As a general rule of thumb, every new button press for an attack adds 1 point to the damage scaling count. Here at the ending stages of this Combo Ibuki is only doing 10% damage to Ling Xiaoyu.
Damage Scaling is a mechanic in the modern Street Fighter games.
Description[]
With the prominence of combo orientated gameplay rising in the late half of the 1990s, Damage Scaling appears in later Street Fighter games like III. As to its mechanics, Damage Scaling allows for combo potential on a fair scale to keep matches going and opens up greater tactical and strategic approaches to the fighting game genre.
Modern Street Fighter games starting in Street Fighter IV mostly follow the same rules (with some deviations).
| Attack Number | Percentage of damage |
|---|---|
| 1 | 100% |
| 2 | 100% |
| 3 | 80% |
| 4 | 70% |
| 5 | 60% |
| 6 | 50% |
| 7 | 40% |
| 8 | 30% |
| 9 | 20% |
| 10 or more | 10% |
The general rule is that every button press that connects with the opponent in terms of a hit adds a point to the damage scaling number. An example is Ibuki's Target Combo 4. The whole sequence adds three points with her initial jab adding one, then the MP portion adding one more despite the physical attack hitting her opponent twice. The last attack will start doing 80% and the follow-up will do 70%.
Game Specific Rules[]
Street Fighter IV[]
Here Ibuki hits Dan with her standing medium kick and proceeds to use Hashinsho. Since her MK is a hit it takes off 1 point of the damage scale chart, and while Super Jump canceling doesn't use a point Ultras take 2 points. This means Ibuki will be doing 80% damage compared to 100%.
Ultra Combos add two points rather than one. Ultra Combos that have some sort of set up in terms of a hit will do 80% minimum rather than the 100% of the 2nd hit. Super Combos only add one point. Focus Attacks add two points on a level 3 focus attack and their "Red" counterpart add 3 points on connection. When an opponent is Stunned, the damage scaling continues from the hit that made them go in the stun status. If an opponent recovers before getting hit and gains control of the character the damage scaling resets, making the next hit do 100% again.
Street Fighter X Tekken[]
Aside from very specific character attacks, all cinematic attacks such as Super Arts and Cross Arts only add one point to the counter. Pandora makes the receiving character continue off the same combo off the character who gave them the power up (an example would be if Ibuki Crouch Hard Punches into a Jump Cancel to give Pandora to her partner Rolento, he would be at point two of damage scaling, still at 100% damage then the followup will do 80%). Cross Assaults make both characters share their damage percentage together. One hit by Ibuki and a followup hit by Rolento will place the team on point two until they drop the combo.
Street Fighter V[]
V-Triggers add two attacks to damage scaling when it is canceled off a successful hitting attack. Crush Counters also add two points, some V-Triggers such as Ibuki's V-Trigger II have unique rules if the projectile hits by itself without set up. Critical Arts are programmed to do minimum 50% damage, unlike it's predecessors such as Ultra Combos and Cross Arts, making it recommended for players to tack on as many hits before using their Critical Art to try and finish their opponent. Similarly to IV, followups off Stun continue the scaling before the hit that caused the stun.
Street Fighter 6[]
Damage scaling for most attacks follow the standard rules as listed above, however exceptions such as chained light attacks and Special-Cancellable crouching medium kicks having additional scaling if they initiate combos. Uniquely, Jamie and Kimberly have ways to increase their starting damage scaling, with both characters having below average damage initially. By leveling up Jamie's Drink Level or landing Kimberly's Level 3 Super Art, both characters can reach 110% and 111% damage scaling, which is then scaled during combos.
Drive Gauge-based techniques have unique scaling values when used during a combo:
- Mid-combo Drive Rushes add an additional 15% scaling to every following hit. Starting a combo with a Drive Rush does not incur any penalties, nor does using multiple Drive Rushes in a combo.
- Drive Impacts against blocking opponents in the corner add an additional 20% scaling to following hits. Drive Impacts in situations that lead to further combos on hit (Wall Splat, Counter/Punish Counter, Stun) act as two hits of scaling.
- Perfect Parry adds an automatic 50% scaling to any follow-ups.
Super Arts have a minimum of 30%/40%/50% scaling for Level 1/Level 2/Level 3 Super Arts respectively. Ryu and Ken's Level 3 Super Art also gets extra scaling when cancelled into following a raw Shoryuken, down to 60% damage, making it deal less damage than if the Level 3 Super Art hit by itself.
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