Pretty much everything, how to set-up akuma’s offense what to be looking for, what basic mix-ups one should be going for and such. Speak generally since some things are relative to what assist you are running but you can give some specifics based on whatever team you run.
And thanks for the input, ill add all your descriptions to each normal and then update them as we discover more uses for each one.
Offensive is divided up into distance from opponent. At long range, shoot out air fireballs and under their cover approach with Flip. Mostly meant to pester and control space until the time is right. At mid range Tatsus become your best friend, as they have high priority and tend to rip through everything. Use sparingly though, since they are heavily punishable if used poorly. If you have assists, dedicating one or two to helping you convert off Tatsus may not be a bad idea. At close range, you have so much pressure with you + frames it isn’t funny. Keep your opponent on his toes through a variety of Advancing Guard baiting, throws, and your Overhead, as well as your spin kick since that goes over most lows, your Flips for high/low mixups, and Teleport + assist.
Mobility: Akuma has Teleport, Wavedash, and Flips to move around, in addition to Tatsus and a Divekick. He’s very mobile, but each mobility aspect comes with strings.
Walking: Not really a big mobility tool, but with his fast walkspeed and + frames, Akuma can stay right in your face really, REALLY well.
Wavedashing: A good Wavedash. Most basic of basic things that people need to learn. Note that it can be used in a fashion similar to walking over greater distance.
Teleport: If this thing acted like it’s SF4 counterpart, it would be so amazing(Invincible on frame 1). Teleport may be one of the few things in this game whose input will never, ever, EVER be mixed up. Either you will enter the input and head towards your destination, or you will be crossed up and instead back teleport to the same location. Sadly, it’s never good to just throw out there, as it’s vulnerable until frame 13. Recovery is only -4, but of course you need to protect it, as with any teleport. More of a mixup tool than about navigating through projectiles, Teleport will cross up, even in the corner. Most notable is that it’s a slow teleport, which means it CAN be confusing if combined with assists.
Tatsu: Meant to keep in your opponent’s face if you get close, Tatsu is fast and rips through everything. However, Tatsus are more vulnerable than they apper. Tatsu L is grab bait, though most people don’t know about it, and M and H are vulnerable to pushblock and punish. They’re decent, but use them more for the priority than the movement
Divekick(Normal): I find the most useful aspect of the Divekick is either in conjunction with assists and using it like Helm breaker or Wolverine’s Dive Kick to apply pressure. Past that, it’s also a good tool for getting you out of the air after throwing a fireball, like a Wesker Gun/Teleport if you will.
Flip: Main Mobility tool and corner stone of Akuma play. Each of the three actual Flips move Akuma a certain distance, but the mobility comes more from the move extensions
-Palm. Due to it’s terribly short recovery time, Akuma can actually block/attack after it’s finished while still moving from the inertia of the flip. A very underutilized tactic, but it’s starting to show up more and more. This mostly applies to the air Flips, since M and L ground Flips will not have enough time to input anything before Akuma lands. H will on the other hand.
-Kick. Pretty much the above mentioned DiveKick except you can use the Flip’s inertia to choose where to descend. Has more priority, so that’s cool.
-Fireball. Advancing under the cover of a Fireball. Nice, eh? Most commonly used Flip input. Be warned you cannot block until you land.
i can give a few simple pointers.
1.you can set up a raging demon on incoming character that doesn’t have an air dash or double jump with teleport, the trick is to break their guard while they are coming down with your light punch or an assist of choice. in my case, hawkeye.
2. another incoming mix up against all characters is jumping and doing the M version of demon flip into dive kick. the trick is to time it so it becomes hard for the opponent to guess which way to block since you’re coming from above. kinda like wolverine’s drill claw from under on incoming characters
3.use the air tatsu only if you know for sure that it will touch them, it give yous frame advantage ONLY if it touches, i see too many akumas doing air tatsu mindlessly
Oh, hey, if you want some specialty things to bring up, make note of the amazing option select that Tatsu give, either giving Tatsu, or giving DP if someone crosses you up. Useful against people who like to approach with projectiles, like certain space midgets with swords
just wanted to mention two things for the moment. 1) you can get a full combo off forward air throw. 2) without assists, i’ve been able to get 31 hits from his raging demon.
Thanks a lot guys ill add all this stuff into the guide(and my gameplay tbh).
Anybody with some good Shun Goku Satsu setups? Best Hyper EVER. But people always expect mine :((
Oh yeah, you should make note of this in your guide that the Raging Demon is often a waste of meter. It’s main purpose is that it beats pretty much any Hyper cold, meaning 80% of DHCs are useless. Save the meter for Akuma combos, since that’s where about half his damage comes from anyways.
Got something else for you. You need to dedicate a lot of time to Tatsu, since even as his defining move, we underestimate it. Particularly the projectile destroying properties and how it option selects DP if crossed up. During Canada Cup stream, I believe I saw it beat Phoenix Traps on incoming setup. It’ll beat out Zero Lightning too. But be careful, Akuma is vulnerable at his top and bottom. With the case of, like, a beam or something, it’ll hit the projectile destroying part of Tatsu(The lightning) first, so the projectile doesn’t make it to the juicy Akuma hitbox. Likewise, with the Zero Lightning, it recognizes it hit the Tatsu before hitting Akuma himself, even if it’s angled right through Akuma at an angle. But something like Buster will hit Akuma first because it comes upward from an angle and will hit Akuma’s hitbox first. Doesn’t do anything about Missiles falling on his head or Wesker gun shot, but yeah, those are hard to deal with anyways.
EDIT: Did a little research on Phoenix incoming(And I do mean little). Beam on incoming is a decent option. If done instantly, it will roast the other traps before they hit Akuma, then you can X-Factor Tatsu to attack Phoenix. It also has a habit of option selecting Flip, wo you might be able to escape trap mixups that way. I do not expect it to become anti-Phoenix tech though, because I was testing against a CPU. Players are much smarter about those sort of things, so yeah, probably not at plausible as it sounds. Besides, I was only able to interrupt her about 50% of the time.
Yea I guess its one of those situations you just gotta try not to be in at all, although I think the general consensus is akuma does okay against phoenix, but thats another discussion for another day. Thanks for the feedback and input though, I added your advice about the raging demon and ill add the tatsu and general gameplay stuff(hopefully) this weekend.
so colonel-gilgamesh, i recently started to use akuma’s S (cross under first) on incoming characters with hilarious results. i don’t know why after all this time i’ve been playing akuma, i did not think of that. now between eating a raging demon, an overhead or just a simple cross under or any combination of that, people are getting pretty frustrated 
another thing to add to akuma’s gameplay:
i feel like air throws are a BIG part of akuma’s game. he’s one of the few characters that can combo off his air throw without an assist. his raw damage makes it easy to profit off of them. learn to air throw, end of story.
you need to add a low into the mix, as those three options all lose to up-back; raging demon won’t hit if the opponent is holding up, no matter how close you are.
Raging Demon ewwwwwwwwwwwww. Like most of his incarnations, the Raging Demon is meant more for style than substance. It does have it’s uses and it is feasible for those uses to show up in a game of Marvel, but it’s a punish move and nothing more. Too much meter to risk on a setup, especially with jumping being so powerful, it’s very unwieldy due to it’s input method and is very likely to both telegraph and hit the opponent. In most cases, you will blow 3 bars on mediocre damage. Haggar and She-Hulk can use their great grabs because they lead to at least a few bars being earned back(On top of it usually being one of their only options). Not with Akuma. A better setup and use of meter is to simply fish for normal grabs. Akuma gets similar amounts of damage(about 100K less than a Raging Demon) for only 1 bar spent. DHC in some way, you’re up over Raging Demon damage wise for two meters.
The only use Raging Demon has is that It beats about 80% of the hypers in the game, making it an excellent punish move for someone randomly throwing out Hypers. Which also usually means people are forced to X-Factor to stay safe. Not even if done right next to Akuma. And because it tends to rip through everything, it beats most DHCs too, even ones where blocking instantly is an option(Though you need to be close for this to happen)
The normal grab point is actually a really good point ill add to the raging demon section, although ill need to get the exact amount of damage people get off normal grabs with the hyper. Im guessing about 320k give or take. The demon is definitely not a tool you wanna rely on on a regular basis.
raging demon is a mystery; about five minutes ago, i managed to mash 32 hits out of it for 516,000, no assists or xfactor. with xfactor level 3, 32 hits gets you 915,900 lol.
so, does anybody know the actual maximum hits allowed by raging demon? because i don’t
Enormous noob Akuma question:
Can he not Messatsu-Gohado Ungyo (Air) XFC Messatso-Gohado Ungyo?
I’ve always assumed he just can because every other character can air hyper XFC air hyper, but I tried for 20 minutes and it didn’t come out once. Am I missing something? It can’t be my execution, because, as a Dormammu main, Beam XFC Beam is my lifeblood.
Akuma only ever gets 1 air Hyper per jump. No XFC will help I’m sorry to say.
Full report of “get off me” assist battles with Akuma’s tatsu. Testing was done by setting my A1 button to Turbo x10, and holding it while I pressed the record button. I would then place Dormammu next to whatever point character was on the screen, and pressed A1 + Playback simultaneously. “Loses” means the assist fighting Akuma’s tatsu lost. Each assist was tested 3 times unless it was clear that there was a winner.
Edit: Reformatted by result thanks to Mr. Puppy on NeoGAF.
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
just an observation: each of those assists, except for lariat, have faster start-up frames than tatsu. tatsu and lariat have the same start-up. not sure how pertinent this is to your list though.