Advanced Tips For King Of Fighters 15

While King Of Fighters 15 takes the guise of another ordinary King Of Fighters tournament under the guidance of new tournament commissioner Anastasia, the defeat of the entity Verse in the previous game had irreparable effects on timelines and dimensions that previously-deceased fighters have begun resurfacing to participate in the tournament. Players now have to explore the mysterious nature of these appearances, and the conspiracy behind the new tournament.

However, players who want to fully revel in the KOF 15 campaign would have to master the rather fast-paced, technique-intensive nature of its characters. And while KOF 15 plays like a typical fighting game, certain pro tips for King Of Fighters 15 can definitely make beginners play like a professional in a competition.

8 Position The Main As The Last Character

Compared to other team-based games that offer a tag system, KOF 15 doesn’t let players switch characters in the middle of combat. This means team creation is a vital component of their fighting strategy, as starting with the wrong character might give players a disadvantage. To counter this, players should have their main character as their last character in the team. This has some advantages:

Going last gives comeback opportunities: The last character is the only character that can have all 5 Meter bars full, giving them a lot of opportunities to dish out more powerful moves compared to previous characters.
Go up against a weaker opponent: Given how health carries over to the next round, the player’s main character will likely face a weaker opponent, making their comeback route much faster.

7 Use Meters Generously

Similar to other fighting games, KOF 15 has its own version of a meter called the Power Gauge that gets filled up as the round progresses. Characters get up to five (5) Power Gauge bars depending on their starting position, and they can use up this gauge to execute several moves. However, players shouldn’t “save up” these bars until the last moment. Rather, they should generously use the meters to take advantage of devastating attacks. Many things they can do with the Power Gauge are the following:

Half Bar: Players can use half a bar to perform EX Special Moves, signature moves that don’t do a lot of damage but can weave into combos.
Full Bar: Players can use a full bar to perform Guard Cancels, Shatter Strikes, and even Super Special Moves. This is probably the most practical use of the Meters in terms of defense.
2 Bars: Players need two (2) bars to activate the power-boosting MAX Mode and perform MAX Super Specials.
3 Bars: Players can use three (3) full bars to perform extremely devastating Climax Super Specials.

6 MAX Mode Doesn’t Necessarily Need Specials

Aside from the Power Gauge, characters can tap into the MAX Mode as a power-up mode to dish out more powerful attacks. Moreover, Shatter Strike, EX Specials, and Super Specials don’t consume Power Gauge but instead smaller chunks of the MAX Mode. This should make the MAX Mode a limited mode to use as many special moves as possible, right? Surprisingly enough, this shouldn’t always be the case for players. Here are other practical uses of the MAX Mode:

MAX Mode (Raw): Doing MAX Mode on neutral gives characters a blue aura and actually boosts both their overall Damage and Guard Gauge damage. Instead of doing specials, pulling off hard-hitting combos here can finish the opponents equally as fast with less room for counters.
MAX Mode (Quick): Doing this MAX Mode while attacking will give the player a pink aura and a shorter gauge. Despite this caveat, the Quick mode stops time for a brief moment, allowing players to “cancel” their current move into another move. This is tempting for supers but more practical for longer combo strings.

5 Jumping Gives Combat Another Dimension

Jumping remains one of the most basic fighting game mechanics out there, especially since it helps characters reach opponents much faster or even dodge things such as projectiles and low-reaching attacks. However, while KOF 15 takes the typical jumping mechanics of fighting games, the KOF title takes it a step further by giving players four types of Jumps to use. Players who want to dominate the air space need to identify just how these Jumps affect combat. In summary:

Jumps are different from Hops: Holding the Jump button will give players higher jumps, while simply tapping it lightly will execute a lower Hop.
Running always leads to Super Jumps, Hyper Hops: Running and then jumping is a staple mechanic for aggressive fighting game players. In KOF 15, jumping from a run always results in Super Jumps or Hyper Hops. When in neutral ground, Supers and Hypers are done by simply pressing down and then the corresponding input.
Attack closer to the ground: It’s not always practical to attack from mid-air in KOF 15, especially since attacks from too far high can only result in pokes. Meanwhile, combo-ok mid-air attacks often happen when players are closer to the ground, making time more crucial.

4 Throws Facilitate Powerful Defense

Like other fighting games, KOF 15 has a throwing component that simulates grappling in real-life fighting. While most games simply have stylistic throws that are frame-animated the same way, KOF 15 enables Throws to change the full course of combat by giving them vastly different properties. For instance, Throws can come in the form of Frame-1 Throws, and Invincible Throws, among others. Here are some implications of this:

No way to predict throws: Unlike other games where players can counter a Throw right before the frame hits, KOF 15’s various throws mean there’s no way to accurately predict throws except through intuition.
Cancel property adds great defense: Since there’s no way to predict what kind of Throw will be done at the next moment, players can use Throws to cancel out attacks that will hit at the last moment.
Distance and air are the only deterrents: When knocked down, players can wait for opponents to enter too close into melee range so they can get thrown. This means opponents can ever truly avoid Throws by staying a bit further from a knocked-down opponent or by using air attacks.

3 Controller Keybinds Make Combos Much Easier

A KOF15 character deftly dodging an enemy

While some traditional or purist fighting game fans might think keybinding basic combos is a sin, it’s actually an encouraged mechanic in KOF 15. The game offers players the opportunity to replace common inputs in the game with keybinds, allowing them to simplify some of the more “complex” basic mechanics in the game. This is important, as a lot of keybound movements often lead to combos and other plays. Some options to keybind are:

Heavy Punch + Heavy Kick: Adding a keybind here makes Shatter Strikes (Quarter Circle, HP+HK) much easier, letting players counter an opponent and stun them, making this a very dangerous option for rushdown characters.
Light + Heavy Punch/Kick: Adding a keybind for these two kinds of attacks makes Special Moves much easier to access since they need Light + Heavy variations of either punches or kicks to access.

2 Use The Timer For An Advantage

When players enter any match, they only have 60 Seconds to finish the round. This gives players ample time to make quick work of their opponents, and even stall for time if their opponents end up being too strong. KOF 15’s team-based gameplay gives players a unique perk: Not only does the winning character regenerate some health when they proceed to the next round, but the amount of health they regenerate also depends on how fast they defeat the previous fighter. This can be used in two ways:

Offensively: Players need to eliminate their enemies as fast as possible, so they can regenerate the most health
Defensively: Players who end up on the losing end should stall for as much time as possible, so their opponents won’t recover a lot of health even if they win.

1 Weave Combos Through Motions

A KOF15 character pulling off a fluid combo

Players who try to master characters in KOF 15 might notice that some of their combos are just difficult to execute, especially those with similar introduction commands but end in completely different moves. Instead of repeating introduction commands just to weave two attacks, players need to remember that the game recognizes movement input more than attacks. When used properly, players can fulfill the same movement and finish off with two different commands, resulting in an unexpected combo - appropriate to make characters look overpowered.

An example would be Ryo, known for his hard punches and kicks that often seem stiff and difficult to weave. For example, Ryo has a Super Move that allows him to dish out a flurry of attacks against his opponent - but its setup time means not doing an attack or two just to fulfill the combo. However, it’s actually possible to get into Ryo’s Super Move while doing his Uppercut, precisely because they share the same starting motion. Like a math formula, it would appear like this: