Zhao Yun

You are unqualified to confront him.

Introduction

Zhao Yun is Chaos Generation's bojutsu master who at first appears to be a fairly well-rounded space control character. And he is definitely that, but a little more digging will reveal an exceptionally scary character who can hang with the best of the close range monsters, and even outdo them thanks to an incredibly easy infinite combo from very practical starters, as well as the unique ability to unscale his supers.

Strengths & Weaknesses

• Excellent range on his normals and a balanced set of special moves allow him to be a threat at any range
• Strong combos, including many setups for a practical infinite
• Is able to reverse damage scaling on his supers, causing them to sometimes deal more damage than their base value
• Many multi-hitting moves, meaning low damage and high susceptibility to guard cancels
• Poor defensive options without meter
• His character model is significantly uglier than his art

Moves

Throws

Move	Input	Notes
Forward Throw	6A+D; 4/6+C while close	Zhao Yun electrocutes his opponent with his staff, leaving them in a crumple stun. Incredibly strong throw, as it allows him to convert into a full combo.
Backward Throw	4A+D; 4/6+D while close	Zhao Yun wraps his staff around the opponent before tossing them behind him, leaving them at a full screen distance. Great way to create some space outside of the corner.

Standing Normals

Move	Notes
cl.A	A quick jab to the stomach with the staff. Slight advantage on block, but a little slow for a move of its type.
f.A	A quick swing with a segment of the staff. Whiffs over crouchers, but has a very high hitbox, making it great as a low-commitment anti-air.
cl.B	A quick toe kick. Zhao Yun's fastest standing normal, with roughly the same advantage on block as cl.A. A deceptively large vertical hitbox also makes it useful in juggle combos.
f.B	A quick roundhouse kick. Great horizontal range, and will hit crouchers, but despite its looks, it is literally unusable as an anti-air due to a vertical hitbox that doesn't match the move. May see some use as a grounded whiff punisher.
cl.C	A two-hit double swing with the staff. Great move for starting close range punishes. Safe on block, but two hits makes it very susceptible to guard cancels.
f.C	Zhao Yun twists, poking upwards with the back end of his staff. Has terrible range, especially given how slow it is. You've got better buttons to be pressing.
cl.D	A quick kick that puts Zhao Yun off the ground. Goes over lows, but only cancels into MAX Mode. Pretty much outclassed by cl.C unless you have an exceptionally hard read on someone mashing 2B.
f.D	Zhao Yun lifts himself up off the ground with his staff, performing a forward moving side kick. Raises his hurtbox much more than cl.D does, and has great range, but cannot be cancelled at all, since he is technically airborne. Use sparingly for space control.
5CD	Big swipe with the staff. The range on this thing is absolutely ridiculous -- bigger than you think it is. Has a ton of recovery, but as long as it connects, this won't present an issue. Definitely waiting to be abused.

Crouching Normals

Move	Notes
2A	A poke with the staff. Great range, but sort of slow. Only cancels into A Stabs, Stylish Combo at close range, and MAX Mode.
2B	A quick, short range toe kick. Hits low and is roughly even on block. However, this move's true strength is in its self-chain -- the move seems to be able to cancel into itself from the first frame of contact, allowing you to chain the move into itself at blistering speeds. This means incredibly easy hit-confirms, and incredibly safe and strong guard damage. This isn't safe from guard cancels, however, and you cannot self-chain this move on whiff.
2C	Zhao Yun swings upward with a segment of the staff, hitting twice. Decent vertical range, but poor horizontal range, although the second hit has more horizontal range than the first. Can see some use as an anti-air.
2D	A fairly standard sweep, but very slow compared to others. Not much else to say.

Jumping Normals

Move	Notes
nj.A	A quick upward swing with the staff. Decent air to air, hits fairly low as well. Sow low, in fact, that it's actually an instant overhead with a neutral hop. Chain this into nj.C and you've got yourself a nasty mixup tool.
j.A	A downward angled poke with a segment of the staff. Pretty stubby range -- you've got better options for jump-ins.
j.B	A quick, low angled kick. Great as a jump-in, crosses up easily, and also functions as an instant overhead, chaining into nj.C from a neutral jump. Actually better for this purpose than nj.A, actually.
nj.C	A huge downward swing. This move is also an instant overhead (jeez dude calm down) but is usually used as a chain from nj.A or nj.B. Great button to come down with otherwise.
j.C	Similar to j.A, except Zhao Yun uses the whole staff, giving it longer range. Has better vertical range than you might think, making it useful for longer range aerial approaches and retreats.
j.D	A jumping side kick. Angled downward slightly, but still at a mostly horizontal angle that makes it inconsistent as air to ground. Primarily used in combos. (Hopdash OK)
j.CD	Zhao Yun swings downwards with the staff split into two segments. Decent range and angle, but primarily used in combos as the knockdown on hit isn't preferable to the combos you'll get from other jump ins.

Command Normals

Move	Notes
6A	Zhao Yun swings twice with two segments of the staff. Despite its looks, this is not an overhead. It is special cancelable, however, which makes it a core part of his combos. The gap between the two hits is hard to interrupt, but a guard cancel will beat it cleanly.
4A	Zhao Yun quickly swings a segment of the staff upwards. No cancels, but great speed and an incredible hitbox that covers both above and behind Zhao Yun makes this excellent for close range anti-air.
6C	Zhao Yun extends his staff as he thrusts forward. Can hit from nearly full screen. Great poking tool from long range, and cancels into his command run, giving him an opportunity to close some space or create even more.
3C	Basically the same as 6C except it hits low. Having a low from that range is really good, actually.
1C	A whopping four hit close range combo. A huge part of Zhao Yun's combos, as it cancels from a self-chained 2B and into 6A, opening up the rest of his combo routes. The chain from 1C to 6A requires some timing (essentially just as 1C ends), but is worth learning. This move is asking to get guard cancelled and punished on block, though.

Strings

Move	Notes
cl.A,C,D	A chain of cl.A, cl.C and f.D. It's... there, but it's not very good.

Special Moves

Move	Input	Notes
San Setsu Kon	236P	Zhao Yun extends his staff, stabbing the opponent. A version is slower than C version, but A version has a follow-up with A that knocks down. C version hits twice and is more usable in combos. EX version sucks the opponent in and grants huge frame advantage on hit, allowing Zhao Yun to extend his grounded combos.
Million Stabs	P,P,P...	Zhao Yun furiously stabs with his staff in a similar fashion to Hundred Hands Slap or Lightning Legs, but only requiring three consecutive inputs to trigger. Continue pressing the button to extend the move. A version is slower and deals less hits than C version. EX version is... really hard to actually get out, so don't worry about it.
Quick Dash (forward)	236K	Zhao Yun quickly dashes forward, allowing follow-ups. Can only be cancelled into from 6C and 3C. Press K to stop the dash. EX version travels significantly faster.
~Strike	~A	Zhao Yun stabs twice with two segments of the staff. Cancels into supers and MAX Mode.
~Throw	~C	The same as his forward throw. Causes a crumple stun and allows a combo. Huge whiff animation, so be careful.
Quick Dash (backward)	214K	Same as forward Quick Dash, but moves backwards. EX version allows the run to be stopped earlier.
Sparrow Drop	623P	Zhao Yun swings upwards with the staff. Covers a decent anti-air angle, and the C version launches, making it a staple for his combos. EX version is fast and launches the opponent very high, but has limited combo follow ups.
Denkoudan	214P	Zhao Yun throws a fireball. Has noticeable startup, but is still great for long range space control. A version travels fairly slowly, making it useful for approaching, as well as varying with the C version to make it difficult for the opponent to approach. EX version hits twice and has a ton of hitstun, but has a CL of 8.
Helm Breaker	Air 236K	Zhao Yun swings down with the staff. Great horizontal and vertical range, but has a ton of recovery upon landing, so use sparingly outside of combos.

Super Combo

Billion Stabs (236236P)

Like a super version of Million Stabs. C version does more damage than A version, EX version does more damage than both.

Barrier (214214P)

Zhao Yun plants his staff in the ground, summoning a field of electricity around him. Both versions send the opponent into the air, C version higher than A version. EX version hits twice.

Ultra Combo

Lightning Rod (236236BD)

Zhao Yun plants his staff in the ground directly in front of him, trapping the opponent in place before transitioning into a cinematic animation. Decent damage and easy to work into grounded combos, but cannot hit airborne opponents, limiting its use as a way to extend damage from most bread and butter combos.

Strategy

Zhao Yun gives you a ton of freedom to do whatever you feel most comfortable doing. Against characters who excel in the close range like Xiahou Dun, Wei Yan or Xu Chu, you can keep them at bay with your long range moves like Denkoudan, 6C/3C and 5CD, only moving in when you're sure you can press the advantage.

Against characters you may feel more comfortable approaching, finding your way in is easy thanks to these aforementioned space control tools. Once you get it, you can pressure people with 2B, mixing up with instant overheads and your powerful forward throw. Try to get your opponent into the corner, as Zhao Yun's pressure and combo tools really open up here.

Zhao Yun doesn't need MAX Mode as much as other characters, thanks to his limited looping potential and a practical zero-resource infinite, so he's much more suited to spending his meter on EX and supers. You generally have a lot of freedom with this character -- use EX San Setsu Kon to pull opponents in, EX Denkoudan and backward Quick Dash to keep them away... the sky is the limit.

Combos

Main confirm: 2B(3) (or forward throw) 1C 6A 623P

This also works after nj.A nj.C for an instant overhead confirm.

The Infinite: (after any launch) [j.A j.C j.D j.CD land 5A] xN

Works primarily at closer distances, so many midscreen confirms into 623C won't allow for an infinite unless you spend meter. Literally anything will let you infinite in the corner, though.

Super Unscale: [corner] 623C, C Stabs (1 or 2) xx super

Chaos Generation-The unscale bug in action

For some reason, super cancelling the early hits of C Million Stabs rewinds the damage scaling, causing the resulting super to deal increased damage -- sometimes more than the base damage of the super. This is still affected by damage scaling, though, so longer combos will mitigate the increased damage, which means this is best reserved for hard punishes.

The primary setup for the unscale is a combo into 623C in the corner, followed by a buffered C Million Stabs into a super cancel. The most damaging setup on most character is a super cancel into C Billion Stabs, which sees a tremendous damage increase, to the point that it can kill in many situations. Otherwise, Million Stabs will be super cancelled into Barrier.

How you perform the setup varies from character to character. The following is a table of what setup works for each character.

Character	Hit to SC	Best Super	Notes
Zhang Fei	1st	Billion Stabs
Xu Chu	1st	Barrier	Billion Stabs will not work at all
Huang Zhong	2nd	Billion Stabs	Million Stabs must be delayed. If too difficult, SC 1st hit into Barrier.
Xiahou Dun	1st	Billion Stabs
Xiahou Yuan	1st	Billion Stabs
Huang Gai	1st	Barrier	Hitbox causes 1st hit to launch too high, Billion Stabs impossible
Zhao Yun	2nd	Billion Stabs	Reduced damage due to hurtbox. 2nd hit will be delayed due to launch height.
Zhang Jiao	2nd	Billion Stabs

Damage from the unscale setups against Lu Meng and Wei Yan is so reduced that it practically has no effect, meaning that these setups aren't really worth going for in these matchups.