Acceleration of Suguri 2/Kae
Credits to Nyu-13 for allowing us to transcribe their Kae guide to populate this page.
Introduction
Kae's lost the crazy eyes but has retained the crazy in your face playstyle... or you can just time the opponent out as she is the fastest character. Kae requires good movement and situational awareness to really see her strengths, otherwise, her damage will seem low.
Overview
Kae is the fastest character in the game, she's very melee heavy and constantly likes to throw something out to confirm into another punch from or kick people into.
Kae as well is a very versatile character allowing you to adjust her to whatever the matchup asks for. This mixed with some not-so-recent anymore buffs to her clones make Kae an absolute monster to deal with if played well.
Kae's main gimmick is her Blazing mode, which when active will increase your overall damage output and gives you access to a few different attacks in exchange for not allowing for your heat to drop below 200% for a certain period of time.
Difficulty: Hard
Kae's overall damage output despite everything is actually not super high. She has access to sudden bursts of damage but it requires you to be very close to your opponent at most times, she can play however you want her to but the lower damage requires you to make the most out of your mobility to avoid hits while using your kit to land a bunch of them yourself. All of this combined makes Kae one of the harder characters to play successfully, she does however highly reward learning her with a very potent rushdown style or defense making her able to overcome any matchup thrown at her.
Gameplan
Farming Meter
Kae’s best meter farming tools are her clones (SPwB), dwA, Tap wB, Hold wB(not blazing) and her melee (SPwA).
Due to how her gain works she can farm decently both when playing defensive with clones, dwA and spikes(Hold and Tap wB), but can do it just as well when playing aggressive with trying to hit SPwA very frequently and using everything else simply as an assist for achieving that goal.
If you want to gain a lead on Kae it's usually best if you just work with clones and dwA. Clones farm a high amount of meter while feeding 0 to your opponent while dwA does have a bit of feed, it becomes lower with its damage, so working with it full screen will feed very little while still providing you with decent chunks of meter all while acting as another form of denial/aggression in addition to your clones.
Playing Aggressive
Kae is capable of playing a very potent rushdown style by constantly setting up spikes, clones and Heat Pools to then kick people into once she cracked them open with dwA or wA. Going hot or not is entirely up to if you need the extra damage or not, it should be noted however that Kae can play with very similar pressure regardless of heat.
Generally you want to constantly throw out something and then zoom around your opponent using the momentum from dwA to dodge anything they throw your way while keeping up the pressure on them. Once you have confirmed a hit you can engage follow up with SPwA and kick them into one of your before set up projectiles.
Generally it’s a good idea to go for spikes more often if your opponent has no good way to clear them(so against someone like Hime for instance) and concentrate more on clones if they have very good clear(Saki with her wA as an example). There aren't many times where you should throw one of these attacks entirely out of the window but knowing which work better in certain matchups can help you improve your pressure and get more hits in as a result.
Playing Defensive
For a more defensive approach you usually want to stay cool and just work mainly with spikes and clones, using dwA/wA as a way to deny approaches. Be sure to kick them away from you with melee as well so you constantly have some distance.
Clones do a very good job of denying area and can not only line you up a bunch of hits to deepen a lead but also, as mentioned before, farm high amounts of meter while feeding none to your opponent while doing so.
Spikes will help you get some poke in here and there, even if their damage isn't amazing they can still help set up SPwA and will keep your opponent busy either clearing or dodging which stops them from having time to go in on you. The Hold wB version especially also acts a nice wall to hide behind, though keep its long animation in mind and don't use it while too close to someone since some characters will be able to either just tear through it with one of their standard attacks or if they cant will use a halfshield to assist them in that goal and punish you that way.
dwA and wA cover a very decent amount of area and will not only help you in clearing ballistics but also act as a form of poke from which you can set up hits with SPwA to further deepen your lead.
Normal Moves
- Kae is in Blazing while she has 200% Heat or above.
- All moves with a ★ can only be done during Blazing.
- Blazing lasts 8 seconds if entered through dashing, 16 seconds if entered via spH.
- When Blazing ends, Kae will automatically return to 100% Heat.
Weapon A
Weapon B
Hypers
Combos
Meterless
- SPwA (4 Hits)
- dwA > SPwA(4 Hits)
- Fairly simple confirm that can skyrocket in damage if dwA hits close up.
- wA > SPwA(4 Hit)
- Simple confirm from wA.
- SPwB > SPwA(4 Hit, towards clone)(Trying to kick someone into a clone, also works with wB spikes or Heat Pools)
- SpwA(2,3 Hit) > Dash Cancel dwA
- Simple mixup with potentially huge damage if dwA confirms close up, can also be good if fighting against characters with a strong melee like Sora to avoid getting punished for meleeing near a wall.
Meter
- SPwA(1,2,3 or 4 Hit) > N.Hyper
- Fairly simple confirm into Neutral Hyper. 4 hit > N.Hyper only works when the opponent is against the wall.
- N.Hyper > B.Hyper
- Decent damage but needs 2 bars of meter, needs to cancel into B Hyper before Neutral Hyper finishes, only use this if your opponent has no meter to shield out.