YomiHustle/Ninja

Overview

Strategy

Combos

Links

Profile

Ninja is a mix-up heavy rushdown character, capable of using her superior movement abilities and high number of options to force highly advantageous situations, while almost always having an escape option. As the only character with a projectile invincible attack, an invincible "reversal" in the form of Uppercut, and a frame 4 interruptible movement option, Ninja is capable of using her superior tools to alternate between forcing her opponent's hand, and explosive offense and punishes.

Strengths

Weaknesses

Fast: Possessing the fastest dash in the game, an omnidirectional airdash, and two separate movement specials in Substitution and Store/Release Momentum, Ninja can rapidly create pressure and score hits where other characters may struggle, while constantly building meter. A tool for everything: Ninja has a tool to beat nearly every option an opponent has while in neutral and advantage. This is amplified at close-range, with Punch beating all offensive options and movement except for grab, and Drop Kick beating or evading all basic defensive options. Setplay: Sticky Bomb, Summon, and Shuriken are incredible tools to control space and force opponents into unfavorable guessing situations, frequently denying some options from being used. Resets: Ninja is able to use her various tools to keep pressure and extend combos, with Free Cancel enbling potent frame traps and callouts. High corner carry: From mid-stage, Ninja can consistently bring opponents into view of the corner from a single clean combo starter, especially on DI out. This enables her to loop pressure and constantly retain advantage. High reward for high risk: Ninja is the only character with moves possessing Initiative Bonus invincibility, beating offensive options outright if used before your opponent is acting. This opens the door for terrifying situations, as Ninja can simply power through a majority of aggressive options and convert into high damage combos, complementing her speed and pressure.

Small range (without meter): Without long range options, Ninja's threat range is the smallest in the game without dash momentum or projectile setplay. Quick Slash remedies this by being extremely long-range, but has low conversion ability against good DI, and costs 1 bar of meter per use. Setup reliant: Most character are able to move or control space in a way that denies Ninja her preferred point-blank range. Against defensive play and optimal spacing, Ninja may need to rely on setplay to get into range to begin pressure and mixups. High risk for high reward: The more oppressive an option Ninja has, the more punishable it is on read or on whiff, losing to simple defensive options and movement without pressure and conditioning to back up the play. This can lead to taking long combos or spending resources to make up for whiffs.

Ninja

Move List

Unique movement

Dash

Dash

Forward Damage Startup Active First Actionable Frame Advantage * Guard Proration Block Advantage - - - 8, 7 (Hold) - - 0 - Can be interrupted when your opponent becomes actionable. Great way to close distance, being less committal than a Teleport and travelling further than Wizard's Dash. Can be paired with Store Momentum to create an even better approach/escape option for later. Back Damage Startup Active First Actionable Frame Advantage * Guard Proration Block Advantage - 4 - 14 - - 0 - Has 4 additional frames after it becomes interruptable. Not as commonly used, considering Ninja has better ways to make distance that don't make you a sitting duck against a lot of approach options.

Airdash

Airdash The other two wish they had something like this The other two wish they had something like this

Damage Startup Active First Actionable Frame Advantage * Guard Proration Block Advantage - - - 8, 7 (Hold) - - 0 - Can be interrupted when your opponent becomes actionable. The movement option. It's as fast as a forward dash, except it's also omnidirectional. Opens up punish opportunities, escape routes, combo extensions, Airdash does it all. You only get two per air time, but most of the time it's more than enough to do whatever you need in any given scenario.

Normals

Punch

Punch Ground version. A really fast and useful jab. Ground version. A really fast and useful jab. Air version. A situational air-to-air, or a combo extender. Air version. A situational air-to-air, or a combo extender.

Ground Damage Startup Active First Actionable Frame Advantage * Guard Proration Block Advantage 300 4 2 15 - High 2 - Tied for fastest strike in the game. It's a regular jab in all of its glory. Not ideal as a combo starter, considering how harsh the scaling is, but with the right route you can get quite a bit of damage off a frame 4 low-commitment attack with surprisingly decent reach. Air Damage Startup Active First Actionable Frame Advantage * Guard Proration Block Advantage 400 5 2 22 - High 0 - Something you throw out mid-combo to save more damaging moves from hitstun scaling. Sometimes it's even optimal, considering its less susceptible to ground DI compared to Air Kick or Chuck Spin. Also a decent way to stuff out predicted aerial approaches.

Kick

Kick Ground version Ground version Air version Air version

Ground Damage Startup Active First Actionable Frame Advantage * Guard Proration Block Advantage 700 5 3 19 - Low 1 - The Shoto Kick. It's actually really great, all things considered. Fast, good reach, especially with momentum, gets slightly more damaging combos than Punch, due to both better Proration and higher advantage on hit. Also, it's a frame 5 low, meaning it is a good mixup option that doesn't leave you completely open for a punish in case they roll away or something. Also, a great restand. Air Damage Startup Active First Actionable Frame Advantage * Guard Proration Block Advantage 700 5 7 40 - High 0 - Sends the opponent downwards with hard knockdown. You want to hit this, it's amazing. Either as a launching hit of a combo, in which case it gets absurdly high frame advantage, turning the game into a make-up-a-crazy-followup sandbox for the next few turns, or as a purely aerial move to send them plummeting to the ground, a situation Ninja can absolutely capitalize on thanks to Airdash and Quick Slash. A bit harder to execute the latter on DI Down, sadly, but with enough height it's almost always a guaranteed restand.

Sweep

Sweep	Damage Startup Active First Actionable Frame Advantage * Guard Proration Block Advantage 1200 7 2 29 - Low -1 - Usable in NunChuk stance. Special cancellable. A niche punish and combo tool. Has great damage and proration, but can hard to follow up on due to its Hard Knockdown property. Easier to follow up on with DI neutral or up, but can almost always combo into stomp.

NunChuk

NunChuk NunChuk NunChuk NunChuk (High) NunChuk (High) Chuk Heavy Chuk Heavy Chuk Jump Chuk Jump

NunChuk Damage Startup Active First Actionable Frame Advantage * Guard Proration Block Advantage 800 7 3 19 - High 0 - NunChuk (High) Damage Startup Active First Actionable Frame Advantage * Guard Proration Block Advantage 1000 6 3 19 - High 0 - Enters into NunChuk stance (on hit or whiff) Stance can be exited by doing a non-chuk move. NunChuk (High) cannot hit grounded opponents. Chuk Heavy Damage Startup Active First Actionable Frame Advantage * Guard Proration Block Advantage 600x3 9 2,2,2 22 - High 0 - Only available after NunChuk. All 3 hits increase combo scaling. Chuk Jump Damage Startup Active First Actionable Frame Advantage * Guard Proration Block Advantage 1200 16 4 32 - High 0 - Only available after NunChuk. Has extremely limited followups: Chuk Spin, Grab, Store/Release Momentum, Instant/Burst Cancel. Chuk Spin is usually the best followup. Even if it whiffs, it makes you actionable sooner than landing normally.

Chuk Spin

Chuk Spin	Damage Startup Active First Actionable Frame Advantage * Guard Proration Block Advantage 700*3 6 4,4,3 40 - High 0 - Air only. Your standard air combo move, has good damage and is easy to combo off of, but usually needs a resource to combo off of on DI up. This is your best tool to combo into sticky bomb in air combos.

Drop Kick

Drop Kick A live demonstration of why you should respect Ninja's grab game. Always. A live demonstration of why you should respect Ninja's grab game. Always.

Damage Startup Active First Actionable Frame Advantage * Guard Proration Block Advantage 1150 11 5 22 - High -2 - Airborne frame 1. This is a murder weapon. Being a frame 1 airborne move with -2 proration and relatively slow, something as unassumming as a grab tech attempt or a block can very quickly turn into ~5000 damage before the launcher and a corner. Granted, it's a little finnicky to follow up, given its modest frame advantage, but most of the time it's a reliable combo starter, sometimes a damaging combo extender, and another looping tool in the corner.

Dive Kick

Dive Kick	Damage Startup Active First Actionable Frame Advantage * Guard Proration Block Advantage 600 12 (6) Until Landing Until Landing+4 - High 0 - Has 3 possible angles. Startup is halved with Initiative. Special cancellable. Useful for restanding opponents close to the ground, in combination with shuriken.

Universal Mechanics

Throw

Grab	Damage Startup Active First Actionable Frame Advantage * Guard Proration Block Advantage 900 3 3 23 - Throw 0 - Universal throw. Usable in Backsway and NunChuk Stance. Weak to DI down, but can often still be a combo starter due to Stomp OTG.

Specials

Shuriken

Shuriken	Ground Damage Startup Active First Actionable Frame Advantage * Guard Proration Block Advantage 400 6 - 11 - High 0 - Air Damage Startup Active First Actionable Frame Advantage * Guard Proration Block Advantage 300 6 - 11 - High 0 -

Uppercut

Uppercut	Damage Startup Active First Actionable Frame Advantage * Guard Proration Block Advantage 1200+600 4 2,4 41 - High 0 - Invincible during startup with Initiative. First hit is super cancellable. Second hit is not cancellable. Usable in Backsway Stance.

Stomp

Stomp	Damage Startup Active First Actionable Frame Advantage * Guard Proration Block Advantage 700 11 4 23 - Low 0 - Hits OTG. Jump and super cancellable. A useful combo tool due to its ability to continue combos on hard knockdown.

Jump Kick

Jump Kick	Damage Startup Active First Actionable Frame Advantage * Guard Proration Block Advantage 1200 11 8 Until Landing+15 (43 Grounded) - High 0 - Air OK. First 24 frames have projectile invulnerability. Super cancellable.

Sticky Bomb

Sticky Bomb

Grab Damage Startup Active First Actionable Frame Advantage * Guard Proration Block Advantage 400 10(16 on whiff) 4 Until Landing+4 (28 Grounded), 16 After Grab - Command Grab 0 - Detonation Damage Startup Active First Actionable Frame Advantage * Guard Proration Block Advantage 800 (1000) 2 2 - - High 0 - Air OK. Sticky Bomb explodes by itself after 120 frames. Can be detonated manually at any time when Ninja can choose an action.

Summon

Summon Neutral. Neutral.

Kunai (Up-Forward) Damage Startup Active First Actionable Frame Advantage * Guard Proration Block Advantage 700x3 5+24 - 11 - High 0 - Air OK. Adds a slight upwards boost in the air. Ninja summons a clone below them which throws six kunais upwards at a relatively small angle. Generally used either as an aerial combo filler, because teleporting it straight into your opponent leads to good damage, or to just be annoying to someone very high up in the air. Kunai (Forward) Damage Startup Active First Actionable Frame Advantage * Guard Proration Block Advantage 700x3 5+24 - 11 - High 0 - Air OK. Adds a slight upwards boost in the air. Ninja summons a clone slightly above them which throws six kunais forward in a 45 degree radius. A decent way to cover up the general area in front of you. Can be substituted before throwing the kunais to cover grounded approaches. In combos you either use it the same way you would use an Up-Forward summon, meaning substituting right in their face, or you substitute with the lower kunai to get a little more corner carry or to continue the combo where it would've dropped for various reasons. It's pretty versatile as a combo extender in general, so feel free to cook up your own stuff. Kunai (Down-Forward) Damage Startup Active First Actionable Frame Advantage * Guard Proration Block Advantage 700x3 5+24 - 11 - High 0 - Air OK. Adds a slight upwards boost in the air. Ninja summons a clone very high above them, which throws six kunais downwards in a wide radius. This is the neutral. The angles at which kunais are sent at make it really obnoxious to get in on Ninja, while they can just substitute to whatever one they desire in return. This move has an entire bible of knowledge checks associated with it, and you can definitely find another one if you scratch your head hard enough. Go nuts. It's really neat. Also the outer kunai's shallow angle makes it very good at restanding people. Slide Damage Startup Active First Actionable Frame Advantage * Guard Proration Block Advantage 0 4 30 11 - Low 0 - Air OK. Adds a slight upwards boost in the air. Ninja summons a clone that falls down and initiates a slide upon landing. A really great combo extender. For some reason it was given 50 frames of hitstun on hit, and it leaves them standing if they land anywhere during that hitstun, leading either to a really comfortable air string (which Ninja appreciates a lot) or the easiest restand of your life. You have all the time in the world to setup the nastiest extension of your life if this hits. If it whiffs, however, you're kind of stuck without another summon for a pretty long time, which is not great, considering that this clone is not good for neutral purposes.

Store/Release Momentum

Store/Release Momentum The flex tape of the ninja community The flex tape of the ninja community

Store Momentum Damage Startup Active First Actionable Frame Advantage * Guard Proration Block Advantage N/A 1 - 11 - - 0 - Air OK. Unable to be used if you already have stored momentum. Saves your current speed and direction, and halts your movement. Occasionally useful to stop yourself from getting into a terrible spot or to get a better combo extension, because, being a special move, it can be cancelled into. However, this move's greatness is not what it does, but what it unlocks... Release Momentum Damage Startup Active First Actionable Frame Advantage * Guard Proration Block Advantage N/A 1 - 4 - - 0 - Air OK. Costs 1 bar. Only usable after Store Momentum ...which is arguably the best super in the entire game. Even looking at this thing at face value, its a busted mobility tool, which allows you to make up a ridiculous approach or a near-uncontestable escape at the cost of a single bar, which is something Ninja almost always has. If we dig deeper into it, it also opens up some new combo routes, because it can be cancelled into off of anything. Throw conversions even on DI Down, awkward routes becoming way more lenient, simply showing off - the sky's the limit, really. Even beyond that, however, this move's total duration is 4 frames. Four. Combined with its ability to be flipped, this quirky little trait means that any aggressive option your opponent can throw out, even at point-blank range, is either completely reactable, meaning they have to spend FC to enforce any kind of a mixup, or whiffs altogether, once again requiring an FC to not eat a punish. This move is insane. Make sure you have access to it whenever possible.

Store/Release Momentum

Substitution

Damage Startup Active First Actionable Frame Advantage * Guard Proration Block Advantage N/A 5 - 8 - - 0 - Air OK. Swaps ninja with the most recently generated projectile within a certain range. Using flip will swap the direction of the swapped projectile. Can swap with the summon before the kunai projectiles are thrown. When multiple projectiles are thrown (kunai, caltrops) substitution will prioritize the lowest thrown kunai, or the farthest thrown caltrop. This is not affected by your distance to the projectiles.

Whip Wave

Whip Wave	Damage Startup Active First Actionable Frame Advantage * Guard Proration Block Advantage 800,400 11,13 2 19 - Low 0 - Only available after NunChuk. Cancellable into itself. Has an initial melee hit before the projectile comes out. Projectile has hard knockdown.

Backsway

Backsway Backsway Backsway Palm Strike Palm Strike Slide Kick Slide Kick

Backsway Damage Startup Active First Actionable Frame Advantage * Guard Proration Block Advantage N/A - - 13 - - 0 - First 9 frames are invulnerable with Initiative. Transitions into Backsway stance. Palm Strike Damage Startup Active First Actionable Frame Advantage * Guard Proration Block Advantage 2000 5 5 30 - High 0 - Minimum Damage: 700 Not cancellable. Usually a combo ender, since it resets to neutral, but has high minimum damage. Can be comboed off of with Caltrops for massive damage late in combos, however. Slide Kick Damage Startup Active First Actionable Frame Advantage * Guard Proration Block Advantage 700 5 10 30 - Low 0 - Low profiles starting on frame 3. Not jump cancellable. Very long and active poke, can be used to punish out of Backsway when Uppercut won't hit.

Supers

Quick Slash

Quick Slash Footsies Footsies	Damage Startup Active First Actionable Frame Advantage * Guard Proration Block Advantage 400 7 1 21 - High 1 - Costs 1 bar. Air OK. Invulnerable frames 5-6 with Initiative. Interrupted sooner by landing. Super cancellable.

Caltrops

Caltrops	Damage Startup Active First Actionable Frame Advantage * Guard Proration Block Advantage 500 6 - 21 - High(Airborne) Low(Ground, Unparryable) 0 - Costs 3 bars. Air OK. Incredible combo tool due to high hitstun. Can be used to set up unblockable situations with meaty grab.