General Tactics
Neutral
Generally speaking, Hakumen excels the most at the mid-range (match start range); all of his best normal moves cover this range and confirming off any of them can instantly earn you a quick knockdown. Use Zanshin to punish any predictable patterns that you may have picked up on and to disrupt gaps in your opponent’s offense. The longer you can keep your opponent at bay, the more meter you can build up to really lay on the hurt.
Ground-to-Ground
- 4C is probably the best normal to start out a match; its fast and not many moves can punish it at that range.
- 2A: Has a decent range and is plus on block, but is mainly used in closer distances.
- 2B is fast and good for punishing ground approach, but it has quite a bit of recovery so make sure to cancel it into a special move should you confirm it either on hit or block.
- 3C sweeps the opponent and instantly grants Hakumen knockdown, and due to its fast startup can stuff a lot of ground approach and poorly timed pressure. On Counter Hit, you can perform all sorts of combos that have respectable damage due to it being a good starter. It has even more recovery than 2B however, and cannot be cancelled into anything on hit or block, so be sure to properly space this normal so you aren’t punished.
- 6C covers a large amount of space in front of Hakumen, both on ground and air approaches. However, it is cancellable into Distortion Drives on hit or block. You can get 4.5k on hit tho when cancelled into Shippu.
- Kishuu (623A) can be used to cover a decent amount of space and instantly close the grab to the opponent due to its Head and Body invulnerability. It can also be cancelled into Renka or Zantetsu for an even more ambiguous approach.
Air-to-Ground
- Agito (j.214A): An excellent tool for approaching by air. Its fast, recovers fast enough to make it safe, even on whiff and can actually beat a lot Anti-air attempts by the opponent due having Body, Foot, and Projectile properties. On CH, you can do j.B>5C>Zantetsu for even more damage.
- J.B: Good tool for jumping in and can be cancelled into j.A on block. It has crossup properties due to a hitbox in back of the move animation.
- J.2C: Large amount of range covered under Hakumen and is very good when used close to the ground. It’s very easy to Anti Air however, so don’t abuse it.
Air-to-Air
- J.C is a good air-to-air option and for keeping your opponent off of you due to its blow back effect. Near the corner, it wall splats and on Counter Hit, can lead to a combo depending on how much meter you have.
- J.A: Is fast and can be used for air TRM setups by cancelling into throw.
- J.2A: Has a lot of active frames and is very fast at 12f. It’s also a good tool for approach if you’re fighting a character who specializes in projectile zoning by getting Fumajin.
Anti-Airs
- 5A: Decent vertical reach, it's one of the rare 5-frame 5A and is air unblockable without barrier.
- 6A: It has 13 frames of startup, and its head invincible from frame 5, but it has an unreliable hitbox. It pushes Hakumen, so some cross-ups may whiff. Comboing after it is unstable as well, since it only cancels into 6B and 6B whiffs if the opponent is too high. On CH and high enough, 6A CH > Guren and 6A CH > Kishuu > 2C works, but it requires anticipation.
- 2C: It's as fast as 6A, but it doesn't have any invincibility. Even though, it has a great hitbox and leads to more powerful combos than 6A, it suffers from a colossal recovery on whiff (On block, its special cancellable). As such, it's hardly ever used and almost solely on hard read.
- 5C: Another hard read kind of anti-air, since its one frame slower than 2C. The recovery isn't as huge and it's easier to combo after it for a higher reward. Due to its hitbox, it may also hit an opponent trying to cross-up with a low air-dash.
Offense
Hakumen’s offense is very situational, ranging from subpar to strong depending on how much magatama he has. More meter opens up loads of options for him to choose from in terms of mixup and frametraps, it is important to know which moves to use when pressing the offense so you’re not blindly wasting meter. His okizeme options are also fairly limited, but are good at discouraging the opponent not to roll on wake up.
Mixup
Hakumen possess extremely fast overheads in 6B and TK/Hop Tsubaki (2147C, 66214C respectively), the former is 18f and causes hard knockdown and is an excellent combo starter on counter hit. The latter might take some time to master due to how fast they need to be inputed, but Tsubaki is excellent as an Instant Overhead option that not many opponents can react to. Like 6B, its only comboable on a counter hit and still hard to link despite that, but it does a raw 2800 damage.
- 2A>2B and 2A>6B: Basic meterless high and low mixup, 2A is +1 so the opponent will get hit unless they instant block the 2A. You can also add additional 2A before the 2B/6B to keep the opponent guessing.
- 2A> (delay) Throw: Another mixup using 2A’s frame advantage. This will trick the opponent into pressing a button and then you grab them out the startup of their move.
- 5B/2B/5C/2C>Renka/Zantetsu: Another high-low mixup that uses meter, be wary however as Zantetsu has a rather obvious animation and a relatively slow startup which makes it easily reactable, so don’t get predictable with it. Renka is faster, so the opponent won’t be able to react as much.
- 5A/5B>Renka/Tsubaki: Same mixup as the above but replacing Zantetsu with Tsubaki. Can only be used off of 5A & 5B due to their jump cancels. This mixup however is far more ambiguous and harder to react to.
- 5B>IAD Agito: Crossup setup, Agito can only be combo’d on counter hit however.
Frame Traps
Because Hakumen can late cancel most of his moves together, this makes them great for catching opponents who like to mash buttons when you’re pressuring them.
- 2A> (delay) 2B: Basic Frame trap, you can also cancel 2B into 2A as well, but only once per string.
- 5B/2B/2C/5C> (delay) Guren: Gapless string that is easy to cause the opponent to mash if you delay the guren. Be aware, it will lose to mashing if 2B or 5B are instant blocked.
- Guren: Is +1 on block, which is good for resetting pressure. However, any move will that’s 6 frames or less will beat whatever options you do after.
- Renka: Can be late cancelled to beat fuzzy jump attempts, and is +1 to reset pressure as well.
Okizeme
As mentioned prior, Hakumen’s oki is pretty weak as he doesn’t really have any options to keep the opponent locked down after knockdown. However, he can cover a few defensive options and should be learned.
- Midscreen oki: The most standard oki for here is hop, and then meaty 2B. 2B has a lot of active frames, so will catch a lot of opponents if they try to roll forward or backward and you can pick them up for an additional combo. This will lose to most reversals and a delayed neutral tech.
- Corner oki: Your main oki here will be off j.C>5C. You technically have three variations that you can use. J.C,5C, 5C>214A, 5C, 3C will net you more damage but your only option is meaty 2B, which only catches forward rolls. Your options include j.C, 5C, 5C>Guren, 5C, 5C. The last 5C will whiff if the opponent emergency or neutral techs, but you’ll have enough time to throw out 2A/2B/Barrier block to catch rolls, but tends to lose to reversals as well. A stronger version of the last option is replacing “5C>Guren” with “6A>6B”, which will you put you in throw range on your opponent’s wake up for another ambiguous option.
- An additional option is off an air knockdown (i.e. j.B>j.2A>Agito). By using j.2C on your way to the ground and cancelling into barrier, you can utilize a safe jump. Use it to catch forward rolls or extremely long delay techs, and to bait reversals.
Punishes
Hakumen possess some of the highest damage output of the roster, which makes punishing a vulnerable opponent very practical. In fact, he can defeat an opponent very quickly before they get their burst stock back off of a good combo starter. Combined with his Overdrive, punishes can be the best way for Hakumen to turn a match in his favor. It’s important to know when to punish the opponent and what moves to use.
- 5C: Most common punishing starter. What you cancel into depends entirely on how much meter you have, if the opponent is standing or not, and if it’s a counter hit.
- Standing no CH: 5C>Guren>Zantetsu>…
- CH, anti-air, or crouching: 5C>Zantetsu>…
- Standing non-CH, OD stock: 5C (ODc)>2C>Guren>Zantetsu>…
- Crouching or CH, OD stock: 5C (ODc)>Zantetsu>…
- 3C: Is very fast, which makes ideal for punishing unsafe moves, but are too far for 5C to reach.
- Most common punish is “3C CH, 2B>214B>…” (Note, this doesn’t work on Amane, Azrael, Kagura, Mu, or Valkenhayn due to their air hitboxes)
- If your back is to the corner, you can do “CH 3C>2B>Renka(1)>Kishuu>…” for a quick side swap combo.
- 6C: Hakumen’s best starter, but at 20f uncharged, it’s not very fast and most opponents will recover before it hits them. This is probably the least likely punish you’ll use, so only use it if your confident it will hit. It has FC properties, so FC 6C, 5C>Zantetsu will work as well as FC 6C, Guren, 6A.
Defense
Defense is arguably one of the most important aspects of learning Hakumen, his movement is limited and some of his better neutral pokes have a lot recovery, so sometimes the best solution is to just block and wait for a chance to counter attack. Fortunately, Hakumen has very good defensive tools to do just that.
Zanshin
5D/2D/6D/j.D will have Hakumen deploy a shield in front him and if the opponent’s move connects, Hakumen will initiate a command grab motion and perform a counter attack. Additionally, after a successful catch, you can cancel into any of Hakumen’s specials or Distortion Drives by inputting the respective move before the follow up animation, however the opponent can move if you do this and turn the tables. Unfortunately, Zanshin is much weaker than in previous versions of Blazblue as they can be blocked and the follow up animation will not activate on projectiles. Still, Zanshin is an excellent tool. Lastly, a common habit that most new Hakumen players fall into is relying on Zanshin instead of just blocking; Zanshin is a good tool, but is not a substitute for good blocking skills; Zanshin is vulnerable to throws and the recovery will leave you exposed, so try to understand when is a good time to use it. A tool is only as good as its wielder after all.
Each version of Zanshin have properties, but all function the same generally. Specific use for each:
- 5D: 6f startup and can be held to increase its active frames, at the cost of having more recovery. A good move to catch most air approaches. You can also use it to play mind games with your opponent due to it’s longer than average active frame window when held. It catches moves with a Head and Body attribute, but will lose to moves with a Foot attribute.
- 2D: This along with j.D having the fastest startup, at 1f. But this comes at the cost of the move having a lot of recovery if not activated. Newer players will probably struggle using 2D at first, it can be extremely hard to time and doesn’t have as large an active frame window as 5D. However, mastering it and it becomes one of Hakumen’s best tools for disrupting opponent’s pressure due to its speed and catching an opponent’s meaty attempts. It catches Low and Body moves, but loses to moves with a Head property.
- 6D: Probably the least used counter Hakumen has. It’s too slow to be of any use as the opponent will probably hit before it becomes active. Still, it’s the only counter you can actually follow up with a combo. Overall tho, all of his other counters are better, so there’s no reason to use this move beyond just being gimmicky.
- J.D: Airborne counter. Move has a minimum height of when it comes out, and Hakumen is vulnerable all of the way until he hits the ground if it whiffs. Can be used to catch air-to-air moves however. You can also use it as a 1f reversal for overheads, but this highly risky.
- Yukikaze: Distortion Drive version of Zanshin basically. Unlike Zanshin however, it’s completely unblockable and safe even if it whiffs as Hakumen is invulnerable for the entire duration of the move if it activates. It’s also as fast as 2D and j.D at one frame. It catches moves of every property: Head, Body, Foot, and Projectile and does a very respectable amount of damage (3800).
Additional Defensive options include:
- Hotaru: A full invulnerable upward kick, and the closest thing he has to a DP. Good reversal, but has to be TK to get the best of it. It also has a minimum height and won’t catch crouching opponents. However, it is jump cancellable on block, so you make it safe if it doesn’t whiff at least. Can also be used as a good anti air due to being air unblockable.
- TK Tsubaki: Can be used as a hard read if you’re anticipating a grab, but is not invul and will lose to most meaty attempts.
Tips and Tricks