USF4 Primer: Karas and Plinks

[@x3Kittens]

been playin street fighter/fighting games since like 08(i know whatever), and I've only ever had a vague understanding of plinking, never really felt like i could consciously implement it into my game. But after watching your videos on it, i have been living in the land of 1 frame links confirmed.

[@michaelhaleyropp258]

This was so god damn helpful. Thankyou.

[@Bafael]

I do it for the people.

[@ragnaroc16]

Hello Bafael, always enjoy the primers and videos, I didn't see one on throws, and namely throw priority. I seem to often get thrown on a cross-up, i wish to receive your wisdom!

[@Bafael]

Not sure I can make a primer about something so broad, that most people have to have a good understanding of to even be playing the game. I'm guessing you play cammy or poison or someone with a light normal crossup. Throws start in 3f, which is really fast, so you need to hit your crossups deeper and landing actions faster if you don't want to leave a window for you to get thrown. Unless you're talking about people crossing you up then throwing you?

[@Kuroig53]

Is the video mentioned at 3:18 linked trough the old youtube notations?

[@Bafael]

Yeah it was, RIP

[@christianohe2658]

I came across your tutorials by chance and I really really appreciate them and the work you put in them. I’m somewhat new to fighting games and you’re tutorials have helped immensely. Is there any chance you can make one explaining frame data, how to use frame data in game, and explaining how to count frames in detail? There are a few good ones out there but I really think they can be improved upon. Thanks again for your efforts in this!

[@patrickmcmahon6194]

Are there any useful Kara options for Blanka?

[@Bafael]

Blanka can plink crouch LK to LP to reliably hit his 1f links for repeated crouching light kicks. Blanka can use crouch LK/crouch MK into kara ultra 1 (charge back, forward back forward PPP~HK) which will make it a 2f link from LK and 3f link from MK. He can also do stand MP and use plinks to link into stand HK (HK~MK) or crouch MK (MK~LK). I'm not certain of any others.

[@patrickmcmahon6194]

Thank you!

[@renzokufc]

***** My english listening is not good and I'm only guiding myself using the graphics that appears at 3:37, so I'm not sure if you point this out, but under some circunstances you can plink Jab to Short, for example. For example, I usually plink the LP Fukiage after an EX Hayate with Makoto with LK. And I tend to plink c.LP with LK after an FADC with Bison to get the link. Sorry if this was pointed out, I don't wanna sound like a smartass.

[@Bafael]

special moves take priority over normals, so because DP+P is a special move for makoto and DP+K is not, DP+P~K gives you two DP+P inputs. As for c.LP into LK to get cr. LP, that logically should get you LP or LK depending on your timing unless chaining is involved.

[@renzokufc]

***** Looking at it again, I shouldn't get a c.LP on the second example. You are right, that's timing dependant and I should get a LP o LK... Watching this made me learn a bit more about this stuff, thanks.

[@easymode533]

no one plays this game anymore but idk why its mechanics are so interesting

[@hcvenceslau2]

Can't find the other tutorial on your channel...

[@Bafael]

Oops, gimme a sec, forgot my annotation

[@hcvenceslau2]

***** Oh thanks and thanks for the video too :)

[@Bafael]

@@haydarrencuzogullari5736 IDR what the video was lol.

[@HolyHadou]

I didn't think comboing in Street Fighter 4 was so technical O_O.... Know is half the battle I guess. Thanks Friend!

[@DodgySmalls]

The viper clip at 1:56 has me confused a little bit, what's the point of the st.Fierce before F.TK? Is this just demonstrating saving yourself from an input error or does it modify the recovery time by keeping you grounded or something? You can make the same exact traded F.TK into dash ultra without any advanced techniques, unless I've done it accidentally and never noticed it in my inputs somehow.

[@alisalman8164]

Hey Baf, I've heard you're a pad user. If so what pad do you use and how do you manage plinking on said pad?

[@Bafael]

I use an imitation PS1 pad. To plink I put my fingers between the two buttons and give the button I wanna hit first slight weight emphasis. It's very consistent for me.

[@corruptale]

can you go over useful plinks / links for makoto? cause so far I only have stand jab into strong but its hard. That or any other info you can share on makoto

[@Bafael]

You can plink u1 after karakusa if you're worried about dropping it. You can do stand jab stand jab then plink stand strong, or do multiple stand strongs and plink each one. Stand strong, crouch short EX fukiage is quite useful. You do strong, down/towards LK~LP (short plinked to jab), down, down/towards, punches. Also on a cornered opponent you can do ex fukiage and plink u2 for the juggle.

[@proach6]

hmm bafael, i think a video on the properties of Hugo's specials would be nice and informative, For example, Meat Squasher needs to input 1 more direction of rotation, so the input 4123698 Kick (b, db, d, df, f, uf, u) is required at a minimum; Ultra 2 requires a strict QCFx2 ( meaning both QCF's must end in forward )

[@Bafael]

I didn't know anything about that and I don't know what I'd say about it in the video other than reading it off if I did know. I'm gonna cover the roles of his special moves in my hugo tutorial which will be coming soon, but as for their notations, I have no idea why they're like that or what that means for him lol.

[@ParanoidxSniper]

how do you select plink on pad?

[@Bafael]

I'm a wizard. Left thumb on select, right thumb on normal?

[@ParanoidxSniper]

***** you sir are not a wizard , your a god.

[@smugcat6938]

Street fighter 4 is so fucking sick

[@CoviYello]

Is it true the PS3 version of Ultra has 2 frames of lag even offline?

[@Bafael]

I've heard it said that PS3 version has the same speed as PC and arcade version, and that it's Xbox version actually that's different. I can definitely say the ps3 version is more prone to slowdown and has noticably slower load times uninstalled, anyway.

[@CoviYello]

Oh, ok then. Does the slowdown occur during gameplay, because I've never noticed it happening with offline matches.

[@Bafael]

It depends on your model of ps3, how long it's been on, and the stage you're on.

[@CoviYello]

I don't think I have anything to worry about. Thanks for the info.

[@dayaftertomorrow1]

It's not a "conventional" slowdown, like a framerate thing or whatever. People argue that the PS3 version reads/performs your inputs a few frames slower than the X360 version. I never had a chance to do consistent testing though, but it seems to be the general consensus.

[@xPryZmic]

was all of this intentionally built into the game?

[@Bafael]

Kara's are deliberate. Plinks it's hard to say but regardless they were never removed.

[@vovancho]

@@Bafael even if it wasn't intentional, it's a great thing that people still have to learn and get rewarded for. There was basically no reason to remove it... Also the priority system simply had to work.

[@XylessBrawl]

One thing you left out with regards to plinking is the fact that the order of inputs to plink from reverse with special normals. With Hakan, for example, if you do both f.MP and LK at the same time, LK will always come out. It's extremely useful for his tight combos.

[@Bafael]

if that's true, I had no idea. You're talking about f+MP and f+LK, right? cuz I can't think of how you could do forward and non-forward inputs at the same time but you could be talking about kara-ing LK into f+MP or something which is possible.

[@XylessBrawl]

Yeah, my bad. I meant to say f.LK instead of LK (was in a rush since I had to go).

[@Bafael]

Xyless Gaming Bizarre! I just took hakan to training and f+LK taking priority over f+MP is the only instance of his input priority being backwards I could find. f+LK doesn't even take priority over other normals like f+MK and f+HK. Also I tried it out with Oni, Dudley, and Makoto (the other 3 characters who can change all their normals by holding forward) and none of them have that at all. So I think that hakan's f+LK having priority over f+MP is completely specific not only to him, but to those specific two normals he has.

[@XylessBrawl]

Weird, I just assumed it was universal.

[@jk844100]

With dudley when I try to plink HK with MK sometimes I get the double HK input and sometimes I get a double MK input like this MH

[@darkphoenix8921]

Yo can you do the same type of things for Option selects?

[@Bafael]

I'm not sure exactly what you're asking. Karas and plinks will come out as the same inputs regardless of whether they're hitting the opponent, while option selects rely on coming out as different things depending on opponent's actions. Off the top of my head I can't think of using a kara as part of an OS in this game, though I can think of a few examples in SF2...

[@darkphoenix8921]

I guess I more so ment breaking, how to do OS, how a option select works, why its helpful etc etc... im sharing this video with some friends and I know its gonna shed a bunch of light on kara's

[@Bafael]

Ohh, you want me to do a video on Option Selects. I already did a little one on OS sweep USF4 Primer: Option Select Sweep and another one on empty cancels USF4 Primer: Negative Edge and Empty Cancels which are both specific option selects, and I'm working on another for safe jumps. Talking about OS very broadly isn't very helpful IMO, it's best to just talk about the useful ones.

[@darkphoenix8921]

Sweet, ill pass this along. Good looking out mane

[@khaosng1398]

Ok i know this video is old, and you might not see this, or anyone But, why did you change Ken's mini avatar in-game?

[@Bafael]

KhaosNG he was my main

[@khaosng1398]

Bafael do you just prefer that image to 4's?

[@Bafael]

A little bit, but I mostly like that it's unique

[@megakiller9204]

Could you make a video on piano-ing with different characters? Personally I'm trying to pick up gen and chun, and while I'm OK with gen, I tend to drop piano combos with Chun, like EX legs into U2, especially online, if you could make a video on what pianos are true block strings, proximity OS piano combos and other stuff, that'd be great.

[@Bafael]

I think you should find someone more qualified to explain that than me, sorry. :[ As for Chun I think any normal into normal or EX legs is a true blockstring actually, not sure if I've ever heard about proximity OS in regards to pianoing so the only thing I can think of is situations like far roundhouse just being roundhouse while close roundhouse legs is a cancel.

[@megakiller9204]

Well I found something yesterday, do crouch short, crouch jab, fierce, strong, jab, then fierce, and on whiff it comes out as cr.LK, then cr.mp which could just be thrown away as a generic poke, so I was wondering if you had any tips, but I guess you can't know everything about a game, oh well, thank you for your time at least. edit: (with gen)

[@kswift510]

You can Kara clap with hugo. into either ultra throw or spd