Ryu

Bread and Butter Combos - No Vtrig

 * S.LP > S.LK xx HP Shoryuken
 * 161 damage, 253 stun
 * Uses:
 * Confirm after jump LK
 * Punish for -3 moves
 * May also end with LK/MK/EX Tatsu


 * S.LK xx MK Tatsu
 * 120 damage, 205 stun
 * Uses:
 * Punish for -4 moves
 * May spend a bar for EX Tatsu for 155 damage, 205 stun


 * Cr.LK > Cr.LP xx LK Tatsu
 * 119 damage, 253 stun
 * Uses:
 * Low confirm, typically done on their wakeup
 * May also end with HP Shoryuken for 151 damage, 253 stun
 * May also end with EX Tatsu for 157 damage, 253 stun


 * S.MP > S.MP xx MK Jodan
 * 178 damage, 310 stun
 * Uses:
 * Simple and reliable confirm off S.MP
 * More optimal to end with MK/HK Tatsu if they are standing
 * Also more optimal to replace the second S.MP with Cr.HP, but that is less reliable due to the short range of Cr.HP. Doing this also guarantees you can end with the more optimal MK/HK Tatsu because Cr.HP forces standing.


 * S.MP > S.MP xx EX Jodan > HP Shoryuken
 * 269 damage, 415 stun
 * Uses:
 * Midscreen 1 bar combo
 * More optimal to replace the second S.MP with Cr.HP, but that is less reliable due to the short range of Cr.HP


 * S.MP > Cr.HP xx MK/HK Tatsu
 * 221/229 damage, 355 stun
 * Uses:
 * Optimal balance of damage/oki off of S.MP midscreen
 * More optimal to end with HP Shoryuken when they are already cornered
 * End with MK Tatsu if you are midscreen, and end with HK Tatsu if you are close to being cornered


 * Solar Plexus > Cr.HP xx MK/HK Tatsu
 * 241/249 damage, 405 stun
 * Uses:
 * Optimal midscreen Solar Plexus combo
 * More optimal to end with HP Shoryuken when they are already cornered
 * End with MK Tatsu if you are midscreen, and end with HK Tatsu if you are close to being cornered
 * If you land Solar Plexus at a range where you are too far for Cr.HP to connect, substitute Cr.MK. If they are also crouching in this case, you will need to end with EX Tatsu or EX Hadoken. If you don’t have bar or don’t want to spend bar, substitute Sweep instead of Cr.MK.

Crush Counter Combos - DP Punish

 * CC S.HK > S.MP > Cr.HP xx MK/HK Tatsu
 * 304/311 damage, 495 stun
 * Uses:
 * Most basic Crush Counter punish with no resources
 * Small walk forward required after CC S.HK
 * More optimal to end with HP Shoryuken when they are already cornered
 * This is the backbone crush counter punish combo that can be adapted depending on whether you’re midscreen or at the corner, what resources you wanna spend, etc.
 * Add VTrigger:
 * Raw Activation > CC S.HK > S.MP > Cr.HP xx MK/HK Tatsu


 * Add 1 EX bar:
 * Midscreen, VT1 not activated:
 * CC S.HK > S.MP > Cr.HP xx EX Jodan > HP Shoryuken
 * Corner, VT1 not activated:
 * CC S.HK > S.MP > Cr.HP xx EX Shoryuken


 * Midscreen, VT1 activated:
 * CC S.HK > S.MP > Cr.HP xx LK Tatsu > EX Shoryuken
 * Corner, VT1 activated:
 * CC S.HK > S.MP > Cr.HP xx EX Tatsu > HP Shoryuken


 * Add 2 EX bars:
 * Midscreen, VT1 not activated:
 * CC S.HK > S.MP > Cr.HP xx EX Jodan > EX Shoryuken
 * Corner, VT1 not activated:
 * CC S.HK > S.MP > Cr.HP xx EX Tatsu > EX Shoryuken
 * Midscreen, VT1 activated:
 * CC S.HK > S.MP > Cr.HP xx EX Jodan > EX Shoryuken
 * Corner, VT1 activated:
 * CC S.HK > S.MP > Cr.HP xx EX Tatsu > EX Shoryuken


 * Add 3 EX bars:
 * Midscreen, VT1 not activated:
 * CC S.HK > S.MP > Cr.HP xx HP Shoryuken xx CA
 * Corner, VT1 not activated:
 * CC S.HK > S.MP > Cr.HP xx HP Shoryuken xx CA
 * Midscreen, VT1 activated:
 * CC S.HK > S.MP > Cr.HP xx HP Shoryuken xx CA
 * Corner, VT1 activated:
 * CC S.HK > S.MP > Cr.HP xx HP Hadoken > HP Shoryuken xx CA

Other CC S.HK Conversions
Sometimes you’ll land a CC S.HK in neutral that wasn’t a dp punish. In that case you’re probably not close enough to get the S.MP > Cr.HP combo. Or maybe you anti aired with it and it crush countered. Here are optimal follow ups for these situations.


 * Spaced CC S.HK in neutral:
 * Spaced CC S.HK > MK/HK Tatsu
 * Simple and should work all the time
 * If you are clearly in range to insert a Cr.MP or Cr.MK to cancel the tatsu off of, do that


 * Spaced CC S.HK > S.HK > S.LK xx MK Tatsu
 * S.LK can whiff at farther ranges


 * Anti air CC S.HK:
 * NOTE: These follow ups are all very dependent on spacing and how high up they got crush countered


 * Anti air CC S.HK > HP Shoryuken
 * Can’t be too far away, height shouldn’t matter


 * Anti air CC S.HK > MK/HK Tatsu
 * Spacing shouldn’t matter, need to have enough height


 * Anti air CC S.HK > Axe Kick first hit cancel HK Jodan
 * Need to be fairly close and fairly high up


 * Anti air CC S.HK > Sweep
 * Pretty consistent but won’t connect if they are really low


 * Anti air CC S.HK > LP Shoryuken > EX Shoryuken
 * Corner only
 * Can’t be too low to the ground
 * If VT1 is active, you can replace EX Shoryuken with a LP/MP/HP Shoryuken. The strength you can use depends on the height. You might be able to get LP but not MP due to MP having more startup and not being able to juggle them before they hit the ground. You’ll have to make that judgement on the fly or just use LP and play it safe.

Using VTC Mid-Combo
One of the general changes to the game system with Arcade Edition is an increase in combo scaling caused by VTrigger cancel. Instead of adding 10%, it now adds 20%. This is a pretty big deal and hurts some characters more than others. In general now, using VTC to extend big combos is a LOT less damaging. As far as Ryu is concerned, it is still useful to use VTC to convert off of pokes for example S.MK VTC, and combo Sweep, LK/EX Tatsu, or S.HK on hit. HOWEVER, using VTC to extend a big jump in or a big crush counter punish combo is no longer very rewarding at all and in some cases even does less damage than if you didn’t do it. For this reason I recommend against using VTrigger activation this way, and instead save it for conversions in the neutral like Axe Kick VTC or Cr.MK xx EX Hadoken VTC where it will give you more bang for your buck. That being said, there are still cases where using VTC to extend combos gives you more damage but to cover every case would take up many pages so just know this: The more hits in the combo that come after the VTC, the more you’re gonna get screwed by scaling. Here’s some examples:

Jump in HP > S.MP > Cr.HP xx HP Shoryuken - 300 damage, 465 stun Vs. Jump in HP > S.MP > Cr.HP VT1C > S.HP xx HP Shoryuken - 313 damage, 530 stun

You can see adding VTC here gives you some more stun, but only 13 more damage. Let’s look at a longer combo:

Jump in HP > S.MP > Cr.HP xx EX Jodan > HP Shoryuken - 344 damage, 555 stun Vs. Jump in HP > S.MP > Cr.HP VT1C > S.HP xx EX Jodan > HP Shoryuken - 332 damage, 570 stun

In this case, you’re losing 12 damage for 15 stun. Here’s a short and simple example:

S.MP > Cr.MK xx EX Hadoken - 185 damage, 310 stun Vs. S.MP > Cr.MK xx EX Hadoken VT1C > Dash forward > HP Shoryuken - 250 damage, 410 stun

You can see here the reward for extending this one with VTrigger activation is much greater than that of the first example. Hopefully this demonstrated that using VTrigger activation to extend a combo does not always make it better. Scaling makes optimizing combos on the fly very difficult. In general, for shorter and simpler combos, extending with VTrigger activation will probably be worth it and will get you extra damage. For bigger combos like jump ins or crush counters, there’s cases where it will get you extra damage and there’s cases where it won’t.

New Optimal Arcade Edition Combos

 * New midscreen combos
 * 1 EX bar, VT1 activated
 * S.MP > Cr.HP xx LK Tatsu > EX Shoryuken
 * 339 damage, 552 stun
 * 2 EX bars, VT independent
 * S.MP > Cr.HP xx EX Jodan > EX Shoryuken
 * 317 damage, 495 stun
 * 331 damage, 552 stun with VT1 activated
 * NOTE: Delay the EX Shoryuken so that it gets the full 2 hits


 * New combos in the corner
 * Meterless, VT1 activated
 * S.MP > Cr.HP xx HP Hadoken > HP Shoryuken
 * 296 damage, 552 stun
 * 1 EX bar, VT1 activated
 * S.MP > Cr.HP xx EX Tatsu > HP Shoryuken
 * 342 damage, 552 stun
 * 3 EX bars, VT1 activated
 * S.MP > Cr.HP xx HP Hadoken > HP Shoryuken xx CA
 * 506 damage, 732 stun