=====< Kuma FAQ. version 1.0 >===== Written by Greene, "The Bear" jk66@cornell.edu Table of Content 1) General Description of the character Kuma 2) Crucial Move list: Moves that you WILL use and will USE only 3) Strategy Guide with Kuma This FAQ will be quite brief, because I began to play with Kuma for a brief period, and still there are a lot to be discovered in this huge character. Yet, I think it is very useful to share what I know with other people, because I believe that the excitement of Tekken2 comes not from beating button-smashers, but from a match with skilled players. Then, without further delaying, I'll talk about our cute yet dangerous bear, Kuma. 1. General Description of Kuma Kuma is very slow, yet deadly character in the game. He has a few combos that is not hard to pull off yet is very dangerous. Even though most of his attacks are focused on a close-range attack, he also has some long range attacks. The only serious flaw that Kuma has is that it is extremely hard to spice up upper and lower attacks with Kuma due to his slow movement. If you don't trust my word, you can look at his combos. Other than his 10-string combo, NO other combo actually spices up the upper and lower attack, in contrast to many other characters. Thus if you really are going to use Kuma... well, you will have to have some kind of 'commitment' to this slow bear... or this will be just somebody's teddybear to toy with. Then one might ask... why I am using this character. As a matter of fact, I wanted to write FAQ about one of those glamourous characters such as Heihachi, Paul, King or Michelle (My goddess) but... someone else already took it so I couldn't! 2. Crucial Move List. There are Kuma's move list in any Tekken Site. If you really want to 'research' Kuma, get that move list. ( Chances are... you will find it pretty much useless because Kuma's attack tends to stay in one spot. ) Legends. F,B,U,D : Holding the stick f,b,u,d : Tapping the stick Left Punch Right Punch 1 2 3 4 Left Kick Right Kick When there is '+' sign, that means either you press, or press and hold 'simultaneously.' A comma means the progression of moves, such as 1,1,1 meaning press left punch three times. 1. Grabs 1+3 Hell Press 2+4 Bear Hug F+2+4 Mauling 2+4 (Behind) Long Toss. One thing to remember. Kuma is different from other character with the backthrow. For instance, if you press either 1+3 or 2+4 with Michelle, if she is behind somebody, she will do the German Supplex. But if you press 1+3 instead of 2+4 with Kuma, he is so dumb that he will do Hell Press instead of Long Toss!! 2. Other techniques. (That you will use in any occasion) 1,1,1 Punch Combo. f+1,1,1 Heaven Cannon d/f+1,2,1,2 or d/f+2,1,2,1 Uppercut Rush D+1+2 (when lying) Spring Hammer Punch 3+4 Sitting u/f+3+4 Hip Press 1,2,1,2 (while Sitting or after Hip Press or after Spring Hammer Punch) Bloody Claws D+1,1,1,2,(F or D/F or D)+1 Bear Rush b,f+2+3 Salmon Hunting. B+1+2 Terrible Claw (Unblockable) D+2,1,1,1,2,1,2,1,1+2,1+2 10 String. There are a lot more, but as I found, they are virtually useless. If you don't think so, please mail me. Write specific occasion, and the specific move that worked precisely in that occasion. As I told you above, I haven't been playing Kuma for that long yet, thus any suggestion is welcome. As an attentive reader might have found, Kuma's combos are concentrated on one spot, and thus it is clearly easy to block if anyone sees it coming. This will be the clear flaw with Kuma. If you have any suggestion to spice up upper and lower attack without loss of time, please mail me. 3. Strategy Guide for Kuma. As I emphasized from the beginning, Kuma is slow, so if he misses any attack, he is as good as dead. Yet, he is very powerful, and his power compensates more than enough for his slowness. Thus if anyone is going to use Kuma, he will have to make advantage of this fact. a. vs CPU. From Round 1 to 3. Even though Kuma is slow, no one should have a problem in THIS stage unless you are Forrest Gump or lower. The main strategy here is: At the beginning, maul the opponent. Mauling will give a damage of 45% After that, do 1,1,1 combo (Trust me, he is DEAD, if he gets all three hits) If he blocks on the second hit, don't go to the third hit. The opponent will attack you with lower punch (Itzy Bitzy... that sucks!) If he/she blocks the combo, step away and WAIT till he does something wrong. Chances are, he/she will try upper body kick. Wait till that is over, and as soon as Kuma blocks it, counter with f+1,1,1. Heaven Cannon is the only FAST weapon that Kuma has, and this works fairly well. Using Bear Hug (33%-40%) on the finish is very effective, too. Just make sure you don't use Kuma's Bloody Claws, because you have to save it for the future. - well, unless otherwise you lose. :P From Round 4. to Round 7 This is where the game gets harder. If you are playing against one of those bitches (Nina or Jun) or bastards (Law or King) you will have to resort mainly on Bloody Claws from now on. You won't be able to grab with ease. If you just walk up and try to grab... well, they will break your throw easily, too. From now on you have to rely on opponent's mistake (missed combo or missed kick, whichever that needs lots of recovery time) You have to time yourself well. Or your Kuma will absorb all the combo hits with no chance of counter attack. Yet, you still can maul and hug people after they miss their stupid combos 1. vs Lei Lei is always easy. Just duck and wait till he does his moronic turning fist. After the second punch, you can deliver the long toss (70%) After two throws, he is dead meat 2. vs Nina or Jun They are real bitches. You can't really grab them unless they have committed real grievous mistakes, or still you are playing Round 4. (occasionally, you will miss throw even in Round 3 if you are playing against those bitches) Don't worry. There is a bitter medicine for them anyway. (For everybody, actually) Get one step back, sit down and do bloody claws. If you do Bloody claws, you will notice that as Kuma swings his claws, he advances one step each time. Thus if you are not that far away, the last two shots will connect. Don't rejoice yet. After the bloody claw, roll BACKWARD or Nina will deliver that nice and nasty combo on your poor Kuma with no sweat. (in case of Round 7, that is) After you roll back, both bitches will run at you. Don't let them 'stomp' u. Jump up and then turn around. What if they don't? Go one step front and sit down... Bloody claw again. This is what you do after all. Try to grab them after missed combos occasionally. Due to the long arms, Kuma can actually deliver Bear hug after Nina or Jun accidentally miss a throw. Anyway... chances are, you will have to rely on the bloody claws. 3. vs Michelle Oh, she is hot, isn't she? (Some claim that Nina is the hottest, but Fuck that! Michelle is the best!!) Yes, she is very pretty and good looking... and also good-natured. She will let you do whatever you want unless you are playing on 7th round (everyone turns either bitch or bastard on 7th round, so it's not her fault after all) Enjoy your game. Just remember not to abuse those grabs. She will break it on round 2 if you do. If she keeps being a bitch... there is a prescription written above. 4. vs Yoshimitsu or Heihachi These yucky males have one common figure: Easy to dupe and easy to finish. You will be able to do mauling on both of them right at the beginning, if you didn't abuse that skill in the first three. Maul them. After that... just wait and see. Keep your distance so that they can't grab you. Chances are: a. Yoshimitsu will do his stupid two-kick combo. Right after the second kick, deliver Heaven Cannon (f+1,1,1) He doesn't learn his lesson anyway... wait till he does this and finish him with it. b. Heihachi will try that stupid upper round kick. Right after that kick, again, deliver the beloved Heaven Cannon. This does wonder! What if that doesn't work? You still have the magic prescription called Bloody Claws. They are really powerful tools that Kuma can pride in. Try using them... the usage is in Nina section. 5. vs Jack 2 This slow and yucky character has a same trait as Kuma. This WILL be a power game. Well, the only difference is that you have brain, which he doesn't. Unless he is on 7th round, you can try anything you want... well, don't hug him. I reserve that move exclusively for girls :) Again, if you are stuck, you can get yourself away with bloody claws here 6. vs Law This guy sucks! I mean, he is the only guy that you can NEVER grab after 5th round (well, bosses are born assholes, so exclude them) Sit down and do bloody claws... you will realize that this is the most wise decision you can ever make against this guy. What if he does his stupid Dragon's fang attack? Oh, Thank him and do Punch Combo 1,1,1 and he will stay on the ground for a LONG time. 7. vs King Well, I never had any problems against any other people (well, against girls, tho, cuz of my weird sexual pervertedness... trying to finish Michelle with Bear Hug on Round 7, hahaha) this one has been the pain in the ass for a long time. If you see him after round 5, first pray to god. That's all you can do (Humph) The only tip I can give you is that you will have to live ducking (1) or you will get his multi, which hurts like shit. Secondly, you will have to stay 4 steps back or he will willingly deliver Frankensteiner (2) The second problem has been solved for me, because if you can have exact timing, you can deliver either f+1,1,1 or 1,1,1 combo while he is flipping on the air. But for the first part... Nah, not yet. Still needs lots of practice. Round 8. You will meet Paul here. (well, if you continued as the second player and kicked your buddy's ass to play, it's different story. You will see one of those other middle bosses. That's the due you will have to pay for being nasty to your buddy (j/k) I didn't fight against middle bosses yet, so I will have to write about it when I update this FAQ) This is so damn easy. This round is where you use one of the skills that you never used yet: Hell Press. Stay one step away so that he will MISS his stupid falling leaf combo. As soon as he finishes the combo (as soon as Kuma blocks his elbow attack, that is) press 1+3 and Paul is down. Due to Kuma's sooper-dooper heavy weight, Paul will stay down for a LONG while (about 7 secs or so) Do it again!! He loves it, anyway (Nothing sexual here) After the second hell press, he will get up and try to do that stupid falling leaf again. step back and wait till he misses. After he misses his second falling leaf, trust me he is dead (Just like Lei) What if Hell press doesn't work? Don't worry. Kuma has enough weapon to work his way out with. If Hell press doesn't work... simply do 4 (Right kick, simple one) in place of the Hell press. Make sure you keep the distance. You should be all right. Just remember that if u r carrying out this option, this will work 100% unless you have mistake in placement, but Paul will get right up after he gets hit, so you don't have the chance to kick him again, like you could with Hell Press Round 9. Kazuya. The Asshole. Key to this guy is: Stay AWAY. 3 steps precisely. Or he will deliver his deadly dragon punch. If u get that, you are DEAD (Trust me, you are dead) He will run at you, stomp you, sweep you and keep kicking you while you are down. Stay away. When he approaches to you, run away. Run!! I mean it. and as soon as you get the distance of 3 step, sit down and do the bloody claws. That's all you can do. absolutely nothing else. (This round is not that hard, if you know how to deal with the sitting down and bloody claws Round 10. Devil. THE Bastard. You will have to suffer for a while till you get the right distance. If you are far away, he will air-laser you, and if you are too close... Trust me, you are dead again. the right distance here is again, 3 step, but in round 10, it doesn't really have to be 3 step. When the round begins, sit down as soon as possible. Do the bloody claws. Avoid ANY contact, and as soon as you get the distance, sit down and do the bloody claw. If he dares to air-laser you... if he is on the ground, you can still duck, and if he air-laser you, jump up and you should be able to avoid the laser. And if he air-lasers you, make sure you run at himafter his air-laser. You will be able to stomp him on his way down. Other than that... just same shit. sitting down and bloody claw... sitting down and bloody claw... *Special Tip* If someone hits you to the ground, DON'T roll to get up. Wait till the opponent comes close and do D+1+2. This will initiate bloody claws right after the spring hammer. This is extremely useful. Make sure you use this skill as much as possible, should u get pounced to the ground. vs Human characters:Due to the fact that my career with Kuma is not long, I am not really good at fighting against human characters with Kuma yet. I even lost to one of those button-smasher the other day! (I couldn't believe it myself!!) Anyway, because of that fact, I can't really provide any useful tip that can help you fighting against human characters. Sorry about that. I will try to fight against as many humans as possible, and I will fill up this page on the next version, I promise. Kuma... well, I know he sucks... all my favorite characters are taken now!! Greene, 'The Bear' jk66@cornell.edu