GGST/Faust/Counterstrategy

Fighting Faust

Faust’s main goal is to keep opponent's at bay with his strong pokes and toss items to gain advantage, or mix his opponents to death off hard knockdowns and with the afro state inflicted by Snip Snip SnipGuardGround ThrowStartup6Recovery41Advantage-. Without items or afro, his offense is very straightforward strike throw pressure without any plyus frames. Therefore your main goal should be to deny Faust these conditions, which we will get into in later sections.

Unique Attributes/Mechanics

What Could This Be? (Item Toss)

Item toss is one of Faust's strongest tools for neutral control. It has a total duration of 40 frames, making it unsafe to throw out without a knockdown or coverage from other items. The item is tossed on frame 26. All items will stay on screen even if you hit Faust during his recovery.

See the overview page for a description of each item. This section will contain a brief description of counterplay options for certain items.

Bomb- hitting a bomb can have different launches depending on the move you hit it with. Learn your character's moves and how they interact with the bomb. In general lobbing it high is a good way to get it off the screen. Hitting the bomb will also extend the active frames of your move. Keep in mind, this also extends the amount of time you are in counter hit state.

Banana/Banana Peel- The peel has very short blockstun and grants a small launch and soft knockdown on hit. Dashblocking into it can remove it from the screen, as can jumping onto it while blocking. Be prepared for Faust to try to antiair you if you attempt to jump over the peel The light blockstun of the peel can also mess with blockstrings for both parties, but whether or not that is good depends on the move and the timing of the peel hitting.

Afro- This item falls very slowly. If tossed on oki, look out for blockstrings into it, as it adds a hurtbox to your head immediately when you touch it. This can lead to some tricky instant overheads from pushing you into the afro.

Hammer- The hammer will not hit point blank and follows a high arc. Some characters can run under the hammer before it hits the ground, essentially negating its ability to control space from certain ranges. It is a projectile, so it can be reflected.

Mini Faust- Mini Faust walks back and forth 3 times before leaving the screen. He will throw a tantrum and launch himself at you if you touch him, or if he is damaged by any source. Superjumping over the spinning attack will avoid it entirely. Hitting him with a jump cancellable move is one way to safely hit him to get him off the screen without taking much of a risk.

100T Weight- Any action that puts you airborne will avoid the weight. It hits both on the way up and on the way down, so be careful not to get clipped by it.

Trumpet Take the space if it's not covered by another item. You can act well before Faust can when trumpet is tossed, and it will usually land closer to you than it does to Faust. If Faust gets the trumpet, you can super jump, airdash, or double jump to get over it. Depending on the situation, trading the trumpet for a hard knockdown will usually be an even or favorable trade, even if you get hit.

Meteors- You gotta hold that. Sometimes not a single meteor will hit you. Maybe you'll get lucky.

Round Start

Faust's most common round start options are 2PGuardLowStartup7Recovery11Advantage-3, walk back 5HGuardAllStartup13Recovery18Advantage-7, j.2KGuardAllStartup10Recovery9 after LandingAdvantage-, and retreating.

2P beats a lot of options, being a 7f poke with such long range, but often leads to nothing. It is 0 on hit, but plus on counterhit. Common counterplay is to use a 6 or 7 frame 2K to clash, then cancel into 2D. This works because Faust has no useful cancels out of 2P, so some Faust players may not be ready to cancel after the clash.

A common counterplay to that that Faust players use is to walk back and use 5H to whiff punish the 2K. This is quite slow, and done on a read, so will lose to longer range normals and often 6P.

j.2K is less common, but also is aimed at whiff punishing lows. Blocking it will usually leave you in an even or advantageous position, but if it hits your toes it can be plus on block. Low j.2K is a minimum 15 frame option, so it will lose to faster moves.

If Faust retreats, play however you normally play against people retreating. Probably a good idea to try and close distance, but you don't have to if you don't want to. if you're a zoner you're gaming.

Neutral

Approaching Faust

As mentioned before, Faust’s gameplan generally consists of zoning you out with his big buttons, and getting items on screen so he can work with those items to try and get offense started. The solution is to simply not let him toss items. What Could This Be?GuardStartup26RecoveryTotal 40Advantage- has a total duration of 40 frames. Most characters have some way to close distance and punish this in neutral on reaction. If you can't punish it outright, at least making Faust block is a good start. Watch the item and decide whether or not it's worth going for this interaction for yourself. The inability to punish from very long distances is another reason it is important to watch the distance between you and Faust. Dashblocking into a range where tossing items is unsafe is a strong strategy that forces faust to commit to push you back with his pokes, or run up and try to get itemless offense started.

There's so many Items, Send Help

If Faust does get the item train going, you're in a bad spot and you have to deal with it. It isn't forever, though. Eventually Faust will hit a combination of items that does not let him continue to toss safely. food, afro, and trumpet do not have immediate effects and getting any two of these in a row will often force Faust to stop tossing items. Meteors, minifaust, and bomb can sometimes cover this gap, but you can still use the gap to close distance to make it more likely that you'll be able to punish the next gap. Even if Faust gets several good items in a row there will usually be gaps between the hits for you to close distance. Jumping over 100t and minifaust will make it easier to do so. Grabbing a trumpet also ends Faust's advantage. Continue to navigate your way in and take advantage of the gaps between items. Watch out for pokes between items though. A vigilant Faust player will try to catch your attempts to close distance by just not tossing an item, then let another item they had already tossed cover the next item toss.

Dealing With Honest Ground-Based Footsies

Faust has a variety of long and short range pokes, and possibly the most robust set of antiairs in the game. The situation on block is generally not good for faust, though, making dashblocking strong. Playing just outside of the range of his f.SGuardAllStartup12Recovery20Advantage-8 is a good idea, because it is easy to whiff punish and Faust does not have many other options to threaten from that distance. Mix up your movement, because to hold space, Faust has to choose moves carefully to hit precisely where you are or will be. Here are some common pokes and their strengths and counterplay options

f.SGuardAllStartup12Recovery20Advantage-8 - it is very long, with short recovery for its range. It will lose to low profiles and can be jumped over relatively easily. The situation on block is not super threatening beyond 2H, so you may want to represent dashblock after blocking this.

2HGuardLowStartup14Recovery29Advantage-12 - slightly longer than f.S, but with much longer recovery. can be jumped over, and is a very easy whiff punish.

5HGuardAllStartup13Recovery18Advantage-7 - A large, disjointed, active poke with decent recovery. This move can be hard to whiff punish due to the long active frames, but can be low profiled and jumped over. The whiff punish window is not super tight. On block there is a large pushback, but pulling items is still unsafe.

2DGuardLowStartup12Recovery18Advantage-4 - A closer range poke with the same startup as f.S, but is much better on block due to its short recovery. It has huge pushback on block. It's just a really good button. You can either dashblock after blocking this, or try to whiff punish it. The pushback means that Mix Mix MixGuardAllStartup17Recovery14 after LandingAdvantage-7 will sometimes leave a mashable gap

j.2KGuardAllStartup10Recovery9 after LandingAdvantage- - See Dedicated section below.

2PGuardLowStartup7Recovery11Advantage-3 - 2p is a fast, long, low poke with a low profile for a few frames. It is 0 on hit, so you don't need to respect it unless you get counter hit. It can be cancelled into 6P, 6H, and specials, and none of those cancel options are good, so punish him if he tries. 2P also does not have an extended cancel window the way most others do, so any cancel must happen immediately. On block just take your turn, on hit, return to neutral. If you get counterhit, Faust is +6 (+7 if you are crouching), so it is often best to keep blocking. Faust will usually have to run up very far to get a throw, so you can try to defend throws on reaction.

Dealing with j.2K and Love

j.2KGuardAllStartup10Recovery9 after LandingAdvantage- is a move where the on block and on hit situation vary significantly depending on how high Faust was in the air when it connected. High j.2K and Low j.2K are entirely different situations.

Low j.2K is an approximately 15f startup poke, with many active frames, short recovery and low range. On block, it will be only slightly minus (typically -2), or even slightly plus if faust hits extremely low to the ground.
Be ready to play footsies after it, and try not to let Faust get away with slow options. Low j.2K can be hit on startup by any disjointed or quick poke, such as many f.S or 5K, when done preemptively or with good spacing. 6P is unlikely to be helpful to hit it on startup, as it hits very low to the ground. Except on counter hit or on a very close crouching hit, will not lead to any significant reward; try not to get counter hit.

High j.2K has significantly more effective startup, and is far more minus on block (often around -12), but has many active frames and can also easily low crush nearly anything. High j.2K only combos on counterhit or a close crouching hit, and importantly, on normal hit faust is also in a fairly bad situation.
6P can hit the startup, as can any high hitting normal attack. To stay try and unpunished, Faust will cancel into either Mix Mix MixGuardAllStartup17Recovery14 after LandingAdvantage-7 or LoveGuardAllStartup27RecoveryTotal 48Advantage-. Mix Mix Mix will be a 4F frametrap, low profile options like 6P can still win, and from further spacings the gap can be significantly larger. Aerial Mix Mix Mix will typically not punishable on block (often -4 or -5), but you get to take your turn and start your offense. If Faust cancels into Love, there will be large reactable gap, but the projectile will stay out, even on hit, and you will have to navigate around it. If Faust's Love is quite low down, you can jump over it - typical punishes here may look like rising CH j.S airdash, but vary by character. If Faust's Love is higher up, you can dash under it, and punish with either an airthrow, or a high hitting buttonGuardAllStartup11Recovery28Advantage-13 if your character has one.

How to Deal with Scarecrow/Scarecrow PRC

Faust scarecrows can put him in front, behind, or above you. With a minimum of 54 frame startup, these moves are nothing to worry about if faust does not have meter or items. On reaction, a microdash into a move with short recovery will counterhit the front and behind scarecrows and recover in time to block and punish the overhead scarecrow. Even dashing can cause the overhead scarecrow to whiff entirely and you may even land a 5[D] punish. If you do end up blocking the side scarecrows, Faust is -8 but difficult to punish. If he somehow makes you block a Charged Scarecrow (it will hit three times, and has more than a full second of startup), he will be +7, so be careful.

When Faust has Tension however, this move becomes terrifying. Faust can roman cancel any scarecrow to immediately teleport in front of you or behind you. Faust will very often do a fast roman cancel into a throw or command grab, which can be very difficult to deal with on reaction. Faust can also do this to easily punish usually unpunishable moves like projectiles from fullscreen.
Your best option is usually to try and jump to avoid the throws. This however can lose to Faust choosing to do 2K or c.S to catch your jump startup. Additionally, if you were either dashing or attacking before faust teleported, you will often counterhit him by mistake, though this is not possible to do on reaction. Generally, Scarecrow PRC punishes inaction, so being proactive with anything will help.

If Faust is teleporting just before an item hits you (very commonly meteors), there is very little you can do about this besides just guess, and then try to punish the scarecrow on block if you do guess right. Gold Bursting on prediction can be a high reward option.
In situations like these (just before meteors) when you are fully expecting a Scarecrow, it could be worth trying to spot the 10F pre-teleport startup to give you more time to react. Faust's scalpel will move in an arc behind his back. Be warned however Faust can feint this animation by pressing 2. This is not the case if he is cancelling into it from a move like 6H, where the sudden animation change should also make the startup easier to spot. When trying to react, after the screen moves to follow the teleport, you will have 14 frames (from the FPRC screen freeze), plus the startup of whatever move he does to choose your option. For command grab, this will be 20 frames. (Do not attempt to mash here however, this is visual frames, and for most of these you are frozen by the FPRC)

When Faust Will Approach and How to Deal with It

Faust will mainly only approach in neutral if he's working in tandem with an item (or multiple items), or an item's effects. Down below is a list of items that might make Faust come to you, as well as how he plans to approach and how to deal with it.

100T Weight - Since the only way to avoid the 100T Weight is jumping over it, Faust could air dash forward and try to snipe you in the air with j.H. If you block the shockwave from the weight, you will be Guard Crushed. Faust could also take this opportunity to air dash forward and then cross you up with Mix Mix Mix while he's in the air, as Guard Crush temporarily removes cross up protection.

Bomb/Afro - Getting hit by an explosion from a Bomb or lit Afro might prompt Faust to air dash forward and attempt to pressure you. If Faust has been afflicted with an Afro, he can use Love! to remove it. Love! becomes buffed with longer range, a higher bounce arc, and a wider bomb explosion. It deals double the damage on hit and inflicts Guard Crush on block. It will bounce twice on the ground, so be wary if Faust comes into contact with a tossed out Afro. You can destroy it with projectiles, stuff it with disjoints, reflect it with projectile reflectors and some characters can even duck it.

Mini Faust - After triggering a Mini Faust, Faust might use Scarecrow to cross you up. He could also use Scarecrow PRC to hit you with Snip Snip Snip while you're concentrated on blocking the Mini Faust. During the gap in between where the Mini Faust gets angry and then attacks you is when Faust will most likely try and use Scarecrow PRC. Jumping and then blocking in the air will allow you to avoid Snip Snip Snip while also protecting yourself from the Mini Faust's attacks.

Trumpet - After pulling a Trumpet, Faust might dash forward to try and secure it for himself. Dashing forward is generally the fastest way for him to get the Trumpet, unless he chooses to Drift RC forward. He can also stop short and poke to catch you trying to grab the trumpet yourself.

Meteors - Since every meteor causes the Guard Crush state on block, like 100T Weight, they will leave you vulnerable to cross ups if you block them. He could use Scarecrow to cross you up here, use Scarecrow PRC > Snip Snip Snip while you're concentrated on blocking the Meteors, or just air dash forward and try to cross you up in the air with Mix Mix Mix.

The rest of Faust's items likely won't prompt him to approach. The health gained from either the Banana or Donut are negligable, the Banana Peel causes a soft knockdown so Faust would want to avoid it, and the Hammer's purpose is to stuff approaches.

Offense

Faust's defensive options are mostly crawl and system mechanics. He has an reversal super in Bone-Crushing ExcitementGuardAllStartup16+5Recovery48Advantage-32, but it is incredibly slow. It does not beat any properly executed meaty c.S, so instead a common play is to PRC it before the super flash, granting invulnerability without having to commit to the actual move. This maneuver only costs 50% tension. He has a 5 frame mash option in 5PGuardAllStartup5Recovery8Advantage-2. His fastest low mash is 7 frames.

Dealing With Crawl

Crawl is a frame 1 low profile option. There is a full list of moves that can be crawled here. (caution, table is very big). The easiest counterplay to crawl is to use lows. In defensive situations, Faust usually cannot back crawl due to proximity block, forcing him to hold 3 and stop blocking. A tight frametrap into a low will catch Faust not blocking. If you don't leave at least a 1 frame gap, absolute guard will kick in, allowing Faust to block despite holding forward. Throws will also beat crawl. If you want Faust to block a crawlable move, either jail into it or condition your opponent out of crawling.

Super PRC

Super PRC is effectively the same interaction as fuzzy jumping, except it allows Faust to punish meaties, rather than just blocking them. Delayed meaties will often clip Faust when he roman cancels, as doing so ends his invulnerability. This does enforce a RPS situation where simply using the super may beat the options that beat super PRC.

Defense

Defending Against 2K Pressure

Faust's 2KGuardAll, Low, LowStartup5Recovery12Advantage-2 is a multi-hitting button with three hits that is a corner stone of Faust's close range pressure. The first hit is a mid, while the rest of the hits are lows. Like most characters, a common mixup for Faust is to throw after 2K is blocked. Faust's version of this mixup is especially weak to Faultless Defense because each hit will increase the distance he has to run up.

The only reasonable cancel options out of 2K are 2D and 6P. 2D is quite safe on block at only -4. There is a 1 frame gap between 2K and 2D. The pushback is pretty big, but it often puts you in a slightly advantageous position. Faust can call you out for trying to take your turn with Mix Mix Mix, which can leave a variable gap depending on how far Faust is. Cancelling into 6P is essentially a worse, gapless version of 2d in this situation, but it Faust players may cancel into it on a failed hit confirm.

Special Cancellable Normals

Challenging after 5H/2D/2H/6H/6P 'how to answer special cancels'

Afro

Challenging after Rising jD/2D, routing around Pop

Keep Watching for Scarecrow

Faust can attempt to use Scarecrow and Scarecrow PRC in a blockstring to take you by surprise. Be on the look out for it, and try to backdash or jump in reaction to it if you can.

Burst

ThrustGuardAllStartup26~37Recovery19Advantage-12 is a peculiar move when it comes to burst. Bursting before or during Pull BackGuardStartup61Recovery30Advantage- won't hit Faust because he has invulnerability during Pull Back, which he can cancel into regardless of whether or not you burst. Bursting just after Pull Back is guaranteed to hit Faust (you'll know the timing because the combo counter will increase), unless he kara cancels Hole In One!GuardAllStartup8Recovery41Advantage-30 into Bone Crushing ExcitementGuardAllStartup16+5Recovery48Advantage-32. If you expect this and really want to burst, doing so during Pull Back will beat the super.

Bursting during MixMixMixGuardAllStartup17Recovery14 after LandingAdvantage-7 will often sideswap Faust, if you want to get him into the corner. If you burst at the apex of 5HHGuardStartup27Recovery27Advantage-, you are guaranteed to sideswap him, and he cannot bait this even with meter.