A Killer Instinct Guide for SFIV Players by Infil

Learning a new fighting game can be daunting. There are new systems to learn, new characters to understand, new methods of movement to master, and incompatible habits from old games to break. When combined, these can overwhelm players before they get access to the real meat of the new game. It’s especially challenging in the modern era of fighting games, where flavors of the month appear quickly and create a constant flux of new content.

Killer Instinct has been gaining traction among veterans of many games since its release with its high-octane brand of footsies, mixups and wholly unique combo engine. Perhaps you’ve been interested in picking the game up yourself, or have been watching footage of the game, but can’t come to grips with the craziness on screen and just wish someone would break it down for you in terms you understand.

As it turns out, Killer Instinct is actually a very accessible game and shares many similarities to Street Fighter IV. This series will discuss the basics of Killer Instinct’s gameplay systems, characters, and mind games using terms and concepts familiar to SFIV veterans, explaining how and where KI maps directly to SFIV and where it differs (and how you can use your SFIV knowledge to your advantage). The guide is still highly understandable if you have no prior fighting game experience, though, so this whole site can more accurately be described as a teaching aid for how to play Killer Instinct.

There’s a lot these articles won’t cover; concepts such as advanced character strategies or matchup knowledge are not the focus here. Instead, we’ll be focusing on the fundamentals required to understand a match of Killer Instinct, such as how footsies work, how the combo system allows both offense and defense to interact, and an overview of each character’s primary strategy and basic moves you should watch for. Where applicable, animations and video files will help illustrate these points clearly, and you can hover over links that look like thisThese caption boxes will define terms, outline small exceptions to rules, and discuss other interesting facts. Be sure to hover over one when you see it! to see more information on a topic. Right-click on any video to pause, rewind, or slowly step through it if you like. You may also want to check the FAQ page for some short answers to common questions about how KI works.

Why am I writing this? I think Killer Instinct is one of the best-kept secrets in the fighting game community. A lot of its systems and strategy appeal directly to SFIV players, it's a beautiful game both visually and aurally, and it teaches you to develop new skills and mind games that are absent from any other fighter you've played before. With the Xbox One as cheap as ever and the continued development of Killer Instinct Season 2, there’s no better time to explore the game and find out why it’s so interesting.