HondaBot 1.0

HondaBot is a highly advanced bot that covers the various difficulties of learning to fight against what is (as of this writing) one of the strongest characters in Street Fighter 6. Honda’s CPU option is not as effective at showing players the potential weaknesses of the character when played by an average player, because the type of ‘mistakes’ that Honda players make are not the type that the CPU makes (this requires a more in-depth explanation than usual, so please see that section at the bottom of the page if interested). For most players, using most characters, this is mainly a matchup-focused bot, but because of the high requirements of the matchup itself in terms of execution, reaction, and mental flexibility, it is also a good bot for general training once you find other bots to be generaly easy to understand.

The bot can be used in multiple modes (in terms of how much Gauge it has) but the player is limited to the settings in the below section. Tweak the bot’s settings according to your preferences. The bot is not difficult to input if you are familiar with any of the basic principles of bot entry, and if you are not, you may not be at the level where this bot is useful to you. Some of its input types are likely to be strange or unfamiliar, though, so please take your time with them, you’re likely to get them eventually. The bot is also somewhat lenient, and since many of its goals are related to player offense rather than defense, having some of the inputs incorrect at first will not make the bot ‘useless’. The player can just train with it anyway and occasionally retry the inputs to improve and vary it. This bot has a very high degree of randomness also, so it can take quite a while to see everything it can do. If it seems repetitive at first, don’t be discouraged, just try to get the points as the systems suggest, and HondaBot’s behaviour may change.

This bot is relatively easy to input, but it can be tedious to try to get specific charge timings, especially if you aren’t familiar with charge timings in general. We’ve included some information on how many frames certain inputs should be. Sometimes this is a large range, and the range affects the behaviour but not the overall bot purpose. Sometimes, varying the length of an input changes which character type will benefit the most from the bot. We’ve noted these in the explanations for the Actions. There is one particular input that is difficult enough to cause frustration for our testers, but it is still necessary, so please be prepared for that.

This bot requires multiple FirstFrame inputs, but because many of them are simple in terms of which other buttons need to be pressed and the timings for those, it is good to use the standard trick to getting FirstFrame inputs every time. In order to hit the first frame input in action 2 for example set the LK button on an input that does not interface with the in game menus like square or triangle on the playstation controller (or your controllers equivalent.) This should let you hold these buttons before you record. When you set your recording to ‘Start: On Input’ if you hold these buttons this will cause the game to register the inputs as first frame. There is usually enough time between the transition from the recording menu and the start of the recording to press whatever direction you want (in this case 1.) There is a slight flaw in this method compared to the equivalent method in our SFV bots. If you continue too quickly with the input, the game can take quite a while from transitioning from the recording menu to starting the recording and lose the next buttons. You need to time the rest of the input after the first frame input with the recording start itself. Fortunately there is a sound cue for the recording start that can help you time this somewhat. Most actions that need a button at the first frame of the recording do not usually have a difficult/quick second button, however, so try and relax when using this method.

Gauge Settings

As with all bots Vitality Gauge P1 should be set to “100%”, and Vitality Recovery Settings P1 should be set to “Standard”. Drive Gauge P1 should be set to “6”, and Drive Gauge Recovery Settings P1 should be set to “Standard”. SA Gauge P1 should be set to “0” , and SA Gauge Recovery Settings P1 should be set to “Standard”.

Vitality Gauge P2 should be set to “100%”, and Vitality Recovery Settings P2 should be set to “Refill”. Drive Gauge P2 should be set to “6”, and Drive Gauge Recovery Settings P2 should be set to “Standard”. SA Gauge P2 should be set to “0”, and SA Gauge Recovery Settings P2 should be set to “Standard”.

These settings may change based on your goals, explained in the Difficulty section below.

Goals

Completing each action gives 1 point. Try to get to 10 points without dying.

Points System

• A - Air-to-Air any of Honda’s aerial movements
• B - When you are in neutral, and he is behaving defensively, use your 66MP+MK Drive Rush and use the appropriate followup based on Honda’s movement: Use an antiair attack to hit or trade with him, use Drive Impact to break through his reaction, or throw him. (If none of these are good ideas, and you are expecting him to block, use a standard ‘pressure’ normal that will leave you at advantage.) See the In-Depth section for a more detailed explanation.
• C - Recover from your Burnout state.
• D - Tech Honda’s throw

Variants

Difficulty Levels

• Easy - Points given for ABCD
• Medium - Points given for ABD
• Hard - Points given for A and C
• Extreme - Points given for C and D only

Actions

In-depth

HondaBot attempts to replicate a very specific aspect of the character that is, overall, a natural part of the playstyle for most players. This character has strong, committed Heavy normal attacks, and less effective Light attacks and movespeed. Fighting him from farther away is not generally good because of his long range options, but with specific training, the player can use Drive Gauge to make fighting him from longer ranges advantaged.

Because Honda does not have as many misleading or confusing options in the ‘neutral’ space (such as projectiles with different speeds, ‘divekicks’, or advancing normal attacks with strange hitboxes), he is more susceptible to properly spaced Drive Impacts, particularly in situations where it’s not clear what will happen. Normally this is not helpful because Honda can react to basic dashes or standard approaches with his strong Heavy normals, but the positioning he uses, combined with the startup of many of his moves and his hurtboxes while using his jumping normals, lead to a specific situation for many characters.

By using your Drive Rush at the right spacing, and forcing the Honda to react in some way, one can take advantage of the ‘flinch’ in basically the same way as normal ‘footsies’ with a closer range character. The difficulty is in recognizing which of the main three reactions you should have. If Honda just defends, then for many characters, using a Throw will be enough, it will not cause you to lose any meaningful advantage if he techs it, and probably put you at a more favorable spacing. For most other characters, utilizing the extra advantage from a Drive Rush empowered normal attack that normally has either advantage or a very small disadvantage, allows you to get close and put pressure on a character that is normally very good at defending by keeping you out of position.

If Honda attempts to neutral jump, he has fewer options compared to some other characters, and your character may be able to use or time an antiair normal or special attack, or even throw in certain timings when Honda lands. This is complex, though, because it is very timing, spacing, and character dependent, so it requires a lot of practice.

If Honda uses a special move, the player can usually use their Drive Impact from the Drive Rush at a timing that may advantage them. This is a prediction, though, since Honda could at least try to ‘bait this and respond with his own Drive Impact’, in which case he is generally only susceptible to throw. All this combines, not to give a simple solution set, but to change the rhythm and intentions of the players in the matchup, so that they can begin to use other options that normally would be completely stopped by a focused defensive Honda player.

As always, the purpose of a Bot is to help players to adjust their own approaches according to what they find works for them, and to gain additional understanding of the options, even if they ultimately choose not to use those options.