Every effort is made to record combo damage accurately… but not quite as accurately as with frame data. Over time, as moves are tweaked here and there, exact combo damage may be off in places. (The print guide’s combo damage errors where they exist, for example, are mostly because heavy-strength normals received a tiny, uniform buff on day one.) However, combo damage values are still useful to show general combo damage relative other options. Writing damage values down in the first place is just there to help decision-making, so you have an idea of your preferred situational combos before a match ever starts. Not many people are thinking “I should use the 346 option over the 320 option” during actual matches.
Low Hit-Checks
COMBO 1
Crouching   standing     canceled into one of several options |
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Ibuki’s crouching hits in four frames and combos into standing . Standing can be canceled into Raida for a hit-grab combo ender, or linked into LK Kazekiri for a very advantageous knockdown.
Ibuki’s pokes are mostly somewhat short. Chun-Li’s pokes, these are not. Because of this, Ibuki’s hit-checks can be distance- and character-sensitive. Crouching into standing into a special move is somewhat lenient, but crouching into her Shinten target combo requires totally flush distance as the beginning, and therefore won’t work like just after landing from cross-up jumping or 
.
When going from crouching into Shinten (her jab > strong > fierce chain), many enders are possible. HK Kazekiri or Raida; EX Kunai to launch into a juggle opportunity; Kunai canceled into Critical Art; Kunai into V-Trigger activation into post-freeze links; and so on.
When poking with crouching , Ibuki is left at +1 when guarded. After standing , she’s at +2. When guarded, don’t proceed into Shinten as part of a hit-check sequence, just stop after the light attacks.
COMBO 2
With exact spacing, links are possible just after Sazan recovers. Standing will link, but only with a slide that hits on the very last active frame. Standing , with three-frame startup, is a tiny bit more lenient than standing , but doesn’t reach as far. If Ibuki actually slides in from afar, hitting with the very tip of her toe at the end of the slide, then a link to standing might not even reach. Standing will still link reliably closer in, timing Sazan to hit with the tail-end of the slide very meaty, either over someone rising from a knockdown or landing from air recovery or a jump.
As a far-reaching low hit and potential combo starter, Sazan gains extra potential when V-Gauge is ready. From the tip of Sazan’s range, throw a grounded Kunai and V-Trigger cancel it with a longer-fused bomb (either 
or 
during 
). Post-freeze, immediately slide with 
. If the initial Kunai wasn’t blocked, the slide will also combo, and (with perfect spacing) can lead into a knockdown and okizeme backed by a ticking bomb.
Grounded Hit-Checks
COMBO 3
| Standing standing canceled to various options |
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Standing hits in only three frames, tied with LK Kazekiri for Ibuki’s fastest attack. Ibuki as a character has always been designed around an ability to bulldog forward with pesky standing jabs, mixed up with overheads, throws, and low attacks.
As in Combo 1, when hit-checking into a possible Shinten target combo, don’t actually start the cancel to strong and fierce on block. If the target combo is initiated on block, like a blocked sequence of standing standing , end the blockstring by chaining into instead of . This is safer on block, since Shinten with a standing ender can’t be special-canceled when guarded.
COMBO 4
| Standing standing canceled to various options |
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Standing serves as a slightly slower, beefier alternate close-range poke to Ibuki’s light attacks. On block, Ibuki’s left at +2, just like after standing . Poking with blocked standing (or ) into a follow-up leaves only a single-frame gap for them to act, and anything they do that isn’t invincible will simply be counter-hit.
For a variant on this two-hit link, crouching standing also works. Crouching shrinks Ibuki into a lower profile during the attack, and has slightly more horizontal range, but hits one frame slower, and has one frame less frame advantage afterward. Standing will link from a close-range crouching on hit (but then, when that close in, just go for standing if a medium-strength opener is desired). On block, crouching leaves Ibuki at -1.
COMBO 5
Standing standing   then juggle with various options |
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| Standing standing crouching standing canceled into various options |
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After Ibuki’s command overhead by itself, only standing will link without a counter-hit. However, her overhead gains extra hit advantage when used from the Sasanaki target combo. The standing here doesn’t actually combo with under any circumstance; it’s just there to gain access to an overhead with better follow-up potential. Ibuki players should be abusing walk-up standing and anyway, which don’t allow blocking opponents to take momentum back right away, so the occasional chain into overhead should surprise opponents who expect that it’s not their “turn” to try and interrupt anyway. At +5 on normal hit from the chained overhead kick, standing and standing will both link here. This overhead can be set up meaty by popping opponents out of jugglable floating states with standing . Standing causes them to flip out with air recovery just before they’d otherwise be floored, right in position to have to block Ibuki’s overhead kick right away.
These same options work after “naked” if it counter-hits, which also puts Ibuki at +5.
Jump-Ins
COMBO 6
| Jumping standing canceled into various options |
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The jumping Tobikura chain allows for a slightly extended frontal hit-check. On landing, if the jump-in chain was guarded, stop after standing (don’t chain into strong or fierce) and stage a secondary attack.
COMBO 7
Against cornered foe, jumping (start charging ) standing  release (airborne MK Kunai Ikkinage), land and juggle  |
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Against midscreen foe, jumping (start charging ) standing  , release on landing (LP Kunai Ikkinage) |
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This sequence requires a cornered enemy, and is an illustration of using EX Kazekiri and Kirin Ikkinage to extend combos. Even if only one reserve Kunai is held, canceling from the aerial EX Kazekiri hit into MK Kirin Ikkinage will keep the victim floating long enough for Ibuki to land, where EX Raida can connect to finish the juggle. This is a tremendous amount of damage for a relatively short combo that uses just two stocks of EX gauge. This opportunity is most likely to materialize by dizzying an opponent near a corner, or by making a hard read and jumping in over their fireball.
Of course, the same starter works midscreen (jump-in fierce to standing fierce as the hit-check), along with the cancel into EX Kazekiri. MK Kirin Ikkinage won’t keep them lofted outside of corners, however. A little extra damage and a relaunch can be tacked on by canceling EX Kazekiri into aerial EX Kunai, which will bounce them into the air like her V-Trigger bombs. Start charging during the EX Kazekiri here, and Kunai Ikkinage can be used to juggle after landing from the air EX Kunai throw.
Grounded Counter-Hits
COMBO 8
| Counter-hit standing standing crouching standing canceled to various options |
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| Counter-hit standing standing |
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| Counter-hit standing standing |
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| Counter-hit standing standing , dash, juggle |
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Standing is +5 on counter-hit. Just like how a character like Karin sometimes counter-hit-fishes with something like crouching crouching , it can pay off to fish up-close with standing standing . Go for the hit-check then just pause to see what happens before committing to continuing the target combo. On block, standing leaves Ibuki at +1, not bad at all. On hit, finish with the target combo and decide what kind of follow-up to go for, since the standing can be canceled, allowing for intentionally confusing repositioning as they’re forced into air recovery.
Counter-hit-checking with standing standing works too, and is actually a slightly tighter gap for stopping their counter-pokes. Standing can be canceled into her standard knockdown specials, or into Kunai (then Critical Art or V-Trigger).
COMBO 9
| Counter-hit standing standing , , juggle |
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| Counter-hit standing standing , , juggle |
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Ibuki’s standing roundhouse Crush Counter sends foes into a brief, vulnerable spinning hitstun, but will whiff over crouchers’ heads. At least this is a rare Ibuki poke that actually has decent horizontal range besides her Tenrai V-Skill or Sazan slide. Unlike with some characters’ spinning Crush Counters, there isn’t time here to dash/command dash in and link more attacks. Combo conversion will have to take place from wherever Ibuki used standing .
COMBO 10
| Counter-hit , then juggle |
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| Counter-hit , then juggle (one hit) , juggle |
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| Counter-hit , then juggle (one hit) , juggle K |
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| Counter-hit , then juggle , juggle immediate (bomb explodes and relaunches), , juggle |
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On counter-hit, Bonshogeri leads to juggle chances. The most likely scenarios for it to hit this way are against the enemy’s ground movement or throw attempts. Actual follow-ups will depend on positioning, but the lunge of EX Raida makes it a reliable capper, among other options.
If standing connects as an anti-air counter-hit, similar juggle combo options are available. This might occur if the enemy jumps in from far away, but standing isn’t useful as an anti-air against jumps closer in.
V-Trigger
COMBO 11
| Starting 85% of the screen away: , , , juggle |
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| Starting half screen away, |
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| Up close, standing (brief pause) crouching (bomb explodes) , juggle |
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There are innumerable ways to use V-Trigger to create or extend combos, thanks to the combination of command dashes, “super” screen freeze, the range on Ibuki’s Kunai attacks, and the explosive properties of V-Trigger bombs themselves. Kunai range plus screen freeze when V-canceling gives Ibuki hit-checks from incredible distances. When loaded with V-Gauge and a couple spare stocks of EX, a heavy EX Kunai thrown from almost full screen can become a combo starter. Up close, the V-Trigger activation freeze allows just about anything to link, like with any character’s activation. In floating combos, if it’s possible to juggle with a regular grounded Kunai, then it’s usually possible to cancel that into a bomb, then immediately link an EX Kunai juggle; the screen freeze lets the regular Kunai link into the EX Kunai on a bouncing foe, and the EX Kunai, properly timed, will set off the bomb and launch the enemy before either the bomb or the EX Kunai have even touched the ground!
Every V-Trigger activation has one bomb during the screen freeze, then another bomb available within just over thirty seconds. The second bomb loses comboability without screen freeze, but it still allows V-Trigger cancels from the same wide array of attacks, so it’s easy to get the bomb out there in the middle of attack chains. Many of Ibuki’s juggle combos can be ended prematurely on purpose after throwing a V-Trigger bomb, creating tricky reset opportunities. For instance, while many juggle combos can be extended with (one hit) LK Kasumigake, air recovery can be created on purpose by letting both hits of connect. The second hit can still be canceled, which means it can be canceled into a V-Trigger bomb, which can be immediately followed up with MK Kasumigake. Ibuki passes through an opponent air recovering, covered by a bomb ticking toward explosion. Depending on the fuse selected, MK Kasumigake can be used repeatedly against a hesitant opponent, swapping sides to create blocking confusion whenever the eventual explosion occurs. Mix-ups between crouching , Sazan, and Kobekudaki are also effective, especially if the defender is also worried about left/right pass-through tricks.
