A Beginner’s Guide to Tekken 8

So Tekken 8 is out now and everybody is super excited. The game looks great, the story is compelling, and the new characters are so much fun. Therefore, you might have thought to yourself, ‘You know what, I could totally play Tekken 8.’ But then you remember the insanely long command lists for each character, and all the difficult moves that you need to keep in mind and master. 

To be honest, Tekken isn’t the easiest game to get into and can seem really terrifying to someone encountering it for the first time. But, if you can get past that, the game is an incredible one. It’s also not as difficult as some people make it out to be. 

So, here are all the things you need to know as a beginner to get into the world of Tekken. 

First, the Basics

Tekken is what you would call a 4-button game. This is different from many other fighting games which are 6-button games like Street Fighter. Tekken has four buttons which correspond with the character's limbs. 

So the buttons you’ll find in Tekken are:

• Right hand (2)

• Left hand (1)

• Right leg (4)

• Left leg (3)

Tekken is one of the more realistic fighting games out there at least in terms of the actual fighting. This has become less true over the years especially with this one where we have a character with a frigging sword! But, it still tries to keep things a little grounded. 

Each button has different properties depending on the direction you press on it. For instance ←2 will do something totally different from u/f 2 and so on. Also, there are certain moves that require two limbs at the same time and when pressed together, they perform those moves. 

An example is 1, 2. If 1 is the right hand, and 2 is the left, pressing the two buttons will put out a move that will make use of both limbs. This is one of the reasons for the many, many moves that each Tekken character possesses. 

But beyond what buttons do what, Tekken is all about movement. 

As a 3D game, you can move in the traditional way which is back and forward, but you can also perform side steps with the camera tracking your movements as you do so. Tekken has some stages that have walls, and others that don’t and this could play a role in how much damage a character receives. 

Speaking of movement, understanding how to side step is important. It’s pretty straightforward in that while other games will make use of the up button to jump, and the down button to crouch, Tekken instead has the up and down button enable the character to side step into the foreground or background. 

Does this mean you can’t jump or crouch in this game? No. The difference is that to jump, you hold the up button and to crouch you hold the down button. Meanwhile, if you are going to side step, you’ll need to tap the up or down button. If you want to walk sideways, you’ll need to double tap the up or down button and then hold it down. 

Understanding Attack and Defense in Tekken 8

Now you know how to move in Tekken 8 and you can flit around the screen as you please (there are some advanced techniques for movement in Tekken 8, but this is a beginner’s guide). The next thing you’ll need to get a handle on is attacking and defending. While you might understand what it is to attack and defend, different fighting games have various approaches to attacking the opponent and defending against them. 

For Tekken 8, there are three types of attacks:

• Highs

• Mids

• Lows

As the names imply, a high is typically a fast attack that offers little reward, but is also low risk. Mids are a little different in that most of the launchers in Tekken come from mids and they are slower than highs. They can be deceptive in how they look as a mid can look like a high or overhead, but is actually a mid. Meanwhile, lows are attacks that cause you to crouch to pull them off. 

The secret to attacking will be to mix-up your approach. This means throwing out lows to force your opponent to crouch and then using a mid to hit them and launch an offensive. You can use highs sort of like jabs to break the opponent’s pressure and get something started. 

On the other hand, defense is all about keeping your opponent out. The most common and effective way to do this is through the help of block. To block in Tekken is pretty easy as this is a ‘back to block’ game. This means to block, you only need the correct directional input and you’re good to go. Unlike games like Mortal Kombat where there is a dedicated block button, you hold back on your pad or fight stick and you block. You can also press down + back to block low attacks. This is because while the stand block will effectively block highs and mids, lows are a different matter and must be blocked low. As with most things, there are exceptions as you can also block some special mids while crouching and you can block some special lows by stand blocking. 

Also of note is the neutral block. This is a feature in which the game blocks for you. So, even if you aren’t pressing back, your character will block in most cases. But, this is not a reliable or sustainable way to learn the game, and you’d be better served using your back button. 

There is another mechanic that helps in defense known as the low parry. To execute this, you simply need to press and hold ↓→ just as the opponent’s low is about to hit and you’ll successfully carry out the low parry which will enable you to deal some damage on your adversary. You should note that special mids, which can be low blocked, cannot be low parried. 

The final defensive mechanic we’ll go over in the defense section is the Power Crush. This is a fancy name for an armor move which essentially allows a character to ‘power’ through an opponent’s move and hit them. 

When you do a power crush, you still take a little damage, but this is recoverable in some circumstances. Then you can hit your opponent and get some damage in. If blocked though, it leaves you open to a severe punish, but if it is blocked just after the opponent throws out a move, it is still negative, but you are probably safe. 

This is not the case if you are thrown while carrying out a power crush as in such cases, the throw cannot be broken and you’ll have to eat that damage. 

It’s all pretty intricate, but that is part of the reason Tekken 8 is such a good game that fans love. 

Throws

Throws are an integral part of any fighting game and they are another layer of complexity to the combat experience. In Tekken, throws are dealt with a little differently than in other games. Here, there are different types of throws with the most common one being the regular throws. You can do this by pressing the 1 & 3 buttons or the 2 & 4 buttons. But, the opponent can also simply duck to avoid the throws since they are considered highs.

However, some characters have low grabs which must be evaded by crouching. 

To deal with regular grabs, you can work with the 1 & 2 buttons and your character will throw the opponent off. 

Things get really interesting when you start talking about command grabs. These are special grabs which are more damaging and have some unique animation. In Tekken, command grabs have some visual cues which alert you of their coming. But things go a little deeper as you cannot just mash 1 or 3 to break the throw. Rather, you’d need to press 1 if you see the opponent lead with their left hand while you’ll need to press 2 if it is the right arm and if they use both arms, you’ll have to press 1&2 at the same time. 

This can be a little hard to figure out which is why ducking is the best way to avoid a throw as there are some characters like King who have ambiguous throws that you can’t counter visually. 

Also noteworthy is the counter-hit throw which simply means suffering a throw while attacking. If your opponent lands this, breaking the throw becomes almost impossible as the window for pressing the right break button becomes much, much smaller. You can also suffer incredible damage if your opponent manages to get behind you and throw you from behind. 

If you have all that down, then you are ready to deal with throws in Tekken 8.

Get Up, Sunshine

One of the unique things about Tekken are the wake up options. This basically refers to how you get off the ground after getting knocked down. In this game, you have a plethora of options which you can take advantage of. Now, the easy ones are to press ← which will make your character get up with some distance from the attacker. You can also press ↑ to get up in place while ↓← (DB) will make the character wake up crouching. You can press → to roll forward which is a niche option to be fair as you could easily get blown up. But, if you want to completely shock your opponent, it could be an option. 

Being a 3D game, you also have the option to roll either to the right or left. You can roll left (or away from the screen) by tapping 1 and to roll right (towards the screen) you press ↓ 1 and you’re good. 

On top of that, you have quick options which ensure you aren’t at the mercy of the opponent. You can immediately fall to the ground and press any of the punch buttons (1 or 2) to roll away from the screen and any kick button to roll towards the screen. This is particularly useful when you are against the wall and the opponent is just bludgeoning you to death. In these instances, the quick roll, or tech roll as it is more commonly called, will save your life. 

That’s not all as you do have some actual offensive options from grounded situations. For example if you press 3, you’ll do a crouching attack and if you go for 4, it’ll perform a mid attack. The thing with these options that make them so good is that they are safe on block. Yes, they leave you negative and open to pressure, but you don’t have to take damage just because the opponent blocked. You have the option to press ↓ 3 or 4 to do what is called a ‘toe kick.’ In this action, the player will kick the opponent on the toe to deal slight damage and then roll back creating some space. If blocked, however, it could lead to a lot of suffering on your part. Finally, you also have the option to press 3 & 4 together to spring up and hit the opponent with both legs. This could be a huge surprise and get you back in the round, unfortunately, it could also get you pulverized if the opponent blocks and leave you vulnerable to launchers. So, high risk, but with some commensurate rewards. 

You thought that was it? Well, no. You can roll forward press 1 & 2 and dive forward to catch your opponent by surprise. This is, of course, punishable, but an option nonetheless. 

Heat System

The Heat System is one of the new mechanics introduced in Tekken 8. This is basically a state in which you are in your best possible shape (think of it as Bankai for those who have seen Bleach). You can find out more information about it in our article here, but we can talk about the basics which you might need to know about. So, the Heat System allows your character to perform some unique moves, ensures that every attack does chip damage, and even gives you some armor when doing some moves. 

There are two ways to enter into the Heat State, the first is the Heat Burst which is just 2+3 universally, this gets you into the Heat State but will take a bit of the Heat bar which continually depletes unless you are dealing damage, taking damage, or the opponent is on the ground. 

The other method is something called ‘Heat Engagers’ which is a specific move unique to each character that on hit automatically takes the character into Heat Mode with a full bar to work with. 

Rage System

This is more or less a super move. You enter the Rage state when you are low on health and what it does is that it increases your character’s damage slightly to give you some hope of staging a comeback. It also grants access to a huge cinematic move that deals a significant amount of damage and acts again as a means of coming back into a game. Each character’s ‘Rage Art’ is different and it is a great way to flip the table on your opponent. If blocked though, it can lead to quite a bit of damage against you. 

Conclusion

This was a beginner’s guide. There is so much to learn in Tekken as it is a very deep game. That said, it need not scare you as it only requires a genuine desire to learn and you’ll have no problem picking it up. 

You can check out our other guides here, and till next time, have fun out there.