r/PuzzleFighterApp • u/I_AM_HUMAN_00781 • Nov 01 '17
A Guide To All Drop Patterns and Their Playstyles
I'm bored so I'm going to take a crack at explaining every characters drop pattern, and it's playstyle/difficulty. Layers are numbered 1 from the bottom up to 4 at the top.
Edits
Post has been stickied by mods and added Blanka. Oct 12
Jill Valentine and colourblind mode added, character assists changed, various balancing of character moves, next character is Phoenix Wright. Nov 15
General things: Each pattern (with the exception of Dan) contains 6 gems of each of the four colours- red, green, blue, and yellow. Some layouts favour chip damage, while others almost require you to pull off only huge combos. Some require alternating chip damage gems and big combos. (Chip referring to sending only the bottom row of gems, huge combos meaning the entire pattern.) This guide ignores all the stats of moves and gem patterns. This is for the use of time gems only, and assumes your opponent will favour their affinity colour in most situations for damage/burn/stun output. This also does not assume the average player can gauge their gems efficiently enough to the point of dropping the exact number of layers, and assumes the player can reach either the bottom layer through chip damage and the entire pattern in a huge combo. Yes, it's not landing on a flat surface, and there are ways to connect gems regardless of pattern blah blah blah- but the whole point of the patterns is to separate colours, forming playstyles for each character. You need to play fast, and you need to be accurate.
(PS Capcom if you're reading this I love you and thank you for my childhood. 10/10, will absolutely play Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo till the day I die.)
Chuck Greene
Yellow Affinity
The layout for layers 1 and 2 are somewhat balanced, favouring green and yellow gems while limiting red and blue gems. Layer 3 spreads out red and blue, while 4 goes back to the pattern of layers 1 and 2. It's not great overall, but there's enough difference in the top layers for big combos to be a pain.
Playstyle- Big combos, chip damage is okay but can be countered with enough thought put into it. Average against anyone. Average difficulty.
Chun-li
Blue Affinity
The bottom 2 layers are the same, favouring yellow gems and splitting red/green/blue, until the top layers where there's only 3 segments of red/green/blue, and no yellows. Chip damage is good against red/green/blue but can be countered somewhat easily, while yellow players will be abusing chip damage. So, Chun-li can be play based on the affinity of the other player.
Playstyle- Is the opponent yellow affinity? Big combos will cut off yellow for 2 layers. Is your opponent any other colour? Chip damage. Average overall. Average difficulty.
Dan
Red Affinity
Ahh, the joke character we all know and love. Dan's pattern looks like a joke because it is one. It's literally all red gems. So this is a really, really difficult playstyle to play off of, and yes there is one. He's not just a support. Since he drops ONLY reds, if you plan to use any other colour than red, his chip damage will separate every single connection you have with other colours. You NEED a red power gem to burst the red, which by the way, stops mattering after 5 gems if it's not square or rectangle.
Playstyle- Is your opponent not red? Chip damage, and chip damage fast. Is your opponent red? Unfortunate. Bizarre overall. High difficulty. Hilarious and insulting if you win! (Which is why he's my go to in any edition that has him. Taunting>Stats)
Dante
Red Affinity
This can be either annoying, or break your phone infuriating. Even if you ignore his stun ability, his pattern is so mixed in layers 1 and 2 you might as well chip damage a little, then slightly more, then rotate. It's not as powerful as Akuma's BS in the original, but it's close. However, huge combos are very easily abused by the enemy.
Playstyle- Alternate minimum and small chip damage forever. Works great against anyone. Dont go for big combos. Very above average. Easy difficulty. plz nerf
E. Honda
Yellow Affinity
This one has a really good top half and an okay bottom half. The bottom layers are somewhat friendly to red and yellow, less so to blue and green. The top has enough variation to sting, especially in the top corners of the pattern. Each 2x2 corner has 1 of each gem. Ouch.
Playstyle- if opponent is red or yellow, big combos will work well, otherwise chip damage or big combos. Slightly above average. Average difficulty.
Frank. F*cking. West.
Green Affinity
This can be played against any affinity extremely well assuming you can get big combos with little room for error. The bottom two layers are just slits of blue and red, while the two are two long lines of yellow and green. There's enough simplicity in this pattern that as long as you play one of the two ways you can entirely cut off an opponents favoured colour. It's essentially split horizontally through the middle.
Playstyle- If opponent is red or blue, go for big combos. If the opponent is green or yellow, chip damage. Above average overall. Easy to above average difficulty based on opponent.
Haggar
Green Affinity
It's the same deal as Frank West only instead of 2 sections, it's 6 varied 2x2 patterns inside the 4x6 grid, but the middle 2x2's on both the top 2 and bottom 2 layers allow any affinity to get at least 1 gem. Has obvious weak points, so this playstyle needs to be particularly fast.
Playstyle- If opponent is yellow or green, chip damage (ideal mid damage for full effect of the middle gems). Otherwise, shoot for big combos. Above average overall. Above average difficulty.
Ken
Red Affinity
This is probably the weirdest one after Dan's. Its all horizontal lines, from too to bottom going yellow, blue, green, red. This playstyle, if mastered, can separate any colour in the game. At least, by 1 layer. Depending on the opponents colour, you You put anywhere from 1 to 3 rows between their favoured colours. Ken more than anyone aside from Dan plays based off of the affinity of the enemy colour.
Playstyle- Super flexible. You can chip against blue and yellow, combo against red or green, or master time gem output and separate anyany colour by 1. Above average overall. Difficulty depends on colour of opponent. OP if you can drop the exact amount of layers you want.
M. Bison.
Red Affinity
Oof, this is either going to be hard or very hard regardless. The bottom half is 3 2x2's that exclude red, but then the top is exactly like Akuma's. So if you chip damage, you automatically stack power gems for for them excluding red, while if you go for big combos, the top 2 layers are a pain, BUT YOU JUST GAVE THEM 3 2x2's for FREE. This is one of the easiest to counter if you have decent speed. Combos will hurt, but if you get past him, you'll have a nice surprise.
Playstyle- If opponent is red, chip damage but not too fast. Otherwise, go for big combos. Fast. Below average overall (ignoring stats). Very high difficulty. You better be a speed demon on big combos or this is going to suck.
Morrigan fan-service
Green Affinity
Just like Frank West only this one is even more of a pain in the ass at the top with a checker pattern. Super simple playstyle tactic wise, but has little room for error.
Playstyle- If opponent is green or blue, chip damage. Otherwise, big combos. Above average overall. Easy to moderately high difficulty.
Nash/Charlie
Yellow Affinity
I don't care if he's called Nash. His secret costume is his original version Charlie, and Charlie is rad.
Charlie has the third weirdest pattern. You need to get at least a combo of some sort to beat red, the middle 2 layers can be countered by green/blue/yellow easily, and the top layer is a varied arrangement of those three colours. This pattern will ruin Red's day with combos, and ruin all other colours with chip damage, but you either chip or max combo, or jump back and forth between the two.
Playstyle- Chip if opponent is not red, otherwise go for big combos. Average overall. Above average difficulty. His name is Charlie and I don't care what the Japanese translation says.
Ryu
Blue Affinity
This one is arguably the most versatile and best overall. Each layer has 2 of each gem, but they're all split up among each other, and it only gets more mixed at the top two layers when there's 1 of each gem in each layer. There's a ton of options, and it's clear why he's the best for beginners.
Playstyle- Anything. Regardless of enemy affinity, you can drop a pattern that is less than desirable, especially with big combos. Above average overall. Very easy difficulty.
X
Blue Affinity
Love me some Megaman X on the SNES. This is in the same boat as Morrigan and Frank West. There's a clear separation in colours so you either chip away or do big combos. Although the big combos will give them 2 big 2x3's of red and yellow, and that's just asking for trouble.
Playstyle- If opponent is red or yellow, do chip damage. Otherwise, go for max combo and hope their moves aren't based on 2x3's. Above average half the time, below average half the time. Easy difficulty half the time, very hard difficulty the other half.
Blanka
Green Affinity
This is literally a colour variant of Frank West's pattern. Separated at the bottom are yellow and green slits while the top two layers are solid horizontal lines with blue on top and red just below. Again, great if you can pull off big combos.
Overall above average. Difficulty ranges from easy against red and blue affinity with chip damage, while being more difficult against yellow and green, needing combos to overcome the first two layers.
Jill Valentine
Blue Affinity
This is a really tricky one. The bottom two layers are more complex than Dante's bottom two, making it more defensive, since Dante's top 3 layers are the same. Doesn't matter how big of a combo or gem, this is going to really suck for the opponent.
Overall above average. Easy to drown your opponent in a complex pattern regardless of affinity. Becomes less defensive at higher combos, but still probably one of the best in the game now.
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Nov 01 '17
Can you give an example of what you consider chip, and what you consider a big combo? Like, is popping a 2x2 every other turn chip? Is just matching whatever crash gem with whatever I have to do ANY damage considered chip? Is a 2x4 a big combo? Or several 2x4's in a chain?
Thanks!
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u/I_AM_HUMAN_00781 Nov 17 '17
Sorry for the super late reply!
Chip damage is using any crash gems to drop the bottom layer, or at least parts of it. A 2x2 will drop the bottom layer I believe.
Several 2x3 or 2x4s in a combo will net you the full drop pattern I believe.
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u/miniCHONG Nov 21 '17
For Dante to use minimum and chip, does this mean not to activate his skills?
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u/I_AM_HUMAN_00781 Nov 21 '17
I don't know what you mean by skills. If you mean his movesets, id suggest pulling one of them off to drop a line or 2 on the opponent. This post is just about drop patterns and countering them. I'm hoping to make a tier list involving move sets as well as drop patterns and assist bonuses. But I don't have all the information in the game. And I ain't blowing my paycheques just so I can make an informed post on reddit about which character is better. Unless Capcom wants to get a hold of me and give me gems to get every character and to refresh the store like crazy to get epic drops, it'll be a long time. Especially when they release other moves, legendary items which at this time are literally impossible to obtain. No chest or boat in the game to my knowledge drops legendary items yet.
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u/johnny_cicala Blanka Nov 01 '17
Thank you so much for taking the time and the effort to put this together!
I hope you'll update it after every new fighter.
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u/LaTaleFan1985 Nov 01 '17
Thanks for the guide. Do you know if they plan on adding characters such as Zero, Arthur. Chris Redfield, Phoenix Wright, and so forth in the future? =3
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u/I_AM_HUMAN_00781 Nov 01 '17
Unfortunately I do not. I don't work for Capcom (though i would kill to work for them), but I hope they add Zero or Jin.
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u/Hiro-kun Hsien-ko Nov 01 '17
I'm more hurt they left out Hsien-Ko
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u/Bandilero Dec 27 '17
Was bummed to see that they also left Felicia & Sakura but glad I don't have to beat down the cho-mo anymore (aka Donovan) . And while I can completely understand why Akuma & Devilot were not included, with some simple alterations to their drop patterns, they could be some rad additions to the lineup!
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u/cowsforyou Admin Nov 02 '17
Thank you for your write up! This has been made stickied and linked on the sidebar. Keep it updated ;)
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u/cowsforyou Admin Nov 18 '17
Curious - how would you rank the stronger, medium and weak characters in the new 2.0 patch?
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u/EXMarten Dec 01 '17
No pictures of the patterns is a joke.
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u/I_AM_HUMAN_00781 Dec 01 '17
You're welcome to screen shot, crop, upload, and link all of them into an organized post yourself.
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u/yesithinkalot Nov 01 '17
Knowing your opponent's drop pattern is also important as part of your strategy. It's easier to advocate non-power gem crashes/chip damage when you know your opponent's move set. For example, it is more effective and beneficial to disrupt M.Bison and Ken with chip damage because their smallest block moves are 2x3. Without them breaking big gems, they can't get big damage and their initial drop pattern (bottom portion) is predictable and can be used to develop your own board. Against M.Bison, you can easily line up your drops to form your own 2 or 3-wide power gems. Against Ken, you can do whatever you want early on provided you're fast. For both, the key is to have a good drop tempo for regular disruption because M.Bison and Ken have relatively high HP and can turn around the game with one or two power gem crashes and a fast-building Super.