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Sarcophacurse

Scarcophacurse (Known in Japan as Mazinkhamen) is a Mystery Legendary Yo-kai debuting in Yo-Kai Watch 3. Sarcophacurse is, as one might expect from his name, an ancient sarcophagus who likes to curse people. Sarcophacurse even keeps a mummy inside of him, who occasionally pops out to cast curses. It’s unknown if Sarcophacurse and the mummy are a singular individual or separate entities, but this set will assume that they are aren’t.

Sarcophacurse is implied to be VERY evil, having been locked away in a tomb for thousands of years, presumably because of that whole cursing people thing. That doesn’t mean he won’t join you if get lucky! Bizarrely, Sarcophacurse’s appearance and Japanese name are references to super robot series Mazinger Z, a reference that was cut in the International release because of copyright reasons and to ruin everything for the west.

In a follow through of being a parody of a giant robot, Sarcophacurse does indeed have the ability to transform. He turns into a normal sarcophagus by pulling his limbs in, but it’s the thought that counts.

Sarcopha-Stats
Weight – 235
Walk Speed – 0.60
Run Speed – 1.36
Air Speed – 1
Fall Speed – 1.95

Sarcophacurse is a pretty average heavyweight character, fitting of a big walking tomb. He’s tied with Bowser for the highest weight in the game, again, he’s a walking tomb. For his walk, Sarcophacurse lumbers forwards with his arms stretched out, but his run has him activate his jetpack and glide across the floor, still at a pretty slow pace. His walk speed is the absolute slowest, with Incineroar only barely beating him, and his run lands squarely between Mii Gunner and Ganondorf.

His aerial stats are where things become a bit interesting. While he isn’t great in the air, his actual speed is at the level of Palutena and P. Plant’s, making it significantly better than unfortunate heavies like Dedede and Ganondorf. His fall speed is tied with Dedede, which is very unfortunate. To make up for this, Sarcophacurse has a hover. Also, while his first jump is mediocre-to-bad (2.5 Blocks high), his second jump is one of the best on a heavyweight (nearly 3.5 Blocks high), as he uses his jetpack for an added kick.

For his model, Sarcophacurse takes the stance seen in the artwork above, though slightly modified to have him turned a bit. He’s as tall as Ganondorf, if not a bit taller, and as wide as Dedede, making him a very big boy. In addition, Sarcophacurse has a special attribute, Gold Guard, which… acts exactly like Bowser’s Tough Guy armor, but it has a different name, so he still feels special.
Overall, Sarcophacurse is a heavy among heavies, but given the bonus of mediocre aerial movement, automatically making him better than Dedede.

Sarcopha-Specials
Neutral Special – Pharaonic Curse
In a lengthy starting animation, Sarcophacurse opens up the front of his body, pulling it like a door in the direction away from the screen. The mummy inside of him then leans out and waves its hands about, causing a burst of purple smoke in front of them. This animation takes roughly as long as a Warlock Punch, maybe even a smidge longer. The smoke lingers for a bit, and Sarcophacurse can’t move until the smoke clears and the door is shut, giving it a stupid amount of end lag. The smoke itself takes up roughly 4 Blocks worth of space, making it fairly easy to hit with if you manage to pull it off.

The door opening part of the animation is actually a weak hitbox, dealing 4% damage and very low knockback that just barely makes it safe on hit and combos directly into the smoke. It has low range but is granted super armor until the mummy pops out. The super armor actually covers the entirety of Sarcophacurse’s body (EG. Opponents can’t jump over and attack him from behind to knock him out of the animation), with the mummy poking out being the exception, making it a very vulnerable weakspot for him. This adds an extra layer of protection to this slow attack but leaves Sarcophacurse open to fast projectiles.

When the purple smoke hits an opponent, they will take some bad hitstun but without any damage attached. This makes sure that the opponent can’t take advantage of Sarcophacurse’s vulnerable state while the smoke is out, as both players will regain control at the exact same time. However, when the opponent regains control, they will be at a severe disadvantage. In Yo-Kai Watch 3, the Pharaonic Curse lowers all stats of enemies, and it is very much the same here… except it doesn’t lower all stats, because that would be silly.

Instead, the attack only lowers a few key stats. Attack damage is cut by a third, and knockback they can deal is reduced by a 6th. In addition, opponents will now take 1.15x the knockback they normally take from attacks, a modifier that now applies to their shield as well (Shields take 1.2x damage, not knockback). Speed is obviously cut by a third as well, which applies to both grounded and air speed (Jump height and fall speed is not affected). This effect lasts for a monstrous 15 seconds, making it something the opponent will absolutely need to keep an eye out for.

Of course, the issue is that actually landing it is an issue. It has bad lag on the starting and ending fronts, making it highly telegraphed, and while Sarcophacurse can protect himself from being knocked out of it, it still leaves him open to opponents, nonetheless. This move is still the centerpiece of Sarcophacurse’s arsenal, as it brings opponents down enough for the big lug to handle them on the ground and amplifies his already heavy hitting attacks (None of which are in the specials).

Down Special – Gilded Guard
Sarcophacurse crosses his arms and turns to face the screen, a glowing image of a non-robot sarcophagus covering him and then vanishing. The big tomb will now gain a golden glow for the next 10 seconds. This animation takes a fairly long time, though not to the levels of the NSpec, and unlike the NSpec, Sarcophacurse can be knocked out of it, no super armor here. There isn’t a hitbox attached to the attack, meaning that it leaves Sarcophacurse completely defenseless while activating. However, the end result is definitely worth it.

While it may be hard to tell what this does at first, Gilded Guard is a buff that doubles the Gold Guard ability that Sarcophacurse normally has. See? Wasn’t there for no reason! Anyway, as mentioned, Gold Guard acts exactly like Bowser’s Tough Guy armor, with Sarcophacurse gaining armor against any attack that deals less than 19 units of knockback. With the Gilded Guard buff, this gives our mummy friend resistance to attacks that deal less than 38 units of knockback, which can allow Sarcophacurse to functionally no-sell most jabs and even some tilts.

This is definitely a scary prospect for opponents, especially if they’ve already been debuffed by the Pharoanic Curse, which makes it so that even more moves can be blocked by the armor. But this buff only lasts for 10 seconds, meaning Sarcophacurse has a very short time to take advantage of it, and that’s something the opponent themselves can control. This is more a problem for characters with weaker attacks, heavyweights generally don’t need to be as cautious. When Gilded Guard ends, Sarcophacurse will need to wait 5 seconds before he can use it again (Only when it ends, however, being knocked out of the starting animation doesn’t count), which will be signified by a burst of golden smoke appearing around him.

Being a very good buff isn’t all this does, though. In a team match, when you hold the button down, Sarcophacurse will instead give Gilded Guard to one of his allies (Who can be chosen by pointing the control stick towards them while the animation starts up). The difference here is that, well, not a lot of characters actually have Tough Guy/Gold Guard on them automatically, so instead of doubling it, it simply gives them the 19-unit resistance for 10 seconds. This obviously has no purpose outside of team matches, meaning that it’s just fluff and you should ignore it.

Gilded Guard is a fantastic buff that is pretty indispensable to Sarcophacurse’s arsenal. It gives him ridiculously good defense, and when paired up with his also great debuff, proper use of it can turn the walking tomb into a major force to be reckoned with.

Side Special – Mum’s the Word
Sarcophacurse holds out his hand, purple smoke emanating from it. After around 30 frames, the walking tomb will clench its hand, causing a burst of purple smoke 1 Block away from him. The smoke clears to reveal a Crummy Mummy, a mummy Yo-Kai. The Crummy Mummy is a minion and moves at a speed that is noticeably faster than Sarcophacurse’s own ground speed but is still overall mediocre. It has a single set jump at 2.5 Blocks and is almost as tall as a human character like Marth, making him slightly shorter than Ol’ Curse. 3 of them can be on stage at a time.

True to their name, the Crummy Mummies are, well, pretty crummy. That have 13% stamina, and their tall frames and mediocre movement speed makes them an easy target. They have a pretty simple AI, basically just running up to opponents and attacking them, with not a lot of regard for themselves besides not jumping off stage. Their attacks are also fairly mediocre, the main one being a Body Slam that has the Crummy Mummy leap up a bit, and slam forward 1 Block. It has a bit of starting and ending lag to it but deals a decent 10% with some hefty knockback. This attack is the one that leaves the Crummy Mummies open the most and is also unfortunately the one they’ll end up using a lot.

Their second attack is Drain, which has the mummy wiggle around for a moment before a purple vortex manifests in front of it. This acts somewhat like a command grab, meaning it hits directly in front of the Crummy Mummy, opponents are unable to avoid it if hit, and it can break through shields. On hit, Drain will deal 6% damage to the opponent, and heal the Crummy Mummy for 6%, before launching the opponent back with weak knockback. Crummy Mummies can heal past their 13% stamina, boosting it up to 20%, but this is something that won’t happen that regularly as Crrummy Mummies will only use this when low on health.

Their final attack is the Crummy Curse, which functions like a smaller version of Sarcophacurse’s own Pharoanic Curse, creating a purple smoke cloud in front of the mummy that deals hitstun but no damage on contact. The smoke cloud here is 2/3rds the size of Sarcophacurse’s and has slightly shorter starting lag… which doesn’t make it good starting lag. In a lot of other details, it’s exactly the same to the Pharoanic Curse. Except for the major one, the actual effect of the curse. Every second that the curse is active, the afflicted opponent will take 2% damage, for the next 10 seconds. This totals up to a ridiculous 20% damage from a single attack. The curse will even linger on after the Crummy Mummy dies (re-dies?), meaning that if it hits, the opponent has no escape. This is, however, the rarest move for a Crummy Mummy to use, with them tending to use it randomly when up close to an opponent.

Now, normally having such a fragile minion with moves that don’t have great reach is a bad thing. And it is here too. However, Sarcophacurse can do something to make them a lot better. Remember how I said you can activate Gilded Guard on other players, and how that was just fluff? Well, it actually isn’t, as you can use the same trick on your Crummy Mummies, giving them Tough Guy, I mean Gold Guard armor. While not a particularly big boost, there is one major thing that the Mummies get when having Gold Guard on them that is unique. Normally, when a Crummy Mummy gets KOed while using an attack, it will be knocked out of the animation and disappear. With Gold Guard equipped, however, they will instead continue the animation until it finishes, and then proceed to die. This makes them significantly more likely to deal some major hits to the opponent. However, due to the charging time of the Gold Guard inspirit, you can functionally only have one Crummy Mummy equipped with it at a time.

As a final note, when a Crummy Mummy dies, they will fall over and then explode into a blob of goo. The goo takes up 1.3 Blocks and will deal 3% damage with very weak knockback but some pretty bad hitstun. This is their Sludge Grudge, and while it may not be powerful, it can definitely keep an enemy distracted and open for an approach.

Crummy Mummies have their uses, distractions for the enemy, general damage dealing, fairly basic minion stuff. The big deal is how they interact with the Gold Guard, which allows a Mummy to survive for a lot longer than usual. They overall aren’t the best, but a slow character like Sarcophacurse needs something to help with approach, especially since he doesn’t have a projectile. Landing a Crummy Curse is an incredibly good turn of events but think of it more as a bonus if it does happen.

Up Special – Ra and Nut
Sarcophacurse quickly pulls in his legs, and then crosses his arms, taking the shape of a normal sarcophagus, and then activates his jetpack, launching himself upwards at a diagonal angle. As soon as he reaches the apex of the flight, the mummy mech turns to face the camera, and then plummets downwards in a stall-then-fall attack. This is functionally a reverse of Incineroar’s Up Special, which makes it automatically a better recovery tool, and Sarcophacurse is already better in the air than Incin.

For actual hitboxes, the diagonal part of the move deals a fairly weak 4% with backwards knockback. It travels upwards 4 Blocks, and forwards 3 Blocks, making it fairly steep. There is some start-up to the attack, though it isn’t terrible. This is the most useful part of the attack, as you might guess by it being a recovery.

Now for the falling portion. As soon as Sarcopha reaches max height and distance, there will be a brief moment where he isn’t a hitbox, and as such can be knocked out of it, which will put him into helpless. Use of Gilded Guard can help prevent this. Either way he’ll be going for a fall, since the tomb falls down at the same speed as Greninja’s DAir, acting as a hitbox with a meteor effect that deals 6% normally, but has a sweet spot located in the exact middle of the model, which deals a much more impressive 10%. This also deals heavy knockback, and can act as a decent killing move, if you can ever land it properly. The rising hitbox can actually combo into the fall in some rare cases. After falling for 7 Blocks, ol’ tomb will enter helpless. If he does manage to hit the ground while falling, he’ll enter some bad ending lag.

This is mainly a recovery to go along with Sarcophacurse’s already fairly good aerial mobility, but with the benefit of having a fairly powerful hitbox to go alongside it. This obviously comes with a lot of the same downsides as Incineroar’s USpec, as being imprecise with it can lead to a pretty bad suicide.

Sarcopha-Standards
Jab – Power Punch
Sarcophacurse performs a very stiff kick forwards, before following it up with a Bowser-esque punch forwards. The kick has a very short range but is one of Sarcopha’s quickest attacks. It only deals 3% and basically no knockback, but a decent amount of hitstun and very low endlag if the jab isn’t continued. This can actually be used for a decent combo starter, mostly with Sarcophacurse’s other Tilts, or to try and knock the opponent into the air. If you want to get risky, you can go with a Pharoanic Curse or an Up Special, though the later will only combo into the dropping hitbox at higher percentages.

The punching hitbox is, as you might be able to tell from the name, very powerful. It has significantly more start-up than the kick and is generally on the slower side for a jab. You practically need to hit with the kick in order to actually get the attack to land – which mostly shows how good the first hit is for combo starting. To make up for this bad starting lag, the punch has great range, stretching out slightly farther than Bowser’s jab punch. On hit, it will deal a startling 11%, with knockback that is fairly powerful, tending to launch opponents at even low percents. It still isn’t enough to KO early, and will generally tend to at around the mid-200%s.

The first hit of this jab has, as mentioned previous, combo properties, and is basically Sarcophacurse’s only decent combo starter. The punch, however, is a good spacer when combined with the kick. This is especially worth using while Gilded Guard is activated, as it makes it very difficult for opponents to knock you out of this powerful attack and makes comboing into slower moves from the first hit even easier. With no Gilded Guard, you can use it to launch opponents into your Crummy Mummies, who may even attempt to attack as they see the opponent flying towards them.

Down Tilt – Sarcopha-Spin
Sarcophacurse’s crouch is… awkward, to say the least. It simply has him retracting his legs into his body, only barely reducing his height. His stance otherwise remains the same, though he will slightly tilt back and forth for the animation. Sarcopha’s actual DTilt has him quickly spin around, arms outstretched for an attack that hits on both sides, something you rarely see on DTilts, shockingly. This is Sarcophacurse’s actual fastest attack, coming out at a frame comparable to average DTilt’s like Mario’s. The difference here is that it lasts a bit, with Sarcophacurse spinning around a total of three times. This is still very fast, as he becomes a blur during it, but it still lasts significantly longer than most other DTilts. Range is good as well, thanks to Sarcophacurse’s large arms, reaching out almost as far as his Jab on either side.

This deals three hits of 2.5%, totalling to 7.5% if all three connect. The knockback is only calculated on the last hit, and deals decent diagonally upwards knockback, though not good enough to KO at any really good numbers. It is good enough to set up aerial chases, however, something that Sarcophacurse can excel at thanks to his aerial movement and aerials. The attack has low endlag as well, making this option a very obvious one. Another obvious one is for edgeguarding, as a properly timed use of this can catch recovering opponents.

This isn’t the only way you can use the spin. By holding the button down, you can completely change the properties of the knockback. Instead of dealing diagonal knockback, the last hit will instead deal heavy hitstun and spin the opponent around to the other side of Sarcophacurse, completely reversing them. This is also incredibly useful for edgeguarding, as you can force opponents back to the ledge, and the best part is, there’s no real indicator of which you’re using. Mixing up your usage when edgeguarding is a great way to put opponents on edge. Literally.

Related to this is that the move normally interacts with Crummy Mummies. Hitting them with the final hit of either of these two knockback styles (The last hit will be the only one that they react to, as Sarcophacurse can’t hurt them) will cause the mummy to be spun over to the opposite side. This is good for positioning your minions or helping them get over to some place you actually need them to be.

Finally, if you double tap the input, instead of the usual final hit, Sarcophacurse will use a new finisher where he stops spinning to face the screen, still in his crouching position. He then raises his arms up, and quickly slams down, his fists enlarging as they hit impact. This is actually very slow compared to the normal attack, having high starting lag and fairly bad ending lag. What it is, though, is very powerful, as hitting with it can deal 15% damage with knockback that can KO at 130%, fairly ridiculous for a tilt. This would be pretty useless on a character without Tough Guy/Gold Guard, but Sarcopha DOES have that, and Gilded Guard makes it even better. This is an attack that also can be used for edgeguarding, though obviously it’s a lot tougher to do… but landing it is very satisfying. Also, it has slightly larger range than the normal hitbox, on the level of the Jab punch.

Having a fast attack like this is incredibly useful on a character like Sarcophacurse, and its added utilities make it even better. There’s lots that can be done with this attack, as described in the above paragraphs. In short, it is a very good move to use in a lot of circumstances

Up Tilt – Upper-Tut
Sarcophacurse braces himself, and then performs a heavy uppercut. This attack has some heavy starting lag, again something made up for with Gold/Gilded Armor, and also a good deal of ending lag. It’s roughly as long as Mega Man’s UTilt, maybe even a bit longer. It has better reach, as Sarcophacurse makes sure to REALLY swing his arm as he does the uppercut, giving it roughly half the range of his jab’s punch. It has better upwards reach than Mega Man’s uppercut as well, mostly thanks to Sarcopha’s size. On hit, the uppercut will launch opponents directly upward, while also dealing 10% damage.

This can KO off the top of Battlefield at around 80-90%, but the attack is slow enough that hitting with it under that circumstance is difficult. The obvious use of the attack is to get opponents into the air, where Sarcophacurse is generally better off, but unlike Dtilt this is mostly for direct combo purposes. It also has enough strength to make it a decent KO option at higher percents.

However, if you want to take the combo potential to the next level, you want to hold down the input. Doing this will cause Sarcophacurse to activate his jetpack, and then perform a rising uppercut that leaves him in the air. This is significantly slower than the normal version, meaning that hitting with it practically requires the extra armor. It also only deals 8% and deals no knockback but high hitstun. It also has low endlag, meaning that Sarcophacurse can directly go into an aerial follow-up if it manages to land.

This is, in concept, one of the best aerial combo starters in the game, but it’s obviously very difficult to land. In general, the move will be used, in either form, to get opponents into the air, for whatever reason you desire. Also, hitting a Crummy Mummy with this attack will cause it to be launched directly upwards for positioning purposes.

Forward Tilt – Put A Lid on It
In a very strange animation, Sarcophacurse grips the back half of his body and pushes forward, pushing the lid of his tomb-body forwards. The lid separates from the rest of the body and hits forward, acting as the hitbox. The attack has decent reach to it, thanks to Sarcophacurse’s arms stretching out a bit, putting it at a higher range than any of Sarcophacurse’s normal punches. It’s relatively fast despite the awkward animation, with equally fast endlag, making this useful and easy to throw out. The entire front of the coffin golem is a hitbox, making it VERY large. Hitting with the lid will deal 7% damage with knockback that is good at launching opponents directly backwards.

This isn’t great for KOing, or even damage dealing, putting it at a fairly distinct disadvantage compared to Sarcophacurse’s other tilts. As mentioned before, it’s a good option to throw out if you need to attack fast and get an opponent away, as the knockback will rarely ever put opponents directly into the air. It has a few extra utilities, including a big one we’ll get to in a second. First, the attack can be tilted up and down, causing Sarcophacurse to instead thrust himself forward at an upwards or downwards diagonal angle, changing the knockback to more of an arc and a semi-spike that can bounce, respectively.

Due to the hitbox on the lid being strange, when using the downward version will cause it to very lightly clip into the stage, though this has no real significance. The upwards variant can be an even better anti-air tool than the UTilt, while the downwards version is decent for attacking at the edge. The actual main use of this move is how it reacts with Crummy Mummies. When hitting one of the mummies with any of these attacks, they will be launched a set distance.

Hitting with the standard version will send the Crummy Mummy flying forward 3.5 Blocks, hitting with the upward version launches them 5 Blocks in an arc that reaches up 3 Blocks, and the downwards version bounces them off the ground for a taller arc that reaches 6 Blocks high and ends 3  Blocks from the launching point. This is the premiere minion manipulating move, making it fairly indispensable if you want to get your mummies to do more than awkwardly chase after the opponents.

In addition to the launching part, hitting a Crummy Mummy with this will instantly put them into their bodyslam attack, turning them into, basically, a projectile. This is Sarcophacurse’s only projectile-like attack, and it’s already fairly difficult to pull off, but it is definitely handy. The Crummy Mummies will remain as a hitbox until they touch the ground, which means you can knock one off stage to try and hit a recovering opponent. However, this is hard to pull off, and you’d be wasting one of your mummies for a really basic gimp. It is REALLY funny to do, though.

Dash Attack – Flying Brick
From his dash, which has him gliding across the ground with his jetpack pushing him, as mentioned previously, Sarcophacurse jumps up a bit and spins around so that he’s facing upwards. He also retracts his limbs in, but not his jetpack. The jetpack lets him continue flying at 1.5x his normal dash speed, turning him into a flaying tomb. After travelling 5 Blocks of distance, the tomb will fall to the ground and get back up on his legs. During this time, Sarcophacurse’s entire body acts as a hitbox, dealing a stupidly high 20% with knockback that can KO at 90%.

Now obviously this is completely ridiculous for a dash, but because of this it is also interminably slow. The starting lag is the faster of the two ends, and it already takes slightly longer than Bowser’s Dash Attack start-up to get to the first frame the hitbox is active. The ending lag is even worse, as its probably the longest dash attack ending lag in the game. It has Sarcophacurse extending his limbs, pushing himself up, and then having to turn around, all of which you have no control over and can’t cancel out of, as it still counts as a grounded attack.

This makes it incredibly easy to punish, enough to get a fully charged (Not the automatic release, that would be ridiculous) and fast Smash out. But that damage, though. This is very tempting and managing to hit with it is incredibly satisfying. There are ways that Sarcophacurse can get around this attack’s terrible lag, mainly through uses of his curse and the Crummy Mummies. Gilded Guard can also help protect on a whiff. This is a lot of set-up for a Dash Attack of all things. None of Sarcophacurse’s KO attacks are fast in any way, as you’ll see shortly, but they are all extremely powerful and feel very meaty to hit with.

Sarcopha-Smashes
Forward Smash – Storm Punch
Sarcophacurse holds up his fist as it begins to crackle with electricity. He holds it there for the charge animation, and when let go he winds up slowly, before releasing a lightning charged punch. The punch has the same range as the jab’s punch but comes with an additional boost as Sarcophacurse dashes across the ground for a short distance. This equals 1/2 a Block amount of extra distance. The dashing here is incredibly quick, happening in only a handful of frames and the attack being at full power the entire time.

The attack does 16-32% damage, with incredible knockback that lets it KO at 85% when fully charged. As one might expect, this also means that the move is incredibly slow, specifically at the start. Sarcophacurse spins his arm around a few times before the punch, in order to give it some extra oomph, you see. This gives him starting lag that lasts a 1/3rd of a second, making it incredibly bad to throw out. It also has terrible ending lag, though somehow not nearly as bad as the start-up, making it very easy to punish. Generally, this isn’t a move you want to throw out, despite how tempting its incredible power is.

The start-up isn’t as bad when paired with extra armor, but not a lot. Hitting this move requires some set-up, mostly through using the Pharoanic Curse and keeping opponents busy with the Crummy Mummies. This is Sarcophacurse’s de facto KO move, and the one you want to hit with most of the time, with a lot of Sarcophacurse’s abilities helping mitigate its bad aspects. Also, it can be tilted up and down, but this will cancel out the dash. Tilting the punch upwards can be used for aerial protection purposes, something Sarcophacurse doesn’t have a lot of coverage on. Down tilt can be good for threatening offstage opponents.