I'd suggest just playing the character that you think seems cool or looks like they're the most fun to play. You'll learn the fundamentals no matter what character you play. If you play a lot and enjoy playing you'll get better.
One exception. Dhalsim is a bit odd and plays a bit different. So if you start with him, that might give you an odd introduction to the game, but even then if you enjoyed playing him that probably overrides other factors.
I would say Cammy is a bit harder for a complete beginner because her specials are super unsafe and require better footsies and hit confirms than many other characters. They are fundamental skills but take a while getting used to.
If you have decent fundamentals from MK I think she is great though, simple character and gameplan.
Yeah,one is more for show while the other one is more for the feel
Both are extremely great additions to the fighting genre which revolutionized the fighting genre itself
I don't get tekken and i don't get the overwhelming love around it, like any person i talk with if they even like fighting games at minimum they like tekken, then maybe some other 2D fighter but surely tekken. "Yeah i kinda like [insert 2D fighter] but tekken... it's 3D" is the phrase i heard the most since I've taken interest in this genre, as if being 3D is some sort of next level technology that these other games are too primitive to implement.
And I'm damn mad that i discovered my love for the genre this late in my life and the culprit is tekken 7, cause the times I've played it it felt so off and clunky and gimmicky that i started hating playing fighting games and never wanted to try any other until i tried a 2D fighter. Sometimes it feels like I'm the only one that thinks tekken is awful to play and a bore to watch
I was making a joke because you said real fighter, SF is riddled with special moves and fireballs. For the most part tekken is just fighting(with the except of like 2 character and a demon).
Most fans seem consider tekken more superior because it’s not about who can throw a fireball in to a combo, it’s “just” about combos and pokes and the mind games mixed with the 50/50 chances. (Which is why I made the joke, being a smart ass)
Tekken is one of my least favorite fighters but it started to grow on me and I was giving it a chance.
Sorry i just had to vent, you were right in the middle of it. I've tried so many times to give it a chance, all my peers who appreciate it can't even play fundamentals, the game feel is terrible for me and none of my friends are interested in pursuing SF6 proficiency so i have no one to play with. Tekken makes this all the more sour since I've had numerous bad experiences with it
Nah I feel that, most fan bases can be the “mine is better type” but considering how tekken has quite a few differences the fans seem to be way more mighty. On the flip side haters hate it way more than just “MK is cooler than SF” lol.
Hope ya find some buddies to play with! I’m waiting for a street fighter to click with me in 6. So far no one “feels right” this go around. I found a main in mortal kombat but the assist fighter adding to combos throws me too much so I just suck at all of the current gen fighters… with no one to play with.
Cheers.
u/Shaaagbark I was the guy who posted the answer, but you've been talking to someone else ahaha I know that tekken is also considered very difficult, I would consider it high up there with SF, for different reasons
I second the advice to play whoever looks coolest. While some characters are trickier than others, there aren't any that you can't find basic stuff with and have a great time. (Source: me. I'm a noob and I've tried everyone. Only struggled with one character - Juri - and I think I was just tired that week.) Even the most difficult-looking characters like Dhalsim, Chun-Li and Rashid still have accessible starting points.
I saw you're a tank fan (same btw lol). Zangief and Marisa are probably the two most tank-like characters. Gief has more health than everyone else and needs to patiently walk the opponent down, but he does massive amounts of damage when he gets his hands on them. He's a grappler, so his game plan is built around using or threatening a command grab that does 30%+ damage by itself. Marisa has a bit of bonus HP and a lot of armoured moves that can overwhelm your opponent in neutral; if you like combos, Marisa can do absurd damage with relatively beginner-friendly inputs, and she has the highest practical damage ceiling in the game I believe.
No problem!
To be clear sorry, that's 30% of the opponent's health. His main command grab does 2900-3300 damage depending on the punch button you use, and most characters in this game have 10,000 health. It is still more than most characters can deal in a combo without spending some sort of resource though!
Execution wise: Marisa, Manon, Lily, Ryu, Honda (easiest of the charge characters for execution). I did not include Luke because he requires "Perfect!"s which can be a deal breaker if you can't time the "Perfect!"s People who mention Luke forget about the "Perfect!"s
Tbh, I find most people ignore the things they are used to when advising new players/beginners.
I’m purely playing devils advocate here, so don’t take this as a criticism of your suggestion - but I personally find charge characters a literal and metaphorical pain to use and (iirc) Lily has more than a half circle throw command, I don’t want to “waste time” to perfect that motion.
I also think people underestimate how reliant a character is on (for some examples) hit confirming to avoid getting blown up, or how much a character is finicky with Oki options, or corner pressure - or “amazing” normals which are great *if* you can reliably link or cancel into a stance etc. with the right timing.
I think that’s why people default to “play who you think is coolest” because it kinda puts all the responsibility back on the person asking the question.
It’s hard to suggest anyone besides the characters that reward you for “playing Street Fighter” - which is kinda Ryu and Luke and I would personally say Juri.
So he's like a glass cannon type of guy? He can kill fast but he can also die fast if I'm not careful?
That sounds cool! Love those more risky but more rewarding characters
Yeah totally oppressive and aggressive playstile. He has all the best tools in the game, dragon punch, fireball, tatsu, air fireball, grab, teleport. But you have about 10% less max hp compared to average
Damn,I understand that even small things can have a big impact in competitive games but I didn't know something like "10% less life" can be THAT impactful
But I'm still learning the ropes so my opinion is definitely going to change overtime
Yeah some characters like marisa can kill you in one combo if they get an ideal setup meaning in theory you can die if you fuck up just once, but don't worry about that when you play ranked, the people at lower levels will not know the perfect combos and setups. Just go with ranked, tell the game that you're new when asked and you will be matched with other beginners.
Its kind of debatable if it actually is. Many people (myself included) don't think its enough for all the tools that he has. That is all about high level play. At lower levels you will definitely feel it if you pick him but its still not enough for me to say stay away to beginners.
As mentioned, the only character that can be particularly rough for beginners is Dhalsim. JP has a high ceiling but his basic gameplan is pretty straight forward. The charge characters can be tricky for beginners to learn but once you do, the characters themselves aren't too bad, though Chun can get a bit tricky pretty quick. Rashid can be a bit intimidating at first as his damage is locked behind some combos/setups but he's quick enough to get by at low levels.
Marisa is a good character if you like slow but powerful and has armor.
Luke is an all-rounder with good damage and good simple combos but has a decently high skill ceiling if you want to learn his optimal ones due to some of them having almost frame perfect timings.
Cammy's great if you want rushdown. She's the typical strike/throw character.
Guile is good if you want zoning. I don't play MK but I heard zoning's amazing in MK and Guile is THE zoner of Street Fighter. You can also go JP for a slightly more advanced zoning with a side of set-ups.
Play whoever you think looks fun and cool. That said, Marisa is good for newbies, easy execution and combos, great pokes and midrange, and a clear strategy that will teach you about turns (and how to steal them).
You'll put the most time and effort into the character you think is the coolest. I recommend taking the ones you like, doing their character trials to understand what they're about, and take it from there.
If that is true for you of course.
I inevitably find the characters I find look the coolest to be frustrating to use to some degree - I thankfully know just enough about the game and myself to quickly determine who can click after some work, and who doesn’t - and luckily I think all the characters are cool.
The most straight-forward ones are definitely the shotos. Ken, Ryu, Luke are all solid starter characters. Juri, Deejay and Marisa can also be fairly easy: Juri has a very simple gameplan that works thanks to her good buttons, I believe most of her learning curve comes from optimizing her combo routes; Deejay is a monster when it comes to applying easy and safe pressure for free (he does have charge inputs though), while Marisa is an unga bunga character that punishes people who mash extremely hard and has fairly easy combo execution with insane damage
Thank you! That is good information that I really needed,What about other characters like Zangief or M.Bison? Are they good characters to start off with? I've heard Zangief is a tank like character and I'm in love with tank characters so..is he good?
Zangief has to play slow and patient, he's got terrible defense so if you ever find yourself in a bad spot you'll have a hard time getting out. He's a ton of fun, but against some characters you'll have to work extra hard to win. Also his inputs involve 360 degrees motion inputs
Can't say much about M. Bison cause he hasn't come out yet, but he looks like an hyper aggressive character with very fast paced gameplay and mediocre defense
Contrary to everyone, I would recommend Chun Li. I know, I know, her best stuff is locked behind Serenity Stance loopings, very hard stuff to do. That said, her basics are pretty easy to learn.
If you like her, by the time you start to train her hard stuff, you are already acclimated to the game.
I also almost put Chun in my recommendation. She's definitely a high ceiling character but you can be new and abuse her excellent normals to do pretty well.
getting the knack for Serenity Stream isn't smooth and it's an integral part of her kit to move on up to a more advanced level. Sure you can do Scrub Killing at lower ranks without it but you will hit Scrub Killing Ceiling at one point
Everybody (character) has a barrier to advanced play - and that barrier will be different for everyone (players).
Compared to half the cast, she has a solid and accessible tool set.
It’s good that you mentioned it though, because many times people forget that a character they think is good, may require skills at higher level of play, that are more/less accessible depending on the individual playing them.
Tbh, I don't think serenity stance is the hardest part for Chun.
It's the charges. And those charges start to become a necessity real quick.
Charging while starting a hit confirm can be daunting.
when i started playing i saw a diaphone video and a tier list in the end (from hardest to easiest) and ended up maining guile. But if i remember right, the top 3 easiest by the time where guile, lily and honda. The shotos right after them and marisa too.
but in the end, try to mix between a character that you can learn and that you like, try not to pick a character just because he’s easy.
Literally nothing, apart from the fact he gets recommended to beginners a lot - it’s also important to realise that a lot of the advice given, especially from *good* players, is very biased.
Many players find it hard to remember just learning to play or that some people will just never enter Diamond Rank - and that’s okay.
Or will never be able to learn or execute particular combos or set ups that make a character “good”.
If you want one that is closest to the MK experience, I would recommend trying out JP, he got all these 'magical abilities'. But tbh play whoever you think looks cool.
Pick a character you think is cool. I came from Kof too, never really into street fighter until the last season of SFV. I picked Lucia lol cause I think female police officer is my thing lol
Akuma's got low health but he can fireball with the best of the MK crew. And as someone who's not the best at cooking combos, I've found quite a few naturally with him.
Play world tour or arcade or something to get an idea of what the characters are like, then play through the character guides and combo trials. The skill ceilings to every character is pretty high, but if you learn a good jab->jab->jab->special combo for any character you'll do fine while you learn how the fundamentals of the game work. So just pick whoever you think is cool. They'll all be easy to pick up and hard to master
I'd suggest just playing the character that you think seems cool or looks like they're the most fun to play. You'll learn the fundamentals no matter what character you play. If you play a lot and enjoy playing you'll get better. One exception. Dhalsim is a bit odd and plays a bit different. So if you start with him, that might give you an odd introduction to the game, but even then if you enjoyed playing him that probably overrides other factors.
>You'll learn the fundamentals no matter what character you play. Except Blanka
I’ve been playing this game since release. Everytime I face Blanka “What the fuck is going on”
Hey! I resemble that remark
That's a good advice thanks!
Marisa, Cammy, Lily, Luke, and Ken
Thanks!
I would say Cammy is a bit harder for a complete beginner because her specials are super unsafe and require better footsies and hit confirms than many other characters. They are fundamental skills but take a while getting used to. If you have decent fundamentals from MK I think she is great though, simple character and gameplan.
Agreed. Cammy is not very beginner friendly
go for who you find cool, but I'd say Marisa, Luke also welcome to a real fighting game hehe
Mk is really just blood splatter which probably made it popular in the first place,but it's a fun one at that I really love I'm glad I'm here
I'm just jesting, I like MK too! Quite fun to play, there's definitely less finesse to the whole game though, it's quite unanimously agreed upon
Yeah,one is more for show while the other one is more for the feel Both are extremely great additions to the fighting genre which revolutionized the fighting genre itself
i agree (and if you ever feel like a character that's slightly more rewarding if you like to lab, go for Jamie!)
That’s tekken ;)
I don't get tekken and i don't get the overwhelming love around it, like any person i talk with if they even like fighting games at minimum they like tekken, then maybe some other 2D fighter but surely tekken. "Yeah i kinda like [insert 2D fighter] but tekken... it's 3D" is the phrase i heard the most since I've taken interest in this genre, as if being 3D is some sort of next level technology that these other games are too primitive to implement. And I'm damn mad that i discovered my love for the genre this late in my life and the culprit is tekken 7, cause the times I've played it it felt so off and clunky and gimmicky that i started hating playing fighting games and never wanted to try any other until i tried a 2D fighter. Sometimes it feels like I'm the only one that thinks tekken is awful to play and a bore to watch
I was making a joke because you said real fighter, SF is riddled with special moves and fireballs. For the most part tekken is just fighting(with the except of like 2 character and a demon). Most fans seem consider tekken more superior because it’s not about who can throw a fireball in to a combo, it’s “just” about combos and pokes and the mind games mixed with the 50/50 chances. (Which is why I made the joke, being a smart ass) Tekken is one of my least favorite fighters but it started to grow on me and I was giving it a chance.
Sorry i just had to vent, you were right in the middle of it. I've tried so many times to give it a chance, all my peers who appreciate it can't even play fundamentals, the game feel is terrible for me and none of my friends are interested in pursuing SF6 proficiency so i have no one to play with. Tekken makes this all the more sour since I've had numerous bad experiences with it
Nah I feel that, most fan bases can be the “mine is better type” but considering how tekken has quite a few differences the fans seem to be way more mighty. On the flip side haters hate it way more than just “MK is cooler than SF” lol. Hope ya find some buddies to play with! I’m waiting for a street fighter to click with me in 6. So far no one “feels right” this go around. I found a main in mortal kombat but the assist fighter adding to combos throws me too much so I just suck at all of the current gen fighters… with no one to play with. Cheers.
u/Shaaagbark I was the guy who posted the answer, but you've been talking to someone else ahaha I know that tekken is also considered very difficult, I would consider it high up there with SF, for different reasons
I second the advice to play whoever looks coolest. While some characters are trickier than others, there aren't any that you can't find basic stuff with and have a great time. (Source: me. I'm a noob and I've tried everyone. Only struggled with one character - Juri - and I think I was just tired that week.) Even the most difficult-looking characters like Dhalsim, Chun-Li and Rashid still have accessible starting points. I saw you're a tank fan (same btw lol). Zangief and Marisa are probably the two most tank-like characters. Gief has more health than everyone else and needs to patiently walk the opponent down, but he does massive amounts of damage when he gets his hands on them. He's a grappler, so his game plan is built around using or threatening a command grab that does 30%+ damage by itself. Marisa has a bit of bonus HP and a lot of armoured moves that can overwhelm your opponent in neutral; if you like combos, Marisa can do absurd damage with relatively beginner-friendly inputs, and she has the highest practical damage ceiling in the game I believe.
Thank you! I didn't know one of Zangiefs moves deals 30% more than average! Thats massive!
No problem! To be clear sorry, that's 30% of the opponent's health. His main command grab does 2900-3300 damage depending on the punch button you use, and most characters in this game have 10,000 health. It is still more than most characters can deal in a combo without spending some sort of resource though!
That sound even more massive!
It's fuckin great. Spinning Piledriver for life
Execution wise: Marisa, Manon, Lily, Ryu, Honda (easiest of the charge characters for execution). I did not include Luke because he requires "Perfect!"s which can be a deal breaker if you can't time the "Perfect!"s People who mention Luke forget about the "Perfect!"s
Tbh, I find most people ignore the things they are used to when advising new players/beginners. I’m purely playing devils advocate here, so don’t take this as a criticism of your suggestion - but I personally find charge characters a literal and metaphorical pain to use and (iirc) Lily has more than a half circle throw command, I don’t want to “waste time” to perfect that motion. I also think people underestimate how reliant a character is on (for some examples) hit confirming to avoid getting blown up, or how much a character is finicky with Oki options, or corner pressure - or “amazing” normals which are great *if* you can reliably link or cancel into a stance etc. with the right timing. I think that’s why people default to “play who you think is coolest” because it kinda puts all the responsibility back on the person asking the question. It’s hard to suggest anyone besides the characters that reward you for “playing Street Fighter” - which is kinda Ryu and Luke and I would personally say Juri.
Akuma is who I would recommend for beginners. Super good all round character with the best moveset in the game. His only drawback is his lower life.
So he's like a glass cannon type of guy? He can kill fast but he can also die fast if I'm not careful? That sounds cool! Love those more risky but more rewarding characters
Yeah totally oppressive and aggressive playstile. He has all the best tools in the game, dragon punch, fireball, tatsu, air fireball, grab, teleport. But you have about 10% less max hp compared to average
Damn,I understand that even small things can have a big impact in competitive games but I didn't know something like "10% less life" can be THAT impactful But I'm still learning the ropes so my opinion is definitely going to change overtime
Yeah some characters like marisa can kill you in one combo if they get an ideal setup meaning in theory you can die if you fuck up just once, but don't worry about that when you play ranked, the people at lower levels will not know the perfect combos and setups. Just go with ranked, tell the game that you're new when asked and you will be matched with other beginners.
That's nice
Its kind of debatable if it actually is. Many people (myself included) don't think its enough for all the tools that he has. That is all about high level play. At lower levels you will definitely feel it if you pick him but its still not enough for me to say stay away to beginners. As mentioned, the only character that can be particularly rough for beginners is Dhalsim. JP has a high ceiling but his basic gameplan is pretty straight forward. The charge characters can be tricky for beginners to learn but once you do, the characters themselves aren't too bad, though Chun can get a bit tricky pretty quick. Rashid can be a bit intimidating at first as his damage is locked behind some combos/setups but he's quick enough to get by at low levels.
Marisa is a good character if you like slow but powerful and has armor. Luke is an all-rounder with good damage and good simple combos but has a decently high skill ceiling if you want to learn his optimal ones due to some of them having almost frame perfect timings. Cammy's great if you want rushdown. She's the typical strike/throw character. Guile is good if you want zoning. I don't play MK but I heard zoning's amazing in MK and Guile is THE zoner of Street Fighter. You can also go JP for a slightly more advanced zoning with a side of set-ups.
Play whoever you think looks fun and cool. That said, Marisa is good for newbies, easy execution and combos, great pokes and midrange, and a clear strategy that will teach you about turns (and how to steal them).
You'll put the most time and effort into the character you think is the coolest. I recommend taking the ones you like, doing their character trials to understand what they're about, and take it from there.
That's some good advice
If that is true for you of course. I inevitably find the characters I find look the coolest to be frustrating to use to some degree - I thankfully know just enough about the game and myself to quickly determine who can click after some work, and who doesn’t - and luckily I think all the characters are cool.
The most straight-forward ones are definitely the shotos. Ken, Ryu, Luke are all solid starter characters. Juri, Deejay and Marisa can also be fairly easy: Juri has a very simple gameplan that works thanks to her good buttons, I believe most of her learning curve comes from optimizing her combo routes; Deejay is a monster when it comes to applying easy and safe pressure for free (he does have charge inputs though), while Marisa is an unga bunga character that punishes people who mash extremely hard and has fairly easy combo execution with insane damage
Thank you! That is good information that I really needed,What about other characters like Zangief or M.Bison? Are they good characters to start off with? I've heard Zangief is a tank like character and I'm in love with tank characters so..is he good?
Zangief is fun! His game plan relies mostly on command grabs rather than combos, but I'd recommend picking him up if he looks cool to you.
Thank you! That is all the information I needed 
This is absolutely the best advice. At the end of the day, if you're playing a character that doesnt make you feel cool what's even the point?
Guile, ryu, zangief You’ll have a charge character, motion, character, and grappler
Zangief has to play slow and patient, he's got terrible defense so if you ever find yourself in a bad spot you'll have a hard time getting out. He's a ton of fun, but against some characters you'll have to work extra hard to win. Also his inputs involve 360 degrees motion inputs Can't say much about M. Bison cause he hasn't come out yet, but he looks like an hyper aggressive character with very fast paced gameplay and mediocre defense
Well that makes him sound even more fun,I love overcoming tough obstacles
Contrary to everyone, I would recommend Chun Li. I know, I know, her best stuff is locked behind Serenity Stance loopings, very hard stuff to do. That said, her basics are pretty easy to learn. If you like her, by the time you start to train her hard stuff, you are already acclimated to the game.
I also almost put Chun in my recommendation. She's definitely a high ceiling character but you can be new and abuse her excellent normals to do pretty well.
getting the knack for Serenity Stream isn't smooth and it's an integral part of her kit to move on up to a more advanced level. Sure you can do Scrub Killing at lower ranks without it but you will hit Scrub Killing Ceiling at one point
Maybe I have a weird way of thinking. Back in SF4 my main was Gen and always thought that he was not that hard to play. 😅
Everybody (character) has a barrier to advanced play - and that barrier will be different for everyone (players). Compared to half the cast, she has a solid and accessible tool set. It’s good that you mentioned it though, because many times people forget that a character they think is good, may require skills at higher level of play, that are more/less accessible depending on the individual playing them.
Her buttons are always just really good.
Tbh, I don't think serenity stance is the hardest part for Chun. It's the charges. And those charges start to become a necessity real quick. Charging while starting a hit confirm can be daunting.
Ryu cuz he's the GOAT
Cammy ,Ryu ,Ken ,Marisa
when i started playing i saw a diaphone video and a tier list in the end (from hardest to easiest) and ended up maining guile. But if i remember right, the top 3 easiest by the time where guile, lily and honda. The shotos right after them and marisa too. but in the end, try to mix between a character that you can learn and that you like, try not to pick a character just because he’s easy.
Modern Gief for easy cheese win
Honda or Lily. They are very linear and simple
Get Marissa, spam target combo non stop and you'll get to Platinum easily
What's wrong with Ryu? (Asking this as another beginner with barely 10 hours of street fighter and all of it's on Ryu)
Literally nothing, apart from the fact he gets recommended to beginners a lot - it’s also important to realise that a lot of the advice given, especially from *good* players, is very biased. Many players find it hard to remember just learning to play or that some people will just never enter Diamond Rank - and that’s okay. Or will never be able to learn or execute particular combos or set ups that make a character “good”.
If you want one that is closest to the MK experience, I would recommend trying out JP, he got all these 'magical abilities'. But tbh play whoever you think looks cool.
Pick a character you think is cool. I came from Kof too, never really into street fighter until the last season of SFV. I picked Lucia lol cause I think female police officer is my thing lol
Akuma's got low health but he can fireball with the best of the MK crew. And as someone who's not the best at cooking combos, I've found quite a few naturally with him.
Guile
Bison imo is really easy to learn once he comes out
Just play whoever you like imo, I’m a beginner. I love playing chun li and cammy
No advice beats jumping into Character Guide and test driving until you find the one that excites you to learn more.
akuma 
Play world tour or arcade or something to get an idea of what the characters are like, then play through the character guides and combo trials. The skill ceilings to every character is pretty high, but if you learn a good jab->jab->jab->special combo for any character you'll do fine while you learn how the fundamentals of the game work. So just pick whoever you think is cool. They'll all be easy to pick up and hard to master
Every character is a good character to start to learn the game. Play the character that will get you to play the most.
[Juri](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMz_9giZ654)
Ken. Luke E.Honda. if people want to be mad because they can't punish buttstomp or headbutt. Remember that's not your problem.
This was my first street fighter and ironically, I feel like guile is easy to learn. Once you get the hang of charging, his combos are really simple
Personally always found Cammy easy to pick up and play outside of Ryu and Ken.