SSBU/Ness

Overview

Combos

Tech

Strategy/Counterstrategy

Matchups

Resources

Overview

Ness
Weight:	94
Spotdodge:The duration and intangibility of this character's on-spot dodges.	25F (3~17F int.)
Air Dodge:The intangibility of this character's air dodges, both neutral and directional.	3~30 int. (Neutral) 3~21 int. (Directional)
Unique Recovery Options:Recovery options that this character may have other than their Up Special.	Extended Double Jump
Fastest OOS:	N-Air (8F), USmash, Down B (Air) (10F)

Overview

[[File:SSBU/Ness_{{{2}}}_Stock.png|link=SSBU/Ness/{{{2}}}|x25px|alt=]] [[SSBU/Ness/{{{2}}}|{{{2}}}]] is a character with very quick buttons, great offstage and onstage punish game and some of the safest moves in the game when used correctly. He has a set of great moves and specials but they come with cost of very poor grounded stats but mainly that even if he has great air accel, his fall speed and air speed are very exploitable as he needs to utilize magnet mixups and djc fire landing and autocancels to reduce risks when landing. This may help but there is a limit to how much a Ness player can do with their kit before they have to outplay the opponent to a considerable amount. Ness may not be hard to pickup but he requires a lot of effort to fully master and optimize and that includes in matchup experience and counterplay, not just tech and punish game.

Summary

Ness [[File:SSBU/Ness_{{{2}}}_Stock.png|link=SSBU/Ness/{{{2}}}|x25px|alt=]] [[SSBU/Ness/{{{2}}}|{{{2}}}]] is a glass cannon with great highs but decently big lows. He trades his versatile toolkit for mixing up his approach and advantage state for a poor disadvantage. This makes him a very risky character against certain characters but very strong against others.
Pros	Cons
Oppressive Punishes: Ness can practically kill and force the opponent into extremely unfavorable situations with his punish game, with many ways to do heavy damage or close out a stock starting from just a few hits Low Commitment: Ness has very generous autocancel windows for his aerials which reduce their risk from a full hop on platform as well as being usable from a shorthop and has decently quick aerials and normals such as DTilt and FTilt as well as a very quick grab. Kill Power and Damage: The options Ness has from a techchase, read or reaction on ledge means he can kill you off a single mistake and not just from long combos, even then Ness' damage output is very solid so you can rack up your kills really quickly. Grabs: Ness' grab grants him high reward at just about any percent, able to combo at low percents, set up edgeguards, and kill at high percents. Mixups: Ness can use diagonal mixups in his pressure thanks to both his vertical and horizontal coverage with his aerials such as NAir. BAir, UAir and DAir. In addition to this, his specials such as PK Thunder 1 allow him to condition and juggle outside of his usual range when the opponent is too high and his other specials such as PK Fire cover diagonal archs in the air and horizontally on the ground while PSI Magnet covers Ness from all sides and with B reverses and Wavebounces and DJC mixups he can cover a lot more arcs thanks to the synergy of these moves when combined with his floatiness and high double jump.	Mediocre Mobility: Ness has great tools but he is very exploitable in the air due to his attributes Limited Recovery: Although the mixups you can do with Ness PK Thunder help a ton, it can lose to certain tools that don't need to contest it and characters who trade and have more range can even cover his double jump and airdodge mixups vertically and diagonally. Camping: Characters that can easily approach Ness and keep him away without contesting him like [[File:Mr. Game & Watch_{{{2}}}_Stock.png|link=Mr. Game & Watch/{{{2}}}|x25px|alt=]] [[Mr. Game & Watch/{{{2}}}|{{{2}}}]], [[File:Lucina_{{{2}}}_Stock.png|link=Lucina/{{{2}}}|x25px|alt=]] [[Lucina/{{{2}}}|{{{2}}}]], [[File:Palutena_{{{2}}}_Stock.png|link=Palutena/{{{2}}}|x25px|alt=]] [[Palutena/{{{2}}}|{{{2}}}]] and [[File:Shulk_{{{2}}}_Stock.png|link=Shulk/{{{2}}}|x25px|alt=]] [[Shulk/{{{2}}}|{{{2}}}]]. These characters force Ness to play in a less comfortable playstyle to avoid potentially getting checkmated near the corner or offstage by their oppressive tools or to avoid the potential of dying to multiple juggles. Grounded Options: Although a lot of grounded Ness moves aren't bad or too niche, they tend to rely on his poor mobility and moves like uptilt and ftilt are very laggy on whiff and don't fully protect him and dash attack while good has inconsistencies and tends to always force Ness to preempetively space to make it safe to use cause of how far the move is which means the opponent won't have to react to it from too close.

Floaty Double Jump

Ness sports an unusually floaty double jump that gradually accelerates him vertically, rather than a more typical immediate double jump like most of the roster. Ness's floaty jump enables him to catch characters much higher than characters with similar floaty double jumps.

However, it has a few problems. Ness is not able to readily jump away from opponents, either defensively or as a bait, must commit to using a wavebounce double jump cancel special/B-reverse special/Aerial if he wants to change positions more suddenly, and also makes him take longer to reactively juggle or catch high recoveries.

Double Jump Cancel(DJC) Specials

Ness since Smash 64 had the ability to cancel his double jump to utilize for better positioning and momentum into specials like Magnet and PK Fire and allow him to mixup with his double jump in ways other characters can't with DJC fire wavelanding on platforms, flying magnet and this adds to his already solid punish game with his normals and specials. It does have a drawback, the momentum and benefits come at a heavy risk of losing a double jump and losing a valuable resource in disadvantage if hit. It also takes a lot of hard optimization and solid muscle memory to get the most out of the momentum and additional punish opportunities.

Normal Moves

Jab

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Jab 1

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Jab 2

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Jab 3

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Forward Tilt

/ + (angleable)

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• Can be angled up or down
• Very strong for a quick FTilt

Up Tilt

+

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Down Tilt

+

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• Ness DTilt is also tied with [[File:Lucas_{{{2}}}_Stock.png|link=Lucas/{{{2}}}|x25px|alt=]] [[Lucas/{{{2}}}|{{{2}}}]], [[File:R.O.B._{{{2}}}_Stock.png|link=R.O.B./{{{2}}}|x25px|alt=]] [[R.O.B./{{{2}}}|{{{2}}}]], [[File:Little Mac_{{{2}}}_Stock.png|link=Little Mac/{{{2}}}|x25px|alt=]] [[Little Mac/{{{2}}}|{{{2}}}]], and [[File:Meta Knight_{{{2}}}_Stock.png|link=Meta Knight/{{{2}}}|x25px|alt=]] [[Meta Knight/{{{2}}}|{{{2}}}]] for the second fastest DTilt in the game (the fastest being Ryu/Ken's DTilt, which is frame 2).

• If the transition of Ness DTilt is done in rapid succession when spaced, it can lock the opponent in their shield when blocked which you can use for mindgames or to reset neutral or potentially get a grab or punish if they mash after you stop.

• Will lock opponents who miss a grounded tech, which can confirm into an FSmash

Dash Attack

>

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• The move is decently active
• Massively disjointed, going past ness' hand hurtbox

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Smash Attacks

Side Smash

(/ + ) or ( / )

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• Very strong tipper, one of the strongest FSmashes in the game
• Slow reflector, hefty lag and startup, only use this when you are sure if it'll hit or if you're not good enough at doing optimal techchases.

Up Smash

+ or

The yoyo holds the ledge hostage but loses to all aerials

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• One of his decent out of shield options, can be used to 2 frame at ledge.
• Loses to most aerials due to low priority

Down Smash

+ or

The other yoyo when you need to cover ledge facing back

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Aerials

Neutral Aerial

Airborne

This is the move that forces you to not get too close to Ness

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• One of the strongest knockback NAirs in the game
• The active frames and hitbox allow this to be a great way to force the opponent away from you, edgeguard and to setup techchases.

Forward Aerial

Airborne +

An edgeguard and offstage combo followup combination

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• Ness can abuse this move offstage for continous offstage pressure while covering airdodge or predictable unsafe high or in between recoveries.

• When autocancelled onstage it can be looped into itself and be a tad bit safer, FAir

• This move trades really badly to strong multihits at the start before the last hit.

Back Aerial

Airborne +

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• A very strong kill move and spacing tool due to it's great knockback safety on block.

Up Aerial

Airborne +

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• One of Ness' safest vertical moves in most situations

• Very good coverage for front and back and can be made safer if spaced so the later hits connect shield last as you land.

• Extremely active and leads into itself and PSI Magnet

• Can be used as a dragdown move to confirm into FTilt or Grab

Down Aerial

Airborne +

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• Very strong spike

• Combos into itself and has great followups into Ness' vertical moves and punish tools such as UAir

• Very early autocancel window, very safe to fake out with from a full hop on platform

A very strong spike that also has fakeout mixups thanks to it's generous auto cancel window.

Specials

PK Flash

A terrible move that has very decent niches now that it's buffed in Ultimate

Explosion

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• Can be steered left or right, with the direction Ness is facing dictating its momentum

• Hitbox becomes much bigger and the knockback much stronger the longer the button is held

• This move is absurdly safe on shield especially when charged

• This move is so plus on hit and the opponent does not get sent upward immediately so you can dtilt between it on max charge or get a free grab both on hit and shield.

• Only the explosion can be reflected or absorbed
  • It cannot, however, be pocketed by [[File:Villager_{{{2}}}_Stock.png|link=Villager/{{{2}}}|x25px|alt=]] [[Villager/{{{2}}}|{{{2}}}]] or [[File:Isabelle_{{{2}}}_Stock.png|link=Isabelle/{{{2}}}|x25px|alt=]] [[Isabelle/{{{2}}}|{{{2}}}]]

• Catches landings well
• Decent stalling move and it's vertical range helps Ness mixup at ledge

PK Fire

(/ + )

Since it's a great punish tool, people find this move very annoying

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• The aerial version has less lag than the grounded version

• Quicker on startup and more active than [[File:Lucas_{{{2}}}_Stock.png|link=Lucas/{{{2}}}|x25px|alt=]] [[Lucas/{{{2}}}|{{{2}}}]] PK Fire but the grounded version has more lag to compensate

• Great punish tool that can be optimized with double jump cancel momentum and other techniques

PK Thunder

+

Use this to punish players who commit too much or too high on platforms

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PK Thunder 1

• Consists of a "head" hitbox and a "tail" hitbox

• For 10 frames it cannot be clanked but afterwards loses to any hitbox that clanks well due to damage and priority or is transcedent.

• The head PK Thunder 1 hitbox does way more damage, shield damage, knockback, hitstun on it's own than [[File:Lucas_{{{2}}}_Stock.png|link=Lucas/{{{2}}}|x25px|alt=]] [[Lucas/{{{2}}}|{{{2}}}]] PK Thunder 1

• Since this is much faster and less laggy of a projetile than [[File:Lucas_{{{2}}}_Stock.png|link=Lucas/{{{2}}}|x25px|alt=]] [[Lucas/{{{2}}}|{{{2}}}]]'s version of PKT1, it can be used to juggle and condition opponents vertically and it's less reactable generally to move the projectile. This means you can circle it around to catch them into PK Thunder 2 and kill them early or break their shield as a risky read.

• The projectile will go through opponents on the first several frames, and afterwards will dissipate if the head collides with an opponent

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PK Thunder 2

• Triggers when Ness hits himself with the projectile

• Active on frame 1 from self-hit

• Ridiculously high damage and kill power if the early hitbox connects

• This move removes jostling during the active frames so this means Ness cannot be directly pushed when the hitbox is active.

• Ness' primary non-airdodge recovery

• Does a ton of shield damage for the early hit

• High startup (when counting PK Thunder 1) can leave Ness vulnerable against wary opponents

• Very punishable on whiff if landed with onstage

• Intangibility frames and ludicrous kill power can make challenging Ness's recovery risky, as if an opponent fails, they may just die at a very low percent
  • Intangibility can also allow it to completely ignore counter attempts if hit early enough

• When it connects with an enemy in the air, the recovery momentum and distance are significantly shortened, this also means it slows down onstage ater connecting.

• Interacts differently with walls depending on which side of the stage you are on. Ness is more likely to slide up the left side, while he is more likely to "bonk" off the right side.
  • This is most noticeable on stages with vertical walls such as Kalos and Yoshi's

• If Ness collides with terrain and "bonks" off, he has a 31-frame window to input another PK Thunder before going into free fall. This allows him to both extend his recovery distance and create new mixups to throw off an opponent's timings.
  • This can only be done once before landing or grabbing ledge

• The early hitbox triggers special zoom

• Early hit will also come out immediately upon colliding with terrain, although this will most likely never come into play as Ness's PK Thunder 2 is a strong single hit compared to Lucas's multi-hitting version

• It grabs ledge backwards way after the move is finished.

• If the projectile is absorbed, reflected, or otherwise destroyed during startup, Ness will go into free fall

PSI Magnet

+

This move aids in dealing with certain characters' energy projectiles which makes their normal gameplan easier to deal with and is a versatile advantage tool

Pushes opponents away on release

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• Heals a maximum of 30% per projectile, regardless of how strong the absorbed energy projectile is

• If you absorb on the ground you can immediately cancel into a spotdodge, roll or jump which immediately takes you out of the magnet animation.

• Can be used for movement mixups and to stall

• Thanks to the absorb, important pressure tools of characters such as [[File:Snake_{{{2}}}_Stock.png|link=Snake/{{{2}}}|x25px|alt=]] [[Snake/{{{2}}}|{{{2}}}]], [[File:Pikachu_{{{2}}}_Stock.png|link=Pikachu/{{{2}}}|x25px|alt=]] [[Pikachu/{{{2}}}|{{{2}}}]], [[File:Mario_{{{2}}}_Stock.png|link=Mario/{{{2}}}|x25px|alt=]] [[Mario/{{{2}}}|{{{2}}}]] and [[File:Sora_{{{2}}}_Stock.png|link=Sora/{{{2}}}|x25px|alt=]] [[Sora/{{{2}}}|{{{2}}}]] have to be used much more carefully due to the reward Ness gets while also reducing the threat of energy projectiles which makes the matchups considerably easier.

Grabs & Throws

Standing Grab

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Ness' fastest throw, usable out of shield somewhat cause of how quick and it is and it has low lag.

Dash Grab

or >

Do not Recommend

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Pivot Grab

> +

It grabs way further than it looks ingame

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Ness' longest range grab, this grabs considerably further that it works to catch unsafe landings.

Pummel

After grabbing,

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• Used for unstaling moves and throws

Forward Throw

After grabbing,

Forward Throw

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• Used to setup for edgeguards when BThrow has low knockback at earlier percents.

Back Throw

After grabbing,

Please just di this in and pray

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• Arguably the best horizontal kill throw in the game, kills really well regardless of position due to very high knockback scaling

Up Throw

After grabbing,

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• Ness

Down Throw

After grabbing,

dthrow fair is fake against most characters

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Floor Attacks

Ledge Attack

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One of the worst and lowest ranged ledge attacks in the game. Very unsafe on shield and it does not hit very far at all, be mindful of that when using ledge attack.

Getup Attack

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Trip Attack

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Navigation

To edit frame data, edit values in SSBU/Ness/Data.

[[File:SSBU_{{{2}}}_Stock.png|link=SSBU/{{{2}}}|x25px|alt=]] [[SSBU/{{{2}}}|{{{2}}}]]

Overview

Combos

Tech

Strategy/Counterstrategy

Matchups

Resources

Navigation