Eugene Skullovich is an Epic Attacker that pesters the opponent with strikes, then goes in for a massive damage breaker. With the low cost of his moves, he can attack often. Most of his attacks have poor range, but he makes up for this with the speed of his breakers. If he hits with enough strikes, his breakers get powered up, calling on Bulk for extra hits. To make the most of playing as Skull, you need to fish for those Bulk finishers, but you may need to use the unpowered breakers to land those strikes in the first place. If you can master that delicate balance, Skull is no joke.
Info on the Bulk counter
When Skull lands a strike hit, the counter underneath his lifebar increases by 1. If he takes damage, it goes down by 1. If Skull lands a breaker when the counter is at 5 or 6, Bulk comes in for an extra hit with big damage, reducing the counter to 0. Landing a breaker before the counter reaches 5 has no effect.
Skills
Primary 1: Ramshackle Strikes
Type: Strike
Cost: 3
A 3 hit combo with huge range. If you’re confident that the opponent has no defensive options or they are low on energy, using this almost always guarantees a hit. Otherwise, it’s best to save this for a juggle or just use the first hit to beat a breaker then dash cancel.
Primary 2: Punk Dance
Type: Strike
Cost: 3
A 50/50 dash cancel combo that ends in a sweep. Its range isn’t great, but the first hit is usually fast enough to catch passive players. The combo reward for landing the uncancelled version can be huge.
Special 1: Fight Dirty
Type: Strike
Cost: 3
A quick breaker that sweeps the opponent off of their feet, allowing you to start a combo. If Bulk is at the ready, the extra hit knocks back the opponent.
Special 2: Roach Rendezvous
Type: Breaker
Cost: 4
A quick breaker that stuns the opponent. If Bulk is at the ready, the extra hit reverse launches the opponent.
Assist: Finger Guns
Type: Breaker
Cost: 5
Skull appears behind the leader and shoots 3 lasers from his fingers, staggering the opponent. You can use this like Zen Aku assist, using the assist summon to dodge close ranged attacks. The damage of this assist is higher than other similar ones.
Sample Combo
Roach Rendezvous (+ Bulk) → Punk Dance → Ramshackle Strikes
Roach Rendezvous is fast enough that you can catch people off guard with it, starting your combo off with a bang and building up the counter for another breaker with Bulk.
Fight Dirty (counter between 2 and 4) → Punk Dance → Roach Rendezvous (+ Bulk)
Fight Dirty is Skull’s best combo starter, so it’s the most reliable way to build up the counter for the big damage of the Bulk version of Roach Rendezvous
VS Skull
- Uncancelled Punk Dance can lead to a combo into a powered up breaker, which of course you don’t want. However, if he hasn’t done a breaker in a while, it’s likely that he has a block in that slot. With that info, you don’t have too much to fear a combo of all strikes.
- With the poor range of most of Skull’s moves, you can get a lot of mileage out of slow deliberately timed backdashes. This is especially important when he has the Bulk counter built up.
Advanced Tips
Breaker Management
If you try to only use EP on breakers as efficiently as possible for max damage every single time, you’ll run into problems. In most matches, it’s best to think of the breakers as combo starting tools and simply see the Bulk followup like a bonus when there’s an opportunity for it. It doesn’t matter whether you win by a little or by a lot, a win is a win, and it can be hard to land any breakers at all if you’re only focused on the Bulk followups.
Breaker Trap
The advanced tactic commonly known as a “breaker trap” by players is when you use a breaker that recovers quickly, then go directly into a block to stop a strike. Both of Skull’s breakers are wonderful at this, especially Fight Dirty. Combine this with Fight Dirty also being a combo starter that only costs 3 and you’ve got the ultimate way to start your offense against many characters.
