BBCF/Celica A. Mercury: Difference between revisions

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* Tied for lowest health in the game.
* Tied for lowest health in the game.
* Lacks safe ways to end pressure.
* Lacks safe ways to end pressure.
* Many of her options are inaccessible if you have not been hit at least once.
* Has a variety of tools, but each have notable flaws.
* Has a variety of tools, but each have notable flaws.
* Lacks strong mixup options.
* Lacks strong mixup options.

Revision as of 03:42, 21 January 2021

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Overview
Overview

Celica is a beginner friendly character with solid pokes, good damage and a standard set of tools. Celica's defining trait is her healing mechanic. Landing Drive attacks create recoverable health. Celica can recover this health with her Drive attacks, or use it to enhance one of her special moves. Celica's enhanced specials enable new combo routes, on top of enhanced properties.

Unfortunately, Celica has notable weaknesses. She lacks strong mixups and good pressure resets. While she does have the ability to heal, she has very low health. This means that she can get blown up if the momentum is taken from her. In spite of these weaknesses, Celica has a simple gameplan that rewards smart decision making.

Lore:Celica Ayatsuki Mercury is the younger sister of Konoe A. Mercury, and aunt of Kokonoe. She is one of the main protagonists in the Phase Shift novels and appeared as an NPC character in BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma before becoming a playable character starting from BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma Extend onward. Celica herself is not much of a combatant. Instead, Minerva does the vast majority of attacks and is also the one who gets struck and blocks when her opponents attack her. This is also reflected in Celica's healing animations, where she casts her healing magic on Minerva to restore her health.


Celica A. Mercury
BBCF Celica A. Mercury Portrait.png


Drive: Minerva
By pressing the D button, Celica can perform combo attacks with her robot partner, Minerva; the chain has a starter, bridge, and a finisher. Celica can cancel into each of these attacks on whiff, hit, or block. Celica's Drive sees heavy use in combos. Drive attacks only build Recovery Cap (described below) on hit; the first Drive attack in a combo builds 100HP, the second hit builds 200 HP, and all subsequent Drive hits in that combo build 300 HP. As of CF2, Celica can no longer block during the recovery of her Drive moves, leaving each Drive highly unsafe on block and highly susceptible to reversals.
While in Overdrive (and not in hitstun), Celica passively gains both HP and blue health. The longer Celica is in Overdrive without being in hitstun, the faster the health gain. Like all Overdrives, Celica's Distortion Drives receive several buffs. Most notably, Celica's Distortion Armure Sorbet is significantly faster, enabling mid-combo healing.

Celica gains Recovery Cap by using Drive attacks, or by guard-pointing the opponent's attacks with the special moves Marteau Flan, Lance Quiche or Hache Rotir. This appears as a blue section of her health bar. Celica can recover this blue health by automatically going into a healing animation after using the third Drive followup in a combo, or by using Armure Sorbet. Alternatively, Celica can use the Recovery Cap to perform enhanced versions of the previously mentioned special moves. The special attacks immediately consume all blue health, so it will even consume it on whiff.

If Celica is already at maximum health then no recovery cap can be generated, preventing her from using enhanced specials.

Normal Moves

5A

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  • Hits crouchers.
  • Great for tick throws.
  • Can be held for up to 3 additional hits.

Holding the button for all 4 hits technically performs two moves, 5[A] and 5[A][A], and is treated as such for damage proration purposes. Similarly, holding the button for 2 hits performs 5[A] and only prorates once; this is different from pressing the button twice, which would perform two moves in 5A > 5A. This leads to a big difference in combo damage off both of them, though they both function as a two-hit jab confirm.

5B

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  • Good range, your main poke tool.
  • Moves Minerva forward, boosting the range of follow up attacks. This makes it a nice tool in neutral for 5B>5C>214C.

Minerva's forward movement effectively increases the range of following B or C normals by approximately the same distance as 5B's pushback.

5C

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  • Long-reaching button with limited use in footsies, as it is outclassed by 5B in most cases.
  • Occasionally used as a poke against moves that would otherwise low-profile 5B.
  • Mostly seen as combo fodder to help extend Quiche backfire loops.

2A

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  • Slightly longer range than 5A, but otherwise almost identical.
    • Hold A to hit 3 more times.
  • Can OTG, so is commonly used to catch rolls/quick getup.

Mostly good for pressure and tick throws, although 5A generally does better for those. It doesn't really have any horizontal range so it isn't particularly good for mashing out of gaps in pressure.

2B

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  • Fast, multi-hitting low with decent range that leads to good damage.
  • Extremely low pushback.
  • Also moves Minerva slightly forward, not as far as 5B.
  • Good starter from a dash in.

2C

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  • Great starter/punishing tool up close
  • Fatal counters
  • Vacuums the opponent

2C is a great pressure tool for resetting pressure because of its ability to vacuum the opponent, but it is minus on block. The vacuum doesn't pull the opponent in too much though so you need to manage the pushback from your blockstring carefully to get the most out of this as a pressure reset.

6A

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  • Celica attempts to do an uppercut, but loses her balance and falls over instead.
  • Airborne during first hit, until second hit
  • First hit knocks down
  • Second hit knocks down on air hit, staggers on ground hit
  • Gap between hits under normal circumstances is 7 frames

At 24 frames start-up, -8 on block, no meterless cancel options, and mediocre conversions outside of the corner, 6A is not a great overhead. You can make first overhead hit whiff, allowing only the low to hit instead, though hitting only the low doesn't let you combo without Rapid or counter hit. With meter, 6A(1) > RC > into either j.B or IAD > j.B represents a good overhead starter for a mixup that's easy to confirm and leads to good damage. On a midscreen counter hit, the opponent isn't pushed as far away, allowing you to combo reliably.

6B

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  • Head invulnerability from frame 4, lasts through the active frames.
  • Slams the opponent into the ground for a ground bounce on air and/or counter hit.

With a great hitbox and good cancel options, mostly notably jump cancellable on block, 6B is one of Celica's best tools. Sees a lot of usage in combos for many reasons.

6C

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  • Combo tool that leads to amazing damage
  • Best utilized immediately after punishes on counter hit
  • Vacuums the opponent

6C is generally used as combo fodder; generally after hitting enhanced Flan or after 5C/2C during crouch confirm combos. It can be used in pressure as a frame trap, but is generally inferior to 2C.

3C

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  • Unremarkable sweep
  • Counter hit causes hard knockdown as with most sweeps, allowing for a follow up combo

j.A

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  • Celica's fastest air button.
  • Similar to 5A and 2A, it can be held for 1 extra hit, but unlike them it can't be held for 2 more.
  • Best utilized in air-to-air situations.
  • On hit, can either go into j.B>j.C>j.D>land 214BHP for combo extension, or a short string ending with j.214A.

j.B

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  • Most commonly used for air-to-ground jump-ins.
  • Can also be used for f-shiki (fuzzy guard) setups.

j.C

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  • Reaches far, good air-to-air.
  • Higher damage combos on Counter Hit.
  • Decent jump-in due to multi-hit, though be careful of people going underneath it.

Basically your air footsies tool. However, Celica's hurtbox expands farther than it seems, so you can sometimes get disadvantageous trades while trying to use it.


Drive Moves

All of Celica's drive moves feature a starter, an bridging attack and a common ender. While they are listed together based on input, it is possible to combine different drive chains together. For example you can combine 2D (Starter), 6D (Bridge) and 5D (Ender) in one chain. All parts of a drive chain can be cancelled in the next part on hit, block or whiff. The only exception is the healing move which will only activate if the Ender move hits. Each individual Drive move is affected by Same Move Proration.

5D

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5D
5DD
5DDD

Starter

  • Fatal Counter

5D (Starter) is Celica's fastest Drive attack, but deals less damage and has shorter reach than the other Drive starters. It has a bizarrely long amount of hitstun, allowing you to follow up with enhanced specials and confirm hits easily. Also vacuums the opponent on hit or block, though much less than 2C and 6C.


Bridge
  • Switches Sides
    • Will not switch sides into the corner

5DD deals the most damage of the secondary Drive attacks. Because 5DD switches sides, 6DD is preferred for corner carry. With the opponent in the corner, 5DD will not switch sides. Also has a decent amount of projectile invuln.


Ender
  • Fixed hitstun on ground hit

5DDD is the universal Drive ender. It Launches the opponent away on air hit and spins them in place and leads to Celica's automatic healing on hit, which can heal up to 15% of Celica's maximum health in blue health.

2D

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2D
2DD

  • Both attacks float on hit
  • Both attacks give hard knockdown on CH

Starter

2D (Starter) hits low and deals a little more damage than 5D. Sees very little use; 5D is more optimal for ground combos and 6D is more optimal for ending combos.


Bridge

2D (Bridge) also hits low but rarely sees use in combos outside of maximizing damage from 3C 6D and then cancelled into Casque. 2DD will always leave a gap if used on block. Can now be used along with Flan for a mixup, but is generally not recommended. It is technically a two-hit move, but the first hit only hits behind Celica, so in most cases it's a one-hit move and startup of the move is effectively 11.

6D

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6D
6DD

Starter

  • Hard knockdown on air hit
  • Forces crouching on ground hit

6D moves Celica forward and has foot and throw invuln from frame 5 through the active frames. Staple combo ender as it grants hard knockdown on air hit. Forces crouching on ground hit, but cannot be capitalized on without spending meter or Overdrive. Is mysteriously cancelable into j.214A (at a slightly delayed timing) as well as grounded special moves.


Bridge

6DD is generally preferred over 5DD midscreen for corner carry. Usually used at the beginning of Griller loops.

j.D (Starter)

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  • Leads into DD attacks on landing
  • Stops aerial momentum

This move can be used to delay air momentum to bait out anti-airs and is combo fodder for combos starting off anti-air 6B or stray air-to-air conversions. If it hits cross-up, follow-up Drive attacks will autocorrect towards the opponent, but specials will not. Since the landing hit becomes active on the second frame after landing, it is possible to cancel into specials on landing before the second hit comes out if the first hit connects.

Drive Heal

Automatic after Drive ender hits.

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  • Used to heal back up to 1500 Recovery Cap.
  • Long animation, but always safe to use since 5DDD will always inflict enough hitstun to prevent it being stuffed.

New in CF is this automatic follow up after the new universal 3rd D attack in a chain. It'll heal any Recovery Cap you have accumulated. When used strategically, it's good for getting back a good chunk of your health. If you don't want to use up your Recovery Cap, you can special cancel the last D attack to avoid automatically cancelling into this, bear in mind this may use up the recovery cap you have gained, depending on the special move used.


Universal Mechanics

Ground Throw

5/6B+C

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  • Standard throw, pops the opponent up a bit on hit.
  • Back throw is identical to forward throw, except Celica turns around first.
  • Generally followed up by 5B>6B>2C for a combo ending in j.214A, or 6B>5C>5D into Quiche backfire loops.

Air Throw

j.BC

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  • Air throw that wallbounces on hit.
  • Depending on screen position, can be followed up by 6C or j.D for combo extension.

Counter Assault

When blocking 6A+B

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  • Uses 5D's animation.
  • Has similar startup to other Counter Assaults, but is incredibly negative on block. It's probably better for you to try to DP out of a gap and RC if it doesn't hit than use this, but if a string is too tight, sometimes you have no choice but to use this.

Crush Trigger

5A+B

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Uncharged
Charged

  • Shorter range than most Crush Triggers, but leads into high damage in the corner.
  • Launches airborne opponents

Useful combo tool for Celica when she doesn't have an enhanced special on hand.


Special Moves

Pic Confit

j.214A

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  • Fast-moving divekick with little to no followup potential. Generally an air combo ender.
  • Soft knockdown against airborne opponents, even on counter hit.
  • Safer on block and whiff in CF2, and now comboable on CH if Celica hits low enough to the ground.

Arc Griller

236B

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  • Simple fireball; strong for zoning but also knocks down.
  • Almost goes the full length of the screen. Slows down as it travels, then pops shortly after stopping. The pop has an expanded hitbox.
  • Used in combo routes that don't use enhanced specials, for when you want to keep your recoverable health or can't build any.
  • Has a different animation when cancelled into from 6C.

An all-around solid tool for neutral and combos, as well as being a relatively safe way to end a longer blockstring and return to neutral. Useful for ending drive chains if you don't want to cancel into healing, but also don't want to use your recovery cap on a different special move.

Marteau Flan

214B

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  • Slow overhead.
  • Guard point on head and body on frames 14-29, also projectile on enhanced version.
  • For the non-enhanced version, armouring attacks will convert health equal to their full unscaled damage to recoverable health, and Celica's health can be reduced to 0 this way. Can armour through a maximum of 1500 damage total; any hit that would exceed the threshold will counter hit, dealing the excess damage but no health will be converted to recoverable health.
  • Enhanced version takes a big step forward, giving it significantly more range.

Enhanced Flan is a combo staple that launches your opponent and leads to strong combos, and is also safe on block. Both versions can be utilized to guard point through opponent's Counter Assaults. This move is still vulnerable to Foot property and Throws, so it can lose to 2A mash or throw attempts.

Hache Rotir

236C

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No Charge
Charged

  • Launches extremely high on CH
  • For the non-enhanced version, armouring attacks will convert health equal to their full unscaled damage to recoverable health, and Celica's health can be reduced to 0 this way. Can armour through a maximum of 2500 damage total; any hit that would exceed the threshold will counter hit, dealing the excess damage, but no health will be converted to recoverable health.
  • Full guard point through to active frames, but loses to throws and unblockables.
  • Regular Rotir will temporarily freeze Celica in place if she guardpoints an attack, slowing the attack. Enhanced Rotir will temporarily freeze the opponent in place instead.
  • Charged Rotir gives soft knockdown, Fatal Counters for a short combo on CH.

Celica's idea of a DP move. No full invulnerability, but has a frame 1 HBFP guard point instead.

Lance Quiche

214C

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  • An advancing special that is safe on normal block and has projectile guard point.
  • For the non-enhanced version, armouring attacks will convert health equal to their full unscaled damage to recoverable health, and Celica's health can be reduced to 0 this way. Can armour through a maximum of 1500 damage total; any hit that would exceed the threshold will counter hit, dealing the excess damage but no health will be converted to recoverable health.
  • Regular Quiche is mainly used to end combos that are too far for other options (5B>5C>Quiche) and to go through projectiles that an opponent throws. You have to be early, as the projectile guard point does not start until frame 10, but effective usage of this can control your opponent's projectile usage in neutral.
  • Enhanced Quiche is mainly combo fodder, most notably for utilization of the backfire that comes out of Minerva. This can loop a few times depending on combo starter and lead to very good damage. Projectile guard point starts on frame 6 for this move and it moves a lot faster.


Distortion Drives

Armure Sorbet

632146A

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  • Good for heal combos
  • Long startup before superflash, but begins healing during the superflash, in most cases it will be done before the super flash ends.

Armure Sorbet is mostly only good for Overdrive combos aimed specifically towards healing back as much health as possible. If you do the right combo from low enough health, it's possible to heal back about half your max HP, which is pretty useful. Since the super flash happens so late into the move, it has the fortunate property of not telegraphing itself that heavily or spending heat until it's actually ready to go. Although you will want to be some distance away from your opponent before you use this.

Saber Anglaise

632146B

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  • Celica's least-used super, due to having long startup, low damage and practically no invuln.
  • Situations to use it are few and far between; one possible situation to use it in is if you want to get extra damage at the end of a combo by spending meter, but don't want to corner yourself with Casque.
  • Otherwise, Casque outclasses it in almost every other situation.
  • Under some rather specific circumstances (character-specific, close to corner, hitting as high as possible, sometimes needing fatal counter), it's possible to combo Saber into Casque as a way to spend 100 meter in a combo, though this still usually isn't even worth doing unless you also use Overdrive.

Casque Veloute

632146C

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  • Standard round finisher at the end of combos.
  • Very risky reversal, but goes fullscreen so it can be used to punish fireballs or other random whiffed moves.
  • Can't be rapid cancelled.
  • Has 940 minimum damage and 1340 in Overdrive.
  • Side swaps as well; if you try to end a round with this super in the corner and fail, you'll put yourself in the corner. If your opponent blocks it, they can run to you during recovery and get a counter hit starter, so be very careful with it when attempting to use it in neutral or on wakeup.


Exceed Accel

Pue Vapeur

ABCD during Overdrive

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  • Does not cost Heat, but inmediately ends Overdrive if used.
  • Becomes stronger and flashier with Active Flow.
  • 10% Minimum Damage

Celica commands Minerva to kick in front of her. If it connects, Minerva proceeds to perform a series of attacks on the opponent. Puts Celica in Active Flow if she hasn't already been in it already. Has full invul and is safe on block, but it cannot be rapid canceled.


Astral Heat

Atout Rillettes

222A

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It's an Astral. Easy execution. The hitbox does not extend from very high off of the ground.

Combos From...

  • Every Drive move (except 2DD when used after 2D)
  • 3C
  • 2C
  • All Ground Throws
  • ...And more!



External References


Navigation

To edit frame data, edit values in BBCF/Celica A. Mercury/Data. Be sure to update both the move and the move Full sections. One is shown on the character page, while the other is shown on the frame data page.