A Killer Instinct Guide for SFIV Players by Infil

Spinal can earn skulls through a variety of actions, but all of them will show him using a ghostly green attack. The following attacks will generate a skull if they hit the opponent: crouching HP, forward throw, back throw, Searing Skull (with no skulls), and any spectral manual. The skulls will be seen floating above Spinal's head; he starts the match with zero and can hold at most five skulls at any given time. Spinal can then spend one skull to do a variety of actions. Searing Skull will launch a blue projectile along the ground, at mid range, or straight up and down on top of the opponent's head using LP, MP, and HP respectively; on hit, this will curse the shadow meter of your opponent, slowly draining it and giving it to Spinal for a short time or until Spinal gets hit. Note that shadow Searing Skull does not cost any skulls, but will instead launch a giant yellow projectile which will curse the instinct meter of your opponent. Blue skulls curse the blue meter, and yellow skulls curse the yellow meter. Because a character cannot use instinct unless their gauge is full, Spinal can effectively shut down an opponent's instinct game entirely; consider popping your instinct as soon as it's available when fighting against Spinal, or run the risk of never using it.

Apart from simply throwing skulls at his opponent to curse them, Spinal can also cancel his HK (and only HK) Skeleport into any other special move, including another teleport, or a safe on block Soul Sword; this teleport canceling is one of the staples of Spinal's scary offense. Lastly, he is able to run cancel any normal attack at the cost of one skull, simply by tapping during the active frames of a normal. Spinal can create scary high-low mixups this way (by run canceling overheads or lows), and trying to block will let Spinal throw you and regenerate a skull.

Spinal charges at his opponent shield first with Boneshaker, a safe on block pressure string; if you have a skull active, HK Boneshaker will always spend a skull and gain projectile invincibility. His main opener, however, is usually going to be Soul Sword, a giant vertical swing of his sword that is upper body invincible. The HP version of Soul Sword is a 2-hit attack that launches the opponent (which lets you follow up with curses but not much else), so use the LP or MP versions if you want to keep the opponent grounded. Spinal also has a slide command normal using +HK, although it is terribly unsafe on block. Consider instinct-canceling it on hit or block as a surprise offensive maneuver, and continue the combo or apply a mixup accordingly. It should also be noted that, although not technically an opener, Spinal can perform a manual after any version of Searing Skull (with skulls or without) which will start the combo sequence. When Spinal has skulls active, this is a very common combo starter.

Interestingly, Spinal gains Skeleport, normally a non-hitting attack, as a linker in the combo sequence. Spinal will always teleport behind the opponent and hit them with one, two, or three rising strikes depending on the strength used. Soul Sword is the go-to linker, as it does the most damage and the light version is fast in damage loops, but medium and heavy are easier to break since Spinal will animate two or three separate swings of his sword, so mix in Boneshaker and Skeleport to position Spinal closer to the corner or to switch sides as needed.

Spinal has a wide assortment of useful enders. Your first combo is almost certainly going to end in Searing Skull, which grants Spinal at least one skull and up to four depending on the ender level, and lets Spinal access his scariest offensive options. After this, Spinal tends to prefer shorter combos into his Soul Sword launcher ender, which will always let him apply at least one shadow curse or instinct curse, and likely one (or more) of each, to the opponent after they've been launched. Remember, projectiles are never breakable in KI, which means once you've been launched with the ender, you can't avoid the curses. Since Spinal relies heavily on the momentum gained by his skulls, he is more likely to do short combos with fewer chances to break, apply curses, and start his vortex. Spinal's damage enders are strong, but typically avoided unless they're needed to end a match, because the knockdown pushes Spinal away and halts his momentum, and he neither gains skulls nor spends them on curses.

Normals to watch: Standing MP and HP are great midrange buttons which leads to a combo, even near max range, and are some of his better options while he doesn't have skulls available. Crouching MK makes Spinal stab at his opponent's feet with his shield; it's a decent low attack that is great in the run cancel mixup. The other half to that mixup will be +HP, a Jago-esque overhead which can start a combo even when run cancel is used. Spinal doesn't have a jumping crossup and he can't chain his crouching LKs, but he does have a dive kick by pressing MK in the air (no direction needed). It's good as a throw bait and ground bounces in combos, which can be used to curse your opponent in interesting ways after certain enders, but it's terribly unsafe, making it not useful as a footsies tool. Use crouching HP for your anti-air, and you'll gain a skull too.

Spinal has a unique command normal called Power Devour, performed with +LP. Spinal holds his shield up and charges it with green magic for as long as you hold the LP button, and it absorbs all special moves. For each hit of the special move that Spinal absorbs, he earns a skull. It's punishable with normal attacks, though, so you should only try it if you have a hard read that a special move is incoming (for example, in a reversal situation or on reaction to a slow shadow move).

Specials to watch: You'll be seeing a lot of Searing Skull when you play against Spinal. The MP version sends a fireball at a normal trajectory and can be used to start combos via a manual, while the LP version hits low and the HP version hits overhead. It costs a skull to use, but Spinal gets tremendous mixups off these; as an example, perform a back throw (and earn a skull), then immediately throw HP skull and teleport either in front or behind your opponent for a free SFIV Seth-like mixup. If you have more skulls available, you can teleport behind your opponent with HK Skeleport, and then switch sides yet again with another teleport, as many times as you have the skulls to spend, creating dirty crossups that are covered by the traveling Searing Skull. At any time, you can stop this mixup and throw, or perform run canceled normals.

General strategy: The first order of business is to weather the storm while you don't have skulls, then find a way to earn at least one skull via a throw, a crouching HP anti-air, ending a combo opening with Searing Skull ender, or maybe try to sneak a light Spectral Manual past them in a combo. When you have skulls, it's time to plan your offense. Both of his throws lead to scary mixups at the cost of one or two skulls, and any combo opening you have once you have skulls should end in Soul Sword launcher ender, so you can apply a shadow curse, an instinct curse, or both, and earn some free meter. Spinal tends to give zoners a pretty difficult time, since HK teleport travels behind the zoning wall, but be wary that it's quite punishable on its fast recovery, so it's not a free opening by any stretch. That is, unless, you have a skull, and can cancel HK teleport into another teleport or a safe Soul Sword, shadow Searing Skull, or any other number of mixups. Spinal lives and dies by his skulls and is the most momentum-dependent character in the game, but instinct will ensure he always has access to them at some point in every match, so take him into training mode or watch some scary Spinal players to make this strong character as terrifying as he can be. Just don't get knocked down.