Strategies
Overview
Super Turbo Ryu is a very flexible character. He has powerful combos, solid mixups, dangerous traps, and a great super. His moves provide him with an amazing toolbox, allowing him to avoid projectiles and punish mistakes easily and on the fly.
Basics
Ryu's basic game centers around two moves: the Hadouken/Hadoken (Fireball) and the Shoryuken (Dragon Punch).
The Hadouken is a powerful move - it advances across the screen independently of Ryu, harming anything it touches. Even if blocked, it still does chip damage (albeit only a little). As a result, throwing one forces the opponent to react; they have to try and find a way around it, or they will eventually succumb to the constant chip damage.
Every character has an easy way to try and avoid the Hadouken: jumping over it. Unfortunately for them, Ryu has also been equipped with the game's best anti-air move: the Shoryuken. If an opponent reacts to a Hadouken by jumping over it, Ryu can respond by performing a Shoryuken as they are coming down. Since they cannot block while in the air, there is nothing they can do to prevent it from hitting them.
If a character jumps over a Hadouken from a distance, out of the range of Ryu's Shoryuken, he can still walk forward and force them to land on a cr.hk (depending on the range of his jumping attacks). They cannot block this when timed correctly, and it will knock them down.
Zoning
Ryu's ideal positioning against most characters is at the very end of their jump arc - this gives him the maximum amount of time to recover from a Hadouken, while still being in range to hit them with a Shoryuken if they try to jump.
The Fireball Trap
Ryu's famous Fireball Trap is a simple but deadly pattern he can follow on a cornered opponent. After scoring a knock-down on an opponent in the corner, Ryu can first position himself at the end of their jump arc, and then throw a Jab Hadouken as they are getting up. The Jab Hadouken will hit meaty, after which Ryu can immediately throw a second Jab Hadouken, which hits just after the first. Finally, he throws a Fierce Hadouken just as the second Jab Hadouken ends.
If done correctly, the enemy cannot jump out of this pattern. If they try to jump between any of these fireballs, the next fireball will hit them on the way up, they will be knocked down, and the pattern can begin again. If they decide to jump after the last fireball in the pattern, Ryu can use his Shoryuken to knock them out of the sky and back into the corner. Then he can throw a meaty Jab Hadouken as they are getting up, and repeat the process all over again.
A few characters can break the pattern by evading the Jab Hadouken with an invulnerable move. Ryu and Ken can use their Jab Shoryukens to escape. Honda can use a Buttslam, which can be countered by a Shoryuken, but if you have committed to throwing a Fierce Hadouken, you can get a move to whiff and be punished for it as Honda descends. In order to avoid this problem, consider using the button-release Hadouken.
Hadouken Tick
If you knock an enemy down at their corner, try getting from close to mid distance and throwing a Jab Hadouken so that it hits near their back. This gives you time to walk up and throw them while they're worried about a cr.forward xx red Hadouken. If you expect a reversal or a walk-up jab Shoryuken, walk up and retreat. If the Hadouken hits, you can combo a crouching kick as they recover. Note that this strategy has risks: as the Hadouken has to land really meaty, many special attacks that have short periods of invulnerability can be used to evade the projectile completely, which would not be possible otherwise. This includes Ryu's Tatsumaki, Guile's Short flash kick, Dee Jay and Claw's flip kicks, Fei Long's Rekku Kyaku and many Super Combos.
Tencho Bait
Throw a few Fierce or Strong Hadoukens at your enemy. If they get blocked and you feel they are about to jump in, step back and throw a Jab Hadouken for them to land on it.
Feints
Ryu (or Ken) have to duck for a split second if they throw a Hadouken while walking or standing still. Other players can react to this and the move's initial frames to evade the projectile or even punish you for using it. Ryu can fake a Hadouken by simply ducking and standing, or throwing some standing Jab or Strong punches. The sudden change in animation can bait out a reaction during tense situations. Use this against enemies that can punish Hadoukens on reaction, such as Vega (Claw), M. Bison (Dictator), Sagat and others. If they jump in, punish with a Fierce Shoryuken. Against charge characters, mix up Hadoukens with rush punches and short Tatsus so as to be at the end of their jump arc while pushing them back to their corner at the same time. That is the most dangerous distance for you to be if they guess right, but with mix-ups it should get difficult for your enemies to jump the right time.
The Super
Ryu's super is one of the best in the game, and he is capable of charging it up very quickly. It has three important properties that make it so dangerous:
- It blows through lesser projectiles, and will hit the character that threw them. In matches against other characters with projectiles, such as Dhalsim or Sagat, getting the super charged is a major turning point - it neutralizes their fireball, and let's Ryu play the game at his pace.
- It can easily be combo'ed into for massive damage (see Combos). A basic combo into super does around 70% of an opponent's health in damage, and will almost certainly end the round if it hits them.
- When blocked, it keeps the opponent trapped in blockstun for a long time, allowing Ryu to close the distance and follow up with one of his deadly mixups (see Mixups, below). The additional blockstun can also be used to extend his fireball trap, with the pattern: meaty Jab Hadouken, super, Jab Hadouken, Fierce Hadouken.
Negative Edge Hadouken
When executing special moves, the game checks not only for button presses, but also for button releases. This means that you can hold a punch button down, do a quarter circle forward motion, release the punch button, and have a Hadoken come out. This is referred to as Negative Edging.
Negative Edging Hadokens can be helpful in a variety of situations, the most obvious one being that if you fail to perform the Hadoken, no normal attack will come out, meaning that it's inherently safer. You can also use this technique to get more chances at using a special move. For example, if you hold down Fierce Punch, then do a Hadoken input, you can press any other punch button you want to throw a fireball, and if you mess up the input, you have another button press ready when you release Fierce Punch.
Check this article at Nohoho's blog for more information.
Built-In Shoryuken
The built-in (or buffered) Shoryuken is an advanced technique that takes precise execution to be effective. When mastered, it will allow you to safe-jump on certain characters without the risk of getting countered (video example). It is explained in this post at Nohoho's blog. Do not try to use this technique against characters you are not comfortable safe-jumping at.
Buffered-Motion Shoryuken
After a Ryu player performs the Shoryuken motion, they are allowed some time before pressing (or releasing) the punch button to have the move come out. This time is greatest when using a Jab Shoryuken, which is handy since that's the version with least vulnerability. This technique can be important as it allows you to counter things in a way that wouldn't be possible otherwise, since the Shoryuken motion is relatively slow.
For instance, when dealing with moves with fast start-up, like Blanka's rolling attack, you can realize your enemy is likely to attempt such an attack, and buffer the →↓↘ motion. If the enemy does perform the move you are expecting, simply press the Jab button to counter it. On the other hand, would he not perform the attack you wanted to counter, simply avoid pressing punch buttons for a brief moment, and behave accordingly.
This technique can also be used with projectile wars. Often, you want to advance (walking, rush punch, short Tatsu) instead of using your Hadoukens, because 1) this would push your enemy close to their corner, 2) it is safer than being trapped in the Hadouken's long recovery, and 3) allows you to react to some-random jumps. However, would your enemy keep on throwing projectiles, you are likely to block one of them, accept the corresponding chip damage, and get pushed back to your own corner in the process, which is bad. Since the Jab Shoryuken makes Ryu's legs and body invulnerable, you can use it to avoid such projectiles. From a distance, you can easily input the full motion on reaction, but this is not true when closing the gap. Thus, you can advance and buffer the motion when you expect they might throw a projectile.
A similar strategy can be used when you are cornered by projectile characters. It is not possible to react to all projectiles from such a range, but if you buffer the motion and pay attention to the projectiles themselves, then you will be able to react and avoid some of them, which may give you room to try and escape the trap. Simply predicting them is risky, since most players will throw in some feints so as to make you whiff the move and punish you.
Mixups
Once Ryu scores a knockdown, he has one of two choices: he can continue pressuring with his Hadouken, or he can move in and attack with his powerful mixups as they are regaining their feet.
Cross Ups
Ryu can cross up his opponents as they are getting up by jumping over them, aiming to land just behind them, and pressing Roundhouse. When done correctly, this has to be blocked in the opposite direction, because Ryu is no longer in front of them when the Roundhouse kick connects. If Ryu deliberately aims at the spot right above his opponent's head, it is often very difficult to tell whether the attack will cross up or not - and if the opponent guesses wrong, regardless of which side Ryu ends up on, Ryu gains a huge opportunity to hit the opponent with one of his Bread & Butter combos. A common technique is to follow with a cr.Strong as you land so you can confirm whether you are hitting the enemy or he blocked. If your enemy did not block, immediately cancel the crouching Strong into a Shoryuken, for high damage and a full knockdown. Else, apply Ryu's usual mix-ups such as throw, cr.Roundhouse, cr.Forward xx red Hadouken, late Shoryuken or simply waiting for him to make a mistake.
In addition to the previous strategy, Ryu can jump forward the way he normally would for a safe jump, from the front. As he is at the apex of the jump, perform an air tatsu to cross the enemy up as you land, obtaining another knock down. You can also jump above your enemy in a way that a cross-up Roundhouse would whiff. Before landing, perform an air Tatsumaki to hit your enemy if he tries to walk up and throw you.
Other mix-ups from an aerial roundhouse can be found in the strategy section of the Yoga Book Hyper (translated into English here). The general idea is to keep the enemy guessing whether they should reverse or not, stand or not, even if he correctly blocks the aerial attack.
High/Low
Ryu's → + Strong command normal has to be blocked high - it will hit any opponent who is blocking low. In addition, it can be linked into his cr.RH for a 3 hit combo, and a knockdown. Similarly, Ryu's cr.Fwd xx red Hadouken has to be blocked low - it will hit any opponent who is blocking high (also scoring a knockdown).
If your opponent is not fast enough, randomly choosing one of these two patterns as he is recovering from a knockdown or cross-up Roundhouse will give you a 50/50 chance of hitting him again, scoring another knockdown, and continuing the assault. However, know that Ryu's overhead swing has a long start-up, which allows players with good reactions to block or even counter it.
Throw Baiting
Ryu has two normal moves after which he can always link cr.Forward: → + Fierce, and cr.Strong. In addition, he can link cr.Forward after a meaty st.Forward or cr.Forward.
By performing one of these moves as an opponent is getting up, Ryu is threatening to hit the opponent with a powerful combo. To prevent this, the opponent will likely block the move. However, these attacks are also excellent throw set-ups - simply wait until the move has finished, and then press → and Fierce to throw the opponent. If the timing fails, you will obtain the rush punch again, setting up a new basic guessing game. The more you repeat this, the move the enemy is likely to try a reversal, else he will be pushed towards his corner while you gain a lot of super meter.
Savvy opponents will know that they can escape the throw by either A) counter-throwing, or B) performing a reversal move. But here is the trick to this mixup: doing either requires them to stand up. Since cr.mk can be linked after these moves, you can link cr.Forward xx red Hadouken instead of trying to throw them. This will hit them if they try to counter-throw or perform a reversal move, knock them down, and let you follow up with another mixup.
Additional Notes
It is important to pay attention to what happens to your Hadoukens after you throw them. Ryu can only ever have one Hadouken on the screen at a time, so if an opponent jumps straight up to pass over the Hadouken, attempting to throw a second one will simply fail and result in a normal move. This gives the opponent plenty of time to close the gap and fight the game on their terms.
In order to play Ryu well, you must be able to react to how your opponent reacts to your Hadoukens. If they tend to jump, feint them out and land an anti-air. If they block, check the distance between you and them. If you are outside of their jumping aerial arc, it's likely safe to throw another one. Keep this game going and watch carefully for their moves, and you'll eventually wear them down.
Goryus 17:24, 23 May 2007 (UTC)
