The Basics
Buttons
Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo uses 6 buttons for attacks.
- Jab Punch / Light Punch
- Strong Punch / Medium Punch
- Fierce Punch / Heavy Punch
- Short Kick / Light Kick
- Forward Kick / Medium Kick
- Roundhouse Kick / Heavy Kick
In general, lighter attacks come out quicker, while heavier attacks last longer and deal more damage.
Some other button notations of note include
- Any Punch Button
- Any Kick Button
- All 3 Punch Buttons
- All 3 Kick Buttons
- Press Button Rapidly - Indicates that you should press the specified button 5 times in under a second.
Directions/Numpad Notation
For directions, most ST players use classic style written notation. Numpad notation may also be used.
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Keep in mind that most if not all notations shown assume you're facing the right, so when you see an input that uses b and you're facing to the left, press f instead.
Movement
and
- Move left or right, respectively
OR
OR
- Crouch
OR
OR
- Jump left, straight up, or right respectively
Super Street Fighter II Turbo doesn't have a lot of movement options, but they're still important to master.
Offense
Proximity Normals
Most normal attacks in this game will change when you are close to your opponent. Keep both your close attacks and far attacks in mind when planning your strategy.
Command Normals
Most characters will have moves that change depending on the direction you're holding. For example, pressing +
will perform a Swing Punch. Check your character's move list to see what kind of command normals they have.
Chain Combos
Certain moves (Mostly light attacks, such as Guile's cr.lk) can be canceled into themselves if they land. If you chain two or more of these attacks together, you can't cancel the second hit into a Special or Super.
This limitation can be surpassed by Chain Cancelling (See the section in Advanced Controls.)
Special Moves
All characters have moves that can be performed with directional inputs and/or attack button(s). These moves will deal a slight amount of damage even if they are blocked. Check your character's move list to see what special moves they have.
Special Cancelling
During the Impact Freeze (the period where both characters are frozen when an attack lands), a variety of Normal Attacks can be canceled into Special Moves. Experiment around, or check your character's move list and look for moves that can be Special Canceled.
Super Combos
All New characters have access to the Super Combo meter, present on the bottom corner of the screen. You can fill it up by using Special Moves or landing normal attacks, whether they whiff or block. Once it's full, you can use it all to perform your character's Super Combo, unleashing a powerful attack that can potentially turn the tide of the battle. The Super Combo meter is reset after each round. Check your character's move list to see their super combos.
Super Canceling
Some moves can be cancelled into a Super Combo, however, in Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, Impact Freeze does not extend the window of opportunity to perform a Super Cancel like Special Canceling does, so you'll likely need to perform the move you're going to Super Cancel out of during the motion for your Super Combo.
The timing for a Super Cancel is similar to Kara Cancelling.
Throws and Holds
Throws are performed by pressing OR
+
. Some characters can also throw with
AND/OR
AND/OR
, so check your character's page for more information. Throws will fail if your opponent is recovering from a knockdown, in hitstun or blockstun, invincible, or in the air (unless it's an air throw).
Normal Throws
Most throws will simply toss your opponent and deal damage once. These throws can be softened.
Air Throws
N. Ken, Chun-Li, Zangief, Guile, Cammy, N. Fei Long, and Claw all have throws that can be performed in the air. They can also be softened.
Holds
Ken, E. Honda, Blanka, Zangief, Dhalsim, T.Hawk, and Boxer have special kinds of throws called Holds. Instead of throwing your opponent, you'll hold them in place and attack them repeatedly. They cannot be softened.
During a hold, you can mash buttons and directions to deal more hits. Your opponent can also mash to escape quicker, so get those fingers blazing.
This game doesn't count mashed directional inputs if they don't go through neutral, so optimal button mashing requires you to mash two alternating directions and mashing buttons simultaneously.
Defense
Throw Softening
When your opponent performs a normal throw or an air throw, do a throw command of your own ( OR
+
/whatever Throw buttons your character has) and you will take half the damage you would usually take and recover much quicker. You're still vulnerable to your opponent's mixups, so be careful when you land. Holds and Command Throws (Special Moves that are also throws) cannot be softened.
Escaping Holds
During your opponent's hold, mashing buttons and directions will help you escape holds quicker. Once again, you're still vulnerable to your opponent's mixups when you land.
This game doesn't count mashed directional inputs if they don't go through neutral, so optimal button mashing requires you to mash two alternating directions and mashing buttons simultaneously.
Recovering from Dizzy
If you're hit enough times in quick succession, you'll enter a Dizzy state and floating stars, angels, devils or whatnot will circle around you as you're unable to move.
Mashing buttons and directions will escape dizzy state faster. Keep in mind when you do recover, you'll likely be mashing something out that you never intended, so mash with purpose.
This game doesn't count mashed directional inputs if they don't go through neutral, so optimal button mashing requires you to mash two alternating directions and mashing buttons simultaneously.
Advanced Controls
Most of these are bugs due to the age of the game. A lot of these bugs would end up becoming genre staples, however.
The Input System And You
How It's Made: Special Moves
When checking to see if a player is doing a motion based special move, the game performs a few routines to calculate if it was successful
- The game checks every frame to see if the first input of each special move was inputted. When that happens...
- The player has a pseudo random time between 7 frames and 14 frames to enter the next input. All non-charge motion supers, as well as Boxer and Claw's supers, add 7 frames to this, bringing the range up to 14-21 frames. After that...
- If the player did the next input within the timeframe, repeat step 2 until the final direction. If they fail, start over. Finally...
- Once the player inputs the final direction, they have a limited number of frames to press the button associated for the special move. This value is usually 10 frames for light attacks, 9 for medium attacks, and 7 for heavy attacks, but there are a few exceptions.
- 360 inputs have a 12 frame window for the light version.
- Dhalsim's Yoga Teleport has a random value like the one explained previously
- Akuma's Teleport has a fixed value of 6 frames
- Super Combos have a fixed value. Check your character's move list list for more information.
The Input Timer And How It Can Drop Inputs
As previously explained, when performing motion-based special moves, a random value is set between 7-14 frames wherein you have that amount of time to input the next direction. However, if you're continually holding the first direction used in a special move (For example, walking forward to do a Shoryuken) the input timer is still ticking down, and if it hits 0, it will stay on 0 for 1 frame. If you hit the next direction of the special move during this frame, the game will think you took too long and reset the special move tracker, meaning the special move won't come out even if you technically executed it perfectly.
To avoid this, it's wise to return to neutral before starting up a special move if you're holding the first input required.
Special Move Priority
When you perform a motion that could be interpreted as more than one different move, the game has a priority system to determine which special move comes out. For example, if you do /6236 + P as Ryu, a motion that could be interpreted as either a Hadoken or a Shoryuken, the game will perform a Shoryuken since it has higher priority over the Hadoken.
Kara Cancelling
By performing a special move motion right as you press an attack button, you can cancel the startup of the attack into a Special Move. A simple application of this move would be to startup Ryu's st.lp and immediately cancel it into a heavy Hadoken in order to trigger the Fireball Recovery Glitch.
Chain Cancelling
While you can't normally cancel Chain Combos into special moves, you can if you can Kara Cancel them. For example, if you do a chain of cr.lk->cr.lk, you can do a third cr.lk and kara cancel that into a special, or even a super.
Just press the light attack as part of a chain Cancel, then immediately perform a special move.
Move Storing Glitch
Chun-Li's Super Combo, as well as E.Honda's Super Combo and Oicho Throw have a bug in common that allows them to perform the full move motion, then stay on the last directional input needed, and press the needed button to unleash the super straight away. For example, Chun-Li can charge up her Super Combo with , do the
motion, and keep holding
to walk forward, pressing
to perform her Super Combo while walking forward.
Claw can perform a similar version of this glitch with his Scarlet Terror move. After he's done charging , he can move the control stick to
or
without losing charge, then press
when he wants to use it.
Fireball Recovery Glitch
Ryu, New Ken, Chun-Li, New Sagat, and Akuma all have a glitch where the recovery frames of their fireball is determined not by the strength of the fireball thrown, but by the last normal move used. This means you can change the recovery of a heavy fireball to that of a light by simply using a light punch or kick before throwing the projectile. This glitch will for as long as you go without using another normal. If you don't wanna give away that you're triggering this glitch, you can kara cancel your light into a heavy fireball.
Glossary
Motion Inputs
Many special moves use movements of the joystick in certain directions to execute special moves. Here's all of the motions used in this game, as well as how to perform them.
Motion | Detailed Input | Numpad Notation | Description |
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236 | Quarter Circle Forward (QCF), a simple down to forward motion. Used in many special moves, like the Hadoken and the Tiger Shot. |
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214 | Quarter Circle Backward (QCB), a similarly simple down to back motion. Used in the Tatsumaki Senpukyakku. |
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623 | Dragon Punch (DP), a motion that gets its name from Ryu and Ken's Shoryuken. Forward, down, then down forward. It may help to think of it like pressing forward, then doing a partial Quarter Circle Forward. Mostly used in uppercut-type moves. |
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421 | Reverse Dragon Punch (RDP), the Dragon Punch but backwards. Back, Down, Down Back. Uncommon, used in Dhalsim's Yoga Teleport, Fei Long's Shien Kyaku (rising flame kick), and Akuma's Ashura Senku teleport. |
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41236 | Half Circle Forward (HCF), a bit more involved than the Hadoken, and somewhat uncommon. Used in moves such as the Shakunetsu Hadoken and the Yoga Flame. |
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63214 | Half Circle Backward (HCB), same thing as last time but backwards. Often used in command grabs like E.Honda's Oicho Throw. |
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Hold ![]() ![]() |
Hold 4 for about 1 second, then 6 | A charge motion. Easier to do than most motion inputs, but takes longer to get ready. Holding ![]() ![]() |
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Hold ![]() ![]() |
Hold 2 for about 1 second, then 8 | Same idea as the last move. Holding ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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6248 | Often known as the 360 motion, you technically don't have to do the full circle, but it's the easiest way to understand. Exclusively used in command grabs like Zangief's Spinning Pile Driver and T. Hawk's Mexican Typhoon, and can also be done backwards. |
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632 | Quarter Circle Forward Down (QCFD), a bit less orthodox than Quarter Circle Forward, and less common too. Used in Zangief's Banishing Flat and Ken's Outside Crescent. |
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2369 | A Tiger Knee motion, must be done a bit quicker than a typical Hadoken. Used in, well, Sagat's Tiger Knee. |
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4239 | A very unorthodox motion, also often called a Tiger Knee motion due to the up forward input. Used in Cammy's Hooligan Combination and Fei Long's Rekku Kyaku. |
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Hold ![]() ![]() |
Hold 4 for about 1 second, then 3 | A modified charge input. Used exclusively in Boxer's low Rush Punches. As with other regular charge inputs ![]() ![]() |
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Hold ![]() ![]() |
Hold 1 for about 1 second, then 6 | Another modified charge input. Used exclusively in Claw's Scarlet Terror. |
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236236 | Double Quarter Circle Forward (DQCF), just two QCFs in a row, nothing to it. Used in Super Combos like Ryu's Shinkuu Hadoken and Fei Long's Rekka Shinken. |
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23623 | Essentially a shorter Double Quarter Circle Forward. You can think of it like a QCF into a DP if you want. Used in Super Combos like Ken's Shoryu Reppa and Cammy's Spin Drive Smasher. |
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4123641236 | Double Half Circle Forward (DHCF), used in Dhalsim's Yoga Inferno and Dhalsim's Yoga Inferno only. |
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Hold ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Hold 4 for about 1 second, then 646 | Charge back to forward, then quickly back to forward again. Used in a variety of Super Combos, like Chun-Li's Senretsu Kyaku and Boxer's Crazy Buffalo. |
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Hold ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Hold 1 for about 1 second, then 319 | Commonly known as the Delta input, this motion is used in Guile's Double Somersault and Claw's Rolling Izuna Drop. |
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62486248 | The infamous 720 is nigh impossible for a human to do while standing, so use it after a jump or an attack. Used in Zangief's Final Atomic Buster and T. Hawk's Double Typhoon. |
Description Notation
These notations are intended as a quick way to describe states characters are in.
State Modifiers
- st. - Your character should be standing to perform a move.
- cr. - Your character should be crouching to perform a move.
- nj. - Your character should be jumping straight up in the air, referred to as "Neutral Jumping", to perform a move.
- dj. - Your character should be jumping backwards or forwards, referred to as "Diagonal Jumping", to perform a move.
- cl. - Your character should be within a close distance to your opponent to perform a move. Activation distance depends on the move.
Connectors
These notations appear during a combo to signal what moves to use and when to use them.
- , - Indicates a link
- -> - Indicates a Chain Cancel (See Chain Cancels)
- ~ - Shows that you must press one button right after the other.
- xx - Indicates a Special Cancel (see Special Canceling)
- Super - Refers to a character's Super Combo.
- Meaty - Refers to a move that hits during the later parts of its active hitbox, typically after a knockdown.
- Cross up - A jumping attack that can hit either side of the opponent when spaced correctly. For combos, you typically want to land on the other side of your opponent.
Miscellaneous
- O. X - X being a character (Example: O. Ryu). Refers to the Old or Super Street Fighter 2 version of a character.
- N. X - X being a character (Example: N. Ken). Refers to the New or Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo version of a character.
- TAP - Turn Around Punch. One of Balrog's special moves.
- Boxer - Refers to the boxer character Balrog in USA and M. Bison in Japan.
- Claw - Refers to the clawed Spanish ninja character Vega in USA and Balrog in Japan.
- Dictator (Dic) - Refers to the original final boss M. Bison in USA and Vega in Japan.