Ryu received some very important changes in Street Fighter 6’s big Season 2 balance update. The patch that arrived alongside Akuma gave Ryu the ability to choose when he throws his Denjin-charged fireball, as well as an incredible +3 frame advantage on his forward + heavy punch (Solar Plexus Strike) attack.
One of his seemingly smaller quality of life changes, however, came in the form of an improvement to his back + heavy kick, and while it seemed to have solved some of the issues that the normal was troubled with in Season 1, it appears that this buff also came packed with a lot more utility than many of us may have initially realized.
The official patch notes detail the important buff for Axe Kick (B+HK). A new ground bounce effect was added to the second hit of this command normal when hitting airborne opponents, which was very likely added to make it so that bread and butter combos that use B+HK after Overdrive Donkey Kick don’t simply spike the opponent into the ground and cause Ryu to whiff the follow up Dragon Punch.
Twitter user kurobuchi_fight, however, shows us that Axe Kick can do a lot more than just hit more consistently in BnB combos.
Here after the latest balance update, Ryu can use Axe Kick to stop quite a few airborne moves right in their tracks, and not only that, but Ryu can confirm into a combo in many of these cases. This quick highlight reel shows various special moves and attacks that Ryu can now use the command normal to trounce, and there are some nasty culprits among the bunch that you’ll definitely want to be countering.
The showcase illustrates that Axe Kick now appears to be a solid counter for Ken’s heavy Dragonlash Kick, which allows Ryu to combo into a Shoryuken and cancel into a level 3 super if he’s stocked with it. He can also stop other high-pressure airborne attacks like Lily’s windclad Condor Spire, Manon’s OD flip kick, Chun-Li’s OD Hazanshu, Juri’s dive kick, and quite a few other potent maneuvers.
We even see how Axe Kick could be used to play footsies against Zangief and punish his standing medium kick in neutral, which grants Ryu a punish into level 1 super.
Players continue to optimize their findings here in Season 2, as we just saw a new, even more devastating Ed level 2 super punish combo from Momochi. Check out what you could be doing with Ryu’s Axe Kick in the montage below.
トラップ職人リュウ#スト6 pic.twitter.com/SNfnSxQh3t
— 黒ぶち (@kurobuchi_fight) June 13, 2024