Street Fighter 6 - Numpad Notation Guide

What is Numpad Notation?

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A “notation” is a series or system of written symbols used to represent numbers, amounts, or elements in something such as music or mathematics. In the case of fighting games, the phrase “numpad notation” refers to a specific notation describing the directions you need to press on your joystick, or d-pad, or keyboard. You’ve likely seen notations such as “qcf” and “hcb” and “dp” which also refer to motions on your joystick, i.e. directions you need to press, but that system, while initially pretty intuitive, can’t cover every single possible motion a game might want you to do, and also assumes you know English.

Covering Each Possibility

The easiest way, at first glance, to cover every possibility is to have some letter for each possible direction. U could mean UP, D could mean DOWN, F could mean FORWARD, B could mean BACK, and you could combine two of those letters to form each of the four diagonals (UF, UB, DF, DB). 99% of fighting games only recognize those eight directions, plus “N” for neutral, so every motion could be notated by writing these letters in sequence. For example, the “qcf” motion would be “d, df, f.” This system not only allows one to visualize every possible motion, but also breaks down each motion into its literal parts, and makes it clear that there are three specific points that you need to hit with the joystick in order for the move to come out properly.

Numpad Notation

Using letters like this has two major downsides. Firstly, it doesn’t really make sense unless you speak English, or at least know those five English words. Secondly, it’s pretty inefficient; “qcf” is much shorter than “d, df, f.” Numpad Notation solves both of these.

Numpad Notation is exactly the same as the previous notation, except, instead of using letters, it uses numbers. You can look at a typical numpad on a keyboard, and see this:

You can see how 5 is in the center, and the other eight numbers surround it on all sides. 6 is to the right, 8 is on top, etc. Now, translate this to the directions. Assuming your character is facing to the right, 6 would be forward, 2 would be down, 4 would be back, 8 would be up, etc.

This solves both problems, because numbers aren’t language-restricted and “236” is just as efficient as “qcf,” while not losing any of the advantages of letter notation. It’s simply better in every possible way.

Common Motions