How to Beat Ken in SF6 (Tips and Tricks)

How to Beat Ken in Street Fighter 6

Ken is one of the best characters in Street Fighter 6. He has incredible offensive pressure and can make opponents feel overwhelmed with the amount of attacks he can throw out with seemingly no opportunities to attack back. Ken has the best in-game corner carry and can even carry his opponent full screen from corner to corner.

As a rush-down style character so he ideally wants to always keep close distance to you. Ken’s will most often raw Drive Rush in, use Dragon Lash kick, run or dash forward to continuously push their advance. While Ken’s optimal range is being very close to his opponent, Ken is not easy to Zone out and has many approach tools to break through his opponent’s walls.

He also has some of the best blockstrings of any character, and turtling against him will result in you always being at a Drive Gauge Disadvantage.

Ken doesn’t have any bad matchups, but certain characters he is really strong against. Don’t worry too much about the specific matchup though, these tips are primarily universal ways for how to beat Ken!

With this in mind, here are common attacks and habits you’ll be able to catch players doing in your ranked matches.

Jinrai Kick

• Follow-ups: Shin Kick (hits low), Axe Kick (OH)

Every Jinrai variation (including OD) is unsafe on block. EXCEPT Heavy Jinrai (Ken yells, “Jinrai!”) which is only -2 on block. -2 allows the defender to attack first but does not allow enough time for a Punish Counter.

Heavy Jinrai

• Does not True Block String from any normal, so if you are expecting it and hear, “Jinrai!,” feel free to perfect parry or invincible reversal before it hits you. Canceled into a delayed shin kick leaves a gap large enough for an attack to start but not enough for any attack to connect.

(Light and Medium Jinrai are treated the same for the sake of countering. You only need to change your defensive option in response to hearing, “Jinrai!”)

Light and Medium Jinrai

• Do not True Block String into any follow-up (e.g. Shin Kick etc.).
• After blocking, you can always Punish Counter with any Invincible reversal with a 7 frame start up or faster.
  • Example video above.
• Shin Kick is -5 on block, making it punishable.

Jinrai is susceptible to Drive Impact on prediction since it cannot be canceled.

Cross Up

Ken’s jumping Medium Kick is a very strong cross-up. If your character has a DP, you’ll need to learn how to Cross-cut DP.

If your character does not have an invincible air attack, your best options are walking forward to block, attempting to perfect parry, or jumping for an air-to-air.

Hadoken

Ken’s Fireballs are not the best for zoning. However, they are very good for pressuring and mixing up his approach and on your wakeup.

He  can use light Hadoken as a wall to cover him as he Drive Rushes or Dragonlashes behind it.

• Meaty Hadoken and OD Hodoken are safe on block.

Corner Pressure

Ken has multiple side-switch attacks, and combined with his incredible corner carry, you’ll need to be prepared to defend while at Disadvantage in the corner.

Labbing your strike → Drive Impact reactions are crucial for this matchup.

• Common strike → Drive Impact options for Ken are
  • St. Hp
  • Cr. Mk
  • Cr. Mp

Standing heavy punch is safe on block and depletes almost a full bar of Drive Gauge, and is Super / DI cancellable.

Safe Jumps

Ken has A LOT of safe jump setups. He can combo into Jinrai, Dragonlash, and Tatsu to set up for a safe jump. If you see one of these followed by a jump-in attack by Ken, it is best to guard and NOT to attempt an invincible reversal on wakeup.

• Basic explanation of a Safe Jump: Jump-in attack that will block invincible wakeup attack from the defender AND connect on block or non-invincible wakeup option.

Dragonlash Kick

Light and Medium Dragonlash are unsafe on block. Medium is -8 giving stronger punish options, but to be sure you can counter light and medium, most characters crouching jab (4f) will Punish Counter.

• If you hear Ken yell, “How’s This!?” he is doing the heavy version and is plus on block. This means your reverse jab will be Counter Hit by his follow-up jab.
• +4 on meaty
• Can jab him out of the air.
• All anti-airs beat Dragonlash
• Early DI Guaranteed Punish Counter
  • Late reaction gives him enough time to DI back.
• If Ken is using meaty Dragonlash on your wakeup, DO NOT DI. You can only counter with perfect parry or invincible reversal.

Standing Medium Kick

Standing medium kick target combo is a common confirm for Ken because it has a generous cancel window. On block, it’s -5 for Ken. If in range most characters standing jab, cr. jab, cr short, can punish. So be watching for it!

Unsafe Habits

Flowcharting

• I promise you, Ken’s are the #1 offender of flowcharting their attacks. Most opponents do not know how to interrupt Ken’s block strings, so Ken players become used to going full muscle memory on the same attack patterns without paying attention to how their opponent is responding.
  • Figure out their attack patterns, and punish accordingly.
• Even the best Ken player in the world – EVO champion and Gamers8 runner up Angrybird – could not resist the urge to Dragonlash over and over while we watched in horror as Dragonlash after Dragonlash failed miserably.
  • Reference the rest of the guide for specific counter options to Ken’s common attacks.

Quick Dash → emergency stop, Thunder kick (OH)

• This entire sequence can be punished on reaction with a fast normal.

Block string into Jinrai Kick

• If you notice Ken keeps block stringing into Jinrai, Drive Impact his Jinrai. As aforementioned, it is un-cancelable and will punish counter every time. If it is light Jinrai and block strings, then DI won’t come out.

Plus on Block Moves

• Heavy Dragonlash +1

Whiff Punishes

Your most common opportunities for whiff punishing Ken are:

• Standing Medium Kick
• Crouching Medium Kick
• Heavy Kick
  • Standing Medium
  • Fast start up, short range, long recovery.
• Heavy Punch
• Dragonlash
  • When improperly spaced, or you moved backward outside of its range.

Easiest Block Punish Moves

• OD jinrai→hk→k -20 Frames
• Light Tatsu
• Mk & Hk tatsu
• OD jinrai→lk→k
• OD jinrai→mk→k
• St. Mk→Mk target combo
• Cr. Hp

Final Thoughts

The crazy thing about Ken in particular is that at casual and lower ranks, he is incredibly gimmicky and can win games just by spamming his oppressive normals and specials.

Simultaneously, he is one of the strongest characters in the highest level of competition and if a player has solid fundamentals, great execution, and a deep understanding of the game, Ken can be a character that allows for unlimited skill expression.

The best part about knowing how to beat Ken is you’ll have plenty of time to practice implementation of these tactics since he is by far the most played character! Have fun climbing through the ranks since ranked mode is often labeled by the community as, “Fight Ken.”