Costume Colors
Zabel Zarock (Lord Raptor)
Introduction
Zabel Zarock (ザベル), the Zombie. Zabel has pretty much all the tools he needs to handle every situation and is almost as good of a turtler as a rushdown character. He is very interesting to play but is not as easy to learn as other characters. To be good, you need to master every option that he has, and he has quite a lot of them. To play Zabel you will generally want to get close and then trap the opponent with a poke that gives frame adv. and then applying his incredibly good high/low/cmd-throw game. Also, one should never hesitate to abuse of his air mobility and jumping attacks. Extremely strong and versatile, he is usually considered top tier, his only downfall may be his low stamina.
Primary objective: IAD j.d.HP/j.LK, short short super.
Normal Moves
All damage values obtained when preformed on Demitri. All hit/guard advantage values preformed from point blank range, with additional situational values noted below.
Standing Normals
| Standing Medium Punch
|
| Damage |
10/15 |
1f
|
6f
|
9f
|
??f
|
| Hit Advantage |
-1
|
| Guard Advantage |
-2
|
| Renda Bonus |
None
|
| Rapid Cancel |
No
|
| Special Cancel |
Yes
|
| Meter Gain |
W:3/G:9/H:15
|
| Start/Active/Recovery Frames |
5 |
3 |
19
|
|
This s.MP isn't the most obvious normal to use at times, but it still has plenty of uses at advanced levels.
Its Zabel's most damaging special cancelable normal, though canceling it from max range into Evil Scream does not consistently combo.
Sometimes I use it to swipe someone out of the air, as no other normals of his reach quite that height in so few frames. Using it as an anti-air on someone intending to jump in at you and attack will typically fail, so its more useful when someone does something like a badly spaced jump over you.
This normal option selects from his command throw and normal throw attempts. If you mess up the throw timing or distance, it is much safer on block and whiff than s.HP.
Using it in pressure strings to catch jumpers works sometimes. You should be careful though as this move will whiff on crouching Gallon and Q-bee.
|
| Standing Light Kick
|
| Damage |
4/7 |
1f
|
5f
|
8f
|
| Hit Advantage |
+4
|
| Guard Advantage |
+3
|
| Renda Bonus |
H:+7/G:+6
|
| Rapid Cancel |
Yes
|
| Special Cancel |
Yes
|
| Meter Gain |
W:0/G:3/H:6
|
| Start/Active/Recovery Frames |
4 |
3 |
9
|
|
This s.LK's only real use is to assist in combos to Death Voltage and Evil Scream.
It has a bit more range than a c.LK, so in situations where [c.LK > c.LK] will whiff, [c.LK > s.LK] may hit.
Naturally you'll end your block string on this move often when attempting to hit confirm into super. From a block position this move has very good frame advantage, especially with the renda bonus(+1 less than c.LK). Using this advantage to further your pressure is very important to Zabel's game-plan.
|
Forward Standing Normals
| Forward Light Punch
|
| Damage |
3/6 |
1f
|
6f
|
8f
|
10f
|
??f
|
18f
|
| Hit Advantage |
-3
|
| Guard Advantage |
-4
|
| Renda Bonus |
H:0 G:-1
|
| Rapid Cancel |
Yes
|
| Special Cancel |
Yes
|
| Meter Gain |
W:0/G:3/H:6
|
| Start/Active/Recovery Frames |
5 |
2 |
2 |
15
|
| Description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description
|
| Forward Hard Kick
|
| Damage |
11/18 |
1f
|
6f
|
12f
|
15f
|
31f
|
39f
|
| Hit Advantage |
-2
|
| Guard Advantage |
-15
|
| Renda Bonus |
None
|
| Rapid Cancel |
No
|
| Special Cancel |
No
|
| Meter Gain |
W:6/G:15/H:24
|
| Start/Active/Recovery Frames |
14 |
16 |
23
|
|
An extremely capable far anti-air normal attack. High damage and large active frames make this a preferred anti-air attack, though its uses as anti-air are still very situational like all of his other anti-air normals. Secondly, this attack can also be used as as a chain combo ender against standing opponents if you are looking for a max damage combo that uses no meter.
As an anti-air, if the opponent is jumping in I would avoid using this at a distance shorter than 3/4 to full screen depending on the match-up. The slow start-up and ability of an opponent to cleanly jump over this can make using it from too close very dangerous. For example, against a Lilith super-jumping in this move is very effective at a distance and will beat her cleanly.
The more common application of using this as an anti-air is to catch people doing up-back jumps when you have them cornered. Sniping a few up-back jumps with this in a row will do decent damage.
The frame advantage you can get using this as an anti air is extremely variable considering this move is active for a massive 16 frames. If you anti-air with the first frame of the move it will give you about +2/3~ frames on hit, and if you hit with the very last active frame of the move you can get a huge +17/18~ frames on hit. Recognizing when this move hits and properly exploiting it can give you a huge payoff.
This move will actually hit crouching Bishamon and Victor surprisingly enough.
|
Crouching Normals
| Crouching Light Punch
|
| Damage |
3/7 |
1f
|
5f
|
8f
|
| Hit Advantage |
+6
|
| Guard Advantage |
+5
|
| Renda Bonus |
H:+9 G:+8
|
| Rapid Cancel |
Yes
|
| Special Cancel |
Yes
|
| Meter Gain |
W:0/G:3/H:6
|
| Start/Active/Recovery Frames |
4 |
3 |
7
|
| Description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description
|
| Crouching Medium Punch
|
| Damage |
9/14 |
1f
|
3f
|
6f
|
9f
|
19f
|
| Hit Advantage |
0
|
| Guard Advantage |
-1
|
| Renda Bonus |
None
|
| Rapid Cancel |
No
|
| Special Cancel |
Yes
|
| Meter Gain |
W:3/G:9/H:15
|
| Start/Active/Recovery Frames |
5 |
3 |
18
|
| Description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description
|
| Crouching Light Kick
|
| Damage |
3/6 |
1f
|
5f
|
8f
|
| Hit Advantage |
+5
|
| Guard Advantage |
+4
|
| Renda Bonus |
H:+8/G:+7
|
| Rapid Cancel |
Yes
|
| Special Cancel |
Yes
|
| Meter Gain |
W:0/G:3/H:6
|
| Start/Active/Recovery Frames |
4 |
3 |
8
|
| Description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description
|
Jumping Normals
| Jumping Light Punch
|
| Damage |
5/9 |
1f
|
5f
|
11f
|
| Special Cancel |
Yes
|
| Meter Gain |
W:0/G:3/H:6
|
| Start/Active/Recovery Frames |
4 |
6 |
1 (+4 frames of Full Guard)
|
|
A normal which pretty much only has the use of starting air chains on chicken blockers in certain situations. Depending on positioning you won't even use this very much to start an air chain.
There is a bit of potential for doing some gimmicks with this using the full guard, but its nothing that is at all practical. Read j.MP below for an explanation on full guard.
|
| Jumping Medium Punch
|
| Damage |
10/16 |
1f
|
5f
|
7f
|
11f
|
16f
|
| Special Cancel |
Yes
|
| Meter Gain |
W:3/G:9/H:15
|
| Start/Active/Recovery Frames |
4 |
6 |
5 |
1 (+4 Frames of Full Guard)
|
| Description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description
|
| Jumping Hard Punch
|
| Damage |
13/20 |
1f
|
7f
|
11f
|
18f
|
| Special Cancel |
No
|
| Meter Gain |
W:6/G:15/H:24
|
| Start/Active/Recovery Frames |
6 |
4 |
8
|
| Description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description
|
| Jumping Light Kick
|
| Damage |
4/8 |
1f
|
4f
|
7f
|
10f
|
| Special Cancel |
Yes
|
| Meter Gain |
W:0/G:3/H:6
|
| Start/Active/Recovery Frames |
3 |
3 |
3 |
4
|
| Description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description
|
| Jumping Medium Kick
|
| Damage |
9/15 |
1f
|
5f
|
7f
|
11f
|
| Special Cancel |
Yes
|
| Meter Gain |
W:3/G:9/H:15
|
| Start/Active/Recovery Frames |
4 |
6 |
4
|
| Description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description
|
| Jumping Hard Kick
|
| Damage |
1hit:5/8 2hit:9/14 3hit:13/20 |
1f
|
7f
|
9f
|
11f
|
| Special Cancel |
No
|
| Meter Gain |
W:6 G:10+4+4 H:15+9+9
|
| Start/Active/Recovery Frames |
6 |
2 |
2 |
2
|
| |
13f
|
15f
|
17f
|
19f
|
| 2 |
2 |
2 |
12
|
|
A decent normal to IAD with sometimes. It has both its strengths and faults.
You'll find yourself getting hit out of it a bit more frequently than you'd expect. And it won't take long for you to realize that some characters can pretty effectively just crouch under it to avoid it more often than not. The fact it clearly will hit multiple times, and the block-stop applied to the move make it a bit easy to guard cancel.
That said, it is a 3 hit normal that hits overhead, so on taller crouching characters it can be efficient in opening them up. If they crouch too soon.
Against fireball characters where you have to dash a little higher to get over their fireballs, this can be an effective punish to combo all the way to the ground when j2.HP does not have enough hit-stun to do. As a bonus it makes for a super easy hit confirm of s.MP or s.MK into Evil Scream for big damage.
Finally, if you catch an opponent in chicken guard with this, you have 2 different options based on positioning. Mid-screen, you can possibly get a s.LP or s.MP guard break after landing. In the corner, if it is timed right you can get a s.LP guard break reset, into an IAD > j.LK unblockable. It is very important to look out for both of these situations.
Something to note is that if you air-dash super low, more often than not you will only get 2 hits out of this normal instead of 3. This can throw off your combo timing quite a bit, but at the same time it can confuse your opponent. It can be difficult to confirm how many hits you will do, but try to use this to your advantage instead of disadvantage.
|
Command Jumping Normals
| Jumping Down Medium Punch - j2.MP
|
| Damage |
8/14 |
1f
|
3f
|
5f
|
7f
|
11f
|
16f
|
| Special Cancel |
Yes
|
| Meter Gain |
W:3/G:9/H:15
|
| Start/Active/Recovery Frames |
4 |
6 |
6
|
| Description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description
|
| Jumping Kick Drill - j2.LK/MK/HK
|
| Damage |
7/14 |
1f
|
9f
|
| Special Cancel |
Yes*
|
| Meter Gain |
L=W:0/G:3/H:6 M=W:3/G:9/H:15 H=W:6/G:15/H:24
|
| Start/Active/Recovery Frames |
8 |
Until Landing
|
|
This move can only be special canceled out of an air-dash with the hard kick drill.
When air dashing the move builds no meter on whiff with the MK and HK versions, but still gives meter on hit.
|
old data
Note: Every "streched" move is chain cancellable. Every dashing move is a crouched one, and keep a bit (or a lot, depend of the length of the hitting frames) of the dash's momentum. Air dashed drills keep the dash's momentum too.
HP: Upward hitting move, GREAT anti air. Not much more to say about this move. Not safe. Better used when chained into stand HK, makes it less punishable.
HK: Interesting move. High kick, Zabel's foot turn into a saw. Zabel's hitbox go back a bit while doing it, which makes it a good anti air.
f.LP: Zabel streches and poke. Good move for poking, better if cancelled into c.lk after either hit or guard. Can work better as an anti IAD than stand lp (highly situational) and is useful in combos. Good reach, special cancellable. Many chars can crouch under it.
f.HP: 3 hit streching move. Somewhat useful in chains as it creates a delay in the chain. Kinda slow, Tech hit/guard cancel all day on it.
c.LP: Low jab, very good move (lots of + frames either on hit or guard). Move of choice when ground dashing. One of Zabel's fastest move. Main starter of his upclose high/low game due to it's frame advantage. Special cancellable.
c.MP: Low hook, hits mid. Can be linked from cr.lp x 2. Special cancellable.
c.LK: Good move. Low kick, hits low, starter of 95% of his ground combos. Really low frame advantage on hit and guard. Still, a good (great?) move. Special cancellable.
c.HK: Sliding saw, hits low, goes under a lot of projectiles. Non cancellable.
j.MP: Great move, best used on air to air when your opponent is above you. Happens a lot since you will IAD pretty often. Can go for the unblockable when it hits that way. Big hitbox, can be use to whiff on purpose and mix up. Special cancellable. Full guard after it's recovery.
j.HP: Chest bones again. Good air to air move when opponent is above, but why use this when you can use j.MP. Usually used whiffed to build meter.
j.LK: Only one use for this move: unblockable. It's a good move but it would probably never be used if it weren't for the unblockable. The move's last hitting frames is unblockable, learn setups to land that one frame only on an opponent. Special cancellable.
j.MK: Good move, good reach. Zabel attacks with the bone form his shin. Good move overall. Special cancellable.
j.d.MP: Excellent move overall. Same attack but angled downward. Hits farther than j.MP, probably his best air to ground move. Can be used as an instant overhead against some chars. Special cancellable, Full guard after it's recovery. Move of choice for chicken guarding.
j.d.HP: Chest bones part 3. Arguably his best IAD move. Not cancellable. Not much else to say. Learn to instant IAD j.d.HP, it is required to play him decently. Random note: If you do not IAD as fast as possible, IAD j.d.hp will whiff against a crouching Q-Bee ; the timing to land a IAD j.d.MP against her is more lenient, but j.d.HP has more hitstun.
j.d.LK: Downward drill. Land the closest of the 3 drills. Can be used in IAD's. Best use as an IAD against Q-Bee (if you cannot land iad j.d.MP/j.d.HP) or as a setup for the unblockable. Fast, can be chained into but not from, not cancellable. The drill of choice (if you miss your IAD you won't fly for half an hour, with the others you will).
j.d.MK: Downward drill, moderate distance. Wouldn't use it if I were you. See LK drill for info.
j.d.HK: Downward drill, goes the farthest. Shitty outside IADs. See LK drill for info.
Special note about "Full Guard": What is full guard? Well it's a bug on Zabel's jumping LP's and MP's that allows him to guard EVERYTHING while airborne if guardable after the recovery of these moves. That includes guarding moves that you are not supposed to guard while airborne (ie. every single grounded normal move).
Special Moves and Throws
Throws
| Punch Throw - (Close)6 or 4 MP/HP
|
| Damage |
No Mash:18/30 Mashed:27/45 CounterMash:12/20 Both Mash:15/25 |
1f
|
| Tech Damage |
4/7
|
| Hit Advantage |
+2
|
| Tech Advantage |
+2
|
| Meter Gain |
None
|
| Active Frames |
1
|
|
A mash throw that can be throw-teched entirely and does a stand reset on hit. If you are attempting to throw behind yourself the s.HP throw option-select is pretty good, but the setup from the throw afterwards is terrible.
Even with the +2 frames from the throw, you don't have much of a potential follow up because of how far you are placed from the opponent, even in the corner.
The main plus of the punch throw is against opponents that have no clue you can counter mash to make it do less damage. If you get full mash damage, this throw actually does massive damage. At that point it is Zabel's 3rd strongest attack when it comes to red damage, and his most damaging attack in terms of white damage.
The huge damage from that is offset though on the measly damage this throw does if completely throw teched.
|
| Kick Throw - (Close)6 or 4 MK/HK
|
| Damage |
18/27 |
1f
|
| Tech Damage |
9/13
|
| Hit Advantage |
Knockdown
|
| Tech Advantage |
+11
|
| Meter Gain |
None
|
| Active Frames |
1
|
| A good throw. The option select from his normals isn't as good as it is for his punch throws, but the options he gets from the throw itself is much better than his punch throw.
If you have a reason for wanting to do a back throw, this is your preferred option as the command throw only throws in the direction you are facing.
In the corner, you have more than enough time to attempt a j.LK unblockable on knockdown. And on throw-tech Zabel gets +11 frames to attempt a mixup.
|
| Air Throw - (Close)6 or 4 MP/HP
|
| Damage |
15/22 |
1f
|
| Tech Damage |
7/10
|
| Hit Advantage |
Knockdown
|
| Tech Advantage |
~
|
| Meter Gain |
None
|
| Active Frames |
1
|
|
Zabel's air throw is hardly a core part of his air game. Positionally, based on the height of his jump and location of the air throw, he will have difficulties grabbing a few characters as well. If you are trying to punish somebody, an IAD into an air reset with a normal, so you will know just how they recover is probably better than the knockdown into a roll they'd get from the air throw.
Unteched, damage wise this throw is decent, it does a little more damage than his strongest air normal(j.HP). Even with the hard knockdown this gives, you still have enough time to set up your oki options as well.
Teched, damage isn't very good. Zabel will chuck them across the screen and they will air reset. You actually have some pretty decent frame advantage off of this, but a throw midscreen puts them too far away to really exploit this. If they air tech you in the corner, you can get a solid air-dash mix-up on their recovery if you IAD at the soonest possible moment. The frame advantage from this isn't quite as much as an IAD into a normal attack reset.
|
| Skull Punish - (Close)63214 MP/HP
|
| Damage |
MP/HP:20/28 ES:28/40 |
2f
|
| Hit Advantage |
Knockdown
|
| Meter Gain |
MP/HP: 12 ES: 0
|
| Active Frames |
1
|
|
2 frame untechable command throw that throws the opponent in the direction you're facing. This has a bit better range than his normal throws as well, so its generally his best throw option.
Both option selects using s.MP and s.HP are good so use both, though I favor s.HP a bit more as it catches jumpers more often.
Going for an ES Skull Punish can be extremely dangerous. It overlaps with the Evil Scream input of 6~4, and you'll get it by accident the majority of the time by either being too far from the opponent or doing it too soon out of block stun. This is a problem for two reasons. First off you lose the ability to do an option select with a normal move. And second, evil scream is -14 on block so you really do not want to do it in someones face raw.
Because of those reasons you should generally be sticking with the regular version of Skull Punish rather than the ES version.
|
Specials
Pursuit: Zabel hovers and stomps you multiple times (normal 3 times, EX 6 times). As all pursuits, can be whiffed to get closer and go straight into mixups, but Zabel's kinda slow... Don't do it often.
Death Hurricane - 214K (air): Spinning move. Fast enough, short one is pretty safe. Pretty much has no point except overlapping with Death Voltage.
- (L Version) Short range.
- (M Version) Medium range.
- (H Version) Long range.
- (ES Version) Hits more.
Skull Sting - 28K (air): Foot saw. Useless, guard cancel fodder but airborne on the 1st frame (can be kinda useful against unblockables).
- (L Version) Short range.
- (M Version) Medium range.
- (H Version) Long range.
- (ES Version) Hits more.
Hell's Gate - 426K: Teleport. Invincible from the 1st frame. Strength determines where you'll reappear, no matter which side you're on. No ES.
- (L Version) Left side.
- (M Version) Midscreen.
- (H Version) Right side.
Death Phrase - 623K (GC): Guitar guard cancel (guard cancel only move).
- (Any Version) Fast, knocks down.
- (ES Version) Adds a second untechable hit. This move is quite important for Zabel due to the opponent not being able to ground roll after the second hit, which can potentially set up his unblockable j.LK.
Ultimate Revenge - 623K (DFGC): Dark Force guard cancel. Unblockable. No ES.
EX Moves
| Death Voltage (Air) - air 63214 KK
|
| Air version has 5f pre-attack frames, with 32 active frames.
|
Evil Scream - 64PP: Electric Stab. This is not a charge move, you simply tap the directions. Extremely fast, combos off anything cancelable and great reach. Whiffs against Q-Bee and Gallon when they are crouching.
Death Voltage - 624KK (air): Electric spin. Huge damage, extremely fast, combos off anything cancelable. Air version travels downwards instead of upwards. Also whiffs against a crouched Q-Bee. Super of choice against every other caracter that Evil Scream whiffs against when they are crouching(Gallon etc).
Hell Dunk - 623PP: Basketball. Auto-targets the opponent. Unblockable ground-catch (grabs standing/crouching opponents within the mouth area). Decent damage but telegraphed startup and very laggy/punishable whiff animation. Very risky, good damage but not recommended for frequent use (only if you predict a projectile and even then, IAD'ing over it on reaction would be better).
Dark Force
Final Transformation: Ultimate Undead - Same strength P + K
- (Any Version) Gold Chainsaw mode. Zabel gets a new set of attacks, while losing his special moves and throws, and his dash becomes a hop rather than his normal crawl. While in dark force mode Zabel's normals do white (recoverable) damage on block
Movement
Walk:
Zabel's walk speed is about average.
Crouch:
Zabel can crouch forward and backward by holding 3 or 1. Crouching has higher speed than walking.
Dash:
Zabel crouches forward at higher speed. While dashing pressing any attack button will make Zabel perform the crouching version of the attack with some added momentum. This attack loses its ability to cancel and chain though. The dash can also be canceled by pressing 4. When the dash ends Zabel will stand up for some frames before he can crouch back again.
Jump:
Zabel's jump distance is rather short.
Air dash:
Pressing 44 or 66 in the air will make Zabel air dash. Pressing 4 or any attack button during the air dash will make Zabel fall down while performing the attack. Zabel can't airblock or chain during the air dash. If Zabel air dashes backward then his air 2K moves will also moves him backwards.
The motion for an instant air dash (IAD) is 956. If done quickly enough Zabel will dash very close to the ground. Then you can cancel the IAD into another normal to make an air attack (must be blocked high) very close to the ground. This is a huge part of Zabel's pressure/mixup game, it helps him cover grounds quickly and makes blocking his attack strings incredibly difficult. Last note, IADs are obviously anti-low but can also hover above some standing moves, even when the IAD is done as low as possible (Aulbath's far stand HK comes to mind).
Strategies
Combos
Matchups
Frame Data
test
1
| Standing Light Punch
|
| Damage |
? |
1f
|
5f
|
8f
|
11f
|
| Hit Advantage |
+3
|
| Guard Advantage |
+2
|
| Renda Bonus |
H:+6 G:+5
|
| Rapid Cancel |
Yes
|
| Special Cancel |
Yes
|
| Meter Gain |
W:0 G:3 H:6
|
| Start/Active/Recovery Frames |
4 |
3 |
10
|
| Description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description
|
3
| Standing Light Punch
|
| Damage |
? |
1f
|
5f
|
8f
|
11f
|
| Hit Advantage |
+3
|
| Guard Advantage |
+2
|
| Renda Bonus |
H:+6 G:+5
|
| Rapid Cancel |
Yes
|
| Special Cancel |
Yes
|
| Meter Gain |
W:0 G:3 H:6
|
| Start/Active/Recovery Frames |
4 |
3 |
10
|
| Description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description
|
4
| Standing Light Punch
|
| Damage |
? |
1f
|
5f
|
8f
|
11f
|
| Hit Advantage |
+3
|
| Guard Advantage |
+2
|
| Renda Bonus |
H:+6 G:+5
|
| Rapid Cancel |
Yes
|
| Special Cancel |
Yes
|
| Meter Gain |
W:0 G:3 H:6
|
| Start/Active/Recovery Frames |
4 |
3 |
10
|
| Description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description
|
5
| Standing Light Punch
|
| Damage |
? |
1f
|
5f
|
8f
|
11f
|
| Hit Advantage |
+3
|
| Guard Advantage |
+2
|
| Renda Bonus |
H:+6 G:+5
|
| Rapid Cancel |
Yes
|
| Special Cancel |
Yes
|
| Meter Gain |
W:0 G:3 H:6
|
| Start/Active/Recovery Frames |
4 |
3 |
10
|
| Description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description description
|
Notable Players
Name ENG/Name JP/Color
Komemaru (コメマル) [MP - Grey] Current top 2 Zabel player
Sakai (サカイ) [2 Kick - Purple] Current top 2 Zabel player
T2ya aka Tetsuya [LK - Red] Legendary Zabel player
Yamakawa (やまかわ)
Ogawa (オガワ)
--
Dekameron (でかめろん or デカメロン) [MK - Green]
Aojiru (青汁) [MK - Green]
Kuronu aka Chrono (黒野) [HK - Brown] Organizes the New Comer Tournaments at Mikado
Bega aka Vega (ベガ) [HP - Blue]
Irifune (入船) [MP - Grey] New Player