Can’t find any OTK nak vids, but I suggest searching for “CvS2 Gao” on youtube. He’s got an amazing Nakoruru.
I like df+HP for low jump anti air, or angled jump ins that d+HP won’t stop.
That’s if I don’t bird hop, qcf+P instead.
Not saying sweep launch bird super on reaction, but say anticipation. If you’re in K, say you’ve used most of it for mix ups, and its almost gone, go for it at least once in a while. What do you have to loose? Its safe blocked, and how often do you land that sweep to begin with? If the meter’s almost out and you land it that’s full damage lvl 3 in addition to the damage inflicted from rage. Of course they may see it coming, but what’re they gonna do? They’d have to activate through the sweep, parry the sweep, Jd the sweep, counter roll, AC.
That or jump, which they really don’t want to do. They through a fireball to keep you away and maintain their space, bird super owns them.
It may be faster than balrogs crazy fast super so far as landing it full screen.
This character owns.
There’s this guard string I want to try out with N-Nako that may actually be kinda cool.
First you get in, that shouldn’t be too hard.
Walk jabs
And when you manage a blocked close jab, sweep and xx to lvl 1 bird super and use the guard stun inflicted (+18) to either get in with walking jabs or risk a low jump HK (for added guard stun at 24 frames, then go back to walking jabs) and stall for time just doing that until the bird is back in hover mode then link another blocked sweep.
Rinse wash and repeat.
The low jump may actually be a solid block combo as Nako’s low jump HK is very fast and you got that +18 going for you, but if you’re feeling sloppy you can simply just walk up and use jabs; the sweep will take off additional chunks of guard meter, as well as those level 1 bird supers.
Why this works?
Her close jab is +8, far jabs +7, her walk speed is fast, her sweep is fast at 6 frames, and you cancel that sweep into bird super which nets you that +18, only to walk up for +8 jabs again.
Further, you may be able to do this for a good minute because those blocked jabs and sweeps xx to super build your meter again as you throw stocks away at the opponent’s guard bar.
If you have three full stocks, and you’ve broken one and gotten in somehow this works even better, you do more guard bar damage with that sweep (not too sure about mere jabs) and following the initial sweep to lvl 3 bird super you’ve got a hefty +24 advantage to ensure a solid low jump HK to jabs to sweep xx lvl 1 bird super when the bird is hovering again.
Outside of alpha countering the sweep or frantically mashing activate while in that guard stun or mashing dragon punches during that vulnerable yet solid jab to sweep, this is pretty solid guard crush.
Once you’ve broken their guard, use Nako’s fast regular jump for your advantage and jump in HK, crouch HP, qcd+HP or whatever slide move you choose, this should be about 3000 damage.
Or you can merely throw them for a mere 1600 to 1700 damage (much much less if you’re ratio one Nako, which you most likely are)
A good use of RC jab slide…
11/19/23
Whenever you’re done pressuring an opponent in the corner and you’ve got the lead in life, you’ve depleted your meter, you landed a super, dunno. Whatever.
Walk back.
Now you’re already primed for a jab slide, its a simple matter of double tap (or negative edging) as you complete the qcd command, and you’re already headed back.
If they do something rash to get out of the corner
like jump, you can easily nail them with Nako’s excellent crouching Fierce or
down forward fierce.
Its not by any means safe, but then neither are dragon punches or hadokens.
RC’d, it is fast enough to nail shit people may do to try to bolster their confidence after a Nako beat down.
If they’re the mashing sort, Sak’s s.HK, whatever, you’ll rock em.
If they do nothing and wait, well, moment’s lost, but your speed isn’t.
Just hop on the bird and launch it for added pressure, and your opponent won’t ever know how close to pain they really were, and you can save this for later on if they ever do slip up.
Never do the slide in anticipation.
If blocked, you die.
A thought on attacking.
If you’re winning, back off a little and pressure with your best strat against the opposing character, something that forces em to think a bit. They’ll like it if you’re so close that it gives them a chance to counter whatever you do close in (like RC elec a poke). Low jumping just past the range in Blanka’s case where RC Elec will nail you opens him up to low jump throws, which in turn lead to low jump HK or bird hop firebird.
The bird hop, firebird move excellent at this, its hard to beat, generally beats everything. RC torpedo moves generally beat it, but its not free.
Fire the bird as fast as you can, it sorta telegraphs another coming as soon as you mount the bird.
Wait a bit, the drop with her spinning blade as they pass beneath.
Conversely, you can bird hop, then dive off with her sword.
It’s not safe if blocked, but after several reps of the other move this one catches damn near everyone the one time you use it, because of conditioning; the firebird move takes a moment to get to the other player, once their reflexes are used to the speed with which to recognize and counter the other move, in my opinion having observed this a hundred times, the dive seems to counter whatever the hell they were trying to do in response to the firebird as its so fast.
I tend to “abuse” this concept so far as you can say I “abuse” it in every match with her, because it’s never failed, but its something you cannot spam, ironically.
Keep him guessing. Force him to do something, and you may get that desperately stupid “I know, I’ll jump out of the corner, he won’t see that coming” play, which you simply d+HP (or whatever)for the win:rofl:
(while that guard string I posted above sorta runs contrary to what this post exclaims, if you think about it it really doesn’t)
Oh regarding guard strings with bird supers—
That hefty +18 grants a good window for a regular jump crossup lk.
IF it was a level 3, it +24, it’s practically a free crossup.
to muster further support for using your meter like that for Nakoruru:
If you’re in an SNK groove, and you have a lvl 3 ready to go, you’re loosing it anyway.
If you can’t land it, why not as a point blank guard crush move off the sweep which doubles
as a crossup setup?
I am a primarily a K/A-Groover in CvS2, and Nakoruru for me is an excellent lead-off character in both of these grooves.
K-Nakoruru:
- Very versatile small jump. Gives her the ability to get inside and pressure, as well as combo off her small jump normals b/c of her high speed. I agree with Buktooth; one of the best in the game.
- Her run is one of the quickest in the game, in start-up, speed and recovery. VERY important since I use her as a rushdown character.
-She has below-average power and health, plus her supers imo are not that useful (MAYBE the bird super to chip), so the rage bar lasts the entire duration to boost her power and defense.
A-Nakoruru
-Ruru’s dash covers a lot of ground in a few frames and recovers quickly. Not as useful as her run, but still useful to get inside.
-The use of the hawk in the mix-up game is strong. Useful since A-Ruru doesn’t have a small jump. Once you get on the bird, you can ‘dive attack (which is an overhead)’/‘attack w. bird’(projectile)/‘strike while on the bird’/‘get off the bird w/o attacking’. If you have your opponent decently figured out, this can be a headache for him/her to deal with.
-Her combination of rushdown and mix-up play is excellent for meter-building. Even if you don’t get off a CC at least your 2nd character will have a bar at about 85%.
I must note that a big con for K-Ruru (which you can get used to with time) is not having the “threat of the super” while she is raged.
In high-level tournament play, players tend to play a raged-up character a LOT more conservatively, due to high damage bonus on K-Groove supers, as well as the ‘bonus’ on attacks and defenses.
If a player is playing a raged Sagat, you’d better damn believe he/she is not going to relentlessly rush him down, due to the fear of the Tiger Cannon via the air, and the Tiger Raid via the ground. Against a player like Ruru, with the bird having to be directly overhead to execute a super, plus the motions being HCBx2 (takes longer to execute), a player won’t “back down” against a raged Ruru.
The way to get past this mishap is to constantly be on the offensive. Ruru has the speed to play a solid rushdown game, so when she is raged, I wouldn’t be attempting to land a super with her bar. Instead, continue to rushdown your opponent, and make use of your bird mix-ups when needed. 
The perception that the bird has to be directly over Nakoruru is generally correct, but you’re given some leeway in corner games as I mentioned earlier. So long as the bird is in its “hover mode” you have a few scant moments to run before it changes to "catchup mode."
This is good to know because it lets you run up sweep xx super from dash distance, and all you need to hit is the tip of her foot.
Having the qcbx2 super down is also good against folks that like to throw fireballs from across the screen and aren’t thinking clearly or just testing the waters against your character to see what you can do. Many people seem to forget how fast this super is even at lvl 1 and throw a full screen hadoken thinking they recover before the bird thing starts up or what not.
Its similar to beta version Rock Shine Knuckle, it nails virtually everything they do from full screen.
Regarding people not being careful around a raged Nakoruru is to me an advantage, most people look at say Blanka and say “well, Blanka is top tier, Nakoruru isn’t, so I’m gonna rush her ass down.” Well guess what, Blanka is now open. Nako’s combat doctrine is to constantly attack, whether the enemy is defending or not.
In N-Groove you have similar use of meter as with K, and in both grooves you really shouldn’t make landing the super the primary focus of your game, but having that sweep xx super down is necessary for a few reasons.
If you’re (at least seemingly) constantly attacking, you reduce
—Life
—Available stun before, well, stunned
—Guardbar
—Opponent’s options.
If your lvl 3 meter in either groove is about to deplete going for the sweep xx super on your cornered opponent generally does all four of these.
—Life goes down, hit or blocked
—stun will increase with the sweep if you hit. Hit or blocked that 3 second counter before stun itself is reset disappears is reset; you have three more seconds.
—Guardbar goes down if blocked
—Opponent isn’t doing anything unless they AC or counter-roll.—If you’re playing her right odds are they’re having a hard time trying to figure out your next move.
Until this moment of course keep that meter for its duration and keep that powerup bonus to further boost Nakoruru’s damage potential, which isn’t too different from Sakura or Cammy but those two have more chance of landing their supers. All three do well at locking down the opponent though.