Subject: BAL faq From: Alan Date: Sat, 26 Dec 1998 22:49:05 +0800 Newsgroups: rec.games.video.arcade Bal FAQ ver 1.0 by Alan Tan 24 dec 1998 This FAQ concern mainly on vs combat, ie how to beat other people in VOOT. It does not teaches how to win the AI nor does it have a detailed explanation of all Bal's weapons. In fact, I presume you know ALL of Bals basic weapons including Black hole, Energy fields, etc. If you are interested in these please check out some of the many web pages on the web, like the Singapore VOC page. My policy of play is no mercy and the point of shooting a weapon is so that it hit. I mean people ask me to stop using oni vulcan because people cannot dodge it. WHY?? if people can dodge it, why I shoot it?? Anyway, if you want me to stop using oni vulcan, then I can ask Spec to stop ground wave and Angelan to stop double dragons and then lets have a match. BAL: General comments Bal is supposedly the most complex mech in VOOT. He is very distinctive in the sense that he has weak basic weapons, weak armour and weak speed. His strength lies in his special moves, especially oni mines which I will talk later. The advantage is that his weapons do not require aiming and they home VERY WELL. Short forms used RH: right hand Erl LH: left hand Erl RL: Right leg Erl LL: Left leg Erl Dodging First things first. To learn Bal, the most important thing is not how to do his complex combos but how to dodge. Bal ground dash is not very fast and there seems to be a problem with it in the sense that the Dash is slow to start and that makes it very difficult to dodge high homing shots. A side air dash does not have the slow start problem but it speed is slower so it is not a perfect solution. The BASIC dodge move is SLD, super low attitude dash, which is dashing immediately after you jump. This is quite okay but I feel a double jump dash is safer in certain respects esp if you are up close as opponent will lose a lock on you. Weapons. In this section, I will talk about the weapons that are useful to Bal. This is NOT a complete list of all the weapons, only those which i feel is useful. Section one: mines Mine snake 1) Eject right hand by LTRW 2) start to change mode to M 3) hold RW This will cause the RH erl to release a LOT of mines in a very short time. USeful as it uses the seldom used RW guage and allows you to eject many mines. VERY USEFUL when combined with oni mines. Oni mines I will start with oni mines which is the MAIN weapon of Bal without a doubt. Oni mines are excuted this way: 1) eject Left hand by LTLW 2) eject right hand anyway you like without using the Left hand, ie CW(release left trigger) which I will refer as CW(R) in the future. 3) start 4) side air dash LW will eject the oni mines from the right hand. Things to note. Each side air dash LW will release 5 oni mines and drain the left hand counter by 5. The right hand Erl will return IMMEDIATELY once the oni mines is ejected. The oni mines shoot out at HIGH speed and hang in the air. The oni mines stay in the air for like 2 seconds before attacking. They knockdown anybody upon impact causing around 15% to temjin. They have good homing abilities and there are five of them making dodging difficult. The variations of oni mines arises from the way you eject the Right hand erl. First variation: normal oni mines you eject the right hand by LTRH. Useful in close combat range when you are getting up, and the opponent is quick stepping in front. You CANNOT eject RH by CW(R) cuz you will do a close combat move. Use the LTRW. Them hit start and jump immediately and side dash towards the opponent and hit LW. In close range the oni mines will hit immediately the opponent. It is also very useful when you are fighting people like Arph B with bomb shelters. Do a mine snake first, ie release RH by LTRW, hit start, walk and press and hold RW. A whole stream of mines will appear from the RH. With 100% RW guage in the beginning, you will run out of ammo when the Right hand counter hits 2. The Arph B will use the napalm to clear the normal mines and probably charges forward. NOTE if he comes close to your RH, side air dash LW immediately will get almost a guaranteed knockdown. The point is waste his napalm with normal mines and confuse him. Then knock him out with oni mines. But the mine snake does respectable damage and is very effective if they are launch from the blind side. Second Variation: Oni Vulcan This is the BEST. Very difficult to dodge. The point is to release the RH using vulcan attacks, ie CW, side dash CW, etc. As the oni mines shoots out from the RH at very close range, it is very hard to dodge. There are three main useful methods of doing the oni vulcan. 1) CW(R) this is the safest method as it has the least freeze time. 2) side air dash CW(R) this cause you to release both the RH and the RL. It also has the advantage of being very fast and allowing you to move and eject at the same time. Another impt use is after a Energy Field, you eject the Right hand Erl by side RIGHT air dash, CW(R) when the Center guage is 45% and it uses only 15% guage. This allows you to combine SEFs and oni vulcan which is very useful against mirror hiding Angelan. 3) RTCW(R) This causes you to eject both RH and RL but with a long freeze time. Okay in shelter or when getting up. When shooting you oni vulcan you must time the release of the mines just b4 the Erl reaches the opponent. This is because if you hit too early, the oni mines get scattered in the air, not accurate. If you hit too late, the vulcan shoots and the Erl will stop following the opponent, allowing the opponent to distance himself form the Erl. And if the Vulcan hit the opponent first, your mines may not work as the opponent gets ivulnerability for a short while. IMPORTANT NOTE: when you release you RH, it may be obvious to opponent that you are going to side air dash. And so it may be VERY Dangerous to do that side air dash. Use your brain and decide. Another way is to wait for your RH to close in first before doing the side air dash, ie you hit the LW immediately when you side air dash so the opponent get hit really fast and doesn't have time to retaliate. Up close, you can execute a DOUBLE jump then side air dash. This is quite safe as opponent cannot see you. Reflect lasers There are three kind of reflect lasers. To get a hit, it is usually necessary to fire the lasers when the opponent is close by. normal reflect laser 1)Eject all Erls by LT method 2)jump RTCW when center guage is 100%. This causes the Hand Erls to fly on top of the leg Erls and the lasers will shoot out from the hand Erls for a total of 8 lasers. The location of the Leg Erls will decide where the Laser shoot out from. Important as you want the opponent to get hit. Note this will cause you to dance which is very dangerous. If you eject Erls using weapons, the laser will not come out. Unless, you hit the RTCW the instant the Erl is reconnecting to Bal. This laser does around 30% to temjin but is not very useful. Single reflect laser 1) eject RH by jump LTRW 2) eject one leg Erl anyway. both Erl must be in B mode. 3) jump RTRW Note both the ERLs must be in B mode. This cause 6 lasers to be shot out from RH Erl. It knocks down light VRs only thus Heavy VRs may sustain multiple hits. It cause around 20% per hit. Note all these Erls may be be replaced by the left side, ie 1) eject LH by jump LTLW 2) eject LL 3)start to change to B mode 4) jump RTLW double reflect laser 1) eject RH by jump LTRW 2) eject RL and LH anyhow. RH and RL must be in B mode. LH can be any mode. 3) jump RTRW Note if you eject LH using left turbo, you can execute the laser by jump RTLW which uses the LW guage instead. But the laser is indentical. This is the best laser. 50% damage to Temjin. Killer to light VRs. IMPORTANT to note where you eject the ariel Erl as the laser shoots out from there. Only use your lasers when the opponent is close. Combat usage: Oni Vulcan Double reflect laser combination !!VERY USEFUL!! This is what I use mainly. This is a summary of the tactics I use. eject the LH by jump LTLW. Then eject LL by crouch LTLW. Note it takes SKILL to perform these two steps safely. Then you use CW(R). Hit start. At this point you have two choices: 1) fire an oni vulcan 2) fire a double reflect laser by Jump RTLW. This is a VERY powerful way of playing as the oni Vulcan is VERY HARD to dodge. Forces the opponent to run. If he runs near the ariel Erl, you can fire a reflect laser IMMEDIATELY. Note you need 100% left guage to fire laser. You can mix in the mine snake BUT you cannot use leg Erls attacks like Energy field. Thus useful against mobile mechs like Feiyan or Arph B. The whole point is DON'T shoot your laser immediately after setting up your ariel Erl as opponent is aware. Run around, fire your oni mines. Go back to your Ariel Erl and try to lure your opponent there. Alternatively, the laser can be launch by crouch RTCW(R). This shoots out half paralyse laser. Useful against heavy mech who get paralysed instead of knocked down. If paralysed, you can get multiple reflect laser hits. Alernatively, you can eject the other two erls and use a delta end (crouch RTCW) Note, RH is the appex of pyramid options in Delta end: change mode so RH is in mine mode. lauch mine sanke which comes from above, very hard to see. Fire a weapon to find where you left hand is. If opponent is close, do a double reflect by jump RTLW. Else herd the opponent to LH by firing weapons from RL. LL cannot fire, I think. After the double reflect, if you have time (when delta end ends all Erl forcefully return to Bal) you can fire reflect laser by jump RTCW at the instant Erls reconnect Bal. Note you can lauch reflect laser by jump RTCW which causes lasers from both RH and LH but damage is not as great as double reflect. Note about Delta end. You can lauch delta end if Erls are ejected by LT method or when they are in an attack like Energy field. But if they are returing when you launch the delta end, the Delta end is incomplete does not hold opponent. Also remember that the Delta end do not affect weapons like spec ground wave. Multiple lasers Bal can chain up lasers and fire up to 4 in a row. The detailed usage can be found elsewhere cuz i dun find them useful as once the opponent knows that laser is coming, the laser is pretty hard to hit. One laser combi though may be useful for surprise effect. 1) jump LTRH, release RH 2) crouch CW or fwd dash crouch CW to release leg Erls. 3) Jump RTRW, single reflect laser 4) start 5) fast land and LTLW 6) start 7) jump RTLW, double reflect laser This combi fires a single reflect laser followed by a double reflect laser. Good for heavy VRs as the single reflect do not knocked down or surprise effect as the opponent may not be expecting the second laser. Other useful weapons side dash crouch CW useful at close range as damage potential is very high. works even after your mech is knocked down jump CW trace laser. hits aneglan even in mirror. last for long time so can be done when opponent is down. Crouch CW: Energy field highly useful. Hit all mechs when they are walking. From long range it is diffcult to see. Excellent damage and knocks down 100%. Small Energy field SEF is done by using one leg in an attack like RTCW(R) then crouch CW. This causes only one Leg Erl to do the energy fiel. It is smaller and less damage but good for knockdown. SEF can also be done by Crouch CW, crouch LTRW to call back one Erl. Specific tactics against individual mechs These tactics are developed to counter the style of play in Singapore which may or may not work in your part of the World Raiden DO NOT DASH too much. In fact try not to use oni mines until Raiden has shot his lasers. Use the mine snake to confuse the opponent. Wait for the lasers and then hit him with the oni mines. Set up your Ariel LH for the laser. Stay close to it. The Raiden will try to move in close as he is stronger up close. At close range, Raiden is a Duck. To dodge Raiden's lasers, it is advisable to jump rather than dash. Note that the ground bomb can cancel a LOT of your mines so don't try for the oni vulcan if you see Raiden inside a ground bomb. Temjin No good temjin. Mine snake, oni vulcan is the way to go. Feiyan Set up your ariel Erl in the beginning when she is not hyper. Hit her until she is near 50%. Then go for the laser hit. Feiyan will try to get close cuz she need to be near to use her LTLW shots. This is because these shots only have a range of less than 300 m. And Bal is VERY strong with oni Vulcan from afar. So LURE her to you ariel LH. If she goes hyper, she is DIFFICULT to win. Watch out for her stun heart (RTLW) which can kill you as it stuns and you will probably get hit with big heart. Note although Feiyan seems to have unlimited ammo, she doesn't. Her real heart and stun heart need ammo and she will run out after a few. Then go for the oni Vulcan hit. Play either VERY CLOSE ie knock her down. Go very close, CW(R), double jump, oni vulcan. OR kock her down, CW(R), back dash, oni Vulcan. The point is don't stay in 80-300 range where Feiyan is very strong. Cypher oni Vulcan him to death Grsyvok No good Grysvok players.. oni Vulcan should be enuff I think. oh, the way to dodge the Grysvok's jump RTCW is double jump side dash cancel. Arph B The way for Arph B to dodge oni Vulcan is a Napalm then fwd dash and he will try to punish you with his fwd dash shots. Arph doesn't have strong weapons so you can set up your ariel Erl with ease. Coupled with the desire for close range combat, Arph B is easy target for Laser. Just remember, wait, wait, wait for a GOOD chance b4 releasing your lasers. I have seen soo many stupid bals who release their lasers when the opponent is like 300m away from their Ariel Erl. What is the point??? Use the mine snake to waste the napalm. Eject your LH in the beginning to prepare for oni mines. Later when opponent is down, eject RH Erl, hit start so that (LH: B mode, RH: M mode). move back and press and hold RW to do mine snake. 99% Arph B will use the napalm and dash fwd. Which means the napalm cancel all your mine snake BUT he will be dashing close to your RH Erl. Do and immediate air side dash LW to release the oni mines. When is is close to you RH erl, sure hit. Actually, Arph is kind of weak so you can set up all you Erls attacks with easy as he doesn't have strong punishing attacks. Arph S ... seldom play Arph S. I guess mine snake and oni mines will kill him. Dodray Set up your Ariel Erl when dodray does a drill rush. Use a vulcan attack. he will probably use a rush to try to punish you and dodge the coming oni mines. Stay close to your Ariel Erl cuz that is where he will be coming. Instead of oni mines, hit him with lasers. When he get hit once, he will not be so enthusiastic at attacking you. So go on and use oni mines. Mine snake is also a good idea. Anyway, watch you for Geromaki. Double jump side dash cancel is the way to dodge at long range. At close range, fwd dash crouch CW is a good idea. Specinef Stay CLOSE. At long range the black balls, electric dart, big ground wave WILL KILL you. To dodge the electric Dart (spec's jump RTRW), double jump. to dodge the ground wave(RTCW).... while if you are in a dash already.. you ARE DEAD. If you are walking... you are half dead. The point is, if I know it is coming, a double jump side dash will get me out 100%. But, in actual combat there are distractions like the black hole, shots, etc. Usually, you don't have the time to double jump. So a left dash is a good idea. Somehow dashing to the left succeed more than to the right. But the best way is to stay UP CLOSE where the RTCW is not homing. Also, all the other kind of ground wave, ie standing ones, crouch ones, CAN be dodge by a double jump. If you are close, use CW(R) and double jump. This allows you to eject ONE set of oni mines safely and hopefully this hits. It is DANGEROUS to try to set up your ariel Erl but the rewards can be GREAT but it is kind of hard to hit Specinef as specinef will not close in to fight you so very hard to lure him near the Erl. Angelan sigh... I seldom win her. The method that have limited success is using SEFs and mine snake and normal oni mines. The END