Dhalsim Strategy Guide

first Created: Aug 9th, 1996

To the best of my knowledge, nobody has ever created such a strategy guide for Dhalsim so far. I may, of course, be wrong and get flame mail about this sometime, but a full Internet search on Lycos and Yahoo produced almost nothing so I will assume I'm the first to do this.

Why Dhalsim?

Aside from the obvious "Why not?" answer, there are several reasons:

I play him almost exclusively and he's the only character about whom I can really say "I know what I'm doing"
He's a very difficult character to learn and to master (something I'm still trying to do)
He's awesome! There's not one character in all of Street Fighter that requires as much skill as Dhalsim does. You need to have skill to even make him do the right attacks, let alone develop strategy with him!

Background on Dhalsim

Height       176cm
Weight       48kg
Bust         107cm
Waist        46cm
Hips         65cm
Blood Type   O

Story

Dhalsim fights for money; money that will feed his people, give them shelter, medicine, and peace. He struggles within himself though.

Conflict rages within Dhalsim's mind as he ponders the "correctness" of using violence and pain to bring peace and relief. He is a hero among his people and greatly respected in the community for his skill, and generosity.

He is both a husband, and a father.

^{Try to avoid this!}

Dhalsim's Abilities

As a master of yoga, Dhalsim has an incredible (if not unbelievable) power to stretch his arms and legs to easily 4 times their normal length! He uses this ability to strike opponents from very far away, quite often catching them by surprise. This ability instantly doubles the amount of normal attacks that Dhalsim has at his command, both long-range and short-range.

In some of the earlier Street Fighter games, the computer decided which range of attack should come out, based on how far or close Dhalsim was to his opponent. This is not the case in Street Fighter Alpha 2.

Dhalsim's long-range attacks will come out by either leaving the joystick in the neutral position (with respect to horizontal direction) or by pushing forward. Short-range attacks come out when the joystick is in a defensive position.

This can be both a blessing AND a curse. It's wonderful because you have complete control over what Dhalsim does. It's difficult because you can't play Dhalsim like you can every other Street Fighter character.

Dhalsim's long-range attacks will miss at point-blank range.

Dhalsim's Special Abilities

As his mastery of yoga progressed, Dhalsim continued to discover that he had the ability to do exceedingly amazing things.

Dhalsim has the ability to make himself as light as a feather. Thus, when he jumps, he floats gracefully (and pretty darn slowly I might add) through the air. At any moment though, Dhalsim can strike by sending his body (head first, or feet first) spiraling down at his opponents. I will call these abilities Dhalsim's "drills."

Dhalsim has just one "head drill", done by jumping and then holding down on the joystick and pressing the Fierce punch button while in the air. This particular drill has a very shallow angle of descent, but travels quite a long way.

Dhalsim has three different "foot drills" that can be done by jumping first and then holding down on the joystick and pressing any one of the kick buttons. Short kick has a very shallow angle, long distance. Forward kick has a medium angle, medium distance. Roundhouse has a steep angle (almost straight down) and very little distance across the screen.

^{Dhalsim "warms" up while Zangief stretches for the fight.}

As you can see in the picture above, Dhalsim has the ability to summon fire and blow it out his mouth. He can do this in three ways:

Projectile Fire: Known affectionately as his "Yoga Fire" (because that's what he says when he does it) this small ball of fire, Dhalsim will spit across the screen at his opponents. In Street Fighter Alpha 2, the ball will slowly dissipate, the further it goes away from him.

Yoga Flame: This large ball of flame is identical to the one you see in the picture above. It can be jumped over, but serves most of the time as a pretty good wall between Dhalsim and his opponents.

Vertical Flame: You guessed it! The same thing as Yoga Flame, except Dhalsim cocks his head back and shoots it straight up. This can be air-blocked.

The Master of yoga also has an amazing ability to teleport, or to disappear from one location and re-appear in another. When doing this, Dhalsim can choose whether he'd like to appear behind or in front of his opponent.

This special ability of his can also be used in the air, if he has not already thrown an attack in the air. If he teleports in the air, he will re-appear where he planned, but in the air still and he can then attack if he so chooses.

^{Dhalsim vs. Zangief -- Round 2.}

Super Combos

Now that Dhalsim has found his way into Street Fighter Alpha 2, (praise God!) he also inherits the ability to Super Combo; two of them in fact!

Yoga Inferno

Dhalsim summons all of his yoga power and focusses it in a huge blast of flame. While searing flames are pouring out of his mouth, Dhalsim sways his head up and down. This serves the purpose of not only immersing his victims totally in flames, but also can catch airborne attackers.

Air Slam

Using his yoga mastery, Dhalsim floats gracefully towards an airborne opponent. If he should catch them in the air, he grabs them, contorts his body and slams them quite painfully to the ground.

When Dhalsim executes this Super Combo using 2 or 3 levels of his Super Meter, he'll slam them one or two more times after the first time. The results of this are just devastating!