Other Properties of F4~Ex Smoke Bomb/Shake/Ex Shake/General Meter Building Data

Hello all, this is intended as a public service announcement and "final word" on Smoke's resets.

While we in the Smoke community know the intricacies and history of Smoke's reset(s), the community at large does not. Because of this, players who are new to Smoke spend time with him in the lab and inevitably discover a reset with enhanced bomb, and then bring their questions here. This thread is an attempt to answer these questions beforehand.

Let's begin.

F+4 > :en smoke bomb is Smoke's only true reset.

THE F+4 LOTTERY

Any combo ending with F+4 > :en smoke bomb has three potential outcomes...

1. 2% chip damage and the opponent is pulled into blocking state
2. 10% unscaled additional damage
3. True reset for another full combo

I've dubbed this the F+4 lottery because, although it will happen consistently under the right circumstances, because of so many variables (rate of fall, height of the opponent when F+4 connects, distance from opponent when F+4 connects, and proximity to the corner) the reset is essentially random.


HOWEVER.

There are many, many other set ups that will give you a "reset" using :en bomb.

These are not true resets.

They are ALL blockable by humans. But, the training dummy will NEVER block them, even if they are set to always block.


UPDATE: according to Tony-T, setting the dummy to "roll" and "always block" will get it to block all non-true resets like humans can

This is because the AI seems to be programmed to begin blocking the first frame they are able to after a knockdown, ie., AFTER the invincible recovery frames are over. Humans, on the other hand, can (and often will) hold block DURING the invincible recovery frames.

The properties of :en smoke bomb OVERRIDE the invincible recovery frames of a knockdown and will connect.

My theory as to why f+4 is a true reset is that :en bomb is overriding the invincible frames of the hit animation, but, because these aren't recovery frames, blocking is prevented entirely.

If they (a human) is holding block during invincible recovery frames, the :en smoke bomb will pull them into a blocking state.

If they are NOT holding block during these invincible recovery frames, the :en smoke bomb WILL CONNECT for a re-launch.


In summation: No f4? No reset.

F+4 is the ONLY reset that when executed properly is 100% unblockable

ALL other :en smoke bomb reset set ups (and there are tons) are pseudo-resets. They are blockable by humans, but not by the AI.

NOTE: It's not that the pseudo-resets don't work; they are just blockable by humans. If someone ISN'T HOLDING BLOCK during recovery frames, they WILL be re-launched.

Thanks for reading and stay down.

Non-Parryable "Projectiles"

Moves That Beat Enhanced Shake

Meter Building

Credits to @subzerosmokerai @Finaeous and @fleshmasher respectively