Tough Love Arena/Noodle/Strategy
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Disclaimer: This is a community written page and may contain opinions that not all players may agree with. Use at your own discretion.
Goals
Noodle wants to stay in control for most of the match. In neutral, they want to cover space in front of them with long range normals and Soup. Whenever they get a knockdown, Noodle wants to loop setplay and push the opponents to the corner. Once Noodle has the opponent in the corner, they will try to keep the corner pressure until they win the round.
Neutral
Noodle has arguably the strongest neutral due to their ability to control space with Whip and dictate the pace of neutral with Soup. Most of Noodle's damage will come from consistently winning neutral interactions. Having a strong neutral with them will be key to playing them well.
Pokes
Whip
- Whip is a long range heavy attack and Noodle’s most common poke due to its fast speed and modest recovery.
- Whip has a very low hitbox, so Jump can be used preemptively to beat out Whip.
- Use it to stuff out opponents who try to walk forward, to punish whiffs in neutral, or to bait out risky options like Jump Attack in neutral.
- Very hard to hit confirm especially at tipper Whip range, so save cancelling into Whip Pounce for clear whiff punishes or for when you have meter to make Whip Pounce safe.
- Whip Pounce is a risky but good mixup to use when the opponent tries to take space or counterattack right after blocking Whip.
Trample
- Trample is a solid burst option counterpart to Whip.
- It acts very similar to Whip Pounce in that it leaves Noodle minus and right next to the opponent if they block the move. The move is effectively a slower version of Sweep and Whip at their respective tipper ranges.
- Trample however has the benefits of being very easy to hit confirm off of with meter, is faster than Whip leading to better counter poke opportunities, and leaves Noodle plus if they hit the opponent unlike Whip.
- Trample is a good mixup to Whip in neutral when the opponent is well in Whip’s range.
Other Options
Soup
- Soup is a potent neutral tool when Noodle has time and space to set it up (i.e. Roundstart and tipper Whip range).
- Once placed down, Noodle can act independently from the placed Soup.
- Soup is useful for wasting the opponent’s time during neutral. It acts like a wall since in most cases the opponent either has to Jump over Soup, attack Soup , or wait out Soup entirely, all of which can be punished in their respective ways.
- Jump can be punished with a regular anti air or if the spacing is correct, Soup can anti air the Jump automatically.
- Attacking Soup gives Noodle a prime opening to whiff punish with Whip or Trample.
- Waiting out Soup wastes a large amount of time (4 seconds) and allows Noodle to shimmy for meter, try to plant another Soup, or gain space.
- With the right setup and right execution, Soup is a dreadful tool to deal with in neutral.
Shimmy
- Having a bar of meter on deck lets Noodle convert any hit they get into a Whip Splash knockdown, makes their pressure overall better, and lets Noodle reset to neutral with Reject if they need to.
- Shimmying is a useful counterpart to poking when the opponent is afraid of inching forward due to Whip and Trample or if they want to go for a risky option to punish Whip and Trample specifically.
Anti Airs/Jump Punishes
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- Slap is one of Noodle's most rewarding anti airs versus a close Jump and if the opponent is in the corner. Due to its fast startup and amount of active frames Slap is a reliable anti air to rely on most of the time. Keep in mind that spaced Jumps will be able to outrange Slap, so a different anti air will have to be used.
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- Frenzy is a very consistent anti air that nets low reward meterless. Frenzy has a similar anti air timing to Slap but can cover spaced Jumps and has lower reward compared to Slap.
- Soup takes the most amount of time to setup but gives noodle the best reward by far and is very easy to follow-up. If Noodle blocks a Jump Attack while Soup is close enough to them, Noodle essentially trades with the blockstun animation while the opponent gets hit by Soup and can get a full combo into a knockdown.
- Whip is useful for whiff punishing Jumps that are spaced out far enough. Be wary of the extended hurtbox and the low hitbox of Whip when trying to whiff punish Jump as it can lead to Noodle getting a bad trade with Jump or get hit with Jump outright.
Offense
Okizeme
If you can afford to, prioritize getting a Whip Splash knockdown every time you get a hit. Whenever Noodle gets a Whip Splash knockdown, they can cancel Whip Splash into Prep Soup, which gives Noodle a ton of freedom when running their oki. Keep in mind that some moves can go through Soup when the opponent is waking up (i.e. Chop, Dash, Teleport) and that you will have to adjust your setplay accordingly. These are some useful general setups to know:
The Wall
- Leads to a neutral reset.
- Gives Noodle a free Soup for neutral.
- A consistent, non-committal setup regardless of spacing.
"Safe Jump"
- Gives Noodle a free approach.
- Can lose to reversals on wakeup but they have to be done on a read.
Meaty Whip
- Lets Noodle throw out another Whip for free without risk.
- Punishes some reversals that normally can go through Soup on wakeup.
Backstab Soup
- Gives up chip and frame advantage for more damaging punishes.
Stagger Corner Two-Stack
- A strong corner setup that should always be used if possible.
- Has a built in frame trap.
- Has many follow-ups for pressure: Jump, Third Soup, Throw, etc.
Soupmate
- A frame tight setup that guarantees 200 damage if you aren't facing Rice and Garlic and if the opponent doesn't have meter for Reject.
- If the opponent does have Reject and/or is Rice and Garlic, this setup forces a 50-50 scenario that is skewed in Noodle's favor.
Block Pressure
Noodle's block pressure is quite limited if it doesn't involve Soup, meter, or the corner. But, they still have some useful pressure to know.
Slap Pressure
Whenever Noodle lands a point-blank Slap midscreen, they have to play rps with the opponent:
- They can Slap again if the opponent doesn't walk back or tries to mash.
- Trample/Whip can catch opponents looking to whiff punish a second Slap.
- Throw can catch the opponent trying to use a reversal or trying to walk back and react.
- Walk back is useful to use to reset to neutral but requires the opponent to respect Noodle enough.
Noodle gets more guaranteed pressure when they land a point-blank Slap in the corner:
- Slap again becomes an option that beats everything but reversals.
- Throw is a guaranteed punish versus most reversals and blocking.
- Delayed Frenzy is a high-risk option that beats every option from the opponent except for blocking and Throw.
- You could try to reset the scenario if you conditioned the opponent to respect you enough.
- Trample is useful for punishing fuzzy mashing, Parry, or Backflip
Whip pressure
Whenever Noodle lands Whip on block, they can choose to delay Whip Pounce to punish the opponent mashing/walking forward. This is useful to know when zoning with Whip as it forces the opponent to respect Whip Pounce and stand still for longer periods of time.
Possible 7 frame gap cancelled into Whip Pounce
Defense
Frenzy
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- Frenzy is a high risk, high reward armored reversal that is best used with caution. Preferably use it when Noodle has meter since they get significantly better conversion off of Frenzy > RC opposed to Raw Frenzy.
Slap
Trample
- Slap is one of Noodle's fastest defensive option, but is also stubby and has a significant amount of endlag. Slap is useful as a point blank scramble optio or if you suspect your opponent will go for a throw.
- Trample acts similar to Slap on defense, but it has the added benefit of reaching much further and being harder to punish at the cost of speed.
Reject
- Reject lets Noodle stop the opponent’s block pressure at the cost of one bar of meter. Vary Reject timings to make sure the opponent is not ready for the neutral reset and can't bait out your Reject.
Burst
- Use Burst when you expect the opponent’s combo will kill or if you have a big enough life lead to gain back that meter in no time if you get hit again, otherwise save your meter for Rapid and Reject. Vary your Burst timings to make sure you don’t get hard punished for getting Burst baited.
- Blocking will cause your opponent to eventually push themselves too far away to continue their block pressure. Blocking is useful to bait out overextensions versus opponents who want to keep up the pressure, and with enough conditioning, you can start to mash at certain points during their block pressure.
Counter Strategy
Soup Counterplay
- Have a baseline understanding of options versus Soup
- Prep/Serve Soup has 40 Frames of endlag, not to mention that Soup takes nearly a second to have an active hitbox once it’s placed down. At the very least a Jump to predict Prep/Serve Soup can be useful to discourage Noodle from using the move in neutral.
- Same thing also applies to Noodle’s corner pressure. Don’t be too afraid of swinging versus Noodle when they have to delay Serving Soup to place it on top of you
- Know that 5L or a spaced out 5H are good options for getting rid of Soup semi safely. If Noodle isn’t looking for those options specifically in neutral, it will be hard for them to get a full on whiff punish on reaction. Use this in conjunction with Jump Attack, waiting, and shimmying to make Soup less effective in neutral.
- Only Parries can’t go through Soup. There are plenty of moves to eat through Soup or avoid it if Noodle uses it for pressure (i.e. Chop, Dash, Frenzy). Figure out what setups those moves are useful in during Noodle’s pressure.
Positioning
- Push Noodle to the corner
- Noodle wants to corner their opponent as they get more damage off of their knockdowns and get more options to pressure the opponent.
- Try to walk down Noodle as they zone you out. If you force them to give up space, you will eventually corner them and limit their ability to zone you out.
- Generally, Noodle is weaker the closer they are to their opponent as they are more limited in how they can use Soup and how they can use Whip.
