STRATEGY

Fighting from Up Close

Ideally, no opponents would get anywhere near Glacius until you decide to activate Instinct Mode and take the fight to them; however, the reality is that there will be times when an aggressive foe gets in and applies heavy pressure. Since Glacius has no back dash, you will have to learn how to poke your way out. Almost all of Glacius’s in-close standing and crouching normals leave him at a disadvantage, some of which are actually combo punished. When you find yourself in close combat with an opponent, crouching Light Punch is your best poking and punishing tool. As a poking tool, Crouching Light Punch has decent range, comes out in 4 frames, is + 2 advantage on hit, and is +1 advantage on block. This allows you to poke with a quick ranged attack to get some breathing room.

From sweep range, standing Light Kick, standing Medium Kick, and standing Medium Punch become your best normal attack options. When outside of sweep range, standing Heavy Punch becomes the best normal attack option.

After any of these normal attacks are blocked, cancel into your Shatter unblockable attack. If the opponent remains blocking, Shatter connects, giving you a combo opportunity. The opponent is now forced to counter attack, jump, dash, etc. to avoid the unblockable. This is when you cancel the normal attack into Hail or Cold Shoulder, which will hit the opponent as they attempt to avoid the unblockable Shatter.

Ranged Combos

Glacius has the ability to combo his opponent from anywhere on the stage; however, he is limited to his options when using ranged combos. In a long-ranged combo, the only Linker he can use is Shatter. His ranged Light, Medium, and Heavy Auto Doubles also do different things. Lights pull the opponent closer, Mediums keep the opponent in his or her current position, and Heavys push the opponent farther away. For an Ender, you must use Shatter, as it’s the only Ender that works in a ranged combo. During long-ranged combos, you also lose the use of a Shadow Linker because neither Shadow Cold Shoulder nor Shadow Hail will reach your opponent. Basically, long-ranged combos can only be linked and ended with Shatter.

Counter Breaking during Ranged Combos

One of the biggest advantages of Glacius’s ability to use ranged combos is the risk-free Counter Breaker. When using ranged combos, your opponent can still perform a Combo Breaker, even when being hit with a combo from across the screen. Glacius can attempt a Counter Breaker, however, without opening himself up to a combo because, while both Combo Breaker and Counter Breaker vacuum both characters close to one other, the Counter Breaker attempt does not. Should Glacius miss his Counter Breaker attempt during a ranged combo, Glacius and his opponent remain in their current positions on the stage. This allows Glacius to recover from the missed Counter Breaker long before the opponent can get close enough to punish him.

Glacius’s Jumping Attacks

Glacius has tremendous range on his jumping Kick attacks. He can use jumping Medium and Heavy Kick attacks to knock opponents out of the air from far ranges, or he can land jumping attacks on opponents from ranges well outside their reach. Glacius can actually land these jumping attacks from far range and still combo his opponent.

Using Throw Combos

Glacius has the ability to combo off of his throw after throwing an opponent into a corner. This makes him especially dangerous, because a throw that leads to a damaging combo opens up devastating strike/throw mix-ups. A great set up for this is to end corner combos with a wall splat. After the wall splat, either throw the opponent for a throw combo or attack that opponent as he or she attempts to tech what your opponent believes will be a throw attempt.

Ending Close Combos For a Pressure Set Up:

Glacius is able to end combos with his Hail Ground Bounce ender for a juggle ending with a cancel into Hail. By holding the Hail in place, it hovers next to your opoonent until you decide to release it. By releasing the Hail as the opponent begins to get up, you force them to block the Hail, allowing you offensive pressure.

Using Ice Pick

When opponents get into closer range, Glacius’s jump can be too slow to get into the air fast enough to use his jumping attacks as an anti-air. Once an opponent gets within his or her jumping attack range, Ice Pick will easily anti-air that opponent every time. Ice Pick is one of the most consistent ant-air attacks in the game.

Using Ice lance

Ice Lance is Glacius’s attack with the most range. This attack is considered a combo Opener, allowing you to go right into an Auto Double anytime the attack hits. Constantly having Hail on the screen while poking with Ice Lance is one of the hardest and most frustrating things for an opponent to get through. Ice Lance is safe when blocked from a distance but can be made safe from close range when Hail is released behind it.

Using Hail

Anytime Hail hits, your opponent is open to a combo. Glacius should have Hail on the screen at almost all times; Light Hail will stay close, Medium Hail travels just past half-screen, and Heavy Hail will reach full-screen. Glacius can cancel into Hail from any normal attack and, when combined with the range of some of his attacks like Ice Lance, allows for serious pressure and traps when you have an opponent cornered. You can also hold the Hail in place by holding down the button, then releasing it to send the Hail down toward your opponent and still be able to attack while Hail is in place. Hail can be held for up to, but no longer than, 4 seconds. Defensively, you can use Hail to protect yourself against aggressive opponents when they attempt to get in close. Even if Glacius is hit, Hail can still hit the opponent and knock him or her out of his or her attacks and, in some cases, allow Glacius to recover in time to start a combo of his own. Hail is also used to prevent opponents from punishing your unsafe attacks. As your opponent attempts to punish you, the Hail follow-up will hit that opponent, giving you a combo. When far away from Glacius, opponents will sometimes try to jump over Hail as it approaches, in an attempt to close space on Glacius. This is where you punish them with your long-ranged jumping Heavy Kick, knocking them out of the air.

Using Cold Shoulder

The distance this attack travels depends on the strength of the attack button used. When blocked at close range, all three versions of this attack are combo punished. When used with Hail or done at or near maximum range, however, this attack becomes safe when blocked. Since Glacius has no way to close distance quickly due to his lack of a forward dash, Cold Shoulder is the attack to use when you want Glacius to bully his way in. Cold Shoulder is the go-to attack after Glacius has activated Instinct. Using his Ice Armor, Glacius can then Cold Shoulder right through his opponent’s attacks for a combo Opener. One of the best things about this attack is that it is invulnerable to low attacks. This is especially helpful when opponents are attempting to use fast low pokes to pressure or keep you out. Cold Shoulder is a move you can use almost at will when spaced properly, used with Hail, or used during Instinct.

Using Puddle Punch

Puddle Punch is invulnerable to all attacks on startup. This means Glacius is completely invincible to all attacks as he transforms into the ice puddle and can only be hit when he is on his way back up. The Light and Medium versions of this attack are Openers, and the Heavy version causes a knockdown. While this attack is extremely unsafe when blocked, it’s an attack opponents must respect because it allows Glacius to escape pressure situations with an invulnerable Opener.

Using Shatter

Shatter is an unblockable combo Opener. There are three ranges of the attack: Light Shatter appears directly in front of you, Medium Shatter appears at half-screen, and Heavy Shatter reaches close to full-screen. Glacius can cancel into Shatter from any normal attack and catch opponents off guard. You can go into a combo anytime this attack hits, even if your opponent is across the screen. Correctly predicting where your opponent will be on the screen is the key to this attack. When you use this correctly with all of Glacius’s tools, opponents will have a very hard time trying to approach through an obstacle course of long-ranged attacks, Hail, attacks that go through lows, and an unblockable Opener that can hit almost any point of the stage. Though this attack is unblockable, it becomes blockable if used while your opponent is still in block stun from blocking a Hail attack. By timing Shatter to connect just as the opponent comes out of the Hail block stun, however, the attack will remain unblockable.

Shatter is one of the most freestyle attacks in the game, meaning that you can make up your own setups for it on the fly. Shatter setups include: after a blocked jumping attack, after a blocked Hail/Shadow Hail, after any normal attack, etc. The setups are nearly limitless and are subject to the creativity of the player. The only way to avoid Shatter setups is to jump, dash/back dash, and counter attack before the attack hits. This allows Glacius to cancel into other attacks such as Hail/Shadow Hail or Cold Shoulder, which will hit the opponent as they attempt to escape the Shatter setup.

Using Shadow Attacks

• Shadow Hail is one of your best up-close tools. When Shadow Hail hits, it guarantees a combo Opener. When Shadow Hail is blocked, Glacius is at advantage and can go on the offensive, making it a great up-close option. You can use Shadow Hail to make any normal or special attack advantage on block by canceling out of the attack into Shadow Hail. This allows you to take unsafe attacks such as Puddle Punch and Cold Shoulder and make them offensive tools by canceling into Shadow Hail. Shadow Hail can also be a Shadow Linker inside of close combos as one that’s tricky to break, making it a good tool for hunting a lockout.
• Shadow Cold Shoulder has low and projectile invulnerability. Thus, not only can Glacius go through low attacks, but he can also go through projectiles with a fast combo Opener.
• Shadow Puddle Punch is used almost exclusively as a damaging combo Ender in short combos. Glacius can end in-close combos quickly with his Shadow Puddle Punch and net damage near 40%.
• Shadow Shatter has two uses: first, it’s an attack that will hit the opponent anywhere on the stage in that opponent’s current position; second, it’s a follow-up to ranged juggle combos.

Using Instinct

When Glacius activates Instinct, he gains the Ice Armor ability. This allows him to attack or throw through single attacks, making it very risky to attack or counter-attack him while he is in Instinct Mode. Activating Instinct allows Glacius to switch up his play style to more of an aggressive/pressure style, capitalizing on his opponent’s unwillingness to counter-attack. A good time to activate Instinct is when you find yourself caught in pressure situations, and you need to turn the tables on your opponent by becoming the aggressor yourself. Another good time to activate Instinct is after knocking your opponent down or when you have your opponent cornered, allowing you to apply heavy pressure.