I'm not really sure what you mean by "nothing" is safe or guaranteed

I'll give him 5, but they'll count for his entire contribution to the thread. (EDIT- 3, seems someone randomly gave him 2 already...)

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I'd like to see a Jade guide... a character I'm not used to using, but would like to learn, and one who never seems to get much coverage...

I've been trying out the Mileena combo posted in the Mileena FAQ as follows: punch starter, HP, HP, HK, HK, D-F LK, JK, sai 8 hits 40% but out of about 50 tries, the D-F LK only launched the opponent 1 time!? most of the time it just does an extra kick that looks like a standing HK. i've tried on both an UMK3 arcade machine, and MK Trilogy for PC. anyone got an explanation? EDIT: hmm i got it to work a few more times tonight, it just seems that you have to be really carefull and precise on the D-F LK or else it just doesnt come out...

Yeah you have to be precise, what you should try is, HP, HP, D-F+HK D-F+HK, D-F+LK so in essence you are spamming the D-F in the combo giving yourself a better chance to time it, you will eventually figure out the timing to get it without having to do that.

Nightwolf (Updated 9-23-06)
Nightwolf is ranked #5 in UMK3. He is devastatingly fast, has exceptional damage combos off a simple rush down with no set up required, his attacks are useful, have little recovery, or have no limit. Definitely a top tier character to say the least. His rush down is virtually unparallel in the game, and his mix ups are quite useful. He's a very easy to use character overall. He cannot autocombo starter on the female ninjas with either his punch or kick unless in the corner, and combos against them are not as easy, so that hurts him against them. His stomp also misses them quite often, so look for counter players using the female ninjas to exploit Nightwolf's collision box weaknesses because damage is the key with him and they are less susceptible. Nightwolf can run through sweeps if timed properly and begin his autocombo. Never do his 5 hit autocombo that ends in a HK. Rush down is extremely important.
Basic Moves:
Uppercut is solid, overall good priority and placement, HK has range, but not as much height as others, RH is average range, good for run unders, if you can time an air air roundhouse with him, you're better off countering with an aaAxe, aaAxe, aaHP, JK, or the likes for more damage and the same amount of effort on the initial counter hit. His sweep is virtually identical in range to the male ninjas, and has the same speed/start up/recovery, which is average. His LK hits a little lower than usual, and has a little less range. His run jabs also has just a little less range than others, his HPs are about average range, and also hit a little lower. His ducking LK has good range. JP has good cross up properties. The close range kick is a stomp that hits extremely low and is very useful, his close range punches hit very high and miss constantly so always rush down with stomps.
The Axe Uppercut is a great and unique move, considered a containment move because you can always get at least one free hit after it. It is possible to combo multiple axes, usually in any combo if you do two axes with some kind of extra juggle hits you will result in almost 45-50% even without a starter. It is an amazing cross under tool, anytime someone cross up jump kicks you, you can do the axe the opposite way and it will hit them on their way down even if they are attack, it's almost fool proof and very hard to recounter it unless it is baited and even still it can hit, it's like Kabal's spin only not as much damage can be done after using it. Remember that if you do an axe uppercut in combo and it misses Nightwolf is vulnerable and characters can capitalize on this. During his blocked combo it is sometimes better to leave out the axe because he can even be beaten out of it in that situation.
The Shoulder Tackle is your friend. It has very little recovery, but it is not invincible, it can be abused, but it can be scouted, it all depends on zoning. It hits ducking blocking characters except Stryker who is completely immune to it, and occasionally some characters can duck and block while it is coming and not get hit for chip like Kung Lao, and Sonya for example. It's good to finish juggle combos with as it does about the same amount of damage as a HK/JK and gets them into position to set up more tactics. Don't do the tackle from too far away because it's easily beaten by sweeps and try not to buffer it with obvious stepping. Sometimes it is useful to buffer it with running steps, so, hold run, tap forward, release run then forward again and tackle to get in close. The run in creates a defensive posture for the opponent and they will attempt to counter based on running velocity but when you change the run into a tackle you are coming in with a move instead of being totally vulnerable. If someone is ducking and blocking you can usually get two tackles out before they are comfortable to release block and try to just duck it and counter, so you should then skip the tackle and run in with his combo and get them sleeping. Make sure you mix this up a lot and don't fall into a pattern yourself or people will pick up on it. The tackle is also surpsiringly good for anti air especially in extremely close range, or even as an anti cross up, it will move backwards and somewhat appear to track the opponent. In the corner it is easily possible to get mulitple rams if you run jab and the opponent tries to jump out of the corner. Time a HP or LP jab to hit them in the air, then another HP, cancel to tackle, tackle for up to 4 hits 42%. This is a very special case scenario when they are in the corner but it's entirely possible. You should also mix up tackles with run jabs on occassion to keep your opponent locked down and guessing.
The Projectile Reflection move is pretty much what you see is what you get. You bounce projectiles back to your opponent. This move can get you in a lot of trouble, especially against Kabal. Players like to use it against the purple ball but a smart Kabal player will place the ball to scrape of Nightwolf's head and plow through him with a spin, severely punishing the overzealous Nightwolf user. It's best to use this move against characters who have a containment projectile like Sub-zero and Cyrax because this results in a free HK starter to autocombo, resulting in hideous damage of upwards to 60% and beyond. It will not reflect the harpoon or Stryker's Riot Gun for example.
The Bow and Arrow is a tiny projectile with unreasonable vulnerability and recovery. If you connect a move before the arrow, it will start up extremely fast, making it a lot easier to combo with, and even still it does very little damage. In any situation where you can combo an arrow, you can combo something else that does more damage. The fast arrow is active any time your opponent is in non neutral recovery frames, so you can send it out after an uppercut when they land as they get up and sometimes they will jump right into it, or after a roundhouse early to keep them where they are on the defensive, as offense is Nightwolf's main game. If your opponent is jumping away you can sometimes keep them pinned temporarily at full screen with fast arrows off a just frames concept. This is a pretty much worthless tactic and the arrow should be used very little as there is only one major purpose for it and that's to knock opponents back down before they even get up, also a predictable tactic. It's a match winning move for when someone is at danger and can't even block it.
Nightwolf has a corner infinite that works on Kabal, Sektor, Cyrax, Robot Smoke, Sheeva, and Kano. You can repeat his 3 hit kick combo over and over. The timing is incredibly easy, you can wait until they completely touch the ground and for whatever reason it still hits. It was designed to whiff but apparently these 6 characters have slightly larger collision detection when laying on the ground. Abuse this against corny Kabal players in the corner. If you can lead them there and get them into the corner, kara jab them and try to make them spin you while you are close to the corner, and then break out the infinite on them.
You can also use this infinite concept these character midscreen after an autocombo as a sleeper or wake up detector. A lot of times people like to jump away, uppercut, or wakeup when you get in close and try to rush down, however, Nightwolf can combo after the axe uppercut combo with his stomp before they have the chance to do any of this on these characters. Even though this is blockable you might find many anxious players who will receive a double combo at least once. For example, HP starter, 5 hit combo, axe, axe, walk in, sleeper stomp 5 hit combo, axe, axe, HP, JK is 15 hits 76%, and that's a very easy combo for just ONE instance where the person chose to escape rather than block. On Kabal in the same situation it is considerably easy and beneficial to get an extra HP Axe in both combos resulting in 18 hits 90%. Again, this results just because they tried to do something like wake up spin you when they can't. This kind of damage will make a Kabal player extremely cautious, eleviating you from having to worry about being wake up spun so much, but still it is a good idea to look out for, as often times Kabal is chosen intentionally to counter Nightwolf.
Basic Juggles:
1. punch starter, HK, HP, HP, LP, D-F HP, Axe, JK or tackle 8 hits 51%
2. aaAxe, aaAxe, JK 3 hits 24%
Advanced Juggles
1. on male ninjas: punch starter, HK, HP, HP, LP, D-F HP, step in, Axe,Axe, HK 9 hits 56%
2. on Jax, Stryker, Kabal, Sub-zero: punch starter, HK, HP, HP, LP, D-F HP, Axe, aaHP, Axe, JK 10 hits 60%
3. on all other characters your best bet is punch starter, HK, HP, HP, LP, D-F HP, Axe, jump kick 8 hits 51%, it's over 50%, so you only need it twice, if you get more than that one, you still need to get it again so it's a waste of effort.
4. on some characters: punch starter, HK, HP, HP, LP, D-F HP, Axe, run, aaLP,HP, tackle HK 10 hits 56%
5. punisher combo on Scorp, Smoke, Ermac, etc: aaHP,HP, JK, arrow 3 hits 38%
6. super corner punisher starting if Nightwolf is about halfscreen from the wall, aaHP,HP, JK, aaHP, tackle, tackle 6 hits 64%
7. punisher - aaHPHP, tackle, LK 4 hits 40% (or HK 42%)
8. (vs Jax, Stryker, Sub, Kano, and Male Ninjas) JKS, HK, HP, HP, LP, axe, axe, step axe, step axe, tackle 10 hits 63%

Excellent! Nightwolf is still one of my favorite umk3 characters.

yes, he is doing all of that very seriously. Great job. I find this thread so much more interesting than all the previous combovids, it's just more related to the "real" gameplay.

pierre

That's because the combo video thread is about combo videos and is designed to be showy and for fun.

Very nice guides, very helpful...Damn Nightwolf!

i can suggest doing kabal next, he's not too bad of a character i assume.

he is top tier in umk3. i think next character will be robot or human smoke.

Robot or Human Smoke is next, we've been random selecting to chose so far, just haven't gotten around to it.

Robot Smoke (Updated 9-23-06)

Robot Smoke is ranked 7th in UMK3. Your main game is going to be run jabs, watch for cross up jumps and nab air throws, anti air HPs to teleport uppercut combos, wake up spears are good sometimes, but most of all, GO INVISIBLE! The Robot Ninjas have some juggle advantages and vulnerabilities in terms of taking hits, watch for them. They can be relaunched by just about anyone with a launcher combo, easier than most, and they are harder to juggle in certain situations, particularly for Ermac and Human Smoke. Kung Lao can spin them and I believe Nightwolf after his autocombo in the corner when it is performed on the "just frame" so not only will you take the 34% or more from the auto combo but you're stuck in the corner infinite. Anyone who can get a ducking LK after their autocombo in the corner on anybody can get a standing HK after their combo on them, for example: Liu Kang, HP starter, 7 hit combo is 38% + standing damage protected HK is 46%.

Robot Ninja Basic Moves:

Standing HK is topps, uppercuts are somewhat bad in the sense they tend to miss in crucial situations similarly to Kung Lao's, for instance you have to take a step in if you want to counter a punishable move sometimes to hit an uppercut. The robot Ninja roundhouse is late on the hit and has some funky corner issues, good range, low height, better on far away jump ins, but if you can time an aaRH you might as well try and aaHP to teleport uppercut. LPs are really good for double run jabbing mid screen, they keep in tight on the opponent because you have to be closer to connect them. Sweeps have good range and recovery is the same as female ninjas. JK is good, jump punch is kinda tight and ball like, and is easily counterable. Ducking LK is quick and pointy, excellent to get out of runjabs or prevent them. Straight up JK is a great set up to cancel quickly with a teleport uppercut, just make sure it connects, and you have minimum 59% and a free invisibilty.

The Harpoon is an essential move as it is a very quick containment and relatively safe to do from full screen depending on the who the opponent it. It's great on wake ups as it seems to have a hit box infront of him before it even comes out, so you will see the Harpoon simply appear beyond the opponent and already snag them without warning. You can try doing a three hit combo and then throw out a harpoon afterwards for mix ups on jumpy players. It can be linked in juggle combos with a normal limit of 4 hits before it, and can be broken to 5. It can counter many simple standing attacks for free, if you block them much like Sonya's leg grab (see air hyper viper beam techniques in MvC2 lol). You can also link it in the corner off his autocombo, using a just frames concept. Try: Jump in HP, HK, HK, LP, buffer the harpoon as the LP hits, nab them, then 5 hit combo, ducking LK, for 11 hits 45%. You should sometimes mix up run jabs with the harpoon, but pouring on pressure with the run jabs, pausing and letting them think they can advance, then snagging them with a harpoon as they try to counter charge you.

The Teleport Uppercut is a bit overrated on it's on, and definitely overabused by casual players, getting them into a lot of trouble. It has so many cons I will get in depth with. You should really only use this move if you link it off an anti air attack, or to punish full screen projectile turtles, in essence, any situation where you know it's going to hit and not be blockable. If you feel the need to do this move, you can use it almost like a dragon punch would be used in Street Fighter if you suspect an early jump attack by doing it as they jump and before they land, however, in any situation where you can get that, you're better off going for the aaHP first to add 6.5% there, and then you will knock them high enough to easily get another 6.5% from a second aaHP or even a third after it, or depending on the character, possibly even a JK before the harpoon. It has a strange punishment area, and sets up smaller, modified versions of normal punishers, but punishable nonetheless. If you can scout a cross up JK or JP, you can buffer the FF motion and get them in the middle of their cross up. If you're too late, it's blockable, so you might be better off going for an air throw and deal with the lower damage potential, if they don't attack, it usually misses. If it's going to connect off a juggle, it always hits from the left side, so if you counter an attack on the right and cancel it to the teleport uppercut, it hits the opponent as they are falling into it, sometimes making extra juggle hits after it easier, otherwise it will almost always come up behind opponents. You can use it to bait an air attack by jumping in and attacking early, and do it right as you would normally expect to take a standing HK, but teleport out of it's range. It's possible to still block it however, so you might want to try baiting within the range of an uppercut counter situation, because the uppercut will hold until the teleport uppercut connects. It's limit is 1 hit before hand, and breakable to two on just frames, but is hardly worth the effort. Be careful with overuse, it can be easily snuffed before leaving the screen by many moves like a LK, ducking LK, harpoon, freeze, sweep, uppercut if it's used as a fake out from the air, etc. Even after it leaves the screen on the way back up it can be snuffed with a ducking LK or a well timed uppercut, by specific characters only I believe, like Stryker. You can time a ducking LK to miss and avoid being hit by it completely and counter it as well. This is a nasty trick to use against a Robot Smoke player who goes for it as a last hit of chip damage kill, to beat them specifically.

Invisibility is great. It's kind of self explanitory, you're invisible, you're
opponent cannot see you, it makes it harder to attack you and a lot of times it will make the other person do risky attacks merely to get you to appear Know where you are on screen, know how to set up certain attacks, know when it's safe to use. The recovery time isn't much, but regardless, it's pointless to try it if you're going to get hit immediately. You can do it anytime you connect a spear between that and the combo, after a roundhouse, or an uppercut. It's good to do after uppercuts because many times people will see it happen and immediately go to hit you with a jumping attack, and this sets up big damage. Be invisible as often as possible.H

His air throw has the biggest range of all the air throws in the game. It can stop an asteroid. Use it on cross attempts, it's not quite as useful in sweep situations as Jax or Kano's, but the extra large radius helps him a lot. It is nearly impossible to beat out an air throw happy Smoke player in the air. It's good to link in combos because it does a lot of damage, about twice that of Kano's, aaHP, JK air throw does a little more damage than aaHP, harpoon, 5 hit combo, so in situations where the aaHP, JK, air throw is possible, go for that instead, it also sets up more tactical situations in your favor, and the air throw has a certain level of psychological advantage to it.

Basic Juggles:
1. JK, teleport uppercut, aaHP, spear, HP, HP, LK, HK, LP 9 hits 37%
2. teleport uppercut, aaHP, spear, HP, HP, LK, HK, LP 8 hits 47%

Advanced Juggles
1. aaHP, teleport uppercut, aaHP, spear, HP, HP, LK, HK, LP 9 hits 54% (59% with Straight Up JK, 63% with a JK)
2. aaHP, teleport uppercut, aaHP, JK, air throw 5 hits 58% (63% with SUJK, 67% with a JK to start)
3. aaHP, teleport uppercut, aaJK, spear, HP, HP, LK, HK, LP 9 hits 63% (68% with SUJK, 72% with JKto start)
4. aaHP, teleport uppercut, aaHP,HP, spear, HP, HP, LK, HK, LP 10 hits 60% (65% with SUJK, 69% with JK to start)
5. (in corner) PS, HK, HK, LP, spear, HP, HP, LK, HK, LP, D+LK 11 hits 45%(the spear is incredibly risky)
6. (in the corner) aaHP, teleport uppercut, JK, aaHP, spear, HP, HP, LK, HK, LP, D+LK 11 hits 71% (76% with SUJK, or 80% with a JK to start it)

Classic Sub-zero (updated 11-8-05)

Classic Sub-zero is ranked very low in competitive play, around 20, I don't have an exact number to give him, because he can of course be use skillfully and be an annoying menace due to his two containment moves, super fast, long range slide, etc. He is a defensive character, and you should focus on baiting freeze or ground freeze scenarios, but it is possible to go on offense with him and he has a few tactics here and there. Watch out on his 4 hit pop up because if you are a hair slow on it the last hit will miss leaving him hugely open. Of course don't forget he's a male ninja and has really great normals.

Male Ninja Basics moves:

The Male Ninjas have excellent basic moves, good height and range on everything in relation to their sprite proportions, their roundhouse is extra wicked and can connect in almost any situation. The only thing that can be weird about them is their aaHPs. Sometimes they tend to miss in situations where you wouldn't expect them to and this is due to kara canceling with run to speed the last hit up, in this situation, often you can do aaHP,LP and it'll work, with slightly less damage, otherwise, always take an extra small step in before doing aaHPs.

The Deep Freeze is an age old move that still has some benefits to it. It has a hit limit of 1, but breakable to 2, allowing up to 3 freezes per combo, but it's tricky timing and usually not worth it. Some characters are easier to glitch hit counter rule break than others, like the Robot Ninjas, Jax, and Stryker. You can use the freeze as an anti cross up. Scout a cross up jump kick, perhaps in a run jab situation, and run under their jump, and do the freeze as they kick, it'll freeze them in air and set up a decent combo. It's got a little more start up than unmasked Sub-zero's freeze and that hurts it a bit. The freeze is OK for zoning, watch for jumping backwards opponents and freeze as you see them jump. Often times the freeze will hit in a situation where they are physically standing on the ground but cannot block, so watch for these situations. It will look like you should do an aaHPHP combo, but really you should go for a JK starter into his pop up combo. Take note that sometimes characters can be nabbed by a freeze when ducking, especially in close range, especially Shang and Kano. If a person does a JK, block it and instantly do a freeze as soon as they hit the ground. This is uesful because it's rare a person does a jump kick and lands and doesn't continue pressure, the chance of them landing and just blocking are slim, and often time it happens more than once. This will either work almost everytime, or they will stop doing random jump kicks altogether, making them chance their strategy and psychologically giving Sub the upper hand. Sub can freeze within the amount of time it takes for them to land, and even if they block, he's relatively safe. It doesn't work quite as well as unmasked Sub-zero but still useful.

The Ground Freeze is a neat and somewhat unique move. A common tactic I see overabused is run jab, run jab, ground freeze. Sometimes the person will lock up and wind up slipping, but it's their own fault. It's always counterable, and harshly at that. You might be able to get away with this once a match, maybe even once a round if you do one early on and then late in the last match, but it's probably better to do it when they have less than 50% life left because that will be a guaranteed victory if they do manage to not avoid or counter it. You can try doing something like, 4 hit pop up, deep JK, let them hit the ground, run jab LP to get them blocking and semi stuck, ground freeze. This move also has a hit limit of 1, but breakable at 2, and it's very difficult to do for some reason. You cannot do freeze, aaHP, freeze, aaHP ground freeze because the game looks at it very mathematically. When you freeze them, you cannot ground freeze. If you already have one hit out before the freeze, and go to glitch break a second hit on the frame it connects, the game never sees them as unfrozen during the time the ground freeze would be activated, and a frame too late means the game has accepted 2 hits and locked the ground freeze. The ground freeze cannot be done if your opponent is within a certain distance from the wall with their back facing it (about a character body width), so if you are trying to do ground freezes and they aren't coming out, that might be why. The real factor here is their actualy collision box, which moves slightly back and forth during their stance, and sometimes you can let them stand there, do a ground freeze, and nothing will happen several attempts in a row, but then it will work. (just some technical data)

The Slide is good for adding damage to combos, as a wake up, but don't over abuse it, as it's easily punishable. It's the fastest of the three slides with the most range, so it's easier to link into juggle combos. Sometimes you can stick one in for free after an upper as people tend to jump away, or sticking in an extra slide after one because often times people do not anticipate a second slide. Also watch for some misbehaving frames with Kung Lao, Sonya and the Female Ninjas especially. The slide will sometimes simply not hit them at all like Nightwolf's shoulder tackle against a blocking Stryker for example, so if you have someone at danger, a slide is not always the safest route to victory. It is possible to break through the recovery of a comboer while blocking and slide inbetween hits, for example the female ninjas kick combo. It has a point of lag in the middle where you can actually go from standing block to ducking block, and if you time it right, the slide will come out here and you can beat them to their next hit. It's a great way to end a match if they are on danger, run in for a chip damage combo that will beat you, and you interrupt their last hit with a slide and win.

Classic Sub has one semi-infinite, he can relaunch: Sheeva, Robots, Kabal, Nightwolf, Kung Lao, Jax, Sub-zero, Shang Tsung, Male Ninjas, Liu Kang, Sonya, and Kano

Basic Juggles:

1. aaHP, freeze, aaHP,HP, JK, slide 5 hits 43%
2. aaHP, ground freeze, JK starter, HP, HP, D+LP, D+HP, JK, slide 9 hits 51% (try a deep JK, to standing HK at the end for 55%, might be more of an advanced juggle)

Advanced Juggles:

1. aaHP, freeze, cross up JK, standing HK 3 hits 36% (sometimes you can get a second JK for 3 hits 37%) This combo is good against characters whom you can't always basic combo #1 against due to collision boxes.
2. aaHP, freeze, aaHP, freeze, aaHP,HP, JK slide 6 hits 50%
3. aaHP, HP, ground freeze, JK starter, HP, HP, D+LP, D+HP, JK, HK 10 hits 62%

Corner Juggles:

1. freeze, (reposition if necessary) HK starter, HP, HP, D+LP, D+HP, JK, RH, run in HK 8 hits 57%
2. aaHP, freeze, aaHP,HP, JK, HK 5 hits 50%
3. aaHP, freeze, aaHP,HP, JK, RH, slide 6 hits 60% (or LK on some characters for 6 hits 65%)
4. if too close to the wall to reposition try aaHP, freeze, JK, RH, run in HK 4 hits 54% (slide or LK is good too, or a straight up JK to start, will all result in slightly lower damage)

awesome stuff again. one of the easyiest relaunchers ever.

Cool guide...it really will be usefull !

im making a come back to classic gaming on mame.. clearly mk2 was my game. i was never good at mk3/umk3. but sindel was still my girl i loved using her.. id like to see a sindel guide some time soon..

keep up the good work kungbroken!!

When I do write up Sindel it's going to be extensive, she's one of my personal favorites, along with DreemerNJ. She can do so much damage, she's almost like Ermac with some limitation on Juggling options. I'll write her up next.

Sindel (updated 11-10-05)

Sindel is ranked #9. She has easy, powerful combos, a small hittable area, an air special attack, a containment move that acts as decent anti air, and some other unique properties that I will get into later as well, but her normals are kind of lacking, generally in range. Overall what you're going to look for with her is setting up situations to abuse the Scream, jump away air fireballs can work to an extent depending on whether your opponent has a teleport or not, and some run jab game is good as well because you can get 43% (or more) on any character from a standard knee to launcher combo. Very few characters can relaunch her. The only combo you should ever go for during rush down is her HK, HP, HP D+HP combo.

Basic moves:

Her uppercut is good to counter attacks that are very much directly over her head, but it otherwise has a very narrow range to it, causing a lot of undesirable situations when you think an uppercut might be guaranteed. Particularly when they land in close range, it often times misses. Her roundhouse has reasonable height, but short on range. This makes anti air roundhouses nearly useless with her against most characters, but you can use it for a run under anti air roundhouse quite easily since it hits so close to her. If you are in a situation where you might want to use an anti air roundhouse, go with an anti air HP instead because you can link a scream, or 3 or 4, off it. Her HPs have slightly less range than some, her LPs are normal. Her HK is good anti air, as are most in MK because of the distance a character's collision box is from the hit box of the kick. Her standing LK hits about normal height, even though she's smaller than most characters. Her sweep has nice range, deceptively more than most characters, even though it may be by pixels, but so is everything else in this game. Her ducking LK is about average in terms of speed and pointiness, but she may still be open to some characters' knee combos after doing one if the second isn't timed right. Her JK is nice, but her JP is a bit close to her hittable area, she has a reasonably good cross up game with them.

The Scream is a vital part of her defense. It has some recovery time to it if it's blocked so don't throw them out too often or you'll be punished. It's an excellent anti air move and you can link many aaHPs off it if you sequence them right. Abuse it in all punisher combos. The rules for the scream are kind of strange because you can easily break it's rules based on it's own programming flaws. The standard amount of hits you can do before it without glitching it is 2, and it has no discernable time limit between uses. So that means, for example, aaHPHP scream should be the most you can do before it at once because if you do aaHP,HP,HP you cannot do a scream. If you do a single aaHP followed by a scream, the scream removes the hit from the combo counter, but still adds the damage for some reason. This means you can do as many single punch to scream repetitions as you can throw out before they are too close to the ground to juggle. If you do two aaHPs, followed by a scream, it will count and store these two hits and their collective damage as part of the full combo, but you can still do a single aaHP after these two and scream because it doesn't add another hit until two are done consecutively. The counter at this point still recognizes 2 comboed aaHPs, but the damage of 3. You can then do another single aaHP scream, or, 2 aaHPs and then the scream is disabled for the rest of your combo. By doing a single aaHP, canceling to scream when starting a punisher combo, you can easily allow yourself to following it up with 2 aaHPs after, knocking them a lot higher, and easily enabling a 4th aaHP followed by yet another scream. Remember to try and cancel the HP as soon as it hits without double scream backfiring, or canceling too late and having the scream miss, or have them land too low to abuse it more. The occurance of unorthodox hit counting is not limited to just aaHP or LP attacks, but they are the only conventional means for comboing a scream. In essence, for a standard punisher combo, anyone should be able to get aaHP, scream, aaHPHP, scream, aaHP, scream, to auto combo/juggle. An interesting note on the scream in terms of countering is that you can run into it and block it and get a full combo afterward. If you see someone do a scream you have a couple seconds to think of the best way to punisher her for it. Generally what you can do is teleport behind her and take advantage that way, but most of the time people just do a free projectile. Try running into her scream and blocking it right at the edge because it has a moving hit box, now you have a very short time to run in again and combo her.

The Firebreath is kind of slow when used normally, but after a grounded jump kick it comes out SUPER fast like Nightwolf's Arrow for example. It is not recommended to use for zoning, even though I see people try it all the time. She has a great deal of recovery and an opponent can easily see it start up, jump over it and counter her. It is pretty much only good to use if someone is jumping away and connecting it will win you the match. Using it combos is kind of pointless because as well because it would only serve to terminate what could be a better combo, and leaving her slightly vulnerable afterward, at least putting her on the defensive which is not where you want to be. A corner Scream tactic you can try that ties in with run jabs: If you go to run jab and someone while they are in the corner and they try to jump to get out of it, watch for this because you'll LP them and juggle them, after this LP, stick in a quick aaHP with the intent of canceling it to the scream, you can then easily run in and get another aaHP scream, while that scream holds them, walk backwards as they descend to allow enough room to get her pop up combo to corner juggle, resulting in possibly over 65%.

The Air Firebreath is a very useful, but also very dangerous move. Many players can easily scout when you are going to jump straight up, or jump in and fake out for an air fireball. Don't fall into this pattern because they will run under uppercut you everytime. Use it for zoning and keep away, but don't use it that much (try not to at all) against teleporting characters because it's just too easy to counter. You can use it to allow her to hover over projectiles like Sub's freeze but you have to time it right or she'll come out of the fire frames and drop just enough to touch. If you do a naked JK, sometimes you should cancel to a fireball if the JK is blocked because they will try to counter you and then get hit by it. Use it to terminate juggle combos after a JK to add a bit of extra damage, as this is standard. Anytime you anticipate a double JK scenario, try and cancel the JK as soon as it connects as if you were Kung Lao canceling to a dive kick collision situation. It is sometimes better in general usage to wait until Sindel is close to the ground before firing it to reduce her falling recovery time and also bait your opponent into running in early, expecting the air fireball at maximum height. For example, using it against Kabal, do an early jump kick, make them try and spin you, and cancel the JK with a fireball, beating Kabal's spin.

Flight is a unique move to UMK3/MKT. It is subsequently useless in nearly all tactical situations except as a taunt. The flight , if intended to actually get her in air to fly around and do air fireballs has so much start up before you can move, and so much vulnerability when you get there still, it really is pointless to even try in a match. What you can do with it is, perform the motion, then instantly cancel it with block before she even leaves the ground. It makes a woosh sound and she sort of dances in place, and has a profound psychological effect on the other player. She can also instantly block pretty much any attack and it makes your opponent rush in so there is no risk at doing this, and sets them up for a decent possible counter if they do rush in blindly. You can perform multiple flight cancels in a row by doing B, B, F, HK/BL/HK/BL/HK/BL. Don't do this too much because that means you're not attacking and attacking is the goal here. Another use for the flight is to extend corner combos by linking aaHPs off it and stopping the push back or "ice skate" in the corner. This is an extremely difficult skill to perform with her, and adds only a few percent to a corner combo if you do it once, and it has to be done perfectly to do it over and over. It is not advised.

Sindel has one real infinite, made famous by DreemerNJ, which is the previously mentioned and notorious "Flight Cancel" infinite. It is performed by doing an aaHP, or LP, canceling with her flight move the instant it hits, and then doing another aaHP or LP. It is incredibly difficult. Test it out and you will realize even 2 volleys of this infinite can be annoying to get at times, 3 is pretty much the limit as far as I've heard anyone get except DreemerNJ.

Sindel can relaunch infinite Sheeva, Kung Lao, unmasked Sub-zero, Jax, Nightwolf, Kabal, Cyrax, Sektor, and Robot Smoke. Her relaunch sometimes requires crazy timing. You have to pause very slightly before jumping after the launcher and wait until the very last instant before they hit the ground to relaunch them, often times it will look like it's going to miss, but it will connect. It's easier to mash out her 3 hit pop up right after, but it's also possible, and stylish, to stick in her HK before the second launcher combo.

Basic juggles:

1. punch starter, HK, HP, HP, D+HP, JK, air fireball 7 hits 50%
2. aaHPHP, scream, HK, HP, HP, D+HP, JK, air fireball 8 hits 54%

Advanced Juggles:

1. punch starter, HK, HP, HP, D+HP, aaHP, JK, air fireball, 8 hits 53% (you can substitute aaHP,HP on Jax, Stryker, Sub-zero, Kano, Nightwolf, the Robots, etc for 9 hits 56%, with reasonable reliability, and most characters whom it is sometimes difficult to get two aaHPs, you can easily get two aaLPs, for 55%)
2. (for a standard mid screen punisher combo) aaHP, scream, aaHP,HP, scream, aaHP, scream, HK, HP, HP, D+HP, aaHPHP, JK, air fireball 11 hits 73%.

In the corner you can get multiple scream and HP combinations resulting in very close to 100% damage, and it is very much worth learning. You can try her flight cancel infinite but it is not recommended.

Super advanced corner combo:

1. HK, HP, HP, D+HP, JK, aaHP, flight cancel, aaHP, flight cancel, JK, air fireball 9 hits 54% (doing a little more than ending her popup in JK, RH, run in HK, which is difficult to line up because of weak RH properties.)

Wow that amazing
I enjoyed using Sindel in UMK3
If you have anytime can you make a Kitana Guide thanks :)

Brilliant! Sindel's my new bitch

Yeah, that was a very detailed and well explained guide - and I don't even like Sindel...

OK Kitana will be next, it's easier than random selecting until I get someone I haven't done yet. Thanks for the feedback guys, I really enjoyed writing up the Sindel guide because she's one of my best and favorite characters.

Sweet, in the past year or so Sindel has emerged as one of my favorite characters to use. I will enjoy trying to incorporate some of this stuff into my strategy (except the flight cancel infinite lol).

I suck with Kitana so I'm looking forward to seeing some strategy for her.

Excellent thread! Cheers to everyone involved in making the guide.

Im very glad you did Stryker and Nightwolf because they are so underrated (gameplay wise speaking). People tend to ignore their effective attacks because they classify them as the “worst” mk characters ever since they debuted in Mk3 (though thanks to MKD Nightwolf has a bigger fan base).

I didnt know Mileena was the worst of the 3 female ninjas, but I did know she was a low tier character. For some reason the female ninjas werent as powerful in this game as they were in their MK2 days, Jade has to be the best though, I cant see how Kitana can beat her game play wise.

Im really looking forward to a Sonya guide. Please do Sonya next! I think there are some strategies I dont know about her that could be useful, she has some crazy speed and does excellent damage, cant wait to see your guide.