Dhalsim's Matchups

Classic Fighting Games Ultra Street Fighter IV
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Rog can punch Sim’s standing roundhouse in that situation, yeah. You can do crouching strong under his crouching punch such that he lands on your punch, and that’ll at least hurt him for jumping, but if he empty jumps he can land and block your crouching strong. Of course, if he empty jumps, your roundhouse will knock him out of the air. It’s basically a guessing game; will Rog go air attack or empty jump, and will you go roundhouse or crouching strong?

As Sim, though, it’s not a great idea to get involved in that kind of guessing game, since guessing wrong hurts you and your positioning more than it does Rog’s.

This is one of the reasons why I’m starting to think that you should keep throwing fires to a minimum at some ranges. If you throw a fire from 3/4 screen and Rog goes to jump, you have to play a guessing game with him that you don’t really wanna play; that is, you’re giving him a chance to hurt you and get better positioning. If you hadn’t thrown that fire, what would he have done? Walked forward? Walk forward leads to him getting fierced or to you throwing a fire from a range where you can antiair him more consistently. EX dash punched? EX dash punch gets thrown for free as soon as it gets within your throw range, it gets supered if you have super, or it gets teleported behind. You can do short slide buffered into super from afar so that if Rog does a regular dash punch, ex dash punch, or tap and runs into your slide, you get immediate super, but if he doesn’t run into your slide, you don’t waste a super.

I’m still down with fires in some locations, like full screen, closer in, and to push Rog out after a poke string, and I’m down with them all over the place against some opponents, but there are definitely ranges where I don’t think you want to do anything but wait and react.

Back+mp beats divekick in some situations, but it’s risky because it loses to some divekick pressure, to throw, and to low short xx spin. I personally like doing down-back+jab~short or down-back+strong~jab+short. These inputs come out as down-back+jab or down-back+mp normally, which beat dive kick from most ranges and come out faster than or as fast as back+mp, and if Rufus goes for throw, they also come out as throw techs. Since divekick doesn’t count as a high attack, you can block it low, so it’s not a big deal if he catches you crouch blocking. It’s actually safer to crouch block most of the time, since that makes you safe from divekick as well as low short xx spin.

I don’t think you really have any good options when Rufus corners you. His pressure is mostly safe and it’s very damaging, and even the options you have to beat his pressure don’t deal much damage and don’t push him very far away. I kinda almost think it’s better for you to just teleport behind him (ie out of the corner) when he is or when you think he’ll be in the air. Yes, he’ll probably land and punish you, but after that punish you’re more likely to be in a more manageable midscreen situation where you can backdash, teleport, or block your way to safety. Not sure about this yet, but it’s what I’m currently doing and it seems to usually work out better than just playing it safe in the corner.

Ryu’s hurricane kick is safe on block, so after you block it it’s just a guessing game. Will he dragon punch or throw? Will you block or throw tech? As above, you don’t usually want to get into this sort of game, so you can escape by just crouching under the hurricane and smacking it with down-back+fierce, like the guy above says. You can also teleport behind Ryu, which is great because you sometimes land in time to do standing fierce from afar on his hurricane kick and you always land away from Ryu without having taken any damage or having been put in a dangerous situation, and if you were anywhere near the corner before, this is great because you end up midscreen with Ryu cornered.

362

Oh ya, I do that. Thanks.

363

ultra david cant u just dash back after hurricane kick and if then if they follow do some b.lk’s or b.mk

364

well i pretty much play all day between 11am to 8pm.i dont have aim so how would i contact you?

365

well what happpens if he green fists me when i attack him,i get knocked down then he starts his crossovers and larriats and pile driver games.

366

After blocking the hurricane kick? Yeah, you can dash or teleport backward, provided that the Ryu player doesn’t smell this coming and respond by doing another hurricane kick or an ex fireball, either of which will eat your backdash up, and also provided that you make sure you wait until blocking the last hit of the hurricane kick before backdashing, since you can sometimes accidentally backdash between hits and get knocked down by the next hit. So yeah, it’s usually safe to just dash back, and if you don’t think you have time to do down-back+punch or teleport behind, dashing back after blocking is usually fine.

But hitting it or teleporting behind it are much better options, since they both always or usually lead to damage and always lead to better positioning than the backdash option. Remember, you want Ryu at a distance from you and you really don’t want to be cornered. Backdashing will never get you that far away and teleporting sometimes won’t, and backdashing will move you a bit towards the corner and teleporting will usually move you pretty far towards the corner, so those aren’t the best ideas. They’re not the worst ideas, they’re usually better than just sitting there getting mixed up, but if you can do something else instead, do it.

Against Zangief, once he gets into ex green hand range, make sure you play very cautiously. If you block a green hand of any strength you can always do back+mk or super and you can throw him unless he did a certain strength at max max distance, and if he hits you and doesn’t knock you down you can throw him unless he did it at max max distance. Whatever happens, if you don’t get knocked down (ie including an ex hand that only hits once), you can always punish with back+short or down-back+short xx super or xx back teleport, you can always throw unless he did it a certain strength from its maximum possible range, and you can always always jump, teleport, or instant air teleport backward. Obviously you want to keep him outside of green hand range, but if he gets there, play cautiously. Dashing, jumping, or teleporting backward out of that range is ok in some circumstances, but in general you don’t want to do it because it just gives Gief an opportunity to move forward and it always results in you being closer to the corner, which is really, really bad for you.

If Gief corners you, you’re in more trouble than you are against just about any other character (probably any character, actually). Jumping and doing back+hk or back+hp will beat antiair lariats at about Zangief’s shoulder height, but if he blocks either of those at that height from close enough (ie not even that close) he’ll have recovered from the blockstun in time for your landing, where he’ll get a free 360/720. Staying grounded means you have to guess between blocking lariat or jumping/yoga towering through 360/720. If you correctly block a lariat, make sure you listen to see whether it’s kick or punch lariat, and then wait until the lariat’s recovery to do something like down-back+fierce linked to back+mk to push him out. Don’t teleport, whether on the ground or in the air, it’ll just give Gief a free lariat, and even if you teleported out he’ll just do a crossup splash and put you right back into the corner.

If he knocks you down midscreen, yeah, that sucks, but it’s not as bad as the corner. If you can quick stand after the knockdown (ie if it’s not a post-command grab knockdown), always quick stand and try to backdash or teleport away. If you can’t, oh well, here comes Gief with a free meaty mixup game, and you just have to guess right. If you guess right, huzzah, get away or punish him. Midscreen, punish close lariats (after waiting until their recovery!) with down-back+fierce to back+mk xx fire (if he has no meter for ex hand) or xx back ppp teleport (if he does have meter) to get some space. Punish far lariats with far fierce and mid range lariats with roundhouse slide.

367

well i must say that was very informative i appreciate it.lol,do you play online david?cuz id like to do sum live battles wit u.ur sim must be…amasing O.o.XD

368

Ultradavid, Can you explain the dhalsim vs blanka matchup? I’m having a really hard time finding a strategy to fight aggressive blankas.

369

I’m not david, and I’m sure he would give you a better answer… but what exactly are you having problems with?

Blanka balls are all easily punished, some (like EX straight or rainbow), can even be punished on hit with a st fierce.

You want to play reactionary. You want to zone blanka, and make him come to you. Don’t get hit by any balls/slides, and he has a hard time getting in on you.

Outside of that, you have to deal with his close up game, which while decent, isn’t as bad as some characters, so standard sim strategy applies. Don’t go into the air too much, as getting hit by vertical balls is massive damage against Sim. If he whiffs a vert, its another free punish for you.

Don’t get stuck in the corner, which pretty much goes for sim vs anyone. If you are in the air, and he isn’t using a vert roll, be wary of trying to hit him as he may use electricty which if you are in the air, probably won’t trade in your favor.

So try to stay grounded.

370

Try not to get knocked down. Put pressure on him with pokes and keep him away as much as possible. Blanka Ball moves are easily punishable. If you find yourself in a corner, try to slide under him if he try’s jumping toward you so that he ends up being in the corner. Blanka’s main knockdown move is his slide punch and EX ball moves, it might actually be a good idea to Focus attack on his slides upon reaction, but focus attacking leaves you open to blanka ball or EX blanka ball so be careful of that. There’s the possibility of him trying to slide you when you’re about to land so be careful about that. Watch his EX meter too. He’s got some pretty annoying cross ups so try to block the correct way when he try’s jumping behind you when you get up and get away when you can. Yoga Inferno is great for stopping blanka balls (not sure about EX though) and Yoga Catastrophe works when he’s gonna try sliding into you (you may fall down, but he’ll also get knocked down and lose a good amount of health).

371

Also, if you don’t much like the guessing game, when you see his Backstep Ball (which can cross up), just focus it and dash out. Even if you end up taking that (considerable) white damage, which you probably can avoid, it beats getting knocked down.

On Drills

Maybe this is old news by now, but I’m having a bit of luck using drills as air-to-air. They seem to outprioritize a lot of stuff. I’ve used them fairly successfully against IATs in Dhalsim mirrors (when I IAT second, or if I happen to be in the air already), and I used one to knock down a Chun that was jumping to meet me with 2xFierce. I tend to forget they’re there, but once in a while, I’m pretty happy to have them for something other than getting around projectiles.

372

Yeah they seem to be pretty useful in Dhalsim mirror matches (god >_<), but against anyone else it’s hit or miss. HP drill knocks down anyone if they’re in the air and you successfully hit them with it and HK drill usually hits IAT Dhalsim’s. Though it’s usually not worth the risk. You might be able to get behind people with them or land quicker with HK drill, but anyone can see them from a mile away.

373

Thanks Amsalp I appreciate it!

374

Ultradavid,

When you are saying “down-back+jab~short or down-back+strong~jab+short”

Did you mean press the jab and short at the same time? So are you saying that when Rufus is spamming the dive kicks, try to throw him rather than press back + mp? Sorry I’m a bit confused.

375

Down-back+jab~short means hold down-back and then press jab followed immediately by short, with the timing of the button presses being like the timing of quickly drumming your fingers out of boredom. If you do it right, it always comes out as a down-back+lp unless the opponent presses throw just before or as you press your input, in which case your input will come out as a throw tech so that you escape the opponent’s throw. This is what’s known as an option-select; you input one command with two possible outcomes, and the game selects the best outcome for you.

Same deal with down-back+strong~jab+short. Hold down-back and then press mp immediately followed lp+lk with that same very fast drumming timing. If the opponent doesn’t try a throw, it’ll come out as down-back+mp, but if he does, you’ll tech his throw.

This is good against dive kick pressure for a few reasons. The first is that holding down-back lets you block both a dive kick (it doesn’t count as an overhead attack, so it can be blocked low) and a low kick. The second is that if you try the strong or jab option selects and Rufus is attacking with dive kick or whatever, your move will at least trade with his attack. The third is that if Rufus stops attacking and goes for a throw, you’ll tech his throw attempt. This still isn’t a perfect solution, since if you try either option select at the wrong time, like such that your attack is in its startup or recovery frames when Rufus actually attacks you, you can still get hit. But in my opinion, crouch blocking and doing the occasional option select down-back+jab or strong/throw is probably your best bet.

376

Thanks for clearing it up UltraDavid! Appreciate it.

377

So…what the hell do you do about Rogs jump heavy punch… I think its his feirce.

It trades with knee… and not a favorable trade either.Not sure if im timing it wrong or what.

“A lot of Boxer’s regular means of getting around fireballs don’t work against Dhalsim, cause he can simply throw out a limb and hit you out of whatever attack you were doing to get around the fireball. Luckily for you, Boxer’s jump-ins beat or trade with Dhalsim’s anti airs. Be careful on doing late jump ins though cause they’ll lose to Sim’s b.MP and b.HK. You should learn the range of his b.HK and jump right outside of it baiting him to do it then punishing. Up close Sim gets destroyed since he can’t deal with c.LP spam, and you don’t have to worry so much about his teleport as Akuma’s since he’ll end up right next to you still(unless you were going for a cross-up).
Second.”

That was said in the boxer forum and I have experienced the truth in this, lol.

What do you do about Bisons LK sissors kick, because you can’t punish it with Sim. If you block it all day, you will die from chip.

Answers would be extremely appreciated.

378

I’m no expert but:

  1. If he times it at the correct range, I’ll probably just block it and then go do something else (whether it be a close range normal, or a backdash, or whatever).

If he screws up the timing, or is not at the right range, you can punish with B+HK or cr fierce.

  1. I usually just jump back and either use an air attack or teleport. After the block of course. Although this can get you hit by st roundhouse I believe if you don’t time it right.

I’m sure David will know exactly what to do though, so I can’t wait for his response (talk about being thorough!)

379

People might already know this, but Yoga flame works pretty well on EX charge punches due to armor breaking properties. It can be kinda risky though, but even after blocking a charge punch, there’s not much you can do, but move away usually. But so far though I’ve had problems with this match up usually >_<. If he’s close enough, I think it’s better that you just slide under him when he’s doing his aerial HK (punch) depending on how close you are to a corner.

Protip: Never jump away from a Balrog when you’re up-close to him unless you can air-teleport on time to avoid it. He’ll headbutt you :x.

380

Hi i got so much trouble against this kind of honda…

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I really dont know what to do against his “spam superman trick”.
Any tips?

thanks