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( _ \( \/ ) ( _ \ /__\ ( ) /__\ ( )
) _ First Mode > Char Select to select your character. Highlight
'Stage' to change the stage. 'Last' is Final Destination. Anyway, once you
begin battle press R + Up to turn your character into a bunch of yellow blobs.
These are collision bubbles. Your opponent's collision bubbles have to touch
yours in an order for contact to take place. Use attacks while in this
'collision bubble' mode to see exactly where your attack hits. By doing this,
you'll get a better idea of how to use your moves in offense. You'll also see
when you're invincible as your collision bubbles will turn a different color.
Use all this knowledge to your advantage in battle. All the R functions in this
mode are useful. Do down, right, left, and up and you'll see all kinds of
useful things such as stage boundaries and hitboxes. By now you should have a
broader understanding of your character's attacks regarding priority, lag time,
start up time, and range. Now, let's discuss cancellation.
What is cancellation? Cancellation is the process of canceling lags or attacks.
There are two main types of cancels: L-Cancels and Jump-Cancels. Using these
cancels in battle will make your character far more agile. The most important
type of cancel is the l-cancel. This type of cancellation reduces the lag from
aerial attacks to almost zero, so you can get up and start attacking directly
after an aerial attack. Try this with your character. Go to your training
ground and short hop. You should remember how to short hop from III. At the
peak of your hop, move your thumb back to 'A' keeping the control stick in the
neutral position. Press 'A' at this point. You should have performed some kind
of aerial attack. Now, perform the action again except try to jump a split
second after you land from the aerial. It doesn't work does it? This is
because when you land while performing an aerial, there is a horrendous lag time
that leaves you open for attack if you miss them. To reduce this lag, TAP 'L',
'R', or 'Z' as soon as you land the attack. You'll know if you performed it
right when you can jump or shield immediately after landing. When short
hopping, one easy way to l-cancel that requires less practice is pressing 'Z'
twice. The first press of the button will result in an aerial attack while the
second press will immediately cancel the lag from landing. You can practice
this method or you can do it the traditional way. L-Cancellation is one of the
hardest techniques to get used to. Every aerial attack you do from now on
should be l-cancelled as it never leaves you open for attack. You can combo
your opponent like crazy if you master this ability. Another type of
cancellation, known as the Jump-Cancel, is a method of canceling an actual
attack or a dash, by jumping. Naturally, if an attack or dash can be jumped out
of, it can be wavedashed out of. So use this technique wisely for combos. One
example of an attack that can be jump-canceled is Fox's Down + B reflector move.
Its ability to damage opponents opens the door for many infinite combos, as you
can Down + B, wavedash, Down + B, wavedash etc. Another very common use for the
jump cancel is for performing Standing Grabs, Running Smashes, and Shield
Smashes.
Go to your training ground right now and place your opponent somewhere in front
of you. Begin a dash, by jamming the control stick in the desired direction,
and press 'Z' as you approach the opponent. If you did this correctly, you
should have grabbed the opponent. Now, once again place your opponent in front
and dash towards him/her. As soon as you are about to collide with the
opponent, go ahead and press Up + Z. The action of pressing Up + Z (X + Z also
works) should cancel the dash and begin a standing grab, opposed to the crouched
grab that is normally performed by a character when running. This version of
the grab is faster than the normal dash-grab and should be used either as a
mind-game, or for grabbing high-priority attacks. When a high-priority attack
approaches you, you can immediately jump-cancel the dash and grab, to the
annoyance of the opponent. Next, you can use the same principle of jump-
canceling the dash, to up-smash out of a dash or shield (especially useful with
characters with strong up-smashes e.g. Fox). When performing the Running Smash,
simply dash and then press Up + A at the correct time. It'll take some time to
get it right but once you do, it gets easier to perform it again. Uses for this
technique are endless. If your opponent is falling down away from you and you
are dashing towards him/her to send her up again, you can perform a running
smash. The running smash, however, can be performed using a different method of
canceling the dash as well. To cancel the dash in an alternate, slightly slower
way, crouch as you are dashing. This will cancel the dash and allow you to use
any attack. Now, let's discuss Shield Smashes. This is more of a defensive
counter technique, but since it falls along the lines of jump-canceling, it will
be explained here. A shield smash is nothing more than a shield to an
opponent's attack, immediately followed by your smash attack. It's faster than
grabbing out of a shield and will deal more damage as well. Simply press Up + A
at the correct time when the shield is activated. Since you can Jump-Cancel
shields, you can wavedash out of them as well, but you'll have to be careful not
to accidentally perform a roll.
By now you know how to short-hop, fast fall, and l-cancel. These 3 techniques
can be combined to perform one extremely useful technique called the 'Shffl' or
shuffle. The S and the H in this acronym stand for Short Hop. The FF stands
for fast fall, while the L stands for l-cancel, which is why 'Shffl' is
sometimes also called 'Shfflc'. What is this, you ask? It's the fastest way to
perform an aerial attack. This technique is much like an attack with very
little start up time and virtually no lag-time and high priority (as it's an
aerial attack), making this absolutely necessary in close-range combat. This
technique, however, is very hard to learn and takes a lot of practice. To
perform a shuffle, begin by short hopping. During your hop, press the 'A'
button and hold any direction on the control stick you like, or don't even press
the control stick. After this, perform a fast fall and as you touch the ground,
l-cancel the lag. It sounds complex, but soon it becomes one motion, much like
the wavedash. Once you learn how to shffl an aerial attack, you can perform
instant combos. You can do aerial attacks repeatedly with very little lag time
in the middle. You can wavedash after l-cancelling to catch up with your
opponent for more combos. To use shuffling effectively in battle, you should
perform a short-hopped aerial into the opponent, and as soon as you make contact
with him/her, immediately fast-fall and l-cancel. Now, you can catch up with
the opponent and continue your combo-ing. The shuffle is mainly used for
combos. One of the most important skills, it's not something to give up on.
Moving on, here is an offensive technique that can grant you a K.O while your
opponent is at a fairly low percentage. Edge hogging, they call it, is a way to
hog the edge so that the opponent, attempting to recover, misses the edge and
falls to their death below. Two people can't hang on an edge, so if you hog the
edge, how will the other person get on? It seems like a simple technique to
learn, but this, like all the others, will take some practice to get down.
You'll see why in a moment. First, let's discuss the easiest edge hogging
situation. If you hit your opponent off the edge and they are attempting to
recover, and they are above the edge (they are away from edge only in horizontal
distance), they will have to use an Up + B or other recovery move at some point
after their double jump. When they do, they will begin to fall towards the edge
in a disabled state, unable to attack. After using Up + B attack, examine your
falling animation. This is the disabled state where you can't do anything. If
you're hanging on the edge at the time in which they are in their disabled
state, they will simply fall to their deaths. This first situation is very easy
to edge hog in. The second situation requires good judgment and timing. First
you will most likely have spiked them downwards. A spike is a term used to
describe an attack that, in the air, sends the opponent flying downwards e.g.
Fox's Down + B, Ganon's Down + A, Falco's Down + A ... you should know your
character's spike attacks. Anyway, if they fall underneath the ledge, and they
are trying to get back up with a vertical recovery move, this vertical recovery
move will most likely be a damaging one e.g. Mario's Up + B. If they hit you
with this move while you're edge hogging, they will replace the edge and you
will get damaged. To avoid this from happening, as soon as they come within
range of your feet, press 'R' to roll back on to the stage. The few
invincibility frames of you getting up will protect you from the incoming attack
and will edge hog at the same time. An alternative in this situation is to
wavedash backwards onto the ledge. Don't hold down as you fall otherwise you
will not hang on to the edge. When you grab onto the ledge for the first time,
you will have a few invincibility frames as well. You can also use both these
techniques to have a longer invincibility. Wavedash back onto the ledge and
immediately press R to get back up. This extended period of invincibility will
edge hog superbly. One more note on edge hogging; if you have at least 100
damage, the invincibility frames of your character getting up will be extended,
allowing you to have more leeway when timing your press of the 'R' button. So
when at high percentages, make full use of this.
To conclude this section on offense, I'll describe to you an incredible edge
play tactic that can be used on both offense, as a means of attack, and defense,
as a safe way to get back up. The Ledge Hop is a jump from the ledge performed
by pressing Down + X. You will fly straight upwards and can perform any attack
you normally can in mid-air. It's good to fast fall an aerial attack from the
mid-air position and l-cancel as you hit the ground. The high priority of your
aerial attack will most likely keep the opponent off your back. It's by far the
safest way to get up from a ledge. To make this more of an offensive skill, you
can use it to do what is called a Ledge Wavedash. The ledge wavedash is a
wavedash from the ledge and is essentially the fastest, not necessarily the
safest, means by which you can get back up. You can link this type of wavedash
to a grab or smash or anything you can think of. To perform this move, you need
to first master ledge hopping. Once you can ledge hop consistently, try to
ledge hop so that when you jump, you jump diagonally in the direction you are
facing. In other words, after you press Down + X, immediately move the control
stick a little bit in the direction you are facing. If you are facing right,
the control stick should be facing a downwards right direction. Like the normal
wavedash, you should press the 'R' button as soon as you ledge hop. The timing
comes after a lot of practice. Once you get it however, you may or may not use
this technique because of the danger of incorrectly timing your dodge and
committing suicide. While you are wavedashing, you can use any standing
position move you like, so grab, smash, and do whatever.
So you've learned some useful offensive tactics that should improve your
offensive style of play, but the game is not all about offense. When you focus
on both offense and defense, you'll have a higher winning rate then a player who
only focuses on offense. So what are you waiting for ... let's move on to
defense!
=================V================
====Advanced Defensive Tactics====
=================V================
Defense is the art of preventing the opponent from inflicting damage on your
character. By resisting or driving back an enemy attack, we can immediately put
them into a combo-ing position and switch to offensive mode. With good
defensive skills, the damage you take and the lives you lose will be much less
within a given time. Developing a good defense is critical.
When someone hits you so that you fly upwards, they'll most likely try to keep
you in the air. They'll try to juggle you. You can make it much harder on them
if you use a technique called Directional Influence in combination with the fast
fall. When you push the control stick in any given direction, it influences the
direction of your character. Pushing the control stick right moves your
character right whereas pushing it left will move your character left. When you
go flying up in the air, you can become very tricky by fast falling and
influencing your direction one way, and when you are a few feet above your
opponent, moving the other way. Whatever move they were planning to attack you
with will lag (assuming they attempted it) and you will safely fast fall onto
the ground ready to battle. This is the safest way to fall from an attack as it
makes it a burden for the opponent to position him/herself beneath you. It can
make the difference between life and death.
Other defensive techniques that help you when you are in the air include the Air
Recovery (or Air Tech) and The Tech. Normally, when you get thrown a few feet
above the ground, you'll be disabled (unable to attack) for a certain amount of
time. Usually, to save ourselves, we simply use our second jump or some sort of
attack. However, this isn't exactly the best method. When you're high in the
air, and your opponent remains on the ground, it puts you in a vulnerable
position. The opponent has a major advantage over you. Although it may seem
safer high up in the air, what you actually you need to do is stay closer to the
ground. When you are sent in the air from an attack, it's best to use
directional influence to reach the ground, and tech when you hit. Teching is an
elementary skill, and only requires little practice.
To tech, press the L or R button just as you hit the ground, maybe slightly
before. The timing comes after a few tries. To practice this skill when you're
alone, set yourself up against a level 9 computer on Final Destination. When
you get smashed or get thrown up into the air, fall towards the ground and
attempt to tech. If you teched properly, you'll notice it, as you will recover
significantly faster than normal. However, the type of tech you're doing right
now is most likely the Standing Tech, which is far less useful than the Tech
Roll. To tech roll, simply hold the left or right direction while you tech.
You will do an abnormally long roll on the ground and will appear evasive to
your opponent. To use the tech roll in battle, you should know how far your
character usually rolls when performing it. If, from a fall, you hit the ground
a little to the right of the approaching opponent, then it's not a good idea to
tech further to the right. Because of the minute lag of the tech, you'll again
be put into the defensive position, which is obviously not what you want.
Instead, consider teching 'through' your opponent. In other words, in a
situation where you've landed a little to the right or left of the opponent,
tech roll towards the opponent. This will get you out of the combo-ing position
and get you ready for battle again. Next, there is the Wall Tech. You'll
notice when you hit a wall after getting knocked back, you'll bounce around and
not recover as fast as you would like. The good news is that you can tech while
hitting a wall as well. In a place like Hyrule Temple, such a technique helps
quite a bit. You can even do something that closely resembles a wall jump after
you are hit. Simply hold an upwards direction on the control stick while you
wall tech, and voila, you did a wall jump right after getting attacked. Also,
if someone is edge guarding against you when you are directly beneath the ledge,
and they are charging up a down-smash, it might seem dangerous to try and
recover. However, if you are close enough to the ledge, you can perform a wall
tech, OFF the ledge! Just press L right when he/she smashes you. Then, you can
use another recovery move to make it back onto the stage. Overall, teching is
one of the most useful defensive skills and should be learned well.
Now, you should know that you can only tech when you actually 'hit' the ground.
For this reason, if your opponent catches up to you BEFORE you reach the ground,
you'll most definitely get hurt. A better way of recovering in the air as
opposed to jumping is to use the Air Tech. You should use this recovery when
you get hit high enough so that normal ground teching is out of the question.
To use this recovery, repeatedly tilt the control stick from side to side until
you recover, being careful not to accidentally jump. Now, when you recover, you
are free to use any move you like. It is recommended that you use an aerial
attack rather than jumping or air dodging and disabling yourself. The whole
point of this recovery is so you can begin attacking sooner. You can jump
recover too, but it's not as effective as the basic air recovery. Use this
technique anytime you are sent flying and are under the threat of dying, or when
you would like to attack from the air, instead of falling and teching or tech
rolling. This technique is also very useful when you fly off the edge and can't
recover fast enough to jump back on to the stage. You can make your recovery
faster by tapping left and right and then jumping as soon as you see your
character recovered.
Now, say you get hit off the stage and our trying to recover with a standard
recovery move, such as Up + B. Chances are, if you're up against a strategic
opponent, he/she will be guarding the edge, ready with a sword (Marth, Roy) or
charging down smash (Falco, Fox). You need to be able to avoid these attacks
while you recover. This is a perfect example of a situation in which you need
to utilize the invincibility frames you have when you first grab the ledge. In
a technique known as 'sweetspotting', you either barely reach the edge, or you
reach the edge in time so that you are invincible by the time your opponent's
attack occurs. You'll notice that when you are off the stage and approach a
ledge, your character grabs the ledge before he touches it. Every character has
a different 'ledge grab range', as I call it. Ness has a considerable grab
range. To use sweetspotting, you need to be familiar with this range. When you
are knocked off the stage and are trying to make it back, you'll either be above
the edge, or below the edge. What you need to be able to do is position
yourself so that you can use a recovery move (most likely Up + B; Side + B in
some cases), and at the end of that recovery move, you'll barely be in range of
the ledge so that you can grab it. Since Fox is my primary character, I can
give you a good example. Say Roy is up on the ledge of Final Destination
waiting with his 'B' move, and Fox has been knocked off below the ledge and is
trying to get back up. What this Fox needs to do is to position himself
directly underneath the ledge, and then fall a bit and use his Firefox (Up + B)
move. If he has executed this correctly, he will fall short of the ledge by an
extremely small amount, but because of his grab range, will hang and attain
invincibility for a fraction of a second. From here, Fox can either wait for
the defender's move to end (if it occurred right when he reached the ledge), or
drop down (if the he's not going to be invincible when the defender's move takes
place). To practice this type of vertical sweetspotting, get a general idea of
the maximum height of your character's vertical recovery move (assuming he/she
has one) and then practice on any course with a ledge, preferably Final
Destination or Hyrule Temple. Drop down low enough so that you will just barely
make the edge, and then use the move. If you go higher than the edge, then you
are vulnerable to attack. Also, your character may or may not have a horizontal
recovery move. Fox, for example, has his (Side + B) move that can be used to
sweetspot the edge by instantly grabbing the ledge. Whoever your character may
be, experiment with his/her sweetspotting capabilities and you should have found
a technique that suits your usual match-ups best.
*****************************************************
As for now, this is all the guide is. But be sure to check back for updates. I
may add some other technique tutorials as well. So far, you've learned most of
the 'basic' advanced techniques that exist in the game. Hopefully, you enjoyed
learning them and are putting them to good use. There are many more to explore
though. One place to go if you want to learn more is http://www.smashboards.com
which is probably the best website for smash out there! Speaking of
SmashBoards, I'd like to thank all the influential members on the site who
helped me learn a lot about my Fox and smash in general. I don't want to
mention names, because I'm afraid I'll forget one. There are so many of them.
Anyway, thanks to them and thanks to Nintendo and HAL for producing the most
awesome fighting game on the planet! Thanks to all my friends who smashed with
me, it was fun and without you I wouldn't have gotten any better. And finally,
thanks for reading this. Without you, there is no point in this guide. Thanks
and good luck with your smash! Oh and by the way, I've never made a guide
before like this before so excuse the weird ASCII text art logo if it's
unprofessional...
