Subject: VOOT: Cyper miniFaq From: Alan Tan Date: Sun, 28 Jun 1998 10:17:34 +0800 Reply-To: anntlh@pacific.net.sg Newsgroups: rec.games.video.arcade Here is a short thing I have written about Cypher. Please note that I am not very proficient with Cypher, although I don't lose that badly but I am having problems winning quite a lot of people. Thus I hope for Feedback on how to play Cypher. Cypher miniFAQ ver 0.1 by Alan Tan The following FAQ is a discussion about how to play Cypher against Human opponents. Abbreviations. RW= right weapon LW= left weapon CW= central weapon RWRT= right weapon right turbo. and so on General comments Cypher retains Viper pathetic armour and with the vast improvements to other people's weapons, it makes it more difficult to play Cypher well. The big change is in the aerial battles. Cypher can air dash VERY fast and fire TWO shots. That is Cyphers main weapon.Cypher's weapons. RW: Vulcan Vulcan is basically Cypher's weapon to make opponent move and hopefully make an opening for his homing beam. Seriously, sometimes I wonder why the opponents bother to even dodge the Vulcan. At long range, it does NO damage due to virtua armour. At short range chances of bouncing of is still very high. But for MOST people (VOOM regulars), it is against everything they have learnt to stand still and take the hit so vulcan still works.Can fire while walking. RWRT: Laser. Fast, damaging, cancels opponent weapons and targets opponent. Quite a good weapon actually. The weapon cancelling provides some cover for the period of immobility due the laser shot. Cypher recovers quite fast and this makes this move quite a good move actually. The main use is in catching the opponent unaware at long distances as the speed of the shot is very fast. RWLT: duh...I dun use this a lot so it must be useless :) actually all it does is fire a stream of slow but homing vulcan. dash crouch RW: faster vulcan. One thing about Cypher dash shots is you can fire faster by using a crouch chot but with the obvious advantage of air dash, I seldom dash on the ground. LW: daggers big improvement from Cypher's 7way missles. by pressing the trigger twice you can launch 2 sets of 5 daggers. VERY effective at close to mid range. VERY effective. This is the only way to attack a good opponent. What I do is hit left trigger, make a turn and cancel the daggers then fire two sets of 5. This gives me around 12-13 daggers and a higher chance of hitting a jumping opponent. Dagger slows opponent for around 2-3 seconds. You can fire infinite daggers by pressing the Left trigger continiously and shaking the right stick. You will fire 2-4 daggers the cancelling by crouch then fire again. If you cancel the daggers, no ammo gauge isused. Useful only if opponent dashes to your right as daggers come out only to your right. This move requires you to remain stationary. LWRT fire around 7 daggers. MORE damaging than normal dagger, around one homing beam damage. requires you to be stationary and cannot cancel so you are frozen for around 2 secs. dodged easily by jump cancel though the wide arc of attack may be useful. LWLT fire 3 daggers. MORE homing than usual but quite useless actually as very few daggers and easily dodge. Like most LT weapons, can be fired at close combat ranges and can be canceled instantly so that may prove useful as Cypher has lousy CC weapons. air dash seldom use air dash daggers as I like to reserve them upon landing as Dagger are most powerful on ground. When you don't have homing beam and dagger second shot may be needed to ensure safe landing. CW homing beam different from Viper's as you can fire while walking and homing beam goes straight forward CWRT blinking homing sigh one of the mysteries of Cypher. Sometimes it hit sometimes it doesn't even home. "Useful" only in lond distances or when Cypher is in the air. CWLT 4way homing GOOD weapon. The way I use this weapon is press all 4 buttons and then release either RW+RT or LT+LT so that only two homing beam comes out. Damage is reduced but doesn't consume much guage. very worth it. Can be cancel by dashing so it is very safe. Very good weapon. Knock down opponent. side air dash: 4way homing good as second shot to ensure safe landing as it knocks opponent down forward air dash: normal homing good attack. Special moves Double jump (full ammo), start transform to plane and LW becomes 4way homing. quite useless actually as I can't seem to see opponent. Very hard to control. All 4 buttons for SLC. This SLC DO NOT require full ammo BUT you cannot turn during SLC. Information on useing Cypher's Unique move is welcome. SLC forward air dash (full ammo), CW SLC, does not home, not invulnerable but Cypher is highly mobile. USeful against CPU as CPU do not jump to dodge. BUT highly USELESS against normal humans unless you hit in first pass as a simple jump cancel dodges it. VERY VERY hard to hit opponent. SO unfair. I think Sega made a blunder in designing Cypher as his plane mode and SLC is sooo useless. wonder if anyone has any successs with these two weapons. VS combat tips 1) nothing beat standing daggers. at close range. after unleashing daggers, it is a good idea to jump air dash and continue attack as opponent may be hampered by a dagger hit. Good attack is walking daggers, jump immediately air side dash (super low attitude dash), immediately forward dash (towards opponent), fly past him shoot vulcan, from his blind side launch homing at APPROPRIATE timing. 2) double shots (most IMPT thing is this miniFAQ) Cypher can fire twice in air dash but you DON'T have to fire twice everytime. After the first shot (usually vulcan) you should have clear sight of opponent. LOOK. decide if your homing can hit depending on what opponent is doing. If opponent dash shoot, go ahead and fire. If you are at his blind side, shooting is also good. If he is facing you, not doing anything you should delay your shot. You can shoot the second shot ANYTIME after your first shot. you CAN delay until opponent move towards you to catch your landing b4 firing. This is very impt as it helps you to land safely and increase you chance of hitting. The second shot also changes your landing timing so it makes it harder for opponent to catch you. mix it up without firing and make a fast landing by holding sticks together. 3) side jump walk, immediately jump. You should have a jump that has a fast sideways movement. GOOD for targeting and dodging very safe way to orientate yourself. Most of the time use a jump cancel. Can fire 2way homing jump again. 4) remember to change direction in Dashing. 5) Cypher has weak close combat attacks. Don't bother. 6) learn how to pilot Cypher in the air and how to dodge things. Cypher can dodge a remarkable number of things in the air so learn to feel there are the projectiles coming from and where to dodge. This is VERY impt and Cypher is quite manuveourable even after an airdash, I have dodge things like Feiyan hyper heartbeams so learn. &) Cypher is the strogest at close-mid range whereby he can dashes to the opponents blind side and use his walking daggers effectively. So try to stay close. At least mid range. Specific tips against opponents 1) temjin Watch out for temjin forward dash rifle when landing. This makes you timing of your second shot all the more crucial. Other than that, Cypher is a good match against Temjin. Use your standing daggers a lot. Against good temjin try not to air dash too often. Actually a tip for Temjin players againts Cyphers, the way to catch a landing Cypher is NOT to dash and shoot, you will not hit. Dash towards a landing Cypher DUN shoot and hope he misses his homing beam and you dun get knocked down (as you can change direction in dash you can close in safer than if you have tried to fire). Fire your shots on the second dash at point blank range as nowadays everyone has perfect shot rotation b4 firing. At point-blank range it is almost a certain hit and HUGE damage. 2) Feiyan I HATE the powerup heartbeam. Ridiculously big and homing. Very hard to dodge. If you commit yourslef to an air dash attack, you are dead as the hyper heartbeam is VERY VERY hard to dodge and it takes off lots of blood. Furthermore, it slows you down for quite a well. VERY dangerous. Against a hyper Fieyan, standing daggers or 2way homing. only air dash in desperation. and watch out for the fast sword beam of hers. You cannot afford to get hit. Regarding the air dash thing, if you can dodge the heartbeam, usually you can deal more damage to feiyan so airdashing a non-hyper Feiyan is quite a good idea. maybe you can play machi for first half of the match.... :) 3) Grys-vok I got trashed some time ago by this very lousy Grysvok player. He just dashed away from and fire his weapons. Grys-vok has soooo many missiles it is really hard to dodge them. Grys-vok can fire 10 missiles at one go and has very good armour compared to Cypher. From long distances, Cypher vulcan is useless, daggers dun track well, homing beam is just one shot. I have thought of a way to win though. I think the cruz is using the two way homing to kill Grys-vok from far range. Dun try to close in recklessly. Still at long range, Cypher is very weak. 4) Bal series I am really happy that there is a good Bal player in the arcade I've played. I didn't manage to play with Chris b4 he left so this bal player is the only good player here. Bal is very fun to play against as he has tooo many tricks, lasers, energy fields, trip wires, hidden appendages :) it is always a mad rush as you cannot stay still. Cypher should play close to mid range with Bal. Never play from far as his mines and assorted stuff will whack you from your blind side. It is best to stay close, use air dash past him. Bal is not manuveourable so it is possible to score big hits and he do not have strong weapons to catch your landing. 5) angelan mm.. not many good angelan players. way to dodge dragon lasers is to side dash then jump. side dash will dodge the first few shots, the side jump will reorientate you and the change of direction is dodge the remaining lasers, putting you is a good position as you are safe and can see angelan. any thoughts on her double dragons?? I got hit from the blind side a few times after dodging them. I seldom play Angelan so I dun really know how the double dragons move but a word of advice is dun stand still even after you dodge their initial charge. 6) Cypher mm... not much can be said, just timing and thrust vectoring to catch cypher after his air dash. 7) Ajim is weak vs cypher I think. Air dashing past Ajim is a good idea as he has (shock and horrors) weaker armour than Cypher and not much good shots and he cannot turn properly :) just dash onto his blind side. )8 the rest... dun really remembering playing anybody else...