Birdie Q&A Thread: Ask All Your Questions Here

  1. Depends on the matchup honestly. Play lame and defensive when you have the life lead. Especially do constant vskills when the opponent isn’t coming to you /unable to punish you and you’re fullscreen. Go in when you can’t play lame.

  2. This is what setups are for. Setups depend on if your opponent has 3f or 4f normals, if they have invincible specials and their quick/backrise habits.

  3. Excellent hitboxes and stuffs a huge amount of normals while being safe in return. Is very safe on block and can easily link into sLP. It’s also used often as a meaty (3 active frames) and to punish shoryukens.

  4. It’s -5 on block, making it much safer than his other headbutts. If you’re lucky, the opponent will try to punish this with sweep (which would usually work on all other headbutts), so it’s rather safe depending on the matchup. It can also be used as a meaty.

  5. I don’t gamble, usually my command grabs come from tick throws and knockdown setups.

  6. I like to play big bulky characters than have good normals and can play lame. Birdie was the best fit for me since E. Honda in SF4.

  1. I would recommend focusing on maintaining a strong neutral game. Birdie gets tons of mileage just from footsies and keepaway, and once you establish this game you can mix your opponent up (wakeup mixups, ex dolphin dives, command throws). I think its also important to not overexert yourself. Id say Ive lost the majority of my games as birdie from just doing yolo shit. Things like long range ex headbutt, wakeup ex bullhorn, and far dolphin dives may be tempting but a lot of the time theyll get you killed. Also: Avoid getting cornered, Birdie loses very badly in the corner in most matchups.
    TLDR; Rely on staying solid with footsies. No random shit or getting cornered.

  2. Here are some options I like on wakeup: st.hk (+ on block, great crush counter combos, combos into jab on regular hit), raw command throw (when they’re scared of pressing buttons because of st.hk, then throw their stupid ass), cr.lk (+2 on block, at point blank leaves you in range to command throw, combos into st.lk), ex dolphin dive (a lot of people dont see this coming on wakeup, if they stand still or backdash they get hit, dont use this too much though or opponents will catch on), f+hk (just standard overhead, Ive had a lot of luck with this on wakeup).

  3. As I said above, i usually use st.hk on wakeup, but you can also use it after you anti-air someone with cr.mp. Mixup is similar to what it is on wakeup, you can either command throw them or hit them with st.hk. Makes a hard guessing game for them. Just remember you end up hurting more if you whiff a command throw instead of a hk. The same mixup also exists off a forward dash, you can dash up and st.hk if you think they’ll press a button and crush counter, or command throw them (they get scared of st.hk so they stay still, then you start command throwing them). As a footsie tool i only use it occasionally if I dont think theyre going to jump or if its longer range than an opponents moves.

  4. You can use it from far range when you have v-trigger to get close to them when you activate, also you can use it in the sim matchup to go under his fireballs and smack him. I generally dont like using this move, I think doing a hp headbutt from full screen is the kind of shit that will make you lose with birdie. 99% of the time when i do it in v-trigger i regret it.
    I know one fun combo that includes it though: (Corner) cc.f+hp, cr.hp, qcf+hp.

  5. I covered command throws mostly in 2 + 3. I occasionally command throw on wakeup if an opponent is dashing in after knockdowns or badly timing a move like ryu’s f+hp that moves them forward on my wakeup, but I wouldnt recommend this strategy regularly. Its a good silver bullet to have in your back pocket, but its bad play most of the time.

  6. Mostly aesthetic reasons, I played Rufus in SFIV and i wanted to play the fat character again. Also, like Angerus, i liked hondas no nonsense style in SFIV, and birdie was the closest match. Good normals, lame play, and high damage. He generally shuts down a lot of randos who go ham.

Does anyone know what happened at 2:06 and Birdie didn’t lose the EX bar?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmErMV7pkrQ

Is this something that was changed through a later update?

Going to post this in the general and see if folks have seen his happen with other characters.

Folks in general think it’s a desync due to rollback.

Have a newborn Birdie

Don’t want to dig through the forum, but I’m sure this has been answered before

Why does standing short not combo into lp bullhead sometimes?

I can buffer from standing light punch without bullhead coming out on whiff, but it seems way harder to do with st.lk is there a restriction on st.lk? Or is it possible to buffer lp/ex bullhead from standing short without the specials coming out on whiff?

Maybe it has to do with the total frames of his s.LK? It’s quite quick compared to his other normals.

Will someone please explain to me the extent of birdie’s armor wakeup? Is it unlimited? Should I worry before I meaty? Is it ex only?

Don’t think about meaties on wakeup, just grab him on wakeup.

Can someone help me with frame traps? cant seem to find birdie’s.

Which buttons do you guys hold to use bullhorn in your combo’s?

@FDream
I play pad so
I usually hold HK or HP depending on which range I’m playing at or the character I’m playing against
Mostly HK though because stHP is so good at long range
I like keeping my stLK, stLP, stMK and stMP open
Stmp for whiff punishing
StLK and stLP for those dash ins, confirms, and interrupts
StMK for long low pokes

That said I don’t always hold a button down
It just depends on the situation

CrLK > stLK > stLP is a good frame trap and link into each other on oki wake up or dash ins

Put dummy on random guard
CrLK > hit > stLK > bullhead
CrLK > blocked > stLK > hit > stLP > bullhead
CrLK > blocked > stLK > blocked > stLP > blocked > stMP buffer or stHK or stHP or crHK

You can also do
stLK > walk > stLK > counterhit > stMP > bullhead
I don’t know how to explain this one
After the walk just do stLK > stMP and if stLK counterhits you’ll have enough time to recognize it after already pressing stMP to confirm into bullhead

You can also just do stLK > walk > stLK > stLP if you feel you can’t confirm the counterhit

What is Birdie’s best option for being on knockdown with a grappler character hovering over him? I play a pretty decent Birdie, but that is the one situation I get really confused on. Say I am in corner and I just took a piledriver from Zangief, and Zangief is within range to do another piledriver, what are my options besides trying to jump? Any advice is appreciated! Thanks!

EX Killing Head, it’s throw invincible

Why is standing heavy punch so garbage? I end up using it more to bullhorn than anything because its so garbage.

It made more sense back in pre-release, with the CC property. Strange that they removed it when so many others can do that exact thing now.

My hope is that it gets the CC back in AE. That or allow Bad Hammer to work on block and give the CC to the followup, that would be interesting.

For all birdie mains: What would your ideal buff list look like?

1.) CC property on stHP or Bad Hammer. Frivolous with how good stHK is, but if anyone can roll out the door with CCs on everything, why not? Bad Hammer could use something to do. This could be awkward with blockstun changing on a shallow hit, though.

2.) Loosen spacing restrictions on 6HP. It feels silly as-is; if you’re close enough to combo from the CC, it’s unsafe. If you’re spaced for safety you get diddly squat from a CC. I also think it’s slightly too unsafe for its speed, but pushback’s there.

3.) Make 3HP safer (but less so than S1). This was abusable as all hell before, but now I rarely see it. Is that just me?

4.) Give his heavies “uh-oh” animations on block. I’d like this across the cast, but yeah. What’s up with the half-assed animation?

Does the V-Trigger II boost the damage too?

  • Birdie 1050 health. Zangief 1075, Abigail 1100
  • More damage on forward+HP
  • V-Trigger II chains must be useful against Guile, otherwise it’s useless
  • cLK must be 4 frames
  • cMK must be a frame faster
  • sMK a bit more range
  • more range on command throws. Just like E. Honda’s
  • HP bullhead safe on block. It’s fucking slow
  • down-forward+HP must be better against fireballs
  • bull revengers less recovery on whiff

I hope Birdie isn’t nerfed in s3 lol