Becoming a pro Tekken 9 player requires dedicated practice, learning character matchups, and consistently competing in online and offline tournaments.
So, you dream of going pro in the fighting game world, specifically with the upcoming Tekken 9? Many have that same ambition, and the path, while challenging, is definitely attainable. This guide explores the steps on Tekken 9 how to become a pro player, offering actionable advice to improve your skills and reach your goals.
It’s not just about button-mashing, but about truly understanding game mechanics. You need to dedicate time to training mode, lab combos, and analyzing your replays. The real journey begins with consistent effort.
Tekken 9 How to Become a Pro Player
Understanding the Fundamentals of Tekken 9
Before you can dream of playing Tekken 9 like the pros, you need to get a handle on the basics. Think of it like building a house – you can’t put up the walls before you have a strong foundation! Tekken 9, at its core, is a fighting game that revolves around movement, striking, and strategy. It’s not just about button mashing; it’s about thinking ahead and reacting quickly.
Movement: The Art of Positioning
Movement in Tekken 9 is crucial. It’s how you get close to your opponent, create space, and avoid attacks. Here’s what you need to know:
- Walking: Moving forward and backward is your basic way to maneuver around your opponent.
- Dashing: Quick bursts of movement in either direction help you close the gap or create some space.
- Side Stepping: Use side stepping to avoid linear attacks and get around your opponent. This is very important and can make or break your defense.
- Back Dashing: Quick back dashes can help you evade attacks and create space.
- Jumping: While jumping is in Tekken 9, be careful when using this. It’s often punishable and rarely a safe way to approach.
Practice each of these movements until they feel natural. Spend time in the training mode, moving around the stage and experimenting with how they change your character’s position and your options for attack. Get used to using movement to both attack and defend, this is one of the key factors in Tekken 9.
Strikes: Knowing Your Arsenal
Each character in Tekken 9 has their own unique set of moves. These moves are how you’ll deal damage and control your opponent. There are high, mid, and low attacks, which is very important to know when you are defending:
- High Attacks: These attacks are often quick but can be ducked.
- Mid Attacks: These attacks can be blocked standing, but cannot be ducked.
- Low Attacks: These attacks hit low and must be blocked by crouching, so don’t block standing.
Take the time to go into training mode and test your character’s different strikes. Start by learning the common moves and then you can build into some combos. It is important to also know which of your moves are plus and minus on block, meaning if you have a plus frame move it’s safe to attack again after they block and if it’s minus frame, it’s your turn to defend again.
Understanding your character’s move list can allow you to punish your opponent, create openings, and capitalize on their mistakes.
Block and Punish: Your First Line of Defense
In Tekken 9, playing defense is as important as playing offense. The goal is to block incoming attacks and then punish your opponent if they make a mistake. There is standing block which will block mid and high attacks, and then crouching block that will block low attacks. Learning the block button is important in playing Tekken 9, also learning how to block a low attack versus a high or mid is important, it can be the difference between winning or losing.
Here are some key points about defense:
- Standing Block: Hold back on the joystick to block mid and high attacks.
- Crouching Block: Hold down and back on the joystick to block low attacks.
- Punishing: When your opponent whiffs an attack or performs a move that leaves them vulnerable, use a quick attack of your own to punish their mistake.
Getting a good understanding of when to block and when to punish is the core part of Tekken 9. It is important to understand when to push your offense or play patient and defensive.
Choosing Your Main Character
Tekken 9 has a huge roster of different characters to play with, each with their own different styles. It’s tempting to try them all out, but if you want to get good, it’s very important to stick to one or two characters to learn all of their ins and outs.
Finding a Playstyle That Suits You
Each character has different strengths and weaknesses, and they fit into various playstyles. Here are some examples:
- Rushdown Characters: These characters are very aggressive, very strong with pressure, and are good at getting close and dealing damage up close and personal. If you like constant attack this is for you.
- Keep-out Characters: These characters focus on controlling the space and doing damage from range. They like to poke and keep their distance, playing very strategic.
- Mix-up Characters: These characters are good at keeping their opponents guessing with various attacks, so that it is hard for their opponents to know what to expect.
Think about which of these playstyles fits you. Do you like to be aggressive or are you more calculated? Are you good with combos, or do you like to poke and prod? Think about your own preference to help you choose your character. You can also choose the character that visually looks cool to you, so you have the incentive to play and learn that character. Once you have chosen your character, you have to stick to it, and not be changing every day, as that is hard to master one character.
Experimenting with Different Characters
While focusing on one character is important, it’s okay to test out a few different ones, at the beginning you can try 2 or 3 characters and see which one you connect with the most. You can learn their move sets and see which one you really like, then once you have chosen your main, and secondary, stick to these characters.
Practice Makes Perfect: Training Effectively
You need to practice if you want to become good at anything and this is no exception to Tekken 9. You can’t skip practice, as you need to get your hands used to the inputs. There is so much muscle memory involved and the more you play the better your muscle memory will be.
Utilizing Training Mode
Training mode is your best friend. It’s the place where you get to experiment and try new things without any risk. It’s where you’ll:
- Learn Your Character’s Moves: Go through your character’s move list and try every attack.
- Practice Combos: Once you know the moves, practice linking them together to create combos.
- Work on Punishments: Practice your responses to your opponents’ most common mistakes.
Setting Goals for Practice
Don’t just go into training mode and hit buttons randomly. Set goals for your practice sessions. For example, you could decide to practice combos for 30 minutes, or maybe work on your defensive skills for a certain amount of time. This gives you something to aim for.
Regularity is Important
Consistency is very important if you want to get better, so play on a regular schedule. Try to play every day or at least multiple times per week, this will get your muscle memory good and you will start to recognize and react to things much faster.
Learning from the Pros
The pros are the top players in the world, so watching them play can help you learn a lot about strategy, tactics, and different ways to play characters. Think of them as teachers that are playing the game for you to see.
Watching Tournament Footage
You can watch tournament footage on YouTube. Look at how the pros move, attack, and defend. Pay special attention to how they handle certain situations and learn to imitate these. You will learn a lot of high level game play from watching the pros.
Analyzing Their Strategies
Don’t just watch the game play, analyze the game play. Try to figure out why the pros make the decisions that they make. See what moves they use often and when they decide to go on offense or defense. You need to figure out why it works, and then incorporate it into your playstyle, then eventually make it your own style.
Understanding Frame Data
Frame data is a concept that seems intimidating, but is very important when playing at a high level. It has to do with how long moves take to execute and how much time there is between each move. When you first start playing you do not need to worry too much about frame data, but if you are looking to play at a high level it is essential that you learn about it.
What Are Frames?
In fighting games, actions are broken down into frames, which are 1/60th of a second. Every move takes a certain number of frames to start, hit, and end. Here is some terminology:
- Startup Frames: The time it takes for an attack to begin hitting the opponent.
- Active Frames: The time the attack can hit the opponent.
- Recovery Frames: The time the character is finishing their move and is vulnerable.
Plus and Minus Frames
If a move is plus on block, it means you can act before your opponent after they block, and if a move is minus on block, that means they can act first after they block your move. Understanding plus and minus frames allows you to predict and control when the opponent will attack. It can seem complicated at first, but it is important to learn and master, if you are looking to get better.
Using Frame Data to Your Advantage
Knowing frame data helps you figure out which moves are safe to use, and which ones leave you open for attacks. It also helps you punish your opponents for using unsafe moves. It’s a crucial skill that will really improve your gameplay when you understand it. You can study all of your characters move sets and frame data in training mode, so spend a lot of time studying it.
Online Play: Putting Your Skills to the Test
Training mode is very important, but playing against other players online is very important. It will test your skills and help you get used to the unpredictability of real matches. Think of it as going to school, now you get to put your skills to the test.
Playing Ranked Matches
Ranked matches are a good place to test your skills against other players and see your rank climb. It will match you with players of a similar skill level, so you can get used to playing with others who are the same level or a little above you. This way you always get to test yourself. If you are playing someone much better than you, you wont get to learn, so try to play similar level players.
Learning from Your Losses
You are going to lose many games as you get better, so don’t get discouraged if you keep losing. Try to think of your losses as learning opportunities. Figure out what you did wrong and how you can avoid it in your next match. If you are losing to a specific move, then you can go into training mode and learn to punish or block it. This is why its good to have a secondary character, so that you can learn the ins and outs of many characters.
Joining the Tekken 9 Community
Being part of the Tekken 9 community can be a great way to improve and make friends. They can teach you things you didn’t know or even give you tips on your game play.
Engaging in Online Forums and Groups
There are many places you can find communities to join. You can search for them on social media or forums online. You can ask for tips and advice in these communities, as many veterans will be in these communities.
Finding Practice Partners
Practice with a partner who is good, they can point out your mistakes and show you the way. It’s much better to have a good training partner as you can discuss strategies and help each other improve. These training partners can be the difference between getting better or staying at the same level.
Advanced Techniques and Strategies
Once you have the basics down, you can start learning some advanced techniques and strategies, it is important to be constantly learning and evolving as a player. Tekken 9 has many complicated and advanced aspects to it, so keep learning, do not ever stop trying to get better, you can always learn something new.
Spacing and Zoning
Spacing and zoning are all about controlling the distance between you and your opponent. Think of it as positioning to always try to be in your ideal distance. Certain characters prefer to be up close and others prefer to stay at range, so this is a critical thing to understand and implement into your game.
Mix-Ups and Mind Games
Mix-ups are about making your attacks hard to predict by mixing between high, mids, and low attacks. This is very important at a high level, as players are very good at blocking and predicting, so you need to constantly throw them off and make it hard for them to guess. The more diverse your moves are, the harder you are to predict.
Character-Specific Strategies
Every character in Tekken 9 is unique, so you need to learn their special techniques. Some characters are good at certain things, so that means they can abuse certain things to get the win. Learning these things will make your character stronger and it will allow you to reach higher levels of play.
By following this guide, working hard, and never giving up, you are more likely to become a great Tekken 9 player. Remember to be patient, enjoy the process, and have fun! You will be a pro player in no time. You got this!
How Many Hours Do You Need To Train To Become Tekken Pro?
Final Thoughts
Consistent practice with dedicated character focus forms the core of improvement. Understanding frame data and matchups is crucial. The path to pro level requires intense studying, applying learned techniques.
Joining online communities and attending tournaments helps you gain experience. Analyze your gameplay and seek feedback for growth. ‘Tekken 9 how to become a pro player’ demands this level of commitment. Constant refinement of skills is must.
