Painwheel Guide: Hey guys Taki here. First of all as I stated earlier this is a tutorial I found cuz it maybe was the best put together one yet, but sadly it was incomplete. So I just edited out those sections & changed sum stuff since it was kinda outdated & in no way am I taking credit for sumones elses hardwork & I dont think Im qualified to be the only source of information, so anything that anyone believes should be added, please post it. PAINWHEEL Painwheel is a hard hitting, meat grinder of a character that will put the hurt on anyone unfortunate enough to be scratched by her Gae Bolga. She has a slightly awkward arsenal of attacks, but generally has a tool for most (but not all situations). Get hit by her once though and your character is very likely dead, no matter how much life they have left. Table of Contents 1.Why Play Painwheel 2.Mobility 3.Throws 4.Normals 5.Specials 6.Blockbusters 7.Combos 1.Why Play Painwheel: Painwheel generally sits in first position on teams and struggles more than some characters solo, due to missing some key defensive tools. This is far from a rule however; Painwheel, though somewhat of a specialist, can fit anywhere on any team if you use a bit of creativity. Painwheel is very likely the scariest character in the game once she lands a hit. Though every character in Skullgirls has some scary resets, Painwheels are notable for 2, very big reasons. Firstly, they can really come at any time; the nature of Painwheels moves and flight mechanic mean that she really can force a mixup on you at ANY time, often when you arent expecting anything at all. The sheer amount of reset opportunities Painwheel creates are unmatched, though others like Fillia and Ms.Fortune arent too far behind. Secondly, Painwheel gets a huge amount of guaranteed damage off any hit. Her combos are also very front loaded, meaning you can reset fairly early, building your opponent little meter, but dealing a heap of meterless damage with a (fairly likely) chance at a fresh combo. Pros - Amazing reset potential - High damage - Tricky mixups, difficult to block - Not at all meter dependant; she can make use of it, but doesnt need to - Good at baiting reversals Cons - Lacks a meterless reversal - Overall subpar anti air options - For a flight character, she has some pretty awkward aerial normals that are easy to beat out - Flight is very easy to anti air - Poor mobility outside flight - Struggles to move much at all without an assist - Suffers against zoning - Can struggle to confirm off assists in many situations other characters would easily 2.Mobility: Painwheels mobility in an interesting one. With flight, she would seem to be a highly mobile character, and in a way this is true. However, Painwheel unprotected is incredibly vulnerable in flight, meaning you cannot fly overly predictably or spend too long in flight. Painwheels ground mobility is not great, she cannot wavedash, but can block while dashing, making it still quite useful for edging your way in against opponents. Another option is the Pinon Dash, but this is not a safe approach at all, unless properly covered by an assist, you very rarely see this used as a mobility tool by good Painwheels. Death Crawl is an incredibly risky option, but an option none the less. You should only use this incredibly sparingly as an approach, to catch your opponent off guard. It is not very useful at all from range and is obbviously very bad if your opponent isnt doing something and blocks it. Not a great option, but it is one, so I mentioned it. Painwheels jumps are a pretty good option, mostly because you block the whole time. Superjump can avoid a lot of things that you would be forced to block at normal jump height, making it quite useful for getting over projectiles. Dashing immediately before a jump allows you to keep momentum and travel a long distance in one jump. This is highly useful and an option you should be using a lot. Obviously there is also flight. Now dont get me wrong, flight is great and the thing that defines Painwheel, but you cannot simply fly at your opponent expecting to get in. In fact if you dont have any assists, you probably wont be getting in with flight alone, ever. The trick to Painwheels mobility is to use your different options and move aroudn the screen in odd patterns, never predictably. Cancelling out of normals and back into flight is a great way of moving around when the screen isnt full of projectiles, this changes your trajectory and can cause opponents to whiff anti air attempts. It is for this reason that I think Painwheel works best at about a half a screens length. The range at which a neutral j.MP is likely to catch opponents sticking out their limbs. From here, Painwheel can play aggressively, but safely even without assists. The idea is to get your opponent to make a move and then move in for a punish or mixup. Finding these holes and picking your pokes appropriately is the key to landing the all important first hit with Painwheel. Down + j.LP/j.LK/j.MK are great to reground yourself if you fear your opponent is going to stick out something that will catch you, but you need to be fast and pre-empt them for this to work. Flight cancels also allow for very easy and INCREDIBLY ambiguous crossups, most opponents wil llearn to block Painwheel high at the appropriate times and react to the landing, making this a critical mixup for Painwheel. Painwheel can also use her j.HP hatred guard armour charge to allow her some extra mobility. You can use this to absorb assists/hits and then cancel back into flight, attack the opponent, or land safely on the ground. 3.Throws: The reason I am mentioning throws before normals, is because they are very tied to mobility. Throws are very important to Painwheels game, probably as much as they are to Valentine. This doesnt mean purely on offense, throws are a huge threat to Painwheels flight cancel pressure and approach. This means you need to become very good at throw teching with Painwheel. This is especially important when you are activating flight, this is a very vulnerable time for Painwheel, without assist coverage you are very open to throws, so be on alert for the tech. Painwheels own throw game is also quite impressive, because she has no grounded overheads and flight is quite reactable, low/throw is Painwheels bread and butter mixup game on the ground. Whenever you find yourself at advantage next to your opponent, the first thing on your mind should be throw, c.LK or baiting a reversal. Painwheel has very easy conversions off her throws that all lead into quite decent damage and the meat grinder reset game. I will go into this further in the Conversions section. Throw is also very fast (Painwheels fastest move?) compared to Painwheels generally slow normals, this makes it useful as a poke/punish in a way as you will land it in many places you could not land a normal. 4.Normals: Notable normals: s.HP,c.LK,s.MK,s.HK,c.HK,j.MP,j.MK,j.HP,j.HK s.LP (Hatred Guard 1) Gae Bolga sticks out of Painwheels shoulder. The most notable thing about this normal, is it is relatively fast. It has a hatred guard which can be used to counter poke close opponents, but this is your go to when you really really need to hit right now, throw is often a better option than s.LP here though, unless you fear a jump. c.LP (Hatred Guard 1) Painwheel lurches forward on the ground and Gae Bolga sticks out from her arm. Fairly unremarkable normal as far as Im aware, would be happy to be told otherwise. s.MP (Hatred Guard 2) (Launch) Painwheel thrusts her hand into the air and large Gae Bolga spikes emerge from all over her arm. Is a workable anti air with its hatred guard charge. Fairly unremarkable apart from that, except it is your staple launcher when you are too far away to land s.HK. c.MP (Hatred Guard 2) (Low) The Buer spins closely in front of Painwheel on the ground, hitting 4 times. Pretty decent normal, decent range and hits 4 times so is easy to confirm and confert. s.HP (Hatred Guard 3) A long ranged, double arm, Gae Bolga spike punch. This is a great normal and easily one of Painwheels staples. Really good range and ridiculous hitstun, it is very important for her midscreen combos. You can cancel it into flight to try and escape or continue pressure, be careful as this is not strictly safe. It has 3 hits of armour on its hatred guard charge, but is not as useful as it sounds because of the very long time it takes to charge and long startup even if you release early. It will stagger on a full charge, however. Can also be used to absorb through bursts as a burst bait and land a flight mixup for a reset. c.HP (Hatred Guard 3) Painwheel punches the ground in front of her. Most notable thing about this normal is that it hits really hard and causes a ground bounce. The bounce is no longer very high, so it isnt as abusable midscreen (can still be used) but with new flight cancel properties on her HK Buer Reaper, it allows for some brutally damage corner combos. s.LK Gae Bolga spikes stick out of both Painwheels feet. This normal is fairly unremarkable, mostly used in combos. c.LK (Low) Painwheel sticks a leg out to its length and a long Gae Bolga spike emerges frm her ankle. This is the holy grail of Painwheels poking game. It is slow for a light, but fast for a Painwheel normal and has rather ridiculous range for a fast low. This will most likely be your go to footsie tool as well as chain starter and low mixup. s.MK (Hatred Guard 2) Painwheel sticks her legs in the air and Gae Bolga spikes run up them. This normal is WEIRD. 3 hits and drags the opponent into the air. The hitbox is, well completely wonky. The 3 hitboxes ride up her legs at an odd angle. Note that this strangely makes it her most reliable anti air, but it is slow and it is the 3rd hit you are trying to anti air with, so you need to be fast with reactions or predict. It is hard to convert off from range though, I will cover this more in the Conversions section. It has a 2 hit hatred guard, but this is rarely used on this normal. c.MK Painwheel sticks out both hands and a foot with Gae Bolga spikes. This normal looks low, but strangely, does not hit low. This limits its use somwhat with its inferior reach to c.LK, making it mostly a (important) combo normal. s.HK (Launch) Painwheel bends back her knee in an upward sweep, followed by a Gae Bolga spike emerging vertically from her now broken leg. Another WEIRD normal. This thing has very, very low range and hits 3 times, first pulling the opponent back into Painwheel then launching with the 3rd hit. This is what you should be using as a launcher in your combos for maximum damage. Its weird hitbox makes it not overly useful at neutral, though it can anti air. However its pull back property makes it useful for resets. Flight cancelling the first or second hit allows you to do an INCREDIBLY ambiguous almost instant left/right mixup on an airbourne opponent, making it next to impossible to reversal and very stable, no matter how many times you run it on one opponent. c.HK (Hatred Guard 3) (Low) This is Painwheels sweep and it is a good one. Boasting even more range than her s.HP, this thing hits a long distance, being a sweep however it is impossible to convery. That is, unless you fully charge it, at which point it causes a red bounce. It is still hard to combo out of apart from Death Crawl or assists however and it has a very long charge time, making that property as good as useless in my opinion. Nevertheless this normals use in the neutral makes it invaluable in my mind. f+HK The Buer extends in front of Painwheel and each blade slices down in succession. An interesting normal, but one that I admittedly dont use very often. It has good range, not as far as c.HK but slightly more than s.HP. You need to press HK for each hit, meaning you can stop at any time, for whatever reason. The fourth and final hit causes an identical ground bounce to c.HP. It is horendously slow however making it difficult to use as a poke (Ive seen Skyking use it to effect however, so it must be possible). Easy to convert off, however you will have to use the OTG up if you dont want to waste your lights so early in the combo. j.LP (High) Gae Bolga spikes stick out at a downward angle. Really fast, otherwise not overly noteworthy. Use it to stuff jumpins, but you could just throw instead. j.MP (High) The Buer sticks out a fair distance in front of Painwheel then spins. A 4 hit, incredibly slow startup move with very good range. Tends to be overused by new Painwheel players and underused by old Painwheel players from what Ive seen (and experienced in my own play). It has a long reach and is active for days, meaning it a great pre emptive air to air OR air to ground. It is also quite good as a confusing crossup option when your opponent is used to you using her faster normals as it can mess with their reactions, crossing up when they think it shouldnt j.HP (Hatred Guard 2) (High) The Buer charges behind Painwheel then she throws it forward and above her (the hatred copter). This move has what is almost undoubtedly Painwheels most useful hatred guard armour properties. It only absorbs 2 hits, but you can maintain momentum while charging and then basically do whatever you want, let it go or special cancel (especially flight). Its hitbox is above Painwheel so it isnt a good air to ground and even a questionable air to air to just throw out, but this move is used mostly for its armour and trajectory changing properties. Hits 4 times like j.MP, the last knocking the opponent away (a perfect distance to throw after a flight cancel and short forward flight). You can also use the armour when near the ground to safely reground yourself. Master its armour window and incorporate it into you Painwheels movement, it is a great tool. j.LK (High) Gae Bolga spikes stick out from under Painwheels broken knees. Pretty similar to j.LP except it is at a shallower angle and slightly slower. Has a far better air to ground hitbox though, interestingly. j.MK (High) Painwheel turns around and kicks back in a crescent with a Gae Bolga spike sticking out from her ankle. This move actually doesnt have the greatest hitbox although it looks quite large, Painwheels hurtbox extends further down (but not forward) than the hitbox. Nevertheless, it is decent as both an air to air and air to ground. It has further uses though. Because it moves Painwheels body backwards, it creates a slightly awkward movement when flight cancelled, making it one of her key normals in her flight cancelling game at neutral. It also has disproportionately long hitstun, allowing combos easily even when hit at a height. One of the key overheads you will use in her mixup game as well. Overall a very good aerial normal. j.HK (High) The Buer turns into a grinder in front of Painwheel. Turn hitboxes on in training mode then try this move. Now you know why EVERY Painwheel wants to be above you at all times. I honestly think this is Painwheels single best normal (nice that it ended up at the end of the list). It is pretty stupid, it pretty much creates a shield around Painwheel and performs a multi-hitting, brutal sounding overhead attack. It will get you pushblocked, a lot, but its ridiculous hitboxes make it absolutely vital for Painwheel. Use it on offense, use it on defense, use it to cross up, use it for everything. It is good, abuse it. 5.Specials: Gae Bolga Stinger qcf+LP (strange Stagger) Painwheel shoots a barrage of Gae Bolga stingers directly in front of her on the ground. On contact, this causes an odd, stagger like state. This state is not shakeable or throwable and lasts a fair while. Essentially this is a great tool for combo extension. It does scale your combo, however, so it should be used late when your options are exhausted. It really should never be used outside of combos. A special note about this move is that it is fantastic at setting up s.LP resets, which I will go into further in the Resets section. qcf+MP Painwheel fires one or more Gae Bolga spikes forwards in a slight fan formation. This move can be charged. Charging will increase the amount of stingers fired. Uncharged this can be used as a normal fireball (though it is slow to start up and recover) or to catch opponents off guard as a cancel from an unsafe normal. I personally find the charge version quite lackluster and in most situations where I would use it, I would prefer to use a charged 236HP instead. qcf+HP Painwheel fires one or more Gae Bolga spikes upwards in a semi-natural arc. This move can be charged. Charging will increase the amount of stingers fired. Additional spikes will fan outwards from the first, creating a strange, wave like formation that sweeps across basically the entire screen at full charge. This move can be effective at long ranges when you have a moment to rest and want to make sure the opponent is kept at bay so you can plan and make your approach. It is less effective uncharged, although it can be used to keep aerial opponents honest, it is still very slow and very small, so despite its useful arc, it can whiff and leave you very open to an approaching opponent. Buer Reapper (Air OK) (Flight Cancel) (HitGrab) qcf+LK Ground: The Buer reaches in front of Painwheel a short distance and grabs the opponent. This version leaves the opponent in a decent amount of hitstun, meaning you can flight cancel it to continue a combo. This is highly damaging and creates an effective combo path for Painwheel. The hitbox does not extend anywhere near as far as it looks it should. This really limits its use outside combos and in some situations, especially against Peacock, can make it whiff if your spacing is just slightly off. Air: The Buer reaches in front of Painwheel and grabs the opponent. This version knocks the opponent away, making it impossible to follow up properly, unless you are near the corner. The hitbox is more accurate to what it seems it should be, so this is actually a fairly decent air to air option, though the reward is rather small. Note you will not be hit by an assist if this lands on the opponents point character, as it IS classed as a grab. qcf+MK Ground: The Buer reaches in front of Painwheel a long distance and grabs the opponent. This version knocks the opponent away, once again making it pretty much impossible to follow up outside the corner. This version does have a very long range, but it also has a dead zone immediately in front of Painwheel, so it can whiff on close opponents. Can be used as a long range counter-poke, but is risky and not an often used tool as it does not lead to a lot of reward. Air: The Buer reaches down and in front of Painwheel and grabs the opponent. It knocks the opponent down and away. With a flight cancel you can combo off it with long range aerial normals by using your OTG, this is somewhat height and character specific though and you will not often see this happen in game. It has a similar dead zone to the grounded version, so be careful with spacing. qcf+HK Ground: The Buer reaches up and in front of Painwheel and grabs the opponent. Knocks the opponent away a fullscreen distance, just like the MK version making it impossible to follow up outside the corner. Leaves Painwheel in the air after use, but you cannot follow up with a Buer Thresher midscreen. This version does a lot of damage and its knockback arc is quite high, allowing for some fairly brutal corner combos. Also has a dead zone near Painwheel. This version is a fairly useful anti air however. It is actually quite fast and has a decent hitbox compared to other versions, making it a very good option, though not as readily available as a s.MK. Air: The Buer reaches directly below Painwheel and grabs the opponent. This version throws the opponent straight down for a ground bounce. This means it can be followed up easily with a flight cancel or Buer Thresher. A normal will use up your ground bounce, but Buer Threseher will not, meaning you CAN even combo further off a flight cancelled Buer Thresher afterwards for a lot of damage. This version is quite possibly the most useful during the neutral game, though its verticality can make it easy to whiff, at which point you are highly punishable during its massive whiff recovery. This version can also be used in combos anywhere on the screen, if you wish. Flight qcb+K Painwheel flies... using her Buer. (I would call this the Hatred Copter, but she seems to be smiling) Ok, this is going to be a long one when this is all updated. Flight is what defines Painwheel, essentially. It allows for a great amount of freedom, well, at least until you put an opponent on screen that doesnt sit there doing whatever you programmed it to. Mastering this move, when to use it, when to abuse it and most importantly, when to not use it at all, is the key to mastering Painwheels mobility, combos, resets and basically everything. This is probably going to expand a lot over time, so watch this space. 6.Blockbusters: DEATH CRAWL qcf+PP Painwheel flips upside down, crawling along the ground with Gae Bolga spikes while the Buer grinds everything beneath her. Painwheels most damage blockbuster under most circumstances. Also her most reliable reversal and only decent pushblock guard cancel option. This should be your combo ender in any situation where you want to go for the kill and for most blockbuster sequels. The move currently has a moderate amount of invincibility and startup throw invincibility. This makes it a pretty decent reversal overall, though you can not reliably follow it up at all without a blockbuster sequel. It has many hits and scales very well late combo, dealing significant damage no mater when you use it. Buer Thresher (Hit Grab) (Flight Cancel) qcf+KK in air Massive Gae Bolga spikes stick out of Painwheel at a steep angle below and in front of her, she then draws them in and brutally slices them using the Buer like a circular saw. Has some invincibility, though nowhere near as much as it once did. It is still a decent reversal, but generally you will want to just use Death Crawl if you are grounded, my good old tiger kneed Thresher in anticipation is not as effective anymore. This move acts strangely for a hit grab, as it will also affect assist characters. It cannot actually pull them up into the grab section itself, however, so they will only struck by part of the blockbuster. Buer Thresher is now flight cancellable, meaning you can follow up low to the ground Threshers with a full combo and higher in the air threshers with another Thresher for extra damage and possible resets. Hatred Install (Lv2) qcf+KK This is also going to be long with all the changes it makes to Painwheels tools. I am certainly not the best to fill out this Buer Overdrive (Lv3) qcb+PP Painwheel rolls forward along the ground using the Buer as a wheel. It Has one (1) hit of Hatred Guard after the super flash and returns 120% of stored damage (190% during Hatred Install) on the final hit. 7.Combos: For now, you can just have my BnBs Note: if your gonna find trouble with the whole combos, just do this loop till youre comfortable: {c.LK, c.MK, s.HP xx flight xx f+j.LK, c.LK, c.MK, s.HP, qcf+LP} Midscreen: c.LK, c.MK, s.HP xx flight xx f+j.LK c.MK, s.HP, qcf+LK xx flight xx f+j.LP c.LK, c.MK, s.HP xx flight xx f+j.HK, s.HK, j.MP,j.HP(x3), j.HK, c.MP, s.HP, qcf+LP (dash) s.LP, c.MK, c.HP xx DEATH CRAWL Corner: Difficult on some characters like Fillia: c.LK, c.MK, c.HP, qcf+HK xx flight xx j.MK (height is character specific, most you can hold up forward but that whiffs on Fillia)> qcf+LK xx flight xx j.HP, s.HP, qcfHK xx flight xx j.LK, j.MK, c.MK, c.HP, qcf+HK xx flight xx j.LP, j.MK, c.LK, c.MK, c.HP, qcf+HK xx flight xx j.HK, s.HK j.MP, j.HP(x3), j.HK c.MP, s.HP, qcf+LP (dash) s.LP, c.MK, c.HP xx DEATH CRAWL Easymode: c.LK, c.MK, c.HP, qcf+HK xx flight xx j.HP, s.HP, qcf+HK xx flight xx f+j.LK, j.MK, c.MK, c.HP, qcf+HK xx flight xx f+j.LP, j.MK, c.LK, c.MK, c.HP, qcf+HK xx flight xx f+j.HK, s.HK j.MP, j.HP(x3), j.HK c.MP, s.HP, s.LP (dash) s.LP, c.MK, c.HP xx DEATH CRAWL.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Jul 2014 22:26:26 +0000
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