Cool ground-based versatile character that's both A tier and S tier at the same time.
Story
Unique Trait/Health
Eltnum has two unique traits. The first is whiff cancellable lights in vorpal. The second is her Bullet gauge.
If you look under Eltnums health you'll see a unique meter that displays twelve bullets and a horizontal meter underneath that with a white section. She can have up to 12 bullets at a time, that are consumed by 236x and 22A/B. Once you are out of bullets you need to manually reload with 22C before you can shoot any more, this is where that second bar with the white zone comes into play, after you initiate the reload you must hit a button to confirm the reload. If you confirm while it's in the white area you will be rewarded with a special reload (indicated by shiny/pulsing bullets) instead of regular ones.
Health: 9,400
Overview
Eltnum can play at all ranges, both offensively and defensively, with the best option varying depending on the matchup. This only stays true as long as things stay grounded, as she has mediocre air options and a weak anti-air game. Despite having a lot of options, they are all situational and inconsistent, so she relies a lot on anti-air shields and suffers against multi-hits aerials and air specials that ignore it. She can also be meter hungry for confirms and her amazing 421C so managing GRD and screen control is important to keep her fed.
Offense
Eltnum will rarely get in on her opponent directly, she'll either wait for them to come to her or use a knockdown earned from mid to long range. She has forward momemntum and extremely long cancel windows on most of her normals giving her amazing stagger pressure, but using 5A, 2A and throw will often be good enough especially in matchups where the frame disadvantage on her moves is an issue. 22A and 236A can work as anything, from frametrap to safe/plus (why) true blockstring pressure enders.
Defense
While mediocre for offense her movement options work for defense. Strong neutral jump at mid range, great backdash that puts her in the air making it harder to punish and a fast run to crossunder and cut the distance when interrupting. When pressured 5A, 2B and 623B are strong meterless post-shield options. With meter 421C works for everything and flips the risk-reward of defense in her favor.
Move List
L = Low, H = High, UNB = Unblockable, CS = Chain Shift
Fast 5F jab with solid range and height, great for interrupting, punishing, starting pressure, using the auto combo string and threatening throws. In Vorpal, you can whiff cancel into normals, specials and supers. On block, hold up and press it again to cancel it into itself, not as useful as with Orie but still worth knowing.
A slower low-hitting kick. Outside its obvious uses it's used to reduce the recovery of certain moves (2C etc) through rebeat to make them safer as its animation is less obvious and 5A is more useful in pressure. In Vorpal, you can whiff cancel into normals, specials and supers.
The one that makes people angry. Strong forward movement, low profile, long cancel window, low, goes into big damage, its main disadvantage is being weak to high-profile moves and its high frame disadvantage on block.
Awkward move. Can be cancelled into as a frametrap when far, and has some canned situation with 5CC but nothing reliable, not even combo routes from it.
5C with more priority which shouldn't affect many situations, but makes the connection into 5CC almost airtight. As it's a charge move playing with half-charges can add to your pressure.
Two hits low sweep. First hit can be cancelled on hit but not on block. Two hits means easy to shield, and at -8 it is very risky to use without having lights to reverse beat into. As a poke it can be jumped over but the range, low hit and ease of confirming makes it a great.
Panic kick used for its speed and downard range in misread situations. Works as an instant jump move on bigger characters which allows Eltnum to go over reversals and other moves but on block the situation becomes awkward.
Same hitbox as j.C, pops Eltnum back up which can be used as a last effort attempt to safe yourself from doom. Landing during the charge allows for a j.C/j.[C] whiff>2A empty jump mixup. Would have worked as a great command grab super punish if it wasn't for the damage nerf on rising moves when the opponent is down-backing, even during recovery.
Overhead kick. Moves forward and has all kind of weird interactions with lower-hitting moves. Cancelling into 22A/enhanched 236A makes it a very safe mixup option.
This is your overhead, only a bit slower. This is mostly a combo utility unless your opponent is really bad at dealing with delay in strings. Cancellable into normals on block but too slow for this to be practical.
Follow up to 5C, Eltnum pulls her whip back. It is a little slow and jumpable, but if you make your opponent block this, you'll be at a frame advantage and reel them towards you. Cancel into 214X or 2C instead if they start jumping whenever they see 5C, but don't rely on either.
A swing that launches, jump cancel can be buffered very early by holding 8 while the move is coming out, allows a double jump on hit. Despite having anti-air invul, it is terrible at acting as one due to the range, lacking active frames and forward movement making a bunch of jump-ins go over. More useful to catch jumpouts and other options Eltnum's kit of low-hitting moves isn't suited for.
An rising attack followed by an overhead dive kick. Also unsafe but the angle of the rising attack is one of Eltnum's weakspots so it finds its niche in stopping jumps from characters like Waldstein. Be careful to not input it too early in long combos as you can end up being minus or even punisable after the reload, if they wake up with grab they could even beat your meaty at 0.
Fast run, starts instantly and seemingly low to the ground. If you crossunder, holding it will automatically block crossups. Get the habit of buffering it during blockstun to interrupt and punish.
Second shortest duration tier at 25f, with 8f of invuls and is airborne, one of the better "dodge" type backdashes. Remember that wakeup backdash has the same GRD cost as backtech so avoid using both.
Sion attacks diagonally with her whip for two hits. Looks like an anti-air, but it's not. Mostly combo fodder. You can cancel it with an air EX move. but not normal specials.
A farther reaching version of her force function. Becomes a single hit. Acts as a projectile so it can add damage if cancelled into supers and on chain shift can act as a safe meaty. Has enough frame advantage on CS to land a safe 6B if you REALLY want to make Vatista lose her charge.
Universal reversal. Invincible from start-up until the first active frame. Not throw invincible. You can delay the start-up until the 69th frame, but there's no real incentive to do so outside of thwarting meaty attacks.
Projectile poke. +1 on block with purple bullets how is this allowed. Confirm air-blocked bullets into 214C or 421C to remind your opponent jumping back is not smart. Goes great with dash specials (23B~6A to get 236A with dash momentum from neutral).
3 shots and has more range. If you have purple or enchanted bullets available, the frame advantage becomes -2. Not as good, gives you more time to confirm and can punish single projectiles if you're out of meter to use 236A instead but that's about it.
Shoots 5 shots at the opponent's feet. Super plus on block but has considerable amount of pushback. The last hit hits farther, taking a cue from Vatista.
There is a small frame and a white bar under Sion's bullet stock. Should you press A, B, or C to match the white bar, it will allow Sion to load a stronger set of bullets. Sion's reinforced bullets glow in the bullet meter and have improved abilities.
Looks like a dp, is. Doesn't appear to have anti-air invul so not a great anti-air against moves with a lot of priority. Can chain shift on hit but can only only be followed up if it's a counter. The follow up is different depending on if you landed the first hit or not.
Very fast dp. Good for when you need the speed (punishing empty jumps or otherwise safe moves) and combo enders for extra damage. As a reversal 421C has more invulnerability, goes farther and can be followed up without resources.
Sion lays some etherlite to trip up the opponent. The A version is a low and if spaced properly is tough to punish on block but you are at a frame disadvantage. Catches people trying to stand at the end of blockstrings. Hitgrab so also useful to win trades and go through projectiles. Raw hit can be followed up with an instant dash 2B against most of the cast, difficulty varies with hurtboxes.
Confirm any awkward situation at the cost of 100 meter and slightly worse combo potential. It leaves the opponent in a standing position so you can follow up with a combo or go for a reset. Don't go for the second though.
Command dash. The A version makes her duck and move forward. Sion can go through her opponent with this. You could avoid some moves this way but it has no practical uses.
The B version makes her kick straight up after the dash. You can cancel into specials on block but it's too slow for pressure. Has uses as a low profile counterpoke in some matchups like against Orie's thrusts.
BEST MOVE Fast horizontal reversal with enough invulnerability frames to beat most other reversals and go through the others safely. This would have been enough to make it great but it's also possible to follow it up without any resources, making Eltnum's defense extremely dangerous the moment she gets 100 meter. Knowing when to use it can make you win matches on defense alone. It is however vulnerable to throws during startup, making it perfectly balanced.
