Stringing combos together aka "cancelling from one move to another" ?

[StoneCold]

Hi guys,

I don't know if I'm posting this in the correct section, please forgive me if I do. I'm still a noob pertaining stringing combos together in MK9. Watching how the pro's do it, I can also only dream of getting it right.

Morty Seinfeld did post the following suggestion in my "Noobs Passage" introduction thread and I quote:

My suggestion if you really want to get good at movement in this game is to start with Liu Kang. Liu Kang's combo's will force you to input dashes mid-string.

Practice this:

Liu Kang: b312, dash, b312, dash, b312, dash b31 xx (dragon kick, low fireball or bicycle kick)
Liu Kang: 213, dash, 213, dash, 213, dash b31 xx (dragon kick, low fireball or bicycle kick)

Once you have this down, experiment with these strings:

- 213 (combo starter, last hit overhead)
- f12 (fast advancing string, hits crouching enemies, can be used mid combo and as part of a frame-trap)
- 12b1 (can be used mid-combo after the 213 string typically)

In regards to movement in general, you will want to get used to moving around using dash blocking.

This can be achieved by simply pressing: forward, forward then block (block cancels the recovery frames of the dash animation)

You can also do this from a backward dash: back, back then block.

You can also enter crouch much more quickly by using the same method of dash blocking however by also holding down immediately after you are holding block.

Can anyone please help me understand the first Liu Kang string:

1=front punch (square)
2= back punch (triangle)
3=front kick (x)
4=back kick (circle)

b312 = back,x,square,triangle (do I physically press back+x simultaneously and there after square+triangle ?) Because if I press back+3 it doesn't do squat, or am I just pressing it too slowly?

The next part , dash, does that refer to dash blocking like he suggested or is it a just a normal double dash (forward forward) on the dpad. The thing is, I hit a basic 3 button combo, want to do a dash, but then my opponent is too far away from me to parry him in the air.... WHY is this ?

Does dash blocking put you so much closer to your opponent that one is able then to parry him?

And lastly the b31 xx (the xx is probably cancel into a special move), I press for example x, square and then try going into a bicycle kick (pressing all the buttons required for a bicycle kick), but it just registers the first two hits, but doesn't want to include the bicycle kick. Is it just a case of me simply not pressing the buttons quick enough? He also told me something of "dialing in the combo before the animation ends" How does one do this ? How does one "cancel" a certain action? Is it by dash cancelling or simply pushing to buttons 31,bicycle kick ?

It feels as if I'm getting nowhere with regards to stringing these moves together. Any tips or advice I can try out to help me nail this ?

If anyone perhaps has a video or could make a video tutorial by explaining it in depth, I'll be forever grateful.

Thanks

 

[Somberness]

b312 = back,x,square,triangle (do I physically press back+x simultaneously and there after square+triangle ?) Because if I press back+3 it doesn't do squat, or am I just pressing it too slowly?
Press back and the button at the same time, then the next two buttons separately.
The next part , dash, does that refer to dash blocking like he suggested or is it a just a normal double dash (forward forward) on the dpad. The thing is, I hit a basic 3 button combo, want to do a dash, but then my opponent is too far away from me to parry him in the air.... WHY is this ?
Regular dash, double tap forward. You have to input the dash quickly to keep up with the opponent. My advice is to do the combo in the corner first.

Does dash blocking put you so much closer to your opponent that one is able then to parry him?
Nope, it just allows better recovery when dashing, not necessary for combos.

And lastly the b31 xx (the xx is probably cancel into a special move), I press for example x, square and then try going into a bicycle kick (pressing all the buttons required for a bicycle kick), but it just registers the first two hits, but doesn't want to include the bicycle kick. Is it just a case of me simply not pressing the buttons quick enough? He also told me something of "dialing in the combo before the animation ends" How does one do this ? How does one "cancel" a certain action? Is it by dash cancelling or simply pushing to buttons 31,bicycle kick ?
You have to input the special/normal before the cancel frame, it's different for everything. "Dial" it in, all in one motion. Once you get the hang of it, you'll want to slow down so you can confirm if certain things get blocked, or miss. You can't wait too long or you won't be able to link the move.

 

[StoneCold]

b312 = back,x,square,triangle (do I physically press back+x simultaneously and there after square+triangle ?) Because if I press back+3 it doesn't do squat, or am I just pressing it too slowly?
Press back and the button at the same time, then the next two buttons separately.
The next part , dash, does that refer to dash blocking like he suggested or is it a just a normal double dash (forward forward) on the dpad. The thing is, I hit a basic 3 button combo, want to do a dash, but then my opponent is too far away from me to parry him in the air.... WHY is this ?
Regular dash, double tap forward. You have to input the dash quickly to keep up with the opponent. My advice is to do the combo in the corner first.

Does dash blocking put you so much closer to your opponent that one is able then to parry him?
Nope, it just allows better recovery when dashing, not necessary for combos.

And lastly the b31 xx (the xx is probably cancel into a special move), I press for example x, square and then try going into a bicycle kick (pressing all the buttons required for a bicycle kick), but it just registers the first two hits, but doesn't want to include the bicycle kick. Is it just a case of me simply not pressing the buttons quick enough? He also told me something of "dialing in the combo before the animation ends" How does one do this ? How does one "cancel" a certain action? Is it by dash cancelling or simply pushing to buttons 31,bicycle kick ?
You have to input the special/normal before the cancel frame, it's different for everything. "Dial" it in, all in one motion. Once you get the hang of it, you'll want to slow down so you can confirm if certain things get blocked, or miss. You can't wait too long or you won't be able to link the move.

Thank you Somberness. I'll try practising the combos in the corner first, I did get a basic Liu Kang 312, 312 right, but only like once in 20 attempts. Guess it's just practice, practice and more practice. I like Sonya's cartwheel too, will see if I can string something together with her, like Morty does.

Just one more question, how does one "cancel" a frame to go into a special attack ?

PS: I've been reading this post: http://testyourmight.com/threads/general-mk9-frame-data-info.15988/ but damn, don't understand all of that, lol.

 

[Somberness]

Just one more question, how does one "cancel" a frame to go into a special attack ?
.

Just have to input the special before the cancel frame.

 

[StoneCold]

Just have to input the special before the cancel frame.

So if it's a basic 3 hit combo, the "cancel" frame would be the 3rd hit ? Or am I interpreting it wrong ?

 

[STB Sgt Reed]

I think the "inputting the special before the cancel frame" is a little too technical...

I don't even know what the cancel frames are and I've been playing forever.

StoneCold

Cancelling into a special something as easy as this:

In the above example "B31 xx fireball" ... all it is is instead of inputting B312 like you normally would, you just input B31BF3 (BF3 being Liu's low fireball input)

a lot of strings are able to be cancelled, you'll just have to experiment.

hope that helped.

 

[StoneCold]

I think the "inputting the special before the cancel frame" is a little too technical...

I don't even know what the cancel frames are and I've been playing forever.

StoneCold

Cancelling into a special something as easy as this:

In the above example "B31 xx fireball" ... all it is is instead of inputting B312 like you normally would, you just input B31BF3 (BF3 being Liu's low fireball input)

a lot of strings are able to be cancelled, you'll just have to experiment.

hope that helped.

Thanks Sgt Reed, will try this out shortly and provide feedback. All I want is to get a 8-10 hit combo for a change to up my game

 

[BEENEEWEENEES]

it's been a few days, have you gotten it down successfully yet?

 

[NKZero]

Thanks Sgt Reed, will try this out shortly and provide feedback. All I want is to get a 8-10 hit combo for a change to up my game

yeah i was gon ask if you were getting the hang of it. if so, gimme a HELL YEAH!

 

[StoneCold]

Hey guys,

Really surprised to see that other people have been following my thread

One thing I still don't manage to nail down is the back+3 command.. if I do this for example with Liu Kang, then he gives a low shin kick that doesn't really allow me start anything .. with a lot of characters, I struggle to do and button + direction move, as it just does nothing when I press it together or otherwise I'm interpreting or doing it wrong. However , if I do the normal 3,1,2 it does launch my opponent into the air and I'm able to string at least 3/4 of them together one after the other. I have seen how my spacing should be, but will keep on practising till I manage to do it both ways on any stage.

Another thing, with the "cancel into another move/special" I do manage to get it right, let's say I do Liu Kang's x-ray, I'm able to follow that up with a bicycle kick (which massively awesome for me, lol) but I get it now, you need to input the move while your character is still busy with another in order to follow / string a combo together.

Now it seems that I will be able to get this right with Liu Kang (even if it's just the 3,1,2 parry combo with a bicycle kick) , however with someone like Sonya or Cage, I really struggle to quick dash to be close enough to follow up with some sort of juggling combo like I can do with Liu Kang. I love Sonya's cart wheel move and have seen lots of pro's do her cart wheel followed up by an uppercut and other moves, but HOW on earth do they get close enough in order to follow up that cartwheel?

Same thing with Cage, some of the combo's I've seen with the nut punch at the end, I can do that over head kick of his, no problem, but yet again, I try to quick dash, but can get close enough to follow it up before my opponent hits the ground. Is it just a case of me simply not being quick enough to follow it up with a quick dash in order to carry on a combo ?

 

[NKZero]

Hey guys,

Really surprised to see that other people have been following my thread

One thing I still don't manage to nail down is the back+3 command.. if I do this for example with Liu Kang, then he gives a low shin kick that doesn't really allow me start anything .. with a lot of characters, I struggle to do and button + direction move, as it just does nothing when I press it together or otherwise I'm interpreting or doing it wrong. However , if I do the normal 3,1,2 it does launch my opponent into the air and I'm able to string at least 3/4 of them together one after the other. I have seen how my spacing should be, but will keep on practising till I manage to do it both ways on any stage.

Another thing, with the "cancel into another move/special" I do manage to get it right, let's say I do Liu Kang's x-ray, I'm able to follow that up with a bicycle kick (which massively awesome for me, lol) but I get it now, you need to input the move while your character is still busy with another in order to follow / string a combo together.

Now it seems that I will be able to get this right with Liu Kang (even if it's just the 3,1,2 parry combo with a bicycle kick) , however with someone like Sonya or Cage, I really struggle to quick dash to be close enough to follow up with some sort of juggling combo like I can do with Liu Kang. I love Sonya's cart wheel move and have seen lots of pro's do her cart wheel followed up by an uppercut and other moves, but HOW on earth do they get close enough in order to follow up that cartwheel?

Same thing with Cage, some of the combo's I've seen with the nut punch at the end, I can do that over head kick of his, no problem, but yet again, I try to quick dash, but can get close enough to follow it up before my opponent hits the ground. Is it just a case of me simply not being quick enough to follow it up with a quick dash in order to carry on a combo ?

well the command for Liu Kang's string is B312. So you clearly are doing it correctly haha. The thing with MK is that you have to (on the whole) input things earlier than what you see on the screen (unlike a street fighter game or whatever). Some inputs are done as you see them on screen. e.g. if Cage is juggling with 2,2,2. These mostly occur when you have to dash in between each input. It's just a matter of practice man that is all I can say. Once you get the hang of it then you should have no problems. If your hands are not used to the general speed of fighting game execution then that explains why you were struggling heavily at first. Glad to see you are improving.

 

[StoneCold]

well the command for Liu Kang's string is B312. So you clearly are doing it correctly haha. The thing with MK is that you have to (on the whole) input things earlier than what you see on the screen (unlike a street fighter game or whatever). Some inputs are done as you see them on screen. e.g. if Cage is juggling with 2,2,2. These mostly occur when you have to dash in between each input. It's just a matter of practice man that is all I can say. Once you get the hang of it then you should have no problems. If your hands are not used to the general speed of fighting game execution then that explains why you were struggling heavily at first. Glad to see you are improving.

Thanks a lot for the reply. Being a PC gamer, I'm not on my PS3 24/7, therefore I need a lot of practise in order to get my speed and execution up to scratch. But when I do find time, I also pop in my MK disc and practice as much as I can. Obviously here in South Africa there aren't any tournaments, nor people in my home town to practice or play against, so it's just me and practice mode and then playing against other locals on PSN. But will keep on practising that's for sure

 

[NKZero]

Thanks a lot for the reply. Being a PC gamer, I'm not on my PS3 24/7, therefore I need a lot of practise in order to get my speed and execution up to scratch. But when I do find time, I also pop in my MK disc and practice as much as I can. Obviously here in South Africa there aren't any tournaments, nor people in my home town to practice or play against, so it's just me and practice mode and then playing against other locals on PSN. But will keep on practising that's for sure

went to SA a few years back for a safari and then cape town. awesome place . anyways yeah get that practice in! if you still have any questions never hesitate to come back and ask.

 

[mine is broken]

To OP:
You can also practice the string to dash xx to another string with Raiden, and as he attacks slower than Liu kang it might be easier to practice.
With Raiden
B312, dash xx, 334, bf3

 

[StoneCold]

Thanks a lot NKZero and mine is broken, will try out that string with Raiden. Will shout if I need anything else. Love this community