In a dark world of butts, boobies, and overflowing testosterone, one male model challenges the status quo.

This is the Hyde Gyde.

Upon initial glance, you'd figure Hyde is a bit of a longe range sniper like Renoah, right?
Ehhh, while with practice he can shoot quite long distances, he is most effective at mid to close range, as his melee game is quite good due to his attack startup speed.

With this guide I intend to teach some archeblade basics, and specifics for hyde in both melee fights and harassing at mid range. With practice and following this guide, you should fully understand his toolkit and have a good idea of how to use it.

I am an incredibly verbose woman and my grammar isn't very good, so please bear with me :>

First, for those new to Archeblade, heres some basics about how the game works and how you can generally play all the characters (except for a handful of exceptions). Characters in this game are wildly different in terms of their mobility options and special skills, so we will focus on core fighting. You can skip this if you've already figured the basics out (some people play several hours without learning this stuff though). Theres other guides for this but they're old and I don't care :>

• You can block with E. This is an extremely important tool, this isn't a button masher, you're going to get trapped and caught out in attack chains over and over if you don't learn to block. Blocking reduces damage to a minimum, but only from attacks in the front, and there are some attacks that will hit you from the side or the back (for some broken reason), but for the most part you can block and block and block if you stay facing the enemies attacks. The most basic exception to look out for is if the enemy is enveloped in lightning. This means they are going to break your block, and most likely juggle you. Quickly back away from them and retaliate in recovery frames. That'll teach you to hit ALT+R!!!
  
  
• Once you're knocked up, you're going to stay in this vulnerable state till you hit the ground. Many characters can juggle you and get extra damage in while you're completely defenseless. Try to avoid getting in this state as much as possible, but try to get your enemy in this state as much as possible.
  
  
• There are recovery frames. The majority of characters in this game have very obvious recovery frames, where at the end of an attack you've blocked, you retaliate with your own attacks. Some characters such as Elika have more difficult to read animations and are often best attacked in the middle of an attack chain rather than at the end. Good players can and will change up the timing of things a bit, such as stop in the middle of attack chains to mess with your head. Learn peoples patterns, look out for times when you can hit back, and make sure you know your most effective ways of retaliating and taking the fight back in your favour. Past that, good luck.
  
  
• You can do more damage if you strike someone from behind. Hydes ability to turn invisible makes this easier to do than other characters, but once a fight starts, don't expect to get behind people very often.
  
  
• Any move that uses ALT uses some of your stamina bar, including block breakers. Keep this in mind.

Here I will discuss in depth each of Hydes individual moves.
Very in depth actually, but its all pertinant information. Hopefully.



Shift
Hyde can hit shift to turn invisible. It uses a very large portion of your stamina bar, and only lasts a few seconds. Theres a few situations you can use this well as discussed in the strategy section, but your stamina is often better used on ALT versions of attacks.
Keep in mind a very stupid quirk: People can still see you on the radar when you're invisible.


F - Enchant Arrow
Pressing F will use one bar of your rage meter to enchant your next shot, making it deal 50% more damage and adding hitstun to the shot. You can tell if its active by your quiver glowing pink/violet. This is what you should be spending most of your rage meter on, as it can give you great damage potential.
Always remember: It applies to each arrow fired in a single shot, so more arrows equals more damage.

Q - Caltrops
Pressing Q will use two bars of your rage meter and throw a load of caltrops on the ground.
This move is dubious in usefulness. It doesn't do a whole lot of damage, but it will slow enemies movement down. Throw it out if you have resources to spare and really need to get away from someone, but your rage meter is most often better used on your F.


L -> L -> L
This is your basic attack string. In hydes case, it is a 2 hit attack, followed by another 2 hit attack, followed by a dashing attack. It has very fast initial startup, although there is a bit of a vulnerable period between the second and third hit, which people can and will take advantage of it. Throw this out sometimes, but don't always do the third hit. The third hit can also be used to reposition yourself slightly.

L -> R
This is your knockup. There are many like it, but this one belongs to Hyde.
It is the two hit attack of your basic attack string, followed by a kick. Use this to put an enemy in a vulnerable state where you can do free attacks on them for more damage, which will be discussed in the Juggles section.

A tip for knockup usage, do not hold forward after you've hit the enemy into the air. This will prevent you from accidentally going underneath them, and you do not want an enemy standing on your head. Unless you're really into facesitting, I don't judge.

L -> ALT + R
This is a version of the knockup that will break blocks. It envelops you with lightning, and is rather slow. This sometimes works against people, especially newer players but some people will spot it quickly and back off so be careful.

L -> R -> R
Hyde is unique in that from a knockup if you press R another time you will fire a volley of arrows at the knocked up enemy. This move is a bit slow and they will hit the ground before the animation is over so you will use up their vulnerable state with this. I'd say its usually better to learn the timing and NOT do this move too often.
If you have your F active, the volley of arrows uses up the enchantment, but in my experience it doesn't seem to do all that much more damage if any.

L -> L -> R
Two basic melees followed by a single arrow shot.
This move is a bit of a crapshoot. I'd say generally avoid it.
The arrow leaves you a bit vulnerable and it doesn't properly combo.

L -> L -> ALT + R
As opposed to its basic version, this has some use.
It still has the same vulnerability BUT you fire a whopping 5 arrows in a horizontal line.
The damage potential on this is ludicrious, as I will explain in the juggles section.

R (Hold)
Hold down R to charge up an arrow, which will fire 1 arrow if uncharged, and charged will fire 3 arrows in a decently tight triangle. I think this is one of Hydes weaker moves. Although with practice you can learn to hit enemies quite far away, you move slowly while charging, charging takes rather long and misses are a waste of time, and the overall dps is poor even if you hit every shot.
I firmly believe you should avoid this move and learn how to aim the air version instead, which is a much better, safer harassing tool.

ALT + R
This move will slide you in the direction you're moving, and instantly charges 3 arrows.
Use this to deal big damage to unsuspecting enemies especially if combined with your F.
Be warned, the slide isn't very fast and doesn't cover much distance, and you are put in the slowed state of charging an arrow afterwards, this is not a replacement for a dodge.


L
Just ignore this move completely. It does exactly the same damage as his R, without the range. Great gag gift.

R
Jump in the air, and quickly fire an arrow. This is your primary harassing tool, throw out lots of these at medium range. They take a little bit longer to learn to aim than a normal R but the benefits outweigh any the skill curve.
You keep your momentum while doing this, meaning you can move around and dodge while still throwing out ranged damage.

ALT + R
This is the same as the R but fires out 3 arrows in a horizontal line.
I'd say this is best used to finish off slippery/retreating enemies since its easier to hit.

Heres a list of things you should keep track of as Hyde that weren't already explained in the basics section. I will not be going particularly in depth on this, as I believe you should develop your own strategys with knowledge of your toolset. Its easier to learn them on your own than to have them be explained to you bit by bit. That and I'm an idiot.

• Invisibility has some uses, although its huge stamina cost makes it a bit of a gamble.
  Its first use is to use before you round a corner to catch someone off guard, to get a back attack going.
  It can also get you out of really bad situations if you use it correctly. Make sure you aren't in direct attack range before using it. Try moving in one direction before using it and then in another one immediately after going invisible. Best used immediately after rounding a corner.
  Some enemies will start spinning around and swinging at nothing (Such as Ridika and Valle), so you usually won't be able to use this to get an opening if they already know you're there.
  
  
• Don't harass for too long. If an enemy is approaching you fast, get yourself back on the ground, you don't want to get caught in an attack while you're coming down from a jump.
  
  
• Don't chase people. Fire arrows at them if they retreat, but don't chase. Hyde is flamboyantly fragile, and his movement speed isn't the best. The less unfavourable situations you put yourself in the better.
  
  
• Learn to manage your resources properly! Sometimes, its better to back off for a fight for a while to recover your stamina. Make sure you know where all the powerups are in a map. You should know this for every character, really.

Finally, we get to the fun part of Hyde, and any Archeblade character really. Juggling and really putting the hurt down.
Some juggles are harder than others, especially with Hyde due to his small attack hitboxes and tendancy to move during attacks.

L -> R -> R
The easiest, most basic juggle of Hydes. Its basically an auto combo. If you can't figure out the other ones just stick to this.

L-> R , L -> L -> L
This is relatively easy as well. Knock the enemy into the air, wait a moment for them to begin falling down, and mash that L button. If you can get the timing down, back up ever so slightly before beginning the second attack chain to make it easier to land.

L -> R, L -> L -> R
An alternative to the previous juggle. To make this work, make sure you're aiming downwards when you fire the arrow. It will take some time to get this one right consistentally.

L -> R, L -> L -> ALT + R
I like to refer to this as the FAFY, or the Five Arrow ♥♥♥♥ You.
This is an incredibly nasty combo. This is performed the same as the previous combo, but with holding ALT on the last R. This will fire 5 horizontal arrows and since you're so close, they will generally all hit especially if the opponent has a large hitbox.
Combine this with an enchanted arrow to utterly gib people.
If you learn how to hit this combo well, any opening for you is a death sentence.

There are possibly more juggles than this, but these are the ones that I use.
You most likely won't need anything fancier than the FAFY due to its sheer damage output.

That is all for now. If people find this guide useful or want to contribute some information, please comment!
I might later look into matchups, but even I'm still learning the nuances of each character in the game, and characters vary different depending on the skill level of the person using them.

Thank you to that guy who wrote the AAVE Sewon guide, it was amazing and was what inspired me to write my own guide.

Also thank you to this individual who made the cover image eons ago http://minispartan300.deviantart.com/art/ArcheBlade-new-character-409622621