Guilty Gear Strive: How To Beat Ky Kiske

Ky Kiske is one of the main characters of Guilty Gear Strive. His all-arounder toolset is great for beginners but also popular for experienced players who want a basic and effective playstyle. Here's how you can shut him down in Guilty Gear Strive matches.

What is Ky Kiske's Biggest Strength

As a main character, Ky Kiske is designed to be an all-arounder with good tools for every situation. He has special moves that can be used to push an advantage, control space, and even punish openings. On paper, he's great as a starter character to help beginners understand how to play Guilty Gear.

However, experienced players have a different way of playing Ky Kiske. His basic playstyle will be pushed to the limits as he ends his pressure with tight openings that are difficult to punish. Moreover, his combo starter is a low commitment attack which is safe to whiff and dangerous when it connects due to the wealth of options for Ky to open his enemies up after that.

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How To Beat Ky Kiske's Shin Kick Nightmare

Ky Kiske's main pressure attack is 5K shin kick when it hits. The attack looks visually unassuming as Ky is a swordsman with electricity powers. However, getting hit with this move opens his enemy up to a painful combo on hit and a multi-option mixup situation on block. Here's what some of Ky can do with this move on when it connects.

On hit:

• 5K>6HS>Dire Eclat
• 5K>6HS>Foudre Arc
• (In corner) 5K>6HS>Foudre Arc>2HS (2hits)>Foudre Arc>Wallbreak

On block:

• 5K>2D (Low option vs standing block, frame trap vs button mashers)
• 5K>5K (Reset and Frametrap option to another 5K option select)
• 5K>6HS (Frametrap option)
• 5K>5D (Fast Overhead option)
• 5K>5D Hold (Slow Overhead option)
• 5K>6K (Rewarding reset option)
• 5K>run up throw (Vs opponents with good blocking)

Additionally, the 5K shin kick can also be done against his opponents that he just knocked down. Ky Kiske can control the enemy this way if they don't have an invulnerable wakeup option.

To escape this, try to prevent Ky from getting too close to you with your far attacks. If you get caught up in this mixup, keep blocking until you see him use the unsafe openers such as the Overhead or Throw option so can land your punishes. Lastly, don't be afraid to use a Yellow Roman Cancel on block to stop him and escape the situation or start your own pressure.

Counters: Special Move Spamming

Many beginner Ky players often rely on his good specials to catch the opponent off guard. While Ky's specials are safe by design, it still has weaknesses that players can exploit. Here what you can do to stop a Ky spamming specific special moves:

• Vapor Thrust - This move is punishable when it misses or blocked on the ground. Air blocking this move gives Ky the advantage and he can move faster than you. If feeling confident, the early part of its startup can be thrown.
• Dire Eclat - Unsafe move by design but Ky makes himself unpunishable due to the pushback. Either have a fast, far-reaching attack like Ramlethal's Far Slash or Just Guard to secure a guaranteed punish on this move.
• Stun Edge - Jump over or go under this slow projectile. Hit Ky if he uses the bigger Stun Edge while you can still move freely.
• Stun Dipper - A low-profile 2-hit slide attack which allows Ky to bypass projectiles. This move is a quirky special move as it needs to be at a correct distance to make the 2-hits link cleanly. Using this move too close or too far will leave a large gap to punish in between the slide and the follow-up slash. Additionally, Stun Dipper's first hit is the only attack that hits low and you can do a stand block to defend on the second hit.
• Foudre Arc - Ky's flip kick that goes over low attacks and travels a large part of the screen. Try to hit Ky before he completes a syllable of Foudre Arc in the air. Trying to hit him when he's already too close in midflight may lead into a counterhit in Ky's favor if your character doesn't have a good invulnerable reversal ready for it. Normally, good buttons to punish this are your character's Forward Punch or Far Slash if the enemy Ky is too predictable with his Foudre Arcs.

Test Of Fundamentals

Once these are out of the way, Ky's matchup is a test of your textbook knowledge about fighting game fundamentals. Footsies, zoning, rushdown, good sense of using reversals and mixup knowledge will be tested here. Try to play against as much Ky Kiske players as you can to work around his attacks with your character to improve faster. Enjoy!

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