Levelling Up – Punishment

Welcome back to Levelling Up, the series of articles where we take a closer and in-depth look in to the realm of fighting games. This week we will take a look at punishment and the best way to incorporate it in to your game.

Punishment is a big thing in fighting games. It’s a means of showing a player that they should not be playing in such an unsafe manner and that certain combos are unsafe on block. It’s universal in fighting games that there are forms of punishment, but it differs between games. A prime example being the parry in Street Fighter: Third Strike which made moves punishable that wouldn’t normally be, and allowed players to punish predictable patterns.

A common punish that you will hear often is a whiff punish. This means to punish a move that has missed the opponent’s character and leaves them in recovery without the defensive player being left in block stun. Naturally this sort of mistake drops off in high level play but when you can bait an opponent in to whiffing a sweep or unsafe move you gain a great advantage and can deal out a large chunk of damage.

Strider cutting the opposition down to size.

Other forms of punishment depend on a player’s position and the moves they are performing. For instance in Tekken Tag Tournament 2 certain moves are completely safe on block but can be side stepped. These can be called SS punishes or evasive punishes. By sidestepping in a 3D you force your opponent to whiff these moves which allow for different kinds of punishment. This opportunity can be spread across other games by ducking in 2D games of jumping which provides the defensive player with an advantage they may not normally have while blocking the move.

In Tekken many of the strings you see are also unsafe on block. These tend to leave the aggressor at a disadvantage upon their move being blocked. This is where you really need to dig deep and study your frame data. By learning what strings are unsafe you can start to recognise where you can punish an opponent’s moves by either a 10-16 frame punish. They greater the frame disadvantage the aggressor is at, the more damage you are able to find in utilising the correct punish.

The final way in which you can find avenues of punishment is very prevalent in Ultimate Marvel Versus Capcom 3. To chicken block the user can create more space for punishment is by jump blocking, or as it is more affectionately known, Chicken Blocking. By jumping to block attacks you can cancel your recovery by landing meaning you drop off some recovery on the block stun applied by the moves you are hit by. For instance you can’t normally punish Taskmasters Charging star if you are grounded while blocking but by jump blocking you can land a sneaky jab in upon landing which leads to a full damage combo, so long as the opponent doesn’t cancel the move. This can be applied to several moves in game such as Vergil’s helm breaker and some of Hulk’s gamma charges (again the opponent mustn’t cancel the move to punish).

There are many methods in which you may punish a player and the list can be extensive if you want it to be but for the most part its all about knowledge of the game. Punishment is key for players that can be described as turtles and is a key part of their strategy to punish unsafe moves and play extremely defensively.

When in doubt, mash jab.

It’s a great deal to take in and perfecting your punishment can be extremely hard going when it comes down to 10frame and 11frame punishes or even distinguishing between the two. So punishment isn’t something you can merely adopt overnight, but a commitment to truly bettering yourself is. So get counting those frames and don’t forget to level up.

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