The Torment is a really big grappler. His Its impressive size means big pokes, big damage, and abysmal defense. With patient footsies it can catch opponents off guard with its command grab and continue into scary air combos.

Torment starts out weak and gradually gets better hitboxes and frame data as it Evolves. It can spend this Evolve meter for the incredibly powerful anti-air Laser or at Level 4 [Max] blow it all on a stage-wide instant kill.

However, bigger isn't always better. Stray hits will lead to Torment getting blown up as its big hurtbox guarantees nasty punishes, catching errant projectiles, and constantly being crossed up. Torment is intentionally bottom tier. Playing it is handicapping yourself. Getting over these weaknesses means working cleverly with a simple moveset, managing meter, and taking risks.


👈 "High level"? More like "mid level". RushRev may have been made in New York, but Torment is from Jersey.

g = Grounded, a = Aerial, e = Evolved
N = Neutral, S = Side, F = Forward, B = Back, D = Down, U = Up
Sp = Special, St = Strike

For more information on each move, go into Dojo -> Training Mode and enable FRAMEDATA and HITBOX DISPLAY.

Jab series: Rather slow for a jab. Jab2 spikes. Jab2 and Jab3 can scoot in the direction it is facing if forward is held. Be mindful of opponents air teching.
Level 4 [Max]: Jab 2 links into Jab 1, making a looping jab with no finisher.

(FSt) Forward Strike: Its longest poke. No hurtbox on the forearm and hand makes it a very nice disjoint. Can be low-profiled. Has a sourspot late induring the active frames only on the hand.
Level 4 [Max]: Lurches forward during startup, similar to Velora's cFSt. Charge time slightly increases forward distance.

(DSt) Down Strike: A shorter, faster poke. Sweetspot on the hand sends backward, sourspot inside Torment sends forward.
Level 3: Faster startup.

(USt) Up Strike: Two hits: first a stomach hitbox and then a fireball.
Level 1: Bigger fireball. Usable for anti-air.

(NAir) Neutral Air: The sweetspot is in front of Torment's shoulders where the spikes protrude; this is its best meterless killmove. The sour spot is inside it for another 15f.
Level 3: Much bigger range on the sweetspot.

(FAir) Forward Air: A swipe starting from behind and ending in front and inside it. Has more range going behind than in front! Disjointed on the hand only.
Level 4 [Max]: 75% less landing lag, making it good in neutral.

(BAir) Back Air: Huge walling tail swipe. Sweetspot on the tip. The tail is entirely disjointed. The downside is it is horribly unsafe on block.
Level 3: Bigger sweetspot. 1f faster startup. (lol?)

(DAir) Down Air: Sprays fire breath below. Sweetspot is the fire, sourspot is the head. The first active frame (all sourspot) has fantastic coverage in front of it.
Level 1: Bigger sweetspot and multihits. Propels it upward depending on charge time. Current velocity has a big impact on how far the move sends it: Do it while falling for a stall. Do it while superjumping for big airtime.

(UAir) Up Air: A Donkey Kong headbutt with a spiking sweetspot at the end. Its fastest aerial outside of eDSp.
Level 4 [Max]: Bigger hitbox.



(gNSp1) Ground Neutral Special: Pitifully slow fireball. Not useful. Despite being a single hit, it must be parried three times.
Level 1 and onward, this requires a plink (Attack+Special) input, otherwise you get gNSp2.

(aNSp1) Air Neutral Special: Slow spiking fireball, useful for edgeguarding low and air stalling. Despite being a single hit, it must be parried three times.
Level 1 and onward, this requires a plink (Attack+Special) input, otherwise you get aNSp2.

(gNSp2) Ground Neutral Special 2 (Levels 1, 2, 3): Eldritch Beam aka Laser. Costs one level for a 52° long-range beam that kills early. Cannot be parried or eaten by Ezzie's DSp. Great for punishing bursts. Think carefully before lasering opponents who still have burst: while you can laser them again to much satisfaction, trading two Levels to close out one battered stock is usually a bad trade. Despite the visuals, it is not hitscan; there are a few frames of travel time for the projectile.

(aNSp2) Air Neutral Special 2 (Levels 1, 2, 3): A downward angled beam that pops the opponent straight up. Sadly, it does not give spark.

(NSp3) Neutral Special 3 (Level 4 [Max]): Ultimate Hex aka The A-bomb. 💣 Costs all levels to cause Torment to float up and vomit out a slowly descending orb that detonates after a few seconds or on contact with the stage. Cannot be blocked, parried, or eaten by Ezzie's DSp. Opponents can destroy the bomb before it detonates by Bursting near it or by touching it as they come down from the respawn platform. Alternatively, they can survive the explosion with a well timed Burst, ledge attack, ledge roll, or getup attack. If Torment is hit just before the bomb comes out, it goes back to Level 0. Deploying gives iframes from f7 to f15. While the bomb covers the whole stage, opponents can survive by running off stage. Deploying the bomb too close to the stage will have the bomb travel inside the stage before eventually detonating.


(gSSp) Ground Side Special: Torment launches itself forward for a lengthy command grab. Charge to increase the distance of the pounce. Beware doing SSp while rushing near ledge; if you slide off Torment will do the pounce while falling. This character wasn't bad enough?
Level 2: Gains armor, but not immediately, for as long as you are charging the move. Does slightly more damage and knocks back more forward rather than up.

(aSSp) Air Side Special: Short-range command grab. Useful as combo filler or to snatch opponents trying to ledge trap you. Cancels velocity and gives a bit of distance making it very good for recovering.
Level 2: Gains armor, but not immediately.


(DSp) Down Special: Torment rises then drops with a hitbox before slamming for a small shockwave. Hold down to go through platforms and ignore ledge. Does more knockback the further he falls. Can be charged to increase the height of the the rising startup and delay the falling motion. Charging it introduces a hitbox before the drop, separate from the Evolved hitbox.
Level 2: Gains a f5 upward hitbox, useful as a "get off me" move and for finishing ladder combos.


(gUSp) Ground Up Special: Universal Reversal a.k.a. "Dragon Punch" or "DP". Immediately grab invincible. Hit+grab invincible from f4 until 2 frames after activating. Puts Torment into crit state if counter hit. Comes with a built-in taunt. The taunt does nothing.
Level 4 [Max]: Now has an additional full-stage shockwave and a not-so-full-stage 2-hit roar.

(aUSp) Air Up Special: Rises up then falls with a spiking body hitbox and landing shockwave. Jump cancellable at peak height. Varying the air drift on this move is what will get you back on stage alive. Can be cancelled into
wall jump. Hold down to go through platforms and to not grab ledge. Be careful not to reverse this on startup, or you're dead. Because you cannot cancel aUSp with Blue Burst, if you know you won't have enough height to get back to stage you can pop your Burst early and immediately rush up before using USp.
Level 2: Gains invincibility on part of the startup. This invincibility is treated like armor: it loses to grabs. aUSp also gains vertical control on par with the normal horizontal control, letting you go much lower or higher than before.

Grab: Being active on frame 12 means it's slow, but the range is pretty okay. Did you know you can spark cancel grab? Only Torment players will ever know this.

(FThrow) Forward Throw: Won't kill in Red on DI in.

(BThrow) Back Throw: Won't kill in Red on DI in.

(DThrow) Down Throw: Big damage. Easy followups. This is your go-to throw for early health bands. Superjump -> aSSp is a cool followup now.

(UThrow) Up Throw: Won't kill in Yellow even on top platform. Will kill in Red on any lower platform.

Ledge attack: Nice long range fire puff. Obvious deadzone for anyone standing at the ledge.

(RB) Red Burst: Spend your burst by pressing Shield+Rush after hitting an opponent to keep them close and extend your combo. Torment's burst is big, but still not big enough to snag opponents after a fully spaced FSt or DSt.

Torment builds meter from dealing damage, taking damage, and gradually over time. It starts each game at Level 0 and meter carries between stocks. Refer to this list often because it isn't written down in-game anywhere.

Level 1, Fire:

• USt: Larger hitbox on second hit.
  
• DAir: Larger sweetspot and vertical boost.
  
• NSp: Feint by plinking (Special+Attack).

Level 2, Specials:

• gSSp: Armor f11 until pouncing (f19 at earliest, f49 at latest), +7 damage, more forward knockback
  
• aSSp: Armor f5 to f14.
  
• DSp: f5 rising hitbox.
  
• aUSp: Invincibility f1 to f46 and control over vertical height. Not throw immune.

Level 3, Normals:

• DSt: Startup f10 -> f6
  
• NAir: Larger sweetspot.
  
• BAir: Startup f13 -> f12 and a larger sweetspot.

Level 4 [Max], Normals:

• Jabs: Jab2 loops into Jab1, and Jab3 is gone.
  
• FSt: Advances forward. Charge for slightly more distance.
  
• FAir: Landing lag f24 -> f6
  
• UAir: Larger hitbox.
  
• gUSp: Full-stage shockwave followed by a two-hit mid-range roar.

Laser (tap gNSp) costs one level's worth of meter to shoot. At Level 4 [Max] it is replaced with the bomb which consumes all levels for the opportunity to insta-kill.

The gameplan is to quickly climb up to Level 2 where Torment gets access to much better neutral tools and kill moves. At Level 3 it has all the most useful evolve perks while still having access to laser. To avoid being locked out of having laser while still being able to climb back up to Level 3 in a timely manner, land a Laser when you're around 70% to 99% meter. Opponents with basic matchup knowledge will recover low when you're at Levels 1-3.

If you neglect your meter, your pet will reach Level 4 [Max]. Congratulations! Torment is now fully installed and pulsating with better buttons. The choice is yours: Win the game? Or deploy the bomb? The bomb should only be used on your opponent's last stock, as reverting to the impotent Level 0 is a momentum stopper.

You're only as good as your fundamentals. Explanations of every universal system mechanic is beyond the purview of this guide, but know that, as a weaker character, it demands from you a closer understanding of the basic systems than other characters.

Combos I — Stay hot on their heels. This is obvious stuff but it bears repeating: Jump cancel or superjump cancel to pursue opponents into the air, tag them with an aerial, rush cancel, and go for another aerial or aSSp, rinse, repeat. Don't stop rush cancelling after them unless you predict they're about to escape with a Burst, or if the next hit will certainly kill or put them out of reach (so as to conserve Spark).

Combos II — Don't let it get stale. Its lovely big hitboxes can tempt you to do cheeky things such as going for a fourth BAir in a row because they're holding in on you, but don't do that. Doing the same move twice in a row or more will aggressively stale the hitstun value, letting victims escape more often. Cycle through UAir, sour DAir, FAir, and BAir. NAir is usually too slow. On lower health bands, BAir will hit opponents too far for meterless followups.

Combos III — Save your double jump. As you take a combo airborne, think about when you decide to burn that double jump. Rush refreshes with every hit, but DJ only refreshes on the ground. Double jump eDSp is Torment's best air finisher.

Defense I — Learn to love blocking. Unlike the rest of the cast, Torment is rewarded for not approaching by gradual passive meter. Seduce them into throwing out aerials that are negative on block and punish.

Defense II — Flick Dat Back. Be comfortable parrying projectiles as it's the only real counter-play Torment has against zoners. Being the tallest thing in the game has one benefit, which is being able to parry projectiles that are well off the ground. They usually don't expect high projectiles to get reflected.

Defense III — Crit state beware. A mistimed parry or air tech comes with the risk of critical state. This extra damage and hitstun is no joke. Due to Torment's natural magnetism to its opponents hitboxes, these defense options are now much riskier. Don't deploy them as often as you would if you were playing another character.

The Stage I — The ledge is your friend. With a long-range ledge attack, a long roll, and drop ledge aSSp, the ledge is a nice place to retreat to. When your opponent comes off the respawn platform and starts strutting with their iframes, don't feel bad about fleeing to the ledge.

The Stage II — Beware tech on platform. Small platforms (as in the ones on every stage that isn't Forbidden Shrine or Cyber Skyline) are a Torment trap. Every tech option can be covered with a single hitbox.

Coping with Loss — Don't use the Low-Tier Option Select. It reflects badly on all Torment players and makes you sound like a baby.

Originally posted by Griffin Albaugh for Bad Melee: "Why Your Main Sucks #2- Ganondorf":

Unfortunately, Ganon mains have a habit of trying to use something I like to call “The Low-Tier Option Select” so that they can downplay their losses and exaggerate the importance of their wins. The LTOS is an option select in the sense that the player makes an input (pressing start while your cursor is on a sh*tty character) and then from there that input covers 2 options- a win and a loss. By pressing start you get to say “Holy sh*t I’m so good at this game I won with a sh*tter like Kirby” or “lol you only won because I play Kirby”, for example, depending on whether you win or lose.

Official basic tutorial playlist
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuIq5-3MHxpIpl5hHljEuk3oKV2fjJiuY

Official RushRev Discord channel "The-Torment-Dojo"
https://discord.com/channels/573136235199987734/1066466071072231616

Mizuumi wiki (W.I.P.)
https://wiki.gbl.gg/w/Rushdown_Revolt/The_Torment