General Tactics
SSB Goku is an offensive character with good pressure and great tools that allow him to mixup his opponent. Having 3 lows, a meterless teleport, a built-in overhead in his autocombo, and an unreactable command grab makes his blockstrings allow him to easily capitalize on his opponent's hesitation. Although his overhead is somewhat slow and easy to react to, it is possible to condition your opponent to block low by using 5LL > delayed 2M. Even if the overhead is blocked, he can keep pressuring his opponent with the use of assists and try a true 50/50 mixup with j.214H
236/214S
Although this meterless teleport has a fairly slow startup, it enables Goku to "get in" if the opponent blocks an assist on the ground, no matter where Goku is on the screen. When 236S/214S is blocked on the ground it gives a small amount of plus frames, like vanish, and that advantage is lost if the opponent blocks it in the air. Also, like vanish, the frame advantage is small enough that the defender has a certain amount of counterplay available to them after blocking, such as backdash and frame 4 invulnerable reversals.
j.S
Since SSB Goku's j.S doesn't stop his air momentum, an IAD j.S becomes a great way to approach a grounded opponent, since it will stuff their anti-air attempts, allowing you to keep your pressure going.
Video guides
Team positioning
Point
It's a good idea to play Goku on point, as he can make some good use of assists to diversify his pressure. He also can be a fantastic battery for other characters that depend on meter.
Mid
Blueku's assists are all quite serviceable, with his A assist being objectively the best in a vacuum. While his neutral might be weaker without 2 assists to always back it up, his great pressure doesn't require assists to get good mileage out of it.
Anchor
Having a level 5 Super and fairly decent pressure by himself, SSB Goku is a good choice for an anchor character. The use of sparking allows him to use some unique combos with amazing wall carry, as well as making his damage potential even scarier.
Picking Teammates
With Goku Blue not having a consistent way to dominate neutral as many other characters do (beams, armored lariats, large projectiles), it's going to be a good idea to look at assists that do that for him - good examples would be like Z-Broly's A assist, any beam assist in the game (GT Goku's is better for neutral and horizontal beams like SSJ Goku are better for combos), and one-off neutral threats like Piccolo's A Assist or Trunk's Change The Future Assist. With the right neutral assist, you can also double it as a combo assist to even further increase damage and STILL have a way to win neutral again should things go awry (DPs, unexpected mashes and scrambles, etc).
Goku Blue's assists are fairly average. His A assist, while slow, gives tons of hitstun (almost as much as most c assists, but not enough to be free combo city), and strong neutral control with fullscreen horizontal tracking. The slow startup can be circumvented if the opponent is locked down beforehand with projectiles. Good examples of characters that get enabled by his A assist are Android 21, Z-Broly, S-Broly, Roshi, UI Goku, Base Goku, and Kid Buu. His Divine Void Strike assist is immune to ki blasts and has some fairly good hitstun - functioning like Gogeta's A assist without the wallbounce - although the ki blast immunity ends up being impractical in most situations. His B assist is more flexible to put on a team given its nature as a strike assist. His C assist does track anywhere on the screen although said tracking is slow enough that the opponent can avoid the assist consistently if they know how to. It can possibly fulfill a use in some niche teams.
Blockstrings
- 2L > 5L > 5LL > 2M > 5M > 5H...
- 2L > 5L > 5LL > 2M > 5M > 5H > 2H... (Airborne after 2H for divekick followups)
- 2L > 5L > 5LL > 2M > 5M > 5H > 2H > j.214L (-2)
Safe normals: 2L, 5L, 5LLL, (Overhead with large gap) 4M, (Secret command normal) 2M and 5S.
- 2M (reflected) > 5H > 5S (Reflect proof)
- ...5S , 2M > 4M...
- 4M , 2M > 4M... (Reset pressure, beats mashing L against most other characters. Loses to mashing M in most cases)
- 4M > delayed 5H (Catches jump outs and mashing)
- 4M , 5L (Beats mashing M)
- 4M , instant dashblock > assist call or reset pressure (instant dashblock will not get hit by mashing)
- 4M , dashup 214L
5S auto spaces his blockstings for 2M > 4M shenanigans. 4M (-2) when spaced out is extremely strong for stagger pressure.
- Mix-up tools:
Heavy divekick mix-up: (Most medium blockstun assist can cover this mix-up)
- ...2H > j.214H ▷ 2L
- ...2H > j.214H , delayed airdash j.L (May be difficult to time)
- ...2H > j.214H , airdash j.S ▷ dash 5M
- ...2H > j.214H ▷ 214L
Examples shown are in the corner and using Goku Base's A assist. May require creativity depending on what assist used and whether your midscreen or in the corner. Be warned, they can GC 2H on reaction and be safe. The best thing to do is either take the hit or use j.236H to reset neutral. It is best to go for divekick mixes off IAD>j.H instead of 2H for this reason.
Pseudo tick throw set up:
- IAD j.S ▷ 214L
- IAD j.ML ▷ dash 214L
- IAD j.S ▷ 2M
- IAD j.ML ▷ dash 2L
- Dash 5L/2L ▷ delayed 214L
- Dash 5L ▷ 2M ▷ delayed 214L
SSB Goku's command grab is unreactable although most ground buttons don't allow him to tick into it, so he will need to use a jump in or dash momentum normal to set it up. His 214M/214H can be used as tick throws but are considerably slower and reactable in most cases.
Tips and Tricks
- 2H > j.236L being -2 is very good, don't forget you have it.
- IAD j.S is a good way to force your way in, but it has counterplay. Don't overuse it.
- j.236L / j.236M scale like grounded mediums, and can be TOD'ed from on hit with sparking.
- j.236L is extremely difficult to contest after an air blocked SD situation, as it beats out almost every characters attempt to press buttons, catches airdash back, airdash forward, double jump, and super dash.
- j.214L can be used as an unreactable same side mix-up when your opponent thinks you're jumping to IAD crossup j.M, similar to Yamcha's j.2H. However, in order to confirm into full combo, you'll need to use an assist or bar
- j.214M oki in the corner can be performed by buffering a normal jump straight up (not up-forward) and falling down with j.H. This catches all techs and makes it impossible to dash/walk out of the corner to avoid the meaty. If the j.H is blocked, you can immediately go into j.214H for an instant unreactable mix-up since airdash was not consumed and it would be extremely dangerous to attempt to guard cancel out.
Fighting SSB Goku
NEUTRAL Bluku has a lot of tools to close the gap and bypass neutral. If he has assists to back him, it is very difficult to avoid him. It's best to pay close attention to him and let him come to you so you can punish his more committal options. Stay vigilant and look out for hit IT.
OFFENSE He doesn't have any particularly amazing buttons or options to escape pressure situations, his 2L has very short range and his 5L is a very standard jab. However like any other character with high damage, if he reads an IAD overhead and 2H's you, a spark will very easily lead into a TOD even if he has next to no bar.
DEFENSE Mashing is EXTREMELY risky against Blueku. He has some of, if not the best, staggers in the game. Backing it up is also some the highest damage in the game so if you guess wrong on a fuzzy jump or mash timing then over half of your life bar will get deleted if not straight up death.
DO NOT FORGET 2L IS A LOW.
214L is a huge threat once he has established his extremely strong stagger pressure. Being completely unreactable along with being confirmable with assists means that with the right teammates he can even two touch a character using only 214L so eventually you will be forced to make risky decisions on block in order to avoid this.
TAKE NOTE IF HE HAS A HIGH BLOCKSTUN ASSIST. If he has a blockstun assist he might go for a mixup with 2h into j.214H - it's a true 50/50 that can also be layered with crossup j.S or command grab. Any of those are horrifying as they can lead into big damage. (Going high has a strict timing though, most players easily mistime the late airdash so low should be the main thing you look out for). There is counterplay if you guard cancel on the 2H on block, any later and he will recover and block the guard cancel in time. Blueku in turn also has an extra layer of counterplay to this by doing j.236H on reaction to the guard cancel instead of j.214H. However this is not a true punish as it will be blocked, but it will still lead into a true 50/50.