Street Fighter 6 is out. How to get good at it?

The Street Fighter series is absolutely iconic — and not just within the fighting games community. It’s a great classic, a gem of the gaming culture. With the newest installment, the developers have done many things right, so it’s not surprising to see so many people interested in playing SF6.

And sure, we all want to be good at every competition we participate in. Those sweet victories are just amazing! Do you want to get more of them? Here is an article especially for you. We’ve collected a few methods of improving playing skills in Street Fighter 6 and categorized them for three types of players.

But let’s start with some rather practical tips for everyone!

• Drive Rush — pay enough attention to this mechanic and actively use it in your combos. Drive Rush gives +4 frame advantage for your attacks, and that’s a good thing, isn’t it? If you cancel Drive Rush with a normal, your character still has forward movement.
• Drive Impact — learn how to use it and how to deal with it. Every mechanic may be (and will be) used against you in a fighting game. And it’s important to know what to do in such situations. Drive Impact in Street Fighter 6 pushes blocking opponents backward, so it becomes a great combo tool in a corner. Don’t be an easy victim of this! There are some answers to Drive Impact, such as jumps, quick hits, parry, etc. To get good at SF6, you need to know these options and practice them. Sure, Drive Impact itself should be in your active arsenal.
• Punish Counters are pretty significant in Street Fighter 6. They give you a good frame advantage, and you don’t want to miss this opportunity. Punish Counters lead to more comboable situations than Counter Hits. Take this idea to your lab and practice variants of effective responses to the opponent’s whiffs.
• Use the Drive meter cautiously to avoid the Burnout state. Street Fighter 6 mechanics heavily depend on the Drive system. You may want to use this resource a lot, but having no Drive at all is not the best situation. Your character enters the Burnout state, loses access to the Drive mechanics, and gets poorer offense, defense, and movement. Mind that your opponent is still alright, and they will most certainly use this advantage. To win SF6 matches, keep your eye on the Drive Gauge and properly balance your actions around this resource.

There are specific fighting aspects that may make you a better Street Fighter 6 player. Direct your attention to them in training and matches.

Now, it’s time for more general advice (they are still pretty effective if you dig deep).

Newcomers to the Genre

To be honest, Street Fighter V kind of lacks in the accessibility department. The game uses the principle of throwing beginners into deep water — whoever survives starts enjoying the matches and grows in them. Street Fighter 6 certainly takes a step toward the general gaming audience to make the fights really fun from the very start. It takes your hand and gently leads deeper into various mechanics. But it’s better not to get lost in many options and choose the right way.

The World Tour Mode

If you play mainly other genres and have little experience within fighters, you sure tend to approach new gaming experiences differently. You look for story modes to get introduced to this world and step-by-step instructions that show you the ropes — but in a fun, interesting way.

Street Fighter 6 has the World Tour mode for this. And it’s the best way for beginners to get good at the game.

Just start playing it, enjoy the development of your character, learn new techniques, feel what suits your personal style better, and then use these skills in practice.

There’s no need for any special tips and tricks here. The mode is very straightforward, filled with the RPG spirit. The universe of Street Fighter becomes a homeworld for newcomers. Fighting mechanics become simply understandable, as you learn them gradually.

Don’t get confused at the beginning of your Street Fighter 6 journey. There sure are other great modes to explore. And you don’t have to finish the World Tour before jumping into Training or even PvP matches. But still, this single-player campaign is the first step to getting the direction of your development and feeling enough motivation to move further. Start with it!

Coach Parties with Friends

We have two aspects to explain here.

• Multiplayer matches are the core of the fighting genre. All the fights vs AI are rather a preparation for PvP and a way to improve your skills before PvP (even if the Street Fighter 6 AI is pretty good). 
• You don’t have to be a pro or even super good at a game to enjoy the fights. The basic condition is to have opponents of relatively the same level. Then you both have fun in the game and grow as players.

Coach parties with other beginners are not the absolute best way to learn combos or even basic mechanics. But they give you something priceless — a taste of real multiplayer matches and motivation to overcome the difficulties of training.

Sometimes, it’s crucial to just forget your ambition to get better at a fighting game and let yourself just play. The improvement comes in the most natural way. And the excitement remains as fuel for your further journey.

Step Out Of Your Comfort Zone

Ok, we need to say this. Fighting games are not all beginner-friendly and cheerful. Sooner or later, you face the brutality of more skilled players and the repetitiveness of regular training. Be ready for this and greet this next stage of your evolution.

The story mode ends. Your coach party friends start beating you uncompromisingly. The string of fun is slipping out of your hands, and you need to put some effort into not letting it go.

Somewhere at this point, you may benefit from reading our article on Choosing Your Main in Street Fighter 6. Synergy between a player and their character is pretty important.

Arcade Mode 

The AI of Street Fighter 6 is a pretty clever thing. Unlike in many other fighting games, it is really fun to play vs AI modes, and the Arcade Mode is a good destination for this.

You still have a feeling of progression here, defeating one opponent after another and reaching a powerful boss — as a goal to accomplish. But the difficulty bar is generally higher than in the World Tour, and you need to activate your skills to succeed in Arcade.

And that feeling of being unable to win… You are pretty much prepared for this at this moment — in the sense that instead of abandoning the game, you will be looking for ways to overcome the difficulties.

You try again and again. You fail (at some point). You train more. And then you succeed, getting extra energy for further success.

Training Mode

This place doesn’t look too exciting (especially for beginners), but still, it’s your primary destination for getting better at Street Fighter 6. It’s your lab to experiment and polish some techniques.

Don’t rush into it too early. Visit this mode when you feel as if something is missing in your skillset.

The Training Mode is a safe environment to… obviously, to train. Street Fighter 6 gives players various practical tools, and beginners will certainly benefit from using them.

Make a habit of visiting Training Mode, but not focus on it at the expense of more fun in-game activities.

Multiplayer Fights

Well, it’s obviously the main mode in Street Fighter 6. And it obviously makes you better at the game. You face a challenge, you approach your limits, and you grow continuously. Everything happens in the most fun way possible.

But to really feel this fun, you need to be prepared — through the World Tour, coach parties, and Arcade.

Don’t postpone the PvP experience too much. Street Fighter 6 connects players according to their skills, so don’t be afraid of ranked matches. Take your losses as one of the best lessons you can get. They are bitter, alright. But they show your weaknesses and motivate you to practice more.

This is a general “roadmap” for newcomers to the fighting genre to get good at Street Fighter 6. Follow it, and you will not go astray. Do you feel ready for something more than this? We have more advice then, in the sections for other player types.

Guests from Other Fighting Titles

We all are part of one community regardless of what fighting game we are playing at the moment. Migration between titles is very common in the FGC. One day you are all about DBFZ, but the next day you are totally a Guilty Gear -Strive- guy.

Such a big release as Street Fighter 6 certainly attracts players from other fighting titles. Someone is just interested while their primary game has not been getting updates for a long time. Someone would pretty much love to get a piece of a $1M Capcom Cup pie. SF6 is just great to explore — and probably, it is exactly your next big adventure.

On the one hand, adapting to Street Fighter is easier when you have a decent experience with other fighters. But on the other hand, there might be some obstacles. So, let’s distinguish methods to avoid them.

Clear Your Mind

This section might seem a lot like life-coaching advice. But the topic is too general to give you specific movement tips and guides on Specials — everything will be on DashFight, for specific game aspects and for individual characters (like we did for Street Fighter V). At this point, we are just highlighting a general path for becoming a good SF6 player.

The point is that you shouldn’t bring the luggage of other fighting games into any new title, including Street Fighter 6. All that knowledge on frame data, character archetypes, blockstring principles, basics of combos — our mind tends to use various patterns from a different universe and bring them to totally new fights. Just forget that!

In a way, the steps for a fresh beginner are quite good here too. You clear your mind and then learn SF6 mechanics. Muscle memory will not be a problem if you learn everything from the very beginning.

Sure, the progress of experienced fighting games players will be quicker, as Street Fighter 6 is built upon the general principles of the genre. And you totally can decide on your own when to jump into multiplayer fights and how much practice you need in the Training mode.

You automatically get better at Street Fighter 6 after getting rid of many layers of habits from your previous titles.

Focus

It’s the basic thing for everything in life. If you want to get better at something, focus on that. So, why do we bring it here? Because your previous fighting game might take a lot of your attention, bringing some confusion into practicing and reducing its effectiveness in SF6.

For many players, switching between fighting tiles is a way to find a new primary game. May it be Street Fighter 6? You will never know unless you give it a proper chance.

It is one thing when you want to have an occasional match here and an occasional match there. But if we are talking about getting good at SF6, just let yourself focus — with regular practice, you will feel the game better and will learn the tricks you could not even imagine before.

Enjoy

Everything is impossible without this essential component. You will not be able to focus on Street Fighter 6 matches if you don’t have this joyful feeling of liking the game. And you will not be able to clear your mind of old habits if you constantly think about the enjoyment you experienced in the previous titles.

It’s an aspect where you should be honest with yourself. No general hype in the community and no big prize money could change what you really feel about the game. Do you enjoy SF6?

And another aspect here is to place the joy a bit above dry practice. If you enter SF6 only with getting results in mind, you miss the point of the genre. Eventually, you will not have internal fuel — and probably another title is better for you, where you naturally have fun. As a fighting games player, you probably know this principle.

Street Fighter Fans

Street Fighter 6 is deep, and it’s easy to get lost in it. The general plan should work well — you explore the campaign, you feel your favorite character in the new installment, you decide on whether to stick to them or to play someone else, and then you practice, play, and compete. Getting good at a fighting game is an extended process, and you certainly have experience with this in the previous SF games.

Compete

Nothing gives you better motivation, and nothing teaches you to fight better than direct, face-to-face competition. After you’ve learned the tools of your character, bring them to a harsh environment of multiplayer matches.

There is no secret in this method. But those who look for ways of getting good at SF6 may need to hear this — dive into the whirl of action and let it lead you to success. 

Competing in ranked matches is only the beginning. Set yourself a goal of reaching a specific rank. Then consider competing in online tournaments (such as PlayStation Tournaments, or you’ll find many options on start.gg). Who knows where this journey will take you?

Watch Others Competing

After the adaptation to this new game (advice for other player types might be really helpful for this), you might get stuck to specific patterns in your regular competing and practice sessions. It’s nice to shake your habits by watching what other players do in countless fight situations.

The best way for this is to follow streams by players of relatively your level. Quite often, professional tournaments demonstrate too high of a ceiling So, exploring streams of smaller tournaments might be more beneficial.

Don’t try to analyze too much. Let yourself absorb the match pace, the ways of dealing with different situations, some unusual tricks, etc. Then bring everything to your practice and your competitive fights.

Communicate

The Internet is full of everything. You ask “How to get good at Street Fighter 6” and eventually find some general advice (like in this article) and tons of practical guides. That is quite useful, sure, but it’s easy to drown in this info. And the best way to avoid that is to reach out to other players and communicate your potential obstacles. Find a solution especially for you.

There are Discord communities where you can ask questions. There are offline meetups in local arcades — to make friends and grow together.

The next level for this is to find yourself a couch. It’s possible to do this through special service or through live communication with skilled friends. Are you ready to get pro?

Play more and enjoy the game — it’s the ultimate recipe for any player. Some additional context only helps you direct these principles throughout the modes and your mindset.

For more practical Street Fighter 6 guides, including videos on how to play various characters, stay tuned to DashFight. 

Meanwhile, have you seen our SF6 review?