Street Fighter 2 Moves: Every Special Move and How to Do It on a Keyboard

Every special move in Street Fighter II: The World Warrior is one of four kinds of input: a quarter circle, a forward-down-forward “dragon punch” motion, a charge, or rapid tapping. Learn those four shapes and you can play all eight characters. This guide lists every special move of the original 1991 arcade game and shows how to do each one on a keyboard, where most players struggle, using the controls of our Street Fighter II arcade page.

The six buttons and the notation

Street Fighter II uses three punches and three kicks. Light attacks are fast and weak, heavy attacks slow and strong. On our page the keyboard layout is:

In the move lists below, P means any punch and K any kick. Directions are written for a character facing right: forward means toward your opponent, back means away. When your fighter is on the right side of the screen, mirror every left and right.

The four kinds of special move

• Quarter circle: down, down-forward, forward, then the button. Ryu’s fireball is the classic example.
• Dragon punch: forward, down, down-forward, then the button. It is a quarter circle with a forward step in front.
• Charge: hold one direction for about two seconds, then press the opposite direction and the button together. Guile, Blanka, E. Honda and Chun-Li use charges.
• Rapid tap: press the same button very quickly, several times in a row. E. Honda’s hundred-hand slap and Chun-Li’s lightning legs work this way.

Zangief adds a fifth shape, the full circle, covered with his moves below.

Every special move in The World Warrior

Two moves that many lists include are not in The World Warrior: Chun-Li’s Kikoken fireball and Dhalsim’s Yoga Teleport. Both arrived in the 1992 update Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting. The four bosses, Balrog, Vega, Sagat and M. Bison, cannot be chosen in this version either; they became playable in Champion Edition.

How to do special moves on a keyboard

A keyboard has no stick to roll, so the motions have to be played like a short chord on the arrow keys. These habits make the difference:

1. Hold, don’t tap, the diagonals. Down-forward means both arrows held at the same moment. For a fireball: press down, add forward while still holding down, release down, then press punch while forward is still held.
2. Press the button at the end of the motion, not after it. The game accepts the move only if the button comes within a fraction of a second of the last direction.
3. Dragon punch from a crouch. Tap forward, then roll down and down-forward with the punch. Many players find it easier to do the motion as “forward, down-forward, down-forward + punch”: the game reads it the same way.
4. Charge while you block. Holding back is also blocking, so Guile and Blanka can charge safely. For a flash kick, crouch-block with down-back to charge down and back at the same time.
5. Full circle without jumping. Up-right on the circle makes Zangief jump. Start from forward, roll through down to back and finish on up-back or up as you press punch: the jump start is cancelled by the throw.
6. Watch your keyboard’s limit. Cheap keyboards drop a key when four or five are held at once. If a move works in the menu but not with an arrow held, try a different keyboard or a gamepad.

On a phone, use the on-screen cross and slide your thumb through the motion without lifting it, then tap the button. A USB or Bluetooth gamepad is the most comfortable way to play, and works on our page without any setup.

Tips for beginners

• Start with Ryu or Ken. Their three moves teach all the motion types you need for the rest of the cast.
• Fireball, then uppercut. Throw a fireball from a distance. When the computer jumps over it, answer with a dragon punch.
• Block low by default. Holding down-back blocks most attacks. Stand up only against jump-ins.
• Jump in with a heavy kick, then follow up. Landing a deep jump kick and pressing a crouching medium kick straight after is the classic first combo.
• Weak versions are safer. A light-punch fireball travels slowly but leaves you less open than a heavy one.
• Save state before a boss. Our page has a save state button, so you can retry M. Bison without starting the whole run again.

Which Street Fighter II is this?

Capcom released Street Fighter II: The World Warrior in arcades in 1991, followed by Champion Edition (playable bosses), Hyper Fighting (faster speed and new moves), Super Street Fighter II with four new fighters, and Super Turbo. The game on our Street Fighter II page is the original World Warrior arcade machine, so the move list above is exactly what works there. If you like arcade brawlers, Cadillacs and Dinosaurs from 1993 runs on the same Capcom hardware.