FRAME DATA
5 min read · 4 chapters
You block their attack, press a button, and eat a counter-hit. Felt random? It wasn’t. The game told you exactly what would happen — in a language called frame data.
Learn to read it and you stop guessing: you’ll know when it’s safe to press, when to hold back, and when a blocked move is free damage. Five minutes. Let’s go.
The frame — the atom of the game
Before anything else, one unit rules them all.
Picture a match as a flipbook: 60 drawings flashed every second. Each drawing is one frame. Nothing in the game is faster than a single frame.
Every action — a jab, a block, a dash — lasts a whole number of frames. Frame data is just the length of each part of a move, counted in frames. That’s the entire secret.
If the game runs at 60 frames per second, how long is a single frame?
Anatomy of a move — 3 phases
Every attack tells the same 3-act story.
Throw a real punch: you wind up, your fist connects, then you pull your arm back. A move in SF6 is identical — startup, active, recovery.
The wind-up before the hit comes out. “5f startup” = 5 frames before it can touch. Fewer frames = faster move, harder to react to.
The only frames where the hitbox is live and can actually hit. Miss this window and the move whiffs.
The cool-down afterwards — you’re frozen and wide open. Whiff here and you get punished.
You throw a move and it misses. During which phase are you most likely to get hit?
Frame advantage — whose turn is it?
This is the concept that wins rounds.
After a +2 move you recover 2 frames before your opponent. Press again, throw, keep the pressure — you act first.
After a −4 move they recover 4 frames before you. Stop pressing. Block, or you walk into a counter.
The rule to tattoo on your brain: PLUS = keep going. MINUS = let go.
Your move is −3 on block. Should you press another button right after?
The punish — turn knowledge into damage
Everything so far leads here.
If their blocked move is −X, you can punish it with any move whose startup is ≤ X.
Everything is measured in frames (60 per second).
Every move = startup · active · recovery.
On block: PLUS = your turn, MINUS = their turn.
Blocked move at −X? Punish it with a move that starts in ≤ X frames.
That’s frame data. Now burn it into muscle memory.