*********************************************************************** A Player's Guide to KAZUYA MISHIMA version 3.0 by Lee Kian Chong (iLuvMomo) email : kianchong@netscape.net helsmley@yahoo.com ICQ Uin : 6477770 Website : http://www.geocities.com/helsmley last updated : 01/12/2K *********************************************************************** This guide is written using Wordpad usings Courier New (Western) Size 10 Fonts. 1234567890 ......... If the dots and numbers are alligned then you are set. ************ Legal Stuff ************ Tekken and all the characters in Tekken are copyrighted by Namco. Feel free to print this guide for your personal use. If you wish to distribute this guide, make sure that it is distributed free and in its unaltered state, even with typo and grammatical errors. Make sure that you have my written permission before you in anyway distribute this guide. Please give credit where credit is due. ******** Content ******** What's New About the Authour Why another Kazuya Guide? Why Kazuya? Kazuya's Weaknesses Kazuya's Moves Move Analysis - Throws - Special techniques - Unblockables Pre-canned 10 Hit Strings Movement - Sidestepping - Wave Dashing - Tagging Custom Strings Attack, Countering and Interrupting To Parry or Not to Parry? Kazuya's Juggles - Juggle List - My 2 Cents on Juggling Okizeme Chicken Buffer Throw Escape The Funny World of Tekken - Scrub - Novice - Intermediate - Advanced - Expert Character Specific Strategy (Vs. Strategy) Suggestions for Tag Partners Sites of Interest Credits ********** What's New ********** v 1.0 First release of the guide. Rather incomplete and there are still some sections not filled in yet. v 1.1 Added, Yoshimitsu Vs. Strategy, slight mods on Vs. Strategy of Hwoarang, Julia, Michelle. Small update on Wave Dash section and Sidestepping strategy. v 1.2 Added "Sites of Interest" Section v 1.3 Added "About the Authour" Section, "Contents", update on Ganryu, Gun Jack, Heihachi, Lee in Vs. Strategy. Also updated my Credits list. Other minor updates. Added some more "Wave Dashing" tips. v 1.4 Added Kazuya's Mist Step Cancel into WGF, corrections on Demon Gut Punch, Glorious Demon Fist, Gut Punch and other minor updates. Added Ogre and True Ogre to "Vs. Strategy" section. v 2.0 Partner Analysis added. Corrections to Tsunami Kicks and Axe Kick. Demon Gut Punch and Gut Punch update. Other minor Corrections. v 2.1 Minor corrections to "Vs. Strategy" as well as WGF section. Other minor updates. Credits updated too! v 3.0 Something *MAJOR* Discovery on Gut Punch on CH. Added To Parry or Not to parry section. Some corrections to other sections. New info added. Websites also updated! f+1+2 is not that bad after all. Almost every section has some updates. to be added in v 3.1 --------------------- Any other corrections that people feel need to be corrected and I will DEFINITELY try to write more when I get a PS2 TTT. ***************** About the Authour ***************** I am an 18 year old boy who lives in Ipoh, a small town in Malaysia. Currently I am not studying or anything after my SPM (thats equivalent to 0 Levels). I will be moving to Kuala Lumpur to do my A levels sometime in June. I would consider myself a hardcore gamer and have been playing games in the arcades since I was 6 playing the then popular Street Fighter II series (the ironic thing about this all is that people under 18 are banned from going to arcades!... so you would say I had to illegally sneak into arcades time and time again) Anyways, back to the topic. My first taste of Tekken was Tekken 2 on the Playstation and I have to say I never liked it in the first place. (to slow for me) I really got into Tekken when Tekken 3 was released for the Playstation, and I addictively play Tekken Tag Tournament right now, spending most of my allowance in the local arcades learning new combos or practising new strategies. If any of you readers live in Ipoh (or KL for the matter), do e-mail me as I would be glad to have a game or two with you. It doesn't matter if you are better than me and if you beat me because if you do , I will still be learning something new. Anyways, I am NOT a player with Mad skillz, just an average player who wishes to pass a tip or two to would-be Kazuya Players. ************************* Why another Kazuya Guide? ************************* Other than the fact that I have nothing better to do than to write my first FAQ on my favourite character, I feel that there have been some points not covered by other FAQ authors. The FAQs by Reverend_C and Exar_Kun have given me great inspirtation to write this FAQ so in some instances my strategy may sound similar to theirs, so I would like to give them great credit for their initial FAQ. Also, I feel that almost all the guides OVERemphasize Kazuya's Demon Gut Punch. Sure it is a very good and important attack of Kazuya, but the problem is that the move can be tag escaped in Tekken Tag Tournament when compared to Tekken 2 thus making the move less powerful than it should be. I'm not saying its useless, but it is terribly hard to hit the Demon Gut Punch on CH against good players consistently. I would say the Demon Gut Punch is similar to Paul's Deathfist - it is hard to land on good players but IF it does land you are in a major world of hurt. I'm sure I will get a lot of hate mails and mail bombs from people for saying this though. As this is my first ever FAQ, all those fussy critics out there, please be kind on me, kay? Also before reading this guide, I expect most players to know the basics of Tekken Tag as in how to quick recover, and for Kazuya how to do CD's and WS moves. *********** Why Kazuya? *********** For one moment lets try and forget him having one of the best juggle starters, the Wind God Fist. And lets forget that he has the Hell Sweeps which is stronger than Heichachi's. And lets forget he has all those Mishima trademark attacks (shining fists, tsunami kicks etc.) Kazuya kicks ass NOT because of his Demon Gut Punch ,WS+2 (which when followed up, will almost spell the end of the fight, if not the end of the fight, for your opponent). The Demon Gut Punch (now known as DGP) stuns you opponent for hell of a long time that you can follow up with some painful blows or a juggle. Even a roundhouse kick is extremely damaging (which I will get to later). Kazuya has a regular Gut Punch (think of it as a burger sans the cheese) which is easier to initiate but does not stun as long (you can still get some pretty good hits from it though...) and IMO is better than his Demon Gut Punch. Besides just recently, I found out (more of by accident) that Kazuya CAN indeed launch with a WGF after a Gut Punch and Juggle for Major damage. Among the midst of all the Demon Gut Punch glamour, many players forget that Kazuya has the Twin Pistons which is MUCH better than Jin's sorry offering. The Twin Pistons is a very useful move as it will juggle as long as the 1st hit connects. Sure some people will argue that it does not juggle as high as a WGF and there aren't as many juggle options as there are after a WGF, but hey, we are talking about a move from a WS position. There aren't many moves which comes out of WS position this fast, has this good a recovery (take that Heihachi) and most importantly JUGGLES! His WS Twin Piston is a very useful especially for CD mix-ups. Moreover, Kazuya's Hell Sweeps isn't as pathetic as say Heihachi's as his will trip on the first hit, if you delay the Hell sweep (I'm not saying that Heihachi's Hell Sweeps is useless - it can be devastating when used in combos.) Plus, Kazuya has the Mist step from which you can initiate the Hell Sweeps in an instant and more deceptive manner, thus making it almost impossible to block. Speaking of Mist step, his Mist step cancel is the easiest and fastest way to get a WGF, Hell Sweep or TGF from. There are a hell load of reasons why you SHOULD play Kaz that I won't bothering mentioning here as this will make the FAQ too long, so just read on. Kaz is MY favourite character (along with Bruce) in Tekken Tag and you can always see me playing him in the arcades. ******************** Kazuya's Weaknesses ******************** 1. His grunts are weird.. he goes *eeYikes* or something. Totally annoying. 2. His Wind God Fist (like Heihachi's) hits special medium now and this kills of the crouch dash guessing game...or does it.... 3. His Demon Gut Punch is tag escapable *boo!* 4. His Hell Sweeps causes him to stagger (what do you expect for such a powerful kick) when blocked. 5. Lack of moves (but at least the moves he has are very good) which means he gets a bit predictable at a higher level of play. 6. Some of his moves take forever to come out. Example the Glorious Demon Fist (f+1+2) and longer than forver to recover. 7. No netsu power up with a lot of characters. 8. Darn... no Tag slides or cross chops! (though mist step after a tag in is a nice substitute) That means he can't tag in that extra lil bit of damage 9. He can't combo as well as say Heihachi or Jin. ****************************** General Idea on Playing Kazuya ****************************** Although some may tell you that Kazuya is a pure pitbull/ offense character, do not believe them. Kazuya should not be played on the offense all the time. By saying this I mean that against certain characters who are faster than him (say the Changs, Law) Kazuya will be in deep trouble if he goes pitbulling all the time. Does CH 1~2,1 or CH 4 sound good to you? Well Kazuya does NOT have pokes that are faster than 10 frames, a fact which will be severely punished by them if you blindly pitbull. With that said, Kazuya should play defensively on the counter. Remember, WGF, is your best friend since your WGF, not only has high priority, it is the fastest WGF in the damn game. 1 damn frame can make a difference. Besides, WS+1,2 is another good move if you should duck any high moves. Combined, WGF and WS+1,2 make Kaz the unstoppable force that he is. Lets not forget Hell sweeps shall we? The only time Kazuya can be offensive is when your opponent is on the ground. Don't believe what people tell you, his Okizeme game is very dangerous because of his CD. I will go into more of this later in the Okizeme section. *************** Kazuya's Moves *************** Throws: Command Name Escape Property 1+3 Bitch Kicks 1 2+4 Hip Toss 2 f,f+1+2 Stone Head 1+2 #1#2 FC_d_db+1+2 Ultimate Tackle #3 1+3_2+4_2+5 Steel Pedal Drop 1 #4 1+3_2+4_2+5 Skull Mash 2 #5 1+3_2+4_2+5 Reverse Neck Throw n/a #6 #1 Opponent can quick recover after this throw. #2 Jun can tag in after this throw can finish with Reverse Arm Bar. #3 Same as general tackle everyone has, except Kazuya can only con- tinue with ultimate punches. #4 Left side-throw #5 Right side-throw #6 Back-throw Special Techniques: Command Name Range Property 1,2 Double Punch h,h =<2 Demon Slayer h =4 Stature Kick l 1,1<2 Shining Fist m,m,m WS+1,2 Twin Piston m,m JG d/f+1 Entrials Smash m HS f,N,d,df+1 Thunder God Fist m =3 Mid Kick m =4 Hell Sweep L f+1+2 Glorious Demon Fist m CFS f,N Kazuya Mist Step n/a =df+2 [~5] Wind God Fist [tag] sm JG =df+1 Thunder God Fist m =df+4,4 Hell Sweeps L,L WS+2 Demon Gut Punch m CFS DSc JG df+2 Gut Punch m JG CFSc 2,2 Demon Back Hand h,h f+2 Soul Thrust m GB GS KNDc f,n,d,df+2 [~5] Wind God Fist [tag] sm JG f,f+3 Split Axe Kick m f,f,f_WR+3 Leaping Slash Kick m GB f+4 Axe Kick m GB KS WS_df_f,n,d,df+4 Rising Kick m =4 Tsunami Kick m f,n,d,DF+4,4 Hell Sweep L,L BS u_uf+4,4,4,4 Spinning Demon h,L,L,h BS 4~3 Demon Scissors M db+4 Stature Kick l Unblockable: Command Name b+1+4 Lightning God Fist B+1+4 Lightning Screw God Fist f,f,n+2122:3:4:4::1::2:1 *Tenstring* f,f,n+2122:3:4:4::3::2:1 *Tenstring* f,f,n+2144:2:4:3::2:1 *NineString* ************** Move Analysis: ************** Unlike other FAQs, I am not going to rate any of the moves because even if the move seems sucky to me, someone out there may have found a good use for it that I haven't, I'm not the lead designer of Tekken Tag so who am I to judge anyways? But I'll try here and there to point out the excellent moves that you should use often (but not over abuse). First off though, I must stress the strategys I have written here is based on vs. Humans and not vs. CPUs. If you need some strategy as to how to beat the CPU in record time, go look up other FAQs (I'm sure there are some out there) Throws ------- Command Name Escape 1+3 Bitch Kicks 1 The good ol Kazuya kick (which Jin also learnt) Gives you two good kicks in the face and leaves your opponent on the floor near to you, close enough to use some okizeme tactics. I think the df+4 kick is also guranteed. However, use this only when your opponent starts breaking your stone head throws as most players default to 1 for their throw escapes. 2+4 Hip Toss 2 Throws your opponent over your shoulders to the ground. Your basic 2+4 throw which leaves no window for Okizeme. *yAwn* Next please! f,f+1+2(~5) Stone Head 1+2 Kazuya's best throw. Does a little more damage than your normal throw (33 pts) but has so many uses. First of all you can do it from a CD or dash buffer it, which is ideal for those custom strings. Secondly if Jun is on your team, you can tap 5 to have her safely tag in (damage is suprisingly less...). Lastly, your opponent will be on the ground close to you and the df+4 kick is almost guranteed (if I'm not mistaken, you can escape the df+4 by tapping 2 very quickly). Even if it isn't (since in TTT, your opponent can tech roll after a roll) you still have lots of options for okizeme (like say another throw? -evil laugh). In fact, if they have developed a habit for techrolling, then nail them with UF+3 which you should pleasantly know is guranteed. After a Stonehead, this is a good opportunity for you to do some wave dashing and put pressure on your opponent. Perfect for OB trap setups :) FC_d_db+1+2 Ultimate Tackle special Use this on slow witted opponents or those who don't know how to break reverse this throw. This move is so bad because your opponent has loads of time to escape from this throw, and even if it connects he can reverse it to his advantage (1+2 just before they hit the ground and before you know it they are on top of you) . Moreover this move is slow to start of with and your opponent may have already whupped your butt before you could even grab him. Sadly, Kazuya doesn't even have and arm lock to add more damage (and mix things up). Come on Namco... what are you doing to him? 1+3_2+4_2+5 Steel Pedal Drop 1 Its a side throw. It does more damage than a normal throw. It can be easily escaped unless your opponent was committed to an attack before you grabbed him which means he would probably have no idea you were going to throw him anyways. Against a good player though, never use side throws. 1+3_2+4_2+5 Skull Mash 2 Read above. 1+3_2+4_2+5 Reverse Neck Throw n/a Its a back throw therefore it cannot be escaped. Does a good deal of damage (40% actually) but nothing in the range of Heihachi's or Yoshi's back throw. 2 WGF's will more than excede the 40% damage so I seldom use this throw, of course WGF will take a longer time to initiate. However when your opponent is on the ground, you can still follow up with okizeme tactics though. Special Techniques ------------------- Command Name Range 1,2 Double Punch h,h Two fast punches that hits high. Not really useful except when used in juggles, but then I myself prefer 1,1 more than 1,2 as 1,1 comes out faster, and if the 1,1 connects, the 2 follow up is guranteed. Just a small note, 1,2 has more forward momentum than 1,1 so WGF, 1,2, df+4,4 will always connect but for WGF, 1, 1, df+4,4, the last kick will miss. (you have to do the tsunami kicks by inputting f,n,d,df,f+4,4) 1,2<2 Demon Slayer h,h,h Why do the Mishima's bother teaching their children this move. Other than being damaging, this move is rather poor. Slow,three consecutive high hits. Use this move when I play Kazuya and you will probably be at the receiving end of a Twin Pistons. Of course on the last hit (backhand), Kaz's body is surrounded with electricity. The only time I'd used this move is when playing against a scrub (but then the move's recovery time is soooooo slow that you probably get hit in return if it is blocked). Lastly this move doesn't knock down and has no guranteed follow-ups, but if it does connet, it will push your opponent far away enough to be safe from retaliation. Use this move in juggles (easy and moderately damaging since Kaz has so few juggle options) or if you KNOW that your opponent is trying to parry your 1,2<4 stature kick combo with a command low parry (example : King's db+1+4) NOT a generic low parry (df). p/s I have come to a conclusion that this move may be the 'best' move in the world of Tekken if used correctly, only second to Devil's flying lazer. LOL 1,2<4 Stature Kick h,h,l A good move overall since the last kick is quite hard to see coming but since this is the only other option other than the Demon Slayer (and good grief I myself wonder who'd use the Demon Slayer in a higher level of play) the Stature Kick will be expected and thus low parried (Demon slayer hits high, so holding df will be safe if you complete the whole combo) or even blocked. If it is blocked, be prepared to eat a WS move. Some WSmoves are guranteed after a block stature kick like the Chang's WS+4. However most of the time though, this move is useful for ticking away the last bit of your opponent's life. Throw this once in a while and use it SPARRINGLY for heaven's sake. One last thing about the 1,2, 4 combo, its really fun to do in the WGF, multi jab combo since it has a lot of air time and is bound to annoy your opponent. 1,1<2 Shining Fist h,h,m If you already know how to play Jin or Heihachi then you might as well skip this part. Being a Mishima trademark move, the Shinig fist is one of the better moves passed down the generations. The 1,1 hits quick and will most likely be your poking tool of choice. The last hit hits mid and knocks down, which means your opponent won't be able to duck all day. Moreover, the last hit comes out pretty fast, therefore, your opponent will not have enough time to WS you, but he will still be able to interrupt you with d+1. Therefore, 1,1 is ideal in custom strings since you can train your opponent to block high before going low with a stature kick combo, Hell sweep(s) or a simple throw. In addition to that, the 2 can be delayed and thus you may sucker your opponent into eating the 2. Another advantage is that if the first punch connects the follow up is all but guranteed. Small note, you may need to delay the last punch a bit though since the last punch will inexplicably wiff at times which opens you up. However if your opponent blocks the last punch (2), be prepared for some hurting as there is a slight delay in recovery. Lastly since it hits so quick, the punches are uncounterable. Do not over use this though since characters with quick 8 frame jabs will punish severely... people like the Changs who can get a 1~2,1 (CH) *ouCh!* since your basic jab is 10 frames. Boo! The Shining Fist is best used off sidesteps or mist steps in Kazuya's case when you know that you don't have enough time to initiate a WGF. WS+1,2 Twin Piston m,m JG This is MUCH MUCH better than Jin's Twin Piston (which is only guranteed if the first hit hits on a counter). Thanks to Chinky-Eye for bringing about this topic in the Zaibatsu forum. In fact this is the most important move (along with the WGF) in Kazuya's arsenal. Without this, Kaz would not be as good. Basically , Kaz double uppercuts your opponent into the air for an juggle. For characters like Hei or Jin this would be good but since Kaz has air juggling capability isn't as good, it still doesn't diminish the Twin Piston's usefulness. This move has forward momentum and is useful in custom strings. More importantly though, if the first hit connects the second hit is guranteed. Just make sure you don't whiff this move or you will be at the wrong end of Paul's Deathfist. I don't understand why every single Kazuya FAQ out there rates this move 3/5 (average move) because I myself find this move extremely useful. This move recovers REALLY well. I mean if Heihachi's Twin Pistons are blocked, he has a bit of recovery time, enough for him to be smacked, but Kazuya's recovery is almost instant. Of course one may argue that it can only be pulled out from the WS position, compared to Angel/ Devil's Twin Pistons which are very abusable. Use this in any situation that you would use Jin's WS+2, only remember.... it comes out faster but doens't juggle as high. For example if you blocked a Hell sweep and your opponent is recovering from the sweep stagger, it is more advisable to pull off the Twin Pistons because if you connect with the Demon Gut Punch, it won't count as a CH, so a juggle is a smarter thing to opt for. Also, this would be a better move to opt for since it comes out wayyyyy faster than the Demon Gut Punch, recovers amazingly fast, has insane priority AND the Demon Gut Punch can be tag escaped. Learn to do the Twin Pistons after an instant Crouch (d~db,N+2 or d~df,N+2) for an instant WS+1,2 and after a Crouch Dash Cancel for Crouch Dash Mixups purposes. PLay this way, Kazuya IS a force to be reckoned with. Wave dash into WS+1,2 is very much abusable.... Just ask Jang. Drawbacks? The Twin Pistons just REFUSES to juggle big characters. But then the solution would be ..... WS+2 Demon Gut Punch m FS DSc JG THIS ??? I don't understand why each and every Kazuya FAQ author so far says that the Demon Gut Punch is the most important move of Kazuya. Sure, it hits mid, comes out of crouching. Stuns your opponent for almost eternity, has high priority, recovers moderately, but expect to be smacked hard if this is blocked. It stuns both on CH and on Clean Hit, and does good damage. BIG F***in' DEAL! Both kind of stuns ARE tag escapable! The DGP is by far the most overated move by most people. On CH, you will get a Double Over Stun which is much longer than the Fall over stun caused on a Clean hit, making damaging combos like the infamous DGP (CH), TGF,3 possible. However, gone are the days where the DGP on CH would do BIG damage and the stun was unescapable. It is worth nothing though that the escape window for the DGP on CH is much smaller compared to that on Clean hit (think of of CH DGP as Jin's b,f+2 and Clean Hit DGP as Jin's b,f+2,1) That doesn't make the DGP a totally worthless move, it just is more risky with less guranteed paybacks now in TTT. This is basically Kaz's wildcard strategy, a last resort if you will = to get your opponent into eating the DGP on CH. I mean COME ON... if you hit this move its probably curtains for your opponent. The problem however with this move is plain and simple = tricking your opponent into eating the DGP on CH. I mean the DGP isn't the fastest move to perform from WS position so it is kinda hard to actually hit your opponent on CH. Which half-decent opponent would be stupid enough to eat wait for you to do a DGP after a d+1 jab? Of course Kazuya can do the DGP using a trick I dub as Instant Crouch (it may have other names, but I call it this) - Simply input d~db,N+2 or d~df,N+2 and he will do the DGP as if from a standing position. Think of this move as Paul's Phoenix Smasher on CH or Nina's Divine Cannon Combo - its hard to hit on CH in the first place, but if it does, your opponent will be in a major world of hurt. The situations where you can use this move however are rather limited. First, and in a rare occasion, you should choose DGP over the Twin pistons if there is some distance between you and your opponent (say after d+3) and you know that the Twin Pistons will wiff (or get blocked). If your opponent is tagging out and you are in a FC position, use the DGP since you most probably will get a stun (be it Clean hit or CH) If your opponent should escape the stun by tagging out, you can DGP him, but it is worth noting that your opponent can avoid it by cancelling the tag run in (u~ub) After this move, you have some lovely follow ups which I will get to later in the Stun Juggle section. I'll repeat in case you haven't been paying attention all the while,the biggest draw back of this move is that your opponent can quickly tap 5 to tag out and thus cancel the stun, but if you look at his hand when he plays(which a good player should always try to do), you can prepare for the tag in and whack your opponent hard with the juggle starter or power move of your choice. Another catch though is that the player can push F to escape the stun (much like Jin's b,f+2,1 (ch) ) which makes this move even more useless. As far as the DGP usefulness though, it is good at beginner or intermediate level of play but almost useless against good players. d/f+1 Entrials Smash m HS Actually, I haven't figured out how to use this move properly yet, but somehow since not many people actually use this move they eat it easily. It looks like Bryan's df+2 punch. I usually use this move after my df+2 hits but not on CH and I know my opponent is trying to use a slow move to counter (Phoenix Smasher/ Deathfist anyone?). If this hits, your opponent will be slightly stunned giving you initiative but no free hit is guranteed. If this is blocked, your opponent will be pushed back but retaliations with quick moves is still very possible. Use this in a good string and your opponent will more than likely eat this. This move can be used in a juggle to push your opponent far away from you so that you can have enough room for a tag in, but for this purpose, I'd rather finish the juggle off with a WGF~5. f,N,d,df+1 Thunder God Fist m =3 Mid Kick m =4 Hell Sweep L Well well, what can I say. To say this move is slow and can be easily countered is true. But then since this is Tekken Tag and your opponent at some point of the game has to tag in (unless of course he plays to lose or your game is so pathetic) you can use this move to anticipate a tag and hit him hard. The follow up for this move (both the Mid kick and Hell sweep) can be easily interrupted by quick moves. So this move is bad? HELL NO! This move should be used if possible in your juggles. What do you do if you tag your sorry opponent with a DGP? Finish him with a TGF,3 of course! This will make your opponent sorry for trying to hit you in the first place and he will fear the wrath of the DGP as it will take off LOADS of damage. The other instance in a juggle where this move can be used is after a Class 1 launcher (ie Yoshis 4~3, Hwoarangs f,N,d,df+4 etc ). The TGF is also a very good combo finisher for WGF juggles. Please note however that the TGF after a WGF will only connect on Big characters. If you are playing against a opponent with low intellect and low reactions, you can use this in your crouch dash guessing game, after doing loads of Hell sweeps and your opponent is too slow to react (but seriously though, even my Sis will be able to block this move as it comes out so slowly). Moreover, if the initial TGF is blocked, both the Mid kick (3) and Hell Sweep (4) follow up comes out so slowly you can be jabbed out of it. The Mid kick or Hell sweep Follow up *MAY* hit players who are too hasty in retaliating with a power move, but those are scrubs we are talking about, so there. I strongly advise against using the Hell Sweep follow up in all cases since it does slightly less damage when compared to the Mid Kick. Of course, you are welcome to try it for some variety. All in all a good move but only if you use it at the right place, and at the right time. f+1+2 Glorious Demon Fist m JG CFS So what if it hits mid and stuns as long as it hits.... if it hits. A lot of players like this move because it looks cool, and it does, since Kazuya takes a small crouching step forward and punch your opponent so you may be able to duck some high attacks. Sadly though, this move takes such a long time to come out that any opponent who is awake would be able to poke you out of it, or at least block this move. However in the event that this ACTUALLY connects, you can do a single Tsunami kick to kick your opponent into the air for a small juggle. If it does NOT connect... Hoo boy are you going to be sorry... this move recovers real bad and you will get juggled for all your effort. A good thing though is that this move does some solid damage and stuns even on a whatever kind of hit. The only useful situation for the Glorious Demon Fist would be to punish wiffed slow-recovering attacks, but I feel that is better done with your WGF (comes out faster, easier juggles). Since Kazuya actually extends his hands quite a bit when performing the Glodious Demon Fist, it is an excellent move (and the only REAL situation where it is useful) to catch tagging OUT opponents. However using it in such a situation may result in hitting your opponent in the back so some of the juggles has to be changed (oh what the heck just do WGF, df+4,4) Another situation where this move may prove to be useful is when your opponent tags in. You can use the GDF to nail your defenseless opponent but do not forget that if he has tag slides or cross chops, you may get hit instead. Worse, if he should tag cancel, and he ends up blocking it you are in deep shit. Those who say that Kazuya should just use df+2 are correct in some sense but then f+1+2 was created for different purposes unlike df+2. Besides for df+2 you need to have a clean and CH to land a stun, something f+1+2 can do on any hit. Lately, I have been messing around with f+1+2 when I am playing with scrubs. It is an excellent move to catch people carelessly tagging out as I mentioned before. The damage is excellent pay off for the risk you are taking AND the Juggles of it are rather flashy... i think. f,N Kazuya Mist Step n/a =df+2 [~5] Wind God Fist [tag] sm JG =df+1 Thunder God Fist m =DF+4,4 Hell Sweeps L,L This baby is what seperate Kaz from the other Mishimas (or Kazama if you'd like). After doing f,N , Kaz does a small sidestep. After his mist step, Kaz can easily perform an instant WGF or Hell Sweep, or he can opt to go into his crouch dash. Performing moves from his mist step is quite useful especially if you can't perform a quick crouch dash. Have your opponent stunned with a DGP and can't seem to be able to connect with the normal TGF? Try doing the TGF after a Mist Step. Performing moves after Mist step allows the moved to be pulled out of no where especially where the Hell Sweep is concerned. Since the Wind God Fist has been tonned down to hit sM, your opponent will block low when he sees you starting to crouch dash... but what if he doesn't see you CD? What if you suddenly come out of a small sidestep with a quick Hell Sweep. He will more than likely eat the Hell Sweeps and since Kaz's Hell Sweep trips on the first hit, you can easily follow up with another Sweep for okizeme purposes. But best of all, he doesn't necessarily have to do one of the follow up moves as he use his normal arsenal of moves (1,1 / 1,2 etc). Use this move in your strategy and I'm sure your opponent will be cursing you when you are done with him. I must stress that although the motion to perform the WGF from Mist step may seem faster, the WGF still comes out at the same speed because of the small SS caused by the Mist step, if you do the full Mist Step thingie. However,thanks to Reverend_C's input, if you do the WGF off Mist Step REALLY quick (f,N and immediately df+2, essentially doing WGF from Mist Step at the speed of an EWGF) Kazuya will cancel the Mist Step and go into his WGF, thus making it faster in terms of frames need to pull out a normal EWGF. Just for those frame freaks, an EWGF takes at least 15 frames to pull out (f,N,d each requires 1 frame each making that 4 frames and df+2 is the completion of the EWGF itself is 11 frames making it 14) while the WGF off Mist Step Cancel is pulled off in 13 frames since Kazuya can skip the d command. When done this way, Kazuya's WGF will launch higher than usual like it would for an EWGF done the conventional way. Do remember that although the WGF can be technically done in 13 frames, I doubt that many can pull it off consistently unless you are a cyborg or something. f,n,d,df+2_f,n,df+2 Wind God Fist sM JG *DISCLAIMER* Whatever you may have read and believed, Kazuya does NOT have an EWGF (and there is not EARTH Wind God Fist btw) so I don't wanna hear any more morons saying that they swear on their sorry Chimpanzee's butt that they saw someone or something do an EWGF with Kazuya. I will only believe that Kazuya has an EWGF if I SEE thunder and HEAR lightning when he does the WGF. Just in case you don't know how to do this move, it is CD+2. Another vital move that is in every Mishima's strategy. Although the WGF has been tonned down so much so that it now hits special medium, it's use hasn't diminished one bit. Sure you don't have no crouch dashing game to fool your opponent with anymore, but I myself use this move whenever I see an opening. See your opponent winding up for a Deathfist? WGF immediately. You blocked Laws flip kick... WGF of course! This move comes out fast (and even faster if initiated from a Mist step) and has superb recovery time so use it to counter or interrupt your opponent. Even though Kaz does not have much damage opportunity after popping your opponent up into the air, you should still use this move. Why? Remember this is Tekken Tag, and you can easily buffer in the tag button so that your partner tags in immediately to finish off the juggle. Unlike Old man Hei where all his strategies are based on popping your opponent up into the air with WGF, Kaz on the other hand is blessed with other moves like his DGP, Gut Punch and Twin Pistons (the latter playing a very important part in his strategy). So even as useful a move like a WGF can be, lets all remember that Kazuya has other options to fall back on. Also since the WGF is now non parriable and non-reversible, you should still NOT abuse this move because your opponent can still poke you out of it (d+1 is all that is needed) and when blocked, your opponent is guranteed a throw if you do ANYTHING but duck. Rememer this is NOT heihachi's EWGF. Big Note, thanks to Bluu and all his experiments (darn, I wish I had a PS2 for my own) if the WGF is blocked at its maximum range, the WGF will push your opponent too far away so that normal jabs can't reach you, and almost all the throws will wiff. Therefore even if there is some recovery for a blocked WGF, since it pushes so far away you can't be hit, the WGF is practically invincible. However, if you do WGF too close to your opponent, then opponents with longer hands may be able to poke you. This is such the case with Heihachi who is guranteed a 1,1,2 after blocking your WGF in close. Speaking of WGF hitting sM, if you are those players who are still bitching around because Namco made the WGF hit sM instead of Mid (thus crippling the CD mix up strategy) all I have have to say is you aren't playing Kazuya right. The main use of the WGF has to be to counter, and for that purpose, it does it better second to none. The WGF ducks under most high attacks, and even some mid hitting ones, comes out quick (13 frames if you do it from Mist Step cancel) and has good priority which is second to none. If you use the WGF to counter youropponent and to punish wiffed /slow recovering attacks, I don't even care if the WGF hits high, mid, low, special mid, special whatever as Long as it hits. While some may say that by changing the WGF to sM Namco has weakened it a lot, I'd think otherwise.As someone in the Tekken Forum said (I'm sorry I forgot your name, so ) the WGF is not the best launcher in the game, it's THE tekken launcher. If WGF is done at EWGF speed, Kazuya's WGF will launch higher (like it would for Heihachi's EWGF) making combos like WGF, WGF, WGF possible. Sadly, Namco must have forgot (or refused)to add the Electric animation and block stun to Kazuya's EWGF.. but then he has the WGF off Mist Step Cancel which is a dangerous weapon in it's own right. The only drawback from this move is that if it hits on CH, your opponent will be flipping in the air and some of the combos like WGF, 1,1,1,1, WGF cannot be done (though because of the flip you will be able to tag in a 4~3 at the end of your combo). Just be thankful it isn't as pathetic as Jin's. Now if only Namco would at a bit of Electric animation to Kazuya's WGF.... f,n,d,DF+4,4 Hell Sweeps L,L Another bread and butter move passed down by his father. The Hellsweeps of Kazuya is an important tool in his CD guessing game with Twin pistons. The special properties of Hell sweeps which will KND and place your opponent in PLD (face down, feet away) position is a valuable thing indeed and is used to set up various things like the OB trap for example. Kazuya also has different properties for the 2nd kick of his hell sweeps which I will discuss in detail further on. However, Kaz must have gotten lazy or something because he does two low sweeps and stops, while Hei has so many variations. However old man Hei must be getting real Old now since his first sweep doesn't trip, while Kaz does making it more useful since you can suddenly come out of Mist step and sweep you opponent. One thing to take note of is that the Hell Sweep will trip as long as it hits on Clean hit. Just to note, Kazuya's Clean hit range for his Hell sweeps is larger than Jin's. At maximum range, the Hell sweep will limp your opponent. A good thing though is that the 2nd hit of the Hell Sweep will ALWAYS trip no matter whether the first limped your opponent or totally wiffed. Completing the motion by performing both hell sweeps (f,n,d,df+4,4) will result in the first sweep always tripping even though he is at maximum range. However if you want the the 2nd hell sweep after the first one has limped you need to delay the it a bit after the first sweep. Remember even if the first hit only limped, the second hit IS guranteed. Also, doing f,n,d,df+4,4 nets you 24 points of damage but doing f,n,d,df+4 and following it up with d+3 does from 27-30 points of damage. If you trip your opponent and the distance between him is rather large such that d+3 will wiff, then do f,n,d,df+3 (this is an unofficial move where Kazuya CD's into his d+3) This combo is risky to say the least and one might want to opt for the safer 24 points guranteed knockdown Hell sweeps, but just keep in mind that Kazuya's Clean hit range is again far greater than Jin's. However the introduction of sweep stagger in Tekken Tag means that if you are near and your opponent blocks your hell sweep, you will staggera bit giving him the chance to clock you. Also the Hell sweep is an ideal okizeme tool which I will further discuss later on in the "Okizeme" Section. Btw, you can Juggle off a hell sweep. However since the recovery time is a bit different, you can only juggle off a Hell sweep if: a) your first hit just limped your opponent and the second hit trips them b) you wiff your first hit but the second hit trips them. The recovery time will be oh so much faster , so much so that you can connect with another two hell sweeps or juggle with a WGF, much in the same vein as Heihachi could in Tekken 3 after a Hell sweep. Just for the record, f,n,d,df+4(limp),4, WGF, df+4,4 IS a true combo for those who doubt it isn't. It is so unfortunate that the properties of Kazuya's Hell sweep is such that on CH it need not necessarily trip your opponent. Kazuya HAS to be in Clean Hit range in order that his Hell sweep trips his opponent CH or not. Lastly, when whiffed, the first sweep recovers longer than the second sweep. Some Tips from Bluu: Generally a Kaz player must do his hell sweeps fast (don't buffer) and always complete the motion. Also if you REALLY know your spacing, try to do your sweeps at maximum distance. Why? Because when it is blocked you are pretty much safe from from things such as Hopkicks, etc. Another thing is if you want electricity from a Hell sweep, get it on CH (or Netsu powerup) df+2 Gut Punch m JG CFSc In any situation that you would use the Glorious Demon Fist, the standing df+2 Gut Punch would almost always be a better option. First it can be initiated from standing position (so you won't need to be in the crouched person first of all) and more importantly it doesn't take as long as the Glorious Demon Fist to wind up. Although the Gut punch looks the similar as its cousin the DGP (meaning he crouches a lil bit and then punches your opponent), the stun animation is not as long. Moreover, the Gut Punch will ONLY stun if it hits on a clean hit AS WELL AS CH. However, this crumple fall stun can NOT be tag escaped so you can get a guranteed juggle in, and even if you don't get it to hit on CH, your For comparisons sake, the Gut Punch comes out a tad faster than the Demon Gut Punch (14 frames for the Gut Punch vs 16 frames for the Demon Gut Punch). However it recovers a frame slower than the Demon Gut Punch if blocked so you know you are going to get a good beating if your opponent blocks it. Thanks to 7ronko, the block disadvantage of the df+2 depends on the distance you get blocked. If it gets blocked at a short distance, it causes a small guard stun to your opponent, so the the disadvantage is minimal and there is no guranteed hits possible. However, if it is blocked at a long distance, it does not cause guard stun, so the block disadvantage is indeed 14 frames. Drawbacks and advantages though, it is for these reasons that I feel the standing Gut Punch is way much more effective and useful than its cousin, the Demon Gut Punch. The standing gut punch proves its use in custom strings since it is a solid mid hitting attack which does crap loads of damage on a CH. Simple strings such as 1,2, df+2 are ideal since your opponent would most likely duck in anticipation of the stature kick. Once your opponent wises up and starts blocking high, you can throw him (or at least hit him with a stature kick). Will get to this later in my Custom Strings section. This move is also valuable when your opponent tags in with a move and you are in a standing position ready to hit him. Usually I'd suggest you use the WGF, however you can get up to like 47 points of damage if the Standing gut hits both on CH and Clean hit, the damage itself alone shadows most of the WGF juggles. Lets face it, Kazuya's WGF juggles can't do as much damage as you'd like. Moreover, this move, as I have stated earlier is 14 frames, and unless you are someone who can pull off a 14 frame WGF each and everytime, the df+2 should be more reliable. This is also a good move for beginners and players who can't seem to do those 'oh-so-hard' WS moves, thus not being able to do Kazuya's WS+1,2. *you'd better learn to do them quick though as WS+1,2 is one of Kazuya's most important moves* . *NEW TO V 3.0* -------------- Apparently while I was fooling around in the cade the other day with Kazuya I accidently hit my opponent with a df+2 Gut Punch on CH + Clean Hit while trying to do a Mist-Step Cancel WGF (henceforth referred to as mWGF) Anyways, after that I tried another mWGF and to my amazement it does launch. Anyways thanks to info from Kazuya Kazama, who confirmed this, you have absolutely 0 slop factor when trying to launch your opponent after a CH df+2. You have exactly 13 goddamn frames to launch them and if you are slow by just ONE damn frame. Yes that means any mistake and your opponent will be flying away. This really makes Jin's b,f+2(CH), EWGF and Kazuya's WS+2(CH), WGF look extremely easy in comparison. The trick is to initiate the motion for the mWGF the moment you see your opponents knees hit the ground or when Kazuya's right arm goes behind his left. To be honest, launching with a mWGF involves a lot of risk and if you are really desperate on doing damage then stick with b+1+4 or u+(4),4,4,4. However, even if you accidently do df+2 or do not launch with WGF after the df+2 stun, the damage isn't really that bad anyways. 2,2 Demon Back Hand h,h While the Demon Slayer has its few uses in combos, the Demon Backhand, I'm afraid is worse. The 1,2 of the Demon Slayer gains a few plus points since it has forward momentum, however, if you imagine the last 2 hits of the Demon slayer which comes out sooooo slowly and is sooooo telegraphed you'd know why this is the worst move in Kazuya's repretoire... whoops... make that second worst.. the worst move has to be the standing backhand (b+2) b+2 Single Joke Back Hand hits nothing rubbish Well this move is.... sadly the worst move in Kazuya's repertoire. I know that I have a policy of not rating moves but argh.... I'll break that policy just once and tell you this - stay FAR FAR away from this move if you have any hope or doing well against good competition. f+2 Soul Thrust m GB GS KNDc This move when hit on a counter will put your opponent in the face up, head away knocked down position. Looks like Jin's f,f+2, but slower and not so much range (Kazuya looks like he is doing a standing version of his Tummy Rush) . I myself don't use this move often and usually only in combos..... but then I'd rather tag in my partner to do the dirty work. This move is slow to come out so avoid using this unless in combos. You CAN use this in custom strings, something like : f,f,1,1, d+3, WS+4, f,f,1,1 df+1, f+2 This move can be useful if used correctly, but because Kazuya has other much better moves, this move seems pretty weak. f,f+3 Split Axe Kick m Hey... I'm slow. I hit mid and I knockdown. Actually though, I think this move is totally worthless. At least when Jin uses this move (and if it can actually connect) he can juggle with the White Heron Combo. I mean gosh... this move is so slow, your opponent could nail you cold without you knowing what hit you. Wait, you can actually do some juggles after the knockdown from this move, but MAN its hard and you'd probably do yourself a favour by not using this in the first place. f,f,f_WR+3 Leaping Slash Kick m GB The same Leaping Slash Kick that everyone has. Use it when you run at your opponent and they're moving, but it's not long enough for should- er ram. If blocked, it'll stun them long enough to leave Kazuya safe. But if you actually get to use this move, I'd rather use the running slide or the shoulder ram. f+4 Axe Kick m GB KS If your opponent blocks this kick, he will be stunned and stagger, giving you the slight initiative. There are however no sure follow ups should your opponent block it. I don't use this much either as it comes out rather slow and any good opponent would have already poked you out of this move. However,as demonstrated by Castel's Juggle video (Kazuya Act 2), the Axe Kick can be used to stun crouching opponents (good for those custom strings when you have trained your opponent to duck high attacks) for a meaty juggle....ideal in your custom strings....getting the WGF however is next to impossible (okay its hard but with a bit of practise it isn't if you compare that to the WGF after CH df+2). I made the stupid mistake of confusing the Axe kick with the Rising Kick (first part of Tsunami kicks) WS_df_f,n,d,df+4 Rising Kick m <4 Tsunami Kick m Another trademark Mishima move, and a good one too. Kazuya can do this move by tapping df much like Jin can but he can't initiate it using QCT like Heihachi. Some say that he won't be able to gain more forward momentum, but you can easily do so by CD and doing the Tsunami Kick. The First tsunami Kick is the most important as it can be used to lift your opponent who is on the ground for a juggle. It is also used in Okizeme. After a generic low parry (df) a df+4,4 is pretty much guranteed and is, if I'm not mistaken, the most damaging, guranteed follow up after a low parry for Kazuya. Lastly the tsunami Kick has forward momentum and is useful in custom strings since it has very low recovery time. Moreover the second hit is delayable to try to sucker your opponent into eating the damn thing. A small good news for those Kaz players who can't get over the fact that the CD mix up has been killed because of Kaz's (and Hei's and Devil's) WGF has been made sM will be slightly joyed to know that you can mix up Kazuya's Tsunami Kicks with his Hell Sweeps. But don't go hoping that you will catch many experts with this tactic as the Hell Sweeps are highly telegraphed. Remember if the first Kick hits the second is guranteed. Oh and did I forget to mention that it is useful in juggles? The initial Rising Kick is also very useful for OB trap. However this tactic is less useful than that of Jin. When your opponent is on the ground (most likely from a Hell sweep) you can try a WS+4 and wiff it (assuming your opponent does not move) Your opponent will most likely try to rise up and attack you of which you immediately d+1 him. d+1 will interrupt any rising attack that they have and backturn them guranteeing you a subsequent free hit. For Jin that would be WS+2 and juggle but for Kazuya his options are limited (WS+2 or WS+1,2 which wiffs occasionaly) This tactic is very potent when combined with wavedash to mask the intentional df+4 wiff and works at higher level of play. u_uf+4,4,4,4 Spinning Demon h,L,L,h BS So the guy who challenged you just pick Eddy Gordo and is now mashing as hard as possible on the controls? Use this move. This will kill him as Kaz will jump into the air, do a spinning kick, land and do 2 hell sweeps before ending with a roundhouse kick. The sweeps will be what usually kills them, and since this has good tracking ability, you won't need to worry about those Gordo's spinning all around the arena. At a higher level of play though, this move is practically useless. First the kicks can be low parried by anyone (given the inclusion of the universal low parry) which leaves you at a disadvantage. Secondly if the sweeps are blocked, the second sweep will leave you staggered, and you will be beaten up like hell. It has its uses though as it can be done after a Gut punch (df+2) on CH or a Glorious Demon Fist (f+1+2) for an easy, damaging combo (you have to use the u+4,4,4,4 version), but hey, I'd rather see a perfectly timed b+1+4 unblockable hit. The Spinning Demon is the most ideal follow up after a Glorious Demon Fist has connected since most of the GDF juggles are hard and do not do as much damage. Cheesy though, but who cares... its the damage that matters! 4~3 Demon Scissors M Since the addition of Quick Recover in Tekken 2, the Demon Scissors use has been severely weakened to the point of uselessness. What more, Kazuya WILL take damage if the Demon Scissors wiff. However, I do not think that this move is completely worthless since Kazuya's WGF on CH will cause your opponent to flip over thus guranteeing a free okizeme hit. Therefore after a WGF (CH) 1, 1, 1, WGF you can add a 4~3 Demon Scissors for good measures since your opponent will not be able to quick recover. Another tip is to do uf,4~3 since Kazuya will initiate the Demon Scissors faster (vital in some cases for the 4~3 to connect if your opponent is lying on the ground before he recovers and rolls away.) db+4 Stature Kick l An average move, one you should throw sparringly during your mixup of strings. The kick is hard to see coming and your opponent will most likely eat it. The damage however is rather low but can you really blame it for being such an deceptive move? Kazuya feints a high kick but instead attacks low - an ideal move for ticking life away. Just remember that at the end of the round every sliver of damage counts, PLUS you get a +5 frame advantage to continue on with your strings. The only drawback of this move is that if your opponent is somehow sees it coming and blocks it (which will happen VERY often at a high level of play), you will be in trouble, since it has a bad recovery (9 frames, which is enough to get you jabbed). However this move will almost always land against scrubby or intermediate opponents. Landing this move against advanced players though is another story. As Chinky Eye mentioned in the forum - this move involves too much risks with too little paybacks. Other than that this is one of Kazuya's more useful poking attack bar bad controls that is. A thing worth noting, the stature Kick is 20 frames which is on the slow side, and what more you will be standing, so if your opponent KNOWS you are going to stature Kick him, an EWGF will be your reply. Use this moderately, or you'd be sorry. Unblockables ------------- Command Name b+1+4 Lightning God Fist Usually, unblockables are so damn useless except for a few. Kazuya's Lightning God Fist is among the few exceptions. This move comes out real fast for an unblockable and does good damage (40%). You can use this move in combos after a Class 1 launcher or during a stun combo. You can connect with this after a Demon Gut Punch if you can't seem to be able to pull off the TGF fast enough. This move can also connect after a df+2 though I think it will only hit big characters. Lastly, you can pull this move out at random because even good players freeze when seeing an unblockable. Just make sure that you don't over use this move. I forgot to state this but b+1+4 will go underneath high attacks and most mid attacks, so use this if your opponent is getting too 1,1 happy or happily pulling Deathfist after Deathfist. B+1+4 Lightning Screw God Fist Well if the Lightning Screw God Fist is useful, well this move is really so useless I can't think of anyone getting hit with this. Even Eddy Gordo mashers will kick you out of the wind up before you can actually hit them. If you can connect this move at a consistent basis on an average tekken player, consider yourself a master. Hey, you can perform this move when anticipating your opponent tagging out, but chances are that your opponent will tag slide/ cross chop you out of it before you can hit. Still, if in some miraculous instance it does hit, it does a whole lot of damage and you'd win the round. But if some one is THAT brain dead to get hit by B+1+4, you could easily win the round using nothing but b+2 anyways. Put it this way, you are pretty much SCREWED if you even try using this move. However, there is ONE instance where this move is useful - to hit your opponent after a f+1+2. If your opponent was a big opponent, then he will be taking some massive damage. But if he isn't you will wiff him and get up ready to be backthrown/ juggled or literally get your ass kicked around. ************************* Pre-canned 10 Hit Strings ************************* I don't understand why people STILL practise the 'religion' of 10 Hit combos. I don't understand why after parrying their 10 hit string on the 9th Hit for the 10th time they STILL come at me with the same 10 Hit string. Hmm... in my opinion 10 hit strings are useful only against the CPU since the CPU will fall for the last few hits of the 10 Hit string. Don't ask me why but even on Ultra Hard (and cheesy) setting, the CPU still falls for certain 10 Hit strings (like Julia's for example) However against good players , I will never ever allow a 10 hit string to go unpunish. Whether its a simple parry or a perfectly timed Demon Gut Punch on CH, I will make my opponent pay. f,f,N+2,1,2,2,,3,4,4,2, Ten string f,f,N+2,1,2,2,3,4,4,3,2,1 Ten string f,f+N+2,1,4,4,2,4,3,2,1 Nine string Anyways back to Kazuya's 10 Hit string. They actually look kinda cool but since the first 4 hits of his 10 hit string hits high a d+1, d+3 etc will easily poke you out of the act. However if your opponent is stupid enough to allow the whole combo to hit, then you do get to see some very flashy unblockable finish. His 9 string on the other hand has 2 high hits so at least there is a better chance of completion against scrubs (but then I'd parry the Low hit) Also if you some how manage to complete it, the 9th hit will stun your opponent giving you the advantage to do something like go buy your opponent a bus ticket to go home. Protip submited by Vengetta_X: An expert knows ALL the 10 hit combos. Hmmm... and 'excellent' tip if I ever saw one. So all those Kazuya experts don't call yourself experts just yet until you learn your 10 hit combos. You MUST use it in battles because they are the true mark of an expert. ROTFL ******** Movement ******** This is something that I realize is sorely lacking from most Tekken players. Most players just do a move, stand there and block and attack again. Sure against beginners and average players this will work out fine. However , if you are to play it as a 2D game in a 3D world, I'm sure you are going to get a serious trashing against good opponents. DO NOT ADOPT THE MENTALITY OF "HIT, BLOCK, HIT". Think of this as a boxing match. You don't punch your opponent and wait for him to react and punch you back right? Come on, you have so many options available to you. Namco didn't just put the Sidestep feature into the game for no reason, did they? Besides, you have the CD which gives you a bigger advantage. By moving around a lot, your opponents chances of hitting you and landing that major butt-kicking juggle starter is lower. Moreover, he may wiff and therefore allow you the chance to counter attack him. By blocking you gain ZERO advantage when compared to sidestepping or dodging the move. The best example is a blocked WGF. When blocked, a WGF recovers fast enough so that there isn't any GURANTEED move you could counter attack with. You can get a throw in, but then since your opponent can duck, its not guranteed. However if you succesfully sidestep or dodge the WGF, you can easily counter attack him with a WGF of your own or maybe go for a throw (not advisable). Sidestepping ------------ I don't think I need to teach you how to sidestep, but I wish to emphasize how important it is to sidestep. Try to incorporate sidestepping in your game step by step (no pun intended). At first you may find it really hard to successfully sidestep attacks but with practise you will be able to sidestep most moves easily. You should also include side stepping in your movement for example :- f,f,N,SSD, b,b,N, SSU, f,f etc By simply moving around you create confusion for your enemy as he will have a harder time anticipating when to attack you since his attacks will miss more often than not. For Kaz, he can be more confusing as he can add his Wave Steps and Mist step into his sidestep movement (although this is hard)... and come out of it with a WGF or Hell Sweep. Sure Kazuya doesn't have good moves that come out of his SS unlike Jin, Devil, Changs etc. , but that doesn't mean that he shouldn't sidestep. Learn how to do a WS+2 and WS+1,2 out from a SS and you'd be surprised how many times you will be able to catch your opponent on CH with the DGP. Lets also not forget your WGF. You may go for a sidethrow from your sidestep but side throws are easily broken by good players. To succesfully sidestep opponent's moves, sidestep in the direction the move of which he is pulling off. For instance if he is pulling off a right punch, you would sidestep to your right (your opponents left) Succesfully sidestepping an opponent's attack is more of an art which you will slowly master. Do not give up when, at first you often get hit even when trying to side step your opponent's move. Another thing to remember is that some moves have really good tracking and it will hit you unless you sidestep at the very last second. Other moves have good radius (example Yoshi's standing 4) and will hit you if you sidestep too early. *small note* A lot of people say its pretty hard to do a SS into a mist step of the same direction. However I can do it pretty consistenly alright (not 100% as I would like though) Trick is to SS, pause a slight second and then tap f,N. Hey, anyone reading this, please try this and lemme know if this works or not. =) On the other hand, you can do it the other way, do Mist step and then double sidestep. A triple sidestep is not really recommended because Kazuya's Mist step sidestep depends on his frame and also because the distance of his Mist step Sidestep is pretty small unlike Bob's triple Sidestep. Wave Dashing ------------ I actually used this move first before reading any of the Kazuya FAQs but I will not take any credit away from whoever first discovered it. The idea of the Wave dash is to cancel the CD by inputting f which is also the start of another CD command, hence, a continous chain of CD'es. In short :- f,N,d,df,n~f,N,d,df,n~f,N,d,df,n~f and so on or f,N,d,df,f~f,n,d,df~f,n,d,df~f,n,d,df~f and so on. What makes this so dangerous is that you can pull the trigger from the Wave dash any times, namely you can come out from it with a WGF,Demon Gut Punch or Twin Pistons. To come out of a CD with a WS move, just press b + Button(s) from the CD. Sure it is hard to perform at first, but with a lil practice, your CD game will be feared (as you can now mix up the Hell sweeps with the Twin Pistons or Demon Gut Punch - not recommended though). So who was it that said that the Mishima's CD strategy was completely killed now that the WGF hits sM? Also from the CD, you can buffer a stonehead throw (f,N,d,df,f+1+2) The Wave dash will become extremely useful if you incorporate sidesteps and backdashes into it.... even Mist steps as you can pull a Hell Sweep out of no where (how many times have I said this? ) One last thing which I'm not entirely sure of is that since you have to input the motion rather quickly, I think that you will be relatively save from low attacks since the df command is the universal low parry. Think this technique is called the light dash. Can anyone confirm this? However useful the Wave dash can be, it does not have 'ABUSE' written all over it. My point is, don't just simply wave dash. Do NOT simply Wave Dash in to close down distance on your opponent, because more than likely, you will get a nice hopkick for all your trouble, and you know what happens after a hopkick *especially* with Julia. I'm not saying that you CAN't use it to close distance, but use it sparringly and as I said before, mix it with Sidesteps, backdashes etc. The most effective (and safest) use of Wave dashing is when your opponent is down to apply pressure on them. With your opponent on the floor, and you continuously dashing towards him, he will be spoilt for choice whether to roll on the ground or get up and attack. Either way, it is dangerous for him since if he gets up with a kick, you can WGF for a juggle. If he decides to roll, you can kick him back to the ground, wash rinse and repeat. IMO, the Wave dash is one of the most dangerous Okizeme tool when used right since your opponent could be lying on the ground till he is dead or time expires. *note* for the above methods discussed above, the first one f,n,d,df~n~f definitely works, but there should be at least an 8 second pause for the neutral command. For that reason it is sometimes easier to do the second version because if you have quick hands, that means you can do more Wave Dashes per sec. Thanks to MSG (you have finally posted something useful on Zaibatsu) for this small info. Also instead of doing something like f,n,d,df,f~f,n,d,df,f~f you can substitute the f~f with b~f, db~f etc. Try b~f..... CD Cancel into WS+1,2 --------------------- Ever since this FAQ was released, I have always been asked "How come I can't get the WS+1,2 twin pistons out of CD cancel consistently?" Okay before I go into further detail, for those who don't know what I am talking about, CD cancel into WS+1,2 is basically when you do a CD and cancel the CD animation. During certain frames of the animations, you should be rising from Crouched position and would be able to do WS+1,2 properly. It can also be called as CD into instant WS+1,2 if you know what I mean. This is probably going to be Kazuya's main attacking tool along with with his hell sweeps since it offers him the opportunity for CD mixups. Okay enough blabbering. So how do I do the CD cancel into WS+1,2 you ask? Well there are two methods 1) f,n,d,df~b+1,2 _ f,n,d,df~db+1,2 2) f,n,d,df~db,b+1,2 There are significance of the two methods. The first method being more illusive as the WS+1,2 comes out from the CD in one smooth motion. If done correctly, there should be no transition time (aka no tell tale signs which screams "I'm going to WS+1,2 you). On the other hand the second method is much like Devil's CD cancel into standing twin pistons df+1,2 as in it can be seen much easily. No it does not look the same but the fact that there is a short lag time (you can see Kazuya crouching for a brief moment) gives away the fact that you are going to do Twin pistons. Therefore, I would suggest using the first method and only do the 2nd method after 10 years of trying without success. Bewarned though, the first method is very much harder and most of the time you will either do it too fast (you will do 1,2 instead) or too slow (in which case TGF will come out) Anyways for those who have trouble pulling it off consistently (and I know there are many) here is a small tip for you. When doing a CD cancel (or EWGF for that matter) its not really necessary to push the joystick all the way to the edge. What I mean is all you need is a slight tap and the computer will register the command already. If you push the joystick all the way in a given direction, 9 out of 10 times you will fail to do the CD Cancel and end up doing TGF. And for those who always keep getting 1,2, my advice is to master your iWS+1,2 first because that will help you. You already got the timing for the f,n,d,df~db motion just that you are pressing 1,2 at the wrong time. I hope this small info should be of great help for Kazuya players out there who wish to master one of his most difficult techniques. Tagging ------- A lot of players do NOT understand the tagging system of Tekken Tag Tournament. From what I observe when playing, many players blindly tag out when they are low on health. Yes, I know that you have to bring in a fresh new partner because your character can be easily KO'ed but by foolishly tagging out, they leave the poor tagging in character open to all kinds of dangers. Worst is if you carelessly tag out, your tagging out character may be KO'ed in the process. Do this to me and I will undoubtedly punish you with something nasty. Think about this, your character is low on health but if you bring a fresh new character in and say Julia hits you with a Heaven Cannon Unblockable + Juggle, your partner could be even badly hurt than the initial fighter that just tagged out. Morever, your opponent is given the initiative to pound you into oblivion with all kinds of Okizeme attacks. As a rule of thumb you should only tag out when 1) Your opponent is on the ground or your opponent is far away and not is not able to hit you. 2) You use a tag throw or do a tag combo. If you missed your first opportunity to tag out during a juggle starter, you can still tag out if you finish your juggle with a juggle starter. Example : WGF, 1, 1, 1, WGF~5. 3) The worst time to tag out is when your opponent is charging up an unblockable or heavy hitting move. More likely than not, your partner will come rushing in only to be hit by the said move. 4) If your opponent is all over you and you need to tag out, try to knock him down or at least push him away so before making a tag. 5) When you do tag, try to come in with a cross chop or tag slide (or its equivalent), at least once in a while, so that your opponent will not get into a habit of always trying to counter you when you tag out. On a side note, Kaz can't perform a tag slide or cross chops. Tag slides are useful not only because they can catch your opponent unaware but can be used to tag in an extra bit of damage at the end of a juggle. Also tag slides may be an excellent counter to certain moves (say Yoshi's b,b+1~1) 6) Tag frequently when given the chance to tag out. The small health regained may be the difference at the end of the bout. Also, do not get predictable with your tagging. A wrong tag will probably result in a nice WGF up your shiny noses. 7) If tag slides or cross chops are not your thing, you can always cancel the run in by inputting u~ub. This will stop your character from running and you can block or input your attack. This technique is also useful for doing some of the class 1 launcher juggles where you need to position yourself. It is usually much wiser (and safer) to use use the tag cancel since you do not need to commit to and attack and thus do not lose any initiative. 8) Most importantly and unique Kazuya though is that he can tag in and cancel his run in with a Mist step. Now thats something for you people out there who thinks that Kazuya sucks because he cannot do tag slides or cross chops. Mist step to cancel run ins is IMO better than any crappy slides or cross chops. With all said, I also find that a lot of Tekken Tag players do NOT use tag juggles enough. Come on, the damage lost during tag juggles cannot be recovered. I can't remember how many close battles I won because of the 'extra' health I could regain from tagging out. Remember, Kazuya isn't the best juggler on the block so try experimenting to find the best juggling capable team. =) ************** Custom Strings ************** First off, these are just some suggestions. The rule of thumb about custom strings is that you should not follow exactly everything that I do. Be original, be creative and most importantly vary what you do. There is nothing worse than being predictable in any game you play. A human opponent WILL sooner or later catch on and punish you for it. By being unpredictable, your chances of catching your opponent offguard is higher. So if you just used my pre-canned strings and you do come challenge me, be prepared for me to DGP you each possible chance I get to. Another thing is, after watching some of the Tekken Tournament Videos, I have come to a conclusion that short strings are better than long confusing ones. Also, most of the expert players, do NOT use long strings and rather use better movement techniques (haha step, wave dash etc.) Moves to poke and string with :- 1,1 1,2 1,2,4 d+1 d+3 WS+4 WS+1 df+1 db+4 Moves to end the string with :- WS+2 WS+1,2 WGF Hell Sweep(s) 1,2,4 1,1<2 and other moves which I don't recommend Basic Poking Strings :- ----------------------- Here is are basic punch + kick strings which are used don't do much but slowly chip away at your opponent health bar. f,f,1,1 N, 1,1<2 The real basics here. You do two left punches but do not finish the Shining fist combo. This is to lure your opponent into countering, but since your jab comes out faster (and you have a frame advantage) your opponent will most likely eat the next left jab which gurantees the full Shining fist combo. However, your opponent can easily duck after the initial 1,1 if he knows that you aren't going to follow up with the full combo. You can however remedy this by pressing 2 since the last hit of the Shining fist hits Mid. Beware the slow recovery of the last punch and beware that you can be CH'ed by faster characters like the Changs. f,f, 1,1, d+1, WS+4, f,f,1,1, f,f, 1,2,4 Another basic string. The whole idea here is to train your opponent to block high before coming out with a sudden low kick in the 1,2,4. Note the use of 1,1 since if your opponent crouches, you can follow up with a 2 to hit in (2 hits mid).... and to mix things up you can use this string. = f,f, 1,1, d+1, WS+4, f,f, d+1, d+3 ,WS+4, f,f, 1,2,4_1,2, df+2 For those expecting a high 1,1 after the Rising Kick, you can go into a crouching d+1, from there you can opt to rise with a WS+4 or continue in the FC position with a d+3. Your opponent will probably be screaming at you because he won't know where to block next (the whole idea of your custom strings). Moreover, the moves chosen here recover fast so you are safe from any retaliation. If the WS+4 connects, complete the Tsunami kicks. Note at the end you can either choose 1,2,4 (low) or 1,2, df+2 (mid) for a nice mix up. Be care with the Stature kick though since the recovery isn't good if it doesn't connect. My suggestion would be to use the stature kick conservatively. WS Strings :- -------------- Unlike the basic poking strings, the basic strategy here is to trick your opponent into countering after a hit while u rise up with your DGP to hit on CH or WS+1,2 on Clean Hit/CH. The idea here is to get into a FC position so that you can rise up anytime with a WS+2 or WS+1,2, so I'd suggest the below. a) d+1, WS+2_WS+1,2 b) d+3 , WS+2_WS+1,2 However your opponent would have to be rather dumb to get hit by the DGP on CH so you would have to hide your basic string in a longer, more complicated string. Some suggestions are. *NOTE* Anytime that you rush in and do a standing attack, you could easily substitute the punches with a throw. I'd suggest the Stonehead throw (f,f+1+2) since you can dash buffer the throw. *NOTE also* You can easily substitute the WS+2 or Twin Pistons WS+1,2 with Tsunami Kicks (WS+4,4) since they both work off the same formula. *NOTE* I STRONGLY SUGGEST YOU USE WS+1,2 INSTEAD OF WS+2 unless you are REAL sure that the WS+2 is going to hit on CH, besides WS+2 is escapable, so no guranteed damage. f,f, 1,1, d+1, WS+2_WS+1,2 2 basic left jabs is added to this string. Not really complicated really, but then this is a start. f,f 1,1, d+1, d+3 , WS+2_WS+1,2 Just add the d+3 if your opponent is expecting you to rise from the crouch position with a DGP after the d+1. As an added benefit, most players try to counter after the d+3 which means your DGP will hit on CH. Therefore, I'd finish this string with a WS+2 more often than WS+ 1,2. = f,f, 1,1, d+1, d+3 , WS+4, f,f, 1,1, d+1, d+3 ..... WS+2_WS+1,2 Basically an further extended version of the above string and from the FC position, you can come out of it anytime with a WS+2 if you sense your opponent is trying to counter you. The WS+4 single Axe kick is used because of its forward momentum and priority over most other attacks. = f,f, 1,2, d+1, WS+1, f,f, 1,1, d+1 ..... d+1, d+3, WS+2_WS+1,2 You can substitute the 1,1 for 1,2 since the 1,2 has forward momentum. The reason I use more 1,1, than 1,2, is because if the first hit of the 1,1 hits, you can follow it up with a 2 (shining fist) for a knockdown and be able to position yourself for a string again. For the 1,2, both the follow ups do not knockdown thus breaking the fluent string. Also, I'd use a single piston (WS+1) as it comes out quick, recovers quick and has a small forward momentum. You can sub that for a WS+4, but I'm just trying to make things fresh here. You'd also notice that I use d+1 and not d+1, d+3 except when I wish to finish with a WS+2. As I said, this is because a lot of players like to counter the d+3 and thus you get the DGP on a CH. Of course you can remove the d+3 and go straight to the WS+2 after the d+1. f,f, d+1, d+3, WS+4, f,f, d+3, WS+2_WS+1,2 This is just to mix things up if you have been going f,f, 1,1 all day and your opponent crouches in anticipation of your high punches. Again the basic strategy is to get into a crouch position and come out from it with a WS+2 or WS+1,2. Here, I'd choose WS+1,2 since the mixup between d+1 and d+1,d+3 could easily sucker your opponent into eating the WS+1,2. f,f, 1,1, df+1, d+1, WS+4, f,f, 1,1, d+1, d+3, WS+2_WS+1,2 or f,f, 1,1, df+1, d+1, WS+2_WS+1,2 This is used for those anticipating a low jab after a 1,1 since the df+ 1 will hit them mid and the small stun will give you time to go into the d+1 jab. From there, the fun starts as you can rise for a WS+4 or continue with a d+3. After fustrating your opponent into blindly counter attacking, feel free to rise up with a DGP to answer his needs. There are many other strings to get a DGP or Twin Pistons, but I wouldn't want to expand more on them as I feel that the current ones given here should give you a clear idea so start getting creative! WGF/ Hell Sweep Strings:- ------------------------ 1, d+1, d+3, WS+4 ,f,f,N,DF+4,4 Just another variation of combos since you have been doing f,f, 1,1, so much your opponent could well be prepared to block high or reverse your next high attack... so a nifty hell sweep outta do the trick and one more should be tacked on for Okizeme. 1,2,4, d+1, WS+4, 1,2,4, d+1, d+3, WS+4, f,N,DF+4,4 The basic train your opponent to block high and then come out of no where with a Hell Sweep from mist step. This time, the stature Kick combo is used for some nice tick damage. f,f, 1, d+1, d+3, WS+2, df+1_ WGF After a WS+2 which connects but isn't on CH (therefore no stun effect) most players will try to counter attack, therefore counter with a WGF or df+1 (entrails smash). The df+1 comes out on the slow side but I have caught one or two good players with this move and the small stun will give you enough time to rush in and start any of your strings again. Remember I mentioned that the WS+ 2 has to hit even if its not on CH because if it is blocked, some faster characters will be able to poke you out of the WGF or df+1. You can also use the above DGP strings to set up the df+1 or WGF. f,f, db+4, 1,2,4, f,f, 1,1, d+1 , WS+4,4, WGF If the opponent blocks your WS+4,4 Tsunami Kicks, some will try to retaliate. COUNTER with a WGF and a nice juggle. However, again faster characters will be able to poke you out of the WGF after the blocked WS+4,4. f,f, 1,1, WS+1,2, df+2_WGF_f,N,DF+4,4 A simple yet effective string. After doing f,f, 1,1, d+1_d+3 the whole day your opponent will start wising up and block low. Here comes your Twin Pistons. Pull if off from standing position (use the d~df technique) and he will more than likely eat the Twin pistons. If so go into your juggle (a simple 1,2, df+4,4 will do) When he starts blocking your WS+1,2 , stop after the first punch (do WS+1 only). It will will give you a better advantage not to mention you will still be close to your opponent. Here comes the guessing game. If he tries to do a standing jab, CD under it and WGF him.... juggle. If he crouches df+2 and if he stands still Hell Sweep him. The df+2 can also be used if he tries to do some stupid slow power move like uh.... the deathfist? (theoratically, they should hit at the same time if he pulls of a 16 frame Deathfist, but how many can pull off a 16 frame Deathfist consistently?) *********************************** Attack, Countering and Interrupting *********************************** There isn't anything new that I would add so read the opinions given by other FAQ authours, namely ReverendC's, Exar_Kun's or Devil_Jin's for a good idea on what to do. ************************* To Parry or Not to Parry ************************* Okay, so you are probably pyschic enough to know that your opponents next move would be a db+4 by Lei. Question what do you do, what do you do? With the introduction of Universal Parries as well as the Sweep Stagger system, there is more than one way to 'counter' Low attacks, so to speak. With this in mind, players sometimes do not know when may be the ideal time to parry or block. Both has its pros and cons. Btw when I speak of parries, I am referring to the universal parry and not command parries or punch parries. Blocking The reason you'd want to block a low attack is because you know that the low attack will stagger your opponent and as such give you a good opportunity to nail them with a WS move (TP baby!) However, your opponent usually needs to be quite close to you for the block to produce a stagger. Block if you know your opponent move has a chance of getting staggered e.g. Hell sweep, Lei's db+4, Paul's d+4 etc. Parry The reason you'd wanna use the universal low parry (df) is because it ALWAYS gives you the initiative no matter what. A parried low punch would give you get 9 frames advantage and with a parried low kick you will get 16 frames of advantage. Obviously, the 9 frames after a parried low punch do not mean much especially since parrying will often shift your opponent off the axis a bit, so technically after readjusting yourself, your advantage is less than 9 frames. The parried low kick will give you a bigger advantage, enough time for you to take advantage of. For Kazuya, the best he can do is df+4,4 though I'm not to sure about the mist Step WGF. Can anyone confirm? I'd say use parries if you know that the move WON'T stagger e.g. d+3, Chang's 4,4, Law's Junkyard Kick combo (2nd hit) Hwoarang's scrubby 1,1,3,3 etc. At the end of the day, a correct parry or block could mean defeat or victory especially in a tight battle. **************** Kazuya's Juggles **************** If all you did was scroll right down here to read the Juggles section, then don't be surprised if your sorry @$$ is creamed by someone who can properly set up juggles. I am rather lazy with the juggles section so all I did was copy out the juggle list from www.tekkenzaibatsu.com so all credit to them for the good job. Please remember that the stun Juggles CAN be escaped and as such should not be considered TRUE juggles. However since scrubby players never ever escape stuns, they are listed here for your convienice. Juggle List:- -------------- WGF_WS+1,2 , 1,1, f,N,d,DF+4,4 , 1,1, d+1, WS+2 , 1,2, WGF , 1,2, df+4,4 , 1,2, f,n,d,DF+4 , 1, 1,2, WGF , 1, 1,2, df+1 , 1, 1,2, df+2 , 1, 1,2, df+4,4 , 1, 1,2, f,n,d,df,f+4,4 , 1, 1,2, db+4 , 1, 1,2, f,N,d,DF+4 , 1, 1,2, 1,2,4 , 1, 1,2, 1,(1),2 , 1,2, f,N,d,DF+4,4 , 1,2, 1, df+1 , 1,2, 1, df+4 , 1,2, 1, db+4 , 1,2, 1, 4 , 1,2, 1,1,2 , 1,2, 1,2, df+4 , 1, 1, 1, df+1 , 1, 1, 1, 1,(1),2 , 1, 1, 1, 1,2 , 1, 1, 1, 1,2,4 , 1, 1, 1, f+2 , 1, 1, 1, df+2 , 1, 1, 1, df+4,4 , 1, 1, 1, 4 , 1, 1, 1, db+4 , 1, 1, 1, 1, WGF , 1, WGF, df+4,4 , 1, 1, d+1, cc, WGF (big) , 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,(2),4 (big) , 1, 1, 1, TGF, 3 (big) , 1, 1, 1, TGF, 4 (big) , 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,(2),4 (big) , d+1, cc, d+1, WGF (big) , WGF, WGF , WGF, 1, WGF , WGF, f,n,d,df+4, WGF , WGF, df+4,4 , WGF, 1,(2),4 , WGF, 1,1,2 , WGF, df+2 , WGF, 1, df+2 , df+4, WGF , df+4, df+2 , df+4, 1, WGF , df+4, 1,(2),4 , df+4, 1,(1),2 , 4 , df+1, F+1, F+2 , df+1, F+1, WGF , df+1, F+1, df+4,4 , df+1, F+1, f,n,d,df+4, f,n,d,df+4,4 *Note* Not all juggles that work for WGF will work for WS+1,2 WGF (CH) , 1,2, df+4,4 , 1,2, f,n,d,DF+4,4 , 1,2, WGF , 1,2, df+2 , 1,2,4 , 1, 1,2, df+4,4 , 1, 1,2, df+2 , 1, 1,2, f,n,d,DF+4 , 1, 1, f,N,d,DF+4,4 , 1, 1, 1,1,2 , 1, 1, 1,2,2 , 1, 1, 4 , 1, 1, 1, 1,2 , 1, 1, 1, db+4 , 1, 1, 1, df+4,4 , 1, 1, 1, WGF, uf~4~3 , 1, 1, 1, 1, df+4 , 1, 1, 1, 1, df+2 , 4 , WGF, f,n,d,DF+4,4 df+2 , f+1+2 (big) , d+1, WS+4,4 , d+1, cc, 1, df+2 , d+1, cc, 1, WGF , WGF, any WGF juggle , df+2 , df+4,4 , f,n,d,DF+4,4 , tgf, 3 (big) , tgf, 4 (big) , b+1+4 , u+(4),4,4,4 , f,n,d,df,f+4, 1, f,n,d,df,f+4, df+4,4 (big) , f,n,d,df,f+4, 1, f,n,d,df,f,+4, df+2 (big) , f,n,d,df,f+4, 1, f,n,d,df,f+4, WGF (big) , u+(4),4, d+1, cc, WGF (big) f+4 , f,n,d,df,f+4 , f,n,d,df+4,4 , f,n,d,df,f+4, df+4,4 (big) , f,n,d,df,f+4, df+2 (big) , f,n,d,df,f+4, WGF (big) f+4 (on crouching opponents) , WGF, any WGF combo , TGF,3 , df+1 , df+2 , df+4 WS+2 , f+1+2 (big) , WGF, any WGF combo , 1, 1, f,N,d,DF+4,4 , 1, 1,2, WGF , 1, 1,2, df+1 , 1, 1,2, df+2 , 1, 1,2, df+4,4 , 1, 1,2, 1,2,4 , 1, 1,2, 1,(1),2 , 1,2, f,n,d,df+4,4 , 1,2, 1, df+1 , 1,2, 1, df+4 , 1,2, 1, db+4 , 1,2, 1, 4 , 1,2, 1,1,2 , 1,2, 1,2, df+4 , 1, 1, 1, df+1 , 1, 1, 1, 1,(1),2 , 1, 1, 1, 1,2 , 1, 1, 1, 1,2,4 (big) , 1, 1, 1, f+2 , 1, 1, 1, df+2 , 1, 1, 1, df+4,4 , 1, 1, 1, 4 , 1, 1, 1, db+4 , 1, 1, 1, 1, WGF , 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,(2),4 , TGF,3 , TGF,4 , b+1+4 , 4 f+1+2, d+1, WS+2 (big) , f+1+2 (big) , WGF, df+4,4 , TGF,3 (big) , TGF,4 (big) , u+(4),4,4,4 , f,n,d,df+4,4 , df+4,4 , 4~3 , SS, f,n,d,df,f+4, 1, 1, 1, WGF, uf~4~3 (big) , f,n,d,df,f+4, 1, 1, df+2 , f,n,d,df,f+4, 1, 1, WGF , f,n,d,df,f+4, 1, 1, df+4,4 , f,n,d,df,f+4, 1, 1, db+4 , f,n,d,df,f+4, 1, 1, f+2 , f,n,d,df,f+4, 1, f,n,d,df,f+4, df+4 , f,n,d,df,f+4, 1, f,n,d,df,f+4, df+4,4 (big) , f,n,d,df,f+4, 1, f,n,d,df,f+4, df+2 (big) , f,n,d,df,f+4, 1, f,n,d,df,f+4, WGF (big) , f,n,d,df,f+4, 1, f,n,d,df,f+4, 4 (big) , b+1+4 , B+1+4 (Big) Class 1 launchers , WGF, BT 4 , WGF, df+2, df+2 (big) , SS, WGF, 1,1,1, WGF (big) , SS, 1,1,1,1,1, WGF, uf~4~3 (big) , f,f+3 , BT 4 , f+1+2 , TGF, 1, f+2 , TGF, 1, df+2 , TGF, 1, WGF , TGF, df+4,4 , TGF, 1, df+4,4 , TGF,3 , TGF,4 , TGF,3, df+4,4 (big) , TGF, BT 4 (big) , UF+4, 1, 1,2, WGF , UF+4, 1, 1,2, df+1 , UF+4, 1, 1,2, df+2 , UF+4, 1, 1,2, df+4,4 , UF+4, 1, 1,2, db+4 , UF+4, 1, 1,2, f,n,d,df+4 , UF+4, 1, 1,2, 1,(1),2 , UF+4, 1,1, f,N,d,df+4,4 , UF+4, 1,2, 1, df+1 , UF+4, 1,2, 1, df+4 , UF+4, 1,2, 1, db+4 , UF+4, 1,2, 1, 4 , UF+4, 1,2, 1,1,2 , UF+4, 1,2, df+1 , UF+4, 1, 1, 1,(1),2 , UF+4, 1, 1, 1,2 , UF+4, 1, 1, 1,2,4 , UF+4, 1, 1, f+2 , UF+4, 1, 1, df+2 , UF+4, 1, 1, df+4,4 , UF+4, 1, 1, 4 , UF+4, 1, 1, db+4 , UF+4, 1, 1, 1, WGF , UF+4, 1, 1,2, 1,2,4 Class 4 launchers , 4~3 , f,n,d,df,f+4,4 , f,n,d,df,f+4, df+2 (big) , f,n,d,df,f+4, WGF (big) , f,n,d,DF+4,4 My 2 Cents on Juggling ---------------------- It is always important to remember that during a close fight to do not only the most damaging juggle but also the one you are most confident of pulling off. I mean sure you may be able to pull off the triple WGF consistently when playing around with your buddys but when you are up against a Tekken Expert in the arcades things will be very different. My advice is to do an easier juggle if you aren't confident of finishing a more complicated juggle rather than settling for a missed opportunity. Below are my favourite juggle list which I do depending on the situation. 1) WS+1,2_WGF, 1,1_1,2, df+4,4_f,N,d,df+4,4 The easiest juggle from the WGF and one which I know I won't miss. I will do this during a really really close battle and am under tremendous pressure. Moreover, the damage done from this juggle is more than satisfying. A small note, if you do 1,2 then the df+4,4 will hit almost all the time. If you use 1,1 though, the last hit of df+4,4 will have a higher chance of missing therefore use f,N,d,df,f+4,4 instead. As for the juggle from the Twin Pistons, I'd prefer 1,2 over 1,1. 2) WGF, WGF, WGF Done when I'm facing a scrub or have won the first round and intend to have fun during the second. More for showing off actually since it may be hard to pull off consistently in arcades with bad diagonals. Sides, a tag out juggle to good jugglers will do more damage. My tip on performing the Triple WGF combo for Kaz would to make full use of his Mist Step Cancel into WGF. 3) WGF (CH), 1,2, f,n,d,DF+4,4 I like doing this combo because if the opponent is flipped and I hit him on the ground there seems to be this nice rumbling effect. The damage done here is about the same as the 1,2, df+4,4 finish so I'd only do this if I'm tired of pulling the df+4,4 off. 4) WS+2 (CH), WGF, WGF, df+4,4 Forget the WS+2 since its prolly impossible nowadays to get a good player to NOT escape the CH stun should you be lucky enough to land it. The timing for the WGF is similar to that of Jin's EWGF after a CH b,f+2. There is only a small frame for execution and is extremely difficult if you don't have those oh so sharp reflexes. I chose WGF, WGF, df+4,4 because it does more damage than triple WGF and is even easier to do. 5) df+2 (CH), WGF, WGF, df+4,4 I have only done this ONCE my whole Tekken life. But this combo really takes off a LOT of damage - something around 108 points and that is the MOST any character can do off a stun which is inescapable. If you have mastered this combo, your Kazuya is something to be feared since it is combo like this which can turn a losing match into a win. 6) WGF, 1, 1, 1, 1, WGF On a good day I may get this combo down, but since I pull this combo off all to inconsistently (and because I could do an easier combo rather than do this) I only use this combo to intimidate my foe when I am toying with him. For close battles though, I'd do 1, 1, 1, WGF instead of 1, 1, 1, 1, WGF. Remember to have all the left punches connect you need to do f,F+1 instead of f,f+1. 7) WGF (CH), 1, 1, 1, WGF, uf~4~3 Hehe... a new combo demonstrated by Castel in his latest Kazuya Juggle Movie Act 2. Ultimately, one of the coolest combo by far as you can tag in Kazuya's seemingly useless flip Kick into the combo. And as always the nice rumbling sound when you hit a flipped opponent makes this ROCK! Real damaging and guranteed to embarass your opponent for letting such a useless move hit them. For people who can't seem to get the 1,1,1, WGF , do 1,1, WGF instead. One small note, the flip kick escapability depends on the height of which you hit your opponent with the last WGF, meaning that if you hit at a low height the flip kick is guranteed. Also hitting your opponent at a low height will give you that cool rumbling effect. Thanks 7ronko for rephrasing this for me, think some people may have misunderstood what I was trying to say. ;) 8) f+1+2, b+1+4 The GDF has ousted WS+2(CH) since I have been using it a LOT. (it is actually darn useful ya know!) The timing for b+1+4 after f+1+2 is critical since you have around 1 frame of slop. Of course hitting an unblockable on any stun is cool so this combo gets my nod. 9) WGF, 1, 1, 1, 1, (2), 4 This is more for show-off than anything, since the jabs don't do that much damage, yet you are keeping your opponent air-borne for quite some time. Good for time wasting or to irritate your opponent. (Try talking to your opponent while you are doing this combo) 10) f+1+2, f,n,d,df+4, 1, f,n,d,df+4, df+4 Of the few times that I use the Glorious Demon Fist, this is my favourite juggle out of it. Remember that you need to need to do the Tsunami Kicks off a CD since the f+1+2 knocks your opponent away a bit. If you did the Tsunami Kick quick enough, you should be able to connect with F+1 and the rest of the combo should be a piece of 'Kick'. Another recommendable combo is f+1+2, WGF, df+4,4. Simple and damaging.... but then again all combos off f+1+2 are. My Fave' Tag Juggles -------------------- 1) with Julia WGF~5, f,f+1, f,f+1, f,f+1, d,df+1,2 Easy combo, irritating elbows, good damage. The ingredients of a good combo. Julia is a combo machine and if mastered, her elbows will only add to the fustration of your opponent watching those not so damaging swats juggle you over and over again. Pulling d,df+1,2 at the end of the combo should not be a problem for Kaz players who have mastered the art of WGF. LOL Anyways remember to do f,f,N+1 for the elbows. 2) with Bruce WGF~5, b+3_2, Cheese Knees (b+4,3,4) Knee, Knee, Knee... thats 50% of your opponent's life lost. This combo is so easy to do that any scrub could abuse it. b+3 is the way to go since it does the most damage, but if you are having trouble timing the b+3 then by all means tag on a simple 2 or omit that and go straight into the Knees. Better yet tag the WGF after a WS+2 or df+2 stun. 3) with Lee d~db+4~5 (Lee), TGF, 1, WGF Do the TGF as early as possible or else the 1 will never, and I mean EVER connect. (sorry... couldn't help it) Either that or you can cancel the run in (u~ub) and initiate the TGF. Do F+1 and not a simple 1 and then the WGF should be a piece of cake. For those having trouble, try something easier like TGF, df+4,4 ----will add more soon---- ******* Okizeme ******* I must admit that if there is ONE glaring weakness of Kazuya, it is that his Okizeme game isn't up there with Nina, Ling, Anna etc. Problem is he can't keep his opponent on the ground the whole day. But that doesn't mean that Okizeme isn't an integral part of his game. I'd take any free hits that I can come along because the damage will add up at the end of the day. That said, Kazuya has some good Okizeme moves like WGF db+4, d+1 d+3 f,n,d,DF+4,4 df+4,4_f,n,d,df+4,4 4~3 WS+2 df+2 and others...... If you see your opponent rolling on the ground, either do d+1, d+3 or db+4. You can do df+4,4 too. In fact, df+4 is guranteed after certain moves (it was guranteed after a Stonehead throw but you can now tech out of it) d+3 should be used if your opponent refuses to move when he is on the ground. However just bear in mind that if you hit your opponent with a d+3 chances are that he will be knocked quick some distance away and can easily recover. The idea of Okizeme is of course to try and keep your opponent on the ground for as long as possible. I'd suggest hell sweeps but if it is blocked, you will suffer the sweep stagger syndrome. You can safely hell sweep if he is rolling on the floor but I strongly suggest you do not Hell sweep him if he is quick recovering and is going to block low. Use WS+2 to get a CH on opponents who rise with a standing kick or df+2 if you weren't in the FC position before this. You can also use your WGF to punish a missed rising kick or sweep. The Demon Scissors should only be used if your opponent has been flipped over (a WGF on CH easily does the job) and cannot quick recover or if he is rolling forward towards you. Be careful when you throw the Demon Scissors though because its execution time is awfully slow and you will take damage if you so much as wiff. Of course those of you who bothered to read the movement section would have realised the best okizeme would be to Wave dash and put pressure on your opponent. Ultimately though, the best Okizeme Attack is one which does not your opponent on the ground - WGF. For all kinds of situation (rolling back, side roll, tech roll, get up with attack) WGF is the answer to all of them. Proper implementation of a Wave dash can and will keep your opponent grounded for the whole match. Here is a typical scenario. Your opponent is on the floor and you are wavedashing at him. If he chooses to : 1) ROLL BACK - Which is what scrubs usually do, WGF immediately and put him back on the ground. Rinse and repeat. 2) ROLL FORWARD - He is really asking for it since well he is vulnerable to anything. Well anything like WGF should do. 3) ROLL SIDEWAYS - What good players would usually do and while you do not have anything guranteed, if you time it right and sidestep with them, you can WGF them. However should they get up, before you can do anything about that, you still have the advantage, mainly the WS+1,2 or Hell sweep guessing game. If you should get the better in this 50-50 situation, then you can repeat the whole procedure again. 4) GET UP WITH ATTACK - Another sign of scrubbiness. If you anticipate this, WGF immediately. You will most likely get them on CH in which case you should just juggle them and continue wave dashing. 5) DO NOTHING - Well, you could wave dash continuously until they time runs up, your hands are tired, or he is tired of waiting. You could also just do d+3 which hits them low but sends them away thus allowing them to get up safely. More Okizeme Stuff ------------------ Maybe this section to be called "setups" but lets get to the meat of the strats. Much like Jin, Kazuya has a lot of of options for Okizeme even when on the surface he doesn't seem to have a lot of good low hitting attacks (bar Hell sweeps of course) 1) OB trap no.1 After a Hell sweep, and should Kazuya's opponent's head be lying towards you (first sweep trips), you can try wiffing a WS+4 (from Wave dash or whatever means) Upon seeing this, your opponent will most likely have very itchy fingers and try to get up with a WS attack. This is when you interrupt his get up attack with a d+1 of your own. Timed correctly, you will interrupt your opponent's animation and Backturn him giving you a free hit opportunity. Now the problem with Kazuya is the fact that he doesn't have much options after that. WS+2 and WS+1,2 or maybe WS+4,4 are his best bets from WS position. WS+2 does good damage but thats it. WS+1,2 is your best bet for juggles but it wiffs especially when it hits at maximum range, so if its Ling you are facing then you will meet up with her BK, 4 and juggle. And WS+4,4 I would consider a safe option.. does good damage but nothing else. Compared to Jin who's WS+2 has good range and can further juggle you with Laser Cannon's Kazuya may not be as good, but this strategy is certainly worth mentioning 2) OB trap no.2 When your opponent is down from a normal move (Stone head can apply here assuming your opponent does not tech), you can try jumping over his body and if he should decide to rise, you can d+1 him and Backturn him. All strats above apply. I suggest only using this option when you have run out of all other okizeme options and even then, use this sparringly. ************** Chicken Buffer ************** Chicken is another name for a reversal reversal. To do a chicken you press either f+1+3 or f+2+4 depending on the punch or kick that was reveresed. Some moves though use two buttons (f+1+2) so you have to know which buttons to press to chicken it. (its f+2+4 btw). Although I'd strongly suggest you incorporate chicken buffering into your normal game against reversal capable/happy characters, most average players find buffering chicken a confusing job and one which hampers their gameplay. There fore, for the aforementioned players, they have to use the tactic known as chicken baiting. Basically, they do an easily reversed move and buffer chicken hoping to catch a reversal happy player. Usually the moves chosen are slow, easily telegraphed moves like df+1, f+1+2, f+2. However as I mentioned before this, a good opponent will look at your hands to see if chicken is buffered and resist all temptations to reverse. Instead, he will just jab you out of all these moves as they come out so slowly. *note* You cannot chicken King's Kick reversal and Wang's Left Punch reversal. ************** Throw Escaping ************** Although this should not be in a Kazuya FAQ (this should be in a basics of Gameplay), I find that people do NOT escape throws enough. Therefore, they deem throws cheap, when in fact you have a large window of escape for most throws (bar throws like Mad Axes) Basically, escaping throws is easy if you know which throw he is going to do and when. In theory it is easier said than done, but here are some pointers. 1) Watch your opponents hands. If the Left hand extends longer than his right, then he is going for a throw with a 1 break. If his right hand is longer than his left, then the break for the throw is throw. If both hands extend equally, the break is 1+2. Of course there are some exceptions but this is the general rule. 2) With most throws, the escape frame is almost one full second. Watch for the purple flash whenever a person grabs you. Most opponents have a tendency to go for certain throws so it would be wise to know before hand which throw he likes to go for. 3) When being thrown, and unsure, just press something (1,2 or 1+2) Pressing any of the combinations is better than not doing anything because you will have a 33.3% chance of breaking the throw. 4) Look at your opponents hands if possible. This does not apply only to Multithrows only. Looking at your opponent hands while playing not only tells you what throw he is going to do, but generally gives away what he is going to do next. 5) Becareful when looking at your opponent's hands when he does Multis. Some Multi windows are pretty large and your opponent has loads of time to fake the throw. 6) Although some people suggest the theory of 1~2(hold 2)~1 or 2~1(hold 1)~2 this theory has not been proven. I think that the escape of the throw depends on the frame of input of the escape. In other words, the technique suggested by some people worked because it was coincidence that they hit the correct escape button at the frame of escape. Remember, everytime you escape a throw, you are avoiding 30+ damage and the follow up damage from Okizeme. When you think about it, thats almost the same damage from a WGF, 1,2, df+4,4 juggle. Therefore, do try and work on your throw escapes. ************************* The Funny World of Tekken ************************* There are many different kind of players around in the Tekken world. Here, I would break them all up into different categories, and explain which moves/tactics work extremely well on them 1. Scrubs (aka I Want to Play even if I don't know how to) If you lose to any of these players at ANY time, you can be considered a scrub yourself. +DAMN, I just lost to a scrub lately *sob*+ Anyways the best way to deal with scrubs is to use cheesy attacks over and over and over and over....again (preferably the attacks they love to abuse but anything will do really) until they get pissed off and decide never EVER to bother you again. 1.1 Eddy/Law/Hwoarang/Baek Mashers These are players who couldn't care less about what you are doing or what they themselves are doing. They just bang the buttons as hard as possible, usually 1 or 2 buttons at most, and hope to win. I hate these players a lot because they are the reason of faulty buttons, and inaccurate controllers. Basically, all your specially thought out custom strings are not going to work here, as you can't train them to do anything. To beat these scrubs, just abuse certain moves like crazy since they never learn how to block low. Example : Spinning Demon (uf+ 4,4,4,4), Hell Sweeps (since they will probably not know how to get up, you can just sweep them to death). In the case of Hwoarang mashers, just duck the last hit of the 3,3,3,3 and counter with the DGP for ~INSANE~ damage. The same applies to Baek and his strings. Do them a favour by canning them in record time and then giving them some money to go home. 1.2 Paul Deathfist/ Falling leaf players Basically, these players play with only 2 moves..... deathfist (qcf+2) or the falling leaf combo (d+4,2) All their strategy revolves around confusing you between these 2 moves. Since the introduction of the sweep stagger in TTT though, the falling leaf combo has been tonned down a lot as in the sweep will only take you off your feet if is extremely near or hits on CH. Best yet, if you block the sweep, he will have suffer a looooooooong stagger recovery time. This is to the benefit to players as it kills the guessing game of deathfist or Falling leaf combo. However, a good player will probably poke the hell outta the fella before he even winds up with his deathfist. Good moves that Kazuya can use is the Gut Punch (df+2), WGF (which hits most of the time if you time it properly) , Hell Sweeps (for okizeme). Beware as these players may or may not know how to block low. Remember to becareful at ALL times because a Deathfist on CH is as bad as getting hit by most Unblockables. 1.3 i-M-Reversal-happy (Paul/Jin/Nina and rarely Jun/Wang) *yAy* These are the most fun to play against. They think they are probably an expert player because they can reverse every move around...NOT! Do not mistake reversal happy scrubs with players who reverse at correct times (unchicken buffered moves). To identify this class of players, watch how they play. If they do a move, Reverse, Do another move, reverse, and never bother to use a low parry (because they say its a worthless move which does no damage) ... they are probably a scrub and this is where the fun begins. Just throw a move buffered with a chicken to bait them and laugh in their faces as they stare in horror at what you had done. Repeat again and again until they have finally learnt their lesson and stop using reversals permanently or they are dead. The sure sign that they are a scrub is when they can't fight back because you have thrown off their game plan. From here, just murder them with juggles and stun juggles of all sorts. For more info about chickening and chicken baiting, refer to the 1.4 I-Am-The-Best-10-Hitter (Paul/Nina/Yoshi/Baek/King are common) Haha! Actually I love playing against players who think that 10 hits rule the world. To be honest, I was once a player in this class (until I got canned by my friends Julia and all her poking). These players do nothing but practise the 'ultimate art of 10-hit combos' while maybe throwing an odd move or two (maybe a rare deathfist or double palm). To have the most fun with these characters, I usually block the first 9 hits of the combo to tell them that I know how to block their 10 hit combos and then poke him out of the 10th hit. But Alas, they never learn and will start again with the 10 hit combos. While playing these players, use low parries to your full advantage. You SHOULD always poke them out of the combo whenever possible since blocking isn't to your advantage (and this applies ESPECIALLY to yoshimitsu since the last few hits of his 10-hits are Unblockable). If possible CH him if he uses a slow move. Example, Block the first 9 hits of Pauls 1231421421 combo and rise with a DGP immediately after blocking the 9th hit (which hits low).... or you could easily just WGF him when he starts the 10 hit since most 10 hit scrubs prefer to start the first few hits far away (aka Wiff the first few hits). 2. Novice (aka I think I'm an expert because I can beat Scrubs) Novice players think they are hell great because they can do away with scrubs in record time or beat the CPU in the quickest fashion ever using a few moves. In my opinion novice players are more fun to play compared to scrubs because they KNOW what they are doing but still fall for each and every trick you pull out of your pocket. 2.1 Juggle Crazy Juggling is undeniably an essential part of any tekken player's game. However a novice player probably has only one thing in mind - juggle my opponent. Sure... if it hits cool, you will do loads of damage.... but getting your opponent to eat your juggle starter is another thing. My evolution from a 10-hit scrub went into this stage when all I did was try a juggle starter over and over again hopping my opponent would eat it. All I did was use Nina and Divine Cannon over and over again until I popped my opponent up into the air. Since the CPU is sadly extremely stupid and will fall for the Divine Cannon even if the first one is blocked, I abused this move a lot... but was soon taught a harsh lesson of reality. Juggle starters need to be set up properly if your opponent is going to eat it, but these players will probably go around doing consecutive WGF's, Divine Cannons etc even if they KNOW its going to be blocked. In this case, just poke the hell out of them, use your custom strings to set up your own juggles and then laugh at them for being so foolish. *note* if your partner has a reversal... abuse it, since most juggle happy novices never bother with chickens, and if they do, it will mess up their gameplan anyways. 2.2 Multi-Throwers (King/Nina are common, Armor King/others are rarer) I'm not sure whether to put these players in the scrub category or the novice category, but since they have done so much HARD work memorizing the multi-throw list, I should give them credit shouldn't I? All they do is just try to get you in a multi throw. Common are King's SS+2+4/ SS+1+3 series, the CD+1+4 series and Nina's QCF+1+2 series. Just duck whenever you see them aim for their multi throws (but beware as some King players may cancel the Multi throw in the SS series .... but then again if they do cancel their Multi's they are not novices) and learn the breaks if you unfortunately get caught in them. As a show off, you may want to break Nina's Multiparts or King's CD+1+4 series when they are extremely low on health as the minute amount of damage caused to them will kill them off. 3. Intermediate (aka I am getting there....) Intermediate players can be easily recognized by their style of play. They know probably the best moves of the character they are playing and how to block a few 10-hit strings (usually the common ones). They know how to pull out some of the character's most damaging combos though even some hard ones (example :WGF,1,1,1,WGF) still elude them. Intermediate players can be identified by their limited amount of combos used, usually sticking to one or two which they find easiest to do. 3.1 Ways to identify an intermediate Mishima Most players may have gone through this stage. While trying to learn any of the Mishima characters, they'd probably have had trouble doing the crouch dash motion. They may pull it off once in a while, but as everyone knows, consistency is the key in Tekken. (I mean you want that WGF to interrupt the ass outta what your opponent is doing everytime right?) Morever, most intermediate players have trouble pulling off WS moves consistently, and this puts them at a severe disadvantage since all 3 Mishima... or should I say the 2 Mishimas and the Kazama have excellent WS moves. Kazuya has his DGP (WS+2), Twin Pistons (WS+1,2), Jin has his single Piston (WS+2) or Twin Pistons (WS+1,2) and Heihachi has this new move which works similar to Kazuya's DGP but is slower , again WS+2. An intermediate player should be treated cautiously at all times and any attempts to show off may backfire severely on you (since as I pointed out they DO know how to play) I don't know how many times this has happened to me before but I got beaten by some fella who I knew I could beat easily because I tried to do one of those fancy (AND useless) moves/ juggles. The best way to play against an intermediate players is to pressure him all out (I mean you are Kazuya right?) Poke the hell outta him and wait for his mistakes (due to his lack of experience) 3.2 Stance changers If your opponent plays a character with lots of stance changes (Ling, Lei, Eddy, Hwoarang etc ) observe the way how he plays. Does he know how to change from one stance to the other stance with ultimate ease? For example, for Ling to go into her Backturned stance, does he ONLY use the f,f+3 racoon swing? An intermediate players KNOWS how to play in each stance, but gets predictable because he uses only a few moves to get into the stance. My point being that he can't change stance fluidly (which is important for the surprise factor). Another thing is when they change stance unknowingly, they'd get suprised themselves and may not know how to play correctly....so punish them with a meaty juggle/ stun combo so that they will finally choose someone as basic (yet as effective) as Kazuya. Actually there are lots of ways to identify an intermediate player so the above are actually just some examples. 4. Advanced (aka I'm there....almost) Well well well... they are probably one step from becoming an expert... but then that one step is a rather huge step. An advanced player is one who knows almost every trick of the trade in the game. But that doesn't mean that he will not fall for some moves at times. He knows how to break multi throws, he knows the break points for each 10-hit combo and WILL punish you each time you are foolish enough to use it. Hmm.... the best way to identify an advanced played is to watch him play against a reversal enabled character. If he can play consistenly while buffering chicken commands for each move then he probably is a advanced (if not close to expert player) An advanced player has very good juggle abilities though he may still not be able to do the extremely HARD combos (Ex: Jin's b,f+2 CH, EWGF, TGF +3) Still, he will be able to pull out some rather amazing and difficult combos consistenly. 4.1 Pitbull Players who pitbull will do nothing but attack attack and attack all day. They will go all out at you trying to beat you into submission the minute the announcer goes fight. The problem with pitbull players are that if they somehow get pinned back by their opponent, they will be under immense pressure and sometimes may crack under it. Pitbulls utilize poking and interrupt tactics in their custom strings to their advantage, making sure you eat a juggle for each and every mistake that you commit. Best way to play against a pitbull is to play as one yourself, not giving the chance to attack, because in my personal opinion, the best form of defence is offence. 4.2 Turtler Not many characters can play a turtling game well. Probably Law and Ling are the best turtlers in the game because they can parry almost anything. Some people belive parrying is rubbish because it does no damage but come on.... a parry cannot be chickened, its final. A reversal can be chickened and you could end up looking like a fool for eating the damage yourself. Moreover, after a parry, you are given the initiative while your opponent struggles to find his footing, hence he may fall for your juggle starter. Law has the punch parry for example which has guranteed follow ups (not to mention a meaty juggle at the end of it) The best way to play against a turtler is cautiously... lead him into your traps and not go blindly rushing in with a WGF (because he will probably d+1 you out of it most of the time before you can get anywhere near) Remember that given the opportunity, a turtler WILL attack so remember never to keep your guards down. 5. Expert (aka I am there) Oh come on, you don't need me to elaborate anymore bout this do you? Well an expert will probably pull out all the stops on you. He probably knows each and every move in the game and will use them to their fullest of capability. Even seemingly useless moves will be utilized by them at the right time. An expert will be able to perform out all kinds of juggles, some seemingly impossible. He plays both a good turtling and pitbulling game, knowing when to switch between the two styles, often confusing his opponent. My observation has led me to conclude that experts have extremely good movement during battle. They bob, weave, sidestep, haha step, wave dash etc. just to get that single opening to finish you off. A battle between to expert usually comes down to the psychological battle. When facing an expert, your best bet is to pray hard that he doesn't cream you in 10 seconds flat. ****************************************** Character Specific Strategy (Vs. Strategy) ****************************************** These Character Specific Strategys will work against another player of similar skill as yours. Even though some characters may be rated Easy or Hard it doesn't mean anything if your opponent is an expert or a button mashing punk. Although some characters may be better against others, in good hands any character can be deadly. I disagree with statements saying in a masters hand this character is more dangerous than others, its just a matter of how the player plays it. Just remember that the ratings here are not a true representation of what a player can do with him/her. Alex/ Roger Difficulty : Easy Hmm... why would ANYONE want to play Alex/Roger? This is basically King from Tekken 1 without his multi throw capability (but then multithrows are kinda useless at a higher level of play). Beating Alex/ Roger should be rather easy if you play all out offense and cream him. Right, still, you should not take things for granted. Alex/ Roger are very well known for their guard stun moves. After a f,N+1 or any combo ending with this move, they are guranteed an Animal Godfist which takes off a good 50 points of damage. *ouCh*. Other things to watch out for is of course King's d+1,N+2 pokes. Since Alex/ Roger do not have as many throws as King's, and their throw range further hamper them, you can bet most players will be going for the Giant Swing (escape : 1 , can be tech rolled for half damage) and the occasional Tombstone Piledriver. Alex/ Roger may seem like pushovers in the first place, but played correctly, these cute, fuzzy lil creatures can put some hurt on you. Angel/ Devil Difficulty : Easy ~ Medium Angel/ Devil is a favourite choice among players who know a limited repertoire of moves. Well well, they actually think that Angel/Devil's laser is some sort of messiah. Just duck the standing laser (or if they are actually STUPID enough to use it in close, duck it and Demon Gut Punch or Gut Punch him for being such a fool) and run behind him when he flies high for the air laser. Beware that Angel/Devil has a fake out where he will dash to the other side before firing the laser, but this shouldn't be a problem as it is easily telegraphed. However, at a hands of a good player, Angel/Devil can be rather dangerous because he HAS all the Mishima trademark moves (shining fist, WGF, Hell Sweeps, TGF) AND the SS+2, Devil Twister (especially if Devil is teamed with Heihachi). Be extra careful not to be hit by the Devil Twister as it could spell a LONG painful juggle. Anna Williams Difficulty : Hard Be prepared to be assaulted by a bombardment of pokes. Anna is as mean as her sister when it comes to poking so counter appropriately and only when you have an opening. Among her pokes are d+4,1, d+3,2 , d+1,N+4 and her new uf+1<3. Good Anna players will more than likely use uf+1<3 a LOT. Look out for them to delay the bad habit kick for a CH. Most important to note is that if the bad habit kick hits, then f+1+2 is Guranteed. They could also probably do uf+1 and throw (most likely uf+1+2 but that can be tech rolled so easily) uf+1, df+2. Another tactic to watch out for is Anna's roll dash. Speaking of teching uf+1+2 throw, be aware that your opponent may tag in with a tag dive. To avoid the tag dive, you have to tag out at the right moment. Off her roll dash she can do her Multi, her flip kick and her new QCT+1. Her multi is easily breakable though. Be prepared for her high moves like QCT+1 and high jabs and counter with 'You-Know-What'.... NO NO NO... Twin Pistons! Good players will usually delay the QCT+1 until the VERY LAST MINUTE, so do not duck too early or they will go into their flip kick. If QCT+1 is blocked, you will be slightly stunned and she will continue to poke poke and poke. Also, worth mentioning is the damage potential off a single CH QCT+1. I did not know Anna could do THAT Much damage. It is so unfair, but I guess thats the price you pay for being careless. Her SS game is pretty useful too as she has a SS+2 (low) and SS+1+2 (mid) Off a CH SS+2 you will get juggled again. Lastly, know the breaks for her multis. There is nothing worse than taking unnecessary damage even though you know which throw she is going for. Armor King Difficulty : Medium ~ Hard If you go into a fight using all the tactics that you'd use to fight any King, you will get a sorry ass kicking. Although he has a lot of King's grapple (including some of his own) Armor King is played very very differently (a huge mistake made by a lot of people whom I have seen play Armor King). I mean why wouldn't one use his version of the WGF (called Dark Uppercut or something) which although isn't as good as yours is deadly in its own right. However, one should noe be afraid of A. King's CD mixups since they are pretty worthless. His CD moves all can be avoided high except for his multi throw which comes out so slow and easily duckable. Do watch out for his CD+1 though since this move comes out rather quick and puts you in a position for a guranteed mounted punches (or the extremely cheap A.K. Cuffs which does zilch damage) *TIP* if your opponent is idiotic enough to try the Cuffs on you, walk over to him and give him a punch in Real Life. Since Armor King has only ONE multi throw (pretty dumb for someone who taught the real King his moves) learn the breaks for it as you may get caught in it if you were on the take and couldn't avoid it. Other moves to look out for inlude his db+4 kick which comes out deceptively but is great as an okizeme attack. His Toll Kick, b+3 is a good move which he will use to punish moves because it comes out really fast and has good range. Think of this as King's b+4 disgraceful kick except it does less damage at the cost of speed. One last thing to be wary of is A. King's European uppercut (WS+1) which although has small range has special properties on Clean Hit and CH. Overall, A. King has an impressive arsenal and that topped up with his excellent throws like G. Swing indeed makes him a formidable opponent(read more about that in King's strategy) Oh did I forget to mention that he has a great poking game with his d+1,N+2? Baek Do San Difficulty : Easy Don't let this rating fool you. Baek is extremely deadly if is used in the right hands. (the Tekken World champ uses Baek!) Its easy to see whether you are up against a masher or an expert because a masher will never use any punches. Learn his strings and duck under the Highs and reply with the Demon Gut Punch. Good players will use his flamingo cancel to good use. His 1,2,f+3 string puts extreme pressure on you since from there he can go into his throw (be prepared with 1+2 break), df+2 uppercut or one of his stun inducing kicks. Baek players will couple all this with d+1's at the right moment to interrupt anything you plan on dishing out and continue with his assault. Played right, Baek is very difficult to stop. You may want to choose King as your partner as your opponent won't be able to chicken your Kick reversal.... however I don't see any reason why you would want to reverse his kicks when you can easily WGF him out of the act. Bruce Irvine Difficulty : Hard My partner of choice! Bruce is deadly because his juggles are so easy to do yet extremely damaging. A juggle with his triple Knee combo (aka Cheese Knees) can easily see of 50% of your life in one sitting. Bruce has an excellent poking game with the Gatling Gun Combo 3,2,1 which pops you into the air and the last two hits are guranteed if the 3 hits on CH. This happens a lot since his legs are long, it comes out fast and has insane priority. As my friend Han Tzen said "His legs are just so f!@#ing long." However, since 3,2,1 and most of Bruce's other strings are very linear and do not track well, just sidestep sidestep and sidestep. Punish the wiff with a WGF. In close, Bruce's Melee game is not as good as yours. With that said, his punches are fast and his basic uppercut (df+2)cannot be reversed. Fortunately though, Bruce's hands are on the short side and he really needss to get 'in-your-face' if most of his punch attacks are going to connect. Watch out also for Bruce's hopkick (uf+4) which is certainly one of the faster ones in the game. You can be sure, your opponent will use it to punish a careless tag in. IMO, his hopkick payoff rivals Julia's for the damage potential after it. Again, his longer legs gives him a small advantage. His Knee launcher (b,F+4)which although on the slow side to come out does quite some damage and sets you up for more knees than you can ever imagine. Lastly be aware that Bruce has an auto punch reversal which is done f,f+2 (thats the Mach Punch) If you are not careful with your punches you are going to hear a CRUNCH sound soon after. Also he has the (1),2,d+4 / (1),2,4 which confuses the hell outta you. Play smart against a good Bruce player and do NOT be too hasty when he gets you outside Melee range because 3,2,1 and Cheese Knees ain't purty. Bryan Fury Difficulty : Hard Like erm.... at least your WGF can't be punched parried. Even with his pathetic lack of low attacks, Bryan Fury is an extremely dangerous character that you will fight against. Bryan has probably one of the best WS gussing game. His WS+3 should be treated with the same bane that he treats your WS+2. A CH with a WS+3 could easy see your life bar depleted very quickly. Get used to breaking out of stuns. Most Bryan players will follow up a WS+3 with a b+1. Speaking of b+1, the move although slow to initiate, is a great tag launch move since the bounce does not allow your opponent to techroll out of it. Lets not forget he has the WS+1 and WS+2. Also, from FC position, he has one of the coolest throws in the game - Chains of Misery. Get ready to break with 1+2. Occasionally, Bryan players use df+3 but this move is highly telegraphed and easily block (block this since it gives him a guard stun). uf+4 is also utilized by Bryan players though Tekken fans should rejoice that it now doesn't have the priority or speed that it used to enjoy in Tekken 3.A fight against Bryan will probably end up in another poke fest. However be prepared for any of his powermoves (he has to tap f,f to initiate them) and counter with WGF. Since his Mach Punch f,f+2 hits high, your WGF should duck under it if timed correctly and nail him each and everytime. This will be a close fight. Eddy Gordo/ Tiger Jackson Difficulty : Easy ~ Medium Scrub? Just help sweep him to death and parry all the low kicks he throws at you. IF however you are going up a player who KNOWS what he is doing, this could be tricky. Be prepared to change blocking heights at a dime. Since Eddy/Tiger's recovery time for moves can be bad, punish any blocked/parried hits with a WGF or DGP (depending on your position.) Forest Law Difficulty : Hard Against mashers you'd probably be having a fun time. However if you are up against a turtler beware. Law has many tricks up his sleeves that can punish you. The first card he draws is the Punch parry and its follow ups. You should be careful with your poking/strings. Don't get over predictable because you could end up at the wrong end of a 70+ damage juggle. On a good note, I am quite sure that Law cannot punch parry a WGF (anybody can confirm this?) Law is an excellent poker himself so be prepared for lotsa punches in your face. Law players will almost always use standing 4 a lot since a CH 4 will gurantee him a juggle. He also is blessed with both a high and low parry so once again you must be very very careful with your moves. Law players often switch between b+1,2,1 and b+2,3,4 moves. Learn how to read both of them and parry the second low hit of the b+2,3,4. Also you must remember that the hits in the b+1,2,1 combo can be delayed so do not go blindly rushing in and eat the hits on CH (which means a float => juggle). Look for Law players to mix in some b+2's in their strings since it has a lot of forward momentum. New to TTT is his WS+2 which works in much the same way as Jin's WS+2 (ie comes out quick, juggles high, good range) Last but not least, if he manages to hit you with the Poison Arrow on CH, remember to tag out (to cancel the stun) as he has some follow ups depending on his partner. Low attacks to look out for is his Low sweep and FC,df,d,df slide. His Low sweep can almost always be parried on reaction though watch for players who stop after b+1 or b+1,2 and sweep. The danger with FC,df,d,df slide is that players will try to come out of that with his WS+2 (or WS flip) though that can be blocked on reaction. At the end of the day though, Forest Law gets extremely predictable as his juggles are mainly flip, punch, Junkyard kick Ganryu Difficulty : Easy He is slow, you are fast. He is big, you are not. He is strong, you are to. Wait.... looks can deceive! Ganryu isn't as slow as you think he is. He has some really good moves which you should be aware off and his power is second to none. I don't what they are called or how they are performed (because I haven't played Ganryu myself) so I hope my description will be good enough. He has the one handed uppercut thingie where he moves forward a lot. This move is comes out rather quick and WILL be used to punished and wiffed attacks. He also has some of the power attacks of the Jacks (which everyone should be familiar by now). He has this two handed uppercut which comes out WS position which also has a lot of forward momentum, does plenty damage and will duck under high attacks. Ganryu has this low kick thingie which comes out almost as discretely as your db+4 Stature Kick and is useful for poking. Also his Earthquake stomp (d+4) is very dangerous if a Ganryu player properly sets it up. If your partner has a Class 1 launcher, take full advantage of it for some fun, meaty Juggles. Among all the big characters, I think Ganryu is the best (and most underestimated) of them all. Gun Jack Difficulty : Easy Read my opinion on Ganryu and you are almost set. Once upon a time, I actually lost to a Gun Jack player, but then again, I lost because the right Punch button was out of order (no WGF, no gut Punch, not DGP... arghhhh) Just beware of his Punishment Drop catch which has INSANE range and does INSANE damage. Other than that, you'd probably have to be a rather dim wit to lose to someone this slow. Heihachi Mishima Difficulty : Medium ~ Hard This old fart is actually still around? Since he takes damage like an old man (dohhh!!!) a juggle or two should see him off in no time. This is almost a mirror match.... well almost as I said. Although Heihachi has the multiple enders to his Hellsweep, his hell sweep is so pathetic now that it doesn't trip on the first hit. So unless you are retarded or something, block low even if the first hit of his hell sweep connects. True good players will just do one sweep and go into the rising kick for 50 pts of damage as bluu pointed out, but if your reactions are razor quick, you will be able to spot the Rising Kick from the distance, and block it. If the Hell Sweep hits on CH, then, well I'm sorry you are in for a juggle. Hei has been blessed with an EWGF and is really the Juggle King of TTT. There is nothing like a good Hei player who can do those insane juggles off an EWGF. EWGF, EWGF, f+1,b+2,1 is nothing to laugh about doing something around 70 damage. Worst is if your opponent masks the Demon Uppercut with a CD or Wave dash and juggles you off it. *oucH* New to Heihachi is WS+2 which works in the same way as the DGP but comes out slower, has better range, does good damage and for reasons that have no reasonable explanation is INESCAPABLE. Now why did Namco do that? Isn't a damn EWGF for Hei good enough? Anyways since Heihachi is after all a Mishima, most of the strategy's here will apply (CD, Wave steps, WGF's, yada yada yada). Keep up the full offense on him and Heihachi will be dead in no time. p/s I hate Heihachi a lot, don't ask me why. Hwoarang Difficulty : Easy ~ Medium Again, fighting Hwoarang can be tricky if you are up against a master (but then I guess fighting against even Kuma would be hard against a master). Against a beginner, duck the last hit of Hwoarang's 3,3,3,3 combo and d+4,4 and tag him with a Demon Gut Punch. IMO , Hwoarang has the best movement in the game, as he can easily sidestep behind you and give you a nice kick in the back. Hwoarang has many strong moves, but most of them come out slowly, so poke him out of the act. I'd say becareful of players who use the technique known as Crazy Step. Hwoarang will appear to be dancing all over the ring. His movement will help Hwoarang evade a lot of high attacks and make a lot of other attacks wiff. Don't blindly go charging in with a WGF because it may well miss and he will reply with a f,n,d,df+4 + juggle or just one of his powerful kicks *ouch!* Lastly, don't underestimate Hwoarang's punching abilty because a good player should and WILL use his punches to its full capability. Since Hwoarang doesn't have many good moves which actually hit low, exploit this weakness! Jack 2 Difficulty : Easy Unless you have really slow reflexes, any DUMB ass would be able to poke Jack out of any move he trys to throw at you. However be careful because if you actually are dumb enough to get hit by his moves, it would mean some MAJOR hurting. Jin Kazama Difficulty : Hard Jin is one of the hardest characters to beat if played in the hands of a master. When played right, he has no apparent weaknesses. Jin is a mix between Jun and Kazuya, but playing in the style of either will result in a quick victory for you. Although Jin must have learnt everything wrong from his father and mother, he has some excellent moves of his own. His WS+2 uppercut launches you high into the air for some meaty juggles, while his b,f+2 gut punch while not as good as yours can lead to some devastating juggles. However, Jin is not without his weaknesses as stated because his (E)WGF pathetically hits high which means that any time he crouch dashes, block low. Even if he decides to go into the tsunami kicks, you will lose some health but not put in a total disadvantage. After crouching his WGF, you know what to reply with right? The problem is good Jin players will never EWGF for no reason, so if you do see a EWGF coming, you know its because you just got yourself countered... big time damage. The major problem though with Jin is the effective use of CD cancel into WS+2/ Hell sweeps mixups. If you know your opponent is one who can utilize the WS+ 2/ Hell sweep mixups, then its going to be a tough guessing game. My advice is to stick on him like glue and close the distance down so that he does not get the opportunity to start CD. However this would be tough for someone like Kazuya. Of course you could use the same cheezy strategy as him (ie CD cancel into WS+1,2 and hell sweeps mixups) The thing about Jin though is that his combos are easy to do and extremely damaging. A scrubby combo like WGF, 1, b,f+2,1,2 takes off loads so needless to say an expert can even make you pay more for a mistake. Although his Hell sweeps isn't as good as yours because it hits low and then mid (compared to yours which hits twice low) , if it trips, he can do a lot of damage off it (say something like b,f+2,1,2, f,f+2) For Okizeme, b+4 is excellent and if that hits you on CH, again you are in trouble... Big time damage. He also has other options in his White Heron combo which juggles you as long as you move just a bit. It is also Okizeme where Jin excels over his father by a mile. Although at the surface Jin may seem to have thesame okizeme options as his dad, it is completely different because of his WS+2... yes the rising uppercut. It is with this move that Jin is able to use OB trap to such effectiveness. For those who do not know what it is, OB trap is basically stands for Okizeme Back trap. Basically your opponent tempts you to rise and then interrupts your rising animation with a d+1 which backturns you. To get a better idea do download Tommy vs Shauno 2 semifinal match at Electriccancel.com and see how he uses it to great effect. Jin players will usually trip you using a single hell sweep. He will then wiff a df+4 and knowing sensing that you are going to rise with an attack, immediately do d+1. Since d+1 is but 8 frames, it will interrupt the animation of your attack hence backturning you and giving him a free WS+2 and juggle. Of course Kazuya has the this trick too, but what makes Jin more formidable is again his juggling capabilities as well as the good range of WS+2 (Kaz's twin pistons has the tendency to wiff at maximum distance so that will be a Ling BK 4 + juggle to you) Other ways a good player might set up the OB trap is jumping over you while you are down and do d+1. All I can say is be very careful and do not stupidly rise and attack if your opponent wiffs a move because most of the time (assuming he is a good player) wiffs it on purpose to bait you into his trap.Even with his weaknesses, Jin is a very formidable opponent when played correctly. *note* If Jin is teamed up with Heihachi, he will have the opportunity to turn into Devil Jin after a force block (b+1+2) In this form, Jin's body is surrounded with electric. Along with a new string, Jin's WGF will now hit Medium and juggles you higher. Julia Chang Difficulty : Very Hard Of all the characters I have played against, IMHO I think that Julia is the hardest fighter to fight against. WHY? For one, Julia is very fast, has good power and knock the wind out of you from the start of the match if you aren't ready. She has loads of mixups from almost every position : standing (CH) 1~2,1 or 1~1,4,3 (and others) - scrubby tactics -, Crouching FC,df+2 or FC,df+4,3. Because she has a quick jab, you have to be really careful with your poking game. Remember your 10 frame jabs will always lose out to her 8 frames jab, and being that on CH, she can get a 1~2,1 you'd soon learn to be careful. If you are a psychic, be ready to parry any of her low shots she throws. Always parry the 2nd hit of her 4,4,4_d+4_1 combo or you could be left with a guessing game later whether to block high or low. Hit df the minute you see the 1~2,3_4 combo (scrubby combo again)because it will parry the low 3 kick and go under the high 4, unless of course your opponent got you on CH and you are flying high in the sky after the Sky uppercut. Beware also of her d,df+1<2 and WS+2<2 as players may delay the 2nd hit hoping to get a CH. d,df+1<2 in particular is a very abused move. They will do the first d,df+1 and delay it for a CH or stop there and throw you (Mad axes of course) or just stop and start a new string. If your opponent is foolish enough to finish the 1~1,1 combo on a non CH (though I have NEVER seen good players go for 1~1,1 as they'd opt for 1~2,1) , punish them with a jab at very least or best yet a Mist step cancel WGF... you just have about enough time. Julia has very good SS ability and coupled with her lil spin move (3+4) she can get behind you before you know it. Watch out for her Mad Axes throw (QCBFrom his sidestep, he can do the Deadly Bommerang which is HELL damaging or start his multi throw. His b+4 disgraceful kick can be dangerous and most often used as a counter. From the BK position he can pull off his Lariat unblockable *ouch* or his new BK+3 mule kick which is irritating. As long as you stay out of his throw range and punish him everytime he wiffs a throw, King isn't all that tough. Overall, King is a good fighter when played right, but since the removal of the guranteed Giant Swing after his 2,1 , King is no longer a "cheater" character. I guess other noteworthy moves of King to watch out for is his Shoulder ram, f+2+3 and the flying body press f,f+2+3 both of which are very very useful power moves to catch people tagging in. With King, his big size does allow for him to use u+4 hopkick (instead of uf+4 with most characters) to juggle opponents since his big size and reach allows the combos to hit except for at full range. Look for good king players to punish you (and poke you occasionally) with his 1+2, 2. Kuma/Panda Difficulty : Easy Ok, so Kuma may not be as pathetic as the Jacks, but he is damn near. He is a big target and slow to boot which makes poking and juggling so much more fun. However, as I said, he isn't as pathetic as the Jacks because he has the G-clef Cannon move of the Changs (performed f+1~1,1) which could juggle you for some huge damage. The first punch of his G- Clef is 8 frames so you should be very careful with your jabs. Also, since his hands are long, you'd probably get punched after a blocked WGF. However other than that, Kuma won't be a huge threat to you. Kunimitsu Difficulty : Medium Again, there aren't any good Kuni players in my arcades and I am still in the process of learning how to play Kuni so I can't write much about this. Basically Kuni is a Yoshimitsu clone with some moves to call her own. Her d/f+2 uppercut isn't as good as Yoshimitsu but you should not underestimate it because she can do some mean juggles off a single uppercut. Kuni has a move where she disappears into the ground and comes flying out of the air with an unblockable Sai attack (u+1+2) which she can mix up with the fake. Though this unblockable can be easily seen a mile away, if you actually get caught in it you will be juggled. Kuni's most dangerous weapon however is her okizeme tactics which is up there with the best. She can keep you on the floor all day with moves such as her D,df+3,3,3,f+4, poison wind (uf+3+4) and if you move she can nail you with an unblockable (b+2 or f,f,(N)+2. Do not underestimate Kuni even though she is said to be inferior than you are. Lee Chaolan Difficulty : Easy ~ Medium Finally, after playing Lee for sometime (and funny I took so long to choose him since my surname too is Lee) I have got some ideas of how to face at least an intermediate Lee opponent. Mind you, my Lee isn't really that good, and I would welcome anyone out there to send in vs Lee strats to me. One thing is for sure though, Lee is not Law even though he has a lot of his moves. Most Lee mashers like to do the stupid Inifinite Kick string. Block the first few kicks and then punish them when you have the space. Either that or just abuse d+1 like you would abuse WGF on any other day. Lee has a Class 1 tag launcher (d,db+4) which, like all Class 1 launchers, you should be extra careful of. Goodplayers though will not rely very much on d,db+4 since it comes out on the slow side and will only use it to punish a slow recovering move or a stupid tag in. They will rely more on Lee's Hop Kick and df+2. The thing with Lee though is the fact that a lot of people underestimate his juggling prowess. This may be true as most of his intermediate combos do very minimal damage, but if your opponent is the master of f,f,N+3,4,4, then you could be in a bit of trouble. Lee does have a very good, no-damage move in his Mist step. Done by inputting f,N, his version of a Mist step moves him forward, all the while, while keeping his guard up. Of course a low attack will break up his intentions. At intermediate level, players try to mix up f,f,N+3,4,4with f,f,N+3+4 for a 'guess high or low' game, since both start off exactly the same. Poking with Lee usually involves his 4,4... kicks which has good range and speed, d+3,3 and 1,2. d+3,3... is rather cheesy since if the d+3 hits on CH, the rest of it is guranteed, and you'd be surprised how often that will get you if you aren't careful. When Lee does his FC,df+4 and wiffs, remember not to blindly rush in if he is partnered with Kazuya since he can follow up with 2~2~1 unblockable and a subsequent free hit. Although Lee may seem a weak opponent at first, he has the right moves for the right situation to counter anything that you can dish to him. So do not always underestimate your opponent if he chooses Lee. Lei Wulong Difficulty : Medium / V.Hard I don't think Lei is that difficult if you have enough experience playing against Lei players. Lei is the master of stances and you must know each and everyone of them as well as the moves from which they can perform from the stance. Lei has some rather powerful moves but most of his moves come out slow and easily interrupted. Also, from his stances, most of his moves either hit High or Medium bar a few moves. Even then, those moves are slow enough for you to block on reaction. Lei also has some moves and stances which will evade/parry attacks. Take for instance his drunken headbutt (b+1+2) where he will take a step back before delivering a headbutt. You have to becareful when charging in because he could easily evade the attack you were trying to dish to him and land you a blow on a CH. When ever Lei goes from his punch rushes into one of his stances, d+1 immediately. The last thing you want is to have a guessing game with Lei because he has a very good guessing game in all his stances. Anyways here are just some general strategies for Lei when he is in a particular stance. 1) Snake : He has 2 noteworthy moves here, 1,1,1,1,1 (the quick jabs) and 2,2,2 which is 2 mid swipes into a low swipe. Lei players will prolly use 2,2,2 a lot after db+4 sweep but watch for them to use 2,2 to induce you to retaliate, after which they will follow up with f,n,4,1,2,3 or b+1+2,drunken headbutt for massive damage. 2) Dragon : If any Lei player goes ino Dragon and tries the grab, Duck and punish him with Twin pistons. If he tries 1+2 and you block it, your best bet is to continue blocking because he will most likely follow up with a drunken headbutt. 3) Panther This is where Lei starts to get really frightening. In panther he has a mix up of low (in 1) or mid (in 2) I really have no advice as to tell you where to block but lets just say I hope you get lucky. If 1 hits then Lei is guranteed a WS+3_4 and if 2 hits he is guranteed any normal juggle like he would off a hopkick. 4) Tiger Another dangerous position for you. In Tiger, Lei has another guessing game. Duck and he will give you an overhead swipe and stun you which then screams HOPKICK. Stand and block and Lei will give you a sweep in the forms of 4 and follow that up with a 4~4,4,3. 5) Phoenix Neither is this a good stance for you. Watch for the low kick to catch you tagging in. This move has really good range. The phoenix power punch is prolly another good move since it disorientates both characters and is a good set up for a BK d+1 low backhand swipe and juggle. The Phoenix dance will prolly be used occasionally as an Okizeme attack. More advanced players employ a technique which is known as the 'Haha' step. Basically, Lei dashes back by cancelling the backturn. (b~3~4, b, b~3~4, b and so on) I must highlight how important it is to not dash blindly into a backturned Lei because he can easily come out from it with some razor punches. Go download the Tekken Tag Championship Finals movie and watch how Seok makes full use of the Haha Steps. The best you can do is dash into just out of his attack range, sidestep and hope that he commits himself to an attack by psyching him out. You could also use tag slides or cross chops though it is NOT a guranteed solution. Other than that, your best bet is to play it save and back away. The HaHa step technique pratically tranforms Lei from an average fighter to one that should be feared. Ling Xiaoyu Difficulty : Medium Ling is a pest! Since my sparring partner likes to play Ling a lot (he likes to play really quick characters like Ling, Julia, Mich etc. ) I have learnt that Ling can be a thorn in Kaz's side because she can easily poke you out of your moves and irritate you with her parrying skill. Since Ling has amazing speed, you MUST be sure that your move will connect or you will eat irritating lil pokes which do small damage that WILL add up at the end of the day. More importantly though, you should only throw a WGF if you are sure that it will connect. Because of Ling's good movement, she can easily dodge your WGF and pop you with a juggle starter. Kaz has one of the best anti Art of Phoenix moves in his stature kick (db+4). When you see her go into her Art of Phoenix, immediately do the stature kick to knock her out of the act. Whatever happens do not throw moves out in fustration because of continually taking poke damage ESPECIALLY on a backturned Ling... she isn't as defenceless as you think she is. Just bear in mind that she is a lil girl and as such takes damage like one so be patient and wait for the opening. A few spanks to her will probably end the round in a jiffy. Funny thing though is Ling has been tonned down quite a bit from Tekken 3 (she was among the top 5 fighters IMO in Tekken 3) but yet, she still holds her own. Michelle Difficulty : Hard She plays the same as her daughter, but she has a few moves to call her own. Namely the df+3+4 and SS+3~4, both juggle starters. Her SS+3~4 puts her sidestepping game in the same league as Jin and Devil even though the SS+3~4 may miss at times (it has to be near to be sure of connecting). Her df+3+4 ducks under high attacks and she will use it if you are not careful with your pokes. A correctly timed df+3+4 can interrupt your WGF so this is another warning not to go throwing WGF's like crazy. Yes I know the WGF is very useful but she has so many other ways to punish you like the 1~1,1 for example. Simply put, the moves that she has are just way faster than any of yours. Therefore, be very careful when using your strings. Keep the pressure on her and do NOT let her get into her WS game. But if the battle gets too intense and you find that she is getting the upperhand, it is sometimes best to retreat and play on the defense. She can be extremely dangerous if you allow her to get into a Crouched position. One of her new moves, SS+2 is an excellent move for her to get into FC position without any disadvantage to her. Like Jules, she has loads of option from FC position. Worse though is if SS+2 hits you (which happens often if you aren't too careful with pitbulling) then WS+4 is guranteed. Speaking of WS+4 it will gurantee her a nice fat juggle on any hit. Besides her elbows are very different unlike Julia since they do not knock away on CH and thus gurantee the Sky Scrapper kick ---> Juggle. Look for a good Michelle player to incorporate LOADS of elbows into his poking strategy. While I need not discuss more on her FC,df+2 elbow on CH. Punish a blocked bow and arrow kick (FC, df+4,3 or any of its variants) with a Shining fist or WGF (though remember that good players will never ever use follow up with the 3 unless the 4 connects). It is odd to say this but Kazuya is more effective against Mich if he plays on the defense rather than continue pitbulling and getting his ass CH. I have changed Michelle's rating from V. Hard to Hard because Mich has very poor stamina so if you just keep on top of her and do not allow her breathing space, she will be out in no time.... though hitting her may pose to be the biggest problem. Mokujin / Tetsujin Difficulty : -variable- Can you tell which character your opponent is playing from the start by just looking at the entrance animation or the way they move? If you can that is a good start. Mokujin / Tetsujin is as good as the character being used but in some cases the size factor makes it a bit different (Mokujin is bigger than Ling but smaller than the Jacks for example). You'd better be prepared to learn stances if you are to defeat an expert Mokujin player. Nina Williams Difficulty : Hard OK, so Nina Williams has been weakened like a LOT since Tekken 3 (she was my favourite character in Tekken 3 btw). A lot of her moves have been weakened to balance out gameplay but Nina is still a very good character. She has excellent poking moves (d+1,N+4 , d+4,1 etc) She can can easily stick in your face the whole day with her poking games and if you are not careful may eat a Divine Cannon on CH ->juggle -> major butt whupping. Her CD game can be deadly too as she can come out of it with an uppercut, Bad habit kick (you know the kick to the men's area) or go into one of her multi throws. However, her multi's aren't as dangerous as say King's and can be easily broken plus she will take damage when you break out of it. Make sure you KNOW how to break her multi's because they still pack major damage (though not as much as King's INSANE Rolling Death Cradle multi). Nina is one of the most complete character in the game as she has it all (throws, combos, fast pokes,reversals ... you name it) so be prepared for a long hard fight. When she is just outside throw range, throw a WGF or df+2 gut punch (or if you were in a FC position rise with a WS+2) the moment you see her move an inch because she will most probably be coming at you with her long, seizure inducing strings. My advice against a good Nina player is to psyche your opponent into wiffing a move and go for a WGF + juggle which is easier said then done, but at a higher level of play it is all down to psychology after all. Also, make full use or your side stepping and CD ability although you have to really careful as some of Nina's moves have excellent tracking ability. Ogre Difficulty : Medium Ogre has moves stolen from a lot of Tekken 2 characters. Among some of his moves is YOUR DGP. Watch out for it because he will most likely follow that up with a Waning Moon throw (break : 1+2 and can be tag escaped) or a Hopkick juggle or a simple 4. He also has Lee Chaolan's d~db+4 which is a great Tag launcher. Ogre has probably one of the meanest Okizeme games with the inclusion of Kuni's Unblockables (b+2 and f,f,N+2). Watch out for Lee's Infinite Kicks which is a favourite among scrubs. Block the first four hits at most and then retaliate. If Ogre uses his f,f+2, sidestep after the initial punch to avoid the unblockable and then counter appropriately. Ogre can poke too since he has your 1,1<2 and Bruce's df+1,2 (which sadly doesn't juggle). Most of Ogre's moves are slow, powerful and if they should connect, will almost always give him a frame advantage. Watch out for his other unblockables (he has loads of them) and poke him out of the act. As long as your keep the pressure on Ogre with tonnes of pokes you should do fine. Paul Difficulty : Easy / Medium At least Paul has been weakened this time around so much so that his Falling Leaf combo will only trip if he is near or hits on counter. If you manage to block the sweep portion of the Falling leaf combo, retaliate with the Twin Pistons while he is still recovering from the sweep stagger. In this instance, I'd recommend the Twin Pistons over the DGP because this won't count as a counter hit and the resultant juggle from the Twin Pistons will add up to more damage. Good Paul players are extremely hard to find (though not as rare as good Eddy players) and are easily identified because they will never ever be stupid enough to throw Deathfists (QCF+2) at random because you will be able to easily poke him out of it. They only use Deathfists to hit on CH (which is still a bad thing...). They actually ultilize pokes (whoop tee dooo!!). Particularly watch out for 1,2 and 4 pokes. Good Paul players will use standing 4 a lot hoping for a CH into a 1,1,1, QCF+2 juggle. If they poke with 2,3 parry the low 3 since that is telegraphed. They amazingly use CD tactics to confuse you *wow!* or the more advanced 'lightdash' *double wow* They go for juggles with the hopkick (uf+3 or uf+4), QCF+1 , WS+2 etc even though Paul may not be the best character to juggle with, he still can deal a decent amount of damage. Overall though, since Paul has a limited arsenal of moves like you, at least you have to bear in mind that only some of his are particularly useful, and he will get predictable at a high levle of play. P. Jack Difficulty : Easy I have been playing P Jack a lot lately and after extensive play with him I must say he has to be one of the weaker character in the game. However thats not to say he is useless, far from it since he can actually hold his own. 2+4 throw is prolly the only throw a PJack player will use along with db+2+3 since 1+3 throw is pathetically slow (Pjack Press) Anyways back to 2+4 throw. It has one of the biggest range and can (and will be) linked into b,d,db,d,df,F+2 gigaton punch. You can actually block the punch, but since you only have 1 frame to do so and failing to do so would mean the punch counts on CH, my recommendation is that you just take the damage unless you really must take the risk (say the blow would kill you anyways) or are very sure of your timing. Most of Pjacks moves are rather slow, but have good range. SS moves like SS+1+2 is a perfect example. The range is extremely good but the startup time is poor. For Kazuya players, you have to get in close into Pjack and pound him senseless before he knows what hit him. However Pjack does have a rememdy for that in his Glock Up. Thanks to Brahma for this nice time, Pjack can continously do his Glock Up (b+1+2) and cancel that with b infinitely to do a weird dance. If you should get caught by the force block, f+1+2 is guranteed. When we talk about pJack, anything guranteed is big damage. Other abused stuff are 1+2<1+2 where Pjack players will delay the second hit to hope to catch you on CH. Should a PJack player do Torpedo Jack f+3+4 to end a round and fail to do so, punish him properly for that since the recovery for the move is horrible. (Wiffing that move will prolly gurantee you an unblockable) However this move is great to catch people tagging out for that last sliver of life. Lastly, when Pjack comes tagging in, be cautious that he is the only Jack who can cancel his tag run in into the Stomp unblockable. If you are too eager to attack, you will be caught out and *Crunch* there goes a chunk of your life. True Ogre Difficulty : Medium Refer to Ogre to get a basic idea of what True Ogre has in store for you. The difference between True Ogre is he is way bigger (so most of his attacks have added range), has that irritating flame attack (which scrubs abuse), can't be juggled and has an unblockable horn attack. With his added range, T.Ogre's DGP will have more range, therefore, scoring a hit will be a little bit easier. Watch out for his flame attack and remember to punish those scrubs for abusing it. Good players do use the flame too... suprisingly... but they do so to waste time especially when you are a full screen's distance from them. Becareful when you go for those Okizeme attacks because he can get straight up from the ground and nail you with an Unblockable horn attack which is so unfair. More unfair is you can't juggle him properly since he can easily fly backwards to avoid subsequent hits. DARN! However, T. Ogre's size is his main downfall since he is slow and should be played much like you would play Ogre - all out offense. Oh one last thing, remember that you can always SS after blocking f,f+2 (the semi unblockable twister attack) That move is the ultimate scrub killer. Wang Jinrei Difficulty : Easy ~ Medium Hmmm... if you thought that Heihachi being alive was impossible , this fella is a greater exagerration. Anyways though, I think that Wang should just be put to rest because his stamina is attrocious. Moreover, he has poor frame data. His moves are slow to recover and even slower to come out. Be careful though of his db+4,2 combo on CH because if the db+4 connects on CH, the 2 is guranteed and leads to a very damaging (and easily done combo) Nothing much to worry about though since the punch recovers like er....does it actually recover? The recovery time is so slow you prolly can go make yourself a cup of coffee before coming back to WGF the scrub for abusing the move. Wang has a deathfist too but it is no where as cheap as Paul's. Becareful when poking with 1,1,>2 (Shining fist) as Wang has an Unchickenable Left Punch reversal (he can reverse other moves too but only left punches are unchickenable) Wang may be disadvantaged with his poor frame data BUT he has enough tricks to pull out of the hat to defeat you if you take him on lightly. Look for him to abuse SS+1+2 the heatbutt move since that is one of the rare moves where he isn't at a frame disadvantage. If you get caught by it, you are in DEEP shit I tell you. Oh another thing, don't worry about Wang's FC,df+4,3.... the 3 isn't even guranteed if the 4 hits. Keep the heat on him and he will be done. Yoshimitsu Difficulty : Hard Yoshi is very dangerous for many reasons. First off, he has the infamous df+2 uppercut which is the best basic uppercut in the game. It comes out fast, has good range and has insane priority. Off a single df+2 uppercut, Yoshi can do a juggle which will take more than 40+ life off of ya. Worse yet, Yoshi can tag buffer his df+2 in TTT which means that there is 0 badv for you since there is a small guard stun and worse still, df+2 will juggle you even when crouched whether on CH or not. (normally df+2 on crouching opponents require it to be on CH for it to launch)In TTT, Yoshi has also gained the benefit a SS moves in SS+1 and SS+2. SS+1 will be used the most by good players since it has good range, does decent amounts of damage and juggles on CH. Not to forget his unorthodox starter in the forms of a head/shoulder charge off his pogo stick stance. Yoshi players will go into pogo stance when you are on the ground hoping for two things i) you tag out and they nail you with the pogo headbutt or 2) you move (or lie around) in which he runs you over with the pogo stick. Although the Roo Kick (4~3) isn't used much by good players, be warned that IF it does connect, you are in a major world of hurting. Yoshi has loads of unblockables some of which are very useful. Yoshi's QCF+1 (flip in air with sword) is used a lot even by good players. Be prepared to sidestep it. If the match is running out of time, you can be sure Yoshi players will use the spinning sword attack to waste time should he be winning or do a jump- in suicide move as a last attempt to get a Double KO if he is low on life anyways. I don't know how many times this has happened but players will freeze when Yoshi jumps in.... a simple d+1 or 1 would the the trick. When fighting Yoshi, its vital to be careful because he has his sword reversal, so don't just go charging blindly into him hoping for something to happen ... more than likely you will hit his sword instead. Yoshi's jump in Knee or Fubuki (f,f+4) which has exceptional speed and priority and is mostly used to punished wiffed or slow recovering attacks. If you do block the Fubuki though, make sure to punish Yoshi to the fullest because it has a long recovery time. Good Yoshi players also make use of the Bad Breath attack so when you do see Yoshi turning back ready to blow, CROUCH, and reply with the Demon Gut Punch or Twin Pistons. Beware of Yoshi when he goes into FC position because he can come out of it with a FC, df+3 which hits low and sets up a juggle. Speaking of going into FC position, a lot of Yoshi players like to make use of his low thrust (d+1+3) to deceptively get into Crouched position. Beaware of the options that Yoshi has off his FC (like FC,df+3 and sword sweep) One last thing, Yoshi has the infamous b+1+4 yoshi's flash which I reckon is the FASTEST move in the game.... so think twice about barraging in with a whole arsenal of attacks. This move is has the fastest startup at a minimal 4 frames... THATS faster than any jab you know! Yoshi players not only like to use the sword flash to counter Wavedashing Mishimas but also set it up with a wiffed move which recovers moderately fast. An example would be a wiffed roo kick when you are on the ground or a wiffed df+2 just outside WGF distance. *************************** Suggestion for Tag Partners *************************** The teams that I frequently use are as below :- 1)Kazuya/ Bruce This is my favourite team right now. Bruce is an excellent partner for almost any character but nothing is more fun than popping your opponent up with a WGF before calling Bruce in to finish it off with a Triple Knee Combo. Moreover Bruce is more than capable of holding his own because he has excellent pokes and juggling moves. Also the different styles will lead to your opponent being confused. Btw, just try this = DGP (CH), WGF~5, b+3, b+4,3,4.... major hurtin' 2) Kazuya/ Heihachi Before learning to play Bruce this was my number one choice team. I still use this team a lot though. Since Kazuya has a WGF and better stamina than Heihachi, I would play with Kazuya and when I see an opening... WHAM... WGF~5 and Heihachi would finish the juggle for me. The problem with this team however is that both characters style can be rather similar, (I did not say exactly the same as Heihachi relies more on his (E)WGF while Kazuya's tactics is based on his DGP) so if your opponent manages to figure out how to overcome one of your character's tactics, you can be sure he roughly knows how to beat the other. 3) Kazuya/ Jin Same reason as above, though this time Kazuya and Jin's strategy are almost the same (both rely on getting their (Demon)Gut Punch to hit on CH) Since Jin's WGF hits High (sM if buffered with a tag) and knocks too far away on CH (this does not apply if tag is buffered though) Kazuya's WGF can be the answer as you can call Jin in to finish the juggle with a simple TGF,3 or any of his b,f+2,1.... juggles. 4) Kazuya/ Julia Elbows, elbows elbows mania... need I say more? Besides, Julia is just a powerhouse when it comes to juggling and her stamina is pretty good too. All hail Mad Axes, the best throw in the game. You could probably win a whole match by using that throw alone. 5) Kazuya/ Paul Before you start laughing, let me tell you this - Paul RULZ if you know how to play him well... and No I don't mean being able to do 10 deathfist in a row. It is the ability to poke your opponent and then deliver some whoop ass damage when they make a mistake. Sure Paul is rather limited by his list of useful moves at a higher level of play but he is rather fun to play is proven to be able to do some nice combo damage. Be creative when coming up with your own tag team. What works best for me may not work for you. Experiment a lot until you find the Tag partner of your choice. *** Whatever it is I recommend you NOT play Kazuya / Devil because this team sux big time (it takes so freaking long to morph from one to the other thus spoiling tag Juggle opportunities and you are left open to whatever @$$ whupping your opponent has in store for you) *** *************** Partner Rating *************** Hmmm, I will give a rating (out of 10 )to each character. Remember, the partner rating is a subjective choice and most of it is a matter of preference. Alex/ Roger 2/10 No go here. These freaks are just so incompatible with Kazuya since they don't have good juggle ability (which Kazuya lacks) making tag juggles few and hard to come by. So it will almost always be a battle of 2 seperate characters, rather than 2 characters working as a team. Angel/ Devil 1/10 Really.. I hate this team. If Devil was teamed up with Heihachi, the team would probably get 4*'s or more but because of the stupid animation where Kazuya morphs into Devil and vice versa, you can't do any juggles after the WGF. Same goes for Devil Twister.What a total waste! What more, you are so vulnerable while morphing and your opponent would have been charging up an unblockable to teach you a good lesson. However, as seperate fighters, Angel/ Devil are formidable given that they have the usual set of Mishima moves. *Note* There is a Bug in TTT where you can tag out with Devil to Kazuya. After a SS+2 you have to run under your opponent and tag out at the right moment. If done correctly, Devil will rush out and Kazuya will tag in. Prolly follow that up with a flip kick. Anna Williams 8/10 Anna has to be one of the most improved characters since Tekken 3. She has it all, good pokes, speed, fab juggles, nice body, multi throws, reversal, did I mention Nice body? Her inclusion of her QCT+1 to juggle makes her a character to be feared. Use her uf+1,3 a lot too! A good team, but one which I don't use often. Choose the zebra outfit! One thing to note about Anna is that after her uf+1+2 throw, you can usually tag out and nail your opponent with a tag dive. However, since as stated, Kazuya does not have a tag dive, well.... your opponent can get away with minimal damage. Armor King 7/10 I like Armor King a lot because of his Dark Uppercut. You can also tag juggle with Kazuya. Try WGF, ~5, 1, 1, 1, Dark Uppercut. Armor King is the King (no pun intended) of CD mixup and has good pokes and powerful throws (plus a multi to boot). Weaknesses? Armor King's Dark Uppercut isn't as good as your WGF, and the tag juggles that you can do aren't really that damaging compared to Jin/ Heihachi. :( People elbow looks cool though and when you are in trouble you can always... no no you should never rely on something as cheap as A. King's Cuffs. Baek Do San 7/10 If you are a good Baek player who knows every single string, knows those crazy steps etc then up the stars by one. He has a Class 1 launcher in his f,n,d,df+3 which is useful since Kazuya can tag in for a TGF + juggle. Moreover, Baeks df+2, 1,2,f+3 X3 into 3+4 has massive air time which is bound to irritate your opponent. Bruce Irvine 8/10 (reduced from 10) Okay, I may be really biased here, but Bruce is MY tag partner of choice for Kazuya Mishima. Nothing beats WGF~5, b+3, Cheese Knees and what more... you can do these after a CH Demon Gut Punch for Massive (and i mean MASSIVE) damage. Bruce is really deadly in his own right with good pokes, good range and again the cheese knee combo finisher. Sides, you won't need to worry about chickening much with bruce since most of his attacks are elbows and knees. Probably one of the more advantaged characters in this game. The only weakness of Bruce is that his moves can be easily sidestepped as most of them have bad tracking ability and also the lack of Class 1 launcher. Bryan Fury 8/10 Bryan is not bruce.... bryan is not bruce. Say this to yourself repeatedly when choosing Bryan. Nothing beats Bryan's Chains of Misery throw which is definitely the most intimidating throw in the game. Imagine, pulling off 3 taunts in the middle of a juggle! Bryan is more than capable of doing big damage by himself with his CH stun juggles like WS+3(ch), WS+2,b+2, 1~4,3,3. When fighting against Bryan, a comeback is very likely. Moreover, Namco has blessed him with a Punch parry which I felt he sorely lacked in Tekken 3. Now he can more than hold his own against the big boys of the game. You can also tag juggle with Bryan using his WS+1, though Kazuya as I said before, isn't a juggle machine. Eddy / Tiger 6/10 Eddy is dangerous IF you know how to use him. With that said, there are very few players who play Eddy effectively. Good players will be able to poke him out of the act since his moves have long startup or recovery time. If you are one of those who just mash with Eddy then the team would get no stars at all. Ganryu 7/10 I must be joking right to give Ganryu this rating. Not really. Ganryu backs up Kazuya with just about everything he lacks. He has a class 1 launcher so Kazuya can pull off those fancy TGF juggles. He has power to punish your opponent for wiffed attacks.... and he surprisingly CAN juggle. Moreover, his high stamina makes him more useful than one would think of him. Gun Jack 3/10 I don't think Gun Jack is much good a partner for Kazuya since he is slow, makes a nice target for WGF, d+1+4 for Heihachi and doesn't have any powerful juggles. Has good stamina though so you can take a bit more beating. Heihachi Mishima 9/10 Heihachi is a combo monster. Tag out if out if Kazuya ever connects with his WGF (not on CH though) and let Heihachi finish the juggle. Try DGP (CH), WGF~5, 1, f+1,b+2,1 or 1, 1, 1, EWGF. Heihachi's EWGF is probably one of the most Abusable move in the game since if your opponent blocks it hit will suffer guard stun and if it connects, you can spell juggle mania. The only drawback of this team is Kazuya does not have a class 1 launcher and neither does Heihachi, making those super damaging combos like TGF, 1, f+1,b+2, 1 inaccesible. Another thing to remember is Heihachi's Hell sweep has been tonned down a lot, so use it only mostly in juggles. An excellent team overall. Hwoarang 8/10 Good movement when you play Hwoarang is a must. Hwoarang can be really dangerous since his moves can do loads of damage in an instant. Moreover, he has a Class 1 launcher in his f,n,d,df+4 for Kazuya to do some pretty mean juggles. Remember, good movement is a must for this team to be succesful since Hwoarang's power moves are on the slow-ish side. Jin Kazama 10/10 I like this team mainly because Jin can do a lot of damage after a WGF. A simple combo for beginners would be WGF~5, b,f+2,1,d+2, f,f+2. Does loads of damage and you can say bye bye to that red life bar. Although both players have that all powerful gut punch move, they should both be played in a different manner. Jin's WS+2 has to be one of the best WS move in the game. If you buffer tag for Jin's (E)WGF it will hit sM instead of high =) Nice going Namco. Jin's Hell Sweep is a good tool in battle since you can juggle with a White Heron Combo after a single sweep. And the to add icing on the cake, Jin has a reversal to punish those who do not buffer chicken. Jin IMO is probably the best character in TTT. Julia Chang 9.5/10 Julia is dangerous because of her 1~2,1 and 1~1,1 on CH. You see, her jab is only 8 frames, so you are going to get a lot of CH on those pitbull Mishimas who jab a lot. You can always tag out after a WGF and do THOSE elbows - bound to annoy your opponent. Her juggle ability has been beefed up a lot so you can do a df+2,1 after her elbow stun. Plus she has been blessed with the Mountain crusher combo to make things a misery for your opponent. Too bad she can't tag out after her Heaven Cannon unblockable because that counts as a class 1 launcher (but she can juggle really good so who cares!) Overall an excellent partner who gets a less than perfect score because she does not get any Netsu power up. One last advice - ABUSE her Mad axes. Jun Kazama 5/10 I will be nice to Jun and give her that extra half star since she is after all Kazuya's wife (btw, my girlfriend sometimes dresses up exactly like Jun ;-) ) The only thing useful is sadly their tag throw. Since Jun is rather slow, weak and is not a juggle machine, she does not compliment her husband well. However, she does have a reversal which gives her an edge over people who do not buffer chicken. King 6/10 King compliments Kazuya well in the department which he lacks most : Really damaging throws. Lets face it, Kazuya has only one useful throw (the stonehead) so King adds a little more variance to Kazuya's game. However, King does not have a good launcher nor is a good juggler. He however has some very good poking tools to set up his throws plus very good stamina. Moreover he has an unchickenable leg reversal which will surely come in handy at a higher level of play. Kuma/Panda 4/10 Okay, I gave Kuma/Panda a better rating than the Jacks because they have the f+1~1,1 G-Clef Cannon of the Changs which is just plain unfair. Even with his size, the first punch is only 8 frames! The speed of which it comes out plus the extra range makes this move great. Kuma also has all the other power moves of the Jacks which as said is powerful but rather slow. However, Kuma has been rather improved in TTT with the addition of the Hunting Bear stance. It is fun to play as Kuma once in a while considering not many players expect a good fight from a bear. Kunimitsu 5/10 Although Kunimitsu is a formidable opponent, I don't think that she is the partner for Kazuya. With that said, Kuni is still dangerous with her numerous unblockables and great okizeme game. What she lacks in stamina, power and great juggle capability is made up by speed, stealth and unblockables. A good partner, but there are better. Law 9/10 While Law has been toned down a bit since T3 when he was considered one of the best (if not THE best) character. Although Laws arsenal may be limited to b+2,3,4 , b+1,2,1 and his various versions of flip kicks, he does have the ultimate parrying ability. Not only does he have high and low parries, he has a punch parry which will surely punish punch dependant characters like the Jacks. His juggles are both simple to do and hugely damaging making him a good partner for players who find it difficult to do Kazuya's more difficult juggles. Lee Chaolan 8/10 Ah... yes..... Kazuya and his step brother Lee. Lee can be dangerous himself when played correctly. His b+3~3 kick has insane priority and can come out fast. Moreover, he does have a class 1 launcher in the form of his d~db+4. Also, the first 4 (or was it 3) hits of his Infinite kicks is a very good counter against those pitbulls as if the first hit connects, the rest are guranteed. Lee is a good juggler himself although most of his really damaging juggles are difficult to do. His Hitman stance will sucker in people who know very little of him. Lastly choose Lee if not to see him and Kazuya in tuxedos (Very cool!) Lei Wulong 8/10 If you know Lei's Stances by heart and can perform his Haha Steps correctly, then Lei is a very useful partner for everyone. You don't need me to tell you how useful his Razor punches are right? Or how deceptive his sweeps can be from the Haha Step. My gripe bout Lei is his lack of ability to juggle but I feel that his deception and good strenght more than makes up for that. A formidable partner. Ling Xiaoyu 7/10 Ling Xiaoyu is a pest. Her insane speed is a bane especially against slower characters. Therefore, Ling may be a very good partner for Kazuya when against slower characters. Her ability to duck into AOP (and duck even lower in AOP) makes her a good choice against high hitting dependant characters. However because of her stamina, or lack of it, a juggle or two may end the round as fast as it had started. Her lack of stamina, power and class 1 launcher results in her getting a less than perfect score but she makes up with for it with her great poking ability which complements Kazuya very well. I do feel that Kazuya's poking game isn't the best (I mean come on.... 10 frames jab). If you do choose Ling, it is vital to know every wah to get into each of her stances and out of it. Do not be too predictable (ie. use f,f+3 racoon swing each and every time you want to get into backturn stance). Move move move and I'm sure you will drive your opponent up the walls. Michelle Chang 8/10 Michelle should be played like Julia but for some differences. Her poor stamina means she cannot take as much damage as her daughter. Michelle somewhat compensates with some of her exclusive moves like df+3+4 and SS+3~4 which while good launchers, tend to miss a lot. Also, Mich damage in juggles is lower compared to Julia. With so much game time spent with the Changs lately, I find Mich to be the more powerful of the two Changs because she has better mobility. Her f,f+1 will NOT knock down on CH which means the sky scraper kick (4) follow up is guranteed + you get a free okizeme. What more, it seems that her f,f+1 recovers faster (At least to me) and you can tag in loads of elbows after a juggle launcher. Her FC,df+2 elbow and d,df+2 is useful to get stuns from which she can either go fo df+2,1 or hopkick juggle. A good choice of a partner, but I'd rather stick with Mad Axes. Mokujin/ Tetsujin n/a Hey , if you are that good, why not? Playing with Mokujin, your opponent will have to change his tactics every round..... or during the round itself (if Mokujin tags out for 15 secs or more he will immitate another character) which tends to lead to a lot of confusion. As I said before, if you are that good, then by all means use Mokujin. Good bragging rights ya know? Nina Williams 7/10 I gave Anna a 8 so I think Nina deserves a 7. Nina has been tonned down WAY too much from Tekken 3. Her Divine Cannon takes 20 frames to come out now *arGh!*, but it still makes a good tag launcher. However, Nina is still dangerous with her various pokes, juggles and her bad habbit kick. She does have loads of multi-throws but getting that to connect on a good player is a different story. Although Nina's juggling ability has been somewhat crippled, she can still get the job done. Ogre 6/10 Unlike Kazuya, most of Ogre's strategy is based on his DGP (or should it be Your DGP) After a DGP for Ogre though, his follow ups aren't as damaging as what you could do with Kazuya. He does have Lee's d~db+4 kick though... which is a class 1 launcher. Not much to say here but if you do play Ogre/ Kazuya you will have to play all out offense since both aren't defensive minded characters. Paul 8/10 If you are those who does 10 deathfist every round then reduce the rating to 0.5/10. Paul can be dangerous in the right, not-a-scrub, hands. He has excellent pokes and mixup which complements Kazuya well. Although he does not have the best juggling ability, the excellent power from his moves makes up for it. And when everything seems lost, remember you have his secret weapon -the deathfist. OOOOAAWAGGHH! Btw, lately, I have been playing Paul with Kaz, and I must say that although Paul's juggling capability isn't as good as what one might expect, it is still excellent. P.Jack 5/10 He does have a Class 1 Launcher so Kazuya can do those wonderful class 1 Juggles. Other than that, do read my feelings on GunJack. True Ogre 4/10 Reduce the score to 0/10 if you are those who does nothing but flame flame flame every round. True Ogre makes a big target for juggles, but he does have the ability to escape juggles which is always useful. Moreover, he has added range since his arms have grown so much bigger. However I'd rather use Ogre than T.Ogre since he is just one big fat lumbering oaf. Wang Jinrei 6/10 I'm not joking. Wang is a good partner for Kazuya. He has an unchickenable left punch reversal - really useful for those poking Chang's, Mishimas etc. He has a Deathfist ... I don't think I need to explain that move do I? He has an excellent db+4 kick which is discreet, comes out fast, excellent for poking and interrupting and if on CH, 2 is guranteed -> juggle -> massive life lost. Has the infamous 1~2,1 and 1~1,1 of the Changs too. However, I do feel that his stamina leaves a lot to be desired and his frame rate is wayyyyyy bad resulting in a not so good score. Yoshimitsu 9/10 Because of Yoshi's unpredictability, he rates highly in my books. He has great poking and okizeme game and a plethora of unblockables. Also he does have a class 1 Launcher which is rather useless (good luck in getting the Roo Kick to connect) His sword reversal is excellent against overly aggresive poking characters. Last but not least, he has the Suicide move which is useful to salvage some pride if you are losing badly (and maybe get a double K.O.) ***************** Sites of Interest ***************** http://www.tekkenzaibatsu.com/ In my opinion this is the best site to get ALL the Tekken you could ever want, from those awesome juggle movies to fabulous Tekken art. Also helpful is the complete (well more than complete) juggle list for every character and frame data. Lets not forget this is the home to many great Tekken FAQs. However, I'm not sure if its my connection or what but the site takes a tad on the slow side to load (however the movie downloads are at a nice fast rate.) Tekken Rating : 5/5 Kazuya Rating : 3/5 http://www.counterhit.com/ The best part of this site is the extremely good coverage of WGF and EWGF. I admit that before reading this site, I had problems doing the EWGF consistenly... not anymore. This site also has combo list for some characters though it is still under construction. This site does have some Combo movies though the number is rather limited. The only complaint about this site is that it does not have enough Tekken Art and some of the screenshots on this page appear muddy. Tekken Rating : 3/5 Kazuya Rating : 3/5 http://www.tekkentagtournament.com/ This is Namco's official website. I don't usually visit this website though because what ever information that I can find here, I can find on TekkenZaibatsu.com. Tekken Rating : 2/5 Kazuya Rating : 1/5 http://www.gamefaqs.com/ Before learning of TekkenZaibatsu (tekken.net) I used to frequent this page for Tekken FAQs. Most of the FAQs found on TekkenZaibatsu is found here. There are some FAQs here which never made it to TekkenZaibatsu (I have no idea why) Gamefaqs.com is also a place to get FAQs for other games. They have some EXCELLENT faqs on Final Fantasy, Marvel Vs Capcom 2, Baldur's Gate etc. Tekken Rating : 3/5 Kazuya Rating : 2/5 http://www.fighters.net/ Another site which may be of interest to most people. This is where I downloaded all those Tekken Tag Tournament Competition movies. Any serious Tekken fan should download these movies to watch and learn. This site also contains most of the FAQs found on TekkenZaibatsu. Also worth checking out if you are an avid fan of other fighting games. I myself play Soul Calibur and Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 though I admit that I am no where as good in those games as I am in Tekken. Tekken Rating : 3/5 Kazuya Rating : 2/5 http://www.geocities.com/helsmley/ Well this is my homepage. It does not contain much on Tekken other than well this FAQ (and upcoming FAQs should I write any. However do check out my page if not to see how whacko me and my friends are. I have a modified (with permission) version of Andrew Lee's Baldurs Gate FAQ. Tekken Rating : 1/5 Kazuya Rating : 1/5 http://pipopo.hoops.ne.jp/ Well, a japanese site with loads of Mishima combo movies ranging including Kazuya movies. Worth the download since the movies are clear and crisp unlike some of the other movies on other japanese/ korean sites. Some mad juggles are here too! Tekken Rating : 4/5 Kazuya Rating : 5/5 *note* There has been a change of add since I last visited. http://connect.to/mardjin Agent 3:16's site. Some of his combos are really breathtaking. I suggest you go there now and download his Unknown tribute, which, IMO is much much better than the one on Zaibatsu. Other worthy movies are Changs 3:16 and Xiaoyu 3:16. Do remember to download his Mishima Unleashed video too because he demonstrates some original (this is a hard word to come by nowadays) combos for Kazuya. Anyways Agent3:16 has already retired *Sob* Tekken Rating : 4/5 Kazuya Rating : 2/5 http://www.jun-shrine.com/ This site is pretty good. I was most impressed by the Jun Tribute movie on this site which ROCKed presentation wise. Unfortunately, the I must say that most of the combos done on this site is disappointing since they are usually average combos or ones that I have seen done to death. Look for tribute movies here. Tekken Rating : 3/5 Kazuya Rating : 2/5 http://www.tekkenzone.com Download Dohee's Kazuya: The Special works! Man that rulz. Among the combos you see are some of the most INSANE stuff like df+2 (CH), WGF juggle. By comparison, his Kazuya combos put other sites to shame. Moreover, he has match video of Jang, the world tourney, throw movies as well as other exhibitions. A must visit for all tekkenites. Tekken Rating : 5/5 Kazuya Rating : 4/5 http://www.electriccancel.com Nothing much but loads and loads of movies from the LA tourney. The quality is very good. Good Julia, Jin and Lei juggle movies but other than that defunct of any Kazuya material (outside the La Tourney movies) Tekken Rating : 4/5 Kazuya Rating : -/5 http://kazuyamishima.50megs.com/ Mr. Kazuya Kazama's Site. This is a true hardcore Kazuya site with loads of juggle movies for Kazuya. One to go to only if you are a Kazuya Fan. Tekken Rating : 3/5 Kazuya Rating : 5/5 ******** Credits ******** I give credit where credit is due to the following :- 1) My Girlfriend, Pang Kwai Lee (Momo) She has tolerated me countless times and time again for playing Tekken even when we go out for a date. Also credit to her for being a nice huggable human bear when I lose to some scrub due to some inexplicable reason. 2) Catlord For his movelist, since Reverend_C based his movelist on yours in the first place..... I wonder how he finds ALL the moves in the game. 3) Tekken Zaibatsu and Castel For having excellent and up to date Tekken Info. Castel for his various Kazuya juggle movies which has made me play Kazuya even more. 4) bluu Has added even more stuff bout Kazuya. Whoopee.... now the FAQ is at v3.0 and counting. 5) 7ronko 7ronko, sorry mate. Did not know it was you who first mentioned DGP on CH can be escaped. So sorry bout that, hope this will make ammends. Also thanks for a lot of other info like the df+2, EWGF and other stuff. 6) Reverend_C, Exar_Kun, MCampbell (Devil_Jin), All have written solid guides of which every one of them are unique in their own ways. I have used RevC's movelist format since I'm rather impressed with his work. I feel that Rev is one of the better FAQ authors of the current stream of Tekken players, so Rev, I'm looking forward to your Julia FAQ. Hey Mark, think your FAQ should be mistake free by v9.0 so Rev will have no reason to flame you again :P Exar, keep up the good work. Maybe a Jin FAQ next? 7) Han Tzen My sparring partner who gives me a good trashing in Tekken 3 on the Playstation but ultimately gets a good trashing in Tekken Tag in the Arcades. 8) Han Shin He is my Sinsei in Tekken, helping me improve my game a lot. Before playing him, my game was very linear, but he has thought me a lot since, especially with his irritating poking Changs.... Just love to hate them. 9) Tekken Scrubs They give me the best time in the arcade as I enjoy it the most as I beat them effortlessly, parrying every 10 hit combos they throw, WGFing every Deathfist they want to try to initiate and chickening every reversal they go for. 10) Tekken Forum The folks over at Tekken Zaibatsu Forum. Really fun talking with you guys.... and turgeon for all those good laughs! " There is something new to learn in Tekken everyday, and if you haven't learnt that by now, you ain't learnt nothing yet." ********************************** END ********************************