How to Play Guts in Strikeborn

Black Swordsman is Strikeborn’s Guts kit: a huge slab of iron, cloth physics on the cape, and M1s that look like they should lose to Yuji until you notice the reach. Early-access showcases spent half their runtime on this character for a reason. He is the “this is not another punch clone” advertisement. Play him if you will respect slow timing. Use this lesson with combat and the Guts roster page.

The kit in observed pieces

Public clips named or clearly showed:

• Slower M1s with more range. You win by standing where Yuji’s fists miss.
• Hit three uppercut, hit four down slam in test strings. Do not auto-complete four if you wanted air.
• Carnage Grip as an early slot-1 style grab / command tool in a launch-day showcase.
• Air variants of slot 1 and slot 4.
• A backdash into air slot 4 route: three M1s, back dash, air variant of 4.
• Look-down tech: after three M1s, angle the camera down, press the dash-adjacent key (Q in the clip), and kick the opponent off you. Creators called it a small attention-to-detail moment. Lab it.
• An ultimate / awakening that was not fully complete in those showcases. Do not build your identity around a super that still looks unfinished.

Strikeborn first access session with Guts on the roster

Gameplan

You are a mid-range bully who converts on a single well-spaced string. Walk. Let them enter the sword. M1 until the uppercut, then take the air variant you actually practiced. If they press armor-brain on wakeup, try the counter-ish slot 4 that was described as a counter when it hits an attack and a normal swing when it does not. That is a strong button if you do not spam it.

On the waterfall map, Guts looks disgusting on open stone courtyards and on cliff lips where a down slam is a stock. He looks worse in tight ruin hallways where Yuji can start a string before your first swing lands. Pick your rooms.

Lab list for your first Guts night

1. Max-range M1. Walk until the tip hits. That distance is your whole personality.
2. Stop strings on hit three. Follow into the air.
3. Grounded 4 versus air 4 versus back-hold 4. Write the differences.
4. Carnage Grip: who it grabs, whether it extends, whether it is reactable.
5. The look-down kick after three M1s. If you cannot do it ten times on a dummy, you do not have it.
6. Wall jump with the sword’s extra hurtbox in mind. You are a bigger target in the air than Yuji.

Notation for a documented showcase idea (confirm in client):

M1 x3 > back dash > air 4

and

M1 x3 > look down > Q kick

These are not true combo claims. They are things a creator demonstrated. Your ping, your timing, and the current patch decide if they are true.

Versus Yuji

Yuji will try to get inside the sword. That is correct for him. Your job is to:

• Keep the tip between you.
• Punish his missed counter kick.
• Not chase him into a jump pad he understands better than you.
• Save a dash for when he converts you into the air. Guts players who panic-spend pips on the ground get juggled for a full ravine ride.

If the lobby is a 100-player blender, stop looking for a cinematic Dragon Slayer moment. Take two hits, knock someone toward the mist, move. The tier list currently treats both complete characters as real mains; your execution decides the rest.

Mistakes that make Guts feel “bad”

• Swinging at Yuji range instead of Guts range.
• Completing hit four every time, burying the air route.
• Treating the unfinished ultimate as a win condition.
• Ignoring camera techs because they feel silly. The look-down kick is the first named piece of Strikeborn tech for a reason.
• Maining Guts on mobile without raising camera sensitivity. A greatsword you cannot aim is a long stun for the other player.

When you can land the uppercut convert and the look-down kick in a real fight, you have finished this lesson. Go back to starter picks only if you are still choosing a main. Otherwise, alternate Guts nights with Yuji nights so the shared combat layer stays sharp. Patches that complete the awakening or retune Carnage Grip will land on Updates.