Tekken 8: Marshall Law Guide - Combos, Move List, Rage Arts, & More

This article is part of a directory: Tekken 8 Guide Hub - Tips, Tricks, Unlockables & More

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Tekken 8 has a pretty stellar starting roster of characters. There are only a few newcomers among this roster however, as most characters, like Marshall Law, are longtime fan favorites that have been around since the original Tekken game.

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Though Nintendo is not primarily known for its fighting games, the company has published some truly great ones throughout the years.

Marshall Law, in particular, is one of the best characters for newer Tekken players to pick up in Tekken 8. He's pretty different from his past iteration in terms of user execution, which makes him very easy to learn at a decent level. Of course, to climb to the higher ranks or even catch side of the illustrious Tekken God Rank, you'll need to learn Law at a very deep level. But first, let's go over who exactly Marshall Law is as a character, how he's changed in Tekken 8, what his unique mechanics are, and some general tips to keep in mind while playing as him.

Who Exactly Is Marshall Law?

Is This Bruce Lee Insert Character Really All That Complex?

Tekken 8 - Marshall Law I Hate Rich People Quote

Law, at least right now in the online of Tekken 8, is known by the community for having on of the best fight intro quotes in the game of "I hate rich people!". However, there is a decent amount more to this character than just hating rich people or being a way for Katsuhiro Harada (the director of the Tekken series) to put Bruce Lee into the game. Law hasn't been in every Tekken game, but an 'iteration' of him has. To elaborate on this, Marshall Law wasn't in Tekken 3 or Tekken Tag Tournament. Instead, in those games, his son Forest Law took his place and served essentially the same role both as a character and as a fighter.

Law has had a lot of ups in downs in his life story and is in a pretty tough spot in Tekken 8. The guy has spent a lot of his life working himself to the bone to open his own martial arts dojo, he eventually did open one, it was then attacked, he fought in the King of Iron Fist tournament to avenge his students, he opened a fast-food chain called Marshall China, he lost his fast-food chain and declared bankruptcy, and now in Tekken 8 he's lost his dojo and is heavily in debt.

This is exactly why he's so hyper-focused on money (even more than usual) in this game, as he needs that money to clear the debt from his son's motorcycle accident, reclaim his dojo, and get his life back on track. But then Paul Phoenix, who beat him to get into the King of Iron Fist Tournament in Tekken 8, spent all the money he promised to split with Law simply because he forgot about their deal in the first place.

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:

Symbol Used	Meaning
u	Up
d	Down
b	Back
f	Forward
U	Tap & Hold Up
D	Tap & Hold Down
B	Tap & Hold Back
F	Tap & Hold Forward
WC	While crouching
1	Left Punch
2	Right Punch
3	Left Kick
4	Right Kick
H	Heat
HB	Heat Burst
RA	Rage Art
u/f	Up+Forward (AKA Diagonal Up & To the Right)
d/f	Down+Forward (AKA Diagonal Down & To the Right)
u/b	Up+Back (AKA Diagonal Up & To the Left)
d/b	Down+Back (AKA Diagonal Down & To the Left)

Marshall Law's Gameplan & Overview

Absurd Pressure, Tons of Backflips, and a Whole Lot of Noise-Making

Tekken 8 - Marshall Law Rage Art Two Nunchucks

So, how exactly does this walking Bruce Lee homage work? Well, Marshall Law is a lot simpler in execution in Tekken 8, for better and for worse his DSS (known as Dragon Sign Stance) has been heavily simplified. Instead of having to do 3,4,F into bf to do the walkback or 3,4,b,f,f to go into his neutral stance with this, players can just hold forward after doing a 3,4 and will get a perfect DSS every time. While this makes the character a lot more approachable to new players, faithful Law fans are pretty hurt by this change, as lowering the skill ceiling for everyone means losing out on the moment's where someone put a lot of work into reaching the skill ceiling don't feel as impactful.

Regardless, Law is a pressure monster in Tekken 8, with his Stances Law can keep the pressure on his opponents for an absurdly long time, making them wonder if they'll ever get a window to retaliate. There are plenty of windows to retaliate against Law, but these windows are very easy to see at a glance, rather, players are going to have to fight a lot of Laws or know about these windows beforehand to make use of them. However, Law is in a unique place in Tekken 8, as he's had a lot of changes that make him great for beginners to pick him up but those same changes will have people who have been playing this character for 10+ years really struggle to figure him out.

Marshall Law's Rage Art

Fate of the Dragon

Compared to a lot of the other Rage Arts in Tekken 8, Marshall Law's 'Fate of the Dragon' may seem pretty tame. He hits you with a mid to start then goes into a full nunchuck combo before leaping into the air to stomp on you with all his might. And, if this kills, he'll even do another Bruce Lee-ism and extend the noise he makes with that stomp and 'shake' from the pure power of his attack.

It's a Rage Art that's very 'on brand' for Marshall Law and one that's generally good to use since it's a mid, as you can use this to catch an opponent expecting a cheeky low and punish them severely for their mistake. Just remember, you can only use Rage Arts at sub 25 percent health. When in this state, the HP bar at the top of the screen will go from pure yellow to a reddish orange gradient and the top of the bar will have red 'energy' billowing off of it. And lastly, like most other characters in Tekken 8, the manual input for the Rage Art (if you don't want to use the Rage Art specific button) is d/f,1+2.

Law's Unique Mechanics

DSS, Stance Switching, Oppressive Offense, & More

Compared to a lot of other Tekken 8 characters, Law may seem pretty 'basic' in terms of unique mechanics. Compared to characters like Yoshimitsu with 5+ Stances or even Steve Fox with his 3 Stances and Ducking gimmick, Law is pretty simple. This makes him a great character for learning fundamentals, as he technically only has one Stance, Dragon Charge. That said, while this is his only real 'Stance' there's more moves that serve the same function as a Stance or have the same mechanical complexity:

Stance Name	Stance Button Combination	Alternate Button Combination	Visual Telegraph	Primary 'Function'
Dragon Charge	d1+2 (Down & Left + Right Punch)	A lot of moves transition into this such as 4,3 or f3,1	Law does a little 'shimmy' with his arms	Law's main gimmick and Stance, Dragon Charge. This is what DSS was all about in the earlier Tekken games and the high bar of execution in this is essentially gone in Tekken 8. Typically you'll go into this stance through 34. Can transition to Slide Step if you hold (df) after entering Dragon Charge.
Dragon Parry	b24 (Back & Left Punch + Right Kick)	N/A	Law uses his right arm to knock away the opponent's punch and parry it	A great parry option Law has that other character's don't have. Can be used while in Dragon Charge and doing so will recharge some Heat Time.
Somersault Kick	U/F4 (Hold Up and Forward + Right Kick)	U/B4 or U4 or FC u/b,4 or FC u4, & lastly FC u/f4	Law does a full backflip kick	Not a stance but this singular attack is so integral to Law's identity and move set it might as well be. You can input this attack any number of different ways, go right from Somersault Kick to Backflipper, and a lot of his strings end with a nice backflip kick.
Somersault	u3	N/A	Law does a backflip kick that doesn't hit the opponent regardless of distance	Again, not a stance, but this is a move where Law literally flips in place like he's going to do a Somersault Kick, but doesn't attack. From this you can do Somersault Fake (hit 4 after the Somesault AKA u3,4) or you can go right from this into a full Somersault Kick and even Backflipper. Another great 'mind-games' option.

Overall, you want to learn the strings that lead into Dragon Charge as much as possible. Doing so leads your opponent to constantly second guessing themselves on how you're going to follow up the Dragon Charge, and even if they start trying to counter it with fast jabs, you can then use Dragon Parry to shut them down again. Somersault Kick is also a very core part of Law's moveset, as it's almost impossible to avoid using it and who would even want to considering how amazing it looks to use.

The Marshall Law Starter Pack

General Tips & Tricks For Mastering This Guy

Tekken 8 - Marshall Law Story Mode Ending Screenshot

In general, think of Law as very strong in Tekken 8. He's not the absolutely easiest character to pick up, but he's not far from this title, and while his skill ceiling is high there's a lot you can do with this character after learning just his basic Dragon Charge gameplan and a few combos. For some overall tips and tricks to keep in mind, however:

Tip #	Explanation
1	A lot of Marshall Law's 1,2 strings are unsafe on block. 1,1 and 1,2,3 are the best strings to take the flow of the round back and poke at your opponent's defenses.
2	Law also has a lot of basic strings that end with highs, so be ready for your opponent to duck and then 'check' them with a mid (d/f,1 is a good choice) when they do so.
3	You're going to be using f,3,4,F a whole lot, as this is a very quick and reliably safe way to both attack and go into Dragon Charge. From here you're usually at a frame advantage and can do any number of attacks out of Dragon Charge to mix-up your opponent. Careful, however, as they can easily punish you by ducking the second hit of this, so adapt and start using f,3,1,F to get into Dragon Cahrge if they start getting used to f,3,4,F.
4	Law's general gameplan is to use his great poke moves, most of which transition into Dragon Charge, to constantly keep you on the defensive before opening you up with a mix-up and going into a full combo from there.
5	Because of Law's fast pokes and general offense-focused playstyle he's great at slowly beating his opponents with chip damage. Remember that enemies take increased chip damage too if you're in Heat Mode, so use that to punish an overly defensive opponent without them even realizing it.

As a final note, Law suffers a lot when fighting someone who has great defense in Tekken 8. He has a lot of easily punishable strings with negative frame advantage, so you'll need to be extra careful with your moves against these opponents. The better the enemy knows their matchup against Law, the more you'll have to switch things up to keep them guessing. Or, worst case, you could try to overwhelm them with raw aggression, as Law's has a lot of easy strings that keep him in frame advantage, which makes it easy to punish an opponent that mistakenly thinks it's 'their turn' to play.