GGML/Baiken

Overview

Baiken is one of the 3 unlockable boss characters in Missing Link, and holds the esteemed position of being the secret boss of the game. However, unlike an Akuma or Nightmare Geese, she's a very typical character, pr at least typical in the context of Missing Link.

Baiken is among the best characters in the game at controlling neutral. She has among the best normals in the game thanks to their combination of speed, disjoints, and conversion ability. She also has the best version of air tatami she's ever had with no recovery and no limit to how many can be on screen, allowing her to make literal walls of tatamis. Finally, she can tatami in the air indefinitely to reach the time of the screen, allowing her to air stall very effectively.

However, these powerful neutral options are limited by her inability to make a come back. She lacks the means to mixup opponents with only one overhead that's unsafe on hit, and none of her moves besides universal dash attack and her super are air unblockable, making it hard for her to mount a comeback. On top of that, characters with superior movement and neutral control, particularly the top 4, can give her a lot of issues. Still, Baiken with a life lead is one of the hardest characters to fight in the game.

Baiken Baiken controls neutral with air tatamis and disjointed pokes along with a hard to deal with timer scam strategy.

Pros

Cons

Youzansen Stall: Baiken can stall off of the top of the screen using Youzansen, make it difficult for opponents to hit her if she has a life lead.
Disjointed Normals: Almost all of Baiken's normals are disjoints, making her harder to counter poke.
Air Tatami: Air Tatami is just as good at controlling space as it always is, only there's no limit to how many she can put on screen. This allows her to wall out opponents with ease.
Unblockable Super: While it has flaws, her super is completely unblockable, meaning if she's in a round ending position a block string into it has few counters.

Weak Anti-Air: While she has anti-air moves, none are air unblockable, making it hard for her to deal with chicken blocking and air footsies.
Bad Comeback Potential: Baiken lacks tools to mix up the opponent, and with the aforementioned weak anti-air, its very hard for her to mount a comeback. Even her instant kill is slow and small.

Baiken

Defense
110%Raw Value: 11
Jump Startup
4f
Backdash
22f
Meter Gain Mod
110%Raw Value: 11
Charge Time
50f
Forward Walk Speed
100%Raw Value: 768
Backward Walk Speed
96%Raw Value: 563
Dizzy Resistance
100%Raw Value: 30
Fastest Attack

Reversals

Fastest Ground Abare:This character's fastest attacks for mashing or scrambles. Excludes universal throws.	c.SGuardAllStartup4Recovery15Advantage-9 (4F)
Reversal Attacks:Any reversal-esque moves this character has. Excludes universal options.	None

Normals

Damage

A quantification of how a character's health bar is reduced when they are hit.

Guard

The act of defending against incoming attacks. Guarding either negates the damage from an attack entirely or reduces it to minor chip damage.

Low: Guarded against while crouching
Mid: Guarded against in either the crouching or standing state, but not while airborne
High: Guarded against in the standing state
All: Guarded against while crouching, standing, or while airborne
Throw: Cannot be guarded against, but only applies to grounded opponents
Unblockable: Cannot be guarded against

Startup: The time before an attack is active including the first active frame. For example, an attack with 10F startup means the attack will do nothing for 9 frames, then hit the opponent on the 10th frame.
Active: The active frames of an attack refers to the amount of time an attack can hit the opponent.
Recovery: The recovery of an attack refers to the amount of time an attacker must wait before they may perform another action, even blocking.
On-Block: A measure of frame advantage when the opponent blocks an attack. Positive values indicate that the attacker can act first. Negative values indicate that the defender can act first.
On-Hit: A measure of frame advantage when the opponent is hit by an attack. Positive values indicate that the attacker can act first. Negative values indicate that the defender can act first.
Invuln: Short for InvulnerabilityA state where a character cannot be hit. A common component of reversal moves.

5P

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
4	All	6	4	9	-5	+2	none

Disjointed punch button. Not that fast and isn't a great poke either.

5K

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
9	Low	7	3	14	-9	-2	none

Standing low kick. Baiken does have an overhead so it could potentially be used for mixups, but otherwise it's a small button on a character filled with great pokes.

c.S

c.S

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
13x2	All	4	8(4)4	15	-9	+2	none

Two-hitting sword strike. Exclusively used for combo filler for infinites.

f.S

f.S

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
14	All	13	12	17	-19	-8	none

Long disjointed poke. Fairly fast for it's range and will convert into 5H into an infinite from most ranges.

5H

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
18	All	16	8	18	-12	+1	none

Another big disjointed sword normal. Has even more range and a big anti-air hitbox, but is pretty slow. Great for infinite conversions due to its high hitstun and long range.

6P

At least Baiken is happy about this button.

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
5x2	All	8	4(8)13	0	-5	+2	none

Two hitting punch. Can anti-air but it's not great at it. Maybe has other uses? Second hit whiffs on many crouching characters.

2P

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
5	All	8	8	9	-10	-3	none

Baiken's fastest low button. Also is slightly disjointed for some reason.

2K

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
9	Low	10	4	21	-17	-11	none

Two-hitting sweep. Shouldn't be used too often because of the teching system and it's lack of disjoint.

2S

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
14	All	16	8	9	-9	+3	none

Very long but slow normal. Doesn't have as much vertical range as her other normals but it has a lot of horizontal range, even more than her f.S. For some reason the first few active frames aren't disjointed but the last couple are, but it's low enough where this doesn't matter that much. Useful for poking.

2H

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
18x3	All	8	4,4(4)4	5	-2	+16	none

Multi-hitting disjointed anti-air. Has a big anti-air hitbox but unfortunately can be blocked in the air. Not as good as 5H for combos.

j.P

j.P

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
5	Overhead	6	8	9			none

Short range but very fast disjointed aerial. Good for pressure strings with Youzansen.

j.K

j.K

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
7	Overhead	8	8	5			none

Short range disjointed kick.

j.S

j.S

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
14	Overhead	10	14	4			none

Big disjointed aerial. Her best landing aerial and will generally beat or clash with anti-airs excluding IKs.

j.H

j.H

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
16	Overhead	4	8	15			none

Big disjointed horizontal slash in the air. Good for air to air and occasionally landing. Can crossup most of the cast.

Universal Mechanics

Dust Attack

S+H

invuln at the very end because

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
14,5	All,Low	7	15	7	-6	+24	Full 25~28

Despite how the move looks, it's very fast and the first hitbox comes out before the ball appears.

For some reason, the projectile is a low?

Throw

6H or 4H

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
20	Throw	1	N/A	N/A	N/A	-17	none

Not a great throw. Launches the opponent forwards and upwards. One of the few throws that carries run momentum so you can get an angle that keeps the opponent in your face. However, since it's heavily minus on hit, this will likely get you punished, and it's possible to be punished even on the regular hit.

Instant Kill

Single Stroke Battle

P+K > 236X

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
FATAL	Low	16	8	7	N/A	N/A	none

Hits low for some reason but besides that is unremarkable. Worst IK in the game since it's slow, small, and doesn't low profile.

Specials

Tatami Gaeshi

236K

Version	Damage	Guard	Startup	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
Tatami Gaeshi	1,14,5	All	12	-32 [-10]	-33 [-2]	none
Tatami Gaeshi Level 2		All	12	-38 [-31]	-7	none
Tatami Gaeshi Level 3		All	47	-38 [-36]	-11	none

Ground tatami is a pseudo projectile with lots of hits and priority, but since it doesn't even launch, it's hard to find a solid use for it. Air tatami on the other hand is a great pressure and neutral tool. There's no limit to how many you can have on screen and it's not hard to fill the screen with them. Charged versions increase the number of tatamis Baiken makes, 2 at level 2 and 3 at level 3. Level 3 has significantly more startup and can only be used in the air with a super jump.

Standard advantage is for the kick portion of the attack
Advantage in [brackets] is for the mat portion of the attack

Youzansen

623S

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
9x2	All	10	4,16	0	+4	-5	none

Doesn't hit overhead but can be executed on the ground. It makes for a solid combo ender when you can't do an infinite but it has better uses in pressure and stalling. The move recovers incredibly quickly, and with all air options available after, it's possible to continue your pressure from it with j.P into an air string into a ground string, although this is weak to guard cancels. Thanks to this fast recovery, it's also possible to execute another Youzansen almost immediately to gain more height. This can be repeated ad infinitum for a timer scam strategy.

Kamaitachi

41236H

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
9,10	Overhead	23	54	20	-14	-44	none

Near full screen hit grab. Does decent damage on hit and is an overhead for some reason so you can mix a little with it. Mostly to call out opponents at fullscreen, but due to the aerial nature of the game it's not the most useful. Launches on hit, this is generally safe but a knowledgeable opponent may immediately tech and air dash forward for a punish.

Supers

Tsurane Sanzu Watari

2363214H

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
22x3	Unblockable	6	3(17)3(17)6	18	N/A	-8	none

Baiken's typical three slash super, except it has some issues in this game. The fact it's unblockable may sound appealing and combined with it's fast startup, this can be effective for finishing off opponents. However, it has a major weakness in that the hits don't combo into each other. While this may not immediately sound like a problem, this means opponents can backdash away or do an invincible reversal to hit Baiken out of it. This still means the first hit is effective and it does fine enough damage, but it's not normally worth getting punished. In the corner against characters without invincible reversals, they will still get hit by the third hit even if they backdash generally, so if you somehow get an opponent in the corner then it's a good use for it.