how to beat ROB

[Zastrozzi]

To really learn a character, you need to learn what their weaknesses are. Seeing as I'm nowhere near good enough to be an official source, I'd like to open up this thread for people to discuss what hoses ROB.

ROB has air mobility issues. He can stall in mid air for an obscene amount of time, but his booster does not allow him any great amount of flight speed. I recently had a very annoying game against a noobish Pit player that mostly involved him shooting arrows from one side of pork city, then jumping up and flying over to the other side when anyone got close. Unfortunately, I didn't know the reflecting properties of the gyrospin yet, so the game stretched on into the 10 minute mark. It finally stopped when my brother (who was playing Dedede at the time), turned around and punched the offending Pit in the arm every time he activated his flight mode.

Honestly, I think that ROB has it better then Pit because he can re-activate his flight mode. But the fact remains that ROB has trouble keeping up with people in the air.

ROB has smash issues. Namely his Eyeblast smash. It's not a very poor smash, compared to certain other characters. The disjointed hitbox and the angling ability means it is actually quite hittable. However, it isn't fast or damaging, and I have yet to KO with it. Ever. When in combat with someone else, it's the last move I'd reach for. Downsmash is awesome and easy to hit, but again, it lacks damage and smashing distance. His upsmash is fine, though it's unremarkable. It has the hitting power the other two lack, but that's it's only advantage. It's very difficult to land (and I usually chase the enemy when I launch them, so I have a hard time figuring out when I'd want to use this.). Most of his KOs come from low launches off the stage followed by a dogfight and spike. Which brings me to my final point.

ROB's aerials are awesome, but they are predictive aerials. With the exception of fair and uair, all his aerials take a beat to set up. They're really good when they come out, but you need to know where and when the enemy will be coming from to use them. ROB is pretty easy to bait in a dogfight (though this might be me not being great). I keep finding myself getting faked out by other characters with multiple jumps or otherwise good recovery moves because I'll start the spike, and they'll be going somewhere totally different. I can't count the number of times I thought I had Zamus only to watch her cruise under the spike and tether up. Or worse, I'd guess she was going low only to get spiked myself as she VB'd over me and tethered anyway...

So, from my admittedly limited experience, the characters that ROB has a tough time with are:

--Pit (can say no to air battles)
--Zamus (tricky to engage off the stage, has the reach advantage and can keep ROB from getting in on her)
--Snake (Cypher makes for very good recovery, and he can make getting in on him a pain without using projectiles you can Gyrospin back at him.)
--Dedede (He flattens ROB on the ground, I've found, and between his natural wieght, floating jumps, and his hammer spins, he's hard to kill off the ground, too. Fighting him at range isn't great either, as ROB can't spam his projectiles, and Dedede can just chuck stuff until he gets a Gordo for little risk.)
--Any of the space animals. Decent aerials, but the big thing is they are difficult to edgeguard against with their kamikaze charges.

Again, take everything I say with a grain of salt. What do people think? Agree? Disagree?

[Frames]

ROB has air mobility issues. He can stall in mid air for an obscene amount of time, but his booster does not allow him any great amount of flight speed. I recently had a very annoying game against a noobish Pit player that mostly involved him shooting arrows from one side of pork city, then jumping up and flying over to the other side when anyone got close. Unfortunately, I didn't know the reflecting properties of the gyrospin yet, so the game stretched on into the 10 minute mark. It finally stopped when my brother (who was playing Dedede at the time), turned around and punched the offending Pit in the arm every time he activated his flight mode.

Because of ROB's heavy weight, the key to going faster with his booster is momentum. Throwing all of his weight forward and then trying to boost in the other direction is going to cause some problems, so always try and travel with his motion (unless you're trying to get back on the stage in which case you should NOT travel away from the stage). As for pit on New Pork, those arrows are really annoying, not just to ROB, but to everyone, side B is going to be your best bet for blocking, along with shielding, but at the same time, keep moving toward him hitting him with gyros and lasers along the way.

Honestly, I think that ROB has it better then Pit because he can re-activate his flight mode. But the fact remains that ROB has trouble keeping up with people in the air.

You're right, ROB does have it better than Pit. The ability to use aerials in between bursts of rocket fuel help defend him from edgeguarders. Also, his dair is good for stalling in between bursts. The best thing to do for people in the air is to really control your spacing. ROB is fast, but his moves are slow, and just using them willy-nilly will get you killed. It's important to time things right.

ROB has smash issues. Namely his Eyeblast smash. It's not a very poor smash, compared to certain other characters. The disjointed hitbox and the angling ability means it is actually quite hittable. However, it isn't fast or damaging, and I have yet to KO with it. Ever. When in combat with someone else, it's the last move I'd reach for. Downsmash is awesome and easy to hit, but again, it lacks damage and smashing distance. His upsmash is fine, though it's unremarkable. It has the hitting power the other two lack, but that's it's only advantage. It's very difficult to land (and I usually chase the enemy when I launch them, so I have a hard time figuring out when I'd want to use this.). Most of his KOs come from low launches off the stage followed by a dogfight and spike. Which brings me to my final point.

ROB's fsmash may be slow, but packs quite the punch. I don't use it typically in regular combat, instead I usually use it for edgeguarding. The disjointed hitbox adds extra range as you said, and that's key for keeping your opponents at bay. ROB's downsmash is great for racking up the points, but not a lot of knockback comes with it. That isn't necessarily a bad thing; after all that means you can combo out of it, but don't expect it to kill early. His upsmash is really strong, but the hitbox is weird. They've got to be right on it, or else it'll just miss, it looks like it's pretty much just the jets of the rocket. As for the finisher, the spike is nice, it feels really good when you land it, but it doesn't always have to be the killer. You'll find that many of his other aerials are better for killing, and easier to time then the dair (his nair, for instance, is a great kill move and has a huge range!).

ROB's aerials are awesome, but they are predictive aerials. With the exception of fair and uair, all his aerials take a beat to set up. They're really good when they come out, but you need to know where and when the enemy will be coming from to use them. ROB is pretty easy to bait in a dogfight (though this might be me not being great). I keep finding myself getting faked out by other characters with multiple jumps or otherwise good recovery moves because I'll start the spike, and they'll be going somewhere totally different. I can't count the number of times I thought I had Zamus only to watch her cruise under the spike and tether up. Or worse, I'd guess she was going low only to get spiked myself as she VB'd over me and tethered anyway...

You're absolutely right, ROB is all about timing, and knowing when and where your opponents will be is key to success. As far as getting faked out by your opponent, the trick is to take control of the situation. They get the upper hand because they are in control, but with ROB's arsenal at his disposal, taking control of the match and keeping it will help you nail those aerials everytime. Make sure to use plenty of lasers and gyros, they keep even the fastest players on their toes. Also, chaining things together in unexpected ways will surprise and confuse your opponents (like throw gyro straight up - dthrow - jump up - gyro knocks down, opponents hits it and flies away - nair as he's flying away, etc.), and help to take charge of the match.

So, from my admittedly limited experience, the characters that ROB has a tough time with are:

--Pit (can say no to air battles)
--Zamus (tricky to engage off the stage, has the reach advantage and can keep ROB from getting in on her)
--Snake (Cypher makes for very good recovery, and he can make getting in on him a pain without using projectiles you can Gyrospin back at him.)
--Dedede (He flattens ROB on the ground, I've found, and between his natural wieght, floating jumps, and his hammer spins, he's hard to kill off the ground, too. Fighting him at range isn't great either, as ROB can't spam his projectiles, and Dedede can just chuck stuff until he gets a Gordo for little risk.)
--Any of the space animals. Decent aerials, but the big thing is they are difficult to edgeguard against with their kamikaze charges.

Your reasons are fairly accurate and I've had problems with those myself; I've found that with space animals however, the fsmash will outprioritize their up-b as long as you time it correctly, then follow up with a gyro, then WoP away!

Anyhoo, hope this helps and good luck with ROB! :)

[nomnomnom]

ROB has air mobility issues. He can stall in mid air for an obscene amount of time, but his booster does not allow him any great amount of flight speed. I recently had a very annoying game against a noobish Pit player that mostly involved him shooting arrows from one side of pork city, then jumping up and flying over to the other side when anyone got close. Unfortunately, I didn't know the reflecting properties of the gyrospin yet, so the game stretched on into the 10 minute mark. It finally stopped when my brother (who was playing Dedede at the time), turned around and punched the offending Pit in the arm every time he activated his flight mode.


you can really speed up ROB's flightspeed by activating the upb and then alternating thrusts of upb with bairs. You may have to mix up the amount of thrusting you do between bairs to throw off the pit player, and if they're really good with arrows it's not going to matter anyway.

That said, Pit is INCREDIBLY annoying on big stages thanks to his arrows and their ridiculous spammability. Not just to ROB, but for everybody. I was reading the marth forums and m2k noted that camping is a lot better in brawl - this seems to pretty accurate, especially with Pit's arrows and the new Din's Fire.

I've got a friend who plays quite a bit of Pit so when I've got a bit more insight on the matchup I'll post it.


ROB's aerials are awesome, but they are predictive aerials. With the exception of fair and uair, all his aerials take a beat to set up. They're really good when they come out, but you need to know where and when the enemy will be coming from to use them. ROB is pretty easy to bait in a dogfight (though this might be me not being great). I keep finding myself getting faked out by other characters with multiple jumps or otherwise good recovery moves because I'll start the spike, and they'll be going somewhere totally different. I can't count the number of times I thought I had Zamus only to watch her cruise under the spike and tether up. Or worse, I'd guess she was going low only to get spiked myself as she VB'd over me and tethered anyway...

Try using fair to chase. I've been using it a lot lately and it's done wonders for my edgeguarding game. I only really use dair to spike when they're near the stage and under it and have to come up to get it.

[the_yoshinator]

another hard matchup:

Pikachu: small, fast, has priority over most of R.O.B.'s moves, this equals trouble for J-5

[Ishoku]

ill have to go with marth, as i have a hard time approaching him.

his sideb moves are now fast and annoying. and spammable.

and his DI'ed fairs out of shields make it almost impossible to shield grab him -__-

not to mention when he juggles you in the air, rob cant take jugglers too well because all but two of his aerials have a start up time. and since one is the uair its kinda pointless to use that one. so ur stuck with a fair though your getting attacked from the bottom.

*sigh*

[JCaesar007]

You can deal with jugglers with an airdodge -> fair or nair. I know it's hard to get used to the new airdodge mechanics but it's actually useful in this situation, it's like spot-dodging an attack on the ground.

[R.O.B.TheROCKbot]

ROB has air mobility issues. He can stall in mid air for an obscene amount of time, but his booster does not allow him any great amount of flight speed. I recently had a very annoying game against a noobish Pit player that mostly involved him shooting arrows from one side of pork city, then jumping up and flying over to the other side when anyone got close. Unfortunately, I didn't know the reflecting properties of the gyrospin yet, so the game stretched on into the 10 minute mark. It finally stopped when my brother (who was playing Dedede at the time), turned around and punched the offending Pit in the arm every time he activated his flight mode.


I mean...what character WOULDN'T have trouble with an obnoxious character obnoxiously played on an obnoxious stage? That's just a strength of Pit, that he's the du jour of anyone wanting to cause someone to break their controllers.


ROB has smash issues. Namely his Eyeblast smash. It's not a very poor smash, compared to certain other characters. The disjointed hitbox and the angling ability means it is actually quite hittable. However, it isn't fast or damaging, and I have yet to KO with it. Ever. When in combat with someone else, it's the last move I'd reach for. Downsmash is awesome and easy to hit, but again, it lacks damage and smashing distance.


I have to disagree here. The eyeblast is awesome. It has great range, and pretty deceptive range, too. Often all I have to do to opponents is dodge back around their recovery and eyeblast them to doom. It's quick and it's POWERFUL. Most of my kills come from well-timed eyeblasts.

Also, the dsmash is vicious. No one can dodge around you without eating it, you can't just shield your way through it. It has very little killing power, but it DOES kill. Since it's so easy to hit, it's his most spam-worthy move.

I think you're right about Pit, he's tough against ROB. But Zamus' moves leave her wide open if she misses. Try dodging/sidestepping around her reach and punishing her with a dsmash or eyeblast. DeDeDe is tricky, but he's slow and fat. The Rob's dsmash is not his friend.

[ComradeSAL]

Thoughts on the Pit matchup:

In general trying to outcamp Pit is a terrible idea, but there are times when you absolutely want to. A common scenario that comes up is you take the first stock, but have a lot of damage racked up (maybe 125%). In this situation you absolutely want to try to outcamp Pit. Just go to the other side of the stage, start dodging his arrows and try to slip in some lasers/side B's. Most likely you will take more damage than you receive, but this is ok. Most of Pit's finishing moves can already kill you anyway, making more damage on your part irrelevant. At some point he will have to come in for the kill, at which point you have a significant advantage (Pit has few good approaches). If all goes well you'll bring Pit up to maybe 75% before dying around ~200%, giving you a significant advantage on the next stock (where your stale moves will be reset).

ill have to go with marth, as i have a hard time approaching him.

The trick to Marth is to NOT approach him. Force him to come to you with lasers/tops, and then shield grab/dodge+dsmash him to death. If he starts grabbing you back, it doesn't really matter because his grabs do minimal damage and won't kill even at 200%.

[BAND!T]

rob destroys snake. anyone with a spike destroys snake. should.. anyway. his cypher is actually a blimp that sends a radio signal which says "place hitbox here V"

[Sikarios]

A huge asset to beating ROB is playing small type characters: Pikachu, Jiggly, etc. I have a friend who mains P. Trainer and uses a lot of Squirtle on my ROB to great success. Regardless of character, one must always be wary of ROB's downsmash, fair, and nair attacks--but a small, speedy character can shut down much of ROB's annoyance game.

[game_tip]

R.O.B. is my main. I love all his moves!
My problem is that I can't get his up tilt out as much as I like.

How do I go about getting his up tilt out? I am guessing this is a general smash question as well :(

[IceEmblem]

I was wondering what would be the best team if you had R.O.B. as one of them what would be good to have as the other one, my friend and i want to make a awesome team.

[Sikarios]

I was wondering what would be the best team if you had R.O.B. as one of them what would be good to have as the other one, my friend and i want to make a awesome team.

ROB + Pit
or
ROB + Donkey Kong

[Ekaru]

--Pit (can say no to air battles)
--Zamus (tricky to engage off the stage, has the reach advantage and can keep ROB from getting in on her)
--Snake (Cypher makes for very good recovery, and he can make getting in on him a pain without using projectiles you can Gyrospin back at him.)
--Dedede (He flattens ROB on the ground, I've found, and between his natural wieght, floating jumps, and his hammer spins, he's hard to kill off the ground, too. Fighting him at range isn't great either, as ROB can't spam his projectiles, and Dedede can just chuck stuff until he gets a Gordo for little risk.)
--Any of the space animals. Decent aerials, but the big thing is they are difficult to edgeguard against with their kamikaze charges.


--------------------------------

What I have to say to those:

Pit: ROB actually is better at aerial battles from what I've been through. Trust me. Fair is a main component here, and Nair should be used to blast him off the stage. It's not that hard to land if you wait a bit before chasing.

Zamus: Side B is actually USEFUL in this match up, believe it or not. Short hop it when you predict she'll use a laser. Use it at the right range, and the projectile reflect and you'll hit with most of ROB's sideB as you land. Other than that, dodging the laser's easy for me, same with the whip. I've beaten Zamus's before too, it just requires knowledge of the map up, and good mindgames.


Snake: You can gimp his recovery with a throw. >.>; Other than that, you need to get good at paying attention to where he puts his mines, and listen carefully for the 'Now!', and dodge certain other mines, maybe throw Snake into his own mines. Nothing that most other characters can't do though. Oh, and Sanke eats SH'd fairs easy lots of the time. =P

DeDeDe: Why on earth was he mentioned? This is actually one of ROB's better match ups, for me at least. I'm not gonna even bother for now explaining how good of a match-up this is. Hint: Try racking up damage with ROB's quick moves, particularly fairs and Dsmashes(after a shield/stepdodge), then get him into the air, boost up to him and Nair him. That's one of over a dozen of my strategies against DeDeDe. He's just...easy for ROB when used right.

Space Animals: Mostly agreed, if you don't have good mind games, you'll have issues against these guys, seriously. This is pretty much the only one I agree on.

I find Kirby annoying, personally, same with Pikachu. I say those are ROB's second-worst match ups, due to their tinyness and their goodness. Wait, scratch Pikachu, only Kirby is annoying, for various reasons.

That is all. XP

[Tristan, Fattest of All Kids]

How do you beat a ROB? I just played this ROB that was ridiculously good, and I won. So I think I'm a good source.

I'll have to say MK approach is best. Projectiles don't work on his very spammable b-attack. and the best thing to do is probably to not stop attacking. Once the ROB is fully charge with both projectiles, he's a killer. So, MK would have to be the best for this, with his h4x triple aerials.

[DuLL_RaZer]

How to beat a ROB?

Two words: You Can't.
/thread
lulz.

Though, I will say that i do have trouble with Meta Knights