Crouch

Crouching goes under highs.

Crouch is a state which crushes highs and can block lows. It's done with DB, D, or DF. Crouch enters the stances full crouch (FC) and while standing (WS), among others, giving access to new moves and preventing the use of regular standing moves. These stances also prevent sidestepping into the foreground.

Take care to distinguish the stance (which moves you can use) from the state (whether highs are crushed and lows blocked). The state is decided entirely by whether or not D is held, whereas the stance is more particular.

	Standing
	Full crouch
	Half crouch
	While standing

Basic progression through crouch stances

Frame

Input

Stance

1

d

2

d

3

d

4

d

5

d

6

d

7

d

8

d

9

d

10

d

11

d

12

d

1

n

2

n

3

n

4

n

5

n

6

n

7

n

Full crouch

Full crouch (FC or crouching level 2) is a stance entered after holding DB, D, or DF for 11 frames. It gives access to moves listed as while crouching in the in-game movelist.

When a player recovers crouching—either by being forced into crouch, or by doing a move that recovers crouching—they recover in this stance.

Half crouch

Half crouch (hFC or crouching level 1) is a stance entered after holding DB, D, or DF for 6 frames. Moves from this stance are often not listed in the in-game movelist and are for the most part generic crouching moves.

However, some characters have notable hFC moves, such as Yoshimitsu's hFC.df+4 and Jack-7's hFC.db+1. These moves are sometimes considered “full crouch moves that can be done faster than normal full crouch moves”, but that's just because they're actually half crouch rather than full crouch moves.

While standing

While standing moves are done while exiting crouch. Note that D is released when 2 is pressed.

While standing (WS) is a temporary stance entered by releasing D while in a crouching stance. It gives access to moves listed as “While rising” in the in-game movelist. These moves can be buffered when recovering in crouch, e.g. ws4 is buffered with n+4.

Regular standing moves can't be done from while standing, with the exception of those that use ub, u, or uf inputs.

How long while standing lasts depends on which crouching stance it came from. It lasts 6 frames from full crouch, and 1–5 frames from half crouch (longer if you've been in half crouch longer).

	Standing
	Half crouch
	While standing

Frame

Input

Stance

1

d/b

2

d/b

3

d/b

4

d/b

5

d/b

6

d/b

7

n

8

n

Frame

Input

Stance

1

d/b

2

d/b

3

d/b

4

d/b

5

d/b

6

d/b

7

d/b

8

n

9

n

10

n

Frame

Input

Stance

1

d/b

2

d/b

3

d/b

4

d/b

5

d/b

6

d/b

7

d/b

8

d/b

9

n

10

n

11

n

12

n

While standing is not technically a distinct stance. Rather, while standing moves are just crouching moves with D released and the crouch stance lingering.

If D is re-held during this lingering, the crouching stances are also re-entered faster. Roughly speaking, every frame that D is released undoes a frame that D was held for. So even though while standing lasts 6 frames from full crouch, full crouch takes 11 frames to fully cancel.

	Standing
	Full crouch
	Half crouch
	While standing

Frame

Input

Stance

1

d/b

2

d/b

3

d/b

4

d/b

5

d/b

6

d/b

7

d/b

8

d/b

9

n

10

n

11

n

12

n

13

d/b

14

d/b

15

d/b

16

d/b

17

d/b

18

d/b

19

d/b

Crouch cancel

A crouch cancel is any movement that exits crouch without entering while standing. This is done to access standing moves more quickly from crouch.

The generic way to do this is sidestep up (u~n), dash (f~n~f), or backdash (b~n~b). The sidestep takes 1 frame and can be fully buffered.

The dashes take 2 frames, which is one more than they take to do from a standing situation (for some reason there's a special rule that you have to wait an extra frame to dash from crouch), and the last input can't be buffered. Since this is both harder and slower, the only reason to do it is to get a move from those stances. This means that, for example, Lidia's R.f,F+2+3, which is i13, can only punish -15 moves from crouch, even though it can punish -14 moves from standing.

Some moves that normally recover crouching have a special input to instead recover standing. This is sometimes called a crouch cancel as well, but it's a distinct mechanic. The most notable move that can do this is the generic d+1, which can recover standing with d+1,F.

Forced crouch

When certain moves connect on either hit or block, they will force an opponent into a forced crouch state. Many mids that swing from above have this behavior, such as Kazuya's Left Splits Kick (ff+3). This limits an opponent's options to what they can do out of crouch. Though it is possible to crouch cancel out of a forced crouch state, this adds a layer of execution as there will be no input buffer for a move done afterwards.

Crouch assist

Crouch assist (or crouching level 1.5) is a stance and mechanic whose gory details are terrifyingly convoluted, but the basic idea is that if you crush a high with crouch, you get fast tracked straight to full crouch. This allows you to crouch for only a few frames before doing your punisher instead of the usual 11 (or 6 for while standing).

Crouch assist can be entered from up to the first frame of the startup of the opponent's high (i.e. immediately) and transitions to full crouch after at least 5 frames, and after the high being crushed is finished (i.e. after its last active frame). It can only be entered if distance between the players is less than 2000.00 units (i.e. they're closer than the round start position).

String grief

If the high being crushed is in a string, it might never actually “finish” but rather cancel into the next move of the string. For these strings, one can end up “stuck” in crouch assist for an unusually long time.

This can cause trouble because although all WS moves can be done from crouch assist, some but not all hFC and FC moves can be. The moves which can't be done can end up not coming out when they normally would, even if you've been holding D for long enough. There's no rule here. It just depends on the move.

The following list clarifies whether or not a move can be done from crouch assist. The easiest string to test this against is Bryan's 1,4,2.

Alisa

✔️ FC.df+1+2

Anna

❌ FC.df+2

Armor King

❌ FC.df+2

❌ FC.df+4

Asuka

❌ FC.df+2

❌ FC.df+3

Bob

❌ FC.df+2

Bryan

❌ FC.df+2

❌ FC.df+4

Claudio

❌ FC.df+2

Eddy

✔️ hFC.1+2

✔️ FC.df+4

✔️ FC.df+1+2

Fahkumram

❌ FC.df+3

Feng

❌ FC.df+1

❌ FC.df+2

Ganryu

✔️ hFC.1

✔️ hFC.1+2

✔️ FC.df+1

✔️ FC.df+2

Geese

❌ FC.df+1

Gigas

❌ FC.df+2

Heihachi

❌ FC.df+4

Jack

❌ hFC.db+1

✔️ FC.df+1

✔️ FC.df+2

❌ FC.df+1+2

Julia

❌ FC.df+2

❌ FC.df+4

Josie

❌ FC.df+4

Katarina

✔️ FC.df+4

Kazuya

❌ FC.df+3+4

King

❌ FC.df+1

❌ FC.df+2

✔️ FC.df+4

Kuma

❌ FC.df+1

✔️ FC.df+2

✔️ FC.df+1+2

Kunimitsu

✔️ FC.df+2

✔️ FC.df+3

Lars

✔️ FC.df+2

✔️ FC.df+1+2

Lee

❌ FC.df+4

Leroy

❌ FC.df+4

Lei

✔️ FC.df+2

Leo

❌ FC.df+3

Lidia

❌ FC.df+2

✔️ FC.df+3

Lili

❌ FC.df+1

❌ FC.df+3

Lucky Chloe

❌ FC.df+1

❌ FC.df+2

❌ FC.df+4

Marduk

✔️ FC.df+2

✔️ FC.df+4

✔️ FC.df+1+2

Master Raven

❌ FC.df+3+4

Miguel

❌ FC.df+2

❌ FC.df+4

Negan

❌ FC.df+2

Nina

❌ FC.df+4

Noctis

✔️ FC.df+1

✔️ FC.df+2

Paul

❌ FC.df+1+2

Steve

❌ FC.df+1

❌ FC.df+2

Xiaoyu

❌ FC.df+2

❌ FC.df+4

Yoshimitsu

✔️ hFC.df+4

❌ FC.DF+1

❌ FC.B+1

❌ NSS.FC.DF+1

❌ NSS.FC.B+1

✔️ NSS.FC.df+3

Zafina

✔️ FC.df+3

❌ FC.db+4

Crouch assist cancel

It's possible to enter crouch assist from some recovery situations before the recovery is actually over. This in some cases allows one to recover faster than usual, completely defying the frame advantage. It can also in most cases be used to override a buffered move. In both cases, it can only work if the opponent has already started their attack before we've recovered, i.e. it can only work starting at -2.

The buffer override makes it possible to do a true option select by buffering an attack and then quickly holding D. If the opponent does a high, crouch assist cancels the attack (and probably dodges a counter hit). Otherwise, the attack comes out as normal.

Master Raven exception

Crouching stances are not handled through global systems, but rather directly in character movesets. This allows for exceptions.

The most notable exception is Master Raven, who can access her standing moves during crouch assist. However, to do this she has to input the standing move without having any neutral inputs during crouch assist, so the most practical application of this is that she can get a “built-in” high crush on moves like df+1, df+2, and db+2 by holding the direction input for a few frames first.

Instant while standing

Instant while standing (aka iWS) is a term for performing while standing (listed in-game as while rising) moves as soon as possible. This allows for quick use of moves normally locked behind crouching state that can help many characters in advanced combos and pressure.

It is comparable to iWR (Instant While Running).

The method differs for each character, as some may have a crouch dash or back sway which change the way iWS is performed.

Some methods include:

• d, df, f OR d, db, b (simple quarter circles)
• f, n, d, df, f
• f, n, d, df, f, b (Used for characters with crouch dashes to avoid getting their crouch dash moves, such as for Kazuya's iWS.2 mix-up)
• d, df, d, n (most difficult)

Instant while standing is generally regarded as an advanced mechanic when done with perfect timing, and will take a lot longer to master than iWR. Certain advanced combos will require this highly precise timing, and it's something that can up the execution difficulty of a character by a surprising amount if one truly wishes to learn it.

Instant full crouch

Instant full crouch (iFC) describes performing non-generic full crouch moves from standing as quickly as possible.

The universal technique to do this is holding DB, D, or DF for 11 frames and then doing the attack. If the direction held overlaps with the directions of the FC move itself, after holding for 31f you will get the FC input - e.g. Geese FC.df+1 versus FC.1 after 31f of hold.

Notable exceptions are:

• Marduk iFC through his Vale Tudo Stance (VTS) with only 1 added frame at fastest execution or 2 if there is an overlapping VTS move requiring you to cancel the stance with db before the FC move - e.g. 3+4,(db) <FC move>
• Jack-7 can access FC.db+1 with only 6 added frames of holding DB
• Yoshimitsu can access FC.df+4 with only 6 added frames of holding DF
• Eddy can access FC.1+2 with only 6 added frames
• Nina can access FC.df+4 with d,df,DF+4 with only 8 added frames

External links

• iWS, Crouch Level & Input Buffering by kilo
• Crouching Level 1.5, and the maven exception by kilo