Secret Techniques of Koen-ken: Lau's Top 10 Moves

Figured we needed a place to start listing our top 10 lists.

I never played Lau in the other iterations of VF, so I'm coming into this without much previous experience with his movelist and its evolution over the generations. With that fact, my list will probably evolve over time, so I'll probably post here periodically with new lists as my experience expands. Explanations for your choices would also be greatly appreciated; lists without context don't really help anyone. So anyways, in no particular order:

1. ()
– 14 frame mid, +7 on ch, kokei-cancel, feels really easy to hit check on ch, though I usually prefer to just go for a throw or OM instead of risking whiffing the high followup. Pretty much anything that goes into Kokei feels powerful to me. The stance seems really strong aside from its lack of a low that isn't part of another string.

2. Kokei +
– Right now it feels like I can beat anything with this move. Blows through rising attacks, and seems to just be there to beat out other moves. Makes people respect Kokei, which in turn allows you to catch people stand guarding with Kokei +. 17 start-up, only -3 on block, and there's a ton of way to set it up.

3.
– This feels like the Ryu cr.mk of Lau's movelist; insane reach and the disadvantage on block is negligible when considering it used with proper spacing. The high follow-up can stuff certain things and leads into Kokei if you want it, and if that weren't enough you can delay the p followup to track the opponent's evade.

4. +
– Is a staple of Lau's pressure, it's special mid, launches on ch for great damage, can launch on normal hit if you use the risky + follow-up, and the follow-up is +1 on block, meaning you can reset your pressure without taking too great of a risk. The only drawback is the 20 frame start up, but that doesn't really hurt this move too bad considering all of its benefits.

5. While rising
– Another move that seems to stuff counterattacks relentlessly, relatively safe, fast, beats 2p and rising attacks, and wallsplats for + combos. Good for tricky stuff too, like crouch backdashing at the round opening, waiting to see if the opponent throws something and then hitting the as Lau starts to stand.

6. +
– A full circular that executes in 20 frames, -2 on block, and leads into kokei mixups, an essential tool for Lau's wakeup game as it can beat rising attacks when timed properly, and is just great for oki in general.

7. +
– I think most people tend to go for the throw escape against Lau as most of his damaging throws can be escaped this way, so this throw tends to get through a lot. Throws the enemy to the ground to Lau's side, setting up a free () follow up leading to side turn pressure. From here you can go for the side throw, Kokei stance, guard break, etc etc. Any sort of guaranteed side turned pressure is really powerful in this game.

8. +
– Awesome Koen-ken claw strikes. Think he got this move in VF4Evo. It's a double mid with good range, pretty quick, full circular, and leaves you in a back-turned state. I like using it for oki and out of strings against evade-happy foes. I'm still really unsure of what good options are from the back-turned position following this move, but and from this state execute in 10 frames and this move leaves you at +9 on ch, so these seem like fine options against disrespectful opponents.

9. ++
– Lau's high guard break; not Akira fast, but still good if you catch your opponent being overly respectful. Free combo afterwards.

10.
– In the walled stages, especially the ones with the wall right behind you at the start of the round, this move is a terror. 17 frame start up, mid, -6, and if you wall stagger with this you get to enjoy a free 100+ damage wall combo. The -6 might seem kinda bad, but the push back on this move makes it feel safer than the frame data would imply.

 

Thank you, I also surpise with 66k which has ok range and send them flying for possible ringout.

 

What are his best moves from his kokei stance?

 

crumples your opponent when the front dash?

 

This move is only half circular, gotta dodge to Lau's back

 

Yup, you're totally right Chibitox. At them time I wrote this, I had only started using the move and thought it was full circular when it wasn't. Will edit that right away, thanks for pointing it out to me.

To feel the byrne: I think most of his moves in kokei are pretty amazing. The ones I used the least were probably :k: and :. I dislike Lau's somersault kick in general, and : I usually only went for to try and land the hit throw from it for style points. I feel like his strongest options from kokei are: k: (really hard to beat, pretty safe), :kg: :k: (for when they start side stepping k:, : (launcher).

 

I'd like to know his options, too

 

Use his to keep people honest. It's FAST and leads to big combos.

Once they're honest they'll start doing things like evading and guarding. And this REALLY opens up your options.

If they evade you can do or . Both will stop evaders given you have enough advantage. (Low advantage can be ECD to avoid your options.)

I don't rely on the full circular heavily though, it is rather slow. I'd say there's two types of evaders. Those who evade and attack, and those who evade and wait.

If someone likes to evade and attack. Do a quick dash up . Either you'll catch their failed evade, or you'll CH them out of their attack.

Did I mention that Kokei stance dash is AMAZING?! It DUCKS UNDER high attack. USE IT!

If someone likes to evade then guard a quick kokei dash + guard break. This can be especially dangerous near the wall where it can lead to huge combos. (Kokei > > wall combo).

Lastly, if you manage to go into Kokei at a disadvantage or very small advantage, use Kokei , it ducks high attacks. Or if you manage to be slightly out of elbow range, use kokei . It'll beat jabs and elbows if they're slightly out of range and give you a CH into combo (dash up > ).

Also. Kokei . It's slow but really good for making them guess when your gonna stop. If you hit a crouching opponent with the first it'll stagger, and you can stop there and apply pressure, or if you hit them with kokei while they're staggering it'll give you a small float where you can do something like . You can delay the string a large amount too. If they guard the first one, delay the second and get a CH, the third is guaranteed for a combo.

This post was probably long and confusing, but I hope it helps. And I don't even use the Kokei , hit throw. Maybe someone else found a use for it, but I dislike it.

 

It is a pretty good meaty if you set it up right but thats all i can think of

 

thanks a lot, it was really helpful

 

Yeah, I saw a couple videos a while ago where a Lau player would do the 33 + feint into kokei after a knockdown, then meaty with 6 + . I'm not exactly sure what his logic was though since I never understood the value of the move besides the nice damage when the throw connects, and I figure that the feint would make the opponent want to block. I dunno.

 

kokei 6p has more reach than 3p does. After k+g, 3p will whiff against a neutral opponent, but 6p will hit. Lau's backturned game also allows you to keep the initiative (somewhat).

BT 9k will make a lot of moves whiff, it's not as good as it was in vanilla, but it's still nice to use. BT p and k are 10 frames, so you can force the opponent to use fast moves which you can avoid with 9k. You can use 8k+g to jump over low attacks and 2k to make high attacks whiff. You can also just block to take back the initiative right away.

I probably use kokei 6p more than I should cos I like flashy gimmicks, but it's not as weak as you guys make it out to be imo.


Also, on the subject of kokei, it's important to realize that the only way to beat a standing guard is by using the guardbreak, which you can crouch on reaction. So I'm not sure how viable kokei is gonna be when the level of overall defense goes up..

 

You could approach a standing guard with kokei + to or for mid/low mixup?

 

The power of Kokei is the fact that most of the moves it's OPTIONAL to go into it. You are right Krye, Kokei guard break is slow as hell, and VERY hard to land.

But I don't a know a person in the WORLD who can react to whether or not you actually went into kokei.

For example: lands. Going Kokei and using guard break would be slow and probably not work. NOT going into Kokei is where you can break their high guard. Would take some godly reactions to realize the stance change didn't happen.

In regards to . I absolutely love it because it pushes them so far back, even on block, but I probably shouldn't use it as much as I do. Seems to just get me in trouble. I likem the optional kokei stance switches , no stance change, guard break or low. It's sexy \

EDIT! Happy to see the Lau forum somewhat coming alive. It's not the most popular for sure.

 

It's been a while since I tested it all, and it feels like it's a bit too much theory fighter at this point, but not going into kokei and doing guardbreak seemed to connect at about the same time as doing the guardbreak from kokei itself. It seemed doable to duck these on reaction. If the opponent fuzzies first, then guards mid at the 14~18 frame range, he can duck a throw mixup (should you choose to use this option) and then ducks if he sees a guardbreak coming, it should be relatively riskfree for him.

Of course, the kokei dash is pretty nice to trick him into ducking, so it might not be as bad as it seems, but still. Some characters can be pretty deadly when they duck a high.

I use k+g a lot too, it's a great move. I don't use it for the mixup, though, since it's a crap risk/reward situation for Lau, p followup on evade is at least a 14 frame punisher and getting a sweep blocked always hurts.

I'm probably overthinking the guardbreak problem, but it's good to look for some alternatives gotta keep the opponent guessing!

 

you forget 2 K+G this is my favorite option but it does not continue. Most opponents even seeing it still passed.