Strider Hiryu Greetings fans of cheapness! Kidding! Welcome to my Strider Hiryu FAQ and strategy guide! Since I am pretty new to the game, this FAQ is only preliminary, expect it to be updated hugely over time. Strider Hiryu as a character I thought it was about damn time Capcom brought back their bestest ever character! Even superior to Ryu, Akuma, Jedah, and Geki! When I heard Strider would be in a Vs game, I knew he would have all sorts of evasive type attacks. I figured at least one of his attacks would look like Magneto’s FP. And it did! Plus there is so much stuff in his arsenal that is from the old game! Lets get to it! Strider Moves Ok, first off here are the basic commands. Jab: Weakest button, fast but little damage. Strong: Stronger than weak, but slower. Fierce: Strongest of the punches, but delay if blocked or misses. Short Kick: Jab with a kick. Forward: Strong using your foot. Roundhouse: A Fierce toe stabbing! Note: With Strider most of his attacks, punch or kick, are made using the Cypher (his sword)! This gives him cool reach! Also it makes him like Balrog or Elena! Well, in a “style” sense. :) Jump: On the stick, do either up, to jump straight up (pretty useless), up/forward (jump towards enemy) or up/backwards (jumps away). Block: Hold back on the stick and you will stop any basic attack, no damage! Special moves do “chipping damage” though (and supers do a lot!). not everything in the game can be blocked either, so be warned! Throwing: Hold towards or away from enemy and press either a punch or kick button, provided it isn’t short/jab. Tech hit: When thrown (which ISN’T cheap!) perform the throw motion yourself to escape. No damage! Super Jump: Tap down then up for a real big jump! You can “attack indefinitely” in the air. Meaning as many attacks as you can get in After a launcher (see combos) tap up on the stick to auto super jump! Then combo the hell out of ‘em! Roll: If you are about to hit the floor, whether tripped up or whatever, perform a back-to-down rotation and you should roll forwards, hopefully catching the enemy off guard! Use the surprise! But dont do it all the time or you’ll get sweeped! Tag out: Press Fierce and Roundhouse together to tag in your partner. You must be on the ground. (This is very useful for Strider, since he takes hits like a girly.) Team super: Perform a fireball motion and press Fierce and Roundhouse and both your characters should perform a super move, one slightly before the other! Huuuuge damage! Weird team up wazzer: At level two, make a backwards fireball motion (or “hurricane kick” motion) with the two heavy buttons to summon your partner on. You then control both men! Perform as many spers as you want in the time you get! Woah! But if you get supered....... you are both gonna get HURT! Team counter: When being attacked bad style and you are blocking, an easy way out is a roll motion and both strongest buttons. Your partner will jump in, perform a counter strike and take over! Be warned this takes up one super bar! Now that the basics are done: Strider’s specials N.B. Most of them come from the old game! Yattane! Ame No Murakamo (Fireball motion and punch) : A short dash forward, followed by a big slash with the cypher. Based on which punch you use, he travels further, Fierce goes the most distance. Even me, a big Strider fan, has to say this move sucks. SUCKS. It has a terrible delay if you miss. And if you are blocked, get ready to eat super (and since Strider doesnt like the taste, he will lose a LOT of energy.). I guess the computer always uses this to finish off it’s combo to prove it can be flashy/perform OTGs. My advice: Don’t bother with this. Ame No Murakamo in the air (Fireball motion and any button) : Ah, now this is slightly better. Strider flies at his opponent, apparently propelled somehow by the Cypher! Anyway, this move has a choice of 5 directions. Jab or short: Goes Straight forward. Strong: Diagonal up. Fierce: Up. Forward: Diagonal down. Roundhouse: Down I don’t really find this terribly useful either. If you use it as an AC finisher, you land and recover the same time as your opponent. And the damage isn’t really more than any other AC finisher, just extra hits. (Strider gets enough of them anyway....). You can use it to cheese War Machine and such by using the forward button one when they do a beam. Cut right through them! Well, thats about all. Unless you use it as a Dragon Punch by jumping slightly and doing the Fierce one. Not recommended though. Ghram (Dragon Punch and Punch or Kick): Yes! In the old game, there was a powerup that made you do scrren length slashes. And thats what this is! Using it with punch slashes high. Kicks slash low! You can do it in the air as well, and its an AC finisher! Wow! Consider this Strider’s “beam” move. Although it does have a bit of a lag afterwards. But definitely a use use move. ALWAYS finish ground combos with this, not the Ame as the dumbass computer does. Bomb drop/Formation B (Charge back, then forward and kick): Another move from the old game! During level 2, on Strider’s way to a floating battle platform, he was bombed from above by a carrier vessel. The bombs came down on parachutes! This is what happens here, only one of Strider’s hawks carries it on! The kick determines how far away from Strider the bomb is dropped. Short drops it near him, forward is half screen distance, Roundhouse for full screen away. At first I wasnt so keen on this move, but now I think it is really great for the pressure game! If you have a cheesy turtly fireballer opponent, summon the bomb to hit them, then dash at them. Then either two things can happen: 1) As you dash, jump. If you jump a fireball, then they should be stunned, in which case start a ground to air combo. The bomb shall explode on them during your combo for good damage! If they are not in fireball stun, they may try an anti air attack, so get ready to air block. Then the bomb hits. BOOM! It is most likely they will not try anything if they see the bomb coming, so start your combo as you come in. Yes, they will block. But as the bomb approaches, do a sweep! If they block the sweep the bomb will get them, and vice versa! 2) Don’t jump, just dash. However this is dangerous, you are left more vulnerable. So just jump. Formation A/Tiger (Fireball with kick): In the old game, there was a powerup that summoned a Sabre Tooth Tiger that helped you out! He’s back! Strider points at the foe and a Tiger runs at them. It’s like a standard fireball, but not very good. The lepoard can easily be spotted, plus he can be destroyed. Basically, use occasionally for shock (?). Formation C/Satellite (Charge back, forward and punch): The first time you pull off this move, a satellite appears next to Hiryu. The second time you do it, the satellite fires as a fireball! Hmmph. Another sucky move. What you should do is summon the satellite at the start of the match. Then, during the match, unleash it as a surprise. That’s all I could think for it. Wall Cling (Hurricane kick and punch): Strider leaps up onto the wall and hangs there. Whilst on the wall, punch swings the cypher with quite good range. Kick has Strider drop off with a kick. Tapping back then forward has Strider leap to the other wall. I like this move. It has saved me quite a few times. It has its uses, despite what you may think. During the double wazzer thingy, I was attacked by war Machine and Ryu. They both started their super fireballs, but I hung onto the wall and was totally safe! As Ryu jumped after me (whilst War Machine recovered) I kicked off the wall into WM’s face! Then I tagged out and Captain Commando kicked Ryu into touch on the way in! Love it! The main use of this attack is confusionary. Vagula (Hurricane kick with kick): Strider splits into five images that dissappear. They then reappear a certain distance accross the screen and kick the opponent in the head! Kick determines distance, as with the bomb drop. This is, yep, a surprise move. However, use it rarely, because otherwise people will cotton on, and then you will be blocked, supered, and based on Hiryu’s weakness, die. Teleport (Backwards Dragon Punch and any button): Strider is the only character in the game with the traditional Capcom teleport move. The button determines the position on the screen, Jab for top left, Roundhouse for bottom right. This move has many uses. Escape, surprise, setting up a super, etc. I used this to ‘port behind WM just as he started a Proton Cannon. Appearing, I used the Ouroborous, comboed him, then pulled off the Ragnarok. Kickass! Stider Supers One thing said for Strider, his supers generally suck. Ouroborous (Fireball and 2 punches): Strider calls on many orbs that revlve around him and attack as he does. What I find this is really is Capcoms attempt to redeem themselves over how crap custom combos were, by using this move as a custom combo that DOES damage! When you charge in with this active, you can cycle through his 6 hit ground combo a few times. Also, you can cancel at any time into the Ragnarok! This will stop the orbs though. Legion: Strider points and a huge mass of Tigers and Hawks attack! The hawks attack high up and may catch the foe if he tries to jump. This super is just a chipping super really, because of it’s feeble start up. Useful when doing a team up, if Strider is the second man, because whilst they are occupied with the first super, the foe will be set up nicely for this second hit. Ragnarok: Very scacely based on a multiplying powerup from the old game, Strider runs slowly forward. If he reaches the opponent and they dont block, her grabs them, throws them upwards, then four Striders slash X’s across the fow 4 times! Great damage! But its so painful to actually connect! Subtleness required. COUNTER: Ame Ne Murakamo (roll motion with Fierce AND Roundhouse, requires one super bar): Strider leaps in and performs his Jab version of the Ame Ne. Though some people like this counter, I don’t think it is really worth sacrificing a super. TEAM SUPER: Legion (Fireball and Fierce AND roundhouse, requires TWO super bars): Strider’s Legion can be useful in a team super, but it MUST come second to stand a chance of connecting! Strider Strategies Ok, now you know how to pull off Strider’s special attacks, lets get to strategies. Basic attacks: Strider is the type of character who relies more on his basic attacks and such than his specials! (He really IS like Elena!). He has great range with the Cypher, more than most characters (Gambit and Zanigef (at least) have slightly better range), so use it! Plus he has the speed, so even if outranged he can manuver easily. After all, he has enough tricks to do so! Also some of his attacks do not look like ducking attacks when they sometimes are! So be prepared to confuse your opponent till they make a mistake! Special attacks: Forget the Tiger and the Satellite if it’s a serious fight. Totally forget the Ame Ne Murakamo. Rely on the Ghram as a combo finisher always, and a beam attack if needed. The Ghram is useful to hit a recovering opponent if you know you can’t get to them in time. Bomb drops are useful for pressure attacks. All Striders evasion moves are useful too. Super attacks: You are better saving your supers for your partner to use! The Ouroborous can be good for big combos, especially since you can pull off the Ragnarok from it. But other characters can do more damage. Play to confuse!: A good way of winning is angering your opponent into attacking foolishly. To do this is simplicity with Strider. Never stand still. Jump to the walls, Double jump, leap from wall to wall, teleport, anything. Then, after much evasion, try to look like you are merely avoiding the foe, then STRIKE! Combination: Combinations are really important with Strider (as are combos; not the same thing!:) ) The bomb drop and combo, the Ouroborous etc. Use them! If you dont like to play strategic with Strider you have to play all out attack. Strider simply cannot play keep away or else he’ll die. He doesn’t have fireballs to hold back an enemy. If you play offensively, be in there all the time. Combo, break back, dash back in, combo again. Never let up! (I prefer the confusion style though.) End Ok my friends, that is all for this first draft of the Strider guide. Do not fear, the combos, individual strategies, best partners and Onslaught strategies cometh! Just remember that he is not CHEAP! (Actually I will do a section on that too.) Copyright Jedah aka Dave 1998.