GGST/Happy Chaos/Counterstrategy

Fighting Chaos

Happy Chaos’ goal is playing keep away while simultaneously applying pressure to you from anywhere on screen with his unique gun stances. Because of how the gun works, he’s capable of playing a really strong zoning game AND he’s capable of strong up-close pressure and mix ups. He does have two resources he has to manage in order to use the gun, and because of his low health, he can’t afford to make ANY mistakes when it comes to applying his pressure. He also doesn’t have a single invincible reversal, which makes him very vulnerable to corner pressure.

Happy Chaos as a whole is a character that’s extremely dependent on all of his resources, including Tension. In order to target the character, you must first target his resources, and that just means being patient, waiting him out whenever he has resources, and defending yourself with smart and careful use of YOUR own resources like Tension and Burst. Make him exhaust all of his resources, and go in for the kill once he tries to replenish his Concentration with regular Focus.

Unique Attributes/Mechanics

Gun Stances
Concentration and Ammo

Happy Chaos controls the screen using his unique gun stances. In order to use his gun stances, he needs to manage two resources: Concentration and Ammo. Each one is tracked individually and are restored through different means. Be sure to read up on how the gun works in the section The Gun: Understanding Happy Chaos' Stances on Happy Chaos' Strategy page, as fighting against Happy Chaos is going to require a solid understanding of how his gun stances and the reticle work, and how Happy Chaos manages his resources.

Round Start

Round start is when Happy Chaos is not at his strongest. He has decent round start options for getting his gameplan started, but his round start options are not overpowering. During round start, and in general, you need to mitigate any and all chances of the situation resetting back to neutral, because Happy Chaos’ neutral is extremely strong and difficult to deal with. If you're correct when you RPS with him at round start, because of his low health and lack of defensive options, it’s easy for him to lose a solid chunk of his health early on in the round.

Chaos has a few common round start options that you’ll need to lab out with your character. First, there’s CurseGuard-Startup-Recovery29 totalAdvantage-, which allows him to retreat and lets him start running Steady AimGuard-Startup-RecoveryTotal 18Advantage- pressure on you. You can chase him down if he does a round start Curse. Lab your character’s best options to approach. It is a common misconception that Curse is something you must dodge. At round start and in neutral, this is not always possible. It will hit you, and you will have deal with his increased accuracy. Really, this move is Chaos sacrificing time and stage control for more powerful zoning or pressure. When Chaos uses Curse, rather than do a cheeky IAD that will most likely get you shot, simply take space by dashing forward a modest distance. It might be worth getting cursed if it means that you score a hit on Chaos, but he’ll likely immediately Burst if you successfully call him out. This means that you’ll be sent flying away and now Chaos can start his long range pressure, so if you’re able to, it might be worth it to also bait a Burst during your approach as well.

ScapegoatGuard-Startup10Recovery43 totalAdvantage- is another option of his. Happy Chaos summons a clone of himself that will absorb a single attack (it does not absorb multihit attacks), even if Happy Chaos is in front of the clone. It costs 15% of Happy Chaos’ remaining health points to use this move, so he can’t really use it during low health situations. If you do hit the clone, you can actually cancel the hit into another move, as if you’ve actually hit Chaos. If the move you hit it with is jump/dash cancellable, you can also do that in order to continue your approach.

There are a few normals he likes to open up with as well. If Happy Chaos hits you with one of his normals, the reticle will automatically be locked onto you even on block, making him pretty much always safe as long as he’s got resources. It’s good to memorize the frame data of his slower normals, but if he’s got bullets and Concentration, you can’t really challenge them.

2SGuardLowStartup11Recovery18Advantage-7 is a long reaching button that’s disjointed at the very tip. It has 11 frames of startup and 18 frames of recovery. It can be difficult to punish this because it’s disjointed, and it can catch you walking backwards. Special moves that cause you to be airborne like Nagoriyuki’s Beyblade or Sin’s Hoof Stomp can beat this round start, but it’s a hard callout. Sol’s 6H beats it. You’ll have to experiment with your character and see what their best method of dealing with it is. 2DGuardLowStartup10Recovery19Advantage-8 can catch you mashing round start. On counter hit, it leads to a very strong combo that leads to a wall splat. On hit Chaos can get a guaranteed Curse on you, as he can cancel into it from 2D. Avoid this normal whenever you can. It has 18 frames of recovery. It can be beaten by 5Ks, round start DPs, or whiff punished after walking back slightly.

If you manage to win round start, immediately force him towards the corner, and begin running your offense.

Neutral

Thanks to the gun, Happy Chaos is capable of extremely strong pressure, conversions, mix ups and okizeme from just about any range. This is all nearly impossible to challenge as long as he has resources. In neutral, you’re just going to have to play extremely slow and defensively. You have to simply block him and his pressure/mixups for as long as he has resources, mainly Concentration. Most of Chaos’ blockstrings allow him opportunities to safely reload the gun, but if he wants to maintain his pressure, at some point he needs to take the time to use FocusGuard-Startup41RecoveryTotal 46Advantage- and restore his Concentration. This is your biggest opportunity to advance and get a lot of ground. In neutral, you will spend more time looking at Chaos' Concentration Gauge than you will looking at the actual fight taking place on the screen. As long as Chaos has concentration, he can essentially guard crush you infinitely. Rather than getting impatient and giving him free burst safe combos, wait until he must replenish his resources and dash forward to take space. Depending on how mobile your character is, you may have to do this 2 or 3 times before you actually get a chance to touch him.

If Chaos lands a combo, he’ll almost always have time to replenish both of his resources either during the combo or during okizeme. However, if you successfully block his pressure/mix and he overextends, he could leave himself in a very vulnerable position. When you have an opportunity to run your offense, make sure that it’s safe and tight. Since he has few defensive options, one of the ways that you can consistently destroy this character is running your offense in situations where you don’t have to worry about RPS.

Dealing With His Normals

Happy Chaos’ normals, especially his pokes, are deadly since even on block, the reticle for the gun will automatically lock onto you, making them almost impossible to challenge if he has resources. In neutral, try to space yourself outside of the range of his 2S and 2D, since those are his farthest reaching and most rewarding normals.

5KGuardAllStartup6Recovery12Advantage-3 is fast and one of his primary poking normals. It gatlings into 6KGuardLowStartup16Recovery16Advantage-7, which is -7. These will also be his primary pressure buttons at close range. 2KGuardLowStartup7Recovery12Advantage-4 is an excellent low mixup and close range poking tool. It can also low profile certain attacks like Axl’s 5K. 2D on hit provides ample time for Happy to replenish his resources with ReloadGuard-Startup23RecoveryTotal 23~77Advantage- or Focus. Can be cancelled into from 2K or 2S. It’s -8 on block, but it can be made plus on block with Super FocusGuard-Startup5RecoveryTotal 11Advantage-. Do your best to NOT get hit by 6SGuardAllStartup12Recovery24Advantage-14. It launches players about half a screen away on hit, and it can combo into Steady Aim and Deus Ex MachinaGuardAllStartup13+(193 Flash)+7RecoveryAdvantage-25 if the opponent has some height. It’s decent at anti airing as well. It can be canceled into from 5K or 2K. It’s -14 on block, so this is a prime time to punish if he has no resources.

Since Happy Chaos can enact his pressure from anywhere on screen, there are three positions that you have to adjust to his pressure from: Fullscreen, Midscreen, and Close Range.

Dealing With Fullscreen Zoning Pressure

If Happy’s zoning you out repeatedly with Steady Aim shots, you just have to wait it out for as long as he can keep it going. Flicker (but don’t hold) FD until he (eventually) runs out of Tension and Concentration. Even if you get pushed full screen, it’s fine. At some point, he HAS to use Focus to get his Concentration back, and this is your opportunity to go in on him as you’ll have about 65 frames to do so, 75 frames if you’re not cursed. Even if he immediately does Curse after Focus, it’s a long enough gap that you can dash up and hit him with a far reaching normal or a special move that’ll carry you forward like Ky’s Stun Dipper or Sol’s Night Raid Vortex.

If he uses Super Focus and then proceeds to zone, he’s just wasting Tension because Happy Chaos doesn’t build much Tension while zoning. Furthermore, the farther away Happy Chaos is, the slower his Concentration meter will replenish. Whether he’s zoning or if he’s hitting you with one of his strings, NEVER challenge or dash towards him after Super Focus. He’s EXTREMELY plus.

Do NOT jump during Steady Aim strings. If you get hit, you’ll just be juggled into a Deus Ex Machina finisher. If you’re Guard Crushed while in the air, it’ll send you back extremely far. If you want to advance, you HAVE to microdash with Faultless Defense braking. It’d clear the same amount of space as jumping forward anyway. If you jump, you’ll be knocked back further than where you started, and Chaos will have a guaranteed opportunity to get his resources back. This is how Goldlewis and Nagoriyuki typically die. If you’re Nago, you have to Fukyo when he does regular Focus. If you’re Goldlewis, save your Security Level 3 Skyfish for this moment as well. You can’t really challenge him when he reloads the gun because of how fast he reloads it, but you CAN challenge him whenever he tries to replenish his Concentration with Focus. This is your opportunity to advance. Keep an eye out for Focus at all times.

Once you get within a certain range, you’ll force him to either fight you directly and gamble with his low health, or attempt to get away from you and prevent your approach with Scapegoat. In addition to the round start strategies for dealing with this move, you can do a special or an Overdrive directly after hitting it. You can also red roman cancel after hitting it, and this will catch every option other than blocking. Even if he IS blocking, it will still enforce your blockstring. When you do this, make sure you do a forward drift RC. If you don’t, there’s a chance that it’ll whiff, but drifting forward will guarantee that the shockwave will hit.

Dealing With Mid-Range Pressure/Footsies

From mid range, Chaos can rely on his normals, specifically 2S, 6S, 2K and 5K to stuff approaches. 5K and 2K can lead to grounded corner carry which ends in a wall slump. After you get out of the zoning, playing footsies with Chaos is an unfair game for most. Depending on your character, you may be able to contest him with some success, but never be afraid to keep blocking.

He can use a charge shot from Steady Aim to close the distance without retaliation. From this point, he’ll likely attempt a mix up.

If you’ve been hit with Curse, Chaos is able to do fast and easy punishes, as well as stuff approaches, which leads to easy and good reward. If you’ve been Cursed from a farther distance, it's better to hold your ground and block as opposed to attempting an approach.

Dealing With Close Range Pressure

c.SGuardAllStartup7Recovery10Advantage+1 is his ideal pressure and combo starter. The ability to dash and jump cancel it combined with Chaos ability to shoot at any time allows him to start very potent but resource intensive mix. c.S also hits OTG, allowing him to perform extremely strong pressure resets as well. From c.S, he can dash cancel into At the ReadyGuardAllStartup9Recovery13Advantage+3, which leaves him +3 and close enough to stuff people from jumping. c.S > 6S and c.S > 2D are gapless.

5K > 6K has a three frame gap that trades with 3 frame buttons. It loses to throws if he’s up close, but beats them from further away. 5K > 6S has a 1 frame gap so it beats throws clean up close. 5K > 2D is a true string. He can also dash cancel 5K into At the Ready, and he can delay it slightly and make it a frame trap that leads to one of his best combo starters.

If Chaos tries to reload after any of his block string enders, he’ll be left unsafe. After a blockstring, if you’ve been using Faultless Defense like you should, he’ll likely try to create space with Curse or Scapegoat. You can take this opportunity to advance on him. You can just dash through Curse, if you manage to land a hit or at the very least get him to start blocking, being cursed won’t matter. If he uses Scapegoat, remember to use Drift RRC after an attack to get through it. If you haven’t been using FD, he can frametrap after a blockstring ender with At the Ready.

His basic blockstring consists of c.S > FireGuard-Startup-RecoveryTotal 12Advantage- > Steady Aim > Fire > Reload. If properly timed, each hit of this will frametrap, and even if it trades, it’ll likely trade in a way that favors him. Chaos is capable of looping guard crush blockstrings like this for a while. It will take a lot of Concentration, but he will build almost a full bar of Tension while he’s doing them. When he runs out of Concentration, he can just immediately go into Super Focus and fill it again instantly, letting him repeat the process even longer. Remember, he doesn’t build Tension after doing Super Focus, so if you just continue to block, he’ll have to commit to another option at some point. You’ll be blocking for a very long time, but eventually, your chance will come.

If he jump cancels forward off of c.S, then does a crossup j.DGuardHighStartup11Recovery21Advantage+3 (IAD), he gets a high low mix. He could cancel into either a rising j.2KGuardHighStartup10Recovery16 [11]Advantage+2 (IAD, airborne) or a low. However, this will use a large chunk of both of his resources, and while he’ll still have resources left over after the crossup, he won’t have much left to do a whole lot with, especially if the mix is blocked and he doesn’t get the okizeme he needs to do Focus. Using Faultless Defense will make this purely a high/low and prevent a cross up. Even if the mix does hit, Chaos will get lower reward for it. He will require a shot to convert, which costs resources and scales the combo.

At any time during a blockstring Happy Chaos can utilize 2H to exit At the Ready and allow him to utilize it to frametrap. He can Fire afterwards while dashing as a true blockstring, which enables him to close in the distance to get c.S and start the loop again. This allows him to effectively trade his resources for Tension gain while increasing his opponent's RISC gauge in a risk free but extremely high execution sequence. If he goes for these loops while you have Tension, you could let him do a few loops and then YRC after At the Ready, when he can’t block. He’ll be left with little resources and forced to retreat.

He can use Drift BRC from a dash canceled c.S as an alternate way to replenish his resources. For bullets, he’ll do c.S > 66BRC > c.S > Reload > c.S. He’ll be able to reload up to 3 of his bullets and frame trap afterwards. For Concentration, he’ll do c.S > 66BRC > 2P > Steady Aim > Fire > Focus, and he’ll be +6 on block if done correctly. You can also use YRC here to disrupt both setups. Use it after blocking the button Chaos uses after the BRC. Chaos can bait it, but if he’s low on resources, it’s unlikely that he will as he won’t really be able to get a punish without them.

Offense

Happy Chaos is not a character you ever want to reset to neutral with. EVER. If you consistently break the wall against this character, ESPECIALLY with a soft knockdown, you are not playing the match up correctly. The reason you don’t want to break the wall is because of the fact that the Concentration meter builds back up over time. If you break the wall, by the time the flying cutscene is over and you’ve reset the situation back to neutral, the meter will be near 50%, and he can easily just halt immediate approaches and resume his gameplan again. Once Happy Chaos is in the corner, you should commit to frame traps that don’t space you too far away from the character on block. You can’t give him ANY breathing room whatsoever. If he guesses wrong when trying to escape, he potentially dies from counter hits. An example of this would be running up and staggering c.S repeatedly as Sol. At worst, it might trade, but it will trade in YOUR favor. Crank up Happy Chaos’ RISC gauge and don’t be linear with your block strings.

If you’re a character with high damaging supers and you have 50% meter, you can potentially two touch Happy Chaos in the corner, as long as you don’t initially go for a string that causes a wall splat while he has high health. Do a smaller string that does a decent amount of damage, but do NOT go for the wall splat. Instead, corner him again and repeat the process of cranking his risc gauge while trying to frame trap him. After your first combo, if he’s got less than 50% of health, repeat the frame trap process, go for the wall splat and then make sure you kill with a super. If you accidentally cause a wall splat, go ahead and break the wall with a super if you have 50% Tension. Since this leads to a hard knockdown, you can keep the pressure going on Chaos.

You don’t have to go completely ham on offense either. As long as you keep him in the corner, you’re good. Prioritize positioning over getting a hit in. You can back up and try and bait a button out. If you’re a character like I-No, and you’re able to loop wallsplats, definitely try and go for those.

Defense

As mentioned previously, the best way to deal with Happy Chaos’ offense is to simply block it until he needs to take the time to restore his Concentration. He has far too many ways to successfully cover and punish just about all other defensive options because of how the gun works. You also need to use Faultless Defense when blocking him. This will help keep him outside of tick throw range and hinder his mix ups. So that you don’t waste too much of your tension against him, try to FD during the hits of his strings, but not the shots themselves, since FD-ing the shots won’t push him back. Attempting to challenge a Chaos who is confirming normals into an At the Ready Shot followed by a Steady Aim Clean Hit, is usually a death sentence, as the gaps are 2-3f at most and trades favorably for Chaos if he does get hit. What you can do instead is backdash the Steady Aim Clean Hit. Happy Chaos is able to catch you attempting to backdash the Steady Aim shot by delaying the shot more, but if he does that the gap widens to something that becomes more challengeable.

When it comes to worrying about throws, Chaos doesn’t get much in terms of damage off of them without Tension to RC, though he does get an opportunity to replenish his resources. He can’t ever go for a throw after a shot from 5H because of throw protection, however, there is no throw protection after a guard crush shot from Steady Aim. If he’s up close and starts dashing towards you after a Steady Aim shot, this might be an opportunity to buffer a throw or fuzzy jump, especially if he’s low on Concentration/bullets to effectively mix you with.

Remember, whenever Chaos has the gun out, he can’t block. This leaves him vulnerable to well-timed YRC depending on how close you are to him, and it can be essential for taking your turn back, especially when he’s low on resources.

When it comes to using your Burst on him, you really only ever want to use it when he’s close to the corner. If he successfully mashes out of your corner pressure, bursting in this situation will keep him in the corner and you can resume your pressure. You generally want to avoid sending him to fullscreen with burst, because that will either give him a chance to replenish his resources or start running his full screen pressure. The only time you should use Burst non-offensively is if you’re in the corner and he’s comboing you into a wallslump loop. On a successful hit, Chaos can loop 5K > 6K > Fire until you wall splat. This gives Chaos an opportunity to do Focus and reload two bullets, then dash up and do a meaty c.S into mix. This is extremely strong, loopable okizeme that lets him maintain his resources, so you’ll want to burst here to deny him that.

Dealing With His Mix Ups

He can use his special move RollGuard-Startup-Recovery35 totalAdvantage- to cross you up during his block strings. If you use Faultless Defense, then at certain ranges, this move won’t cross up. However, Chaos can dash cancel Roll from c.S or 5K to let him roll even farther, allowing him to crossup despite the pushback from Faultless Defense. Roll has 35 frames of recovery and Chaos can’t fire his gun until after he finishes recovering from Roll. If you’re looking out for it, you do have time to react to it. It is possible to throw Roll, but not if he does it from a blocked c.S or 2D. If he does it from a blocked 6K or 6S, it can be thrown. If he ends a blockstring in Steady Aim into Roll, he gets a true string cross up gunshot. With Tension, he can even PRC Roll afterwards into j.2K, letting him get the same 50/50 high low previously mentioned.

He can confirm into a hard knockdown from 5DGuardHighStartup20Recovery26Advantage-15 by firing a shot and then using 2D. You’ll have to do your best to react to it and block high. He can go for either Roll or 5D during 5K > 6K loops. If Chaos is running low on either bullets or Concentration, he’s likely threatening 5D, Roll or a throw, all of which can be handled with FD and fuzzy jumping unless he has running momentum, in which case all can be handled by mashing throw.

Another possible mix up Chaos could do off of a jump canceled c.S is j.2K forward > j.D > j.2K back. He can set up either of these c.S mixes from a YRC into 5K > dash cancel > Fire, which is something to look out for if he does use YRC.

It’s not possible to account for every possible mixup Chaos is able to do, but these are some common things to look out for when he does attempt to mix.

Dealing With His Okizeme

Chaos gets immense reward off of his 2D (or any hard knockdown). During a hard knockdown, he has an opportunity to reload two bullets or use Focus and get a run up meaty c.S. If he’s close enough after 2D, he can also do dash > OTG c.S > dash cancel into a meaty c.S. This also works in the corner. If he wants to return to zoning, he could also hit OTG with 2S into Curse, or just go straight into Curse and use Fire to hit OTG. This also gives him an opportunity to replenish his resources while also cursing you and leaving him slightly plus.

Then, there’s a particularly nasty setup that he can do if he lands a 2D from midscreen. After 2D, he can reload one bullet, then dash forward and jump into the previously mentioned crossup j.D 50/50. In addition to the 50/50, it’s also a safe jump and beats 6Ps. He could do this, or he aerial backdash > j.2K and combo back into the oki or just carry you into the corner. This is loopable on either hit or block.

In the corner, Chaos can use Scapegoat to bait out DPs. He has several methods of punishing a DP this way, and they can even prevent Roman Canceling them, so if he tosses one out while you’re in the corner, don’t just mash one out.

From a throw, midscreen he can dash jump into a j.K then do a falling j.SGuardHighStartup10Recovery23Advantage+2 (IAD) for a safe jump. In the corner, he just has to do a falling j.S for a safe jump.

Finally, there’s the aforementioned wallslump loops in the corner. Burst here in order to get out of them.

Character Specific Options

The following videos from aD Time are matchup gameplans for Happy Chaos against (almost) every character in the game. You can refer to these videos to have an understanding of the specific things Chaos is looking to do against your character, as well as any unique strengths or tools your character can utilize in the match up.