Crusty
Retired forever; don’t ask for games.
@General M2Dave @CrazyFingers
The president's unbiased rating on Red Hood.
I apologize for the wordiness. I will update this as patches go.
1. 50/50 mix ups and/or pressure 4 / 5
2. Zoning and anti-zoning 3.5 / 5
3. Neutral game and footsies 5 / 5
4. Defensive options 2.5 / 5
5. Damage output 3 / 5
Total Points - 17.5 / 25
The president's unbiased rating on Red Hood.
I apologize for the wordiness. I will update this as patches go.
1. 50/50 mix ups and/or pressure 4 / 5
Red Hood’s pressure is unconventional, revolving more around staggers and conditioning the opponent instead of plus frames; something that becomes especially harder to deal with when his mines are out. His only plus frames consist of b1,3 (which has a lot of pushback and is hard to jail anything off of because of it, not to mention it starts high) and 3,2,3 (which has a gap but 3,2 is a useful stagger). When he activates Electric Hammers (Trait), he gains access to a string (3,3,2) with different enders: a low (3,3,2,d2), an overhead (3,3,2,u2) and a throw which does the most damage (3,3,2,1+3). The low is punishable, the overhead is pseudo-safe with pushback (becomes unsafe in the corner) and the throw can be ducked or backdashed. However, 2/3 of those options (low and overhead) result in knockdowns that lead to nothing while the throw can MB to get a free mixup an ambiguous j3, a f3 or delayed b2. He can also get a free mine after it and (stage dependent) an unblockable interactible. It can be escaped but since you’re guessing, it becomes a read of whether he goes for it or not. The real mixup is when the Electric Hammers are coming as well as if the gap when canceled from a string can be backdashed or poked out of. Its decent midscreen but in the corner it can become oppressive as pretty much everything catches backdashes in the corner. At the end of it all, if he doesn’t want to commit to the mix in Electric Hammers, he can just do 3,3,2, MB and be -1 (safe). However, nothing is guaranteed and that keeps it from getting a perfect score.
2. Zoning and anti-zoning 3.5 / 5
He is not a zoning character as his tools are designed to frustrate the opponent rather than keep them out. His Ground Mine (bf1) has four different distances and always ticks before it knocks down. It’s used for HTB setups when not used for combos if you MB it. His Gotham Stars (bf2) is a decent projectile with good recovery where the MB is pretty much safe and catches a jumping opponent but there is not real reason to use it as not all the stars don’t hit the opponent because they can just crouch. His Up Gotham Stars (db2) is bad on recovery and is meant to used in conjunction if someone jumps his mines, something his regular one seems to slightly better at doing. The MB is meant for corner damage and serves no other purpose. His Quick Shot (Trait,2) is fast and it can disrupt zoning patterns as well as can catch people from rushing in carelessly. It’s punishable on block everywhere but fullscreen (where it becomes safe) since projectile logic for frames is minimal when applied to it. However, it makes a decent option against Superman. His Akimbo Blaze (db2 in the air) is meant to be strictly used for counter-zoning and HTB setups and nothing else. Not only is it double digit punishable regardless of the height its done (since it propels him higher in the air for a long duration) but misspacing it even a little bit causes its long recovery to kick in. It's only used to jump a straight projectile and punish accordingly. The MB doesn't make it any less punishable too. Speaking of anti-zoning, no character is going to keep Red Hood out forever as his Lethal Lunge (df3) can close the gap in 8 frames of startup and the MB can punish Aquaman’s Tentacle Strike more often than not. It effectively acts as a MB roll without the invincibility but can be MB to cover his tracks as he fires 2 shots to disrupt any attempted zoning. Lastly, his b3 can low profiled a punch of high projectiles, including Dr. Fate’s Displacer orb. Since there are characters that can zone him out badly still
3. Neutral game and footsies 5 / 5
One thing notable about Jason Todd is a plethora of fast advancing normal with most of the them starting at 9 frames and have good recovery. The downside is that these normals are they either cannot be hitconfirmed into big damage, they start high or a combination of the two. While these advancing strings are safe, his only hit-confirmable advancing string, f2,3, has bad recovery which has led to the deduction of the point. All these attributes mean that Red Hood is very good at whiff punishing but b1 and f2 not being mids really harms him because (outside of mines) he has no way to use them to establish respect against random d1 checks, which is why he has good mids with s2 and s3. Red Hood has a decent set of anti-airs consisting of f2, d2, b1 or s1 that must be used on reaction since they have very short active frames but they can’t be used on someone like Aquaman. His b3 is very good as it moves him forward a good amount like Catwoman's as he can confirm it off his air-to-airs. His Lethal Lunge (df3) covers a lot of space (pretty much fullscreen) and can be made safe with meter.
4. Defensive options 2.5 / 5
Red Hood’s only invincible wakeup is his Fatal Drop (db3) which is underwhelming without meter. It’s a bad wakeup without meter as while it is evasive, it has 62 frames of recovery. He can mb it to prevent the opponent from chasing him but since the shots hit high and are -19 on block, it can still be punished. That alone causes him to lose a couple of points. If the opponent is off with their meaty, his lethal lunge makes a decent pseudo-wakeup as it is very fast. He can also wakeup parry but the recovery is long. His d1 is 6 frames and can be used to interrupt pressure but since it has a bad hitbox and cannot be used against characters with low pokes properly, it is abysmal. It can still be used to cancel into Lethal Lunge which can be made safe with meter. His b3 has good range but is negative (but safe). His f3 has good range but unlike most f3s in the game, it doesn’t provide block advantage as it is neutral on block. I will say he has an above average backdash and its good for avoiding certain things.
5. Damage output 3 / 5
Red Hood’s base damage is average, hitting around low 30% for a bar and his meterless damage is low. He gets slightly more in the corner but nothing to noticeably different. He can go for a risky htb situation or a mb trait throw reset and net some more damage. If he’d hit slightly higher I’d consider it a 3.5 / 5.
Total Points - 17.5 / 25
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