Strategy

Long Range

Dhalsim’s long-range gameplay can be his foundation or a means to an end, depending on the matchup and the needs of the situation. His long normal moves and arcing Yoga Fire shots are suited both for staving off opponents you want to keep out and creating opportunities to warp in suddenly with tiger knee Yoga Teleport.

Yoga Fire is a novel update to an old Street Fighter staple move, but it does have a few problems you’ll have to correct for while playing Dhalsim. Dhalsim is occupied for 52 frames while producing it, and it doesn’t cover lateral space. From full screen, characters like Nash and M. Bison can simply dash twice and be directly next to Dhalsim before he’s even done. If at any point the opponent feels sure you’re about to throw Yoga Fire, they can commit to aggressive, fast forward movement, hoping to score a full combo as Dhalsim helplessly recovers, his fireball sailing harmlessly over their head. So, in order to use Yoga Fire, you’ll either have to set it up (like by knocking the enemy down first) or you’ll have to make the adversary hesitant about your ground game. Of course, Dhalsim’s stretching limbs (particularly standing , , , and ) are ideal for this. Yoga Fire and Yoga Float antics create uncertainty about air approaches, while Dhalsim’s pokes create uncertainty about grounded assaults.

And Yoga Fire doesn’t help Dhalsim in a lateral fireball war with characters like Ken, Nash, and Ryu. If you can find places to launch Yoga Fire to fall on them from above, they’ll also have to briefly deal with that because their fireballs don’t negate Yoga Fire any more than vice versa. However, these characters can simply chuck horizontal fireballs much more quickly than Dhalsim can keep up.

Rather than stalemating these characters by matching fireball for fireball, you’ll have to dodge them. Here, Dhalsim’s new standing is great, within range. It is upper body projectile-immune for much of its duration, so you can use it to smack the feet of fireball tossers while automatically ducking underneath the projectile. It will also nail opponents moving on the ground instead of guarding low. Use Training Mode’s record feature to get used to the timing and range against fireball throws. If the spacing or timing isn’t right for standing , you can also have Dhalsim jump over a fireball and HK Drill Kick back down, or use a crouching slide kick attack to pass underneath while gaining ground on the foe. If you have time and distance, you can just negate incoming single-hit projectiles with LP Yoga Flame. You can also fight conventional fireball wars from any range with EX Yoga Fire, as long as you have EX Gauge available.

Reaching all the way across the screen with pokes leaves Dhalsim open, so you must use discretion and vary your timing if you expect counterattacks—an attentive opponent can anticipate your pokes and counter-hit or whiff-punish from hilarious ranges. Hit-throws like Birdie’s Hanging Chain and Zangief’s EX Borscht Dynamite can suck Dhalsim in from full screen by snagging his limbs. At any time, you can fake a long-range ground poke by just doing crouching or standing (or fake a long-range air poke with jumping , , or HK Drill Kick). This gives you a chance to gather information about how your adversary might counter, though it will end up losing ground for you if they move forward during this time. When you do feel comfortable poking on the ground, each of Dhalsim’s far-reaching attacks has its purpose:

Standing (12-frame startup) is Dhalsim’s baseline poke and recovers quickly enough for him to block if foes jump in over it. The hurtbox on this attack is way larger than the hitbox, and the hitbox doesn’t actually extend as far as Dhalsim’s fist, so be mindful of its vulnerability.

Standing is a bit faster (starting in 10 frames) and lower-profile, so it can’t be counter-poked quite as easily as standing , though it has slightly less range. It’s a great baseline poke alongside standing . It looks a bit like standing , which doesn’t extend, so you can fake standing with standing sometimes to create uncertainty in the opponent. This will either bait out punishable actions or discourage them from trying to counter-punch your pokes at all. (This is like how intentionally whiffing lots of dive kicks with an offensive character leads to dive kicks being more effective when you actually aim to hit.)

Standing is slower than those (hitting on Frame 16) and harder-hitting, with marginally less range than . The important thing here is that it causes a Crush Counter spin on counter-hit, which can actually be a really frequent occurrence. Opponents will often commit to dashing forward at Dhalsim, hoping to catch him whiffing a short poke or throwing Yoga Fire. Whether you can capitalize off Crush Counter standing depends on distance (see Combo 9), but at least you’ll get some V-Gauge either way. Like standing , the hurtbox is tall and extends ahead of Dhalsim’s outstretched foot; this can get counter-poked if you’re predictable.

As mentioned, when you’re fighting against other zoners, standing ducks under their fireballs and hits low, forcing them to block crouching, but be careful using it. It’s great on reaction against fireballs and can be used to “check” the opponent’s ground movement, nailing them while they walk or dash. But it’s much slower to hit (active in 20 frames) and recover than his other pokes, so it might get jumped over, getting Dhalsim punished.

Keep jumping and jumping in mind, too. reaches straight across the screen, while hits a little bit above Dhalsim’s altitude. Neither of these attacks will hit grounded opponents, even if you perform them extremely close to the ground, but their point is lateral control against airborne foes. Whenever you’re zoning from long range, whether as a change-up or preemptively in case you sense an enemy eager to jump in, you might take to the air. Either jump and Yoga Float, or perform a backward “instant” air Yoga Teleport. From this aerial position, you can then put jumping /across from Dhalsim, cutting off airspace above your adversary and shooting down anyone who tried to jump forward. (And if you expect some attempt at long-range counter-hitting, like a Shoryuken aimed at Dhalsim’s limbs, then whiff your attempt with jumping or .) Yoga Float jumping pokes help build V-Gauge, while backward air teleports into low-altitude air-to-air pokes eliminate the usual problems with poking out of Dhalsim’s floaty jump. It’s also important to teach the opposition that not every aerial Yoga Teleport leads into a cross-up attempt.

But when you do sense the chance from long range, you can transition into close-range offense very quickly with a forward air Yoga Teleport. Ideal timings include just before your MP/HP Yoga Fire is about to fall on the enemy, just before they’re about to block EX Yoga Fire, and right when you expect the opponent to try a long-range projectile toss of their own. Dhalsim can Yoga Teleport out of slower air movements like backward jumps and Yoga Floats, falling from above somewhat slowly with air or Yoga Gale, or he can use tiger knee forward air Yoga Teleport to pop into existence directly above his foe’s head with an overhead into a potential ground combo. Teleporting with crosses to the other side (unless the foe is cornered or at full-screen distance), while using stays on the same side, potentially hitting as a fake cross-up if they assume you’re using the side-swapping version. (See the Yoga Teleport description for execution specifics.)

At long range, you won’t have to worry about suddenly being defensive too often. If opponents insist on trying to bully in, you can deflect ground movement with standing , and jump-ins with air-to-air jumping /. If you can keep Yoga Fire shots active, the air has a way of staying clear.

Mid Range

You won’t spend a lot of time seeking out mid-range position, since Dhalsim’s core Yoga Teleport tactics take him into close or long range, but you’ll still end up here sometimes. Where long range shades into mid range and jump-ins become a direct threat, a little closer in than standing strong’s max reach, swap out standing for standing as your baseline poke, faking it often with standing . Standing remains important whenever you make an educated guess that your challenger wants to dash in on the ground. And this range is perhaps ideal for reacting to fireballs as pokes with your own standing .

You won’t really use Dhalsim’s jump-ins conventionally from mid range since his regular jumping trajectory is the slowest in the game. Instead, continue to use low-altitude Yoga Teleports directly above your foe’s head as your main point of entry. From a normal jump-in’s range on the ground, you can employ Dhalsim’s crouching slides to get inside. All of these attacks carry some risk because Dhalsim is usually at a disadvantage when guarded, especially deep. But any low-profile, low-hitting slide attack has some use, and Dhalsim has three of them. Use crouching as a kind of ducking dash that ticks while traveling just a bit shorter than his actual dash. Although it’s technically always a disadvantaged setup, you’ll be able to exploit crouching into an immediate close-range throw against many opponents. It can also move Dhalsim closer after a Yoga Flame knockdown and gain ground in the neutral game.

Crouching travels a little farther and has more active frames; spaced correctly, crouching can actually lead to a great low-hitting link combo (Combo 2). Getting good at eyeballing this range gives Dhalsim a fantastic, somewhat safe low-hitting threat that he otherwise lacks. Crouching travels the farthest and knocks down, even causing an unrecoverable knockdown on counter-hit (most likely if the foe was dashing when you swept them). But guarded, Dhalsim’s sweep is between -20 (blocked early) and -4 (blocked on the last possible frame). You should generally avoid relying on crouching as a staple in your arsenal except to slide under mid-range fireballs for a knockdown, to stop people being way too aggressive with their ground dashes (and hence not blocking), and occasionally to just remind people that it exists. It’ll hit more often the less you use it; players tend to forget to look for things you’re not using, so they’ll get anxious when you remind them with an occasional slide knockdown. If they subsequently expend mental energy waiting to punish your next slide, then mission accomplished.

From the range where Dhalsim’s slides become relevant, you can also apply his Drill Kicks as variable dive kick jump-ins. As with dive kicks, aim at your enemy’s toes or a little bit short for safety’s sake. Err toward whiffing and landing in front of them instead of hitting their upper body. As seen in Combo 8, perfectly aimed Drill Kicks can lead into Dhalsim’s grounded bread and butters. However, be aware that this carries risks. Aggressive players who react to Dhalsim taking to the air by dashing in will screw up your plans by getting hit by his Drill Kick very high up. It’s also quite hard to accurately aim Drill Kicks when dropping down out of Yoga Float at mid range. Still, as with slides, it’s worth keeping in mind as a high-risk tool that’s excellent off precise hits.

Yoga Float into jumping and become good overheads here that build V-Gauge. Doing them from Yoga Float instead of a jump returns Dhalsim to the ground more quickly, without his usual floatiness while falling. He’ll still retain a little momentum, so if you Yoga Float and then overhead with while holding or , he’ll drift in that direction while dropping. You can also jump and use these buttons immediately as instant overheads from this range, but save this for when the damage is unexpected and crucial, like the last hit of a round or to unlock lots of white damage. has more range than for this purpose but deals less damage; jump backward (space permitting) to make it safer on block/whiff.

Closer in from that, where mid range shades into the beginning of close range, Dhalsim’s shorter-reaching attacks become relevant. His most flexible and important pokes here are Divine Kick () and crouching . Crouching has a little more range, but Divine Kick strikes two frames faster. You won’t be able to link into anything from the tips of these pokes’ ranges, but you can cancel into LP Yoga Flame for chip or HP Yoga Flame for block advantage afterward.

If enemies attempt to close in from mid range, Dhalsim is well-equipped to stop them. When you have time to fire it, LP Yoga Fire temporarily covers frontal airspace, making jump-ins a non-issue. From a neutral situation, both crouching and Yoga Anvil extend up-forward to swat jumping foes out of the sky. Uniquely, these far-reaching anti-air pokes can be canceled into specials. You can anti-air airborne enemies and then cancel immediately into a Yoga Fire that they’ll have to worry about as they air recover from their jump’s apex (or which may combo and juggle, if counter-hits a jumping target). Take care with the extended hurtboxes on these anti-airs, as with extended ground pokes. Challengers may preemptively stick out high-priority jumping attacks, aiming to slap Dhalsim’s arms before they’re active. If you want to avoid the guessing game, you can always just Yoga Teleport away from mid-range jump-ins if you want to return to long-range zoning, or slide under mid-range jump-ins early and attack your adversary’s landing from behind.

Close Range

From any distance, Dhalsim has a quick path into close range with air Yoga Teleport, and most of his safe offense revolves around being able to warp into jump-in airspace from anywhere. You can set up a relatively safe cross-up/fake cross-up teleport with Yoga Fire (regular and EX) and Yoga Sunburst. You want to time Dhalsim’s teleport through the enemy (or not through them) to occur just before his projectile connects with them, so the opposing player actually has to make a decision. Don’t wait too long, teleporting when they’ve already blocked something from the front. From low-altitude air teleports, you’ll want to use jumping immediately. It hits in a wheeling arc all around Dhalsim and gives you time to link into various grounded options after landing from a successful hit (see Combo 7). When guarded, you can cancel any of Dhalsim’s landing follow-ups (Divine Kick, Yoga Upper, and crouching ) into LP Yoga Flame for safe chip (leaving him at only -3 when guarded, at a range where the only thing that might punish him is a three-frame jab canceled into special) or into HP Yoga Flame to keep tempo advantage. This leaves a gap that adversaries might reversal out of between the poke and the HP Yoga Flame, but they might also commit an error and eat HP Yoga Flame, which can lead to a juggle (Combo 6).

When a standard opener (like air teleport to jumping to Divine Kick) is blocked, you can also cancel the poke into a backward Yoga Teleport. This gives you a chance to go back to looking for safe shots at teleport offense without trying to force the issue at close range, and it reinforces the sense of Dhalsim’s screen control. For opponents, trying to chase Dhalsim down can be exhausting, like the opposite of how trying to keep Zangief away is exhausting. For far more risk, Dhalsim can also slide back in with crouching and go for another combo opener or a throw. However, this approach depends on your foe reacting poorly to the slide.

When you have time to use HP Yoga Flame up close (whether in blockstrings as mentioned or as a meaty attack on wakeup or against air recovery), Dhalsim will be at +3 when blocked. This is a great place to threaten between crouching slide (a low hit, after which foes must be ready to tech or reverse your throw) or backward jumping . Dhalsim doesn’t have a unique attack overhead, but instant jumping is basically the same thing when you use it this way. Used from up-close advantage, it can score seemingly guaranteed damage to close out rounds or unlock large amounts of built-up Yoga Burner white damage.

But while Dhalsim is very good at warping in and out of close attack range for a long-range zoner, he is still definitely not an up-close specialist. Most point-blank exchanges will probably not be started on your terms, so you need to know his other close-range buttons.

When in doubt, Dhalsim’s jabs are his fastest assets. Standing hits grounded foes in four frames (it actually hits anti-air a frame earlier, in three) and links into standing for a basic, safe hit-check (Combo 3). Standing to standing also only leaves a one-frame gap between the pokes on block. For a lower profile, crouching is a tick that also hits in four frames. You can follow-up a single crouching with Divine Kick. This is a frame trap with a five-frame gap on block that combos on counter-hit (see Combo 11). You won’t have time to verify the hits for this sequence; you’ll just have to use it speculatively. In situations where an aggressive, fast-walking character like Cammy or Karin is attempting to vary blockstrings with walk-up normal throws, fishing for counter-hits this way when they step forward is a direct deterrent. When you’re under pressure, you can prioritize canceling any blocked pokes into backward Yoga Teleport instead of trying to convert something into an MP Yoga Flame knockdown.

Dhalsim’s jabs will link in many close-range situations (potentially leading to an EX Yoga Flame upon cancel), like a meaty/late close-range hit from crouching or Drill Kick, or after EX Yoga Fire near a corner. They’re his fastest means of trying to box through the opponent’s frame traps up close, but he doesn’t have a solution for three-frame gaps besides reversal-teleporting away. That’s fine as long as your foe isn’t trying to bait exactly that response, such as when they’re loaded with a far-reaching Critical Art like Nash’s Judgement Saber.

When you have more time to wind up a stronger poke, crouching is Dhalsim’s best close-range move. It can be canceled directly into specials, or you can link Divine Kick afterward and then cancel. On block, Dhalsim’s left at +3, in position for a frame trap into Divine Kick, an overhead with jumping , or crouching to aggressively slide inside.

If the opponent is afraid of your poke-into-Yoga-Flame offense, you may start getting away with throw attempts. Dhalsim’s walk speed is terrible, but you can mix in Drill Kicks and air Yoga Teleports into where you fully expect the adversary to block; just land and go for a throw immediately instead of a grounded normal move. If your challenger begins to anticipate the close-range throw mix-up, you can counter tech throws with tiger knee Yoga Gale (see the Yoga Gale description for execution tips). This functions like a low-altitude dive kick that knocks down; done quickly, the flame is low enough to hit crouching characters while also hopping over low pokes and blowing out throw attempts (and throw escape attempts). It’s like Dhalsim’s version of Chun-Li’s aerial, low-to-the-ground “Lightning Legs.”

When you’re afraid of Dhalsim getting jumped on up close, keep in mind standing and Yoga Upper for sharp angles above him. Standing jab’s first active frame is actually a great anti-air hit directly above Dhalsim’s head, provided you time it correctly. Ditto the later frames of , which hits higher up but much later (anti-air in nine frames instead of three). His mid-range anti-air attacks, crouching and Yoga Anvil, are dangerous to extend up close, especially if the opponent’s trajectory comes in sharply above, perhaps crossing up. You can always just Yoga Teleport away from deep jump-in pressure, though this may not buy you the space you expect in corners or after warping away from cross-ups midscreen.

Yoga Burner

While standing and Yoga Anvil often hit too oddly as Crush Counters for ideal damage follow-ups, they serve a valuable function in building Dhalsim’s V-Gauge more quickly. It’s difficult to ensure that you build adequate V-Gauge just doing Yoga Float into blocked/hit aerial pokes. Jumping and simply whiff on standing foes, and other pokes from Yoga Float must be used closer in and are therefore inherently riskier, especially when you’re just trying to build resources. On the other hand, you should give your opponents plenty of reasons to dash into your standing and crouching pokes sometimes, boosting your V-Gauge gain.

Otherwise, by the time you’re staring at the second half of Dhalsim’s stamina gauge, you should be locked and loaded with Yoga Burner. It’s immediately useful in the temporary combo buff it grants Dhalsim, since basically any close-range to mid-range grounded poke can become a knockdown hit. From crouching and standing especially, this gives Dhalsim low-hitting power he doesn’t have the rest of the round.

Post Yoga Burner knockdown, your focus should be on trying to keep general control of your side of the screen instead of over-committing to pressuring foes in your fire field. If you move in too aggressively and they simply jump away (or whatever), you might not get them back near the Yoga Burner field before it fizzles out. Maintain control of your side of the screen and just keep them on the Yoga Burner’s side, and you’re much more likely to successfully counter-punch their escape attempts so that they land right back in it.

Should you manage to stock up both V-Gauge and EX Gauge, you can really press this advantage by backing up Yoga Burner with aerial Yoga Sunburst. With both set up, Dhalsim can Yoga Teleport through to the opponent’s other side. Now, with Dhalsim in front, the enemy has Yoga Burner’s field in the middle of the screen and a giant Critical Art fireball descending at them from their back.

Apart from its initial knockdown hit, Yoga Burner only builds up provisional white damage. You have to get a clean hit before it regenerates to make it permanent. Dhalsim’s close-range mix-ups are great for this. If you can get advantage over an opponent blocking in the fire field (like with blocked crouching , HP Yoga Flame, or standing ), you can then mix-up between low-hitting slides and overhead-hitting jumping , or even whiffed slide/Drill Kick into throw.