Under Night In-Birth/UNIST/Nanase/Strategy

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Introduction

Nanase's strategy will vary wildly depending on the matchup and whether or not she has meter and/or Vorpal on hand. Her general gameplan is to use projectiles to cover her approach and get in, while reacting to the predictable responses to her bullets. Once she is in, Nanase wants to remain on offence for as long as possible. This means a lot of low-risk mixups, regaining frame advantage through the use of her projectiles, and a priority on proper oki and rushdown without ever giving her opponent any room to breathe. Without resources, she is limited in what she can do, but can take bigger risks at greater rewards when meter is on hand. Vorpal is crucial to Nanase, as it allows her to run a number of mixups, frame traps and crossups she normally wouldn't be able to do, or wouldn't get much out of. However, in matchups where using her projectiles in neutral is harder or impossible, she will struggle to mount an offensive, and will have to rely solely on her basic tools to close the gap. She has a pretty good dash and reasonable range, as well as a long range dash attack special that keeps opponents on their toes, but otherwise isn't stellar by herself. She requires a good deal of patience and work to get in, but works well once she gets there.

Neutral

  • In matchups where you can make liberal use of j.236A/B in neutral (Seth, Akatsuki, Hyde, Chaos, Nanase, Byakuya), you will want to do so as soon as possible. The slow startup on j.236B can be a blessing as you can either dash in front of it towards your opponent, or stay behind and use it as cover. Your opponent will have to react to it, likely by jumping over it. An assault attack over the bullet is a predictable response which you can shield and punish. If they jump and air assault over, you can DP their approach for free or 214C and make them regret it. When they are scared into just blocking it is when you take advantage of their passivity to either dash ahead of your bullet and grab, or throw a j.236A and go in for a mixup.


  • In matchups where you can use j.236A/B but with caution (Gordeau, Orie, Eltnum, Waldstein, Linne, Carmine, Yuzuriha), you'll have to be very careful of long range moves that can tag you out of j.236B. Make sure to TK it (or do it higher than Divine Thrust's height in Orie's case), or you will be punished on reaction. You should be fine at fullscreen, but not in mid-range. They also have the option of hitting you as you approach with your cover, so you'll have to extra wary. If you can't get the distance needed to lay down cover safely, don't even risk it, just go in without. You'll have to be patient and do a lot of dash blocking. If you have the life lead and they are the ones approaching you from range, they likely won't be looking out for j.236B as much, and might fall for random 236B attacks, as it covers a ton of ground very quickly when they are moving at you. Make sure to have meter or Vorpal on hand in case they block it though. And whatever you do, don't try to use 236B as a gap closer when you're being zoned out, it will not work.


  • In matchups where you simply cannot use projectiles at all (Vatista, Hilda, Merkava), you will have to make do without. Inch your way forward by dashing and blocking, take every opportunity to close the gap and don't rush headlong into hitboxes. 214C might seem like a free "get in" button, and in some cases that will work, but it is not invincible, and the range, while certainly large, is not quite fullscreen and you might fall short or just leap into hitboxes.


Offence

Nanase's offence varies depending on her available resources and her opponent's options. The basis of her pressure is the use of Float (FF) and jump attacks to regain frame advantage while doing stagger pressure and mixups, tempting your opponent to hit buttons to stop you from doing that, and punishing them for it. If you use FF into a TK j.236A, this will put you at a good advantage if it is blocked. You can then go either into a 66B/C mixup, an assault, a grab, or just dash in and resume pressure.


Staggers: Nanase has fairly generous cancel windows on her normals. Staggering her normals is a good way to scare your opponent into doing anything during pressure. This is important as you do not want to deal with someone who's ready to hit you out of FF. In addition to her normals, Nanase can delay cancels on her dash attacks, which are already barely minus (if well spaced for 66B's case). If you cancel into 214A/B you can again delay or even omit the followup dive. All this put together leads to a guessing game for your opponent over whether or not you're going to follow through and risk hitting you out of staggers, or simply block and deal with the next mixup.


Force Function: This is an important tool for Nanase's offence. Being able to cancel any normal into a jump gives you several options during pressure.

  • j.236A: The most common option after FF. TKing j.236A will put you at a strong frame advantage and let you run a variety of mixups. You can be hit out of the startup though, so try to use it at unexpected times, such as when you still are somewhat close to them, or have normals left in your chain. If you push yourself to where only 2C/5C will reach, your opponent might expect it and react in time.
  • j.236B: If you FF cancel very close, you can drop a j.236B and grab them after landing. This works better in the corner, but if they are being respectful midscreen, you can try it as well. It does leave a pretty big gap though, so don't do this too often.
  • Air Assault: This opens up a few options for you, but most of them carry the risk of being shielded. If your opponent has a tendency to shield, you can either do an empty assault into grab to GRD break them, j.236A over them to make it whiff and grab them on landing, j.236B on top of them to remain + even on shield block, or take the risk of being shielded and j.2C. If you do the latter, do it early to try and make them green shield, do NOT go into a second air attack or do it late to make it combo; it will not work.

Crossups: Nanase has several options to do crossups and fake crossups. Most of them do not work well without meter or CS to capitalize off of hits or make them safe on block. If you don't have any resources at hand, it might be better to simply avoid these until you do.

  • 214B: This move by itself is a crossup, though not a very good one. They have to switch their block to stop the dive, and it works well enough against impatient opponents. use occasionally, and keep meter on hand to make it safe.
  • 214A: With Vorpal, you have the option to CS this move right after launching off the ground. This will put you on top of them, pulling them back towards you in a blocking state while you have access to all your air options, including jump attack, float crossups, projectiles, etc. The animation of 214A also can make it hard to see what you're doing.
  • j.B: Since Nanase's j.B hits below and behind her, you can jump over people and hit them from behind with j.B. This will not crossup thanks to the game's crossup protection mechanics, but Nanase can get around that by canceling j.B into Float, after which your opponent has to adjust his block since it resets Nanase's direction. You can then run a variety of mixups, such as:

j.B > FF > j.BB : Crossup + Double overhead

j.B > FF > j.B > j.236A (whiff) > Grab : Works well on the shorter characters.

j.B > FF > j.236B : Shield safe way to retain advantage, but not terribly hard to block

j.B > j.236B : Fake crossup. Very tricky due to the momentum stop of j.236B; it will stop you in the air and throw a bullet down, while your opponent is pushed back in front of you due to pushback from blocking j.B. It looks like a crossup is coming, but if they shift their block, they will get hit by the wind for a full combo. If they block, you are still at an advantage.

j.B > j.A (whiff) > Grab : for the green shield happy opponents.




66B/C: Nanase's dash attacks have identical startup animations, but while B is a low and slightly faster to come out, C is an overhead.


  • 66B: This move can become + if it spaced or timed so that it hits during the last active frames. You will usually want to cancel it either into FF or 214A/B on block, or 236A on hit. Throw this out from time to time as oki against opponents if they start to block high on wakeup by default from eating too many of Nanase's many overheads.
  • 66C: Overhead, -2 on block, tons of hitstun/blockstun which gives you plenty of time to confirm a hit. Definitely a strong option to go for when you have them block projectile oki, or on their wakeup. Midscreen, after confirming that it was blocked, you can either delay a 214A to catch them pushing buttons, go for 236A~6B for a second overhead (only if you have vorpal) or FF cancel it. In the corner, you can immediately cancel 66C into FF TK j.236B for a combo on hit; if it's instead blocked, you can grab them while the j.236B threatens them an inch away from them or just sit tight and wait for them to block it before going back in.


236A~6B: Be wary of using this without meter or Vorpal to make it safe. Make sure the initial 236A whiffs and cancel it as fast as possible, as it's much easier to react to if they block the first hit. It's not an amazing overhead, but its presence is enough to keep opponents on their toes. With Vorpal however, it becomes a much better tool; you can CS the overhead in the air to confirm a hit, and if it was blocked, you can instead Float for more overhead mixups, or land and go for something else. Something to throw out once in a while to keep your opponent awake, but do not rely on it too much. It is very easy to get predictable with this move.


214C: This is what you want to throw out any time you use a move that is unsafe on block or uncomboable on hit. In the corner, it is much better as you can combo out of it with ease, and since it puts you right next to them, the +3 advantage lets you continue your pressure on block rather than just be safe at a distance.


GRD break: Fighting a GRD broken opponent is a huge boon for Nanase. Since shield is no longer a threat, she can run her crossups, overheads and air assault mixups with total abandon. For example, against a cornered opponent, you could do TK j.6D > j.[C] > j.B > j.2C > FF > j.[C] > j.B > j.2C, etc. If you successfully bait a shield or land a Veil Off, make the best of this opportunity.


Defence

Nanase does not have amazing options on defence. While she has a DP, its range is pretty short and it can be spaced out. Your best buttons to poke out are average at best; either lacking in speed or length, so proper blocking, usage of shield and backdashing can be preferable. Her backdash isn't the best, but it's decent.


623B: Nanase's DP has terrible horizontal range, making it easy to space out. It is still a DP though, and anyone who extends a hurtbox or jumps at you can be made to think twice about it. While it doesn't have very good range on the ground, it does reach pretty high vertically and hits around her, so anyone jumping at you or over you, with an air assault for example, is vulnerable to it. If you have Vorpal, you can get tremendous damage off your DP with CS, making it a noteworthy threat for your opponent.


3C: The hitbox on this move is pretty good, and it has head invulnerability a few frames in, so you can use it do deal with obvious assaults, jump-ins or throw OS (3C~AD).


214C: This move is amazing at stopping air approaches. It is quick on startup and has a gigantic hitbox reaching all the way to the top of the screen. Some characters like Byakuya and Waldstein have a tendency to air assault to move in, protected by their big jump attack hitboxes, but this move will put a stop to that. Note that Nanase flies forward in the air alongside this move, and it is not invulnerable, so it can't be used to beat air projectiles like Linne's Kuuga or Merkava fireballs. Still, it is a strong option, and while it is air blockable, it is also advantageous on block, so if the positioning is right, you can anti-air them on landing with 5A or 3C while they are still stuck in the air blocking.


Force Function: It should be noted that Nanase can air block after using Float, and you can use Float from an assault, making it possible to block after a grounded or air assault while stopping and controlling your movement. Not terribly important, but it can be used to avoid some moves like IWEXS, or if you just want to go back on a badly timed approach.


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Characters
Hyde
Linne
Waldstein
Carmine
Orie
Gordeau
Merkava
Vatista
Seth
Yuzuriha
Hilda
Chaos
Nanase
Byakuya
Phonon
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