I’m having a lot of trouble generating offense with Bob. At the moment I’m a pretty big training mode hero, so when I actually get into a match I get blown up hard. I come from Street Fighter so I’m not used to Bobs limbs, etc so if anyone has some tips on which buttons to press with Bob that would be great.
Standing roundhouse is a good far reaching poke. Standing fierce is good in footsies as well. Other notables would be crouching medium punch.
Crouching medium kick is ehh with Bob. His sweep is pretty bad too.
Notable Normals:
st. lp
st. lk
st. hk
cr. mp
cr. mk xx st.hp
st. mk
The reason I say these are the notable ones, is not that they are especially fast or have great hitboxes or anything, but they are all useful tools in bob’s arsenal of pressure. From what I have learned playing Bob, his “gaufrette” target combos starting with his far st. mk are great tools, each with their own purpose:
-Gaufrettes Cutter- St.mk xx st. mp xx st. hp
Although not a true combo (in between st.mp and st.hp there is a fairly good sized gap), The last st.hp is cancelable into specials. If you cancel into a lk special step into lp follow up, or a hk spinnerball into lp follow up, it is a true blockstring and safe on block. (after special step hits you can follow up w/ combo, after spinnerball you can choose to go into unsafe high/low follow ups
-Gaufrettes Kick- st. mk xx st. mk xx st. hk
The most notable thing about this target combo is that the second mk hits low. Also if you just do st.mk xx st. mk on block it pushes bob very far away so you cannot be punished. Hit confirm into the last st.HK as it is very unsafe on block
-Gaufrettes Punch- st.mk xx st. hp
This does not combo, and is pretty easily punished if your opponent is very quick, but the last hit is an overhead which is pretty easy to combo after w/ cr.mk
Another combo off of the st.mk is: st.mk xx st. mp xx st.hk( xx launcher) Use only if hit confirmed
Now if you were to just walk up and try st. mk you would get blown up every time, which is why its very important to cancel into the st.mk after st.lk or st.lp"
St. Lk is fairly quick and moves him forward a great deal, and it hits low. The spacing is very specific but if you hit with the tip of st. lp you can cancel into st.mk with follow up of your choice. This move is -4 on block (if blocked on last active frame this becomes +1)
St. Lp is much faster but the range isnt as good, but it seems to be easier get the range right for the st. mk
You can also use cr. lp in a block string until your spacing is right to use one of his normals to cancel into gaufrettes stuff.
Cr. mp is a fairly quick good range poke that is 0 frame advantage on block, and if you are close enough you can cancel into a HK spinnerball with lp follow up to get in safely.
Cr.mk is slow but has decent range and if you cancel into st. hp it pushes bob back very far making it impossible to punish. If you can hit confirm this, after the st.hp go into launcher
Cr. hp when used by itself is terribly unsafe but if you cancel a lk special step into lp follow up, it creates a frame trap, where if they try to hit you out of your special step, it will counter hit them, then you can combo into cracker etc.
St.lp xx st. lk xx st.lk Course Picante is terribly unsafe on block but if you cancel a hk spinnerball into lp follow up it becomes safe. (in between the two st. lk there is a 4 frame or so gap you can be hit out of)
St. HK has great range but is incredibly slow and if you wiff it or if they jump over you when you use it, your done for. Use sparingly to surprise your opponent just when they have forgotten you have a normal with that kind of range.
All this by itself doesnt seem very impressive (spinner ball and special step lp follow ups are -2 on block), and easy to block overhead, but Bob does have one other thing going for him…
Jumping; He is tied with Juri for the quickest jump in the game, and if you mix up neutral jumps or cross ups in the middle of your pressure it can be extremely hard for your opponent to anti-air you quick enough (a lot of times they will even be trying to poke back at you which will get you a full combo).
Neutral jump, Hk xx Hk, cr. mk xx st. hp… If you do this from fairly close in the middle of your pressure you just may catch them in a poke and lead to a very nice combo, that you can cancel into launcher, it is also extremely safe on block.
Neutral jump, Hk xx Hk, cr.mk xx cr.hp xx EX spinner ball… On hit this will let you continue to combo into whatever you want, on block after a spinner ball you will end up +1 and will be able to continue pressure.
Bob is all about finding that sweet spot (about sweep range) where the tip of his St. lk will hit that will let you move into his pressure.
And if you ever really want to get in and don’t mind spending 1 bar of meter Ex spinner ball is +1 on block and when canceled of anything it will connect (even st. lk) into a combo.
Keep in mind also that throws in this game have 7 frames of startup and only a very small majority of characters have any 3 frame startup normals at all.
And yes I know the format of this post is terrible, and I recorded a lot of footage of it all in action, but I’m not able to make movies with the .mts filetype my videos are in, so sorry and let me know if you need me to clear any of this up, thank you for reading and for your interest in discovering new Bob tech with me.
Thank you very much 
I will be sure to try all of this and learn what I can.
@splurgendii excellent post. I ran to training mode to test out all those normals haha.
I didn’t know you could combo off those gaufrettes moves, or make course picante safer. I tend to have trouble starting pressure though, or more specifically countering others’ pressure. My bob’s been getting rushed down pretty badly unfortunately 
Same here, but as a Vega player I’m used to having guys down my throat. (No homo) I got good at just blocking things out. It really seems like you have to pay your $50 to get out of jail with Bob.
Since Bob has what is probably the worst backdash in the game, I think pressure is just something we’re going to have to get used to. :sad:
It’s gonna take some smart use of swift step, EX-swift step, picking those precise moments to jump/backdash out, and just blocking IMO.
Haha yes, I’ve played Vega on and off since Vanilla SF4 I probably should have learned to block by now x] They’re my current team right now too. Cracker has some decent startup invincibility though it seems. Of course I could just be on crack and it has none lol.
@splurgendii yea really thank you for that post… im on day 3 of bob and people seem reluctant to give up any info lol. but good stuff.
btw, do you or anyone else know exactly how big that gap is in Gaufrettes Cutter?
On Hit
2 frame gap (connects on 3rd)
On Block
5 frame gap (connects of 6th)
I guess this could change depending on distance? I only tested the distance after a close s.MP.
Don’t forget st. HP which is good for beating shoto cr. mk and also has a pretty big vertical hitbox so you can catch people trying to jump over you (especially if they’re in the corner). Also st. lp is disjointed (no hurtbox on Bob’s hand) so it beats a lot of pokes and you recover in time to reaction anti-air.
From my experience, st.MK is distance-dependant. If you hit with the very tip of the punch you won’t have the distance. If, however, you use it as a overhead, you can definitely combo after it. I personally went with the Gaufrette combo ending with st.MK st.HK or something like that since that is also cancellable into manual launcher.
But not only is it feasible, it’s a good tool, I think as it’s an extremely far-reaching overhead. That being said, it seems gimmicky. The kind of thing nobody blocks because nobody plays Bob.
Well it’s a 50/50 thanks to the option of going low with a second MK, so I think it could have some potential even then, though some overheads are better the majority seem to be far worse. How can they punish the delay before the Gaufrettes Punch? Is it just with jabs or can it be something more serious? I feel the move has the range to outdistance most jabs. I like that Bob’s mixup game involves resets, but they might be turning out to be a little too large of gaps.
I’m pretty sure the second mk in his target combo isn’t actually a low, which is kind of a bummer. Seems like it really requires you to mix in his lp, lk, lk string to get a low during a string.
Honestly I think the threat which makes his strings so dangerous is being able to boost combo into cr.HP xx ex roll. Then they have to deal with a combo if it hits, and a cl.MK/nj.HP mix up if it’s blocked.
Madness. That means Bob actually has a move that’s worth spending meter on? By boost do you mean you can chain into that, or do you just link l-m-h?
And I just tested it myself, the second mk does indeed hit high. It’s like, that must be a glitch or something, right? I guess it is just meant to be the TC you use that’s comboable, but it is worse than just going continuing mk with a heavy. This is the worst news I heard all night.
You can boost to a sweep off the far s.MK to mixup with the gaufrettes punch… but it’s insanely unsafe if blocked. I’m talking something crazy like -20ish lol
So I guess there is a use for Picante. Has anyone found something for the Fast Break String? Dunno if it can be jab-punished on guard, would be nice if it was a frame trap (is that what the word means?).
In better news, from what I’ve seen Bob’s st.LP seems to have outrageous priority. I mean, I do not know what actually has priority in this game, or even if the tests I am doing confirm it (setting cpu to spam moves on record, see if I win/trade/lose), but with what I am doing I’ve yet to see a move that cleanly beats it out, and only seen it trade with things in rare situations.
Is it just because it has such a long range it is going past my hurtbox, or something? Can anyone help me?
I think I’ve also asked this before, but if you hit with your st.mk, what’s the best thing to do for guaranteed damage? Anything other than going into a launcher?
standing jab is good i like it a lot, but remember its not super fast. 5 frame start up i think? its a sneaky decent AA too
as far as damage from mk…
yea launcher is the most reliable, but its better for switching/meter/activating gems than damge
far mk is really more of a poke/mixup move
go for bnb if you want damage