Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike/Q/Strategy

Strategies

Basics and Rapid-fire tips

Q is a heavy hitter character and one of the most defensive ones in the game, as his main gameplan is to get his taunts set up and a life lead to either time out the win or get the opponent to recklessly get in.

• neutral
  • build your meter as a first priority, do so by whiffing your normals, preferably your faster pokes, at a safe range.
  • don't do a lot of 'random' dash punches, otherwise they get predictable and can be parried for a massive punish. use them when the opponent isn't expecting, and even more if you have super full
  • if the opponent gives you too much space, just taunt
    • don't taunt in neutral
  • use st.mk, cr.mp, cr.lk and cr.mk as you main pokes. note that none cancel, so you are only going to use them to chip in damage and assert space control, which is perfectly valid, just worse.
  • use cr.mp, j.mp, back+mp and scratches as anti airs

• offensive game
  • your command grab is the core of your main offensive core, due to leading to very high damage. It's slow for a command grab, but luckily you have ways to mix up with it effectively.
  • st.lp, cr.lp, st.lk and cl.lp are all your only +oB moves. you have a lot of other safe oB moves, but these are the cores of your frame traps.
  • cl.mk is the normal to use offensively because its the only one that cancels and combos into stuff. it's safe oB, aint too slow, and can only be parried high.
  • your UOH is ok - its slow and floaty, but it has a lot of range and allows for combos into super if properly spaced\hit meaty

• defensive game
  • Block low - since Q can evade all throws when crouching, you essentially have an OS against the majority of pressure options. be patient, don't mash lights or super, and stay on your toes vs. the few OH that can be comboed out of
  • your best punish options at close range is like to be cl.mk xx ex dash punch, st.hk
  • note that Q gets additional 2f of crouch blockstun, and 1f of stand block stun

Taunt

Benefits

Taunting gives Q great benefits. While he normally takes the second-least damage in the game among playable characters, three taunts gives him about 40% damage off what he usually takes and the game's best defense. You only get bonuses for the first three taunts, and the bonuses only last until the end of that round, so to get full benefits you need to taunt three times early each round. Trading a bit of health for a taunt actually lets you take more total hits without dying than if you hadn't taunted and still had full health; in fact, if you lose a third of your health bar with three taunts, you still have more total damage-taking power than if you had a full health bar and no taunts. That said, you should obviously try to minimize the damage you take when taunting. Alongside the stamina gains, the first taunt Q performs in a round also gives him 10% faster stun recovery. He gains no more stun recovery upon additional taunting, however.

Choosing when and where to taunt

When deciding when and where to taunt, take into account not only your health bar but also your positioning and other opportunities and only taunt if it gives you an advantage overall. For example, taunting in Ken's face isn't worth it, but if you're just gonna get hit by a full screen fireball or if you're up against a meter-less Chun, do it. For another example, if you land EX dash punch to neutral standing Roundhouse about 2/3 of the way to one side of the screen, consider that while you could taunt after, leaving you across the screen from your cornered opponent, you could also do a Strong or Fierce dash punch to get better positioning. Taunting is not always your most advantageous option.

Setups

There are lots of setups for the taunts. In order to find space and time to taunt, you generally have to be a proactive turtle, if that makes sense. You need to either force your opponent away from you by attacking or dictating the pace of the game, or you need to force him to be complicit in being far away from you through conditioning him to let you do so. The most preferable ways to taunt are, obviously, the unpunishable ones. You get one unpunishable taunt after an antiair dash punch or slaps, after any C&DB combo that ends in a knockdown, after SAI, and after SAII if you do a follow-up knockdown attack, and you get two unpunishable taunts after SAII if you don't do a follow-up attack. There are also ways of setting up taunts that guarantee a taunt but don't guarantee that you won't be punished. Doing short C&DB to fierce slaps or close antiair fierce slaps guarantees two taunts, but every character except Hugo can punish the second one, although most characters can only do it if they have a super bar or EX meter ready. Air-to-air jumping fierce, ex slaps, and just being really far away will get you a taunt against characters who can't hurt you fast from a distance, although this can always be punished by half the cast when they have super or ex meter ready. Back + Roundhouse canceled into a taunt guarantees a taunt, but it's completely unsafe and you will get punished for it. Doing a back/toward throw gives you enough time to taunt against certain characters, but it's also totally punishable. Another way to do it is to take advantage of the opponent's style of play. If they're a turtle, use your taunts. This is good because you get a taunt but also because the threat of you taunting and getting magical-level defense is enough to make the opponent not want to turtle, and that's good because Q has a hard time dealing with turtles. You can also condition the opponent to let you taunt by doing something a few times in a row to make them expect one thing and then taunt when they expect it again; for example, do something to make them move backward or attack a few times, and then when they expect you to do it again, use that rhythm to taunt, or do a dash punch on their wakeup after SAI to get them used to blocking, parrying, or attacking on wakeup, and then do two taunts after SAI instead when they're not expecting it.