Game Plan for Beginner Yang

Classic Fighting Games Ultra Street Fighter IV
1

So I’ve been trying to learn Yang and have had very little success. I think it’s because I don’t have a real game plan for what I’m supposed to do. I’ve watched some videos, and the best players squeeze out the maximum advantage/damage out of every situation, but it is hard to figure out as a beginner what you should do to start learning the character properly. I mean without FADC combos, without setups, subtle match-up knowledge, etc.

 When I first started to learn Vega, a friend at a local happened to play the character and he boiled everything down to two BnBs, one punish combo and an option or two for every situation. This helped a lot as I could always look at my game plan after a loss and say “Oh, I should be anti-airing with nj.HK more” or “I should control the mid-range better with cr.MP” etc.

 I know nothing about Yang, but I’m not so lucky this time around that a friend plays him. So after reading the threads I came up with this and was hoping that the experts in here could correct me on what’s wrong etc. For example, I’ve purposely ignored certain moves as I’m not sure if as a beginner it’s just too many options that it’s overwhelming. Essentially, this would be someone for that understands combos, understands footsies to an extent, and has some familiarity with other characters. Just a really simple “Where to start” with Yang sort of thing.

Thanks in advance for any help!

A GAME PLAN FOR BEGINNER YANG

Playstyle
I think Yang is somewhere in-between Yun and Fei Long (not very specific I know). He doesn’t have the relentless rush-down that Yun has and doesn’t have the same buttons as Fei that allow him to play better footsies. However, play patient, pick your spots, punish mistakes into Rekka knockdown and begin your mix-up and you’ll have more success.

 Do not try to always stay in your opponent’s face, you will get punished hard for dive kicking, or jumping too much while trying to get in. If you stay at the mid-range the entire match there are characters who are simply better at it than you are. Neither way will help you win.

General Options

Your BnBs
BnB #1: cr.LP, st.LP, cr.MK xx LP.Rekkas (st.LP can miss on some crouching characters)
Alternate: cr.LP, cr.LP, cr.MK xx LP.Rekkas is a good alternate version of BnB #1 that’s a little harder to execute but hits all characters.
BnB #2: cr.LK x3 xx LP.Rekkas
BnB #3: cr.MK xx LP.Rekkas

Punish Combos
Punish #1: St.HP(1) xx LP.Rekkas
Punish #2: cr.MK xx LP.Rekkas

Anti-Air
LK.DP -> Sometimes MK.DP can be a useful options if you’re not sure if LK will whiff.
cl.MK is good for those who will be above you if you anticipate a jump, and far st.MK is good if they land in front of you.

Air-To-Air
j.HK

Jump In

  1. Divekick aimed at opponent below waist into BnB
  2. j.HP can go into BnB
  3. j.MK has a small cross-up hitbox
  4. Air Diagonal MK > Down-Forward MK: Probably the Yang’s target combo with the best application, you can beat focus attacks with it if you did a non cross-up MK just above their head, and it can throw off the opponents timing on block if they’re not expecting it, second hit can even be slightly delayed to gain extra frame advantage and alter timing even further. It’s best to use it if you’re already in mid-air and see them focusing.

Ultras
Ultra 1: Your anti-air Ultra. Good invincibility and does not trade like U2 does sometimes.
Ultra 2: Can be useful in punishing Blanka Ball & T. Hawk’s Dive on block.

Focus Attack
Can be useful in the mid-range against pokes and fireballs, absorbing a hit and then letting it rip. Don’t abuse it, but you can use it as a fake to start it and dash back.

Meter Usage
The reality is that the best use of Yang’s meter is to FADC into better damage and resets but if you’re a beginner with the character, it’s probably to learn the fundamentals of the character.

Instead you can use your Meter on EX Moves:

  1. EX Command Grab has a slightly better range and faster start up so you can land it more often.
  2. EX Command Dash is strike invincible but not throws!
  3. EX Roll is great for punishing fireballs but don’t get baited into it.

Offense

Full Screen

  1. Not much you can do here. Block, walk forward. Neutral jump over fireballs or use Impact Palm (QCB.MP/HP)

Mid-Range

  1. In the mid-range, you can neutral jump a fireball or similar moves and punish with j.MK or j.HP into a BnB. Your best option to punish fireballs however is EX Rolling Kick. Just be careful as its not projectile invincible on start up. Its invincible onward only when Yang crouches down to start rolling.

  2. You start to become dangerous with the option to punish your opponent’s mistakes on the ground. Given the chance if they whiff a move, cr.MK xx Rekkas. Given that they make another mistake like teleport and cr.MK doesn’t reach, HP.Rekkas have good range so it may be a good option. Don’t forget that they are not safe so it is a risk, only the first hit of your LP.Rekkas is safe!

  3. If you space things really well, punish whiffs with sweep as well.

Close-Range

  1. You can start you pressure here. st.LP is +4 even on block, so you can can stagger it into itself for mini frame traps. The same thing goes for cr.LP. These go into BnB #1.

  2. cr.LK is useful as it hits low. After a jump in, they may still block a BnB #1 if they blocked high but BnB #2 will require them to go into crouch block.

  3. You can use cr.MK xx LP.Rekka’s first hit as a way to hit confirm during footsies. It also has decent range even though cr.MK is not the quickest of moves to come out

On Their Wake Up: Ignore 6 & 7 until you’re comfortable with the first 5
1) Mix things up, go for hit confirms with cr.LK or st.LP.
2) Bait their DP, block and use Punish #1
3) Throw, it’ll all so deal with Focus Attack.
4) Use the overhead once in a while.
5) Jump in with j.MK for the cross-up, real or fake.
6) They may get hit by a cr.MK if you step back as if you’re baiting their DP and then go for it into first hit of LP.Rekkas since it’s safe to hit confirm off the first hit.
7) Once in a while LK.Dash behind them.

Defense

  1. Block. No, seriously block. Try to tech throws but overall you take less damage by getting thrown than taking a full combo.

  2. Anti-air often with LK.DP. It’ll eliminate a huge part of their game and make them focus on the ground, which it’ll give you a chance to control the air.

On Your Wake Up:
- Don’t reversal DP too often. It’s not the best of wakeup moves. Rely on blocking.
- You can crouch tech and use it to hit confirm into BnB #2 but crouch tech can get blown up so don’t rely on it too much.

Questions:

  1. Considering Far.MP will be cancellable into Rekkas in Ultra. Is there a good spot to start trying to apply it now in preparation?

  2. What about Ultras without FADC combos? U2 for Anti-Air/Fireballs and U1 to punish things like Balrog’s rush punch?

  3. Is Focus Attack a major part of the arsenal like it is for Fei Long to the point that even Beginners should start using it?

  4. Should there be a link to Divekick Height chart that shows you +/- advantage for dive kick?

  5. Holy fuck what do I do with all this meter if I’m not FADCing?

Thanks to ChaosxPaladin & KINGBROZEN for all their help

2

Good guide, but there are a few things to consider:

As it is now, st.LK is useless. Cr.MK may have one more frame of start up, but its a flat out better poke and does more damage.

For his Rekka damage, in Ultra it changes, but until then, the last hit of Yang’s rekkas all do the same amount of damage, so its best to end with light slash to get the least recovery for your mix ups.

Resets are a big part of Yang’s game and should also be taken into consideration. Things like j.HP after a close st.MK, or a command grab after FADC slashes, or a late cr.LK after a level 3 focus.

BnBs: You should add cr.LP, cr.LP, cr.MK xx rekkas, and cr.MK xx rekkas. The first prevents the st.LP whiff but is a tighter link. The second is because cr.MK is Yang’s best poke. In fact, cr.MK far st.HP, st.HK and st.MP are good pokes and can be used to interrupt rushes. Its very possible to hit a Balrog’s full screen dash punch with a st.MP for example.

Anti airs: close st.MK is good for those who will be above you if you anticipate a jump, and far st.MK is good if they land in front of you. While its not as good as Yang’s DP, Yang’s DP can be safe jumped and has a poor hit box. His MK is a good alternative if you’re unsure and don’t want to risk a whiff.

Mid Range: In my experience, its is never wise to punish a fireball with a dive kick. The enemy’s hurt box will be extended forward to their arms and cut the time it takes for Yang to hit the ground. Even if you do land a dive kick punish, they can still reversal DP you before you fully recover. It’s better to dive kick punish crouch techs and whiffed pokes. For fireballs you should use EX rolls. Heavy rolls is riskier and slower but it can be used if you’re close enough. Just be careful as its not projectile invincible on start up. Its invincible onward only when Yang crouches down to start rolling.

As for your questions…

As it stands, no. I did major testing with the PC mod, and cr.MP has some faults to consider:
1: Its not as good as a poke (but it moves Yang forward).
2: It does less damage (but it sets up roll kicks easier than cr.MK).
3: At certain ranges the roll kicks will skip the roll, go straight into the kick and whiff (major flaw IMO, but its possible to measure the distances and get used to it)

Ultra 2 can punish Blanka ball and T. Hawk’s dive on block, but Ultra 1 should be your anti air. It has much better invincibility and does not trade like U2 does. However, you need to be faster as it has 8 frame start up I think, while U2 has 7 (6 in Ultra). Typically, you should learn your FADC set ups for max damage.

As it stands, it can be useful in mid range to help get in agianst pokes and fireballs, but like you said in your post it should not be abused. You can use it to fake out a lot of people though.

The Yang dive kick chart was in the Yun section (The thread was called Yun’s Dive kick: It’s safer than you think!), but for some reason the charts were removed. You can still figure it out from Yun’s dive kick chart though. Just take away one hit stun and add one block stun. I have the chart myself, but I can’t for the life of me figure out how to upload it… I guess I can put it on Deviant art and then link it here.

Use your EX moves. EX Command grab has (slightly) better range and faster start up, so you can use that as a guarantee. EX Command dash is strike invincible, but not throw invincible so use it carefully. The first hit of EX slash, while minus 1 on block, recovers really fast and can set you up for a command grab on block if your opponent doesn’t expect it. EX Roll is god like for punishing fireballs but its very possible to be baited, so again be careful.

But beware. With Yang, you should make every single hit do the most possible damage, because of how weak he is. You NEED to learn how to FADC, and not just into Ultra. You need to be able to link into close st.MK after FADC slashes; It is essential for his corner carry and damage output. Or be able to bait out your opponents after an FADC reset, or make unsafe roll kicks safe with a FA back dash cancel (forward dash is unsafe). FADC is a part of Yang’s mix up game and takes a vital role in his pressure.

3

This is awesome. I have a friend who is interested in maining Yang but he’s coming into SF4 with basically zero fighting game experience.

How useful are Yang’s target combos for someone who is just trying to get a feel for the game? Not trying to do optimized damage or anything like that, just purely getting a feel for the fundamentals while still being able to get some use out of the character?

4

In order of usefulness to me.

Air Diagonal MK > Down-Forward MK:
Probably the one with the best application, you can beat focus attacks with it if you did a non cross-up MK just above their head, and it can throw off the opponents timing on block if they’re not expecting it, second hit can even be slightly delayed to gain extra frame advantage and alter timing even further.

LK > MK:
Because you can jump cancel it, kind of a gimmicky because if you use this once too often against a good player he’s going to see it and punish you for it, the jump out of it is quite delayed which makes it not as good as you’d expect.

LK > MK > HK:
Corner style, juggles into EX Rollkicks/U2.

Far MP > HP:
I think this one was unsafe?

Far MP > HP > Back + HP:
If you touch the opponent from tip range, the palm will whiff at the end I think, so you don’t have any reason to buffer the target combo out of range, and up close you have safer options with better reward anyway.

5

I’d like to keep this version of the “Game Plan” to be as beginner friendly as possible…and then hopefully do an Intermediate version, that’ll include “Hey, this your first big step, learn your FADC Rekka into cl.MK, Dash, Ultra” etc.

Thanks, that makes a lot of sense, so I’ve changed that in the first post.

Hmnm, I see. Since the different is 5 dmg even in Ultra from last hit of L & M Rekka to H Rekka. Is it basically going to be LP.Rekka is just the better choice during combos for the mixup? So then should almost all combos should be changed to ending in LP.Rekka?

I want this to be as simple as possible, as that starts to sound like Intermediate Yang as the j.HP reset from cl.MK requires that you most likely FADC from Rekka right? But that makes a lot of sense. Could you suggest maybe one or two of the simplest reset options, that’d be relevant to a beginner?

I added cr.LP, cr.LP, cr.MK xx Rekka as an alternate to BnB #1. cr.MK xx Rekkas was added as a BnB as well following from what you said about st.LK xx Rekka

For the footsie pokes, for the sake of keeping things as simple as possible. Is there one of those pokes, st.HK, st.HP or st.MP that would be the most relevant across all match-ups? cr.MK will already be included due to new note about cr.MK xx Rekkas in footsies. I would think that maybe st.MP is best choice? st.HP and st.HK are really unsafe on block, and st.MP in the future will be cancellable into Rekkas?

st.MK added. Can’t ever have too many anti-airs.

Thanks for this. It makes a lot of sense once you explain it that way. So I took that out of the main post. Also adding a section for “Meter Usage Without FADC” that suggests EX Roll

Ah that really sucks to hear…it looks like a good move

Added section on Ultras. Thanks

Added an extra note on Focus Attack

I have this chart here: imgur.com/0zzZLZp<— Is this the one you were talking about?

Added to Meter Usage section!

 I think the Air MK -&gt; HK target combo bit makes a really good point. This would have to be on reaction as you see them focus but I think it’s worth mentioning
6

fadc’ing rekka doesnt make you an intermediate yang, it makes you play yang

7

Ah I see. So even at the basic level, there’s not much of a point in playing the character, relying on Normal use, BnBs, Anti-Airs? He just doesn’t work at that level? Might as well play someone else sort of things cause you need that execution to really play the character?

Edit: He just doesn’t have the damage sort of thing? You’d end up having to work way too much if you can’t land the FADC when you get the hit?

8

there is never no point per say, but fadcing is how he maintains pressure and works people to the corner. The corner is where yang does all his dmg and lockdown. Its just my opinion but I feel like learning how to fadc is pretty key in sf4. Not even comboing into it but as far as doing dp fadc backdash to get out of pressure.

9

With yangs low damage and health and somewhat difficult links for higher damage, I have a feeling your friend is going to get frustrated really quickly. Yang is not a beginner friendly character. Really recommend he tries someone a bit more standard and then once he’s comfortable with the system choose Yang.

10

Thanks for the response! Yeah makes sense, I just asked cause I wasn’t sure how crucial it really was to Yang’s game. I think, for example, it’s great if you can do the FADC into Ryu’s ultra cause it makes everyone way more cautious when that’s stocked up but you can still get by on the basic game with him.

Yang does seem to have a really low damage output. Makes sense that he’d be working way too hard.

Just wanted to confirm, I went into training mode and tried to do the basic BnB, Rekka(2) FADC, cl.MK > Dash, U1. I noticed that I could only really recover fast enough to do the cl.MK and have it hit when the 2nd Rekka hit was a HP.Rekka. Can you only land it from the HP.Rekka or am I just not getting the execution?

If that’s so then is it best to do 1st Hit = LP.Rekka, 2nd Hit = HP.Rekka, 3rd Hit = LP.Rekka (As per ChaosXPaladin’s suggestion for quicker recovery at the end)?

If you hit confirm into the Rekka, then I guess the 1st one could be HP, but otherwise it seems it’d be better for it be a LP so that it’s at least safe and you can stop there if it doesn’t hit.

11

Liked your post. Totally awesome, this should be done for more characters.

12

yes the 2nd rekka has to be hp… you can do 1st hit lp then 2nd hit hp or both hps if you hit confirm

13

Also, one mistake I noticed in the mid range secion regarding Yang’s EX Roll kick. It was my mistake so I apologize, but the Heavy roll kicks is the one that doesn’t have invincibility on start up. The EX version is completely projectile invincible from frame one, so you can use it to avoid forced block set ups with projectiles. Both the heavy kicks and EX kicks can be used on reaction at mid range but EX starts the roll much, much faster.

14

This is a really good starting point for new Yangs, and it’s still stays pretty honest even in his Ultra interation.