Whether you just started learning leverless or have been playing on Hit Box for years, you may have asked yourself, "which thumb do I use for Up?" Most people use their left thumb exclusively for the Up button on leverless controllers. This makes sense because it seems physically intuitive to have all of the directional inputs activated with one hand. While most of the time this is a perfectly suitable method for pressing Up, it is ideal to use both of your thumbs for the Up button.
In order to help players understand why using your right thumb is not only viable but ideal in specific situations, we will show some use cases of important techniques throughout this blog.
Layout Basics
The Hit Box layout is designed with the Up button larger than the other buttons and placed in the middle of the controller. This allows players to use Up with either thumb, similar to how keyboard users can activate space bar.
In addition, the layout has directional buttons placed near the action buttons in order for both hands to be used for either directions or actions. This allows players to press directional and action buttons with the same hand.
This design gives players flexibility with how they can approach inputs on the Hit Box.
Movement Freedom
A main strength to using your right thumb for Up is that it provides more freedom for your movement options. By separating Up from the rest of the directional inputs, and treating it as a "jump" button, you can exercise improvement movement.
Jumps
Other Movement
Input Freedom
For motion inputs that include Up you can share the inputs on both hands. By doing this you do not have to sacrifice speed or accuracy, and are able to more easily take advantage of input techniques such as sliding.
This input freedom is the basis of strength for using your right thumb for up. You will see that nearly everything in the rest of this blog is based on sharing inputs on both hands.
Combined with Actions
By using your right thumb for Up, you can easily include action button presses on your right hand.
This helps with just frame inputs, plinks, and the timing of inputs with motions in general.
Just Frames
Press Up and an action button at the same exact time by using your right hand. This can ensure the fastest possible input for motions like the Behemoth Typhoon.
Charge Inputs
Using the just frame input with your right hand, you can also maximize the effectiveness of your Down-Up charge inputs like Flash Kick, Nivose, and Mr. Dolphin.
Tiger Knee Inputs
Tiger Knee (TK) motions require you to input the motion prior your character jumping and leaving the ground in order to help get the lowest possible air/jump special. In most cases this requires timing the action button press slightly after pressing Up, so by using your right thumb for Up you can help yourself make this timing more consistent. This works for quarter-circle, dragon punch, and other TK motions.
Additional Movement
There are some fighting games that allow you press action buttons to make your character dash. In those games, by using your right thumb for Up you can gain access to even more movement freedom. Here we show examples of tri-dash (aka: tri-jump) and dash jump from Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 (UMvC3).
SOCD Inputs
When you use your right thumb for Up you provide yourself with a more effective way to consistently time or be quick with Up + Down SOCD inputs. The most obvious case is with super jumps but here we will explore SOCD inputs that incorporate motion inputs and some defensive options.
Instant QC
With SOCD Neutral, by pressing Up + Down your controller outputs neither Up or Down. When you combine this with a quarter-circle motion, you can ensure even quicker inputs and guaranteeing quarter-circle outputs.
This technique is viable for any game that has a quarter-circle (236) motion input.
Instant Dragon Punch
SOCD Neutral also allows for frame-perfect dragon punch / uppercut inputs in some fighting games, such as Street Fighter 6 and Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves.
Note: this technique is not viable in every game with a "z" or dragon punch motion input. This technique is only viable in games that output specials from Forward, Down-Forward, Forward (636) or Forward, Down-Forward, Up-Forward (639) inputs.
Down Down
Down-Down inputs can become much quicker and more consistent as well with SOCD Neutral.
This technique is viable for any game that has a down-down (22) input.
Defensive Options
SOCD Neutral helps with defensive options that require a standing position, including fuzzy blocking, perfect parries, and V-Shift. By using your right thumb for Up you can ensure precise inputs in these defensive situations.
Other Inputs
Using your right thumb for up can also simply give you access to other ways to input specials and supers.
Going Beyond
Right thumb for Up can also help you gain access to other techniques not found in a typical leverless layout. With the C.O.M.B.O. Extension you can incorporate auto combo and multi-hit techniques to get the most out of your controller.
Full Playlist
For more examples and use cases, check out our YouTube playlist of all of our Right Thumb for Up videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbLcqjc5EM30.
