Dan Hibiki, the Saikyo-Style master, has finally arrived in Street Fighter 5, and he’s bringing all of his flair and cloned aesthetics to the mix. The man himself was made as a bit of a joke, poking fun at other fighting games at the time that had a gi-donning karate man play the central role. Dan was supposed to be the budget-rate Ryu knock-off, with similar moves, but considerably less effective. And that was true in Street Fighter games for a long while, but now, Dan is still as goofy as ever, but far more powerful and capable in battle.

His V-Skill Taunts are by far his most defining feature, and he loves to play with his opponents. In this guide we’ll be going through a lot of the more basic moves the character can use in battle, in addition to a few advanced tips you can put into practice to start building and finding combos of your very own in battle. God speed World Warrior.

Related: Street Fighter 5 Winter Update 6.001 Patch Notes Breakdown

Basic Moves

Dan is, as said, a knock-off Ryu, which means you can expect some variation on the typical shoto moveset. You have a dragon punch, a fireball, and a hurricane kick, though Dan executes them with his own flair. For example, his fireball range is pretty minuscule, closer to Kage than even Akuma or Ryu, and so it should be used exclusively in close-range combos. As a trade-off though, Dan will be able to act out of and cancel more of his special moves than your typical shoto, making him very good and capable at close-range combat and extended combos.

One move that Ryu doesn’t have is Dan’s multi-hit barrage of punches, which is on reverse fireball (quarter-circle back) punch. This move is a nice multi-hit strike, and there are opportunities to keep a combo going after this, especially on the EX version, which launches opponents into the air, and then you can hurricane kick them out of that if you input the kick just as your opponent reaches the max height of their launch. And yes, you can then dragon punch out of both light and medium versions of the hurricane kick, but at the cost of huge scaling. Still, not bad for a single EX bar.

Anti-Airs

As you would expect, Dan Hibiki’s anti-airs are pretty similar to Ryu. You can input Back+HK for a nice axe kick, which works well as an anti-air as long as your opponent isn’t going for a cross up. Outside of that you of course have a dragon punch on DP+P which is a great anti-air if you know what your opponent is going for ahead of time. And finally, we have the Crouch+HP which is a classic rising punch - perfect if you’re blocking low and also anticipating a potential jump-in.

Just remember, light attacks especially are basically not going to work as of the Street Fighter 5 Winter Update. We have more details on that here.

Special Move Combo Extensions

Dan Hibiki has plenty of opportunities to extend his combos well further than most shoto characters in the game, but it comes at a cost: scaling. Just take a look at his eighth combo challenge for proof enough. Off of Crouch+LK, Dan Hibiki is capable of stringing together a 15-hit combo, including two dragon punches and a hurricane kick - but at the cost of two EX bars and a V-Trigger activation, in addition to requiring the opponent to be in a corner. In addition to all of that, it barely inflicts one-fifth of a health bar of damage to Ryu. Brutal.

However, it does show Dan’s capability in a tight spot. A Crouch+LK is a fast move, one you can reasonably get out when trapped in a corner. This means Dan will be able to intimidate and push back opponents with powerful combos. The one thing you have to keep in mind is the V-Trigger gauge: he only has one gauge, meaning using V-Reversals and V-Shifts are not as beneficial as just using your V-Trigger to extend your combos further. Just be aware of that brutal scaling, and maybe focus more on tactical resets by mixing your opponent up with taunts during blockstrings. On the subject of taunts…

Taunt Abuse

Dan Hibiki’s V-Skill is essentially the ability to taunt - or maybe that’s just his Saikyo-Style at work. Dan’s V-Skills are the ability to roll in and out of harm’s way, depending on which direction you’re holding, and a more offensive close-range taunt.

Dan’s rolling V-Skill is very useful for either closing the distance between you and your opponent or putting on the pressure. You can cancel many special moves and even normals like HK with the taunt, so you can put the pressure on a blocking opponent, and then roll out when you expect a retaliation - then, hopefully, you’ll have the opportunity to move in for a Crush Counter. You can also use the rolling forward version to add an extra hit to the end of moves that end in knockback. For example, a roll can cancel a light dragon punch, and then will tap the opponent with an extra hit before they land. Valuable for when opponents are living on a pixel of health.

The other V-Skill is less mobile but can be used up close to great effect. Dan essentially does a standing hit which can, again, cancel special moves, but this taunt can also be cancelled. So you can cancel standing HK, which usually has a long end-lag, and go straight into the taunt. A well-timed tap of Crouch+HP will cancel that taunt, and then you can cancel that with a special move. This opens up a lot of room for creative combos, but at a slightly higher difficulty level than your typical shoto. You’ll need to time your moves well to land them all.

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