E.E.D. SOLDIER
A Spec Ops unit for the Galactic Federation's Earth-Energy Defense force, E.E.D. Soldier is a Terrakinetic (earth manipulator) who goes in to dangerous areas for the Federation, then morphs the terrain to better suit himself, and hinder the enemy to ensure victory.
He is heavily armored, making him match his counterpart,
Samus Aran in both size and weight. Unlike her however, his suit lacks all the jets and space jump capabilities, limiting his aerial game greatly. Without Space Jump boots and a heavy suit, E.E.D. Soldier sports
the worst jumps in the game. They are so bad that his full-jump just barely makes it on top of the platforms of Smashville and Battlefield, with his second jump having the same height. As for speed while airborne, he is
mediocre in both fall and horizontal speed. On the ground he is a lot better though, as he runs at a top speed comparable to
Falco, and walks as fast as
Wolf.
AERIALS
D-AIR: SEISMIC SMASH
Odd starting with his aerials, when his air game is supposedly ****, but ironically his aerials contain some of his best moves!
Seismic Smash seems to be a typical stall-then-fall at first, with E.E.D. rising his fists above him, stalling in the air similar to Lucario's Dair, then plummeting down to crash the fists into the earth! This portion of the attack deals a paltry 5%, but it drags foes straight down with you. Upon impact with the stage, his fists collide to create a shockwave of dirt around himself in a semi-sphere that does another 5%, and decent KB that won’t kill, and a shockwave along the ground that does 10% and hits the foe up like DK's down B. After this he takes a brief moment to get back up after the dust settles, similar to the end lag of Ganon's Fair. While a tad laggy, this move potentially does 20% as well as great "GTFO".
What you may not notice at first however, is that as the dust settles you have left a big crack in the stage. This crack appears along the side of the stage, and reaches about halfway down the main stage's height. And as one may infer, landing Seismic Smash on this crack
again will cause it to grow further, and break the stage in two. Once the stage splits, it will separate from the other section by about 1/2 of a stage builder block, and there is no "real" limit to how much you can split a stage, except that you can’t make a piece smaller than a builder block.
U-AIR: BREAK-THROUGH
E.E.D. does a brief, SHORYUKEN-like motion with one of his hands above him, spinning slightly as he does. Upon contact with a foe, this move does only 6% and small amounts of sideways KB. Upon contact with a ceiling however, you will swiftly drill through the stage above it!
While doing this, you have similar control to MK's Drill Rush, only with a more vertical orientation. Upon reaching the floor (lasts indefinitely until you do so) you will burst out of the ground, shooting debris about as you quickly recover with end lag equivalent to you simply landing from a jump. The debris act similar to the shards created by Charizard's Rock Smash, but are fewer in number, averaging about two shards for 7% each.
However, you will most likely be using this more to recover or escape quickly from sticky situations than to outright attack. That said, if you come across any buried foes this move will do similar damage to Drill Rush.
N-AIR: SAND STORM
Striking a pose akin to Melee Mewtwo's Nair, you will begin to "pull" any of the debris you've created around yourself in a sort of vortex in a 2 SBB radius. Better yet,
this continues if you hold A while landing, creating a continuous attack! The damage and speed of the orbit/pull is determined by the object, but luckily the biggest/slowest thing you can pull is a rock shard (like from Uair), and it travels about as fast as Mario's run, and does 7%.
As the name suggests,
sand is the main ammo used for this attack (which can be produced well enough from later moves). Unlike the rock shards, the tiny bits of sand barely do any damage, with a glob as big as a rock shard doing a measly 0.5%. However, you can have
a lot of sand on the field, and it gets pulled at about Falcon's dash speed! This means that with enough sand, you can have a literal sand-storm covering the field, buffeting foes for multiple hits that can add up to ludicrous numbers. Unfortunately, this sand storm doesn't do any hitstun, so leaving it going may offer too much risk for the damage.
F-AIR: STONE HAMMER
E.E.D. reels back his fist for a moment, and then hurls it in an arc in front of him with incredible, screen-shaking force! This action takes slightly longer than Ganon's Fair (without the landing lag glitch
), and does 10% with incredible base KB, but it's knockback growth won’t let it kill until like umpteen %.
So what is this horribly generic move doing in MYM? Well, for starters it
rapidly moves the stage forward. You heard that right, if you smash the side of the stage with your fist, it will lunge quickly (Shiek Dash speed) in that direction for about 1/8th its length. For a quick example, doing this twice to FD will push the edge to touch the side of the screen. Combined with Seismic Smash, you can create a huge gap between pieces of the stage! Granted you can make it back after jumping off like that.
As an added bonus, hitting somebody from across the screen as the stage lurches forward will do 15-25% depending on the size of the stage (piece), with KB similar to Yoshi's Fsmash. Seeing as the foe should be near a blast zone, the maneuver is one of your traditional kill moves.
NOTE: Explained more in the specials, the stage (piece) can only be 1/2 beyond a blastzone at any moment.
B-AIR: METEOR LAUNCH
E.E.D. will turn and grab whatever is behind himself, then reverse the motion with some impressive force! If done on a foe, this does 5% and has half the power of Stone Hammer, but has the ability to angle slightly up or down as he does the "turn forward" animation pre-toss. This alone can be valued for its team-mate saving or gimping properties, but the fact that he can do this to "anything" is where the fun comes in.
Particularly, E.E.D. creates a lot of stuff on the field, mostly big dangerous things made of solid friggen stone. As with Nair, there is a limit to what he can use this move on, with the range this time being from items as small as a capsule, to the size of a crate! When launched, they will do similar damages (
6-18%), but have a speed similar to Samus' Super Missile thanks to him using his Terrakinesis. A kind of niche move, it is best used with a short-hop (like all his aerials) to keep a foe at bay to set up, as well as clear an area of your creations to make new ones.
STANDARDS
JAB: WALL OF EARTH
Making a swift upwards gesture with one of his hands (similar to say, Falcon's grab), he forces a slab of earth to jut out from the ground in front of him. This wall is about as tall as a Crate, but only about 1/4th as thick with 10% Stamina against attacks. If you hit somebody with it as it shoots up from the ground, it will do 5% and weak upwards KB that will never kill.
You can have as many of these out on the stage as you want (provided you have the room as it won’t come up if it lacks the space, such as on an edge), but given it has some end lag, is relatively easy to destroy, and you having other priorities, it should be rare you have a whole damn field of them. Usually, you should use these walls as well, walls to either use as quick cover or to constrain areas.
This is the only item he cannot use with Bair as it is rooted deep inside the ground.
F-TILT: STONE FIST
E.E.D. draws a fist back as it stores energy within it, and then hurls it forward with a tremendous force, almost like a miniature Falcon Punch, without the extreme lag! Unlike the move of the gods however, this seemingly simple left hook only takes about a quarter-second to do and does 10% with an ability to kill at high percents.
However, if done onto the side of a stage/wall, it will create a crack just like with Seismic Smash! This crack behaves just like the other, but is of course Horizontally inclined instead of Vertical. Seeing as stages are almost always longer than they are tall you may want to reserve this move for when you already have more manageable chunks to work with.
D-TILT: TREMOR
E.E.D. stomps the ground hard with his right leg, sending a small shockwave around him that can make foes trip within a SBB, but then something very odd happens as he recovers from some end lag: the Stage tilts down to the half he was on!
How this works is fairly simple, each stomp (he can cancel the end lag into another stomp using IASA frames to lessen the time slightly) tilts the stage towards you by 15*, with the stage taking about ½ to ¾ of a second to fully move depending on the size of it.
Aside from altering the very important orientation of the level, this gets more fun when you think of how you can create walls on it to act as mini-ledges, and break the stage into angles with Dair and Ftilt as they still stay Horizontal and vertical relative to you, not the stage!
U-TILT: EXCAVATE
E.E.D. reaches down into the stage below him, and rips out a chunk about the size of the Party Ball Item. This also creates a hole about the width of a crate, with the depth of Kirby to form as he does so, but we’ll get more into that later. As for the actual hunk of rock you now possess, it works like a very beefy version of Peach’s turnip, with E.E.D. able to carry it around with him and able to throw it about, hitting foes for 12% and light KB. However, you can instantly drop the rock by inputting a Grab, which then can allow it to be affected by gravity as it either falls down to the abyss, or down a slope you made with Dtilt doing up to 18% based on how fast it got.
As for the holes, not unlike Stone Wall this is only limited to how much room you have to work with. However, you cannot excavate more than 3 times on the same “hole” (making the max-depth a bit taller than Ganondorf), or less seeing as E.E.D. will automatically stop before going right through a stage, as it would have him fall straight through. You also cannot perform this at a ledge.
This is an amazing two-part tool. For one, it gives you a handy item to smash against opponents, or launch with Bair, or create hazards with. Then, it lets you create impressions on the stage which your teammate could hide in, or could be used to trap foes for later. Just be mindful of the fact that the whole procedure takes as long as Charizard’s Rock Smash before you go off trying to make FD paper-thin.
DASH: TUNNEL
Diving feet-first toward the ground in a drill-kick similar to Fox’s Dair, you plummet into the ground just like with Up Air! As you might have guessed, it has similar properties to it as well, like mirroring MK’s Drill Rush as he goes through the earth. However you only have about a second or two to actually move anywhere, as this more horizontally inclined movement will automatically send E.E.D. back to the surface. On Drop-through or abnormally thin platforms he will simply perform a drill-kick through it, and recover swiftly if there is no ground immediately there.
What is fun about this however is the trapping potential when combined with holes you may have made with Utilt. As a quick example, picture having a foe fall into the trap, only to then meet you drilling through the side of the pit, through them, to the other on your path!
SPECIALS
NEUTRAL: TERRAFORM
Squatting slightly, arms held out toward the ground he’s on as he lowers his head with focus, E.E.D. uses his Terrakinetic power to its fullest, and is actually able to straight-up move the stage. The action takes about the same time as Fox’s Dsmash to perform before anything happens, and requires you to hold the B button down while you move the (piece of) stage you’re on with the control stick in any direction you please as long as you’re not interrupted. Ending the move is lagless however.
The speed at which you can move the ground below you varies greatly based on the size of the terrain. When moving Final Destination in its entirety for example, you will be able to move it at a snail’s pace akin to Charizard’s walk in all directions. The speed increases as the object gets smaller, with the smallest moveable item being something the size of a crate*, which you can control like Pit’s Wings of Icarus in the air.
There are also limits as to how far you can move an object. For all objects, they must be able to be seen on the screen, and vertical movement stops before E.E.D. himself disappears into the little “bubble” you see when knocked off-camera. Large objects can break this rule somewhat, but stop moving once 1/3rd of them are off-screen, so yes you can make FD a walk off on one side, but you can’t just get rid of the stage.
*Using Z then B quickly in the air while holding your Boulder will allow you to use Terraform on it, letting you have a last-ditch recovery. Unlike stage pieces though the Boulder will fall as normal after B is released.
UP: SAND PILLAR
With an animation similar to his jab, but with both hands this time, he bursts forth a geyser of sand from the floor in front of him, reaching as high and taking as long as Wolf’s Up Special. What the sand does as it shoots up is provide a “wall” of sort as anyone or any non-transcendent object to touch the stream will be pushed upward above the sand as it then falls back down to earth. From here, the sand will lump into a pile that can be walked over (but is moved through slowly if it is a taller pile), and is moved around by pretty much anything that touches it. You can also not use Sand Pillar on a floor covered by sand already.
If sand is rushing down a slope, it creates a “current” effect not unlike the rain on Distant Planet, pushing characters down with it at a constant pace that can be ran against.
DOWN: QUAKE
E.E.D.’s hands glow slightly as he clasps them above his head, before slamming them down to the ground, transferring the energy into a violent earthquake. This is chargeable like a Smash attack, with similar lag to when ike uses Eruption..
What this does is simply violently shake the stage (piece) briefly, moving sand wildly and destroying any object made on the stage. The shaking lasts 1-3 seconds based on charge, and can make people trip at a higher rate as well as bounce items/rocks around for light damage. This is especially useful when playing with slopes, sand and debris, as the sand will shift randomly causing foes to have trouble moving on the ground, while taking damage and possibly falling down to their doom.
SIDE: PLASMA BEAM
Shoots a short range (Olimar Fsmash) Plasma Beam from shooters atop his wrists that can be angled. This does damage similar to Charizard’s flamethrower, but with actual KB so it won’t get many hits in (but won’t kill).
This has some start-up to it, and can only be fired for 3 seconds, while being much more angle-able than Flamethrower. If it hits the stage at all, it will heat it up temporarily and anyone standing on it will take .5% every 1/3 second for 2 seconds. This however makes the stage where you heated up pretty malleable. Moving a stage piece toward another piece that is heated up will actually fuse them back together.
Doing this on (quick)sand will meld it into solid stage, allowing you to have more material if need be (if you say, want to cover a hole) or better yet trap a foe under ground where they must take time to bash their way free.
SMASHES
F-SMASH: STALAGMITES
Controlled like Din’s Fire (for length, and angle-able up and down for intricate stages), you send out a small group of ultra-sharp stalagmites from the ground, that cause upwards KB and damage similar to the Spike in the Stage Creator (15%). These last until destroyed, but only have about 5% stamina per stalagmite. The cluster itself takes as much space as a crate and create large rock shards when smashed.
D-SMASH: QUICKSAND
Making a pose similar to Terraform, E.E.D. transforms the floor around him into a semi-liquid state (seen as the floor textures becoming wavy, almost like water's surface) by loosening the soil tremendously (area is a bowser-width below him). For the next 4-8 seconds (based on charge) foes that stand here will slowly sink at about the rate of Peach’s fall with Parasol up, potentially all the way through the stage, and have movement greatly reduced. Foes must jump (ala SM64) to get out quickly.
Combined with normal sand, this can completely floor an enemy’s movement, and with an EQ going on it can make them sink even faster (x2)
U-SMASH: VOLCANIC GASES
Creates a small Geyser on the stage in front of him that has some smoke slowly coming out of it, it is about the size of Squirtle and will last indefinitely until hit for 10%. Doing Usmash again will make the geyser erupt with a torrent of smoke/steam/etc, doing 14-24% and high vertical KB from wherever you are on the field. Even better, if you fire Plasma beam into the stage (from say, Ftilt) near said Geyser, flames will erupt from it and do damage similar to PK fire. Sand covering the geyser will erupt with it, expanding its push power tremendously.
GRABS
ROOTED
His normal grab has him encase the foe’s feet in stone, immobilizing them for a moment (grab difficulty) and giving E.E.D. a free hit or time to set-up as the foe struggles with getting out of the rocks. This has a range and lag similar to Olimar’s grab.
*For fun, you could Plasma Beam the foe as their stuck for free damage.
FOSSILIZE
Grabbing a foe while you both are stepping on sand will cause E.E.D. to wash the sand over the foe, using up the sand that was there, and condense it around them so they are then stuck in solid rock. From here, they are treated as a boulder item for you, and can be smashed for 20% damage by moves such as Quake, Stone fist and the like. Pressing grab again has you grab the boulder like with Utilt. Foes have 1.5x grab difficulty getting out of this however, so you have limited time to act.
PLAYSTYLE : TERRAMORPHIC EXPANSE
As you may have gathered, E.E.D. Soldier doesn't really have much fighting prowess on his own, with his entire game revolving around using the terrain as a weapon, and changing it to suit his needs. The most important thing to understand when playing as him is that every-single-thing you do can and will effect or use the terrain in some way, which will then alter the match significantly. It is then up to you, the player to work this to your advantage before the opponent does using your specialized tools for the job.
Everybody will have a different style when it comes to how to make the stage your own, but there are some intuitive combos that can be considered the bread and butter for E.E.D.:
"The DK": This technique is simple but effective. All it involves is tilting the stage (or large piece of stage) down at a good angle, and then either tunneling or dashing to the top portion to set up camp. From here, it'd be best to use a sand pillar quickly to provide some cover as you set up, making it hard for foes to reach you. Then, you can either make Walls to throw, excavate a boulder to toss at them, or break off the stage and move it over to create a sniping platform foes will have to reach. This turns the game into a real king of the hill match as E.E.D. protects his elevated camping spot with the variety of gravity-based mechanics. EQ is especially good here for the tripping factor and how it creates debris to roll down the slope at foes.
"Mine Field": Using Stalagmites, Holes, Quicksand, Stone Walls and Volcanic Gasses, you can turn even a simple stage such as Battlefield (this works best on varied stages that require lots of movement, giving more room for error for how your enemies land in your traps) into a literal deathtrap for your enemies. Be sure to leave set-up for the traps such as making an angled segment for a stalagmite patch, with perhaps a hole or quicksand patch next to it making foes have to jump up over it. Or, you could always have one of the geysers behind a stone wall, creating the same effect, and allowing you time to convert the stage even more to your liking, buffeting foes along the way as they try and pin you down through your creation.
"Sandman": Sand is probably the most versatile tool for E.E.D., seeing as it is so move-able and can hide his other traps. Slopes and cliffs, as well as your grab are integral if you want to try the sandman style of play. The whole trick here is to use sand as a treadmill of sorts to move your enemy around the stage, carrying them off to places they don't want to be, such as down into the abyss or into quicksand. Fossilize will have foes sink faster and be carried much more effectively by flowing sand, so make sure you always have some around you, and try to make yourself somewhat accessible in order to snag the foe in their tomb. That shouldn't be an issue though, as you can always make more with healthy usage of Up Special. Sand also can augment your other attacks, such as U and Dsmash, making an explosion of sand + gasses and extending the area of the quicksand (if you do it over sand), increasing the potency considerably. A more advanced maneuver involves having sand fall from either a cliff or hole you made onto a foe, and catching it with the Plasma Beam. As the sand flows over a foe from a height, try using it to solid rock with the heat, and blocking off a foe from recovering (picture Norfair's edges and how pissed you'd be if there was a wall between the two edges all of a sudden) or trapping them in the ground for you to Drill through or the like. Using the Plasma Beam also allows you to make new stage this way, and behaves just like normal terrain once created.
Those are just a few styles of play for E.E.D. however, as his real style is what you make it as a player, aptly showcasing a "sandbox" style of play. Just be wary that playing him involves creating a lot of time and space, for yourself to do some epic set-up, and he has very few ways to work with pressure aside from Dash Attack to get away or Jab to prevent approaches. Once you find room to work by preoccupying the foe with moves such as Quicksand, Stalagmites or by creating a gap/hole, you can really get the ball rolling. Once you get this kind of "momentum" the other character is gonna have to seriously work to catch up, as E.E.D. can change the whole game with just a few moves done in the right places. Just be careful for if they do catch you as once airborne or sent off stage, E.E.D. becomes like a fish out of water, completely removed from his element and at the mercy of his own creation as to whether he can recover or not.
