Ask Us Anything: KOF FAQ & Advice Corner

Oh yeah, looking at Spark’s directionals you never really leave a backwards oriented input. Good to know, I knew the notation for the combos but never actually how to do them.

Anti-Kensou strategies please, I keep getting frame trapped.

Guard roll. Otherwise be a little more specific on what’s hitting you.

How does getting crossed up in the corner work? Seems to rarely happen randomly at times esp. when I’m Iori going for a j/hyper hop C.

I know if an opponent is back turned when they’re in the corner, you can cross them up. A case of this would be kyo doing DP.C and you punish his from his back end which would knock him down back turned. There are also the cases when someone is actually barely out of the corner which allows for a cross up.

So I’m brand new to KoF and would like a little help in understanding when to use the different hops in the game. This is how I understand the use of hops so far from watching KoF XIII sessions and playing against opponents:

Short hop: Used mostly after a KD for setups and used a tool to keep up pressure, ??

Hyper hop: Jump over projectiles, close distance, ??

Normal Jump and Super Jump: A lot of my hyper hop or hop attempts are punished by these(e.g I go for hh.d.C with Kyo and they neutral or up-back jump with CD to punish), ??

I understand the hyper hop the least. I jump in too much in general, something I am trying to work on, but part of this is because I don’t quite grasp the “correct” times to hop. I also don’t have the hops spacing with my characters down, which no doubt contributes to my failed hop attempts. Any insights or tips would be appreciated.

Another question is punishing hop attempts. Would standing A/B and cl.C/D or d.C be the more appropriate punish versus say meeting in the air with a CD or good air-to-air normal (like Shen’s CD?)? Or is it just space dependent, with the latter for when they are jumping farther away and former for when they are closer in range?

Thanks for the helps guys, for reference my team as of right now is K’/Kyo/Shen.

EDIT: Just watched the KoF: Rule of 2 (or 3) and it showed interesting uses of the regular jumps. I had been focused on just the short and hyper hops that I’ve failed to implement the other jumps into my game.Here is the link to where I found the video for anyone else who is interested.

I’d say hops actually play a less important roll in setups on knockdown. The whole point of a hop is that it’s not easy to react to, so it’s less risky to pull it out as jump-in, even without a knockdown.

Shorthops are used for: pressure, but also for stopping advancing opponents. a well played neutral jump D with K’ or Kyo will stop most advancing opponents in their tracks.

Hop back D will function as an okay pre-emptive anti-air for some characters, especially Kyo can benefit from this since his st.A is a bit shitty in terms of range.

Hyperhops are almost exclusively for jump-in pressure, it just allows you to have the benefit of a hop from a farther ranger.

As for your question on punishing hop attempts:

On the defense standing A/B is the traditional answer, but you do it more or less pre-emptively, not on reaction. close C/crouch C is often too risky, because you really can’t whiff such moves.

But it depends on the character. For example, K’ st.A is really good, and you get to convert a lot of damage off of it due to his anywhere juggles.

The autoguard on Shen’s st.C together with the fantastic range and speed, makes it a pretty safe anti-hop.

Kyo lacks the more consistent anti-hops on defense, and will have to either commit to a cr.C (which is acceptable, it’ s pretty fast) or be a bit more careful and do a pre-emptive hopback D.


On offense, you have wider options, you can safely commit to strings that will hit the opponent out of the air but are safe on block.

For example with kyo you can cr.B cr.A st.D.

if the opponent mashes after cr.A, it will get frametrapped, if he tries to hop, he will get hit.

Another option is cr.B, cl.C xx qcf+P, which will also catch the opponent attemptign to jump out.

K’ doesn’t have an as safe and universal option as kyo’ s st.D, and has to commit to st.A to check hop attempts after cr.BB, the problem being that, if the opponent decides not to hop, but mash sweep instead, he will catch you.

I hope that clears things up a bit, watch Dandy J’s Beginner’s Guide to KOF if you haven’t already.

Wow, thanks a ton dude! A lot of helpful stuff in your post. I’m gonna try Kyo’s hop back D since a lot of times I get whiff punished trying to use cr.C, similar thing happens with Shen so I’ve started to use hop back CD with him.

I’ve watched Dandy J’s guide but I don’t remember him talking about hop back normals to punish hop ins which was one of the ways that most of my opponents kept punishing my hops and wanted to check if it was a viable option.

Anyways, thanks again! I’ll try and keep these things in mind

Do you guys depend on C+D (Blowblack) in majority of the battles? I usually want to get the opponent to get in the corner as fast as possible. Maybe I’m doing it wrong, then again, my style is to go aggressive.

I use it a lot depending on matchup. Since they can be cancelled late, I think it should be used more to frame trap and whatnot depending on the opponent’s wakeup. I usually use CD when my opponent tech rolls a knockdown, if it hits then you are fine, if blocked or whiffed, you can cancel it into something else. I use it a lot against Ralf as of late because if he qcf+AC, I can ex command grab him with Iori and I will win since it has no throw invulnerability. I don’t use it against Kyo because his EX command grab is too good to try and test, then again I can always cancel into ex DP or something but I think its too risky. I think it always depends on who you are facing and what their options are. Same goes for getting the opponent in the corner, but take heed. Being too aggressive could lead to you making bad hops and getting trip guarded in the process. Character’s like Kim will really hurt you because f,f, A beats hops about 7-3/6-4 usually trading in his favor. Can’t tell you how many times I have been too aggressive and gotten punished for it and vice versa.

Im just getting back into kof. I played for 1st two months of release and then stopped because i switched to stick and couldn’t do motions properly. Im just getting back into it because im comfortable with my stick now. I play king, mai, and some other random person because i haven’t quite found a third. I chunk fireballs and fans all day until i see and opening and then combo. What else should i do with king and mai to not be repetitive with my zoning? As of now thats my main game plan and i want a new one.

I’ve used Kyo and Iori for awhile, is it a good idea to use a fireball during the opponents wake up or tech doll?

I would rather opt for using it on tech roll than wakeup.

Right now I am running the AOF team as my main what would be the best position for each character. P.S I haven’t bought Mr. Karate yet but I will in the future.

1st : Robert, 2d : Ryo, 3rd : Takuma.

You can’t go wrong with that order.

You must be incredibly solid on defense with Takuma though, but he is one of the best reverse OCVer of the game.

how do i do an hd combo?

I’ll give you 4 simple steps.

  1. Stop playing virtua fighter 5: Final showdown
  2. Start playing King of Fighters XIII
  3. ???
  4. You can do HD combo

Yes, he certainly can.

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For EVO, are we allowed to borrow someone else’s PS3 controller or arcade stick? This will be my first time competing.