Street Fighter V/Universal Abilities

Blocking

Blocking is performed by holding the back direction. With the character facing right this means left, and with the character facing right this means left. To block jumping or overhead attacks such as Ryu's f+MP Collarbone Breaker, hold back to block high. To block low attacks such as Ryu's crMK, hold down+back. High attacks can be blocked either high or low.

After blocking an attack you will go into blockstun. Blockstun is a special state where you are unable to do anything for several frames until you recover. This means even if you mash LP afterwards, it will not come out until your character exists blockstun.

Proximity Blocking

When a move is performed, even if it does not hit the opponent it will cause the opponent to go into a block state if they are within a certain distance. This is called "proximity guard". Since the opponent goes into a block state this means holding back makes them block, and they cannot walk backwards. Proximity guard is the reason you cannot simply walk away when Abigail is charing his HP in V-Trigger 1 or Sagat his V-Trigger 2; you are still able to jump and backdash and do anything else besides walk backwards however.

Normal Moves

Normal Moves refer to any single button hit, and are common across every character, The number of normals each character has is drastically reduced from previous Street Fighter games, removing close and neutral jumping attacks. Most have 18 total: standing LP, MP, HP, LK, MK, HK; jumping LP, MP, HP, LK, MK, HK; and crouching LP, MP, HP, LK, MK, HK. Certain characters such as Nash and Fang also have a different attack if done during a neutral jump instead of a forward jump.

Unique / Command Normals

Command normals are unique attacks for each character, performed by pressing a direction + a button. Examples of these are Ryu's Collarbone Breaker, Guile's Sobat Kick, and Chun-Li's Senenshu. These moves often have different properties than normals such as being overheads, moving the character far forward, and more. These moves can still combo into others, cause crush counters, or just be a good poke as with regular normal moves.

Target Combos

Target combos are pre-defined button sequences that execute unique attack strings. Examples of these are Ryu's Jodan Sanrengeki, Cammy's Life Combination, and Cody's Final Combination. The largest difference is the timing on them is much less strict than a normal combo, they can be pressed one after another in a loose timing to get the moves to come out.

Special Moves

A special move is another class of moves in Street Fighter V. These moves usually have special properties compared to normal attacks; examples of them include Ryu's Hadoken, M. Bison Scissor Kicks, Birdie's Bullhorn, and Ed's Psycho Rising.

Special Moves are often a large part of what makes a character unique. When people think of Ryu they often don't think of what his sMP or f+HP look like, they think of the Shoryuken or Hadoken or Tatsumaki. When people think of Blanka they think of his electricity and rolling attacks, when they think of Chun-Li they think of her lightning kicks. In this way they have a variety of uses; some are used as combo enders, some are used for zoning, some are used as "Get off me!" moves, some for breaking the opponent's pressure, and more. Learning a character's specials is a good first step to learn what kind of character they are supposed to be.

Special Moves in addition to their utility alone are useful because many normals are special cancelable, meaning you can cancel moves that normally would not allow further combo into a special attack. The classic example is Ryu's crMK xx Hadoken where "xx" means cancel; on its own crMK is not advantageous enough to continue a combo but because it can be special canceled it allows further followups.

Special Moves also causes actual chip damage instead of only grey life.

There are several types of inputs for performing specials:

Motion

These refer to moves that are done via entering a motion, such as a Hadoken which is Quarter Circle Forward (QCF) + Punch, or Zangief's Screw Pile Driver which is F, DF, D, DB, B, UB + P (commonly called a 360 even though you only need to input a 270.

Charge

Charge refers to moves that you have to hold a direction for a certain period of time before being able to perform. These include Chun-Li's Kikoken, Guile's Sonic Boom, and Bison's Scissor Kicks. These are either hold back for several frames (usually around 50, or almost a second) then pressing forward + an attack button, or hold down then press up plus an attack button. These moves are designed to limit mobility to have access to them; for example while Guile is walking forward this means he is not charging and cannot Somersault Kick, making it safer to jump at him.

Hold

Hold specials are similar to charge, however they are performed by holding a button (or buttons) for a certain number of frames. Examples of these are Balrog's Turn Around Punch, Birdie's Bullhorn, and Falke's Psycho Kugel. The amount of time you need to hold the button various depending on the character and the special.

Rapid Input

Rapid input, or mash specials, are moves that requiring hitting a button several times in quick succession. Examples are Blanka's Electricity which requires 4 punch buttons to be presses, Ed's Psycho Flicker which requires 5 punch buttons to be pressed, and Kolin's Parabellum which also requires 5 punch buttons to be pressed. The last input determines the strength of the move if there are multiple; for example if Kolin presses LP, MP, HP, MP, LP then the LP version is performed; if Kolin does LP, MP, HP, MP, HP then the HP version is performed. If the last input is 2 or 3 buttons, the EX version is performed.

There are two common ways to handle these types of inputs: Piano and Sliding.Sliding is performed by sliding a finger along the punch or kick buttons hitting them as you go along, and ending with the appropriate button. Pianoing is similar concept; see VesperArcade's YouTube tutorial for more information.

Easy-Input

New to Street Fighter V and currently unique to two characters, Ed and Falke, easy input moves refer to specials that are performed by simply pressing two buttons with no motion or charge attached to them. For example, Ed's Psycho Upper is performed by pressing two punch buttons at the same time and the EX version is performed by pressing 3 punch buttons. With this comes some benefits; being able to press just one button to have an invincible reversal come out versus having to do a motion means it is much easier and quicker to get them to come out in tight situations such as trying to anti-air or trying to beat a charging armored move on reaction.

Back Dash

Back dashes are performed by pressing back twice. During the entire backdash characters are throw invincible making then great for escaping them backdashes recover faster than most jumps, or quickly moving away from an opponent to create distance. 3 frames into a backdash a character is considered to be airborne, meaning many regular attacks hit during them will cause a flip out state preventing a combo opportunity. A common example is against Alex; after his Lariat which is +3 on block it is sometimes worth it to perform a backdash to escape the command throw or MP xx Flash Chop setup; if the MP hits it will cause the opponent to flip out making the Flash Chop completely whiff and giving you the advantage for just spending a bit of HP.

One special thing to note about backdashes however is while airborne a character is in a counter hit state; meaning crush counter moves are especially deadly in these scenarios.

Throws

Taunts

Taunts are performed by pressing all 6 buttons at the same time. Besides Akuma's taunt which causes a small attack that can be comboed out of they have no effect other than annoying your opponent. Use them wisely or risk showing up in a Twitter / YouTube video of your premature taunt!