Cooler
General Tactics
Cooler uses his death grip on neutral to force his way in and make his opponent respect his massive range. While his Ki Blast isn't great to zone with, his counterzoning tools are what makes Cooler the force that he is. 3H plows through Ki Blasts and beams alike. 214S and 236S both jail into vanish on block, and 214S is even a low. Cooler's massive 5M, 2M, and 5H allow him to easily control the space in front of him, and his 236L divekicks give him a scary degree of mobility.
Team positioning
Point
Very good normals, especially 2M as well as having both a beam and a "frick beams" move with 3H. Good to use him to win neutral and tag into someone else to run the mixups, similar to Vegito
Mid
Cooler Mid allows for the point to take advantage of his A assist's massive hitbox, he can also use his B assist to punch through pesky beams and ki blasts. Cooler on Mid should only tag in on some supers since his tag super is grounded.
Anchor
Since Cooler builds meter slow, this can be a decent position for Cooler to do his thing, his thing being the extermination of the Saiyan race. He can make use of meter in combos such as by ending combos with 236H or with his air supers. Cooler's strong staggers and 236X plus frames let him carry momentum and keep the pressure on, and he's hard to keep out with 3H.
Picking Teammates
UI Goku: Cooler best uses assists that can get him out of unsafe situations if run as point or mid. For this reason UI goku's A assist can be used in a pinch, his counter level 1 always tags into cooler's grounded level 1 as well.
Base Goku: Base Goku can use his B assist to built a lot of meter for cooler so he can spam EX moves as an anchor, most notably the crushing 214H knee at will.
Roshi: Roshi's B assist can help plow through unsafe situations since it has a guard point on startup, using assists after a missed 214H allows for pressure to be applied on whiff, and makes the move more safe on block.
Blockstrings
- 2LL/5LL > 2M > 5M > 6H > 5H > 5S > Assist > ...
Basic assist blockstring.
Cooler's staggers are based around 5S and the raw range of his normals. Once he has spaced himself out, he can use 2L, 2M, 5M and 5S to continue to pressure the opponent from long range. Up close, he can also use 5L to tick throw or stagger with how good it's frame advantage is. Once the opponent is conditioned to block, then you can break out 236M to stay plus and 236S/214S > Vanish to switch things up.
Okizeme
If you save your air action, j.236L allows for an airdash safejump. Without it, you still get a j.M, but it leaves you farther away.
In the corner, j.214M~M gives a pretty basic safejump. Midscreen, it leaves you too far to do anything meaningful.
Cooler's level 3 gives him a dash jump safejump, but you can also try gimmicks with 214S.
Tips and Tricks
- 236L is an excellent mobility tool. Its raw speed can be surprising to those unfamiliar to Cooler.
- 3H can be made safe on block with 5S, or can be made plus with 236M if you're willing to take the risk.
- Don't forget his level 3 can be both a counter AND a command grab.
Fighting Cooler
- Cooler's ranged options are quite slow, especially his beam. Cooler also has a tough time controlling the air on the opposite side of the screen.
- Cooler's 3H goes through beams, ki blasts, and Head attacks, but you can 2M or 5L him right out of it no problem.
Cooler