SSBM Advanced Techniques

[ZaplinG]

Got the idea from MasterP to make a thread describing these things. There is tons of stuff out there on the internet that you could dig up, so I am just going to steal all this information from other places and compile it here. If you have any questions, just ask!

 

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Before I start explaining things, you must first learn the language I will be using. Attacks will hereby be referred to as (direction)(button or force) So, for example a forward smash is fsmash. An up attack in the air is uair, ect.

 

Terms

 

Air Dodge

L or R in the air results in an air dodge. Until a character lands after an air dodge, he cannot do any attacks or jump, like after most recovery attacks. You can also influence the direction of an air dodge with the control stick. Air dodges can be used as an “extra jump” for characters without a good up-b (Yoshi, Jigglypuff, Single Ice Climber, etc)

 

Bomb jump

Samus and Link can both bomb jump, but in different ways. With Samus, if you use a bomb in midair, drop, and use another bomb, you’ll bounce into the explosion of the first bomb and bounce again. You can repeat this for as long as you like giving Samus great recovery. With Link, when he is recovering you have to pull out a bomb, as you use your second jump, then throw it up, Up-B into the bomb, and then use Up-B again after the bomb hits you. The result is one jump but two Up-B’s.

 

Cancel

From the air, many characters can cancel attacks or effects of attacks- usually lag- by doing an attack close to the ground. Some examples are:

Peach’s Float cancel- Start an aerial attack while floating, and land while still doing the attack. There will be no lag from the attack.

Samus’ Missile cancel- The missile will fire, but there will be no lag from it, and Samus will be able to move instantly. Alternatively, the missile (forward- will still make a sound, but no projectile will be fired.

Falco’s Laser cancel- see above (Except use B attack)

ect.

 

Chainthrow

Repeatedly throwing another character in such a manner as to prevent them from landing. They can’t escape during the chain, allowing you to continue to rack up damage. Eventually, the characters damage will be so high that the throw sends them out of your reach. Some common chains are:

Marth – Up against fastfallers

Sheik- D-throw

Ice Climbers – D-throw

 

Down Canceling

Hold down when hit. Up to a certain damage percentage, this will prevent you from being sent flying.

 

Dash Canceling

During a run, pressing down will cause you to crouch and therefore stop the run without experiencing the lag of the dash-stop animation.

 

Dash Dancing

Quickly press left and right on the control stick, so the character does the opening animation of the run in both directions, usually in place. Used as a fake-out tactic of sorts as well as a spacing tool.

 

Desynching

Staggering the Ice Climbers’ actions to have them perform actions independently of each other. In essence, it allows you to control both climbers separately. It is fairly hard to learn, but if you would like to try, see the video below for a tutorial:

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2732539557053232656

 

Double Jump Cancel

You can stop the upward motion of Mewtwo, Ness, Peach, and Yoshi’s second jump with an aerial attack.

 

Edge-guarding

Attacking the enemy as he/she is recovering to prevent them from making it back onto the stage.

 

Edge-hogging

Only one character at a time can hold onto an edge. So, if you are on the edge, your opponent can’t be. The best way to edge-hog is to either wavedash or short-jump backwards onto the ledge. Also, you are still considered to be on the edge even if your character is coming up from the edge. This means you can tap L or R to roll recover up the ledge and still be considered edge-hogging. You gain invincibility frames when you recover like this, making you immune to last ditch attempts to knock you off the edge.

 

Often you will see good players take the edge, willingly jump off, hit the enemy, then land back on the ledge or stage in a form of edge-guarding.

 

Edge-hop

Press down or away from while hanging on the edge, followed by an immediate jump and an attack. This lets you attack while getting up, off the ledge. The timing is different for each character, though, so be sure to practice before you do this in an important match.

 

Fastfalling

Pressing down while in the air after the peak of your jump will make your character fall faster than usual. This eliminates time spent vulnerable in the air and also just generally speeds up your game a bit. Abbreviated as FF and is the second part of a SHFFL.

 

Foxtrot

Dashing then stopping over and over again, causing the character to only do the opening animation of the run. For some characters, this is faster than just running.

 

Frame

A term used in videography and game design to describe each individual picture, which when put together make video. SSBM runs at 60 frames per second, so one frame is one 60th of a second.

 

Jump-cancel

While dashing, if you jump and then attack or grab during the jumping animation, you can stop the dash immediately and then attack. For example, if you run forward and then hit up+A simultaneously, you will do an up-smash instead of a jump and a u-air. Jump-canceling grabs allows you to execute standing grabs while moving.

 

Ken Combo

As Marth, a combo of several f-airs into a d-air spike. Named after pro smasher Ken.

 

L-cancel

When L, R, or Z is pressed before you hit the ground, the normal recovery time after an aerial attack is decreased. This works for air attacks only. For example, Link’s aerial down-A L-cancelled will result in his pulling the sword out of the ground faster. Keep in mind that L-canceling doesn’t get rid of the lag, it just reduces it. A very small percent of aerial moves cannot be L-cancelled. Is the final step for a SHFFL.

 

Light Shield

Holding L or R lightly or Z brings up a bigger but weaker shield. It prevents shield-stabbing and is great for guarding against weak attacks. Also can be used on the edge to prevent a marth from recovering with an up-b.

 

Meteor Spike

A meteor Spike is a spike that can be cancelled. Most send the opponent straight down. This includes most spikes. If used on solid ground, it will send the opponent straight up.

 

Meteor Cancel– Jumping out of an opponent’s Meteor Spike. If you double jump or up-b immediately after being hit by a meteor spike, you can cancel the momentum.

 

Moonwalk

Moonwalking can be performed by many characters, but the most effective moonwalker is Captain Falcon. To moonwalk, dash in a direction and quickly do a half circle rotation back (during which you should be pressing down at some point). The character will dash forward, then slide back while still doing their dashing animation. Good for mixing up your approach.

 

Phantom Hit

Unintentional glitch where an attack hits but doesn’t move the opponent and only does half of the normal amount of damage. Occurs when the opponent is hit by the very edge of a hitbox.

 

Pillar

Two forms of this concept have arisen over the years. The first, its formal definition, involves a Falco player chipping away at an opponents’ shield by alternating between shuffled d-airs and his shine attack. The second, more commonly used definition is the actual shine to d-air combo where the opponent receives damage. It is also used, rarely, to refer to similar tactics as Fox.

 

Powershielding

Shielding when a projectile or thrown item is inside the range of the shield. This will result in a white flash and the attack not hitting you or weakening the shield. This will also cause projectiles to be reflected. It requires split second timing to pull off reliably, and there are only a few players who can do it consistently in a heated match.

 

Repetitive Move Transmutation

When any move is used repeatedly, the strength and knockback of that move will gradually go down. It can be brought to normal strength by using other moves and/or dying.

 

Sex Kick

This term refers to any neutral N-air kick that does damage after the actual movement of the foot is over. The attack gets weaker and has less knock back the longer it is out. The only exception is Dr. Mario. His sex kick attack actually gets stronger, and has more knock back the longer it is out.

 

Shield grab

Hitting A or Z while shielding will allow you to grab the opponent out of your shield. An essential tactic for countering overaggressive opponents.

 

Shine Spike

The term for spiking someone using Fox’s reflector. Because Fox’s reflector sends people down, is instantaneous, and has invincibility frames, it is a very useful method for edge-guarding.

 

Short hop

While running or standing, pressing a jump button or up on the control stick lighter than usual will result in a shorter first jump. Abbreviated as SH and is the first part of a SHFFL.

 

SHFFL

Pronounced ‘shuffle’, this is the fastest possible combo to perform an attack. First, you short hop. Second, you throw a move. Third, you fast fall. Lastly, you L cancel the attack.

 

Spot dodge

Also known as side-stepping, spot dodging is pressing down while shielding to dodge/side-step an attack. You can also press down on the C-stick to spot dodge. Lag, startup, and duration vary by character.

 

Teching

When you are tumbling in the air after being hit, you can press L, R, or Z near the ground or a wall/ceiling, with or without a direction, to recover faster than usual. Holding left or right on a ground tech will result in a roll in the direction. You will then jump up, and will be able to perform attacks. If you hold up on the control stick while teching off a wall, your character will jump off the wall, similar to a walljump. This is sometimes called the techjump. Techchasing refers to a tactic wherein a player will attempt to predict where their opponent will tech or roll and follow them there with an attack or grab.

 

Tilt

Hold any one of the four control stick directions and hitting A. Some left/right tilt attacks can be aimed diagonally. Called the “strong attack” in-game.

 

Tipper

Hitting with the tip of a weapon (ex. Marth’s/Links sword). Sends target much farther and does more damage than a non-tipper.

 

Triangle Jump

A tactic wherein you jump, then air dodge diagonally into the ground. Very similar to wavedashing, except that the air dodge occurs after the character leaves the ground, rather than before.

 

Wall of Pain

The use of aerials while weaving in and out of your opponent’s attack range to create a “wall” of priority. It almost always refers to the use of Jigglypuff’s aerials, particularly the b-air. This is most easily done by using the c-stick to use the desired aerial attack and using the joystick to weave in and out of your opponent’s attack range. Can be used with other characters such as Kirby with his b-air.

 

Wavedashing

A technique that turns an extremely low angled airdodge into a slide on the ground. It’s the product of the physics engine of the game. It uses an airdodge into the ground to cut off the jumping animation, and the left over momentum plus low traction causes your character to slide. Accordingly, low traction yields long wavedashes and high traction yields short wavedashes. For this reason, characters like Luigi, the Ice Climbers, and Marth have notable long wavedashes, while Peach and Zelda have shorter wavedashes. Traction on the stage also matters. For instance, an oil spill on Flatzone or the UFO on Fourside will give any character a super long wavedash.

 

Because it’s an aspect of the physics, there are two other things that will affect the length of a wavedash. The first is the timing of the airdodge. Delay the airdodge a little bit while you’re characters a touch higher off the ground, and the wavedash will be slower and shorter. If you wait until you’re coming down from a full jump, then the falling momentum adds to the airdodge and the wavedash gets longer (Referred to as a Waveland). The second thing that alters the length of a wavedash is the angle of your airdodge. A shallow angle closer to perfect left/right gives you a longer wavedash. If you tilt the control stick in a steep angle below the corner for the 45 degree down-right/down-left angle on the controller, you get a shorter wavedash. You can even airdodge straight down. You won’t move at all, but it cuts off your jump quickly. The normal wavedash is right in the 45 degree down-left/down right, but learning to control how long your wavedashes are can be very useful.

 

Essentially, wavedashing is moving while standing still. It allows you to perform any possible move or attack while moving.

 

It takes a bit of practice to preform reliably and incorporate into your game effectively. For your convenience, I have included a tutorial video if you would like to learn how to do this crucial tactic:

 

 

Waveland

If a character in the air does a downward diagonal airdodge while near the ground, they will slide along it in a manner similar to the wavedash.

 

Wobbling

An infinite hold by the Ice Climbers. Grab with Popo and tilt down on the control stick as you’re doing the grab. Keep hitting the A button, so that Popo does his grab attack, and Nana does her D-tilt. If done correctly, the other player should not be able to escape. Recently named for the first player to do it reliably in a tournament, Wobbles the Phoenix.

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