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Every fighting game needs at least one jack-of-all-trades: a character who's decent in most areas, but not exceptional in any specific area either. Mortal Kombat has Scorpion, King Of Fighters has Kyo Kusanagi, and Guilty Gear has Sol Badguy.

Street Fighter 6 actually has a few characters that fit this description. This makes them perfect for players who want to focus on solid fundamentals, careful footsies, and reliable whiff punishes. Despite their lack of specific expertise, these Standard type characters are effective in competition and well worth learning, even just to be a backup pick if players are faced with a terrible matchup for their main.

4 Lily

Street Fighter 6 Lily

As the only Street Fighter 6 newcomer included in the Standard type, Lily is also the least conventional of the group. She fills the role of a hybrid grappler. While landing her Mexican Typhoon command grab is not the most important aspect of her playstyle, staying close to opponents and pressuring them for a strike/throw mixup is at the core of success with Lily. Her unique Windclad power-up mechanic improves almost all of her special moves, such as making her advancing Condor Spire much faster and safe on block, or increasing the damage of her anti-air Tomahawk Buster.

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Windclad can be stacked up to 4 times, meaning Lily can remain a threat with enhanced specials if given the chance to charge them. But without Windclad power-ups, her special moves are fairly underwhelming. She also lacks a true invincible reversal outside of her Super Arts, as even with Windclad and the use of Drive Gauge for an OD version, Tomahawk Buster is still not invincible on startup.

3 Ryu

Ryu Street Fighter 6

Maintaining his simple but effective playstyle from the past 30 years, players can rely on Ryu as a character that rewards fundamentals. Ryu rarely faces matchups that are particularly one-sided for or against him, allowing him to play the game his way. Using Hadoken as a zoning tool is core to Ryu’s combat loop, in addition to punishing jump-ins with Shoryuken when opponents try to predict an incoming Hadoken and leap over it. His Tatsumaki Senpukyaku allows him to cover large portions of the screen while flying straight through fireballs. This can be useful for punishing poorly-chosen fireballs, but results in Ryu being vulnerable if the opponent manages to block it.

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Ryu players should focus on poking their opponent with his Crouching Medium Kick, Crouching Medium Punch and Forward Heavy Punch. These keep him relatively safe on block and can be canceled into all of his special moves for either damage (Shoryuken, Donkey Kick, Tatsumaki) or safety (Hadoken, Hashogeki). His Denjin Charge buffs his Hadoken, Hashogeki, Shinku Hadoken and Shin Hashogeki for an extra hit on the fireballs and extra damage on the Super Arts.

However, the Denjin stock dissipates after one of these buffed moves is used, and the charge time itself is quite long so can end up unsafe. This means that Ryu players should only try to use Denjin Charge if the opponent is knocked down or a long distance away. Ryu’s simplicity does mean he lacks unpredictable mixups or gimmicks that other characters may abuse for easier wins. Ryu players must learn good fundamentals or face a loss.

2 Luke

Official art of Street Fighter 6's Luke

Taking Ryu’s previous title as Street Fighter’s beginner-friendly all-rounder character, Luke is great at almost everything. Sand Blast is a solid projectile, coming out faster than other fireballs and covering large distance if the Heavy version is used. This lets Luke stalemate or outright win fireball wars. Mix in OD Sandblasts with their two-hit quality to burn through incoming fireballs and knock opponents down from full screen.

Flash Knuckle is also one of the most versatile combo extenders/finishers in the game, able to combo into itself and most of his other special moves if the Light, Medium or OD versions are used. If players can get used to the timing on Luke's ‘Perfect’ Flash Knuckles – releasing the button within a three-frame window – Luke can get massive damage off of a single opening. If players are willing to spend some more Drive Gauge to secure a kill or good okizeme, OD Flash Knuckle and OD Rising Uppercut can be canceled into follow-up extensions for guaranteed damage.

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In general, Luke players should look to hit confirm his Crouching Medium Kick or Crouch Medium Punch into Light Flash Knuckle or Light Sand Blast for consistent damage during neutral. Go for his reliable Crouching Heavy Punch>Perfect Medium Flash Knuckle>Perfect Light Flash Knuckle>Perfect Heavy Flash Knuckle combo for massive damage on opportunities such as a jump-in or post-Drive Impact. Both his Eraser and Pale Rider Super Arts (Level 2 and 3 respectively) grant invincibility on startup, so they can be used as reversals on wakeup or to add heavy damage to combos.

1 Guile

Guile Combing His Hair Street Fighter 6

Street Fighter’s resident projectile zoner, Guile returns as powerful as ever. Keeping opponents far away with the threat of fast-moving, fast-recovering Sonic Booms is consistently effective against almost every character. Similarly, if an opponent does manage to jump in on Guile, players will almost always be holding down-back to charge both Sonic Boom and Flash Kick at once. This means that the opponent will be met with a soaring reversal Flash Kick to reset the match back to Guile’s favor.

Gaining Sonic Blade as a new special move means that Guile's Sonic Booms can become even more threatening with multiple hits, without spending Drive Gauge on an OD Sonic Boom. Speaking of Drive, Guile can utilize Drive Rush in neutral to follow his Sonic Booms if facing an opponent who’s too comfortable just blocking his projectiles. Alternatively, he can cancel into Drive Rush mid-combo to pull off Sonic Boom loops to deal heavy damage. His solid mid-range pokes also deplete the opponent’s Drive and push far back on block. When used alongside Sonic Booms and his own Drive Gauge, Guile can easily put his opponents into Burnout state and make their situation much scarier.

Street Fighter 6 is out now on PC, PS4, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

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