This is thread for beginners to learn what certain terms and notations are for Tekken, and how to use them. Tekken Zaibatsu already has a in-depth giant list up for you(which I will link here), but we will post up the more important things here.
The Tekken Zaibatsu Jargon Dictionary-List of Tekken terms and forum speak in general.
The Tekken Zaibatsu Legend Page-Shorthand of Tekken controls, movements, and positions
Xiang’s Tekken Basics Guide-Written explanation of basic Tekken terms and movement. Great starting point for beginners.
The Tekken Zaibatsu Guide to Basics-A more robust and up to date version of Xiang’s guide.
Level Up Your Game!-Created by iamtekken.com and the California players, Level Up Your Game is a series of video tutorials to help beginners understand the game and provides a great refresher for advanced players. Mandatory viewing!!!
Tekken 6: The Art Of Standing Properly-Created by Neorussell, this vid covers one of the most important and least understood aspects of the game for beginners: safely standing up. Required viewing.
Note: If a subject is explained pretty well in Xiang’s guide or the TZ Basics guide then it shouldn’t be covered here unless it omitted something or the properties changed a bit from Vanilla T5(when it was written) to BR. READ THOSE FIRST.
**Basic Control Terms: **
While Standing(WS)-Neutral while full crouching + button(s):
An attack that comes out while you are standing up from crouching. Usually hits mid.
Full Crouch(FC)-Hold D until your character fully finishes their crouch animation:
There is difference between low attacks and full crouching attacks, and if you aren’t fully crouched before you attempt the move it will not come out. Let’s take Bruce’s FC, df,d,df+4 for example.
d+4: standard low kick
FC, d/f, d, d/f+4: slower low that gives advantage on normal hit, knocks down on CH.
d, d/f, d, d/f+4: standard low kick.
Instant While Standing(iWS)-d, d/b_d/f, N+button(s):
This is the way to get WS attacks to come out without having to full crouch, giving you access to all your WS moves instantly. If you are messing up the input make sure not to push b_f during the motion.
Instant While Running(iWR)-f,f while recovering from an attack:
It’s almost the same running command as normal, but you want to buffer the two forwards at the end of your character’s attack so when the animation ends they will dash instantly.
Instant Shining Wizard(iSW)-f,f,f+2+4(King, A.King, and Lars only)
It’s the same as iWR, but you press the last forward when you start dashing and whatever buttons. 9thPixel’s iSW post
Natural Combo(NC)
A string of attacks that are guarenteed without the need for a counter. Examples are Kazuya’s 1,1,2(if you don’t delay it) and Bruce’s 2,4.
Natural Combo on Counter(NCc)
A string of attacks that are guarenteed only when the first attack is a counter hit. An example is Julia’s 1,1,1 .
Bound(B!)
A move that slams them on the ground and bounces them up a bit, allowing you to continue a juggle. The most common method to inflict bound status is to do a move in a juggle that slams them down(like Nina’s 1+4). In BR all low parries give bound status. Also, there is a limit on one bound per juggle, so the maximum juggles involve launch->bound-> W!. NOTE: in certain stages(Graveyard, Fallen Colony, etc) there are parts of the ground that you can slam your opponent through by bounding them on those sections. After you both land from the fall you can follow up with attacks like normal. Example of Floor Break.
Wall Splat(W!)
A move that slams them against the wall, allowing you to follow up with several hits before they fall down. Can be achieved in juggles as well as when your opponent is on the ground, and usually by an attack that will knock them backwards. If you W! someone without achieving a bound in the juggle previously, you can use a bound move after a W! then finish the wall combo. NOTE: in one stage(the one that changes the time of day) the walls can be destroyed or broken by hitting a W! opponent with a strong impact move, such as Paul’s Deathfist. In which case, it does a little damage to your opponent.[media=youtube]Njvuu0FKv4g&#t=6m00s"[/media]
Crouch Cancel(cc)-f,f while crouching
Allows you to cancel your crouching animation quickly with a dash so you can do a move that only works while you are standing up. You can also do this by pushing u to SS or b,b to backdash depending on what move you want.
Let’s take Lee’s uf+4 for example, a very quick knee that launches on normal hit so it’s treated like a hopkick. Normally characters can do a hopkick while crouching just by using the basic uf+4, but Lee also has a special WC, u/f +4 which does a really high flipkick that knocks down. The input for the flipkick will get in the way of getting the knee out when you want to, so using crouch cancelling will bypass the crouching movement altogether.
u/f+4=knee launcher
WC, u/f+4=flipkick
WC, f,f~u/f+4=knee launcher
**Special Movement Terms: **
Light Dash-Wave dash extremely fast
Faster inputing of the wave dash motion, nothing more. You don’t need it to be a great Mishima/King/etc player and its not worth the work required for you to master(WD mastery will be enough and it will move you father more often than not), but it’ll scare the shit out of you.
Light Dash vs Wave Dash example
Hayashida Step-{qcb, u}(only works with a character who can backsway(Nina, Bryan, Paul))
Cancel a character’s backsway with up, then repeat as necessary. This motion is a good way to back away from an opponent since the motion for the backsway may mess up your BDC input. If done right you will move towards the background in a zigzag motion.
Haha Step-{b+3+4~b}(Lei only)
Cancel’s Lei’s backturn into b and repeat, causing him to backstep really far. If you do this the proper way you won’t even see the backturn animation and he’ll be far across the screen in about a second. Hard to master but worth it to learn, especially on non walled stages.
Side Step Cancel(SS cancel)-{b, d/b, d}_{b,u/b, u}
Cancel’s a character’s SS into itself, causing you to kinda glide across the screen to one side. A lot faster than a basic SS, but only really useful when you are trying to bait an attack or trying to change position.
**Character Stances: **
NOTE: I’m not going to tell you the commands of each stances, or even list every stance here(the character threads can do that), but I will tell you the notations and properties for the important stances. I’m omitting the T6 characters right now since I haven’t personally played it yet, if anyone has detailed info on the new character’s stances let me know so I can add.
Handstand(HSP)-Eddy/Christie
Stands on his hand with his legs stretched out, which ends up increasing his range and startup speed when doing certain attacks(such as HSP 4). However, Eddy can not SS at all during this(he can lean to the sides and transition to other attacks that way though) and his speed is overall very slow, so in high level play you won’t see this unless its a transition from another attack.
Relaxed(RLX)-Eddy/Christie
Lays down on his back face up feet towards(FUFT), avoiding highs and a good number of mids. The scary thing about this stance is the speed of it and it’s mixup potential(RLX 4~3 hits low and can be juggled after, RLX 3~4 hits mid and can be juggled after too), plus it can be used as a oki setup as well. You can jump over him to avoid the mixups or hit him before he starts the mixup with a mid or low(if he doesn’t have advantage), but regardless fighting a capo with RLX mastery is a scary thing indeed.
Art of Phoenix(AOP)-Ling Xiayou
Ducks down really low, avoiding all highs and alot of mids. It’s faster than RLX plus she can mixup alot of attacks from it including launchers, so it’s a great evasion/punishment technique. Plus it auto SSR during activation, so you’ll usually see Ling players do SSR~AOP to evade alot of your attacks and put you off axis.
Rain Dance Stance(RDS)-Ling Xiayou
Turns around so her back is facing you. She is very dangerous in this stance since she has more options than almost everyone else in this position(including strong launchers and ambiguous throws). She also auto SSR during this stance so SSR~RDS is a danger.
Note: she can also switch from AOP to RDS and back again at will.
Flamingo Stance(FLA/RFF or LFF)-Baek/Hwoarang
Raises up his leg and folds it in a pre-emptive kicking stance, used to transfer between different attacks between strings and apply pressure. You move back and forth slightly but you can SS pretty well with it(Baek’s is much better than Hwoarang’s though)
Vale Tudo Stance(VTS)-Craig Marduk
Ducks his body down in a football type stance, which evades high attacks. This is the principal way for him to tackle people, but he can also do other attacks from this stance such as launchers and tripping lows. His mobility is quite good in this stance as he can SS pretty fast and can activate the stance while moving backwards, but his actual tackle attempt is pretty slow.
Dragon Sign Stance(DSS)-Marshall Law
Stands still and shakes his body Bruce Lee-ish. Allows him to do certain attacks and throws from the stance, And he can also go into the stance from attacks such as ws+4 and 4,3. Used mostly for mixups and juggle enders.
Hitman Stance(HMS)-Lee Chaolan
Puts his left foot back and waves his hands in a come hither stance. Cannot move back and forward during the stance but has a very evasive SS during it, and can go into several strong knockdown attacks and launchers. Can also be transitioned into by several attacks.
Chaos Judgement AKA Cat Stance(CMJ or CAT)-Anna Williams
Lifts left leg off the ground and folds it like flamingo or something. Auto reverses lows and throws in this stance, plus can go into some attacks(mostly short ranged ones). Movement is only limited to a front roll that can go into a mid kick.
Animal Stances(SNA, DGN, PAN, TGR, CRA)-Lei Wulong
Special stances that can not only go into alot of strong 50/50 options and/or pokes, but can grant other bonuses such as auto parries and evasion of certain attacks. Lei can also go into these types of stances and transition between them using certain attacks and sidestepping. Here’s a TZ Lei Thread with some stance ability information.
**Notes: **
-Tech Jump=Low Crush and Tech Crouch=High Crush. The definitions of TJ and TC are in Xiang’s FAQ, but you may see the term ‘Crush’ instead of ‘Tech’ and get confused, so this is to clarify that.
-Crouch Dashes can duck under high attacks towards the end of the animation, works better if you hold d/f(otherwise you may stand up into an attack)
-There isn’t really such a thing as ‘Normals’ and "normal strengths’ as there are in SF. There are some differences in 1,2,3, and 4 though. 1’s are usually the fastest attacks that your character has, and you’ll use it to start jab strings. 2’s are usually slower but they often go into NC attacks(like Jin’s 2,4 or his 2,1) or can go into special stances or properties(like Julia’s 2~b or Ling’s 2,1). 3’s are usually slower than 4’s but will more often knock down on normal hit, while 4’s usually can grant some type of juggle chance on CH. d+1 and d+2 are similar(d+1 is a bit faster but has less range than d+2), but where d+4 hits low, d+3 hits grounded low. This means d+3 will hit even if you are laying on the ground, while d+4 will only hit if you’re standing or trying to recover off the ground. Of course, this will differ based on the character that you’re using.
-Most regular running tackles can be broken by pushing 2, however some characters have special tackles that require different breaks or you can’t break at all. Those will be covered in that character’s threads.
**Links and Resources: **
Tekken Zaibatsu-Tekken’s equivalent of SRK.
SDTekken-You all should know this site by now. Your up to date source for news regarding Tekken, fighting games in general, and Arcade sticks. Also updates frequently with youtube matches from Japanese/Korean/American players.
iamtekken-If you’re in the Cali area you should bookmark this site. Great source of info and tournament happenings around that area, and some good articles there(including a excellent frame data guide)
Rip’s Throw Break Trainer-If you wanna learn how to break throws this is a great way to learn! The break window is a little smaller than the actual window so it’s actually a better way to train than doing it on the actual game. Give it a try!
