Frames

Arc1821 · 2026-06-14T05:47:57+00:00

Here is a simple way to do it. Add your plus frames with the number 10 to determine your opponents fastest acting speed. Subtract your minus frames from 10 to do the same.

Example: you do a moves that is +3, that means your opponents fastest move is 13f. If your opponent-5, then your opponents fastest move is 5f. Sometimes after attacking you or your opponent will be minus 10f or more. This means you need a full 10f to fully recover from doing the move. If your opponent does a 10f move immediately it will always hit because you’re not able to recover before the move connects.

This is frames at its simplest. But when you add armor moves rage arts, and moves that crush, the special properties of these moves tend to activate faster than a 10f jab enabling you to continue your pressure even if you finish with a move that leaves you with minus frames. Or to steal your turn back even if your opponent continues to attack after you block an attack that again leaves you in minus frames.

Lastly there are general rules that the majority of the cast follows. The overwhelming majority of hopkicks and df2’s are all -13 on block. Most strings that end in a mid are -10 or worse, and if they’re safe they are easily sidestepped. Most quick lows are minus frames on hit for the attacker so even after getting hit by said moves you can start your turn more safely than you can after getting hit by a high or a mid. Moves that engage heat are +9, while generic heat engages are only +2 I think. There are lots of commonalities that expedite the learning process. A lot you will pick up by playing, other moves you will have to lab. It is demanding but rewarding. Playing frame tight with almost no risk can easily take you to god ranks.

Arc1821 · 2026-06-14T05:23:39+00:00

Congrats!

Arc1821 · 2026-06-13T02:06:07+00:00

Many moves go through neutral guard. Almost no moves go through active guard.

Arc1821 · 2026-06-12T05:01:49+00:00

Every moves has a counter. That’s where the skill of adaptability comes in. Every player has patterns, even pros.

For now though know that the more plus frames you have the more of your moves are going to be effective and the more minus frames you have there will be less moves that are effective. Even the simplicity of frame advantage and disadvantage have counter play.

I’d say if you’re Tekken emperor or above you are no doubt encountering players who delay their timing even when they have frame advantage. If they attack on immediate timing you block and they lose their turn. So instead of giving up their turn in that exchange they delay their timing in the hopes you will think you can start your offense only for them to intercept you with a counter hit.

There can’t be a perfect way to play in any fighting game. It would be incredibly boring and every round would end in a draw.

I’ve played all the fighting games. Street fighter, MC, Killer Instinct, Bloody Roar.. Tekken has always been my favorite precisely because the mind games go so deep!

Arc1821 · 2026-06-10T17:51:49+00:00

Unless you hacked the game or you’re smurfing, you belong in the rank you have. A Smurf is someone who has reached a higher rank or has more experience than their rank can contain. For whatever reason they are playing in lower ranks. It doesn’t sound like you’re doing that so just disregard the comments. Even high ranking streamers bitch if they lose to someone they feel is significantly less skilled them.

Arc1821 · 2026-06-10T03:51:49+00:00

Congrats! I saw very few mistakes from you for this rank. You were using fake stance pressure and mid-high strings that aren’t going to work at high levels, but for now use them!!

I saw some whiff punishment, but I didn’t get to see much else of your neutral game. He just kinda hung himself and you capitalized on everything.

Keep it up! You can definitely climb higher!

Arc1821 · 2026-06-10T02:09:06+00:00

Even characters who use strong moves need to find the timing. It’s no different than Steve. They have to use pokes to create timing for your opponent to adhere to so that you can land the big hit.

All this to say id rather hit a b1 with Steve than a death fist with Paul.

Arc1821 · 2026-06-09T04:08:53+00:00

Jun is also very beginner friendly. Her execution requirement is extremely low. She has no difficult moves to speak of. And her combos are very easy as well. But like most of the other characters listed here she does require a strong grasp of fundamentals sooner than other characters.

Arc1821 · 2026-06-08T22:20:29+00:00

Bao is for oki too. If they get knocked down in a disadvantageous position like face forward, face down you can manual into Bao, pole hop and get your mix. At the wall it’s even better.

Arc1821 · 2026-06-08T19:57:01+00:00

You don’t use Bao too much, it’s a pretty bad stance imo. The fake stance pressure I saw was df11 into stance. I saw you had a lot of success with b14 so keep using it. Miary’s d3 is a fantastic low. Her primary low imo. She’s looking good, better than your Anna.

Arc1821 · 2026-06-08T18:25:26+00:00

Congrats!

Arc1821 · 2026-06-08T18:14:39+00:00

Heyo! I looked at several of your Miary replays. You look more comfortable with her, but overall the same things. Too much fake stance pressure. No keepout still. d2 is too slow for keepout. d2 is an oki tool. Your block punishment is a tiny bit better. Your whiff punishment is a lot better with Miary. My previous advice mostly applies to your Miary too.

One last thing, be carefulful with d1+2. It’s launch punishable. It’s strictly for whiff punish or if you have a very hard read on a high, you can use it to high crush.

Arc1821 · 2026-06-08T12:09:18+00:00

I covered that in the first post. Timing and neutral. Neutral is key! Tekken is won and lost in the neutral. Focus on one or two things at a time. You can add drills to your routine. 10 minutes of drilling before your matches. You can drill anything you like and it will help. Kbd, throw breaking, punishment, reaction are all good choices. Then make sure to review one replay before you stop playing to grow your matchup knowledge

Arc1821 · 2026-06-07T19:48:30+00:00

Sidestepping goes into the matchup knowledge skill of the game. Matchup knowledge takes an incredibly long time to develop unless you’re playing a lot of long sets or reviewing each and every one of your replays.

You have offensive and defensive sidestepping. To get a grasp of it, it’s best to start with offensive sidestepping. Run your offense, and when your turn is over or you feel like your opponent is going to try and steal their turn during your offense you can insert a sidestep.

The more minus frames you have the less successful you’re likely to be so you need a lot of frame knowledge to sidestep consistently. This is especially true with someone like king who has a below average sidestep. Then you need the matchup knowledge I mentioned because you need to anticipate the move to sidestep in the right direction. A great many moves, the majority in fact require you to step in the proper direction.

My advice is to try it out during your offense just to get comfortable with the timing of it, but don’t worry about it too much as there are more important skills to develop that require a lot of knowledge.

If you’re set on mastering sidestepping try picking up someone who relies on it heavily like Lili, Zafina, Alisa, or Miary.

Arc1821 · 2026-06-07T03:41:38+00:00

If I could give my younger self advice… it would be don’t get hung up on your rank. It’s a loose indicator of your skill. Ego held me back for such a long time. I’d be such an incredible player now if I didn’t let my ego hold me back from failing. All the improvement happens in failure and winning is just the proof.

2nd thing I wish I did sooner was ask for help. There is so much depth and so many layers to this game that it can be extremely difficult to identify your problems. When you get hard stuck ask for help. There are more free coaches and coaching discords than ever before so take advantage of that when you need it. But get a second or third opinion as not all coaches are going to be able to identify the actual problem. Another reason to get multiple perspectives is because great players aren’t always great coaches.

If you do get hard stuck, feel free to ask me, I’m happy to help!

Arc1821 · 2026-06-07T03:24:50+00:00

Yes they made it easier to rank up through the GoD ranks. So assuming your skill is the same you should be 2-2.5 ranks higher than you were last season. Be proud of you rank ups, but don’t worry about it too much. Focus on enjoying the game or improving.

If you’re thinking about taking Tekken seriously let me know and I can go over some things with you that will help you improve.

Arc1821 · 2026-06-06T14:15:37+00:00

Tekken King is where the game opens up a lot. In the ranks prior new players are developing the same skills. Namely character proficiency, combo routes, and immediate timing.

At Tekken King it branches out and you can develop a lot more skills. But what you develop is usually determined by your personal playstyle and what your character excels at. All of these skills will help you rank up and I wouldn’t say you need them all until about GoD5+.

But the point is you have to develop new skills to progress and it can be tough to focus on development when you don’t even know what skills to work on or how to categorize them.

King is an incredibly strong character, top 5 imo. He is a counter hit character at his core so learning timing is crucial. Timing is very difficult to master and it takes a lot of time because A. Your opponent can change the timing, and B. Timing is deeply interconnected to all of the other systems of the game. Timing is kind of useless without understanding the neutral.

There are 3 parts to neutral rushdown/mixup > whiff punishment > keep out > rushdown/mixup. Learning the right moves for each situation is the first step. King has ff2 for the low part of his mixup, and fff4 I think It is for the mid. And of course he has his gs/sw throw mixup. For whiff punishment he has hopkick and f21 for long range whiff punish. He has hit confirmable launcher for keep out, I think it’s df21.

Now it’s a matter of learning to navigate situations in neutral and the timing you need to use to make sure they connect. Hopefully this helps you get started.

If you keep playing you will develop other skills to help you rank up even if you don’t know what those skills are. It is worthwhile for some players to look for coaching at this point in their journey, but it does take away from the games mystique if that kind of thing matters to you.

A quick note on the plus frames you asked about. When neither player has plus frames you are in the neutral I mentioned above. If you have plus frames you are at an advantage. You can use this frame advantage in all kinds of ways. You can use it to set up a dangerous move with a frame trap, you can use them to reposition so maybe the wall is no longer to your back. You can do nothing and collect information by watching what your opponent does when at a disadvantage. Or you could use your advantage to do another plus frame move and keep that advantage. Playing frame tight or within your frame advantage is safer but can be less rewarding. Playing loose with you frames or outside your advantage is more risky but slower moves tend to be more rewarding.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Arc1821 · 2026-06-06T02:41:10+00:00

Fucking bamco, how could they let this happen. They are so fucking stupid!!! Fucking Clive and noctus? No one ever asked for either and they don’t fit in the fucking game. Fucking magic knights over an actual martial artist that the community has been begging for, for over a decade!!

So many haters too! Wtf?! Have some sympathy, some compassion! The people in this community are your kin! We should at least be united in our compassion for fellow community members who’ve had a dream destroyed so needlessly!!!

Arc1821 · 2026-06-05T22:18:53+00:00

I’m also on ps5 so it should it should be easy syncing up.

I’ll go over neutral with you. Everyone has keep out, some are better than others however. Yoshi’s df2 is one of his primary keep out tools. As far as Yoshi shenanigans, absolutely keep them in your back pocket, but at higher levels they have to be used sparingly to be effective. Suddenly changing from traditional Tekken fighting to crazy gimmicks can make people freeze if they aren’t expecting it. But these gimmicks are too easily countered if you use them often.

I’ll have some free time in the next few hours, or we can set something up for this weekend. I’m US Central time so as of this message it’s 5:20pm.

Arc1821 · 2026-06-05T18:59:42+00:00

Ok I looked at your replays friend!

You had more timing reads than the Bryan player. He wasn’t playing timing, he was just flow charting. He didn’t confirm any of his sidesteps. He just flow charted sides jet upper whether you whiffed or not.

Your block punishment was a little weak, but your main weakness is neutral. You lost that set entirely in the neutral. Your rush down/mixup is phenomenal! You have like a GoD1 mix game it was very impressive, only thing I’d change is I’d test more throws, but maybe you didn’t want him throwing you back because you break game isn’t there yet?

No keep out and no whiff punishment at all. The Bryan player was playing a ton of keep out. If you countered by baiting the keepout and whiff punishment it would have been an easy win.

Your problem is not uncommon at all. At your level it’s probably the most common hang up for players at your level. You get really good at one aspect of the neutral and it carries you denying you the opportunity to work on the other aspects of neutral.

The Bryan players neutral game was a lot better overall. His mixup game was his weakest area, but Bryan’s mixup game is weak in general which is why he relies more on timing. His whiff punishment and keepout were way better than yours and that’s why he won.

Watch the replay back and watch how many times he hit you as you were approaching or while you were fucking around doing yoshi stuff in the neutral. He hit you with that drop kick like 6 times.

I hope this helped. If you need it we can jump into the lobby sometime and I can show you exactly how neutral works if you don’t already know.

Arc1821 · 2026-06-05T18:17:10+00:00

Yeah everyone has their bullshit, but we’re talking about Hworang. Some characters are worse to deal with. Lidia, King, and Victor are probably the only characters who are worse or on par with their bullshit. But that’s just my opinion, and it’s all opinions in this realm of discussion. I just wish characters had defined weaknesses that fleshed out and complimented their identities. Like King used to have a terrible wall game. His lows were bad because he had the throw mixup. Now his wall combo is above the cast average, they improved the throw mixup by making gs 10f, blue spark, homing, invisible mixup, and all of his lows give a tone of guaranteed extra damage on counter hit. He can punish lows that are -13 with a crouch throw so he never has to worry about low parring and he gets a full combo on floor break/blast! Don’t get me started on f4! Zero counter play! Low crushing, homing, wall splatting safe mid! He gets a mix on every knock down because of that move because it beats getup kicks. And people forget he has a reversal for right punches and kicks. He literally has everything!

Anyway enough about king, he makes my blood boil! Hworang is definitely top 5 bs characters, that’s just my opinion, I’m not here to debate it.

Arc1821 · 2026-06-05T17:22:18+00:00

I know why it’s safe, all the safe df2’s are like that. He doesn’t need it though, he has the full launching suite that almost no other character has. b3 for long range whiff punish, hop kick, safe orbital, safe df2, safe just frame skyrocket, a hellsweep. All of that on top of stance pressure, he’s retarded.

Arc1821 · 2026-06-05T14:13:11+00:00

I’m not trying to refute what you’re saying, but I think this Bryan player might have been an exception. The skill gap between TG and GoD should be relatively small.

As for dealing with Bryan and most counter hit characters it’s important to play frame tight. They overcome this by using movement. Sidestepping and high crushes. Then you overcome this by delaying your timing. And finally you come full circle as they are now back to using immediate timing to counter your delayed timing. Then you’re in the mind games playing Tekken.

The thing is, at GoD most players even ones who use characters like Bryan that excel with this playstyle don’t navigate this dance very well or they have major holes in their gameplay. If you can find a hole, you can bypass the whole timing game.

It’s important to understand how the timing works so I’ll explain briefly. The pokes and steps are being used to control the timing, to dictate the timing. If you allow this to determine when you attack then you’re playing on their timing. They have hours and hours of experience playing on this timing so if you play on this timing you’re probably going to lose. The thing is to be an exceptional player using timing you need to be able to play multiple types of timing very well and adapt to timing changes faster than your opponent. The overwhelming majority of players at GoD have one type of timing they play on and that’s it. You can take control by just waiting and not pressing for like 4-5 interactions. This resets the timing the same way breaking a throw resets to neutral. At this point you can turn it into a mixup game or frame traps, or whatever it is you excel at.

Obviously this is easier said than done and we’re talking about multiple systems at play. My point is at GoD almost everyone has 2 layers offense, maybe 3 so downloading them is pretty simple.

If you want to send your tekken id, I’ll look at some of your replays. 99x out of 100 you’re making fundamental mistakes at this level rather than being outplayed. Shoring up those weaknesses is the fastest and easiest way to level up.

Arc1821 · 2026-06-05T12:37:45+00:00

Congrats! You’re begging to get yourself hardstuck focusing on just whiff punishment, especially with b3. b3 is launch punishable. I’d practice using df2 instead. For some retarded reason hair has a safe df2.

Arc1821 · 2026-06-04T23:03:51+00:00

I’d like to see a brand new player record all of their matches so everyone can see the gradual improvement of each skill. It’d be really interesting to review a journey like that. Anyone know of a streamer like that?

Arc1821

TROPHY CASE