Tekken 7 Eliza: How to Counter & Unlock, Best Costumes

Eliza is one of the most unique characters in Tekken 7. With mechanics and moves befitting that of 2D fighting game characters like Geese Howard and Akuma, she is a high execution pick that not many players know how to counter.

First introduced in the free-to-play title Tekken Revolution, Eliza was actually the winner of a community poll run by Bandai Namco in 2013. As a result of the poll, Bandai Namco to Tekken Revolution then included her in the arcade version of Tekken 7 just two years later.

Since then, she's been a niche pick among players. Pro player Seong-ho "Chanel" Kang is pretty much the only one who actually brings her out in tournaments, for example. But this of course creates unfamiliarity, which can be an advantage against players that don't take the time to learn the matchup.

As mentioned, Eliza's playstyle is very 2D-like, with a fireball and a divekick in her arsenal. She also has a resource meter called the Blood Gauge, which powers up her special moves when consumed.

With the ability to cancel normal moves into specials, Eliza is all about taking risks and reaping the rewards. Like Geese and Akuma, she can turn what would otherwise be a poke into a full, highly damaging combo, assuming she has the meter for it. It does take heavy execution to unlock this damage. Playing Eliza is not for the faint of heart.

Outside of her crazy 2D combos, Eliza does have some other things going for her. Fighting from multiple ranges is perhaps her best strength, as she has plenty of tools with which to pick her spots. Her fireballs (qcb+1 / qcb+2 / qcb 1+2) allow her to pester opponents from a distance. Meanwhile, her f,f+3,4 is a safe, homing screw launcher on normal hit that hits from a mile away.

Up close, her divekick (qcb+4) allows her to pile on the pressure. Since it's also a special move, Eliza can easily cancel out of special cancellable normal moves in order to really make her opponent sweat. Whether at the wall or out in the open, her divekicks are her bread and butter when it comes to forcing the opponent to block.

To balance out her crazy damage and versatility, most of Eliza's movelist is made unsafe on block. And we're not talking a measly -12 or -13 on most things — we're talking launch punishable.

Her two main lows, those being d+3 and d+4, are both at least -16 on block. The latter in particular is a whopping -27 on block, which means that most characters can stand straight up against it and get a standing launch punish.

Speaking of her lows, Eliza is seriously lacking in this department. Both of the aforementioned lows are extremely unsafe, and don't even favor her in terms of risk versus reward. Neither of them deal a crazy amount of damage versus what happens if they get blocked. d+3 in particular even leaves Eliza negative on hit, which means she can't continue her offense reliably after landing it.

Don't let Eliza get away with using these low pokes. Launch her every time you get to block them, and soon enough she'll realize that she can't use them so liberally.

Interestingly, Eliza does have a Snake Edge-type low in the form of her 3+4. Unlike the original Snake Edge from Bryan, though, Eliza's version has a short jump in the animation. This makes it rather tricky to see, as she has several other moves that have jumping animations as well. However, there is a unique audio cue to this one, similar to Heihachi's d/b+2. If she's using 3+4 a bit too often, focus on looking for the audio cue, then block and punish accordingly.

As for Eliza's divekicks, it's important to note that the frame advantage she gets off of them varies depending on how high up in the air she is before the divekick lands. For the most part, though, she has more incentive to do instant divekicks (qcb,u/b,u,u/f+3 or 4) repeatedly, as this helps her create tons of pressure quickly.

At the wall, her divekick pressure can be highly oppressive. With your back in the corner so to speak, your options for escape here are very limited.

What you can do here is try to jab check her, since her frame advantage on an instant divekick will be +4 at best. If you see that your opponent isn't consistent with the divekicks as such, this can work sometimes. But if they're on point with the pressure, there's not much you can do other than to wait for them to get impatient and try to open you up with an unsafe option.

Out in the open, though, the divekicks are easy to deal with. Simply backdash out of any repeated divekicks, then (preferably) launch her with a standing launcher like a generic d/f+2.

Eventually, Eliza will try to use down jabs (d/b+1) in order to cancel into a successful divekick. When you see her doing this too much, be ready to low parry (tap or hold d/f) the jab itself. From there, you can convert the parry into a small combo with wall carry.

Unlike 2D fighters, Tekken 7 allows you to utilize 3D space against Eliza and her fireball spam. If she's throwing fireballs at you from a distance, simply sidewalk in either direction to avoid them.

In order to sidewalk, tap up or down twice, holding the second input as you go. Eliza's fireballs are entirely linear, so this method will work almost every time assuming you sidewalk long enough. You can also jump over fireballs, but this is not optimal as there is some landing lag involved.

Eliza is a DLC character, meaning the only way to unlock her is to buy her. If you preordered Tekken 7 back in 2017, though, Eliza comes free with your purchase. Otherwise, she's on the Steam store for about $5.

You can also opt to unlock her by purchasing the Originals Edition or the Definitive Edition, both of which include Eliza along with a bunch of other DLC characters.

As the "Sexy Vampire" of Tekken 7 — and yes, she is actually officially called that in some of Bandai Namco's promotional posts — Eliza's costumes all take on the gothic style. She is, after all, thought to be more than a thousand years old, which means her costumes are plucked right out of 12th century Europe.

By default, Eliza has access to eight costume presets. The first two comprise her default costumes, with Default 1 being her normal appearance and Default 2 being a purple and blue palette swap. For us though, we think that Preset 2, known officially as the "Phantom" outfit, is where it's really at.

This ensemble is really well put together and accentuates her vampire-related motifs quite a lot. The coat, if you could even call it that, has some sinister-looking patterns and even incorporates the thorns from the roses on her boots in her default costumes. And then underneath that, Eliza wears tights that make her look ready to appear on a professional wrestling show. The black and purple trim on her tights really completes the look as well.

For those of you of a... different persuasion, there's the "Bikini Vampire" outfit in Preset 4. Apart from the obvious, this costume really shows off her vampiric tattoo, all the way to the back of her neck. She wouldn't be the Sexy Vampire without an outfit like this, of course.

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