Capcom vs SNK 2/Haohmaru

Introduction

Overview

Strategy

Combos

Matchups

Health (at Ratio 2)
14000	Low
Stun
70	Average
Dash Length
15 Frames	Short
Dash Type
Slide	Corpse Hop=No, Proj. Hop=No
Run Speed
7.4	Slow
Roll Distance
140 pixels	Far
Roll Duration
27f	Long
Wakeup Speed compared to Ryu
0f	Average

Story

Haohmaru is a Ronin from Japan. He's a confident and highly skilled swordsman, and devoutly follows the path of the blade. It's assumed that he's always been like this, as one of the only things known about his early life is his challenge to the incredibly skilled Ronin Jubei Yagyu. Haohmaru lost of course, but Jubei sent him to train under Nicotine Caffeine, another powerful master. There, Haohmaru befriends Genjuro Kibagami, another orphan with a tragic and bloody past. Haohmaru and Genjuro train under Nicotine Caffeine for many years, and become very close friends and training partners. However, Genjuro is a power-hungry man, and Nicotine can see this. To put his students into one final test, Nicotine gives them a challenge to fight against a large group. The reward for whoever won was the legendary and powerful sword Fugudoku. Genjuro shows his true self, and brutally murders each of his opponents, calling them weak. Haohmaru simply fights until they all give up, ending no lives. Haohmaru wins clearly, and Genjuro leaves in a raging fuss, swearing to one day kill both Haohmaru and Nicotine.

Gameplay

Haohmaru is a simple and straightforward character. In essence, he's just a guy with a sword. He has great normals for poking, solid pressure overall, and a useful fireball that knocks down at all ranges. He can even feint this fireball, a skill unique to him, which allows him to bait opponents jumping or mix how he does blockstrings. While he lacks mixups, he actually does fairly good when it comes to crushing guard bars thanks to his amazing LP normals and fireball feint mixups. While his 623P Kozetsuzan DP series aren't invincible, they still make solid anti-airs and combo enders.

What Haohmaru lacks is consistent defense and consistent damage output. His straightforward gameplan that revolves around simple neutral and fireball mindgames is about all he really has. His DP isn't invincible, he has decent but low reward buttons for mashing, and he has surprisingly low health overall, ranking in the same health tier as Dhalsim and Iori. His damage isn't the best either, as his only meterless combo ender is Kozetsuzan which likes to whiff at long range. He only has two supers as well, with one being a mediocre and level 3 only super, leaving him with a single way to viably spend meter. This too has a range issue, though not as bad, leaving Haohmaru struggling to get high damage from his pokes. If Haohmaru can garner respect from his opponent through solid neutral and smart usage of his fireball and feint, he can be very strong. He just has to get them to respect him first, and has no standout unbelievably strong tool to do so.

Groove Selection

Best - K/N/A: K-Groove is usually the most popular Groove for Haohmaru, and for good reason. JD lets him play a lot more offensively, and Rage ups the damage on his pokes by a huge margin. His level 3 Fujinzan super does notably good damage, which is a great buff for him in general. Hop and run let him play a lot more effective on the offensive as well. N-Haohmaru gets the more effective offense plus a roll on top of it, in exchange for no high damage peaks. Confirms into level 1 Fujinzan just aren't too damaging overall. Max Mode is an expensive but usually worthwhile buff however, as he gains a damage buff and a chance to do level 3 Fujinzan. A-Haohmaru is a popular beginner A-Groove pick, since his natural gameplan is very simple and rewarding in A-Groove. Alpha Counters give him a solid defensive tool, but the real juice is his simple and useful Custom Combo. Putting A-Haohmaru on the point of your A-Groove team isn't a bad idea if you don't want a difficult character on your point slot.

Useful - C: C-Haohmaru plays somewhat weaker than the other viable Grooves. While Haohmaru does have some fun level 2 cancels, they aren't very easy, and simply cancelling into his level 3 would do more damage overall making them less useful. Still, the ability to choose how much meter you spend is useful. C-Haohmaru can be seen as a more stable but less rewarding Groove overall.

Worst - P/S: P-Haohmaru lacks the scary meterless damage to make P-Groove good. A close range parry might get you a cl.HK > 623MP combo, but anything further out and your best punish tends to be just poking them. You'll rarely have a level 3, and even when you do, you likely won't get a chance to punish with it. S-Haohmaru is also fairly weak. Charging can put him in a bad spot, as good players will be looking for Haohmaru to whiff something big or throw a fireball, so leaving yourself open to a poke into super for big damage isn't worth the risk. His level 1 Fujinzan is underwhelming and only really useful for combos as well. S-Haohmaru gets very little overall.

Haohmaru is a swordsman with solid neutral buttons who uses an honest gameplan around his fireball mindgames to win. Relying on strong buttons and not much else, Haohmaru struggles in many other core areas of CvS2. Haohmaru is best in K-Groove, N-Groove, and A-Groove.
Pros	Cons
Normals: Haohmaru's sword-based normals are disjointed and far reaching, allowing him to safely poke with things like 5/2LP, 5/2MP, and j.HP in hop Grooves Fireball: Senpuretsuzan is a useful fireball that, although it is quite slow, knocks down from any range on the screen. By inputting 236K, you can even feint this fireball, which plays half the voice line but has very little recovery. This allows Haohmaru to bait and more effectively anti-air jumps, making jumping against his fireball on reaction a bit scarier Guard Crush: Haohmaru's ability to string together normals on block and cancel into Senpuretsuzan for a fireball trap, Feint for a reset, or Resshinzan for a surprisingly fast and somewhat safe overhead makes his guard crush fairly strong overall Simple: Haohmaru is easy and has very few gimmicks for you to learn, and while he is weak, his simplicity helps you learn CvS2 in an honest sense, making him a great beginner character	Defense: Without a true reversal, Haohmaru struggles to get out of pressure without spending meter on a guard cancel or reversal super Mixup: While Resshinzan is safe, it is more than reactable, and a simple jab usually beats it. Againts P/K-Groove, they can parry or JD into very big damage as well. Without a threatening low confirm either, Haohmaru's mix is very strike/throw oriented Damage: Unless Haohmaru has a Custom Combo or a level 3 Fujinzan, he lacks a high damage combo ender to make him scary Simple: Once opponents know the few mindgames he can run, Haohmaru has very little in the way of a powerful gimmick or simple, effective tool to beat the opponent out. Haohmaru has to be played very honestly, and as such he leaves himself very open to being bullied by the top tiers who don't know what honesty even looks like

Moves List

Normal Moves

Damage Chart

	Standing Close	Standing Far	Crouching	Jumping
Jab	x	400	400	600
Strong	1100	1000	1000 †	1000
Fierce	1800	3000	1400	1600
Short	x	300	300 †	500
Forward	800	900	700 †	800
Roundhouse	1300	1200	1100 †	1100

x = same move as standing far
† = must be blocked low
(note: all damage is calculated using Ratio 2 Haohmaru)

Throws
f + Fierce P (while close): 1900 dmg
f + Roundhouse K (while close): 2100 dmg

Special Moves

Secret Cyclone Slash
+
- Haohmaru throws a fireball that moves across the ground. If it hits the opponent, it throws them into the air.
LP: 1 hit - 1000 dmg
MP: 1 hit - 1100 dmg
HP: 1 hit - 1200 dmg

Fake Cyclone Slash
+
- Haohmaru does the first few frames of the Secret Cyclone Slash and then recovers before actually throwing anything. Used as a fake-out.
LK: N/A
MK: N/A
HK: N/A

Secret Crescent Moon Slash
+
- Haohmaru circles his sword around himself then slashes upward, jumping into the air.
LP: 2 hits (only 1 will hit) - 1400 dmg / 900 dmg
MP: 2 hits (first hit doesn't knock down) - 900 dmg / 600 dmg = 1500 dmg
HP: 2 hits - 1000 dmg / 600 dmg = 1600 dmg

Secret Earthquake Slice
+
- Haohmaru jumps toward the opponent, does a sommersault and smashes his sword down. This move must be blocked standing.
LP: 1 hit - 1200 dmg
MP: 1 hit - 1300 dmg
HP: 1 hit - 1400 dmg

Super Moves

Slash of Supreme Judgement
+ +
- Haohmaru circles his sword around himself multiple times then slashes upward, jumping into the air
lvl 1: 9 hits (doesn't knock down until hit 7) - 2300 dmg
lvl 2: 12 hits (doesn't knock down until hit 9) - 4400 dmg
lvl 3: 15 hits (doesn't knock down until hit 11) - 5800 dmg

Flame of the Conqueror
+ +
- Haohmaru leans back then slashes fiercely in front of him. Haohmaru is completely invincible until after he slashes. Level 3 only.
lvl 3: 1 hit - 6700 dmg

The Basics

Poke a lot. Don't worry too much about combos or special moves. His best pokes are Jab and Strong (both standing and ducking versions of both).

His s.Fierce does a ton of damage but leaves him wide open for punishment if it doesn't hit. You must be very careful when using it and not to be predictable with it.

Basic Combos
d.Short x 3, d.Jab (1300 dmg)
d.Short, s.Short ~ hp Secret Crescent Moon Slash (2200 dmg)
sc.Roundhouse ~ hp Secret Crescent Moon Slash (2900 dmg)
j.Fierce, sc.Forward ~ hp Secret Crescent Moon Slash (4000 dmg)
d.Short, d.Jab ~ lvl.3 Slash of Supreme Judgement (6500 dmg)
d.Fierce ~ lvl.3 Slash of Supreme Judgement (7200 dmg)
j.Fierce, sc.Forward, lvl.3 Slash of Supreme Judgement (8200 dmg)

Advanced Strategy

Use the Fake Cyclone Slash to disorient your opponent. If they jump, use diagonal jumping fierce, crouching fierce or strong Secret Cresent Moon Slash which are good anti-airs. If they roll, try d.Short, d.Short, d.Short, d.Jab to put them towards the corner or kick throw to create a 50/50 mixup. Throw out a Secret Cyclone Slash just to mix it up, but at a safe distance. His dash is pretty good so if you Fake Cyclone Slash them and they do nothing then dash in for a throw attempt. Try to mix it up after the F.C.S. sometimes try two or three F.C.S. in a row to entice the opponent.

Discussion

Shoryuken CvS2 Haohmaru Forum

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