Tusk's linkers - usage strategy

I want to start posting and reading more strategic gameplay discussions, and since I am trying to pick up Tusk one of the first things I noticed was that his linkers are vastly different. Probably more different than any other character.

So how do you decide what to use when? His shoulder linker is clearly much faster but I am assuming (I haven’t had time to lab it up) that the slower sword linker does more damage. It’s painfully slow though. So how do you think these are best used?

It seems like for short, one chance break combos the sword linker might be the way to go but I need to test it to find out if the shoulder linker is more efficient for lockouts. People are still learning the visual cues for breaking Tusk so it’s tough to tell how different these are in terms of break ability but I am definitely getting broken a LOT on the sword linker.

Haven’t tested yet, but according to @Infilament 's guide, inmortal spirit its both faster and more damaging. Skull splitter remains as a “triplax esque” linker, and both M punch and H punch auto doubles use “sword hits”, so they can be mixed for lockout fishing.

At the end: inmortal spirit its both damaging and faster, so its the best choice for damage combos.

I rarelly use skull splitter linker, but when I do it its trying to fish lockouts/bait a counter breaker

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That’s interesting. The linker and the AD’s do look similar - sometimes it’s confusing for you as the player doing it until you learn the count for each move. But I don’t see that as being an issue for long. The linkers are so long that I actually think it will be really hard to bait a break and score a counter. Is the break window just as huge as the linker?

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I don’t know, but frankly, with Tusk, I usually go for one chance combos more than any other character.

Out combo damage its already high, and for example, c.mp, shadow skull splitter xx any autodouble xx conqueror its already over 50% damage.

Thats HUGE. With Tusk, I like to get more ubreakable stagger damage than combo damage

I take it Shadow Skull Splitter is more damaging than Shadow Immortal Spirit?

I clearly need to work on my stagger openers, but I haven’t found c.MP to be that reliable. It’s not too hard to avoid or block and people tend to be jumping all over the place against Tusk.

Standing heavy punch its your friend against jumpy people. Shadow skull splitter its maybe the most damaging shadow linker in the game. Also, about staggers conversion:

Skull splitter is a good lockout hunter, since it has an abnormal number of hits like triplax or flick flack AND it can be hard to distinguish from some of his auto-doubles. It’s also a good linker for big ultra combos.

Immortal spirit is a faster, higher damage linker, good for when you’re already locked out.

The Shadow versions change things up a bit. Immortal spirit is still faster, but Skull Splitter (I like to call the Shadow version “Web of Death” as a throwback :stuck_out_tongue: ) does a ton of damage.

Tusk is without a doubt the beefiest character in the game when it comes to damage, and if you can start a combo off of backstab or a throw>skewer>counterbreaker it’s possible to hit OBSCENE amounts of damage. My record is 94%

Thanks, I will see how that goes. His c.HP is also pretty effective in my haands and I think a better anti-air than his DP, which tends to whiff cross-ups. After a couple of disastrous matches I figured this out and I now refer to c.HP as the “Rash” button…[quote=“Fwufikins, post:7, topic:7764”]
My record is 94%
[/quote]

I think I’m at a modest 68%, and that was with a counter breaker. One things that keeps you lower than it might be is that shadow skull splitter and the skull splitter linker take so long you can’t get as many AD’s in as you would otherwise. I will definitely try to train up to use the immortal spirit linker especially after a lockout or CB.

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I’ll be honest, I use crouching HP more often than I DP for anti-airs. Easier input for similar results? Sign me right up!
And I’m not sure if these match Infil’s guide, but I’ve figured out some gold counter breaker combos
(note; use heavy kick doubles, they’re faster)

Meterless:
Heavy auto>light Immortal spirit > h auto > l IS> h auto> Ender

1 bar:
Heavy auto > light immortal spirit > heavy auto> Shadow Skull Splitter> ender

2 bars:
Heavy auto>Light Immortal spirit>Heavy auto>Shadow Skull Splitter > Shadow Conquerer

Of course, you can take it even further if your opponent tries a last minute break on the last 2 breakable hits of Web of Death for whatever reason and get a timing lockout (happens more often than you’d think). That’s how I go through the roof with damage and start eating entire life bars.

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The best I’ve done with Tusk (in training mode) is 95% without counter breaker, but a counter-breaker on that last skewer should easily do the trick past 100% damage ^^

The thing is, during that combo, there are plenty of breakable opportunity.

Backstab > s.HP > cr.MP > s.HK > shadow Skul Splitter > HK (manual) > shadow Skull Splitter > auto HK > light shoulder > auto HK > Conqueror Ender > Skewer

And you’re at 95% damage combo. But like I said, it’s easily breakable, espacialy on those auto HK, so you can mix them with manuals (HK or MK). Also if your opponent have the right timing to break those shadow Skull splitter, you also can counter-break them…
I’ve never done it in a real fight, but it’s more because of that first Backstab.

Yeah, I think a lot of this tech (Edit: not yours in particular but the damaging tech throughout this thread) is pretty much lab only because of that backstab. It’s useful for exploring the principles of how Tusk’s combo works, but honestly how often does anyone land that backstab in a real match? It’s risky to even try and I only ever see it if I get the spacing wrong and try to do his cross up back stab from too far away.

Typically if I backstab it’s by accident or with con fidence I can instinct cancel into a stagger combo.

Backstab already causes a stagger, you don’t need to instinct cancel to combo with it. Unless you just want to.

Unless you want to backstab twice.

You know actually I might explore that in the lab more to check the scaling and see if it’s worth it.

I did, it’s not.
Backstab gets scaled pretty hard so it immediately loses its purpose (being the highest damage attack in the game) after the first one in a combo, and blowing Instinct for it isn’t worth it unless you’re planning on going ham with said Instinct after your combo is finished or you want some wiggle room to go for a reset or something.
I can’t recall off the top of my head, but I believe the damage is scaled down to be about the same damage as an s.MP or something, to put it in perspective. I tested this day 1 so it’s a little fuzzy.
Feel free to investigate further, though.

Edit: Yeah, just checked real quick. The damage is scaled to be the same as s.MP so it’s really not worth it at all. If you’d like to see for yourself the spacing you’ll need is to backdash once from starting positions and Backstab from there. This will max range the Backstab and space you appropriately to do another Backstab and not get the crossup.

The highest and most efficient damage combo that I know of using Backstab was found by @Filemoncio:
Backstab, s.HP, Grab, Skewer - 43% technically unbreakable unless you tech the throw, which actually happened to me once. Even without Skewer that’s 39% for three attacks, which is just absurd.
If a counter breaker is achieved on the Skewer, they also die. Pretty good deal.

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