Gief's Gym - Canceling Specials into Critical Arts - A practical lesson on how to minimize inputs to maximize damage

Welcome back friends! I hope you all arrived ready to improve. Today’s workout will cover canceling specials into critical arts. Get ready to build that muscle memory!

Note: Be sure that subreddit style is turned on in order to see input macros.

---

Canceling Specials into Critical Arts - All Levels

The Workout – In training mode pick Ryu vs Ryu. Turn off stun and turn on quick rise to not waste time. Turn on Input Display so you can see exactly how your inputs are being read by the game. For now we’re going to focus on canceling a Hadoken (fireball, qcf+p) into Shinkuu Hadoken (Critical Art, CA, qcf qcf + p). Although it would appear that this would require three inputs of quarter circle forward, the first qcf for the hadoken carries over for the first qcf of the Shinkuu Hadoken. Inputs are as follows:

+xx+

If you want to mix things up you can cancel into the first Hodoken from a crouching medium punch or any normal of your choosing. The timing will vary slightly depending on which normal is being cancelled. For consistent execution, always perform the qcf for the Hadoken as late as possible and the second qcf for the Shinkuu Hadoken immediately after the first. Now perform this combo 10 times in a row. If you fail to perform this combo start back at zero. Switch sides and perform another set without failing to punish. Video Here

The Purpose – Cancelling Specials into your Critical Art is an easy way to maximize your damage output. The input buffer window in SFV is such that the original quarter circle forward input can double as the special input for the Hadoken and the first quarter circle special input for Ryu’s Critical Art. This variation of inputs minimizes the inputs required for you while maximizing the actions taken by your character. This will both allow you time to hit confirm and add damage, especially during long combos because Critical Arts have a minimum scaling of 50%. Variations Include:

Back Forward Charge Special into Double Quarter Circle Forward Critical Art - In training mode pick M. Bison vs Ryu and use the same settings from the original workout. In this variation, you will cancel M. Bison’s Psycho Blast into his Ultimate Psycho Crusher (Critical Art). While Psycho Blast is a Back Forward charge special input and the Critical Art is a double quarter circle input, the same concept applies. The inputs for this Special Cancel into Critical Art are as follows (down back > Charge > qcf+p xx qcf+p):

Charge+xx+

As you can see from the inputs, it does not matter what path you take from down back to forward in order to input the special motion for the Psycho Blast. Take full advantage of this and perform the first quarter circle forward of the Critical Art while performing the back charge motion for Psycho Blast. Similar to the original workout, you will need to vary up the timing depending on the strength of the button used to perform the Psycho Blast or the timing may change depending on what button used to cancel into the Psycho Blast if you choose to go that route. Video Here

---

If you have any questions or need a spotter for this particular workout, leave a message in the comments.