GGST/Faust/Strategy

General Gameplan

Faust is a silly character. A unique grappler-hybrid with an RNG mechanic to help his offense. He's big and has long buttons. He's incredibly wide in many of his animations, and incredibly short in others. In some cases, his ability to pull items can cover him as he pulls even more items. This can lead to entire rounds devolving into absolute chaos as the screen fills with meteors, hammers, miniature Fausts, fresh produce, weights and bombs.

Faust focuses on a few things: Whiff-punishment through movement, j.D and far.S; Baiting approach and anti-airing with 2S, 5K and 6P, and; Capitalizing on the opponent's hesitation by dashing into a range where you can threaten to grab the opponent.

When Faust has a free moment, due to the opponent burning through air options, or Faust knocking them down with 2H, he pulls Items. Item Toss (236P) has a chance to produce a handful of dominating projectiles, if you're lucky, which can cover you for subsequent pulls. With enough luck, you can chain pull after pull for quite a while, forcing the opponent onto defense while you build meter and create an advantageous game state for yourself.

Helpful Compilation Videos and Guides

Top 12 Faust Strings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPA0kpxIrMo

Item Toss Oki, Post-Throw Variety Pack: https://twitter.com/USF4rosecom/status/1406004749502058497

Item Toss Oki, Post-Throw Variety Pack #2: https://twitter.com/USF4rosecom/status/1406576886008844290

Crawl Compilation: https://twitter.com/mikaze_/status/1405133306434260993

Items

Bomb

Pulses 6 times before blowing up. Can be hit back and forth by both players. Different attacks hit the bomb at different arcs. 5D hits the bomb at a favourable arc that can be hard to challenge.

Hammer

Throws a powerful hammer in a fast arc that causes a lot of hitstun/blockstun on contact. If it misses the opponent, it will bounce on the floor a few times before it leaves play.

This arc is incredibly useful for covering Snip Snip Snip attempts in many cases, or allowing you to take multiple potshots at your opponent's attempt to avoid Snip.

This move, in neutral, can cover Faust for another item pull.

Mini Faust

Creates a miniature Faust that gets furious when hit by any projectile, or if the opponent steps on them. It will throw a tantrum then leap at the opponent, doing many hits. Persists even if Faust takes damage, so it can interrupt combos, or cover Faust from punishment when he takes risks.

100t Weight

Causes guard crush to all grounded players on impact, with a persistent box that can clip an airborne opponent, offering combo opportunities on hit or putting them into blockstun until landing on block.

With certain setups to force the opponent to block 100t weight on the ground, a BRC done during the guard crush state can set up a high/low mixup (Rising jK > jD > MMM vs. 2H > MMM)

Meteors

After approximately 1 1/2 seconds, meteors fall from the sky in a random pattern, causing guard crush on block.

This move can cover Faust for another two item pulls.

Banana

A two-part move. Picking up the Banana restores health and produces a peel. The peel has a persistent hitbox.

With precise spacing, the peel can extend the blockstun of the move that pushed the opponent into it, or offer a pickup you wouldn't get normally. It's finicky, however.

Trumpet

Either player can pick this up, and in approximately two seconds, a horde of Mini Fausts, each with their own hitbox, stampede across the stage. It's important to jockey for this when you throw it, as both players will want it.

It can be okay, in some cases, to force the pickup with Mix Mix Mix, as the summoned Mini Fausts will cover you from punishment in some matchups.

Donut

Recovers health on pickup. Does nothing. Powerful at low life to avoid chip death, otherwise a terrible pull.

Afro

Deserving of its own section, the Afro can be picked up by both players. It extends the hurtbox of the wearer upwards, and the Afro will be set ablaze should the player come into contact with any moves with a "fiery" property. Such moves include Faust's own Love explosion, Meteors, Bomb and jD, but also:

• Sol's Air Throw, Overdrives, Fafnir, Night Raid Vortex, Bandit Bringer, both versions of Volcanic Viper and 6S.
• Ramlethal's Bajoneto explosion.
• Goldlewis' Thunderbird.
• Potemkin's Garuda Impact.
• Axl's Sickle Storm, Winter Cherry and Axl Bomber.

Curiously, Chipp's Genrou Zan command grab does not affect the Afro, despite the explosion present in the animation.

Has its own section because it's crazy. Arguably one of Faust's strongest items should the opponent pick it up.

Offense

Afro Usage

Overview

Afro is one of the defining component's of Faust's offense, and should an opponent pick one up randomly in neutral, you'll find yourself in an advantageous position, as stray hits become more rewarding and your attacks become much harder to navigate.

It's really good.

What Afro Does

Afro grants an extended vertical hurtbox to your opponent that empowers certain tools that are normally not as reliable. An example would be 5K, which will hit crouchers when Afro'd.

Afro can also be lit on fire.

When fire attacks make contact on hit, the afro is set ablaze and explodes immediately, offering a combo opportunity of some kind in most cases.

On block, the afro is set ablaze and explodes after a set period of time. The resulting "delayed" explosion can act as incredible cover for all manner attacks that are normally very risky, such as Snip Snip Snip, Mix Mix Mix, Item Toss or certain normals that normally leave Faust at disadvantage.

How do I apply Afro?

Throwing Afro as an Item

Item Toss Post-Throw Oki Example: https://twitter.com/USF4rosecom/status/1406004749502058497

Landing Snip Snip Snip

236H is an obvious way to apply Afro State. For tips on how to connect with Snip reliably, see the Primer at the top of the page.

After Afro is applied, what do I do?

Rising jK,jD becomes an unreactable overhead that leads to full combo. On characters where rising jK still can't connect (Faust, Giovanna), rising jD is still quite strong.

On block, should you cancel into Love for plus frames, you can be challenged, but it will depend on spacing, and the opponent will struggle to beat both Love and MixMixMix together.

Your goal is to maintain advantage in your opponent's face and threaten Snip while taking shots against their defensive plays with 2K and cS. Use the resulting afro explosion as cover to help layer your offense.

Okizeme

Summary

1. Do cS
2. Do cS a smidge later
3. Sudden jSH to bait throws/late jumps
4. Throw sometimes
5. Bait reversals sometimes
6. 2K sometimes
7. 2K5D RC
8. Try not to overextend without meter to RC.

Throw

OTG c.S jc 66[3] j.D Safejump

Strict to time, requires some amount of neutral airdash before inputting [3] > j.D

https://twitter.com/Koryuken/status/1405855256399994880

Use it to force standing on reaction to Airdash, so you can do the following...

OTG c.S jc 663 j.H Safejump

This leads to far more advantage on block, and done deeply/correctly, leads to rising j.K fuzzies.

Corner OTG c.S jc.7 j236P

Strong meterless plus frames that covers reversals nicely. Forgoes Item into Meaty c.S, but confers a fuzzy on stand block.

GREAT option if your last mix was SnipSnipSnip, and you think throw will work in place of high/low Afro setups.

https://twitter.com/PearlJamFGC/status/1409282771327930368

Defense

A Quick Summary of Defense

• Jump back falling jD is your answer to throws.
• Sometimes, you won't have an obvious opportunity to escape. Jumping out or making use of 6P, 5K or 5P on a read might be your only option. Gaps come hard and fast.
• Some characters like Giovanna are very weak to Crawl (3 input).
• Players fearful of reversal super might leave opportunities to escape.
• Try FD out on defense sometimes, it might ruin your opponent's offense.
• Super (632146H) to punch through reactable gaps can be a reliable option in some cases.

Punishing Throw Attempts

There are a handful of ways to deal with throws in Strive. Each option hedges against multiple options from the opponent a little differently. Consider which handful of options you'd like to play around on defense.

What do I do with Faultless Defense?

Summary

• If you're just going to block, FD a little and see how it affects your opponent's offense. Some characters are affected more than others.
• FD makes tick-throw attempts harder/weaker for the opponent.
• Whiffs caused by FD give you an opportunity to take back momentum.
• FD can absolutely ruin some spacing-specific setups.

Create Gaps

Some strings are very weak to FD, usually 3-hit gatlings, or gatlings started outside of throw range. If you can upset spacing on the final attack in their string, you'll create a gap.

The pushback from FD can also make it hard for the opponent to do tight strings into throw. You may for a longer, more manageable forward dash in the opponent's pressure if they want to throw you.

Gaps come fast and quick. You may not be able to react to the gap itself showing up, but you might be able to react to the button about to be ruined by FD.

How do I punish gaps?

1. 5H is a great whiff punish in close quarters.
2. j2K and j.D can be great bully options if you're uncertain a gap may or may not show
3. 5K is very hard to contest for some characters, and it's very fast, just liable to whiff overtop of certain moves.
4. 5P is very fast, and is going to be more reaction-friendly if you find yourself looking for the gaps you created.

Appendix A: Defense

Fun and Relevant System Mechanic Facts

• Characters have 5f of throw invuln on wakeup, out of blockstun and out of hitstun. This gives us the coveted ability to "Fuzzy Jump" reliably with our meager human execution. Mashing vs. Throw is stronger because of this too.
  • This also means you technically can't "meaty throw" someone and still beat their 5f normal (If they have one).
• FD makes throwing you harder to time tightly, because the added blockstun moves the earliest throwable window. An opponent being uncertain as to whether or not you'll FD can make doing tight throws in pressure or punishes vs. fuzzy jump very tricky. Doesn't really do much as you wakeup, though.
• Faust Prejump is 4f long. You cannot block during this window. Players can try to snipe this in pressure. Characters with high prejump are more vulnerable to this kind of play.

YRC

YRC.mp4 - A Quick Guide to YRC

Defensive Options, and What They Lose To

Thanks to DrifterDane for the format.

Basic Options

Mashing 5P

• Frame Traps
• Tight tick throws (They'll eat shit for loose ones)
  • (Kracknote: It's quite hard to do a perfectly "tight" throw.)
• Sudden jumps into fast/deep air buttons (Ram jH, Faust j2K)

Throw Mash

• Tight Frame Traps
• "Shimmies", Waiting outside of Throw Range for an easier punish opportunity
• Sudden jumps into fast/deep air buttons (Ram jH, Faust jS, Nagoriyuki jH)

Yellow Roman Cancel/Dead Angle

• Throw-centric mixups.
• Fast buttons that recover quickly, allowing someone to callout and block the hit.

Committing to downback (For fear of both anti-airs/frame traps)

• More greedy pressure resets (You won't react to small gaps in pressure), attacker may act after disadvantageous attacks as they fish for counterhits.
• Throws

Fuzzy Jump (Block meaties then jump)

• Slightly delayed attempts to hit you out of prejump
• Attempts to take advantage of you just as you leave the ground (Bonus air block leaves them plus), such as delayed normals or moves like Heat Knuckle.
• Repeated strings of lows
• Hard delay into reaction Heavenly Pot Buster
• Throw PRC

Fuzzy Backdash (Block meaties then backdash macro)

• Delayed meaties
• Delayed jump-ins
• Throw PRC

Jumping/Superjumping (Getting out as fast as possible)

• Meaty attacks
• Attempts to take advantage of you just as you leave the ground (Bonus air block leaves them plus), such as delayed normals or moves like Heat Knuckle.
• Hard delay into reaction Heavenly Pot Buster
• Throw PRC (Superjump here is likely to get you out and away)
• Quick-to-Recover options followed by Airthrow/Anti-air

Jump Back Button (jP/jK/j2K/jD)

• See Above
• Delayed counterhit buttons

Backdash

• Very active meaty options
• Delayed normals
• Sudden jumps into fast/deep air buttons

Advanced

IBFD on Wakeup

• Opponent will gravitate towards "Not quite meaty" moves. Small delays.
• Throws

Early Instant Blocks

• Small delays, larger gaps.

Late Instant Blocks

• Tight strings with tiny gaps.

Reaction Instant Blocks

• Stopping pressure and going for throws/pressure resets against reactive play.
• Stops the use of particular moves that lose outright to IB.

Defensive Options, and What They Beat

Basic Options

Mashing 5P

• Loose throw attempts.
• Delays to bait out reversals.
• Gaps left to bait out throw whiff.

Throw Mash

• People running in to throw (Break or Counterthrow)
• People out of position on wakeup and not meatying correctly

Yellow Roman Cancel/Dead Angle

• Committal attacks/actions with longer animations
• Strings that lack the delays necessary to bait YRC

Committing to downback (For fear of both anti-airs/frame traps)

• Don't play into frame traps.
• Force an opponent to overextend, forcing an RC situation (Gas them).
• Characters jumping on your wakeup in an attempt to bait out pokes/throw whiff
  • Anti-air here in some matchups. Reaction Airthrow is a very fast, powerful option as well in certain matchups. 2K is also good.
• Characters whiffing punishable callouts (Heat Knuckle can be punished on reaction with 5K)
• Yolo moves done in pressure (Volcanic Viper/Night Raid Vortex)

Fuzzy Jump (Block meaties then jump)

• Throws
• Meaties
• Hard delays/gaps in pressure.
• Moves that aren't that rewarding on air block/normal hit/normal block.

Fuzzy Backdash (Block meaties then backdash macro)

• Throws
• Moves that don't pick up well on low air hit
• Moves with low amounts of active frames can lose out where fuzzy jump would get called out
• Meaties

Jumping/Superjumping (Getting out as fast as possible)

• Throw attempts
• This kind of jump (Reversal jump) can escape gaps where fuzzy jump is too slow.

Jump Back Button (jP/jK/j2K/jD)

• Characters jumping just before your wakeup, or jumping suddenly in pressure to leave a gap to bait pokes/throw breaks.
• Throws
• Hard delays in pressure that aren't followed by something with vertical reach.

Backdash

• Meaty options that aren't very active but are slow to recover (Faust 2H).
• Throws
• Command Grabs
• Attacks that are shit on air hit

Advanced

IBFD on Wakeup

• Meaties eat shit
• Ruins all kinds of strings
• Very strong
• You can decide to fuzzy jump after this, if you like, or continue to block on the ground
• Note: Because this is a fixed window, it's more reliable to input.

Early Instant Blocks

• Can build bar against meaties/buttons. Safe to go for. The timing window is "Just before/as blockstun ends so you don't eat shit."

Late Instant Blocks

• This upset spacing on certain moves, but you might eat shit if you're hit just before IB.

Reaction Instant Blocks

• If you can time it, you can net yourself an easy throw punish against certain attacks

Appendix B: Oki

Meaty cS

• Mashing
• Throw Mash
• Jumping on wakeup

Your Risk: Very Low. On block, leads into strings and opportunities to continue to catch buttons. WARNING: Strong reversal options can challenge cS well, but not without substantial risk to your opponent.

Reward: Very High. Your best starters begin here.

Counterplay/Hedges:

• Blocking outright
• Fuzzy jumps
• Backdash [Please validate cS active frames to confirm]
• Reversals
• YRC

Slightly Delayed cS (Aim this at fuzzied options!)

• Mashing. Timing dependent.
• Fuzzy Jumping. You will either hit or be + after raw cS [Please validate].
• Throw Mash. If done outside throw range, cS wins.

Risk: Medium (Delays could be be challenged by fast wakeup buttons)

Reward: Very High.

Counterplay/Hedges

• Fast wakeup pokes
• Blocking outright
• Reversals still challenge this option well.
• Fuzzy jump. People may still do this regardless as a hedge. It beats total obliteration through counterhit.
• YRC

Throw/Snip Snip Snip

• Commitment to Downback (For fear of both anti-airs/frame traps)
• Mashing non-5f buttons
• Throw Mash. Even situation.
• YRC

Risk: Medium/High. With Snip PRC, Risk becomes Low and Reward remains Low. Spending all that bar is also expensive.

Reward: Low. Snip potentially sets up a "Low Risk, High Reward" in the following situation.

Counterplay/Hedges

• Normal jumping on wakeup. Leads to full punish.
• Fuzzy jump on wakeup. Leads to full punish.
• Mashing 5f moves on wakeup. If your timing is off, they can use slower attacks.
• Backdash
• Reversals

Meaty 2K

• Fuzzy Jump. Repeated strings of lows are a great answer to someone up+backing slightly after wakeup. 2K is your premiere fuzzy jump counterplay. It's just low reward without a way to convert into wall break.
• Mashing
• Throw Mash
• Jumping on wakeup
• Backdash

Risk: Medium. At -2, it leads to a committal situation where you can still challenge the opponent, but without RC the resulting situation is Very Risky.

Reward: Low to Very High. It combos into 2D Item Toss, the resulting situation has the potential to be very silly. I hope you enjoy variance.

Counterplay/Hedges

• FD shuts down any potential offense you might have had going. FD pushback is applied per hit. 2K is many hits.
• Reversals
• YRC

Once You Have 50 bar

The mix between 2K(3)>2D and 2K(?)>5D becomes Low Risk, Very High Reward and you are very hard to block.

Sudden jS>jH

• Throw
• Fuzzy Jump. (Timing/character dependent)
• Backdash
• Mashed normals. (Timing/character dependent)

Jump just before they would act, whether it's on wakeup or after wakeup, based on player habit. You want to jump close enough to the moment they input something so that they cannot stop themselves. [Video Example here]

Risk: Medium/High.

Reward: Very High.

Counterplay/Hedges

• Commitment to Downback
• Reversals
• Wakeup Buttons with large vertical reach
• Rising jump normals on wakeup

6H

• Whiffed Throw/Buttons
• Jumps/Fuzzy Jump (Spacing/timing dependent)
• Rising jump normals

Risk: Very High. Bad on hit if you're too far to combo into MMM. Bad on block everywhere.

Reward: Very High (On Counterhit). Probably best used at high RISC gauge or with some kind of item setup to cover.

Counterplay

• Blocking
• Looking at the screen
• Waiting
• Looking at Faust
• Reversals

Matchups

 Sol Badguy

A hard-but-manageable matchup. Be patient and watchful, as Sol will probably blow you up as soon as he touches you. 2H and 5H are generally good buttons to prevent approaches here, but don't rule out Faust's other options such as 5K, 6P and jHS.

• Faust can woefully crawl under some of Sol's more dangerous normals, such as 5K (unless Sol is too close), 6P, f.S and 6S.

 Ky Kiske

• Grounded RTL might be dangerous for Ky if items are out: slipping on a peel, getting hit by a hammer, trumpet horde, mini Faust, meteors, weight or bomb will promptly stop Ky during the overdrive.

 Axl Low

Overall a hard matchup for Faust due to Axl out-poking and out-damaging him at both midscreen and fullscreen. Delicate and thoughtful play is required to get in on Axl and applying afro will ultimately be your win condition in the matchup.

• 6P and j2K are two potent buttons for answering Axl's jump-ins and grounded pressure (mostly in the form of Rensen and Winter Mantis), respectively.
• Axl's 5P, 6P, 5K, 2S and Axl Bomber can be ducked under.
• If you do get in on Axl, be mindful of his Sickle Storm reversal and look to punish it after the first hit and before the second.
• Practice dash-blocking.

 Faust

• Just do what he says

 Ramlethal Valentine

Not as awful as some say, but can definitely get difficult if you mess up in the corner. Crawling below Bajoneto or reacting to it accordingly after blocking is key to getting the hang of the matchup. This may help if you're lost.

• Remember to be patient and respect Ram's long pokes, as she may cancel them into Bajoneto at any time. Getting a Ram to Bajoneto midscreen will neuter her pressure and damage quite a bit (aside from allowing punishment), meaning that you get to go ham with pressure.
• Also respect her Mortobato reversal, as it is -30 on block and hurts like hell if you don't block it. Avoid air-blocking it as the pushback will make it safe.

 Giovanna

Perhaps Faust's hardest matchup: not only is Giovanna un-fuzzyable while afro'd, 5K will always whiff in neutral against her despite the haircut she currently has AND her cartwheel attack (Sol Nascente) will flip an applied afro upside-down, meaning it cannot be hit or inflamed during its animation. In addition to this, her mobility is very dominant and will quickly lead poor Faust into the corner where he must deal with Giovanna's array of plus moves and high damage. Her mobility is not as effective for maneuvering around items, however.

• Notably, Faust can crawl under Sol Poente, Trovão, 5P, 5K, 5H and 6H. Keep an eye out for the cross-up on Sol Poente though, as Faust must switch crawl directions when it occurs.

 Goldlewis Dickinson

You out-neutral Goldlewis most of the time and can run effective afro-based offence on him because of his poor defense and size. This matchup is only ever difficult if you happen to be cornered without meter.

• 5K and 5H are especially effective in this matchup due to how active they are.
• You can crawl, Scarecrow or air dash any version of Skyfish. Just be on the lookout if Goldlewis has meter to PRC it and react to your option.

Glossary

1. Frame Trap
2. "Fuzzy"
3. Meaty
4. Shimmy/Shimmies

Navigation

Overview

Starter Guide

Combos

Strategy

Matchups

Counterstrategy

Okizeme

Frame Data

Resources