TL;DR What do I fking do?

[Hyenaboy]

I’ve liked Skullgirls as a concept for a while, but there was no community on XBL so I quit playing for a while. I decided to get back online with the PC version, and after playing some people, I don’t know how to play this game.

I’ve never played Marvel 2 or anything, I’ve played a lot of Blazblue, P4A and lately Street Fighter, and with those games I had a very clear idea of what to do and what the game should look like. With Skullgirls, I don’t know what the hell to do. From what I’ve experienced online, most people’s game plans boil down to either ‘hit buttons all the time’ or lockdown assist into obscured overhead/cross up gimmicks. I’ve tried to figure out combos in training mode, but I have no idea how to optimize them, especially with the new drama meter. Even when I get the combos down, landing a hit online is really wonky compared to other games.
From my notes, here are the holes in my game:

I don’t know how many characters I should have.
I don’t know what characters are good in certain situations.
I don’t know how to start pressure without getting hit with stray attacks.
I have trouble blocking certain setups, especially those which involve goofy moves like Squigly’s flame overhead.
I have trouble knowing when to pushblock. Sometimes I get reset when attempting to pushblock because I get a dash instead, or sometimes it doesn’t pushblock, or I miss a punish because of pushblock.
I don’t know how to optimize combos or what I should think about when creating a library for a character.
I don’t know what assists I should take and how to implement them.
I have no idea of what the neutral game is supposed to look like in this game, or if there even is (a traditional) one.

The list goes on. It would be easier if there was a current website with up to date information on the game, but the game has gone though so many changes and most of the information I find is 4 years old, and modern information is a continuation off of that without an introduction. If anyone is up, I’d really appreciate some help.

[Aureliano]

I don’t know how many characters I should have.

There’s no should here. It depends entirely on your strategy. Skullgirls is a game where you create your own pressure / neutral tools entirely out of character + assist, so finding tools that you like should predate deciding on how many characters you want.

I don’t know what characters are good in certain situations.

What do you mean by situation ? Characters in skullgirls are generally pretty multidimensional and have something to do at all ranges.

I don’t know how to start pressure without getting hit with stray attacks.

One starts pressure when they force another one to block. How would you get hit if they are blocking ? I don’t understand the question.
Still, skullgirls has a lot of ways to actually avoid having to block a lot during neutral, thanks to pushblock and assists. If people are calling assists during your approach, bait them. If people are pushblocking your pressure, stagger it, or anticipate it and use movement to negate the push.

I have trouble blocking certain setups, especially those which involve goofy moves like Squigly’s flame overhead.

That’s just matchup experience. Play the game.

I have trouble knowing when to pushblock. Sometimes I get reset when attempting to pushblock because I get a dash instead, or sometimes it doesn’t pushblock, or I miss a punish because of pushblock.

You should in general use pushblock to avoid having to block what should be coming next in an autopilot string. However, most players in this game learned to not autopilot their strings. A lot of what you can/can’t pushblock is character specific, but some rule of thumbs are

1. if you couldn’t pushblock the first hit, wait. Trying to pushblock the second is asking to be baited.
2. if they’re doing a multihit normal, wait for the last hit.
3. if the move has low recovery / is a airborne move, don’t pushblock it.
4. if the move has high recovery / needs to be cancelled into another move, pushblock it

A lot of character specific stuff actually contradicts those rules, but its hard to give general tips in this game so this is my best shot at it.
Remember that the best use of pushblock isn’t necessarily the push itself but the extended blockstun it puts you in. You can use it to omniblock mixups, and to go through tick throws or command throw attemps. If you anticipate a throw this is as good as a reversal in some cases.

I don’t know how to optimize combos or what I should think about when creating a library for a character.

A lot of the fun in skullgirls is coming up with your own team specific combos and setups. If you’re not into that, just take the bnbs at skullheart, they’re decent and they’ll get you somewhere where you can start thinking about what you’d want instead.

I don’t know what assists I should take and how to implement them.

This is starting to sound weird. Take the assists that supplement your gamestyle. Experiment. You sound like you’re looking for absolute answers where there are none.

I have no idea of what the neutral game is supposed to look like in this game, or if there even is (a traditional) one.

The fuck. How could there not be a neutral game ? Skullgirls is 70% neutral because of assists and pushblock. Actually getting to start pressure is a hard earned priviledge.

The list goes on. It would be easier if there was a current website with up to date information on the game, but the game has gone though so many changes and most of the information I find is 4 years old, and modern information is a continuation off of that without an introduction. If anyone is up, I’d really appreciate some help.

There’s a strong community over at skullheart.com that’ll answer specific questions. Dont ask them such vague questions tho, they don’t really call for an answer since it sounds more like you haven’t figured out what you want to do in this game.