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The King of Fighters '98 UMFE/EX Joe
Introduction
Ex Joe is a high execution character that has access to some of the highest meterless damage in the game thanks to his TnT punch special move. This same move also gives him great blockstrings and frametraps that he can use to pressure the opponent when up close. In addition to this he has a decent zoning game thanks to him having a good fullscreen travelling projectile and some decent anti air and air to air options. His downsides are a lack of mixups leading to good damage and the fact that outside of TnT punch, most of his other tools are fairly mediocre.
Normals
Standing
- st.A : standard jab. Can be used to stop hops but good timing is required as it only has 2 active frames. Chainable. whiffs on low crouchers.
- st.B : a kick with good reach that is useful for poking. Not chainable.
- st.C : a decent close range poke that hits a similar space to his st.B but a bit higher up making it better against hops. not cancelable.
- st.D : it has a nice hitbox that is excellent against hops and grounded opponents, though it does have a lot of recovery. Not cancelable.
Close
- cl.A : a quick close jab, cancelable and chainable.
- cl.B : same as st.B
- cl.C : Excellent normal because it's active on the third frame making it Joes quickest button. Staple tool in his combos and blockstrings.
- cl.D : Same as st.D
Crouching
- cr.A : a standard crouching jab. Chainable. Cancelable.
- cr.B : it has good reach for a cr.B and is your only option for a low combo starter. Chainable, not cancelable.
- cr.C : Fairly fast and good to use in combos and frame traps. Cancelable.
- cr. D: has nice reach but is on the slower side for sweeps. hit, and whiff cancelable.
Jumping
- j.A : his fastest jumping normal that has a good hitbox for air to airs. Use it when you don't think the other buttons will come out fast enough.
- j.B : long range and a nice hitbox for air to airs. It has a lot of active frames.
- j.C : a good jump in button that also has a lot of active frames.
- j.D : this is another good jump in button. It can be used for instant overheads and crossups.
CD Attacks
- st.CD : this move has a lot of startup, a lot of recovery and only 2 active frames. It has low invulnerability right before the active frames through most of the recovery frames. Hit and Whiff cancelable.
- j.CD : Joe does a slower version of his j.B. Good for air to airs and can hit low crouchers with the correct spacing and timing, good jump in choice for pressure.
Throws
Knees of Hell: b/f + C
- Hold throw, not techable.
- At most Joe does 4 knee strikes but the opponent can mash to get out sooner, though the Joe player can countermash to counteract this.
- It's the preferred throw option since the opponent cannot tech it to escape.
- causes soft knockdown.
Leg Throw: b/f + D
Regular techable throw.
- Joe does a backflip and slams the opponent down behind him sending them away almost full screen.
- Causes soft knockdown.
Command Moves
Low Kick: f + B
- Joe does a forward kick that does not hit low despite the name.
- staple tool in both combos and pressure since you can cancel into it from most of your normals and you can special/super cancel out of it.
- It's also Joes furthest ranged poke and it goes over low moves nicely.
- unsafe on block if you don't cancel into something.
- The move is the same both done raw and cancelled into.
Sliding: df + B
- a low hitting slide that will go under every air travelling projectile in the game.
- completely safe on block at 0 frame advantage both when done raw and cancelled into making it a great tool to close the gap at closer ranges and when you've pushed yourself out with a blockstring.
- causes a soft knockdown on hit.
Special Moves
Hurricane Upper: hcf + A/C
- A hurricane projectile that travels full screen.
- not hoppable.
- A version travels slower with a little less recovery while the C version travels faster but has a bit more recovery.
- This move is a good projectile with a big hitbox.
- It is the basis for your zoning game.
- The A version is a good move to go into after f+B in blockstrings as it leaves Joe fairly safe afterwards.
- Leaves the opponent standing on a grounded hit but knocks them down on an air hit.
Tiger Kick: dp + B/D
- Joes dp sends him flying into the air with a knee strike.
- B version is faster and has invulnerability on startup that ends before the first active frame. D version is slower but has invulnerability on startup as well as the 3 first active frames of the move.
- Both are good to use as anti airs when you're sure they're going to hit.
- D version can be used as a reversal since it has a large amount of invulnerability frames.
- Both moves are very unsafe on block or whiff.
- causes soft knockdown.
Slash Kick: hcf + B/D
- A horizontally flying kick.
- It is your main combo ender for damage.
- can be good to throw out to whiff punish things or catch forward movement
- it is very unsafe on block or whiff making it risky to just throw out.
- causes soft knockdown.
- A version travels about 1/2 of the screen while D version travels about 3/4s of the screen.
TNT Punch: A/C or tapped repeatedly, Push 4 buttons simultaneously to stop.
- Joe does a series of punches in place, but can move forward or back slightly if you hold the directions.
- The TnT punch consists of 3 different punches: 1 hitting up high, 1 hitting in the middle and 1 hitting lower down. Each of these has a different hitbox and hurtbox.
- You can cancel it by hitting ABCD and his makes the move very safe to throw out.
- This move is the main attraction of Ex Joe. when TnT punch is blocked and cancelled on the 1st hit it leaves Joe at +3 frame advantage which leads to good frame traps and blockstrings.
- On hit it's +5 which lets Joe link other moves afterwards for some highly damaging combos.
- the move can also be used defensively with good timing as the 1st hit has a very good hitbox that can catch people approaching both from the air and ground.
TNT Punch Finisher (During TNT Punch): qcf + A/C
- The followups to the TnT punch.
- A version does a single hit uppercut just in front of Joe whilst the C version does a forward travelling, multihit uppercut.
- you can combo into the followups on all characters if they're standing, but not if they're crouching.
- They can both anti air if you happen to have the TnT punch going and your opponent jumps though just the normal TnT punches can already anti air decently on their own.
- Overall there isn't a lot of use to the followups and you should probably stick with just cancelling the TnT punches instead. But they can be good to use if you miss your cancel and the opponent happens to be standing.
- A version is fairly safe on block while C version is very punishable.
- Both versions cause soft knockdown.
Pressure Knee: dp + A/C
- A two part knee move. The first hit hits them on the ground and the second hit carries them in the air with a flying knee.
- The main use of this move is as a combo tool as the light version combos from lights and the heavy version combos from heavies.
- Very punishable on whiff and block.
- Causes soft knockdown
Golden Calf (During the seconded hit of Pressure Knee): qcb + B/D
- the optional followup that you do after the second hit of the move. Joe does an aerial kick and slams the opponent back to the ground.
- The followup can only be done if the move hit the opponent.
- This followup is the main attraction of the move as it's Ex Joes only access to a hard knockdown attack and as such you can choose to end combos in this move instead of slash kick if you want the hard knockdown instead of more damage.
- If the first part of the move hit you should always do the followup.
- Causes a hard knockdown.
Desperation Moves
Screw Upper: qcf qcf + A/C
- Joe makes a giant tornado in front of him. This move has a multitude of uses.
- It can be used to combo from lights.
- it's got good anti airing potential.
- it's one of his better moves for dealing some chip damage.
- Both versions of the move are almost the same. they both combo the same way, they both both have similar frame data but they travel a little bit differently with the A version moving a bit faster and has slightly longer reach and the C version moving slower with less horizontal travel.
- Fairly safe on block.
- causes soft knockdown.
Thunder Fire: qcf qcf + B/D
- Joe does a series of grounded kicks ending in a flying knee.
- This is your main combo super and it doesn't have much use outside of ending combos with.
- Both versions of the move are functionally the same.
- Very punishable on block.
- causes soft knockdown.
- the Max version of Thunder Fire has more startup than the regular version and is therefore very difficult to combo into and doesn't have many other uses since it's slow and very punishable on whiff and block.
- You're better of spending your meter elsewhere.
- Punishable on block.
- Causes soft knockdown.
Combos
Basic
- cr.B cr.A dp+A qcb+K
this is your low starter combo. gives hard knockdown
- cl.C f+B hcf+K
- far A dp+A qcb+K
- cr.A cl.C f+B hcf+K
this is a link combo
Metered Combos
- cr.B cr.A qcfqcf+K
- cl.C f+B qcfqcf+K
TnT combos
- (cl.A [A](1) ABCD)x3 (st/cr.A) dp+A qcb+K/cr.C f+B hcf+K
Ex Joes TnT Punch is the key to his more damaging combos. By hitting a point blank cl.A/cr.A [A] and cancelling it on the first hit you can link other moves such as another cl.A [A] or a cl/cr.C afterwards. You should be holding forward during the entire loop portion of these combos as the minimal forward movement is key to making the combos work. cr.C f+B hcf+K is your most damaging meterless ender and the dp + A ender forgoes damage for a hard knockdown instead. the st/cr.A before the dp + K is optional because dp + A is fast enough to naturally link after the TnT by itself.
- (cl.A [A](1) ABCD)x4 (st/cr.A) dp+A qcb+K/cr.C f+B hcf+K
Large characters only. On the large characters you can squeeze in another rep of the TnT loop for some extra damage.
- cr.A [A](1) cr.A [A] dp+A / cr.C f+B hcf+K
This is the combo you need to use on the tiny crouchers Chin and Choi as cl.A will whiff on them and since you don't move forward when doing a cr.A you can't get 3 reps of the loop on them.
- cr.B cl.A [A](1) ABCD cr.C f+B hcf+B
your most damaging low combo, but more spacing dependent than the others because your cr.B has to hit point blank for it to work.
- cl.A/cr.A [A](1) ABCD cl.C f+B qcfqcf+K
a basic TnT combo ending in super.
- (cl.A [A](1) ABCD)x3 st/cr.A qcfqcf + K/qcfx2+AC
a more advanced metered combo that gives you the most damage he can get from a reliable fronthit combo, against low crouchers you have to use cr.A instead as the st.A will whiff. On regular height standing characters you can get 4 TnT loops into st.A super and on large standing characters you can get 5. for 3 bars you can end in his max dm for massive damage.
- crossup j.D (cl.A [A](1) ABCD)x3 cr.C f+B hcf+B/qcfqcf+K/qcfx2+AC
this is a backturned combo and works when you hit a backturned opponent with a point blank cl.A/cr.A. If you're using advanced mode or dash type movement you need to do a cr.A instead of a cl.A on the last rep of the TnT loops on small crouchers as you'll be pushed out of cl.A range sooner than with step movement and st.A will whiff. If you do cr.A the combo will still work as intended.
Strategy & Tips
Frame traps
cl/cr.A [A](1) cl.A = 1f frame trap
cl/cr.A [A](1) cr.C = 2f frame trap
cr.B/cr.A cl.C = 3f frame trap
Blockstrings
cl.A [A](1) cl.C df+B/f+B hcf+A
Point blank Cr.D [A](1) cr.C df+B