Feng Guides

Feng Guide

Overview

Feng Wei has always been regarded as one of the trickier and unique characters in Tekken 7. Despite being a love letter to the revered classics of Chinese action cinema, most players confidently rated his as average or slightly above average. Thankfully, after four seasons of changes, he became quite a solid character. If you love characters that reward creativity, solid fundamentals, and the ability to adapt, then Feng is for you!

General Strategy

While playing Feng, something to keep in mind is that he's not as reliant on launchers and combos as other characters, despite having a good selection of safe launchers and CH moves. Feng is all about smoothly navigating the neutral with his various evasive attacks and stances, gradually chipping away at opponents and baiting them into counter-hit attacks that knockdown and lead to small but painful follow-ups.

Beginner

While Feng is one of the more demanding characters to pick up and play, don't get discouraged. With a gradual and measured approach, you will achieve steady progress. When you've just started playing a new character, the go-to advice is always to get familiar with their overall moveset, inputs, and range. For Feng in particular, you will often utilize his crouch dash, or CD, to better use some of his better while standing moves. To do so, you'll need to do the down and down/forward movement and then swiftly release it, allowing you access to WS moves instead of his CD attacks.

When in battle, start with Feng's more straightforward tools like the 1,2 and 1,3 jab strings, d/b3 and d2, to threaten with lows, b4 to use as a versatile mid, and qcf1+2 as a beefier, more threatening mid option. When you become good at poking, your opponents will be unsure which way to block or step, as Feng can cover all of those options, but for now, what matters is getting a feel for the gameplay.

Consider this entire step to be an introduction to the character. Taking rounds will be challenging, so focus first and foremost on committing his stances and attacks to memory. Since Feng is so heavily based around neutral and playing around the opponent, you can't afford to dedicate a part of your mental stack to remembering the attack's input, what follow-ups it has, or how fast it is.

Intermediate

Once you have built up muscle memory and have a good idea of what Feng has at his disposal, you can start delving deeper into what the character has to offer. While you should still focus on more straightforward and easier to implement tools, this is the right time to add more to your arsenal. Since you want to poke people, conditioning will always be a part of your gameplay. If your opponent is neglecting mids and tries to block lows and evade highs - hit the with d/f2,2 for a chunk of damage and potential wall bounce. If it's the opposite and they refuse to duck, you can get a free SS4 at close range, which will launch them on a clean hit. You will also often encounter highly aggressive opponents who attempt to run their offense with impunity. You must learn to stop their offense, as the opponent who likes to press buttons will make it harder to approach or apply mixups. Luckily Feng has robust options to deal with this by choosing one of his CH attacks or using the Kenpo Step (b3+4). If you make the opponent whiff their attack with a Kenpo Step, you have free reign to either punish them or apply a mixup.

The general goal at this step is to add these elements to your gameplay and find answers for various situations that happen during the game. Whether you're on offense or defense, recognizing the current situation and adjusting your plan is crucial in Tekken, especially when playing Feng.

Advanced

So far, the focus has been mainly on Feng himself and building up the foundation of his gameplay. At this point, you should be comfortable with his movelist and understand his tools and when to use them. Now it's time to focus on the opponent. Reading your opponent is a massive advantage in a fighting game, and to gain this advantage, there are several steps you can take.

First and foremost, you need to be patient. Fighting games are complicated, and because of that, we build internal plans and flowcharts, which we then unconsciously execute during matches. By avoiding risks and playing more passively, you will see how your opponent acts in certain situations. How do they approach or retaliate after blocking a strike or having their strikes blocked? When playing Feng, you will often have to consider these things to pick the right course of action. 

You also can condition your opponents to act in a way you want them to. This doesn't require understanding your opponent's psyche but simply exploiting their weaknesses or creating openings. For example, if you keep hitting opponents with qcf1 or d/b3, they will naturally start anticipating and duck. Now, all it takes for you is to approach with ff2 or qcf2 to capitalize on their behavior.

Sabaki is one of the more exciting ways for Feng to interact with an opponent's attack. Using moves with built-in parry like 1+2, Feng can steal back his turn and maintain the offense. However, using this properly will require understanding the frame data. The sabaki moves have a specific range in which they will parry the opponent's attack, so it's best to know whether or not you have the time to use them.

This feeds directly into another way of controlling your opponent with Feng, and it is frame traps. One of the most common examples of a frame trap with Feng is hitting your opponent with a d/b3. With the move being +4, Feng is guaranteed to land a WS4 without any threat, or you can apply the frame advantage to use slower and slightly riskier options that will nonetheless beat out most of your opponent's options.

Combine these options of dealing with your opponent and your existing knowledge of Feng's excellent pokes and evasive maneuvers, and you will become a fearsome challenger for any Tekken player.

Now let's look at some of the critical moves Feng has.

Base Moves

Situational Moves

Punishment

Normal

Crouching

Combos

Tips against Feng

• Press some buttons. Why? Cause you can get away with it. Until -13, Feng has very lackluster punishment options. Even if he reacts to you doing a -12 move, the most he can do in return is 26 damage. Don’t abuse it too much, as a savvy Feng would still whittle you down through small punishes.

• Break his legs. Feng has several major moves that move him back and force a whiff, allowing Feng to capitalize on it. If you can find the pattern where Feng player uses these moves, you can shut them down with your attacks if they have a decent amount of forward momentum.

• Go left. Many of Feng’s major attacks can be avoided by side-stepping left. Recognizing these moves will require some experience, but the payoff is immense.

• Be patient. Feng can cash in on opponents who try to challenge him, so if you gain a life lead and then keep him away, you will force Feng to use his mediocre approach tools or commit to taking risks.

Summary

Strengths

• Excellent pokes - with a massive moveset, Feng has many viable choices to pick away at his opponents. Using them creatively can net some good damage while confusing unfamiliar opponents.

• Strong okizeme - depending on which combo ender Feng decides to use, he can choose between getting a guaranteed hit, forcing a 50/50, or doing moves that cover most of the opponent’s options on wake up.

• Good evasion - the Kenpo stance alone is one of the best tools in the game to bait whiffs. Add to that several high or low crushing moves and a backswing, and you got a character who can be very challenging to pin down.

• Wall pressure - while not among the best, Feng’s wall game is well above average thanks to several attacks that threaten the opponent with a wallsplat.

• Versatile - Feng’s playstyle can be molded into anything you want it to be. With many offensive and defensive options, you are limited only by your own imagination. 

Weaknesses

• Bad punishment - Feng’s punishment leaves a lot to be desired, with nothing to cover i11/i12 moves beyond basic jab strings, opponents can get away with many attacks that would otherwise be risky. His hopkick’s poor range also means he has no reliable launch punishment until i18.

• Difficult to play - with a large movelist and several stances, it can be hard to pick Feng up, and it’s even harder to master all his unique quirks.

• Poor tracking - Feng is particularly susceptible to sidestepping. Players familiar with him will have no issue neutralizing some of Feng’s best tools through good movement.

• Low damage  - new screw option Feng received in Season 4 improved his combo routes drastically, but his combo damage remains below average.