Gohan (Teen)
General Tactics
Teen Gohan is a brute of a character. He likes to have assists to help him get in, but he can use pretty much any assist to keep his combos going. He works great as a team player with how high his damage and meter gain is, and he works particularly well with Base Goku. Generally he prefers to have neutral assists backing him up or any assist that lets him get a sliding knockdown from j.236L. Most assists can also cover his j.236M/H mixup due to how little blockstun it actually requires, making him an excellent character to just slap onto a team. Teen Gohan has the Ki Blasts to play a competent space control game, and his 214L makes it scary as an unscaled frame 1 DP that he can ToD from. His 236M is a long-reaching pseudo-lariat, giving him a way to force himself in with assists or a high damage combo on hit.
Neutral
Teen Gohan's main neutral tools are his ground Ki Blasts, 236L/M, and weirdly enough his Bombs. His Ki Blasts are some of the best in the game, and he also gets very high return from 2H with assists. 236L/M is a lariat-style move that can be made plus with assists. It comes with the upside of being hit-confirmable by itself due to the follow-ups. Depending on how late the M version hits, it can also be quite safe and sometimes close to 0 on block. Dash 2S is also a great neutral tool, but especially with neutral assists. 2S is weak to reflect and superdash, but a neutral assist will either keep them pinned down long enough to get there or smack them out of their Superdash for Gohan to confirm into a combo.
Defensively, Gohan can use his j.236L and j.236H to stop air approaches and superdashes. It's not quite as good nor as helpful as an air DP, but it's still quite good once Gohan gets the lifelead.
Team positioning
Point
Point is Teen Gohan's best spot. He builds tons of meter for your other two characters to use, as well as having plenty of points in his combos to tag into another character. He gets his best damage and mixups through assists, as well as having much stronger neutral with long-range assist support.
Mid
Teen Gohan makes for a decent Mid, but faults start to appear in his gameplan. His mixups lean more into RPS if he has to use his assist for neutral, and using an assist for a mixup means he has to pick between Sliding Knockdown or damage. j.236H is still good, but it is really all he has outside stagger pressure. On the upside, his A assist is one of the few invincible assists left in the game. It also has high blockstun for being a single hit and is great for forcing airborne opponents back to the ground after they block your superdash.
Anchor
Teen Gohan's weakest position. He can be played here but he's severely outclassed by every other anchor in the game.
Picking Teammates
Teen Gohan likes neutral assists above all. He doesn't need Kid Buu to do mixups thanks to j.236M/H, so most assists with around 20-30 frames of blockstun are all that is needed.
Blockstrings
- 2L > 5L > 2M > 5M > 2H > j.236M/H
- ... > 5H > 236L/M
- (2L) > 5LLL > j.236M/H
Assists are needed to cover the airdash mixup after j.236M to make it airtight, otherwise it's a true 50/50.
Gohan's 5M is notable in that it is both 9f startup and -3 on block, rare traits to share on a 5M. Think of this more as a replacement for 5LL being unusable as a pressure tool. Keeping this in mind, Teen Gohan's main stagger normals are 2L, 5L, and 5M. He can stagger off of 5S like other characters, but this is more telegraphed. People tend to press buttons less against Teen Gohan because of his massive damage output.
Okizeme
Most of Teen Gohan's okizeme is autotimed safejump setups. He has a few very basic ones:
- Smash j.H
- Corner non-smash j.H
Smash j.H is pretty standard, but corner non-smash j.H from 236MLLLM height allows for a safejump after a whiffed j.236L.
Other than that, all he gets off a j.236L ender or smashless j.H is a 5L meaty. Not great.
Tips and Tricks
- Don't be afraid to use his ground Ki Blasts, it's one of the best of it's kind in the game due to its speed.
- 236X is an unscaled starter, meaning the damage potential on hit is the same as a Medium or Heavy normal.
- 214L ToD's are a great thing to learn in order to keep your opponent's oki honest.
Fighting Teen Gohan
- 5LLL > j.236M is a mindgame that is in Teen Gohan's favor. Both it and j.236H are weak to guard cancel, but you will be losing more resources than he will most of the time.
- Being in the air is generally a good strategy against Teen Gohan, as his only real answer is air-to-air with j.L.
- 2S in pressure is weak to both Reflect and Superdash, but the Superdash has to be done pre-emptively in order to punish.
Gohan (Teen)
