P4U2R/Tohru Adachi/Strategy

From Dustloop Wiki
 Tohru Adachi




\ WORK IN PROGRESS

General Tactics

Adachi 1.1 pastebin made by a high level netpl- pfff ok, I can't even finish that. http://pastebin.com/iL4VmdZN
Adachi Media Playlist made by xenozades: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7Z7bIa2AcqY-WpKfxOgmZXiy8ELTtKLz
Adachi 1.1/2.5 Beginner Guide by xenozades: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Rn_XkLWPRGfsxbhKNSFjimA0qSzdASBNKHQF8WvvkA0/edit?usp=sharing
Adachi 1.1 Combo Guide by Panxut: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YriQRv7owGcixiIsacUsCJy73yRgf9zBNCeJFnSowX8/edit?usp=sharing

General Strategies

The Rundown

Adachi is an offensive type of character that wants to push his opponents to the corner and run a powerful pressure game against them until they either make a mistake or respect him long enough to get command grabbed. Despite this, his actual mixup game is rather weak, and sometimes it can be hard to open people up without the right read. Adachi's mixup is done extremely close to the opponent, putting yourself to DP range. This is very important when dealing with characters such as Akihiko, who has no reason not to mash DP every time you get close to him while trying to throw, taking your momentum and putting you in a pretty bad spot.

However, his strings have pretty few gaps if he decides to stay safe, so he only needs to take the risk when he feels like it and can stay away from reversal range most of the time. Knowing when to give your opponent breathing room and when not to is very important, because, as said before, he doesn't have any way of dealing safely with DP's aside from callouts and some very specific strings.

Adachi's main strengths are his incredible Persona normals, his ability to convert pretty much anything into high damage if he has meter for it, his lengthy and safe pressure game filled with reset points, and his very useful installs in Heat Riser and Magatsu Mandala. Adachi's main weaknesses are his reliance on Persona normals, his heavy reliance on meter to be a threat, and his lackluster defensive options.

Important Normals

Adachi's Persona normals are all great. They have massive reach, great properties, and help establish Adachi in neutral. There's no shame on relying on them at all levels of play, though their strength doesn't mean they are flawless.

On the ground, Adachi controls space in front of him with 5C, a huge disjointed normal with Persona invulnerability, making it great for poking against characters who like to throw out their Persona for space control. Even then, opponents who like to push towards Adachi will often find themselves speared by the move if they approach him carelessly. This is a fantastic move, but a slow one. Be careful with throwing it out carelessly, as it has slow startup and recovery. Cancelling into 2D can potentially cover you, but can be dashed through and punished. 2C is similarly great for tagging opponents who like to hang out at the top parts of the screen, as air unblockable and will drag them down towards the corner.

The star of the show has to be Adachi's j.C. Disjointed hitbox, massive area of effect, great damage- this normal does it all. Abusing it in neutral is practically an Adachi player's right of passage. While it does have the usual weaknesses of an aerial Persona move (beaten by anti-airs and supers with invuln, risks Persona Break), it's simply so strong that it's hard not to use it. If your opponent has no good answers to this move, j.C is your best friend and lifelong companion henceforth. If they do, then just use it a bit less or bait them with j.2D for big damage and a knockdown. Seriously, it's that darn good.

Outside of the Persona moves, Adachi comes with a suite of pretty solid normals. All of his A buttons have small reach, but are rather quick. They are very useful in pressure or keeping the offense on an opponent if you meet them air-to-air. Adachi's B normals are much slower, but all have great properties. j.B is a great button for air-to-air situations, while 5B smacks people at surprisingly far distances. 5B is also dash cancellable, making it great for pressure scenarios- more on that later. Lastly, 2B is Adachi's go-to anti-air, and it's a decent one. While very punishable on whiff, it launches on counter-hit and has some Head attribute-invuln, making it good for beating meaty air buttons. It can also be used in 2B > j.C as a pressure reset tool.

Important Specials

Adachi has four major specials he can use, some of which have weird names. As such, each one comes with their own easy-to-remember colloquial names in the community. There's 236A/236B, aka Pain in the Ass!P4AU Adachi StopRightThere.pngGuardStartupRecovery63Advantage-, 214A/214B aka Scared?P4AU Adachi AreYouScared.pngGuardLowStartup12RecoveryTotal 35Advantage-3, 214C/214D aka MegidolaP4AU Adachi Megidola.pngGuardThrow (200)Startup9Recovery39Advantage-, and lastly there's 236C/236D, aka Evil Smile. Let's go over each one briefly.

We'll start with Pain in the Ass!, henceforth known as Gunshot. Upon inputting his move, Adachi will fire his pistol towards the ground. The A version fires close to him, while the B version fires a decent distance away. The SB version fires a tracking shot, which makes it a decent fullscreen poke... but Adachi needs to conserve as much meter as possible, and SB Gunshot has better uses in combos anyways. The main uses for Gunshot are harassment at midscreen with the B version, and combo-ending and pressure-ending with the A version.

Next up is Scared?, henceforth known as Walk Stance/Tackle. Inputting his move causes Adachi to slowly walk forward at different speeds depending on which button you pressed- A goes slow and has projectile invulnerability, while B goes fast. Upon pressing either of Adachi's normal buttons, he will charge forward and perform a tackle. The A version causes a soft tech situation, while the B is a hitgrab that causes Adachi to toss the opponent behind him. Walk Stance is an essential tool for Adachi to use in pressure, as it contains a huge variety of cancellable followups. While Adachi can tackle out of this stance, he can also use his Persona normals, AoA, Sweep, or even other special moves, which can set up tricky tick-throw setups if the opponent is conditioned to sit still. More on these setups are discussed further down the page. Overall, Walk Stance and Tackle are great moves that help Adachi's gameplan along.

Next up is Adachi's command grab, Megidola. With good range, fast startup, and high damage potential, Megidola is a great move to use in pressure with lots of reward behind it. Megidola groundbounces opponents on hit, which lets Adachi combo into Heat Riser or Magatsu Mandala for instant applications of his buffs. Adachi can even combo off of these supers, potentially turning a single Megidola grab into massive damage. The C version is a very fast grab at 9 frames of startup, making it completely unreactable if done close enough. The D version has slower startup, but is still quite quick at 16 frames and does more damage. It also has throw invulnerability. Both of these grabs are also Adachi's Fatal Starters, making their damage potential extremely high if they punish something. Overall, a fantastic command grab with lots going for it.

Meter Use

Neutral

Pokes

Persona Displacement

Approaching the Opponent

Evil Smile

Defense

Meterless Options

Adachi's only meterless reversal is his DP, which also converts 950 HP into blue health. Getting your DP baited can kill you. Be mindful of staggers with A normals, and be aware of your opponent's jump cancellable moves.

Metered Options

Persona Broken

Having your persona broken as Adachi is VERY bad. First, any buffs received from Heat Riser and Magatsu Mandala are erased, and would have to be re-applied. Second, your stubby normals will leave you EXTREMELY vulnerable to characters with good normals and any zoning capacity. While severely disadvantaged, all hope is not lost. How do you survive long enough to get Izanagi back and try to mount a comeback? Consider the following options:

RUN!!

Without Izanagi, Adachi is outmatched by many characters in reach and damage. Adachi can no longer convert his meter into either buffs or high damage, and his pressure game loses a lot of its reset potential.

Pressure

Basic Pressure Structure

Reset Points

Tick Throw Setups with Megidola

Okizeme

Tips and Tricks

Safely Applying Magatsu Mandala

Displacement Shenanigans

Adachi's 5C is not limited to his position, but Magatsu Izanagi's. This means that if your opponent blocks your 2D you can inmediatly 5C and you'll stab them fullscreen.



Navigation

 Tohru Adachi