Yumiko and how to play her

Yumiko is an extremely nimble and probably one of the most mobile characters that was recently released. She has some ridiculous interactions with signatures, and a new kind of signature: Minelaying signatures. However, this is not one of those "If you step on them, say goodbye to your legs" mines. If you step on the outermost mine, you'll immediately get pushed to the next one, and in the end, you'll be launched upwards without a lot of force. It still is an excellent zoning tool to use against your opponent.

Yumiko is typically played as a character that takes control of the board, and wants to keep it that way by keeping her opponents far away as possible. If they do not, they meet a quick demise, for Yumiko is rocking mines, excessive area damage, and a good amount of dashes to escape/harm foes.

In this guide, we'll talk about how to use her weapons correctly, explanations of her signatures, how to combat her efficiently, and a couple of combos, to get you started, or to advance further, if you got the hang of this hyper-versatile legend.

Basic information

Yumiko is like most characters with a bow (Azoth, Ember, Diana) a legend who seeks to take control over the board, to keep the battle at her favor. She has some great combo potential, and most of her signatures aren't very situational. With that said, she can use her signatures, to try and cover ground, get out of a ledge, and damage an unwary opponent, however, her key ability is to keep her opponent zoned at all costs.

Zoning is where you keep your opponent on the edge, or to give your adversary as little space to move, by giving every step closer a more dangerous threat. If they come too close, you can punish the opponent easily. Zoning gives close-ranged skirmishers (Thatch, Wu Shang, and several other Sword/Gauntlet users) a hard time the zoner.

If you're not familiar with zoning-based characters, and you're more of a relentless combatant, then I wouldn't recommend this legend for you, because she focuses well on the defensive, with a side of offense, making her a tactical character.

Pros:
Quick, nimble and evasive are the keywords that you'll often use when it comes to fighting with Yumiko. She has multiple dashes with her bow, but that doesn't stop there. She can zone you out with minelaying tactics. Her hammer can also provide some good area capabilities, especially her side signature. Her down signature is another minelaying trick, but mostly derived of keeping your opponent from ground-slamming you. If you want a character that can keep your opponent at bay, this is the one you would go to.

Cons:
Although I said a ton of great things about Yumiko, it's impossible to create a legend that can beat everyone. Legends that are extraordinarily fast, and can dodge an opponent easily, would find fighting Yumiko child's play. Those characters that move with blinding speed are made for closing gaps, and then to attack quickly. Even though katars haven't seen much use because of how tough it is to use, now would be a good time to study how to use them again, for hammers find it troubling to deal with katars, because katars can outrange a hammer.

Stat	Rating
Strength	Below average
Dexterity	Dextrous
Defense	Below average
Speed	Nimble

Grapple Hammer usage

The grapple hammer is one of the earliest weapons to be ever created, along with the sword, upon the making of Bödvar. However, this weapon is greatly used for defensive purposes, and you'll just end up meeting a quick demise when going on the offensive with it. Do note that hammers are incredibly narrow at range, and they don't provide a great amount of force when fighting on the ground, it has the most potential when getting some air-time. You can try and swing sideways with the hammer before dropping on the ground to hit ground-level targets easily. Side light attacks come out short, and doesn't provide a good amount of force.

The hammer has one major weakness, however: katars. This weapon are extremely hard to master, and comes at great risks when using it. However, it has the quickest attacks in the game, and has some better air power than the slow hammer, making it a good counter towards it.

Bow usage

The bow was first introduced with Ember, and it has some extremely good range capabilities, especially when used on the ground. It can easily zone out an opponent if you got the tools for this job. Even though it doesn't shoot straight, and it can be very wonky when you use it for the first time, you can make up some great and impressive combos with this weapon. Although it has a steep mastery pool, with every corner you pass as an opportunity to find something new.

Yet, the bow is not the best weapon in the game, in fact, no weapon is the best. The bow has no trouble fighting any character directly below them when they're in the air, but the problem lies on the slightly slower close range attacks, and when your opponent is right above you. The side light attack is, to me, pretty clumsy and slow to my opinion, so I sometimes exclude this attack from the Slight, Dlight, Nlight combo. It's also because the range is a lot more narrow than the other bow attacks, and, if you get hit, you won't be able to recover as much, because you're probably already combo'd until you're low on health.

Hammer Signatures

These specify the hammer signatures for Yumiko. Take a good look, for some may seem easy, but it's hard to use.




Yumiko's Nsig will cause her to flourish upwards, and, upon hitting a target, she will slam down her target with excessive force. This signature in particular is quite useful when it comes to edge-guarding. But, remember, unlike some signatures, it only targets aerial targets.







Yumiko's Ssig will cause her to dash quickly to an area in front of her, and strike anything around her. Like most dashes, she can still be targeted, and you can cancel the Ssig if you throw weapons or damage her. Do note that the "Attacking things around her" part does not stack, so getting hit twice or stunned for a second will not happen.




Yumiko's Dsig will cause her to throw three spiritual fires up in the air, which linger for a short time before disappearing. This is an incredibly strong tool when it comes to fighting aerial targets, because they have to reposition their landing. However, when Yumiko is damaged, these mines would disappear quicker than you would expect.

Bow Signatures

These are the bow signatures for Yumiko. All of these would relocate her, no matter how far or close. Try to be cautionate and spare these signatures when you have a chance, because her stun time can be rather high after activating signatures like this.


Yumiko's Nsig will cause her to transform into a projectile and move diagonally in the air, based on the direction you are facing. Remember that this is not a blink, but a dash. Although her hitbox will become smaller, she is still vulnerable to attacks, no matter how much it is. Also, you can use this to quickly dodge some attacks, or hit aerial targets that you try to predict.


Yumiko's Ssig will cause her to turn into a projectile, but this time, she moves straight left or right, depending on the direction you are facing. This can be a great zoning tool, but missing it can provide a good amount of damage TO YOU, so be very careful with this one. Like the nsig, this signature is considered to be a dash, and not a blink, so, do not believe that you are invulnerable while dashing.


Yumiko's Dsig will cause her to lay down three spiritual fires, while herself jumping slightly backwards while planting them. I personally don't find this entirely useful, because opponents can easily jump over these. But, still, it can fill it's part as an excellent separation tool when an opponent dashes towards you.

Some characters to watch out for

Sentinel

Sentinel has greater power with the hammer and katars. Although sentinel players are highly underused, they pack quite a punch against a Yumiko. Their hammer Ssig can jump over Yumiko's Spirit bombs on the ground, and, remember when I said that these spirit fires disappear when Yumiko is damaged? Yes. Just be very careful with this bruiser.

Lord Vraxx

Another slightly unpopular character, but Lord Vraxx can and absolutely will that his range and zoning has no equal. To some, he is crowned as a king of zoning opponents with easy-to-use and slighty-hard-to-avoid signatures, especially when fighting with some blasters. My only idea on how to break this bowl of fruit is to either kite him, carefully apply signatures, and try to focus on placing your hammer Dsig correctly, and you will go without much struggles.

Koji

Unlike what you see in the Meet The Legends screen, Koji can trounce a Yumiko with his big bow, and his sword is faster than most characters in Brawlhalla, making him a versatile pick to fight a Yumiko. Koji is especially popular in the higher level arenas, and he will huff, and he will puff down your hammer-wielding fox lady, no matter how adorable she looks.

Teros

This guy seriously hits like a truck, a truck that can steamroll anyone below average defence, and he can just break down his opponent with just a few hits. The axe hurts, the hammer can be a challenge to fight against, because Teros' mallet can stack if you're not careful. Although primarily aggresive, and you being an excellent defence character, you might have no trouble with him, but just be careful, because he can still throw you off a cliff with just a few strokes.

Some Katar characters

As said by Monowog in: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=517245335:

Monowog님이 먼저 게시:

And for the love of god, don't use the hammer against katars.

I've done some extensive research on the katars, and what this genius is saying, he is right. Although Katars are some of the worst weapons to use right now, it can fill its gap by being the quickest weapon in the game, causing the slow hammer to be an unreliable weapon against katars. Plus, the katars can often remove a hammer from play quicker than the blink of an eye. Be cautionate. Please...

Simple Combos

These are simple combos with the bow and hammer, starting with the bow. All damage has been calculated with equal damage.

Bow

Basic Combo:
Slight, Dlight, Nlight
Damage: 44.00
Dodge Window: 0-2
Notes: This is the basic combo that most bow-wielders know. It's an easy to perform combo. If you have trouble landing the Slight, then remove it from the combo list, and just go with Dlight, Nlight.

Aerial Combos:
Slight, Dlight, Nair/Sair
Damage: 46.00/43.00
Dodge Window: 2-7/5-10
Notes: You can utilize this combo to cause a bit of unpredictability, although it hits your opponents less. However, you can make good use of this when your opponent is too close to the edge to Nlight.

Hammer

These are the hammer combos. Do note that I am not perfect with the hammer. In fact, I rarely use it, so some of these combos I mention can be pretty bad, for there aren't a lot of good combos that I know of.

Basic Combo:
Sair, Dlight, Slight
Damage: 44.00
Dodge Window: 1-5
Notes: A simple little combo I discovered when I was practicing with the hammer ages ago. It provides a good amount of damage for most light combos, and can be easily performed as an opener, but anything higher than 70 damage (Orange health) will not cause this to be effective. It's either you get a good chase dodge, or use some other tricks.

End of the guide

All in all, Yumiko is pretty tough to master, because of how stupidly diverse the hammer can be to someones own playstyle. It is sometimes tough to play as a Yumiko, because you might encounter a heavy-hitter, or you might find someone who plays a legend that outranges you. Still, Yumiko is a pretty good zoner that is pretty good at filling the defensive role. I wish you great luck on playing this character, for I surely had fun playing Yumiko, and I hope you do too. May this guide enlighten you in future ventures, for this guide is, as most of my guides are, made for beginners, looking to advance their playstyle.

Thank you again for taking a look at this guide, and have a fine day/afternoon/night.

[YuukaW]

Oh crap, thanks for pointing it out! Didn't realize it. Seriously! Thanks!

[MaLaRiO]

nsig and nsig what?

[dogmvow]

it's a trap or neko-chan?

[♪ ˚｡♡ Jassper ♡˚｡]

this guide is good. when i first started playing, i said "I WANT THE FURRY!" when i got it i really liked playing yumiko and thought of her as a constantly moving character (like you said). nowadays i'm using cassidy but i wanna play yumiko again > /// <

[Gallagin]

For Hammer Signatures you called her Dsig a Nsig, just pointing out this error

"Yumiko's Nsig will cause her to throw three spiritual fires..."

[Goopo]

to all of you down there.. im actually pretty good at yumiko and you just dont know how to use her. we all have favorite characters. and yumiko is one of mine.

[Lemon]

Yumiko is trash

[YuukaW]

Look at you with your stereotypes. Steam has given us the ability to write guides even when we have little to no experience to the game. You should also not just focus on experience and time, you should also understand that some people research games to understand how something works.

[Flamethrower]

I dont get it so ur a gold player and u are making a guide. I think only top players should make guides u only have 150 hours in the game ur not even plat ffs

[SIRREALIX]

no dont play like this guy ever, you will lose