Ashida Guide

This is a rundown on how to use Ashida for speedrunning Double Dragon IV.  While he may not be S tier for times, he is an easy character to start off with since he one-credits the game relatively easily.

Here are his rankings:
Power:  S rank
Speed:  C rank
Platforming:  C rank
Versatility:  A rank
Wakeup:  A rank
Abusability:  S rank

My notes:

Flashing Kinetic Wave:  Probably your bread and butter for using him.  This kills most enemies in one shot, and is totally invincible.  It really doesn't have many penalties except maybe against red Ropers, and can hit multiple targets.

Kick combo:  This is your backup, also does horrific damage, good if you get in trouble, miss with the Flashing Kinetic Wave, and against Ashida mirrors, who will spam Flashing Kinetic Waves to get away from yours.  This makes him not a one-trick pony.

Rising Kick:  This is his wakeup option, by pressing Kick when you wake up.  Servicable and helps with crowd control in tight spots.

Platforming:  Probably Ashida's biggest weakness, as he is slow and you have to be particular about where you jump as his range is terrible.  This is probably why he won't have S rank time.

General strategy:  You are going to want to get in line and use Flashing Kinetic Wave when in mid-range.  This is especially useful in the Tower, where I think he's even better than characters like The Mysterious Warrior since there's less movement and the space is confined.  It also hits multiple targets if enemies close in, so that's a huge help.  I think only Kodani is stronger in strength personally.  Ashida gains time killing things quickly, brutally, and efficiently.  Enemirs end up dead and don't get up usually for knockdown loops.  Just try not to miss too much and be careful but fast on platforming if you can.

General Speedrun, enemy count and Mysterious Warrior.

Tower Info and Guide

This guide is written from a Mysterious Warrior-centric point of view.  He seems to have the correct mix of speed, range and damage to kill quickly, consistently and safely.

Moves and abbreviations:
(MW) Mysterious Warrior
(WS) While Standing - MW is in a kneeling position.  Adds invulnerability if WS after a knock down.  All moves can be done from WS position in addition to 2 variation moves if you hit just K or P.
(SC) Spinning Clothesline/Lariat including the (WS) version.  The facing of MW decides the knock back direction.  Manage your facing to knock people onto the screen rather than off.
(FB) Fireball.  Has a small AoE when it hits.  On PS4 you can push it through enemies that are very close.
(HK) Handstand Kick.  Highest damage move in a single hit.  Timing slightly tricky and more risky than FB
(PC) Punch Combo.  VERY fast.  Kick ender is slower and has slightly more knock back but is generally not useful in tower mode.  Sometimes you only get 1 hit of the 3 hit PC if you are rapid firing it near an enemy that is being timid or standing up with an odd timing.
(JK) Jump Kick.  MW has a single jumping attack animation.  I used to fool around with it but knockdowns take too much time in this game for too little damage.

Enemies and Health Tiers

Incoming damage seems pretty light barring Mystical and Weapon attacks.  Enemy jumpkicks and punch combos aren't so dangerous, enemy fireballs, shurikens and pistol shots should be avoided at all costs.  Like most of the story mode the uttermost top or bottom of the stage are safe zones.  Relying solely on this zone is safe but somewhat slow and enemies CAN get to you under certain circumstances.  I call this the dimensional shuffle because somehow whatever is going on with the AI that attacks you in these zones they can hit without being fully lined up with you on your plane.  You can turn this around on them but it is hard to know when it applies.

(MN)Minion: Dies to a single SC
(LT)Lieutenant: Dies to a single PC or 2 SC
Boss: Dies to 2 or more FB, FB and 1 SC can work too

Chin Taimei (Green outfit and two sticks) Lieutenant tier, fairly safe to approach and kill with 1 PC.
Williams (Guile flat top and blue jeans) Minion tier, not much threat if killed with SC.
Rowper (spike shoulder thingy) minion, has a mean JK. SC him
Cody (Skull face) CANNOT hurt you, he has no attacks at all.  Minion tier.
Linda (Pink or Blue punk girls) can be somewhat aggressive, likely to attack you in the safe zones.  Minion tier.
Burnov (Steel Mask and leather harness) Lieutenant class and very slow, safe to attack with anything.  Takes forever to do his death animation so try to kill him first.  A single FB always kills him as does 2 SC.
Yamazaki (Karate man with stern countenance and bouffant) is a Lieutenant fairly safe to kill with PC unlike his twin.
Soeno (Yamazki twin, has less hair) Minion health but hard to engage with a SC due to his Elbow Bash so use SC.
ABOBO! (Looks like an Abobo... what?) surprisingly LT class.  Can be surprisingly fast with dashing attacks. FB if you have spare stock otherwise use 2 SC, PC is risky.
Right Arm (Double Dragon 2 guy, black gloves, Frankenstein look) LT class, very fast JK makes engagement slightly scarier than going for a Chin Taimei.
Jake (giant with a mohawk) Boss, so 3 SC or 1 FB and 1 SC.  Can be fast.  Moderately high priority to finish off quickly.
Mason (bald, reminds me of Pat from Best Friends Play) MN.  Often ducks SC, follow up a missed SC with PC to take out the guess work.  Can be a bit of a time sink and distraction.
Kodani (e. Honda looking sumo) Boss.  Very slow, moderate damage because he can't throw MW like he can the Lee brothers. Somewhere between a Burnov and Jake for danger.
Ayumi (ninja girl) LT.  Just FB her, she is too fast and her shuriken hurts.
Ashida (BIG guy in karate gi) boss, can be tricky to FB, stay on him when you knock him down.
Shannon (Green hair girl with a gun)
Casey (Shannon with purple hair) Play patient, don't get shot, even 1 shot will likely ruin your run and 2 will probably kill you. Boss health.  Use SC and positioning to stack up these twins can speed things up significantly.
Sonny (yellow colored Lee brother clone) Boss health and 2 life block FB attack.  Can be impossible to attack safely if he is really uppitty.  Using the grouping techniques can make him safer to approach.  Can also bait our his FB and try to close but it's very timing sensitive. Boss Health.
Ranzou (proper ninja with a sword) Likes to dimensional shuffle you, boss enemy that can throw 1 life bar block damaging shurikens but is a bit too spazzy to be a real threat. Boss health
Chin Seimei (Oddjob from James Bond?)  No ranged attacks and kind of small but aggressive.  About as dangerous as Jake. Boss health.
Classic Jimmy (AKA Bimmy) boss health.  Like Sonny but without a Fireball so you have the upper hand if you've FB stock available.
Mysterious Warrior (duh) boss health.  FB a lot like Sonny but not as big a jerk in melee.

Floors
1-9 Two enemies at a time.
10 Three enemies.
11-14 two enemies.
15-19 three enemies.
20 four enemies
21 3 enemies
22 first Ashida appearance, 3 enemies
23 Shannon shows up, 3 enemies
24 Sometimes another casey/shanon or just Ashida
25 Molly & Shannon, 4 enemies
26-29 3 enemies
30 Sonny, Chin Seimei and Ranzou plus a 4th enemy
31-34 4 enemies
35 Classic Jimmy and Sonny plus 2 more, usually Abobo and Linda
36-39 lots of Ayumi. 4 Enemies. Taxing on FB stock
40 Mysterious Warrior, Bimmy, Sonny and 1 additional foe.  Floor can be dangerous if you get knocked off your feet.  Sonny and MW can spam FB over your soon-to-be-corpse body making getting up actually impossible even with invulnerable WS attacks.  Spend an extra FB if you have to, to pass this stage, it is worth it.
Generally the stages then loop after 40 with an extra random enemy thrown in of the appropriate power level in relation to the floor on first pass.  So 41 will probably have a Linda or Cody, etc.
41-52 or so are pretty easy so stock up on FB on each loop.
47+ can have five enemies


Tips
When practicing you can pause the game and examine a new floor of enemies to make informed and weighed decisions rather than off the cuff or rash calls.  This is obviously not recommended when going for a speed run unless the circumstance is dire.
If you do use pause pay extra careful attention to how you clear the pause screen.  There is no confirmation on exiting the mode and using the jump button, which clears the pause screen for whatever reason, can sometimes cause you to jump in game and get hit.
FB stock goes up by 6 every 5 floors.  Can use one a floor and still re-generate depleted stock slowly. Stock cap is always 20.  Every five floors means 5-10-15-20 etc.
There is an in game config for assigning all moves to a hot key rather than their funky input methods.  Highly recommend you do this.  For MW I even rebound what is normally the Kick button to SC.
As enemy count rises quickly use one FB per floor to make room to fight the rest in.
Throwing at 2 FB per stage you will go from full stock to zero in about 19 stages.
Enemies attack in pairs and groupings.  They try to get on either side of you and sandwich you in.  Usually the rest just kind of watch from the wings.  Enemies that are in watching mode are able to be attacked safely.  Getting a feel for this can be tricky as the active pair can change when you move.  You can use this to your advantage in a lot of odd ways.  Manipulating positioning by trying to walk against the top/bottom borders at an angle and such.  If you get them to stack up they seem to give you a split second more leeway on being approached and attacked.  
Learn to quickly approach from above/below and SC. The timing is tight.  Practice by going to the safe zone at the bottom, press up then the SC shortcut you have assigned.  If the timing is right you will be in between the bottom plane and the plane the enemies stand on but your SC will hit anyway.  If your timing is late you will be on the same plane as the enemy, which can still work but is significantly more risky.
Practice executing this consistently.  You will need to be able to do this on point for about 24 minutes straight without fatiguing for 100 floor challenge runs. EXECUTE!  Doing the SC early is better than late since you'll stay in the safe zone.
Look for easy combinations of enemies and save up a FB when you can as you get into the 35+ range.
Stack up enemies and use the wide area of effect on SC to hit multiple foes.
You know your SC execution timing is off if Jake, Williams, Rowper or Right Arm hit you out of SC with a JK.
WS with a FB after knockdown is a very strong option due to the AoE.
Try not to get nickle and dime-ed by dumb stuff.
Make a mental list of who to FB and try to follow it.
If the safe zone isn't working you can use MW fast walk speed to bait out enemy JK and punish.
As you get into the 42+ tower try to remember that Cody is a freebie and use that to your advantage.
Abobo only runs at you when he is going to attack you, meaning he is one of the "pair" of enemies currently trying to engage you.
Since paired enemies try to close in on you and pace your movements sometimes you can manipulate them into a FB.
Sometimes a duo or trio spawns on the left or right that all die to a single SC, clear them asap and use that side to engage the remaining foes.
Use knock back on SC and such to create space.  Very effective on Kodani and Burnov
Shoot for 7-8 bars of health at floor 40 and 5+ at floor 60.  Having enough to survive a single gun shot at 65 is nice and then enough to survive a fireball at 30/70 and 40/80.  After than you are pretty much home free.
The health bars are definitely rounded up so don't fully trust you have exactly what you see.
Again, kill Burnov first if you can.  His death animation delays the floor progression until complete.
Keep fingers limber with rapid punches, pretend you are a Starcraft 2 player going for high APM. ;-)
My strategy was always to FB Ayumi even when I'm using too many FB on average.  You might be able to recover FB but you can't recover health.
Be careful on floors like 25/30/35/40 as the enemies with projectiles can attack with them from off screen immediately.
Learn the timing to punish grounded foes.
Beat 80 and you are home free, just try not to think about the poor janitor that has to clean all this blood up!
GYMNASTICS!

John from The Hermits Quarters
Annotated version of this guide here...
https://youtu.be/Kq9m-H35sIA

Updated Tier List, as of 6/6/2017:  We have competition!

If you're wondering who to use for an ease of speedrun transitioning, I have an early tier list.  It is subject to change depending on what gets verified and what is experimented with

S Tier:
Mysterious Warrior
Casey
Shannon

A+ Tier:
Jake
Abobo
Ranzou
Kodani

A Tier:
Chin T.
Ayumi
Chin S.
Right Arm
Linda
Cody
Ashida

B Tier
Williams
Roper
Yamazaki

Bottom (Trash) Tier
Billy
Jimmy
Shadow Boss Jimmy
Mason
Burnov
Soeno

Name	Author
Ashida Guide	NightmareJames 9 years ago
General Speedrun, enemy count and Mysterious Warrior.	HermitsQuartersJohn 9 years ago
Tower Info and Guide	HermitsQuartersJohn 9 years ago
Updated Tier List, as of 6/6/2017: We have competition!	NightmareJames 9 years ago