Basic combo arsenal

Hi there, I play USF4 (and fighting games in general) for like 3 weeks now. I decided to go with Ken and want to know which basic combos I should learn first. I want to keep it simple so I thought of this:

As general combos
St. LP , St.LP xx HP Shoryuken for knockdown
St. LP, St. LP, cr.MK xx Hadoken to keep distance

St. HP xx HP Shoryuken
for punish

Thats it.

As footsies St. MP, Step Kick, cr. MK.

Just to keep it simple and learn the game. Is that enough to get me some wins?

Further question: I have massive problems with hyper aggressive players. Can’t find a way to shut them down and find an opening. Any tipps on that?

I understand your intention of trying to keep things simple, which is an excellent idea, however these combos are not the right ones to go with.
[list]
[] You start standing with your combos, making you susceptible to low attacks. People are pressing crouching attack buttons under pressure all the time, so if your 2nd st.lp whiffs they can convert their low attack in their own combo. Low attacks stop people from mashing reversals under pressure(unless they use shortcut dp’s) and they often get caught when trying to backdash in middle of pressure.
[
] Close standing light attacks usually connects with most characters either on block or hit, when you do two st lp attacks the 2nd one might whiff and you miss your combo, or cannot continue pressure safely.
[*]cl.hk xx hp shoryuken better punish i believe. These punishes only work if the opponent does something highly unsafe and they end up close to you. Another one you might want to add is cr.mk xx ex tatsu if they end up further. Cr.hk if you need more range. Cr.mk xx fireball if you are unsure. Ofcourse these are mainly used against highly unsafe moves. Often a punish can also be started from a simply cr.lp which you then need to convert in bigger damage but tht is not something you needt o worry about now. Another punish you need to have as soon as possible is to Ultra their highly unsafe moves, or if you get a focus crumple.
[/list]

Which tools to use during the neutral depends on matchups, so some normals are better than others…ofcourse depending on matchup. You might even find uses for normals that only work in specific situations. Overall these are good options:
[list]
[] cr.mk
[
] f.mk
[] cr.hk
[
] st.hk
[] st.mp(mainly see it used in frametrap situations and wierd blockstrings, almost never during the spacing game)
[
] st.lk(to stuff forward movement and make low attacks whiff. Pretty advanced button to use)
[] focus(kara)
[
] fireball(this works excellent from closer ranges, too fast to react to and jump over, if they do it is a guess. EX version is even better, also stops people from focus attacking in your face)
[/list]
*Highlighted some options to keep it simple, basically same as yours.

Combo starters:
[list]
[] cr.lk/lp, cl.lp
[
] cr.lk/lp, cr.lp
[/list]

Combos:
[list]
[] cr.lk/lp, cl.lp, cr.hp xx hp shoryuken/(ex)tatsu
[
] cr.lk/lp, cr.lp, hp shoryuken(linked not cancelled)
[*] cr.lk/lp, cr.lp, cr.mk xx fireball/ex tatsu if they are standing
[/list]

These are good hitconfirms. With Ken you HAVE to learn how to do a shoryuken from a crouching position without getting a super.
Another note, as i’m unsure of you are aware of it. In this game you can only cancel into specials if the normal you are trying to cancel from was NOT chained.
For example: cr.lk, cl.lp xx hadouken is impossible to do if you chain nor light attacks. Chaining means cancelling of light normals attacks in this game

  • The reason you have these combo starters is for hiconfirming, so if they get blocked you can go into a few basic options:
    [list]
    [] “Safe” combo, such as ending in cr.mk xx (ex) fireball
    [
    ] Go for a throw attempt(learn how to kara throw with Ken)
    [*] Block and bait a mashed reversal.
    [/list]
    Ofcourse there are more options, you can get as creative as you want.

What to do against aggresive players? In what way are they aggressive?
If they jump: anti air
If they keep doing crossups: jump back hp or focus at last second and backdash
If they barrage you with blockstrings: try to do a shoryuken in between to make them respect you
If they keep throwing: Learn how to crouchtech

*Try to do a backdash on your wakeup or during their pressure attepts, backdash has invincibility frames which can help you get out.

Often you just need experience i recognizing attack patters and where you can press your own buttons.

TLDR: Wrong combos, need better ones. You need more practice and experience. And read my post anyway.

Awesome , didnt expect such a detailed answer.

So in general, starting combos with a crouching attack is preferable.

Cl.HK xx HP Shoryuken is harder for me to do atm, so i’ll use that when I have that down.

Thanks for all the tipps, I’ll go practice now.

As a “hyper aggressive player” my advice is to watch replays of your matches and try and figure out where you were getting rushed down the hardest, then go into training mode to replicate those situations to practice getting out of them. If you have the opportunity, play these types of players for longer sets, because mindless rushdown works really well the first game, but starts to fall off once someone’s patterns start getting more obvious. with any rushdown character there are certain blockstrings and frame traps that will be commonly seen, and through training mode you can find gaps in pressure that will allow you to get out and back into neutral.

My advice is to work on anti-airs and fireball spacing, as that will help stop the rushdown pressure before it even starts, and learning when to reversal. oftentimes doing unsafe DP’s in the beginning of the round places doubts in the opponent’s mind about how HAM they can go, even if you never do it again.

for a punish combo with ken do Close Standing Hard Kick canceled into HP SRK instead of standing or crouching Hard punch. St HP does only 90 damage/150 Stun. Cr HP does 100 damage/200 stun. Close St HK does 110 damage/200 stun. You can use this same combo in a jump in combo by using Jumping HP/HK from the front orJumping MK as a cross up an long as you hit deep

Thanks for the tipps.

I try to work on my defensive game atm. Got the standard block string down now (c.lk, c.lp, c.lp, c.mk xx FB/DP/Tatsu)

S.hk xx HP Shoryuken is still hard for me but I’m getting better.

One more question: how can I see if I linked c.lp, c.lp instead of chaining it to get a DP after it. I think atm it’s quite random for me so the DP doesn’t come out consistently.