SSBU/Sora/Combos

Intro
The purpose of this guide is to teach players the general combo tree of Sora's combos. Sora's combo structure relies on a few key moves, and he can follow up, extend, or shorten combos in multiple ways. Damage scales with how good your execution is. This page is an attempt of displaying Sora's combos in comprehensive manner regardless if they are simple or advanced. This is to make it easier to not only execute the combos, but also understand where you may fail.

If you are a novice or not confident in learning Sora because of his skill ceiling, don't concern yourself with what you should or shouldn't learn. Take things one step at a time, get comfortable with the character, and slowly develop how much you push your Advantage and combo/punish game. The character is flexible in playstyles, and many players with different playstyles have all seen success playing how they want to push the character.

Another thing, this is more important if you dislike reading: Watch Dusty_Carpets combo video. It is a well made, cohesive piece of information on Sora's combo game. It does not cover everything, but if you are starting of, it may even be a better place to start. You can find his video in the resource tab under "videos".

Still here? Alright.

Here is some common terminology you should familiarize yourself with:


 * This is referring to the first of three s
 * This refers to the second of the three
 * Refers to the third and final.


 * This is referring to the first of three s
 * This refers to the second of the three
 * Refers to the third and final.

For the sake of clarity, this page won't use this type notation. "Fastfall" will be mentioned whenever it occurs. Just keep this in mind when discussing this with other Sora players when communicating through other forums, chats or discord. The exact same applies for: and, including dragdowns
 * /: Refers to hitting both and . When these are coupled together like that in notation, it is often implied that you will be fast falling unless stated otherwise. It is very common to say "Nair12-> UpSmash". it impossible to gain enough frame advantage from doing  and  rising from a SH just to normal fall into an  for a true combo. You need proper timing from  too  and fast fall within a certain timeframe.

An example of the aforementioned combo "Nair12->UpSmash" It will be written as: >FF>


 * Aerial Sweep: Up B


 * Sonic Rave: Side B


 * IDJ: IDJ:, or Instant Double Jump. Very important to learn if you want to push this character to its limit.


 * FF: FastFall


 * FS: Footstool. For this page, Phantom footstool will just be referred to as "Phantom-FS"


 * FH: Full Hop


 * SH: Short hop

Note for SHR: Most of the SHR starters can also be interpreted as just landing from a platform, or from doing grounded footstools. The most common timing to use are the SHR starters, and inconsistencies may lie in using the other two.
 * SHR or FHR: Refers to rising short hop or rising full hop.

In addition, most combos will have difficulty levels. They range from Beginner, Easy, Medium, Hard, and Godlike difficulties. Some of these combos are very unintuitive to learn at first, but a lot of people have gotten these combos at least once or twice. The sky is the limit.

Combo Theory
But to understand more deeply, look at this funny image made by  WhyDo (@WDBTHtGP on Twitter) that could make things easier to understand.
 * As mentioned above is one of Sora's core combo tools. You could almost say it is the "key" to his combos. spins his sword all around him, and each section of the spin does something different individually. This move shines for a platitude of reasons. First of all it has a lot of hitstun. This means you can start with falling  and open up a combo tree. This also works with  Second, it has range, and is relatively safe on shield along with mixups on shield, bounce or no bounce. Learning these mixups are important, and they will be covered later. The point is, because of their safety, they can be used in neutral. There are a lot of combo starters in this game that are not great neutral tools because of their lack of safety or that they are inflexible. Sora's  is very flexible, and is also relatively safe depending which context you are using it in.



For refrence, "nooping" is the art of looping someone with just over and over again. "foops" also exist, but are even more niche. The point of the image is that there is a world of difference between each hitbox. Technically, there are way more hitboxes with different values in angles, hitstun and knockback other from just these. The hitboxes displayed have actually the least amount of hitstun out of any of the other hitboxes in, and that is 18 remaining hitboxes! The image is specifically for "nooping" though, but it highlights a "garbage hitbox". It's not only "a garbage hitbox" its "the garbage hitbox". This is basically the bane of some Sora players because this hitbox will mess up their timing. Either it is because of the angle it sends with low knockback, or low hitstun. Regardless which one it is, it messes up their timing, and it is also unable to confirm into certain moves, like because of its low hitstun. In terms of hit advantage, at low percent (i.e having no rage), against an opponent with 0 percent, the hilt hitbox in WhyDo's visual is 18 frames, 17 frames at the tip, and 12 frames in the middle. The remaining hitboxes after the first frame of are between 19-23 frames. These values are hit advantage from landing right after you connect them. Even if you connect with the "garbage hitbox" you can still connect with, the question is if you can get the timing and spacing right, both for reacting properly with and connecting it so you can get the desired followup. As mentioned, how you land these hits will determine the followups.

There is also an important thing to consider regarding execution of the combos. Rage and opponent percent are equally important to consider. Some combos get easier and harder the higher these factors are. WhyDo is correct that you can't DI Sora's at frame 1. There are a lot of similarities with as well, there are exceptions though, since some parts of the move does send into tumble. Some, like the back hit of will always send into tumble, and others like parts of  will only send into tumble at high percent and rage.

As a general rule of thumb. Unless you are familiar with Sora, avoid hitting hitbox 2 as much as possible. There are cases where it can be useful, but they are not the norm. It is also not easy to avoid it at all times, since it is in a very convenient spot to hit with. Now that we have learned some intricacies of, it's time to move to its cousin,

, while not as versatile as, it is still very important. It is because of it's ability to dragdown the opponent. When mentioning dragdowns it's also very important to mention that not all hitboxes have the same angles, and the one you are looking for is the tipper hitbox which is hard to hit against some characters. Sometimes it's okay to hit the middle hitbox of for some characters. The reason why dragdowns are important for Sora, is that most of his moves send the opponent up. With a way to bring the opponent back down, you could almost "loop" the opponent in a way for extra damage. The most difficult, and high damaging combos Sora can do builds on this principle. A simple way is just to use after a dragdown, or even  them. Both of these leads into high damage. But what if you can do >FF after ? The most common way to get >DD>FF is from first landing >FF. So if we can somehow land >FF after >DD>FF, then it will be a neverending, non-DI'able combo, right? That is correct, but there is one problem. When Sora hits an opponent with his he does a bounce, and with a shorthop, his "lowest jump" he is still way to high to get any meaningful hit advantage after hitting. This would be a dead end if IDJ didn't exist, and it does. What's ironic is that Sora's DoubleJump, or "DJ" is better suited for combos rather than mobility. It's unsure if this is an oversight or not, but that's not why you are here. If you employ an IDJ before, you will be just slightly above the ground. And if done correctly, you will have enough hitstun for a bunch of his options. This includes. As mentioned before, it isn't easy to land the tipper hitbox of, but with IDJ it becomes a lot easier. The only issue again is that you will be hitting "too high" with and will whiff in some cases. That's fine, because again, IDJ will remedy that issue. (IDJ) will be able to hit in most cases since then the startup of the is closer to the ground. Reason for that phrasing is because there are exceptions. This is the "peak" or most "godlike" thing you can do with Sora. Doesn't mean its the only thing.

To summarize:
 * Certain hitboxes have different purposes
 * dragdown combos. IDJ for optimal dragdowns
 * You need to adjust to certain timings and spacings
 * Certain characters are more prone to certain combos than others.



When you start getting more comfortable with Sora's Nair and how to hit it, Sora can start going for slightly more advanced combos. These are still not fairly difficult, but they lead to more damage and kills at earlier percent's and should be prioritized if possible.

So what about if they are on a platform? We got you covered.

Throws
Sora has a pretty good set of Throws. Down Throw can true combo into Nair at 0 and from low to middle percents, and Forward Throw can tech chase at middle percents and set up for offstage play at higher percents or near the ledge. When it comes to killing, his Back Throw and Up Throw are more useful, with Back Throw killing at the ledge at around 130 to 140 percent on Middle weights and lighter, and Up Throw killing most light to middle weights at around 180 percent.

Rage
Rage is a mechanic that changes how much knockback a move can do the more you increase damage taken. Although Sora is a light character, if he can live to a higher percent Sora can take advantage of this. Sora's moves get added hitstun with more rage which allows them to true combo easier. The added hitstun on Nair and Fair is the basis for a combo structure called "Ars Arcanum".

Ars Arcanum
Primarily optimized by Limon @Limon1211zzz, Ars Arcanum can potentially be one of Sora's more deadly tools and can make his loops very consistent and universal across most of the cast. The foundation of the combo falls yet again on Sora's Nair, but also in conjunction with his Fair and some use of IDJ. The easiest value to remember is 100%, however Ars Arcanum (which will also be referred to as Ars Arc, interchangeably) can work consistently at around 90 and is possible even without the use of Rage. It's just easier to preform when you have more rage, as the extra hitstun gives you more leeway.

Ars Arc can be used in a variety of ways. On stages with few platforms to interfere, you could horizontally loop your opponent across the stage. On stages with platforms, IDJ Nair can make it easier to rise with Nair1 onto a platform, and continue from there. This vertical approach can strongly benefit Sora, as comboing onto platforms gets him closer to top blastzones, where his Up Smash and Aerial Sweep can start killing earlier from confirms. Ars Arc can be used as a simple kill confirm, as if you hit a Rising Nair at 80 or 90 going into a quick IDJ Fair into IDJ Nair Up Smash can net a stock while also being a consistent conversion, and not have to worry about what hitbox of Nair you got if done right. The versatility of Ars Arc means that with practice it can become a very strong tool, but you can use it in different situations as you see fit. Although it can be hard to practice, it's recommended to learn Ars Arc and at least some simple applications of it as quickly as possible. For a more in depth guide into how to preform Ars Arcanum and some of it's intricacies, view the information in Resources.

Edgeguard

 * Naturally, a character than can go offstage as far as Sora can would be very strong at Edgeguarding. His Aerials all have general hitboxes and are good from stopping the opponent from getting back onto the stage. In particular, Back Air, Fair, and Nair are good because they have large hitboxes that send the opponent away from the stage. Back air can be done a numerous amount of times offstage due to its endlag, and Fair and Nair have auto followups in case the first attack hits. You can also use the initial hits of Fair and Nair and choose not to use the Finisher, as Sora can often drag opponents with worse recoveries offstage and end up gimping them.


 * Magic is also a tool that Sora can use. Thunder on the ground goes farther, however in the air it covers a space closer to him faster. All three spells suspend your air movement, allowing you to float in the air even more while sending out projectiles for the opponent to navigate around. All three spells can gimp the opponent, but Blizzaga and Firaga are particularly useful on characters with mediocre recoveries as it stops their horizontal momentum and in the case of Blizzaga, can freeze them in place and make them fall. Thundaga can sometimes not fully connect on all three hits and gimp the opponent, but it can also outright kill opponents off the top. Going offstage to use these in combination with your aerials can make offstage seem like a minefield for the opponent.


 * Counter is a tool that Sora can use quite liberally. It's recovery is not as much as other characters, like his Magic his momentum is stalled in the air, and because he is a floaty character with a large Double Jump he can whiff counter offstage numerous amounts of times before needing to recover back to stage. Unlike most counters, Sora's counter actually stops the opponents attack on contact and stuns them before attacking. This makes it much better at stopping moves that continue past other counters like  and  ,   , and   and   . The only caveat is that Sora's counter often does not activate behind him. Certain disjointed moves that can hit through him can activate it, but for the most part Sora must be facing the attack for the counter to activate. If countering a recovery that is hugging the ledge, Sora has to be right next to the stage in order to stop it.


 * Aerial Sweep can kill opponents that are close to the Blast Zone, so if Sora ends up burning his resources and needs to go back to the stage, using Aerial Sweep as one last chance to hit the opponent before using Sonic Rave after to go back to the stage can be useful.

Ledgetrap

 * Sora has many different options he can rotate while Ledgetrapping to force the opponent into picking certain options. Simply sitting at roll distance and rotating through spells can be enough to scare an opponent, as if spaced Thundaga can hit a ledge hang. Blizzaga and Firaga can be used to catch ledge drops, hit jumps if they run into the projectile, and keep Sora safe if they getup into the projectile and shield. Ftilt can be used to catch neutral getup on reaction. Back Air is also a strong option at ledge because it has a hitbox reminiscent of, just on a floatier character. The move is also safe when spaced, and because Sora has a longer airtime duration due to his floatiness, he can delay if or when he presses Back Air by a significant amount. Nair1 also has a hitbox behind him, so if you are ledgetrapping and they end up behind you, getting hit by Nair1 means they may be brought in front of you for a combo.

Notes on 2 Framing
 * Sora has a variety of options when it comes to 2 framing the opponent. His Dash Attack, Ftilt, and Down Smash are all grounded options that can hit the opponent while recovering to ledge if timed right. Down Smash in particular has a generous window and leaps into the air, making it difficult to counterpoke him. Ftilt and Dash Attack are quicker, and therefore can be done in reaction to opponents recovery easier and can be more ambiguous. Thundaga can also be used as an active pillar hitbox that prevents the opponent from grabbing the ledge of timed right, and will generally start threatening kills once aboe 100%. Landing Nair and Fair can also be used to catch ledge hangs or 2 frame, however they are much harder to use and time in comparison to Ftilt and Dash attack. Although they require you to be in the air and time a FastFall, if the attack connects you can go into Forward Smash for a very strong kill option at the ledge.

Common Set-ups

 * Sonic Rave is solid when the opponent is at middle to high percents, as hitting the first hit of Sonic Rave under a platform often forces them directly above it. This forces them into a tech scenario, and Sora in particular can cover most options extremely well. If they miss a tech, Up Smash has a big enough hitbox to cover most of the platform. If they tech, you can either try to cover their tech option with Up Smash and center yourself to where they are most likely to go, or can use Up Air to cover a majority of the platform