The Fine Art of Spamming in SWR Part 1: Patchouli

Ok, don’t let the title fool you. This is all about spamming, but it’s hardly an art. In fact, this strategy is sure to annoy players who like to use flashy, flamboyant limit combo chains and tactical zoning combined with advanced techniques such as border escapes. Anyway, in preparation for the upcoming Teacup Invitational SWR Tourney which our little community will be hosting, I’m going to be doing a series of SWR-related articles. Today, we’re going to talk about spamming, specifically, spamming using Patchouli. There are many ways to spam in SWR and some of these spam tactics make for excellent additions to your zoning arsenal. As far as Patchouli is concerned however, it’s quite a simple affair to spam even against advanced players. Basically, Patchy’s spam flowchart in SWR goes something like this:

• Start of match = C (homing fireballs)
• Enemy knocked down = C
• Enemy in the air = C
• Enemy standing in front of you = C
• Enemy away = graze up and C

Need I continue? Basically, Patchy’s homing C fireballs are so effective that they’re really all you need to win a match. They've been nerfed several times over the last few upgrade patches, but they're still pretty damn effective. The fireballs spread out to cover almost the entire screen in multiple directions. This means that even against higher priority bullets, there’s not much of a chance of all of them getting canceled out unless you get hit.

Sure, you could add in a spellcard or two as well as a few melee attempts to mix it up, but in any case, when in doubt, just press C. Of course, there are some characters with fast moving projectiles and grazing attacks such as Iku and Remilia who you might want to watch out for, but in general, spamming those C fireballs will almost always guarantee a win! I taught a friend how to do this and now it’s the only way he wants to play when using Patchy :D. This replay is an actual casual netplay match between myself and FIA’s Iku (a work-in-progress at this point. Fia mains Sanae and Suika in serious matches).

Next time, I’ll show you how to spam with Yuyuko… as if she even needed to spam :D.