How to read frame data in Street Fighter 6 (SF6)

Since combo fighters first graced the world’s arcades, players have argued about the best ways to read attacks. Thousands of techniques have come forward. The wise sages of the video game genre have plenty of theories on how the games should be played. The latest is reading frame data in Street Fighter 6, but what is it? And how does one read frame data in Street Fighter 6?

What is frame data in Street Fighter 6

Every move in Street Fighter 6 is made up of three sections: the startup, the active, and the recovery phase. Each of these phases corresponds to a section of the executed move, and each takes a certain amount of frames to take place.

Frame data is understanding just how long each phase takes and at what point combos can be linked. To properly link combos, it is necessary to understand not only how long each move’s phases are but how many frames in Street Fighter 6 the next move has in each. 

Frame data is basically how long, in frames, the three stages each take for a character. Then, knowing how long the starting phase of each move is so that it fits within the active or on-strike frames. For a move to combo with the previous move, the startup must fit within the on-strike amount of frames in Street Fighter 6.

For instance, if a move has ten on-strike frames, then only a move with ten or below startup frames will combo with it. Anything higher will drop the combo. Confused yet? You should be.

how to read frame data in Street Fighter 6

To read Street Fighter 6 frame data, you must watch how long a move takes to reach, strike, and recover. You want to put your next startup within the strike section of an attack. Before the days of the internet, you simply had to play these games until they became second nature. However, now we have data mining, super nerds, and frame-by-frame analysis. It is possible to use internet tools to break down every character’s fight style.

If you go to this website, you can take a look at all the moves of all your favorite fighters. If you filter by OH and Startup, it is possible to easily determine which moves will work within the Street Fighter 6 frame data. Some would call this cheating, but they’re just sore at your perfect combos.