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Oiboi

Revamping Zappa: How to Shenanigans (And More!)

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In the corner you can do a combo into the dog's 2D then 214D into 236P for an 8-orb combo. Other than that no. You just use it as a mixup since its an overhead and then go into a summon.

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A few things to add.

Zappa's backdash: This backdash lasts 8 frames and is invulnerable for 7 of them. That's longer than most normals are active for, so with good timing you can backdash during blockstrings and punish. High level players attempt to leverage this into making his run safer with FD braking. If you're prepared to quickly backdash after the FD you can bait uppercuts and bursts and so on. They tend to just do this over and over so that you don't really know when zappa is actually going to really run in on you or just backdash.

Sword j.H : Using this move as a crossup hits more often than not. Also, use as follow up to 236 S which with 2S as a follow up lets you play a 1-hit mix up game after the slide.

General cross up : When you cross up with Zappa it's best, as it is with any character, to make it as ambiguous as possible. With the sword and ghost j.H, what this means is that you want as little forward velocity on your crossup jump as possible. This means that you don't want to airdash over them or be running when you jump, as you'll keep the run's momentum. This is all assuming you want the crossup to hit.

With zappa, you can airdash really close to the ground after the jump, which leads to nice mix-up opportunities.

Air backdash ghost j.H is really good against characters that have moves that cause them to move forward like May and her dolphins.

Ghost 2H: This move has frame advantage. It gives you a little time to threaten a mixup. Not really that great, but not bad.

Ghost throws can be timed so that you remain stationary in the air. Not normally useful, but against characters without uppercuts is generally safe. Also it's very confusing for your opponent. FRCing a ghost while you do this will cause you to fast fall.

The dog has an unblockable set up with 4D D. If this attack is the dog's fresh attack, then it counts as an overhead. Since you also control Zappa, if you do a low attack as the dog hits you have an unblockable setup. I normally use 2k, cause it moves you forward a little and is good in combos anyway.

The Dog's 6D active frames end before the dog lands. This makes it easier to position the dog, and typically will cause your opponent to block since the dog is going through them.

When you get to raoh, make sure to mention that darkness anthem will do massive chip damage and has frame advantage (is safe) if you don't release it.

Also, could you guys maybe move this argument about the dog to another thread? It's kind of off topic in here.

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How do I make good use of The Dance(214D)? Are there any good combos I can use it for?

I like to use it in different summon strings once the guard bar is flashing. Plus, NO ONE expects you to unsummon Raoh, so crank that guard bar and gimmick that round. Another good one is throw, meaty f.s, run up 2k > unsummon, meaty f.s, 6p > unsummon, meaty f.s, 5p > throw. Shit's hilarious.

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Added Raou. Zerite, I'll add your stuff to the third post after I talk about the dance combo. Been pretty busy lately. Sorry for the delay.

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5D -- Much slower than Zappa's normal dust, and doesn't have any of the invulnerable options. That said, it's got a lot of range, and it's your only tensionless ground overhead. Can cancel into DA, Edguy, etc.

wat

Zappa's 5D has 24 frames of startup and is choreographed as all hell. Raoh's 5D is tied for second fastest at 22 frames and is fairly subtle since the animation looks like a whopping 3 sprites long. I abuse the shit out of Raoh 5D, it's amazing. Go into Edguy, Edguy RC DA loop in the corner.

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Whoops, fuck, you're right. I mixed up the frames in my head for some dumb fucking reason. I'll fix that when I do the dance segment. Sorry.

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As far as the dance goes, the best thing I've seen is 6P, summon, 2D (dog bite), unsummon, summon. You have to get good at summon confirming, but it's a nice, cheap way to get Raoh. I love the get ghosts and corner someone, then jack their guard bar through nonsense j.h and basic ghost strings, get it flashing and unsummon. It bounces on CH, so you can summon afterwards, and if you've got the tension, you can RC summon into Raoh.

+1 on block is just fluff

Edit: 2D is arguably better than 2S, but 2S has some deceptive range on it. It's a nice poke for when you're JUST outside of 2D range. It won't look like it will connect, but it does. Stagger on CH is nice too.

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So I was sitting in practice with sword on a blocking sol in the corner doing c.s, f.s, 2s, 2h, j.c forward, j.s (while rising, should hit the top of his hitbox), wait, falling j.h

The thing is, the j.h doesn't come out. It doesn't even animate the same way. It's kinda looks like Zappa tries to do his naked j.h. The neat thing is, while it's animating, it seems like you can FD out of it. Seems like neat uppercut bait.

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Actually, scratch that. It's just the recovery from a jump attack, I just never noticed it before. He does it after every jump attack with sword.

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Trying to revitalize the Zappa forums.

How about that special cancellable 5D? That shit is just wrong when you figure it's always special cancellable and not just naked or with Raoh. I've been liking short ghost strings into 5D, k toss frc keep it up. It's fun making your opponent paranoid about his weird dust. Too bad a 5D connecting with ghosts still gets you like, 25% tops. Oh well, it's a haunting.

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TRIPLE POST WTF BAN ME

THE SWORD

People give this summon a lot of shit, but I fucking love it. Sword and ghost are my two favorites by far, dog is a utility for me and Raoh is just beatstick time. Anyway, I thought I’d share some of my sword tricks to help make this summon look less Dan-tier.

6p, 6h – A low-overhead-low mixup. Can cancel the overhead hit into swipe frc in the corner for a combo, or just a swipe for an orb.

6p, 6h is character dependent on whether or not it combos, but it's always at least a true blockstring. You can also do 6p, 2s, 6h for a double low then overhead,. Though this will not combo unless you’re deep in the corner, if the overhead hits that’s a nice unprorated combo starter. That sword has stupid range.

6p/5k – I love these moves. On counter hit they both launch, which goes into 5s, 2h, air combo. Fish for counters or read your opponent well and it nets you a clean 30% for no tension, little effort, and leaves you in decent positioning.

2h – As Oiboi stated, this move is fucking KING among anti airs. Huge range, huge hitbox, and goes into good damage. If you can hit confirm an air CH, you can squeeze in a falling j.s before you do 2h jc air combo. In blockstrings, jump cancelling the first hit of 2h gives you a nice +18 frames to iad and continue pressure.

As far as the slide goes, I’m partial to 5k, 5s, 2d, slide RC j.k j.s jc j.k j.s j.d. It might sound like a waste of tension on paper, but you can mix up the intro with 6p and 2s for additional lows, the slide hit nets you an orb, and the combo does a nice 30-40% depending on what you use. If it’s blocked, you can pause and do a 2s, pause and then j.h, do the followup, or be random and slide again. It’s +20 guard bar, so even just mindfucking your opponent for a bit will start to scare them. The slide also has an invisible hitbox, which you can see by doing a max range 2H, on the second hit (block or hit) cancel into the slide and the sword will not be in front of Zappa, though it will still have a hitbox. Some opponents will attack in reaction to seeing you suddenly slide forward, which nets you a CH into followup.

Let’s take a look at the sword’s normals for a sec. With the exception of 2s, which is +8, they all increase the guard bar by at least +10, with 2H and 5H clocking in at +40 each with both hits blocks. End both of those strings with a swipe and you’ve got a nice, fat +60 guard bar. If you get some tight sword pressure going, that guard bar is flashing before you know it. Throw in one simple 6p, 6h starter and you’ve got a chunk of damage worthy of a sword. After getting a knockdown, and depending on the character, you can run up and do an empty 6h that will meaty and all hell but not touch them at all due to 6h having a funky hitbox. Gives you a nice throw setup. To make your strings less predictable, you can reverse gatling your 5k, 2k, and 5s to 6ps. Your 6p also goes into 2k with sword.

Other notes about Zappa:

Despite what the system data says, I swear Zappa has some really high defense/guts. Combos that really should have killed me leave me with a magic pixel that I use to bullshit a Raoh comeback.

Zappa’s vertical velocity after a super jump is second highest in the game at 31, only a half point behind Johnny. I’m not entirely sure that’s the reason, but I seem to get a LOT of airthrows with Zappa. I don’t know if his air hitbox is weird or if I’m just good at it, but he snatches people out of moves all day.

Lastly, Zappa’s backdash is fucking BOSS. Best in the game, in my opinion. Pot’s is good for him, Zappa’s is perfect. A well timed backdash will eat an entire move and allow you to recover in time to throw the poor sap. It really shines when you’re stuck in corner pressure. IB, backdash, throw. I love it.

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Yeah these forums need some loving again. Wasn't sure if anyone else still played Zappa, lol. I'll finish my posts when I get a chance.

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I've updated the Raou 5HS and added the Dance section. At this point I'd be willing to list any and all combos you guys have, plus any more shenanigans and mindgame tactics you may have been holding on to.

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