Guilty Gear Strive Starter Guide will not teach you how to do the Jack-O challenge

Just don’t. You’ll fuck yourself up.

It’s time for another Guilty Gear Strive Starter Guide, as developer Arc System Works unmasks the spunky and immensely popular Jack-O’ Valentine, headed to the gorgeous fighting game as its second season one DLC character. Jack-O’ will be made available to season pass holders tomorrow, August 27, before going on general sale August 30.

Jack O’ — now sporting a beautiful shock of inverted red/blonde hair — has seen something of a gameplay overhaul from her Guilty Gear Xrd appearance, in keeping with GG Strive‘s efforts to makes its gameplay a little more accessible to new players. While Jack-O’s famous Servant Summoning skills are alive and well, her placing of servant spawn points has been removed entirely. Instead, Jack-O’ now summons her cute pals directly, before entering various stages of micro-management in order to increase her offensive and defensive capabilities.

Jack-O’ can readily place up to three servants at any one time, all of which can be gathered, thrown, recovered, or ordered to attack, defend, and even explode! These servants are the core component of Strive Jack-O’s fighting style, allowing her to dominate the playfield and keep her opponent locked down, while also facilitating the extension of combos, keeping her foe in block stun, or simply halting their attack plans by leaving them confused and overwhelmed. It’s not a Servant Typhoon situation, however, as Jack-O’s options are limited by the cost of her all-new “Servant Guage”.

While the mechanical systems around Jack-O’s servant chicanery have most certainly been altered, her overall battle management strategy remains the same. Jack-O’ still looks — at least to these eyes — a highly complex character, with an incredible array of offensive/defensive combat opportunities in the hands of any savvy handler able to quickly adapt to the changing nature of the battlefield as the fight progresses.

At no point does the starter guide explain how to perform the “Jack-O’ Challenge”, i.e. the task of recreating her vertebrae-shattering crouch stance. I would highly recommend that you do not attempt this maneuver yourself, lest you find yourself in traction for the remainder of the summer/2021. Regardless, Jack-O’ looks like another excellent addition to the Guilty Gear Strive roster, and while her mains will clearly have to re-attune themselves to her new ways, the mindset behind her battle plan is quite comparable.

For those of you looking for a quick refresher, here are the links to the previous Guilty Gear Strive starter guides for May & Axl Low, Sol Badguy and Ky Kiske, Chip Zanuff & Potemkin, Faust, Millia Rage, Zato-1, Ramlethal, Leo Whitefang, Nagoriyuki, Giovanna, Anji Mito, I-no, and Goldlewis Dickinson. Check out the latest patch notes right here.

Chris Moyse

Senior Editor – Chris has been playing video games since the 1980s. Former Saturday Night Slam Master. Graduated from Galaxy High with honors.