81-
Kazuya

Jab1 (-11), Jab2 (-15), Jab3 (-20), Jab4 (-25), Jab5(-23), Jab6 (-24), Jab7 (-24), Jab8 (-25), Jab 9 (-26):
NAir (Frame 7)

Jab10 (--):
Unblockable

Flash Punch Combo (-20):
Unpunishable
(Jab10 ensures this move can't be blocked)

FTilt (-17):
GSA (Frame 9)
Grab (Frame 16)

Down-FTilt (-19/-14):
NAir (Frame 7)
GSA (Frame 9)
USmash (Frame 10)

DTilt (-15):
GSA (Frame 9)
(This move might low profile)

Back-DTilt (-12):
NAir (Frame 7)
GSA (Frame 9)

Back Tilt (-9):
NAir (Frame 7)

Back-UTilt (-13):
NAir (Frame 7)
GSA (Frame 9)

UTilt (-14/-18):
NAir (Frame 7)
GSA (Frame 9)

Up-FTilt (-23):
NAir (Frame 7)
GSA (Frame 9)

Demon's Wrath (-21):
NAir (Frame 7)

Crouching Down-FTilt (-20):
GSA (Frame 9)
USmash (Frame 10)

Crouching DTilt (-13):
NAir (Frame 7)
GSA (Frame 9)
(This move can be difficult to react to)

Crouching Back-DTilt (-9):
NAir (Frame 7)
(This move can be spaced out)

Dash Attack (-19):
GSA (Frame 9)
USmash (Frame 10)

Double Dash Attack (-10):
NAir (Frame 7)

FSmash (-13):
NAir (Frame 7)
GSA (Frame 9)
(This move does heavy shield damage, and is tricky to time)

USmash (-22):
GSA (Frame 9)
USmash (Frame 9)

DSmash (-16):
GSA (Frame 9)
USmash (Frame 10)
(This move does heavy shield damage)

Demon God Fist (-16):
GSA (Frame 9)
USmash (Frame 10)

Wind God Fist (-13):
NAir (Frame 7)
GSA (Frame 9)

Electric Wind God Fist (--):
Unblockable

Dragon Uppercut (-22):
GSA (Frame 9)
USmash (Frame 10)

Spinning Demon to Left Hook (-19):
GSA (Frame 9)
USmash (Frame 10)

NAir (-3):
Unpunishable
(Safe on shield)

FAir (-5):
Unpunishable
(Safe on shield)

BAir (-4):
Unpunishable
(Safe on shield)

UAir (-3):
Unpunishable
(Safe on shield)

DAir (-30):
GSA (Frame 9)
USmash (Frame 10)
DSmash (Frame 20)
FSmash (Frame 26)

Devil Blaster (-31 Normal, -30 Up, 33 Down):
Unpunishable
(Projectile usage)

Aerial Devil Blaster (-18 Normal, -16 Up, -20 Down):
Unpunishable
(Projectile usage)

Devil Fist (-32 to -39):
GSA (Frame 9)
USmash (Frame 10)
DSmash (Frame 20)
FSmash (Frame 26)

Devil Wings (-38):
UAir (Frame 8)

Heaven's Door (--):
Command Grab

Rage Drive (--):
Command Grab

• Neutral Moves: Aerials, Electric Wind God Fist, Crouch Dash.

• Kill Moves: Smash Attacks, Tilts, Heaven's Door, Rage Drive, Devil Wings, Dash Attack, NAir, DAir, BAir, UAir.

• (Shorter) Kill Confirms: Electric Wind God Fist -> BAir/USmash/Devil Wings, crouch Jab -> followup, Devil Fist -> followup.

• Kazuya is an extremely volatile character to play against. His movement is oddly limited (Frame 7 jump squat, slow left to right movement in the air), but has high upsides on the ground, with super armor/intangibility on nearly all of his grounded tools, as well as an invincible dash.

• The risk/reward of interacting with Kazuya is so skewed in Kazuya’s favor that it doesn’t matter as much if his movement is limited when Young Link could lose a stock in 1-3 openings. Kazuya has plenty of true 0-to-death combos, and thus neutral is centered around zoning him out, interacting with him as a mix-up.

• Electric Wind God Fist is a significant reason as to why Kazuya is so volatile. It’s a Frame 8 burst option that lunges Kazuya forward, has full-body intangibility on its first active frame, and stuns the opponent, which can set up for 0 to death combos.

• This move is single-handedly offense and defense all rolled into one. It’s the move that Young Link will have to dance around the most, but it’s also the move he needs to respect after he lands a hit. Kazuya has Frame 1 intangibility on Electric Wind God Fist too, so Young Link can be punished for trying to frametrap/string hits on Kazuya. The risk of messing up combos is high.

• In addition to Electric Wind God Fist, Kazuya has crouch Dash, an intangible dash that low-profiles and can be canceled into attacks (like Electric Wind God Fist) and defensive options. Kazuya can use crouch Dash to approach while avoiding most attacks, and he can run under projectiles with it. These two moves are why it becomes tricky to wall Kazuya out with only projectiles. However, there are mix-ups to stuff these two moves with normals.

Electric Wind God Fist & Crouch Dash Upper-Body & Full-Body Intangibility:

• Electric Wind God Fist and crouch Dash both share a full-body intangibility window and an upper-body intangibility window. This makes Kazuya completely immune to overhead attacks during this window.

• Crouch Dash has full body intangibility from Frames 2-4, and upper body only intangibility on Frame 1 and Frames 5-12.

• Electric Wind God Fist has upper-body intangibility only from Frames 1-3, and then full-body intangibility from Frames 4-8, as well as arm intangibility on Frames 9-12.

• On the next frame, Kazuya’s body is completely vulnerable and he can be hit from below.

• These pockets of vulnerability below Kazuya on his most polarizing and dangerous tools can be abused. Young Link’s DTilt is amazing for this. The low sweep has multiple frames to catch Kazuya, and will low-profile DTilt if spaced correctly.

• Start the DTilt outside of Kazuya’s burst range to avoid direct contact with Electric Wind God Fist. This can catch early approaches Kazuya may use to overshoot and/or duck around projectiles.

• Against Electric Wind God Fist specifically, DTilt can hit Kazuya on the first three frames, but this is risky since you’ll have to be closer to Kazuya. Space the DTilt to low profile Kazuya and catch him during the arm intangibility window (Frames 9-12).

• DTilt can be beat by higher attacks (Dash Attack, roundhouse) as well as other attacks with super armor, but the point is that DTilt forces the Kazuya player to mix up even at a close range, which opens the door for the rest of Young Link’s toolkit to function and lock down Kazuya (out of shield punishes and projectile zoning).

• The rest of Kazuya’s kit echoes this form of skewed risk-reward. Almost all of Kazuya’s moves have super armor or intangibility. For perspective, the ONLY grounded move Kazuya has that doesn’t have Super Armor or intangibility is Jab (oh and Side Taunt, I guess). That’s it. It just goes to show how attacks vs attacks interactions with Kazuya can become very scuffed very quickly. It’s not worth it to approach Kazuya consistently, as the risk/reward just isn’t there.

• One of these moves to watch out for is Dragon Uppercut. It has full-body intangibility, heavy shield damage (can break shields) and has extremely high killpower. It can also anti-air opponents.

• With all of this in mind, this is why stuffing the ground game against Kazuya is so important. It’s where he can approach most reliably, and where can establish most of his pressure.

• Fire Arrows are very good against Kazuya. They will instantly stuff out the majority of Kazuya’s grounded approach timings and options, At that point, Young Link can identify and punish the counterplay Kazuya uses to get around.

• Keep in mind that Kazuya can use crouch Dash and Electric Wind God Fist at close range to cut through projectiles. However, as shown before, DTilt spaced outside of Kazuya’s range can cover these options reliably as mix-ups.

• Boomerang at specific angles (forwards, SH angled down-forwards, SH forwards, grounded down) can cover specific grounded spaces against Kazuya and forces him around it.

• If Kazuya isn’t taking initiative to approach and isn’t jumping/working around Boomerang’s angle coverage, it would be a good opportunity to pull a Bomb. Bomb can cover ground space well against Kazuya, and limits how he can swing on the ground when Z-Dropped.

• Unreactable NAirs/BAirs/Dash Attacks in burst range can be used to hit Kazuya away for moving too close and not committing right away. The risk of whiffing/out of shield punishes are still high, so usage of burst options needs to be clean and air-tight. It’s still necessary to keep Young Link’s neutral complex.

• ZAir can be good for catching Kazuya’s approaches at the midrange as well. Just be wary of Kazuya using intangibility (Dragon Upper/Electric Wind God Fist/crouch Dash/Rage Drive armor) to cut right through it.

• On top of Kazuya’s insane ground game, he still has aerial approaches over and around projectiles. Kazuya has great aerials to combo with this, even if his aerial movement is limited.

• FAir is especially one of Kazuya’s primary aerial neutral tools. Kazuya throws a kick forward, which has surprising range and high damage. On hit, Kazuya can combo directly into a Grab -> DThrow, which is his highest reward starter.

• NAir hits below Kazuya, and sends at a soft-spike angle. On hit, it can combo straight into an Electric Wind God Fist upon landing. Kazuya can use NAir to pressure opponents challenging him in the air from below.

• BAir hits higher than Kazuya’s FAir and lingers a bit longer. The killpower on BAir is much higher than FAir, but it isn’t much of a neutral tool for Kazuya in the air like FAir and NAir. It excels at jump callouts.

• UAir doesn’t have the killpower or combo potential of his other aerials, but it’s astonishingly fast at Frame 4. Kazuya can air-to-air opponents on reaction with this, even Young Link. It’ll send straight up, allowing Kazuya to chase Young Link’s landing in advantage state.

• The most important thing about Kazuya’s jump-ins is that he seeks to land in a position to immediately pressure with crouch dash/dragon upper/electric upon landing. It’s not always landing with an aerial but landing and threatening an overcentralizing option also.

• Last but not least, Kazuya does have an extremely potent Reflector Kick. The Reflector Kick is performed out of a double dash. It can reflect Boomerangs for 40%, set up Fire Arrows for tech chases/kills at 150%, and reflect Bomb multiple times to kill at obscene %s.

• There is an odd interaction that Young Link can take advantage of to cover/sort of punish Kazuya for using the Reflector Kick. If Kazuya reflects a Z-Dropped Bomb on the ground, the Bomb will be reflected multiple times and outright kill Kazuya on explosion, killing as low as 60%.

Rage Drive Mechanics and Impact in Neutral:

• At 100%, Kazuya gains Rage Drive. Rage Drive is an input-command command grab with super armor. It starts to kill Young Link at around 60%.

• Rage Drive passively buffs all of Kazuya’s damage by 1.1x. This stacks with the universal rage mechanic.

• Rage Drive lasts until Kazuya takes 40%. Each time Kazuya fails a rage drive attempt (uses the grab and misses), the % threshold is dropped by 10%.

• The risk/reward is highly skewed into Kazuya’s favor with Rage Drive. He gains more damage on hit and a far-reaching burst option that kills. Stay away from Kazuya and use projectile conversions to remove Rage Drive (as well as chucking projectiles offstage at Kazuya).

• Throwing projectiles close to Kazuya is still risky because he can Rage Drive through them, and Kazuya can still use Electric Wind God Fist/crouch Dash through projectiles. DTilt on crouch Dash is more risky now because Kazuya can instantly transition to Rage Drive and armor the DTilt.

Differences of SmashBox/Box Kazuya:

• SmashBox and other box-like controllers physically and effectively change how Kazuya can be played. Box Kazuya (or “Boxuya” for short) has some key differences that single-handedly benefit him in this matchup.

• Other than being unconventional, there are zero effective drawbacks with Boxuya as opposed to GCC/Pro.

• Most broadly, Kazuya’s inputs become much easier to do and much easier to mix up. Kazuya becomes a much more consistent character in terms of inputs.

• Crouch Dashes on Box can be inputted easily at different speeds. This level of accessibility with both crouch Dash and Electric Wind God Fist gives Kazuya not only different movement speeds (that is all intangible by the way), but it also effectively increases his burst range with the ease of Electric Wind God Fist and crouch Dash.

• This effect is particularly noticeable with Rage Drive. It reduces the amount of spots where Young Link can safely use projectiles, and he’ll have to play more layers of neutral to safely use them.

• As a result, DTilt becomes incredibly important vs Boxuya, as he’ll charge at you more consistently with these crouch Dashes (at different speeds) and with Electric Wind God Fist. DTilt is one of the few ways to shut this down head-on.

• Additionally, Boxuya can use Reflector Kick whilst standing in place, removing the double dash necessity.

Some Combos & Counterplay:

• When Kazuya does crouch Jab -> Electric Wind God Fist, if you buffer turnaround and shield tilt away from Kazuya, the Electric Wind God Fist follow-up will always whiff. This forces Kazuya to go for lower-reward follow-ups out of crouch Jab.

• This turnaround/shield tilt can also dodge Electric Wind God Fist if Kazuya is too late to follow up. It whiffs entirely, and Young Link can hit Kazuya away with BAir.

• Mixing up DI in/out on Electric Wind God Fist forces Kazuya to react to the need of a dash/lack of a dash needed to follow up with BAir/Devil Wings.

• Holding DI in/out on Electric Wind God Fist -> NAir chains offstage can help escape if Kazuya drifts incorrectly.

Boxing
(How do I escape this situation?):

• Kazuya generally struggles to handle jumps out of the corner onto the platforms, but he can call out these hard with BAir.

• Dragon Upper, Electric Wind God Fist, crouch Dash, and the rest of Kazuya’s invincible moves turn up the risk/reward for standing close to Kazuya. Kazuya’s attacks when timed will completely stuff out Young Link’s burst normals out of the corner. Kazuya’s entire burst range on the ground is unchallengeable. A lot of the time, simply running up and shielding is safer because of this.

• When Electric Wind God Fist is blocked, Young Link will be pushed out of shield and Kazuya gets a 5 frame advantage. This can be devastating if Young Link is forced to the ledge because of it, but otherwise, it’s not too potent of shield pressure. It gives some distance for Young Link to retreat further.

• Rage Drive is extremely threatening to deal with when backed to the corner. Projectiles become insanely high-risk, as Kazuya could just crouch dash + rage drive armor through the projectiles. YL is forced so much to the corner that the alternatives of going to a platform or even the ledge are sufficient solely for changing the situation and forcing Kazuya to adapt more. Once Rage Drive is removed, it alleviates a lot of the pressure on YL, especially for combos and kill confirms.

• Kazuya is able to threaten so much reward from the corner that he doesn’t truly have to initiate. He can simply wait knowing YL is backed to the corner

• Watch out for FTilt from Kazuya when in the corner. The angle it sends at is a certain kill without a directional airdodge, and its usage is entirely unreactable at times.

• Projectiles in the corner are still very strong in this mu. Kazuya has limited mobility, so even when backed to the corner, YL can fight his way out. Even when Kazuya is pressing advantage, YL can push himself to the very edge of the stage and still reversal Kazuya with projectiles.

• When Kazuya starts reading the projectile usage, YL can take the initiative to use empty movement to escape the corner and reset to neutral.

Platform Pressure (What tools do they have? How can we escape this pressure?)

• Kazuya can jump and pressure platforms with multiple aerials, particularly BAir and UAir below the platform. On the platform, Kazuya can use NAir to start a tech chase, and then cover multiple options with auto-turnaround.

• Kazuya can use his command grab special to grab opponents shielding on platforms for too long. If it misses, YL can use the opportunity to escape. It’s hard to challenge the grab directly because of its super armor.

• On some stages, Dragon Uppercut and USmash can reach and hit platforms.

• Kazuya can’t use rage drive on opponents standing on the platforms unless he stands on the platform as well. Platforms are a great help in avoiding projectiles.

Landing (How do they cover it? What are my best options):

• Land away from Kazuya generally. Landing on him is high risk with all his intangible high-reward options on the ground.

• Kazuya’s Up-Air is an upwards kick where Kazuya lifts his entire leg up. This move is quick at frame 4, allowing Kazuya to hit opponents above him quickly. The speed and range of UAir can beat out DAir sometimes.

• Kazuya can trap landings with EWGF, Dragon Upper, DThrow… any of his high reward moves on the ground can catch landings safely since they also have super armor/intangibility.

• Kazuya can fire a Laser to catch opponents landing away. Laser can’t be clanked with, as it is transcendent.

• Landing on platforms is generally very strong against Kazuya, since he’ll have to land on the platform to truly threaten a lot. The most consistent threat he has is his command grab, which catches shielding on platforms.

Offstage (How Do I Escape This Position And What Do I Look Out For?):

• DAir is a drop-down edgeguard that Kazuya can use to cover a lot of space offstage. It beats out ASA from above and can act as a lingering edgeguard option to intercept tether.

• Drift away from Kazuya as he’s falling to avoid the DAir (save enough resources to expend them), tether to ledge before the hit, or outspace with ASA if Kazuya uses DAir close to the ledge. Going high above the DAir is also an option.

• Kazuya can use NAir offstage to spike YL from above. This is Kazuya’s quickest and most consistent option in the air-to-air against YL. Kazuya can space it above YL’s ASA.

• Laser is an extremely strong but committal edgeguard tool for Kazuya. If the opponent is close to the blast zone, laser will outright kill. Laser can force airdodges, which Kazuya can then initiate pressure offstage seeing that the airdodge is gone.

• NAir can high-profile specific laser angles due to the hurtbox shifting upwards. Either that, jump above the laser, or fastfall below the laser and then recover to the ledge.

• When recovering below the stage, be wary of Kazuya chasing YL offstage and then hitting YL with an Up-B back to the stage. Kazuya’s Up-B will stage spike.

• With a stock advantage, Kazuya can trade stocks at any time with his command grab.

Ledge:

• Kazuya can use a shorthop/fullhop NAir at the ledge to spike YL for ledge jumping. It isn’t as strong as Ken/Ryu/Terry’s DAir at ledge, but it can still close stocks against YL and catch opponents by surprise.

• Kazuya can use BAir to punish hard punish/callout ledge jumps.

• Auto-turnaround allows Kazuya to cover ledge roll & crossups while standing close to the ledge, leading to more option select situations for the character. Combined with low cool-down options like Crouch Jab that have high kill potential, Kazuya can threaten a lot at once in ledgetrapping.

• Which becomes especially problematic considering how difficult/non-existent challenging his super-armor and intangible moves become.

• Kazuya can hit ledge with Dragon Uppercut and Down Smash, both of which will outright kill incredibly early.

• Mixup timings and options off the ledge to make it more difficult for Kazuya to track YL. Kazuya still struggles to consistently contest the air and YL’s different mixups from ledge, especially on a stage with platforms.

• When YL is shielding near the ledge/near the ledge and not acting, Kazuya can cross up Yl and use the gates of hell command grab. This command grab sends at a very low angle that is near-impossible to recover from, especially if Kazuya calls out the double jump.