A couple of tips to level up your rat, from one Vicky to another: -You're running towards your opponents a lot more than you need to. Vikala isn't super good at close range compared to most characters in the game, but she's one of the best at long range. Dormouse goes full screen, cannons shoot items almost full screen, a bunch of your items are really annoying to try to maneuver around, trap controls space super well, etc. Other characters can bully her pretty easily at close range, but that's supposed to be their reward for making it to her in the first place, and it's Vicky's job to make their job as difficult as possible, but you're essentially doing it for them. Running up close is fine when it's somebody like another Vikala or Ferry or something, but against Vira and Beatrix, they should be fighting for their lives trying to get into the same zip code as her. -I noticed that, at the beginning of the video, you were ending your combos with the Rat Toss. That's a good idea, but it wasn't really going anywhere because you were using the wrong version. If you do the H version of Rat Toss, it keeps them stunned long enough for 2M to continue the combo. After the 2M, you can do cannons to get them set up and start throwing items into them, you can do Dormouse and send them flying across the screen, you can do Raging Strike to keep comboing even further, etc. And if you get the combo when the opponent's in the corner, you get some actually really decent damage too. -To explain how you got hit at 20:10 : in this game, with very exceptions, all grounded H-normals can't be blocked while the blocker is in the air. What happened is you got stuck in the air a tiny bit longer than the other Vicky because of blockstun from the j.H, giving them just barely enough time to land and press c.H while you were still in the air so you couldn't block it. The reason I bring this up during the Vikala tips is because this little quirk of how the game works is actually really helpful for Vikala for one reason: Trap. You noticed during this session that Trap activates really fast, jumps really high, and is generally just really obnoxious to try to avoid. A lot of people end up trying to jump over it, but can't because of how fast it is and have to block it in the air, so if you're fast enough, Vikala can run up when this happens and 2H them and they can't block it. When you do that, it's probably best to Raging Strike after and just take your combo, but you can try and set up cannons or something instead. Whatever you feel like doing, really. -You mentioned that you were pressing j.U when you jumped, thinking of Versusia's crossup button, right? And then when you realized, you started doing j.L whenever you went for a jump in, which is fine if you stay on the same side, but doesn't do anything if you cross up. Vikala does have a crossup too, it's just not j.U; it's j.M. And j.M's actually pretty darn good. It's really fast, so you can press it super late into your jump and hit the opponent, like, right before you touch the ground to sike out people into thinking you're just gonna land and go for a low, it hits on both sides so they have to guess whether or not you're gonna cross them up, and it's a true combo into c.M, so you can get some pretty nice combos out of it. j.L and j.H definitely have their uses too, but when you're jumping in on an opponent, especially midscreen, you should probably be pressing j.M. -You should really spend your meter more. You get tons of it in this game (you literally build meter from moving forward, it's kinda ridiculous) and it doesn't carry over between rounds, so there's no reason not to use, and Vikala gives you plenty of reasons why you should. U-Cannon is super fast, pushes the opponent back fullscreen if they block it, and give you time to set up a trap if it hits. U-Trap walks across the ground 'til it reaches your opponent, where it'll jump up and bite at them twice; it's hard for the opponent to interact with, gives you plenty of space and time to do whatever you feel like doing, can set them up for an unblockable 2H if they jump to avoid it, and gives you all the time in the world to turn it into a full combo if they get hit by it. U-Dormouse goes fullscreen, is obnoxiously fast, hard to avoid, knocks the opponent down for the same amount of time as a sweep, adds on some decent damage whenever it lands, and can be combo'd into with that corner combo you were doing in this video. And U-Rat Toss has i-frames, so in situation like when that Vira had you stuck in the corner, you could've done U-Rat Toss to get her away from you. Not to mention that Raging Strike helps a lot too. Vikala's normals, especially f.M and f.H, are pretty darn big, so you can kinda just throw those out when your opponent's running at you, and if they get hit by it, Raging Strike turns that random poke into a full combo. Same with if they're jumping a lot and you 2H them outta the air, Raging Strike combos after. If they DO block your combo, you can still do Raging Strike after because, if they aren't ready for it, it'll guard break them and you still get a combo even though they were blocking. One last little note, since you mentioned not knowing what to do when your opponent Raging Strikes you: you've kinda gotta be on the ball with it, but if you see it coming, you can spotdodge to avoid it. When you spotdodge a Raging Strike, the game goes into this crazy freeze frame and you basically get a full combo afterwards because your opponent gets super slowed down for a little bit. It's hard to do, but unbelievably worth it when you do get used to it. Hope any of this helps, at least a little bit. Good luck with the grind and Happy ratting, brother.
A couple of tips to level up your rat, from one Vicky to another:
-You're running towards your opponents a lot more than you need to. Vikala isn't super good at close range compared to most characters in the game, but she's one of the best at long range. Dormouse goes full screen, cannons shoot items almost full screen, a bunch of your items are really annoying to try to maneuver around, trap controls space super well, etc. Other characters can bully her pretty easily at close range, but that's supposed to be their reward for making it to her in the first place, and it's Vicky's job to make their job as difficult as possible, but you're essentially doing it for them. Running up close is fine when it's somebody like another Vikala or Ferry or something, but against Vira and Beatrix, they should be fighting for their lives trying to get into the same zip code as her.
-I noticed that, at the beginning of the video, you were ending your combos with the Rat Toss. That's a good idea, but it wasn't really going anywhere because you were using the wrong version. If you do the H version of Rat Toss, it keeps them stunned long enough for 2M to continue the combo. After the 2M, you can do cannons to get them set up and start throwing items into them, you can do Dormouse and send them flying across the screen, you can do Raging Strike to keep comboing even further, etc. And if you get the combo when the opponent's in the corner, you get some actually really decent damage too.
-To explain how you got hit at 20:10 : in this game, with very exceptions, all grounded H-normals can't be blocked while the blocker is in the air. What happened is you got stuck in the air a tiny bit longer than the other Vicky because of blockstun from the j.H, giving them just barely enough time to land and press c.H while you were still in the air so you couldn't block it. The reason I bring this up during the Vikala tips is because this little quirk of how the game works is actually really helpful for Vikala for one reason: Trap. You noticed during this session that Trap activates really fast, jumps really high, and is generally just really obnoxious to try to avoid. A lot of people end up trying to jump over it, but can't because of how fast it is and have to block it in the air, so if you're fast enough, Vikala can run up when this happens and 2H them and they can't block it. When you do that, it's probably best to Raging Strike after and just take your combo, but you can try and set up cannons or something instead. Whatever you feel like doing, really.
-You mentioned that you were pressing j.U when you jumped, thinking of Versusia's crossup button, right? And then when you realized, you started doing j.L whenever you went for a jump in, which is fine if you stay on the same side, but doesn't do anything if you cross up. Vikala does have a crossup too, it's just not j.U; it's j.M. And j.M's actually pretty darn good. It's really fast, so you can press it super late into your jump and hit the opponent, like, right before you touch the ground to sike out people into thinking you're just gonna land and go for a low, it hits on both sides so they have to guess whether or not you're gonna cross them up, and it's a true combo into c.M, so you can get some pretty nice combos out of it. j.L and j.H definitely have their uses too, but when you're jumping in on an opponent, especially midscreen, you should probably be pressing j.M.
-You should really spend your meter more. You get tons of it in this game (you literally build meter from moving forward, it's kinda ridiculous) and it doesn't carry over between rounds, so there's no reason not to use, and Vikala gives you plenty of reasons why you should. U-Cannon is super fast, pushes the opponent back fullscreen if they block it, and give you time to set up a trap if it hits. U-Trap walks across the ground 'til it reaches your opponent, where it'll jump up and bite at them twice; it's hard for the opponent to interact with, gives you plenty of space and time to do whatever you feel like doing, can set them up for an unblockable 2H if they jump to avoid it, and gives you all the time in the world to turn it into a full combo if they get hit by it. U-Dormouse goes fullscreen, is obnoxiously fast, hard to avoid, knocks the opponent down for the same amount of time as a sweep, adds on some decent damage whenever it lands, and can be combo'd into with that corner combo you were doing in this video. And U-Rat Toss has i-frames, so in situation like when that Vira had you stuck in the corner, you could've done U-Rat Toss to get her away from you. Not to mention that Raging Strike helps a lot too. Vikala's normals, especially f.M and f.H, are pretty darn big, so you can kinda just throw those out when your opponent's running at you, and if they get hit by it, Raging Strike turns that random poke into a full combo. Same with if they're jumping a lot and you 2H them outta the air, Raging Strike combos after. If they DO block your combo, you can still do Raging Strike after because, if they aren't ready for it, it'll guard break them and you still get a combo even though they were blocking.
One last little note, since you mentioned not knowing what to do when your opponent Raging Strikes you: you've kinda gotta be on the ball with it, but if you see it coming, you can spotdodge to avoid it. When you spotdodge a Raging Strike, the game goes into this crazy freeze frame and you basically get a full combo afterwards because your opponent gets super slowed down for a little bit. It's hard to do, but unbelievably worth it when you do get used to it.
Hope any of this helps, at least a little bit. Good luck with the grind and Happy ratting, brother.
Thank you for the tips I will do my best to implement them into my gameplay and hopefully pull out more wins o7
The rat’s back 🐀
Hell yeah she is