DBFZ/Kefla

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Overview

Overview

Kefla is a rushdown character with an emphasis on applying strong pressure and an array of strong neutral tools to win neutral. She shoves opponents into the corner and builds resources for her teammates.

Kefla's mobility on the ground is very strong thanks to her teleport, which crosses up and can be used for left/right mixups with assists, as well as her variety of useful moves like 3 lows and a long overhead. Her pressure is also extremely potent and makes her extremely difficult to block for extended periods of time.

Additionally, she is able to easily play keep away with an excellent suite of powerful zoning tools like ki blasts and beams. Gigantic Ray is a very powerful oki tool of which at worst, sets up a reflect mindgame of which Kefla is strong in, and at best, gives Kefla a 50/50. However, it's guard-cancellable in blockstrings, so it is highly advised you don't use it there.

Kefla's bane is the air-game. Despite having strong air buttons, she loses access to most of her kit since they aren't air OK, putting her in a more defensive situation. Although she is competent in the air, it's better to have a more ground-focused gameplan. If you like strong rushdown and overwhelming people with powerful pressure tools, look no further than Kefla.
Kefla
DBFZ Kefla Portrait.png
Unique Movement Options
Time to test this power out!
Fastest Attacks
Reversals

 Kefla is a rushdown character that flourishes in scrambles with a frightening ground game.

Pros
Cons
  • Pressure: Fantastic frame data, multihitting normals, and good range on her moves. The range on her normals also let her easily outspace most of the cast and punish any attempt to take their turn back or escape. She also as a standing overhead, plus on block special and low lariat that goes through Ki-Blasts.
  • Neutral: Kefla's neutral is very potent and she has plenty of tools to navigate neutral and poke with fast ki blasts. Her tools also allow her to easily swap between playing keep away or rushing them down.
  • Gigantic Ray: A strong oki tool that either gives a grimy 50/50 or forces a reflect mind game of which Kefla will almost always win. Also helps rack up damage in combos to help secure a kill.
  • Versatile: Has plenty of great projectiles and defensive options too, letting her swap between rushdown and zoning when necessary and even escape pressure.
  • Meter Gain: Has some of the highest meter gain solo among the cast as she is able to build well over 2 bars on nearly every grounded confirm if near the corner. Her highest meterbuild routes can crack 2.5 bars with relative easy execution.
  • Aerial Game: Lacks good Air Special Moves, despite having strong air buttons.
  • Whiff Punish: 5M are great buttons, but their long multi-hitting active frames make them very easy to punish on whiff.
  • Slow Level 3 Super: Her level 3 has very slow startup making it harder for her to use a reversal

Normal Moves

5L

Version Damage Guard Smash Startup Active Recovery On-Block Invuln
5L 400 All 6 -3
5LL 180×4 All 11 -5
5LLL 1000 All U3+ 13 +5L +12 (-5 on landing) 1-?? Head
5L
  • 5L slides forward, 4LL doesn't.
    • Good frame advantage.
    • 4 hits
  • 4LL has considerable pushback and makes Kefla outspace most characters attempt to mash.

Kefla's premier pressure normal. Overall an excellent jab due to the properties listed above and further complemented by the rest of her moveset.


5LL
  • On hit, 5LL forces crouching opponent to stand up, holds airborne opponent mostly in place for all hits to connect.
  • Don't guard cancel this button.
  • All hits are normal/special cancellable on block and on hit. Any hit can be jump cancelled in Spark.
  • Can immediately be canceled into 5LLL

Multi-hitting, large hitbox kicks that lock the opponent in place on hit for a very easy followup. If blocked, allows Kefla to safely Z-Change into a different character. All-around excellent normal.


  • 5LLL always whiffs against crouching characters, even if they're visually standing.
  • Recovers in midair.
  • Has 5f of landing recovery on block, 7f on whiff or hit.
  • Has Anti-Air Properties
  • Jails into Vanish.
  • 5LLL > j.214S is -5 on block.

If you somehow make them block this, the 5f of landing recovery is still in the way of high-low mix.

5M

Damage Guard Smash Startup Active Recovery On-Block Invuln
180×4 All 10 -5
  • Multiple hits, lower than average damage.
  • All hits are jump cancellable on hit or in Sparking.
  • Advances just over halfscreen.
  • Any of the hits of the hits can be gatling into a an M, H or special
  • VERY punishable on whiff, but has a big hitbox
  • Don't guard cancel this button.

Does 666 damage raw, so you know this normal is going to be cursed. 5L > 5M or 2L > 5M on reflect will put Kefla right back in their face, forcing them to block or gamble a second reflect.

5H

Damage Guard Smash Startup Active Recovery On-Block Invuln
850 / 1000 All U1 14 -10
  • Smash hit wall splats, combos into SD.
  • Tall hitbox, making it good for corner combos.
  • Kefla can perform the rejump combo, it's much like Bardock's but harder.

Kefla was blessed with a 5H that is better than most other characters. Besides the points mentioned above, it also travels far enough forward to catch reflect and cancels into 214X, which hit low (and also beat pre-emptive reflect). It should be mentioned again that this move is great for corner combos, as 2M > delay 5M > 236M is very consistent and highly damaging compared to other characters. Midscreen, this move also combos into 236H which will boost M starter combos by easily 500 damage.

5S

(Hold OK)

Damage Guard Smash Startup Active Recovery On-Block Invuln
300×6 All 11 P{(9)P}×5 -5
  • Hold or mash S to shoot all 6 Ki Blasts.
  • One of the fastest Ki Blasts in the game at 11 frames.

Kefla is blessed with excellent grounded Ki Blasts. Besides being some of the fastest in the game, she can also fire off 6 in a row. Generally you'll only be using one or two, but she can win fireball clash wars against most other characters with relative ease.

2L

Damage Guard Smash Startup Active Recovery On-Block Invuln
400 Low 7 -4
  • Short low.

Kefla's fastest low normal. Good frame advantage, so also good for pressure.

2M

Damage Guard Smash Startup Active Recovery On-Block Invuln
700 Low 9 -5
  • Rather short, but the 2nd fastest 2M in the game.
  • Can be up to -2 if spaced.

Kefla's other -5 medium normal, the former being 5LL. Excellent to reset pressure with, and staggering 2M.

2H

Damage Guard Smash Startup Active Recovery On-Block Invuln
850 / 1000 All U1+ 13 -15 4- Head
  • Smash hit combos into SD.
  • Puts her airborne. If cancelled early, stays grounded.
  • Inputting 3H (or holding forward immediately after inputting 2H) lunges her forward. This lets you side switch.

Can oddly be used in pressure thanks to ground cancels. Very easy to make safe for this reason as well, and it's easy to catch people off-guard with 214L or 214M.

6M

Damage Guard Smash Startup Active Recovery On-Block Invuln
850 High 24 6 4+6L 0
  • Universal overhead.
  • Same Hitbox as j.H

Faster than 6H by 1 frame and has a very different cue, although unlike 6H you can't combo off of it without assists.

6H

Double Hammer

Damage Guard Smash Startup Active Recovery On-Block Invuln
850 High 25 -11
  • Extendable overhead thanks to its gatling options and high hitstun.
  • Versatile combo filler after assists, 6H > 5H > 214M does a ton of damage.
  • Scales poorly.

The mixup tool. Midscreen you're going to want to cancel this into 5H and hitconfirm SD or 214L from there. You could also go for her j.H>5L routes which lead to lots of damage even scaled but those are incredibly difficult midscreen. In the corner you should route immediately into 214M for max damage, but 5H > 236M can also work for an easier hitconfirm.

j.L

Damage Guard Smash Startup Active Recovery On-Block Invuln
400 High 6
  • A high jab with some range.
  • Very easy to snipe superdashes with.

Excellent as an air to air button, with the bonus of being easy to confirm.

j.M

Damage Guard Smash Startup Active Recovery On-Block Invuln
500×2 High 7
  • Very active with good range.
  • Incredibly Active Multihitting move
  • Very low knockback, some basic combos don't work as a result.
  • IAD j.M first hit can whiff

Mostly combo filler and a useful way to drag your opponent back to the ground. Being a two-hit air medium, its too committal to throw out as an air-to-air. Pretty good as a crossup and faster than average to compensate.

j.H

Damage Guard Smash Startup Active Recovery On-Block Invuln
850 / 1000 High D1+ [D3+] 11
  • 5LLLLLLL Dynamic hit can wall bounce.
  • j.H Smash hit causes SKD.
  • jH is her main corner oki tool as it is effective against uptech.

This button is BIG. Sets up j.H > 5L links in the corner, but no one does those unless your name is Kalopsia. Most mere mortals like us just use it as a big jump-in.

j.S

(Hold OK)

Damage Guard Smash Startup Active Recovery On-Block Invuln
400×4 All 11 P{(9)P}×3 +5L
  • Hold or mash S to shoot all 4 Ki blasts.
  • Stops all air momentum.
  • Can be used for fast albeit riskier and costly crossups instead of j.M
  • jS is a faster cross up as it can be done while she is mid-dash, allowing very ambiguous left rights with correct spacing. Use assist, meter or spark to confirm.
  • It is also the most meter efficient ender if going into supers midscreen.

Fires at a great angle to stop grounded approaches, and can potentially counterpoke Z Broly's upwards Ki Blasts if you're above him. It's also really useful in corner combos to increase your damage just a little more before 236S.

j.2H

Damage Guard Smash Startup Active Recovery On-Block Invuln
850 All U1+ 13
  • Push Kefla forward, keeps some momentum.
  • Can link into jLL after on medium to large body characters when smash is consumed, making it an optimal meterless/assistless SD confirm.

Combo filler, plain and simple. Kefla's best meterless use of Smash midscreen but not much else.

Special Moves

Super Cannonball

236L/M/H

Version Damage Guard Smash Startup Active Recovery On-Block Invuln
236L 900 All 18 Total 59 -5
236M 900 All 16 Total 50 +2
236H 900×2 All 28 Total 65 +4
All Versions
  • Beam property projectile.
  • Jails into Vanish.
  • All versions can cancel into SD or 214S on hit, block or whiff.

236L
  • Throws a projectile forward.

Jails into SD anywhere on the screen which means it's mixup city. Abuse this. In neutral, treat it like a beam, because that's exactly what it is.


236M
  • Throws a projectile angled upward.

Too slow to be used on reaction to a jump, but 236M > Assist can get you in if the projectile is blocked. Anything that prevents opponents from jumping is a good thing for Kefla.

Combos into superjump j.L or j.M in the corner, forming the basis of her optimal routes.


236H
  • Throws 2 projectiles forward.
  • +4 on block, meaning the opponent can't backdash out of 5L.
  • Very, very punishable on reflect.

Part of what makes Kefla's damage so high as it also combos out of Smash 5H. Can be used to make yourself +4 for half a bar which is still pretty good. It is an important part of pressure not only because of the potential plus frames, but also because it serves as a potent DR crush. 236H jails into SD on block and can lead to a true string 50/50 with an assist, but 236L is better for this in every way.

Ain't nobody that can stop me!

214L/M/H

Version Damage Guard Smash Startup Active Recovery On-Block Invuln
214L 1000 Low 14 -5
214M 1100 Low U1+ 18 -5
214H 1300 Low U1+ 15 -5
All Versions
  • Ki Blast invulnerable.
  • All versions only have a hitbox upon arriving. They do not possess one as they travel.

214L
  • Travels forward about half screen.

Basic blockstring ender. Decent as a roundstart but somewhat slow. 2H into 214L catches people more than it rightfully should.


214M
  • Travels 75% of the screen.
  • Smash hit wall splats, has enough frame adv to link into 5H in the corner.

Corner combo starter. Also makes for a decent autotimed frame trap in the corner.


214H
  • Travels 80% of the screen and can go fullscreen if you buffer a microdash before doing it.
  • Smash hit wall splats really high up, forces a soft knockdown.

Absolutely terrifying. Extremely fast, low hitting lariat that confirms into combos no matter where it hits. A staple of Kefla's ground game.

Gigantic Breaker

236S (Air & Hold OK)

Version Damage Guard Smash Startup Active Recovery On-Block Invuln
236S 30×4, 150, 1100 All D1 14 -3
236[S] 30×5~12, 1300 All 14 -3
j.236S 30×4, 150, 1100 All D1 14 +5L
j.236[S] 30×5~12, 1300 All 14 +5L
All Versions
  • Kefla stands still to charge her attack, then dashes forward 80% of the screen and throw a beam projectile.
  • Smash on the dash. Smash hit causes SKD.
  • Projectile guard point from frame 4 to when she throws her projectile.
  • Holding S will extend the first part, but lose the dash. Cancel it into SD during combos for high damage routes.
  • Projectile jails into Vanish, but there's a gap between charge > dash and charge > projectile.



236S
  • Smash version can combo into 236H+S.

Mostly useful for assisted corner combos, as Kefla can't combo into it solo without losing a ton of potential damage. Will almost always combo out of 6H.

  • Charged version is plus on uptech which makes it good for oki if the opponent doesn’t have a bar to guard cancel.

j.236S
  • Primary force Slide Knockdown ender.

j.LL(2) > j.236S is Kefla's anywhere sliding knockdown. Works at much higher hitstun decay in the corner after j.S(4) though. Can combo into any Super afterward beside Gigantic Ray.

Time to test this power out!

214S (Air OK)

Version Damage Guard Smash Startup Active Recovery On-Block Invuln
214S Total 37
j.214S Until L+?
214S
  • Dashes forward, tracks horizontally and always sides switches.
  • Has a minimum distance she has to travel. At close range, the dash will leave her slightly away from the opponent, at far range she'll stay right behind them.
  • Fully invincible from frame 4.

Allows her to sneak past beams, or other things that may be annoying for her to deal with. However it is punishable so it should only be used as an escape tool or to punish a high commitment option from your opponent.


j.214S
  • Dashes diagonally downward, can also steal the corner like the grounded version.
  • Fully invincible from frame 4.

Useful to get back to the ground quickly, but overall less versitile than it's grounded counterpart.

Z Assists

Assist A

Super Cannonball

Damage Guard Smash Startup Active Recovery On-Block Invuln
800 All 25 +30
  • Stands still and does 236L.

A great assist. It's fast, has almost a second of hitstun, isn't too bad on block, and has beam properties allowing it to smack superdash and Ki Blasts. Good for neutral and combos, although her B assist has it beat in the blockstun department. Assist A appears farther behind the point than A21 does when near the corner, making it better for defensive calls and pressure.

Assist B

Mighty Kick

Damage Guard Smash Startup Active Recovery On-Block Invuln
250×4 All 30 +45
  • Slides forward and does 5LL.
  • On ground hit, the opponent is kept grounded. On air hit, they are sent away slightly.

Incredibly good blockstun, but slow with not that much range. It's hard to use in neutral as a result, and even using it in combos can be a bit tricky. Still, it's very good for jailing opponents and keeping them guessing due to it's high blockstun, and it's reward on hit isn't awful either.

Assist C

Gigantic Breaker

Damage Guard Smash Startup Active Recovery On-Block Invuln
30×4, 800, 400 All 30 [20] +30
  • Slides forward and does 236S.
  • There's a gap between charge > projectile.
  • On hit, teleports behind the opponent and knocks them down into a ground bounce SKD.

Super Moves

Ultra Cannonball

236L+M (Air OK)

Version Damage Guard Smash Startup Active Recovery On-Block Invuln
236L+M 450×6 All UDV 9+4 -18
j.236L+M 450×6 All UDV 11+4
  • Shoots 6 projectiles forward.
  • Air version tracks the opponent vertically.
  • Minimum Damage (Air Version): 139*6 (834)
  • Minimum Damage (Ground Version): 144*6 (864)

Can be hard to get all the hits off, so it's hard to get the best damage out of this since the opponent may fall out a bit early be hit by only one set of the projectiles. All of the projectiles will hit on an opponent in a sliding knockdown, but anything else runs the risk of losing hits.

Gigantic Ray

236H+S

Damage Guard Smash Startup Active Recovery On-Block Invuln
280×9, 500 All UDV 11+12 P(4)P(4)P(4)P(4)P(4)P(4)P(9)P×2(7)P Total 58 +50 ~ +52 11-11 All
  • Hellzone Grenade-style Super: slow startup, very plus on hit or block, no post-Super scaling, low minimum damage, disappears on DHC, cannot be SD'd through, cannot GC Reflect or SD.
  • +50 on block.
  • Can be combo'd from essentially every ground Smash: 5H, 2H, 214H, 236S, and also 236H.
  • Will true blockstring from 5H with an assist with 24 or more frames of blockstun.

On hit, allows Kefla to get some decent damage since it can be followed up with her air super, or even her level 3. Not as good as Hellzone Grenade because it has slightly more recovery, making it vulnerable to being Guard Cancelled during a blockstring. Using it after a knockdown has no such issue as the only option she has to fight is reflect.

Gigantic Chaser

j.236H+S

Damage Guard Smash Startup Active Recovery On-Block Invuln
2085 All UDV 11+4 -20
  • Kefla's DHC Super.
  • Tracks the opponent anywhere on screen, then dives straight down.
  • Launches, the opponent can tech before they touch the ground.
  • Minimum Damage: 765.

Great DHC super as it will combo from any other thanks to its tracking. Kefla can combo into it anytime she can connect a j.H, which is exceptionally useful after pushing a combo with Rayzone. If hitstun decay is too high for that, simply TK'ing the super will also connect.

Gigantic Burst

214L+M or 214H+S

Damage Guard Smash Startup Active Recovery On-Block Invuln
3952 All UDV 21+3 [12+3] -46 1- All
  • Minimum Damage: 1668.
  • Full-screen, frame 1 invincible Super.
  • Autocorrects on hit.
  • Value in [ ] is when the opponent is in any hitstun.
  • +44 on hit.

Being full-screen, punishes the opponent for almost anything they do even if they vanish, but its extremely slow startup makes it hard to use this as a true catch-all whiff punish tool. It's also a Level 3, which means it inflicts only blue health damage if used raw. Starts up faster in combos, and is certainly excellent there.

Distance and overall okizeme she gets from this allows for a dash superjump safejump (G01/Moon Jump) (669 > j.[4]H).

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