Very very new...

[esgallad]

Hi there!

My internet persona is esgallad. I have a PS3, and recently bought SCV and it's great!
I've never played a Soul Calibur game, ever. I think I missed out on many things, and I'm hoping to put dedication towards this game to make up some lost time. I've never played much fighting games either, but I really want to dig deep into this one. I apologize if there are some things I need clarifications for.

As of now, I've raced through the story mode and grown attached to Patroklos. I played a couple of people online, but I'm not that great. I did manage to beat Legendary Souls at a rather unimpressive 26 minutes. I really like Patroklos, but I also want to try other characters.

This is particularly why I join 8wayrun. I was brought here by a friend who said that the community is very friendly and helpful, and I would like some assisstance in improving my game.

As of now, I'm very interested in playing Hilde, but looking through her move list, it's rather overwhelming. If it's not too much to ask, can any Hilde players hold my hand a little, and give me the basics?

I apologize for the lengthy introduction. Thanks for your time.

 

[CarteBlanche]

I'm not a serious Hilde player, but maybe I can help anyway.
One of her big strengths is , it leads to a combo and you should practice that combo first. The combo uses charged moves and to perform it you actually need to do [] (press B first, then A, and hold them both.)
What's great with this move is that the motion makes you sidestep, and after a very short delay, the will still work. It means that you can evade a vertical and punish it with this move, which leads to a combo.

To use that properly you need to learn how to sidestep.
In general, when one of your attacks was blocked, the other player will answer with an attack of their own. That's when you sidestep in anticipation and hope that you successfully sidestep a vertical attack. If it was successful, you can simply press B and launch them for a combo.
Beware that if you sidestep all the time like that, good opponents will adapt and use more horizontal attacks to beat your sidestep, so don't be too predictable.


Some other moves...
is a good long range poke. If you do , the third will be evaded or crouched under by good opponents unless was a counter hit, in which case all 3 s are guaranteed to hit because it's a Natural Counter Combo (NCC). So learn to recognize that.

is a typical guard crush attack. It means that even if it's blocked, you gain frame advantage, so if both you and the opponent try to attack after that, your attack will most likely beat theirs.

[] (fully charged) is another guard crush move.

or is a mixup... it's actually not so great because both options can be fuzzy guarded because the mid comes out later than the low, but 99% of the players won't know that.
or is another canned mixup. It's my personal go-to move whenever I lack imagination.

[] leads to a combo and it's great if you manage to catch an enemy vertical attack with it. It's difficult to use, but if you learn how the attack works, it might be worth a try when your opponent is abusing a certain string that this attack could beat.
For example Hilde's , the second can be intercepted by fully charged , which gives you a free combo. Try it in training mode with the record command.

will net you some free damage against people who can't recognize that move.

is a good enough move to throw out there. It's slightly unsafe but it's not the end of the world. It's a NCC, so if the first hit is a counter hit, the second hit is guaranteed.

is a nice low poke when you're in close range if you don't quite want to throw. It's also a good move whenever the other character is on the ground and close to you.
is the same thing but meant to be used at further range.
is yet another poke. The animation should be self explanatory. Beware that the range is actually quite poor, so if you use it from too far away, you won't hit them, so I would not try to use this attack too many times...


Other than that you obviously have your charged moves. Personally I'm not a fan of them so I almost never use them outside of combos.
Just a quick note about charged level 3, the move list tells you to press B during hit... it's a dumb typo from those who made the game. You're supposed to press , so just spam during the animation and it will work.

 

[esgallad]

An amazingly informative post!
I thank you dearly, and I will definitely put this information to great use.

Thank you kindly.

 

[CarteBlanche]

You're welcome!

 

[Asodimazze]

Welcome!