SSBU/Ridley/Matchups: Difference between revisions

===== Miscellaneous and frame data =====

Skewer > d-tilt > insert followup here, for covering delayed getup.

Banjo up smash is whiff punished by Wing Blitz forward in terms of end lag.

Our uair comes out four frames faster than his dair, so it's possible to uair him as he's getting into position to dair spike with the right timing, although situational.

SDI down and away against most Bayo combos, or up and in if you're diagonally above her. If they start adapting, then randomize your SDI. Can even SDI out out against a Bayo who has you near the blast zone, because she expects you to SDI in. Also, ABK doesn't kill at high % with DI away if you get there.

After you successfully SDI out, you fastfall, and if you see the opportunity to reversal, you take it; punish her recovery frames, but watch out for any sudden ABK downwards, dair, or Witch Time.

Otherwise anticipate Witch Time & Bat Within like usual, just as you would with Mythra Foresight. Like Mythra dash attack, always jump away from or shield & OoS punish Bayo's heel slide, stopping one of her main combo starters in its tracks, though remember it has a 2nd kick at the end.

Her guns you mainly need to watch out for when off stage so you don't get sniped. Either fastfall, recover high if she's charging neutral B, or airdodge.

Her smashes are slow, but watch out for d-smash as a potential 2 frame/spike, it being able to hit us under platforms, and its shield damage.

Her recovery's a bit tricky to take advantage of due to how she often bypasses the ledge, rarely ever ledge grabbing, and can get reversed if too aggressive against her off stage. Better to ledgetrap while hanging back an extra bit so you don't get hit by any of her above-ledge attacks like aerial side B, and punish with a powerful move.

Bayo's back roll low profiles as she does the knee slide, so keep in mind when going for u-tilt; she'll also stay crouched a bit if she does a linger Bullet Arts after her dair, so wait for that to finish before attempting a u-tilt for the u-tilt > uair kill confirm, or sneak in a skewer. Another thing, she leans forward a bit with the rapid jab finisher, so may need to shorthop back a bit with the skewer.

Other than that, Bayo isn't your usual SDI character where there is always “a correct SDI". If they are a good Bayo, you need to be more active and mix things up and try to have an idea of what she wants and deny it, be ready to airdodge if she tries to do incomplete f-air strings (dash walk SDI inputs helps against the complete f-air and some ABK stuff though), and sometimes even purposefully sneak behind her where you can get a reverse edgeguard. There’s also SDI’ing her u-tilt hits which can mess up some of her followups like fair or up B, and if they try to up B you twice, can either SDI up & in and then down & away, or wait till she does double up B on you as you SDI up & in.

Aside from shielding at ledge against Bayo’s that bypass ledge with ABK, there’s crouching > punishing her landing, though keep in mind she can still bair you. Also when edgeguarding, plasma beats ABK, but her up B goes through every fireball.

If you’re at high %, respect ABK more because of kill confirm setups (shield or crouch under it, gun, and fair), and keep Witch Time in mind too.

At zero down throw into forward air isn't true. But down throw into up angle f-tilt will always be. If down throw is unstale, pummeling before throwing, will make the fair true. With max staling, down throw will always combo into fair if the Bayonetta is at 7% minimum.

Bayo's Heel Slide, ABK, and Witch Twist require about 2 SDI inputs. Heel Slide has 8 to 10 hitlag frames, ABK has 12 to 13 hitlag frames, and Witch Twist has 3 to 5 hitlag frames for you to perform said SDI's.

Bayo's f-tilt and f-air have up to three hits like Sora's.

We can hit their ledge hang with dair, in the case of ledgetrump > ledgejump + dair.

Bayo can't do the followup kick from heel slide if the 1st hit is on your shield, making it -25/-26 by default.

Our uair comes out six frames faster than her dair, so it's possible to uair her as she's getting into position to dair spike with the right timing, although situational.

Rapid jab skewer punish applies to her also (also shield drop d-smash after her rapid jab finisher), while her jab 3 on shield is f-smash punishable. Her dash attack crosses you up on shield, so turnaround and punish accordingly. Her other normals (besides final part of her 3 hit u-tilt) and most specials are also punishable by our OoS aerials and shield grab (point-blank neutral B even being f-smash punishable when shielded, along with her f/u-smash which are also mostly d-smash, shorthop skewer, or wing blitz forward punishable with shield pushback), but remember to shield all three hits of her f-tilt. Her landing aerials besides dair are too safe on shield though, so reset; that said, can catch her landing from up B usage if you act quick enough.

The 3rd & last hit of her nair can actually be OoS punished (is -16). Her neutral B (charged or not) is minus enough on shield to be punished by dash grab, dash attack, jump OoS into SPR, or even f-smash if nearby. Same with extended dash cancel u-tilt if she's at kill confirm %. The landing hitbox of her ABK is also pretty minus on shield (-33).

* Although Ultimate Frame Data says her up B is +0 on shield, it doesn't account for the other parts of the move whiffing on the way up which makes it closer from -13 to -17 depending on character height. Ridley can do u-smash and uair OoS against it.

Gentlemen jab/rapid jab finisher, f-tilt 2/3, smashes, dair, point-blank neutral B, side B (heel slide), and ledge getup attack are u-tilt shield punished should she be at kill confirm %. If she whiffs a down B counter nearby, skewer punish.

Major credit to smub, Sapphire, and Zant on the SDI details and some of the neutral stuff.

With them having a frame 4 airdodge as a superheavy, our u-throw > uair can work on them occasionally. Jumping at the right time can still beat this combo, but they still have to use up a valuable resource.

His dash attack, f-smash, d-smash, side B, and up B (grounded or landing) are whiff punished by Wing Blitz forward in terms of end lag.

We can hit their ledge hang with dair, in the case of ledgetrump > ledgejump + dair.

Our uair comes out six frames faster than his dair, so it's possible to uair him as he's getting into position to dair spike with the right timing, although situational. The air version of his down B takes 31 frames to come out.

Skewer > jab 1 > f-smash, for covering delayed getup.

Jr will mix up their disadvantage with mechakoopa, kart dash, or some aerials. Mechakoopa is like a moving Snake grenade, and Jr can break our advantage by holding it and get us hit and then get something off of that, so be wary with it.

His d-smash is whiff punished by Wing Blitz forward in terms of end lag.

We can hit their ledge hang with dair, in the case of ledgetrump > ledgejump + dair.

Skewer > d-tilt > insert followup here, for covering delayed getup.

Other than that, respect Byleth's reach. Their f-smash can be angled up or down too and has a most deadly sweetspot. The range also applies to their side B (can be spot dodge punished, though also respect it in the air), fair, and bair. With their slow mobility, they play a defensive playstyle like us with trying to bait you in and punishing. Simply have to outplay them in that regard. That said, when you're up close when the sour spot of their attacks hit instead of the tipper, they do a lot less damage and knockback.

When being edgeguarded, their dair can dunk us, so delay a bit when recovering low; might also be possible to uair them as they're getting into position to dair you, since our uair comes out faster frame wise, but trading is not in our favor here. When recovering mid, watch out for their fair & bair tipper, nair potentially gimping, and of course their up B if you try to recover high. Mix it up. When on ledge, some moves like their f-smash can't hit us, but their d-smash can (just getup attack versus that), so keep in mind when planking. Is still risky to plank against non-shoto characters though, so just use the fact that Byleth's gotta space their moves more precisely to hit you, so that you can get off ledge.

And again, plasma’s also really good to edgeguard Byleth because of their bad air speed. It just kind of creates a wall that they can't get through; if you hit them far enough of course.

To avoid getting grabbed by Byleth up B when edgeguarding off stage, remember they have to be outside the range of the ledge if they’re trying to do it. If they’re in range of the ledge, they can’t grab you with it, so if they have no jump left for instance, can bait out their up B by pretending you’ll drop, and then jump back. You can also still go for off stage deep edgeguards against them, but be horizontal to Byleth instead of above.

Their f-smash, d-smash, dair, side B, and down B are whiff punished by Wing Blitz forward in terms of end lag.

We can hit their ledge hang with dair, in the case of ledgetrump > ledgejump + dair.

* u-tilt > double jump uair (90-101%)

Major credit to Zant on the advantage tips and some of the parts on neutral.

In neutral, Falcon will either dash attack (-13 on shield) or dash grab (33 frames of end lag) to approach. He may jab after you shield an aerial, so wait for that and punish.

His side B has 10% worth of armor, but can either lift him off the ground with d-tilt before it comes out, or time a tipper nair (i.e. retreating nair) or f-tilt on it. It’ll armor through the sour versions though. Otherwise just shield the move. Far as what to do after shielding it, either an OoS option (including shield drop u-tilt to catch his landing if he does the aerial version, though be forward and quick with said option since the move bounces off of shield but has enough end lag), anti-air like up angle f-tilt if they do the aerial version, or step/fullhop back and see if they panic spot dodge or roll back, then see what you can do. If you're at somewhere high % when hit by it and launched higher, can also nair as a get-off-me before he manages to do an aerial followup.

For Falcon's risk/reward, don't forget that as soon as you get to around 30%, getting grabbed is better than getting hit by an aerial landing. Mid range at mid %, d-tilts are a bad idea because it lets him jump above you. If you're not sure of an interaction, shield except at very high %. Can fullhop nair to counteract his attempted landing aerials, especially when Ridley's cornered near ledge which can be more reliable than f-tilt or d-tilt when cornered.

When recovering off stage, even from a dash attack that sends you off at bit at low %, don't airdodge or swing with nair too early or he'll get you with something like dair.

Air Falcon Kick can hit us under platforms, so still shield it there.

Falcon's nair hits require about 2 SDI inputs, both of which have 7 hitlag frames for you to perform said SDI's.

His f-smash, neutral B, and down B (grounded) are whiff punished by Wing Blitz forward in terms of end lag.

We can hit their ledge hang with dair, in the case of ledgetrump > ledgejump + dair.

Our uair comes out five frames faster than his dair, so it's possible to uair him as he's getting into position to dair spike with the right timing, although situational.

Credit to Mezcaul on dealing with neutral when at % mid range, and what to do when cornered and recovering. Also, external link on how to DI Falcon's combos:

The 4th hit of Chrom's side B requires about 2 SDI inputs, which has 2 hitlag frames for you to perform said SDI's.

His smashes, dair, and side B are whiff punished by Wing Blitz forward in terms of end lag.

Our uair comes out five frames faster than his dair, so it's possible to uair him as he's getting into position to dair spike with the right timing, although situational.

Skewer > d-tilt > insert followup here, for covering delayed getup.

===== Neutral =====

Cloud relies on the use of falling aerials, empty hops, and movement to condition responses. He'll use his safe bair and fair to space and whiff punish while peppering in dash attacks or Side B's to catch jumps or calling out bluffs. Cloud’s mobility is overall better than Ridley; he’s just barely slower on the ground and is much faster in the air. He will outpace Ridley with Limit which can make Cloud hard to pin down.

Cloud’s will use Limit charge as a way to force approaches; you don’t want to fully take this bait and rush in to get punished or give up the stage. When Cloud gains Limit, he’s put on a 15 second timer to use it or lose it which can allow you to predict when he'll use it or even wait it out. The higher your %, the more you should be careful with Cloud’s Limit since it’s much scarier when it can kill you.

Cloud’s bair is extremely safe, at a minimum of -3 on shield. You should never expect to directly punish a falling bair OoS even if it is badly spaced; it can even be unpunishable on parry if Cloud spaced it outside of jab or grab range. Treat it like other safe moves, watch what they do after and punish that.

Cloud’s fair is respectably safe at -6/-7 (depending on sweet or sourspot) but is much more difficult to time safely since it starts high, allowing Ridley to punish with nair OoS if Cloud mistimes it. Cloud’s fair and bair will also be his main combo starters, leading to big damage with cross slash usually. They will stop working around 70%.

Cloud can use d-tilt or f-tilt as a mixup after landing aerials on or away from your shield to close gaps or catch you moving in. D-tilt is especially potent since it can crossup and moves faster than you’d expect, but it can be punished OoS easily enough.

Cross slash will be Coud’s most damage whiff punisher, as it’s huge and has mixups on shield. Cloud can stop after the 1st or 2nd hit if you block. While this isn’t technically safe, continuing the combo is, so it’s a pseudo mixup depending on how quickly you can react. Cloud is forced to finish the swings when activating hit 3. It's pretty punishable OoS (-24), so you can get a sizable punish.

Cloud’s dash attack is a relatively fast move that lets him call out jumps and catch landings. It hits fairly high and is active for a long time. It doesn’t kill super well but it gives Cloud good positioning on hit and is important to discourage jumps and whiffs. It's pretty punishable OoS however.

Cloud’s OoS game lives by his up B which is frame 7 and huge. Treat it similar to Game & Watch where you avoid landing on top of his shield or mis-spacing moves at all costs.

Blade beam is Cloud’s projectile, a big moving hitbox that acts as a slow wall in the air, or a fastish spacer. The FAF (first actionable frame) isn’t good, so Cloud often can’t follow it. They will generally have to bait with B-reverses or catch you using plasma too close. If they're trying to zone you with it, plasma will work as a counter as long as you keep your distance.

While Cloud's aerials are extremely safe on block and do decent shield damage, his grab is so bad and unrewarding that blocking becomes very powerful in a lot of situations, especially if you can parry. Just pay attention and watch for habits or punishable moves like dash attack or the sliding d-tilt.

Ridley’s goal is to stay patient and bait whiffs and punish overaggression. The potential reward for Ridley winning neutral is higher than Cloud’s, so you can afford to wait him out and go for more callouts. Ridley’s d-tilt is the only move to reliably outrange Cloud, so you'll want to stay around that range or further. It’s important that you always stay close enough that charging Limit isn’t free, where well placed plasma or a short dash/walk will make Cloud respond.

Ridley will want to stay mostly grounded and abuse his speed and d-tilt + plasma to keep Cloud jumping for whiff punishes on his bair/fair. Plasma is great for getting Cloud off the ground, just be aware of his amazing airspeed (and if he has Limit) since he can jump over it and fair/bair you if you do it too close.

Cloud’s aerials may be extremely safe but they have some startup. 18 and 11 for fair and bair respectively, followed by 28 frames of end lag for fair and 30 for bair. This combined with needing to be done landing will give you two important advantages, the ability to predict for parries, or challenging them before their move can come out. Parry > d-tilt or f-tilt is a strong option since even if it doesn’t true punish, it will still act as a safe poke and should stuff most buttons.

Whiff punishing Cloud’s landing aerials will condition him to use more empty hops as a bait for you to whiff. By double jumping before he touches the ground or drifting back, he can setup some nasty situations if you get antsy. This is when you can start to call out jumps with nair, fair or even u-tilt if they're fullhopping. Cloud can beat it with rising aerials but these are much riskier.

F-tilt angled up can see some use as an anti air, but the angle Cloud attacks from is generally hard for f-tilt to cover while also being easier to whiff punish. It still works great as a ground spacer though.

Cloud’s nair is small but potent when it lands, can lead to extensions, but is generally less safe than his other aerials. It's also the only aerial Cloud generally will use when rising. Cloud can also use landing uair like it’s Smash 4 against us. -5 and hits pretty well, can lead into itself or u-tilt and is an ambiguous cross up. Tilting your shield upward when Cloud is jumping can make Cloud hit you slightly higher make his move just a little less safe, any extra advantage helps.

Crouching can also make Cloud’s landing aerial timing stricter, removing timing mixup potential and makes it safer on block but makes parry easier.

When Cloud has Limit it’s important to not get flustered. He has stat boosts across the board, so his mixup potential is greatly increased. This can be hard to deal with especially when you consider he now has invincible specials. It's held back by one important factor, a 15 second time limit; this time limit puts the Cloud on the offensive if he wants to use his limit, making him more predictable. Cloud will be looking for a setup, either from an aerial (like nair at high % or bair/fair at low %) or getting you off stage. Waiting out the timer is perfectly viable; using jumps and run speed to keep Cloud chasing you can help you waste time. This combined with smart shielding and air-to-air's can pressure Cloud to YOLO his limit instead of risking its loss.

Bair to limit cross slash (LCS) is a scary shield break setup that’s hard to escape. You can beat this completely by parrying the last hit of it; timing isn’t too hard and is always the same. Also, limit blade beam goes through plasma.

===== Disadvantage =====

Get ready for lots of uair and bair. Cloud can string bair's or reverse nair's into limit cross slash off stage for super early kills if you don’t respond. Airdodge can usually save you, but take note of your position for if Cloud can still catch you and not die.

While on ledge, Cloud will typically bair spam. His bair is a really strong ledgetrap tool, as its size allows it to cover neutral getup, ledge getup attack, and ledge roll while landing and is fast enough to let him pressure or punish ledge jumps on reaction followed by dash attack to hit you for hanging too long. Mixing up timings is very important here. Cloud can only hit Ridley on ledge with limit blade beam or dash attack, so you can sometimes afford to wait. Getup attack is almost always a bad idea, as Cloud is rarely ever grounded long enough for it to punish anything and is slower than neutral getup. Some exceptions can be if he's using Limit or missed a dash attack. Jump is important since it’s the only option that isn’t always directly covered in Cloud’s funny bair spams; mixing neutral getup and ledge jump with drop down options with rolls every so often can at least keep Cloud guessing.

Although Cloud can’t hit you on ledge with normals super well, planking isn’t a good idea since his dair and Limit moves will kill you. When Cloud has Limit, you have to be much more careful since as you’d expect, Limit blade beam will hit you on ledge free and cross slash will eat jumps & neutral getups for breakfast if he reads your timing.

Disadvantage off stage is a mixed bag. Cloud has the tools to beat Wing Blitz, but is thankfully limited by his fall speed and bad recovery. Horizontal recoveries should be mostly avoided unless you’re mixing up. Blade beam can interrupt SPR or WB fairly easily and fair/dair can spike you for it. Recovering low is normally what you’ll want to do, but will still have to worry about dair. It’s big enough to beat WB clean, so you’ll have to be sure you pay attention to Cloud’s position and mixup your timing. When Cloud has Limit it gets a lot trickier, as LCS is an active hitbox that keeps Cloud in place, allowing him to easily beat WB from the side. When Cloud has Limit is when you’ll want to pull out the positional mixups; even recovering slightly wider than usual can throw Cloud's off if they don’t react and swap their attacking direction.

When being juggled, mostly have to deal with uair. Ridley is big and Cloud is fast and has great juggle moves, so be smart with your jumps and don’t airdodge directly onto Cloud. Cloud has an aerial blind spot on his diagonals, which can let you use counter attacks like nair or fair if you can use them in this position. You will get uair'd on average, but don’t panic and mash jump when getting uair chained, as the last thing you want to happen is losing your jumps. Cloud’s up smash is fast and hits really high above him, so be careful when trying to space landings around him or when jumping over him. When Cloud has Limit it’s even more important to not land on top of him, as his Limit OoS options are very strong and huge.

===== Advantage =====

Ledgetrapping here is fairly typical. Cloud’s ledge hang is almost as good as Ridley’s, so hitting him can be a little tricky, especially with plasma. His ledge attack is tied in range with Ridley, so it reaches pretty far. Cloud’s ledge drop options are pretty risky since it means he has to use a double jump. He can bair, nair, or fair. He can lalso edge jump up B to hit you if you're standing too close or whiffing.

Cloud off stage is where it gets fun. He should theoretically always die from there. Cloud has four very important resources while recovering; his double jump, airdodge, side B, and neutral B. You should always be watching for his double jump, as a Cloud without it is dead. Airdodge can give Cloud some extra distance when sent far away, or help him get to ledge. His specials will stall him in the air and give him a bit of horizontal movement, which can throw off timings and allow him to recover. Each special can only stall him once though, so keep an eye out. Blade beam can be used to swat you away for charging plasma too early or close or trying to run off, but correctly spaced plasma should be able to deal with this if you're ready for it.

Plasma can often do the job of gimping Cloud pretty well, but you’ll still have to go out there and threaten him to avoid him getting comfortable. Nair is great for this, especially if you catch his jump. Plasma can also occasionally lose to Climbhazzard. Cloud’s up B has trouble snapping to the ledge, only snapping when spaced low or super close to it. When you’ve got a hang of the spacing you can abuse it by hitting him with plasma, f-tilt, or even d-tilt which can be especially effective when in combo range for fair and is the faster and more active than f-tilt. Fair is great for challenging Cloud’s attempts to jump back onto the stage, since it’s fast and with the multi-hit you should beat whatever attack he chooses in most circumstances.

Watch out for Cloud's recovering high with the downward swing of up B. Treat it like a disjointed Wing Blitz down angle. Cloud’s up b may be scary to mess with since he can take you down with him. The risk is very worth it however, especially since if Cloud misses. Cloud is also fairly susceptible to fullhop dair on the right stages (any legal stage barring Smashville, Town & City, Yoshi's Story, Lylat, and Kalos), as his linear vertical recovery is perfect for getting walled out by dair. Just be aware of the giant spiking disjoint in front of him.

When Cloud has Limit, your focus should be on making him use it, whether it be as a counter attack or in his up B. This will be the time Cloud's are most likely to want to jump back since they want to keep Limit, so block their jump/airdodge. The hitbox on Limit up B ends well before Cloud stops rising, making it easier to challenge than you may think.

With juggling in advantage, Cloud has a good airspeed, fallspeed (especially with Limit), and fairly good landing aerials, so stay grounded and chase him. Our d-tilt will still whiff punish his bair/fair. Cloud’s dair is a huge disjoint; it can aid him in landing if you're trying to attack Cloud directly. It has mediocre landing lag but can be spaced to autocancel. Up smash will beat it pretty well, or you can just challenge it from the side with anything (even pivot grab), so you should be looking to bait it.

Always look for Cloud’s airdodge, or any landing habits for that matter. When you get a read if you can’t kill him outright, you want to prioritize putting him off the stage with horizontal moves like nair or f-tilt. Keep an eye out for up B advantage breakers; since the move is big and fast, Cloud's can use it as a mixup to catch you charging at them. Remember to watch for double jumps when going for reads, as getting Cloud off the stage without his jump is a free stock.

His dair hits us under plats, so still shield or avoid.

Cloud's up B can be DI'd out of; if you hold out, the downward hitbox will send you out instead of down.

His side B is generally 5 hits, with or without limit.

We can crouch under shorthop blade beam.

His f-smash and finishing touch are whiff punished by Wing Blitz forward in terms of end lag.

We can hit their ledge hang with dair, in the case of ledgetrump > ledgejump + dair.

Cloud fair can spike aerial opponents at the clean hit's sweetspot located at the end of the sword arc, but since it's 18 frames of startup, any of our aerials can come out beforehand.

Skewer > d-tilt > insert followup here, for covering delayed getup.

His normals, regular three-hit cross slash, and regular blade beam up close are pretty punishable by our OoS aerials and shield grab. Jab 1/2/3, crossup d-tilt, dash attack, smashes, regular neutral B up close, 3rd hit of regular side B, and ledge getup attack are also shield punished by u-tilt should he be at u-tilt > uair kill %. His jab 3, crossup d-tilt, dash attack, and ledge getup attack are punished by shorthop SPR OoS, while his f-smash (3 hits) is punished by our own when shielded. Safe as most of his landing aerials are, his dair is minus enough on shield to be punished by nair and maybe u-smash OoS.

If you’re in the air, you have to accept getting hit a couple of times if needed because losing your jumps and being stuck without them while they’re under you = gimped.

Try to make your ledge grabs as ambiguous as possible (aka mixup recovering low and horizontal to ledge, mixup which move you use) to try and avoid getting hit with pin. Respect pin on stage as well.

Gameplan is to try and bait them into whiffing and then getting stray punishes. If they aren’t approaching you, you can incentivize them with a couple of plasma but don’t get reckless and charge it while they’re too close.

You ''can'' outspace their nair/fair with f-tilt, so definitely stay grounded, but you have to be ready for pin.

Also while at ledge, Corrin's f-smash does not hit Ridley's ledge hang from ledge roll distance; allow the positioning of the Corrin to dictate your action off ledge. On the flipside, is easier to ledgetrap Corrin than edgeguard them.

===== Corrin pin =====

To sum it up, the Corrin pin tech chase setup is fake. The pin does put you into tumble, but you're actionable before landing, so you get two strong options with little risk that punishes them for being greedy for not taking the kick followup.

You can hold buffer an aerial that autocancels or has low end lag (our nair) that gives frame advantage and punishes on the pin drop release as well as their pin jump cancel.

With holding buffered aerials, during any action, you can hold buffer an input basically indefinitely. Pressing and holding A during Corrin's pin will automatically aerial as soon as you are actionable. Thus, you can press and hold A with the stick in neutral to buffer a nair, then have free control of the stick later while still guaranteeing a buffered nair.

This option select covers pin release while giving you the ability to use the left stick to survival DI the kick. This hold buffer trick also works with buffering specials, but that'll be a rare mixup in our case.

Corrin f-smash (charged) requires about 2 SDI inputs, which has 5 hitlag frames for you to perform said SDI's.

Their smashes are mostly whiff punished by Wing Blitz forward in terms of end lag.

We can hit their ledge hang with dair, in the case of ledgetrump > ledgejump + dair.

Our uair comes out a frame faster than their dair, so it's possible to uair them as they're getting into position to dair spike with the right timing, although situational.

Skewer > d-tilt > insert followup here, for covering delayed getup.

Another thing about monkey flip, despite how fast it may feel or seem, it still has plenty startup; 18 frames which is only 4 frames less than that of our command grab, so if you can mess up their close range you can just straight up beat the move. Monkey flip is preferred at mid range which is where Ridley typically wants to be at which it makes it hard to play his usual game, so you may have to bait him close range or play lame at far range.

Also focus on gaining space and stage control when he brings out the banana. When Diddy pulls the banana out (and only when he’s actively pulling it out), focus on where the banana is going instead of Diddy, as he’s going to jump to catch it. If you are close enough you can punish it, such as with nair, or try to estimate where he’ll go right after he picks it up.

For more specific things on the matchup...

===== General gameplan =====

* Stop the Diddy from getting the banana in neutral. Diddy will catch approaches with fair, d-tilt, and side B to limit our approaches and pull the banana easily. Is important to spot the pattern of Diddy pulling the banana to punish him.

* Shield plenty at high %, angle your shield upwards, and then cancel with fullhops to bait a monkey flip.

* Diddy fair is laggy enough to punish with nair or shield grab.

===== Lose conditions =====

* Nair > devastating dair at mid %. At the corner, avoid f-tilt or d-tilt to concentrate on the aerial. If touched, DI in the dair.

* If they never do a rising aerial against our shield at high % for an easy up smash punish.

* Try to spotdodge or roll out our side B. Jumping or rolling in is the solution.

* Try to punish his dash attack or side B kick on shield. Take into account the RPS situations.

===== Facing the banana =====

* If Diddy banana is in front of us, it's a huge commitment; running in and d-tilt/f-tilt or dash attack to pick it up. Intercepting the banana in the air is not recommended because of our weak air game. Pick up the banana with f-tilt or dash attack, as both have good reach.

* Learn to ledge jump z-catch the banana placed in the corner. If Diddy has banana and shields at the corner while we are off stage, do not ledge jump. If we have no choice, move away from the wall to limit our chances of getting hit by the banana.

* Once the banana is in your hands, either ledgetrap with it, send it to Diddy, or place it on a platform if you can. Unfortunately, keeping it is not good, as we can no longer f-tilt or d-tilt.

* If Diddy has the banana, absolutely space the f-tilt or d-tilt. After these, shield as the first intention. Jumping a lot after is helpful.

His f-smash is 2 hits and u-smash is 3 hits.

Diddy up tilt requires about 2 SDI inputs, which has 8 hitlag frames for you to perform said SDI's.

His d-smash is whiff punished by Wing Blitz forward in terms of end lag.

Our uair comes out four frames faster than his dair, so it's possible to uair him as he's getting into position to dair spike with the right timing, although situational.

Skewer > d-tilt > insert followup here, for covering delayed getup.

His normals are pretty punishable by our OoS options and shield grab; d-tilt being the main exception, but d-smash is punished by shorthop SPR OoS and his u-smash is shield punished by our f-smash. While his dash attack does technically crossup shield, doesn't do so by much with it being 3 hits, so watch him closely if you shield it and punish (is -14). His landing aerials besides fair and dair are pretty safe on shield, so go for a reset there.

Jab 3, smashes, and ledge getup attack are shield punished by u-tilt too should he be at u-tilt > uair kill %.

Ridley kill confirm:

Major credit to Mezcaul on the general gameplan, lose conditions, and specifics in facing the banana.

Banana Skewer combo-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FctDSgYtyWs

While his side B has super armor, it's not there while he's headbutting; only the startup frames before it, which makes either challenging or punishing it that much more possible (same with his up B during startup). Won't be buried if hit by the air version, but still tech it if on stage.

With them having a frame 4 airdodge as a superheavy, our u-throw > uair can work on them occasionally. Jumping at the right time can still beat this combo, but they still have to use up a valuable resource.

His u-smash, d-smash, dair, side B, and up B (grounded or landing) are whiff punished by Wing Blitz forward in terms of end lag.

Our uair comes out three frames faster than his dair, so it's possible to uair him as he's getting into position to dair spike with the right timing, although situational. Likewise, his fair is 18 frames in startup, headbutt is 20 frames in startup, and air hand slap is 19/28 frames in startup, so our aerials can hit him beforehand.

* Doc Tornado is 7 hits and -30 on shield, so can be punished by Ridley f-smash OoS. Be aware though it has 10% damage worth of armor. When it by it, have to do about 2 SDI inputs, each hit of which has 2 hitlag frames for you to perform said SDI's.

Up smash has head intangibility on frames 9 to 13.

This character can consistently airdodge over ledge after getting ledge trumped, so may be best to do ledge trump > drop ledge > double jump to stage + falling bair. We can also hit their ledge hang with dair, in the case of ledgetrump > ledgejump + dair.

Skewer > jab 1 > f-smash, for covering delayed getup.

Figure out what moves will safely hit the can and then hit the can; our spaced tilts & aerials generally, and maybe plasma depending on distance. The can bounces 9 times before it starts smoking. This forces Duck Hunt to hit the can again themselves to regain control of it. Be fairly sure that they WILL try to hit the can in this case, as most of their neutral revolves around it being available. Once can is inactive, they only have the linear pressure of clay pigeon and gunman, so you can approach more safely with aerials or chance a grounded approach, being ready to shield, preferably dash shield.

* uair, as it hits three times with a hitbox as wide as Duck Hunt's body

* up smash's first and third hitbox, which hit up-and-in-front and then directly above

Keep in mind that clay pigeon has both the object's hitbox plus the shots after; said shots happen in an overlapping pattern that is larger than Duck Hunt themselves. It's better to shield tilt it than try to play tightly around it as the hitstun is generous and they can somewhat spam it at close ranges. Duck Hunt grabs don't lead into much besides can setups and has no kill throws, so this isn't the worst thing to do depending on the situation.

One other big piece of advice is don't push your advantage when you're both grounded because they can hit you with a clay pigeon out of hitstun and suddenly your combo is theirs. Same thing with covering landings; don't try to time a tilt because you might get hit by a clay pigeon. Charge plasma from away or let them land. Either way it's not worth the risk of getting hit by clay pigeon which you're always better off avoiding and then punishing. Duck Hunt's committed to being in the side B animation for 64 frames.

Gunman has a longer cooldown (two or so seconds) if you hit them, so take the odd safe chance to do that if the opponent uses them a lot. They take hitlag the same as any other character or object, so be aware that Duck Hunt can do funky stuff like a retreating jump to drop a gunman which eats the attack while they use the extra frames to act. The fastest gunman is the one in red.

His f-smash is whiff punished by Wing Blitz forward in terms of end lag.

This character can consistently airdodge over ledge after getting ledge trumped, so may be best to do ledge trump > drop ledge > double jump to stage + falling bair. We can also hit their ledge hang with dair, in the case of ledgetrump > ledgejump + dair.

Our uair comes out three frames faster than his dair, so it's possible to uair him as he's getting into position to dair spike with the right timing, although situational.

His d-smash is whiff punished by Wing Blitz forward in terms of end lag.

We can hit their ledge hang with dair, in the case of ledgetrump > ledgejump + dair.

Note that the air version of Falco side B can spike aerial opponents, but it's 13/18 frames in startup, so possible to attack him beforehand.

Fox fair hits require about 2 SDI inputs, which have 3 to 4 hitlag frames for you to perform said SDI's.

His u-smash, d-smash, and bair are whiff punished by Wing Blitz forward in terms of end lag.

This character can consistently airdodge over ledge after getting ledge trumped, so may be best to do ledge trump > drop ledge > double jump to stage + falling bair. Fox can also jump over ledge trump nair without getting hit, so another reason to do the falling bair onto stage method.

It’s important to keep in mind where you are on stage. The last thing you want is for Ganon to corner you. When shielding, watch out for Wizkick crossups, and of course flame choke or dark dive setups, the latter of which is a go-to if you're cornered.

While his dash attack does not crossup on our shield like it would for others, his grounded Wizkick still does, but it's riskier for him to do on account of Wizkick having more end lag and being less safe on shield (still -29, so can do a turnaround f-smash in which case).

With them having a frame 4 airdodge as a superheavy, our u-throw > uair can work on them occasionally. Jumping at the right time can still beat this combo, but they still have to use up a valuable resource.

His u-tilt, f-smash, u-smash, and neutral B are whiff punished by Wing Blitz forward in terms of end lag.

Our uair comes out five frames faster than his dair, so it's possible to uair him as he's getting into position to dair spike with the right timing, although situational. Likewise, his air side B and down B are 16 frames in startup, so possible to attack him beforehand with our aerials if he goes for those spikes.

His up smash is shield punished by shorthop SPR OoS. Wizkick is shield punished by Ridley f-smash as pointed out, and air Wizkick (-34) is even more unsafe, but does much shield damage, so don't shield if it's not at full health. His f-smash, u-smash, d-smash 1, and Wizkick are shield punished by u-tilt should he be at u-tilt > uair kill %.

For weaknesses, it lacks an effective OoS option. Will often run away after shielding as a result, which you can catch on to, but remember its mixup with counter. They also lack combo breakers, with its nair & fair having slow startup and the other three aerials not having very big hitboxes; so like after shielding, its best option in the air is to jump away which you can also anticipate. That said, Greninja can use Water Shuriken to stall themselves in the air and be used as a landing mixup, as well as up B landing mixups.

Greninja d-tilt requires about 2 SDI inputs, which has 6 hitlag frames for you to perform said SDI's.

You can do a beefy side B (hold down during SPR to bypass ledge) to catch their up B recovery, along with any directional airdodge toward ledge. Be ready to tech though in the case of a trade situation. Beefy side B won't grab if they still have intangibility while at ledge, but unlikely to happen if they're at high %.

His f-smash, d-smash, fair, and Shadow Sneak are whiff punished by Wing Blitz forward in terms of end lag.

This character can consistently airdodge over ledge after getting ledge trumped, so may be best to do ledge trump > drop ledge > double jump to stage + falling bair. Greninja can also jump over ledge trump nair without getting hit, so another reason to do the falling bair onto stage method. We can also hit their ledge hang with dair, in the case of ledgetrump > ledgejump + dair.

Our uair comes out six frames faster than his dair, so it's possible to uair him as he's getting into position to dair spike with the right timing, although situational. Also note the down angled version of Substitute will spike aerial opponents.

Don't do a ledge neutral getup if they're charging a full neutral B, since our hurtbox is likely still big enough to be hit by it.

His f-tilt 2, smashes, dair, and Hatchet Man are whiff punished by Wing Blitz forward in terms of end lag.

Hero edgeguard concept where you can get most of his up B attempts with dair-

* https://youtu.be/mCoSJA1GRbU?si=vg-l_cIWt1dX1CFQ

We can hit their ledge hang with dair, in the case of ledgetrump > ledgejump + dair.

Our uair comes out five frames faster than his dair, so it's possible to uair him as he's getting into position to dair spike with the right timing, although situational.

With them being floaty, our u-throw > uair can work on them occasionally. Jumping at the right time can still beat this combo, but they still have to use up a valuable resource, and if they manage to airdodge a followup, you can typically land with an autocancel to frame trap them and punish if you read their trajectory. Even with Ridley's up throw still having no true followup at times, can do an empty jump + fastfall to bait them to use a resource and catch their landing accordingly, which floaties have a harder time dealing with.

Skewer > d-tilt > insert followup here, for covering delayed getup.

Our jab 1 starts faster than his, giving us the advantage in close range.

There's many setups to desyncing, so is up to you to understand how they desync; a common one being shorthop uair, apart from side B (squal hammer's also used to reconnect them during disadvantage). They also want to desync into a grab, which is dangerous as explained earlier, as is being above them.

Aside from bair pressure, another reason they like to have their backs turned is so you grab the AI Climber instead of the player, letting the latter smash attack you, and they can shield you pummeling the AI, though it stops them from hitting you.

You can do a beefy side B (hold down during SPR to bypass ledge) to catch their up B recovery, along with any directional airdodge toward ledge. Be ready to tech though in the case of a trade situation. Beefy side B won't grab if they still have intangibility while at ledge, but unlikely to happen if they're at high %.

IC's Squall Hammer hits require about 2 SDI inputs, each of which have 3, 4, or 5 hitlag frames for you to perform said SDI's.

This character can consistently airdodge over ledge after getting ledge trumped, so may be best to do ledge trump > drop ledge > double jump to stage + falling bair. We can also hit their ledge hang with dair, in the case of ledgetrump > ledgejump + dair.

With IC's fair, it spikes aerial opponents if hit with the sweetspot located in front of Nana, though only the partner's fair can spike, as the leader's will always launch opponents horizontally. It's 19 frames in startup though, so our aerials can attack beforehand.

With them being floaty, our u-throw > uair can work on them occasionally. Jumping at the right time can still beat this combo, but they still have to use up a valuable resource, and if they manage to airdodge a followup, you can typically land with an autocancel to frame trap them and punish if you read their trajectory. Even with Ridley's up throw still having no true followup at times, can do an empty jump + fastfall to bait them to use a resource and catch their landing accordingly, which floaties have a harder time dealing with.

Also with them being floaty, their dair is more easily punished by our u-smash OoS. When both of them are together though, the AI's attacks land 7 frames later. They share frame data on attacks but if only one hits something, the other will delay their attack, essentially sharing the hitlag in order to stay at a comparable level of desync.

Avoid getting hit by Ike nair perhaps most of all. Parry & punish, or dash in, shield, and grab immediately when Ike lands or when in range. Ike will always do a falling nair, so if it becomes predictable, Ridley can do a rising aerial to stuff him out before he nairs.

Eruption (neutral B) has super armor on medium and full charge, frames 6 to 10.

With them having a frame 4 airdodge, our u-throw > uair can work on them occasionally. Jumping at the right time can still beat this combo, but they still have to use up a valuable resource.

His smashes and aerials are whiff punished by Wing Blitz forward in terms of end lag.

Our uair comes out five frames faster than his dair, so it's possible to uair him as he's getting into position to dair spike with the right timing, although situational; same with our dair coming out a couple frames faster than his uair if wanting to use it as a landing mixup.

Skewer > d-tilt > insert followup here, for covering delayed getup.

All his normals are punished by our OoS aerials and such, while his smashes are mostly punished by whatever. His landing aerials are usually too safe though unless you can specifically punish nair in the way that was mentioned earlier. Quickdraw can be from -28 to -22 on shield, and his up B is -29 like the jab 3. If he whiffs a counter nearby, skewer punish.

His up throw can kill us around 154%.

His d-smash and up B are whiff punished by Wing Blitz forward in terms of end lag.

We can hit their ledge hang with dair, in the case of ledgetrump > ledgejump + dair.

Our uair comes out five frames faster than his dair, so it's possible to uair him as he's getting into position to dair spike with the right timing, although situational. Also note that Incineroar's up B spikes as he starts descending with it.

Skewer > d-tilt > insert followup here, for covering delayed getup.

Perhaps the most important thing to remember with the Inkling matchup, is don't get roller'd. Always be aware of the possibility of roller, be it when Inkling takes horizontal knockback, as a landing option, from ledge, or after a bait. Because of this, you need to be careful of where & when you dash since it removes your ability to shield instantly, apart from dash shielding. D-tilt, u-tilt, and u-smash OoS are true punishes if you react quick enough, aside from nair & grab. Also keep in mind Inkling has many moves that will put you in a tech situation which they can chase with roller and will catch most if not all tech options depending on position. It can actually be optimal to occasionally miss a tech so the roller won’t bury you.

While Inkling can act 5 frames earlier after refilling ink thanks to a final patch buff, the ink refill itself is still punishable. It has about as much lag as landing up B, so if they use it too close you can punish with dash attack, SPR, ect. Keep an eye on their ink tank. Recharging it is still laggy and without it they lose some of their best options (jab, splat bomb, roller, weaker smashes, and f-throw).

For neutral, plasma isn’t very good, and up angle f-tilt can be frustrating to anti-air with because of Inkling’s gun disjoint with bair and such. Inkling builds damage in specific ways with jab, grab, and bair. Your goal should be to avoid these moves and space around them with your range. Jab and grab are pretty self explanatory, just use range and speed to stay out of their bubble.

You want the her to jump around because that's when neutral is in our favor, whiff punishing them is way easier than guessing when they'll dash in, grab, roller, etc. You can still play grounded at early %, but at least in more dodgy %'s like when Booyah is possible, use jump. You can shield some, but still have to watch out for grab u-throw combos, which is why it's better to jump against to account for both grab and roller.

Inkling neutral B has a windbox; you need to pay attention if Inkling is angling it up or down. If it's being kept down or you know they'll aim it down, jump-in's work. If they keep it up to try and cover jumps, walk and d-tilt at max range to avoid the windbox from pushing you out.

The bomb when they throw it above doesn't immediately explode on contact. Also, sometimes it won't hit Ridley on ledge unless it'll explode as it's close to the ground.

Bair combos aren't true, Inkling doesn't get a true followup most of the time out of a bair at many percentages and sometimes you can even hit them when they try to hit you again.

For ledgetrapping, Inkling’s will use uncharged splat bomb similarly to Dedede’s up gordos. Its purpose is to cover jump, neutral getup, and waiting. It doesn’t bounce however which opens up ledge jump sooner than gordos. The only ground normal Inkling can use to hit Ridley on ledge is the 2nd hit of d-tilt. Getup attack can power through splat bomb if it makes contact with the hitbox before our intangibility expires. You can use this to swat away Inkling's who are abusing splat bomb to trap you. Ledge jump nair is also pretty good for dealing with splat bomb, but just be mindful of Inkling bair and don’t spam it.

Inkling is a very difficult character to edgeguard if they're below the ledge because they can stall a lot with side B jumps. It's not worth to go for unless Inkling still hasn't reached the bottom blastzone.

Up B can wall Inkling very well from recovering too if they side B early because they can't stop their momentum out of the small jump they do out of side B while being safe and letting you ledgetrap if they go low.

Far as juggling them, Inkling has only one good aerial for landing, being bair. Focus on juggling them when they’re facing you, as their nair and fair hit too high, and dair is slow (16 frames in startup), so you can abuse tilts and aerials to keep Inkling in the air.

Inkling is fairly floaty, so they have a relatively high FAF (first actionable frame) on their directional airdodge. This opens them up to easier frame traps.

If you find yourself with Inkling’s back to you, be careful and attempt to cause fear with your positioning and get them to ledge. You can attempt to challenge landing bair's if they’re predictable, as up smash is meaty and can beat predictable landing aerials.

They can use uncharged splat bomb to act as a cover for their landings. FAF is 51 frames, so it’s punishable if you’re positioned well. Trading with the bomb is worth it if you can kill Inkling in the process. They have good aerial mobility, so B-reverse splat bomb can occasionally be useful for dodging our juggling.

You can do a beefy side B (hold down during SPR to bypass ledge) to catch their up B recovery, along with any directional airdodge toward ledge. Be ready to tech though in the case of a trade situation. Beefy side B won't grab if they still have intangibility while at ledge, but unlikely to happen if they're at high %.

Her f-smash, u-smash, and dair are whiff punished by Wing Blitz forward in terms of end lag.

We can hit their ledge hang with dair, in the case of ledgetrump > ledgejump + dair.

Our uair comes out five frames faster than her dair, so it's possible to uair her as she's getting into position to dair spike with the right timing, although situational; same with our dair coming out a frame faster than her uair if you want to use it as a landing mixup.

With them being floaty, our u-throw > uair can work on them occasionally. Jumping at the right time can still beat this combo, but they still have to use up a valuable resource, and if they manage to airdodge a followup, you can typically land with an autocancel to frame trap them and punish if you read their trajectory. Even with Ridley's up throw still having no true followup at times, can do an empty jump + fastfall to bait them to use a resource and catch their landing accordingly, which floaties have a harder time dealing with.

Skewer > jab 1 > f-smash, for covering delayed getup.

Either use a solid aerial (or f-tilt if you're at ledge) to hit the balloons on their up B or go around them and hit the character themselves while they're recovering. Her up B has a good vertical and horizontal distance, though it travels a slightly shorter distance than Villager's version.

While Lloid Trap (takes 51 frames for it to be planted and active and disappears after 10 seconds) usually isn't hard to destroy with a ranged attack if it's still in the ground when given the opportunity, will have to watch out for this move most when being ledgetrapped by Isabelle, with it being able to catch any ledge options of timed and positioned right. It also combos into her uair if close enough, making it a kill confirm at high %. Lloid Trap also has the niche application known as Glyroid where if she activates Lloid during her initial dash, she'll quickly slide a short distance, allowing it to be used as a movement mixup for approaching.

Her dair hits us under plats, so still shield or avoid it. Same with her dash attack on a plat due to being a projectile that hits at mid range on someone underneath her.

Isabelle multi-hits: u-smash (2 hits), d-smash (2 hits), nair (2 hits), Lloid Trap (6 hits)

You can do a beefy side B (hold down during SPR to bypass ledge) to catch their up B recovery, along with any directional airdodge toward ledge. Be ready to tech though in the case of a trade situation. Beefy side B won't grab if they still have intangibility while at ledge, but unlikely to happen if they're at high %.

This character can consistently airdodge over ledge after getting ledge trumped, so may be best to do ledge trump > drop ledge > double jump to stage + falling bair. We can also hit their ledge hang with dair, in the case of ledgetrump > ledgejump + dair.

With them being floaty, our u-throw > uair can work on them occasionally. Jumping at the right time can still beat this combo, but they still have to use up a valuable resource, and if they manage to airdodge a followup, you can typically land with an autocancel to frame trap them and punish if you read their trajectory. Even with Ridley's up throw still having no true followup at times, can do an empty jump + fastfall to bait them to use a resource and catch their landing accordingly, which floaties have a harder time dealing with.

Skewer > d-tilt > insert followup here, for covering delayed getup.

Isabelle's normals are punished by nair OoS. Her landing aerials are too safe on shield though, so reset there. Her f-tilt, dash attack, f-smash. and d-smash are shield punished by u-tilt should she be at u-tilt > uair kill %. Her d-smash & ledge getup attack (-25) are also punished by shorthop SPR OoS. Similar to Villager, her grab is 14 frames in startup and 27 in end lag.

Her 9-hit dair is a good combo starter, and confirms into Rest (is invulnerable on frames 1-27). Also respect her bair as a potential kill move.

If you break her shield, get gets KO'd automatically, though this is rare. Her nair OoS is good at tech chases, so don't miss tech, and punish OoS rising aerials as always.

In disadvantage, her d-smash hits ledge hang, and likes to ledgetrap with nair which covers most options. They can mix it up with a fullhop nair too so they can DJ out of it, but watch if they over-commit. When being juggled, we can use dair as a mixup against her landing uair if she's expecting an airdodge.

Puff has a total of 6 jumps, with 5 midair jumps.

With them having a frame 4 airdodge as well as being floaty, our u-throw > uair can work on them occasionally. Jumping at the right time can still beat this combo, but they still have to use up a resource, and then count the remaining jumps in Puff's case.

Her Sing and Rest are whiff punished by Wing Blitz forward in terms of end lag.

This character can consistently airdodge over ledge after getting ledge trumped, so may be best to do ledge trump > drop ledge > double jump to stage + falling bair. We can also hit their ledge hang with dair, in the case of ledgetrump > ledgejump + dair.

Skewer > d-tilt > insert followup here, for covering delayed getup.

Basically in this matchup, you have to emphasize not getting opened up and edgeguarding Joker, so have good shield discipline all around and especially respect arsene Joker's landings. Don't try to challenge him because you'll explode if he hits you with landing fair or dair.

Pay attention to how your opponent recovers and how they deal with plasma. Do they like going low? Do they immediately jump out of hitstun? Do they stall with guns? Gather as much info to net those edgeguards. Also, against arsene if they hug the stage to recover you can do SPR to ledge holding down (thus bypassing it) to catch them and then stage spike them. If you mistime, you can get a ledge trump.

Try not to recover low against arsene because of the counter, but sometimes the Joker players forget about it.

Joker uair requires about 2 SDI inputs, which has 3 hitlag frames for you to perform said SDI's.

You can do a beefy side B (hold down during SPR to bypass ledge) to catch their arsene up B recovery, along with any directional airdodge toward ledge. Be ready to tech though in the case of a trade situation. Beefy side B won't grab if they still have intangibility while at ledge, but unlikely to happen if they're at high %.

His u-smash and d-smash are whiff punished by Wing Blitz forward in terms of end lag.

We can hit their ledge hang with dair, in the case of ledgetrump > ledgejump + dair.

Our uair comes out a couple frames faster than his dair, so it's possible to uair him as he's getting into position to dair spike with the right timing, although situational.

Skewer > d-tilt > insert followup here, for covering delayed getup.

Credit to Paco on some of the nuances of neutral against arsene Joker as well as pushing your advantage.

Aside from Kazuya d-smash being able to break shield, also be aware that it can spike if used at ledge, so be aware of it when timing your recovery. His nair when used off stage can also spike, but can be difficult for him to space.

===== Miscellaneous and frame data =====

While you can obviously SDI out of Kazuya's 10 hit jab, it's easier said than done, as they can require 3, 4, or 5 SDI inputs, each hit of which only has 2 hitlag frames for you to perform said SDI's. That said, Kazuya's other moves you can do a minimum of at least one SDI input to try and get out of his usual combos, aside from the standard DI method with Kazuya as explained earlier. SDI's appear to work even better than the regular DI, for that matter. Dash walk SDI particularly is said to work well against the usual Kazuya stuff involving EWGF, in which it's best to shield right after you escape the EWGF followup (i.e. crouch jab or nair), but can try flick SDI too if that's what you're more comfortable with.

With Kazuya's fastest OoS options in order being uair (11 frames), u-smash/up B (12 frames), and nair/fair (15 frames) which is a worse OoS game overall than ours, Ridley can abuse his shield quite well from the side, long as you space your attacks like usual.

We can hit their ledge hang with dair, in the case of ledgetrump > ledgejump + dair.

One way of baiting out laser before edgeguarding him is getting on ledge, that way you're still in a dangerous position and can punish what he does after.

Skewer can beat out Rage Drive if timed and positioned right. Skewer > d-tilt > insert followup here, for covering delayed getup.

His side taunt, crouching down-forward tilt (Tombstone Crusher), and f-smash are whiff punished by Wing Blitz forward in terms of end lag.

For f-tilt (down angle) 2 framing, remember that you’re aiming for the end of their up B, not the time where most characters snap to ledge. Shotos will float for just a second before grabbing ledge and that’s where you aim for; being slightly late or early there is of little consequence.

* Neutral attack 1 and 2 (tapped)

* Neutral attack (close, held)

* F-tilt (close, tapped)

* U-tilt (held or tapped)

* D-tilt (held or tapped)

* D-smash

* Nair

* Fair

* Uair

* Bair

* Dair

Up tilt (light) requires about 3 SDI inputs, which has 9 hitlag frames for you to perform said SDI's.

We can hit their ledge hang with dair, in the case of ledgetrump > ledgejump + dair.

The tatsu side B has leg intangibility, so don't try to hit it with d-tilt when active. Is thusly recommended to use up angle f-tilt if you challenge with it at all. Can also get an easy 2-frame on them when they use tatsu and get a free edgeguard because of how much end lag tatsu has.

SDI in on tatsu which can create fallouts and can usually mash an option because they're negative afterwards. If they up tilt, then you can SDI up & away because proximity jab doesn't work as well if you do that, and if the Ken/Ryu doesn't know how to deal with it, just mash jump + nair out of the early % combos.

Credit to rydra on the specifics about tatsumaki (Ken's side B).

Dedede has a total of 5 jumps, with 4 midair jumps. With how slow his airspeed is, one might think he would have slow fall speed too, but he actually has one of the fastest falling speeds in the game, so keep in mind.

Inhale is mashable, grounded Jet Hammer has 14% worth of armor on release. Something like our bair may beat the latter, but f-tilt even with sweetspot will not.

With them having a frame 4 airdodge as a superheavy, our u-throw > uair can work on them occasionally. Jumping at the right time can still beat this combo, but they still have to use up a resource, and then count the remaining jumps in Dedede's case.

His u-smash and Jet Hammer (full charge) are whiff punished by Wing Blitz forward in terms of end lag.

We can hit their ledge hang with dair, in the case of ledgetrump > ledgejump + dair.

Our uair comes out eleven frames faster than his dair, so it's possible to uair him as he's getting into position to dair spike with the right timing, although situational. Also note that his up B will spike aerial opponents as he descends with it, aside from it burying grounded opponents.

'''Belly Armor and it's Properties'''

Belly Armor is a special hurtbox that spawns during specific attacks that are available to King. K Rool. When it spawns, it will overtake any hitbox that overlaps it. However, it will only tank an attack if he is facing the opponent or a hitbox connects to the hurtbox. The armor will not tank unblockables, grabs, or hitgrabs. The armor has a 18.01 HP threshold, allowing K. Rool to take up to 36.02% damage. The damage of an attack is split in half between K. Rool and the armor's HP. Damage multipliers like the 1v1 multiplier and the freshness bonus or staleness penalty are calculated before the split. The armor regenerates 0.08 HP every 16 frames, or around 0.3 HP per second. If the HP was theoretically at 0, then it would take roughly around 60 seconds to regain belly armor.

You can grab K Rool if you timely jump over the krown toss and he’s in end lag; you still have to worry about the returning krown, so timely use the invincibility frames on your d-throw animation to get past it, and pummel while waiting for krown to return before the d-throw. Alternatively, you can do a landing SPR if spaced right.

K Rool enters end lag if he grabs the krown back, and to avoid this he has to commit to a punishable option like an aerial, grab, spotdodge, sheild, etc; so you can wait and try to meet their pace. Roll is something he’ll commonly do to pick up the krown.

Unless K Rool is forced to land on stage with his up B, he has strong landing options due to little landing lag & his aerials with belly armor, plus side B & down B mixups; you don't want to force too many air-to-air interactions against him due to all this. With maybe the exception of using up smash, don’t try to punish those armored moves while he lands, but rather what he’ll do after. His shorthops you can still punish with Rid up angle f-tilt though.

Ridley gets more use out of plasma in this matchup than one would think. It outzones blunderbuss and can otherwise wall K Rool out, though krown toss mostly goes through plasma when active (3 fireballs on him preemptively will cancel the krown before it fully comes out though), so as usual, treat it as a neutral reset.

When he’s off stage, you have to properly wait out krown before you can throw out plasma. One thing K Rool’s do is recover close to ledge but throw krown last second and immediately use up B. In that case it’s best to just shield the krown toss completely and not try to commit to anything until after they’ve used it, just like how it leads to either a grab punish or neutral reset depending on the position he uses it. Basically, shielding it at max or mid distance means that it’s better to just reset, because their end lag will be done by the time you’re ready to run at them.

Ledgehop (or ledge drop double jump) krown toss is another thing they use to disrupt your ledge pressure. Waiting is good because the K Rool has to commit to an option to avoid krown catching lag, so they will always do something you can counter.

You can also get on ledge for invincibility frames against his anti-edgeguards such as krown toss, or punish his ledge re-grab since he has to do it after krown. Also watch out for ledge jump counter though during plasma charges. Our f/d-tilt & d-smash hit his ledge hang.

When edgeguarding, propeller moves him pretty fast, but slows down near the end.

For juggling, aside from what was mentioned on how to handle his landing armored moves (nair, etc), he’s still not too fast in the air, so abuse Ridley’s ground speed and u-tilt or nair to catch other landing attempts. Respect his dair though which also has belly armor and can lead into u-smash as a kill confirm. Dair is slow though, so either react or whiff punish the startup (14 frames).

The suction ledgetrapping is mostly fake, in that if he holds neutral B right at ledge, can ledge getup attack, and if he does suction just beyond ledge getup attack range, can ledge jump wisely.

Same for when he does krown to ledgetrap, in which you ledge jump to get behind him. Otherwise wait out the krown or d-smash at ledge since if you shield krown on the way back, he can grab you. When being edgeguarded, try to tech his nair with the bad angle it sends you, and otherwise mixup or delay your recovery timings.

With landing against K Rool, while he doesn’t really juggle, he can catch landings & send you back off stage, abuse uair, or try to make you mis-space a landing aerial so he can get a grab. Suffice to say, avoid landing on top of him, and abuse jumps & spaced bair to properly land, hopefully not getting hit by his fair. Sometimes going to ledge is necessary though to avoid a worse case scenario attempt at landing (getting hit by his f-tilt or dash attack that have belly armor, etc).

Dash attack will beat King K. Rool's shorthop if spaced.

Krown has so much end lag that you can run over it and SPR him, and then jump release it before the krown comes back.

In a situation where both you and the K Rool are at high % and you do a Wing Blitz forward trade in exchange for getting hit by krown toss on the way back, getting hit by it knocks you upward in the air a bit, putting you in a position to dair him off stage when he uses his jump.

With krown as an item, Ridley can forward toss it, fair, and catch the krown while shield poking. If K Rool uses krown toss nearby in neutral, retreating nair (sweetspot) should be able to break the armor since it's 12%.

SDI against his up B when he uses propeller against you offensively to KO you into the upper blast zone (specifically, it requires about 2 SDI inputs, which has 6 hitlag frames for you to perform said SDI's). Likewise, when K Rool does an up throw after blunderbuss suction, expect a possible up B and SDI to avoid getting pushed into the upper blast zone.

With them having a frame 4 airdodge as a superheavy, our u-throw > uair can work on them occasionally. Jumping at the right time can still beat this combo, but they still have to use up a valuable resource.

His dash attack, smashes, fair, uair, and dair are whiff punished by Wing Blitz forward in terms of end lag.

Our uair comes out three frames faster than his dair, so it's possible to uair him as he's getting into position to dair spike with the right timing, although situational. If he gets his dair out though, a trade usually won't be in our favor because of belly armor, and while K Rool's bair can spike, it has 18 frames of startup, so possible to hit him with whatever aerials beforehand.

Skewer > d-tilt > insert followup here, for covering delayed getup.

K Rool's normals can be punished by our OoS aerials and shield grab, and like Bowser or Wario, his dash attack and smashes are unsafe on shield enough to be punished by Rid f-smash (turnaround f-smash or shorthop skewer OoS if his dash attack crosses up) and u-smash OoS. Watch out for the shield damage that his d-smash causes though, and his landing aerials are too safe on shield, so reset there.

Credit to the old Ridley JMU doc for a certain chunk of this info, credit to smub on some of the details on neutral and advantage state, and to Zeta on the Wing Blitz and krown toss trade scenario.

https://x.com/5atez/status/1855030959558869353?s=46&t=NvvvokY_NM2udMgu8BGKVQ

Has a 3-hit fair and 6-hit dair.

Kirby dair requires about 2 SDI inputs, which has 4 hitlag frames for you to perform said SDI's. What's more, Kirby up B hits require about 2 SDI inputs, each of which have 8 hitlag frames for you to perform said SDI's.

Kirby’s and by extension Dedede’s inhale is mashable. Drift back fair after mashing out of Kirby’s since he can confirm footstool on neutral or DI in & can punish mash out jump nair with his fair for some reason.

Kirby has a total of 6 jumps, with 5 midair jumps.

The Hammer Flip side B has super armor on the ground when fully charged.

This character can consistently airdodge over ledge after getting ledge trumped, so may be best to do ledge trump > drop ledge > double jump to stage + falling bair. We can also hit their ledge hang with dair, in the case of ledgetrump > ledgejump + dair.

Our uair comes out seven frames faster than the first hit of his dair, so it's possible to uair him as he's getting into position to dair with the right timing, although situational. Also note his up B can spike aerial opponents when descending, aside from the final hit of his dair.

With them being floaty, our u-throw > uair can work on them occasionally. Jumping at the right time can still beat this combo, but they still have to use up a valuable resource, and if they manage to airdodge a followup, you can typically land with an autocancel to frame trap them and punish if you read their trajectory. Even with Ridley's up throw still having no true followup at times, can do an empty jump + fastfall to bait them to use a resource and catch their landing accordingly, which floaties have a harder time dealing with.

Skewer bypasses Stone armor. Skewer > d-tilt > insert followup here, for covering delayed getup.

His f-smash 2 and up B (grounded or landing) are whiff punished by Wing Blitz forward in terms of end lag.

We can hit their ledge hang with dair, in the case of ledgetrump > ledgejump + dair.

Our uair comes out three frames faster than his dair, so it's possible to uair him as he's getting into position to dair spike with the right timing, although situational.

Mac nair requires 2 SDI inputs, which has 6 hitlag frames for you to perform said SDI's.

Mac side B up close crosses up on our shield, so may need to do a turnaround punish, but it's still -36 to -39.

His KO Punch is whiff punished by Wing Blitz forward or anything in terms of end lag.

We can hit their ledge hang with dair, in the case of ledgetrump > ledgejump + dair.

Aside from super armor on his smashes & KO Uppercut and intangibility on his grounded side B, Mac's neutral B has 8% worth of armor when charging, and 14% worth of armor on release. Something like our bair may beat the latter, but f-tilt even with sweetspot will not.

His rapid jab finisher is punished by shorthop SPR OoS, while his grounded normals are punished by our OoS aerials and such. His landing aerials besides bair and dair are too safe on shield though, so reset there. His specials are especially unsafe, with full charged neutral B being -82 and side B being -39 to -36. If he whiffs a slip counter nearby, skewer punish.

Don't do a ledge neutral getup if they're charging a full aura sphere, since our hurtbox is likely still big enough to be hit by it.

When Lucario lands on stage with up B, they have little lag, so if not on stage yet, don't be baited into attacking them from ledge. ''That being said'', their up B has 46 frames of startup lag, making them quite vulnerable to edgeguarding and such when you're the one in advantage.

His u-smash, d-smash, bair, and Force Palm are mostly whiff punished by Wing Blitz forward in terms of end lag.

We can hit their ledge hang with dair, in the case of ledgetrump > ledgejump + dair.

The rest of the neutral’s just playing the slow wall out game while respecting his projectiles/zair. Far as disadvantage, note that his multi-hit d-smash can contest our up B while it's active unlike Ness's yoyo.

Lucas multihits- d-smash (3 hits), nair & dair (4 hits), PK Thunder self-hit (12 hits)

Lucas nair requires 2 SDI inputs, which has 3 hitlag frames for you to perform said SDI's. PK thunder requires about 3 SDI inputs, which has 4 hitlag frames for you to perform said SDI's.

This character can consistently airdodge over ledge after getting ledge trumped, so may be best to do ledge trump > drop ledge > double jump to stage + falling bair.

We can hit their ledge hang with dair, in the case of ledgetrump > ledgejump + dair.

While his bair can spike, it has 15 frames of startup, so possible to hit him with our aerials beforehand. Also note the last hit of his dair will spike.

With them being floaty, our u-throw > uair can work on them occasionally. Jumping at the right time can still beat this combo, but they still have to use up a valuable resource, and if they manage to airdodge a followup, you can typically land with an autocancel to frame trap them and punish if you read their trajectory. Even with Ridley's up throw still having no true followup at times, can do an empty jump + fastfall to bait them to use a resource and catch their landing accordingly, which floaties have a harder time dealing with.

Skewer > d-tilt > insert followup here, for covering delayed getup.

His normals besides d-tilt and f-tilt are mostly punished by our OoS aerials and shield grab, while his u-smash when shielded is punished by whatever (is -54 on shield and whiff punished by Wing Blitz forward, etc). His landing aerials besides the 4-hit dair (can punish with u-smash) are too safe on shield though, so reset there. PK freeze is mostly safe on shield, as is magnet, but PK fire and thunder up close are about as unsafe on shield as Ness's.

Also, just hitting the tech to prevent stage spike when using vertical up B to recover isn't enough, as Lucina will then up B you back and force you to tech yet again, so what you can do, if you still have a jump, is tech the counter and then nair to hit them away.

When trying to land, Lucina uair is big, so you’re not really gonna be able to challenge them with dair or anything. Standard landing methods, where you save and mix up jumps with fastfalls and airdodges. Go to the ledge if you can but don't fall past ledge for an up B.

Her 2-hit nair hits us during crouch. If she lands behind us, don't try to punish it OoS, though our nair can hit if their spacing is bad. She can't really act after using nair while airborne, so you can dash back and reverse f-tilt or d-tilt to punish (d-tilt is better for the combo strings), or retreating fair. Good as Lucina nair is, it's still a rising aerial with floaty character, meaning you might be able to whiff punish it with burst options.

Her double jump makes her hurtbox shift, so go for nair most of the time instead of chasing with fair or bair.

DI up & in against her f-throw or aerials at ledge. After a failed ledge drop fair or SPR, it's important to DI up & in, as you'll be sent off stage.

Her f-smash, u-smash, uair, dair, and side B are whiff punished by Wing Blitz forward in terms of end lag.

With them being floaty, our u-throw > uair can work on them occasionally. Jumping at the right time can still beat this combo, but they still have to use up a valuable resource, and if they manage to airdodge a followup, you can typically land with an autocancel to frame trap them and punish if you read their trajectory. Even with Ridley's up throw still having no true followup at times, can do an empty jump + fastfall to bait them to use a resource and catch their landing accordingly, which floaties have a harder time dealing with.

Skewer > d-tilt > insert followup here, for covering delayed getup.

Besides her safe d-tilt, her normals are at least punished by our OoS aerials and such. Her landing aerials are too safe though, so reset there. Aside from her neutral B that you shouldn't shield against, her side B hits are various levels of unsafe like with Roy/Chrom. If she whiffs a counter nearby, skewer punish.

Major credit to the Ridcord JMU doc for a good chunk of this info, and to Mezcaul on the specifics of her nair and some of our advantage and disadvantage versus her.

In the air, watch out for Luigi’s down B which is a good combo breaker and decent KO option when high up with its knockback. He’s invincible during the first few frames of the move, so wait it out if need be and then tilt poke him. Aside from a get-off-me, he may also use it when falling toward you. Shield it in that case but if hit by it, can escape with SDI up. His dash attack you similarly want to shield with how long lasting it is.

His dash attack and down B are 5 hits.

His up B and down B are whiff punished by Wing Blitz forward in terms of end lag.

As a mixup, plasma armor can help against Luigi side B by charging neutral B off stage and then can freely dunk him, like if his jump is already used up.

This character can consistently airdodge over ledge after getting ledge trumped, so may be best to do ledge trump > drop ledge > double jump to stage + falling bair. We can also hit their ledge hang with dair, in the case of ledgetrump > ledgejump + dair.

With them being floaty, our u-throw > uair can work on them occasionally. Jumping at the right time can still beat this combo, but they still have to use up a valuable resource, and if they manage to airdodge a followup, you can typically land with an autocancel to frame trap them and punish if you read their trajectory. Even with Ridley's up throw still having no true followup at times, can do an empty jump + fastfall to bait them to use a resource and catch their landing accordingly, which floaties have a harder time dealing with.

In neutral, Mario will try to land aerials out of a shorthop and fastfalling. They generally approach with shorthop bair which is relatively safe on shield, can crossup, or lead to a potential 0 to death combo. He will also use uair at low % to start a long, potentially deadly chain. Some Mario's will simply spam this move, hoping one lands. It doesn't have much range, so our nair, fair, u-tilt, or f-tilt to beat it. Mario can also use nair to start combos.

Platforms on Battlefield allow Mario to ladder Ridley up to the top blastzone and get a free stock, so definitely avoid this stage. SDI down and away to avoid dying to up B near the top and to maneuver away from Mario's combo. DI upwards to increase the knockback and give yourself more of a chance.

Mario's recovery is only decent, and Ridley nair and fair should be enough to gimp him at 70% and above. His up B is also pretty easy to time with your down angle Wing Blitz or down angle f-tilt. Be aware that they can use cape to stall their recovery and cause you to mistime your attacks.

Mario won't stay at the ledge for long and when stuck, will usually jump with a fireball to cover themselves or jump to a platform. Our nair can beat both of these options. Some will drop down and jump up with an aerial, usually uair to start a combo or put you in disadvantage. Either shield and reset or use f-tilt or d-tilt to out-space Mario. Ridley's f-smash can be used to whiff punish Mario's bair and uair, since Ridley backs up a bit during the move and said aerials have more than enough end lag.

Like us, Mario's will use turnaround up smash to take stocks. It can be shielded easily but is only punishable with our bair OoS. Use d-tilt, f-tilt, fair, and nair to stop Mario from approaching with this option.

Can try to escape his ladder combos into up B or dair with SDI down & away.

This character can consistently airdodge over ledge after getting ledge trumped, so may be best to do ledge trump > drop ledge > double jump to stage + falling bair. We can also hit their ledge hang with dair, in the case of ledgetrump > ledgejump + dair.

While his fair can spike, it has 16 frames of startup, so possible to hit him with aerials beforehand.

With them being floaty, our u-throw > uair can work on them occasionally. Jumping at the right time can still beat this combo, but they still have to use up a valuable resource, and if they manage to airdodge a followup, you can typically land with an autocancel to frame trap them and punish if you read their trajectory. Even with Ridley's up throw still having no true followup at times, can do an empty jump + fastfall to bait them to use a resource and catch their landing accordingly, which floaties have a harder time dealing with.

Skewer > d-tilt > insert followup here, for covering delayed getup.

Ridley kill confirm:

* u-tilt > fullhop uair (84-87%)

* u-tilt > double jump uair (88-98%)

When hit by the u-air, don't freak out and jump or you might die early due to how high up it sends you. Otherwise try to airdodge or move around it, holding left stick down and watching out for a followup. This uair we can actually get through with Ridley dair if timed right, though with the end lag, he'll most likely be able to punish after, but can consider doing it as a mixup.

Also, Leaf Shield is not safe on shield; the window when Mega Man starts to throw it and when he can act again is 55 frames. Start by tilting your shield forward and up to prevent poking, wait for the throw, and punish. A good Mega Man will dash away and throw it from a distance to prevent OoS punishes, but you can counter that by fullhopping during his retreat to avoid the throw and punish with a landing aerial. Now if they expect this, they can jump and toss the LF to stuff out your fullhop, but your answer to that as mentioned is dash in under and anti-air him. When stuck on the ledge, LF loses to getup attack. He can also cancel LF by picking up items such as his Metal Blade, in which the leaves still make him mostly invulnerable when picking up an item though, so respect it.

You also need to respect his up tilt for the power it has. It has a lot of end lag though, so take advantage and punish if you shield or avoid and it whiffs. Don't let him place his Rush Coil below you when you respawn. Use the few seconds of your respawn invincibility to pressure him when possible. Also remember his d-tilt slide & spinning dash attack and shield them, and remember both can crossup shield which you can punish with a quick turnaround attack. Don't play on auto pilot here.

In general, you want to hold center stage and be very disciplined in shield. One aspect of pellet counterplay is paying attention to the rhythm that they tap A at, which tells you when you can punish or when you should keep shielding, since they can mix up their timings a lot. Also recognize situations where he has to expose himself with up B off stage, and remember to walk; walk & shield is crucial in this matchup, until you get in range for d-tilt or f-tilt, or till they run out of space, and when you get them off stage, you need to put pressure and try to kill him. Be patient in neutral, find your window, and if you get it, never let him do anything, try to make sure he never resets neutral and dies. Be careful with his dair that gives him some stall in his air to protect his landing and mix up his landing time.

Respect not only side B but Metal Blade as an anti-edgeguard as well. Although his projectiles lose to plasma outside of f-smash, he doesn't give you a lot of opportunities to charge it, and doesn’t stay in its threat range very long. He has that same Kazuya problem of having to recover high and airdodge into the ledge in a lot of situations, and that's where you can get your earliest kills.

If Mega Man players overshoot with Crash Bomb, you can tipper f-tilt to detonate it and make your own ledgetrap out of it when he tries to recover. That happens when he attaches it to the ledge but not directly underneath it. The more you play against Mega Man, the more you realize how often he has to do what Snake and ROB do where they give up and go high instead of playing the ledge game, except unlike Snake, MM has actual good landing mixups that aren't immediately easy to contest.

Mega Man from a distance you can use plasma pretty well against on stage; if you get the ability to charge it, he'll just have to jump or shield because it eats all of his projectiles and won’t get the chance to use f-smash, giving you a good window. While he may seem like a zoner as mentioned, he's arguably more of a wall that tries to stay close to you, making plasma good when he wants to be campy where he poses less of a threat.

You only have to be careful about jump metal blade, but a platform or just being too far away will solve this. Leaf shield is the only counter, but it's punishable; just release plasma early and punish when he has to release it. Either get a hit if you time it well and don't let yourself get hit by it, or you take his stage which is great against Mega Man. Still, only use plasma if he's far, or you'll get lemon'd. He prefers to lemon at mid range which is where you'll want to f-tilt or d-tilt him.

In disadvantage, you gotta SDI out when he has you in metal blade stuff and general combos because while it still leads to combos, it might just save your life, especially if you can get things like the up tilt to miss in certain combos. Also, don't panic when he lemons successfully; he'll look for the panic options when you get out of hitstun. Whenever you get killed and drop the platform, don't let yourself get hit by side B; same for when he puts you in a tech chase, so don't techroll toward him if further away.

===== Miscellaneous and frame data =====

Like other zoners, Battlefield is preferable to fight Mega Man on, though, beware of his up air especially on the top platform.

Mega Man up tilt has intangibility on frames 5-7 (at the beginning of the move before he ascends as well as some moves confirming into it if timed right) and d-tilt has intangibility on the leg during frames 3-12. You’ll want to shield the latter anyway though as mentioned, punishing if it crosses you up. Said d-tilt has a 40% chance of tripping on hit as well.

Something to note on Mega Man's up B, it only goes one direction and becomes a moving target as soon as the invincibility (on frames 7-10) runs out, so he takes damage fast in that situation. It's a similar deal to Sonic's up B, except Mega Man travels slower with his and is easier to react to. He also requires more time to act out of it. Our dair can work on it as a mixup.

You can do a beefy side B (hold down during SPR to bypass ledge) to catch their up B recovery, along with any directional airdodge toward ledge. Be ready to tech though in the case of a trade situation. Beefy side B won't grab if they still have intangibility while at ledge, but unlikely to happen if they're at high %.

If you throw metal blade at Mega Man as he does lemons (specifically, metal blade connects with the hitbox close to his blaster), it actually puts him in clank lag. That said, metal blade loses to the pellets themselves, but if it's close enough to him it makes him clank and gives us a punish.

His u-tilt, u-smash, and d-smash are whiff punished by Wing Blitz forward in terms of end lag.

This character can consistently airdodge over ledge after getting ledge trumped, so may be best to do ledge trump > drop ledge > double jump to stage + falling bair. We can also hit their ledge hang with dair, in the case of ledgetrump > ledgejump + dair.

Skewer > jab 2 > insert followup here, for covering delayed getup.

Fire sword f-air is the safe aerial, so reset when shielding it. Can mostly punish the 3 hit bair however where he briefly turns around for the attack. Also when shielding his dair, reset with how safe it is. Ridley nair/fair clanks well with lemons. They're -25 > -23 > -20, but can still shield drop d-tilt as a true punish. MM can grab while Leaf Shield is active.

Mega Man's jab/f-tilt/nair is punished by our OoS aerials and shield grab if shielded up close, and our jab 1 comes out before his. His u-tilt and d-tilt have enough end lag to be punished by f-smash when shielded (or u-smash OoS for the u-tilt before he lands), tho have to turnaround f-smash (or shorthop turnaround skewer OoS) for d-tilt due to its ability to crossup. His u-smash and d-smash when shielded can also be punished by Rid f-smash, while dash attack is punished by our OoS aerials or Rid u-smash due to it being able to crossup too. MM d-smash is even skewer/d-smash punishable with shield pushback.

Major credit to smub for the edgeguarding tips, Zant for the neutral tips along with the use of plasma, and CheeseCapo for the finding on metal blade clanking with pellets if it gets to him up close.

Some metal blade item labbing-

https://x.com/ClipartCriminal/status/1370275545087369217

Watch out for his ladder combos. To prevent being put in that situation, avoid his dash attack (is -18 on shield but crosses up on it) and dash grab (32 frames of end lag), two main ways to start it (can directional airdodge through them as a landing mixup) which he may bait & punish with. If you do get caught in it, hold your stick toward MK and DI upward or SDI those directions, helping you escape. Another potential option is pick a stage with a larger blast zone so you don't die as early. Regardless, once you’re at higher %, those touch of death combos no longer apply, but mix up your SDI when it does like with Bayonetta.

* If drill rush whiffs on the ground, it bounces him which you can punish another way by using aerials.

MK has a total of 6 jumps, with 5 midair jumps.

MK uair requires about 2 SDI inputs, which has 7 hitlag frames for you to perform said SDI's.

His neutral B and down B are whiff punished by Wing Blitz forward in terms of end lag.

We can hit their ledge hang with dair, in the case of ledgetrump > ledgejump + dair.

Skewer > d-tilt > insert followup here, for covering delayed getup.

His rapid jab finisher is shield punishable with dash attack or dash grab, while his normals are punished by our OoS aerials and shield grab, except for his d-tilt and f-smash; after shielding his f-smash, he may go for a d-smash or something after that you can punish. MK u-smash and maybe side B is punished by shorthop SPR OoS.

His dash attack may crossup on shield, so be ready to do a turnaround punish. All his landing aerials are too safe on shield, so reset there. His specials however are all pretty minus on shield (neutral B mach tornado being -81, side B being -24, and down B dimensional cape being -44, the first and last of which can be shield punished by d-smash, etc), along with putting him in freefall after if used unsafely, which is most of the time except when recovering.

His rapid jab finisher, f-tilt 2 or 3, u-tilt, u-smash, d-smash, specials, and ledge getup attack are also shield punished by u-tilt should he be at u-tilt > uair kill %.

Be careful of plasma with its side B reflector in mind, which can also aid its recovery. Is also a command grab; when you get flipped by it, can attack, airdodge/tech, or jump. Is an RPS situation to try and get away from what you think Mewtwo will do. Can try to airdodge through if Mewtwo does a fair, but will be more likely to get us since Ridley's a big body. If Mewtwo holds still to punish airdodge, then attack instead, and if Mewtwo spaces back to avoid your attack and punish, then better off jumping away and getting back to neutral. You're typically not gonna be able to react to all this though, so catch on to Mewtwo's habits. Also remember if Confusion whiffs, you'll have 44 frames to punish with something, so there is a risk to them throwing it out in neutral.

Confusion also combos after ~90%, potentially allowing for a f-air kill followup after ~110%. DI out to avoid a Mewtwo d-throw followup. A lot of its other combos start with an upward attack and continues on with a rising double jump aerial.

You can do a beefy side B (hold down during SPR to bypass ledge) to catch their up B recovery, along with any directional airdodge toward ledge. Be ready to tech though in the case of a trade situation. Beefy side B won't grab if they still have intangibility while at ledge, but unlikely to happen if they're at high %.

Don't do a ledge neutral getup if they're charging a full shadow ball, since our hurtbox is still big enough to be hit by it.

Their u-smash is whiff punished by Wing Blitz forward in terms of end lag.

We can hit their ledge hang with dair, in the case of ledgetrump > ledgejump + dair.

Our uair comes out four frames faster than his dair, so it's possible to uair him as he's getting into position to dair spike with the right timing, although situational.

With them being floaty, our u-throw > uair can work on them occasionally. Jumping at the right time can still beat this combo, but they still have to use up a valuable resource, and if they manage to airdodge a followup, you can typically land with an autocancel to frame trap them and punish if you read their trajectory. Even with Ridley's up throw still having no true followup at times, can do an empty jump + fastfall to bait them to use a resource and catch their landing accordingly, which floaties have a harder time dealing with.

Skewer > jab 1 > f-smash, for covering delayed geutp.

** SDI down to survive this move at high %.