Arc System Works has recently released the second DLC Character, Jack-O' Valentine, for Guilty Gear Strive. Similar to Zato-1, she employs servants to help her attack her foes and overwhelm them with their cooperation. However, she can also be viable for beginners as long as her unique, complicated gimmicks are taken in slowly bit by bit.
Who is Jack-O' in Guilty Gear Strive?
In Guilty Gear Strive, Jack-O' Valentine is currently working with Sol Badguy as a Bounty Hunter to earn for a living. Aside from staying near Sol Badguy, she is also Sol's love interest and holds the soul of his former lover, Aria Hale, inside her. Jack-O' is considered an important character as she only has the direct power to stop the main villain's powers to bend reality and destroy the world.
Playstyle-wise, Jack-O' Valentine is a nimble rushdown fighter with servants that can compliment and cover her approaches to fight. Due to the versatility of her tools and a few far-reaching normals, she can also be played as a zoner which potentially makes her an all-around fighter. However, her tools are complicated to control for first timers and requires players to have a solid idea on how to coordinate her attacks with her servants to establish an oppressive offense with her.
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Jack-O' Move List
By design, Jack-O is a decent rushdown character on her own with summoning abilities to help her control the fight. Here's her command list written in Numpad Notation:
- Summon Servant - 236P (Holding the Punch makes her keep the servant instead of placing it)
- Pick Up Servant - 2P when near a servant
- Throw Servant - 6P/6K/6S/6HS/6D while holding a servant
- Release Servant - 5D while holding a servant
- Recover Servant - 214P (recalls all active servants on screen)
- Attack Command - 214K
- Defend Command - 214S
- Countdown - 214H
- Servant Shoot - 236K
- Forever Elysion Driver (Overdrive Command Throw Super) - 632146P
- Cheer Servant On - 236236S (active servants become indestructible) or 236236H (active servants last longer and Jack-O' rapidly regenerates Servant meter)
Jack-O' Beginners Guide
For starters, beginner Jack-O's must not focus too much on trying to use their Servant meter efficiently but to use her normal attacks better. Unlike other zoners in Guilty Gear Strive, Jack-O's normals are fairly decent up close and work well if she is played similarly to Sol Badguy but with less explosive combo options. Beginners will need to understand how strong rushdown pressure works before starting to use her servants.
Once that's done, beginner Jack-O' players must now start placing one Servant everytime they score a hard knockdown or throw the enemy off balance as they're sent tumbling down the floor. These servants must be placed near their foe as they get up to fight again. When this is achieved, Jack-O' can approach closely and use the Defense Command to shut down any careless attempts to steal the pressure from them. At best, keeping at least one servant out and only one can help streamline the servant control before moving on to more complicated setups.
Jack-O' Tips To Get Better
As Jack-O' is a character that uses summons, efficient use of her servants and her servant meter while complimenting her offense in the next step. Using the servants to secure gaps in offense or make it difficult to freely move in neutral are great uses of her servants.
Learning this can be difficult as her servants disappear when hit once or when Jack-O' is directly hit once. Even though she has servants to help compliment her attacks, her gameplan requires immense strategy which can be difficult to consistently execute on her foes who can bypass her setups easily.
The Best Jack-O' Combos
For starters, beginner Jack-O's can go for combos that send their foes flying or knocked down on the floor. Once that's achieved, players can choose to place a servant to build up their gameplan or push for more pressure like most rushdown characters. Here are some combos that beginner players can use while starting to learn her:
- 2K>2D>236P
- close S>far S>5HS>236P
- 5P>6P>236P
- 2D>236P
The Summon Servant can be key in pushing more pressure on your foes as she can cancel lengthy animations by placing servants if her hits connect. Alternatively, Jack-O' can forgo placing a servant and opt to continue pressure up close to make them guess with more mixups. Change up your offensive options to confuse your opponent to break their defense to quickly get rounds off your foe.
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