5 special attack shortcuts for Street Fighter 6

Special attacks in Street Fighter 6 can occasionally be frustrating. Whether you're a new or returning player, some combinations can just feel impossible to input. Thankfully, there are some hidden shortcuts you can employ to make life a bit easier when it comes to the latest Capcom fighting game. Many of these have been around in some form or other since Street Fighter 2. Regardless, you will still need to practice and work hard to get these, but it’s a useful tool to have in the belt.

These special attack shortcuts can simply be pulled off in Street Fighter 6, but some are more practical than others. One of them has to be turned on in the settings as well, so be aware of that. We’ll go over these and how you can use them in your matches.

Note: Some aspects of this article might be subjective.

---

Useful special attack shortcuts in Street Fighter 6

5) Standing 360 (SPD)

The Standing 360 is perhaps one of the most frustrating special attacks in this title. Several Street Fighter characters over the years have used it, such as T. Hawk, but it’s always been a part of Zangief’s moveset and combos.

You want to be able to input this 360-degree motion without jumping, so your opponent doesn’t see it coming. One way of doing this is to buffer the 360 input while another attack animation is on screen. So you can punch and mid-punch to set up the piledriver.

You don’t have to use this method in Street Fighter 6 though. Now, you can roll from back to forward, and end on up+forward+punch. If you hit the up-forward and punch at the same time, you won’t leave the ground and will grab.

---

4) Special into Super Cancel

Special into Super Cancel has been a staple in many Street Fighter titles and will no doubt still be useful in Street Fighter 6. My first time using this technique was SF3 Third Strike. It feels so flashy and cool to cancel into a special attack on many characters. Whether you play Cammy White or Ryu, this can be helpful.

A prime example of this technique is when Ryu is asked to combo from a kick to a fireball into a fireball super. Hitting three fireball rotations back to back is incredibly difficult. Luckily, there’s a much easier way to perform this.

Street Fighter 6 remembers your inputs as you’re doing them, so instead of going through three motions, you only need two. In this case, you’ll hit the fireball motion, and then do it again, and that will cancel the fireball into the super.

Ryu can also do this with the light Donkey Kick in the corner, and use that to cancel into his Level 3 Super. Plenty of characters can take advantage of this kind of special technique.

---

3) Autocorrect DP

Dragon Punch (DP) motions are used by so many characters. It’s a staple of Ryu, as well as Ken Masters. There are a few really cool things about Dragon Punches in Street Fighter 6, though. For one, you can do them without ever standing up.

If you tap down and down forward, then punch, you can enter a DP motion without ever standing up. This gives you more time to deal with anti-air offenses and is a very crucial technique to know about in Street Fighter.

However, if you want to autocorrect your DPs, it’s going to take some practice. Your goal is to leave a minor gap between Dragon Punch's movement input and the actual pressing of the button.

The input has changed slightly in Street Fighter 6. You need to roll from down+forward to down+back to reliably hit the autocorrect DP. However, for DPs, you should use the Light or Medium, as the Heavy does not appear to work for this shortcut. If you want to get the most out of your Ryu gameplay, learn this technique.

---

2) Tiger Knee

This is named after the Sagat’s original Tiger Knee input. For that move, you used a fireball motion but then you'd go up+forward and subsequently hit a kick to trigger the move. Though this input has changed, the technique is still named after him.

If you’re going to “Tiger Knee” a special, you end the input on a jump to use the move as low to the ground as possible. While this won’t be incredibly useful in Street Fighter 6, some characters, like Cammy, still need it.

You can it to lead into her Cannon Strike, for example. Instead of jumping and doing the input, you can Tiger Knee into it. It doesn’t go as low to the ground as she did in Ultra SF4, but it’s a quick, powerful way to hit this move on your opponent.

In Street Fighter 6, you’ll need to delay the kick input slightly while rolling down to up and then forward. It takes practice, but it will be useful for at least a few characters.

---

1) Negative Edge

(Clip begins at 7:14)

Negative Edge has such a cool name and has been around for a very long time in Street Fighter’s history. Not only is it in Street Fighter 6, but you can actively turn it on or off in your combat settings. If you have it turned off (which is the default setting), you cannot perform this trick.

So go to your battle controls first, and turn on Button Release Input. Negative Edge is incredibly simple to perform. You hold down the attack button you’re going to use first. Whether it’s for Ryu’s fireball or Chun-Li’s Spinning Bird Kick, it doesn’t matter. Then, you do the movement input. Right as you finish it, release the button.

That will make the attack go off. You can use this to bait people out and drop a Dragon Punch or other powerful attack out of nowhere in Street Fighter 6. In earlier days, this was incredibly important, since you couldn’t buffer T. Hawk’s throws the way you can with Zangief. Instead, you needed to learn Negative Edge.

---

These tricks and techniques take practice and timing, but they can certainly help you level up in Street Fighter 6. If you put in the time and work, these can all benefit you in all aspects of your gameplay.