Aerith Gainsborough (Dissidia 012)

Info
Name	Aerith Gainsborough (エアリス・ゲインズブール)
Original game	Final Fantasy VII
Base ATK (LV100)	-
Base DEF (LV100)	-
Run Speed	-
Dash Speed	-
Fall Speed	-
Fall Speed Ratio After Dodge	-
Fastest BRV
Fastest HP
1-Hit HP
HP Links
Command Block
Weapon	-
Armor	-
Exclusive weapons	-
Unlock
Alignment
Voice Actor (JP)
Voice Actor (ENG)

Overview

Aerith is an Assist-only character in Dissidia 012. Her abilities deviate a lot from conventional assist character repertoire, from holding the opponent in place to generating bravery for the player and granting them immunity from attacks.

Aerith is one of the strongest assists in competitive play. What she lacks in raw damage and whiff punishment is compensated with distinct utility and HP conversion opportunities, notably from chase sequences.

The only way to unlock Aerith is by downloading Dissidia 012 [duodecim] Final Fantasy Prologus and the associated assist data that comes with it.

Bravery Attacks

Like with other assist characters, Aerith only has two bravery attacks: One ground and one midair.

Cure

Startup	Position	Spawn	Effect
?	Ground	Player	+ 60 % of base BRV

Curative skill increasing ally's bravery.

Aerith spawns near the player to give them 60 % of their raw bravery. At LV100 this is always 400 bravery.

While not used frequently, Cure has a similiar benefit compared to Lightning's Cure braveries - If both players have two assist bars and neither player is getting a hit, Aerith can be used to make up for missing damage or come back from a bravery deficit. Since she is vulnerable when using Cure, she can be locked by hitting her. This can create a situation where the opponent chooses to engage in order to discourage generating bravery with her. Aerith spawns next to the player character when called, but due diligence is recommended when protecting her.

It is also possible to attempt finishing a match by staggering the opponent, calling Aerith to add 400 to your bravery and then letting the HP attack deliver the final blow with the added bravery. Utilising the slowdown during assist call still prevents the use of Assist Change for the opponent as well.

Seal Evil

Startup	Position	Spawn	Effect	Priority
?	Air	Player	Hold (3 seconds)	Ranged Low

[Special] Make opponent unable to move. Foe is freed when hit by another attack.

The bread and butter. Ranged Low priority and notable start-up compared to other conventional assists' aerial braveries, but landing this will keep the opponent in place for three seconds. Pre-emptive timing or elaborate setup are often required to connect with this move.

Seal Evil setups

The most common set up is to call Aerith right before a Chase prompt appears, then initiate chase, perform an HP attack and if the opponent dodges it, Seal Evil will hit them. If the opponent dodges right away, the HP attack will connect, guaranteeing HP damage off of a move while absorbing all EX on the field due to Chase activation.

There are a few transmutations of this setup that both players should be aware of. Once the player has initiated Chase:

• Player performs an HP attack and the opponent dodges immediately, receiving the HP attack near a wall

If the players are near a wall and Aerith was called late enough, the wall rush caused by the chase HP attack can also chain into Seal Evil.

• Player performs a bravery attack

This is typically performed near a wall as well as means to tack on extra damage. If the opponent dodges the bravery, Seal Evil will still connect. If the opponent does not dodge the bravery, they will sustain both the bravery damage as well as Seal Evil's binding effect.

If the wall rush is not possible, getting hit by the bravery attack will move the opponent out of Seal Evil's range. Be aware of your surroundings if you opt for this option.

• The opponent is caught in Seal Evil before the player has performed an attack during Chase

Moves such as Vaan's (SW) Katana that have a short enough knockback, but long enough Chase prompt window to delay the chase timing for Seal Evil to connect by just performing the initial Chase prompt. If the player performs a bravery attack or an HP attack after this happens, the opponent can still attempt to evade it as if Seal Evil never happened.

The timings can vary greatly depending on the character. For example, Paladin form Cecil has to commit to an HP attack during chase after using Sacred Cross and calling Aerith due to the chase window and hit stun being too short. Cloud and his aerial Double Cut suffer from a similiar problem.

Aerith can also be chained from wall rushes by calling her a bit earlier than the wall rush would occur. In chase situations where the player scores a wall rush, Seal Evil can still connect if Aerith is called as soon as the chase sequence is considered over.

Seal Evil combos

Overview

Overview of the possibilities

Because Seal Evil's effect persists even after Aerith has left the field, the move allows a lot of leniency in connecting a follow-up. Solo setups such as Sephiroth's Shadow Flare into Heaven's Light can be used to good effect here.

However, in an interesting note this also means that the assist meter is not grayed out, indicating prohibited use. This means two things.

For one, the player can take advantage of Dash feinting or ground dashing to generate assist meter before performing their follow-up attack, mitigating a minor portion of Seal Evil's cost of one assist bar in the process. If the opponent received Seal Evil while being wall rushed on the ground, they will transition into the "floor splat" state if no further action is taken before Seal Evil's effect wears off, allowing leniency in building assist meter via ground dashing.

Secondly -and this is a big one-, using an HP attack with long hit stun or one that wall rushes and then calling Aerith again allows the player to bind the opponent again with Seal Evil for a second time in a row. It is an expensive trade-off, costing both of the player's assist bars but being able to land 2-3 HP attacks in a single combo can be a worthwhile investment for high base bravery and / or wall rush builds. Meter depletion applies for all those hits as well and this could be used to even generate an extraordinary amount of EX with solo combos.

Because of this, Zidane became infamous for being able to exploit this fact with his Shift Break HP and Meo Twister HP link off of his single best move, Swift Attack. With a proper high base bravery build with good base bravery recovery Zidane can inflict up to 6000-7000 HP with only two assist bars.

In practice, the combo looks like this

• Swift Attack - Meo Twister - Seal Evil - free air dash - Shift Break, call Aerith right before HP damage is inflicted - Seal Evil - position above opponent and Shift Break, call Aerith right before HP damage again - Seal Evil - Shift Break at the ceiling - air dodge - Swift Attack - Meo Twister.

If Zidane cannot secure the ceiling, it is common to omit the second Shift Break in favor of simply doing another Swift Attack instead. This is still above 4000 hp territory and with Side by Side this combo can come into play earlier than usual.

This concept can be applied to any character who has an attack with a somewhat short animation (end lag) and long enough hit stun or wall rush property to allow Aerith to chain another Seal Evil. While the mileage will greatly vary from character to character, such as Jecht using three Ultimate Jecht Shots or Tidus fitting in another aerial Cut and Run, the potential of this technique should not be overlooked. Other assist characters with lingering projectiles and traps such as Firion, The Emperor and Ultimecia can replicate this effect, again, with varying degrees of success.

Cloud:

• Slashing Blow - wall rush - Seal Evil - Fire [1] - dash - Fire [2] - Fire [1] hits - Fire [2] hits - Climhazzard (2 hits) - Double Cut (midair)

Video demo

HP Attacks

Like with other assist characters, Aerith only has two HP attacks: One ground and one midair.

Planet Protector

Startup	Position	Spawn	Effect
?	Ground	Player	Invincibility (300F / 5 seconds)

Give all allies temporary invincibility.

Indicated by a golden flash around her and the player character, Planet Protector will nullify any damage caused to the player or any hit reaction caused to Aerith herself for five seconds (or 300 frames). In that sense, "invincibility" is an accurate term because nothing the opponent does can hurt or kill the player character while under this effect.

As this is not a combo attack, it cannot be used to chain a sequence of attacks together. However, due to the continuous invincibility it can allow other strategies.

The opponent can still attempt to attack the player and upon making contact the attack will act as it normally would. All bravery damage will do 0 damage and upon inflicting HP damage the damage is not only 0, but also resets the opponent's bravery back to 0 as if the HP attack connected conventionally. This can be used as a countermeasure to reset a high amount of bravery the opponent may have accumulated by running into it on purpose or to otherwise nullify an incoming attack pre-emptively.

This does mean that any sustained chase attacks will have no effect and as a result, Planet Protector can enable immediate counter attacks following the lack of damage reaction.

Exdeath can notoriously exploit Planet Protector to a good effect thanks to his grounded Maelstrom HP. By charging up this move and then calling Aerith to cast Planet Protector in the middle of the animation, the opponent is left with no choice but to deflect Maelstrom. The difficulty of this task varies by character, but a select few cannot do this at all, them being Kuja, Shantotto and Yuna. This results them in sustaining unavoidable damage which can greatly reduce their chances of winning against Exdeath in larger stages.

Holy

Damage multiplier	Startup	Position	Spawn	Effect	Priority
0	480F / 8 sec (cast) 524F / 0.73 sec (hit)	Air	Player	Wall Rush, Block (Melee / Ranged Low)	Ranged High

[Long] Cast a legendary white magic spell. Long cast time.

Holy is the single assist attack that allows Aerith to inflict HP damage on her own. It's casting time is 8 seconds (or 480 frames) and the HP hit connects at 524 frames, roughly 0.73 seconds later.

Once the casting has finished between frames 480 and 524, the opponent is still free to do anything. They could even attack Aerith to cause an Assist Lock to the player who used it, but they will still get hit by Holy in the end. Think of this as Starfall, the meteor (Holy) appears at 480 frames, and needs 44 frames to "reach" its target.

During this move Aerith has Block Mid priority, which means you will need guard staggering moves like Squall's Heel Crush or high priority moves such as HP attacks or LV3 Jecht Stream to intercept it.

As Holy is still a Ranged High, it can also be deflected by high priority Melee attacks or blocks that Jecht and Exdeath possess. Even Precision Block works! Needless to say the timing is quite strict, and the opponent can still pursue the opponent while Holy is taking place.

Here is a video demonstrating some of these countermeasures.