The Hypnotist: Xiaoyu Mixup / Setup Thread

Classic Fighting Games Street Fighter x Tekken
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My goal with this thread is to brainstorm on all the ways Xiaoyu can confuse, safe jump, cross up, frame trap, and otherwise mindfuck her opponents to death.

The thread is named after one of her moves/stances in Tekken, and I thought it fitting considering Xiaoyu’s immense mixup potential in SFxT. That coupled with the tendency of her sweep loop to create massive amounts of salt, hype, and awe (often all at the same time) made hypnosis seem like a pretty accurate way to describe high-level Xiaoyu play.

Feel free to discuss the setups listed here - the more constructive discussion we get on them, the better we can make them. If you know of others, feel free to add them as well and I will try my best to keep the list updated.

Frame Traps:

  • Shooting Star into cr.LP xx Fortune Cookie
    [LIST]
    []What it beats: Opponents who press buttons or opponents who crouch tech
    [    ]Why it works: Shooting Star is +3 on block (non-EX version), and crouching LP takes 4 frames to start up. If you hit cr.LP as soon as (or soon after) the move gets blocked, you are likely to hit your opponent out of the startup of their next move if they pressed a button.
    []What it loses to: Invincible reversals and good ol’ fashioned blocking. If it gets blocked, press a button during Fortune Cookie to give you the second hit, which leaves you at 0 frames. Keep in mind you will still be in Rain Dance which makes you still somewhat vulnerable. If your opponent likes to mash reversals, don’t follow-up with the frame trap. If your opponent keeps blocking, go for a throw instead.
    [    ]Variations: I like to use cr.LK. It takes one frame longer to start up, but I’d rather trade that in hopes that my opponent has that much longer to mistakenly press a button. Also, you can cancel into another Shooting Star to add pressure.
    [/LIST]

  • Far Standing MK > cr.LP xx Fortune Cookie
    [LIST]
    []What it beats: Opponents who press buttons or crouch tech
    [    ]Why it works: f.st.MK leaves you at +1 on block. Crouching LP comes out in 4 frames, meaning that if done properly, there is only a 3 frame window for your opponent to do something.
    []What it loses to: Invincible reversals, or just block. If it gets blocked, like above, end on the 2nd hit of Fortune Cookie. Against a reversal, block and punish. Throw if they stop pressing buttons.
    [    ]Variations: Because f.st.MK doesn’t give you a huge advantage on block, I would stick to 4-frame moves here. Those are cl.st.LP, cl.st.LK, or cr.LP. Close LK can’t be cancelled, so that is out of the question.
    [/LIST]

  • Fortune Cookie (2nd Hit) > EX Mistrust
    [LIST]
    []What it beats: Any button press (maybe except for throw)
    [    ]Why it works: Fortune Cookie’s 2nd hit leaves you at even frames (0 frame advantage). EX Mistrust starts up in 8 frames, but has 10 frames of invulnerability. This essentially means that any button press in 8 frames is going to get greeted by Xiaoyu’s foot.
    []What it loses to: Blocking, maybe throws. I am not sure if this can be thrown on startup. On block you are -2, which IS a reversal risk for certain characters’ Super Arts, so be careful if your opponent has meter.
    [    ]Variations: You can wait a little longer after Fortune Cookie to try and bait a button press, but I wouldn’t wait too long. Also, if your opponent stops pressing buttons, throw. Note that Xiaoyu’s throw range seems to be better when throwing from a stance.
    [/LIST]
    Super Armor Setups:
    All of these setups work the same way. Breakdown to follow after the list of setups. List not exhaustive - just some of the setups I can come up with off the top of my head - but all of these setups will involve EX Turn of Fortune.

  • Cancellable Normal xx Rain Dance > EX Turn of Fortune

  • Cancellable Normal xx Rain Dance > California Roll > EX Turn of Fortune

  • Untechable Knockdown > California Roll > EX Turn of Fortune

  • Untechable Knockdown > Back Layout Cancel > EX Turn of Fortune

  • Cancellable Normal xx Rain Dance > EX California Roll > EX Turn of Fortune

  • Cancellable Normal xx Rain Dance > HK Back Layout Cancel [crossup] > EX Turn of Fortune

Essentially, you want to try and bait your opponent into sticking out a move that you can punish with EX Turn of Fortune since it has one hit of super armor. The super armor can still lose to fast hitting attacks like Rolento’s Patriot Swirl or Chun’s EX Spinning Bird Kick, but the nice thing about Super Armor is that nothing breaks armor in this game (at least not in the same way things broke armor in SF4). So Super Armor will absorb the first hit of strike supers.

If you’re ballsy, you can even just do a raw Rain Dance and stand there, hoping for your opponent (especially one with no projectile) to approach and attack, ESPECIALLY if they have an approach easily readable.

I should also note that, after any of these setups, if your opponent is starting to get scared and no longer pressing buttons, throw.

Safe Jumps:
Coming Soon!

Ambiguous Mixups:

  • Spaced properly, every version of California Roll can look like it will end in front, but actually end up behind. You want to learn the spacing where California Roll will stop it’s animation in front of your opponent’s character, but pops Xiaoyu onto the opposite side just as she’s standing.
  • When your opponent is in the corner, j.LK is an ambiguous crossup depending on when you do it. If you do it early you will hit and land in front, if you do it late you will hit and land behind. Experiment with the timing - it’s not hard to figure out.

Help me out! Contribute to the thread and to the Xiaoyu community by adding setups that work for you, and discussing how/when these setups do or do not work.

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Reserved, just in case.

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Interesting thread, and considering Xiaoyu is a mixup heavy character, this is essentially a great thing for her. Weren’t there some videos I think in the video thread on her safe jumps? Don’t remember if they were there and I’m pressed for time right now so I can’t look, but I know I saw safe jump tech with Xiao somewhere.

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Wish I could help with this thread, since I know Xiaoyu a lot, but I just don’t know how to put it into this form. By that, I mean, with frame data because I don’t know how it’s done, honestly. But this is good.
Does this help? If an opponent blocks the Turn of Fortune, you can cancel that into a switch cancel, which will let your partner cross up with something, while the opponent is still blocking the Turn of Fortune. I’ve done it to switch safely into Juri and to keep going on the offensive. I don’t know if this helps, but it’s all I have for now. :confused:

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You don’t have to explain why it works. If it works for you, I’ll take a look at the frame data and try to put it into technical terms.

Really the “why it works” section is just sort of extra technical info, because I’ve always been of the opinion that understanding the mechanics is just as important as understanding everything else in the game.

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Idk if anybody knows that cyanide will make dps whiff if u do it on their wake up

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Completely random find:
At the last cr.HK of the loop, change to the kick stance, walk back a lil, and do HK roll -> LK roll. It looks pretty ambiguous + she gets extra meter from performing rolls. Depending on the situation I’ll go ahead with P~P or I’ll cancel stance. Sry if this was already known; I wasn’t able to find a decent setup after the loop.

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Sorry if this is old news but I’ve been messing around with stance-canceling close jabs as a tick throw. Since you can throw while in a stance, it allows you to throw almost immediately. This can come in handy especially after conditioning your opponent to expect a string…

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I thought we should have more mix-ups with Xiaoyu. I tried some setups with Back Layout that will likely work only once. Or twice. Or more.

After a combo that ends with sweep (eg. far st.MP xx Phoenix -> elbow -> far st.MP xx hakkesho -> hakkesho -> cr.HK), cancel sweep into BT stance, then:

  1. do MK roll -> LK roll, then do MK Back Layout. It crosses up on “average” characters like Ryu or Ken, and makes their SRKs whiff (and it’s mighty hard to delay the reversal; I tried it 50 times and failed them all). Haven’t tried backdash escape.

  2. do MK roll -> LK Mistrust whiff -> HK Back Layout. It crosses up on most “tall or wide” characters such as Vega, Gief, Rufus, Boxer, etc. The timing is lenient… actually, if you do it frame perfect, it whiffs on some characters. It makes Gief’s reversal Lariat whiff. Haven’t tried backdash escape and EX Messiah. I don’t think this works on Hugo tho.

Layout cancel allows you to land in front, so if you trained opponent to block instead of jab jab jab or reversal on wake-up, you may be able to go into 50/50.

Also, doing a ground combo into Phoenix -> elbow -> far st.MP xx hakkesho -> cr.HK xx BT -> LK Mistrust then jumping right away allows you to go cross up low on some characters like Ryu if he quick stands. This seriously doesn’t look like it would cross up. If you jump a few frames later, then it doesn’t cross up. If you do it frame perfect, cr.LK whiffs so it’s a good idea to do a delayed LK Mistrust to make the float lower. If he doesn’t quick stand, then you land in front + whiff cr.LK. You can go BT Stance into cross-up Back Layout or some more useful setups you might have. Super jump crosses up on all characters after LK Mistrust.

off topic: I swear Capcom silently changed characters’ jump arc on super jumps in one of the patches. When the game first came out, I tried super jumps and decided not to use it cuz the distance travelled was the same as regular jumps (this was tested in Xiaoyu, Asuka, and Paul). Now they’re totally different.

Also I’m so glad Back Layout is becoming a hard knockdown in 2013. Brady Guide lying had hurt my feelings.