Cordelius

Cordelius is one of, if not THE most versatile brawler in the game. His super and gadget combined with his incredible short-range burst allow him to play excellent offense and defense, fulfilling the same role as tanks (creating space and pressure) while playing aggro at the same time. His potential is unmatched, but utilizing it takes a lot of practice - his skill cap is one of the highest in the entire game. For this guide, Mushroom Kingdom and Replanting is assumed, as these are generally the preferred gadgets and star powers.

Gem Grab - Cordelius plays as an incredible lane in most gem grab maps, his super and gadget let him easily close any distance on the battlefield. It's very difficult to get him out of position once he gets there, which further disrupts the enemy team. The ability to sneak up on the enemy gem carrier also makes him excel at coming back, which is a very welcome option in that mode.

Brawl Ball - Cordelius's kit is pretty much perfect for this mode; His jump allows him to approach the enemy easily and push up on the map, exerting massive pressure on the opposing team and his super prevents the enemies from ever scoring or defending a goal alone, making him extremely versatile and good in all scenarios.

Heist - Cordelius's super makes him one of the strongest defenders in heist, allowing him to quickly disarm any threat to the safe. His super can also be used offensively, providing him a trivial way to get right on top of the enemy safe. Combined with his high DPS, this makes Cordelius an incredible choice for the mode.

Hot Zone - Cordelius's super allows him to temporarily take out any threat to your team, making for an effortless way to regain zone control. His jump also lets him easily get to the zone if it's behind a wall - like on Split - which gives him an option to flank for his teammates while they use the main zone entrance. It also makes it very challenging to get him out of position once he achieves it, which is of utmost importance in a control-based mode like Hot Zone.

Bounty - As soon as Cordelius gets his first super, he becomes a menace in this mode; Combined with the ability to dodge projectiles with his Replanting gadget, he can easily approach and burst down any enemy while simultaneously getting behind enemy lines, effectively taking the attention of the rest of the enemy team, which in return allows his own teammates to push up the map freely. This makes Cordelius very good in Bounty, as a single super is enough to completely shift the game into your favor.

Knockout - Cordelius's most niche mode (still really strong though!) - Once he gets his super, it allows him to create a favorable 2v2 for his team while getting a kill at the same time. This makes him very strong in the mode, provided you can get your first super safely.

Playing AGAINST Cordelius:

Cordelius is a master of 1v1 matchups. Naturally, this means that countering him involves the opposite of that - engaging with him with a teammate, so as to overwhelm him.

Cordelius also relies a lot on dodging to get into position, meaning that slows are generally effective at dealing with him, provided a long range teammate can vanquish him before the slow ends. It’s preferred to have the ranged brawler on the team kill him in order to not charge his super.

Of course, if you know your teammates won’t be able to work with you, there’s always the last ditch effort of picking a Cordelius counter listed earlier in this guide. Not ideal, but it can work.

Health (Ineffective) - Cordius heals up to pretty much full health with nearly every single super. The only instance where he would make good use out of this Gear is when he's charging up his first super from behind a wall, but in that instance you almost always don't need that quicker heal. Please don't use this.

Vision (Ineffective) - Your super automatically charges when someone's in the circle around you, so you should already have a good idea of where your opponent is.

Speed (Effective) - Cordelius needs as many options to close gaps between him and enemies as possible, and the extra speed provided by this Gear does exactly that.

Shield (Ineffective) - 900 extra HP sounds very useful for such an aggressive brawler… up until you realize his super is practically a full heal. Not recommended.

Damage (Effective) - Cordelius is a hyper aggressive brawler. He gets into matchups nearly constantly, often starting them at low HP. This naturally means that Damage Gear is pretty much mandatory for him, as the extra damage often comes in clutch for him, even more so in the realm.

Gadget Charge (Effective) - Gadget Charge Gear is a great option for Cordelius when the map isn't very bushy; It's also a 4th jump, what's not to love?

Overall, Damage + Speed is preferred for bushy maps and Damage + Gadget for more open maps.

Playing Cordelius properly relies on a great understanding of his mechanics and what each of them does in relation to the current state of the field.

His main attack is the most basic of them; 2 projectiles with a max range of 5 tiles, exactly the same as his super-charging circle. If the enemy doesn’t charge your super, you will not be able to hit them with the attack, assuming you’re both standing still. This attack is slightly slower than his super, meaning that only 1 projectile will land on the enemy if the super is used immediately after shooting.

This is due to how the next tool in Cordelius’s kit works - his super. At 9 tiles range and completely ignoring any walls on its way, it allows him to take any enemy to the shadow realm. This is a separate version of the map which perfectly mirrors the normal realm at all times, meaning any walls being destroyed, brought back, or added will appear in the realm too - even if you’re currently in it! Everything inside is separate from the normal match, though. This means that projectiles shot outside the realm won’t carry over to it, allowing Cordelius to quickly snatch someone with his super as a way to avoid imminent damage.

This super lasts at 8 seconds at most, but ends prematurely the moment Cordelius or the enemy he grabbed dies. The second option works very weirdly in a mirror match up (multiple Cordelius’ in game). There is only one realm per game, this means both your team’s Cordelius and the enemy team Cordelius send people to the same realm, effectively becoming a 2v2. The problem with that is the way the super is programmed, it only ends earlier if specifically 1 person is in the realm, not 1 team - meaning that, if you and your teammate kill the enemies, you’ll still be stuck for the remaining few seconds in the realm… in a 2v0. Quirky.

No super can be charged in the realm, meaning that it can also be used to permanently stall out enemies with a powerful super. Some good examples of this are Rosa, Bull or Stu - all of which rely on their supers to have any real impact on the game. The inability to gain charge on them makes them sitting ducks while in the realm, allowing a quick elimination by Cordelius. Cordelius, however, can work around that - it’s possible to wait out the super while forcing the enemy into a bad position, where Cordelius can then just DPS the foe down once it ends, getting his super charged again and the opponent dead. Gadgets work slightly differently to supers with the realm and are further covered in the Interactions section.

It’s important to note that being in the realm enhances some basic qualities of Cordelius, namely, his movement and reload speed. He becomes 20% faster and reloads 30% quicker, meaning that he is MUCH more capable of dodging snipers, such as Piper (or even Colt!) in the realm and WAY better at bursting down tanks, such as Bull or Darryl. These 2 factors combined make him win almost every engagement in the realm, provided the enemy isn’t a hard counter.

His Mushroom Kingdom star power further improves his combat ability in the realm too, allowing him to outheal most brawlers’ attempts to push him back. It also enhances the secondary way to use Cordelius’s super; In modes like Heist, Gem Grab, or even Bounty, it’s often a better idea to ignore the confrontation altogether and simply focus on getting into a better position.

You don’t need to kill the brawler you sent to the realm if you can instead walk up to the enemy gem carrier’s position, with full ammo and health. This works due to another quirk of Cordelius’s super - the enemies cannot see your position while in the realm, only the one in the realm can. Your teammates will still see where you are though, with a little purple indicator on the map. The enemies will see an identical one, pointing at their teammate’s location.

Now, with the above strategy, you need to consider who you have in the realm and what’s the objective of the mode - this is due to the fact that your enemy will be able to get into better position too; In heist, it wouldn’t be a good idea to just give colt free entry onto your safe, would it? If your plan is to use your super as a tool to reposition on the map, carefully choose the safest enemy to do it with.

Generally, when picking the enemy to super with Cordelius, you need to consider 2 things: The 1v1 interaction that you will deal with, and the 2v2 interaction that’s left for your teammates. It’s often a good idea to use your super on the hardest enemy for your teammates to deal with - even if you cannot kill them on your own. Simply stall out the enemy and let your teammates win the advantageous 2v2 you left them; After all, winning 1v3 is a lot harder than 3v3. But it’s also common to use the super on a weak brawler if you can deal with them quickly - turning the fight into a quick 3v2 generally already means you’ll be gaining control, which means the super was worth it.

Another thing to consider in such situations is whether an enemy is currently about to take out your teammate - in which case, sending them quickly to the realm to prevent the death of your teammate is pretty much always the best choice. A very good choice for your super is also anyone with a hypercharge active. Their hypercharge doesn’t really matter for your team if you can simply neutralize it by taking them out of the fight for the hypercharge’s entire duration.

It’s worth noting that in Brawl Ball, this super forces enemies to defend a scoring Cordelius 1v2. This is due to the ability to follow up with a super right after throwing the ball, effectively removing a defender from the goal. The mode objectives don’t go to the realm!

The last tool that Cordelius has is very simple - it’s his gadget which is just a 2 tiles long jump. It will go in the direction that Cordelius is either moving in or last moved, meaning it’s controlled the exact same way as Stu’s super auto aim. The jump will still work on 3 tiles thick walls though, which comes in handy on quite a few maps.

The option to jump over walls allows Cordelius to quickly switch lanes, sometimes even working as a bait to get enemies low on ammo and to let your team regain map control. It also allows him to quickly engage an enemy behind a wall, which negates any thrower’s attempt to kill Cordelius.

This, however, isn’t the most useful part of this gadget. It also lets you jump over enemy projectiles - this means that, for that brief moment you’re mid air, you are invulnerable to anything except for already applied effects (like Crow’s poison or Amber’s burn). This in turn makes it far easier to approach long-ranged opponents and makes it possible to win engagements against some brawlers that would otherwise counter him (looking at you, Buster…). It allows him to play hyper aggressively, always able to temporarily get out of danger with the press of a button.

While in the realm, Cordelius has one of the fastest movement speeds in the entire game. This means he can easily get onto the heist safe no matter how well the enemies try to prevent it.

Cordelius’s super cancels animations! This means it can be used to stop supers like Colette’s, Bull’s, Chuck’s, or Frank’s.

Only the brawler themselves that got caught with the super will get sent to the realm. This means that Nita’s bear, Jessie’s turrets, Sam’s knuckles, or Ash’s rats will stay in the match, severely weakening the enemy if it relies on such things. Sam’s worst nightmare!

If a gadget lasts a certain duration or happens with the next attack, it won’t be canceled if it was triggered before being sent to the realm. No gadget can be started in the realm, with the exception of Cordelius’s Replanting. His mute gadget cannot be used in it; another reason for jump superiority.

Most notable combinations with Cordelius include:

Cordelius + Ruffs: I wonder what happens when you give a hyper aggressive brawler extra HP and damage to work with? Hmm…

Cordelius + Throwers: Throwers deal with the long range threats, Cordelius protects them from nearby ones.

Cordelius + Sandy: If approaching the enemy was a problem before, it surely can’t be if they can’t see Cordelius, right?