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.
Posted by Ex on November 20, 2009 at 10:01 p.m. #17
Heh, I use key board and what I do is holding the back button THE WHOLE TIME or ALWAYS. And to to the Sonic boom or whatever charge moves, I just have to push Forward + Punch/Kick without releasing the back button. The charge remains always.
The only problem is I can never do the Ultra or Super. There is a tricky way to do them but it's f**king complex.
Posted by ushiwakamaru30 on December 5, 2009 at 1:01 p.m. #18
Very useful video but Guile can never keep up with a shoto or sagat in a projectile contest. That's just not how guile was designed.
Posted by crazychillz on December 9, 2009 at 7:32 a.m. #19
sonic boom cancel to super
normal super motion:
db (2), d, df, d, db, uf, any kick
Sonic boom cancel to super has the same JOYSTICK motion, but you insert a punch in the middle of it.
db (2), d, df+punch, d, db, uf, any kick
db(2), d, df+punch is essentially a regular sonic boom you know?
Posted by crazychill on December 9, 2009 at 7:34 a.m. #20
just an opinion and an fyi..
I never connect the super unless it's with
cr.mp,sonic boom, super
it's the safest way to do it and if they block the sonic boom you can just not do the super
Posted by Sean on December 17, 2009 at 2:34 a.m. #21
What would happen if the 'charge'duration was to be altered by the developers, say, to 1 second, or even less?
Posted by The Possum Hill Kid on December 18, 2009 at 9:29 p.m. #22
Well, I'm glad I found this site. I'd like to be able to do all the neat things I've seen Gilley do with Guile, but charge characters have always given me problems when I try to use them. By the time I've finished "charging" a move, my opponent has already finished kicking my butt and is guzzling a Mountain Dew.
Posted by DFEKT_V on December 20, 2009 at 9:42 a.m. #23
There are ways to get almost all of these moves out quicker. One for example, the "reverse tiger knee" motion can be done by... (with guile on the left side of the screen) (2) <-, ->, <-, to a reverse creasent up to top right corner. There are much quicker methods for most of the other moves also but I'm too lazy to post them right now. With a though process going, and some practice I'm sure you will figure it out too. A side note to do this: remember that you dont need to do the full range of motion, the base of the joystick should be the focus, so smoother, smaller movements is all it takes. In other words if you're hearing a clicking/knocking sound coming from your joystick as you play; your wasting valuable time/frames/range of motion.
Posted by THE GODDAMN MASTER on March 5, 2010 at 12:37 p.m. #24
This is probably a stupid question, but does this work for, say, a Kikoken?
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