Street Fighter 6: Best Beginner Characters

Street Fighter 6 has a starting roster of eighteen characters, along with the customizable Avatar fighter in the Battle Hub/World Tour, but which one of them is the best characters for a beginner? The menu screen has some suggestions for characters to pick or avoid if you’re a new player, with JP, Juri, Chun-Li, Zangief, and Dhalsim all marked as hard-to-learn fighters.

When starting Street Fighter 6, it’s advised to go through the basic tutorials, even if you have played the other games in the series. Street Fighter 6 adds new systems, such as the Drive Gauge, which introduces new mechanics to the fighting system. It’s also advised that new players use Street Fighter 6’s Modern Type controls, making it much easier to use special attacks.

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Street Fighter 6’s Marisa Is A Durable Powerhouse

Marisa was quickly determined to be one of the best Street Fighter 6 characters, and with good reason. She’s incredibly strong, has a long reach, and has some brutal Drive Impact counters. Many of her moves have super armor, giving her protection without needing the Drive Gauge, and she has attacks with specific defensive qualities, such as Scutum, which can easily chain into counter blows.

What Marisa lacks in speed, she makes up for with easy-to-learn combos and devastating Super Arts. The only drawback to this fighter is that she lacks any ranged projectiles and is susceptible to zoning as a result. But even this isn’t as detrimental as it was in previous entries in the series, as chip damage has been removed, allowing you to turtle your way through Hadokens and Sonic Booms.

Street Fighter 6’s Lily Is Fast & Has Great Long-Range Options

While not as straightforward as Marisa, Lily is still a great Street Fighter 6 character for beginners, with a move set that’s flashy and satisfying to use. Lily uses her warclubs to give her extra reach, making it hard to approach her without taking damage. Once the opponent gets close, they’ll have to deal with her powerful throws and swift kicks, which are great for breaking through defensive walls.

Lily also has the ability to boost her specials with the Condor Wind buff, giving her some extra options in combat. This gives her “Windclad” stocks, which she must stack using Condor Wind. This is similar to Cloud’s Limit Break in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, where the opponent must choose between rushing into your potent anti-approach or risking you powering yourself up while unattended. Lily also possesses some of the abilities of her master, T. Hawk, giving her some fantastic anti-aerial attacks, which will quickly ground an enemy.

Street Fighter 6’s Luke Is An All-Rounder With A Prominent World Tour Style

Ryu and Ken are usually the starter characters in Street Fighter games, but in Street Fighter 6, that role falls to Luke, a well-rounded combatant with many options. While Luke excels at close-range combat, with powerful throws and easily chainable combos, he also has some great ranged and anti-air options, with moves that mimic the Hadoken and Shoryuken.

Luke’s versatility and relatively simple inputs make him an ideal choice for a starter character. He’s incredibly adaptable to any situation, and many of his attacks have extra momentum, propelling him further into combat and making for a satisfying offensive fighter.

The other great thing about choosing Luke is that he’s the first Master you unlock in the World Tour mode, which gives you access to his fighting style and special moves from the get-go. The World Tour mode is a great way to learn the mechanics of Street Fighter 6 in a slow and structured way without needing to sift through numerous tutorial menus, and if you choose Luke, you’ll have a lot of time to use his powers against the CPU opponents.

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In the end, when it comes to selecting a Street Fighter 6 main, the idea of tier lists and power rankings shouldn’t matter, certainly not at the beginning. If there is a character that speaks to you that you really like, then just put the time in and learn that fighter’s move set. If you want to learn the fundamentals before settling on a character, the ones above will help you get grounded.