The King of Fighters '98 UMFE/Advanced Strategy

Running Regular Throw

To perform a regular (C or D) throw quickly from a run, you should input the running throw as follows: run, back+C/D. Make sure you are close enough to your opponent for a throw to come out, and try to press C or D very close to the back input, otherwise you may accidentally walk out of range for the throw.

Note: in 98 UM FE, after inputting a run (forward, forward), your character will enter a "minimal run" state for 10 frames during which your character will continue to run even if you let go of forward, thus you will not be able to do a running regular throw until at least 11 frames after you begin running. You can get a feel for this minimal run by going into training mode and inputting a run, then holding down or down-back: your character will start crouching the instant they are able to stop running.

Reversal Superjump

In 98 UM FE, superjumps are airborne on frame 1: this makes them very useful as a defensive reversal or wake-up option, as you will be able to dodge many lows used as a meaty and if your opponent hits you with a mid or a jump-in, you will get hit in the air meaning you will bounce back or air-reset instead of being left standing in hitstun for a combo, plus since you're jumping you will also avoid any command grabs that throw grounded characters. If you are reversal superjumping backwards, you will also be able to air block.

Reversal superjumps are useful for avoiding mix-up situations such as the classic jump-in V.S. empty hop low or command grab V.S. strike, and for creating space between you and your opponent. If you are on offense, the easiest and safest way to counter someone using reversal superjump often is to perform a meaty j.CD: if they jump it will hit them and knock them down again, and if they block you have enough frame advantage to re-hop or run up and apply more pressure.

You can buffer superjumps during recovery frames or while you are waking up by pressing down-back/down/down-forward right before you are able to move and then holding up-forward or up-back.

Alternate Guard

Alternate Guard is a useful defensive technique against throws that exists in KOF games pre-XIV. When your character is put into a guarding animation/guard stance, i.e. when you block an attack or an attack is whiffed near your character, you can quickly switch between holding back and holding down-back to alternate between standing and crouching guard, which will make your character continue to hold their guard stance. While your character is in this guard stance animation, you cannot be thrown by either regular throws nor command grabs, making Alternate Guard quite useful against grapplers or characters that want to land a command grab on you.

You can set up a practice situation for Alternate Guard in training mode by setting the CPU to do an attack (say, HP/st.C), then standing near the CPU and either blocking the attack or letting it whiff near you while holding back/down-back, then you can begin to alternate between standing and crouching to maintain the guard stance: if your character stays in their guarding animation and you do not walk backwards, this means you are alternating quickly enough for Alternate Guard to work.

One weakness of Alternate Guard is that you must rely on the opponent attacking or whiffing an attack near your block in order to trigger it. if you are on offense, you can beat an Alternate Guard attempt by not giving your opponent a chance to enter their guard stance: you can do a raw throw, such as from an empty jump, without hitting or whiffing an attack on your opponent's guard beforehand. Another weakness of Alternate Guard is that you will be at least partially vulnerable to low attacks while doing it, since you must alternate between blocking high and low. If you are on offense, you can stagger lows and try to fish for a confirm against an opponent using Alternate Guard.

Unblockable Fireball Trick

(To be added...)

Max Bypass

If you are using extra gauge, even if you have a fully charged meter and red health, you normally cannot do an SDM/level 3 super unless you are already in max mode.

In order to easily combo into an SDM outside of max mode using extra gauge, you can do a Max Bypass by performing the regular super motion then returning to neutral (not holding any directions) and pressing ABC. This will cancel the normal into max mode using quick max and you will get the super immediately after, allowing you to do an SDM.

To give an example, let's say you were at red health with a fully charged meter and you wanted to combo Mature's cr.B, cr.A into the SDM version of qcfx2+P. Your inputs should be as follows: cr.B, cr.A, qcfx2+ABC, while making sure you don't hold any directions when you press ABC.

Because cancelling a normal into max mode using quick max reduces the recovery of the normal, in some instances characters can also use Max Bypass to combo into a super that might normally be too slow to work from certain starters. For example, Chang can combo into his qcf,hcb+P super from a light normal using Max Bypass: one such combo is j.X, cl.B, qcf,hcb+ABC.

Backturned Corner Cross-up

(To be added...)