Darkstalkers 3/Strategy

Advanced General Strategies

Variable Block Stun Pressure

Yes, VARIABLE, as in different, or changing, blockstun. At first, the conventional Street Fighter player may say "This does not help my game". BUT it does in Vampire Savior, which has the ever looming guard cancel and tech hit waiting behind each blocked hit.

As such, when rushing down, you actually want to leave holes small enough to allow your opponent to falter in GCing (Guard canceling) or Teching (Pushblocking). All done, while keeping holes from being big enough for them to knowingly retaliate and thus possibly changing momentum of the game to their fancy.

Some characters thrive on these holes, for landing hits, while others merely have variable pressure as just an addition to augment their rushdown.

Chicken Guard

Most people in the fighting game community know chicken guard is jumping at the opponent, and blocking in midair. In Vampire Savior the jumps are quite flexible, so you can chicken guard an attack, and if there's sufficient space between that first hit you blocked and the next one coming (i.e. lei lei's j.hp, which doesn't give you much time as opposed to Q-Bee's random air chains) you can cancel the (air)block stun, and hit them w/ something... OR, if they've stopped all together (i.e. air blocking Victor's big ass headbutt special move), characters with an air dash (i.e. q-bee) STILL have the option to air dash and retaliate. VERY handy. Countered by being thrown of course, and fast air chains I think.

This strategy takes advantage of the absence of blockstun in the air.

Empty Air Chaining aka Drifting Air Poke-linking(D.A.P or DAP)

Empty air chaining. You dont see many other fighters that can use it the way this game does.(aside from Vampire Hunter) It's basically, jumping and doing an early move i.e. talbain's j.mk. as the j.mk ends(only if you wiff), you throw a j.hp/j.hk on. So essentially, you have some attack out for most of your jump. Also, if the second hit hits, its more than likely going to be a deep hit; allowing for a followed up ground combo. for some characters, this becomes a useful added method for them to build meter when not much is happening(i.e. aubath)

Instant Air Dashing

Instant air dashing (IAD) is just as it says, dashing so that you're skirting the ground. Though, not all characters have an air dash to utilize, and not all of the ones who do have one do can utilize it (Mainly Jedah).

How to IAD: a dash is inputted by two consecutive forward motions.

-Up/toward -> toward

This is the most obvious shortcut. Very efficient when done correctly consistently. What sucks though, is that it's hard as fuck to IAD on an American stick. The vampire engine is really bitchy with the "forward" inputs. Doing the inputs quickly seems to go against what seems to be a natural habit/motion of the hands. B-izm remedies this with an up/toward->down/toward motion.(vid to be accessible soon). Although, this is still more Jap-stick based, this is all I can give as far as IADing goes. If none of these methods work, stick with up, toward, toward. Ghetto, and not nearly as fast.

• Characters with effective IADs:

Lei Lei, Zabel, Q-Bee, Jedah*

• Jedah's IAD is useful via IAD->fireball, significantly cutting the recovery on the blade. Otherwise, don't be too reliant on it for rush.

Offensive Ground Dashing

There's two different types of offensive ground dashing (OGD): Ground OGDs, and Air OGDs.

Just about all ground dashes add to the momentum of your rtsd (there are a couple of exceptions). Implementing them is character specific of course, but just about every character looks to either a. apply pressure b. connect a ground combo off of a dashed hit

There are exceptions though:

-Lei Lei's teleport ground dash has a somewhat obvious & significant startup. Going into dash->throw is viable, but Lei Lei maintains more momentum with an IAD or simply walking. -Demitri's dash is much like lei lei's(a teleport), but since Demitri wasn't designed for the rtsd shit that other characters are capable of, his dash serves more as a means of use for running away, horizontal uppercut setups/combos or random unblockable super setups (risky but doable).

-Victor. I'm still somewhat unsure of whether or not he fits the "out of the ordinary" category. Because he's the cast's main grappler, his dash allows for throw setups in addition to getting in the opponent's face.

Many of the characters with Ground OGDs can just use normals (with little recovery) and rtsd.

Following characters with ground OGDs:

• Anakaris
• Aulbath/Rikuo
• B.B. Hood
• Bishamon(Forward dash)
• Demitri
• Lilith
• Q-Bee
• Victor
• Zabel/Lord Raptor
• Lei-Lei/Hsien-Ko
• *Pyron
• *Phobos/Huitzil
• *Donovan

*Not really in VS but still applicable(They are in the home version though).

Air OGDs will actually propel the character into the air, giving the character the ability too add quick overheads to their mixup. This leads to some crazy shit from some characters (i.e. Sasquatch). There's also two types of Air OGD characters. Most of them do a hop that propels them and Jedah and Morrigan outright fly.

• Air ogd characters:
  • Bishamon(Backward dash)
  • Felicia
  • Gallon/Talbain
  • Sasquatch
  • *Morrigan
  • *Jedah

* a nice thing to remember with these characters is not to dash for too long. They both lose the ability to block once they get too high, they're likely just a flying target (Think X-ism). Also, a unique property about each of them is that Jedah can air dash once he's airborn, & morrigan has 4 different versions of her ground dash(forward, back, upforward, & backforward).

*Another thing to note about the hopping characters(except Bishamon) is that they each have a shortened dash (Shorthop) by simply pressing back after the [forward, forward] command. This state is abbreviated "sh" and is used in the same manner as jump, crouch, and standing states.(i.e. a shorthop roundhouse is "sh.rk" ). The ground dash is significantly shortened.

Fly-dashing aircombo note:

-The rule for non-chained air attacks is that you cannot use the same move twice in one jump. If you've done an air chain, however, only the first hit counts toward this rule. It's possible to do forward, chain into fierce, then fierce, but not forward, chain into fierce, then forward again.

Advanced Sequential Input EX's

Sequential Input(SI) EX's, are EX Moves that require a combination of attack and directional inputs in a sequenced manner. These are not your conventional EX supers, since they do not contain any consecutive directional inputs(no QCF's, or HCB's).

So what is it that makes them so important to have a strategy allowable all to their own?... Well, take for example Talbain's SI EX, Moment Slice(lp, mp, toward, lk, mk). During the execution of this move, talbain flails attacks(lp, and likely lk), but when the final mk is pressed, his lk animation is canceled, and Talbain's Moment Slice is activated.

This canceling can be used outside of just the basic input. You can hit with a fierce, and quickly cancel into Moment Slice. SI EX's are the only exception to the chain combo rule; and are the only thing that a chain combo can cancel into.

having this in mind, Talbain can do:

j.mk, c,lk, c.mp XX Moment Slice.

Being able to cancel chains into SI EX's allows for chains ending in normally vulnerable normals to be canceled, allowing baiting, or safety(depending on the character).

Wave Dashing

Actually more so pseudo-wave dashing, wave dashing, usually used by ground dashers, is performed by performing a ground dash, and canceling its recovery with a fast recovering normal move. The general normal of choice is dashing jab or dashing short; since both normals have the tendency to have the fastest startup and recovery of all normal moves in the cast.

Wave dashing allows characters to traverse the screen to reach the opponent. Because of their controllability, wavedashing may or may not be more desirable over a full-screen pursuit(which will generally miss, but allow you to keep on your opponent).

Chain & Unchain State

This is kinda obvious, but odd w/ some characters. Worth taking note of for people trying to do shit. When you jump or walk, you're in a chain comboing state. You can start a combo (Provided the hit connects/is blocked) and chain away. Any form of dashing takes that ability away, which may or may not be a fair trade, depending on how good your offensive game is.

An oddity is with Lei Lei, relative to the other air dashers (Q-Bee, Zabel, Jedah). After an air dash, Lei Lei for some unknown reason or another can't do special moves. Minor, but Jedah's blade/command throw, Q-Bee's DA, or Zabel's Skull Stinger are viable for use after an air dash. Lei Lei would've taken great use out of air dash XX Gong.

Building Meter

Like many other games, its more advantageous of you to be building meter at the other side of the screen, as opposed to just doing nothing while waiting for them to come at you. If you and your opponent are being asses, and aren't rushing down. so, here are my best suggestions w/ each character for building meter:

• Aulbath/Rikuo: j.MP->j.HP, LP Sonic Wave(Charge b, f+P)/ LK Poison Cloud(Charge b, f+K)
• Anakaris: j.D+HK
• Bishamon: s.HK
• B.B. Hood: Light Missiles(Charge b, f+LP/LK), & j.MP>j.MK
• Demitri: Chaos Flare (QCF+P), Demon Cradle (DP+P)
• Felicia: Manual Charge (d, d+KK, and hold the kicks), or j.MK, j.HK (Which is safer)
• Gallon/Talbain: j.MK, j.HK
• Jedah: Wheels (QCF+P), c.MK, Air command grab (HCB+K)
• Lei-Lei/Hsien-Ko: TK Gong (QCB, ub+P)
• Lilith: TK Soul Flash (QCF, uf+P) (Alternate with ground Soul Flash; QCF+P)
• Morrigan: j.mk->j.rk
• Q-Bee: j.mp->j.rk
• Sasquatch: Big Breath (QCF+P)
• Victor: LP Gyro Crush (QCB+LP)
• Zabel/Lord Raptor: j.hp-> j.rk

Note: Jedah doesn't get meter from Dashing back or whiffing normals