Ask Us Anything: KOF FAQ & Advice Corner

I’m not trying to whine but is there ANY fucking way to prevent myself from accidentally grabbing?

I’ve asked this on DreamCancel and basically everyone told me to “Wait 3 frames” or something. I don’t know how to count frames, so that wasn’t much help.

Man, this is so frustrating.

Feel and experience. When someone does something unsafe and you’re within walking range to punish them, run up and hit them with cl.C or cl.D and go into your desired combo. Running has a predetermined set distance before it naturally stops, but it could stop shorter if you use an attack. So just get used to the habit of inputting a run to punish something if someone is out of distance of a cl.C or cl.D range. Because you’re running, you won’t be able to do a throw unless you intentionally ram the stick back as soon as possible while point blank with your opponent then press C or D.

Otherwise I can’t picture any other situation where you’d accidentally throw in a situation where you didn’t want a throw. If you happened to throw a roll, that’s usually something good. Though you might not have hit them with a full combo, at least you didn’t let them get away with doing something stupid.

Yeah, I noticed I can’t throw while running today while practicing.

What I meant was it’s an executional error. While trying to start out a combo, sometimes I end up grabbing instead of doing a cl. C or D. I’ll have to start doing what you suggested, though. Thanks.

You have to learn when to let the directional input go neutral. For example, say someone DPs and you block it, it might be natural for you to keep holding back when going for your close C/D punish, but if you don’t go neutral, you’ll end up throwing them. It can also happen when doing a string that involves a forward command normal, you might start holding forward preemptively when doing the initial close C/D. Train yourself to not do that and you should have an easier time.

Stop holding back/forward when you go to punish. Instead just hit C/D and then go into whatever combo you had in mind. It takes a little practice to get the timing down of when it’s okay to do something like close C xx DP without getting a throw but it comes naturally over time like Laban said.

Well, depending on the character, you can simply start the combo with down C.

@DarkGeneral : I’m pretty sure it’s not his problem. It always happens when you do the input of a command normal too soon after a close normal.

I’ll work on letting the stick go back to neutral, as that will help me in other areas as well (especially with Urien. Sometimes I accidentally tackle punish when I want to grab).

Thanks again guys.

I came here because my execution for combos in Trial mode is atrocious, so I need some assistance with that. That, and does it play like Marvel, because the only characters I like thus far are Athena and Elisabeth.

Is there a shortcut I can do with Hwa to not get super after slide instead of DP? I get super like 90% of the time and it seems hard to go back to neutral.

You can run and grab, but you have to do back+C or D during the run to execute it.

After slide, do half-circle back, then forward. It takes a bit to get used to, but you should getting the feel of it a few tries in the lab.

I’m planning on playing Chin/Daimon/Benimaru but I’m not sure about the order. I’m thinking that Daimon should probably be in the middle and I’ve heard that Benimaru does well in any spot. In what spot would Chin be optimal in this team?

Chin would be optimal last probably. Beni does everything and Daimon is good second. That seems like a good order.

Any tips on doing the hcb f command grab from crouching normals on a ps3 stick?

You just gotta keep doing clean execution. You’ll get it like nothing eventually. Nothing that anyone can really say to coordinate your hands.

Well you can try intergrating the motion in the crouching normal

632B146P to do cr.B xx hcb,f+P.

Aslo don’t forget that hcb,f grabs are usually instant grabs, and that low lights often give frame advantage, you can often actually LINK into the grab rather than cancel into it, making the motion much slower. For example Daimon can link his cr.B into his hcb,f+P without having to cancel.

Ok, I’m not THAT great at fighting games but usually I can at least do a few basic combos and such in the lab. However, in KOFXIII I can’t do ANYTHING in challenges or the lab(on a TE arcade stick mind you). Any tips on execution in this game?

Can someone explain Ash’s basic HD combos? There’s no listing for the hyper guide. Like how do cancel flash kick into dive thingy? thx thx thx

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Check there for ideas of what combos are realistic.

As for charging, you’ll wanna charge [1] > [7] + K > [6] + K > [1]… In other words, you hold downback to charge both moves and ride the left inputs to upback so that you can keep your backwards charge for the other special, which nets you enough time to start charging downback again.

Oic, so it’s a charge partition? That’s what I thought but wasn’t sure.

It’s not really charge partitioning. Charge partitioning is a specific system in 3s that actually allows you to walk forward for a bit while retaining charge. You can’t do that in this game.