Skullgirls/Fukua/Strategy
Strategy
Goals
Fukua has very strong air options and ground pokes, but is far slower than the average skullgirls character. She aims to zone with fireballs until she can stuff out the opponent contesting them, and to get vertically above the opponent to threaten with j.hk and l.air fireball pressure. Once she gets an opening, she wants to abuse her fantastic and safe reset game to be unpredictable and sticky on the opponent. Also, her incoming setups are among the best in the cast.
Offense
Fukua can be quite sticky in her pressure on the opponent: j.hk chained into j.hp is a very strong blockstring and allows her to frame trap afterwards. She mainly opens opponents up through low/throw mixups as her overhead special is reactable. She can also perform strong pushblock baits as a means to get openings, as otherwise proper pushblocking mitigates her ability to stay on the opponent as well as exposing larger gaps in blockstrings. Be wary of reversals and be ready to call lock down assists to keep the opponent in place. Some assists like Butchers Blade and Cerecopter allow Fukua to call a clone and hold it to threaten high/lows while keeping the opponent blocking.
Neutral
Fireball game, jumping, air to airs and ground pokes are the name of the game for fukua's neutral tools. She has a wide toolbelt but must be selected from carefully. keep in mind that L clone only breaks assist armor, so holding l clone and releasing it vs bella or band assist calls can be strong if you dont have a counter call assist of your own. just be wary of the HP drain.
Defense
- Use fukua's strong anti-airs to stop opponents pressure before it starts. Learn to block properly and pushblock in the right situations.
- Strong pushblock guard cancel options include: 2mp, h drill, bff, lvl 3, upback, neutral jump, blocking more.
- Her reversals aren't fantastic but are not bad:
- H drill is strike invunlerable, no combo after unless in the corner or you spend 2 bars to DHC. can be made safe with the proper DHCs but be very careful as proper pushblocking can blow up a lot of setups using h drill>fireball super>dhc.
- J.hk is the classic scramble button to press. It is her RPS option to reversal vs throw attempts and leads to an easy 8k+ HCH combo. upforward j.hk can go over some lows and just counterhit unsafe blockstrings. If you dont respect their pressure, pushblock upforward j.hk can net you a lot, but be careful as you might explode
- BFF and lvl 3 are her fully invincible reversals: bff is slow and no DHC makes it safe if they get over the clone: lvl 3 is very very fast and a large hitbox. Both lead to a full combo on hit. Lvl 3's large hitbox and hit-grab properties makes it a great reaction to jump ins and armor attempts.
- but really just learn to block
Counterplay
How to beat this character
- Depending on the matchup, Fukua wants to either be abusing her good falling options by getting above an opponent, playing the ground game just outside of 2hp range, or playing hard keep away in hopes to get the opponent to swing hazardously giving her an opening. Be patient with your approaches, reserved with your air to airs and IADs, and be ready to try to bully her into a corner.
- When using resets against Fukua, her grounded reversals are better than her air reversals, therefore do your best to reset her in the air. Make sure the resets are pretty tight gaps, otherwise she can jump out or stall in the air with L fireball and ruin your tempo.
- If she is zoning you, she has large gaps between the times she can throw fireballs so do your best to close the gap if she guesses wrong on your movement and a fireball whiffs. Calling assists to tank a fireball hit while you move in behind the assist is very good for closing distance. Fast burst movement options like Blitzer and Fiber are strong vs Fukua fireballs as you are very likely to avoid the fireball and get a CH combo, and at worst get clipped by the fireball.
Counters to common techniques
- While Fukua mixups and pressure are very strong, if you do successfully block the first layer you can get out of further layers through proper absolute guard using push-block. Also, very very few strings she has are safe vs proper pushblock guard cancel reversals. Look for patterns in the opponent's resets and pressure game to get a better understanding as to how and when to block, and when to swing back to try to take your turn.
- Up-forward is strong vs a lot of her reset setups just be wary of air throws and same-side 2hps
- j.HK Scenarios
