Introduction

It’s well known that Menat’s oki and sustained pressure are… below average. As a primarily zoning character, she struggles to sustain pressure, and it’s unusual for her to make significant comebacks because of this (outside of ridiculous VT1 sequences).

But that doesn’t mean it’s not a concept relevant to her game. Some of her hardest matchups are only alleviated by applying pressure, and though many of her common knockdowns effectively reset to neutral, she has plenty of situations where many players aren’t getting what they can. Not to mention the fact that she has a plethora of unusual knockdown situations that many players don’t know about.

This guide will deal with knockdowns both with and without VT active. It’s important to understand how much utility she gains at all times with VT active – this guide won’t go into tremendous depth because of how incredibly open ended optimal VT usage can be, but it will likely serve as a good starting point. Please note VT refers to VT1.

Meaties

Menat has among the worst frame traps in the game in orbed stance. Her only +oB buttons are lights and cr mk, which has no links off a normal hit at only +3 oH (with st lk out of range). Her oki mostly consists of a weak strike/throw/shimmy mixup, spending meter for sometimes a marginal increase in pressure, or having the time to set orb – where suddenly her pressure becomes monstrous, and also too complex for the scope of this guide.

This section will just deal with her orbed strike/throw/shimmy mixup.

Strike

As noted earlier, Menat has no +oB buttons outside of lights and cr mk, so she really only has two standard options for meatying with orb – cr lk and cr mk. 

• Cr lk, cr lp xx vskill/lphp ex orb is a simple but effective meaty with low reward, but benefits from always working on normal hit, starting low, and having meterless options. On block a cancel into lp orb send will generally be spaced well enough to be safe, but depending on the character this can be exceedingly dangerous. Use with caution.
• Cr mk (ch), cr lp xx lphp ex orb is a reasonable step up in damage but requires a counterhit and a meter to finish the combo. Cr mk, cr lp is a frame trap but unconfirmable, and cr mk, cr lk, cr lp is a great double low frame trap that combos on counter hit and is confirmable into precisely super/VT activate and nothing else (unless you count 1 hit of air ex orb grounded).
• Cr mk xx lpmp ex orb will combo (from most ranges) on any hit, and is plus on block, so usually a pretty good option (albeit expensive). But it’s worth noting it pushes too far for most buttons to connect, so midscreen at most we’ll gain a bit of space or get a very weak recall mixup. The combo on hit is very good – we can extend with cr mp xx vskill/lphp ex orb for good damage. Also worth noting our pressure in the corner is excellent with this meaty, since the pushback is eliminated and we’re +3 orbless in the opponents face threatening a highly damaging recall.
• Cr hp xx DELAYED cr vskill – this is an extremely niche option that only works with specific knockdowns, can be tough to execute and (as far as I’m aware) only works on crouching opponents on block and on counterhit – cr hp forces stand so the orbless vskill will never combo. The benefits are bonus vmeter on block, a cool looking CC combo and relative safety (-3 with reasonable pushback). On standing opponents this whiffs so be prepared to eat shit.

Throw

Menat is blessed with a 140/200 back throw and a great meterless stun combo, so she has extremely dangerous throw/shimmy game if either option will lead to a stun. In general we should be back throwing midscreen without VT or for stun, and forward throwing into the corner and with VT to maintain oki (more on that in the knockdowns section).

Shimmy

Menat unfortunately has horrible options without meter off a shimmy, and she’s in a unique position where her reward off a shimmy generally doesn’t result in (much) oki. 

• Cr mp/cr mk xx lphp ex orb – this is her bread and butter, does a fair bit of damage and is her only consistent knockdown off a shimmy, but obviously requires a bar. 
• Hk divekick – this is a fairly specific shimmy, generally manually spaced which makes it very tough to do reliably – it’s not difficult to accidentally be minus on hit or punishable on block. Opponents can often punish us with evasive maneuvres as well so be careful.
• Walk out, walk in throw – menat’s walk speed is just good enough for this, and her throw range is great, so this is often our best meterless shimmy (sadly).
• Cr mp/cr mk xx lp/mp/hp orb – an extremely low reward. Lp won’t hit oH but is a safe cancel from shimmy distance oB, mp has a horrible reward on hit and is the worst on block, hp has the best situation on hit (which is still very mediocre) but only works standing, so will need to be confirmed.

Knockdowns

Knockdowns are arranged by FAT order. If a knockdown (situation) is not listed, it’s not necessarily because we get (essentially) nothing – these are all my own personal opinions. If you think there’s a knockdown I should add, please justify it/let me know details on Discord and I’ll add it in if I think there’s merit in it.

St HP Orb (CC)

No VT

This knockdown is +33 on QR with 9 active frames, which means it can be as good as +41. If you’re playing against someone twitchy, dash st hp will generally hit on frame 1, and very often we’ll be way too far to get DPd, making it a very safe option – sometimes we even get the ‘loop’! Double dash is pretty safe if distance to corner is at a premium.

Sometimes (rarely) we’ll be close enough to pressure after 1 dash if the opponent is close enough to the corner – this is especially the case off counter hit, ultra safe St HP meaties. We can also forego this to set up orb.

With VT

This is an unusual knockdown to get with VT active, and it usually only happens when we only have a couple orbs left (often our light orbs, since we can hit st hp and react to jumps to antiair with said light orbs). VT generally doesn’t get us much here either – the most we can hope for is another St HP which we can convert off with two grounded orbs for a jump combo.

Cr HK (no) Orb (CC)

No VT

The world is our oyster here – in general we’ll have enough time to dash, send orb and get an orbless meaty. We can also do many other things – things like meaty divekick, meaty orb send (both of which are generally manually timed).

With VT (activate)

This will generally only happen specifically on activate, since there’s very little reason to throw cr hk around with VT already active. There are multiple setups possible here from this exact situation if you dig around for them that efficiently use light orbs for 50-50s, but in general the worst case is we get point blank VT1 pressure.  

Cr HK xx Recall

No VT

This is a situation I see squandered a lot – cr hk xx recall is very common, and the knockdown off cr hk is +22, which means we’re +2 on dash after quickrise and can get a meaty throw. We’re often too far to throw on backrise without walking forward a lot, so the best we can get is a weak meaty mixup. In the corner we’ll always be point blank here so we get a strong meaty mixup on backrise.

Forward Throw

Menat’s forward throw is actually +18 which means we get a surprisingly good situation.

No VT (corner only)

• Walk forward, throw – we need to walk for a minimum 18 frames which means there’s a 5f gap here. 
• Walk forward, cr mk/cr mp xx – unfortunately even on counterhit, we’re not close enough here to combo into lpmp ex orb throw. So our options are an (attempted) confirmed lphp ex orb, or a super safe lp/mp orb send for a decent situation oH/oB and a much worse reward.
• St hp – super safe, great situation on counterhit. Immediately ends pressure oB/oH (-3/+1 at far range) but at least the opponent is still cornered. This is often DP proof but it depends on the specific opponent’s character.
• Dash – this puts Menat at -2. Not a great option since her 20f dash is pretty reactable, and the reward we get from dash pressure is pretty poor anyway.
• Slide – this puts Menat at -2/+2 oB/oH respectively. Not terrible if the slide will kill but putting yourself point blank at -2 tends to be a poor option. On counterhit we get a light combo.
• Jump forward, manual mk divekick – needs a bit of practice, but it’s our best way to continue pressure vs someone who’s just blocking. Quite easily spaced to be plus, and will avoid a lot of wakeup 3f/4f since it hits rather late. Definitely reactable if this is being looked out for, though.

With VT (corner)

Her oki off forward throw becomes extremely devastating and augments almost all of her options. 

• Walk forward, throw – this becomes a hell of a lot scarier to interrupt, given how extreme her reward becomes off of any strike meaty. For ultra safety, we can negative edge a grounded orb (usually P) which will actually punish anyone waking up with a button and usually give us a combo, while still being able to throw.
• Walk forward, cr lk (grounded orb), walk forward – this is a variant of the above, indistinguishable with a completely different result. We’ll end up very plus point blank on block and on hit for great pressure or a full combo respectively. Also important to note that this effectively cannot be strike vreversalled (as long as we’re cognizant to the possibility and ready to block). If we’re extremely ready, we can even punish a vrev attempt.
• St hp (2 grounded orbs) – all of a sudden, our humble st hp meaty gives us enormous pressure/combo potential. On hit or on block we have time to dash and walk forward, or jump, for a full combo/pressure sequence. Relatively expensive though and the st hp can usually be vreversalled (character specific). Worth noting that this still beats many ex dps, but usually the released orbs will stop us from getting a huge combo. Also worth noting this is usually much worse on counter hit than on hit.
• Slide (grounded orb) – like st hp, our humble +2/-2 situation becomes ridiculous. With the mere application of 1 orb we suddenly become extremely plus in our opponents face on hit or on block. The slide will hit low and frame 1 so there’s nothing non invincible our opponents can do to prevent this situation. We actually get a ridiculous combo on hit here for just 1 orb – slide (orb), cr hp xx DELAYED cr vskill, air ender. Note that almost all strike vreversals will deal with this meaty very well.
• Dash (grounded orb) – dash becomes a very legitimate oki situation here when it’s covered by grounded orb. We have multiple options off dash – throw, button, neutral jump for a pseudo shimmy, forward jump for the most broken crossup setup Menat has in the game. We even have time to dash block vs anything invincible (aside from galaxy brain 1f supers). Note that this option is pretty weak to jump forward, so do something else if you expect evasive maneuvres.  
• Microwalk overhead (grounded orb(s)) – we have the ability to fully convert from an overhead at this range. Keep in mind this will hit well after f1 so can easily be evaded, and it’s also fully reactable since Menat’s overhead is so slow.

With VT (no corner)

Midscreen, throw oki is (expectedly) a lot less consistent, and mostly involves releasing an orb, dashing and configuring your approach to cover what your opponent does. But there’s a specific sequence that’s worth noting because of how many options it covers – there are answers to this sequence, but your opponent has to be cognizant of this exact setup and how to counter it.

• Dash (tap P orb), jump forward immediate j hk – this will stuff any jump (and land to be plus), avoid wakeup buttons (and have the orb hit for a combo sometimes). If your opponent blocks, the orb will cause you to be plus oB on landing.

V-Skill (standing)

VT Activate

V-Skill (crouching)

No VT (corner)

This is a common ender for heavily scaled corner situations, both because the pushback is negligible in the corner, and because it’s fairly simple to set up a recall situation. You should aim to framekill/manual time a lp orb send to hit meaty and be +oB and comboable into button xx recall oH (surprisingly not that difficult).

V-Skill, orbless (crouching)

This is one of Menat’s very best knockdowns, though it tends to be difficult to set up and we’re often sacrificing one thing or another. This is most frequently accomplished by one of two tricks – either by recalling into immediate cr vskill without the orb having the chance to be back in Menat’s hands, or by delaying the cr vskill input from cr hp, which gives orbless vskill for some reason.

Menat is +43 on QR here – this means double dash throw can be meaty on both knockdowns, giving us great meaty options on both rises.

This section is going to be a little different because while the oki is the same regardless of the situation, the way to set up the knockdown is quite a bit different.

No VT

This is mostly only achievable through recall, and usually is conserved for stun setups. All we need to do is some combo into recall, and either immediately link cr vskill to get the orbless version, or correctly space cr mp xx cr vskill (this will depend on the particular combo, so it’s important to practice the specific situation if you want to squeeze a cr mp’s worth of damage in there).

With VT

This is a very important knockdown in Menat’s arsenal. There are multiple situations where we want to end the combo (usually at 10% scaling) in orbless cr vskill, since the damage we sacrifice will be negligible compared to the significant gain in pressure/oki. This is further amplified if we have orbs left.

The way to set it up is simply a slightly modified version of her standard bnb VT1 loop (button xx hp ball send (1 orb), dash st hp/st hk xx recall, walk forward st hk, cr mp xx hp ball send…). Instead of doing the walk forward st hk post recall, dash forward (IMPORTANT), cr hp xx DELAYED cr vskill. The dash is mandatory to make sure we get the orbless version of vskill, and to make sure we’re at point blank spacing so that it all connects. 

Guardian of the Sun

We get a knockdown of +16 with a similar spacing as corner forward throw, so a lot of the oki here will closely resemble it.

No VT

• Walk forward, throw – we need to walk for a minimum 19 frames which means there’s a 8f gap here. 
• Walk forward, cr mk/cr mp xx – unfortunately even on counterhit, we’re not close enough here to combo into lpmp ex orb throw. So our options are an (attempted) confirmed lphp ex orb, or a super safe lp/mp orb send for a decent situation oH/oB and a much worse reward.
• St hp – super safe, decent reward on counterhit. Immediately ends pressure oB/oH (-5/-1 at far range). This is often DP proof but it depends on the specific opponent’s character.
• Dash – this puts Menat at -4. Not a great option since her 20f dash is pretty reactable, and the reward we get from dash pressure is pretty poor anyway.
• Slide – this puts Menat at -4/0 oB/oH respectively. A much worse option than the forward throw equivalent since now we’re punishable oB and don’t even get pressure oH.
• Slight delay cr hk – this is our ‘safe’ low threat, usually quite difficult to punish at a long distance somewhere between -14 and -16. Absolutely zero oki on normal hit. Not a bad activate.
• Jump forward, manual mk divekick – needs a bit of practice, but it’s our best way to continue pressure vs someone who’s just blocking. Quite easily spaced to be plus, and will avoid a lot of wakeup 3f/4f since it hits rather late. Definitely reactable if this is being looked out for, though.

With VT

Again, many of Menat’s options from this knockdown are augmented with VT. This section is especially relevant when we activate and ex dp in response to a jump.

• Walk forward, throw – Again this is much scarier here with VT activated, but worth noting opp can more easily OS defend a few options here to deal with this (such as block low delay jump back).
• Walk forward, cr lk (grounded orb), dash – The knockdown is slightly worse and we’re slightly further, which means we’re forced to dash after the cr lk instead of walking forward, and thus are more succeptable to vreversals. But the concept is the same.
• Dash – beware that the dash is now punishable at -4 by anything invincible 4f or faster, which actually makes this option considerably worse than the corner forward throw version. Note that all reversals are different, so the released orb may or may not be relevant.
• Slide – this is effectively as good as the forward throw version, short of not guaranteeing the ridiculous 1 orb combo. 
• St hp – this is effectively as good as the forward throw version.
• Microwalk overhead (grounded orb(s)) – we have the ability to fully convert from an overhead at this range. Keep in mind this will hit well after f1 so can easily be evaded, and it’s also fully reactable since Menat’s overhead is so slow.

LPHP Ex Orb

No VT

With VT

MPHP Ex Orb (airborne)

No VT

With VT

Soul Spark (no ender)

No VT

With VT

Other, specific oki situations

Airborne HP orb stun setup