You can read this game thought the Shift+Tab menu. See: Guides section on the top right (may take a second or two to load guides). You can enlarge the popup window from the bottom right.

• most people you'll see in tournaments will hold it on their lap
  
  
• as a complete newbie the recommended position (at least until it's second nature to you) is to place it on a desk or any other fixed position (preferably stand up and use it); this minimizes movement and is also the easiest position to control the motions from (especially the directions, since your hand is parallel rather than at a 90 degree angle to it) but may be a little different on button presses -- it's also the most fun position to control it from! ;)

Since everyone can play with the stick on their lap, we'll be using the lap position as the baseline.

If you choose to continue by holding it on your lap bear in mind at all times to check that you're not moving with the stick. It's a natural human reaction but fortunately unlike spinning your right hand and right foot in opposite directions you can adjust for it so long as you're aware of it. If you move with your stick it will make everything harder!

There are alternative positions, specifics to how you hold the stick with your fingers and so on. Don't worry about any of that! Just make sure you're not letting go of the directions when doing movements that require them and you're fine! Any comfortable position works. You can worry about those details after you got some basics in.

Warning: if you do it with sloppy movements that let go of the directions you'll have trouble with timings later on, so get used to holding it right! Letting go of the directions can also lead to you only performing a move when your character is facing a certain direction (typically you can tell by your ability to dash in both directions).


The directions are fairly self explanatory and I won't go into technical details on them other than know you're just pressing switches (you can think of them as buttons) when you move in any direction; hence the click sound.

In general fighting stick buttons, as far as SG is concerned, are laid out like this:


The buttons will generally have the Light buttons and macro buttons a little more towards you.

Obviously you can customize this if you wish; but it's recommended you start out and master this before trying out other button layouts.

Here are common abbreviations for the Kick buttons.


Same for punches only replace the K with a P.


Each Kick and Punch button have three modifiers to be able to convey which position you have to be when performing the move.


Here's an example:
This is read as: press Down to crunch and Light Kick at the same time, THEN release Down to go into the Neutral position (you can also just move the stick to Neutral) and press Medium Punch quickly, THEN press down to crouch and quickly press Hard Kick at the same time.

Sometimes the "s" is ommited, here's an example: "LK MP HK" assume these cases to be equialent to having the "s" (as in neutral), so "s.LK s.MP s.HK"

If you see a plus, "LK + LP" that means you're suppose to press the buttons simultaniously. Or in the case of a motion you're suppose to perform the motion then just as it ends press the buttons.

Moves are almost always one after another if you see a space. If there is no space, like for example: "PP" then that means two buttons at the same time. When it comes to icons in the ingame interface assume there's never a space, since the game will always show you ONE move not a series of moves. In the tutorial a series of moves is almost always represented by a list on one side of the screen.

Typically you'll also find directions represented with numbers; using the NumPad pattern. Here is a NumPad layout in case you don't have it :

Just look at your NumPad if it's not obvious, since you'll generally have arrows on it. Here's common patterns:


People commonly use these when talking about shortcuts, ie. motions that will still get picked up by the target movement, but with an alternative easier motion. The notation is also commonly used on forums and such because it's (a) easy to type (b) very compact (c) relatively clear to read when showing complicated motions, such as 623 (yes you're suppose to go from forward to down skiping the forward down then forward down).

It's probably not obvious but there are WRONG ways to press the buttons, and they can make a hell of a lot of diffrence. When performing short comboes (ie. 3 or so buttons) you might not notice you're doing anything wrong, but getting into bad habbits on how you approuch pressing the buttons can lead to even short comboes or comboes with a simple special/super being very hard due to sloppy and inacurate movements eating up time, concentration, and various other things; all of which are problems that are pretty hard to notice by yourself.

The general rules are as follows:

• don't ever press two different button inputs in a row with the same finger
  
• always try to use more fingers when performing the inputs
  
• obviously, keep the fingers you use for a set of inputs consistent
  
• always try to make it so you're moving your hand rarely and at easy or safe times
  
• ideally your hand and fingers should just be resting on the buttons at all times

From here on, for clarity, your fingers are numbered from 0 to 4 starting with your thumb being 0.

Here's the problem: moving your fingers implies a lot of precision, so it's always preferable to avoid moving them, but pressing a button with the same finger twice means you're always moving said finger. Because you're moving the finger, you're also moving your hand (since buttons are spaced apart) and so your next finger has to be extra precise too, hence a cascade of "dumb movements". Fighting games require fast movement, nothing inhuman, but among the fastest of any game and precise movements to boot (press something by mistake and you're in trouble), so you want to minimize any dumb movements if possible. Let's say you're trying to perform the following sequence:
Here's a simple breakdown on different ways you might approuch it with your fingers:

• 1-1-1-1 is the slowest you can do and also very hard to memorize since you need to memorize the position of your hand in space; good luck with that!
  
  
• 1-1-2-3 is close to what a normal person would end up with trying to mash the move fast multiple times; the second part is easy to memorize but you'll generally fail to hit the 2nd button consistently or reliabily (ie. middle of the button) which will make it seem extremely hard since you're always hitting the 2 and 3 after getting tripped by using finger 1 again on your second input. The double 1-1 also loses you a ton of time while your finger moves -- it only seems fast, when it's really not.
  
  
• 1-0-2-3 is one ideal way to press the buttons. Your hand doesn't move so you'll note how you can just hit it at lightning speed. Since your hand doesn't move you can do it very consistently very easily. Since you're using a lot of fingers it's really easy to memorize since it's also like a "motion" on the buttons rather then a particular sequence you memorize, you just do the motion and it works. Having the characteristics of a fluid "motion" also adds to it being fast (with out thinking about specifics) and your ability to do it consistently. Magic!

A few extra tips when it comes to pressing the buttons:

• the buttons will react to the slightest tap; even if they look all bulky, they're not
  
• sometimes slow is good enough and if it's easier just do the move slower

The circular movements (quarter circles) are pretty easy; and skullgirls is pretty friendly with regard to movements, but there's still the fancy Forward, Down, Down-Forward movement (ie. 623) that tends to be a tad trikier.

The "Z movement" can be performed by thinking of it as simply Forward + QuarterCircleForward fast, instead of a single motion.

Thanks to SimDuck for this simple and effective method.

Your character information is always on one half of the screen, while you're opponents is on the other; which one it is may vary; but there's no real difference other then it being mirrored.


01. The meter gauge, when you do anything to gain meter that bar will fill up, when it fills up all the way it will add +1 meter (see 02) for you to use, up to a maximum of 5.

02. Your current meter; it's always a good idea to use it since not using it means wasted opportunities if you lose.

03. The Assist Indicator. If the light is red, you are NOT allowed to call assists or tag out; if the light is green you can.

04. Your current active character. Name is bellow, character emblem is on the left. Don't let this fool you, you can have more the one character out temporarily by calling an assist. At the same time your opponet can hit both of your characters! which is really really bad!

05. You active character's life bar.

06. The life bar of your other characters; space will be empty if there's no lifebar. You can see which character it is on the left.

07. The timer. Contrary to what it might look like those are not "real world seconds" but game seconds. So you have around 3min per match. On timeout team with most health wins.


Red health is "recoverable damage." If you're in a team and you get a lot of red health on a character you can tag out that character before you lose said red health and while tagged out the character will slowly but surely regenerate that health back. This is one of the advantages of a team vs solo characters.

Even though it's recoverable if you reach 0 health no matter if you have full bar of red health, you're dead.


Leader there tells you which side has the most health. Teams of varying sizes have different health amounts; so when a solo is fighting 3 characters it can be a little confusing at times which actually has the health advantage (ie. would win on a timeout), hence the "leader" indicator.

Some people may wish to just jump into matches against the AI. If that's your favorite way to learn the game here are the mandatory parts. They are intentionally covered very briefly since this is meant more as a quick control guide. The tutorial covers them indepth.

Blocking

• hold the direction opposite the enemy character, the attack will be blocked -- direction from which attack comes from is irrelevant
  
• to "push block" (ie. "reactive shot") you press two punches when blocking
  
• attacks come in 3 categories: high, mid, low
  
• crouch blocks mid and low
  
• standing blocks mid and high
  
• to block a "throw" press the throw buttons (LP LK) at the same time as the throw
  
• you can not block a throw while crouching!

Dashing

• either double tap a direction or "(direction) + PP"

Chains

• pressing any combination of buttons that goes Light Medium Hard will chain, ie. the timing is such that the attacks will hit and the opponent won't be able to do much of anything after the initial attack lands; so if you're going to press random buttons make sure you're doing it right! ;)
  
• examples: c.LK s.MP cHK or c.LK c.HK or c.LK s.HP and so on. Obviously some work and some don't; some work but are not favorable; all depends on character used. But for the most part, most will work.

Throws

• throws pass though block
  
• you can block a throw by pressing LK LP yourself
  
• you can also defend against a throw by simply being in a unthrowable position (eg. jump backwards and block)
  
• holding a direction while throwing will throw the opponent in the specified direction

Specials

• unique character moves that don't require meter
  
• they almost always involve stick movement
  
• a lot of them are in the form of "(half circle forward) + P" or "(half circle back) + P" or "(half circle back) + K" and so on
  
• in a lot of the specials the key you use determines the power, so "(half circle forward) + HP" is usually a riskier but more rewarding version as opposed to "(half circle forward) + LP" which is safer
  
• for some moves the key used only affects distance, position or some other misc property (such as which variant of the move is used)

Blockbusters (or Supers)

• all supers consume meter
  
• you gain meter from getting hit or hitting the opponent (though there are exceptions in place for balance reasons); the meter goes up to 5

Tag ins and Ensemble attacks (ie. Assists)

• MP MK and HP HK to call characters in, if you have a solo team they do nothing, if you have a duo they both call the same character (ie. your 2nd)
  
• MP HK and MK HP to call in a character temporarily to help you; typically this is the default for macro keys

And last but not least, the tutorial section contains a very quick "Character Tutorial" for every character, it's the fastest way to get aquanted with the tools of each character and they are fairly easy and short.


Cerebella or Filia are both very good characters to start with.

Very basic and self explainatory. Just remember, when the tutorial says K or P it means "any Kick key" and respectively "any Punch key," just in case that part confuses you.

So there are two ways to dash

• double tap Forward
  
• tap Forward and Any punch key at the same time

I highly recommend you learn the double tap version! Later on you'll learn about dashing to extend the combo length and in practice you'll inevitably find out how mandatory that skill is. Double tap forward is the easier and more consistent way to perform that since it doesn't rely on hand synchronization. The same goes for air dashing, the easiest and more useful in practice is (Up-Forward double tap Forward). Incidentally make sure you're doing Up (instead of Up-Forward) and Forward Forward in the air dash tutorial since that version has a lot more painful timing to pul off.

With regard to Super Jumps. Here's how they work: you do Down and Up REALLY damn fast. You don't hold down, and you don't hold up you just do Down and Up as fast as you can. You can think of it as doing a jump where you crouch really fast for a split second before it.

Another way to explain super jumps is: do everything in a single motion.

Your inputs should be done at the end of the motion. And note that the motion is quarter circle backwards on the stick, ie. 2 into 1 into 4 (just in case the arrows confused you).

With regard to Ringlet Spike, the input is (Quarter Circle Forward + PunchKey). If Filia is trying to do it but the spike is not coming out, it's because you're pressing kicks instead of punches.

In the blockbuster part, the two KK means "any two kicks" and NOT "double tap a kick key" so for example the following are valid: LK MK, MK HK, LK HK

With regard to 3-character teams as shown in the tutorial, you might be wondering if there's any trick to the order. The way it works is like this: when you tag out you and the character you tagged in swap places. So no, there is no fixed position, you'll have to keep track of the positions the characters are in since you can swap in any of the two assist positions. One nice thing though is that pressing the same buttons you used to tag out will tag you back in since you reverse the swap, so by consequence if you ever want the character you didn't have previously you press the tag in buttons you didn't press when you tagged out; letting your character regen as much health as it can.

With regard to out takes. Note that you have to be close to the character to do it. Very close!

In case you didn't follow the explanation, here's the strategy it teaches you.

• crouch at ALL times
  
• when Parasoul jumps you stop crouching
  
• go back to crouching imediatly after you block her air attack

Repeat until all challanages are done. Essentially all you have to do is react to Parasoul's jump attack.


Basically attacks can hit Low, Mid, or High. In this tutorial Parasoul's High attacks are limited to jump attacks, for tutorial purposes. Low and Mid are blocked by Crouch, Mid and High are blocked by Standing/Neutral, so while crouching you're blocking everything except her jump attacks; which are fairly easy to react to with a little bit of practice.

For this lesson apply the same block technique you've learned in Ch.2 Lesson 1 and you should have no problem.

There's nothing really to it, the unsafe attack is Fillias motorcycle kick. As you can see the animation doesn't quite stop fast enough for her to block, so you can just throw a few scratches (c.LP) after blocking it. The counters will reset if you fail.

The concept the lesson is trying to teach you is to use the animation of moves you perform as "time to think," this is one reason why doing inputs very fast and consistently is a really good advantage (you have the time to think!).

Nothing can really go wrong here. You just hit Painwheel and when you see her lose balance you throw in the c.HK.

"A sweep" is essentially your c.HK, it's used in special contexts and will ground your opponent which is most of the time advantageous.

The tutorial is self explainatory, but to break it down slightly:

• the c.LK c.MK are there to give you time to think
  
• you can react directly on block of the c.LK with the Back+HK (you don't have to do the c.MK)
  
• generally though you will need that time to think provided by c.LK c.MK for the c.HK (the sweep)

Having trouble getting it consistently? Make sure you're holding Back not just tapping back and you'll get it 100% of the time.


If you're feeling like you don't have time to react to Filia's animation then what you're doing wrong is that you're pressing the buttons way way too fast. Sadly this happens instinctively as you fail to do it and start mashing the inputs. This is covered later but essentially c.LK and c.MK can be done either slowly or really fast and the speed depends on how fast you press the buttons. So just have some pause between presses. It's almost always advantageous in these situations to have the longest pause possible even if the game allows you to throw out the moves fast since it gives your brain the necessary time to react properly. The faster versions serve very specific scenarios, when in doubt be as slow as possible.

At the time of this writing you can cheeze the tutorial by simply performing one version of the move until Filia falls for it 3 times. Finishing the tutorial this way INVALIDES the exercise. The entire point of the tutorial is for you to REACT to Filia's defense, not for you to hit Filia. It is strongly recommended you restart the level until you can react correctly to Filia's defense.

If you do LK + LP then holding Back, you're doing it wrong! As with other commands you perform the motion then perform the input just as the motion finishes.

So, to do a back throw you need to Tap and Hold Back and then press LK + LP immediately after. You should get it easy every time.


When Miss Fortune crouches she can't block your throw.

If she's still blocking then you're just doing it too slow.


This part of the tutorial tends to trip people since one long lasting bug of the tutorial is how the blocking throws in the tutorial are actually twice as hard as the normal game, due to certain moves being blocked in the tutorial.

If you are having problems with this part (the purely block throw part) it may be that this part of the tutorial is still broken so feel free to just mash LK+LP to cheeze past this section.

When looking for ques on when you're about to get thrown (and other similar cases) I recommend looking for ques that aren't the animation itself since it's very hard to notice animation ques to when something is coming at you; that's not to say there aren't que's but the reaction time on them is just not really for normal people.

You should be able to get past the Mix-up section just fine without cheesing it! Apply the principle you learned in the blocking tutorials only this time instead of prioritizing crouch prioritize standing and react to low attacks. There is a small window in the throw Fortune will do; the best way to notice it is if she's not attacking, don't relax it means she's about to throw you!

You should not have any issues here. If you get stuck simply restart the lesson and read the explanation again.

When the tutorial tells you to cancel specials make sure you're using the HK of Hairball for example since those generally have the longest animation time, making it the easiest to cancel. The LK versions in particular has shortest animation time and hence may be very hard to perform.

Here are the inputs for the specials in case you forgot them at the time of the combined exercise here's they are:

• Hairball = Quarter Circle Back + HK
  
• Gregor Samson = Quarter Circle Back + (MK+HK)

So for the last part, you essentially: press HK then do a quarter circle and press HK again then do another quarter circle and press HK and MK.

If you're having a tough time pressing the right buttons go review the Pressing Buttons primer earlier in this guide.

If you are experiencing problems dashing by double tapping the directions the way you are holding the stick may be off.

Like the buttons don't require virtually any force to press, directions require very minimum force to register as well. While force will work, it will lead to inaccuracy if you force it too much.

It's very easy to get in a mood of frustration where you just handle the stick with force. That won't get you anywhere; make sure you're relaxed when learning the moves, since frustration will inevitably lead to more frustration. You do not want to get it though brute force, since it won't be useful to you later.

Whenever you encounter a segment in the tutorial that trips you at certain moves, remember that there's nothing stopping you from practicing that small segment (eg. the buttons after the jump) before doing the full set of inputs and motions. Yes the jump versions are always drastically different but what you're practicing is the button presses not the animation on the screen.

Here's a reference for part of the tutorial

Going by the finger notation discussed in the button primer, place finger 1 on the LP, finger 2 on the MP, finger 3 on the HP. To execute the move essentially you just have to hold your head on the 3 buttons, as I described gently tap HP move the stick gently Up-Forward (ie. diagonally forward) then gently tap HP again.

• yes you can press it with any finger but practically you would press it with that finger, or otherwise a finger that allows you to have a steady hand position hence the direction on where the other fingers and your hand should rest; the rest of the tutorial builds up on the first part so it's best to get used to the system that transitions into the later parts and real games as opposed to say pressing it with finger 1 or 2 (which is what you might do).
  
• remember you have to JUMP FORWARD
  
• not all your fingers need to be resting on all the buttons, you just need a confortable 2 so your hand is fixed in a easy position
  
• doing it slow will avoid inacurate inputs and there's not really much of disadvantage (other then being too slow)

Issues you may encounter:

• don't press a button multiple times; don't tap LP twice for example; this loses time and makes everything harder
  
• make sure you're jumping forward

Start by holding finger 2 and 3 on MP and respectively HP. Press HP, then tap the others in order. Use your thumb (finger 0) for LK.

• keeping a consistent speed helps
  
• the jump is not a motion required by a move so you have some time before you have to start pressing the j. inputs, rushing the jump and inputs at the same time may lead to errors.

Warning: It's very easy to get your LP eaten up as you jump if you're too quick on the buttons and jump.

Note how now you have to press j.MK instead of j.HK as you did in the previous exercise.

Same principles as previously apply. To reiterate you don't have to be too hasty with the jump and same goes for the hairball input. Slow can be easier and it's best to not try and pick up the skills though mashing the inputs in (because it's a lot easier for you in the long run).

If you're having trouble remember that the HP and LP are seperated by a jump so while j.LP j.LK j.MK need to be performed in a relatively fluid motion the s.HP into j.LP don't, just adjust your hand as the jump motion is hapening. Essentially you're kind of: pressing the button to launch the character into the air (in Filia's case HP) then jumping... and then pressing j.LP j.LK j.MK in a single fast motion. Trying to somehow force j.LP out of s.HP as you're jumping generally leads to it not coming out.

When you're performing the move and failing you'll inevitably end up with the character near the wall. This seems like it makes it easier however the game still only accepts the input that would work in the middle of the screen, not the input that connects even when you're in a corner. You're highly encouraged to avoid the corner (simply throw the character backwards) when performing the exercise; it may help you see better what you're doing wrong (such as only jumping up, or not hitting the opponent). Being able to perform something in a single direction or in the corner is not the best way to go about it.

There's no j.HK, it's just j.LP, j.LK, j.MK. If it makes it easier you can try using the MK hairball.

Again, if you see your jump registering but your LP is not, you need to perform it a little bit later.

The last segment of the exercise I leave for you to figure out on your own since there's not much to say that hasn't been said already: practice individual segments if you need to, slow down if you need to, keep your hand stead and do the button inputs in a fluid motion with your fingers, etc. It's best to learn how to figure out how to perform the move on your own since the move is like a miniature combo.

Here are a few hints on troubleshooting your problems though:

• you need to do hairball with HK (you may be pressing HP by mistake)
  
  
• if you get the scissors move you didn't perform the hairball correctly or are pressing HK by mistake; the HK needs to come just as the motion for hairball (quarter circle back) ends
  
  
• if you get the messy hair forward you pressed HP again in the air
  
  
• you can practice LP LK MK Hairball GregorSamson if you're having trouble with all the buttons and motions and accidentally hitting HP or HK on their own as part of the button motion instead of doing Hairball.
  
  
• do it slow and steady! canceling too fast will cancel the entire moves (see: warning above). If you're pressing buttons so fast you're not even sure if you're hitting them right (outside the screen telling you your not) then you're pressing them way too fast
  
  
• you can easily fool yourself that you're not pressing the right buttons when really the problem is you're not performing the motions correctly (ie. for jump-forward, hairball and gregor).
  
  
• counting the moves can be decieving; try to think of it in chunks, example: (1) LP LK MK HP (2) jump forward (3) j.LP j.LK j.MK (4) QuarterCircleBack + HK (5) QuarterCircleBack + (HK+MK). So, if you messed your j.MK you didn't mess just that button you messed the entire 3rd block. If you press HP or HK after your j.HK then you failed the 3rd block too, even if the game says you don't, you did! (you pressed an extra button that made everything after it impossible). Thinking like this will generally simplify the process of ironing out bad inputs from your reflexes.

Nothing special about this lesson. If you've completed Lesson 4 this should be a piece of cake for you by now.

Nothing particularly special, just make sure you get the timing and don't rush it and you'll be fine in all the exercises.

Here's the few things that if you've been marathoning the tutorials up till now (or spent too much time) might lead you astray:

• first of all if you're double or triple tapping buttons when you press them, stop that! If you can't stop, take a break. You're suppose to be pressing the buttons once and it's easy to do so; if it's not easy for you, you are not in a relaxed state.
  
  
• it may be easier to start by practicing pressing the buttons with out any of the directions
  
  
• if you are having problems syncronizing your fingers with the buttons turn the effects or music down or simply turn them off; in general the booms (while entertaining) won't do anything to help you concentrate when you're just learning (you can just put some of your own relaxing slower music in it's place). Make sure you can do it with out much thinking since it's best to learn one thing at a time (ie. so you won't have to focus on it when syncing with the motions). You may also ignore the screen and look at your hand when practicing to make sure you're doing it just right.
  
  
• once you got the finger movement down focus on syncronizing with the various states you have to be in; the exercise is fairly easy but you'll still have to time some of the moves, simply pressing the buttons in order won't do and you'll find you're failing some of the final links (eg. c.LK into s.MK).

With regard to moves,

Merry-Go-Rilla is performed with quarter-circle back + throw (ie. LK+LP).

Good luck!


The tutorial will only count j.HK into s.MP as long as you execute j.HK fast enough to not be blocked. The tutorial ai won't block but it could have if given the chance, so it's easy to fool yourself that the tutorial is broken when you perform s.MP and stagger them yet the tutorial doesn't register the s.MP.

There are two ways to aliviate this:

• first of you must press s.MP just as your character touches the ground, and no sooner. Nothing will happen if you do it sooner and you'll just lose time if you don't take your character hitting the ground into consideration.
  
  
• the timing on j.HK is also important; hitting Filia as low as possible will help buy you time for s.MP

Either will work. And obviously applying both will work best.


If you are experiencing difficulty performing this move (ie. getting the crouch version), simply think of going from crouch to standing as the motion required for s.MK, you may go into crouch as you perform the Merry-go-Rilla to buy time. It may be required you actually move back to neutral with force to get the timing down fast enough, depending on your stick.

Start of by concentrating on getting the air-dash part right; you may ignore the moves on screen. Performing the combo should be fairly easy for you at this point, see previous tips if you're having trouble. The main problem is merely the air dash itself.

As mentioned earlier on Up and Dash is much harder then Up-Forward Dash.

Mechanics wise everything cancels out of dash so don't worry about timings too much, it's all about performing the dash consistently and very fast.

The stick dash is recommended but you may choose to use the button dash if you simply can not perform the stick dash. The button dash is performed with direction + two punch keys. You don't have to tap the direction, merely holding the direction is actually sufficient.

These should be a piece of cake for you at this point.

There's nothing to the characters that's hard. Simply choose which you believe you have the best handling and you like the tools of and you'll be fine. Feel free to come back to the character tutorials any time you need a refresher.