Carry as Survivor

Expect your teammates to be useless, and if not, then that's a nice bonus on top of it all. This guide will explain the ways I've found most effective to carry as survivor, as well as containing tips vs each stage of each raider and other miscellaneous tips and things I've found useful.

Intro

Yet another game where your team died placing a power key, and it inspired your teammates to follow them off the cliff and now the raider has the entire soccer team down on the objective? Just another game of solo queue where your randoms were randoms, and you leave on the Escape Time Machine.

I'll do my best in this guide to help YOU to be the better teammate and put the rest on your back as you carry the match, whether it be through fighting or not.

Heads up: This guide is going to contain a lot of in-depth explanations and anecdotes from my personal experience, so it's going to be quite a lot of text. At the end it will also consist of passives/actives/transpheres that I have found success with that I will recommend to you so you can try them out and see if you like any of it.

If there's absolutely anything you can take away from this guide because you don't want to read giant walls of texts (I get it, it's unappealing but it's the easiest way for me to share my knowledge of this game) Learn to use vanish, vanish attacks, and vanish counters, and use them often. These 3 skills will improve your gameplay on both sides drastically.

These first few sections will be rather basic and contain general game plans and strategies, so feel free to skip them if you don't want to read walls of text on stuff you might know already.

But let's first define the "Carry Conditions" that you can employ as a survivor:

Carrying via objective

Carrying via killing the raider

Carrying via "fighting" the raider

Carrying via Objective

This section is rather self-explanatory and is very simple.

Powerful yet a bit boring.

Everyone wants to carry the game by being the main anime protagonist that beats up the bad guy in a flashy way, but this is an effective tactic if you don't have the means to do that (aka the dragonballs)

Somewhat obvious, but if you find a key radar early into a match, it is well worth your effort just to go around finding all of them, and let others place them.

If you don't have a radar and have nothing better to do, it never hurts to go set a power key.

And for the love of god, try your best to not die in an area that the raider is camping setting the power key, or even worse die when the key isn't set. Even if it's your first down, you're as good as out of the game as now the Raider gets to camp both the key and the downed player at once. At the same time, if someone dies in the final area and the raider is camping both, just let them die. It's not worth it.

Simple and the most effective yet boring tactic, if you have the means to do the objective do it. But you'd probably get bored of doing this every game eventually.

Carrying via Killing the Raider

Knowing how to fight.

Sounds great right? Who needs keys. Just reduce the raider's health bar to zero and win the game. It's like doing the objective but more fun.

If you're fighting solo, expect to do very minimal damage. When you're the only target the raider has to deal with, fighting one on one becomes very unfavorable for you as the survivor, even if you're level 4 and the raider is level 2-3.

Once more survivors are added into the equation, even one extra survivor changes this game play dramatically. As a general practice, you typically want the player who is of the same level or higher level than the raider to be fighting in melee range, and everyone else to be at range spamming ranged attacks and supers.
Having multiple melee attackers can prove useful if the raider is committing to backing away from the fight while attacking, but all it takes is one person in melee range to throw off the raider's game play.

Alright great, the guy managed to clash a melee or even successfully begin a rush melee onto the raider, spam a super right?

Wrong. (Unless the raider defensive is off cooldown)

Spamming a super the second they're locked into an attack when they have their defensive ability (eg break strike, afterimage, angry shout, ki explosion, ki burst) is more often then not going to end up wasting your energy. (Unless you're level 4 of course)

Normal ranged attacks are power. Use them. They add up quickly, don't use much energy, and will usually do more damage than a single rush or vanish attack would.

Supers are strong as a finishing move if you are about to untransform, as even if you have 1 energy remaining, it will still perform the super as if you could pay the full cost. Even if it were to miss when others are fighting, it will at the very least force the raider to pay attention and vanish.

A little tip when a survivor is rush meleeing the raider and you are also in melee range:
Instead of performing your own rush attack (left clicks), use a vanish attack when the survivor who is meleeing them is about to finish their own attack, as it does the same amount of damage, but all in one hit and is very quick, this is efficient as sometimes when you try to rush melee, they might get blown away before your animation finishes and you lose out on valuable damage. (There will be an entire section about vanishing and vanish attacks as they are extremely powerful.)

Carrying via "fighting" the Raider

Hey wait didn't I just write an entire section on this?

Of course not. How silly of you think that.

Just because you're transformed doesn't mean you're trying to kill the raider. Sometimes it is a defensive tactic, sometimes it's a bait tactic, sometimes it's a tactic to hope the raider breaks their mouse from spamming left click, and then proceeding to win the game up a whole rodent.

Now you think I'm joking, but in seriousness, more survivors should employ the latter tactic.

Let's paint the scenario: You're transformed against a stage 2 Freiza, they're sitting comfortable at 30-50 meters, (for reference melee range is ~20 meters, and lock on range is 70~80 meters)
And this guy is spamming you with ki blasts like his life depends on it, like this man is trying to win the world championship for most left clicks per second in a round of breakers.

It's painful, as you watch your transformation bar turn red as you get pelted with ki blasts, if only there was something you could do about it:

Introducing: Asserting your dominance by breaking your mouse from "spamming" right clicks and stealing the championship title from the raider.

Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire. There will be a more in depth section on vanishes and vanish attacks, but the gist of it is this:

If the raider is zoning you out of melee range harder than the local Axl main, and instead chooses to do the sequel to w m1, "s m1", eg moving backwards while spamming ki blasts, vanish spam is a strong counter to this. Against MOST**(More on this later) raider stages, you can comfortable do this from any range and basically become immune to ranged attacks until the raider actually decides to play the game and approach you.

What you do is to to vanish, then as soon as you are able to get another teleport vanish, do it again, going back and forth, left and right, while you laugh as the raider's ki blasts miss. (If you do it too quickly you will do a short dash instead, and this isn't what you want. I recommend practicing the timing in a practice match.)

Even if you're not damaging the raider, you can waste a LOT of time, and basically force them to either approach you and fight melee, or wait out your transform timer, in either case, that is good for the survivor.

ALL ABOUT VANISH (IN DEPTH STUFF STARTS HERE)

If there's one thing you need to take away from reading these great wall of texts, USE AND ABUSE VANISH- This one simple trick will increase your win rate SUBSTANTIALLY.

If there's one thing that is criminally underused by many players on both sides- It has to be vanishing. My god the fact that more people don't use and abuse it is astounding.

Raider players might not want to hear this slander, but there is a button other than left click that is also extremely strong: The Right Click

Whether it to be to dodge a super attack, dodge ki blasts, bait a melee, or even deliver a "teleports behind you- nothin' personal kid" to the raider (or survivor), this button is REALLY good.

(Vanish countering will be covered in depth in the next section)

Vanishing has a sort of internal "cooldown" where after vanishing, if you try to mash and perform another one instantly, your character will do some kind of dash or roll to the side, that isn't very strong, and it isn't what you want.

Thankfully, this "cooldown" is extremely short, and as long as you aren't trying to win the tournament for right clicking as fast as possible, this usually won't happen. Best advice I can give for it is to go into practice mode and try to get the timing where you can vanish repetitively back and forth as fast as possible, while performing the blink and trying to avoid dashing.

This will greatly increase your ability to survive in combat, especially when combined with close range melee strategies. (more on that in a later section)

VANISH ATTACKS / VANISH COUNTERS

I'd be surprised if a lot of people even knew this existed, because almost nobody uses it. An exquisite move to flex on your opponent.

What is a vanish attack and how do you do it?

While in melee range, holding forwards TOWARDS the raider, and then performing a vanish. This will cause your character to blink behind your opponent and attempt a quick kick/swing.

(For survivors, this attack will do the same as a rush melee, but for raiders it does a lot less than a rush attack melee, unless your name is Vegeta.)

This attack is very quick, and very safe. If it hits, great- you've basically landed a free attack that has very little commitment- on top of that, it does all of it's damage at once, unlike a rush attack, so the raider can't reduce the damage via defensive skill since the damage has already been dealt.
If it misses? You can cancel the animation very quickly via performing another vanish after.
It's honestly extremely difficult to punish a whiffed vanish attack unless your opponent has shown you their hand and is carelessly spamming them- In which case, you can try to react to them whiffing a vanish attack by strafing, and rush meleeing them as soon as they miss. Difficult to pull off but is viable if you are expecting it.

HOWEVER this is not to say just randomly throw out vanish attackers whenever you're in melee range (unless your name is Vegeta because he has a special vanish attack and it is EXTREMELY good.)
They will ALWAYS miss if the opponent is not standing still / is locked in an animation.

Now this has just been vanish attacks. This section is also called "Vanish Counters" for a reason.

A vanish counter is when your opponent is performing a rush melee towards you, and in response you perform a vanish attack before you get punched in the face (This also works in response to some Super Attacks, check each Raider's section for what you can and can't vanish counter) Since the Vegeta update, you don't need frame perfect timing anymore to perform this technique, as long as they get somewhat close to you in a rush animation, this technique will work.

This technique is criminally underrated and should absolutely be used more, as it can punish a LOT of individual raider abilities (more on specifics in each raider's section)

Pro Tip: A successful vanish counter will deal damage even if you are a LOWER level than the raider. Usually when you land a successful rush/vanish attack against a raider, who is a higher level than you they'll just knock you away for being weaker than them. However, vanish counters ignore this if you get them in their rush animation. It will do reduced damage due to level difference- but it will still land and deal a lot of knockback.

It's a strong tactic when you are under leveled in melee range.

MELEE ROCK PAPER SCISSORS

What the hell is this? Some kind of follow the winner ice breaker activity that absolutely nobody asked for?

Luckily for you, of course not. This is the fun part of the game- Where interactivity between both sides shines.

Rush, Vanish, Strafe- the holy trinity of close range combat.

If I could make a triangle it would go something like this:


Read: Rush beats strafe, strafe beats vanish, vanish beats rush.

Vanishing can cause a rush to whiff and be punished, OR a vanish attack will beat a rush attack if timed correctly. (IMPORTANT: You can cancel any rush melee attack- Including melee supers by vanishing- You don't want to let the rush time out, as you actually get locked in place for a second or so if you go the maximum distance.)
(There is also a buggy interaction where if you vanish directly before an opponents rush attack lands, you'll lock the other opponent in a melee animation despite you not being there- this is more than likely a bug and hopefully is fixed eventually, but this is hard to do intentionally in a real game anyways.)

Strafing will cause a vanish attack to miss and allow an opportunity to punish with a rush. (Note this won't work if you vanish to dodge a vanish attack as you won't have enough time if the player inputs a vanish cancel quickly- and can even lead to you getting whiff punished if you're careless.)

And lastly a rush attack will beat the opponent strafing (assuming you're close enough it doesn't miss because of rush melees going in a straight line)

This is definitely and obviously can be brought up that rush can beat rush and strafing can beat rushing etc etc, but this is assuming both players are somewhat close and commit to an action.

In all honestly, I wouldn't recommend close range strafeing unless you see your opponent loves to use vanish attacks especially if they're throwing them out randomly at a range because I swear to god every Raider player sees the melee indicator and just goes to press left click because it's the most rewarding attack on hit. Please vanish counter these fools until they learn to press another button.

SPACING THE RAIDER

Let's look at it like this:
When fighting the Raider there's 4 ranges: Melee Range, Ranged Sweet Spot, Far Range, and Out of Lock-on Range.

Melee Range:
0-20 meters, there's a little melee indicator and this lets you know you can perform a rush or vanish attack against your opponent, and neither of you can ranged attack each other while that indicator is there.

Mid Range (Raider Ranged Sweet Zone):
This is about the 21-35ish meter range, where you're just outside of melee, and ranged attacks are extremely effective here, even against some of the stronger anti-range strategies such as vanish spamming. You should avoid being here as a survivor if you're fighting alone, as you're the most vulnerable to Raider players that left click like their life depends on it. Either get closer and force a melee encounter, or play at a safer range.

Far Range (Survivor Sweet Zone):
40ish meters - 70-80ish meters- This zone maintains a safe distance from the Raider where you are still locked on and can perform ranged attacks / super attacks, while being extremely safe from many ranged attacks that the Raider can perform- barring a few exceptions.

Out of Lock-on:
70-80+ meters- The range where lock on doesn't apply and you can freely aim your abilities. This range can be extremely advantageous for someone like a stage 3 Cell or Vegeta, where their singular quick ranged attacks become deadly when manually aimed. When fighting the Raider, typically you want to remain locked on however this can be viable if you are using a level 3/4 character like Goku who has a strong basic kamehameha normal attack that is very lethal when not locked on due to being very active.

Now that you know what these ranges are, let's talk spacing as survivor.

You typically want to avoid being in the Mid Range, as this can make dodging abilities such as stage 3 volley, or even some normal ki blasts very difficult or even impossible. This is doubly important if you're level 4, as you do not want to be poked into the ice age.

If you're fighting solo, either attempt to play melee range, (can be risky if you're underleveled, or unprepared to deal with volley) or try to keep your distance about 40 meters away, as at this range, you can freely vanish spam and dodge most ki blasts and abilities with ease.

A little technique here: When vanish spamming, the Raider might try to do the forbidden technique of holding the 'w' key while firing at you, attempting to get into that sweet sweet range zone.
A tactic that you can try out is while vanish dodging, instead of going back and forth, try to face your character in a way that you're vanishing in one direction, but also gaining some distance backwards from the Raider as well. (You blink the furthest when going sideways so face in a way that you're moving sideways, but also moving at an angle backwards,)
Additionally, you can do this in reverse, causing you to dodge towards the Raider and get closer to melee range instead.

Another tactic against the secret w key tactic is to also summon Exodia via holding the w key as well. This can catch a Raider off guard as it could force melee combat, and give you a free vanish counter from a predictable rush melee.

VS CELL

Stage 1:
Not really much to do here, you typically won't even ever interact with him level 1 since he evolves so quickly. Best left alone.

Stage 2:
Now the game's really started. Cell level 2 is pretty weak. You should be spacing his ranged attacks- You can somewhat safely play inside the Raider Sweet Ranged Zone here- His ki blasts in this stage are pretty slow, and are beat by vanish spamming, and he has very sub-par super attacks.

If Cell ever thinks about pressing a super attack, they are extremely slow and you are very easily able to respond with a vanish, and potentially even a vanish counter after if you're close enough. NOTE: Do NOT try to use vanish counter during the startup of his two super attacks, it doesn't work, even though you get behind him, for some dumb reason the attack will still hit you even if you get behind him. If you want to attempt this, you need to vanish dodge first then vanish attack. The same applies to Solar Flare.

Be wary of Cell's solar flare, it is pretty quick and can catch many players off guard, giving him a free double super combo (Energy wave into beam cannon).
Pro tip vs Solar Flare: It has the same range as melee range, 20 meters. If you have the melee indicator, you are in solar flare range. You can counter solar flare by turning away (since you're only blinded if your character is facing the solar flare user) OR better yet use a vanish. If you vanish right before solar flare goes off, you will dodge the solar flare entirely, and you can even punish it on whiff with a vanish attack if you're in range- However the same goes for solar flare as the super attacks: DO NOT try not use the vanish attack to dodge the ability- You need to vanish dodge first THEN vanish attack, you will get stunned if you try to do both in one vanish.


Stage 3:
Man this character sucks in combat. I mean he has volley but that's about it. If you run Wall of Defense to counter his volley, this character is literally rendered worthless in combat. While locked on, focus on reacting to his basic kamehamehas, they have a very distinct wind up and can be easily vanish dodged. If he presses gravity impact and you aren't stunned, make sure you don't dodge too early and look for a vanish attack punish if he whiffs it in melee range. (Sometimes you can do the attack and dodge in one vanish, but it's inconsistent on this ability whether it hits behind him or not.)

The main difficulty in fighting Stage 3 Cell is his 10 second cooldown full power volley. A very powerful tool that has very minimal counterplay as a survivor. Not really much to say here other than to try to stay at a 40+ meter range to minimize the damage it will do to you. Alternatively run Wall of Defense, which is a great ability that stuffs abilities like each Raider's stage 3 volley attack, and even Vegeta's Ape Stomp. Keep in mind as well, all raider super attacks are immune to crowd control on startup, and the only way to interrupt the startup is to land a rush or vanish attack on the Raider. Note: DO NOT try to vanish attack to stop a volley attack- You will get smoked. (Inconsistent vs Vegeta however.) This only works if they try to volley right as you vanish attack pretty much.

Stage 4:
Genuinely I do not have much to say here other than cry about it the game is over.
This character's ki blasts got buffed to the point they are pretty much a war crime. You need at least 50+ meters of space to even attempt to vanish spam to counter.
Stage 4 Cell op.

VS FREIZA

Stage 1:
Not a whole lot to it: His basic laser attack has a startup that you can react to and easily vanish dodge; Other than that, be wary of his slash attack that has a small startup but can be difficult to see. Similar to his level 4 death slash, but slightly slower and doesn't make a wall of fire.

Stage 2:
A popular stage among Freiza players.
Has a strong ki blast that essentially demands you to vanish spam at 30+ meters, as well as a very solid super attack. Freiza players love to stand in the ranged sweet spot and spam you with their strong ki blasts in this stage- Fight back by vanish spamming and maintaining your distance.
Other than that, be prepared for his super attacks that can contain some venom when used unexpectedly. Explosion wave creates an explosion at his targeted location, and can be very tricky to dodge, as it is very easy to attempt to vanish dodge too early. This ability is rather delayed, so you want to wait till the last second to vanish to dodge the explosion when it comes down- There is a nice visual indicator that appears around you when he uses this ability, so use that to your advantage, but don't panic vanish too soon.
His other super attack in this stage, full power energy wave- Is nothing special. Has a somewhat quick startup but is very reactable on use, but this does demand an attentive survivor to vanish dodge. Does not have much of an indicator on use so you need to be looking to dodge it when he uses it- (I've noticed a lot of Freiza players don't use this ability very much but it's the same as Cell's stage 2- Dodge it when you see it.)

Stage 3:
Another fan favorite.
Contains a strong ki orb blast that demands respect, and two strong supers that are above average.
Try to space 40+ meters and backwards-side vanish to gain distance as you dodge, as his ki blasts in this stage are very potent in the sweet zone.
Always be looking for his death beam- This ability has a rather quick startup and deals a great amount of damage all in one burst (200~250), but it is weak to vanishing as it is a thin beam.
Note: Vanish attack won't work to dodge the ability, you need to dodge then vanish attack, but I wouldn't recommend it on death beam as it actually has a very quick recovery on whiff.
Crazy Finger Tip Blasts: Nice ability name. It's your stage 3 raider volley, but instead of being a orb with solid area coverage, they're thin beams that look really buggy when you're survivor for some reason still. Nothing special to this volley, take same advice as I gave with Cell's, as it's basically the same attack but trades aoe for travel speed. (Bandai please fix the visual on this ability for survivors)

Stage 4:
Pretty rare to see as most games end before then due to the very high evolution cost from stage 3 to stage 4.
Has an above average ranged attack and the extremely powerful death slash.
His normal ranged attack might seem very strong and oppressive but with practice they become much less of a threat.
Versus the two slashes, you want to dodge as LATE as possible, right before the first one were to hit you in one vanish, and you will usually dodge the second one as well- The second still may hit if he is close enough to you ~30 meters, but backwards side dodging will usually keep you out of range.
The real threat that he has in this stage is his death slash. This ability is an extremely quick startup, 8 second cooldown wall of fire nuke. If dueling at a range, it might be worth to throw in an extra vanish after every time you dodge his basic ranged attack, as it is extremely difficult to react to death slash and it hits like a truck. Keep in mind his wall of fire can actually hit you out of los and behind walls.

VS BUU

Stage 1:
Doesn't pose much of a threat to a good survivor: His ki blasts are pretty easily strafed and vanish dodged in combat, both of his summon Yamu abilities lose to vanish attacking, and crash launcher has a decent startup and sound indicator making it easy to dodge.
Extremely weak to being ganged up on, and can even be killed level one if he does not quickly get to stage 2.
A very valid strategy here is to spam "Let's fight" and gang up on him to attempt to kill him level one, or cripple his health bar.

Stage 2:
A solid ki blast and an extremely potent crowd control ability.
When dueling stage 2 Buu, keep a comfortable range and mash that vanish key- I wouldn't even recommend doing anything else until you see him use his gum, as if that ability lands, your transformation is as good as over. I would recommend against using rush attacks against him as they can be extremely unsafe due to angry shout, where he can blow you away and combo it into his gum if you are not mashing vanish. Some Buu players will occasionally use "The Funny Button" aka Angry Explosion- where if you try to rush melee you will get sucked in and take a LOT of damage in return
Pro Tip: The suck in does not apply if you land a vanish attack during the startup (it won't do damage but you won't get trapped either) or if you don't do any attacks and simply walk out of it.
A little tech with that ability is even if you do get trapped from rush meleeing, sometimes you can still get out of it by vanishing anyways right before it explodes, but it is very inconsistent. If Buu ever uses this ability and you don't get trapped, he gets locked in a lengthy end lag after the ability which leaves him vulnerable to ranged attacks and supers.

Stage 3:
Cry about it.
The man has everything you could ask for. Strong cc, oppressive ki blasts, a zoning ability, a volley, and even a get out of jail free card, as well as ki sense.
If you are unfortunate enough to have to duel this guy, you need to maintain a LOT of distance to successfully vanish dodge his ki blasts ~50 meters+. When he uses Ill Rain- The ki blast that splits into 3, don't even think about doing anything until that ability gets close to you, and then vanish dodge it- that thing hurts if you let it hit you- ~200-250 damage.
For volley- Refer to previous sections.
Honestly when Buu reaches Stage 3, the game might as well end right there and then. Very difficult to do anything about, even as a team.

Stage 4:
Unironically a worse version of Super Buu that you will see extremely rarely see in a game.
His attacks are all vanish dodgeable on reaction, so use that to your advantage.
If he ever uses Assault Rain- His super super attack- tbh just pray to rngesus, or that they fix that ability. I don't know what the hell they did but for some reason the indicators on that attack are massively broken and you just kind of have to pray it doesn't hit you because the indicators don't work at all.

VS VEGETA

Stage 1:
Give em a hug, he doesn't bite. (Though he might explode.)
Just run away. He can't fly so he doesn't chase you very well, and he only has wall kick for mobility. There's a few strategies and combos where you can kill him with certain ideas like solar flare into super spirit bomb (one shot kill) or melee whiff into double spirit bomb (will kill if it combos).
If anything, just make sure that his acid attack does not hit you, or you are as good as dead.

Stage 2:
Nappa, Nappa, Nappa. Man does this character have a lot going for him. A good question to ask before trying to fight a Nappa is: Did you kill Saibaman? If yes, then you can play a bit more aggressively. If no, then don't even think about fighting him solo ever, unless they actually nerf summon Saibaman sometime in the future.
My god I could write a 3 page 12 font size, times new roman, double spaced essay on how stupid that ability is. Your best bet is to vanish mash and hope it misses you before doing anything else.
His normal left click ki blasts are pretty easily dodged, but most Nappa's will spam his triple left click attack which is a bunch of spammy beams that can't be destroyed, are very quick and do a lot of damage. There's not much to this attack other than staying out of the sweet zone and mashing dodge.
For his super attacks, murder grenade and his buster cannon are pretty below average and have long startups. Dodge on reaction but don't dodge too early.
Really just avoid fighting this character solo at all costs. Extremely oppressive farms your transformation for free energy, and his only weakness is he has low health.

Stage 3:
Vegeta has powerful and underused melee tools- Aka his vanish attack.
Vegeta has a unique rush melee and vanish attack in that he will teleport after attacking you. His rush melee isn't anything to call home about other than if you don't have a barrier and he ends your transformation by meleeing you, they are considered separate attacks so you will get downed after being meleed at 0 power, unlike other raider characters that only do one hit.
However the real venom here is his unique vanish attack- Boy is it good.
Unlike every other character, his vanish attack is much quicker and difficult to punish due it's nature. After he blinks once, he will blink again to perform a follow up attack EVEN IF the first attack whiffed. The only way to stop the follow up is to perform an attack interrupts him.
You can still whiff punish if he is trying to spam them by strafing and rush meleeing when he tries to vanish attack.

KEEP IN MIND HIS SECOND BLINK FOLLOWUP IGNORES DISTANCE BETWEEN HIM AND YOU: A rather unknown Vegeta tech is that he can try to vanish attack, and say you tried to grapple or otherwise teleport away before the follow up- he will actually follow you and appear at your location regardless of distance. (This can sometimes hit you as well but is rather inconsistent, it mostly serves to be a huge unexpected gap closer)

His normal left click is nothing special, a quick disc that is easily evaded, and his triple left click is a barrage of ki orbs. If you're at the 30-40 meter zone, you might get tagged by 1 or 2 orbs in his spammy ki attack, but they only do 8 damage each and can be evaded if you're further than that.
His supers are nothing special. He has the volley archetype attack, but his is somewhat unique-
Finish Breaker: Very similar to the previous volley attacks, in which you can reference previous advice, but if you're far enough away eg 50+meters you can usually evade most of, if not all of the blasts. A thing to note about this attack: Vegeta immobilizes himself during the duration of the attack, and his turning rate is severely reduced, so you can use that to your advantage. (Vanish attacking during the animation is extremely inconsistent, but you are welcome to try.)
His final super attack, his signature: Galick Gun- really sad ability. It doesn't track you at all and it only aims at where you were when the ability started up. Use this to your advantage: you can dodge on reaction, and literally just run up and vanish counter him because this attack doesn't track you and has a lot of end lag. Something to note on this ability: Unlike other attacks like energy wave and beam cannon- You can vanish to both dodge and vanish attack the startup at the same time, since for some reason this ability doesn't hit behind himself, likely due to it not tracking at all.

Stage 4:
In my opinion a massive downgrade to stage 3 Vegeta vs a prepared survivor. If you have any ability that counters stomp (grapple, wall of defense, energy field) this character is literally useless if you're transformed. His ranged attacks are extremely easy to dodge, and his melee is slow and clunky, and easily punishable with a vanish attack on the tail on whiff.
If you can evade his stomp, this character is actually terrible.
Wall of Defense is your best friend. Block stomp and punish with vanish attack melees or a super to the tail. (You need to wait for his stomp to end since he is invulnerable during the animation, even if it lets you hit him).

Come Forth, Shenron! All about the Level 4 Playstyle

Great. You've got all seven dragonballs! Summon Shenron at the alter!

Shenron has been summoned by Walter White clone #431

I want to get-

"..."
"........................"
At the time of writing this, pressing that button should honestly be a reportable offense.
Maybe one day it'll increase all other survivor's dragon change to level 3 and refresh their transformation cooldown.

Alright let's get serious. It's in the thumbnail of this guide.
You got the dragonballs, summoned Shenron, and you're now level 4 and ready to kick the raider's ass.

So what should you do once you hit level 4? Run at the Raider on a solo mission like you're having an anime protagonist take on the world transformation?
Sure. I won't elaborate with some clever statement or something. Try it. All I'll say is that it's the fastest way to throw your advantage off the Empire State Building. (I guess I did anyways)

Now here's a little lesson in survivor-y:
Your existence as a level 4 survivor is the biggest threat on the map for the Raider at any given time. You should be playing like if you lose level 4, the game is lost instantly. Not to say that you should be 200 meters away sitting in a cave, but spacing is a concept as a survivor that you should learn if you want to carry.

A level 4 survivor should realistically NEVER be within 20-40 meters of the Raider when alone, as you leave yourself wide open to ki blasts and Raider super attacks. You should be prioritizing minimizing damage as much as possible, staying out of range, and using your ranged attacks, as well as your infinite transformation time to it's full advantage. Either play in melee range, or play far range - no lock on range.

You have no pressure if you're dead.

Once you transform, if you have all the keys and need to place a few, get those done and start the Super Time Machine before engaging in combat, as you can more than likely build such a huge lead that even if you lose level 4, the Raider will lose to STM activation, where as if the STM isn't going, you are gambling much more because if your attempt to kill the Raider fails, you've lost everything.

However, if you don't have all the keys available yet, rushing down the Raider can be a viable tactic. Just. Do. Not. Go. In. Alone. It's your teammates job to support you. They need to be the ones getting into melee range and opening the Raider up to your attacks.
(This goes for you as well. If a level 4 person is fighting, GET IN THERE- Lock the Raider in an animation, EVEN LET YOURSELF GET HIT- That is free super attacks all day for the level 4.)

Active Skill Recommendations

The Scooter:
When boosting with this, you will go nyoom extremely fast, and if the Raider is locked on, it is basically impossible to hit you, providing you aren't giving them a flat straight line to you. This ability lets you get travel extremely quickly in a short period of time, and can literally make you invincible in certain areas that contain a sort of "loop" that blocks line of sight that you can get around faster than the Raider. This ability is extremely effective at punishing a Raider who is overcommitting to chasing you after you grapple away, or as a quick get-away to avoid combat altogether. Combos well with the ability Energy Field, which is pretty much a guaranteed get away when you combine both cooldowns together. Important to note that you have to dismount if you want to interact with anything on the map that isn't a jump pad or dropping your dragonballs. This is a cooldown best saved as an escape tool as it has a lengthy ~70 second cooldown.
When you want to escape, try to make sure the Raider doesn't have line of sight before activating, as it can be destroyed pretty easily during it's startup, unless of course you have Energy Field, which can totally disregard this requirement. All you need is less than a second to start it up safely and make an escape.

Grappling Hook:
I don't understand how people play the game without this ability. Genuinely. The amount of stuff you can do with this ability, and the utility it provides isn't replaceable. If you don't run this, I hope you unbind your transformation button, as getting untransformed in the air without grapple is a death sentence.
This is a cooldown best saved as an escape option, or last-resort quick movement. You typically don't want to be caught with this ability on cooldown, as unless you have an alternative such as Scooter/Energy Field, you are as good as dead.
Has great synergy with abilities such as the jump pad, since when you are in the air, you have a much better field of view that can allow you to grapple further away. Can be an easy way to avoid combat before the Raider even begins attacking you. Jump pad, grapple away. Sweet and simple.
An important consideration when wanting to grapple at the end of combat: Knowing if you had a barrier or not before you transformed. If you did have a barrier, you can play a bit more risky and wait to grapple at the last second, as you have a bit of freedom on the timing. If you do NOT have a barrier when you are going to untransform, you're going to want to grapple early ~50-100 energy remaining, as once you untransform, you will instantly die to anything. It might be worth to disengage even sooner if you're fighting a stage 3 Vegeta, who can instantly kill you off of untransforming from a rush melee if you do not have a barrier.
A good habit to get into is transforming before your barrier breaks in general, to avoid situations where you have to back off early.

Jump Pad:
The third ability in my "holy trinity of active skills"
A simple and basic ability that has a quick 30 second cooldown that is extremely spammable. This tool is absolutely fantastic for getting around the map, especially when combined with hovering device, that can help to alter your momentum and prevent staggers from falling.
I would recommend this ability to everyone as it allows you to get around the map, engage the Raider in closer proximity (if desired), gain a height advantage to get a strong grapple.
I think one of the most valuable aspects to this ability is the fact that is has such a low cooldown, and it provides you so much mobility to get around the map with. This should be your go-to tool for quickly looting and getting around, as you don't want to be using your other mobility tools such as scooter or grapple to be getting around, as they have lengthy cooldowns and if you get caught without them, you are going to be in a bad spot. Being caught without jump pad is much less detrimental as you likely have your main escape options available.
And honestly, playing without this ability feels crippling. You have to sacrifice so much tempo around the map or risk using another cooldown instead, which can leave you vulnerable.
Pro Jump Pad tip: Many actions / items can be used during the special jump pad "floating" animation, and will retain your momentum rather than stopping you. Some uses are Cooldown drinks, SOME abilities such as Flames of Mt Frying Pan, Solar Flare, etc. (rip kaioken tech you will be missed). Use this to your advantage to save time and increase your tempo as survivor.

THE WALL:
Hate volley attacks? Hate stomp? Me too.
Never worry about those stupid attacks again.
When you see the Raider start their volley attack, or a silly ape Vegeta tries to press stomp, simply become the WALL. I value this ability highly as it allows you to nullify otherwise mostly-unavoidable damage that can cripple your transformation time. Also has an extremely low base ~30 second cooldown.
This is definitely the most replaceable ability on the list, and I'll put some other strong alternatives that I've enjoyed using below. (But I would highly recommend the first 3 abilities in any survivor loadout)

ALTERNATIVES:

Energy Field: Very strong ability that quite literally makes you invincible for a few seconds, while knocking away and Raider that tries to get too close. This ability is pretty broken since you can do quite literally any action that isn't melee attacking the Raider during it's active time. Has a long cooldown, but has great synergy with grapple and scooter, as it allows you have a nearly uncounterable get away.

Charming Pose: More than likely the best crowd control option, as long as you're within ~40 meters, and the Raider doesn't use a super attack, this is basically just a guaranteed stun. Great for burning a Raider defensive, or for punishing them when it's off cooldown. If you want to run any crowd control as survivor, I would recommend this one.

Flames of Mt. Frypan: (AKA the other WALL)
Honestly I feel really mixed about this ability. In terms of selfish use, this ability is a bit unintuitive. The wall you create actually has a really low amount of health- around 200-300 health, and can be quickly destroyed by many Raiders.
However where I believe this ability really shines is when used for another teammate. You can create a makeshift cave when dueling the Raider when fighting with teammates, which can make it difficult for the Raider to escape, as well as being useful to helping a teammate to escape the Raider.

Remote Saiyan Pod:
Can be a great ability to escape an overcommitting Raider if you've gained a lot of distance, or to get to the other side of the map very quickly. A shell of it's former self from the beta after it's nerfs, but still a very solid ability.

Afterimage:
Punish the Raider for being silly and thinking they could rush melee attack you! (Unless their name is Nappa, in which case cry about it.)
Combos great with any crowd control abilities such as Krillin's Shoe or Solar Flare.
Important Note: Unlike Cell, survivors do NOT gain invulnerability during the animation, so it is not an effective option to use against a Raider volley.
HOW TO PROPERLY PUNISH A RUSH MELEE WITH AFTERIMAGE SOLAR FLARE- Both Cell and Survivors
When you are being rush meleed, hold the S key THEN press afterimage. This will control the direction that your character moves in for your first afterimage blink, then CANCEL your afterimage by pressing Solar Flare, or vanishing again and then pressing Solar Flare. This is important as you need to make sure your opponent is facing you, otherwise Solar Flare isn't going to stun them.
Holding S isn't absolutely required, but it makes sure that you go backwards instead of too far to the side, which might cause it to miss.
Stage 2 Cell tip: Energy wave can combo into Beam Cannon if you're close, but NOT the other way around.

Passive Skill Recommendations

Hover Thingy:
Unfortunately got nerfed pretty hard when the season 2 update came out, as it no longer gives you bonus momentum when jumping off the ground, but is still a great ability. Combos well with jump pad, allowing you to cancel your momentum early in desired, or to travel further distances in the air, or to be used right before hitting the ground in order to prevent a fall stagger.

Speeeeeeed BOOST:
Obviously this perk is to compliment the Scooter, and yes, it does work while boosting on the scooter, unless my several tests were all incorrect somehow, there was a significant difference with and without this passive. Makes getting away on the Scooter much smoother, and as a nice added bonus it does make normal vehicles move much faster as well if you do end up wanting to use this.

Saving yourself an Item Slot:
I don't really know why you wouldn't run this ability if you have it unlocked. Barriers are an incredibly important part of the survivor gameplay loop, and if you have to sacrifice an item slot to carry a barrier recovery device, then that is an item slot that could've been used for a better item like a cooldown drink.
Would absolutely recommend using this if you have it unlocked. Hard to play without it.
Honestly, I think that they should just make this mechanic base kit and make this passive decrease the time it takes for the base regen time.
(Takes around a minute for a barrier to recover.)

Start the game at level 1 with a cooldown drink:
This ability is pretty stupid. World Champion's Daughter:
At level one of this ability, it starts you with 5000 zeni. Not bad right?
Well you see, it scales up to 80% MORE. At level 10 this ability gives 7000 zeni, and at level 20 you start with 9000 zeni. 9000 zeni buys you a cooldown drink,2 medium power cubes, and leaves you with some change. This is pretty broken. At the start of the game when you have this perk maxed out (or at least to level 15 for the 8000 zeni threshold) jump pad and grapple to the nearest set of vending machines to give yourself a massive starting advantage.

ALTERNATIVE PASSIVE SKILLS:

Wall Kick:
Great mobility option for getting around the map, but somewhat redundant when you have jump pad and hovering device since that will cover most of your vertical mobility needs, but is still very nice to have.

VIP Special:
This is kind of a Poor-Man's WCD ability, as it has a similar effect, but doesn't apply at the start of the game, where vending machines give the most value, since later on into the match they can be destroyed by the Raider or bought by another player. Can function as a psuedo-substitute for WCD but wouldn't recommend it if you have WCD. Alternatively, run it with WCD and go buy every single vending machine on the game. (Sacrifices another passive slot though)

S.O.S:
Simply put: Wow my team sucks I'm leaving by the Escape Time Machine.
This ability starts a 50% speed, and scales all the way to 100% speed at level 20.
The effect this ability has when used is extremely powerful and if it was used every game, I would absolutely be running this ability in every match. However, the major downside to this ability is that there is a very good chance that the ETM doesn't even happen in a given game you're playing. This ability only gets value if you actually call the ETM in a game. So there is a very high chance that this never happens, and you're effectively only playing with 3 passive slots. HOWEVER, if it does happen, this is easily one of the best abilities in the game, it's just too much of a gamble to run in my opinion, but if you have nothing better this is a great option especially if you hate your teammates.

High Alert:
This ability is somewhat interesting, as you can hear the Raider from MUCH further away, (50% at level 1, 100% at level 20) so you will basically never be caught off guard. This ability is great for pre-emptively avoiding the Raider since they you will never be surprised by a 100 meter snipe since you'll hear them coming.
This is a nice ability, but it can also throw you off a lot and make you misjudge where the Raider is due to it's effect, but is a very strong ability to avoid ever getting into contact with the Raider at all, especially with the jump pad + grapple combo, just even just the Scooter.
It fights for a passive slot with a lot of really good abilities, so I personally don't run it, but it is a good option.

Transphere Recommendations (Mainly for Level 3/4)

These will mostly consist of transpheres that have exceptionally strong supers or normal ranged attacks with brief explanations of each.
Generally what you're looking for in a level 3 transformation super is a quick attack that packs a punch and don't leave you very vulnerable for long.
For normal ranged attacks, either something spammable to cancel out raider ki blasts or something that has solid long range pressure.

Recommendations:

Cell:
More than likely the best one there is. Special beam cannon is arguably the best super attack in the entire game. It's quick, does a ton of damage, (close to 1.3-1.5 bars to the raider when level 4) and has very little end lag. On top of this, Cell at level 3 also has the normal ranged kamehameha, which is very solid as an ability for survivors, as it's a very active beam that can destroy projectiles and can demand a vanish dodge from the Raider when you're closer, and will deal damage that will absolutely add up over time. Additionally, both Beam Cannon and his normal attack at level 3/4 are powerful out of lock on range tool, as you can use their activity on use to it's full advantage.

Piccolo:
Same reason as above: Special Beam Cannon. His level 3 normal beam is also a solid attack, it's basically a miniature beam cannon, but deals a lot less damage.

Goku / Super Saiyan Goku:
There's a few options here that I've enjoyed messing around with. In both forms, he has the strong normal ranged beam like Cell does, the only difference between forms is the Super Saiyan plays the beam cannon sound effect, and might be slightly faster (NEEDS MORE TESTING)
For supers, they have a few options. Spirit bomb (NORMAL, NOT SUPER SPIRIT) is a very interesting attack as it has to the potential to combo into itself for massive damage, however it does have a delayed attack so it can be easily defensive'd or the Raider can be blown away before the damage goes off. Pro Tip with the Spirit Bomb: If you land the spirit bomb within melee range, you can do a vanish attack before the spirit bomb explodes with good timing, and add some bonus damage into your super attack, as they will land at the same time.

Other Goku super options:
Super spirit bomb: wouldn't recommend for level 3 since it's extremely slow, but is good as a level 1 if you want to go farm some Saibamen.
Warp Kamehameha: This attack is interesting because you will always blink behind the Raider before attacking regardless of distance (as long as you are locked on when the attack begins), and it's a somewhat active ability, unfortunately the tracking is garbage so the beam itself will end up whiffing 99% of the time unless the Raider is stunned or standing still. Good for getting close quickly and difficult to punish, but unreliable for actually doing damage.

Super Sayan Gohan:
His level 3 has the orb ki blasts, which are a great ability for spamming at the Raider in level 4, as they don't cost energy and will cancel out a lot of Raider ki blasts, unfortunately this character doesn't have too many great super options, but all of his choices are solid.
Masenko: Very quick, fast startup, fast recovery. Doesn't do a whole lot of damage but it is a solid ability that demands respect on use.
Kamehameha: Decently quick, has a bit of an animation but in return is a very active ability. (You can use this to your advantage by aiming ahead of a player while out of lock-on range as if you miss they can still walk into it while it is still active.)
Full Power Energy Wave: ^^ Pretty much the same ability as above.
Pro Tip for Active Supers: if the Raider decides they want to get out of a fight by destroying an area, and you have a super that is active for a second or so, throw your super out a little bit before the Raider recovers from the Area Destruction animation, so that the frame that they are able to act (And lose invulnerability) they will get hit due to the move already being active on their hitbox. This is a nice way to get a free bar or so of damage, and punish the Raider for destroying an area to escape an active fight.

Android 17:
Currently the only transphere that possesses the ability Super Electric Strike, which is a very strong super that is difficult to dodge and when you hit the sweet zone with it, does a good chunk of damage (~1.5+ bars at level 4.) This attack actually has two parts to it, the wave itself, and an explosion that happens when it hits something or travels a certain distance.
The wave itself does a lot more damage, but just hitting the explosion part can be useful if the Raider is trying to break the STM and use it as cover, as the explosion portion of this attack disregards that and will still damage them anyways and knock them back. Mostly important to note that if you're trying to use this ability from 50+ meters away, you'll more than likely lose out on the explosive damage and a lot of the knockback, as well as making it a lot easier to dodge. Powerful super that is difficult to dodge at a mid range and has a lot of potential damage, but has a very long startup and a distinct sound effect when used which can make it easier to react to from further distances.

[Nigero Rexo]

Thanks mate

[The Guyfriend]

This person is a G

[Hobo]

I have some disagreements with some skill recommendations, but other then that a solid melee guide, Thank you for the information.

[Dro0zzy]

Silly willy over here recommending SOS

[InvaderRalph]

You're a nerd AGoldFish, that's why

[AGoldFish]

I had no clue vanish countering was a thing, also holy why did I read all that