Zangief strategy etc

block the air fireball by pulling away from akuma (so the direction you block depends on if he’s crossed you up or not, as the fireballs hits you). block the kick as normal.

you don’t have to block two directions at once, and it isn’t some sort of inescapable trick.

Hmm I gotta test it out with Akuma. I’ll get back to you guys, thanks.

how do you get past claw’s normals? I can’t get past standing and crouching roundhouse. the only thing i can do is hope to hit him with a larieat, but that doesn’t work :sad:

please help :sad:

You basically need to block and surprise him with a body splash occasionally. Watch out for his flip kick on wake-up, although if you can bait it, then it’s punishable with a SPD.

rapid fire st.short beats his slide and cr.rh trades with it in your favor.

st.strong uhhh good luck, maybe st.strong of your own will beat it or st/cr.fierce. a well timed lariat definitely does but its really hard to time

OK I just played HDR for the first time online in 3 different lobbies and they were all being run by Zangiefs. The one thing that especially made me angry was lk into SPD on wakeup every time, but I couldn’t get out of it even though I knew it was coming. Is there some universal way of escaping ticks in this game? Player would be outside of reversal dp range and still grab me btw.

You have one escape out of a perfectly timed tick, reversal special move:

[media=youtube]mwvVVvJyXHY[/media]

It’s unlikely that all these Giefs were throwing out perfect ticks every time however; so in reality you have a bit of a larger window to perform your DP then would be the case with a perfect tick.

Yeah, guess I just have to work on my timing. Thanks btw.

Total noob question, as long as I’ve been playing Gief I feel bad for asking this…

Can you actually Wake-up SPD? I thought I’d been doing it for months, then I found out my friends suck at meatys. I’ve been knocked out of a wake-up SPD by properly timed overheads and sweeps. At first I thought “well my timing is slipping, I need to play people who are better more often” but I actually saw it say “Reversal” on my side of the screen as Ryu punched downward into my brain. :frowning:

Also, does Gief have an overhead? Does the body splash count as a mid hit if you hit them while they’re crouching? I thought it was a high hit, but wondering if it counts as high and mid cause I just realized I have no idea what any overheads even WOULD be.

Reversal SPD works great vs meaties. If you see reversal message, and you didn’t SPD, means you probably did Green Hand or Lariat instead.

All jump attacks are overheads, meaning they have to be blocked high. And Zangief doesn’t have an overhead.

!

It all makes sense now. I mean, I remember having to block high for jump attacks, but I never actually thought of them as true overheads. Well, I did, but never THOUGHT about it. Kinda like the difference between knowing something and realizing it. A really slow double take, if you will, lol.

Thanks for the answers to my dumb questions. I guess my wake-up SPDs need work. Either that or they never truly existed.

Hey guys im curious why does Gief have an advantage over Balrog? I can understand in Hyper Fighting but i think its pretty even 50/50…

Everytime i play a good Balrog its always pretty damn even for me…What tactics do you guys use or something i can abuse? I mostly spam the crouching jab & lariats…I dont bother trying to tick as most of the time i get reversal Buffalo headbutt…

So this is what i have for matchups

Bison 4-6
Balrog 5-5
Chun Li 5-5
Ken 5-5
Ryu 5-5
Fei Long 5-5
Cammy 6-4
T-hawk 6-4
Sagat 6-4
Guile 6.5-3.5
Deejay 7-3
Blanka 8.5-1.5
Dhalsim 9-1
Honda 9-1
Akuma 9-1
Zangief 10-0 LOL i suck at gief mirror matches

I’m assuming Balrog means boxer correct? I usually do the same as you which entail spamming cr. jabs and lariats. If I knock him down, I try a far meaty cr. roundhouse and try to bait them to do the buffalo headbutt. If he misses, its spd or sweep. I also try crossup splashes on knockdown if I’m close enough.

I use a lot of sweeps. Works just as well as cr.Jab and better range to get the knockdown into tick > SPD or bait > SPD.

Another great tool is jump+down Fierce from 3/4 screen range. It stuffs all rushes including TAP and Upper and Boxers are hesitant to use Buffalo as anti air from that range. So I usually end up getting good positioning with no fear of punishment, and if I’m close enough after empty jump splash, SPD. LOL I love tormenting Boxers.

His lariats have really good start up frames so I like to whip it out every now and then and hit boxer’s punches and that gets him to sit there and wonder what he can do. That’s when I move in for my mix ups into SPD. Boxer is one of my favorite matches. Use the punch version because it has a huge hit box compared to the kick version. But I would use the Kick version if hes really close. If timed correctly you will catch his punch sweep in the frame where kick lariat is invincible, or hit the upper body punch versions. Just takes timing and if you play that match up a lot it will really get you to notice when what moves are starting up and react with stuff that can stuff it.

Ok ill try that…

Balrogs/Guile matches are always chess matches for me…If this tactic work should less thinking more spinning…

Does anyone else have any problems with the execution if lariats on pad?

I seem to be getting punches and kicks out instead of lariat with about the same frequency, so I’m not sure if it’s just that I suck at execution. I have the problem with all strengths on lariat. And I seem to have similar difficulty on and offline

I’ve got the Saturn USB pad and I’m really not happy with it. I’m planning on upgrading to the madcatz tournament stick, but until then I’d appreciate any tips. I like to think I’m pretty good at hitting two buttons at the same time, but I mess up lariats often enough that’s it’s become a serious handicap.

Do your use your thumbs to press the attack buttons?
At first I had trouble executing lariats, but got used to it after practicing on the ps3 pad. I usually press the punch/kick buttons with my thumb and I would say it works over 90% of the time for me. I have since purchased a madcatz fightpad and the same method is used w/o any issues besides the glitchy fightpad itself.

Yeah the Saturn USB pad is bad for Lariats. The top 3 buttons are smaller than the bottom 3, so it makes punch+kick Lariats using my thumb damn near impossible. I’ve tried going with 3 punch or 3 kick Lariats, but that is only marginally better.

So I’ve since learned to use my thumb+forefinger at the same time for punch+kick Lariats, and I get them about 70% of the time. Although the Saturn pad is great for everything else, punch+kick type moves are harder.

I was going to get the Fightpad but all the stores in my city say they’re sold out and not planning on getting anymore cuz of defective issues. Guess they don’t want to lose money having to replace almost every one of those garbage Madcatz pads. Funny thing is tho, I don’t blame Madkatz, they already proved they suck. I blame Capcom for giving this crappy company the SF4 licence. How about a new HD Remix licence to another company Capcom?

Hey guys, after working on this thing for at least a month, I think I may finally have a finished FAQ. But, I need your help in checking my work.

Check out these combos. I know some of them may not be all that practical, but what I really need to know is whether or not they work. Use the following key as you read.

, = Link Combo

  • = Chain Combo or Rapid-Fire Chain
    XX = 2-in-1 or Special/Super Move Cancellation
    NE = Negative Edge
    MP = Motion Partitioning
    CP = Charge Partitioning
    KC = Kara (Empty) Cancellation
    RC = Renda (Rapid-Fire Chain) Cancellation
    SC = Super Combo
    TT = Tick Throw
    @ = Dizzy Combo
    R@ = Re-dizzy Combo
    ToD = Touch of Death Combo

Basic Combos:

  1. Crouch jab, Hold or Throw (TT)
  2. Stand short, stand fierce
  3. Crouch jab, crouch forward
  4. Close strong, crouch roundhouse

Intermediate Combos:
5. Jump fierce, crouch forward XX Lariat
6. Jump roundhouse, close strong XX Fierce Banishing Flat
7. Jump Body Splash, crouch jab (x2-4), crouch roundhouse (@)
8. Jump Knee Press, Fierce Spinning Pile Driver (TT)

Advanced Combos:
9. Stand short XX Fierce Spinning Pile Driver (TT)
10. Hopping Headbutt, Fierce Spinning Pile Driver (TT)
11. Crouch jab (x2), Roundhouse Atomic Suplex (TT)
12. Close strong XX Fierce Banishing Flat, Fierce Spinning Pile Driver (TT)
13. Jump fierce, crouch forward XX Roundhouse Running Bear Grab (TT)
14. Jump fierce, close strong, crouch forward XX Fierce Banishing Flat, Fierce Spinning Pile Driver
15. Jump roundhouse, Final Atomic Buster SC (TT)
16. Cross-up Body Splash, crouch jab (x2), stand short, crouch roundhouse (@)
17. Cross-up Body Splash, crouch jab (x4), Fierce Spinning Pile Driver (TT, ToD)
18. Cross-up Body Splash, close strong, crouch forward XX Fierce Banishing Flat, Final Atomic Buster SC (TT)
19. Cross-up Body Splash, crouch jab, close strong, stand short XX Fierce Banishing Flat, Final Atomic Buster SC (TT)