How to quickly unlock every character in Street Fighter 5

Olivia Richman Published 16/06/2022

With Street Fighter 6 officially announced, fighting game fans may be looking to brush up on their skills by playing the previous title in the venerated series. Here is how to unlock all of the characters in Street Fighter 5 so that you can be better prepared for the SFVI roster.

Street Fighter 5 comes with 16 fighters on the roster that don’t need to be unlocked. These characters are all available to play from the start for anyone who owns Street Fighter 5:

Ryu
Chun-Li
Nash
M. Bison
Cammy
Birdie
Ken
Necalli
Vega
R. Mika
Rashid
F.A.N.G
Karin
Zangief
Laura
Dhalsim

How many characters are in Street Fighter 5?

There are currently 35 characters on Street Fighter 5’s roster. This includes the 16 starting fighters as well as characters that can be unlocked either in the course of normal gameplay or by purchasing new additional characters as DLC.

How to unlock all the characters in Street Fighter 5

To unlock characters in Street Fighter 5, you’ll need Fight Money. This is an in-game currency that is earned through various modes in the game. Each character takes a lot of Fight Money to unlock, so it may take a lot of grinding in-game. For this reason, some people opt to of purchasing the DLC characters using the in-game currency, instead buying the DLC characters with real money.

If you’re looking to avoid real-money purchases, here is how to get Fight Money in Street Fighter 5.

Online battles

Each online victory earns you 50 FM. While competing against real people online is the main draw of Street Fighter 5, this isn’t a lot of FM when you realize that DLC characters cost about 100,000 FM or more.

Character stories

To get better at the game and quickly rack up Fight Money, consider playing Story Mode. When you complete a character’s story mode, you can earn a lot of FM for use in buying new characters.

Level up characters

Every time a character goes up a level, you’ll earn 1,000 FM. You can level up characters by completing Trials and the game’s Survival Mode. Set Survival Mode to the highest level of difficulty in order to level up more quickly through this game mode. You’ll want to go through each character’s story and play Survival Mode with each character to keep the Fight Money coming in.

Complete missions

There is a list of Missions under the Challenges section. Most Missions reward players with Fight Money if the listed task is completed succesfully.

By taking on Missions and grinding various game modes with all of the game’s starting characters, you’ll not only earn Fight Money for unlocking new characters but will also learn how to master Street Fighter 5. You’ll learn different matchups and techniques that will better serve you when playing with friends, and could prepare you for playing Street Fighter 6 when the new game releases.

Olivia Richman

About Olivia Richman

Olivia has worked in media ever since graduating from college, with her coverage ranging from traditional newspaper reporting to digital coverage of all things gaming, online betting, and nerd culture. She has traveled around the world pursuing that coverage, from the far coasts of the United States to the busy downtown core of Tokyo, Japan. Olivia’s favorite games include Overwatch and Super Smash Smash Bros, and she has been published at Esports Illustrated, Inven Global, EsportsInsider, Upcomer, and elsewhere.

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