Fighting Game Guide

Learning defense is often neglected when learning fighting games. Spend some time in training mode defending against attacks, mixups, and blockstrings from different characters.

A common mistake I see from beginners is they spend too much time defending or defend when they don't have to. Where your opponent is on screen determines when and how to defend. I like to imagine lines going down the screen when I play. From grid 1 to grid 6 Wang does not need to worry about blocking Karman's attacks. When Karman walks into grid 7, his low attack reaches and Wang has to worry about crouch blocking. When Karman walks into grid 8, his high attack reaches and Wang now has to worry about stand blocking and crouch blocking. When Karman walks into grid 9, his throw reaches and Wang has to worry about throw teching, stand blocking, and crouch blocking.

Attacking with one of your fastest attacks on defense is called mashing jab. Even if the attack itself isn't a jab or punch, it's still called mashing jab. Mash jab is used to interrupt the attacker if they use a slow attack, hit them if they walk forward, or for frame advantage if the jab is plus on block. Abare refers to attacking from a frame disadvantage with any attack, not necessarily the fastest attack. It's common to abare with mash jab.

Reversals are attacks performed immediately after recovering from hitstun, blockstun, or a knockdown. A reversal that is performed after a knockdown is called a wakeup reversal.

DP is a fully invincible attack. DPs are commonly used to escape unfavorable situations because they beat all kinds of attacks. Attacks are considered invincible when they are strike-invulnerable, throw-invulnerable, and projectile-invulnerable. Fully invincible means the attack is invincible from its first startup frame to its first active frame. The recovery frames of a DP are not invincible and completely vulnerable. A blocked or whiffed DP will get punished hard.

Locked in Blockstun

Many defensive techniques are performed while the character is locked in blockstun. In this example, Ryu's super fireball is a true blockstring and I block it. As you can see, I can mash every button on my controller and nothing happens. G is locked in blockstun and can't act until he leaves it and returns to neutral.

Let's take advantage of absolute guard and being locked in blockstun. Training mode time. Pick any character for Player 1 and Rashid for Player 2.
Go to Action Recording Settings and record this:
Recording Slot 1: Quick dash (don't hold forward), medium punch, special cancel into LK Whirlwind Shot (down, down-forward, forward, light kick).
Recording Slot 2: Quick dash (don't hold forward), medium punch, special cancel into HK Whirlwind Shot (down, down-forward, forward, heavy kick).

Medium punch into LK Whirlwind Shot is a true blockstring while medium punch into HK Whirldwind Shot is not. For this exercise, crouch block Rashid's medium punch then perform a fast attack when you would be locked in blockstun. If Rashid performs HK Whirlwind shot, you will interrupt it because you've recovered from blockstun. If Rashid performs LK Whirlwind shot, you will safely block it and your attack doesn't come out because you're still locked in blockstun.

This technique is called fuzzy mash. If the attacker predicts fuzzy mash, they can leave a larger gap in pressure to force the defender to leave blockstun and interrupt their fuzzy mash. It's like a delayed frame trap that beats fuzzy mash but loses to immediate mashing.

There are many defensive techniques that are delayed. Delayed defensive techniques beat immediate offense. Delayed offense beats delayed defensive techniques. Immediate defensive techniques beat delayed offense. Immediate offense beats immediate defensive techniques.

The Corner

Cornering your opponent is a favorable position for many reasons:

The defender can't walk backwards. They can only walk forward and can get hit walking forward. The attacker's attacks won't whiff against the defender because they can't create distance. And the attacker can position themselves in the perfect range for whiff punishes and whiff traps.

There is less pushback and the characters are closer to each other in the corner. This means a couple of things. The attacker may get more block pressure in the corner. Instead of a three hit blockstring, they may get a four hit blockstring in the corner.

New combos are available in the corner. This combo is only available in the corner. It doesn't work in the middle of the screen because the defender is pushed too far away for the attacker to continue the combo.

More knockdowns lead to pressure. After this knockdown, the attacker recovers before the defender but it doesn't matter because of how far the characters are from each other. In the corner, the frame advantage is the same but now the attacker is close enough to pressure.

When you have your opponent cornered, don't make the mistake of being too aggressive. Switch between waiting for openings by playing patient then becoming aggressive when your opponent becomes scared.

Getting Out of the Corner

When you're cornered there are a few ways to escape.

You can knockdown your opponent then escape the corner. You might have a normal attack that knocks down like a sweep. Or you have a normal attack that combos into a special attack that knocks down.

You can switch places with your opponent by throwing them into the corner. Your opponent knows this and will probably stay out of your throw range.

You can simply jump out of the corner if your opponent is too close to you. You might get hit but sometimes taking a low damage anti-air is better than being stuck in the corner the rest of the round.

Chip Kill

Special attacks inflict chip damage when blocked. Chip damage kills a character when they have no health left. This is called chip kill and newcomers find it very annoying because you die even after successfully blocking an attack.

You have a couple of ways to avoid chip kill.

Know your opponent's special attacks. If they have any special attacks that are invincible or good reversals, avoid them. Even if you have the advantage like after a knockdown, stay away from reversal special attacks. You can still pressure your opponent but from farther away.

Know what normal attacks your opponent has that combo into special attacks. Especially if any of the combos is a true blockstring because if you block that normal attack you will die.

This is Jago's longest range normal attack that combos into special attacks as a true blockstring. It's not the fastest attack. Beat it by avoiding it, interrupting it, whiff punishing it, or with invincibility.

If you're on offense, try to use more true blockstrings. Reversals won't come out when your opponent is locked in blockstun. And true blockstrings inflict more pushback, which means if your opponent's reversal does come out they are farther away and it might whiff.