GGXRD-R2/Venom/Strategy

General Tactics

Venom is a character that rewards good fundamental play, and thrives off of knockdown situations.

Venom's normals have decent frame data and great hitboxes when used in neutral. These normals can be leveraged to gain breathing room to set balls. Without balls, Venom fights on the ground from distances primarily utilizing his fS and 2S pokes. They cover good horizontal distance for their speed, but be careful because they lack vertical control, have little active frames, and have lots of recovery. When poking with them from distances, one should also frequently cancel them into a ball set, the preferable option for sure if one don't have charge. Venom's Stinger and Carcass Raid specials are situationally very strong spacing tools and can be used to punish poor positioning and movement, and interact with his other balls to level them up. Balls augment Venom's neutral and oki significantly. Balls can enable strings which are normally impossible both on hit and on block. Usually Venom will only have time to set 1 ball in neutral, so it is important that the player utilize a mixture of SA, CR, Teleport, and normal moves in order to control space and set up for an opening to get a knockdown. Off of a knockdown venom has numerous options for oki. In brief: Venom wants to usually set a ball or charge a QV in order to set up safe and powerful oki.

Beginners' Starter Kit

This segment is aimed at providing new players with a list of combos and oki to use in the case that the main combo and okizeme sections are too intimidating for their early learning phase.

Combos

• All damage values are damage dealt to Sol unless the combo cannot work on him, in which case the character with the closest defense modifier is used.
• Entries listed in DarkKhaki are either optional or situational.
• Damage values listed for combos with optional combo parts assume the highest damage variation unless otherwise stated.

Combo Primer
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Starter Combos

Combo	Position	Damage	Tension Gain	Works on:	Difficulty	Notes	Video Demonstration
cS(3) > IAD > jSHD ▷ 6H	any	120	20	all standing	[1] very easy	Not recommended vs lightweights.	https://youtu.be/5SZYytzlJyQ
cS(2) > kQV > 5K > 6P BH > 6H	any	116	16	all crouching	[1] very easy		https://youtu.be/GBd9kbnJsYQ
ground throw > 66 cS(3) > sCR > IAD > jSHD ▷ 6H	midscreen	75	20	all	[2] easy		https://youtu.be/ubYjD79yOgE
ground throw > 44 6P > kQV > 6P BH > 6H	corner	75	15	all	[1] very easy	Burst safe.	https://youtu.be/X-vqgimvDyw
Low air-throw ▷ cS(1) > kSet > 66 6P > 6H	midscreen	64	15	all	[1] very easy

 Note: Potemkin, Leo, Bedman, and Haehyun can be combo'ed using cS(3) while they are crouching. Other characters must be combo'ed with cS(2) routes.

Blockstrings

Venom blockstrings can either be short and simple, or long and complex depending on screen position and ball presence.

As a general rule Venom's midscreen pressure is fairly weak and will often either leave a gap, be blitzable, or can be beat by FD. Midscreen is almost like a game of RPS between Venom and the enemy's defensive options. In the corner Venom's blockstrings become much more complex, and will change drastically with his usage of balls, special moves, and meter.

Below are a few simple strings to incorporate into blockstrings. The list is neither exhaustive nor comprehensive.

• 2K cS(2) sCR - a strong, short blockstring which opens with a low and ends with + frames from a projectile. sCR at this range is a good reset.
• ending with QV leaves one -4 on block, but is often still safe because not all characters can contest the 5P BH option after QV.
• jSPS or jSH into sMS are strong overhead strings that help one get back to the ground safely while putting many overhead hits on the enemy.
• sSA is -2 at point blank and becomes increasingly advantaged when one can force enemies to block it from further away and with more levels of charge.
• 2K is disadvantaged on block, but if the enemy is afraid of one's pressure or one have a ball one can use this to put the enemy into block stun while one walk forward and tick throw.

Okizeme

Venom's oki is one of the most complex and volatile in the Guilty Gear series up to this point.

At a basic level, Venom has to think about five things when he sets up his oki: which move did he knock the enemy down with, how many balls does he have already in place, how far away from the enemy is he, what defensive tools does the enemy character have, and what resources does the enemy have.

Below is a breakdown of fundamental oki setups that are consistent and easy to set up. Venom's oki options are too numerous to list in their entirety, and as such some responsibility falls on the player to discover which setups fit their play style and skill level.

Universal Oki

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P Ball Oki

After a knockdown, cancel one's ender into 214P.

Depending on the distance, use 5P or 5K to hit the ball and start pressure or go for a mixup from there. Simple stuff, especially recommended when one're very new to Venom but playing matches.

K Ball Oki

After a knockdown, cancel one's 2D or 6H into 214K, and do a micro-dash jump and hit the ball with j[K]or[S]. The ball will hit meaty giving one a chance to go high, air dash into multiple highs, or empty low. If one manage to land on the other side, one can go low or airdash backwards with a crossup j.S. In addition, a whiff crossup j.P into throw can be an effective setup.

Most K ball okizeme loses effectiveness as a mixup when one's opponent has 25 meter. Reversal Blitz will almost always beat this oki when the ball is launched with jK, and if one's spacing is bad it could potentially beat the jS hit too. The jK hit will yield a better frame advantage than the jS ball which forces one to choose between safety and advantage. This can be somewhat circumvented by jumping forward without running to hit the K Ball, then airdashing. In this case, empty low is mostly eliminated as a mixup, but one can vary the amount of overheads one do (such as j.SH vs j.SPS as strings, as well as adding Mad Struggle at certain points).

Be careful of Dragon Punches and other invincible reversals. Although in a few cases (mostly off of 2D) one can overshoot them. one can also come down with FD as DP bait, but this limits one's mixup options. Adjust accordingly.

H Ball Oki

Setting an H ball after knockdown can lead to a safejump.

If one's opponent lacks meter for blitz, it's one of the best safejumps in the game. Set the ball, running jump and jS to hit the ball, but whiff one's opponent when done right. When one's opponent has 25 meter for blitz though, one can get rejected for trying this. The ball becomes more of a bait, and one'll usually either airdash in chaining one's air normals similar to K ball without the ball or empty jumping and going low, or even going for throw if one're feeling frisky. one're not touching the ball in this case.

H Ball oki after a ground or air throw midscreen leads to a charge ball. Slam them into a wall with a 5H/6H/cS and charge a HQV to finish. Immediately charge an S Stinger Aim to level 2/3hits, and use backspin. one can tap it with 5P/5K for more freedom in the setup and to make it safer vs blitz, or use fS>set to make the sequence a blockstring while adding another ball. This is easier on air throw so practice that first. Rev 2’s new spin options open up extra possibilities with PQV as well as HQV.

S+P Oki

This setup is one of the easier 2 ball setups.

After a 6H or long range 2D knockdown, cancel into S ball and then P ball. After the P ball one need to determine the distance of the enemy. If they enemy is further away, use 5K to hit the balls. If the enemy is closer do a micro-dash 5P. This will give one 2 balls at different heights to create pressure from.

Corner Oki

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PP Oki

Similar to midscreen, but because of one's proximity, one'll have time to set another ball.

A simple, effective setup is with the ball meaty, set another P ball, and tap it with 5P, so that the 5P makes contact on the opponent's block. One can then jump cancel the 5P into a S Mad Struggle or go low with 2K or 2D for a simple high/low mixup. Another option is to use S Carcass Raid backspin on the P ball, then immediately hit the ball with 5P. From there, one can use micro-dash 2S to try to force the enemy to block. 2S can then be special canceled to extend the pressure. Finally, the last main P ball option that can be used for oki or pressure in either case, is after a P set, press 2S. Note the way 2S and the ball interact; one can special cancel the 2S. While QV can combo if one can hit confirm, one can also pressure nicely by repeating 214P>2S. When one think they may jump out, after a summon, press 6H to lock them in place.

K+P Oki

This setup is primarily used with Venom's teleport.

Immediately after setting the P ball, tap it with 5P then teleport. The ball one hit will keep them blocking and one can try chaining and/or airdashing normals, or going low. Experiment with a few different ways one can try utilizing the K ball after the teleport. one can also skip the teleport and try a few different options after the P ball such as a summon or Carcass Raid, but this is somewhat unexplored. Part of the beauty of this character is discovering new setups and branching okizeme/pressure paths. What one will see in these setups will never be everything, but between them, enough to get one started.

sSA Oki

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sSA oki is extremely powerful, but requires setup in order to be possible.

sSA requires a pQV combo ender in order to set up a P Ball before the enemy is knocked down in order to allow time for venom to charge sSA(L2). Use the sSA(L2) to hit the P ball left over from the pQV ender into the enemy, causing a meaty ball hit. Use top-spin or back-spin depending on one's screen position in order to place the resultant L3 ball in between Venom and the enemy. Then use either micro-dash 5P or fS to hit the charged ball into the enemy and cancel into another ball set. Micro-dash 5P is slower and is hard to make gapless on characters who wake up quickly, but it always blitz safe. fS is able to be made gapless depending on wakeup timings, but it can be harder to make it gapless while also charging the sSA enough. This oki is very strong and can be arbitrarily canceled into Dark Angel or set up for any of one's other oki setups.

For additional Oki ideas, see the Absolute Oki Repository listed below in the Learning Resources section. Note that not all of the oki in this document is practical.

Learning Resources

• Venom Discord
• Combo Demonstrations by Tarkus
• Absolute Oki Repository
• Neutral Ball Formations by Fino + Guilty Bits
• 310's Japanese Venom Resources
• Starter Document

Fighting Venom

Quick Tips:

• Do not give Venom space to freely set balls in neutral.
• fS can be counter poked with most 6Ps because fS extends his hurtbox into the pool cue.
• Teleport has recovery and can be beat either with an air throw, or a "meaty" button over his ball.
• Mad Struggle's last hit can be Instant Blocked potentially netting an opportunity to throw Venom after he lands.
• K ball jK can always be blitzed on wakeup
• Fuzzy guard protects against many of his conventional 1 ball oki setups.

Among other things, QV can be used as a oki tool, and as a blockstring ender. This creates a frame trap, between QV and the following button + Ball projectile. Be careful not to mash during this. This does lose to DPs and fully invulnerable reversals. Sometimes it can be jumped out of.

Notable Competitors

310 - JP PepperySplash - NA Isamu - JP Fino - JP Elle - NA BlackSnake - NA Gastly - NA BadoorSNK - WA Miri - EU

Guide Contributors

Tarkus - Combo videos, Wiki formatting, Combos, Overview, Char Specific Mechanics, Tips BadoorSNK - Combos and Oki DaiAndOh - Combo Theory and Strategy Miri - Combos Gastly - Combos Ryan Hunter - Combo Theory and Strategy

Navigation

Overview

Starter Guide

Combos

Frame Data

Matchups

Strategy

Resources