[CSE] Lambda Simple Questions And Answers Thread

[Starkaiser]

New Lambda player here. What should I be using my Gravity Field for other than cool combos?

good question. I think she can use gravity to make tager come at you harder. but I never see her use gravity outside combo to other kind of opponent before.

[Overheat]

You have to delay j.2DD a bit. Just don't make the mistake of delaying it too much, since that's a common mistake that leads to dropped air combo's.

Zoning. Keep in mind that it's a limited resource, so there's a balance between using it too much and not having it when you need it, and not using it at all and being in a bad position.

[toanenadiz]

1) Control the pace of the match. Since gravity well slows your opponent down alot, when correctly used, it pretty much stops most characters from approaching. Rachel can't use her wind to approach, Tsubaki can't shield rush, ect when they are stuck in a field. This can also be used effectively in match-ups like Tager and Hakumen where they have to slowly approach and repeatedly using gravity well can frustrate them and limit the amount of time they can actually be moving forward.

2) Make shit safe. At certain ranges, if you make someone block a sword, you might not have any follow-up that is good. 236B is safe but puts you next to the opponent. 236D and 214D have a large amount of start-up and you would be screwed using them if your opponent is fast and can stuff the start-up. Doing nothing may give them enough time to get next to you. Gravity well is a pretty safe solution in that situation because it has a fast start-up and slows down them down if they wanted to approach you. You can also use this to make 3C safe. 3C->236B isn't a safe blockstring against people with a reversal and 3C itself is punishable. However, 3C->214A has no gaps in between the moves and since gravity well is -2 on normal block and -5 on IB, very few characters can punish this. And if you are confident your opponent will punish your 3C, you can slightly delay gravity well for a frame trap. This will fail if they decided to reversal but I can only think of one reversal which will punish 3C and there is another way to deal with it.

3) Guard breaking. Gravity well breaks a primer. Some people will forget about this and won't always be looking out for this move. Just add this into a close range blockstring when they have one primer and you see them not barrier blocking. As said before, gravity well is -2 on normal block and -5 on IB(therefore -4 on IB barrier block), so no characters can punish this(there are things they can do to prevent this if they see it coming though).

4) Baiting throws. Gravity well has throw invul for the first 15 frames. This lets you use it to bait or punish throws. Use it if you notice your opponent has a certain set-up into a throw and you want to punish it hard(extremely useful against Plat's command grab). Alternatively, if you have a certain throw set-up and your opponent catches on to this, you can use gravity well in that set-up instead of throw and punish them if they were mindlessly doing yomi throw techs. This is pretty ballsy but it does feel good getting a FC gravity well.

Obviously combos and zoning are the most important and you should focus using gravity for those most of the time.

[Shiawase]

Thanks for the quick responses. I'll try to keep all of that in mind. Like Starkaiser said I don't ever see it used out of combos so I figured I'd ask.

Another small question: I know that the video thread is filled with stuff but are there any amazing JP lambdas I should look out for?

[Overheat]

Tsukasa (Ko-hatsu, sometimes a-cho) and Yoshiki (Alpha station, sometimes Tachikawa IIRC and some other places). Everyone else is a notch below IMO. Tsukasa isn't much in terms of consistency, but when he plays good, he blows people up. Yoshiki's very consistent, but fundamentally so.

[toanenadiz]

Goro, Tsukasa, Sagatto and Yoshiki are my favorites.

[Overheat]

Sagatto and Tsukasa are the same person. Speaking of which, Yoshiki's also known as Nao-san Aishiteru. Goro doesn't play Lambda much, so when he does, it is interesting, to say the least.

[toanenadiz]

I figured as much. But I haven't changed Sagatto to Tsukasa yet in the video thread so he should know that are the same person. I already made sure any matches with Nao are marked as Yoshiki.

[Stone Drum]

So, I've decided to pick up lambda and finally have a sub to compliment my Hakumen. Yesterday I spent about 2 hours or so with lambda, and have been finding her surprisingly easy to pick up. I've already remembered all of her inputs and know them by nature, and have begun scraping the surface with combos.

Can someone give me a few optimal combos, such as off of a throw or 236c starter, or some optimal corner combos? I've already gotten the timing down for most situations. Got to challenge mode 10.

I haven't become acclimated with sword pressuring and zoning yet. I definitely need more time with that, but what are some basic strategies and creative mixups besides just 5dd-4dd and things similar to that?

[Starkaiser]

1) Control the pace of the match. Since gravity well slows your opponent down alot, when correctly used, it pretty much stops most characters from approaching. Rachel can't use her wind to approach, Tsubaki can't shield rush, ect when they are stuck in a field. This can also be used effectively in match-ups like Tager and Hakumen where they have to slowly approach and repeatedly using gravity well can frustrate them and limit the amount of time they can actually be moving forward.

2) Make shit safe. At certain ranges, if you make someone block a sword, you might not have any follow-up that is good. 236B is safe but puts you next to the opponent. 236D and 214D have a large amount of start-up and you would be screwed using them if your opponent is fast and can stuff the start-up. Doing nothing may give them enough time to get next to you. Gravity well is a pretty safe solution in that situation because it has a fast start-up and slows down them down if they wanted to approach you. You can also use this to make 3C safe. 3C->236B isn't a safe blockstring against people with a reversal and 3C itself is punishable. However, 3C->214A has no gaps in between the moves and since gravity well is -2 on normal block and -5 on IB, very few characters can punish this. And if you are confident your opponent will punish your 3C, you can slightly delay gravity well for a frame trap. This will fail if they decided to reversal but I can only think of one reversal which will punish 3C and there is another way to deal with it.

3) Guard breaking. Gravity well breaks a primer. Some people will forget about this and won't always be looking out for this move. Just add this into a close range blockstring when they have one primer and you see them not barrier blocking. As said before, gravity well is -2 on normal block and -5 on IB(therefore -4 on IB barrier block), so no characters can punish this(there are things they can do to prevent this if they see it coming though).

4) Baiting throws. Gravity well has throw invul for the first 15 frames. This lets you use it to bait or punish throws. Use it if you notice your opponent has a certain set-up into a throw and you want to punish it hard(extremely useful against Plat's command grab). Alternatively, if you have a certain throw set-up and your opponent catches on to this, you can use gravity well in that set-up instead of throw and punish them if they were mindlessly doing yomi throw techs. This is pretty ballsy but it does feel good getting a FC gravity well.

Obviously combos and zoning are the most important and you should focus using gravity for those most of the time.

wow, very good guide on gravity seed. so many thing I forget/never know.

[Overheat]

So, I've decided to pick up lambda and finally have a sub to compliment my Hakumen. Yesterday I spent about 2 hours or so with lambda, and have been finding her surprisingly easy to pick up. I've already remembered all of her inputs and know them by nature, and have begun scraping the surface with combos.

Can someone give me a few optimal combos, such as off of a throw or 236c starter, or some optimal corner combos? I've already gotten the timing down for most situations. Got to challenge mode 10.

I haven't become acclimated with sword pressuring and zoning yet. I definitely need more time with that, but what are some basic strategies and creative mixups besides just 5dd-4dd and things similar to that?

I think I will do a thread on Lambda mix-up sometime during the end of March.

Until then, High (4B[#2 only], TK's, 4D, air normals) / Low (2B, 3C, 236B) / Throw (tick throws, 236A). Some moves also are good as air unblockables if you catch your opponent not Barrier blocking. 5B, 6A, 6B, 2C, 6C, 236C. Keep in mind her grounded jump cancellable moves: 5A, 5B, 6A, 6B, 2C, 6D, 6DD, 2D, 2DD. Pretty much all of her mix-up can be done from TK Crescent feints.

Knockdown > 236D, should be self-explanatory.

I also highly suggest not throwing out 236C randomly.

[reciprokator]

isn't 2A a decent low?

[toanenadiz]

isn't 2A a decent low?

2A isn't a low

[reciprokator]

thanks. Now i don't know why i use it while (little times) mashing instead of 5A. 5A 6A also goes to 3C 236D

[Stone Drum]

I think I will do a thread on Lambda mix-up sometime during the end of March.

Until then, High (4B[#2 only], TK's, 4D, air normals) / Low (2B, 3C, 236B) / Throw (tick throws, 236A). Some moves also are good as air unblockables if you catch your opponent not Barrier blocking. 5B, 6A, 6B, 2C, 6C, 236C. Keep in mind her grounded jump cancellable moves: 5A, 5B, 6A, 6B, 2C, 6D, 6DD, 2D, 2DD. Pretty much all of her mix-up can be done from TK Crescent feints.

Knockdown > 236D, should be self-explanatory.

I also highly suggest not throwing out 236C randomly.

thanksh! <3

it's weird, I kinda already knew like everything you said. Even the 4d(2). I dunno, Lambdy is so easy to pick up on her nuances, or so it seems. Not sure how much of the surface I've scraped. Challenge mode combos don't seem to be optimal at all though. I've never seen anyone do 236c-5dd-236c-5dd-6dd-2dd-loop in a match

[Shiawase]

thanksh! <3

it's weird, I kinda already knew like everything you said. Even the 4d(2). I dunno, Lambdy is so easy to pick up on her nuances, or so it seems. Not sure how much of the surface I've scraped. Challenge mode combos don't seem to be optimal at all though. I've never seen anyone do 236c-5dd-236c-5dd-6dd-2dd-loop in a match

I'm new to Lambda too so correct me if I'm wrong, but really the hardest thing about Lambda is knowing which sword to use when you're zoning. I've had plenty of matches where I do 2D instead of 5D and it all goes downhill from there.

[LingeringSpirit]

How do you connect 4B into a combo (one of the challenges) they always seem to escape the second hit.

[toanenadiz]

Chances are, you should be only hitting with the 2nd hit of 4B and not the first one. Could you post the combo you are trying to do?

[LingeringSpirit]

Mission 13: 5DD>236B>ABC>Cx8>6C>236D>214D(B)>236C>Dash>4B>2DD>jump 5DD>air 2DD>jump 5DD>air 2DD>6321456D

[Overheat]

The most common mistake is not dashing enough, which leads to a 6B. If the opponent isn't high enough, then you might hit with 4B's first hit, which will make the second hit not connect.

[toanenadiz]

Delay the 236C after the 214D~C and they should be high enough for 4B(2) to connect properly.

[Starkaiser]

May I ask about challenge 15 ?

236B -> dash -> 5B is very hard to connect. is this just normal? or there is anyway to make it connect easier?

[Overheat]

Yes, it should be slightly difficult, but by no means is it hard with practice. Lambda has a few more practical things that are still harder. My only real advice is to practice, and to quickly input 656, and return to neutral for the 5B (the obvious, but it has to be said).

You can substitute a dashing 5A if you find it more practical for you. Or you can do non-dash 5A's and 5B's and 6B's, which are character-specific.

Here's a helpful chart from Emjay:

[hakimiru]

May I ask about challenge 15 ?

236B -> dash -> 5B is very hard to connect. is this just normal? or there is anyway to make it connect easier?

A few tips that might help you out with that:

You can't buffer the dash during the hit stop of 236B, so you'll want to make sure that's finished before you start your input.

It may or may not be easier if you think of the dash and the 5B as two different inputs, instead of thinking of it as a dashing 5B.

[minlexx]

The truth is, you can "buffer" a dash into 236B's recovery into the last 5 frames (?) using BlazBlue's advanced input, probably