Hiya!

Among all of the Street Fighter 6 characters who were announced for Season 3, easily the most divisive fighter included would have to be Ingrid. In fact, when Capcom revealed the 4 characters slated for that time period, you could hear all of the pain and anguish longtime Street Fighter fans felt when her image blasted on the screen. That’s how bad of an impression Ingrid has in the community.

Now, I know all about Ingrid’s legacy but, as I neither played Capcom Fighting Evolution nor Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper, I am not burdened by the heavy baggage of how bad she’s supposed to be. What I can do, though, is see how Capcom adapted the character to Street Fighter 6’s gameplay mechanics and give you my thoughts.

Let’s talk about how Ingrid looks first. I like her design but I will admit I am slightly weirded out by her overall look at the same time. I actually like all of her costumes. From her standard Katamari Damacy-like default costume to her “classic” schoolgirl retro uniform to her Midnight Bliss inspired magical maid Outfit 3 (which is a must buy, by the way), are suit her bubbly vibe. The thing which does put me off are Ingrid’s eyes. They’re bigger than then should be, making it look like a plunge in the uncanny valley. I get this is intentional as Ingrid is supposed to be this god/alien thing of the Street Fighter universe. It’s still kinda creepy! I can’t help it!

With that out of the way, let’s talk about the meat and potatoes of every new Street Fighter DLC fighter: how does Ingrid play? She does feel overpowered in some ways but also weak in other aspect to sort of balance her out. Let’s talk about her normals first. Honestly, most of her normal attacks aren’t all that good because she doesn’t have much range to any of them. Technically, Ingrid is the smallest character in Street Fighter 6’s roster right now. Even so, her character hurtbox seems to be “normalized” to match the rest of the cast. So, you don’t have to really adjust your timing when trying to do a jump in combo on her. However, her smaller stature does mean she has pretty stubby normals in general. She also doesn’t have any normal attacks which are plus on block so you do have to play a bit more conservative when pressing Ingrid’s buttons.

Despite this, some of her buttons are really good. She can try to anti-air her opponent with her back with heavy punch but it’s too slow to use on reaction. You basically have to do this pre-emptively. This does move Ingrid back a little, allowing her to actually hit crossup attempts. If you do manage to connect with it, you can input back with heavy punch again to do a neat juggle starter which can cancel into her specials or a Drive Rush to continue the juggle combo.

Her standing heavy punch may be slow but it has really good range, making it an awesome whiff punish attack. Her forward with heavy punch is also great as it makes Ingrid leap forward to avoid lows and is cancellable to her Solar Burst airborne special attack. Ingrid’s crouching heavy punch is her only heavy normal which can be cancellable to special attacks but it does have a lot of range even though its speed has much to be desired. Her back with medium kick is also a good poking tool and you can confirm it into a target combo. Her crouching medium kick is also great as, unlike the rest of her fellow Season 3 characters, it’s cancellable to her special attacks and, more importantly, she can Drive Rush cancel from it!

However, the crown jewel of all of her normal attacks has to be her standing heavy kick. It’s not the fastest at 9 frames startup and isn’t cancellable like her crouching heavy punch. Still, it makes up for those shortcomings in several ways! One, it moves her forward, making it a really good button for pressure against jab happy opponents. It also hits twice, making it easy to confirm into any of her Super Arts. The best thing about it is, if it hits, you can link it into any of her grounded light punches. This is great as it opens up more Drive Rush combos from that light punch. It’s even better if the standing heavy kick connects on counter-hit or from a Drive Rush as you can now link that into her standing medium punch, which will open up even more damaging combos!

Ingrid is definitely one of the strongest zoners in Street Fighter 6 right now for several reasons. First off, she has a myriad of projectiles… and I do mean a myriad of them! Her Sun Shot projectile may not seem all that as there’s a delay after the initial blast before it starts flying. However, this does make it difficult to get in on Ingrid as she can use this to control the space right in front of her, keeping her opponent at bay from a distance. She can also fire the Sun Shot upwards to deter opponents who might predict a preemptive Sun Shot attack.

However, her best projectile, and probably the best projectile in all of Street Fighter history, would have to be Ingrid’s Sun Flare. Normally, this is a midrange beam attack. However, this is one of her specials which can be powered up by acquiring Sun Crests. With one Sun Crest or using the OD version without Sun Crests, the Sun Flare can barely reach full screen but will hit twice, eating up other projectiles. What’s really wild is that you can use up to 2 Sun Crests to power this special attack up! Coupled these 2 Sun Crests and add OD properties, this one special beam, which will hit full screen and so big it’s hard to jump over, can destroy 1/5 of your opponent’s healthbar! However, this is best used when far away from her opponent as it does come out pretty slow. Then again, this is actually plus 9 on block, making it a very viable frame trap move.

She also has a jumping version of her Sun Flare called the Solar Burst and it essentially has all of the same properties of the Sun Flare. As you can use this after her forward with heavy punch, one simple forward with heavy punch into an OD Solar Flare with 2 Sun Crests will do massive damage. What’s worse is it’ll cause a ground bounce, allowing Ingrid to dash in to inflict more damage afterwards!

Besides projectiles, she can also do some damage with her other special attacks. The light version of her Sun Rise special is a great anti-air while the medium version of this attack is a great combo ender as it can even connect from her lights. The heavy version of Sun Rise, however, cannot combo normally from any of her buttons. You would have to hit with a crouching heavy punch from either a counter-hit or a Drive Rush to make it combo. It will be worth it as, afterwards, Ingrid can hit her opponent with any of her jumping attacks, including a powered up version of her Solar Burst special!

Another way Ingrid can control space is with her Vanishing Sun special teleport attacks. There are 3 versions of this move. She can teleport forward with a drop kick which is safe on block. She can also teleport just above and in front of her opponent to attack with a butt drop which is plus on block. She can also fake out all of this or try to get some distance from her for with the backwards version of the Vanishing Sun. The forward and above version are actually reactable to anti-airs or even a simple standing light punch, so use these sparingly.

Unfortunately, Ingrid doesn’t have a GTFO invincible reversal attack. If her opponent is pressuring her with close up attacks, she can try to counter them with her Sun Veil special. This works like JP‘s Amnesia special but it works instantly as, if an opponent connects with it, they’ll be tossed some distance away from her. It can also be used to counter projectiles but I haven’t really seen why you would want to do that as, if you mistime the Sun Veil, you’ll just get hit. Not worth it unless you’re confident in your timing.

When it comes to her Super Arts, she has a very good utilitarian mix of them. Her level 1 Super Art, the Shining Sun, looks a lot like the light version of her Sun Rise special but is fully invincible to attacks and throw attempts. Use this as her GTFO move instead of her Sun Veil if you’re expecting a meaty attack. If you have any Sun Crests, you can also power this up to do more damage, with the 2 stock version doing more than 1/4 of her opponent’s lifebar. Unlike with the Sun Flare special, you can control how many Sun Crests you want to spend on Shining Sun. It all depends on how long you hold down the attack button.

Her Level 2 Super Art, Order of the Sun, is more of a utility Super Art but, in the right hands, it can be devastating. When inputted, the Order of the Sun will place a mark on the ground where beams of energy will start raining down. You can control the area of effect with which attack button you use. What makes this good is you can still move Ingrid around after activating Order of the Sun. This does mean you can do something like her standing heavy kick, activate her Level 2 Super Art and use that to cancel out of the recovery frames of her standing heavy kick and push them right into position with her attacks. You can also power this up with Sun Crests, adding more damage to the move. What’s ever worse (if you’re on the receiving end) is Ingrid can still continue to combo after Order of the Sun has stopped pummeling her opponent. Of course, there’s a lot of setup required for all of this but, when it all goes right, Ingrid can do a whole lot of damage from it.

Finally, her Level 3 Super Art, Cosmic Ray, is both one of the best and worst Level 3 Super Arts in the game. It’s one of the best because it track the opponent and can hit even from full screen. It also can even combo off most of Ingrid’s juggle combos, including just a simple 2 Sun Crest OD version of her Sun Burst special. So, if you see an opponent trying to jump away, you can actually use this to catch them as they’re landing. It’s also one of the worst because it’s one of the slowest, if not the slowest, Level 3 Super Arts in the game. This does make this very finicky to do in a juggle combo because they might smack on the ground before it comes out.

Right now, Ingrid does seem rather overpowered in Street Fighter 6. Capcom might have tried to tone her down with her more stubby normals but she more than makes up for that with her zoning capabilities. It’s actually hard to fight against Ingrid if you’re a very defensive player as there really isn’t a reason for Ingrid to close the gap with her plentiful projectiles. Your best bet is to slowly try to close the gap, blocking the onslaught of energy blasts she tosses your way while also remembering about her teleports. It can be frustrating but I know there are going to be more effective strategies to deal with her in the future. She does feel really top tier at the moment but I know it’ll get better once fans really start dissecting her weaknesses and how to navigate all those energy blasts.

Then again, have we really done that for JP, a character who’s been in Street Fighter 6 right from the start? Uh oh.

Byee!

What are your thoughts on Ingrid? Let me know in the comments section below!