Combo & Juggle Guide

Landing a single hit in Super Stick Hero is easy. The game opens up when you turn that hit into a five-piece string that launches your opponent, keeps them airborne, and finishes with a Ki projectile. This guide covers the notation, a set of reliable bread-and-butter combos, the juggle physics that keep infinites off the table, how to cancel normals into Ki specials, and how to manage your meter. Every combo here uses moves that actually exist in the game.

Notation

Combos are written the same way the game reads your inputs. Learn these four symbols and every combo below reads at a glance.

The attack buttons are Q Left Punch, W Right Punch, A Left Kick, and S Right Kick. Directions come from the arrow keys. The critical detail for sequential commands is timing: the game keeps a short input buffer of roughly 0.3 seconds. When you see a comma, like A,W for the Uppercut, it means the second press must land inside that window after the first — too slow and the buffer clears, so you just get a lone Low Kick followed by a lone Cross. Simultaneous commands with + are stricter still; both keys need to register together, which is why Q+A Throw and W+S Guard Break take deliberate practice.

Bread-and-Butter Combos

These are your daily drivers — reliable strings that work on standard enemies and, with adjustment for juggle resistance, on bosses too. Practice them in order; each one adds a single new idea on top of the last.

1. Basic opener — Q, W. Jab into Cross. The Jab has the fastest startup in the game, making it your safest poke to check an approaching enemy; canceling it into the Cross confirms a little damage and pushes them back. This is the foundation of nearly every string.
2. Ground punisher — Q, W, S. Add the Roundhouse. The Right Kick is the heaviest single hit available, so tacking it onto the end of a jab-cross confirm squeezes out maximum ground damage. Note the slow recovery on S — if it whiffs, you are exposed, so only throw it when the first two hits have connected.
3. Knockdown ender — Q, W, →A. Jab, Cross, then Sweep for a hard knockdown. Use this when you want to create space and reset the situation rather than continue pressure — the hard knockdown buys you time to charge Ki or reposition against multiple enemies.
4. Launcher into air normals — Q, ↑W, jump Q, W. Jab to confirm, then the Launcher sends the enemy airborne. Jump after them and hit air normals to extend the juggle. This is your first real combo — the moment ground pressure becomes a juggle.
5. Full bread-and-butter juggle — Q, W, ↑W, jump Q, jump W, ↓→Q. Open on the ground, launch, extend with two air normals, and end with a Ki Blast for a guaranteed finisher. This is the combo to master first; it uses only 25% meter and works from a simple confirm.
6. Anti-air counter — A,W, jump W. When an enemy jumps at you, the Uppercut (sequential Low Kick into Right Punch) snuffs their approach and pops them up. Follow with an air Cross to convert the read into damage.
7. Guard-break opener — W+S, Q, ↑W, jump W, ↓→W. Against a turtling opponent, the Guard Break crushes their block, then you convert into a launch and end with a Power Blast that pierces one target. The Guard Break has slow startup, so bait the block first.
8. Meter dump finisher — Q, W, S, ↓←→W. When you have a full gauge and the enemy is nearly dead, cancel the Roundhouse into Dragon Fist, the screen-wide ultimate, to close the round with a spectacle.

Juggle Theory

The heart of the combo system is the Launcher, ↑W. It sends the enemy straight up and flags them as airborne, opening the juggle state. While they are in the air, your jumping Q and W air normals connect and keep them aloft, and some hits chain naturally into follow-ups. The goal of every juggle is simple: hit them enough times on the way down that you can land a meaningful ender before they touch the ground.

Here is why you can't just loop air normals forever. Every enemy carries juggle resistance: with each hit in a juggle, combo gravity increases, so the opponent falls faster and faster. Eventually they drop out of your reach no matter how fast you press. That escalating gravity is a deliberate anti-infinite mechanic — it guarantees that no launch leads to an unbreakable loop. Bosses ramp gravity even faster than normal enemies, so a juggle that gets four air hits on a standard foe might only get two on a boss. Adjust your ender timing accordingly; against bosses, plan to cancel into a special earlier in the juggle.

Each character extends juggles differently. Shadow keeps the enemy tagged with fast dagger cuts and shuriken between hits; Titan's hammer launchers hit hard but recover slowly, so you get fewer, heavier follow-ups; Sage can blink with Teleport Strike to reposition mid-juggle and re-launch.

Canceling into Ki Specials

Most normal hits can be canceled into a Ki special, and that's what turns a plain string into a proper combo. The staple is any normal into Ki Blast (↓→Q): it costs only 25% of your gauge, comes out fast, and reliably connects as the last hit of a juggle, converting a combo that would have dropped into guaranteed extra damage. Because it is cheap and dependable, treat Ki Blast as your default ender.

The heavier specials trade meter for effect. Power Blast (↓→W, 40%) pierces one target — useful when a second enemy is lined up behind your combo victim. Energy Dash (→→S, 35%) has invulnerability on the dash and a heavy punch, so it doubles as a combo ender and an escape tool. Ki Burst (Shift+E, 50%) hits all around you, great for crowd control mid-string. Super Beam (↓↘→A, 75%) is a sustained piercing beam that stuns. And Dragon Fist (↓←→W, 100%) empties the gauge for a screen-wide finisher. The rule of thumb: cancel into Ki Blast for value, save the expensive specials for kills or crowd emergencies.

Meter Economy

Your Ki gauge is a resource you spend on specials, so understanding how it refills tells you when you can afford to cancel. It fills passively at +2 per second, plus bonuses for activity: dealing damage adds ×0.5 of the damage dealt, taking damage adds ×0.3, and blocking adds ×0.2. In other words, staying in the fight — even eating a little chip — keeps your meter topped up.

You can also force the issue by holding E to charge at +15 per second, but there is a catch: charging leaves you immobile and you take 1.5x damage while doing it. Only charge when you have created real space — after a Sweep (→A) hard knockdown, or when every enemy is stunned or far away. Charging in the open against an aggressive boss is how you get punished for a huge chunk.

As for spending: dump a full-gauge Dragon Fist when the enemy is close to dead and you can guarantee the hit, or when a wave is packed together and the screen-wide ultimate will clear multiple targets at once. Sitting on a full 100% gauge is wasted potential — the meter is only useful once it is spent. For everything in between, the cheap Ki Blast ender keeps your gauge cycling without ever leaving you empty.

Per-Character Combo Notes

Each fighter's basic buttons behave differently, so combo routes vary by character:

Shadow (Ninja)

Dagger slashes reach farther than fists and chain (Q → W), and a Ki-free shuriken keeps the enemy in hitstun from range. Open with Dashing Slash (→ Q) or Kunai Uppercut (↓ Q) to launch, then juggle — blades also apply bleed for extra chip.

Titan (Juggernaut)

Slow but huge. Lunging Slam (→ Q) and Uppercut Cleave (↓ Q) launch for heavy, low-hit juggles; Overhead Cleave breaks guard. Super armor lets you trade through a hit to land the swing.

Sage (Mage)

Every basic is a spell. Frost Nova slows, Flame Swipe burns, and Teleport Strike (→ W) blinks in as a launcher. Weave Magic Missile / Fireball between hits, and use the teleport dash to reset spacing safely.

Common Combo Mistakes

• Rushing sequential inputs. Mashing A,W too fast or too slow breaks the ~0.3s buffer and gives you two separate normals instead of the Uppercut.
• Fishing with the Roundhouse. The Right Kick (S) is the heaviest hit but has slow recovery — throwing it raw and whiffing hands the enemy a free punish.
• Expecting infinites. Rising combo gravity ends every juggle. Plan your ender; don't assume one more air normal will connect, especially on bosses.
• Charging Ki in the open. The 1.5x damage penalty and immobility while holding E turn a greedy charge into a big punish. Charge only after a knockdown.
• Sitting on a full gauge. Unspent meter does nothing. Cancel into Ki Blast for value or cash out Dragon Fist for the kill.
• Ignoring juggle resistance on bosses. Bosses ramp gravity faster, so a combo tuned for normal enemies will drop early. End sooner against them.
• Forgetting Throw is unblockable but short. Q+A beats a turtle, but only up close — from range it whiffs entirely.

Ready to drill the individual inputs? The full command list lives on the Moves page, and the Guide covers the broader fundamentals of movement, blocking, and Ki management. Unsure what a term like juggle resistance or cancel means? The Fighting-Game Glossary defines them all. Once your combos are clean, take them to the Bosses page to learn how each boss' phases and juggle resistance change the way you route your damage.