Ougon Musou Kyoku/Bernkastel
Background
Bernkastel, the Witch of Miracles is an extremely powerful witch that has lived a thousand years. It is said that she lives in a world where concepts like fate and possibility can be visualized. She can give birth to all kinds of miracles with her immense power but, in compensation for that, her heart ends up breaking a bit each time she uses them.
Introduction
Main antagonist of the series, she offers oppressive tools expected from a villain: oppressive zoning what both offer pure zoning and as a tool to get in, oppressive pressure and oppressive damage, which all are improved with her kakeras what she generates passively. She has almost everything, only lacking good reversal and long normals. Learning to live with those, Bernkastel offers very versatile and rewarding gameplay and gives great taste of top tier life.
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
|---|---|
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Ability
MetaBoost - Speeds up the regeneration of the Meta gauge and also increases the length of the activated MetaWorld.
Changes
Patch 2.31:
+ Health has been adjusted from 1000 to 1200.
+ 214A+B no longer has any gaps between each cat.
Move List
Normal Moves
Standing
c.5A  |
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f.5A  |
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c.5B  |
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f.5B  |
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6B  |
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c.5C  |
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f.5C  |
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6C  |
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Crouching
2A  |
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2B  |
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3B  |
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2C  |
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3C  |
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Jumping
j.A  |
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j.8B  |
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j.7/9B  |
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j.8C  |
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j.7/9C  |
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j.2C  |
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Throw
Throw  Whiff animation Whiff animation   |
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Special Moves
Bite him before the elbow「肘から先は
食い千切っていいわ」 236A/B/C  236A version 236A version  236B version 236B version  236C version 236C version
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Come, black cats「おいで、黒猫たち」 (j.)623A/B/C  |
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Bite him below the knee「膝から下は
食い千切っていいわ」 214A/B/C  |
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Come, devil cat kings「おいで、猫の魔王たち」 41236A/B/C  |
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SP Moves
Concerto of black cats「黒猫協奏曲」 236A+B  |
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Rondo of black cats「黒猫輪舞曲」 (j.)623A+B |
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Parade of black cats「黒猫行進曲」 214A+B  |
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Black cat symphony「猫魔王交響曲」 41236A+B  |
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Level 2 Supers
Mystery that pierces everything without mercy「全てを穿つ無慈悲なるミステリ」 (j.)236236C  |
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Meta Super
Leviathan that swallows everything without mercy「全てを呑み込む 無慈悲なるリヴァイアサン」 (j.)641236C during MetaWorld  |
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Frame Data
| Frames | Frame Advantage |
Attack | Damage|Startup*| Active | Recovery |On Hit | On Block | Notes
Throw ------------------------------------------------------------------
B+C | 300 | 0-1 | ? | ? | UKD | |27 Duration on Whiff
Normals ------------------------------------------------------------------
c.5A | 75 | 4 | 4 | 6 | +0 | +0 |
f.5A | 75 | 4 | 4 | 7 | -1 | -1 |
2A | 60 | 4 | 4 | 7 | -1 | -1 |
c.5B | 150 | 7 | 5 | 14 | -2 | -4 |
f.5B | 135 | 8 | 5 | 7 | +4 | +2 |
2B | 150 | 7 | 8 | 6 | +2 | +0 |
c.5C | 270 | 9 | 6 | 15 | +4 | +1 |
f.5C | 240 | 11 | 6 | 15 | +4 | +1 |
2C | 240 | 10 | 4 | 15 | UKD | +3 |
j.5A | 60 | 6 | 6 | 6 | | |
j8.5B | 150 | 6 | 6 | 6 | | |
j8.5C | 240 | 10 | 6 | 7 | | |
j(7/9).5B | 135 | 7 | 6 | 10 | | |
j(7/9).5C | 225 | 8 | 6 | 9 | | |
Command Normals ------------------------------------------------------------------
6B | 240 | 23 | - | 13 | +12 | +9 |Consumes Kakera; See Note N
6C | 240 | 24 | - | 16 | +10 | +7 |Consumes Kakera; See Note O
3B | 45x3 | 6 | 5 | 19 | | |Consumes Kakera; See Note P
3C | 45x7 | 8 | 7 | 17 | | |Consumes Kakera; See Note Q
j.2C | 45x7 | 6 | 4 | 9 | | |Consumes Kakera; See Note R
Specials ------------------------------------------------------------------
236A | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
236B | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
236C | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
j.623A | ? | ? | ? | ? | KD | ? |
j.623B | ? | ? | ? | ? | KD | ? |
j.623C | ? | ? | ? | ? | KD | ? |
623A | ? | ? | ? | ? | KD | ? |
623B | ? | ? | ? | ? | KD | ? |
623C | ? | ? | ? | ? | KD | ? |
41236A | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
41236B | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
41236C | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
SPs and Meta ------------------------------------------------------------------
236A+B |+-540 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
623A+B | ? | ? | ? | ? | KD | ? |
j.623A+B | ? | ? | ? | ? | KD | ? |
41236A+B |+-525 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
214A+B |+-450 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
236x2C | 696 | ? | ? | ? | KD | ? |
641236C |+-849 | ? | ? | ? | KD/? | ? |
Note N: If Bernkastel has no Kakera, goes into a 34F whiff animation.
Kakera Projectile is independant from Bernkastel.
Projectile animation starts on frame 13, has 10F start-up and is active for 10F(?; unverified).
Note O: If Bernkastel has no Kakera, goes into a 37F whiff animation.
Kakera Projectile is independant from Bernkastel.
Projectile animation starts on frame 15, has 10F start-up and is active for 10F(?; unverified).
Note P: If Bernkastel has no Kakera, goes into a 30F whiff animation.
Kakera Projectiles are independant from Bernkastel.
Projectiles come out with a 1F gap between them.
They are active until they hit either the ground or the opponent.
Note Q: If Bernkastel has no Kakera, goes into a 32F whiff animation.
Kakera Projectiles are independant from Bernkastel.
One Projectile comes out every frame.
They are active until they hit the opponent or exit the screen.
Note R: If Berncastel has no Kakera, goes into a 20F whiff animation.
Kakera Projectiles are independant from Bernkastel.
First Projectile comes out alone; the next six come out in pairs, one on either side every frame.
They are active until they either exit the screen or hit the opponent or the ground.
On Kakera Comsumption, allows the move's recovery to be cancelled into any available air action (except blocking).
Strategy
MetaBoost
Meta boost is a unique ability, as it has numerous functions. Outside of the Meta World, it causes the meta bar to regenerate extremely quickly. Within the meta world, this regeneration acts against the meta bar's gradual depletion, extending the duration of the meta world. Now, despite all of this MetaBoost still expires when her partner's ability expires when triggered via Meta World. This means, that the shorter the duration of her partner's ability, the sooner MetaBoost expires, and thus you receive less overall time in the metaworld. For example, with a character like Ronove, who has a short duration ability that with any other character, generally expires a good chunk of the way before meta expires naturally, will cause Bernkastel's MetaBoost to expire earlier too, causing the Meta Bar to begin depleting itself at the standard rate much sooner. On the other hand, if you pair Bernkastel with Jessica, who has an extremely long duration ability, the boosted Meta World actually expires before MetaBoost does. This means that in these pairings, After meta ends, the Meta Bar will enjoy MetaBoosts standard effect, regenerating extremely quickly, even right after a meta expires.
MetaBoost allows for some other interesting things to occur. Willard's ability to land three Meta Supers per Meta Declaration is expanded to four, Beatrice's towers last much longer and can be used to much more brutal punishment, Eva Beatrice can land two grabs per meta, now (She can already, but the timing between opponent wake-up and meta expiration is extremely strict and easily countered by the opponent) and Chiester410 can land a second Meta Super after the first expires.
Mobility Tools
Bernkastel has the most aerial mobility in the game, with access to both Erika's double Jump and Eva's air dash, granting her the ability to stay air borne for a hilarious amount of time. couple this with her variety of air usable abilities, such as her Meta Super, 236236C and 623 Series, and she is extremely dangerous in the air. you can use her air mobility to bait some attacks that would normally hit if it were not for her air mobility.
The Meta World
Bernkastel has the unique ability to declare meta whilst airborne, allowing her to extend her air combos dramatically and even end them with a Meta Super. This allows her some unique freedom with air combos, as she now has 3 different ways to cancel and extend them and this also allows her to immediately cancel any touch into a meta declaration, allowing her to save herself from any oki or even punish with her meta super or 236236C. after a meta declare in the air you can do an air dash and combo a bit further but this is slightly hard.
Kakera
Bernkastel has a "Kakera" [Fragment(s)] mechanic system that allows her to use certain projectile attacks; each use of such attacks takes away one of her stored up Kakera pieces. For every 1.5 seconds of idle standing/crouching, walking, or running animation, Bernkastel generates 1 Kakera piece. The time adds up in parts, so you don't have to be completely idle for a full 1.5 seconds in a row to get a piece; you'll still acquire one piece for three separate half-second intervals of idling, for example. She can store up to a maximum of 8 pieces.
3B, 3C, 6B, 6C, and j.1/2/3C are all such inputs to execute a move that uses these pieces. Using any of these moves without any pieces left has no effect other than leaving Bernkastel open to counter attacks; with Kakera, though, these attacks are lightning fast ranged attacks that deal very good damage and combo efficiently, it is important to attempt to generate Kakera if you are attempting a rushdown. You can buy yourself time to generate these when facing extreme pressure through use of your 623AB to counterattack the foe or your 214AB to lock the opponent in blockstun long enough to generate some.
All fragment projectiles are positive on block.
Oki and Mixup options
Bernkastel's ability to set up oki, mixup, and general pressure is absolutely stupid.
The first thing to note is that her overhead Kakera, 6C, has enough + on hit to allow linking into 2A, allowing for Bern to do full combos off of her overhead mixup. In addition to this, while harder than other games, Bern has the option of Instant Air Dashing off of the ground into J.B for a combo. She can utilize her j.623A to cross up, and can do a deep J.C into double jump J.ABC for a fuzzy guard setup.
After landing any combos that end in J.623, Bern has the option to set up oki with 2b 2c 214x cats, similar to Battler's 3b 2c 236C set, giving her plenty of time to try and IAD, dash forward 2A, overhead, or anything else you may please.
if you get a deep j9c you can do a double jump and j9a j9b j9c for a annoying little air block string. you can do j623a but that moves you really far away and so destroys leading in plans without using kakera, meta or dash cancelling.
In addition, if Bernkastel starts doing her generic xx>J.b>J.c>Double jump cancel, if the opponent is cornered, she can go for 7j.b 7j.c 623A, which puts her at crazy positive frames, giving her enough time to do her 236A or 236B for pressure rather than the walking cats. Demonstration.
Characters whom this setup works on: Bernkastel, Dlanor, Lambdadelta, Willard, Kanon, Rosa, Eva Beatrice, and George. If the second 7j.c is omitted, it should work on the other characters.
Team Building
Feel free to edit this part of the wiki with your tips/strats what partners are best for Will to use. Remember I'm watching you.
The information displayed here is from the 2022 Team Tier List from the Ougon Discord Thus, it is open to change, but it should work as a building block for people looking for team pairing ideas. If you are a player of any of the teams and want to change anything feel free to do so.
Reasons to pick Bernkastel for your team
- Bern's amazing zoning and pressure, as well as her powerful Meta centric playstyle are really powerful. She can be hard to hit and avoid getting hit by her opponent. Her kakeras only add to this, giving her overheads, plus frames for days, or even better zoning than before. However, if the opponent manages to get to a close-to-mid distance from her, her stubby pokes, bad defensive options, and lack of health will be felt
- She benefits from partners that can either snowball quickly while in MetaWorld thanks to MetaBoost, or that let her instigate even more neutral dominance.
Ange
- Probably the closest team in the game to one of the characters being outright detrimental to the other. StunBoost limits Bern’s combos and prevents MetaBoost from looping. Expect to see a surprising amount of corner play though.
Battler
- Similar to Bat/Eva in the sense that it has awesome neutral, but its damage is a bit situational. You’ll find that Bern can pressure a bit more constantly than Eva, but the overall playstyle should be similar.
- Potentially the Bern team with the most staying power, you’ll be able to trigger Resurrection more often than usual especially as the two can build each other meter with their MetaSupers. Still, you’ll have no issue avoiding getting hit if you’re careful so try to focus on counterplay. Brings out the best in Bern’s patient neutral.
Black Battler
- Fantastic neutral and Bern is an okay Massacre user, but this team is unacceptably fragile (pretty much the worst bulk in the game) and Beato is a better option than Bern.
Beatrice
- MetaBoost towers is really strong, and Bern can handle neutral for Beato with no issue at all, as well as give her some SP back with her MetaSuper and kakera.
- A bit more patient compared to how Beato usually plays, but like many Bern teams it excels at oppressing. Still, Beato’s general meter disadvantage (for herself) and Bern’s low stun, as well as the team’s overall low health, means you can’t afford to make too many mistakes.
- You’ll need to form a balanced playstyle that combines Bern’s more careful, systematic pressure with Beato’s more explosive setplay and corner combos.
- Don’t get greedy, but know when to sustain momentum.
Chiester 410
- It hogs MetaWorld very consistently, and it holds onto momentum probably better than any other team in the game. This combined with 15-second GuardBoost Bern means the opponent will find it difficult to actually do anything after the first time you MetaDeclare.
- Teams that are capable of higher damage-dealing probably won’t get much of an opportunity to ever get around to it, similar to with Bat/Rono. Damage can leave a bit to be desired, but this team has some of the best neutral and mixup in the game.
- Expect to win most exchanges against pretty much everyone, however the playstyle these two come together to form isn’t very intuitive, so it’s probably one of the harder teams to really get good with.
- Neither of these two have a reliable reversal either, so if you get pressured without meter you’ll probably die. In this sense it’s an execution-heavy team, you need to outplay at least to begin with.
Dlanor
- One of the most oppressive teams in the game and one of Bernkastel’s bulkiest options. 15-second ArmorBoost MetaBoost Bern is a massive obstacle to the opponent doing anything, and Dlanor is no weak link when played carefully. She can also tack on a bit of damage or stun to Bern’s combos and build meter advantage for her.
- This team is SP-reliant because neither character has a reliable reversal, so you’ll be relying on MetaWorld to stay safe.
- You can collect chip damage and SP and wear out the timer by spamming Dlanor’s MetaSuper, which blockstrings into itself. You can also intermittently add a surprise normal in so you actually build up guard capacity. Compared to Will/Bern, it’s more defensive and has more room for error.
Erika
- Great neutral, but not great defensively and these two don’t excel at Attack Touching into each other’s combos.
- Bern doesn’t really have much use for Force Counter despite her reliance on juggles as most players figure out that jumping over cats doesn’t really work before long.
- Both of them prefer Will to the other. Erika’s 7-second ability also ruins MetaBoost looping from declaring, but Erika’s MetaSuper can add damage to Bern’s combos after stunning, so that’s nice.
- Her SP2 is largely not needed though as cats are enough of a reset by themselves.
EVA-Beatrice
- Bernkastel has a special appreciation for Berserk over CounterBoost or StunBoost because it boosts her overall damage without forcing her to shorten her juggles. Eva’s threatening MetaWorld presence also appreciates the extra time MetaBoost gives, and both characters’ MetaSuper helps maintain the SP needed to hog MetaWorld.
- The reason this isn’t higher is just that Beato/Bern and Beato/Eva pretty much do the same thing but better. Well, this team has better neutral than Beato/Eva, but it’s not really enough to justify the lower damage, stun, and lack of foolproof setplay.
George
- It’s hard to justify picking George over someone else for Bern, such as Ronove or Battler. Beato also fills Bern’s role a little better here. Bern also has no use for Patience as blocking is not her favorite thing.
- This pair still works though. Bern can do meterless combos off of George’s 6C which is nice, as well as build up some meter for his SP2.
- George is also much more threatening in MetaWorld and MetaBoost enables him to stay in that state for as long as possible and focus on counterplay. *Pretty much one of George’s best teams, but certainly not one of Bern’s. Expect some cool mixup though.
Jessica
- Two very strong characters who can cover different elements of pressure. Jessica is deadly in the corner and Bernkastel excels at driving the opponent there with her strong neutral game. ShaveBoost combined with Bern’s MetaSuper is not only free, largely unavoidable damage, but also builds up a good amount of meter for Jess, so you might want to just fullscreen troll with it for a while if the opponent’s team has no answers to it.
- Bern is more competent than Lambda and Beato meterless, so this team is a bit more balanced, but generally less damaging, than Jess/Lam and Beato/Jess which are its closest analogues. Nevertheless, rushdown is probably the best option for these two. Also, 15-second MetaBoost is not to be underestimated and hogging the MetaWorld is an option for these two.
Kanon
- Plays a lot like Bat/Kan except it has slightly higher damage and has to rushdown a lot more desperately due to the lack of Resurrection and lower health.
- You’ll want to spam Bern’s MetaSuper if you can to gain advantage. Kanon doesn’t really add much to Bern’s gameplan though compared to what some others (Beato, Will) can do while also generating meter advantage. Bern doesn’t need help scoring hits.
Lambdadelta
- An unfortunately poor pairing, the playstyles for these two are similar and different in all the wrong ways. Bern’s juggles that almost always corner carry don’t give enough time for Lambda to come in, backdash and safely use comet if the opponent is stunned. Bern’s more patient neutral doesn’t flow well into Lambda’s preference for rushdown, and the two struggle against other rushdown teams due to a lack of meterless reversals and low health.
- However, Bern can capitalise on Attack Touches into blocked comet a little better than other characters can, which is nice. Expect to see a lot of repetitive corner antics with these two.
Lucifer
- Great neutral and decent damage but very fragile. Bern has no need for such a fast partner as she is fast and evasive herself and has no trouble approaching anyone.
- In terms of damage this team is pretty much completely inferior to Beato/Luci (which also has better pressure) and Luci/Will.
Ronove
- Similar to Rono/Lam, you’re going to see a lot of emphasis on Bernkastel’s projectiles here (chiefly the cats and kakera series), and the likely effect will be that the opponent becomes afraid to retaliate to them.
- Rono can tack some more damage onto the end of Bern’s long juggles that will probably end in stun. This team has a great oppressive presence; the opponent will have trouble approaching or fighting back against either of these characters, and their guard capacity will slowly be driven up.
- Very well rounded defense; characters that can deal with Bern a little better such as Battler, Beato and Luci won’t want to go near Rono, and Rono’s tougher matchups like Lambda and Bern herself can be answered with Bern.
- Struggles a bit more against other bulky teams.
Rosa
- These two need to play a very cautious neutral where little is allowed to go wrong, and the damage honestly isn’t worth it.
- A fairly balanced team, but Rosa would really prefer Will’s more direct neutral and higher damage, and Bern gets nothing special from Rosa as her combos are unburstable and her pressure is hard to escape anyway.
Shannon
- It’s hard to fit Shannon into Bernkastel’s gameplan, but Bern does benefit from 15-second AutoGuard more than possibly any other character in the game.
- Shannon can also loop her MetaSuper for longer, at least until she stuns. Bern has no trouble approaching, which Shannon struggles with, but she may have relative difficulty actually Attack Touching into Shannon so this adds a bit of awkwardness to their dynamic.
- It’s no Will/Bern, but these two make a high-damage pair without many weaknesses.
Virgilia
- If these two lose momentum it’s very hard for them to get it back. Their corner pressure is fairly interchangeable, so a more neutral or pressure-focused character is a better partner for either.
- InfinitySP can pair well with Bern’s patient approach as well as enable both to hog MetaWorld, and she can also build SP for Lia’s somewhat costly corner plays, but spending all your SP on this is ill-advised as the two have few answers for sustained pressure, lacking either practical pokes or a good reversal.
Willard
- Bernkastel’s ability to score hits and drive up guard capacity with her oppressive neutral is the perfect support for Will’s highly damaging playstyle. MetaBoost has good synergy with his MetaSuper and SPCancel can be used to restand combos with Bern’s cats, one of its more useful applications.
- It can also bolster Bern’s solo damage, which is useful due to the difficulty she can have with touching (Will doesn’t share this issue; a 6C into Bern is totally comboable, letting him score damage even once he’s out of meter).
- Neither of these two are easy to approach, and both combine solid neutral with very high damage-dealing capacity. One of the more honest top-tier teams (insofar as you can call Bern honest), so you will need to outplay the opponent in more situations than some other pairs would. This isn’t a major issue for these two though, as they can out-neutral and out-damage most teams.
- A good Bern player will be getting a healthy amount of stuns, and a Neutral Touch into Will leads to unprorated damage pretty inevitably, as he can juggle them and declare while MetaBoost is in effect. Expect to see lots of unburstable damage, and any SP lead is converted into damage so efficiently that barring a lucky hit the opponent is going to struggle.
- A bit weak to rushdown.
Combos
Bern's aerials and air mobility provide her with a powerful series in the air:
Sj. 9B > Sj. 9C > Dj. 9B > Dj. 9C
Which can be entered into and finished in a couple of different ways.
Launching:
- 2B > 2C > 5C ... (Most simple launch, but difficult to land, as it has to be started right next to the opponent) - 1485 Damage without finisher (all finisher damages are measured from this launch)
- 5A > 5B > 5C > DC > 2B > 2C > 5C ... (Easier to land, but decreases damage due to dash cancel) - 1584 Damage
- (Starting with partner) 2C > Attack Touch > 5C ... (Easiest to land, allows for a long launching combo from the partner)- ~1272 Damage
- (Opponent in corner, 1 Kakera) Airdash at head level > j.9B > j.3C > 5A > 5B > 5C > DC > 5B > 2C > 5C ... (Unexpected launcher, almost always results in a stun. It's also possible to jump into this and hit twice with j. 3C.) - 2168 Damage
Finishing:
With the appropriate delays, any of the following can be used after Dj. 9C to finish the combo:
- 623C (No SP, standard finisher, Oki) - 1704 Damage
- 623AB (1 SP, typically a bad use of SP, as the damage isn't much of an increase from 623C, Oki) - 1789 Damage
- 623C > 236236C (2 SP, very high damage and a high chance of a stun) - 2351 Damage
- Meta Declaration > 641236C (1 SP+, high damage, unreliable due to the fact that the opponent might argue your Meta Declaration, but giving up on the metaworld argument will still allow a different finisher and will waste more of the opponent's SP) - 2196 Damage
- Meta Declaration > Airdash > Dj. 9B > Dj. 9C > 236236C > 641236C (3 SP+, unreasonably high damage and extremely frustrating for the opponent, practically guarantees a stun, but doesn't seem to work on every character, and is rather unreliable and expensive, especially against opponents with at least 2 SP. Overall, this is more satisfying than elaborate revenge, but is expensive, difficult, and situational.) - 3414 Damage
- 623c 236236c 236236c *meta declare* 641236c (5 SP and decent amount of damage. it is easy practical and it guarantees a stun. if you only have 3 or 4 SP you can 236236c meta world 641236c for 2900 damage for a high chance of a stun as well.) - 3200 Damage
