Chandelure is Pokkén's most powerful and dedicated zoner. With her glowing eyes and joyful energy, she drains souls and lifebars from anywhere on screen. This lamp has more than one trick to keep opponents in her playground, and her wide arsenal makes her one the most infuriating to fight against.
Chandelure typically prefers to keep opponents hostage in Field, abusing her superior options and granting herself a ton of synergy. Once ready, she can easily shift with a Laser or a shield break, as 3 or 4 Lasers alone can break any shield in the game.
nY and sY are her main keep-away tools, and Chandy can move while attacking with them to maintain spacing. Both of these moves can be canceled into others to cover the opponent's options (Flame Burst, Will-o-Wisp, s[Y], Lasers…..).
Will-o-Wisp serves a wide fire wall that deals chip Damage and a fair amount of shield damage, as Smog keeps the opponent from getting a hit on her. bY, s[Y], and Flame Burst are great anti air tools to call careless jumps.
In Duel Phase, Chandelure breaks the traditional CADC tactic to get into zoners, with her piercing specials and lingering hitboxes. 5Y, 2Y and 5[A] keep the opponent from getting closer than that range. Lasers, charged Flame Burst, and Will-o-Wisp keep the opponent from feeling safe at maximum range.
Flame Burst and 8Y prevent the opponent from approaching from the air, and 5Y can catch out the startup of jumps at mid range.
Generally, Chandy will be poking the opponent and keeping the opponent in Hex range, waiting for them to hesitate or make a mistake, and react to the opponent if they try to do anything else, using reversals to keep them away. Managing debuffs is an important part of Chandy's gameplay, both for her and her opponent, knowing how deadly Hex and Overheat are.
Chandelure's defense is oriented over high risk, but high reward options. She has horrendous frame data on block, and all of her defensive options and reversals have weaknesses that can be exploited. Her low health and laggy buttons make her really susceptible to being pressured up-close. However, those risky reversals can turn into Chandy's favor and reset to a more favorable position. Despite having long invulnerable dashes, and a frame 1 attack immune state in Minimize, Chandelure prefers to keep a safe distance from the opponent.