Guilty Gear Strive: The Winners And Losers Of Patch 1.09


Arc System Works has recently released the patch notes for the patch 1.09 for Guilty Gear Strive. The promised character buffs, nerfs, and adjustments in the game has arrived. Here's which characters got the best and worst changes in this patch.

Adjusted Good Moves, No Damage Nerfs

As promised, Arc System Works has adjusted the potent tools that the top tier characters have and improved the struggling characters as seen on their official site. Characters such as Sol Badguy, Chipp Zanuff, and May had their best options adjusted to have more counterplay.

On the other end, most of the roster only received minor buffs to make some of their moves to be more consistent and reliable when landed. Struggling characters were given major buffs to some of their move which could make their gameplan more potent or at least capable in playing toe-to-toe with the characters in neutral.

Overall, the patch toned down the stronger characters a bit and gave more consistency and options to the weaker characters. The patch didn't remove the damage potential of any characters.

Read more: Guilty Gear Strive Sol Badguy Guide: Beginners Tips, Move List & Best Combo

Winners: The Low Tiers And Leo Whitefang

Arc System Works truly pushed out some great buffs to the lower tier characters in the roster such as Anji Mito, Faust, and I-No. While these characters have strong potential, they usually have difficulty in consistently contesting neutral with other characters and often have options with glaring weaknesses that higher tier characters can use to shut them down.

Anji Mito's major buffs include allowing him to use Fuujin followups even when whiffs the move. Additionally, his far Slash has also been sped up. Overall, Anji's buffs allows him to control more space than the previous patch.

Meanwhile, I-No's buffs improves her hover dash and makes her confirms more consistent. The improvements on I-No may allow her to get some reward even if her attacks land on its farthest ranges and give her cleaner knockdowns to get her oppressive gameplan started.

Lastly, Faust has been given more leverage as he now has ways to end his combos explosively with his wheelchair super and improvements on his Heavy Slash attacks. The buffs on his Standing and Crouching versions of Heavy Slash could help him contest neutral and even allow him better okizeme if the buffs prove useful.

Unexpectedly, a top tier contender Leo Whitefang didn't get any adjustments but got more pressure buffs during his backturn stance. His backturn stance Kick can be dash and jump cancelled which opens up a new layer of pressure and mixups to break his opponent's guard and start his combos. Prior to the patch, his backturn stance options are already oppressive which are made even more of a nightmare to defend against due to the new options.

Losers: Sol Badguy, May, Chipp Zanuff

On the other, the consistent top tier characters such as Sol Badguy, Chipp Zanuff, and May have taken a hit this patch but also got some tradeoff improvements for what they lost.

For Sol Badguy, this character has many changes for this patch. Most of his changes removed some of his moves which allow him to cheese people who didn't know his moves such as Aerial Bandit Bringer deceptively fast recovery and the reliable reach of forward Slash.

These moves, including his trademark far Slash gut punch in Strive, have also been adjusted for this match. Nevertheless, his other moves received some buffs such as his unpopular crouching Slash and Wild Throw getting a combo potential if Roman Cancelled.

On the other end, May's Slash attacks has been adjusted to have more counterplay and have been toned down for patch 1.09. Both her standing and crouching Slash are difficult to fight due to her speed and immense reward she gets if she lands it on hit or block. Trying to fight these moves before were low risk pressure tool that gave May so much reward as her combos starting from these moves hurt.

Lastly, Chipp Zanuff's descending ninja drill attack or j.2K has also been nerfed this patch. The developer made the move much easier to punish but improving Chipp's advantage if it does connect to enemies on hit or block.

Many Chipp players can often rely on this move over and over again as it can be difficult to shut down and leads to an advantageous situation for Chipp if it lands.

While many fans note that these characters have lost some of their strong starter, take note that these characters still have strong damage potential so be careful on fighting them.

Read more: Guilty Gear Strive Review: A Welcoming Fighting Game?

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