Capcom vs SNK 2/Athena

Introduction

Overview

Strategy

Combos

Matchups

Story

Athena Asamiya is a Japanese teenage idol who is famous worldwide for her beautiful singing voice. She's also the reincarnation of another older Athena, who was also a rambunctious teenager, and was also a goddess from the Heavenly Realm. As her reincarnation, the modern day Athena shows incredible magical ability, especially weilding Psychokinesis. She's a trained martial artist as well, training under a highly respected Chinese martial art master named Chin Gentsai. Together with Chin, her fanboy and psychokinetic partner Sie Kensou, and another young boy who shows great power named Bao, Athena learns more about her powers, while maintaining her life as a famous musician.

Gameplay

Athena is a neutral focused character mainly, with a few surprisingly good mixup tools. Sadly, Athena tends to fall in with the low tiers of CvS2. Her low health, bad defense, and extremely low damage output makes it so she's constantly fighting an uphill battle. Still, Athena does have a single saving grace: her neutral is very good overall. Her buttons are stellar, especially her infamous 2HP which is a lightning fast poke with great range and a tendency to stuff any other midrange button the opponent presses. Her fireball can be quite useful as well, especially when roll cancelled. Her mobility isn't exactly a joke either, sporting a useful divekick and a teleport that can sideswap. She also possesses a somewhat scary mixup game, between her command grab which she can juggle off of, a slow and big fireball to end blockstrings in, and her aforementioned teleports to run a strike/throw mixup on opponents too scared to interrupt her.

While these sound like great pros, Athena just doesn't get the proper reward for the risk she takes. Her combo potential is virtually nonexistent, with her only solid combo ender special being her 623P which whiffs after most normal cancels. This leaves her either ending her pressure or combo at just a normal hit, or cancelling into a special and risking her short health bar for another low damage mixup. Her defense isn't that great either, since her 623P isn't a true reversal, leading it to get stuffed a majority of the time. Likely one of her biggest weaknesses lies in her supers, which are incredibly unfriendly to combos, leading them to be almost exclusively utility. Luckily, they do make for some very solid utilities.

Athena is a low-tier hero with some incredible normals, scary knowledge check mixups, and decent ability to run away.

Groove Selection

Best - C/S/A: C-Athena is likely her best Groove overall. While she gets very little from level 2 cancels because of her weak combo potential, her supers make for great utilities, especially Shining Crystal Bit. It's a 0 frame startup invincible reversal/anti-air that she can cancel out of with a PPP input. Even the level 1 version has full startup invuln and instant startup, making it very useful to have it often. Airblock makes her retreat safer, and Alpha Counters give her a very appreciated escape from pressure. S-Athena is a surprisingly great fit for her, as her lack of reliance on supers for damage means she doesn't actively need them to be a threat. Charging is a risk, but her scary neutral ability makes it harder for the opponent to react and punish. Infinite level 1 supers means she can constantly anti-air and reversal, making approaching her much more difficult overall. A-Athena loses her utility supers in exchange for much needed damage. Her Custom Combo is surprisingly good, though difficult, and makes it so that she can actually punish things more effectively. All of these Grooves actively sacrifice something in exchange for the others, so Athena has no one true fitting Groove, so play with these and see which you like.

Useful - N: N-Athena is arguably not that good, but being able to run more consistent mixups is never a bad thing. Run and hop give her more varied mobility, and also having access to roll for escapes is useful. Having consistent access to level 1 supers means she can anti-air and reversal with Shining Crystal Bit more. Still, her lack of damage overall means the usually offense oriented N-Groove just doesn't fit too well.

Worst - K/P: K-Athena gets the mobility of S-Athena, but the heavily rushdown based K-Groove just doesn't fit her runaway gameplan. While she does get some solid damage buffs, especially to her normals, she rarely gets to utilize her Shining Crystal Bit, and without a solid super punish Rage just doesn't work that well for her. K-Grooves lack of an escape option outside of JD hurts as well, and JD is usually more used to reversal into a punish, which she doesn't have. Keeping in mind how JD isn't too useful, P-Athena being at the bottom should be obvious. Parry means nothing with no good punish, and only having a level 3 Shining Crystal Bit once a round at best leaves her without one of her best utilities.

Athena is a neutral and runaway based character with some scary mixup potential against opponents who dont know her moveset. Low health, no real combo potential, bad defense, and a lack of any scary tools outside of her neutral holds her at the low tiers however. Athena is best in C, S, and A-Groove. Difficulty: Medium Tier: D
Pros	Cons
Buttons: Athena's 2HP is an infamously annoying button to deal with, but many of her other normals are useful as well Shining Crystal Bit: Shining Crystal Bit is a powerful instant anti-air and reversal, and Athena loves to have meter for it Neutral: Between her useful buttons, great runaway, and surprisingly good fireball, Athena can wall opponents out in neutral very well Mixups: With her teleport cancels, Athena can run a scary strike/throw mixup vs opponents who don't mash out	Low Health: Athena is in the lower health and stun brackets, meaning a few mistakes spells the end of a round vs the high damage top tiers No Combos: She has virtually no combos, with a majority of her specials whiffing after a cancel and neither of her supers being very combo friendly. What she does have is very low damage as well Bad Defense: Psycho Sword isn't a real reversal, leaving her with only roll cancels to reversal with, and even then she lacks any solid one to use Fake Mix: While her strike/throw is scary vs opponents who don't mash, the moment an opponent knows that Athena can't really do much off of a strike, they simply won't be scared of mashing or jumping and denying her mixup Bad Offense: Without much to threaten in the way of plus frames or real blockstrings aside from using her fireball, and no real damage to back up her mixups, Athena's offense just isn't very scary

Players to Watch

Name	Country	Groove	Accounts	Notes
Tsugunosuke	Japan	N-Groove	N/A	Though not a mainstay on his team, Tsugunosuke has a very nasty Athena. Sample Match

!!!THIS PAGE IS STILL A WIP. IF YOU NEED FRAME DATA NOW, REFER TO THE CVS2 BIBLE OR LOOK THROUGH EDIT HISTORY TO FIND THE LAST EDIT CONTAINING FRAME DATA IF THERE WAS ONE!!!

Normal Moves

Far Normals

5LP

Far Jab
Far Light Punch
5LP / Far LP

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
Far	200	2	SP/SU	Mid	High/Low	2	4	10	16	+3	+3	-
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5MP

Far Strong
Far Medium Punch
5MP / Far MP

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
Far	700	7	SU	Mid	High	6	8	14	28	0	0	-
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5HP

Far Fierce
Far Heavy Punch
5HP / Far HP

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
Far	1200	12	None	Mid	High	8	4	19	31	+3	+3	-
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5LK

Far Short
Far Light Kick
5LK / Far LK

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
Far	400	4	SU	Mid	High/Low	6	6	14	26	-3	-3	-
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5MK

Far Forward
Far Medium Kick
5MK / Far MK

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
Far	700	7	SU	Mid	High	6	4	20	30	-2	-2	-
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5HK

Far Roundhouse
Far Heavy Kick
5HK / Far HK

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
Far	1100	11	None	Mid	High	9	4	22	35	-2	-2	-
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clLP

Close Jab
Close Light Punch
cl.LP

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
Close	200	2	SP/SU	Mid	High/Low	3	4	5	12	+7	+7	-
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clMP

Close Strong
cl.MP

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
Close	700	7	SP/SU	Mid	High	3	5	8	16	+9	+9	-
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clHP

Close Fierce
Close Heavy Punch
cl.HP

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
Close	1100	11	SP/SU	Mid	High	6	4	21	31	+1	+1	-
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clLK

Close Short
Close Light Kick
cl.LK

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
Close	500	5	SP/SU	Mid	High/Low	4	6	7	17	+4	+4	-
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clMK

Close Forward
Close Medium Kick
cl.MK

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
Close	800	8	SP/SU	Mid	High	5	8	9	22	+5	+5	-
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clHK

Close Roundhouse
Close Heavy Kick
cl.HK

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
Close	1100	11	SP/SU	Mid	High	5	8	15	28	+3	+3	-
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2LP

Crouch Jab
Crouching Light Punch
2LP / cr.LP

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
+	200	2	SP/SU	Mid	High/Low	3	4	9	16	+4	+4	-
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2MP

Crouch Strong
Crouching Medium Punch
2MP / cr.MP

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
+	700	7	SP/SU	Mid	High/Low	5	2	17	24	+1	+1	-
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2HP

Crouch Fierce
Crouching Heavy Punch
2HP / cr.HP

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
+	1200	12	SU	Mid	High/Low	5	8	17	30	+1	+1	-
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2LK

Crouch Short
Crouching Light Kick
2LK / cr.LK

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
+	200	2	SP/SU	Low	Low	3	5	6	12	+6	+6	-
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2MK

Crouch Forward
Crouching Medium Kick
2MK / cr.MK

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
+	800	8	None	Low	Low	8	8	11	27	+3	+3	-
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2HK

Crouch Roundhouse
Crouching Heavy Kick
2HK / cr.HK

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
+	1000	10	SU	Low	Low	6	4	34	44	DWN	-14	-

j.LP

Jump Jab
Jumping Light Punch
j.LP

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
//+	400	4	SP/SU	High	High	5	23	0	28	Varies	Varies	-
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j.MP

Jump Strong
Jumping Medium Punch
j.MP

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
//+	700	7	SP/SU	High	High	7	6	0	13	Varies	Varies	-
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j.HP

Jump Fierce
Jumping Heavy Punch
j.HP

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
//+	1000	10	SP/SU	High	High	6	6	0	12	Varies	Varies	-
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j.LK

Jump Short
Jumping Light Kick
j.LK

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
//+	500	5	SU	High	High	6	20	0	26	Varies	Varies	-
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j.MK

Jump Forward
Jumping Medium Kick
j.MK

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
//+	700	7	SU	High	High	6	8	0	14	Varies	Varies	-
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j.HK

Jump Roundhouse
Jumping Heavy Kick
j.HK

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
//+	1100	11	None	High	High	8	6	0	14	Varies	Varies	-
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Command Normals

X

Renkan Tai
2 Hit Command Normal
F+MK

1st Hitbox

2nd Hitbox

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
+	400+500	4+5	SU 1st Hit	Mid	High	6,9	3,3	24	45	DWN	-7	-
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j2MK

Phoenix Bomb
Peach Bomber
j.2MK

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
,+	800	8	None	High	High	8	20	0 (Landing)	8+	DWN	-	None
Command normal that bounces Athena back on Hit and Block allowing her to perform another jump attack.

Throws

XPsychic Throw

Psychic Throw
Punch Throw
Near Opponent, 4/6HP

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
Close /+	1600	0	None	Grab	Grab	3	1	13	17	DWN	Grab	None
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Bit Throw

Bit Throw
Kick Throw
Near Opponent, 4/6HK

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
Close /+	1800	0	None	Grab	Grab	5	1	13	19	DWN	Grab	None
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Psychic Shoot

Psychic Shoot
Air Punch Throw
In Air and Near Opponent, 4/6HP

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
In Air and Close /+	1800	0	None	Grab	Grab	0	1	0	1	DWN	Grab	None
Athena spins in the air and kicks her opponent to the ground

Special Moves

Psycho Ball Atack

Psycho Ball Attack
214P

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
+	700	7	None	Mid	High	15	-	46	61	-9	-9	None
+	800	8	None	Mid	High	16	-	45	61	-8	-8	None
+	900	9	None	Mid	High	17	-	44	61	-7	-7	None
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Psycho Sword

Psycho Sword
623P

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
+	500+400x2	5+4x2	None	Mid	Mid	8	17	23	48	DWN	-12	10 (Full)
+	400x2+200x3	4x2+2x3	None	Mid	Mid	10	18	26	54	DWN	-18	10 (Full)
+	400x2+200x5	4x2+2x5	None	Mid	Mid	10	20	29	59	DWN	-21	None
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Air Psycho Sword

Air Psycho Sword
j.623P

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
In Air, +	500+400x2	5+4x2	None	Mid	Mid	8	17	9L	Varies	DWN	-12	None
In Air, +	400x2+200x3	4x2+2x3	None	Mid	Mid	10	18	9L	Varies	DWN	-18	None
In Air, +	400x2+200x5	4x2+2x5	None	Mid	Mid	10	20	9L	Varies	DWN	-21	None
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New Psycho Reflector

New Psycho Reflector
63214K

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
+	900	9	None	Mid	High	18	-	64	82	DWN	-36	None
+	500x2	5x2	None	Mid	High	31	-	64	95	DWN	-36	None
+	400x3	4x3	None	Mid	High	31	-	64	95	DWN	-36	None
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Super Psychic Throw

Super Psychic Throw
41236P

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
+	400	0	None	Grab	-	6	2	21	29	DWN	-	None
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Phoinex Arrow

Phoinex Arrow
j.214K

First Hitbox

Landing Hitbox

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
In Air, +	300x3	3x3	None	Mid	High	10	Varies	19	Varies	+5	+5	None
In Air, +	300x4	3x4	None	Mid	High	10	Varies	23	Varies	+1	+1	None
In Air, +	300x4+500	3x4+5	Noone	Mid	High	10	Varies(8)4	51	Varies	DWN	-30	None
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Psychic Teleport

Psychic Teleport
236K

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
+	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	43	-	-	18-29 (Full)
+	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	55	-	-	18-41 (Full)
+	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	67	-	-	18-53 (Full)
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Super Moves

Shining Crystal Bit

Shining Crystal Bit
6321463214P

First Hitbox

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
+	1000	0	214P	Mid	High	4:0	96	54	154	DWN	-31	6 (Full)
+	1600	0	214P/SP/SU	Mid	High	4:0	129	54	187	DWN	-32	14 (Full)
+	3200	0	214P	Mid	High	4:0	160	54	218	DWN	-31	22 (Full)
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Crystal Shoot

Crystal Shoot
6321463214P 214P

Hold

Release

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
+ , +	500+500x2	0	None	Mid	High	8:0	6	38	52	DWN	+1	None
+ , +	500+500x3	0	SP/SU	Mid	High	8:0	6	38	52	DWN	+1	None
+ , +	400+400x4	0	None	Mid	High	8:0	6	48	52	DWN	+1	None
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Air Shining Crystal Bit

Air Shining Crystal Bit
j.6321463214P

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
In Air, +	1000	0	214P	Mid	High	4:0	96	11L	Varies	DWN	-35	6 (Full)
In Air, +	1600	0	214P/SP/SU	Mid	High	4:0	129	11L	Varies	DWN	-36	14 (Full)
In Air, +	3200	0	214P	Mid	High	4:0	160	11L	Varies	DWN	-35	22 (Full)
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Air Crystal Shoot

Air Crystal Shoot
j.6321463214P 214P

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
In Air, + , +	500+500x2	0	None	Mid	High	8:0	6	10L	Varies	DWN	+7	None
In Air, + , +	500+500x3	0	SP/SU	Mid	High	8:0	6	10L	Varies	DWN	+10	None
In Air, + , +	400+400x4	0	None	Mid	High	8:0	6	10L	Varies	DWN	+13	None
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Phoinex Fang Arrow

Phoinex Fang Arrow
j.236236K

First Hitbox

Landing Hitbox

Version	Damage	Stun	Cancel	Guard	Parry	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Adv Hit	Adv Block	Invul
In Air, +	2200	0	None	Mid	High	4:8	Varies	44	Varies	DWN	-24	6 (Full)
In Air, +	2600	0	SP/SU	Mid	High	4:8	Varies	44	Varies	DWN	-24	14 (Full)
In Air, +	3700	0	None	Mid	High	4:8	Varies	44	Varies	DWN	-24	22 (Full)
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Colors