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Kazumi
Tekken 7
Tekken 7

Kazumi Guides

Kazumi Mishima, the deceased wife of Heihachi Mishima attempted to stop Heihachi's rise to power and the global instability. Alas, her attempt failed, and it would instead help spark the events of the series.Know more

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Kazumi Guide

Overview

Newcomer to Tekken 7, Kazumi has been a favorite for both new and experienced players, all of them appreciating her simple and effective gameplan, condensed movelist, and easier execution. She’s an excellent fit for those who want to hone their game sense and focus on fundamentals.

General Strategy

One of the great things about Kazumi is how well her game plan scales from lower to higher skill levels. Regardless of your current prowess and experience, you will want to focus on a handful of critical tools to poke and punish your opponents. While you will be integrating new moves and techniques over time, your primary focus will be mastery of Kazumi’s basics.

Beginner

As always, when you start learning a new character, you should get the grips on the movelist and some basic combos to get you started. You need at least surface-level knowledge of all the options at your disposal and how to execute them.

Due to Kazumi’s strong focus on spacing, punishment, and poking, make sure to get a feel for the range of her moves in the lab or during your matches. Knowing how far away you can be and still hit is crucial, and it will allow you to poke more safely, create whiff punishment opportunities, and capitalize on them.

During matches, you should concentrate on a few easy-to-use moves like d/b4, ff4, d/f1, 1,1,2, d3, 4, and wr1/2. Play safe and play compact. If your opponents are overly aggressive (and if it’s low ranks, they certainly will be), don’t be afraid to throw out things like df1,2 or magic 4 to make them hurt. 

Intermediate

Once you have a general idea of Kazumi’s gameplay, you can build upon this foundation. For a character that’s centered on pressure and poking, it’s very beneficial to learn about conditioning your opponents. 

Strings like 3,1 and 3,2 are great for this as 3,2 is a safe mid-high that can be ducked, and 3,1 is a slightly punishable mid-mid that will catch those who try to crouch. Similarly, if opponents are too eager to challenge you after d/f1, the 2 follow-up will force them to either block or attempt to sidestep, which you can then either abuse by stealing their turns or punish with homing moves. Conditioning is where d/b2,3,4 comes into play as well. It’s an unsafe string with three lows that are -14, and opponents can block them even after getting hit. While it’s not that good on paper, you can delay your hits or go into a hopkick and other mids if opponents try to block or low parry. As you play, you will discover more opportunities like these to confuse your enemies, stay unpredictable, and condition them to behave in a way that’s advantageous to you.

Advanced

Now you know how to play in neutral, some combos, and how to condition or react to your opponent. It’s time to flesh out all of this and learn a few things that will make you a thoroughly well-rounded Kazumi player.

It’s about time to learn how to act in more niche situations to optimize your damage. Learn wall carry combos from various distances to the wall. Knowing how to follow up wall/balcony/floor breaks is also helpful but not as vital. There are more advanced wall combos to explore, which combine exceptionally well with Kazumi’s ability to push opponents to the wall.

Now that you have some experience reading your opponents, you can put it to use when applying Okizeme. Kazumi has many opportunities to land guaranteed hits, but her wake-up game’s highlight comes from the 1,1,2 knockdown. There’s a variety of follow-ups you can use, but applying them well will take some practice and understanding of people you fight against.

Let’s take a look at her moves.

Tap Notation

Hold Notation

Tekken Move

Playstation

Xbox

f

F

Forward

 

 

d/f

D/F

Down & Forward

 

 

d

D

Down

 

 

d/b

D/B

Down & Back

 

 

b

B

Back

 

 

u/b

U/B

Up & Back

 

 

u

U

Up

 

 

u/f

U/F

Up & Forward

 

 

N

 

No directional inputs

 

 

SS(L/R)

 

Side Step (Left/Right)

 

 

qcf

 

Quarter-circle forward

 

 

qcb

 

Quarter-circle back

 

 

hcf

 

Half-circle forward

 

 

hcb

 

Half-circle back

 

 

ch

 

Counter Hit

 

 

ws

 

While Standing

 

 

wr

 

While Running

 

 

1

 

Left Punch

Square

X

2

 

Right Punch

Triangle

Y

3

 

Left Kick

Cross

A

4

 

Right Kick

Circle

B

Swipe

Base Moves

Move Start-up speed Hit Counter-hit Block Notes
1,1,2 i10 KND KND -17 Flash Punch Combo, the amazing i10 punish that Mishimas are known for. It’s also used for poking since it’s so easy to confirm the final hit, and 1,1 leaves you at merely -3. You get both decent damage and oki for landing this move
d/f1 i13 +6 +6 -3 Generic d/f1 but with great range and a KND follow-up that dissuades people from trying to mash after the first hit. Can wall splat and forces crouch on block, which can be a blessing or a curse depending on your opponent’s WS moves
d/b4 i20 +4 +4 -12 One of Kazumi’s best low options. At i20, it’s on the slower side, and no high crush is another drawback. However, it deals decent damage, has an excellent range for a low poke, and is only -12 on block, making it hard to punish appropriately
d3 i16 -3 -3 -17 Pretty fast low with good range. While frame advantage might look bad, it’s still a good move thanks to evading high attacks and often forcing opponents to whiff when they try to take their turn
d/b3 i17 +2 +2 -14 Your other key low poke. Less advantageous than d/b4, has less reach, but comes out a bit faster, and importantly, forces crouch on hit
4 i11 +5 Launch -9 Magic 4, a key tool for any character that has it. Kazumi, in particular, has an excellent pick-up option after in b2 to reliably get a full combo
WR2 i15 KND KND -4 Safe running mid poke. Combined with WR1, it allows Kazumi to control space and makes opponents afraid of mindlessly approaching her
WR1 i15 KND KND +7 Running high poke with a colossal frame advantage on block. Some opponents might try ducking it, and you can discourage them from doing so with a WR2
b2 i15 +4 +4 -9 Quick homing move with quite some reach and relatively quick as well
ff4 i20 Launch Launch -7 Safe mid launcher. Even though it’s on the slower side, it’s still too fast to be reactable. It becomes more intimidating when mixed with a pinch of d/f4 in neutral
d/f4 i15 +6 +6 -5 Generic d/f4, serves as a tremendous mid poke
Swipe

Situational Moves

Move Start-up speed Hit Counter-hit Block Notes
d/f1+2 i12 KND KND -6 A 1+2 break throw that can lead to a wall splat. Most players will be expecting it near the wall, but even if they break it, you’re only -6, and if they don’t, you can eat a nice portion of their HP
FLY 4,2 i18 KND KND -31 Kazumi’s version of hellsweep, if they block it, you blow up and die, but combined with other stance moves like FLY 1 or FLY 1+2, it gives you an option to mix up opponents. Better off using these off of attacks that transition to FLY rather than raw
b4 i19 +9 Launch -13 Niche CH option that can lead to significant damage. It has some utility in wall combos and okizeme as well. It also has a great range and minor evasiveness, but frame data makes it risky to throw out regularly
u/f4 i15 Launch Launch -13 Normal hit launcher with disgustingly short reach. It can only punish -15 moves that leave Kazumi close to the opponent and serves as an excellent off-axis launcher
d/f2 i18 Launch Launch -24 Whiff punish and normal hit launcher that hits from a very good distance but needs to be used with utmost care as getting blocked or whiffing it will guarantee massive pain
f4 i16 +11 +11 -8 Another homing option. It's slower than b2 by one frame, and it’s a high but has better frames and causes wall splat
1+4 i36 Varied Kazumi sends out a spinning tiger. This move is one of your go-to for getting extra damage from knockdown moves. When the opponent lands close to your feet, you can use d2 instead
Swipe

Punishment

Normal

Start-up speed Move Hit Block Damage Notes
i10 1,1,2 KND -17 26
i10 1,2,2 +4 -12 27
i12 1+2~F +9 -14 30 While you don’t have to do a FLY transition, without it, this punish is -8 on hit
i12 2,1 +7 -5 20
i13 d/f1,2 KND -13 31
i14 u2~F +9 -14 32 Similarly to 1+2~F, the transition is recommended to avoid being -8 on hit
i15 u/f4 Launch -13 13 Keep short range in mind, as too much pushback will cause you to whiff
i15 3,2 KND -1 29 Guarantees a follow-up attack
i18 d/f2 Launch -24 29
i18 f3~F2 Launch -10 27
i23 u/f,n,4 Launch -11 25
Swipe

Crouching

Start-up speed Move Hit Block Damage Notes
i10 1 +6 -5 5
i11 WS4,4 +13 -6 29 Wall splats and second hit has homing property
i12 WS1,2 KND -13 35
i14 WS3~F +9 -11 35 -8 without transition
i15 u/f4 Launch -13 13 Keep short range in mind, as too much pushback will cause you to whiff
i18 WS2 Launch -12 20
i23 u/f,n,4 Launch -11 25
Swipe

Combos

Starter Combo Damage
u/f4 Staple - u/f4, f3~F2, d/f1, b/f2,1,4, run up, f3~F3+4 58
Hard - u/f4, f3~F2, d/f1, b/f2,1,4, run up, b/f2,1,1+2 61
d/f2 Staple - d/f2, 3,1, run up, d/f1, b/f2,1,1+2 61
Hard - d/f2, f3~F2, run up, d/f1, b2, run up, b/f2,1,1+2 63
u/f,n,4 Staple - u/f,n,4, d/f2, bf2,1,4, run up, b/f2,1,1+2 72
f3~F2 Staple 1 - f3~F2, d/f1, bf2,1,4, run up, b/f2,1,1+2 58
Staple 2 - f3~F2, 3,1, run up, d/f1, b/f2,1,1+2 59
u/f3,4,3 Staple - u/f3,4,3, FLY 3, d/f1, b/f2,1,1+2 59
Hard - u/f3,4,3, d,n,f3+4,2, run up, d/f1, b/f2,1,1+2 61
ff4 Staple - ff4, f3~F2, b/f2,1,4, run up, b/f2,1,1+2 66
Hard - ff4, u,n,d/f1, d/f1, b/f2,1,4, run up, f3~F3, run in, d2 70
FLY 3+4 Staple 1 - FLY 3+4, f4, FLY 3, d/f1, b/f2,1,1+2 54
Staple 2 - FLY 3+4, d/f1, b/f2,1,4, run up, b/f2,1,1+2 52
CH 4 Staple 1 - CH 4, b2, FLY 3, d/f1, b/f2,1,1+2 55
Staple 2 - CH 4, b2, FLY 2, f3, d/f1, b/f2,1,1+2 58
CH b4 Staple - CH b4, f3~F1+2, d/f1, b/f2,1,1+2 61
Hard - CH b4, d,n,f3~F2, b/f2,1,4, b/f2,1,1+2 69
Rage Drive Staple - f,F1+2, WR3, f3~F3+4, b/f2,1,1+2 79
Hard - f,F1+2, FLY 3+4, d/f1, b/f2,1,4, run up, b/f2,1,1+2 80
Swipe

General note: If your combo was interrupted or ended in a wall splat, you could often continue with 1, d/f1, 1+2, or f3~F2, 1+2 for a consistent and reliable wall finisher.

Tips against Kazumi

  • Keep distance. Most of Kazumi’s poke pressure relies on being up close and personal with you, and creating some space will make it harder for her to start pressure. However, keep the range of your attacks in mind. Creating space will be useless if you start whiffing moves and getting punished for it.

  • Be patient. Trying to take your turn without thinking will allow Kazumi to snowball her pressure out of control. Make sure you aren’t predictable when you challenge her, like pressing after her 1 jab or df1. Instead of trying to hit back, you should also consider sidestepping right. If Kazumi tries pressuring with jabs, it will be easier to hit her after forcing a whiff this way.

  • Crush her highs. This is more situational, but if your character is blessed with solid high crush moves, you can frustrate Kazumi players that love throwing out magic 4 and jabs.

Summary

Strengths

  • Great pokes - Arslan Ash aptly calls her the Queen of Poking. Kazumi has an arsenal of solid attacks to pressure and chip away at her opponents.

  • Simple - Kazumi is one of the most accessible characters to pick up and play. With a focus on poking and a lack of high execution barriers, players can focus on strategy and fundamentals.

  • Good movement - With one of the best back dashes in the game and her flying stance, Kazumi has above-average mobility, which significantly complements her poking.

  • Impressive wall carry - Kazumi has some of the better wall carry potential in the game. Even without learning specific wall carry routes, you will often end combos with your enemy slammed against the wall.

Weaknesses

  • Low damage - Kazumi’s combo damage without a wall splat is below average. You will always want to get opponents to the wall to get a proper reward after a launch.

  • Weak mixups - While she does have some mixups, they’re generally so bad that using them is seen as an unnecessary risk for underwhelming reward.

  • Stubby hopkick - Even though it’s only a downside of one move, it has a massive effect on Kazumi. The exceptionally short range of her hopkick means that she doesn’t have a good way of launching -15 moves, allowing opponents to get away with some usually unsafe attacks.

Good Kazumi players to watch:

Arslan Ash - The player who truly put Kazumi on the map. Her toolkit was a great match with his great fundamentals, which led to many dominant tournament runs.

Knee - Often called Mokujin for his proficiency with every character, Knee’s Kazumi is no exception.

Applay - A fantastic content creator and Kazumi main who put out many videos that educate players about many aspects of Tekken, from the bare basics to advanced strategies. A go-to source for anyone who wants to learn Kazumi.