Character Overview
Blanka is a quick and reasonably strong fighter. He's very difficult to pin down and has some great ways to score damage and play games with his opponent's head.
Players who use him are typically offensive minded and can pull off relentless offensive barrages. But Blanka also has a solid defensive game as well. His EX-Upwards Ball when timed correctly will beat most jump in attacks and he has some good escape moves as well as solid 'poke' options.
Where the Beast runs into trouble is having a few moves that can easily be punished when they're blocked and consistently getting in on defensive players who know all of his tricks can sometimes spell trouble.
Blanka is generally considered to be one of the better characters in the game, and if you prefer a playing a somewhat wild and risky, but also very rewarding style, you'll likely enjoy using this character.
• Strengths •
+ Great tools to deal with Fireball spammers.
+ Exceptional mobility and good speed overall.
+ Strong character, his moves take off a good amount of damage.
+ Above average stamina (defense).
+ Good anti air options.
+ Very damaging Super move.
+ Mind game master. Because of his moves and speed, Blanka can keep his enemies off guard with the best of them.
+ Great range on his Cross Up attack (Jumping Medium Kick).
+ Not easy to anti air him because of the angle of his jump and range of his air attacks.
• Weaknesses •
- Doesn't have much variety in his combos. You're going to be using the same ones frequently, which makes you more predictable.
- Several of his moves can be punished if blocked — if they're not used properly.
- His Ultra requires a very high level of skill to use in combos.
- Can have problems consistently scoring damage on defensive players who know all of his tricks.
Hop Trickery
Blanka can maintain his charge for an Upwards Beast Roll even while he's hopping back and forth. The key is to do the Hop from the diagonal down-right or down-left positions. Like so...
Joystick Joystick Joystick or Joystick
This enables Blanka to move all through the stage and get in on his opponent quickly and threaten to do some damage.
When Blanka gets close with his hop, he can either go for a throw or use his Upwards Roll to smack the other fighter if they're attempting to counter. Also getting close quickly with his hop and attempting a cross up works well here too.
It's not difficult for good players to counter Blanka's Hop Trickery — if they know what's coming. So keeping them off balance and not knowing what to expect is a big key when you're hopping back and forth.
Also after you score a knock down, hopping back and forth over the other fighter's body so they don't know which side you'll be on as they stand can work wonders. Not only do they have to worry about which way to block, but you can open them up for a few more throws because they'll be focused on blocking.
After a Crouching Medium Kick, you can Cancel into Blanka's Hop, so this sets up yet another mind game for your opponent. Jump in, either with a cross up or a normal attack, then do a Crouching Medium Kick, Cancel into your Hop to land on their other side and immediately go into an Up Ball or throw. You can be grabbed as you're coming out of your Hop, so you don't want to get predictable here, but this is another solid trick to add to your arsenal.
Cross up with Jumping Medium Kick then Throw or Combo
Blanka has a simple, but effective throw set up in Street Fighter IV. Because his Cross Up move (Jumping Medium Kick) has very good range, you'll often be in a good position to land it during matches.
If your opponent blocks this, you can throw them as you land. They of course can counter this tactic by way of a Reversal or Teching your throw, but you may get a couple of throws in there before they're wise to what you're doing.
When they attempt to counter your throws — start going for your combos. Jumping Medium Kick, Crouching Medium Kick, Linking into Standing Light Punch and Canceling into a Hard Punch Beast Roll works well here. It's a 4-hit combo and a staple of most Blanka players.
When your opponent starts fearing your combos, go again for the throw, constantly keeping them in a loop of having to guess what you're going to do next after you land a cross up attack.
Special Moves
A (2) next to an arrow means to hold the joystick in that direction for 2 seconds to 'charge' the move.
With moves that charge by holding back or down, you can use the diagonal positions to charge up as well. For example, if you're holding back, you can jump backwards or block low and still maintain your charge.
Important Note: With all of Blanka's Beast Rolls, the strength of button pressed determines the speed and power of the move.
• Light attacks go the shortest distance and do the least damage.
• Hard attacks go much further and do the most damage.
• Medium is a mix between both moves.
Light
120
Medium
130
Hard
140
EX
150
Joystick Joystick Joystick (Press Punch Button Rapidly)
• Electric Thunder •
Blanka sits in one place and electricity shoots out of his body. This move comes out pretty quickly and can be used in combos. It does solid damage when it hits, but the range is terrible.
Outside of combos, this is mostly a, "surprise!" move for when your opponent is attempting to throw you or is trying random attacks, you can sometimes catch them off guard with it.
The punch button used determines the speed, range and power of this move. Light fires out the slowest rate of electricity, does least damage and has the smallest range, but it's easier to execute. Hard fires out bolts much faster and will hit a blocking opponent two or three times, it does the best damage and has a smidgen more range over the Light Electricity. Medium is a mix of the two.
Light
100
Medium
110
Hard
120
EX
110
Joystick Joystick Joystick Joystick
• Rolling Attack (Beast Roll) •
*Armor Breaking*
This is either a bad or great move, depending on who your opponent is. While you can find some use for your Beast Roll regardless of the character you're fighting against, in some matches you'll be calling on this constantly and in others you'll want to avoid it almost entirely.
The reason why is some characters can punish a blocked Beast Roll without blinking an eye, so you'll only want to throw his out there to punished missed moves and the like.
On the other hand some characters have a really difficult time with this move and you can constantly throw it out there, at least until they have an Ultra meter, to chip away at their life and make them afraid of throwing out random moves.
This attack also works excellently in combos and can be Canceled into your Super at close range.
The Hard Punch Beast Roll travels the longest distance and does the most damage, as such it'll be what you use most often. The Light Punch version travels a much shorter distance and recovers quickly so it can trick your opponent into thinking they need to block when they shouldn't. This opens up the door for you to walk up and throw them, use electricity, etc.
This attack is armor breaking, so you can use it to break any Focus Attacks you see coming.
Light
110
Medium
120
Hard
130
EX
120
Joystick Joystick Joystick Joystick
• Backstep Rolling (Hop Back Arcing Roll Attack) •
Blanka hops back and then forward at an arcing angle. This move knocks down when it hits your opponent, and can be used as a 'cross' if done from the right range. The problem is it's heavily punishable when blocked and good players probably won't fall for being crossed up by it very often.
Considering the other moves Blanka has, this doesn't have much use.
Light
100
Medium
110
Hard
120
EX
120
Joystick Joystick Joystick Joystick
• Vertical Rolling (Upwards Beast Roll) •
When you execute it, you'll fly forward and up, and it's a pretty darn good anti air move when you time it correctly.
The Hard Kick version has quite a bit of range so you can catch unsuspecting airborne players with it.
Light Kick tends to have the best results when your opponent is jumping in on you and is in close proximity, as Medium and Hard Kick Up Balls will sometimes fly right past the other fighter.
This move works wonders when coupled with Blanka's Hop, see the Hop Trickery section above for more information.
Joystick or Joystick Joystick Joystick
• Hop •
A great move. It's faster than Blanka's normal dash, plus it allows him to keep an Upwards Ball charged up because you can use the diagonally down-towards and down-back positions to hop around.
While his Hop can be stopped if you're not careful with it, tricky players can use this move to constantly move around the stage and keep their opponent guessing which direction they'll be coming from next. This move has massive mind game potential.
Joystick Joystick Joystick
• Beast Slide •
The range on this is really good, but the recovery time is terrible if blocked from up close. This works wonders against projectiles though — as it travels right under them.
It's another, "surprise!" move from Blanka. Your opponent may not think you can hit them, much less with an attack that hits low from long range, but landing a few of these can really open up other areas of your game.
This isn't an attack you'll want to abuse, but it's also not something you want to forget about either. Random Beast Slides will catch many players off guard and force them to block low more often, and will tame fireball chuckers as well. Just make sure you use it from long range.
Joystick Joystick Joystick
• Coward Crouch •
You can duck under projectiles with this. Works great and yet another tool you can use to deal with projectile throwers. This will even go under Sagat's Low Tiger Shots.
Blanka will stay down for a period of time unless you press another direction besides down on the joystick, OR you can use his Hop command to quickly get out of the Coward Crouch.
This will also let you avoid some moves, like cross up attempts, but it's not practical because there's a bit of recovery time in which your opponent can land another attack, and considering Blanka has some other good options for anti air... you're probably best off just sticking to this to avoid fireballs.
EX Moves
Light
120
Medium
130
Hard
140
EX
150
Joystick Joystick Joystick (Press Two Punch Buttons Rapidly)
• EX-Electric Thunder •
Visually this looks like it has more range than it actually has, but it's the same as the Hard Punch version of this attack. It does a bit more damage, but besides that it doesn't offer much. You're probably better off spending your EX meter else where except in some rare cases where you need to do some extra damage.
Light
100
Medium
110
Hard
120
EX
110
Joystick Joystick Joystick Joystick
• EX-Rolling Attack (Beast Roll) •
*Armor Breaking*
Because of Blanka's speed and mobility many characters will try to control your spacing with their projectiles, and this move will help negate their ability to do so. You EX-Beast Roll does slightly less damage than the Hard Punch Beast Roll, but it travels through all projectiles, including Super and Ultra Fireballs.
While this is a good move against fighters with projectiles, it worthless against those who don't have them. You should always stick to your regular Beast Rolls unless you're trying to travel through a Fireball.
Light
110
Medium
120
Hard
130
EX
120
Joystick Joystick Joystick Joystick
• EX-Backstep Rolling (Hop Back Arcing Roll Attack) •
An underrated move. The EX version of this attack gives you a lot of mobility in the air, which can create some difficult situations for your opponent because it's not easy to tell which side they need to block on.
Also works well if you make your opponent think you're going to hit them and just miss entirely, land and throw them.
Blanka is invulnerable while he's initially hopping back, so you can use this to blow through some moves and fireballs, and if you meet your opponent in the air you should knock them down if they didn't anticipate this attack.
Also works well as an escape move because of the initial invincible frames. If you're feeling threatened simply fly all the way across the screen.
This is a potentially high risk attack, because if your opponent blocks it, it's likely you're going to be taking some damage after wards. That said, it's still very useful in some situations because it isn't easy to counter if you don't expect it. One more thing to add to your bag of tricks.
Light
100
Medium
110
Hard
120
EX
120
Joystick Joystick Joystick Joystick
• EX-Vertical Rolling (Upwards Beast Roll) •
A good anti air and reversal move. Has some frames of invincibility and it does the same damage as the Hard Kick version.
The EX-Vertical Roll has a gigantic range, which can be problematic because you'll sometimes overshoot the other fighter. This works well when your opponent is in the right position, but it's not fool-proof. You'll only want to use this over the normal move if you need the additional frames of invulnerability or the crazy (surprise!) full-screen range.
Super and Ultra Moves
Super
400
Ultra
412-600
Joystick Joystick Joystick Joystick Joystick Joystick
• Grand Shave Rolling (Super Beast Roll) •
Blanka charges up and rolls along the ground at his opponent. You can hold the punch button when you execute this move to have Blanka stay in place, and then release it at the opportune time.
Blanka can Cancel into his Super after an up close Beast Roll or Crouching Hard Punch. In these scenarios his Super does a ton of damage and they're not too difficult to set up, because you can use one of his normal combos ending in a Beast Roll or Crouching Hard Punch and still Cancel into into his Super.
The biggest problem with this attack is his EX moves are pretty darn useful too, so it's really up to the player if they want to have the big damage potential of his Super available as often as possible, or if they'd rather spend his bar on EX moves during the match. This decision often comes down to the character you're fighting against. In some matches steadily using your EX moves is very important, but in others you'd rather have bigger damage potential.
Joystick Joystick Joystick Joystick Joystick Joystick
• Lightning Cannonball (Ultra Beast Roll) •
Blanka's Ultra is a solid move. It does a lot of chip damage, and like most Ultras in the game, it has some invincibility so you can use it to counter moves, throws attempts and the like.
Holding all three punches after you execute this move will cause Blanka to roll in place, and letting go will make him roll forward on the ground. Most likely you'll have to roll in place for a bit to land all of the hits from your Ultra because it tends to go too quickly and you'll roll right under your opponent if you don't delay it a bit.
Blanka's Ultra can be easily punished after being blocked, so you almost never want to throw it out there unless you're positive it's going to hit or kill the other fighter with block damage.
At close range Blanka's Ultra hits low, but this first hit has about the same range as his Crouching Light Punch — not very far, then it hits high, then low again. This can be tricky to block for new players, but anyone who's had a bit of experience against Blanka will be able to block this with ease.
It's also possible to Link into Blanka's Ultra from a Crouching Light or Medium Kick. So you can combo into it after a Focus Attack or Jump in attack — it's just really hard to do so.
In most matches your Ultra is mostly going to be used as a Reversal and chip (block) damage attack to wipe your opponent out, and again it works really well for this because it takes off a lot of power when it's blocked. You'll also see some experts use it in combos, but this takes a lot of practice and timing to be able to do so.
Hopping into a Ultra or Super
You can incorporate the motion for Blanka's Hop into his Super or Ultra. You start by charging for the move by holding back or down-back for two seconds, then press towards and 3x Kick to Hop, then quickly go from back to forward and press the needed Punch buttons to activate the attack.
Joystick Joystick Joystick Joystick Joystick Joystick Joystick Joystick
This lets you gain ground very quickly so you can punish moves that would normally be out of your Ultra or Super range.
You can also use it to nail an opponent who sticks out a poke or another attack in response to you hoping forward, but if you do not guess correctly, they'll be in a great position to punish you.
Also this motion works if you cross (jump on the other side of the other fighter) with your Hop, just complete the move as you normally would and it should come out even though you're facing a different direction.
Combos
• Jumping Hard Kick, Crouching Medium Kick, Cancel into Hard Punch Beast Roll •
You need to hit somewhat late with your Crouching Medium Kick to give yourself enough time to charge up Blanka's Beast Roll. This is Blanka's Bread and Butter combo.
• Jumping Medium Kick, Standing Light Punch, Cancel into Light Punch Electricity •
Make sure you stop mashing Light Punch as soon as your electricity comes out. If this is blocked your opponent will still be stunned for a bit, which gives you time to stick out another move and make them block a 4th attack as long as you didn't mash too long on Light Punch.
• Cross Up with Jumping Medium Kick, Crouching Medium Kick, Link into Standing Light Punch, Cancel into Hard Punch Beast Roll •
Good 4 hit cross up combo.
• Crouching Hard Punch, Cancel into Super •
You can still land your Super after this even if you're at max range with Blanka's Crouching Hard Punch. This is actually a pretty good combo as it does 500 damage total — roughly half your opponent's life bar.
• Beast Roll (Close Range), cancel into Focus Attack or Super •
This only works at close range and the Beast Roll must land for the subsequent attack to combo.
• Jumping Hard Kick, Crouching Medium Kick, Cancel into Hard Punch Beast Roll, Cancel into Super •
You'll probably have to hold the Punch button you pressed when you did the Super so you can let go at the right time to juggle the other player for maximum damage.
• Level 2/3 Focus Attack, Dash, Crouching Medium Kick, Link into Standing Light Punch, Hard Punch Beast Roll, Cancel into EX-Focus Attack •
Good combo and puts you in a strong position to do more damage if you want to dash out the Focus Attack instead of letting it hit.
• Level 2/3 Focus Attack, Dash, Crouching Medium Kick, Link into Ultra •
The timing on this is very strict. If you can pull this off consistently in a match you're doing something.
• Crouching Light Kick, Link into Standing Light Punch 2x, Cancel into Hard Punch Beast Roll •
You can also add a jump in attack to the start of this combo. A pretty good 4 or 5-hitter as the extra Standing Light Punch will often catch people unaware.
• Crouching Light Kick 3x, Cancel into Beast Roll •
The three Crouching Light Kicks should always give you enough time to get your Beast Roll charged up.
• Standing Medium Kick (Close), Link into Standing Hard Kick •
Pretty difficult Link, but if you're not charged up, not a bad option.
Normal Moves
Note this is not a complete list of all of Blanka's normal moves, just the ones we think are noteworthy.
Joystick Joystick (air)
• Jumping Medium Kick (Cross Up) •
Like his Super Turbo attack, you can use this to cross up (make them block in a reverse direction) your opponent when jumping in. Great hit box on this move, which makes it difficult for the other fighter to dodge your cross attack.
Joystick
• Standing Hard Kick (Anti Air) •
One of your best anti air normals. It's fast and has solid priority. If you're not charged up for an Upwards Ball, this works in its place.
Joystick or Joystick Joystick Joystick
• Rockcrusher (Two-hit Headbutt, Overhead) •
An alright move — until you learn you can use it as an an Overhead attack. Hold Medium Punch while you do this, Blanka's Rockcrusher will look nearly the same but it will have a short pause in the animation and it becomes an Overhead Attack that must be blocked high.
This is fairly deceptive because Blanka's normal Rockcrusher (without holding Medium Punch) can be blocked either high or low, but the overhead version gives you another way of pestering the opposition when you're in close up.
You cannot Cancel into other moves with the overhead version of Blanka's Rockcrusher like you can with the regular attack.
Joystick Joystick (air)
• Anti Air Claws •
A great anti-air attack when you do not have a ball charged.
Joystick Joystick (air)
• Jumping Hard Kick •
A few players have a really difficult time using anti air normals against this attack, which makes it a great jump in move in some matches. It has deceptively good range, it's powerful and you can set up most of your combos with it.
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