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Kiba

[CP] Valkenhayn vs Kokonoe

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Valk vs Kokonoe is pretty simple. The first one to get in essentially wins. Neutral is where the real struggle is.

Neutral

Human Valk doesn't do much to Kokonoe. He has to chase her, and can only punish her tools (fireball and graviton) while he's in range. Since she's faster, she can get away and start setting up against him easily.

In wolf form, Valk has to watch out for 5C and 3C. 5C in particular gets nasty hitstun on CH so you have to learn where the range is on it. Fortunately it actually can be punished with a beast cannon or 6D/4D > j.A on whiff. This is not the case with 3C however. Backdash it/jump or 4D if you can, but other than that you have to respect 3C when it comes out. Beware her 6A during wolf pressure strings, the charge animation has head invincibility.

Graviton - Wolf Valk doesn't give a damn about raw graviton. He can run right past it, 6D away from it etc etc. If you stay near it, the opponent can deactivate it and CH you, so the general idea is to get away. The danger starts when there's a fireball involved.

Fireball - Thankfully, Valk has a lot of options to punish this. During the startup animation (listen for her audio cue) you can punish with 5B, 5C, 236A, or w.236A. If a graviton isn't down, you can pressure her freely, just remember that you have to actually HIT her to get rid of the fireball. If a graviton is down, be wary that h.236A might whiff because of the pullback (slightly worth it because it gets you away from the graviton). Learn the range. The idea is to PUNISH this immediately to stuff the fireball. Once the fireball is out you lose a ton of options; wolf form is no longer safe and you're likely to get CH'd while trying keep her out.

Corner

Winning from here is going to be hard. Use your burst/counter assault. If you can read the blockstrings and block her IOH j.C you can get a punish and escape. 6C > j.2C is deceptively tight, dont be fooled into trying to mash out of it.

Its generally the same for her. Put her in the corner and she has few options to get out. Her fireball super is the greatest threat, but you can bait and punish with w 4D. I also recently discovered that w j.214A clashes and stuffs the fireball from coming out, but I dont know about the exact timing so I doubt its a reliable option. Again, remember her 6A head invul and be careful when doing wolf pressure, particularly 6D > j.A.

[Disclaimer: Im really shitty at this game, take my advice with a few grains of salt]

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Nah it's good stuff.

I think Valk can avoid her Black Hole setup by using Sturm Wolf. Speaking of the setup, if she's hitting you in the corner and she has 50 meter or is about to earn 50 meter, that's a very good time for you to burst to avoid the black hole.

Edit: I need to correct what I said on using Sturm wolf. You can only escape with Sturm wolf if they don't use the lightning pole in the setup. If you do use Sturm wolf while the pole is there, you'll just get hit, then sucked in by the black hole. So basically, we're screwed.

During your wolf pressure, the teleport isn't a problem since his pressure strings automatically OS themselves to hit the teleport. (Credits to JonaKim)

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Figured out some ways around her reversal super. In human form we can use CH 5C > 236C > 4D > w.jB > w.5B > w.Jb > 3D > w.jA into the standard corner combo stuff on whiff or on block. If done on whiff, you should delay just a second as doing it too early gets you hit by the fireball because the invincibility on your 4D ends too soon.

In wolf form we can backdash after the super flash and then do CH w.5C > 6DD > 2C > Sturm wolf.

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You can do wj.C on her wakeup and if she teleports you can CH her with w5B/w5C. It's pretty easy, and this is why it may be important to learn to brjB after wj.C, in case it's blocked.

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Better to use w5C meaty. If she teleports, you can CH her with w5A/w5B if w5C whiffs. If she uses reversal super ball, you can react to the guardpoint/superflash and do 4D>jD>throw to punish her and avoid the super ball.

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Well yea, the wolf options make it so that you have to guess less. Just wanted to point out that this could be useful if wolf gauge is low/gone.

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Match feels even.

 

Usually in neutral I pressure the Kokonoe into moving around alot because I don't want her to set 22B (lightning pole). The pole minimises your offensive options and in case this happens you have a few options:

-You can dash near the pole so it activates without you getting hit. The Kokonoe could tag you with 3C however.

-You can wj.66D. If you're closer you'll go past it but if you're further out you'll have to block it in the air.

-You can wolf cannon so you can pass through Kokonoe if she's camping behind it. She can 6A you though, she could win, but most of the time you'll probably pass through.

 

Allowing her to set up the pole gives her the chance to setup fireball and graviton, and if she has all three I tend to revert to human form and barrier block because the graviton can really mess up your wolf movement. You don't want to get pushed into the lightning pole. Kokonoe may also use 236B to catch you in wolf too.

 

Kokonoe's pressure is pretty standard stuff. It'll mostly be 2A/5A stagger pressure, either used to keep you a little honest in blocking, or it gives her the option to go for overhead. She can use 22A to reset pressure, it's safe on block so you can't mash. I don't even think you'll win on IB. Even mashing her out of 22A can result in a trade in her favour. She can also 22B during pressure and if she does this her mixup becomes even more difficult to deal with. She can set up fireball, graviton. She can do whatever. Apparently she has a kara throw too? I remember having a difficult time teching throws during her pressure.

 

In terms of the type of mixup that she can inflict with corner graviton, fireball and lightning pole, I'm, not tooooo familiar with it. She has a wide number of options to keep you guessing.

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Something else I forgot to mention.

If she uses any combo into 3C > 22B midscreen, most if the time they will do use 2A as you neutral tech after 3C and then cross up with teleport. You'll get hit by the pole unless you changed your block. The way out of this is to neutral tech and then backdash, but she can call this out by using other means.

If you don't tech immediately she can extend her combo a little more: she'll use 2A > 5A > pole activates > 6B > 236B

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Got a bit of a training lecture from my local Koko main regarding Kokonoe's pressure game. This is really important to know for people struggling with the matchup, as in my opinion she has one of the most staggeringly diverse tool sets in the game to use for pressure.

The hard part about blocking Kokonoe is that there isn't any definite spot to mash out. Your success in escaping relies entirely on making a read on when she will attempt certain moves. Here is a list of places that are potential escape points.

2B:
Her double hitting low is -1 on block, meaning in theory you could IB and try something to get out. The problem is that it can gatling into 5C or 3C, the former of which will straight up kill you on CH. This move might as well be plus, so I wouldn't advise trying to escape here, but it's an option if you have balls.. really, REALLY big balls.

5C:
Her big ass cannon which is -6 on block. Now usually you would be able to get out here, but seeing as its a pressure "ender" and it pushes her far out, you don't have much you can do here as she's outside of 5B range. If you IB you should be able to sj.5D > j.236B > 6D4C wolf brake > 66D to escape and go back to neutral. Also be aware that it can gatling into 2C, 3C, and 22B. If you get CH by 2C, you die. Just a heads up.

3C:
The two-hit tripwire which is -4 on block. You *might* be able to IB and super jump out, but be wary that she can reset into more pressure with 236A bunker > RC. She can also cancel the first hit into graviton. Mostly used to keep you honest rather than end pressure. Getting out here is rare.

22A:
Lightning rod which has 24 frame startup. If she's close and she has your respect, you can bet she will try to drop one of these on you from time to time. It's 24 frames, that's enough time to mash if you predict it. Will often be cancelled into from 5C, 2B, and 3C.

6D Graviton:
The magnetic hell device with 17 frame startup. She will likely use one of the three above "Enders" before dropping a graviton. THIS IS YOUR CHANCE. 17 frames is still really fast, but if she winds up pushing herself too far out in her strings, try to anticipate this and make her eat shit for it with a CH 5B or Sturm. It's a pretty difficult read, but that's what is required to beat this character.

Escaping this character is difficult, but if you can make the right read, her pressure becomes much less daunting (Doesn't stop me from being super free to her though).

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