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• Creator ………: Cliff Brussee
• Creation Date …: July 4, 2074
• Special Abilities: Speed-Kick, Off-Wall Attack, Spike-Charge

A real favorite among the populace, the Thorn unit was the first to use monofilament technology. The points of the “spikes” come to a single molecule, which gives Thorn a punch that can cut through normal metal like it is paper. This HAR can use its spikes to attack in several different ways. His long legs also provide a powerful weapon at medium range.

Stout would best describe the Thorn's fighting prowess. Able to take ungodly amounts of damage without flinching, having some of the most damaging moves in the game, and yet painfully slow, the Thorn is definitely to OMF what Zangief is to the Street Fighter II series, to give you an idea. However, despite his lack of speed, the damage the Thorn causes with every attack (particularly his Speed Kick) & extremely tough armor more than make up for one or two extra hits your opponent may land. That, and a couple of AI flaws in One Player & Tournament Mode, make the Thorn quite easy to win the game with on any difficulty level.

Thorn is big and slow, his main advantages is reach and power so play to those. Use a lot of his long range pokes, specifically 3P. Be very careful with 1K as it has a long wind up and down. Speed kick is your single best attack, use it for everything it is worth, combo starter (from air), combo ender, interrupt, anti air, etc.

Hyper Mode lets you use Speed Kick from the air, making this already good move twice as good. learn to get the distance right so you can Air Speed-Kick to get the ending kick to fall right on the enemy feet, this gives Thorn the best chance to get close enough to get in any good combos, and if it hits, you can combo directly from that. Thorn have bad ground combos, but decent air combos because of his heavy attacks. At max distance throw out 1K it will almost always hit as the enemy walks into it. You can almost forget that the Spike Charge exists vs AI, they are too good at blocking it for it to be useful.

Thorn doesn't like human opponents, it makes him a sad bot. Since most of his moves are slow, most opponents will see and react to them. Speed-Kick is this bots single saving grace, but if your opponent can counter it (Example Katana's Rising Blade), you're pretty much screwed. Spike Charge can be useful as long as you use it seldom enough that the opponent forgets to look for it. 3P is going to be your main attack because of the reach and speed.

• Arm Power: 10
• Arm Speed: 5
• Leg Power: 9
• Leg Speed: 6
• Armor….: 8
• Stun Res.: 9

• Enhancement 1:
  • Super Fast Spike Charge
  • Mid-Air Speed Kick
• Enhancement 2:
  • ?

• Enhancement 1:
  • Steel Claw : North American Open
  • Angel : Katushai Challenge
  • Bethany : War Invitational
• Enhancement 2:
  • Nicoli : World Championship
  • Bethany : World Championship
  • Devan Shell : World Championship

• Speed Kick………: 2-3-6+K
• Shadow Speed Kick..: 4-1-2-3-6+K
• Spike Charge…….: 6,6+P
• Off-the-Wall Attack: (jump against wall) 3+K
• Scrap…………..: 4,4,6+P
• Destruction……..: 8,2+P
• Fire&Ice………..: 8,8,2+P

Most of them are bad because of the speed and low priority, but they do have good reach and damage.

Bad:

• 4K - Arguably one of the slowest attacks in the game, almost impossible to hit with.
• 1K - Great range and damage, but so slow to both start and wind-down. Has its use, but be careful.

Good:

• 1P - Fastest strong attack, launches enemy into air.
• 2P - Faster than 1P but doesn't launch, useful for air combos.
• 3P - The Bread and Butter attack of Thorn, always use it. Long range, good priority, fast, safe. Poke your heart out.
• 4P - Slow but hard hitting, can be used in certain combos.
• 3K - Almost the only kick worth doing, fast enough to be useful, especially to break high blocks.

This assumes default setting with Rehit mode on.

Also hyper-mode so you can use speed-kick in air. Thorn needs this.

• (jump) Speed-Kick, dfP, dbP, Speed-Kick
• (jump) Speed-Kick, 3P, Speed Kick, 2P, Spike Charge (If the enemy still got stun left)

Thorn's movelist is peppered with amazing moves and horrible ones. He's got a lot of options the other lower-ranked bots don't, like anti-air, safe pokes, long-range attacks and useful special moves. He's even difficult to combo. So how could he possibly be bad? Only one move - low jab - bridges the gulf between his fast but unsafe specials and his big slow power moves. Thorn also has range problems: he has lots of stuff to use beyond the reach of most bots, and a couple for point-blank range, but at that crucial midrange where Katana and Chronos and Electra operate, he has to rely on low jab again.

MOVE NAME           | COMMAND          | DMG.   | TYPE
--------------------+------------------+--------+----------------------
Jump Punch          | (air) P          | 12.5   | Medium Jump
Jump Kick           | (air) K          | 12.5   | Medium Jump
Jab                 | f+P              | 5      | Light AR
Strong              | P                | 12.5   | Medium AR
Fierce              | b+P              | 16     | Medium
Forward             | K                | 11     | Medium AR
Roundhouse          | b+K              | 17.5   | Heavy KD
Low Jab             | df+P             | 4.5    | Light AR
Low Strong          | d+P              | 12.5   | Medium AR
Low Fierce          | db+P             | 16     | Medium KD
Low Short           | df+K             | 5      | Low
Low Forward         | d+K              | 11     | Low
Sweep               | db+K             | 15     | Low KD
Spike Charge        | f,f+P            | 1+22.5 | #1
Speed Kick          | qcf+K            | 10     | Medium KD
Shadow Speed Kick   | hcf+K            | 10+10  | Medium (Light KD on 2nd hit)
Air Speed Kick      | (air) qcf+K      | 10     | Medium KD E0
Off-Wall Attack     | (air, wall) df+K | 16     | #2
Air Off-Wall Attack | (air) qcb+K      | 16     | #2 E2
Alley Oop           | (close) f+P      | 22.5   | Heavy Throw

Scrap: b,b,f+P Destruction: u,d+P during 1st hit Fire & Ice: u,u,d+P during 2nd hit

#1: The Spike Charge is a “shadow” attack that goes through projectiles and low attacks. When it hits, it does 1 damage and immediately follows up with Thorn's throw (like Flail's Spinning Throw, not a 2-hit combo).

#2: The Off-Wall Attack is a Light KD AR attack that counts as a “shadow” move (it goes through projectiles). To perform it, jump backwards into the wall and press df+K.

Notes: The first enhancement makes the Spike Charge faster. The second enhancement allows Thorn to cancel his Speed Kick into an Air Speed Kick.

Stats: Forward Speed: 5 Back Speed: 4 Jump Speed: 14.5 Fall Speed: 1.15 Armor: 105 Stun Res: 27.5

NORMAL MOVES f+P: Jab using Thorn's elbow spike. The weird hitbox and lack of range and comboability means it's useful only in combos. You can't even fake into throw with it.

P: Strong punch to an opponent's midsection. Has way more priority than it should, and it's completely safe, but near-zero range. Use in footsies games, obviously, or just whiff to create the impression that you're vulnerable.

b+P: Fierce. Use for ground combos or punishment, as it links to Spike Charge or Speed Kick.

f+K: Short kick, hits midlevel with plenty of range. A safe way to stuff low pokes, but Thorn's hitbox is so huge during the move it's not very effective against anything else.

K: A slower, more damaging version of f+K. Useful only because it links into Speed Kick / Spike Charge at close range, despite appearances. Use in ambiguous crossup situations, as it'll likely at least trade with their move.

b+K: Roundhouse kick, Thorn stands on his hands and does a double-footed kick. Has my vote for the worst move in the game. I'm not kidding. Not only is it overshadowed by Speed Kick, it's too slow to be of any use at all.

CROUCHING MOVES df+P: Low jab. Fast, safe, chains to itself, plenty of priority, and long- ranged to boot. Use this as much as possible, especially in situations where other bots would be unable to hit an opponent.

d+P: Low strong. Thorn does an uppercut with both his elbow spikes. The middle- of-the-road option, with the speed of low jab and the anti-air capability of low fierce. Not a bad move, but not an amazing one either, mostly just to tack on some more damage after a low jab connects.

db+P: Low fierce. Low strong, but slower, bigger, and knocks down (juggles, in fact, under the right circumstances). Surprisingly good anti-air, especially since Thorn crouches quite low during startup. However, it's slow and unsafe when blocked (except on wakeup). It's not likely to beat anything Speed Kick won't, but what it will beat, it can punish for a whole lot of damage.

df+K: Low short. Thorn sticks a foot out with slightly less range than his low jab. Since it doesn't combo into anything, it's really just to annoy people.

d+K: Merely a slower and thus less useful df+K.

db+K: Sweep. Thorn's sweep has loads of range. Because it takes so long for Thorn's leg to extend, it's super-slow, but starts hitting at normal sweep range just as fast as everyone else's sweep. Thus, this is a very versatile move. It's great for restricting the opponent's movement at long range, and fast enough to be a nice surprise every once in a while at close range. Just make sure it doesn't miss.

SPECIAL MOVES

qcf+K: Speed Kick, one of the best moves in the game. Great priority, works well as anti-air, knocks down, perfectly safe when whiffed or blocked late, combo starter when it hits late, doable in air for a good (if slow) combo- starting dive attack. Basically, if the opponent twitches, throw out all that stuff in the above sections about poking and Speed Kick it for more damage and a free knockdown. Other OMF experts believe this move is better as a midrange poke than as anti-air.

hcf+K: Shadow Speed Kick, a very inconsistent move. If you're lucky, it hits twice and starts a juggle combo, or hits twice and knocks down. If you're unlucky, the second hit whiffs entirely and you die. Mad range, though, making it a great way to get close.

(jump into wall) df+P: Off-Wall Attack, Thorn's bad Jet Swoop knockoff. It goes across the screen, it juggles for big damage, it has a weird angle that most anti-airs won't work against, and sometimes it's even safe when blocked - so what's not to like? The fact that every bot can simply jump punch it out of the air, or block it and hurt you, puts a real damper on its usefulness.

f,f+P: Spike Charge. Thorn rushes forward with shadows behind him and attempts to throw the opponent. This move has extremely weird invincibility properties: it goes through projectiles on startup, it can't be hit by low kicks, and it will sometimes beat midlevel ground attacks for no apparent reason. Think of it as a Speed Kick for low or slow attacks. If you're a fast pilot, it will also catch whiffed moves from beyond Speed Kick range, or opponents jumping away. However, it's extremely unsafe. Try using it as a round opener against overly aggressive opponents.

(close) f+P: Throw. Not a very good throw, looks just like the second part of his Spike Charge. Still, Thorn can effectively create the fear of a Speed Kick or Spike Charge to land a few throws over the course of a match.

JUMPING MOVES

P: Thorn extends both spikes forward. Air-to-air, if you don't want to risk an air Speed Kick.

K: Jumpkick with loads of range that also hits with Thorn's entire back leg, making it the perfect crossup. Of course, Thorn can't really take advantage of this because of his limited ground combos, but that doesn't mean it's not a great move.

qcf+K: Air Speed Kick. Very good anti-air, keeps you airborne for a while to avoid hazards or grab the fireball in the Fire Pit, and starts crazy juggles if it hits on the way down. I love this move, but it's really really slow.

Instant Kill Combo #1 (air) qcf+K → df+P → f+P → qcf+K → db+P → d+P → K. Repeat.

Instant Kill Combo #2 f,f+P → df+P, repeat Only with full agility and 1 enhancement against a zero-agility pilot.

Most Powerful Ground Combo b+P → f,f+P

Meaty Moves (late) db+P → air juggle

Chain Combos and Special Move Cancels df+P → d/df+P (close) df+P → f,f+P (close) df+P → qcf/hcf+K b+P → df+P b+P → f,f+P b+P → qcf/hcf+K (close) K → qcf/hcf+K qcf+K → (air) qcf+K (2nd enhancement)

* (air) K → b+P → f,f+P Actually does more damage than comboing into Shadow Speed Kick. Be careful, though, as it will un-stun the opponent under some conditions.

* qcf+K variant (late) → qcf+K If Thorn hits with his feet, you can tack on another Speed Kick hit. If you're fast or against a wall, add df+P between the hits or go for an extended juggle involving lots of jabs and strongs to get the Speed Kick to hit as high up as possible, then d+P/db+P/b+P on the way down.

* hcf+K (wall, late) → f,f+P Surprisingly, this doesn't require any agility on your part or the opponent's. The Spike Charge will catch the opponent at the last possible moment for a strange-looking, but very powerful, combo. If you're an agile pilot, you can start this from a late Air Speed Kick as well.

* (air, late) qcf+K → db+P → d+P → qcf+K xx qcf+K If you've got the second enhancement, you've likely got enough speed in Tournament mode to make use of this combo. Easy to perform, and looks cool to boot.

Frame Data Page

HAR's: Jaguar, Shadow, Thorn, Pyros, Electra, Katana, Shredder, Flail, Gargoyle, Chronos, Nova