4. Master Critical Art Moves
Critical Art moves are essentially, finishing moves. However they can also be used in a defensive method to flip the tables of battle into your favour. Every character has a unique critical art move which requires your EX-gauge to be completely full before it's used. The wonderful thing about Critical Art moves is that they can be combined with special attacks and added at the end of combos for maximum pain. So once you've mastered combos, special attacks and critical art moves you'll have a powerful tool at your disposal. Again, Survival Mode is the perfect place to learn the commands and combos with which you can use these effectively. Using Ryu yet again as an example, you can hit a shoryuken and if your opponent hasn't blocked it and you're fast enough with the Critical Art command, Ryu will immediately unleash the attack, which is completely unblockable, since your opponent is already in the shoryuken animation. If you've mastered attack ranges, and your opponent has missed you with a recovery attack, they're wide open to your Critical Art Attack. Mastering the conditions and what each character's critical art move is, will allow you to plan them much better than randomly trying to hit them. For some characters, it will be better to go for the critical art attack while your opponent is in the air. For others, it will be better to go for it while they're standing. Get this wrong, and not only are you wide open to be pummelled, but you will have also completely wasted your entire EX gauge. It can literally win or lose you a fight.