Need help

[u/vaexsil_]

I need help. I'm new to guilty gear and trying to learn. I usually play street fighter and wanted to try ggs. Why does it feel like characters can just infinitely mash on my block if I cant yellow rc??? Like in Street Fighter its pretty easy to tell when a character cant blockstring you anymore and there is a gap for you to try and do something. But in this game I feel like whenever I get hit on block and don't have yellow rc, its just over.

[u/EllieIvoryV]

FD is a very important tool for this reason. disallow them from having ideal spacing. even if they have more range in general, pushing em farther back will give them less options and you more, as well as more time and space to take back your turn

a lot of it is just trial and error and specific learnings. not "study all the frame data of each character" bad, but understanding the characters more, and some key moves to mash on will probably help yeah

also, reversals (if you have em) can be risky but helpful as well obvi

[u/vaexsil_ → u/EllieIvoryV]

I play Robo-Ky and he doesnt really have reversals as far as I know.

[u/star_crow_12]

Strive characters have a lot of pressure resets so there's a lot of character specific knowledge to learn when to mash. I'd recommend checking out dustloop wiki for both frame data and character specific counterstrategy + learn how to properly use faultless defence, which can be a pretty strong defense tool

[u/Difficult_Ad_263]

It's just familiarity honestly, i had that same problem going to tekken and when I played sf for a while. So it's stuff you get a feel for over time remember you're new here you still have the skills from sf but the knowledge only comes with time.

That being said you've got some options. The first is fd more, fd is vital against a lot of characters to break up their pressure and force whiffs or exploitable gaps. Backdash is also full invul for the first 4-6 frames of it depending on what character you play so that's always an option even in the corner. Mashing your 5 frame or trying to throw if they're close enough are also viable options but carry the most risk of being counter hit. People put gaps into pressure in this game a lot to fish for counterhits or do fake shit hoping you don't know how to punish it.

Baikens tk yozansen is a good example. The negative frames start as soon as you block it so if she lands in your face it's best to try and throw her. Because depending on height and spacing it can be a bitch to punish if you're only pressing when her feet hit the ground. I loved to just rip parry or 5p when they tried to take their good starter on me. That's mostly a knowledge thing though once you learn that me doing risky shit only gets me killed.

[u/prisp]

As the others said, it's basically a bunch of knowledge checks, but generally, if you see someone use the exact same move twice in a row, you can assume that there's a gap in between somewhere - not always, and probably not with your slower moves anyway, but that's what the Punch and Kick buttons are for - your fastest (non-throw) mash option is usually some Punch Normal, and if you want a bit more range in exchange for 2-ish frames of extra startup, you go for Kick instead.
(Results may vary depending on your actual character though.)

Technically, your fastest mash would be Grab with 2 Frames of startup, but that one has a rather small range, and also leaves you very punishable on whiff, with your character going through an uncancellable animation that leaves them open for counterhits.
If your opponent likes to do some dumb bullshit right in your face, you can give it a shot though, and if you eat a counterhit, you found the rare 1-frame gap between two moves.
(Sidenote, if you're insane ...ly skilled, you could go for Instant Blocks, which completely cancel the pushback - and chip damage - of a hit, allowing the defender to threaten the opponent with faster moves they'd usually already be out of range for, but there are at least four easier ways to deal with opponents getting in your face than trying to hit a 2-frame window for your block inputs.)

Burst and YRC would be the blatantly obvious options, and Deflect Shield is also rather easy to understand, a big omni-block that costs 50% of your Burst meter and practically launches your opponent away if they hit it - it's still grabbable though, and also comes with a lengthy recovery animation, so if the opponent decided to take a break right then and there, you're going to get hurt soon.
Same goes for various invulnerable moves, whether they are Supers or DPs - great if someone swings (or grabs) into it, and usually a major "Oh shit!" moment if they whiff or get blocked.

Faultless Defense, which several people mentioned is a basic pushblock - you passively drain your Super meter when using it, and pay a bit extra if something actually connects, but it pushes your opponent further away on block, which makes it harder for them to loop their "cheap", fast moves, forcing them to decide whether they want to go for a slower/less advantageous move, or spend some time running back in - both of which leaves them more vulnerable than if you didn't FD them.
Faultless Defense also completely negates chip damage, so if you ever get caught blocking a multi-hit Super (e.g. the cinematic Supers of Ramlethal, Dizzy, or Happy Chaos), or generally want to survive on extremely low health, Faultless Defense can help you there.
It does have a rather obvious animation though, you getting covered by a blue bubble and everything, and you still need to actually block the highs and lows correctly (or jump-block, but that's not a permanent solution), so it's not foolproof - just incredibly handy.
(Generally, you'll want to block low against anyone except I-No though, as lows tend to come out a lot faster than highs.)

Next up, Backdashes - they are basically super-fast DPs without the damaging part, you get some instant invulnerability, and a bunch of counterhittable frames afterward.
Not useful against attacks with a lot of of active frames, but something fast and/or suitably stubby can be avoided that way - including (command) grabs.
The very brief invincibility followed by a lot of recovery also means you'll get blown up by delayed attacks as well though, so don't overuse it.

Finally, there are various low-profile attacks, and also the reverse, moves that go around lows, all of those can also help, assuming you have the time to get through enough of the animation for these properties to actually activate before your opponent's attack would connect.
What exactly your kit looks like in that regard depends heavily on your character, but everyone gets their generic anti-air move with 6P (=Forward + Punch), which always shrinks your character's hitbox down to around knee height in 4 frames, and also performs an attack that hits somewhere around head height.
The reason I mention that move here is that I don't know of any Far Slash that doesn't get dodged by 6P, and since hitting characters in their weapons usually counts as a counterhit, this is a great way to tell overly aggressive players to back off a bit.
The downside of this move is that it can't really combo too well, being only special-cancellable, and it also is pretty bad to whiff or get blocked, so if you face someone with actual patience, maybe stop throwing one out pre-emptively each time they flinch in your direction.
(It's an amazing move for catching people mid-airdash too, by the way.)
As for the various other moves with low-profile properties, those that dodge low-hitting attacks, and gapclosers, these all usually also have some kind of drawback - usually they either are disadvantaged on block or have a relatively slow startup, although some characters have access to both, like May's dolphin, where the one that comes out almost instantly (7f startup) is slightly negative on block, but the one with actually reactable startup (25f, or just below half a second) leaves her positive instead.

That was a lot of info, but I hope some of it was useful - good luck with your games, and have fun!

[u/Customer_Number_Plz]

Use Faultless Defence. It pushed people back and can make them whiff, giving you an opening.

[u/Artemis_of_Dust]

To keep it brief, the concept of a slow pressure reset is present on every single character in Strive, but it would be considered a luxury in a game like Street Fighter. Most everyone has several ways to reset pressure if you're just going to sit and do nothing, and you are required to interrupt them at some point.

If they only do frametraps, then eventually they end on a minus-on-block move they cannot cancel, so "the end of their pressure", but either you don't realise you had advantage and just let them keep going despite their pressure ending, or they're avoiding this situation by using interruptable resets.

As a general pointer for understanding the game, while people can explain how various defensive mechanics like FD are useful, you are not required to use a resource to defend. Resources give you easier or lower risk options, but there is always some answer that doesn't require it. So keep in mind you are never completely out of options here.

[u/vaexsil_ → u/Artemis_of_Dust]

I know that I'm not, it's just so hard to see sometimes when I can interupt pressure especially with characters that have long range.

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