How to Play Against E. Honda in SF6

Street Fighter 6: How to Beat E. Honda

Now that you’ve gotten the hang of some of Street Fighter 6’s basics in our training mode, now it’s time to start practicing against specific characters. One of the more difficult fighters to take down in the early levels is E. Honda. So we’ll break down how to take on the savant of Sumo and keep you from dropping points.

Control Your Space, Prepare for Headbutt

E. Honda’s claim to fame in SF6 is his fullscreen traveling Sumo Headbutt. This move is fast, hits hard and can totally catch you off guard. Players with a good grasp of Honda will miss Headbutt on purpose in order to command grab you. So the key to not falling victim to Honda is working around this one move.

One of the oft-forgotten tools at the lower levels is Drive Parry. When you see E. Honda flying at you, you can tap Drive Parry and gain the advantage over him. If you’re able to get a perfect parry off, you’ll get a full punish. If you don’t have confidence in your parrying skills, you still have options. Sumo Headbutt functions kind of like a projectile, so that means moves that are projectile invincible, can actually beat it out. Ken/Ryu’s Shoryuken, Manon’s OD Renverse, and Lily’s Tomahawk Buster can all knock E. Honda out of the air. Lastly, since it only hits once you can also Drive Impact it. While it would take some getting used to the speeds of it, you can simply DI and win that battle.

Don’t Underestimate Sumo Smash

Another one of Honda’s confounding moves is the Sumo Smash. This shockingly graceful move can give you fits if you’ve never seen it before. And even after you start recognizing it, it can catch you off guard. One thing to remember is that Sumo Smash can hit in cross-up. Without getting too deep into jargon, a cross-up happens when you jump over the head of your opponent and hit them on the opposite side. The only way to stop a cross-up is to actually block in the OPPOSITE direction or Drive Parry.

So understanding this concept of cross-ups, you can begin to defend against. One of your easiest options is to hit Drive Impact with it. Like Sumo Headbutt, Drive Impact will absorb the single hit from Sumo Smash and hit back for big damage. Even if you miss DI, for many fighters you’ll fly underneath it. If you want a more risky option, you can try to use an anti-air move to beat it. More often than not, you’ll end up trading blows, which isn’t ideal.

Avoid the Slap Blender

Outside of Headbutt, E. Honda’s other signature move is the Hundred Hand Slap. This time he can buff the slap with the Sumo Spirit move. This power-up adds an extra hit and some additional frame advantage to this devastating move. If you get hit by this buffed version, you can get put into a big damage string that can take off up to 35-40% of your life bar.

So to combat this, you can keep Honda away from you, but Honda is a specialist in closing the distance. So you’ll have to be brave and try to throw him or hop over him. Most players from Rookie through Gold won’t have the wherewithal to charge their headbutt while doing slap, so taking evasive maneuvers here is key.