Street Fighter V has been out for almost a month. While the fighting game has been generally well received, it's also not really accessible if you've never played any Street Fighter games.

But as professional Street Fighter gets more attention (and big prize pools, like $500,000 for winning the annual Capcom Cup), more people may be tempted into trying their luck at the fighting game.

If you aren't even sure how to start playing Street Fighter V, here are seven tips to help you get more comfortable — and hopefully win some matches.

1. Slow down

Street Fighter might seem fast and frenetic, but it's really a thinking person's game. One of the biggest mistakes players can make is just hitting a bunch of buttons at once (which is why some degradingly call unskilled players "button mashers"). You’ll do better if you consider your options before making a move, because your more skilled opponent is definitely doing the same thing.

Street Fighter gives every character options for dealing with each kind of offensive attack, including parry or counterattack moves to deploy at the right time. Rather than rushing in and flailing to execute a particular move, watch and answer your opponent’s attacks. Then wait for an opening. You’ll be able to handle whatever they throw out more calmly — or even better, you could frustrate them into making a sloppy mistake with your cool-headed play.

2. Footsie isn't just a way to flirt

Because Street Fighter has always been a 2D fighting game, characters can move only on an X or Y axis. Practically, this means you can’t roll around someone’s attacks; your only options are to move forwards or backwards, jumping up or crouching.

Image: Giphy

That also means that the typical Street Fighter V game is a battle to control the screen and send your opponent backing away, preferably into a corner. Each character has his or her own way of dominating space — Ryu and Ken have fireballs, Dhalsim has extra stretchy limbs, and grapplers like Zangief can throw you from a longer range than most. But even before you throw your first fireball, there are easy ways to control space with basic moves.

Each character has a light, medium and heavy punch and kick, and they vary whether your character is standing or crouching. You can use each move to threaten your opponent — and utilize the ones with the longest reach to keep them on their toes.

The best way to practice is by using Street Fighter V's extremely valuable Training Mode, seeing how far you can stand from your opponent and still hit them with each attack. Pro tip: The gray, boring Training Stage level even has a grid on the floor to help you visualize how far each move goes.

3. Always be blocking

If you're ever unsure of what to do next, hold down and back to come into a crouching block. Or stand in a neutral stance and be ready to quickly hold back. Moving forward or attacking also leaves you open to attack, so it's just as important to be able to defend from unnecessary hits — and then counter-attack (often knowing as “punishing”) the attacker in their moment of vulnerability.

4. Don’t let them get the drop on you

Plenty of characters have aerial attacks that may send them over your head. A player may just use a jump to try to quickly get in your face and intimidate you. But every character has at least one basic option for handling a flying assault, and learning them will quickly stop the opposition in its tracks.

This Zangief catches a Necalli after he tries to jump at him. Image: Giphy

An easy example of this is Ryu’s crouching heavy punch, which becomes a fast uppercut that can stop any jumping shenanigans. But each character has their own easy-to-learn version as well, which you’ll discover in Training Mode. Once you’e mastered special moves, there will be even more ways to make sure your opponent regrets their decision to recklessly jump at you.

On the same token, jumping around needlessly in a match can end up hurting you pretty badly — so avoid it. Jumping over Ken’s fireball may seem like the right idea, but it’s likely that player is baiting that response out of you. So just block it — and find another solution. Otherwise, they'll probably answer with their own uppercut, and you'll hand them an easy victory.

5. Muscle memory power

Ryu’s Shoryuken. Chun-Li’s Spinning Bird Kick. Cammy’s Spiral Arrow. Dhalsim’s Yoa Fire. These are the moves every new player wants to master as soon as they pick up Street Fighter — the iconic powers even casual fans of the franchise know. You’ll probably be able to recreate one after only a minute or two, but being able to pull them out under pressure is a totally different art.

Dhalsim's Yoga Fire, which arcs across the screen in 'Street Fighter V' Image: Giphy

Guess what? Training mode is the best way to master quarter, half or full-circle moves. Start by pushing the opposing dummy to one corner of the screen, then jump behind them and push them into the opposite corner. (Don’t skip on practicing it both ways, or you could find yourself feeling flustered if starting from the opposite player position messes up your moves.)

Do this 15 to 30 minutes each day, and you’ll always be able to pull out the right move during a heated match.

6. Learn what all your meters do

There are a few different bars on the screen in Street Fighter V, and they can be pretty indecipherable if you’re encountering them for the first time. Here they are, from ascending to descending order:

Health Bar: This one is the most obvious, even if if you’ve never played a fighting game. Run out of health and you're knocked out.

Stun meter: The small white bar just below the health bar is your stun meter. Do enough successive hits to your opponent, and they are temporarily stunned and won’t be able to move. Watching this gage is critical, as getting stunned leaves you helpless for quite a while.

Variable Meter: At the bottom of the screen is your red Variable Meter, a new addition to SFV. Each character has their own specialized V-trigger, which is a power-up that lasts about 30 seconds, a v-skill, a quick use attack, and the V-Reversal, a powerful defensive option. This meter is filled up by taking damage or using your V-Skill, and needs to refill fresh at the start of every round.

EX Meter: This is the blue meter at the bottom of the screen. It fills up in segments when you take or deal damage, block or use a special move. Each segment can be used to supercharge one special attack (executed by hitting two bunch or kick buttons at once instead of just one). You can also save the whole thing up to do a unique Critical Art attack, which has a long, flashy animation and does a ton of damage if it successfully connects.

Chun-Li's critical art involves a lot of kicking Image: Giphy

7. Check out other helpful resources

These tips barely scratch the surface of Street Fighter V technique. If you want to start diving deeper, here are some great resources to check out.

The official Capcom videos: Street Fighter's publisher has created character-specific videos to help you learn each of the 16 options available to you. They're pretty detailed, but easy to digest. Here they are in one playlist.

Cross-Counter TV: This training group, made up of Street Fighter pros, has plenty of beginner-friendly videos to help new players in their training. Cross Counter's Gootecks has also written a book, Fighting Game Fundamentals, which is available on Kindle.





From Masher to Master: The Educated Video Game Enthusiast’s Fighting Game Primer: This free ebook from Shoryuken.com and Patrick Miller focuses on simple fundamentals of the game. It breaks down the concepts of Street Fighter, and while it uses Street Fighter II Turbo Edition as its example, its lessons apply across all games.

The Street Fighter V Prima Guide: Prima's official strategy guide, which can be purchased physically or digitally, goes from basic to granular with all its information. It also has a mobile app that will support the game as new characters are added this year.