Street Fighter 5’s next character in its final Season Pass is out, and she’s a beauty.

Rose, the Soul-powered Italian fortune-teller (and Lisa Lisa inspiration) who delves with the mystical aspects of the Street Fighter universe, is a space-savvy defense-based fighter, but is given the SF5 “aggressive approach” treatment with some unique moves here and there. Her V-Skills and V-Triggers give her some extra tools to protect and buff her but at the cost of long startups.

Still, she has a great bunch of normals that let her control space and can be aggressive when needed.

Unique & Special Moves

Soul Pilastro (Back+HK) – Makes her move forward a bit while dealing a heavy kick. This move is good for covering ground.

Slide (Down Forward+MK) – Her trademark slide. Can hit enemies who chuck fireballs and plasma while avoiding them with low profile. Extremely punishable when done up close, so use proper spacing.

Soul Piede (Forward +HK) – Her trademark long-reaching kick. Hits hard, has good reach, and can win some footsie games.

Soul Levare (LK, Forward+HK) – A target combo that leaves the opponent spinning in the air when both hits connect. You can follow it up with appropriate anti-air/jump attacks.

Rose has her trademark Soul Spark (projectile, zoning) and Soul Spiral (good combo ender). Her Soul Reflect is her V-Reversal instead (Back+3K). Her anti-air is Soul Bind; it still has recovery but at least she doesn’t jump in the air like last time.

She can shoot a Soul Spark while airborne; each level of input is a different fireball trajectory.

She can lay out “mines” called Soul Punish, which explodes after a second. The EX version will trigger if an opponent is nearby. If the EX version hits, the opponent launches, meaning juggle opportunities for Rose.

Her “infamous” crouching MP has a shorter range than usual, but she makes up for it with a crouching MK that can be cancelled to her Soul Spark or Soul Spiral.

V-Skills

V-Skill 1’s Soul Fortune lets her buff herself and debuff her enemies with Tarot Cards. Here’s the lowdown on what each card can do:

• White Magician – Fills Rose’s V-Gauge. Inputs can be held down for more meter.
• Red Chariot – Gives Rose a damage buff.
• Cyan Tower – Lowers enemy damage when card hits.
• Purple Death – Increases chip damage and gray life damage received by the opponent when he/she is hit by the card.

V-Skill 2 is her Soul Satellite; she can summon up to two orbs that orbit around her. The startup is very long, which means you’ll be a sitting duck when activating this. It’s best if you knock down your opponent before doing this.

V-Triggers

V-Trigger 1 is Soul Dimension; she can use up V-Meter to teleport at certain spots on the screen. This will be imperative to her crossup game when she wants to do momentum-based damage on her opponent.

V-Trigger 2 is Soul Illusion where her regular and special attacks have follow-up “shadow” attacks ala Genei Jin. You can either use it to pressure opponents or just punish someone and carry them to a corner.

Protips

Rose is primarily a defensive character with some decent offensive options. So if you plan on challenging a good Rashid or Cammy player with normals up-close, exercise some restraint because they usually have the advantage in speed and faster attacks.

Don’t randomly slide unless you gauge the distance well. If you know your opponent is going to toss a Sonic Boom or low Tiger Shot, respond with a quick slide. At the very least, you’ll avoid the projectile and be in your opponent’s face.

Crouching MK and standing HP are great pokes and footsie tools to keep opponents from dashing in. The latter is demonstrated effectively by top player Momochi below, who is probably still mad at his slip-up at the last CPT tournament.

Rose@momochi212 https://t.co/4UD2lKlDZS pic.twitter.com/VB1RqFO0xG

— HiFight(??????) (@HiFightTH) April 19, 2021

Crouching HP is good for anti-air, though her slide can also give her low profile and slip away from a potential cross-up.

The last hit of her target combo (LK, Forward HK) can be ducked and avoided if an opponent crouch blocks. So you’ll need to keep throwing lows to keep your opponent from crouch blocking.

Wonder if this'll be optimal meterlessly ? pic.twitter.com/7hRbs6bPhE

— Chakotay (@ElChakotay) April 19, 2021

If you can somehow land a Purple Death tarot card debuff on your opponent, you can chip your opponent to near-death, or even 25% of his/her life like Xian below:

Purple card 25% true blockstring no gap ?? #xianrose pic.twitter.com/v6b3m5e1DM

— R?Z?R Xian (@XianMSG) April 19, 2021

Day One Combos

The fighting game community and pro players are loving this mix of offense and defense for the Italian sensation. While excelling at neither like min-maxed characters, she can still hold her own and has a ton of tricks up her sleeves to catch off-guard opponents.

i'm having so much fun lolol pic.twitter.com/8oIMikqlHH

— Joey (@Joey_FGC) April 19, 2021

GENEI-JIN! One bar and vt2 activate. Good wall carry has strong mix potential. #SFVCE #Rose_SFVCE pic.twitter.com/1MXeFG4f1U

— Tinshi ???? (@Tinshi009) April 19, 2021

She can deal massive damage if she crush counters someone and has VT2 on tap.

damig pic.twitter.com/GfojUwRnOw

— Maximillian | SkyGuy (@ProfSkyGuy) April 19, 2021

The ONLY time when it’s safe to slide close-range is when you have VT2 activated.

??????????????????? pic.twitter.com/gMsnoM9KRl

— ????(Johnny)|SNB (@Johnny4act) April 19, 2021

found some "Guile respect" fireball combo lol.

?????????????????????? pic.twitter.com/zmWB0tiABO

— Muon?????@??????? (@f_muon) April 19, 2021

Is that best Rose 1 bar combo after stun? tag me in the rose clips please. wanna learn. pic.twitter.com/rBWNdLXChy

— Talon|HotDog29 @ ?? (@HotDogIsTasty) April 19, 2021

If you follow up her crush counter HK with her EX Soul Trap, you can do some sick air juggles.

????K??????????????????? pic.twitter.com/rTjPfewolo

— FAV|?????(Ryusei) (@RYUSEI_CARL) April 19, 2021