New to Skullgirls here and need some help!

[Linky97]

I'm an avid fighting game player and consider myself to be very good at them. I play ST, 3rd Strike, USF4, MK9, MKX, SFxT and i do very good at all of them both online and offline. BUT i have always had problems learning air dashers/anime games. Always! I have tried getting into MvC2, UMvC3, GG Xrd and haven't had any luck getting good at them at all. I got Skullgirls about 4 days ago and i have been spending my time playing through the tutorial and the trials. But as soon as i try to play vs the CPU(Not going to even bother with online yet) then i'm playing awful. It's annoying. What character do you recomend me to use? And how many characters should my team have? I know wich characters i want to main when i learn the game, but i just want to learn the neutral game and the spacing right now. Which characters are easy to pick up and play for someone like me?

BTW i i'll be maining Valentine(cuz of the Strider colour duh), Beowulf(Cuz of the Alex colour duh) and Big Band(Q, anyone?) when i eventually learn the game(also kinda intrested in Eliza). And any tips for playing better would be good. THNX! :)

 

[Meow-Professor]

What character do you recomend me to use?

Apart from whoever you want to use, characters like Fukua or Cerebella are fairly easy to pick up.
Fukua is just naturally easy and straightforward. Cerebella can rack up a lot of damage with relatively low skill.

And how many characters should my team have?

Depends how many characters you want to play.
I'd recommend for the time being just playing 1 character, so you can focus your attention more to give you time to learn things. Two and three are also fine if that is what you'd like to play, but it might be difficult for you to improve with multiple characters.

BTW i i'll be maining Valentine(cuz of the Strider colour duh), Beowulf(Cuz of the Alex colour duh) and Big Band(Q, anyone?) when i eventually learn the game(also kinda intrested in Eliza). And any tips for playing better would be good. THNX! :)

Check out the stickied threads in each of these character's subforum. There you'll find combos, tips, resets, etc. to help you improve.

 

[Fumako]

What character do you recomend me to use?

Bigband, he's fairly straightforward and is, in my opinion, the easiest to use and learn.

And how many characters should my team have?

For now?
Run solo and just play.
Add teammates later on when you're more familiar with your solo and know what weaknesses you have to cover up with assists.

And any tips for playing better would be good.

>Pick Bigband
>Get comboed off of oki over and over in corner
>[] xN
>Win game

 

[CaioLugon]

Fukua is the easiest character if you just want to learn the neutral, she doesn't have an airdash and the double jump gives you more freedom to move around without commiting as much (I find her pretty boring to play though, so it's up to you).

Since you seem to be pretty familiar with other fighting games I definitely recommend starting with two charaters to get used to the neutral game and the team mechanics (pick L Beat Extend assist and whenever the opponent is close MASH IT).

This is the thread you go to when you're looking for any gameplay information: http://skullgirls.com/forums/index.php?threads/beginner-resources-thread.242/

And here's BnB for all the characters: http://skullheart.com/index.php?threads/general-bnb-compendium.4072/

And if you want to know good players as a reference to watch and look out for:

Valentine: CloudKing, Duckator
Beowulf: Dekillsage, iDante, Jorge ("El" Balacko Maniactico on steam)
BigBand: McPeanuts, Yaya, Jorge

 

[skull person]

>Pick Bigband
>Get comboed off of oki over and over in corner
>[] xN
>Win game

Stop saying this to beginners who ask for help.

---

@Linky97

You can just avoid playing the Air Dash characters if you're not a big fan of them and don't play games that have them.
I don't play Air Dashers either, I don't think Dekillsage likes to play Air Dashers as well.

Parasoul is a really cool ground based character with Sonic Booms and Flash Kicks and long disjointed normals much scarier than Claw's.
A lot of 3S players seem to like her.
She can be tricky to play at a high level.

Fukua is a great pick for just learning the game.
She has fireballs, command grabs, overheads, air fireballs, good supers, safe DHC's, good safe vortex, etc.
She's just missing an airdash, which is perfect!

Cerebella is a slower character without an air dash but she is just PACKED full of every tool you could need.

I'd start with one of those 3 if you want to play a non air dasher character.
(Double, too.)

If you want to continue with Valentine and learn all the movement based stuff she can do, that's fine too.

Valentine is the neutral game queen of SG.
She doesn't have any super fast command grabs or reliable overheads to get in like others do; She just plays really solid safe neutral with all of her mobility options and capitalizes on her opponents mistakes to get rolling.
(The AI doesn't really show this very well because everything is just RNG and % chances for them to get hit or not; Or you just exploit them over and over again and it never learns.)

There's usually plenty of beginners out there if you want to try playing with people your level!

I'd recommend opening up a 2 slot lobby and just grinding sets with the other beginner.
If they are clearly an expert you can always kick them by hovering the cursor over their name and pressing LK.

 

[Nuuance]

next time make the title more descriptive please...

but welcome & yeah id say the other players nailed it pretty well. These are my 2 cents in regards to accessibility tiers.

Spoiler

Just remember I'm not a pro player & this is my opinion, although I have been playing a very long time (in relation to sg) & I've tried each character a substantial amount.

A tier Accessible Characters: characters very easy to pickup & super-straightforward. Not too many (if any) unorthodox moves

• Filia: she's the first one to pickup honestly. Very very straight forward character, has a fast air dash, dragon punch move & super...crazy mixups & incredibly easy to learn or even pickup. Assists are slightly above average.
• Fukua: filia's clone from the April fools joke that got made into an actual character. To be honest I feel Fukua is even MORE beginner-friendly, simple and just as deadly. However since filias been around longer, I include Filia first. Assist-wise...soooo many options.
• Big Band: he's actually a pretty deep character & if someone learns to parry with him well just forget about it. Taunt enables level 3 damage worthy supers with just 1 meter...assists are some of the best in-game, solid supers, solid damage...big band is an incredibly complete character & works well with any team. I just wish he wasn't so damn big lol...I hate massive characters but I'm even thinking about changing my mind.
• Cerebella: while Filia is arguably the main character of skullgirls, actually Cerebella is just as loved. With the only abstract thing being the 360 motion super, Cerebella is a strong grappler character who's actually pretty mobile & not that gigantic contrary to most grappler archetypes. Has a grab for every situation & most fearful level 3 you don't wanna get caught by lol. Super incredible assist options with her too.

B tier Accessible Characters: great overall characters, but often have little quirks to learn (usually very simple quirks)

• squigly: wow I've been seeing so much of her lately it's crazy. Squigs is unusual because she requires patience when playing. She primarily waits and reacts rather than proactively going after people. but this is good because player don't necessarily have to have a plan with her. A huge plus is that her combo structure is among the simplest in the game. However, big big damage and high level play requires mastery of a stance cancel mechanic which allows you to link chains most other characters wouldn't be able to. Actually though, this isn't the main reason she's B-tier...(in my opinion). her defence is quite horrid. If you get stuck with squigs...prepare to get stomped considerably. Despite this, she's very easy to use even ignoring cancels.
• Eliza: even more than squigs I see eliza. While I personally feel sekhmet is lacking a lot, they did the most they could with her budget-wise. Eliza is a blast to play and very satisfying. Moves are simple, but often situational. Her bnbs are pretty universal only requiring slight changes easy to remember for swaggy ones. Only real reason I feel Eliza's B tier is because she doesn't have invincible supers (but an ok DP) & this requires you to have good defence (which she has many great tools) & thus a decent grasp on elementary/intermediate skills. Despite being annoyed with this and how her taunt hardly does anything, she can be a BEAST if you use sekhmet at the perfect times. Her sekhmet mode has HYPER armour, which means it can go through any move. Only thing you gotta watch out for are throws & hit-grab attacks along with snapbacks. But again, if used pre-emotively, you'll make a lot of people paranoid. Oh & her tag-in is GODLIKE. You can even get full damage combos off it :) Or even combo INTO her tag-in with all characters. So yeah. Also has a healthy assist-game.
• Parasol: I don't know incredibly much about parasol but from playing her, she seems super transparent in regards to moves. What you see is what you get. She IS a charge character meaning you'll have to get in the habit of learning to hold back a lot, but aside from that, she is a well-balanced character with a plethora of tools. One of the most annoying dp's in the game aside from big band & lots of command normals for beginners to randomly play with and confuse opponents.
• Peacock: while easy to spam projectiles with peacock, you actually have to know what you're doing as a solo one. With an assist, the difficulty level goes down dramatically, but as a solo, she has limited tools to get in besides trying to use falling items to keep opponents locked in block animation so you can decide to go low or throw right as they try to do something. Many like peacock & she's actually pretty simple and might actually be argued an A-tier, but in terms of accessibility many of her moves require you to get used to unique spacing, mindgames, and timing.
• Valentine: an incredibly solid character & famous for being point & building meter quickly, Valentine is the fast rush down character. He reason she's B-tier is because she actually doesn't have a normal air dash. It's at an angle. Also many of her combos require specific timing and often needs to adjust combos specifically from character to character. Most normals aside from her lights aren't to be used outside of combos & can make getting in with her hard for new players. Her grab is pretty infamous, but it scales damage and makes you do more work in the end having to reset or settle for half damage. Assists are TERRIBLE though...tag-in however, not too bad.

C Tier Accessible Characters: usually have uncanny ways of moving or 2 quite different forms or modes of fighting. If not that, they might have very limited tools for getting in.

• Fortune: Fortune is a character that's kinda weird. You can play with her in 2 modes: head on or head off. Head on is more powerful, but neutral is much harder. Head off is easier to get in, but weaker and often needs meter. Learning to switch gracefully between the 2 &/or use both masterfully is key. You COULD just learn to use one mode...then work on the other & in that capacity I suppose she'd be A or B tier, but assuming you wanna have her as one of your mains, it wouldn't be good to limit yourself like that. Great character, but much to learn.
• Beowulf: I LOVE Beowulf and he's probably the most fun character in the game to be honest, buttttt the way he moves around requires a bit of forethought. He has a tiny little hop which opens up many options to confuse foes on their wake up. But when trying to get through zoning...if you don't have a handle on him, it won't work. Also, he, like fortune has 2 modes: chair & no chair. Combos starting with the chair will do the most damage, but you often need to throw it as a projectile to get in. This COMPLETELY changes most of his fierce strength moves, thus changing his combos drastically. Beowulfs damage is AMAZING & honestly doesn't really need meter to do damage as his bnbs are often comfortably above 7k -- what some characters struggle to reach even with meter. Has a very cool taunt mechanic and increases damage to some supers with it. Assists are meh...but his wake up options are pretty good with & w/out chair. If mastered, this character will RUIN anyone he gets his hands on (literally). One of the most complete characters but quite a learning curve needed.
• Double: double is weird in that she borrows moves or forgotten moves from the rest of the cast and makes combos putting them together. She's incredibly damaging, but if an opponents defence is good, it could be hard to get in with her. She has one of the best j.hps in the game & is one of the best anchors...but you really need to be solid with her & have a bit of an idea of how the cast works before getting to her. Also a very annoying DP assist.
• Robo-Fortune: the newest DLC character & in my opinion one of the most creative & flavourful characters in the game if not the most. Unfortunately though it doesn't negate the fact she has a bit of an abstract move set....so Fukua & peacock are zoners through & through with at least 6 types of long distances moves each. But robo-fortune...yeah, she has 3 strengths of lasers which are very effective & REALLY REALLY annoying if done right. They reach the fastest of any zoning move too, but her remaining moves are HIGHLY situational. In fact 3 require her to create floating head drones (c.hk). Unless in the corner, they're not comboable either. And her wake up is simply atrocious. Probably the worst in the game. No invincible supers & her tag-in is one level above atrocious. Combos require precise timing & her assists are meh...try her out by all means but in my opinion I feel she's not a great character. Don't get me wrong, all characters can kick ass at this game but her tools are limited to this half-zoning thing & half..idk. Anyways, I'd rate her at tier D if I could.
• Painwheel: actually not really a hard character per se...but you need to master flight cancelling & as a squigly player I NEVER was able to get it despite only being the opposite motion. Just need more time with her I suppose. Know this: if you see a Painwheel player, WATCH OUT. This character strikes fear into the hearts of many including myself. Painwheel can fly around the screen & knowing when to hover is something you gotta learn. Also half of her normals can be held down to give her armour. Whatever attacks she absorbs is inflicted back on the enemy from these attacks to my knowledge. Not sure if it's 100% retribution but it's enough. She's a very deep character & a pain (haha) to fight against but satisfying to use. If you want a challenge & a good character I'd pick her. Assists are good enough and wake up game is alright I suppose. Been thinking about potentially picking her up myself.

Remember this is just an accessibility tier list. I tried to figure in actual tier a little too, but I think it's pretty accurate. In short, my recommendation...: Filia is a great character to learn basic mechanics of the game. Parasol or Eliza if you think you want a medium challenge from the jump & Double if you wanna sizeable challenge.

 

[Linky97]

Stop saying this to beginners who ask for help.

---

@Linky97

You can just avoid playing the Air Dash characters if you're not a big fan of them and don't play games that have them.
I don't play Air Dashers either, I don't think Dekillsage likes to play Air Dashers as well.

Parasoul is a really cool ground based character with Sonic Booms and Flash Kicks and long disjointed normals much scarier than Claw's.
A lot of 3S players seem to like her.
She can be tricky to play at a high level.

Fukua is a great pick for just learning the game.
She has fireballs, command grabs, overheads, air fireballs, good supers, safe DHC's, good safe vortex, etc.
She's just missing an airdash, which is perfect!

Cerebella is a slower character without an air dash but she is just PACKED full of every tool you could need.

I'd start with one of those 3 if you want to play a non air dasher character.
(Double, too.)

If you want to continue with Valentine and learn all the movement based stuff she can do, that's fine too.

Valentine is the neutral game queen of SG.
She doesn't have any super fast command grabs or reliable overheads to get in like others do; She just plays really solid safe neutral with all of her mobility options and capitalizes on her opponents mistakes to get rolling.
(The AI doesn't really show this very well because everything is just RNG and % chances for them to get hit or not; Or you just exploit them over and over again and it never learns.)

There's usually plenty of beginners out there if you want to try playing with people your level!

I'd recommend opening up a 2 slot lobby and just grinding sets with the other beginner.
If they are clearly an expert you can always kick them by hovering the cursor over their name and pressing LK.

I don't dislike charactes with airdashes, i just suck at games that have mobility options like the MvC series. Games that have double jumps and airdashes as a universal mechanic. I don't dislike them, i would love to play any character that can airdash!

Oh and i don't feel that a charge character(Parasoul) is a good option in such a fast paced game. It's like handicapping yourself, or am i wrong?

 

[Linky97]

next time make the title more descriptive please...

but welcome & yeah id say the other players nailed it pretty well. These are my 2 cents in regards to accessibility tiers.

Better?

How many frames is Cerebells command grabs? And is her 360 super a 1 frame command grab? How many frames are normal grabs in general in this game? How many frames is the fastest normal in the game? Does reversals have invisibility or armor? I need answers that the tutorial didnt explain!!!!
Many people say that SG tutorial is the best one ever in a fighting game, it is amazing and ONE of the best ones but honestly Killer Instincts is much better.

 

[Meow-Professor]

Better?

For future reference, your thread title should include the topic of the thread, in this case, something like "What characters should I play?".

How many frames is Cerebells command grabs? And is her 360 super a 1 frame command grab? How many frames are normal grabs in general in this game? How many frames is the fastest normal in the game? Does reversals have invisibility or armor? I need answers that the tutorial didnt explain!!!!

Her Merry-Go-Rilla command grab is ten frames, Diamond Drop is four, Execellabella is ten, and Grab Bag is 14.
Her 360 (Ultimate Showstopper) is four frames. You can find this information by turning on frame data in training mode.

All normal LP + LK grabs are 7 frames.
Reversals have invincibility frames. A lot of supers do and can be used as a reversal, but you also have meterless options like Filia's Updo or Parasoul's Napalm Pillar. Some moves do have armor, though, like Cerebella's Lock N' Load.

 

[Lex]

Most normals aside from her lights aren't to be used outside of combos & can make getting in with her hard for new players. Her grab is pretty infamous, but it scales damage and makes you do more work in the end having to reset or settle for half damage. Assists are TERRIBLE though... Tag-in however, not too bad.

Her normals (especially jumping normals) are great and she's probably one of the easiest characters to get in with as a beginner (IMO) due to her great aerial presence. Her grab doesn't scale anymore than other grabs (or does it?) so I think it might be worth mentioning that. Also, I always thought her tag-in was pretty trash due to how slow it is?

Hardest part of playing Val for new player is how she has no meterless reversals.

 

[Sotherius]

I don't dislike charactes with airdashes, i just suck at games that have mobility options like the MvC series. Games that have double jumps and airdashes as a universal mechanic. I don't dislike them, i would love to play any character that can airdash!

Oh and i don't feel that a charge character(Parasoul) is a good option in such a fast paced game. It's like handicapping yourself, or am i wrong?

The charge times in this game are very short. And also, while this is a fast paced game, the neutral is very important.

 

[skull person]

Oh and i don't feel that a charge character(Parasoul) is a good option in such a fast paced game. It's like handicapping yourself, or am i wrong?

Charge time is really fast in this game so it's not really an issue.
It's 30F.

You can even do Command Normals that require forward, into Sonic Booms with buffering because it's so short :P
, (,+)

 

[Linky97]

Fukua is the easiest character if you just want to learn the neutral, she doesn't have an airdash and the double jump gives you more freedom to move around without commiting as much (I find her pretty boring to play though, so it's up to you).

Since you seem to be pretty familiar with other fighting games I definitely recommend starting with two charaters to get used to the neutral game and the team mechanics (pick L Beat Extend assist and whenever the opponent is close MASH IT).

This is the thread you go to when you're looking for any gameplay information: http://skullgirls.com/forums/index.php?threads/beginner-resources-thread.242/

And here's BnB for all the characters: http://skullheart.com/index.php?threads/general-bnb-compendium.4072/

And if you want to know good players as a reference to watch and look out for:

Valentine: CloudKing, Duckator
Beowulf: Dekillsage, iDante, Jorge ("El" Balacko Maniactico on steam)
BigBand: McPeanuts, Yaya, Jorge

It seems like both CloudKing and Duckator are using the same team. Valentine, Fillia and Double. Why is that? Is it a toptier team? Do Double and fillias assists compliment Valentines shortcomings?

 

[CaioLugon]

Do Double and fillias assists compliment Valentines shortcomings?

Yup.

Back in the SDE days, x/Filia/Double was the top tier team, and it's still very strong today.

 

[Linky97]

Yup.

Back in the SDE days, x/Filia/Double was the top tier team, and it's still very strong today.

SDE?

 

[Meow-Professor]

SDE?

A previous version of Skullgirls. SDE stands for the "Slightly Different Edition".

 

[CaioLugon]

SDE?

You can see the patch history here: http://wiki.shoryuken.com/Skullgirls/Patch_History

 

[North888]

It depends on which version of SG you play. Either way, check out McPeanut's guide and the general guide on Big Band, it's some pretty crazy stuff. If you have steam, a number of other players can add you. I main both Big Band and Beowulf. While not the best player, I'd be happy to help with anything, though I don't know the other characters super well from a competitive view aside from Double.

Either way, get steam and join the BnB. Full of people who play and we're always happy to try to setup some games to show you stuff.

As far as team compossition...It's very hard to tell. You can really go any team setup as long as your team order and assists support your playstyle and the characters you're using. I always have Big Band on point because parry and his generally high damage, but most people play Beowulf on point since his assists tend to leave him weaker after tagging in. Valentine is a good defence cracker though, and I'd definitely suggest not having her on point so you can use some of her great assists. Beowulf is probably one of the tougher ones to learn, so probably go over him first.

Anything we can do to help another player get good, yah? :D

EDIT: If you're trying to learn neutral and spacing, Double has some good and simple normals. She takes them from other characters and it makes hers translate well to other character's neutral in some aspects. Additionally, Parasoul's normals and speed are pretty standard in the middle and her great normals made a good starting point for neutral. Since it seems you already understand a lot of the basic nuetral mumbo jumbo, I'd suggest one of those two or Valentine if you want to start learning your main team.