Cobalt

Depends on the preceding combo, since the 5D will continue the combo (with blue beat) if the opponent doesn't emergency tech. 5B[m] 5C(2) 6D(1) Tsubame -> dash D 2A 5B (confirm hit) j.7B j.Hatsu j.Chun Haku. Opponent gets knocked down by Haku and has option to emergency tech or not. This combo also works from 6A starter when recovering the staff, but only if you do 6A 5C[m]. If you throw in a 6B or something before 5C[m] then the opponent will air tech after getting hit by Haku. Use the combo below for that. 2A 5B[m] etc. > dash D 2A 5B (confirm hit) j.B j.C staff2 dash 6C. Grants hard knockdown. Probably character specific, the staff2 > 6C is tight. Works on Jin at least. Edit: This second combo is extremely character and timing specific; many characters tech out at the j.C since their hitbox doesn't extend downward far enough. I'll try to figure out something better. I haven't found anything that really works from 2A x2 or more. Could try air throw resetting I guess; they tech out after 2A > 5B. For similar reasons, this doesn't work after long midscreen combos ending in Tsubame.

Yeah I watched some more videos last night after I posted and I came to the same conclusion. In the same vein, it seems like the usual strat for dealing with midscreen knockdown is to hold the staff and dash to maximum comfortable range. I guess you just let them backroll if they want and use the staff recall to try and get more pressure off of it.

I tested the 5B link against the entire cast except Kagura; it drops only on Ragna. The Japanese name of RiichiB is 立直：引っかけ (riichi: hikkake, Ready: Setting the Trap). It's a mahjong term when you declare a ready hand discarding an end tile of a ryankan set, e.g. discarding 4 or 8 when you have 468. This tricks the opponent into thinking 7 or 5 are safe, when they're actually the tile you're waiting on. For reference, RiichiA is 立直：単騎待ち (riichi: tanki machi, Ready: Single Wait), where you are waiting on only a single tile value that can complete your hand, and 立直：追っかけ (riichi: okkake, Ready: Pursuit), where you declare ready after someone else, to try and "chase" them. Oh yeah, Litchi's new moves are of course also named after mahjong. For the curious, 421C, 嵌張 (kanchan) is a set of two suited tiles separated by one, so that to complete it you're waiting on the middle tile. Since it has a tile on each side, it's fitting for what 421C can do when charged. RiichiA~D, 搶槓 (chankan, Robbing the Kong), is an event in which someone declares a meld of four tiles and a person wins off of that tile. In the English translation of BB, the name Robbing the Kong was already given to RiichiB, so it'll be curious how they translate this. Finally, 632146C, 清老頭 (chinroutou, All Terminals), is a maximum-score hand that occurs when you create a winning hand consisting only of 1s and 9s. And something I finally figured out the other day, Litchi's astral deals 32000 damage because that's how many points a maximum-score hand is worth. In my own learning experiences, I've been trying to figure out reliable midscreen oki after Tsubame. So far all I've gotten is dash, as-early-as-possible D, to catch non-emergency techs, into slightly delayed B which is meaty and connects for a followup if the D connected. I've also been having problems dealing with forward rolls out of the corner after 6C > 4kote ender. I'm doing 2D to try and catch, but the opponent always tends to roll past me and it becomes a lot harder to followup as they get knocked out of the corner. Am I doing it slow or something?

There are two main things you could be missing. The throw > 5A link, or the 5AA > 5B cancel. The first one is a very tight link, yes. But P4A uses the same input buffering system that BB does, so you can press and hold A for up to ~5 frames before you recover from your throw and you'll do the 5A as quickly as possible, hitting the link. Visually, the timing on this is to press and hold A just as the opponent starts to fly backward from the throw. The 5AA > 5B cancel is a hell of a lot easier once you can consistently get throw > 5A. You need to gatling the second 5A into 5B as quickly as possible, and with no charge, which means you need to press the button during 5A's initial animation. You don't have time to confirm that you hit the throw > 5A. Just do the initial A hold to get the link, then immediately press A,B. One issue that I've come across is that this doesn't work on counter hit in some situations--the extra vertical knockback from the counter hit throw puts the opponent high enough that 5B whiffs by being too low. You can delay the first 5A to fix that, since the opponent can't tech until hitting the ground on counter hit. But that's not worth it to practice until you can consistently get it without counter hit.

GGs to netplay today. It's really hard trying to get accustomed to netplay lag after only playing friends locally all year though D:

I'm level 3 because I started playing CSE on my PS3/account yesterday, lol. I played a hell of a lot on my roommate's account during the school year.

The only combo I can get to connect with that structure omits the 3C > Haku at the start. If I do 3C > Haku > Hatsu > ... > 5B > 6C(1) etc., then they tech out at the transition between dj.B > j.C at the end. If I omit just the 5B then they tech out at the slide 6A, but that could just be really strict timing. As for the video, it looked like you weren't actually getting any TK Chuns, which would be why you can't follow them up. TK Chuns will have the superjump trail on them. I recommend just doing 2369--it's fewer motions on the stick, so it should be easier to get. Anyway, full combo from start position that I can get looks like this: ItsuuB > dash 6C(1) > 6kote > Hatsu > RiichiA > Ippatsu > Tanki Hatsu > 5D (slight hold) > Chun > staff2 > TK Chun > 2C > delay 6D > 5B > 6C(1) > 4kote > j.B > dj.BCD > falling j.C > slide 6A Try and make the TK Chun hit late into its animation, so that you recover fast enough. You should buffer the 2C out of it so it comes out as quickly as possible, then delay the following 6D a bit so the hits both connect.

Might as well add this since it's not in the thread yet. Max damage ender that I've found/seen: 5B > 6C(1) > 4kote > j.B > dj.BCD > delay falling j.C > staff2 > slide 6A > Daisharin 39339 > j.Chun* > 6A > Daisharin last hit > [All Green**] * You want the j.Chun to hit after the third hit of Daisharin to knock them back down into the staff. The 6A following it knocks them to the ground for Daisharin's last hit. For oki, you can do 6A > Four Winds after Daisharin lands, or whatever other things you want really. ** You need to back up so that 6A hits pretty far away in order for All Green to connect.

For me, this works if I try to keep them as high as possible when 6A connects. It feels like the extra time it takes them to fall is what allows the staff2 to connect, but I'm not well-versed enough in the mechanics to say whether or not that's actually true. I just do the same hold timing as for 5[D] > Chun. The places I look to control their height are Ippatsu > Tanki Hatsu (you have so much time off of Ippatsu this is probably the best place in the combo to fix someone's height) and 5[D] > Chun (if they're still off).

You can dash after dropping the staff with 5D to fix your spacing if you're confident the opponent can't react in time to punish you. But yeah, dealing with pushback (especially when the opponent is barriering) can be difficult. Just have to play around in training mode to see what you can get from certain spacing.

My suggestion: look at the frame data and figure out what can gatling into staffless 6A, 2B, and 3C. When pressuring, try to drop your staff quickly ( [5A/2A xN] 5B 5D for example) and move into a string involving those gatlings. If you need to get the muscle memory for it down before actually using it, go into training mode and set the CPU to just block. Looking at frame data here's a simple string I can see: [5A/2A xN] > 5B[m] > 5D > 5B > 6A > 6B Confirm the 6A. If it hit, go into standard staffless combo. If it didn't, gatling 6B into 5D and continue. When you condition someone enough to look for the 6A, replace it with a low. I think you can do [stuff] 2B[e] > 5B > confirm/combo. However, I'm pretty sure there's an opening for the opponent to hit you after 5D (you can do this staffless, but the opening should still be there with the delay on staff recall added to CSE), but as long as the opponent doesn't know when you're going to drop the staff then they have to be wary about trying to punish you. Mix this up with 5B[m] > 2C > [5D/4D/delay 6D/other stuff] to keep them on their toes about it. And of course, you can always do moves later in the string that don't gatling well (typically C moves) and then cancel them into kote as well. From there, the hard part is figuring out how to utilize staff return so that you smoothly transition from a staffless hit confirm (when you've recalled the staff) into finishing with the staff.

Should be on the wiki, but might as well answer here. "TK" is short for "Tiger Knee" and refers to the technique of doing an aerial special (typically QCF/236) immediately after leaving the ground. Generally, it means changing the input from 236[button] to 2369[button]. The 9 at the end causes you to jump, but the game still considers your input as a QCF/236, so you do your special immediately after leaving the ground. For Litchi's combos, this is usually necessary because of the repeat proration on her rekkas now. Using the same rekka (Haku, Hatsu, or Chun) more than once in a combo causes harsh proration, but each different version of the rekka counts as a separate move. To use Hatsu as an example, these are all different versions of Hatsu as far as repeat proration is concerned: Hatsu Followup Hatsu (after Haku or Chun) j.Hatsu Tanki Hatsu (B while on the staff) So TK Hatsu is usually used because it combos pretty much the same way that grounded Hatsu does, but allows you to do this twice in a combo. You can also do TK kote with 721 or 923 instead of their respective normal motions; this is sometimes useful as part of your mixup game, particularly when trying to bait things. For reference, the term originates from Street Fighter. Sagat's Tiger Knee special input was 2369. edit: Other characters you'll see doing this a lot are Lambda (TK Crescent Saber), Bang (TK D-nails, sometimes TK fire punch), and Hakumen (TK Hotaru).

It's one of the oki options. After 6A, set the staff with 5D and immediately go into Kokushi Musou (Thirteen Orphans, 632146D).

Yeah, you have a lot more time to delay it now due to the extra hitstun on staff2, and you need to in order to connect the 6A at the end. It's the tightest thing I've found in all the combos I use.

Here's what I've been using as BnBs in various common situations. For the sake of shorter notation, I'll use these nicknames: starter1: 5B[m] > 2C > 6D > Hatsu Haku Chun > Haku Hatsu > RiichiA > Ippatsu > Tanki Hatsu starter2: 5B[m] > 2C > 6D > Hatsu > RiichiA > Ippatsu > Tanki Hatsu 6A ender: 5B > 6C(1) > 4kote > j.B > dj.BCD > falling j.C > slide 6A > (5D Kokushi) Midscreen staff: (2/5A xN) 5B > 2C > (5C(1)) > Tsubame. Recall the staff in different ways to continue pressure from here. Use when opponent is fairly close. (2/5A xN) 5B > 5C > 3C > 2D/Tsubame depending on distance. Midscreen staffless: 5B > 6B > 5C > 2C > 6C(1) > Chun > dash 5B > j.B > dj.BC > j.Hatsu > j.Chun. Gives you a crossunder opportunity if you land behind the opponent, which is fairly common. Honestly this is probably not all that good of an idea since it carries really far, leaving the staff too far away, for not all that much damage. Haven't really had the opportunity to think too hard about what I want to get out of a staffless midscreen combo. Corner staff: starter1 > 5D (slight) > Chun > 6D > 6A ender 5/2A > starter1 > 5D (slight) > Chun > 6D > 5D (slight) > 6A > 6BF > itsuuC > Hatsu > Chun > Four Winds 5/2A xN > starter2 > 6A ender 4D > Hatsu > RiichiA > Ippatsu > Tanki Hatsu > Haku > Hatsu > RiichiA > j.2B > j.Hatsu > Haku > Chun > 6A ender Corner staffless: 5B > 6B > 5C > 2C > Hatsu > Haku > Chun > --- (if staff is close) 6A ender --- (if staff is far) 5B > 6C(1) > 6kote > j.B > dj.BC > j.Hatsu > Chun I haven't tried to optimize throws or anything. In the corner you can do throw > 6D > Hatsu > RiichiA > rest as usual to 6A ender. Midscreen I just throw > dash 5B[m] > 2C > Tsubame to be safe, unless I'm really confident I can get the 4D wallbounce demonstrated in Chaoto's video. I learned the midscreen and corner 6B[m] CH combos since, while situational, they give over 5k damage and 6B counter hits more than it should. For odd starters, I do the following: j.2D > staffless BnB itsuuA > 6kote > Haku > Hatsu > RiichiA > Ippatsu > Tanki Hatsu > freestyle. I've tried other things (like itsuuA > 5D > Chun carry) but I haven't really hammered anything out. itsuuC > j.B > dj.BC > j.Hatsu > Chun. I can get another thing involving held 5D working in training mode sometimes, but only inconsistently. But yeah, the point is that odd things like the crossunder 3C combo aren't really necessary to have a strong combo base. In particular, that combo does not translate well into learning a lot of other combos, since it has a unique attack path. Litchi's most "basic" BnBs are going to be the ones that include as many commonly-used combo parts as possible--for example, starter 1 > Chun part > 6A ender. Getting that down means the work is half done for you when trying to learn other combos. Sure that crossunder 3C combo will be useful/optimal/better than the options I have in some situations, but it's a very low-priority thing for me to learn since it doesn't help me learn anything else.