Plasma Sword/Zelkin

Introduction

Overview

• Zelkin is a close/mid range rush down character built entirely around his flight cancel on the "Sky Destruction" special move. He has high damage off anything that combos into his "Rising Blade" DP and his air maneuverability makes him a menace to catch if he decides to run away. On top of his oppressive options, he also randomly has normal health, meaning that he's a highly mobile, high damage, healthy top tier. He both uses meter very well, and builds it well thanks to his long combos and pressure always building chunks of bar. Mistakes in Zelkin's pressure or air movements do leave him open to whiff punish, however, making him a potential liability for those that aren't about spending some training mode time with his execution. Zelkin is for rush down sickos, top tier lovers, and combo aficionados.

Strengths

Weaknesses

Air Maneuverability: Zelkin can air stall, air dash, and has strong air-to-air normals in the form of an extremely active j.K and a strong late j.A hitbox. Attack Before The Round: Because Zelkin's flight has a hitbox, he's allowed to hit the enemy before the round starts if they aren't blocking. Flight cancel pressure: Every normal that can be special canceled is a flight cancel setup thanks to the cancelable properties of Sky Destruction. Because kicks cannot be parried, this means that Zelkin has ways to constantly cancel into unparryable pressure off of 2K and any string with his 6K overhead animation. Opponents can try to step this if they want to risk it, but 5BB/2B/3B will tag attempted steps. 5BB leads to full combo, 2B is safe and virtually riskless, and 3B's range and cancel options allow him to flight cancel again even in situations where he might get pushed out. In general, Zelkin can stick to opponents and frustrate/overwhelm them easily. High damage: Sub-optimal Zelkin combos off of 2K and 5BB still lead to roughly 50%, setup up which-way mixups, and in general always keep Zelkin one or two hits away from winning at all times. 3A PF-Cancel Bug: Zelkin has by far the most useful PF-Cancel bug in the game, allowing him to cancel his 3A overhead into Plasma Field. Pseudo Kuuchu Infinite: Zelkin's advanced Kuuchuu Dash pressure keeps the opponent locked in stun for up to 40 hits or so. It's extremely difficult to hit/force, does no chip damage, and can drop for a number of execution or spacing reasons, but its existence + the fact it is based on overheads that can easily turned into 2K attempts at any point are nonetheless extremely powerful exploits that make the character the powerhouse that he is. Theoretical 2K Infinite: Zelkin (console version) has an infinite loop off his 2KKK in the form of 2KKKx(Flight Forward, Cancel) j.K. This is extremely difficult if not completely impractical, but it does exist and, if nothing else, illustrates just how bonkers both 2K and j.K are.

High Execution: Even sub-optimal Zelkin combos and pressure require flight cancelling or tight confirms to be effective, and messing up any angle on air dashes can leave Zelkin open for a whiff punish. Everything broken with this character that makes him top tier requires considerable study, lab time, and execution. Polarized Range: Zelkin is best at close range, and though getting in isn't the hardest thing in the world for a character with an air dash at his disposal, it does mean that characters that do a decent job of keeping him out or simply out-footsieing him can give him a bit of trouble. Sub-Par Anti-airs: Zelkin's best anti-air is to either air-to-air or step and whiff punish. This is far, far worse than what many other characters get in the game, even those that are below him on the tier list. Ground movement: While this is largely a trivial point, Zelkin does have one of the worst forward box steps in the game in terms of cancel speed. Punishment: Unless something is inexplicably punishable by Zelkin's short range 2K or 5B, the vast majority of things that other characters in the game get punishes vs simply doing specials/supers against, Zelkin can't punish at all. Zelkin is all gas, and the result of that is that he is a lot more stuck than most when he blocks just about anything. This also ties into a larger point around Zelkin, which is that he's playing a completely different game from the rest of the cast, and if he's your first character, your likely going to miss or misunderstand a lot of the fundamentals that make the rest of the cast work at a high level. Bad Alt Character: Eagle's super options cannot combo the way Zelkin's does, nor do they offer additional utility in neutral or in some other aspect of the game. Therefore, Eagle really doesn't do anything to help a Zelkin player's matchup spread, making him little more than a joke character with extremely good normals.

Move List

Vertical Normals

A

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	10	-	-	-	-4 (+11 with perfect flight cancel)	-4 (+9 with perfect flight cancel)	-	Ground
Your primary non-low aggression poke. You'll mostly use this to lean in to 5AAA string, as the whole thing natural combos and is safe on block. This hit is also special cancelable, but only barely gives enough frame advantage to connect a second 5A after perfect flight canceling.

AA

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-15	-2	-	Ground
As you can see from the hit advantage, you never want to stop here without continuing the string or canceling into Sky Destruction. Flight canceling here is particularly good since 5AA always natural combos and leaves you closer than 5AAA on hit does, and the block stun advantage is far better than the hit stun. This mixes up particularly well with AAK once you've conditioned your opponent to step.

AAA

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-7	-7	-	Ground
5AAA is going to be an option you'll turn to a lot, as it combos for a large chunk of simple damage for a i10 move and can be canceled into Rising Blade/Sky Destruction. The Rising Blade combo is largely irrelevant, despite its damage output, as it requires both point blank spacing and fastest timing possible. However, the Flight Cancel from Sky Destruction is a vital part of Zelkin's pressure, and will be one of the first things you'll want to learn with this character. 5AAA's last hit tends to not combo the further away you are from the opponent, but with flight canceling, you won't really care much about that.

AAK or AKK

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	+5	+4	-	Ground
A cheeky low with frame advantage on block and hit. Mostly used to disorient opponents and maintain pressure.

AAKA or AKKA

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-14	-	-	Ground
A deceptive overhead that is also special cancelable. Since AAK is also special cancelable, that's a low/overhead in the same string that are both pressure tools for flight canceling. Cool.

AAKAA or AKKAA

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-19	-	Ground
A natural combo from the overhead of 5AAKA. The -19 is actually not as bad as it could be since it pushes out fairly far--the opponent needs to have a specific punish ready for this.

AK

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-4	-	-	Ground
A high kick from his 5A. Considerably better than 5AA, but the strings connected to it are a bit more gimmicky than 5AAA's practicality.

AKA

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	X	-20	-	Ground
A unique uppercut that is special cancelable on whiff, which is good because more often than not, this string will whiff in both combos and in block strings. It's a shame, because the uppercut hit is a launcher that would be pretty useful on just about any other character, or this one if it just moved forward a little bit.

While Running A

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground

4A

4A

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	9	-	-	-	+0	+0	-	Ground
An absurd jumping overhead that can be cancelled into air options on the frame before landing.

Horizontal Normals

5B

B

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	10	-	-	-	-8	-	-	Ground
The tendency for this to whiff due to how high Zelkin swings is unfortunate, but this is still a must-use in certain situations due to the high damage it leads to + the fact it hits steppers. Awful frame data means you'll never want to just stop at 5B.

2B

2B

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	10	-	-	-	+3	-	-	Ground
One of Zelkin's most important pokes. Ducking + i10 + anti-step properties means it is your go-to check in frame tight situations where you want to shut down multiple options at once with relative safety. Despite its frame advantage on hit, the complete lack of buffer afterwards + the push out on hit makes it more of a reset to neutral than anything else.

3B

3B

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	Low	20	-	-	-	-15	-	-	Ground
One of Zelkin's very best ways to cancel into flight pressure, this ducking anti-step low is also one of your best mid-range tools, especially when you consider it also has an advancing overhead that is also special cancelable afterwards. It's only real weakness is its startup, which gets mitigated by the fact its also cancelable on whiff.

4B

4B

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	14	-	-	-	+4	+4	-	Ground
Foot forward stance switch. It doesn't lead to much, and it's a little slower than some other tools you might have but it does allow you to control what direction your step-block OS goes, and it swings just low enough to where it won't whiff like other anti-step horizontals in your arsenal might during pressure.

Kick Normals

5K

K

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	14	-	-	-	-5	-5	-	Ground
Hits lower than 5A, but far shorter range. Better than 5KK as far as cancel pressure since you can just use a single special move timing, but it doesn't lead to anything on hit. Outclassed by 2K in most functional ways except for having a bit more variety in strings.

5KK

5KK

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-5	-5	-	Ground
Weird string. The second hit whiffs crouchers and the timing to input special moves varies wildly between contact/whiff, making it far riskier than 5K or 5AA. However, you can link off of 5KKxFlight Cancel on hit.

2K

2K

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	Low	12	-	-	-	+0	-3	-	Ground
This is the first move you'll learn to use to make this character function, and the foundation the rest of his movelist is built around regardless of what your gameplan with him is. It starts a 50% one bar combo that you can hit confirm from a three hit string, and since it is a series of kicks, none of it can be parried.

2KK

2KK

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	Low	12	-	-	-	+4 (+11 with perfect flight cancel)	+4	-	Ground
For some reason, this won't combo at certain ranges vs crouchers, which can be difficult to get used to at first. Luckily, it's quite easy (offline, at least) to confirm the 2nd/3rd hits and either DP/Flight Cancel depending on the situation. The fact that this is + on block without flight canceling is more than a little crazy.

2KKK

2KKK

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	Low	12	-	-	-	+2 (+12 with perfect flight cancel)	+2	-	Ground
By here, you need to choose whether to flight cancel, DP for combo on hit, or continue the string for a cheeky overhead. The +2 on block isn't bad for poking with somethinglike 2B, either, but it is worth noting that your grounded pokes generally will lose to some of the faster options in the game like cat 2Ks and the like.

Jumping Normals

While Jumping A

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground

While Falling A

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground

Special Moves

Sky Javelin

Sky Javelin
(any direction) A+K

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	37	-	-	-	-	-31	-	Ground
Can be done up to two times. Primarily used for chip kills and crossing up opponents in oki situations, but it also has good value as a move to beat step/jump mashing in the middle of your cancel strings, such as during 2KKK rushdown. Because of his small hurtbox during the second spin and his ability to retreat nearly full screen, this is far more difficult to punish than the frame data would make it seem.

Thunder Blade
46B

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	16	-	-	-	-	-12 ~ -7	-	Ground
This is a usually-safe-on-block advancing horizontal. However, it's not a great move, as on whiff he is very punishable and, despite being considered a special move, he can't actually cancel it from anything. It whiffs anywhere outside of mid range and at that same range it's generally better to do 3B. Also has a tendency to whiff off-axis opponents at ranges it really shouldn't.

Thunder Wheel Combo
K(from Thunder Blade)

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	Overhead	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground
Can also be done from back turned.

Blue Storm
(Taunt)

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground
Despite having the same name, this is not your super. This is a taunt with the additional property of pushing opponents away if they are on the ground, giving it the very niche application of securing a time-out victory if you have the life lead and your opponent can't jump to get to you in time.

Super Jump
28

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground
Zelkin's Super Jump. Useful for niche situations where your trying to air stall at a height other characters would not be able to get to for safety, such as dropped plasma field combos or Plasma Fields that require extra steps to be useful, such as Gamof/Gantetsu's Auto-Throw.

Sky Destruction
236+K

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground
This is a slightly-pilotable move that sends Zelkin into the air, then has him fall back down in a air-to-ground grab attempt. This function of the move is quite bad due to its ability to be stepped and ducked. However, Sky Destruction can be cancelled at any point with the M button, allowing Zelkin to go into free fall. During this fall, Zelkin can attack with any of his normal jumping moves. Because there is no height restriction on when you can hit the M button to cancel, you can effectively use this brief flight state to cancel the recovery of any cancelable normal, granting you frame advantage far beyond what you'd normally have.

623A
Rising Blade

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground
This is a flying uppercut primarily used as combo extension off of 5BB/2KKK. Despite the input and upwards motion, it's quite bad at anti-airing due to its slow speed and forward movement.

Kuuchuu Dash
6M or 66 while in the air

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	20	-	-	-	Variable	Variable	-	Ground
This is Zelkin's air dash. Uniquely, it's also an attack, one of which is cancelable into air normals. Depending upon when you hit a button during Zelkin's air dash, you get wildly different speed and trajectories on attacks, all of which you should become familiar with. Generally, the earlier you hit the input, the faster Zelkin travels. Because j.K from this can also be cancelled back into air dash, Zelkin can effectively do Kuuchuu Dash->j.K as a loop until he touches the ground. This is quite difficult to do and messing up any part of it could cause you to land in a vulnerable state, but it is worth knowing it exists, as it is -theoretically- one of the game's most busted mechanics, and one of the (many) reasons Zelkin is considered god tier.

Gauge Moves

Crimson Phoenix

Crimson Phoenix
236 A+B (Zelkin only)

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground
A strange air-to-ground super with surprising safety. It cannot be parried, does good chip damage, and depending upon when and how its blocked can even be plus. Its great for sniping out whiffs on the ground, but your meter is generally better spent on Plasma Field and Blue Storm. The fact that a super this good is not useful to him says more about how good Zelkin is than how bad this super is.

Blue Storm

Blue Storm
214 A+B (Zelkin Only)

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground
This is your primary combo ender off of Rising Blade combos.

Plasma Revenge
AM

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground

Plasma Reflect
BM

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground

Plasma Field - Transformation
BK

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground
Zelkin becomes a pilotable missile. If the type of hit that connects leaves the opponent standing, you can use Zelkin's guided flight to try and hit the opponent crossup. Typically a Plasma Field that doesn't guarantee damage is quite bad, but because of Zelkin's 3A~PF bug, this has the unique advantage of granting Zelkin a high damage Plasma Field opportunity off of landing an overhead.

Miscellaneous

Stand Throw

Stand Throw
5AB

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground
Zelkin kicks on the enemy's face multiple times, then flips off of them. Zelkin's standing throw leaves the opponent at the perfect positioning and recovery that, if they try to insta-stand and attack, anything that isn't i9 will be beat clean. This sounds great, but unfortunately, there's also a bug where if the opponent uses tech to get off the ground after this throw, all subsequent standing throws will be bugged and leave the opponent really far away from Zelkin. In other words, you get oki off this throw exactly once.

Kuuchuu Nage
j.A+B

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground
Zelkin is a rare possessor of an air throw in Plasma Sword. Because of his weak anti-airs, this has niche use as a fast option in matchups where the opponents do not have fast/far reaching/active air normals to bully him away from using this.

Strategy

Matchups

Vs. June/Ele (4.5:5.5)--This is a game of cat-and-mouse, except both cat and mouse are nuclear warheads. The advantage has to go to June for the sole reason that Zelkin is, by the nature of his movelist, forced to be the aggressor, and any whiff punish opportunity is a chance for June to score her meterless ToD (or ToD off of PF). Heaven forbid that Zelkin freeze and try to block 5A, since that also gives June an easy 50/50 to further score big damage (and then more air-fireball running away time.)

Vs. Gamof (5.5:4.5) -- Gamof has a lot of health for Zelkin to chew through, and side-step->grapple is a real and ever present danger for Zelkin, but let's not pretend that Gamof is doing anything but running for his life and building meter with j.K like 90% of the match. A funny detail in this matchup is that if Zelkin is unlucky enough to get hit by Plasma Field, he can simply super jump->air stall and not interact with Gamof/Gantetsu at all. This is mostly trivia since Auto-Throw is not great even without Zelkin's counterplay, but it is worth noting all the same. Aside from that, Zelkin's kick heavy gameplan around 2K/Air Dash naturally blows up random 236B attempts and in general severely limits Gantetsu/Gamof's gameplan to step/j.K/panic.

Vs. Gantetsu (5:5)-- Gantetsu's saving grace from otherwise getting his life rushed down by flight cancels is that his anti-air bomb keeps Zelkin honest, and the sole difference maker in the pick between Gantetsu/Gamof.

Vs. Byakko (4.5:5.5)-- Byakko is one of the few characters that can dance evenly with Zelkin in the sky thanks to his double jump/divekicks, and he completely outclasses Zelkin on the ground thanks to his swords super. However, Byakko is also made of paper, and if there's anything Zelkin is particularly good at doing, it's stealing rounds out of nowhere with bucket loads of unearned damage. Zelkin not having any grounded super means he's particularly susceptible to Byakko's particular brand of jab-infinite BS and divekicks, so it's almost always optimal for Zelkin to save his meter for parry attempts.

Vs. Rai-On (5:5) Zelkin doesn't have to worry about swords anymore! He also doesn't have to worry about gigantic amounts of damage, as Rai-On has to guess right almost twice as much as his fellow cat. Still, Rai-On can meet him head on in the air, and can completely coin-flip Zelk to death once he forces the bird to block a jab. A non-trivial extra detail in this matchup is that it is somewhat difficult for Zelkin to punish Blanka Ball on hit, unlike most everyone else in the game. Generally, Rai-On controls the pace, but Zelkin only needs a few hits to win. Zelk's lack of true reversals means he gets particularly choked up by divekick pressure--a rare instance where Zelkin has to suffer the way he typically makes others suffer.

Vs. Rain (4.5:5.5) The very real threat of dying to Rain's Plasma Field (or losing the lifelead to 214A+B) coupled with the fact Zelkin has a much harder time dealing with i8 Pinwheel than other characters makes this a rare example of Zelk having to respect a non-top tier.

Vs. Blood/Shaker (5.5:4.5)-- It's Time Stop versus... well, the entirety of Zelk's movelist.

Vs. Kaede (5:5)-- Kaede's normal weakness of having really, really, really bad frame data on the ground is somewhat mitigated by the fact Zelkin isn't actually that good at punishing on the ground, particularly when pushout is at play. This might still be slight advantage to Zelk, but this might be one of Kaede's better matchups in general. Her 5A being +10 on block and having a decent AA hitbox is also really troublesome for Zelk in neutral.

Vs. Vector (6:4)-- It is kind of hard for Vector to want to shoot a fireball at someone that can do a steep angled dive kick from full screen and convert into a 50% combo.

Vs. Omega (5.5:4.5)-- In theory, Copter should keep Zelk a bit more honest than Vector's toolkit, but Copter occasionally not getting all its hits doesn't make it the biggest threat in the world for the birds.

Vs. Saturn / Prince (5:5)-- Air footsies between Zelk airdash game and Prince/Saturn's invincible missile. Whoever wins, the audience loses. Saturn/Prince 3A might also be particularly difficult for Zelk's approach, but more data is needed.

Vs. Bilstein (6.5:3.5)--

Vs. G. Bilstein (7:3)--

Vs. Gerelt/Claire (6:4)-- Potentially might be slightly better than presented for the fencers thanks to Gerelt 7K being a bit of a nuisance to Zelk's gameplan, but overall Zelk's rushdown completely overpowers the normal patient, low damage gameplan of these characters. The interesting trade off here is that Zelkin's bad punishment options and overall poor defensive tools mean the fencers are also quite capable of keeping him locked down, as well, with 66K traps, and their 214K and 214A+B both can escape early Kuuchuu dash attempts.

Vs. B. Hayato (5.5:4.5) -- B. Hayato's light pillar can potentially steal lots and lots and lots of damage from errant sky approaches, and the normal Hayato gameplan of Shinden/Command Grab can be a real problem here for Zelk if he isn't careful.

Vs. Hayato (6:4) -- It's like the other matchup above, except Hayato doesn't have light pillar.

Vs. Zelkin/Eagle (6.5:3.5)-- The lone hope Gore/Luca have in this match is the safety of their 3Ks, since the birds can't really punish them. Gore might do a little better with Black Hole super panic/anti-airs, but mostly, Gore/Luca will be running and praying that they don't get caught by 2K/Flight Cancels.

Combos

Normal Combos

• 2K

2KKKxRising Blade, j.BxBlue Storm