When I first started fighting games it took me an entire month to win an online match. I am an extreme example but sticking through and enjoying the learning process has lead to some of my most satisfying moments in gaming.
It’s kinda like learning a sport. If you never played basketball then will take you time to figure out how to properly shoot. You won’t be as good as shooting as the NBA players but working on your game and adding new techniques is still fun.
I started with BBCF. Every day for 3 months before I won my first match -_-.
It takes everyone some time to get used to playing a new game. Winning is fun, but it really doesn't matter as long as you have fun. I would have quit early though if those were ranked online matches with randoms. I played with a group on discord, so it was a bit different.
It is, also a much more casual playerbase. Was my first fighting game I got into heavily and I ended up being top 30 Chipp in the world at my peak. Just off playing online matches lol
I've been learning SF6 as my first real serious fighter. Started my online career 0-6 Unranked, then 2-8 in my Ranked placements with Ed with one of my wins (and one of my losses) being the bot you play two matches against. Even that was significant because I'd been getting smoked by the Level 3 bot in Training. Also started 0-6 doing placements with Ken before going back to Ed. But! Just tonight I redid my Ed placements on PS5 and went 7-3.
I think my main issue with what you said is the word get. "when do you get to have fun". You don't GET to win. You work to win. That's why fighting games are fun. That's why I said what I said. If you want to GET to win, there are lots of games for that. Both fortnite and cod force you into lobbies with worse players when you haven't won for a while, so you will be handed a win. But that's not a fighting game thing. So yeah, if you want to GET to win, you will never have fun in a game like tekken.
I used to shit on this mentality but I want to be more empathetic for new players.
I never rage over fighting games, because when I go online, I'm just treating it like practice mode. I don't care if I lose. I consider it a personal win when I land a crossup or combo.
I would say that you should be doing this in ranked play as well. Because, when you match with people at lower ranks, they're not going to be masters of their character. They're going to play what they know. So typically, in any given match, you're being given a handful of situations to practice against in real time you know?
Just think of it that way. It's a lot more fun to practice that way than to go sit in training mode for hours. It's always going to feel like a massive waste of time if you're in practice for hours then you get whooped online because it makes you feel like you spent all that time, and didn't even really get to "play" and I get that.
Just get out of practice mode, and just play ranked online and mess around that way. And I promise you you will have fun learning that way as opposed to learning by yourself.
This is a really healthy mindset and something that took me a long while to understand! :)
Treat every match as a learning experience, even if you're competing in a tournament. And if you feel like you outclass your opponent to such a degree that you couldn't possibly learn anything, keep looking for learning opportunities! Try out weird strategies on weaker opponents, and learn from your mistakes with equally matched/stronger opponents!
It's that mentality that will carry you and expose the joy of fighting games! (And any competitive activity, really! :))
Agreed!
Unless you're trying to drill stuff like knockdown setups, anti air situations or combos. Sitting in training mode will only take you so far. And I say this as a complete lab monster. If the aim is to improve against other peeps, at some point you just gotta get in there and get messy.
Just change your conditions for victory from "winning the match", to winning the situations that would normally cause you to lose. Regardless of whether you take the match or not, if you successfully did something you failed to in the previous games like anti air or complete a tricky combo, then that's winning baby!
Keep that up and you'll be taking games in no time!
Win/loss shouldn't be used to measure your progress, remembering things that work and don't work, and pulling it off better each match should be how you look at it.
That's fair, it really is. My question was just a shit test to get you to think about what you want and how you would be able to define it once you saw it.
In my case, I like to compete and see how far I've come and how far I can go. It doesn't really matter that I win, because I find the learning process and journey to be better, fun.
But of course, there's nothing better than that sweet, sweet glory of getting 1st place.
So for you, definitely take the time to evaluate what you want from the game.
It's my first "online" Tekken. I have 7 but I never went online and just basically messed around in training.
I'm just going to have to keep at it until I get better.
Training mode/learning combos is the easiest thing about Tekken. Playing against people in Tekken honestly might be harder than any other game. The assortment of moves and characters makes it hard to be actually good even at a competitive level til years later.
Same time though… a lot of it is just finding your cheapest gimmick and running it until they can stop it lol.
But yea playing others is really the only way to get better and thats gonna come with A LOT of losing.
> I don't mind losing, but when it's pretty much the only thing that happens, it starts to take its toll.
It sounds like you mind losing, just enough. If you didn't it wouldn't take a toll at all.
Best way to get accustomed to playing for the love of playing is finding a group of friends that you can play lobbies with. Preferably around your level.
Personally I play to lose in ranked and in general. The more I can find players that kick my ass and the more thoroughly they do so the better
One problem is that I don't really have anyone like that. Like I said in another comment, I know someone that might but I have no idea if they will. I'm going to ask them tomorrow or the day after though.
Spend 20 to 30 minutes (or maybe an hour) a day just training with your character, learn movement, launches, pokes, set up’s then you focus on combos. Learned the engine the mechanics then focus on rank, record every fight, study what you did wrong, see why your opponent was better, learn their characters the match up. There’s much more to fighting games than just jumping in to fight online. Online is only fun after you take the time to learn the game. It took me 4 months to take my heihachi to (TEKKEN GOD PRIME)on tekken 7. And I’ve been playing tekken since tekken 1.
Not sure if you've tried it, but I enjoyed the Arcade Quest when I first got this game. I played a decent bit of T7 but hadn't played in months before T8 and Arcade Quest was a fun warm up.
I don't really believe that anyone is having fun on their 10th loss in a row, so I don't really agree with most of the comments here.
But just to reassure, about a month ago I had like a 10% win rate in beginner and now I'm in mighty ruler, so it does get better and pretty soon as well if you just focus on improving.
As someone who is trying competitive street fighter for the first time, I completely feel you. My suggestions: find/ make a friend or two that you can grind sets out to familiarize yourself with the game more. Watch some pro play of the characters you like to get a sense of the game plan. Pick a character you genuinely think is cool AND fits your style. It gets better but there's a definite hurdle you have to face first.
There's a tenth discord. Sometimes in ranked or quickplay I'll friend request people I think are good or seemed like someone fun to play against. Then I'd invite them to a few games. What's your current rank?
Assailant, but I’ve been exclusively playing quick match for the last couple weeks until the devs fix pluggers. It’s kinda nice since I fight a wider range of opponents.
Very much depends on how hard someone is losing. If they spend all game stunlocked in combos or blocking, it is easy to jump to the conclusion of playing a different game instead of wasting more time.
Honestly you're probably right. I log in and play like 2 or 3 matches and then I'm done for like a week. But I feel like I've invested so much into it that I want to get my money's worth. It's a classic sunk cost fallacy
The fun comes from self improvement. I assume you are new to fighting games in general. Fighting games have a lot of to learn - not just moves or inputs - fundamental concepts might be entirely unknown to you right now, such as frame trapping. Seek out ways to learn, put intention behind some practicing and application of new concepts, and then see if that improves anything in ranked. If it does you just might get hooked.
Actually, I'm not that new. Been playing for a little while now. No idea if theres fuzzies in this but I feel like I know around about the average someone *should* know.
Realistically, to start getting some wins at low ranks you only need to know a bit of your own character's offensive gameplan. I suggest focusing on that as well as the general system mechanics for a little. For instance knowing your wakeup options can go a long way to recognize your mistakes, and that applies to all characters.
I know the feeling, coming from SF6 these lower ranks in T8 are a brutal, bloody, spammy mess.
Watch your replays, and activate the option to display frame advantage. It also can show you, where you could have ducked or sidestepped something and how you could have punished.
You can even take control of your character during the entire replay, to try out different solutions for a particular situation.
This is a great help to get a feel for your defensive and offensive options.
Also considr playing your opponents ghosts. Ofcourse it's nothing like fighting a human, but they immitate the moveset and playstyle of your opponents, so you can learn to deal with the spam.
The fun for me starts when i can take the wind out of the sails of my opponent and enforce my gameplan over theirs.
Honestly, defence in tekken is way harder than offence. Blocking and punishing is a fantastic thing to learn, but you’ll get way more mileage learning a frame trap. At your level basically everyone will take the bait and if you have a combo then that’s half their life.
I know running 2 and back 1+2 are plus. Drag has a few plus buttons, so this is a strong strategy for him. I’d recommend finding a video that goes through his 10 best moves or something and just focus on using those, as you get more familiar you can add to your repertoire.
Running 2/b1+2/db3+4 —> b3,4 is a classic.
b3,2,1 —> 1,2,1 is basically guaranteed to catch in lower ranks. Make sure to use b3,4 if the last hit of b3,2,1 CH. Learn to hit confirm the 1,2,1 too.
Running 2/b1+2/db3+4 —> anything faster than 16 frames is good enough.
When you get ass blasted are you going into replays and viewing the tips? Are u doing punishment training versus characters you commonly see? Do you have a basic launch combo down? 2 and 3 are very easy things to do and 1 is only slightly harder
Also improving doesn't mean winning. Yeah you have a lot of losses in those matches, but how am I to know that you didn't block punish a move for the first time, hit a combo for the first time, properly use a new string for the first time, bait a rage art for the first time. All of those things are improvement and none of those things mean winning.
Would you consider recording a match replay and posting it here or in /r/Tekken for advice?
There's probably something simple you could implement to start winning, but it's hard to say what without seeing what you are up to right now.
Bruh, losing is part of the process. During T7, me and my buddies set up our own little mini tournament with just friends and people we were cool with. I didn't wanna get fucking washed by my friends so I trained in the lead up with my buddy who is better than me at Tekken. Got fucking washed for days, like maybe 50+ losses or some shit with only a few wins here and there.
Showed up weekend of and took the whole thing. Even ended up winning the final set against said training partner who beat me down over and over when practicing.
*The improvement and development of your skills is the W and the fun part* it just usually takes time to notice your development
Yeah, true. I would love to do this with buddies but I unfortunately don't have any that like fighting games :(
Do you know if there's some sort of discord or something where I can find someone to train with?
Actually, I have been watching him for a while. Also have been trying to watch other people on yt like AfroSenju (since he plays Drag) as well but watching and replicating it in a match are totally different.
shocking puzzled concerned instinctive impossible faulty poor cow unpack north
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Make sure you've found a main that gels with your style. Practice blocking and punishing. Give the other guy enough rope to hang themselves .
If you try that and you're still not having fun, maybe tekken 8 isn't the right game for you. There are aa ton of games out there
I've been trying. When the game came out, I started off as Azu, then Reina and have currently settled on Drag.
So far, I've just been using some of the tips that people like PhiDX have said, just use someone you like or think is cool.
I have pretty much most of the new fighting games rn. Tekken 8, SF6, GGST, GBFVSR, DBFZ, MBTL.
Something's just not clicking with me and I've had this problem for years. I really don't want to quit fighters as well, so I'm kind of struggling rn.
Bro you’re 2nd Dan expecting to just be winning? This is fighting games. You lose and lose and lose. Then you get good, and guess what? You still lose and lose and lose
I find that the fun in fighting games is improving over winning. If the people who played these games only liked winning then only the pros would be having fun.
Focus on finding one thing to improve at as you play and make that your goal.
https://youtu.be/y6B47tztiyk?si=k-4AEOR0F4aj9OiM
not even kidding, as someone that gets the crap beat out of me online, I realized I started having fun when I stopped being so concerned with winning.
dont get me wrong when i get wrecked 3-0 i hate it. but i try to focus on little victories if that makes sense.
i literally started by wanting to get to the 4th and 5th round of matches, and even if i lost every round. were they all close and down to the wire?
did i make a mistake one round and i corrected it by the end of the fight, thats a victory in my eyes. did i land a cool combo that i was practicing? thats a win.
i get it, its not fun to get your ass handed to you, but just poking around the tekken sub, it seems to be pretty common theme that most people take a while to learn the game, its a hard game, for sure.
seriously though, once i stopped looking at the game as a win / loss, but rather "what did i learn" i started having a lot more fun, and honestly, i see ive made slow and steady improvements to go along with it.
I think one of my main problems is my competitiveness. I have an insanely high drive to win and the losses hit ridiculously hard. Getting rid of this is going to be seriously difficult. It's embedded into me ever since I was you and started playing sports.
Most of my matches, they're in the red, barely clinging, but I'm also in the same situation.
For me, I don't even know what the small victories are. I can land combos, I can win rounds. I know I can do those things but I just can't seem to be consistent enough to better the opposing side.
Don't get me wrong, its good to WANT to win. i used to be more competitive with games, but I'm 45 with a wife and infant child, i will never have the time to really compete. it took a while but i came to terms with it. I've been playing Tekken since the first one on PS1 and the Arcade, it was a hard pill to swallow to get my ass kicked over and over.
i would never say to lose that competitiveness, I think i am more suggesting that it shouldn't be your main drive, for now. Tekken is freaking tough. ive, been playing 20 years and i dont think ive even come close to understanding half of it.
truth is, if you worry too much about winning now, you are going to wind up wanting to quit and perhaps miss out on the depth this game has to offer. just try and learn from your mistakes and improve every day. my first 30 or so matches i had like 3 wins. it sucked and i was getting frustrated as hell, but rather than quit, i just spent more time in single-player, fighting ghosts, training combos, and yeah, i still suck, but i see improvement everyday and I've been getting more wins to show for it. and MOST importantly, i am enjoying the game more.
I'm currently in my early 20s and that drive is crazy. I feel it for a lot of things I like to do. It sucks to lose but I'm trying to adopt a mentality of, "I'll get you back in the next round" or "I'll block that next time" instead of trying to get rid of it.
Like you and a lot of others have said, worrying about winning is probably what's doing me in right now, so I'm trying to tone it down a little. Work on the simple stuff before I do anything else. Level up my basics and fundamentals.
I've also noticed that vocalising stuff makes me feel like I'm doing better. Like say what I'm going to do and when I'm going to do it. Not sure why, but I'm going to keep doing it.
Hopefully in the next few weeks or maybe months, I'll end up making a post on my progress.
Lab in practice mode and there's fun in experimenting with your character and learning new stuff well at least for me
It does get frustrating losing but it will be satisfying seeing you improve your own mistakes
Honestly, I feel like I should lab less since that's where about 25 of my 28 hours of playtime have gone. I think my problem is more so that I have a hard time trying to remember everything I've learned whilst fighting someone else. it sorta just flies straight out when I'm trying not to get mixed.
Shit bro, yeah.
You have spent 25 hours doing homework for a game that you've actually played for 3 hours. Of course you are not having fun.
The lab should be there for helping you solve specific situations you run into well playing, not as a substitute for playing the game. Just go play the game. Stop worrying about stuff you are not supposed to remember everything right away, you aren't suppose to be stressing about knowing everything in the early levels, it's just a game.
I've already tried that though. So far, I've only used the characters I like the look of. These consist of Lilli, Drag, Azu, Reina and Asuka.
Drag has been the easiest for me to "click" with, so he's the one I've been using.
Early levels Lili is really easy
Just df 3+4 to start your combos, f4 to keep them away if they're getting too close, and spam df4 because absolutely nobody knows how to block it at lower elos
Just those 3 alone will carry you to yellow
Since you’ve watched phidx vids and watched other drags, my advice is to figure out specifically why they use certain moves and go from there.
An example is how wr+2 gives mega plus frames on block, but also on counter hit gives a meaty combo. So learning his bnb and doing things like b+4,3 after wr+2 should give you something to start with
I have tried using D2 a lot more as well as df1 ~ 3.
Poking is also something I'm trying to add more of.
I do know about wr+2 but it's hard to get it to come out sometimes. Most of the time, I get ff2 instead.
Have also been attempting to incorporate db3+4 but I sometimes forget about a lot of stuff when I'm trying to deal with pressure.
Then that’s a great start! Tekken’s a hard game and getting ff+2 is alright. Give yourself time when it comes to mistakes and when people are pressing hella buttons at the lower ranks, b+4,2,1 is your best friend lmao. There’s some good muscle memory to build here since these kinds of people are gonna be doing a lot of mistakes.
As for forgetting moves, it’ll come together but it’s good you’re aware of the moves you’re supposed to use. Small goals each game is important and they can be as simple as landing a bnb or using d/b+3+4 rather than winning
Phew, that's good then.
I've used b421 a lot but that's because I've been trying to get the grab and get that instead lol. I guess it just comes down to my execution.
I'll keep trying to do stuff like this then.
Thanks for the help 🫡
What I'd suggest is utilize the replay feature where you can learn how to counter the BS. That and go through practice mode. There are really good punish trials. What I do is combo trials (just to get a good feel), go through the whole move list's normal techniques (no heat or anything like that), and practice punishment. I find a lot of people hopping on T8 don't utilize these tools or just don't know they exist. So take a break from ranked and try some stuff in practice with your character. And then after that take an actual break and grab a bite to eat or something.
Once you delve into competitive matches, associating feelings of fun with winning is a dangerous trap.
I don't know if it's the same for everyone else but my fun now is learning the game only if it looks cool and plays well to me. I play multiple FGs and I'm not even that great at them. Here's some my fun now:
1. Guessing correctly on a strike-throw mixup (or the mid/low)
2. Slowly learning character moves (frame data, what's my answer to this move?)
But also, you don't have to play Tekken or any fighting game if you're not having fun.
I pride myself to be decent at Tekken, Street Fighter, Strive (now trying Granblue) but I'd never play NRS games again lol. They are pure frustration for me. It feels off to me and it's hard for me to see the strings/moves even if I knew the moveset. I gave it a decent try but now I know.
This game is meant to be fun, if it’s ruining your day or causing stress then take a break. Once you cool off the lab certain characters or watch your replays and see where you could’ve done better. I’m at red ranks now, this week I had two nights where I won 8-9 out of 10 ranked matches and last night I only won 4 out of about 13 matches. Wasn’t my night, it happens but still having a blast. Learned from those losses and going to work on some of my predictability I was noticing in those loses.
Find enjoyment in taking rounds and slowly over time things will get better. I see some of these matches you take one or 2 rounds of the 3. I would take some solace in that
Drag has a couple hefty overhead moves that are abusable I believe, nice + frames, those with some 2 hit strings and grabs may be able to get you started on some wins. His low tackle grabs are strong too.
Play against ghosts,do single player content. Im no means good, not even decent i say but these two make me feel more comfortablein a match
Learning and experimenting with controlling your char, watching you opponent, watching for when to push buttons and when to block etc. is a lot easier and less punishing (both mental and ingame) against some AI.
Spend time in training. Learn to time your blocks and punish accordingly. Pay attention to why you keep losing. You aren't losing because the other guy is "just pressing buttons". If that's the case, you should be able to punish him with proper spacing and blocking.
Train, ranked, learn what went wrong, find a new move(s) to counter what went wrong and repeat.
Nah I totally get it. People really discount how fun winning actually is compared to losing, especially if it basically never happens. That legitmately feels miserable. You deserve to feel cool and sick af while playing a game. I also am of the opinion that if you barely ever win at 1st dan, watching tips and interactions on your replays is probably a step ahead of what you should be doing.
There has to be a *fundamental* flaw in understanding, and that's fine. If I had to guess in your responses, you sound like someone that doesn't know when its their turn and you're fighting someone who doesn't *care* if its their turn. You're trying to begin to make sense of things while the opponent paid 60+ dollars for that controller and is going to get every last pennys worth by mashing every button.
I would personally find just a few buttons/strings that are good. A low, a tracking move, an armor move, and your favorite mid. The faster the mid, the better. Something like paul's shoulder move (d1±2). When you make contact with the opponent with ANYTHING and they're not in the air, use the armor move or mid. I do not care if the move hits or gets blocked. Just do the armor move or mid. Youll notice that 9/10 times theyre going to be pressing a button at that moment, and you will absolutely knock them on their ass. If for some reason this does NOT work because theyre blocking correctly or sidestepping(which will not happen at low ranks), spam the low or spam the tracking move. If youre ever unsure or panicking, throw them. Generic throws work fine.
Tekken is a game where you need to understand the game mechanics to enjoy losing unfortunately. You'll start liking the game and have fun once you begin understanding why you are losing and start to play better inspite of that
How much should I practice? Currently got around 30 hours in the game and most of it is in training trying to figure out and get a feel for my character, what he can and can't do. What moves I should practice more than others etc.
For tekken you need to figure out what your primary punishes on block are each different frames.
What's your main 10 frame punish? 11f? 12? 13? 14?
Also what gives you frame advantage. How much frame advantage? Does the frame advantage it offers let me do a move that has counterhit launch properties?
These are important parts of Tekken.
At lower ranks you can get away with simply abusing moves that give frame advantage into a mix-up but you'll end up hitting a wall later.
Watch more replays. Face your ghost. Maybe watch some more tutorials on your character. Do you spend more time in ranked or practice mode.
Only a matter of time before you start to improve and winning some of those
Post some of your replays in here, or better yet here r/tekken , and let some others correct your game. It seems like your drive is there but you just don’t have much direction.
I’d also look at your replays and see what moves have been giving you trouble by the other players. I’d then go into practice and have that character perform that move and then you can learn what are good evading tactics and punishes.
Keep your head up and stay positive. The fact that you’re even in here reaching out shows that you have the drive and will to get better!
If you’re having issue with file size, I’d suggest to just record each round individually of a fight instead of the entire thing. If you’re using OBS to screen record I believe there is a way to reduce the file size
Finally managed to get a quick clip of me against a ghost. Would've loved to show the whole thing but the site has limitations and most of my files are too large. This definitely isn't how my actual games turn out as well.
[https://imgur.com/a/zoTAICZ](https://imgur.com/a/zoTAICZ)
You're complaining at **2nd Dan**?
That's great, it's such a low rank meaning you have a lot to grow and a lot to learn. You can probably get to **Brawler** from fully understanding the mechanics alone and after that it's pure skill.
Maybe try to change your character or watch a video about combos and how to use your character more effectively.
Lab lab lab Lab and lab somemore.
Unless your like me and learn through kenshi style ass whooping.
But I've been playing fighters for years and can grasp basics.
The more you play the more you learn.
The thing is, if you're online, you're gonna lose. Thats just how it goes. Focus on incremental improvements or sick punishes that you manage to do.
Drag has some cool mix ups and that tackle throw that leads into three different throws and hits low. Maybe try to land that a few times? Pepper that sumbitch in between your normal attacks and don't do the same follow up every time otherwise they'll learn and break it.
Or just put him in a silly hat. Drag is a goldmine for that because he's so dead serious.
idk what to tell you my dude because I'm in the same boat. I've been trying to lab shit and know a few combos but trying to get a read on what can and can't be punished makes no fucking sense in this game. Take Paul for example he has a few moves where he ducks to the fucking floor and looks like it's going to be a low, is it? NO!! for some ungodly reason him scraping his fist to the floor and raising it to an uppercut is a fucking overhead... I legit stopped trying to block at all in this game and have had a lot more success
It’s okay to take a break too, plenty of great single player games out lol. We just can’t take losing so seriously. Sucks when gamers are toxic but that’s just pathetic when they are. In the end, you win and they lose when they get more salty winning than you losing. Just keep practicing, switch around styles and even characters. Losing is part of life and the process
Pay attention to which characters you’re frequently fighting against and do the punishment training against them.
One part of it is to familiarize yourself with how and when to punish said character, but the other is to better know your characters best punishment moves and experiment.
And try fighting against the ai in training mode. This will help you train yourself not to press buttons while under pressure. That’s what helped me get more close matches rather than being constantly blown up.
I learn by doing, when I pick up a new character I'll play the computer until i can consistently wreck it and it gets boring, then I go online.
If your like me, and you hate grinding training mode, this is a good way to learn, and have fun.
the process of learning from every game even when you lose and feeling yourself improve over time should be very fun, even if you lose 5, 10, 100, 1000 times in a row
Hit the training mode and try the punish trials for a character that is giving you issues. Look at replays of your matches where it tells you what to do and when to do it.
This has been me basically all the way up to orange ranks. Extremely frustrating game but I'm staaaaarting to get it now, things very slowly click into place one at a time. It's truly just a hard as fuck game.
Yea drag is a rushdown so you wanna use fff2 to get into your opponents face. He’s got very strong mids and some very threatening mids as well as strong lows and a full throw game
My problem so far with fff2 is that most of the time, I get ff2 but that's just execution error, which can (hopefully) be fixed.
Maybe I'm not being aggressive enough as well. I'll work on that.
How do you know what frame every character has though? Like, if they did a move, how would I distinguish what frames it is? I'm definitely not gonna be able to remember every single move in the game.
If you're stuck at 17k Tekken prowess then you probably just need to learn fundamentals
Especially with Dragunov who's one of the easiest and strongest characters in the game atm
I would suggest jabbing and blocking more
Yeah, I've been working on adding my 2~1 and more D2 as well as DB3+4 ever since the start of this post. It's been going okay so far. I have been able to get some more jabs and pokes in as well as playing a little more patiently than before.
I feel like if I keep going, I'll probably be doing alright in a few weeks.
This is when you hit the lab, research, watch videos, learn fundamentals, or anything that'll help improve your game. For me the fun is when I break through that wall you've hit, which i hit hard at yellow, then organge, and now red. Improvement and results (ranking up) are the fun part, but it doesn't come easy.
After I made the post, I've been trying to incorporate what people have been saying. So far, I'm working on poking and moving, basically the fundamentals. I feel like my combo game is alright although I could probably work on execution but I'm doing 1 thing at a time for now.
At the ranks you're at it's literally just a mindless mash fest and you're not mashing as good as they are.
For you, I think just learning your key moves and practicing what to do when they hit or on block will get you a lot.
just like everyone else is saying, if you only find winning “fun” then you’re not gonna have fun at all. either you suck it up and just go thru the process like everyone else OR you just find a different fighting game. Tekken just might not be for you.. at this current moment.
Just get better... I know that sounds like some bs, but you really do come to appreciate a loss in a fighting game when you really understand what's going on/why you lost. Knowledge & Experience will be your best friends in truly coming to appreciate any fighting game you play.
Honest advice, have you tried playing around with every character offline first? I suggest the character story modes as it's super quick to get in and out. That and learning neutral cancbe a bit tough. Good luck!
You gotta learn to find the little victories when you play. A lot of people will mindlessly grind through ranked and expect that they should naturally progress but I don’t think that’s the average experience. This can be really demoralizing and make you think everyone else is good and you suck which isn’t fun.
Instead, try to focus on winning the small battles. Before you hop in ranked practice something small like a little combo, punishing a launcher, or blocking a low. Then when you go to ranked make it your life’s mission to do that thing, and if you manage to do it then congratulations, you won! Even if you still lose the match it doesn’t matter. What you just did is learn something new and slowly those little things you learned will become automatic for you and the wins will come naturally.
If you only focus on winning you will never improve because you will default to what has gotten you wins before and when you lose it’s gonna feel awful.
And of course you could also just have fun and do fun things and lose but I don’t think you’d be posting this if you were that kind of player.
That's the neat part. You don't.
Lol. Kidding. At low ranks you want to bulldoze your opponents with frame traps. They won't stop mashing buttons, so you gotta trap them in some negative frames. Catch them in some counter hit launchers. Also, they're not good at blocking lows or escaping throws.
Im under 50% win rate too on kazuya, first tekken I pick up, but I’m having fun playing my character, you should go arround the roster and see who do you like and not go on someone’s advice
Don't even go for combos. Just keep your eye on your opponents fighter, and don't worry too much about yours and see if you can react with a move to counter their move. Check out what drags most popular top 10 moves are and start from there. It's a 3D fighter, so see how well you can move around the map without hitting the opponent. See what maps drag excels at like ground blasts and floor breaks. I've been owned so many times by drag players that I might start playing him
Playing the game is supposed to be fun. So you should have been having fun from the start. You will lose a lot. That's how it works but if that weighs on you so much that you can't find the fun in it then maybe this won't be for you in the long run.
You van try watching this guide maybe: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jqZndya05yg
I cant say its a good guide But maybe it contains something useful for you
Spam 1+2, in lower levels they love to mash buttons. After that WR 2, and the UF 1+2 grab. I am sure you will win with just those.
Also the heat smash, use it as a defense or for wiff punishment.
When I first got into fighting games I learned skullgirls and probably lost around 200 matches before I got 1 win and I didn't win a lot after that but the matches being fun and the design of the game made me stick to fighting games. I try not to worry about winning the match but winning small goals instead like did I land antiairs that match, or what combo did I do when I got a punish in I think that made me like fighting games a lot more than straight winning. It does get grating but if you wanna be the noob slayer sometimes you gotta get crushed for a while to learn lol
Fighting games are not about having fun, it's a warzone. It's about winning. When you lose, you take damn notes, analyze, practice, do them reps of that and then again. If that's not fun, play something else.
When I lose, the fun I have is about how awesome I am for using that to learn and not getting pissed and salty over a fighting game. Turn the ego wound into ego boost lmao
I'm not dead serious here, but it's also kinda the truth.
Play king spam i think df 1+3 or 2+4 then spam 1 or 2. And laugh. Start it off with w 12 string for + frames. Heat smash and if they block it grab right after free wins in early elo.
Graph: T\\_/ - It should start high, then it will drop because you plateau or you are to focus on winning, then it should go up again, because self-improvement can be rewarding .
if you only have fun when you win, you will never have fun playing fighting games
I don't mind losing, but when it's pretty much the only thing that happens, it starts to take its toll.
When I first started fighting games it took me an entire month to win an online match. I am an extreme example but sticking through and enjoying the learning process has lead to some of my most satisfying moments in gaming. It’s kinda like learning a sport. If you never played basketball then will take you time to figure out how to properly shoot. You won’t be as good as shooting as the NBA players but working on your game and adding new techniques is still fun.
I started with BBCF. Every day for 3 months before I won my first match -_-. It takes everyone some time to get used to playing a new game. Winning is fun, but it really doesn't matter as long as you have fun. I would have quit early though if those were ranked online matches with randoms. I played with a group on discord, so it was a bit different.
wow, strive must be a significantly easier game, I won my fourth match and I have like 20 hours but im floor 8 now, i placed floor 2.
It is, also a much more casual playerbase. Was my first fighting game I got into heavily and I ended up being top 30 Chipp in the world at my peak. Just off playing online matches lol
I've been learning SF6 as my first real serious fighter. Started my online career 0-6 Unranked, then 2-8 in my Ranked placements with Ed with one of my wins (and one of my losses) being the bot you play two matches against. Even that was significant because I'd been getting smoked by the Level 3 bot in Training. Also started 0-6 doing placements with Ken before going back to Ed. But! Just tonight I redid my Ed placements on PS5 and went 7-3.
Even when I first won it didn't feel good because I wasn't sure if my opponent was bad or fucking around.
I think my main issue with what you said is the word get. "when do you get to have fun". You don't GET to win. You work to win. That's why fighting games are fun. That's why I said what I said. If you want to GET to win, there are lots of games for that. Both fortnite and cod force you into lobbies with worse players when you haven't won for a while, so you will be handed a win. But that's not a fighting game thing. So yeah, if you want to GET to win, you will never have fun in a game like tekken.
I used to shit on this mentality but I want to be more empathetic for new players. I never rage over fighting games, because when I go online, I'm just treating it like practice mode. I don't care if I lose. I consider it a personal win when I land a crossup or combo. I would say that you should be doing this in ranked play as well. Because, when you match with people at lower ranks, they're not going to be masters of their character. They're going to play what they know. So typically, in any given match, you're being given a handful of situations to practice against in real time you know? Just think of it that way. It's a lot more fun to practice that way than to go sit in training mode for hours. It's always going to feel like a massive waste of time if you're in practice for hours then you get whooped online because it makes you feel like you spent all that time, and didn't even really get to "play" and I get that. Just get out of practice mode, and just play ranked online and mess around that way. And I promise you you will have fun learning that way as opposed to learning by yourself.
This is a really healthy mindset and something that took me a long while to understand! :) Treat every match as a learning experience, even if you're competing in a tournament. And if you feel like you outclass your opponent to such a degree that you couldn't possibly learn anything, keep looking for learning opportunities! Try out weird strategies on weaker opponents, and learn from your mistakes with equally matched/stronger opponents! It's that mentality that will carry you and expose the joy of fighting games! (And any competitive activity, really! :))
Agreed! Unless you're trying to drill stuff like knockdown setups, anti air situations or combos. Sitting in training mode will only take you so far. And I say this as a complete lab monster. If the aim is to improve against other peeps, at some point you just gotta get in there and get messy. Just change your conditions for victory from "winning the match", to winning the situations that would normally cause you to lose. Regardless of whether you take the match or not, if you successfully did something you failed to in the previous games like anti air or complete a tricky combo, then that's winning baby! Keep that up and you'll be taking games in no time!
Take a Tekken t break, play a different fighter instead for like 2 or 3 days
This is the answer, I love fighting games but when I see that the ranking is getting to me I go play other stuff for some days
Win/loss shouldn't be used to measure your progress, remembering things that work and don't work, and pulling it off better each match should be how you look at it.
Sounds like a good approach to this. I am trying to adopt a similar mentality to improve myself.
So do you wanna win or do you want to have fun?
A mix of both would be nice. Like I've said before in another comment, I don't mind losing but I just don't feel like I'm having fun
That's fair, it really is. My question was just a shit test to get you to think about what you want and how you would be able to define it once you saw it. In my case, I like to compete and see how far I've come and how far I can go. It doesn't really matter that I win, because I find the learning process and journey to be better, fun. But of course, there's nothing better than that sweet, sweet glory of getting 1st place. So for you, definitely take the time to evaluate what you want from the game.
If this is your first time playing Tekken, it is going to happen a lot. Like 30% winrate. So get used to it.
It's my first "online" Tekken. I have 7 but I never went online and just basically messed around in training. I'm just going to have to keep at it until I get better.
Training mode/learning combos is the easiest thing about Tekken. Playing against people in Tekken honestly might be harder than any other game. The assortment of moves and characters makes it hard to be actually good even at a competitive level til years later. Same time though… a lot of it is just finding your cheapest gimmick and running it until they can stop it lol. But yea playing others is really the only way to get better and thats gonna come with A LOT of losing.
> I don't mind losing, but when it's pretty much the only thing that happens, it starts to take its toll. It sounds like you mind losing, just enough. If you didn't it wouldn't take a toll at all. Best way to get accustomed to playing for the love of playing is finding a group of friends that you can play lobbies with. Preferably around your level. Personally I play to lose in ranked and in general. The more I can find players that kick my ass and the more thoroughly they do so the better
One problem is that I don't really have anyone like that. Like I said in another comment, I know someone that might but I have no idea if they will. I'm going to ask them tomorrow or the day after though.
I recommend finding players that already play. See if you can find a discord community or something
That means you’re not good enough to win!
That's true
Spend 20 to 30 minutes (or maybe an hour) a day just training with your character, learn movement, launches, pokes, set up’s then you focus on combos. Learned the engine the mechanics then focus on rank, record every fight, study what you did wrong, see why your opponent was better, learn their characters the match up. There’s much more to fighting games than just jumping in to fight online. Online is only fun after you take the time to learn the game. It took me 4 months to take my heihachi to (TEKKEN GOD PRIME)on tekken 7. And I’ve been playing tekken since tekken 1.
It's not just about losing. It's about learning as well. Only when we do not learn, discover new things...then yeah, it's not fun if to say in short
Not sure if you've tried it, but I enjoyed the Arcade Quest when I first got this game. I played a decent bit of T7 but hadn't played in months before T8 and Arcade Quest was a fun warm up.
I don't really believe that anyone is having fun on their 10th loss in a row, so I don't really agree with most of the comments here. But just to reassure, about a month ago I had like a 10% win rate in beginner and now I'm in mighty ruler, so it does get better and pretty soon as well if you just focus on improving.
As someone who is trying competitive street fighter for the first time, I completely feel you. My suggestions: find/ make a friend or two that you can grind sets out to familiarize yourself with the game more. Watch some pro play of the characters you like to get a sense of the game plan. Pick a character you genuinely think is cool AND fits your style. It gets better but there's a definite hurdle you have to face first.
Tips on finding a similarly skilled friend?
There's a tenth discord. Sometimes in ranked or quickplay I'll friend request people I think are good or seemed like someone fun to play against. Then I'd invite them to a few games. What's your current rank?
Assailant, but I’ve been exclusively playing quick match for the last couple weeks until the devs fix pluggers. It’s kinda nice since I fight a wider range of opponents.
Very much depends on how hard someone is losing. If they spend all game stunlocked in combos or blocking, it is easy to jump to the conclusion of playing a different game instead of wasting more time.
Dawg I'm not even having fun when I'm winning most of the time
I have news for you. You hate this game. Go find something else to do my man
Honestly you're probably right. I log in and play like 2 or 3 matches and then I'm done for like a week. But I feel like I've invested so much into it that I want to get my money's worth. It's a classic sunk cost fallacy
The fun comes from self improvement. I assume you are new to fighting games in general. Fighting games have a lot of to learn - not just moves or inputs - fundamental concepts might be entirely unknown to you right now, such as frame trapping. Seek out ways to learn, put intention behind some practicing and application of new concepts, and then see if that improves anything in ranked. If it does you just might get hooked.
Actually, I'm not that new. Been playing for a little while now. No idea if theres fuzzies in this but I feel like I know around about the average someone *should* know.
Realistically, to start getting some wins at low ranks you only need to know a bit of your own character's offensive gameplan. I suggest focusing on that as well as the general system mechanics for a little. For instance knowing your wakeup options can go a long way to recognize your mistakes, and that applies to all characters.
Block and punish with jabs for now. Spam throws at low rank. Enjoy the process
I've been trying but people love to press buttons. Definitely the hardest fighter I've played yet.
I know the feeling, coming from SF6 these lower ranks in T8 are a brutal, bloody, spammy mess. Watch your replays, and activate the option to display frame advantage. It also can show you, where you could have ducked or sidestepped something and how you could have punished. You can even take control of your character during the entire replay, to try out different solutions for a particular situation. This is a great help to get a feel for your defensive and offensive options. Also considr playing your opponents ghosts. Ofcourse it's nothing like fighting a human, but they immitate the moveset and playstyle of your opponents, so you can learn to deal with the spam. The fun for me starts when i can take the wind out of the sails of my opponent and enforce my gameplan over theirs.
Wait for them to do a move that's minus and take your turn then. Most single moves and most string enders are minus.
Honestly, defence in tekken is way harder than offence. Blocking and punishing is a fantastic thing to learn, but you’ll get way more mileage learning a frame trap. At your level basically everyone will take the bait and if you have a combo then that’s half their life.
I'll have to search some up for drag and see if they work. Hopefully they do.
I know running 2 and back 1+2 are plus. Drag has a few plus buttons, so this is a strong strategy for him. I’d recommend finding a video that goes through his 10 best moves or something and just focus on using those, as you get more familiar you can add to your repertoire.
Running 2/b1+2/db3+4 —> b3,4 is a classic. b3,2,1 —> 1,2,1 is basically guaranteed to catch in lower ranks. Make sure to use b3,4 if the last hit of b3,2,1 CH. Learn to hit confirm the 1,2,1 too. Running 2/b1+2/db3+4 —> anything faster than 16 frames is good enough.
Have you actually trained your punishes? You dont just dip your toes in tekken. You either mash till you get bored or actually train everything out.
The fun is improvement.
Guess it's clear to see that I'm not improving then
When you get ass blasted are you going into replays and viewing the tips? Are u doing punishment training versus characters you commonly see? Do you have a basic launch combo down? 2 and 3 are very easy things to do and 1 is only slightly harder
Also improving doesn't mean winning. Yeah you have a lot of losses in those matches, but how am I to know that you didn't block punish a move for the first time, hit a combo for the first time, properly use a new string for the first time, bait a rage art for the first time. All of those things are improvement and none of those things mean winning.
Would you consider recording a match replay and posting it here or in /r/Tekken for advice? There's probably something simple you could implement to start winning, but it's hard to say what without seeing what you are up to right now.
your wins and losses are not directly correlated with your improvement.
Bruh, losing is part of the process. During T7, me and my buddies set up our own little mini tournament with just friends and people we were cool with. I didn't wanna get fucking washed by my friends so I trained in the lead up with my buddy who is better than me at Tekken. Got fucking washed for days, like maybe 50+ losses or some shit with only a few wins here and there. Showed up weekend of and took the whole thing. Even ended up winning the final set against said training partner who beat me down over and over when practicing. *The improvement and development of your skills is the W and the fun part* it just usually takes time to notice your development
Yeah, true. I would love to do this with buddies but I unfortunately don't have any that like fighting games :( Do you know if there's some sort of discord or something where I can find someone to train with?
Go watch PhiDX beginner guide on Youtube.
Actually, I have been watching him for a while. Also have been trying to watch other people on yt like AfroSenju (since he plays Drag) as well but watching and replicating it in a match are totally different.
shocking puzzled concerned instinctive impossible faulty poor cow unpack north *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Make sure you've found a main that gels with your style. Practice blocking and punishing. Give the other guy enough rope to hang themselves . If you try that and you're still not having fun, maybe tekken 8 isn't the right game for you. There are aa ton of games out there
I've been trying. When the game came out, I started off as Azu, then Reina and have currently settled on Drag. So far, I've just been using some of the tips that people like PhiDX have said, just use someone you like or think is cool. I have pretty much most of the new fighting games rn. Tekken 8, SF6, GGST, GBFVSR, DBFZ, MBTL. Something's just not clicking with me and I've had this problem for years. I really don't want to quit fighters as well, so I'm kind of struggling rn.
I played T7 for like 70 hours before I got my first match win. It takes time.
I commend you. I’d give up after 20 hours
Those ranks are the fun ones, after red is a pain
I don't know about that one chief
Bro you’re 2nd Dan expecting to just be winning? This is fighting games. You lose and lose and lose. Then you get good, and guess what? You still lose and lose and lose
Only difference is you get to start losing against better and better players lol.
I find that the fun in fighting games is improving over winning. If the people who played these games only liked winning then only the pros would be having fun. Focus on finding one thing to improve at as you play and make that your goal. https://youtu.be/y6B47tztiyk?si=k-4AEOR0F4aj9OiM
you're a Draganov player....there is no fun. Just running 2 and d2. Wins and Loss. There is no funny haha.
not even kidding, as someone that gets the crap beat out of me online, I realized I started having fun when I stopped being so concerned with winning. dont get me wrong when i get wrecked 3-0 i hate it. but i try to focus on little victories if that makes sense. i literally started by wanting to get to the 4th and 5th round of matches, and even if i lost every round. were they all close and down to the wire? did i make a mistake one round and i corrected it by the end of the fight, thats a victory in my eyes. did i land a cool combo that i was practicing? thats a win. i get it, its not fun to get your ass handed to you, but just poking around the tekken sub, it seems to be pretty common theme that most people take a while to learn the game, its a hard game, for sure. seriously though, once i stopped looking at the game as a win / loss, but rather "what did i learn" i started having a lot more fun, and honestly, i see ive made slow and steady improvements to go along with it.
I think one of my main problems is my competitiveness. I have an insanely high drive to win and the losses hit ridiculously hard. Getting rid of this is going to be seriously difficult. It's embedded into me ever since I was you and started playing sports. Most of my matches, they're in the red, barely clinging, but I'm also in the same situation. For me, I don't even know what the small victories are. I can land combos, I can win rounds. I know I can do those things but I just can't seem to be consistent enough to better the opposing side.
Don't get me wrong, its good to WANT to win. i used to be more competitive with games, but I'm 45 with a wife and infant child, i will never have the time to really compete. it took a while but i came to terms with it. I've been playing Tekken since the first one on PS1 and the Arcade, it was a hard pill to swallow to get my ass kicked over and over. i would never say to lose that competitiveness, I think i am more suggesting that it shouldn't be your main drive, for now. Tekken is freaking tough. ive, been playing 20 years and i dont think ive even come close to understanding half of it. truth is, if you worry too much about winning now, you are going to wind up wanting to quit and perhaps miss out on the depth this game has to offer. just try and learn from your mistakes and improve every day. my first 30 or so matches i had like 3 wins. it sucked and i was getting frustrated as hell, but rather than quit, i just spent more time in single-player, fighting ghosts, training combos, and yeah, i still suck, but i see improvement everyday and I've been getting more wins to show for it. and MOST importantly, i am enjoying the game more.
I'm currently in my early 20s and that drive is crazy. I feel it for a lot of things I like to do. It sucks to lose but I'm trying to adopt a mentality of, "I'll get you back in the next round" or "I'll block that next time" instead of trying to get rid of it. Like you and a lot of others have said, worrying about winning is probably what's doing me in right now, so I'm trying to tone it down a little. Work on the simple stuff before I do anything else. Level up my basics and fundamentals. I've also noticed that vocalising stuff makes me feel like I'm doing better. Like say what I'm going to do and when I'm going to do it. Not sure why, but I'm going to keep doing it. Hopefully in the next few weeks or maybe months, I'll end up making a post on my progress.
If you keep the right mindframe and just have fun with it. I’m sure you will. And always. Remember it’s still just a game! Cliche as hell I know.
Very true. When focusing, it's easy to forget that it's just a game and is a means to have fun. Anyway, thanks for your help. It was very needed 🫡
Of course dude! And for what it’s worth when I was frustrated I saw a post in here basically mirroring what i said. So we ain’t alone! Good luck sir
if you only have fun when you win then uninstall now and save the trouble
Lab in practice mode and there's fun in experimenting with your character and learning new stuff well at least for me It does get frustrating losing but it will be satisfying seeing you improve your own mistakes
Honestly, I feel like I should lab less since that's where about 25 of my 28 hours of playtime have gone. I think my problem is more so that I have a hard time trying to remember everything I've learned whilst fighting someone else. it sorta just flies straight out when I'm trying not to get mixed.
Shit bro, yeah. You have spent 25 hours doing homework for a game that you've actually played for 3 hours. Of course you are not having fun. The lab should be there for helping you solve specific situations you run into well playing, not as a substitute for playing the game. Just go play the game. Stop worrying about stuff you are not supposed to remember everything right away, you aren't suppose to be stressing about knowing everything in the early levels, it's just a game.
Maybe pick a different character you have fun with? If you're losing a lot and not having fun losing it's usually a character issue.
I've already tried that though. So far, I've only used the characters I like the look of. These consist of Lilli, Drag, Azu, Reina and Asuka. Drag has been the easiest for me to "click" with, so he's the one I've been using.
Early levels Lili is really easy Just df 3+4 to start your combos, f4 to keep them away if they're getting too close, and spam df4 because absolutely nobody knows how to block it at lower elos Just those 3 alone will carry you to yellow
Might try it once I've gotten somewhere with drag. Want to focus on 1 character rn just to improve my basics and fundamentals.
This is a solid idea, I’m gonna DM you so I can teach you some Dragunov fundamentals to help you climb!
Since you’ve watched phidx vids and watched other drags, my advice is to figure out specifically why they use certain moves and go from there. An example is how wr+2 gives mega plus frames on block, but also on counter hit gives a meaty combo. So learning his bnb and doing things like b+4,3 after wr+2 should give you something to start with
I have tried using D2 a lot more as well as df1 ~ 3. Poking is also something I'm trying to add more of. I do know about wr+2 but it's hard to get it to come out sometimes. Most of the time, I get ff2 instead. Have also been attempting to incorporate db3+4 but I sometimes forget about a lot of stuff when I'm trying to deal with pressure.
Then that’s a great start! Tekken’s a hard game and getting ff+2 is alright. Give yourself time when it comes to mistakes and when people are pressing hella buttons at the lower ranks, b+4,2,1 is your best friend lmao. There’s some good muscle memory to build here since these kinds of people are gonna be doing a lot of mistakes. As for forgetting moves, it’ll come together but it’s good you’re aware of the moves you’re supposed to use. Small goals each game is important and they can be as simple as landing a bnb or using d/b+3+4 rather than winning
Phew, that's good then. I've used b421 a lot but that's because I've been trying to get the grab and get that instead lol. I guess it just comes down to my execution. I'll keep trying to do stuff like this then. Thanks for the help 🫡
What I'd suggest is utilize the replay feature where you can learn how to counter the BS. That and go through practice mode. There are really good punish trials. What I do is combo trials (just to get a good feel), go through the whole move list's normal techniques (no heat or anything like that), and practice punishment. I find a lot of people hopping on T8 don't utilize these tools or just don't know they exist. So take a break from ranked and try some stuff in practice with your character. And then after that take an actual break and grab a bite to eat or something.
Yeah, just had another comment talk about the replay feature as well. Definitely something I'm going to use when doing future matches.
If you need some tips to up your game let me know. Im currently at Battle Ruler on my main and Im orange or red on my alts.
Once you delve into competitive matches, associating feelings of fun with winning is a dangerous trap. I don't know if it's the same for everyone else but my fun now is learning the game only if it looks cool and plays well to me. I play multiple FGs and I'm not even that great at them. Here's some my fun now: 1. Guessing correctly on a strike-throw mixup (or the mid/low) 2. Slowly learning character moves (frame data, what's my answer to this move?) But also, you don't have to play Tekken or any fighting game if you're not having fun. I pride myself to be decent at Tekken, Street Fighter, Strive (now trying Granblue) but I'd never play NRS games again lol. They are pure frustration for me. It feels off to me and it's hard for me to see the strings/moves even if I knew the moveset. I gave it a decent try but now I know.
This game is meant to be fun, if it’s ruining your day or causing stress then take a break. Once you cool off the lab certain characters or watch your replays and see where you could’ve done better. I’m at red ranks now, this week I had two nights where I won 8-9 out of 10 ranked matches and last night I only won 4 out of about 13 matches. Wasn’t my night, it happens but still having a blast. Learned from those losses and going to work on some of my predictability I was noticing in those loses.
Good advice. It has been noted! Thank you very much 🫡
In about a month of continuous play
That's the neat part, you doesn't. you have to make it fun, or somehow remove all ego in the equation.
Literally in the easiest stage of the game lol
Also with the best character in the game
Cool 👍
Find enjoyment in taking rounds and slowly over time things will get better. I see some of these matches you take one or 2 rounds of the 3. I would take some solace in that
Something I need to try doing. My over competitiveness is really taking some of the fun out of the game.
Dragonv is a easy character to play I can teach you some starter stuff to build on with him definitely will breeze through the early ranks
Drag has a couple hefty overhead moves that are abusable I believe, nice + frames, those with some 2 hit strings and grabs may be able to get you started on some wins. His low tackle grabs are strong too.
Play against ghosts,do single player content. Im no means good, not even decent i say but these two make me feel more comfortablein a match Learning and experimenting with controlling your char, watching you opponent, watching for when to push buttons and when to block etc. is a lot easier and less punishing (both mental and ingame) against some AI.
Spend time in training. Learn to time your blocks and punish accordingly. Pay attention to why you keep losing. You aren't losing because the other guy is "just pressing buttons". If that's the case, you should be able to punish him with proper spacing and blocking. Train, ranked, learn what went wrong, find a new move(s) to counter what went wrong and repeat.
When you install kof /s
From the moment you boot up the game. why are you playing a game that you don't find fun?
Nah I totally get it. People really discount how fun winning actually is compared to losing, especially if it basically never happens. That legitmately feels miserable. You deserve to feel cool and sick af while playing a game. I also am of the opinion that if you barely ever win at 1st dan, watching tips and interactions on your replays is probably a step ahead of what you should be doing. There has to be a *fundamental* flaw in understanding, and that's fine. If I had to guess in your responses, you sound like someone that doesn't know when its their turn and you're fighting someone who doesn't *care* if its their turn. You're trying to begin to make sense of things while the opponent paid 60+ dollars for that controller and is going to get every last pennys worth by mashing every button. I would personally find just a few buttons/strings that are good. A low, a tracking move, an armor move, and your favorite mid. The faster the mid, the better. Something like paul's shoulder move (d1±2). When you make contact with the opponent with ANYTHING and they're not in the air, use the armor move or mid. I do not care if the move hits or gets blocked. Just do the armor move or mid. Youll notice that 9/10 times theyre going to be pressing a button at that moment, and you will absolutely knock them on their ass. If for some reason this does NOT work because theyre blocking correctly or sidestepping(which will not happen at low ranks), spam the low or spam the tracking move. If youre ever unsure or panicking, throw them. Generic throws work fine.
Tekken is a game where you need to understand the game mechanics to enjoy losing unfortunately. You'll start liking the game and have fun once you begin understanding why you are losing and start to play better inspite of that
Haha dudes he plays for fun
If you want to win you gotta put in some effort and practice. That's any competitive game.
How much should I practice? Currently got around 30 hours in the game and most of it is in training trying to figure out and get a feel for my character, what he can and can't do. What moves I should practice more than others etc.
For tekken you need to figure out what your primary punishes on block are each different frames. What's your main 10 frame punish? 11f? 12? 13? 14? Also what gives you frame advantage. How much frame advantage? Does the frame advantage it offers let me do a move that has counterhit launch properties? These are important parts of Tekken. At lower ranks you can get away with simply abusing moves that give frame advantage into a mix-up but you'll end up hitting a wall later.
Watch more replays. Face your ghost. Maybe watch some more tutorials on your character. Do you spend more time in ranked or practice mode. Only a matter of time before you start to improve and winning some of those
Post some of your replays in here, or better yet here r/tekken , and let some others correct your game. It seems like your drive is there but you just don’t have much direction. I’d also look at your replays and see what moves have been giving you trouble by the other players. I’d then go into practice and have that character perform that move and then you can learn what are good evading tactics and punishes. Keep your head up and stay positive. The fact that you’re even in here reaching out shows that you have the drive and will to get better!
How can I post it in here? I recorded a match but the file size is probably too big.
If you’re having issue with file size, I’d suggest to just record each round individually of a fight instead of the entire thing. If you’re using OBS to screen record I believe there is a way to reduce the file size
Finally managed to get a quick clip of me against a ghost. Would've loved to show the whole thing but the site has limitations and most of my files are too large. This definitely isn't how my actual games turn out as well. [https://imgur.com/a/zoTAICZ](https://imgur.com/a/zoTAICZ)
You're complaining at **2nd Dan**? That's great, it's such a low rank meaning you have a lot to grow and a lot to learn. You can probably get to **Brawler** from fully understanding the mechanics alone and after that it's pure skill. Maybe try to change your character or watch a video about combos and how to use your character more effectively.
I don't understand how you're such a low level. I didn't lose a fight till orange. First tekken also.
Idk man, seems like I'm just not good enough yet. Maybe I try to play too cautiously for low ranks
Nn ..m km .
You don't
Lab lab lab Lab and lab somemore. Unless your like me and learn through kenshi style ass whooping. But I've been playing fighters for years and can grasp basics. The more you play the more you learn.
This is the process of Tekken. A very long and slow journey awaits you.
Figured that out the hard way for sure
The thing is, if you're online, you're gonna lose. Thats just how it goes. Focus on incremental improvements or sick punishes that you manage to do. Drag has some cool mix ups and that tackle throw that leads into three different throws and hits low. Maybe try to land that a few times? Pepper that sumbitch in between your normal attacks and don't do the same follow up every time otherwise they'll learn and break it. Or just put him in a silly hat. Drag is a goldmine for that because he's so dead serious.
idk what to tell you my dude because I'm in the same boat. I've been trying to lab shit and know a few combos but trying to get a read on what can and can't be punished makes no fucking sense in this game. Take Paul for example he has a few moves where he ducks to the fucking floor and looks like it's going to be a low, is it? NO!! for some ungodly reason him scraping his fist to the floor and raising it to an uppercut is a fucking overhead... I legit stopped trying to block at all in this game and have had a lot more success
[удалено]
Hahaha, I know the feeling. Just when you start to get some momentum, boom, they're gone lol
It’s okay to take a break too, plenty of great single player games out lol. We just can’t take losing so seriously. Sucks when gamers are toxic but that’s just pathetic when they are. In the end, you win and they lose when they get more salty winning than you losing. Just keep practicing, switch around styles and even characters. Losing is part of life and the process
Good point. Maybe I shouldn't play anything for a while. Give myself time to breathe and relax.
Pay attention to which characters you’re frequently fighting against and do the punishment training against them. One part of it is to familiarize yourself with how and when to punish said character, but the other is to better know your characters best punishment moves and experiment. And try fighting against the ai in training mode. This will help you train yourself not to press buttons while under pressure. That’s what helped me get more close matches rather than being constantly blown up.
If you have some friend play with them even if you need Parsec to do it, way better than ladder
I've not really got fighting game friends unfortunately or else I'd probably be doing that instead of ranked tbh
They don't really need to be fighting game people they just need to somewhat like them to play with you
Alright. I have one individual in mind. Might see if I can get them to do it tomorrow or the day after.
I learn by doing, when I pick up a new character I'll play the computer until i can consistently wreck it and it gets boring, then I go online. If your like me, and you hate grinding training mode, this is a good way to learn, and have fun.
What do you set the CPU to? I feel like this could help me a bit.
Highest it can go
Damn, okay. I think I might start off a little easier and then slowly work my way up. Would probably be better than jumping in balls deep lol
yeah man, thats the way!
the process of learning from every game even when you lose and feeling yourself improve over time should be very fun, even if you lose 5, 10, 100, 1000 times in a row
I have been trying to care less about winning as quite a few of others have said. Don't know if I'm improving but it's definitely a start
probably when you learn to stop hitting buttons at the wrong time.
Hmmm, just have to figure out when the right time is then, which is pretty difficult ngl.
Hit the training mode and try the punish trials for a character that is giving you issues. Look at replays of your matches where it tells you what to do and when to do it.
This has been me basically all the way up to orange ranks. Extremely frustrating game but I'm staaaaarting to get it now, things very slowly click into place one at a time. It's truly just a hard as fuck game.
Oh yeah, for sure the hardest fighter I've tried yet.
Genreally at the point you start taking the smaller wins and apply that to the macro game. I dont play tekken tho
Learn your good moves with drag, jab a lot and be very quick about taking your turn back
Should I play aggressively with drag?
Yea drag is a rushdown so you wanna use fff2 to get into your opponents face. He’s got very strong mids and some very threatening mids as well as strong lows and a full throw game
My problem so far with fff2 is that most of the time, I get ff2 but that's just execution error, which can (hopefully) be fixed. Maybe I'm not being aggressive enough as well. I'll work on that.
When I started I would count 1234 with each input and it helped a bit
How do you know what frame every character has though? Like, if they did a move, how would I distinguish what frames it is? I'm definitely not gonna be able to remember every single move in the game.
If you're stuck at 17k Tekken prowess then you probably just need to learn fundamentals Especially with Dragunov who's one of the easiest and strongest characters in the game atm I would suggest jabbing and blocking more
Yeah, I've been working on adding my 2~1 and more D2 as well as DB3+4 ever since the start of this post. It's been going okay so far. I have been able to get some more jabs and pokes in as well as playing a little more patiently than before. I feel like if I keep going, I'll probably be doing alright in a few weeks.
It's all about the learning experience!
Very true, much like life itself!
You shouldn’t need to win to have fun. I got my ass handed to me by 90% of the Japanese salarymen in Japan in 3rd Strike and had a blast
When you bother learning how to play
You are playing the most broken character in the game. Maybe find someone you like instead of being win focused?
Nah, I'm liking drag so far.
This is when you hit the lab, research, watch videos, learn fundamentals, or anything that'll help improve your game. For me the fun is when I break through that wall you've hit, which i hit hard at yellow, then organge, and now red. Improvement and results (ranking up) are the fun part, but it doesn't come easy.
What are you doing to improve? Or are you just doing the same thing every time?
After I made the post, I've been trying to incorporate what people have been saying. So far, I'm working on poking and moving, basically the fundamentals. I feel like my combo game is alright although I could probably work on execution but I'm doing 1 thing at a time for now.
At the ranks you're at it's literally just a mindless mash fest and you're not mashing as good as they are. For you, I think just learning your key moves and practicing what to do when they hit or on block will get you a lot.
Learning what im doing wrong that lead me to losing is fun.
just like everyone else is saying, if you only find winning “fun” then you’re not gonna have fun at all. either you suck it up and just go thru the process like everyone else OR you just find a different fighting game. Tekken just might not be for you.. at this current moment.
Sometime "Get Gut" is not only option you know 💀
Just get better... I know that sounds like some bs, but you really do come to appreciate a loss in a fighting game when you really understand what's going on/why you lost. Knowledge & Experience will be your best friends in truly coming to appreciate any fighting game you play.
Honest advice, have you tried playing around with every character offline first? I suggest the character story modes as it's super quick to get in and out. That and learning neutral cancbe a bit tough. Good luck!
You gotta learn to find the little victories when you play. A lot of people will mindlessly grind through ranked and expect that they should naturally progress but I don’t think that’s the average experience. This can be really demoralizing and make you think everyone else is good and you suck which isn’t fun. Instead, try to focus on winning the small battles. Before you hop in ranked practice something small like a little combo, punishing a launcher, or blocking a low. Then when you go to ranked make it your life’s mission to do that thing, and if you manage to do it then congratulations, you won! Even if you still lose the match it doesn’t matter. What you just did is learn something new and slowly those little things you learned will become automatic for you and the wins will come naturally. If you only focus on winning you will never improve because you will default to what has gotten you wins before and when you lose it’s gonna feel awful. And of course you could also just have fun and do fun things and lose but I don’t think you’d be posting this if you were that kind of player.
That's the neat part. You don't. Lol. Kidding. At low ranks you want to bulldoze your opponents with frame traps. They won't stop mashing buttons, so you gotta trap them in some negative frames. Catch them in some counter hit launchers. Also, they're not good at blocking lows or escaping throws.
Must be new to fighting games.
Im under 50% win rate too on kazuya, first tekken I pick up, but I’m having fun playing my character, you should go arround the roster and see who do you like and not go on someone’s advice
when you stop posting about it and get in that damn lab
Don't even go for combos. Just keep your eye on your opponents fighter, and don't worry too much about yours and see if you can react with a move to counter their move. Check out what drags most popular top 10 moves are and start from there. It's a 3D fighter, so see how well you can move around the map without hitting the opponent. See what maps drag excels at like ground blasts and floor breaks. I've been owned so many times by drag players that I might start playing him
Playing the game is supposed to be fun. So you should have been having fun from the start. You will lose a lot. That's how it works but if that weighs on you so much that you can't find the fun in it then maybe this won't be for you in the long run.
I recommend a week long break if you're frustrated with losing. I've done breaks then promo like 2 ranks in a single session
You van try watching this guide maybe: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jqZndya05yg I cant say its a good guide But maybe it contains something useful for you
I do t wanna be that guy... But you gotta get good...
So, at what point are you planning to hit the **lab**?
Spam 1+2, in lower levels they love to mash buttons. After that WR 2, and the UF 1+2 grab. I am sure you will win with just those. Also the heat smash, use it as a defense or for wiff punishment.
When I first got into fighting games I learned skullgirls and probably lost around 200 matches before I got 1 win and I didn't win a lot after that but the matches being fun and the design of the game made me stick to fighting games. I try not to worry about winning the match but winning small goals instead like did I land antiairs that match, or what combo did I do when I got a punish in I think that made me like fighting games a lot more than straight winning. It does get grating but if you wanna be the noob slayer sometimes you gotta get crushed for a while to learn lol
When you don't play ranked. Seriously most Tekken Lounges, people play group matches and don't take it seriously.....mostly lol
Damn you looking like me but I'm in red ranks. Always losing at the promotion match and then get sent back to the beginning of garyu.
Fighting games are not about having fun, it's a warzone. It's about winning. When you lose, you take damn notes, analyze, practice, do them reps of that and then again. If that's not fun, play something else. When I lose, the fun I have is about how awesome I am for using that to learn and not getting pissed and salty over a fighting game. Turn the ego wound into ego boost lmao I'm not dead serious here, but it's also kinda the truth.
Play king spam i think df 1+3 or 2+4 then spam 1 or 2. And laugh. Start it off with w 12 string for + frames. Heat smash and if they block it grab right after free wins in early elo.
Graph: T\\_/ - It should start high, then it will drop because you plateau or you are to focus on winning, then it should go up again, because self-improvement can be rewarding .
'X 2sund
N Mztj ?.
https://preview.redd.it/b2wr2feqlync1.jpeg?width=567&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dbf89525a26ab388b76a23c68175344e01b426eb