Chopper

## Introduction

**Chopper** is the doctor of the Straw Hat Crew. He's a reindeer who ate a human devil fruit.

Chopper has some crazy strong abilities in his kit. While his combo trees do pretty low damage, he has several good moves that hit like a truck. His jabs are fast and very safe, immensely so with lag cancelling. He has one of the two best counters in the game and he even has access to poison status without a super or assist. Definitely a monster in OPGA.

### **Pros & Cons**

+ Very small making him hard to hit
+ Fast jabs that are difficult to punish
+ Very good movement speed
+ Hard to react to when he does a combo finisher
+ Unblockable does ABSURD amounts of damage when charged
+ X aerial does very big damage for how fast it comes out
+ His counter is one of two counters that can react to projectiles. It does very good damage when it counters aerials and it's very spammable
+ Has some great assists
+ Access to poison with either j.A or assist

- Has pretty bad range on a lot of his moves which can make it difficult for him to catch landings or trade safely
- Poor supers
- R+A is slow and does little damage
- Some of his more damaging combos require some strict positioning and tight links

## Supports

### **Dr. Kureha**

Ranged support. OK HP and very low damage. Kureha will throw four poison projectiles very quickly. This attack has low cooldown meaning she is attacking constantly. Kureha is very powerful because her attack speed can easily pressure the opponent and the poison will rack up damage while they try to escape whatever setup you just created with her. Her HP will drain fast as she is a ranged support, so make sure to make your summon count. Use her in match-ups where you struggle to lock the opponent down as she offers some great assistance with her speedy projectiles.

### **Gunfall**

Jump support. Great HP and solid damage. Gunfall seems to jump a bit higher than other jump supports making him slower but a bit safer. If you can start to combo or pressure the opponent, Gunfall is there to make up for the low damage Chopper does in his combo trees. His high HP means he has some strong staying power which allows him plenty of time to be helpful. His amount of HP is just really good when you consider you only spent one bar of meter for him. Use him in match-ups where you need the extra damage in combos or an effective way to get out of pressure and punishes from your opponent.

## Combos

* A>A, A>A, B
* A+X (Charged, wall bounce), j.X
* A+X (Charged, wall bounce), L+(A>B)

## Strategy

### **Vanilla**

Pick either assist that you think will be best for the opponent you're up against and make sure to use them often. Because Gunfall has such high HP, you'll get more bang for your buck since he'll stick around for a while and you can use the extra meter you're not spending on assists for combo breaks. Your unblockable when charged will one shot most assists for what isn't really a lot of commitment meaning it can be easy for you to make it a 2v1. Since you don't really do a lot of damage in your combo trees, you'll be looking for ways to poison your opponent or setup your nasty high damaging moves. If you're ever in a lot of pressure, your counter is a solid way to escape.

### **Modded**

Chopper can be really difficult to get in on because of his counter and size while also being really hard to get off because of his speed and quick, difficult to read combo trees. You will need to take advantage of this because you'll need a solid neutral win to confirm some of your damaging attacks. Just taking pokes here and there won't do nearly enough damage. It will take a while to get your assist if you're not getting a lot of those heavy hits in, but once you do, you can start applying more consistent damage. If you aren't running Kureha, you'll likely want to get some j.A confirms in there to have that poison status rack up some damage. If you find yourself in sticky situations or you're getting zoned, don't forget about your counter. It's a great move to get in on zoners or get out of pressure.

## Match-ups

### **General Information**

Characters with a lot of range on their melee attacks will give chopper a hard time. If the opponent has a low commitment projectile, your counter won't be as effective. You'll have to be a bit more creative when approaching against those types of projectile characters.