II. Combos and Special Moves

Zangief doesn’t have many combos, so you would only need to learn a few staple combos and thats it, the rest are just setups (e.g. tick throws) and improvisation of combos based on the range.

A. Bread and Butter Combos:

In my opinion, most of Gief’s BNB combos aren’t that damaging considering most of them takes an EX bar to complete. His combos aren’t terribly hard, easy to execute, and counterhit combos are rather easy to see and link.

[Close Range Combos]

s.mp/s.lk -> exgh (usually after a cross up)
c.lp -> c.lp -> c.lp -> s.lp -> s.lk -> exgh   (easy bnb combo)
c.lk -> c.lk -> c.lk -> c.lk -> exgh     (difficult 0 frame links in AE)
c.lk -> c.lk -> c.lk -> c.lk -> s.mp  (difficult 0 frame links with c.lk; may replace c.lk with c.lp/s.lp)
c.lk -> KKK lariat (may add in 1 more c.lk to hit confirm against larger opponents such as sagat)
c.lk -> c.lk -> s.mp -> s.mp (Itazan’s favorite)
c.lk -> c.lk -> s.mp -> s.lk -> exgh

[Medium Range Combos]

s.mp -> s.lk -> exgh (easiest to do on a counterhit; perfect distance to do this usually after a SPD, greenhand knockdown; else just use it normally enough times so you knock exactly at what distance s.mp links with a s.lk; sometimes you may link up to 2 s.lk before linking exgh)

s.mp -> s.mp -> s.lk -> exgh (counterhit off s.mp only)

c.lp / s.lp -> s.lk -> exgh (can land this usually as a punish or as a frametrap bait for ppl trying to jump)

[Long Range Combos]

s.hk -> s.lk -> s.lk -> exgh **Counterhit only (this one is pretty painful)

s.lp/c.lk/c.lp/s.lk -> exgh buffer (STAPLE O/S combo, pls learn this if you wanna start playing zangief at a decent level)

(note** based on the range of your opponent just improvise how many hits you can land by adding/subtracting the normals)

B. Cross Up Normals:

Zangief uses his BODY SPLASH (J. Down HP) and KNEE DROP (J. Down LK) as his primary cross up moves.

Body splash offers more damage and hit/block stun, where as knee drop allows easier ambiguous crossups, though with shorter hit/block stun and lower damage. Usually if you knee drop the opponent too high you may incur neutral or negative frame upon reaching the ground, meaning its an unsafe combo/block string.

C. Jump Ins / Jumping Attack

Zangief has a few good jump ins/jumping attack:

[Close Range]

Knee drop – beats certain simple anti air if timed correctly (e.g. Cody mp AA), also can be deceiving to see whether it will whiff.

Instant jump light punch – Resets opponent. Extremely good tool hitting people off the air. It has the fastest air normal startup out of all of Gief’s moves. I usually use it when I expect the opponent to jump, also as a jump tick when I land.

Body splash – trades easily as it has a large hitbox, also somewhat deceiving to see whether it will whiff or not.

[Medium Range]

Jumping medium kick – Crappy compared to the vanilla version  but its essentially a Zangief’s version of a dive kick. It has reaaaally long active frames. It can be used in two ways: (a) to j.mp as soon as Gief reaches the Apex of his jump or (b) to use it on his way down.

Method (a), if blocked by the opponent, the resulting blockstun upon landing is most likely neutral, meaning its a guess game after landing; the advantage in doing j.mp at the apex of his jump  is that it shortens the amount of time the opponent will be able to react/anti air the jump as the MK sticks out fast; also you may get focus attacked easily.

Method (b), if blocked by opponent, the resulting blockstun is enough so that you can continue your block string safely. The disadvantage is that the opponent have more time to react and anti air your jump; also more safe from a focus attack.

[Long Range]

Jumping far heavy punch – Oh man this move is reaaaaally good. Far range, long block stun, high damage, good hit box. Using this move at max range is sometimes hard for the opponent to antiair since its difficult to judge whether you will just empty jump (in which case the anti air will miss), or stick out that long arm of yours.

D. MISC INFO

While comboing an opponent, if you suspect that your opponent will die with one more hit after you land a combo ending with an exGH, use the remaining 2 bars of meter that you have to FA cancel the last hit on exGH for 1 last attack to finish the opponent.