Under Night In-Birth/UNI2/Eltnum/Matchups
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Matchups
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- Replay Theater is a great resource to find high-level matchup footage.
- Please keep in mind that matchup charts are subjective and not all players may agree on them.
Hyde
This is a fairly traditional matchup where neither character has a particular advantage on the other, so it becomes a matchup about leveraging your effective tools while working around Hyde’s strengths.
Gameplan: Work through his fireballs and larger midscreen normals to get your offensive pressure going. Stay patient throughout defense to force him to take risks, then exploit those risks to escape or punish his pressure.
Neutral (full to midscreen): Your main worries in neutral against Hyde (outside of his 6B) are going to be his fireball, assault, and 66C. You can punish fireballs at full screen with 236C, but if you don’t react in time or don’t have meter then you can opt to shield these (if you are going to block fireballs, ALWAYS blue shield these for free grd) or jump around these (be wary of this, as Hyde has excellent anti-airs). You can also use 421A to dash under these, but I would limit my usage of this as it is punishable, but can be used to surprise the Hyde. At certain spaces, you can even assault cleanly over the fireball, but this isn’t necessarily reliable, but can lead to a heavy punish. Hyde can also opt to go for assaults, as Eltnum’s main pokes are going to be 2C at midscreen, which he can assault over cleanly for big reward. To deal with assault in neutral (in general, not just against Hyde), you’re either going to need to react with stand shields (if you can react with 3C because you’re godlike, then that would be perfect, but it is very tough) or pre-emptively toss out 66Bs. Be wary of tossing out 2C in neutral, not just in this matchup, but every matchup, because if they get assaulted over, you will die. Besides these, Hyde can still just dash block his way in to try and place himself into 6B range. You should also be careful of Hyde’s 66C, as it is quite fast for its range and is pretty big, so you should at least expect it every once in a while. However, Elt’s 236X does keep that move fairly well in check in neutral, so it won’t be an incredibly common option. Keep your eye out for it after becoming negative, such as after a blocked 2C at a longer distance. Hyde’s 66C is also pretty easy to jump, but this is a high commitment option that can be risky to throw out because of Hyde’s good anti-airs. Jumping it is more of a read than an option I would recommend using all the time.
Neutral (up close): It’s important to understand the optimal ranges for both of these characters to know exactly when you’re at advantage and when Hyde is at advantage. Eltnum wants to be inside her 2B range (7f big normal) and Hyde wants to be outside of Eltnum’s 2B range, but inside his 6B range (8f big normal). Eltnum struggles as soon as she falls out of her 2B range, as her C normals are significantly slower than her B normals, so Hyde wants to place himself just outside of 2B. While Hyde is in that spacing, you have to be very wary about pressing buttons, as your B normals can easily whiff and be punished, or your C normals can be challenged by Hyde’s faster buttons. In these spacings, it’s important to dash block in to cover ground, or let Hyde continue to press buttons until he spaces himself outside of his normals and resets to neutral. Backdash while you’re midscreen, too, can be a strong option, as it’s invul is pretty good, and Hyde’s 6B has very high recovery that backdash -> 236A can easily punish a whiffed 6B. However, Hyde can also get greedy (or read how you want to play defense) and dash in to reset pressure or go for a throw. If you read that he wants to do that, you do want to mash. There’s no guaranteed option here to always stop Hyde (this is his optimal range, after all), just know how the risk reward here works, and be willing to block Hyde out if he’s inside his optimal range. Just know that sometimes, you will have to take a risk and sometimes that risk will get punished. You might also have to be wary of some meme Hyde options like rekkas or tk j236Xs as those are good low crushes, but tbh those aren’t very good and if they just did a better option, you probably would’ve lost anyways.
Defense (blocking against Hyde): Hyde excels at punishing players for their impatience. He can have very long and extended pressure that can be difficult for Eltnum to get out of because, as mentioned above, he can place himself in such a range that Eltnum can’t challenge effectively with her faster normals, while getting her larger but slower normals beaten up by his options. He has access to plus frames with his 5[C] (which becomes even more advantageous if he rebeats 2a afterwards), which can make his pressure go on even longer. His unique trait also adds chip damage to his normals, which can make players feel like they need to leave his pressure soon or take too much damage. Despite this, it is important to not be scared of blocking Hyde for extended periods of time. Sure, while the chip damage can add up, it’s much better to take a couple extra seconds of chip damage than take an unnecessary risk. Hyde has extremely high reward on his hits, either getting full corner carry on a midscreen hit, or a very high damage combo in the corner. His corner pressure, in particular, is also very scary, while also providing him with a combo off of his throw, so getting hit anywhere either means going into the corner where Hyde is his strongest, or taking a massive amount of damage in the corner. So while Hyde can keep you blocking for a long time, sometimes that’s what you want to do, because otherwise Hyde might just destroy you.
However, Hyde does have his weaknesses. His pressure generally consists of a lot of hits, and good shields can easily swing the GRD cycle to your advantage. He also has very few overheads, with only [FF] and assault being his options, the first of which is very slow and only special cancellable on block, and the other he has to fully recover in order to utilize. As stated above, Hyde wants to space himself outside of Eltnum’s 2B range, but this also means that Hyde isn’t in throw range. Hyde doesn’t have any other effective mixup besides strike/throw, so Hyde does have to take risks in his pressure to effectively open people up, namely by dashing in (which is also a risk that can be counterpoked). These risks are exploitable, and thanks to Eltnum’s great abare tools of 2B and 5A, she can use these to stop Hyde from trying to get in a throw. Did I just write above and say, “don’t mash?” and now I’m saying to mash? Yes, I’m sorry, I did, because that is how it works. However, it’s important to note that what you should be doing is encouraging the Hyde to take risks. If you are willing to block and shield Hyde, if he wants to open you up or win GRD, he will have to either throw you, threaten throws and bait OSes, or bait green shields. When he does these, he has to take risks, and those risks are what we exploit on our defense to either get out, or even get a punish. By being patient, we force Hyde’s hand on his offense, and we can move from “mashing on everything and getting counterhit to “mashing smartly to stop him from trying to mix us up.”
tl;dr: don’t mash, but then mash.
Offense (fuck a Hyde): Offensively against Hyde, there’s not really anything special about Hyde’s defense that we have to be worried about. He does have strong abare options with 6B and a 5f 2A. His 5A is also 7f and pretty big, so he does have some strong abare options. He can also troll you with tk pogo and rekka, but again, those are bad options that, if they hit you and they did something smarter, you probably would’ve lost to them anyways. Hyde does have a meterless DP, so keep that in mind when you meaty this fool. Pale Bringer also has huge range and a lot of invul frames, so it is worth keeping in mind that spaced out normals like 2C can get punished by that move. Also note that Pale Bringer’s invul is so long that it will beat out Elt’s 421C even if 421C happens after Pale Bringer comes out, so if you have to whiff cancel a special into an EX move to not get hit, you have to use 623C, not 421C. Despite these notes, you can run a pretty standard Eltnum offense of strike/throw, so long as you understand that Hyde’s can and will press buttons, so keep your stagger game solid, and you can mess him up.
Roundstart: A common Hyde roundstart is 22A. Eltnum has a strong punish on this with a forward jump jB, so you can use that to punish his 22A (it will also jump over 66C if the Hyde is a mad man). With Elt’s added air options, you can even bait out anti airs with air backdash if the Hyde tries to wait and punish this (you might still die, don’t blame me if you do).
Combo restrictions: If you do something like 5a 2b 2c 5[c] 421b 6[b], the 6[b] will whiff on Hyde. Note that this only happens if you get the hit very close to the Hyde, and if you had done something like j[C] wj2b 5b or used 214C previously in the combo, the 6[b] will not whiff. I don’t recommend using these routes that whiff on Hyde since they are pretty weak in CLR, but they do provide an easy sideswap, so they are sometimes utilized. Keep that in mind so you don’t whiff and possibly ruin yourself.
Overview | Frame Data | Matchups | Strategy | Reverse Matchup | Match Videos Return to Top
Linne
Waldstein
Carmine
Orie
Gordeau
Gordeau can be frustrating to deal with in neutral, but Eltnum’s powerful up-close pressure can quickly smother Gordeau if he happens to lose neutral. Patience in neutral is key, while not letting up in your pressure is key to your victory.
Gameplan: Dashblock your way in, making sure to shield well to gain CS and use that to take advantage of tools like 236A CS. Once in, don’t let up, and exploit Gord’s bad frame data. On defense, prepare to dice roll, but stay smart and don’t get discouraged.
Neutral: Neutral against Gordeau is going to be the most important part of this game, as your goal is to get in and run your offensive gameplan. You want to be wary of Gordeau’s 5C, Mortal Slide, FF, and his assaults. Gordeau’s 5C and Mortal Slide are both very large, and Gord can cancel his 5C into Mortal Slide for a frame trap and to continue keeping you in block stun. It is very important, that, whenever Gordeau using Mortal Slide, you *always* green shield after the first hit of Mortal Slide. Mortal Slide always has 2 hits, and green shielding the first hit guarantees you shield the second hit, making Gord more negative, but more importantly, giving you a ton of grd. You can also punish a whiffed Mortal Slide with 236C or 214C if you have meter. These two normals will make up the majority of his neutral, trying to keep you from getting in. You can contest with your standard buttons like 236A and 2C, but you will have to be worried (as always) for assault. Gord’s assault isn’t particularly noteworthy, but it is just a standard option used to crush a lot of Elt’s options. Preemptive 66Bs and 236Bs go a long way to controlling air space in this MU. The next notable move is his FF. It is a very fast, big, and plus on block normal. It might seem almost perfect, until you realize that you can crouch it! This also ends up being fantastic for Elt, as her 2C keeps her crouched, meaning that if Elt dashes in, crouches, and he whiffs FF by going over her head, you can punish with a 2C. Kill Gords for their FFs! Keep your eye out for those normals, dash block in, gain CS and leverage it with 236A CS, and get your way in so you can win the game. Also, keep in mind that he can use 236C in neutral as a cancel option to give himself plus frames. Don’t forget this also has two hits that you can shield for grd! If Gord does get CS or meter, you should be wary of B Grim Reaper. It is very big and fast and with CS or cancelled into 236C, he gains a lot of plus frames and can use that to start his pressure. Keep your eye out when Gord has resources and be wary of challenging some sequences as B Grim Reaper can beat you there.
Defense: However, you might get hit and have to deal with Gordeau. And boy, is this where the matchup sucks. It’s not necessarily that Elt doesn’t have any strong tools to deal with Gordeau, it’s just that Gordeau has a natural RPS on his wakeup game that sometimes you will just lose the game because you guessed wrong 3 times. Basically, any hit Gord gets, he will end in either 214X or 236X6X6X, which will lead to the same knockdown. There, he can either meaty you, which covers mash but loses to block, or do a delayed 214A, which covers block but loses to mash. Both of these, if they hit, then lead into the same oki and you get to do the same thing again. Eltnum, by virtue of having a meterless DP, does get a little bit of an advantage by adding an additional layer. She can DP, which will punish both meaty and 214A, but if the Gord blocks, he gets a big punish. At the end of the day, it’s all a dice roll. It’s important to keep in mind all of your options, judge the risk/reward (taking one command grab isn’t as bad as taking a full combo, but what about 3? should you dp if it getting blocked kills you? you have to think about these things on your wakeup), represent that you’re not afraid to do some wild stuff to get out to get your opponent to second guess their options, and keep a level head and recognize that sometimes you’re just going to guess wrong and lose.
If you do escape the oki situation, but find yourself blocking, Gord’s mixup game isn’t particularly strong. He runs a standard strike throw game, but his frame data is pretty bad, so it can be difficult for him to get hits outside of neutral or on wakeup. His dash is also pretty slow, and his overhead is 5[C], which is slow and easily reactable. Patience is name of the game, either getting him to your 2B range so you can abare with your superior frame date, or go all the way out while shielding to provide yourself with vorpal. Just be careful, if he gets a read on your patience, he can use 214A to grab you and start his oki all over again.
Offense: But for the hell that it is dealing with Gordeau’s wakeup game, you also get to make his life hell! Gordeau has extremely weak abare options. His A normals are either stubby (like his 5A), or slow (like his 7f 2A), his B normals aren’t much better. His best normal is 2C, which is 8f on its first hit, but isn’t necessarily that large, and on whiff, can be punished easily. It’s also not a great anti-air despite what it looks like, which means that assault offense on him can be particularly effective. With his bad frame data, it can be very hard for Gord to challenge Elt’s no cancels, rebeats, and more negative enders like shielded 236[A]/5CC or 22A. Smother him with your normals and superior frame data, and the Gord can find himself quickly overwhelmed and not able to do anything. Do keep in mind he does have 3 reversals. 22C and 623C kind of fill the same niche, I think 623C generally tends to be superior. Treat these like standard, if not large, EX reversals. 214C is a common reversal (and common meme move), keep your eye on it and practice differentiating it from the other reversals so you can punish it correctly as it is a command grab.
Roundstart: One thing to keep in mind, as soon as Gord gets 100 meter, he will often go for 623B on roundstart into 236C. This covers a plethora of options while making himself plus and this is a gapless string, but there are options here! Gord’s 623B has two hits, so if you green shield between the first and second hit, you will shield the second hit and this will create a gap between 623B and 236C. Then, on reaction to the flash, you can do 421C and get a full combo or 623B if you don’t have meter. This works outside of roundstart too, of course, but this is the most common situation for this.
Overview | Frame Data | Matchups | Strategy | Reverse Matchup | Match Videos Return to Top
Merkava
This is historically (in ST at least) considered a good matchup for Eltnum. In CLR, it’s a bit more debatable due mainly to Merkava’s buffs, but Eltnum has some unique strengths against Merkava that can help keep this wavy inflatable tube man in check.
Gameplan: Dash block your way through his normals, using your tools to prevent him from accessing his powerful neutral options. Start your offense, but be mindful of his powerful reversal with meter. On defense, stay patient, win GRD, and create gaps with shields to CS 421C through. Don’t let him set up neutral worms for free.
Neutral: Despite Eltnum having an arguably good matchup against Merkava, this doesn’t mean Eltnum just gets to do whatever she wants. Merkava still has very strong full screen pokes, and Eltnum has to respect these in general. Good shields in neutral are incredibly powerful, as this swings GRD into your favor and allows Elt to gain access to CS which (as I will explain) is incredibly useful in this matchup. Impatience in neutral here can lead to Merkava getting in and being allowed to run his offense, and without resources, his offense is incredibly powerful even against Eltnum. Some of your biggest worries here are actually going to be 3C and 66C. These extend Merkava’s hurtbox very high up, going right over 2C and at certain spaces, even 236X, and lead to full combos. These are actually some of his scariest normals in the midscreen against Eltnum, and can be difficult to antiair as Eltnum, with even 66B not being good enough. It’s important to note that 3C and 66C are only special cancellable, so if you do block them, Merkava will commonly cancel into j214X. He can leave a gap which can be punished with a reversal 623B. This reversal 623B will even punish a no cancel, as 66C and 3C are both more than -5 on block (although the reward will obviously be less than if you punished with a normal). The Merkava can space out the 3C in such a way that the reversal 623B will whiff and be punished. You can also use 421A to cross under the fireball, which, while Merkava does retain options here, still provides you with the opportunity to punish with an anti air. There is some counterplay Merkava can do by cancelling 3C into flight, but this prevents him from converting off of a 3C and doesn’t leave him with great options to continue pressure if you don’t do anything after 3C. 421A isn’t a surefire punish option, but it does provide some good counterplay that will keep the Merkava from mindlessly pressing 3C fireball. If Merkava leaves 3C fireball gapless, however, he is minus.
There are a few more frightening options that Merkava has. His normals like 5B and 5C control a lot of strong space, but they are just mids that you can effectively dashblock. He also has flight and 214A, which for other characters can be terrifying options, but for Eltnum, are surprisingly easy to deal with. Flight is easily policed by Eltnum’s charged gunshots (236[X]), with 236[B], I find, being the most powerful to deal with that move in neutral. Merkava can block while in flight, but if he does, he loses all his options and falls to the ground. While this isn’t punishable on its own, it severely limits his neutral options and allows Eltnum to get in. However, if Merkava *doesn’t* block, then Merkava will get counterhit no matter what, which leads into a huge combo with 236[B]. Police Merkavas who use flight in neutral with charge gunshot, and you severely limit one of their options in neutral. Another option you get to control is Merkava’s 214A. Normally, this is a fairly common cancel option that Merkava’s use to either convert off stray hits or punish greedy options after a blocked normal. But, on block, it is at best -12, and, would you look at that, 236C (a fullscreen laser) has a 12f startup! Yep, that means *anywhere on screen, if you block 214A and you have meter, you can punish Merkava’s 214A!*. (There is a way for Merkava to actually stay safe after 214A, but it’s pretty specific and not worth worrying about unless you’re against a god Merkava). Thus, Merkava then is denied from being able to effectively use 214A, giving you a lot more freedom in neutral to dashblock or even to take larger risks with gunshots and 2C.
As you understand Merkava’s neutral tools, you can learn how to navigate around them and work your way in without opening yourself too much to his stronger options.
Defense: However, sometimes Merkava will get in close and get to run his offense on you. He does have some very strong buttons with 2B being as fast as your 2B and being as big if not bigger than your 2B, and his 2A being pretty big for a 6f normal. There are two types of defense you have to worry about with Merkava. The first is without worms, which is fairly simple. Merkava doesn’t have any particularly strong mixup options here. He does have a fair amount of overheads with his 4B and his 3C, but those are both slow and are easily reactable, but they can punish bad shields and (in the case of 3C) low pokes. Despite this, Merkava’s pressure does have a distinct weakness, and that it is very difficult for him to keep his pressure gapless. This is an exploitable weakness that Eltnum can take advantage of because of her 421C. With CS (or, if you want to take a risk, without CS), she can reversal right through any of these gaps in his pressure, netting a full combo and knockdown. Shields also makes it so there are even more gaps in his pressure, providing even more places to reversal through his pressure. This makes Merkavas have to be especially wary of doing pressure on Eltnum, which then enable to Eltnum to be risky during their own defense by mashing out in situations that the Merkava might be worried for a 421C.
However, still, you might be get knocked down by Merkava and have to deal with worm oki (22X set, specifically 22C set during a combo). Merkava does have a 50/50 on his offense with low flight and worms, and it is often just something you have to deal. It sucks, and I wish I could give more advice, but it is true. Also, be wary of throw, as sometimes Merkava can throw you in such a way that worms will hit during this and neat significantly more damage than a regular throw can do. If the Merkava does not go for low flight oki, you should still be wary of worm oki, as it can extend his pressure, but once you've blocked worms, you are in a much safer position, and can continue defending Merkava as you previously did.
Notes on worms: It is important to know some things about worms. The main things are this: you can hit worms. This extends your hitbox, which can be good (as it might extend long enough for Merkava to fall into) or be bad (makes it last longer so Merkava can kill you). Honestly, it tends to be more bad than good, and shouldn’t be in your gameplan to specifically kill worms. However, if you hit Merkava, or make him block *outside of vorpal state*, the worms will also die. Thus, it is extremely important that if the Merkava does somehow set worms down and isn’t in vorpal, that you at least make him block to get rid of worms. Ideally, you should only really have to deal with worms on oki, as Eltnum has strong tools to keep Merkava from being able to set worms in neutral. There’s more about worms that you can read about on the Merkava wiki, but for our purposes, these are the main things to know.
Offense: Offense against Merkava is somewhat standard, although he does have some frustratingly strong defensive options. His 2A was (thankfully) nerfed that it can now be assaulted over, making an OS hunting game a lot more effective against him. While he does have a good antiair with 4B, it’s not a particularly good abare options or OS option, so during pressure, it isn’t the scariest option to worry about. 3C OS is pretty good as an antiair, but it can also be easily dashed under by Eltnum, which leads to a full punish, so you can be somewhat greedy with assaults during pressure. As stated before, his 2B and his 2A still are both pretty big and fast, so you do have to be wary of those abare options, but given their low nature, we can do what everyone else does to us, and assault him to punish these pokes. Merkava’s divekick is also pretty scary against Eltnum. Even though Elt’s 5B is a mid, it hits pretty low to the ground, so it can still lose to this divekick. Just keep your eye out for this normal. It has a pretty short recovery, so I don’t advise trying to challenge it on whiff, no matter how much you want to (unless your reactions are godlike). It is pretty much always minus, so take back your turn if you do block divekick. However, the big thing you have to be scared of is 236C. 236C has full invulnerability, combos on hit, big as hell, and -3 on block. In order to punish, you have to block and either 623C (which gives a weak damage reward but gives good oki), or shield the multi-hit moves correctly to make it -6 and punish with a 5A. The latter is tough and requires a lot of practice to get in a real game. Given its nature as a 236C move, it’s also easy to get out during pressure, so you do have to be extra worried during pressure if the Merkava has meter whenever you frame trap. However, if you keep this in mind, Merkava can still be beaten, even with this dumb move.
Roundstart: Merkava has a very common roundstart with 5B. However, this can be universally handled with a micro walkback. Hold 4, at the start of the game, your character will take one step back. As soon as they do, Merkava’s 5B will now whiff. Here, you can actually whiff punish Merkava with 2C 5[C] 214B 214C, 236A 236C, or if you're confident in your links, get a meterless punish with 214A microdash 2B. You can also forward jump jB it (sorry I stan roundstart forward jump jB).
Fun fact: this micro walkback also causes Eltnum’s 236A to whiff at roundstart as well (not very fun fact for Eltnums).
Overview | Frame Data | Matchups | Strategy | Reverse Matchup | Match Videos Return to Top
Vatista
Seth
Seth is an extremely tricky character that can easily run over a newer player, and a strong Seth can even run over the most experienced player. An Eltnum has to take any advantage she can get and exploit Seth’s low health to beat him, or otherwise the Seth will be free to do whatever he wants, suffocating the Eltnum until she dies. The Eltnum has to be very adaptive to what the Seth does.
Gameplan: Navigate around Seth’s powerful neutral tools to score a hit. Keep your offense strong and make sure to make every hit count to exploit his low health. Stay aware on defense, learn to recognize his mixups, and stay smart and patient.
Neutral (against orb sets): This match-up can be extremely tricky for newer players in almost every aspect, and neutral is hard. Seth has extremely strong air movement while also having extremely fast dash speed, meaning that he can escape to the air (where Elt has a hard time of challenging) or quickly dash in and punish her attempts to police Seth’s air movement. Thus, it becomes important to know what the goal of the Seth player is. Some Seths will want to take to the sky, set an orb, play keep away until the orb shots, and then use that orb shot to get in and run their offense. Eltnum does have a fair amount of options to stop orbs. 236[X] is perhaps the most obvious, as the angles it shoots at will either hit the orb and kill it, hit Seth while he’s setting the orb which gets you a counterhit and full combo, or make the Seth block which also causes the orb to disappear. This is risky, however, as sometimes the Seth can place himself into the dead zones of one of the ricochets, stopping Elt from dealing with the orb, or dash in and punish the startup of the slow 236[X]. Elt can also take to the skies herself, using jump forward assault j[C] which has a pretty big hitbox to kill the orb, hit the Seth, or both. This is also risky, as if she whiffs and the Seth is in position, can be punished heavily, but it can be an additional tool to deal with Seth orbs.You can also use your momentum to trick the orb. The orb tracks to where you *are* not where you are *going to be,* so you can use air movement, dashes, or backdashes to cause the orb to aim at a spot you’re not going to be at, preventing the Seth from using the orb lockdown to get pressure going. This too has risks, as the Seth can stop and punish your movement on reads, but the idea here is that even if you aren’t successful in stopping Seth from setting orb, you can still use your movement to be tricky and force the Seth to have to make reads rather than getting a free way in. Make the Seth’s life hard.
Neutral (against non-orb set): However, Seths don’t have to only use orb to get in. They themselves can just play neutral, perhaps even use the mixup of whether they will or won’t put down orbs to get their way in. Seth’s fast dash speed and very fast buttons (5A is a very big 5f button that covers good air space, 2B is 6f and is big for its size, 5C and 5CC are huge and fast for their size) means he can very effectively cross the screen with strong buttons to get his offense started. Given the fact that you’re probably thinking a lot about what Seth is going to do in neutral, this can give him an easy way in. There is, unfortunately, not a lot of easy answers here, but you can preemptively stop his approaches with 236A and your midscreen buttons if you read it.
Rising jA jB: This might seem crazy, but I think this deserves its own section in this guide. This applies to both neutral and offense, but Seth has an especially strong option against Elt in his rising jA jB. Elt’s main pokes are her lows, and jumps can very effectively go over these. With Seth’s jA jB, he can jump at you over your lows and get a full combo. He can also clear over your 236Xs and even 66B at times. Your main bet here is to either back off (backdash and reset to neutral), or try to 3C him. Shielding isn’t very effective here because he remains plus if you shield the jB and you open yourself up to empty jump throws. 3C can also be good, but Seth can j214A or air backdash j214A after the jA, baiting the anti air and netting himself a punish. Still, it is important to represent this option, as j214A doesn’t provide him great cancel options (it can lead into dive/blink pressure, which I talk about later), so it can force him to not immediately start going into his pressure. Also, at certain spacings, air backdash j214A will whiff, which can give you the opportunity to punish. You can also decide to back off, backdash or moving backwards, although this gives up space which isn’t ideal. Rising jA jB is actually incredibly oppressive against Eltnum, and if the Seth represents this option, it is important to know your counter tools. There’s unfortunately not much Eltnum can really do here, but understanding its strength can help you not take unnecessary risks.
Defense (standard): Seth, without any shenanigans like dive/blink or orbs, has an actually pretty straight forward offense. He doesn’t have much access to mixups without orbs. He can do 66C (passes through) 623X, but even on hit, he can’t get any reward off of it without an orb. Besides that, he does run a fairly standard strike throw game without any crazy frills. He has some good no cancel options (2B and 2C are -2 and -1 respectively), fast dash speed to do quick pressure resets/throws, a strong throw that doesn’t give him orb oki but does still give him some oki. Regardless, if the Seth goes for a standard offense, you in turn run a standard, patient defense. He does have a standing overhead in 6C, but it is also reactable. It does low crush, however, which is honestly the more frightening aspect of it. Overall, though, without orbs or anything else crazy, defending against Seth doesn’t require any unique knowledge.
Defense (dive/blink): Dive/blink pressure is an extremely common offense run by many Seths that can cause newer players to crumble easily. It consists of the Seth getting you to block in some way (such as with 5CC or j214A), and then using 214X to teleport above you, and then j214A down onto you, and then 214X to teleport above you, j214A, continued ad nauseum until you either get hit or get out. Many new players crumble to this type of offense, so I’ll go into detail on how to beat it. There are a few ways, but I want to emphasize the biggest one and that is: just get out of there. As Seth teleports above and as he falls down, there is a gap. You can challenge with a normal or other options, but instead, our goal is to just dash out there. Press 6AB in the direction Seth goes to (he can choose which side he teleports on) and then you’re out of there. If he goes to the opposite side and you press 6AB on the wrong side, you’ll get 4AB, which comes out as backdash. This generally isn’t that bad either, as it can sometimes get you out, but it can also sometimes get punished, so our big goal is to make sure we do dash on the right side. Regardless, dashing out is your safest and most reliable option. j214A also has a very large recovery and can’t be cancelled on whiff, so you can punish it after you dash out and it whiffs. There are some additional options. 3C can be used to punish j214A, but I find that normal unreliable in this situation. You can also shield j214A and 5A between the gap of j214A and 214X (you normally can’t 5A this gap without a shield). This is still difficult, as j214A has two hits, so you must shield the second hit specifically. Also, the seth can cancel j214A into 623X and frame trap you, but if they do and you block, they end their turn. However, if you do try to challenge dive/blink pressure, *only use 5a*. Anything else is more likely to whiff and be punished.
Defense (orbs): However, sometimes you will get hit by Seth, and you will have to deal with his orbs on wakeup and defense. Seth can use these in primarily two ways: either extend his pressure, or use the orbs as a mixup. Extending his pressure is fairly simple. He will throw out normals, push himself out, and then use the orb shot to put you back into blockstun so he can get back in. For the most part, you will have to respect this. He may try to mix you up here by going for a throw before the orb shoots, so you can sometimes challenge here, but if he frame traps you, you can get hit. So, understanding the risk reward here is important and you should be conscious about your choices on defense. However, it’s pretty standard and not very tricky, just forces you to respect Seth a bit more than usual.
However, he can also use the orbs for more potent mixups than just keeping his strike/throw game safe. He can get some left/right, or even unblockable setups, with regular orbs. There are a lot of different setups for left/rights and unblockables (which will be in the next section), which I don’t know all of, but I will explain the idea behind orb mixups and some common ones to be wary of. Now, Under Night does have cross-up when it comes to projectiles. If an opponent’s projectile and the opponent are on the same side, then you must block that projectile on the correct side. However, if your opponent is on one side, and the projectile is on the other, you can block that projectile *on either side.* This means, if Seth sets an orb and then jumps over and lands on the other side of the orb, you don’t have to change your block to not get hit by the orb. But, what about the other way? If Seth is on the opposite side of the orb, and then travels to the *same* side as the orb, and the orb shoots, you must now *correctly block on the side Seth is at.* The game says, Seth and the projectile are together, so there’s no reason to give crossup protection, so you can now be crossed up! This is part of a fairly basic mixup some Seths will do, where they will go on the opposite side of an orb, do 66C to then pass through the opponent shortly before the orb goes off. Then, the orb goes off with Seth on the orb side, causing the opponent to have to switch their block to block that orb or get hit. Keep in mind these rules, as Seths can run a plethora of left/rights to try and open you up, but so long as you keep your head clear and learn to recognize setups, you can block correctly. Blocking these orbs won’t necessarily give you a punish or even your turn back, but it will severely limit Seth’s offense, giving you the chance to come back.
Defense (unblockables): Now that we went over his left/rights, let’s go into his other large mixup toolset, which is his unblockables. Seth’s j214B is unblockable (note: not a throw, so if you get hit during hitstun, you can’t tech or anything). Seth can combine this move with orbs in order to get an inescapable unblockable. Similarly to his left/rights, there are a ton of different setups and each Seth will use different ones and mix them up, and I don’t know every single one since I don’t play Seth, but I will tell you some common scenarios, some answers, and give some advice. Generally, Seths will set up unblockables on wakeup by using 236C. His ex orb has some unique properties, with it having multiple hits and also *doesn’t go away if Seth gets hit* (yes, this game sucks). With 236C set on your oki (some setups will have 236C set early on in the combo to get the 236C to hit during your wakeup, or at the end where the Seth will do a sequence on your wakeup to set up for the unblockable), they will then use that to score an unblockable. Generally, the oki on j214B on hit is decent, but not enough to gain an orb. The Seth can CS cancel j214B for a full combo and there are some unblockable loops (ways so that j214B hit leads into an orb hit that allows Seth to combo that he can use to set up another unblockable), but these tend to be much more susceptible to counterplay. Otherwise, the reward for unblockables is not especially high, usually giving a good amount of damage, but not as much as a full combo.
Speaking of counterplay, what the hell do I do? Do I just die? Well, unfortunately, the counterplay varies per setup. Sometimes it’s VO, sometimes it’s jump, sometimes it’s mash, sometimes it’s DP, sometimes on the really fucked up ones, there is literally nothing lol. This is part of the strength of unblockable setups. Their variety of different options they cover can make it difficult to correctly escape, and sometimes those attempts to escape get you more punished than if you just ate the unblockable. When in doubt, sometimes it's better to just take the unblockable and accept that the Seth has used their meter effectively to gain extra damage. However, one of the more reliable answers, and one that can get you out of trouble if you’re a bit late, is GRD Thrust! You can cancel blockstun into 214D, and hit Seth out of his j214B, freeing you from the unblockable. There are a few setups that do beat GRD Thrust, but it tends to be your most reliable option to get out. Be warned, though, the cost of GRD Thrust is steep at 100 meter and either GRD breaking you without vorpal, or using up your vorpal. Personally, I tend to only use GRD thrust if the unblockable will kill me, prefering to keep my vorpal for my wakeup or subsequent defense, but I will leave that judgment up to you. Just keep a level head against unblockable and make sure you consider the risk/reward you are taking when dealing with unblockables.
Offense: Despite all of Seths stupid offense he gets to run, we get our standard offense like usual. Seth does have very strong abare tools with 5A, 2B, 2C, 5CC, and rising jA jB, so we do have to be wary of those options. Keep your frame traps on point. He also has good reversals in EX command grab and 623C. EX command grab will primarily be used on the Seth’s wakeup when you are point blank, as it has low range, but it does lead to a full combo on hit and can be difficult to react to. You can still react to it with a j2B and net a punish on it. 623C is his other reversal, and is notable for its huge range. Not much to do about it besides treating it like a standard reversal, just be aware of its range. Regardless, there isn’t much else to be done against Seth. Keep in mind his 2B is 6f which can challenge your 2B in +0 situations such as after a shielded 236[X] or 5CC. He may also backdash often to get into the air where it is tough for Elt to deal with, so keep that in mind as well. It is fairly slow with not great invul, so you can punish it sometimes. It’s also important to push your damage against Seth, as if Seth gets a single opening, he can use that to snowball his way over you, but his low health leads himself to be snowballed too. If Seth gives you an inch, take a mile, then beat the shit out of him.
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Yuzuriha
Hilda
Chaos
Nanase
Byakuya
Phonon
Mika
Wagner
Wagner is a fairly scary character, but the matchup itself is fairly simple and, while there’s some info that’s important, it tends to be a fairly straightforward gameplan of try to hit her before she hits you.
Gameplan: Try to get your offense rolling before she gets hers going. Regardless, stay patient during her pressure and try not to take too many risks in neutral as she can really snowball the game. Gauge the risk/reward of your defensive options and be confident with your choices. Otherwise, run a fairly standard neutral/offensive gameplan.
Neutral: Wagner neutral is pretty simple. There are a few things to be worried about. Her 66C is pretty big and is a low, so you should be careful about walking in this matchup. A big brain j2B can be a hard callout, but it generally isn’t worth it. Her 236A is also pretty alright when they do throw it out , but is generally low reward without CS or meter, so don’t be too scared of it when Wagner doesn’t have resources. Assault is and forever will be an issue against any character, so be mindful of that. In general, you have much more control than in other matchups, and can stop her somewhat from approaching with 236As and 2Cs. However, these aren’t good enough to always keep her out and have too much counterplay to allow you to play a zoning gameplan. Instead, you can use those threats to keep Wagner blocking and dashblocking, and if she sits still, you can get in with a dash up 2B or 5A and get your gameplan rolling. Be mindful that Wagner has excellent passive anti airs in the form of 5B and 5C, and a huge B DP, that it can be difficult to go into the air against her. Try to stay grounded. Assaults are still alright, just be mindful that you can get clipped by her pokes sometimes.
Defense: When blocking Wagner, be prepared to block for a long time. It is very similar to the Hyde matchup, except she has more normals to match yours. Her 5B is almost a carbon copy of your 2B frame data-wise, except it's a mid. She doesn’t have as easy access to plus frames as Hyde’s 5[C], but she does have 214A. At certain farther spaces, 214A will be plus, so learn those spacings, and know when to mash and when to respect that move. Wagner’s 6B is also a very strong normal, almost, if not as good as Hyde’s, but you can also backdash it and punish it on whiff. Wagner can also extend her pressure with 22C, which provides her with both sword buff and shield buff. Sword buff, for pressure, did get considerably nerfed. If you shield the last hit of 236A correctly, you can always DP out of her next follow-up, preventing her from extending her pressure. There is some counterplay Wagner can do here, but it is risky for the Wagner, so it ends up being more in your favor than hers. Shield buff is still quite good though. A spaced and buffed 214X will pretty much always be plus, even if shielded, so respect this move after 22C. Overall, you will have to treat this like Hyde. Block and be patient and force the Wagner to go for strike/throw mixups, which provides you options to abare out. If you do get hit, Wagner gets massive reward. She does quite high damage in the corner, but midscreen, she can carry you all the way to the corner, and with meter, run her new powerful offense in CLR.
You will find against a strong Wagner, off any hit where they have meter, they will carry you to the corner and then VO you at the end of the combo. This gets rid of your vorpal state if you had it, but it also gives Wagner a ton of meter and a damage buff. Importantly, Wagner got a throw combo in CLR, and with conjunction of meter and VO, she can get very high damage off both ends of her strike/throw game. As such, after this happens, you will have to play a very scary mixup game where you have to either try to mash out and possibly get frame trapped and punished, take a throw and eat a large punish, or tech the throw with an OS and have that OS be baited and take a big punish. It’s a very dangerous RPS that can very easily lead to you dying, and there unfortunately isn’t a large amount Eltnum can do here. She can risk reversals, especially 421C, as this will give her a long enough combo to eat up Wagner’s vorpal time while also resetting the corner back to you. Of course, this has the inherent risk of tossing out a reversal. In the end, you will have to consider the risk/reward of each situation, be willing to commit to options, and accept that sometimes you will be wrong and lose.
Offense: Another standard offense game. Be mindful of her strong frame data as she can abare out of your pressure well. She doesn’t have much of an air game, so you don’t have to worry too much about preventing her from flying off like some characters like to do against Elt. She does have a very big and strong meterless DP, so do keep that in mind. Her A DP in particular is pretty strong. If you block it and she does j214C, that is +0, so don’t be afraid to contest with 5A as it will trade with her 5f 5A. Not the best situation, unfortunately, but it’s better than just letting her do what she wants.
Special note: Shield buff provides a guard point of [FF] and 214X/214[X]. It is important to learn to recognize when that guard point happens (the game will briefly pause), as you can cancel during that time. Primarily, you want to cancel into 421C, as this will invul through nearly all of the guard point frames and give you a full punish.
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Enkidu
Londrekia
Tsurugi
Kaguya
Kuon
Eltnum
Akatsuki
Akatsuki is an interesting matchup where each character has to play around each other in some interesting ways. It is a tough matchup on both sides in my experience.
Gameplan: Another standard neutral/offensive gameplan, although you should keep your eye out for some of Akatsuki’s stronger neutral options against Eltnum. Otherwise, be mindful of B tatsu, and keep your pressure tight.
Neutral: Neutral is interesting, in that there is a bit of a give and take between both characters. Akatsuki can toss fireballs full screen and you should either punish with 236C or shield these for GRD. Otherwise, he will just be dash blocking at you a lot to close in the distance and start his offense. You can mix between using your 236A and 2C to stop him from dashing in with normals, dashing up next to him and either throwing or tossing out your own normals to start your offense, or back off and make him whiff himself. You do have to be wary of assault as usual, although Akatsuki doesn’t have really great passive ways to stop 66B that it can be even more free to just toss that move out. Once Akatsuki gets closer, it can be scary as he has two great moves that can put the fear into Eltnum. The first is classic B tatsu. This is an amazing low crush, and given Elt’s low pokes being primarily 2B and 2C, can be a devastating tool for Aka to counterpoke. However, 214B is -4, and can be made -7 with proper shielding, which is an easy punish for Elt with 2B. As such, Aka’s will usually wait for meter or CS in order to use B tatsu, as they can cancel B tatsu into j236C for plus frames to keep themselves safe or use CS after the second hit of the move to try and fish for your green shield and keep their offensive going. The second is a new one in CLR: rising j6[C]. This is a pretty fast jump normal that hits all the way, acting as a pseudo-low crush and it can let him start his pressure even without meter.
Defense: Akatsuki pressure can be extremely scary. He has fantastic frame data, with his close normals being either +0 or just straight up plus. His dash is fast and can lead to very scary throw situations. His midscreen pressure is not that scary, as he can easily push himself out, so good patience here can be very rewarding, and you can contest with 236A better at midrange spacings. However, if he gets you in the corner, that’s where it starts to hurt. He will commonly do 66C 236A pressure, which can be very difficult to deal with, as it requires you to have good shielding and proper timing on what moves to shield and he can punish you if you do try to take your turn back. Remember, though, always shield fireballs for free grd! Even outside 66C 236A, he can just use his great frame data to run a strike/throw game that can be difficult to contest. He has good frame traps and has extremely high damage combos in the corner. When he does push himself out, it can still be quite scary to poke out because of the threat of B tatsu on the edge or outside of 2B’s range. 5B tends to be a much better poke than 2B in this matchup because it is a mid that hits in such a way that it tends to beat B tatsu. He will also sometimes do backdash -> redash pressure. It can feel tempting to try and counter this with something like 2C, but B tatsu’s strength is so scary that it’s sometimes better to just let his backdash redash pressure happen, focus on teching the throw, and not try to get too antsy under pressure. Patience, as usual, is the name of the game.
Also, keep your eye out on 214B vs 214A. Some Akatsukis will use the fact that you want to green shield 214B to abuse 214A. 214A is only one hit, and is negative, but if you’re looking for 214B and aren’t ready for 214A, they will continue to use 214A and use the delay that it takes for you to recognize the difference between the two moves to restart pressure. You can use what’s called fuzzy abare here to deal with this scenario. That is, when you see the first hit of 214X (whether or not it’s 214A or 214B), you press 5A. If it’s 214B, the next hits will be gapless, and you will continue to block. If it’s 214A, Akatsuki lands, and then you get out of blockstun and do 5A. If the Akatsuki tried to redash or press a button here after 214A, he would lose since he’s minus, while you stay safe against 214B! You can even practice it so that you recognize when 214B hits after, and can properly green shield it, being able to punish both options at once.
The next layer after their 214B is when they try to use j.236C or 236C to stay safe. Here, you usually won't get counterhit if you pressed a button, since the superflash will eat away your input. In case you’re using 2B as a punish, try pressing 1B instead so you can block in case they super.
Offense: Another standard offensive gameplan. Akatsuki’s buttons, while good for pressure, aren’t that great for abare. He doesn’t have great anti airs either, so assault pressure and jump man shenanigans can be strong against him. Do be careful that at farther out spaces, B tatsu can be a strong abare tool, so be mindful of your 2Bs and don’t forget about 5B. Some Akatsukis will use parry a lot, as it is only a 2 button input, so if you notice that, shorten your pressure sometimes and get a heavy combo on those parries to dissuade them from spamming that.
Roundstart: There’s no specific moves Akatsuki really has here that I want to comment on, you have a large advantage here. Use that from the start to get the ball rolling in your favor, and don’t let up.
Other notable mentions: Aka’s 214C has a significant amount of proyectile invul, so it can punish Elt’s 236X series, keep in mind your opponent’s level of reaction when you’re using 236X or 236[X] in neutral, or when you try to punish a fireball with 236C, as they can cancel a whiffed fireball into C tatsu.
Aka’s 22C can beat Elt’s 421C in a battle of reversals, but Elt’s 623C can win that battle. Choose your EX reversal accordingly to your opponent’s reactions and meter.
There’s a certain spacing in Aka’s corner pressure where you can challenge their 66C with a 5A after blocking (not shielding) a fireball, but in that spacing Aka can instead go for 2C for the frame trap and get a Counter Hit if you mashed. You should check that spacing in the training room in case your opponent is auto piloting into 236A 66C.
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