GGML/Baiken

	Defense
	110%Raw Value: 11
	Jump Startup
	4f
	Backdash
	22f
	Meter Gain Mod
	110%Raw Value: 11
	Charge Time
	50f
	Forward Walk Speed
	100%Raw Value: 768
	Backward Walk Speed
	96%Raw Value: 563
	Dizzy Resistance
	100%Raw Value: 30
	Fastest Attack
	c.SGuardAllStartup4Recovery15Advantage-9 (4F)
	Reversals
	None

Overview

Starter Guide

Combos

Baiken is one of the 3 unlockable boss characters in Missing Link, and holds the esteemed position of being the secret boss. However, unlike an Akuma or Nightmare Geese, she's a very typical character, or at least typical for Missing Link.

Baiken is rather dry compared to her later incarnations - her main notable areas are that she has a set of solid buttons which, while not blisteringlyGuardMidStartup6Recovery24Advantage-7 fastGuardAllStartup5Recovery20Advantage-15, are mostly fully disjointed, big, and can flexibly convert into an infinite. She also has the best version of air tatami she's ever had with no recovery and no limit to how many can be on screen, allowing her to make literal walls of tatamis. She's also able to timer scam & air stall with Youzansen indefinitely, though this is a gimmick against most characters.

While her neutral is solid, the holes in her kit become apparent quickly. She lacks any effective means to mixup opponents, only having a slow overhead which makes her minus (but unpunishable) on hit, and none of her moves besides super (which is unblockable in general) are air unblockable, making it hard for her to mount a comeback. On top of that, characters with superior movement and neutral control, particularly the top 4, can give her a lot of issues. Still, Baiken can sit on a life lead well and control obnoxious amounts of space.

Baiken

Baiken controls neutral with air tatamis and disjointed pokes along with a situational timer scam strategy.

Pros

Cons

Youzansen Stall: Baiken can stall off of the top of the screen using Youzansen, making it difficult for opponents to hit her if she has a life lead.
Disjointed Normals: Almost all of Baiken's normals are disjoints, making her harder to counter poke.
Air Tatami: Air Tatami is just as good at controlling space as it always is, only there's no limit to how many she can put on screen. This allows her to wall out opponents with ease.
Unblockable Super: While it has flaws, her super is completely unblockable, meaning if she's in a round ending position a block string into it has few counters.

Weak Anti-Air: While attacks like 2H are solid anti-airs, none are air unblockable, making it hard for her to deal with chicken blocking and air footsies. She also lacks the otherwise-universal air unblockable option of Dash Attack to even situationally threaten an airborne opponent.
Bad Comeback Potential: Baiken lacks tools to mix up the opponent having a weak overhead, mediocre throw, and the worst IK in the game. Combined with the aforementioned weak anti-air, its hard for her to make a comeback.
Backdash Vuln: Unlike other characters—whose backdashes are fully invulnerable—Baiken's backdash is not invulnerable.

Normals

Damage

A quantification of how a character's health bar is reduced when they are hit.

Guard

The act of defending against incoming attacks. Guarding either negates the damage from an attack entirely or reduces it to minor chip damage.

Low: Guarded against while crouching
Mid: Guarded against in either the crouching or standing state, but not while airborne
High: Guarded against in the standing state
All: Guarded against while crouching, standing, or while airborne
Throw: Cannot be guarded against, but only applies to grounded opponents
Unblockable: Cannot be guarded against

Startup: The time before an attack is active including the first active frame. For example, an attack with 10F startup means the attack will do nothing for 9 frames, then hit the opponent on the 10th frame.
Active: The active frames of an attack refers to the amount of time an attack can hit the opponent.
Recovery: The recovery of an attack refers to the amount of time an attacker must wait before they may perform another action, even blocking.
On-Block: A measure of frame advantage when the opponent blocks an attack. Positive values indicate that the attacker can act first. Negative values indicate that the defender can act first.
On-Hit: A measure of frame advantage when the opponent is hit by an attack. Positive values indicate that the attacker can act first. Negative values indicate that the defender can act first.
Invuln: Short for InvulnerabilityA state where a character cannot be hit. A common component of reversal moves.

5P

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
4	All	6	4	9	-5	+2	none

Disjointed punch button. Not that fast and isn't a great poke either.

5K

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
9	Low	7	3	14	-9	-2	none

Baiken's good low. While her high/low isn't threatening, 5K can help deter people from upbacking the moment you make them block. Her other lows launch, and thus don't infinite. For neutral uses, it's a small button on a character filled with great pokes so don't bother.

c.S

c.S

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
13x2	All	4	8(4)4	15	-9	+2	none

Two-hitting sword strike. Your fastest normal, solid at being infinite filler & an abare tool but aside from that it's just a close slash.

f.S

f.S

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
14	All	13	12	17	-19	-8	none

Long disjointed poke. Quite slow for the standard of Missing Link's insane footsie normals, but it converts to 5H into an infinite from most ranges.

5H

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
18	All	16	8	18	-12	+1	none

Another big disjointed sword normal. Covers more space than f.S with an anti-air hitbox to boot, but it's very slow. This limits its usage in neutral as it's overly committal. Great for infinite conversions due to its high hitstun and long range.

Fierce Strike

6P

At least Baiken is happy about this button.

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
5x2	All	8	4(8)13	0	-5	+2	none

Two hitting punch, not one of the good Missing Link 6Ps. The hitbox is bad and anything you'd want to use it for in pressure or combos, c.S does better. Second hit whiffs on many crouching characters.

2P

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
5	All	8	8	9	-10	-3	none

Slower than 5P if you want something safe and disjointed to mash but keeps your hurtbox in a slightly safer place. Even though the animation's just her hand, her entire arm is a disjoint and nothing past her face is hittable.

2K

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
9	Low	10	4	21	-17	-11	none

Sweep that hits once despite appearances. Has a passable hitbox for anti-airing but 2H should be pressed instead. Shouldn't be used too often because of the teching system and its lack of disjoint.

2S

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
14	All	16	8	9	-9	+3	none

Very long but slow normal. Doesn't have as much vertical range as her other normals but it has a lot of horizontal range, even more than her f.S. For some reason the first few active frames aren't disjointed but the last couple are, although this rarely comes up. Useful for poking.

2H

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
18x3	All	8	4,4(4)4	5	-2	+16	none

Multi-hitting disjointed anti-air. Has a great hitbox but unfortunately it can be air blocked. Not as good as 5H for combos but it works too.

j.P

j.P

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
5	Overhead	6	8	9			none

Very solid jumping mash button. Decently fast, cancels into itself, fully disjointed, and goes a surprising distance - longer than

Sol's j.S. Frequently pressed after a blocked Youzansen to lock down opponents.

j.K

j.K

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
7	Overhead	8	8	5			none

Largely pointless aerial. Other options cover the same places but are bigger and safer.

j.S

j.S

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
14	Overhead	10	14	4			none

Big disjointed aerial. Her best landing aerial and will generally beat or clash with anti-airs excluding IKs.

j.H

j.H

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
16	Overhead	4	8	15			none

Large, super fast disjointed horizontal slash in the air. Good for claiming air space at your height level (rising, falling, or even during an airdash). Solid jump-in but it's not super active and the blistering startup forces you to use it quite late. Can hit crossup on most of the cast, though this rarely leads to anything and it's difficult to do intentionally.

Universal Mechanics

Dust Attack

S+H

invuln at the very end because

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
14,5	All,Low	7	15	7	-6	+24	Full 25~28

Despite how the move looks, it's very fast and the first hitbox comes out before the ball appears. For some reason, the projectile is a low?

It's a decently solid button to press in neutral, stopping many approaches while being fairly safe to whiff, but it has much lower reward than other pokes due to the Dust launch it causes. It hits twice, once on Baiken's palm thrust and once for the projectile, but if both hits connect it cancels the dust launch and doesn't allow you any followup or much pressure. Holding 8 while Dust is active mitigates this by immediately HJCing. Occasionally worth pressing in pressure, when spaced it's difficult for many guard cancels and abare options to beat it, & you might tag upbackers with the low.

Throw

6H or 4H

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
20	Throw	1	N/A	N/A	N/A	-17	none

Fairly weak throw. Launches the opponent forwards and upwards. One of the few throws that carries run momentum so you can get an angle that keeps the opponent in your face. However, since it's heavily minus on hit, this will likely get you punished.

Instant Kill

Single Stroke Battle

P+K > 236X

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
FATAL	Low	16	8	7	N/A	N/A	none

Worst IK in the game.

Baiken's IK is slow, small, and does not have the usual upper body invulnerabilty of an IK. Technically Baiken's IK hits low, but it does not matter because IKs trigger Sakkai state both on hit and on block. Occupying approximately the same space as your 5K, it's tiny to a point where it hits a mere few pixels in front of Baiken's foot during her idle pose. On top of that, her IK attack is the slowest in the game, making punishing it on successful IK dodges pitifully easy.

Specials

Tatami Gaeshi

236K

Version	Damage	Guard	Startup	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
Tatami Gaeshi	1,14,5	All	12	-32 [-10]	-33 [-2]	none
Tatami Gaeshi Level 2		All	12	-38 [-31]	-7	none
Tatami Gaeshi Level 3		All	47	-38 [-36]	-11	none

Ground tatami is a pseudo-projectile which is a rarely used but long poke with strange hitboxes. All versions have a deadzone between Baiken's pushbox and her foot when it makes contact with the ground.

Higher levels of Tatami control larger amounts of screen space, with each making an additional Tatami. Level 2 reaches fullscreen against the entire cast with the same speed as level 1; while not an amazing counterzoning option since Baiken still steps forward enough to put her face into a hitbox, the threat of it is respectable.

Level 3 is four times as slow as the previous two versions and adds an additional tatami mat which will almost certainly go outside of the maximum screen length, making it a largely worse version than either of the previous two. Avoid charging to level 3 when possible. At fullscreen distance, the 2nd and 3rd mat will combo into each other for slightly increased damage, assuming someone's willing to sit there and get hit by a 47F move.

Air Tatami is a significantly more useful version of ground Tatami, as it falls all the way to the ground as usual while also allowing air actions from Baiken as soon as its short duration is done. Tatami walls can be made with relative ease and they occupy a great amount of screen space while carrying little to no risk in most matchups.

Level 3 Tatami Gaeshi can only be used in the air after a superjump or Dust launch since it's so horribly slow, but it's still terrible. Ignoring that it's strictly worse than level 2, the extra range of even the second tatami mat will often go to waste since your opponent probably ran past it before it began falling to the ground. You lose your charge level as soon as it's input, though, so cancelling level 3 with landing recovery is actually its best use.

Standard advantage is for the kick portion of the attack
Advantage in [brackets] is for the mat portion of the attack

Youzansen

623S

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
9x2	All	10	4,16	0	+4	-5	none

Doesn't hit overhead but can be executed on the ground. Useless in combos due to it having very short range and a launch but thankfully its calling lies in pressure and stalling. The move recovers incredibly quickly, and with all air options available after, it's possible to continue your pressure from it with j.P into an air string into a ground string, although this is weak to guard cancels. Thanks to this fast recovery, it's possible to execute another Youzansen almost immediately to gain more height. This can be repeated ad infinitum for air stall & timer scams, but most characters in the cast can reach her and hit her out of this (typically with SJ > some rising or high-up attack in the air).

Kamaitachi

41236H

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
9,10	Overhead	23	54	20	-14	-44	none

Near full screen hit grab. Does decent damage on hit and is an overhead for some reason so you can mix a little with it. Mostly to call out opponents at fullscreen, but due to the aerial nature of the game it's not the most useful. Launches on hit, this is fully safe as Baiken is invulnerable until she's actionable again if Kamaitachi hits, but it means no continued pressure and you usually have to block if the opponent air techs -> IADs towards you.

Supers

Tsurane Sanzu Watari

2363214H

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	On-Block	On-Hit	Invuln
22x3	Unblockable	6	3(17)3(17)6	18	N/A	-8	none

Baiken's typical three slash super, except it has some issues in this game. The fact it's unblockable may sound appealing and combined with it's fast startup, this can be effective for finishing off opponents. However, it has a major weakness in that the hits don't combo into each other. While this may not immediately sound like a problem, this means opponents can backdash away or do an invincible reversal to hit Baiken out of it.

Thanks to ML lacking super freeze, you can often get the first and even second hit without worry which is solid damage. However, it's not normally worth getting punished. In the corner it's particularly hard to avoid but this rarely comes up. As it's an unblockable strike, there's nothing stopping Baiken from doing a blockstring into it to finish off a weak opponent.