Ken Q&A Thread: Got questions? Ask/search here before making a thread!

Street Fighter V Ken
161

Takes a lot of training that’s it. The kick one is actually rather easy, do not try to rush it you have time (I know it was one of my problems with it).

But yeah with a lot of training it’s doable, maybe not to Momochi’s level straight up but it’s a build up.

I am not that experienced of a SF player and I trained it more than 200 hours for sure. I am starting to be able to rely on b.mp confirms in games and I almost never do the b.mp>hp combo on block, I either fail a hit confirm or do an ex hado at the end.
If you’re better than me at SF overall it should take you less time for sure, I had never really trained hit confirms before sfv and my reactions are pretty garbage.

162

I wouldn’t undersell the difficulty of even ken’s mk - hk target combo. It’s a 1 hit confirm and it takes work. Keep up the grind

163

True it’s not easy, probably poor choice of words, but I do think it’s the easiest one out of all the one hit confirms that Ken has.

164

I understand that you can link a st.lp into kens target combo right? If this is true then is it really hard to do after a vskill? The reason I’m asking is because I’ve seen tons of momochi and other top Ken players and after they CC with the hp they vskill into b.mp>b.hp and rarely if ever vskill into st.lp >b.mp>b.hp? Why? Is it too inconsistent?

165

I think st.lp into target combo is just for hitconfirm purposes… not sure though…

Both startup in 4 frames, so there is nothing “easier” about either option.

On another note: when, if at all, do you use ex tatsu (grounded)?

166

ex tatsu is mostly a combo ender. it does have its limited use as a whiff punisher. and its really effective against giefs charge punch. st. hp

167

It’s one of the best if not the best corner carry move in the game so I use it at the end of combos for corner carry purposes.

168

So… Am I on crack or with good timing is it not possible to do st.lp xx qcb any punch plus any kick and the punch won’t come out block, or if it’s a jab will chain, but the kick will cancel into a kick special on hit?

I’m in training mode right now and I’m literally 90% accurate with this. The timing isn’t super easy though so I’m assuming that my misses are all timing related. Can someone pls confirm this for me? It looks like an exceptionally powerful technique as it is basically an autoconfirm off of a frame trap jab

-edit

It seems to work best as qcb + lk+lp,lp+mk,lk+mp or lp+lk+mk (ex tatsu)

Can’t really get it to work with hp, so it seems to be harder timing or button contextual.

169

I don’t know with the jab on top of it but the st.lp into tatsu only on hit is an old tech so it works yes. The full tech was with throw after the tatsu but for example Momochi does a lot of just st.lp xx qcb.mk

170

Can you explain this to me please? As I’ve tried countless times to do that buffer thing but everytime I do say a st.lp QCB kick, the tatsu always comes out. How can you make it to only come out on hit?

171

There is not much to explain sorry. That’s just the timing of it, make the dummy block all the time and do it until you figure the timing out and figure out the best way for you do get this timing.

I do a micro break after the jab and then tatsu as fast as I can but that’s just because I find it reliable like that, it’s not “the way”.

The only thing that is for sure is that you have to be fast on the tatsu motion.

172

what are your takes on v-bar vs damage. recently ive messed around with my neutral game more and more hp set ups. conventional wisdom says always take the damage. however having a v triggered ken with half life+ has its benefits as well.

thoughts?

173

I don’t see it as worth it right now.

Having vtrigger on doesn’t change that much your overall game plan, it doesn’t change much if anything about Ken neutral it’s just that you hit like a truck if you get a hit. So you sacrifice damage earlier to hit like a truck sooner and possibly not hit like a truck anymore later if you don’t do not kill with your vtrigger (which again doesn’t grant you much more ways to get a hit).

I think that beside the damage, and the activation being very strong, Ken vtrigger is not game changing for him, so long story short you are giving away damage to get your game changing damage sooner. It doesn’t seem that good to me, it would if it was like Necalli but since we are on a timer you don’t even get a longer damage burst you just get it earlier.

I am not saying everything that is not damage is worthless in vtrigger, I do like the vtrigger fireballs quite a bit but I don’t see myself loosing damage for them for example.

174

what do you guys use to punish alpha counters? are there set ups where you can jab and back dash or anything? tired of getting stunners from mike haha.

175

You can usually grab them out of it if you bait it. Use something like st.lp - throw or cr.lk - throw.

176

so if they are nerfing kens specials and b+mp. the things that make him unique from ryu. does that mean they are giving him ryus buttons? cuz i could use a 7 frame fierce.

177

is there a ken discord?

178

Help:
Would anyone care to share frame data on blocking Ken’s air ex tatsu?
What is it when i’m far enough back and block ex tatsu for one hit?
Frame data when close enough to block 2 hits?

Reason i ask:
Went into training mode to simulate ex tatsu into immediate block. Recording dummy seemed to be my only option. Recording dummy allowed me to cr fierce after (i.e cpu didnt block s**t). Online was a different story.

Thanks!