Crocodile

## Introduction

Crocodile is the head of Baroque Works, an organization trying to get a weapon or something?

In OPGA, Crocodile boasts incredible damage and powerful setups that lead to intense pressure. While his neutral is lacking because of his slow speed, he has a relatively fast teleport and Mr. 1 covers his weaknesses perfectly. Stack that on top of some safe strings and access to poison and you begin to realize why this character is the boss.

### **Pros & Cons**

+ Safe strings such as A>A>A and X>X make him hard to punish
+ His X>X puts him in the air with a jump and an aerial giving him a lot of options
+ His R+A is a good projectile with strong pushblock
+ R+X is an incredibly strong anti air and can confirm into big combos
+ His taunt removes the cover on his hook, making every attack with his hook poison and his grab gives you enough time to activate it and OTG
+ The tornado from A>A>X and X aerial can set up for a grab, unblockable, or even AB super if they are caught in it, blocking or not
+ R+B is a teleport which places him behind the opponent and it's difficult to punish
+ A>X creates pillars of sand that last for a bit and can be used in neutral or in setups
+ Mr. 1 is one of the best supports in the game and his attack has perfect synergy with Crocodile's R+X
+ AB super does good damage when mashed, can be confirmed with R+X, and can be followed up with an OTG or Mr. 1

- Terrible startup on his jabs
- Slow unblockable
- Neutral is weak without Mr. 1
- His hook will break if he blocks too many attacks, losing the grab on his R+X and his poison for the rest of the round
- AX super is mostly useless
- Very big hurtbox
- Startup on his tornadoes is so bad, he can be hit on reaction before they come out
- You can burst to escape his AB super

## Supports

### **Mr. 1**

Dash support. Mr. 1 runs around the map at incredible speed for a dash support until he's close to the opponent. He will attack by doing two punches that multi hit for good damage and shield pressure. Mr. 1 is one of the best supports in the game and his synergy with Crocodile only makes him that much stronger. The way his attack does knockback is a perfect setup into Croc's R+X meaning he's amazing at starting or extending combos. If the opponent shields this attack, Crocodile can also get a free grab or unblockable making any attack from Mr. 1 beneficial for Crocodile. His AI sometimes won't attack, but this can also inadvertently mix the opponent up by spooking them into holding block.

### **Ms. New Year's Eve**

Jump support. Ms. New Year's Eve will jump into the air and become Sonic to land for some damage. Pales in comparison to Mr. 1, but not completely unusable. The perfect Crocodile assist for sandbagging.

## Combos

* X>X, j.A, FF, R+X, Grab, Taunt\*, X(>X>X if against a wall)
* R+X, L+(A>B), X(>X>X)
* R+X, Grab, Taunt\*, X(>X>X)
* Mr. 1, R+X, L+(A>B), X(>X>X)
* Mr. 1, R+X, Grab, Taunt\*, X(>X>X)

Taunt\* = Only if you don't have the poison hook out

## Strategy

### **Vanilla**

Crocodile in vanilla has strong punishes but because meter is much more plentiful, he won't be able to perform them as often. Instead, you'll have to focus on his neutral more by getting enough meter to have Mr. 1 available at all times. A Crocodile with no meter or Mr. 1 is pretty much a dead Crocodile, so keep your bars filled.

### **Modded**

Crocodile's goal in the beginning is to get enough meter to summon Mr. 1. You'll achieve this by taking safe options in neutral. You never want to commit as Crocodile when you have no meter or you'll probably be taking some heavy damage and pressure yourself. Once you have accomplished getting a bar, you'll want to take advantage of Mr. 1's strength as much as possible. You want to snowball as much as possible when you get a bar of meter. If you keep the damage and pressure up, that means more AB supers and more spawns of Mr. 1 if you run out. You want to avoid losing this snowballing cause once Crocodile's flow is disrupted and he's back to square one with no meter or assist, you'll start to struggle again. Always have a spare bar of meter for Mr. 1 and don't blow it unless you know you can close the game out.

## Matchups

### **General Information**

Characters who are strong without meter will give Crocodile a terrible early game. They can abuse your slow moves and never let you reach that snowballing power you need.

#### **Kuina**

She poses no threat to Crocodile when he has Mr. 1 because his combos and poison kill her very quickly but the start of the match is the issue with her. She's small making a clean R+X hit difficult and her constant shield pressure and multi hits can break your hook before you've even got a chance to start rolling. Get Mr. 1 ASAP.