[CSE] Hakumen Q & A: New players check here first

[Spark]

Because for normal moves for you to recover you have to go through start up > active > recovery, where for a projectile it goes from start up > recovery because the projectile can still be active even after you have recovered.

[Moblin]

I'm sure this has been asked before, but I am doing something wrong in this combo and can't tell what it is :D Same old, same old. I'd really appreciate it if someone could point me in the right direction for this combo:

In the renka (1) --> kishuu --> 2c ---> Gurren

I can't get the gurren to connect after the 2c. any advice?

[Spark]

Against Ragna, Litchi, Bang, and Valk it doesn't work if you do 214A as soon as possible after 2C. You have to do 2C delay 214A. As far as I know the delay will make it work on Ragna and Bang I haven't tested it on the other 2.

[Moblin]

ah, that's the problem; was doing it on litchi. I'll try it out on some other characters. I did have some luck with delaying it when I was practicing against other characters.

I tried delaying it on Litchi but couldn't get it to connect. If you get it to work on Litchi, I'd appreciate advice on how to connect it!

[IndigoNovember]

I tried delaying it on Litchi but couldn't get it to connect. If you get it to work on Litchi, I'd appreciate advice on how to connect it!

I'm pretty sure you have to delay the 2c a tiny bit for Litchi, without it I can't get delayed Gurren to work on her. What I did get to work was: you could delay the 2c so that it hits Litchi right as she touches/bounces off the ground and then Gurren immediately after the 2c. Or you could wait until she's fully on the ground and then 2b -> Gurren (do what you do in Counter hit 3c -> 2b -> Gurren basically). The second one is probably easier, though you lose some damage ┐('～`；)┌ .

[Moblin]

Thanks a bunch, I'll try that bouncing on the ground thing. If I can't get it consistently within a few hours I'll do the 2b version Midscreen combos are just to carry anyways.... right? :P

[IndigoNovember]

Thanks a bunch, I'll try that bouncing on the ground thing. If I can't get it consistently within a few hours I'll do the 2b version Midscreen combos are just to carry anyways.... right? :P

Pretty much, the high damage ones always end up with you in the corner doing corner stuff anyways, so you essentially always carry them to the corner.

[mjting]

Hey guys, I just noticed when I try to do wall 5c>Renka(kishuu) to partially charged 6c, it won't connect on lambda, litchi, bang, and some other characters, but on ragna and jin it's pretty okay. Is this some char specific thing? or am i doing something wrong? Thanks!

[Spark]

It's character specific.

[mjting]

Alright. will definitely work on it. Thanks Spark!

[IndigoNovember]

The timing for a level 2 charge 6c/getting them to slide on the ground versus flying through the air and landing on the ground, is really tight on several characters (like Litchi and Lamda-11/Mu-12), but the only character I have not been able to get it to work on is Bang. It might be better to just not charge the 6c, since the timing is so strict and the damage is only ~200 more. It is true, however, that if you can get it in, it makes doing the corner loop much easier. In the end the choice is yours, do whatever you think will be easier for you to do in a real match.

[SansProtocol]

Platinum should be giving you an issue in regards to completely missing. Charged 6C and her hitbox do not like each other very much.

[IndigoNovember]

Platinum should be giving you an issue in regards to completely missing. Charged 6C and her hitbox do not like each other very much.

Blargh, need to get my new Xillia PS3 from Taiwan so I can redownload Peropero and test stuff on her.

[SansProtocol]

Blargh, need to get my new Xillia PS3 from Taiwan so I can redownload Peropero and test stuff on her.

Definitely do because she has one of the worst (best for her) hitboxes in the cast. If a combo can work on her, it will probably work on the rest of the cast.

[IndigoNovember]

Definitely do because she has one of the worst (best for her) hitboxes in the cast. If a combo can work on her, it will probably work on the rest of the cast.

Oh wow, I didn't know it was that bad. Any other characters who have particularly bad hitboxes? It'd be nice to have a small list of characters who I could test combos against and know that if they work on those characters they pretty much work on the rest of the cast, instead of having to simply test combos against the whole cast. Such a convenience probably doesn't exist, eh?

[SansProtocol]

Oh wow, I didn't know it was that bad. Any other characters who have particularly bad hitboxes? It'd be nice to have a small list of characters who I could test combos against and know that if they work on those characters they pretty much work on the rest of the cast, instead of having to simply test combos against the whole cast. Such a convenience probably doesn't exist, eh?

Platinum, Carl, Noel, and Jin are the ones I test stuff on.

[IndigoNovember]

Platinum, Carl, Noel, and Jin are the ones I test stuff on.

I remember there being some talk about Carl and Arakune having some weird air hitboxes, do you know if just testing on Carl covers that for both? Also if I recall correctly Rachel had an odd hitbox which wouldn't allow the heavy carry j.a -> j.b combos to work on her, do you know if that would possibly limit other combos?

Good to see that my choice of mostly practicing on Jin wasn't too off.

[mAc Chaos]

I test stuff on Tager.

[zreb]

I remember there being some talk about Carl and Arakune having some weird air hitboxes, do you know if just testing on Carl covers that for both? Also if I recall correctly Rachel had an odd hitbox which wouldn't allow the heavy carry j.a -> j.b combos to work on her, do you know if that would possibly limit other combos?

Good to see that my choice of mostly practicing on Jin wasn't too off.

I'm not sure if it's the same @ Carl vs. Arakune. I know for a fact that 5d -> 6a -> 5a does not work on Arakune--the 5a always seems to whiff. I can't test at this immediate moment, but I believe it's more possible that it does work on Carl.

[IndigoNovember]

I'm not sure if it's the same @ Carl vs. Arakune. I know for a fact that 5d -> 6a -> 5a does not work on Arakune--the 5a always seems to whiff. I can't test at this immediate moment, but I believe it's more possible that it does work on Carl.

You're right, 5d -> 6a -> 5a works on Carl but not Arakune. Instead 5d -> 2c -> sj.a -> j.b -> j.2a -> j.c works on Arakune (@__@;; ). Time to go update that Combo Thread.

[SansProtocol]

You're right, 5d -> 6a -> 5a works on Carl but not Arakune. Instead 5d -> 2c -> sj.a -> j.b -> j.2a -> j.c works on Arakune (@__@;; ). Time to go update that Combo Thread.

Good job BTW keeping up with it. Thanks!

[ReachForTheEnd]

How hard is Hakumen to learn? And what are something to practice to get used to him?

[IndigoNovember]

How hard is Hakumen to learn? And what are something to practice to get used to him?

His combos aren't too hard to do, you have to get used to delaying stuff, but that's not too bad for the most part. First things first, you should probably get this combo down: 5c -> Enma(623aa) -> j.2c -> 2c -> j.2a -> AD j.2a -> j.c . It's quite useful and if you can get it down, then you should be able to do all his other combos (only a few of them are harder execution wise).

If you're having trouble with it check the first post. If you're still having trouble with it, here's another method that might help you:

Another way to think about it, is to do the falling j.2c when your opponent has flipped over and is falling. As soon as you see s/he has completely flipped, do the j.2c, you can get away with doing it a little earlier as well.

Hakumen's gameplan is probably the harder part to learn, since I feel he's a bit different from the normal character. To quote someone with better knowledge about it than me:

Hakumen players have to be able to keep a good balance between offense and defense unlike some other characters. Depending on your meter, your position, the capabilities of your opponent, the tendencies they have, the tendencies you have shown them, and life totals, you have to be able to clearly think about everything you do. All of your moves must have some sort of purpose behind them, regardless of whether it is a 6D to punish that gap in a blockstring or simply taunting someone with 5A from afar to incite them to attack you when you'll have the upper hand.

I hope that helped you gain a glimpse of how Hakumen works. Feel free to ask more questions.

[Sophisticat]

More simply, Haku's got tools, but you can't autopilot like, say, Ragna. You have to synthesize his tools into a workable gameplan that fits your style while accommodating his strengths and weaknesses. So there's a lot of variables to play with. Your ability will be to bring it all together and flow with it.

And that is why Hakumen attracts only the best and brightest as our dear Spark so aptly demonstrated with his EVO win.

[ReachForTheEnd]

After watching Spark's win...I am almost intimidated to pick up the sword...Knowing that there is that much skill in this character...