UMVC3/Frank West

Frank West

In a nutshell

Frank West is a unique character that was built for supporting teams. He starts out weak, but by utilizing his snapshot ability, he can level himself up like Dead Rising and become stronger. However, leveling up is directly related to how many hits are done in a combo, so it's important to set up a big combo to maximize Frank's abilities. By reaching level 4 and 5, Frank can gain new specials, enhance his current specials, buff his hypers and vastly improve the range and damage of his normal attacks. Additionally, Frank's Snap Shot is an OTG and his Survival Techniques is easy to whiff, which means you can set up a DHC from a point character into a snap shot and level up. Frank can certainly pose a threat on point, most teams have optimized Frank in the second or third slot.

Alternate Colors

Players to Watch

Fizzy Kups, ApologyMan, Cless, Bee, Kusorou, Solid Abyss, Justin Wong

Character Vitals

CHARACTER DATA

Health:

Base Ground Magic Series:

Zig-Zag

Double Jump:

No

Air Dash:

No

Air Dash/Jump count:

0

X-FACTOR

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

X-Factor Damage Boost:

35.0 %

60.0 %

85.0 %

X-Factor Speed Boost:

5.0 %

10.0 %

15.0 %

X-Factor Duration:

10.0 s

15.0 s

20.0 s

MINIMUM DAMAGE SCALING

L Attacks

M Attacks

H Attacks

Special Moves

Hyper Combos

Normal:

20 %

30 %

X-Factor Lvl 1:

35 %

30 %

X-Factor Lvl 2:

35 %

30 %

X-Factor Lvl 3:

35 %

30 %

Video Walkthrough

Team Showcase

Combos

Combos by HonzoGonzo
Optimized combos by The Cape

Technology

Funny Face Crusher examples
Incoming Guard Break with Snapshot
Guard Break with Jam Session

Leveling Techniques

This thread has a lot of important information and has a much bigger list of characters: http://forums.shoryuken.com/discussion/167438/frank-west-level-up-strategies

Solo Techniques: No DHC, X-factor or THC

Amaterasu: Hard Tag concept, using slow down DHC
Captain America: BnB to DHC
Chris Redfield: Grenade Launcher DHC, Level 5 Fire Grenade hard tags with Eye of Agamatto, Hard tags with Shopping cart and Jam Session
Dante: lots of conversions
Deadpool: Great video featuring Dante
Doctor Doom: whiffed tools DHC
Doctor Strange: several ways to level up frank, with dante
Firebrand: Hard Tag from BnB, DHC with firebrand
Iron Man: hard tag from Level 3
Magneto: Optimized set ups with Dante
Nova: BnB to DHC, Throw BnB
Sentinel: THC synergy
Shuma Gorath: Shuma/Frank/Vergil tech
Spencer: Spencer/Frank/Wesker tech, with bonus Nova stuff
Thor: using hard tags and DHC
Vergil: Using wall bounce and sword throw
Wesker: using TAC and THC, hard tag confirm from counter super

Move List

Assist Types

Name

Type

Damage

Special Properties

Cross-Over Combination

Shopping Cart

direct front

20,000 x 7

Blue Light Special

Pick Me Up

extra instant

0

Gives Team 300,000
Hyper Meter Points

Blue Light Special

Tools of Survival

direct front

30,000 x 4 /
35,000 x 8 /
25,000 x 10

Blue Light Special

Normal Moves

All Levels

Name

Command

Damage

Notes (glossary)

Standing Light

l

48,000

Crouching Light

d + l

45,000

Crouching Heavy

d + h

63,000

low softknockdown

Jumping Light

air l

50,000

high

Jumping Heavy

air h

65,000

high

Knee Drop

air d + h

75,000

high hardknockdown ;
Only delay on landing can
be canceled into
Specials and Hypers.

Level 1 / Level 2

Name

Command

Damage

Notes (glossary)

Standing Medium

m

60,000

Crouching Medium

d + m

58,000

Standing Heavy

h

70,000

Special

s

80,000

launch nocancel

Object Throw

f + h

50,000

chipdamage
nocancel
proj

Jumping Medium

air m

63,000

high

Jumping Special

air s

70,000

high aircombofinisher

Level 3

Name

Command

Damage

Notes (glossary)

Standing Medium

m

68,000

Crouching Medium

d + m

63,000

Standing Heavy

h

90,000

Special

s

90,000

launch nocancel

Object Throw

f + h

80,000

chipdamage
nocancel
proj

Jumping Medium

air m

70,000

high

Jumping Special

air s

90,000

high aircombofinisher
groundbounce softknockdown

Level 4 / Level 5

Name

Command

Damage

Notes (glossary)

Standing Medium

m

45,000 x 3

chipdamage

Crouching Medium

d + m

43,000 x 3

chipdamage

Standing Heavy

h

45,000 x 5

chipdamage

Special

s

100,000

launch nocancel

Object Throw

f + h

75,000

chipdamage
nocancel
proj

Jumping Medium

air m

45,000 x 3

high chipdamage

Jumping Special

air s

110,000

high chipdamage
aircombofinisher
groundbounce softknockdown

Throws

Name

Command

Damage

Notes (glossary)

Forward Throw

f + h

80,000

throw hardknockdown

Back Throw

b + h

80,000

throw hardknockdown

Forward Air Throw

air f + h

80,000

airthrow hardknockdown

Back Air Throw

air b + h

80,000

airthrow hardknockdown

Special Moves

Level 1 / Level 2

Name

Command

Damage

Notes (glossary)

Giant Swing (L)

qcb + l

50,000 + 80,000

softknockdown ;
softknockdown caused only by last hit

Giant Swing (M)

qcb + m

100,000

Giant Swing (H)

qcb + h

100,000

Hammer Throw (L/M)

charge b , f + l / m

80,000

Hammer Throw (H)

charge b , f + h

80,000

cptr (ground only)

Snapshot

qcf + s

10,000

airok otg
proj

Bottoms Up

d , d + s

0

Doubles gained experience.
After 10 seconds, Frank vomits.
Tag Frank out to make sober.

Level 2 and Above

Name

Command

Damage

Notes (glossary)

Roundhouse Kick (L)

dp + l

0

Roundhouse Kick (M)

dp + m

70,000

hardknockdown

Roundhouse Kick (H)

dp + h

70,000

low otg
softknockdown

Barrel Roll

atk + s

0

Level 1 / Level 2

Name

Command

Damage

Notes (glossary)

Tools of Survival (L)

qcf + l

30,000 x 4

airok

Tools of Survival (M)

qcf + m

90,000

airok strk
wallbounce

Tools of Survival (H)

qcf + h

80,000

airok otg
softknockdown
groundbounce

Level 3

Name

Command

Damage

Notes (glossary)

Tools of Survival (L)

qcf + l

35,000 x 8

airok strk ;
strk caused only by last hit

Tools of Survival (M)

qcf + m

120,000

airok strk
wallbounce

Tools of Survival (H)

qcf + h

100,000

airok otg
softknockdown
groundbounce

Level 4 / Level 5

Name

Command

Damage

Notes (glossary)

Tools of Survival (L)

qcf + l

25,000 x 10

airok

Tools of Survival (M)

Strategy

Tips and Tricks

Frank's Camera can OTG, and an OTG camera shot can me canceled into his Survival Techniques hyper for big damage and DHC opportunities. This is a great way to finish any combo.
At Levels 1 and 2, Franks Tools of Survival {{#motion: h}} will still ground bounce, but at a VERY low height. However, using it to finish an Air Combo allows Frank to land soon enough to relaunch, extending even Level 1 combos greatly.
Using multi-hitting assists in conjunction with OTG Camera shots can allow extra relaunches, or even an extra Camera hit, netting Frank a huge amount of "experience".
Frank can use his Bottoms Up command to drink. While in this state, Frank gains double experience from Camera shots. However, after about ten seconds, Frank will throw up. Both drinking and throwing up have massive recovery and cannot be canceled at all. However, tagging Frank out will remove the double experience status, and therefore remove the recovery sickness.
Giant Swing is safe on block. Use this to make block strings safe, or to have more potent approaches.

Combos

Solo Combo 1)

{{#motion: l , m , h , d + h , s (launch), air l , air m , air h , air qcf + h (land), d + l , d + m , d + h , s (launch), air l , air m , air m , air h , air d + h (land), qcf + s , qcb + atk + atk}}

Basic Strategy

Every time Frank hits an opponent with the Snapshot, the number of hits in the combo are put towards Frank's invisible "experience" meter, known in the Dead Rising series as "Prestige Points." The PP breaks down as:
- 0 - 4 PP - Level 1
- 5 - 19 PP - Level 2
- 20 - 49 PP - Level 3
- 50 - 99 PP - Level 4
- 100+ PP - Level 5

Note that every time Frank levels up, he regains a portion of his red health, giving him more survival time.

The first priority with Frank is to reach level 2, to unlock his roll move. This increases his mobility, evasion, and mixup potential. At level 3, he gains his anti-air grab Hyper, and his Tools of Survival {{#motion: h}} move bounces the opponent high enough to be a valuable OTG move. At levels 4 and 5, he gains range and damage, but these are far less valuable in the long run than even reaching level 2. Rule of thumb, beyond level 3, focus more on dealing as much damage to the opponent as possible over leveling up, if the choice is necessary.

Advanced Strategy

Strategy vs. Frank West