Street Fighter 6: Tips and Tricks You Need to Know Before You Start Playing

What are some tips and tricks you need to know before you start playing Street Fighter 6? Capcom's latest and greatest fighter is destined to become one of the most played fighters on PlayStation for years to come, but if you're looking for some suggestions to help aid your rise to the top of the rankings, we can help. On this page, as part of our Street Fighter 6 guide, we're going to share some tips and tricks you need to know before you start playing.

Street Fighter 6: Tips and Tricks You Need to Know Before You Start Playing

Below, you'll find a list of tips and tricks you need to know before you start playing Street Fighter 6. We'll talk you through some of the basic concepts in Capcom's latest brawler, and help introduce you to the modes and features that will help maximise your experience.

Modern vs Classic Controls

If you're completely new to fighting games, then you may benefit from the Modern control scheme that Capcom has introduced. You can learn how to enable this option in our How to Change to Modern or Classic Controls page. Effectively, the contemporary option allows you to perform special moves similarly to in titles like Super Smash Bros, as all you'll need to do is push a direction alongside one of the face buttons. You can also do combos by holding the R2 trigger and pushing the same button multiple times.

This feature has been included to onboard newcomers or less experienced fighting game players, and no one should be ashamed for taking advantage of it. By simplifying the demands to execute certain moves, using Modern controls will allow you to focus on your strategy. For example, you'll want to be using moves like Shoryuken (Ryu and Ken's iconic Dragon Punch move) to deal with opponents who jump towards you. This is called an anti-air. You'll also want to use fireballs like Hadouken to create spacing. All of these techniques are thoroughly explained for each character in the Character Guides (more on that momentarily).

Once you start to feel comfortable with Modern controls, you can gradually begin to learn Classic controls, too. We'd recommend starting offline on lower difficulties if you have no experience with Street Fighter, and ensuring you're able to successfully execute every move you intend to. Once you've got this down, you can gravitate towards online play. Remember, playing Ranked is the best way to ensure you're generally up against people of your same ability, as the mode is designed to match players of a similar skill level.

World Tour Is Great for Onboarding or As a Refresher

World Tour, the silly story-based mode that's new to Street Fighter, is structured like a simple RPG campaign. But crucially it also doubles as a disguised tutorial, which is an excellent learning tool for newcomers and lapsed players. Some of the side quests will focus specifically on training exercises to help get you up to speed, while other elements are more subtle in nature. For example, you'll be fighting against Roombas and drones, which will discreetly teach you about dealing with crouching and jumping opponents respectively.

The best part about World Tour is that it disguises its tutorials, so it never feels like it's overtly teaching you anything. But in order to deal with its different types of enemies and progress to the end of the campaign, you'll absorb a lot of information through osmosis. While the techniques you learn here are unlikely to make you a contender at the Capcom Cup, you will become a better player by completing it. The fact that it also happens to be thoroughly entertaining is the icing on the cake.

Complete Character Guides and Try Combo Trials

Character Guides is a great new feature in Fighting Grounds which not only teaches you a specific character's moves, but also the context in which they're useful. This is an important change compared to past Street Fighter games, as while the command lists would teach you how to execute certain moves, they rarely informed you of when to use them. We'd recommend really studying these Character Guides and trying to put what you've learned into practice, both offline and online. Knowing when to use specific moves is arguably more important than understanding how to do them.

We'd also recommend you spend a bit of time in the Combo Trials. This teaches you how to string together moves in order to inflict maximum damage. While these can get quite complicated, it's a good idea to have a couple of simple combos you know how to execute up your sleeve. Unless you're aiming to become one of the best players in the world, being able to execute a couple of combos well will likely serve you well against medium CPU difficulties and average players online.

Get the Basics Right

There's an unbelievable amount of complexity to Street Fighter's gameplay systems, but mastering the basics will serve you well against most opponents. Space management is the most basic concept in fighting games, and it deals with the empty area between you and your opponent. Depending on who you're playing as, you'll want this distance to be in your favour. The most obvious match-up to illustrate this is Dhalsim vs Zangief: the former excels at distance, while the latter is stronger in close-quarters. Understanding this simple dynamic alone, and successfully using it to your advantage, will immediately make you a better player.

While spacing is essential in all fighting games, we'd also recommend you take a moment to fully understand Street Fighter 6's new Drive Gauge mechanic. This is multi-faceted, as the meter is used for Overdrive attacks, Drive Impacts, and Drive Parries. You'll generally want to use Drive Impacts when your opponent is cornered, as this will stagger them and open them up to follow-up attacks. However, be aware that your rival will likely be expecting a Drive Impact when cornered, and can easily counter it with a throw or a parry. Knowing when to catch your opponent off-guard with Drive Impacts is all part of the strategy of Street Fighter 6's mind games.

Did you find this guide on the tips and tricks you need to know before you start playing Street Fighter 6 helpful? Take a look at our Street Fighter 6 guide, and let us know if you have any other suggestions in the comments section below.