Unique Attacks

Divebomb during forward jump

Dive Bomb: R. Mika interrupts her normal jump arc with a belly flop straight down. From a frontal jump-in against an opponent who relies on quick normals for their anti-air, you can Dive Bomb to throw off their anti-air timing, knocking them down if they anti-air expecting a normal jump arc. From a jump directly above the adversary, Dive Bomb easily hits on either side, leading to potential cross-up or fake cross-up knockdowns. In theory, Dive Bomb can be good for SFII/SFIV Dee Jay-like tactics. From the same jumping starting point, it confuses enemies by sometimes crossing up with jumping and sometimes Dive Bombing from the front. The only catch (and it’s big) is that R. Mika is extremely vulnerable upon landing if Dive Bomb misses or is guarded—about as vulnerable as if you decided to just start mashing out blocked Shooting Peach specials at point-blank range.

Still, a knockdown move that can cross up is a knockdown move that can cross up, and using Dive Bomb very ambiguously and sparingly will sometimes surprise enemies. This is definitely a back pocket, once every few rounds tactic, though, not something to rely on regularly. If you happen to Dive Bomb someone starting their jump, which can occur if you go for Dive Bomb cross-ups, you can juggle upon landing with EX Shooting Peach.

Lady Mika

Lady Mika: R. Mika lunges forward with a tight, close-range uppercut. This doesn’t have enough range to function as a poke and is intended as a point-blank hit-check. Since it’s a unique attack that uses a heavy button, it will also cleanly beat out opposing light and medium pokes that hit on the same frame as Lady Mika, strengthening its use up close. If guarded, R. Mika is left at +3, the best advantage she has after any blocked attack. Lady Mika has a hitbox that extends above R. Mika’s head during active frames, so you can also use it as an anti-air. It’s slower than crouching for this purpose and should be aimed at jumps starting from farther away, but it will work if you have time to get it out. On hit, R. Mika launches her opponent into a jugglable flip (see Combo 8). As a Crush Counter, this launches the foe into an even bigger jugglable flip (Combo 9), making Lady Mika a great move to keep in mind for reversal punish counter-hits, like after a shoto whiffs a Shoryuken near R. Mika. Lady Mika is also great for extending Passion Press combos and setting up resets in corners.

Passion Press or

Passion Rope Throw During Passion Press, or

Passion Press and Passion Rope Throw: R. Mika reaches with a clasping punch that can transition into a hit-throw follow-up. If Passion Press is blocked, canceling to Passion Rope Throw will cause a dangerous point-blank throw whiff. But on hit, canceling to Passion Rope Throw sends the enemy in a staggering run in the direction of your choice. It doesn’t matter which direction you use for the Passion Press poke (sort of like Chun-Li’s /), but the direction you use for the hit-throw follow-up chooses the direction in which they’ll run. If a corner is nearby, it’s an easy decision—send your opponent to the corner, where they’ll bounce off the wall and stumble a bit more. Midscreen, they’ll simply fall after stumbling for a couple seconds. While they’re staggering or after they’ve bounced off the wall, you can juggle them. R. Mika is at her strongest bouncing foes back and forth off corners, making them eat command throws and juggle combos. Adversaries are technically airborne while running, so hits against them will behave accordingly. (Basically, Lady Mika and charged standing will launch them for another juggle chance, but normals will cause them to air recover in place, allowing for grab attempts or meaty pokes overlapping their landing, basic reset stuff.)

Passion Press as a poke is very comparable to standing , starting up only one frame slower. It also leaves R. Mika at -2 when blocked and actually has a bit more range. This can come in handy sometimes during combos from non-ideal ranges, like V-Trigger-canceling a poke from a couple steps away; standing might not reach, but Passion Press will. After Passion Rope Throw midscreen, you can either immediately perform HK Wingless Airplane to land directly next to where your foe will fall, closer to a corner and ready to pressure their wakeup, or you can immediately tap them as they stumble away with (hold ). This is much easier to link midscreen if you used Passion Rope Throw to swap sides with your opponent instead of throwing them toward the side they’re already on. You can also juggle with EX Shooting Peach immediately after Passion Rope Throw midscreen.

For a flashy midscreen variation, you can Passion Rope Throw, then immediately backdash. This pulls the screen backward a little bit, so that the opponent actually bounces off their end of the screen like it was a corner. From the backdash, you can then whiff crouching in order to be near them in time to launch with Lady Mika into some juggle finisher.

Stomp Chop Standing

Stomp Chop: R. Mika’s target combo, consisting of standing chained into standing . Standing is an excellent starter poke, with a four-frame startup, good range, an invincible boot tip, and an advantage of +1 when guarded. After chaining standing to standing , you can cancel to a special move or Peach Assault, R. Mika’s Critical Art. Like with most target combos, the standing variation that ends Stomp Chop leaves R. Mika with less frame advantage. Having Stomp Chop blocked puts you at -5, which is guaranteed punish territory. Stomp Chop is great for combos, but save it for verifying standing after another hit (most likely after cross-up jumping , point-blank standing , or charged standing ). Also, avoid performing the standing strong extension on block, so you can maintain up-close frame advantage.