Garou MOTW's bible

The guide holds information anyone needs to know once they obtain the game.

New to fighting games ? take a look at the fighting games notations first before continuing , it'll be hard at first but later you'll get used to it and be able to read combo guides very fast and be able to write your own as well !

i will be using the non air dasher FG notations to refer to moves :

j : jump
s : stand
c : crouch
b : backward
f : forward
qc : quarter circle , ends with a b (quarter circle backward ) or an f (quarter circle forward ) :
1- qcf : down > right ( if you're on the left side of the field , if not , press left )
2- qcb : down > left ( if you're on the left side of the field , if not press right )

hc : half circle , much like the quarter circle , this one ends with a b or an f , or reffered as : 180°
1- hcb : right > down > left ( if yo'ure on the left side of the field , if not , press left > down > right )
2- hcf : left > down > right ( if you're on the left side of the field , if not press right > down > left )

360° : a full circle motion, can be started from any direction as long as you complete a circle
720° : 360° x 2

DP : dragon punch , or shoryuken :
DPf : right > down > right ( if you're on the left side of the field , if not : left > down > left )
DPb : left > down > left ( if you're on the left side of the field , if not : right > down > right )

Introduction

Hello and Welcome to Garou mark of the wolve's bible, if you're reading this : either you :
1- came back to the game as a fan and you got excited to see that garou made it to PC
2-you're a newcommer and you don't know what garou MOTW is

I know most of you aren't here for the following information but feel free to check it out, or skip to the next categories.

Garou first came out in the Arcade machine back in 1999, and it was one of the best fighting games ever back in that era, then was ported to several consoles including the sega dreamcast, playstation 2, xbox's live Arcade, PSN, IOS/android and finally PC, with the dreamcast scoring the worst port of them all as it had some lags and bugs which fighters didn't appreciate, Note that the PC version (edit : Dotemu port) is literally the same as the mobile version except : no button shortcuts which are very useful as the gameplay depends on how good the controls are.

UPDATE : thanks Code Mystic for updating the game, the issues that the previous Port had are now fixed and we did get some bits of quality of life features in the form of button shortcuts, gallery mode and a superior netcode and much more...

Version differences

Port	frame rate	Gallery mode	Arranged soundtrack	Multiplayer
Arcade	60	No	No	Local
Dreamcast	60	Yes	Yes	Local
Playstation 2	60	Yes	Yes	Local
Android/IOS	60	No	No	Wifi on IOS, bluetooth on android	Interestingly enough, the DotEmu port of the game prompts players to pick a specific stage and adjust the handicap in the online versus mode, a feature that is exclusive to the local versus mode and absent in the new Codemystics build as going online there puts you directly in a stage based on the player 2's stage and with normal battle settings.

Gameplay basics

The arcade version of the game featured a tutorial that starts right when you insert a coin , the steam version lacks this tutorial and without it you'll miss more than half of the gameplay's features.
Take a look at the arcade version's tutorial

T.O.P. system : right when you start the game, you get prompted to pick a charachter then you get to pick where do you want your T.O.P. part to be in the health bar. although the game does not tell you, you can actually adjust how big the T.O.P. part will be, by pressing either up or down, and the smaller it is, the higher your damage gets.
When your character's health bar makes it to the T.O.P. mode : your attack damage is increased, you get access to your unique T.O.P. move , your super bar's progress increases faster and your health regenerates slowly (it won't however go past the T.O.P. part of your health bar)
you can perform a T.O.P. move using + .


Feinting : this is a hidden feature that the tutorial in the arcade version didn't reveal , you can actually fool the opponent (doesn't work agaisn't the CPU literally due to the fact that it's an AI, and if you unfamiliar with SNK AIs, the SNK AIs are broken, hard and they react to your moves right on the first frames when you press them).

Feinting makes your character animate itself as if they are going to attempt one of their special move but they end up faking it, the animation usually stops few frames right before the attack may begin. In competitive play, this tech has some usage. One can feint by pressing both : forward or down followed by + .


Break cancel : Another tech that the tutorial doesn't showcase. Every character has one or two moves that can be broken , allowing them to cancel a move for a faster recovery and combo extension: press + instead of a move's normal attack input to break cancel it (example : rock's 360°, instead of pressing press 360+ , note that you cannot break cancel every move, the table below shows which move can be canceled.

this is the list of the moves that can be broken :

charachter	move
rock howard	360°+
Kim Dong Hwan	DP + // DP +
Hotaru Futaba	qcb+ // qcb +

Khushnood Butt	DP+ // DP +
Hokutomaru	qcf + // qcf + // qcf x 2 +
Kevin Rian	qcf+ // qcf +
Freeman	hcf+ // hcf +

Tizoc	bDP + // qcb +
B. Jenet	qcf + // qcf+
Gato	DP + // DP+
Kim Jae Hoon	charge down>j or

Terry Bogard	DP+ // DP +
Kain R. Heinlein	charge down>j or // charge backward>forward
Grant	DP + // DP +

Just defend : just defend is a feature that allows one to recover a bit of health and some bits of their super meter when they press the guard button right before the attack lands, sort of like a parry if you will. in Garou you can't normally defend in the air but you can just defend while jumping. just defending opens up the way for guard canceling, which is useful to punish. you can guard cancel after a just defend using either : a special move , a super move , or a T.O.P move, however, you may want to buffer the move whilst guarding.

Universal overhead
Pressing the + buttons allow you to attack while gaining lower body I-frames, allowing you to attack characters that are crouch blocking (I.E. when a character is crouching)

Anti-Air an AA is an attack that specializes in countering air attacks.
press down +


rolling : Right when you get an attack and fall in the ground, you can recover faster by pressing one of the attack buttons. Each button influences the position of your recovery roll :
small forward roll
small backward roll
long forward roll
long backward roll


Guard crush : Continuously blocking an attack will reduce your stamina or guard meter (a hidden meter) you can tell that it'll be emptied soon by seeing how your character will start flashing with a red color. When your guard crashes you lose control for few frames and your character will do an animation in which they are vulnerable to attacks. the meter goes full right at the end of the animation. You don't lose guard meter when you Just defend.

Achievements

Some stated that they are bugged but here is everything you need to know on how to unlock them and few of my tips to help you get them :

Update :

Code mystics blessed us with an update, to actually unlock the Dotemu achievements you must switch to the old build of the game by doing the following steps :

1- In your library list, right click the game and head to proprieties




2- Head to Betas and enter the code "dotemuversion" then enter, and it will start downloading the old build of the game, giving you access to the old build and the old achievements.

Victory 10

simply win 10 fights in the story mode, nothing complicated here and anyone can do this, the difficulty doesn't matter as you can rush this in the easy mode.

Arcade Complete

Set the difficulty to max level (level 8) and beat the story mode, getting the bad or the good ending will trigger this achievement, continuing after a game over matters not, you can pretty much lose every fight and continue using the 1/4 health bonus to make it easy for you.

Survival Clear :

Clear the survival mode, do it on the easy difficulty.

Story Clear

Simply clear the story mode, the difficulty here doesn't matter and you can simultiniously get this achievement alongside the one requiring you to set the difficulty to max.

Victory 30

Win 30 fights in the story mode.

Multiplayer

Play a multiplayer game, losing or winning doesn't matter.

Perfect

Getting a perfect means winning a round without losing health, do it in the story mode on the easiest difficulty.

Survival

Head to the survival mode and win 5 matches.

Survival Complete

Clear the survival mode on the max difficulty, a section reserved on how to cheese this is on the next category.

All Characters

this one is sadly bugged, basically it says "play" with all the characters in every mode : Story , Survival , Versus(?) , Multiplayer , Training (?)
it says : play , not clear , which means just pick a character and play few rounds then quit
This achievement has been removed, thanks Code mystics!

Update

Now with the new Code Mystic build, new achievements came, be sure to revert back to the normal build to get these :

[/previewicon]

Get the Good ending on each character to unlock their corresponding achievement, set the difficulty to easy to breeze through it. The good ending requires to get good ranks and not lose a match, just don't get too much B ranks.

Multiplayer

get 20 wins in total to get Legendary Wolf and THE MIGHTY RULE, you cannot easily breeze this as you have to win in the opponent search mode not the invite mode, and then you have to win 10 times a row to grab the final achievement.

Survival

Simply breeze through the survival mode on the easy mode.

Clearing the survival mode in the max difficulty

Intro : garou's AI isn't hard to predict but is broken. The opponents will react right in the first frames of your attacks, mostly they jump on your first projectile's frames, but that doesn't mean that you can't do it!

I choose Hotaru, she has every tool you will need to achieve this! she has a projectile for spacing and a reversal with I-frames for wake up situations, her gameplay in this mode will require some spamming depending on who you go against.

The Characters you will be facing are not random and are in the following cycle, what's random is Who you will be starting with, and when you go through all of them, you will face Grant then Kain :

Rock > Dong Hwan > Hotaru > Butt > Hokutomaru > Kevin > Freeman > Tizoc > B.Jenet > Gato > Jae Hoon > Terry.

Sadly the AI isn't telegraphed but can be abused
How to abuse the AI : on a corner the AI will keep guarding high most of the time, this is where you will go for a sweep (down + ) and then go into a loop of sweeps or DP's, not everyone is going to react like this, if you get cornered use DPs and for spacing use your projectiles by manipulating the speed of your fireball using both the weak and strong buttons, if the opponent is far, use the faster one down+forward , and since the AI will certainly react to it faster by jumping, immediatly use the slower version afterwards. your down+backwards+kick is also great in corners, it has multihits allowing for some easy guard crush.
In short, the strategy will often consist of spamming DPs and Qcb+ and spacing out with fireballs for the win, you don't need to be super good at the game but it requires you to at least be good at reacting.

You will be challenged by not only the AI, but also constrained by the Timer and the reason why i chose Hotaru is because of her multihitting attacks. Every successful hit grants you a chance to drop items, each with their own functions, either that cripples you (negative bonus items) or buffs you (filling the power gauge, increasing your life or the timer). If you need items and have a power gauge, use a super attack and hope that the AI won't guard and you'll have multiple chances of getting an item. The good thing about the timer increasing item is that it will increase regardless of who picks it.

Tips agains't every character

Terry Bogard

Terry will often use his power wave when both of you are very far apart, I haven't seen him using his crack shoot commonly but if he does just poke him using a jab move and it will be canceled. for some reason he doesn't complete the third impact in his power charge rekka, if he uses his Dunk , quickly counter it with a DP+

Rock Howard

He often anti-airs using his rising tackle so be careful when jump and rushing him. he will use a projectle when you are far from each other, also he spams his hard edge very often. I would not spam against him so punishing is your best option here, or since Rock plays defensively often, considering opting for throws.

Kim Dong hwan

This one is pretty easier compared to the first two: he'll be using his DP+ a lot when he's close to you or as an anti-air move, also he'll his qcb+ a lot, just like terry : poke him with a ♥♥♥. As hotaru spam your J.qcb + as his AI gets a hard time to counter it , but don't think about using your fireball projectile much ,he can dodge it using his super jump followed by a dive kick sometimes if he is close enough to land it.

Hotaru futaba

she uses often her qcb+ and DP+ to anti air, she will also try to reflect your fireballs so be careful.

Kushnood Butt

My favorite after tizoc , the guy keeps spamming his qcf+ and uses his DP+ // to anti-air , also in the mid screen he'll use his fireball often.

Tizoc

The easiest of the bunch : all of his moves excluding the grab do leave him open to being punished, he'll often use his DPb+ ,this move has a lot of active frames for easy punishing damage, just dash backward and use your qcb + , be careful with using your J.qcb + because right when you land, chances are you will get grabbed, think about jumping right your attack ends to avoid it.

Kevin ryan

Most of his attacks are close ranged, if you space with projectiles too much he'll use his dodge move to make himself more closer and usually follows it up with a command grab attack so punish it with your jump Qcb +

Freeman

He's fast, he'll use his dash slash attack to get close to you and uses his slash combo often, guard this later instead of using your DP+ and punish.

B. Jenet

she is quite vulnerable to your jumping dive kick her projectile is slow and does 3 hits; her jumping leaping attack is predictable so just use your DP.

Gato

this guy is a close combat character, he'll rarely use his qcb+ followed with aa, to anti air he uses his DP+. His punches are fast and hard to predict so just be careful when you're close to him.

Kim jae Hoon

he uses his charge>j attack to anti air often, and to punish in the corners he uses his qcb+ attack. Expect a dive kick when he jumps, counter it with a DP+

head to part 2 for the rest.

Clearing the survival mode in the max difficulty (part 2)

Hokutomaru

Very oftenafter his C. he'll land a qcb+ which if not guarded will deal heavy damage to you and he spams this attack often when he corners you, don't be spammy here and just punish him.

Grant

he'll often use his DP attack but if you're far by few steps from him and he does it , he'll follow it up with a dive kick so be careful, unless you're fast enough to counter that, but aside from that , he plays like kevin rian.

Kain

the T.O.P. part takes 100% of his health bar which means : more damage and slow health regen over time, often he'll begin the fight with his low projectile , guard it or jump over it , but since he's on the T.O.P. mode , his projectile will deal a chip damage to your bar if you guard it so jump over it instead , he'll anti-air you with his charge c>j attack

the arcade endings and few special notes

Each character in this game has 2 possible endings, a good one and a bad one, it all depends on how you play the game to get either the good or the bad ending.

To get the bad ending : one must lose a fight and use a continue in one of the fights
To get the good ending : one must not lose a single fight and an average of AAA skill ranks is a must in every round

the ranking system

in Garou's arcade mode goes from "Miracle" going down to "B".
The ranking depends on your health bar and the timer : the faster you ends a round and the higher your health is, the higher your rank will be.

These are the ranks that you can get :
miracle > SSS > SS > S > AAA > AA > A > B

The Win pose

By default, your character performs a win pose at the end of match, you can however manipulate it by holding a button after the K. O.

Secret taunts

Each character has 2 secret taunts, once you defeat a character press right+taunt or left+taunt after you defeat a character.

Gallery

The gallery mode compiles artworks of the game, unlocked by clearing the game modes and sometimes at random.

Final words

Get the Xbox 360 version even with it's bad netcode, right now the PSN version excels thanks to code mystic being the ones porting the game, go get it instead of this version !!

Update : Thanks to Code mystic for updating the game with better netcode and better layout

For more Information head to Shoryuken [srk.shib.live], there you will find a compilation of everything that concerns the game.

If you want someone to spare with in a match, head to Garou's discord [discord.gg].

if i did miss anything or if i did make a mistake inform me please

[Lejionator]

Congratulations on this wonderful guide!

[PC007]

I sent you and “Extra Helpful” Award on your Guide; have a great day and stay safe

[PC007]

Nice guide; thanks for the Info. Have a great day and stay safe!

[Applethal]

Guide fixed

[Netanel CHEZI]

thank you for this Guide! really great job!

[Adriano]

do how to put more credits, thanks.