A brief guide to Super Street Fighter 4

Vian_siu’s Ultimate guide to Super Street Fighter 4 Chun Li
Chapter 1: About myself and introduction to guide

I first started playing fighting games in general around 1998ish when I stumbled upon my cousin’s SEGA Megadrive (aka, SEGA Genesis) version of Street Fighter 2 Championship Edition or Hyper Fighting (on a 3 button pad!). I have been addicted to fighting games ever since.

Since then I have moved on to Street Fighter Alpha 2, Virtua Fighter 2 on the SEGA Saturn, Tekken 3, Marvel vs Capcom, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Street Fighter EX on Playstation and Dreamcast, Capcom vs SNK on Dreamcast, Capcom vs SNK 2 on Gamecube, Virtua Fighter 4 on Playstation 2.

I started playing Zangief on Street Fighter 4 because I noticed his health, easy Spinning Pile drivers, and underrated mobility. As my skills increased I changed to E. Honda. Although I still played like Zangief, I found it a lot easier to deal damage. Then came the day I struggled to beat good opponents relatively often (Sagat) with them, I started to look for a balanced character with an easy way to land ultra combos and all round tools thats not Ryu, so I have more comeback factor and also adapt my tactics more often. My execution skill (ability to perform special moves and combos) wasn’t that great back then so my options were quite limited.

I ended up choosing Chun Li because it is easy to combo into her ultra, and her style of play doesn’t require many combos and is very versatile and fast. I had some difficulties at the start, as she is very different from how I like to play. Because I played a lot different characters with a variety of styles and strategies, I consider myself a technical player, who relies on execution skills and understanding of the game to win. In terms of skill level, I feel I am a decent casual player with proficient technical knowledge and I have spent hours trying to learn new things about the game, because I like spending some time exploring the more technical things rather than relying on a few cheap moves or online tactics. Plus it is more fun to be able to play more characters and different styles.

While I have moved on to Makoto, for the reason that she is closer to my style of play, therefore my Chun Li has retired and I decided to write this guide to pass on my knowledge to beginners or mid-level players who are trying to learn Chun Li and SSF4 properly.

Chapter 2: Character Overview and basic strategy
Chun-Li is a well rounded character, who has the fastest overall ground speed in the game. She also has one of the best, if not the best pokes( in the words of the pros, an attack that, due to its speed, range, or priority, is safe to use for pressuring or zoning your opponent) in the game and a set of normal attacks (non special moves) that most characters can only be envious of. Her special moves includes a decent fireball, a fast overhead attack (an attack that has to block high), a multiple hitting lightning legs attack that can easily combo into ultra.
These tools make her one of the best zoning (controlling your opponent’s space) characters in SSF4, who is very good at whiff punishing. Her walk speed causes her fireball game to be pretty potent and her easy combo to ultra gives her strong comeback potential.
Her mix-ups (in the words of the pros, it is a situation where your opponent has to guess between on coming treats. A good mix-up, would leave you with multiple options that leads to similar damage and your opponent into a disadvantage position regardless which option he/she is hit by unless he/she guesses right and escape the situation) are good, a lot of her options are safe. Other advantages include top-tier throwing ability, a dominating aerial game, a great Focus Attack. She also has powerful juggle options which opens up some big damage portals.
All these strengths also come with great disadvantages. She lacks strong and consistent anti-air options. Although she has many anti-air normal attacks, but all of them are situational and trades with jump-ins often, which doesn’t help because she also has below-average stamina, decreasing the room for mistakes. Despite her high priority jump attacks, her jump speed leaves something to be desired. Her jump has a high ark, and it is slow and doesn’t go very far and the wall jump is next to useless.
Her wake-up game is also questionable, with only one true invincible reversal attack (EX Spinning Bird Kick) that is an EX move (requires a EX meter to use) and extreme risk to take, worst of all, some attacks actually beat or trades with this move. Also, many of her best moves are EX move, making her meter management extremely tight and overall damage output is very low in comparison to the rest of the cast.
All that being said, her pros out weights her cons, hence she is one of the top tier characters. With all the strength and weakness in mind, her general strategy revolves heavily around staying mid range and playing the footsie (in the words of the pros, a positional game that usually takes place at the edge of each character’s range, in which players try to poke, counter poke, and score knockdowns) game and zoning, to minimize risk and grind opponents down slowly, due to her low health and low damage output. But she is not very effective from full screen due to the limited range of her fireball.
USA SSF4 champion Justin Wong once said, a good Chun Li player have usually mastered the spacing and fundamentals of the game, as she has tools to deal with almost every situations. This is exactly what is required to play her at a decent level.
• Strengths •
+ Fast walk speed.
+ Has exceptional pokes and is great at whiff punishing.
+ Tick throw game is unmatched.
+ An amazing backdash with incredible speed and range.
+ Super has 1-frame startup.
+ Two very useful Ultras, depending on the match up.
+ Great juggling ability and strong combos.


• Weaknesses •
– Low stamina (900).
– Anti air options are poor, in most situations.
– Ultras do weak damage or require specific spacing.
– Fireball has limited range.
– Many of her best tools are EX moves.
– Very risky reversal options.- Awful jump that should never be used
Chapter 3: Character’s Moves set
This section is about the breakdown of all of Chun Li’s actions, their properties, situation they are used for.
In any fighting game, character’s move is dictated by two things: hit box and frame data. The hit box determines how far the move will hit and where it is vulnerable. The frame data determines how fast the move is and how easy it is to punish it. There is hidden factor that also affect the moves is priority, basically when two moves’ hit box collide, this decides which move wins. However this can only be found out by trial and error in training mode, as it is a hidden attribute. For more information about these things please go to http://www.eventhubs.com/guides/2009/feb/17/how-read-frame-data-street-fighter-4/ and http://www.eventhubs.com/guides/2009/sep/18/guide-understanding-hit-boxes-street-fighter/Understanding these points will help you grasp the rest of this section.
Chun li frame data:http://wiki.shoryuken.com/Super_Street_Fighter_IV_AE/Chun-LiBasic actions:
Chun has the fastest walk speed in the game. Her forward dash is also excellent; it covers a good distance with only a total of 15 frames. This allows her to get close quick for some surprise throws and light attacks. It is also one of the foundations of getting big damage. Her back dash is perhaps the best in the game along with Rose. It is one of the quickest, with 22 frames, travels really far and has great amount of invincibility. This is one of her primary defensive option; it is also relatively safe and very abuse-able if your opponent doesn’t know how to punish it.
Her jump however is very poor; it stays in air for a long time (4 start-up frames plus 41 frames in the air compare average character’s 35 frames in the air). She jumps very high up but doesn’t travel forward that far, make it very obvious and easy to anti-air. In addition her wall jump combines all these weakness and you can’t turn around in the air causing it very effortless to punish and you don’t get much advantage from it. In a nutshell, jumping make her lose all the mobility advantage she has and the chances are you will lose life because of it, so as far as mobility goes its best to stay grounded where you can block and you have a huge lead over a large majority of the cast, hence it is easy to control your position.
Chun Li’s normal throw range again is up there with the very best, because her attacks are very fast and have some damaging frame traps, it is simple to tick throw your opponent over and over again. This is one of the tactics inexperience player will use very often with her, since they do not know how to set up a combo. Because tick throws is often a safe option and hard to defend most of the time, especially with online lag, meaning some players will repeat this move like crazy. The downside is it does little damage so it is best to use it to set up other options I will cover later in this guide.
She also has an air throw. Air throws are great in this game, because it beats all jump-in attacks. This make she a dominate force air to air, consequently you should use it more to catch people jumping in, because it is often more reliable than your anti air attacks.
Normal attacks:
Close standing light punch (close s.lp):A 3 frame attack, which means it, is the fastest attack along with throw and Shoto’s Dragon Punches (Shoryuken).  It has a good range for a light attack, chain-able (means you can combo it into itself by just mash it repeatedly with no timing required), gives frame advantage regardless if hit or blocked, and hit most characters crouching. By itself, it does little damage or stun, but you can lock your opponent down with this to set up tick throws and some nasty frame traps with close s.mp, close s.hp, close s.mk (3 hits and hit overhead, meaning your opponent has to block high to block this attack), close s.hk, c.mk, and light Hazanshu.
Any of those normal attacks can be cancelled in to Hazanshu. All of the normal attacks except c.mk (3 frames gap) leaves a 2 frames gap to bait lp, lk, and throw tech mashing, so you could get a counter hit if they do. Hazanshu is considered airborne in the first frame so it is also very useful for baiting throw tech attempts, and on counter hit it gives you even more time to do the combo follow-up.
Hazanshu and close s.hk cancel into Hazanshu in particular, are dangerous because close s.hk combos into light and medium Hazanshu on counter hit. It does great stun and damage and it allows you to further combo by linking Hazanshu into c.lk and/or EX Lightning Legs, and juggle with ultra after. This is one of the hardest hitting combos Chun Li has got and you should look for this more rather than just throw your opponent after a (few) close s.lp.
On hit, this combos into all of the normal attacks used in frame traps, plus you attach a super at the end for huge damage. A common and easy combo/block string used by almost everyone is s.lp, c.lp, c.lk, c.lk cancel into EX Lightning Legs. It doesn’t do much damage but easy to do and hit confirm.
Close standing medium punch (close s.mp):Realistically this is only used in frame traps with c.lp or close s.lp. This can also be used as a quick armor breaker to beat focus attacks because it has fast start-up (4 frames) and it hits twice. This move can be cancelled into to a special move or super at the first hit or after the second hit, which is useful for hit-confirming into super, build meter with fireball, or setting up traps with Hazanshu. If this move hits, it put you at 0 frame, which means both you and your opponent recover at the same time. You are close enough follow up with s.lp or c.lp, this will beat anything that is not invincible or have a 3 frame start up (usually throws and some character’s light attacks). If your opponent tries to retaliate, most likely he/she will fail, and this sets you up for another opportunity to combo, if he/she blocks, it will give you frame advantage to do another trap.
Close standing heavy punch (close s.hp):This is used the same way as the close s.mp, except it does more damage and stun, only hits once and leaves you at the frame disadvantage hit or blocked. But this move is reasonably useful for anti-air and hitting Dhalsim out of his “instant” air teleport, because of its high hit box. Outside of this, I’m afraid this move has a little use.
Far standing light punch (far s.lp):Another 3 frame attack, it hits crouching opponents and it has more range than c.lp, probably has the second best range (behind Balrog) for a jab. Hence this is a great attack to control space due to its speed and range. It’s also chain-able and gives a lot of frame advantage on block and hit (+3 on block and +6 on hit), easily links into s.hp (and super after) for good damage makes this a great combo starter and a great move to set up tick throws and frame traps.
Because far s.lp is +3 on block, you can quickly do a far s.mp for a 4 frame gap trap. Since most 3 frame attacks are jabs and throws, if you do this from max range because your jab out ranges theirs, if their retaliation fails, you will counter hit them. Consequently this will beat late crouch techs and knock your opponent off the air if they tried to jump away, therefore you will be able to maintain your pressure, s.mp is especially cancellable.
You can also do a 3 frame gap trap with s.hp, it does pretty much the same thing but with more damage and stun but it will whiff on some crouching opponents if they too far away and it knocks them back quite far and is not special cancellable, which make it harder to follow up compare to s.mp.
In my opinion, since Balrog’s standing jab’s start up have been nerfed to 4 frames, this move is the best standing jab in the game. So please abuse it!

Far standing medium punch (far s.mp):One of the best, if not, the best all round poke in SSF4. It is fast (7 frame start up), hits very far, frame advantage on hit or blocked (+2 on block and +5 on hit), and special move and super cancellable. This is easily one of the most abused moves in the game, because it is fast, beats most low pokes (like Shoto’s c.mk), has ridiculously long range, and it has no disadvantages at mid range regardless if hit or blocked. This move is best used as a long to mid range counter poke.
In most cases you can win the mid range footsie battle with just this move. It can link into itself or sweep (c.hk) on counter hit, which is great to add more damage in footsies or to set up a safe jump on opponent’s knock down to add more pressure. But the most common thing you will see is cancel s.mp into Hazanshu (more combos options after Hazanshu lands, potentially combos into ultra as well) or fireball for pressure, meter, or just catch people off guard. But beware this is NOT a true block string, meaning your opponent will have time to do a reversal attack, so don’t over use it. Because the far s.mp is so good, it is easy to get people jumping in over it or baited by focus attacks, meaning you might get counter hit by a focus attack and in worst cases crumble for a free combo. You have to make sure you mix this up with simply staying still and do nothing or walk up throw to add more variation to your footsie game.
What I love about this move is its super cancel-ability. It is actually quite easy to hit confirm into super off far s.mp, thus if you have charge, you can counter bait and beat the focus attacks or counter hit pokes and get 350ish more damage after that. I like to do a little block string like c.lk, c.lp, c.lp and when walk back a bit and do this move twice. If I baited out some mashing or some attempt to counter poke me, far s.mp to counter hit my opponent and combo into the second one and you just cancel that into super. The window for the cancel is huge, even if you don’t get the cancel it is still +5 on hit or +8 on counter hit so you can easily link into super after that.
Another trick I like to do is the “gootecks shuffle”. Basically this is a trick when you score a knock down, you walk forward pretend to throw, whiff a jab, walk back and do s.mp buffer into super but only push the kick button until you see it hit. What happens is, if your opponent fall for the bait and tech you get to counter hit their tech attempt with far s.mp and you get to super for big damage if you react quick enough. Alternatively you can link into sweep and do it again.

Far standing heavy punch (far s.hp):This is probably the move you will use the most for anti-air. It beats most far jump in attacks and trades with some.
Close standing light kick (close s.lk):A very fast normal attack, but there is no reason to use it, since s.lp and c.lp is so much better. There is nothing you can do with this attack that s.lp or c.lp cannot do.
Close standing medium kick (close s.mk):This is one of the fastest overhead attacks in the game. This move has some interesting properties other than being a fast overhead. It is underused by many Chun Li players, because they are unaware of these properties.
Close standing heavy kick:
Far standing light kick:
Far standing medium kick:
Far standing heavy kick:
Crouching light punch:
Crouching medium punch:
Crouching heavy punch:
Crouching light kick:
Crouching medium kick:
Crouching heavy kick:
Neutral jump light punch (nj.lp):A quick air to air attack, but mostly useless, you will not use this ever over the nj.hk
Neutral jump medium punch (nj.mp):A quick air to air attack, but mostly useless, you will not use this ever over the nj.hk. It can be use as a instant overhead, but in most cases, you want to use jump back hk, as it is safer and does more damage.
Neutral jump heavy punch:
Neutral jump light kick (nj.lk):A quick air to air attack, but mostly useless, you will not use this ever over the nj.hk
Neutral jump medium kick (nj.mk):A quick air to air attack, but mostly useless, you will not use this ever over the nj.hk
Neutral jump heavy kick:
Angled jump light punch (j.lp):A quick air to air attack, but mostly useless, you will not use this ever over other great angled jump in or air to air attacks
Angled jump medium punch (j.mp):A quick air to air attack, but mostly useless, you will not use this ever over other great angled jump in or air to air attacks
Angled jump heavy punch:
Angled jump light kick:
Angled jump medium kick:
Angled jump heavy kick: