Slayer

"It's been a while since I last walked the earth."

- Slayer

Slayer is a hero from Guilty Gear who made his first appearance in Guilty Gear XX. He is the first, and so far only vampire in the Guilty Gear series. A charming, refined and somewhat erudite man, Slayer exudes class; but that is not to say he doesn't enjoy combat. Although he is technically not a part of the on-goings of the Guilty Gear world, he often offers advice to other characters, and has grown somewhat attached to their world.

Character Design
Slayer has the appearance of an elderly man, to whom class is quite important. Slayer's dress reflects his refined nature; he wears a white undershirt beneath a rather professional looking gray suit; the sleeves of his coat bear red-cross shaped emblems, a reference to his vampire nature. Slayer has brown hair, usually slicked to the side, complemented by a short well-kept beard and a thin moustache. He wears a monocle, and is often found smoking a pipe. In combat, he uses no weapon, relying on his own physical strength.

Personality
Slayer is often portrayed as a character who understands a great deal more than other members of the cast. Having lived much longer, he posseses a strengthened sense of perspective, and as such, he generally remains calm and dignified regardless of the situation in which he finds himself. Despite this, he is not without passion. Slayer is a lover of refined things; poetry, romance, and often stops to admire the beauty he sees in the world of Guilty Gear, and in those younger than himself. In combat, his blood boils, and although he is occasionaly frustrated by the lack of challenge others are capable of presenting him with, he is ever graceful to those with whom he fights, offering them congratulations for a good performance, and usually assisting them with a warning or a bit of advice.

Stats

 * Origin: Transylvania
 * Birthday: October 31
 * Hobbies: Haiku, fighting, observing humans
 * Likes: Sharon
 * Dislikes: Unromantic humans

Background
Slayer founded the Assassin's Guild, but disappeared shortly thereafter. His original intentions, like many notable founders of Assassin's Guilds in fiction, were altruistic. Unfortunately, he finds, upon returning, that his syndicate is far from his original idealistic view of it, and decides to dismantle it. He seems to be connected to Gabriel in some significant way, and seems to know quite a lot about various political affairs, most notably the Post-War Administration Bureau (P.W.A.B). Slayer is married, his wife a woman named Sharon. They appear to have a good relationship, as she appears by his side in several of his poses, as well as his endings. She also seems to be a source of blood for Slayer.

Slayer is the former chieftain of an organization of assassins and a descendant of Nosferatu. With his unyielding attacks and special vampire abilities, he makes mincemeat of his opponents in minutes. With his old organization now in chaos as a result of Zato's absence, Slayer emerges from retirement to "tidy" things up.

Night of Knives Drama CDs
Slayer first appears at the party where Millia and Zato arrive on a mission to assassinate the General, who is resting upstairs at the Venue. After Zato leaves Millia alone to mingle and discuss logistics with Venom, Slayer approaches her, and the two begin to lightly converse. Slayer invites Millia out onto the balcony to enjoy the beauty of the night sky, to which she gladly agrees. The two continue to talk, with Slayer making a few accurate reads concerning Millia's current predicament, causing her to note he is very perceptive. The two then toast to the night sky, per Slayer's request. He then comments that he takes great pleasure in observing the wonders of human life, including the eyes of a woman like her. She is flattered but unsure how to react. Slayer goes on to note that her eyes are young, and as she no doubt knows, the young must fight and struggle, and that even though her eyes have lost life, they still possess a radiant beauty. She comments that she is not interested in life, only death, a comment which Slayer finds quite curious and a bit morbid. He assures her that she will find significance and meaning her life, before taking his leave to dance with Sharon.

After Millia succeeds in assassinating the General, Slayer again shows up. She attempts to fight against him, but Slayer succeeds in rendering her unable to fight before commencing to ask her questions out of concern as her Elder. He asks her if she is aware the man she just killed was a good man, and then quotes a bit of pre-text from the original Assassin's Code, outlining its former purpose: To maintain order by taking care of corrupt leaders in the interest of preserving a good social order. She dismisses it as silly, saying that the purpose of the order now is profit and survival. Slayer declares that such an organization which kills only for money and causes pain and sorrow to its own members does not have the right to exist, before leaving her with the question "Are you truly happy with being a murderer?" This question begins to maurinate within her. Millia is then captured by Leon.

Slayer appears again at the Assassin's Guild head-quarters, where he delivers the news that the Elder founders are not happy with the direction Zato has taken the Guild, and Slayer makes a few rare personal comments on the matter, finding their choice of target and their shady practices "cowardly", and far removed from his original vision for the organization. Zato engages Slayer, but is thoroughly crushed, and Slayer taunts Zato by asking him if he fights for anything important, like Millia. Slayer then leaves, and Zato blacks out.

Slayer then appears and speaks to Millia in her cell, proclaiming that he is concerned for her future. Millia is unsure how to feel about this strange man, as he continues to explain his various concerns to her. He takes out a dagger, an Outrage powerful enough to cut even her hair, and offers to free Millia if it is what she wishes for herself. Millia thinks about the consequences of freedom compared to death, and this time she chooses life, declaring that her fight is not over. Slayer warns her the dangers of continuing to use a forbidden power to fight, and of being thrust back into the world which was cruel to her. Millia says that this time it will be different, the way she lives will be her decision, a critical point in her own personal journey towards freedom from her life as an assassin, and her feelings towards Zato. Slayer cuts the hair binding her to her chains, praises her and encourages her to stand alone, defiant against any difficulties she might face. As she departs, she addresses Slayer as “Fuuga ri na Dandy”/“Dandy Elegance”, a sign of respect for the help he has given her.

Guilty Gear XX: The Midnight Carnival
Slayer's Story Mode begins with a visit to Ky Kiske, claiming that it is "customary for the king of the night to ask for permission from the protector of the day before venturing into the sunlight". He has the apparent motive of either observing the cast, or warning them of being targeted by the P.W.A.B. He has three endings: in one, he defeats Eddie, who wanted to possess Sharon. In the second, he faces Venom, and explains that his victory was because of hesitation in Venom's heart. In the third, he defeats I-No, and has a brief conversation with That Man about current events.

Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus
He appears to be returning to retirement, stating he has spent enough time in this world, and would like to leave it to the younger people. He acknowledged that he is becoming sentimental, as he finds it somewhat difficult to leave the world behind, even though he believes he no longer has a place within it. He is shown talking with his wife Sharon after returning to his own World.

Another ending, however, has him meet Baiken and, reinvigorated by the current generation of fighters, starts a gentleman's fight club alongside Baiken as they spring an attack on the P.W.A.B.

Overview
Slayer relies on dodging and combo potential, but he has very few gatlings, and isn't the most mobile of characters. His simplistic overdrives are perfect for buffering into, and his command throw, with its stagger time and easy buffers, is a staple. His "Dandy Step" moves are perfect for punishing (and creating) a miss. However, his greatest strength lies in his ability to "phase out" of the screen momentarily and, thus, completely evade his opponent's attacks and even counterattack immediately. This is called "back dash cancelling" (BDC) because, during the animation of Slayer's back dash (where he disappears momentarily before reappearing a certain distance behind), Slayer can jump cancel the back dash. Incidentally, Slayer can perform special and overdrive moves immediately after doing his back dash, so a player can buffer a back dash cancel into an attack (or an attack into a back dash cancel). When properly executed, Slayer will very briefly disappear (for not more than a few frames) due to the back dash, then cancel the back dash because of the jump, and then perform the special or overdrive move before actually leaving the ground. (This can be equivalently done with a forward dash; however, the forward dash offers slightly less invincibility frames than the back dash, so is only reserved for certain "safer" circumstances.)

Slayer's other strength relies on the ability to deal massive damage from any random hit. Any hit that leaves the opponent in the air leads to one of two possibilities: The Rest or the Two-hit Dandy. The Rest has many variants, but the original form was (in the air) kick, punch, kick, jump cancel into kick and then either air dust or Footloose Journey. The Two-hit dandy uses his Direct-Hit Dandy Overdrive, which has a unique property, in that there are two separate hit areas: Slayer's body itself, and the purple orb that he leaves behind. Both hit areas do respectable damage on their own, but it is also possible to hit the opponent with both of them, causing massive damage and dizzy potential. On the ground, Slayer relies on Roman canceling into his hard slash or forward hard slash for massive damage. 5HS gained a bouncing property in Accent Core, making it an incredibly damaging way of lengthening Slayer's combos, as the bounce can easily be followed up with "The Rest".

In Guilty Gear XX, his command throw can be looped, and the loop is consequently named the bite loop. By using a forward dash cancel, he can get out of his teleport early and execute the command throw and repeat that sequence. After 10-12 bites, he can Dandy Step into a Pile Bunker' and Roman cancel into a second Pile Bunker, dizzying the opponent and guaranteeing an insta-kill. The sequence requires perfect execution, but is dangerous enough to put him in the top tiers. In Guilty Gear XX♯R, his bite loop is reduced to the point where he can only chain about 6-7 bites and forward dashes, eliminating the Instant Kill strategy. Fortunately, the bite also gains a life regain property and the bite loop still nets Slayer a large amount of tension. In Accent Core, Slayer gained several new moves; one of the more notable of which is his Force Break, Big Bang Upper. The move can be hit-confirmed after an anti-air poke, or a 2HS, and it blasts the foe upward, and cannot be tech'd, giving Slayer a chance to continue with a devastating bounce combo.

Tiering
Slayer was a top tier character in XX, and remained solid throughout ♯R and Slash, with Slash being his lowest point (A good mid-tier character.) As of Accent Core, Slayer is considered to be among the game's best characters, due in large part to his incredible damage output, regardless of being Tension-less or not.

Powers & Abilities
Slayer is heavily hinted to be one of the most powerful characters in the world of Guilty Gear, though he is never seen using his full power, as hinted by his story mode interactions with other characters. Slayer, being a vampire, is immortal, being hundreds of years old. As a vampire, he is also able to suck the blood out of others to heal his injuries. He is also extremely physically capable, as some of his most powerful in-game moves are simple punches and kicks. Slayer also utilizes a sort of animate, red, cape-style garment that he is usually seen wearing on his shoulder in battle. It is very versatile, as Slayer can voluntarily change its size, and uses it for many different things such as guarding himself (as seen in his aerial block), or for sitting on (as seen in his crouch animation). He is also able to use it as a pair of "wings", or to teleport, though he does not necessarily need the cape for the latter. Slayer is also, apparently, very hard to actually defeat, as he is always conscious when "losing" a battle in both Story Mode and actual gameplay, where his knockdown sprite is him, lounging on the ground, rather than actually knocked out.

References & Allusions

 * Slayer is obviously named after the band of the same name "Slayer".
 * Many of slayer's attacks are named after Queen Songs, including "All Dead," "It's Late," "Under Pressure," "Dead on Time," and "Spread Your Wings."
 * During one of the paths in Baiken's story mode of XX Accent Core Plus, he says the line "You may be right, I may be crazy", which may be a reference to Billy Joel's song "You May Be Right."

Trivia

 * Unlike other characters in-game, Slayer is not knocked out if he loses. Instead, he simply lays down, looking annoyed.
 * As one of the "unarmed" characters in the series, Slayer's Slash and H-Slash attacks produce stronger punches and kicks.