V-System

V-Skill

Yoga Float

Air Yoga Float while jumping

Yoga Float: Yoga Float is exactly what it sounds like: Dhalsim hovers in midair for a moment. Yoga Float can be initiated from the air, where Dhalsim will simply begin floating, or from the ground. When initiating Yoga Float from the ground, Dhalsim will initially spring up into the air with a stretching animation that looks a lot like Street Fighter IV’s Yoga Tower, but sadly lacks the evasive properties of that move. While stretching upward, Dhalsim is vulnerable from floor to ceiling, so watch out. Either way, once the actual Yoga Float begins, you can input or to hover in that direction. Dhalsim’s float ends and he starts falling back to Earth after 75 frames, just over a second. He’ll also fall as normal if you execute any air attack from Yoga Float.

Normals that connect with the opposition, whether blocked or hit, generate some V-Gauge for Dhalsim. Specials or Drill Kicks initiated from Yoga Float do not build V-Gauge.

Yoga Float’s purpose is to reinforce the opponent’s uncertainty about where Dhalsim will go and what he’ll do. For example, many challengers will rush in with jumps, hoping to avoid and punish Dhalsim’s long-reaching ground pokes. If you Yoga Float preemptively, you can easily anti-air them early from a floating position with jumping or , reaching straight across the screen. Foes who now want to dash in repeatedly on the ground, anticipating defensive Yoga Float, open themselves back up to running into the grounded pokes they were worried about initially. If no jump occurs, Dhalsim can hover a bit and then decide to Drill Kick back down, extend a limb across as an aerial poke while falling, use Yoga Gale to cover down-below him as he falls, or Yoga Teleport.

V-Reversal

Yoga Mala

Yoga Mala: Dhalsim performs a two-fisted punch, whirling like a turnstile. This hits fairly quickly in 15 frames and is strike and projectile-invincible well through the active portion. It’ll beat any non-throw it comes into contact with, while leaving Dhalsim at -2 when guarded. Generally, the novelty of Yoga Burner is enough to make you want to save V-Gauge for it, but if you’re feeling pressured within the first

50 percent of your stamina gauge and feel like getting someone off your back or preventing a dizzy, go ahead. You’ll probably earn enough V-Gauge to max out again before the round ends. Yoga Mala is also valuable to prevent Dhalsim from getting dizzied.

V-Trigger

Yoga Burner

Yoga Burner: Dhalsim spits out an initial low-profile, three-active-frame fire projectile out to about 25 percent of the screen’s distance. This hit knocks the enemy down and can be used as a juggle with good aim. One-sixth of a second after this spurt, Dhalsim follows it up by plastering almost 60 percent of the current screen with a burning flame carpet. This flame carpet persists for six seconds and causes continual white damage to any opponent caught in its field. (The ratio is 5 damage for every nine frames spent sizzling, for a max of 200 white damage from six seconds of Yoga Burning.) The field is huge, but it’ll be up to you to keep your enemy cooking in the fiery area and to capitalize with a clean hit that makes the white damage permanent.

Yoga Burner is most useful against an opponent near a corner. Midscreen, an adversary can usually just guess on a risky movement or two and be out of the fire field. Unless you make a hard read against the particular evasive move they’ll make, they probably get away. But when someone’s back is to the corner, you can place Yoga Burner’s field to cover their entire half of the screen, then dedicate yourself to keeping them on that half with Yoga Anvil and crouching anti-air, as well as pokes like standing and jumping , LP Yoga Fire, and “instant” Yoga Gales.

Yoga Burner is also great for the extra combo and knockdown potential it grants Dhalsim. You can cancel into Yoga Burner from any grounded normal move, and it will score a two-hit combo and a knockdown off most of them. This can be done on hit or block (even from long-range pokes), and it even leads to Dhalsim’s most directly low-hitting combo (Combo 1). If possible, try to use it both as a special hit-check knockdown and a stressful pressure tool immediately afterward.