Character Guide - AsukaThis guide is all my experience when playing online, so it is just my understanding and cannot be all correct. It was posted to share and discuss, if there is anything unclear or wrong please tell me!
Character Overview:A typical protagonist, that is to say, she is average in many ways. The endurance is average, attack is 7th in all 22 characters; defense is 9th. The length of life bar is 18th. When defense and length of life bar both considered, she ranks 12th. So she has certain room for mistakes, but when hit by poweful hiden ninpos, the sooner you use limitbreak the better.
Common moves in all three modes,Dash
Asuka's dash is fast and has invincibility frames, though the distance is relatively short
Air dash
Fast air dash with medium distance, has invincibility frames
Run
Her running animation is fast so it is useful for spacing and observing the whole stage.
One of the most important moves of Asuka, crushes guard, can be cancelled by jump, dash or guard. If you guard cancel it the visual effect is still there but it won't hit the opponent, which can be utilized as a fake attack to lure your opponent to just guard, thus you can hit them with hiden ninpos. Though the reach of this move is poor, it sent the opponent into the air and force them to ukemi.
(Hold)
Hide in the ground and then suddenly attack from below of locked target. This move has two hits. the first hit can stagger the target for some time and can be dash cancelled to be connected with a launcher when hit. The second hit attack from the ground, it is able to hit opponent in low air, but can be blocked. Generally speaking this move is very slow and easily blocked. So it is best to use it for sneak attack. If blocked, you can still jump and air dash to avoid being attacked.
Air
,
,
A great move to punish ukemi. It has great homing property on locked target. It is usually used for punish ukemi and limitbreak.
Air
The ground smash attack similar to everyone else. Upon hit it will force the opponent to ukemi and the armor is broke for sometime. It can be dash or jump cancelled, but can't be guard cancelled. If the opponent doesn't ukemi as fast as being hit, Asuka can dash cancel it to combo him into a air combo.
Just guard
A generic just guard, the reach is poor so it cannot hit some long-reaching attacks even after a succesful just guard.
Sen modeAfter hitting the enemy with air
or ground
to break the armor, every attack of Asuka's sen mode ground chain will connect. The first hit of the
chain has homing property and the last hit is a dashing launcher which can be useful to reach mid-distance opponents.
,
,
The fastest launcher in sen mode. Used most to punish ukemi or limitbreak. It can also be used to sneak attack airborne enemy about to land (need to pay attention to their shadows)
,
,
,
,
Not used so often as you already have the move mentioned above.
Yang modeThe first
of the chain is two-hit. After hitting the enemy with air
or ground
to break the armor, every attack of Asuka's Yang mode ground chain will connect.
,
A very useful launcher, Asuka throws five kunais and upon hit launches the opponent. When using this Asuka will jump backwards so it is quite safe, even if not hitting anything you can still air dash to get away. It is best to lure your opponent to dash at you then utilize the long reach of this move to launch them for aerial combo.
,
,
Being similar to
,
,
in Sen mode, it is also a quite useful launcher. And the usage is almost the same.
,
,
,
,
This move is too long so it is literally useless.
,
,
,
,
,
,
It is not displayed on the commandlist but can still be used. It has the same animaton as
,
,
,
,
, still because it is too long it is useless.
Yin mode,As mentioned above, Asuka only has average health and defense. So if you use Yin mode there is almost no room for mistakes. The ground combo chain is slightly longer.
,
A multi-hit launcher, but it is relatively slow so not easy to hit the opponent.
Hiden Ninpo 1Unleash immediately, cannot be blocked, and cannot hit airborne target. A single-hit hiden ninpo. The hitbox is a long square in front of Asuka, thus it cannot hit opponent in the back of beside Asuka. As it is 1-hit, it can be escaped by Limitbreak or dash. It is mainly combined with
(hold) to fake attack and dash cancel into hiden ninpo 1.
Hiden Ninpo 2Unleash immediately, cannot be blocked, can hit low-air target. A great hiden ninpo 2. After activated can be controlled by left stick to move. Genenrally speaking this is the best hiden ninpo of Asuka. It is reliable no matter using it straightaway, sneak attack, or punish limitbreak, landing or even hiden ninpo 1.
Zetsu Hiden NinpoOne of the worst Zetsu Hiden Ninpo in the game. Summoning a frog and licking the target. The target will be hit higher and higher so they can escape from the combo. Considering the fact that it consume 5 scrolls it is useless.
StrategiesAs mentioned above, Asuka has great ground combo chain in Sen mode (uniform mode), though in sen mode the speed to gain scrolls is only half of Yin and Yang, it is still worth using. So it is advisable not to Shinobi Tenshin too early, so you can have more health.
The strategies vary under different circumstances. When facing with low-armor characters, Asuka is in total favor so Asuka users should try to catch them and use ground combo as often as possible, as soon as they're hit by Asuka in sen mode, the whole ground chain will connect which is quite powerful.
When facing with high armor characters, the most important moves are air
and
. These two moves are used to break the armor so Asuka can make full use of her great
chains.
When Asuka launches the opponent into an aerial combo, if you have guessed the timing they'll use limitbreak, Asuka can dash backwards to evade it and dash fowards to punish the stun of limitbreak.
