A Smash Player SOLVED Ranked in Tekken 8 

Thanks for your Beginner Guide, helped me out a TON starting out!

Seeing Coney become a celebrity overnight in the tekken community out of everything is very funny to me

"use the tools your character has - you don't get bonus ranked points for being honest" words to live by ❤

Coney was elite in Project M and Brawl. Competent in 4 and Ultimate because of legacy knowledge and skills. He doesn’t even play it like that anymore he’s mostly been a commentator. He knows how to learn and how to take a few good tools and use them effectively. Very conscious player in all genres. He got far in Street Fighter 6 as well. He’s just a gamer, that’s my goat 🙏

A lot of comments aren't impressed by this achievement, but I've been playing Tekken for a little while and I'm not purple rank yet so how can I speak on anything? I think Coney is actually amazing at dominating the lower levels of many games. He's good at seeing the win condition and sticking to it. Picking King might mean you can simplify the game into real-time RPS, but the man knows how to play RPS. If anyone knows anything about Dedede in Brawl, this will all make sense

I played Smash a shit ton. One thing I want to highlight is that when I first started playing Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8 the concept of Okizeme came very naturally. This is because it’s basically the same idea as what we call “Tech Chasing” in Smash. I assume this is why this was also one Coney’s strengths given his long history with Smash.

It is almost like the okizeme mindset and respect you must have for being at a disadvantagr and also taking the advantage when your opponent is grounded can be carried over from recovery and ledge grab plays in Smash. Both limits the options of one player a lot, where they risk getting punished by picking unsafe and offensive options. And both allow the other player more mixup and picking options that beat the limited safe options.

I don’t know how Coney would feel about that “Smash Player” label 😭

the way you have broken down tekken for first timers, PhiDX, cannot be understated. I’m not an elite FG player, but your tips and videos have seriously helped me learn what tekken is all about. Thank you!!!!!❤

ghost of standford kelly is still screaming 'Pick a Top Tier''

Honesty is self applied mental stack. Opponent gets pressure for doing nothing.

Honestly of all the tekken videos ive watched, this was the most helpful. You explain waking up on block. What a punish is and emphasize the mechanics like Your turn Auto grab on armor :) im still having issues with knowing when jts my turn personally but after this video. I feel like i can take that grain of intuition and do better

Mr. PhiDX. You are literally my Tekken 8 coach. Im attempting a long time to beat my friend on this game, when we are partying. He is goat in this game. We both pre-purchased this game and we are having so much fun. Your guides help me a lot to understand this game more. I still have a lot to learn and he is still punishing every mistake I do, but thats the way how to learn the game mechanics. Thank you so much for your content

I played a ranked match where my opponent was pulling out some old Street Fighter 4 Ultra behavior, and he whooped my ass for the first couple of rounds until I caught on to what he was doing. It's neat to see what kind of behaviors that other fighting game franchise players bring to Tekken 8.

I woke up in the middle of the night to catch the tournament live and I'm just glad that you are still alive Phi. I thought you were gonna have a heart attack

One of the most fun things about Tekken and fighting games in general from a spectator standpoint is watching people adjust and figure out what works for them. Even at lower/inexperienced levels it’s so cool to see people’s brains work it’s like doing math in real time

Great stuff as always man. Your content just keeps getting better

Backdashing and whiff punishing is the biggest thing that got me to purple in 5 days. Especially at round start (which Phi already has a video on lol). But often times people at lower ranks will toss out a launcher or jab string right at the start and a single backdash can make that whiff and give you a free punish. If you happen to land a launcher as a whiff punish then you get the start the round with a 40-60% lifelead and you're at or near the wall. It's an insane position to get in the opening seconds of a round. You also don't need to korean backdash a million times either. Just 1 backdash, or 2 if you can cancel even once, is fine in 99% of situations. I've backdashed during people's strings and made them whiff the final hit giving me a free whiff punish. Second thing I think would be pumping the brakes sometimes when you're at full screen away from each other. Just mindlessly running at them with a big running move (unless you're Azucena) is an easy way to get sidestepped or getting stuffed with a big move they just throw out because they're scared. If you just run and stop just out of range of someone they might throw out a move that you can whiff punish again. I'm still doing this to people in high red / purple now. That said, I'll probably be here for a while lol. I think I've reached the point where I need to stop playing Street Fighter and start learning other character's moves and properties.

Phi can I just say how good your intros are?! Youre quickly becoming one of my favourite content creator. Glad to see you keep growing!

Very educational and expertly presented. You are a credit to the community, thank you.

Lars CAN block in limited entry, that high kick is a launcher and heads into limited entry because it makes the move safer even on whiff. That’s “safer” not safe. You should be able to launch as when he goes to limited he’s still committing to 16 frames it’s just high crushing. On block it’s plus 4, so he doesn’t get his limited entry options as the mid/low mix is 16f. Remember that it’s limited entry so he doesn’t get to do the mix up for free there if it did get blocked. But he DOES get his low kicks (all minus even on hit) and wake up 4, none of those get him into stance so we’re Gucci even if they do hit….only the while standing 4 will leave him plus 6 on hit, which lets him try for a button into stance. But if you block the move or the next stance attempt it’s your turn. don’t let Lars steal the turn away cause he looks like he’s gonna blow you up. He’s not, he’s minus af Lars can’t block in both his other stances. That important because he only gets to run his offense on HIT. so for the people that struggle against Lars remember that if he hits your block and tries to start going crazy he’s super vulnerable it just looks scary. Launch him like the champs you are friends 🎉

20:09 Against high power crushes like this (or Jin's zen 2, or Hwoarang's backlash), you can do a single jab to freeze the armor move then duck for a ws punish.

Competitive Smash player here too who's also getting into Tekken. Your guides literally helped me to getting blue ranks in 2 weeks they honestly are super super helpful i love this game lol

Yeah it’s funny because I’m Raijin and basically the only difference I noticed in A LOT of purple players vs red players is that their flowcharts are a little tighter, they run their offense much faster, and they’re way more willing to block. There are some purples that got their by being more solid but honestly for the most part the gap is not that large and if you can just learn how to punish properly and punish people for mashing, you will get to purple with just that.

Reminder that when Poongko entered the Tekken scene with Akuma, he gave the top players a run for their money. I welcome Coney doing whatever he does best.

Man this is really important to newbies back to I was a newbie I got hit by same stuff again and again. It could help the newbies build their confidence. ❤

Sajam has no idea the hornet nest he created by setting up this tournament. He needs direct sponsorship from Bandai Namco

very interesting to see how smash players approach games like sf6 and t8.

kazuya main in smash on smashbox coming to tekken maining reina, it has been a blast. The concept of neutral helps massively

I just saw King. And it all made sense

Let’s goo coney! Let’s go phi for the technical explanation for his play style

Seeing Coney come to TEKKEN and climb the ranks is honestly super hype.

A friend of mine picked up Tekken for the first time and within a week hit red ranks with Kuma. I was kinda flabbergasted. It took me a year of T7 to hit that bar.

I'm booting up right now to apply these tips. 8 is my first Tekken game. There's a TON of fundamentals I'm currently lacking but learning to play fighting games well is something I love.

TL;Dr is play King, spam knowledge checks against newer opponents, win

I recently hit purple as a newcomer, 100 hours in so seeying Coney hit purple so fast was almost a little upsetting. But its fine, more things to learn from ^^ Finnily enough my promo match was also a mirror. He found the hidden cheat code and many things you point out ring true. Matches where i do really well is where i can throw all my strong tools with a few reads here and there (including the power crush :D). Also Oki in smash is called techchasing and thats a fundamental skill in smash, so no mystery it translates well to Tekken.

You say it's not to demotivate but goddamnit it's definitely doing that LOL. Then again, when you work full time and go to school full time, you really can't and shouldn't be comparing yourself to someone who's job it is to commentate, entertain, and stream all day! Not taking anything away from him either. He's a great player at any game he plays

I knew Coney was going to excel when I watched I think his second night with the game. He recognized opponent habits EXTREMELY quickly, I knew as soon as he learned the answers to what he was seeing instead of just being able to identify them, he'd be a menace.

Ive been playing tekken since T1. Back then we did not have a lot of resources to really get a deep dice in the game. Now we have so many creators like Phidx creating contrnt and tutorials.

I'll say one thing that has accelerated me to purple ranks. Just hold back at the start of a round. So many people just love pressing buttons at the beginning of a match. I've had opponents get really frustrated because they expect me to start pressing buttons but I just block. I usually let my opponents have a few free lows, but then I start blocking or low parrying lows during my next match. I'm working on KBD atm but I cannot stress how OP blocking is in Tekken 8.

Smash is lumped in the party/platform genre but as a tekken player since tekken 1, smash can help with reaction timing in any game because the speed and pacing is so much faster than any other fighting game and there’s so much to pay attention to.

I’m a fellow smasher, and I honestly play King very similarly. I think that’s just the natural response based on how we are used to interactions working in smash. Props to Coney for hitting purple in 4 days though, that’s crazy.

I wish I could agree with the statement that you can make it to blue rank by just being aware of frame advantage. But at purple rank it really feels like blind aggression beats out a clever defensive player almost every time. Aggression always keeps you safe and plus in this damn game. I'm stuck on purple, btw. :)

Before I picked up Tekken seriously again, I was pretty good at Little Mac on Smash and various characters in Rivals of Aether and now I'm pretty good at Tekken too.

I do wonder if there's anyway to tell when you're plus or minus by observation alone. Going to the lab or to the replay to do it seems really inconvenient, and the animations on the characters aren't very clearly indicating when it's their turn or my turn (unless it's obvious like blocking a rage art). I guess I'm wondering if there's anyway I can "learn on the job" and pay attention to specific animations or sound effects instead of memorizing frames in practice mode.

26:00 7 dang seconds to put em in heat 😂

Honestly as a mishima player, I’d love to see you look at Super. He made it to ruler with Reina very quickly and he’s not even that much of a fighting game player.

Already knew it was King. Grab mixups are one of the biggest parts of smash. Tekken and smash are some of the most movement/distance control games as well

13:21 I think coney was fishing for the low wake up attack that dent used earlier

Hey, Phi, would you be comfortable doing an anti-Lars guide? I'm tired of guessing every stance mix up. Are there any fuzzy ducks or moves to look for that his turn is definitely ending.

Your Video was definitely helpful 🫳 a lil Interaction for the algorithm. This is Inspiring to me at least. Good & Boring are often in the Same room, so digging out the Intel is helpful

great fucking vid bro. just subbed. so much value in this vid!!!! looking forward to more vids from you

understanding your character will get you somewhat far, but to actually be good, you have to understand all the other characters

30:08 mom look! i’m in a phidx video because coney passed me in ranked 😂

gotta give him props, bro went on twitter, asked for the most braindead character that requires the least amount of effort with the easiest flow chart, and just spammed 6 ish moves to upper intermediate in record time. it really shows how easy it is to break a fighting game if you can embrace cheese

Lars' DF+3~f is +8 on hit and transitions into DEN(Dynamic Entry). If you try to hit a button after getting hit by df+3~f, the DEN 1,2 will CH you and heat engage Lars.

Hey PhiDX, I recently picked up Tekken 8, and currently am going through the ranks. I am a Dragunov main currently sitting at Cavalry, and after watching this video, I see that you have a very keen eye for small details that "make up the whole product", so to speak. So, seeing as you are an experienced Tekken player, I want to know if I could send you some replays of recent matches to see if there is anything that I do decently, or if there is anything I need to improve upon. If you would rather not (as this could possibly lead your comment section to be filled with a lot of copy-pastes of this kind of message), I respect the decision.

I think almost all fighting games help when it comes to Tekken. I’ve come from UFC and Fight Night. And that helped me with defense, spacing, and countering.

Where's the link for the tournament? 0:54

Thanks for tips. I am struggling in red ranks with hworang

I just got to mighty ruler today on dragonov, I swear to god where the fuck did he find opponets like these? The people I am facing are playing so much better than pretty much anyone shown in this video, this was honestly painful to watch. I think imma try to pickup king that B3 looks particularly broken, from the looks of it, it can't be more than -12 on block, hits mid, clears the entire stage and has a startup of what looks to be 19-22 frames.

I think its fair how he plays, everyone has a diferent fighting style and he is learning but its also refresing to see a diferent playstyle

What's the notes app that Phidx uses?

That Lars made me think about how much i dislike Jun and her moves, especially that awful hopkick I've seen it countless times but my brain can't pick it up

Ive been playing tekken since T1. I think T8 has managed to get so many new players to the community. Everybodys welcome here

Any other Jun gameplay in ur vids? I'm a few days into this game and barely have a clue how to play her

People in the comments underselling how much Coney has learned just because he plays King. Go watch his matches from the group stage of the tourney. He knowledge checked people and then adapted his play style to his opponent without any live coaching. He is a smart player and earned his purple rank. Hell, the dude almost never uses any grab but his generic even if it keeps getting broken. He's a legit smart player.

You say "smash player" then I saw it was Coney...lol. Actually part of why I came back in T7 was Kazuya in Smash

A Super Smash Player (Derogatory) Jokes aside, nice that people are noticing Coney. Though Coney said on stream that he doesn't like Tekken and doesn't know if he'll really play it past the Sajam event

ranking up with kings makes it 10 times easier.

With same basics got my Alisa to Battle Ruler... But what i see in Raijin, Kishin, is unreal for me. They hit you and going in holy sturdy defence for time... I try every way to attack but they block it easily. And i dont have enough knowledge of the characters.

I literally tought a friend about blocking on wake-up yesterday after noticing that he got hit by 2-3 running attacks every time he got knocked down. I shudder to think what entering online-play without knowing this would be like.

Hitting Rage in seven seconds is Absolute King Factor lmao 26:00

I'm a smash player and after about two weeks in I'm almost mighty ruler. Gotta push through and learn some more matchups though

The rank system in Tekken 8 is quite different from Tekken 7. There are less ranks and you can rank up much faster. Even losing a rank is not that punishing in Tekken 8 because you don't get a hard reset but keep your points so you can immediately get your rank back. Additionally, all system changes and mechanics are making the game easier for beginners/casual players. Any player who learns the basics of the game and is paying attention to what's happening on the screen can get these ranks pretty easily. Many players just ignore the opponents actions and reactions and try to mash their way through with flowcharts.

Ain't this the guy that did the "do smash players know fighting game characters?" Video?

Doesn't this just say more about Tekken 8s over accessibility, and less about anyone's individual skill? Maybe I'm wrong but I don't think a healthy ladder should be this easy for beginners to climb with balanced characters. This is literally my first Tekken and I made it to Mighty Ruler in a month. Is it really the achievement we think it is? It doesn't feel like it is.

Now I want to see pdx try and learn melee

Punish game also seems to work wonders! People love to throw out their coolest moves. (which are usually punishable) You gotta work for those situations.

"This is for the championship!"

Well to be perfectly honest the new purple rank is pretty much the old orange or red rank in tekken 7. Most people mash at those levels so you can just frame trap and kill most people in those ranks. Last king is pretty broken in this game. He has fast low the high crush and counter hit launches. Hop ki k that is 13 frame punishable but most people in purple dont punish correctly so its kinda free. His heat is a scrub killer. His heat smash nukes your health. Also it takes some good fundamentals and skill to play smash at high levels. Bottome line this is t8. You don't need too many interactions to to win a round in king is a character that takes games really fast

I have thousands of hours in melee and I play very similar but with dragunov. Not sure if smash players are different or if these are just broad strategies.

Watching those games got me like "Do i want to be right or do i want to win" 😅

I played lily recently, and on stream you compared my king to coney and I originally didnt know who that was but after reviewing the footage… yeah us low level kings like to spam power crush cause a lot of people in our ranks apply fake pressure and that’s the easiest way to counter. I’ve been trying to get better at sidestepping and learning which strings to duck, but pressing B3 is so much easier 😂

Very nice. Would you consider reaching Fujin within 4 days an achievement as well for someone who never played tekken before @PhiDX ? Used Victor, he sure carried my ass.

This is paul death fist levels of debauchery. The non mind game mind game

Throws single handedly got me 70% of my losses😂 hasn't stopped me tho

As a King main since T1, I'm very proud of Coney.

It's weird to see Coney in a Tekken Video... But he's a pretty good king.

Guys pls help me i picked up jin and im stucked in ganryiu and i cant Do electrics and im thinking to learn a New character. I dont know i think jin is to hard for Me. What you guys think?

As someone on the cusp of garyu. I can tell you as a king main. Literally cant land a hop knee combo yet. All i know is most of the moves for king. Know i shouldnt mash after most of my strings. Focused on defense and attempt some sort of movement cause king movement is bad. And focused on mainly mixing up my grabs between move buffers so its hard for them to tech it. And thats pretty much it. Im still get ROCKED every other game. Its a constant fight ranking up. But it is what it is. Even for king.

Just made it to purple on Leroy. The tools he has seems to be weak all around or a gimmick in 8 though and I think I may need to consider a new character....

Ngl, when I saw "solved Tekken" I thought the plugger problem got taken care of lmao.

The man learned to block... ... HAX!!

Personally, I disagree with the sentiment that you shouldn't learn other characters in order to defend against them. It'll depend person to person, but because I don't really have a main in this game, I'm just playing every character I hate to fight, and personally, as I become more familiar with them, I find knowing how - certain things are, or what is the answer to X sticks in my brain more. For example, when moving from Reina to Bryan, the amount of Reinas who don't rematch after I jet upper FCDF4 certainly stood out.

just shows u how far u can go getting carried by a character, forsen stuck on red ranks with steve for weeks, but got to blue ranks with jun in 2 days not even knowing her moves

Playing around frame advantage is basically dealing damages without taking any.

Next up, short video discussing frames and such 😁

I feel like I should be using my armor moves as King way more often than I am after watching this

lmao...of course it's king