The Basics

Throws

Throws in Killer Instinct are performed by pressing LP + LK when near an opponent. They are unblockable but short-range attacks that complement attacking and blocking in the rock-paper-scissors exchanges of fighting games. You can leave the stick in neutral or hold it forward while pressing the buttons to throw forwards, or pull the stick backwards to perform a back throw that switches sides with your opponent. You cannot throw someone who is in blockstunBlockstun refers to the brief period of time after you block an attack when your character is frozen in place, reeling from the impact of the attack. You cannot attack, move, or be thrown while you are in blockstun, but your opponent may continue to attack you. Heavy attacks do more blockstun than light attacks.. Throws can be defended against by pressing LP + LK when your opponent tries to throw you; this is called a throw tech. When achieved, both fighters will break away from each other into a neutral position. Both Killer Instinct and SFIV will give you 7 frames after the throw connectsThis is the latest you can tech a throw after the throw hits you. Your tech window is larger than 7 frames because pressing the buttons early initiates a throw first, which your opponent is then likely to tech when he attempts to throw. to tech, and in both games, throws are as fast as the fastest normal attack (so in Killer Instinct, throws have 5 frames of startup compared to 3 in SFIV). Throws play a pretty similar role to SFIV, but there are several key differences with how throws fit in to Killer Instinct.

Orchid's forward and back throws. Press LP+LK when being thrown to perform a throw tech. You cannot throw someone in blockstun. (sound)
Throw ranges for Glacius and Jago, indicated by the solid blue hitboxes. These throws are active for 2 frames. Click to enlarge.

Perhaps the most important distinction is that there is no crouch teching in Killer Instinct. In fact, if you attempt to crouch techCrouch teching is a technique where you can tech a throw from a crouching position, but if your opponent does not throw, the game will consider your tech attempt to be a crouching normal attack instead. Crouch teching is a very common strategy in SFIV play., you will simply perform a standing throw. There are two immediate consequences of this for SFIV players trying to learn KI. Firstly, when you are pressuring with crouching LK or you are blocking an opponent’s close-range pressure, plinkingPlinking is a SFIV technique where you press two different buttons in rapid sequence. The SFIV engine was programmed to treat these two inputs as consecutive presses of a single button, which allowed for numerous gameplay benefits. LK ~ LP will not result in a crouching LK or fairly risk-free throw defense, but instead will always initiate a standing throw. Mindlessly pressing crouching LP+LK to defend throws or perform throw-proof offense is a habit you will have to break. Secondly, if your opponent expects a throw, he must make a choice to either interrupt you with a normal, avoid the throw by jumping or performing a throw invincible move, or perform a throw himself. This means trying to counter hit a crouch tech, one of the key ways to defeat throw defense in SFIV and which is now built strongly into all SFIV players’ muscle memories, is much less effective in Killer Instinct. It also means your opponent cannot remain crouching while trying to defend a throw, which strengthens the value of low moves.

The second noteworthy change is that throws have very long whiffA whiffed attack is an attack that does not make contact with your opponent. Your character must complete the entire move before you can attack or defend again, often leaving you open to counterattacks. recovery in Killer Instinct. In SFIV, baitingIf you can trick your opponent into performing a certain move, and you pre-emptively perform the counter to that move, you have baited your opponent. throws with neutral jumps was a recipe for getting anti-aired, since the throw recovered before most characters could connect with a jumping attack. However, neutral jumping or backdashing to bait a throw in KI is an excellent idea that will afford you a very large punish. In fact, neutral jumping is one of the primary ways to bait throws for intermediate Killer Instinct players, so expect to see it a lot. Work on your close-range neutral jump anti-air reactions to earn more free damage than you did in similar situations in SFIV.

The difference in throw whiff recovery between SFIV and KI. Note that Spinal is crouching and gets a standing throw when he presses LP+LK.
Sadira can jump cancel her throw to start an air juggle. Thunder and Glacius can use their throws to begin grounded combos. (sound)

Unlike SFIV, some characters can start a combo off a successful throw. For instance, Jago and Sadira can start air juggles off their throws, while Thunder and Glacius can start grounded combos. For more detailed strategies involving these throw combo starters, check the Characters page.

You may have noticed that I said you couldn’t throw someone in blockstun, but I made no mention of throwing someone in hitstunLike blockstun, hitstun refers to the period of time after you were hit with an attack when your character is frozen in place. Hitstun is almost always longer than blockstun for the same move., which is typically taboo in Street Fighter games. Well, that’s because Killer Instinct does let you throw people in hitstun when certain conditions are met, typically at the end of combos, although Thunder can execute a back throw multiple times throughout a combo. Unless you’ve met these specific conditions, however, you can’t throw someone in hitstun. For more details on these conditions, see the Combos section.

Orchid's air throw, Thunder's command throw, and Maya's Air Mantis command normal. (sound)
Lastly, let’s briefly mention other types of throws. Orchid is the only character with an air-to-air throw executed with LP+LK, and it cannot be teched by any character, including Orchid herself. This throw also leads to a full grounded combo. Thunder, TJ Combo and Kan-Ra have command grabs executed via special moves, and like SFIV, these grabs cannot be teched; the only way to avoid them is move out of the way via jumping, walking out of range, or a throw-invincible move. Finally, Maya has an air command normal called Air Mantis ( + HP) which will lunge at opponents from the air and throw any standing or jumping opponent it hits to the ground, but will never connect with crouching opponents. It works similarly in function to Guy’s Bushin Flip grab attack, although Maya will not fall back on an attack if no opponent is in range.

Knockdown

You can knock your opponent down in Killer Instinct with a variety of attacks, including certain normals like sweepsSweeps are a crouching normal that knocks your opponent down. It is almost always + HK., throws, and combo enders. While you are knocked down, you cannot perform any actions and you cannot be hit. Like pre-Ultra SFIV, there are two types of knockdown.

Sweeps and throws cause a hard knockdown. (sound)
Hard knockdown forces your opponent to lay on the ground for a predetermined amount of time (in the ballpark of around 60 frames). It is the strongest type of knockdown possible, since it allows the offense to pressure the opponent when they rise from the knockdown with techniques that require some setup time, like a jumping crossup. Like SFIV, all throws and sweeps cause a hard knockdown.

Most other knockdowns, such as aerial hits, combo enders, and even combo breakers, are soft knockdowns. (sound)
Soft knockdown gives your opponent a chance to quick rise when they first hit the ground. You perform a quick rise by pressing any two attack buttons the moment you hit the ground. Your character will then immediately rise off the ground without having to suffer the hard knockdown delay, which will often make sure your opponent doesn’t have enough time to set up his strongest offense. If you choose not to quick rise, you will suffer the normal hard knockdown delay and then rise automatically. Most knockdowns in the game are soft knockdowns. This includes any special move that knocks down (for example, Jago’s Tiger Fury uppercut), any time you are juggled in the air, and most combo enders.

When you rise from a knockdown, there is a moment in timeThe wake-up game, also known as okizeme, occurs when an opponent is knocked down and must get back up. The grounded opponent is at a considerable disadvantage, as his options are limited, while the offensive player may attempt any number of tricky mixups to hit the player as he rises. when your character becomes vulnerable to attacks again. This moment in time is particularly crucial in both SFIV and Killer Instinct; knockdown pressure is a very real aspect of Killer Instinct play. Most characters have a decent invincible reversal attackA reversal is a move that is executed on the very first frame possible after leaving a state where your character cannot attack, such as rising from a knockdown or blocking an opponent's move. While a reversal can be any move, the ones worth discussing are usually high-risk moves with invincibility to beat an opponent's attack., although it is more difficult to make fully invincible reversals safe on block in Killer Instinct (it’s certainly not as common as SFIV’s FADCFocus attack dash cancel is a SFIV technique that allows characters to cancel an attack into a dash for the cost of half of their super meter. It is often used to make an invincible move safe that would otherwise be very open to a counterattack if the opponent blocks.), so they are almost always win-or-lose gambles.

And it's a gamble you'll have to weigh carefully in your mind, because some knockdown mixupsA mixup is an opportunity for a character to perform one of many possible attacks which must be blocked or avoided differently. Some mixups are so fast that you cannot react and change your defense in time, requiring a pre-emptive guess. are closer in spirit to Marvel games than Street Fighter games due to the strong offensive options of the cast. More details can be found in the Characters section, but here's a small preview of what you might expect after a knockdown if a character spends their resources.

Sabrewulf uses feral cancels and Spinal uses his unique skull resource to put opponents in left-right, high-low mixups that are nearly impossible to reliably block. (sound)
Orchid knocks an opponent down, then performs multiple safe high-low mixups using her instinct firecats until Glacius finally cracks. (sound)

Due to the nature of KI’s combo system, reversals that send an opponent airborne very rarely lead to large damage, so gambling on such a reversal is much more in favor of your opponent long term than in some versions of SFIV. Killer Instinct has an input buffer in place that allows reversals to be executed slightly early to ensure they come out on the first frame possible, so time your reversal earlier rather than later. This buffer window is extended when rising from the ground, making wakeup reversals easier than reversals out of blockstun, although as described in the Specials section, mashingShoryuken special moves in SFIV could be executed by rapidly alternating between and without any precision while repeatedly pressing a punch button. a shoryuken reversal is not reliable. One frustrating thing worth noting; there is no on-screen “Reversal” message in Killer Instinct. You’ll never be quite sure if you executed the attack on the first possible frame or not.

Jago's Tiger Fury uppercut is invincible at the start, so it makes a great reversal attack if your opponent tries to pressure. (sound)
Many characters prefer mixups over safe jumps after a hard knockdown. Here, Jago shows a difficult to block setup that can hit on either side and makes reversals difficult. (sound)

Orchid can safe jump Sabrewulf after a throw. Sabrewulf must block and gets hit out of a fast non-invincible reversal. Orchid lands in time to block the invincible, but slower, Shadow Eclipse. (sound)
Because Killer Instinct’s jumping system works very similarly to SFIV, there are safe jumpsA safe jump is a very well-timed jumping attack designed to hit an opponent immediately as they rise from a knockdown. If the opponent chooses to do a slow reversal attack, you will be able to land and block in time, otherwise your jumping attack will make contact with them. as well, although attacks faster than 4 frames (like 3-frame Jago, Fulgore, and Orchid shoryukens) cannot be safe jumped. However, since hard knockdowns are less common than soft knockdowns, and post-throw offense generally favoring very strong crossup or high-low mixups, encyclopedic safe jump knowledge is nowhere near as important in KI as SFIV.

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