| Sun Wukong
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| Character Type: Rushdown
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| Home Province: Shandong
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| Age: 29 (likely a lie)
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| Power: ⭐⭐⭐
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| Speed: ⭐⭐⭐
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| Health: ⭐⭐
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| Spirit: ⭐⭐
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Character Overview
Sun Wukong (孙悟空 sūn wùkōng) is a midrange/rushdown-type character, with good midrange knockdown tools that lead to powerful up-close pressure.
In the midrange, Wukong can bully his opponents with his far-reaching 5D and 2D and his 623A/B, a fast low that can hit from over halfscreen and knocks down. Up close, he can pressure his opponents with blockstrings into his 214B, which is rendered unpunishable due to an oversight that removes his hurtbox for a large portion of the move, and can lead to more pressure through the use of a "fake cancel", which allows him to cancel its endlag as long as he has less than a full bar of meter. Once he does get meter, though, his punishes become very dangerous, as he can chain his supers together for highly damaging combos. His 5C is also an amazing pressure tool: on block, it can lead to an unavoidable tick throw, and on hit, it can lead to an infinite from anywhere on the screen with good enough execution.
However, Wukong suffers from a lack of versatility in his tools and weak punishes in many scenarios. While his 214B is safe due to invincibility, it is still extremely minus without fake canceling, opening him up to a tick throw. And although he possesses a strong tick-throw game, he has no way of comboing off of his throw, meaning he has to slowly whittle down his opponent's lifebar between chip and throws. He also struggles to deal with characters with long reach and projectiles, as he lacks a projectile himself and his earthquakes are difficult to punish fireballs with on reaction.
If you want a character with strong pressure tools that also rewards you for having a bit of execution, Sun Wukong is your man.
| Strengths
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Weaknesses
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- Midscreen Knockdowns: Between his long-range sweep and 3/4 screen seismo, Wukong can win neutral from relatively far away.
- Infinite: Wukong can go into an infinite from his fast 5C at any point on the screen.
- Safe Pressure and Chip: His 214B is invincible until its last recovery frame, and can be made even safer with a fake cancel or super cancel. It even avoids Dead Angle Attacks, which stuff most other pressure tools. It's also a fantastic tool for confirming.
- Fake Cancel: Allows him to cancel his nunchuk specials into normals as long as he doesn't have meter, making them safer and improving his meterless damage.
- Super to Super Cancels: Wukong can deal lots of damage in a single combo if he has meter to burn.
- Good Meter Build: Wukong's nunchuk special and both supers deal lots of hits, allowing him to build meter quickly.
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- Short Normals: Outside of 5D and 2D, his normals lack range, making it difficult for him to get anything started without a raw knockdown from 2D or 623B.
- Lacks Versatility: With only two specials (which are each only good at doing a couple of things), Wukong can struggle to deal with certain characters and strategies.
- Unrewarding Throws: He has no way to combo off his throws, hampering the value of his tick throw game.
- Weak Juggle/Reset Game: Wukong lacks ways to extend combos without meter, limiting his damage.
- Unrewarding Anti-Air: Wukong's grounded normals lack upward range, and his jumping normals are all short-ranged and unrewarding due to his general lack of a good juggle. His main options for extensions off anti-air are 623A/B or 214A/B into 236236D, but 623A/B is susceptible to trades and 214A/B has slow startup and will whiff if the opponent jumps in from too close.
- Hard to Open Opponent Up: Wukong has no good left/right or high/low mix, and only has one throw, which doesn't lead to conversions. Because of that, he can struggle to access his higher-damage combos against a patient opponent.
- Gives Opponent Meter: Every time the opponent blocks one of Wukong's attacks, they gain a little bit of meter. Because his gameplan ends up making the opponent block a lot, they will gain meter faster than they would in other matchups.
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