Mawk's Heroes and Villains Guides: Emperor Palpatin

Emperor Palpatin: Force Guide

Overview: The Emperor (Emp) is a weaker character in Force but like Yoda he can be deadly while controlled by the correct person. His saber is strong if you click rapidly. His health is a bit lower than normal. His dash is strong when timed properly. His force powers are choke and lightning, and he has a lightning slam. He can also float.

The Emp moves slower than normal run speed. His dash is one of the few unique dashes in the game where you can knock the enemy down. The dash is difficult to master though, because if you click your swing at the wrong time, it will not knock them over and you will usually die. Never try the dash at a great distance, you will usually run out of power. The dash is best used at close distances either after choke or after you block a force attack. When you are sprinting toward the enemy be sure to begin clicking just before you reach them. If you click as you reach them, you won't knock them over. Once they are down finish them off with your saber.

The Emperor has a float similar to Vader's. To activate this you must hit jump twice. You will be able to stay in the air for about 4 seconds before falling back to the ground again. There are advantages to his float: is escaping, choke float, lightnight float, or his lightning slam (which I will get to at the end).

In a saber fight, the Emp is occasionally powerful. He will seem slow when he begins his combo, BUT if you time it right, he is surprisingly very quick. So in essence, he has a slight warm-up time before his saber is quick. Generally when you get past the first two swings he speeds up. Now you do not want to go head on with an enemy unless you for sure can land his final swing. The first two little swings make you vulnerable to a backhand or interruption, but the third knocks them down. There is also a gap between the first swings and the final stun swipe, enemies can backhand you or escape in this time. So what I try to do is start the combo without touching them and hit them with the last swing.

The Emp is a survivalist, hiding in the shadows, rather than an all out warrior type. People realize that his saber is weaker at the start, so you may be hunted. No, I lie. You WILL be hunted. As the Emperor more heroes will double/triple team you than any other character. Once you get good at the Emperor, you can defeat these double teams easily. I highly recommend spending times on roofs, or behind buildings. You will always need to hide.

The first way to beat the enemy is using your force powers. Choke is the easiest to use and can lead you into the dash very easily. As mentioned before with Vader, when you choke someone there is a slight downtime when it is released. This gives you just a bit of time to make your dash as the enemy recovers from choke. If you are close to the enemy and have full power, choke them a bit then begin your dash. Don't forget to swing just before you get to them and KEEP moving through to knock them down. If you get to them and stop and begin swinging, they can usually escape. You will know if you are doing it correctly by his left-right saber sweeps. The normal combo begins low-to-high side swing. Sometimes it is difficult to tell if you are still dashing because he's extremely slow anyway. If you do knock them over, backup or turn around and finish them off. If you fail to knock them over, get your block up quickly and hide (you will be low power from the choke and dash).

You can also use choke alone. If you choose to choke and get the enemy to just below half health, be prepared for another choke and dash because they will come after you.

The next force power is lightning. This force power is under appreciated but is very powerful. This power is what's known as an AE (area affect) attack. This power will hit multiple enemies in range, teammates too. It has an area like a small half circle in front of you. The range of lightning is short and to master this you will have to test it. If you are on a roof that is just one level above ground, you will be able to look down and lightning the enemies below. This is good for when you are semi-trapped but still want to do some damage. If you have full power and every flash of lightning hits the enemy, they will die (unless a gunner). This means that a single lightning hit takes roughly 1/8th of a hero's health.

As the Emp, many heroes will attempt silly acrobatics to avoid getting choked while fighting you. This is usually Luke and is usually a few jumps over you before actually landing. This is something you need to be careful of. Luke's downward aerial attack on the Emp is devastating. It can kill you in one hit. Do not jump up or they will swing mid-air. Do not stay where you were to begin with, this usually leads to them jumping over you, then back over you, then back on top and killing you. You want to give them the impression you are not moving, so if you believe they will land, move out of the way and choke. You can also wait for them to do the landing swing and dash them (be sure to knock them over).

The reason I am mentioning them jumping over you multiple times, is you have lightning. If they are going to pull their Cirque Du Soleil act, then you want to lightning as they are jumping over you. This will either lead to two things: Them landing to avoid further injury, or them hiding. If they land, switch quickly to choke. Or if you are brave you can saber them. If they go into hiding, they will likely try the circus jumping again in which you will again do the lightning. If they are low health they will try to run, you can sometimes catch their tail end with a lightning. Heroes also retreat to roofs. If you are below and they try to jump to a roof, keep lightning on and at least take some of their health.

Another unique lightning move is the float lightning. If an enemy is on a roof you can jump and activate your float and hit them with a few lightening shots as you float by. You can also do float choke.

The Emperor's lightning slam is my last main topic:

Unlike Mace's earthquake slam, the Emp's downward lightning attack takes a character's health only to half (save for Chewie). If executed properly, You can take out whole crowds of heroes. One of my favorite moves is being on a roof and hitting lightning on a group of heroes. There is a good chance that eventually you can get a couple of them to half health. Be sure they aren't facing you and begin your jump and float (spacebar twice). When you are floating all you have to do is click and the Emp will begin his downward slam. This is also an AE, but it can affect anyone around you in a circle (including friendlies). If an enemy is half health or below they will be shot away from you and die. The only exception to this rule is if they have damage reduction on. When I first was getting use to the Emperor I did a lot of roof hopping just searching for half health enemies to slam when they weren't looking. It is very fun and fulfilling. Just be careful if your allies are in the area, because it takes their health too with team dmg set to on.

There is another move I would suggest to try. If a character is lower in health and on a roof above you. You can float choke them and then do the lightning slam. This makes it so they cannot pull or push you as you are getting in range for the lightning slam.

Finally, when you are double teamed, the egos of the players make it so each of them wants the kill. You will find them hitting each other if they go after you on a roof. When fighting multiple people, the combo is pretty deadly, especially the third swipe. If they are blundering be sure to take them out with that third swipe and try to avoid going head on with them, because you are easily interrupted.

Emperor vs. Pullers: As with Vader, keep yourself away from pullers in an open area. Be sure to block yourself from them with a building. Keep block up as much as possible. When pullers do not land a pull or two, they will back up further and try again. Try to wait for them to come to you. It is a known fact among regulars, that people who play Aayla are not very experienced in the game. I'm not saying ALL Aaylas are like this, but most. This works to the Emperor's advantage. When you get pulled (yes when), you have half a second to activate float. If there is a building close by, get behind it. An inexperienced Aayla will not pull the second time at the right moment, so hopefully you can escape. Otherwise if they are below half, try the lightning slam. I have been pulled twice and have been able to float at the last second in time for a lightning slam. If they are full health though, you are dead. Just try to stay away and make them come to you. I will always be mentioning the domes on top of the buildings, but you need to use them as much as possible.

Emperor vs. Pushers: As long as it's not Luke doing his acrobatics, pushers are usually easy to defeat. Again, their range is the same as choke and you can generally choke them after you block a push. Be sure your lightsaber sparks before you hit choke, because game lag makes it so you can be pushed even if you see them choking. If you do not have enough endurance for a dash, just choke and escape, for you will not be able to take most of them head on.

Emperor vs. Dashers: I will just copy what I said in Vader's for it's the same. The game makes it so when they get close and you are trying to choke them, they will stop at your front door. So when they are coming at you, be sure to choke and they will stop at your feet. If you wish you can also single click them on their non saber side, but be careful of Obi-Wan and Aayla doing this move.

Emperor vs. Gunners: With your lower overall health, don't play around with gunners. You are slow and can hardly catch them. Choke them and get it over with. If you don't, you'll be shot. And we know how much you love dying to a Chewie bowcaster or a Leia who snipes you. Try to stay above them, or if you cannot do that, keep block on. Lightning works great, as does the slam. Try not to expose yourself, or else your head will have a hole in it quickly. I have noticed that the Emperor's combo tends to keep them from rolling away from you. It seems to suck them back to right in front of you to finish them off.

Emperor Palpatine: Non-Force Guide

The Emperor is probably the worst saber character in the game, due to the saber speed (though the final hit is a great tool). His run/walk speed is slower than the rest of the characters, and a tough to use air attack.

The key to dueling with the Emperor is playing careful. Running around and dash spamming will only get you nulled and killed. Changing up your speeds on approach from walking to running back to walking etc is necessary to keep your opponent guessing what you are going to do next. Using the Emperor's saber combo is highly recommended, since his combo has more range than the other saber characters. The problem with his saber combo is that the last hit in the three hit combo is VERY slow. When you use the Emperor's saber combo, walk forward during the first two fast hits, back up as he is bringing up his saber, and then advance to bring down his very powerful final hit. Most of the time people will just run into the third hit, not expecting you to advance.

As I (Sneek) mentioned earlier, his run speed makes it nearly impossible to have a primarily offensive style. He can't roll intercept well, and has big problems chasing people. Nulling will be your primary way of getting kills. My advice to get more nulls is to advance by walking around and if you see that your opponent is going to try and attack you, time your first hit so that it connects. You will usually knock them down and you're clear for a finish.

Finishing off people with the Emperor is different than it is for other characters. Since the Emperor's saber combo is very slow, you should not just walk up to a fallen enemy and start clicking. The first two hits will knock them back up so they can get away. Doing a dash attack or timing your saber combo so that only the third hit connects is the best way to finish off an opponent. Another route to finish off your opponent is to get them at or below half health (this does not apply to characters with extra health) and do the Emperors air attack which is a lightening ground stomp. This will take off half health from most of the characters and it can pretty much only be used with either you have your opponent on the ground, or you manage to get them to half health during the fight.

Full map is a different story with the Emperor. Most of the time you will find yourself on the defense waiting for the right moment to strike. I (Mawk) sometimes find myself just waiting for the fights to come to me, which is really one of the best tactics for him.

The first thing that is a plus with the Emperor, is that he has the highest beginning jump distance. So his initial jump launches him up higher than anyone else. This provides useful since his evasion is quite a bit slower than the regular speed characters. When someone is dashing at you, you can leap above and generally not get hit. Then you can activate float and land somewhere safe.

His block radius is also pretty large compared to, say Vader, so he has the ability to block a lot more. The only thing you wan to be careful of is watching your stamina. If you block for a while, then it drops, you may not be in a position to defend yourself.

If you choose to go on the offensive, you can do a couple tricks. The first would be to look for a normal health character (non gunners on heroes), and then look for their health being below half. You should hone in on the half-healthers like a tractor beam as the Emperor. Always focus on them because it's fairly easy to defeat them. Track them and see if you can get a lightning slam off for the kill. Sometimes the best way to do this is by surprising them from above. That way all they see is a shadow then they die. Another way to get a kill off like this is letting them come to you. You have to be careful but once they get close you can quickly do the slam. I don't recommend doing the slam when they dash you, because most average non force players follow up with a roll, and you'll slam where they were and end up dead. I always find the most helpless they are is after they've tried to avoid you for a while and are out of stamina. Another good time to slam is when you are on a roof and they are jumping up to you. Don't do this if they are full health.

Another offensive strategy is using the Emperor's dash. Many people who aren't well versed in the game feel the Emperor is a weaker character due to his lower health and slower speed. You can use this idea against them by surprising them with a quick dash here and there. For those who don't realize it, there are two ways to sprint. You can use the sprint key, which is defaulted to shift, or you can double tap your forward key. The latter is probably the best way to get a quick dash off with the Emperor. It makes it so they can avoid you less.

When dashing, try to line them up so they are just to the right of you a bit. If they are on your left side you may completely miss. The Emp's saber seems to stay center and right with his dash. When executed properly, his dash is usually a knockdown. Depending on their health you can dash them again or finish them with a slam. Try to avoid finishing them with a saber combo because it does have holes where they can escape, or backslash you. Be wary when you finish with a slam, because there will most likely be an enemy about. Keep your eye on your minimap to see if you need to get out of there quickly. Don't forget, his dash does nothing to Yoda. Some claim if you look down it will, but I've never been able to, it may have to do with pings, who knows.

You can also time your dash so that you finish right as you hit them, because it does a couple extra swings as part of his recovery. So instead of going through them, sprint and stop your dash (you can hit the back key to slow yourself down) so that the full force of the end of his dash hits them. This generally does a lot of damage. It may not cause a knockdown like dashing through them will though.

Now on the defensive end of full map combat, you will always want to pick good spots to battle. A roof with a dome is a good spot due to the fact that you can jump if you need to and land on a different level than your opponent. Try to goad your opponent to you, because the Emperor has an incredible "null". THere are actually two ways to do his null. You can sidestep and single click, or you can sidestep and actually do a backhand. Vader/Dooku/and Emperor all have the same type of backhand which allows a sweeping gesture, that doesn't cut of their strafing movement. If someone is coming at you and they just graze this strafing backhand, it will most likely knock them down.

His saber combo, though very slow, can prove effective in full map, especially against multiple opponents. His third part of the combo, which is a grand overhead slice, usually knocks anyone down. It can knockdown if it is timed right even as someone is swinging at you. Sometimes the best thing to do is as sneek mentioned above, click a couple times away from them and go toward them for the final hit. Always keep your eyes open and don't always go directly in for the kill. You do have a bit of time if you need to go away slightly and come back. If you can time his combo to hit multiple enemies with the final hit, do it, it will save you another fight. You will also need to click quickly with the Emperor to try and speed up his combo, because there is that gap before the third hit where a lot of stuff can happen, especially against Aayla since her first hit is so powerful. It can also make it so your opponent escapes. So be sure to click as fast as you can, but don't start a second combo.

As the Emperor it is just fine to run away and wait for a fight. Don't feel that you always need to fight and get tons of kills. Hide behind objects as much as possible to betray what your opponent thinks you are going to be doing.

One thing I have found lately with no force full map, is how wreckless people are. If you want to have some fun, try to avoid dying. I've seen so many first place people with 40 kills 37 deaths, where I may be below them with 35 and 9. They will then gloat how they got #1 and it truly meant nothing with that amount of deaths. As the Emperor, you're not a head on tank fighter as much. So just remember not to always go head on when you're playing him.