Charge buffering in Street Fighter 4

Last updated on Sept. 10, 2009

Ever went up against a Guile player that has an exceptional ability to pull off a Sonic Boom even when you could have sworn he didn't have enough time to charge it up?

They likely were using a technique called, "charge buffering," that gives you a few extra frames of charge time to execute your moves. Gilley, who's contributed a ton of stuff to the Street Fighter community, put together a pretty sweet video showing the technique in action.

The basic idea is to do the motion for the Sonic Boom, but quickly press back and a Punch button to complete it. Your move should still come out because Capcom's Street Fighter games offer quite a bit of leniency when performing some moves.

In other words — you don't have to do the motion perfectly — and because of this you can re-position your joystick so you're charging up for your next projectile even as the current one is coming out.

Here's how the motion would look if you used Guile's Sonic Boom as an example.

This trick works with all charge characters and it can give you a big advantage in some situations.

Posted by Dee on September 11, 2009 at 12:40 a.m. #1

Ha missing links Awesome

Posted by Selig on September 11, 2009 at 3:01 a.m. #2

Déjà vu :D

Posted by Sinanju on September 11, 2009 at 4:37 a.m. #3

thank you very much.. very informative

Posted by lolerskates on September 11, 2009 at 4:47 a.m. #4

I learned this in SF3 : Third Strike , buffering Remy's Light of Virtue, aka charge partitioning. If only Guile had a low sonic boom he would be a much more well rounded character.

Posted by geodude on September 11, 2009 at 8:02 a.m. #5

this was posted before (?!)

Posted by djoksa on September 11, 2009 at 3:47 p.m. #6

Very usefull. Thanks

Posted by anonymous on September 11, 2009 at 4:16 p.m. #7

"aka charge partitioning"

Charge partitioning is a different technique where a charge is broken up between another move like a dash. For instance in third strike Urien could dash up headbutt by charging down for a second, dashing while holding down during the dash then up punch for the headbutt. Partitioning and buffering are two different things, both conceal a charge but one breaks in up while the other buffers.

Posted by #7 on September 11, 2009 at 7:30 p.m. #8

nailed it bro.

Posted by PSN Grey Lynx on October 1, 2009 at 1:40 a.m. #9

I call it quick charging because that's what it is and simply your using extra frames to charge again during one of the charge attacks making you ready to charge quickly enough to throw them out as fast as command

Posted by pooploser on October 8, 2009 at 7:15 p.m. #10

can this be done with any charge character... or just guile?

Posted by kanye west on October 11, 2009 at 12:09 p.m. #11

yo this doesnt work for me ;(. WTF guise. I'm doing it really fast too.

Posted by #12 on October 12, 2009 at 2:10 a.m. #12

If you haven't figured it out already, pooploser, it works for all the charge characters (and in whatever direction, i.e. with flash kicks, head stomps, psycho crusher, etc).

Posted by Vaarp on October 20, 2009 at 3:13 p.m. #13

#11 You have to press the punch button at the same time you press foward, but instantly you press back again for precharging the next Sonic Boom while Guile is doing the actual Sonic Boom animation

Posted by elijah on October 21, 2009 at 4:01 p.m. #14

okay i got the pre-charging thing, but how do cancel a sonic boom into double flash kick?

Posted by Shikidy on November 2, 2009 at 1:08 p.m. #15

On the last combo can you do that with a regular controlar?

Posted by hondarawr on November 16, 2009 at 11:36 a.m. #16

oh yes. thank you. I will use with the sumo king.