Street Fighter 6/Blanka/Introduction

Introduction

A kindhearted defender of nature, Blanka has become an adventure tour guide, confident his intimate knowledge of the jungle will serve as a springboard to fame—and a comfortable life for his beloved mother.

Blanka is a character that focuses on aggressive mobility and a variety of confusing mind games, supplemented by setplay in the corner. Many of Blanka's tools either allow him to advance quickly or force the opponent to guess at what he's going to do next, which he can use to his advantage by overwhelming them with options.

One of the biggest tools that Blanka uses for this gameplan is his Horizontal Rolling Attack special move, often called the Blanka Ball. It travels very quickly and very far, with the heavy version traveling full screen and being difficult to punish in many circumstances. He also has a diving aerial variant in the Aerial Rolling Attack, an anti-air version with the Vertical Rolling Attack, and one that travels in a controllable arc from the ground to the air and back down again with the Backstep Rolling Attack. He also has Surprise Hop, a command dash that allows him to quickly advance forward or backward, on top of a very fast forward dash, and can use Wild Hunt to close the gap when an opponent is expecting to block or parry a Blanka Ball and punish them for it.

All of these moves are supplemented by other unorthodox or shocking maneuvers once Blanka has the opponent scared of what he might do next and manages to get in. Electric Thunder is often used to get confirms when Blanka doesn't have the charge for Blanka Ball, but allows him a fair bit of flexibility on hit and is a powerful launcher when the Overdrive version is used. Many of his normals are also fairly strong for pokes and pressure, such as his light punches and kicks, his 5MP, his 2MP, and his 2MK, and if he can land a Punish Counter, then he can use Coward Crouch to set up for a launcher that does a lot of damage. Blanka becomes especially scary in the corner, though, as he can set up a Blanka-chan Bomb and then throw in an Electric Thunder to activate it for some setplay. Even if he's pushed out, he can rely on a little patience and careful use of surprise maneuvers like Blanka Ball fakeouts, Drive Rush 3HP, Surprise Hop, or Wild Hunt to get back in.

Another notable tool in Blanka's kit is his Level 2 Super Art, Lightning Beast. When activated, it allows him to use Rolling Cannon as follow-ups to his Horizontal, Aerial, Vertical, or Backstep Rolling Attacks, in addition to giving them a lightning aura that makes them a little stronger and lets him activate Blanka-chan Bombs by using one of these moves to pass over them. Rolling Cannon ups his pressure game significantly while Lightning Beast is active, and if set up properly with an Overdrive Electric Thunder or a Coward Crouch launch, Lightning Beast can convert a stray hit from Blanka into huge damage.

In return for all of this, Blanka has to weigh his options carefully when going in for the attack, as the high reward for a fair number of his moves is balanced out by how punishable they are if they're evaded, blocked, or otherwise called out. It can also take some doing to get his combos going at midscreen or otherwise, since a lot of his more intricate combos need a launch from Coward Crouch, Overdrive Electric Thunder, and/or meter for Lightning Beast on hand. If you enjoy bewildering your opponents with risky but rewarding offensive plays and a variety of options, heed the call of the wild and howl with Blanka.

Pick if you like:	Avoid if you dislike:
Similar-looking, highly unpredictable forward movement options that close gaps, follow unusual trajectories, or cross people up A super that gives you both combo and pressure extensions from stray hits and aggressive approaches Corner setplay that enables high/low/throw mixup and baits defensive options Overwhelming opponents with unorthodox command normals, specials, and other moves	Conditional damage that requires either good positioning or spending resources to fully capitalize on Needing to make solid reads/reacting quickly to compensate for the risks in your toolset

Classic & Modern Versions Comparison

List of differences with Modern Blanka
Missing Normals	Standing Medium Punch (5MP) Crouching Medium Punch (2MP) Crouching Heavy Kick (2HK) Jumping Light Kick (j.LK) Jumping Medium Punch (j.MP) Jumping Heavy Punch (j.HP)
Missing Command Normals	Rock Crusher (6MP)
Shortcut-Only Specials	Backstep Rolling Attack (6S) Medium/OD Only
Miscellaneous Changes	N/A