Understanding input leniency in Street Fighter 4

Original guide written by D3v, slight edits by EventHubs.com staff

While the popular belief is that there are a set number of shortcuts for each move type, what's happening is that there is "input leniency" for some motions. This means that you don't need to hit the exact inputs for some of the special moves to execute.

Listed below are the inputs that Street Fighter 4 requires to pull off some special moves.

Note that all commands within parentheses "( )" mean that any variation of that input is acceptable, i.e. — () means that any forward, be it forward, up-forward or down-forward will work.

Dragon Punch (Shoryuken) motion:
()()() — in other words, any forward, any down and any forward + punch will trigger the move. This is why you can hit and get a Tiger Uppercut with Sagat without having to stand up.

Quarter-circle Forward (or Back) motions:
— no leniency.

Half-circle motion:
()() — Any back, to any down to forward, which is why Rose can combo crouching medium kick into a Soul Spark.

Chicken Wing/Hooligan Combination motion:
()()()() — Can get some crazy inputs with this, but your move will still come out because of how input leniency works in the game.

Flash Kick move:
Charge ()() — Down-up charge moves have always been this way and the article author believes that is probably where the Street Fighter development team got the concept of input leniency from.

Sonic Boom move:
Charge () or — Unlike down-up charge moves, a Sonic Boom requires that you hit only to complete the motion.