Street Fighter 6 Command Guide

Street Fighter moves are easy enough to figure out when you’ve got the tidy in-game pictures to follow. However, issues arise when you’re following combos that are written without images. Fortunately, the community has formulated a way to write commands with text. The downside is it’s super confusing for newcomers. With this in mind, welcome to our Street Fighter 6 Command Guide.

Street Fighter 6 Command Guide

Moves and combos written this way are usually known as notations. These notations are unique to Street Fighter and don’t work in other fighting games. Tekken, for example, uses numbers! First, I’ll explain single-button inputs, starting with directions:  

• F = Forward
• B = Back
• J = Jump. You may see this as U for up.
• C = Crouch. D for down or Cr for Crouch is also common.
• S = Standing

Directions are always based on the way your character is facing compared to your opponent. F always means Forward toward your opponent, and B represents the direction away from them. Let’s look at attack buttons next:

• LP = Light Punch
• MP = Medium Punch
• HP = Heavy Punch
• LK = Light Kick
• MK = Medium Kick
• HK = Heavy Kick

If the notations you’re following only say P or K, it means the strength of the attack doesn’t matter. As Street Fighter 6 has a few unique commands, you’ll likely see these in combo guides:

• DR = Drive Rush
• PC = Punish Counter
• CH = Counter Hit
• OD = Overdrive. This command is sometimes written as KK or PP to denote two kick or punch inputs simultaneously.

Motion Notation

And finally, we have the motion notations. These dictate several directions pressed in sequence. For example, sweeping across, Down, Down+Forward, and Forward makes a Quarter Circle shape. We know this as QCF for Quarter Circle Forward. Here are all the standard notations for this:

• QCF = Quarter Circle Forward
• QCB = Quarter Circle Back
• HCF = Half Circle Forward (starting from Back and sliding across Down+Back, Down, Down+Forward, and Forward)
• HCB = Half Circle Back
• FC = Full Circle. This input is typically done from Forward, hitting every direction clockwise until you reach Forward again. No moves do this backward, but this command would be FCF and FCB if there were.
• 360/720 = This is the same input as FC or double FC. 
• DP = This is short for Dragon Punch and describes the attack’s unique motion: Forward, Down, Down+Forward.
• RDP = Reverse Dragon Punch motion
• charge = Describes holding a direction for a Charge move; Guile’s Sonic Boom, for example.

For motions like HCF, the command will always go across Down instead of Up. The only time you’ll press Up is for the Full Circle motion. Protip: you can input the Full Circle during a jump or another move to stop yourself from jumping during the action.

A few practice examples

Inputs are typically separated with commas, while full stops denote your characters state, C.LP, for example, means Crouching Light Punch. You can use this knowledge to try combos you’ve found online and even share them yourself. To round off this Street Fighter 6 command guide, let me leave you with a few examples. 

Image by PC Invasion

Do I really need to learn these notations?

If you’re serious about learning how to play Street Fighter 6 and want to take advantage of the latest tech, it’s essential. It looks like an alien language, but notations are perfect because they are universal. No matter what controller or stick you’re using, this terminology works because it addresses the moves, not the buttons. 

Don’t be disheartened if it’s overwhelming at first; this will become second nature and beats drawing motion inputs. There’s a lot to unravel with Street Fighter controls. If you’re struggling with general bindings, why not check out our control settings guide?