Beginner's Guide to Yuuki Terumi

I will explain the basics of Terumi's gameplan to you.

Introduction

Yuuki Terumi is a rushdown-oriented character with a huge meter gain. He doesn't have any good meterless tools to approach and open up the opponent, but it all radically changes when he gets 50 Heat. Rapid Cancel shenanigans and Distortion Drives are what making Terumi dangerous.

Don't pick Terumi as your main character if you are planning to play the game on competitive level. He's a bottom tier, one of the worst characters in this version. However, if you are casual player, that shouldn't really bother you - tiers are almost irrelevant outside of high level play.

Strenghts:

• Huge meter gain
  
• Good mobility
  
• Great offensive and defensive options with meter
  
• Astral is easy to combo

Weaknesses:

• Below average meterless offensive and defensive options
  
• Doesn't have meterless standing overhead
  
• Below average meterless damage
  
• Below average health

Useful normals

Anti-airs: 5A, jA, 6A(good damage off counter hit)

Pressure tools 2A(+1 frame advantage), 5B(+2 frame advantage), 6B(+3 frame advantage), 6(B)(feint)

Useful in neutral: 5D, jD

Useful for mixup: 2A, 2B, 3C(lows), 6B(frametrap), 6(B)(feint into grab), j2D(overhead) 5C(1st hit)(for RC high-low mixup), 214D(command grab), 63214A(low), 63214B(overhead)

Defensive moves and reversals: 623B(DP), 632146D(invul on 1～26 frames), 236236A(parry)

Oki tools: 2D

Tools against zoners: 236236D, 214214D, 41236C, j41236C

Punish tools: 5B(basic combo starter), 6C(can be combo'd on counterhit), 6B(huge damage off fatal counter).

Jump cancelable ground normals: 5A, 5C(first hit), 2C, 6A, 3C

How to approach and open up your opponent

Use 5D and jD when you are relatively far from your opponent. You can only cancel into 41236C from 5D max range, but if you will be just a little bit closer you'll be able to combo in 6C and 236D. Counterhit 5D in can be combo'd into 6C from max range, however 6C's first hit is going to whiff. Max range jD and counterhit jD can be canceled into j41236C only, counterhit jD on medium range will allow to dash > 5B > stuff due to long hitstun. Counterhit jD on airborne opponent has ground bounce so you can combo into 6C on max range and *dash > 5C* on mid range.

On medium range your primary moves are 2C for ground and jC for air-to-air or air-to-ground. Both can be easily canceled in other normals on hit and counterhit.

Your main moves in close range offense are 2A, 5B, 2B, 2C and all your mixup tools. Outside of tick throws your mixup options are:

2C high-low mixup. After 2C you're either jumping and doing j2D(you also can tiger knee it) or doing 3C. j2D can be canceled into j41236С on normal hit and combo'd into 5A on counterhit. If the opponent respects your pressure way too much you can do empty jump > grab. Keep in mind that j2D is unsafe on block, so don't get predictable with your high\low game.

6B grab mixup. You are either doing 6B and getting +3 frame advantage on block\Fatal Counter if opponent tries to grab\mash out(if 6B is spaced properly) or 6(B) into grab. Pretty useful meterless mixup tool.

214D command grab. Command grab with decent range and big meter gain. It's very slow so don't abuse it or you'll get punished.

Burensen mixup. 63214A is low and 63214B is overhead. Both have almost indentical animation so it's hard to react to. However, you won't get any good damage off these. I don't recommend using Burensens as mixup tool.

5C(1) > RC mixup. This is what makes Terumi dangerous once he gets 50 meter. This mixup is very hard to react to and you can regain all the heat that you've spent on RC off it if you are in the corner. So, you are either doing 5C(1) > RC > jB for overhead or 5C(1) > RC > 2B for low. Abuse it in the corner and use in "I'm about to win" situations on midscreen.

Basic combos

S - any starter

N - normal starter(B and C normals)

Midscreen:

S > 5C > 3C > 22C lv2 > 66C - max midscreen meterless damage, low heat gain

S > 5C > 5D > 6D > 236D - huge heat gain, works only if opponent is at point blank range.

S > 5C > 2C > 5D > 236D - basic combo off random confirm, decent heat gain

N > 5C > 3C > 22C lv2 > 41236C > 5B > 5C > 2C > 5D > 236D - ~4100 damage, can be ended with 623B after 236D for additional damage

6A > JC > jC > JC > jC > j2D - basic combo off anti-air

CH 6A > 2D > dash 5C > 3C > 22C lv2 > 66C - around 2700 damage

B+C > 22C lv2 > 66C - 3031 damage

4B+C > dash 6D > 236D - 2600 damage, huge heat gain

N > 5C > 2C > 5D > 6B > 6D > 236D - crouching opponents only, huge heat gain

FC 6B > OD > 632146D - 7011 damage, requies OD and 100 heat

Near corner:

N > 5C > 3C > 22C lv2 > 665D > 236D > 63214B > 6C - 4000 damage

Corner:

N > 5C > 3C > 22C lv2 > 5B > 5C > 2C > 5D > 6D > 236D - huge meter gain, 236D can be canceled into 632146D for additional damage

3C > 5C > 2C > 5D > 6D > 5B > 5C > 2B > 5D > 6D > 5B > 5C > 2C > 5D >236D - backward wakeup punish

N > 5C > 3C > OD > 623B > 5B > 5D > 6D > 3C > 5D > 236D - basic corner OD combo

TAUNT COMBO

Terumi's most important combo.

N > 5B > 5C > 3C > 22C lv2 > cancel into 63214A before the last hit of 22C > RC > taunt > 2C > 5C > 6C - 3118 damage of pure salt

Thank you for reading this guide!

If you think that the guide contains wrong statements or you would like to add something to the guide, share your thoughts with me through the comment section!

[sam the man]

how gay?

[Oshawott5]

Thanks this helps! im working on terumi!

[slsk terrorist (flac bomber)]

terumi has no non-special overhead lol

[Goldoni]

How dare you saying Terumi is one of the worst character to play competitive

[DiaCrusher]

Good guide, but Terumi is good even without heat, he just doesn't have any good combo starting moves like Ragna's hell fang or whatever it was called

[Raxyz]

Well, there's true to that. Sometimes a counter it's all I need to take half of my opponent's HP away. Thanks for the info man! :D

[spiric0m]

Terumi has some nice frametraps but still his mixup is lackuster without of meter.

I can't tell you much about Haku tbh but I've heard that he's solid in this version. I used to fight a lot of Hakumen players and he still can be dangerous when played patiently - I remember getting wrecked whilfe having huge life lead just because of one whiffed move haha.

[Raxyz]

But then again, if someone DOES slip up and let him close the distance you got a pretty good advantage don't you? We've seen low-tiers show up in tournaments before with playstyles no one thought it'd be viable (namely PoongKo's Seth). But I understood what you meant. I thought his moves overall were pretty good.

If you don't mind me bugging you again, how does Hakumen stands in tiers? Those two are the characters I liked to play the most.Even if they're not that great competitively, I'm hellbent on mastering them. XD

[spiric0m]

You will have a very hard time approaching and opening up your opponent on mid-high level of play. Also his damage is pretty meh. Basically Terumi needs meter for things that most of the cast can do for free, and if he can't get that meter by making a proper approach he's probably doomed.

[Raxyz]

Just what makes Terumi such a low tier character? I'm a scrub when it comes to play completitively (can't even go higher than Super Bronze on SFV), but most matches I've put into I seem to have a huge advantage due to his Drive stealing Heat gauge. I can spam 4~5 Distortions in one match.

It's a genuine question though, I'd like to know why he's ad at high level plays.