The fact that Drew was able to develop FG fundamentals almost instantly is proof-positive that Seth & co are on to something with Rising Thunder bringing newcomers into the genre. With that in mind, I thought it might be helpful to have a friendly place for duders to ask any questions they might have be it on the basics or more advanced techniques in the game.

Here, I'll start: Does it drive anyone else crazy that Edge has a command-run into overhead or low and both options seem to be completely safe? Playing as Talos is already an uphill battle, and at this point I'd rather fight Crow than Edge even though I'm pretty sure Crow is a worse matchup. Seriously, any Edge players feel like they have to worry when fighting a Talos? What attacks should I be using other than jump-back and random boot to try and catch a run?

Rising thunder storm edge rise vengeance reckoning the revengeance.

Talos seems pretty awful though I haven't played the game personally yet.

Who are the characters analogues for? I basically haven't looked at the game aside from that stream of Drew playing it. Chel is a shoto, Talos is largely Gief (any Honda in there?), that one guy was obviously Boxer (any Dudley stuff in his move set?). No idea what Crow and Edge were supposed to be.

@fredchuckdave: I dunno, I don't think he's all that bad. One-button 720 is fucking amazing. It just seems like jumping is a real problem in this game. One-button AA is amazing so I feel like they had to make jump-ins really hot to compensate. Every crossup is a heavy which is a fucking nightmare for a slow character like Talos that pretty much has to just guess when the blockstring is over and try to air-to-air the next crossup.

That said, I'm sure there will be different attacks with better armor options for him once they start releasing more alternate specials. The lack of anti-air normals is really starting to bum me out though.

@bisonhero: Chel is sort of a shoto/chun combo, mostly because she has that fucking standing roundhouse normal that's a nightmare.

Talos is sort of Gief/Tager, but SPD isn't as fast so you can't use it to fuck up bad blockstrings and other stuff. I end up doing SPD late when I'm pressuring the opponent because I keep expecting it to be 1-frame. He has some magnetism like Tager but his wakeup is absolute garbage.

Dauntless is definitely Boxer/Dudley. I think she can combo off of her overhead? She has a safe dash-punch that is always armored and a turnaround punch that can be canceled.

Vlad is the mech no one plays. He's a real odd duck. Has a fly command, a DP that goes straight up, like worse than Poison, Dee-Jay's slide, and a really good projectile. Honestly not sure about that dude.

Edge is rushdown. Like, imagine if Guy had safe low and overhead off of his run. And a DP. That's the sort of nightmare character we're talking about. I'm not gonna say he's too good, but too much of fighting him is blind guesswork that I like fighting against him the least. Any attempt at footsies becomes me blindly guessing to try and counter his run before he gets it off because if I don't, it's overhead or low and even if I block, he's plus or something so I just have to keep blocking and eating endless crossups that Talos can do jack shit about.

Crow is a trap/setup character. His gameplan is to get a knockdown, then throw a slow arcing projectile that lands on you as you're getting up, forcing you to eat his next mixup. I honestly have no idea how safe his low/overhead options are because usually when I fight him, whomever gets knocked down first just gets blown up. Because it's so easy to get the FADC equivalent in this game, he kind of does bananas damage for being a trap/setup character.

Yeah Edge's command run into overhead or low gave me a bit of trouble. I ended up trying to neutral jump into heavy them. It was pretty effective against the couple Edges I ran into. I haven't played much Crow yet, but doesn't it seem like he has a very good high-low-high mixup? I played against one and he was all over me. His pressure game was real. And Vlad's Special 3 is an overhead right? Found myself getting hit by it cus I kept blocking low.

One good tip for Dauntless is that you can cancel cold drill into ultra so u can go crouch l,l,l cold drill ultra. Also crouching m can go into cold drill. Also always pick kinetic advance it is so much better than deflect. Also Talos is pretty good he can do insane damage. Also with her ultra u can punish projectiles from almost full screen.

@bisonhero: K just fought a good Vlad and got destroyed the first match because he was doing all sorts of crazy fly shit. Lots of instant overheads off of blockstrings and double overheads out of jump-ins and just using fly to make my AA attempts whiff. Also his projectile recovers super duper fast and I'm not sure I can neutral jump over the slow version. His super vertical DP is also really good against crossups/Talos as I learned.

@thunderslash: Honestly it's hard to tell if Crow has high/low or just bullshit because his pressure is relentless. Honestly his best options seems to be hard-KD into the equivalent to Kunai mixups. Just jump over and even if you don't know which side you're on when the fireball hits, it's easy as shit to keep safe or hitconfirm. I'm pretty sure you can block Vlad's whirlwind punch thing low though.

I've been playing Dauntless with the vandal hook option and kinetic advance. Everyone says she's Dudley but I've been playing her way more like Boxer. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but I at least made it to diamond rank doing that. Here are some things I've found.

Her best air-to-air seems to be jumping mp. Feels like it wins me most air-to-air encounters.

She has two good anti-airs but the timing on both of them is weird. Crouching hp is really good but needs to be put out really early. If you can tell it's not going to be a cross-up, dust breaker is a god like anti-air but you need to press it really late.

Crouching mp is probably her best poke. Good range, really safe, and a fantastic combo starter.

As far as match ups go I don't have many problems with Chel or Edge. Vlad is a little harder, but if you keep him out of the air he isn't bad. I jumping mp a lot in that fight, not to jump in but to knock him to the ground when he tries to fly. I have the hardest time with Crow and Talos.

For Crow I've learned that a lot of the moves he has that seem like they need to be blocked high can actually be blocked low. This includes his fireball. In fact it might be that his slow headbutt is his only overhead, but I'd need a Crow player to confirm that as I haven't fought a ton of really good Crows.

The only thing I've got for Talos is that his armored donkey kick can always be punished by crouching mp on block. Talos seems like he has a lot of mix-up / reset nonsense that always gets me.

Finally, if you're having a hard time with a Dauntless that likes to throw out cold drill on block try walking up and throwing afterwords. I'm not sure if it's actually safe to throw after that move or if lots of Dauntless players just fall for that. I wish I could set the dummy to record so I could find out for sure.

@starvinggamer: Vlad is scary man. I think that guy is sleeper op. We'll see down the line when people figure out some more nasty stuff with him.

I see a lot of complaining about Chel, but it seems kind of ridiculous. I haven't really had any problems fighting her, and every loss has felt fair. Just seems like archetypical "fireballs and uppercuts are OP!" crying. But I might just be missing something else here.

Edge seems like the standout strong character to me at the moment, Crow and Vlad have the potential to be disgusting, but they also have some glaring flaws. While Edge has a solid base and strong mixups on top of it.

Not much of an opinion on Talos, I don't especially like his archetype. But he seems to have similar strengths and struggles to most grapplers. At least there is only one true zoner in this game?

I think Dauntless is annoying, but I'm already used to being driven up the wall by Balrog, so nothing new here.

Oh and as for tips for the thread. Remember to block! It's important! You can mostly backdash Talos super, it's been anectdotaly more reliable than jumping to me!

Yeah the Chel complaints seem kinda like the complaints of new players who are not used to the fireball game. Her fireball takes so long to recover that a Talos can be 3/4ths of the screen away, jump over it, and his jumping heavy would still connect. That said, like most shotos, she is good.

Speaking of Talos, anyone have tips against Talos's that wake up with a charging grab? I can never tell if it's going to be the anti air one or the ground one. So I either get grabbed mid crossup or when I land.

@thunderslash: If you cross-up Talos when he's charging doesn't he just end up grabbing in the wrong direction?

@starvinggamer: He would be if I time it well enough. But usually I'm like a couple pixels in the other direction already when he wakes up, so he would be facing the direction I'm landing on.

The thing with Chel is that her standing heavy is super goddamn good, probably even more useful in the fireball game than the DP equivalent. I couldn't find anything that took priority over that fucking move so I was having a miserable time trying to beat her against a dude who was really good at playing in that way. Seems that most characters tend to have some moves that can go through them though, so she seems really beatable once you do figure that out. It's just really hard since there's no record-type option in training, so you have to learn the game by getting your ass kicked.

As of this moment I feel like this game doesn't have a ton of balance, though. Maybe it's just too new to see how well all the characters can be played, but there seems to be a pretty heavy divide between the two halves of characters.

I found a google doc that does a pretty good job of going over the basic mechanics and what each character does.

I've been playing Dauntless and she's been pretty fun. Out of all the characters, she has the simplest combos and does decent damage/stun. She has insane corner carry with a single combo (cl.M - H - Vandal Hook > Cold Drill) from anywhere. Only downside is that her anti-airs don't hit high so she ends up being free to crossup pressure, especially from Crow, Chel and Edge. Some of their crossups are super ambiguous!

Despite that, I think Dauntless is a good matchup against Chel and Crow. Cold Drill does a good job of getting past their zoning game and is an easy hit confirm into super. Since Crow's wakeup options are limited, it's easy to keep up the pressure and keep him in the corner.

Honestly all I can say is work on the spacing/timing. Talos's wakeup options are nonexistent if you cross him up properly. All he can do is eat it. If you're already over him when he wakes up but he still has enough time to set up then it sounds like you're too close and jumping too late. Also, did you mention what character do you use?

@starvinggamer: I use both Dauntless and Chel. No mains just yet, just feeling out the game still and these 2 seem like the easiest to learn the game with. I find that I have an easier time crossing up with Chel though. After a hard knockdown I would whiff a light and jump over for the crossup. I guess Chel's Special 2 into crouching heavy ends up with the perfect spacing for that. With Dauntless, I rarely jump at all. I find myself doing a lot of Jab -> Jab -> Cold Drill pressure and trying to land her M -> H target combo.

Oh yeah, Talos's step kick is punishable right?

I really like Crow's style of fighting, but I'm also pretty terrible at fighting games and haven't develop the quick reflexes for them. But I'm training them muscles for the better. Anyone who thinks they are pretty good with Crow have any comprehensive tips for me? Also, is the clock sphere any useful?

@thunderslash: Yeah, super punishable. I don't know what ideal punishes are but Dauntless can cM into Cold Drill for sure. When I was playing Chel I would just sweep but there might be a better option for her as well.

Oh dang, I never thought about using it after a knockdown! I've only used the cloak sphere as a way to trick those playing footsies with a f-H and/or the aerial beta for a stun. Cool, and yeah I picked up early to use the discs after knocking down someone or to trick/control air movement from opposing players. I hope someone could put out a video or just a text file soon of the combo inputs for Crow, because the videos I've seen are way too fast for my inexperienced eyes (for fighters).

Anyone have any tips for dealing with Talos as a Dauntless player? The character runs through me like I'm made of paper. The only thing I've figured out is how to consistently punish the armored kick, but as soon as they stop randomly throwing that out I'm done.

@l1ghtn1n: Weird. My tier list is pretty different.

1. Vlad
2. Chel
3. Edge
4. Dauntless
5. Crow
6. Talos

@barrabas: I usually try to score a knockdown against him and then go in hard with crossups. Talos' anti-airs aren't that great up close, so likely he'll have to respect your pressure. As for defending against him, he's very dependent on resetting into command grab so be aware of when he can do them. You can usually expect resets after his kick or a KA'd command grab. In neutral, I try to stay just outside of his kick range and punish any jump ins or whiffed kicks. If they are getting impatient, you can expect them to just run in and kick.

Went back to Chel to try out her new special. Talos is such a struggle. It's so easy to just win with Chel. I feel dirty.

Still hate fighting Talos as Chel though. It's just so scary.

Oh hey, tier lists. Mine is probably:

1. Edge - easy hitconfirms, cancels pressure into high/low that is safe, DP, solid normals
2. Crow - Ibuki mixups out of neutral, Ibuki vortex
3. Chel - solid Shoto, high damage, her crM is shit though
4. Vlad - only character that beats crossups free, fly shenanigans, best projectile
5. Dauntless - very linear, reversal is ho-hum
6. Talos - worst wakeup in the game, the struggle is real, still not a bad character though

Edge's new Special 1 negates any nerfs from my experimenting this morning. cr.L M H S1 Dash cancels into the same thing again so you can get some free extra damage when you have the kinetic bar. Also is a half screen projectile, but cooldown is long, even on hit.

If this is an advice page for people who aren't familiar with fighting games, I think you should include a primer in the first post for the terminology you're using. E.g:

• Shoto (short for Shotokan) = Ryu-style characters, i.e. well-balanced characters that have a fireball, uppercut and hurricane kick attacks.
• DP = Dragon Punch, a.k.a uppercut.
• SPD = Spinning Pile Driver (Zangief's move from Street Fighter), which is a command grab that requires a full circle motion with the stick/pad (not necessary here).
• Command Grab = An unblockable throw attack. They differ from normal throws as they typically require an input (except for this game) and do far more damage. Command grabs have priority over normal throws if a player command grabs at the same time another player throws.

Here's a full glossary: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Glossary_of_fighting_games

@terach: Thanks, sounds like I need to go into training mode and mess around with Talos to figure out his reset game. I hope they add dummy options soon. Replay would be super helpful.

hey duders! pretty new to RT and FGs in general, but I do enjoy it. Only problem is I really dread playing from now on, because I dont wanna fall in the ranking and that seems to be the only option. :<

anywho, I'm maining crow and he seems really fun, I like to throw the projectile and while the other player is busy dodging or blocking that one I run up for the next attack. Any tips how to play him? The sad thing is, I only ever did some cool combos when I started weird button mashing. Yeah, I know, I feel horrible. :/

btw. how many/what rank tiers are there? I'm still in bronze but have seen gold players who weren't really any good. :x

@twyker: Right now the rank progression goes Carbon > Bronze > Silver > Gold > Diamond > Master > Legend. The devs also teased that there are more ranks planned for the future.

@twyker: I've seen ranks up to Diamond. If there's anything beyond that I haven't seen it.

As far as Crow goes, he's a trap/setup character. The basic idea is to use your Halo to pressure your opponent and score a knockdown with Score Puncture or something similar, at which point you can trap the opponent in a loop of ambiguous mixups. You toss a short Halo then jump over them as they're standing up, and vary the timing so they have to guess whether to block forwards or backwards. Then you combo back into Score Puncture and do it again. He's probably the most technical character in the game so he's a difficult choice for a first-timer.

His hitconfirm is crM crM. He can also do clHxxHalo crM from point-blank but it's, like, a 1f link so I don't even bother. You can use Kinetic Advance to do some real flashy combos but I'd focus on getting the fundamentals down first.

@starvinggamer: I lold so hard at how little I actually understood in that post. Still, thanks for the explanation, mucho studying to do. :D

I mainly tried to vary up middle and down attacks (most with R1 haha) to keep the opponent guessing.

Tried to learn MKX when it came out and I got reasonably good at that, but to be honest, connecting flashy combos feels more like dialing a phone number in that game...

@twyker: Sorry, I never know how far to go with jargon. Basically, if you knock the opponent down with crouching H or with Score Puncture (and some other attacks/throws I'm sure), you can throw a short-range Halo before they stand up. Then, as the Halo is falling on top of them, you can time your jump so that it will be very hard for them to see whether you're in front of them or behind them in the air when the Halo hits, making it very difficult to block correctly. Then you can combo back into Score Puncture and do it again.

A hitconfirm is a string of attacks that allows you to confirm whether or not the opponent is being hit or blocking, so you know if it's safe to use a special move that can be punished on block. For Crow that hitconfirm is crouching M twice in a row. If you hit, the two crouching Ms will combo and you can cancel that into Score Puncture. If the opponent blocks the crouching Ms, you know not to cancel into Score Puncture because the'll just block that as well and be able to punish you with their own combo.

I did a quick vid here, feel free to ask if you have any questions:

EDIT: Fucking weird, I cut a 13 min video down to 18 seconds, the file is now 12.5 mb instead of 500 mb, but it still uploaded the whole 13 min video...? Gotta fix this.

EDIT2: k

@starvinggamer: wow, cool vid and thanks for the explanation! :)
Will try to get that stuff down asap. The halo throw + attack I'm already doing, that is really quite useful. I also think your right with your assessment that the devs are on the right track with this game. I just whish I didn't have to battle random people, but yeah, alpha and all that jazz, I know. ;>

@twyker: I get being frustrated, but maybe tone it down a bit? Might be worth editing your post.

done. have fun.

I'd say that the most important tip is don't worry about winning. You can't approach fighting games as "I am getting better because I win more." You have to be in the mindset of "I am getting better because that tactic won't beat me anymore."

You have to realize when you are getting punished. A surefire way to see that you're getting punished is that you've attempted something at least twice (not necessarily in a row) and you had the same move rammed into your face. That should send you an instant signal to stop doing what you're doing and try something else.

Furthermore, you have to go into every match having a game plan. Having a game plan will condition you to look at each match with an eye towards predicting how your opponent will attack. It can be something as simple as "I want to block every jumping attack my opponent sends my way." Eventually, you'll go into a serious match having multiple game plans to deal with various scenarios. However, at the beginning it's important to go into a match having one thing that you want to accomplish. It doesn't matter if you lose the match overall, as long as you've executed on your game plan. If you get punished for your game plan, think of some way to change it up.

To this end, it's important to develop the mentality to want to fight people that will beat you. This is the only way to see if your game plans are effective. Winning just means your opponent wasn't able to beat your game plan. You can't learn anything from that situation except "I should try that again." Losing out in a scenario means there's something to tweak there. That's a whole new punish to learn how to get around. Ultimately, you aren't going to get better if your opponents aren't able to show you where to improve.

Fought UltraDavid. Beat him with Chel. Felt dirty as fuck. Went back to Talos. Finally hit Gold.

Robot wrestling always #1!

Anyone got any tips on how to get a key? Goddamn, son.

I don't think you need a key anymore just go to risingthunder.com

Why do people like games like Rising Thunder and Street Fighter and such? I presume it's because they grew up playing fighting games like that, but it always feels so awful to me in comparison to a Tekken or a DoA or something. They're so much faster and movement is actually nice instead of the awful forced walk bullshit. What is actually better about Street Fighter/Rising Thunder style fighters than Tekken style and why is it held in such higher regard?

Edit: I know you can run and dash but it never feels smooth or fluid.

Well I mean the speed of a game isn't subjective it is objective. And Street Fighter is objectively faster than those games you mentioned. And how does including a sprint make a difference if the walk speed and run speed in two different games translate similarly? It is all based on the scale in the game.

@mmmorrowind92: I'd argue that Street Fighter and Rising Thunder feels more fluid and gives me a better sense of control than 3D games do. I think SF also provides more versatility in player expression and playstyle while many fighting games try to shoehorn a specific way to play. Obviously a broad generalization, but it's at least one of the better realised franchises on that front.

How have you guys been feeling about the ranking/matchmaking stuff so far? Even in the small amount of time I've put in I've been matched against everything between carbon and diamond, and the ranks seem to carry zero bearing on the players actual skill. The best handful of players I've faced were all carbon. And some of the higher ranks I've seen seemed er, misplaced. I'm kind of hoping my experience is just a weird coincidence because I haven't really played more than 50~ games or so.

I think matchmaking is not properly implemented yet. Seems like they just match you up with anyone that is also in the queue. Is there even a way to lose rank? So far I haven't seen a way for that to happen, you just gain rank as you win.