I’m gonna echo a lot of what Xr0s said but just clarify a few things.
Nova/Doom/Ammy’s sole weakness is its lack of consistent damage when Nova is on point. So it’s crucial that you learn the following things:
Good incoming setups after a snap; this game is getting to the point where everyone has an anchor, and if you can’t kill the point character off one touch anyway you might as well snap the anchor in. Luckily Nova has some very good incoming with Cold Star and is super hard to block.
The Cold Star crumple setup. Any time you hit an opponent standing without using an assist, you can call Cold Star to keep them standing while you go into Nova Strike H to crumple them. The problem is that this isn’t super consistent to confirm into, so you’ll have to mess around with different characters’ hitboxes both standing and crouching (some characters just duck under Nova’s s.H and some just crouch Cold Star at weird angles).
Generally you can do what I did in the Nova/Frank/Ammy video, just make sure you Grav Pulse L before 4 hits in the combo otherwise they’ll fall out of Cold Star. It doesn’t work on Tron (sadly) and I think a few other characters. Best case scenario you can call Ammy super early and won’t have to worry about Grav Pulse. After the crumple, do Energy Javelin, tag to Doom, c.LMHS, super jump forward j.LLM (1 hit) Foot Dive, S xx ADDF whiff M, s.H (2 hits), S, super jump forward j.MM (2 hits each) Foot Dive S xx ADDF whiff M, call Nova assist, air Plasma Beam M, land, Plasma Beam H xx Photon Array. This pretty consistently will do 1.050 so it’ll kill Spencer and Frank and Cap.
Tagging into Doom off of air throws. Mid-screen, you just air dash down forward in the direction of the opponent while holding Assist 1, whiff H, Doom will come in, walk forward a bit to s.MS, combo (you can do 3 j.MM 2 hit reps). In the corner, either whiff M or air dash down whiff M (can be risky vs. some hitboxes) while holding Assist 1, Doom comes in, walk forward to s.MS and combo (you can do 4 j.M 1 hit reps). Finisher is the same as the crumple combo. This doesn’t work on maaaaany characters, though in the corner you can try to walk forward into s.HS, which works on Zero, Morrigan (and other female characters roughly her size), but don’t try that shit midscreen.
Doom TAC infintes or at least TAC combos. These are absolutely crucial, no questions asked.
Resets. Some good ones are ending a combo with j.S or Cent Rush H, jump cancel into Energy Javelin. You have a lot of options after that; if they tech forward you can mix them up just by dashing backward. If they tech back, jump up and air throw them after they block the Javelin. If they neutral tech, call Cold Star and jump j.MMH, which will bring them down into lockdown. If they push block the javelin, throw them. Very few people seem to get out of this setup, though it’s escapable. Other ones are to let them tech on the ground, back up, call Cold Star and c.M xx Cent Rush L or M for a mixup. Even if they block that first part they have to block instant overheads and worry about throws, so this is generally pretty safe.
Anyway, you’ve picked a very strong, easy-to-play team. I wish there were a “top player” running it so there were more stream footage, but right now you’re pretty much stuck trying to catch me on Japanese streams at obscure hours once a month Good luck!
edit: forgot to comment on this
Actually optimized this slightly:
instead of c.MH, call Cold Star a little earlier than usual, do c.HS xx tiger knee Cent Rush M.
Not only does more damage but doesn’t whiff on characters with weird hitboxes like Frank, Ammy, etc.
Thanks for all the excellent feedback, both of you. It’s really helpful.
I actually never thought about it like that, which is funny because of how many times I’ve seen the anchor come in and completely turn the match around with the Level 3 X-factor. I’m going to keep this in mind for future matches, and incorporate it into my gameplay.
This is a really good combo. But, I’m not sure about the damage. I’m repeatedly getting around 848k damage.
Understood. I guess I’ll get to working on those immediately, then.
Very nice. Thank you, again.
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For anyone else running this team, I found this video on YouTube. I don’t think this is a top player, but from what I saw, a lot of the combos he’s demonstrating (with all three characters) are pretty strong. At any rate, it’s a good demonstration of how much synergy this team has together.
Ah well, you’re gonna have to DHC to actually kill someone, but for this team that’s not bad at all. You’re almost always gonna have the two bars necessary anyway. I usually do around 850k before the DHC.
Unfortunately, he’s using hidden missiles which isn’t the preferred assist for this team. You want Plasma Beam by all measures. I don’t think those are optimized combos anyway.
Totally forgot to mention this from a while ago for Nova/Ammy players!
Randomly tagged the opponent with Okami Shuffle? DHC into Speed Tackle, zip on over, OTG, combo. If you do it early enough I think you can get a full relaunch. Better with X-Factor…
I find obscure shit when I have just Nova and Ammy left cause I end up freestyling a bunch (don’t practice the shell all that often). In XF2, if you DHC early from Super Nova to Veil of Mist, then tag back into Nova you can go into Cent Rush M loops a variety of ways.
Also, I figured out today that in XF1, if you throw someone into the corner you can OTG with Cent Rush L and still get a pickup with s.L. In XF2 or higher you can get the same kind of s.M pickup you’d get midscreen. So save your ground bounce!
edit: Alsoooo forgot that I found a somewhat optimized infinite rep. Goes like this-
land, jump up j.LH xx Nova Strike L, j.MH xx flight, j.LH xx Nova Strike L, j.LH xx unfly H, repeat
Gets two Nova Strikes in per rep rather than one, plus even easier on the hands as you don’t need to air dash down before the last part. I don’t think this adds THAT much extra damage but the less reps the better, right?
!!! I gotta practice that new infinite ASAAAAAAPP. I was almost convinced no more infinite variations were going to be found cuz of Nova’s lack of air mobility compared to the likes of Doom or Magneto
EDIT: =( that last unfly H meant unfly glitch huh? =(((((.
dougiie: yup. Should mention that the one finicky part of this infinite is that sometimes Nova will touch the floor between the second j.H and flight. So flight will activate but you’ll lose the infinite. This happened to me once out of a dozen tries or so, so it’s probably not that big a deal but just be sure to do the flight input as fast as possible.
=(((( by the way, I suggest making the whole infinite have j.LH. That 1 rep of j.MH might be character specific. I practice infinites on Nova Nemesis cuz they’re SSSSSSSSUPPPER free on him and I couldnt get that j.MH after the first rocket punch AT ALL. I also suggest that in the end, you try j.MMH xx unfly glitch H. That appeared to be more reliable for getting them back at a comfortable height. I can’t do unfly glitch cuz i play pad (or rather with the way my pad is set up) but these are my suggested adjustments.
Original:
j.LH xx Nova Strike L, j.MH xx flight, j.LH xx Nova Strike L, j.LH xx unfly glitch H, repeat
Adjusted:
j.LH xx Nova Strike L, j.LH xx flight, j.LH xx Nova Strike L, j.MMH xx unfly glitch H, repeat
doing LLH at the end instead of MMH might work too. I only suggest that because I know I personally prefer to double tap to assure myself that I got the hit…basically to avoid tricky links.
So after that new infinite variation was found, I was inspired to hit the lab and I found another myself. It’s not as damaging as the standard infinite, it’s watered down version with UF glitch, or the new one above, but I think it’s just cool to find new shit. With this, we now have 4 infinites that can be done from the same position/set up allowing us to freestyle like Doom or Iron Man. The rep I found:
after the last j.H of the previous rep before rejumping for the infinite fly ~ j.LMH xx L Rocket Punch ~ j.LH unfly glitch H.
Basically after every rep you do, you can fly instead of hold up and the TAC glitch will still be activated. This is still very very developmental so I haven’t practiced it on all the bodies yet and stuff like that. Also, I cannot unfly gitch so I personally have not finished the combo, however when I tried to end the combo with j.LH unfly H, the 2nd H whiffed really low to the ground so I’m sure that unfly glitch will correct it.
EDIT: So although I have not been able to confirm this ^^^ infinite, I found out that the one Disco posted can be optimized EVEN MORE to get THREE Nova Strikes in there:
j.LH xx L Nova Strike L, j.LH xx flight, j.LH xx L Nova Strike, j.MMH xx L Nova Strike ~ j.H re jump =))))))
Started using Nova \ Frank \ Amaterasu, and I’m pretty happy with what I’m seeing so far. If Nova touches a character, I’ve got a guaranteed level 5 Frank. Unfortunately, it costs two meters to do (which isn’t bad considering we start with 1 full meter). I’m wondering if there is a more efficient way to do this, though? Any tips or suggestions?
Likewise, off the final snap shot, I don’t have enough meter to link into another hyper (no where near it). To that end, does anyone know any solid Frank \ Ammy resets?
Level 4 Frank + Reset (These are the best resets IMO, but you sacrifice the Level 5, which is fine, since you can use that to get a life boost later) - DHC to Frank, Get your Snapshot + Nova Assist, then Tools M x 2. This is probably the worst situation you can put someone in with this team. They’ll tech out super low to the ground, making it really easy to cover all tech options with your reset. So…
Call Ammy, Dash Forward Airthrow. Airthrow leads to death, Tech throw leads to falling into Ammy assist for a second mixup.
Call Ammy, Dash Forward j.LM. This beats them trying to tech the airthrow. Hit leads to death, block leads to them having to block a second mixup after Cold Star.
Call Ammy, Roll. Obviously ambiguous. There’s a million variations on this, raw roll, s.H xx Roll, j.M Kneedrop Roll, then the no roll mixup once you’ve showed it to them.
Call Ammy, Kara DP+L.M, Dash and then immediately cancel dash into one of the kick moves, you can cross under, you can hit with a crossup DP+M, all kinds of shit.
There’s dozens more. This situation is disgusting for your opponent, put them in it as much as possible.
Level 5 Frank + Reset. - DHC to Frank, Snapshot + Nova Assist, Tools M x 1. Wait for the hard knockdown, backdash and photo. Then do meaty st.M. f+H + Call Ammy. Unless they neutral tech, this gives you a free grounded high low 50/50 with j.MMH vs cr.H xx Tools L, st.J. As far as i know this is the best situation you can get to get both Lv.5 and a reset, but it’s nowhere near as foolproof as the above situation.
cr.M St.H S j.H fly j.H unfly j.H land HS j.MHS etc. and sometimes, the third (falling) j.H won’t connect. Anybody have any tips? New Nova player here.
Sometimes you wanna do the last j.H late, especially if you start from long distance like with c.M. But honestly given the strength of the Modok dhc that shouldn’t be too bad of a problem.
A little random but A LITTLE something I found while scheming in the lab for my next video. As Nova players, we all know the pains of not always being able to do H loops after every possible confirm and having to settle for the wack j.(LM)H xx fly ~ j.(LM)HS combos. Recently, players like Moons and Insaynne have been incorporating an unfly glitch H before ending the combo. For those who cannot/choose not to do that, you can make your typical wack BnB a little stronger by about 20k
(after launch) j.(LM)H xx fly ~ j.(LM)H unfly ADF j.HS
Good luck!