User blog:Smasher51/To Smash and To Triumph: Bayonetta

Hello everyone. Have you tried to play Bayonetta, but you can’t figure her out? Well, I’ve got you covered. Ladies and gentlemen, To Smash and To Triumph’s guide on the Umber Witch Bayonetta. I don’t really have much more to say, so let’s hop right into it.



Preliminary Notes: Bullet Arts
The Bullet Arts are the number one thing that makes Bayonetta unique. These are mainly used to rack up damage, as there is no flinch on the opponent’s part when hit with these moves. You’re going to need to analyze the situation and choose the right moves to combine with Bullet Arts. I will not be listing how to use the Bullet Arts with every move, but there will be quite a few occasions where I bring them up. With that out of the way, let’s move on.

Normal Moves
Let’s start with some simple jabs.

Jab: Bayonetta’s jab is good for damage. Actually, that’s a bit of an understatement. First off, I recommend triggering the Bullet Arts during the first part of the attack, so that you can rack up a bit of damage, and then attack the opponent when they get close with the rest of the attack. The attack then goes into an infinite combo. This alone is good for racking up damage, but if you hold down the attack button, you can keep the infinite combo going and use your Bullet Arts to rack up some extra damage. The ending of the infinite combo is good for spacing.

S-Tilt: Fun fact: Bayonetta is the second character in the series whose side tilt has three parts to it, behind Meta Knight. This attack does some decent damage; it also can be used to start combos, and it can also be used to accumulate more damage with the Bullet Arts if you’re not the combo type of person.

D-Tilt: Bayonetta crouches really low to the ground, so you can use it to dodge some attacks. When that happens, you can use the d-tilt to punish your foes. This can be used to start combos. If you want, you can also follow up with a set of Bullet Arts, especially if they are a distance from you.

U-Tilt: U-Tilt hits twice, and is more useful for starting aerial combos than damaging opponents, though it is not impossible to do so; you can juggle the opponent at lower damages.

Dash Attack: This move is more of a combo finisher than combo extender due to the ending lag of the attack. It’s not that bad of a kill move either.

Smash Attacks
S-Smash: Your side smash is a powerful kill move and has some decent range on top of that.

D-Smash: Ah, the down smash. The down smash hits in front of Bayonetta and is extremely strong. It can get opponents into the air and do some wicked damage at the same time. On top of that, if you perform the move when you’re over an edge, you can meteor smash an opponent. You’ll want to time the attack perfectly, such as just before they reach the edge; otherwise, the opponent will grab the edge and become temporarily invincible, rendering your attack useless, and also leaving you open to punishment.

Before setting off to the next section, I wanted to make a note on the Bullet Arts. From what I could tell, the Bullet Arts fire downwards, and unless you literally stand over the edge of the stage, you’re not going to hit with them, and even if you did hit with them, the opponent is pretty much done for anyway, so it’s not really any use to try and hit them. With that out of the way, let’s move on to the next move.

U-Smash: The U-Smash is an extremely powerful move. It has great KB and is a great kill move; if you get hit with a fully charged version of the move at damages of 80% or above, you’re pretty much screwed.

Aerials
N-Air: The N-Air has a wide range and is good for spacing and clearing the area you’re going to land. The latter can be accomplished by holding down the attack button and extending the attack. This also triggers your Bullet Arts, which can rack up a little bit of damage if the opponent is not in range.

F-Air: The F-Air is essentially a midair jab; use this to combo opponents and rack up some damage. This move also slows your fall if you hit the opponent.

B-Air: B-Air is more of a combo finisher than anything. It has the best KB of all of Bayonetta’s aerials, and is a kill move.

U-Air: The U-Air is a very versatile tool. It’s good for juggling an opponent, extending and finishing combos at higher damages, and is also a kill move.

D-Air: The D-Air makes you plummet downward. This move has a meteor smash, but it shouldn’t really be used for kills unless you want to die as well; the meteor smash is more for keeping the opponent under the attack than scoring KOs. It can also be used as a more precarious way of getting back onto the stage.

Grabs and Throws
Pummel: The pummel is really fast and good for racking up damage before executing a throw.

F-Throw/B-Throw: This is good for getting opponents off the stage or killing an opponent.

U-Throw/D-Throw: These are good for starting aerial combos. I found that the D-Air can chain into the F-Air, one of many possible combos you can pull off with this character.

Special Moves
Neutral: Bullet Climax: This move is good for racking up damage, and the flinch helps to stun the opponent and rack up damage. This is good for edgeguarding against vertically-recovering opponents. The fact that you can charge the move not only helps rack up damage, but helps to time the move for the most opportune time as well. Because of its diagonal trajectory, the opponent can duck to avoid it. Because the opponent cannot move at all (or very quickly in the case of a character with a crawl), and because of the very small amount of ending lag at the end of the attack, the attack should not be able to be punished easily. The only thing you should worry about are characters with a D-Tilt that propels them forward, such as Mega Man’s or Cloud’s D-Tilt. Other than that, your pretty much set. Oh yeah, and if you thought that this “summary” of the move was long, wait until you see the Witch Time section.

Side 1: Heel Slide: To perform the Heel Slide, you’re going to need to stay grounded. The move is good for spacing and closing up space between you and an opponent without the threat of being attacked yourself. Of course, the opponent may be a little bold and try to attack you anyway, but there is another part of the attack, a kick upwards (which I honestly thought was an U-tilt at first). The kick is for getting opponents into the air and start aerial combos. Because of this, the attack has very little ending lag, so even if you don’t hit with it, you shouldn’t have any problems. This isn’t the only move with a Side Special input.

Side 2: Afterburner Kick: To perform this move, you must be in the air. It has good vertical KB and is good for combos, and the fact you can use it twice if you hit someone with the first attack only helps more with aerial comboing. You can reverse the attack after the first hit to attack the opponent from behind. There is also an input that allows you to aim the attack downwards, but I’ve only been able to pull it off once. From what I remembered from both that experience and the Final Presentation, the attack allows you to kick downwards, bounce off the opponent, and use the move again. This is for keeping your opponent in the air for more, you guessed it, aerial combos. A quick note on the Bullet Arts: If you use the Bullet Arts with this attack, it can kill your forward momentum, so don’t use the Bullet Arts when trying to recover. Speaking of…

Up: Witch Twist: Witch Twist is in and of itself a bad recovery, and is more useful as an attack. This doesn’t mean it’s useless, though. If you combine the attack with a midair jump, you can do the attack twice. If you’re like me, however, you tend to use your midair jump when trying to recover. So what I recommend is using the Afterburner Kick if you use your midair jump to gain some vertical recovery, then Witch Twist to reach the edge, or vice versa if the moment calls for it.

Down: Witch Time/Bat Within: Let’s start with Bat Within, since it’s pretty simple. Essentially, Bat Within activates when your attempts at triggering Witch Time (or a roll) are a little off. This, however, can be used to your advantage. Because you can’t tell when you’re going to use the move or whether you will trigger Witch Time, you can use the slight disorientation and the fact you didn’t die to counterattack. Make it quick, though; the opponent will also be able to counterattack in the small frame of time you have.

Ok, here we go. You may want to stop here for a minute and grab some snacks; this could take a while. I cannot emphasize how important and versatile of a tool Witch Time is when playing this character. It can be used for racking up damage, scoring kills, and getting out of a sticky situation if you need a breather. The former two is what I’m going to elaborate on for the remainder of this entry, but first let’s talk about the move itself. Witch Time slows the opponent down and allows you to counterattack with the move of your choice, probably a first for a counter. The move has a lot of factors that play into how effective it is, including your damage, the opponent’s damage, how many times you use the move, and whether the move is a projectile or a melee attack. Let’s talk about the later two in detail.

Projectile attacks will allow Bayonetta to dodge the projectile, and slow down the opponent for the duration of the dodge. This is more for escaping damage than giving you a chance to counterattack. As for how many times in a row you use the move, there are two disadvantages to constantly using the move: 1. the amount of time the opponent is slowed is cut short if you use the move constantly and 2. if the opponent starts to catch on, then they can just grab you and there’s no stopping a throw. And don’t think about trying to use it after you’ve been grabbed, because if the opponent’s smart, they’ll just keep grabbing you. One time when we first got Bayonetta and Corrin my brother was playing Bayonetta and seemed to insist on using the Witch Time. I caught on and kept grabbing him, and I got him to about 50-70% damage. So enough stories, let’s finish this. But first, take a minute and go to the bathroom if you need to do so. I’ll wait.

You done? Ok then, let’s go.

Now there are two main ways to use Witch Time to your advantage. The first is to accumulate damage. To do this, you want to use one of your weaker attacks, like your jab or D-tilt, to attack and accumulate damage before the move ends. Even though I did add it to the guide, I do not recommend it unless the character is at a lower damage, and even then, Bayonetta is a combo queen and by using all of her moves and possible combos you can accumulate damage just as well. The second thing you want to do with Witch Time, and by far the most useful thing, is score kills with the attack. When the opponent is slowed down, the logical thing to do is to either quickly finish the job with a smash attack, preferably an U- or S-Smash, or just take your sweet time and charge the sucker. If you do not choose to charge the attack, there’s a chance you won’t be able to score a kill, so throwing in a few more attacks for some extra damage isn’t such a bad idea. In the case I just explained, that is. If you see that red electro/explosion effect that the game inserts when you will more than likely score a KO, DO NOT HIT THE OPPONENT AGAIN, ESPECIALLY WITH A WEAKER ATTACK!! If you do so, it will kill the opponent’s momentum, and your potential KO is lost.

Overall
Bayonetta is a combo queen. Using her potential combos and weaker attacks are key to accumulating damage. Use these moves, the character’s potential combos, the Bullet Arts and Witch Time strategically and finish off the opponent with one of her smash attacks. Do all of this, and you’ll be trolling people in no time.

Whew, finally. If you made it to the end of this guide, I congratulate you. If you are bored and want to read something else, check out Plasmaster’s Corrin Guide (because I’m not doing that guide for a long time) or his just released Samus Guide. If you have any requests for future guides, let me know in the comments. The next guide may or may not come out in March, so be on the look out for that. Heck, I may make two next month to make up for January. We’ll see how that goes, but for now, SEE YA LATER!