Cyberbots/Fordy

FZ-100 Fordy

Introduction

Fordy is good at both rushdown and zoning, which actually complement each other quite well. His zoning ability in mid-range is quite good but doesn't yield very good damage, most of it coming from stray hits here and there. However, his rushdown at point-blank range can potentially deal half health from one overhead/low attack. You can maximize his potential by learning both styles. His nucleus is j.W because it is really useful for poking in mid-range and is also good starter for rushing in, which means it is the the bridge between each style, so first thing you need to learn is how to use j.W. Another thing you should know is his weakness. He doesn't have so many things to do against opponent air stalling opponents, and in this game some characters can be up above the screen around half the length of the match. Therefore it is necessary to kill your opponent once he's on the ground, and not let him escape. Also, his rushdown is not so strong against mashing. You can actually deal with it but need to learn the specifics of each character and most of all the game mechanics. He is in one respect not an easy-to-use character as his strength highly depends on your knowledge and experience, but in another respect, his fundamental strategy is clear so it is relatively easy to establish your goal. Above all, his momentum is very strong, and his highly versatile style and ability to control the pace of a round once you have the upper hand make him a fun character to play.

Pros:

• Has very high mobility due to the speed of his 8 way air dash, even if he only has 3 Boosts in the air.
• One of the best Weapon attacks in the game.
• Strong mixups and pressure.
• Can deal a good amount of damage from both overheads and lows, although it can be difficult to execute properly.
• Very good OTG game, being able to stay right on top of opponents after knockdowns easily, and adds lots of damage if they fail to tech roll.

Cons:

• Second lowest health tier in the game, with his damage taken modifier being 1.14.
• Can have trouble with opponents who just stick to the ceiling.
• Can have difficulty approaching VA's that tend to mash on good hitboxes (like Swordsman).
• While his DP move, Surprise Blade, has some invincibility, it is not invincible on startup, and is very unsafe if blocked. It's also not throw invincible at all, which can lead to some strange looking interactions.
• Average damage is low, you will mostly be getting just a few hits here and there. Big combos are rare for Fordy.

Normals

5.L - Stand Jab, active on frame 7. Hitbox is nothing to write home about, but it is effective at what it does. Chains into H and LH.

5.H - Fire Punch, active on frame 13. First hitbox is low to the ground around the size of his body, second hitbox is a large vertical hitbox. Cancellable on first and second hits, but the second hit consumes a juggle point. Knockdown on hit.

2.L - Low Headbutt, active on frame 4. One of the best low attacks in this game. it can link into 2L, 623L, and super. Actually hit confirming it into dp or super is possible but it's a bit hard to do constantly. Hits low, which is excellent for catching people trying to jump back out of pressure and makes it very useful for his tridash mixup. Special/super cancellable.

2.H - Wheel Sweep, active on frame 12. Hits low. Special cancellable (no real use for this). Knockdown on hit. The hitbox is disjointed from Fordy in the later frames, making it good as a poke, though it isn’t particularly fast. If you do not have a full super bar, you should try to power charge cancel this every time for extra frame advantage on hit or block.

j.L - Small kick, active on frame 7. This is your general tool for tridash pressure, this move comes out fast and has an excellent hitbox. Stays active for the entire jump arc, which is both good and bad, as whiffing a normal allows you to recover and take additional actions, but when you throw this out, you are committed to it. Cancelling this into j.236W gives you tons of frame advantage to work behind, letting you land for lows or rejump for more overheads.

j.H - Buzzsaw, active on frame 11. Another good jump-in/tridash tool, after whiffing you are still able to do actions like Boost, or Weapon. Good enough on hit to combo into 236W which enables his highest damage combos. This is used mostly in the same way as j.L, it gives you a bit longer reach in exchange for the risk of accidentally getting j.2H, which can be potentially disastrous. Only the first hit is an overhead.

j.2H - Body Splash, active on frame 5. Generally an OTG tool as it will leave you very vulnerable should you land it on a standing or crouching opponent as the bounce off afterwards leaves you pretty minus, unless you hit it really deep.

Dashing L - Dashing saws, active on frame 5. Generally used as a punish tool or can be power charge cancelled for a throw mixup. The first and second hit are cancellable. The token combo from this is either 623L/H or Super.

Dashing H - Ball attack, active on frame 9 . Good hitbox (his hurtbox is completely behind the hitbox which acts like a big wall in front of him). Punishable, but it can be a little awkward to do so given how he bounces off after it connects.

Throws

Normal throw range - 44

L throw - Standard hold throw. Mash the stick for more damage.

H throw - Standard toss, should buffer a special move or power charge cancel in case your throw attempt fails and you get stand H. Can be used as an OTG. If the opponent fails to tech and you land an OTG jump in, you can OTG H throw afterwards for more damage.

Arm Ripper throw - Standard arm ripper, L range is 40, H range is 39.

Weapon

Homing Missiles, affectionately known as the Faithful Hounds.

Excellent weapon, their trajectories are based on Fordy's movement prior to using the weapon (so if you are moving backwards before you shoot them, they will stall a moment, if you are moving forward they will shoot forward very quickly, if you are falling they will go into the ground very quickly). With this said they are based on the opponents location as well, and they tend to get lost in scramble situations.

Noticeably useful to control space. If used after a downward boost, you can decrease the recovery time by landing so as to chase after them and do some mixup. Give attention to the low durability of the missiles, especially when facing against good hitboxes, or projectiles.

For general usage it is his main way of establishing presence on screen in any location, it is functional for almost any purpose (using it on their wakeup to do a mixup with his tridash pressure, using it at neutral to begin an assault, comboing into it from his jumping normals, using it to stall in the air for keepaway).

236W: Fordy shoots out a barrage of 4 missiles instead of 2. Not charge cancellable. This has the same applications as his normal weapon, though it takes longer to recover from as a result. Usable on the ground and in the air. While this is a special move, the missiles still do no chip damage. You can cancel normals and jumping normals into this move, further increasing its application (particularly in the air).

Specials

623L or H - Surprise Blade. Dragon Punch. L version hits 1 time, goes a short vertical distance. H version hits 3 times, goes high. This is your go-to hit-confirm special. Has invincibility after short startup, causes knockdown. Fordy can still be thrown during the startup of this move, even after the invincibility has started, so capture moves and throws can catch you if you aren't careful. This is the only one of Fordy's special moves you should be using.

236L or H - Iron Nail. This move sucks, you’re better off not using it, it’s slow, the damage sucks, and it has long recovery.

Charge 4, 6L or H - Drill/Spiral Anchor. This move helps your opponents more than it helps you, as accidentally having this come out when you get crossed up and try to push a button is often a way for them to get a full combo. Damage on the H version is nice, but it takes too long to come out. Both versions capture on hit, but have a minimum range to go into the capture animation, if they are too close when it hits, it will just hit them without doing the animation for full damage. The animation is pretty sweet.

L~W~H, or L~H~W - Fordy Beat. This is another very slow useless move, the range is actually quite short, and although it will anti air pretty consistently if they are flying right into it, the long time it takes to come out makes this not worth going for. Damage is ok. This move is mostly for style. You have to press the buttons fast in a sequence to activate this move, similar to Raging Demon type moves.

L~W~H~L - Fordy Break. This is a follow up you can do after Fordy Beat. You have to do the input instantly after the Fordy Beat one. If you’re successful, Fordy will charge forward and deliver an additional big fire punch after Fordy Beat. This just makes the recovery worse, even if you hit with Fordy Beat, the extra hit from Fordy Break won’t combo.

Super

236236L or H - Nebula Stream. Do this after after dash L, you have to cancel into into it early (first or second hit). Good damage from this, probably his best punish combo.

Combos

Basic BnB combos, courtesy of Totu_Q.

Fordy doesn't have very good combo options, but his standard L>L>H chain is pretty good. This knocks down on hit, and you can opt to just do L>L into a special (Surprise Blade is the best option) or super move as a hit confirm. If it's blocked you can just go into H as it is more advantageous on block. He can go into this from jump in attacks.

If you land a clean air hit canceled into 236W, you have a long time to hit confirm into 2L, which leads to super or Surprise Blade.

For OTG follow ups all of Fordy’s air normals can OTG, you should go for an OTG into throw after every knockdown, even if they tech roll the knockdown, you can continue pressure with a meaty jump in and go for a tick throw/high low mixup. Jump L is probably the safest option for covering both techs and no techs, with Jump H coming next, and Jump 2H being the least safe (in the event that it hits too high). Figure out which you prefer using best for yourself, it’s pretty much the same/up to preference.

Extra Resources

Hitboxes, courtesy of Totu_Q