Viper Moves
Otilia Mojarro
C- Viper is primarily a mix up character. As one of the most difficult characters to learn, she is well worth the time once mastered as she has a plethora of options such as feints and cancels and a play-style that somewhat breaks the norm for traditional street fighter, giving her a more free form style of play that is as satisfying to play as it is to watch. Although she does have below average stamina, C-Viper is almost always a threat because of her play-style. Having mostly slower than normal attacks. She relies on high execution and confident button presses to take advantage of any openings she makes on her opponent. When poking, many of her opponents have faster or stronger attacks than she does. So viper players must be wary of where they stand and when they act.
There's like 30 different ways to use burn kicks, It's just one special move but combined with her super jump and other special moves you can literally turn it into anything you want. It's like your own custom special move that you can do whatever you want with. It even has the ability to absorb a fireball with just frame timing. - DevilJin 01
Both involve using a regular jump though one cancels into the burn kick from the first possible frame you are in the air. Allowing for the ambiguous tricks often used by high level players with it. Like crossing up on wake up and setting up an ultra when you are in the corner. Non Instant Burn Kick (just jumping and then burn kicking as fast as you can) takes longer to do and doesn't allow for as many of the tricks possible with instant burn kick.
If you master the art of utilizing Super Jumps to Burning Kicks it will increase your offensive capabilities as a Viper player. It can help her cover a lot of ground and it can change the trajectory of her attacks, which makes it difficult to block. The faster you do the Burning Kick after the Super Jump, the lower the trajectory will be and it will also be faster.
The faster you do the Burning Kick after the Super Jump, the more of a change you will see in descent speed and trajectory from the Burning Kick. Needless to say, the faster you do the Burning Kick afterwards, the faster the descent and the lower the trajectory. Of course, one of the trickiest Super Jump Burning Kicks to defend against is one that combines a Super Jump and a Burning Kick motion in one fluid joystick motion that cancels into the BK on the first possible frame that it can aka:
The Instant SJ Burn Kick is basically a Super Jump-Cancelled burn kick from the earliest point you can cancel it from. So it's a super super low trajectory SJ Burn Kick. The kind that will hit a crouching Ryu every time as long as he's not pressing a button.
It's execution wise extremely unnecessary to consistently do an Instant SJ Burn Kick without cancelling on the first frame via the 270 motion(D,DB,B,UB,U,UF). Just trying to mash the burn kick motion immediately after a super jump is inevitably slower.
The easiest way to test if you are doing it right is by making Ryu crouch in training mode. If you can hit him from the front and from the back of his crouching body with a super jump cancelled burn kick consistently that means you are doing an Instant SJ Burn Kick. If you can't that means you're not cancelling well enough. Like if you Super Jump Burn Kick at his face and the burn kick whiffs that means you're not doing it right.
Thunder Knuckle is Viper's Armor-Breaking move. If you didn't know, all Street Fighter IV characters have the ability to employ at least one move that allows them to absorb one hit and possibly counter-attack if you are in reach. An opponent charging a Focus Attack to at least Level 2 is one example. Other characters' EX moves like Boxer's EX Rush Punch, Zangief's EX Running Bear Grab and El Fuerte's EX Command Run are examples of EX moves with Armor properties. Thunder Knuckles of any kind can counter those moves cleanly, and you will know that you countered correctly when you see and hear glass break. Viper's Thunder Knuckle is quite possibly the best Armor-Breaking move in the game because of its quickness and versatility of the 4 variations, including the EX version.
LP Thunder Knuckle can go under high-hitting attacks (like Boxer's Straight Dash Punch) and most projectiles (excluding Sagat's Low Tiger Shot). Thanks to FullMetalRoss from the shoryuken.com forums for this information.
MP Thunder Knuckle is great for covering ground quickly. It's also a good way to link some normals, especially crouching MP and crouching MK. Viper's bread-and-butter combo is crouching MP into MP Thunder Knuckle.
HP Thunder Knuckle is very important to Viper. It is probably her only consistent way to anti-air someone. However, it is not a fool-proof anti-air. It's possible that someone can hit you out of your HP Thunder Knuckle on start-up. The good news is that they will be in juggle state while you get to recover. This means that you can possibly juggle them afterwards... and even if you miss it's a knockdown scored for you. The bad news is if you are down to your last scrap of health, there's a chance you will get KO'ed.
Ultra Combo is quite picky to use because it seems to miss quite often, which leaves you wide open if whiffed. It also seems that some players (Zangief and Sagat) are much easier to hit with Ultra after HP TK because of their weight and bulk.
As mentioned before, if you trade hits with a jumping opponent while doing HP Thunder Knuckle, you may be able to still hit them in their juggle state. After the trade, dash forward ASAP and try doing either another HP Thunder Knuckle or Ultra Combo. Although it looks slow, usually a second HP Thunder Knuckle will get them. The timing on hitting with Ultra after trading hits may be a lot trickier, but the reward is great if it hits.
Thunder Knuckle Feints are an important part of Viper's offensive arsenal. First off, it can be used repeatedly to lull someone into attacking and/or making a mistake. Seismo Hammer feints have a similar purpose, but Thunder Knuckle feints recover faster.
Second, it can also be used within combos to interrupt them midway and allow you to mix up your attacks. For example, you attack with a jump-in HK and the opponent blocks it. You continue with a crouching MK, and the opponent blocks that as well. After the MK, you can do a Thunder Knuckle feint to pretend you will follow through with the combo, and afterwards you can do things like go in for a throw, attack with Viper's overhead attack (F + MP) or hit them with a crouching MK into MP Thunder Knuckle. There are many indeed many options at your disposal.
Third, the TK feints can really confuse the opponent if used correctly. It really helps mask what Viper will do next, and it keeps her relatively safe while she's doing it. It also makes the opponent jittery, which can work in Viper's favor as she can control the offensive flow of the game with more setups. It can even agitate people who turtle into making a few more mistakes than usual. An example is feinting several TKs and Seismos until an opponent visibly drops their guard. Then you hit them with something like a Seismo Hammer, launch them to a combo, and set up another offensive set.
Fourth, it can be used to link normals that normally would not connect on their own. An example is crouching HP, HP Thunder Knuckle Feint, then another crouching HP. Normally, you wouldn't be able to link two crouching HP attacks in a row, but with a HP Thunder Knuckle feint you can link them. This can be a game-breaker because Viper has the ability to link high damaging normals together that will build up an opponent's stun meter (causing them to become dizzy). Side Note It is possible to FFF with LP, MP and HP TK Feint's although HP having the quickest recovery makes it the easiest to connect cr.HP see: Not All Thunder Knuckle Feints are Created Equal
It really does matter which Thunder Knuckle feint do at times to achieve certain things with Viper in her combos. The aforementioned crouching HP, HP Thunder Knuckle feint, crouching HP combo is best performed with a HP feint. Why? It's because of the shortened recovery frame-rate that allows you to link two crouching HP attacks.
The reason is because the timing is much harder to pull off a HP TK feint correctly mid-combo than it is with the LP and MP versions. It is also near-impossible to do HP TK feint as a stand-alone move, without hitting with a normal attack beforehand.
Doing a LP TK feint during a combo is very easy to do, but the recovery time from the start of the cancel animation to the ability to attack/move afterwards is the longest of the three. The MP TK feint isn't hard to to do within a combo either, but it has less recovery time in-between.
The HP TK feint is the trickiest by far, but has an incredibly low recovery time compared to the others. The only drawback is that the timing is stricter, so you may accidentally do HP Thunder Knuckle, EX Thunder Knuckle or EX Thunder Knuckle feint by mistake. This can lead to an opening for your opponent to hit you.
HP Thunder Knuckle feints have a bit of risk, but the reward is great. I highly recommend practicing HP TK feint until it becomes second nature. Just keep in mind that it helps to do the HP feint input a tad slower within combo's, compared to the other two. With some practice, you will discover the timing and recognize the feel of a perfect HP TK feint.
EX Thunder Knuckle can be useful on opponents like Chun Li, Balrog (Boxer) and M.Bison (Dictator) when they do a ground-level Super or Ultra and whiff. If you end up avoiding the Super/Ultra (ex. jumping over them), with the opponent stuck in their animation and you are behind them, do EX Thunder Knuckle to follow them across the screen. If you have to dash a few times to catch up, do so. It helps if they are moving towards the far corner, so you have less ground to cover.
EX Thunder Knuckle can also be great against people who like to use Focus Attack a lot. If you see or hear someone starting up a Saving Attack, if you immediately do EX Thunder Knuckle, you may be able to tag them with a crumple stun before they can recover. Since the opponent is stuck in Focus Attack animation, and since Dash Cancels also take time, it is actually a great way to counter. It is also very safe.
c80f0f1006