How to get good with I-No - Guilty Gear Strive guide

We're back with another character starter guide for Guilty Gear -Strive-! Today we're covering I-No, the guitar-wielding witch who hits you with the schmix! We'll be covering her moves, supers, basic strategy, and combos, as well as some online match footage gameplay to show you what she looks like in action. Hope you find this useful!
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Twitter: / crofts
#GuiltyGear #ino #guide

[@That1Guy_707]

As a person not only new to strive but to fighting games in general, I feel like I-No is a great character to propel players into being able to play more complicated characters. Her difficulty lies not in difficult inputs or complicated mechanics, but in understanding how to mix effectively (the ground dash of course is weird and that can mess with new players). I find the more I learn to play her the better understanding I have of mixing in general. She also helps me to learn not to mash so much and to play a little more methodically. Overall, very fun character and this guide is very helpful!

[@coolkiddo3110]

agree! Strive is my first fighting game and I just started on it two weeks ago. Started with Bridget and she was really fun, taught me the basics, but I now I-no is training me not to spam buttons, feel like I'm really getting strategic now

[@spyglassinc9369]

“It’s worth noting”… talking about her fireball… I hate myself

[@Xeteh]

If it makes you feel any better the moment I heard him say "it's worth noting" I paused the video and scrolled down to see the inevitable comment.

[@evekay33]

im trying to pick up I-no and so far i made it to level 20 without winning literally a single match lmao. thanks for this one JM!!!

[@Large1ntestine]

yo mad respect for sticking trough all those Ls and still having the mood to play, good shit dude

[@evekay33]

@@Large1ntestine thx! i know the vibes, in +R it took me more than 30 straight Ls before winning a match lol. im loving i-no though- got through the learning curve and chillin on floor 8 / lvl 60 B)

[@Avelcaine]

@@Large1ntestine When you're in it to get good, every match is a win/win scenario. Victory feels good and confirms growth, but you learn the most from people who beat you.

[@obamakiske]

i barely win matches with i-no but it’s worth it

[@icspps]

Hey man, just checking in. How you doing now?

[@GrafBuckel]

Such an old guide, yet as a complete newcomer to the series, without any noteworthy experience in fighters in general, this is the first guide I found to be helpful. Thanks for making this.

[@TheL0rd0fSpace]

I love this. You start with the overarching game plan, and then include just the most relevant tools as they become important. No flashy 20 hit combos, just "You're gonna wanna utilize your dash to get this mixup." First you tell us how the mixup works after a dash, then you show us how fireball can help enable this mixup by forcing your opponent in place, and so on and so forth. It's such an organic way to learn.

[@Ottrond]

it helps me think of the game not just the flashy stuff but giving the neutral some context

[@KICKFIST0]

It's crazy to me how you can just say "Generally what you're going to do is just use her air dash and then mix up" and everything just falls into place like magic. You did the same thing with Giovanna. "Use your normals to frame trap and then go for throws" like, that's it, that's the magic phrase that unlocks the character. I'd love to hear similar examples for other characters if you have the time.

[@colinthies3178]

Generally Potempkin just tries to land the Potempkin Buster.

[@hudsonrichards9573]

Generally, faust just loses

[@schlockfather]

Generally Jam players just act like gorillas with game pads

[@i_dont_pay_taxes491]

Generally Faust just animation cancels hard knockdown attacks with item throw and responds to the item throw by going in for pressure, use 6H and 2S to insure the enemy doesn't get funky and go for some air jumps

[@VadersFist38]

Hoping they add the I-No skin from end of story mode, that was 🔥🔥🔥

[@vj7248]

If Instant Kills are added back in for an expansion, i 100% see her IK being a reference to it.

[@colinthies3178]

My goodness that's a good skin. I would love to be able to use it myself~

[@Mediamatix]

I want moar beginner friendly "how tos" like this. Gameplan and what tools to use as a beginner. I loved it. :O

[@vampevilj]

Just started today and she is my first char I picked. Love her and this guide will make me a better fighter

[@legefy]

She's very difficult to start with but make sure you stick with her! Once you're over the initial hurdle she is so rewarding. Make sure you learn the timings for your meaties btw, that's probably I-No's biggest struggle. You can show people too much respect and they just start mashing out of your mixups. Once you know the timings and conversions for your meaty mixup you'll feel like a god.

[@Gojo-Sensei11]

Hey there here is a tip from a level 61 ino. Chemical love can be a good move to use against the guy who uses shadows. Keep your distance and when you get a good timing use it and it will counter him.

[@samd1824]

Another great starters guide. My two favorite characters are literally I-no and giovanna thanks to these guides lol

[@MangaMarjan]

I really love her design and the air hop dash feels great to use. But in a game where most characters can easily convert any hit into a wall carry 40% combo, her normals and conversions feel a little weak. Especially players that like to mash light are something I still haven't found out how to beat. Also her movement can be pretty telegraphed and suffers greatly against characters with strong horizontal attacks. Still, it feels great to land mix up after mix up or those sweet roman cancel combos with hovering, multiple strokes and sultry Performance cancels.

[@weswesman]

Man this game is so hype. I-no def going to be one of my mains, but I’m for sure gonna try the whole cast.

[@seanstone8036]

I don’t have this game yet, but when I get it I really want to play I-no. I started playing guitar during quarantine and started loving it, And the fact that I-no uses a guitar and plays little riffs stuff stands out to me.

[@Jof-]

Totally get that, not a fan of Morrigan (who plays similarly in MvC) but I'm gonna try and learn her while playing Leo since I've been playing a teal Les Paul for years, sadly mine doesn't have a whammy bar like I-no's tho lol

[@seanstone8036]

@@Jof- hey man wammy bar or not it’s still a les Paul lol, I eventually want to get a les Paul I’ve just recently picked up a Taylor acoustic I haven’t made the jump to electric yet!

[@Hell-Rose]

I've been a long time Ky Player, and I've always wanted to play Ino, and I feel like this super useful! Thank you

[@TriforceofJacob]

I noticed playing online that 214k does tend to whiff a lot. You can confirm into it from basically anything, but it generally puts a lot of distance between you at midrange so I think it’s def better to go with stroke, also giving you the option to RC. Also, something that was pretty unintuitive was that you can cancel her dive kicks by pressing the button you used to do the special. All three of her dive kicks can be strung together from a single jump using this, and combined with dash canceling and j.d, you can keep yourself in the air for like 6-7 hits max. At any point in the string you can let the divekick hit the ground and start hitting low. Not to mention the fact that you can charge the divekicks to mix up timing. Her mix is very, very strong at a first glance. I didn’t expect for there to be so many opportunities to set up the fireball and get real oki, as well. I only really wanted to play her because of the awesome redesign, but I’m finding myself more and more excited about her.

[@Dasaltwarrior]

Yeah, the only thing that feels off to me is her air dash, which is sluggish even by strives standards. Aside from that, Im pretty happy with how she turned out. Still feels like I-no to me.

[@KidDracula666]

Good point on the dive kicks, but when you want to throw out a low after chaining them I’d recommend just dashing to reach the ground. The dive kicks take a while to recover from so your opponent will probably react before you can throw out a low.

[@dorjedriftwood2731]

She’s definitely who I want to perfect but it’s obvious her movement is incredibly elaborate and it’s important to have control over her.

[@alexanderdenison2950]

This character has been the bane of my existence, I might just start playing her to learn the MU inside out tbh because when I get knocked down by her and have to just hold the meaty fire ball into a mix where I have to guess like 3 times before I even get a chance to try and take my turn back I get so tilted lmao

[@SemiQuest]

One year later and even though might be outdated this guide still great, barely any good beginner guides for i-no. Problem is good players don't understand what new players need to start so instead they just tell them what every button does and when to use and neiche situations but in reality new players just need to hear a couple buttons to press at least to start. Also a super basic combo like this is super nice for new players who don't want to lab a combo just to start playing online matches.

[@aswirlything5838]

Okay, so I've been screwing around with I-no for a good few days before I actually found this guide. good to know I had the right idea using the fireball to dash in. However, I am still getting a hold of the combos so thank you on that front

[@kaijew2620]

SUPER helpful, lotta stuff i hadn't even considered. worth noting: the heavy version of stroke can combo into 2k > 2d, and then you can set up your fireball oki to go for more schmixes. also fireball oki > dash > command grab super is OD

[@DarthBerial]

You can confirm HS Stroke into Slash Stroke. The timing is particular though.

[@ohkrypticcc2741]

Honestly for HS stroke on hit just do sweep fireball

[@DarthBerial]

@@ohkrypticcc2741 facts.

[@FETUSSTATUS]

The highest damaging combo ender in the air is slash, heavy slash, into sultry performance :)

[@schizonoia3271]

I wouldn’t buy a 3v3 game for a while until I tried out KoF.. changed my life

[@dr.cornbread742]

I think Ino is one of my favorite characters to play against, and I've been thinking about picker her up. Great vid

[@Agent_TGC]

Been watching your videos for a couple of months but I finally subscribed today because of Ino. We need more noob friendly videos!

[@andross2k]

I’m so happy you did I-no first! I preordered and got GGS day one but I also hurt my hand in an unfortunate burger thawing accident lmao. I started up yesterday and want to get ranking ASAP so this guide is so welcome! Thanks jm loving the content, this game is amazing and totally deserves the spotlight!

[@OldschoolRichSpeedruns]

Picked up Strive the other day and started playing I-No and this video was really helpful! Thanks man! :)

[@scorpiusjones5436]

This is really well done. The example matches at the end helped put it all together, thanks 👍🏻

[@Its_an_Eze]

I've been messing with her for a bit even on XRD before strive released and I'm loving her all over again along with Ram

[@danvid8682]

thanks for making this video, i've always wanted to play and i-no was someone who i always wanted to main. as i'm relatively new playing series all your pointers helped me a LOT. just bought the game today, spent 30 mins in training, tried a few matches, got my butt kicked, then watched your vid right after. win rate went up like no tomorrow lol!

[@legefy]

You'll need to do a lot more practice with I-No. Online most players have 0 respect and will continue to try and mash out of your mix up so the most important thing is to get your meaty hits in. If they press a button you've got to already have a move there to hit them. Once they take a couple guitars to the face they'll start to block on wakeup and thats when your mindgames start. Remember that I-No isn't the type of character you can just go online and mash buttons with. She doesn't have the high priority normals that Sol or Leo do, be sure you play to her strength. Play smart.

[@abnoasmr4341]

That guide sparked my interest in i-no, thank you so much :D

[@devinmacklin6746]

Excellent I-no guide and tutorial jmcrofts happy Thursday much love my friend love your streams and can't wait till u stream today and every time your on

[@Zense_19]

Easiest and most understanding/concise guide!

[@UEL_TLG]

I been playing ino for a second character but the mix ups I did not know worked so well great to know I hope you do more of these!

[@averywow]

I played Bridget for two days straight in the xbox open beta, and now it turns out she's a dlc character so I guess I'm maining I-No now it is what it is

[@RenatoFontes]

I've been using Ram since the game came out and I'm trying to switch to I-No. Really helpful video, thanks!

[@liampake8545]

Love the guide, super informative. Can’t wait to put this stuff to work on Friday

[@AndrewAttackkk]

i-No has always been "anime El cabong" to me.

[@eduardoserpa1682]

I love that I-No has retained her loopable oki from Xrd, even if you have to sacrifice quite some damage to keep it going. It's a great Day 1 gameplan. I'm REALLY looking forward to this Friday, it's been over a year of watching this game without being able to play because PC.

[@Skechy3603]

Just picked up Strive and I-No immediately became easy. Not sure why people are saying she is difficult. I just love doing quarter circles.

[@TheMalkavian01]

I don't think I-no is hard to play in Strive. The whole "I-no is hard" was mostly in +R because she was very execution heavy in that game. Her combos were quite hard to pull off and dropping them could let you in some ugly situations. In Strive her combos and gameplan are very straightforward. She seems quite strong, so I'm happy to main her once again.

[@stevenluoma1268]

Omg I just noticed if you roll the stick backwards from double tapping forward to dash into faultless defense, you can basically do most of the motion for the supers. This way you can block while also getting ready to land an unblockable if they don't throw anything out.... just make sure you have enough meter for the faultless and the super! EDIT: You can basically do anything off of this buffer pattern (empty into something else, low into trip into setup, super unblockable, charged dust, throw). It honestly feels like maybe it should be a huge part of the gameplan given it has a built-in block. The only thing it doesn't let you do is instant overhead off of it since you force an early landing.

[@FriendWontTellYou]

Bought the game yesterday, got 4 hours in. So far tried Giovanna and I-No and she is just amazing. Love the gamestyle :P

[@phoenixlich]

Ino was my ace in the pocket back in the XX days against my pals. I knew like half the roster and as they would download me i'd change characters, rinse and repeat, but if they had me on a losing streak i'd bust out the Ino and always win. They eventually told me i wasn't allowed to use her lol which i couldn't do to any of them because they were solo main players.

[@bd9045]

Those were the days lol

[@desenhista12]

thanks for the guide, I'll peruse this once the PC version comes out

[@ChimerFox]

It's out now o:

[@RisingJericho]

Good to see Jim caving in and embracing the waifu/Top Milf culture

[@bestsnowboarderuknow]

Holy shit you have 200k subs??!! Congrats! I remember when you had 4k subs.

[@hugolambert848]

I didnt understand at first why her fireball was so weak in terms of damage but now I understand...

[@aHendya]

my first gg and i love I NO so much thanks for the vid

[@ellguaposavage1061]

I love ino on my Fightstick ima ah beast with her made it to Floor 9. Tried using my controller it’s hard for me and I’m a life time controller user so idk invest into ah Fightstick don’t care what people say it’s easier once you get use too it.

[@justinbutcher2183]

It should be a huge Ky player but I can never get past floor 7 with the knocked back down to five or six I got frustrated so I looked at the roster and said okay what do I need to do I-no she is complicated with the dash but honestly if you just play with the character enough you could understand how to use her in situations rushdowns and close-ups and mix ups boxing characters in is her forte I loved it so much I got past level seven I'm on floor right now on top of that my combo strings go a lot longer now too with Kai I would at least get a 7 or 8 combo string with Eno I got 10 huge improvement in all aspects versatility defensively a really well-rounded character don't be fooled by the gimmick of she's a tough character to play she really isn't

[@gootintag5453]

The flying dash is kinda hard to get used too but I love her so far. Doesn't seem like she does high damage but the projectile keeps opponents pinned and let's the pressure stay.

[@suhas-qw4nu]

Steering the projectile up and down is wonky in strive it was very easy in Xrd.

[@IsNiree]

I played about 40matches with I-no trying to see how viable she can be. Just feels like you have to work way more to get her to be good. Especially against pressure of characters like sol and ky. Whenever I was in a corner against them I just felt like she didn’t have much to wiggle out and you also don’t get as much damage off of converts. Sol did AT LEAST 150dmg (meterless) every time I got hit with a combo. Kind of sucks the fun out when you’re sweating and they drain your life after 2 combos lol.

[@udderhippo]

Mr. Crofts, could you change your input display setting to P, K, S, HS for us non Playstation players? Thanks!

[@mercuryon8608]

Learned I-no by myself spending time in the dojo and I love her! (too bad I still can't play against Leo and Millia...)

[@clrockstar]

Indeed she's awesome

[@michaelmccoy1794]

Chemical love *IS* definitely weaker in strive. It no longer cancels into the vertical version. Not only that, but the vertical chemical love doesn't even exist in strive AT ALL!

[@legefy]

How much do you want to bet she'll get it in the expansion?

[@raionbomber75]

Thanks for the tips, super helpful

[@RedRiotRoss]

Thanks

[@HappyFunnyGaming]

What’s a good low bnb combo for I-No? Have you been using her dive kick a lot?

[@desenhista12]

I haven't played the game yet but it feels good to watch a Ram getting beaten up XD

[@Joetime90]

I dunno if I should try I-no or Giovanna. I used to be a big GG fan, I played a lot of Baiken back in the day.

[@kevintemido]

Can you do a how to get good with faust

[@WoomiestWoomy]

She’s so cool

[@denmark1226]

I want to get into I-no, but just doesn't feel like she has any get off me moves. If I do happen to get comboed, I have one burst, and then I'm fucked

[@SackToTheFuture]

How are you moving so immediately after the projectile comes out of quarter circle back P? Ends up being so slugggish and i cant do much input after for me, what am i doing wrong?

[@kissconsider]

He's using a stick. If you're using a stick just practice not riding the gate. If youre using a controller then map and use the dash button. In fact, even if you use the stick use the dash button, its great for ino because it starts her dash faster

[@SackToTheFuture]

@@kissconsider Cheers for the reply, had the dash button mapped since start (is a bloody godsend :D) but still struggling with it. On reviewing the inputs I guess I'm just slow, just to confirm would mashing dash right after the projectile comes out be fine to do or is this going to screw me over and result in a later dash or no dash versus just timing it after the projectile is in flight? (Edit: Forgot to mention I am indeed using a controller).

[@chucheeness7817]

@@SackToTheFuture I haven't messed with I-no yet but am going to study her for sure. I think it has to do with the timing. Like Sol's dustloop, or Sin's charge beak driver loop you have to watch when the animation goes to neutral stance. Even if you don't map the dash button you can still get results by tightly inputting the 6>6 button. I use the normal d-pad input for directional RCs and it's easier for me

[@clothocto9456]

This guy knows how tobplay clean buy doesn't know alot of tech yet, you can easily break the wall from mid screen w a Roman cancel combo from Ino. Practice her wall break combo in the mission mode to get an idea how it works

[@bezka91]

Thought I had it down until I ran into someone using same character spamming same move over and over 🙃

[@Minecraft36245]

Hey JM, can you do Millia? Was a great vid, much appreciated!

[@BigMujK]

Just watch lord knight

[@tariquebaker]

He’s right about the new players and 3v3 cause I wanted zfighters but it’s just mvc with dbz super character

[@tariquebaker]

But strive was a no brainer

[@KirkWarren]

Set dash to button and she gets so much easier to play.

[@10547693]

I've seen daru use the pushback on block for 6h to reset into another mixup

[@barbedwings]

I-No is really cool in Strive. I need to figure out how to respond to her landing the fireball on block so I don't get mixed.

[@departmentofeducation7212]

If she's following behind the note from full screen use a move that moves your hitbox into the note. It does more hits the longer it travels so if you move into it with a button you can recover from the hit in time to respond to her approach. It seems counter intuitive to get hit by the note intentionally but you can take a little bit of damage and 6P her outta the air instead of possibly taking more if she mixes you right.

[@departmentofeducation7212]

Hurtbox*

[@SirkRepus]

The PlayStation buttons on the input display rather than P/K/S/H etc. make this much harder to follow as someone not using pad :/ would be much appreciated to change that setting for future videos :) subbed either way, thanks for the info!

[@jmcrofts]

oops i didn't even notice that before. I'll see if i can change it

[@DamianSabre]

"Stroke is a really good and abuseable move" 😏

[@yasha3916]

Bro the second super always breaks the wall instantly ;)

[@that1indianguy664]

Bring out that Leo guide JM!!!

[@dark666razor]

You can just press dust and have her fall immediatly instead of fd.

[@Zinksk8er]

This is the character I want to main, but boy coming from DBFZ as my first fighting game this is ruff 😅.

[@Slightly_Decent]

At least this isn't your first fighting game like it is for me. When I started I got placed on floor 6 then dropped 2 floors in my first session.

[@SuperTurboCrash]

He mentions the heavy stroke big tree is plus and can gives you enough time to press 5K into Chem love. It seems that this move is only +2 on block though, which doesn't give enough time to use her 5K. Did this get changed in the first patch or something?

[@Omnipotentpunch03]

She is hard to play IMO but i do suck at the game lol but I thinks he’s cool. I love her moves and her play style

[@SuperCandyy]

Started with I-no very different character from what I'm used to. I'm a Mk player so this new for me. Thanks for the vid

[@PANYHK]

Do you command the insta kill immediately after activating preparation?

[@Atomic-Punk]

Are their certain instances where her command grab doesn't catch? I swear there have been a handful of times when I set the opponent up to be stuck on block, I'll fly in and I feel like I couldn't be any closer, but the grab fails and I whiff.

[@nauticalmoon2109]

Megalomania is like any grab, it will whiff 100% of the Time if the opponent is either in hit or block stun

[@Gojo-Sensei11]

Bro I swearrr😂😂😂.

[@removelimitbreak7524]

Thank you.

[@TrustMyWhiteVan]

Do maaayyyy

[@rainer9931]

Bro I watched your day 1 video, I dont quite know if I trust on this matter

[@keithsimpson2685]

Man this game looks bad on youtube. So much stuff moves on screen it fucks up the compression. Big counter leaves a visible trail at 1080p. Trying to figure out Ino in the hotseat I kept getting Dash airthrow instead of dash dust cause I don't use the macro button. Bummer.

[@TheDGDeagles]

Just started playing I-No and so far my biggest struggle has been against people who block my dash in button and then mash crouch jab sadge

[@Jsobone]

Or block dash S and grab immediately. That happened to me a lot, definitely not safe haha.

[@bignoob2726]

Overhead, overhead will teach them a lesson

[@Slightly_Decent]

Just picked up I-no literally last night and I'm having a ton of fun. Seeing Daru 1v6 the entire enemy team inspired me to give her a shot. Won a good portion against my friend who's much better than I am, but ended up dropping two floors in the tower. It was my first online session though so I sort of saw it coming. Either way I'm sticking with her.

[@YFTMz]

Thanks I hope I get better

[@istizzz]

Yeahh she is a real fun character, she not like anyone I've played with in a fightning game

[@doycechu6074]

Man I really don't like how long it takes to dash after fireball, I understand why but it always trips me up

[@geraldmcallister5413]

Anyone have advice for what to do when you are Ino and cornered?

[@hamfish624]

Cry

[@bastos9639]

How did you mod the original OST into the game? Is that Blue Water Blue Sky?

[@jmcrofts]

unlock classic tracks by fishing. press start on character select and you can pick any track you have unlocked

[@bastos9639]

@@jmcrofts thank you so much! Hated the new ost :(

[@AlcheonArt]

Chipp next pls. He got so nerfed that everyone is kinda bullying him to showcase TOD's. What are we gonna do with him now? XD

[@bighex5340]

Cry. We're going to cry for him, that's all we can do 😭

[@shorjaken4070]

Just watch Samitto play, Chipp is good and is only gonna get better

[@AlcheonArt]

@@shorjaken4070 Just because there are 1-2 god pro players who make a character look good doesn't mean it is. We humble mortals are nowhere near pro lvl :P

[@harpiessnow]

@@AlcheonArt Yeah. All the people who point at pro players or people who dedicate a lot of time as proof of a character being good is omegalul. "Yeah, well this one guy plays x character like a god!" If you have the time to dedicate to the one character who can only take 10 hits top (1 or 2 combos) then sure, you will probably make him work at some point. Chipp is literally just a glass canon character

[@brandonoaks3145]

We need a how to on Axl Low

[@kepler180]

i think im gonna play her because shes kinda bhad

[@CrackleSnapple02]

Wow this vid helped a lot, hopefully this will help me smoke guys online