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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
Defense
Defense with Ángel is very tricky. You’re not hopeless, but you don’t have a standard reversal to work with and your normals are about the bare minimum for what can be considered decent abare material.
Far B will stop a hop, just make sure you’re not too close or Close B will come out. If you don’t want to risk this happening, you can just press A.
Command dash is a solid way out of the corner, as long as you don’t get hit out of the first few frames. You need a minimum of a 6-frame gap to dash through your opponent, and the gap required will be larger depending on proximity to your opponent.
As with any other character, shatter strike is an option.
On wakeup, you can use the counter super (4623K) to beat any safejump. If you see your opponent going for a safejump, just hit this to deal 20%/35% damage and put your opponent behind you.
The EX command grab (426AC) is strike invulnerable on frame 3, making it a decent option on defense. This especially works against forward-advancing moves, such as Yashiro’s Jet Counter (the dash punch, 426P).
Okizeme
Safejumps
| Anywhere | (EX Red Sky) 624BD > Hyper Hop j.D | |
| Anywhere | 66K Unchain Finisher > whiff 5A > Forward Hop j.D (4f) | |
| Corner | 4623A/C > whiff 214C > Jump D (4f) | |
| Corner | 236A Unchain finisher > Normal Jump.D (4f) | |
| Corner | 3D Unchain Starter or 6P Unchain Circle > Normal Jump.D (4f) | |
| Corner | 66C Unchain Finisher > empty Jump toward the Corner > Normal Jump.D (4f) OR Super Jump.C (4f) |
- 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.
Countering Ángel
Projectiles are a complete non-issue to Ángel, but keeping her out with big normals can make it difficult for her to get in. In general, she can struggle against characters with big normals, such as Yashiro and King of Dinosaurs.
Spending meter on a Guard Cancel will prove very useful to avoid getting put in mixup situations, especially with how difficult it can be to stop Ángel’s offense once it gets started.
Reversals on wakeup are risky against Ángel, especially with how many safejumps she has at her disposal.
It can be tricky performing safejumps on Ángel, given her counter super’s ability to negate them outright, but there are a few factors to consider when determining the likelihood that Ángel attempts one on wakeup. For every one of these that are true while Ángel has at least 1 bar, the threat of a counter super on wakeup rises:
- You are under 20% HP (it will kill)
- Ángel is backed up to the corner
- Ángel has a lot of meter stocked up
- You appear to be performing a safejump
- You have consistently forced Ángel to block an attack immediately on wakeup
- You do not have a command grab, or you have not been using it.
If you think it’s coming, you can bait it by performing some sort of safejump without actually attacking on the way down. From here, you can either wait 10-15 frames on landing before going for a close heavy combo starter, or you can go for a throw. If you have a command grab, you can use it to beat the counter.
