P4U2R/Shadow Labrys/Strategy

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 Shadow Labrys




General Strategy

Shadow Labrys is one of two puppet characters in P4AU. She specialises in creating very strong and oppressive situations for her opponent to deal with on block with her Persona, Asterius. It's very important to get used to controlling both her and the persona as if they were two separate characters. She has the lowest life in the game at 8.000 health, so you will have to be very careful with the decisions you make as it takes less hits to lose with her compared to the rest of the cast.

Both Shabrys and Asterius can be given commands at the same time, so you want to input moves with Asterius alongside her pokes in hopes of getting a hit which you can convert into a knockdown. After you get your knockdown, you can then transition into the frightening okizeme that Shabrys is known for which includes safejumps, high/low mixups and even unblockables.

Neutral

With the combination of her axe normals with huge hitboxes and Asterius having a lot of range on it's moves (and its constant presence on the field acting as a possible barrier), Shabrys is able to set the pace of the match very easily. One of her biggest strengths is being able control space from anywhere on screen while also being able to follow up into her offence on hit or block. However, ill-timed Asterius calls leave him very open to being punished and losing Persona cards. This can lead you to being Persona broken, which is especially bad for Shabrys as she is extremely vulnerable without her Persona. Awareness is the key to playing her well with being able to manage Asterius being the highest priority.

Long Range

Hammer Uppercut (2C)

A very useful tracking move. It's really good at checking the opponent anywhere onscreen and it's really easy to convert it into offence since it has a lot of untech time on hit and a lot of frame advantage on block. How well the opponent deals with this move will dictate the difficulty of your neutral. Constant disrespect or failure to address it will result in having an easy time since 2C can lead to huge damage especially on Fatal Counter. If they are more aware of 2C however you will need to be a bit more careful with your placements as whiffing it puts Asterius in huge recovery, which may lead to him getting punished and you losing a Persona card.

Flames of Hades (236C/D)

Can be used as a free "get in" neutral tool if the opponent is providing enough respect or playing very passively in neutral. Can also be used to force risky jump in from your opponent which you can then punish with your 2B. It does take a while to start up so you'll need to be careful with just mindlessly just running in with it against a more active opponent.

Buffalo Hammer (214C/D)

Asterius will increase his autoguard durability from 400 damage to 600 damage throughout the entirety of this moves duration, it can be really good against people that like to play very aggressively against the Persona since it also can Fatal Counter into huge damage. This move can get especially abusable when combined with the SB Buffalo Hammer Glitch.

Chain Knuckle (236A/B)

This move can be used to harrass opponents without giving up your position but be careful with spamming this as it has a lot of recovery and can be low profiled.

Mid Range

5B

Shabrys 5B is a really strong poke. It having Body attribute means it cannot be low profiled, giving it an advantage compared to other 5Bs which usually have Chest attribute. However her 5B is really slow to start up so it's susceptible to being counterpoked by faster normals.

j.B, and j.2B

Both of these normals will be the main way you navigate the air with Shabrys. The huge hitbox on jB makes it a fantastic air-to-ground normal, as it's very difficult for most characters to anti air. j.2B on the other hand is a good air-to-air normal with its disjointed hitbox and its wall bounce on hit, allowing for easy follow-ups.

Sweep (2A+B)

It'd good to keep in mind that Shabrys has a good far reaching sweep used to deal with certain far reaching pokes, e.g. Mitsuru 5A, Narukami 5B and Sho 5A. It's not super negative on block, but you'll want to be careful with it's placement regardless as it has a significant amount of recovery.

Anti Airs

2B

This will be your primary anti air. It hits all around Shabrys and is also jump cancellable on hit and on block.

Terra's Eruption (8C)

This move is less of a reactionary anti air and more of a pre-emptive denial of air space. You'll want to input it with one of Shabrys' buttons to control a lot of airspace and some ground space without having to commit to a jump to perform this move. It has a lot of hitstun and is very advantageous on block, giving you some good opportunity to start offence with this move.

Public Execution ([2]8C)/D)

As an anti air, you're probably going to use this move the least. Its really slow to start up on top of needing charge time for it to be used. It's still there as an option to use however and it does high unburstable damage on raw hit.

Pressure

Okizeme

Massive Slaughter SetupCan be setup off of: 5C Corner Hit, 214AB

Also referred to as "The Bite Setup" or "Biteloop".

When inputting one of the enders above, hold back to have enough charge to perform Massive Slaughter. After you knock the opponent down, you'll want to time the command grab to come as you do a rising forward j.A.

When done correctly, the opponent cannot jump or else they will be hit by j.A due to the air unblockable frames of jump start-up, nor can they stand still and take the grab. This setup can be beaten by a few methods such as delaying tech on wakeup for those familiar with the matchup after they see SB guillotine. If you notice this, try changing which version and the timing of the command grab to throw them off, or read their options.

FAQ

Why do people refer to her as Shabrys?

How do I do all of this on pad?

Tips and Tricks

Free SB Buffalo Hammer

If Shabrys inputs SB Buffalo Hammer (214C/D) during the hit/blockstop after 5C, 2C, or 8C connect on hit or block, Asterius will always perform the move, even if Shabrys doesn't have enough SP to fund it. Yes, this means she can perform it at 0 meter. Additionally, if she has more than 0 but less than 25, then the move will take whatever she has in the gauge.

Video example of Free SB Buffalo Hammer, by BananaKen

Titanomachia Persistence Glitch

If the opponent bursts immediately after Asterius's Massive Slaughter ([4]6C/D) while he is still in its recovery animation (the grab has to connect), Asterius will not be affected by Shabrys getting hit by the burst. As a result, he will still continue executing the rest of the attacks that Shabrys input during the Titanomachia super freeze, including the automatic "Hellflames" finisher. Fails to see practical use if the opponent is aware of the glitch (well, now they are for sure), but it's still pretty funny that they still did not fix this bug and others.

Video example of Titanomachia Persistence, by BananaKen

Fighting Shadow Labrys

Anti-Shabrys Tech Document (to be transcribed here later)


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