How to Beat The Computer EVO PS2 & be Champion (with Lei Fei)

I got Evo for my PS2 the week it came out and I've been trying to perfect my technique on it for some time. Unfortunately, I still don't have all the items and I still haven't beaten all the quest orders.

I HAVE managed to master the A.I., however. Once you're menially proficient with Lei Fei, and you put the techniques I'll show here into practice, you'll be able to kick any ass in Quest, and become a Champion, Shaolin Style.

Let's begin...




Whatcha' gotta' know right off the bat is that while the A.I. in Evo is very predictable, it also learns your behavior throughout a match. If you used the Tiger Stance reversal 4 times in the first round, it won't fall for it very soon again. It's good to note that if you lose and you challenge the same A.I. again, he won't remember the series you used on him.

It'll learn, but it learns in a way that you can anticipate, and that's called programming. Hah.

That being said, here are flows that the A.I. will fall for, and can be reliably counted on to win:

1) CRANE STANCE / HAI SHIKI FLOWS:
Crane Stance and Hai Shiki are very complimentary stances, and many effective flows will move back and forth between the two.


a) sudden snap kick
(Hai Shiki) - (Crane) - ++ - (Hai Shiki) - *

b) the kneeling sweep + palm strike combo
(Hai Shiki) - - (Crane) - /+ - (Crouching) * - (counter) ++ (Crane) - = gorgeous

c) Crane kicks
(Hai Shiki) - - (Crane) - * (wait) - * = nice!

d) Crane uber kick series (I love this one):
(Normal/Hai Shiki) - - (Crane) - ++ - (Hai Shiki) - * - (Crane) - - (wait) - *

e) Crane throw opening
(Normal/Hai Shiki) - - (Crane) - (Normal) - (throw)

2) NEHAN SHIKI / TIGER STANCE FLOWS
Like Dokuritsu & Hai Shiki, these two stances flow well to each other, but just as easily to Normal Stance. Note that from only Tiger Stance (and Normal Stance), all other stances can be accessed:

TIGER:
= Normal Stance
= Hai Shiki
= Crane Stance
= Nehan Shiki

a) punch series to throw
+ - (Nehan Shiki) - +* - (throw)

b) Tiger to punch series
(Normal) - + - (Tiger Stance) - - (Nehan Shiki) - +* - (throw)

d) punch series to Tiger
(Normal) - + - (Nehan Shiki) - +* - (Normal) - +* - (Tiger Stance)

d) the sudden crane
(Normal) + - (Tiger) - - (Nehan Shiki) - ++ - (Crane)
follow with Crane Kicks, the Crane combo, or kneeling sweep + palm strike

e) the sudden Hai Shiki
+ (or) - (Tiger Stance) - - (Nehan Shiki) - ++ - (Hai Shiki)
follow with +, or good 'ol for a counter-hit.

3) GUARANTEED COUNTERS
Because the A.I. is so predictable, this can be exploited with near-guaranteed counter hits, and high-damage combos. Probable counter hits are denoted in the above flows with a (*). It's important to note that none of my combos are in any way reliant on foot position or weight. They'll always work, on everyone.

a) multi-strike counter combo
(Normal) - - (Hai Shiki) - - (counter - float)) - ++ - (Hai Shiki) - + - (Normal) +


b) low palm strike counter
The second strike of this series is easiest to use after a move (like the sweep from Crane) that leaves you in a crouching position.
- (Crouching) - - (counter - stomach crumple) - ++ - (Crane) -

c) the Tiger reversal
it's rediculous how much the A.I falls for this
(Normal) - - (Tiger) - - (sabaki) - (Normal) - +



4) NECESSARY MOVES
There's a few moves I insist you master a feeling for, as they are invaluable in defeating the A.I.

#1: Multi-Strike
(Normal) -
Even when only the last strike of this move hits, you're practically guaranteed a counter with from Hai Shiki. Excellent after a techroll.

#2: Floating Palms
(Normal) -
A bread-and-butter combo starter, and effective with forced choice tactics if you leave the last off. Also good following a techroll.

#3: The Crane Low Kick
(Crane) -
Know & love this move. You want to have its distance down pat.

#4: Flying Kick
(Normal) -
With sick speed & range, this unexpected kick can often be the last gorgeous strike of a fight. Also good after techroll.

#5: Falling Kick
(Normal) - +
Perfect for recovering opponents.

#6: The Devil's Shadowless Doublepalm
(Normal) - +
Become proficient enough to reverse 4 of Lau's punch barrages in one round. Also wonderful against Aoi, and good after techrolls.

#7: Snap Kick
(Hai Shiki) -
Become proficient in sitting across the ring in Hai Shiki, waiting for your opponent to come in and snapping them into the air on a counter hit.

#8: Buddha's Palm
(Normal) -
The distance-giver.

#9: Low Palm
(Crouching) -
The stomach-crumpler.

#10: Scissor Kick
(Crane) -
People rarely expect the scissor kick out of nowhere. Practice quickly switching to Crane.

#11: Tiger Sabaki
(Tiger) -
You can defeat Sarah 100% of the time by simply backing off and ing into Tiger Stance. She'll come in with a mid or high kick, you reverse + repeat.



5: EFFECTIVE ROUND-OPENERS
Some moves are particularly effective for starting rounds. Here are mine.

a) (Normal) - +
It'll evade high and mid attacks and give you a head crumple. What more do you want?

b) (Normal) - +
A standard on fights with Lau + Aoi.

c) (Normal) - +
Often faster than your opponent's attack, it's always nice to open with a combo.

d) (Normal) -
They go high, you go low.

e) (Normal) -
Back off and give me some room!

f) (Normal) - +
Great against Sarah.

g) (Normal) - + - ++
Evades low attack, full revolution move, and gives you time to move to Crane Stance - lovely.



6: THE COMBOS
Everyone needs some standard combos. Here's mine. Remember to forget about foot position + weight.

a) Crane stagger
The old standby is only effective against A.I. 4'th Dan and Lower in Evo.
(Crane) - - (Hai Shiki) - - (Crane) - ++ - (Hai Shiki) - + - (Normal) - +

b) highlevel Crane stagger
At fifth Dan & Above, you'll want to switch to this:
(Crane) - - (Hai Shiki) -

c) lowlevel slam stagger
Below fifth Dan, you can rely on this stagger:
(Normal) - - (stagger) - ++ - (Hai Shiki) - - (float) - ++ - (Hai Shiki) - + - (Normal) - +

d) float your boat
Sweet bread-and-butter high-damage combo.
(Normal) - - (float) - +

e) Multi-Strike counter
As listed in the Guaranteed Counters section...
(Normal) - - (Hai Shiki) - - (counter - float)) - ++ - (Hai Shiki) - + - (Normal) +

f) palm to stomach, feet to face 1
(Normal) - - (Crouching) - - (counter) - ++ - (Crane) -

g) palm to stomach, feet to face 2
(Crane) - + - (Crouching) - - (counter) - ++ - (Crane) -

h) WHAM
(Normal) - + - +

i) Tiger Sabaki
(Tiger Stance) - - (Normal) - +

j) in your face
(Normal) - + - +

k) Hai Shiki wall
(Hai Shiki) - + (wall stagger) - (Normal) - + -

l) Bokutai wall
(Bokutai) - (wall) - (Normal) - + -

m) Tiger punch wall
(Tiger Stance) - (sabaki) - (Normal) - - (wall) -

n) hip-check wall
(Normal) - + (wall) - (Tiger) - - (Nehan Shiki)

o) high snap-kick floater wall
(Hai Shiki) - - (high float) - ++ - (Hai Shiki) - (wall) - (Crane) - -

p) high wall bounce
(Normal) - (high wall) - + - (Crane) - - - (Normal) -

q) wall extra down
(Hai Shiki) - (counter) - ++ - (Hai Shiki) - + - (Normal) - + - (wall) -

r) float your boat wall extra
- + (wall) - (Tiger) -



7: YOUR OPPONENTS
Here's some basic advice for fighting each character.

LAU: Will often fall for (Hai Shiki) - counter-hits, Tiger Stance reversals and good 'ol +.

SARAH: Two words: Tiger Stance.

KAGE: Will often fall for Tiger Stance reversals, but is especially weak to effective Crane Stance/Hai Shiki flows.

VANESSA: Hates Tiger Stance.

AKIRA: Throw the whole book at him. , (Crane) - , Tiger Reversals, and certainly the Crane Stance reversal are excellent.

LION: is a must for someone who stays so low. Don't be afraid to get him in a counter hit with (Hai Shiki) -

SHUN: Shun can be hard because he has many evasive moves and stances. Remember he often keeps his center of gravity low, and he's the only character I'll use (Hai Shiki) - + on.

PAI: Pai is a Fei nightmare because of her sick speed. She's hard to Sabaki, but good Crane/Hai Shiki flows will conquer her.

BRAD: Brad is relatively easy as a Fei. He's slow enough to reverse easily, and counter hits are often easy.

GOH: Goh is only slightly harder than Brad, because he has a very strong stagger game. Like Akira, throw the whole gauntlet at him.

AOI: Aoi is never a huge issue. Remember she uses tons of punches, so it's never hard to get her in the Crane Stance reversal, or plain 'ol +.

JEFFY: Big and slow, the only thing you have to worry about with Jeffy is those damned throws and his two-handed strikes.

WOLF: Like Jeffy, Wolf is easily reversed and countered. Just beware of his sickly damagine close game.



8) IN CLOSING....

When I first got Evo I thought the A.I. in it was wayyyy too hard. After enough months of playing it, I can say it does not take a master to achieve Champion rank.

It just takes the above skillz and tezznikke.

Thanks for your time.

-Shaolin Tao

 

That's the most well thought out VS. CPU post I recall reading. I'm so used to seeing "dude, just an' you'll win all the time."

I like it.

 

In original vf4 for ps2 i got about 670 straight wins doing:

+, ,

 

Soylent Green is... people!

I wish this worked on people too. /versus/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

In VF4 with Vanessa, I got 100 straight wins with +(charge),++

 

Jeffry's is terribly abusable in Quest mode...especially the last two arcades. Though the move is slow, typically the cpu with just block it and since it leaves Jeff at a slight advantage on block, the cpu will usually fuzzy and guard the next one. On open or partially open stages, the RO is automatic & requires only that you wear out the or microswitch on your joystick. In closed stages, throw out the kick and watch for the fuzzy...if they are ducking by the time you need to hit , then low throw...otherwise just kick them again and see if you get it this time. Ridiculous.

I feel dirty now.

 

There's a lot of series that the computer continually eats.

Here's some off the top of my head:
playing Lei: +(CPU blocks), +

playing Akira: +, ++, SDE, DbPm
(cpu never escapes the catch followups)

CPU also never escapes groundthrows, so any pseudocombo with wolf, goh etc ending in a damaging ground throw is a good bet.

 

also never escapes low throws.

 

Re: Soylent Green is... people!

[ QUOTE ]
Allyourbase said:

I wish this worked on people too. /versus/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Me too. The AI is too easy compared to human players. /versus/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

Re: Soylent Green is... people!

ShaolinTAO's advice really should be sticked or put on the lei fei page.

 

Nice! Good stuff for those who are having trouble with the AI in general!

Just adding my two cents.

The monk's IN stance counter works surprisingly often even up to the Hero rank. Just be sure to use it only on those whose move list composes of mainly high hand attacks. I actually defeated one of the Akira Heros (I think there is two...can't remember right now) by using only IN stance counter! lol

Just dance around with DM, Evade stances ect...pop an IN here and there and it will work most of the time! Also, I can't remember if it was in this post or another, but yeah, stance cancelling is definately the way to go with Lei Fei...never ending flow options with this guy... /versus/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Would not reccomend this strategy against humans...for obvious reasons... /versus/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

Ja.

 

Re: Soylent Green is... people!

[ QUOTE ]
Valdimiar said:

ShaolinTAO's advice really should be sticked or put on the lei fei page.

[/ QUOTE ]

Definitely. He is a true pioneer. Simple whoring tactics are for sissies.