Guilty Gear Strive: How To Beat Faust

Every anime fighting game always has one oddball character in its roster. Faust gladly takes this role in Guilty Gear Strive as he's known to throw items in a match which makes the fights more chaotic. Here's how players can breathe in this character's unpredictable pressure in the game.

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Item Throwing Madness

Faust's main game plan is to find situations where he can safely throw items to aid him in fighting his opponents in matches. Every item he throws has a different effect and can even work against him at times. Here's a list of items to look out for when he throws it out:

• Hammer - deals damage when it lands directly on his foe, bounces a bit if it falls on the floor and can still hurt the foe if it collides with them. Faust can also use Standing Dust to baseball swing it towards his foes.
• 100 Ton Weight - deals damage when it lands directly on his foe. If it lands on the floor, it sends out a fullscreen shockwave that launches enemies if not blocked low and guard breaks if blocked low. Jump away from this if you see it
• Mini-Faust - a small minion that patrols back and forth on where it lands. Tracks the enemy's position for a multi-hit rushing attack if they get close or get hit with an enemy attack. As it cannot be removed without the attack, dispose of it in a way that Faust cannot use this minion's attack as an opening to get in
• Bomb - throws a round bomb with a lit fuse. Both players can hit the bomb to send it forward. Can hurt both Faust and his foe if caught in its explosion.
• Trumpet - summons an army of mini-Fausts to stampede on their foe. The mini-Fausts will take the side of the character who picks it up. Try to steal it from Faust but be wary of his attempts to deny you the Trumpet.
• Afro Wig - throws out an Afro Wig that falls slowly on the floor. When picked up, gives the character an Afro which extends their head hitbox to the size of the Afro. Can also backfire and give Faust an Afro
• Food - Can be Banana, Donut, or any kind of food, it'll restore a small amount of health for whoever picks it up. The Banana can leave out a peel behind it on pickup which can trip up a player who steps on it.
• Meteor - Throws a burning meteor upward that drops a few waves of meteor shower after a delay. The waves rain in rapidly and have no gaps for an interrupt in between. Prepare to defend as this is Faust's best item from his bag.

Unlike other gimmicky item throw characters, Guilty Gear Strive's Faust has no control over which items appear on his item throw. Sometimes, his two What Could This Be? Overdrive Supers can throw copies of the same item due to this randomness. The best that both players can do is understand which items come out to decide if they can push an offensive or stay defensive from the incoming items.

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Scarecrow Teleports

One of his tricky special attacks is the Scarecrow where he disappears and makes two Scarecrows in front and behind his enemy. He can become one of the two scarecrows or become neither and drop down vertically above his enemy.

The tell in this special move is that the scarecrow's eye will shine if Faust will replace that one and spin wildly. Blocking this move makes Faust unsafe and he can be hit before he spins wildly. If none of the scarecrows shows up, hit the Dash button and run forward before he falls down. This move has bad tracking which makes it bad against targets that move forward.

Rush Him Down

Most of Faust's attacks and special moves are mostly inconsistent and unreliable which make them a poor tool when pressure is applied on him. He also has slower normals than most of the cast which gives him few choices to interrupt foes consistently. Use this against him and make him block as he has bad options to punish openings in pressure.

Overall, keep pressuring Faust whenever you can get close to him. His buttons are most reliable when used preemptively in mid-range but most are unreliable when used to interrupt attacks up close. When Faust is pressured, he can't easily send out items which greatly hurts his chance of winning as he can't make the match unpredictable.

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