SSBU/Ridley/Matchups

Ridley

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Quick MU Navigation

Banjo & Kazooie

Banjo & Kazooie
Losing

Wonderwing can be grabbed if timed right like OoS, but also watch how he uses it to recover or as a combo breaker. If shielding, can also do a turnaround punish like some other enemy burst options; turnaround f-smash, skewer if lucky (shorthop turnaround skewer OoS for better frame advantage & positioning), and u-tilt works too with how unsafe it is on shield. Overall, watch out for him using Wonderwing when he’s in any form of disadvantage, a neutral mixup, and even advantage like when he puts you in a tech chase or if you miss tech.

Banjo d-throw buries like K Rool's, but for not as long, so can escape quick. Banjo knows this though, so he may position to attack in the air, or u-smash if you wait too long. Mix up your timing, tho mashing fast followed by airdodge can work sometimes, especially if at high %.

While Banjo can edgeguard with fair (which is surprisingly safe on shield compared to his other aerials), he gets more out of ledgetrapping with his projectiles which can also gimp. With a lingering grenade, time your ledge getup; not too early or too late. If he does a fullhop grenade, can getup and shield it, then attack from below if quick enough. If you're both on stage and he does a fullhop grenade, can fullhop nair/fair or shorthop uair his blindspot.

When Kazooie uses eggs to camp you out, make a plan of approach if Banjo's in the lead, whether in the air or from the ground. Eggs don't do much damage on their own, so remain calm while shielding or timing your approach, but still space well with your attacks. Flickshot Plasma may work to counter-camp if you have enough space, but remember he has Wonderwing to get through your wall. If you're aligned with Banjo while he's in Breegull Blaster mode, it can be possible to skewer him.

While is likely to beat our dair, Banjo’s uair is the weakest of his aerials, making it easier to land from above, especially on platform stages. If you have the opportunity to recover this way, do so to avoid his ledgetrapping. Banjo’s dair hits us under a platform that he lands on with it, so be ready to shield underneath.

Exploit his recovery. His up B is like a mix of Charizard and Sonic's; can triple jump, use a spring, and uses side B to recover. Going off the edge may be risky if he recovers high with side B, so can wait to Plasma camp him or catch his landing, and if he’s at a lower altitude when using side B to recover, can catch him with SPR if timed right. If he uses up B on stage, try to anti-air him up high or wait to catch his landing. When he recovers low, he's more vulnerable to aerials, spikes, or gimps.

Other things: When Banjo uses the breegull blaster, hold shield. You'll eventually notice they either shoot which you can punish, or they'll start to run to you to do something else.

From further away it doesn't send you locked in a long hitstun, so some distances make them think they can get in for free, but you’re actually ready to punish. Stay actionable if you can, to not get hit by Wonderwing.

If they do nair combos, if you can SDI behind. If on platform, try to SDI to fall off plat. If they bury you, sometimes not mashing will help you not get hit by u-tilt.

Neutral: Nairs and other aerials beat eggs in the air, while extending the frames it’s active, but also makes it more punishable. You want to slowly get in, while making them afraid of your burst range, so be sure they will probably start with grenading you.

p.s. At 70+%, Banjo can do grenade > wonderwing as a kill confirm, so be more wary of grenades at that point.

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.

Banjo rapid jab finisher is f-smash punishable. His other normals besides u-tilt is punished by at least nair OoS (some others by our other OoS aerials and shield grab), his gentleman jab & rapid jab finisher/d-tilt/smashes/landing dair/ledge getup attack when shielded is punished by u-tilt should he be at u-tilt > uair kill %, and his 8 hit u-smash when shielded is punished by our f/d-smash or shorthop skewer OoS.

Besides fair which was mentioned as a safe on shield aerial, all his other landing aerials we can punish with our OoS aerials/shield grab for the most part (his nair is 8 hits), including u-smash OoS if he's still above you. Banjo's neutral B is negative enough on shield for you to forward nair OoS as an approach if that's what it takes to get to him. His grenades are even less safe on shield.

Ridley kill confirm:

• u-tilt > fullhop uair (90-93%)
• u-tilt > double jump uair (94-104%)

Overall, shield plenty in this matchup, walk and dash shielding included.

Opponent's Overview | Advanced Stats | Inverse Matchup Return to the top

Bayonetta

Bayonetta Drag her into her own twisted hell.
Losing

Gameplan

While in the air, Bayonetta can:

• Do two Witch Twist
  • Can jump after each Witch Twist unless a double jump is used prior.
  • Can jump cancel Witch Twist to increase distance and keep the double jump (and then use it after the last Witch Twist).
• Do one After Burner Kick
  • Can do another After Burner Kick for a limited time after landing the first one.
  • Cannot do another After Burner Kick after hitting your shield.

If Bayonetta is hit while in the air, she regains one After Burner Kick and one Witch Twist. If Bayonetta activates bats within from an attack, it doesn't count as her being hit. Meaning that she cannot regain resources already used.

During Heel Slide, Bayonetta has to hold down the special button to get the second hit. If Bayonetta holds down an attack she will use her guns to attack. This will happen before Heel Slide's second hit. Use this to your advantage and either respect or punish the attack. Though do be wary the Bayonetta can still hold down the special button to get guns then release before the second hit comes out.

• Shielding the attack during the slide will make it impossible for the Bayonetta to get the second hit.

Ridley can crouch to avoid attacks from Bayonetta or abuse crouch canceling to escape combos with SDI. If Ridley crouches around ledge roll distance, and if a Bayonetta does ledge drop into After Burner Kick, the attack will whiff. Ridley then can react and punish with an up tilt combo or an up smash kill. Ridley can also use crouching to dodge her back aerial completely or her Bullet Climax from afar.

Up Tilt is a two-parter move, meaning even if the first hit attacks shield, the second hit can still connect. If the first hit connects on its first active frame it is -19 on shield with 3 frames of shieldstun. The second hit is on frame 13, meaning that there is 3 frames that you can act. Find out how Ridley can punish Bayonetta up tilt on shield.

From a rising short hop all of Bayonetta's aerials, besides down air, forward air 2 (unless forward air 1 hits shield) and forward air 3, will be over before she lands and will autocancel. Because of this, she can do either a Witch Twist or a After Burner Kick before landing. Unless the Bayonetta uses bullet arts after the aerials, then she will always suffer recovery frames instead.

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.

Advantage

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.

Disadvantage

Bayonetta can two frame Ridley with:

• Down smash (only Madama's attack)
• A few move's bullet art attacks
  • Note that bullet art hitboxes can NOT go through collisions like walls or floors.

Miscellaneous and frame data

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.

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

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

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

Our jab 1 starts faster than hers, allowing us to get out of scramble situations better.

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).

Gentlemen jab/rapid jab finisher, f-tilt 2/3, smashes, dair, point-blank neutral B, heel slide (first part), 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.

Ridley kill confirm:

• u-tilt > fullhop uair (78-84%)
• u-tilt > double jump uair (85-90%)

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

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Bowser

Bowser
Winning

Our running speed's a bit faster than Bowser's. Best to try to understand how he tries to use his speed against you.

Don't shield fire breath but punish from the air (even SPR works), or shorthop back plasma if you have space. Watch if he B-reverses, and don't ledge getup attack if he uses it to ledgetrap from mid range.

His fair in general and sliding up B OoS speak for themselves. Watch out for the shockwave of his dair though, and aside from what's obvious about down B, watch out for it on the ground, as he can headbutt you into it and slam you.

DI down & away from his side B grab, and remember it when he lands diagonally rather than sit in shield.

Aside from fair, his nair is the other main aerial to watch out for in neutral. Doing a fullhop landing with nair leads into combos & confirms (is -12 on shield). He also has a strong grab game like u-throw > nair (at mid/high %, our u-throw is also good due to his lack of reliable landing options), and f/b-throw that kill. Respect his grab range too.

Aside from fair edgeguarding, his down angle f-tilt can hit our ledge hang but doesn't 2 frame. We 2 frame him & ledgetrap him well though, but respect his ledge getup attack range.

With his tough guy, avoid using rapid jab on him when he's grounded like with Kazuya. Then there's the damage based armor of his tilts & smashes, the intangibility of his jab 1/2, tilts, uair, dair, and i-frames of his f-smash & u-smash.

Our tipper f-tilt and such can still beat out the damage based armor of his f-smash and so on, but have to be properly spaced.

Miscellaneous and frame data

His dair and down B hits us under plats, so still shield or avoid there.

His d-tilt & u/d-smash are 2 hits. Nair is 3-4 hits, grounded up B is 8 hits, u-throw is 9 hits.

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.

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

Our jab 1 starts faster than his, allowing us to get out of scramble situations better.

His normals besides jab 2 are punished by our OoS aerials, etc. Only his landing fair is too safe out of aerials. His u-tilt, d-tilt, DA (-33), f-smash (-32), d-smash 2 (-34), dair (-30), up B (-36), and ledge getup attack are u-tilt shield punished.

Shorthop skewer OoS can work against Bowser f-smash despite it only being -32 due to the amount of end lag. Also, shield drop > d-smash works against his up B.

Ridley kill confirm:

• u-tilt > fullhop uair (111-114%)
• u-tilt > double jump uair (115-123%)

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Bowser Jr.

Bowser Jr.
Losing

Disadvantage

The tools Ridley often uses to get out of disadvantage are airdodge, fastfall nair, fastfall alone, or using handy double jumps. Some others are fastfall bair and fair, but bair is not recommended due to Jr's disjointed aerials.

Dair can maybe work to get down to ledge but only as a mixup. Jr's Mario esque uair but disjointed is a really oppressive tool that will safely get us to 60% if not higher, so in this matchup getting juggled is the worst, while off stage disadvantage is a bit more bearable.

For off stage, would suggest either recovering low or high if there's enough space between Ridley and Jr. Otherwise he can just bop us with bair, fair, cannonball, or mechakoopa. Recovering straight is pretty iffy considering mechakoopa can stop SPR or WB forward, and of course cannon to deal with. Ridley can use fair and nair to try to protect his recovery attempts, uair for sharking and protecting himself low.

SPR for getting to ledge faster and may cheese a stock, but Jr shouldn't be close to ledge because of mechakoopa as a ledgeguard, and his fair and bair. We can also hold down while using WB up to poke through the stage.

Now to ledge, Ridley's main tool is just waiting for an option from the opponent since our ledge hang is pretty nice. Other options involve ledge drop nair, fair, and SPR or maybe Skewer if you're spicy enough, and ledge jump nair. Those are Ridley specific and our shark with uair and WB up but sharking is pretty niche especially considering mechakoopa.

The other options are what you expect but Ridley's ledge roll is quite bad, so be wary. Another note is be sure to tech Jr's fair, bair, and abandon ship when recovering low and watch out for when they up B (using the hammer after abandon ship) as a ledgetrap, and watch out for mechakoopa.

Advantage

Will mostly use d-tilt and then read what Jr does after, or just fair or nair after the d-tilt. We can also somewhat start advantage by d-throw which leads to many things; fair, f-tilt, dash cancel u-tilt, and bair. I wouldn't try to go for d-throw nair regrabs in this matchup personally, but at mid %, d-throw nair still works.

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. Mechakoopa also breaks the SPR drag if it is out.

We also still have good anti-airs, like u-tilt which catches some jump-ins and aggressive out of juggle options like Jr dair or nair. With d-tilt we can also still read Jr or follow him from the one u-tilt into maybe another u-tilt at low %, or uair, nair, or fair depending on position.

We can also go somewhat air-to-air with fair, but it's laggy, so watch out. Of course we can get into advantage with nair mainly off of tech chases at mid % or reverse nair into dash attack, f-tilt, or bair.

The main option to get into advantage is pushing Jr off stage with plasma. Would preferably stay at plasma distance so that you can SPR getup attack or neutral getup. Catch a run in with u-smash, bair, or fair. U-tilt for ledge jump, angled f-tilt for Jr's hanging, and u-smash OoS for roll. Shielding is pretty good too if you fear post-up B hammer or kart dash, but these are nifty to punish, so just stay at plasma range.

If you try to edgeguard Jr off stage, gotta be ready to tech; mainly because of kart dash and Jr up B. We can yoink Jr out of kart dash with SPR and get a punish off of jump release, namely with fair, nair, and dair for position coverage.

Our nair has good coverage off stage that can force techs but doesn't have the best kill power. Fair has more power and range forward, but recovering low seems good for Jr, especially with side B & the up B explosion. Our bair is even more powerful and has great range but lacks any disjoints fair has but also forces techs (same as fair btw if Jr gets cought out of his up B by Ridley).

Fullhop dair can get low recovery attempts, but be wary of Jr up B explosion and side B hitbox. Timing is everything and keep teching in mind for both sides. Can spike Jr out of his getup attack with down angle WB and a well timed dair.

Don't forget if Jr has mechakoopa, he can threaten our advantage from a safe distance. It explodes later if Jr has it than if we have it, making somewhat hazardous interactions or combo potential if you know how to abuse it.

Jr can use fully charged cannon to combat us using plasma to ledgeguard, but it's quite slow and the timing is specific on stages and normal cannonball gets beaten by plasma.

Miscellaneous and frame data

Clown Kart Dash has around 9% worth of armor when moving, until Jr jumps. Our main moves that beat it are f-tilt (sour or tipper), tipper nair (i.e. retreating nair), bair, and of course Wing Blitz to kill with if he's at high %. Can dash shield against it as a mixup.

If you find yourself getting hit by the exploding kart of Jr up B a lot on stage, then you're dropping shield too soon to try punishing his landing. Need to hold shield until it explodes or move away before it does (even if under a platform), and then watch out for his powerful hammer after. Sometimes he uses the hammer to catch you sleeping at ledge as he recovers, so be ready to shield or avoid it. If you’re nearby off stage and he uses up B near the ledge, don’t try and catch his landing with a landing aerial and instead go back to ledge or back away enough from the explosion.

In neutral, you can stop mechakoopa in its tracks by hitting with a ranged attack (i.e. retreating nair) or shielding, the latter of which allows you to pick it up and throw at Jr. Don't be too obvious with shielding though or he'll grab you.

Aside from being able to angle it, Jr's f-smash is hard to punish OoS, so may be best to back up instead, unless spaced enough where you can do a d-tilt. Same goes for his dair, so if you shield, make sure you wait till the end of the move.

Jr has weak OoS options, nair being probably his best. Jr's throws have been buffed to kill around 150% at ledge, but his grab is exceptionally slow (tho good range), making it not a good OoS option. Do tech his drill d-throw though.

Jr multihits- d-tilt (3 hits), DA (6 hits), f-smash & u-smash (6 hits), dair (8 hits)

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.

If anyone doesn't know this by now, if you hit Jr's body he will take extra damage and if you hit the kart he will take reduced damage, so spacing and knowing your kills should get you far ahead. Up angle f-tilt will allow you to hit the body part of Jr more easily, along with positioning your aerials on him accordingly.

A simple attack off ledge can stop Jr up B recovery since it doesn't have a hitbox at first, and if you hit him after he abandons ship, he can use his up B again only for a few seconds, so he's vulnerable to getting gimped.

Jr's d-tilt is a good shield poker like ours and a good get-off-me, so respect it. Is punished by our nair OoS like his other normals though. Also, his jab 2/rapid jab finisher, u-tilt, u-smash (-26), d-smash (-32), and ledge GUA are punished by our own u-tilt when shielded should he be at u-tilt > uair kill %.

Jr rapid jab finisher is f-smash punishable. Besides maybe nair OoS on his fair and dair, his other landing aerials are too safe on shield, so reset. Jr neutral B is OoS aerial/grab punishable when shielded up close, and kart dash spinout is very minus on shield which can be punished with f-smash, etc.

Ridley kill confirm:

• u-tilt > fullhop uair (89-94%)
• u-tilt > double jump uair (95-104%)

p.s. Partial credit goes to the Ridcord JMU section for some of this info.

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Byleth

Byleth
Even

If Byleth misses with their down B, we pretty much get a free skewer. There's also grab and distanced plasma. Aymr has 30% worth of armor, but a sweetspoted skewer will still get them before it comes out. Also note Aymr hits us under platforms, so still avoid if under Byleth.

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.

For short range moves, quickly count to five when shielding Byleth's nair to be sure you shielded the entire move, as the move itself is like five hits. Everyone talks about Byleth's noob killer down B which can turn around, but also respect their d-smash's shield damage and it being able to hit us under a platform if we have a hurtbox out. Their up tilt leads into combos as well as their uair juggling. Don't challenge their uair, try to airdodge it or go far around them as you fastfall, or go to ledge if necessary.

Byleth can also use their up B as you're up high. Try to airdodge or DI away after the initial hit to avoid a followup. Their neutral B arrow is good at sniping off stage but thankfully, it only shoots at two different points of the animation when it glows yellow or blue, but still something to watch out for, though think we can use plasma against them more easily than they can spam that.

Can also use plasma to gimp them off stage before they get their tether recovery out, try an off stage or CLS (crouch ledge slip) aerial before they pull up (though don't get up B grabbed), or if they're slightly above ledge when they begin to tether to it off stage, can do a quick SPR and drag them all the way down, followed by a jump release. They have a tough time landing against us too like we do against them. Other than that, focus more on corner pressure than trying to ledgetrap them. The risk/reward isn't there to engage with their side B and other ledge stalls like fair.

When being edgeguarded, their dair can dunk us, so delay a bit when recovering low. 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.

If you do an SPR release for an aerial followup, beware of their side B as a get-off-me move, and up B grapple which will spike you. If you catch them with an SPR during a tech chase or something, may be better to just let it drag them off.

Another thing about their nair, if you get shield poked during the beginning of the move, would recommend tilting shield upward and if they try to poke shield with the landing hitbox, angling it down should work.

While shielding is generally good against Byleth up close, remember their d-smash and dair. Has 19/29 and 22 frame startups and are f43 and f35 in end lag, so jump OoS (followed by a landing aerial or special whiff punish) or roll away if expecting them.

If Byleth goes for an up throw to start juggling you, double jump the other way to shift your hurtbox and get out. You jump higher as Ridley if you double jump the opposing way.

Likewise, when grabbed by their up B while in the air, remember to tech right as it slams you to the ground so you don't get knocked back upward.

Other than that, is usually better to not approach because of their range. If they want to camp you, just use plasma. If they try to bow you, unless they do it way earlier than you, 2 fireballs beats it unless you get bad RNG. One trades and the other gets through.

And if they want approach you while you plasma, they will have to jump. They are very slow, so you put them in a pretty bad position as I’ve learned, making your anti-airs more dangerous.

You can deny Byleth so bad if you wall them well with plasma, tilts, and aerials, and then edgeguard their tether (can also plasma if you jump and shoot it so they have to deal with it outside of tether range). D-tilt is also just longer than all their aerials, so if they get in close and commit to jumping you can also just d-tilt if they try to space bair or fair, or just hit them in the air since they're stuck there. Dash and turnaround d-tilt also applies.

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.

Miscellaneous and frame data

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.

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

One other weakness of theirs is poor grab reach, and like us, no kill throws. Rapid jab skewer punish also applies, shorthop skewer OoS being more consistent (shield drop > d-smash also works). Their normals are punishable by our OoS aerials and shield grab. Their f-smash is also shield punished by our own if poorly spaced or SH SPR OoS, and their side B is most punishable on shield, including u-smash OoS if they're in the air. Besides their nair which can be nair OoS punished (unless spaced) and the laggy dair, their landing aerials are too safe on shield, so reset.

Their gentleman jab/rapid jab finisher, dash attack, smashes, and ledge getup attack are u-tilt punishable if shielded should they be at u-tilt > uair kill %.

Ridley kill confirm:

• u-tilt > fullhop uair (86-89%)
• u-tilt > double jump uair (90-101%)

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

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Captain Falcon

Captain Falcon

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.

Be careful not to swing too much against Falcons that know our character since his movement can be tricky. You need to find a sweetspot of waiting and putting out hitboxes to control space. He usually needs resets or certain platform positioning to get his busted combos out, so keep that in mind so you're not too linear in disadvantage.

With shielding Falcon Kick, just be aware of its ability to crossup your shield and do a turnaround attack as a punish during its end lag. Also keep the aerial version of the move in mind if they stall above you or do a ledge jump, but can counter with the intangibility of our u-tilt and u-smash if timed right.

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.

Miscellaneous and frame data

Falcon’s u-tilt and u-smash have intangibility on the legs.

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.

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

Rapid jab skewer punish applies to him, with shorthop skewer OoS usually being more consistent (shield drop > d-smash also works). His normals besides u-smash and maybe d-smash are punished by our OoS aerials and shield grab. His landing aerials besides fair are too safe on shield though, so go for a neutral reset there. His grounded side B is punished by nair OoS and shield grab, while Falcon Kick (grounded) is shield punishable with f/d-smash even on crossup, and shorthop turnaround skewer OoS if properly spaced. Gotta be frame perfect though due to its 35 frames of end lag, and if Falcon Kick doesn't crossup, just f/d-smash. Also, his f-smash & aerial falcon kick are punished by shorthop SPR OoS.

His gentleman jab/rapid jab finisher, f-smash, Falcon Kick (both aerial and grounded), and ledge getup attack are also shield punished by u-tilt should he be at u-tilt > uair kill %.

Ridley kill confirm:

• u-tilt > fullhop uair (91-95%)
• u-tilt > double jump uair (96-106%)

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: https://x.com/goatsposts/status/1467211350371880965

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Chrom

Chrom
Slightly Winning

Like Lucina, Chrom doesn't care as much about spacing as Roy or Marth. Chrom also has Ike's up B, but something Chrom has in common with Roy as an echo fighter is tending to rushdown his opponents more than Marth/Lucina, so we have to wall them out even more.

Roy/Chrom's 4 hit side B near ledge causes some of the earliest KO's, so watch out there the most. Avoid or shield, don't spot dodge. If they stop at a hit before 4, do a quick OoS attack or move away. Also watch how they use side B from ledge or landing.

Roy/Chrom have one of the best jabs, due to being a great combo starter in part. Jab > d-tilt and so on, so keep your distance. Another reason to do so is their up B being a good OoS option.

Watch how they charge their neutral B when edgeguarding and delay your recovery accordingly, or do a beefy up B. Watch for their counters too, and tech & hold down when hit by one.

Aside from walling them out with tilts and such, plasma can also be a good mixup for it.

When edgeguarding, Chrom's up B has no horizontal movement, so can easily hit him from above when he's at the highest point of his move, or 2-frame.

Miscellaneous and frame data

Dash attack will beat Chrom's shorthop if spaced.

When watching how he uses side B in neutral or disadvantage, stay spaced whether shielding or not. Unless confident you'll land a shorthop back skewer, going in too soon for a whiff punish before he does all 4 hits will get you punished instead, and if he whiffs the first two hits at mid range, shield the next hits since he slowly inches forward.

Roy/Chrom both have u-smash intangibility and super armor on their up B.

U-smash is 5/6 hits, nair is 2.

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.

Their dair hits Ridley under plats, as does Chrom up B, so still shield or avoid.

Chrom up B (-29) has no hitbox when rising, but when descending with it to ledge, will go through any fireballs and punish any f/d-tilt attempt, so be wary.

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

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

Our jab 1 starts faster than theirs, allowing us to get out of scramble situations better.

Their normals besides d-tilt and Chrom jab are punished by our OoS aerials and such; smashes are f-smash punished OoS, while Chrom f-smash is punished by shorthop SPR OoS. Landing aerials are too safe though, so reset. Charged neutral B is a shield breaker, but the side B hits are pretty unsafe on shield; even d-smash works also from skewer (after the last hit). If he misses a counter nearby, whiff punish.

Their u-tilt, dash attack, smashes, any side B hits, and ledge getup attack attack (-22) are u-tilt punished OoS should he be at u-tilt > uair kill %.

Ridley kill confirm:

• u-tilt -> fullhop uair (87-90%)
• u-tilt > double jump uair (91-100%)

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Cloud

Cloud

With Cloud's super safe aerials on shield, wait to try and punish what he does after rather than retaliate with an OoS attack, except for nair OoS against his fair if he mistimes it. His dash attack and crossup d-tilt we also punish OoS, and his unrewarding grab game balances out the cheesiness of his safe aerials on shield. Plasma works for counter-zoning his blade beam or to beat him stalling off stage with it as long as you keep your distance, but his blue blade beam goes through plasma. That said, if they have Limit off stage, stuff out their double jump and airdodge so they're forced to use Limit up B, or Limit neutral B to cover themselves if they're already up high.

Remember to not give up too much stage control when Cloud's charging Limit and instead approach with spaced moves (d-tilt being the main one that reliably outranges him) or plasma to force an option out of him. On that same token, d-tilt and plasma can keep Cloud jumping for whiff punishes on his fair/bair, though just be aware of his great air speed since he'll jump and hit you with those aerials if you plasma too close. Safe as his aerials otherwise are, they still have some startup; 11 frames for bair and 18 for fair respectively, followed by 30 frames of end lag for bair and 28 for fair.

• Our fair stuffs his bair

Whiff punishing his aerials as mentioned will condition him to use more empty jumps as a bait for you to whiff, by double jumping before he reaches the ground or drifting back so he can get some setup situations if you get hasty. This is when you can start to call out jumps with nair, fair, or even u-tilt if they are fullhopping. Cloud can beat it with rising aerials, but these are much riskier, like his nair which is smaller now.

Also keep in mind that full Limit lasts only 15 seconds, so you can mix it up between playing defensively (shield plenty & all the way through Limit specials, don't use laggy moves but air-to-airs) or aggressively to stall him out (use your running and jumps to keep him chasing you and waste Limit time), but remember the speed increase he gets from Limit, and watch out for favorites of theirs like bair > blue cross slash; can also break shield if not careful, but when you begin shielding blue cross slash, can spot-dodge to get out of it.

Cloud has an aerial blind spot in his diagonals, allowing us to counter with nair & fair when trying to land, but if still getting uair juggled, hold on to your jumps and don't airdodge directly onto him, especially with his u-smash or if he still has Limit.

When juggling him, his dair & up B mixup is the main thing to watch out for. Challenge with u-tilt, u-smash, or from the side. Even retreating pivot grab works, but watch out for dair when under plats and still shield/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.

Miscellaneous and frame data

Respect his ledge getup attack range.

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

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.

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 shield his up B, just remember to do so all the way through till he's high in the air and the lands, or spot-dodge it in between.

Other than that, finishing touch is his most negative on shield move of all with how powerful it is, so can punish with whatever, even d-smash.

Ridley kill confirm:

• u-tilt > fullhop uair (89-92%)
• u-tilt > double jump uair (93-104%)

Huge credit to the Ridcord JMU doc for much of this info. Also, external link on how to DI Cloud's dash attack- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNO4mPQLsBg

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Corrin

Corrin
Slightly Losing

First off, respect Corrin's juggling. Their aerials (especially uair and bair which they may telegraph) are fast, long, and disjointed, making it hard to move around them in the air. Either time an airdodge, or play it safe and fastfall off to the side toward the ledge. They may have a jump based neutral to take advantage of their juggling, which you can punish by staying grounded and anti-air or catch their landings. Also crouching + retreating turnaround d-tilt if needed.

Corrin's f-smash is one of the longest in the game, just behind Min-Min and the Belmonts. They can angle it up and down too, though they have to be precisely spaced to hit us on ledge with it. What makes their f-smash unique is they can damage you while charging it, so if you're not careful, can trap you into getting hard smashed off the stage. That said, you can SDI up out of it and airdodge behind them. Also, don't attack them when charging it unless with a long disjointed move or plasma.

With their neutral B, just remember it's a chargeable shot that stuns when it hits, and has those jaws waiting to chomp on you if you jump over the projectile. So if you jump over the shot, either stay away from Corrin or jump high. It doesn't do much shield damage though, and the shot can be clanked out by our moves even when fully charged.

The side B dragon lunge can be mixed up in plenty ways. Can 2 frame off the ledge with the initial spike (delay your jump/recovery accordingly), can spike into the ground and either kick forward, back, cancel pin and land on the ground, or jump from the pin (invulnerable on frames 2-7). Can shield punish the kicks easily, but if they see what you're doing, they may cancel the move and run up and grab you, so be ready to use an OoS option or move away. Jump is another option.

Also remember they have a counter because Fire Emblem. It sends vertically instead of horizontally, so DI left/right; can anticipate them to use it to stop you from juggling. Same with their dair. Pause your combo, wait for them to do either move, and punish. If you go off to edgeguard them, be ready to tech.

For weaknesses, low mobility. Also a poor disadvantage & exploitable recovery like us, weak grab game, and struggles against projectiles, so plasma can be good against them if used right.

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.

Disadvantage

• Ridley can use a beefy up special to clank with Dragon Lunge's pinned attack two frames and grab ledge unharmed.

• While at ledge, Corrin's forward smash does not hit Ridley's ledge hang from ledge roll distance, allow the positioning of the Corrin to dictate your action off ledge.

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.

Miscellaneous and frame data

Their up B is invulnerable on frames 7-17, stopping just before the move becomes active on frame 18. Once they start moving, you can hit them with anything including dair.

Their dash attack can crossup our shield, though not by much, but be ready to do a turnaround punish just in case.

Their dair hits us under platforms, so still shield or avoid there. Same goes for their side B pin when under a plat.

Corrin side B is mashable; cancels the pin and causes you to be knocked down instead.

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.

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

Our jab 1 starts faster than theirs, allowing us to get out of scramble situations better.

Their rapid jab finisher is shield punished with f-smash. Their normals are punished by our OoS aerials & shield grab, while their gentleman jab/rapid jab finisher, u-tilt, dash attack, smashes, landing dair, neutral B, and ledge getup attack are shield punished by our own u-tilt should they be at u-tilt > uair kill %. If they whiff a counter surge nearby, skewer punish. Also, their u-smash, d-smash, and ledge getup attack (-27) are shield punished by shorthop SPR OoS.

Their landing aerials besides dair are too safe on shield though, so reset there. The 2nd part of their neutral B is fairly shield punishable (-31 to -19), and the dragon lunch pin kick is -35 on shield, while the back kick is -48, making it plenty punishable with whatever. Remember though they may cancel the pin and go for a grab if they see you shielding early, so use an OoS attack early if they cancel and approach, or move away.

• Corrin's neutral air hits from the side then going into an arc counterclockwise, covering all directions. Do not challenge this move directly, instead use disjointed tail attacks.

Ridley kill confirm:

• u-tilt > fullhop uair (88-91%)
• u-tilt > double jump uair (92-100%)

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Diddy Kong

Diddy Kong

Occasionally Z-catch the banana peel when you can (or sometimes when you tilt/aerial or airdodge), though if you're not confident in using it against him, can always throw it off stage or perhaps better yet, throw it to the far side of the stage, keeping it out of play which makes it longer before he can spawn a new one. We have some Skewer setups with it too, that said.

Jumping over is otherwise the best option like when waiting for him to throw it, which you can mix up your jump patterns with your multi jumps to make him guess far as your landing; jumping at the last moment, attacking (landing aerial may also counter a side B attempt), or airdodging on reaction. Usually Diddy's will try to throw the banana as you land, OoS, or to punish a whiff or bad roll.

• Ledgehop (or ledge drop double jump) f-air can be good for grabbing a banana at ledge in the process, but is a mixup only since Diddy can punish on reaction

Likewise jump over his peanut projectile most often, including ledge jump if he tries using it to ledgetrap. When he's landing, watch out for him using peanut as a B-reverse to try and make you whiff. Peanut's also catchable like banana, but there's little point with how weak it is. If you get in the habit of shielding it and likewise with banana, he'll punish with Monkey Flip, so don't let him condition you (dash shielding helps though). Respect and anticipate side B, including when he’s off stage near or at ledge & you’re on stage, as you don’t want to get reversaled. Also anticipate it if he recovers high with a fullhop aerial.

Like us, Diddy can also use his side B to help with his off-stage recovery, and with how much speed and distance it covers, you likely won't get a chance to gimp him with an aerial if he uses that to recover instead of up B. It can catch you quick too when you're on the receiving end trying to recover, and peanut can potentially gimp when used to edgeguard, so recover low when possible in most cases to avoid both of those.

Speaking of up B, you do want to shield Rocket Barrel (which he'll most often use horizontally) even under platforms, if you're not ready to counterattack him. Diddy up B explosions are also punishable with Rid d-smash if he lands close or dash attack if he lands far. Be ready for that if he uses it as a wildcard on stage or from somewhere off stage to land. If you hit him out of his rocket barrels (on or off stage), he can still control it and circle it back to blast into you. Is unlikely but possible, so respect it.

Monkey Flip is mashable, but you’re very rarely gonna outrun it, so most of its punishing happens during the move with some kind of anti-air like retreating nair, u-tilt, up angle f-tilt, or even u-smash at kill %. It may be a good idea to spend less time shielding against Diddy and more time moving around him, with how quick his side B is which’ll punish you if you’re as comfy in your shield as some matchups. When caught by side B, jump release results in a footstool; also be ready to tech it at ~10%.

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.

Watch out for his d-tilt hand clap which is one of his main combo starters like with us, except he can followup with smashes (unless you're at too high % for his u-smash to connect) and has a 20% chance of causing tripping. Otherwise with his aerials that lead into combos, remember to DI away. His f-throw and b-throw can kill around 150% range at the ledge, and his u-throw can combo too. DI for Ridley is not as effective against his Hoo Ha kill confirm (d-throw > bair) though.

Is a niche option, but when Diddy's either holding the banana or has already thrown it, can sometimes use Plasma to trade with him as a situational check. Plasma like other projectiles can stop the thrown banana in its place if timed right, and forces an option out of him even if it doesn't hit him like when the banana's already on the ground, and simply hopping over the peel to reach him will often greet you with his f-air or something.

Platform stages are recommended against Diddy since landing against him can be difficult for the reasons established.

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.

Miscellaneous and frame data

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.

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 %.

If he charges his neutral B up close, it’s shield punishable with OoS aerials/grab, while the overcharge is very minus on shield. Horizontal rocket barrel's plenty punishable on shield too, even with d-smash.

Ridley kill confirm:

• u-tilt > fullhop uair (82-86%)
• u-tilt > double jump uair (87-95%)

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

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Donkey Kong

Donkey Kong

Neutral: DK's approaches are a 50/50 between dash attack (-13 on shield and only 10 frames of end lag) & dash grab (33 frames of end lag), along with his bair walling which you want to anti-air.

Disadvantage: Watch out for aerial hand slap hitting ledge hang. Also use ground tech from 2nd hit of that move to avoid a u-smash kill.

Advantage: Watch out for him using fully charged neutral B from ledge. Also, even if they’re facing toward you, good DK players will B-reverse their neutral B charge to let themselves double jump bair through your fireballs. Semi charging at most is good in this instance so you can try and aerial them after, while saving full charge plasma for when they’re recovering from further away.

With DK’s spike options, pay attention to how he moves off stage to determine how you recover, sometimes attacking him in the process. Try to mash out of his cargo throw, but especially watch out for his up throw setups. If you do get carried by his cargo throw off stage, watch out for f-throw where he dunks you with f-air after. To avoid that, delay your jump and recover low. Also watch out for off stage b-throw where he tries to stage spike you, but try to tech that (shield + up). Same if he does bair or nair in this instance.

Other than that, respect the super armor of his neutral B, up B (7 hits on the ground but in the air is inconsistent), and side B, as well as the intangibility of his three tilts, smashes, and uair. Avoid the side B rather than shield it with how much shield damage it does, and watch out for it when juggling him. Wall him out with our neutral tools and combo him when possible. DK knows his recovery is bad, so he’ll often use it early to avoid being spiked. Back up and punish when you anticipate it. A mixup DK may do is ledge drop double jump dair.

Miscellaneous and frame data

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.

For his down B, aside from it spiking off stage, it can hit is under platforms, so still shield it there. Same with his d-tilt and dair.

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.

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

Respect his grab range and ledge getup attack range.

Our jab 1 starts faster than his, allowing us to get out of scramble situations better.

DK's normals are pretty punishable OoS for us with our aerials, grab, u-smash, and such. His d-smash can also be shield punished by f-smash, and his jab 2, f-tilt, u-tilt, u-smash, d-smash, up B, and ledge getup attack are shield punished by our u-tilt should he be at u-tilt > uair kill %. His landing aerials are too safe on shield though besides fair, so go for a reset there.

His side B does a lot of shield damage as mentioned, but if you shield it at full health, can punish with most options since it's -32. His grounded down B and especially up B (-37) are punishable OoS too; skewer, d-smash, etc for the latter.

Ridley kill confirm:

• u-tilt > fullhop uair (104-108%)
• u-tilt > double jump uair (109-117%)

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Dr. Mario

Dr. Mario

• 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.

Ridley kill confirm:

• u-tilt > fullhop uair (88-91%)
• u-tilt > double jump uair (92-98%)

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Duck Hunt

Duck Hunt

To get in, first and foremost:

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 DH 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.

If you go in from the air (after can has been neutralized), be wary of

• uair, as it hits three times with a hitbox as wide as DH's body
• u-smash's first and third hitbox, which hit up-and-in-front and then directly above
• fade back into up angled f-tilt (not disjointed) or up angled f-smash (very disjointed)

Going in from the ground is usually just them spamming the same options they would normally have in neutral. Nothing special since they won't want to do anything too bold like jump into you with an aerial.

Additional stuff:

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 DH 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. DH grabs don't lead into much besides can setups & no kill throws, so this isn't the worst thing to do dependent 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.

Gunman has a longer cooldown (I think maybe two extra 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 DH 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.

When being ledgetrapped by Duck Hunt, don’t hit the can with ledge getup attack, as he can f-smash it back.

Miscellaneous and frame data

You can’t SDI clay pigeon. Hold shield, DI, and try jumping.

Watch out for dair under plats and shield or avoid.

Use retreating nair to hit clay shooter & gunman while remaining mobile.

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.

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

Rapid jab skewer punish applies, shorthop skewer OoS in this case (shield drop > d-smash also works). His normals are punished by our OoS aerials and shield grab.

His gentleman jab/rapid jab finisher, dash attack, smashes, and ledge getup attack (-28) are u-tilt punishable should he be at u-tilt > uair kill %, and his f-smash you can punish with our own if shielded. His landing aerials besides dair are too safe on shield to punish though, so go for a neutral reset.

Ridley kill confirm:

• u-tilt > fullhop uair (82-85%)
• u-tilt > double jump uair (86-95%)

Major credit to Rex's pinned post on the Ridcord metagame channel.

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Falco

Falco

Falco can be the most challenging out of the spacie trio since he's mainly in the air while Fox and Wolf are more grounded. Thus, you'll be using less grounded moves like d-tilt and more often air to air'ing. Having one of the highest jumps in the game too, Falco can sometimes reach you faster than you have time to react and continue the combos. Mixing up your DI/SDI away helps though.

For the infamous u-tilt, if you shield it, try to roll away before approaching him again. That said, watch out for his throws if you shield the u-tilt too often, with back throw killing at high % at ledge and the other three leading into combos. You can DI away from the laser from his up, down, and back throws at least. Once you get to mid percent, his throws do nothing as long as you DI up throw.

U-tilt is -12 on shield, so you should be able to just nair, grab, or u-smash (from behind) Falco. U-tilt is a main combo starter, but so is d-tilt. He will use pivot tilts or aerials for approaches, the latter being mostly unpunishable OoS.

Just look out on how he wants to start the combo. If you know he's going to do a tilt, just shield. He does have a frame 6 grab though, so be wary on waiting on shield too long.

Falco’s lasers in neutral don’t do much on their own. They don’t combo into anything; it’s mainly to get you to jump unsafely over them so he can get you in position for u-tilt combos, so be mindful of how you jump over or otherwise avoid the lasers.

For his reflector that's also kind of a projectile, you either need to attack from above or shield quickly as you approach. It's pretty punishable on shield up close to where you can f-smash him after, or shorthop skewer OoS if lucky.

Falco isn't that fast overall which makes neutral doable, apart from what's been said about his jump height which makes our approach game being either grounded or at fullhop height. Due to u-tilt being Falco's bnb as mentioned, being grounded at mid range is most favorable.

In between his u-tilt 1 and 2, you can u-smash OoS as a punish. Like u-tilt, his side B is a potential combo starter and kill confirm, so respect it too; like Fox's, it loses to shield.

U-throw is his main combo throw, but d-throw also combos. U-throw's also a kill confirm if you don't DI left/right (b-throw you DI away or down). D-throw combos can be avoided with DI away.

His fair is great at shield pressure due to a couple mixups; the mixups are to change the timing of the landing hitbox (after the 6 hits) or to fade away to avoid shield grabs.

When at kill %, also look out for his d-tilt and bair. What else makes him different from the other spacies is how easy he edgeguards.

Otherwise edgeguard him the way you would Fox between the up B and side B. Due to Falco's weight and fall speed, kill confirms like d-throw > bair become even better.

Miscellaneous and frame data

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

His u-smash and d-smash have some intangibility on the legs, and his d-tilt.

You can still fight him patiently while grounded, but have to time it between him having the longest jump height in the game (won't keep you waiting as long as a floaty though) & all his landing aerials being too safe on shield, so you contest them instead with your anti-airs or d-tilt.

Falco multihits- u-tilt (2 hits), u-smash (2 hits), nair (4 hits), fair (6 hits)

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

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

Falco rapid jab finisher is f-smash punishable. Besides d-tilt, his other normals as well as side B, down B, and point-blank laser can at least be punished by nair OoS. His landing aerials are too safe on shield though, so reset. His u-smash, d-smash, and ledge getup attack (-26) are punished by SH SPR OoS.

His jab 2/rapid jab finisher, DA, smashes, and ledge getup attack are u-tilt punishable should he be at u-tilt > uair kill %.

Rid kill confirm:

• u-tilt > fullhop uair (79-82%)
• u-tilt > double jump uair (83-91%)

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Fox

Fox

You need to keep up with his pace or he'll run right over you. To match his playstyle, keep moving, don't sit in shield too often, and save your slower attacks; hitting him with tilts, quick jabs, and aerials most of the time. Fox's dash attack is a great whiff punish that leads into more combos. Generally want to DI away from his combos though. Sometimes may need to airdodge to escape, but don't use it carelessly because Fox often anticipates it. Against a good Fox, need to mix up your DI so he doesn't catch on to your habits.

Almost all his combos lead to his most reliable KO move, his up smash. Since he'll mostly use it as a combo ender or a hard read, need to make sure you're not playing too predictably which'll keep him from making said reads.

Respect his aerials. Nair is a fast kick that protects his landing, poke around your shield, ledgetrap, and lead into combos. Your best bet is to shield and move, preferably with a shorthop away when he does it. Also keep an eye on his 5-hit fair which also has a landing hitbox. His bair is fast and deadly, so watch out. His dair doesn't spike but is 7 hit, so need to hold all the way through when shielding. His uair juggles really well and can KO, so if you're above Fox, try to get around him when getting back to the stage, time a nair, or get to ledge if nothing else.

Also remember his jab, which he'll commonly do out of nair. If you shield rapid jab to the end, can do a dash grab, dash attack, or long reach move.

His blaster he'll mainly use to bait you in. While it has no knockback, it does more damage each hit, so be methodical with your approach.

Aside from its main purpose, his reflector he can also use to break combos or mix up his fall speed. Aside from recovering horizontally, he'll sometimes use his side B on stage as a mixup, leading into u-smash or combos, as it hits you upward which allows for a juggle. If you shield it, he will not go through you.

For all his strengths, remember he's still one of the lightest characters in the game, and taller than most characters that light. Because Fox relies on his usual combo setups and hard reads, he can be predictable, often going for the same ones. Catch on to his habits as much as he does yours.

While his grab is fast, his throws are a bit weak. None of them KO early, and if you DI right, none of them lead into true combos.

His recovery is arguably is even more linear than ours between the side B and up B. While we don't have as many up B angles, Fox normally uses his up B the same way. Both recoveries can be punished hard with a read, whether you shield side B on stage or hit it off stage, and up B we often beat with down angle Wing Blitz if timed right.

Fox knows his recovery's predictable, so he'll do his best to mix it up, using side B and up B at different times to throw you off. You can beat that by playing the same game; go off the ledge and come back which will bait him to side B, and then you attack.

Miscellaneous and frame data

His d-smash has leg intangibility during frames 6-7.

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.

Skewer > jab 2 > whatever, for delayed getup.

Rapid jab finisher you can also shield punish with f-smash. His normals besides f-tilt we can at least punish with nair OoS (some with our other OoS aerials and shield grab). His rapid jab finisher, smashes, & ledge getup attack (-27) are u-tilt punishable should he be at u-tilt > uair kill %, while his u-smash & d-smash we can also shield punish with f/d-smash/SH skewer. His fair & dair we punish with our OoS aerials and maybe u-smash, but his other landing aerials are too safe, so reset.

His point-blank laser and side B we can punish with our OoS aerials and such, and maybe f-smash if side B is spaced and you react quick enough with it. His down B and up B on shield are also pretty unsafe which can be punished with f-smash, etc.

Ridley kill confirm:

• u-tilt > fullhop u-air (76-79%)
• u-tilt > double jump uair (80-87%)

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Ganondorf

Ganondorf

Neutral

This is one of the few matchups where you can play primarily as a zoner. Wall Ganon out with a mix of tail disjoints and plasma to keep him from getting in his mid-range where he excels. He's much slower on the ground and in the air than Ridley, so you can really run away from him if needed. Plasma tends to be hard for Ganon to get around if used properly. Wizard’s Foot or Wizkick can randomly beat plasma but isn't consistent enough to be a true counter, especially when staled.

Ganon will have to use clever movement and jump mixups to bait you into either a whiff or catch you shielding/dashing. Any move Ganon has will give him advantage if it lands, so you have to play outside his bubble at all times. For such a heavy hitter, Ganon’s moves are safer on shield than you’d expect; landing nair, fair, and bair are basically completely safe and you shouldn’t be attempting to directly punish them. Watch what they do after. Late hit dash attack and spaced d-tilt are also safe.

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.

Disadvantage

You can tech grounded flame choke, but air choke is untechable, so it’s important that you slightly delay your getup option around 8 frames, as it'll make Ganon’s followup the hardest to perform. When flame choked on the ground, have to be aware of what options you’re choosing and mix them up. Below are the possible followups.

Grounded-

• Missed tech: Jab, f-tilt, instant dash attack, d-tilt
• Getup attack: Pivot f-smash
• Roll away: F-smash (slight charge)
• Tech in place: Jab, f-tilt, d-tilt, instant dash attack
• Tech inward: Dash attack, f-tilt, d-smash
• Tech away: Instant dash attack, Wizkick

Air choke:

• Getup attack: Shorthop dair
• Roll away: Dash attack, Wizkick, u-smash, d-smash
• Roll in: U-smash, d-smash
• Standard getup: U-smash, d-smash

His dash attack and d-throw are both combo starters, leading into nair and uair at low percents. D-throw > bair can kill very early on DI in only.

Ganon can’t hit you on the ledge without taking risks which you can abuse. His nair is big and fast enough to allow great option coverage and reacting to ledge options you do in reaction to his nair. Play patient, watch his spacing and, stay safe. Drop down aerials are not super effective due to Ganon’s large hitboxes and doriyah f-smash (Ganon can only hit Ridley on the ledge with tipper f-smash on the right side of the stage). Getup attack can be a valued asset to your getups though; if they get too predictable with aerials or charge a smash too close, don’t hold back.

For off stage, Ganon covers large space with his aerials but he has to commit which gives us options to mix up. Our mixup options in general are pretty good but getting back on stage horizontally and/or from above will prove to be a challenge at times.

The biggest threats are drop zone aerials to hit you trying to SPR or jump to ledge, his dair can sometimes trade with up B if they time and space it really well, so keep that in mind. Always do a beefy up B when recovering to swat away Ganon and possibly allow you to get up from ledge. He can also edgeguard with dark dive but it's risky since they can sometimes still get tech checked.

Ganon doesn't juggle so much as he catches landings if you find yourself above him. He's not fast on the ground, but he doesn’t need to be for this. Dash attack, flame choke, and Wizkick can catch landings, and his aerials are big, powerful, and fast for keeping you in the air. Don't try to challenge him with dair, just go to ledge or land away from Ganon. You also have your jumps you can time to try and make him whiff or mix up your landings along with fastfalls to get around him.

Advantage

Ganon’s ledge hang is somewhere as good as ours, so you’ll have to space plasma further back to hit him, but other than that, down angle f-tilt and d-smash can hit him with only mild spacing. Watch out for ledge drop side B. Air flame choke is stupid fast and you want to avoid getting hit by it. Besides that, Ganon doesn’t really have ledge drop options. He gets ledgetrapped like most big bodies, so just stay right outside of getup attack range and read or react accordingly.

When he's off stage, just plasma mainly. You can also run off aerial on occasion when Ganon is maneuvering plasma or beating it out with a well timed nair, or you can use aerials when he’s recovering high. Combining plasma and aerials is very deadly. If you get him to use up his jump to avoid plasma or it gets clipped but not enough to kill him, a falling nair or fair is very tough to get around. Don't forget to try and tech check him if he catches you with dark dive.

Ganon's landing in disadvantage is pretty rough, with how slow he is in the air along with being big. Safe landing aerials help, but he has to space and time them correctly to be safe. It’s more rewarding and less risky to focus on catching his landings like he does with us trying to land. You don’t want to get hit by a dair or air Wizkick for trying to nair or uair him. D-tilt will catch Ganon if you go under his landing aerials and hit him; abuse this if they’re landing with fairs or nairs. Plasma if he’s trying to stay away from you, and pressure him to go to ledge.

Miscellaneous and frame data

Respect his ledge getup attack range.

His dair if timed right along with air Wizkick can hit us under a platform, so still shield or avoid there.

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).

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

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

Our jab comes out well before his, so always use in up close scramble situations. His jab on shield is normally too safe for us to punish though, so reset. All his other normals you can at least nair OoS and such though.

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 %.

Ridley kill confirm:

• u-tilt > fullhop uair (97-101%)
• u-tilt > double jump uair (102-112%)

Major credit to the Ridcord JMU doc for much of this info.

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Greninja

Greninja

Respect the dash attack, being its main combo starter which comes out fast and ends quickly. Watch their patterns to anticipate when they'll use it and shield etc if expecting it (is -13 on shield, so punish OoS). Try to DI away if hit. Can airdodge a followup in time after when hit by DA at high %.

Also respect its tilts. D-tilt and u-tilt leads into combos. While shielding is a good option here too, often your best option is to throw out a quick attack (jab, nair) before it hits you.

Greninja's air speed and jump height make it hard to follow, so patiently play mostly grounded, anti-airing and catching landings when possible. That said, nair protects its landing, fair & 3-hit bair are good combo finishers, and uair juggles and can drag down into jablock combos, so don't miss tech. Watch their dair patterns in order to punish it if they get spammy.

If you're diagonally above Greninja when it tries to uair, can nair its blindspot.

Much as shielding helps, also respect Greninja's grab, being one of the longest non-tether grabs; a few places above ours. Its d-throw and u-throw lead into combos, and f-throw leads into a tech chase, so watch out for grab if you get too shield happy.

With water shuriken, aside from charging, be aware of how they use it to mix up their landing (be it a small one or landing with a fully charged one), and how they use it to condition you; if you shield it, they may run up and grab, and if you jump, they may expect it and do an aerial on you. Is a 50/50, so mix it up to keep em guessing what you're gonna do. Also be aware of how they use it to try and catch your landing (if you jump, don't land near em), and if they use it to try and gimp, can nair or fair it.

With shadow sneak, you can see the shadow beforehand even if they use it in the air, but can be harder to see on dark stages, so try not to choose those. They may use the move to protect its landing or punish yours, but in neutral or advantage, anticipate and be ready to shield it.

Remember Greninja has the double team counter. Occasionally bait them to use it and punish.

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.

Like us, it has no kill throws, so at higher % you're safer from grabs, but DI away from d-throw.

While it doesn't often work, watch out for them using hydro pump (up B) as an edgeguarding mixup, and don't let it gimp you. That said, Greninja's recovery is exploitable when edgeguarding or ledgetrapping them; using shadow sneak from the ledge which you can whiff or shield punish, or their up B having no hitbox which you can take advantage of.

When edgeguarding Greninja, there are times when f-tilt is the safest thing to do. Committing to plasma breath at the wrong time gets you reversaled hard by full charged shuriken and shadow sneak. Also doesn’t help against them recovering high.

One option is to do a ledge grab setup and use the I-frames to just ignore shadow sneak altogether, and when they try to hydro pump you just ledgehop nair back to stage. They’re easier to land than f-tilt, but very rarely get a similar reward.

Once you’ve forced them to up B from far enough away, you can set up with a double jump bair to close out the stock. The fact that they have so many angle mixups makes it less straightforward, but if you’re aware of how to limit the number of mixups he can pull out, it makes damage buildup easier.

One other thing, Greninja has d-tilt > up smash as a kill confirm on us starting around 90%. Our u-tilt > uair confirm kills him a little earlier though.

Miscellaneous and frame data

SPR Greninja on plats if worried about him substitute countering our attacks from underneath (i.e. u-tilt).

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.

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

Rapid jab skewer punish also applies, with shorthop skewer OoS being more consistent (Greninja leans forward a bit with the finisher, so may need to shorthop back a bit with the skewer. Shield drop > d-smash also works). Its normals are mostly punished by our OoS aerials and shield grab, but its landing aerials besides uair and dair are too safe on shield, so reset there. Water shuriken up close is similarly shield punished, and especially shadow sneak which is -29. Jab 3 & f-smash are punished by shorthop SPR OoS.

Its d-smash is also -29 and thus can be shield punished by our f-smash, while gentleman jab/rapid jab finisher, all three smashes, side B, and ledge getup attack (-24) are shield punished by u-tilt should they be at u-tilt > uair kill %. If they whiff a substitute counter nearby, skewer punish.

Ridley kill confirm:

• u-tilt > fullhop uair (82-86%)
• u-tilt > double jump uair (87-96%)

Credit to smub on some of the edgeguarding/ledgetrapping tips.

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Hero

Hero

Go here for a detailed list of his command selection spells- https://www.ssbwiki.com/Command_Selection

Here for seeing Zoom landing points- https://x.com/rightasreine/status/1346613582147035136

And here for seeing how he mixes up his up B off stage- https://x.com/aperfectcreatio/status/1336886748132073474

Respect Hero's side B. It has 15% damage worth of armor, but in most cases avoid it at all costs, or shielding it all the way through, even under a plat. His f-tilt 1 has invincibility on the left arm and leg during frames 9-11, and his f-air is a good way of approach which you can shield and punish too. His neutral B is a chargeable fireball similar to other big projectile moves and can clank similarly. With how slow his attacks are in general, shield or bait & punish. He recovers from low which you can go off stage to edgeguard, but if caught in the tornado, be ready to tech.

Disadvantage

For being juggled, Hero doesn't make it easy to land like with fair, bair, nair, and his big up tilt which makes positioning iffy. So keep your airdoge in mind, when to use it and if you should use directional airdodge, but keep some jumps handy for later, for who knows when you'll need them. A popular Ridley tool is also fastfall nair since out of hitstun you can't immediately fastfall. It's the fastest aerial of ours and has some okay disjoint but can be contested and be shielded. Our fastfall speed is decent, giving us a good window of time to come back down.

Other tools that can be used are bair, fair, and maybe dair when close to ledge to get down quicker. If done right dair can auto-cancel if high enough and be mixed up with other options and moves but it's a straight line and no disjoint, so Hero's up tilt and aerials should cover it.

Off stage, SPR is a nice tool to get to ledge quickly but easy to outrange with Hero nair, fair and, bair. The Wing Blitz directions, I would say recovering either straight or low is pretty nice, but straight is contested with Hero neutral B and side B. Airdodge can help save some jumps but laggy when used directionally, and can be able to snap to ledge without up B. Low recovery is probably best due to up B's ability to poke through stage when holding down on WB up. Uair can protect us too but Hero has them aerials, and generally off-stage gets worse versus accel Hero.

From ledge Ridley has some tools, like ledge drop side B, fair, and nair, but be wary, for Hero side B outranges them easily. Ledge jump nair is also nice, but Hero u-tilt gets that outranged and punished. Hero shielding us at ledge is fairly safe because his OoS good, but usually they are out of range for Rid side B or fair because of their amazing spells. LSK (ledgeslip kaswoosh) is to be dealt with in low recovery & teching or high recovery but that is usually more punished by Hero's aerials and u-tilt. His dair you also want to try teching.

Now the biggest offender of the topic, accel Hero. He goes zooming constantly. Off-stage is a scary situation because SPR and WB are too slow to get away safely without getting punished. Would suggest try recovering low and keeping airdoge ready & your jumps saved, but be wary of just buffering airdoge and such or he will catch us.

Neutral

Plasma is usually a nice combo starter & kill confirm but is pretty difficult to use on Hero due to his shield, Bounce spell, and quick projectiles.

As Ridley we need to be wary of Hero up B, as that is a pretty fast combo breaker that can more often than not put Ridley in a bad spot. It's very important to note that trying to keep Accelerate Hero in disadvantage is next to impossible due to his ridiculous jump height, speed, and aerial drift, so Ridley should be content with whatever stray hits he gets. When in accel, Heroes will be looking for neutral B, landing nair, grabs, and shorthop up B. Normal Hero uses a lot of neutral B to condition shields for grabs and side B.

Ridley likes a closer approach to this matchup considering Hero's neutral B and side B play the longer game better than plasma can. We have the tilt advantage in terms of range, which is to mean dealing with Hero in either d-tilt or f-tilt range is great. Catch jump-in's with u-tilt or nair as always, preferably u-tilt here since it's not so committal and Hero's a bit floaty.

Hero has the range advantage in the aerial department. We generally have the movement advantage, even in the air without Hero having accel. Also to consider the usage and handling of plasma. Again, plasma 2-3 it optimal and not too committal but with Hero having Bounce, you just want plasma 2, so that the reflected fireballs cancel each other out. A Hero with Bounce should just run it because there's nothing to fear. If you want to contest Hero's aerial range wisely, go for fair, but it's laggy, so not great; just catch his landing with d-tilt or maybe up angle f-tilt.

Now in the consideration of defensive options, Hero can just whack our shield with no issue, seeing as how our nair OoS is frame 11, while Hero's OoS is a quick frame 7, meaning no shield poking for us outside of f-tilt or d-tilt, but if you play the longer game with Hero neutral B and side B, you shouldn't find yourself in that situation.

The most confusing part is the surprise factor Hero can pull up with the down B menu and a lot of it plays the long game well or just buffs Hero, making him quicker and stronger with the right menu pulls. There's no true counter if Ridley is not in the optimal range since Hero can cancel menu with shield or jump, though disturbing him with plasma can work, but you should be generally taking advantage that if you get in that, Hero would have to panic pick a menu option.

Advantage

Off-stage is where it gets pretty fun, as Ridley has fantastic edgeguarding. Ridley must know what options Hero has off-stage, as they can either die pretty easily or have an uncontestable recovery. If Hero has Zoom primed or under the effects of Accelerate, don't bother trying as these will give Hero stage control for free.

Without those, Hero has things like neutral B and side B in order to cover himself alongside having timing mixups with up B. Our usual edgeguarding will work on normal Hero, especially plasma. Is a nice way to get Hero to recover a certain way and can snipe the Heroes who are slower on the draw with their menu. Heroes should not try to recover onto stage without Zoom/Accelerate, as Ridley can easily cover those other options.

We juggle Hero pretty well like he does to us, but they can land with side B if we're not directly below them, or their nair in the event that we shield since we don't have a fast enough OoS option to punish. Also watch out for Hero’s up B OoS (especially with its ability to confirm into up smash like with platform assistance), but if you space your attacks right, it’s not a true OoS punish, and then punish his landing hard with an anti-air like up smash.

Also remember that with some exceptions, all of Hero’s menu spells are beaten by shield or jump. Remember to shield tilt at times though so you don’t get shield poked by his spells, side B, or even neutral B. Also waiting as long as possible to respawn when he has buffs active.

Only spells that beat shield is Hatchet Man, Kamikaze, and if he has both buffs; Psyche Up and Oomph. You can shield an aerial at least when he has Psyche Up, but not when he’s on the ground or has both buffs. Both Flame and Kacrackle (Ice) Slash also breaks shield if it's low and/or he has buffs, but is otherwise punished by nair OoS. The most explosive spells like Kaboom is free against shield itself, so better to jump over them. Magic Burst can be shielded though, since there is little room to avoid it.

Miscellaneous and frame data

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

His f-tilt 2, smashes, dair, and Hatchet Man 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.

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

His normals are pretty punishable by our OoS aerials and shield grab. Jab 3 and f-smash are at least -25 and thus shorthop SPR punished OoS. F-tilt 2 can even by shield punished by f-smash, while his jab 3, u-tilt, d-tilt, smashes, and ledge getup attack are shield punished by u-tilt should he be at u-tilt > uair kill %. His landing aerials besides dair are too safe on shield to punish though, so reset there. Hero side B you also want to punish OoS when close.

For Hero's menu spells, while kaboom is plus on shield as mentioned, its weaker counterpart bang is -16. Likewise, sizz is -26 and sizzle is -30, whack is -29 and thwack is -28, magic burst is -36 to -24, flame slash is -13 and kacrackle slash is -12, and metal slash is -26. If you happen to shield any of these up close, can punish with certain OoS options accordingly, but remember to not shield against kamikazee and hatchet man, and be more wary of shielding when he has oomph and psych up buffs active.

Ridley kill confirm:

• u-tilt > fullhop uair (90-93%)
• u-tilt > double jump uair (94-102%)

Major credit to the Ridcord Hero JMU section for much of this info.

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Ice Climbers

Ice Climbers

To be able to tell which one is Popo (the player) and not Nana (the AI), look at the player number (P1, P2, etc) over their head. Since it's one against two, don't throw out laggy moves or go for grabs; unless you manage to separate them which should be your goal in the match. Take out Nana first when possible so the other will be alone for the remainder of their stock (she has her own separate % from Popo that's not seen). Otherwise play a ranged game with our tilts and aerials. If hit by their desync combos, be ready to tech or DI away.

Also respect IC's grab game in how deadly it is, though helps that they have the shortest grab range. Use plasma against squal hammer (their side B) or attack from above. Watch how they may use side B in disadvantage as well, be it recovering high when possible, or to cover their landing. Either shield/avoid and punish, or space a d-tilt.

Timely mash out of being frozen by blizzard; if they use it at ledge, do a getup attack, and if they do it from afar, can jump over it. Watch out for ice shot as a means of gimping and save your jumps when possible (freezes at high % but can hit the move back at them for some damage). Aside from being a good vertical recovery, their up B can also kill well offensively, so watch out when above them.

They rely heavily on shielding. Climbers will keep their back turned from you, typically for bair pressure. When they mix that in with shielding, it's a bait to get you to try and grab them, or they'll desync and wall you out. This will be done mostly through their specials.

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.

Their multi-hit u-tilt is also something to watch out for, due to its combos and confirms.

D-throw doesn't hit Nana, making you vulnerable to getting smash attacked. Use f-throw (past ~15%), b-throw, or u-throw to separate them instead, making them the go-to for the MU rather than d-throw. Mix everything together and chase down Nana for a kill.

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.

More miscellaneous and frame data

The CPU can charge a smash attack while the main Climber can move freely, so don't roll or stand and shield.

The CPU gets stuck on platforms on stages like T&C and Kalos when the Climbers get separated, making them good stages against the duo.

After their 4 alt, their lineup gets reversed; meaning that instead of Popo in the front, Nana will be in front and Popo will be the CPU. You can tell by the hairstyle when it changes, but the same rules otherwise apply when it comes to fighting them.

While grabbing against the Climbers is discouraged as aforementioned, interesting to note that when you grab them from behind, you will always grab the CPU. Also if you grab the AI this way, pummeling is effective, as it limits the main Climber from following up an attack, though don't count on it too much. Also remember to time your throw to take advantage of your invincibility frames during whichever throw animation like you would against a boomerang type projectile. That said, SPR can be as good if not better at separating since you move past the other climber when you grab one.

Also when against Icies, landing a skewer is easier since even if you hit one target with the sourspot, as long as you hit the sweet spot on something you'll get the full damage (however skewering the AI won't activate the zoom-in, but it will still do the full damage). While you shouldn't fish for it, skewer is a lot easier to use against the Climbers, plus having them at radical % difference really helps at separating the two. Skewer at max range can work when they use blizzard as well; at low % so you don't freeze.

If you condition them to not side B out of disadvantage, their other landing options are subpar, so maybe go for a quick uair which beats out their puny range before they start mashing B again.

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 multihits- u-tilt (7 hits), side B (8 hits with both & 11 hits solo), down B (9 hits)

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.

D-tilt is their only normal that hits our ledge hang.

They're pretty floaty and as such, their dair can be punished by u-smash OoS. Also, when both of them are together, 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.

Their side B is -21 to -24 and can crossup shield. While AI will have invincibility frames at the start of their up B, the main Climber will not, so you can attack since the main one alone will be vulnerable. Their recovery can also be body blocked.

Ridley kill confirm:

• u-tilt > fullhop uair (86-91%)
• u-tilt > double jump uair (92-100%)

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Ike

Ike

Ike is more shorthop aerial happy, and we can barely punish his nair with f/d-tilt if spaced just outside its range; aside from walk/dash shielding, use said tilts while doing retreat turnarounds as such when he’s swinging. Our fair is faster than his, so use it + retreating nair to air-to-air. Like down angle Wing Blitz, his up B spikes while snapping to ledge.

Ike is vulnerable offstage, with plasma being useful as an edgeguarding tool which can easily KO if Ike doesn’t have his double jump.

Otherwise, with neutral, play defensively. Aside from what was already covered on that, there's also trying to grab or dash attack a whiffed aerial, along with plasma to force Ike to approach or jump. Remember too his f-tilt is around the same range as ours.

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

When Ike's above you, can hit him out of Eruption (neutral B) with uair. When recovering from ledge, can avoid getting nair'd with normal getup > shield or reading Ike’s jump > fair from ledge. SPR can be useful in recovery since Ike cannot counter it, unlike up B.

May want to focus on edgeguarding for kills, while using plasma, nair, or f-tilt at ledge. Can also use plasma to edgeguard Ike which again is useful if Ike has no 2nd jump off stage. Using it may force Ike to recover high early with side B, in which you can do one fireball to bait him or be used to 2 frame depending on timing. Can catch catch Quickdraw (Ike side B) with fair, bair, and plasma. F-smash if Ike is just above ledge level.

Can edgeguard Ike’s Aether up B by run off > nair before Ike throws his sword. Can plasma if Ike’s not directly beneath the stage, or f-tilt/f-smash if Ike goes slightly above stage level.

Like with Chrom up B, Ike's has no hitbox when rising, but when descending with it to ledge, will go through any fireballs and punish any f/d-tilt attempt, so be careful. Still, these up B's have no horizontal movement, so can easily hit Ike from above when he's at the highest point of his move, or 2-frame.

Miscellaneous and frame data

His dair if timed right along with neutral B and up B hit us under platforms, so still shield or avoid there.

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

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

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

His jab 3 is punished by Ridley f-smash OoS.

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 jab 2/3, smashes, neutral B, side B, up B, and ledge getup attack (-26) are shield punished by u-tilt should he be at u-tilt > uair kill %.

Ridley kill confirm:

• u-tilt > fullhop uair (93-96%)
• u-tilt > double jump uair (97-108%)

Major credit to the Ridcord JMU doc for much of this info.

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Incineroar

Incineroar

Neutral

Be aware that Alolan Whip has armor after the initial frames. You'll need to use moves that deal at least 12% damage or more to break through it. Rid d-tilt may not be sufficient for that, but can still lift him off the ground if you hit him with it during AW’s initial frames. Only the tipper of Ridley f-tilt and nair (i.e. retreating nair) can beat out side B, while subtle moves like Rid jab or u-tilt will be no good against it. Don't try to spot-dodge it either.

Whenever you get caught in Alolan Whip, have to DI by pressing the left stick in the opposite direction of his initial lunge; if you aim the stick the wrong way, will get hit farther than normal. If you're initially facing left before the move, hold left, and likewise if you were facing the right, then hold right.

Like Alolan Whip, his up B Cross Chop has some armor; the same amount after the initial frames, so if he ever uses it as an offensive mixup on stage, try to dodge it more often than challenging it, although Ridley uair and u-smash can still beat it out if timed right. Shielding it is not advised due to the final hit that can poke.

Same goes for his neutral B Darkest Lariat. Aside from the kill power it's a good get-off-me tool on its own but like other moves of its kind, can be whiff punished with Skewer or whatnot. Don't try to challenge Lariat when it's initially active though, as it's invincible. Also be careful of Incineroar's who mash this after whiffs, as it's great for catching slow punishes. Lariat may also be used as a landing mixup.

Other than that, spend less time shielding against Incineroar and more time moving around him. As long as you properly respect Alolan Whip and by extension his fair & grab game, can still outspace and wall him out as effectively as any other brawler type character, especially with how slow he is. If you Plasma him on stage though, beware that he might Revenge it. That said, he can only absorb 2 of our Plasma shots without getting hit, so 3 or more will always hit him. His best counterplay is to jump over and Revenge the last one or two fireballs.

Disadvantage

Be aware that Alolan Whip can catch neutral getup, so be wary of using that getup at high %. Lariat is good for catching delayed/baited neutral getups, so don't mash. A timed getup attack or ledge drop SPR will beat his neutral B. Also be aware of his nair which they'll use to bait getups that they'll Lariat. Be careful about drop down aerials; they're good at swatting away Incineroar but lose badly to trades or Alolan Whip. Beware of using an up B poke since he can Revenge counter that at ledge.

When off stage, don't be predictable with SPR out of hitstun, lest you get punished by his aerials. Counter is the biggest threat off stage. It has fixed knockback though, so you've just gotta be ready to tech and to avoid Incin with almost full Revenge.

Far as juggling, Incineroar's uair is really nasty. Combos into itself and is fast and wide. Would be frustrating to get around if Incineroar himself was fast. As it stands, is something you'll have to look out for when trying to jump over or land near him. Land away from him and be aware of Alolan Whip and dash attack to catch landings. Be extra careful with landing aerials and using shield because of this.

Advantage

When you're in advantage and he's at ledge, main thing to watch out for is ledge drop Alolan Whip. Be cautious about using shield to trap and bait. Otherwise, Plasma away. Rely on ledge trapping at lower % to get a hang of their preferred options.

Similar to Ridley, can punish Incineroar side B out of hitstun off stage with aerials if he gets predictable with it. When juggling him, mainly watch out for Revenge, and once Incin starts spamming Revenge when being juggled, that's an easy empty hop > up smash punish due to conditioning.

Miscellaneous and frame data

Incineroar’s intangibility-

• D-tilt on the legs during frames 8-11.
• U-tilt on the head during frames 6-11.
• U-smash and up B on the arms during frames 13-18 and 13-26 respectively.

Incin neutral B is 6 hits.

SPR Incin on plats if worried about him revenge countering our attacks from underneath (i.e. u-tilt).

Against Incin as well as some other brawlers and floaties, we have a bit more leeway to dash dance as a bait, with how slower they usually are.

Incin side B is mashable, before he releases you toward the ropes.

When he’s not trying to get you with side B or fair which are easily whiff punished, the moves he’ll want to use most at low % are d-tilt, uair, and grabs.

His up throw can kill.

His dash attack goes further than you’d think. Has a pretty good burst range, so be aware when landing and trying to space around him.

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.

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

Our jab 1 starts faster than theirs, allowing us to get out of scramble situations better.

Incineroar's normals are at least punished by nair OoS, and jab 3 & d-smash are punished by SH SPR OoS. His dash attack will cross you up when shielded, so quickly turn around and punish accordingly. His jab 2/3, u-tilt, dash attack, smashes, and ledge getup attack are also u-tilt punishable on shield should he be at u-tilt > uair kill %.

His landing aerials besides dair are too safe on shield though, so go for a reset there. Darkest Lariat and Cross Chop are shield punishable with f/d-smash, etc, but the latter is better whiff punished.

You want to be otherwise cautious with shielding against Incin anyway due to side B as mentioned, and his d-smash shield damage similar to K Rool's. Speaking of side B, if you space yourself right when Incin goes for that burst option (whether on ground or in the air), can punish with Skewer, and likewise as a whiff punish for Revenge.

Ridley kill confirm:

• u-tilt > fullhop uair (98-101%)
• u-tilt > double jump uair (102-110%)

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Inkling

Inkling

Neutral

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/u-tilt & 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).

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 (rapid jab skewer punish applies), 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.

Bair is much more difficult to play around because of its speed, safety, and weird attack angle. F-tilt when spaced well can beat bair, but it’s easy to get your arm clipped when trying to rely on angled f-tilt. Inkling bair is a move you’ll have to predict and read to play around. Remember your fair if they’re abusing landing bair on you and force them to use less safe rising bair's.

Inkling nair and bair have to be greatly respected on shield. Our OoS is too slow to reliably punish them, so focus on getting out of the situation with shield jump or something rather than punishing it directly.

Inkling’s dash in general is really good, can be hard to predict, and can low profile some moves. Ridley doesn’t have many moves Inkling can low profile, but it can make spacing aerials harder. You can attempt to clip dashes with tilts if they are abusing it. Also differentiate between their dash and rolls (in animation and sound cues), as they look similar.

Also with neutral, jump often. Plenty empty hops too, throwing hitboxes around here and there; mostly fair & retreating nair for pressure, and rely on falling nair if you see an approach coming. If they shield it and it's decently spaced, you're still safe since their OoS is slow. If they then try to punish your jumps and jumping around a lot more in general, you go back to whiff punishing from the ground.

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.

Disadvantage

Don’t DI Inkling’s mid % combos out, as you’ll find yourself dying to a strong fair at 70 if you do. DI the low % combos out, then swap to DI in so you don’t die to fair; can also take stage position into account.

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. 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.

Off stage, when trying to recover low with up B and they bair you, always be ready to tech it from the side of stage. Will keep you alive for awhile. Splat bomb can kinda beat Wing Blitz, as it’ll slow down when it hits the top of WB but will still hit Ridley when it makes contact with his hurtbox. Because of this, should be careful with holding down to peak up B’s hitbox when they use splat bomb, as it can make hitting Ridley’s hurtbox much more possible.

For juggling, Inkling uair is slow. They'll focus more on catching landings and attempts to land with attacks. Their dash will make timing landing aerials harder and tracking their movement will take more focus. Our dair can punish overzealous use of uair.

Advantage

Remember that Inkling up B has a hitbox when landing with it on stage. Also them being able to use splat bomb from ledge or as a landing/B-reverse mixup.

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.

One other thing that people tend to forget, try to avoid any ink on the ground which slows you down. Jump over if necessary until it goes away. Also, tipper d-tilt reflects splat bomb.

When they use roller off stage, can watch for the animation to end where they jump after and go off to punish that jump with a nair/fair. When trying to 2 frame her like with f-tilt, wait for the sound of their up B.

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.

Miscellaneous and frame data

Inkling dair & roller hits us under plats, so still shield or avoid there.

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.

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

Her d-tilt & uair are 2 hits.

Aside from rapid jab skewer or d-smash punish (shorthop skewer OoS being more consistent), her normals and roller are punished by our OoS aerials and shield grab, and her up smash is punished by Rid f-smash when shielded. Her dash attack can crossup your shield a bit, so react and punish accordingly. Her landing aerials are too safe on shield though as mentioned, so go for a reset there.

Her gentleman jab/rapid jab finisher, smashes, roller, and ledge getup attack (-28) are also shield punished by u-tilt should she be at u-tilt > uair kill %.

Ridley kill confirm:

• u-tilt > fullhop uair (85-88%)
• u-tilt > double jump uair (89-97%)

Major credit to the Ridcord JMU doc for much of this info, and also some credit to Zant for the neutral and edgeguarding tips.

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Isabelle

Isabelle

With slingshot fair/bair, have to observe their patterns with it, find an opening, and adapt. Aside from walking and crouching methodically, don't forget you have dash shield and jump OoS. Once you close in, can do a double jump if necessary to get over the slingshot, and do a landing aerial while they're in end lag or cross them up.

Try and defend yourself with an aerial if they attempt to slingshot you off stage.

You can shield the fishing rod, and stay low when recovering to avoid it off stage, or if she's at ledge, do a beefy up B. Also remember she can tether grab with the fish hook when she's off stage.

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.

Miscellaneous and frame data

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

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.

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.

Ridley kill confirm-

• u-tilt > fullhop uair (83-87%)
• u-tilt > double jump uair (88-97%)

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Jigglypuff

Jigglypuff
Slightly Winning

Respect her aerials and ability to dominate the air with her air stats. This is balanced by her ground stats being one of the slowest however which is why you rarely fight her on the ground between that and her 5 jumps. She can crouch to low profile some moves though.

She'll wait for you to whiff and fly in & punish (her wall of pain speaks for itself), so time your anti-airs (i. e. u-tilt). Also understand how she chooses to approach from the air in neutral.

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.

Far as her Pound side B, respect its shield damage and as a neutral tool with a lingering hitbox that combos (she'll DJ out of it or land with an aerial). Shielding when not cornered is a solid option, but Pound keeps you on your toes.

When she uses Sing, shield and angle it if you have to, or otherwise roll/jump away after shielding. Sing has 34 frames of end lag, so take advantage of your range. Also hold shield if she uses Sing at ledge. Don't shield Rollout though; treat it the same as you would Yoshi's Egg Roll by jumping over.

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.

Her throws are weak and don't lead into true combos, so don't worry much about getting grabbed. When she recovers, can try to footstool.

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.

Miscellaneous and frame data

Dash attack will beat Jigglypuff's shorthop if spaced.

Her d-smash, dair, and Sing can hit us under plats, so still shield or avoid there.

Against a Puff with good execution, most of the match is either shielding/crouching while doing either d-tilt or retreating nairs (to neutralize more of their specials) and f-tilts. If your shield is too low you’ll get poked by rising dair and Pound, and that’s where the “cutscene” starts.

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

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.

Our jab 1 starts faster than hers, allowing us to get out of scramble situations better.

Her normals besides DA and smashes are too safe, so reset. Same with landing aerials besides dair. Puff d-smash & ledge getup attack (-26) are punished by SH SPR OoS. Her dash attack, f/d-smash, Rest, and ledge getup attack are u-tilt shield punished.

Ridley kill confirm:

• u-tilt > fullhop uair (70-75%)
• u-tilt > double jump uair (76-83%)

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Joker

Joker Thieves of hearts... and of parents
Even

Gameplan

• Joker has a mediocre shield game similar to Ridley. His fastest OoS option is up air at frame 8, which only hits directly above Joker. Then his next fastest OoS options are at frame 10, being fair, bair, and u-smash. Abuse disjoints and big hitboxes to avoid getting punished out of shield by Joker. Spacing can really disrupt Joker's gameplan. All tilt's sweetspots, drift back nair, landing nair, drift back landing fair, and spaced landing bair are safe on Joker's shield.
• Can frame trap Joker dash attack out of shield with SPR if the first active frame of the second hit lands on shield. Will most likely happen if the first hit lands shield.
• Joker gets full charge of rebels gauge after only absorbing a stream of 3 fireballs with his down B.

Joker charges his meter gauge either with down B when hit (observe when he uses it and wait it out before attacking) or to a lesser degree over time and by taking damage. Wait as long as possible to respawn when he has arsene active, and make arsene go away as fast with good neutral. Many Jokers tend to be aggressive whenever they have arsene, unsafely spamming smash attacks, which you can easily shield or avoid and then punish.

We can edgeguard him fairly well too, especially when he has arsene. Edgeguard or ledgetrap before he can activate it again. If he does have it again though and if you're good at your plasma edgeguarding, you can loop arsene recovery until it's gone again, though the initial period of arsene up B invulnerability may allow him to get through some plasma. Arsene up B is also vulnerable to f-smash 2 framing, down angle f-tilt, etc. If he tether grabs to ledge where you can’t plasma due to ledge intangibility, wait and try a d-smash instead when he runs out or otherwise CLS (crouch ledge slip) nair/fair him before he fully pulls himself up or SPR/jump plasma if he tethers high, depending.

Also respect his counter when he has arsene active and his side B which you can shield (watch out for at ledge too when he uses it off stage), though may be better to just avoid it since he may want you to shield it so he can grab, and he gets plenty damage off of grabs. His other moves like 2 hit f-tilt, crossup d-tilt (when shielding it, remember to do a quick turnaround attack or grab like when punishing other sliding d-tilts), nair, bair, and gun he may also use to condition a shield for grabs. Observe how they play there.

Can also clank with side B, and if Joker uses it a lot, can shorthop SPR him from the ground to counteract it, or d-smash if close/WB if far at high %. Speaking of grabs, if you grab him with arsene out, do u-throw, as its high damage output takes away a good chunk of meter.

When recovering, get a feel of their off stage edgeguarding, and mix it up to avoid the downward aerial version of his gun and getting potentially gimped. With Joker combos, DI away from plats, jump to avoid diagonal grapple, SDI up and left/right if he does uairs (or nair if diagonally above), and stay out of his dash attack range when you get out of said combos. Despite acting as a tether grab, grapple hook can be shielded like Isabelle's fishing rod.

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.

Miscellaneous and frame data

Multi-hits: His fair, f-tilt, dash attack, and d-smash are 2 hits, while his u-tilt is 5 hits.

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.

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

SPR Joker on plats if worried about him tetrakarn countering our attacks from underneath (i.e. u-tilt).

Joker's intangibility-

• Gun dash forward, frames 4-13. Gun dash back, frames 5-14. Gun jump from ground, frames 1-6.
• Arsene up B, frames 3-25.

Other notes on Joker’s gun: Hide under plats when they descend with gun or off to the side if no plats. Watch out for that option when juggling him and attack from the side. If recovering, try to do so under the lip of the stage to avoid the gun edgeguarding; avoid Kalos and Yoshi’s against Joker due to the walls but save your jumps when possible and be ready to tech regardless. Be slow to challenge if at all since he’s intangible on frames 1-6 with gun jump from ground as mentioned.

Gun dashing and whatnot can be tricky but you can still close some space since it doesn't cause flinch until up close. Gun range is effectively reduced at lower percent because the farther hitbox doesn't make people flinch. If he uses gun from ledge drop, can punish a ledge regrab like with smashes at high %, or up smash or grab OoS if he does gun dash from ledge.

At around mid percent, the purple (middle hitbox) makes people flinch, but before that only the red hitbox up close does anything. If you’re within the purple, you’re already in your desired f-tilt/d-tilt/skewer and burst range anyway. A spaced d-smash can also punish gun spammers given that you’re not flinching, as well as a little plasma to fire back and force an option out of them. See the gun hitboxes on UFD for reference.

His jab 3 & u-tilt are punished by shorthop SPR OoS. His normals and point-blank side B are punished by our OoS aerials and shield grab, while his up smash when shielded is punished by our f-smash. His landing aerials are too safe on shield though, so reset.

His side B's also minus enough on shield to be punished by dash grab, dash attack, or jump OoS into SPR if he's nearby. Same with extended dash cancel u-tilt if he's at kill confirm %.

His jab 3, u-tilt, crossup d-tilt, dash attack, smashes, point-blank side B, and ledge getup attack are also punished by u-tilt should he be at u-tilt > uair kill %. If he has arsene and whiffs a counter nearby, skewer punish.

On a side note, bair on Joker’s shield if spaced makes him whiff bair OoS due to hurtbox shift.

Ridley kill confirm:

• u-tilt > fullhop uair (84-87%)
• u-tilt > double jump uair (88-96%)

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

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Kazuya

Kazuya Demon vs. Death
Even

Gameplan

Shield State Against Kazuya and Neutral
All of Kazuya's aerials are safe on shield while landing besides dair. He can EWGF after a safe landing aerial to go through all of our aggressive OoS. We can spotdodge or roll away. Be careful of spotdodging if the Kazuya decides to wait or delay the landing of an aerial to be active as spotdodge is over. Probably better to not instantly spotdodge and to time the spotdodge for a reversal. Or want to be safe, a full hop away should allow a reset in neutral, or maybe a reversal.

If recovering high from off stage, watch out for his neutral B which can snipe you diagonally when he’s standing near ledge. For Kazuya laser stalling from off stage, can airdodge through it and then aerial him, aside from shielding before going in like with ROB. Also expect a laser whenever he does up throw and DI away from it.

Aside from d-tilt, crouching down-forward tilt (tombstone crusher), command input 1 (EWGF), command input 2 (Dragon Uppercut), and command input 3 (Spinning Demon to Left Hook) which gives full body intangibility, and up-back tilt (jump side kick) that gives intangibility on both legs, you want to anti-air with our up angle f-tilt when he uses up-forward tilt (roundhouse to triple spin kicks) or dash attack; since those two would go over our d-tilt.

Also remember the damage-based armor he has with his smashes & Heaven's Door (down B) and use something like tipper f-tilt if anything. Kaz uair has leg intangibility too, so don't challenge with a move if he juggles with it so much maneuvering around him; same for when he juggles from the ground, so avoid landing on him. Otherwise, remember that his crouch dash only has leg intangibility during the 1st half, so can still d-tilt him during the 2nd half of it.

• Aside from Gates of Hell, can also tech from his d-tilt, up angle back tilt, crouching forward & back attacks, both dash attacks, nair, dair, smashes, f-throw, neutral B, command input 3 (Spinning Demon to Left Hook), and side taunt. His f-tilt, back tilt, fair, bair, and air side B you tech at later % as well. Kazuya's like doing side B as a ledge drop option and maybe a landing mixup, so shield that if you expect it, but if charging plasma and his side B causes plasma discharge, both will have similar amount of endlag.

Getting tripped by Kazuya's down angle back tilt or any character move that trips for that matter, puts you in something akin to a tech chase situation, where you can either neutral getup while moving a bit left or right depending on the control stick, or getup attack (usually too slow to counteract a Kazuya follwup), both both options offer some intangibility like with ledge. Back to Gates of Hell, also note that it throws you backwards. If you know you'll be knocked off stage by it, don't try to tech then as it results in an airdodge instead. DI up in that case.

• During hitstun when being combo'd by Kazuya (from his command input 1, double hit u-tilt, d-throw, or jab), also remember there's a blue line to look at which indicates where you DI. Mix up DI in and out to throw them off, or DI one direction and switch to the other (left or right) at the last second as aforementioned. DI'ing in and then out at the last second seems to work well particularly in avoiding a kill % combo, but mix it up if they catch on. These methods of DI even work when you're in crumple state from moves like his grounded side B and uncrouching attack.

Command input 1 or Electric Wind God Fist (EWGF) can also push you back if you’re shielding, making it safe on hit, and if shielding at ledge you’ll be pushed off, allowing for a Kazuya edgeguard. That said, after shielding it, we can buffer a d-tilt and only get hit by command input 3, sour f-smash, up-forward tilt, or dash attack. As a heavy we may trip from shielding EWGF too, but crouching from behind or a timely d-tilt can make it whiff, though is niche.

Advantage

• Can only do two aerials from ledge jump except for bair and dair (being only one). Can act out of rising bair before landing from ledge jump. Can autocancel nair, fair, and uair from ledge jump on SBF. Can cancel ledge jump with double jump to gain more control of aerial drift (Ridley can do this too!).

If Kazuya's at 100% where his rage drive activates, get him off stage if you're in advantage and plasma loop him until he gets to around 140% where his ability wears off. He loses it earlier if he whiffs grabs. That said, if he's at 100% and you're in neutral, then play very defensively; don't use any laggy moves, and don't get baited into doing something risky, lest you get caught in the rage command grab. Also remember it has super armor when he uses it unlike the regular version of his down B which is only 10% damage worth of armor, so if he uses rage drive when you use like a tilt, it'll out-prioritize your move and grab you. Space well and don't mistime an attack. Far as keeping him at bay with projectiles, some flickshot plasma (namely fullhop half-charge at least with the flickshot) on stage may work if you have room to retreat with it.

If juggling him and he lands with rage drive still active, don’t overextend. Move away and go back to neutral or he’ll likely grab you. A timed spot-dodge is the main way to avoid the grab if he’s still close to you after landing. Also, Kazuya can't use rage drive in the air; only part of rage he can use in the air is the damage buff. If you're getting hit by rage drive, then he is landing first. Nothing about juggling Kazuya changes once he turns red.

His regular down B in the air only does an increased 2% or so with rage. A little bit of damage + Kazuya in rage means you can't be hit by a random touch of death, because EWGF will send too high, and Kazuya down B has a mediocre hitbox, so at that range you're asking for worse.

With ledgetrapping Kazuya, gotta be real safe against because the risk of eating a side B is absolutely destructive. Wouldn’t ledgetrap him the traditional way, but rather corner pressure him, if you know he gets to ledge without getting 2 framed or edgeguarded. Stand at max range of side B (about half a stage which is also outside of the range of his rage drive command grab) and stuff out his approaches. If he tries to recover high on stage, can get an early kill by landing an SPR into jump release nair.

Disadvantage

One other thing about Kazuya rage drive, when caught by it, DI ↙️ or ↘️ to survive up to around 75-85% range; similar to how you DI Bowser's command grab.

With Kazuya down B, aside from DI'ing it from on stage like other command grabs, Kazuya dies first at the bottom blast zone and you can recover if you react quick enough.

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.

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.

Our jab 1 starts faster than his, allowing us to get out of scramble situations better.

Aside from the back-tilt kick, crouching back-tilt spin kick, and double dash attack (also acts as a reflector), Kazuya's normals are mostly punished by our OoS aerials and shield grab. His landing aerials besides dair (-30 like Bowser) are expectedly too safe, so reset there.

His down-forward tilt known as tsunami kick (first hit is -19 but watch out for 2nd hit which isn't & can break shield, so parry if possible), up-forward tilt known as roundhouse to triple spin kicks (does plenty shield damage, so don't stay in shield if low or it'll break & parry if possible), side taunt, crouching down-forward tilt known as tombstone crusher, regular dash attack, up-smash, command input 3 (spinning demon to left hook which also does plenty shield damage for a 2-hit move & parry if possible), landing dair, point-blank neutral B, side B, and ledge getup attack are shield punished by u-tilt should he be at u-tilt > uair kill %.

• While command input 2 (dragon uppercut) is -22 on shield, he'll use rage drive with the input instead while in rage mode. You'll have to watch out for rage drive regardless during the u-tilt > uair kill % windows; that said, can easily whiff punish a EWGF or something with u-tilt also.

Point-blank neutral B, side B, and landing dair you can shield punish with f-smash as well. If you happen to shield his similarly unsafe up B when nearby, can try to catch his landing, though remember he's not helpless; can still laser or aerial after, though he can't use his side B. Likewise if he uses side B to recover horizontally, he can't up B after.

• While Kazuya side B looks similar to his f-smash in animation (the latter of which armors through u-tilt), remember they like to side B as a landing mixup or from ledge or off stage depending, so if you shield in either situation, you can u-tilt or f-smash. The latter 2-frames a Kazuya side B as well.

On a somewhat related side note, Kazuya can use his double jump after up B (typically used in the form of aerials), but he can’t use his DJ again until after landing.

Ridley kill confirm:

• u-tilt > fullhop uair (100-106%)
• u-tilt > double jump uair (101-115%)

Major credit goes to the collective Ridcord for a good chunk of the information that was gathered here.

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Ken

Ken

To start off with their differences from Ryu, Ken's f-smash is shorter and his up B has fire. Also Ryu's hits have more knockback, making Ken's combo game more consistent by comparison. Ken's ground movement is slightly faster too, and while Ryu is a shield breaker, Ken is more of a shield poker.

While they have a lot of combo starters, they generally like to start with an aerial as they jump toward you, so shield, dodge, or anti-air their approach. DI/SDI away when you start getting combo'd, but mix it up so they don't catch on. There's also brief windows of opportunity to escape from a combo in the middle of or right after a transition like when they switch from jab to a special, or sometimes right after the special finishes.

With their powerful shield breaks and pokes, they'll generally go for those instead of grabs since their throws aren't that strong, except in doubles where their d-throw can shield break if shielding when they use it on a teammate nearby (same applies to FFA). While you can shield to bait them and react after, retreating nair will otherwise mostly be your new shield in this matchup.

Also respect their corner pressure, as they never face away from you when moving back and forth due to being shotos, allowing them to react to your attempts to escape the corner. If you jump over them, be ready to dodge or attack due to their uair and up B. There's also boxing them out with certain moves depending on the space between you and them. The more experienced you are at playing in the corner though, the more adept you become at being in that position, like using different ledge options, or jump in place to bait them and punish.

Their tatsu side B is one thing you can reliably shield, being anywhere from -25 to -36. Can also hit them out of it, but be careful since they can attack shortly after finishing the move, leading into more combos. They don't get as much out of hadouken, but still watch how they use it. Do shield or avoid the Ryu fireball though since it's a multi-hit.

• Can also shield their dash attack & smashes that are in the -20 range, though watch out for d-smash as something that can be combo’d into a special.

If they notice you DI'ing up like at high %, they may just up B kill you. DI away from it and airdodge at the right moment.

For their down B focus attack, watch out for them using it while landing to block aerials and change their movement direction, but can beat it by either grabbing (SPR included), whiff punishing (though they may cancel it and move left or right), and using a multi-hit move like jab, fair, or plasma.

For weaknesses, they struggle to land and are easy to juggle, with focus attack being their only mixup which you can punish as aforementioned. We camp them well too with our ranged moves & plasma. Their edgeguarding is poor too, though their dair can spike but is hard to land. They'll more likely go for a ledge trump which you can avoid by delaying your recovery or jumping over the ledge. Lastly, their poor recovery.

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.

Miscellaneous and frame data

Ryu/Ken normals that can combo into specials-

• 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.

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

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.

The versions of their up B also have different invulnerability frames, as do some of their normals.

Skewer can break focus attack even if they charge it to stage 3, if you find an opportunity to use it there.

Ridley kill confirm:

• u-tilt > fullhop uair (92-95%)
• u-tilt > double jump uair (96-108%)

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

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King Dedede

King Dedede

Gameplan

The general plan is to camp Dedede out and keep gordos at bay. Play lame, as there's rarely any reason you should engage him. His approach is worse than ours which we must abuse.

Dedede’s f-tilt slightly outreaches us on the ground, so stay out of his range and wait for him to push a button; he's very susceptible to being whiff punished. F-tilt and d-tilt are especially unsafe on whiff if you stay outside his range. That said, still have to watch for gordo. React to it and hit it back, there isn’t much reason to shield it when you’re close enough for a true reflect punish.

Dedede is one of the most lacking characters in shield safety, with only three important moves being safe enough on block. Bair is his safest and most useful move to space which when landed with, is normally unpunishable. F-tilt isn’t as safe as you’d think, being punishable by our d-tilt OoS at most ranges. The only time you can’t punish is when it’s been max spaced (right out of d-tilt's reach). Gordo toss + hammer hit is safe on our shield; it’s -11 and pushes us too far back to punish with nair OoS. Everything else you can punish though.

Dedede is slow on the ground and even slower in the air. Use your speed advantage to stay out of his range and force him to come to you. Plasma is good at keeping gordo back and forcing Dedede to jump which allows you to chase his landing with more plasma or with anti-airs.

When Dedede is airborne, you don’t just run right in. You wait and see what he does and get a feel for his preferred mixups. Dedede's will use their jumps to bait out aggressive options, mixing in fastfalls to trick you into thinking they will land (you would think he's a floaty but he's not). Your options for this is either stay away and push them towards the corner, stay just out of bair range and whiff punish a landing aerial, or close the gap and make them mis-space an aerial. Dedede's will either be landing with bair or nair; nair has combos and bair kills.

Watch for landing Inhale, as they can B-reverse it to mix you up.

Disadvantage

Watch out for gordos coming at you at ledge. Take your time and don’t rush. Dedede thrives off making you panic and choose unwise options, so assess the situation, check his gordo spacing (learn the spacings that smash and tilted u-gordo will fall on ledge), watch what he’s doing once gordo is out, and plan accordingly.

Abuse ledge invulnerability to give you time to choose and see what they’re going for. The only time you should be using options quickly is when Dedede uses gordo after you’ve grabbed ledge and is in getup attack range. Ledge drop aerials can be good at swatting gordos back, but have to watch for f-tilts or slamming dash attacks. We can also ledge drop nair and soft land onto stage, allowing us to shield if they catch the gordo and throw it back with side B. The timing is tight, but another thing to possibly put in your arsenal. That aside, his dash attack can hit us on ledge and is active for 13 frames or so. This will eat ledge stalling, ledge jumps, and ledge drops. React with getup attack if possible. His f-tilt will cover most if not all ledge options but its reward is small, so don’t get frustrated from being looped by f-tilt ledge traps and don’t get predictable.

Jet Hammer is fear inducing and covers a lot of area. Full charge will break shields and it can hit Ridley’s ledge hang, along with having super armor frame 1 of release until the hitbox comes out. Ledge jump is generally what you’d want to do to avoid Jet Hammer, but gordo can complicate things. Ledge getup attack is nice but Dedede can react and armor it. Neutral getup is only good if it’s not fully charged and they mistime it. Ledge roll is reactable and a bad ledge option of ours anyway. The occasional ledge drop is also good. Can ledge drop SPR if feeling lucky or they whiff it.

Off stage against Dedede is not the worst, but there's still a threat of him intercepting you if you get careless. Dedede’s aerials are disjointed enough to at least trade with forward Wing Blitz and he’s generally pretty good at catching horizontal recoveries. He’ll use gordo to force you into a situation where you have to jump or fall below it so he can follow and hit a fair to send you too far out to recover, if you're not dead already.

Dedede’s dair can beat our up B, but is so slow it should never be a problem unless he hits you during startup. Use Wing Blitz under the lip of the stage to protect yourself from falling u-gordos. Gordo has a 50% chance to stick, but if this happens your options are limited. If you have both your jumps, you can attempt to wait it out, as ledge stick lasts about 3 seconds. If not, all you can do is recover super wide and hit the gordo as far from ledge as possible, which makes the followup slightly harder for Dedede. Jet Hammer can actually 2-frame us if you do a beefy up B, so be careful when he has it out.

With how lacking Dedede's run and air speed is compared to us, his juggles are lacking. That said, his 8-hit uair is real vertically disjointed but lacks horizontal reach, so don’t be directly above Dedede. His u-tilt headbutt is fast, intangible, and kills at decent percents, don’t land on platforms above Dedede. Up smash is big and kills early as you'd expect. Don’t land on top of him period. He can also circumvent his subpar juggles with gordos which he'll use to wall off areas of stage and make you want to land where he wants you. Don’t move towards Dedede if it can be avoided, try and land further into gordo's path and shield or reflect it. Gong to ledge is also viable, as he will not have time to setup a gordo ledgetrap from this.

Advantage

Our d-tilt can catch everything of his from ledge except jump. Spam plasma for both edgeguarding & ledgetrapping and loop it for as much damage as you can. Dedede has a harder time than most in getting around it and doesn’t have a real counter to it besides making you mistime it. When percents are higher, you can start hitting them past ledge invulnerability with the last few fireballs so it rules out their ledge stalling. Similar to us, Dedede can shark the ledge pretty well. Uair is super active and fair hits forward. They can even ledge drop gordo toss and roll it across the stage and regrab ledge. He has 4 midair jumps, so wait him out and punish his regrab. Just be aware of up B over the stage.

Besides plasma, it's hard to challenge Dedede's recovery off stage. Dedede has a bad 2-frame animation, so it’s super easy to clip him with plasma. After a plasma hits, you’re put in a small mixup situation where you have to guess if the Dedede will delay his recovery, recover quickly, or if they’ll recover over the ledge and decide if or when to press B and inhale. You can also just 2-frame Dedede with mostly whatever; f-smash, f-tilt, d-tilt, and d-smash all work great. If Dedede is using gordos while falling to get you away from ledge, go out there and hit him. Move lasts for almost a full second so there’s definitely time to punish him.

Dedede falls fast (with one of the highest fall speeds in the game to boot) and has jumps but he can't move much horizontally with his air speed. Watch for his landing aerials and neutral B and keep him in the air. If you hit Dedede from diagonals, it’s hard for him to put a meaningful hitbox out there quickly, especially from behind. Bair is slow, so it’s possible to nair him before it comes out to send him towards ledge. Our u-tilt and u-smash are great at keeping up the pressure along with their own intangibility, but be careful, Dedede’s are bred to bait such options with their jumps and whiff punish with a landing aerial. Stay patient and count his jumps.

Miscellaneous and frame data

His dair and up B can hit us under platforms, so still shield or avoid there.

Respect his grab range.

SPR beats out his inhale if timed or spaced right like if you dash back or otherwise move away first. SPR also beats holding inhale as long as it starts outside the windbox.

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.

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.

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

Dedede multihits- F-tilt (4 hits), uair (8 hits)

Our jab 1 comes out before his, and his rapid jab finisher is skewer punishable. His smashes are super unsafe like the u-smash being -39, and all his grounded normals are shield punished by u-tilt should he be at u-tilt > uair kill %.

Ridley kill confirm:

• u-tilt > fullhop uair (104-107%)
• u-tilt > double jump uair (108-116%)

Major credit to the Ridcord JMU doc for much of this info.

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King K. Rool

King K. Rool Reptilian Rampage
Slightly Winning

Gameplan

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.

• If belly armor is broken, he will be stunned, having the same effect as a shield break. But unlike shield breaks, King K. Rool will regain full shield and belly armor.
• Belly armor has a fixed 16 frames of hitlag if attacked. During hitlag King K. Rool can buffer an option (such as fast fall).

Attacks that have Belly Armor:

• Forward Tilt (frames 5-11)
• Dash Attack (frames 7-28)
• Up Smash (frames 6-19)
• Down Smash (frames 8-21)
• Neutral Air (frames 6-30)
• Up Air (frames 6-20)
• Down Air (frames 14-25)
• Side Taunt (frames 9-20)

Jack of Only Trades
King K. Rool is very reliant on belly armor to functionally work as a character. Without any armor his ability to get in becomes really difficult. Belly armor gives his mobility a threat it otherwise wouldn't. Creating a lot of respect that many players will have to come to terms with.

Most importantly, all of his aerial autocancel windows are way past their active frames. They cannot be autocanceled from short hop. Only NAir, FAir, and DAir can autocancel from a full hop. Also, besides NAir, his aerial's landing lag are in the double digits. However, landing with his aerials are safe against Ridley. For the most part, K. Rool is committed to his aerials especially if he wants to get something out of them.

With how safe his aerials can be, shielding isn't generally a good option. Since he can attack with a grounded attack, which can also have armor, to avoid reversals out of shield. Typically forcing a wait until he does something else on shield. This risks a grab, which will do more damage or net a kill than doing a raw attack. The best way to attack K. Rool and avoid getting a reversal by belly armor is to wait until he is about to land and then catch his landing. Or if he commits to a laggy option on the ground like a special or a dash attack.

Counterplay: Against Crownarang
King K. Rool's side special, Crownarang, is a very unique move. Having damage-based armor from frames 6 to 63 with the crown's hitbox being active from frame 27 until it reaches King K. Rool, lands on the ground, or disappears offstage. However, the damage-based armor is unique as its cumulative. Meaning even though the threshold is 12.0% base damage, each attack done against the armor reaches to it's threshold. The equation is as followed: (Base Damage of prior hits) * 1.2 + (Base Damage of the last hit) > 12%.

• Then what attacks will break the armor threshold?
  • Sweetspot forward tilt (must be fresh)
  • Side Smash
  • Up Smash
  • Down Smash
  • Sweetspot neutral air (cannot use short hop macro, must be fresh)
  • Backward air (can use short hop macro twice)
  • Forward air with at least one sweetspot hit (can use short hop macro once)
  • Sourspot up air (cannot use short hop macro, must be fresh)
  • Sweetspot up air (can use short hop macro once)
  • Sourspot down air (cannot use short hop macro, must be fresh)
  • Sweetspot down air (can use short hop macro twice)
  • Plasma Breath (with 3 or more plasma balls)
  • Wing Blitz (all directions)
  • Skewer

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.

Advantage

Ridley can two frame King K. Rool with:

• Sourspot forward tilt
• Sweetspot forward tilt
• side smash
• down smash
• Sweetspot neutral air
• Sourspot down air
• Sweetspot down air

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).

Disadvantage

King K. Rool can two frame Ridley with:

• Down tilt - used to extend combos and gain percent. At high percents can be used for juggles to get a kill, will probably see forward tilt instead since it's quicker and stronger.
• Sweetspot forward tilt - a reliable kill option for King K. Rool. Somewhat quick, so waiting at ledge for too long can prompt this move to come out.
• Sweetspot backward air - stronger than down air, but less reliable and harder to set up.
• Down air - very easy to two frame. Is very active and can spike out of short hop. Watch out recoverying with up special as down air can go through it.

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).

Miscellaneous and frame data

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.

K Rool has intangibility with u-tilt like Ridley (in Rool’s case on the arm), and on the head during u-smash and uair, so don’t try landing on him at all. Also, his d-tilt can hit us when we’re under platforms, so still shield or avoid there.

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.

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

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.

Jab 2/3, crossup dash attack, u-tilt, smashes, & ledge getup attack are also shield punished by u-tilt. His up smash is even shield punished by skewer with how minus it is and amount of end lag it has, and if he whiffs a gut check counter nearby, whiff punishing with skewer becomes easier the more you do it.

Ridley kill confirm:

• u-tilt > fullhop uair (107-112%)
• u-tilt > double jump uair (113-127%)

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

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Kirby

Kirby
Even

A good player will mainly only use Stone to edgeguard off stage with, as it has armor now. He can also do so with his multi-jumps and fair's etc, but aside from the usual recovery tactics, can DI away when combo'd off stage.

The neutral consists of bait & punish + combos. Since he struggles to approach, he'll float near or crouch next to you to bait a whiff. His ground and air speed are opposite of Jigglypuff (and much worse jump height), so he has to rely more on his patience and size; playing more grounded to use your size against you. As a floaty you have to circle around him more quickly than Puff.

Respect his tilts, particularly with how fast and safe they are at shield pressure and setting up into combos. His fiery dash attack's also quick and powerful, so watch out when landing.

He has a good grab game. His f-throw leads into combos, b-throw can kill at ledge, and u-throw can kill a little later.

If he gets you with inhale copy, just have to use your neutral B knowledge to out-plasma him. Also don't let him gimp you with an off stage inhale.

His up B he'll use on stage to cut off your approach from the air like if you jump predictably, and then projectile during landing. If you bait it out, dodge and punish in between.

Miscellaneous and frame data

His u-tilt, u-smash, and d-smash have feet intangibility.

His d-smash, dair, and Stone hit us under plats, so still shield or avoid.

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.

Use retreating nair for neutralizing more of their specials.

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.

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

His rapid jab finisher is f-smash punishable; as is dash attack, but it crosses up shield, so be ready to turnaround f-smash. His d-smash is shorthop skewer OoS punishable. Normals are too safe besides those and smashes, and landing aerials too safe besides dair. Side B is -26 to -18, and up B is -21. Although Stone is very minus (even punished by shield drop > d-smash), Stone does too much shield damage to usually be worth it.

His rapid jab finisher, dash attack, smashes, up B, and ledge getup attack (-26) are u-tilt shield punished.

Ridley kill confirm:

• u-tilt > fullhop uair (76-79%)
• u-tilt > double jump uair (80-91%)

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Link

Link Destroy the courage of a hero
Even

Gameplan

All of Link's projectile attacks: Bow and Arrows, Boomerang, and Remote Bomb start with an animation of Link sheathing his sword pulling out a projectile. Besides up taunt, these are the only times he puts his sword away. Use this to your advantage as a way to visually expect an incoming projectile.

• If you see Link put away his sword typically always expect Boomerang at middle to close range. Visually the boomerang on side special comes out frame 5, but is hidden from view if Link is facing to the right side, get familiar with Link's startup pose to punish the move even quicker on reaction, as it has 27 frames of start up and loses to disjoints. If you are unsure that you can punish Boomerang get into a position to parry it as it'll give you a frame advantage over Link and will send the boomerang back to Link.
• Bomb pull from down special takes 39 frames to finish, so if you are trying to play at mid range do not expect a Link player to use this move. The arrow of neutral special comes out frame 16, but is negative on hit with no charge, so do not expect a Link player to use this one either.

Link's three main moves to watch out for in neutral are nair, boomerang, and remote bomb. Nair has a big hitbox, active for 24 frames, 7 frames of cooldown, and is -2 on shield. The first goal is understanding how the Link uses nair, not just in neutral but during his advantage time as well. Up angle f-tilt, dash back f-tilt, and u-tilt are some ways of beating his nair, but mainly for rising shorthop ones. Against nair's above us, ours should beat it out if timed well.

Link's ledgetrapping revolves around nair, but also a combination of bombs and f-tilt. F-tilt covers something like ledge roll, while the bomb bouncing covers everything else. There's always ledge jump and Z-catching the bomb though.

When you're in advantage, Link's bomb leads into jablocks on missed techs. Experiment with it and see what you can do. Also of note, when edgeguarding, Ridley f-smash makes the bomb detonate prematurely which can be used against a recovering Link. Speaking of, Link's recovery is solid due to bomb mixups, so you can either respect it or vs him head-on before he techs the stage. If you get him to use up his 2nd jump due to plasma or something, always expect him to bomb himself back toward stage.

If Link doesn't have a bomb in his hands, you can most likely bait up B OoS; mind your spacing. Dealing with his projectiles otherwise is all about patience, timing, and lots of nairs. Familiarize yourself with the Link's habits and timing so you can accurately anticipate when they'll throw out their arrows and boomerangs. When our nair first comes out (at a 45 angle degree downward), it's where you'll want to position yourself to intercept Link's projectiles where Ridley nair is first active.

Plasma also helps in detonating a remote bomb prematurely, though don't be afraid to hold it because he can't set it off when it's in your possession, and when you get accustomed to Z-dropping it, can confirm into a number of our attacks. Our best moves for catching items like bombs are nair (retreating and OoS nair included), f-tilt (can pivot cancel too and still catch an item), and dash attack.

Miscellaneous and frame data

Respect his ledge getup attack range.

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.

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

Our jab 1 comes out faster than his, so always use when in close range. His grounded normals are punished by our nair OoS at least. His landing aerials besides dair are too safe though, so reset there. His arrow can be from -21 to -15, making it punishable on shield at point-blank like with Young Link but even more so here. The boomerang is stuff safe though but his grounded up B (not a multi-hit) is -56.

His jab 3, dash attack, f-smash 1/2, u-smash, d-smash 2, up B, remote bomb if it detonates when he's nearby, and ledge getup attack (-26) are shield punished by u-tilt should he be at u-tilt > uair kill %.

Ridley kill confirm:

• u-tilt > fullhop uair (91-94%)
• u-tilt > double jump uair (95-105%)

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Little Mac

Little Mac

Gameplan

Mac plays a slow neutral, and so must you. You generally only have to win neutral once to convert into a stock though because of how abusable Mac's recovery is, so there’s no hurry in winning the exchange. Abuse your range advantage, but keep button count low. Mac’s high priority moves love people who push lots of buttons.

Mac is Dedede levels when it comes to lack of shield safety if not worse, so you can let OoS punishing be a big part of your neutral if anything. Aside from walling Mac out during the moments you know you can, resort to OoS punishing even if you have to walk or dash shield; not only because of his lack of shield safety, but to decrease instances where he wins clank interactions due to the damage based armor of his neutral B or the super armor of his smashes. The exception of course is when he has KO Punch but we usually have an easier time preventing it from hitting unless we get careless.

Plasma is good, but Mac is fast and his low run can make plasma go right over him, so be careful and mostly use at longer ranges when Mac is refusing to move in.

Mac has very limited options to deal with platform camping, as you only have to really watch out for shorthop side B and up smash on lower plats, and Sometimes up B or fullhop side B on higher ones. Counter can go through plasma if you’re doing it too close or too often, so keep in mind.

Disadvantage

Ledge is probably the scariest position to be in. Mac has very good moves to hit Ridley on ledge such as d-smash and d-tilt, and they only require very basic spacing. Armor on smash attacks means you can’t use getup attack to stop charging most of the time (unless the Mac has bad reactions), but this does open up drop down SPR's utility. Just be mindful of getting smacked before it connects. Ledge jump is a pretty good option here, since Mac lacks good aerials but u-smash and up B can catch you if you’re getting predictable.

Off stage is only a problem in two scenarios, getting countered or getting side B'd. Mac should basically never attempt to jump off and aerial you; if he does he’s either flexing or taking the one in a million chance. His counter is a little slow on the attack part, so grabbing ledge before you get hit is a bit more forgiving. Counter can be avoided like most others, either through up B wall bounce, or tricky spacing.

Remember that since Mac’s recovery is bad, he’s pretty restricted when it comes to using his counter; if he uses it too low he’ll just die, or if he gets sent under the stage he may just die. Side B should only be a problem in last stock situations or if you are using SPR to grab ledge too often.

Like Ganondorf and such, Mac doesn't juggle so much as he catches landings. Watch what the Mac likes to do when you’re trying to land; if they favor up smashes or tilts, abuse jumps and trick them into a whiff that you punish with SPR or an aerial. If they run and shield to catch your landings, mix up spaced bairs and tomahawk grabs (sometimes even SPR). Mac is fast and has pretty low FAF's (first actionable frames), so airdodges are only sometimes useful; don’t abuse them and use carefully. If platforms are available they can be a safe spot to land, but be mindful if Mac can reach them or not.

When getting hit in general, jumping away can be a consistently good means of escaping further disadvantage with how poorly designed Mac's jump and aerials are. Not to say jumping out of disadvantage should be a general habit, just that you can get away with it more in this matchup.

Advantage

Mac on ledge has two unique options to look out for; ledge jump instant counter which puts him on the stage, and ledge drop side B. Counter is dealt with as you’d except, with grabs or waiting it out. They’ll usually do this if you’re attempting to read their getup timings and are pushing buttons too often. Ledge drop side B would be used as a punish to whiffed attempts at catching their getup or as a quick surprise option, either out-space with a tilt or shield and punish. Other then that, it’s just like a regular character except you may have to worry about ledge jump a little less. Just focus on getting Mac back off the stage, that’s all you need.

Off stage is Mac's worst form of disadvantage, but don't get too cocky. Good Macs won't just give it to you. Mac doesn’t get to use side B again even if you hit him. Plasma is often the only answer you need, but Mac’s can recover high or use up B's hitboxes to beat it. They can even counter the plasma if they get close enough. This is perhaps the scariest option as it makes you lose the ledge and puts them in advantage. If Mac chooses to recover low and you didn’t plasma, you can intercept with fastfall nair quite reliably, or even fullhop dair if you’re on the right stage (Smashville, Town & City, Yoshi's Story, Lylat, and Kalos you have to double jump to make it back). If they recover high, you wait for their side B or airdodge, and then punish with something that sends them back off the stage (any of our main aerials).

Trying to land is also pretty rough for Mac. He has virtually no landing aerials and was designed to have the worst airdodge in the game. Watch for counter though, but charged up smash and SPR do a good enough job of dealing with it. Mac's Neutral B can be a decent mixup for landing because of the armor (9.6% threshold without being charged), but this will only really affect up tilt, as everything else does too much damage. Up tilt is otherwise good when it comes to keeping Mac airborne, as he doesn’t have much in terms of challenging it and counter will likely miss you if he uses it. SPR can prove to be good for catching his landings too, as it beats counter and airdodge or shields, and if you land it, that’s a free edgeguard state. Just don't use it carelessly.

Miscellaneous and frame data

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.

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

While not particularly strong, his dair can hit us under plats, so still shield or avoid there.

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.

His jab 3, rapid jab finisher, u-smash, neutral B (regardless of charge), and side B are shield punished by u-tilt should he be at u-tilt > uair kill %.

Ridley kill confirm:

• u-tilt > fullhop uair (82-85%)
• u-tilt > double jump uair (86-95%)

Major credit to the Ridcord JMU doc for a good chunk of this info.

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Lucario

Lucario

Will usually want to KO him asap because of aura. He has good juggling, especially without much aura where uair combos into itself a number of times. Either airdodge through or DI/SDI upward. May be able to nair diagonally above them too.

Respect the force palm side B, the only special in the game that functions as both a projectile and a command grab. If you're far away, then shielding is good, but if you're up close, then shielding is bad for more than one reason, especially if they have high aura. Also don't hold shield when at ledge, lest he lands on you from off stage with side B.

Aura Sphere can hit at ledge, so don't sit there too long, especially as it gets bigger with aura + charge. Also remember his double team counter which also works on projectiles like plasma, especially at high aura. Watch how they use it in disadvantage.

Their recovery has more distance the more aura they have, but it goes so fast and can be tricky to control, that it becomes more inconsistent with more aura. So when they're at high %, they'll rarely grab onto the ledge, and instead land on stage, or use extreme speed against you offensively when possible. Shield if you anticipate the latter and punish. Their up B also goes through platforms, so respect it on plat stages all the same.

On the flipside, aura makes Lucario's combos inconsistent. Their specials and frame data also lack consistency, making them drop combos and miss killing attacks.

Miscellaneous and frame data

SPR Lucario on plats if worried about him double team countering our attacks from underneath (i.e. u-tilt).

Lucario force palm (grab version) is mashable.

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.

Lucario multihits- f-tilt (2 hits), nair (2 hits), dair (2 hits)

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.

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

Our jab 1 starts faster than theirs, allowing us to get out of scramble situations better.

The shield safety of their moves depends on their aura (see UFD for more), but their d-tilt and landing aerials will always be too safe, so reset there. Also his dash attack will likely crossup on shield, so be ready for a turnaround punish. His u-smash can be shield punished by f-smash regardless of aura.

Their jab 3, dash attack, smashes, up B, and ledge getup attack (-28) are shield punished by u-tilt should he be at u-tilt > uair kill %. If he whiffs a double team counter nearby, skewer punish.

Ridley kill confirm:

• u-tilt > fullhop uair (85-88%)
• u-tilt > double jump uair (89-100%)

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Lucas

Lucas
Slightly Losing

The main differences Lucas has from Ness are PK freeze (respect it when recovering, pay attention to how he uses it, and mixup your timing and recovery paths/tactics), his PK thunder being a multi-hit with intangible properties but is slower than Ness’s (avoid it when possible and try to tech when hit by it), and his PK fire being knockback-based rather than something to DI/SDI out of as well as the aerial version shooting straight across instead of diagonally down, which sends Lucas back a little as he uses it, making it pretty safe. Also his bair being a spike move (tech it on stage), and both his back and up throws being good kill throws. Aside from his f-smash reflecting like Ness's, also respect the strength and invincibility of his u-smash.

One thing Ridley players don't like is to approach by air, but against Lucas that's a good way to pressure him. Our uair combos into itself, but doesn't have good horizontal range and doesn't kill when staled as such.

He has a lot of Ness weaknesses to be aware of, like how hard it is for him to land against disjointed range. He’s better at covering himself off stage than Ness, but is still very exploitable.

Most Lucas players will opt for stalling with their double jump for a bit before tethering to the ledge. Once you have them out there with no jump, you can chase them as far as you want as they try to position for up B.

The rest of the neutral’s just playing the slow wall out game while respecting his projectiles/zair.

Miscellaneous and frame data

Dash attack will beat Lucas' shorthop if spaced.

Lucas d-smash and dair hit us under platforms, so still shield or avoid there.

Lucas multihits- d-smash (3 hits), nair (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.

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.

PK Fire and Thunder are also minus on shield enough for you to dash grab or dash attack if he's nearby (same with extended dash cancel u-tilt if he's at kill confirm %). Just don't shield too much or obviously against them to where he can grab you.

Speaking of, his tether grab is 12 frames in startup and 29 in end lag. While a bit faster in startup than some other tethers, it's the shortest in range and can still be whiff punished with SPR and the like. Zair's 30 frames of end lag allows you to SPR after if you were stuffed out by it before. Mainly zair from a fullhop, as shorthop zair would cancel the end lag when they go to ground. Also, mix in shield jumping, particularly Double Shield Cancel fullhop, to whiff punish such a grab.

His jab 3, f-smash, u-smash, PK fire, PK thunder, and ledge getup attack are also shield punishable with u-tilt should he be at u-tilt > uair kill %.

Ridley kill confirm:

• u-tilt > fullhop uair (86-89%)
• u-tilt > double jump uair (90-100%)

Credit to smub for some of the tips on neutral.

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Lucina

Lucina

Gameplan

Ridley's f-tilt is a very good tool in neutral, as it out-spaces mostly everything Lucina has. Should be abusing this tool most. Up angle f-tilt is good for punishing shorthop which swordies loves doing. Your goal should be getting her off stage and recovering low. She'll be looking for whiff punishes in this, so be careful about your button presses. Run or pivot cancel f-tilt reaches far and fast, so they have a good whiff punish range. Abuse dance dancing and walking to bait shorthops or dash-in's. Keep their shorthop approaches locked down w