GGACR/Sol Badguy/Strategy

Overview

Combos

Strategy/Counter Strategy

Full Frame Data

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General Tactics

Sol is a bit more nuanced than first impression would suggest. He fits the archetype of the standard frametrap and command throw mixup while on offense, but despite having a plethora of close range tools, he does not necessarily excel at rushdown in +R. However, this does not mean that he cannot be played aggressively. Rather, Sol's gameplan can be summarized into a mix of three major approaches:

1. Patient. Sol has some of the strongest defensive options in the game:

• His DP has excellent range, damage, conversion, leads to knockdown, and is fast.
• His P and K normals are fast and good for hitting out of pressure.
• Backdash, while average on paper, is a bit invul around the feet and airborne, allowing him to go over some lower pokes.
• Sol's ability to whiff punish and counter poke is very strong due to the speed and/or hitboxes of moves like f.S and 6P.
• His airborne hurtbox is very frustrating to deal with, his low profile moves go around things unexpectedly, and several other factors can make pressuring Sol an absolute pain.

Forcing the opponent to make a mistake in attempting to deal with one of these options while abusing another while scoring huge damage off of a single button can make Sol players with strong defense a nightmare.

Keep in mind though that properly using this playstyle requires a good deal of knowledge and recognition to be able to adequately poke holes in opponent's offense. IB, jump out, backdashing, and proper FD usage become vital, lest you get completely mixed while trying to find an escape route under pressure.

2. Aggressive. On the flip side, the speed of Sol's buttons can let him get in on and overwhelm those not familiar with his strengths:

• 5K outspeeds nearly every other button in the game and is an excellent anti-jump-out tool
• 2S lets him stay plus on block
• BR catches jump outs and lets Sol get back in for more pressure
• Wild Throw breaks open turtle-ing opponents
• VV and frame traps blow up button presses
• GF FRC resets pressure
• 6P/2H/2D/6H all have extended cancel windows into their recovery frames, allowing for meaty and late-string frame traps

Every one of these options can lead to big damage on hit. Not requiring meter for conversions means that you can spend it to make riskier plays safe, or burn it for even higher damage. Sol's throw/frametrap game is extremely rewarding, and the threat of losing half to 3/4ths of one's lifebar will put the fear in them.

Where this play falls short however is Sol's extremely limited blockstrings. He generally needs to go for the mixup asap, as pressure will fall apart without extended meter use. Once Sol scores the hit, he needs to capitalize on the damage, and always be wary of the burst. Getting bursted out puts Sol right back outside his best ranges, and baiting it will score a free reset for 200+ damage as well.

3. Nutty. Perhaps more than any other character, Sol benefits from occasionally to completely going bonkers (See: Kusoru). The very tools that make Sol strong defensively can throw off the opponent if used in unorthodox manners. "Random" Grand Vipers and Volcanic Vipers will throw off many players who are conditioned to the "usual" style of play seen at mid/high level, and mixed in with Wild Throws, Riot Stomps, and other buttons with seemingly no rhyme or reason, you can get around players who cannot deal with these moves appropriately.

Note, however, that this works because the risks are generally considered too heavy to be worth using, and overdoing it will get you severely punished. The reason this still sometimes works at higher level play is because the Sol player thoroughly understands the game and the opponent. The randomness is calculated, and doing so without this grasp of the game will generally not get you far.

The nature of Guilty Gear and fighting games in generally will require that you generally mix your approaches to the game against skilled opponents. Overly relying on one of these will put holes in your gameplan if you can find the proper balance of all three of these, whatever that is for you as a player. Despite lacking in some areas, if you are willing to overcome the walls of nuance, and some character specific knowledge requirements, Sol can take you far.

Tips and Tricks

Sidewinder

As mentioned, Sidewinder is the biggest part of Sol's combos and gameplan, with nearly every big combo revolving around it. Damage is affected by Clean Hits: the more you have in the combo already, the more damage each individual Sidewinder deals. Because you need to strike at a certain point of a character's hitbox in order to Clean Hit, Sol players have to practice hitting at different heights. In general, lightweights need to be hit in the head, certain heavy characters need to be hit in the gut, and most other characters need to be hit in the chest. Lightweights include May, Baiken, Jam, Bridget, and Kliff; heavyweights include Johnny and Robo-Ky.

If you have no idea whether you've landed a Clean Hit or not, when you do land a clean hit, there's a longer pause on hit, a big flash, and a notice on the side of the screen, in the same place where you get Counter Hit notices. If you've never practiced landing Sidewinders before, Axl, Eddie, and Testament are three very easy characters to Sidewinder, as they have large hitboxes. On the flip side, Dizzy, Ky, and Faust have some awkward hitboxes that can make it easy to screw up, and so may require character specific setups. If you practice against a lightweight, a heavyweight, one easy character, one hard character, and Pot specifically, you should be able to get a grasp of how to Sidewinder Loop the entire cast.

Sidewinder becomes harder to Clean Hit the more clean hits are already in the combo. The target's Clean Hit area shrinks the more Clean Hits you've landed already, to the point where it becomes nearly impossible to continue. This is why SW combos tend to only go for 2-3 reps.

Clean Hit Diagrams can be found here: Clean Hit Diagrams

Check the Combos section for more information on how to actually loop Sidewinder.

This video gives an explanation of Sidewinder and shows some useful tactics for loops: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lyl-gavEn0&hd=1

Ground Viper

Ground Viper's Clean Hit allows Sol to start a Sidewinder Loop from nearly anywhere, as long as he's close enough to combo into it or can land it by going under something. In order to get a Clean Hit with Ground Viper, wiggle the joystick/dpad directions back and forth while pressing 2 buttons at the same time, and you'll usually have to stop mashing right before the uppercut in order to Clean Hit. The 7th hit will float the opponent so that the uppercut can land clean. If you're playing on a Pad, you'll have better luck if you hit diagonals (1 & 9 or 3 & 7) because the game will read it as two directions instead. Based on how many moves preceded GV in your combo, your mashing timing will have to alter slightly. Practice up and GV will become one of the most reliable tools in your arsenal. This video provides an in-depth tutorial on the attack: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-N6XKcyKcA&hd=1

Reversal VV

In order to have a better shot at getting VV as a reversal, tap both S and H immediately following each other when performing your input on wakeup. Because Guilty Gear's engine will read specials by negative edging (on release of the button, not just on press), you can increase your chances of linking your wakeup into VV from 2 frames to 4.

Tick Throws

Because Sol lacks any truly reliable overheads, a lot of ways you'll open up the opponent is through scaring them into blocking and then using Wild Throw. Even normal throw in the corner is another option because you can combo out of it, and it starts faster and doesn't lose to other options (besides command throws).

Your best normals for going into Wild Throw are 5P, 2P, 2K, c.S, and all your jump in normals aside from j.D (which can still work if used sparingly). 5P and c.S are both even on block, so you can go into Wild Throw very quickly. 2K is one of your best bets, because even though it's -1, the opponent leaves their throw invulnerability out of blockstun quickly so that you can go into Wild Throw almost immediately. (In Guilty Gear, characters get a few extra frames of throw invincibility after blockstun ends, to prevent BS throw setups).

You can also do it out of blocked jump-ins because your air normals have no landing recovery, with the exception of j.D. If you have meter, you can also opt to RC things like 5H, 2H, Gun-Flame (Feint), and then dash in and WT instead. Even dashing in from far away and doing WT can work occasionally if the opponent is scared into expecting you to attack.

Frame Traps

Once they start trying to poke or jump out of your tick throw setups, you'll want to switch to frame traps to try and catch them hitting buttons.

Sol's main frame traps start with 5P/2P/2K and go into 6P. The gap between these moves is very small, so opponents who try and mash out are likely to get counter hit by 6P, which leads to very high damage regardless of where you are on screen. You'll generally want to delay your 6P at first, so that opponents can see a pause and think that it's safe to react. Over time, they'll start to see the pattern, and begin mashing faster if they expect a throw. Using this frame trap in conjunction with WT setups can make up a big part of Sol's game.

Sol can also choose to go into other moves with bigger gaps or other moves, such as doing 5P/2P/2K into 2S, 5H, VV(best if RC'd), Fafnir, or even Tyrant Rave ver.Beta if you feel like taking a big risk. Although Sol can be very free flowing, you may get into a habit of doing similar blockstrings. Mix it up, screw around, mess with the opponent's head.

Negative Edge Gun-Flame FRC

A neat trick you can pull off is to do Gun-Flame up close, then FRC and negative edge in a Wild Throw (Gun-Flame, then 623 P+K+S), which will throw the opponent before the Gun-Flame goes active. If the throw misses or they jump, the flame will cover your recovery. You can also FRC with K+S+H, which will give you Volcanic Viper instead and catch people trying to hit you or jump away, creating a very nasty mixup situation indeed.

Fuzzy Guard

Sol has a few ways of doing fuzzy guard setups, some of which are character specific, others which are universal but range in difficulty based on character height.

The first is j.H. Since this move has absolutely no recovery frames, It is actually possible to airdash after the last active frames for a fuzzy guard 50/50 on most standing characters. You have to perform j.H so that the move connects (blocked) near the end of its active time, and then buffer in the airdash following it. Done properly, you'll airdash relatively close to the ground and be able to connect with j.S (> j.H/j.D) and land into whatever you want. The shorter the character, the harder this is to do.

The second involves Bandit Revolver and Bandit Bringer. Both moves can be Roman Cancelled and airdashed afterwards, but under certain conditions. You can generally only airdash after RC'ing a blocked Bandit Revolver (2nd hit) if the opponent was standing, but many players instinctively block BR high because Sol goes airborne, and it's also easier for them to punish if blocked that way. Bandit Bringer, MUST be blocked high, but because of this you can make opponents attempt to punish the landing or Slashback the hit, and RC'ing BB will allow you to go for another overhead, or land into a low. You can also airdash after a blocked BB, if you jump installed it first.

Third, Anji, Eddie, Justice, and Potemkin all have large enough hitboxes (while blocking) that some character specific fuzzy guards works on them. For Anji and Eddie, Sol can dash in and do a late j.S/j.D, and then immediately double jump into j.D. This will connect and give you ample time to go into Sidewinder. On Pot, in the corner, you can do the same setup, but instead go into double jump j.S > j.H, then land into whatever. In +R, using FB SW, you can actually use these fuzzy guards from non-dash jumps midscreen as well.

This video demonstrates this fuzzy guard and some example combos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqxDK-OB-go&hd=1

And lastly, Force Break Sidewinder can work in very clutch situations, such as after an airdash jumping normal such as j.S or j.D. This is the least likely to work, but hey, you never know. Sidewinder is pretty safe, so it can be worth a shot.

Instant Kill

Occasionally you'll dizzy an opponent for long enough to land an IK. This applies to most characters in the game in nearly every instance, with a few exceptions. Sol is one of them. When in their dizzy animations, Sol, Ky, Chipp, Axl, Dizzy, Jam, and Order-Sol all crouch down. Napalm Death misses against crouching opponents. So if you get a dizzy on any of those seven characters, save your tension and your dignity and do something else. Anything. Please.

However, Napalm Death does have its uses in some cases. Against ABA, the only character notable for being notoriously vulnerable to IKs, you can IK her pretty easily out of her Moroha mode with Wild Throw or Bandit Revolver. When her Moroha meter empties, ABA goes into a completely vulnerable recovery animation, giving you ample time to run up and murder her. Wild Throw is the best option for this, because it gives you more than enough time to prepare, and it prevents ABA from bursting out.

Against Chipp, simply blocking either of his overdrives gives you a free IK setup. If he does Banki Messai (42 hit combo), use Faultless Defense to push him out, backdash, IK mode, and end the game. Be careful if Chipp has full tension when he does this, though. If a single hit of Banki Messai is blocked, Chipp can RC the move at any time whatsoever. If Chipp does Zansai Rouga instead, block the first five hits while grounded, then go into IK mode. The sixth hit will whiff because Sol takes a step back when he goes into his IK preparation stance. If Chipp doesn't RC or FRC any time before he does the dive, you're in the clear.

Okizeme

{{#evt: service=youtube |id=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1KlHSzn1D8 |dimensions=640×480 |description=Safejump Okizeme |container=frame }}

Matchups

Sol is a character how, simply being based on the strike/throw mixup, is mostly even matchups. A lot of it simply comes down to character knowledge and knowing how to maximize damage based on the opponent's weight class and hurtbox. As this list is completed, esoterics and other matchup specific information will be posted here.

• NOTE*: This list is not an aggregate, but is based on a combination of DQRF's opinion and opinions taken from some other JP players. Any discussion of these matchups is welcome.

Favorable:

Anji(6:4) - Sweep beats much of Anji's main gameplan. VV through every trap you want and force the Anji player to burn meter to bait it.

Robo-Ky(6:4) - TBD

Potemkin(?) - Despite huge hitboxes and the means to meterlessly convert a PB into 50%+, you can dance around him alright, actually. Keep VV clash cancel j.K primed against wild j.D attempts, be prepared to reversal backdash against oki Slidehead, and neutral jump vs Pot Buster leads to a full confirm. GV beats Hammerfall on reaction. Fafnir > TR will actually knock down with few enough hits.

Slightly Favorable:

ABA(?): TBD

I-no(5:5): P normals and 5K shut down a lot of I-no's mobility and mixup options once you recognize when they want to hoverdash reset. Dives can be a bit difficult to contest with grounded AA options besides VV, but properly timed, 2D will give you a fat CH confirm. Harrass her with f.S and sometimes 2D and max range 5H. You can dash, 6P, or 2H under HCL assuming she didn't FRC it.

Order-Sol: HOS can have a lot of difficulty getting in on you, and Sol's defensive tools can shut down a lot of attempts to open you up. Both of you will fish for counterhits off of one another, but Sol gets better reward off of a normal hit punish with no resources. IB VV is common against BRP, Rock It, and f.S/2S > 6H setups.

Relatively Even / Not enough info for an informed opinion:

Baiken: Sol has a command throw. Baiken wants to block. Unfortunately, Sol is one of the characters relegated to being unable to cancel into Wild Throw, so he has to commit to short buttons and conditioning. You do great damage against her and can actually low profile her guard cancels now, but she also has some relatively better damage output than the rest of the cast now so making a mistake is a bit more costly.
Avoid doing high jump ins, or be prepared to immediately RC or double Jump if they time Zakuro too slowly to hit during blockstop. Have 2K or neutral jump primed for Suzuran if they try to get in. Be wary of her common high low out of 6P > 2D or tk. Yozansen. The latter won't lead to damage without meter but it'll knock you back down.

Bridget(?): TBD

Chipp: TBD

Eddie: TBD

Kliff: TBD

Ky(5:5): Ken vs Ryu if Ken had triple Ryu's damage output but not a real Hadouken. Ky usually wants you out until he scores a hit and keeps you back out again. You can reaction GV under Stun Edge, whether in pressure or oki, if they space it improperly or don't FRC it. Stun Edge generally needs to be punished by reversal'ing or IB > 5K between hits. He wins most of the neutral game unless you call things out like 6P vs his f.S, but generally it's okay.

May: TBD. She can dance all over the place, but you tag her once and force her to sit down. She doesn't have a strong mixup either, but she does have a command throw which needs to be jumped out of instead of poked like you might be used to. You can DP Dolphins pretty easily, or 5P/5K them instead for meatier punishes and make her rethink things. 

Millia: TBD. See above, but with better mixup traded out for shit damage. She absolutely hates playing neutral with Sol due to fear of getting CH or even a single confirm into close range 2D > GV. You might get impatient with her flying everywhere, but keep in mind that she's on edge since she'll lose 50% to 80% off of a single confirm from you.

If she gets the initiative, she'll try her best to run a train and keep you from playing as she does with everybody. Keep in mind that you can generally jump out if she goes for H Disc on oki without using pin for proper setup time, and that you can reversal GV or VV through it if she doesn't meaty properly or safejump. 

Slayer(5:5) - Both of you want in, so this match gets wild and wacky. BDC gives Slayer a strong defensive edge as well, but can be easily OS'd to beat a lot of tools. You can GV things easily as he's trying to get in, as Slayer's mobility options are limited and generally lacks the means to get in for a punish if you whiff (unless he has meter for DOT, in which case be cautious)

Testament(?): TBD

Venom: TBD

Zappa(?): TBD

Slightly Unfavorable:

Axl(5.5:4.5): The funnest. Axl gets to play around you and shut down all of your air options. Be patient and play outside his range (which is far, yes), then go in when he calls out something incorrectly. 
If Axl makes a single bad call on 5P vs 2H, you get to get in on him and prevent him from doing anything. You can easily VV against 6H or IB to punish, GV through bad calls (not 2H or Rensen, but sometimes 2P). They might get cheeky and DP if you don't meaty Gunflame or go for the right move. Sometimes they'll wakeup super armor, which you can get around by OS'ing with low level moves gatling'd to each other.
Don't jump in with j.H or BB unless you want to get low profiled and whiff punished.

Johnny: Outranges you entirely. Have to commit to whiff punishes, GV, or 2D to get around a lot of things. Don't go in the air too much because you can't much context 6P. 2D is your friend as it goes under like 95% of his toolkit. 

Justice: Despite her having the ability to keep you and having to play around some very scary buttons, this matchup is quite manageable. Use f.S to poke nukes at max range and detonate them while taking minimal damage and avoiding knockdown. GV is also a callout against them, but they can easily manually detonate if they're paying attention. Don't jump in unless you want to get 2H'd.

Jam - Although she's one of the few characters that Sol outranges, she can match you in damage, too, and with better mobility. Floaty enough for 2D > GV.

Unfavorable

Dizzy(6:4): Fish shuts down your strong defensive tools by taking hits, and her air mobility can definitely make her hard to catch. FB Spike and Fish > Imperial Ray will essentially push you back out so you get to try going back in again.

Faust(6:4): Sol has a lot of trouble getting around many of Faust's hitboxes, and the ways out can be huge risks. Small hurtbox makes a lot of tech whiff. Not the funnest.
6P/GV/VV against 6H are strong but risky if not practiced. 2H can beat FB Chop if timed properly. Don't jump in.

Navigation

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Frame Data

Strategy

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Resources

Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R ^e

A.B.A ^[★]

Anji Mito ^[★]

Axl Low ^[★]

Baiken ^[★]

Bridget ^[★]

Chipp Zanuff ^[★]

Dizzy ^[★]

Eddie ^[★]

Faust ^[★]

I-No ^[★]

Jam Kuradoberi ^[★]

Johnny ^[★]

Justice ^[★]

Kliff Undersn ^[★]

Ky Kiske ^[★]

May ^[★]

Millia Rage ^[★]

Order-Sol ^[★]

Potemkin ^[★]

Robo-Ky ^[★]

Slayer ^[★]

Sol Badguy ^[★]

Testament ^[★]

Venom ^[★]

Zappa ^[★]

Click [★] for character's full frame data

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