Introduction
HE'S BAD DON'T PICK HIM HE'S BAD DON'T PICK HIM HE'S BAD DON'T PICK HIM HE'S BAD DON'T PICK HIM HE'S BAD DON'T PICK HIM HE'S BAD DON'T PICK HIM HE'S BAD DON'T PICK HIM HE'S BAD DON'T PICK HIM HE'S BAD DON'T PICK HIM HE'S BAD DON'T PICK HIM HE'S BAD DON'T PICK HIM HE'S BAD DON'T PICK HIM
STOP.
Moves List
Normal Moves
Listen you're going to realise that nothing about this character is normal
Standing Normals
stLP - ITS MINUS 1 ON HIT YOU CANT EVEN USE HIS LIGHT PUNCH SAFELY. YOU BETTER CONFIRM INTO SUPER LOL. Listen, If you space yourself, this normal's actually quite useful! Do not pretend like that shit's your turn though.
stMP - ITS MINUS 6 ON HIT AND MINUS 8 ON BLOCK, DO NOT USE THIS MOVE IF YOUR OPPONENT IS SENTIENT AND HAS METER. Yeah, this normal is actually quite good for footsies in the case that it can whiff punish, stuff a bunch of normals out and does a shitton of stun. It is not your turn so good fucking luck.
clHP - HIS HEAVY IS NOT MINUS ON HIT! This Normal Still Sucks. I guess it's pretty nice at covering jump-outs but not as a mixup.
stHP - Whatever you do. ONLY Anti-Air with this.
stLK - Oh thank god something that's not punishable and just so happens to be a light. It's +1 on Hit and 0 on block.
stMK - Yeah no one's getting hit by this and on hit leaves you half screen. It's not punishable on hit but LOL leaves a lot to be desired.
stHK - It's Minus 12. Y'know it does space you far away but Supers can punish you I am praying you are careful with this move.
Crouching Normals
crLP - Frame data is the same as stLP, use this to confirm into SA3.
crMP - Thank God, a good normal! It's 0 on Hit and unfortunately minus on block but characters don't get meterless punishes on this one!
crHP - Just Alt-F4 If You Get This One.
crLK - Look you get the deal at this point his lights aren't very good at all, but this one's okay it's not the worst you can do.
crMK - LOOK IT'S SOMETHING THAT ISN'T PUNISHABLE BECAUSE IT KNOCKS DOWN! This allows you to get in slightly and make whiff punishes not terrible so learn to use this in footsies!
crHK - Rumour has it is that if you use this normal John Capcom explodes and takes the FightCade server down with you.
Jumping Normals
jLP - Solid Air To Air Actually! Very Fast! Use it to snipe things on the way up
jMP - its jLP but worse!
jHP - AMAZING AIR TO AIR. Neutral jumping with this actually is super good, you can control the air a bunch and send your opponent flying into the corner. One hit of this and you'll close considerable distance!
jLK - Not as good as jLP but use as a tick?
jMK - Yeah I forgot this normal existed.
jHK - Main jump-in normal. Can also serve as an air to air. Confirm into SA3 if this hits.
j.D+HP - Splash, Not bad! Crosses up, leads into insane damage and mixup. Use this on oki/knockdowns where you're close to the opponent.
Command Questionables
UoH - I refuse to call this one normal. You're always minus, Always. Stick to the reality that you just don't have an overhead.
b/f+HK - Dropkick, apparently a command normal? It's his stHK but it drifts forwards and backwards.
Throws
b/f+MP - Mash Throw, Leads into an air reset on unstunned opponents and a combo on stunned opponents. Pretty good.
b/f+HP - Leaves you INCREDIBLY close to your opponent, can set up splash and oki reliably. His throws are actually good! Better than his SPD is anyways.
Special Moves
SPD (360+P): ...Yeah this move unfortunately kind of sucks. It's a solid punish tool because of its fast startup, 2f to be exact. Its damage is also really high as well and it has the special property of being throw invulnerable so it can beat all command grabs, including 720. The issue is he has 0 range on any of his SPDs and the okizeme is trashy. Nothing to tick from because nothing is really plus on block, use this exclusively as a punish or for forcing movement.
Ultra Throw (HCB+K): This move on the other hand? Really good despite its slow startup. Midscreen, you can get Ultra Throw, Heavy Clap into EX Lariat or Ultra Throw into Backbreaker, dealing pretty solid damage for landing it! In the corner, however, leads into a touch of death where you keep doing Heavy Clap over and over again until your opponent is stunned.
Clap (QCB+P): Plus frames! Forcing your opponent to eat this means you can get amazing damage by combo'ing into another clap (Heavy Clap into Medium Clap), Cancelling into SA3 or sweep from claps giving you a knockdown. Also some forces strike/throw and there are some tricks on parry you can do (Clap into 720 as an example). EX Clap is really slow but starts an infinite, Heavy Slap does one juggle point so one clap on an airborne opponent = Death. EX Clap when all the hits occur will reset the juggle counter giving you an infinite with claps (this is fixed in Double Impact but doesn't really matter).
This is all Hugo has, He has a ToD/Infinite but he's the worst character in the game.
Backbreaker (DP+K): IT'S AIR PARRYABLE? The Anti-Air Grab that loses to jump-ins loses to air parries in this game too. Just use this in combos and forget about it.
Lariat (QCF+K): Too slow to be used in neutral, terrible in grounded combos. EX Lariat combos off of ultra throw and sometimes crLK if you ask nicely. Forget about this move too.
No, He Doesn't Have Meat Squasher.
Super Moves
SA1 - Gigas Breaker (720+P)
I promise you this would be a good super on a character who isn't garbage. This is the only command grab of his that has real range. It's 0f(!!) and does amazing damage. On paper this is an amazing cashout on your meter. In practice this is just not something you should have in your arsenal because the game and your toolkit actively work against you. If you're feeling lucky though...
SA3 - Hammer Mountain (QCFx2+P)
His best super! 0F, leads into a hard knockdown, confirmable off of jHK, splash into crLPx5 xx SA3. This is actually a terrifying super and you get two stocks of it. You can hold the button to feint or delay the run but it's not that useful in the grand scheme of things.
Hugo is the only character in this game who doesn't have three supers! I know it's weird but it's a design decision they decided to stick with for this game. Bravo, Capcom, your avant garde nature blesses us once again.
Disclaimer: SA2 is actually just ATROCIOUS and you really shouldn't pick it at all. Not even as a joke.
The Basics
Pick a different character.
But if you decide not to:
Hugo is a grappler but he's really bad at it! You have to play solid footsies with normals that actively dissuade you because of how other characters are in this game. Having nothing that's plus on block and one move that's plus on hit means you have to be very sparing and methodical in how you play this character. The end goal is that you want to get in and push them to the corner until they eat an ultra throw or die.
Use claps for pressure, punish inactivity with SPD/Ultra Throw/SA1, punish activity with your normals, claps and SA3
Advanced Strategy
OTG Bug
Shotos with their Kick Throws and Elena with her throw can all OTG Hugo with a super. Effectively making you less threatening as a grappler as any throw from them means you are losing 50%, maybe even more from them.
This works with:
Ryu - SA1, SA2, SA3 uncharged Ken - SA1, SA2, SA3 Gouki - SA1, SA2, SA3 Sean - SA1, SA2, SA3 Elena - SA1, SA2
Unlike 3S OTGs, Super Flash FREEZES Your State/Eats Your Inputs so you aren't able to escape these as Hugo by quickrising
Tachi Gigas
By using the super jump prejump frames, you can give yourself an extended window to do a standing 720 with Hugo. It's totally possible to do a standing 720 without super jump prejump (e.g from Crouching) but the window is a lot tighter (5f to 8f).
Clap ToD
Ultra Throw -> Heavy Clap 6 Times
EX Clap -> [Heavy Clap, Heavy Clap, EX Clap]xN