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• Creator ………: Hans Kreissack
• Creation Date …: Under Development (2097)
• Special Abilities: Mini Grenade, Missile Launcher, Earthquake Smash

Very little is known about the Nova Project, except that Major Kreissack himself is in Charge of the development, and that it is the first mech specifically designed for fighting. Rumors that it is near completion have been floating around. Some say that it will be unveiled in the current contest for Ganymede.

If you can't win with the Nova, then you might want to go back to Karate Champ in your local arcade. But if you prove effective at utilizing raw power, hate racking your brain in an effort to devise brilliant combos, or just like to feel BAD, the Nova will obviously be the 'bot of choice for you.

If the Nova were a weapon in DOOM, it would be a quadruple-barrel Shotgun–not the prettiest of toys, but definitely carrying that feeling of unstoppable destruction.

The Nova, when fully rigged, is fast, powerful, & tough. It surpasses all the other 'bots in terms of basic Attack superiority, Special Move damage, and an almost unlimited number of incredibly powerful combos.

Even if you're the finesse player who prefers the grace and eloquence of motion of the Katana to the brute force of the Thorn, you'll love using the Nova if for no other reason than to see it smash the top half of your opponent off with sheer strength during its Destruction. All you DOOMers out there have fun!

After selecting a pilot, move the selector over each of the ten HARs at least once. Move to Katana and press down at least ten times, then move to Flail and press Kick. If successful, your HAR will be Nova when you enter the VS screen.

The Nova is a surprisingly versatile bot, among the better in power and endurance, as well as several good long reached attacks. The specials are mostly a trap, both the Mini Grenade and the Missile Launcher makes you think it is a ranged attack bot, but both attacks are easy to block and evade. The Air-Missile is better as it comes at some weird angles and keeps you air-borne. The Belly Flop attack is one of the best air attacks and will priority through almost any ground based attack. And lastly the signature Earth Quake Smash is slow, but very useful as it can break blocking and force opponents to react from long range, much better than any of the missiles or grenades. The meat of this bot is its basic attacks, it can create several good short combos with high damage and strong attacks. It can air juggle very well and have several attacks that launches enemies up, and several of the longest reach attacks in the game makes it very good at poking and forcing enemies forward or away. Nova plays very well at medium range, and can handle itself decently in short or long range. Typically you will be using ranged options to force them closer, threaten them out to medium range with some of your powerful basic attacks, and use your reach to force them to over-extend or make other mistakes to punish them. Positioning is very important with Nova, so you can use all your attacks to threaten their options correctly.

You can usually beat the AI with nothing but jumping in with belly-flop or JK, spam strong punch (5P), finish with fierce punch (4P) or Sweep (1K), and repeat. If you get the enemy at the other side of the arena, you can spam EQS and it will keep jumping mostly straight up and land again, and just time it to hit with next EQS. It almost never blocks Belly-Flop → low kick (2K).

A very exploitive strategy is to just block low and let the enemy walk toward you. When they're close but before within throw range, use 2K into 5P. Sometimes you can use a second 5P. Then just repeat this over and over, most enemies will just keep walking into it. Just be ready to block high if they jump.

Mostly the same as in general strategy, controlling the distance, and figuring out when to counter and when to block is important. Because the Nova can “trade” blows that the other bots can't, you have to learn what moves can stop what other moves, even if you get damaged in the process. Example the normal strong punch (P) if you time it almost simultaneous with most opponents basic attacks, both will hit, deal damage, both you and the opponent will be hit-blocked, but the Nova always recover faster and continue attacking.

• Arm Power: 8
• Arm Speed: 8
• Leg Power: 8
• Leg Speed: 7
• Armor….: 8
• Stun Res.: 7

• Enhancement 1:
  • No function
• Enhancement 2:
  • No function

• Enhancement 1:
  • Steel Claw : North American Open
  • Bethany : War Invitational
• Enhancement 2:
  • Nicoli : World Championship
  • Bethany : World Championship

• Mini Grenade…….: 2-1-4+P
• Missle Launcher….: 2-3-6+P
• Air Missle Launcher: (jump) 2-3-6+P
• Earthquake Smash…: 2,2+P
• Scrap…………..: 2-1-4,6+P
• Destruction……..: 2,2,2+P
• Fire&Ice………..: None.

Nova is the king of good basic attacks, lots of range, damage, many fast attacks, several high priority, and lots of combos.

Bad:

• JP - Not bad, but better for anti-air attacks, which requires some timing to do well.
• 2P - Overshadowed by 3P and 2K
• 6P - Overshadowed by 5P and 3P
• 3K - Mostly overshadowed by 2K
• 4K - Generally doesn't combo well, can combo into but not out off, shorter range than many other attacks
• 6K - High priority but doesn't combo into anything, and Nova got enough other good pri attacks.

Good:

• 1P - Launches, only use when you can combo into it (JK, 3P)
• 3P - great poke, fast, high pri
• 4P - One of the best heavy attacks in the game, very fast, combo into itself or 5P, great against air
• 5P - decent fast, long range, good priority, hurts a tonn, and combos into itself and several others
• JK - Excellent jump attack, good angle and reach. Mix it up with Belly Smash
• 1K - Slow, but very good range and damage, use at max range, or out of range of all other attacks to push yourself away
• 2K - Decent low attack, use to break high blocks (Belly Smash → 2K) combos into lots, especially 5K
• 5K - Most notable because it combos back and forth with 2K

This assumes default setting with Rehit mode on.

Note: Against humans, mix up JK with Belly-Flop, especially with 2K combo.

• Belly-Flop, 2K, 5K, 2K, 5K
  • (This is better against blocking enemies, as Belly flop hits all the way down, and goes right into a low 2K thus breaking most blocks vs both humans and AI)
• JK, 2K, 5K, 2K, 5K
• JK, 5P, 5P, 4P, 4P

• ?

• jK, 5P, 5P, 5P, 5P, 1K

The game designers would like you to think Nova is the ultimate robot, but unfortunately that's far from the truth. His combos and throw are seriously lacking, his size and speed make him an easy target, and his projectile traps are difficult to pull off without opening yourself to a free combo. What Nova does have, however, is amazing range: P, sweep, and jumpkick keep the opponent out, with b+P and the Belly Flop doing damage if an opportunity presents itself and the projectiles doing the dirty work from across the screen. Nova has potential but only skilled players should consider him.

MOVE NAME            | COMMAND        | DMG.  | TYPE
---------------------+----------------+-------+-------------------------
Jump Punch           | (air) P        | 12.5  | Medium Jump
Jump Kick            | (air) K        | 12.5  | Medium Jump
Jab                  | f+P            | 5     | Light AR
Strong               | P              | 13.5  | Medium
Fierce               | b+P            | 16.5  | #1
Short                | f+K            | 7     | Light AR
Forward              | K              | 9.5   | Medium AR
Roundhouse           | b+K            | 10+10 | Light AR
Low Jab              | df+P           | 6     | Light AR
Low Strong           | d+P            | 11    | Medium AR
Low Fierce           | db+P           | 10+10 | Light AR (KD on 2nd hit)
Low Short            | df+K           | 6     | Low
Low Forward          | d+K            | 12    | Low
Sweep                | db+K           | 17.5  | #2
Belly Flop           | (air) d+P      | 22.5  | #3
Missile Launcher     | d,df,f+P       | 17.5  | #1
Air Missile Launcher | (air) d,df,f+P | 17.5  | #1
Mini Grenade         | qcb+P          | 22.5  | Medium KD
Earthquake Smash     | d,d+P          | 17.5  | #4
Knuckle Sandwich     | (close) f+P    | 22.5  | Heavy Throw

Scrap: qcb,f+P Destruction: d,d,P Fire & Ice: N/A

#1: Heavy AR, Medium KD on grounded opponents on last hit frame #2: Low Medium KD (the only such move in the game!) #3: Heavy that causes stunned animation on grounded opponents #4: Unblockable KD that does not hit while another move hits or is blocked

Stats: Forward Speed: 4.9 Back Speed: 4.1 Jump Speed: 13.5 Fall Speed: 1 Armor: 115 Stun Res: 27.5

Standing Normals

f+P: Nova's jab is slow for a jab, doesn't chain into anything and generally is not very useful. Most bots don't have a good high-hitting move like Nova's b+P, so it's only fair that Nova doesn't get a good high-hitting jab.

P: Nova's strong punch sticks his arm way out to the opponent's midsection. Cannot be ducked, outranges almost anything else in the game, chains into itself, quite fast. The only tool Nova will ever need if the opponent wants to start poking you: walk back a step and hit P. Also great for stupidly easy combos.

b+P: Nova's fierce is an uppercut that knocks down only on its later hit frames. Against a standing opponent, it'll link into almost anything except itself. It does lots of damage, it's quick, it does decent anti-air - the range is bad, but that's what you have the rest of his normals for. A very good move.

f+K: Short kick that hits with his knee. Has more priority than it looks like, but not too useful unless you're Kreissack because it's so slow.

K: Gimpy kick with Nova's foot. Useful in combos, as it chains into lots of stuff, but otherwise generally inferior to P.

b+K: Two-hit roundhouse. First hit is very fast, but that's the only reason to use it. Nova has better anti-airs at that angle (namely b+P, which is also better in every other way) anyway.

Crouching Normals

df+P: Low jab, fairly standard. Nova's crouching animation is huge, though, which takes away much of the usual benefits of being crouched. Useful in combos and for defense.

d+P: Low strong, same animation as low jab. Just like low jab but worse. Nova has good normals, these are just filler.

db+P: Low fierce, a 2-hit uppercut of which the second hit juggles. Nova's fastest ground move, and when you're close it hits for both hits and starts a golden opportunity for an air juggle. Also works great as anti-air for pitiful damage, but you're a poking character, you should expect that.

df+K: Low short. One of the better low shorts in the game, meaning you should do piddly damage with this often. Make the opponent choose between being worn down by df+K and P pokes or possibly being launched into a Smash trap.

d+K: Low forward, same animation as low short. Chains into K for combo purposes, making it decent for high/low mixups.

db+K: Longest sweep in the game, crazy slow but touches most of the screen. Throw one out every once in a while just to scare your opponent with that range, as it's safe when blocked from long distance. Also stuffs projectiles with ease.

Special Moves

qcf+P: Missile. Slow and fired straight forward at Nova's waist height; unlike other projectiles, it can't be aimed, so its use is limited to backup for the rest of your special move arsenal. Fortunately, it does lots of damage and will knock an airborne opponent (say one trying to avoid an Earthquake Smash) into the wall, allowing you to follow up with more projectile madness. Beware: a grounded opponent can duck it completely (unless they're against the wall).

qcb+P: Mini Grenade. Very slow, fires from a shallow angle, bounces along the floor for most of a screen's length. Loads of startup and recovery make this a very dangerous move, but surprisingly effective if you can predict their movements enough to plant one in their path - where it can be anything from anti-air to a juggle starter.

d,d+P: Earthquake Smash. Nova smashes a blue spark down and delivers an unblockable knockdown hit to a grounded opponent. Launches if you're close enough, i.e. never because they'll just jab you out of it. The almighty Smash is the only unblockable in the game, and is often overused by new players (veterans will wait for the Smash and jumpkick combo you). However, it CAN be free damage after they block another projectile if you time it right. It tends to glitch when that happens though, so watch out. If you have perfect timing, you can Smash an opponent getting up forever until they die. No one as of yet can do this, though.

(close) f+P: Throw. Nova's throw knocks the opponent far away, which is good, but is lackluster otherwise. Still, you'll need to use it once in a while once they decide to block your jump-ins or get too close for a fierce to work.

Jumping Moves

P: Nova does a Bison-like attack forward while twisting his body backward. Not good for much except air-to-air, and Nova shouldn't need to get into dogfights with opponents anyway.

K: Standard jumpkick, except with range that makes the Baby Jesus cry. Use from max range to harass and get some space for yourself, use from midrange to establish a good range for you to poke from.

d+P: Belly Flop. Maybe not a real special move (it's not in the ingame list), it's different enough from his other moves to be special. The Flop stays out for a long time, has a huge hitbox and mad priority, and causes the “being stunned” animation on an opponent. That means you can combo if it hits late, or knock down if it hits early. Nova's best jump-in at close range, and his only way to dish out significant damage. Bring out this one every time they get frustrated and try to throw something out you can jump over, or just to get close for free. Of course, against some bots, you don't WANT to get close.

qcf+P: Air Missile. Fires at a 45-degree angle downward while pausing Nova in the air. Imagine if Akuma's air fireball totally stopped your trajectory and you'll have a good idea. Not much of a threat, but good to sabotage anti-air attempts or stay safe against mobile opponents and nasty hazards.

Instant Kill Combo

• qcb+P → (air) K → P → b+P. Repeat.

Note that this combo must be done from the maximum range of the Mini Grenade, making it nearly impossible to land. To get the second grenade to combo, you must superjump backwards while the opponent is falling from the b+P.

Most Powerful Ground Combo

• K → d+K → db+P

Meaty Moves

• b+P (late) → juggle

Chain Combos:

• P → P
• P → f+K
• P ↔ df+P
• df+P → d/df+P
• b+P → P
• b+P → f+P
• b+P → df/d/db+P
• b+P → K
• K ↔ d+K
• df+K → d/df+K
• d/df+K → db+P

Basic Combos:

• (air) d+P → b+P → db+P → df+P → d,d+P

Not technically a combo, the Earthquake Smash simply hits as soon as they reach the ground and is thus unavoidable in most circumstances. Against faster opponents, replace the d,d+P with uf,K; against a wall, add f+P → uf,K. Although K → d+K does more damage than b+P, it's orders of magnitude more difficult to connect after a belly flop, so don't bother. The Flop isn't necessary, you can jumpkick in instead for less damage.

• (air) d+P → P x6 → db+P → f+K → b+P

The standard “boring combo” for Tournament Mode can be followed up with your choice of jab shenanigans if you reach the wall with the db+P, but otherwise it's just lots of ground-based damage and a knockdown. Easy to dizzy your opponent with.

Tricky Combos:

• (air, early) d+P → b+P → f+K → b+P

The window for this is very unforgiving. Why you'd NEED to juggle with b+P is beyond me. That's why this combo is in the “Tricky” section.

• (wall) qcf+P → b+P or P or db+K or d,d+P

The followup depends on range: b+P requires your hands to be touching, P requires you to be at least sorta close, db+K requires you to be halfway across the screen, d,d+P requires nearly full screen. Depending on the timing, d,d+P can combo (and not knock down), not combo (and knock down), or whiff entirely.

• (close) d,d+P or qcb+P or (air, close, wall) qcf+P → f+K → b+P

In case you ever manage to get one of these (perhaps the opponent misjudged his jump, or perhaps he is just stupid) you can follow up with a chancy wall hit and some free damage. With a fast pilot, you can simply walk forward after a qcb+P from half a screen away, then continue with the combo, while against a fast opponent, you need a wall hit with the f+K.

• (close, wall) d,d+P or qcb+P → df+P → f+K → b+P

Not only did you actually CONNECT one of those projectiles, you got a wall combo on a slow opponent. Taunt them with a 4-hitter that does pitiful damage! (If you started with a Grenade, you can add a f+P before the f+K.)

• (air) d+P → qcb+P → b+P

This is, if I do say so myself, the most unlikely combo ever, and requires both you and your opponent to have full agility. Flop into Grenade (so that your grenade misses them as they fall), then knock them back with the fierce INTO the grenade as it bounces along the floor.

Frame Data Page

HAR's: Jaguar, Shadow, Thorn, Pyros, Electra, Katana, Shredder, Flail, Gargoyle, Chronos, Nova