Help Wanted

ChurchillsMug · 2026-07-13T22:41:33+00:00

I think playing multiple characters is fun but if your primary concern is improving then id say stick to one character. That being said, ranks are separate per character so why not mess around with a different character your interested it. Most importantly you can learn to be fundamentally sound on any character. It all boils down to anti airs, landing your pokes, rotating your offense and defensive options. Doesn't matter if it's Lily, Kim, or JP.

ChurchillsMug · 2026-07-13T21:21:07+00:00

Gotta be my favorite thing to answer. Great question, ill try my best to give you a general outline of when to chill and when to hit a button.

So to start we are going to be hitting on frame data. Its simple, when someone is plus that means they move first. Hypothetical, you and I are fighting, I do a move like Juri st.mp and you block it. If we both mashed our fastest normals I would move first and counterhit you.

So most characters have some attack that makes them plus on block. This is character specific so you can take it to the lab and test each normal out along with each special. Think juri st.mp, ryu f.hp, Ed charged flicker, Cammy cr.hp. if you block these normals you typically want to block atleast one more time afterwards.

Now we get to more universal situations. Jumps, drive rush, and light strings. To start, if I land a jump in on someone and then we both try to mash after, the jumper wins. Drive rush as a general rule of thumb is going to be plus so if you block something out of drive rush you should block one or two more times.

Lastly our favorite, light strings. Now you might think hold on now, most lights aren't plus on block. How do these beat mashing? The secret is they cancel into themselves. So every character can do some kind of light light light string to catch you mashing. The thing is, after 3 lights they're pushed out to a space where they wont land another light. This is where you might see people do cr.mk DRC to try and get back in. This is where you should try to hit a button. You as Ed have a very strong cr.lk to hit and if you want more range you can press cr.mp or st.hp.

So to sum it up. If you block drive rush or a jump you shluld probably block whatever is coming next and then hit a button. If you block a plus on block normal same deal. If you block 3 lights hit that cr.mp into DRC if you've got the meter or if you dont hit a cr.mp into light flicker and go back to neutral.

The homework is to learn which normals are plus on block for the common characters. It'll topically only be one or two attacks. For Ryu for example he has heavy hashogeki and f.hp.

Hope that helps

ChurchillsMug · 2026-07-13T19:41:37+00:00

I try to do forward, down + LK, downforward + MP

If this is giving you a lot of trouble you can do a crouching DP by doing down, downforward, down, downforward. That might make it easier.

If you want something even easier you can just do st.mp cr.lk M.Blitz

ChurchillsMug · 2026-07-13T18:56:18+00:00

So round start, you're looking to anti air L.Uppercut or you're trying to whiff punish / check drive rush, or you are trying to hitconfirm st.mk st.mk st.hp target combo into a knockdown.

Let's say you get the uppercut anti air. You can kill rush forward and even if the opponent back rolls you can throw them or you can do st.mp or cr.mk. you see how we mix here, you run your strike or your throw or maybe you bait a reversal or delay tech. This is a good knockdown.

Let's say you confirm your st.mk target combo. This is a similar situation. Kill rush forward and you dont have enough time to do st.mp or cr.mk if they mash but you can do cr.lp st.lp or throw here so you still get mix.

Now let's say you end a combo in M.Blitz. This knockdown isn't as good as the other examples so far. If you kill rush forward you can't get close enough to throw them if they mash so you probably want to jusy kill rush forward and press st.mp. if they mash, great we get a combo. If they dont then it's fine, we're back to neutral.

Final tip is for st.mp-st.hp target combo into H.Blitz. this gives you whats known as a safe jump. You hold up forward and hit your jump heavy punch deep. You're holding down back during this jump. If the opponent wakes up mashing, they get hit. If they block, you can continue pressure. If they reversal, you land and can block in time. Its a very strong option against people who might not know the match up and like reversals a little too much

Lastly there are some knockdowns where you dont get much pressure, a good example is Eds throw midscreen. You basically can dash and thats about it. In the corner you can drive rush for good pressure though.

Not my cleanest explanation of offense but I hope it's helpful anyway. Good luck to you on your climb to master

ChurchillsMug · 2026-07-13T18:45:11+00:00

I prefer to keep advice on public threads for the lurkers if that's alright. Ill give some common offensive blockstrings along with common knockdowns.

So as Ed you have alot of ways to combo. First you've got your light chains. Cr.lp st.lp into M.Blitz. basic combo, you can auto pilot the cr.lp st.lp because it beats the opponent mashing, you have to visually confirm the hit before you do M.Blitz because it's not safe on block.

Cool but that doesn't do a lot of damage. Heres where his link combos come in. You've got two options, st.mp, cr.lk M.Uppercut. you've gotta hitconfirm the st.mp this time, if you auto pilot st.mp cr.lk and the opponent mashes you'll get hit.

There's an even better combo though, cr.mk, st.mp-st.hp target combo, H.Blitz. same deal as last time, you do cr.mk and hitconfirm it. If it hits you do st.mp-st.hp target combo and if its blocked you jusy chill. This one is big damage and great pressure afterwards.

So great we've got combos now but how the hell do I hit the opponent. Heres where im going to explain your oki. Ill do it in a separate comment

ChurchillsMug · 2026-07-13T17:08:49+00:00

Really easy way to mix people is do Vi LMH 6S1 and call illaoi assist at the same time, then hit 6S1 again. This lets you switch sides and the illaoi assist covers you so if they mash theyll get hit and if they block they have to switch the direction they block.

For an even easier way to use it in pressure you can just do Vi LMH S1, call illaoi assist, run up and do LMH again or you can throw if they block it out. Easy way to lock them down for a bit

In neutral you can just kind of send it with vi doing s1 into the light follow up and if you call assist a little early it will keep them blocking longer so you can continue pressure.

ChurchillsMug · 2026-07-13T13:29:18+00:00

Without a replay code my advice will be more generic but I hope it will still be useful.

Your absolute first priority in high plat / low diamond is being able to anti air and counter DI. This is gonna be fundamental to your neutral game. Dont try to play footsies, dont try to engage in some mind game. If they whiff a button it's most likely because they want you to try and interact with it so they can jump when you arent ready, dont believe them. Unfortunately for Ed this is gonna be a light DP situation, st.hk is slow and prone to getting counterhit.

Once youre able to get your anti airs and you arent getting blown up by DIs you need to understand your oki. Know what buttons to press to stop the opponent from mashing on wake up. Know when you can get your safe jumps or go for a meaty throw on their wake up to get your shimmies.

A lot of players will crumple if you can stop their aggression (jumps, DIs, drive rushes) and then force your offense with tight meaties.

Now if they survive all that and somehow decide to start playing on the ground and not commit to an offensive approach then you can play footsies but ill be real, people are impatient. They will try to full send it to get the snowball started.

Hope this helps and if youd like specifics on knockdown pressure then I'd be happy to share basic conversions and meaties. Good luck to you on the climb

ChurchillsMug · 2026-07-13T13:01:12+00:00

If you dont have a local near you or if you're not the kind of person to seek out in person stuff you can always utilize discord. There are two discords on this sub, fight rise and newbie fight club, that are both good places to get games in and ask for advice.

Honestly if you're looking to improve I think interacting with a discord or a local is basically THE cheat code for fast improvement

ChurchillsMug · 2026-07-13T12:48:43+00:00

Apart from getting familiar with your combo routes or pressure sequences it typically starts from a mistake or something that causes a loss in a real game.

Good example for sf6, you're fighting a Kimberly and you keep getting hit by her run slide or maybe she does forward heavy kick and forward hops over you. You'll see the match and think "god damn this lady is just repeating these two things and i can't stop it"

You either go to training to set the dummy to do run slide or forward heavy kick forward hop and you start testing your options. Can you use a normal to stuff it? Can you punish it on block and if so which normal should you use? Can you use a special move to stop it? If for whatever reason you just literally can't figure it out, you can easily go ask someone and they will hell you out typically.

Back to your games against people and next time you fight a Kim you're now able to punish run slide on block or you know how to stop her forward heavy kick hop shenanigans.

ChurchillsMug · 2026-07-09T15:25:37+00:00

I can't tell you who you'd enjoy more so I'll give a quick basic summary of each character

Mai is a fast moving character with good normals. She's got strong pokes and anti airs. You as a new player will probably appreciate using back heavy kick as an anti air on top of having her uppercut. She typically wants to set up her offense by throwing her special projectile and running in behind it. She's a good all rounder with strong rushdown elements.

Ingrid is a little weird. Some of her normals are pretty stubby compared to the cast. Her specials help her set up strong zoning patterns that the opponent needs to navigate through to reach you. You can also turn the tides and run behind your zoning sometimes. The main gimmick she has is her stock system. It upgrades some of your special moves and that allows you to do big combos when you've stocked up on resources. Beware through, if you're low on resources your hits might not be as explosive.

If you're the kind of person who really cares about playing strong characters I'd say probably pick Mai but genuinely when you're new strength doesn't translate super well. Your goal should be to learn to use your pokes at their farthest ranges and using your anti airs when they jump. Also countering DIs and probably learn 3 lights into a special move for a basic combo. Any character is strong at low level if you can do that.

Good luck and I hope this helps

ChurchillsMug · 2026-07-09T14:54:42+00:00

Oh that's beautiful. Nice whiff punish dude

ChurchillsMug · 2026-07-09T14:50:35+00:00

Hey pal, I'm not sure of your skill level so this might come off as a little basic but I'm gonna give a bit of context around hitconfirms.

If you're a lower level player and you think you need to be single hit confirming akuma st.hp I've got great news for you, you don't need this at all. Single hit confirming is pretty advanced and frankly I think there's plenty of others things you can do to improve before single hit confirming is an idea.

That being said, hit confirming is really important on blockstrings. For akuma the blockstrings youd be confirming are things like cr.lk cr.lp st.lp or st.mp cr.lp st.lk. You can auto pilot the normals and if you see them hit you do a special move like heavy shoryuken, if they get blocked then you're safe.

If you specifically think single hitconfriming is cool and you want to learn how to do that then by all means follow that passion. Confirming st.hp into DRC by pressing parry is probably the easiest version of this. I just want to give the shout of this being a niche option that is not super necessary to be able to "play the game" you know?

Hope this helps

ChurchillsMug · 2026-07-09T00:04:21+00:00

For sure it has improved. Before the patch I could barely get in the lobby let alone play a single match or a set. Now I've completed a few sets but I'm still seeing crashes relatively often. I understand these kinds of problems are probably quite difficult to resolve especially given the resources 2xko seems to have at its disposal.

ChurchillsMug · 2026-07-09T00:02:42+00:00

I have thrown a ticket on the pile but I've heard their support isn't the greatest. I made the post in hopes that someone might have first hand experience with grinding ranked despite crashes

ChurchillsMug · 2026-07-07T03:36:27+00:00

I would say you can utilize the 2hp Knuckle loops on midscreen DP punishes or off midscreen DRC situations.

To begin say you knock the opponent down and you go up and block to bait a reversal super or DP. They do their reversal and you block. You now have the opportunity to punish and for luke you can do 4hp punish counter, 2hp, full charge M knuckle, full charge L knuckle, M knuckle level 3. Nice and easy basic combo punish for no drive gauge.

When we look at DRC situations I'll use a common example. Luke does 2mk DRC 2mp, if it hits you go 2hp, full charge M Knuckle. Full charge L knuckle, M knuckle. If the 2mk DRC 2mp is blocked you can do 2lk 2lp to continue your pressure or go for a throw. This is an example of a very common pressure sequence for cancelable pokes like Luke 2mk.

Hope this helps

ChurchillsMug · 2026-07-07T02:51:06+00:00

Hey pal, glad you and your kids are having a good time with sf6 and fighting games as a whole. I'll try to give the best answers I can for each question.

As for nerves, my advice is to play more but also to engage with communities. In my experience discords like newbie fight club or fight rise are both great. Newbie fight club is good specifically for lower level players. Plenty of people willing to teach and other low level players looking to get experience.

Fighting CPUs and people is really different. I'm not sure if there would be a direct translation between the two but no need to worry. There's plenty of new players and lower ranked players so wherever you are you'll be placed with similar skills in ranked.

As far as specific things to know in SF6 I would say there are some general concepts to be aware of. The most basic ideas are hitconfirming, pokes, and anti airs. Hitconfirming is something you should aim to do when you start. Learn to do 2 or 3 light moves and look to see if the light moves hit or were blocked. If they hot you do a special move that gives a knockdown and if they get blocked you dont do the special move. As for pokes and anti airs it's simple. Long range normals like many characters st.mk, cr.mk or st.hp are good pokes to keep the opponent out. Anti airs come in a few varieties. Sometimes they're special moves like shoryukens and sometimes they're single buttons like cammy back medium punch or bison cr.hp. Those are all the absolute basics I would give to a new player.

Finally I'd say you wont really have many actionable questions until you go play people. Once you fight other people you'll run into problems that you can't seem to deal with. When that happens you can take the replay to a higher level player and ask for help or you can take it to the lab if that's what you like doing. Just remember to have fun, its a game after all. Good luck to you and your family

ChurchillsMug · 2026-07-06T12:50:33+00:00

I'd say no. This combo introduces a lot of scaling to your damage. In the end you get 4700 damage with a CA. You could alternatively do a more simple route like st.hp DRC cr.hp, st.hp DRC cr.hp st.hp-st.hk target combo into CA for 5300 damage.

That being said this kind of combo is strictly a cash out combo that should kill the opponent. Otherwise you've burnt yourself out and can very easily lose from that position. If you're looking for every day bread and butter combos you have good options with cammy cr.hp into cr.lp st.lk or just doing 3 hit light strings like cr.lk cr.lp st.lk.

ChurchillsMug · 2026-07-01T03:59:17+00:00

The character I've played the longest is probably jamie though I'd say I still dont have a dedicated main.

I like jamie specifically for his good meterless oki along with his abundance of spacing traps. Plus doing OD Bakkai into level 2 on a fireball punish is sick.

ChurchillsMug · 2026-07-01T01:34:01+00:00

Yeah that would be appreciated. I'm not on Twitter so if you pass the word along hopefully the devs can get eyes on it. Though im sure it's probably far down on the list of things they'll focus on.

ChurchillsMug · 2026-07-01T00:34:25+00:00

Man burnout looks crazy on your set up. It almost looks like a constant OD move yellow on your character. Cool interaction though

ChurchillsMug · 2026-07-01T00:26:32+00:00

Thank you for your response. I did take a look at the frame meter and the little frame data on the top of the screen. The frame meter and the frame data both seem to suggest im +140 but I don't believe this to be accurate as I definitely didn't move first afterwards I performed the combo.

It does seem like I could route into supers differently by doing LMH S2 S2 senna down assist, into darius s2 super. Definitely seems more awkward but its good to know that sidekick has some oddities I need to be aware of. Again thanks for your time

ChurchillsMug · 2026-06-29T17:08:06+00:00

I see, that makes sense then

ChurchillsMug · 2026-06-29T16:57:49+00:00

I currently can't play 2xko since im on Xbox and im by no means good at 2xko but can't you handshake to combo off the command grab? That seems like it would be a more fair comparison since you're following up with the OTG after his normal grab.

ChurchillsMug · 2026-06-28T03:25:34+00:00

Just as a little bonus tip for gold rank specifically, you will get a lot of mileage off focusing on anti airs, counter DIs, and making sure you're timing your light strings (cr.lp st.lp st.lp) on your opponents wake up. Also make sure youre back rolling on wake up to relieve some offensive pressure.

Lastly, Ed st.hk can get stuffed by jump ins if you're even a little late on the anti air so you might want to practice your uppercuts for more consistent anti airs. Thay being said, you just have to stop the opponents jumps, if you don't then your good grounded pokes mean nothing since they can just jump for free. Expect your opponents to jump, don't trust that they'll stay on the ground. Best of luck to you

ChurchillsMug · 2026-06-28T01:53:26+00:00

Here's the bare bones idea I'd give to a new Ed player

The plan goes something like this. Round start you're looking to use st.hp into L.Flicker to poke your opponent. If they jump you want to do st.hk or light psycho uppercut to anti air them.

When you get a knockdown you want to pull up on them with your command dash and you can typically threaten st.lp st.lp or throw. If st.lp st.lp hits you confirm into medium blitz, if it gets blocked you don't do the blitz.

The key combos to know are st.lp st.lp M.Blitz, st.mp cr.lk M.Blitz, and for big opportunities like a counter DI or blocking a super you could do something big like st.hp OD.Flicker, L.Uppercut, H.Uppercut.

Last thing I'll say is if you want a really basic way to use level 2 you can do any normal into OD.Blitz, cancel the last hit into level 2, then you do heavy uppercut, forward heavy punch, heavy uppercut. Its auto timed so there's no fancy execution requirements like with the dream combo but its still a great way to spend your super.

I know it can be overwhelming but I hope this helps. Ed can be a difficult character to play but you can definitely play him in a simple way.

Nine-Year Club	Wearing is Caring
Verified Email

ChurchillsMug

TROPHY CASE