Orion In-Depth Guide

[Yugi Boi]

Just a preface to this guide my IGN is Mystogan but I've also gone under the name Abomination and I am currently sitting between 280-250 on the NA ranked leaderboards in 1v1's and prior to the reset of the ladder I was plat 1. I have played about 500 ranked matches with Orion and close to at least 150 more on other characters.

This guide is also being written as of patch 2.0.1 which is right before the switch to open beta. As well as the fact that I am going to assume that anyone reading this guide has already played the game a little bit and has knowledge of the basic movement commands of Brawlhalla. Even though this is a beginners.guide I will also be including a few advanced techniques for more experienced players looking to pick up a new character as well as damage values for a more accurate description of Orion's moveset.

Table of Contents

1) Intro/basic overview
2) Signatures
3) BnB Combos
4) Advanced Techniques
5) Match-Ups

Orion's Stat distribution:

4 Atk

6 Atk Spd

6 Armor

6 Speed

1) Intro/Basic overview:

Orion has a balanced stat line making him a great all around fighter with decent damage output and slightly above average surviability (see above for Orion's stats). The weapon combination that Orion wields is Spear/Lance which is perfect for both an aggressive and defensive style of fighting. His signatures have a wide variety of uses from punishing bad dodges with his side spear and side lance signature. To reading the opponents movements and landing an anti-air neutral spear signature or neutral lance signature. These signatures along with the tools given to Orion by his weapon combination make him a formidable opponent as well as a solid all around fighter in the ranks of Brawlhalla.

2) Signatures: (All damage calculations will be done based off of Sir Roland as he has the highest armor stat in the game)

Orion's signatures provide him with the tools to properly utilize his balanced stat line.


Abbreviations:

nSig - Neutral Signature

sSig - Side Signature

dSig - Down Signature



Spear:

nSig

-dmg - 29.0-31.5 fully charged



The nSig has a couple of key uses that make it a necessary tool to implement into a players move rotation. The first of these two uses and the most important is ledge guarding. This signatures hit box lines up perfectly to ledge guard an opponent trying to recover close to the stage. The trajectory of the second hit of the sig is such that in most cases if a player lands this sig as a ledge guard the opponent can not recover. (Can be used offensively in a string, will be mentioned in advanced tech.)The second use for nSig is punishing a bad air dodge. This moves initial hit box sends Orion into the air and is able to hit airborne targets. (WARNING: this move should not be used frequently due to its high recovery frames or landing lag)



sSig

-dmg- 26.8-37.3 fully charged



Many mistakes of newer players is that they see this move and see the power it has and think that if I keep throwing this out over and over again hopefully it will hit and it will KO the opponent. The sSig shouldn't be used in this manner. The hit box is strictly linear and travels a distance forward in the desired direction meaning it is impossible to hit airborne targets and jumping to avoid is just simply too easy vs more experienced players and with high recovery frames this move is easily jumped out of the way and punished to be using it aggressively (not entirely true, but only in advanced tech).

Rather than using this signature overly aggressively, players should use sSig to punish two things whiffed sigs or bad ground dodges by the opponent. sSig has great range and is best used when trying to read what the opponent is going to do.



dSig.

-dmg- 28.4-48.4 maximum hits



The dSig is probably the most important signature that will be covered in this entire section. This move alone makes Orion what he is in the games current state. That is not to say that this move is overpowered or broken, but it allows for Orion to perform at his optimal level. dSig's hit box is linear and a short distance on both sides of Orion's character model.

This allows for a strong punish of opponents attempting to dodge through Orion's attack as well as punishing whiffed diving aerials (i.e. katar dair) or bad dodges towards Orion. This move can also be used to ledge guard an opponent trying to recover low on the ledge predicting Orion to go for a nSig instead. As well as being used offensively to pressure the opponent into making a mistake.

Lance:

nSig

dmg- 24.8-34.6



The nSig of the Rocket lance has a diagonal hit box in an upwards direction, but can hit a grounded target if the character model is either right next to or almost on top of Orion's character model. The scenario where this move really shines is as an anti-air. Although, there is a decently high amount of recovery frames from this move if Orion uses it when an opponent is in the air it doesn't leave a whole lot of room for them to avoid the sig and punish so if the opposing playing is jumping at Orion a significant amount its not a bad idea to throw this out occasionally.

sSig

-dmg- 29.6-39.3



The sSig has a strictly grounded linear hit box and is best used in punishing poor movement choices by the opponent. This move has a high amount of start-up frames as well as a high amount of recovery frames making sSig very unsafe to throw out randomly without making a read or attempting to counter the opponents movement. The upside of using this move is that it can kill at mid to high orange against a majority of the rest of the cast of Brawlhalla.



dSig

-dmg- 24.0-34.6



The dSig is one of the safest sigs that Orion has in his arsenal since the animation actually jumps back a short distance to avoid incoming attacks as well as retaliating with some decent damage with less force than sSig or nSig,but is situationally better if an opponent is trying to rush Orion down. Countering aggression with this attack launches the opponent airborne and put the Orion player into an advantageous position to set up for a KO or a high damage combo.

3) BnB Combos:

There aren't many true combos left in brawlhalla anymore but there are still a couple true combos left for Orion to use.

Spear:

D-light->Sair at any % lower then red (anti-air)

D-light->Nair at any % lower then mid orange (anti-air)

S-light->Sair from white to yellow

S-light->S-light->Sair from white to yellow

S-light->D-light->Sair form white to yellow

Lance: DISCLAIMER- most of these combos only work at low percents and will be mentioned otherwise if possible at higher values

S-light->Nair

S-light->Sair

Sair->S-light

Sair->S-light->Sair

S-light-> jump-> recovery true at any %

4) Play Style: Warning-(this is strictly my play personal thoughts on how i play Orion and everyone is entitled to their own opinion of how to play every character)

With Orion's signatures mentioned in section 2 above it is my opinion that his stregnths lie in his punish and counter play rather than a more agressive rush down style as seen with Hatori or Lucien. His signatures compliment the style of avoiding damage by punishing with sigs and reading aerial movement with D-light while spacing with Sair and Nair. The fundementals behind playing a more defensive style are a bit more difficult in the current meta due to the power of faster characters. Athough, playing aggressively has its benefits there are more downsides then upsides as compared to spacing with 2 long range weapons.

5) Advanced Techniques: (Since some of these techniques are brand new to this patch this section will hopefully be updated consistently as new bits of tech are discovered and will be updated promptly)

In this section i will be covering two techniques that are used in high level play that most newer players dont untilize enough. The two techniques are Slide charging and Gravity Canceling.

Slide Charge-

Orion has his spear nSig and dSig that are very good ledge guarding tools while using a slide charge. The hit boxes on these two moves respectively cover different types of recoveries. Since the previous patch where the dodge mechanic on the ledge was changed the dSig has become more useful to cover the side of the stage. His nSig is great if someone is trying to recover back to the stage low on the edge and can spike if it connects.

Gravity Cancel- (GC is still new and i want to find all the secrets before adding it to the guide)

6) Weapon Match-Ups

Sword-
Both of Orion's weapons counter sword to a certain degree just based on the range differences, but the main goal against this weapon is to keep the sword wielder out of Orion's face. If you can out space the sword without letting it pressure it should be a relatively easy match up.

Katar-

This match up is a bit more tricky with Orion because most Katar users have a higher speed than Orion and thusly its difficult for him to get back onto the stage without taking damage. With this match up the Orion player has to be very careful about his movement and spacing due to the amount of damage that Katars can rack up in a short amount of time. As a suggestion i would try to keep spear in this match up just because it has a quicker neutral to interupt the Katar aggression, but rocket lance if used properly is still very strong.

Rocket Lance-

Pretty much equal for all Lance users. The battle between Lance users is just basically who can land the S-light->Recovery first when at red health. There is some other little tech like using D-light when the opposing lance is trying to either Sair your S-light because if any Lance user times D-light correctly they can interupt the active frames of both of those moves. Picking up a Lance of your own is better in this situation simply because of how strong Lance is right now in its current state. The spear has speed over Lance but just simply doesn't have the range or pressure to compete with an opponents Lance.

Spear-

The Spear vs Spear match up for Orion is heavily based on the Signatures of the opponent. If the opponent has punish sigs similar to Orion then the match up focuses more on whiffed moves trying to read one another into ♥♥♥♥♥ing KO'ed by a sig. Or if the sigs don't exactly line up to proper punishing from both players then it follow more of a combo orientented fight using majority light attacks (which everyone should be doing in the first place 80% light 20% sigs/heavy) and usually revolves around aerial punishes and comboing.

I would also reccomend having a Lance in this match up simply because of how strong it is. Although, the Spear vs Spear mirror is probably one of the most balanced match ups in the game right
now so there really isn't a "better" choice. This one really just relies weapon preference

Guns-

For Orion this is probably his most passive match up to play against. With how strong Guns spacing he has a difficult time getting in with lance and out spacing the opponent with spear. Orion has to rely on attempting to out smart the opponent by baiting out a higher recovery frame move like a sig or the recently reworked Dair in order to punish and rack up damage. The same goes for Lance in terms of having to punish instead of being the aggressor just based simply on how slowly the Lance attacks move with respect to the guns.

Hammer-

This weapon is a bit similar to Guns in how to approach given the recent nerfs to the force and a higher recovery frames on hammer Sair, but that still doesn't mean that its nothing to laugh at. Getting him by a Hammer Sair will still KO at dark Orange to Red, the nerf just made it so that light Orange to mid Orange aren't KO'ed by characters with higher force.

As for weapon of choice, use the Lance primarily in this match up because of the fact that Orion can rack up damage off of missed stomps by the opponent due to the fact that S-light with lance out ranges the hit box of stomp (just barely) and lance has the similar KO power as Hammer Sair with S-light->(gc)nSig

Axe-

This match up is mostly weapon preference, but here are the strenghts and weaknesses of both. Starting with the Spear, the range on Spear is similar to Axe making the combat mostly based around who can space their respective Sair's the best and also who can land the combo starter into aerial. The downside is that Axe hits harder so even though Orion can trade with spear he will never out damage it.

Lance on the other hand hits just as hard as Axe and can KO slightly quicker then Axe can, but with recent nerfs a couple of patches ago to Lance Nair the air game of Lance is slightly weaker than Axe. The major upside for using Lance here is that the S-light_>Recovery combo is very strong. The downside is that most of Lance's combo starters are on the ground and its aerial game isnt as strong.

(Bow)-
(Will be added when released)

[Ice Coldas]

Quite useful, and I love playing Orion. But have you posted this in the Guide section? I couldn't find it there.

I personally prefer Orion's spear over using the lance, it feels a lot quicker, especially in the air~

[Yugi Boi]

i dont particularly like the set up of the guide system on here so i posted it here instead