Intro
Here's the deal: Most people who start a new character or a new fighting game get focused on unimportant bullshit that is easy to repeatedly practice in training mode. They'll grind out combos, then grind advanced combos, and all the while they'll be losing matches. Most guides will tell you to focus more important goals first:
- Learn to control your character
- Learn what every character generally does
- Learn neutral
I agree that the priority should be learning how to safely land a hit, and that what you do after that hit is secondary. However, a task like "learn neutral" in a game as complex as this, for a character as tricky as this, can be broken down into multiple dissertations and a graduate thesis. No matter how a guide tries to set you on the right path the goal is too huge to quantify in your head, so it'll be a while before you can even fathom the road map, let alone the size of the road. They'll point out the bare basics and you'll be better off than if you didn't read the guide, but is that really the best we of the old guard can do to guide you to victory? No.
I suggest you work on these drills you can practice in small chunks when you have time for training mode, and you should also play the game against other people, or even the CPU, as much as you can. If you have no sense of what you can do following what you hit your opponent with, your sense of risk/reward is going to be skewed and you might wind up discouraged from using some of I-No's tools. Therefore you should start with some of these drills, but also start reading "Part 2" of the starter guide early on.
Combos are hard, but they're easy to practice because they're easy to understand. You will see immediiate results which is very encouraging! The problem lies with a lack of focus.
- Practicing full combos in isolation.
- It's different when the training dummy fights back. You'll forget what to do, or the opener to the combo that you practiced never hits your opponent. You absolutely do need to play the game, even if it's against the CPU.
- It's different when you're trying to transition from one action in neutral to however you started your combo in training mode. If you practice 5K > HCL in a void, during battle you might realize that maybe you did 6K > 42146K during all those practice sessions, and all of a sudden you can't actually combo 5K > HCL from a crouch blocking position. Play the game more to recognize when this occurs and practice those more often, but we'll also work in drills starting from other positions on the stick.
- Chunkifying combos (to make them easier to learn) sub-optimally. People will break the longer combos down into digestible chunks, which is great, but if you chunkify things at the key points you'll realize how modular and free-form this character is. We'll break that down for you here
- Not doing drills for blockstrings.
- People will just do their combo when the opponent blocks, to continue building muscle memory for the combo and get better at it, or because they have no other muscle memory and don't know what to do. You need to practice blockstrings so that you have alternate patterns and don't become too predictable, or do something totally unsafe.
- You'll give up opportunities to run mixups in block strings.
- Focusing on character specific combos too early.
- Not focusing on character specific neutral situations early enough.
Basic offensive drills
I'll break these into groups and you can work on a group until you feel like you have it down. Whether it takes you one week of practice every day, a month of every other day, or 3 years playing once a month, you'll get there. Just remember that this practice should be done alongside playing against opponents. More time in training mode is usually better than less, but if you're spending more than 30% of your time in training mode, you should look for a way to get more matches in against players or against the CPU.
Focused practice in short bursts of 5-10 minutes with breaks are very effective. Studies have shown that several short sets of drills (a total of maybe 30 minutes of practicing) pay off more than a 4 hour unstructured slog. Read some books on it if you want to know more.
Do each string maybe 10 times each facing one way to complete a circuit, then take a short break, then do them all again facing the other direction. Two sets of this (4 total) would probably be a good starting point. If you spend more than 20 minutes on a block of drills, take a break.
I'm adding expandable sections to most of the strings to explain what they're for. Most of them will build into something greater than what you see here. Some are effective just by themselves, but build toward something greater. Others are just helping you get the building blocks for something you'll need later. Groups of combos and groups of blockstrings will be listed. You need both.
Some of the combo strings are short to start with, but I-No's combos are pretty modular.
With blockstrings, you may see some redundancy between them (such as the lack or inclusion of a special cancel at the end). The idea is for these things to be second nature in the long term, and you don't want to have to spend mental energy on doing a slight variation. You might really only need to do them across 4-5 sessions and look for ways to apply them when you play vs the CPU or actual opponents to get them to stick.
If you have competition in your local scene, make time to practice on the characters you're going to be playing against the most. Aside from that, Testament is a good practice dummy for general practice.
Combo Group 1 - Basic Modular Stuff (Part 1)
The objective here is to get started with strings that will either do their job for the majority of the time you play the character, or become the backbone of a more complex string (with greater rewards) later on.
- 5K > HCL
- This is one of the most common setups for HCL 6FRC6 combos. As basic as this is, if you don't practice you'll get sj.K and eat a full CH combo, which is something that happens even to the pros in Japan on occasion.
- Basic combo into knockdown. Sometimes you don't have a meterless option that's better than this, such as when you hit a crouching opponent from too far away to 6P. This will always be useful.
- Sometimes HCL wont make contact. End the combo at 2D in that case.
- Learning to do falling j.K to 6P is actually a hard link. You're going to want to have basic strings from "mixup openers" like j.K and j.S (overheads) and 2K (low). If you can do this you can do the other easier ones I'll list next, but you should practice those ones too.
- Skipping the 6P will avoid a 90% forced prorate on your damage, so you can use this with 6FRC6 for optimized damage (after you learn to 6FRC6).
- This may not work on some characters due to airborne hurtboxes causing the 5H to whiff, or being pushed out too far from including c.S in the string causing 5H to whiff, but it's easier than linking j.K to 6P.
- Basic combo fodder. Leads to IAD combos for midscreen or diveloops in the corner, off a low. Should always work when the 2K makes contact from very close, but at longer ranges the 5H will whiff on some characters.
- This is very much like the 2K > 6P > 5H route from above, but this one works on characters the other fails on (like Sol and Order Sol if you're not right up on their nuts when 2K makes contact).
- This is a simple way to convert to knockdown, but later you'll learn to carry a "jump install" when landing from your hoverdash, which will allow you to 6FRC6 from here. This is one way do big damage from lows, so you should learn it.
- This is a variant of the above that you can use against most crouching opponents when they're close enough for 2D to reach. It's easier to do than the 2S > HCL string since you have more time to input HCL. You'll also notice that it's nearly identical to the one above that starts with 2K. You still need to build separate muscle memory for the string without 2K in there so that you don't have to think about it during a match.
Blockstring Group 1 - On the ground
Blockstrings are just as important as combos, since they work towards letting you land a hit when your opponent successfully blocked the first thing you used that made contact. Set the training dummy to guard 'all' at first and start by learning these:
- 2P > tick-throw
- Throws are an important part of your mixup and pressure game. You wouldn't go for a throw when your opening attack is successful, and 2P is + on block so it's good to frametrap with.
- Canceling into 2S here can potentially catch people trying to jump on reaction to 2P as an attempt to beat throw, but it does not leave a gap.
- This one does leave a 1-f gap, so it can catch people trying to mash (a frametrap), and will catch pre-jump frames. It also ends with a move that is very + on block, so you can frametrap a second time if you didn't successfully bait a throw escape attempt.
- Learning to go into the 2H frametrap from something else, so that you're not too predictable.
- Intended to be used from far enough away that you actually get f.S. f.S is + on block, so you can follow this up with one of your pokes to try to frame trap.
Combo Group 2 - Anti-Air starters with a moving dummy
I-No has a lot of anti-air options and we're going to start learning some here, but you can handle a lot of jump ins with either 5P or 6P, especially if your opponent doesn't space their jump in properly. Things get much more complicated later (specific character jump ins, or opponents that space their jump ins well), but don't worry about that yet. We also want you to get used to using the starter of the combo in a situation that you're likely to be in during a real match.
- Set dummy to jump in at you: 6P > c.S > j.S > j.S > VCL
- Learning to convert from an anti-air 6P.
- Learning to convert from anti-air 5P.
- Learning a conversion from an anti-air 5K. This isn't optimal, but you need to learn to adapt w/ TK Pdive if they're up close or an IAD if they're far away if you want optimized meterless damage. That's too advanced for now, and the TK Sdive should work in both situations. From there you can most likely go into something else too.
- Learning to air-to-air as a form of anti-air. j.P > j.H does not normally combo, but on air counterhit it does! You'll eventually learn to use HCL 6FRC6 here.
- Airthrows are really strong because throws are instant! I-No's horizontal airthrow range is bad, but you should still learn how to do this, and we're going to practice it here.
Blockstring Group 2
The first set of blockstrings were mostly to teach you to throw, or to punish attempts to escape your throws. This is to make you more well rounded on offense when your opponent blocks.
- 2K > 2S (wait)
- Sometimes you'll just want to wait and see what the other player does instead of continuing until they're pushed away from you. You'll only be -5 and from far enough away you're probably safe. If the 2K hit, it's common that your opponent will burst at 2S, but if you stop attacking here you'll be able to block and punish the burst.
- If your opponent expects you to stop after 2S and tries to do something, the STBT can Counter Hit them.
- If your opponent attempts to do something after 2S, the 2D can hit them and score knockdown.
- This is the low portion of your mixup following c.S. After c.S you can go into an overhead or a low against an opponent who is committed to blocking, and if you have both practiced you have a legitimate mixup you can use. Later you will learn to jump install the c.S so that if the 2S is successful, you can 6FRC6 and convert into big damage.
- This is the high or overhead portion of your mixup game. The TK Sdive hits overhead and causes float, which can start your combo.
- This is a frametrap so you can beat opponents who want to push buttons to beat a TK Dive overhead that follows a c.S. You can gatling during the active window, and c.S is active long enough that you can hold for a few frames before starting 5H, creating a gap where there normally wouldn't be one. If the 5H successfully scores a counter hit, it will combo to STBT-H, and that leads to a great meterless combo.
Blockstring Group 3 - From the air for Oki
You're going to start combos from the air, but your opponent wont always get hit by the overhead, so you'll need to learn how to enforce respect here so you can then go into mixups from here.
- Hoverdash j.K > 6P > 5H
- You'll frequently oki with j.K safejump, so you'll need to have a good understanding of doing things when your opponent blocks them.
- This is the same as a blockstring from earlier, but you're learing to link to the c.S from j.K instead of 2K. Just build muscle memory for these little differences right now.
- If you hoverdash for a little extra time before starting j.S, you'll be high enough to gatling to j.K before landing due to its speed. The double overhead may trip up some players and let you combo.
- I-No's j.D causes her to float a bit if she uses it while falling, so you can fit another overhead in here when it looks like you're going to land into a low. You should learn to combo/blockstring it into super because it's effective damage on hit, and the super is so + on block that you cover yourself. j.D would normally be unsafe, but if you jump cancel away or special cancel and FRC, or go into air super, you can become safe and in some cases run another mixup. Learn to go into air super first since it covers both situations (opponent gets hit and opponent blocks).
- Sometimes you have enough time to hold hoverdash long enough to safejump with j.H, which will catch attempts to go low underneath I-No's overhead j.K and j.S, which is actually a thing you have to worry about in some matchups. If you actually land the j.H the rest of this will combo, and otherwise this is just to enforce respect. Getting more specific than that is matchup dependent IMO, so we wont' go into that here, but this is simple enough that it's worth learning now.
- We're going to get you started on learning this type of pressure string, but getting fancy with it will come later. You can set it up in situations where you have an opponent blocking the note projectile, such as on oki. We'll stop at 2K because you're hitting the point where you should know that from here, you can go into any of the other 2K starter blockstrings or combos.
Combo Group 3 - Conversions from more situations
- TK Sdive (from a distance) > link 2P > 5K > HCL
- Midscreen conversion route once you learn HCL 6FRC6.
- Alternate midscreen conversion route that you'll use for situations where lightweight characters float higher and you have time to skip the 2P, and/or where 2P would float them too high.
- This is very basic and wont end in KD (the c.S is essentially a relaunch), but from here you the method to keep the combo going varies depending on if you're in the corner or mid-screen.
- Following air super with j.H > Sdive isn't very difficult, it works anywhere on the screen against every character, and can be followed up with I-No's other "modular" combo filler. I-No's air super is quite strong and you have the advantage when it's blocked, but it's difficult to input so you need to practice it.
Basic Defensive Drills
Don't let the word "basic" here give you a false sense of ease. This section is going to focus on reversal actions when waking up from a knockdown, which usually require "frame perfect" timing.
We're not going to get too deep into "defensive" actions in this section as offense is a little more universal than defense. Andreally, the Anti-Air starters you practiced earlier could be considered defensive even though they're a form of offense. However, more complex defensive actions (Instant Blocking and then taking an action) will be covered in another section, as application of those techniques is far more character specific.
Reversal Backdash
- Set a button to record playback of the training dummy.
- Set a button to play it back.
- Record the training dummy hitting you with something that knocks you down (usually 2D works), then time an attack to be active as you wake up as part of the same recording.
- Test the recording for accuracy. Let it knock you down, then hold up and/or mash buttons as your character "wakes up" to make sure you're getting hit. It worked? Ok, good, now for the drill:
- Learn to time your backdash such that you escape from the attack. Practice until you can get 5 consecutive successes in a row. Then repeat facing the other direction (you will have to re-record step 3).
- Try this with a different attack while knocked down for whichever character you picked, just to see if there's a difference in how strict your window is. If there is, you possibly timed your "oki" a frame late the first time, or it's possible this second attack has more active frames and is catching the recovery of your backdash.
Second Phase Offensive Drills
Everything below this point will start to get more complicated due to the inclusion of FRCs, increased length of combos, or situations where you combo directly from a counter hit that you're going to set up. They're not necessarialy "advanced", but expect to put in more work, and/or to build upon the stuff above. Or you're going to start adding stuff that isn't necessarily hard, but is different from the above (less that you can carry over) and also less important to I-No's gameplan, like practicing using 5D.
But wait, what do I do?
By now you may be asking "What's my gameplan?!" after practicing a bunch of drills, trying to play against someone, and losing. That's a very good question! This is why everyone always advocates for playing the game first and having fun, and not practicing combos. But we all knew you were going to practice combos anyway. Your burst has been thrown, sucka! Ahem... What you should do next is check out Part 2 of this guide, which will hopefully help you answer that question. You can always come back for the rest of the starter drills later.
Click this link for Part 2: Playing the game & figuring out a game plan
Using FRCs - Part 1
I know, hitting an FRC window is scary. It's only 2 frames wide, and this game runs 60 frames per second... so... I have to do this in 1/30th of a second, consistently? Yeah, but with practice you'll have it. You gotta start working on these sometime. We're going to start simple - just try to learn the timing.
- Note > FRC
- Sometimes you'll shoot a note by accident (opponent crosses up your input or something) and will need to FRC to become safe. Or you'll shoot a seemingly unsafe note as a bait and FRC to punish their punish attempt. An old technique from before I-No's airthrow range was nerfed was: slightly late oki ground note > 6FRC6 > airthrow when they try to jump out.
- Different timing from ground note FRC.
- Necessary for combos just by itself, also necessary if you want to get good at 6FRC6. Remember that the FRC point is on frames 16 & 17, so this is useful because if you special cancel to HCL and then FRC and block, you can bait a burst.
- Nearly identical to HCL > FRC since the timing is the same, but it's a different button to execute the move. You don't wnat to have to spend a single braincell on "do X move, but with Y input." You need this automatic. It wont take much practice to get to that point.
- Typically you'll FRC the first one to either bait something, or you'll 6FRC6 it to use an overhead. And I-No's hoverdash stops being close to the ground on frame 4, so it'll also beat counter-mash attempts with lows if you do this.
- You'll typically use the second FRC right before the hit and then throw someone. Kind of expensive considering you can jump cancel this move on block and the FRC is just before and on the first active frame, so you do this when it'll kill.
- Throw FRC isn't used all that much, but it's a stepping stone to throw 6FRC6, and while that isn't exactly optimal, you can come up with a combo with good corner-carry that also still works in the corner, so you only have to learn the one combo. Also, working on throw 6FRC6 will help you get better at any other 6FRC6.
Blockstring Variance with purpose (Part 1)
- 6P > f.S
- The idea is you're trying to hit someone with the 6P, but they've blocked it (bad read). If it hit, it would combo into f.S, and if not, it's a frametrap from a relatively safe distance (assuming you spaced the 6P correctly). If they blocked the f.S after blocking the 6P, that's also plus on block, so you have initiative when you go to do something else afterward.
- After the f.S: You could do another 6P to see if they counter-mashed after the f.S. You could do another f.S to check them reacting delayed after the first f.S. You could 5H to crush attempts to poke low under what they think is another f.S coming their way. If they're in the corner, 6H is a good option to catch a jump out.
- The idea is you're trying to hit someone with the 6P, but they've blocked it (bad read). If it hit, it would combo into f.S, and if not, it's a frametrap from a relatively safe distance (assuming you spaced the 6P correctly). If they blocked the f.S after blocking the 6P, that's also plus on block, so you have initiative when you go to do something else afterward.
- 2S is only -5 in this game, so if your opponent is expecting you to 2D, or HCL, or do something else, you can typically "steal" a turn and push a different button here after recovery, or maybe even dash in. Just be wary as that's a big risk (committing to a 9f startup dash after a -5 move is begging to get counter-mashed).
- When your opponent is expecting you to steal a turn and do something else, they may try to coutnerpoke or jump out. STBT-S can potentially catch either one of those options.
- Similar kind of deal to the STBT-S thing, except this is going to be more effective against people who IB and try to counter-mash, or IB and jump.
- Some people are going to get hit by the 5D due to a lack of recognition. You shouldn't over-rely on this as a mixup tool as experienced players wont fall for this, but you shouldn't waste unnecessary effort on weaker players, so be ready to exploit their weakness.
- However, you should be using 5D here just to add one more thing to your opponent's mental stack to look for when they're watching for stuff like STBT-S. Moreover, you're specifically trying to give them a bit of a gap to take an action with. If they wait and block, you may be able to do something risky later on. If they already have been opened up by your blockstring ending in 2S, that you followed up with something else, they may be in the mood to countermash with 6P or something, and the 5H may counterhit them instead.
- This is a frametrap to fish for counterhit 5H, which leads to a big meterless combo when converted using STBT-H.
- Similar principle as the other blockstrings ending in 2S, but you're starting this from 2P, which is a good tick-throw option that you learned earlier. Instead of using the other frametraps and such, you go into 5K, which has a different set of options. After conditioning with that set of tools and/or enforcing respect following 2P, you go into 5K so that other mixups are on the table, but in case the low (2S) fails to open up your opponent, you just let it go here... or you could do any of the other traps that followed 2S earlier in this section.
Hits into combo conversions (Part 1)
- 2K or j.S > 6P > 5H > j.H > Hnote
- Simple combo into long range knockdown where they'll have to block a 4 or 5 hit note, giving you time to oki with a mixup. Low damage, but easy and has decent corner carry.
- This is a variant of the above in case that combo doesn't work for some reason (like wacky hurtboxes).
- Ok, now we're getting into some serious meterless combos from a mixup situation. You don't really want to spend meter on a conversion from 2K due to the prorate, but this gives you better damage than simply going into the j.H, gives you an airdash worth of corner carry, and can even let you continue to follow-up after the FFVCL. What is FFVCL? If you use Vertical Chemical Love during airdash frames, it fastfalls instead of having the usual floaty property.
- Help, I can't get the 5H > IAD j.K link! This is harder than in Xrd since we don't have a buffer. If the IAD doesn't come out, you're doing it too early. If the IAD comes out but the j.K doesn't combo, you're doing the j.K too late. If the j.K doesn't come out, it's too early. This also means that it's possible you could IAD slightly too late and be unable to get the j.K to come out.
- One moar thing! You can substitute j.P in some cases for slightly better damage, and it may be necessary due to hurtboxes.
- This is an alternate version of the above that should work on characters that float out of the j.S when you land the IAD j.K. You're going to fastfall from higher up, so you'll have less time when you land and may not be able to continue the combo, but you should still have enough time for good oki at the very least.
- This is a meterless conversion from an anti-air 6P. Typically the jump-in needs to hit deep, and this combo is prone to drop at the VCL against skinny opponents, but after the VCL recovers in the air you can link airdash j.K, and go into j.S > FFVCL. From there you have some options on how to continue the combo, such as c.S into diveloop in the corner, or c.S > j.S > dj.H > Kdive to try to knock down.
- This is a corner-to-corner knockdown after you anti-air with j.236D's amazing hibox.
- You can actually get really free-form with the combo after j.236D since you can cancel after the 1st hit, or after all 5. If you were closer to the corner and wanted to maximize damage, you would cancel after the first hit and try to loop VCL while they're way above you.
Using FRCs - Part 2
- Note > 6FRC6
- You get 6FRC6 practice, but in this case you would use note in neutral and FRC to hoverdash. This also works with TK note to airdash. This isn't super important to your game IMO, but it has a use in neutral and help you get better at 6FRC6 in general.
- This works midscreen after a throw, helps you learn the timing for throw's FRC, and helps you learn 6FRC6 without tying it to the complex 5K > HCL situation. Stronger corner combos really don't add all that much extra damage, so you can get by with this for a long time. IMO throw FRC is really only worth it if it's going to kill, or if you have a meter surplus (75% or more) and don't have to worry about opportunity cost too much.
Blockstring Group 5 - Blockstrings using FRCs (Part 1)
- 5H > STBT-H > (at 1st FRC point) 6FRC6
- Your opponent will probably try to reaction crouch block STBT, reaction jump it, or reaction stuff it. It's not a fast move. Canceling it early and going into a dash let's you chase a jump for an airthrow, or hit them with j.S to catch them trying to block low or hit you with something crouching. You're also getting more 6FRC6 practice, and it's a situation similar to but probably still easier than from 5K > HCL.
- Another mixup tool. If they're really good at blocking, but you have them committed to blocking instead of doing something else, you can FRC here to throw before the move makes contact. There's a lot of other stuff you can do, but just start with this concept. Since throw is among the lowest damage options, you would use this sparingly, but you need to learn the timing when STBT-H is canceled into, either by reacting to the visual of the slide and adapting, or memorizing the timing separately.
- Doing the input like a double tap (ie: FRC with K+S+H, then release and press H again quickly) can be effective, but you can also practice with P+K+S, then try to hit H on the next frame while you release the previous buttons. This is "substantially" faster (probably a few frames, which can mean all the difference), but there's risk of accidentally entering Instant Kill mode.
==
A.B.A [★]
Anji Mito [★]
Axl Low [★]
Baiken [★]
Bridget [★]
Chipp Zanuff [★]
Dizzy [★]
Eddie [★]
Faust [★]
I-No [★]
Jam Kuradoberi [★]
Johnny [★]
Justice [★]
Kliff Undersn [★]
Ky Kiske [★]
May [★]
Millia Rage [★]
Order-Sol [★]
Potemkin [★]
Robo-Ky [★]
Slayer [★]
Sol Badguy [★]
Testament [★]
Venom [★]
Zappa [★]
Click [★] for character's full frame data
• Starter Guide •
HUD •
Controls •
Frame Data & System Data •
FAQ •
Training Mode •
• Movement/Canceling •
Offense •
Defense •
Damage/Combo System •
Gauges •
Misc •