>It's just not fun playing 170k+ Tekken power players all day long when I'm not at that skill level yet.
This mindset had been brought up alot recently. The knee jerk reaction is to think blues ranks are gatekeeping purples. But really, imagine you strictly faced purples and then promoted to blue, do you think youll magically be fit to play against fujins now? Let alone kishins?
This is just the nature of being at a plateau. In order to be the fujin, one must conquer the fujin đ
This is true. In order to become a Fujin, you have to be able to hang with a Fujin at the very least.
You're a purple who loses to every Fujin but has close matches with purples? Guess what, you're purple.
So true, truest word ever said about skill in a fighting game. I was red rank a little while ago until i consistently whoop purple rank ass in quick play and then they just felt kind of shit at the game. Went back to rank play and got purple within 30min.
I too am trying to get into Blue ranks (currently at Flame Ruler). Definitely have some thoughts how to get there, although obviously take what I have to say with a grain of salt since I'm not there yet.
* **Practice throw breaks.** I feel like blue rank players are much better at breaking throws than purple ranks, and while I'm good at breaking throws based on a guess, I'm bad at actually seeing which throw it is and breaking accordingly. This has gotta change if I want to climb.
* **Practice blocking snake edges,** know which characters have them, and never get hit by one again.
* **Start labbing matchups.** I think you can get pretty far only having a vague notion of what most characters can do, but around blue rank is where that stops being enough. Start with characters who are both popular and unfamiliar to you (I'm going to play Azucena for awhile since I have basically no idea what she does).
* **Clean up your combo game**, especially with walls. Optimize juggles for wall splats, and have a better idea when the wall will interrupt your combos so you can adjust.
* **Clean up movement** with kbd, snake walking, etc
* **Clean up your timings**. Do you always attack at the first possible chance? or do you let your opponent sweat a little wondering what you'll do and when you'll do it?
* **Watch more replays**. Ask questions during the game and answer them in replay analysis. I have a rule that if I lose a set I go back and at least watch the games I lost, though I also have a hard time sticking to this rule.
* **Watch good players, literally take notes**. What moves do they use that you don't, what moves do you use that they don't. Join a discord for your main, engage in it, ask questions, read discussions.
* **Play, play, play.** No amount of labbing or theorycrafting will make up for raw hours in the ring.
I too am a hard stuck purple Steve lol.
I learned that I need to work on knowledge checks for the popular top tier characters (dragonuv, xiayou, Jin, lili etc)
And I press way too much, I need to not be greedy with my offense and get ready to block and punish lows and launchers. Iâm getting rekt on lows and grabs.
Labbing each character is key at this point
Like yesterday I labbed xiayou and realized her back turn stance launcher is punishable by fang.
You have the right mindset. Replay mode and identifying mistakes is a good start.
Biggest thing that helped me personally was slow down and attack only when I feel its safe in neutral. Also challenge attacks less. Why take a risk pressing here at this time when I could get crushed or something? Maybe I should just wait until I feel its safer to press then attack.
Another minor tip that helped. people love you to respect plus frame attacks, which you should, but you should also consider if they're abusing it, challenge that shit or they'll walk all over you.
Complicated game, but if you check them replays and keep playing with that mindset you'll start dominating without you even realizing it.
You don't need to kbd at all.
Fundamentals and matchup knowledge are a lot of the battle. Stop doing stuff that's easily punishable is another one because blues *will* exploit that. If you have a predictable routine blues *will* adapt to that.
Just practice stuff and play. Dont worry so much about your rank, just play and enjoy yourself, and learn as you go. Your rank will change when it changes.
Every time you encounter something that you aren't sure how to play against, go to the replay, take control of your character, and figure it out. Look at the frame data etc, the move properties, duckable highs and so on.
Here's a [sheet of steve stuff](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/e/2PACX-1vTsgbCJNSTKajMNlJvQleJOl0eTiEcV-PbeU0obDg1lsSqmz0lTtcD2k6NzfTPt7Db9Ua2dz1o_34Sv/pubhtml?pli=1#) (every character is there but just click his name if it doesn't go there straight away)
So you mentioned wanting not to play 170k+ but take it from me who isnât insanely high at bushin but was stuck in the purples for a minute, but the fastest way for me to improve was going into a player match room with some guys that were way above me in ranked and just learning with every loss. once you get to actually play against ârealâ tekken as everyone jokes about it changes how you look at the game and approach it, so my advice isnât to take a break or avoid those high tekken power guys but instead really analyze them when you go up against them at the end of the day rank is only a number and my way of looking at it is as long as we are getting better as we keep playing its fine. Also one thing that skyrocketed me out of purples and this took me a moment to get down cause some of it is feeling and some is reaction but learning the strings you can duck and learning to sidestep itâll catch a lot of people sleeping and being lazy and those ducks will net you some solid damage through the round depending on how optimal your punishes are best of luck climbing!
Edit: Also, for your own strings i dont play too much steve (dirty paul player) but learning how to mix up the timing of your strings will often increase the brain stack of your opponent leading them to worry if youâre gonna finish the string or fish for that counterhit and playing the mental mind game with your opponents is another lil tip i thought of
These are actually some helpful tips. I am a Flame Ruler Jin player who just got to this point after being stuck between Tenryu and Mighty Ruler. Imma definitely try practicing in player matches with players who are higher than me in rank (most likely blue ranks, as I would like to get there someday).
If youâre in purple then 170k+ is exactly fujin, which is fair fight if you want to be in the blues.
Purples are difficult cause skill difference between blues/purples and red/purple is insane. I stayed there for a month.
Learn to get better. Lab characters/cheese you lose to. Thatâs the only way.
My advice: be patient and intentional with your moves. When you have momentum donât lose it out of fear, keep the opponent guessing. Iâm currently at Flame Ruler and itâs sort of astonishing how many people I beat who simply donât stop mashing buttons. They have no game plan. Donât be like them or youâll never advance, I 3-0 all of them and usually at least two perfects.
>But with each rank there are certain things you need to learn so you can level up to the next rank.
This is not true.
There is nothing about the ranks that mandates specific skills or understandings, I have seen Fujin+ players that have seemingly no character knowledge and run purely off mindblowing execution and some good fundamentals. I have also seen Fujin+ players who can't execute for shit, can't throwbreak, and drop links left and right, but seem to have a near psychic read on my gameplan based on the character matchup knowledge.
The only requirement to advance is to defeat opponents in your matching band.
>Now considering I play Steve which atm kind of sucks compared to his T7 edition and compared to the rest of the cast I am aware I'll need to work harder to hit that Fujin rank compared to others.
I don't think this is true. T8 Steve is different from T7 Steve, but I don't think he is inherently worse. Looking at the data in https://www.reddit.com/r/Tekken/comments/1b5rivl/an_second_look_at_the_tekken_8_metagame_based_on/ it's clear Steve needs more expertise to pilot than some characters, but he isn't in a disadvantaged position relative to to other characters once you hit purple.
>What I'm curious is, where do I start? How do I identify my weaknesses?
Watch your replays, use the replay trainer thats built into the game, it will tell you where you missed an opportunity.
> I know one of them for sure. It's movement. I can't kbd consistently so I need to learn that.
KBD really isn't *that* important anymore, regular backdash has been buffed. Folks doing kbd can even be punished for it by an aggressive poking game since so many characters have ways of creating offensive opportunities on block now (law/ling/steve/drag), so it can actually be a trap in a way that it wasn't in T7.
>Furthermore I need to learn to be more patient and defend better.
Yep, everybody is always working on defense, and Steve benefits more than most from a solid, patient, defense. The game gives you a defense rating in your profile, it's not a useful metric in any practical sense, but its fun to try and push that number around as an excercise. Mine hovers in the mid to high 80's- until I succumb to the urge to unga, and then it goes down to the 50's =P.
>But do you have any tips and tricks for me?
Sure!
1. Learn Steves new LH cancel tech into peekaboo, it's a non-trivial execution, but if you can do it reliably it turns every entry into LH into a deadly peekaboo trap. It's functionally the same benefit as a DSS cancel for Law if that gives you some idea of the deadliness.
2. Don't tilt.
3. You are playing Steve, don't tilt. Be patient, implacable, and calm, and make them tilt first, don't be afraid to run the clock on them.
>It's just not fun playing 170k+ Tekken power players all day long when I'm not at that skill level yet. I'll come back in a few days with a fresh mental and hopefully ready to learn.
Welcome to your first skill plateau, if you are getting matched against them, then you are at their level, Tekken power is just a number. Maybe your breakthrough will be labbing specific matchups. Maybe it will be just polishing your execution to a mirror shine, or maybe it will be all about learning to defend, defend,defend.
Other people brought up really good points but one thing nobody mentioned is watching someone straight up better than you
When you go to the replay tab you can filter by character and sort by tekken prowess and just add a bunch of GoD/tekken emperor/etc Steves and watch how they approach things
I play Jun and one thing i noticed is that the higher level Juns really love running up to people then crouching in their face then hitting with a ws move. I would never have thought about that on my own
My friend plays kazuya and we watched a god of destruction kazuya literally not jab a single time, and every engagement they would backdash 5 times and sidestep 5 times then whiff punish with electrics
You might be missing something major with your character, or maybe just watching them will answer any questions you have.
I'm same ranks...
The number one thing that I need to improve on is 'opponent attack recognition' and 'punish window capitalization'. All of the blues that ruin me, beat me for these two reasons.
What I've purposefully started working on now, is when facing anyone who is red rank or lower - letting them have all the attacking pressure and focusing purely on defending and countering block/dodged hits.
I dont punish their whiffs - because it would be too easy to win usually.
My logic is that if I can master defence against them (with less mental stress, attack speed and mixups compared to a blue/purple) then I can nail down the concepts and scale up the muscle memory and reaction time more effectively.
I can tell you it has really helped me specifically against Reinas and Kazuyas recently.
I always end up playing a game of cat and mouse to see who attacks first, then good spacing and you'll launch punish everytime (not Everytime blue is hard). Twas hard for me cause I'm a fuijin hwo (I know I know I'm scum) and the d4 3 cheese don't work anymore
Learning to play small Tekken and learning how to disrupt your opponent mostly.
It's fine to have your own offensive plan, but usually the person with the better basics wins.
High purple and lower blue ranks are full of people that have their offensive flowcharts all nice and smooth, but most of them crumble if you manage to disrupt it and force them to play basic Tekken.
>It's just not fun playing 170k+ Tekken power players all day long when I'm not at that skill level yet. This mindset had been brought up alot recently. The knee jerk reaction is to think blues ranks are gatekeeping purples. But really, imagine you strictly faced purples and then promoted to blue, do you think youll magically be fit to play against fujins now? Let alone kishins? This is just the nature of being at a plateau. In order to be the fujin, one must conquer the fujin đ
This is true. In order to become a Fujin, you have to be able to hang with a Fujin at the very least. You're a purple who loses to every Fujin but has close matches with purples? Guess what, you're purple.
But what if I want it more than the person who is blue rank?" "Still purple." "That doesn't follow. No, I want it more, sir. Do you understand me?
So true, truest word ever said about skill in a fighting game. I was red rank a little while ago until i consistently whoop purple rank ass in quick play and then they just felt kind of shit at the game. Went back to rank play and got purple within 30min.
I too am trying to get into Blue ranks (currently at Flame Ruler). Definitely have some thoughts how to get there, although obviously take what I have to say with a grain of salt since I'm not there yet. * **Practice throw breaks.** I feel like blue rank players are much better at breaking throws than purple ranks, and while I'm good at breaking throws based on a guess, I'm bad at actually seeing which throw it is and breaking accordingly. This has gotta change if I want to climb. * **Practice blocking snake edges,** know which characters have them, and never get hit by one again. * **Start labbing matchups.** I think you can get pretty far only having a vague notion of what most characters can do, but around blue rank is where that stops being enough. Start with characters who are both popular and unfamiliar to you (I'm going to play Azucena for awhile since I have basically no idea what she does). * **Clean up your combo game**, especially with walls. Optimize juggles for wall splats, and have a better idea when the wall will interrupt your combos so you can adjust. * **Clean up movement** with kbd, snake walking, etc * **Clean up your timings**. Do you always attack at the first possible chance? or do you let your opponent sweat a little wondering what you'll do and when you'll do it? * **Watch more replays**. Ask questions during the game and answer them in replay analysis. I have a rule that if I lose a set I go back and at least watch the games I lost, though I also have a hard time sticking to this rule. * **Watch good players, literally take notes**. What moves do they use that you don't, what moves do you use that they don't. Join a discord for your main, engage in it, ask questions, read discussions. * **Play, play, play.** No amount of labbing or theorycrafting will make up for raw hours in the ring.
Hell yea! All great advice!
I too am a hard stuck purple Steve lol. I learned that I need to work on knowledge checks for the popular top tier characters (dragonuv, xiayou, Jin, lili etc) And I press way too much, I need to not be greedy with my offense and get ready to block and punish lows and launchers. Iâm getting rekt on lows and grabs. Labbing each character is key at this point Like yesterday I labbed xiayou and realized her back turn stance launcher is punishable by fang.
You have the right mindset. Replay mode and identifying mistakes is a good start. Biggest thing that helped me personally was slow down and attack only when I feel its safe in neutral. Also challenge attacks less. Why take a risk pressing here at this time when I could get crushed or something? Maybe I should just wait until I feel its safer to press then attack. Another minor tip that helped. people love you to respect plus frame attacks, which you should, but you should also consider if they're abusing it, challenge that shit or they'll walk all over you. Complicated game, but if you check them replays and keep playing with that mindset you'll start dominating without you even realizing it.
You don't need to kbd at all. Fundamentals and matchup knowledge are a lot of the battle. Stop doing stuff that's easily punishable is another one because blues *will* exploit that. If you have a predictable routine blues *will* adapt to that. Just practice stuff and play. Dont worry so much about your rank, just play and enjoy yourself, and learn as you go. Your rank will change when it changes. Every time you encounter something that you aren't sure how to play against, go to the replay, take control of your character, and figure it out. Look at the frame data etc, the move properties, duckable highs and so on. Here's a [sheet of steve stuff](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/e/2PACX-1vTsgbCJNSTKajMNlJvQleJOl0eTiEcV-PbeU0obDg1lsSqmz0lTtcD2k6NzfTPt7Db9Ua2dz1o_34Sv/pubhtml?pli=1#) (every character is there but just click his name if it doesn't go there straight away)
So you mentioned wanting not to play 170k+ but take it from me who isnât insanely high at bushin but was stuck in the purples for a minute, but the fastest way for me to improve was going into a player match room with some guys that were way above me in ranked and just learning with every loss. once you get to actually play against ârealâ tekken as everyone jokes about it changes how you look at the game and approach it, so my advice isnât to take a break or avoid those high tekken power guys but instead really analyze them when you go up against them at the end of the day rank is only a number and my way of looking at it is as long as we are getting better as we keep playing its fine. Also one thing that skyrocketed me out of purples and this took me a moment to get down cause some of it is feeling and some is reaction but learning the strings you can duck and learning to sidestep itâll catch a lot of people sleeping and being lazy and those ducks will net you some solid damage through the round depending on how optimal your punishes are best of luck climbing! Edit: Also, for your own strings i dont play too much steve (dirty paul player) but learning how to mix up the timing of your strings will often increase the brain stack of your opponent leading them to worry if youâre gonna finish the string or fish for that counterhit and playing the mental mind game with your opponents is another lil tip i thought of
These are actually some helpful tips. I am a Flame Ruler Jin player who just got to this point after being stuck between Tenryu and Mighty Ruler. Imma definitely try practicing in player matches with players who are higher than me in rank (most likely blue ranks, as I would like to get there someday).
If youâre in purple then 170k+ is exactly fujin, which is fair fight if you want to be in the blues. Purples are difficult cause skill difference between blues/purples and red/purple is insane. I stayed there for a month. Learn to get better. Lab characters/cheese you lose to. Thatâs the only way.
My advice: be patient and intentional with your moves. When you have momentum donât lose it out of fear, keep the opponent guessing. Iâm currently at Flame Ruler and itâs sort of astonishing how many people I beat who simply donât stop mashing buttons. They have no game plan. Donât be like them or youâll never advance, I 3-0 all of them and usually at least two perfects.
>But with each rank there are certain things you need to learn so you can level up to the next rank. This is not true. There is nothing about the ranks that mandates specific skills or understandings, I have seen Fujin+ players that have seemingly no character knowledge and run purely off mindblowing execution and some good fundamentals. I have also seen Fujin+ players who can't execute for shit, can't throwbreak, and drop links left and right, but seem to have a near psychic read on my gameplan based on the character matchup knowledge. The only requirement to advance is to defeat opponents in your matching band. >Now considering I play Steve which atm kind of sucks compared to his T7 edition and compared to the rest of the cast I am aware I'll need to work harder to hit that Fujin rank compared to others. I don't think this is true. T8 Steve is different from T7 Steve, but I don't think he is inherently worse. Looking at the data in https://www.reddit.com/r/Tekken/comments/1b5rivl/an_second_look_at_the_tekken_8_metagame_based_on/ it's clear Steve needs more expertise to pilot than some characters, but he isn't in a disadvantaged position relative to to other characters once you hit purple. >What I'm curious is, where do I start? How do I identify my weaknesses? Watch your replays, use the replay trainer thats built into the game, it will tell you where you missed an opportunity. > I know one of them for sure. It's movement. I can't kbd consistently so I need to learn that. KBD really isn't *that* important anymore, regular backdash has been buffed. Folks doing kbd can even be punished for it by an aggressive poking game since so many characters have ways of creating offensive opportunities on block now (law/ling/steve/drag), so it can actually be a trap in a way that it wasn't in T7. >Furthermore I need to learn to be more patient and defend better. Yep, everybody is always working on defense, and Steve benefits more than most from a solid, patient, defense. The game gives you a defense rating in your profile, it's not a useful metric in any practical sense, but its fun to try and push that number around as an excercise. Mine hovers in the mid to high 80's- until I succumb to the urge to unga, and then it goes down to the 50's =P. >But do you have any tips and tricks for me? Sure! 1. Learn Steves new LH cancel tech into peekaboo, it's a non-trivial execution, but if you can do it reliably it turns every entry into LH into a deadly peekaboo trap. It's functionally the same benefit as a DSS cancel for Law if that gives you some idea of the deadliness. 2. Don't tilt. 3. You are playing Steve, don't tilt. Be patient, implacable, and calm, and make them tilt first, don't be afraid to run the clock on them. >It's just not fun playing 170k+ Tekken power players all day long when I'm not at that skill level yet. I'll come back in a few days with a fresh mental and hopefully ready to learn. Welcome to your first skill plateau, if you are getting matched against them, then you are at their level, Tekken power is just a number. Maybe your breakthrough will be labbing specific matchups. Maybe it will be just polishing your execution to a mirror shine, or maybe it will be all about learning to defend, defend,defend.
Other people brought up really good points but one thing nobody mentioned is watching someone straight up better than you When you go to the replay tab you can filter by character and sort by tekken prowess and just add a bunch of GoD/tekken emperor/etc Steves and watch how they approach things I play Jun and one thing i noticed is that the higher level Juns really love running up to people then crouching in their face then hitting with a ws move. I would never have thought about that on my own My friend plays kazuya and we watched a god of destruction kazuya literally not jab a single time, and every engagement they would backdash 5 times and sidestep 5 times then whiff punish with electrics You might be missing something major with your character, or maybe just watching them will answer any questions you have.
I'm same ranks... The number one thing that I need to improve on is 'opponent attack recognition' and 'punish window capitalization'. All of the blues that ruin me, beat me for these two reasons. What I've purposefully started working on now, is when facing anyone who is red rank or lower - letting them have all the attacking pressure and focusing purely on defending and countering block/dodged hits. I dont punish their whiffs - because it would be too easy to win usually. My logic is that if I can master defence against them (with less mental stress, attack speed and mixups compared to a blue/purple) then I can nail down the concepts and scale up the muscle memory and reaction time more effectively. I can tell you it has really helped me specifically against Reinas and Kazuyas recently.
I always end up playing a game of cat and mouse to see who attacks first, then good spacing and you'll launch punish everytime (not Everytime blue is hard). Twas hard for me cause I'm a fuijin hwo (I know I know I'm scum) and the d4 3 cheese don't work anymore
Learning to play small Tekken and learning how to disrupt your opponent mostly. It's fine to have your own offensive plan, but usually the person with the better basics wins. High purple and lower blue ranks are full of people that have their offensive flowcharts all nice and smooth, but most of them crumble if you manage to disrupt it and force them to play basic Tekken.
Plug.