GGST/Happy Chaos/Strategy: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 06:24, 29 January 2022

General Strategies

Stances

Happy's most famous tools are his two gun stances. Both are extremely important to his gameplan, and must be understood if you wish to utilize them effectively. The first is simply titled "At the Ready", and is a one-handed stance that Happy adopts upon pressing HS. The second is called "Steady Aim", and is a two-handed stance he enters by inputting 214S. At the Ready can be exited by pressing 2H, while Steady Aim can be cancelled out of by inputting another special that is not 236S, or by also pressing 2H. Both can also be exited by performing 22P/Reload.

At the ready (236S)
Steady Aim (214S)

At the Ready can be used for close and midrange pressure. Steady Aim can meanwhile be used as combo filler or a zoning tool. Using both stances effectively is key to playing Happy well. Since Happy is so neutral-focused, it's also important to understand the process of aiming. Every time his gun is drawn, Happy must manually track to his opponent with a cursor before he can hit them. Both of his stances also track people differently. At the Ready tracks very well against standing or crouching enemies, meaning it's very useful at close range and when on the offense. At the Ready tracks very poorly at far distances and against fast-moving opponents, so instead use Steady Aim pre-emptively in neutral to intercept approaches and keep your enemies locked down. Be careful with using Steady Aim up close however, as it's long startup and cancelling animations make it incredibly easy to punish.

Resources

The two main limiting factors to the gun are Concentration and Ammo. Each one is tracked independently above your Tension.

Concentration is the small orange bar above your Tension meter, and will turn blue and slowly drain if Happy is in one of his gun stances. If Happy fires a bullet, the gauge will drain much faster for a short period, ultimately limiting the amount of bullets that Happy can fire at any use of his gun. An important note about the Concentration gauge is that At the Ready and Steady Aim have differing drains on your Concentration. If we assume that the Concentration gauge is full, then Happy can fire four-to-five times in At the Ready before it fully empties, while Steady Aim can only fire three times before the gauge runs out. Concentration replenishes on it's own over time, but can be filled faster by either performing 214P/Focus (which fills the gauge up by a portion and gives him a buff that makes Concentration build faster for a while) or performing 214214P/Super Focus, which fills it completely at the cost of 50% of Happy's Tension.

Ammo are the small yellow bullets that sit above your Concentration meter. Each time Happy fires a bullet, it expends one pip from the ammo meter. By pressing 22P/Reload, Happy can initiate a reloading stance that freezes him in place while he fills his gun back up. He can also refill his bullets completely by performing his 632146S super "Deus Ex Machina". In total, Reload takes 66 frames to fully Reload Happy's gun, and 77 frames if it is not cancelled.

Both of these resources must be above zero for Happy to fire even a single shot. At the same time, keeping these resources filled is a huge part of Happy's gameplan and is an essential element to mastering him. Happy is massively punished if one of his gauges are empty. If his Ammo is empty, then the gun will not fire and Happy will open himself up to being punished. While that's bad, being out of Concentration is even worse- if the Concentration gauge hits zero, then it will turn red and Happy will be unable to enter At the Ready or Steady Aim at all until it fully refills. As an additional punishment, if the player still performs the inputs to enter either of his stances, then Happy will briefly fumble with his gun before putting it away. This leaves him open for a huge punish, meaning that keeping up both of his gauges is absolutely essential.

For beginners, focus on keeping your Ammo up over Concentration. Both are vital to performing well as Happy, but Ammo is far easier to replenish. In addition, while Reload can be cancelled out of by dashing or going into Steady Aim, Focus must run through the full animation to get the benefits of performing it. Excellent places to Reload would be after a hard knockdown, after a wallsplat, and at fullscreen. As a tip, Happy can reload approximately two, potentially three, bullets if he manages to land a wallsplat. If a combo will wallsplat, preemptively cancel into Reload after landing the final blow before the splat, then cancel out of it with 6S to force a wallbreak. Once you've mastered reloading, it's time to move onto Concentration. Learn when to stay back and refill your Concentration in order to make your offense safe. Utilize Happy's pokes, his evasive specials like 236K/Roll and 214K/Scapegoat, and Focus to keep your Concentration topped up well. The places you can Reload are often the same places you can Concentrate, but be warned about managing space between yourself and your opponent. Doing Concentration too close to an opponent during hard knockdown can result in you getting DP'd. Thankfully, Happy has a tool to mitigate this in his 236K/Scapegoat, which will be covered below.

As a final tip, rarely try to Reload and Concentrate in the same opportunity. In order to get away with refilling both of Happy's resources, your opponent needs to be afraid of your offense enough to fear reprisal as well as being far away from him. Refilling resources against an opponent that is fullscreen distance away and has been conditioned to sit still is one of the best examples of this. Use Steady Aim to keep the opponent blocking for long periods of time, and then condition them to allow you some of your resources back.

Close range

Unlike a lot of characters on the roster, Happy can combo off of his uncharged 5D. While the combo itself is often limited and low-damage, it can still help Happy's gameplan immensely and gives him a solid high/low mix game. Do note that the range of 5D is notoriously small, meaning you really have to condition opponents to get it to work. Often times, Happy's strike/throw mix is much easier and more rewarding, but keeping 5D as an option is good for scaring opponents. Happy can also perform 214K/Roll to slide through his opponents and cross them up with a left/right, or perform IAD j.D to do the same. An important part of all of these examples is that Happy's gun is what ultimately makes these mix-ups real. If you don't have Ammo or Concentration to shoot, then at best these can be low-damage pokes, and at worst they are extremely unsafe and will open you up for a combo. This is why managing your resources is so important.

Midrange

Steady Aim can be used as a zoning tool to punish bad approaches. If you're facing a mobile opponent at fullscreen, such as Giovanna or Sol, you can punish their approaches by entering Steady Aim and firing at them. If they were airdashing, then you can confirm into two or three more shots, which can take off anywhere from 15 to 20% depending on their total health. It's important to note that Steady Aim is a very slow stance to enter, meaning you must predict if an opponent is going to try a committal approach instead of trying to react to it. Look for airdashing opponents, or players who love using committal approaching tools like Trovão for Giovanna or Foudre Arc for Ky.

Fullscreen

Curse is a bouncing projectile that deals no damage when it comes in contact with the opponent. What it instead does is apply a debuff that makes it much easier for Happy's gun to lock on to opponents. It applies this buff on hit and on block, and the orb itself cannot be interrupted with projectiles. The cursed lock-on is much faster than non-cursed lock-on, so applying this buff can be incredibly useful for shutting out opponents from long range. The threat of Curse can also force people into an unfavorable situation. As an example, try throwing Curse at an opponent sitting fullscreen and then immediately enter Steady Aim. If your opponent sits still and takes the Curse, you can cancel out and approach with At the Ready to start your offense. Alternatively, you can rapidly cycle between Steady Aim shots and Reload to chip away at your opponent and punish them for allowing you to hit Curse. Doing either will prompt them to jump over, but this too can be reacted to. If they jump over it, you can catch them with a shot from Steady Aim and either force them back down or deal a solid amount of damage. This long-range pressure gives Happy his infamous zoning gameplan, and learning how to do it can really annoy your opponents into approaching, which can open them up to stray Steady Aim shots or pokes. Lastly, Curse also remains after wallbreak, meaning one can continue their offense after landing a wallbreak combo. How efficient!

Anti-air

Jump-in

Tension

Happy builds a ton of Tension with everything he does. His specials give him tons of meter, his combos absolutely shower him in meter, he can perform some powerful midscreen corner carries that reward him with wallbreak and Positive Bonus, and his general aggressive playstyle is heavily favored by the game's systems, meaning his meter gain in total is off the charts. This is perfect for Happy, since he can use meter as a panic button of sorts to save himself if he ever runs out of resources. His two supers are tailor made for this.

632146S/Deus Ex Machina is a tracking fullscreen super that instantly reloads Happy's bullets and is a strong whiff-punishment tool. While it does have some weaknesses, like a long startup time and no invincibility, it can be used for anything from extending Happy's combos to ensuring his ammo is fully reloaded in an emergency situation. 214214P/Super Focus is a psuedo-burst that instantly refills the Concentration meter and gives Happy an improved version of the buff that normal Focus gives. It can also be cancelled into from pretty much anything, meaning it can also work as a pressure reset if a particularly clever player utilizes it well.

Defense

Happy doesn't have very good defensive tools. Yellow Roman Cancel is very valuable on Happy, since it puts opponents just far away enough that a 2S or Microdash'd 5K can catch them before they react. Don't get too accustomed to using it though, since opponents can counter-YRC and nullify it's use. Thus, techniques like Instant Block and Faultless Defense are also important to use when pushing people back out. And when all else fails, pushing someone away and cancelling into a gun stance is a good way to prevent someone from charging back in. Overall, smart Happy Chaos players can use his meter bank to elevate his defense, but his lack of overall solid defensive options makes him somewhat bad at defense. Learn to use universal system mechanics to your advantage.

Pressure

Midscreen

Happy's main source of pressure at midscreen is cancelling his pokes into At the Ready shots. Happy can shoot his gun with 5H any time it is drawn. This includes any situation from crouching to running, and even while performing other normal attacks. A huge part of Happy's gameplan is learning to poke with his long reaching normals like 5K, 6K, f.S, 2S and 6S, and then cancelling their large ending lag periods with his gun to make them safe. As an initial blockstring, try poking with 5K, then confirming into 6K when they block it, and then firing your gun while microdashing another 5K. It should look something like this:

5K > 6K > ]H[ > 66 5K > ...

Alternatively, one can poke with his immensely far-reaching but slower 2S, and then perform this to initiate pressure:

2S > ]H[ > 66 5K > 6K > ]H[ > 66 5K > ...

From this blockstring, Happy can establish some very difficult-to-contest pressure by repeatedly forcing his opponent to block. Happy's bullets do decent damage on their own, but the threat of grabs will eventually force your opponent to try and mash out. Either double tap fire to hit them twice if you want to continue to throw, or frametrap them with 2S36 for massive damage and wall carry. An important thing to note about 236S is that it cannot be performed while in At the Ready, meaning you must learn to reholster your gun with 2H mid-string in order to keep the threat of your frametrap available. In particular, the period where you are microdashing after firing or while performing 6K is a good time for this, especially since there is no animation for the process of exiting At the Ready outside of a green pulse.

Corner

Okizeme

Clone Oki

Otherwise known as 236K/Scapegoat, Happy's clone is a anti-offense wall designed to make space for him while he replenishes resources. His clone can take one hit before dissipating, but that's any one hit- including the initial hit of a reversal or super. Happy also leaps backwards as he makes his clone, which makes space for him and allows him to better perform an uninterrupted Focus or Reload. This move can be used as a devilish oki tool due to how long it lasts, letting Happy Reload or Concentrate at short range, or just continue his offense after a knockdown. The particularly creative Happy's players will find that the leap backwards he does can be cancelled with a forward Purple Roman Cancel, creating a true 50/50 that cannot even be reversal'd out of. A tool this powerful naturally comes with a big downside, and here, that's 10% of Happy's total health every time he uses it. Thus, you need to be very considerate of how often you use Scapegoat, especially since Happy isn't the tankiest character on the roster.

Throw

2D

Fighting Happy Chaos

In neutral, you will spend more time looking at Chaos' Concentration Gauge than you will looking at the actual fight taking place on the screen. As long as Chaos has concentration, he can essentially guard crush you infinitely. Rather than getting impatient and giving him free burst safe combos, wait until he must replenish his resources and dash forward to take space. Depending on how mobile your character is, you may have to do this 2 or 3 times before you actually get a chance to touch him.
While many people focus on the zoning due to how oppressive it feels, it isn't actually backed by strong chip damage or mixups. Frankly, it's barely worth it for Chaos to do. Some Happy Chaos players may not even have this as a part of their plan.
What is really scary for many characters is his midrange buttons. After you get out of the zoning, playing footsies with Chaos is an unfair game for most. Depending on your character, you may be able to contest him with some success, but never be afraid to keep blocking.

Curse

It is a common misconception that Curse (236P) is something you must dodge. This is unfeasible. It will hit you, and you will deal with his increased accuracy. Really, this move is Chaos sacrificing time and stage control for more powerful zoning or pressure. When Chaos uses curse, rather than do a cheeky IAD that will most likely get you shot, simply take space by dashing forward a modest distance.

Scapegoat

Colloquially referred to as 'clone', Scapegoat (236K) sacrifices 42 of Chaos' health points to summon a statue of himself that will take one hit. Any move that hits the clone is incapable of hitting Chaos, no matter where he actually is, so don't be confused when you whiff on Chaos standing in front of his clone. This usually lets him regain some of his resources in relative peace. Obviously, Chaos regaining resources is disastrous, so this move must be answered in some way. The answer to this move, however, will depend greatly on what character you play and the situation that you are in. Try options out, keeping in mind that you can special or jump cancel normals off of the clone just as if you had hit an opponent.

Navigation

Guilty Gear -Strive- ^e

Click [★] for character's full frame data

Essentials
• HUD • Controls • FAQ •
The Basics
• Movement/Canceling • Offense • Defense • Gauges • Universal Strategy •
Detailed & Advanced Information
• Damage/Combo • Frame Data & System Data • Attack Attributes • Misc •
Archived Information
• Patch Notes • Tier Lists •

@@ Line 61: / Line 61: @@
 ==Fighting Happy Chaos==
+* In neutral, you will spend more time looking at Chaos' '''Concentration Gauge''' than you will looking at the actual fight taking place on the screen. As long as Chaos has concentration, he can essentially guard crush you infinitely. Rather than getting impatient and giving him free burst safe combos, wait until he must replenish his resources and dash forward to take space. Depending on how mobile your character is, you may have to do this 2 or 3 times before you actually get a chance to touch him.
+* While many people focus on the zoning due to how oppressive it feels, it isn't actually backed by strong chip damage or mixups. Frankly, it's barely worth it for Chaos to do. Some Happy Chaos players may not even have this as a part of their plan.
+* What is really scary for many characters is his '''midrange buttons.''' After you get out of the zoning, playing footsies with Chaos is an unfair game for most. Depending on your character, you may be able to contest him with some success, but never be afraid to keep blocking.
+===Curse===
+It is a common misconception that Curse ({{clr|1|236P}}) is something you must dodge. This is unfeasible. It will hit you, and you will deal with his increased accuracy. Really, this move is Chaos sacrificing time and stage control for more powerful zoning or pressure. When Chaos uses curse, rather than do a cheeky IAD that will most likely get you shot, simply take space by dashing forward a modest distance.
+===Scapegoat===
+Colloquially referred to as 'clone', Scapegoat ({{clr|2|236K}}) sacrifices 42 of Chaos' health points to summon a statue of himself that will take one hit. Any move that hits the clone is incapable of hitting Chaos, no matter where he actually is, so don't be confused when you whiff on Chaos standing in front of his clone. This usually lets him regain some of his resources in relative peace. Obviously, Chaos regaining resources is disastrous, so this move must be answered in some way. The answer to this move, however, will depend greatly on what character you play and the situation that you are in. Try options out, keeping in mind that you can special or jump cancel normals off of the clone just as if you had hit an opponent.
 ==Navigation==
 {{#lst:{{BASEPAGENAME}}/Data|Links}}
 {{#lst:GGST/Navigation}}