Soulcalibur 6 guide: Attack Types — High, Mid and Low

The relationship between high, medium and low attacks is common to all 3D fighting games and dates back to the genre’s origins in Virtua Fighter and Tekken. It’s a basic mechanism and if you don’t understand it Soul caliber 6You will be at a great disadvantage.

High Attacks

High attacks target the head. These tend to be some of your quickest moves, and the basic A, a chain of tall horizontal slashes, is one of the most useful moves for both hitting first and keeping your opponent in place. Other high attacks are powerful moves designed to catch the opponent running.

However, since these attacks target the head, it’s possible to duck under it. Hold G and press down to crouch, landing high attacks harmlessly over your head and opening your opponent up for a counterattack.

medium attacks

Medium attacks target the body. While not hitting a standing guard, they will hit a crouching guard. Medium attacks tend to be heavy hits and combos, so crouching is a much more dangerous position than standing.

A horizontal move that hits the center is particularly desirable since there is no way for an opponent to dodge it. If your character has such a trait, don’t overlook it.

low attacks

Low attacks target the legs. They are difficult to spot and will hit an opponent standing up whether they are defending or not. The best way to defend against a low attack is to crouch, but many low attacks are so fast that you can’t hope to block them in response. As such, low attacks wisely sprinkled into your attack pattern are a great way to slowly drain your opponent’s life bar.

The downside of low attacks is that they leave you more open when blocked than other attacks, especially large sweeps. A crouched guard is a risky proposition, and it’s worth the risk if you’re blocking a big sweep.

The rock-paper-scissors relationship

The beauty of all this is that no attack is completely secure and no defense is perfect. If I never want to be hit by a big medium attack, I can decide that I will almost never crouch. But if my opponent notices that I steadfastly refuse to crouch, they will drain my life bar on low attacks until I do.

If you only play rock-paper-scissors, your opponent doesn’t have to guess that he has to use paper. Players win by forcing the opponent to make as many guesses as possible and then making the right read about their opponent that will lead them to victory. It’s the same in all fighting games, and that’s how it is in Soul caliber 6.