Kata #23 v1.0

Difficulty Intermediate Kata

Focus Attack Advantage Spacing on Defense

The intention of this kata is to help train the player to recognize ranges of their stronger but slower normals and quick safe special moves, in order to utilize those when the enemy is too far away to use fast attacks to interrupt those. It also trains the player in the beginnings of 'understanding input buffers and blockstun' at the level required for the more complex opposing characters in the game. As a result, it also teaches the player certain spacings, unique v-cancels, and when they should worry about being whiff punished.

Since DhalsimBot is designed to teach a different set of things, you will use the CPU at Level 8 for this kata. There is no need for any special inputs, and you do not need to alter your DhalsimBot.

This kata, as with many others, is greatly helped by knowledge of frame data. Some challenges mentioned in the various training situations will rely on frame data knowledge. There are many frame data apps and resources that you can use to aid you while training. We recommend finding the frame data source that you are most comfortable with to assist you with the more technical aspects of the kata.

Gauge Settings

Settings for 1P for Kata #23 are Health - "Auto-Recover" (when not in 'Full Focus Test' mode), V-Gauge - "Auto-Recover", CA Gauge - "Normal".

Settings for 2P for Kata #23 are Health - "Auto-Recover" (when not in 'Full Focus Test' mode), V-Gauge - "Normal", CA Gauge - "Normal".

Goals

Katas do not specifically have a point system, as they are intended to be a test of focus and endurance. Instead, this section will explain the why and how of the kata. Aims are still given below in a similar way to Bots and will be referred to as Aim A, Aim B, and so on when explaining.

Situation One -- Close to Mid Range Responses

Start by working on Aim A to begin your understanding of this. Depending on your character, Dhalsim may use EX Yoga Flame at times, but you should not respond to the EX Version. For nearly all characters, if you can block the teleport 'mixup' properly, when he goes to the other side and does his 9HP, you are very likely to be in the intended position. If Dhalsim is close enough to use his own 4MK or a Light attack, you should use your own Medium strength attack. If he is not, a longer Heavy attack is best. Note that some characters' Heavy attacks do not hit crouching opponents and you need to understand what is happening when you try to use them. For those who are familiar with frame data, Yoga Flame is either -2 or -3 when used in combos and therefore, if Dhalsim is managing to hit you when you hit a Medium attack that will reach, it is either because your character has a relatively slow Medium attack (usually more than 8 frames of startup) or you are pressing the button too slowly due to the unfamiliar blockstun of Yoga Flame. In this case, just keep practicing. Note finally that Dhalsim does have the option of using his LK slide attack, but this does not do much damage and should be considered to be irrelevant to the Kata if he does it.

Kata 23 Situation 1 Most pokes in response to a blocked Yoga Flame at closer range will be a standing Medium attack, but heavy attacks with 8f of startup also work well.

Situation Two -- Mid to Far Range Responses

Now extend your focus to work on Aim A and Aim B. Since Dhalsim, and many other characters, cannot always punish even meaningfully negative (-4 to -6) Heavy Attacks from long ranges, and the faster attacks they can use often lose due to the priority system or trade altogether, it becomes a good idea to use these attacks sometimes even though they are normally risky. Start paying close attention to when even these attacks do not reach Dhalsim, because, while most characters do not have safe options to use from their arsenal of command normals and special moves, a few have good options here as well, and you might want to consider using them, even if only to improve focus for the Dhalsim matchup. You can also now practice your longer ranged Crush Counter combo confirms, but this is not strictly necessary, just landing the attack is enough. At this range, he may have time to jump forward and avoid low attacks, such as our own beloved 2MK, so be aware of that as well.

Kata 23 Situation 2 When noticeably further away like this, Dhalsim's options improve, but risky options from the defending side become less risky, balancing it out.

Situation Three -- Maximizing Returns

Often, in a tense match, simply landing a few stray hits from defense is not enough, so you must expand to work on Aim C along with Aim A and B (it automatically includese them). 'Simply' learn to recognize the counter hit and V-Cancel into whatever the most damaging combo you can do, at the time, is. This often takes some knowledge or creativity, as 'standard' V-Cancels may not all be reliable at these ranges, or the attacks being used may not be the ones that your character normally aims to use their V-Cancel ability on. If you have a character whose moves change their properties during V-Trigger, use the time to experiment with those in the same sorts of situations, just in case something new becomes possible. You can also use advanced counter-hit confirms for certain characters when a Medium normal hits, but we presume that users of this content already know what those are or have resources for figuring them out if interested.

Kata 23 Situation 3 Hit Confirms! Go for big damage! That's why you have V-Gauge set to Auto-Recover! Throw in some meaty attack practice too for good measure!

Situation Four -- How The Other Half Lives

This is all good, but it results in a lot of time spent being pushed away by Dhalsim's special form of 'zoning'/'keepout'. So, in order to make the most of it, the last form of this Kata is adding Aim D to the above (though it can be practiced separately). Both of Dhalsim's longer range standing Medium attacks are -4 on block, and a second attack from that range will always take at least 9 frames to start. Basically, even your slowest Heavy attack is sure to be useful in some timing, the issue is where they are likely to collide. Find the right option and the timing to strike Dhalsim's incoming strike, while still having enough time to simply block if he does a Yoga Fire instead. He can delay his own attacks considerably to land heavier strikes, but it is usually worth it to keep him from pushing you out as much. Different actions should be done after a blocked MP, a blocked MK, and other sequences of these two attacks combined. Bonus if your attack gives you enough time to do something else to avoid Yoga Fire or attack him if he chooses to go to the air.

Kata 23 Situation 4 Put your faith in some attacks that you would never simply whiff at long range in neutral against most characters with quick approaches. The key is to recognize who is winning out over time.

Full Focus Test Mode

When you feel as if you have a good handle on each situation and all the ways you could deal with the opponent, change 1P V-Gauge to "Normal". Both Health Gauges would then also be set to "Normal", but make sure that you go to the regular 'dummy' version of the Training Mode options and set Stun to 'Off' (this setting carries over to bots and CPU). The goal is now to defeat Dhalsim using the Kata as normal, paying attention to when you are coming out ahead in terms of damage even in situations where he 'guesses right' an equal amount. Your secondary aim is to understand how best to build up V-Gauge in this matchup, within the confines of the Kata (i.e. don't just bully Dhalsim with your V-Skill to build meter). If you manage this before he defeats you, consisently, pay attention to how it is happening, and consider if you could recreate most of the situations in other matchups, against opponents that use attacks in neutral that are -2 or -3 but leave them further from you. If so, then your focus is probably enough to handle this sort of situation in real matches. Repeat with familiar characters until you are satisfied with your performance.

Bot Information

This Kata uses the CPU, not a bot, and therefore you do not need to use the DhalsimBot 1.0 page. You should use that if you want to deal with Dhalsim's aerial movement instead. We have tested this Kata with most of the game's characters and Dhalsim's behaviour does not change drastically, he mostly just uses EX Yoga Flame against some characters so far. However, we urge you to contact us if you observe Dhalsim to behave strangely for your character, so that we can help out, or update this page with a disclaimer that the CPU does not allow this Kata to work for that character. If this behaviour changes due to any updates to Street Fighter V in future, this space will be used for notes on how and why.



In-Depth

In Progress.