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#03 · Standard body

Velkoz

The Eye of the Void

Zoner and spell-weave casterResource: DeconstructionDifficulty

A slow, floating zoner who controls the screen with splitting shots, delayed rifts, and hitscan rays, then weaves every spell family into one combo. Landing three abilities arms Research, which makes every hit he lands deal extra true damage. Pick him if you like lane control, setplay, and long routes.

Strengths

  • +Splitting shots, planted rifts, and hitscan rays cover the ground, the air, and the full screen
  • +Void Rift plants are plus on block and keep working after he cancels
  • +Spell weave lets one combo use every special family once, so routes are long without meter
  • +Research adds true damage that combo scaling cannot reduce
  • +Teleports for escape, approach, and cross-ups; the outbound half is strike and throw intangible
  • +Skybound is only slightly minus on block for a super

Weaknesses

  • −The slowest walk on the roster and the biggest hurtbox
  • −No invincible reversal and no armor; he defends with block, Burst, backdash, and teleports
  • −Most rays and plain shots are minus on block point blank
  • −22U is slow and committal in neutral
  • −Research falls off if he goes seven seconds without landing a hit, and the stacks go with it

Unique mechanic

Organic Deconstruction

Every landed ability adds a stack; the third detonates for bonus true damage and arms Research, a seven-second window where every hit he lands deals 35% extra true damage, refreshed by each hit.

Overview

Vel'Koz is the roster's true zoner. He floats, walks slowly, and is a big target, but almost every button he owns reaches across the screen: 5U / 6U / j.U shots that split into fragments, Void Rift plants that erupt a beat later, and Lifeform Disintegration rays that hit their whole length the instant they fire.

His damage engine is Organic Deconstruction. Every ability he lands builds a stack; the third one detonates and arms Research, and from then on every hit he lands (normals, throws, everything) carries extra true damage for as long as he keeps landing hits. His combos are about weaving: each special family can be used once per combo, so a good route runs a rift, a tectonic, a ray, and sometimes a teleport in one string.

Gameplan

Neutral

  • 5U is the neutral gun. It breaks into two fragments that fork up and down, so it also catches jumps. 6U is slower but breaks into three and owns more space. j.U is the air-to-air / jump-back shot.
  • Plant 236M / 236H at range as traps. They erupt a beat later, stay planted even if he does something else, and convert into a combo with a ray or a teleport.
  • The rays (623) hit their full length the frame they fire: use them to punish whiffs and fireballs at range, not up close on block.
  • Keep people off him with 2U (close) and 214M (anti-air). He is slow on the ground, so the air dash and 22L are his exits.

Offense

  • Rift plants are plus on block point blank (236M +16, 236H +17), and 5M/5H cancel into them on block. That is his pressure reset.
  • 22U (22 + U) crosses up and lands on the floor behind them. It is slow, so save it for a knockdown, where they can't punish it. 22EX is the fast cross-up anywhere.
  • 214U drags a poked opponent back toward him and knocks them down in range, which turns a stray hit into a full combo.

Defense

  • He has no invincible reversal and no armor. Block, Instant Block, Burst, or backdash.
  • Every teleport is strike and throw intangible while he vanishes, but vulnerable when he reappears. 22L (back) is the escape from pressure or the corner.
  • 2U is the get-off-me button: fast, bounces airborne targets, and cancels into 6U or a special.

Unique Mechanic

Organic Deconstruction (the DECONSTRUCTION gauge). The stacks are shown as pips over the opponent's head.

  1. Stacks. Each landed ability adds one stack (maximum 3): the U buttons (5U, 2U, 6U, j.U), the 236 / 214 / 623 families, and both supers. A move gives one stack however many times it hits, so a ray or a shot plus its fragments is still one stack. Normals, throws, and the 22 teleports don't build stacks.
  2. Detonation. The ability that lands the third stack detonates: flat bonus true damage, extra hitstun, and an airborne target is knocked upward. It can happen mid-combo, and routes are built so the ray or super lands it.
  3. Research. With three stacks he is Researched (the HUD prints RESEARCHED). Every hit he lands deals +35% of its damage again as true damage, and combo scaling does not reduce that bonus. The detonating hit itself doesn't get it; the next hit does.
  4. The window. Research lasts 7 seconds and every landed hit refills it (blocked hits do not). While Researched the gauge becomes a draining timer. When it runs out, the stacks reset to zero and he starts again.

Spell weave. A landed L/M/H special cancels into a different family's L/M/H on hit, and a family the combo hasn't used yet ignores the normal one-special-per-leg limit. Each family (236, 214, 623, 22) can be used once per combo this way. EX moves and supers follow their own once-per-combo rules.

Fission. When a shot breaks (on contact or at the end of its range), its fragments fly out up and down at a shallow angle for 30% of the shot's damage. A fragment that hits an airborne opponent lifts them back up, which is what keeps 2H 2U 6U juggles alive.

Combo Notes

  • Autocombo: mashing 5L (or 5M) walks 5L 5M 5H 214M; the next tap spends Skybound at 100 Style or 623EX at 50.
  • Weave first: 5L 5M 5H 236M 214H 623H uses three families meterless, and the ray lands the third stack and detonates. Aim to land the third stack on the last big hit.
  • Rift stagger: the first 236M in a combo holds them long enough to restart: 5L 5M 5H 236M 5M 5H 214M 623H (or 623EX), or cross up with 236M 22U 5L 5M 5H 214M 623H.
  • Ray blink: 5L 5M 5H 623L 22M 5L 5M 5H 214M 236L.
  • Fission juggle: 5L 5M 5H 2H 2U 6U 623M (or Skybound); the fragments keep the body up.
  • From range: a hit 236H goes into 623L 22H 5L 5M 5H 214M; a hit 236M goes into 22H 5L 5M 5H 214M 623H.
  • Pull: 5L 5M 214U 5L 5M 5H 214M 623EX turns a poke into a two-leg combo.
  • Corner: 214H wallsticks and holds them for Skybound or Awakening.
  • Meter: Style Cancel is how he gets a second go at a family he already used: 5L 5M 5H 214M SC 5L 5M 5H 214M 214EX 5H 2H jc j.L j.M j.H is his highest-damage validated route.
  • Being Researched before the combo starts is worth a lot: 5L 5M 5H 214M Skybound nearly doubles when every hit carries the bonus.

Key Moves

Generated from the kit data.

Fastest button5L 5f
Lows2L 6f2M 9f3H 13f
Safest specials on block236H 20f · +17236M 16f · +16236L 12f · +6