Street Fighter 5 guide: This is just the beginning

We've taught you some beginner and intermediate facts and tactics here, but Street Fighter 5 (and fighting games in general) are a much higher mountain to climb. We want you to get good, but even advanced players continue to think "I need to get good at this game" every time they finish a set of online matches. Our good, your good, and Daigo Umehara's or Justin Wong’s good are different, and the road does not end. Thankfully, Street Fighter 5 has a number of great features for players looking to improve.

Never stop practicing

Keep practicing in training mode. Don't limit your training to your own character, or you'll only be able to see the game through their eyes. Find out what the other characters can do and how you can best counter them. Don't be the player idly complaining about a character. Be the player who's figuring out how to beat them.

Watch replays

Use replay mode to rewatch your own matches. You'll see where you make mistakes, and you can work to fix them. At a high level, so much of the game is mental: your state, your outlook, your attitude towards others. Seeing yourself do something stupid is the greatest motivator not to do that stupid thing ever again. Woshige will never stand up before a match is through again.

Embrace casual matches, but learn to play under pressure

Casual matches with nothing at stake are great, but to learn what it's like to play under pressure, you need to play ranked matches online. Get as much practice as you can with players around your skill level. Don't worry about the LP numbers (the game's rank and point system) or advancement, especially since the Street Fighter 5 system is brutal. A high rank is not really the point. To make progress against others you have to make progress within yourself. That is the point: to level up not the character on the screen but yourself.

Learn how to measure your progress

There are a lot of numbers and bars in this game that go up when you keep playing, but your true progress as a player isn’t so easy to nail down. Some days you won’t see yourself going anywhere. But one day you’ll be playing, and that difficult move will become so easy that you can’t imagine how you ever struggled with it. You’ll be in that situation against that character, and you will know what to do without even thinking about it. Your fingers will move on their own.

You will not see the results of your practice immediately, but rest assured. With time, it will be obvious to you and to your opponents how far you’ve come.

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