Nightwolf Guide By SonicFox (Both Variations)

[LawAbidingCitizen]

Sonic made a video confirming several things I believed.

1. Nightwolf is strong af bit honest (Basic) isn't better than any character at well anything but good at everything.
2. Plays very similar to Cassie Yaas Queen but better in certain ways.
   - he us high tier if you have high tier fundies. If you have good spacing, reactions, MU experience you will be very good with Nightwolf but if you don't have good footsies you will struggle with him.

In this video he describes that Nightwolf has:

• The best corner carry
• great staggers
• great footsies
• amazing pokes mainly D3
• great Anti-Air's: s1/D2/FB
• shoulder is better than Cassies
• amazing oki +18 anytime
• good wavedash
• good close up tools
• one of the best counter zoning tools in the game
• Anti WU with buff + Damage boost
• great damage

In Ancestral Gift NW gains:

• godlike Oki +70
• amazing mix with staggers/ticks
• two additional KB's to make up for the 10% less damage on combos.
• Restands into +10 like Cassie YQ
• best counter zoning from Teleport & ability to punish certain projectiles. And a million options off of reflect by following and even using otherwise unsafe moves safely.

And more:
Sonic believes Matoka Warrior is the go to variation but also believes Ancestral Gift will be dominating certain matchups and says both are strong.


Here is his Guide:

 

[LawAbidingCitizen]

And to think several people said Nightwolf was trash? Instead of being stubborn I think players should take his advise and watch sonics streams and realize he has way better fundies than us and probably knows better tech for all characters or tools that make them strong. He basically said all characters are viable and useable just B Tier(considered mid tier, Solid) is harder to use than S Tier characters. Even if you thought Shang/Kotal/NW was garbage you should take something from his recent videos. He shared a ton of tech on his new Tier list video including an OS to shut down Scorpion Reborn

 

[Enexemander]

In this video he describes that Nightwolf has:

• The best corner carry

 

[LawAbidingCitizen]

How much damage does raiden get from low and overhead starters into corner carry? NW gets 42% that I have found and about 73% with FB in the corner if you have the meter and 30% meterless in corner.

Also does Raiden carry them 3/4ths of the screen with a single combo?

 

[asddgd]

How much damage does raiden get from low and overhead starters into corner carry? NW gets 42% that I have found and about 73% with FB in the corner if you have the meter and 30% meterless in corner.

Also does Raiden carry them 3/4ths of the screen with a single combo?

End with superman, then yes, he does carry far

 

[Enexemander]

How much damage does raiden get from low and overhead starters into corner carry? NW gets 42% that I have found and about 73% with FB in the corner if you have the meter and 30% meterless in corner.

Also does Raiden carry them 3/4ths of the screen with a single combo?

I wasn't meaning to imply that he's wrong. Just that Raiden is mad someone took his niche .
But yeah, Raiden probably still has the best? His BNBs air juggle back and require his F2 or F4 to connect on the ground (they might be the longest normals in the game, for reference), an additional 1,2 and then Superman. You can coast to coast depending on your variation and combo choice.
Glad NW also had good carry though. He's going to be my secondary for sure. Love that guy.

 

[Yamborghini High]

Ancestral's F212 tick throw is whiffing for some reason.
can anyone confirm?

 

[Zviko]

Ancestral's F212 tick throw is whiffing for some reason.
can anyone confirm?

Set the AI to stance hold.

 

[Yamborghini High]

Set the AI to stance hold.

Thx I had it to all

 

[NRF CharlieMurphy]

How much damage does raiden get from low and overhead starters into corner carry? NW gets 42% that I have found and about 73% with FB in the corner if you have the meter and 30% meterless in corner.

Also does Raiden carry them 3/4ths of the screen with a single combo?

Both variations have easy corner carry for good damage.... Raijin now does like 340 damage to the corner WHERE you can whiff the 2nd b2 OH cuz NRS is dumb.

 

[Evil Canadian]

• The best corner carry
• great staggers
• great footsies
• great Anti-Air's: s1/D2/FB
• great damage

These ones all rate a

from me.

His corner carry is great! Raidens is obviously better by any metric.
He has exactly 1 good stagger, stand 312. B132 is fake as you can stick a button through it(and he just glosses over it and assumes they can only toss out a high, not mentioning like almost everyone in the game d1 will win). 112 you can stick a button through it.
His footsies are servicable, better than some, but certainly not "great"
His AA's are just actually bad. His best AA I have found so far is D1 actually, d2 and s1 will get you killed at against most well planned jumps, the only ones it would beat are the ones anyone could easily beat
And the damage well its obviously on the lower end not counting KB's(cause everyones KB damage is good), and you are truly, honestly, rarely gonna have the EX wolf buff up.

Sonicfox talking him up a lot more than he is actually capable of, reeks of that time he put 10 minutes into kotal then just said "he's broken". He needs to play him more I think, although I do appreciate him putting what he has learned together in guide.

edit

Also don't take this as me trying to doom and gloom nightwolf cause thats not what it is(I think he's a downright decent character!), but just trying to be reasonable. He certainly isn't the "top 3 minimum" I heard SF cast him.

 

[Daemantalo]

I will proudly maintain Nightwolf doesn’t have a way to enforce his offense. Incredibly one dimensional character still, but hey, if SonicFox does a “Fox It Up” and proves all this stuff, we should see some action with Nightwolf in top 8. I’m excited to be proven wrong in a tournament setting because I enjoy watching Big D rock him. I like his frame data, the mids, and damage in Matoka, but that’s about all I could see. In a month when people know MU, we could POSSIBLY see a change in sentiment.

 

[LawAbidingCitizen]

These ones all rate a

from me.

His corner carry is great! Raidens is obviously better by any metric.
He has exactly 1 good stagger, stand 312. B132 is fake as you can stick a button through it(and he just glosses over it and assumes they can only toss out a high, not mentioning like almost everyone in the game d1 will win). 112 you can stick a button through it.
His footsies are servicable, better than some, but certainly not "great"
His AA's are just actually bad. His best AA I have found so far is D1 actually, d2 and s1 will get you killed at against most well planned jumps, the only ones it would beat are the ones anyone could easily beat
And the damage well its obviously on the lower end not counting KB's(cause everyones KB damage is good), and you are truly, honestly, rarely gonna have the EX wolf buff up.

Sonicfox talking him up a lot more than he is actually capable of, reeks of that time he put 10 minutes into kotal then just said "he's broken". He needs to play him more I think, although I do appreciate him putting what he has learned together in guide.

edit

Also don't take this as me trying to doom and gloom nightwolf cause thats not what it is(I think he's a downright decent character!), but just trying to be reasonable. He certainly isn't the "top 3 minimum" I heard SF cast him.

I honestly have no clue how you came to this conclusion?

His buttons having a 7f gap, 8f gap and 10f gap shouldn't hurt him. All of them can be conditioned similar to Shangs.

Footsie range I feel is above average hell his F12 almost reaches where Cassie's F2 does and outranges her B2 he also has several tools that outrage many characters not to mention his shoulder outranges Yaas Queen's. His movement speed is top tier so I don't understand where you think his footsies isn't great?

His buff is safely setup off his combos and if you have execution you can land 31, 111 on the end of his strings getting very respectable damage into buff. He can also setup the buff by ending combos with s4 which I'm sure most can't punish.

His damage is definitely above average, with fatal I've gotten 73% in corner and without high execution he clears 64% with fatal and 42% with normal buff for 2 bars and well above 55% for KB all in the corner. I'd say that's completely practical.

His AA's are not the best but I have had no problems stopping Baraka/Lao's JIK's with S1, D2, S3, B2(on read) and his FB is probably in top 5 Anti Airs. Its not Kabals D4 but its very effective.
Its definitely better than characters who do struggle with AA. I think people are struggling because it has a different timing.

As for his B132 yes you can interrupt with a 7f starter before the last hit but I still find it very useful as a stagger and wiff punisher. The recovery on B1 can be deceiving and Catching players off guard when you conditioned B13 its also a small window to punish and requires the opponent to be on point. His 112 I believe has an 8f gap interuptable by 7f starters but I still think its very useful and can be conditioned with 111 his auto shimmy which I feel is very strong.

The 10f gap is his Shoulder Amp which is very punishable, still useful but punishable both on amp and meterless and I think its about the same timing but the move is a neutral nightmare nonetheless just like Cassie's is.

I feel he is top 10. I'm willing to accept Sonic may know something we don't he certainly changed my mind about Scarlet and Noob with his knowledge. He has tech for a ton of stuff others may not be aware of and may be placing the characters high because they have strong tech for them but I don't see him sharing the tech until after the next major.

With his toolset I don't see how he can be lower than A+ having mids for nearly every situation, very good range, anti WU armor for U+3, corner carry from every touch, great mids that are safe, hit confirmable and his F2 being 13f. He has two KB throws one of his throws loop and the other sets up the possibility of KB and he has very serviceable KB's with good damage especially in the corner.
If people still think he isn't that good I feel they aren't using him right. I expect to see him make top 16 in many majors especially the next one.

 

[Evil Canadian]

I honestly have no clue how you came to this conclusion?

His buttons having a 7f gap, 8f gap and 10f gap shouldn't hurt him. All of them can be conditioned similar to Shangs.

Footsie range I feel is above average hell his F12 almost reaches where Cassie's F2 does and outranges her B2 he also has several tools that outrage many characters not to mention his shoulder outranges Yaas Queen's. His movement speed is top tier so I don't understand where you think his footsies isn't great?

His buff is safely setup off his combos and if you have execution you can land 31, 111 on the end of his strings getting very respectable damage into buff. He can also setup the buff by ending combos with s4 which I'm sure most can't punish.

His damage is definitely above average, with fatal I've gotten 73% in corner and without high execution he clears 64% with fatal and 42% with normal buff for 2 bars and well above 55% for KB all in the corner. I'd say that's completely practical.

His AA's are not the best but I have had no problems stopping Baraka/Lao's JIK's with S1, D2, S3, B2(on read) and his FB is probably in top 5 Anti Airs. Its not Kabals D4 but its very effective.
Its definitely better than characters who do struggle with AA. I think people are struggling because it has a different timing.

As for his B132 yes you can interrupt with a 7f starter before the last hit but I still find it very useful as a stagger and wiff punisher. The recovery on B1 can be deceiving and Catching players off guard when you conditioned B13 its also a small window to punish and requires the opponent to be on point. His 112 I believe has an 8f gap interuptable by 7f starters but I still think its very useful and can be conditioned with 111 his auto shimmy which I feel is very strong.

The 10f gap is his Shoulder Amp which is very punishable, still useful but punishable both on amp and meterless and I think its about the same timing but the move is a neutral nightmare nonetheless just like Cassie's is.

I feel he is top 10. I'm willing to accept Sonic may know something we don't he certainly changed my mind about Scarlet and Noob with his knowledge. He has tech for a ton of stuff others may not be aware of and may be placing the characters high because they have strong tech for them but I don't see him sharing the tech until after the next major.

With his toolset I don't see how he can be lower than A+ having mids for nearly every situation, very good range, anti WU armor for U+3, corner carry from every touch, great mids that are safe, hit confirmable and his F2 being 13f. He has two KB throws one of his throws loop and the other sets up the possibility of KB and he has very serviceable KB's with good damage especially in the corner.
If people still think he isn't that good I feel they aren't using him right. I expect to see him make top 16 in many majors especially the next one.

The buttons having the gaps means theres no way to disincentive people from hitting you through them other than doing something wildly unsafe. Shang is not a good stagger character either so I don't think hes a great comparison.

Footsies compared to Kollector, Johnny, Cassie, Dvorah, Jade, & noob fall up short. Those are characters with great footsies and neutral. Like I said its serviceable and better than some, but he can't hang with the characters that have actually great footsies.

It doesn't matter what damage you can get with fatal blow, everyone can get stupid damage with fatal blow, this is not hard. His average damage midscreen is 27-28% with burning meter, which is below average.

And so on and so forth. It should be very easy to understand how I came to my conclusions. I don't make reactionary crazy posts like many other on TYM (unless its about kotal kahn).

Like you say with his toolset he can't be lower than A+. Kollector has a better toolset than Nightwolf does and much more options to work with. Sonic Fox says he's the worst character in the game with Kotal Kahn now. Obviously he is dead wrong but pre-Kollector buff I put him around mid tier and post buff he's certainly better than NW, and NW I would say is mid/mid-high at best.

 

[LawAbidingCitizen]

The buttons having the gaps means theres no way to disincentive people from hitting you through them other than doing something wildly unsafe. Shang is not a good stagger character either so I don't think hes a great comparison.

I don't believe that is true. A move having a gap doesn't prevent you from conditioning your opponents to respect it. His B132 may have a gap but you can stagger on the first two hits and use number of hit mix. There are relatively safe options like arrow Even though it can be ducked some strings jail into it if not crouch blocking. Kind of like how Cassie's F412/B243 is punishable but yet is used effectively at the highest level by number of hit mix.

Shang is very good at staggers in fact I think he has better staggers after patch than Cassie. Her staggers are -4 and -3 now while Shang and NW have several -1 to -2 on block staggers Shangs B1 is -2 and goes into two number of hit guesses one being a KB that launches and an Overhead from a 14f mid which very good hitbox and range. Then shang has his F2 which is very strong with massive range that is also -2. If -2 isn't a good stagger I don't know what is?

Footsies compared to Kollector, Johnny, Cassie, Dvorah, Jade, & noob fall up short. Those are characters with great footsies and neutral. Like I said its serviceable and better than some, but he can't hang with the characters that have actually great footsies.

Some characters have better range like Johnny but I actually feel his footsies are similar to Yaas Queen and his movement is pretty fast as well as his wavedash which is a huge part if his stagger game. I feel many have yet to discover his full potential.

It doesn't matter what damage you can get with fatal blow, everyone can get stupid damage with fatal blow, this is not hard. His average damage midscreen is 27-28% with burning meter, which is below average

I disagree completely. How much damage you can get with FB is incredibly important considering he is deleting their HP in two touches (70%).
Its pretty easy to get his buffs out and considering he has several types of mix: oh/low, stagger, number of hit, wiff punish buttons, auto shimmy it shouldn't be out of the realm of possibility to convert after setting up buff often netting 35-40% which I consider above average (without KB) add to that you are in the corner from other side of the stage which is very important since everything he has carrys them good distance.

Its fine that we disagree on this I believe you just may have not unlocked his full potential or maybe he is a different type of character than you normally use but I honestly believe he will be in top 16's and we will see the results soon enough, showing how strong he is. For the record, Sonic isn't the only one who says he is top 5. And many top players are saying he has amazing everything.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1161416048693956608

Foxy is talking about using him he thinks he us so good. Well both Shang and Nightwolf have those Auto Shimmy and throw KB's:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1162132491454550016

There are more but i don't want to comb through hundreds of tweets.

I believe what Sonic said is true on this one. The better your footsies are the better Nightwolf becomes and the better your gameplay with him shines. I expect to see him in top 10 on everyone's Tierlist. What I've seen that most are disagree with Sonic's TL is just a few characters: Jax, Scarlet, Geras, Erron. Other than that most if them match up reguarding NW

 

[Zviko]

I don't understand why people say his damage is below average. 29% mid screen for 1 meter is very decent and that's not even optimal. It's just 111 into BF4 as ender. No idea what you get for optimal. Never tried it because I play Ancestral anyway.
For 2 meters he gets a lot more than others get though. Usually you can just amplify your ender for that extra damage. He can amplify his launcher twice. Not many characters can do that and you get a lot more damage with that than just amplifying your ender.

And his corner damage is waaay above average. He gets meterless what some get with 1 meter or even less. And all that is without damage buff!

 

[SparkySanders]

I think what’s crazy about meter burning his launcher twice is the gravity scaling seems to be hardly noticeable.

That and 34% meterless in the corner is real damn nice

 

[Evil Canadian]

For the record, Sonic isn't the only one who says he is top 5. And many top players are saying he has amazing everything.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1161416048693956608

I won't debate you point for point cause it won't go anywhere, but I highly suggest you think for yourself on the matter and don't take the words of the "pro" players blindly. They are fickle and human like anyone else, so don't think they have some great insight anyone else can't achieve. Hayatei is a good example* because he was out there saying Erron black was dead on his hot takes, until he correctly realized that the d3 buff to erron black is huge, and now completely 180'ed his opinion and thinks erron black is good again.

Hot takes don't give solid foundation to anything.

*

Spoiler

Like for a point on "pro" players not being unassailable, I wouldn't address myself as a pro fighting game player, yet I am 3-0 against Hayatei in offline NRS tournaments. Don't assume because they have a famous name they have magic insight that is inherently better than someone elses

 

[MadPropz101]

How much damage does raiden get from low and overhead starters into corner carry? NW gets 42% that I have found and about 73% with FB in the corner if you have the meter and 30% meterless in corner.

Also does Raiden carry them 3/4ths of the screen with a single combo?

Raiden gets more damage and corner carry for 1 bar midscreen in both of his variations.

 

[Hellbringer]

Dont forget with the dmg buff he can get upto 400dmg 2 bars. 350 1 bar. No dmg

 

[FonicSox]

I agree Nightwolf is clearly a strong character but the "top 3 bare minimum" bit is hard to take seriously from the "Kotal is A tier and Sub-Zero is trash because reactable overhead" guy.

Lots of hot takes whenever a new patch or character hits. He's very good, but he's very honest. Obviously players with great fundamentals will be served better than those without.

 

[Hor_PeT]

I agree Nightwolf is clearly a strong character but the "top 3 bare minimum" bit is hard to take seriously from the "Kotal is A tier and Sub-Zero is trash because reactable overhead" guy.

Lots of hot takes whenever a new patch or character hits. He's very good, but he's very honest. Obviously players with great fundamentals will be served better than those without.

I agree with you 2nd statement (first is up to you I do not downtalk Sonicfox ).

NW is honest but has lot of good tools to play with. It is not a problem but an opportunity to play an overall good honest character. I like him very much from the begining I picked him up.

Probably when Sonicfox or other pro players pick him up seriously it will turn out if he is viable on highest level or just "fake stagger" character.

I saw Foxy Grampa's play with NW he played his usual "neutral god" kind of play: it was absolutely viable to me!

Maybe he has no brainded staggers but it looks like this is not his main carry - but time will tell if the gaps in the stagger strings are just a no go for NW on high level or definitely a thing besides the other stuffs.

To me his hitconfirmable (and also currently staggerable) strings with good footsie and very good throw game are both enough to enjoy him and be successful.
Not mentioning his okayish zoning and counter zoning.

And for extra he can take risk in counterpoke situations with his unsafe launcher... just to confuse the "I know there is a gap and will challenge you and I know you always stop at 111 on block" players.

Or as you would do in general you simply block his counter poke and take your turn back after his poke or even full combo punish him for his "haha I D1 and S1 jail you" move.

In situations where a D1 will always interrupt the 3rd hit (e.g. B132) you can not really do but block this and counterpoke... and in that case the opponent will not D1 but try to do anything else which might be not an interrupt speed or HIGH...

 

[MagicMan357]

Hes baraka with a damage buff, A1

 

[Hor_PeT]

31..2 has 6F gap, doesn't it?
According to frame data it is 7 but according to in game frame data it is 6 (active frame is 1 on block and only 2 on whiff).

Fundamental question just to be sure:
Does it mean that 6F D1 can poke or not?
I tried with sub zero's D1 but could not make it.

 

[Ray'sGoodLiquor]

Every time someone talks about how everyone has great KB damage, I cry a tear for Dirtbag Kano and his 20%.