FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves Beginner’s Guide: Tips for New Players

by Fernando Diaz / Articles, Misc. Guides / 22 Apr 2025

FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves has hit the streets, and if you’re starvin’ like wolf chow, listen close! This FAQ saves you the BS and gives you the survival skills you need to conquer, not just survive. Throw away the panic mashing – let’s go tactical and play with a purpose.

1. Macros Are Non-Negotiable: Set Them Up NOW

Stop making life complicated! Assign Rev Blow, Rev Guard, Dodge Attack, & Faint to single buttons. It’s not a matter of preference; it’s basically a requirement for optimal play. Why? Instant reaction times for important moves such as Rev Blow anti-airs and no chance of screwing up multi-button inputs under pressure (no more sad crouch jabs.).

Treat Rev Guard as being as important as your punches and kicks – it’s your jack-of-all-trades defensive swiss army knife.

FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves – Full Controls Guide for PlayStation and Xbox

2. Anti-Air Like You Mean It: Control the Skies

Airborne opponents are an issue in this game; hops and jumps move quickly and can trigger big offense. You must shut them down constantly. Master your character’s best High Crush anti-air (and macro it!) for reliable grounded punish. Utilize DP Breaks (safer reversal options) if you anticipate bait or are unsure of timing : they have less risk if blocked or whiffed than regular DPs.

3. Abuse Rev Guard: The Best Defensive Tool

This mechanic is ridiculously strong. Holding the Rev Guard macro with no direction input (no input in either direction) makes you block both directions simultaneously.

This murders ambiguous wakeup cross-ups and most sneaky left/right mixups on its own. It’s also amazing against telegraphed blockstrings or command grabs (it adds pushback and will make grabs whiff). Master this!

4. Wake Up Rolls: Variety is the Spice of Escape

Getting knocked down does happen, but don’t be a cliche. You have 5 roll options (Forward/Back, Short/Far). Their actual power lies in their staggered wakeup times -> not just distance. Randomizing which roll you use all the time confuses your opponent’s carefully timed setups (oki) and offers vital escape avenues. keep ’em guessing.

5. Practice Just Defend Safely: Parry Without Fear

Just Defend (JD) is cool, looks cool, and most importantly, prevents Rev meter gain (as opposed to normal blocking), which is crucial for long-term defense. Master it without the normal risk.

On Wakeup: Input JD a bit ahead of time. If you mess up, you simply block as usual. No harm done. Vs. Safe Jumps: Experiment with JDs against hopeful jump-ins. Add a button (JD + Attack) as an option select to hopefully punish predictable jumps. Practice is ideal.

6. The 3-Step Plan to Crack Tough Defense

Trapped behind their defense? Turn on the layers:

Layer 1 (Conditioning): Use plus frames (jabs, faints) to get them to respect your turn and not mash.

Layer 2 (The Grab): Dash in once they’re conditioned to block.

Layer 3 (The Hop Bait): Once they anticipate the throw, dash in but neutral hop into an attack. This beats crouch-tech attempts perfectly.

7. EX Enders: Secure Your Advantage

Meter isn’t limited to reversals! Use EX Moves to finish combos wherever you can, especially midscreen.

Why? Because many EX knockdowns specifically prevent the opponent from rolling. This means that you maintain your pressure, get another mixup chance, and snowball small advantages into big ones. Don’t let them escape!.!

8. Leverage SNK Input Quirks

Legacy SNK games have quirks; use ’em!

DP Shortcut: Forward > HCB > Forward (632146) could result in a DP (623) for some characters – helpful for rapid response while moving forward. (Try your character!)

Guaranteed QCF: Input 2369 (QCF+UpForward) to make sure a Quarter Circle Forward move is output when dashing forward to avoid unintentional DPs.

Button Hold Buffer: Input a special too early during blockstun? Hold the button – buffers and goes off on the first available frame for guaranteed punishes.

9. Instant Dash Trick for Best Oki

Need to close distance in a hurry after specific knockdowns (e.g., command grabs)? Hold Rev button + Forward for timely, swift dashes. This is crucial for establishing good wakeup pressure (oki) consistently.

10. Mentality Check: Guard Your Progress

Your brain is your strongest weapon. If you’re tilted, exhausted, or simply playing on auto-pilot – STAY AWAY FROM RANKED.

Playing in a frustrated state enforces bad habits & stifles true progress… utilize that time for casual low-stakes play, focused training mode runs or trying secondaries. Playing with intention; even in practice, builds better habits than mindlessly grinding ranked losses.

Fernando Diaz

Fernando is doing what he always did, sharing his honest opinions about games whenever he can. The difference is now he is writing and not talking about it.
View all posts