King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match Beginner’s Guide
Table of contents
- How to Use This Guide
- Basics of KOF
- Your Controller
- Meters
- Movement
- Defending
- Attacking
- MAX-mode
- Good Practice & Play Habits
- Choose Your Team
- The Community
How to Use This Guide
Basics of KOF
Your Controller
A: Light Punch (X)
B: Light Kick (A)
C: Heavy Punch (Y)
D: Heavy Kick (B)
From this point forward we’ll be referring to our buttons by these keys. For our joystick motions, we will be using what is called “Numpad” or “Numeric” notation. This is a clean and simple way of referring to motion inputs. So, for a fireball, the notation would be 236A.
Joystick Numpad Notation reference:
7 8 9
4 5 6
1 2 3
And that’s all the buttons you’ll need to press! Keep in mind that notation always assumes that your character is on the left side of the screen facing right. If you’re not happy with the default button layout or want to assign some shortcuts for common button combinations, that is all available in the Options menu.
Meters
There are only four meters in 02UM. We’ll list each one and explain a little about them.
Health Meter: They will appear at the top of your screen in yellow and are accompanied by the portrait of the character they represent. The health meters represent how much health that character has remaining. If your health meter ever gets low enough to change red, you will have access to your character’s most powerful, secret super. Try to see them all!
Guard Meter: Right below the health meters are the guard meters. These will be blue and represent how little much you can block before your guard is broken. The more attacks you block, the lower it will get and if it is depleted, your guard will break and you will be momentarily left stunned and open. Don’t worry about the guard meter depleting too often as they recover very quickly. Just keep an eye on it if you’ve been blocking a lot.
Super Meter: The super meters are at the bottom of the screen on their respective sides. This meter changes color depending on how much meter you have collected. This is done so you can tell how much meter you have available simply by seeing the color in your peripheral. If you don’t want to memorize colors though, you can always just look at the number right next to the meter like I do. Meter gain is very fast in this game so don’t sit on your meter or hesitate to spend a bar if doing so would get you out of a bad situation. You’ll get that meter right back.
MAX Timer Meter: When entering MAX-mode by pressing B+C, a small meter will pop up above the super meter and begin slowing draining. So long as you are in MAX-mode you can spend some of this meter to cancel almost anything into anything. This is called free-cancelling and is used to make very unique and creative combos! MAX-mode is somewhat advanced so I won’t be covering it in detail here. If you think you have the chops to take it on though, you can read my guide on how it works in this article.
Movement
King of Fighters is movement! Mobility isn’t just a strong aspect of the game, it is the game. Good movement will be what creates many offensive opportunities for you as well as the skill that will save you from disaster. While this section will talk about some key mobility options, you’ll continue to see mobility crop up in both the Defending and Attacking sections as well because it is such an important part of the game. Now let’s see what some of those mobility options look like.
Walking: By holding 6 or 4 on your joystick your character will walk forward and back respectively.
Run: You can begin running by tapping 66 in quick succession. When running, you’ll approach your opponent very quickly, but you will be more vulnerable to being hit as KOF does not low you to instantly switch from running to blocking! Once you've initiated a run, you can rock your joystick down towards the 3 position in order to start charging a 2~8 charge move like Terry's Rising Tackle while still continuing to run.
Backdash: Tapping 44 will cause you to jump back, away from your opponent. You won’t be invincible, but you will be airborne which means you can’t be thrown out of a backdash and if you’re hit, your opponent won’t be able to turn that hit into a combo.
Jumping: Pressing 7, 8, or 9 will have your character jump up into the air in that direction.
Hops: While hops are no longer unique to KOF, I would encourage you to take a few minutes to learn about hopping in KOF, even if you are familiar with hops from another game as no other game does hops quite like KOF does. In order to hop, you simply need to tap 7, 8, or 9 just like you would to jump, then immediately move the joystick to any downward position such as 1, 2, or 3. In notation a forward hop would look like 92. Hops are really good as they make your jump arch, the distance and height of your jump, much smaller which can make punishing a hop much harder than punishing a jump.
Hyper Jump/Hop: Both jumping and hopping have a second range that can be accessed simply by pressing any of the downward inputs (1, 2, or 3) before performing your leap. You cannot neutral hyper jump or hop. Hyper hops are very fast and can cover a long distance to catch up to your opponent after you knocked them down while hyper jumps can cover almost the full screen making any opponent just one jump away from closing the gap. Consequentially, anti-air options are extremely strong in KOF so don’t get too cocky and try to just jump in or your opponent might be ready for you! If you're not familiar with the term "anti-air," it just refers to a type of move that is very good at hitting opponents while they're in the air.
Roll: Roll either towards or away from your opponent by holding the direction you want to go and pressing A+B. When you roll you can’t be hit by attacks. Rolls are a great way of slipping through projectiles, switching sides, or dodging an attack. Don’t sit there and block a super attack, roll through and punish it!
Defending
King of Fighters has some of the best universal defensive options in any fighting game. While some of them cost meter, I’d implore you to spend some of your meter on the defensive options available to you. After all, you can’t win a round if you’re already dead. With that said, let’s take a look at what you can do when your back is against the wall.
Blocking: By holding back when being attacked, your character will automatically block attacks. When holding 4 to block you will block all attacks but lows. Holding 1 will block all attacks except overheads and jumping attacks. Though blocking can be beaten with a good mixup between lows and overheads, being thrown out of block, or by having your guard meter depleted, it is still arguably your best defensive option and the one you should fall to most often. If you’re not sure when to block, think of blocking as “holding your cards close to your chest.” You’re not showing your hand yet and because of that, your intentions remain hidden from your opponent as they try to guess the right approach to get through your defense. Many of the other defensive tools available to you begin by first blocking an attack so, this should usually be your first line of defense.
Throw Break: Performed by pressing towards or away from your opponent with a heavy key. If you’re blocking, but you believe your opponent is going to try to throw you, you simply need to press the same throw your opponent did to break it. There are only two breakable throws in the game. You don’t just have to blindly guess as your current situation may give you a clue as to which throw they might choose If your back is in the corner, they might try to throw you with C to keep you on the same side, but if they’re in the corner, they might try to throw you with D to switch sides and put you in the corner. Don’t worry about trying to break every throw as sometimes it’s much safer to get thrown than to get hit by a full combo as you have to stop blocking in order to break a throw. You may not be blocking all possible damage, but you are negating some of that situation’s potential damage. Outside of corner, throws also toss you really far away from your opponent so if you’re not in the corner, being thrown means losing a little health in exchange for some much needed breathing room.
Quick Recovery: Also often called “ukemi,” if you get knocked down, press A+B right as you hit the ground to perform an immediate roll backwards to get back onto your feet. This is the fastest way to get back up after being knocked down. While there are some attacks that will leave you in hard knockdown, a state where you are not allowed to quick recover, most attacks will allow for a quick recovery so make sure you’re getting back on your feet as soon as possible!
Guard Cancel Roll: This costs 1 super meter and is done by pressing the normal roll command, A+B, while you’re blocking. By default the Guard Cancel Roll (GCR) will roll away from the opponent, but if you press 6A+B you can also roll towards. This has two really big uses. If you’re forced to block a super, you can GCR the first hit and avoid taking any damage to your health and guard meter. It also gives you the opportunity to punish things that aren’t normally punishable. For example, Terry’s iconic Power Geyser super is quite fast and safe, but if you GCR towards him, you’ll be able to punish!
Guard Cancel Blowback: The Guard Cancel Blowback (GCBB) costs 1 meter and is performed by pressing C+D while you’re blocking. Your character will perform a completely invincible, near-instant reversal attack that will knock the opponent to the opposite side of the screen. This is an amazing defensive tool and is a universal mechanic which means it’s the exact same input to perform and functions the exact same for all characters. I would discourage you from comparing GCBB to V-Reversals or Dead Angle Attacks if you come from the Street Fighter or Guilty Gear communities. GCBB costs less meter to perform and is hard to bait and punish due to how quick it is. If your opponent is able to block your GCBB however, you will be left vulnerable. The most common way this happens is when beginners try to perform a GCBB against jump-in attacks. Since a jump-in will always recover shortly after landing it’s able to recover before the GCBB can hit. It is possible perform a GCBB against projectiles, but unless your opponent is right next to you, it is very dangerous.
Attacking
There is a myriad of ways to approach your opponent and apply pressure or convert stray hits into devastating combos. This section will cover some of the tools at your disposal for approaching your opponent, mixing them up, as well as performing and creating your own combos!
The mighty c5C: While KOF generally follows the conventional wisdom of having weak, fast lights and slower, far-reaching heavies, there is an exception in close 5C. KOF has proximity normals. That means when you’re right next to your opponent and press one of the four attack keys, you’ll get a different attack than if you were farther away. And as a rule of thumb, your close variant of 5C (notated with a lowercase ‘c’ before the input as in c5C for example) will be one of your fastest moves and is often where your combos will start. c5C can also be quite useful in a few other ways such as Iori’s c5C beating out some jump-ins, as well as Andy and Terry’s c5C hitting twice which can make performing combos easier. In some rare cases a character might instead use c5D for the same purpose but this usually only happens with characters like Kim who mostly use their feet to fight. When you jump into a new character in a KOF game, it’s good practice to take a moment to try out their c5C and c5D to get a feel for which will be your go-to combo starter.
Lows: Lows or “low attacks” are moves that your opponent must crouch block in order to protect themselves. They’re one half of what is called a high/low mixup where you attempt to overwhelm your opponent with an array of attacks that requires them to actively adjust how they’re blocking. Most crouching kick moves are lows and there are even some command moves that hit low. How many lows does your favorite character have available to them? You can set the practice mode to always stand guard and try everything out to see what slips through!
Overheads: Overheads are the second half of a high/low mixup as you cannot block these moves while crouching. Most airborne attacks are considered overheads though there are some airborne command moves (a move that requires some kind of motion in combination with a button to perform) that are not. There are also command overheads like Kyo’s 6B that will hit a crouching opponent so protect your dome! Many characters have an overhead on 6A or 6B so try it with your character and see! You can go into training mode and set the dummy to always crouch block and test moves to see what can hit a crouch blocking opponent. Kyo has 7 moves that hit overhead. Can you find them all?
Blowbacks: Consider these the secret 5th normal. Performed by pressing C+D (simply notated as CD), these can be executed in the air or on the ground with the ground variant being cancellable. On hit they will knock your opponent down, but you cannot follow up a CD unless it hits as a counter-hit. If you can score a counter-hit however, they can be followed up with anything. Note that the air CD (j.CD) does. NOT hit as an overhead and can be crouch blocked.
Jump-ins: A jump-in is when you jump towards your opponent and as you’re falling, press an attack key. A jump-in is notated by writing “j.” before the key as in j.D. They’re a very basic component of fighting games and an easy way to approach your opponent. Be careful how often you try to jump-in however as KOF has very good anti-air options so if your opponent senses you’re going to jump again, you could end up taking a lot of damage! One last point of note is that, unlike modern fighting games, jumping attacks don’t stun your opponent nearly as long which can make following up a jump-in for a combo a little harder. There’s an easy trick to making sure you always get it right though and that is to aim for the waist. If you aim to have your jump attack strike your opponent’s waist, you’ll always have enough time for follow-up attacks when you want to deal big damage.
Cross-ups: A cross-up is a jump-in that can hit the opposite side of an opponent which forces them to block the opposite way they are facing. They’re extremely good moves to have, but unlike many modern fighting games, not everybody has a cross-up in KOF. There are a couple kinds of cross-ups in KOF. I’ll list them here and give some examples so you know who to pick to try them out.
Normal cross-ups - These are normal jumping attacks that can cross-up your opponent. They’re performed by doing the jump-in and aiming to land slightly behind your opponent. Benimaru’s j.B and Kusanagi’s j.D are examples of normal cross-ups.
Command cross-ups - These are performed with a command. A common command cross-up you will see is the inputs for j.4B like in Iori’s move list. Most will only hit as cross-ups but are very powerful tools for keeping the pressure on. Kyo’s j.2C is an example of a command cross-up that an hit as both a jump-in and a cross-up.
Only cross-up - This is a special exception that I just want to mention if anyone reading this wants to play Angel as her j.C only hits as a cross-up. Don’t fret as her j.D works great for normal jump-ins.
Throws: There are a few kinds of throws in KOF besides the basic and command throws. If you’re not sure what a command throw is, it’s just an un-breakable throw that is unique to that character. Some throws have follow-ups, some you can combo after, there’s a lot of variety. In addition to being able to continue combos after some throws, KOF allows you to combo into command throws! Really, if you love playing grapplers then you will have your pick of fun characters to try out in KOF. Check the Characters section for characters like Blue Mary, Clark, Ramon, and Daimon to see more about some unique and fun grapplers. As for basic throws, there are two types of basic throws and they are mechanically the same for every character.
Same Side Throw - This is performed by either 4C or 6C when next to your opponent. This throw will toss your opponent in front of you. This is good for when you have your opponent in the corner, but they’re blocking everything you do. You can give them one more thing to worry about without having to give up your corner advantage!
Switch Side Throw - This is performed by either 4D or 6D when next to your opponent. This throw tosses your opponent behind you allowing you to switch sides of the arena with them. This can be a good way to get out of the corner when your back is against the wall!
In general, throws cannot catch an opponent in block stun, that’s the state when they’re already blocking an attack, so try to keep that in mind when you’re thinking about throwing them.
Unique Chains: A unique chain is a 2-hit combo performed by using your trusty c5C and your overhead. When you perform a unique string, your overhead loses its overhead property so it won't catch someone that's still crouch blocking. Many, many characters have these and they make for simple and straightforward combo starters or hit confirms. (a hit confirm when you do a safe string and try to glean if you were able to catch your opponent not blocking) I will list a unique chain for each character below in the Characters section.
Invincible Reversals: An invincible reversal is a command move that has startup invincibility. This allows you to attack without fear of getting smacked out of your attack. They will often leave you vulnerable after the attack so don't use them recklessly. While these moves might be more aptly described as counter-offensive, I wanted to include them in the Attacking section because this is not a defensive tool. If you decide to wake up with an invincible uppercut, I want you thinking of that choice as an offensive one because that's what it is. If you wake up swinging, you're not defending, right?
Launchers: A launcher is a type of move that, well, launches your opponent into the air for follow-up attacks. While not all characters have them, many do and these can be great places to start when trying to perform your first combo as launchers are meant to be followed up! If there is a prominent launcher for a character, I'll try to make note of it in the Key Moves of their listing in the Characters section.
Auto-Guard: Auto-Guard is a trait certain normal and command moves can have where they are not invulnerable, but rather can absorb an attack by instead taking the damage to their guard meter. This is extremely useful for getting in and pressuring your opponent. Of all the characters that have this ability, I'm not sure if any are as built around Auto-Guard as Maxima. If this mechanic interests you, give him a try.
Super Cancel (SC): A Super Cancel is when you cancel a command move into a super. This technique costs one extra super meter, but can be well worth the meter spent in exchange for solid conversions and big damage! You can tell which of your command moves can be special canceled by going into your move list (in training mode you need to press Select to enter your move list) and seeing which moves are labelled (SC). Rather than give an example now, let's wait until we get down to Simplifying Super Cancels just a few paragraphs below this.
Counter-Wire (CW): Counter-Wire is a unique mechanic in KOF where some moves gain special properties when they manage to net a counter hit. You can see this in your move list with moves that are marked (CW). When a move that has counter-wire hits on counter-hit, it will cause the opponent to bounce of the wall for a free follow-up attack. Characters like Maxima and Daimon get a lot of mileage out of counter-wire so I'll include some counter-wire combos below for them. Remember that you only get the counter-wire bounce if the hit was a counter-hit!
Off The Ground (OTG): An off-the-ground or OTG as it is more commonly referred, is when you are able to hit an opponent that is currently knocked down. Normally this is impossible, but there are some moves that are able to hit the opponent even in this state! They can be a really stylish way to end a combo or the last hit you needed to close out the round!
Simplifying Super Cancels: Super cancels seem really convenient at a glance, then you realize you need to combine big, sweeping moves like 63214B with 2141236C and it just looks like one giant number soup. Thankfully, there aren't that many special cancels where you actually have to sit and do those two actions separately as there are many shortcuts to getting the job done! Let's use Kyo as an example, then we can see how that bowl of numbers can be crunched down into something more manageable. First, let's look at the two moves we're trying to combo together separately.
63214B
2141236C
Hmm, there seems to be a shared pattern between those two moves. Let's adjust how we're looking at it to see if we can identify the shared inputs and see if they line up at all.
63214B
---2141236C
That's it! The 214 portion of the motion is the exact same and we can see that the first action's attack key will happen first so we can safely combine these two actions into one by merging them as they're stacked here. This is what the full action would look like.
63214B 41236C
or
half-circle back B, half-circle forward C if you're still getting used to numerical notation.
There are lots of ways to merge two actions when you want to special cancel and the super smart developers at SNK. built a lot of the move lists to reflect that. It's not a coincidence that Kyo's special-cancellable command move just so happened to also be the exact same inputs as the first half of his super motion. And you'll see that kind of forethought in most of the move lists in this game. I'll try to mention at least one simplified special cancel in the Characters section.
Offensive Cancel Roll: This is a relatively uncommon mechanic among the KOF games, but it's basically the Guard Cancel Roll you already learned, but done from one of your normal attack keys. To perform an Offensive Cancel Roll (OCR), simply tap the roll command (A+B) as you hit your opponent with a normal attack. Much like GCR, OCR also costs 1 meter. It's most often used to try to bait GCBB.
MAX-mode
By pressing B+C you can enter what is called MAX-mode. It costs 1 bar and while in MAX-mode you gain access to the following:
Charge moves won’t need to be charged in combos - A seldom spoken of feature of MAX-mode, but one I think a lot of newcomers might enjoy is that so long as you’ve started an attack, you can just enter the motion for the charge move without ever having to charge it! This can be particularly helpful with more difficult characters like Leona if you’re new to playing a charge character.
Free-cancels - this allows any move besides supers to be cancelled out of and into another move of a higher power and can be performed on hit or block. For example, you can Kusanagi’s 63214B into his 236D, but you cannot go backwards from his 63214B to 6B for example. Normals that were not cancellable will be cancellable now through free-cancels. When you perform a free-cancel it will cost some of your MAX timer. While there are some restrictions, most moves can free-cancel and you can do a lot of wild and fun things with this!
Special Cancels are free - while in MAX-mode, you’ll no longer have to pay that extra meter to perform a special cancel to super. Performing a super in MAX-mode will deplete your MAX timer however so keep in mind that once you perform a super, the party is over.
MAX-cancel: By pressing B+C in the middle of a normal attack, you can cancel that normal attack directly into MAX-mode. This is called a MAX-cancel and costs two meters to perform. This is an advanced technique that is used for some of the more intense combos. If you’re just starting out, don’t worry about this too much. If you’re a more intermediate player however, let’s take a look at how you can get started.
MAX combos: One of the things that has kept me coming back to King of Fighters 2002 for almost 20 years is that you can sit for days and just play around and create your own combos thanks to MAX-mode. There’s two main ways to combo into MAX-mode and while we will primarily focus on the easier of the two, I will cover how to do both.
MAX-cancel to Special: By far the easier of the two, performing a MAX-cancel to specials involves doing your special move’s motion and hitting B+C instead of their default button. This only works with specials that are tied to the B or C button and the game may give priority to your C special so it can take some experimentation to find which works, but you can often just look to see which specials on B or C would normal work as a combo and use them. Let’s look at Kusanagi, one last time.
Kusanagi has the unique chain, c5C xx 3D and he can cancel that to 63214B for solid damage. But what if I wanted to do big boy damage? Well, instead of doing 63214B, we’re going to do 63214B+C. What this will do is perform a MAX-cancel and your special automatically at the same time so you can continue your MAX combo as if you started the whole combo already in MAX-mode. If you think you’re ready for this, here’s a combo you can practice. Just be aware that this is an advanced combo so, if you land it, you definitely need to immediately get on Twitter to brag because you’re basically a KOF god now.
In corner!
c5C xx 3D xx 63214B+C xx 236D•D, 421D
There are literally thousands of permutations a MAX-mode combo can take on so the sky is the limit! Create your own combo, name it, see how hard you can style, and definitely share it with me. I’m always good for a combo Retweet.
MAX-cancel to run: Arguably one of the hardest links in fighting games in my opinion and I’ve done a lot of them. Like most old fighting games, KOF pushes you really far away from your opponent on both block and hit. In modern KOF, when you enter MAX-mode it automatically begins running for you, but the idea of running after a MAX-cancel originated with players of KOF 2002 that were trying to get the most out of their combos. Here’s how they did it.
Normally, when you hit an opponent, you get pushed back away from them, but MAX-cancelling actually stops that pushback. That’s the first half of why this works. The second is running. Running in KOF is slightly momentum based. Not quite as much as Guilty Gear or Fighting EX Layer players might be used to, but it is there. So what needs to happen is, just like your MAX-cancel to special, we need to buffer the run input, 66, into our B+C input for our MAX activation. Let’s take Blue Mary for this one as I’m sure you’re tired of Kusanagi by now. Mary has a unique chain of c5C xx 6A and that’s what we’ll be using. Now, if you haven’t messed with movement much (which I told you to practice!) you might not be aware that holding 6 actually counts as the first input for a run. It doesn’t need to be double-tapped all at once. The game just wants to know 6 has been pressed twice in the last couple seconds. So, the way we’re going to do this combo is we’re going to hit c5C, then 6A, but keep holding that 6. Then, when 6A hits, press 6B+C. If done correctly, you’ll cancel your 6A automatically into a run. To complete the link, just link a c5C and then definitely @ me on Twitter so I can be a proud KOF mom.
Good Practice & Play Habits
I want to put a short section in here just to clarify and demystify some aspects of the process of "getting good" and this is going to be advice that is true for all fighting games and not something unique to KOF 2002 UM. I'm putting it here because I have watched so many players who enjoyed a game right up until the point they tried to "git gud" and then just completely burnt out and started hating the game they had enjoyed casually. A lot of their problems were ultimately born of bad advice or, just as often, incomplete advice. There are a lot of shortcuts that enable a player to do the techniques, pressure, and comebacks you're trying to emulate, but so seldom does this information reach the average player, that misconceptions about how to do certain things crop up everywhere. I wanted to say my piece about this because I know that among the regular players, who will be reading this, that have spent time in other games, there will be newcomers that will look to others for advice on how to break past that initial barrier and I would like to get ahead of as much of that bad advice as possible as I was one of those newcomers that got a lot of bad advice that I wasted literal years following and failing at a lot of otherwise simple stuff because that good advice either didn't exist yet or was buried in forum posts. So consider this chapter an optional tangent that you can dismiss if you don't feel you need it, but unless you're quite experienced in fighting games as a genre, I would urge to to read it.
Don't be afraid to play casually
Unless you're very experienced in a variety of fighting games, one of the worst things you can do to yourself when picking a new game up is to jump right into the deep end. When you just start with SFIV, you don't need to be worrying about FADC. When you pick up this game, 02UM, you don't need to be thinking about MAX-mode. When you pick up Guilty Gear, you shouldn't be fussing with Roman Cancels. Unless you are truly confident in your abilities in fighting games as a genre, you should start out the same way you picked up your first fighting game; casually. You will gain so much general knowledge so much faster by just playing than you will glean from the millions of guides out there. And when you do go to read those guides, because there are tons of amazing fan-made resources, you'll have way more context for what the guide is trying to teach you than if you jumped right into the material. This is true of combo challenges as well. It is an unreasonable expectation of yourself or anyone else to expect to complete a combo challenge series without first being familiar with that character's move list. Relive your earlier experiences of fighting games when you'd sit with the manual and just try the different special moves while playing through the arcade or story! It will do so much for you that you would never think of. Because no written guide can be all-inclusive. There will always be tidbits that are left out, missed, or unknown. What will ultimately matter to the progression of your play is just that, your play. So spend time playing! And don't think this is just for newcomers. I still do this today in games I'm familiar and unfamiliar with. Except, instead of using Arcade mode, I often use Survival as the difficulties often start very low and ramp up so I can glean how comfortable I am with that character by how far I got. When KOF XIV came out, I would use Survival mode to practice individual characters and converting combos. I'd spend about 10 minutes in practice, then I'd take a run at Survival and if it went poorly, I'd pop back into Practice for another 10 minutes or take another stab at Survival. Once I was able to carry a character to about 20 wins I felt comfortable enough to have them in a team. It's not that the AI was somehow the perfect level to make me some EVO champ, but there's value in being able to just consistently hit something and then convert that hit into a combo on a moving target. And that's true even when that moving target is dumb as bricks. When I'm dusting that rust off in 02UM or picking up KOFXV when it launches, I'll be doing the exact same thing. And I am someone who can do those big, ridiculous HD combos in KOF XIII. I learned to hit them in matches the exact same way. I sat in survival and just messed around. Arcade, Survival, and other "casual" modes in fighting games are zero-stakes playgrounds. Play in them. It really does help.
Shortcuts
Every game has shortcuts for motions. Are you a Mortal Kombat player that hates KOF's "pretzel motions" they were more like MK's inputs? Do you find doing 2141236C with Kyo hard? Well, you actually don't ever have to do that full motion. You can do the exact same super by inputting 246C. It's true! Try it now! As long as you hit the cardinal directions of a motion within a timely manner, KOF will accept your super input. It's not just supers either. As I covered in another article about Shoryukens, typically 623 motions, have tons of shortcuts and I'll list just a couple common ones you can try out. If you're struggling with a motion and can't figure out why it's so hard, contact me on Twitter and I'll help. There are even more out there, but we don't have the time to sit and list them all today.
Common Shoryuken shortcuts - 33P or 323P
Common 360 motion shortcut - 632149P
Common double charge move buffer - 1~7P xx 6K (This is how you can easily cancel Leona's 2~8P to 4~6K)
Kyo's DP to Super - 632146P 41236P (also written half-circle back, forward+P, then just do a half-circle forward and P again)
Terry's charge to motion shortcut - 2~147P 41236P (By doing a quarter-circle back as you go up to finish the Rising Tackle input, you'll have already done half of Power Geyser's motion!
Combine your super motions
You should almost never have to do the full super motion when cancelling from a special in any game. While there are absolutely some times in more complex combos where the motions just don't line up, for most combos, you either get a clean launcher that allows a lot of time to do the super motion or the special you're cancelling to the super from has half the super's motion built into it. Despite how obvious this might seem, I could waste the rest of our lives regaling you with the number of times I've watched someone try to do Ryu's 2mk xx 236P 236236P as that whole motion when there is no game where you can do that combo, that you actually need to do the full motion. And I know it's a sin to be using Ryu as an example in a KOF guide, but to be frank, I'm more than aware of how little time most of the players reading this have actually spent with KOF versus Street Fighter. And I really want to drive this point home. If you're going to do low forward, fireball to super, you will never need to do the full super motion. Your inputs should actually look like this:
2MK xx 236P xx236P
This is not something that is unique to Street Fighter, King of Fighters, or modern fighting games. This has been a shortcut that players have been using ever since specials have been able to cancel to super. You can go back to 1998 and do this exact same shortcut in 3rd Strike or Garou. Always try to shortcut the motion first. You will halve the time it normally takes you to complete combo challenges with this one trick and it is a technique that is older than some multi-EVO champions.
Break it down: There are only a handful of combos that you truly have to learn from start to finish without being able to break them up into manageable parts. It even helps our brains to segment and learn our combos in digestible portions as it's less for the mind to have to remember all at once, and once you've compartmentalized a combo's segments, you can stitch it back together by segment rather than individual moves. Let's look at a solid Kyo corner combo that even top players use and see how we can make it easier for even the newest player to learn.
Corner only!
c5C xx 236D•D, 63214B, 236A xx 63214A xx A
What happens in this combo is that Kyo will connect with his trusty c5C, then cancel into what I affectionately call his "can-cans" which will launch the opponent as we discussed in the Launchers segment. Kyo's 63214B can easily follow up afterwards and leaves the opponent still suspended in the air. So, to finish, we're going to do Kyo's light rekka. While this all takes a little timing to sew together, all we're really doing is performing three of Kyo's special command moves one after the other. There's no crazy negative edge pre-frame buffering plink or anything crazy happening here, but at a glance it is a lot to digest. So we need to learn to break it down. Let's segment this into a bunch of sections that we can try independently. Keep in mind that though there are many segmentations of this, you only need to spend a couple minutes on each one, and you can skip any you're already comfortable with. Segmenting a combo like this is valuable because it allows you to practice the parts of the combo you're struggling with, without having to sit and repeat the parts you already have dialed over and over again.
c5C xx 236D•D - We need to first make sure that we can launch them. So make sure you're capable of cancelling that normal to his launcher.
236D•D, 63214B - We don't need to think about that normal if all we're trying to practice is following up the launcher with our next move. The 63214B should be done quite quickly after finished the launcher as it is a slow move. Try this a few times until you feel like you can get that beautiful spinning punch to hit with some consistency.
63214B, 623C - While the 63214B doesn't launch high enough to do the full rekka off of a raw hit, it does launch high enough to link Kyo's uppercut which gives us a chance to just learn how soon after 63214B we can attack again!
236A xx 63214A xx A - This isn't a true combo outside of a juggle, but we can practice our rekka variation on its own to make sure we are comfortable doing it. Like we looked at earlier, casual play with some friends or just runs through the arcade regardless of what difficulty you feel comfortable playing at does help muscle memory for your command moves like this.
Next we can start putting these segments together.
236D•D, 63214B, 623C - Just like last time, we're just practicing following up with anything, but this time we've added the launcher so it's gotten a little more complicated.
236D•D, 63214B, 236A xx 63214A xx A - Now we're tying all of our command moves together. This is the meat of the combo and there is value in not worrying whether or not you started with the right normal and just playing with linking these command moves. Once you have this down, just tie-in that c5C so you're starting your combos clean and you're ranked match ready!
Don't "just grind it out"
By far, some of the worst advice I've ever seen given and it frustrates me to no end every time I hear a newbie ask what to do about their execution and then be given this as an answer. What often happens is a newer player will see a combo video online, want to be able to do the combo, but are stuck. So they ask a more experienced player, only to be given the antithesis of advice. Often what players are stuck on isn't that they lack Xiaohai's hands, but rather lack Xiaohai's understanding of the underlying mechanics of what's really happening when they try to perform their combos. Don't tell a newcomer to "just grind it out" when what they really need to hear is that they can break the combo down, they can combine their motions so their left hand doesn't have to do so much, they can use a shortcut if it helps. That's what a new player actually needs, not 40 hours in training mode learning to hate their game. If you're that player right now that sits for hours in practice trying to do a combos while still struggling with your character's basic command specials, stop and back out of training mode right now. Go into arcade and just play for a bit. Even back when I was doing Evil Ryu's axe kick combo extensions, the way I prepped myself for doing them was I went to Arcade mode, turned difficulty to easy, and just played for a bit. Just that small step of familiarizing myself with the character saved hours and I barely ever practiced those extensions because I hated SFIV and only played to play with friends that would play nothing else. But between combining my motions, taking advantage of motion shortcuts, and just letting myself get familiar with the character, I was able to sit and do the axe kick extensions in about an hour or so and they are not easy combos. If you're not convinced, I offer my wife as proof. As I said at the top, she kindly helped me test my suggested combos and was able to do Kyo's full combo to super by following this same advice in about 30 minutes. And please keep in mind that she does not play fighting games at all. She offered to help make sure my advice would truly apply to a complete newcomer and I passed her an xbox gamepad. A half hour later, she had the combo down in her first sitting ever playing Kyo.
Choose Your Team
Editor's note: This section was taken directly from my other KOF 2002 guide as I just didn't feel like I could explain it any better than I already had.
While a lot of players start their time with a KOF game playing single mode so they can focus on one character, I actually think this is a terrible idea because KOF is not balanced to be 1-on-1. Each character is unique and have strengths and weaknesses that can be emphasized by the position you place them in your team. You can also have teammates that counter characters that your point character (the character you choose to be first in your team order) is weak against. And going
What would this look like in another game?
Let's use Street Fighter as an example for how this works. Let's say you play Zangief. You're doing well, but the last character on their team is Ryu, a character Zangief historically struggles against. You lose with Zangief because you just can't penetrate Ryu's zoning. However, you were prepared for this potential matchup so you set the next character on your team to be Rose. That way if someone chose to counter pick you, you were ready to counter pick their counter pick!
Where do you put characters then?
If you're a Marvel player, then some of these terms will be familiar, but let's talk about a few different types of characters. To preface all this, character types are not static and they can change depending on play style and preference.
Let's start with the easiest type to understand; the anchor. Anchor characters are the big boss at the end of your team. They're the 3rd slot character and they generally share a few traits.
- Anchor characters generally benefit from having meter more than other characters so it becomes advantageous to put them on the end of your team to guarantee they have meter when they come into battle.
- Anchors are often the character a player is most competent with.
- Anchors should also be a character the player is best at adapting with as by this point in the match you will have the most information about your opponent and being adaptable allows the player to possibly have that edge in the final moments of a match.
The next type of character is the point character. This is your first character on your team and arguably your most important because the first round is where heath and meter advantages are first established. There are several types of characters that do well here, but there's some general themes. Those are "control" and "momentum." Mixup heavy characters are best here as they don't require much meter to do damage and they revolve around a fast-paced play style that can fluster your opponent and allow you to start the set with momentum. Control can mean anything from a disorienting mixup gameplan to an oppressive zoning approach. The point character is arguably the most flexible position and is most likely the slot you're going to see low tier heroes as being comfortable with the character and being able to build momentum is the most important aspect of picking your point character.
- Point characters need to be a character you feel very comfortable with and feel you can build momentum with easily.
- The less meter they need to be effective, the better as this is the one round you cannot start with meter already built.
- Don't be afraid to use less conventional characters in this position as an opponent's unfamiliarity is your gain.
The final type is your support character. This is the character in the 2nd slot. They generally play a more supportive role such as a counter pick to your point's counter pick, a battery (a character that is very good at building meter) for your anchor, or a heavy control character like a zoner to maintain a lead your point created or to regain control after losing the first round to a very strong opponent.
- Support characters most often exist to compliment your point or anchor.
- This is one of the most effective positions to have a battery because of how advantageous it can be to have meter advantage with your anchor.
- This position is best picked last. Pick your anchor or point character first and build the team around them.
Teams in practice
Let's look at a team dynamic in practice and what better team to examine than the venerable Japan Team. Headlined by Kyo, this is the original KOF team and includes KOF mainstays Benimaru and Daimon. Now let's look at their dynamic as they're originally ordered, Kyo/Beni/Daimon.
Kyo leads the team as an aggressive, momentum heavy point. He doesn't need meter to put a hurt on his enemy, but with a bar of super he can very quickly deal big damage and wrap a round up in a heartbeat.
Benimaru works as a great support having some of the best neutral in the game and being an allrounder when it comes to abilities even having some potential as a battery via whiffed mach knees being a very safe way to build additional meter for his anchor which gives his point more freedom to use what meter they build in that first round.
Daimon is a great anchor as he is not quite as threatening when he doesn't have meter, but with meter he can end a character in two hits. It's important that Benimaru passes a lot of meter to Daimon so he can wrap up the match as Daimon does not build meter well on his own and his meterless punishes are on the lower side.
These aren't the only positions these characters can play as Beni is a common choice for anchor and point while Kyo also finds himself in the anchor position from time to time. This is just how this team in this order's dynamic flows.
Why bother changing your order?
One of the things that's unique to KOF is that even if you win, while you're not allowed to change your characters, you can change your order. This is important as this makes every match a blind order pick. That means your opponent has no idea what order you intend to play your characters and there are a bunch of tactics born from that.
Burying your anchor/front-loading your team - This is when you take your anchor and move them up to the 1st or 2nd slot of your team. Generally speaking, the anchor of a team is usually the player's strongest character and by moving them to point, you can catch your opponent off guard. It's like walking into a dungeon and being jumped by the boss. People aren't always ready for it. I do this a lot to people. I'm generally thought of as a Terry player so I will put Terry in the 3rd slot and slip my actual anchor, Kim to 1st. Again, people's best characters are usually their anchor and unless your opponent did the same thing, you're probably playing your main vs their pocket character. And if they don't know who your anchor is, they may mentally fatigue as they'll assume you're much better at the character you've shoved in your 3rd slot than this supposed "point character". A really mean way you can do this is by having a support battery on 1st to build meter for a buried anchor in 2nd to execute the traditional gameplan of an anchor early and burn all that a meter for mad damage, then leave your point in 3rd to clean up any characters your anchor failed to beat using the same low meter gameplan as you would normally use when your point character is in your 1st slot.
Point swap - While roles like point, support, momentum, and battery are easy enough to define and delineate between, the characters themselves seldom fall cleanly into just one role. In fact, most characters are capable of multiple potential roles to varying results. A common tactic is to switch your point if you feel they've been "figured out" or you think your gameplan for another character would counteract your opponent's opening gameplan better. A simple example of this you see often is when a player is running Kyo on point and K' on anchor. If the opponent is running a zoning character that Kyo can't seem to get in on, K' also works well as a point character as well as having some battery potential with whiffed Ein Triggers, and Kyo is a strong anchor so, they will swap their point and anchor to adjust to the situation. This is different from front-loading your team as K' will play more conservatively with meter and stick to meterless combos, but his fireball game will make him much stronger vs a zoner than Kyo.
Properly understanding and utilizing these principles is more important than just picking the top tiers you found on some list in a forum. Even though your team members can't be tagged in or called for an assist, there are still lots of ways they can help each other throughout a match. Try to think of some more ways than I've listed here.
The Community
The KOF community is a global one, but I am mostly familiar with the USA's KOF scene. What I will say is that the KOF scene is often more or less the "SNK scene" so if you're also looking for some sets in Garou in its own recently released rollback patch, these same places will be great resources for getting connected! I'm going to link to some resources for getting involved and finding matches, deeper resources into game mechanics, places to find more tidbits about the series' lore, as well as a few memes that even a hermit crab like me is aware of.
Dream Cancel
Dream Cancel is a website that acts as a hub for everything SNK. They've done an amazing job of keeping the online scene alive for the KOF series despite some of the worst net code out there prior to these recent rollback patches and they're just going to get stronger as these games get on that rollback. Dream Cancel is one part community hub with their Discord that serves to link people up for online matches, share community news they've posted to their site, and, of course, share memes. But the other half is an extensive wiki that expands across multiple popular games from SNK as well as some guides for intermediate level players on how to read frame data among other things. Really, no one paragraph can full summarize everything Dream Cancel has to offer. If you're playing any SNK fighting game, this site should be in your bookmarks.
SNK Wikia
I know, might seem a little cheesy to link to a wikia, but you have to respect the work people have put into them!! The SNK Wikia has become the ultimate source of SNK lore. From quotes pulled out of 20 year old interviews, tidbits buried in system-exclusive manuals, and great story synopsis to choose from, you can spend hours just reading through and enjoying all of the extensive lore from SNK games long past. This might just be a "me" thing, but I love reading through them and still do from time to time even though I know most of this stuff like the back of my hand. And there's a lot of lore to digest as the KOF series has tons of overarching story arcs and subplots to delve into for the avid fan.
Fighters Generation
While it isn't quite the penultimate fighting game resource it once was, it would be remiss of me not to mention the very site I first read the words, "King of Fighters" on. Fighters Generation has been around seemingly since the beginning of the internet and has an extensive library of titles to pour over with tons of high quality scans of concept and promotional art they've collected over the years. Yes, the site really has always been that red.
The MEMES
As promised, let's look at and share some memes. I'll try to share their origin if I know it, but keep in mind that most memes don't really have one true origin and I am a mechanical lexicon, not a cultural one.
Speed of a Flying Taco
KOF has a unique mechanic where backdashes are cancellable to anything else that might be airborne such as specials, supers and even command normals. I think it's fair to say one of the most commonly used examples of this is Iori cancelling his backdash into 4B, his air command normal, which causes him to fly very far back away from his opponent and does so extremely quickly. Special thanks to @nothingxs for the clarification of how we got to calling the move "taco." Here's their quote - "The origin of the 'taco' is 'tacón' which is the heel of your foot. They call the move 'tacón' in Mexico and it came here as 'taco' somehow."
I believe this originated from one of my personal favorite commentators, Hellpockets. Long story short, during the days of KOF XIII, Clark was a bit of a hype monster and Hellpockets, for some reason, decided to merge Clark with the, uhh, Terminator? Combined he took on a personality of his own and became a highlight of any event the Clarkinator came out in. I unfortunately couldn't find footage of a match with the Clarkinator alive and present, but hopefully one of you readers might know of one and can send it to me on Twitter so I can add it here.
Daimon.gif
This is, by far, one of my favorite memes/jokes of all time. I'm really not sure who made it, but whoever you are, find me because I owe you a drink for how many times I've laughed my ass off at this. Truly emblematic of the struggle of trying to fight Daimon.
There are a lot of phrases that we tend to hear over and over from commentators that become battlecries for the character they're associated with. These are all akin to classic phrases like "Pringles!" from the Marvel community.
"Say it with your chest!" - commonly yelled when Maxima's big chest laser super goes off.
"Raise your fists to the sky!" - Another big super, this time Shen Woo's.
"Don't wake daddy!" - This is in reference to Daimon's final super being one of the only instances where he opens his eyes.
Geese Howard
I'm not sure if there's any one source of more memes in King of Fighters than the Southtown terror himself, Geese. Firstly, that name. No jokes could possibly be made about that nam-
Goose Howard - Okay, so maybe one, very prominent joke can be made about that name. There are tons of memes, images, and videos like the one below having fun with some combination of the ridiculous things Geese says and actual geese.
Predictable! - One of Geese's catchphrases that he says whenever he parries something. Emblematic of Geese's fatal pride, it's just been said so often over so long that SNK saw fit to pay homage to the meme with the first 30 seconds of the KOF XIV trailer just being Geese saying it over and over again as he parries the entire cast.
Soy sauce - This isn't really a meme so much as just an oddity relating to Geese that newcomers might not follow. Soy sauce is actually the name of Geese's theme song. So, if you see people talking about Geese and soy sauce, that's why.
Characters
(WIP) Due to Blogger rearranging a huge portion of my article today (Oct. 2nd) due to a bug, it was all that I could do to get this much finished by the end of the day. I'll be live-updating the article as I finish teams so please look forward to the character list being finished this weekend and thank you for your patience. 🙇♀️
This is the last section of the guide and I've dedicated it to helping newcomers get started with any character they're interested in. This won't be an intensely deep-dive into every character but rather an icebreaker for you to get to know the character a little better. As promised, every character will include one bread n' butter combo so you'll always have some pain to dish out when you get the opportunity! I'll also try to highlight some unique circumstances that can create combos for some characters like Maxima's Counter-Wire. The characters will be organized by team but if you're looking for someone in particular, you can press CTRL+F and type their name in to be taken right to them.
Here are some notation guidelines for how I notate combos. It might be a little different than what you're used to as I tend to notate a lot of minute details like how many hits of a multi-hit move hit before cancelling, cancels vs links, and other minutia that can get lost in the details as I find these are often the things people get stuck on when trying to learn combos, not the timing itself.
Cancels - notated with xx
Links - notated with a comma.
ABCD vs P & K? - I might notate a button as P or K instead of a specific button. This just means you can use either B or D for K (Kicks) and A or C for P (Punches). I could notate more specifically, but I'd like you to learn that you have options!
Multi-hit moves - A move like Andy's c5C that hits twice will be accompanied with a number in parenthesis to notate how many hits of that normal should happen before the cancel. This isn't really something to worry about for most of KOF though I do want to mention it. An example would look like c5C(1) xx special. This would mean "Let the close 5C only hit once before cancelling to the next step."
Combined motions - I wouldn't normally do this when notating, but I'm going to offer a "Combined" version of the notation for combos where you can combine the special move's motion into the super you're cancelling into to make sure you know when you can do it and show off more examples.
Teams
Japan Team
Kyo
Highlights from the move list
Overhead: 6B
Unique Chain: c5C xx 6B
Cross-Up: j.2C
Launcher: 236K•K
Easy MAX-cancel starter: c5C xx 6B xx 236B+C
236A: This move has auto-guard so it can destroy basic projectiles. Great poking tool!
421K: This move can catch people off guard, but keep in mind that it's not an overhead!
Combos!
Anywhere!
3B xx 3A xx 3D
c5C xx Poison Gnawfest (236C xxx 63214C xx 6C xx 623C)
Corner!
c5C xx 236D•D, 63214B, 236A, 63214A, 63214B
c5C xx 236D•D, 63214B xx 2141236P, 623C
Combined!
c5C xx 236D•D, 63214B xx 1236P, 623C
Benimaru
Highlights from the move list
Cross-Up: J.D
Dive Kick: 2D
236K: Known as his Mach Kick, this is Beni's bread and butter. This move is also (CW) which means tossing them out in neutral to try to catch stray buttons can turn into devastating punishes. Note: There is currently a bug in practice where the counter-hit doesn't always cause (CW) to happen.
214P: This should be your go-to (SC) as it gives plenty of time to cancel into whatever super you want and perfectly combines with his 214214K super for an easy super combo!
Combos!
Anywhere
2B xx 2B xx 236D
6B xx 623D
Counter-hit!
236D, 236236A+C
5D xx 214C xx 214214K
Combined!
5D xx 214C xx 214K
Daimon
Highlights from the move list
Unique Chain: c5C xx 3C
Cross-Up: j.B, j.C
Easy MAX-cancel starter: c5C xx 3C xx 214B+C
214K: Daimon's command roll. This move can be cancelled into any of his other moves, even his command normal, 3C! Its most common use is to give his command throws additional forward reach. And with the threat of a 3C coming out at any time, opponents truly have to sweat whether or not they're safe to just jump away.
623K: This command throw is completely strike invincible. And with that one sentence, 1000 grappler fans just immediately fell in love.
j.CD: This is one of Daimon's best poke tools as a stray counter-hit will net a full combo thanks to j.CD having (CW). Even if you don't get a counter-hit, your opponent will be forced to defend themselves against Daimon's numerous oki options. I actually consider this one of the scariest normals in all of KOF.
Combos!
Close the gap for your command throw with this!
214B xx 632146P or 623K
Counter hit!
Jump CD, 3C, 41236A
Team Iori
Iori
Highlights from the move list
Overhead: 6B
Unique Chain: c5B xx 6A•A
c5B: This is a standing low! Very deceptive!
j.4B: A lot of newcomers have trouble with this command, but once you know the secret it's actually really easy. Just hold 6(forwards) as you jump over your opponent and hit B. That's it. Since you've switched sides, 6 is now technically 4 and you'll get your cross-up just fine.
44B: This is a super strong backdash that basically takes you to fullscreen distance immediately.
c5B xx 6A•A xx 214C xx 214C xx 214C
623C xx 2363214P xx 236x4A+C (this has to be done on last hit!)
632146C, 5C xx 214C xx 214C xx 214C
Mature
Highlights from the move list
41236B: On hit will pull the opponent in and can be canceled into any of her specials or supers freely.
2363214P: This is Mature's iconic projectile. It covers a huge chunk of the screen and forces your opponent to respond. Throw one out and make them come to you.
Combos!
c5C xx 214C xx 214C xx 214C
c5B(2) xx 236236A+C
Vice
Highlights from the move list
Overhead: 6A
Unique Chain: c5C xx 6A
Launcher: 214P
236P follow-up: This follow-up can be done after 214P or 41236P for some extra damage.
1235982P: While this motion looks intimidating, this isn't that different from the inputs you might naturally hit as you're trying to super jump. Think of it as an exaggerated super jump and roll the joystick from the 1 position all the way around to 8, then slap it down to 2 and press A or C. You can do this super extremely low to the ground so going into practice mode and seeing how low you can get it to test how well you have the input down can help.
Combos!
2B xx 2B xx 5A xx 214A xx 236A
c5C xx 6A xx 41236B
c5C xx 6321463214B+D
Team Fatal Fury
Terry
Highlights from the move list
Overhead: 6A
Unique Chain: c5D xx 6A
Cross-Up: j.D
Launcher: 41236K
Easy MAX-cancel starter: c5C xx 6B xx 41236B+C
41236K: This is Power Charge. It's going to be the foundation of your basic punish combo as it has a neat cancel to Power Dunk at the end built-in.
236C: Round Wave is an odd move. There is only one way to combo into it that I'm aware of, but even without being in MAX-mode, Round Wave is one of a select few moves that is always allowed to be free-canceled for, uh, reasons? I will let you in on a super secret technique though. If you're in MAX-mode and your opponent is in the corner, input 6236B+C and Terry will perform the first hit of his Power Dunk and immediately cancel into Round Wave. After that, you can cancel Round Wave into something else or you can link to another Power Dunk or Rising Tackle.
Combos!
2C xx 236A
3B xx 3A xx 3C xx 214A
2B xx 2B xx 2~8C (start holding down with your first 2B input!)
5D xx 6A xx 41236D xx 623D
2B xx 5B xx 623D
5D xx 6A xx 41236D xx 2141236P
Andy
Highlights from the move list
Overhead: 6B
Unique Chain: c5C xx 3A
Cross-Up: j.D
Launcher: 41236P
22P: This move allows Andy to throw shurikens at a grounded enemy. You're guaranteed to be able to follow this up after any 623P that is able to land its last hit (where it spikes the enemy back down) so make sure you're always getting that last bit of damage! If you're near the opponent, you can even land this as a follow up to sweeps or j.CD if they forget to ukemi after being knocked down!
41236P: This is a command grab so you have to be near the opponent to land it. If you do, you get a free launcher that you can follow up with just about anything you could want to. If you're like me and want the absolute most out of your combos, here's a secret to getting the final hit of a 623C after launching with 41236P. Remember how we talked about holding forward until you're ready to run and then just tapping forward one more time? Well, just like MAX-cancel to run, you can do the same thing here. While Andy is performing the command grab, just hold forward. When he launches and you get control again, just tap forward and you'll immediately start running so you can make it to them in time to land that full uppercut and when it spikes, you can absolutely follow up with 22A from anywhere on screen. Advanced players should make a point to nail this as it's great 0 meter damage.
Combos!
c5C(2) xx 41236P, 16C
2C xx 16C xx 236C
Corner only!
c5C(1) xx 214A, 623A, 22A (22A must be done once they're on the ground.)
c5C(1) xx 6B xx 236D~A xx 2141236B+D
Joe
Highlights from the move list
Unique Chain: c5C xx 6B
2369K: Possibly one of the easiest super commands in KOF, this can be used as a heavily damaging anti-air.
214K: Somewhat of a staple trait of Joe's repertoire is that this move leaves the opponent in a juggle-able state. This works best when your opponent has jumped at you, but you can set the AI to jump in the corner and practice all the things you can follow this up with. 623K should be your go-to, but if you want a little more damage, 2369K is always there. Just keep in mind that this is not an overhead.
236P: One of the more unique projectiles in the game, Joe will unleash an uppercut so fierce that it summons a hurricane. (Technically it's a tornado, but don't tell Joe. It'll crush his whole worldview) Be careful to not do this attack right next to your opponent however as the projectile will often spawn behind the opponent if you're too close!
PPPPP: Everyone's favorite kind of special move, a rapid button press. This one has two enders you can perform with either 236A or 236C. A is a (SC) overhead and C is a low.
214214K: This is the strongest low kick in history. Joe wanted me to let you know.
Combos!
c5C xx 6B xx 41236D
c5C xx PPPPP xx 236A xx 236236A+C
214B, 623D (works against jump-in, but easier to practice in the corner)
c5D xx 623D xx 2369D
Combined!
c5D xx 623D xx 9D
Art of Fighting Team
Highlights from the move list
Overhead: 6A
Link: 2B, 2C
Cross-Up: j.C
214A/C damages guard good.
236236A+C: Unique to Ryo, this super guarantees a stun on your opponent meaning you can finish your combo with this super, then continue right into another combo!
Combos!
2B, 2C xx 236C
c5D xx 623C xx 2363214C
c5C xx 623C xx 236236A+C, c5C xx 214D
Highlights from the move list
Unique Chain: c5C xx 6B
Combos!
c5C xx 41236D, 6B xx 646D
c5C xx 6A xx 214D
c5D xx 6B xx 2363214C
Unique Chain: c5C xx 6B
Highlights from the move list
Cross-Up: j.D
Combos!
41236D, 2363214B
c5C xx 3D xx 623C•623C
Psycho Soldier Team
Unique Chain: c5C xx 6B
Cross-Up: j.B
Launcher: 41236P
Psycho Projectiles and Reflect: Athena is all about chucking projectiles. Her 236P has great variety in speed between the light and heavy variants and 214B casts a reflective barrier that will send the opponent's projectiles back at them. While she does have some combos, your meat and potatoes with her will be keeping the opponent away from you with these key tools.
623P: Can be done in mid-air!
2C xx 214C
c5C xc 6B xx 623C xx 236236D
c5C xx 6B xx 214D xx 6321463214A (press A+B+C+D to recover from super faster after it hits)
Highlights from the move list
Overhead: 6A
Unique Chain: c5C xx 6A
Cross-Up: j.C
Launcher: 236K
c5C xx 421B 214214A
236D, 41236C
far 5C xx 41236A
Highlights from the move list
Overhead: 6A
Unique Chain: c5C xx 6A
Cross-Up: j.C
Launcher: 236K
236K: This variant loses the auto-guard, but gains the ability to combo into this launcher!
214P: This attack is a great air-to-ground ability that will launch the opponent on hit for a follow-up!
Combos!
c5C xx 236D, 41236D
c5C xx 214A(1) xx 236236P
c5C xx 214A(1) xx 2363214B+D
Combined!
Highlights from the move list
Overhead: 6B
Unique Chain: c5C xx 6A
Cross-Up: All jumping attacks. This character is kind of good.
Easy MAX-Cancel: c5C xx 6A xx 214B+C
641236B+D, j.D, c5C xx 6A xx 214214D
Agents Team
Highlights from the move list
Overhead: 6A
Unique Chain: c5C(2) xx 6A(2)
Cross-Up: j.C
Launcher: 4~6P
41236P: This is a staple combo ender and you can even mash the punch keys for additional hits!
623C: Reflects projectiles!!
Puncher Vision: This is a command dash that can be performed with 236K or 214K depending on whether you want to dash forward or backwards. Vanessa can do some follow-up attacks out of them as well by pressing towards and A or C during the dash. The dash is projectile invincible. You can also cancel the dash into Puncher Weaving by pressing 4A or 4C
Puncher Weaving: This is a command stance that you can hold the button to stay in indefinitely. Though it may look like a dodge and it does technically have some upper body invincibility, that invincibility is very limited and any attack that doesn't hit high will still smack you. What's important to note from Puncher Weaving is what you can do out of it. I consider Puncher Weaving a "reactionary stance" as it makes two of Vanessa's key reaction specials, her projectile invincible dodge and her projectile reflection, simple inputs. While holding the A variant of Puncher Weaving, you can press 6K or 4K to cancel to Puncher Vision to slip through projectiles and chain right back into Weaving thanks to Vision being cancellable to Weaving. The other big deal is 4C from the A variant as it performs a much faster version of her 623C which will reflect fireballs just like her normal command version does! And should you need to block, letting go of holding the button for Weaving will instantly cancel out of it. Weaving is an open threat, begging your opponent to make the mistake of trying to zone her out.
Combos!
2B xx 2A xx 6A(2) xx 623A
c5C(2) xx 6A(2) xx 41236C
Corner Only!
c5C(2) xx 6A(2) xx 4~6A, 623C xx236236C
Combined!
c5C(2) xx 6A(2) xx 4~6A, 623C xx236C
236B~6A, 623C, 236236C
Combined!
236B~6A, 623C, 236C
Seth
Highlights from the move list
Overhead: 4B
Unique Chain: c5C(1) xx 4A
The Dive Kicks: Seth has a wealth of dive kicks and he's able to cancel his air punches and air CD into them making for some truly suffocating pressure. Each are performed with the 236 motion and have their own strengths and weakness so play with them to learn how you'd want to use each one.
j.C xx 236B
c5C(1) xx 6B xx 63214B xx 6B
c5D xx 4A xx 236A(1) xx 2363214K, 236236P
Ramon
Highlights from the move list
Unique Chain: c5C xx 3B
Tiger Roads: There are a couple variants to his command dash, Tiger Road, but all roads point to this mechanic being his main gimmick. Ramon is able to cancel at the wall to a series of diving approaches, some throws, some attacks, as well as cancel the run to try to trick his opponent into uppercutting. Spend a few minutes just getting used to the feel of running and cancelling with A+B+C. And remember, the cancel of the run is actually super cancellable in itself so you can run up to your opponent and cancel the run right into his throw super if you're feeling wild.
22P: One of the coolest things to me is this OTG that allows you to follow-up his wild throws and cancel them to super. The cancel window is as his elbow hits the opponent. Don't rush it!
c5C xx 623B xx 623B 22A xx 6321463214P
214K xx (at wall)236A xx 22A xx 2141236K
Ikari Warriors Team
LeonaOverhead: 6B
Unique Chain: c5C xx 6B
Cross-Up: j.2C
214K: Earring Explosive is just what it sounds like. Leona wears bombs on her ears and throws them at people. She's kind of metal like that. This is a great neutral tool as she can throw them very slowly or quickly depending on which button you use. On hit this attack leaves the opponent in a juggle-able state and you can follow up with almost anything!
828282B+D: So, Leona can fall victim to the Riot of the Blood, a sign of someone who bears some of Orochi's power. This form is often called Orochi Leona. You won't see it much in modern KOF games, but you can actually activate it manually at the expense of some health and meter. During this form she is blisteringly fast and gets some unique animations to show how off just how powerful she is.
2B, 2A xx 2~8A
214B, 2141236B
Corner
c5C(2) xx 236236C
c5C xx 6B xx 214C
4~6C, 4~6D, 23693214C
Highlights from the move list
c5C xx 41236D
2C xx 4~6C(2) xx 2363214A+C
Highlights from the move list
Unique Chain: c5C xx 6B
Launcher: 4~6P
41236P: This is the start to a throw combo! Clark is able to press 22A, 22C, or 22B or D for a unique follow up. Try them all out!
236P follow-up: Clark is able to follow up 41236K or 623K with this elbow smash.
c5C xx 4B xx 4~6C xx 623C
6321463214A+C
Team New Faces
Yashiro
Highlights from the move list
Overhead: 6A
Unique Chain: c5C xx 6A
Launcher: 63214A
41236C: This variant is actually an overhead! Don't go wild with it, but if you do get it to hit, you can cancel it to super for some big damage!
2141236A+C: This super allows you to hit many more times by mashing the punch keys as quickly as possible.
236236P: This super can be held simply by holding the key you pressed to do it! The longer you hold it, the more damage it does!
c5D xx 6A xx 623C
41236C xx 236C xx 236236C
Combined!
41236C xx 236C xx 236C
c5C xx 6A xx 63214A xx 236236P
(In order to get the super to hit, you need to hold the punch button for a bit, then release as they come back down towards you!)
Orochi Yashiro
Hold Start as you select Yashiro.
Highlights from the move list
Overhead: 6A
Unique Chain: c5C xx 6A
214P: This is a command grab that actually lets you follow up for more damage! Don't a small dash right before you try to follow it up will give you a lot more options though.
c5C xx 6A xx 632146P
c5C xx 6A xx 41236B
214A, dash!, c5C xx 6A xx 6321463214A+C
Shermie
Highlights from the move list
Overhead: 6B
Unique Chain: c5C xx 6B
Cross-Up: j.C
Orochi Shermie
Hold Start as you select Shermie.
Highlights from the move list
Overhead: 6B
Unique Chain: c5C xx 6B
Cross-Up: j.C
623P: Shermie calls down a bolt of lightning. This move can be extended further by mashing whichever punch key you used to activate it making it a really easy anti-air!
Mugetu no Raiun: This is Shermie's projectile. There are four variants, one for each button, and they're performed by doing the 41236 motion. If you ever played SFxT and remember Jin's projectile, Shermie is where that concept came from! The projectile will always appear the same relative distance from Shermie with A being the closest and D being the furthest. You can imagine the order as the projectile gets further away from you the further into the alphabet your get!
c5C xx 6A xx 236B
c5C xx 6B xx 236236A+C
Corner Only!
2C xx 214B xx 236236K (keep an eye on your combo counter. When the number is 6, cancel to super)
Chris
Highlights from the move list
Overhead: 6B
Notable link: 2A, c5C or 2C (Very hard but cool!)
Unique Chain: c5C xx 6A (substantially more important than the link!)
Cross-Up: j.D
Launcher: air 236K
623P: Chris will leap over his opponent and initiate a command grab that allows you to freely follow up with a full combo.
Leading Limbs: Chris has an old KOF dodge that can be performed by holding forward or down and piano-ing from D to B. To piano, just think about how you tap your fingers in succession on a desk, then do that across D to B while holding forward and the Leading High will come out. The High is an overhead and is super cancellable, the Low is a low.
Combos!
Orochi Chris
Hold Start as you select Shermie
Highlights from the move list
Overhead: 6B
Unique Chain: c5C xx 6A
Cross-Up: jD
Launcher: 41236K
41236K: This will automatically break the opponent's guard so you can think of it kind of like a throw more-or-less. While this does launch, your opponent into the air, you can't link anything afterwards. Thankfully you can cancel the last hit into 623A for a free follow-up.
236P: This is a very slow projectile. Great for dropping over top of your opponent after knocking them down. If it hits, you can sometimes follow up behind it for a combo!
236C, c5C xx 6A xx 214C
c5C xx 6A xx 41236D xx 623A
c5C xx 6A xx 623C(2) xx 2141236A+C
More Fighters to come!
Thanks for reading!
Thank you so much for reading and if this guide has helped to demystify some of the mechanics or techniques for KOF, let me know on Twitter @Play_More_KOF. I'd like to give a special thank you to Code Mystics as their net code patch was the impetus for this massive guide, my wife who helped check many of the combos to be included in this guide, Dream Cancel for being one of the only sources I was able to use to cross-reference some of the characters I was less familiar with, El Matador for sending me the Daimon animation as I wasn't able to find a copy of, and Fighters Generation for being the only reason I ever stumbled across this game almost 15 years ago. And, of course, a special thank you to SNK for making the many, many games I spend way too much time obsessing over.
