The King of Fighters XIII/Maxima/Strategy

Spacing

Far Range

This is going to be a very short section. Maxima does not have very much, with any meter, that he can do to stop people from all the way on the other side of the screen. It's not advisible to stay in this range, especially against fireball characters. Make your way slowly to the other side. You can hop fireballs as they come or just block them. You won't lose much guard meter, especially with Maxima having one of the highest guard bars in the game.

You can safely deflect fireballs with far C. It's faster and covers the hop space. However, since far D is easier to guardpoint with at farther ranges, you can do that as well. People might use EX meter to try to get through your guardpoint if you're doing it too often so be wary of that always. They might also roll or hop over it. Far normals for Maxima have very long recovery so whiffing them often gives the opponent chances to cause you problems.

You can get in by jumping as well. Jump CD will put you practically horizontal so you can hop over fireballs and cover the space. Hopping back and forth to cover space with your CD is an excellent way to irritate your opponent because there's very little they can do and approaching will often be met with his CD. Once you're in mid range, we can start doing more.

Mid Range

At midrange, you're within reach of hitting someone with Vapor cannon or hop range. Here you can play two different ways. You can be aggressive and throw out a vapor cannon to induce blockstun. Rather than that, you can hop in and pressure them with overheads. Although Maxima's air to ground game is terrible because of how little hitsun the moves cause, you can still do some serious damage as they do 80. You can be the aggressor by jumping in at your opponent with CDs as well. If it hits, you can knock them away and get into close range. If you don't hit them or they block, you're pretty safe. On block, you can keep up the hop pressure until you're ready to let them have it.

However, you can also be a bit more defensive. This is also the range where people like to hop or throw out some of their forward moving specials. Maxima can be an impregnable wall; standing stock still while deflecting off any attacks. Opponents that full jump could meet a st.A anti-air or a cr.A stop gap between their ground pressure. Not only that, far C guard point will stop air attacks and cr.C will stop pressure a little bit because of its far range and long active frames. You don't want to rely too heavily on your normals to stop low pressure. Blocking is usually the best answer, but at this range, most lows are nothing to worry about. You want to be reactive, looking to answer moves with the best possible solution. Knowing when to do df+C or when to use your guardpoint to defend yourself will define if you're a competent defensive Maxima.

Be sure to remember that at any time, you can cancel those guardpoints into something else. A st.C guardpoint could turn into a D version Maxima press, something an opponent won't know how to respond to in this situation. If you find you've knocked people out of the air or are at the proper spacing, throw out his sweep. It's very long range and allows you to trip people up on their wake up or as they're falling from a reset. It gives you that ample amount of time to get in. His sweep is a great, yet slow poke. Don't use it unless you're guaranteed they can't hop over it for a punish (like if they're already standing up).

Although a bit scrubby, you can try to get your opponent to press some buttons and respond with an EX move. EX Vapor Cannon has some pretty far range and it allows you the opportunity to wire damage for big offensive gains. EX Maxima Press is very fast and opponents that aren't blocking at the right time or try to respond will often get snatched up. Some aren't even ready for the punish so it's important to get in a st.C so that it might beat out their delayed response to guardpoint it in time.

Close Range

Now, Maxima is at a range where all of his normals are faster and he can apply a different kind of strategy. When you have the opponent close to you, you can put them in a block string like cr.A, df+C, qcb+A. Although this is very basic, vapor cannon puts you at a slight frame advantage. You can run in and get in some pokes. You can also cancel into D Maxima press from the df+C to trick people into getting complacent. They'll get run over by his command grab and taken to the wall. Your goal is really to score a hit by making them crack or keep blocking. You can approach from the air and connect with basic combos, anything to get in as Maxima does such huge damage, or keep at them from the ground.

You want to keep them from jumping out or into you. Poking with st.A is great, but a predictable jump can get stuffed and punished for 20% with a well timed df+C. Remember, df+C can be a great poke since up close you can cancel it into vapor cannon. It's actually more ideal because opponents won't have the opportunity to guard roll on the df+C into vapor cannon like they would if you started a guard string.

Once you string a hit in, keep on your opponents. Some of the most amount of damage will come from poking, but a decent 4 hit combo here and there can lead to more meter and more damage. After a vapor cannon, you can always run forward a bit and hop forward to perform a safe jump. Vapor cannon causes a longer period where the opponent is knocked down like Iori's Maiden Masher. Use that to keep up your offensive and make a mistake on wake up. Mix in a low B here and there. It's your only combo-able low, but it's also a fairly good poke if timed into a cr.A which would mean more damage.

Once you've conditioned them to block, you can do all kinds of setups to get into a command grab. You can poke them with cr.A, run up, and command grab them. You can jump up into a jump CD a few times, hop and do nothing, land and command throw. You can also cancel any of your close normals into D command grab without running up. This is also beneficial because you can cancel your block strings on the fly to just get in. Apply basic grappler footsies with your opponent to get them into your arms. Especially if they're not respecting YOU when you're knocked down. If you're knocked down and they're trying to poke you, grab them or use your EX DP to guard point any meaty pokes.

Cornered Opponent

When you have someone in the corner, Maxima has a great deal of potential. With full HD, he can do a full combo without spacing or the positioning of an opponent being a factor. Also, in the corner, you can hop in with an EX Vapor Cannon. Two things could happen in this situation. They could not be blocking, tried to DP/reversal, and your guardpoint will eat it or they blocked it. That's great on both ends. If you hit someone with your EX vapor cannon, that's a free HD activation right there or any full combo for big damage. Keep in mind though that they can guard cancel roll through it and get out.

Other than that, you can keep pressuring your opponent with cr.A's into tick throw or Vapor cannon. Keep at them, forcing them to block your safe pressure and you'll eventually make them crack into doing something. That something you should be aware and looking out for. Remember that as Maxima, his blockstring at the df+C is not safe. Vapor cannon is NOT safe on whiff. If someone rolls through it or guard cancel rolled the move before it, you're going to eat anything they throw at you.

Cornered

This is not a fun experience. Being cornered limits your mobility. Here is where you have to play solid and stop a lot of the opponent's advances and pressure. Any time you score an anti-air, run out of the corner. This is also a matter of not getting baited into doing the obvious answer. A lot of opponents will attack grapplers up closer and think if they jump they'll be safe. That's not the case. If they're close to you, mix up your wake up game with a wake-up df+C. On reaction, you could do qcb+A/C. If it hits, you'll combo with qcb+A. If it doesn't hit, you are still safe and qcb+C has guardpoint for if they were doing a delayed response.

Cover your weaknesses. You are very defenseless to cross ups and lows. The best thing to defend that is blocking them as they come or knocking them out of their pressure with st.A or cr.A before their moves come out. Most people will try to jump in or run in, but your normals can save you. Cl.C and cl.D can turn you around and autocorrect GP a cross up if timed properly. This puts them in the corner for you to screw with. Wait patiently for proper opportunities and timing to guard point a move and knock them away or to make them think twice about getting in on you.

Remember cr.C? Well, that's whiff cancellable. You can do d.C into df+C to trick people into jumping over the cr.C to get hit with the df+C. Close up, it still will link. You can also just cancel cr.C into vapor cannon. Getting them to back up and give you room to play with is the mission of the day when you're in the corner. But of course, if they screw up and provide something for you to punish with with your command grab, use it. The situation is now reversed.

Meter Options

With No Meter/No Drive

If Maxima has no meter and no drive, you've likely put him first or he's last after the second player has ripped through all his meter and drive. That's fine! This is where getting in and staying in works wonders. Don't let the opponent get to far or even mid range. Stay in close range and pressure them. D.A, df+C into Vapor Cannon will be your friend. It'll allow you to really get in and poke them. Use your normals exclusively for anti-air like st.A, st.C or df+C. Keep them grounded so you can build your meter.

Use of hop CD to get in as well as mixing in high lows with d.B from hop C or jump D will give you an opportunity to get in a quick combo. Remember, any of your combos are damaging even without meter. Without meter, you might need to rely on aggressively trying to grab someone, either from a blockstring or by tricking them into blocking instead of avoiding it.

If you feel like you're safer from a distance, one of the best ways to gain stock meter is whiffing his B command grab. You can keep spamming it from a distance till you get stock. You can even do it when you score a knockdown in the corner. Just quickly do it and go right back into pressure. Some would rather wait for your opponent, you can cover plenty of space using your normals like using df+C or st.A as an anti-air, using st.C or far st.C to eat projectiles, or hop CD to cover air space in trading. Hopping back and forth with j.CD sets up opportunities for people to run, jump, or mistakenly attack their way into that big hitbox. On counter hit, in the corner, you can chain df+C up to 3 times and finish off with M19 Blitz Cannon for a lot of damage.

With 1+ Meter/No Drive

With 1 meter, your baseline damage has practically doubled. An EX Vapor cannon in your full combo can guarantee and extra 200+ damage from follow ups. Maxima doesn't particularly need stock or HD mode to be threatening. If you want to punish someone or feel like their hop CD is too good to deal with, you can use your EX DP to grab them out of it or let 2 bars rip to unload your EX DM on them as they're in mid air. The move is fast and deals such ridiculous damage.

Your regular DM becomes a good reversal tool when someone moves in on you. Remember though that it's slow and not very good if they're fishing for you to do it. You can use EX Maxima press to get in from afar and punish moves that generally aren't safe from a distance like Robert's flying kick on block.

When you're trying to jump in, you can use that meter now to use EX Vapor Cannon to get in. In the corner, if someone tried to dp, you can time df+C properly to hit them 3 times with it! You can finish that combo for a dp+k for a cool 300-400 damage off of one bar!

With No Meter/50%-100% Drive

Here's a little secret. Maxima can't do very much of anything with drive without stock. Gain stock.

With 1+ Meter/50%-100% Drive

This is where Maxima is the most deadly. If you've got the opportunity and hit your opponent, throttle them for everything they've got. You could go for EX Maxima press combos and drive cancel into df+C for good damage. You could do even better by hitting a combo and super canceling into his DM or EX DM. With his normals doing such huge amounts of damage in one or two hits, we're talking killer amounts of damage. You could score up to 700 damage for 3 stock and 1 drive in the corner using hop C into EX Air Vapor cannon, land into a normal combo and finish with an [SC] EX Double Vapor Cannon DM.

The amount of damage he does in super cancel combos is ridiculous, but the real crazy damage is what happens when you land his neomax or HD. From far away, your Neomax is your only full screen punish, but it will HURT if someone gets hit. If you want to just pop it, activate HD and go in on them. A lot of your far normals are special cancellable in HD so that makes them more safe on block. You can also pop it if they jump in for 2 stock bars and all your HD instead of 3.

In the event you have the opportunity to do an HD combo, the spacing is a bit tight and hard to time. However, it can kill players for as easy as 3 bars. It will 100% them guaranteed for 4 bars. Use st.D if you can, but any HD combo can be done with your usual starters like st.C (1), df+C or d.A, df+C.

Guardpoint

So, in order to fully understand Maxima's guardpoint mechanic, it needs its own section. Guardpoint is caused when someone attacks a person with a guardpoint move as they do said move. The start-up of the move is slowed, but the person who is being attacked takes no damage until the animation is complete. One might think of "Super Armor" in other fighting games, but the key differences are the following:

• You do not take damage when you guardpoint a move

• You can be grabbed out of the guardpoint move

• Unless the properties allow, two different hits will interrupt guardpoint

• Guardpoint moves are first in, last out. First person to do a guard point move when both are trying to do one is the last in priority.

• Some guardpoints are not full body.

Now, for Maxima, he has 6 normal moves with guardpoint. Those are st.C and st.D (Close), st.C and st. D (far), d.C, and CD (Blowback). His C vapor cannon has guard point on start-up. EX Air Vapor Cannon has 360 degree guardpoint as well as his EX M19 Blitz Cannon (dp+BD). His DM, Double Vapor Cannon, has guardpoint surrounding him during the start-up of his move. Except for his lower body, above and behind him is covered by guardpoint. Learning when and how to use guardpoint is a very important aspect. Although no normal moves guardpoint lows, EX Air Vapor cannon and EX M19 Blitz Cannon will absorb low hits for big damage. Far D and close D can guardpoint mid area moves like fat fireballs. Far D can guardpoint multi-hit moves like Joe's Screw Upper or Ash's Thermidor as well as C Vapor Cannon. st.C (Far or Close) can stop jump-ins and can hit confirm into DMs. Down C is a very good guardpoint tool for low to the ground moves like Terry's Power Wave. It's also so low to the ground that you can use it as a guardpoint for jump-ins while crouch blocking or confirming on hit from a grounded guardpoint. You can guardpoint attack grabs like Kyo's Kototsuki You (hcb+k)and Leona's V-Slasher, any move that requires a hit. You can't guardpoint grabs like Clark's Super Argentine Backbreaker or Vice's Splash.

Tips

• Maxima Press B is unblockable, it's considered a command grab. However, when it connects it'll press him against the wall. The whiff animation looks like any command grab.

• Maxima Press D is unblockable but has a slow start up.

• EX Maxima Press is blockable but is fast.

• All of Maxima's ground strong normals, have Guard Point (autoguard); d.D is the only exception.

• Vapor Cannon C will wire if it's a counter, EX Vapor Cannon will counter wire every time.

• cr.C empty cancels.

• GP'ing takes no tick damage at all. It is possible to Guard Point Joe's entire Screw Upper DM (qcfx2+P)!

Quick notes between these two combos:

--> EX qcb+P (wire), df+C, (df+C), Ex hcb+K -->

vs

--> Ex hcb+K > qcb+P, [DC] Ex qcb+P (wire), df+C, dp+K

Use the second one for more damage, but first one if you only have 2 stocks and no Cancels. Arguably, both combos can be extended, but use the first one for SCs and MCs as it uses one less Drive Cancel already.

Maxima only has three special moves (if you count Air Vapor Cannon, he has four). The cool thing is he does massive damage and his limit is his stocks (the more he has the more creative the combos can get). df+C has pretty good horizontal range as well.

Frame Traps

• "(n) frame gap" = The amount of frames that opponent has to counter a frame trap.

1.) st. B > st. A - 4 frame gap between st. B, and st. A. St. A whiffs on crouching opponents.

2.) st. B > cr. A - 4 frame gap between st. B, and cr. A.

Best Team Position

His best position on the team as a solid defensive character as well as pure game-changing element would be last. He can flip your head over with a 3 bar HD combo and come at your last character with 50% of their life missing in the first few hits for 1 bar. He makes use of bar much more than stock and that makes him very versatile for meter management.

On the flipside, he does not gain that much drive meter and atleast 50% is useful for doing large amounts of damage. Second on the team is a viable option because you'll atleast have some drive set up to get in there for some heavy amounts of damage. He's also got very good defensive normals and guardpoint in most of them so utilizing that as your anchor or your second would be very frustrating for your opponent as they have meter they might have wasted or lost because of your strong defenses.

Character Matchups

Andy Bogard

Ash Crimson

Athena Asamiya

Benimaru Nikaido

Billy Kane

Chin Gentsai

Clark Still

Duo Lon

Elisabeth Branctorche

Goro Daimon

Hwa Jai

Iori Yagami (Claw)

Iori Yagami (Flame)

Joe Higashi

K'

Kim Kaphwan

King

Kula Diamond

Kyo Kusanagi (XIII)

Kyo Kusanagi (NESTS)

Leona Heidern

Mai Shiranui

Mature

Maxima (mirror match)

Raiden

Ralf Jones

Robert Garcia

Ryo Sakazaki

Saiki

Shen Woo

Sie Kensou

Takuma Sakazaki

Mr. Karate

Terry Bogard

Vice

Yuri Sakazaki