GGML/Axl

	Defense
	100%Raw Value: 10
	Jump Startup
	3f
	Backdash
	22f
	Meter Gain Mod
	120%Raw Value: 12
	Charge Time
	N/A
	Forward Walk Speed
	100%Raw Value: 768
	Backward Walk Speed
	96%Raw Value: 563
	Dizzy Resistance
	83%Raw Value: 25
	Fastest Attack
	2SGuardLowStartup4Recovery13Advantage- (4F); Dust AttackGuardAllStartup3Recovery9Advantage- (3F); Yousou RenjinGuardLow,AllStartup1RecoveryN/AAdvantage- (1F)
	Reversals
	DototsuGuardAllStartup16Recovery5Advantage- (16F, only invincible for parts of startup); Byakue RenshouGuardAllStartup6Recovery3Advantage-(6F, equally bizarre invuln)

Overview

Starter Guide

Combos

Axl, everyone's favorite British goofball, hits the ground rough in his GG debut as the most incomplete, rushed character in the game. His moveset is, put bluntly, absolutely awful; both of his supers fail to combo into themselves and are punishable on hit, several attacks are counterintuitive and clunky to use with strange animations resulting in zero combo potential, he can't charge because the devs ran out of time so they just dummied out the code, and his seemingly practical framedata is misleading due to the hitboxes actually being somewhere in Narnia. Winning with Axl is damn near impossible due to how sloppily made he is.

Or at least it seems. Being incomplete has its benefits, such as when the devs sometimes forgot to fill in your hurtbox data as well. Axl is completely invincible at arbitrary intervals on many attacks, and mysteriously sports a 12f overhead that's completely safe on block and an incredibly low profile Instant Kill. Perhaps the move that best exemplifies Axl is Dototsu, a safe-on-block, low profile yet randomly invincible move that also works as a fullscreen option when dashbugged. You can effectively play him as a weird cross between Axl and Anji Mito, abusing invincibility and turtling your opponent out.

He's still pretty awful. But, y'know, at least he's not Potemkin. Also he's got jorts.

Axl

Axl uses janky, cheesy, incomplete moves to randomly make stuff whiff and turtle to victory.

Pros

Cons

It Could Be Worse: Axl doesn't have much going in his favor, but at least he's not as bad as Testament or Potemkin.
jorts

Can't Charge: ArcSys ran out of dev time, so they dummied out Axl's ability to charge. This means Axl misses out on infinite combos and the ability to instantly cancel normals on hit and block.
Broken Supers: Neither of Axl's supers actually combo with themselves; opponents simply fall out of them and can block and punish the rest.
Finnicky Ground Buttons: Axl's normals have a tendency to be slower than they appear. Their early hitboxes often appear in an unfavorable position and need to travel to hit where they are wanted. Combined with his awkward gatlings and normals' long total duration, it can be punishing to press buttons against mobile characters.
Lacking Air Buttons: j.P, j.K, and j.S all cover similar angles, but all have poor range. j.H has an enormous dead zone between him and the Kusarigama's head.
jorts

Note: Axl's movelist is smattered with random periods of invulnerability. These are placed in awkward points within the animations, which can make them impractical to leverage intentionally, and can result in awkward interactions on occasion. Axl has a situational infinite, but it doesn't hit many characters, has a strict spacing requirement, and takes ages to kill, so it is very likely to drop before killing the opponent.

Normals

Damage

A quantification of how a character's health bar is reduced when they are hit.

Guard

The act of defending against incoming attacks. Guarding either negates the damage from an attack entirely or reduces it to minor chip damage.

Low: Guarded against while crouching
Mid: Guarded against in either the crouching or standing state, but not while airborne
High: Guarded against in the standing state
All: Guarded against while crouching, standing, or while airborne
Throw: Cannot be guarded against, but only applies to grounded opponents
Unblockable: Cannot be guarded against

Startup: The time before an attack is active including the first active frame. For example, an attack with 10F startup means the attack will do nothing for 9 frames, then hit the opponent on the 10th frame.
Active: The active frames of an attack refers to the amount of time an attack can hit the opponent.
Recovery: The recovery of an attack refers to the amount of time an attacker must wait before they may perform another action, even blocking.
On-Block: A measure of frame advantage when the opponent blocks an attack. Positive values indicate that the attacker can act first. Negative values indicate that the defender can act first.
On-Hit: A measure of frame advantage when the opponent is hit by an attack. Positive values indicate that the attacker can act first. Negative values indicate that the defender can act first.
Invuln: Short for InvulnerabilityA state where a character cannot be hit. A common component of reversal moves.

5P

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
7	All	5	10	15	-15	-5	none

Fairly long ranged and fast normal, and it's angle makes it good for catching air dashes. However, it's mostly outclassed by 2P.

fully extended on frame 10

5K

The jank finally works in his favor

frame 12
frame 16
frame 20

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
14	Overhead	12	16	9	-3	+3	none

A gap closing overhead for a zoning character. Converts into 214K on hit.

Used to infinite by linking this move into 2P/5P, and then comboing back into 5K. The infinite works best against wide characters—such as

Potemkin,

Justice, and

Ky—and works on roughly half of the cast when the opponent is cornered.

c.S

c.S

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
13	All	8	11	11	-2	-2	none

Horrendous hitbox with nothing else going for it. Exclusively to be used as combo filler.

f.S

f.S

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
15	All	12	8	20	-8	-8	none

Unfortunately slow poking normal. Could be decent thanks to a solid hitbox but in the time it takes to come out most characters will have hit you with their best poke into an infinite.

5H

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
17	All	6	12	10	+8	+12	none

Giant anti-air and combo normal. Mainly used as combo filler since Axl has better anti-airs.

Hits in front of axl on frame 12

Fierce Strike

6P

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
11	All	7	17	11	-19	-18	none

Very bizarre normal. It's not a good anti-air and the range is so bad it makes you wonder what on earth this move is supposed to do. Does have a crazy amount of active frames but that rarely comes into play.

Knocks away on hit, probably minus unless you jump cancel

4H or 6H

4H or 6H

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
9x2	Overhead	7	33	7	-13	-8	none

The first appearance of Axl's classic overhead. In ML it's mostly outclassed by 5K in terms of being an overhead but it's a solid throw OS and high profiles to an absurd degree. Airborne during its recovery meaning even if it is punished, it can't lead into anything meaningful.

Never links into anything, while 5K does
Hits in front of Axl on frame 16

2P

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
7	Low	5	11	13	-16	-5	none

This is actually a really nice button. It's fast to start up, has an above average hitbox, and becomes essentially a 2S in disguise when allowed to extend fully. On top of that, unlike future games, it can gattling into most of his buttons.

The main problem with this, and other chain normals, is that the total duration is long. Be mindful not to whiff.

2K

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
9	Mid	9	13	14		-13	none

Anti-air kick. Also used in combo since he often doesn't have a better gatling option. It is air unblockable and can be CCed for a combo, but the range isn't great.

Air Unblockable

2S

You tell me what this animation is supposed to be

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
14	Low	4	4(4)4(4)4	13		KD	none

A bizarre move which alternates between hitting in front of and behind Axl at regular intervals. Causes a techable knockdown, making the move mostly useless. Has no hurtbox at his feet for most of the duration so may have niche use against characters who use a lot of low pokes.

2H

Randomly invuln at 2 points

Arc forgot the hurtbox AND hitbox here

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
12x3	Low	12	8(3)8	31			Strike 19~22, 31~34

Long range ground button. The first hit is diagonally up-forwards from Axl which can whiff on many opponents. Unlike future games this is special and jump cancelable.

The most interesting thing about this move is that it's missing hit and hurtboxes at 2 points in the animation, randomly making him unable to hit or be hit for a few frames at a time.

j.P

j.P

Fully invuln for 3 frames before going active

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
5	Overhead	8	8	4			Full 5~7

Laughably tiny button. It's like j.K but slower and with a few invuln frames for memes.

j.K

j.K

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
9	Overhead	7	10	8			none

This wouldn't be too bad if it weren't for the range. Sadly, the hitbox is almost identical to the size of Axl's body, which makes it easy to anti-air.

j.S

j.S

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
15	Overhead	6	3	13			none

Axl's best air button yet still lacking compared to almost any other character. Timing this to hit grounded crouching opponents is difficult and even then comboing off it isn't consistent. The hitbox is a pretty solid disjoint though, and it helps to have it.

j.H

j.H

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
22	Overhead	5	24	1			none

This move is almost good. It has a very tall hitbox, it's fast, and it's really active. The problem is that the entire space between Axl and the head of the kusarigama is a dead zone, effectively making the move into a thin vertical line roughly round-start distance away from him.

The active frames are so long that under most circumstances you land before a recovery animation can play through

Universal Mechanics

Dust Attack

S+H

He does this bit twice in a row

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
18	All	3	8(19)9(12)6	9			none

This move makes no sense and has no clear purpose.

Axl does two consecutive weird, tiny hits with his kusarigama with a little hitbox in between, either being cancellable into Homing Jump, but the second hit is pointless and will almost certainly whiff either because it's out of range horizontally or it whiffed on a croucher as did the first. It is frame 3, but calling the hitbox inconsistent would be an understatement.

On top of that, Axl can consistently launch with Dototsu, meaning there isn't even a point comboing into Dust.

Whiffs on some crouchers

Throw

6H or 4H

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
20	Throw	1	N/A	N/A	N/A	KD	N/A

Standard Guilty Gear throw.

Side Switches on hit

Dash Attack

6[6]

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
13	All	22	until contact	10		KD

Axl's dash attack, nothing of note.

Instant Kill

Purgatory: 1000 Cuts

P+K > 236X

Who needs damage when you can punish with IK

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
FATAL	All	18	3	9	N/A	N/A	Above Ankles 1~29

Axl's instant kill has an incredibly low profile hurtbox for the entire duration. Although it's slow and not that big, the hurtbox makes it valuable to counter-poke obvious attacks.

Specials

Rensen Geki

[4]6S

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
14	All	16	13	42		KD	Strike 63~70

It's the same Rensen you know and love from later games in the series, but with a major downside: Axl cannot roman cancel (or an equivalent) in this game. In later games, rensen + roman cancel is an incredibly potent, multi-purpose option. Without access to roman cancels, this move is significantly less valuable and is considerably more risky when the opponent avoids it.

Oh and it's randomly invuln for a few frames at the very end of the recovery.

Kyokusa Geki

[4]6S > 8H

This animation makes more sense than Strive's equivalent

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
5x2	Mid	6	26	31			Strike 6~14; 51~63

The first 8 active frames are fully invulnerable, and then the last 12 frames of recovery are also fully invulnerable. The first bit of invuln kinda makes sense for what the move does, but the end? I don't know why.

As for the intended use of this move it's an anti-air followup to Rensen, just like in the rest of the gear franchise. The total duration of this move being so long makes it pretty terrible since you might still be in the animation by the time the enemy recovers from getting hit.

Air Unblockable

Benten Gari

623S

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
18	Mid	8	19	18			Upper Body 8~11; Strike 40~45

Big anti-air special with some ok invuln to help it in that aspect. It can follow-up into itself on hit (only on the later active frames, for some reason?) by inputting 623S again, which can be done as many times as it hits. This can make it potentially a fairly high reward anti-air but the hitbox is a bit specific to be especially useful.

Oddly enough, this move is supposed to be charge cancellable, but the developers added a semicolon to the end of the function declaration that would allow him to charge, meaning that when you try to charge, the function doesn't return anything, so he can't charge. With some minor adjustments to the code, Axl is able to charge cancel this special. However, his options after CC are too janky or slow, and he cannot do CC infinites. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, I guess.

Air Unblockable

Tenhou Seki

214P

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
	All	5	33	16		KD	Anji 6P shaped 5~38

Rather than countering specifically highs and mids like in later games, it counters anything that hits the activation box. This means there are crouching mids that will not trigger it and standing lows that will. Besides that though, it's a decent counter.

For some reason this move has funky upper body invuln that looks identical to Anji's 6P.

active frames refers to the duration for which this move can counter.

Raiei Sageki

41236K

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
28	Overhead	63	15	47		KD	Gone 20~62; Strike 103~114

This move travels up off the top of the screen then comes back down while enveloped in hitboxes. You can influence Axl's horizontal movement during this move significantly. Unlike in +R, you cannot delay the move by holding the button.

Invulnerable for a few frames during the animation rising from the belly flop
There's three 1 frame gaps in the middle of the move's hitboxes, but I can't be bothered to count that nightmare.

Dototsu

214K

The move that makes Axl a character

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
14	All	16	8	5			Strike 1~3,6~15,24~28

One of Axl's better moves. Dototsu is an intermittently invulnerable attack that causes a dust launch on hit, allowing Axl to get a juggle combo. This is useful on defense and as a combo ender. It's also safe against most characters when spaced character, not accounting for guard cancels. Importantly, if dash cancelled with 21466K, the move goes almost full screen, giving Axl a strong burst option in neutral thanks to the invincibility.

Supers

Yousou Renjin

63214K

Ninjortsu: Jorts Assassination Technique

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
~50?	Low,All	1	Until Reaches Wall/Enemy	N/A		KD	none

For some reason, this move isn't listed in Axl's move list in game in either the original release or the 2019 re-releases.

It functions similarly to Alpha Blade in that it travels until it reaches the opponent's collision box, and then activates.

Terrible super that shouldn't be used. If you manage to hit someone with this, they can tech out after the first hit and punish Axl. This also applies to his other super, but at least that one deals more damage on its first hit, so there's no upsides to this one.

Byakue Renshou

23632H

Daisuke's vision needs glasses

Ready to watch Axl's hurtbox phase in and out of existence?
There it goes!
Now it's back!
There it goes again!
Now it's back again!
Hitbox lingers until the flame particles are all gone

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
50,7x2	All	6	20(21)50	3		KD	Strike 1; All-But-Foot 2~9; Strike 10~14; All-But-Foot 15~36; Strike 37~43

Drops on hit just like 63214K, and is very easily punished. However, the first hit does a lot of damage, so hit-confirming into this off of a stray hit when your opponent is low enough is a viable kill option. It also reaches near fullscreen so it might have use in getting ranged chip damage, but it could just be jumped upon reacting to the super flash.