[Guide] Ivy Guide for Beginners [Guide]

Mage

I'll make you submit!
I've decided to help out those who have always wanted to try Ivy out, but never got the motivation or will to learn her in previous games because of her difficulty. However she is slightly more "noob" friendly in V to try and attract more people to use Ivy. So I am going to help you out by writing this guide. After this I will be making an "Advanced" Ivy guide for more advanced players.

Please Note that this guide may change, and any Ivy player is welcome to offer suggestions and ideas on what I could add to this guide.

Notations:

Right, before we begin, if you are a NEW player completely to the Soulcalibur universe, I'd suggest looking at IdleMind and Partisan's notation video guide; however it was recorded during Soulcalibur IV's lifetime, so be aware that some inputs for moves on that game may not be the same.

Some common notations found within the Ivy forums are as such:
CS - Calamity Symphony (Command Throw)
iCS - Calamity Symphony (Just Frame Command Throw/Requires fastest input)
SS - Summon Suffering (Brave Edge Throw - See below for the term "Brave Edge")

The notations below are game mechanical notations and apply to all characters:
BE - Brave Edge (A move that has been "powered up" by using the R2 button for PS3 or the RT for Xbox).
CE - Critical Edge (All characters have a Critical Edge, or CE, which is a move/series of moves that require a fixed input (236236A+B+K) which is the same for all characters).
GI - Guard Impact (Reflects any move except unblockables by inputting 4A+B+K).
JG - Just Guard (Blocks ANY move, including unblockables and also puts you at a frame advantage. Performed by tapping G once just as a move is about to hit you).

We should consider ourselves lucky that we don't have to deal with Ivy's three different Sword State notations as well like in Soulcalibur IV.

The Basics:

Let me briefly explain about the advantages Ivy has:
  • She has the best range in the game.
  • She is good at pressuring opponents with mix-ups.
  • She is decent at wake-up.
  • She has one of best, if not the best, grab ranges in the game.
  • She is also one of the best zoners in the game.
Now, for the disadvantages that Ivy has:
  • Her punishing isn't overly great.
  • Her command throw takes a bit of skill to perform; and a lot to master it.
  • Her command throw's just version is one of the hardest Just frames in the game.
  • Her combos mostly rely on Counter Hits to be pulled off properly.
Overall, she is still a good character compared to her old self; however her punishing has gotten worse and her Command Throw is now very hard to accomplish. But other than that, I think her match-ups are pretty good against the other characters.

When using Ivy against shorter ranged characters such as Pyrrha, Maxi, Patroklos, Natsu, Aeon and Leixia, you'll want to use Ivy's excellent spacing to your advantage, using moves such as 1A, 44A/44A6, 6{B}8_2 (Be careful with this one as it can be punished heavily if used unsafely), 1_2_3B+K (Again, careful with your use of this one as punishment for unsafely using this is heavy) and 7_8_9B+K (This is probably the worst to unsafely use; punishment won't go unnoticed). When they get in close and try to pressure you, try knocking them back a few steps using 1_2_3B+K because if used when they are guarding they get pushed back about three blocks; also 6{B} and {B} will push them away from you as well and will basically tell them to back the f*ck off. Using her Brave Edges like 1B BE, and moves like 1K are helpful to see if they are more advanced players; if they are they will JG the second hit of 1B BE or block the 1K and punish you for being so unsafe.

However, when using her against longer ranged characters the fight becomes a bit more interesting. Characters such as Astaroth, Siegfried, Nightmare, Hilde, Viola, Pyrrha Omega, Xiba and Algol can reach a bit further than the rest of the roster so your spacing needs to become a bit more careful, especially with Hilde and her charges. This time, since spacing and zoning becomes unsafe against these characters I suggest you try to get up close and in their face, because these characters like to be at maximum range but will panic if you get too close. Hilde's charges are quite simple to JG, go into to training and practice against her. Just for a quick note that against Astaroth, if he is at close range then I suggest you don't perform any jumping moves; his grabs can grab midair opponents and can result is heavy damage being dealt upon you. While it is ok to jump to evade grabs against other characters, don't jump against Astaroth at close range to evade his grabs because, well, you won't.


Punishing:

Ivy's punishing isn't the best but it can be useful just to poke them and get a little extra damage. Ring (one of two Ivy's Soul Arena moderators and a Super Moderator) selflessly began making lists for punishing each character, and is slowly being completed by other Ivy players. The list for punishing can be found here; Shred Apart! Ivy Punishment Charts.

Combos and Tech Traps:

Tech Traps are a string of moves that can only be evaded by using a ukemi or step to a certain direction. Ring has, once again, selflessly made a combo and tech trap resource for other Ivy players to use, found here; SCV Ivy Combos & Tech Traps.

Calamity Symphony:

This is the name of Ivy's command throw; the input being 28284666B+G, a little bit harder than the last one which was 3214391A+G (trust me, that one was easier). The fastest input is how you get the Just Frame version, the frames allowed for inputting this is 40F. Which means 5F per input, theoretically.

Here is a video showing her Command Throw as a Just Version:

Gameplay Videos:

Here are some of my earlier Soulcalibur V Ivy Gameplay Videos, this might help some beginners to see how Ivy is played intermediately:


When I begin work on the Advanced Ivy Guide, the gameplay videos on there will be more recent and of better standard of gameplay.

I hope this guide will help you start off with Ivy, I know it's a mouthful but you should get the idea.

- Mage.
 
  • Her punishing isn't overly great.
  • Her command throw takes a bit of skill to perform; and a lot to master it.
  • Her command throw's just version is one of the hardest Just frames in the game.
She has one of the best i12 punishers in the game that does 30 or 40 damage and gives frame advantage, she has an i11 punisher, and an i16 punisher for lots of damage.
Execution difficulty doesn't mean anything. Having a couple hard attacks isn't a con. lol
 
Execution difficulty doesn't mean anything? Really?

When I say it isn't great, I mean that quite a few other characters are better at punishing than her.
 
This is a guide for beginners so execution difficulty does play a part there. And it was just said that the difficulty was a con, it didn't say that it made her a bad character.
 
This is a guide for beginners so execution difficulty does play a part there. And it was just said that the difficulty was a con, it didn't say that it made her a bad character.
Cons are bad things though. Execution barriers don't mean the characters worse than if they had no execution barrier. Also, the guide says its more for people starting out on SC. Not FGs. Who knows, it might be easy for them.
 
Cons are bad things though. Execution barriers don't mean the characters worse than if they had no execution barrier. Also, the guide says its more for people starting out on SC. Not FGs. Who knows, it might be easy for them.
It's not, and I've been involved in local FG's (SC included) for a very looong time.

Thank you very much for the quick intro guide Mage, I've been looking to take SC and Ivy seriously for a long time and this definitely helps.
 
I saw that for a counter you used 4A+B (from left side of screen), I usually use 236B+K but I see your way would be a lot better because you couldn't counter it :) Hows that advanced guide coming along? I'm curious how you go about Calamity Symphony and 22B B B B B B
 
The advanced guide should be finished around mid-January time. I'll probably do it on a weekend that allows me to spend the whole day(s) on it to make it the best it can be.

I saw that for a counter you used 4A+B (from left side of screen), I usually use 236B+K but I see your way would be a lot better because you couldn't counter it :)

Also, what did you mean by 236B+K?
 
Execution is a con for a beginner lol. Good stuff Mage. One of the guys in the Xiba SA is making a beginners guide as well.
 
I meant the UA where ivy spins and launches her sword, where one could just crouch and they wont be hit... I'm new to the directions/numbers notation, sorry
 
I meant the UA where ivy spins and launches her sword, where one could just crouch and they wont be hit... I'm new to the directions/numbers notation, sorry
It's fine, everyone is a beginner at some point. That notation would be 214A.
 
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