Street Fighter 5 guide: basic movement

This stuff is in the Street Fighter 5 tutorial that you see when you start the game, and you almost certainly know how to do it. However, there’s a lot behind each type of movement. They’re good for some things, and bad for others. That’s something we need to talk about. You can’t put yourself in the right place if you don’t know how to get there.

Walking

Simply holding left or right will walk. Exciting, we know. The key point here is that unlike the other methods of movement in this game, walking is low commitment. While you are walking, you can stop walking at any moment. You can attack, you can dash, you can, crucially, guard. Walking is the way you get around the stage safely and while still maintaining all of your options.

You can’t do this if you’re dashing or jumping: These moves represent a risk, which is why we’d call them high commitment and walking low commitment. This is one of the many reasons you see expert players shuffle back and forth: safety.

Though mundane, walking is extremely important. If you want to move and keep your guard up at the same time, you walk.

Dashing

This is a short rush over a precise distance, done by double-tapping left or right. It's faster than walking, but slightly riskier as you're completely open to attacks.

For this reason, it often isn't wise to rush in like this at a medium range, when you’re just a few steps from your opponent’s attacking range. The other player will see you coming and be in a position to slap you out of it.

On the other hand, dashing backward is not a terrible idea when you want to put some distance between yourself and the enemy.

Jumping (you need to jump less)

There isn't a jump button in this game: rather, the up directions handle this action. up-back jumps away, up-forward jumps forward, and up jumps straight up.

Walking, we established, is a low commitment move. Dashing commits you for just a moment — a slight commitment but enough time for you to be hit. However, when you jump at the enemy, you're moving forward in a completely predictable arc, unable to block for about a second. Jumping is a major commitment. In Street Fighter time, a second is an eternity. How easy, then, is a wild jump to deal with?

It’s this easy. Though few have quite so many options as anti-air queen Chun-Li, most characters have some kind of tool to punish random jumps. However much you jump in Street Fighter, if you're a beginner you should probably jump less. It's often the single biggest contributor to your losses, as cautious players consider your jumps easy, free hits and you wind up taking damage for no particular reason.

On the other hand, once you know your character's attacks, pick the ones that will stop your opponents from jumping at you. Some characters don't have many, but almost everybody has something.

Instead, jump when your enemies make themselves vulnerable, when they can't do anything about it, or when you anticipate an opening on their part. Most importantly, look before you leap because jumping without thinking gets you beat.

Navigation

1. Intro
2. What am I trying to do in this game?
3. Controls
4. Basic movement
5. Basic attacks
6. The poke game
7. Knockdowns
8. Special moves
9. Control and execution
10. Combos
11. Counter and crush counter
12. Critical meter and critical arts
13. V-System
14. Stun gauge
15. Dealing damage and combos
16. Character select
17. Advanced techniques
18. Good buttons
19. What’s different in Street Fighter 5 Season 2?
20. This is just the beginning