Overview
Baiken returns to Xrd reworked into a high-risk high-reward power character with a solid mix of high-damage offense and good defensive space-control, but just like in her earlier appearances her key strength is her versatile defense and her ability to counterattack while blocking. Capable of wildly swinging the course of a match with a successful guard cancel that leads into reliable okizeme and dangerous mixup, Baiken is a credible threat with huge potential for massive comebacks. If left unchecked, Baiken can keep pressure on the opponent through her variety of offensive RPS tools, crank RISC and quickly snowball out of control.
In most matchups she does not dictate the overt flow of the match and her gameplan revolves around understanding the opponent's offense and punishing them for it, which makes her a more difficult character to get started with. Her stun resistance is bad and her parry leaves her in counterhit state, which means mistakes can be devastating, and there are plenty of opportunities to make mistakes.
Baiken Baiken has dual strengths as a defensive turtle and explosive mixup character. Her diverse toolkit allows her to overwhelm the opponent on offense and steal their momentum on defense.
- Strong Defensive Options: Baiken not only makes good use of universal defensive mechanics, but also has access to a flexible reversal in the form of Sanzu, and her unique guard cancel parries force opponents to structure their offense differently, often in ways that make universal defensive mechanics stronger.
- High Average Corner Damage and Good Corner Carry
- Powerful OkizemeAttacking an opponent about to wake up, usually with meaty attacks or mixups.: Baiken has access to projectile okizeme which has good coverage against the opponent's options on defense, and can be made ambiguous.
- Strong Meter Uses: Baiken has access to many strong metered options including but not limited to Tatami Gaeshi (Tatami) YRC, Yozansen, and Tsurane Sanzuwatashi (Sanzu).
- Exploits Counterhit and R.I.S.C Well: Baiken has good reward off counterhits and a large selection of ways to induce them. Her combos have a low hit count and a cranked R.I.S.C gauge can let her effortlessly score huge damage.
- Good Counterpokes: Baiken's 6K, f.S, Tatami, and 2D are solid counterpokes with long active frames and/or good hitboxes.
- Easy to Burst: Baiken's combos often rely on Kuchinashi, Tetsuzansen, or airdashes which are easy, reactive burst points.
- High-Commit Aggressive Space-Control: Options such as Kabari, and advancing air Tatamis require Baiken to make a serious commitment.
- Lockdown Requires Meter: Baiken cannot meterlessly keep opponents blocking without making risky callouts against jumps and backdashes.
- Pokes Require Specific Conditions To Be Rewarding: Baiken's pokes tend to be slow and require one or more of these things in order to receive signficant reward: tension, counterhit, or corner control.
Azami is a special form of guard cancel move which negates all damage Baiken would take from an attack and can cancel into one of a number of followups. These followups not very safe on block, but they can come out in hitstopThe period of time during a landed attack in which both attacker and defender are frozen to emphasize the impact of the hit., which allows Baiken to be able to punish almost any attack.
- Kuchinashi - An anti-air leaping slash which launches on hit and is upper body invulnerable on startup.
- Mawarikomi - A sidestep which can be used to switch sides, or evade attacks.
- Sakura - A stationary stab which knocks the enemy away, and is invulnerable out of Azami.
- Rokkonsogi - A fast rushing slash with good horizontal reach.
- Yashagatana - A fireball which travels low to the ground.
- Tsubaki - A guard cancel which is unique to air Azami. A spinning, upwards-hitting counter attack which launches the enemy away on hit.
- Kikyou - A guard cancel which is unique to air Azami. A downwards smash which spikes the enemy down towards the ground on hit.
Suzuran is a command dash which has a guard point and can be canceled into one of a number of follow ups, even in hitstop. Suzuran allows Baiken to access safer versions of her ground azami followups in neutral, which gives her access to strong combos and more options in the neutral game.