took longer than i had hoped but finally got it out hope it helps those looking to pick him up , still trying to get the format right so if you guys have any feed back please let me know so i can improve on these guides

It's funny how even with those 2 KBs in a single combo his second variation is still so damn bad. The mime parry also isn't as reliable as the video makes it look during its segment due to its start up time (Also, Liu kang probably beats it because it cannot parry aerial attacks IIRC).

Should've mentioned that he has no overheads at all (Besides the universal one). Easily his biggest flaw since his pressure becomes a joke in tournament variations.

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 like mine time

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

Take advantage of how many highs he has and stay low. He has no overheads, so he'll have to hop kick or throw you to mix you up.

He has really good pokes, so you're going to want to play good footsies and zone him out.

Some people like to neutral duck after strings if they expect fireballs, but he can mix up with nut punch so be wary of that. If he ever ends with a high kick, which is his 34 up 3 or 123 or 124 I can’t remember, he is plus 6, so trying to do anything after those is pretty risky. His anti air game isn’t too strong unless theyre hella fast on busting out a flippy kick. His fireballs are hella fast also, they usually hit first so in the low health situation his will probably connect first. Females are the bane of his existence so if you really wanna take him out just play a chick and ur already at a significant advantage

Be respectful of his b34’s range. It’s very very good and both hits are low. A common/good block string is his f3444bf2amp. It’s like +2 or something on block, so they’ll often attempt to keep their turn. Nut punch is punishable. Get the life lead and if you have better fireballs than he does just zone them out. They can’t do much against better zoning.

Demigod player with only johnny here.

Johnny's neutral is honestly super good. Pretty good walkspeed means that if he gets a read on how you react to pokes like eating a d4 or d1 he can often walk back and punish whatever you do with b34 into full combo for 270ish damage.

Ways to beat him:

If you're playing a female character(pretty sure any of them), his fireballs whiff you if you're crouching, even if you are crouch blocking the string he cancels from. D1 and cancel into a special in that case.

Don't don't afraid to walk back after blocking a d4 or d1 in close range. Johnny needs to be close for his pressure game to work. Walking back forces him to have to think instead of doing mindless unga approach.

Common times to look for the throw are after a d1 hits you or the amped fireballs. Don't be afraid to let go of block until you see the startup of a bigger move in these cases. His fastest mid/low non-poke is 14f.

His gameplan:

As stated in the comments, johnny has no overhead/throw mixup, but he does have a pretty decent stagger game, and while his fastest mid aside from d1 is 14 frames, his d4 has comparable range to lot of them and is 8 frames startup, +18(!) On block to guarantee jailing into his high starters for stagger pressure.

The gameplan is basically poke, throw mix, end in fireballs if it wont whiff on the character, walk back punish, and generally be a nuisance. Johnny's punish game is super strong but requires knowing matchups. He gets 270+ for one bar on any punish.

His stagger game is greatly enhanced in fatal blow range with the dash cancels but he can only mix in this way once every 10 seconds. If you have the life lead I'd block it out in these cases and take the throw if it happens. It's the least risky option, but I didn't see any other Johnny's do this in the climb to demi so ymmv.

Hope this helps. I got away with murder at times because people just held block and let me be a gorilla. Good luck!

Do a split and punch him in the nuts.

Im 50 with more wins than losses. But i play cheap as f*ck. Force balls and charge kicks

Just posting to keep track if this thread. I want to use JC as my secondary but I'm having to try really hard just to make him viable.

Oh he is good, just like any other Johnny with the SP1 spam, but pair him with SF Scorpion, you drain a bar of power on tag in and have some revives too, I used him in the previous krypt week and he served me well, I would fuse him up more before using him tho, the downside is probably his base stats aren't that high for a diamond

Oh this guy is a real trooper 💪

His most important tool is spacing. His B+3 starts with an advancing low string and his f+3 is a high. Johnny will step forward quite a bit so you can hit an opponent that's about the same distance as the match start.

b+3,4 bd3 amp dash 1,2,1 db3 This is a good low bnb. You can also do a high string f+3,4,4 before nut punch. If you end a combo with nut punch you can stand your opponent back up and mix it up with a throw too.

Try his Liu Kang variation. It plays the same way but does it well.

Otherwise, wait for the patch.

Jesus no, dont listen to the other guy. NEVER USE BRASS KNUCKLES! You are dropping what little pressure johnny can deal to activate it and then you'll get no benefit from it because it will only enhance your punches for a few seconds and you are meant to approach with your kicks as a cage player.

Caged rage sucks too. Use it VERY sparringly to stay unpredictable. Mime time is ONLY for extremely good reads like when you know that the opponent will perform a getup attack.

Ignore his second variant.

Play Sonya like every single retard out there is the best advice for any char

Don't play him against females.

Dash,2,dash,2,dash,2,dash,121 shadow kick. I believ that's the optimal, if you want to spend bar go for the projectile. Maybe I put an extra dash 2 not sure

For the corner the best is 34, amp bf2, 121, shadow kick

He is a whiff punishing machine he doesn’t have mixups like sub zero ( sub mixups can carry people whether you’re good or not at times ) you have to play neutral, like the other guy said, go in and out within the range of you’re strings, and good example would be walk forward then back to bait out an attack then use b3 string to whiff punish for a combo. He also has a lot of strings with good push back so you can back dash and if he whiffs, whiff punish that too. He is the most neutral focused character in the game

The key to him is movement. He’s a character you really need to focus on your footsies and spacing with. Go on and out of the range of his advancing buttons and punish people when they whiff their attacks against you.

His pressure is really good, so keep doing that while they try to figure out when to counter attack and to add in some throws so they can’t just sit there blocking and they do need to do something.

He’s a very different style of play than Sub Zero, so you can’t just charge in and mix with him. You want to focus on being in the mid range, just past jump distance.

I have two variations I like. One basically added all his special moves with his green aura, and his projectile. I forgot what's in the other one. I'd have to look. I don't know what people consider good, though.