SSBU/Steve/Techniques

Steve

Overview

Combos

Setplay

Tech

Strategy/Counterstrategy

Matchups

Resources

Steve is a complicated character with deep moves and mechanics.
As such he has a lot of tech, some very useful while others not so much.
In the following sections, we will try to list Steve's techs in order of importance for each section.

General Techs

Block Techs

NILdifficulty: easy-hard

No Impact Landing or NIL for short, is a general tech in smash ultimate referring to situations where characters become grounded without experiencing any soft landing or hard landing lag.
Steve Can Place a Block in order to NIL on command and in various positions.
This makes NIL a very strong and flexible tool and movement option in the kit of Steve which allows for very creative and varied uses, from extending combos to setups to platform pressure.

NIL1 to NIL4 refer to the height gained after using NIL from a grounded position, measured in blocks.
NIL1: Steve gains an elevation of 1 block. It's relatively easy to execute and can be done by doing a shorthop and then Placing a Block.
NIL2: Steve gains an elevation of 2 block. This is the most famous NIL variation and probably what someone means if they say NIL without specifying the type. It's relatively hard to execute, having a 2-frame window, and can be done by doing a fullhop and then double jumping and Placing a Block together on the 7-8 frame of being airborne. When Steve is in a state of Reduced Jump Height such as after the use of Uptilt or Jab, the double jump and Block Placement need to be delayed by 2 additional frames. NIL2 can also be done out of a shorthop but it's considered mostly useless since it's slower and as difficult as the fullhop variant.
NIL3: Steve gains an elevation of 3 block. It's medium on the difficulty scale to execute and can be done by either doing the NIL2 input and delaying the Block Placement a bit or by delaying both the double jump and the Block Placement.
NIL4: Steve gains an elevation of 4 block. It's the easiest by far to execute and the most common version, appearing in most of Steve's bread-and-butter combo ladders. NIL4 can be done by doing a jump -> delayed double jump -> Place Block and it's very easily timed out of Steve's Up Aerial.

There also exist a variety of ways to NIL with Steve that are less easily categorizable to one of the 4 aforementioned categories, for example, Steve can often NIL in midair depending on the positioning relative to the block grid, and since Steve didn't start from the ground it doesn't fit into any category.