A Ralf guide from Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/247580531972394/permalink/1236766986387072/"Another quick guide. This time for Ralf.
Ralf is a walking tank, a hard hitter that excels in mid range and up-close, but unlike the heavier cast he has decent mobility.
He's equipped with some of the best normals in the game, tools to get in, fight against zoning and for pressure.
His gameplan has changed compared to XIII as he was all about getting close enough to pressure with his crazy + on block gut punch that he can link off of.
Now his strongest spot is mid range where he can bully you with his superior normals or start his hop pressure.
His main issues are his hit confirms and that his mixups are pretty straight forward now (RIP argentina backbreaker)
His best spot is point imo as he doesn't really benefit from the extra meter or longer MAX mode duration much, and he hits like a fuckin truck with 1 or 2 bars.
Your main buttons are far C, far D, crouch D, CD and his crouch C (all heavies basically).
All are fantastic pokes and cover space really well.
Far D is fuckin nuts, covers so much space, you can buffer galactica phantom off of it, basically by do doing the far D as a qcf+D motion, if it connects you do qcf+P for galactica.
Far C, his infamous backfist is also a great poke, and it doubles as an anti-air. Just keep in mind that this whiffs on crouchers.
Cr C and cr D are still good as well.
His CD is my personal favorite after far D, it moves him forward and you can whiff cancel it to kara your specials. You can combo bareback vulcan after it anywhere on the screen, you can also do CD ralf kick then combo into cr D. In the corner you can combo it into A ralf impact for a restand.
For anti airs his main ones are far C and far A for hops, and df.A for higher jumps. Rapid punch and qcb+P can also be used but they're situational.
Air to airs he has j.B and j.CD. His other air normals are excellent jump ins for offense, and his j.A, j.C and j.CD are special cancellable into his dive for an overhead>overhead mixup.
His j.D is generally the go-to coz of it's range and angle, you can also do hop j.D for an instant overhead.
His j.CD is one of my favorites in the entire game, use this a lot of start your pressure. It's hitbox is amazing.
His specials are not bad but not amazing either, he sadly has lost both his best specials through the years (the command grab and XIII gut punch), but his current specials still have their uses, and he got his awesome RALFU KIIICK back.
His slide punches are mainly for combos and juggles, A is safe-ish and C knocks back but very unsafe. They are a tad better mainly coz they are now hcf instead of charge, but their use is still only in combos really.
EX is same as XIII, knocks back but comboing off of it is tough.
Qcb+P is more or less the same as before, probably his most useful special. A is a quick small explosion and C is a slower one with a bigger hitbox. As i said before this can anti-air in some cases, it can combo into bareback vulcan if it hits high enough.
It recovers really quick so you can use it for meter building. It also cancels projectiles which helps Ralf against zoning immensely as it builds meter as well negating their projectile (and their meter gain).
EX has A's speed and C's hitbox and pops up a bit higher.
His other "useful" special is the new Ralf impact. It's basically his old gut punch but reworked a bit, mainly it's slower so you can't just blockstring into it for beefy pressure, but it's kept all it's other features.
You can link off of it into A slide punch, or into normals into the corner, and it's plus on block. It's can also be used to frametrap in some cases (mainly from CD).
However, you can't combo into it outside of CD.
EX causes a wallbounce but it's hard as shit to combo off of it and it still doesn't combo off of anything outside of CD.
Ralf kick is what you'd expect of it, advancing kick that goes pretty far. It's not 98 damage, hitbox, or height but it's alright for what it is. On CH you can combo into slide punch or bareback vulcan.
D is a fient that goes into an auto hop, can be used if the opponent is sleeping for some ghetto pressure. Can be cancelled into dive.
EX is his best EX, launches for a juggle which is you go-to once you combo into MAX mode. can combo into slide punch, either super or Climax. In the corner can go into his other specials as well.
Rapid punch is mainly for ghetto anti-airs and (risky) chip out , very risky on block as you'll usually still be in animation long after they're out of blockstun.
EX can be used in corner juggles after EX ralf kick.
Bareback vulcan is for combos only really as it's suicide on block. Can combo from anywhere CD wallstick.
Galactica phantom is just like XIII, it's a quick punch and unblockable once fully charged.
EX does 2 punches and has auto guard from release till it's active. Use this super if you want to advanced or Climax cancel as they connect properly from it.
Climax is close range, combo ender only, and while it can combo from different things you can only get the full hits from specific combos. It's worth it imo coz it's the most badass Climax in the game lol.
For combos, Ralf got hit hard due to the extra universal pushback where df.A will whiff after 2 hits leaving you open. His close C is now 1 hit only as well and doesn't connect to df.A so close D and close B are your main go-to options. Overall his combos are short and simple, but they bring the pain.
Cr.b, cl.B or cl.D into df.A hcf+C
Cl.D df.A MAX cl.D EX ralf kick Into Hcf+C, either super or Climax
Corner cl.D df.A MAX CD A ralf impact s.A EX ralf kick qcb+A into either super or Climax
That's all you need really lol.
Extra:
you can cancel his backdash into air dive.
EX dive has a bit of invincibility.
Ending the match with his Climax is by far the coolest way to win."