Character Overview
Guide by Nyoronoru
C. Viper is a powerful mixup and crossup character with great offensive options from a multitude of ranges. One of the most difficult characters to play in Super Street Fighter IV, her power and zoning game is matched by very few. Her strengths lie in her ability to feint and counter, her tendency to constantly shove players into the corner, and the ability to combo into her Ultras easily. She is also one of the only two characters who can Super Jump, making it extremely difficult to lock her down.
Her downsides are that out of all of her normal moves there are none which paticularly stand out as a go-to or useful move. Because of this, Viper is weak in short-range encounters against characters like Abel, Cammy, or Dictator. She also has low stamina and a slow reversal game, making it difficult to play defensively. Her Focus Attack is extremely slow and her dash is laggy as well. Lastly, making an execution mistake with C. Viper usually comes with far worse consequences compared to other characters.
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Strengths •
+ Extremely powerful, can get big damage off of very little meter.
+ Deadly juggle game, especially in the corner.
+ Can stun characters extremely quickly.
+ Her bread and butter combo forces opponents to fight with their backs to the wall.
+ Her Ultras are very damaging and easy to combo into.
+ Can pressure from anywhere on the screen.
+ Very ambiguous crossup moves along with an overhead.
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Weaknesses •
- Poor stamina and stun rating.
- Reversal options are slow, making them easy to jump safely against.
- A very high execution requirement to pull off her best tricks.
- Normal move anti airs are almost non-existent.
- Is a big victim of characters that can avoid her Burn Kick naturally.
Notable Normal Moves and Unique Attacks
Super Jump
Viper can use the jets on her shoes to jump to great heights, both forward, backward, and neutrally. If you combine this tactic with your Burning Kick it can be extremely difficult to hit Viper out of the air.
Viper's Super Jump has more uses than just jumping really high though. She can use the Super Jump to cancel any of her cancelable normals and her Seismic Hammer. Another fact is that Viper can cancel the Super Jump into Ultra 1 or 2 or another special move. Using this you can sequentially cancel a normal attack into her Ultra for a very difficult but worthwhile combo.
Viper hops forward and throws her leg out for a fast two-hit attack. Considering that she already has a great Focus-breaking move, this attack isn't too useful. She does step pretty far forward when doing it though.
This move comes out automatically as a regular normal when close to the opponent, so be careful.
Viper does an overhead attack that is safe on block (except against grapplers). A really great move as it will hop over low attacks completely and it is super quick. You must use this move in your playstyle to keep players guessing, otherwise they will merely block low for the entire duration of your ground offense.
The main jumping normal you'll want to be using. It has incredible priority as the active hitbox stays out for a very long time. It also does an extraordinary amount of hitstun and can cross up. Just overall a fantastic move.
This is Viper's main zoning normal, one you'll want to be threatening your opponent with repeatedly. Nearly all of her damaging combos begin with this move.
Pivot Kick (Far Standing Hard Kick)
If this move makes contact with an aerial opponent it will place them in an untechable knockdown.
Special Moves
Damage
Light
100
Medium
110
Hard
70
EX
120
Properties
Viper slides forward or up with her fist covered in electricity. The Light Thunder Knuckle can be blocked high or low and it has the slowest startup time. The Medium Thunder Knuckle is a standard combo ender. The Hard version is used as an anti-air and as a reversal attack.
The Medium Thunder Knuckle is the best way for Viper to chip an opponent. Canceling from a Crouching Medium Punch or Kick adds up to a simple combo that can't be retaliated against at close range. It's also one of the best and easiest ways to break armor, making it difficult to Focus Attack against C. Viper. The Light Thunder Knuckle is almost the exact same as the Medium except that Viper ducks lower, making it harder to counter-attack her with high moves. Viper can also duck under projectiles with the Light Thunder Knuckle.
The Hard Thunder Knuckle juggles the opponent to where you can land it twice on an airborne enemy. If you catch someone high enough with it, you can also combo into Ultra 1. If that's not enough, you can also FADC the Hard version to land Ultra 1 in the corner as well. Using the Hard Thunder Knuckle as an anti-air works because of its startup invincibility. The startup of this move is slow compared to other anti-air special moves, so you'll have to be careful.
If you are using the Hard Thunder Knuckle as a reversal, don't forget that it's not suited for dealing with crossups. It also starts up in seven frames (a typical dragon punch reversal starts anywhere from three to five frames) making it very slow, so you'll have to make sure your opponent has committed to an attack before using it. Despite its slow startup, it does have a nice amount of startup invincibility. The invincibility does not overlap the attacking portion of the move though.
You can cancel (feint) the Thunder Knuckle by pressing any two punch buttons after you start it up. You can use this to trick the opponent into blocking, and then throw them. You can also use this technique to lower the recovery time of normal moves, most notably your crouching Hard Punch. If you want to use it for that purpose though then you should always cancel the Hard Thunder Knuckle, as it has the fastest feint recovery.
EX Version: This travels the entire width of the screen in a fast dashing motion. If it lands it places the opponent in a crumple stun where you can combo them (though you have to be fast!). It's an easy way to land Ultra 1, but the probability of someone getting hit with this move is almost zero due to the huge startup. If you need to punish a really laggy move from far away then this just might be the move you need. The closer you activate this to the opponent, the harder it will be to combo them if it hits.
Damage
Light
100
Medium
100
Hard
100
EX
120
Properties
Viper performs a cross-kick that can negate projectiles. Using this attack for ground pressure is a very risky thing to do because it starts up slowly and doesn't break armor. It also is at frame disadvantage on block meaning that grappler characters will be able to grab you. It also starts up too slowly to be used in any combo and cannot cross up opponents. Overall, there are not very many reasons to use this move other than to build meter fullscreen.
The Burning Kick can dodge low attacks as C. Viper does jump slightly off the ground to perform her flaming cross-kick. Viper's hittable box is completely airborne on the very first frame of activation, making it possible to use this move as a reversal against a low poke on the ground. It's still unlikely that this move will intercept anything though.
Despite the fact that Viper summons flames on both sides of her body for this move, the hitbox for the attack only appears on the side that the opponent is on. It also reaches up rather high and isn't active for very long despite its appearance.
EX Version: EX Ground Burning Kick starts up three times faster than its regular counterparts. It also has a big chunk of startup invincibility. If you are really desperate to get pressure off of you as a Viper player you can use this as a reversal. It can still avoid low attacks just like a regular Burning Kick but the EX version is much more unsafe on block and can be heavily punished.
Damage
Light
90
Medium
90
Hard
90
EX
140
Properties
C. Viper's Aerial Burning Kick is a lot different than her grounded one. Not only do all three versions start up faster than their ground counterparts, but the hitbox for the move is much wider and is active for a much longer time. The same movement properties still apply with the Hard version moving Viper the farthest and the Light version stopping her in place when jumping forward.
C. Viper can combo into her Aerial Burning Kick from a Seismic Hammer Super Jump combo, or she can use the move for ambiguous crossup attacks. The Hard version can now cross up opponents when activated closely to the ground.
You can also cancel into the Aerial Burning Kick from jump-in attacks as long as the normal move makes contact with the opponent in some way. Since the blockstun of the canceled normal move overlaps the execution of the Burning Kick, it forces the opponent to guess which way to block.
Because the hitbox for this move is positioned higher than the Ground Burning Kick, it is possible for some opponents to duck under them using the properties of certain normal moves. You must take this into account especially if you try to attack with this move without any setup beforehand.
EX Version: This starts up much faster than the regular Air Burning Kicks, but it has no invincibility whatsoever. The upside to this move is that it knocks the opponent higher, allowing more juggles afterwards (such as more EX Aerial Burning Kicks).
Damage
Light
120
Medium
120
Hard
120
EX
100
Properties
Viper slams her fist into the ground which creates a quake that knocks down and juggles the opponent. Depending on the button pressed, the location of the quake changes. You can cancel this attack on hit or block with a Super Jump to either jump to safety or to combo into a Burning Kick. This attack must be blocked low at all times.
You can use this move to force fireball throwers to respect your options, but against characters with more damaging projectiles such as Sagat you might want to try other tactics since Viper has low stamina. Against someone with weak or slow projectiles this move can be really good. The downside to its good punish properties is that it is impossible to combo into this move without an initial counter-hit.
To feint (cancel) the Seismic Hammer, simply press any two punch buttons after the startup. The stronger the Seismic Hammer, the faster it can be cancelled. This doesn't help much in combos since the motion is more complicated than a Thunder Knuckle Cancel but it can be play some deadly mind games with your opponent as they don't know which Hammer has the ability to hit, or whether or not you are about to pull out the powerful EX Seismic Hammer.
EX Version: The EX Seismic Hammer covers about 70% of the visible floor in front of C. Viper. It's one of the best EX moves in the game and it has a large amount of startup invincibility. It's safe on block against everyone in the cast because Viper can Super Jump away from the opponent while they are still in blockstun. It also starts up faster than the regular version, giving the opponent less time to react. The faster startup time also means that you can finally combo into the move.
This is C. Viper's go-to reversal because of the invincibility, but unfortunately the invincibility doesn't last for the entire duration of the move. It's also easy to jump safely against because of the amount of startup time. It's also easy to react late to the move and stuff it with a normal attack after the invincibility wears off. If you are really trying to use all your options you can Cancel the EX Seismic Hammer to give yourself an invincible "empty" reversal that allows you to avoid crossup attacks while minimizing risk to yourself.
Super and Ultra Moves
Properties
Viper has some pretty easy hit confirms into her Super, examples being a crouching Medium Kick or a Medium Thunder Knuckle. The problem is that EX Seismic Hammer and FADC combos are integral to Viper's offensive game. You should only cancel into this Super if you are certain it will finish the opponent off.
The Light Super starts up the slowest but travels the farthest. The Hard version starts up the fastest but travels the least. For Super Canceling purposes, it is best to stick with the Hard version since the damage doesn't change by version. There is slight invincibility on startup with all versions of the Super but it is nothing noteworthy.
Properties
C. Viper slams her fist down for an explosive Seismic Thunder Punch and then juggles the opponent with a bunch of wide-ranging Burning Kicks. This attack can juggle aerial opponents but it cannot be used as an effective anti-air. When comboing from an aerial juggle, you'll want to wait until the back of the opponent is level with Viper's shoulders before activating the Ultra.
If there's one thing that Viper does not have a problem with, it is landing Burst Time. This is one of the easier Ultras to combo into — assuming your execution skills are up to the task — from one of the following techniques.
- Ground or Air Burning Kick (corner)
- Air Burning Kick (Character-specific, wide hitbox only)
- Super Jump-canceled normal into Ultra 1
- Hard Thunder Knuckle FADC (corner)
- Hard Thunder Knuckle Anti-Air (opponent must be caught reasonably high)
- Hard Thunder Knuckle Trade (you must dash immediately and perform the Ultra)
- EX Seismic Hammer (Close Range)
- EX Seismic Hammer FADC
- EX Seismic Hammer Meterless FADC
Properties
Despite being an aerial-only dive-kick Ultra, Burning Dance is very similar to Viper's Burst Time, but with easier comboability. As an example, rather than canceling the Super Jump Canceled normal attack into the Ultra immediately (since Viper has to stay grounded to use Ultra 1) you can cancel the Super Jump, wait a bit longer until Viper is airborne and then perform the Ultra.
Another example is the EX Seismic Hammer combos. Rather than relying on really difficult and meter-consuming tricks, you can do EX Seismic Hammer, Super Jump and combo into Ultra anywhere on screen. You can still do the same Super Jump Canceling techniques with this Ultra, but you have to do them from heavier normal attacks than before.
Because this Ultra is easier to combo into, it doesn't do as much damage as the first Ultra. That is the tradeoff. If you're a new player you might want to go for an Ultra that you can land consistently before you move on to Burst Time.
Instant Aerial Burning Kicks
Super Jump Canceling into Ultra Tips
Fierce-Feint-Fierce
A complicated attack where you cancel your crouching or standing Hard Punch into a Thunder Knuckle Feint and then use the small recovery of that feint to do another crouching Hard Punch. This adds really big damage and stun to Viper's combos. While you can do the entire thing raw input-wise, there is some tricks you can use to make the combo easier.
Start with a crouching Hard Punch. After pressing the button hold it down and do a quarter-circle back motion, then release the Punch button to get a Hard Thunder Knuckle (This is called a Negative Edge technique). Immediately move your joystick to a down position and hit two punch buttons (Medium and Hard) to cancel the Hard Thunder Knuckle. Then right after you cancel the Thunder Knuckle, hit the same two punch buttons again to get another crouching Hard Punch.
The combo described above definitely takes practice, but once you get accustomed to the motion it's not too difficult. While you might be able to survive as a Viper player without using the Fierce Feint Fierce, you're missing out on big damage if you don't use it. It would also do you well to research Negative Edge techniques.