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Universal Strategy

No matter the character, there are a few things that characters will tend to share, and it is important to understand how to navigate these situations.

This will break down general parts of game states in a more digestible and player-friendly manner. For more detailed explanations that explain specifics of game interactions, please read System Mechanics.

Understanding Broad Game States

When talking about the flow of a game, people tend to typically split interactions up into three states: neutral, disadvantage, and advantage. Here, all three are outlined, but remember that not all states are immediately clear.

  • Advantage is the state where a player has the upper hand against the opponent, having more options than the opponent. This can come from positional advantage or having more actions possible compared to the opponent. In other words, this is where you know the opponent is in trouble, and you can capitalize on it.
  • Disadvantage is the state where a player has fewer options than the opponent. This often leads to being forced to make a commitment, and guessing wrong means staying in disadvantage. This is where you feel like the opponent has more options than you, or you're in danger from dying to a few more hits.
  • Neutral is the state where both players are looking for a clean opening. They both have equal access to the same amount of options. Finding a hit and entering advantage should be the goal, but not all hits found will necessary lead to an advantage.

Players will often spend the whole game navigating between these three states. Despite the definitions of each state here, remember that it is not always clear cut, as different characters react to situations differently. This is merely a framework to break down what happens in games. Understanding each state and how to improve is key to understanding the game.

Neutral

Neutral is this nebulous concept that many people have a different way of seeing. Players with good neutral will make you feel like it's impossible to get a clean hit on them, and they seem to always be reading your mind. Effectively, it's a rock-paper-scissors that both players are trying to play, but both players are never truly equal.

How do you navigate this then? Well, you can try to think of it in this framework. Attacks often require characters find the correct range to hit the opponent, which means that moving in and out of these ranges is key to finding the hit. Here, we'll use the following terminology:

  • Overshoots, attacks that are designed to attack the opponent if they retreat.
  • Undershoots, attacks that are designed to attack the opponent if they approach.
  • As a rule of thumb, you should never attack where the opponent currently is. Good opponents rarely want to stay in place and will move away to be able to immediately react to your option. If Zetterburn simply throws out a Down Air at where Clairen was, she likely already dashed away from that position, whether forward or backward, and she can react to you whiffing the Down Air with a Grab.

Effectively, you are constantly using your moves to bait and punish the opponent.

The Rock Paper Scissors of Neutral
Reactive Play Proactive Play Preemptive Play
Waiting for the opponent to throw out a hit, and reacting to the whiff. Predicting the opponent's option and beating them to the punch. Throwing out a low commitment option that stuffs out the opponent's approach. Typically used to protect a spacing.
Clairen running into and grabbing the opponent's whiffed option. Clairen running in with Jab to stuff out the opponent's movement. Clairen throwing out a retreating or in-place Forward Air, beating the opponent option.

Advantage

Advantage is perhaps the reason why most people like to play fighting games. When you're in advantage, your job is simple -- keep hitting the opponent until they're dead. Players with good advantage state will find one opening and kill you off it. This is also where punish game comes in, the ability to convert off of a single opening and continue hitting them into a kill or an offstage edgeguard.

Tech Chasing

This page is missing significant information. You can help by editing it. This is a work in progress section.

When an opponent is about to enter knockdown state, they have four options.

Tech Options
Tech In Place Tech Roll Away Tech Roll In Missed Tech
They can tech in place, which is the fastest option. However, they retain their original position They can tech roll away, typically to escape pressure from where they teched. However, this usually gives up space. They can tech roll in to maintain space, but this usually is easier to cover compared to other options. They might miss the tech, which is generally disadvantageous, but this can duck certain high options.
Invulnerable: 20
Vulnerable: 6
Invulnerable: 20
Vulnerable: 20
Invulnerable: 20
Vulnerable: 20
Invulnerable: N/A
Vulnerable: 27
Total:26
Total:40
Total:40
Total:27

While opponents are invulnerable during the beginning of a tech, they will always be vulnerable at the end. If you can punish the vulnerability window of an opponent's tech option, you can find combo starters, another tech chase sequence, or even a kill option. Tracking down the opponent's vulnerability is known as tech chasing, using your options to predict or react to the opponent's tech option and get a hit in. This is the platform fighter's version of okizeme, if you come from traditional fighters.

Let's go through an example. Orcane is playing against a Loxodont, and Orcane just grabbed him, following up with a Down Throw.

Step 1: Is this a tech chase?

Here's a question: do they have to tech?

Characters will only enter knockdown if they are in heavy hitstun, meaning that they are knocked back at a high enough strength to start tumbling after hitstun. Characters in heavy hitstun will also generate a cloud trail when they are hit. If they're not in knockdown percents, they don't have to tech. Tech chasing is reliant on being able to cover the vulnerable window, but that means waiting out the 20 frames of invulnerability. If the opponent is not teching, then those 20 frames are just a free punish window for the opponent.

If a hit will always tumble, then you only have to worry about if the character can act before they land out of hitstun. If a hit isn't set to always tumble, you'll need to be familiar with the percent at which it knocks down. Ask around in your character server if they have knockdown percentages, and they will probably link you something that has all of them, if it isn't already on the character's wiki pages.

A secret tip: many beginners will always shield when landing, regardless of if they have to tech or not. It's very easy to capitalize on this with Grab if you so choose. Sure, they can buffer spotdodge or roll, but at that point, you've already won by forcing them into a defensive mixup that they never had to play to begin with.

Here's another question: is the opponent actually in hitstun when landing, or could they have escaped earlier? Opponents can exit tumble with a lot of options and forgo having to land with a knockdown or tech. If that's the case, you might also want to just play for the air juggle and forgo the tech chase altogether.

Don't think about this step after you've hit them, by the way. You should be considering this step before your launcher connects, to the point where it's muscle memory.

Step 2: Know where they will land and move in.

As soon as you're actionable, start moving. We'll assume that you're committed to the tech chase now, so there's no time to waste, get going.

One of the biggest mistakes that beginner tech chases make is their positioning during tech chases. The place that you can cover the most options will always be near where the opponent lands, and that means if you can beat the opponent to that position, you've got the most advantage and leeway to covering their tech options.

How do you know where they will land? Well, you can start moving, but the important part here is to track DI and SDI. While they can have a degree of variance on the move, more or less, they will not affect the move that greatly. It's also important to keep in mind that Throws do not have any SDI on them, meaning that they are significantly easier to account for when tech chasing. The more familiar you get with your character, the more you'll get a sense for this. Sometimes opponents will also DI to platforms, so keep that in mind when assessing where they might land.

The most important part, however, is that you have to start moving as soon as your hit is over. You can readjust your movement after you assess their DI and SDI, but the faster you're in position, the better. Typically, you want to stay grounded as well, since it is much faster to move while grounded as opposed to while airborne.

  • If they're going to land on the stage, move near them.
  • If they're going to land on a platform, you can either waveland onto the platform or position yourself under the platform. Both are advantageous positions.

The other benefit of this is that it affects the opponent's tech options.

  • If an opponent sees that you're too far away when they're teching, they can simply tech away from you and escape with ease.
  • If an opponent sees that you're in a threatening position when they tech, however, then they have to play the real mixup of escaping your option.
Step 3: Read or react?

A question that always comes up, depending on the game. Is it better to react to a tech option, or simply read it? Reacting is more consistent but demands precision, whereas reading is more rewarding but requires a prediction.

Reacting

You might think this is hard if you have bad reaction times, but truthfully, that's hardly the issue at all. It's unlikely that your reaction time is actually bad -- it's all about setting reaction points.

The way that reacting to a tech option works is by reacting to the character's animation. Characters will start moving in the direction they tech to on frame 7, and that is where universally, all characters will have a distinct tech animation. Human reaction time is typically 15 frames, meaning that once you identify the option on frame 7, you can start taking the approach you want to cover that option.

However, depending on the character, it is actually possible to identify their tech option even earlier than frame 7. This is very situational, but if you can study that reaction point, you'll gain more leeway when reaction tech chasing them.

Note that for missed techs, the opponent will distinctly splash on the ground in a yellow color unlike tech animations, which can be reacted to on frame 1.

Reading

Reacting is for chums. Reads is where it's at.

Players will always have habits. Sometimes they will always tech in place, sometimes they will always tech in, and sometimes they just don't expect a fast enough attack and miss the tech altogether. Exploiting these can lead to a lot of reward, and if you have a good enough read, you can get a lot of reward by preempting an option that would not be fast enough to come out if a reaction was required.

Step 4: Picking Options

Alright, you've made up your mind. Either you know because you saw it, or you felt it in your soul, but you know which option they're going to pick.

At this point, it's about deciding which option to pick. Deciding where and when to hit can be nuanced.

  • If they are not vulnerable, don't hit them. There are plenty of times where an option whiffs, not because you picked the wrong option, but because you picked it too early. Remember that you have to time it on the end of the window in order to get the hit in.
  • How far does the character's tech roll go? Different characters have different tech roll speeds, affecting their tech roll distance and likewise the follow ups available on them. However, just because a character has a long tech roll doesn't mean you have to wait for them to finish rolling. Characters become vulnerable on frame 21, which is commonly during their roll, even if they are still moving. You don't have to catch the position they're teching to if you can intercept them there.

There's also something to consider, which is that depending on positioning, characters will have their escape options severely limited.

  • Platform tech chases. If a character is stuck teching on a platform, their tech roll often stops at the edge of a platform.
    • This often means that if your attack is large enough, it can cover multiple options at once. Something like Orcane's Down Strong, for example, will cover the entire platform, making no option safe.
    • This also means that characters don't have to tech chase on the platform. Characters like Clairen can reliably shark under platforms with Up Air to cover options on a platform, which can be better if that leads to a stronger opening.
  • Forcing techs in the corner at ledge. While not as strong as platforms since only one edge is limited, this is still a big advantage for the attacker. The positioning becomes a lot more generous, as you can position yourself to anticipate the tech roll in and cover both options reliably.

Finally, there's the question of the post-tech mixup. Sure, the ideal punish is always going to be hitting the opponent when they are completely inactionable, but you don't have to be fast enough if you're ready and willing to play the mixup afterward.

  • It's common to shield post-tech, but that will always lose to a Grab. Remember that regrab protection exists, however, so it is not viable to simply regrab an opponent over and over again.
  • If they're mashing out of tech, your option will sometimes be fast enough to beat it anyway.
  • Even if they are in a tech situation, they can still floorhug a hit.
  • If they're buffering a spotdodge or a roll, you can still wait for that timing if you're not hard committing your option.

Good luck, and have fun tech chasing!

Edgeguarding

You just launched the opponent offstage. Defensive options become much worse when the opponent is airborne, and they want to get back to stage as soon as possible, since they have limited resources. The opponent wants to either do two things: get to ledge, or get on stage.

This can vary a lot depending on the character, but typically, when edgeguarding, it's important to think about the following resources. These resources are all regained when grabbing ledge or landing on stage.

  • Double jump. This cannot be regained. This is important for resetting horizontal velocity. It's also the most actionable out of all these resources, since it's possible to do an Aerial or Special alongside it.
  • Air dodge. This is omnidirectional and grants intangibility.
  • Wall jump. This can be regained, but they can only regain it either by hitting you, or getting hit by you. It also requires the opponent to be next to the wall.

There are also some other defensive measures to think about:

  • If you hit the opponent while they're next to the wall, they can easily wall tech it. This means that hitting spikes won't always net an advantage on connecting.

Typically, you want to throw out attacks that can either cover ledge or intercept the opponent's recovery. It can be a long process sometimes, requiring rinse and repeat, and even the best players will sometimes be forced to give up an edgeguard.

There's a few general tools that are great for edgeguarding:

  • Intercept the ledge with a hitbox. The most common example of this is Clairen's Down Tilt. If you have a move that can hit below ledge, it can be effective at hitting opponents who try to grab ledge. Sometimes the opponent can sweetspotBeing far away enough from ledge to avoid the hit, but still being close enough to grab ledge with ledgegrab box. the ledge, but this requires precision, and challenging it is an important step.
    • Be aware to actually time this and not throw it preemptively, since the opponent can easily recover between the active frames of your hits.
    • Try to focus on using less committal options like charging a Strong. It might kill when it hits, but it's often not enough to hit the opponent, and it has long recovery if mistimed against the opponent's option.
  • Ledgehogging prevents the opponent from grabbing ledge. Only one player can grab ledge at a time, and if they cannot recover to ledge, they will often have to make a guess: are you going to let go of ledge, or are you going to hold ledge against them?
    • Time your ledgegrabs. There's no reason to grab ledge immediately if they are too far away to recover. It's only worth grabbing ledge if they have a chance to actually recover.
    • If they land on stage, you can simply get off ledge and punish them. This often requires them to land with a Special move with very punishable landing lag, and you can punish their option in return.
    • They can try to hit ledge as well, in hopes that you get off ledge in time or that you're vulnerable to be hit. You can cover this with a roll onto ledge, which occupies the ledge for the longest time.
  • You can also do options from ledge, especially with ledgehang intangibility. You can do effective options like ledgehopDrop from ledge and using double jump Aerials to cover the opponent's pathing, or even IWJDrop from ledge using Grab, and inputting a wall jump to turn around and gain extra horizontal velocity.
    • Keep in mind that once you grab ledge, you're on a timer for intangibility. If you plan on doing invincible attacks, time your ledgehangs to be late.
  • Of course, you can just throw out options straight up. Remember that of all the resources, they cannot wall jump if they don't reach the wall at all. This also is crucial if the opponent tries to recover high above, since ledge becomes a lot harder to abuse if the opponent is not below ledge.
    • Most projectiles are really safe in this case, since they make it possible to take away options like an opponent's expended double jump or air dodge.
  • Sometimes, even parrying will work. This works for recoveries with giant hitboxes, though it can be beaten by the opponent drifting right outside.

It's not always necessary to edgeguard, of course. If you have onstage resources, it can be valuable to set them up as well to aid your edgeguard.

Disadvantage

Disadvantage is the state that requires escaping. Get out of this state as soon as possible, whether it be getting a reversal and flipping advantage, or successfully escaping and resetting to neutral.

Recovery

You're offstage, uh oh. What now?

Well, there's a few things to consider. Your priority should be to get to ledge or on stage, but you need to think about the following resources. These resources are all regained when grabbing ledge or landing on stage, but they are typically one use only per airtime.

  • Double jump. This is arguably the most important resource, since it's the most actionable one.
  • Air dodge. This is omnidirectional and grants intangibility. It's also important since you can avoid the hit.
  • Wall jump. This can be regained, but they can only regain it either by hitting you, or getting hit by you. It also requires the opponent to be next to the wall.

You need to find a route to get onto stage, whether it be grabbing ledge or landing on stage directly. Depending on the character, there are also special movement options that can help you recover to stage easier, and these are all character-specific. In general, however, there's a few key rules.

  • Don't immediately double jump.
  • Try to aim for ledge instead of trying to immediately land back on stage. Get good at sweetspotting this with your double jump and Specials.
  • Remember that hitting the opponent can lead to a wall jump, so your wall jump is the most expendable resource.

Movement

This page is missing significant information. You can help by editing it. This needs to resummarise the movement page of System Mechanics in a way that a player might understand. Perhaps split up into Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced? Need to also establish the intent and why certain movement options are good, since people often ask about the importance of dash dancing and wavedashing.

Getting Grabs

While there are three types of Grabs universally, it's not immediately clear what the most efficient ways of inputting them are in gameplay. Typically, the most important Grab will be Standing Grab, since it's the fastest and safest one by startup and recovery, so finding alternate ways to input it is the most dependable.

The following grabs are listed in order of what will likely get you the most mileage.

  • For getting Grabs out of run...
    • You can simply input Grab while letting go of the left stick for running. This means that you're grabbing out of the RunStop state, which will maintain your velocity.
    • You can also input ShieldDefault Controls
      Xbox:
      GCN:
      KB:
      with Grab to get distance. Note that the distance when sliding with shield can be significant with enough speed, meaning that you can slide in and grab with it.
    • Dash Grab is still going to get you significant distance and range, but it's a little slower as a tradeoff.
    • A JC grab is when you can cancel jumpsquat with Grab. While it's useful, this method is flawed, since it'll halve your velocity.
    • Pivot Grabs should be generally avoided. Instead, during run turnaround, input ShieldDefault Controls
      Xbox:
      GCN:
      KB:
      with Grab.
  • For getting Grabs out of dash...
    • Dash Grab is usually the most dependable one here.
    • If performing a shield grab during dash, the grab will stop in place due to shieldstop.
    • For inputting a turnaround Grab, avoid Pivot Grab and try to just input ShieldDefault Controls
      Xbox:
      GCN:
      KB:
      with Grab instead.
  • For getting Grabs out of babydash...
    • A babydash shield grab can be processed by inputting a babydash, then using ShieldDefault Controls
      Xbox:
      GCN:
      KB:
      simultaneously with your Grab.
    • A babydash grab is when you cancel babydash with Grab, but it'll halve your velocity just like JC grabs, so it's less desirable.
  • For getting Grab out of wavedash, there's nothing particular here. You can just Grab out of your wavedash.

Shield

Shield is one of the central defensive mechanics in the game. If you shield an unsafe hit, you can punish them and start your own combo. It also makes throwing out attacks in neutral have inherent risk, since they can lose easily to a shield. Offense and defense are shaped around how to beat shield.

Let's explain what the point of shield pressure is. Think about the objective of the attacker and defender.

  • If you attack shield, you will typically have to go through the recovery of the move, including landing lag if it's an airborne move with that.
  • After shieldstun, the opponent can Grab them if they're in range, or counterattack the opponent out of shield.

Good shield pressure is doing attacks that cannot be punished by an opponent's offensive options, being able to counterhit any of their options. Land a low Aerial on shield, dash away, the opponent whiffs Grab, counterhit and start a new combo.

  • If you're spaced far enough, you can't get hit for it.
  • If you can recover fast enough from a move, you can evade the counterattack from them and get your own punish on them.

Ultimately, however, there are some stipulations to always keep in mind. Firstly, Grab will always beat shield, and it's important to mix it in to keep an opponent from wanting to hold shield.

Secondly, shields have limited health, and breaking shield can sometimes be the solution. Generally, shield needs to be already pretty weak for this to be reliable, but there are certain setups that can make this work. Strong hits or fast hits that trap the opponent in shield are great for this.

Finally, if you push the shielding opponent off the edge of a platform/stage, this makes the opponent stop shielding and enter tumble in the air, making them actionable but also vulnerable.

The defender is looking to...

  • ...Find an escape option, either through rolling or wavedashing.
  • ...Reversal the opponent with an attack or shield grab, getting an opening.

Countering Shield

If the opponent is shielding, you have a few ways to push your advantage.

Shield Pressure and Shield Safety/Advantage

The most direct way to beat shield is Grab. However, because the opponent can counter this with a variety of out of shield options, it is usually not safe to directly Grab.

Throwing out a series of moves can help reduce shield health and eventually a shield break, but more importantly, catch the defender's out of shield option. This cannot directly beat shield, meaning that shield pressure is a countdown to when the defender will do an out of shield option or when the attacker does a Grab.

Calculating shield safety has two factors -- the amount of frame advantage that the attacker has versus the defender, and the positioning of the attacker versus the defender. Typically, this all centers around the risk of defender using shield Grab, both in terms of frame advantage and positioning.

  • Frame advantage is calculated by comparing the amount of frames between the attacker's hit on shield and when the attacker becomes actionable again, versus the shieldstun that the defender has. If the attacker can act faster than the defender, the move is considered plus. Otherwise, it is considered minus. If looking out for shield Grab, the number to look out for is -7.
    • For example, Clairen's Back Air tipper hit has 8 frames of shield stun, and if done low enough, has only 10 frames of landing lag after. Taking away the frame where shield is hit and replaced by hitpause, this means the move is -3 on shield, and Clairen can beat an immediate shield grab (frame 7) with a spotdodge (frame 2).
  • Spacing around out of shield options is also incredibly important. A common threat range is shield Grab, so even if a move is slower than -7, the attacker does not get grabbed due to being outside of grab range.
    • For example, Maypul's Forward Tilt and Down Tilt are usually -14 and -17 respectively on shield, both of which can be shieldgrabbed. However, because Maypul is farther away from the opponent in her endlag during Down Tilt, it actually makes it safer to space on shield, as it is easier to space with Down Tilt compared to spacing with Forward Tilt to beat shield Grab.
File:RoA2 Clairen bair on shield.webm
Clairen performs a rising Back Air on shield, leading her to be shieldgrabbed. She then performs the lowest Back Air on shield, allowing her to spotdodge the shieldgrab.
File:RoA2 Maypul ftilt vs dtilt on shield.webm
Maypul performs a Forward Tilt which is too close to the opponent, letting her be shield grabbed, whereas a Down Tilt is spaced correctly to avoid a shield grab.

Aerials are typically the best moves for shield pressure. If the attack is an aerial move, it is optimal to do the aerial as low and late as possible while falling, becoming grounded as soon as possible. Spacing the move is also very valuable. Grounded moves are typically much more unsafe on shield due to higher endlag, but it is still valuable with proper spacing. Common options are doing Jab combos into Tilts. There are also unique cancellable moves that can be valuable for shield pressure, like Zetterburn's Shine. Navigating good shield pressure for every character is super valuable.

Out of Shield

When you input ShieldDefault Controls
Xbox:
GCN:
KB:
on the ground, you will enter a shielding state. Your shield cannot release until your shield gets hit, or 7 frames after you start shielding. In addition, it takes 15 frames to release shield. However, you can do a lot of options while locked in shield, typically referred to as out of shield (OoS) options.

You have the following offensive options:

  • Grab. Often referred to as shield grabbing, this can be done by simply holding ShieldDefault Controls
    Xbox:
    GCN:
    KB:
    and pressing AttackDefault Controls
    Xbox:
    GCN:
    KB:
    . It's usually your fastest option, working against opponents right in front of you. However, this is an option that opponents are always seeking to bait and punish, losing to spaced shield pressure or crossups. It's really bad to whiff a Grab.
  • Jumping. It is always possible to jump out of shield, including using Right Stick Up (which notably can be buffered). This also allows for Aerials OoS, which combined with a character's jump and air drift, can cover all sorts of spaces. This can cover crossups usually much better. If your character has the moveset for it, Specials OoS work too.
  • Up Special and Up Strong. You can do it either by inputting during jumpsquat or shield release. These are very character-dependent, but if it's fast enough, it can be particularly useful, such as Zetterburn's Up Strong or Wrastor's Up Special.
  • Shield drops. If you're on a platform, you can drop through the platform with a downward input, causing you to immediately be actionable while dropping through (being faster than a normal platform drop, in fact). You can do it from shield release, multiple shield inputs, or done at a downward angle that avoids a spotdodge. This leads to shield drop Aerials and shield drop Specials, which are just faster than doing them out of a jump since they skip the 4 frames of jumpsquat.

In addition, there are evasive options as well:

  • Spotdodge. Intangible frame 2, briefly dodges in place with intangibility. Done with ShieldDefault Controls
    Xbox:
    GCN:
    KB:
    and Default Controls
    Xbox/GCN: Left Analog Stick
    KB: / / /
    . Can be buffered with Right Stick Down.
  • Roll. Intangible frame 3, rolls away from current position with intangibility. It's a lot laggier than spotdodge, but has good respositioning. Done with ShieldDefault Controls
    Xbox:
    GCN:
    KB:
    and Default Controls
    Xbox/GCN: Left Analog Stick
    KB: / / /
    or Default Controls
    Xbox/GCN: Left Analog Stick
    KB: / / /
    . Can be buffered with Right Stick Left/Right.
  • Parry. Can be done with ParryDefault Controls
    Xbox:
    GCN: / +
    KB:
    or SpecialDefault Controls
    Xbox:
    GCN:
    KB:
    while in shield. Leads to reflecting or stunning as well as invincibility if hit, but really punishable on whiff.
  • Wavedash. Actionable on frame 15. Because you can jump, you can wavedash. This is way faster than spotdodging or rolling, and it notably is 1 frame faster than shield releasing. Once you're more practiced, this should always be the default compared to rolling, with rolling being an intention choice instead. It also matters because some characters have atrocious roll lengths, making their wavedash much better to get out of situations.
  • Shield release. No longer in shield on frame 16. This is rarely useful due to being strictly worse than wavedashing in terms of speed while having even less actionability. If you want to get out of shield and do something else grounded, you should always be doing a wavedash out of shield.

Shield Pressure

What happens if the opponent is shielding? I keep running in and throwing attacks at them, but all that happens is that I get shield grabbed. How do I beat that?

This is the concept of shield pressure. There is no way to hit the opponent within their shield, and the most straightforward way to beat it is to Grab them. Of course, they can simply hit you back or spotdodge the Grab, but you can anticipate that and beat that option.

Successful shield pressure will often result in one of the following:

  • You Grab the opponent out of their shield.
  • You catch the opponent's out of shield option with your own attack, potentially netting a combo.
  • You break the opponent's shield, leading to a great reward.
  • You push the opponent off the edge of a surface, causing them to slip and become vulnerable.

Learning how to beat an opponent's shielding options cleanly is an essential part of the game. Breaking shield relies on shield damage, and being able to counter opponent's attacks with your own attacks relies on understanding shield safety.

Shield Damage

After opponents shield an attack, their shield will decrease in shield health. More damaging moves will deal more damage. For example, Maypul's Jab (3%) will reduce by 5.2%2.6 of 50 Shield HP. shield health, whereas Forsburn's Down Strong will reduce by 33.1%16.56 of 50 Shield HP.

Certain moves are coded to also have different shield damage multipliers. For example, despite Clairen's Level 1 Neutral Special's tipper hit dealing 9% damage, it will end up dealing 39.16%19.58 of 50 Shield HP. as it has a 2.0x multiplier.

If a shield runs out of health, the shield will break, causing them to pop up into the air and fall back down, giving you ample time to follow up and ready a strong punish option. They cannot tech the knockdown.

Shield Safety

When you hit a shield, the following will happen:

  • On the same frame that an attack hits the opponent's shield, the opponent will go through 1 frame of shieldstun. The both of you will enter hitpause if it is a clean hit, and only they will enter hitpause if it is an article.
  • The opponent's shield will then go through shieldstun frames. The amount of shieldstun directly corresponds to each move's hitbox and can be found under each character's moves.
  • While the opponent is in shieldstun, you will typically be in the recovery of a move.
  • Once the opponent's shieldstun ends, they are free to act out of shield, and once your recovery ends, you can act again to hit the opponent.

This last point is the most crucial. It means that there are two key points to consider: using moves with low recovery, and hitting shield from positions where the opponent cannot hit us in return. Attacking in this way aids with shield safety. It's why a move like Zetterburn's Forward Strong can easily be punished, whereas a move like his Down Air is harder to punish.

The best moves on shield will usually be the following:

  • Low Aerials. The endlag changes heavily on where shield is hit, since landing faster will lead to acting faster. This means that late Aerials that hit as low as possible on shield will yield the most reward.
  • Spaced moves. Grounded moves typically cannot control which frame they hit, often leading to later active frames and endlag being factored into recovery. However, if these moves are properly spaced (typically to avoid Grab range), moves that are laggy can still be safe. This can further be impacted by high damage moves, since these grant strong shield pushback and shieldstun. Even if the move is too laggy, it can still be safe as long as the opponent is too far to punish.
    • For example, Clairen's Down Tilt (-10) on tipper can be technically shield grabbed, but because Clairen can be spaced outside of that range, the Grab will come out but not connect.
  • Projectiles or articles. Hits from articles will not put you in hitpause whereas the opponent will be in hitpause, which can impact frame advantage. Keep in mind that for projectiles however, they can easily be parried.
  • Crossups. Characters cannot Grab from behind, and they can only cover so much space at a time with their Aerials, making cross ups important, tricking the opponent into covering one direction while hitting them from the other.
    • Kragg can only Grab in front and Back Air behind, and his Neutral Air can only cover the immediate space around him.

While it is not strictly necessary to know how safe a move is on shield, it can be useful to understand. For a more thorough understanding by the numbers, read up on Shield Advantage.

Shield Pushback and Pushoff

All you need to know is that the higher damage a move is, the more pushback it will deal, and the more ground friction your character has, the less they will slide. This means that if you have a move that is unsafe by frame advantage but has really good shield pushback, it can be super useful to cash out with. If you push them far enough off the edge of a surface, they become vulnerable, meaning that they are toast.

  • Zetterburn's Up Strong is a good example of this. If he hits a character like Etalus while he's on ice, Etalus will be stuck sliding away in shield, too far away to punish anything that Zetterburn is doing.

Crouch Cancel

Getting Hit

If you're hit and want to avoid getting comboed, you need to consider DI and SDI. You also need to consider floorhugging.

Survival DI

Survival DI is used to survive strong hits which have the potential to KO. In general, optimal survival DI is typically one that angles you towards the corner of blast zones, so you have the most distance to cover before getting KO'd.

Here are a few examples:

  • Clairen's Forward Strong, like most other Forward Strongs, sends up and awayMore specifically, she sends at an angle of 45 degrees., so optimal DI in most stage positions would be up and inThis angle would be 135 degrees. If Clairen's Forward Strong is sending to the right, input Up and Left..
  • Clairen's Up Strong, on the other hand, sends verticallyMore specificaly, she sends at an angle of 90 degrees., so optimal DI is fully horizontal, either DI left0 degrees. or DI right180 degrees..
  • Clairen's Down Strong sends at a not perfectly vertical angleMore specifically, she sends at an angle of 70 degrees., as it also launches the defender a little outwards as well. In this case, while it is optimal to DI away and slightly downThis would be -20 degrees., many players will opt for DI awayThis would be 0 degrees. for a similar effect.

Not all moves have perfectly vertical, horizontal, or diagonal angles, however, so it is important to pay attention and learn (either through playing or reading) the knockback angles moves will have. This can often mean the difference of dying at 100% versus living at 130%. Note that if the screen background flashes purple, that means all possible player angles of DI are expected to kill, not accounting for wall or ceiling techs.

Combo DI

Combo DI is used to make the opponent's combo harder, or potentially escape an opponent's combos. This is typically more complicated than just pure survival DI, as you want to DI in a way that escapes the following hit or forces the opponent to go for a harder/less rewarding follow up.

Suppose you're grabbed by Zetterburn at high percent. There is a high likelihood that Zetterburn is going for Down Throw. This move sends at a nearly vertical angle70 degrees..

  • If you DI in, then Zetterburn can directly combo into an Up Strong, which will net him a kill at high percents.
  • If you DI out, then Zetterburn will miss the Up Strong, leading to a neutral reset.

It's important to remember that depending on DI, you can result in your character being knocked down onto the stage or a platform, which leads to needing to choose a tech option. Depending on what the opponent can follow up with, this can either be good or bad, but it is generally desirable to get into a situation where the opponent cannot follow up, whether it be struggling to deal with sharking platformsUsing attacks under platforms to hit a character. It is generally hard to punish due to characters being unable to attack below platform without dropping through or making a commital action. or air juggles.

Combo DI can be complex, since there isn't always a correct option that can fully stop a combo from happening. Down and away is a good default, but DI mixups are a crucial aspect of combo DI. For example, one of the most brutal coin flips in the game is Clairen's Forward Throw and Back Throw, as both throws will combo into Forward Strong on DI in.

  • If you DI outIf Clairen is facing right, a direction between 45 degrees and -45 degrees will work. expecting Forward Throw, the Clairen can use Back Throw as a mixup, causing the DI to register as either no DI or DI in.
  • If you DI outIf Clairen is facing right, a direction between 135 degrees and 225 degrees will work. expecting Back Throw, the Clairen can use Forward Throw as a mixup, causing the DI to register as either no DI or DI in.

The optimal combo DI is whatever the opponent is least prepared to handle. Depending on if you think the opponent plans to go for an extension or finish the combo early, going for a potential kill at ledge or taking guaranteed percent, you should try to DI for what you think will net you the best way of living. Understanding what follow ups are available for the opponent and what finishers they have are essential to predicting combo DI, as well as when to transition to survival DI.

DI Mixups and Reverse Hits

Most hits in the game can reverse hit, meaning that the angle of the move depends on the position of the attacker and the defender. Let's take a look at Zetterburn's Forward Air:

  • If Zetterburn is facing right, and his target is to the right, then the hit will send up and to the right.
  • If Zetterburn is facing left, but his target is to the left, then the hit will send up and to the left.

The center of a character is determined by the character's ECB, which can be viewed by turning on stage collision in training mode.

Certain hits in the game are not allowed to reverse hit, meaning that the angle of the hit depends purely on which way the attacker is facing. Whether or not a hit can reverse can be found under the Show Additional Data of a hit.

Post-Hitstun Escape

Great, now you're no longer in hitstun, but you're in the air, what now?

There's a few options to consider:

  • Don't default to double jumping, be intentional. A bad habit is always double jumping out of pressure. If this happens, and the opponent doesn't bite, continuing to wait for your landing, you're in the same spot as before but without a double jump. This is generally ill-advised, especially if you get carried offstage and drop your double jump. If it allows you to get out of a throw setup, however, and you can get out of pressure relatively safely (especially if your character is floaty), then this might be a good option for you.
  • Air dodging is nice, but it's a resource that you can lose. Air dodging can be tempting, but keep in mind that once you use this, you don't have anything else to get out, and you're also relatively punishable in the endlag of air dodging. also have to bank on the opponent not waiting for the air dodge to come out. Only do this if you're sure.
  • Counterattacking on combos that aren't airtight can lead to good reversals. Finding effective ways to land with attacks are your friend, so long as you have the means to do it.
  • If you have unique movement tools, you can use them to escape. A lot of these might put you into special fall, but if they provide you a way to get out of jail, then do it. Whether it be teleporting out as Forsburn or Orcane, doing a Leaftasm as Maypul, or doing an evasive Down Special as Fleet.
  • Sometimes, the best thing to do is just to land and get back to neutral. Fastfall out of hitstun, land onto a platform, and get out. Drift offstage to regrab ledge. Remember that not everything has to be an immediate fire back.

If you get hit hard enough that you're in heavy hitstun (and tumble later), you might have to tech. However, there's some things to consider:

  • If you're going to tech, choose where to DI to. If you DI to a platform, the advantage is that you will have faster escape options with shield dropping as well as potential slideoff, since you end the hitstun early with a tech. However, you also can get trapped on a platform, since the lengths are short enough where characters can often cover three out of four tech options at the same time if they want to.
  • If you know when hitstun ends and tumble begins, wiggle out. Any tap directional input will cause the character to exit tumble and enter regular fall, which triggers no knockdown and therefore does not require a tech when landing. This can mean an immediate grounded counterattack, or a shield on landing, allowing for more complex decisions.
  • If you want to airdodge out of tumble instead of teching, you have to release ShieldDefault Controls
    Xbox:
    GCN:
    KB:
    instead of pressing it. When you press it, it will start a tech input, but you have to release it to airdodge. This also means that you can use it to waveland on and off stage, which makes for trickier landings.

Knockdowns, Techs, and Slideoff

Ledge

Ledge is an important state because of its ability to provide anyone who reachs it intangibility. It's what defines edgeguarding and recovery, especially with the strength of ledgehogging, occupying ledge such that the opponent cannot grab it and falls to their doom.

It's important to know how to grab ledge, how to get onto stage from ledge, how to protect ledge, etc.

Grabbing Ledge

Grabbing ledge is quirky, so it's important to understand that grabbing ledge will always be faster when done facing the ledge instead of away from the ledge. In addition, it's important to minimise the amount of time spent not grabbing ledge.

The most essential method is wavedash back to grab ledge. This is applicable to all characters. It's the most accessible because you can always wavedash, even out of shield, and wavedashing will work at any distance.

  • Make sure to fastfall once you're offstage, but don't hold down. It's important that if you want to grab ledge as fast as possible, and it can be the difference of a few frames to grab ledge efficiently. Make sure to only tap the fastfall and release ASAP, since you will not be able to grab ledge while holding down.
  • Make sure to face backwards, either with a run turnaround or a pivot if needed. The trouble can be figuring out how to face backwards. You can do this by doing it out of run turnaround (a RAR wavedash), but you can also do it with an empty pivot. This means that you can do it out of a dash (if you do the wavedash too late, you get worse distance), and you can also do it after immediately landing, since it can be buffered.

In many cases, characters can also grab ledge with runaround shield. To do this, be running, enter run turnaround and shield ASAP, grabbing ledge once you fall off stage.

  • You can't be too close to the ledge, and it takes a long time. Since you need to go through all of dash to enter run, it means that at short distances, the character will fall offstage before being able to enter run. You can't do this with a dash pivot either, since this just results in a shieldstop, where the character doesn't slide.
  • You can start shield surprisingly early, as long as you have enough speed. Since shield ground friction is typically less than a character's grounded friction, if you're fast enough, you can slide a significant distance while in run.
  • You can also shield attacks before grabbing ledge. This can be relevant to evade attacks like Ranno's Up Special.

Finally, there are also some alternate methods to grab ledge.

  • Characters can also moonwalk to grab ledge. Unlike the other methods, this requires a bit of commitment.
  • You can also tilt the stick to slowly walk against ledge, and then press the stick forward to input a faster walk, causing your character to fall off ledge. Not every character can do this, however, and each character has variable levels of difficulty implementing this. In addition, this will almost always be slower, since the character needs to spend significant time airborne before grabbing ledge backwards.

Post-KO

Congrats, the opponent just died, and you feel great. However, they immediately come back and start hitting you. How do you avoid this?

Characters will be invulnerable when they respawn, and you can read more about that here. Point is, the character can wait on the respawn platform for a long time, and they have true invincibility when they get off platform. Here's a few things to keep in mind:

  • Don't hit the invincible opponent. This might seem obvious, but the reality is that when an opponent respawns, you're in disadvantage. You have to wait for them to stop being invincible to go back to neutral and have your turn again. This also means that you have to evade the opponent while their invincibility wears off.
  • Focus on evading the opponent. You can use this with platform movement, shielding, ledge intangibility, but just try to run away whenever possible. If you're daring enough, you can even ParryDefault Controls
    Xbox:
    GCN: / +
    KB:
    the opponent, which while it won't allow you to counterhit them since they'll still be invincible, allow for ticking down the timer and give you some breathing time while you reposition.
  • Don't sacrifice position. If you're offstage while the opponent's invincibility wears off, sure, they can be attacked now, but you're also offstage which is bad.

Depending on the character, you can also set up stage resources between stocks. Fire puddles, plants, magma charges, all of these can be accrued in the meantime. Just make sure to be finished by the time the opponent is actionable. This also means that if the opponent just died from an offstage edgeguard, you need to get back to stage as fast as possible to avoid getting edgeguarded yourself.

Now on the contrary, if you just respawned:

  • Take your time on the respawn platform if needed. There are few moments in the game where any player is allowed to breathe and think, but this is one of them. It doesn't change the advantage or disadvantage state of the opponent since you will always have the same amount of invincibility once you get off platform, so figure out what you want to do before you go in.
  • Chase them down, but don't overextend if your invincibility runs out soon. If you're in a bad position when your invincibility wears off, that is bad.


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