You can use the dash button to backdash without losing the 4 charge. That's useful for May.

I think the hardest thing for me is knowing how long to hold the first direction, as well as doing things like movement while trying to create the charge. It's too much forward thinking for my monkey brain

That's my secret Cap. I'm always charging

Been thinking of picking one of either of these characters, but charge inputs have been messing me up a lot. Thanks for the video!

I think my biggest weaknesses on charging are still currently knowing how long to hold the charge, doing fast charges, and then doing consistent charges. That combo cancel mission for may got me definitely not wanting to deal with charge stuff but I know those are pretty strict on timing anyways. But I'll keep practicing until it is all second nature, otherwise I cannot use the full proper moveset of one of my 3 mains, being Axl. Never could do any of that chatge stuff growing up since playing gg1 on ps1, so I always resorted to Sol and Zato because they were the coolest to me.

When I learned that you could always be charging in SFV, I IMMEDIATELY switched to Balrog and had way more fun. Now I play May like more ignorant balrog with a flash kick😂

I struggled so hard with charge moves, but learning Balrog in SF helped me so much. Realizing that you have to buffer your charges made it click, which you explained well here.

"Dragonball sick neutral" Im done bro

A good tip id recommend is just considering far slash as Back far slash, so that the second you do the move you’ll be charging , and pressing back far slash won’t change your input for the move

One thing that helps to remember is that down forward counts for up charge moves, so if you muck your inputs and get horizontal dolphin when you want vertical, holding down forward makes it impossible to muck up.

I love Big band in Skullgirls but I was very intimidated by his charge specials but it ended up being way easier. Especially with how short his charge is, you can charge mid combo which is amazing

I cant do that one Axl combo for the life of me because of his charged move lol

This video is a legitimate blessing because i always struggled to find good content on it tyvm knight back when i played SF5 i simply could not play bison/balrog which was a shame because adored them aesthetically. in strive i only picked up may because of her theme being stuck in my head but i have now learned charge moves and this vid has taught me a few bits as well (also a very good answer to any friend who asks me about it now too)

Why did you do this video, the may army is coming 🐬🐬🐬

Your Millia is on point dude. Enjoying your night twitch!

This is the most convenient video because I just started to learn may.

“2 directions at the same time, and a button.” I needed that simplification, just picked up Alex in 3rd strike and always open myself up with failed charge inputs. You the noblest LK.

One thing I remember from Xrd and maining Venom is you can also do things like hold 1, then press 3 and use that to input stinger aim, then immediately press 7 to use carcass raid, slide the stick back to 1 then repeat the cycle. It wasnt to practical aside from catching someone trying to jump over my projectiles, I mostly did it to train up some dexterity and get into the mindset of the ABC, always be charging (when possible), even when using other charge moves.

Thank you good sir I was struggling with May

Charges are hard for me because of 2 things: 1. I never have any idea when I'm charged. It's literally just charge a bit, press the button and pray. I'd like some form of consistency with using my specials, and charge characters are so ambiguous about if you're allowed to use a special. 2. Charging under other animations takes conscious effort for me. I have to actively remind myself to charge under everything, which takes my mind away from the rest of the decisions I have to make. It makes me irrationally angry when people say charge characters aren't hard. I can't tell you how frustrating it is to try to consistently get charge moves to come out. I can do the move once, then try the same timing again and get nothing. Feels more like fighting the game than playing it. Even if I did get the timing down perfectly, I don't think I'll ever understand the fun people get from constantly making sure they're holding back, down, or both.

thanks bro i will use these tips for leona in kof

Finally it almost like I've been scouring youtube for a video like this.

Legittt the only thing stopping me from playing leo and may. U read mt damn mind LK. Thanks so much for the guide

Bro thank you so much for this vid

Thanks for explaining this! I wanted to try May but I did not understand how to do the Dolphin move and I was intimidated.

I started with charge characters because they always have some of the best buttons to make up for having to hold down back in order to use moves. I play Leo because I love having a DP and charge moves while also having a pretty easy to use stance. I got my buddy a hitbox to help him have an easier time playing and he still felt like charge characters were too complicated due to having to find time to charge your moves while fighting even though with a hitbox it trivializes charging.

Thanks for giving me hope

i play zato cause i couldn’t play charge characters… it was either that or nagoriyuki

Can you do more input guide videos perhaps doing a video on wake up up reversal timing or tips for getting those wake up supers more consistent?

Yo this video and these comments are helpful af thanks homie

thanks dude, not even trying to learn may but i've been playing a little bit of every character in training mode to get used to their options and i couldn't do this consistently

I love charge characters. I think the charge characters in Strive are easier than ever. The amount of time you have to charge back is so small.

thanks for the video, I've never properly learned how to charge moves in all these years because I was too lazy to look it up and learn, but I'll give a try this time

I needed this video when i played a lot of sfv😂🔥🥶

Yeah I gotta agree with that other guy Chipp’s moves are definitely easier to do than any charge move.

0:20 Potemkin: *sad megafist noise* Iirc the diagonal ↙️ movement is ⬅️ and ⬇️ together, that's why you can charge both moves at the same time By which I mean when you look at the inputs from the controller

I have ascended, thank you Lord Knight.

I picked up Strive May as my very first charge character, and it has been a blast. Within a week I went from forgetting to charge fast enough or missing a charge to my problem being that I forget to NOT charge when I want 6H instead of H dolphin.

thanks was trying new characters on xbox and couldn't figure out how to do some special moves

I subbed the second I saw you put Blue Water Blue Sky on.

weirdly i've always had an easy time with charge characters. Back when i was a kid i struggled to do the motion inputs, especially z inputs so i played chun-li a lot because she had the mask kick input for legs and sbk and kikoken. And then once i realized you can charge at all times i held back whenever i was doing anything lol

I appreciate this.

AHH, The good old triangle motion

i like jumping forward then holding back after the up forward input c:

May players never stop charging. Even now I’m still charging

Thanks for this. I can now UNGA with totsugeki more effectively

thank you LK very cool

I think charges for combos are harder than charges for neutral. As far as I can tell Leo doesn't need to use charge moves for combos almost at all. So you can just use them in neutral 95% of the time. Trust me, I dislike charge characters a lot generally, but Leo is not hard in that regard, the fast charge time helps a lot.

Can you make a follow-up video about charge partitioning? Apparently Axl is really reliant on charge partitioning to make 6k > rensen work.

Ive gotten used to leos charge for Dp but for fireballs i always accidentally get the quartercircle motion instead. I think its just something i gotta practice

As new to fighting games, it took me literally 3 minutes of messing around with may to understand you can charge while doing other stuff, otherwise it would make no sense. I think people are too afraid of letting themselves go and actually try to invent with their characters, yes you end up discovering comboes that other people already made, but there's a difference, you are making it your own, and not copying it. To me this makes a massive difference in learning time, yes videos help to get a direction or key points it's taking you too long to understand, but otherwise, go go.

Playing bison in sf4 taught me how to charge his special move while doing light punches.

Practice corner 6P>HVD, it's part of her best meterless combos off 2K in the corner. 2K>6P>HVD, the dolphin comes out really fast, so there's way more time to charge than what it seems.

Leo’s projectile is also a charge I’m pretty sure. I picked him up say one and I learned so much about charge characters and you are right, they aren’t that hard.

Super helpful. After watching the video the shit just clicked and now I can do it

Thanks!! i can do TOTSUGEKI 🐬 more consistently now

I also chose Chipp over Leo due to charge input nervousness. maybe I'll branch out a bit more. thx Knight!

I think for me it's just that I need to learn to think of my normals differently like, I have to conciously hold back after certain normals for may

I wanted to play venom in xrd and when I found out he was a charge character I was terrified because my first experience with a charge character was vatista in uni but now they aren’t as scary

When I played may in the beta I found it a bit tricky but I don't have an issue with it anymore just comes naturally now.

Looking for a guide on Leo buffers/ option selects, anything you could make? ;)

used to play balrog in sf4, now anything but charge feels weird

First impression: less charge time or Charge Stocking? Lettuce Sea

2S and j.5Hs on may are a godsend as a charge character.

Think it was spamming Bison specials in SF Anniversary collection that got me over the fear of Charge characters. I think at that point I even decided to myself the charge input itself is probably easier than a QCF but too many players like me are not used to the play style of buffering the charge I think.

I had no idea may was considered hard to play. I used to play the other games pretty casually ( button masher ) but I've been taking my time to learn with Strive, I've always been easily confused by button prompts but much to my suprise, I've been doing pretty good with May and Zato of all people. 😂 went from getting bodied in every match to actually winning a few rounds.

Is that Blue water blue sky bgm in the background? How did you choose that in the training ground

Off the thumbnail alone I thought this was a kizzie kay combo trials videos lord forgive me

I can already see it god dam turtling my street fighter memories are gaining on me.

I never played a charge character in my life, I came from DBFZ and Smash and I picked up May cuz she looked fun and just because I enjoyed playing her I got the hang of the charge moves in like 15 hours. Still a lot if you think about it, but at least i can do them in combos pretty consistently now. Choose who you think looks fun!

THANK YOU LK DONO

So the charge is like you hit the first direction for a bit, then the opposite, press the button and back to the first? Is that it?

Also DP on charge characters is much easier than it is for normal characters plus the fact you can't be crossed up if you activate too late.

With leo i only find myself messing up the projectile, the DP always works

Thanks for the vid but leo's 5K, 6K 2[8]H seems pretty tight... Anyone have any tips for that?

If anyone who can fastcharge on leo and willing to help. What moves should i transition in his charge moves? I'm still very new to the game (barely 10 hours) so i don't know really his moves name.

What I'm struggling with is doing charge input in chain for Leo with his combos and some of his block strings (granted it's not all that good in block strings any more considering the nerfs) but any tips for in chain?

Charge characters are cool but I find that the Down-Up input on a keyboard is a bit tough to do. They aren't smooth movements like they are on sticks since I need to switch a finger from holding the down key to up instead of just moving a thumb up.

You explained how charges work which is useful, but that doesn't make them easy for newer players, I guess it just comes down to a lot of practice. I find I can charge the down dolphin a lot more consistently than the side one.

Playing Leo has been pain incarnation... but its been semi-fun, lol

Why can I forward dolphin fine, but doing up dolphin is always a super jump plus an attack? I can’t get the upward dolphin to ever come out.

Is it possible to do a horizontal charge while dashing?

Hey LordKnight, I've seen your excellent Millia so I figured this would be the place to ask some questions. Is there any advice you can give a Millia main who's stuck on floor 9 and just can't seem to break the barrier to heaven? The trouble seems to be that most players on floor 9 play characters that have a lot of really good, really fast, really safe options to stop all my entry strategies and of course, everyone there is too smart to let a defensive Millia slide for very long. Gio, Sol, Ram and even Ky (which is most of floor 9, big surprise) seem to have a bunch of moves the beat me to every punch, out-range me, deal more damage, always seem to give them a free turn, (especially Sol and Gio) and while I've found a few ways to answer some of their moves, they rely a lot on defensive foresight and on the enemy being very predictable. In a lot of ways, I feel like I'm not playing her to her full potential because I don't know how. Should I just pick more favorable matchups? Switch to a different character? Wait for them to buff Bad Moon's hitbox? Or is there some skillset I'm overlooking that can help? I'm beginning to think that this is about as far as I might be able to take Millia.

Strive is my first ever fighting game and I immediately picked Leo cuz he looked sick, I got a good handle on charge moves but I get fucked hard when I'm against a wall because every time I get hit while blocking, there's a stutter that screws my charge timing so I end up high jumping a lot.. gotta practice more

for me playing a charge character hurts my fingers so bad i like press down so hard to charge oh man

am i stupid or is axl's charge thingy really long? like am i doing it wrong or do you have to hold back for a solid 3 seconds befere it actually works

I like to think that the 'charge' input are like 'stance' or a 'defense stance'

Somersault! DOUBLEEEEEE SOMERSAULT!

We are ascending

Great video, but I really hate charge characters. This will help

Now how do I do things like double half-circles without breaking my hand?

Hold that 6! Nothing but aggression.

Axl getting left out of the charge club? :) He doesn't get flack like May and Leo does though so lol, thanks for the tip. One more thing I'd add that at least I have trouble with charge -- dunno if anyone else does, I weirdly have a bad habit of not holding the second direction (so say forward for < > or up in v ^) when doing charge inputs so when I press the button, the input doesn't register in the game because I let go of the direction. So it's something I've had to pay attention and practice with a lot to consciously hold the 2nd direction rather than letting go.

It's not difficult to do for me on a fight stick, but I can not play them on a controller at all. PS5 controller in particular seems to have issues reading inputs wrong and I've even checked just putting fingers on left and right and still had it read it as up, on multiple controllers.

For me it's more of a consistency thing. If someone were to bet me that I couldn't do 20 of any motion input in a row, I'd take them on easy, but with charge moves it always feels *super inconsistent*, since there's no way to figure out if your charge is ready without going for it. You just kind of have to know it in your soul, and my soul is stupid. I don't have much more trouble with combo trials for charge characters than I do for motion characters, but in a real match, in neutral it's anyone's guess whether I'll get dolphin or FWD.S. (And before you ask, yes I know about taking every opportunity to build charge behind other animations, it's literally half of this video and I knew that before i even watched.) In the end it comes down to practice, so I imagine if I seriously pick up a charge character then I'll get the hang of it in a real match eventually, I just wish it wasn't as ambiguous. (Edit: Just for the sake of openness, I don't have strive yet. This is coming from a background of mostly charge characters in street fighter)

nice vid'

I totally agree, but how can I ungabunga if I need to charge? I'm jokin btw

I really can't fo it, I've been doing 16S but she keeps jumping for some reason. Trying to lab her but can't spam it consistently

I don't know if playing with the joystick makes this easier or not since im using the dpad

I didn't realize people struggled with charges...may is the only charge character I've played and her inputs are really not hard but maybe not investing much time into fighting games before made it easier