Miary Zo: Gameplay guide, best buttons, staple combos, and entire moveset

Miary Zo arrives in Tekken 8 with a lot more weight on her shoulders than your average DLC character. She’s the “Fighting God Reborn” from Madagascar, the spiritual successor to Tekken 3’s Ogre, the final fighter of the Season 2 Pass.

She’s an agile rushdown character that incorporates Morengy, various African martial arts, animal mimicry, and Ogre powers. Yeah, she’s a handful. Series producer Katsuhiro Harada and director Kohei “Nakatsu” Ikeda talked about how she came to be a character a lot last week, and it’s quite an interesting watch.

This guide will walk you through the gameplay approach, her best buttons, strengths, weaknesses, and some of the staple combos that you could incorporate in your game.

Gameplay

Miary Zo epitomizes a rushdown archetype with a very in-your-face approach, basic moves that are plus on block, and various mixup tools through her stances.

She’s not the most demanding Tekken 8 fighter in terms of execution, but some of her moves offer very little tracking and have small hitboxes, so you can still whiff what would have otherwise been a good input.

As is the case with almost any rushdown character, your goal should be to condition your opponent, catch them pressing buttons unwisely, and exert the maximum amount of pressure without letting them catch you off-guard.

Despite Miary Zo having these overwhelming Fighting God powers, she’s not exhibiting the signs of power creep as many DLC fighters do. If anything, she’s way more honest and fundamentals-based than anyone expected after seeing all the flashy moves in the trailers.

One of the most important steps to becoming good with Miary Zo is to memorize her stance transitions. She has two stances (technically, she has three, but the last one doesn’t come into play as much): Morengy Miroso and Baobab Mihira. Community hasn’t agreed on any abbreviations yet, so we’ll keep shortening them to MOR and BAO in the moves section.

Morengy Miroso sees her duck close her opponent with various options from there, or the ability to directly transition into Baobab Mihira, which gives her even more ways to continue her offense. They’re also routinely used in her combos, so memorizing all the options so they come out instinctively would be a great way to get much, much better.

Best buttons

• 3+4 – BAO stance that opens up your offense.
• BAO 1– her fastest move, can be used in a variety of situations, especially as a pressure tool from the stance. Can be confirmed with 4.
• df2 – a universal 15-frame launcher that leads to most of her bread and butter combos.
• df1,1,2 – a decent counterhit option, but the second hit is duckable and full-launchable.
• 1,1,2 – a jab string that allows you to quickly punish your opponent. Leads into MOR.
• d2 – great range and knockdown, launches on counterhit. Beware of the sidesteps, though.
• SS 2 – goes into MOR, also a counterhit launcher. Safe on block, but slow startup.
• MOR 1,2 – Heat engager from her MOR stance.
• 1+2 – her best Heat engager due to great range and it being completely safe on block.
• MOR 4,3 – a good mixup option that can work after you’ve conditioned your opponent to block mids from MOR. Plus on hit, but launch-punishable on block.
• MOR 2 – a decent knockdown move.
• d3 – her best low, it tracks and can’t be parried.
• b4 – knockdown, safe on block.
• b2,3 – one of the few good tracking moves she has.

Best combos

• uf3+4, df4, df1, df4f, MOR 1,4, BAO 2, b3,4,2, MOR 1,2 – 74 damage
• df2, df4f, MOR u1+2, b3,4,2f, MOR u1+2, d1+2, ff3, ff2,2 – 76 damage
• d1+2, ff3, dash, df4, df4f, MOR 1,4, BAO 2, b3,4,2, MOR db, N, uf1 – 87 damage
• CH df4f, MOR db, N, u3, u3, df4, MOR 1,4, BAO 2, dash, f4,u2 – 70 damage
• H MOR 1,2f, ff3, u3, df4, df4f, MOR 1,4 BAO 2, SSR b3,4,2f, MOR df, N, uf1 – 76 damage
• f1+2,2, ff3, b3,4,2f, MOR 1,4, BAO 2 – 73 damage
• WS 2, u3, u3, df4f, MOR 1,4, BAO 2, b3,4,2f, MOR 1,2 – wall carry combo

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths:

• Two stances give Miary Zo incredible mixup potential. The mind games she can play from transitioning from one to the other are almost endless.
• The burden of execution on her is not very high. She can be picked up and mastered to a decent level relatively fast.
• Has lots of moves that are plus on block. Can apply consistent pressure while looking for an opening.
• Lots of knockdowns, jail traps, and overall disruption.
• Very formidable wall carry even on her regular combos.

Weaknesses:

• Almost no good tracking moves. Even her most consistent launcher in df2 can be sidestepped by several characters.
• Very low damage output. Her strings deal miserable damage, requiring you to win more 50/50s. Combo damage output is also very low.
• The options that don’t have her plus on block leave her super vulnerable to launches.

Miary Zo’s movelist:

1. 2+3 Heat activation – 12 damage
2. 3, 2 – 32 damage
3. 1+2 – 24 damage
4. WS 1, 4 – 32 damage
5. MOR stance 1,2 – 39 damage
6. BAO stance 3 – 40 damage
7. H f4,2 – 37 damage
8. H b3+4 – wall climb
9. H u3 on hit ot block 2 – 44 damage
10. H uf3,2 – 46 damage
11. H ff2 on hit or block 2 – 47 damage
12. H and MOR stance 4,3,1+2 – 38 damage
13. H 2+3 – 52 damage
14. R df1+2 – 55 damage base
15. 1,1,2 – 22 damage
16. 1,2 – 11 damage
17. 1,2,2 – 31 damage
18. 1,3 – 15 damage
19. 2,2 – 30 damage
20. 3,1,2 – 44 damage
21. 3,2 – 32 damage
22. 4,4 – 32 damage
23. 1+2 – 24 damage
24. f2 – 23 damage
25. f4,2 – 32 damage
26. f4,4,4 – 57 damage
27. f1+2,1+2,3+4 – 30 damage
28. f3+4,2 – 30 damage
29. df1,1,2 – 47 damage
30. df1,1,1+2 – 50 damage
31. df1,4 – 27 damage
32. df2 – 12 damage
33. df3,3 – 35 damage
34. df4 – 17 damage
35. df3+4 – 17 damage
36. d2 – 20 damage
37. d3 – 14 damage
38. d1+2 – 23 damage
39. db2,3 – 20 damage
40. db2,4 – 27 damage
41. db3 – 21 damage
42. db4 – 13 damage
43. db1+2 – 18 damage
44. b1,4 – 31 damage
45. b2,3,2 – 51 damage
46. b3,4,2 – 41 damage
47. b4 – 19 damage
48. b1+2 – 25 damage
49. b3+4 – backflip
50. u3 – 17 damage
51. u4 – 17 damage
52. u1+2 – 20 damage
53. uf1 – 50 damage
54. uf2,3 – 28 damage
55. uf2,4 – 20 damage
56. uf3 – 24 damage
57. uf4,4 – 26 damage
58. uf3+4 – 18 damage
59. ff2 on hit or block 2 – 32 damage
60. ff3 – 19 damage
61. bb2+3! – 30 damage
62. qcf1 – 25 damage
63. WR 2,1 – 26 damage
64. WR 3 – 30 damage
65. 1+3+4 – taunt
66. 1+2+3+4 – Ki charge
67. WS 1,4 – 32 damage
68. WS 2 – 15 damage
69. WS 3 – 20 damage
70. WS 4 – 15 damage
71. FC 4 – 20 damage
72. SS 2 – 22 damage
73. f3 – MOR stance
74. MOR 1,4 – 31 damage
75. MOR 2 – 20 damage
76. MOR 3 – 20 damage
77. MOR 4,3 – 24 damage
78. MOR 1+2 – 23 damage
79. MOR 3+4 – BAO stance
80. MOR u1+2 – 16 damage
81. 3+4 – BAO stance
82. BAO 1,4 – 37 damage
83. BAO 2 – 24 damage
84. BAO 3 – 40 damage
85. BAO 4 – 38 damage
86. BAO f – MOR stance
87. BAO uf – remount
88. MOR wall – TRO stance (wall climb)
89. TRO 4 – 40 damage
90. 1+3 – 35 damage
91. 2+4 – 35 damage

Miary Zo turned out to be a very fair and interesting rushdown character. She lacks any standout moves that would leave the community outraged (pole hopping notwithstanding), and one could even say she turned out to be a little weak. It’s still early days, however, and some ground-breaking tech could be found in the future.

Miary Zo launches today on consoles and PC.