BBCF/Amane Nishiki/Strategy

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 Amane Nishiki



General Tactics

This is a helpful video to get a look at Amane's playstyle and some good ideas to implement. Give it a watch after playing around with Amane in game a few times. For details on matchups, check the guide here.

Important Moves

  • j.B: One of Amane's best air normals because of its speed and size. Its main weakness is that its hurtbox is big.
  • j.2B: A great way to suddenly change Amane's movement and/or force your opponents to respect you after you've exhausted other air options.
  • Zettou (236A/B 214A/B): Your main movement option. Use it to reset pressure, confuse your opponent, or escape a bad situation. Good use of Zettou is critical.
  • 6A: Antiair
  • 5B: Solid midrange tool
  • 6B: Good way to back off from close range.
  • 236D: Builds Spiral from full screen. Also a pressure tool with stance cancels.
  • 5D: Solid Chip tool

Amane likes to stay away from the opponent and use his mobility to kite around his opponent. By moving unpredictably, Amane can punish an opponent's anti air attempts and make them move recklessly. Amane's huge normals and great mobility punish this recklessness. Even if your opponent blocks consistently or plays defensively, Amane can still build up the Spiral Gauge and chip them out anyway. This is especially important against rushdown characters, because you can use Hariken to build Spiral and force them to approach. Against zoners you want to counterpoke with C normals and Hariken when possible. Hariken also guard points projectiles, which has some situational use. C normals, of course, are great buttons to use at long ranges.

After you get in you can pressure your opponent with drills, Zettou movement and long normals. Even in pressure you're often in the air because of Zettou and increased options. Amane still has solid air options, though Ginga (214C) and Hariken (236D) are great specials to keep pressure on an opponent. Level 3 Drill is also a strong win condition that Amane can opt for. In pressure, 5D and 236A > j.D are common ways to chip out an opponent once Spiral has built up.

Drive Consumption

  • 1 gauge has total 6000 points.
  • Gauge depletes at 10 points per frame in all situations except while Amane is in hitstop or hits opponent with a drive move.
  • Gauge overheats if gauge exceeds level 3.
  • During overheat, gauge depletes at 50 points per frame and resets to level 1 at the end. (Always needs 120F to reset)
  • During overheat, cannot use Hariken, Seijyuuren Soukyaku, or Goukaira Senrenpa.
  • For normal drives, adds gauge from just before active frames start (simultaneous for 6D) until just before active frames end.
  • Gauge depletion cut in half from just before active frames end until 66F after (negligible in OD).
  • While in OD, restores gauge to level 3 by 100 points per frame, while at level 3 consumption rate changes to 30 points per frame.

Blockstrings

Adapted from Kiefer's Pressure Guide:

Disclaimer: Pressure resets are a fundamental part of Amane’s game. Using his special moves to cancel your blocked moves into additional attacks very important to opening up your opponent, as Amane lacks a traditional mixup game. A few points to note before I go into detail.

  • The pressure string I will be working with as an example is 2A > 2B > 5B > 1C > 5D
  • Mix up when you cancel your pressure string (whether it is after 2B, 5B, 1C, 5D) as well as what you do to reset pressure. As an Amane player, depending on the distance of your opponent, their blocking habits (normal, instant, or barrier) you can gatling at any point in the above blockstring. This can keep opponents off balance by requiring them to react to WHEN the pressure reset is coming, as well as WHAT the reset will be.

Stuff > 236A > j.D > j.236A > j.D

The most basic reset option. If your opponent is happy to block your pressure, happily keep pressuring them and building drill gauge. The stuff > 236A > j.D part can be anti-aired on normal block at any level, although it gets tighter with each level. At level 3, if gatling from 5D, consider cancelling it quickly to avoid being pushed out. Opponents will often barrier :lvl2: and :lvl3: 5D with barrier, if they do so, they only have a 6 and 4 frame gap to anti air 236A j.D, respectively. The j.236A > j.D part is always a frame trap, so if you land the first j.D, there’s not really a reason to not do the second unless you’re baiting a reversal.

Stuff > slight delay > 214C

If your opponent is trying to mash out of your pressure without much thought, a 214C frame trap will counter hit their efforts. On CH, you can pick up 214C into a full air combo, but if they block it successfully, your pressure is over.

Stuff > 236DD

A rarely-seen pressure reset with a few upsides. It pulls Amane’s hurtbox backwards, which is useful against some reversals (especially Rachel’s 2C).

Stuff > 214A > j.C

A relatively safe pressure reset option with a number of potential follow-ups. Beats people mashing their anti-air buttons (as long as they have sufficient recovery) and catches opponents trying to jump out. On regular hit, you can transition into a combo using j.236A > j.B. If you want to be greedy, you can cancel a blocked j.C into j.236A > j.B to restart your pressure game, although be wary of people’s anti-airs. On CH you can gatling into j.2B into a full air combo. If j.C is blocked, you simply return to neutral.

Stuff > 6B > j.C

6B normally leaves you closer to the ground relative to 214A, making potential follow-ups more difficult to anti-air. After 2B, it is also the only gatling option besides hop that is safe against EA (5B, 1C, 3C, and 5D all have large whiff recovery). Ensure that you do not whiff 6B because of an opponent’s barrier blocking, as it does have considerable recovery. All options that work with 214A should work with this variant as well. The gap between j.C, j.236A > j.D is only 3 frames, making it impossible to anti-air without IB’ing.

Stuff > 214A > j.236A > j.B

The counterpart to the above option, this option generally beats jumping and blocking but loses to well-timed anti-airs. Depending on your opponent’s counter assault animation, this option can also beat counter assaults.

Stuff > 236DA

This mostly corner-only pressure option is most often seen in the corner at level 3, as level 3 Harikens give the most frame advantage. It is a high reward pressure reset option, as it leads to substantial damage on CH and large amounts of chip damage on block (plus enough blockstun for another free pressure reset in most cases). It does lose to mashing and jumping, however.

Stuff > 6D

The Woocash special. If your opponent’s asleep at the wheel, this is his highest risk but highest reward pressure reset option. Results in instant level 3, but loses to almost everything besides blocking.

Stuff > 236A > j.214A > j.2C

The “realest” punish for those trying to react and punish 236A > j.D. The only problem is, the combo afterwards is mostly nonexistent without 50 meter.

2A > 2B > 5B > 1C > 3C

If your opponent is buffering a dragon punch or is keen on jumping out of your pressure, this string of tight lows can open them up. The 3C will advance you forward, so ensure that you don’t unintentionally hop over your opponent with 236A. Feel free to use a j.2B RC crossup if this does occur, though.

Okizeme

"Amane midscreen Oki"


Tips and Tricks

  • Stay in the air! Amane has much stronger options when he's in the air.
  • Try to fuzzy jump. Amane has a uniquely high regular jump that can get him to uncontestable heights.
  • Use 6D to call out predictable techs and quickly build Spiral.
  • Zettou doesn't use an air option. Use that to your advantage and move unpredictably.
  • Use Hariken stance cancels (236D~D) to make yourself safer on the ground.
  • If you have the meter, you can do Hariken RC 6D (50) or Seijyuu RC 6D (100) to get level 3 spiral with a combo..
  • Amane has a defensive OS 1 > 236A+B+C. If you are in block stun you get counter assault, if you are getting thrown you get throw tech, otherwise you get B Zettou (very useful for escaping the corner during block string gaps).

Fighting Amane

General Tips

  • Amane's j.A is his only overhead, you can block low most of the time and not worry about it.
  • Most of the Deadzones from Amane's C normals last from Amane up until a knot in the ribbon.
  • The scarf on Amane's j.B is actually a hurtbox.
  • Use Barrier and Instant Barrier to avoid chip damage at lower levels.
  • Amane's best defensive option is often fuzzy jumping, test out ways to beat it!


Amane has very limited mixup options. j.A is his only overhead, and most of his pressure occurs at mid/far range. Instead, Amane pressure focuses on building Spiral level and making his opponent want to escape recklessly. Amane has several frame traps to call out mashing or fuzzy jump attempts. Despite that, many pressure resets are actually fake and can be challenged. The guessing game revolves around whether or not he'll try and frame trap or get greedy with a pressure reset. While his overall damage isn't spectacular without drill levels/heat, the more concerning element is a knockdown into 6D or Hariken (236D) where a held drill leads to a fast Level 3.

At level 3 (and somewhat at level 2), Amane becomes a threat with huge chip damage that can rack up quickly with pressure resets in the form of short hops into air drill. Good barrier usage is important to prevent massive chip damage. You can also Instant Block and Instant Barrier Block to reduce chip damage, though the latter may push Amane out of range to challenge him. Consider investing into Counter Assault or even using DP > RC since he can't block during Zettou. Once he's knocked down, he can only reversal with 50 heat. However, he may try to fuzzy jump out and use Zettou or even Gosei (j.236C) to reset back to neutral.

When playing half/fullscreen neutral against Amane, keep your movement as unpredictable as possible. His C normals have a decent amount of recovery and some of them have large deadzones that you can sneak through. You should move into a threatening range such that Amane can't safely use Hariken to charge his Spiral Gauge. Level 3 Spiral Gauge can lead to checkmate situations or a severely damaged Barrier gauge when he eventually approaches. On the other hand, reckless movement is punished by Amane's long normals and slippery movement.

Amane's midrange options are quite bad as well, so closing the distance between you and him can force him to commit to a number of options that are terrible on whiff (5B, 1C, 4C) or jump away. Round start position is a common example of this. The main objective is to move steadily move into a range where you can threaten Amane for any mistake, more or less. At close range Amane's options are even worse because of his normals and lack of reversals. 6B is an important move to check, however, because it's a great disengage tool for Amane.

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