Dragunov in Tekken 8 is an absolute menace. While the game has over 30 characters to choose from, Dragunov is one of, if not the, most popular character people are choosing to play.

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The reasoning for this is simple, he's just that good. While some people may pick Dragunov because of how serious he looks while also crawling on the ground or because they are faithful to him from Tekken 7, overall the vast majority of Tekken 8 players are gravitating to Sergei Dragunov because he's an absolute monster in damage, pressure, and offensive options. So for those of you just now picking up Dragunov in Tekken 8, let's go over who he is as a character, what his general gameplan is, what his unique mechanics are, and what you should know starting out with him.

Sergei Dragunov, The 'White Angel Of Death'

Who is He? What Are His Motivations?

First off, before we get into anything related to Dragunov's absurd popularity in Tekken 8 or his long list of amazing moves, let's take a look at who he is as a character. Dragunov, contrary to almost every other character in the Tekken franchise, almost never speaks. Despite this being a setting where everyone seems to understand each other, regardless of the language they're speaking, Dragunov chooses to remain silent.

Sergei Dragunov first appeared in Tekken 5: Dark Ressurection alongside Lili Rochefort as the two new fighters of this game and worked as a complete contrast to Lili Rochefort's bright nature and positive attitude. Sergei Dragunov is a dedicated soldier of the Spetsnaz, AKA The Russian Special Ops, and he is almost always working whenever he appears in these games. Typically Dragunov appears in the King of Iron Fist Tournaments on orders from his superiors, sometimes in pursuit of the Devil Gene, other times as a way of attempting to take down the Mishima Zaibatsu. However, these orders and choices he makes usually puts him at odds with government agents from other parts of the world such as Raven, Master Raven, and now Victor in Tekken 8.

And that's really about it for Sergei Dragonuv's story, he's one of the characters in this franchise that people know very little about. However, we do know that he's a practitioner of Sambo, specifically Commando Sambo which Russian soldiers are known to be trained in. This is seen in-game by Dragonuv's many throws, submission holds, and incredibly 'violent' attacks. The only other thing we know is shown at the end of his Character Story in Tekken 8, where we find out Sergei is a man who loves making models, specifically model tanks.

How The Tekken Notates Combos & Attacks

For Writing Out Directional Inputs, Attacks, & Combo Strings

Just like with our other Tekken 8 character guides, it's first important to break down how exactly players are meant to read inputs for this game in guides online. The Tekken community uses a bit of a unique nomenclature for writing out their inputs as opposed to following the standard Light Punch, Heavy Punch, Light Kick, Heavy Kick method. To be more specific, Tekken has Left Punch, RIght Punch, Left Kick, and Right Kick that are expressed in the same order as 1, 2, 3, and 4. So, a combo that followed a sequence of, say, Left Punch into Right Punch into Left and Right Punch together would be written as 1,2,1+2.

When doing things this way, Tekken players can easily read how a combo or attack string is performed regardless of what their controller method is (be it a fight stick, controller, or even keyboard). We aren't going to get over all the terminology used or how it's written, but for the sake of this guide, here's what you'll need to know:

The White Reaper's General Gameplan

Oppressive Offense, Counter Options, & a Lot of Grapples

Now let's actually get into Sergei Dragunov's mechanics in Tekken 8. First off, it needs to be said early on that Dragunov was near the bottom of the 'tier lists' in Tekken 7. In that game, this character was absurdly difficult to play, had a lot of unsafe moves, didn't really have a lot of useful 'tools' and was overall a pretty niche character to pick. However, Tekken 7 Dragunov and Tekken 8 Dragunov are like night and day in terms of how similar they are. In Tekken 8, Dragunov is relatively easy to learn, has a ton of amazing moves, has a lot of useful tools to use in any variety of situations, and is now the most played character in the game (even overtaking Reina).

So how exactly did they change Dragunov between the two games? Well, for one, his damage potential in Tekken 8 is incredibly high. All it takes for a Dragunov to go from being on the defensive to taking his opponent from 100 to 0 in 8 seconds flat is a bit of momentum. Sergei is a momentum-based fighter in this game, and he might be the one that's most heavily built upon said momentum.

Typically, players will use his WR2 to get up close and/or chase and then they never back off, throwing in a lot of highs, mids, and even feint throws to bait out opponents or cause them to lose their patience (and get a counter-hit to the face as a result). There's a reason why Dragunov is the most played character in the game at the moment, and it's because he's got an answer for every scenario, he's relatively easy to play regardless of past Tekken experience, and above all, he's a lot of fun to learn.

Sergei Dragunov's Rage Art

White Angel of Death

Sergei Dragunov's Rage Art has the same name as his own title, the White Angel of Death. This Rage Art is also almost exactly the same as his Rage Art from Tekken 7 but with some snow effects and dynamic camera angles on top. While it's neat that they're referencing his old Rage Art and even made it look better, it also would've been nice to give him a whole new Rage Art altogether. Still, Dragunov's Rage Art in Tekken 8 is fun, and it's a mid-starting RA where Dragunov knocks his opponent down, kicks them off of the ground, and then does this brutal overhead slam on them as they stare up in fear.

A few things to remember about Rage Arts in Tekken 8 is that you can only use them once per match when you're at 25 percent health or lower. You can see this visually when your health bar goes from yellow to red in color and starts exuding this red 'aura' around it. Also, remember that Rage Arts remove all of the recoverable health (if any) the opponent currently has, so it's absolutely worth ending a combo with to make sure all the damage from said combo actually sticks.

Dragunov's Stances & Unique Mechanics

Sneak, Ambush Tackle, & That's About It

Now usually, a character this widely regarded as 'amazing' in a Tekken game would have a fair number of stances or unique mechanics so that they had options for every opponent. However, Dragunov's base move set has these options, as his only real stance is called 'Sneak'. To do it, players just need to do QCF (aka go from down to forward in a quarter-circle motion) and Dragunov will 'sneak' forward in this low almost sliding approach. During this animation, players can press any button be it 1, 2, 3, 4, or even 3+4 to get different attacks. Additionally, they can easily transition into this Stance mid-string with something as simple as f3 and then hold D/F after. To give a few other quick strings or attacks that transition naturally into Sneak, there's:

• 2, 1
• 2, 1, 4
• 2, 1, 3
• f3, 1+2
• 1, 2, 3
• 3, 1, 2

And this is only naming a few, as Dragunov has a whole list of different strings and attacks that easily transition into Sneak. The only other thing that could 'maybe' count as a unique mechanic is his Ambush Tackle Throw, as you'll have three different options of Throw (which means different Throw Breaks for your opponent) after the tackle with either 1, 2, or 1+2 (Throw Breaks are the same inputs). A lot of Dragunov's Throws in fact are actually 1 frame faster than most other character's Throws, further incentivizing you to use them when needed.

Everything To Get You Started With Dragunov

General Tips & Tricks For Mastering This Guy

Overall, Dragunov is at the top or near the top of nearly every Tekken 8 player's tier list in terms of how good he is, so it should be clear by now that this is a very strong main to pick up. He will require some practice and proper execution, as his moveset and strings are a bit odd to learn at first, but honestly, Dragunov might be one of the easiest characters to pick up and almost immediately start winning within all of Tekken 8. Still, for those of you who'd like some starter tips:

Now that all this praise is out of the way, let's clarify something real quick. While Dragunov can be countered, it's a bit harder to do so than with other characters, at least right now. But, due to how popular this character is, dedicated Tekken 8 players are going to figure out how to punish all of his tricks before anyone else, meaning fighting a Dragunov 6 months from now will probably be a good amount less scary than it is right now.

Tekken 8

Franchise

Tekken

Platform(s)

PC , PS5 , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S

Released

January 26, 2024

Developer(s)

Bandai Namco Entertainment , Arika

Genre(s)

Fighting