Vampire Savior/Aulbath/Strategy

Overview

Combos

Matchups

Strategy

Misc.

Data

Archive

Strategies

Neutral

Ground Game:

Offensive Approaches:

• Fish has a variety of ways he can approach. Most notably is through his low profile dash letting him move under projectiles and pokes and strike from a distance. Dashing LP gives good frame advantage and sets up a strike/throw mixup. Dashing LK is a low that is safer to guard cancels. Dashing MP is notorious for it’s good hitbox and 2 hits that can link to a light button on hit, but it is vulnerable to pushblocking and guard cancels. Dashing MK and HK are safe lows that can check your opponent. Dash HP sucks.

• Don’t forget about Fish’s walk though! Boasting the 3rd fastest walk speed on the ground, be content to go slow but steady, and wall your opponents with Fish’s ground buttons and anti-airs. You can save the dash when your opponent show’s an opening.

• Fish’s has a relatively average jump with 2 strong jump-ins in j.LK and j.MP. You can also use j.2HK to change your air trajectory; make sure it’s spaced properly to ensure it’s safe on block. J.HP can make certain anti-airs whiff since it pulls your hurtbox back a bit.

• Fish can also approach by spending meter on projectiles. ES Sonic takes up a good amount of Space and Fish can move behind it. However, it gets cancelled out by any single projectile and you have to take into account your opponents pushblocking it. Setting up a Bubble takes some time, but puts a large and slow moving threat on the screen.

• Lastly Fish can approach through his dark force. The hyper armor and flight can force your way in. However, some smart opponents can take advantage if this isn’t done in the right situation and hurt you easier than you can hurt them. More recommended for when you have a life lead to close out a round. Defensive Dark Force tends to be more useful for putting you out of the corner.

Defensive Space Control:

• Fish’s ability to control ground and air space with his buttons can also lend him to a defensive playstyle. j.MP is a particularly disruptive button can can function both as an air-to-air and air-to-ground. Jumping with j.MP whiff > j.HP is a staple Fish Tactic to wall opponents while building meter.

• Another staple of Fish’s space control is his projectiles. Learn the ranges of his gas and fire them into space for your opponents to move to into. ES Gas in particular is very fast for the range it covers (no dead zone in front either!), the reward on hit, and is active past the visual! LP and ES Sonic Waves recover fast and put a wall in front of Fish, they can also be good to stuff certain approaches. Using projectiles also builds significant meter.

Air Game

Air-to-air:

• Fish is blessed with several strong air-to-airs. j.LP, j.MK, and j.HK all have nice hitboxes. But j.HP is the star, able to hit opponents above and to the side easily. j.MP is still serviceable as well. The j.MP j.HP sequence mentioned earlier is also strong for its ability to option select air throws while holding a direction. Fish’s several air-to-airs also make air chaining really strong; make sure to recognize and practice this. After air chaining someone to the ground, you can go for a 5LP guard break!

Air-to-Ground:

• J.LK and j.MP are your primary go to air-to-ground options. The fact they chain together is a nice bonus, letting you j.LK from high up and still get a combo if it connects, as well as forcing opponents to one hit pushblock or face a potential mixup. Once this habit is ingrained at higher levels of play, you can make slight delays on your jump-ins to really mess with your opponent. An extra mention to j.2HK has a great hitbox and the air momentum change can mess with anti-airs.

Offense:

Frame Traps and Mixups:

• Fish has effective strike/throw and high/low mixups! However, strike/throw is unique in VSav due to fighting pushblock and his high/low doesn’t work on every character.

• Your main tools for frame trapping are your lights. 5LP lets you move forward and has great frame advantage, but doesn’t hit certain characters crouching. 2LP still boasts a great frame advantage and works on everyone. 2LK hits low, still has impressive frame advantage and by holding [1], will automatically bait many guard cancels. You can look to make your way back in from anticipated pushblocks by doing a dashing normal or jump (see the offensive approaches section). You can also cancel each of these lights into a sonic wave or gas to try to throw off pushblocks or blind mashes, but these can be beat by quick mid range moves from short crouchers. Finally, you can take advantage of the renda bonus on Aulbath’s lights for better pressure, most notably against Anakaris since he can’t pushblock you out!

• Fish’s regular throw is simple and effective. It still does full damage on tech (just with less frame advantage). P and K Command throws have the advantage of slipping through moves with their invinciblity. Use the P command throw closer to the corner and K when facing away for optimal positioning. At high level, you can utilize the option selects mentioned in the overview.

• Fish’s high/low game revolves around his strong 2LK and instant overhead j.LK. 2LK is already a great frame trap move that baits guard cancels and you can chain from; the threat of a quick overhead just makes it all the more dangerous. Your main 2 options for utilizing IOH j.LK are to chain into j.2HK for a 2 hit combo and repeat mixup situation on hit, or you can chain into a whiff j.MP and come down to the ground pressuring your opponent with that, which is safer (but not full proof) on block. One example of such a sequence is j.LK j.MP (whiff) then come down with j.LK j.MP (your best air to grounds, and it’s another chain). This mixup won’t work on Bee, 99% won’t work on Bulleta, Morrigan, or Lilith; and is difficult to use on Gallon (who gains a little height while in crouching proximity block). Jumping with 7, 8, or 9 can also make it easier or more difficult depending on Fish’s screen position and proximity to the opponent. Experiment!

Bubble Loops:

• Your end game, looping the bubble can either get you rounds in a dominating manner or score you huge comeback victories! Bubble loops are a forced RPS situation that heavily favors Fish in risk and reward.

• Your main sources of knockdown are from 2HK and throw. While there’s a few ways to sneak in a bubble, such as approaching behind one, a 5MK cancel, or bullying in dark force, we’re going to talk about corner setups from situations you have the most advantage. Refer to the combos per character in the combo section.

• Vs short rollers, you can keep the mixup pretty simple; meaty or slight delay 5MP or 2MK. The 2 hits on both these moves usually ensure enough block/hitstun to capture an opponent. 5MP you can step forward briefly first and is a frame faster while 2MK has a bit more range and hits low, making it hard for your opponent to input a guard cancel. A meaty ensure your opponent can’t activate darkforce or jump on wake up, while delaying it will mess with opponents looking for a pushblock. Be ready with a charge to gas them in the bubble and loop!

• It gets a little trickier when your opponent is out of 2MK range, due to starting the loop a bit outside the corner or having to play against a character who rolls out further. You can look to intercept jumpers as well as flying dark forces with fish’s air-to-air chains. If you don’t want to risk being anti-aired, you can take a step forward to wait or dash at them with a button. If you have meter to dump, you can throw out a pillar in front of them to restrict their movement. Remember that your opponent NEEDS to do something, or else they will get looped. If you think you messed up the spacing vs long rollers, sometimes you can a step or 2 backwards as they roll to capture them (necessary to loop Felicia if she rolls).

• When you have all the meter, you can eliminate the guessing game with meaty bubbles! Instead of your usual gas combo, do a pillar and combo gas into it for a unique knockdown animation. This animation is a true, unrollable, hard knockdown. Jump forward immediately after the gas hits and set another bubble!

• If you find yourself in Dark Force, you can set the bubble at heights that are perfect for your matchup.

Defense:

Pushblock:

• Very handy to get people off of you! General applications aside, you can try to take advantage of a pushblock in 2 primary ways. You can pushblock then look to punish by dashing immediately afterward and to punish or catch an opponent off guard. Or to create space vs characters that deal with the pushback well, you can pushblock to reduce blockstun and then throw out another option (ES Sonic, ES Gas, or Dark Force can be useful in various situations, but sometimes it’s enough to pushblock then jump to air-to-air or throw out 5LP/5LK to defeat hoppers).

Dark Force:

• A great way to turn the tide! Since it always puts Fish in a specific part of the screen, it can be used to escape the corner every time! The invincibility can also be used to punish opponents who overcommit with a chain combo. Refer to its own section for more on the properties.

Guard Cancel:

• Sucks in most situations. Not recommend until you really know for sure what you’re doing.