Counterhit (CH) fishing refers to the usage of moves with good properties on counterhit, such as giving a launch or guaranteed follow-up in order to get them to land as a CH. It also encompasses strategies to increase the odds of landing these moves as a CH.
A move lands as CH when it connects during the start-up of an opponentâs attack. This means opponent activity is a must to land one. Using a ki charge to manually trigger a charged state is possible, but is not generally advisable (outside of specific setups) due to the risks.
Generally, one has to predict when the opponent will attack. This requires good game sense and an ability to read the opponentâs rhythm and timing. This can be made easier by paying attention to the following game state variables -
- Frame Advantage: Since frames dictate the speed of moves, being in a certain frame situation heavily influences an opponentâs ability and desire to interact. In a plus frame situation, the opponent is at a disadvantage and vulnerable to you doing a mixup. To avoid it, they might try to mash out with a quick or evasive move. This can lead to a CH for you. Conversely, in a minus frame situation, they might attempt a slower, rewarding mixup that can be CH with a fast tool. Frame traps are the idea of having a sequence of moves that take advantage of the frame situation from a certain move to increase the odds of landing a follow-up CH.
- Spacing: The distance between characters dictates which moves will land. When your opponent is at a distance where they can use their characterâs preferred tools, they will be more likely to use those tools. Noticing the spacing when your opponent likes to press is useful because you can preemptively keep out their attempts to get into their desired range, or fish for a CH once theyâve just gotten into their range, but havenât attacked.
- Life deficit + Timer: Since your opponent has to reduce your lifebar to zero before you can, or the timer runs out, in order to win. Thus, they have to attack unless they have the life lead. The difference in lifebars can be a good predictor of how likely your opponent is to attack. With a small difference and/or a large amount of time remaining, your opponent might not feel pressured to attack.
Some psychological variables that tend to influence opponent activity are -
- Stress: a stressed opponent is likely to either mash out of pressure situations, or play passively. Recognizing when an opponent is stressed, and their tendencies under stress, can help decide whether to fish for a CH or forego a fishing attempt to land a mixup. Pressuring the opponent is a good way to induce stress. Annoying an opponent by spamming the same move can also induce them to attack. Staying at a range where your opponent is uncomfortable is another source of stress.
- Desire to Act: Blocking or remaining passive is generally uncomfortable since it can force you to guess on a mixup. Players tend to avoid this by enforcing their own pressure with attacks when they can. Controlling when they feel they can begin their offense can increase the odds of landing a counterhit. An example is to follow-up a short burst of pokes with a small period of nothing, then fishing for a CH. The gap of passivity induces the opponent to think it is "their turn" to attack, but your CH lands while theyâre starting up. Another example is delayable strings - an opponent might feel that it is their turn after blocking the first hit, but then will get caught by the delayed extension.
- Conditioning: An opponent can be led to expect certain patterns from you based on how you act during a match. Breaking those patterns at key moments can lead to counterhits. For example, never taking your turn after a move with a CH extension might lead your opponent to take their turn more frequently after. Using the CH extension then will increase the odds of landing it as a CH.
Inducing an opponent to act is not generally something that needs to be actively done. However, there exist passive, defensive or "turtle-y" opponents, who are willing to keep blocking until a safe opportunity to attack presents itself. This can pose a problem to the strategy of counterhit fishing since most attempts to fish will get blocked (or even evaded with sidesteps). This can be bad in the long run if the CH tool in question is negative on block (you will have to guess a mixup) or unsafe (you will get punished). In such cases, it is generally better to notice and take advantage of their unwillingness to attack in order to poke or run mixups. The damage (and stress) accrued from these will, in turn, induce a desire to attack.