SSBU/Palutena/Techniques

Preface

Palutena is a relatively straightforward, non-complex character, and as such she is very limited in terms of anything extremely advanced or execution-heavy. She's well-known for having the easiest of the teleport recoveries to cancel off a ledge, and this is a very useful trick to learn and have muscle memory for. Her other character-specific techs are very niche and not very often seen at high level - it will not be useful to spend time learning them as opposed to improving fundamentally at the game with her. That being said, the techs listed are far from useless, and again Warp Canceling is quite a good tool to have in your pocket.

Preventing 2-Frame Punishes

By grabbing the ledge from above, the 2 frames of vulnerability that are otherwise unavoidable when grabbing the ledge will instead be intangible. This is a (likely intended) universal mechanic that applies to every character, but is often most useful with teleport recoveries like Warp. Teleporting downwards to the ledge, while more risky than teleporting upwards, will guarantee a fully-intangible ledgegrab. Likewise, teleporting straight upwards from below the ledge, then holding down on the control stick to pass slightly above it, then allowing yourself to fall and grab the ledge will also provide this intangibility - although this may not be a great idea most of the time since you will be vulnerable and unactionable above the ledge before you grab it.

Warp Cancel

Warp Canceling allows Palutena to cancel the ending frames of her Up Special Warp off of any edge, leaving her actionable afterwards.

Why should you do it?

Warp Canceling is Palutena's easiest and most useful tech. It gives her an extra mix-up to her landing options, and with good muscle memory this can be done very consistently. The opponent can read or react to it, though, so it shouldn't be used exclusively.

How do you do it?

Essentially, each edge (including the edges of platforms as well as the ledges of stages themselves) has a specific area above it that Palutena can perform this tech from. If she uses Warp within this area while aiming at the intended edge, Palutena will "cancel" the end of the move after she reappears by both touching the ground and falling off the edge, leaving her actionable in the air. The picture to the right gives a general visualization of the tech, but understanding how it works by practicing it is intuitive and consistent. Palutena's Warp is the easiest of the three teleport Up Specials to cancel like this (the others being Zelda's Farore's Wind and Mewtwo's Teleport) due to the comparatively large distance she slides after reappearing.

Warping out of hitstun

Keep in mind that when using Warp immediately after becoming actionable after getting knocked back by an attack, Palutena will move a slight distance in the direction of knockback during the startup of Warp before she disappears. This distance is enough to mess up Warp Canceling, but is consistent - if you understand when this movement happens you can use it to move into a valid Warp Cancel location and cancel from otherwise strange angles. In general, though, stay aware of this quirk of Warp to not be caught off guard when using it in certain situations.

Warp Shorten

As the name suggests, Warp Shortening literally allows Palutena to shorten (to around half) the distance of Warp.

Why should you do it?

Obviously, this isn't very helpful for recovering, but Warp Shortening improves Warp in all other scenarios it is used in. For example, this effectively doubles the valid places in which Palutena can Warp Cancel from, due to the end of the shortened Warp being much closer than a regular one. It also provides mixups when using Warp for any sort of positioning, like from ledge or while trying to land, as the opponent may get tripped up by the varied distance traveled. Keep in mind this tech is absolutely not required to use Warp Canceling effectively.

How do you do it?

While Warping, pressing the C-stick during frames 14 or 15 of the move in any direction will continue the Warp in the C-stick's direction (regardless of the direction of the original Warp) with the shortened distance. The precise timing of this technique can be difficult, but practicing timing your C-stick press alongside the audio of the move as Palutena disappears (along with just practicing over time) may help. When using this in practice, it will help to aim the original Warp in a safe direction, as Palutena will simply follow the original Warp if the shorten is mistimed.

"2-Flame"

This tech lets an Explosive Flame "stick" to the ledge and explode as normal, where normally an Explosive Flame used on any solid surface will fizzle and deactivate.

from @kino_contact

Why should you do it?

An Explosive Flame covering the ledge would allow for highly-damaging ledgetrapping and combos by interrupting virtually any recovery to the ledge.

How do you do it?

This tech may look extremely overpowered, but it's offset by being incredibly precise - down to two frame-perfect inputs - and as such is unlikely to happen consistently in a competitive setting. By using the frame Palutena begins falling off the ledge (pictured right) as "frame 1", pressing jump on frame 21 and Explosive Flame on frame 26 while aiming at the ledge will "stick" the explosion to the ledge. Using the frame-advance tool in the training room will allow for specific inputs on specific frames, so use this while practicing to consistently perform the setup.