I've decided to release this incomplete guide, which I never got to finish. It's a bit outdated, there's not much new info, but if you are completely new to Octavia, maybe there's something in it for you, check it out.

I'm Asahio. An EU Omega Strikers Player that started playing on the public "beta" release. On this version of the game, when matches were still shorter, I climbed from Rookie to Challenger in the first week of release.
Although I do not claim to have invented "Aggressive Forward Era", I, back then, made a guide to familiarize new players with a play style that was not conventional for Era.

I believe that due to recent patches, nerfs and changes to the game-loop (like awakenings), Era is in a position where she is not as strong as she once was.

After a long hiatus from the community, as well as the new version of Omega Strikers gradually coming out, I've decided to partially come back. My current rank is not high, so do with this info what you want. I have not stopped climbing since I've played (70% WR), but simply do not have the time to invest into hard-climbing.

Octavia has been out for about a week now and upon playing her, I realized her design compliments that of an Aggressive Forward very well. She is a perfect secondary pick or new main for Aggressive Forward Era's, plays very similarly and can be build almost identically to Aggressive Forward Era.

I have over 30+ Competitive games on Octavia with a 75% winrate of which 91% I was MVP.

In this guide, I will go over:

• My playstyle
  
• Some of the thought processes I go through
  
• Match ups, and how to deal with them
  
• Awakenings I use
  
• Certain mechanics I use

Please understand that this guide will not go over everything in full detail and is not meta-bound. It assumes you have a basic knowledge of Omega Strikers and are familiar with some of the terminology used.

For those who read my Era guide, some information might be duplicate.

First of all, I would like to clarify my play-style in detail. So you can understand if this guide for Aggressive Forward Octavia aligns with what you expect, and how you want to play.
This is not a holy scripture on how you should play. This is merely a guide portraying my thought processes and ideas.

"Aggression"
My aggressive play-style does NOT focus on K.O.'ing opponents.
This might be confusing as the guide is called "Aggressive".
I believe there are 2 types of aggression in Omega Strikers:

1. Core Aggression: focusing most of your abilities and movement on controlling the core. Ideally, you want the opposing team to feel out of control, reacting to where you are on the field and what you decide to do with the core (angle, speed, direction, passes,...).

2. Striker Aggression: focusing your abilities to K.O. enemies and oppress their player count. Disallowing them to move, intercepting their passes and overall being a nuisance.

This entire guide and my personal play-style is all about Core Aggression. I believe that it's one of the strongest ways to play the game and many aggressive players are too blinded by K.O.'s to properly play around the core.

Misunderstanding Core Aggression
A lot of people brush this section of as "that makes sense" but then don't apply the principle of core aggression in-game.
Another bunch of people will glue themselves to the core and believe this is core aggression.

Both instances are what you should avoid. Core aggression is not complex, but it requires you to predict and adjust your movement.
In ideal situations, the enemy should be thinking the following: "How are they there", "How did they know I was going to pass here", "We have to get the core away from them".

Every time you have the core for yourself, the enemy should fear you.
This has two consequences:

1. They spend too much resources on you.
   
2. They spend too little resources on the core.

Why getting K.O.'d is 'fine'
A lot of people feel like they've "won" when they K.O. me.
What is important for you to understand is that getting K.O.'d usually means the enemy spend resources on you that they could've used on the core, but didn't.
I do not play for a singular goal as aggressive forward. I play for winning the game.
This is a mental warfare, every ability the enemy uses on you, is an ability less they can use to outplay your goalie/use on the core.

Lot's of people will disagree with this statement, because K.O. timers mean your team is 2v3 and it often results in a goal. Like I mentioned before, do not see every goal as a setback, instead play to win the overall game.

Anecdote:
The other day I was in a game playing against a Rune that used all his abilities to get me out of the game. He went for a full knockback build and repeated this process over and over. I got KO'd multiple times per set. I still won that game.
The point is that although people will try to counter your playstyle. The pressure itself, CAN be enough to win games.

Why I play for stagger
As mentioned in the 'Playstyle' section of this guide.
My playstyle gathers a lot of attention of enemy forwards and goalies. They often use resources on me. What is frustrating for them is if those resources are wasted.
I thus 99% of the time go for awakenings that increase my stagger, knockback and damage taken (for example Unstoppable). Which can also be partially combined with speed awakenings if you do not have other choices available (Stacks on Stacks).
Obviously using evade and core flip is another way to get yourself out of sticky situations and wasting resources of the enemy.

The Speed & Duration Meta
What I call the Speed & Duration meta is the illusion that Octavia should be played full speed glass cannon with buff duration & haste increase awakenings.

• Chrono boost
  
• Aerials
  
• Cast to Last
  
• Primetime
  
• Rapid Fire
  
• Super Surge
  
• Quick Strike

Situationally, these are not bad awakenings. It's however, simply not how I play the game.
The more you end up in higher elo's, the more people understand the weaknesses of Octavia, in particular her extremely low stagger. Playing this meta build is exactly what these people expect and want from you. Not playing in their hands will increase your chances in the game.


Asahio's Octavia Awakenings

• Unstoppable
  
• Big Fish
  
• Bulk Up
  
• Stagger Swagger
  
• Peak Performance

Flow State Refreshing
This ability is always used incorrectly in lower ELO. It's the most important ability in Octavia's kit.
Flow State is so extremely strong when used correctly and combined with proper awakenings.
The mindset you have to have when you press the button for Flow State is that you have to be a magnet to the core, and use your other abilities to refresh Flow State, keeping it up as LONG AS POSSIBLE.

Sonic Boom Double-Hit
Strike the core to the goalie, and almost immediately afterwards, launch a sonic boom towards the goalie to "double hit" the core.

Sonic Boom Slow/Stun Hit
Dribble the core down to pass to yourself, launch sonic boom towards the goalie, strike to the other side of the goal.

Bass Drop KO
The most common use for Bass Drop is for KO-ing opposing players.
The ability is very strong for this purpose. If an opposing player is slight miss-positioned, you can potentially KO them even if there stagger is low.

Bass Drop Dribble
Dribbling with Bass Drop is hard and costly. If you mess up, you are on a huge cool-down timer.
It is however worth for the "variation" in your gameplay.
If you always use Bass Drop for KO-ing, the opposing players will adapt. Certainly with the longer game loop we have right now.
Using Bass Drop for dribbling and "asserting dominance" over the core, is good mental warfare against the opposing players and sometimes opens up the opportunity to score.

If you've read through this whole guide. Thank you.
For all the people that supported my Era guide, thank you very much as well. You are a big part of the reason why I spend time writing this Octavia Guide.

I want to really clarify, this build is not for everyone and it's my personal play style. Most people do not want to play as core-aggressive as me. And although this guide is less controversial because Octavia is meant to be played as forward, not all the information in this guide follows the "meta".
Don't take everything I say as factual, I made this guide based on my personal experiences and ideas.

You can contact me on discord: Asahio#5148
Have fun playing the game and hopefully this guide will help you climb up the ranks if you decide to play Aggressive Forward Octavia!