\/\May Character F.A.Q.s/\/

Open Source. This FAQ is made for the gaming community use it as you see fit.
I would enjoy it if you give me credit if you quote the FAQ but I won't do
anything if you don't.

David Andrus 2005

I. Introduction

 This is my character guide to May. The best Guilty Gear Character of them all.
Why is she the best? Let me break it down it down. 
1.	May is a pirate and who doesn’t love pirates. 
2.	May summons dolphins to do attack people and who doesn’t love dolphins? 
3.May makes a funny sound when she walks or runs and who doesn’t love that? 
4.May is under age and who doesn’t lo-- Ha. I’m just joking... 
	
So you might be thinking that this doesn’t have anything to do with actual 
combat and the truth is that May isn’t better than any of the other characters
in the game. If you really want to play as someone that is better than everyone
else then I recommend Sol Badguy. In terms of combat May has average mobility
and a good amount of power. She is a simple fighter and none of her moves are
difficult to execute, a good character for beginners.


II. Battle Strategy

Now in this section I’m going to give you my general strategies for playing 
as May. Of course I would consider myself an average Guilty Gear player. So
keep in mind my word isn’t law in the world of 2-D fighters but hopefully I
can provide you with some good insight and help you think of something you 
haven’t thought of before.

So here is how the rest of this faq breaks down. I’m going to go move by move
and give you my opinion on it. I’ll start with the basics. Ah, almost forgot
the key

Abbreviation Key:

This is a key for the abbreviations I use in the faqs. Most of this is familiar
to veteran fighting game players. But you might want to skim over it or check
back if you see something that you don’t recognize.

f. = forward and whatever button fallows it. (Ex. f.punch = forward and punch
together)

\. = forward diagonal. Pressing forward and down at the same time.
I don’t think other people use this symbol in their faqs so remember this one.

/. = back diagonal. Just the back and down together.

hcf = Half circle forward. A basic directional combination used in a lot of
fighting games. You start by pressing away from the direction you character
is facing then you proceed to make a half circle on the bottom of the 
control pad. It’s simple stuff and if you want to be good at this game you
better be able to make half circles.

hcb = half circle back. The same combination as a half circle forward but in
reverse.

qcf = quarter circle forward. Start from down then make a quarter circle 
forward.Another basic directional combination that is used a lot in this game.

qcb = quarter circle back isn’t used in any of Mays moves but I thought I would
put it in for consistency. I think some other faqs use this so it may help you
if you decide to read them. 

HS = Hard Slash. I just spelt the rest of the buttons out but I decided that
this was a little too long.

c.slash = Close slash. When May is close enough to an opponent she will do a
different type of slash. You can tell by the different attack animation.

RC = Roman Cancel 

FRC = False Roman Cancel. Currently not used in this FAQs


III. The Moves

Something that I want to share with you is that when doing combos you need to 
relize that moves do less damage the higher your combo gets. Also the damage 
for these moves was tested on Sol Badguy. So these moves do more less depending 
on whom the opponent is.

//punch								10 damage

There isn’t anything special about May’s punch, it’s just a fast low damage 
move. Nothing useful to spam unless you want to annoy people and lose.  But 
here are some combos to use that start with the standard punch. 

Dash in Punch x4 kick						35 damage 5 hits

Dash in Punch x2, slash, HS					63 damage 4 hits

The reason I put "Dash in" is because you need to be close to for the combos to 
work, especially the last combo.

//f.punch							44 damage

The forward punch does decent damage and hits the enemy back. It also happens 
to set up a nice 3 hit combo. The drawback is that the move is slow and short 
ranged, so hitting people can be difficult.


f.punch-slash-HS						113 damage 3 hit

I consider this to be one of May’s main combos. A simple 3 hit combo that does 
good damage.  You will need to be close in order to get all of the hits to 
connect.
f.punch-slash-HS-hor.dolphin(HS)				151 damage 4 hit

f.punch-slash-HS-hor.dolphin(HS)-\.kick				155 5 hit 5 hit

As you can see you can connect that with the Horizontal Dolphin special move. 
Right after you press f.punch you need to start holding back. There is a little 
bit of timing need to connect with it but it’s not hard to get it down.

//kick								20 damage			
 
I don’t have any wisdom to share with you about this move. It is just a kick.

//slash								33 damage
  
c.slash								30 damage

Slash is one of the buttons I like to rely on in a fight and slash has the 
longest range of May’s regular moves. What you need to be aware of is that May 
will do a different type of slash if she is close to an opponent (looks like a 
backhand with her anchor) this slash can combo to a lot of things. The 
fallowing combos use that type of slash.


c.slash-slash-down HS						97 damage 3 hit

This is the second combo that I rely on. In the heat of battle it might be hard 
to think about the combinations for a fancy combo but this is one you can do 
without thinking.

c.slash-slash-down HS-f.HS					113 damage 4 hit

This just an extension of the previous combo, make sure the opponent lands close
enough to pull off the f.HS.

c.slash-slash- HS						102 damage 3 hit

Just a slight variation as I said before the slash can combo into many different
things. Make sure you are close in order to execute this properly.

//HS								50 damage

If you are new to the game you might find HS an appealing button to press a lot.
The damage is good and f.HS has a good range.(But remember slash has the 
longest range)

//throw								51 damage

A throw is executed by being close to your opponent and pressing forward or back
plus the HS button. Pressing forward will throw the opponent behind you while 
press back will throw them in front of you. Throws can’t be blocked and are 
good for switching positions with your foe.

f.HS								70 damage

This is the most damaging of the regular moves. Though be careful using it 
because it takes a while to recover from.	

Special Moves:

//horizontal dolphin						50 damage

This move can be excuted using either the slash or HS buttons. The difference 
between the two is the distance you travel: slash is a midway distance while 
HS is a long distance move. I usually like to use the dolphins after I get done 
blocking a series of blows since I’m already holding the back button. Also if 
your backing up from an opponent you might be able to surprise him by using the 
dolphin.

//vertical dolphin						50 damage

The vertical dolphin I think is a hard move to use. Like the horizontal dolphin 
it can be executed using slash or HS with slash being shorter range. I found 
that vertical dolphin can be a nice fallow up to May’s special \.kick move. 
If you do the slash version right after you’ll attack the enemy and if you do 
the HS version you’ll end up behind them. If you’re playing Isuka then reverse
 your direction as you do the slide then use the HS version to move away from 
them quickly. It’s very funny to do  after you get the timing down.

//restive rolling						30 damage

This move is good for getting out of a corner or if your stuck in between two 
people. The move is more for position then it is offense. If you keep pressing 
slash you can change direction once.

//applause for the victim					22 damage

This move is as complex as May’s moves get. I’ll split this into three parts: 
Position, Properties, and Propaganda 

Position:
The different button you use to execute the move makes the hoop appear at 
different places. HS will put a hoop at the opponent’s position. Slash will 
out a hoop right in front of the opponent’s position. Kick will out a hoop in 
front of May’s position. Punch will put the hoop at May’s position. To simplify,
 HS and slash create a hoop relative to the opponent’s position while punch and 
kick make a hoop relative to May’s position. 

Properties:
The second part to this is that you can hold the button you used to execute the 
move and charge up the amount of dolphins that come out (up to three dolphins). 
You can do other attacks while you are holding down the button but if you get 
hit then the hoop will disappear along with your dolphins. 

Propaganda:
I guess my ideas on this move could qualify as propaganda. This is May’s only 
projectile and she needs it to help punish enemies that like to stay far away. 
I like to use the punch version of the hoop then backing up from an the enemy 
then I let the dolphins go and launch a horizontal dolphin. It’s a dolphin 
beat down! Not to mention that once you look into the overdrive section you can 
add dolphins to overdrives to do some mean damage.

//overhead kiss						    	40 damage		
I’m afraid that I don’t have much wisdom to share with you on this move. It is
a throw so it can’t be blocked. The move it’s self doesn’t do much damage but 
it can change both you and your opponent’s positions.

//special (sliding attack)					24 damage
This is a move that I love to use. The damage is low but it has a long range 
and May is almost invincible while she does it. This move is good to get in 
close or just mess up your enemy’s rhythm.

//special (overhead drop)					34 damage
There doesn’t seem to be much to this move. This move attacks straight down, 
which can be and it is easy to time since May stays in the attack until she hits
the ground. 	

Overdrives

//ultimate whiner						136 damage

This move like the super screaming ultimate spinning whirlwind you can combo 
into it with a c.slash-slash- ultimate whiner. Since it is a combo overdrive it
doesn’t take a huge penalty for being part of a combo. So if your opponent block
the first hits then don’t overdrive, if he doesn’t then go to down on him. No 
wasted overdrives ever again! If you add applause for the victim into the mix 
and things start to get nasty.

//applause for the victim-ultimate whiner-f.hs-\.kick		199 damage 13 hit

This isn’t an easy combo. First start to charge applause for the victim then 
you have to hit your enemy with ultimate whiner near or under the hoop. Right 
as ultimate whiner gets into it’s last two hits you let go of the dolphins 
(there should be at least two by now) and they will stop the opponent from 
flying forward and knock them up into the air. Then just get in range execute 
f.HS and fallow it immediately up with the sliding attack.

//great yamada attack						110 damage

A great hit them once and anywhere overdrive.  You can’t combo into but you 
would take a big loss for it even if you did. Again if you want to get mean 
then just add dolphins.

Applause for the victim-great yamada attack-f.HS-\. kick	191 damage	5 hit
Same idea as the ultimate whiner combo but easier to do since you don’t have to 
get close. Start charging applause for the victim then execute great yamada 
attack then hit your foe with the dolphins to stall him in air, run up f.HS 
then \.kick. 

//super screaming ultimate spinning whirlwind			105 damage 7 hit
	//delux	tile bomber					135 damage 8 hit

The super screaming whirlwind will actually hit 8 times but the last hit won’t
be part of the combo. If you press punch when 6 shows up on the combo meter then
you’ll execute the delux tile bomber for an eight hit in the combo. I don’t see 
a reason not to use the delux	tile bomber. This special is easy to block and 
once you start it you can’t cancel unless you’re willing to Roman Cancel and 
lose another half of your tension. I also noticed that this move can be stop 
with projectiles(like Sol’s gunflame). What you might want to do is combo into 
using it. I can do c.slash, slash, then super screaming whirlwind combo easy 
and if they block the first hit then don’t use the move. Since it is a combo 
overdrive it doesn’t lose much damage from being part of a combo just make 
sure to hit punch when hit 7 appears in order to get maximum damage.

c.slash-slash-S.S.U.S.W./delux tile bomber			155 damage 9 hit	
	

IV. Conclusion
 
Well that is the end of my faqs. I hope you enjoyed reading the faqs and hope 
you go forth and beat people down with May.  My email is Dorkdav@hotmail.com so 
if you think something needs to be added or I’ve made and error somewhere then 
contact me. Hopefully I’ll get around to changing it.