Street Fighter 4: Moves and combo guide

Everyone is playing Street Fighter 4 at the moment, which means it’s harder for newcomers to enter the fray and start winning.

I reveal how to be a better street fighter – from learning moves and combos to getting your fighting strategy right. Read the complete expert guide to Street Fighter 4 now…

Street Fighter 4 is taking the online gaming world by storm right now – and there are hundreds of skilful players out there.

Still, the bigger they come…

In this ten-part guide I’ll be looking at some of the expert Street Fighting methods to help you improve your moves and learn those combos. Press CTRL+F and type in one of the following to jump to a section:

1. The basics
2. Learn the specials
3. Fend off foes
4. Learn how to focus properly
5. Learn how to beat an opponent’s focus
6.  Supers, super cancels and ultras
7. EX attacks
8. Chain combos
9. Be water, my friend
10. Practice, practice, practice
11. Moves list
12. Unlock guide

1.    The basics

Like any other game or profession out there, you can’t dive straight into the deep end and expect to become an expert overnight. Here’s the absolute essentials you’ll need to know:

·    Blocking – move back often but sparingly. Use it too little and you’ll be whupped, over use it and your opponent will just throw you or repeatedly jump over you and attack from behind

·    Jumping – I’ve seen so many fighters jump straight into a fight and get punched in the head before they land. I’ve also seen many players jump into a combo and take off half the opponent’s health with one combo. If you’re going to do it, do it well – but avoid overdoing it

·    Movement – learn the distance between attacks, learn when to move and when to stand your ground. Keep practicing to perfect how to move and when. You can double-tap left or right to sidestep quickly

·    Attack and defence – try and keep a good mixture between the two – players will read your style very quickly. Get a good variation and shake things up to keep your style unpredictable. Jump in, hold off, stand your ground, rush the opponent – read them and act accordingly

·    Specials and other advanced moves – learn them! Read on for more

It can be easier to play with a Mad Catz controller or arcade stick:

Buy a PS3 controller:

Buy an Xbox 360 controller:

2.    Learn the specials

If you don’t know all of your fighter’s main moves, you shouldn’t be even thinking about playing ranked matches online. You will get your arse handed to you.

Not only do specials allow you to end combos nicely, they’re often a great way to lead into super or ultra moves. Using them also increases your ‘super gauge,’ which allows you to perform stronger specials (EX attacks), or build it up to unleash a massive attack.

Begin by playing as Ryu and Ken – and learn their special moves.

The most basic special move is the Hadoken. Move the stick or d-pad from the down position in a circular movement towards your opponent, pressing punch the moment you reach the ‘towards’ position. This is known as a “quarter circle forwards” input.

Many fighters also use the “quarter circle back (and kick)” to perform a special.

The best basic special move is the ‘Shoryuken’ movement – this is a “towards, down, downtowards” motion, where you press either kick or punch on the final “downtowards” direction.

The other main specials are charge specials. Move backwards for two seconds, then move forwards while pressing punch (or kick, depending on the move and character).

A good example of this is Guile’s sonic boom (back and towards punch), and Chun Li’s spinning bird kick (hold down, then press up and kick).

Learn these well, and practice them in training until you are comfortable with them, and can happily pull them off whenever you want. It will help you learn moves with other characters.

I say learn, and learn well because some specials can cut through others. Ryu and Ken’s “quarter circle back (and kick)” can cut through some fireballs for example.

3.    Fend off foes

The best form of attack is defence, right? Not always – but keep your enemy at bay before knocking them back and following up with a counter – and it’ll help.

Using a shoryuken attack is great for disabling airborn foes, but miss and you’ll be open to counter. You can also crouch and high punch as an alternative (when your opponent starts to land), before following on with another attack.

To counter a throw, simply perform a throw (light punch and light kick) the moment your opponent tries to throw you – it’s largely a guessing game but as you get more experience you’ll learn the best time to throw – and counter-throw.

Another simple but effective method is to block an opponents attack or combo, and to set your own up straight afterwards. For example your opponent performs a ‘Shoryuken’ and you block it. Don’t just let the enemy land safely – jump up with an aerial attack or begin a combo the moment they land.

You’re probably thinking this is basic, but it’s still largely overlooked by hundreds of fighters online.

4.    Learn how to focus properly

Knowing how to use a focus attack in your favour can make or break a battle.

Press medium punch and medium kick together to do a focus attack. There are three variations:

·    Tap the buttons – this causes a weak attack (used mainly in combos – this will be explained later)
·    Hold the buttons for around a second – you’ll power up an attack which will leaves your opponent open
·    Hold until attack – this is an unblockable attack which does the most damage

While powering up a focus attack you can also absorb one attack (aka Super Armour). This means you won’t get knocked down if someone hits you. Some EX attacks also have this property.

It’s tempting to use a focus when the enemy is getting up from a fall or jumping towards you, but be careful, there are many ways of countering a focus…

This will also build your Revenge Meter, which is used for pulling off Ultras.

You can also sidestep (towards towards, or back back, quickly) mid-focus, to cancel it early, giving you more time to lay up another attack.

See section 8 (chain combos) to find out how to use the focus cancel more effectively.

5.    Learn how to beat an opponent’s focus

When you see an opponent start to power up a focus, be aware of what might happen – charge in and they could end it early, but sit back and freeze, and they could open up a can of whup-ass on you.

Remember they can only absorb one standard attack. This means you can hit them twice quickly to break it. Alternatively use a throw or armour-breaking move to beat their focus. But you have to be quick.
All characters have at least one armour-breaking move – check their moves list in training and learn which moves can break an opponent’s focus. An EX armour-breaking move is particularly effective for breaking focus attacks.
If you don’t think you can counter the focus in time, or you’re low and health and don’t want to risk trying, just get the hell out of there.

Jumping away or sidestepping back from them is a good idea in this instance. If you’re feeling daring, try jumping upwards or over them. They’ll be facing the wrong way when you land – and you may have time to hit them from behind.

6.    Supers, super cancels and ultras

Super combos and ultra combos are very powerful charged moves that can be pulled off by pressing a series of buttons and directions.

To fill your super gauge (thin bar at bottom of screen), simply attack your opponent. You’ll fill it quicker with successful blows, and faster still with special moves. When the bar is full, you’re ready to pull off a super attack.

These are usually initiated by pulling a directional movement (similar to a special) followed by a high kick or high punch. For example Ryu’s super Hadoken can be performed by pressing down quarter-circle forward, quarter-circle forward and high punch. The screen will freeze for a split second and then you’ll kick some ass.

Be careful not to be too obvious when using supers – don’t use one as soon as your gauge reaches its limit and avoid being too far apart from your opponent (depending on character).

It’s better to perform a super at the end of a combo, or halfway through a combo. This is also known as a super cancel. For example jumping heavy punch, medium punch, ducking light punch, shoryuken then super Hadoken. With your opponent in mid-air when you start the super, they won’t be able to avoid it (by jumping, ducking, blocking or sidestepping – note: not all supers can be blocked).

Ultras are pretty much the most powerful attack in the whole of Street Fighter 4. They’re similar to supers but require all three punch buttons or all three kick buttons pressed, instead of just high punch or high kick. On the Xbox 360 you can do this by pressing LB for all three punches and LT for all three kicks. For example Ryu’s ultra Hadoken can be pulled off by quickly pressing quarter circle forwards, quarter circle forwards and LB.

You can fill your ultra bar Revenge Metre (small circular gauge at bottom of screen) by getting attacked. Every time you’re hit the gauge will increase. Get it halfway and you can pull off an ultra move. Get hit more instead and you’ll do more damage when you eventually decide to activate the ultra.

Think similarly to supers – don’t use your ultra too early, and try to string it at the end of the combo. It’s a good idea to wait until your enemy has about a quarter or a third health left before activating it. This way they’ll die during your ultra move, handy for unlocking the ‘365 flashy background finishes’ achievement.

7.    EX attacks

Now we’re getting onto the cool shit. EX attacks are cool quarter-supers – think of them as slightly more powerful special moves. They can be great for linking combos, deal hefty amounts of damage and use the same button presses as a special.

The only difference is you need to press all three kick or all three punch buttons (LT or LB) instead of high punch or high kick. For example Ryu’s kick special-EX attack (quarter circle backwards kick) will see him spin around on the spot for more damage, rather than move towards the opponent.

Sakura’s shoryuken EX special will see her do a couple of mini-shoryukens before one big one. And so on. Experiment with different characters to see how different their EX specials are, and practice adding them onto the end of combos to deal a decent amount of damage fairly easily.

The only catch is performing an EX attack will consume one quarter of your super bar. Because of this, you face a decision – save up for a full-on super attack or implement frequent EX specials during a game every now and then. I usually go for the latter, and just use an ultra if I want to pull off a more powerful attack.

8.    Chain combos

Once you know how to focus, super, ultra, special, EX attack, focus, focus cancel and press buttons with lightning-quick timing, you should be ready to learn how to chain a successful combo together. Learning how to pull off successful combos is integral to becoming a better, more advanced fighter.

Basically if you perform a regular move or special attack, you will sometimes be able to perform a focus attack straight afterwards (see section 4 to find out how to do a focus). You will have to do this with speed and precision – go into training and trials, practice religiously until you get it!

The next step is to dash cancel out of the focus, by sidestepping quickly. This will require half a super bar to pull off – but will leave you in the open to start another combo or free hit. In essence this is what happens:

Attack > Focus > Focus cancel > Another attack

It’s usually a good idea to perform an ultra combo or special EX attack in the ‘Another attack’ position as shown above.

I also recommend using light punch and kicks for combos, as it’s easier to press these buttons quickly and your character can perform this quicker in sequence. Try to start the next button input while your character is doing the previous move, to link combos perfectly. It’s hard, and you’ll need to perform moves really quickly, but it isn’t impossible.

Keep practicing and experimenting with your character of choice to find some superb combos – but don’t expect to do them as and when you want in an online match. Relax, take your time, practice and find the right moment to use them. Eventually you’ll be able to do amazing combos such as:

Few attacks > Special > Focus > Focus cancel > Few attacks > Special > Ultra

This may look complicated right now, but don’t give up. Because not only will it look fucking fantastic, it will also take off more than a quarter of your opponent’s health.

Don’t forget to have your super bar at least half-full before attempting this, and good luck!

9. Be water, my friend

Taking into account everything you have learned – try and see the bigger picture, use your skills as one, not as separate moves.

As soon as you start to link moves and combos together without thinking about them so much (so it becomes sub-conscious), you will really start to notice an improvement.

Don’t force yourself into using a move or attack just because you can or want to look cool – the best players wait for the right moment to strike with the appropriate move, then string together a combo to get the most out of the opponent’s health bar.

Try not to panic too – as soon as your button presses become frantic, half the battle is lost. Stay composed and look for your opponent’s weaknesses before making your move. I can’t stress how important this piece of advice is. The moment I stopped thinking about whether I was winning or losing, and started watching my opponent for signs of weakness is when I started winning more fights.

One good trick is to wait until an opponent has reached the end of a combo. For example, if you’re fighting Ken (and trust me, you will) – often a player will start a few hits and do a ‘quarter-circle back’ kick special – block this if you can. Straight afterwards he will usually do a shoryuken – block this too. You’ll notice when he starts to land you have a free hit. Knock him in the air, or wait til he lands before starting a combo or performing a simple throw.

Use this mentality where possible to identify similar gaps in your enemies defence – and exploit them. Becoming proficient in this however, will require lots of…

10. Practice, practice, practice

It’s one thing to know what to do, and another to pull it off. This of course requires plenty of practice (I cannot stress this enough)!

Find a player or style you like – go into training mode – and learn all of their moves. Work through each of their trials and eventually the expert trials. Learn their combos and where to implement them into online fights, this will help you get on the path to mastering one character.

You’ll come across quite a few combos and moves from the trial mode which you didn’t think were possible – it’s great for broadening your horizons, increasing your skill and will provide you with lots of new ideas and abilities to play with.

When you’ve spent lots of time in here learning, play arcade all the way through on medium or higher difficulty every now and then, and work your way through the survival and time attack modes for more practice.

But the real learning will come from playing online. Set yourself time limits on the game as you can get easily get locked into spending hours trying too hard and you won’t learn anything. Take a break and play for an hour or so at a time (or even less). This will ensure your brain is fresh and reaction times are up! Saying that, if you are on a winning streak – don’t stop until you lose! This will prepare you well for keeping your cool and not worrying about your losing streak coming to an end (ideal for unlocking some of the achievements).

I do advise learning at least two or more characters well, as there will be times when you’ll have a bad day or try too hard and get sick of just playing as one character.

And finally, have some respect and sportsmanship for your fellow gamers. Doing the same move over and over again is fine if you enjoy it, but to me, and I think I speak for the majority of fighter’s out there when I say this – it’s mind-numbingly boring. There’s being cheap and winning tediously, or being skilled and winning with grace. I know what I prefer!

Good luck, and as the cheesy announcer says: “The strong survive and the weak lose… which of these fighters will prove the old axiom today..?”

Practice until you’re the former!

11. Moves list

See the characters column over at eventhubs.com

12. Unlock guide

Check out this guide at cheatcc.com to find out how to unlock characters, extras and achievements (note: some of their character unlocking advice is incorrect).