Capcom vs SNK 2/Dhalsim

Introduction

Overview

Strategy

Combos

Matchups

Health (at Ratio 2)
14000	Low
Stun
60	Average
Dash Length
15 Frames	Short
Dash Type
Hop	Corpse Hop=Yes, Proj. Hop=Yes
Run Speed
6.4	Extremely Slow
Roll Distance
140 pixels	Far
Roll Duration
29f	Very Long
Wakeup Speed compared to Ryu
0f	Average

Story

Dhalsim is one of the 7 Yoga Masters. He is capable of stretching his body out to immense lengths, and conjuring fire from his mouth. He can also teleport, and later on learns how to float. He starts out fighting to raise money for his village, as he cares deeply for those who live there. Although, he has to contradict his natural pacifist beliefs. Throughout many of the games, he finds himself conflicted between his pacifist lifestyle and having to use his great powers to fight for his village. After the events of Street Fighter II: World Warrior, Dhalsim retires from fighting. That is, until S.I.N. in Street Fighter IV builds a dam that bars water from getting into Dhalsim's village. He is once again forced to choose between his pacifist beliefs and the need to fight.

Gameplay

Dhalsim is the original long-arms zoner. He has stretchy normals that allow him to cover plenty of angles, but has to carefully pick and choose which one he needs for what situation, as they all hit at specific and precise angles. While Dhalsim is infamously powerful in other games like Super Turbo and Alpha 2, CvS2 Dhalsim is quite underwhelming. Many characters are dominant in neutral already, and his extended hurtboxes end up hurting him a lot more. His weak defense makes Grooves with hop and run dismantle him, and he struggles to properly zone them at all. His normally powerful fireball is beaten out by CvS2's roll cancel glitch, as are many of his zoning tools in general, and his offensive mixup is much worse than normal. Overall, Dhalsim is a low tier that has to win neutral every single time in order to win.

Dhalsim does still have very powerful zoning tools however. His normals, namely ones like 5LK and 5HP, control a bunch of grounded space. 5HK and 4MP are great anti-airs, and his divekicks help him be aggressive and mobile. He has fairly useful supers for zoning and chipping. He has a risky but strong reversal in his teleports, and it can be hard to properly punish them as well. Dhalsim has powerful neutral tools, but not much else. You have to win neutral more than anyone else to win, and one time of losing it can spell the end. You can be winning for the majority of the match, but one good hit from the opponent can spell your doom.

Groove Selection

Best - C: C-Dhalsim is the best Groove for Dhalsim, plain and simple. Airblock makes his horrible floaty jump a lot safer, lots of access to his supers makes his damage, reversal, and chip out game a lot more solid, and Alpha Counters give him a MUCH needed defensive option. Roll cancel lets him RC his fire specials to make them much harder to contest and much more annoying in neutral. While his roll isn't great, it can be appreciated as a risky escape tool. C-Groove gives Dhalsim the defensive options he needs and lots of access to his supers: all that he needs to perform well.

Useful - A/S: A-Dhalsim is a bit of a lesser C-Dhalsim. Losing airblock hurts a lot, but you get Custom Combo in return. While this isn't necessarily a bad trade, Dhalsim's CC isn't the greatest, and he would rather just have his supers. Still, you get the basic defense of C-Groove plus a decent reversal combo tool with big damage potential: it could be a lot worse. S-Dhalsim is a lot more gimmicky. While charging doesn't actively hurt his gameplan, getting hit while charging can end the round for Dhalsim. He has no access to supers for a majority of the round, which doesn't hurt too bad, but at low health having infinite level 1's makes him a bit scarier.

Worst - K/N/P: K-Dhalsim is strange to play. Dhalsim having run and hop isn't as beneficial to his gameplan as you might think, since his offense isn't very rewarding for how much risk it carries. Rage does make his normal poke strategy much scarier however, and a good punish into a level 3 still hurts, so K-Dhalsim with Rage has some merit. N-Dhalsim is a worse version of K-Dhalsim. His level 1's are solid but not good enough to live on just level 1 supers alone, and he doesn't have a good enough RC special for N-Groove. P-Dhalsim is the worst way to play him. Dhalsim has very weak punishes, meaning parries do very little, though he can almost always at least punish thanks to his range. Only having roughly one level 3 super per round hurts, and the lack of any other good options is a major sacrifice.

Dhalsim is a fragile long-arm zoner who relies on massive range normals to keep opponents out. However, if he fails, he often dies in one or two interactions. Dhalsim is best in C-Groove.
Pros	Cons
Normals: Dhalsim's massive normals list gives him a tool for most situations, and he can zone very effectively with good usage of his tools Unique Mobility: Despite his jump and slow walkspeed and run, he can be surprisingly mobile, with multiple teleports, divekicks, and slides Zoning: Combining the two above strengths, Dhalsim can keep his opponents out for a majority of the round	Low Health: If the opponent gets one clean hit, Dhalsim hurts a lot, and it leads into a knockdown which gets the opponent in, opening him up for another big punish, and likely killing him Extended Hurtboxes: All of Dhalsim's normals extend hurtboxes with them, meaning invincible moves or moves with a bunch of active frames will hit him even from fullscreen away Bad Punishes: Dhalsim's combos are weak and don't do much damage, especially without meter Large Toolset: Learning Dhalsim can be very hard, as his normals all cover specific uses and he has a LOT of normals. Getting used to all of the different situations to use all of his different tools is key to winning with him

Frame Data

	Block							Frames
Move Name	HL	Damage	Stun	Cancel Ability	Startup	Active	Recovery	On Guard	On Hit	Notes
Stand	HL	400	4	su	6	3	5	+3	+3	-
Stand	HL	700	7	-	14	6	16	-2	-2	-
Stand	HL	1100	11	-	12	8	26	-11	-11	-
Stand	HL	400	4	-	9	6	16	+3	+3	-
Close	HL	800	8	-	13	8	20	-8	-8	-
Close	HL	1100	11	-	14	6	22	-4	-4	-
+	HL	300	3	sp/su[su]	3	9	6	+0	+0	[] Refers to later active frames
+	HL	800[600]	8[6]	sp/su[su]	4	8	6	+5	+5	[] Refers to later active frames
+	HL	800*600	8*6	sp/su*-/su	5	3*7	23	-6	-6	-
+	HL	300	3	sp/su	5	6	9	+0	+0	-
+	HL	800	8	sp/su	6	8	11	+1	+1	-
+	HL	1200	12	sp/su	7	16	14	-6	-6	-
crouch	L	400	4	-	12	6	13	-4	-4	-
crouch	L	700	7	-	13	6	16	-2	-2	-
crouch	L	1200	12	-	15	6	24	-6	-6	-
crouch	L	300	3	sp/su[su]	3	9	10	-4	-4	[] Refers to later active frames
crouch	L	600	6	sp/su[su]	7	10	14	-4	-4	[] Refers to later active frames
crouch	L	1000	10	-	10	12	21	-9	-	Knockdown
	HL	300	3	sp/su	5	3	9	+3	+3	-
	HL	600	6	sp/su	5	4	10	+6	+6	-
	HL	1200	12	su	6	4	12	+8	+8	-
	HL	400	4	sp/su	5	4	10	+1	+1	-
	HL	700	7	sp/su	6	4	13	+3	+3	-
	HL	1100	11	su	8	4	24	-4	-	Knockdown
Jump	H	500	5	-	16	16	-	-	-	-
Jump	H	700	8	-	16	18	-	-	-	-
Jump	H	1100	11	-	11	4	-	-	-	-
Jump	H	500	5	-	9	8	-	-	-	-
Jump	H	7	7	-	12	7	-	-	-	-
Jump	H	1200	12	-	13	8	-	-	-	-
Jump +	H	500	5	-	4	10	-	-	-	-
Jump +	H	800	80	-	5	8	-	-	-	-
Jump +	H	1200	12	-	5	6	-	-	-	-
Jump +	H	600	6	-	5	10	-	-	-	-
Jump +	H	800	8	-	8	6	-	-	-	-
Jump +	H	1300	13	-	9	7	-	-	-	-
Jump +	HL	900	9	-	9	Until Ground	After Landing 7F	-	-	-
Jump +	HL	700	7	-	9	Until Ground	After Landing 7F	-	-	-
Jump +	HL	800	8	-	9	Until Ground	After Landing 7F	-	-	-
Jump +	HL	900	9	-	9	Until Ground	After Landing 7F	-	-	-
Throw or +	52px	2000	-	-	6	1	3	-	-	-
Throw or +	52px	800+200x(2~14)	-	-	3	1	3	-	-	Spin Stick and mash buttons to increase number of hits. Opponent can counter mash to reduce hits.
Yoga Fire	HL	700	7	-	15	-	42 (Total 56)	-7	-7	Forces Stand, Projectile Hitbox
Yoga Fire	HL	800	8	-	15	-	43 (Total 57)	-8	-	Forces Stand, Projectile Hitbox
Yoga Fire	HL	900	9	-	15	-	44 (58)	-9	-	Forces Stand, Projectile hitbox
Yoga Flame	HL	1400[1200]	14[12]	-	19	26	26	-5	-5	[] Refers to later active frames, Projectile Hitbox
Yoga Flame	HL	1500[1300]	15[13]	-	20	41	26	-5	-5	[] Refers to later active frames, Projectile Hitbox
Yoga Flame	HL	1600[1400]	16[14]	-	21	56	26	-5	-5	[] Refers to later active frames, Projectile Hitbox
Yoga Blast	HL	1500[1300]	15[13]	-	20	12	24	-2	-	[]Refers to later active frames, Projectile Hitbox
Yoga Blast	HL	1600[1400]	16[14]	-	21	10	24	-2	-	[]Refers to later active frames, Projectile Hitbox
Yoga Blast	HL	1700[1500]	17[15]	-	24	26	24	-2	-	[]Refers to later active frames, Projectile Hitbox
Yoga Teleport or	-	-	-	-	-	-	87F total	-	-	1-77F Invincible. Can be performed in air.
Yoga Inferno - Level 1	L	2100	-	-	4+5	29?	45	-12	-	1-8F Invincible, Projectile Hitbox
Yoga Inferno - Level 2	L	3300	-	-	4+5	59?	45	-12	-	1-14F Invincible, Projectile Hitbox
Yoga Inferno - Level 3	L	4900	-	-	4+5	89?	45	-12	-	1-22F Invincible, Projectile Hitbox
Yoga Volcano - Level 1	HL	2300	-	-	5+9	28?	22	-13	-13	1-9F Invincible, Projectile Hitbox
Yoga Volcano - Level 2	HL	3500	-	-	5+9	58?	22	(-41F or more)	(-41F or more)	1-15F Invincible, Projectile Hitbox
Yoga Volcano - Level 3	HL	5100	-	-	5+9	88?	22	(-41F or more)	(-41F or more)	1-23F Invincible, Projectile Hitbox
	Block							Frames
Move Name	HL	Damage	Stun	Cancel Ability	Startup	Active	Recovery	On Guard	On Hit	Notes

Normal Moves

Dhalsim is probably the most complicated Capcom character to appear in CvS2. Each punch and kick has at least two functions depending on direction of the joystick. When the joystick is in neutral or directed forward, Dhalsim's limbs will stretch. When the joystick is directed back, Dhalsim's attacks will not stretch and be at normal length.

It is also important to know that Dhalsim's limbs do not hit his opponent, only his fists and hands. This means that stretched attacks will completely miss a close target making them useless at short range. Useful Normals:

In Air:

-Stretched-

Jab does a stretched punch that hits the 5 o'clock position below and to the front of Dhalsim.

Strong does a stretched punch that hits the 3 o'clock position directly in front of Dhalsim. Mainly used for air-to-air.

Fierce does a quick stretched punch that hits the 4 o'clock position below and to the front of Dhalsim. 10 frame startup and respectable 1100 damage.

Short and forward both do a stretched kick that hits between the 3 and 4 o'clock position below and to the front of Dhalsim. Good for surprising people as you float down from a jump.

Roundhouse does a stretched leg with massive range that strikes the 2 o'clock position. Good for air-to-air and for surprising jump happy characters like Sakura, Rolento and Vega.

Standing:

-Stretched- Fierce does a stretched punch with both arms that spans 3/4 the screen. Not to be abused as it has heavy recovery and only above average priority. Will lose or trade with most high priority pokes (cammy s.rh, sagat c.fp). Useful for doing guard damage or to punish rolling after a yoga fire. 28 frame recovery.

Short does a stretched kick that's angled forward and down. 8 frame startup and an above average poke.

Roundhouse is probably one of the most annoying normals in the game. Extends nearly full screen and is angled slightly upward. Stops most early jumps cold and is very fast. Good to use after yoga fires to prevent jump-ins and extremely hard to predict.

-Non-Stretched (B+w/e)-

B+Jab does a quick poke in the air. One of Dhalsim's many AA options and can be canceled to level 2 or 3 yoga volcano. Very good priority.

B+Strong does a quick chop in the air. One of Dhalsim's many AA options. Very fast with a 3 frame startup and useful for defending against crossovers. Very good priority but will still trade or lose to a few noteworthy jump-ins (Iori j.rh, Yamakaki j.rh?).

B+Fierce does a headbutt. This is one of Dhalsim's most useful normals as it's pretty fast, has a 4 frame startup and hits twice. It can also be buffered into supers and is useful for corner trapping coupled with short slides.

B+Roundhouse is a knee to the chest of the opponent. Useful for corner pressure, guard crush strings and combos. Can be canceled into yoga flame/fire/supers.

Special Moves

=Yoga Fire= QCF+P: Strength of punch determines speed of fireball. Fierce yoga fire is probably the fastest projectile in the game. 14 frame startup on all versions with 42/43/44 frame recovery. Great for zoning and chip/guard damage.

=Yoga Flame= HCB+P: Strength of punch determines duration that flame stays active (20/41/56 frames). Good when used at max range for pressuring, especially when RC'd. Very punishable up close due to heavy recovery. Will neutralize normal projectiles.

=Yoga Blast= HCB+K: Strength of kick determines duration that flame stays active (12/20/28 frames). Average anti-air with lk version being most useful (19 frame startup). Difficult to time due to slow startup and should not be used against characters with very fast jumps (vega, benimaru, etc.). Will not neutralize parallel to ground projectiles and does not hit most grounded targets.

=Yoga Teleport= DP+3P/3k or RDP+3P/3K (F,D,DF or B,D,DB): The famous yoga teleport that can be done in the air. DP motion moves Dhalsim towards while RDP moves Dhalsim away. 3 punches move Dhalsim a short distance while 3 kicks move Dhalsim a longer distance. Fairly slow and punishable when misused but excellent for escaping or zoning.

Super Moves

The Basics

Advanced Strategy

Match-ups

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