The question is arguably why a guide on dealing with Ken, when Evil Ryu, Yun, and several others are higher tier.

Ken is possibly the easiest character to get into in IV, and has relatively quick recovery times on all of his moves, making them pretty safe. Why Ken? Because people new to fighters tend to gravitate towards those properties. His moveset is similar to Ryu's, only you can't punish him as easily. And he has cool flames on his shoryu, I guess.

Other higher tier characters require a bit more skill rather than a loose grasp on the game's mechanics and 40% button mashing. Even so Ken's somewhat hard to deal with due to his properties. Ken is one of those character's that you have to know better than others in order to beat.

Low level Ken mainers have roughly 4 tools at their disposal, understanding them leads to learning to deal with them

Oh hey it's that little heard of move.

Has high startup and invincibility frames. The weak version comes out pretty fast and has pretty quick recovery, with fierce leaving him wide open and mid working in-between.

Punishing it: Depending on your latency and speed you may want to punish him while he's in the air, not when he lands. When Ken hits the floor he recovers relatively fast, so you want to punish him quickly. He can follow it up with another shoryu, a super, or an ultra. Unless you can immediately punish it and/or are up close and your normals and/or specials/super are quick, beware of his recovery. If you're not too quick its safer to punish it whilst he's airborne, or block it and grab him immediately afterwards.

Generally, Ken's online throw out a random ultra when they land, expecting their shoryu to be punished if it hasn't already. Or a super might come out, due to mashing another shoryu. Keep that in mind when punishing. Know the speed of your ultra and specials, with 10 minutes of training Ken can Shoryu past a few ultras if they're fireballs and/or don't have invincibility frames.

His weak shoryu is deceptively fast, so learn it's speed. Coupled with his fast recovery when grounded, his short time in the air makes for a rather powerful version of his shoryu. It can actually be used as bait if timed well, and he can punish your whiffed attack with an ultra.

The take-away here is to either hit him whilst he's coming down or immediately react when he lands. Latency may be to your disadvantage and he may ultra after a missed shoryu, so keep that in mind.

I'm seperating the two because they can be used differently.

Tatsumaki

Ken's hurricane kick. Each hit combos, with the fierce version doing a five hit combo. Beware that it goes through fireballs.

Punishing it: Nothing complex here, if hit by the first hit you can block after its done, meaning it can't be used to start a combo. If Ken does it, you can simply duck and none of the hits will connect. Ken will fly past you, and he has no invincibility. You can either wait for him to go past you and attack him (again, no invincibility), or you can counter attack right there and then depending on the properties of your characters move.

If done from afar, you can actually just stand there and mash out jabs and hit ken out of it while he's coming towards you. The worst case scenario is you both get hit, but it still counts as a counter. Or, depending on the ultra, you can pull one out while he's coming towards you. Treat his tatsu as a big 'hit me' sign.

Beware that once it's over he recovers immediately. Just like Shoryu you're safest punish is while he's airborne. Various ultras will connect while he's doing it so it's a case by case basis.

EX Tatsumaki

This one's a little different. It's got faster start up than his regular ones, and he goes flying past the screen. Otherwise, the same rules apply. Punish the same exact ways. If your own move has invincibility use it, like zangief's lariat while he's chipping you (lariat has, like, one frame of invincibility during its startup).

The difference between this and regular is that it can be used as an overhead if done from above. To block it you have to block high, not low. Also, if hit by it from above Ken can immediately go into his ultra 1 or ultra 2. That's right, Ken can immediately go into his ultra, supers, or anything else from overhead ex tatsu.

Block.
EX Tatsu.
High.

I'm including one of his normals because, like I said, low level Ken's have certain tools at their arsenal, this being one of them.

Can't be combo'd into any of his ultras, specials, supers, or other normals on contact. It's merely used to get closer to you.

How to Punish: After the kick lands, whether you blocked or it hit you, you can't punish Ken. Surprise, just as with the other moves there's virtually no recovery time even if blocked. This is due to block stun. When you block a move, there's a slight delay before you can counter attack. The delay is just long enough for Ken to go into blocking position after using the move whether it hit you or you blocked it.

The only way to punish this command normal, as with every other one of his specials, is to punish while he's doing it. It has *slight* start-up which you can punish. And if it didn't connect he's slightly more vulnerable during its entire duration due to the abscence of block stun. But if he whiffs it odds are he's fairly far from you, and at most you'll trade normals. So it's a character by character basis. If your character has a fast ultra or special that closes gaps (whether normal or ex), use it. But it has to connect quickly from input to actually touching your opponent. Once Ken lands on the floor (in this case, his foot), he can't be punished.

A UNIVERSAL way to deal with it is to focus it. Of course, you need to activate focus once you see his animation going into play. Focusing it doesn't put you into block stun and close enough to punish it fully. But it's a case of getting familiar with the animation. Nothing too difficult, though.

That's right, grab. A universal mechanic is a significant part of Ken's arsenal specifically because Ken is all about getting close to the opponent, and because his back grab throws your fuc*ing ass halfway across the screen. It can potentially corner you right away. It's beyond godly.

He has two competent ways of getting into the opponents face, and part of Ken's game when close to the opponent is to either grab, shoryu, or overhead. I'll go into detail later on, just know that it's part of his arsenal moreso than other characters.

There's not much to say other than to tech the throw. Learn the timing window and how to spot a throw coming.

So put it all together: what's a low level Ken's game from afar?

Generally low level Ken's try to get close to you, trying to get a knock down. They do this through a combination of tatsus and forward m.kicks. Ken's not a zoning character anyway, so expect them to close the gap.

What you do depends. If you're a grappler you obviously want him to be near you (and if he's smart, he'll start using Hado's). If you're a zoning character, throw fireballs obsessively. Just know that Ken mainers at lower levels tend to start throwing out tatsus and F.MK's to get close.

How to deal with Ken and get close to HIM is character specific, but GENERALLY you want to avoid jump-ins. He has a shoryu, if you're jumping in on him you're just as scrubby as he is. Or maybe you're the scrub. Ken's shoryu doesn't armor break, but his medium and fierce versions have multiple hits. Meaning it WILL hit you even if you ex'd it, provided your attack doesn't hit immediately upon contact faster than the second or third hit of his shoryu hit you.

Here's where most people have problems. Either you got close to Ken, or Ken closed the gap. Whatever the case, both of you are staring each other down.

Ken's game up close is fairly decent. It's good if you're actually competent with him, with his fierce kick being a good way to bait out reactions. But we're gonna focus on low level Ken's and their arsenal here.

Generally Ken mainers do the following up close:

Tatsu or EX tatsu

Easily blocked, easily punished. If you can't do anything else then just crouch and jab. They shouldn't be doing this up close or without linking it somehow but whatever, teach them not to. Punish them while they're in the air, or duck and let him make space between you two. Just as with shoryu, there's some slight recovery after it finishes, but ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ is it slight. Best bet is to punish it while he's doing it, unless a combo would serve you better than a reset.

If he's using this in the air, you can punish it with anti-airs. Just remember it's an overhead and must be blocked high. He can control the trajectory and close the gap between you two, but you shouldn't get hit by it since you have ample time to react.

Forward medium kick

Block high. It has farily long start up time, and can be punished if you're quick enough.

Random ass weak shoryus

Since Ken's shoryu has invincibility, you want to be careful when facing him close up. If he throws one of these out, due to invincibility he can get a hit. GENERALLY you want to wait for him to throw one of these, and punish it. This is primarily what people have issues with, his shoryus. If so you may want to play a punishing game: defend and punish them. Hit him while he's in the air or coming down. You've got an opportunity to attack when he's floored, but you've got to act quick. As I've said before, if latency isn't to your favor it may be best to attack him while he's in the air.

Cross-up aerial Mid-Kick

This is a little more advanced, but Ken's like to jump over you and throw out a mid kick, landing behind you. If it hits, he can immediately combo it with an ex tatsu, shoryu of varying strength, super, but not his ultras.

Block it high, and start blocking in the other direction for his possible follow-up. It's possible to time it so that the trajectory is such that it hits as a cross up rather than an overhead, but you shouldn't have to worry about that with Ken's of a lower level. You can also punish it depending on your characters anti-airs and the speed of their normals in the air.

Grab

Here's a low level Ken's mix-up game. Grabbing.

Ken tends to get close to the opponent with tatsus, jump-ins and forward mid kicks. Punish the tatsus accordingly, knowing when he's vulnerable (while he's in the air, and briefly while he's on the ground) and that it doesn't even touch you and you don't even have to block if you're crouching it (unless you're xbox huge, like T.Hawk). Punish the forward kicks, if with nothing else than with obsessively mashing out jabs. Beware of his back grab, which can potentially corner you and throw the game in his favor, as you're now playing defense.

IF Ken get's close, he tends to switch between weak shoryus, the aforementioned cross-up, and grabs. Grabs are pretty easy to spot. He tends to go a bit without doing anything and walks forward. Tech them, and learn the teching timing window. Delaying your wakeup throws his grabbing game off as well, so it's always an option if nothing else than to ♥♥♥♥ with Ken's head. Grabs are part of his wakeup game, so lets get into that.

Once he knocks you down, Ken has two strong options against you. He can get up close to you, and then choose between two options:

Grab

Like all characters, Ken can simply grab you. Having fast walk speed, he can get close to you real quick. You can tech it, but this is a manner of fast reactions and good latency. Beward that if you're in the middle of the map or if you're in the process of applying pressure on him, his backgrab can immediately turn the tide and corner you.

Shoryu

Ken can alternate between grabs and shoryus. If grabbed, say, twice, he can bait a reaction from you. You might expect another grab so he uses shoryu's invincibility to punish that reaction. Or you might expect the first grab and he can shoryu, with it connecting.

Do absolutely nothing

Rather than grab or shoryu, Ken can simply wait, expecting you to do something.


The issue against a Ken on wake-up is that you don't know whether he'll Shoryu or grab. Either you react to the grab pre-emptively and get punished, counter attack the grab and get shoryu'd, or react to nothing and leave yourself wide open. Even EX moves can't deal with Ken's invincibility properties on start-up, unless they have invincibility frames and more of them than Ken's shoryu. So it's a character to character scenario.

This is why you need to learn to tech throws (and need good latency). If he can't throw, you can continously block and be safe on wakeup, and punish shoryu's. Weak shoryu's can be focused (since they don't have armor break) and punished accordingly. Medium shoryus can be focused, and then backdashed out of depending on the character and their backdash speed. This would require fast speed and good latency to pull off.

Part of it is a guessing game and being able to read grabs. Rule of thumb is if there's space between you two its either a shoryu, nothing at all, or he's going to continue pressuring you. The point is waking up safely and depends on the character you've picked. Fuerte, for example, can immediately use his ultra 2 and it'll go through shoryus and grabs. But that would lead to Ken playing differently.

Similar to the previous section, Ken's can either shoryu on wakeup or do what any other character can do on wakeup: ultra, ex their specials, super, etc.

The only real threat here is shoryu. So be VERY wary of going in for grabs. Ken can punish them quickly, in addition to teching them.

This'll be the emptiest section since the manner in which you punish Ken on wakeup and your options will vary from character to character. Just know that if you rely on grabs Ken can tech them as well as punish them. A general rule of thumb, and it's fuc*ing general, is to leave a bit of space between you and Ken, to safely block shoryu's and ultras, and also not get grabbed. But still close enough to punish him.

Hell, fuc*ing with them by getting real close and continously walking forward, then walking slightl;y backwards and blocking is almost a sure fire way to bait out shoryus and ultras at such a low level.

you just gotta, you know, git gud.

But seriously, I'm no pro at SF but Ken's tend to follow a general guideline to their pressure, and a good portion of dealing with it for me tends to be learning how to tech throws and learning when his moves are punishable. To beat Ken you need to have a firm grasp on your characters inputs and being able to bring them out immediately, due to Ken's quick recovery.

If nothing else, you can just wait for the eventual shoryus and punish them while he's coming down from them or still airborne. Just beware that weak shoryus recover fast and depending on the speed of your special and whether it connects or not, Ken can actually bait out reactions with weak shoryus and go into an ultra. If latency is kinda ♥♥♥♥ just punish him in the air, not whilst he's grounded.

Hopefully this helps at least one person learn something. There's probably better advice, but here's my two cents.