The King of Fighters XV/Ángel/Strategy

General Gameplan

Don’t stop your offense. Use Unchain to move around. Special Spin is important. Prioritize safejumps in combo routes whenever possible. Generally, don’t spend more than 1 bar on a combo. Move around well, it’s the only way you’re gonna get in given the fact your normals will do very little to help you force your way in the same way other characters can. Use movement as a substitute for defense whenever possible. If you’re losing to projectiles, you are doing something very wrong. Don’t forget 66K and 624B are safe on block, they’ll help you get in. Don’t be afraid to force action with 66C. Bait DPs with 214C > 6P > 4AB. You have the fastest overhead in the game, use it. If you want to get better with this character, don’t be afraid to experiment with certain sequences to see what works and what doesn’t work. It’ll click eventually.

Stay away from stupid/weird gimmicks and don’t constantly fish for Twitter tech, you will be better off the more you focus on moving well and taking safejumps.

Get better at using Unchain as movement and making it work in tandem with normal movement.

Move better. Move better. Move better.

Come back when it’s not Christmas and you’ll see a more fleshed out guide here.

Neutral

Movement is your highest priority. Your normals are not necessarily unusable, but you’re not gonna win games with them (Far B gets pretty close though).

If you are playing against a fighter that has access to a projectile, you should be threatening to EX Red Sky right through it. While the normal versions of Red Sky won’t go through projectiles, they’re also fine neutral skip tools.

Command dash allows you to move forward while immediately granting access to your Unchain moves, use it. Dash > 8K > Special Spin as much as you want, just make sure you’re doing something with it to contest space and work your way in.

Far B is very good for hops. Control low-altitude airspace in front of you with this. Far C and CD > 624B are a decent ways to keep your opponent’s ground movement in check.

Pressure

Command dash is a great way to force your opponent on defense, given it only takes 10 frames for either 2P or 6K to come out. Aside from that, you can try 66K to force your way in the same way some other characters might use their normals to force their way in. 66C is good because it’s unblockable. You could also just hop CD like anyone else.

Mixups

Frame traps:

• Close B > 214A is a combo on hit, and frametrap on block
• 214C > 6P is a frame trap, but you can also use this to bait a reversal by pressing 4AB immediately after 6P
• Command Dash > 2P can be looped indefinitely, and it is a frametrap every time.
• 66K will frequently catch mashers depending on the string. Just put something together, end it with 66K and see what happens.

Left/Right mixups:

• Just cancel an Unchain Circle into command dash and you’ll end up on the other side of the opponent, and you can use another Unchain Circle attack.
• All it takes to start a high damage combo is one good hyper hop j.C.

High/Low mixups:

• Unchain’s first phase contains a naturally baked-in high/low mix with two moves: 3B is a low, 3D is an overhead, and both of these attacks will work in the following string: Close D > 6B > [3B/3D] > 6K > 236C
• Unchain’s second phase contains a fast low, a slow low, a fast overhead and a slow overhead. Not only this, but the fast low goes straight into the fast overhead.
• Any command dash that side switches can immediately go into 2P, 6K or even 2P > 6K (unless the command dash was canceled into from an Unchain Circle), forcing the opponent to react to the side switch and then immediately guess high/low.
• j.A > j.2D is a double overhead. Use it whenever you can.

Other mixups:

• Force strike/throw with a forward Special Spin.
• 66C is an unblockable punch that starts a combo.
• More will be added here later

Okizeme

Safejumps

The most common safejumps:

• EX Red Sky (624BD): Immediately hyper hop forward after the animation ends. This is an extremely accessible safejump due to the move’s use as both a combo ender and tool to snipe projectile zoners with from half-screen distance.

• 66K: Immediately press A, then (hyper) hop forward. This move, and many combos leading to it, can be done completely meterless, making it a valuable combo ender.

• 66C (corner only, against airborne opponent): Immediately jump toward the corner, then pick from the next two options as soon as you land:
  • Super jump away from the corner and j.C on the way down
  • Normal jump away from the corner and j.D on the way down

Much more common than the parentheses makes it sound. Commonly accessed any time 66A hits near the corner, followed by 46B > 8K > 66C. This is not only a left/right mixup, it is a safejump regardless of which side you choose. Be ready to catch wakeup rolls, it can be as simple as a run-up Close D as soon as you land.