1

Okay, I’ve picked up Psylocke lately and I like this bitch a lot. She’s good enough that I even start her sometimes (Psylocke/Storm/Cyclops or Commando) but she is really good enough to hang in any slot. She can stall really good as the anchor in the second slot. And of course, her assist is top notch.

Basics:

  • stand fierce xx psi-flash is offensive weapon of choice, since it reaches out far and puts a projectile on the screen. HOWEVER, some characters can duck stand fierce and call an assist and make your life unhappy. That’s when you switch to stand neutral roundhouse xx psi-flash, which is in some ways even better.

  • low roundhouse is a great move. You can throw it out, and cancel into jab psi-flash. If they don’t roll, hit low fierce immediately and aircombo.

  • ON THAT NOTE, the most consistent aircombo is sj.short -> sj.forward -> sj.up+RH xx roundhouse psi-blade xx kochou gakure. It’s the best compromise between ease and damage.

  • You can call an assist after kochou gakure. It comes in handy if you whiff and they stay right beneath you expecting a free hit.

  • Up+Roundhouse plus assist at the start of the match is damn near unbeatable and timed correctly has only one response (stand block) which means after doing this enough times you can have a lot of fun mixing them up. HOWEVER, because of the way the game is worked, this works a lot better on the second player side. I’ve lost to stuff like Mags jump short when trying to do this on the first player side, but on 2P side I have never lost.

  • On that note, Up+Roundhouse plus assist is an instant overhead. As I’ve noted in the old Psylocke thread, Psylocke/Storm have an overhead that leads to a combo. You should keep this in mind vs. people that think the answer to Psylocke is just to block low all day.

  • short psi-blade. Why don’t I see anyone make more use of this move? It’s safe if blocked, so if they get close at all and you feel an attack coming, just do it. If you hit them out of the air, you can go into super.

  • her kick throw is really good. Sets up crossups great.

  • Useful normals: Psylocke is FULL of good normals.
    jump short - Hits SO HIGH it’s ridiculous. A great thing to do on Cable as he comes down from a jump is NORMAL jump straight up with short, up+rh, psiblade. If you do it early and he tries to kick, you’ll get him.
    jump fierce - Comes close to having Mags jump fierce-like power. If you get in range of Sentinel, you can harass him by doing jump fierce -> RH over and over. If it hits, go into infinite.
    jump roundhouse - Crosses up and has a stupid hitbox.
    jump up+roundhouse - Hits really high like jump short but damage is kind of shitty. Roundhouse psi-blade is almost always comboable though.
    stand short - Hits really high and (I think) juggles into her launcher.
    stand fierce - Range and priority are nuts.
    stand twd+roundhouse - Hop kick. Goes over low shorts. Uncomboable afterwards (which is why, of course, you call an assist first)
    stand back+roundhouse - She hops backwards then comes forward with a kick. The kicker is, if you hold forward, she’ll roll afterward, being able to roll past opponents and possibly cross them up.
    low fierce - Great launcher, but has lag, which is why you always cancel to jab psi-flash if it’s blocked. It’s a tad bit slow, so you should do it early when trying to counter jump-ins (although vs. superjumps, I’d rather do normal jump short).

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tricks of psylocke

  1. with 3 levels u can go for a counter into her kochou gakura into the next dhc and is very useful BUT not abused just yet.

  2. there is a little cross under that she has when a character comes in, what is it?

  3. she has a TRI- jump that she can utilize for rushdown and doging things.

  4. c. lk is very good, almost like doom’s jab so use it!

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Okay, on to basic strategies.

Starting Psylocke (gasp!)

Yes, you can do this. Psylocke is an old-guard pixie, which means if you have a good offense, expect to build oodles of meter for whoever is coming next. A Psylocke who is starting should try to rush down. To do this you have to get their assist out of the way. You can do this by either keeping them in blockstun with an assist of your own (projectile-assist based rushdown), or keeping them zoned with the range of your stand fierce. Once you do that, you can run in with low short or stand jab into a chain (stand strong -> stand forward is best for in close, otherwise just leave out the forward) and end it with one of three things: stand fierce plus assist, stand neutral roundhouse xx psi-flash, or back+roundhouse (hold forward). The first option gives you room to run in again (although if your assist is, say, Sentinel, you probably want to call him early) while the second is good to put a projectile on screen while leaving you safe. The third is a mixup, and should probably be done after doing the second for a bit (since back+roundhouse is basically a hopback regular roundhouse), because it puts you in good place to stick a low short behind them and go into a brief combo.

Speaking of combos, when you start Psylocke, I’d advise you to not go for her aircombo in favor of short ground combos, unless you’re ready to go for a DHC. The reason for this is because aircombos, regardless of what you end it with, leave Psylocke in a really bad position in relation to her opponent. If you do get an aircombo, ending it with fierce will have her up in the air well after the opponent gets up, in a prime position to be crossed up. Generally, you just want to do a chain ending in stand fierce xx psi-flash (won’t combo, but adds to pressure).

Midgame Psylocke

I’m pretty sure that Psylocke would be good in midgame. That’s because she can actually stall like nobody’s business. If you set up a wall of an assist plus repeated fierce psi-flashes from full screen, it’s very hard to approach you. And if they do, you can just respond with short psi-blade, then tap jab jab fierce, fierce psi-flash and repeat the process. This sounds simple, but can get pretty frustrating.

Since the opponent is softened up by this point, you can go for more crossups and overheads. If you have a good assist, you can bait out the opponent’s assist, get next to them, and hit up+roundhouse while calling the assist. This is an instant overhead. If you have A-Storm, you can do up+roundhouse xx short psiblade with Storm assist, and if it connects, you can go for launch to aircombo ending in super. This is SAFE.

Unlike opening Psylocke who rushes down, IMO midgame Psylocke should be stalling. It’s hard to deal with psi-flashes and psi-blade. Don’t give ANY ground here.

Endgame Psylocke

This will happen more often than the above two since Psylocke’s assist is popular. You shouldn’t be afraid to bring her in, especially off of Storm’s AC. If you are winning by a small margin, then stalling is probably the way to go. Otherwise, if you are winning large OR losing, you want to rush. Rushing helps secure your win if you are winning more than running away (although you COULD do that if there are only 10 seconds or less left), and Psylocke’s rush is powerful enough to make some comebacks (watch the videos from 5/25/2002 SHGL tournament videos if you don’t believe me. Jose Garcia’s Psylocke makes comebacks a LOT). I have a thread for endgame Psylocke, though, so I’ll just end it here.

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Do u have to call an assist to make it instant or did u just say call an assist to cover ur landing if blocked. I never seen Yipes do instant over heads with psylock, if she has instant over heads then she has a high-low game so she can RTSD:wgrin:

Someone told me that s.U+HK, dj.U+HK xx KG is good when i told them that i didnt know any instant over heads for psylocke

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random psy basics question

I believe her RH throw is the one where she takes you in the air and spins you around, no?

I saw j.wong throw her at the end of this throw during the ohio tourney. >.> It was pretty slick. You either have to eat a mashed storm throw (61 i think) or else get tech hit guard broken if she still has air dash. I wonder how many other throws have this property.

Up+RH is great btw sealhunta. Try UP+RH +Magz XD. Really high damaging ground combos. I could be wrong, but im pretty sure ive seen my boy ricky start at least a semi inf off up+RH on the wall. >.> His psy and cyke are the truth.

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Another thing about Psy during the ohio tourney is her ability to dodge Sent RP assist with her c.FP. It’s kinda odd but her hitbox shrinks kinda so that the RP goes over her head…

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anyone else find that U+HK doesn’t even connect unless u are EXtreamly close to the opponent