How to Beat JP in SF6 (Tips and Tricks)

How to Beat JP in Street Fighter 6

In this guide, we’ll teach you some tips, tricks, and approaches for how to beat JP in SF6!

The first thing anyone hoping to beat JP needs to do is actually learn what his moves are, and what each animation actually does.

For instance, the first few times someone plays against JP, they won’t know he has a projectile command grab, or how his Departure and Tobalan function.

Let’s dive into the most important moves you should keep in mind and how to deal with them.

If you need help against zoners in general, check out our How to Play Against Zoners guide.

JP’s Projectiles

Your primary goal when facing JP is to stay out of his optimal range. JP is essentially uncontestable at full screen.

Once you get in on JP, don’t think you have a free win. JP is still strong at close distance and footsies range.

Your approach game will need to be on point since JP wants to zone you out and many of his close range combos launch you back to full screen.

JP can mix up his Tobalan projectile with 4 possible variations: Neutral hit, Overhead, Low attack, and feint.

• JP is locked into the animation while each of his projectiles are active so jumping over can lead to big damage for you!
  • If you start punishing JP for using Tobalan, expect him to try to bait a jump in with the Feint.

For the Embrace command grab projectile, learn to recognize the start up animation and vocal cue. It cannot be blocked but can always be safely jumped over.

• If you hear either of these voice lines. The Embrace is coming for you.
  • “The wait… is over!”
  • “Prepare!”
• Depending on Departure or lvl 2 SA setups, may need to neutral, forward, or backwards jump to avoid getting juggled.

Triglav

Depending on the strength chosen, JP controls how far away the ground spike will appear. The best options to play around Triglav are:

• Block / Parry
• Close to midrange most characters can punish Triglav with a Perfect Parry→Drive Rush.

Departure (Portal): Window – teleport; Shadow – manually activated spike.

If choosing to parry instead of block, always parry as late as possible. Ideally, perfect parry of course, but the main advantage to last-second parry is not getting stuck in parry animation, and JP teleports in on you for a Punish Counter grab.

Walk, dash, or jump away from spikes. You need to mixup to not get punished by a strike or AA from JP.

Amnesia

The most common use of Amnesia is for a JP player to wake up with OD Amnesia. This wakeup option beats meatys and grabs which are generally the best offensive options for the attacker. Though it is one of JP’s strongest wakeup options, it is also high risk.

Ideally, you counter Amnesia by opting to shimmy on their wake-up – baiting out OD Amnesia – or simply not attacking immediately upon JPs wake up. If correctly guessed, JP has now wasted 2 Drive Gauge bars and your immediate response attack will be a Punish Counter.

You’ll need to cautiously attack JPs on their wake-up, showing to them that you are aware of their tricks which will make them more hesitant to wakeup Amnesia, giving you greater offensive pressure.

First off, don’t Panic. Here, Punk makes the mistake of double back-dashing and hitting himself with Amnesia.

If Amnesia is activated by grab or a heavy attack with long recovery, JP gets a guaranteed combo follow up. If you’re going to meaty JP, it’s best to use a quick attack with fast recovery (such as crouching jab) so you have enough time to grab tech, block or parry.

• Attacks that are less than -4 on block allow you to attack before JP
• Midscreen OD Amnesia does not get a guaranteed combo off grab.

If you activate OD Amnesia, you are forced into a strike/grab mixup and will have to correctly guess which option JP will go for. He can high/low mixup his attack, or simply grab you. Any of these hits will lead to you eating a ton of damage on the combo follow-up.

You can opt to parry the high/low mix up, and will be rewarded with a good amount of Drive Gauge refilled from the strikes and the Amnesia orbs. You will, however, take extra Punish Counter damage from a grab if you choose to parry and miss a throw tech.

Meaty Fireball and slow fireball.

• Amnesia does not counter projectiles so if your character has one, you can use it.

The final most broken thing about OD Amnesia is if they read you’re going to be mashing jabs, JP can cancel into his LVL 1, beat the jabs and the Amnesia will place you into a juggle state after the LVL 1 for a massive damage combo.

• Demonstrated in the combo video above when Zangeif tries to poke string after activating OD Amnesia.

Drive Impact Counter

A prepared JP will OD Amnesia to beat your DI attempt. This gives him an extremely damaging counter combo that is more optimal than if he reverses DI. Because it is so strong you’ll want to be very tricky when attempting to DI JP in order not to get punished hard for your attempt.

Super Arts

Lvl 1 Chornobog

JP’s lvl 1 shouldn’t pose too many problems for you. It’s primarily used as a combo ender.

• Remember that it beats Drive Impact

Lvl2 Lovushka

The most difficult SA to play around when facing JP is his lvl 2.

• The order to block the Lovushka spikes is always:
  • Mid (back), OH (forward), Low (forward), OH (back)

Here’s a video from Chris Tatarian explaining a consistent pattern to get out of one of the most common lvl 2 setups JP players use on your wake-up.

If JP goes for teleport in jumping kick for the unblockable set up, you can actually avoid it by:

• Blocking the first hit and immediately jumping out.
• Parry first hit to Drive Rush out
• Parry 2 hits then anti-air him out of portal

If you are in burnout, JP has a true unblockable setup due to the extra frames of blocks stun.

In this frame, you are simultaneously being hit with the SA overhead and JP’s low short.

Lvl3 Interdiction

While primarily used as a combo ender for big damage, JP can also use his level 3 similar to Cammy’s lvl 3, and punish fireballs from full screen if they are prepared for the reaction.

Normals

JP’s go to pokes and footsie tools are his standing and crouching medium punches and kicks. Both Mp have a disjointed hitbox, and are good for Whiff punishing.

• Cr. Mp and St. Mk can be canceled into a combo or DRC.

Counter Play

While risky, and vulnerable to being Whiff punished, most characters sweeps (crouching heavy kick) beat JPs medium punch. Some characters’ medium kicks, or special moves also work. Standing Medium Kick’s short range allows for more punish options on whiff.

Plus on Block Attacks

Lastly, here are some on block attacks to keep in mind:

• Standing Heavy Kick +2
• OD Triglav +3
• Heavy Stribog +4

Final thoughts

The craziest thing about JP is that he is simultaneously the best zoner in Street Fighter 6 and the strongest counter to the other zoning characters. JP gives very few opportunities to punish on block since his normals are basically all safe on block to any of your own normals.

Even his attacks with higher negative frames space him far enough away that punishing after block is rarely an option. This can create a lot of frustration when facing JP.

You’ll need to focus on your approach, staying focused, and trying to keep the offensive advantage once you have it.

Understanding how to respond to his attacks and where you can create openings or fish for Whiff Punishes are going to be the pivotal factors in winning or losing to JP players.