Since my sentinel guide was so well received by the sentinel community and helped me get so much better with sent I figured id make a comprehensive guide to akuma as well. Everyone knows akuma is a solid character but very few people know how to play him(myself included) so I figured id make a thread to compiles all the data so we all have a place to reference when looking up stuff.
In this thread ill try to cover: Basics: Normals, frame data, hypers Combos: Basics, throw combos, xf combos Anchor play: Because fact of the matter is your prolly gonna be playing him by himself half the time Assist Use-age: Teaching people how to take advantage of arguably the best assist in the game Team building: Teaching people who to put in front and behind akuma to make an effective team. Match-ups: Cover his numerous match-ups and shit.
**Hits: **1
**Damage: **53,000
**Start-up: **6
**Active: **3
**Recovery: **6
**Advantage on hit: **+6
**Advantage if guarded: **+5
**Discussion: **At 6 frames akuma’s jab is right in the middle of the pack in terms of speed, but unfortunately its at the lower end of the spectrum in terms of its hitbox. A theme you will notice with akuma’s normals is there are all very underwhelming in terms of range and as a result you will have to be on point with your dashing if you intend to play footsies with his normals. Colonel-gilgamesh
The absolute best move in the game for throws. Combined with Akuma’s amazing Walkspeed and the +5 frames it gives Akuma both amazing pressure, and excellent tic throwing powers
st.:
Spoiler
**Hits: **2
**Damage: **72,000
**Start-up: **9
**Active: **5
**Recovery: **14
**Advantage on hit: **+4
**Advantage if guarded: **+2
**Discussion: **Armor Breaker. Also has probably the bigger of the ranges out there
st.:h::
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**Hits: **1
**Damage: **88,000
**Start-up: **8
**Active: **4
**Recovery: **18
**Advantage on hit: **+3
**Advantage if guarded: **+1
**Discussion: **Has a HUGE amount of hitstun.
st.:s::
Spoiler
**Hits: **1
**Damage: **90,000
**Start-up: **7
**Active: **3
**Recovery: **21
**Advantage on hit: **
**Advantage if guarded: **-1
**Discussion: **This move has a surprisingly good hitbox, due to the manner in which it hits akuma is protected(to an extent) and it can AA some high priority normals. Timed properly it AA’s helm breaker so that should give you an idea of how good it is. It is also useful for incoming mix-ups since the hitbox is relatively ambigious. Plus its -1 on block so it isn’t too unsafe, though be careful doing this against airborne opponents as chicken blocking makes certain safe moves unsafe.
cr.:l::
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**Hits: **1
**Damage: **48,000
**Start-up: **5
**Active: **2
**Recovery: **11
**Advantage on hit: **+2
**Advantage if guarded: **+1
cr.:
Spoiler
**Hits: **1
**Damage: **75,000
**Start-up: **6
**Active: **3
**Recovery: **14
**Advantage on hit: **+3
**Advantage if guarded: **+1
cr.:h::
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**Hits: **1
**Damage: **85,000
**Start-up: **8
**Active: **4
**Recovery: **25
**Advantage on hit: **knocks down
**Advantage if guarded: **-6
j.:l::
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**Hits: **1
**Damage: **53,000
**Start-up: **8
**Active: **9
**Recovery: **7
**Advantage on hit: **+9
**Advantage if guarded: **+8
j.:
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**Hits: **1
**Damage: **70,000
**Start-up: **10
**Active: **3
**Recovery: **19
**Advantage on hit: **+14
**Advantage if guarded: **+12
j.:h::
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**Hits: **1
**Damage: **88,000
**Start-up: **10
**Active: **3
**Recovery: **23
**Advantage on hit: **+15
**Advantage if guarded: **+13
j.:s::
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**Hits: **1
**Damage: **90,000
**Start-up: **8
**Active: **4
**Recovery: **16
**Advantage on hit: **+17
**Advantage if guarded: **+15
:f: :
Spoiler
**Hits: **2
**Damage: **81,000
**Start-up: **21
**Active: **4
**Recovery: **19
**Advantage on hit: **-1
**Advantage if guarded: **-3
**Discussion: **This is probably the main way you are going to be opening people up, at least when you first start playing akuma. It chains into his st.:s:, which is -1 on block so Im yet to find a reason not to just chain into :s: and not really worry about hit confirming. If you have an assist backing up oni you go for this after making them block the assist, other wise you either go for this after a few tick :l: /cr.:l:'s or an air fireball.
:f: :h::
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**Hits: **1
**Damage: **100,000
**Start-up: **18
**Active: **5
**Recovery: **16
**Advantage on hit: **+10
**Advantage if guarded: **+2
(in air) :d: :
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**Hits: **1
**Damage: **80,000
**Start-up: **14
**Active: **Until grounded
**Recovery: **8
**Advantage on hit: **+11
**Advantage if guarded: **+9
Special Moves:
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Gohadoken :l: / / :h:
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**Hits: **1
**Damage: **90,000
**Active: **-
**Start-up: **14/14/14
**Recovery: **28/31/34
**Advantage on Hit: **-4/-7/-10
**Advantage if guarded: **-6/-9/-12
**Notes: **Projectile has 5 low durability points
**Discussion: **
Zanku Hadoken :l: / / :h:
Spoiler
**Hits: **1
**Damage: **90,000
**Start-up: **10/10/10
**Active: **
**Recovery: **35/40/45
**Advantage on Hit: **+11
**Advantage if guarded: **+10
**Notes: **Projectile has 5 low durability points. If akuma lands while still in recovery, then add 6 frames of ground recovery. Discussion:
Goshoryuken :l: / / :h:
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**Hits: **1/2/3
**Damage: **90,000/118,000/132,600
**Start-up: **6/4/3
**Active: **14/5(1)10/6(1)10
**Recovery: **24/30/44
**Advantage on Hit: **-2/-4/18
**Advantage if guarded: **-15/-23/-36
**Notes: **Invincible from frames 1-(6/7/10), airborne from frame 7/5/5, knocks down adversary Discussion:
Tastumaki Zankyaku :l: / / :h:
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**Hits: **1/3/5
**Damage: **110,000/132,000/166,000
**Start-up: **8
**Active: **7/17(6)6/41(6)6
**Recovery: **18/14/16
**Advantage on Hit: **-/+11/+9
**Advantage if guarded: **-1/+3/+1
**Notes: **Knocks down rival, destroys low and medium priority projectiles during active frames, airborne from frame 8.
**Discussion: **
Air Tatsu :l: / / :h:
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**Hits: **1/3/5
**Damage: **111,000/124,000/159,000
**Start-up: **5
**Active: **28/18(4)6/42(4)6
**Recovery: **Until grounded, 6 frames of landing recovery
**Advantage on Hit: **+13
**Advantage if guarded: **+12
**Notes: **Destroys low and medium priority projectiles during active frames Discussion:
Demon flip(air ok) :l: / / :h:
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**Recovery: **37/42/53/Until grounded
**Notes: **Airborne from frame 1, demon flip attacks can be performed from frame 14 on. Discussion:
**Command: **:qcf: :atk: :atk:
**Hits: **48~96
**Damage: **285,600~312,900
**Start-up: **7+1
**Active: **76
**Recovery: **50
**Advantage on hit: **-18
**Advantage if guarded: **-20
**Notes: **Can be mashed for additional damage, each projectile has 5 high priority durability points
**Discussion: **This hyper is generally good for dhc’ing into akuma as its his only safe dhc. The barrage has a lot of durability but unfortunately it takes far too long to come out to be used in reaction to hypers like magnetic shockwave. Overall I just use this to end my combos.
Messatsu Go-hado Ungyo(Beam henceforth):
Spoiler
**Command: **:qcf: :atk: :atk:, hold :h:
**Hits: **25~50
**Damage: **260,300~312,500
**Start-up: **7+1
**Active: **80
**Recovery: **46
****Advantage on hit: ****-
**Advantage if guarded: **-34
**Notes: **Knocks down opponent, can be mashed for additional damage, beam durability: 25 frames x 1 high priority durability point
**Discussion: **This is the fastest projectile hyper in the entire game(a frame faster than gimlet), and its one of the reasons akuma is such a good anchor because so long as he has bar and x-factor your opponent can’t randomly call assists on you. The only issue with this hyper is unlike ryu’s beam, it can’t be aimed, and is extremely unsafe, know your opponents characters and decide if they can punish it before you randomly throw this out.
Tenma-Gozanku Agyo(air barrage hence forth):
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**Command: **:qcf: :atk: :atk:
**Hits: **48~96
**Damage: **285,600~342,900
**Start-up: **7+2
**Active: **76
**Recovery: **16
****Advantage on hit: ****-5
**Advantage if guarded: **+3
**Notes: **Can be mashed for additional damage, each projectile has 5 high durability points.
**Discussion: **Similar to the ground version I use this almost exclusively for ending combos, although Im sure there are better applications I simply haven’t found yet.
Tenma-Gozanku Ungyo(air beam henceforth):
Spoiler
**Command: **:qcf: :atk: :atk:, hold :h:
**Hits: **25~50
**Damage: **260,300~312,500
**Start-up: **7+2
**Active: **80
**Recovery: **13
****Advantage on hit: ****-
**Advantage if guarded: **-1
**Notes: **Knocks down adversary, can be mashed for additional damage, OTG-capable, beam durability: 25 frames x 1 high priority durability point
**Discussion: **Now this is the true assist sniper hyper, its 1 frame slower than the ground version but is 33 frames safer in addition to having OTG capabilities. What this means for you is if you hit an assist with this, you can jump up and hit them again if you are fast enough as assists always land in a hard knockdown state. And since this beam comes out at such a wide angle its surprisingly hard to maneuver around. With all that said, don’t make the mistake of throwing this out in a situation where your opponent can fly/teleport/hard drive over/through it and kill your akuma.
Messatsu Go-shoryu:
Spoiler
**Command: **:dp: :atk: :atk:
**Hits: **9
**Damage: **292,000
**Start-up: **13+3
**Active: **14(6) 14(6) 14
**Recovery: **40
****Advantage on hit: ****-4
**Advantage if guarded: **-22
**Notes: **Invincible from frames 1-21, knocks down rival
**Discussion: **This hyper is used primarily for its beam nullification properties as the invincibility has a habit of disappointing you. If a single hit of this move makes contact with a beam it will completely nullify the hitbox of that beam. Ala [media=youtube]23BMA2HbmNs[/media] Other than that though steer clear of using this move, its **very **unsafe and does a lot less damage than all 4 of his beams so it shouldn’t even be used to end combos.
Raging Demon:
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**Command: **:l: :l: :f: :h:
**Hits: *15~47
**Damage: **465,000~510,000
**Start-up: **5+0
**Active: **40
**Recovery: **4
****Advantage on hit: ****-
**Advantage if guarded: **-
**Notes: **Invincible from frames 1-39, throw attack, hard knockdown, can be mashed for additional hits.
**Discussion: **This is an odd one, due to akuma’s high damage output and ability to chain hypers capcom decided he didn’t need a level 3 he could combo into. This resulted in him being given a hyper I believe should be used primarily to punish bad hyper decisions by opponents. Its 0 frames post flash so once it has begun if your opponent is right next to you its guaranteed damage and it will even catch wesker out of a maximum wesker because-apparently-it takes a few frames for him to become airborne. But as I said before, due to akumas high damage output I would not recommend throwing this out unless your going for flash or its a guaranteed hit, and in a game with so many factors its very difficult to calculate what is guaranteed.
*47 hits, although possible, is not practical. Just figured id put it in so people know the possibilities.
Colo-Gilgamesh:
You can also use this to escape sticky situations since it travels very far, is completely invincible and has a grand total of 4 frames of recovery. It costs 3 bars so you won’t be doing this frequently, but its something to throw out if you are in a sticky situation.
Assists:
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Gohadoken
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**Crossover Combination Hyper: **Messatsu-Gohado Agyo
**Hits: **1
**Damage: **90,000
**Meter Gain: **720
**Start-up: **38
**Active: **-
**Recovery(this crossover assist): **141
**Recover(other partner): **111
**Notes: **Projectile has 5 low priority durability points
**Discussion: **There’s is pretty much no reason to pick this assist, I cannot think of anything this does that tatsu doesn’t do and it doesn’t do much better. Yea, I had half a mind not to even list this assist because I honestly can think of no reason to use it.
Tatsumaki Zankyaku
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**Crossover Combination Hyper: **Messatsu-Gohado Agyo
**Hits: **3
**Damage: **132,000
**Meter Gain: **1200
**Start-up: **32
**Active: **17(6)6
**Recovery(this crossover assist): **110
**Recover(other partner): **80
**Notes: **Knocks down opponent, destroys low and medium priority projectiles, during active frames
**Discussion: **Akuma’s best assist by a wide margin and quite honestly one of the top 3 assists in the entire game, it blows through every projectile that isn’t a hyper in addition to beating out most physical attacks due to its high priority. Puts the opponent in block stun for a while, while only being 3 hits so it doesn’t scale like shopping cart. Its honestly just an amazing assist by every standard, its only draw back is it requires foresight to combo off of, but once you get the hang of it with your character there is no reason not to use this assist.
Karsticles was nice enough to compile a list of the interactions between tatsu and all other “GTFO” assists, it lists the assists that beat tatsu, trade, and lose:
Spoiler
Wins
AA Gamma Charge - Wins
Shoryuken - Wins
Shadow Blade - Wins
Chun-Li’s anti-air kick - Wins
Stars and Stripes - Wins
Charging Star - Wins
Crescent Scythe - Wins
Viewtiful Uppercut - Wins
Double Lariat - Wins (but the opposing point character still gets hit close up)
Trades or Random
Thunder Knuckle - Wins or Trades
Ryuenjin - Wins or Trades (random)
Gamma Charge (front) - 100% random; sometimes they trade, one wins, or they ignore one another
Somersault Kick (She-Hulk) - Trades
Heavenly Slash - 100% random
Shopping Cart - 100% random
Loses
Force Field - Force Field is triggered, but Tatsu ignores the projectile
Sentinel Force H - Loses (bombs never arrive)
Combination Punch - Loses
Rising Sun - Loses
Tatsumaki Senpukyaku - Loses
Chain of Rebuttal - Loses
Heartless Spire - Loses
Rising Fang - Loses
Pendulum - Loses
Molecular Shield - Loses
Mighty Smash - Loses
Tornado Claw - Loses
Lightning Attack - Loses
Spider Sting - Loses
TK Overdrive - Loses
EM Distuptor - Loses
Cartwheel Kick - Loses
Clothesline - Loses
Launcher Slam - Loses
Somersault Kick (Jill) - Loses
Vajra - Loses
Jam Session - Loses
Gustaff Fire - Loses
Bonne Strike - Loses
Bandit Boulder - Loses
Rolling Buckler - Loses
Cat Spike - Loses
Lightning Legs - Loses
Armor Piercer - Loses
Mighty Strike - Loses
As you can see, in terms of used assists, there are only 2-4 assists that beat tatsu.
Hyakkishu , Hyakki Gojin
Spoiler
**Crossover Combination Hyper: **Messatsu-Gohado Agyo
**Hits: **1
**Damage: **90,000
**Meter Gain: **-
**Start-up: **59
**Active: **11
**Recovery(this crossover assist): **93
**Recover(other partner): **63
**Notes: **Overhead attack, ground bounces airborne competitor, OTG-capable
**Discussion: **This assist works a lot better in theory than in practice, it is OTG-capable but far too slow to be used in conventional combos like weskers assist. Its real application seems to be for setting up unblockables due to the fact that it is one of two assists that hit overhead. And if your team requires an overhead assist and you don’t feel like you need tatsu’s horizontal control then by all means pick this assist. I just wouldn’t recommend it personally.
Miscellaneous:
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Snap back :qcf: :a1: or :a2:
Spoiler
**Hits: **1
**Damage: **50,000
**Meter Gain: **500 -(- 1 hyper bar)
**Start-up: **2
**Active: **4
**Recovery: **18
**Advantage on hit: **-
**Advantage if Guarded: **+1
**Notes: **On hit snap back forces the opposing point character to be replaced by an assist. Opposing assist calls or tag ours are also locked for 4 seconds.
**Discussion: **Other than being used to punish XFGC and snapping in/out characters, I am yet to find a use for these. Remember they are two frames though, so use them to punish things that are usually safe.
Throw :f:/ :h:
Spoiler
**Hits: **1
**Damage: **80,000
**Meter Gain: **800
**Start-up: **1
**Active: **1
**Notes: **Hard knockdown
**Discussion: **Kuma’s air throw is amazing, he can get a full combo off his back throw and front air throw but only a hyper off his ground throws. With that said his air throw is gonna be the tool used for most of your wins if you play him on anchor since people love up-backing against anchors.
Ground dash :atk: + :atk:/ :f: :f: /
Spoiler
**Forward dash: **28
**Back dash: **28
**Discussion: **Akuma’s dash is really good and is gonna be your main method of moving on the ground. Not sure what else to say other than learn to wave and plink dash with him because it will save your ass.
Akuma is by design a footsie character, he lacks the crazy high/low left/right mix-ups the average marvel character is blessed with, he has no air-dash or command grab. His offense is based generally around poking and counter poking with his short range but good speed normals. He is also blessed with a pretty good overhead that he can get a full combo off of and an amazing air-throw to punish individuals attempting to avoid his mix-ups by jumping up back. Play-styles:
Ranged
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Akuma’s ranged game is very reminiscent of his SF 4 play-style in that it involves a hell of a lot of air and ground fireballs and well placed teleports. While he’s no morrigan he can put a respectable number of projectiles on the screen whilst staying airborne for a relatively long amount of time considering his lack of a flight mode using his demon flips. Also with meter he can turn any hit fireball into about 315k, and the fireballs have enough hit-stun that they can actually be hit-confirmed if you are looking for them.
His teleport is also a decent tool in his ranged game, it takes 14 frames to start-up so don’t throw this out when the opponent is in your ass but it recovers very quickly and can be hyper cancelled giving akuma more options than every other teleport character. Finally akuma has access to one of the few dragon punches with legitimate invulnerability in the entire game to clear out the opponent when they get to careless with their rushdown and can be kept safe with a hyper cancel or assists with a lot of hit-stun.
Up-Close
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Akuma’s close up game
Resets:
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Incoming Character Set-ups:
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Team Building:
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Ok, here’s the conundrum one has to deal with when building a team with akuma on it. If you are trying to build an optimized team, you want to have the best assist on anchor, and because of how good tatsu is you will rarely ever have teammates with assists better than akumas so as a result 9 out of 10 times akuma is relegated to being played at the end. With all that said, akuma does benefit from assists that leave his rival in block-stun for extended periods of time, sentinel, hidden missiles, cold star all come to mind as good assists for a point akuma team. Unless you are playing one of those 3 characters though, its very hard to recommend playing anyone else behind akuma on your team because tatsu is just that good.
In addition to this capcom made akuma a very capable anchor, he might not be able to rip through a team in seconds like dark phoenix but he has the tools to wear a team down. As amazing as justin wong is, he wouldn’t have made all those comebacks without a character that has tools that allow him to make said comebacks.
In summary, unless you have a reason not to run akuma on anchor, always run him on anchor. There are like 3 characters that don’t benefit in some way from tatsu.
So I was thinking bout doing this section like my sent section in that I had maybe four or five players who had their own sections due to the level of their akuma’s, then everyone else in the other section. Unfortunately I don’t know of a lot of good akuma’s, like I know a lot of good players who play akuma(justin, ricky, noel) but do you guys think they should have their own section? Im curious.
Also, similar to sentinel, don’t just watch when akuma is on point, also try to pay attention to how and when they call the assist.
gameplay
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Justin Wong:
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[media=youtube]Zp-R7Zrpuk8[/media]
Other:
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combos
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[media=youtube]vEuKjSZtEUA[/media] (pretty much every combo you ever need to know)
[media=youtube]MUYu_TGViD8[/media]
[media=youtube]CGjcGpIrYUw[/media]
[media=youtube]BqoCvVYPQiE[/media]
Just as a heads up, if you see any combo that isn’t optimized just let me know, Im not even close to being the best or most knowledgeable akuma so yea. Also, because akuma’s enders are relative to where you are on the screen I won’t be able to add a consistent ender to each combo and instead will list the enders here and let you pick depending on your circumstance. Enders:
Spoiler
Mid-screen ender:
:qcb: :l: :qcf: :atk: :atk: falling :qcf: :h:(not necessary) land :qcf: :atk: :atk: hold :h:
Corner ender:
:qcb: :l: :qcf: atk: :atk: :s: land :qcf: :h:(not necessary) :qcf: :atk: :atk: hold :h:
Combos:
Spoiler
dive kick combo:
basic opener :s: :h: delayed :s: land demon flip dash up cr. :h: :s: ender
notes
Spoiler
this is one of what I believe are two essential akuma combos, they build a substantial amount of meter and do very good damage so every akuma should learn at least one of these combos. I think this one corner carries, but Im not completely sure, if it does replace the ender with corner ender(obviously)
I just wanna apologize ahead of time, this guide is gonna take me a lot longer to finish than I originally predicted because I underestimated the work load in college this year. I will get the guide done-barring any unfortunate unforseen circumstances-but it’ll prolly take me much longer than I thought. But ill make the video tab earlier than I wanted to so we can share videos and get some discussion going so the thread isn’t dead 24/7.
Well Im still gonna finish it, just gradually, I didn’t realize there was someone else who was ready to make the guide. If thats the case then by all means knock yourself out.
Well anyway, I just finished the special move section, lets see if we can get a discussion going on those his specials. For example, his demon flip dive kick, other than otging do you guys use it for anything? Personally Im yet to find a use for it, I don’t even use it in combos anymore what with the new palm loops and stuff, so I literally only use it to combo off an air throw. But I see some potential in there, its a dive kick technically and this is a capcom game, they are rarely ever useless. I’ve been trying out a jump back :l: demon flip dive kick to see if I can catch unsuspecting opponents but since my akuma is my anchor this entire set-up takes too long as is far to easy to air throw. Especially considering he can just jump back :d: for a similar result.
with xf lvl 3, i’ll sometimes use demon flip dive kick immediately after making my opponent block akuma’s command dive kick or some jump in attack, and i’ll catch them blocking low still.
Flip Kick is a great incoming mixup tool since it can cross your opponent up in the corner if you time it well, or not if you choose not to. It’s also great as a left/right outside of that, but that is for Point Akuma. Setting up left/rights with the kick is far easier if an assist keeps them pinned, such as Doom Missiles.
palm is better if they pushblock. demon flip dive kick is better if they don’t push block and if it’s right after you make them block his command dive kick, especially in the corner for the ambiguous left/fright being easier. i would only do this if i have xf lvl 3 or an assist to make them scared enough to try to air throw me out of it.
Ok so I’ve completed pretty much all the frame data, ill begin filling in my thoughts on each individual normal/special/hyper in time, but as a heads up Im gonna need a lot of help with the general gameplay section because it would seem I have no idea about the basics of akuma. Also should I do individual discussions about akuma’s normals or should I just do a summary section because I don’t think I have enough to say about each individual normal like I did with sentinel?
Akuma’s Normals do deserve mention because they do have utility.
sL: The absolute best move in the game for throws. Combined with Akuma’s amazing Walkspeed and the +5 frames it gives Akuma both amazing pressure, and excellent tic throwing powers
sM: Armor Breaker. Also has probably the bigger of the ranges out there
sH: Has a HUGE amount of hitstun.
cL: Can be used in a fashion similar to sL, but with the benefit of being low.
cM: Not a low, but it’s only one frame slower than cL. I also feel it’s hitbox is way more solid than anything else. Kind of like a more compact sH
cH: The ONLY move that has -frames at -6, but it also probably the farthest reaching normal he has. Also hits low. Also pretty sure it always knocks down.
S: Short Range, but a REALLY good AA. You can even convert off it at the tip if used as an AA. Also used as a crossup in the case of incoming mixups.
jL: Can instant overhead tall characters
jM: Not terribly remarkable.
jH: Can crossup. It’s upper angled hitbox means you can connect with it at a farther up opponent. Useful if used with AA Launcher.
jS: Not that remarkable.
Could you be more specific about general gameplay? Like, what aspects do you want? Or do you want everything?
:
:h: