Kamen Rider: Super Climax Heroes/Kiva

Kamen Rider Kiva

Introduction

Kamen Rider Kiva (Power Up) has access to his final form, Emperor Form, during which he becomes exceedingly difficult to attack safely.

Emperor Form is a strong character taken on normals alone, but also has one of the fastest moves in the game, Dogga Hammer, aka Dogga Fever. Once he's transformed, your opponent has to play scared of him, or else give you a lot of free opportunities to clobber them.

Playstyle

Kamen Rider Kiva (Power Up) makes attacking feel like a really bad idea, and then cuts down his opponent while they cower.
Pros	Cons
Ridiculous Punishment: In Emperor Form, Kiva's 4/6S is one of the fastest moves in the game, making almost anything punishable on block. He can even swing successfully between hits in a lot of strings. High Average Damage: Both of Kiva's forms have access to a Rider Art Followup that deals a lot of damage, and a string that combos into it without RC. Strong Normals: Even in Base Form, Kiva has a decent set of normals, but once in Emperor Form, his normals are very strong in all situations. Power Up Style: Power Up Style characters universally are able to refresh their Guard Gauge and damage scaling by transforming.	No Offensive Gimmicks: Kiva is leaning entirely on his normals and one useful special. If you wanna get through the opponent's guard, you've gotta do it the same way as everyone else. Pretty Normal in Base Form: Base Form Kiva's not a bad character, but has a very minimal kit. Reaching Emperor Form quickly should be your priority.

Normal Moves

Special Moves

Bloody Punch File:KRSCH Kiva 5S.png 5S (Base Form) 5S (Base Form)	Damage Guard Startup Active Recovery Block Adv. Hit Adv. - Y - - - - - Kiva throws a lunging straight punch. Does a lot of damage, but has no tracking, and it's very bad on block and on whiff. Mostly sees use as a meterless combo ender.

Catena Release File:KRSCH Kiva dS.png any direction + S (Base Form) any direction + S (Base Form)	Damage Guard Startup Active Recovery Block Adv. Hit Adv. - N/A - - - - - Kiva poses, breaks the chains binding his leg, and changes the stage's visuals for a set duration. While under this effect, Kiva deals more damage. This is very quick to execute, so you may as well sneak it in sometimes.

Diving Kick File:KRSCH Kiva jS.png jS (Base Form) jS (Base Form)	Damage Guard Startup Active Recovery Block Adv. Hit Adv. - Y - - - - - Kiva backflips, and then divekicks. A little slower and a little more evasive than a normal divekick, and still very unsafe on block.

Zanvat Slash File:KRSCH Kiva Emperor 5S.png 5S (King Form) 5S (King Form)	Damage Guard Startup Active Recovery Block Adv. Hit Adv. - Y - - - - - Kiva poses, turns his sword red, then delivers a leaping slash. Its extremely lengthy startup and recovery makes this difficult to use effectively. Aside from that it does carry a number of positives. It has some invincibility during the leap, buffs Kiva's damage for a set duration, and crumples the opponent on hit.

Dogga Hammer File:KRSCH Kiva Emperor dS.png any direction + S (King Form) any direction + S (King Form)	Damage Guard Startup Active Recovery Block Adv. Hit Adv. - - - - - - - DOGGA FEVER! Kiva spins the Dogga Hammer around himself for a two-hit attack. One of the fastest attacks in the game, and deals a grip of damage to boot. This special makes attacking Kiva extremely dangerous, and it's also his go-to combo ender. Unsafe on block.

Garulu Saber File:KRSCH Kiva Emperor jS.png jS (Emperor Form) jS (Emperor Form)	Damage Guard Startup Active Recovery Block Adv. Hit Adv. - - - - - - - Kiva dives with his sword extended. Very unsafe on block. Sees niche use as a combo ender from 6LL's crumple, since 4/6S will not fully combo from that crumple.

Rider Art and Dash Action

Dash Action (Base Form) File:KRSCH Kiva DA.png Air Dash Air Dash	Damage Guard Startup Active Recovery Block Adv. Hit Adv. - N/A - - - - - Kiva airdashes. A generic mobility tool. Costs .5 stocks of the Rider Gauge.

Dash Action (Emperor Form) File:KRSCH Kiva Emperor DA.png Air Dash Air Dash	Damage Guard Startup Active Recovery Block Adv. Hit Adv. - N/A - - - - - Kiva airdashes. A generic mobility tool. Costs .5 stocks of Rider Gauge.

Rider Art (Base Form) File:KRSCH Kiva RA.png WAKE UP! WAKE UP!

Damage Guard Startup Active Recovery Block Adv. Hit Adv. - Y - - - - - High Speed Dash type Rider Art. Costs .5 stocks of the Rider Gauge. Has access to a followup by pressing Rider Art or Special Attack at no additional cost, which does a soccer kick into a cinematic. Useful to end combos and whiff punish. Kiva is also able to use this Rider Art in directions besides forward. When using the followup from other directions, it will face the opponent. Occasionally, when hitting the opponent at a very specific angle, they will be temporarily frozen in place afterward.

Rider Art (Emperor Form) File:KRSCH Kiva Emperor RA.png

Damage Guard Startup Active Recovery Block Adv. Hit Adv. - Y - - - - - High Speed Dash type Rider Art. Costs .5 stocks of the Rider Gauge. Has access to a followup by pressing Rider Art or Special Attack at no additional cost, which does a slash into a cinematic. Useful to end combos and whiff punish. Kiva is also able to use this Rider Art in directions besides forward. When using the followup from other directions, it will face the opponent. This Rider Art Followup's animation will occasionally bug out. This is caused by attacking Kiva during its recovery frames, and affects the next use of Rider Art Followup. The function of the move doesn't change, but it looks funny.

Style Action

By pressing Style Action, Kiva transforms into his final form, Emperor Form, at the cost of 3 stocks of the Rider Gauge. Doing so also refreshes damage scaling and the Guard Gauge.

While already in Emperor Form, Style Action transforms back into Kiva's Base Form at no cost. Doing so also refreshes damage scaling and the Guard Gauge.

Combos

Base Form

• 6HH > RC > 2LH > 5S
• 6HH > RC > 2LH > RA Followup

Standard combo with one RC. It's usually best to save your meter for Emperor Form, but the Rider Art followup deals more damage.

• 2LH > Rider Finale

Because this string crumples, it's an easy point to link Rider Finale.

Emperor Form

• 5LH > 6S
• 5HH > 6S
• 2LH > 6S

Strings which link into 6S. It's easy to extend damage by using 5HHH as a combo filler, then RC and do one of these sequences. These strings can also link into Rider Finale if needed.

• 6HHHH > 6S
• 6LL > 6S

These strings successfully combo into the first hit of 6S, but the second hit is tech-rollable. It's still safe on hit, so it's useful to know you can do this in a pinch.

• 6LL > jS
• 6LL > Rider Art Followup
• 6LL > Rider Finale

6LL crumples the opponent, allowing for easy followups. As noted above, 6S doesn't combo its second hit, so jS is the preferred meterless followup.

• 6LL > walk back > 2LH (second hit only) > 6S

Advanced extension from 6LL's crumple. Requires quite a bit of space to walk backwards and intentionally whiff 2L.

• 5HHH > RC > 5HHH > RC > 5HHH > RC > 5HHH > Style Action (Base Form) > 6HH > RC > 2LLL > RC > 2LH > Climax Time > Rider Finale

Touch of death combo from full resources. While this full combo might not be practical, it shows an example of how to use un-transform to extend damage.

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Kamen Rider Kiva

Introduction

Kamen Rider Kiva (Support Attack) trades away Emperor Form's straightforward power for a striker that takes some time to start up, and covers the screen in highly damaging fireballs.

This isn't really a fair trade in terms of picking the stronger version of Kiva. That said, the Castle Doran striker is pretty fun to play with. If you're familiar with Tron Bonne's assist in Marvel vs Capcom 2, which deals massive total damage but doesn't combo on its own, you'll recognize something similar here.

Playstyle

Kamen Rider Kiva (Support Attack) calls upon Castle Doran to bombard the opponent.
Pros	Cons
High Average Damage: Kiva has access to a Rider Art Followup that deals a lot of damage, and a string that combos into it without RC. Striker Can Deal Massive Damage: Normally intended to hit twice, it's possible for Kiva's striker to hit 4 times and deal a really silly amount of damage for a single move.	Striker is Very Difficult to Use Efficiently: Castle Doran's projectiles have a long travel time and a wide spread, so this striker is difficult to use reactively and requires a plan ahead of time. Pretty Normal: Base Form Kiva's not a bad character, but has a very minimal kit. In this variant, he really has to flex every part of that kit to its maximum. Starved for Meter: Kiva struggles without spending meter to RC strings or call his striker, but he doesn't build a ton of meter either.

Normal Moves

Special Moves

Bloody Punch File:KRSCH Kiva 5S.png 5S (Base Form) 5S (Base Form)	Damage Guard Startup Active Recovery Block Adv. Hit Adv. - Y - - - - - Kiva throws a lunging straight punch. Does a lot of damage, but has no tracking, and it's very bad on block and on whiff. Mostly sees use as a meterless combo ender.

Catena Release File:KRSCH Kiva dS.png any direction + S (Base Form) any direction + S (Base Form)	Damage Guard Startup Active Recovery Block Adv. Hit Adv. - N/A - - - - - Kiva poses, breaks the chains binding his leg, and changes the stage's visuals for a set duration. While under this effect, Kiva deals more damage. This is very quick to execute, so you may as well sneak it in sometimes.

Diving Kick File:KRSCH Kiva jS.png jS (Base Form) jS (Base Form)	Damage Guard Startup Active Recovery Block Adv. Hit Adv. - Y - - - - - Kiva backflips, and then divekicks. A little slower and a little more evasive than a normal divekick, and still very unsafe on block.

Rider Art and Dash Action

Dash Action (Base Form) File:KRSCH Kiva DA.png Air Dash Air Dash	Damage Guard Startup Active Recovery Block Adv. Hit Adv. - N/A - - - - - Kiva airdashes. A generic mobility tool. Costs .5 stocks of the Rider Gauge.

Rider Art File:KRSCH Kiva RA.png WAKE UP! WAKE UP!

Damage Guard Startup Active Recovery Block Adv. Hit Adv. - Y - - - - - High Speed Dash type Rider Art. Costs .5 stocks of the Rider Gauge. Has access to a followup by pressing Rider Art or Special Attack at no additional cost, which does a soccer kick into a cinematic. Useful to end combos and whiff punish. Kiva is also able to use this Rider Art in directions besides forward. When using the followup from other directions, it will face the opponent. Occasionally, when hitting the opponent at a very specific angle, they will be temporarily frozen in place afterward.

Style Action

By pressing Style Action, Kiva (Support Attack) can call his striker to launch an attack. This costs 2 stocks of the Rider Gauge, or 4 stocks when executed from hitstun.

Castle Doran File:KRSCH Kiva Support Attack.png Style Action Style Action

Damage Guard Startup Active Recovery Block Adv. Hit Adv. - Y - - - - - Castle Doran appears in the background and launches a spread of four fireballs into the arena. Takes a pretty long time to reach the arena, but is difficult to evade completely and deals a lot of damage. This is the entire reason you picked this version of the character, so you probably want to spend a lot of meter on it. Thankfully, it's pretty good for neutral, and in combos it's both a lot of damage and basically unburstable, since the fireballs continue approaching even if Kiva's in hitstun.

Combos

• 6HH > RC > 2LH > 5S
• 6HH > RC > 2LH > RA Followup

Standard combo with one RC. It's often best to save your meter, but the Rider Art followup deals more damage.

• 2LH > Rider Finale

Because this string crumples, it's an easy point to link Rider Finale.

• 6HH > RC > Style Action > 2LH > 2HH > Striker Hits

Basic combo that uses Kiva's striker. Delaying the strings can buy time for the fireballs to connect.

• 6HH > RC > Style Action > 2LH > Micro-Sidewalk > 5S > Striker Hits

Advanced combo that uses Kiva's striker. Requires a very specific angle and stage position that you must adjust on the fly. Incredibly inconsistent, but the payoff is that you can hit all four hits of Castle Doran, dealing massive damage.

The timing for Style Action is variable based on stage position. Try doing it either during the startup of 2L, or between the hits of 2LH.

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