absolute danger, an elbow dash will win it for free. Reptile can cannot relaunch combo anyone except Sheeva. It is too slow on recovery so he cannot jump as they are moving upwards. You have to walk forward, take a running step and jump forward+punch immediately as Sheeva is about 2/3 through her flight. Basic Juggles: 1. jump punch starter, HP, HP, D+LP, HK JK or Uppercut depending on opponent 6 hits 34, 35 and 38% 2. HP, HP, D+LP, Fast Forceball, Uppercut 5 hits 34% 3. Slow forceball, aaHPHP, fast forceball, uppercut 5 hits 33% Corner and juggles: 1. Slow Forceball, aaHPHP, fast Forceball, aaHPHP, JK, RH, LK 9 hits 50% 2. HP, HP, D+LP, Fast Forceball, aaHPHP, JK, RH, LK 9 hits 51% 3. aaHPHP, Fast Forceball, aaHPHP, JK, RH, LK 8 hits 52% 4. RH onto Slow Forceball, aaHP, Fast Forceball, uppercut 5 hits 47% 5. aaHP, JK, aaHP, fast Forceball, aaHPHP, JK, RH, LK 9 hits 68% Maximum, or most reccommended Dashing HP Juggles on all characters via his 3 hit pop up to Forceball: Juggle Chain examples: HPHP = 2 consecutive HPs LPHPHP = fluid chaining 3 hits LP, HPHP = 1 LP, cancel with run, walk forward, 2 HPs HPHP, HP = 2 HPs, cancel with run, walk forward, 1 HP 1. vs Kabal: Possible but difficult infinite with HPHPHP, dash - or (HPHP, dash)x6, LPHP, Uppercut 2. vs Females Ninjas: HPHP, HP, (HPHP, dash)x4, LPHP, Uppercut; LPHPHP infinite works on them, but extremely difficult 3. vs Male Ninjas: HPHP, HP, dash - Infinite and corner infinite, HP, HP,(into the corner) dash, HPHPHP (out of the corner), dash 4. vs Nightwolf: (HPHP, dash)x6, LPHP, Uppercut 5. vs Sonya: HP, (HPHP, dash)x6, LPHP, Uppercut 6. vs Jax: HPHPHP, dash - Infinite 7. vs U-Sub: LPHPHP, dash - Infinite 8. vs Kano: LPHP, HP, dash - Infinite 9. vs Robots: (HPHP, dash)x4, (LPLP, dash)x3, Uppercut 10. vs Stryker: Infinite - all variants 11. vs Sindel: LPHPHP, dash - Infinite; also LPHP, HP or HPHP, HP works 12. vs Lao: (HPHP, dash)x6, LPHP, Uppercut 13. vs Sheeva: Popup to forceball - (HPHP, dash)x6, Uppercut; just a forceball - (HPHP, dash)x9, Uppercut 14. vs Liu: Popup to forceball - (HPHP, dash)x6, Uppercut; just a forceball - (HPHP, dash)x7, LPHP, Uppercut 15. vs Shang: off a pop up or forceball the max is HPHP, dash, HPLP, dash, uppercut, however this is very difficult. leaving off the LP and dash-uppercut on the single HP is easier. The mid-screen infinite is HPHP, walk forward aaHP, be sure that HP hits and cancel with the dash, then repeat. After HPHP, aaHP then LPHP, walk forward HP is a lot easier in VS play. This pattern is easy on Kano and Stryker. You can still try HPHP, HP if you want to get more damage, or if you see your next volley will be the last one try stuff like LPHP, walk forward LP. His second infinite is HPHPHP, dash. It works best on Jax only, and you need special setup like Popup, or Forceball. On Unmasked Sub-Zero you can set it up as: popup, forceball, HP, walk forward HPHP, dash, LPHPHP. On Sindel just after forceball stand in position and do LPHPHP, dash. Against Kabal for some reason it's a little more difficult. It's once again LPHPHP but be sure the last HP hits, pause slightly, and then dash, LPHPHP (wait for 3rd punch to hit and then dash). Its possible to do this inf on Female Ninjas and Kano but its very difficult. The corner infinite is actually something extra. It's almost impossible to get more than 2 volleys in actual vs play, because to be a real infinite you need to be in perfect position. The infinite is HPHP, dash into corner, HPHPHP, dash out of the corner, HP, and press forward, HP, and dash again. It works on Male Ninjas, and you can get one cycle against almost everyone, two against Kano and Stryker. Against Kabal, Jax, Sindel and Unmasked Sub after HPHPHP or LPHPHP you can just repeat triple punch trick. Punisher Set Ups for dashing punches: 1. Vs Kano Cannonball - aaHP, forceball, aaHP, forceball - infinite 2. Vs Mileena's Roll or Teleport Kick - aaHPHP, dash, aaHP, forceball, aaLPHP, aaHP, Dash, into maximum HPHP dashing, uppercut 3. Vs Ninja Teleport Punch - Infinite with or without forceball is possible 4. Vs Robot Teleport Uppercut - aaHP, fast forceball, aaHP, slow forceball, then the max dash punches, uppercut 5. Vs Stryker Baton Dash - Infinite 6. Vs Kung Lao Dash Kick - aaHP, forceball, aaHP, forceball, max dash punches, uppercut 7. Vs Liu Kang Bike Kick - aaHPHP, forceball, max dash punches Other set ups for dashing punches: 1. slow forceball, aaRH onto forceball, aaHP, fast forceball into the most dashing punches you can get on whatever character it is, should generally result around 65% 2. slow forceball, aaHPHP, fast forceball, into dashing punches Robot Smoke Robot Smoke is ranked 7th in UMK3. Your main game is going to be run jabs, watch for cross up jumps and nab air throws, anti air HPs to teleport uppercut combos, wake up spears are good sometimes, but most of all, GO INVISIBLE! The Robot Ninjas have some juggle advantages and vulnerabilities in terms of taking hits, watch for them. They can be relaunched by just about anyone with a launcher combo, easier than most, and they are harder to juggle in certain situations, particularly for Ermac and Human Smoke. Kung Lao can spin them and I believe Nightwolf after his autocombo in the corner when it is performed on the "just frame" so not only will you take the 34% or more from the auto combo but you're stuck in the corner infinite. Anyone who can get a ducking LK after their autocombo in the corner on anybody can get a standing HK after their combo on them, for example: Liu Kang, HP starter, 7 hit combo is 38% + standing damage protected HK is 46%. Robot Ninja Basic Moves: Standing HK is topps, uppercuts are somewhat bad in the sense they tend to miss in crucial situations similarly to Kung Lao's, for instance you have to take a step in if you want to counter a punishable move sometimes to hit an uppercut. The robot Ninja roundhouse is late on the hit and has some funky corner issues, good range, low height, better on far away jump ins, but if you can time an aaRH you might as well try and aaHP to teleport uppercut. LPs are really good for double run jabbing mid screen, they keep in tight on the opponent because you have to be closer to connect them. Sweeps have good range and recovery is the same as female ninjas. JK is good, jump punch is kinda tight and ball like, and is easily counterable. Ducking LK is quick and pointy, excellent to get out of runjabs or prevent them. Straight up JK is a great set up to cancel quickly with a teleport uppercut, just make sure it connects, and you have minimum 59% and a free invisibilty. The Harpoon is an essential move as it is a very quick containment and relatively safe to do from full screen depending on the who the opponent it. It's great on wake ups as it seems to have a hit box infront of him before it even comes out, so you will see the Harpoon simply appear beyond the opponent and already snag them without warning. You can try doing a three hit combo and then throw out a harpoon afterwards for mix ups on jumpy players. It can be linked in juggle combos with a normal limit of 4 hits before it, and can be broken to 5. It can counter many simple standing attacks for free, if you block them much like Sonya's leg grab (see air hyper viper beam techniques in MvC2 lol). You can also link it in the corner off his autocombo, using a just frames concept. Try: Jump in HP, HK, HK, LP, buffer the harpoon as the LP hits, nab them, then 5 hit combo, ducking LK, for 11 hits 45%. The Teleport Uppercut is a bit overrated on it's on, and definitely overabused by casual players, getting them into a lot of trouble. It has so many cons I will get in depth with. You should really only use this move if you link it off an anti air attack, or to punish full screen projectile turtles, in essence, any situation where you know it's going to hit and not be blockable. If you feel the need to do this move, you can use it almost like a dragon punch would be used in Street Fighter if you suspect an early jump attack by doing it as they jump and before they land, however, in any situation where you can get that, you're better off going for the aaHP first to add 6.5% there, and then you will knock them high enough to easily get another 6.5% from a second aaHP or even a third after it, or depending on the character, possibly even a JK before the harpoon. It has a strange punishment area, and sets up smaller, modified versions of normal punishers, but punishable nonetheless. If you can scout a cross up JK or JP, you can buffer the FF motion and get them in the middle of their cross up. If you're too late, it's blockable, so you might be better off going for an air throw and deal with the lower damage potential, if they don't attack, it usually misses. If it's going to connect off a juggle, it always hits from the left side, so if you counter an attack on the right and cancel it to the teleport uppercut, it hits the opponent as they are falling into it, sometimes making extra juggle hits after it easier, otherwise it will almost always come up behind opponents. You can use it to bait an air attack by jumping in and attacking early, and do it right as you would normally expect to take a standing HK, but teleport out of it's range. It's possible to still block it however, so you might want to try baiting within the range of an uppercut counter situation, because the uppercut will hold until the teleport uppercut connects. It's limit is 1 hit before hand, and breakable to two on just frames, but is hardly worth the effort. Be careful with overuse, it can be easily snuffed before leaving the screen by many moves like a LK, ducking LK, harpoon, freeze, sweep, uppercut if it's used as a fake out from the air, etc. Even after it leaves the screen on the way back up it can be snuffed with a ducking LK or a well timed uppercut, by specific characters only I believe, like Stryker. You can time a ducking LK to miss and avoid being hit by it completely and counter it as well. This is a nasty trick to use against a Robot Smoke player who goes for it as a last hit of chip damage kill, to beat them specifically. Invisibility is great. It's kind of self explanitory, you're invisible, you're opponent cannot see you, it makes it harder to attack you and a lot of times it will make the other person do risky attacks merely to get you to appear Know where you are on screen, know how to set up certain attacks, know when it's safe to use. The recovery time isn't much, but regardless, it's pointless to try it if you're going to get hit immediately. You can do it anytime you connect a spear between that and the combo, after a roundhouse, or an uppercut. It's good to do after uppercuts because many times people will see it happen and immediately go to hit you with a jumping attack, and this sets up big damage. Be invisible as often as possible.H His air throw has the biggest range of all the air throws in the game. It can stop an asteroid. Use it on cross attempts, it's not quite as useful in sweep situations as Jax or Kano's, but the extra large radius helps him a lot. It is nearly impossible to beat out an air throw happy Smoke player in the air. It's good to link in combos because it does a lot of damage, about twice that of Kano's, aaHP, JK air throw does a little more damage than aaHP, harpoon, 5 hit combo, so in situations where the aaHP, JK, air throw is possible, go for that instead, it also sets up more tactical situations in your favor, and the air throw has a certain level of psychological advantage to it. Basic Juggles: 1. JK, teleport uppercut, aaHP, spear, HP, HP, LK, HK, LP 9 hits 37% 2. teleport uppercut, aaHP, spear, HP, HP, LK, HK, LP 8 hits 47% Advanced Juggles 1. aaHP, teleport uppercut, aaHP, spear, HP, HP, LK, HK, LP 9 hits 54% (59% with Straight Up JK, 63% with a JK) 2. aaHP, teleport uppercut, aaHP, JK, air throw 5 hits 58% (63% with SUJK, 67% with a JK to start) 3. aaHP, teleport uppercut, aaJK, spear, HP, HP, LK, HK, LP 9 hits 63% (68% with SUJK, 72% with JKto start) 4. aaHP, teleport uppercut, aaHP,HP, spear, HP, HP, LK, HK, LP 10 hits 60% (65% with SUJK, 69% with JK to start) 5. (in corner) PS, HK, HK, LP, spear, HP, HP, LK, HK, LP, D+LK 11 hits 45%(the spear is incredibly risky) 6. (in the corner) aaHP, teleport uppercut, JK, aaHP, spear, HP, HP, LK, HK, LP, D+LK 11 hits 71% (76% with SUJK, or 80% with a JK to start it) Scorpion Scorpion is a mid tier character, ranked around # lucky 13 of 23 in the roster. His combo potential on the ground is very low, but juggles are somewhat prosperous. Overall, this guide is going to be very similar to Human Smoke's, except with the differences being combo potential. His air throw makes him slightly dangerous during cross ups, but there's not much he can do after that except rush down with the kick combo. What you should do is run jabs, then the kick combo for 3 hits, leaving off the last hit, and mixing up after that. Male Ninjas can play a nice defensive game and he is one the best to make use of that with because of the available damage he can deal in those situations, similar to Reptile, Human Smoke and Ermac, but to a lesser degree since he has no pop up. He has moder to big damage opportunities on defense, but it is possible to rush down with them as well. There is a common misconception that Human Smoke is just a clone of Scorpion, who is gray and smoking, with no difference in moves. In reality, Human Smoke is much more powerful than Scorpion because he has pop up combos, and he also has a slightly faster walking speed, which makes certain juggle combos easier. His damage range is anywhere from 10 to 35% more at any given time in the same situation as Scorpion. He is still played much like Human Smoke, only with a handicap, meaning it takes more skill and patience to win. Run jabs and safe teleports are your game mixed with the 4 hit kick combo of doom. Off a jump punch start it is sensible to use the 4 hit punches to kicks combo because it does about half a percent (1 pixel) more than the 4 hit kick combo. For example, do 3 jump punch to 4 hit kick combos and it will leave your opponent on danger, if you do this with the punch to kick combo, they will be done. Mix up his run jabs with knees, for example, double run jab, run in, knee, run jab, knee, knee, and keep them guessing. Again, don't forget about his airthrow, and try and get them low on cross up attempts. When run jabbing, sometimes an opponent will jump away, watch for a juggled LP and get them with a harpoon afterward. Also pay attention to collision detection. For some reason when male ninjas duck and block, a lot of distance gets between them and the attacker, causing their combos to miss, like Jax and Kabal. When Jax's first punch in his combo, or Kabal's uppercut misses, capitalize on that with a harpoon, or run in and combo. Specifically with Scorpion, it might be a good idea to try and learn the spacing and timing to get his aaHPHP on jump attacks as a counter to set up the 51% damage combo. Male Ninja Basics moves: The Male Ninjas have excellent basic moves, good height and range on everything in relation to their sprite proportions, their roundhouse is extra wicked and can connect in almost any situation. The only thing that can be weird about them is their aaHPs. Sometimes they tend to miss in situations where you wouldn't expect them to and this is due to kara canceling with run to speed the last hit up, in this situation, often you can do aaHP, LP and it'll work, with slightly less damage, otherwise, always take an extra small step in before doing aaHPs. The Harpoon (or Spear, I tend to throw both words around randomly) is an essential move as it is a very quick containment and relatively safe to do from full screen depending on the who the opponent it. It's good on wake ups as it seems to have a hit box in front of him before it even comes out. You can try throwing out a harpoon afterward a combo for mix ups on jumpy players. It can be linked in juggle combos with a normal limit of 4 hits before it, and can be broken to 5. It can counter many simple standing attacks for free. You might want to also get the feel down for players who jump back and snag them on a landing. A situation where you might be able to consistently connect a spear would be when running jabbing, then doing a teleport punch without leaving the screen. At this point a lot of players try to jump in, hit a spear right as they are coming down, into a convenient combo of choice. You can also just throw out a spear as wake up at this point on characters who don't have teleports. The Teleport Punch is a great move if used for escaping and overall positioning and manueverability. If you use it too much players will see your patterns and counter by getting in the way of it and blocking. If you are experienced enough with the placement and timing you should be able to teleport almost anytime it is available (it has a small time limit between usages) and not get punished. Essentially think of the screen's width as 1 unit, and then if there is more than half of the entire screen behind you and the opponent combined, you are safe. Use if when you are getting up to escape run jabs, HKs or knee starting combos. It is best to try and get the placement down to land right next to them even if they are blocking, this sets up free throw potential and/or rush down. Watch out for counter sweeps, LKs, HKs or uppercuts if you rush in immediately. Utilize the teleport punch as a combo extender but try not to actually hit them with it as it activates damage protection. Its limit is 4 hits before it is locked, has a small window of time limit recharge. Do not use the teleport punch as a safe guard chip hit when someone is on danger because it only does about 2% chip damage and danger can mean the person has 4% life left. It is common to see people lose matches they should have won because of this. You can also glitch cancel the teleport punch if you want to get fancy. His Air Throw is very useful on jumpy opponents, remember to tap block in air a few times any time you leave the ground just incase they do as well. Use it on cross attempts, it's not quite as useful in sweep situations as Jax or Kano's, but still possible to do. It's good to link at the end of juggle combos. Basic Juggles: 1. aaHPHP, harpoon, HP, HP, HK, B+HK 7 hits 42% 2. aaHPHP, JK, air throw 3 hits 28% (43% actual) 3. aaHPHP, teleport (miss) aaHPHP, harpoon, HP, HP, HK, B+HK 9 hits 55% Advanced Juggles: 1. aaHPHP, JK, teleport punch, harpoon, HP, HP, HK, B+HK 9 hits 51% 2. aaHPHP, JK, harpoon, HP, HP, HK, B+HK 8 hits 57% 3. aaHPHP, teleport (miss) aaHP, JK, harpoon, HP, HP, HK, B+HK 9 hits 64% Corner punishers: 1. (very close to wall) aaHP, RH, harpoon, RH, HK 5 hits 60% 2. (half screen distance from wall) aaHP,HP, JK, aaHP, RH, HK 7 hits 72% 3. (sweep distance from wall) aaHP,HP, JK, RH, harpoon, RH, HK 7 hits 83% Sektor Sektor is ranked around 18th in UMK3, a lower-mid or higher-low tier character, however you want to look at it. The main things that separate him from Robot Smoke are the air throw, and harpoon. Your main game is going to be run jabs, mixed with smart missiles, as many as you possibly can so missiles are constantly exploding. Go for his 2 hit kick combo, and on occasion his 3 hit pop up which sets up a mediocre juggle opportunity, and tracking jump attacks with teleport uppercuts. After a teleport uppercut you have the choice of the guaranteed damage, or the tactical end by doing a roundhouse and setting up smart missile traps. At this point against non teleporters it is a good idea to throw out 2 smart missiles. Some downsides overall to the the Robot Ninjas are: they have some juggle advantages and vulnerabilities in terms of taking hits, watch for them. They can be relaunched by just about anyone with a launcher combo, easier than most to time, and they are harder to juggle in certain situations, particularly for Ermac and Human Smoke. Kung Lao can spin them and I believe Nightwolf after his autocombo in the corner when it is performed on the "just frame" so not only will you take the 34% or more from the auto combo but you're stuck in the corner infinite. Anyone who can get a ducking LK after their autocombo in the corner on anybody can get a standing HK after their combo on them, for example: Liu Kang, HP starter, 7 hit combo is 38% + standing damage protected HK is 46%. Always stick a sweep in after teleport uppercut combos because often times they will catch people on a wake up, but if they block you are safe since the distance is so far. Robot Ninja Basic Moves: Standing HK is topps, uppercuts are somewhat bad in the sense they tend to miss in crucial situations similarly to Kung Lao's, for instance you have to take a step in if you want to counter a punishable move sometimes to hit an uppercut. The robot Ninja roundhouse is late on the hit and has some funky corner issues, good range, low height, better on far away jump ins, but if you can time an aaRH you might as well try and aaHP to teleport uppercut. LPs are really good for double run jabbing mid screen, they keep in tight on the opponent because you have to be closer to connect them. Sweeps have good range and recovery is the same as female ninjas. JK is good, jump punch is kinda tight and ball like, and is easily counterable. Ducking LK is quick and pointy, excellent to get out of runjabs or prevent them. Straight up JK is a great set up to cancel quickly with a teleport uppercut, just make sure it connects, and you have a decent combo/juggle for 50%. The Teleport Uppercut is a bit overrated on it's own, and definitely overabused by casual players, getting them into a lot of trouble. It has so many cons I will get in depth with. You should really only use this move if you link it off an anti air attack, or to punish full screen projectile turtles, in essence, any situation where you know it's going to hit and not be blockable. If you feel the need to do this move, you can use it almost like a dragon punch would be used in Street Fighter if you suspect an early jump attack by doing it as they jump and before they land, however, in any situation where you can get that, you're better off going for the aaHP first to add 6.5% there, and then you will knock them high enough to easily get the teleport uppercut after that. It has a strange punishment area, and sets up smaller, modified versions of normal punishers,but punishable nonetheless. If you can scout a cross up JK or JP, you can buffer the FF motion and get them in the middle of their cross up. If you're too late, it's blockable. If it's going to connect off a juggle, it always hits from the left side, so if you counter an attack on the right and cancel it to the teleport uppercut, it hits the opponent as they are falling into it, sometimes making extra juggle hits after it easier, otherwise it will almost always come up behind opponents. You can use it to bait an air attack by jumping in and attacking early, and do it right as you would normally expect to take a standing HK, but teleport out of it's range, it's possible to still block it however, so you might want to try baiting within the range of an uppercut counter situation, because the opponent's uppercut, if done during or after the decent of the teleport, will hold until the teleport uppercut connects. It's limit is 1 hit before hand,and breakable to two on just frames, but is hardly worth the effort. Be careful with overuse, it can be easily snuffed before leaving the screen by many moves like a LK, ducking LK, harpoon, freeze, sweep, uppercut if it's used as a fake out from the air, etc. Even after it leaves the screen on the way back up it can be snuffed with a ducking LK or a well timed uppercut, by specific characters only I believe, like Stryker. You can time a ducking LK to miss and avoid being hit by it completely and counter it as well. This is a nasty trick to use against a Sektor player who goes for it as a last hit of chip damage kill, to beat them specifically, but they will probably just go for smart missiles in this situation. Dumb Missiles are a fast, straight forward projectile. You can use them to extend combos, to pin down your opponent after homing missiles, on jump aways, etc. You can throw them out from full screen against nonteleporters and Sektor will remain relatively safe. You can put a very big pause between the F,F and the LP part of the command. This is a good idea to throw people off and the sudden missile without the foot shuffle, or obvious block holding buffering. The Dumb Missile has no limit of use. After a grounded JK, the dumb missiles start up speed is reduced, making it combo easier. Smart Missiles are a very unique projectile. They move slowly, home in, and there can be multiple on screen at once. There is a nuance about their collision detection however. If you attack while a missile is out and your character is in a frame after the hot box appears, the missile will usually explode, do no damage, and have no stun effect. It is easy to avoid them with ducking LKs, sweeps, standing HKs, LKs. This is good to use when the Sektor player thinks the missile enables a free rush down opportunity. You might want to mix corner run jabs with smart missiles and throw out a 3 hit pop up combo knocking them into the missile, setting up a couple more hits from the juggle. There is no limit to the number of missiles you can have on screen, however, once it approaches the 4th, the 1st one's time limit expires just after, and that will only be seen if the other player moves around enough but doesn't attack. It is possible to keep spamming the missiles while teleporter are moving around and they will eventually catch up with them if they aren't fast enough. Mix up dumb missiles with the smart missiles in these situations to make cross patterns that are hard to escape. If you do a smart missile and get a juggle opportunity, try to set it up so they hit the missile in air, to increase overall juggle damage. If you have a couple smart missiles out, watch for counter rush down and go for a kara jab when they are close, this way you will either throw them, or block their combo, and either way you have friendly missiles coming in to save you from the rush down. Sektor can relaunch combo everyone except Sindel, Stryker, and the female ninjas only because he cannot combo his pop up off a starter mid screen on them otherwise, he can make them stand up. Basic Juggles: 1. JK, teleport uppercut, aaHP, dumb missile 4 hits 29% 2. teleport uppercut, aaHP, dumb missile 3 hits 28% 3. jump punch starter, HP, HP, D+LP, aaHP, dumb missile 6 hits 36% Advanced Juggles: 1. jump punch starter, HP, HP, D+LP, aaHPHP, JK 7 hits 41% 2. jump punch starter, HP, HP, D+LP, deep jump kick, aaHP, JK 7 hits 46% 3. aaHP, teleport uppercut, aaHP, HP, JK 5 hits 45% 4. aaStraight Up JK (or regular JK canceled quickly, either way), teleport uppercut, aaHPHP, JK 5 hits 50-54% (some characters you cannot get two HPs on and it always depends on how high you connect the teleport uppercut or their collision detection) Corner Juggles: 1. aaHP, teleport uppercut, close RH, aaHP, dumbe missile 2. jump punch starter, HP, HP, D+LP, JK, RH, HK 7 hits 51% (JK must hit very high and RH must hit as soon as possible or it will be blockable) 3. aaHP, teleport uppercut, straight up JP, RH, HK 5 hits 57% Shang Tsung Shang Tsung is a low tier character, near the bottom, perhaps in the 20s, but the fact that he has an infinite at his disposal and large easy morph combos off a single ground erutpion, with some effort means he cannot be last even though basically he is less capable than most. Shang's lock down, keep away, and zoning pressure can be absolutely insane if you commit to a gameplan with him. Your strategy is going to be constant double fireball to ground eruption traps and set ups. His ground combos are limited, no pop ups, significant recovery time on his comboed roundhouse, etc. Remember, if you are Shang Tsung, you are also, at limited durations, Kabal, Kung Lao, Kano, Ermac, etc. If you mix these characters up with others like Reptile and Kitana who have completely different strategical defense, you'll have your opponents guessing, and adapting constantly. It is theoretically possible to beat people without morphs just using his lock down and basic moves, because the important ones are good. His collision boxes are the most awkward and unique in the game. Many juggle combo simply do not work on him, so take notice that people will have to significantly modify combos on him, generally doing a lot less to him. This is an advantage against some characters. Also, he has a hard time ducking certain projectiles if you're a hair late, watch out for this. Basic Moves: Shang's basics are kinda mixed. He definitely has a sluggishness about him in general, but that's really only his ground combos. They have significant pauses in them that result in breaks constantly. However, his uppercut, standing HK, and RH are ideal anti air attacks, and your choice is up to you or the situation. His uppercut's range and height is excellent, however during his duck and rising frames he tends to get stuck, so aaUppercuts need to be anticipated a little sooner, or you have to wait just slightly to allow their jump attack hit duration to pass. Kano and Nightwolf will often times snuff his uppercut so it's better to go for the standing HK which is high and pointy, his RH is also high with good range. Sweep range is a little less than to be expected. Stand LK is good, his ducking LK is also good. A lot of his basic moves are similar to that of the Male Ninjas. His run jab game is decent, sometimes you can try and stick in a single fireball after a few run jabs. His JK is very good, his JP is ok. His straight up JK is pretty nice. The Flaming Skulls (fireballs in the general gaming world) have existed since MK1, but in MK3 they were changed significantly. They were originally small and fast moving, now they are slower, and longer. You may notice certain fireball amounts are better for different set ups and combo opportunities. Double fireballs are a good bet, Shang seems to recover quickly after them compared to the height they usually bounce off the last one. If you do 3, the 3rd might not hit them right and Shang winds up unable to capitalize, so stick to usage of 1 or 2. Fireballs have no limit of usage, and no pre set hit limit when they turn off, you can stagger their usage by placing two hits inbetween them, much like Stryker's riot gun. For example: in corner, aaHP,HP, double fireball, JK, aaLP, double fireball. This is not a conventional in game combo, but it demonstrates the moves limits. Try to stick in single fireballs anywhere it's safe if you're not going for morph game, the situations are similar, like after a roundhouse, or throw. The Ground Eruption (GE) is a very interesting move, similar to his fireballs, but sets up free juggles if they connect. Mix up cross patterns of single or double fireballs and GEs in effort to lock your opponent down, watch for their move, pin them down, keep them guessing, keep it constant, don't let up, and ultimately set up GE combos. Another great thing about the GE is that it's a free morph opportunity as well, and you can set up great juggle combos off them easily, but pulling them off is up to your own abilities. The GE has absolutely no limitations whatsoever and can be continually used over and over with no break inbetween, setting up difficult, but doable infinites. Remember in order to really benefit from the juggles, the GE has to hit the characters well placed. If you do one from full screen as Jax is about to do his missile, chances are the third will GE will miss so you will need to watch for this and compensate combos. Against non teleport characters sometimes it's a good idea to do two GE's in a row, because they will often times run through the first two and get hit by the third, as they go up on the third, RH them into the following GE. Most characters will get juggled by all three GE's from a full screen distance, Robots, Female Ninjas, Shang, Sheeva, Kabal, Sindel, Sonya, Kung Lao, Liu Kang, some (Stryker and Male ninjas) will only get hit by one, the rest get hit by 2, so set combos up accordingly. In order to get the full juggle you have adjust the distance slightly, but generally there is not enough time to do this so you need to pay attention to where they get hit. This really only applies to grounded opponents. Morphs are probably his best tool overall because of versatility and strategy changing at your command. If you know how to use a lot of characters, you might like playing as Shang just for the challenge of being him at certain times. Morphs last approximately 16 clock seconds in 1 on 1 gameplay and have no limit of usage. Keep your characters varied, look for free morph situations. Generally after a RH, or especially an anti air RH, a morph is free, so have an idea of who you would like to use in those situations. Uppercuts have a reasonable amount of morph safety, as do juggle Fireballs, and the GE is obviously the safest. It is possible to use morphs to cancel corner push back and possibly continue combos, but you have to make sure you are paying attention to morph times. Shang has a few variations of the same infinite using his GE. The easiest way is to start with one hitting all 3 fireballs, then run Shang to the middle and do another, as the character hits the last fireball which goes up just behind Shang, he will be hit into the second fireball from the second ground eruption, getting knocked back over in front of Shang. Repeat this as much as you like til you get to a wall. It's also possible to knock them the other way into fireballs coming up from behind in a similar manner, but doing the GE a bit late. Another way to do it, is if the person jumps onto the first GE, run almost to the other side of the screen and GE as they are landing. You have to make sure the last hit knocks them behind you, so walk into the middle, let it hit them over, then run and buffer the next GE to hit as they fall. Basic Juggles: 1. aaHP,HP, double fireball 4 hits 28% (sets up GE lock down or if they jump as soon as they land they will get hit and it sets up juggles, morphs, and infinite combos) 2. GE, aaHP,HP, double fireball 7 hits 43% 3. (near corner) aaHPHP, double fireball, uppercut 5 hits 50% Advanced Juggles: 1. aaDouble Fireball, GE, aaHP,HP, aaHP, double fireball, 10 hits 65% 2. (near corner) aaHPHP, double fireball, JK, HK, 6 hits, 59% Morph and GE related Combos of various degrees of difficulty: 1. aaDouble Fireball, [Ermac], teleport punch, aaHP, Lift, aaHPHP, aaHP, fireball 8 hits about 47% 2. aaLP,(BL,HK for Kabal morph) spin, aaHP,HP, JK, air fireball (JK on some) (and now you are safe as Kabal to terrorize for about 12 clock seconds) 6 hits 47%-48% 3. GE, [Kabal] aaHPHP, JK, air fireball 7 hits 57% 4. GE, [Jax] aaHPHP, JK, air throw, 7 hits 59% 5. GE, [Nightwolf] Axe X4, aaHP, Axe, aaHP, Shoulder Tackle 11 hits 60%(varies on the characters, for example against Kabal, Sub Stryker or Jax, the full combo isn't that difficult, but against Shang it would be impossible) 6. GE(2 hit), [Sindel] scream, aaHP, scream, aaHP, scream, HK, HP, HP, D+HP, aaHPHP, JK, air fireball 12 hits 69% 7. GE, [Ermac] JK, Lift, aaHPHP, aaHP, fireball (JK on some) 8 hits 67-71% 8. GE, [Liu Kang] aaHPHP, JK, Air Fireball, Dragon Kick 8 hits 70% 9. GE, [Reptile] - as many aaHPHP whiff elbow dashes, as possible on whatever character you're against, for example, GE, [Reptile] aaHPHP, whiff dash X3, uppercut, 10 hits 75% 10. GE(2 hit), [Ermac] aaHP, JK, lift, aaHPHP, aaHP fireball or JK 8 hits 68-73% 11. GE, [Kung Lao] into various spin, or aaHP, JK, whiff dive kick infinite combos 12. [when aware of being Sub for a while] aaHP, freeze, or aaFreeze, aaHP, freeze (kill whatever time is necessary) [Shang][Kung Lao] to infinite variations or Ermac and anyone of his various ridiculous combos. Sheeva Sheeva is a low tier character, hovering around the final shuffle of rank in the 20's of 23 playable characters in UMK3. This is more of a what not to do with Sheeva, than a "here's all the sectret tactics to win with Sheeva" guide. She has only 3 special moves, none of which have anything about them which is all that swift. She has no containment unless you count her throw as one since it allows free moves afterwards and is similar to Cyrax's yet unique in it's own way, then once again relimited by her as a character. She has a huge damage mid screen 42% autocombo, which is 51% with a JP starter, and that is one of her most useful assets. Her collision boxes are also a bit strange because she is bigger than the rest of the cast but she becomes more compact when in air. She is vulnerable to a lot of situations because of her collision area, like attacks that would normally miss. She gets stuck in her ducking frames while blocking if you are hit, which can be helpful so you can buffer certain tactics. If you continue to hold down while blocking she will stand up repeatedly while being run jabbed. What you are going to try and do with her in terms of rush down is go for her 4 hit kick combo which catches people sleeping quite often, and look for other wake up opportunities with her special moves. Remember her throw allows a free standing HK afterwards, and in the corner some decent juggles are possible. Her normal juggling capability is extremely limited, perhaps the most limited in the game in terms of damage. The best midscreen punisher you can get with her on a Ninja Teleport Punch is aaHP,HP, aaHP, fireball, which is 4 hits 35% and that even requires you to run in a step before hand. She gets hammered on cross ups, so your best bet is to stay out of them. She is highly succeptable to relaunch combos, but she can often block them in situations when they would normally connect. The only combo you should go for off a JP or JK starter is her 7 hit combo for over 50%, but if you feel you must throw some spice into her game I will list a few alternate combos at the bottom. Something you can do with her launcher is do the pop up, then aaHPHP, cross up jump and as they land and attempt some rush down. What she boils down to is playing very basic, and very safe, watch for the smallest possible chances to take advantage of. If you practice with Sheeva, most of the other characters will seem a lot easier to use afterwards possibly make you a better player. Take note that Sheeva has quick recovery time when receiving attacks, you can immediately follow up and attack someone, as if she gets a head start. She can be hit but low projectiles, Jade's Dash kick, etc, while ducking very easily. Basic Moves: All of Sheeva's basic moves have reasonable range, but her surface area allows her to be hit by attacks in certain cases rather easily, defeating the purpose of her being tall, and lankier than most characters. Her standing HK is ideal anti air, and her RH is only good when a character is jumping from about half screen distance. Her RH also has considerable lag to it, like Sub-zero's. Her HPs hit normal hit, LPs hit a bit high. Her sweep is a bit short on range. Her jumping attacks are average, but again her large target makes her easily counterable. Her ducking LK is very quick, pointy, and has range, so use it to get out of run jabs. Her uppercut is pretty nice and meaty but watch for late JPs, she will get snuff everytime when going to counter with it. Her Fireball does decent damage for a standard projectile, and is a bit higher than normal, so you can try to use it to hit opponents at slightly different placement in the air, meaning you can do it sooner on a jump away and catch them before they land. You can add the fireball to juggle combos easily, and it's recovery time isn't as bad as some. The Teleport Stomp is a tricky move to understand in terms of using it. Many people abuse it and you can avoid it simply by walking backwards, then punish Sheeva with a combo. Your best bet with this move is to use it when someone is locked in place by a move, like a standing HK rush down, teleport just before they do it, and you will connect the stomp. You also might want to try and use it to get out of the way of run jab rush down, if she is hit on the way up she can be juggled though (however limited generally) but she leaves the screen very quickly, and often times the upward movement makes the person react with a standing HK that will miss. If someone jumps away and is going to land at full screen distance, do her teleport stomp and it is almost impossible to miss it. If in the corner and run jabbing it is possible to throw in a teleport stomp. It's avoidable but try and time to counter a counter. The Ground Stomp is a nearly useless move, as there is no way to hit it on someone as long as they hold up+back or forward except off an aaRH, which it can combo as 2 hits, but you have to be extremely on the ball with it. If you counter someone with an aaHPHP and stomp just as the right time, it will hit them on the way down, but it is again easily escable. If they only hold up, there is a chance it will connect, and chances are they didn't know they can't do that and will learn. Use this move has a wake up on occasion mixed up with teleport stomps, but you can't abuse either move at all in any way against someone with the least bit of skill and knowledge. You can try to mix this up with run jabs but it can get you into trouble. The only thing it will do is make the other person jump and there is a good change they will jump towards you and cross up with a jump punch starter. If you are successful with a stomp while run jabbing, stick in a HK as the might jump away the next time instead. After a regular RH, or moreso an aaRH, stick in the stomp as a wake up. If they jump forward Sheeva has a chance to counter, otherwise she's reasonably safe except against teleporters, who probably won't be jumping at you that much. Sheeva has a launcher combo, however it takes an odd arch and therefore she cannot relaunch anyone. Basic Juggles: 1. Throw, HK, 2 hits 28% 2. aaHPHP, JK or fireball 3 hits 28% 3. aaHPHP, RH 3 hits 30% 4. punch starter, HP, HP, LP, F+HP, aaHP, JK or fireball 7 hits 46% 5. (in corner) punch starter, HP, HP, LP, F+HP, JK, aaHP, fireball 8 hits 54% Advanced Juggles: 1. (for punishers) run step, aaHPHP, aaHP, JK or fireball 4 hits 35% 2. punch starter, HP, HP, LP, F+HP, aaHPHP, JK 8 hits 49% 3. (in corner) punch starter, HP, HP, LP, F+HP, aaHP, JK, JK, HK 9 hits 61% (you can add another aaHP for 10 hits 64% in the middle depending how far you are from the corner and what character it is against, and this makes the rest of the combo easier due to extra height to play around with, regardless a difficult show combo for a worthless character) Corner Throw Juggles: 1. Throw, ducking LP, uppercut, 3 hits 33% 2. Throw, ducking LP, aaHP, fireball 4 hits 33% 3. Throw, ducking LP, JK, aaHK 4 hits 37% 4. Throw, ducking LP, RH, HK 4 hits 38% (on Robots and Sheeva) 5. Throw, ducking LP, JK, aaLP, fireball, 5 hits 40% Sindel (updated 11-10-05) Sindel is ranked #9. She has easy, powerful combos, a small hittable area, an air special attack, a containment move that acts as decent anti air, and some other unique properties that I will get into later as well, but her normals are kind of lacking, generally in range. Overall what you're going to look for with her is setting up situations to abuse the Scream, jump away air fireballs can work to an extent depending on whether your opponent has a teleport or not, and some run jab game is good as well because you can get 43% (or more) on any character from a standard knee to launcher combo. Very few characters can relaunch her. The only combo you should ever go for during rush down is her HK, HP, HP D+HP combo. Basic moves: Her uppercut is good to counter attacks that are very much directly over her head, but it otherwise has a very narrow range to it, causing a lot of undesirable situations when you think an uppercut might be guaranteed. Particularly when they land in close range, it often times misses. Her roundhouse has reasonable height, but short on range. This makes anti air roundhouses nearly useless with her against most characters, but you can use it for a run under anti air roundhouse quite easily since it hits so close to her. If you are in a situation where you might want to use an anti air roundhouse, go with an anti air HP instead because you can link a scream, or 3 or 4, off it. Her HPs have slightly less range than some, her LPs are normal. Her HK is good anti air, as are most in MK because of the distance a character's collision box is from the hit box of the kick. Her standing LK hits about normal height, even though she's smaller than most characters. Her sweep has nice range, deceptively more than most characters, even though it may be by pixels, but so is everything else in this game. Her ducking LK is about average in terms of speed and pointiness, but she may still be open to some characters' knee combos after doing one if the second isn't timed right. Her JK is nice, but her JP is a bit close to her hittable area, she has a reasonably good cross up game with them. The Scream is a vital part of her defense. It has some recovery time to it if it's blocked so don't throw them out too often or you'll be punished. It's an excellent anti air move and you can link many aaHPs off it if you sequence them right. Abuse it in all punisher combos. The rules for the scream are kind of strange because you can easily break it's rules based on it's own programming flaws. The standard amount of hits you can do before it without glitching it is 2, and it has no discernable time limit between uses. So that means, for example, aaHPHP scream should be the most you can do before it at once because if you do aaHP,HP,HP you cannot do a scream. If you do a single aaHP followed by a scream, the scream removes the hit from the combo counter, but still adds the damage for some reason. This means you can do as many single punch to scream repetitions as you can throw out before they are too close to the ground to juggle. If you do two aaHPs, followed by a scream, it will count and store these two hits and their collective damage as part of the full combo, but you can still do a single aaHP after these two and scream because it doesn't add another hit until two are done consecutively. The counter at this point still recognizes 2 comboed aaHPs, but the damage of 3. You can then do another single aaHP scream, or, 2 aaHPs and then the scream is disabled for the rest of your combo. By doing a single aaHP, canceling to scream when starting a punisher combo, you can easily allow yourself to following it up with 2 aaHPs after, knocking them a lot higher, and easily enabling a 4th aaHP followed by yet another scream. Remember to try and cancel the HP as soon as it hits without double scream backfiring, or canceling too late and having the scream miss, or have them land too low to abuse it more. The occurance of unorthodox hit counting is not limited to just aaHP or LP attacks, but they are the only conventional means for comboing a scream. In essence, for a standard punisher combo, anyone should be able to get aaHP, scream, aaHPHP, scream, aaHP, scream, to auto combo/juggle. An interesting note on the scream in terms of countering is that you can run into it and block it and get a full combo afterward. If you see someone do a scream you have a couple seconds to think of the best way to punisher her for it. Generally what you can do is teleport behind her and take advantage that way, but most of the time people justo do a free projectile. Try running into her scream and blocking it right at the edge because it has a moving hit box, now you have a very short time to run in again and combo her. The Firebreath is kind of slow when used normally, but after a grounded jump kick it comes out SUPER fast like Nightwolf's Arrow for example. It is not recommended to use for zoning, even though I see people try it all the time. She has a great deal of recovery and an opponent can easily see it start up, jump over it and counter her. It is pretty much only good to use if someone is jumping away and connecting it will win you the match. Using it combos is kind of pointless because as well because it would only serve to terminate what could be a better combo, and leaving her slightly vulnerable afterward, at least putting her on the defensive which is not where you want to be. A corner Scream tactic you can try that ties in with run jabs: If you go to run jab and someone while they are in the corner and they try to jump to get out of it, watch for this because you'll LP them and juggle them, after this LP, stick in a quick aaHP with the intent of canceling it to the scream, you can then easily run in and get another aaHP scream, while that scream holds them, walk backwards as they descend to allow enough room to get her pop up combo to corner juggle, resulting in possibly over 65%. The Air Firebreath is a very useful, but also very dangerous move. Many players can easily scout when you are going to jump straight up, or jump in and fake out for an air fireball. Don't fall into this pattern because they will run under uppercut you everytime. Use it for zoning and keep away, but don't use it that much (try not to at all) against teleporting characters because it's just too easy to counter. You can use it to allow her to hover over projectiles like Sub's freeze but you have to time it right or she'll come out of the fire frames and drop just enough to touch. If you do a naked JK, sometimes you should cancel to a fireball if the JK is blocked because they will try to counter you and then get hit by it. Use it to terminate juggle combos after a JK to add a bit of extra damage, as this is standard. Anytime you anticipate a double JK scenario, try and cancel the JK as soon as it connects as if you were Kung Lao canceling to a dive kick collision situation. It is sometimes better in general usage to wait until Sindel is close to the ground before firing it to reduce her falling recovery time and also bait your opponent into running in early, expecting the air fireball at maximum height. For example, using it against Kabal, do an early jump kick, make them try and spin you, and cancel the JK with a fireball, beating Kabal's spin. Flight is a unique move to UMK3/MKT. It is subsequently useless in nearly all tactical situations except as a taunt. The flight , if intended to actually get her in air to fly around and do air fireballs has so much start up before you can move, and so much vulnerability when you get there still, it really is pointless to even try in a match. What you can do with it is, perform the motion, then instantly cancel it with block before she even leaves the ground. It makes a woosh sound and she sort of dances in place, and has a profound psychological effect on the other player. She can also instantly block pretty much any attack and it makes your opponent rush in so there is no risk at doing this, and sets them up for a decent possible counter if they do rush in blindly. You can perform multiple flight cancels in a row by doing B, B, F, HK/BL/HK/BL/HK/BL. Don't do this too much because that means you're not attacking and attacking is the goal here. Another use for the flight is to extend corner combos by linking aaHPs off it and stopping the push back or "ice skate" in the corner. This is an extremely difficult skill to perform with her, and adds only a few percent to a corner combo if you do it once, and it has to be done perfectly to do it over and over. It is not advised. Sindel has one real infinite, made famous by DreemerNJ, which is the previously mentioned and notorious "Flight Cancel" infinite. It is performed by doing an aaHP, or LP, canceling with her flight move the instant it hits, and then doing another aaHP or LP. It is incredibly difficult. Test it out and you will realize even 2 volleys of this infinite can be annoying to get at times, 3 is pretty much the limit as far as I've heard anyone get except DreemerNJ. Sindel can relaunch infinite Sheeva, Kung Lao, unmasked Sub-zero, Jax, Nightwolf, Kabal, Cyrax, Sektor, and Robot Smoke. Her relaunch sometimes requires crazy timing. You have to pause very slightly before jumping after the launcher and wait until the very last instant before they hit the ground to relaunch them, often times it will look like it's going to miss, but it will connect. It's easier to mash out her 3 hit pop up right after, but it's also possible, and stylish, to stick in her HK before the second launcher combo. Basic juggles: 1. punch starter, HK, HP, HP, D+HP, JK, air fireball 7 hits 50% 2. aaHPHP, scream, HK, HP, HP, D+HP, JK, air fireball 8 hits 54% Advanced Juggles: 1. punch starter, HK, HP, HP, D+HP, aaHP, JK, air fireball, 8 hits 53% (you can substitute aaHP,HP on Jax, Stryker, Sub-zero, Kano, Nightwolf, the Robots, etc for 9 hits 56%, with reasonable reliability, and most characters whom it is sometimes difficult to get two aaHPs, you can easily get two aaLPs, for 55%) 2. (for a standard mid screen punisher combo) aaHP, scream, aaHP,HP, scream, aaHP, scream, HK, HP, HP, D+HP, aaHPHP, JK, air fireball 11 hits 73%. In the corner you can get multiple scream and HP combinations resulting in very close to 100% damage, and it is very much worth learning. You can try her flight cancel infinite but it is not recommended. Super advanced corner combo: 1. HK, HP, HP, D+HP, JK, aaHP, flight cancel, aaHP, flight cancel, JK, air fireball 9 hits 54% (doing a little more than ending her popup in JK, RH, run in HK, which is difficult to line up because of weak RH properties.) Sonya (Updated 11-19-05) Sonya is a mid tier character in UMK3, ranked around number 12. She is very fast, a great sweeper, has a lot of options and ways to play her. You can rush down or turtle with her, but rush down is your best bet. Another thing you're going to want to look for is guranteed openings for the leg grab which is essentially a free uppercut that allows you to get right on top of your opponent afterwards. Her combos are pretty simple and powerful, and she's a little harder to max out juggles on then most characters but not the level of Shang Tsung or Sheeva where you really have to overcompensate for them. Her ducking LK is golden, and will be explained in depth later. Rush down with run jabs, into her 5 hit pop up, throw in some knee jabs here and there, and remember to abuse her speed and leg grab. Basic Moves: There are some awkward properties here and there on her moves. For one her uppercut hits strangely and deceptively, and it has an extra recovery frame, it looks like the made hers stop one frame too early, but I suppose that makes it hit just a tad earlier. Her roundhouse is high and short on range, and does connect on the frame you would expect it to, the whole move is pretty sudden. It's better for run under roundhouse set ups than normal anti air, so you should go for a simple standing HK, which hers is very good. Her sweep is in the top 3 with Kano and Jax. Extremely little recovery time and sets up traps. Her jabs are slightly short on range, making clean aaHP contact difficult at times, but still works on punishers. Her ducking LK is perhaps the best in the game. It's very pointy, with great range and her hit box is incredibly small while doing it because she ducks so low to the ground. If you time it correctly, it is nearly impossible to hit Sonya with any attack except ones that are intentionally low like a Liu Kang Fireball, Ermac's lift or Mileena's roll. People who are aware of this tactic will sometimes pick characters to counter it but there are ways around it. In the unlikely event someone will pick Mileena to roll through your ducking LK cheese, throw out a couple, and they will attempt to roll, since you expect it, simply block it and punish with aaHP, JP, leg grab for 37%. Against Liu Kang try to bait a ducking fireball, and when they do, don't LK, jump over the fireball for a free 52% combo. You can snuff with it any sweep practically inbetween sweeps, any incoming JK contact can be avoided with it and then counter them as they land. Remember you cannot simply mash on D+LK and expect results, you have to recognize your opponent's character's strengths and weaknesses and ultimately take advantage of every little mistake. The ducking LK can also get you out of cross up situations easily with little risk. Her ducking HK can be used a really humiliating anti air attack as well. Her straight up JK can catch some characters if you do it on the way up in a jump, her regular JK is great, it's one of the best in the game. She can snuff lots of attacks with it, including Kabal's spin, frontwards or backwards. Her JP is decent, misses often on wide cross ups. The Leg Grab is probably one of the most important moves in her set. It has great range, massive damage, quick as hell, can punish just about anything from a good distance and is useable in combos. It has a strange damage protection property in UMK3. Naked, the leg grab does about 21%. If you connect a grounded JK into a leg grab, it does 10%. If you combo more than 2 juggled hits before it, it does 5%. If you combo it in an auto combo with more than 2 connect hits before it, like HP, HP, U+LP, it does 3% damage, acknowledging the fact that any juggle hits after an auto combo are DPed and it has it's own special DP as well. There are many situations where an attack leaves someone open for a leg grab even when Sonya blocks it. Watch for situations, or even try to set them up, so a combo will miss, or get a laggy hit in the middle if blocked, this really is only useful in combos where you can actually switch from standing to ducking and blocking, 3 frames of vulnerability, only 1 abuseable so this has to be done in a situation where there are more than 3 available frames, hence the delayed or stuck hit. If timed correctly Sonya will appear to break through the combo and snag them with a leg grab. Also simply watch for combos that suddenly stop and always be ready to stick in a leg grab because it's free damage and puts Sonya on the offensive. The leg grab can beat out sweeps from close range if they start at the same time, so against a sweep crazy Kano or Jax, throw out a leg grab on them right as they go for one. You might also try simply running through the sweep and getting her knee lift before the sweep connects. The main concept is to abuse the hell out of the leg grab at every opportunity, and mix it up with those nasty ducking LKs, then switch it up on them after a leg grab connects and go for the rush down. A standard punisher combo getting use of the full leg grab damage would be, aaHP, JK, leg grab, and it has to be timed well or the leg grab will be blockable, and it has a decent amount of recovery time, but on the other hand it also has a strange collision box when recoiling, making a lot of close range attacks miss on her. The leg grab must be blocked low, like a sweep, and does no chip damage. The Rings are a standard projectile, slow start up, she holds the pose for a while, but it has quick horizontal movement. It would be inadvisable to use the rings as a zoning move because she leans forward and is wide open for punisher autocombos. You would be better off using it sparingly, and perhaps as a last resort to hit a jumping away opponent for a win. The Upward Bike Kick is a great wake up and anti air move. Many people will abuse it in close range situations and it can get you out of run jab scenarios if timed properly, like Mileena's roll. Another good use for it is to get out of cross up situations. If someone run jabs you and exhausts their run bar, they might go for a cross up JK to let some run recharge and continue to run jab until you give up the hits in attempt to counter. At this point your choice of escape is either a ducking LK miss or snuff, or, buffer the bike kick as they jump by hitting F,F, D instead of B, B, D, this way as they cross up you will snag them with a bike kick. The timing is tricky, but it's a good psychological tactic and will prevent them from doing so much crossing up in the future. For a move that leaves the ground, it has almost no punishable frames so the only real escape to spammed bike kicks would be to duck and not block, allowing Sonya to go over you and trying to punish her on the way down, perhaps with a containment set up. It has a limit of one usage per combo and can be done after any amount of hits. The Wave Punch is a good anti air move, and you can use to keep constant jumpers on the ground even if they are jumping away. It is useful for mobility to some extent but not entirely advisable because it can get her into trouble. You can also use it in combos, particularly in the corner. It's possibly to juggle a LK or even a HK after some corner combos on certain characters after the wave punch. Sonya has an unsubstantiated ground infinite using her leg grab and running in with a LP jab as they get up. I have personally gotten it to work on some characters but the timing is very difficult, I don't even understand how it works. There's no point in even trying it like Sindel's flight cancel infinite. Sonya can relaunch Sheeva, Robot Ninjas, Kano, Kung Lao, Nightwolf, Jax, Sub-zero, Sonya, Shang Tsung, Kabal, Sindel, Male Ninjas, and Liu Kang. On some characters you can follow their flight path instantly as the combo finishes and relaunch them, but on others you must pause for an instant before jumping, aligning the collision boxes properly. Some characters are not worth attempting relaunching because the timing is too rigid. Basic Juggles: 1. punch starter, HK, HK, HP, HP, U+LP, JK, leg grab 8 hits 48% 2. aaHP,HP, leg grab 3 hits 34% Advanced Juggles: 1. punch starter, HK, HK, HP, HP, U+LP, aaHP, JK, leg grab 9 hits 51% (can add an extra aaHP on some characters like Jax, Sub and Stryker for 10 hits 54%) 2. punch starter, HK, HK, HP, HP, U+LP, deep JK, HK 8 hits 52% (on some characters like Jax if you get a deep bleeding JK you can stick in an aaLP, JK, Leg Grab, for 10 hits 58%) 3. aaHP, JK, Leg Grab 3 hits 43% Corner Juggles: 1. aaHP, RH, Leg Grab 3 hits 45% 2. punch starter, HK, HK, HP, HP, U+LP JK, HK, HK 9 hits 59% 3. punch starter, HK, HK, HP, HP, U+LP, JK, RH, HK 9 hits 60% 4. punch starter, HK, HK, HP, HP, U+LP, JK, JK, HK 9 hits 60% 5. punch starter, HK, HK, HP, HP, U+LP, JP, JK, aaLP, Wave Punch 10 hits 60% 6. punch starter, HK, HK, HP, HP, U+LP, JK, aaHP, Wave Punch, LK or upward bike kick on some characters 10 hits 62% Stryker Stryker is a mid tier character, between 13th and 15th, with seriously powerful combos. He is a major zoning character and has a lot of different and useful specials moves. He can be a major force in the right hands, but like all other skill-to-use characters, he is ultimately defeated by top tier characters. He has a larger than average juggle zone, so he is massively vulnerable to punisher combos off his Baton Throw, not many characters can relaunch him, and he has hge juggling potential with the riot gun. His ducking blocking collision box is really small. He can't be run jabbed by many character, but likewise, for whatever reason he can't run jab many of them either. Basic moves: Nice range HK, solid uppercut that can hit Shang and Kano while they are just ducking, a trait shared by some other characters, good range sweep, good range HP jabs, slow, deceptive hit area roundhouse which can be used as anti air but only in extremely circumstantial situations, if you can hit the Roundhouse as anti, you're better off doing an aaHP,HP to riot gun, dashin, HP,HP and try another riot gun, etc, average range, but quick ducking LK, excellent range JP good for wide cross ups if they are available, nice JK very similar to Jax. The high and low grenades are essential to his zoning. Make sure you mix them up and try to guess when they are going to jump to knock them back down with the high grenade and keep them second guessing themselves but try to never throw out a grenade that will totally miss or you'll get punished. They are great anti air and anti counter turtling since they can hit very high and very depending on distance. Only use them in combos if you plan on terminating a combo for whatever reason. The Riot Gun is very fast, and not always easy to punish depending on how close the opponent is when he blocks so often times it's safe to throw out randomly but make sure they are going to run into the tail end of the contact so Stryker's recovery time is shorter incase it is blocked. This sets up the chance to counter a rush down in their way in. It's good for wake up or after a knock down and the person is suspect to jump away. It is fast enough to counter virtually any close range attack for a simple psychological punish. It is a juggle machine because it counts as containment in air, similar to Cyrax's net but inside they wobble away from you so you need to utilize the baton dash sometimes to get close after it, setting up juggles. The Baton Trip is virtually worthless unless it used as a surprised last resort hit to win a match because Stryker recovers at almost the exact same time as the person does when they get up and hold down, and he can be uppercut for chip by everyone for free after it at the very least, and Kabal for example, can connect an uppercut on him for free or spin him for free if it connects. The Baton Throw is a very interesting move. It for some reason, like Sonya's leg grab, has it's own self damage protection properties. It's normal damage is about 19%, if you connect more than 3 juggled hits before it, it will do 5%, if in a pop up combo, it does 3%, .5% on contact and 2.5% on the landing. Weird. Anyway, it's great for early anticipated cross ups, so if someone goes to jump over you, if you buffer the F,F you can snag them as soon as they leave the ground, uppercuts in general can be used the exact same way, but there is a zoning advantage for Stryker by using the baton throw. It is MASSIVELY punishable since it's kind of slow and can be blocked from such far range at start up, it's better to stick to using it as long distance anti air or anti cross ups. Stryker has two infinites. One is semi, the other is true. The semi infinite is his cross screen aa,HP,HP riot gun, which cannot be done to every character, for example: Shang Tsung. His true infinite is in the corner, any variation of jump attack, aajab, riot gun, so, for example: 4 hit pop up, JK, aaLP, riot gun, probably the easiest and most effective incarnation of it, occasionally there might be times where Stryker is too close and a straight up JK can be useful. Make sure you allow enough push back off the jab to create distance when the riot gun hits, preferably on the way down towards the end, reducing recovery time, allowing Stryker to JK later, landing sooner, jabbing sooner, repeating the infinite ideally. The infinite can be starter off his regular pop up in the corner, or if his other infinite is forced to terminate you can attempt to continue infing with the true inf off it. For doing his cross screen infinite against some characters, it is a good idea to do aaHP, run cancel, step in, aaHP, instead of aaHPHP. On the male ninjas for example, do his pop up combo, labor B,F so he actually takes a full step in but do it soon enough after the pop up so they land on the riot gun instead of being hit by it at all too late, baton dash-miss, and repeat, this way the character is low enough to ground to get hit by the gun in a good position but still be close enough to continue cross screen juggles. If you do the HPHP they will be too high for the riot gun to connect right. You'll notice the best way to get this is to have the gun connect well after it's been fired, essentially landing right on top of the gun's collision area. This way you have started elapsing the time it takes inbetween uses of the gun, which is very brief, but it's crucial in this combo. He can relaunch the Robot Ninjas, Sheeva, and Kung Lao. Basic juggles: 1. aaHP,HP, baton throw, 3 hits 32% 2. aaHP,HP, riot gun, baton dash (misses), uppercut 4 hits 36% 3. jump punch, HK, HP, HP, LP, riot gun, run in, aaHP, JK 8 hits 50% Advanced juggles: 1. jump punch, HK, HP, HP, LP, riot gun, baton dash, (misses) aaHP,HP, riot gun, repeat til corner, up to 80%+ depending on the opponent on how far from the wall you can begin, 90%-100% on Jax as well 2. in corner (HK, HP, HP, LP, JK, aaLP, riot gun, repeat til satisfied or capable, and terminate with any variety of attacks) 3. aaHP,HP riot gun, baton dash, repeat for inf. Unmasked Sub-zero (Updated 4-19-06) Unmasked Sub-zero is considered a low tier character in the 20s, perhaps even last, but there is a a certain level of effort behind this generally defensive character that can make him into a beast. When use to his fullest ability, he is an excellent counter character for Kabal, however, it requires a much patience and craftiness. Zoning is particularly important and this can be done with the ice clone and ice showers. Sub has some decent corner traps I will get into later, but overall his damage is low and requires some creativity to make up for it. In UMK3 his iceclone is relatively limited compared to that of MK3 since you cannot get the freeze effect from it if you are too close. Remember his freeze is very fast and catches character when ducking on occasion. Set up the best possible combos from these situations. You can eek out a little extra damage in the corner on his combos by putting in ducking LKs on everyone, but for example, Kabal can spin you for free after that, and the Robots can teleport uppercut you, so on Kabal, kara jab (cancel a LP with block) and try to bait a spin out of him, and then capitalize with a combo, and against the Robots you can stick in a standing LK after his combo to add 6% giving him a reasonable 40% off a freeze in or near the corner. Sub-zero can be easily juggle to max potential by all characters who have good juggle combos, so that hurts him. Remember that his 6 hit ground combo does less damage on its own than his 5 hit, but off a jump punch or JK starter, the 6 hit combo does a tad more than the 5 hit. Against the female ninjas you cannot link a starter to combo midscreen, so this is a time specifically when the 5 hit combo is beneficial. It is sometimes a good idea to leave off the roundhouse part of that combo and then stick in a HK afterwards as a wake up, or even blocked it will do more damage than the comboed roundhouse. Make sure you time this correctly or the other person will be able to HK you first if they what you're going to do. You might actually want to block the incoming HK and then try to freeze them before they recover. Sub-zero's basics are very good. His uppercut is excellent in virtually all situations, just generally hits the mark. His roundhouse is a bit sluggish and hits just a tad late, when used as anti air you have to be a bit early with it and a good distance away, or directly underneath. It would be a better idea to go for the anti air HP instead because his HPs are very good, and off them you can easily link a freeze even if you kara cancel the HP to avoid being hit during a snuffed HP, or if you aren't good at timing that yet, a standing HK will work just fine. His LPs have nice range and are good for run jabbing. His sweep, JK, standing HK, ducking LK, and straight up JK are all very good. His jump punch is a bit awkward, as the collision for it is very high in relation to where he can be hit, so it might be a good idea to cancel early HPs to iceclones whenever possible, but watch out for being scouted and countered. It is possible to freeze off his throw in the corner before they hit the ground and set up some tricky, but damage combos this way. The Deep Freeze is an age old move that still has some benefits to it. It has a hit limit of 1, but breakable to 2, allowing up to 3 freezes per combo, but it's tricky timing and usually not worth it. Some characters are easier to glitch hit counter rule break than others, like the Robot Ninjas, Jax, and Stryker. You can use the freeze as an anti cross up. Scout a cross up jump kick, perhaps in a run jab situation, and run under their jump, and do the freeze as they kick, it'll freeze them in air and set up a decent combo. It's noticably faster than Classic Sub-zero's freeze and that is a plus of course. The freeze is OK for zoning, watch for jumping backwards opponents and freeze as you see them jump. Often times the freeze will hit in a situation where they are physically standing on the ground but cannot block, so watch for these situations. It will look like you should do an aaHPHP combo, but really you should go for a JK starter into his 6 hit ground combo. Take note that sometimes characters can be nabbed by a freeze when ducking in close range, especially Shang and Kano. If a person does a JK, block it and instantly do a freeze as soon as they hit the ground. This is uesful because it's rare a person does a jump kick and lands and doesn't continue pressure, the chance of them landing and just blocking are slim, and often time it happens more than once. This will either work almost everytime, or they will stop doing random jump kicks altogether, making them chance their strategy and psychologically giving Sub the upper hand. Sub can freeze within the amount of time it takes for them to land, and even if they block, he's relatively safe. The Slide is good for adding damage to to juggle combos and as a wake up, but don't over abuse it, as it's easily punishable. It's the second fastest of the three slides with average range, making it questionable to use on juggle combos depending on distance. Sometimes you can stick one in for free after an uppercut as people tend to jump away, or sticking in an extra slide after one because often times people do not anticipate a second slide. Unmasked Sub's slide does not have the same collision detection trouble with certain characters like Classic Sub and Reptile's do. It is possible to break through the recovery of a comboer while blocking and slide inbetween hits, for example the female ninjas kick combo. It has a point of lag in the middle where you can actually go from standing block to ducking block, and if you time it right, the slide will come out here and you can beat them to their next hit. It's a great way to end a match if they are on danger, run in for a chip damage combo that will beat you, and you interrupt their last hit with a slide and win. You can also use the slide to escape run jabs and counter various basic moves before they recover, or on early jump kicks you can slide under and hit them from the other side. It has a lot of different uses. The Ice Clone is a very unique and useful move. It is most important to use for zoning, and it should be out on the screen as often as possible. Cancel attacks with it and put it in the middle of the air to make the freezing area larger. Cancel standings HPs with it on jump ins just outside of the no freeze distance, this way they will land on the Clone in the air. If you do a Clone on the ground, it is possible for your opponent to jump on it and block it, if they do this, take this opportunity to start run jabbing them. When in the corner, it is a good idea to mix up run jabs with the Ice Clone by staying just outside the no freeze range, alternate single and double run jabs, then Ice Clone. Their options are now limited so you can move back in on them and continue. Mix in some standing HKs and uppercuts on possible jump outs when the Iceclone is near the wall. Try to use the Ice Clone specifically against teleporters but setting them up to land on it as they teleport. You might take a hit but it is worth giving sometimes back 40+%. It is possible to set up the ice clone high enough so that your opponent will run towards you, try and time and uppercut, roundhouse, or his 3 hit kick combo to knock them into the ice clone, then juggle from there. The Ice Shower is another interesting twist on his freeze move. It is excellent for zoning as people who jump forward and back are always in danger of being hit by it. If you choose to finish his 5 and 6 hit combos you might want to throw out an "in front of opponent" Ice Shower against non teleporters because of the tendency to jump forward. This sets up decent combo situations for sub. Against teleporters it's kind of a 50/50 situation. If they see you start to go for an iceshower, they have the choice to do a teleport punch and hit you for the free 9.5% and go into rub jabs, but if they hesitate and you do the "behind the opponent" Ice Shower, there is a chance you will hit them with it, and a teleport would not be worth it. If you do an infront of, or normal Ice Shower, you will get hit with the teleport punch no matter what, however if they think you might do the behind Ice Shower, they will instead commit to running in and comboing you, or doing a containment, which will result in more damage. It's all mind games with Sub-zero and it is important you know all your options, and their options. Occasionally in the corner you might want to intentionally do 3 LP run jabs in a row to force push back, then cancel this push back with an In Front Of Ice Shower, this way the person sees they are free to move, and they will either jump, or run in, with the results being an air freeze (very good situation in the corner for Sub) them getting frozen mid attack (good situation for Sub) or them having to block it and get stuck in run jabs again, and this also leaves time for you to recharge and Ice Clone. Sub-zero has an infinite on Sheeva in the corner using his iceshower. If you catch Sheeva in the air with a HP, do a regular freeze, and push her close to the corner. Do HPHP, and cancel the second HP instantly with his air freeze, it will catch her feet. Jump over her, push her out of the corner, jump back over her, and repeat. It's very complicated, but it works. Basic Juggles: 1. aa freeze, aaHP, freeze, aa(HP,HP), JK, slide, 5 hits 43% 2. freeze, cross up jump kick, freeze, aa (HP HP), JK, slide 5 hits 33% 3. aaHP, freeze, cross up JK, aaHK or JK 36 and 37% (works well on characters who are harder to aaHPHP juggle) Advanced Juggles: 1. aa freeze, aaHP, freeze, aaHP freeze(breaks a rule by canceling before the punch hits but still connecting)HP,HP, JK, slide, 6 hits 50% (BP) 2. aaHP, freeze, push corner, aaHP, (gc)freeze, aaHPHP, JK, HK, LK 7 hits 69% (leave off the last LK sometimes if the HK doesn't hit high enough, but a lot of position can be done during freezes, and if you aren't good at glitch canceling (gc) leave out the extra HP and you still get 50% 3. (freeze in air near corner), aaHP, freeze, aaHP (gc)freeze, aaHPHP, JK, HK, (6 hits 56%) it is possible on some characters to add a LK after the HK for 12% more (7 hits 69%) Pointlessly Complicated Corner Throw Set Up Juggles that work against Jax, Stryker and some other characters. 1. throw into corner, freeze before opponent hits the ground, deep JK, freeze, RH, R+HK 3 hits 47% 2. throw into corner, freeze before opponent hits the ground, deep JK, if too low to get a juggled HP, do a straight up JK into his 6 hit combo for 8 hits 50% 3. throw into corner, freeze before opponent hits the ground, deep JK, freeze, jump over opponent, aaHP glitch cancel to freeze out of corner, jump over opponent again, aa(HP HP), JK, aa HP, Slide 7 hits 65% 4. throw into corner, freeze before opponent hits the ground, deep JK, freeze, jump over opponent, aaHP glitch cancel to freeze out of corner, jump over opponent again, aa(HP HP), JK, HK, LK 7 hits 78% Essentially what this does is gives you a free undamage protected air freeze in the corner, however very low to the ground. With the right timing, this will set up potentially big combos. Check back for updates.
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subset: commoncrawl