Strategy

Long Range

Karin is primarily a close-range fighter and lacks anything that hits directly from far away. At full screen against fireball zoners, you can use Meioken to bat aside incoming single-hit fireballs, stalemating their attempt to chip away at you. But otherwise, you should just move Karin forward into mid range, where she’ll have several ways to start threatening her foe. To gain ground against projectiles, just neutral jump over them, allowing Karin to land and walk forward a bit before the projectile actually leaves the screen. As an extremely risky gimmick to move in from afar all at once, you can perform HP Ressenha into Senha Kusabi to hit an enemy with a sweeping attack from the full length of the screen. This is not a constant tool to rely on outside of an occasional change-up or early read against a fireball throw.

Characters like Chun-Li, Ryu, Necalli, Vega, and M. Bison are likely to want to hold Karin at bay from mid range, limiting your shots at point-blank offense and keeping her where they have stronger tools. Several other characters don’t have much full-screen offense, either, and will naturally meet you at close range eventually (like R. Mika, Zangief, Cammy, Laura, and so on), so worrying about the long-range game won’t come up.

Dhalsim is an exception since he can supplement his anti-air Yoga Fires with standing /. His far-reaching limbs make it tough to just walk Karin into the range you want, and jumping forward can be difficult because of Yoga Fire and his anti-airs like jumping , crouching , and . When you’re hesitant, he can use the cover of Yoga Fire (or EX Yoga Fire) to transition into his own close-range offense, exploiting Karin’s chancy anti-air options with “tiger knee” Yoga Teleports. If Karin’s spaced correctly and not immediately pinned down by an incoming Yoga Fire, you can react to standing whiffed in front of her with Just Frame Tenko, potentially slapping Dhalsim into an awkward-looking long-range launch from almost all the way across the screen. This gives Karin time to dash forward into mid range, where Dhalsim can no longer safely try to pepper her with long-reaching pokes. Otherwise, wise play rules the day. Eyeball Dhalsim’s pokes, and dash/jump forward just as they retract (absence of incoming Yoga Fire permitting). If you want to aggressively move in directly behind a retracted Dhalsim limb while also dodging a Yoga Fire that’s about to hit Karin, go ahead and spend some EX Gauge on EX Sappo command dash, which is projectile-invincible starting on Frame 6. If Dhalsim jumps or uses Yoga Float to backpedal, continue walking in prudently while staying ready to block or anti-air late against a surprise air Yoga Teleport, Drill Kick, or falling .

F.A.N.G. will also likely try to keep Karin away from beyond mid range, using the arcing double-hit Nishikyu to pester and poison her, backed up with Ryobenda mines and Nishodoku V-Skill poison shots. Like Dhalsim’s moves, the height of F.A.N.G.’s Nishikyu turns the anti-zoning plan into a game of knowing when to move in on the ground instead of trying to neutral jump/forward jump over incoming lateral threats. HP Ressenha, so powerful against other projectiles, also isn’t much of a help against the arcing shots of F.A.N.G. or Dhalsim. Instead, Karin just has to walk forward/forward dash/Sappo dash under projectiles falling on her head or past her, or simply block if the projectiles are falling directly in front of her. Don’t jump into Nishikyu, which just hands F.A.N.G. 20-40 damage, a poison effect on Karin, and a potential Sotoja juggle as Karin falls. If you’re going to take the poison from something, it should be Nishodoku, his V-Skill, which takes him a while to put out and doesn’t actually cause hitstun or damage when it hits Karin. If you see him start up the V-Skill throw without Nishikyu/Ryobenda covering the space in front of him, take the chance to just rush in, gaining a ton of ground. Yeah, Karin takes poison, but it disappears if you make the sudden close-range chance count by hitting F.A.N.G. It’s possible to give too much respect to zoners sometimes, whereas if you’re willing to play a mostly fundamental, patient style but sprinkle in the occasional bold/wild play (like dashing in directly through his V-Skill on purpose), you can turn matches in your favor quickly. If F.A.N.G. thinks he can cover lateral space with Sotoja, his sleeve swipe, make him think better of it by punishing his recovery whenever you block (from far, Karin should at least be able to hit him with standing ; from closer in, she can pick up full combos off crouching or better). If he keeps Ryobenda mines out, you’ll have to be a little more respectful. You won’t be able to jump or Ressenha at a F.A.N.G. camped out behind Ryobenda and tossing up Nishikyu. You can try walking into EX Sappo range and then using it to blow past the land mine and poison balls into close range, potentially scoring a late EX Tenko launch or quick combo starting with standing standing , depending on spacing. Or, you’ll have to briefly just respect F.A.N.G.’s low-damage poison wall and wait for a chance to advance or make a big move when he leaves an opening.

If the enemy is trying to attack with jump-ins from long ranges, Karin’s Just Frame or EX Tenko will suffice to shoot them down; see Combo 12 for more details. This is better as an anti-air the farther out that foes attack from. If you read a lengthy jump-in extremely early, so you have more time to prepare, you can also stick out early LK Mujinkyaku so the second hit nails the space your aggressor is entering, creating a potential juggle opening afterward.

Mid Range

In mid range, as Karin’s edging into range for jump-ins and HP Ressenha, you’ll have many ways to test or engage your opponent. Most aggressively, you can simply use Sappo command dash to move all the way in. Of course, this isn’t safe at all, but it’s faster than a forward jump, so you can still get away with it sometimes if the enemy isn’t focused on punishing it. You can discourage Sappo punish attempts by frequently ending Sappo dashes in Orochi, Karin’s shoulder check. At only -2 blocked, Orochi is a very strong pressure tool in mid to close range, good whether you perform Sappo to Orochi cold or when canceled from pokes like crouching or standing . You technically give up tempo advantage whenever this is blocked, but at least you move inside and force a close-range sequence. Challengers with three and four-frame jabs can poke back immediately after blocking Orochi to put Karin in a disadvantaged close-range situation, but you can discourage this behavior by mixing in delayed Orochi shoulder checks, canceling into late during Sappo dash instead of immediately. This will leave a small gap so that if the adversary is trying to buffer a poke against blocked Orochi, they get counter-hit by delayed Orochi. A foe hesitant to respond to Orochi pressure opens the door for you to simply Sappo all the way in, transitioning to close-range options.

In matchups against challengers like Ryu or M. Bison, your opponent may attempt to control mid-range space with projectiles, especially if you’re respecting their anti-air ability and refraining from jumping in excessively. Meioken can break fireballs but is a tad slow to react with from this range, and it will lose out if they use a two-hit EX fireball. Instead, with EX Gauge to burn, you can react to fireball throws from mid range with EX Sappo, projectile-invulnerable starting on Frame 6. When using EX Sappo this way to blow through projectiles, be sure you’ve passed through before transitioning to EX Tenko or EX Orochi if you planned on using the EX Sappo specials against your enemy’s projectile toss recovery. EX Sappo’s projectile invulnerability doesn’t extend to its attack extensions, so canceling prematurely gets Karin hit. You can also just let EX Sappo recover and then begin close-range attacks.

Another option against lateral projectile users from just beyond jump-in range and closer is HP Ressenha. The whole middle portion of this half-screen traversing attack will pass cleanly over conventional fireballs, so you can consider this a long-range jump-in whenever you expect your enemy to toss a projectile. If you know that a hit will occur, you can cancel Ressenha on hit into Senha Kusabi for a knockdown and total close-range momentum. You can even cancel a confirmed Ressenha hit directly into Karin’s Critical Art, with a full EX Gauge. Confirming Ressenha in this way is less about reacting to the actual hits and more about reacting to the situation, like confirming that you did indeed make a good read and will pass over their fireball to hit the foe before they recover fully.

The threat of Sappo and HP Ressenha from mid range may make foes hesitate, waiting for you to commit to an engagement tool. When you have time to charge it, lv.2 Meioken reaches forward on the ground from jump-in range, knocking down on hit and leaving Karin at a safe -1 disadvantage when blocked. You’ll also build valuable V-Gauge, hit or guard. This is good to keep in mind as a long-reaching poke, but don’t be predictable with it, as it’s susceptible to being jumped over and punished.

A hesitant opponent also gives Karin a chance to walk forward into range of her standing and crouching pokes. Standing reaches quite far in seven frames and is ±0 when blocked, giving up nothing. You can use standing as a whiff-punisher and as a safe interruption move from the edge of its range, and it’s Karin’s baseline “jab” from mid range. When in doubt, standing is her go-to poke.

Crouching has a bit less range, but it hits one frame faster (six frames) and must be blocked crouching. Crouching should more or less always be canceled into a special move, whether on hit or block, as in Combo 1. Crouching intentionally whiffed just outside its range is actually good since you can buffer a special command that only occurs if the enemy sticks something into your crouching poke or dashes into it. Depending on range, the opponent’s character, and whether you expect them to block or not, you must decide whether to buffer crouching pokes into LK/MK Mujinkyaku versions, Sappo Orochi/delayed Orochi, or Tenko launch to whatever juggle when you’re certain a hit is coming. The scarier you can make Karin’s crouching pokes, the more effective her , Ressenha, and Guren Senha (all overheads) will become.

The only problem with crouching and standing as pokes is that their hurtboxes are larger than their hitting area, meaning Karin will consistently lose to higher-priority or invincible attacks. As a safer change-up poke to crouching and standing , standing is crucial. It hits in four frames with a terrific hitbox that extends well in front of Karin’s leg hurtbox; basically, her whole boot is invincible. This functions as a low crush as long as the opposing low poke doesn’t extend to near her back leg. She’s +4 on hit after this move and a whopping +3 on block, so following a blocked standing poke with an immediate crouching low-check leaves only a three-frame gap for opponents to act (with only a two-frame gap on hit and a potential link combo on counter-hit). Standing requires way less overall time commitment than her staple forward kick pokes, so you have more time to react to something like the enemy jumping in unexpectedly, and you’re less vulnerable to whiff-punishing techniques and anti-poke reversals like LP Shoryuken.

The enemy may walk backward during footsie battles specifically to make standing and crouching pokes whiff. As a counter to this, keep in mind Karin’s crouching sweep in mid-range footsies. It’s her longest-reaching poke, knocking down in nine frames, which makes it usable for whiff-punishing normal moves the opponent sticks into the space between you. Like crouching , it can also be used to interfere with your adversary’s ground movement, especially their backward walking and backdashes. You’ll need good reflexes and a feel for your challenger’s habits and preferred buttons to play this kind of game, but it pays off big if you do. Landing a counter-hit sweep (whether sweeping into their poke’s startup or nailing their dash) will prevent them from using quick-recovery, giving you lots of time to prepare an extremely ambiguous cross-up against their slow wakeup. Beware of simply sticking out sweeps because it feels good, though, as Karin’s very punishable when blocked (at -14).

With a sweep comes the usual caveat about safety: if it’s blocked, you’re in trouble. For a safer counter to backward walking, Karin can boldly walk an extra several steps forward before poking with crouching canceled into a special mix-up. Unfortunately, this isn’t as effective against characters who walk truly quickly, like Vega, Cammy, and Chun-Li.

Your footsie game may give Karin openings to jump in from mid range. The opponent may be so focused on footsies that they’re not ready to anti-air on short notice, or Karin might have jumped just when they stick out an anti-ground poke, leaving them wide open. Coming in from the front, jumping is the best attack, while jumping can work as an extremely ambiguous jump-in, hitting on either side depending on your attack timing on the way down.

Your defensive response to the opponent from mid range will depend on their angle of attack. Just Frame Tenko can work against attacks that pull up a little short, like Nash’s Moonsault Slash or dive kicks aimed at Karin’s toes, but it won’t be good against jump-ins that hit closer/deeper in. Crouching can anti-air these jump-ins but is a little awkward to apply; Karin ducks forward slightly before the uppercut and then punches straight up, not immediately hitting at an anti-air height. The anti-air hitbox above her head is also very narrow. It can work, but the timing and positioning are strict; this is no Birdie or R. Mika crouching for ease of anti-air application. If your foe’s actually using a far jump-in, like Rashid’s V-Skill or a carefully spaced cross-up jump-in, standing can come into play, but it’s also very specific. Only the first active frame is anti-air, and it hits directly above Karin’s head. Only the seventh frame of standing can pop someone from the air. However, this frame is special-cancelable, so if you can time standing well for anti-airs above Karin’s head, you can cancel right into Sappo command dash for a cross-under mix-up against your target’s air recovery. If these ground-based anti-airs seem inadequate and you get an early read on their jump-in, you can also jump to meet them early air-to-air with jumping or , which have good hitboxes for this purpose.

Close Range

You’ll end up in a close-range skirmish after Karin’s successfully pushed inside (whether through a jump-in, aggressive ground movement, Orochi, or Ressenha), after scoring certain knockdowns (like a footsie sweep, or any juggle ending in Tenko or LK Mujinkyaku, which leads to huge wakeup advantage for Karin), and after aggressive opponents put Karin on the defensive.

Standing is a terrific offensive opener up close. It hits in four frames and doesn’t require a counter-hit to convert into a combo, as shown by Combo 2. Karin is well-off when blocked, at +3. The hit-check sequence of Combo 2 leaves only a one-frame gap after the first hit for opponents to potentially mash something that gets counter-hit. If the opener is blocked, step forward and attempt a secondary assault. When you detect that foes are passive, waiting to react to crouching or and their follow-ups, you can just walk all the way into point-blank range before using standing . Foes will often react to this type of tactic by tech-throwing late, which will also get them counter-hit if they try it as you stick out your quick poke. Standing as a tick can be followed with a throw attempt or crouching /, fishing for a counter-hit.

Karin’s best defensive button at point-blank range is crouching , her only three-frame attack. It has good hitbox-to-hurtbox ratio, with the attack lacking a hurtbox from the elbow through her palm, and leaves Karin at +2 when guarded. It’s an effective frame trap to follow up blocked crouching with a forward step into crouching , to another crouching . On hit, crouching only links into itself, but on counter-hit (as might occur if you stick out crouching jab that interrupts an enemy’s throw-tech attempt, for example), crouching will link, giving you time to confirm and continue the combo (see Combo 6).

Crouching up close is Karin’s best bread-and-butter combo starter when you feel confident you’ll get a hit. Like with crouching , the hitting portion of the attack extends meaningfully ahead of Karin’s vulnerable portion, giving this high priority against pokes in its way. On hit, crouching allows links into standing as in Combo 3 (and, for a bit more reach, crouching ). On block, Karin’s still at +2 advantage after crouching , giving you a chance to walk up and throw/standing , bait a punishable reversal, or use crouching . Crouching canceled into a special is important to deter foes from just walking backward after blocking crouching . When the opponent blocks low, respecting crouching , you can follow up blocked crouching with LP Ressenha. More ambitiously, you can poke with crouching into standing , which is a six-frame gap blocked. This kind of delay will fail against people who buffer pokes during hit/blockstun to get reversal timing (or against mashers), but it’s the kind of technique that can open up reactive opponents who hit buttons late. The whole sequence combos if crouching counter-hits (Combo 7), but you can also score a different counter-hit combo if they guard crouching , then take the bait and punch late into your standing (Combo 8). When V-Gauge is full, you can also easily use these links of crouching into standing / to confirm a hit, then slap to activate V-Trigger, then link post-freeze into standing into your Guren Ken juggle of choice (as in Combo 13).

Karin will keep advantage on block off of many of her important hit-confirm tools, so you can usually follow up blocked assaults by naturally transitioning into a frame trap or throw attempt or intentional whiff-causing pause (typical stuff). However, she’ll be at a disadvantage on block after having standing , crouching , or crouching blocked, so these are ideal normals to use whenever you’re going to cancel into Sappo dash (then Orochi/delayed Orochi/nothing) or LK/MK Mujinkyaku. The importance of keeping the opponent worried about crouching canceled into specials probably can’t be overstated, as this will make them hesitant to walk backward or block standing. Up-close standing/crouching LP Ressenha also has some use as a quick overhead strike, which happens to combo (leading naturally into Senha Kusabi finisher) if hits a standing foe. If it hits them crouching, they’ll still have to deal with the quick overhead hit. Close LP Ressenha attempts are -6 guarded but are worth the risk to make your adversary exhaust mental resources worrying about overheads in addition to crouching .

At advantage at close to mid range, and after certain juggle knockdowns, Karin will be in position to jump on top of her foe with jumping . The hitbox on jumping means you can use it both as a frontal jump-in and an ambiguous cross-up attack, and depending on your jump-in timing, you can vary which it’ll be from the same jump arc. Generally, press higher up to stay on the same side, and press it later to ensure cross-up . Front or back hits both lead to hit-confirm chances on landing, whether into a grounded Combo 2 or 3 hit-check, or making the jump-in part of your confirmation, as in Combo 5. Be careful going for cross-up aggressively in the neutral game. Clever foes can just walk forward under it and cause it to whiff from certain angles since the kick’s hitbox doesn’t extend far under Karin.

If opponents block cross-ups, crouching , and Ressenha consistently, you might have trouble opening them up with clean hits. Although Karin’s normal throws temporarily kill momentum, you may have to just walk in up-close and go for them sometimes instead of trying for a hit-check or frame trap. Once a turtle is reminded of throws after eating a couple, they might starting poking or teching late, opening them up to be counter-hit when you go back to attacking normally. Effectively mixing up your cancels off of crouching also goes a long way, varying between early-striking LK Mujinkyaku/Orochi, late-striking delayed Orochi, and overhead-hitting MK Mujinkyaku.

When forced into a defensive position, Karin can anti-air with standing and crouching depending on the opponent’s angle of attack (as described in the Mid Range section). For threats that cut in close to Karin, you can assure victory by spending EX Gauge on EX Ressenha. This upward-shooting move is invincible for five frames and will beat out anything non-invincible in that timeframe, so it’s a guaranteed way to blow up jump-ins, walk-up throws, meaties, frame traps, and cross-ups when you feel like you must win an exchange. Just be aware of the risk, as EX Ressenha is vulnerable to counter-hits during recovery.

With Kanzuki-Ryu Guren No Kata Active

Once you have V-Gauge full, you gain a powerful hit-check tool. It might be ready as soon as you have around half stamina left, depending on whether you spend any gauge on a V-Reversal; you’ll get it sooner poking with Meioken and scoring Crush Counters with standing/crouching and crouching . You can perform close-range standing or standing and cancel into V-Trigger for huge hit or guard advantage (a minimum of +8). These pokes can be performed just outside their effective range, complete with the command as an option select. If they whiff, nothing happens, but if the opponent sticks something into the poke and loses (which they probably will, since these are heavy-strength attacks), the V-Trigger cancel will take place automatically. Karin then will have time to visually confirm and link after the “super freeze.” You can cancel from a normal into a standard Tenko launcher, then juggle with Guren Ken into its follow-ups.

With Guren Ken active, you can use Guren Ken as a mid-range, projectile-bashing two-hit poke, or tack it on after cancelable blocked normals. Cancel into Guren Chochu for even safer pressure than with normal Orochi (and a possible combo on counter-hit; see Combo 11), or mix-up between Guren Senha (superior to Ressenha; see Combo 4), cross-up Guren Hochu, and high-grabbing Guren Resshu. Low-hitting Guren Kusabi might sound like a good change-up, but if you want to threaten low, it’s better just to force foes to block Guren Chochu and then strike low with crouching Guren Ken.

These mix-ups are all stronger during V-Trigger for being available simultaneously, especially being able to vary between Karin’s overhead (which leads to a link combo) and her high throw (which hits adversaries blocking high for the overhead). Against opponents with good reversals who can cut through all that with something like MP Shoryuken, you can opt to cancel Guren Ken into Guren Kyoho with , spending a large chunk of remaining V-Timer on a backward dash. This is totally worth it if it coaxes out a laggy retaliation move that you can punish.