Boulder Punching 101 - Chris Redfield Thread The Director's cut

Classic Fighting Games Ultimate Marvel VS Capcom 3
1041

Retic, ever wondered “DAMN, they blocked and passed my zoning game with Phoenix” or “DAMN, they are great blockers against Wesker straightforward (yet tricky) offence”? Well fear no more, the only missing link is how to destroy blockers MOAR.

Chris is NOT a rushdown character. He has fail air mobility, and poor moving “forward” game. He has 3 guns which does specific jobs (Shotgun for tri jumpers, machine gun for creating distance on grounded opponent, magnum for raw power), 3 grenades which makes the opponent look out (they are very small to be noticed when the screen is scrolled up) which all leads to great damage. His damage output rivals Wesker even, and can start combos from defensive position like after Land mine which is Good vs some dive kickers, or His flamethrower anti air into sweep combo vs regular jumpers.

Your mission? make the opponent block your gun fire, and try to combo from any grenades. Chris can deal high chip damage that can rival other characters’ hyper chip block, especially with H grenade and jumping shotgun. Learn the magnum combo (Standing Mag into dash to jump Mag, land and do another Standing Mag) for a whooping 430k damage. Or if you have trouble, try Standing Mag into Super jump Mag for 300k dmg. BTW, he can kill assists easily with standing Magnum into Super Jump Magnum which does like 400kish damage to them.

Just dont rush down. Really. You can even zone Arthur, MODOK and Dormmamu with good reads, so dont put yourself in danger and get rushed down. Although he lacks anything that hits above his head, his air throw have retardedly unusual vertical range, and leads to 500k damage with combo assists (in your case, OTG with Cr.H and Wesker otg gun together and go imediately to Sweep combo). Learn your zoning and spacing game, and try to go for Max damage combos as much as possible, not for Position favouring combos, since you cant really fetch another chance to attack the opponent.

1042

Thanks. So basically…

  1. Chris wins many games thru chip damage? I see no difficulty in zoning using deadpool (j. (back) m. trigger happy) but with chris, is it safe to assume that “chuck a grenade > call assist > then chip with magnum” is the generic strategy for chris?

  2. Still at work, so I won’t be able to practice the magnum combos (didn’t even know you could combo each magnum shots!)…but based on experience, how much time do you think do I ahve to invest to get magnum combo right?

  3. you mentioned max dmg combos; CHris ain’t exactly Wesker in the combo department, but apart from the triple/multiple magnum shot combos you listed, what are his best “max dmg” combos?

  4. is it rare for a chris player (in the competitive scene…not in a match with a clueless 12 year old) to pull off ground combos/air combos due to his zoning nature?

thanks again in advanced

1043

Retic, Chris is what we call a control character. He controls the ground very well and forces opponents to jump which then allows you to mix them up… The nature of mvc3 kind of nerfs this gameplay because of air blocking, great air normals and airdashing… His dash was probably nerfed because his ground control is so very good…

You cannot play keepaway with Chris… People will jump… What you have to do is force opponents to take risks to get in on you while you are being safe. Once you force a mistake or a good trade, execute your combo which usually kills… Than you begin corner control versus the incoming character which is Chris’s strong point…

Do not focus on chip, focus on protecting/covering the areas of the screen that are favorable for the opponent. If your opponent favors the top front corner of the screen, its a bad match up…

Here’s the little bit I know about chris zoning.

Versus projectile zoning, magnum will end repetitions of projectiles after a blocked projectile (be wary of layered assist projectiles) even a light disruptor (timing is reversal)… Ground dashers like Felicia and Jill get pushed back by machine gun, but you can’t rely on this, once you force a jump you have to take the initiative, things like air grab and crossunders with an assist backing you are typically what your mixing up with… Heavy assist users and heavy super users (typically beams) can be dealt with by focusing on the assist or weak point of the super in question while your assist covers you, calling you assist and jumping or super jumping with magnum usually is the simple answer. Be careful since the immidiate reaction is usually to rush the hell out of you… Half screen fighters are (something you may never see or at least see played right such as ironman and morrigan) typically get dealt a hard time with ground shot gun and super jump machine gun because their dashes suck and they have to pressure from the air. Force them to drop and block until they dash in on you where you can take advantage of they’re crappy ground dashes… Teleporters are not so bad for Chris, it only takes one baited teleport and Chris will cripple that character, his normals are decent and he can use an assist to combo a throw which is better than nothing. Play the match up the same as you would if they did not have a teleport, just be on the lookout for it and punish…

Air/ground dashers are a bad match up. They are typically strong in the air and on the ground so while you cover one zone they’ll attack your flank. Assists can only cover so much. You have to recognize your opponent’s weakest zone and force them to play that area on top of trying not to lose chris while playing a solid match up. If there is only one of these guys on the opposing team, I think it worth the xf to kill them, but that’s just me…

This is not set in stone, characters like wolvie and wesker can maneuver through zones quickly and bypass your best strategies, remember that this is a fighting game and nothing is certain so playing Chris requires a lot of prediction or even wild guessing. Try not to fall into recognizable patterns and remember that you don’t have to be doing something the entire round, if you’re not in control of you opponent you can always just watch and wait for him to commit to something then proceed to counter.

Finally, Chris in xf is better as a chip machine than a zoner. Flame thrower melts life bars and guns look like they are not being blocked, his grenade super does stupid chip as well. Since zoning takes time which you do not have in xf you have to learn how to rush and lock down wih Chris. He’s almost a completely different character and you have to re-learn him in order to be effective with his xf…

All of this should be considered when looking for team synergy for Chris as a character while also covering marvel general team synergy such as safe dhc and exetended combos…

1044

i think i’ve found something really random about chris’s airthrow. with chris’s ground throw i can otg pistol and send out an assist %100 of the time. with an airthrow it’s seems random. no matter how fast i do it sometimes the pistol and assist misses and the opponent recovers. i’ve done this in training mode many times and got the same results. the strange thing is otg pistol alone works all the time it’s only random if i do it with assist. it’s really strange and can get assists killed so can someone else test this out and confirm if it happens to them too?

1045

how do you perform the combination punch I cant get past 4 hits I seen ppl get it up to 10hits

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Regarding rectic 4 questions:

1- It is not safe to assume Chris has generic strategy. He has to not be predictable or his zoning game will shatter easily. “After shooting machine gun, jump back with down heavy (pistol shot) to stop ground dashers / tri jump and get space” is one way to keep the opponent honest. Tossing grenades out of the blue is not great, since you are left open for a valuable time for the opponent. My way to create a breathing space is to call Haggar lariat and put a land mine, if ANY or both got me a hit, I can score a sure 600k dmg assistless. Also magnum is not for chip :P, its for RAW PAWAH due to its combo potential.

2- The three Magnum shots combo have kinda akward timing due to various positions in the screen, but Standing Mag to Super jump Mag is easy peasy and score huge damage to assists. To be honest, I use it at the most random times full screen, when the opponent feels safe and calls assist, and BAM, a Q_Q moment for them. To be honest, learn the Mag to Super jump Mag first, and experiment different timing to get the feel of the timing.

3- Max damage combos uses Machine gun otg instead of Magnum gun otg, and needs assists which makes all 4 hits of Grenade hyper connects, which opens up opprotunity to throw Flame thrower and then canceled into sweep combo. You do your first launch combo and spike them down with the air magic series. Now instead of Jumping and shooting magnum for re launch, you jump and shoot machine gun instead, and press launch (S) immediately. You perform the air series very swiftly after that, and OTG crouching H. At this moment you use the assists which can allow you to perform full grenade hyper. In my case I use Spencer Slant shot to force stand and score full hyper grenade. Or Haggar lariat which causes them to experience hard knock down, and while he is hitting them, throw a M grenade and cancel it to Grenade hyper the moment they fall down. Best result in corner. After the hyper, link to flame thrower into Sweep combo. 750k dmg for 2 bars, 1.5 bar build in the combo. AWESOME and a must to learn.

4- No it is not rare. Stuff like land mines is more powerful than you think. After they get hit by a truck load of damage, they start to be cautious and more careful. This is when stuff gets tricky. When they start to call assists and cover them properly, you do not have time to lay a land mine or shoot magnum, and its the reason why Magneto, Wolvie and Whisker a very bad match up. That it is why Chris needs to do as much as chip damage as possible, and finish them off the moment they fall into one of the traps or the moment you hit them with Crouching M and start of the combo.

Play like RE5. Build space, lay traps and control ground space, find an opening (like shooting da head and PUANCH them :P) and finish them off. The chip damage you have done will make sure that the they go down the moment they make an error. That is why I mostly emphasize on Chip damage, since it will make sure that you only need one opening to kill them off, since second opening is very very rare.

Sorry for this wall :sweat:.

1047

Great points guys, I’ve recently decided to go back to learning Chris thoroughly, so this will help me out a lot too. I’m really trying my best to find just one good STRONG combo, and spend the rest of the time on zoning. I’ve got some experience with him, but not like I have to Jill (my point) and Wesker (2nd for now).

Team Bio Hazard needs a lil work, but with stuff like the above posts it won’t take too long before I feel comfy with Chris. :slight_smile:

Kei

1048

Sometimes even without assists the gun will whiff. Depends entirely on the character you just airthrew and where on the screen. It’s really stupid and specific.

Hit the next button as Chris punches. It’s basically an invisible QTE.

1049

I discovered a crossup with Chris after a grounded grab. It seems that for some characters, you can dash over him and end up on the other side if you time the dash right. I’m not sure who else it works on though. So far I’ve tested it on Magneto, Wesker, Joe, X-23, Hsien-Ko, Arthur, and Ammy. It seems like it only works on Joe and Arthur, probably because of their small sprites. I don’t know how useful this will be but Chris seems to lack in mixups. This might be something he can use.

1050

Any good times to set up grenades?

I usually throw them after taking someone down.

If a dive kicker is in the air will a mine help me? Ie: they hit me, mine blows up, hits them, I combo.

Edit: jumpback down H has been good to me. I can see now why chris can’t do anything.

Also I swung the stun rod at taskmaster whom went for counter super. I was able to cancel before the stun rod hit into magnum. Priceless.

1051

here’s a cool and safe mixup against incoming characters in the corner:
after a corner snapback you have enough time to throw 1 flaming grenade, jump forward meaty h,s

this gives the following possibilities:
-jump s can be delayed a little bit to act as an over head if the opponent lands first to start a combo
-jump s can be wiffed completely to go right onto a ground throw
-or jump s can be done early to go right into a throw on landing
-jump h can lead into an air throw or throw tech if the opponent pushes a button
-jump h,s can hit

all of these options lead into a damaging and even %100 combo!

the only safe counters the opponent has is to hard drive if they’re sentinel or push block the first j H and use an air movement to get out for some of the other characters. you can counter the air movement by landing and superjumping airthrow as the pushblock will give you enough time to react. if they tech the throws, hit you, or block everything they will still land into the flame grenade allowing you more mix ups on the ground if they’re blocking or combo if they’re not blocking.

one unique property of the flaming grenade is the flames stay on screen even after it has done all of it’s hits! this allows for throw mixups on the ground that are hard to escape because of the lingering flames.

i’ve killed incoming characters before they even had a chance to do anything because of these incoming mixups! if i know my combo won’t kill a character because i just don’t have the meter i’ll instead go for a long combo to put the opponent in the corner and build meter and end in a snap out to try and %100 combo incoming character character with lower health using the meter i’ll build in the mixup and combo after mixup. i’ve won some matches using only snap out combos into this mixup repeatedly.

at first glance chris seems to be lacking in continuous offensive momentum like some of the better rush down characters but this mixup has really boosted it and i now consider him one of the best offensive characters in the game since my chris and his team can kill an entire team after just one opening.

1052

Why not just combo? Or if you can’t, they can still roll. You must have the option set to neutral teching.

Test it out. Shouldn’t be hard to use a record function in training mode. Just record Wolverine doing j.2H at Chris when you have a landmine out.

Therein lies the problem. Because you are commiting to something they can airthrow you out of. You cannot tech throws while you are in animation of a normal. Therefore you are liable to be airthrown if you attempt this setup.

People just snapback, do the flame grenade, then standing shotgun to let them fall into the flame puddle before you start your clearly terrible high low throw mixup.

1053

@Heroic_Legacy
thanks for pointing out that hole in my mixup…
if the opponent throws chris they will land on the flaming grenade anyway. this means one of the downsides to the mixup is a low damaging throw with no followup. is this mixup worth chris being thrown into no followup vs chris’s mixups followed into an %100 combo worth the risk?.. HELL YEAH!

that is just one mixup chris can use on an incoming character. he can also empty jump anticipate an air throw and tech it leaving the opponent in a pool of flames for another mixup. no mixups are %100 but great players that can read their opponent can take advantage of it and make it %100.

this mix up is as good as any of the the other mixups against incoming characters in the game used by some of the other characters but if there are counters to this mixup that will negate the risk please let me know.

1054

@ Cambosam Mix up

I kinda agree with Heroic statement that they can Air throw you when you jump H or S after snapback / down. Besides, one of your options said that H or S will hit, which will drop them into the pool of flames. Should you time the next attack wrong, they can instant recover and leave you with poor damage (similar to Throw H grenade then pop up the shotty on BLOCK, which is one of Chris safest way to greet guests). Also you cant just land and throw them, since they are in blockstun of H grenade. Also Jumping H have fewer active frames to be a good meaty, and so you open yourself more chances of being air thrown.

But should you be successful in it, even with the retarded scaling of H grenade, you still have more than enough hits to deal a good sum of damage, although if you use specific assists, it MAY lead to 100% damage. Yea H grenade scaling is retarded due to multiple hits. I must test it as soon as possible.

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@Heroic_Legacy
Ah, you’re right. I got so excited that I didn’t even think of those things.

1056

when fighting a phoenix team you have no choice but to go for a mixup after snapping her in. chipping ain’t gonna do it that’ll just give her the meter she needs and she can also choose to air dash out of the way.

because the timing for a character coming in after a snapbacks is always the same, the exact timing to throw grenade h and jump forward meaty h so that it can’t be thrown is very possible. you can even start jumping in with another move like jumping l as that move starts up faster, stays active longer, and you can proceed to h,s afterwards. keep in mind the timing is only consistent after a snapback but after a character’s death the timing for an incoming character is different depending on the finishing move.

the beauty of the grenade h is that it’ll force most opponents to think twice about pushing a button coming in. they’ll come in blocking or trying to dash or jump out of the way instead, putting chris in a great position to pressure or punish as he’s right next to them with flaming grenades both protecting him and allowing him to mixup again.

i have %100 combos with my chris team after any of the followup options if i start off with enough meter. my followups also build enough meter to continuously snapback and reset the incoming mixup. i don’t get why the reward isn’t worth the risk. if anything in the mixup fails chris can simply back off and chip without receiving much punishment.

1057

Phoenix snap-in with Chris on point eh?

Throw H grenade, meaty (neutral) jumping shotgun while calling assist. Phoenix now has to land. She is in too much blockstun to airdash out. Throw another grenade. 8 or so hits of chip. Grenade super to keep her grounded (If she jumps she still has to block the 2nd grenade and she’s stuck landing again) Half her health gone unless she popped X-Factor. Maybe more depending on if you have meter to DHC to something super chip damage.

Normally if I see Phoenix on opponent’s team I instantly go for anti Phoenix pick and get Storm as my second. Instant she says SHOT I just THC X-Factor kill.

1058

Props to llnd for holding it down again, dudes chris is an inspiration.

1059

Jump back Down H has done wonders for me. Spam it two three times. Call Lariat while planting a mine or aim master H while lobbing a grenade.

How good is super jump smg for the purpose of me running to kill the clock?

1060

Yeah, I have noticed Chris isn’t a rushdown at all. He’s keepaway, which is my most favored style of play. And it’s Chris for Odin’s sake, what more do you want? Even when my mates tell me to drop him 'cause he’s too slow and ain’t going anywhere.

So, Grenades play an important part of his gameplay? 'Cause I rarely use them, only when they change their character I plant a :l: Grenade on their feet. And what is this you mention about the Shotgun against tri jumpers? I also rarely use that gun too…

Sorry for the noobness on my part, but as said I’m fairly new to MvC3 and fighting games in general.