Guilty Gear XrCise - Range 2
Difficulty Intermediate
Focus Range
The intention of these exercises is to help players more acquainted with Guilty Gear learn to take advantage of Just Defense to put themselves in more advantageous positions for responding to attacks. These techniques can allow you to escape and punish things that you would not otherwise have been able to through precise manipulation of your spacing or grant you the opportunity to reposition yourself for counters that would not have been possible otherwise. In many cases the execution requirements for these can be quite high, and it can require solid focus and awareness to be able to recognize when you have failed them and make the appropriate adaptation. These exercises will help build confidence in these skills.
These exercises are all under the Match Up section of the Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2 Missions. These missions can be found by going to Battle > Dojo > Missions, from the Start Menu. Be sure you have selected Match Up missions and not Universal missions, in order to get the correct exercise.
These exercises are a supplement to the Missions content and are not intended to be replacements. If you find yourself confused by some of the terminology used throughout this exercise guide, or if you are new to Guilty Gear, we strongly encourage you take a look at the Universal missions first, before using ours.
While you can attempt these exercises with any character, not all of the advice is applicable to certain characters, due to the high variability of character abilities in Guilty Gear. The most important thing to note in these exercises is just as much when an option cannot work for you, as when it can.
We highly encourage trying the End Goals of the exercise even if they may not utilize the most optimal approaches for your character, as the End Goals are meant to teach a broader concept. Just be sure to note when said approaches are less optimal.
As these exercises are intended to supplement the game's existing tutorial content, not all of them actually require completing the goal given in the Match Up mission. Mastering these exercises is less about completing the mission given by the game, and more about how you approach the situation that the mission presents.
Match Up Exercise 07
Character Requirement
No specific character is required for this exercise.
Goals
- Starting Goal - Practice blocking Millia's attack strings and familiarize yourself with them.
- Secondary Goal - Learn to Just Defend the first two hits of Millia's string, and then hit your heavy slash or throw after.
- End Goal - Learn to recognize when you have failed either of the two Just Defends and Roman Cancel the whiffed throw or the startup of the heavy slash on reaction to this.
Exercise Summary
The goal of this exercise is to get used to the concept that Just Defense can often take the mixup out of your opponent's pressure strings and provide additional options for dealing with them.
If you are unfamiliar with Millia as a whole, take a few minutes to just block and get used to the mixups she uses in this exercise. When blocking normally, Millia has various mixup options, and is able to throw you even if you can manage to defend from the left-right mixup.
Once you have a basic idea of what is going on, you should attempt to Just Defend both of the initial hits of the string. This throws off Millia's timing enough to make it possible for you to take an action of your own or, for some characters to even hit their heavy slash to interrupt her, or throw Millia as she goes into the rest of the mixup. This requires careful timing, but if you are able to predict when your opponent will start this sort of string, it is possible to take advanage of this effect.
After some practice you will be comfortable with correctly Just Defending Millia and throwing her or hitting heavy slash, but you will still not be completely perfect. Under pressure or in the heat of a match, it is not always possible to be sure you will Just Defend your opponent's strings. Therefore, the next stage of this exercise is to pay attention to when you fail one or both Just Defends, and therefore have failed your followup throw or button. When you are aware that you have failed a Just Defend, use your Roman Cancel to cancel the whiffed throw, or the startup of your heavy slash.
Once you are fully comfortable with this exercise, you should be comfortable with the use of Just Defend to weaken your opponents pressure strings when you are able to predict them, and will have the ability to recognize in advance when your Just Defense has failed and you need to Roman Cancel the followup you are about to attempt.
Additional Notes
The exact details of how you are able to complete this exercise will vary based on your character. Some characters will not have a suitable heavy slash and need to rely more directly on the throw. This may increase the awareness requirement for the Roman Cancel slightly, as if an unhelpful heavy slash comes out, it can put you in danger. Other characters may have various command normals on their heavy slash, which may or may not be useful. You will need to figure out which direction to hold with your heavy slash to make sure that you are able to get the most reliable positive outcome possible.
It is less important to be able to always get the Just Defense exactly right than it is to be able to recognize when you have failed and respond appropriately. It is next to impossible to be completely perfect at Just Defense when in a serious match with an opponent who is trying to keep you busy and get you to make a mistake. Being able to respond to your failures in a useful manner and recover from these situations is therefore more important than striving for actual absolute perfection.
Match Up Exercise 50
Character Requirement
You should generally use I-No for this exercise but there are other characters that you can use, as well as some variants are listed below.
Goals
- Starting Goal - Focus on blocking Answer's first strike, and grab or strike Answer when he is above your head.
- Secondary Goal - Learn what options you have to hit Answer in the air, and try to learn which ones you can used based on how well you blocked.
- End Goal - Learn to Just Defend, Super Jump, and and recognize wheher you can catch Answer with your Air Throw, based on your execution of the previous steps.
Exercise Summary
This exercise will help you practice difficult Just Defend, Super Jump and attack timings and learn your options and ranges against Answer's scrolls, and practice recognizing when you may have slightly failed at your execution of your defensive options.
You should experiement and learn what options you have in general, as well as which ones are available to you based on how well you blocked. Depending on what direction Answer moves, different options may or may not work, however if your timing is perfect enough, you can usually catch him with an Air Throw.
It is possible to catch Answer with an Air Throw even if you Super Jump. Doing this is harder than doing so from a normal jump but the Super Jump will also get you out of a lot of Answer's options. This increases the difficulty of the execution overall as you have to manage to Just Defend and then quickly input a Super Jump. To truly perfect this, you have to learn to recognize whether you have done the Just Defense correctly and confirm the Super Jump based on this.
Pay attention to your character's actual ability in terms of what ranges they move to, how quickly they can get into the air, and what they can do what they get there.
Variants
Characters may have other options for dealing with this situation as well. Feel free to experiment with other options for this situation based on your character.
I-No has a version of Chemical Love that goes up rather than forward, which can be used in this situation, however it is also relatively hard since Answer passes over your head making the timing or direction of the input difficult.
For Baiken, try to Just Defend the first hit then parry the second. Roman Cancel your parry and jump. This will also have the effect of negating the mixup if timed perfectly.
Jack-O' has Elysion Driver, and you may be able to Just Defend the first hit, then jump-back block the second.
Additional Notes
Answer can go in three directions once he reaches the first scroll. This may affect your ability to hit him depending on your choice of action, and how well you blocked. This is also an exercise where Just Defense has an effect.
Sometimes you will hit Answer even though you failed your Just Defense or some other aspect of the exercise becuase the direction Answer chose was vulnerable to your action. This gives you the opportunity to learn more about Answer's movement and what options are possible, overall.