Welcome to the KOF2000 thread! This game has recently gotten a small boost in popularity due to it’s addition to GGPO. Since there is also this new KOF forum, it’s a good time to start some discussion.
KOF2000 was the last game the ‘old/real SNK’ made before they filed for bankruptcy. It is looked at as kind of a ‘black sheep’ of the KOF series, along with 99, 2001, and some others. Mostly due to the inclusion of strikers, plus long combos and a lot of ‘unfair’ and ‘unbalanced’ tactics. Many players ignorantly shun this game, but in reality it is truly great, with a lot of crazy and fun stuff to use and abuse!
Most people will hear wildly different impressions this game. It’s pretty much a ‘love it or hate it’ kind of deal, so you might ask should I play KOF2000?
Well, if your idea of a great fighting game is: Balanced characters, fair gameplay, and honorable tactics, please click the Back button on your web browser.
If your idea of a great fighting game is: Crazy characters, ridiculous mixups, and dirty tricks, then keep reading!
KOF2000 Primer
Strikers
The first major aspect of this game is the strikers, of course. Here’s all the basic info on how they work, and at the bottom of this post I’ll out line some of the best strikers for you to pick.
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Every character has 2 Striker choices. 1. The character themselves (except for Kula), and 2. an alternate Striker. Some have hidden ‘Maniac’ Strikers, which can be picked by selecting the alternate Striker, then pressing up, left x3, right x3, down.
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Strikers are similar to assists from Cpacom’s Versus series. Whoever you put 4th on your team becomes your Striker exclusively (i.e. they aren’t a normal controllable character).
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You have a limited number of Striker uses, called ‘Striker Bombs’. They are displayed at the bottom of the screen. You start with 3 Striker Bombs and 3 Striker Bomb slots. For every character you lose, you gain 1 Striker Bomb and 1 Striker Bomb slot.
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You can spend 1 stock of super meter to gain 1 Striker Bomb by taunting (press start).
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Strikers are normally called out by pressing B+C. Pressing B+C on the ground while not doing anything else will result in a ‘Striker call’ animation. You are invincible from the beginning of this animation, but there is vulnerable recovery at the end.
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You can also call Strikers during attacks, backdashing, running, jumping, recovery rolls, special moves, and ‘mash’ throws. In these situations, the Striker will simply come out, and your character will keep doing whatever they are doing.
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There is a special Striker call if you press B+C while performing a normal throw, or when breaking a normal throw. Calling a Striker in this situation costs 1 super stock and causes your Striker to fly down from the top of the screen and knock your opponent into the air.
Some additional tips:
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Because of the Striker call animation, you can use Strikers as a reversal. Depending on the Striker you have, this may be a or may not be a very effective/rewarding/safe tactic.
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Since you can call Strikers during special moves, sometimes you can make unsafe specials such as DPs safe by calling a Striker when they are blocked or even calling a Striker as your opponent jumps over your projectile! Just be careful, as sometimes there is still a way to punish even if you call a Striker.
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Calling a Striker while jumping past your opponent, or better yet, calling a Striker while performing a special move that causes you to switch sides can be an effective mixup. You can even use this if your opponent is in the corner!
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Be careful when taunting to gain back a Striker Bomb. Unlike other KOFs taunts are not cancelable in KOF2000, so they take a long time to complete. If you can’t get a chance to taunt safely, you can sacrifice damage ‘safely’ to taunt. For example, taunt right before a full screen fireball hits you and take the damage to gain a Striker Bomb.
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You can do the special throw Striker call when breaking after normal throw when you push away and knock down the opponent. This makes going for normal (non-mash) throws very risky if your opponent has 2 stocks.
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The Striker call during a throw/throw break is universal to all Strikers, regardless of what they normally do. This launch lets just about every super in the game to connect, except for Iori’s qcf,hcb+P.
Counter and Armor modes
KOF99 introduced the Counter and Armor modes, replacing the old Max mode in 98. It works a little different from 99 in this game. Once you gain 3 super stocks, you can press A+B+C to activate Counter mode, or B+C+D to activate Armor mode. The activation animation of either of these can actually hit and knock down your opponent and are unblockable, but do no damage.
Counter mode
Counter mode causes your character to glow red, and lasts for about 20 seconds.
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You gain unlimited supers (DMs), though there is no super freeze so they often have different start-up speeds compared to their normal versions.
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Gives the ability to ‘super cancel’ specific special moves, i.e. cancel a special move into a super.
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Increases hit stun length on light ground attacks and all air attacks.
Armor mode
Armor mode causes your character to glow yellow, and lasts for about 15 seconds.
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Your character gains ‘hyper armor’ on all normal and special moves. This means that during the startup of any move, you will take damage from any of your opponent’s attacks that connect, but you won’t enter hit stun; you will simply continue with your attacks.
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All access to super moves (DMs) is lost.
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Increases hit stun length on light ground attacks and all air attacks.
Here’s some additional tips:
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In both modes, you can trade about half of the bar to gain back a Striker Bomb.
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In both modes, hit stun on air attacks and grounded light attacks is lengthened. This leads to new combos by allowing characters to combo into things they can’t normally combo into, so experiment!
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The armor in Armor mode is only for move startup, not recovery, so you can still get punished if you leave yourself vulnerable.
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If you’re up against a strong Armor mode character, it’s best to simply run away. If you’re trapped in the corner, use a stock to guard cancel roll and get out, then use rolls, jumps, backdashes and other evasive moves to stay away.
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The only other weakness to Armor mode is throws. If you can find an opening to throw, it will work normally, get you some damage, and waste precious time on their Armor mode gauge.
Getting started
There are a few different kinds of Strikers, and choosing the right one for your characters is even more important than the characters you choose. I’ll list the best and most useful Strikers, what they do, and which characters use them well.
The big 3
Seth - The best all-around defensive Striker in the game. He flies in with a kick, then walks towards the opponent and uppercuts them.
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Seth has his position tied to the edge of the screen, so the initial flying kick will connect better if your back is closer to the edge of the screen.
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The 2nd hit (the uppercut) can be followed up with just about any super in the game, except for Iori’s qcf,hcb+P and Lin’s qcb,hcf+P. This is unusual; only a few Strikers in the game allow ranbu-type supers to hit.
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Characters with projectiles work well with Seth, since he nets big damage on an anti-air call. Play your zoning game, and when your opponent jumps over a fireball from too close, call Seth!
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Call Seth > flying kick hits > stand C > Seth upper cut hits > standing CD/jump CD/special/super/whatever is a common universal combo that does a lot of damage. Ending with jump CD can give an opportunity to get damage and taunt to get back a Striker Bomb.
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Seth can be comboed from CD counters if your are backed into the corner.
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Seth’s uppercut can be made unblockable. Simply call him out, do something to put the opponent in block stun, and if they come out of block stun before Seth hits them, it will be unblockable. This actually works with all ‘2 part’ Strikers, though there aren’t many.
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Seth’s uppercut reaches extremely high, making it impossible for most characters to jump over it. This, combined with the fact that it can be unblockable, makes for some nasty setups if your opponent tries to hit Seth or roll past him.
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He will walk about 1/2 the stage length to hit the opponent with the uppercut before he leaves the screen.
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Good character choices are: Most characters, but skewed a bit towards characters with a projectile and a ranbu super, like King or Takuma.
Another Iori (Iori Maniac) - The best all-around offensive striker. He flies in with a kick at an extremely shallow angle, then hits them again.
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A.Iori tracks to where you are standing. This makes him great for consistency in combos and setups. He also flies in at such a low angle that he covers most of the screen very quickly.
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You can only combo after the 2nd hit. It usually won’t hit if you are close to your opponent with them in the corner, so you can’t combo into anything in that situation.
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Most specials and single-hit supers will combo off him, but ranbu-type supers (i.e. ones that ‘lock’ the opponent in for a set number of hits) will only hit once.
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The initial kick causes a very long freeze, during which you are free to act. This can be very useful for making all kinds of attacks safe on block, or allowing you to get in a better position, etc.
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A.Iori’s speed, angle, tracking type, and range make him perfect for comboing from overhead command normals. This also makes him perfect for cross ups, such as teleport > call A.Iori.
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Good character choices for Another Iori are: K’, Lin, Kyo, Leona, and Jhun, though really any character can use him effectively, much like Seth. You should consider him for anyone with a command overhead or some kind of jumping instant overhead.
Joe - The best ‘combo-based’ Striker. He can be used in some way by a lot of characters, but only shines with a handful. He flies in with a kick, then does his rapid punch move and ends with an uppercut.
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Joe tracks to your position, which makes him consistent for combos.
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You can only hit your opponent while Joe is hitting them on the ground. Once he uppercuts them, they cannot be hit.
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If he hits the opponent in the air, you cannot combo any further. This makes him very weak for defense.
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Joe allows throws to combo while your opponent is still standing.
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He can ‘OTG’ the opponent, i.e. connect from a knockdown. When he hits like this, your opponent is magically stood up.
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If you have your opponent in the corner, the last hits will whiff, leaving your opponent standing and able to be hit by any full combo. You can also ‘push’ your opponent out of him midscreen to do the same.
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Those that have big damage into un-rollable knockdowns are good for Joe, since they can combo into a knockdown, call Joe, then loop the same combo until the opponent is KOed.
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Joe can also be comboed off ‘mash’ throws that don’t allow for a recovery roll, like Bao’s C throw. After, you can combo into a big super. These throws are un-breakable so anyone who can do this basically becomes a very safe, throw-based character.
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Good characters choices for Joe are: Hinako, Iori, Bao, Clark, Ralf, Seth, and Chin.
Other notable Strikers
Cool Choi (Choi Maniac) - Cool Choi is more or less a specialist Striker for Jhun and Chang. He allows Jhun to combo from his charge d,u+C in the corner, and allows Chang to combo from his command throw in the same way. He covers pretty much the entire screen, as well.
Vanessa - One of the few Strikers that tracks to your opponent’s position. She slides across the screen and does her rapid punch move, then ends with an uppercut, with similar properties to Joe, but without OTG ability. She hits the opponent for longer and doesn’t move forward, so it is easy to ‘push’ them out of it and combo with whatever you want.
Xiangfei (Kasumi Alternate) - She comes out and quickly taunts, and completely empties the opponent’s super gauge in about 1 second (all 3 levels!). Quite annoying but you’ll have to be a strong player to basically play without a Striker for anything else.
Eiji (Lin Alternate) - Comes on the screen, disappears, then reappears and attacks. The 2nd part tracks the opponent, and he cannot be stopped once he is about to disappear (he’ll just absorb the hit and keep attacking). The 2nd part can be made unblockable, just like Seth. The opponent can jump (early) or roll to avoid being hit.
Syo (Kyo Alternate) - Syo is one of the few Strikers that allow ranbu-style supers to connect after he hits, just like Seth. He doesn’t ‘stalk’ the opponent like Seth does, so the 2nd hit doesn’t connect anywhere nearly as consistent, and you can’t hit the opponent in between the 1st and 2nd hit. Just for fun basically.
Ralf - One of the few Strikers that actually tracks to your opponent’s position. You can’t combo off him, but projectile games > call Ralf if they ever jump > taunt to gain back a Striker loop is fun and annoying.
Kaoru (Bao Alternate) - She comes out, stands still for a second, then rushes the opponent, causing a knockdown on hit or a guard crush on block. She can only be hit at the exact moment she attacks, so she is fun to use in the middle of long block strings and force your opponent to use meter and escape or get hit.
There’s a ton of other Strikers in this game, but those are the most useful in actual play overall. Almost every Striker has some sick combo they can help perform, such as King Lion or Dong Hwan, so try them out and see if you find anything juicy! There’s also a lot of ‘fun’ Strikers like Rocky (Maxima alt.) and Baitang (Chin alt.).
Well, that’s enough for starters. I’ll commandeer a spot for stuff from the old 2k thread as well.
