SSBU/Ryu/Combos

Ryu

Overview

Combos

Setplay

Tech

Strategy/Counterstrategy

Matchups

Resources

Discord

Intro

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.
Please 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

For aerials, anything in [] shows the requirements on how to do that aerial to get the following attack to hit. And the aerial will show all the requirements that are possible. Example: "NAir [Rising, Falling]" means that NAir is the starting move in the sequence and that it can either be done rising or falling and "Hadouken: [Rising]" means that the aerial must be rising to make Hadouken combo from that aerial. If it does not give a requirement, then the aerial can be done in any way to get the following move to connect.

Summary

Hadoken: for jab locks or leaving the opponent close for scramble
Shakunetsu: to knock the opponent away, possibly for a platform tech chase
Shoryuken: high damage ender, best KO move
Tatsu: alternative KO move with longer reach, light version to launch away, heavy version to launch upwards
Focus: mixup

Full Breakdown

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.

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: Hit airborne opponents at mid-high percents or frame trap air dodges.
Shoryuken:
- Light: damage plus more safe than heavy if whiffs.
- Heavy: Kill confirm.
Focus Attack:
- Catches options out of hitstun, also puts the opponent in a terrible position unless they have a multihit aerial.

HUTilt:

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.
Shoryuken:
- 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:
- True or frame trap against airborne opponents, otherwise a misinput.
Shakunetsu:
- 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:
- True or frame trap against airborne opponents, otherwise a misinput.
Shakunetsu:
- 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:
- 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:
- 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.

NAir [Rising, Falling]:

Hadouken:
- [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:
- [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.
Focus Attack:
- [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 [Front, Back, Rising, Falling]:

Hadouken:
- [Rising, Front] 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:
- [Rising, Front] 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.

BAir [Rising, Falling]

Hadoken:
- Extra damage at low percents
Shakunetsu:
- Extra damage at low percents
Focus Attack:
- [Rising]: Drop combo to instead get more damage. Can punish an attack out of hitstun or a roll or shield break if they shield once landed. Especially good against fast fallers where fireballs might whiff.

UAir [First Hit, Second Hit, Rising, Falling]:

Shoryuken:
- Heavy: [First Hit] Kill confirm

DAir: [Spike, Weak, Grounded hit, Rising, Falling]

Hadoken:
- [Rising, Ground hit] extra damage
- [Spike, Weak] to stop falling and to get extra damage in case Spike hitbox misses.
Shakunetsu:
- [Rising, Ground hit] extra damage
- [Spike, Weak] to stop falling and to get extra damage in case Spike hitbox misses.
Tatsumaki
- Heavy: [Rising, Spike] Miss Tech punish at high percents as they will bounce off the ground and get hit by the later hit of Tatsu.
Focus Attack
- [Rising, Falling] Slows falling and can be used to edge guard a recovery if Spike hits off stage at low to mid percents.

Normal Links

Summary

"Mids":

Jab 1: A borderline-SDI proof alternative to LDTilt that gives you 2 moves to hitconfirm with.
LFTilt: Sets up for the highest-damaging combos and strings out of all of Ryu's grounded moves with platform support.
PTilt: The in-between of Jab 1 and PJab, having more damage than Jab 1 > Jab 2 but being several frames faster than PJab while also not having as many SDI issues (or being as bad to potentially whiff).
PJab: Second highest-damaging special cancel compared to DSmash but there are more scenarios to use it.

"Highs":

LUTilt: "Scramble" situation, where you want your opponent to panic and make a bad move that you can capitalize on.
HUTilt: Best vertical launcher due to it's consistency, high base knockback, and iframes.
USmash: Alternate vertical launcher to HUTilt that trades some speed and frame advantage for higher damage and lower-knockback mixups.

"Lows":

LDTilt: Tied with Jab 1 for Ryu's fastest normal and cannot be low-profiled by hurtbox shifting from landing, making it a very consistent link.
HDtilt: Most viable cancel into Light Tatsumaki (by avoiding using a LDTilt first) for the most horizontal knockback and "low" scramble starter (with enough percent/Rage) compared to LUTilt sending higher.
DSmash: Highest-damaging special cancel that sets up for tech chases or purely just to get some stage control with the horizontal knockback + a Light Tatsumaki cancel.

Aerials ("Jump-Ins"):

NAir: Used when you're trying to reset the opponent back to the ground so that you can get a grounded combo.
FAir: Low-execution alternative to BAir, you're just trying to get your easy damage and focus more on the state of the game.
BAir: Highest-damaging aerial (without a special cancel) and strong horizontal knockback, essentially like a Dsmash in the air.
DAir: Offstage spike or potential gimp kill.
UAir: Sets up for the highest possible damage when there are platforms around for Ryu to extend off of, particularly anything he can full hop onto.

Simple BnB

Easy

BAir > DSmash xx h.Shaku

CPU set to mash Air Dodge

Full Breakdown

For aerials, anything in [] shows the requirements on how to do that aerial to get the following attack to hit. And the aerial will show all the requirements that are possible. Example: "FAir [Sour, Sweet]" means that FAir is the starting move in the sequence and that it can either be done with the Sour hit or the Sweet hit and "LUTilt: [Sour]" means that the aerial must be the Sour hit to make LUTilt combo from that aerial. Any ground move must come from a landed aerial to combo and can combo if you land on a platform.

Jab 1

Jab 2
- Jab 3: Tech chase at 0%; works best if you have center-stage or more control to box opponents in, as Ryu typically cannot catch full distance tech rolls away.

LDTilt

LDTilt: Additional damage, extra time to hitconfirm into HDtilt or specials, and unstaling other moves on the stale queue.
HDTilt: Used to convert into specials most of the time, but can additionally be used for tech chasing/scramble situations, particularly due to how fast the knockback scales with Rage.

LUTilt

PTilt: True at mid percents, but can frame trap at low percents; used to get more damage than Jab 1 > Jab 2 when trying to special cancel.
PJab: True at high percents, but can frame trap at mid percents; used to get as much damage as possible from a special cancel, though the opponent needs to be low enough/close enough to make sure that Ryu's specials don't whiff due to hurtbox shifting or knockback from LUTilt.
LUTilt Can be chained together as early at 0% and is used primarily for additional damage, extra time to hitconfirm into several other moves, and unstaling other moves on the stale queue; Utilts are also typically used to bait the opponent into panicking and mashing or directional airdodging, creating a scramble situation.
HUTilt: True at high percents, but can frame trap at mid percents (same as PJab); does solid damage without needing to special cancel and sets the opponent up for vertical disadvantage/landing traps, and doesn't suffer from hitbox problems like Pjab does. At very high percents it can also serve as a very low-execution kill confirm.
Jab 1: True at low percents (fastest link from Utilt), and is used to get additional damage before a special cancel, as well as using Jab 1 > Jab 2 as extra time to hitconfirm.
Shoryuken: True on most characters. Can be used as a high percent kill confirm with a single Utilt into a Shoryu (with a bit more percent you can also afford a microdash to process the hitconfirm), but you don't want to special cancel after multiple Utilts or at very high percents because then it will not sweetspot and KO.

LFTilt

NAir: A more execution-lax alternative to Bair at low percents, where you trade off damage for a simple dash Nair, hoping to get a light tilt combo after a fastfall.
FAir: Another execution-lax alternative to Bair, looking to get very slightly less damage than Bair to end the combo and focus on the advantage state afterwards.
BAir: The go-to combo for LFTilt in almost all situations, and a solid kill confirm at high percents. At very low percents (pre-Tumble on Bair) you can fastfall into a light tilt combo or special cancel into Hadouken to keep the opponent in the air a bit longer. At mid percents and higher you will need the opponent to DI in on LFtilt, and at high percents you will usually need to double jump.
UAir: A link that works best at low-mid percents, you can typically chain 2 Uairs together from the main platform regardless of DI, 3 Uairs with DI out, and more if you have nearby platforms to extend on. You always want to end with Uair 1 > Shoryuken for both optimal damage and a kill confirm, especially the higher you can ladder the opponent to the ceiling.
DAir: Used near the ledge to get a kill around high percents (or even mid percents against characters with bad vertical recoveries), especially because Dair's diagonal angle helps cover DI in against LFTilt. This is easiest to get when using LFTilt to catch neutral getup on ledge.

NAir

Jab 1: Requires a dash at mid percents; the go-to kill confirm when you want plenty of time to hitconfirm with Jab 1 > Jab 2 compared to PTilt but you don't want to risk SDI from LDTilt or PJab.
PJab: Requires a dash at mid percents; the usual strongest move to use for a special cancel/kill confirm, but its hitlag and Ryu's small Shoryuken/Tatsumaki hitboxes can lead to inconsistencies due to SDI.
PTilt: Requires a dash at mid percents; an in-between of Jab 1 and PJab, doing more damage than Jab 1 > Jab 2 but not having the SDI flaws of PJab.
LFTilt: Requires a dash at mid-high percents; an option you pick if you believe your opponent is still holding in, setting up for LFTilt's best confirms.
LDTilt: Requires a dash at mid percents; the typical grounded confirm after NAir when you want solid damage without having to think too hard about execution.
HDTilt: Requires a dash at mid percents; raw HDTilt is done after Nair if you're looking for a Tatsu confirm (typically Light Tatsu for the best horizontal angle) but you don't want potential pushback/SDI on LDTilts to interfere.
LUTilt: Requires a dash at mid percents; you can use 1-2 LUTilts to bait the opponent into panicking and directional airdodging into confirms you don't normally get, or you can opt for HUtilt (or LUTilt's other links).
HUTilt: Requires a dash at mid percents; the best option for getting the opponent into vertical disadvantage without having to commit to/stale Shoryuken.
DSmash: Requires a dash at mid percents; the strongest special cancellable move, it works best at low percents where you can followup with either Hadouken, Shakunetsu, or Tatsumaki for both immediate damage and covering tech options, especially using Hadouken to potentially jab lock and push the opponent into the corner.
DAir: Requires dash off ledge to then hit DAir for KO; easiest to land when reading the opponent's neutral getup at ledge, and at high percents you can substitute using Late Nair, as the earlier part of Nair will send the opponent too far to land Dair regardless of DI.

FAir [Sour, Sweet]

PJab: [Sour] Easiest to land after Focus Attack 2/3 or after a missed tech/jab lock; can lead into very strong damage with Shoryuken, but the opponent being launched decently from Sour Fair even at low percents coupled with PJab's hitlag time means that SDI can often result in the sourspot hit.
LUTilt: [Sour] Easiest to land after Focus Attack 2/3 or after a missed tech/jab lock; used to bait the opponent into a scramble situation or to confirm into LUTilt's usual links, typically HUTilt.
HUTilt: [Sour] Easiest to land after Focus Attack 2/3 or after a missed tech/jab lock; the best vertical launcher if you don't want to risk getting the 2nd sourspot on Shoryuken after a PJab, and Sour FAir's frame advantage means you usually don't need to use a LUTilt first.
NAir: [Sour] Easiest to land after Focus Attack 2/3 or after a missed tech/jab lock; this allows you to frame trap the opponent into a grounded string or a LUTilt to create a scramble situation, and works best with at lower percents.
FAir: An execution-lax alternative to Bair, you trade off a bit of damage for an easy 30%+ that allows you to focus more on the advantage state afterwards.
BAir: Sweet FAir's strongest confirm at low percents, you can get a solid 40%+ by also special cancelling Bair into Hadouken afterwards.
UAir: [Sour] Easiest to land after Focus Attack 2/3 or after a missed tech/jab lock; because of Sour FAir's launch angle, you can usually get a dash forward for UAir to better follow alongside the opponent if the DI out; otherwise, you use this to get UAir's usual confirms.
DAir: [Sour] Easiest to land after Focus Attack 2/3 or after a missed tech/jab lock; Sour FAir gives the best frame advantage out of any setup into a Dair kill.

BAir

LFTilt: A setup into any of LFTilt's usual strings, including another Bair, but requires proper spacing on Bair in order to avoid getting PTilt or Sourspot LFTilt. You'll also need to land Bair at a low enough percent so that they won't be sent into Tumble.
LDTilt: The usual combo after BAir if you're looking for consistency, due to LDTilt being the fastest option after BAir.
HDTilt: The best option if you're trying to optimize your horizontal advantage on the opponent, dropping any LDTilts in favor of HDTilt > Light Tatsumaki.
DSmash: The highest-damaging followup, this option allows you get nearly a nearly 60% combo with an instant heavy FIreball/Tatsumaki cancel, or you can try to maximize your advantage with a tech chase from the DSmash.

UAir

LDTilt: Only works if you hit first hit dragdown UAir. Very hard to do.
UAir: Combos into itself when you land it while close enough to a platform to fastfall onto, and with platforms you can get ladder combos that can potentially kill off the top with a Uair 1 xx Shoryuken cancel.

DAir

Jab 1: Quick special cancel that won't send the opponent too high like LUTilt nor will it be high-profiled like LDTilt
PJab: Strongest viable special cancel, but requires landing DAir at lower percent as well as very slightly delaying PJab in order to avoid sourspots or whiffing.
LUTilt: Sets up into LUTilt's usual scramble situation, but is improved by DAir's vertical knockback giving you more time to react than usual.
HUTilt: The usual vertical launcher, doing a bit more damage than UAir and giving you a solid 30% in damage.
NAir: A setup into a grounded string, works best when the opponent is at lower percent and you're able to get a dash before the NAir.
FAir: A low-execution alternative to Bair that allows you to focus more on the advantage state afterwards.
BAir: Requires a RAR Bair without momentum, this gives the highest damage without needing a special cancel or platform support.
UAir: The best link when you have nearby platforms to extend off of for ladder combos.
DAir: When near the ledge, this is used for either an immediate spike kill or a gimp.

Mixups

DI Mixups

Tatsumaki DI Mix:

The correct DI for heavy Tatsu is away. The correct DI for medium Tatsu is in. The opponent cannot react to which version of Tatsu is done.

B-Reverse DI Mix:

Sometimes B-Reversing Shoryuken is needed because the opponent SDIs behind Ryu before he cancels to Shoryuken. When Shoryuken is B-Reversed, the correct DI will change to the opposite direction.

Frame Traps

Light UTilt:

Many things are not true until later percents but are frame traps early on. Examples are PTilt, Jab 1, DSmash. At higher percents NAir and UAir become frame traps then become true at really high percents. This can be used to get extra damage from combos and tech chases or kill confirms. They can be escaped with frame 1 invulnerability though.

Air Dodge Frame TrapBig damage from 0%

Moderate

Sweet Spot NAir > LUTilt > DSmash xx h.Shaku

CPU set to SDI Away and mash Air Dodge
LUTilt > DSmash is not a true combo, does not work on frame 1 escape options.

Untrue Combos

Light UTilt:

LUTilt > LFTilt is never true but can often be hit as buffer system might mess up the combo LUTilt > PTilt, which is a true combo and frame trap. So the opponent will likely not be ready to air dodge out of LUTilt LFTilt if the string ever happens.

Combo Theory

At first glance it may look like Ryu does not have big combos. His small combos may not be big but they do decent damage. 30-40 damage for a 3 hit true combo is good. But because of Ryu's mechanic to cancel moves into other moves, a lot of his normals don't have a lot of knockback but have a lot of hitstun. This makes linking normals for big damage important for his combo game. And if they don't link, they will most likely frame trap. This is where Ryu gets his damage. Ryu has lots of moves that have long range and can combo or frame trap including Hadoken and Shakunetsu, which do more damage and have higher variability in speed than Ken's projectile, and Focus Attack, which has more range than Ken's Focus Attack. He uses these moves to cover multiple options in scenarios where the opponent can act out of hitstun. Or to cover tech options, especially on platforms.

Reset to DeathBrought to you by Asimo

Hard

Sour FAir > SH BAir FF > DSmash xx h.Hado > SH FADC2/3 > DAir > DAir

In this clip, Asimo uses DSmash to send at a low angle tech chase and cancels to Hado. When the opponent techs in place or tech rolls away, Hado hits. If they tech roll in, Hado whiffs. On miss tech it jab locks. Asimo runs in and short hops FADC. Because Kola is at the ledge, Focus Attack covers every option but do nothing. Something Ken's FA cannot do because it doesn't have the range that Ryu's has.

Ladder ComboRyu's best way to KO

Moderate