Vegeta (HD)

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Vegeta
Species Saiyajin
Date of Birth 732 A.D.
Height 164 cm
Weight 123 lbs
Birthplace Planet Vegeta
Power level 2,000,000,000

Summary

Vegeta is an aggressive rushdown character who excels at the midrange game. He has some of the best normals in the game as well as some very sneaky invincible specials to help him bypass his opponents' defensive pokes. Most of Vegetas attacks either move him up close to the opponent or nullify some form of attack, sometimes both. His aerial specials combined with his j. also give him a very tricky midscreen crossup game. His fast hop speed and strong guard counter options round off his defense, making Vegeta an overall beastly up-close character. Good choice for players who want to get straight up in the opponent's grill and hit some buttons.

Normal Moves

Close st. - Vegeta headbutts his opponent. Generally not used outside of specific combo routes due to the extra pushback on hit compared to close st., as well as being 2 frames slower.

Close st. - A knee to the chest. Fast and reliable bread and butter combo filler, use this move to hitconfirm into launcher and other combo routes.

Far st. - Standard punch straight forward, nothing fancy. Not very useful considering you have a far standing normal that's better in every single way in the form of far st..

Far st. - Flying, forward moving roundhouse kick. This move is the king of midrange. Fast, long range, active for days, propels Vegeta forward and if cancelled into launcher, is plus on block. Very dominant far normal and a big part of Vegeta's footsie game. When in doubt, use this.

cr. - Underarm punch to the kneecaps. Vegeta's only low normal. Normal cancellable but not special cancellable. This isn't Vegeta's best option for mixups as it is quite hard to confirm any real damage off of, but it has its uses given the right spacing. Not the best low we could hope for, but better than nothing.

cr. - Double hitting, upwards angled handstand kick. Special cancellable but not normal cancellable. This move lowers Vegeta's hurtbox a little making it a viable anti-air, but it's also useful for very specific combos should you choose to go for them. Very situational.

j. - Vegeta comes down with a punch directly below him. Amazing crossup normal. The speed and hitbox on this move allows Vegeta to dominate air-to-ground engagements. Special cancellable as well, meaning you can cross up with this attack then cancel into an air normal which may or may not also cross up, depending on spacing. 10/10 would punch again.

j. - Flying horizontal kick. Vegeta's other incredibly good air normal; the range and active frames on this thing make it a very strong, all-purpose aerial attack. Opt for this over j. at further ranges.

Special Moves

Sliding Kick - + - Vegeta dashes forward a bit before releasing a sliding kick. Hits low. First part in Vegeta's rekka sequence. Lowers Vegeta's hurtbox, allowing him to slide under some stuff, mainly projectiles. Can be good to use in neutral as a surprise long range low, although the startup is a bit slow and if spaced wrong, can be punished on block and hit. If spaced right, is plus on block, and on hit, can confirm into a full combo. A key component of Vegeta's difficult, character and distance specific infinite combo.

Rushing Knee - + - Followup knee attack to Sliding Kick. Second part in Vegeta's rekka sequence. A mind-numbing +14 on hit, this is the attack that makes Vegeta's rekka series worthwhile. On block, the frame advantage on this move allows Vegeta continue into any mixup he wants, and on hit, allows him to combo into any other normal except cr.Y. It is possible to do an infinite by repeatedly comboing into and off of this move, albeit very hard to pull off consistently.

Super Dash - + - Cross punch followed by a roundhouse kick, followup to Rushing Knee. Third and final part of Vegeta's rekka. Made completely obsolete by Rushing Knee, there's no reason to follow through into this. Can combo into Rising Knee on hit.

Rising Knee - + - Quite literally a rising knee. Vegeta's DP, this attack is not invincible, just very, very fast, making it a good guard counter/reversal option regardless. Leaves the opponent in a juggle state so if it trades, you can often continue the combo Sagat style. Can link into itself against lightweight characters for roughly 24 extra damage.

Energy Dash - + - Vegeta yells for no reason then dashes forward before blasting his opponent in the gut. Dash reaches about 3/4 of the screen. Fully hit invulnerable from frame 1 until he starts dashing. Unpunishable on block, although you can be thrown out of it at any time, and since the startup is slow this is quite a mediocre reversal. Probably the best use you'll find for this is to shift through homing projectiles.

Jumping Bomb - + - Vegeta hops forward then blasts his opponent in the face. Jumping version of Energy Dash. Fully hit invulnerable on the way up until his sprite changes. Although this move can't be grabbed as easily as Energy Dash, the trade off is that it requires some distance from the opponent in order to connect, so you can't use it as a close range reversal or guard counter. Is less safe on block than Energy Dash but is slightly harder to be hit out of since he is invincible while moving. Gauge whether these moves are worth going for depending on the matchup I suppose, but most of the time the answer will be no.

Ground Flare - + - Vegeta pauses for a moment before throwing up a pillar of energy in front of him. Launches on hit. One of the more useless specials in the game, I can't think of any situation where this move would be useful. Too slow to anti-air with on reaction, too much recovery to use pre-emptively or as a meaty. It will catch wake up hops on cornered opponents, so there's that... but if you do use this move, you better pray that it hits.

Energy Field - + while in the air - Creates a momentary ring of energy around Vegeta that will protect him from a single level 1 projectile while active. The ring itself is a hitbox that surrounds Vegeta, so while wiping out projectiles is fun, the real use for this move is as an all-purpose anti-air by TKing it, and as well as an occasional sneaky crossup attack. Note that Vegeta is not invincible during Energy Field, so it will not protect him from long range normals. Unsafe on block.

Vertical Ki Blasts - + while in the air - Vegeta briefly halts his air momentum and fires 2 shots straight down. Costs 5 health to perform. Used for midscreen crossups. Because the first shot is fired closer to the opponent and the second shot is fired half a second later and a bit further back, you can space this move so that the first shot will cross up, and due to pushback, the other will not. Makes for some real tricky mixups, especially when cancelled into from j..

Triple Fireball - + - Fires 3 generic fireballs in fast succession. Costs 5 health to perform. Not a bad move to use to beat out other level 1 projectiles, although the recovery leaves you quite open if they decide to jump, so best to avoid using at midscreen. Level 2 projectiles and above will eat through all 3 fireballs.

Big Bang Attack - + - Vegeta throws a powerful energy blast diagonally up-forward. Costs 10 health to perform. One of the faster generic anti-air projectile attacks in the game. Does its job for the most part, too slow to use on reaction to hops but is still useful as a preemptive anti-air or on reaction to full jumps.

Final Flash - + - The classic Vegeta trump card. Standard chargeable projectile attack that most characters have in some form. Costs 10 health to perform. Hold down A while performing in order to charge it up to a maximum of 3 power values. No charge will quickly release a level 2 projectile. Medium charge will release a level 3 projectile. Maximum charge will release a highly damaging level 4 projectile.

Desperation Move

Desperation Attack: Galactic Gunfire - + - Grabs the opponent, tosses them into the ground then rains projectiles on them for what feels like hours, finishing with a classic Vegeta overexertion. Biggest bullshit move in the game and by far the best desperation attack, this is a 1 frame command grab with great range. The simple command allows you to very easily input this move at a whim and makes it an extremely dangerous guard counter attack, to the point where attempting to hit Vegeta becomes a liability in itself. Vegeta can quite easily win the game off of this move alone, so try to survive within the health region of 80 or below and start laughing.

Strategy

The goal is to get in, Vegeta is not very useful at long range. Bumrush the opponent with your crazy good normals and keep them pinned.

Neutral

Optimal spacing for Vegeta is around the max range of his far st.. At this range he is very much the king, his far st. and hopping j. beat mostly everything, his j. can be used to cross up if you find yourself hopping over them, and his neutral j. can stuff any other air approaches. At this range you can also fairly safely throw out TK Energy Field, or react to a projectile with Energy Dash or Jumping Bomb. Make sure you always cancel your far st. into + on block, it makes it far more advantageous. You don't have any particularly good grounded anti-airs, but your own air dominance should be enough to win the day. If you must anti-air, + can beat hops but will rarely beat full jumps. Cr. is also functional as it lowers Vegeta's hurtbox, but it wont beat the better air-to-ground normals. If you find yourself at long range, just hop or jump your way into optimal range, or use 3D attack to phase through any slow or obvious projectiles.

Offense

You have the best crossups in the game by far. Midscreen, j. is a terrifying normal that will ruin most attempts at doing wakeup attacks and reversals due to backturn messing up the opponent's inputs. Vegeta can also do some funky crossup shenanigans using Energy Field and Vertical Ki Blasts, but this is punishable on block, so use at your own discretion. The opponent can option select Vegeta's crossups by holding on wakeup; if a crossup occurs, he is holding the right direction to block, and if no crossup occurs, then a reversal hop will come out. If the opponent knows about this then there's not much you can do to stop it other than empty jump throw on the other side. If you manage to get the opponent into a backturned knockdown situation then you can pressure without having to worry about wakeup hop. Vegeta's corner pressure is not as good as his midscreen due to no crossup potential and crappy lows, but his jumping normals are still good enough to apply the standard KOF hop pressure. Of note is that Vegeta's generic launcher, +, is slightly plus on block, although not enough to avoid being thrown out of any attempted followup normals. Rushing Knee is also very plus on block, so if you can space Sliding Kick properly so that the Rushing Knee followup is tight, then you have some frame advantage to work with.

Defense

Most of the time your best defensive option is wakeup hop into j.. The speed of this normal and the fact that it crosses up so well means you will rarely be punished for it. If you are unable to do this due to backturn or whatever other reason, Rising Knee is 4 frame startup, making it both a functional wakeup reversal and strong guard counter option. Mashing throw works if the opponent is near you, and you can option select throw with close st. by hitting + + ; if they are in throw range, then the throw takes priority, if not, close st. comes out, which is a decent close range anti-air.

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