For some, Street Fighter V is a tough game to learn, but a lot of people are trying to get better. It’s a competitive scene out there, and without the right tools, most players won’t make it out of Bronze.

Here are some tips to help make those first steps easier.

1.Pick the Right Character and Stick With Them

Choose a fighter. The reason doesn’t matter as long as you can easily pull off all of this fighter’s moves. I went with Guile because he is the first character I ever picked in Street Fighter II.

The right character is someone you feel comfortable with. Combos might feel funny (at first), but as long as you are comfortable with most of the basic moves for that character, that’s what’s important. (Later on, if you want to branch out and try out a character that isn’t as natural, just having experience with your first character will make this process easier.)

You want to take that player and play them to their strengths. Guile is defensive. Use that and make opponents come to you. Ken is a rushdown character. Don’t try to win with fireballs. And so on.

2. Learn a Combo

Learn your fighter’s basics. I’m not talking about their supers. Anyone should be able to do their supers. I’m talking about at least 1 or 2 BnB (bread and butter) combos. Without this, you will never get out of 1000lp.

To learn BnBs just watch a video or read up on what the BnBs are for your character. Then find 1 or 2 of them that seem possible. Go to Training mode and do it until you can land it nearly every single time. Even pros drop combos, so don’t feel bad if you can’t get it 100% of the time.

Once you can do that, take your BnB into Casual mode and try to land it a few times in the match. It doesn’t matter if you win or lose. You just want to see if you have the skill to land the combo in the heat of a fight. Set up a Training mode where, between fights, you can practice the BnB you are trying to learn. Soon, you’ll be landing it every time.

Another place to learn combos is the Trials mode. Be sure to take advantage of this and do as many Trials as you can. You should be able to get at least half of your main character’s trials.

NOTE: Catching onto a BnB won’t be easy to a lot of people. This is also where people who want to be good versus people who are going to get good weeded out. If you can’t do a BnB, it’s not because you can’t. It’s because you gave up. I couldn’t do any of my BnBs the first time I tried. Now, they are muscle memory. Every combo has different timing. If the combo calls for square, triangle, square, then you should only be hitting 3 buttons (not “square, triangle triangle triangle – good the animation is done – square square square square – crap, I messed up the combo”). If you are mashing, you’ll never consistently land your combos.

2nd NOTE: If you can’t do a combo, break it up. Get the first 2 hits until you don’t miss those. Then add the third hit in. Don’t just go in there trying the combo, fail a few times, and think “this will never happen.” Make it manageable by breaking it up into segments that you ARE able to do.

3rd NOTE: Don’t bite off more than you can chew. There are combos I don’t waste my time with because I know I can’t get them. They are too long or awkward. You don’t need to be able to do every combo in the game. But you do need at least 1 or 2 high damage combos that punish people when they do dumb stuff, like a dragon punch for no reason.

3. Play Online…a Lot

Play lots of Casual or Ranked, it really doesn’t matter. At low levels, they are basically the same thing. This will do a few things. 1) you’ll learn your character better. 2) you’ll start seeing what other characters can and can’t do. As such, you’ll know that when ‘X’ happens, you can do ‘Y’. Or you’ll learn that if you try to do ‘A’, you’re going to eat ‘B’. This is the best place to shake bad habits and pick up good ones.

4. Learn Your Crossup

Once you’ve learned a BnB or two, learn your character’s cross up. This is vital in the mix up game. Without it, you’ll be too predictable. Even when the opponent blocks every single hit in a cross up combo, it keeps them honest with their blocking, and if they miss, it sets you up for a combo. Repeat the stuff in step 2 to master this cross up (go into Training mode, set the fight to Casual or Ranked, and practice to cross up while in between matches).

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