晓风残月

The content in the blog feels a bit monotonous, so I reward myself by starting a new project: learning Street Fighter 6!

First, let me introduce myself. I currently have five master characters: Juri, Luke, Akuma, Ken, and Aki. Among them, the first three are more proficient, while the latter two are purely based on basic skills. In the teaching content, I will combine my understanding of the characters for explanations. Of course, since I am not a professional teaching author, some content may not be particularly standardized, but as long as you get the meaning, that's fine. If you have any questions, feel free to discuss them in the comments.

The first article mainly focuses on explaining normal punches and kicks, without involving combos, special moves, or the rage system for now.

25.06.12: Corrected the calculation error of frame stealing.

Categories and Representation of Punches and Kicks#

In Street Fighter 6, there are a total of six punch and kick buttons: Light Punch, Medium Punch, Heavy Punch, Light Kick, Medium Kick, and Heavy Kick. These buttons correspond to different punches and kicks when the character is standing, crouching, or jumping. Additionally, many characters also have a few punches and kicks that can be executed by holding other directions, such as Forward Heavy Punch, Back Heavy Kick, etc.

Although there are quite a few, we can simply categorize them into three types: Light, Medium, and Heavy. To summarize by category: The lighter the punch or kick, the faster it is, and the corresponding attack range is shorter, and vice versa.

Sometimes you may see punches and kicks represented by numbers and letters:

This uses the numeric keypad directions to represent direction, with one letter representing Light/Medium/Heavy and another letter representing Punch/Kick.

Directions:

Punches and Kicks:

It is important to note that this representation assumes the character is on the left, facing right. That is, regardless of whether the character is facing left or right, 6 always represents Forward, and 4 always represents Back. Additionally, 5 is used to indicate no directional input.
Combining these, we can have representations like: 2MK (Down Medium Kick), 6HP (Forward Heavy Punch), 5LP (Standing Light Punch)...

Important Attributes of Punches and Kicks#

How do we determine the applicable range of each punch and kick? How do we confirm follow-ups after the initial hit? This requires a basic understanding of the attributes of the character's punches and kicks. Generally, we need to understand the timing, attack type, hit range, and hit effects of punches and kicks. Below, I will explain each in detail.

Timing of Punches and Kicks#

The timing of punches and kicks includes three parts: startup time, active time, and recovery time, which can be viewed using a frame counter in training mode. If we describe the timing of punches and kicks in seconds, it would all be 0.xx, which is not very convenient. Therefore, we generally use the game's basic time unit, "frames," to describe the timing of punches and kicks. Street Fighter 6 is a 60-frame fighting game, meaning each frame is 1/60, approximately 0.017 seconds.

Explanation of the Three Timing Parts#

You can see that when I press a punch or kick, the frame counter below shows three colored areas, from left to right: startup frames, active frames, and recovery frames.

1. Startup is the animation before the punch or kick can hit, where the character is in the motion of throwing a punch or kick. If the character is attacked during this startup period, it will result in a "hit confirm" effect;
2. Active is the red part of the frame counter, during which your punch or kick is fully extended. During this time, if the opponent makes contact with your punch or kick, they will be hit. If both you and the opponent attack simultaneously and the hitboxes overlap, the effect produced is a "trade," meaning I hit them, and they hit me;
3. Recovery is the process of retracting the extended punch or kick. If you are hit by the opponent's attack during this phase, it will result in a "counter hit" effect.

The effects of "hit confirm" and "counter hit" will be discussed later.

Priority of Punch and Kick Selection in Actual Combat#

After understanding the above content, we naturally know that the shorter the startup and recovery frames of a punch or kick, and the longer the active frames, the stronger the punch or kick is. Of course, during game design, it is essential to avoid having all three parts maxed out, allowing punches and kicks to have advantages in only one or two aspects.

In actual gameplay, we do not need to memorize the frame data for every punch and kick; we only need to know which moves have fast startup and recovery and which moves have long active times. Different attributes of moves also have different application scenarios. Generally speaking:

• When the opponent is close, try to use fast startup punches or kicks to regain the initiative;
• When pressuring the opponent during their wake-up, use moves with long active frames to increase margin for error and avoid whiffing;
• When probing at mid-range, try to use moves with short recovery to avoid being punished by the opponent's fast reactions.

Attack Types of Punches and Kicks#

Attack types can be divided into high, mid, and low. Depending on the attack type, the defensive methods against these attacks also differ.

• High attacks: Most of the character's ground punches and kicks are high attacks and can be defended against by both standing and crouching;
• Mid attacks: Include all characters' aerial attacks and specific ground attacks from a few characters (such as Luke's Forward Medium Punch and Juri's Forward Medium Kick), which can only be defended against by standing;
• Low attacks: Include most characters' low kicks, which can only be defended against by crouching.

In training mode, you can display the attack types of different punches and kicks:

In summary, we can conclude the following patterns:

1. Most attacks from the opponent on the ground are high, with a few being low; only specific moves from certain characters are mid;
2. If the opponent jumps to attack, any attack they perform is considered mid.

This leads us to the best defensive strategy: When the opponent attacks on the ground, maintain a crouching defense, and only switch to standing defense when you see the opponent's specific mid attack; as soon as the opponent jumps to attack, immediately switch from crouching to standing defense.

Hit Range of Punches and Kicks#

The timing of punches and kicks is highly correlated with their hit range. Faster punches and kicks usually have shorter hit ranges, while slower punches and kicks tend to have longer hit ranges. Generally, in actual combat, we need to constantly move left and right to control distance, trying to hit the opponent with the far end of our punches and kicks, and capturing the opponent's whiffs to punish them (trades).

Hit Effects of Punches and Kicks#

The hit effects of punches and kicks can mainly be discussed from two perspectives: hit stun difference and pushback distance.

Hit Stun Difference#

Without considering cancels, after a punch or kick hits, our character will enter recovery stun, while the opponent will accumulate a fixed duration of hit stun based on their defensive state starting from our hit frame. The hit stun time is shorter when the opponent is defending and longer when they are hit.

Since both parties are in hit stun, whoever recovers from hit stun first can act first, thus gaining an advantage. This is the core concept in fighting games: "hit stun difference."

In Street Fighter 6, hit stun difference is calculated as the opponent's hit stun time - our hit stun time. In other words, a positive hit stun difference indicates that our hit stun is shorter, allowing us to act first. Therefore, we generally refer to a positive hit stun difference as "frame advantage" and a negative hit stun difference as "negative frames." In the frame counter, these are represented in blue and red, respectively.

The most crucial aspect of hit stun difference is the sign. If both parties are close, and I have +1, while both press the fastest punches, the opponent will always be hit by my attack because both of our fastest punches have a startup of 4 frames, and I act 1 frame earlier than them. No matter how quickly the opponent presses, they cannot beat me; this small 1-frame difference becomes an insurmountable gap between us. In the video below, Luke's crouching medium punch hits the defense +1, and then both players press light punch simultaneously, perfectly replicating the above scenario:

Responsibility of Punches and Kicks#

After understanding the impact of positive and negative hit stun differences, let's explore the significance of hit stun difference values. Combining the previous explanation of punch and kick timing, along with the knowledge that the fastest punch or kick for all characters in Street Fighter 6 is 4 frames, we can make a reasonable and correct judgment: negative frames do not necessarily mean you will be hit.

The opponent's fastest punch or kick also takes 4 frames, meaning that even if both parties are close and the hit stun difference is negative, as long as the hit stun difference is greater than -4, the opponent cannot hit you with their fastest punch or kick when your hit stun has already ended (unless you knowingly press for a trade while being at a negative frame). Therefore, in terms of frames, we refer to punches and kicks that produce a hit stun difference greater than -4 as "responsibility-free." For example, Luke's -3 crouching light kick, even if the opponent uses the fastest 4-frame light punch, cannot hit during recovery:

However, if both parties are close and the hit stun difference is less than or equal to -4, then you're in trouble. This means the opponent can definitely use light punches and kicks to hit you during your recovery. Moreover, the more negative the hit stun difference, the more painful the opponent's follow-up options will be. For instance, a hit stun difference of -20 allows the opponent to use slower but higher-damage heavy punches and kicks to punish you severely. For example, Luke's -6 crouching medium kick can reliably be countered by a light punch:

Although it sounds complicated, generally, we do not need to focus too much on the numerical values of hit stun differences; we only need to simply judge whether it is frame advantage or negative frames. The most scientific approach is to continue pressing during frame advantage and to play conservatively during negative frames. Now we arrive at the core question: how do we determine whether a punch or kick results in frame advantage or negative frames?

Hit Stun Difference and Confirmation#

Do you remember the definition of hit stun difference? The opponent's hit stun time is calculated based on their defensive state. When defending, the hit stun is short; when hit, it is long, while our recovery time is always fixed. This leads to an interesting phenomenon: in most punches and kicks in Street Fighter 6, hitting a block results in negative frames, while hitting results in frame advantage. This applies to most moves, as previously mentioned, since some specific moves from certain characters are mid attacks, and some specific moves are frame advantage on block! Examples include Luke's crouching medium punch, Juri's standing medium punch, and Akuma's standing heavy kick (which can only hit standing opponents). The video demonstrates Akuma's standing heavy kick being +3 on block:

Setting aside these special punches and kicks, the opponent's defensive state can influence the sign of hit stun difference, and only when hitting can follow-up combos be confirmed. Therefore, during matches, we need to pay special attention to the hit status of punches and kicks and decide on follow-up strategies based on whether we hit or block. This is known as "confirmation" in fighting games.

Confirmation is very reliant on reaction, as the window for inputting commands from the startup to the hit and then to the follow-up is often only a few hundred milliseconds. Players need to judge the hit status of punches and kicks within such a short time frame and confirm combo choices and input follow-up commands based on whether they hit or not and their current resource situation.

Those who have paid attention to fighting games must have heard the term "single hit confirmation." For example, a player confirms a single hit crouching medium kick and directly follows up with a special move. Why is there a separate term "single hit confirmation" when we already have "confirmation"? This indicates that it is generally considered very difficult to confirm with just one punch in the game; many single hit confirmations are hard to say whether they rely on reaction or are based on guessing.

Confirmation is indeed challenging, but fortunately, it can be assisted through responsibility-free light punch spamming, green dashing, and other methods, significantly lowering the game's requirements for reaction speed, allowing ordinary players like me to quickly get started. These assisted confirmation methods will be discussed in future articles.

Hit Stun Difference and Hit Confirm, Counter Hit#

Hit stun difference is also related to hit confirm and counter hit effects; essentially, these two also belong to the confirmation of hits. Mechanically, this part is very simple:

1. Hit Confirm: The opponent's hit stun increases by two frames.
2. Counter Hit: The opponent's hit stun increases by four frames.

In actual combat, being able to confirm these two effects helps improve combo choices and increase damage.

For example, Luke's crouching medium punch followed by a green dash into a heavy kick only works under hit confirm conditions because the normal hit stun difference is just two frames shorter than the startup of the heavy kick, plus the two frames from hit confirm is enough:

Additionally, Juri's standing medium punch followed by a standing heavy punch only works under counter hit conditions because the standing medium punch adds seven frames, hit confirm adds nine frames, but it still isn't enough for the standing heavy punch's ten frames of startup. However, if it is a counter hit, it can add up to eleven frames, which is enough for the standing heavy punch to connect:

Hit Stun Difference and Hit Frame Position#

As mentioned earlier, the opponent's hit stun is calculated "from my hit frame," indicating that besides the defensive state, hit stun difference is also influenced by the hit frame position. For example, here is the hit stun difference table for Luke's standing heavy kick hitting a block:

As long as my standing heavy kick hits the opponent's block, the opponent's hit stun is fixed at 18 frames. Meanwhile, my active frames are 7 frames plus 16 frames of recovery, totaling 23 frames, resulting in a final hit stun difference of -5 frames, which can be countered by the opponent's light punches and kicks.

However, attentive readers may notice that Luke's standing heavy kick has a hitbox of 7 frames. Since I only need to hit the block, the opponent will have a fixed hit stun of 18 frames. Doesn't this mean that if I hit the opponent in the 6th frame of the 7-frame hitbox, my hit stun will only consist of the remaining 2 frames of active frames and 16 frames of recovery, totaling 18 frames? The opponent's hit stun would also be 18 frames, resulting in a hit stun difference of 0, which would be neutral frames?!

Very clever! This is the influence of hit frame position on hit stun difference, and we refer to the manipulation of this mechanism as "frame stealing." In actual combat, we categorize the application of this mechanism into two types: distance-based frame stealing and wake-up pressure-based frame stealing.

Distance-Based Frame Stealing

Certain punches and kicks with long active frames will have a forward-moving effect, such as Luke's standing heavy kick used in the previous example. If used at close range, the active frame will definitely hit the opponent on the first frame. But what if we are a bit farther away? The punch or kick will move forward over time, and if it lands on the opponent after a few frames have passed, it means we successfully stole those frames.

Distance-based frame stealing is challenging to control for precise values, but it can effectively turn punches and kicks that would be countered into ones that are not. For example, Luke's -5 standing heavy kick can become a -3 responsibility-free punch if we are slightly farther away and manage to steal 2 frames.

Wake-Up Pressure-Based Frame Stealing

Compared to distance, wake-up pressure-based frame stealing is more flexible and precise. The time the opponent spends on the ground only relates to the last punch that knocked them down, so each combo end corresponds to a fixed time for the opponent to be down; at the same time, characters only have hitboxes when they are waking up, and any punches thrown while the opponent is down will whiff.

Based on these two points, skilled players can design their character's common combo endings to ensure that the last few active frames of their wake-up pressure punch or kick hit the opponent right as they are getting up, which is the wake-up pressure strategy.

For example: Luke uses a medium punch to knock the opponent down, adding 34 frames:

Then, pressing forward-forward to dash as quickly as possible consumes 19 frames, and after the dash ends, it adds 15 frames:

Next, pressing standing heavy kick as quickly as possible, which has a startup of 10 frames (note that 10 frames of startup means the hitbox activates on the 10th frame), the active frames are 7 frames, and the first 6 frames of the active hitbox will hit the opponent while they are waking up, with the last frame hitting the opponent as they start to get up:

Thus, Luke's hit stun is 1 frame of active frames + 16 frames of recovery = 17 frames; the opponent's hit stun from blocking the standing heavy kick is fixed at 18 frames. This way, Luke's standing heavy kick hitting the block actually adds 1 frame!

Did you notice? Having too many frame advantages is not a good thing; it can increase the uncertainty of our wake-up pressure. When there are too many frames, standing in front of the opponent for a while and then trying to pressure them can easily lead to mistakes, as pressing too early or too late can allow the opponent to regain the advantage. This forces players to whiff punches and kicks to consume excess frame advantage to achieve the appropriate frame count for wake-up pressure, which is why experienced players often whiff punches and kicks during wake-up pressure.

Such frame stealing strategies do not require personal research; you can generally find various combo tutorials online that will tell you how to perfectly pressure the opponent during wake-up after different combos.

Pushback Distance#

In the previous section on hit stun difference, we have emphasized "close range" multiple times because frame difference is not absolute and is intricately related to distance. Let's consider Akuma's heavy punch into heavy Tatsu:

-8, what a suitable frame count for a counter hit! But is that really the case?

The frame count is clearly negative, but why can't Chun-Li counter hit and instead gets counter hit by Akuma?

This is a typical distance trap, indicating that the frame count of punches and kicks is not everything; some moves have enough pushback distance to make unsafe frames safe, and such moves can also be considered "responsibility-free." How to avoid this? Simply put, do not press punches and kicks at distances where it is clearly impossible to counter hit.

That said, achieving this in actual combat is not easy. You can improve through practice and learn about various strategies and countermeasures through online tutorials. As your knowledge increases, you will naturally be able to see through such traps.

Conclusion#

I initially intended to write about combos as well, but I didn't expect to write so much just about punches and kicks. I hope these shallow insights can help newcomers or those interested in the game gain a deeper understanding of the game mechanics. If any experts find errors in the text, please feel free to point them out in the comments. Thank you!