Lidia Sobieska

Lidia Sobieska is a returning character, first being introduced in Tekken 7 as a DLC character. In Tekken 8, she is the second DLC character of the first character pass.

How to Play Lidia in Tekken 8

Like her Tekken 7 iteration, Lidia is a character that utilizes a lot of stances. In Tekken 8, she actually has a total of 4 different stances. They are Cat Stance, Horse Stance, Striking Wolf Stance, and Heaven and Earth. Each stance has a number of follow-ups from lows, to quick high that beat jab mashes, to punishing mids that can lead to hugely damaging combos. She’s a character that can leave her opponents very scared to press buttons, and when they’re conditioned into that state, then she can use moves that are plus on block to keep her pressure going. She’s also got very strong punishes; a fully tracking low that we’ll go over in just a bit; and very strong approach tools in both forward forward 2, and forward forward 1.

She’s also a character that hugely benefits greatly from her heat gauge, which we’ll go over right now as we talk about her best moves, starting with the aforementioned forward, forward 2.

Best Moves

FF2

A returning move from Tekken 7, FF2 is a dashing mid punch that leaves Lidia at +5 on block and forces her into Horse Stance, regardless if the attack hits or is blocked. On hit, the opponent is in a real bad spot.? it’s +15, and leaves her in a position where she can do pretty much any follow up in horse stance and it will beat mashing. So the opponent must guess on blocking a mid heat engager that’s only -10 on block, a low counter hit launcher, or take a gamble and mash to try and beat an axe kick that leaves lidia at +8 on block and transitions into a whole new stance with another set of mixups.?

It gets better! If she lands this move in heat, she’s at +17, and can get a guaranteed follow up that ends with her going into Heaven and Earth Stance, where she can threaten with several strong attacks, including a fast unblockable, and gets a charge that powers up some of her moves for the rest of the match. It’s a pretty good move.?

F1+2, 3. 1+2

Her F1+2, 3, 1+2 string, called Political Storm, is back with a new twist. There’s a clean hit property to it if you do a quarter circle forward 1+2 for the last hit and adds on bit of extra damage. Aside from that, it’s Lidia’s 14 frame punisher, a heat engager, has fantastic range, and while the final hit of the combo is launch punishable, she can stop after the second hit and only be -10. Alex warned though that it’s no longer hit confirmable between the third and fourth hit like it was in Tekken 7.

B1

Back+1 is a safe mid heat engager with 18 frame start-up, is +2 on block, will wall stun if close to the wall, and knockdown if it hits while you’re already in heat. Not much else to say about it, other than, that seems pretty good.?

FFF1

The little brother to FF2, FFF1 is a running high punch approach option that leaves Lidia at +6, but doesn’t force her into a stance. The drawback of course is that it’s a high and can be ducked, but since ducking against lidia is so scary, (see everything said about FF2) this is a very useful option to mix into your approach and keep your turn.

DF2

DF2 is a 15 frame mid that goes into cat stance and is +11 on hit, which means that if it hits, once again, the opponent is in a bad spot as her follow ups will beat any sort of mashing, and she’s got a safe mid that leads to a combo on counter hit, a low, and high follow up. If it’s blocked, the opponent can mash out of it.?

DB4

Next up is DB4 which is a fairly average low poke. It’s a bit slow at 22 frames of start up, but it does track side step left and is 0 on hit. What’s nice about it is that you’re standing afterwards, so you don’t limit yourself to while rising moves after landing it.?

D2

Down 2 is another low that is faster at 18 frames, but it is -4 on hit, so if your opponent knows that, they can take their turn back even if it hits. It does go under highs though, and if it counter hits, you get a free From Crouching DF2 heat engager.

FC DF3

From Crouching down forward 3 is another low, though this one can knockdown from close range and has a guaranteed follow up with FF3. The downside is that this one is launch punishable if blocked, so be careful with it.

QCF 4

Quarter Circle Forward 4 is a 17 frame tracking high that leaves Lidia at +1 on block, but if it hits, she’s at +10, which means she gets a guaranteed 1, 2, 2 jab string, which does respectable damage and leaves her at +8 in cat stance for a mix up opportunity.

Speaking of 1, 2, 2, it’s worth noting that this build shows that it’s -8 on block. That’s not really true, since it forces Lidia into Cat Stance regardless of whether it's blocked or hits, and Lidia can’t block in that stance. Which means it’s actually launch punishable, so don’t just go throwing this out or you will die for it.

DB3

Now let’s talk about DB3. This move is sick. This is a 16 frame fully tracking low sweep, which means that it cannot be sidestepped either left or right, and if it hits, it leaves you at +7 in horse stance; so it’s a position like if you had just landed FF2. She does trade against jab mash against some options, but even in those trades, you still have the advantage. As you’d imagine, it’s launch punishable, so it is a big risk throwing it out, but it’s nonetheless a very important tool in her arsenal.

Horse Stance 1

Pressing 1 while in Horse Stance will get you a high homing powercrush that transitions into the Striking Wolf stance. +1 on block, so it allows her to continue her pressure, and on counter hit, it’s +16.?

Striking Wolf Stance 1

And finally Striking Wolf Stance 1 is a chargeable mid that is +2 on block uncharged, and +7 when fully charged. It’s easily sidesteppable and interruptable, but if it hits or is blocked, Lidia is left in a very good position. Without a charge she’s still at +16 and gets a guaranteed follow up, and if the full charge hits, she gets a damaging full combo.?

That’s by no means an exhaustive look at Lidia’s movesets, but these are the moves you’ll definitely want to know both if you’re starting out using her, or if you want to get a basic understanding of what she wants to do when you’re fighting against her. Now let’s take a look at her punishers.

Punishers

Lidia’s got a punisher for everything from 10 to 15 frames, and even beyond.?

10 Frame:?

Her 10 frame punish is her 1, 2, 2 string does good damage and leaves her in cat stance at +8. It’s an extremely good 10 frame punish.

She’s also got 1, 4 which doesn’t force you into stance, if you’d rather not transition.

11 Frame:?

For 11 Frames, she’s got 2, 2 and 2, 4. Once again, 2, 2 transitions into Cat Stance, but if you’d rather not transition, you can use 2, 4.

12 Frame

Her 12 Frame punish is forward 2, 4, which can wall splat and wall break.

13 Frames

For 13 frames shes got down forward 1, 2, which leaves her at +4 on hit, or?

14 Frames

At 14 frames she’s got the aforementioned Political Storm string that does big damage and is a heat engager as well.

15 Frames

For 15 frames she’s got a couple of different combo starting options:

3, 2 is her main starter that you’ll likely see the most damage out of for 15 frames. There’s a just frame property for perfectly timing the second hit that gets you extra damage.?

UF 4 is her hop kick, which is less ideal as it will tornado the opponent afterwards, diminishing the damage.

And DF4, 2 is her far reaching 15 frame punish, which can be followed up by a guaranteed FF 1+2.

While Rising and Crouching Punishes

For her while rising and crouching punishes she’s got:?

11 Frame

While rising 4, 2 is her 11 frame punish, which goes into cat stance

From Crouch DF2, is her 12 frame, and as we covered before is a heat engager.?

13 Frames

For 13 frames, she’s got While Rising 1, 4, which can wallsplat

And While Rising 1, 2, which puts her into cat stance at +11

14 Frames

For 14 frames she’s got While Rising 3, which gets a free follow up with FF 1+2 once again.

15 Frames

And for 15 frames she’s got the standard While Rising 2 launcher.?

Combos

Here are a handful of combos for Lidia that utilize several different launchers:

UF4 > ~f > SWS 2 > DF1 > qcf, qcf, 2, 2, b, f , f+1+2

FF3 > b+3, 4 > DF4, 2, DASH, qcf, qcf, 2, 2, b, f, f+1+2

3, 2 > HS ~F > SWS 2 > 2, 2 > CAT 2, 2 > qcf, qcf, 2, 2, b, f, f+1+2

Counter Hit HS4 > HS~F, SWS 2 > 2, 2, qcf, qcf, 2, 2, b, f, f+1+2

Heaven and Earth Stance

And before we wrap up, we need to talk about one last stance of Lidia’s, the Heaven and Earth Stance.?

Heaven and Earth is a unique stance, in that, she can only enter it while in heat or after a heat engager, and she can enter it while in any other stance by pressing up. As I touched upon briefly earlier, when she enters this stance, she gains a charge, which simply powers up the damage of some of her moves, and persists through the entire match. She also gets one of these charges if her heat smash gets blocked.

From Heaven and Earth, she has three options: Press 2 for a powerful 13 frame mid that’s +6 on block, 1 for an 18 frame power crushing overhand mid that’s only -11, and 1+2 for a 16 frame high unblockable attack.?

And finally the last thing to know about this stance is that it’s also a parry stance. If you attack her during it she will parry it, restore some of her heat time, and re-enter the stance with enough time to follow up with one of the attacks she can use out of the stance.?

Lidia is a complex character, with one of the largest move lists I’ve seen in Tekken 8, covering her four different stances, all of which are extremely threatening and will make you scared to press a button against her. Then once you’re scared, she has ways to mix you up, steal back her turn, and continue her suffocating pressure.