This guide is intended for people that have at least a passing familiarity with Arcana Heart 3's system mechanics. If you are brand new or need a refresher, there are quite a few resources in place already, like nadakaineko's clash video tutorial, or the translated fan comic guide, or of course, the #examu IRC channel on mizuumi for all other questions. I highly recommend checking those out first if necessary, and then watching this if you're still interested.

So what kind of character is Clarice?
She's best described as the glass cannon character of the game.

She has the fastest and most versatile movement in the game.
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She has some of the highest reliable damage in the game.
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She has the single fastest normal in the game, with one frame of startup.
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She has numerous multi-hit normals with no framegap between hits, excelling in clash.
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She has tremendous screen control with half screen slashes
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On top of all that, she has excellent mixup potential.
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However, she has one of the lowest health totals in the game, so she tends to die in 2-3 clean combos.
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Furthermore, she's rather weak on defense, so losing neutral, combined with her poor health, can often mean losing the round or the match.

Her combos are relatively simple, so first, let's look at her most important moves and how to use them. Once you're familiar with them, combos will be fairly straightforward.

***movelist summary, roughly in order from most to least useful, starting with normals, then going into specials then supers. the X's represent an image/clip illustrating the normal/last statement.***

j.B
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One of Clarice's most important normals. It hits twice with no framegap and has a large  extended attackbox, so it automatically puts her at a huge advantage when the first hit is clashed.

It's only weakness is against characters that have a way to counter the second hit, either with a literal catch counter
x (kamui lol)

or reversal
x (weiss/heart)

or a move with first frame clash.
x (heart/saki whatever)


j.E
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Even better reach and hitbox than j.B, and it bounces Clarice backwards, it's extremely safe even on block or clash.

Great for testing the waters or for locking them down when you have meter to burn. Knocks down, so even though you can't really combo from it, you can get your game going from random hits.


j.C
core move in her mixup leading to crossups
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uncrossups
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speed homing whiff into low
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speed homing whiff into throw
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it's also jump cancellable, leading to more shenanigans
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pretty weak against rising anti-airs, j.c is weak to those because it has 12f of startup
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first 3f of startup have full-body clash, good against multi-hit moves
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j.1C
makes for a really good uncrossup normal because of the input, enhancing her j.C mixup
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since it hits directly beneath her with 6f startup, good anti-rising-anti-air
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like j.B it's a 2-hit normal with no frame gap
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j.A
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Really good rising anti-air in tandem with Clarice's fast high jump.
Use it to interrupt loose pressure and whatnot if they're being sloppy.


4C
The infamous 1F low. Beats bad oki
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and bad pressure,
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wins clash wars,
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is a crucial low component in her mixup,
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and is her strongest combo ender.
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It's even safe on block, since it chains into 5E.
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As good as it is, there are many painful ways to call it out, so don't get careless.
x (elsa 6b ch)

A minor defensive OS you can do if you have EF available is piano 4C~AB, which on whiffing 4C will kara cancel into Arcana Blast.
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Note that this kara cancel has been removed as of Six Stars!!!!!!, so don't get too attached to it.


5E
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One of her most useful overall ground normals. +2 on block, air unblockable, huge horizontal range

It's generally a safe way to end blockstrings, since it's her only reliable normal that's plus on block,
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and you can easily bait guard cancels by partially charging it.
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Like all 5Es, it wallslams on hit, putting Clarice in a hugely advantageous position.
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Only thing to be careful with is that it's potentially crouchable, especially at further ranges and against smaller characters.
x (angelia or konoha crouching this)


2E
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Clarice's other air unblockable move, it's basically a vertical 5E. Hits hilariously high up

a good way to follow up blocked upslashes or air-to-air blockstrings, linking into a full meterless air combo.
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Being AUB, also good for calling out high jump guards in clash.
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2C
Her best grounded anti-air normal, has an attack box literally all around her body.
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Even if blocked, puts them in a bad situation because of the threat of a 5E/2E guardbreak.
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Also nice for dealing with forward guard cancels on the ground, since it hits three times with no framegap and doesn't whiff crouching normals, unlike 5C.
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5C
like 2C, hits three times with no framegap. unfortunately, quite a few crouching normals go under it, so not quite as useful.
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however, it does have clash frames from the 3rd frame of startup, making it good in other situations. also, it still has a great hitbox that hits higher up, making it good against certain low-height trajectories
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5B
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Very high hitting normal. Even though it hits twice, it's not like her other multi-hit normals since there's potentially a 3-frame gap between hits.
x (show second hit clashing heart 5b)

Still extremely useful since it hits behind her head.
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It is +1 on block and jump cancellable, but it will only hit crouchers situationally, so get to know when it will connect, it greatly opens up her pressure and reset game.
x (connects vs crouch blocking zenia, jc iad j.C)
x (whiffs vs some other crouch blocking char, whoops)


2B
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Her other low hitting normal besides 4C

It's nowhere near as versatile as 4C obviously, but it is better as a combo starter in terms of damage, even if it's slower.

It also hits twice with no framegap etc


2A/5A
These two normals are largely the same except for one thing. They're both 4F startup, her fastest normals that aren't 4C, so they're decent in anti-air clashing.

The only real difference is that 5A is jump cancellable on hit or block, but like 5B, this is highly situational.




Quite a few of Clarice's normals also happen to reflect projectiles, here's a quick list.
***here, have a montage of all normals that can reflect projectiles***



onto specials
236A/B/C
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clarice's other signature move, these are half-screen slashes that are 9f startup and only -1 on block, they're great.

the different versions hit at different angles, and they're all useful in different situations, so get to know them

B and C versions are both staple punish moves. C version hits low additionally, used during pressure and in mixup
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A version hits at about a 30 degree angle upwards, great for stopping aerial trajectories.
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On block, cancel with homing or EF to start pressure.
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if you have meter, they're amazing for guard cancelling out of certain pressure strings and regaining momentum
x (6gc yoriko blockstring into 236C 236B combo)


28x
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all versions are essentially the same.
More slashes, this time aimed vertically. the angle on these is really good, they cover what's considered a weak spot for a lot of arcana characters.

You can use it as a ghetto reversal since it has upper body invul
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But that's extremely easy to blow up
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In conjunction with 2E, blocked upslashes threaten guardbreaks.
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on hit, like 2e, links into a full meterless combo
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j.236A/B/C
More slashes, this time in the air.

They're somewhat more risky than their grounded counterparts, due to more recovery and more frame disadvantage on block.

Still very useful though, particularly the A and B versions.

A version covers an angle she has a hard time with otherwise
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B version done low to the ground is great for cover space and starting pressure.
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C version will actually hit overhead, making it a pretty much unreactable high when tk'd.
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C version is also good after an air combo that knocks down into the corner for lockdown
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All slash specials share certain characteristics:
- can be charged, increasing startup but decreasing recovery and greatly increasing frame advantage
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- all slashes count as projectiles, meaning if they're clashed, they cannot be cancelled into anything else
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- all slashes can be cancelled on block or hit once into another slash
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- the first two active frames (the very tip) of all slashes are unclashable
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421A/B/C
Scratches. A and B are sort of the same, C is actually an auto-crossup teleport. Since A and B both track, pretty good for harassing them at full screen, but don't overuse it. As long as they're within slash range, you can combo from these on hit.


j.214A/B/C
Air dives. Mainly used as combo extenders, though they do hit high so they have use as overheads during pressure as well. Clarice moves backwards during the startup a different amount depending on which version you use.



Next up are her supers, though she really only has one that's really useful:
6321478AB
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pretty much the best way to spend meter outside of combos. the magic circle continually absorbs life from the other player as long as it's touching them,

even if clarice is blocking or getting hit.
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as of love max!!!!!, it can be detonated by inputting 22b on the ground or in the air, turning it into an active hitbox that hits 8 times.
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This is plus on block and can be comboed off of on hit, it's hella versatile.

you can also change it to drain meter max instead by inputting 22a, which counts as a special move and can be performed in the ground or in the air.
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you usually see this cancelled into from combo enders
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one cool party trick is to super cancel slashes into the super. do this during combos, she can actually link off of certain hits and continue the combo
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as a combo ender, making your next mixup/combo even more threatening
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do it in blockstrings, making your uncharged slashes plus on block
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the world is your oyster with this super, make good use of it.



now that you have a general idea of how to use each of her moves, here are the most basic and important combo routes:
- [236C 236B]/[236B air hit]/236A/j.236A NHC9 j.BC djc j.AB j.1C j.E [j.236C]
-- instead of the NHC9, you can do EFC j.b j.1C j.BA djc j.B j.1C j.E [j.236C]
- 236B ground hit [NHC7/8/9]/j.B j.1C land dash 2AC 4C
-- instead of the HC, you can do [EFC homing 7/8/9] j.B j.1C [j.B] land dash 2AC 4C
- j.236B air hit delay NHC6 j.C land dash 2B 5C 236C [4C] (4C in corner only)

It's pretty straightforward to see how all of her moves flow into one route or another.

as a general principle, air combo routes will do more damage but have weaker knockdown,

whereas grounded combo routes (or air starters leading into grounded routes) will do less damage but have stronger knockdown.

although the next video will go much more in depth with regard to combos, she is relatively simple in this aspect, meaning as a beginner you should focus more on the fundamentals of movement, since that's something that can only really come with match experience.


As far as Arcana selection goes, she is not particularly dependent on Arcana to be a good character, so you can pretty much go with whatever you think looks cool. That said, some of the more common picks I see are Wind, Thunder, Flower, Halo, Earth, and Tyr.
- Wind gives her even better movement and overall combo damage, adding a triple jump, double airdash, and fastfall, along with replacing her normal 6GC with a pushblock. The sonic boom and whirlwind projectiles are just the cherry on top of all that, though it should be noted that Wind also lowers her already low health, making it so she's virtually guaranteed to die in two or three clean hits.
- Thunder makes her already strong clash game even more versatile, gaining startup clash frames on 5E, 2E and her ground dash, as well as a clash-only DP, a defensive tool that she lacks otherwise. EX-lightning gives her a powerful mixup tool in the corner, as well as acting a combo extender for certain combos. If you can raw EF, do it and make everyone scared to be anywhere near you on the ground.
- Flower doesn't have any specific synergies with Clarice, but counterhit negation and fast burst regen is never bad, especially for someone with low life like Clarice, and she can make pretty good use of multi-layered flower super for okizeme
- Halo practically doubles the height of her high jump, which is already the highest in the game, very good for controlling air space. Halo's normal offensive options are great for anyone, and Clarice is no exception. Cool thing to do is end il rapimento combos with heaven's gate, the super puts them right back into range of the magic circle for some extra life drain.
- Earth is interesting. The guardpoint on E normals and 6D definitely come in handy, though to me it often feels like a crappier thunder clash point. The hyperarmor during EF is a decent way to setup approaches as well. The coolest reason to use this as far as I'm concerned is that if you have two bars stocked, it gives her a very practical way to set up her demon summoning super post ex-foot knockdown.
- Clarice has tons of opportunities to do raw EFs for Tyr because of her mobility, so along with how buff the Arcana is normally, not a bad choice if your neutral is on point.

If you're playing Arcana Heart 3 for the first time and still trying to figure out the various mechanics and subsystems, I'd recommend using Flower. Counterhit negation and fast burst regeneration are just that nice to have in a fast-paced game like this where practically every hit can lead to 30%+ damage and knockdown. Once you know what you're doing though, definitely feel free to explore Arcana selection some more.