SSBU/Ryu/Combos

Intro and Combo Theory
Below are common wordings that the player should learn to understand how Ryu’s combos are written. Unlike Ken, Ryu doesn’t have as freeform combos as Ken. That does not mean the player cannot play a read based combo game. Including frame traps and coverage for air dodges can restart a combo to help tack on more damage.


 * It is expected that all specials done in combos are input specials.
 * lease read through the overview page to know the abbreviations for specials’ names.
 * The version of special will be specified by saying “l.[name]” for a light special, “m.[name]” for a medium special, and “h.[name]” for a heavy special. Specials without the letter in front mean that any version is acceptable.
 * The combos list will also assume the reader understands basic smash terms and acronyms.
 * “Apex [aerial]” = doing the aerial so that the frame after hitlag ends Ryu can fast fall. This usually requires Ryu to delay the aerial in which the amount of delay will be different depending on the aerial.
 * “>” = do the next action in the sequence
 * “xx” = cancel the normal into the next special in the sequence

If a combo appears to be sub-optimal (in damage) at first glance, remember that there are at least 4 reasons to do said combo:
 * It keeps a certain move fresh (or freshens up a move if that move was used earlier in the match).
 * It’s less execution heavy.
 * Less risk to go for, whether it’s on potential whiff or it’s generally more “guaranteed” for damage.
 * You do not sacrifice stage positioning.

Special Cancels
Jab 1 and Jab 2:
 * Hadouken:
 * Light/Medium/Heavy: For some airborne shenanigans, otherwise a misinput.
 * Shoryuken:
 * Light/Medium/Heavy: The path of a three hit combo.
 * Tatsumaki:
 * Light: Initial hit; puts you in a different position than DP at the cost of at least 3%.
 * Focus Attack:
 * MU specific evasive action against options out of shield.

Light Dtilt:
 * Shakunetsu:
 * Light: Low percent tech chases.
 * Shoryuken:
 * Light/Medium: Damage & positioning.
 * Heavy: Highest damage & kill confirm.
 * Tatsumaki:
 * Light: Initial hit; kill confirm & positioning.
 * Focus Attack:
 * Defensive option against OoS.

HDTilt
 * Hadouken:
 * Light: Maintain near-pressure to continue strings after read; probably the most useful on block, since the hado can also cover spotdodges as well as rolls.
 * Medium: Guarantees at least one full dash on correct execution before the opponent is able to act, can also lock the opponent on knockdowns well.
 * Heavy: Safe damage which gives the opponent the most room to act afterwards.
 * Shakunetsu:
 * Light: Enables low percent combo routes and option reads at mid percents.
 * Medium: Best finisher in terms of speed and consistency (especially against floatier characters).
 * Heavy: When you gotta get that quick but delayed Shaku in for damage and stage control.
 * Light/Medium/Heavy: Can cause tech chases on plats; alternative ender to Tatsu if Tatsu cannot reach; at higher percents it's just pure stage control/damage.
 * Tatsumaki:
 * Light: Great against fastfallers or even tech chases, since you are plus on hit regardless of whether it connects or not; has the most horizontal knockback + fastest recovery against characters it can hit.
 * Medium: Medium Tatsu for better angle (hit safety) compared to Heavy Tatsu at lower percents; DI mixup kill confirm off the side and grants you a bunch of options to apply pressure afterwards.
 * Heavy: Kill confirm; deals the most damage and puts you in a position to anti-air or air-to-air.
 * Medium/Heavy: Can whiff on DI in against floaties or DI away/down+away on fast-fallers or heavies when HDtilt begins to send into tumble, so be careful.
 * Focus Attack:
 * Use this sequence to poke at someone, then tank an aerial or simply mix it up with a FADC.

LUTilt
 * Hadouken:
 * Light: Airborne shenanigans.
 * Shakunetsu:
 * Don't Do [Misinput].
 * Shoryuken:
 * Light: Additional special cancel.
 * Heavy: Use to kill after Utilt.
 * Focus Attack:
 * Catches options out of hitstun, also puts the opponent in a terrible position unless they have a multihit aerial.

HUTilt: - Shoryuken:
 * Hadouken:
 * Light/Medium: Trying to cover landing space if the opponent also DI's out at low percents, while still being very difficult to punish if you caught the opponent DI'ing in.
 * Shakunetsu:
 * Light/Medium: Trying to cover landing space if the opponent also DI's out at low percents, while still being very difficult to punish if you caught the opponent DI'ing in.
 * Medium: Medium DP could potentially be used to rise up to a platform for pure movement, without having as much airtime as Heavy DP.
 * Heavy: At lower percents, HUtilt > Heavy Shoryuken is about 25% of damage (the 15.1% of HUtilt and the 10.5% of DP's late hit), making it similar to a Dtilt's BnB damage.
 * Tatsumaki:
 * Light: Not an actual combo but Tatsu is used to advance forward to position yourself for a landing trap.

PTilt:
 * Hadouken:
 * Light/Medium/Heavy: For some airborne shenanigans, otherwise a misinput.
 * Shakunetsu:
 * Light/Medium/Heavy: Damage without staling DP or committing to Initial Hit Tatsu.
 * Shoryuken:
 * Light/Medium: Damage & positioning.
 * Heavy: Highest damage & kill confirm.
 * Tatsumaki:
 * Light: Initial hit; puts you in a different position than DP at the cost of at least 3%

PJab:
 * Hadouken:
 * Light/Medium/Heavy: For some airborne shenanigans, otherwise a misinput.
 * Shakunetsu:
 * Light/Medium/Heavy: Damage without staling DP or committing to Initial Hit Tatsu.
 * Shoryuken:
 * Light/Medium: Damage & positioning.
 * Heavy: Highest damage & kill confirm.
 * Tatsumaki:
 * Light: Initial hit; puts you in a different position than DP at the cost of at least 3%.

DSmash:
 * Hadouken:
 * Light/Medium/Heavy: When Dsmash sends into tumble and you think the opponent will miss the tech, Hadouken is best due to piling on damage and a jab lock, of which a correct tech chase can lead to massive damage; use slower speeds to gain a few more frames of hit advantage, and higher speeds to get more damage + knockback (putting them into corners).
 * Shakunetsu:
 * Light/Medium/Heavy: Before Dsmash sends into tumble (i.e. very low percents), Shaku is great for getting your damage in without having to deal with the occasional wonkiness of Tatsu.
 * Tatsumaki:
 * Light: Light Tatsu is a great special cancel to keep advancing if you expect the opponent to tech the Dsmash.
 * Medium/Heavy: Not sure how reliable this is pre-tumble if the Dsmash is spaced, but if you feel that it can hit then you're rewarded with plenty of damage, stage positioning, landing trap scenarios, and keeping fireballs on the fresher side.
 * Focus Attack:
 * Something that you do if you hit Dsmash on shield, but are able to react in time.

NAir [Rising, Falling]:
 * Hadouken:
 * Light/Medium/Heavy: [Rising] You might cancel into a fireball for people on a platform (generally stages we can't full hop onto) in order to put additional block pressure or to create a pratfall situation.
 * Shakunetsu:
 * Light/Medium/Heavy: [Rising] You might cancel into a fireball for people on a platform (generally stages we can't full hop onto) in order to put additional block pressure or to get lots of knockback.
 * Shoryuken:
 * Light/Medium/Heavy: [Falling] The only reason to cancel Nair is to try to get some blockstring mixup, i.e. if you expect them to drop shield; Light is innately the least committal while Heavy is the strongest, but the best is whichever one could allow you to land on a platform with the least amount of airtime.
 * Tatsumaki:
 * Light: [Falling] The only reason to cancel Nair is to try to get some blockstring mixup, i.e. if you expect them to drop shield; less committal than DP on block.
 * Focus Attack:
 * [Rising] You might cancel into Focus Attack to give yourself some armor + additional mobility if you hit shield.
 * [Falling] At lower percents, delayed SH Nair into Focus Attack 1 can option select both a hit and a blockstring that is plus due to FADC'ing into the ground, possibly enough to create a true shieldbreak string.

FAir [Early, Late, Front, Back, Rising, Falling]:
 * Hadouken:
 * Light/Medium/Heavy: [Rising, Front, Early, Late] You might cancel into a fireball for people on a platform (generally stages we can't full hop onto) in order to put additional block pressure or to create a pratfall situation.
 * Light/Medium/Heavy: [Falling, Front, Early, Late] Blockstring mixup, i.e. if you expect them to drop shield.
 * Shakunetsu:
 * Light/Medium/Heavy: [Rising, Front, Early, Late] You might cancel into a fireball for people on a platform (generally stages we can't full hop onto) in order to put additional block pressure or to create a pratfall situation.
 * Light/Medium/Heavy: [Falling, Front, Early, Late] Blockstring mixup, i.e. if you expect them to drop shield.
 * Shoryuken:
 * Light/Medium/Heavy: [Falling, Front, Early, Late] Blockstring mixup, i.e. if you expect them to drop shield; Light is innately the least committal while Heavy is the strongest, but the best is whichever one could allow you to land on a platform with the least amount of airtime.
 * Light/Medium/Heavy: [Falling, Back, Early, Late] Because of the crossup hitbox's significantly higher shield damage, cancelling into Shoryuken can break even a slightly depleted shield while also frame-trapping options OoS.
 * Tatsumaki:
 * Light: [Falling] Blockstring mixup, i.e. if you expect them to drop shield; less committal than DP on block.
 * Focus Attack:
 * [Rising/Falling] You might cancel into Focus Attack to give yourself some armor + additional mobility if you hit shield.

PTilt/PJab Jab Lock
Do the first jablock listed unless it gives a character orientation. "Front-floored" means when they are lying on their front side face down. "Back-floored" means when they are laying on their back side face up. "Head-side" means when you're standing by their head. "Feet-side" means when you're standing by their feet. Graphic by Lernonad:

PTilt > Jab1 Jab Lock
"Front-floored" means when they are laying on their front side face down. "Back-floored" means when they are laying on their back side face up. "Head-side" means when you're standing by their head. "Feet-side" means when you're standing by their feet. Graphic by Kyronic:

Ledge Trapping
A common setup used is the three zones. The three zones are the pressure zone, neutral zone, and distance zone. The pressure zone is when Ryu is right on top of the ledge. It covers ledge getup and ledge jumps if Ryu is mashing tilts. It loses to ledge attack, ledge drop aerials, and ledge roll but Ryu can react to the roll and pressure that as well. The next zone is the distance zone. It is meant to cover ledge rolls to prevent losing stage control. It is also good for reacting to ledge jumps. It loses to ledge getup. The final zone is the neutral zone. It is right in between the pressure zone and the distance zone meant to be used to transition between the two other zones and react to ledge options and move there with Ryu’s walk to successfully punish it. Another setup is to stand at ledge roll distance and throw a light as soon as the opponent grabs the ledge. This will cause them to delay ledge getup, ledge attack, and ledge jump, for if they do this, they will get hit by the and be pushed off stage again. And if they decide to ledge roll, Ryu will be right there to punish that. Alternatively, Ryu can use a slow and if the opponent gets hit by it, Ryu can jump up and hit an aerial to potentially KO the opponent. This will cause them to wait so that their intangibility runs out. If they ledge getup or getup attack dash in and try for a combo starter. If they jump, use an air-to-air or. If they roll try for a combo starter. Be ready to transition to shield pressure if they do shield. After doing this for a little bit, be prepared for hasty ledge jumps to try and get out of the way before the gets to the ledge. Finally, if the opponent decides to hang on the ledge, there are many ways Ryu can counter that. Depending on the character, Ryu’s, , and can hit the opponent’s ledge hang based on the chart below.



Another way to counter ledge hangs is to use trumping. This is a way to ledge trump without having to deal with body blocking preventing ledge trumping. How to trump is listed on this character’s Tech page under COIL.

Edge Guarding
Ryu won’t often go for edge guards. Really it’s best if the opponent for sure has to use their double jump. It’s not advised to edge guard if the opponent has a really long recovery and large hitbox on their Up B that could potentially stage spike Ryu or worse. An example would be Byleth, Charizard, and Ken and Ryu. If possible, stuff them out before they get a chance to use their Up B. Only other time edge guarding would be beneficial would be from combos. If Ryu hits a at the ledge at an early percent a cool trick would be to cancel to  and fall down then release the attack when they jump up next to Ryu then dash cancel, double jump,, and cancel to  to recover back to stage. Combo notation for that would be: xx  (hold until opponent is next to Ryu) > release > dash cancel > double jump >  xx.