How do I use Cody's knife effectively?

Hello I’m kinda new to Street fighter and I’ve been using Cody as my main for about a week, but I can’t seem to figure out how does one effectively use his knife. Well the knife seems to be quite effective at poking often I find I need to stop my pressure. It seems (to me at least) that the only really good time to grab the knife is while they’re on the ground, but I often find that going for a meaty is more effective since when Cody’s pressure ends he’s not as good. Am I just not suposed to just go for the knife instead, or am I not even suposed to grab the knife while they’re down?

Ignore the asshole above me.

The knife is used for chip damage, range and…A future armour breaker? I don’t see many people use it, so I don’t think it’s necessary to learn it so soon.

Apparently asking when is a good time to grab the knife means I don’t understand that its a range buff clearly…even though I said I did, you’re real smart there buddy.

Don’t worry about the troll.

When is a good time to pick it up?
*Disclaimer: I’m no Cody pro, this is from mostly playing casuals, and 2. I haven’t played SSF4 seriously in about a year or so. I used to pop in like 4+ hours a day, and since last August, I might have played it for 1-2 hours total.

In my limited experience playing Cody, there’s two opportunities you have to pick it up.

  • If you end a combo with a hard knockdown, there’s very little risk.
  • If they’re far away and don’t have a solid fireball game. e.g.

I think though in the 2-months+ that I used him in about 100 or so matches, I might have picked up the knife twice… IIRC, both were against Gief, where the extra range is nice to keep you out of his throw range a little more. I was unable to find an appropriate time to do it against a strong fireball character like Ryu, Akuma, or Seth, though I can’t see it helping much in that situation.

I thought people never even used the knife

i concur with bison riding the cow. Grab the knife after you score a knock down, if your already on top of it xD

I never pick up the knife. His normals outside of knife mode are too good, and it’s just too easy to lose the knife. Far mp with the knife is good, and cr.hp is a good anti air and can link to U2. But the knife throw doesn’t cancel out fireballs, and it’s too slow to use offensively.

Stab people. Or throw rocks instead. One or the other, Cody hurts people. He’s that type of guy. This is actually more insightful than you know.

I’m nowhere near a Cody Expert, but most of my success with the Knife comes against relentless rushdown fighters (Yun/Yang/Rufus/Cammy/Juri/etc.) Basically, any match where you won’t need Rocks to win or any match where you had to deal with Turtlers.

Don’t pick it up, it’s almost useless.

Pretty much. It’s why Capcom keeps buffing knife options just so people can use it more.

iv messed with it vs gief and that is the one MU where i kind of like it. i dont always use the knife but when i do… its vs gief

I’ve been using it alot more recently and I’m beginning to find it’s pretty good in match ups where cody’s footsies can’t compete. I sometimes (if I feel like it) use it in the Akuma/Gen/etc matchups… but yeah it’s not that great, don’t focus on it too much (or focus with it, ZING!)
All it improves is Cody’s max range normals though, nothing more. Cr.Mp and far mk are pretty good, use stand mp if they focus too!