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Guilty Gear Strive enters its Second Season with a bang, bringing fan-favorite yo-yo wielder Bridget into the mix of an already stacked cast of characters. While many characters have seen significant changes in their gameplay style or gimmicks, Bridget is still the All-Rounder Fighter you know and love.

RELATED: Guilty Gear Strive: 6 Things Added In Season 2

Though her kit did change, Bridget's brutal and surgically precise yo-yo skills, mixed with her mechanical bear, Roger, make her a joy to play and feel familiar to old-timers who played her in the past installments. Bridget has many tricks up her sleeve, making her a formidable foe from almost anywhere and in most situations.

Bridget Overview

Bridget in Guilty Gear Strive

Bridget is classified as an All-Rounder fighter, having tools that allow her to control space from significant range while also having a solid neutral game, which makes it hard for opponents to approach her and easy for her to get in. Furthermore, Bridget has one of the more unique movements in the game, allowing her to close the gap on her opponent in the blink of an eye, granting her the ability to apply relentless amounts of pressure.

If it wasn't clear by now, Bridget has some of the best offensive options in the game, making her competent from just about anywhere on the stage. Additionally, thanks to Bridget's ability to control the space in front of her, she can single-handedly set the match's tempo. She can force her opponent to respect and adapt to her playstyle or die cowering in fear of her intense mixes, blazingly fast attacks, and unyielding pressure. However, this is where one of her few weaknesses comes into play, her defense.

While she has a few 'Get Off Me' options to help her create space and stop an encroaching opponent, she has a relatively low health pool and is severely punishable on whiff. The good news, fortunately, is that only a few characters can actually punish her long-ranged whiffs, making most of her actions safe when at a distance. However, whenever she's up close and personal with her opponent, she must always try ending her strings with something safe, as giving her opponent the chance to answer back or combo her can lead to a deadly combo.

Lastly, Bridget suffers from a similar issue to Milia Rage, where she can apply suffocating pressure, carry out near-endless combos from just about any action, and be on the attack for the better part of the match while doing hardly any damage. While her damage output isn't terrible, it's not nearly as high as other characters in Strive. When paired with her low health pool, this makes it so that she can lose against a highly skilled opponent from just two decent attack strings or a well-placed Overdrive. You must approach each matchup with a level of respect and strategy, or things can turn real ugly, real quick.

General Play Strategy

Bridget performing a Jump Kick on May in Guilty Gear Strive

Now that Bridget's overall concept is covered, it's time to get into her general playstyle and strategy. Though we touched on some of this stuff in the last section, this will allow us the flesh out why she's such a formidable offensive opponent and how all of her options can work together to create her unrelenting pressure.

Mixes For Days

Bridget has several strong mix-up tools at her disposal, with her 'Rolling Movement' Special Attack being amongst her strongest. While she can only perform this action when her yo-yo from 'Stop and Dash' is in play, it's easily her best go-to option for closing the gap on her opponent. Not only can she cancel into any air-based attack during Rolling Movement, but Bridget can cancel into her Overdrive, Specials, and Burst to give this action even more potent properties and mix potential.

Despite being easy to call out, Rolling Movement should be your default 'Air Dash' and airborne approach to your opponent. Being able to cancel into a wide range of abilities or bait out their 5P makes it an incredibly deadly tool and one that will be used frequently throughout the match. Additionally, weaving it into blockstrings gives it a strong mix-up potential due to catching low-blocking opponents off-guard with an overhead during the heat of the battle.

Rolling Movement is best used on opponents knocked down from her 2D (Crouching Dust) or Throws. She can toss her yo-yo out with Stop and Dash, then either follow through with Rolling Movement or several low attacks, constantly keeping her opponents guessing on wake-up.

Non-Stop Pressure

Speaking about Bridget's okizeme (ability to pressure opponents on wake-up), her mix-up potential goes hand in hand with her ability to apply unrelenting and nearly unstoppable amounts of pressure. While her Stop and Dash and Rolling Movement is one half of the equation, her other half comes from 'Kick Start My Heart,' another excellent advancement tool in Bridget's arsenal.

Kick Start My Heart can be extended with 'Brake' and 'Shoot,' with the former slowing her movement speed by roughly forty percent and the latter drastically increasing it by approximately eighty percent. This allows her to constantly change her approaching speed to catch the opponent off guard, giving her tremendous amounts of options to apply pressure and implement mix-ups.

Furthermore, Kick Start My Heart can also be Kara Canceled (canceling the start of an action into a Super Move) into her 'Loop the Loop' or 'Return of the Killing Machine' Overdrives. However, to perform these actions, you must first use the Brake or Shoot extensions, then immediately cancel into one of her Overdrives. While it can be a bit tricky to get down at first, it's one of the best ways for her to end combos or attack strings if she has meter.

Basic Combos

Bridget using her yo-yo and Red Roman Cancel to pressure Milia Rage into the corner in Guilty Gear Strive

On the topic of combos, it's time to wrap this up with some of her basic 'Bread and Butter' combos that will be your go-to in most instances. But, before that, we would like to share a quick rundown of the general terms and inputs found in the game just in case you're a newcomer to the game and have yet to familiarize yourself with all the jargon yet!

Guilty Gear Strive Notations

General Inputs

Bridget Neutral Combos

  • HS > HS
  • S > HS > HS
  • 2S > HS > HS
  • P > P > 2K > 236K > P or K (During 236K)
  • 2P > 2P > 2K > 236K > P or K (During 236K)
  • 2K > 2D > 236K > P or K (During 236K)

Bridget Corner Combos

  • cl.S > 2S > 2HS > 236HS > HS > HS > 236K > P or K (During 236K)
  • cl.S > 6HS > 236HS > HS > HS > 236K > P or K (During 236K)
  • cl.S > 6HS > 236HS > Dash > K > 6HS > 236K

While there are far more combos and routes in Bridget's repertoire, we feel the ones listed above will give you the best grasp on her general setups and potential, allowing you to get the hang of her before getting into the more complex stuff. And, once you feel like you're ready to take things up a notch, be sure to check out Guilty Gear Strive's Combo Maker to see all kinds of Combos and Setplays for Bridget that will take your game to the next level!

NEXT: Guilty Gear Strive: Testament Beginner's Guide