Sly Cooper

Sly Cooper
Voiced By	Kevin Miller
Universe	Sly Cooper
Appears in	Sly Cooper and the Thievius Racoonus,Sly 2: Band of Thieves, Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves, Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time
Rival	Nathan Drake
Tier	Top

Sly Cooper is the main character of the Sly Cooper series. His design in this game is based on his appearance in Sly Cooper: Thieves in TIme, which released a couple of months after PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.

Sly is currently considered a top tier character due to his very safe moveset, strong oki game and solid level 3. He generally has favourable matchups, but he gets into trouble whenever a character forces him to approach (e.g. Parappa) or can put a lot of pressure on him (e.g. Kratos).

Attributes

Summary 

Sly's most unique characteristic is the fact that he can't block, roll or airdodge, and that he turns invisible when you press the block button instead. As this is more of a hindrance than an advantage in a 1v1, Sly has incredibly safe moves, the best counter in the game and a teleport move to make up for this. As a result Sly is at his best when he can force the opponent to approach him, predict their attacks and punish accordingly. He furthermore has a very strong oki game and a very solid level 3. His playstyle is very campy in a lot of matchups, but he is able to play rushdown pretty well too.

Moveset

Ground Attacks

Square

• : Sly quickly swipes in front of him with his cane, which can be followed up with a second hit. When your opponent is facing you, both cause a light reaction. This gives you 5+10=15AP. When you use this on an opponent while you are facing his back, the second hit will steal 20 AP from him and cause an eject roll. This AP doubles to 40 when you use this while being invisible. The first hit still gives 5AP and causes a light reaction, so you will get either 25 or 45 AP from this.
• : Sly spins his cane around him, hitting both in the front and in the back. The move can be charged by holding down square. Uncharged version gives 20 AP and causes a mini-launch sweep reaction, while the charged version nets you 30 AP and causes a guardbreak effect.
• : Sly jumps upwards and slightly forward while swinging his cane in the motion of an upwards arc. Causes a mini-lift launch reaction and gives 20 AP.
• : Sly jumps forward in a roll like motion. When you hit an opponent’s back he will turn around. Causes a light reaction and gives 10 AP.

Triangle

• : Sly throws out an alarm clock in front of him which stays there for a short time. Causes a shock reaction and gives 10 AP.
• : Sly throws a rage bomb in a diagonal downwards trajectory. The opponent can get hit by the smoke cloud releasedonce the bomb explodes. Causes a light overhead reaction and the rage reaction. It gives 10AP.
• : Sly throws down a smoke bomb and disappears, showing up somewhere else quickly after disappearing. You can choose the direction you want to teleport towards by holding left or right. Not holding a direction lets you reappear on the spot unless there’s an opponent in your neighborhood. In this case you teleport behind the nearest opponent facing his back.
• : Sly quickly rolls forward with an electric charge. On block or hit he somersaults back into safety, but on whiff he will continue rolling forward. Causes an eject roll reaction and gives 30 AP.

Circle

• : Sly bends backward pretending to be shocked. When hit by an opponent during the starting frames of this attack, Sly instantly moves behind his opponent hitting him with his cane to shock him. When you hit your opponent with the counter attack, it causes a shock reaction and gives 10 AP.
• : Sly puts his hat down on the ground, which will function as a mine. The hat explodes when an opponent comes in contact with it. When your opponent steps on the mine, it causes a reaction, similar to a mini-lift launch reaction, but launches the opponent 10% higher than usual. It gives 20AP.
• : Sly hops in a barrel and can move around in it. When getting into the barrel it can reflect projectiles. You can press any button to let the barrel explode. The explosion causes an eject tornado and gives 30AP..
• : Sly slides over the ground leaving an electric trail behind him that shocks opponents that come into contact with it. When your opponent touches the electric trail,he is stunned shortly and flies backwards afterwards. It gives 10AP.

Aerial Attacks

Square

• : Sly swipes his cane downwards, plummeting everyone he hits with it to the ground into hard knock down. Gives 20 AP.
• : Sly dives straight down and slams down on the ground hitting anyone in his path. The move consists of two different hits. The first one is while Sly is still in the air. It gives 10 AP and causes a light reaction. The second hit occurs when Sly slams on the ground. This second hit gives 20 AP and causes an eject roll.
• : Same as the grounded version.
• : Same as the grounded version.

Triangle

• : Sly hits his opponent with his electrified cane.  Causes the stun reaction and gives 10 AP.
• : Sly hits his opponent with his cane. Causes a light overhead reaction and the rage reaction. It gives 10AP.
• : Same as the grounded version
• : Sly charges forward with his electrified cane. Causes an eject roll and gives 30 AP.

Circle

• : Same as the grounded version.
• : Same as the grounded version.
• : Same as the grounded version.
• : Same as the grounded version.

Grabs

• : Sly grabs the opponent with his cane and slams him down with one swoop. Ejects heavy amount of AP and causes a flatten reaction.
• : Sly uses his cane like a golf club and slams his opponent upwards. Ejects light amounts of AP and causes a full launch reaction.
• : Sly latches onto the opponent and kicks him away. Ejects heavy amount of AP and causes an eject tornado reaction.

Supers

• Level 1: Murray appears next to Sly and hurls himself forward, killing any enemies in his path. Costs 150 AP and can generally get you one kill. It is a decent super to punish an opponent who leaves himself vulnerable. The most reliable kill confirms are the ones off of his grounded counter and off of his alarm clock.
• Level 2: Sly equips his jetpack to bombard his enemies with bombs. You can freely move in any direction while using this super. Pressing any face button, super button or grab button drops two bombs. They come out at an angle of 15 and 30 degrees. Costs 325 AP and generally nets you one kill. It is slightly more reliable than the level 1 and because you can't be hit by normal moves after transforming, and can throw out bomb immediately after you transform, it is an excellent punish super. 
• Level 3: Sly whips out his binocucom and can take pictures of his opponents using any face button or the super or item pick-up button. Every picture taken kills. Costs 675AP and unless you make a big mistake, it will reliably get you 2 kills in a 1v1. Using a glitch, it is even possible to get 3 kills, but this is much harder.

Taunts

• Taunt 1: *yawns*
• Taunt 2 "Chasing after shadows again?"
• Taunt 3: "Better stay sharp while I'm in your view."

Combos

• ,, (60AP)
  
• , (50AP)
• , ,,,,,, (80AP)
• ,, (15AP+ 40 AP steal)
• , ,, (50AP)
• ,,,  (40AP+grab AP)

• , ,, wallbounce,  (80AP)
• Charged (block break), , ,, wallbounce,   (140AP)
• Charged (block break when your opponent is really close to the wall),,,,, (130AP)

Kill Confirms

Level 1

• , Level 1
• ,,, level 1
• (successful counter),  Level 1
• (fully charged), guardbreak with the tip, Level 1

Level 2

• , level 2
  
• , , level 2
• , level 2

•  (near a wall), level 2
•  (near a wall),,, level 2
• , (wall bounce), level 2
• (wallbounce), level 2

Tech

The coolslide

When you are close to your opponent and release square at the exact time the cane is fully charged you slide a lot farther away. You need to hit your opponent for this extended slide to occur. This can be useful to push an opponent towards the corner, but is hard to do in a real match.

Some facts about the alarm clock

The alarm clock can’t be countered by any of the characters that have a counter move. This makes it ideal for oki against those characters that would usually react with a counter when someone places a mine like objecting on top of them. It is also indestructible.

A closer look at Sly's teleport

Sly's teleport has a couple of tricks you might not be aware of. Let us start with somecommon knowledge: Sly's teleprt functions exactly like the roll of other characters. You immediately have invincibility frames the moment you use it, but you can get grabbed out of startup. (Online however netcode may let you get hit during startup, which is also a main cause for the so-called Sly infinites). Just like a roll, you can control the direction you will teleport to by holding that direction. If you hold no direction, you will either teleport in place or teleport behind your opponent under certain conditions.

These conditions are as follows:

• You need to be facing your opponent
• You need to be within a certain range of your opponent. The shape in which you can do this seems to be elliptical. The maximum horizontal range seems to be 4.5 tiles and the maximal vertical range about 3.5 tiles.
• Your opponent can not have invincibility frames. If he does, you won't teleport behind him.

If there is no room to teleport to, you will be put on the nearest spot where there is room.
If you use the teleport when you’re slightly below an opponent who’s on a platform you will appear behind him on the platform.

Controlling the direction you face after teleporting

What will probably be lesser known, but really useful is that you can control the direction you will be facing at the end of the teleport by varying how soon you input the direction. Sly will face the direction he teleports towards if you immediately input left or right, but he will face the direction he was already facing if you slightly delay inputting left or right. Holding no direction lets you face the direction you are already looking towards unless you’re close enough to an opponent to teleport behind him, in which case you will end up facing the same way as your opponent.

Some minor things about air teleporting

• The grounded teleport is much safer than the aerial version: you can teleport in quick succession when on the ground, while you will have to wait a short while before you can teleport again after teleporting in the air.

• If you use the neutral air teleport when near a grounded opponent you will teleport yourself to the ground and behind him.

• Air teleport's recovery/end lag can be cancelled by air teleporting perfectly into a ledge.

Parachute

If you hold the jump button, Sly whips out his parachute which slows his descent. This can be used to avoid aerial follow up attacks or to get you to safety when you’re high in the air.

Mega Jump

If you hold the up button while jumping from the ground, Sly propels himself upwards slightly higher than a double jump. This can be useful for avoiding certain supers. After using a mega jump however you can’t jump again, which makes it less safe to use as an approach.

Invisibility

Instead of blocking or air dodging, Sly becomes almost invisible and his horizontal movement speed decreases by 25% when you press and hold the L1 button. After two seconds Sly becomes more visible. Using a move generally makes Sly reappear shortly. Even picking up an item. You can be invisible while holding an item however. The only exceptions are moving around, ducking, jumping, mega jumping, parachuting, the Cane swipe combo (neutral square) and taunting. The only use of invisibility in a 1v1 is that his backstab move steals 40AP instead of 20 when invisible.

Character Description

Origin: Sly Cooper

A Master Thief and His Gang

Descended from a line of thieves which stretches back centuries, Sly continues the family tradition with grace and aplomb. With the help of his friends Bentley and Murray, the raccoon has infiltrated even the most heavily fortified locations while making away with treasures thought impossible to steal. Favouring stealth, reconnaissance, and cunning over brute strength, Sly and the Cooper Gang always stay two steps ahead of opponents.