The Little Swordsman who Couldn't Marvel vs. Capcom 2 Hayato FAQ by b0x0rzkirb0 acrawls09@yahoo.com Version 1.01: Changed email address and some minor crap. Version 1.00: FAQ Begins. More info will be added if I think it needs to, or if someone contributes. Table of Contents ----------------------------------------- 1. Hayato Kanzaki? Who? 2. Basic Swordsmanship (Basic Moves) 3. Advanced Swordsmanship (Special Moves) 4. Leet Swordsmanship (Hyper Comboes) 5. Trying not to Die (Strategy) 6. Recipes for Ass-Kicking (Comboes) 7. Hayato vs. the World 8. Other Fun Stuff 9. Thanks! ----------------------------------------- ======================= 1. Hayato Kanzaki? Who? ======================= That's what I thought when I first saw the man. Here's his story: --------- The Story --------- Hayato comes from a line of a line of 3-D fighting games called Star Gladiator and Plasma Sword. These fighting games had many innovations such as the Plasma Comboes and such, but were pretty obscure in the fighting game world. Hayato's backstory is as follows: Basically, he makes a living as a bounty hunter in the year 2348. His weapon is a Plasma Sword; some bad guy named Dr. Bilsten was sacrificing human beings to create plasma weapons and Hayato apparently got his hands on one. In Star Gladiator, Dr. Bilsten was jailed after it was learned that he was sacrificing people to make his shiny weapons. Years later, Bilsten busts out with his new rebel group named "The Fourth Empire"(probably referring to a Fourth Reich) and moves to attack Earth. The government, knowing that Earth is pretty screwed if Bilsten makes it there, organizes a troop of warriors who are able to use plasma weapons in order to destroy Bilsten. Hayato was among these warriors. Needless to say, Bilsten gets his ass kicked and life is grand after that. The sequel to Star Gladiator, Plasma Sword, also featured Hayato and Dr. Bilsten. In this game, the good doctor had managed to plant some weird mind- altering genotype in Hayato, which would make him, in some circumstances, become Black Hayato, his evil form, who was not nice. In short, both forms of Hayato managed to kick a lot of ass, and evil was vanquished once more, unless you were Black Hayato, in which Hayato becomes mean and angry and kills some innocents. Hayato tries to beat his evil self in an inner struggle, but ultimately phails and Black Hayato reigns. Of course, this never actually happened. The good ending had Hayato beating the doc. The doc's station begins to explode while Hayato kills some other beastie and barely escapes with his life. And everyone really did live happily ever after. Yay! -------------- Hayato In MvC2 -------------- Hayato was fairly decent in his games, but in MvC2 he's easily one of the worst. Not THE worst, but he's pretty bad. You'd think a cool-looking future swordsman would be great in a game, but you'd be wrong. So without further ado, the pros and cons: ------------- Pros and Cons ------------- +Hayato's Plasma Sword gives him some fine, fine reach, which is always a good thing. +His sword also gives him some pretty great priority with a lot of his moves. He can even out-prioritize Cyclops's DF+HK, which is ridiculous. +Somewhat small size, making his reach even better in relation. +Great mid-range pokes with the sword which easily lead to comboes. +Easily accessible ground comboes with his long-range and good-priority pokes; can combo into all of his HCs, and can access his level 3 super with only 1 level via the Plasma Field. +Sexy. -Hayato's biggest, most glaring weakness is that he is forced to rely 100% on rushdown while also being pretty bad at it. He has no long-range capability, and other than his range and priority, his rushing skills are mediocre due to the lack of an air-dash or any sort of high-low game, with a lack of mix-ups other than the Byakko Hou, which is awkward. -God, the lag! A lot of Hayato's moves carry some startup or recovery lag that can EASILY be punished quite painfully by his opponent by way of things such as pushblock or an Anti-Air Assist. -Hayato isn't too big on the damage department. He needs meter to do big damage, as any non-meter combo can't do too much. -He also takes damage a bit worse than average. Not too much worse, but the difference exists. -Hayato is pretty bad at chipping, meaning a lack of guaranteed damage outside of a good assist. This also makes his Plasma Field Hyper Combo a bit worse than it has to be, because he has no reliable chipping super. -Hayato has no projectile other than Engetsu, which is a shockwave Hyper Combo that travels slowly. This means he'll absolutely have to get in close to do damage, other than Projectile or certain Anti-Air assists. This gives him no long-range game, and no real way to deal with good keep-away. -He is still outprioritized by many of the best characters. -Pretty poor air-based game; no air-dash or double jump, and the only Hyper Combo he can do in the air is not that useful as a stand-alone. -Mobility is not so hot; as stated before he has no way of air-dashing, no extra jump...his only means of getting across the screen quickly are dashing and superjumping. -Pretty much HAS to fight with assists; a solo Hayato is a dead Hayato. -His dash is low in distance. +/-He has a unique dash attack. While this aspect is unique to Hayato, it carries horrid lag even on a hit. Use the dash attack for mobility, and don't expect to score big damage with it; you can combo it in with certain assists, though. As you can see, the cons definitely outweigh the pros; don't be disappointed if you lose with Hayato, but do feel the need to celebrate if you win. Take advantage of his mid-range combat ability in your battles. ------ Legend ------ I use many abbreviations in this guide because I'm lazy, so here's what they mean: LP, MP, HP- Light Punch, Medium Punch, Hard Punch LK, MK, HK- Light Kick, Medium Kick, Hard Kick P, K- Any Punch Button, Any Kick Button PP, KK- Both Punch Buttons, Both Kick Buttons A1, A2- Assist 1, Assist 2 B, DB, D, DF, F- Back, Down-back, Down, Down-Forward, Forward AC- Air Combo HC- Hyper Combo DHC- Delayed Hyper Combo OTG- Off-The-Ground xx- Cancel QCF- Quarter Circle Forward (D, DF, F) QCB- Quarter Circle Back (D, DB, B) DP- Dragon Punch Motion (F, D, DF) RDP- Reverse Dragon Punch Motion (B, D, DB) D.- Ducking C.- Crouching (Same thing as ducking, but I tend to interchange the two) J.- Jumping ---------------------- A Quick Dose of Hayato ---------------------- LP + LK/HP + HK: Tag A1/A2: Assist A1 + A2: Double/Triple Hyper Combo (requires 2/3 bars respectively) QCF + A1/A2: Snapback (requires 1 bar) B, DB, B + A1/A2(while blocking): Variable Counter (requires 1 bar) B, DB, D + P when you hit the ground: OTG Roll Start: Taunt F + HP(up-close): Throw F + HK(up-close, in air): Air Throw F + HP: Spinning Jump Slash D + HK(in air): Sword Dive HP, HP(while dashing): Dash Attack QCF + P: Shiden DP + P: Guren B, F + PP: Byakko Hou B + Various Inputs: Plasma Combo (More on these in the Special Moves section) QCF + PP: Rasetsu Zan (requires 1 bar) QCF + KK: Engetsu (requires 1 bar) QCB + KK: Plasma Field (requires 1 bar, can also be done in the air) LP, HP, B, LK, HK: Black Hayato (requires 3 bars) ==================================== 2. Basic Swordsmanship (Basic Moves) ==================================== ----------- Light Punch ----------- Standing: Hayato makes a quick swipe with his blade. Above-average priority and range for an LP, and pretty fast as well. A good combo starter. Ducking: A quick swipe with his blade while crouching. Essentially the same as the Standing version. Jumping: A poke with his sword at a downward angle. Pretty worthless range, yet does have some good priority for an LP. Even so, he's got better aerial moves. Stick with the HP or HK. ------------ Medium Punch ------------ Standing: Hayato does a wide backhand slice using the majority of his upper body. You pretty much HAVE to cancel this, as it's got some bad lag after he completes it. Decent range, however. Ducking: Hayato makes a powerful stab at the opponent's...abdomen. Also a necessity to cancel this, as the lag on this is even worse than its standing cousin. Jumping: Hayato makes a forehand sweep at the opponent. Far less lag than his other MPs because its aerial. You won't find much use for this other than Air Comboes, however. ---------- Hard Punch ---------- Standing: Hayato does a mighty two-handed downward chop on his unfortunate opponent. A decent attack with some good priority and reach, but it's best used in comboes to cancel into Shiden xx Engetsu. Has a slight amount of start-up and finish lag, hence the need to cancel. Ducking: Hayato's launcher! It has pretty good horizontal range for a launcher and some decent priority as well, but its kind of slow on the upswing. Pretty punishable if blocked or whiffed, too. Makes for a somewhat decent anti-air to the characters with weaker jump-in maneuvers. On a side note, this is his only hard attack that can be comboed from a single Light Attack. Jumping: Like a S.HP, only in midair. It covers some area above him. Can be used as a jump-in or AC ender, but there are better choices for both options. Still a decent Basic Move. ---------- Light Kick ---------- Standing: Hayato leans and makes a kick at his opponent's midsection. Useless basic move, because his Standing LP is better in reach AND priority, although the startup frame count for this is 2 less than S. LP. Stick with the S. LP for your standing light move needs. You can use the fact that it has less range to get in closer to make it easier to perform Hien-based comboes, though. Ducking: Lame kick in the shin. Faster than D. LP but less priority and range. You can interchange the two for low attacks if you so desire. Jumping: He sticks out his foot in the same trajectory as he would his sword in his J. LP. Nearly identical, except this has less range. You won't really be using Hayato's J.LK other than air comboes. ----------- Medium Kick ----------- Standing: Hayato makes a powerful-looking kick at the mid-section. Much safer than S.MP when blocked. Ducking: Another kick in the shin. Combo filler, can link to a hell of a lot of things and a lot safer than C.MP when blocked. Jumping: More filler for your Air Combo. --------- Hard Kick --------- Standing: Here's where it gets good. Hayato makes two mighty 2-handed swipes at his opponent. This move's main con is its extreme weakness to a pushblock by a character that can easily punish it(Juggernaut, Cable, etc.). However, it has good combo potential and can cancel from its first swing and after its second swing as well. Can do things like combo into Black Hayato as well as prolonging a ground chain so that an assist such as Sentinel Ground can elongate the combo, enabling more damage. One of his more useful basic moves, just be SURE not to have the opponent block this or whiff this thing. The 2nd hit of this is Hayato's snapback. Ducking: Hayato's sweep maneuver. He makes a swipe with his sword at the opponent's feet, tripping him/her. This can do dumb things like OTG combo into Shiden or Engetsu, but it's pretty easily rolled out of. Overall not too important to Hayato's game, but still usable as a mix-up. Jumping: Hayato's prime jump-in attack. It boasts less start-up than the HP, and lacks a tiny bit of its vertical range. Still, it can knock a lot of ****. This thing can beat nearly any physical attack by your opponent, even Cyclops's priority foot. So use it well. ========================================= 3. Advanced Swordsmanship (Special Moves) ========================================= --------------------------------------------------------- Throw (F or B + HP on the ground while point-blank range) --------------------------------------------------------- Hayato thrusts his sword inside the opponents stomach and then slashes upwards in a vicious grab move. Hayato's ground throw. Useful to some extent against turtling opponents, but cannot be comboed into as its a throw. Also has nearly zero combo potential after you complete it, since the opponent recovers before they start descending from the launch. Still, you could probably do something such as a throw and then call Doom AAA in the corner in order to add some chip damage and keep them locked down. You could always do something lame such as a S.LP, walk-up throw, but that's pretty useless, considering he has higher- damage options from any light attack. Hayato also releases the opponent too slow to combo into any sort of Anti-Air Assist EXCEPT Blackheart's, and even then, it does piddly damage and you can't follow up on it. Not too important to Hayato's game, but always an option. ---------------------------------------------------------- Air Throw (F or B + HK in the air while point-blank range) ---------------------------------------------------------- Hayato grabs his opponent in the air and uses his knee to slam them into the ground. Hayato's air throw. Also cannot be comboed into, seeing as it's a throw. Not too important to Hayato, but can be used to stuff normal jumps if you have ridiculous timing and luck. Can sometimes be used as a mix-up in an Air Combo, but be wary you'll have to leave the opponent open for some time to do this and they may smack you in that brief time they're open. You can call Doom or Tron and then slam them into the assist, which is quite stylish and effective. ------------- Hien (F + HP) ------------- Hayato jumps and does a spinning slash while in mid-air. While in the air he can avoid some low attacks such as shoto C.HKs, and some other characters' sweep maneuvers, but can't avoid some sweep attacks from large characters such as Sentinel. This can be used in ground comboes. You can also link a B+HP Plasma Combo after this to up the damage. A solid move. -------------------------- Sword Dive (D + HK in air) -------------------------- Hayato abruptly halts any motion in mid-air and dives straight down, sword first. If he hits the opponent, he bounces off of them and cannot do any more mid-air actions until he lands. This is Hayato's ONLY way of manipulating his movement in mid-air. This is pretty much only good for fake-outs or if you want to get to the ground faster, or perhaps locking them down in the corner with Doom AAA for some chip damage. This is due to the fact that, even if you hit them, the opponent recovers faster than you do. Not TOO much faster, but it's enough time for Cable to AHVBx3 you, or Sentinel to begin his Hyper Sentinel Force semi- infinite. Hell, if you're close enough, any character and dash-in and launch you as you descend. If they block it, you'll probably be pasted. Use this in the corner to prevent opponents from jumping while you use Doom AAA to get some free chip. You can also use this for super-jump fake-outs to return to the ground and possibly nail your opponent with another AAA. You can also use this for resets on a throw assist, hitting them with Zangief's throw and then using this to spike them, following up with a Byakko Hou, for when you're feeling juicy. For comboes, it COULD be used as an Air Combo ender, but it's NOT recommended, as it's hard to combo with, does piddly damage, AND spikes the opponent, enabling them to recover much faster and be able to nail you on your descent. Best used to allow assists to chip. ---------------------------------- Dash Attack (HP, HP while dashing) ---------------------------------- Hayato does a slash looking like his S.MP while dashing; he then glides along the ground for a second or two, totally open. Pressing HP again initiates a slash that looks like the second hit of his S.HK. The hits do not combo if an assist is not used. Hayato can pass through the opponent during his dash attack. This move is seriously lame due to the massive, massive lag after you finish. You'll HAVE to keep the opponent in blockstun while utilizing this move if you don't want to get smote. Calling Sentinel Ground assist before the first slash can help this; while the opponent is in block stun, Sentinel will come out with his drones and as you go to the other side for the second slash, the opponent will be pushed into the drones. Even so, this move is more of a hindrance than anything else, despite it being unique to Hayato. ---------------- Shiden (QCF + P) ---------------- Hayato rushes forward with two powerful sword strikes. Both versions do two hits, but the LP version travels a shorter distance while the HP version goes nearly the full length of the screen, and also slightly more damage, even though it has more lag. Important to Hayato's bread-and-butter combo. One of Hayato's better moves; the damage is pretty good and it can find a way into nearly any ground combo. It comes out fairly fast as well, covering a large amount of ground. Its main weaknesses, though, are its weakness to a pushblock and its somewhat lacking OTG ability. You HAVE to stick this in a combo or the subsequent pushblock will DEFINITELY leave you hurting. This move is one of Hayato's most malleable moves when it comes to comboes. It can combo out of almost any basic move, and it can OTG to some extent, even though it's pretty easy to safety roll out of. This move usually finds its usage in cancelling into Engetsu, his shockwave HC. Hayato can do this from the first slash or the second slash, though for the second slash you should make sure to cancel RIGHT after it ends, to reduce the risk of a safety roll. In the corner, he can cancel into Rasetsu Zan from the first slash since an Engetsu is worthless in the corner. Shiden can be cancelled into from a hard attack, Plasma Chain, Variable Countered into...this is definitely Hayato's most combo-friendly move, except it can't be used in the air. Damn. This acts as his Expansion and Balance assist, and as his Expansion Counter. --------------- Guren (DP + PP) --------------- In the LP version, Hayato rises to about half-normal jump height in a spinning slash. In the HP version, Hayato dashes forward a small bit before rising up a bit farther than a normal jump. Both versions do 3 hits, and the HP version does more damage. This is Hayato's sword-wielding and actually worse version of the Shotokan Shoryuken. The main reasons this move is worse than its cousin is the extra start-up on both versions and the lack of invincibility. This by far lessens its use as an Anti-Air Assist. It does, however, sport some decent priority; this is good if you use the LP version as an anti-air, as that is harder to punish by any except the best characters. The HP version is near-suicidal due to the totally lame recovery, as Hayato is helpless on the way down. Also note that Hayato rises STRAIGHT up instead of horizontally like the shotos, so it's possible to use HP to dash under the opponent's jump and then nail them from the bottom, but it's extremely risky and the damage isn't too impressive. Its main advantage over the Shoryuken lies in its hypercancellability into the Plasma Field. The move shines more as an Air Combo ender. Hayato can use either the LP or the HP version as one(remember that the HP requires faster input due to the small dash), but HP does more damage. It can also cancel out of Plasma Chains, and in both instances it can cancel into his Plasma Field HC. If he's in the corner, this can lead to even more damage. Solid combo move. ---------------------- Byakko Hou (B, F + PP) ---------------------- Hayato juts out his hand in an attempt to grab his opponent. If he succeeds, he gives them a mighty upwards blow, launching them into the air. He can then follow up with a combo. If he fails, he'll hold his hand out like a lameass for a second or two, completely helpless. Note that both punch buttons are required, and that this move is unblockable. This is an average-speed command throw with pathetic range. Chances are, you will not be landing this move, as opponents in point-blank can easily jab you as you start it up and lead that to a combo. Even then, you've got better options than this. A simple C.LK, S.LP, or B+HP Plasma Chain starter can do better in close-range and they give you more options anyhow. That is to say, this move is not at all useless, as it's unblockable, making it useful for overly defensive foes. Just mind the pathetic range; whiffing this just asks for an HC to the face. Fake-outs with this are still possible, an example if you have the Plasma Field activated and your opponent turtles up, you can use this and then follow up with a free Engetsu or other follow-up of your choice. You can also try to do some sort of reset after the Plasma Field in the air, like an S.LK, Byakko Hou, but it's risky and you have better options. Not overly important to Hayato's game but still a decent mix-up, and you can land some crazy resets in the corner to rack up some damage. If not for the pathetic range, this would be so much of a better move, but it's still usable as is. Your opponent likely won't be expecting it, so mix it up a few times with this and the rewards will be great, as it's essentially another free combo, and if in the corner, can lead to a kill. This cannot be comboed into as it's a throw, but the launch leaves your enemy completely helpless as he plummets to the ground, enabling you to move slightly forward and re-launch them for an AC, or Engstsu. ------------------------------------------------ Plasma Combo - Suzaku Ranbu (B + LP, LP, LP, LP) ------------------------------------------------ Hayato flashes blue and does a flurry of weak slashes, finishing off with a 2-handed slash. The easiest and most basic of his Plasma Comboes. Also the most useless. Easily his worst chain by far, the Suzaku Ranbu has many cons. It has the slower opening, no real flashiness about it, and the damage is PATHETIC, just BARELY more than an LP Guren. Its one strength is that it can cancel mid-chain into special moves, but so can the other Plasma Comboes. Avoid this. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Plasma Combo - Guren (B + HP, LP, HP, HP, HP) OR (B + HP, LP, HP, LK, HP) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hayato flashes blue again and does another series of slashes, ending with an LP Guren. Pretty easy to use and somewhat useful for high blockers if you choose to mix it up with the LK. Also has the fastest beginning swing of all the Plasma Comboes. This Combo's main use is its VERY fast start-up. The opening slash to this combo even quicker then his standing LP and thus is excellent for trying to catch an opponent from mid-range to initiate a combo without too much fear of getting punished. If you catch them with the opener, you can smack them a few times before making the cancel of your choice. A very useful offensive tool for Hayato, and probably the most useful Plasma Combo overall. Also note that Hayato moves forward with each slash, meaning you can catch someone with just the tip of the B+HP and still get in a full-fledged combo. This is the main advantage of the Plasma Combo. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Plasma Combo - Kegon (B + LP, LP, HP, HK, LP,) OR (B + LP, LP, LP, HK, LP) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hayato flashes blue once more and does a mighty thrust into the enemy's gut, sending them in a short spiral, completely helpless. Although it has the slow opening, this is probably the most powerful of the Plasma Chains. Not the most useful, however. The thrust at the end leaves many options for elaborating on the combo for Hayato. Here are just a few: -Press LP again for a finisher. -Launch to Air Combo. -Engetsu. -Plasma Field. -Tag out safely. You might not get many oppurtunities to land this due to the somewhat slow speed and mediocre range of the start-up hit, but when you do, it's pretty high-reward. ===================================== 4. Leet Swordsmanship (Hyper Comboes) ===================================== ---------------------- Rasetsu Zan (QCF + PP) ---------------------- Hayato does a fancy pose for a bit and then rushes forward, slashing the enemy with 7 brutal swings. Ends with another pose and him yelling something in Japanese that sounds suspiciously like "You suck!". Hayato's first Hyper Combo is maybe his second most useful. However, its main weakness is the big start-up and finishing lag, making it a very punishable move if blocked. What this means is that you absolutely have to combo this in or you will be suffering. Another glaring weakness is the fact that you cannot use this as a juggle or OTG; you will connect the first hit or possibly the second, but the rest will ultimately be blocked and you will be punished very brutally. However, even with these faults, this HC still comes in handy; if at any time if you connect with an LP or LK, you can chain those weak moves into a Shiden (cancel on the first slash) xx Rasetsu Zan for some good damage. This HC is also useful for corner comboes, where Engetsu is not an option. A decent HC for Hayato, you just have to make sure to be careful with it, or it's your ass. ------------------ Engetsu (QCF + KK) ------------------ Hayato raises his Plasma Sword and brings it crashing down, initating a large shockwave that travels across the length of one screen. The sword can hit the opponent into the wave. Getting you around 7-8 hits, this is basically a poor man's Magnetic Shockwave. This move is more useful then Rasetsu Zan in some situations, and less so in others. It has a tad more comboability than the Rasetsu because it can OTG an opponent. However, you might want to avoid this if you're not particularly fluent in those as an opponent might safety roll when he hits the ground. This move's main weakness is its uselessness in the corner. However, in those cases, you can replace the Engetsu with the Rasetsu Zan; just be careful not to OTG. This move can OTG by means of cancelling after the second slash of the Shiden or maybe a D+HK sweep. Still, be wary for safety rolls. This move is much easier to combo into from assists then the Rasetsu Zan; meaning you can take advantage of this HC far easier if you catch an opponent with Doom AAA or any other juggling assist such as Akuma Expansion. This move all-in-all is quite useful to Hayato's game. ----------------------- Plasma Field (QCB + KK) ----------------------- Hayato draws his power inward and then relases it while doing a pose; his power takes the form of a blue circle with a somewhat small radius that surrounds his body. If this field connects, a timer begins and during this time, Hayato flashes blue and has infinite HC gauge. This can be used on the ground or in the air. This move isn't OVERLY useful, the reason being that Hayato has no HC that chips a whole lot and thus can be spammed. However, this HC can still put some decent pressure on an opponent; if you land this, start getting all over your opponent, trying to score one tiny hit so that you can score a free HC. Don't abandon all caution, however; this power-up doesn't change Hayato's attributes in the slightest; it only gives him infinite HC power. If you slip up, you can still be brutally punished just the same as always. Its true use lies in air comboes, especially those in the corner. This HC can be comboed in as an AC ender; it can be used by itself or you can cancel it off an LP Guren or the second hit of an HP Guren. Once that's done, apply pressure to try to make your opponent take a hit so that you can chain it into a free Rasetsu Zan or Engetsu. If you're feeling ballsy you can try to start a Guren Plasma Chain and cancel it into the Black Hayato. Also, in the corner you can OTG combo this into the Black Hayato. You can also use this to try to land some corner reset comboes for some nice damage. Pretty useful, though its use is not obvious at first. This would also be Hayato's super of choice when you want to DHC out, as it can be done anywhere and is fast, making it ideal for this role. ------------------------------------------------- Black Hayato (LP, HP, B, LK, HK) (Takes 3 Levels) ------------------------------------------------- Hayato faces the camera and then dashes forward slowly. If he connects with the dash, he takes a cue from the Shun Goku Satsu and the screen goes black, with only the slashes that Hayato makes on his poor opponent visible. Afterwards, Hayato strikes another pose in his Black Hayato evil form, then the opponent is slashed a few more times as the move ends. This move isn't really comparable to the Shun Goku Satsu because it's actually usable in Hayato's game if you so desire; first impressions often think of it as worse than the SGS because it's blockable due to the intiation being a hit and not a grab, but this also means it can be comboed into. It's still pretty difficult to pull off during a match, and the 3 meters make it somewhat low- reward for the cost, but damn is it awesome when pulled off. I wouldn't recommend landing this your highest priority, but it's satisfying to land. Make sure it'll make an impact though, because this thing burns a lot of damn meter, for a super whose damage can be equaled by a one-meter combo. Comboing this move in is the only way you'll land it other than when your opponent is COMPLETELY open. You'll find that it's actually not too difficult. This HC's best friend is the LP Shiden. Why? Because you can buffer the rest of the B. Hayato motion after you press LP, meaning the motion for the combo becomes QCF+LP, HP, B, LK, HK. Pretty good stuff, and leads to some decent damage. You can also make OTGs possible with the B. Hayato through usage of this move. If the opponent hits the ground first, the move will fail. However, a cancel from the S.HK into an LP Shiden and then using the buffer technique will end up in a successful Black Hayato. What this also means is that after a connected Plasma Field in the corner, you can do the OTG LP Shiden technique to get a free Black Hayato, which is very good stuff. The LP Shiden is by far the best move to combo into this, but it can also be done with S.HK or really any hard attack if you're fast enough with the motion. You can also do really fancy ish like AC, Plasma Field in the corner, land, C.LK, B. Hayato, but that requires some damn fine input, and you'll also have to remember to make sure the opponent's in the air when you initiate the Black Hayato, as they'll just bounce off if they hit the ground first. All in all, this move does worse damage then it should for its cost, but it's just oh-so-fun to land. Just make sure it's going to hit, or you'll definitely be pissed off. Your worst enemies in this fashion are OTG rolls in the corner, making the timing for landing one in a juggle far more strict. =============================== 5. Trying Not to Die (Strategy) =============================== Some random things that I numbered for some reason: 1. First of all, you must remember that Hayato is a low-tier character who is very close to being bottom-tier. What this means is that if you use Hayato, you've got to not be disappointed at a loss. A lot of the characters are worlds above Hayato, simply because they have more tools for them to win the game. Hayato is a decent poking character in a game that doesn't really call for poking, and thus he falls short in a lot of match-ups. 2. Hayato CANNOT be used without an anti-air assist, as his anti-air ability is pretty sub-par. Other than his high-priority launcher, he doesn't have much and must instead rely upon a decent anti-air in order to complement his offensive game and apply pressure. Captain Commando is good for sheer damage and it covers the entire vertical screen, and Doctor Doom is great for a huge amount of uses including chip and pressure. Hayato simply dies without assists if youre fighting someone who has access to assists. 3. Turtling up isn't that viable with Hayato. His defensive measures and keep- away ability are weak and thus defense is his weakest position. With Hayato, you always want to be applying the pressure, being careful to cover up your innate lag with assists looking for any window to score that one Standing LP or Crouching LK that you can chain into an HC. Rather than play defensive, play carefully, not attacking with reckless abandon, but waiting for a window in which you can land an all-important poke. 4. Hayato has got the mad range for a character his size. This enables him to land an all-important weak attack from mid-range. Standing LP and B+HP are good moves for catching an opponent off guard without much fear of punishment, and for more flashy maneuvers you must remember to watch your back with an assist. Hayato's range and priority are his main assets; even his weak punches have good priority and range. Take advantage of this. Also, remember that any priority Hayato may have pretty much goes out the window if the opponent is at point-blank; a character's distance away from Hayato is your ideal range. 5. Hayato gets pretty shafted by any good amount of keep-away, since he has absolutely no long-range game. Runaway also completely screws him unless he has an anti-runaway assist like Blackheart or Commando. Therefore, it's wise to not use Hayato against an opponent who's doing more damage with his defense than you can with your offense. 6. When it comes to poking, try to avoid using any of Hayato's MP attacks, because they carry disgusting lag for whatever reason, and if they're blocked, then Hayato will be forced to crap out some kind of cancel in an attempt to be safe which will usually result in the opposite effect. Stick to the B+HP or C.LK for poking purposes, or make sure that you only use LP moves and not MP. If you are forced to cancel, resort to the S.HK or S.HP, as they are somewhat safe. 7. Hayato has great priority, as you know; he can beat almost any barehanded move with his sword, making his jump-ins dangerous. However, energy based basic moves or launchers tend to destroy him. Know each character's launchers and anti-airs, and judge for yourself whether it's safe to jump in. -------------- The Byakko Hou -------------- I don't really use this that much, but it can really mess people up if used properly. However, it's hard as hell to land. This is for several reasons: One, it can only be landed at point blank, which is not Hayato's ideal range. Point-blank range means that Hayato's priority doesn't really matter since his pokes are usually outsped by the masses. Two, it has start-up, meaning that many characters can just jab him out of it. The other reason is the weird command(B, F + PP). If you slide the stick from back to forward in a half- circle, you'll do a Rasetsu Zan and leave your ass completely open for total annihilation. Make sure you avoid the lower region when going for the Byakko Hou; the Rasetsu Zan is not what you want at point-blank. However, the Byakko Hou can be pretty devilish in terms of mixing it up, because it's Hayato's main tool in terms of resets. Here are some basic fake outs to get you started: -S.LK, Byakko Hou (better if the LK gets blocked) -Super Jump, Sword Dive, Byakko Hou (risky as hell, only try if you've had the advantage applying the pressure) -Jump-in LP or LK, Byakko Hou -Normal jump-in, land, Byakko Hou (useful if you normally jump-in with Hard Attacks in your offense) -HP throw in corner, Byakko Hou when they land. -Launch, Super Jump, J.LP, D+HK, Byakko Hou. Useful for resets here, this can screw up an opponent if used right. So what to do if you actually land a command grab? You follow up on that ish. Here are some examples. -Get a free Engetsu. -Walk forward, C.HP, super-jump, J.LP, J.LK, J.MP, J.MK then end with either a Hard Attack OR HP Guren xx Plasma Field. -OTG C.HK xx Shiden xx Engetsu. -Corner only: Above air combo, end with HP Guren xx Plasma Field, C.HK or LP Shiden into Black Hayato. -J.LK, J.MK, Byakko Hou again. Useful for humiliation factor. -S.HK(one hit) xx Black Hayato. The Byakko Hou is hard to implement in most matchups since Hayato is usually at a disadvantage in point-blank, but it's useful when you're the one applying offensive pressure. Just try not to get predictable with this, since it'll screw you if you do. Use it only when you have the advantage in offense, as its startup and point-blank range make it unsuitable to turn the tides. -------------------------- Comboing the Black Hayato! -------------------------- ---------------- Hayato's Assists ---------------- ----------------------------- Alpha - Expansion - HP Shiden ----------------------------- The HP Shiden is likely Hayato's most useful assist. It comes out quite fast and covers a lot of space, as well as sporting good priority. It can be used to put more pressure on an opponent, or cover yourself doing something (this would leave Hayato wide open, so use it at your own risk). It's not the greatest Expansion assist, but it's at least decent. As a Variable Counter Hayato also does the HP Shiden. You can link this when someone's rushing, outprioritize them, and then cancel into the ground HC of your choice. In a THC, he does the Rasetsu Zan. -------------------------- Beta - Anti-Air - HP Guren -------------------------- The HP Guren is lackluster Anti-Air. It has high priority, but isn't too quick, nor has invincibility. It's usable, but there are far better AAAs. As a Variable Counter, you get the Guren. Also not too great, but you can cancel into a Plasma Field, which can be useful in the corner. --------------------------- Gamma - Balance - HP Shiden --------------------------- HP Shiden as an assist, HP Guren as Variable Counter. On the Variable Counter, he briefly turns into Black Hayato before reverting back to normal. All in all it's fairly interchangable with the Alpha assist, but keep in mind that there are more damaging options off of Hayato's Alpha counter than his Gamma. ----------------- Assists...and You ----------------- ------------------------------------------------------- All-Purpose: Doctor Doom (Anti-Air) & Sentinel (Ground) ------------------------------------------------------- These assists are pretty versatile and will be quite helpful to Hayato. Doom can do basically anything (except anti-air, wow) and Sentinel is helpful for keeping opponents locked down, elongating comboes, and applying the pressure. These assists are very useful to Hayato. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Anti-Runaway: Blackheart or Captain Commando (Anti-Air for both) ---------------------------------------------------------------- These are ridiculously important for Hayato if you're facing an opponent who plays a mean run-away(Storm, Blackheart, etc.). Hayato has a very hard time bringing down opponents who run away by himself and thus should rely on one of these to bring them down. --------------------------------------------------------- Get the Hell Off of Me: Ken and Cammy (Anti-Air for both) --------------------------------------------------------- These moves both have ridiculous priority, so just in case you want an opponent out of your face, call one of these out. ------------------------------------------------------------ Set-up/Guard Break: Psylocke and Cyclops (Anti-Air for both) ------------------------------------------------------------ These both knock an opponent up into the air so that Hayato gets a free combo. Not too shabby, but not as useful on Hayato as it is on some characters, due to his air damage being a tad lacking. These are also good assists for guard breaking an incoming opponent in the corner for some free damage. ------------------------------------------------------- Overheads: Juggernaut (Variety) and Chun-Li (Expansion) ------------------------------------------------------- These assists are the only overhead attacks in the game, and thus could throw an opponent off who's a fan of excessive crouch-blocking. ------------------------------------------ Ridiculous Damage: Tron Bonne (Projectile) ------------------------------------------ For some reason, this move does a sick amount of damage. You can stick this in a combo to jack the damage way up. Puts a feeling of pressure on the opponent if they know of this move. ------------------------------------- Anti-Rushdown: Mecha-Zangief (Ground) ------------------------------------- This move absolutely stuffs rushdown of any type. It gives even Magneto fits. As regular Zangief, it's still useful, but try to get him to metal form before using this assist. Holy hell, it's useful. ------------------------------------ Low-Hitter: Bone Wolverine (Variety) ------------------------------------ This is the only low-hitting assist in the game. You can use this in combination with jumping moves to create some kind of mix-up. An interesting assist. OTGs off it are possible, but beware of rolls. ==================================== 6. Recipes for Ass-Kicking (Comboes) ==================================== Since MvC2 is extremely open-ended with combo possibility, I'm just going to name a few practical Hayato comboes that you'll probably find yourself using. Showboat 60-hit comboes and comboes banking off assists won't be found here, as those are far less practical than these. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Whatever combination of ground moves xx Shiden xx Rasetsu Zan/Engetsu --------------------------------------------------------------------- This is Hayato's bread and butter ground combo. You can vary up the hits leading to the Shiden as you see fit. Note that if you want to cancel into the Rasetsu Zan, you MUST cancel on the first slash of the Shiden. Any jump-in of Hayato's should probably end in a combo similar to this. Some examples of ground moves leading to the main cancel are: -S.LP, S.MP, S.HP xx Shiden... -S.LK, S.MK, Hien, B+HP, LP, HP, HP xx Shiden... -J.HK, S.HK xx Shiden... -C.LK, C.MK, C.HK xx OTG Shiden...(note that Rasetsu Zan would not be an option here, beware of a safety roll) -Any Plasma Combo xx Shiden... You get the point. Basically, you'll want to end the majority of your Hayato ground comboes with this sequence. It's probably his main way of doing decent damage, and it's very easy to access. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- C.LK, C.MK, C.HP(super-jump), J.LP, J.LK, J.MP, J.MK, Guren xx Plasma Field --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hayato's main air combo. The Plasma Field is optional, and you can replace the Guren with something like an Air Throw or just your average J.HP/HK. Can be followed up in the corner with our very own Black Hayato, which is free because of Plasma Field. And...that's about it. Since the ways to enter into these comboes are so many, there'd really be no point in listing them all. There's a crapload. But all in all, these are the most useful Hayato comboes. Tron Projectile is extremely useful for Hayato; it tacks on a ridiculous amount of damage to just about anything he does, so use it if you're going for quick kills. ======================= 7. Hayato vs. the World ======================= (Anytime I say B+HP, you can replace with an S.LP or C.LK or whatever...it's just my personal preference. Personally, I recommend the B+HP or C.LK for poking purposes.) Generally, the world of MvC2 is one big uphill battle for Hayato. Thus, you'll be hard-pressed to find a match-up that's truly in his favor, other than the obvious(Dan). So, good luck in your Hayato journey, and without further BS, here you go. For a lot of these, it also helps if you're several levels of skill above your opponent. >.> -------------------- 1. Akuma (AKA Gouki) -------------------- Akuma, the dark shoto triplet, distinguishes himself from the other three by having the most offensively-oriented strategy of them all. Akuma will be in your face from the word "FIGHT", using assists and weak moves to score a hit that he can chain to a Hurricane Kick juggle for big damage. Akuma has some things going for him: he's got a fast dash, great ground punishing abilities, a special move that does more damage then an HC in the air, and his Expansion assist is one of the better assists in the game. However, Akuma is on the tier of worst natural vitality in the game and takes only a few comboes to bring down, and your priority trumps his. You must use these weaknesses to win. Akuma is much faster then you, no question. He also has the possibility of doing a lot of damage without too much meter, which makes him pretty dangerous at any time. However, you mustn't let his speed overwhelm you. Get him off your ass with an AAA such as Doom or a pushblock and concentrate on out- prioritizing Akuma. Your sword will beat his fists easily, and once you land an LP or jumping attack then capitalize on that with a Shiden xx Engetsu or Rasetsu Zan. This will take a huge chunk off Akuma's terrible vitality, and once you get Akuma on the defensive, you'll have the battle in your favor. Do not discount him, though; Akuma can very easily land a light attack of his own if you throw out moves and chain it to a Hurricane Kick xx Tenma Gou Zankuu or Launcher to Air Hurricane Kick xx Tenma Gou Zankuu. Whoever has the offensive in this battle longer will be the winner. Akuma may have speed, but you've got the priority and superior staying power. When it comes to punishing enemies on the ground, Hayato has his quick B+HP or high priority sword swings that can lead to comboes; Akuma beats this quite easily with his Hyper Combo, Messatsu Gou-Shoryuu. This HC has 1-frame startup and has invincibility on his first uppercut, giving it unbelievable priority. What this means is that it's very dangerous to fight Akuma on the ground when he has meter, due to Hayato's lag. For example, suppose that you hit Akuma while blocking with an LP, MP. He can push-block the LP and hit you with the HC due to the lag on the ensuing MP. If you want to attack Akuma on the ground you have to be very cautious, watching closely and making sure he doesn't wreck you with a push-block to MGS or just an MGS in general. This means that the best way to attack Akuma is through jump-ins. Akuma will NEED an Anti-Air assist to combat you, as your jump-in HP and HK will out- prioritize his launcher, and his Gou Shoryuken is a mediocre anti-air choice because it's extremely punishable upon block and even on connection does bad damage. So cover your ass with Sentinel Ground or Doom AAA as you jump-in, and pressure him like mad. You don't have to worry about the Messatsu Gou Shoryuu in the air, nor any of his other supers, for that matter. Just always remember in an Akuma battle, that even if he does damage to you, you are doing much more to him. You only need about two solid comboes to put down Akuma, and with your priority and range advantage, you should be able to pull it off. As an Expansion assist, Akuma is pretty dangerous. He does not possess any invincible start-up or mega priority, but his startup is almost zero and he juggles you for about 5 hits, leaving your ass with a target on it, ready for the follow-up of your opponent's choice. You might want to snapback Akuma in if this assist is wrecking you, in order to deal with him accordingly. --------- 2. Amingo --------- Amingo is a wacky cactus-dude whose unorthodox moves can either lead to him bring destroyed or you; it all depends on how he's played. Amingo is decent versus Hayato on both an offensive and defensive front; he's got high-priority and generally high-range basic moves, damaging corner and air comboes, cactus babies that pressure you off the ground, and a very damaging anti-air HC. However, he has a fat frame and is rather easy to pressure, despite being able to pressure well himself. His non-HC anti-air options are also quite weak, but this still will be a moderately tough fight for Hayato. Hayato is likely to be spending most of this fight in the air; with Amingo's cactus babies populating the ground and his Standing HP's ridiculous range and priority that beats out even yours, you'll be hard pressed to win a ground battle. Be wary while jumping in; his huge vine HC is a fantastic anti-air and WILL stuff any attack you could possibly conceive with a jumping-in Hayato, other than an assist. If you can bait the vine, try it; Amingo is punishable on block and you could start an offense with a launcher or Plasma Chain, which could begin a pressure game that can put the match in your favor. Amingo is at his most dangerous in the corner or if he launches you. In the corner, he can call out a pressure assist such as Doom or Sentinel and be sending out cactus babies that could grab you and render you defenseless. Thus you must try your hardest to stay out of the corner. On the same token, try to get him in the corner; using any combo ending in Rasetsu Zan or Shiden are good strategies to get him there. Amingo's size makes him susceptible to pressure, and Hayato's superior mobility and jump-in priority will help him here. In the case of Amingo mounting an offensive, don't underestimate him. Amingo's got priority to rival yours in his Standing HP, and his jump-in HP or HK will likely beat your Ducking HP. If he lands a jump-in, he can combo it into a launcher with an AC ending with a damaging Onion Dive that will push you closer to the corner, which you don't want. This is why it's important to not get too bogged down with Amingo's pressure and start pressure of your own; Amingo's launchers are pretty crappy and will be beaten by your sword. If you use assists and patience, with smart blocking, you may come out the victor. Despite how much I've been plugging Amingo's S.HP and his cactus babies (which are still pretty easily avoided), Hayato still does pretty decently against Amingo, due to his relative ease in getting close from the air; Amingo's S.HP can't do jack if you're coming in with a jump. All you have to do is be wary for his Vine HC; it's his only real anti-air option outside of an assist. Amingo doesn't deal very well against pressure, and thus will cave if you keep on applying it. Always be looking for a window to land a B+HP, and you'll be in business. Amingo is pretty lame as an assist character. His Heal and Enhance assists aren't useful, and Amingo stays out for a LONG-ass time when performing them, making them susceptible to attack. His Dash assist also isn't too impressive; the Onion Dash is an alright move but it doesn't really affect much as an assist; there are much better ones out there. ----------- 3. Anakaris ----------- Anakaris is a very goofy character, with weird moves and strange mobility that make this fight quite ridiculous. That said, this will be a very difficult fight if Anakaris is used properly; Anakaris has the weird moves and, despite being slow in movement, can rush you quite well; he also possesses one of the best command grabs in the game, a very potent infinite combo, fast overheads which lead to multiple combo oppurtunities, not to mention having what is probably the most damaging level 1 HC in the game. He, however, also has flaws that can be exploited; his recovery on certain moves is awful, he's not very good at keeping foes away, and takes damage quite horribly; he also is a large target, making him easier to combo. This is a very difficult fight for Hayato, as Anakaris can give even the best characters some trouble. First, his command throw, the Mummy Drop. This thing is pretty damn good. It's got two ranges - slightly in front of point-blank, and a little more than mid- range. Regardless of which range he catches you at, this throw does some fair damage and builds an assload of meter. This can hit Hayato ground-to-ground or air-to-air, but not ground-to-air or vice versa. Hayato can crouch under this throw as well; if ever you do, Anakaris will be wide open; use that to rush at him with a Shiden xx Engetsu to score some good damage on Anakaris. His hands are also hittable while they're grabbing, if you want to try something weird. Air-to-air, you can't really counter it; just try to stay out of the two ranges in the air and nail him if he whiffs it. With this being said, Hayato will probably be crouching a lot against Anakaris in order to avoid that Mummy Drop. But this is where it really gets dangerous. Anakaris has two quick overheads that he can use to open you up for some huge damage. He can either use his B+LK axe kick, or do his mid-air Pyramid Drop. Either way, if he does connect an overhead, you can count on getting your ass baked because Annie can follow it up with a ground chain, launcher to air chain, ending in a Cobra Blow or possibly even a Cobra Hordes HC, and if he's feeling sexy he can hit you with an LP, resetting you so that he can nail you with an LP Mummy Drop to get some meter and do some fine damage. These offensive merits make it a pain in the ass to have Anakaris rushing Hayato. Always be weary of crouching too much; if Anakaris gets you with an overhead, you'll be in trouble, and you don't have very many chances to screw up. Don't try anything fancy here; any lag on your part, you will regret greatly. Hayato wants to get around mid-range, be wary of an LP Mummy Drop, and try to swat him with a fast light move or B+HP; doing this will lead to serious rewards due to Anakaris's crappy vitality. The things to worry about in this range are his long-rage crouching moves and his Mummy Drop. Pressure him with some assists in order to land that vital hit; Hayato's good range and priority will help out here. You also don't necessarily have to be comboing it up either; with Anakaris's vitality, you can concentrate on keeping him from landing overheads while constantly smashing him with your high-priority jumping moves. This could work, but keep watching out for whatever assists Anakaris may have, as well as his launcher. Another reason to avoid the overheads is his Pharaoh's Curse infinite. Using an assist, he can launch you while calling an assist and then do a move cancelling into the Pharaoh's Curse, turning you into a helpless little ugly- ass doll thing. This combo will reset, so Anakaris only has to repeat this a couple of times to ice Hayato. There is no real counter to this as Hayato, so just concentrate on avoiding those overheads if ever you're placed in a pressured position. If you employ a defensive strategy of keeping him away and smashing him with high-priority hard attacks, then you'll want to be aware of his pseudo-keep away game of superjumping in the air and dropping coffins at you while having the chance to stuff you with his Pharaoh's Curse air projectile. In this case, your dash attack may come in handy; immediately dash and press HP to rocket across the screen behind Anakaris, and either super-jump and get him out of the air or call an Anti-Air like Captain Commando to nail him; Anakaris is at his most vulnerable when using this strategy. All in all, this is a pretty damn hard fight for Hayato, but if you keep Anakaris off your ass or get a chance to land a B+HP, you'll have won against one of the weirdest characters in the game. Anakaris as an assist can be dangerous, but not overly so. His Cobra Blow assist is somewhat decent due to its range and power, but nothing to truly worry about. His Throw assist is an HP Mummy Drop that doesn't build as much meter, but still be wary of staying in that range with Anakaris using this assist, as any character can launch you after this throw lands and do some decent damage. His Variety assist has Anakaris using an LK Coffin Drop; this does good damage and can zone you to some extent, but like the Cobra Blow, not overly dangerous. --------------------------- 4. B.B. Hood (AKA Bulletta) --------------------------- B.B. Hood can be far more of a dangerous contender than Hayato would expect; she offers a few merits to those who use her. She's got some surprising priority on some moves, very damaging Hyper Comboes (1 unblockable and one that she can combo into), decent projectiles, small size, and a double jump. The problem here is that B.B. Hood gets shafted by those with long-range capabilities and Hayato has none of those. Using her Cool Hunting HC and her J.HK, she can kinda sorta keep you away. However, while she CAN do this, Hayato can still go after her. If she employs this semi-runaway strategy, try to position Hayato above her, which might be difficult due to no air-dash or doublejump on your part. You can also use tracking assists such as Blackheart's AAA. If she tries to fight you in the air, then counter back with J.HKs; all-in-all, B.B. Hood in the air is far less of a threat then a B.B. Hood on the ground. This is mainly because B.B. Hood air-runaway is mostly for meter building purposes, or waiting for Hayato to screw up. So, if she actually is on the ground, then the fight is likely to be much tougher for Hayato, especially if she has a good Anti-Air assist. You might even want to try to land a B+HP to snapback in the assist if it's causing you a lot of trouble. Either way, it'll be difficult for Hayato, who has no real air mobility; her Shining Missiles have extremely small start-up time and lag time, and her D.HK can stuff a crapload of jump-ins; even Hayato's. If you have no assists here, consider the battle lost. Hayato can call in a Projectile assist such as Cable to nullify the missile and begin a ground assault, or call in Sentinel Ground which will fly over the missile and keep B.B. Hood in blockstun as you attempt to pressure. Your superior ground priority may serve you well here, but be warying of jumping in. Her Cruel Hunting HC is definitely her most dangerous. It comes out moderately fast and can be comboed into, and it does an assload of regular and chip damage. If at any time she lands a C.LK, you will no doubt be eating a Cruel Hunting in a very short time. You'll obviously want to be landing your B+HP before she lands that C.LK, and your superior range and priority in that department may help you win that exchange. As for her other HCs...always remember that you can NEVER block Hyper Apple For You, so don't even try. You'll only regret it. Beautiful Memory, the one where she rushes at you, is not much to speak of. As an assist, her only one worth talking about is her Projectile, the Shining Missile. It carries the same advantages as it did as an on-point move, and is a pretty annoying assist. ------------- 5. Blackheart ------------- Blackheart is one of the better characters in this contest, and could be one of if not the best runaway characters there is. Blackheart accomplishes an effective runaway because his demons are difficult enough to get by, and then you have his ridiculous range to overcome. He also has a two-way air dash, and when you're actually close to him, enjoys an assload of priority on many of his moves. Essentially, he is one of the top defensive players of Marvel vs. Capcom 2, and Hayato is pretty much gonna lose this match. First of all, Blackheart's basic moves. The things to watch out for are his S.LK and in air-to-air, his J.LK. These are some pretty long-range tail hits that carry way too much priority for some reason. Hayato will definitely have trouble getting past these, if he can even get into close range in the first place. Why is it so difficult to get there? Because of Blackheart's zoning with the combination of assists and his HP/HK demons. Each of Blackheart's Hard Attacks throws out some demons that do no chip damage, but are a huge threat due to their ability to control space and grab on to you upon a hit, rendering Hayato defenseless. The HP pink pig demons are the ones to watch out for, as they cover a greater space in front of Blackheart aand thus dominate more. The HK demons only go in a straight arc as Blackheart launches them down. His S.HP and S.HK both have start-up hits that come out fast and have some great priority, thus potentially opening you up to being snagged by demons. In short, Blackheart has one of the more impressive sets of basic moves in the game, and Hayato will have a tough, tough time getting past them even with assists. If you're facing an exceptionally lame Blackheart, he might use a tactic that may seem powerful but is generally quite weak and vanquished easily even with Hayato. This is his Inferno xx Heart of Darkness. Granted, this'll do a lot of chip, but you can easily pushblock the Inferno and jump out of it, avoiding Blackheart's Heart of Darkness and nailing him as he rises up. However, finding these Blackhearts is quite a rare occurence these days, so consider yourself lucky if you don't have to face the true zoning and runaway menace that is Blackheart. This Blackheart isn't much too common, but a lucky break for you. Better Blackhearts will use this technique only when it's guaranteed to do its thing. There is another common type of Blackheart that still doesn't use him to his full potential, somewhat of an intermediate Blackheart. This Blackheart will use a crapload of random super jumps while throwing the HK straight-arc demons at you, air-dashing around to throw more demons, and calling assists. This Blackheart can prove to be a bit more of a problem, but is still too random to be a huge threat. You can call a good AAA to swat him out of the air up there, if you're aware of his air-dash; the assists he calls will likely be more of a threat then the demons since they dont really dominate that much of an area. You can even super-jump yourself and J.HK Blackheart out of the sky if you're feeling pretty juicy; just watch out for any AAAs he commands. This Blackheart puts more emphasis on runaway and not much on zoning, making him less menacing then he would be. The next level of Blackheart absolutely destroys Hayato. This Blackheart puts much more emphasis on his jumping fierce pig demons that dominate more of an area, all the while calling an assist such as the Sentinel drones that can lock you down quite easily. Hayato cannot really find a way to move forward because the demons block his way of both dashing in and jumping in, and any super-jumping offensive is easily stuffed by an AAA. Facing this Blackheart is generally not a good idea with Hayato, who can't deal well at all with good keepaway. Try to deal with Blackheart's AAA assist character first, because then he will be much less menacing; Blackheart without an AAA assist loses a lot of his comboability and air defense. This Blackheart will focus on controlling the space of the battle and locking you down, making him the most dangerous Blackheart you can face. Considering Hayato really has no way of defeating an advanced Blackheart, suppose you do get him in close range. Blackheart is not entirely helpless here, so don't celebrate just yet. When it comes to pokes, Hayato can effectively get opponents with the relatively long reach and priority of his B+HP; Blackheart surpasses this with his S.LK. This is a poke of his that has way too much damn priority and a lot of reach because Blackheart is so huge. Hayato can usually rely on his B+HP for a fast combo initiator but Blackheart and his tail can really screw you over. You must then assault him with jump- in moves, as your J.HK performs well against Blackheart; his launcher blows and his Inferno is too slow to stop you, meaning he needs an AAA to fend off your jump-ins. A very difficult battle, so good luck. Blackheart is also quite dangerous when not on point. This is due to his Anti- Air assist, Inferno, which is one of the better assists in the entire game. It covers the entire vertical screen AND tracks your position, making it difficult to escape if you're not on the move. It's not TOO big of a threat when jumping in due to the start-up, but it's always a very dangerous assist to have to be facing. -------- 6. Cable -------- This match-up is ****ing pitiful. It's probably one of the worst in the game. Cable is a member of the "God Tier" which is made up of the four most powerful characters in Marvel vs. Capcom 2. Cable is the dominant force in this game in terms of full-screen capability and horizontal punishment ability. This is largely but not completely due to the fact that he possesses what is one of if not the best Hyper Combo in the game, the Air Hyper Viper Beam. An integral facet of Cable is being able to pull off the AHVB at any time; this is done with the Tiger Knee motion (D, DF, F, UF) so that Cable can instantly be in the air and firing a big-ass beam out of his BFG. With its instant start-up AND recovery, you'll be eating **** if you make one mistake in this fight. However, you might be lucky and be playing someone who doesn't know jack about using Cable. This is usually characterized by S.HP x4 xx Viper Beam or Hyper Viper Beam(ground version). While this can keep you away for like 5 seconds, it's still very easily jumped over and smashed with a jump-in. This Cable likely won't know what to do up close, so Hayato can use his B+HP to score some major comboes. If you're lucky enough to be facing a half-assed Cable like this, your victory will come easy. Of course, don't assume just because he pulls this little chain once or twice that he sucks. Going in all half- assed will make you eat AHVB. Cable with meter is one of the most dangerous forces in this game. If you make any mistake, any mistake at all, Cable will pull out his enormous-ass gun and instantly blast you from anywhere on the screen by taking advantage of the Tiger Knee motion. The move is so fast that he can even chain 2 or 3 of them together, which can effectively destroy you if he feels saucy with spending his meter. This means that a good lockdown assist like Doom or Sentinel is pivotal in this fight, because if Cable pushblocks any of your moves when he's up close, you will definitely be AHVB'd, something that you will learn not to enjoy; if Cable ever goes on the offensive, be extremely wary for his C.LK, as if he lands one of these, he can and will follow up with a string of moves cancelled into an AHVB. Essentially, when Cable has meter, you have to play pretty much perfectly to not get blasted. Cable can guard-break you easily with his full-screen J.HP. He can shoot it, break your guard, and nail you with an AHVB as you come in the screen from another dead character. Just throwing that out there; meaning any mistake that Hayato makes(and against Cable, there are plenty) might give you TWO dead characters instead of one depending on how bad Hayato is damaged. Even a Cable without meter is pretty dangerous, although not nearly as much. This is because he possesses one of the better sets of normal moves in the game, as well as many tools to keep you away. All of his HK moves are very strong coupled with good range and priority, and his J.HP is one of the best basic moves out there; it's fast, hits full-screen, and guard breaks like crazy. The Air Viper Beam really limits your movement and does decent chip, and his Electrap grenade puts some insane pressure on you. Try to utilize Anti-Air Assists or any other assists that zone in order to get close; it'll be difficult with Hayato's poor mobility. Cable will have to rely on a good AAA in order to counter jump-ins, as his anti-air ability isn't really that hot, as all he's got is a Psimitar and his launcher is absolutely terrible (you won't be seeing air comboes from Cable), so take care of his assist character by trying your hardest to snapback Cable's ass out. Once his assist is out, this fight actually becomes bearable. Up-close, the only thing to truly fear is his C.LK. His other moves are out- sped or otherwise outprioritized by your B+HP or S.LP. If ever you catch him with a poke, it's your job to make him regret getting poked by a character on the complete opposite side of the spectrum by nailing that ass with a Plasma Chain xx Shiden xx Rasetsu Zan/Engetsu. If he lacks an AAA, he has no real way to stop your jump-ins if you're careful of the Psimitar, as you'll outprioritize anything he throws with your J.HK. Just know that these moments are few and far between; Cables without good AAAs are exceedingly rare. You really will get pasted against a half-decent Cable. All things being equal, Hayato just falls very, very short against Cable, making this one of the worst matchups in the game. As an assist, Cable isn't really anything super-deadly. His AAA is what you'll pretty much always be seeing. While it IS fast and it IS damaging, it's not really that devastating as far as AAAs go. It only gets you off the opponent's ass, and is really hard to combo off of due to the speed of it, unless you're psychic or something. If ever you see Projectile, then your opponent is probably new to the game; while his beam assist is alright at best, it still is pretty lame compared to his AAA. -------- 7. Cammy -------- Cammy is one of the speed demons of this game, having the almost-fastest dash (Magneto holds that crown). Thus, it's pretty damn hard to not have her in your face if you screw up. Being a decent rush-down character in this game, Cammy's got speed and her comboes are intricate and can really hurt. To add to this, her basic moves are FAST and one landed C.LK can mean an air combo with Killerbee Assaults and OTGs all around, which isn't very tasty to Hayato. But, her vitality is not too hot and her actual damage done with each move leaves a bit to be desired, meaning you can probably take one or two of her long comboes if you do screw up. First of all, her speed. Cammy is FAST. Almost Magneto-fast. This means your reaction time better be decent or you'll be in the air being way-laid by Cannon Spikes and Killerbee Assaults before you know it. As always, you better bring a good AAA into this match, as this will give Cammy fits(Doom, Commando, Ken are pretty good here). If the Cammy isn't careful with her rushing, then your AAA will completely destroy her. Otherwise, Cammy will be careful for assists while rushing and look for ways to bypass them. Also, look for any assists Cammy might have herself; anything such as Sentinel or Doom can help her overwhelm you. When it comes to basic moves and poking, Cammy's are definitely faster than yours, but you out-range and out-prioritize her. Thus, if you can keep her out of point-blank range, you'll eventually be able to land a poke and cancel into the follow-up of your choice. Again, AAAs, Sentinel, or any other assist that can control rushdown decently are good here. The ideal range in this battle is just out of point-blank, where Hayato can land one of his relatively long-range LPs or B+HP so that you can nail her with a Rasetsu Zan or Engetsu; given Cammy's low staying power, these comboes will do about as much damage as one of her more intricate air comboes does to you. If you don't have assists, then the battle sways pretty massively in Cammy's favor. She is much faster then you and without assists, Hayato doesn't really have the tools to keep her out of point-blank. In this case, you're gonna have to play it defensive since Hayato does not out-speed her at all, throwing out B+HPs when you deem it safe. This is a bad situation for Hayato to be in, but being patient and waiting for her to screw up may give you the window you need to fight back. If she can never land that C.LK, she won't be getting anywhere, so assist or not, make it your job to keep her out. Cammy doesn't have all that much in the way of mixing it up...the main thing to watch for in terms of that is her Hooligan Combination which can go through your blocking with its command grab. However, this shouldn't be a problem if your reaction time is up to par, because Cammy takes about a full damn second to get to you. Use the range of Hayato's launcher to nail her ass in the middle of the execution and follow it up with an AC(end it with Plasma Field if you feel sexy that day). So, with this gone, Cammy should only be relying on pure rushdown against Hayato, which you should be able to survive if you have a good assist. Also, if she ever catches you in a Killerbee Assault, make sure to try to safety roll so that she can't OTG. All in all, this battle is easy if you block or stuff Cammy's rushes. As an assist, you have need to fear her AAA. It's invincible and comes out FAST. Thus, you can put it into the list of things that stuff Hayato's rushing. This makes her dangerous in all positions to Hayato, making this a pretty tough yet fun fight. ------------------ 8. Captain America ------------------ Cap can be considered a ghetto Cyclops with regard to the ridiculous range and good priority on his HP attacks. This is because he's got that mighty shield of his. The good captain's also got a double-jump and cartwheel which gives him some mix-up abilities, and he can do some decent damage. All of these advantages make matching Cap in the air a nice little struggle. However, Cap also suffers from a bit of slowness and lag or startup issues with special and super moves. His decent strength and mix-up abilities will make this a tough fight, but Hayato can manage in this fight of Japan vs. America. In a battle between your sword and Cap's shield, Cap generally wins if he has his timing down right. For example, in the air your J.HK has much quicker start-up then his J.HP, so if he's late in his execution, you will likely beat his ass. Be wary, though, of his ridiculous range; if Cap's got his timing down, you likely won't be winning any air battles. And that's not even taking into account his double jump. If EVER Cap throws out a Shield Slash at long range, make him regret his horrible mistake by dodging it and immediately applying immense pressure to get him the hell away from his shield. This will take away Cap's priority and range, and thus shaft him of one of his greatest advantages. It does increase his speed, but this will in no way make up for the power he's lost. These moments are very rare, but make sure you're ready if ever it does happen. If you get inside the range of his shield, you could be in business, as all the range in the world means jack when you've got a faceful of B+HP. Your light attacks will overpower his, so if you can get past his HP range, you'll get the chance to score some comboes. However, always mind Cap's vitality; he takes only 90% of damage received, so you'll have to work a little harder to scrape away a win. Remember to utilize those assists that help you get in the desired range; Sentinel Ground helps a lot, for example. Cap's double-jump deserves special mention. You should really be careful of this thing, as it adds a lot to Cap's mix-up game. For example, he could attempt a jump-in, and you, expecting a J.HP, dash and throw out a launcher to catch him. However, he can jump again and then punish the enormous lag on your whiffed launcher. He can also bait AAAs such as Captain Commando and then evade them, giving him an oppurtunity to punish. He also can use the double- jump to extend his air comboes, making it useful both offensively and defensively, making it a nice tool for Cap and greatly helping his air game against Hayato. Captain America's cartwheel is his main tool for mixing up his game and his primary way of crossing you up. With this he can do crap like launch, AC, cartwheel, re-launch, etc, if you're bad at blocking the right way. He can also seriously punish randomly thrown out moves (which you shouldn't be doing in the first damn place) by cartwheeling through them. He can also screw up any super-jumping offensives by cartwheeling behind where he predicts you'll land and crossing you up. But, you can take the oppurtunity by faking HIM out if he uses this tactic by D+HK in the air to screw up his prediction and nailing him as he comes out of the cartwheel. Also, Captain American can be thrown while cartwheeling, in case feels goofy and tries to cross you up when you're standing. Cap's mixups, strength, and vitality may make this a tough fight, but you can win if you can get into his HP range and not let him cross you up. He has range and priority, but so do you. Good luck. Cap doesn't have any TRULY dangerous assists. His anti-air comes out fast and is damaging but is your average one-hit wonder, but is not very dangerous compared to other AAAs. His Charging Star sports some decent priority and range as well as speed, and can negate projectiles, but again is not really too game-breaking. All-in-all, he's more threatening to Hayato as a point character. ------------------- 9. Captain Commando ------------------- You'll be seeing a lot of Captain Commando. Not because he's particularly good at fighting, but rather because his Anti-Air assist is way too damn awesome. It comes out FAST, has full vertical screen reach, decent horizontal range, and does damn good damage. On-point, though, Captain Commando is not nearly as useful as he is as an assist, although he does have a few merits. He's got a move for a lot of situations, and generally quick, decent-ranged HP attacks. However, he's got bad mobility and a lot of his moves are easily punished, making him far more dangerous as an assist. Captain Commando's most famous move is that damn Captain Corridor of his. However, it's far less threatening as an on-point move. This is because it's rather easy to see coming and block, and his recovery is less than impressive. If you can bait the Corridor, call a (preferably invincible) AAA to punish him while he takes 8 years to recover. If you're close enough, you can take a juicy risk and immediately go into an HP Shiden xx Rasetsu Zan as you hit the ground, but it's your ass if the first slash doesn't connect, as Captain will likely recover. If you can master defending the Corridor, you'll have taken away a chunk of Captain's game, but definitely not all of it. CapCom may be able to keep you at a distance for a time with a combination of Captain Corridors, Air Captain Fires, and Jennety the mummy for dash jump-ins, but he's far too laggy to be able to keep this up. If EVER he does Captain Fire on the ground, it becomes your chance for a dash jump-in so that you can get close. Otherwise, trudge across the screen while calling assists to help (Sentinel Ground is nice here), and then the fun begins when you can get up close, as it's here that Hayato gets his chance. Up-close, CapCom's only weapons against Hayato are his launchers and high- priority HP attacks, the latter of which are nullified by your faster pokes. This leaves his sweep, which can OTG you into a Captain Corridor. This can be solved by a simple roll if you're ever caught. His kick launcher is the one to watch out for on the ground, as it's got somewhat decent range. If he connects one, he can immediately do something like Captain Corridor xx Captain Sword, and that would not be good. If at any time you do block one, throw out a B+HP and take out half his damn life. Be wary for any assists he has that can push you into a more comfortable distance for him, and remember to be applying your own pressure with assists. Also, make sure to stay up-close WITHOUT getting point-blank, as CapCom's HK throw does sick damage for whatever reason. As I said before, Captain Commando is far more threatening as an assist then as an on-point. Expect a near constant-usage of him, as his assist can and will completely screw your offensive efforts. If you block, you have a chance to punish him if you just watch out for the on-point character. When you get a chance, snap his ass in, as when you take out Commando, you take out a good chunk of their defense. Good luck. ---------------------- 10. Charlie (AKA Nash) ---------------------- Charlie is definitely similar to Guile, but is definitely more of a threat to have close to you. He's got more rushdown capabilities and his throwing game with his HK is very intimidating. He also has a fast overhead that was pretty much made for the Tiger Knee motion which enables him to land comboes decently if you're getting overly defensive. He can also do extremely damaging corner throw comboes, and can easily guard break a character coming in in the corner. To add to that, he can control the air easily with his Somersault. In short, Charlie can do wonders to break your defense, and within the "low-tier" cast, is one of the best. This battle will be pretty damn tough. Your main priorities here are getting Charlie the hell out of point-blank and also staying the hell out of the corner. Both situations can lead to a vicious overhead mix-up or an HK throw which will lead to massive damage. Charlie can close the distance with the pressure and fast recovery of his Sonic Booms, which Hayato has no natrual way of negating. An Anti-Air Assist will work wonders here, as defense and also to prevent Charlie from landing that point-blank. Without an assist, you can still keep him out of throw range with your B+HP, leaving him with just an overhead option, which you can block and counter. Charlie's supers are a little unconventional, but have their uses. His Sonic Break, the one with 345734 Sonic Booms, is arguably his most effective due to the pressure it puts on Hayato. If you get caught in its blockstun, Charlie can start dashing in, prolonging the time that the slow-moving projectiles hit you, and achieve his desired range of point-blank and start mixing you up. It has start-up, so if ever he draws his arm back, a sign that your enemy threw it out at random, call an AAA and dash-jump in to punish. It's unlikely this will happen, though; if you're already in blockstun or if this super is DHCed in, you'll likely end up on the wrong end of a longass block stun and it'll get nasty, fast. So always be on the lookout for this super. His Somersault Justice can be comboed into for decent damage, as can his Crossfire Blitz auto-combo HC. So, a Charlie with meter isn't astoundingly dangerous, but always be aware of these new threats. Since Charlie's most dangerous range to be in is point-blank because of his grab game, the basic fundamental in this match-up is to keep him out of that range while still in a comfortable range with Hayato(the B+HP zone). If ever he gets in, you better be good at Tech Hitting or decent with spotting his Moonsault Slash. Doctor Doom's AAA or Sentinel's Ground assists are decent for this purpose. If you can keep him out of this point-blank, then he is significantly weakened, and you may be able to scrape away a win. You can also punish whiffed or blocked overheads with a Shiden xx HC of your choice. All in all a difficult fight, but not impossible. Charlie is somewhat dangerous as an assist character as well. His Anti-Air is noteworthy due to the amount of space it covers that can screw Hayato's super-jumping offensives. However, it's horizontal range isn't so hot and Charlie is quite punishable upon landing. His Projectile assist comes out fast and Charlie is nearly unpunishable because he leaves quickly, making it somewhat decent at pressuring Hayato. ----------- 11. Chun-Li ----------- Chun-Li, despite being the goddess she is in Street Fighter III: 3S, is on par with Hayato in this game(i.e. bad). She's still got a few advantages, such as great air maneuverability (triple jump, air dash, AND wall bounce), but she's lost a lot of her simple, damaging ground comboes as well as one of her most powerful HCs, and her ground game is just weak. Hayato definitely has what it takes to win this fight, and that's a rarity; but by no means get cocky, because she still has a few tricks. Don't try to match Chun-Li in the air; her triple jump ensures that she can easily be above you at any time and be able to stuff you with her Head Stomp move or nail you with an elongated air combo. Hayato's poor air mobility seals his fate in that conflict; his only weapons in an air-to-air are his J.LP, J.HP, and J.HK, and those are easily avoided by a Chun-Li player. Therefore, your task in this fight is to keep Chun-Li on the ground, where she can't do nearly as much. If you can do this, you'll have this fight in your pocket. Chun-Li will have to rely on assists to form any sort of ground rushdown game, as her priority against Hayato is just too poor in order to fly solo. Expect constant usages of assists such as Doom throughout the fight, and make sure to use yours in order to counteract them. Chun-Li is only dangerous when she gets closer than B+HP range, and it's your job to keep her out of there. Since Hayato's pokes are far better than hers, you'll have ample oppurtunity to land Hayato's damaging ground comboes if you utilize assists to get her out of the air and keep her at the appropriate distance on the ground. Of course, Chun-Li isn't COMPLETELY helpless while on the ground. She can clear some distance and get some overhead hits in with a low air-dash. However, you've faced far more dangerous mix-up games by now and should know how to deal with this(if she air dashes too close to you, hell, you can just launch her ass out of it). Her ground game is just too hampered though, by setbacks such as a launcher with piss-poor horizontal range and practical inability to combo into ground supers. Hayato can definitely win a battle with Chun-Li if you confine her to the ground with his superior damage-dealing ability, range, and priority. However, a close-range game will probably not always be the case. Chun-Li CAN opt to run away from you using her air mobility and assists to chip at you. This is far more problematic than a close-range game, because you'll need some sort of anti-runaway assist (Blackheart, Commando) to counter this. If you don't, then you've got a problem on your hands because landing lucky J.HKs is difficult against a character with such good air mobility. So, use assists while being wary of hers (again, expect good chipping assists such as Doom) in order to bring her down, so that she'll be forced to rely on her close-up game. This is the position you want her in, and the position Hayato can succeed in. As an assist, Chun-Li can actually be dangerous. Her AAA is fast and can do some damage, but is not truly dangerous, but her Expansion is (somewhat) unique in the fact that it's one of the two overhead assists in the game. This can be ridiculous if you're the type that likes to crouch-block, so be on guard for these assists. ------------ 12. Colossus ------------ Colossus is a dangerous mo'fo who can give you fits if you underestimate him. He has comboes and special moves that are so damaging that Hayato will be crying for his mama if he lets down his guard. Colossus is one of the game's strongest characters, with simple yet highly damaging comboes, a super that makes him a complete tank, and the second highest vitality in the game. However, he also shares your weakness of poor mobility and sports lag on just about all of his moves, and your pokes will beat his out. However, this fight is still tough; so be careful. Hayato is going to get up-close and personal with Colossus, so we really want to be careful about those Shoulder Tackles and launchers; basically you'll want to be throwing out safe B+HPs while being wary for a connection or until Colossus screws up. Many of Colossus's normals are punishable and his Shoulder Tackles are pretty much suicidal to throw out randomly, so Hayato can pretty much have a field day if you play carefully. Just never get cocky if you begin to land any big comboes; Colossus can definitely take the hits and also turn it around with one of his own simple yet devastating comboes. When Colossus commits to a combo string, he has no way by himself of making it safe; each of his more progressively powerful moves will have more lag than the last. His basic comboes usually have something to do with connecting a bunch of normals and then ending in a Shoulder Tackle, so when you block the ending hit, let it rip with the combo of your choice. This advice pertains to you, too; Colossus is one of the more brutal punishers of mistakes and one laggy move on Hayato's part can lead to something like 80% of your life bar gone. So be aggressive, but careful in this fight; it really depends on who catches the other's lag first, but you have less room for error due to his far superior vitality. Fight smart. On a side note, if you feel really sexy that day, you can air grab Colossus out of an upward shoulder tackle. It's an incredibly satisfying complete stuff of that move. You'd be a moron to even try to match Colossus in a close-range battle when he throws on his Hyper Armor; this is when Colossus can just barrel right over Hayato without a second thought. Since Colossus will likely go bananas on your ass when he activates this, Hayato's only real option is to jump away like a wuss while calling chipping assists to get him the hell away. Your assists will likely get hurt pretty bad if Colossus decides to go ape on them, but it's the only thing you can do. When his armor subsides, revert back to standard tactics. Colossus is an assist to look out for; both his Shoulder Tackles can cause you some pretty nice pain. His Dash can get you off the opponent's ass and his Anti-Air can stuff your jump-in pretty hard. Watch out for these, as they do sick damage. ----------- 13. Cyclops ----------- Cyclops is one of the most dangerous opponents you can face; he's an extremely safe fighter who has a hell of a lot of priority on just about everything he does. He can build meter, has a practical infinite, decent mix-up abilities, a double jump, and can chip well, too. He's one of the top ten characters of this game, a force to be reckoned with; although not THE toughest, he's for sure a definitely difficult fight. Cyke's ridiculous priority in the air with his J.HK ensures that you will not win in an air-to-air conflict, and also makes it so that he's an extremely dangerous character to have jumping in on you. Hayato will be hard pressed to win a conflict of hard attacks, because although Hayato sports some great priority himself, his moves are generally slower. J.HK battles in the air are risky, but possible. He's faster, but your range is better. It's your choice whether to be safe or not. Your jump-ins also outrange his DF+HK, but again, be careful not to get cocky, because Cyclops can do some great damage if one of his DF+HKs hits. Because of his orgasmic priority, Cyke can easily run away and spam J.HKs to build meter, and Hayato can't do much except rely on anti-runaway assists in order to score damage in that situation. However, Cyclops can easily punish blocked assists with his Super Optic Blast, so if you're going to call, make sure it's going to hit. Once you get him on the ground, start throwing out B+HPs in close range and the occasional C.LK, and follow up if one of them gets through. If you're able to pull this off a couple of times, Cyke will go down. You also can try to predict where he can land and try to nail him with a C.LK as he lands, but this carries a lot of risk. Getting in close range can also be a problem. Cyke can punish anything you do from long-range with his fast, full-screen beams and his multi-directional Super Optic Blast. That means you want to be as safe as possible when you approach, something that's not always easy to accomplish. An assist to keep Cyke locked down is always decent here, but make sure you superjump forward when you call it so Cyke will have to pick where he aims. Once in an ideal range, be sure to not be smashed by any hard attack, because it's pretty sure that at least 50% of your life will be wasted by the ensuing Hyper Combo that he pulls. Hayato definitely does not have a very fun time against Cyclops; even though Hayato does beat Cyke in some apsects of priority and pokes, Cyclops will probably be aware of this and will try not to get into poking range, so it's your job to force him to get there, which is far easier said than done. Remember that even if you get clubbed in the air, Cyke doesn't really have any high-damage follow-up, which is surprising(hell, even Hayato has his Guren xx Plasma Field HC with follow-ups on the ground), so you can afford to get hit in the air a couple of times. This is a very difficult fight, so don't be overly dissappointed if you lose this one. It's not impossible, due to your sword, but overall Cyclops has more tools. Good luck. Cyke is also a monster when he's OFF-point, too. This is primarily because of his Anti-Air assist, the Gene Splice. This assist has invincibility at the beginning and comes out FAST, as well as putting you at a setup point, which is perfect for Magneto to ass-rape you in several different ways or for Iron Man to begin his infinite, or hell, anybody to capitalize and do some damage. This is also a problem because even if you snap him in, you've got a hell of a fight on your hands. ------- 14. Dan ------- During Hayato's uphill battle against monsters like Cable and Sentinel, you may come across the tower of manliness known as Dan Hibiki. Dan is, bar none, hands down, one of the WORST characters in the game, but also one of the most lovable. You've likely encountered him before; the guy who taunts everyone like he doesn't give a damn and can't throw a fireball to save his life. Well, he's pretty much the same in MvC2. Perhaps Dan's only advantage is that using one of his 43543 taunts builds a sick amount of meter. Other than that, he sucks at like...everything. Hayato should have a field day here. Any defensive effort of Dan's save an invincible Koryuken (which happens randomly which means it's ridiculously unreliable) is outprioritized by Hayato's sword. This means you can basically attack Dan anyway you like without fear of being overpowered. Do so. Dan, like you, has absolutely no long-range game and must be close to do any kind of damage. His HCs also have horrible range which means they must be put in really simple comboes in order to cause any significant damage. Hayato's moves outrange and outprioritize Dan, so you can either jump-in with a hard move and then capitalize, or try to go the conventional route and land a poke from B+HP range. Either of them will lead to big rewards. Even if you screw up, the consequences aren't too bad. Suppose Dan nails you with his launcher. The only thing he can do is an aerial rave ending in his HK Dankukyaku, or possibly an Air Throw if he wants to get juicy. Hell, Hayato doesn't even give a damn about air damage and he trumps him in this with Guren xx Plasma Field. So basically, don't worry about Dan's launcher, because most of the time you'll overpower it's crappy horizontal range, and even if you do mess up, you won't get hurt too badly. Dan's ground game isn't much better, relying on simple C.LK xx HC comboes and the like to do chunks of damage. Even then, he'll have trouble trumping Hayato's B+HP and Hayato's ground comboes do a hell of a lot more damage to Dan then he could ever do to you. The only time Dan could ever do sizable damage is in the corner. Let's suppose that he gets you there. The most he can do is something like S.LP, S.MP xx LP Gadoken xx Shinkuu Gadoken; the HC juggles the opponent leaving him open to being blasted by more of Dan's HCs. While this does do decent damage, it's hard for Dan to get any opponent in the corner and it's ridiculously wasteful of the meter that he works so hard to get. Therefore, Hayato will pretty much have this fight in the bag; even if he gets you in the corner and Dan goes bananas on your ass, you'll survive because Dan's just not strong enough to pull off anything groundbreaking. Just don't let Dan nail you with a lot of random supers, and you'll be fine. You may feel guilty for destroying such a lovable guy, but such is the harsh world of MvC2. Dan is also lame as an assist. The only thing he has to offer is his anti-air, the Koryuken, which does decent damage for a one-shot move, but is a bad choice because of its piss horizontal range and its lack of invincibility. Poor, poor Dan. He just doesn't have what it takes to beat our boy Hayato, let alone...practically anyone else. ----------- 15. Dhalsim ----------- Dhalsim is a pretty interesting guy because he's potentially one of the most lethal opponents in this game, but has such a ridiculously high learning curve that you'll most likely barely run into him. But when you do, it'll likely be quite a trial, because Hayato just does not do well against Dhalsim. Dhalsim's got incredible range with which he can easily keep you at a distance that's comfortable for him. He also has extremely good runaway with the usage of his airdash and teleport; when he combines the two techniques, he can stay in the air forever. He can also rush you down to some extent with his air-dash and he's got some insane corner comboes. Perhaps his only true weakness is his terrible vitality. Hayato's gonna have quite a struggle on his hands in this one. Dhalsim's runaway is quite ridiculous; he can super-jump, airdash, teleport, airdash, repeat ad nauseum, all the while calling assists to wreck you. Once again, you're gonna have to rely on the trusty Blackheart/Commando AAA in order to bail you out. Commando is more recommended, despite the fact that it lacks the tracking of the Inferno; this is because it's way faster than Blackheart's AAA, so while Dhalsim is zipping around in the heavens, you can use the Captain Corridor to bring him down after a time and force him to stop his goofing off. Definitely don't count him out, though; he still plays a fine game of keep- away even when you bring him down. He can use his long-ass limbs to poke the hell out of you from afar and push you back in your struggle to get within sword range. You can conceivably whack the limbs with a hard attack at their apex, but this requires ridiculous timing and placement. Unfortunately, Hayato will have to struggle through the sea of limbs to reach the main man himself. Assists are, once again, vital in this goal. Using an assist that can control distance and/or distract Dhalsim as you jump-in, establish sword range. Don't get cocky even when you're there; Dhalsim can easily teleport away and revitalize his keep-away. This means you'll want to keep him locked down, preferably with an assist such as Doom or Sentinel, and look for an opening to land a poke, which you definitely should capitalize with all haste upon landing. Since Dhalsim has terrible vitality, the reward will be very high, and if you can do it twice, then Dhalsim will go down. Still, it's easier said than done, as Dhalsim can still land pokes of his own that will also lead to some quite damaging comboes. If you're in the corner, he can land comboes that can do as much as a full life bar, so try your hardest to keep the fight in the middle. There you might be able to do some damage. Don't expect too much danger from Dhalsim as an assist; his Yoga Fire is a standard one-hit projectile, easily dealt with, and his anti-air, Yoga Blast, is nothing overly dangerous. You'll likely be fearing him MUCH more as an on-point character. ------------ 16. Dr. Doom ------------ As much as you'll learn to love Dr. Doom while using him as an assist, you'll also learn to despise him while facing (getting killed by) him as Hayato. Doom has a ridiculous amount of advantages. He's got one of the most potent keep- away games out there, consisting of a nice array of projectiles and some great basic moves. He also has an air-dash, giving him good air mobility, and he's got good vitality as well, meaning even if you do manage to get him in a good combo, he can take the hits. He can also rush you down to some extent if he feels like it, and he also, as you probably already know, posesses one of the most powerful assists in the game. You're not gonna have a good time in this fight. The good doctor can really zone the hell out of you from the air with his Photon Shot, and do decent chip while he's at it. If he's really high up, you can conceivably use Hayato's dash attack to zip behind Doom, but it's risky business. If he's lower to the ground, superjumping is your only option. Dr. Doom can then blast you by air-dashing and then nailing you with his full-screen J.HP. While not quite of Cable-caliber speed, Doom's J.HP has the same amount of reach and keeps you out of the air and on the ground. To add to these moves, Doom's Air Photon Array super is ridiculously potent due to the amount of space it covers, its safety, and sick amount of chip and damage it can cause. Doom can throw this out after any combo of his to add a lot of free chip, and if he's good enough, can combo it in for sick damage, making it a huge-ass thorn in Hayato's side. These three moves are Doom's best, and you'll likely be seeing them. A LOT. When Doom's way up there raining down all sorts of hell on you, you will likely want to use a good Anti-Air to try and nail him, as Hayato will be quite hard-pressed to do that by himself. Also be aware of the assists that Doom commands; for example, he can form traps with Blackheart's AAA or Sent's drones that Hayato could have a really difficult time escaping, so a nice, invincible AAA could be really helpful in this situation. Fighting Doom as Hayato, you'll learn, is a huge team effort. Another thing that'll help is wavedashing, a technique where you dash, cancel your dash by pressing down, and dash again. This will help you better avoid Doom's photons. Hayato, again, is only left with pokes, as his jump-ins are COMPLETELY wrecked by the good doctor's C.HP. This move has way more range then it seems, and its priority is unholy. If you actually perform the miracle of getting Doom's metal ass on the ground, then apply standard B.HP/C.LK tactics while calling pressure assists. It just really sucks because even if Hayato can land one of his ground combos ending with the Rasetsu Zan, Doom's above-average vitality will ward it off to some extent. Even up-close, you've got to watch out for anything weird that Doctor tries to pull, as a connected C.LK can lead to a launch which in turn can lead to a sick amount of damage. Basically, this fight goes nowhere near in Hayato's favor at nearly any time unless it's in poke range, at which it's almost even. You'll likely be facing this fight a whole lot, and it's one of Hayato's worst. Tragic, I know. The reason for Doom showing up so much, other than his impressive performance, is the sheer greatness of his Anti-Air assist(which, ironically, is bad for Anti-Air purposes). This assist, which you might be fluent in being a Hayato user, can do a hell of a lot of ish to you: it can chip you, pressure you, do decent damage, keep you in blockstun, etc. It also sucks, because if Doom's AAA is giving you fits, then even when you snap him in, it's a freakin' hell of a battle. Hayato just doesn't want to be in this matchup, as it's quite a toughie. But it's inevitable you'll encounter it, so good luck when it does happen. ----------- 17. Felicia ----------- I kind of (KIND OF) consider Hayato and Felicia to be alike in a few ways, those ways being that they both have ass for anti-air abilities and that they are both far more threatening on the ground. They both have the insane dance moves. Felicia will try to keep you on the ground, as Hayato wrecks her air- to-air with his superior priority; your objective will be to beat her on the ground, since Felicia won't try to match you in the air. You could try jumping in, but it's pretty certain that Felicia is carting an anti-air assist, as her anti-air ability is weak. If for some weird reason she doesn't have one, then you can add that as an option. This fight could go either way, but it's a tough one. If ever you manage to get Felicia in the air, you definitely need to try and capitalize, as Felicia's air abilities in general are pretty bad. You can nail her (heh) with a hard attack, or try to go for a small air combo. The only thing to watch out for in the air is her air throw, which has a decent amount of range for whatever reason. With all that being said, Hayato won't have to worry about getting close, as Felicia will likely be in your face. You can outprioritize any anti-air attempt that she alone makes with your jump-ins, so that's an offensive option if she lacks a good Anti-Air Assist. Other than that, Hayato can out-range her with his B+HP, which can lead to decent damage if landed; our boy can actually do some damage in this fight! Hot damn. You still have to play it pretty safely with your moves in this fight, because Felicia can land some major damage if she gets a hit in with her decently damaging comboes. Stick to your usual poking methods of B+HP and C.LK and, as usual, mount the offensive if one of them gets through. Whoever is controlling the pace of the fight here will more often than not be the victor in this fight, and we don't want Felicia playing that role. Apply the pressure, call assists, look for ways to get a poke in and you could be successful in a ground battle. Your Hayato may also be facing a more defensive Felicia type. This Felicia will be far more cautious and will be waiting for you to make a laggy Hayato mistake so that she can destroy you with her Hyper Sand Splash HC that comes out really ****ing fast and does hefty damage. Hayato will seriously eat it if he makes any kind of mistake on the ground, so just play extra carefully, making sure not to throw out a blocked MP or anything like that. A fight against either style of Felicia will be difficult, but not nearly as difficult as other opponents you've faced, so have fun with this fight. Felicia has mediocre assists, so you'll likely be having much more trouble with her on-point. The most threatening assist she has is probably her Sand Splash due to its good speed, but there are far, far more threatening assists there. ---------- 18. Gambit ---------- Gambit, like Hayato, is one stylish bad boy who comes to the fight armed with a big...stick. This gives him some Hayato-like priority on his HP attacks, and add this to the fact that he's got one of better special movesets in the game, and Hayato will have quite a battle on his hands. He's got a fast, nearly unpunishable projectile in his Kinetic Card, his Cajun Slash has ridiculous speed and range, and his Cajun Strike moves give him a fast way to move around and are weird to predict. This should be a fun fight, but there's no doubt it'll be a tough one. Gambit has the ability to keep you at a distance he feels is comfortable through the usage of Air Kinetic Cards, LP Kinetic Cards on the ground, using his staff and LP Cajun Slashes in close-range, and his Cajun Strike moves. Hayato is going to want to be very careful here; any landed cards put Hayato in a brief stun in which he's susceptible to a Royal Flash or Cajun Explosion HC. Hayato of course will want to resort to usual tactics: calling a good AAA when Gambit's being goofy and try to land a poke when up close. Since Gambit's anti-jumpin abilities aren't so hot, you can go for that if you please as long as you're aware of a possible AAA. Also, don't count on being able to punish any assists that Gambit uses; he can cover them quite well by throwing out some of those damn cards. Fighting Gambit up-close is a neat ordeal; you'll definitely have to fear and watch out for the Cajun Strike, as it is just ridiculously fast with good range and priority, and trumps any of Hayato's pokes. It'll also push you back so that Gambit can revitalize his keep-away if that's what he was focusing on, so definitely watch out for that move. Gambit has relatively fast light moves, so you'll definteily not want to get all cocky if you manage to get him in sword range, as Gambit has some good reach on his C.LK as well. Try to focus on getting in a B+HP in between Cajun Strikes and poke attempts, and you may get the oppurtunity to land some decent damage. Gambit can also really screw with you in the corner. If he lands a throw in there, he can capitalize on it by doing an OTG combo, so make sure you practice your rolling. He's got some alright OTG mixups with his Cajun Slash, so also watch out for those, as well as any attempts to OTG into the Royal Flash. Also always watch out for any weird Cajun Strike/Explosion stuff he may try to pull, as you can get yourself crossed up if you're slow with your blocking. This is a difficult fight due to Gambit's ability to give Hayato a great fight even from Hayato's most comfortable range, but it's, again, not impossible, so good luck. As if his point abilities weren't enough, Gambit also has a great assist with his Projectile; it's one of the best projectile assists in the game. He can effectively help opponents pin you down to an extent and, if he connects, leave you wide open to just about anything. Gambit proves himself to be an unexpected danger throughout the entire battle, so Hayato will definitely be on his toes the entire fight. --------- 19. Guile --------- Visions (or more accurately nightmares) of Cyclops battles may come back to your mind because Guile also has ridiculous priority on a lot of his moves. He, obviously, plays somewhat similarly to Charlie but of course not nearly exactly. Whereas Charlie can get ridiculous damage off of one combo, Guile is more about whittling you down while remaining relatively safe. Hayato is a bit of a mixture of both of these styles but not quite the caliber of quality. As with Guile's best pal Charlie, you're gonna have quite a fight in your hands of yet another battle of America vs. Japan. Our buddy Guile can throw out a bunch of Sonic Booms whenever he feels like it because our main man Hayato doesn't have any way he can punish it. These can put quite a bit of pressure on a lone Hayato, so rely on assists to do the projectile negation for you. If Guile tries to do that infamous C.HK into super routine, make him regret his mistake by rolling and then nailing him with a jump-in or ground combo if he hypercancels instinctively. Other than this, Hayato will be hard-pressed to find a pokable Guile mistake, so if this is one of the only tricks he knows, then you'll have gotten really lucky with this matchup. Again, I can't stress Guile's priority enough. His J.HK is ridiculous and gives even Sentinel a rough time, but however, his launcher is a physical attack and beatable with Hayato's sword. This is good news, but Guile can also control the air with Flash Kicks. If you manage to bait one of them out, it becomes a very punishable chance. Make sure to seize it and captalize on a landed hard hit by nailing him with a fine combo. In sword range, Guile can use a weird-ass physics-defying overhead kick to punish low kicks; stick to B+HP if you want to use maximum safety, otherwise mix it up. If you manage to get into Hayato's poke range, the battle becomes much easier. When Guile lands any kind of hit, it's bad news, because on the ground he can destroy you with one of his ultra-fast supers, and in the air he can go for some kind of air throw reset combo or find a way to nail you with his air auto-combo HC. Thus, you should make it your goal to also make it bad news for him if you land a B+HP; hell, go for a Black Hayato if you feel like it, it'll give you some style points. Just make sure you play it as safe as possible, as Guile's Somersault HC as instant startup and invincibility and can nail you on any mistake, or even bypass your pokes if he's psychic. He's probably a harder match-up for you then Charlie at the more relative ease in which he fights you, but either way, you'll have your hands full in this battle, so good luck; you'll need it. You'll find that Guile is a pain in the ass as an assist because his Anti-Air will wreck you due to its huge range, giving it great air control abilities, and its priority over anything you do on the ground. Snapping him in MAY be a good idea, but you also have to remember how he's a pain on-point, too. Guile basically just harrasses the hell out of Hayato from any point, so be careful of him at all times. ---------- 20. Hayato ---------- Hey, it's our main man himself! Basically, this matchup is kind of gross. All I can say is that look for oppurtunities to punish him if he tries any laggy pokes, throws out any specials or supers out of nowhere, or the like. Whoever lands more poke-to-comboes wins, in short; there's not much to this mirror match. Use what you know about Hayato's weaknesses to take care of that imposter on the other side. -------- 21. Hulk -------- Hulk is one of the three guys naturally blessed with Super Armor, meaning that he can negate a few light attacks or one hard attack before he enters hitstun. This can give him an assload of priority on some moves, and allows him to tank through any jump-ins or C.LKs you try to pull. Hulk will get in your face and can overwhelm you if you're not prepared; he can do an assload of damage off of even very simple comboes, and any more complex stuff he tries to pull can kill you outright. This definitely is a tougher battle than you might think. The Hulk carries a surprising amount of speed for such a big dude. So, you can expect him to be all up in your personal space from the start. The big man has a good set of normal moves; for example, on the ground his C.LK is fast, has great reach, and his Super Armor gives it some damn good priority. He can use this to do all kinds of hell to Hayato, for example he can link a C.LK, C.MK to a Gamma Charge xx Gamma Quake for ridiculous damage, and that's just one of his simplest comboes. His J.HP stops his movement, making it good for faking you out, and its weird hitbox makes it adept at crossing you up. His jump-in moves carry massive priority. Basically, Hulk is all about finding ways to land one of his unbelievably damaging comboes on you, and you will not have the time of your life if ever he succeeds. Hayato does carry a good strength against the Hulk, and it's something you're well familiar with: the B+HP totally ignores Super Armor, making the big guy flinch without the need to combo it in. This will make it become your main weapon against the green giant, and you should be throwing them out to keep Hulk from steamrolling you. C.LKs become out of the question because Hulk thrashes them, so form your offense around the B+HP. Hulk's range enables him to land his damaging comboes easily, but he has to work a little harder against Hayato due to the armor-ignoring B+HP; this definitely doesn't break Hulk, but it does put a big thorn in his side, and Hulk players usually don't expect a move that looks exactly like a light attack to pierce their armor. Take advantage of this fact. The Gamma Crush may or may not be a problem in this fight depending on if Hulk knows how to make it unmashable or not. If ever you're hit by the Gamma Crush, mash like crazy once you hit the ground and you may avoid it. However, Hulk players love to find ways to make the meteor hit you before you hit the ground thus making it unmashable, so watch out for that. Essentially, it's risky for Hayato to go on an offensive rush since Hulk can find many ways to turn it around. You'll want to be more defensive and wait for windows to B+HP. This makes it a difficult, but not impossible battle. Hulk's Gamma Charge assists are the ones to look out for since they come at you pretty fast and have decent priority and damage. They don't really do that much other than get you out of the opponent's face or to tack on some extra pressure, so just be on guard for them, and you'll be fine. ---------- 22. Iceman ---------- The subject of whining for many a player new to the game, Iceman actually doesn't really have much to offer. His most highly lauded advantage is the fact that he doesn't take chip damage from energy attacks, and since our pal Hayato doesn't give a damn about doing chip, this is negated. You'll find that Iceman doesn't live up to the hype that beginners give him, as he is pretty limited in his damage-dealing. Magneto and Storm rip him apart, but even Hayato has a few tricks against Iceman. Iceman has three ways of being able to land his big damage; he can jump-in, dash-in and try to land a C.LK, or throw you(it freezes you, leaving you open to attack). You can negate his jump-ins with a well-timed launcher, and try to keep him out of C.LKing and throwing range by throwing out long-range pokes of your own. He can also do some decent chip with the Icebeam, but it's laggy and easily punished at close-range, and possible to avoid at long range. Unless he has a good trapping assist, you don't have to worry too much about being chipped to death, and Iceman's poor anti-jumpin ability(all he has is an HP Icebeam, which can lead to big rewards for you if avoided), jumping in becomes an option for Hayato. Since Iceman's vitality isn't good, all you have to do is land a few solid comboes and Iceman will be down for the count. If Iceman hits you, it'll be around the same level as you hitting him; if he lacks meter, he can do a ground chain ending in an Icebeam, and if he does have meter, he can launch you and do an AC ending in his Arctic Attack; if he's fluent in his ACs he'll cancel a special move super-fast into the Arctic Attack so that more ice chips will hit Hayato, leading to decent damage. This is about all he has in terms of damage. If he's carting Sentinel, however, he can make judicious use of drones in order to chip you much easier and make him safer, and perhaps elongate his ground comboes, so you'll want to be careful in this case. Whoever lands more combo-to-HCs wins, so Hayato wants to be in this fight with lots of meter. And also, even though you have far greater variety in HC choice, his lone HC gives him more air damage than Hayato if not in the corner. As this is his only HC, Hayato wins in terms of ground damage and HC variety, while Iceman takes the crown in air damage. You may manage to get Iceman to play defense, when using your better-priority jump-ins and pokes, and land a combo or two(two Engetsu comboes practically spell doom for a lot of characters, and Iceman is no exception). Iceman's main weapons in this case are his S.HK which has decent range on the ground and can prove problematic in conjunction with assists, and his Icebeams. Stick to usual tactics, mixing up high and low pokes with assists to score that one vital hit. Iceman only takes a few comboes to bring down, so take advantage of this fact. Also, Doctor Doom's AAA doesn't give a damn about Iceman's no- chip rule, and bypasses it, so this assist will be helpful in bringing down the X-men's cool guy. Play it safe, don't let him poke or launch you, don't be scared of his chipping power, and you'll do fine. Iceman's lack of variety is one of his biggest weaknesses, and it becomes apparent the more you play against him. Iceman as an assist is of course everyone's favorite Icebeam. It has a bit of startup when he comes out, so you can see it coming, and does a bit of chip damage, so characters keeping you in blockstun can get a few free points of damage. Other than this, the assist is nothing unique or groundbreaking, so don't get too flustered about it. His Ice Rock assist can be somewhat threatening to your movement abilities, but it's not the level of shutdown that Dr. Doom or any invincible AAA can give you. ------------ 23. Iron Man ------------ One of the toughest fights in the game, Iron Man is a very tough customer. In addition to good vitality and fast, high-priority normals, he's got one of the easiest and most useful infinites in the game, and about a million different ways to kill you off having to do with said infinite. Iron Man will try to land his infinite throughout the match on Hayato, so you don't have to worry about closing any sort of distance. However, that doesn't make this battle any easier; he also packs one of if not the best DHCs in the game in his Proton Cannon, along with combo resets giving him even more damage capability. He even gets an eight way air-dash which gives him even more massive combo potential. Iron Man is an offensive monster, and it's gonna be a rough ride. Let's start with Iron Man's more impressive basic moves, which are vital in his gameplan. While medium attacks usually aren't too impressive, Iron Man's C.MP bears special mention for being able to lead to a load of stuff(launch, Proton Cannon, among other things). His S.HK launcher, while lacking in horizontal range, comes out really fast, lifts him off the ground thus avoiding Hayato's C.LKs, and has great vertical range. However, the one to truly be aware of is his J.HP. It can aim in three different directions, and if at any time he lands an U+HP in the air, it's infinite time, and you'll likely be dead if the Iron Man is worth his salt. His launcher also has the property of being difficult to punish unless completely whiffed because, if you block it, he can cancel it into an LP Unibeam to keep you in stun. All in all, you've got to play it extremely safe, because if Iron Man lands a hit on you, it'll be worth even more damage than if you land one on him. Iron Man's game revolves around his infinite. When you attack, keep it as safe as you possibly can; stick to C.LKs and B+HPs and never for the love of God use an MP. Iron Man likes his opponent to attack because then he can start looking for oppurtunities to destroy you. Also, try to stay put on the ground. Most of Iron Man's infinites revolve around you being airborne and staying put on Earth for as long as possible helps. As always with Hayato, never go hyper-defensive; Iron Man is more than capable of mixing it up and he can pull many of the same triangle jump mix-ups and super jump cancels that Magneto himself can, and unless you're spot-on with your blocking, you'll find yourself in quite a pickle. So, try to keep yourself on the offensive using assists and fast pokes, although it'll be difficult. Iron Man is difficult to punish, so waiting for an oppurtunity might not work; Iron Man's offense is devastating, so you want to keep him off the offense for as long as possible. You being the one on offense is the only way that's possible, which is a very difficult task. The Proton Cannon deserves special mentioning. It may be his only super and also slow as hell to start up, but it's still the only HC he needs. He can land it off of any infinite, through the help of assists, among other ways, though the most infamous way is through DHC. DHCing this move in removes ALL of the startup, so if you're being stupid at any given time, your opponent could immediately do an instant super and then DHC to this, thus blasting the hell out of you. This makes Iron Man a danger at all times. If a character is coming in from another one's death, he can very easily guard break-to- infinite them, which is similar to, but not quite of the caliber of Cable's excellent guard breaking skills. You'll really want to watch out for any assists, especially those of the setup type, that Iron Man carts. If at any time he nails you with an assist, it's an infinite oppurtunity that he can be sure to seize. All of these possible ways that Iron Man can infinite you are what makes this match-up so terrible; while Hayato capitalizes on his landed hits by a damaging combo, Iron Man capitalizes on HIS landed hits by completely destroying his opponent. Try your hardest; call an invincible AAA if you want him off your ass, and try to assume some pressure so that he has trouble even getting there. This is an extremely difficult battle, as winning against a well-played Iron Man as Hayato is an impressive feat. Good luck. You'll see Iron Man as an assist, his Anti-Air, the Repulsar Blast. It does hefty damage and can snatch you out of a surprising amount of things, leaving you open to all kinds of hell. He can conceivably Variable Counter into a Repulsar Blast xx Proton Cannon, but it's risky and you probably won't see it very often. This assist makes Iron Man dangerous in three ways: on-point, as a DHC, and as an assist. Very nice. -------- 24. Jill -------- Jill can give you headaches. She's got the ability to tack on pressure with her zombies and crows as she attacks, good speed, great OTG abilities, and decent comboes. You do outrange and outpoke her in several situations, but this is still a tough battle. You should come to this fight with a Projectile or Anti-Air assist; Hayato with his lack of ranged moves does badly against a zombie-enhanced Jill game, so add this to your preparations for the fight. Ms. Valentine has the ability to fill the screen with a lot of crap. If she's packing an assist like Sentinel drones, she can fill the screen with even more crap, piling on the pressure on poor Hayato. Expect Jill to summon stuff and then rush in and try to land a hit that she can combo from. Hayato won't like this at all. However, if you get rid of the zombies she calls with an assist, you can substantially lower the amount of pressure being placed on you. Crows are also a thing to watch out for, as they swoop surprisingly low and are fast as hell, making them something you can't avoid too easily. If she lands a C.LK with the help of zombie and assist pressures, she can expand from that into her Hyper Shoulder Tackle thing and fry you for decent damage. Hayato won't want this to happen. The main way to prevent her pressure is by applying it close yourself. Jill's natural summons require a lot of time (and her shocked expression is the easiest thing to see ever), so if Hayato is in her face, then she can't call them. This will take away a decent portion of Jill's pressure game. This might not necessarily be easy; Jill could use assists to cover her ass while she calls zombies. Her flaming zombie isn't knocked down by her crows or dogs, so you'll have quite a bit of hell to avoid if she goes nuts with her summons, making it quite difficult to apply the close-range pressure you want. This is what your assist will be for. Call out the assist as soon as you see Jill's shocked expression, and knock out that zombie. Jumping in is an option here, as your jump-in priority is great against Jill. Jill is still very fast even if she doesn't use summons; her pokes will outspeed you, so keep within B+HP range to make things more difficult for her. She, like you, relies on landing small hits that can lead to a combo, but has a significant advantage in that her summons can give her the openings she needs. If you try to take away her advantage with assists and being in her face, you may stand a chance. Hayato has the power and priority in this battle but Jill has the speed and advantage of oppurtunity. It will be difficult. Jill is only alright as an assist. Her anti-air is a projectile, so it has great priority; it's slow and not very useful, though. Her dash is alright; its got decent priority and is pretty fast. Her Heal assist is completely useless though, she's wide open for a million years if she uses it, so if your opponent is ever dumb enough to use it, make sure to take a lot of advantage by smacking her around for a bit while she holds out that herb. ------- 25. Jin ------- I always found this match fun as hell for whatever reason; probably because it's a battle of Japanese stereotypes. Jin and Hayato are alike in a few ways; they're both low-tier rushdown characters, and they both rely on having a comfortable distance to fight well. They also both boast a lot of priority and reach on normal moves, and suffer from lag issues. With all that being said, Jin has a slight advantage in this match-up: he sports a better distance game, more strength, and more durability, as well an amazing AAA and a last- ditch invincibility power-up. This match is tough, but possible. Jinny has got quite a bit of power. He does a lot of damage with just a few moves, and his flaming basic attacks do chip damage. However, his hard moves take forever to start up and are punishable if successfully blocked, and his light attacks, while very useful, are outranged by your sword. However, you still need to be wary; his sweep lasts a while, but Jin can greatly reduce the recovery by doing it from a farther distance. Even if you try to punish it from the air or retaliate from blocking, he can cancel it at any time into a Dynamite (GET NAKED!) and blow the hell out of you. His sweep has a surprising range, so try not to fall for any of its mind games. His jabs are faster than your sword swings, but have less reach. Keeping him at that specific distance of advantage is a good key to mid-range combat with Jin. If ever Jin does get into very close range, you'll surely be facing some consequences. His throw has a lot of priority and he can mash the kick version which can lead to some sick damage. His pokes are faster than yours, meaning all the priority in the world won't save you. If he lands a hit he can easily combo into a Typhoon xx Blodia Punch and it's your ass. This battle ends up on who can establish the more comfortable distance; Hayato does better when he's in B+HP range but Jin does better practically everywhere else. If you can keep Jin within sword range, and mix it up to try to land a few comboes, you will come out on top. This is easier said than done, though. Jin's ridiculous moves will have you struggling to maintain your range; his Dynamite will ruin everything you do, and it's nearly instant. His Hard attacks all have great range, which will ruin you if you're not at the right distance. If Jin is able to control the ground, it's over; Jin's Blodia Vulcan is UNBLOCKABLE if you're super jumping above him, so stick mainly to normal jumps in this battle, because that HC will ruin you. Call assists and apply pressure to try and win the battle of control. Blocking laggy hard attacks such as his S.HP, S.HK, and C.HK (careful of a Dynamite cancel) can also provide great windows for a Shiden xx HC. This battle can be difficult, but definitely possible. If Jin goes nuts (when he has 1/3 health and no partners), the battle becomes a bit more scary. His attack and vitality get jacked up, and he gains Super Armor. Luckily, Hayato has an answer to this in the armor-ignoring B+HP. Apply that move liberally to a crazy-ass mode Jin, and continue with your standard Jin tactics. If the opponent gets desparate when this move activates and goes on a wild attack, you'll have won. Jin's Anti-Air assist, the Dynamite, is almost obnoxiously good. Its priority is unbelievable and it has a nice range, hitting all around his (naked) body. This will stop any of Hayato's offensive moves in their tracks, and there's not much you can really do other than a snapback to deal with Blodia's pilot. You may be at an advantage doing this because you won't have to deal with Psycho Jin, and when you dispose of him, your opponent will have lost the use of one of the best AAAs out there. -------------- 26. Juggernaut -------------- Oh, lord. Juggernaut is scary as hell. This is gonna be a tough fight, and Hayato is gonna have to play extremely safely to scrape away a win. Juggernaut deals amazing damage, takes it well, has the reach of a god, and his Super Armor enables him to beat out your hard attacks. In addition, he has one of the greatest punisher HCs in the game in the Headcrush. He can also jack up his attack power to absolutely obnoxious heights with an easy-to-do glitch. Hayato's gonna be having a LOT of fun here... Juggernaut will likely be coming into this fight with a lot of meter, so that he can Headcrush the living hell out of you whenever he wants. You should do the same so that you can better capitalize on your B+HPs. B+HP, like the Hulk battle, will be your best friend in this fight, as it will penetrate Juggy's armor. Your whole game plan revolves around throwing out B+HPs and assists and hoping you connect. Juggernaut's Super Armor and punishment capability don't leave you with many other options. Getting in can be difficult; Hayato has superior speed, but far inferior range. Jugg's pokes reach over half the damn screen, so advance carefully, with assists to cover, to try and establish a comfortable B+HP range. In this range, you may be able to do some damage. However, Juggernaut can do WAY MORE damage. His Headcrush bears special mention. This thing will barrel over anything you can do, and its speed is absolutely ridiculous. He can combo it off of ANY landed poke, so be wary of the big man's C.LKs. Two of them will cost you a character. The C.LK is his fastest poke, so blocking low is generally a good idea. Juggy generally has to play pretty safe up close, since his recovery is so horrible. If he gets stupid and throws out hard attacks when you're up close, punish him as brutally as you can. His vitality will reduce the rewards, but you'll still do a sizable chunk of damage. Baiting out his moves becomes an excellent strategy here; if you block a Headcrush, you can basically do anything you want. If you thought Juggernaut's damage was great, wait till he glitches himself. This is where he does his "Power UP!" move and then switches out. Normally that would be stupid, but the glitch makes it so that his massive strength increase is permanent. This means that a basic Headcrush combo can kill poor Hayato. There's no real counter to this then to try the hell not to get hit, because one hit will cost you your character. The corner bears more special mention. If he gets you there, you better be ready to Tech Hit like hell. Juggy's HP throw, if he gets you with it, enables him to follow up with many fun things such as a Headcrush, a launch, or maybe an air throw reset if he wants to get juicy. Tech that crap. Essentially, this fight is majorly in Juggernaut's favor; Juggernaut, with his amazing damage output and high vitality, can afford to make a few mistakes against Hayato, who in turn can only afford to screw up twice(once if Jugg glitched), AND who only has one poke option. Play very safely, try and land that B+HP, block those pokes, and tech that throw. This fight is possible, but QUITE difficult. Juggernaut's assists are pretty nice. The Juggernaut Punch is like some kind of steamroller from hell and will generally annihilate any of Hayato's physical attacks, while the Body Slam is an overhead move which is usable in mix-ups. They both help control the ground, which is where Hayato does all his damage, so they're particularly difficult. Snap his big ass in or destroy his assist with an invincible AAA. ------- 27. Ken ------- Another shoto extravaganza. Ken, like Akuma, relies on offense, but is better overall at defense. This is because Ken has WAY better vitality than the A-man and has invincibilty on a ridiculous amount of moves. Hayato will have to be wary of this fight because any mistake on the ground can lead to a Shoryureppa and any mistake while jumping in will lead to a Shinryuken. Ken also shares the amazingly damaging Air Hurricane Kick you saw with Akuma, and has a bit of a mix-up game with his roll and cross-ups. This fight should be fun. Mid-range is the place to be here. Your C.LKs are of equal speed, and your sword will outrange him. If Ken has meter, he can Shoryureppa you to hell on any landed poke, like you can do with Engetsu or Rasetsu Zan with any of your pokes. Damage-wise, you both pose an equal threat at mid-range, which is good for your superior range and priority. If you can keep Ken in mid-range and land some comboes, then you will be at a huge advantage. All you have to do is not screw up majorly; Ken can punish any blocked MPs or whiffed moves easily with a Shoryureppa. It's not nearly as harsh as the Headcrush or AHVB, but it's still a threat. The Shoryureppa is the only thing to worry about at mid range. Be wary when jumping in. Why? The Shoryuken and Shinryuken will destroy any air-to-ground moves you have. If you do jump-in, try to bait out the Shoryuken or Shinryuken, and destroy him when he lands due to the complete state of vulnerability they leave Ken in. If Ken catches on to you and remains blocking during jump-ins, land and throw or Byakko Hou him. Ken's launcher sucks against Hayato, so those two options are all he has. Jumping in is viable, but you have to think a little when you do so. Be careful of his launcher nonetheless; if he gets you, you'll be eating an Air Hurricane Kick combo for over half of your lifebar. If he succesfully resets you after one, you're dead. And Hayato doesn't like being dead. If ever you get into close range, get into sword-range ASAP. Ken destroys you at close range with having way more options. He can do his mashable HK throw, assault you with his quicker moves, or go for a roll mixup. Ken's roll passes through you, so if he locks you down with an assist, he can cross you up if you're not spot-on with your blocking. If he rolls without cover, throw him out of it. His roll mixups are similar to Captain America's cartwheels, so you can apply similar strategies. This battle is another tough fight for Hayato, but it's possible if you bait out high-recovery moves in jump-ins or otherwise, and keep Ken out of close range. Another uphill battle, but by far not the most difficult. Ken's Anti-Air assist is very, very annoying to an attacking Hayato. It has orgasmic priority and will stuff anything Hayato does, while also being near- instant. It leaves Ken extremely open afterwards, but that doesn't matter if he hits you. You may want to snap Ken in if your opponent is relying on this assist to screw your offensive efforts. You may also see Ken's Expansion, the rising Hurricane Kick, which is fast, decently damaging, and can make for some interesting setups. It's not quite the monster that is his AAA, but it's still a threat. ----------------------- 28. M. Bison (AKA Vega) ----------------------- Good ol' Bison. An A-Groove god in CvS2, Bison's been reduced to mid-tier status in Marvel, which means you kind of stand a chance. Bison's a pretty interesting character in this game; he can somewhat trap, he can sort of rush. He's a mixed bag. Either way, he poses a threat. Bison has very damaging air comboes, fast pokes, some alright anti-rushdown techniques, and a teleport for getting out of the corner. This fight should be fun. M. Bison has great air comboes which lead to massive damage, but that advantage is hampered by his crapstorm of a launcher. He can only combo it off of one light attack, so you don't really have to worry about any J.HK, launch comboes like most other characters. His ground comboes blow compared to his air comboes, but you still need to watch out, because they do their own share of damage; his only choice is the Knee Press Nightmare since the Psycho Crusher is terrible on the ground, with way too much startup and not much damage. Don't discount him on the ground, though; he may be fat and thus easier to pressure with constant B+HPs and C.LKs, but he has some tools of his own. His Psycho Field special stops Hayato's attack in its tracks and can provide some decent pressure, enabling Bison to start an offense of his own. If he's carting Doom he can do some decent trapping with his orbs and Doom's AAA, which can screw you if you're in the corner, so keep this fact in mind. His pokes, especially his crouching ones, are faster than yours at close-range, so you'll be eating shinguard if you try to win a point-blank fight. Bison can guard break with his fireballs, so watch out if you're coming in from a dead character. He can also juggle his exploding orb HC in the corner infinitely, but the damage isn't so hot for the meter burned. He can also attempt to cross you up by doing a Devil's Reverse behind you and then going for a Psycho Crusher. This isn't the most terrifying cross-up out there, but watch out for it just the same. Jumping in is an option here due to Bison's crappy launcher; just watch out for any AAAs he carts. This battle is winnable if you can keep Bison within Hayato's sword range. Be wary of his traps, and watch out for his cross-ups. Jump in if you like, since he has nothing for anti-air other than an AAA. Can be tough, but definitely winnable. The Variety assist that Bison has is one of the better ones in the game; it forces Hayato to take to the air, AND Bison leaps out before it explodes, enabling an opponent to call another assist. This is bad for Hayato, and it makes Bison's presence known no matter where he is. Bison is punishable when he releases the orb, but it'll still explode when Hayato is wrecking Bison. All in all a very great assist; watch out for it. ----------- 29. Magneto ----------- This matchup is disgusting. A member of the God 4 alongside Cable, Mags is the god of rushdown, infinites, resets, mixups, and basically of all things combo. Any landed C.LK or any landed jumping attack by Magneto and he'll Magnetic Tempest, infinite, or reset you to hell and back again. Hayato, on the other hand, needs to land 2 or 3 pokes with meter to score a win, which is on the verge of impossible when playing against Magneto. While Hayato probably stands the most chance against Mags out of all the top 4, that doesn't by ANY means you'll do well in this fight. All things being equal, you'll get pasted. Harsh but true. A very beginning Magneto tactic is a Hyper Grav xx Magnetic Tempest air combo. Even this does sick damage and Mag can continue to screw you after it ends. You've got to learn to mash out of that damn Hyper Grav. Just start jamming the buttons and stick like you want to break the machine as soon as Magneto says "Hyper..." and hopefully you'll break out and block the incoming Tempest, making your doom less imminent. Also, make sure you're spot on with your blocking, because Magneto is one of those characters where at the same time you're blocking his low kick, you get slammed by an overhead hit from his air dash and start eating combo. This is due to the tri-jump, a move where Magneto jumps and then cancels quickly into an air-dash, going down-forward towards your head to try and land overhead hits and then wreck you. It's a huge pain to deal with, so try and get Magneto off your ass. But it's not like Hayato will be able to do that by himself, since B+HP only can do so much(his C.LK completely owns yours, don't even try it). Then again, Magneto may get cocky and dash right into it, but that's rare. Anyway, you'll need assists to stand a chance. An invincible AAA could help, such as Ken (Blackheart is a no-no). These will take priority over even Magneto, and push him the hell away, which is always a plus. Another choice is to bring Zangief, activate his Iron Body and then spam his Ground assist. That assist in Iron Body form stuffs any kind of rushdown and Mags is no exception, the reason being that Magneto can't hit him out of the Lariat. If Zangief connects, then Hayato can launch Mags and start wailing on him, or go for an Engetsu; any landed Gief assist will equal damage. And damage versus Magneto is a great thing. Speaking of assists, watch out for any assists Magneto carts; Psylocke AAA in particular. Any landed Psylocke equals a free infinite, so it's your ass if you let her harrass you. Other than those assists, Hayato has no real way to seriously damage Magneto. His B+HP and LP attacks are normally good pokes, but they're not good enough to do anything groundbreaking to Magneto; he'd have to **** up 3 times, and even more times if you fail to capitalize on the small chance of a landed poke. This rarely happens with Mags due to him being in your face in .5 seconds. There's not really a point to delving into Magneto's ROM or Slide Infinites or any others, or resets, because Hayato has no real natural counter for Magneto's devastating offense. Just come with a great anti-rushdown assist, because it may be the only chance you have. Thankfully, Magneto is rather unspectacular in terms of assists. However, he's by no means bad. His projectile is a fast-as-hell full screen beam that hits only once, but does decent damage. Fortunately, it's his best assist. Capture is too slow to do much good, and Launcher is just terrible. Magneto definitely is much more of a threat on point, so his presence isn't as scary as, say, Sentinel. ---------- 30. Marrow ---------- Marrow is a rare encounter; people seem to rarely play her, but she poses some threats. She's relatively quick, and has some interesting moves. However, a lot of her moves end up getting outperformed by Hayato's sword, and she takes damage rather horribly. She is more mobile than you, but you have better damage-dealing abilities. This fight may be annoying, but not too difficult. First off, you outperform Marrow in terms of basic moves. She has faster moves but their range is generally bad, and you can feel free to throw out your pokes; she'll have no choice but to try to get past your sword range, and your pokes and assists will keep her out. She does have a bit of a range game, though; her Bonemerang is a useful zoning tool that she can use while in Hayato's range, and her Towering Spine can outrange your jump-ins; her homing bones HC can also be a pain. If she's good with her Towering Spine, jumping in is not much of an option. Establishing sword range is key here; Marrow won't be able to do much when you do so. Her wall jump attack can be jumped and J.HKed, and her launcher is a piss-poor choice against Hayato. Any attempts to jump-in can be launchered or stopped with an Anti-Air assist, so Marrow is reduced to standard rushdown, dashing in and attempting to land a combo. With assists and your fast and long pokes, you can keep her out of the range she wants, putting you in a very favorable position. Don't let it make you cocky; remember to keep her the hell out of close range. If she does land a combo, it can do some decent damage. However, Hayato will do more to her, and has more of a chance of doing so anyway; she may cart a close-in assist such as Sentinel, but this is standard rushdown fare and you can easily call an assist of your own and jump away. Not a difficult fight, but don't get cocky. -------------------------- 31. Mega Man (AKA Rockman) -------------------------- This match-up is actually a huge pain in the ass. Mega Man eats rushdown for breakfast, due to his innate talent for filling the screen with an unholy amount of projectiles. His Air Buster Shot does a sick amount of damage for a one-button move, and he's relatively speedy to boot. He also has a wall jump technique to get him out of the corner, and great pin-down abilities if he has an assist, and good mix-up capabilities in the corner. He even takes damage pretty well, so Hayato will have to successfully poke him more than twice. This is a difficult battle. When approaching Mega Man, Hayato must always do so very carefully; Mega Man's Air Buster Shot does good damage, and he can immediately throw out a Buster Shot on the ground after landing, creating a wall of projectiles that Hayato will either be forced to block(no chip, thankfully) or super-jump over. Mega Man can then try to launch you out of the air (rare; Hayato will beat him in this case, but make sure to take much advantage if he tries this), an AAA, a Mega Upper (also stupid, if you bait this it's a free combo), or Hyper Megaman you. With these at his disposal it's better to jump in defensively, to see if he throws out a Hyper Megaman or launcher, and punish accordingly. Make SURE not to accidently throw out a dash attack if you dash in to punish a blocked Hyper Megaman; wavedashing could come in handy in that situation. A Shiden xx whatever works if you're close enough. Jumping in may actually be Hayato's only option. Mega Man basically controls the ground, which is what makes this match-up so terrible. Since Hayato does most of his damage off his fast, long-range ground pokes, Mega Man essentially screws his main method of offense. His ground control is often due to carting an assist, usually Sentinel Ground, to zone you even further while blasting you with his Buster Shots. He can also kick a Rock Ball to control you even further, making mounting an offense extremely difficult. Calling an assist to cover yourself right before you go for a super-jumping offensive is very recommended; put that Doom or Sentinel to work. If you keep Mega Man locked down with Doom and jump in, you may be able to get the opening you need to land a combo. Try not to get forced into the corner; Mega Man is obnoxious there. His jab is one frame, so if he gets close, there's not much you can do. If he lands a jab, he can launch you and go into one of many air throw mixups; he can launch you again after one and do some major damage, he can air throw you AGAIN, or go for a Hyper Megaman to nail you. Either way, his combo resets, so he does massive damage. Avoid getting cornered at all costs, and blow him away with an AAA if he does get you there. If you force him into a corner, he'll try to wall jump out, so AAA or try to slap the hell out of him with a J.HK when he does. Since Mega Man makes approaching him on the ground near impossible, this fight is difficult. Mega Man isn't very dangerous as an assist. Rather, he's annoying as hell, because of that damn taunt of his. His Projectile is a multi-hitter, but it's a basic fireball so it's not so hot, and his anti-air is so-so. He exerts far more of a presence on-point than off. ------------ 32. Morrigan ------------ A surprising amount of people have denounced Morrigan to just being a "Ryu with more speed". This isn't very accurate, since the two play pretty differently. While Ryu can zone his opponents with his Hadokens and then use some basic, powerful comboes up close, Morrigan is more about confusing her opponents with her weird-ass air-dash and quick moves. As Hayato, you are far more powerful and more durable than her, but her superior mobility and mix- ups form a huge problem. You need to be spot on with your blocking here, or it'll be a tough fight. Despite the fact that a few comboes are enough to lay Morrigan out, you can't underestimate her. She has some ridiculous high-low options and her rushdown can prove to be very formidable. The reason for this mainly is her air-dash. It goes in an unconvential parabola arc, which enables her to both throw people off and avoid some other crap when necessary. Morrigan has a near Magneto-like way of being able to high-low the hell out of poor Hayato when up-close. Since her innate damage isn't too hot, expect her to be packing a heavy hitter assist like Tron. If she isn't, then good. If she is, then be a hell of a lot more careful. Any successful mix-up could result in 35% damage at the LEAST. She can also mix-up quite well on a character coming in after a death with her air fireballs and air-dash combined, so look out. Hayato isn't totally helpless here. Air-to-air conflicts can be won by your trusty J.HK, and the majority of her pokes are overpowered by your sword. The problem is that she is faster and has more mobility, allowing her to bypass your sword range and get in your face where she doesn't belong. The best course of action here is to take along your trusty anti-rushdown AAA. Morrigan has trouble bypassing these when she's trying to high-low your ass, and they will do pretty good damage to her crappy vitality to boot. After keeping her out, you can apply some pressure with your sword swings and C.LKs. Your main advantages in this battle are power and priority. Morrigan needs assist to help her do big damage, but you alone can do huge damage to her with your HC comboes. Her own HCs do some decent damage, but her game doesn't largely revolve around them. Rather, this game will be one of mix-ups and fake-outs which will test your ability to detect and block. If you can keep her out, the match will go to you. Not the hardest battle out there, but definitely not a cakewalk. The assist to look out for is Morri's anti-air, her Shadow Blade. It does some pretty decent damage and sports some nice priority, pretty similar to Ken's AAA. Use the same tactics as you do for other AAAs that you face. ------------- 33. Omega Red ------------- Omega's ability to throw the crap out of you from practically anywhere, as well as his above-average vitality and good rushing skills make him a tough customer. Although he's a rare battle, he's a tough one. Omega Red is a nice mix-uper, and his priority is not too shabby either. If you combine his rushing skills with his ability to take damage, he's a huge threat to Hayato's health. First off, he has a decent mix-up game up close, due largely to his air dash. He can cancel his air dash by tapping back, enabling some instant overheads. This can lead to a free combo for him if you're not expecting it, which has the added benefit of restoring his life or meter if he decides to do an AC ending in a coil. You can apply standard tactics of AAA to get him off your ass if this is all he's doing. Your B+HP beats a lot of his crap up-close, so work to get him within your sword range, because he's better everywhere else. Be careful of his jump-in HPs; you won't be able to beat them with your launcher, so just defend and keep an eye out for any **** he may pull after that. In Hayato's ideal range, the battle works out quite well, but Omega has a big advantage at all other ranges. The reason he's better at all other ranges has to do with his great special moveset, the Omega Strikes and coils. The Omega Strikes can go in five directions and come out QUITE fast, making them nigh unpunishable by Hayato. This can allow Omega Red to apply decent pressure while also giving him some sense of a tri-jump if he uses Omega Strikes with his air dash. His coils can go straight up or straight down as well as angles and straight-forward, making him a menace no matter where you are. He can even combo into the coils, making each of his ACs a guaranteed sliver of life or HC energy, as well as a slam into the ground. These can start to add up, so keep in eye out for his launcher. It has decent horizontal range, but you can beat it out with your sword, so air-to-ground conflicts are good to go. Just watch out for possible AAAs. Omega Red has a few other neat tricks that can potentially screw you. If you have horrible luck at 50-50 games, he can coil you, throw you straight up, and then throw another coil straight up and at your falling carcass to play a guessing game. If you guess wrong, you get screwed for some life or energy and then tossed up again. This can get annoying as hell, so watch out for it. You always have to keep on your toes with this guy, as his coils, mix-ups, air-dash, and Omega Strikes make him a threat anywhere. If you can keep him at your most comfortable range and smack him with some good comboes, you'll be the victor; but this is far easier said than done, as Omega Red's very damaging comboes and great mix-ups make this a difficult battle. Good luck. As an assist, he can be decently dangerous. His Throw assist is blockable, which is a plus, but it can set you up to be comboed, so watch out. His Anti-Air leaves him wide open and isn't too good, so you'll likely not see it too much. His Ground-type is interesting; it's his DB+HK attack, and it comes out fast. Look out for it when you're fighting up close. ------------ 34. Psylocke ------------ As with Captain Commando, you'll be seeing quite a bit of Psylocke, due to her (as you may or may not know) amazing Anti-Air Assist. Although she's a decent rushdown character on-point, her on-screen presence does not do justice to her AAA. It's the best set-up AAA out there, making it perfect for Magnetos or infinite-happy Iron Men. On point, Psylocke has some advantages; she's pretty fast, has a triple jump, and some damaging comboes she would like to employ on you. Despite her amazing AAA, an on-point Psylocke is basically standard rushdown fare; thus you don't have to worry about establishing a comfortable distance. Psylocke is fast as hell, so be wary when she's dashing in; you can outproritize her efforts with your B+HP or C+HP if you're feeling juicy. If you're paranoid, bring along a decent assist such as Doctor Doom or an invincible AAA, and you'll be in business for whatever she's preparing to throw at you. Don't underestimate Psylocke, however; although you do outprioritize her and overpower her, she sports more mobility and mix-up capabilities. She is one of the two characters with a triple jump, which can really screw with your air defense. Her triple jump and teleport ensure that air-to-air victories will be rare, so battle her on the ground. One of Psylocke's biggest weaknesses as a rushdown character is her lack of an airdash of any kind. Thus, you don't have to worry about any ridiculous high-low game like Magneto, Omega Red, or Morrigan. Just concentrate on defending against her onslaughts and countering with your own comboes. Her vitality sucks, so every combo you hit will definitely make its mark. However, be wary of the damage she can do, as well; she can launch you off of any landed C.LK and then do an Air Combo ending in Psi-Blade xx Psionic Butterflies, which ends up with a truckload of your health being taken off. This is her main way to do damage, so be wary of letting her in too close. Your own B+HPs will overpower her, so use them to keep her out of where she wants to be. You'll beat her launcher with your jump-ins, but her Psi-Blade will wreck you, so careful. All in all not THE most difficult battle on-point, which is very preferable to her terrifying off-point presence. Obviously, you'll be almost 100% facing Psylocke as an AAA, so concentrate your efforts on snapping out whoever is taking advantage of her, be it Mags, Iron Man, any rushdowner, whatever. It'll be a tough one when the combined efforts of the rusher and Psylocke are in your face, but you'll be at a big advantage with Psylocke out of the picture. It ain't MSP without Psylocke, so get her out of the way of any team ASAP. --------- 35. Rogue --------- Rogue is a tough opponent to deal with; she's got decent rushdown and damage output(better rushing than Psylocke, but you don't see Rogue as much due to her assists not being as good). In addition to this, if she does her Power Drain on Hayato, she gets one of her best possible power-ups: the Speed-Up. Alone, she can give you headaches with her pseudo-tri jumping and her mixups with her airdash, as well as her damaging Air Comboes. With a Speed Up, she gets jacked up even further, gaining an infinite. This'll be a tough battle, so watch out. Rogue's got a decent game even without her Speed-Up. She's also got above- average vitality, which is rare for a rushdown character. Couple this with her damage and mix-ups, and Hayato's got quite a battle on his hands. Rogue is one of the best low-tier fighters in this game. To start with, watch out for her air-dash tactics. As with any air-dasher, she gains the ability to give you a mad high-low guessing game, as well as instant overheads with assist aid. Also, she can do ghetto tri-jumps with her dive kick, which is another thorn in your side. Bring along the usual trusty AAA, and try to keep her grounded so that you can outpoke her. In doing that, you'll gain some ground. When fighting Rogue, always look out for her Power Drain. It's a real pain in the ass due to the fact that it's unblockable, and easy to tick and to combo into. It's not the level of ridiculous that it was an XvSF where she could wreck you with her super after it in the corner, but it's still a big threat. This is mainly due to the fact that it gives Rogue what you don't want her to have: much more speed. Hayato is one of the characters that gives Rogue a Speed Up, which isn't good for your health. To combat this, try not to be fooled by her high-lows, and pushblock judiciously when blocking an attack string. If she does give Hayato a smooch, then worry; her new speed and comboability make her more of a pain in the ass, as she gains an infinite. Don't let her hit you with this, as it'll take a huge toll off your life. Apply Magneto- like tactics here with conservative attacking and anti-rushdown assists (Mecha Gief anyone?), and wait out her enhancement. On a side note, if she snogs you while you're under the effects of Plasma Field, you'll net her a Power Up instead. This is also dangerous, as her comboes do Juggy-like damage. Although an extremely rare occurence, be careful nonetheless. This is a difficult fight due to Rogue's great mix-ups as well as the Speed Up, but it is winnable with good blocking and detection skills, as well as patience. Good luck. As an assist, Rogue is pretty decent. Both of her punch assists can do some damage, and her Anti-Air can set up some goofy comboes. Her Throw assist is one to watch out for. While it does do ass for damage, it completely leaves you open afterwards to eat combo, or Proton Cannon, or whatever. Look out for it. -------- 36. Roll -------- Poor Roll. Poor, poor Roll. Hands down the worst character in the game, Roll does not pose a threat at all to our boy Hayato. Roll, being shafted from her first appearance (in which she was also bad), has only three advantages: small size, a double jump, and a decent throw. Otherwise, she's completely unremarkable. Her damage equates to ass, she has just about no range, her supers are terrible, and her vitality ties with Akuma's, Servbot's, and Bone Wolverine's for absolute worst. She can do some intricate comboes with her double jumping and throw abilities, but you should be able to deal with this battle with ease. Roll's disadvantage against Hayato is that she needs to go past his sword before she can start doing damage, which she really can't do with her abilities. Hayato easily keeps her out with low attacks and his B+HP (which still hits her), and does a hell of a lot of damage off of a combo if he lands a poke, which is very amplified by Roll's crappy vitality. If Roll gets in by way of assists or her slide, then she can go for throw mix-ups. Her throw is really fast, so it's hard to tech. It's one of her main weapons, so look out for it. Even if Roll gets into Hayato's range, there's not much she can do. Suppose gets into range and hits you with a C.HK; she can then follow up with some OTGs, such as a Roll Buster or Tornado Hold, that don't do too much damage. Her main source of damage will come from assists; whether direct usage or elongation of comboes, Roll is very much an assist-oriented character. Look out for big tickets like Doom, Tron, and Commando. They'll help Roll immensly in her battle. All in all, mainly be watching out for Roll's throw. It's ridiculously easy for her to tick into it, and she can do things like call an assist and throw you into it, setting you up for a combo. The problem is that Roll does so little damage, that even if she nails you with an intricate combo, you'll be able to recover easily, and resume your offense. Each combo you land will do a massive amount of damage, so it only takes two Rasetsu Zan/Engetsu comboes to lay her out. If you still want to be cautious, be careful about the corner, as Roll can do some interesting things, like combo into Hyper Roll, or do an AC thick with air throw resets and double jumps. All in all, an easy battle. Don't feel bad about slashing the little girl; she'll throw the crap out of you if you go easy. Roll's assists are also lame. Her Projectile is pretty pathetic; it's large, but does one hit and awful damage. Her Flower Bouquet assist just manages to be annoying; think of it as Dudley's taunt from SFIII, but a lot less useful. Sad to say, but Roll's presence is not very intimidating, on-point or not. -------------- 37. Ruby Heart -------------- Ruby Heart is an interesting new character who's particularly adept at eating rushdown. Ruby's ability to control the screen using her Fantome ghosts, Sublimation, and assists can prove to be a hassle. Also, her Schwarzaile move gives her great air mobility, and does great damage with her comboes, making any mistake you make a painful one. In addition, she has some unorthodox moves, and average vitality. This is an interesting, but tough, fight for Hayato. First of all, you have to be wary of Ruby's trapping game, made possible through her Sublimation move. For example, if she gets you in the corner, she can poke, whip you, then cancel into Sublimation, trapping you in blockstun. Executed perfectly, you'll remain trapped forever. In this way, Ruby's like a ghetto Doctor Doom; she can put a lot of **** on the screen, between her Fantomes and Sublimation. Watch out for the corner, then. She can really screw you if she gets you there. She's also great at air-to-air combat, with her fast moves and Hyper Schwarzaile. The regular Schwarzaile has ass priority and you can slash her out of it, but the HC is a dangerous move and will overtake you quicker than you'd think. Try to avoid confronting her like this; her superior moves and mobility in the air will seal your fate in this conflict. On the ground, the fight becomes easier, but not by much. Ruby works extremely well with assists and with partners such as Doom, Sentinel, Tron, or Commando, can really wreck you. With the help of Doom, she can utilize ridiculous air throw resets to rack up some damage. Sentinel brings great use to her trapping game. Tron just adds a ridiculous amount of damage to whatever she does, and Commando gives her great anti-air abilities. Ruby can be compared loosely to Bison for her ability to be able to somewhat trap and rush. Her great versatility combined with her mobility prove her to be a difficult opponent. As Hayato, patience and good blocking skills are key to winning this match-up; Ruby has innate lag in a lot of her moves, so if she's careless with them, your window to strike opens. Assists can also be used to combat hers; big-ticket assists like Doom and Commando will aid greatly. Her strength, trapping, and immense comboes make her an intimidating opponent, but if you concentrate on her and not the crap she's spewing, you can do fine. As an assist, Ruby can pose some threats. Her Schwarzaile is a threat due to its speed; however, it does crappy damage. Her Sublimation can really zone you, and it has a wide area to boot. It's probably her greatest assist. Her Capture Type, her anchor throw, is dangerous, but overall its threat is lessened due to its lack of speed. ------- 38. Ryu ------- Ah, the main man himself. An interesting character in this game, Ryu can be considered a ghetto Cable for his Air Hadoken zoning as well as his Air Shinkuu Hadoken for punishment. In addition to this, Ryu has average vitality and a good set of specials and supers. Combined with an assist, Ryu can control where you go with his Hadokens, while looking for an opening to land a damaging combo. As Hayato, you outprioritize everything he does up close with your sword, sans the Shoryuken. It's an interesting fight. Ryu's Hadokens are huge, and with the Tiger Knee motion he can cover a bit of space with them. However, they're nowhere near the speed of Mega Man's Buster Shots or of the effectiveness of Cable's grenades. With enough maneuvering or a Projectile or Anti-Air assist to cancel it out, you can easily get close. Once there, start to apply some pressure; your range far exceeds Ryu's, but watch out anyway. He can cancel Hadokens into a Shinkuu Hadoken, which is your ass, especially if he DHCs. If he ever gets past sword range, he can land a variety of damaging crap; for example, if ever he lands a Hurricane Kick, he can cancel that right into a Shinkuu Hadoken. Roll when swept, or you'll get Shinkuu Tatsumaki'd. So Ryu is definitely a threat when close; therefore it's your job to keep him out of where he wants to be. Liberal use of your superior range with the sword and decent assists will achieve this. Ryu does far more damage inside close range than from far away. Luckily, since Hayato is superior in priority, the advantage in close range goes to him. The only trick Ryu can use to overpower Hayato is a Shoryuken for when Hayato is jumping in. Thus, you should be careful with your jump-in moves; you can overpower his launcher, but his Shoryuken will wreck you. The LP version is difficult to punish, but if you can bait an HP version, then Ryu's ass will have a target on it as he falls down. Also, be wary of Ryu's punishing capabilities. Any close-range mistake will lead to the above damaging super comboes, but Ryu has a Tiger Knee Shinkuu Hadoken that can punish full-screen. Basically, it's a vastly inferior AHVB. It's got great speed and full-screen reach, but it does mediocre damage and can't combo into itself. Still, watch out for it and don't do anything stupid at long range. Ryu's throws are good, and one lands you right at his feet so that he can continue to pressure on wakeup. Ryu is an interesting battle, but definitely winnable; just make sure to land your comboes, while avoiding HIS. As an assist, Ryu is decent; his Hadoken is large and relatively fast, but isn't very groundbreaking. His AAA, though not quite the ridiculousness of Ken's or Cammy's, is still a threat due to its damage and great priority. Projectile can lead to a possible counter xx Shinkuu Hadoken, so look out for that. -------------- 39. Sabretooth -------------- The Tooth has fallen quite a ways from his last appearance in XvSF...he lost his incredibly easy normal jump infinite, and his ability to super off of his air throw. Also, his vitality is even worse than yours, despite being a huge character. But, Sabretooth isn't totally helpless; he can do some decent damage on the ground with Berserker Claw xx Weapon X, his HP throw builds a massive amount of meter and can lead to mixups, and his chipping with Hyper Birdie is decent. However, you can win this battle. Sabre's large size really works against him, and to add to this, Hayato has the ability to defeat him in close-range battles with his priority advantage. The only problem is when Sabretooth is jumping in; his J.HK doesn't have amazing priority, but its range is huge; even if you snag it with a launcher, which takes great timing, punishing afterwards may be difficult, so stay defensive when 'Tooth is jumping in, and make sure to block low after a jump- in, as C.LKs afterwards in an attempt to land a Weapon X are the norm. Also beware of throws, as Sabretooth's is a decent throw that can lead to mixups. Air-to-air battles are easily won; Hayato's J.HK trumps any of Sabretooth's aerial efforts, due to Sabretooth's poor air game, and so, Sabretooth ends up putting up far more of a fight on the ground than in the skies. Keep out Sabre with Hayato's sword; if Sabre gets in on him, it could be dangerous. Sabre's HP throw, as stated before, builds a helluva lotta meter, so if you don't tech, prepare to roll, as he can OTG you with a Berserker Claw afterwards. If he cancels into Hyper Birdie after this, he gets some free chip. Otherwise, be looking out for a C.LK. For example, a ground chain leading up to Berserker Claw xx Weapon X does over half a lifebar of damage to Hayato. Make it your goal to not let Sabretooth get in the range he wants. The corner bears special mention in this battle, because advanced players of the Tooth can use his corner infinite, which involves throwing you, then repeatedly juggling you with C.LK, C.MK and the Wild Fang. If Sabretooth is pressuring you towards the corner, make it your goal to get the hell out of there; Sabretooth's most advantageous location is there. Call out assists and use Hayato's superior priority to overwhelm Sabretooth's offense. Tooth's low staying power combined with his huge size and poor priority really hamper his effectiveness; this is a good fight for Hayato if you look out for Tooth's tricks. Sabretooth's assists aren't too threatening, but pretty noteworthy. His Projectile, for instance, calls out Birdie, whose three small projectiles keep Hayato in blockstun for a while and control the ground, sort of like a vastly inferior Sentinel Ground. Berserker Claw is quite fast, but is pretty basic. All in all not too dangerous. ---------- 40. Sakura ---------- One of the more underestimated characters in the game, Sakura can pose more of a challenge than the first glance would suggest. She actually does an assload of damage with her basic comboes; if she follows up on a launcher to its fullest she can do over 90 points of damage, and in the corner can connect almost all hits of her HK Shunpuukyaku for similarly massive damage. Her Shououken rushing uppercut has unreal priority and can barrel over whatever you do, and she even has a guard-break corner infinite, as well as Dark Sakura mode. Quite a handful, as you can see. First of all, Sakura has a way to overpower your sword in the form of her Shououken. This makes her dangerous at even your desired range, as it allows her to begin to pressure you. Regardless, you'll still want to keep her at that range, because it's the only one at which you can perform. Sakura's launcher has great horizontal range compared to the other shotos, but it's priority can be defeated by your jump-ins. However, it's still very dangerous, as her follow-ups lead to massive damage no matter where you are. Jump-ins would be an option if not for her Hadoken. Its massive size and quickness in coming out seal that fate. This leaves Hayato without jump-ins, and without taking the risk to get in for Byakko Hou mixups due to the massive risk of getting launched into a very damaging combo. You're left with your superior pokes, while still being careful of a Shououken. This obviously turns out to be an unfavorable matchup, because even in the air, Sakura has Shououken as a pseudo-air dash and the Shunpuukyaku in a similar role. Be conservative in this fight; stick to your basic strategy of looking for poke windows upon which you can capitalize. Sakura's bigger array of tools leaves little room for anything else. She has the advantage in terms of damage, even without meter; the only way you can top her in that department is using the Plasma Field to Black Hayato follow-up in the corner. It's a dangerous battle. Keep normal Sak out of close-range, because her danger there is, despite her looks, huge. Sakura needs 3 levels to become Dark Sakura, so if you're seeing her in this battle, it won't be immediately. While this Sakura gains a beam super, Akuma- style Zankuu Hadokens, and a teleport, she doesn't seem to pose as much of a threat. Her Shououken, which allowed her to barrel over Hayato before, lost the barrier that gave it mega-priority, relieving you of that worry. Also, her Hadokens now go horizontally, turning jump-ins into in option if you watch out for the Haru Ichiban. Still, don't get cocky; her teleport ensures you won't be trapping her in the corner for long, her dash is faster, and she can combo into now Ryu-esque Shinkuu Hadoken with the greatest of ease. Apply jump-ins and standard poke tactics the same as before; her damage output is still as outrageous as normal Sakura, so you still need to be quite careful. All in all, normal Sakky is a tougher fight. Her Dash assist is the thing to look out for; the Shououken is a pain as an assist due to its great priority. It's likely you'll be seeing that assist the most by far. Be careful of it; it has the ability to stuff Hayato's offense and pokes and will knock him away from the opponent. Her Projectile is the Hadoken of whatever mode she's in, so it's nothing TOO special. Her Shunpuukyaku assist is the same in both modes, and does decent damage, but isn't as threatening as Dash. ------------ 41. Sentinel ------------ Holy hell. What a horrible battle. Sentinel is, if not the sole holder, tied for the position of absolute best character in the game. Why? Let's start with the basics: he only takes 3/4ths of damage received, and deals obscene damage with his own hits. All of his moves, be them jabs or HCs, do chip damage. He has Super Armor, being able to wade through a huge amount of moves. He's got massive priority on just about all of his moves. He has full-screen normals in both his Standing and Crouching HPs. It gets better: his ability to cancel in and out of his super-fast Flight Mode gives him outrageous combo abilities, and he even has a semi-infinite using his VERY good Hyper Sentinel Force HC. As if to put icing on the cake, his Ground assist is one of the best in the game, though you probably know this. This is a near-impossible battle; so good luck. Sentinel's basic moves are big threats; what with him having Super Armor, they all carry great priority. His C.LK has great range. His C.HK is the only sweep in the game to hit THREE times, and he can cancel or OTG into a Rocket Punch, and cancel THAT into a Hyper Sentinel Force, effectively screwing you. His HP is obnoxious in all three of its forms. On the ground and while ducking, it's a full-screen mouth beam that can cancel quite well. In the air, it's a fast frying-pan thing with massive priority. His J.HK is a stomp that can do great damage and annoy the hell out of you when Sentinel is in flight. Combining this with a great assist such as Doom, he can hammer you with his massive foot and chip you with Doom, which is a decent trap in itself. His other mainstay moves are huge threats in themselves. His Rocket Punch does unbelievable damage, and is very easily cancelled into and out of. If at any time he lands a Rocket Punch, he can cancel into Hyper Sentinel Force, which can also screw you. Hyper Sentinel Force is a very useful HC. While it by itself doesn't do astronomical damage, its ability to be comboed out of and then into again makes it great. Sentinel can land an HSF and then HP xx Rocket Punch xx HSF again. It sucks a lot of meter, but it also makes you pretty dead. His Flight Mode deserves a section all by itself. It can help to make Sentinel even more outrageous than he already is. While Sentinel's walking speed is slow(not counting his wavedashing which is weirdly fast), his Flight is wicked fast, allowing him to zip around faster than most characters can dash. Sent can then use his high-priority HPs and HKs to pin you down while calling assists to smash you. It gets even better: since Flight Mode is considered a special move, he can smash you with moves, "un-fly" himself, and re-cancel back into Flight, giving him some obnoxious comboes. When combining this with his great ground game, Sentinel becomes a true monster. Against this massive onslaught of borderline-unfair, what can Hayato do? Not much when it comes down to it. As with Juggernaut and the Hulk, you can penetrate Sentinel's Super Armor with your B+HP. However, even if you land a poke and capitalize, Sentinel's intense vitality will ensure that he's able to take it and still be at his best. It's also hard to land a poke just because of all of Sentinel's crap; if he's in Flight hammering you, there's not much you can do then try and get him out of the air with a good AAA. On the ground, his ridiculous range, priority, and general options make the window to B+HP him very slim. If he does screw up and do a random HSF, you can jump over and whack him with a J.HK and capitalize upon landing, but these moments are very rare. All in all, between Sentinel's great Flight and great ground game, Hayato just does really crappily against him. Your whole game plan revolves around calling assists(be careful, he can wreck sloppy calls with HSF) and hoping to land lucky B+HPs. If you win a battle against a decent Sentinel, consider joining some prize tournaments. Sent has two good assists: his Projectile and his Ground. His Projectile is great because it's fast and does great damage. However, his Ground is really great because it can has great versatility. It's very fast, so Sentinel is pretty safe. It can elongate comboes, it can cover a character who's doing a particularly laggy move, it can chip, it can pressure very well, it can provide decent traps for a bunch of characters...truly a great assist. Sentinel is an incredible character, both off-point and on. ----------------------- 42. Servbot (AKA Kobun) ----------------------- What a lovable little dude. Servbot can actually prove to be a bit better than first impressions show: this is because he actually has a decent chipping game involving Doctor Doom and his AAA. Servbot has a fast dash, VERY small size, and his Lunch Rush (Gamma version) does unreal amounts of chip. Combining that with Doom, he can run around, goof off and call Doom, wait until he locks you down and then call Lunch Rush for chip. However, Servbot has NO other way to do any damage because of his pathetic attack power, and his vitality is tied with Roll and Akuma: pathetic. This makes him a relatively easy battle. If Servbot doesn't have Doom, then a lot of his damage capability is pretty much screwed. He can opt for other lockdowners like Sentinel, but they don't do as much for Servbot. Servy's basic moves are generally all useless, and his only useful partner call (the grab) is far too slow to be a big threat. Thus, you're free to wreck him as you please; especially if he's using the Alpha Lunch Rush, which does ass chip but decent damage. However, to be hit into this move, Serv has to stand right next to Hayato; and this simply won't be happening with Hayato's FAR superior range and priority. With Doom, you have to be a bit more careful. If you get locked down with Doom while Servbot has meter, he can chip the crap out of you with Gamma Lunch Rush. This sucks up a LOT of meter, but is also very detrimental to Hayato's health; it also doesn't make any red bar to recover while Hayato's on the sidelines. To counter this, all you have to do is be careful not to get hit by Doom. Lunch Rush is easily avoidable by way of super jumping. Some helicopter Servbot's may seek you out, but they'll only result in a far lesser amount of chip. From there, you can land next to Servbot and start to wreck him. Believe it or not, B+HP actually HITS a standing or even crouching Servbot. Due to nearly all of Servbot's moves sucking, you can basically lay him out with B+HPs because he can't really get in. One of your basic combos off of a poke will result in over 60% of damage to Servbot, whereas he relies on slowly chipping away all of your life. Since Servbot's range, power, and options pretty much completely suck, and he relies on an assist to have any gameplan, this match is easily winnable by Hayato. Servbot's assist type does more than determine what move he uses as an assist; it also determines what HC Lunch Rush becomes. The Gamma Lunch Rush is the greatest threat for the reasons listed above. The Alpha Lunch Rush, though it does a lot of unrecoverable damage, is terrible due to its awful range, especially against Hayato. Beta Lunch Rush is among the worst HCs in the game; it starts BEHIND Servbot and acts as a shockwave-type super, similar to your Engetsu. His assists widely blow, making Servbot not much of a presence anywhere. ---------------- 43. Shuma-Gorath ---------------- Shuma's got a wide array of moves, that are useful at all ranges. He has a damaging command throw, a regular throw that restores red life, high-priority HK and HP attacks, what is probably the only useful Level 3 HC in the game, and decent range. However, he's rather slow-moving, has low vitality, lacks any good anti-air abilities against Hayato, and has many punishable moves. This battle can be difficult because of Shuma's weirdness and relative versatility, but his weaknesses make it quite winnable. First of all, Shuma's highest priority basic moves are his HP Eyebeams. In addition to being fast and having good range, they will wreck anything you do. In addition, in the air he can aim them in 3 different directions a la Iron Man. This merit makes it very difficult to combat him in an air-to-air battle, so you should keep Shuma on the ground. There you can do some damage. Shuma's anti-air abilities in themselves are quite poor, so your jump-ins are a good choice for starting comboes. His HK Mystic Smash comes out quite suddenly and can catch you off-guard when jumping in, and if blocked in the air it's relatively safe. However, since Shuma has to charge back before performing this move, make sure to jump in quickly when he hasn't already been going defensive, to remove this option. In mid-range, Shuma's HP Eyebeam has deceptive range, and can knock you away; however, it doesn't pose too much of a threat due to throwing you out of Shuma's range and complete lack of follow-ups. If you're smacked, you can get right back in. His S.HK is very laggy and easy to punish, but beware of a cancel into the Mystic Stare. If he gets past your sword, he can land his damaging Devitalization command throw, or recover red life with his HK throw. Make it your job to keep Shoom out of throw range; his most damaging options are found there. If you can do that, you'll have a definite upper hand with your superior combo damage combined with his bad vitality. The Chaos Dimension deserves special mention, because if Shuma gets it off, it does sick damage and he can even OTG after it. He can launch you, activate it, and then hit you into it when you fall down. Seeing as how it's unblockable, it becomes a very scary move. When Shuma starts glowing, start calling assists and throwing out pokes to get him the hell away. All of Shuma's hard attacks have been replaced by the Dimension, so he has no more high-priority moves; you can easily overpower him, especially if he starts being stupid and blindly rushes you. Chaos Dimension has a short duration, so if you can keep him out for that duration, he'll just have wasted a huge amount of meter, while also being damaged. Not the hardest battle out there, but look out for his tricks. As an assist, his Mystic Stare isn't anything impressive, but his Mystic Smash can do some things. It comes out fast and covers a decent arc, so it can catch you off guard. However, Shuma's assists are nothing really groundbreaking, so there's no need to be extra wary. ------------------ 44. Silver Samurai ------------------ Marvel's swordsman has quite a few tricks in his sleeve and can prove to be a challenge. Unlike you and the other swordsman of MvC2, Strider, SilSam has good vitality and can take some hits. In addition to that, he's got a very damaging and useful HC in the Raimeiken and good chipping powers with his Shuriken and Chou Shuriken. His sword gives him some good range, (though the priority doesn't equal yours) and if he wants to get saucy he has three mode change elements. This should be a fun battle. In a battle of swords, Hayato generally comes out the victor; your B+HP in close range defeats his pokes. This is great news for you. However, Samurai has a few more tricks than you. His Shurikens do a great deal of chip damage, and with a lockdown assist or a few pokes of his own, he can keep you pinned down and do a big deal of unrecoverable damage while he's at it. This can equal bad news, and a huge disadvantage if you become to block-happy. Practice avoiding his projectiles more than blocking them if you can. It'll benefit greatly in the end. His Chou Shuriken is of the same note. It does a very ridiculous amount of chip, so it's of huge priority to avoid that thing. You will regret it if you don't. His Raimeiken HC is also of importance; it does an assload of damage and he can easily combo it off his launcher, which is bad news due to the launcher's great range. He can also sweep you into it, so roll like mad whenever you're swept to increase your chances of not being smote. Although your priority is generally greater than his, try not to take too many chances; Samurai has got range equal to yours and WILL captialize on any chances he sees. His chipping abilities and long-range powers are his main advantages over you, so try to keep this fight close, where you can do your damage. His vitality will make the battle slightly harder, but with enough perseverance you can win. His mode changes aren't too much of a threat if he decides to actually use them. For their use of meter, the disadvantages far outweigh the pros. His Lightning Mode provides Samurai with the ability to do full chain comboes and do the Chou Shuriken in the air,(!) but his damage is jacked way down, as well as his vitality. Use your now VERY superior damage to trump him. His Fire Mode can be a threat; his attack power gets jacked way up and his new super, which can be comboed from his launcher, is VERY damaging. However, his new vitality is even WORSE than Roll's! Be cautious in this form and take any chance you can get to lay into him with an HC, and the rewards will be vast. Ice Form is the most annoying; his vitality shoots to taking less than half damage, but his attack power gets shot to hell. His new HC hits low and will immobilize you, but his attack power is too jack to take any advantage of it. Be conservative when he uses Ice, and don't use any HCs; his vitality will greatly reduce the rewards. Also be on the lookout for the goofy properties of his Ice HC. Make sure only to release your guard AFTER the icicles stop touching you, as you'll still be frozen after the initial hit if you're standing on an icicle and you release your guard. Silver Samurai's only good assist is his Shuriken; it carries the same massive chip as the on-point version. His other assists, his Hundred Sword Slap (or whatever), and his launcher(WTF) are quite terrible. With his Projectile, the opponent can add some great chip to his gameplan, making it a decent threat. It's slow and quite easily avoided, but watch out for it nonetheless. ---------- 45. SonSon ---------- It's easy to underestimate SonSon with her goofy appearence, but she can pose some threats. Her staff can give her some wicked range, and her air-dash and crawl moves some decent mix-ups. Her vitality is very poor, however, and she dishes out low damage per hit. Even despite these setbacks, she still proves to be a worthy opponent for Hayato, as her mobility and capabilities tend to more than make up for her faults. Get ready for quite the party. We'll start with just her projectile though, as Hayato is one of the characters that doesn't have an easy way of trouncing it. It's slow and does ass for damage, but it still can apply pressure and she can Tiger Knee it, which can lead to her being able to do some kind of goofy air-dash mixup with her projectile. Bad as her projectile is, don't discount it entirely; her mixups based off it can prove a tough obstacle for Hayato. Pack a decent assist to deal with this, or otherwise dash-jump over the projectile and waylay her with a jumping attack if she tries to airdash you. SonSon's staff is quite akin to your sword in a couple of ways, due to the fact that its priority is insane and her best moves revolve around it. Because of this, Hayato can't just jump in willy-nilly like he can with some over low tiers. She can easily tank through it with Seiten Rengeki, which can in turn be cancelled into Tenchi Tsukan (giant staff HC) for some pretty obscene damage. Getting nailed by any of her hyper-cancels is bad news. Her Oozaru monkey deal, while not having very many ways to reliably combo into it, poses the threat of decent chip damage. In short, SonSon's offensive capabilities are greater than yours, so you'll want to play it relatively safe. Make her come to you by thwarting any projectile mix-ups she may attempt with your hard attacks to stuff air-dashes while being covered with a decent assist. Once that's done, you're going to try to land one of your basic pokes while avoiding any of hers, just like most in-range fights. Your light attacks have more range and priority than hers, but she has better ways of closing the distance and overall more damage capability. However, if you essentially keep her in your comfort zone and are able to consistently land some comboes, you will win. As an assist, be prepared to see SonSon as Anti-Air. It's not the best AAA by ANY means, but it's relatively decent, due to its super-quick startup. Heal is just piss-poor because she stands out there for 9 years just begging to be punished, and there are tons of other assists that could be better put to use doing what her Projectile could do. Her AAA still isn't that devastating, due to the fact that it possesses no invincibility, but it can still knock you out if you're unguarded. All in all, a more threatening on-point fighter. -------------- 46. Spider-Man -------------- Our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is not as tough an adversary as he would be in older games of this series. However, he's still capable of some really damaging crap against Hayato. Spider-Man is capable of zipping around and crossing you up all day, but he also has absolutely ass for strength and vitality(tied for second worst in the game). Due to this, you'll win just by landing a few solid comboes. However, don't let this make you complacent. Spidey is capable of doing some rather disgusting random mix-ups, and Hayato will generally lose if he lets Spidey walk over him. Spider has decent keep-away with his Web Ball-air dash bullcrap, but the real danger comes in letting him close. He can use his pseudo air-dash capabilities to form some sort of offensive game, which may or may not be completely problematic to Hayato. Fortunately, your priority trumps his, even with his nice J.HK. You can use this to stuff his air-to-air game with your pokes, and B+HP reckless dashing Spideys. What sucks is that Spider-Man generally approaches from the air, and Hayato has basically no way of doing decent air damage across from good AAAs and basic Air Comboes. The main thing to watch out for in this match-up is the potentially outrageous mix-ups that Peter Parker can pull off. Coupled with the right assist to lock you down, his air-dash cancelling combined with the fact that basically any of his normals can cross you up makes it so that Hayato can barely even block a rampaging Spidey. Against a Spider who has a great amount of skill with his air-dashing game, a decent AAA to keep him off of your ass becomes pivotal. Failing this, your high priority normals become your saving grace. Jumping in is also an option, but be careful of any setup assists he could pull out to stuff you and subsequently air combo the **** out of you. Fighting Spidey is not a matter of going for massive comboes, as he has you beat there, but rather about not letting him cross you the hell up. Spider's poor vitality makes any connected hit against him fairly devastating, and you can utilize the superior priority of your sword to keep him at bay. If you manage to land a poke that can lead into a Rasetsu Zan or Engetsu, then by all means go for it. Just don't make massive damage your top priority. Stopping his rushdown comes first, and after that comes victory. Spidey's assists aren't very threatening. His Anti-Air is probably the most useful, but it carries no invincibility and doesn't do outrageous damage. You'll definitely worry about him more when he's on point. ---------- 47. Spiral ---------- Spiral will definitely give you fits, for mainly one reason: she's one of the best trappers in the game, and builds obscene amounts of meter. The fact that she doesn't have many ways to do big amounts of direct damage doesn't encumber her in the slightest. She can hurl swords every which way, teleport all over the place, and keep hurling swords. What does this mean? It means that characters such as Hayato, who don't have a lot of maneuverability, have a terrible time against Spiral. This will not be a fun battle. Spiral's claim to fame is her swords. It's these that are the linchpin of her game, and these that make her one of the better characters of the game. Spiral will basically be calling swords and chucking them at you in various ways throughout the battle. They do decent chip and also keep you pinned down. However, she first has to call them. Calling swords takes a bit of time, leaving her a bit open when she initiates the summon. If you whack her when she has any swords floating around her, they'll all dissipate. This doesn't mean that getting to her is easy, not by ANY means. Spiral has one of the best teleports in the game. It's nigh unpunishable, quick, and has the ability to take her pretty much anywhere. Don't count on trapping her any time soon, with your rushing abilities. In addition to this, she can fire any of her 6 swords at any given time, giving her a world of possibilities in which to trap you. Essentially, you will NEED an assist to win this battle. If you go in thinking Hayato's poking is enough, then you'll get burned really badly. The reason why you NEED an assist isn't just Spiral's great trapping abilities but also the fact that she usually brings Sentinel Ground with her, which enables her to use a deadly trap. Basically, she can pin you down, call Sentinel to keep you even further locked down, then throw swords at you to pin you down yet further, repeat ad nauseum. If done perfectly, this can keep you in permanent blockstun. Basically, you'll want to pushblock her if she's attempting this, and call some sort of invincible AAA to mess her up. Also keep wary for any C.LKs she may throw in to keep things spicy. All in all, this battle is pretty miserable, what with Hayato's low maneuverability sealing his fate in a zoning war, and her manifold traps forcing him to bring along an invincible AAA. Your only chance is to see if she ever ****s up, and lay into her with a combo. Spiral's not very threatening at all as an assist. The only thing you'll be facing as her assists are either her S.HP or a sword as a projectile. Not very terrifying. Indeed, Spiral is much more of a character to fear on point, as her meter-building and trapping skills are worth far, far more than any of her assists. --------- 48. Storm --------- What a disgusting battle. Storm is regarded as one of the best characters in the game, and Hayato will have fits trying to do ANYTHING to her. What makes her so good? Well, she can basically do anything. She can run away using her air mobility combined with her super-quick, high-priority J.HP. This builds massive amount of meter, and good luck trying to bring her down without a great assist. Once she's satisfied with the meter she's built and/or gets bored, she can rush the hell out of you using her air-dash and high-priority moves. She also has a killer DHC in the Hailstorm, and can completely obliterate reckless assist-calling with that very same move. In short, she is quite a goddess, and Hayato has a hell of a fight on his sword-wielding hands. Let's talk about her runaway game. Well, actually, there's not much to say. She can use her levitation abilities and her high-priority J.HP to run away from you all day and build loads of meter doing it. You can respond by building meter yourself by super-jumping and whiffing J.HKs, but you run the risk of her actually attacking you. Basically, what Storm's runaway means is that you better have packed Blackheart's AAA, or at least Captain Commando's. Without any of these fully vertical assists, good luck trying to bring Storm down. Without those guys, you'll be focusing on trying to land some lucky J.HK and with Storm, that ain't happening. And even if it does, she can take right back to the skies. When you've brought her down (or she gets bored), don't get complacent; your trouble is just beginning. Storm packs a damaging array of normal AND special moves. Her launcher has unreal range and priority, and her air-dashing capabilities can be used for deadly mix-ups. Storm's damage comes from her Lightning Attack xx Lightning Storm comboes and setups, and she has a myriad amount of ways to land them. She can straight up launch you, she can air-dash for an overhead, she can triangle jump, she can reset by air-dashing past you from the air...it goes on. You'll have to be spot-on with your blocking, or this match-up just isn't happening. Your minute chance of winning depends on if Storm ever hits the ground at some point. If she does, you must choose that moment to lay into her, as Hayato's only chance of damage against Storm is a damaging ground combo. One more thing; beware the Hailstorm. It's safe as hell and is one of the best DHCs in the game; any character can just do a super and then immediately DHC into the Hailstorm, and if you're not blocking, it'll hit you. What really sucks is that against Storm, this barely, if ever, happens. She has enough air capabilities to just fly and float all over the damn place, and her high-priority moves are enough to give anyone a fit. What it might come down to is hoping that you nail Storm with assists over and over again. Whatever AAA you might have packed will prove vital here, as B+HPs really do not mean a thing when Storm is in the air. You can also try to land hard attacks in the air, but Storm packs great aerial attacks and her rewards in the air from landing one are far greater than yours. You better pack some incredible assists coming into this battle...you'll need them. Good luck. You'll often see Storm using her Typhoon assist. And compared to her terrifying on-screen presence, it's not very threatening. It can't be stopped once she launches it, but it's also quite slow and easily blocked or dodged. Quite a grace note from her destructive on-screen abilities. ----------------- 49. Strider Hiryu ----------------- Yet another terrible match-up. Your fellow Capcom swordsman enjoys way better options than you. The most grand of these options, and usually the reason he's picked, is the Strider/Doom trap, an extremely effective chipping trap that involves his Ourobouros and Doom's AAA. In addition to this, he has a decent teleport, making it hard to corner him, as well as an Eagle which can be used to screw with your normal jumps. However, he has a few weaknesses. His vitality is horrendous, and without Doom, his game plan goes straight to hell. So basically, you may have gathered from above that you won't see Strider without Doom. This means you must prepare to deal with one of the most notorious traps in the game. This trap involves Strider calling his Ourobouros and keeping you locked with it. When it's over, he'll call Doom AAA to keep you locked down while he teleports to your other side. He'll then perform a Tiger xx Ourobouros and repeat the trap. This requires a great amount of execution, however, and it's likely he might eff it up. There's a variety of factors that may go wrong. He may not send out rings to keep you locked down, he may call Doom at the wrong time, he might time his orbs wrong...the trap requires total mastery to get it to work competently. Don't discount it, though. It chips off an assload of your health and is quite difficult to escape from. Hayato doesn't have any groundbreaking moves that can bust through the trap when caught in blockstun, so what can he do? You can try to nail them with an AAA before they start up the trap, but be careful if they try to bait the assist, or land a snapback. Once you get caught in the trap, you better hope you have a character with a decent Variable Counter, as this is Hayato's only hope other than Strider screwing himself up. For example, Ken's Shoryuken will blow them both away. However, it's better if your counter can combo to something else, such as Gene Splice xx Super Optic Blast. Due to Strider's horrible vitality, he can't eat a lot of these incidents, and a succeessful Variable Counter might screw with Strider's psyche and make him more scared to try the trap. Even without Doom, you need to watch out for Strider's individual strengths. He's quick, he's got a double-jump and teleport, and his pressure abilities with his orbs and animals can be problematic. However, he's still not even half the character he could be with Doom. No-Doom Strider can actually be outprioritized; Hayato's sword carries more range and priority than Strider's, so even Strider's bull**** basic moves can be taken down by Hayato's pokes and J.HK. Still though, keep up your guard; your blocking needs to be spot-on when cornered by his Ourobouros, and his teleporting ensures that cornering HIM won't be easy. Even with those strengths, Hayato can take down a non-Doom Strider with his better priority and range combined with Strider's lack of vitality. A shame that this situation is so rare; You'll hardly see Strider without his best buddy Doom. With Strider's heavy reliance on Doom AAA, you'd think that he'd have some decent assists to recompense for his mooching. However, he doesn't! None of his assists work decently. His Ground is total ass, his Vajra assist keeps him on the screen way too long for a somewhat mediocre attack, and his Eagle can't really do anything other than guard break if it's timed really well. You may want to snapback Strider and bring in Doom. Although Doom himself is a very tough battle, he won't benefit from Strider's assists, and if you take him out, the linchpin of your opponent's team is gone. ---------- 50. Thanos ---------- After three terrible matches, it's good to know that this guy is not quite so difficult. However, he still has some advantages. For one, he's got above- average vitality, meaning you'll need to work a bit harder for a win. Also, he's got four HCs, each of them quite usable and able to do decent damage. In addition to this, several of his moves have high priority, and he also is the only character with an infinite run. Even so, this fight isn't super difficult. Thanos is also the only character without an air throw, and his size makes him pretty easy to cross up and pressure. All in all, a pretty even fight. First of all, you'll want to watch out for Thanos's array of normal moves. His S.HP carries great priority, so you'll want to stay away from that thing. His D+HK shield drop in the air can also do some crossing up, somewhat of a pseudo-triangle jump. His J.HP also has insane priority and covers a lot of space, and his C.MP can link into his C.HP for a free launch. In short, Thanos doesn't lack priority, and you'll get pasted if you try to assault his HP attacks blindly. Of all his supers, you'll want to watch out for Gauntlet Power the most, as it gives him the most options. For one, it does good damage, is relatively quick, and it's pretty safe. Also, it arcs at the end, making it so that if it hits you in the corner, he can follow up with an aerial chain linked to his HP attacks, provided he has a decent assist to keep you pinned in the combo, such as Tron. In addition, he has a glitch where he DHCs before he releases the Power ball, and the ball stays ATTACHED to him when he tags back in. He can then launch it whenever he wants, as an assist or on-point. This can create some really ****ed up situations, so be on guard for it if your opponent ever decides to go insane and whip out that glitch. Don't discount his other supers. Gauntlet Soul has a disgustingly fast start-up, and sucks your life to restore his red life. He can whip it out when you're doing anything, and its speed combined with its tracking ability can stop you cold. However, if you block it, Thanos is left wide open for a long time. So, if you are able to successfully bait the Soul, let him have it with an extended ground combo. Gauntlet Reality hits you instantly if you're standing either directly next to Thanos, or on the opposite side of the screen from him, so be wary. He can only do simple comboes such as C.LP, C.MP xx Reality if he wants to connect with it, so it's not too threatening an HC in terms of damage. Gauntlet Space is able to do the most raw damage of all his HCs if he hits you with the rocks both going up and down, but this simply doesn't happen that much. Be more wary of it for the chip it'll do. Thanos's air game consists pretty much completely of his J.HP. This move has a massive hitbox and great priority. Essentially, you won't be able to defeat Thanos in an air-to-air conflict, but if he tries to do a bull**** version of Storm runaway, you can easily bring him down with an AAA. One of Thanos's crippling weaknesses is the lack of an air-throw. Thus, you could, if you wanted, take the lead and then just jump back and call assists and he can't really do a damn thing about it. So an air game is ultimately won by Hayato if he takes a defensive stance. Ground battles can be won if you work through his S.HP and be wary for any chains that can lead up to a Gauntlet Power; a rushing Thanos can be stopped by your quick B+HP and lead up to your own damaging comboes. All in all not too bad of a fight. You can find Thanos using his Capture and Dash assists. His Capture assist is not really anything very threatening, because it comes out and moves so damn slowly. It requires some pretty dumb set-ups to be able to be comboed in, like an Akuma HP throw into a corner. His Dash is a relatively high-priority headbutt charge thing, but it's not as devastating as Juggernaut's Dash assist for example. -------------- 51. Tron Bonne -------------- Tron is an interesting opponent who can prove to be quite a handful both on and off-point. While she is large and carries some lag on some moves, she's also got an air-dash, great chipping abilities, and good damage oppurtunities in the corner. In addition to these strengths, her Projectile assist does an obnoxious amount of damage, and can propel most any combo to crippling levels of pain. When your opponent picks Tron, you'll always want to be wary of her, whether on-point or not. First of all, you'll want to watch out for her drill. This wonderful little device can be mashed for an insane amount of hits, which is quite detrimental to your health. Even if it's blocked, it'll still do some wonderful chip. However, a blocked drill equals a very open and unsafe Tron, so capitalize on this by socking it to her with a Shiden xx HC. Unfortunately, this rarely happens, because Tron can pack an assist that makes her drill safe and much more annoying. Doom comes to mind. She can also do an instant air drill to help reduce her lag from the ground drill. Basically, you'll want to be wary for her multitude drill tricks. Tron's bag of goodies doesn't end there. Her throw game in the corner can lead to some sick damage. Her C.LK can't be rolled out of when she throws you in the corner, so you're going to have to try for a Tech Hit. If she does land a throw, however, she can easily link it to an air throw to Lunch Rush reset. What this means is that you'll want to be freaking careful about confronting Tron in close proximity to a corner, especially if she decides to just jump back and turtle there. If you're feeling ballsy, you can try to tick into a Byakko Hou and score some excellent damage of your own, but just remember that her throw game is far easier than yours to implement. Be on the lookout for missed throws that result in an incredibly laggy S.HP. This is a prime punishment oppurtunity if it occurs if you just be on the lookout for any assist calls while she's spinning. She can also rush down to some extent, using her air dash capabilities. Be on the lookout for the high-low mixups she can do with that thing. She can easily go for a near-instant J.LK with her airdash and link it to a devastating Lunch Rush, an HC that does the same amount of damage no matter how many hits there were in the combo previously. In the corner, she can totally wreck you with throw resets. This isn't even factoring any help she may have from assists. Keep her out of the corner when facing her. She's not as threatening when in the middle. Call assists and look for laggy oppurtunities that you can end up landing a poke on and capitalizing. A pretty tough battle, all in all. You'll very likely be seeing Tron's Projectile assist when she's off-point, because it's ridiculous. It does HC-like damage, and any character can insert it easily into a combo in order to give it the oomph it needs. This assist has the unfortunate effect of forcing you to be far more cautious against any rushing character, as this assist coupled with nearly any combo can jack away more than at least half your life. Try to snap Tron in, but also be wary of what she herself can do on point. --------- 52. Venom --------- This symbiote-infected clown will try to wreck you using his very safe Venom Fang, high-priority HP attacks, and damaging supers. Making sure this doesn't happen is far easier said than done. Venom's Venom Fang backed with an assist is hard for Hayato to overcome. You become pushed too far back for a B+HP to connect, and by the time you rush forward, he's already recovered, and is calling assists and Venom Fanging you some more. What's a Hayato to do? First of all, Hayato shouldn't get flustered and just keep getting smashed by Venom Fangs, because they add up. Venom has the advantage of range against you, and this will get frustrating, as his Venom Fang will push you out of B+HP range. Any assist he has (look out for Doom AAA) will only add to your frustration. Be patient at first, and call out assists of your own to try and counter his rushes. The Venom Fang, powerful though it may be, is no match for any invincible AAA. Stopping his offense cold with one of those is a good start to mount your own pressure. If you lack an AAA, you can wait for him to get sloppy and do something dumb like jumping over the Fang and punishing him on the way down. Venom can choose to go on offense if he wishes, though his rushing won't be as dangerous as his Venom Fanging. He can jump in with a hard attack and combo into his Death Bite HC on the ground, which can really ruin your day if you're far away from the corner. Other than this, he has no truly spectacular offensive tricks, but you do need to watch out for it. His jump ins can just be destroyed by something like Commando AAA, and in that case he can just revert back to his Venom Fang game. Essentially, fighting Venom is a battle against your own patience. It all comes down to how little you play into his hands and try to overcome his Venom Fang with your own abilities. His anti-air ability sucks, so try to look for an oppurtunity to jump in and land a B&B combo. His vitality is slightly greater than yours, so the battle is slanted in Venom's favor due to that as well as his Fang, but the battle is not impossible. Just don't get pissed and start running into his crap. The assist is also the lovable Venom Fang. While fast and packing decent priority, it's not the greatest assist, as it's not invincible, doesn't set up for a combo, and doesn't do the best damage. Watch out for it, but don't panic if you get hit, as it won't be the end of the world. Just, as with fighting Venom on-point, keep on running into them. --------------- 53. War Machine --------------- Although less threatening than his buddy and inspiration Iron Man, War Machine is still very much a force to be reckoned with. Although his strategy is essentially the same, there are a few slight differences in Iron Man's and War Machine's gameplay that warrant mention. His missile-based moves chip a tad more than Iron Man's lasers, he has a different C.HP, one more super, and a low shoulder cannon, as well as having a faster air-dash. However, his disadvantages against Iron Man outweigh the advantages: his moves are overall slower and more laggy, his Repulsor Blast is worse, his Proton Cannon is slower and essentially useless due to its tendency to pop the opponent up, and his assists are worse. These disadvantages make War Machine essentially a worse Iron Man, so sadly, you'll hardly ever see him. When you do, however, still be wary of the **** he can pull. His infinite and the various set-ups to it are just as deadly as Iron Man's, so you'll want to not get stupid and walk straight into a Psylocke assist. You'll also want to watch out for his Smart Bombs, as they actually come out way faster than Iron Man's. However, they carry a ton of lag, so he can't spam them as well as Iron Man can. These faster Smart Bombs make War Machine threatening in the air, but this dragged down a bit by his slower J.HP attacks. Basically, you'll want to use the same strategy as Iron Man, cautiously using C.LKs and B+HPs while looking to score a hit. War Machine is worse than Iron Man on the ground (laggier launcher and worse comboability), so you can worry slightly less about being obliterated. Still, be cautious; your lag is worse than his, so you'll want to avoid MPs and thrown-out special moves. If he nails you with a launcher, he can immediately link it to War Destroyer (his new HC) and it's your ass. You'll also want to watch out for his fast air-dash. While less threatening to Hayato, as he doesn't care about keeping people away, it can still catch you off-guard and open you up for an ass-whoopin'. His air-dash, his chipping, his new super, and special moves are the things you have to look out for; although he is inferior to Iron Man, he is superior to Hayato, and won't think twice about swatting your ass if you keep making mistakes. Therefore, you shouldn't make them. Try and keep War Machine on the receiving edge of your ground comboes, and you might scrape away a win. As an assist, War Machine's Anti-Air isn't as potent as Iron Man's; it doesn't last as long and thus is worse for setting stuff up. His Projectile, however, chips more than Iron Man's. You can see either of these assists in use, but his Projectile is arguably more dangerous, due to their chip. He's not nearly as dangerous as Iron Man as an off-point character. -------------------------- 54. Wolverine (Adamantium) -------------------------- Wolverine is a crazy mo'fo whose insanely fast dash and combo options can give you a headache. His dash is nearly as fast as Magneto's, he has a Speed Up move that makes him even FASTER, his super comboes do relatively devastating damage, and he even has ghetto Tri-jump abilities with his Drill Claw. What drags him down is his terrible, terrible vitality. A Wolverine absolutely can't make mistakes, as comboes of any length devastate him. His lack of air mobility (other than Drill Claw) also makes him inferior to rushing gods such as Magneto and Iron Man. However, the sheer ferocity of his attacks still makes him a tough match. Hayato and Wolverine actually have the same game plan; rush the opponent, and pray you never get rushed yourself. Wolverine's crazy speed gives him the advantage in accomplishing this goal, and his faster basic moves give him the advantage up-close. Both of these facts add up to a very bad thing: Hayato will more than likely have to be on defense as the battle begins. If Wolvie has a good coverage assist like Sentinel Ground or Doom Anti-Air it becomes even more ridiculous, as push-blocks become more difficult and openings become very scarce. You'll want to come equipped with an invincible AAA or other fast assist of your own, to try and catch Wolvie in. This will tack on hefty damage and swing the flow in your favor. The whole objective in this battle is to try and land two hits through Wolvie's constant barrage of bull****. This is quite a task to accomplish through all the flailing limbs, but it can be done. Your advantages here are your LPs and B+HPs. Their superior range will prove to be boons in this battle. Don't rely on your C.LKs, as Wolvie's close-range pokes are far quicker. Only come out with C.LKs if Wolvie is already pinned down by an assist in the vein of Sentinel Ground. When you land any hit, keep on your toes, as you NEED to expand that hit into Hayato's bread-and-butter. Landing two of those comboes kills or cripples Wolverine. If you're crazy psychic, you can try to hop over a dashing C.LK with a F+HP and follow up with a B+HP sequence, which would give you crazy style points. A few notes about Wolvie's extra supers, the Fatal Claw and the Berserker Rage. They're not the most useful things ever, but the Fatal Claw has the potential to give him a few extra comboes. The Berserker Rage speeds him the **** up and grants him an infinite, but it's rare you'll actually see it. When you do, just be a bit more careful, as his crack-like speed can be used to more easily conquer your pushblocks. Wolverine has ass for anti-air, so you can jump-in all day if he doesn't have good assists backing him up. In case he does, though, be cautious, as Wolvie becomes ultra-dangerous with the right assists. For example, he can cross you up very easily with Doom and his Drill Claw, and he can keep you in blockstun for an annoying amount of time with Sentinel Ground. This battle depends on if Wolvie makes mistakes, as Wolvie does his damage in this fight by adding up his comboes, while Hayato does his damage in big chunks with his B&B. Try desperately to keep Wolvie out, and land that B+HP. Not the hardest task in the world, but certainly not the easiest. Wolverine's assists are pretty bad. They're all pretty short-ranged and don't do much in terms of damage or set-up. They might occasionally tag you for some damage, but Wolverine all-in-all is far more dangerous on-point. -------------------- 55. Wolverine (Bone) -------------------- This battle, is, as you should have already deduced (if you didn't, please die, post-haste), similar to Adamantium Wolverine. Though they share the same playstyle and objectives, there are a few subtle differences. The most obvious of these are that Bone Wolvie can't do Fatal Claw or Berserker Rage, but he is capable of doing the Tornado Claw in the air. His dive kick also goes diagonally as opposed to vertically. He is also even faster than Wolvie, and his D.MK doesn't sweep, allowing for easier comboes. However, he takes even more damage than Wolverine, making him one of the most fragile characters in the game. Despite this disadvantage, he is still a tougher opponent for Hayato. The reason that Wolverine is tougher is because his main disadvantage, the worse vitality, doesn't really affect Bone Wolvie in this match-up. Hayato does all of his damage in huge chunks through bread-and-butter comboes, so a small shift in vitality doesn't make too much of a difference. With this being said, your objective in this fight is the same as it was against the Metal Wolverine: land 2 Engetsu/Rasetsu Zan comboes. That's it. Don't count on Bone Wolvie making it easy for you, however. Seeing as how Bone Wolverine is even quicker and has more range than his metal clone, landing a combo becomes an even more difficult task than it already was. In addition, any slip-up you make is punished harder than it was with Metal Wolvie, because Bone Wolvie's air comboes are made much more damaging by the mashable Tornado Claw. His Berserker Barrage is also more damaging in this incarnation, meaning that he's more dangerous on all fronts. Although this Wolverine is more dangerous than his counterpart, the battle is still essentially the same. All it is is that Hayato has a bit less room for error, and that this Wolvie will give up less oppurtunities for Hayato to capitalize on. Still keep utilizing your superior range, and try to catch Wolvie off-guard and sock it to him with a B&B. Two successful comboes will result in your victory. One of the main reasons Bone Wolverine is more of a threat than Adamantium is his Variety assist. It's the only assist in the game that hits low. This means that it can seriously **** you up if you keep getting smacked by it. All you really have to do is block low the moment you see Wolverine pop onto the screen. This can end up destroying you, as your opponent can get free overheads. You might want to jump back instead. Just try to avoid that freaking assist. ----------- 56. Zangief ----------- This is always a fun battle. Zangief is one of the worst characters in Marvel vs. Capcom 2, meaning he has to be resourceful and clever (and a bit lucky) to scrape away a win, much like Hayato. Zangief's grappler status is a detriment in a game like MvC2 with **** flying all over the place. When he does land a few throws, they do very solid damage, but not as much as Hayato's B&B, for example. He does, however, have very solid cross-up maneuvers, good damage on mashable throws, damaging unblockable supers, and the ability to transform into Mech Zangief, who does a hell of a lot better against Hayato then regular Gief. Against regular Gief, you'll want to do two things: avoid getting point-blank, and avoid Gief's cross-up BS. A cross-up body splash by Zangief can lead to terrible things, such as HK xx Aerial Russian Slam, an air combo, or various disgusting FAB set-ups. Essentially, don't get crossed up. Try not to be under Zangief when he super-jumps, as that's the only way he has of safely getting around. He can use his HK Aerial Throw to move relatively quickly, but your launcher can knock him out of that. Regardless of that move's unsafe-ness, look out for it, as it can snatch you out of normal jumps surprisingly quickly. If he covers it with an assist such as Sentinel, he can get around fairly quickly, so keep this in mind and don't let Zangief gather momentum. What really hurts regular Zangief in this match is Hayato's sword. Hayato's quick pokes, B+HP and nasty jump-ins are bad stuff for a Zangief who's looking to get in grab range. Take advantage of this by following J.HK jump-ins with quick B+HP Plasma Comboes while looking to score an opening. Zangief has above-average vitality, so your efforts will have reduced rewards, but they'll add up. Just make sure you don't get stupid, as Zangief can easily punish your ground-based comboes with an FAB and turn the momentum in his favor, and you don't want that happening. Try not to get knocked down, and roll when you get swept, as usual. This will reduce the risk of getting crossed up, which has the risk of leading into BS. When Zangief transforms into Mech Zangief, this battle tilts way in his favor. Mech Zangief is a HUGE threat to Hayato's health, as all of Hayato's advantages in this match get washed away by Gief's Hyper Armor. Although he can't block, he won't get put into hitstun by ANY attack. This is awful for Hayato, whose offense relies 100% on comboes. Hayato's main ground comboes get thrown out of the window in this situation, as Zangief will just FAB you and laugh while doing it. You basically will just want to be as annoying as you can, jumping around and smashing him with J.HKs, while calling assists. This goofy little strategy is the most you can hope for against Mecha Gief, as any combo offense you try to mount will get mercilessly stuffed. All of Zangief's assists warrant some mention. His most dangerous assist possibility is his Ground assist, when he's in Mech mode. Mech Gief using ground assists completely stops rushdown, as a rusher can't catch Mech Gief due to his hitstun immunity. A Hayato player will want to fear this assist, and snapbacking Gief in won't do much good, since Hayato sucks so bad against Mech Gief. Zangief's Throw assist is his running grab, and you'll want to jump out of its path, as its unblockabnle and can give your enemy a free launcher. His Air Throw can do terrible things to your normal jump, and is probably his second most dangerous assist. ================== 8. Other Fun Stuff ================== Hayato's Costumes: LP: Hayato sports a white shirt and black pants. HP: Hayato sports a pinkish tinge to the above costume. LK: Hayato sports a bluish tinge to LP's costume. HK: Hayato decides to go for a brownish tinge this time (super ugly) A1: Hayato goes ultra-red in this ugly outfit. A2: Hayato's only other decent costume. An all-black ensemble. ========== 9. Thanks! ========== To: Marvel Capcom GameFAQs Backbone