I am struggling to understand the concept of “Hit-confirm”. Is it an in-game “mechanic”? Is it a “tactic”? How is it classified? What is the simplest way to explain what it does, and how can I use it in a sentence in the future once I learn how it works? I just want to grasp what it means so I understand what is going on, because I watch a lot of SF4 matches and the announcers occasionally use this word around and I have no idea WTF they are saying lol.
its in the first post
its grounded in the broad notion that you should ideally not do unsafe/punishable moves unless you can guarantee that theyll hit. so, you use one or more safe moves, and if those hit, then you combo into the unsafe (usually higher damage) move.
eg. in a capcom game, a character might have a 3-hit low chain that is safe. you do that and either cancel into an unsafe super depending on whether or not the initial chain hit. in 3d fighting games, the same idea is called hit-checking. there are no supers, but strings tend to become more unsafe in their later hits. its not really an in-game mechanic since any fighting game that allows for this will have it being used. you reduce risk in any way that you can to win more consistently
Hm…
So it’s only considered a “hit-confirm” if you initiate the combo with a normal attack and end it with an unsafe move like a special/super/ultra?
It doesn’t really matter how you end it. Only that you produced a combo off of a successful attack.
Let’s look at Juri in USF4 for example. I can do
cr.lk>st.lp>cr.mk xx HK Pinwheel.
I can sit there and hit you with cr.lk all day long. If you block the hits, I dont advance past cr.lk. If I see that a cr.lk landed, I proceed with the rest of the combo. It’s like hanging a picture on your wall. You dont just jam a nail in anywhere and slap a picture on it. You make sure that the nail is going to hit a piece of wood in the wall for a solid anchor. Otherwise that shit would just fall down and rip your drywall. Doing an unsafe special off of a blocked normal safe move is like doing exactly that. You could have taken a second to do it the right way, but instead you haphazardly did something and now you have a problem. Health disadvantage, or a fucked up living room wall in the analogy. If the nail doesnt hit wood in the wall, you dont get a reward(nice interior decorating). If the normal doesnt actually hit the opponent and you do a special, you dont get a reward(solid damage).
well no. that was just a typical example in games that follow a combo structure like that. its possible to hitconfirm using special or super moves (i cant think of any examples off hand though), or into a normal move. in sf4, some characters hit-confirm into a sweep as a combo ender. it depends on the options the game presents you with. hit-confirming is a generalized term to refer to all of these.
Sigh this is complicated stuff :(. I am going to have to re-read some of your posts so I can develop a better understanding. I’m guessing the concept of “Hit-confirm” has long existed before the release of SF4. So I guess you guys have had a lot of time to learn and grasp these concepts. Since I’ve only been playing for a month, I guess it’s not too surprising that I am struggling with some of this stuff… Hopefully I will get it.
Hit confirming is
- First attack (or series of attacks which are safest to use)
1a) If it hits go to
2a) Second attack (more damaging, has better properties, but is unsafe/not desirable to miss/be block with)
OR
1b) If it doesn’t hit
2a) Don’t use second attack, do something else
Hit confirming is very simple it is just a choice between options depending on if the first attack hits or it is is blocked or whiffs.
That all is its. a split between two or more options and choosing one path if the hit is successful and ithe other if the hit does not connect.
Hit confirming isn’t a mechanic or a tactic, its a skill based decision; the skill of it being that in the case of very fast safe attacks you generally only have a fraction of a second to confirmed if the hit connected and choose the appropriate follow up action. Know in what a hit confirm is doesn’t matter in a match if you can’t regonize the signs that the hit made contact and react in that small window of time.
Choosing the path for if the hit was successful when it wasn’t successful can leave you wide open and choosing the path where the hit was blocked when it connected costs you a chance for more damage.
The other skill based part of hit confirming is that it involves having more than one option. A lot of very beginner / low skill level player don’t hit confirm because they do the same thing whether the hit connects or is blocked. Other people have explained the choices part, but I threw this part in because sometimes new players don’t understand hit confirms, because they’ve never thought of altering their actions based on whether the hit connects or not.
Hitconfirm is exactly what it says it is. You can visually confirm an attack, or series of attacks and make your descision based on if it actually connected or was blocked.
Generally you use safe attacks because they cannot be punished, however nothing explicitly tell you to do so.
With Yun i do standing.mp xx light shoulder, it i see st.mp connect i go into super or redfocus when, if st.mp was blocked…i do nothing.
With Cody i do close.hp, a safe attack. If it connects i continue the combo, if not i do something else like a throw or just block.
With Chun i do a far mp, if it connects i do a super, if not then no big deal.
Most common example:
Using 2 light attacks, preferrably a chain to see if they connected. You watch the first light attack and you do 2 light attacks to give yourself time to visually confirm the first one was hitting.
If it hits, you continue combo. If it gets blocked you make another descision based on the fact these light attacks were blocked.
In a nutshell, you want to hit people with entire combos. However if they block, usually a whole combo is really unsafe and they can punish you easily. So in practice, you do the first couple moves of your combo, see if they hit, if they do continue the combo, and if not, then stop right there.
Example:
With Balrog I want to do my crouching light punch, crouching light punch, crouching light kick, heavy punch headbutt combo. In that combo, the 2 punches and the kick are the hitconfirm part of it. If they block it then I can stop the combo any time. But if I hit them, I have enough time to see if it’s safe to do the headbutt at the end. I would never want to do the headbutt if they were blocking because the other guy gets this big window to punish me with something painful because I used a headbutt, a really unsafe move, and he blocked.
To put it simple. Hitconfirm is pretty self explanatory. You hit with one move and if it connects, you’ve “confirmed” that it’s safe to do more risky moves. I.E you wouldn’t throw out a heavy kick at close range because should it be blocked or miss you’ll get punished. But if you start with a light lick and it hits, it’s now safe to follow up with a heavy kick.
Say your ryu and you want to sweep the opponent and knock them down. Ryu has a very punishable sweep if it is blocked, so just walking up and trying to repeatedly sweep will get you punished and KO’d quick if they block it. So what you would want to do is hit confirm into the sweep. How would you do that? Well ryus jab has enough advantage on hit that allows you to combo into the sweep. So rather then doing the sweep raw, you can do 2 crouching jabs first, if they land as a hit, 2 jabs is enough time to visually confirm the hit and you will continue and finish with sweep. It is also enough time to visually confirm it if its blocked, which then you won’t continue with the sweep.
sounds like chikan