It sounds like this is also just your first fighting game in general?

So the learning curve here is going to be a little steep just because it's by it's nature a 1v1 pvp genre so don't feel discouraged if things take a while to learn or if you're struggling to win many games, that's all normal and that doesn't mean that you're lacking any sort of talent. This is something a lot of new players tend to get stuck on mentally.

As for practically speaking pick any character you just think looks cool or does cool things. Don't worry too much about what's easy or hard or what's "the right way to learn" when it comes to picking a character. What I would encourage is to make yourself familiar with the training mode. This is a safe place to get a hang of the movement, the basic moves and systems. You can supplement this with some of the tutorials and trials but don't get too hung up on these. Trials are more of a fun, well, trial rather than a proper training tool.

Spend some time in training mode learning the very basics and then just try to get into an actual online game. Spoiler alert, you're likely going to lose and you're going to feel a bit overwhelmed and that's oke. This is all normal and expected. Just keep going back and forth between using the training mode to learn a little something new one step at a time and then doing your best to apply that to real games. It's a back and forth between practice and application.

I'd recommend you dive into some basic character and system tutorials on youtube and just do your best to take a little bit of what you find there with you into training mode. There is no set curriculum and some self-study is required to get the most out of it. Just be sure not to get caught up in the trap of thinking you need to master all sorts of skills before you finally get to play. Keep a good balance and don't be afraid to just jump into more actual games with real people.

Whichever Character looks the coolest. You can do the common practice of using and learning Ryu before finding a main. But I think you can just use whatever character looks the coolest to you. Or at least you should imo

Do not worry about what characters are easy or hard, all characters have easy stuff and all characters have hard stuff. Play whichever one makes you feel good to Plat.

Take it from me, I'm playing Juri and Marisa, they're kind of in either end of the difficulty spectrum, but I took to Juri much more naturally when I started playing her cause she just felt right, compared to Marisa, who's technically much easier

Well, go to the tutorials and character guides, they are pretty nice. Then I'd suggest some matches in the story mode and some casual matches.

Train with whichever character appeals to you most, whether it's their look, or their moveset, whatever. Seriously. This isn't simple patronizing. Motivation is a huge deal to improving at fighting games. You. Are. Going. To. Suck. At. First. You want a character you're going to like playing eventhough you're getting your ass kicked. You're not going to get any better at fighting games by not playing the game because you picked a character off of a tier list or because someone said it was the most beginner-friendly character. Play the character you want to play.

After that, don't worry about wins and losses. Pick one aspect of the game. Get better at that one thing. For example, anti-air. Count the number of times your opponent lands a jump attack against you without you getting off your anti-air. Try to reduce that number over the course of your playing time. Once you get good with that one aspect of the game, pick a new thing. Then, your win rate will increase organically, and you can get satisfaction from the game in a way that isn't only about winning.

Oh I got you. Do these 3 things and it'll take you through the early ranks no problem:

1. Learn to anti air. People will try and abuse jump in at early ranks. Learn to consistently anti air and you'll completely shut some people down

2. Learn a simple 3-4 hit combo that ends in a special move. You'll use this to punish other players when they fuck up.

3. Pick one character and stick with them until you get them to at least gold (platinum would be better). Switching characters is very difficult early on.

Bonus: learn to counter DI. I'm lower ranks people will spam DI because it's effective at those ranks. If you learn to counter it, you'll dominate

That's it. Winning at lower ranks in street fighter is 100% fundamentals. You don't need long or fancy combos.

1. Practice execution. It doesnt need to be no 50 million hit combo but just make sure you have the fundamentals or the character you want to play down. Street Fighter usually isn't about super long combos.

2. Don't take losing too harshly, you're not at a tournament, you're at home just trying to learn. As long as you had a fun battle thats all that matters

3. Learn what other characters are capable of through playing against them so as soon as you see a character you can sort of expect a vague game plan from an opponent. (Ex: Zangief has super damaging command grabs so you might want to keep a good distance away and attack from range, JP is a nightmare and controls the fight with projectiles and traps but has trouble dealing with most opponents if they're super close so get in there and keep the pressure up)

4. Just keep playing, eventually you will learn it just takes time. The Capcom guides in game are super helpful but dont be afraid to look up some guides on YouTube too especially since they can really take your time guiding you through specific situations with a character.

5. Hell maybe watch some pro players. I watch them and sometimes they'll do things I never even considered trying with a character so it helps expand my ideas for what a character is capable of

6. If possible play with a friend and learn together

some small tips I've given to a brand new player (coming from playing basically my whole life)

1. no shame in modern controls! they're extremely effective, and require generally no warmup if you want to jump straight into ranked

2. learn at least one punish combo (if on modern, the heavy auto combo works great). punishing comes after your opponent swings and misses, or you block something that takes them a long time to recover (e.g. a dragon punch, or any super move)

3. learn one anti-air or they'll keep jumping at you. doesn't have to be a perfectly executed dragon punch. sometimes a crunching heavy punch works just as well, and is more reliable

4. if you're in the lower ranks, abuse drive impact. keep using it until the opponent convinces you otherwise :)

Fighting games are a long journey, but it's some of the most rewarding gaming I've ever done. Welcome to the club. :)

https://youtu.be/OsmaDNsOrf8?si=ziHqRTIgcXk3_mOz

Like other mention there are guides on YouTube. First few things I’d focus on improving are anti airing and reacting to drive impact. Newer players like to jump a lot and spam drive impact. I’d also suggest playing ranked as you will always play someone around your skill level. If you go into battle hub you might get matched against more experienced players.

If you go on YouTube and search for “Street Fighter 6 for beginners” or “how to get better at fighting games” you’ll find a lot of really helpful vids that break down fundamentals for the genre! Here’s one SF6 vid from Brian_F that I think is really good: https://youtu.be/MK-AJyD1XKk?si=CwQ5M39-QXrL8kMn

And this is another one from Justin Wong, who is one of the best fighting game players in the world: https://youtu.be/24mC37_vgxY?si=7dD10xdRrdeFB1Wk

Both of those are really good at breaking down the game in a way that makes it feel a lot more approachable, as I know from experience that fighting games can be a bit daunting when you’re starting to get into them. So I’d say to watch those videos as well as videos from other content creators (Diaphone is another one of my favorites), and also just like watch some matches. EVO just happened recently so you can find the top 6 finals from this year on YouTube, I found that for myself it was really helpful to watch those higher level matches after watching beginner guides because that helped me to understand some stuff a bit better seeing it play out on a higher level, because at higher levels of play those fundamentals of the genre are absolutely still at play.

And most importantly, remember to have fun! If you’re just in it trying to get wins fast it can get frustrating, but if you just accept that you’re gonna get your ass handed to you for a while and just enjoy the journey of getting better, you’re gonna have a fun time and it’ll feel so much more rewarding when you start ranking up!

It's more beginner friendly than most fighting games but that doesn't mean you can just pick it up and hop online and be competitive, you'll still need to put in the work and practice if your goal is to play with other people. If your goal is simply to enjoy single player content it's probably the best fighting game out right now for that which is why people say it's good for beginners.

It's very beginner friendly. I'd say a game like DBFZ was the most beginner friendly games out there, but Modern Controls make SF6 on that same level.

Absolutely. It's probably the most beginner friendly fighting game!

If you get into fighting games you’re going to run into a ton of weird slang and concepts. Even today I’ll still hear some term I’ve never heard before.

That’s what the fighting game glossary is for! If you’re ever unsure what something means I promise it’s in the glossary, explained with examples

https://glossary.infil.net

This is my first fighter other than smash and I’m in love with it

That's not true at all. The fundamental gameplay loop remains exactly the same with both controller modes.

So anyone can get to ANY rank with Modern, if they are learning to the fundamental game. There are Modern only players in Master Rank as we speak. The only reason most people at high level switch off Modern, is to get access to much stronger tools.

As someone who used to be in your position, the advice people have about the meta not mattering is genuinely true; believe it or not.

With new fighting games like Street Fighter 6, the top 8s of the highest level tournaments are going to be very varied and diverse. Sometimes a new character comes out and they win a bit more than they should, but that usually gets fixed in a few months.

There is a top tier and a bottom tier; but the difference between the two is pretty much nothing (think 53% win rate vs 47% win rate). You'll see low tier characters win high-level tournaments often, and even when there's a clear top tier, usually only 2-4 of the top 8 will be on that character, and it doesn't guarantee their victory either.

There is a substantial emphasis on skill over picking a top tier in fighting games, but bottom tier characters tend to have more lopsided matchups (both in their favour and against it). Learning your character and picking one that fits you matters a lot more.

Of course, if you start playing an old fighting game where they never had a balance patch and the meta has developed for 20 years without an update, then all of this goes out the window (but they're still fun). I would recommend playing a new fighting game unless you know what you're in for.

Absolutely. I barely played fighting games before I decided to get "into" SF6, and even now I only play occasionally.

I recently got my main, Cammy, to gold rank after starting in iron.

I have just bought SF6 like you and I am very much a beginner.

The game has ALOT of tools to teach new comers about the combat and mechanics.

And dont worry about finding matches with players on your level there is alot of new comers like us playing game😅

Tier lists really don’t mean anything in fighting games. A master rank player on the “worst” character is never going to lose a game against a gold rank player using the “best” character. It really only begins to matter at the top 0.1%, but even then it’s not as big of a deal as people act like. There have historically been high tournament finishes on low tier characters.

Pick whoever looks cool and just stick with it

The thing about Fighting games compared to other genres is that there is no teammates, hidden information, or RNG. So you're really just left with your knowledge, decision making, and execution to decide matches.

That makes for a rough initial hurdle to get over, but if you're looking for a game to get rewarded for the effort you put in, you couldn't ask for more.

There’s a tier list, but it doesn’t apply to anyone playing online. You’ll get better with practice. Focus more on normal moves and spacing than on complicated combos.

Unless you plan on actively going to tournaments, your character choice doesn't matter outside of what you enjoy. There's a drastic difference between people of different ranks, and in general people are ranked where they should be, to the point where people can pretty accurately guess where someone is ranked from gameplay.

Is this a game where you actually improve if you truly work at it?

That's basically all fighting games.

No offense, but it’s gonna be a good while before ur good enough for tier lists to even matter. They are tools used by people who play the game to win money, and are largely useless to ranked grinders

Edit: the top tiers are usually known as “scrub-killers” and are very easy to start with and win with basic tools at the earliest level, but playing like that isn’t really conducive to growing as a player. Once u reach the “intermediate” level (gold, plat, diamond) scrub-killer stuff wont work anymore anyways.

I got 7 in master but im pretty trash so take this with a pinch of salt. I started with cammy and it was really good, fast tho she doesnt hit extremely hard. I absolutely loved Ed! but he got nerfed several times and havent tried him in this patch, and his combos are very timing precise. Akuma, amazing... before the patch. Now its a shadow of his former self, still viable but not like before. If you like aggressive and fast, go for cammy. You like taking your time and analyze the situation, go for ed. You like brute force? Marisa all the way. Honestly choose the one he looks the cooler for you, thats what I always do.

Undoubtedly, the character above with the most active playstyle is akuma, but ed can be extrememly busy as well. Akuma can fireball, jump, demon flip and craps damage, while Ed is baiting, pulling people in and doing many fireball setups.

Cammy and akuma have a lot of overlap: but the key difference is cammy does things reactionary while akuma does things to cause reactions. Cammy's tools are slow but designed to counter a specific type of move from your opponent. Their strength is their walkspeed: where other character's buttons are longer they can walk into range and pressure that way. Cammy can stick to people a lot easier once she's in, but that's the struggle.

Ed and Chun are slower, so depend more on longer pokes before people can get close enough to attack. With people respecting pokes, you can then use a fireball type move to lock people down and force a guess. Ed's easier to play (except for his dream combos), where Chun has to do 2 different moves where other characters would just attack with 2 buttons, so it's more work to learn.

Cammy, Ed and Chun are best played as "whiff punishing" or midrange characters: it's more about catching people who miss and learning how to make people miss. Akuma is good playing this way too, and his low health encourages caution, as wild agro does cause more misses which he can't afford.

Ryu, if ur new, is the process imo

Dude just play the characters that feel good and dont think about it

Of the characters you mentioned, Akuma would be your best bet. He’s a shoto, which basically means he’s a character with a fireball and an uppercut. Shotos are like the gold standard of a well rounded Street Fighter character. He’s probably the most aggressive Shoto, perhaps in contention with Ken, but he has a lower health total to compensate for his insanely diverse toolkit. Whether or not you stick with Akuma long term doesn’t matter, because he has the tools to teach you how to anti air and play neutral, which translates to all characters.

jump into ranked as early as possible, it's not scary and it's 100 times better than losing to random people who are so far outside your skill it doesn't even make sense nor is fun

Deplete the enemies health before he depletes yours.

And be ok with sucking for a while. There is a huge amount of new mechanics that definitely take time getting used to.

Modern or classic does not matter in the slightest. SF is a mental game.

How about people play how they want? Modern is a great way to get into fighting games.

In the meantime, you can try to improve your own play and mindset to the point where you won't have to use your opponents' modern controls as an excuse as to why you lose.

Nah, you don't need to anti air if you are the one airing. If you suck at defence, just attack more.

The most basic one: Learn how to crouch block.

It's easy to notice if someone is a Tekken player in SF because Tekken players keep block while standing and walking backwards. This doesn't work in Street Fighter. You can't be launched in SF, so no reason not to crouch block, if you don't you will get crouching kicked everytime.

Jumping and anti-air: Perhaps the most important concept to learn. You will see a LOT of jumping, especially in lower ranks and there's a reason for that: jumping attacks are really strong and easy to exploit if your opponent don't know what to do against it. So, always try jumping into your opponent once or twice and see if they counter it, if they do, change the approach, if they don't, exploit it. Same is valid if you are defending, learn how to Anti-air, either with a crouching heaving punch or DP motion, doesn't matter, just make sure you are able to shut down this option from your opponent and you will see victories will come.

Pick a character you wanna play and learn BnB combos and how to combo into super (much more useful than in Tekken). Later you can learn your character frame data and learn what's safe, what's not and how to make it safe, safe trap, etc. You DON'T need to learn other characters frame data as a priority, in SF it's much less important because there are way less moves than Tekken, so you'll end learning with time what to punish etc. Focus on your character and execution first.

Most important: Have fun, if you are not having fun, no point in learning or playing the game!

Chris F recently made a basic guide for Tekken players new to SF

Learn a bnb combo, learn the startup of each one of your normals and just play the game, I recommend watching high level gameplay to have an idea of how the game is supposed to be played (this helped me a lot when learning tekken).

Momochi, Leshar and Fuudo are the best ed players in the world so you should watch some of their matches so you can have a better understanding of the character

for Ed specific things this channel has everything you will ever need to learn the character.

Light combo, Punish combo, DI combo, DI wallsplat combo

More importantly learn your normal attacks, like your anti airs and long pokes.

learn a basic BnB and what are your most important buttons :

your reversal/shimmy punish
an abare (fast move to say please fuck off to your opponent)
your footsies/space control buttons (buttons such as Ken crMK; your projectiles)

and then I guess you just need to go and learn on the fly, SF is much less overwhelming to learn than Tekken, so you might find it easier to understand, but keep in mind that these are two completely different games, so being already good at Tekken won't make you instantly good at SF
some skills will carry on from Tekken to SF (such as timing, understanding framedata, mixing up)

have fun with this game, I'm currently craving to play it, T8 S2 was the fucking last nail in the coffin, hope they somehow manage to "fix" this, but I doubt it

Brian_F has a recent 20 minute SF starter guide that quickly goes over the core info you'll need. Highly recommend it.

Has any character piqued your curiousity yet?

It’s a great game to get into (said as a fellow newbie). There’s lots of good content out there, and it’s got a good training mode and lots of tutorials to get you set up with the basics.

Pick whatever characters you think are the most cool, look up some of their high level matches to see their gameplay and yeah, would suggest sticking to one.

But if you play a character for awhile and you’re just not feeling it, you can always switch.

There’s also a decent single player mode (for a fighter) when you wanna just play casually.

Enjoy!

My advice to you is to start with modern mode and play the tutorials COMPLETELY and play a bit of the story mode (world tour). It is meant to ease you in

Take a look at the characters, choose two or three that you think are the coolest, look at the mechanics and archetypes and train the one you feel most comfortable with.

This has been the most welcoming community. Thank you all for the incredible advice you've given me! From the very first minute I posted this, I've gotten such helpful tips and responses. I can't wait to start playing on Thursday. I'll get to try the dynamic controls as well, so I'll let you all know how it goes!

Obligatory sharing of Core-A-Gaming's "Why Button Mashing Doesn't Work".

Despite the title, this video quickly morphs into one of the most concise primers on fighting game fundamentals,

Also, I just want to say that the Story mode in SF6 is well worth playing if you're extremely new. A lot of the mini-games and challenges are designed around getting you to interact with the mechanics of the game, and also, it's just one of the most enjoyable single player modes available in a fighting game.

While learning to fight the CPU is generally speaking not great practice for learning how to beat human opponents, right now your issues are likely more about just feeling comfortable moving around and pressing buttons, and this is a much less stress-inducing mode to learn that, and certainly much more fun than spending 100 hours in Practice mode.

Make sure you go through Ryu's character trials.

Lots of videos on Ryu for BNB. Another resource is SuperCombo. The Fighting Game Glossary will help you with terminology.

For fighting game basics:
If you distill them down, rock is attack, paper is block, scissors is throw. Treat them like RPS. A common mistake is everyone tries to throw rock constantly because they are just mashing buttons. Throw paper and try to experiment when you can throw rock. If they are blocking, throw scissors.

For the light, medium, and heavy attacks, remember spacing is a part of that. Light is fast and close, heavy usually is slow and has range, and medium is the in-between.

And most importantly have fun. It's still a game and don't get discouraged. It's better to focus on improving rather than winning.

I hope this helps, good luck, and welcome to the FGC.

I recommend that if you know Spanish (or at least you are willing to read the subtitles) you watch the Sh4rin series with Alexelcapo in which they teach Alex how to play fighting games. It can help you because they teach in a very comfortable way about the fundamentals, Alex learns using Ryu and it is a pretty fun series. So if you want to learn how to play without feeling so “pressured” by all the information you have to learn, then that series is a good starting point (you reach at least platinum but almost certainly with what you can learn there)

Work on 4 things:

1. Don't mash buttons;
2. Block and punish. Be reactive at first, you'll learn faster this way, and it will reinforce the rule above;
3. If he jumps, anti-air. And they will jump. Always.
4. If he DI's, DI back. And they will DI. Always.

If you master this 4 things, you'll get to gold. I know it, because I did it, without knowing a single combo.

Good luck and have fun!

This is less about Street Fighter 6 specifically as I haven't played 6 in years, and more philosophy on getting started in fighting games generally: No shade to Ryu, but if another character calls to you more (for any reason, like their design is more appealing or you saw a clip from another character you thought was sick or whatever) and the ONLY reason you went with Ryu is because you think he's best for fundamentals, I'd encourage you to pursue whichever other character on the roster you find more interesting. You're more likely to stick with it and have fun if you're learning a character who speaks to you instead of a character you're only playing because you think of him as a kind of "tutorial". You can learn essential, universal skills and concepts on any character.

That said, if there isn't one who grabs you like that and you're just interested in getting started with SF6, or Ryu really is that character for you, great! I'm a big fan of his myself so I'm certainly not trying to discourage you from playing him specifically.