The fighting game community continues to dissect Street Fighter 6 to determine what all the game has to offer. As we further learn what the meta of this game is shaping up to be and quibble over which characters are the best in the game, the lab monsters out there are trying to answer other questions that not quite as many folks are currently asking.
For example, who right now is capable of dealing the most damage via punish counter in one go without the use of ANY meter? Longtime lab god Javits has proposed this question to the community, and several of the findings so far are really interesting.
Before we get started, let’s lay out the criteria here. The question is asking who is capable of dishing out the most damage with one combo that uses a punish counter, but does not use any kind of meter whatsoever — this means zero Drive Gauge or super meter.
The other main stipulation dictates that no power up moves be used, such as Manon’s medals or Lily’s windstocks. Essentially, the idea here is to determine which character hits the hardest with absolutely no resources.
To kick things off, Javits himself shared an easy way for Guile to score a quick 4000 damage in the corner when punishing a blocked Overdrive reversal. In this case, Javits punishes Cammy’s blocked OD uppercut, and through a couple of Sonic Boom loops and a Flash Kick is able to tack on very respectable damage right out of the gate.
Guile has that easy meterless 4000. pic.twitter.com/wLZJanoAyg
— Javits Arias (@jav1ts) January 3, 2024
UriParadise_ on X (formerly Twitter) put together a handful of ideas for JP. There’s a regular punish for less damage, a standard okizeme punish for better damage, and a more impractical set up that deals the best damage of the three.
Here’s what I found for JP. Maybe he can do better
3900 regular punish
4260 normal oki punish
4550 impractical punish pic.twitter.com/NyqHKlP1gh— Uri (@UriParadise_) January 3, 2024
X user realBujogi shared what might be the most I’ve seen so far that utilizes just a punish counter in the corner without any other real set up. Marisa is able to dish out a whopping 4450 damage after blocking Ken’s OD Shoryuken with just the power of her charged normal attacks and juggles.
4450 pic.twitter.com/y6yz0ELOZu
— Armin (@realBujogi) January 3, 2024
Getting more creative and a little less practical, though, EndingWalker shows that if you tack on some hits while the opponent is going for a Drive Impact, you can get more out of it. Doing this with Zangief allows the wrestler to hit Luke with 4920 damage, though Zangief needs to start out in the corner and jump over Luke to corner him in order to pull this off.
4920 as Zangief (400 + 350 + 4170) pic.twitter.com/hhV6FqtTZE
— M80 | EndingWalker (@EndingWalker) January 3, 2024
Lastly, using the same concept as was used for Zangief, EndingWalker was able to net over 50% health with Marisa in one sitting. After a knockdown and a neutral jump to avoid the wake up Drive Impact, Marisa can hit her neutral jump heavy punch behind Luke, then proceed to dish out a powerful 5200 damage.
I got 5200 meterless with Marisa.
(750 + 4450) pic.twitter.com/MW2vPdM7rA— M80 | EndingWalker (@EndingWalker) January 3, 2024
It will be interesting to see what else the community will be able to find on this front. Exercises such as this that prompt players to push the limits of what they can do will undoubtedly help us understand this game better, and in this case, improve and maximize the punishes we’re getting when we don’t want to use or don’t have resources.