SF4 Biweekly TACV 04: Dhalsim

Even having recorded more clips for Dhalsim than any previous character, it still feels like i’ve barely scratched the surface. You could give his ultra to Zangief and he’d instantly become a combo monster. I have a feeling we’ll all be finding new Sim combos after every other Street Fighter IV character has been exhausted.

0:11 At maximum counterhit B+HP xx LP Yoga Fire range, the fireball hits late enough to give Dhalsim enough time to recover and link B+MP. Then the LP Yoga Flame xx LP Yoga Inferno cancel is delayed as long as possible in order to allow Balrog to pop up higher, to set up the Yoga Catastrophe at the end. This combo only works on Balrog because he actually rises inbetween Yoga Inferno hits, whereas other characters stay in place. Nothing can be done after the ultra because it only creates a juggle state when it launches a grounded opponent.

0:21 About half the cast can be hit by Dhalsim’s j.D+HP drill as they’re lying on the ground following Focus crumple. I went with Cammy because she’s not a very useful combo dummy otherwise.

0:29 Surprisingly enough, Dhalsim has difficulty generating massive damage because attacking inbetween ultra hits rapidly accrues heavy reduction penalties. The most effective configuration i found against Seth dealt 702 points of damage. Adding anything extra actually lowered that number, but considering Dhalsim’s versatility, i’m sure someone will find a way to break this record.

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0:39 Rufus’ EX Galactic Tornado interrupts Dhalsim’s LP Yoga Fire recovery while pulling him closer. Then Rufus dashes backward via EX Focus Cancel, and whiffs c.HP to reach into Dhalsim’s range. Here’s the interesting part: There are no simultaneous hits in SF4. Instead of getting hit by both Dhalsim’s Yoga Fire and lvl1 Focus Attack at the same time, only the lvl1 Focus Attack connects (as counterhit), allowing Dhalsim to dash forward and slide while the fireball catches up to Rufus. Sim’s DF+MK has 11 active frames and normally yields -5 advantage, which becomes +5 advantage when it connects on its last active frame – barely enough to link into B+MK.

0:48 C.Viper’s vertical j.LK trades with Dhalsim’s lvl3 Focus Attack, which creates a free juggle state. The Focus Attack causes way more hit impact freeze than a normal light attack, giving Dhalsim plenty of time to connect an LP Yoga Fire. Dhalsim’s j.D+HP has a juggle potential of one, so it connects after LP Yoga Fire puts C.Viper into conventional knockdown state. Yoga Catastrophe has very high juggle potential so it connects on its own, but doesn’t set up a free juggle state since Viper was already airborne. Therefore the HP Yoga Fire shouldn’t have connected, except every hit of Yoga Inferno creates free juggle states in addition to having inherent juggle potential. The MP Yoga Inferno connects first, enabling the HP Yoga Fire to juggle as well as the c.LK at the end.

1:00 Balrog’s fully charged (Final) Turn Punch deals 560 damage; more than enough to recharge Dhalsim’s Revenge Gauge in one shot. The last hit of the first Yoga Catastrophe is avoided in order to keep Balrog grounded. Once the second ultra launches Rog, Sim follows up with lvl1 Focus Attack xx dash forward, LP Yoga Inferno, DF+LP. Unfortunately, none of his fire specials can be used during this combo because the first ultra remains active on the screen. This double ultra setup has an insane amount of potential, and i’m sure we’ll see a lot more mileage out of it before SF4 is done.

This is a tool-assisted combo video recorded with two ASCII PAD V Pro programmable controllers. Absolutely no cheats, hacks, or game-altering devices were used in the making of.

19 thoughts on “SF4 Biweekly TACV 04: Dhalsim

  1. harejordan

    Wow, ultra ultra super on that last combo. And with Ryu’s ultra super ultra. Are there any other characters that can take advantage of Balrog’s final tap damage? I’d like to think it’d be impossible for some, but…I don’t want to count anything out.

  2. Maj Post author

    gorefrost: Man it’s too hard to find combos on u2b. They don’t even show up in the search if they don’t have 5k+ views. If i’d known, i would have listed you in special thanks or something. Would you like to see the list of stuff i tested?

    ultra, counterhit j.B+HK, B+HP, B+HK, LP super, B+HK (701/702 dmg, 588 stun)

    ultra, counterhit j.B+HK, B+HP, MP Yoga Flame xx LP super, B+HK (687/700 dmg, 618 stun)

    ultra, counterhit j.B+HK, B+HK x2, LP super, B+HK (696 dmg, 588 stun)

    ultra, counterhit j.B+HK, B+HK, HP Yoga Flame xx LP super, B+HK (695 dmg, 528 stun)

    ultra, counterhit j.B+HK, B+HK, MP Yoga Flame, LP super, B+HK (690 dmg)

    ultra, counterhit B+HK, B+HK, MP Yoga Flame xx LP super, B+HK (678/688 dmg)

    ultra, counterhit B+HK, B+HK, LP super, B+HK (675/683/687 dmg)

    ultra, counterhit j.B+HK, B+HK, LP Yoga Flame, LP super, B+HK (686 dmg)

    ultra, counterhit B+HP, B+HK, LP super, B+HK (683 dmg)

    ultra, counterhit j.B+HK, B+HK, LP super, B+HK (681 dmg)

    ultra, counterhit j.B+HK, B+HK, B+HP (one hit) xx MP Yoga Flame, LP super, B+HK (677 dmg)

    ultra, counterhit j.B+HK, B+HK, B+HP (one hit) xx LP Yoga Flame, LP super, B+HK (672 dmg, 558 stun)

    counterhit j.B+HK, ultra, LP super, B+HK (660 dmg)

    counterhit ultra, LP super, B+HK (656 dmg)

    Why would i waste my time testing all this garbage if i was gonna steal your idea?

  3. error1

    looks like gorefrost’s did more damage because it was vs a character with higher hp so it didn’t suffer low health damage reduction. That’s why all combos should be done of vega with his mask off.

  4. TMobotron

    Wow gorefrost, youre such an idiot.

    Yeah we all know Maj just steals his combos, he never does anything new, nor does he put in any of his own work on his videos. /sarcasm.

    If you honestly “don’t think it’s a coincidence” you should take a good look at yourself.

  5. gorefrost

    @Maj

    I know that finding a video on YT is really hard…that’s why I also quoted the SRK topic that was on top just 2 month ago… as you can read I spent a lot of time in finding combo too.
    Just seeing the SAME (best damage) combo makes me reacting in that way. Hope you understand.

    p.s: I would have sent you a PM but I didn’t find how to do it.

    However I was waiting your reply and If you found that by yourself no problem, hope next time you’ll

  6. Maj Post author

    It’s cool dude, i understand your reaction. But i don’t know what else to say; i never saw that thread or that video. I don’t repeat other people’s combos just because i think they look cool. Usually i do research before i start experimenting but this time i watched like seven videos and either they had no Sim combos whatsoever or they were hella basic.

    It seemed like a waste of time so i just gave up on that altogether. Unlike with Ryu, Ken, etc., it seemed like nobody was making Sim combos at all. And i knew it would be pointless looking through SRK for the kinds of concepts i knew Sim could utilize. I mean, let’s be honest, Sim players aren’t exactly your typical combo fanatics.

    Sorry man, my mistake, i didn’t think i was up against anyone this time whereas i knew i was up against 9000 Ken videos last time.

  7. gorefrost

    Ok, no problem, sorry for my instinctiveness :)
    I’m a Sim player and I know the combo limits of this char.
    I also knew that Sim has no video popularity.

    If you search for street fighter 4 video on YT you’ll see ton of useless video and It’s difficult to find something interesting….

    For that reasons I realised a video in the past –> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PILtpFuZ8Yc
    to show why Sim should be chosen as main, hope you like it.
    The quality video is crap ’cause I recorded with a digital camera.
    So it’s my fault if it’s still unknown by most people.

  8. Maj Post author

    Dude that video’s awesome! It would have way more views if Dhalsim was more popular, but maybe if Sabin wins a tournament then more people will play him. I’d love to see Taunt xx Teleport used in Evo2k10 Finals!

    At 1:06, that was really weird how the super only hit three times and didn’t knock Cammy down. You can’t combo after that, can you?

    At 2:03, i didn’t know you could do ultra after meaty HP Yoga Flame. That’s pretty cool. I don’t think DF+HK slide can ever be used in a juggle though. I tried it after his super on every character and it always whiffed. Though maybe his DB+HK sweep can, because you can do that after ultra. It’s just incredibly slow so i never got it to connect after the super, but i bet it’s possible against Balrog.

    That last combo against Fei Long looks awesome, the way the flame spreads during superfreeze. I really wanted to include that effect in my video but it’s very hard to combo Yoga Fire. Basically you can only do it from point blank range which means you can’t do anything complicated before it. Ah well, i’ll save it for Akuma or Rose i guess.

  9. Bob Sagat

    Definitely my favorite one so far, glad I picked Sim. Double ultra was cool and seeing drills mid combo was also nice.

  10. Maj Post author

    The one thing that kinda sucks about Dhalsim is that nearly every combo can be improved by performing it against Balrog. Anytime Sim’s super is involved, you can get a much nicer follow-up against Rog than any other character.

    Also i wanted that Cammy combo to stay midscreen but it can obviously be improved by taking it into the corner. There’s gotta be some spacing where instead of knocking her into the fireball, you land and do a ground attack and use the fireball to nullify its pushback. That should earn you a couple of extra low fierces, especially against a fatter character.

    What really sucked about that combo is that Sim can do lvl2 Focus Attack xx dash forward then use j.D+HP drill to hit Rufus while crossing over to the other side. But it doesn’t work when the Focus Attack connects after that EX fireball, probably due to too much pushback. I tested it against literally every character in the game and couldn’t find anyone else it worked on. So i had to settle on recording it without the crossup drill. Sadness.

    Also that Seth combo was really weird. When i had Training Mode dummy Seth set to automatic counterhit, he would always lean forward. However once i added the Tanden Engine in order to create a real counterhit setup, he started leaning back. I ended up having to change the timing of that j.B+HK to make it hit much later in order for Seth to lean forward. It’s strange how picky SF4 gets sometimes.

    Oh yeah, and there’s tons of possibilities involving Sim’s ultra which have yet to be explored. Slide combos for days! It’s practically a moving Aegis Reflector. Too bad i don’t have a week to blow on one combo.

  11. Maj Post author

    By the way, it seems the only reason Dhalsim’s super doesn’t allow a free juggle after connecting against grounded opponents is that Sim doesn’t recover in time. You can sweep, then hit them with meaty LP Yoga Inferno and he’ll recover in time to juggle with B+LK or whatever.

  12. gorefrost

    “At 1:06, that was really weird how the super only hit three times and didn’t knock Cammy down. You can’t combo after that, can you? ”

    Yeah, I can. That was weird also for me, so I include that, because it seems more spectacular :)

    “At 2:03, i didn’t know you could do ultra after meaty HP Yoga Flame. That’s pretty cool. I don’t think DF+HK slide can ever be used in a juggle though.”

    In June I didn’t know that you could punish with a b.hk or a lot of limbs after a LP super in the corner :P
    I know you cannot use HK slide during a juggle, but no problem: b.hk connects and it does more damage.

    About your last comment, you’re right. But if you do yoga flame XX super you can punish with s.lk (4 startup frame) ANYWHERE, also not in the corner: that’s because flame lifts up the opponent a bit.

    Keep practing combo, I’ll surely read there :)

  13. jamheald

    When’s Rose gonna be then? Really looking forward to that one. And of course Cammy. Aren’t you gonna get bored of doing these when ssf4 is out?

  14. Maj Post author

    Actually i’m looking forward to Rose too. She has a couple of very interesting things i want to try. But it depends on who wins the next screenshot caption contest. Though i’ll try mentioning Rose to them as one of the best candidates to try to influence their decision, haha.

    And i was planning on stopping these when SSF4 comes out. I’m not sure how i’ll handle the rest of the characters when that happens. Either i’ll come back to them way later, or i might do a “Leftovers TACV” with one combo per character from the unused ones. We’ll see.

  15. jamheald

    Yeh there’s gonna be too little interest in sf4 then for the amount of effort you put into these. How you gonna choose then? I mean there are some characters like akuma and Seth who you could do alot with but there’s already been alot done with them so would you miss them out or can you not wait to try and find something new?

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