Guide - Hellfire Ninjutsu Scorpion Guide

Scorpion's Ninjutsu variation gains the use of two unique Ninjato swords. Those not only give Scorpion a variety of exclusive strings, but some of them have extended range and pushback on block as well. The Ninjutsu variation also has armor breaking moves, which can be used to destroy wakeup attacks that makes the use of meter to escape.

1. Best Normals and Strings
2. Specials
3. Strategies

1. Best Normals and Strings

1.2 Pokes

D4
Hit level: Low.
Description: Fast startup low profille move, and works as a great trade against characters who are charging in with highs or mids.

D3
Hit level: Low.
Description: A great counter-poking tool that opens for other options after sucessfully hits, grants some good advantage.

D1
Hit level: Mid.
Description: Faster Startup, but punishable on block, although grants some good advantage on hit, this normal can be a little bit situational.

1.3 Normals

B2
Hit level: Mid.
Description: Command Launcher, with great anti-air uses or as a whiff punishing tool
Variation changes: Better room for juggles, longer active frames, extended reach due the hitbox expansion, however still punishable on block.

F2
Hit level: Mid, Mid.
Description: Command Launcher, with great anti-air uses, whiff punishing tool or armor breaking
Variation Changes: Exchanges the overhead propriety for fast multi-hit mid attacks, which when well applied it can break armor even on wakeups. On correct ranges can be made pseudo-safe against some characters, first hit is special cancelable.

B3
Hit Level: Low.
Description: low starter with fast startup and a decent range, grants a combo when canceled with spear or ex teleport.

F3
Hit level: Mid
Description: Mid hitting advancing normal, great whiff punish tool in general, specially against specials or normals where other scorpion's move wouldn't generally reach, it can also be used to punish landing attacks after they whiff coming from airbone.

F4
Hit level: Overhead
Description: It has a slow startup, small cancel advantage but grants a teleport or spear on hit

B4
Hit level: Low
Special Propriety: Armor Breaking, extended range.
Description: a sweep attack that grants a knockdown on hit with extended range on Ninjutsu. Its also very fast at double hitting even when max ranged, very effective to brake fast advancing armored specials.

NJ 1 or 2 (NJP)
Hit level: Overhead on the way down, Mid on the way up
Description: In ninjutsu, the NJP has more range, which can be used in extended combos.

1.4 Notable Strings

2, 1, 2
Hit levels: High, mid, overhead.
Description: Ninjutsu ender is specific, grants a hard knockdown out of hits (Not sure if is safe on block, haven't tested yet).

B3, 2, F+2
Hit levels: Low, mid, overhead.
Description: Ninjutsu ender is specific, it grants pushback on block, and a hard knockdown on hit. Can't be special canceled with specials from second hit towards.

B+1, 2, 1
Hit levels: mid, mid mid.
Description: Ninjutsu has ender specific, a two sword slices that sends opponent's fullscreen on hit, special cancelable on first two hits.

114
Hit levels: High, mid, mid
Description: fastest combo starter, and in many cases scorpion's faster punishing string, but has a very short range.

2, 1, 4
Hit levels: High, mid, mid
Description: a great tool, with great range and fast startup, not as fast as standing 1 but close, generally scorpion combo starter in most situations

2. Specials:
2.2 Meterless Specials moves:

Teleport: Down, Back + 3 (hold down to cancel the attack or hold forward to fly away from the opponent)
Hit Levels: Mid.
Move type: Evade, Positioning, Combo filler
Description: Scorpion's teleport is a fast evading tool that works mostly as a counter reaction against fired projectiles, or to position himself on screen to punish long recovering attacks, since is a mobility tool canceling the teleport makes use of the whole stamina meter. It can also be done in air, and is an excelent combo filler

Spear: Back, Forward + 1
Hit Levels: High
Move type: Capture
Description: Scorpion's spear, travels fullscreen, it pulls opponent's closer on hit and grants a free combo even from jump in, however the recovery on whiff is very long and has a very long recovery on block as well, characters will fullscreen punishable attacks might be able to punish that, so this move is used as a combo filler most of the time.

Takedown: Back, Forward + 4
Hit Levels: Low
Move type: Knockdown
Description: Causes a soft knockdown on hit, it low profiles scorpion on startup, but is highly punishable on block, you can sometimes catch people by surprise and score this move twice.

2.3. Enhanced Special moves

Flame-Port: Down, Back+3+Block. (Hold down to cancel the attack or forward to teleport away)
Hit Levels: Mid, Mid
Movetype: Evading, Positioning, Countering, combo filler
Special Propriety: Gains armor only on wakeup
Description: As regular teleport, Flame port can also be done in air, it can be canceled at the cost of stamina, and has armor when executed as wakeup attack, different from regular teleport who can be most of an evading tool ex teleport is a counter move, generaly to punish fullscreen recovery attacks.

Dual Spear: Back, Forward+1+Block
Hit Levels: High
Move type: Capture
Special Propriety: Can be Meterburned on hit for more unbreakable damage
Description: Ex Spear comes out 3 frames more faster than regular spear, and travels faster too, when you meterburn a bar on hit, it turns into Flaming Spear which is an unbreakable move, but costs too much meter, Ex Spear is also -5 on block, so you can use it at some ranges to specifically make it more safe than already is.

Takeout: Back, Forward+4+Block
Hit Levels: Low
Move type: Takedown
Special Propriety: Has armor by default, or as wakeup
Description: Scoprion's Takeout move is his main anti-pressure move, he can wakeup with it, or interrupt tight pressure due the armor, it only grants a soft knockdown on hit.

3. Strategies

Ninjutsu Scorpion is a character with somewhat decent walkspeed, its not the slowest or the fastest either. His best fighting position is mid range, where he can make use of his B2 and F2 much better.
The further he is away from the opponent, the more reliable his anti airs become, and are very efficient to do on reaction.

Neutral Game
Ninjutsu gains the use of two ninjato swords, which increases the use of his B4, B2 and F2. He also gains a lot of exclusive strings that either give some pushback on block, or causes hard knockdown on hit.

B2 and F2 can also be used commonly as anti-air normals, and are easier to combo off it, though B2 has damage protection and all moves performed from there will scale Scorpion's Damage, but they're still good tools, in exchange for that his overall damage will be very low most of the time.

Since the threat of range becomes real in this variation, Scorpion can dare to whiff punish almost anything on screen, into a knockdown or reset, and then play the wakeup or mixup game from there. The opponent is forced to respect the air control this variation provides, and has to respect armor attack as well, by default Ninjutsu is made to cut opponent's air and armor strengths just by selecting it, which automatically forces characters to play neutral and approach Scorpion from the floor carefully.


The teleport in this variation is more of tool for escaping, Since B2 and F2 controls a lot of the screen, when the opponent manages to pass the range where those two moves are no longer a threat (generally by a quick charge in into jump or knockdown), is where you can clutch with a teleport and escape in the opposite side and regain space to play neutral again.

You can also conditioning your opponent to respect teleporting, forcing them that charging forwards is their only way in, by tele-cancel against whiffing attacks in order to get in time for a throw.When they realize you can tele-cancel into a throw, they might start crouching to whiff punish the throw, or mash a poke, this is then where you should start tele-cancel into D4 or tele-cancel into ex teleport to punish desperate attempts to counter the evasive teleport, be aware that this last tactic is not safe and can come with a cost, so use teleport sparingly and more as reacting tool rather than having out without the opponent using a long recovery frame impossible to whiff punish with B2 or F2.

Vortex in Ninjutsu variation and gameplan

When scorpion connects a B2 or a combo punish, after you recapture them with a spear is advisable to end your combos with 21~teleport, or B12~teleport, those leaves scorpion at +18 and he gets to mix between low, throw, or F2 to blow up armoring attempts to escape the vortex.

How to conceal the overhead as a vortex starter
Jump in 1 has much less hit advantage which is not linkable with F4 specially if you do it early on, you can actually use this to trick your opponent to think your doing a combo and do F4 after a Jump 1 connects and cancel with ex spear, if they block low thinking you're doing a combo the overhead hits without they noticing and restart the combo again.

Everytime Scorpion teleport hits someone, he can:

• B3~ex Spear, will hit anyone who blocks standing trying to mash armor, also B3 hits way earlier, so scorpion will be able to do a long knockdown combo after to compensate for the earlier use of the spear and a bar.
• F2 will stuff armor mashing after they get hit by the teleport setting up the vortex, make sure you measure your range to F2 them at max distances, though is still entirely matchup dependent its -11 on hit, unless they have a fast advancing 10 frame special, go ham with it. If it connects scorpion gets another combo into vortex.
• Throw serves scorpion with a untechable knockdown, which in turn allows scorpion to play against the wakeup game on his favor. since, most of the time they will block low to react to the overhead, throws will often connect due the condition of whiffing a poke and getting punished by B3 or F2 on reaction, which will take the fight to the knockdown game.

Anti-Wakeup gameplan after conditioning opponents that you can break armored wakeups

Opponent's who often fights Ninjutsu will respect the knockdown advantage if you can time your meaties well with F2 or B4, so they will blocking low as they stand without wakeup attacks, which opens for a another throw.
You can also trick them into think you're going for a throw and bait a poke to punish with F2, which in exchange force them to wakeup blocking rather than trying to press buttons.
Wakeup back dash doesn't removes the threat of F2 and they're mostly like to get it by it.

So likely every time scorpion gets an throw, you're likely to get another throw, and another, and another since they're conditioned that you can stuff their wakeup with F2 or B4 so walking forward as they get up puts into a 50-50 situation where you can either F2, throw, or bait a button pressing and whiff punish with F2

Ninjutsu variation, is highly recommendable to cover your weakness against characters you feel have a strong range game or strong air game or better yet, have strong armor tools, almost any character should fear scorpion armor breaking abilities because it can hit them before they hit scorpion.

Below are some tip-dibs to help you capitalize Ninjutsu's damage on nearly every situation with some advises of why you should take route a instead of B

Hints:
~: cancel into specials or normals
MO - Mixup oportunity: indicates that scorpion has the option to throw, B3 starter, overhead or F2 to stuff armor.
OCO: Overhead Concealing Oportunity, indicates that after a spear connects, scorpion can Ji1, F4~ as if is doing a combo, if the opponent is distractedly blocks low it restarts the combo without him noticing.

Punishes (w/ Resets)
B2, NJP, JK~TP, 21~spear (oco) , Ji1, 21~TP (mo)
F2, JK~TP, 21~spear (oco), Ji2, 21~TP (mo)
214~TP, 21~spear (oco), Ji2, 21~TP (Mo)
(long and mid Range): B2, B2, NJP, JK~TP, 21~spear(oco), Ji2~21~TP(Mo)
(max ranged): F2, B2, JK~TP, 21~spear (oco), Ji2, 21~TP(Mo)
214~TP, 21~spear, Ji2~F4~TP (MO)

1 bar Punishes (w/ Resets)
NJP, JK~TP; JK~ex TP, run~21~spear, Ji2~F4~TP (MO)
214~TP, 214~ex TP, run~21~spear (oco), Ji2~21~TP
B2, NJP, JK~TP F3~ex TP, run~21~spear, Ji1, 21~TP
F2, JK~TP, 214~ex TP, B3~spear, Ji1, 21~TP (

Extending damage using 1 bar, around the 39% house
214~TP, 214~ex TP, run~21~spear, Ji2~212 (Hard Knockdown)
B3~ex TP, NJP, JK~TP, 21~spear, Ji2, B121 (Fullscreen Knockdown)
B2, JK~TP, 21~spear, Ji2, B12~ex TP, run~212 (Hard Knockdown)
B2, JK~TP, 21~spear, NJP, JK~ex TP, run~212 (Hard Knockdown)

Great guide @Eddy Wang

There's a Hard Knockdown setup after B3, 2 on hit.

I like to replace 2,1 xx TP with B3, 2 for the Hard Knockdown setup.

You can go for pressure with;

OutworldKeith said:

Great guide @Eddy Wang

There's a Hard Knockdown setup after B3, 2 on hit.

I like to replace 2,1 xx TP with B3, 2 for the Hard Knockdown setup.

You can go for pressure with;

B1, 2, 1
B3
F4
F2​

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Yes the hard knockdown might give you slightly more damage, but the opponent would have more wakeup options, is much easier to manage when you disable them.

OutworldKeith said:

Don't get me wrong 2,1 xx TP is still the top option. However, this setup is geared more toward the meaty F4 option. It's also something fresh if the opponent knows the normal vortex ender.

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yes that is true

Eddy Wang said:

yes that is true

Click to expand...

I noticed on some of the combos you do ji1 instead of ji2 like in the B2 combo under punishers. Any reason you do ji1 over ji2? I understand you do ji1 if you want to hide the f4 option but you have it under ji1, 21~teleport into running your mixup

lslick said:

I noticed on some of the combos you do ji1 instead of ji2 like in the B2 combo under punishers. Any reason you do ji1 over ji2? I understand you do ji1 if you want to hide the f4 option but you have it under ji1, 21~teleport into running your mixup

Click to expand...

no drop factor issued, jump 2 can whiff without much practice.

Any 1 bar ninjutsu combos that are 40% or higher?

Eddy Wang said:

no drop factor issued, jump 2 can whiff without much practice.

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That's good to know. So what is the ideal combo to do when you do the overhead? SInce you didn't mention them in your punishers and stuff. Would it be the same as the low you have mentioned on top?

lslick said:

That's good to know. So what is the ideal combo to do when you do the overhead? SInce you didn't mention them in your punishers and stuff. Would it be the same as the low you have mentioned on top?

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Its reading dependable, if you land a overhead you will want to connect with ex teleport for a max damaging reset again like: F4~ex tp, jk~tp, 21~spear...

But if your F4 gets blocked this will put you at risk, so its advisable to land a F4 into ex spear, which you get to still do a damaging combo with a NJP as a juggle launcher, but you will remain safe in case they block it since is -5 on block.

Afromane said:

Any 1 bar ninjutsu combos that are 40% or higher?

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No sort of but it he gives away from the mind game for it, Ninjutsu does very little damage and is more reliant of opening opponents defenses by either make the fear the F2 punish or take the throw multiple times, to a point they feel shut and start doing things you will want to punish, like jumping, whiffing normals on the screen etc, you just have to capitalize your damage.

If you work with Resets he gets mostly 25%, if you want do go nasty he can get to 39%

I've been waiting for a ninjutsu thread to open where i could compare strats with others:
For anti-airs I use b2 (for back jumps), 1 (for neutral), and njp for jump ins.
For whiffs, I use f3, f2, b2, and b3.
For combos, I find that it does not matter what you do, so long as you ex db3 (if you decide to spend meter, but in most cases you won't get that more damage, so it might just be better to save it, unless you put them in kill range for your following mix up) before spear, and after spear you either do a njp (for same side) or cross up punch (to switch sides). Never end ground combos in db3 because cancelling into bf4 tends to add a little more damage. I end my combos with b3,2,1 to corner them, b3,2,f2 for f2 set ups (basically a vortex between f2 and throw on their wake up), f4/b3 for mix ups, and since f4 is confirmable, it's worth it to mention that you can confirm a practically unbreakable f4 confirmed 40% x-ray to seal the deal, 212 leaves them just outside of b2 range, you can kill any jump or dash they attempt to commit to, and if they whiff, you can move forward and punish, and 114xbf4 for damage and 214 for f2 set up.

1,2,3 has a lot of combo potential and may turn out to be where he gets some of his biggest damage. You can cancel the last hit into teleport and follow up with a njp into a jump in kick canceled teleport. That alone does about 29%. I think 123xdb3-jikxdb3 = 27%. Using an ex teleport and the comboing into spear might get us close to 40%. It's kind of tuff to land, so I'm still practicing it.

I find that when I throw f2 out, people either try to start spacing it or jump over it (which is surprisingly easy for them), so I abuse d3, and follow up with f2 or a grab on hit. If blocked, I'll either cancel my run into a grab, or walk back to bait a whiff, but after an opponent blocks f2 or d4, they can pretty much get in free because of your disadvantage. The preamtive d3 normally will catch that and give you back the advantage, if they start walking up and blocking, start throwing, but I find it best to pertend like you don't have long range moves and walk in and out of your opponents ranges because you can react to pretty much all their options. They jump, njp. They whiff, f2 or b2 (for longer ranges). Walk forward, d4. Walk back, walk forward. It's even scarier with os because we can get free spears off of b3.

Even though f4-b3 aren't a true vortex, ninjutsu has f2 and throw. F2 can blow up reversals 11 frames or more which forces most opponents to block on wake up allowing you to go for a running grab, which they can't react to. Both cases can lead to a knockdown where you can f2, though after a throw you have to run immediately to f2 in time, but it's great because when you want to grab, you can just continue to run.

If you want to do a lot of damage in any variation go for the defaullt starter
214~tp, 214~extp, run~21~spear this put scorpion on the house of +30%, any of your combo enders by there will get to 39%

I played against a Goro offline and I hated seeing two bars on his side of the screen. Cause I knew if I landed any combo when he was in the corner, he would just break it when I teleport mid-combo which forces you in the corner. =[ =[ =[... Also I think B2 and F2 are really great honestly. Those two normals really make the opponent wary of doing anything punishable from a distance. It helps so much to control the pace of the match. That along side with his teleport as well. Granted yeah he doesn't get much if he goes for a reset, but if he spends a bar and doesn't care for the reset, it seems to do good damage. And this is coming from a Sonya main who knows Sonya can't pump out damage 35% midscreen without a jump-in, using a bar for parry in C.O only, using 3 bars for X-Ray, or losing any advance once she uses leg grab as an ender. I think the people in the GD are undervaluing those normals along with B4

@Hollywood DMS this thread also got affected by the patch, it was expected anyway, so i would like you to please go ahead and close it too. A Ninjutsu Guide 2.0 will be in works once i gather more field data about it.