Fighting Game Guide

Counter hit

Counter hits are attacks to your opponent before their attack is active. They interrupt your opponent's attack because of something called hitstun. When characters are hit they stop what they were doing and enter an animation where they're reeling in pain. That is hitstun. Blockstun is the animation the character is in when they're blocking an attack. In many games there is a bonus for counter hitting like extra damage or extra hitstun.

A poke is usually an attack to the body when your opponent is walking forward. A counter hit is usually an attack to the body as well. A lot of times you'll go for a poke and get a counter hit.

Anime Tropes in Fighting Games

You've probably seen this before. It's a high level match between two profesional players and they're standing far away from each other punching and kicking the air. It looks like they are working together to fight an invisible person. What's happening?

They're trying to counter hit each other. You can counter hit from farther away than you think. Fighting games are filled with tropes from anime, tokusatsu, and martial arts films. These tropes look silly but you have to understand them to understand counter hits.

The first anime trope is charging attacks. Every attack has startup and an attack with a lot of startup is easily interrupted. Don't stand there and wait for your opponent's attack to come out, counter hit it.

The second anime trope is extending a limb when attacking. When a limb is extended it can get hit. You probably extended your hands out and pretended to shoot a fireball while reading this guide.

The third anime trope is moving forward during an attack. When a character moves forward before an attack they increase the chances of getting counter hit.

The fourth anime trope is yelling out the name of the attack. This sounds silly but it actually gives away an attack is coming out. (This video has sound)

Here are all the tropes in action. Yuri shoots a fireball. You can't hear it but she's yelling the name of the attack. She's charging her fireball which gives her opponent time to react to counter hit it. She takes a big step forward which increases her chances of getting hit. Finally she extends her hands forward where they can get hit.
Terry can stand at this range and preemptively perform fast low risk punches to interrupt Yuri's fireball attempts.

There are three ways to beat an annoying poke on the ground:
1. Walk backwards to make it whiff then whiff punish it.
2. Counter hit it before it comes out.
3. If the poke is unsafe on block be close enough to block punish it. (I explain what this means later.)

Rashid's crouching heavy punch gives Laura a lot of trouble here. At this range she cannot walk backwards in time to make it whiff. It is unsafe on block but she can't walk forward in time to be in block punish range. The only thing she can do is to counter hit it but it seems she's too far away to do that.

This range is deceptive because she can counter hit Rashid's crouching heavy punch from farther away than you think. Rashid takes a step forward and extends his arms towards her. He's putting himself into her range by attacking.

Find ranges that take multiple options away from your opponent. For example I like to stand outside my opponent's medium kick range but inside their heavy kick range. If they perform the slow heavy kick I can counter hit it. If they perform the faster but shorter range medium kick it will whiff and I can whiff punish it.

Back to Footsies

Now that we know more about counter hits, let's review the footsies triangle. Poking beats walking foward. Whiff punishing beats poking. Walking forward beats whiff punishing.

Try not to use just one attack to poke with in neutral. Don't be one of those people that only pokes with sweep.

Don't poke with only low pokes. In games where you hold back to block, when you walk backwards you get hit by low attacks but not mid attacks or high attacks. When you walk forward you get hit by high attacks, mid attacks, and low attacks.

Long-range low pokes are slower to come out, recover slower, and are worse on block than other pokes. If you predict your opponent will use a long-range low poke to hit you walking backwards, you can interrupt it with a faster attack.

How to beat a defensive opponent

Sometimes your opponent is very defensive and it feels like you can't damage them. They block all your attacks and can react to everything you do. There are a couple things you can do to win footsies against a very defensive player.

Walk forward more. Why do we say walking forward beats whiff punishing? If your opponent is waiting to react to something, you can beat that by giving them nothing to react to. If they are determined to whiff punish a specific attack, they will walk backwards to get into range. Every time they walk backwards to get into that range, they are putting themselves closer to the corner.

You can mislead your opponent by feinting. Feints can be any fast attack that recovers quickly. If your opponent is waiting to whiff punish an attack, use feints to make them doubt their reactions and hesitate on whiff punishes.

If your opponent is very concentrated on the ground game, you can surprise them by jumping. It's difficult to have full attention on both the ground space and air space at the same time.

You don't have to damage your opponent with an attack for it to be beneficial. If your attack is blocked and your opponent is too far away to counterattack, it's considered a victory because every time they block your attack they are pushed closer to the corner.

When your attack is blocked you still build super meter. You can spend super meter on super attacks and EX special attacks.

Here's two final tips about walking before we move on:
Always try to walk forward a little more than you walk backwards. It's a subtle way of inching your opponent closer to the corner.
The more time your opponent spends crouching, the less time they'll spend moving. The less time they spend moving, the more time you have to put yourself at your ideal range for attacks and whiff punishes.

In many games characters can dash. Dash by pressing the forward direction twice. Dash is a fast way to close distance and surprise your opponent. Dash has more risk than walking because the character cannot block until they've finished their dash.

Since dashes are difficult to react to, players place pokes in neutral to preemptively interrupt dashes. This is called dash checking.