All of these tips are amazing and will totally help you get better with him. But what I find to be extremely important when playing him is RANGE. Johnny has a lot of pressure, sure, but his best strings are slow on startup if you're right in your opponent's face. So you wanna hang out at jumping distance for the majority of the time. His kicks have incredible distance and will catch a lot of players off guard, use that to your advantage.

The main tip would be to wait a week or two until the balance patch (hopefully) comes out and all his various issues are fixed.

His optimal combo is rough to learn but I warrants between 290 and 295..

F344, BD3xx, DASH, 121, BF2

The dash is the most rough part of the combo. For an easier variation does about 260:

F344, BD3xx, F4, BD3

This one ends in a restand opponents cannot so wakeups :)

My general game plan is mash 121, BF2 which keeps you safe on block and keeps your turn going... only use the combos when you whiff punish them is what I find works best, or if you get F344 immediately go into the fireballs on block and amp them

Oh and his corner combo is easy enough

121, BD3xx, 1, 1, 1, 1, 121, BD3 which again restands them

If someone is a chronic wake up attacker use the Mime Time and you can AMP it into DASH, 121, BF2

His krushing blow requirements are also absolutely ridiculous, on average I mostly only get the mime time KB but that’s it

Finally, his FB is good because you can cancel it for the sake of mind games or getting people to throw out buttons for you to punish but learning the bates with this should come last it’s difficult and I don’t use it that often because I don’t know when it’s even optimal lol

His d4 jails into f344, and his d1 jails into 244 but only on male characters

So you can end blocked kombos with an Amplified forceball to keep a frame trap going and have it always be your turn. I’d say watch Kombat on YouTube playing as Johnny. I believe he mains him and he’s pretty great at playing him!

Johnny is a great character and amazing at what he does but the biggest issues with him are his hitbox issues against female or small bodied characters and his ridiculously difficult to achieve krushing blows. Hopefully these issues get fixed ASAP. Johnny is really well rounded, fast, and fun as hell to play. He’s a great pressure and neutral character :)

rising star, throwing shades, and pissed off is my go to and is what i’ve seen used by lots of competitive players. an alternate variation of rising star, throwing shades, and low forceball against some characters that zone heavy or regular force balls don’t jail on them (like joker and kitana). practice landing the throwing shades kb, it can clutch you sooo many games and is very satisfying to hit. good luck

Rising Star. It will help you keep safe on strings that would be easy to punish otherwise.

I'm dont really like counters, but I'll probably replace pissed off with this or low force ball

Rising Star, Pissed off, and brass knuckles.

Probably the best set for pressure

Rising star, pissed off and shades is the standard. Matchup wise, sometimes people drop pissed off for low forceball. But it really depends on you. What is the goal of using JC?

I ask this because depending on your goals, I’d run different things. For example if you’re not committed to learning it, there’s no reason to use a slot for shades. Shades is not easy to do, it takes time in the lab and even then, I can do it in the lab with no issue but I’ve only hit it once in a match.

To the other guy who said to basically temper your expectations as JC plays different.. yeah that’s true. I started with JC and have since tried spawn, joker, liu, subzero.

Where you really notice the difference or at least I did is when I play Liu or Joker, especially liu though. The importance of a good mid in this game is.. high. And JC lacks that, so opening people up takes time.

also watch rewind DashFight YouTube guide on Johnny Cage

Use staggers more, use movement to bait out attacks and whiff punish, go for more grabs.

Shimmy them to death with his amazing walk speed, ex fireball plus frames and staggers then whiff punish with b34

Make them rage because you have thrown then so much.

Staggers-

F3

F34

F3444

F4 (condition with f4-ex fireball or f43 as f4 is unsafe)

12 (condition with 124 and its plus frames)

124 also leads into b34 whiff punish if they press buttons

B3

B34 (condition with ex fireball)

The list goes on

Also d4 jails into F3..... VERY IMPORTANT

Staggers are when u do a combo string and don't finish it. An example is Johnny f344. If u just do f3 then thats a stagger. Its one of the most important things in this game

Anyone having trouble hitting his Kombos online? When I lab I get it 100% but online no matter how quick I input the nutpunch and camera don’t come out

Go for staggers. It will help you a lot

Back up. A lot. Not full screen or anything but to just out of the distance of their attacks. He is a great whiff punishing character who controls space in the neutral. If you find yourself getting into a poke war too often or racing to see who can press buttons the fastest in each other's faces, you need to back up more. Wait for them to press a button and use one of your advancing strings to punish them.

Also, don't forget his short hops. He has no overheads and everyone knows it, so they block low all the time. If you can mix in some short hops, it catches them off guard a lot more than it does with other characters where they're also looking for the overhead strings. Also, the short hops knock them down and that gives you an opportunity to back up.

b34 is his best low advancing string, cancel into nutpunch/camera on hit to extend combo, amped fireballs on block to stay safe.

f44 is your mid check. it is your only mid check, anything else is susceptible to getting yolo d2.

db2

YouTube Kompetitor. He's the best Johnny I've seen, and he has a great 15 minute guide on his best buttons and strategy.

I actually main both JC and Jax and since both characters want to be close you're gonna have to be a little silly with Johnny including neutral jump 4's while being ready to f4~nutpunch on hit and just staying active overall. Playing Johnny at the highest level means being fully in control of everything you're doing.

Be on point with your throw-breaks against Jax as he wants you in the corner every chance he can. Aside from that it boils down to you as a player.

This matchup is really going to boil down to confidence with Johnny. A big thing to remember is that Johnny's d4 on HIT will jail into f3. As well as d1 jails into 244 But it's extremely strict. In this matchup you really have to be asertive with JC and throws are your friend. When near corner f344u4 nets you plus frames so work from there.

Man people are on here talking like Johnny is street fighter 4 Sagat lol.

With Erron Black - Slide and scud shot prevents zoning.

His pokes and b2 kills johnnys shimmy game.

His main string f344 whiffs on Erron.

Sub Zero - Self explanatory lol.

You people aren’t even trying.

Most of his attacks are highs so block low. When he does one of his plus strings you can dash backwards to avoid pressure. Remember to neutral duck against him a lot. That’s as much as I want to say without giving away my secrets ��

Be Johnny

Just LTG your way out of the game lol. Jk i just block every move he has

Press Start, go down to Leave Match and accept

Soo many nut punch

Curious was there anything this guy could have done or was this all true

Damn Johnny he’s dead already

That was an awesome win.

Holy fuck I bet even every woman will feel this...

Is ferra needed? Or is it only for that first hit + losing bar?

Also poor that Cage's nuts. Basically powder by the time the brutality hits