Unbreakable Spirit: Using Link in Brawl

Rizen · Jul 10, 2012

Unbreakable Spirit: Using Link in Brawl
An all around guide for Link players by Rizen
5/11/12 to 10-02-12

Contents (press Ctrl F, copy and past the section code into your search window and press Enter to jump to a section):

Contents (you are here)
Introduction (001)
Pros (002)
*Heavy and can live forever
*Great disjointed reach on standard attacks
*3 different projectiles
*Several good KOing attacks
*Several landing canceling attacks (002A)
*Surprisingly good intercepting game
*Link has many anti-projectile tools and works well with items
*Link can setup locks (002B)
*The Link MU, being bottom tier, is uncommon
*Link’s Bombs, Dair and Zair are some of the best moves in the game.
*He’s freaking Link!
Cons (003)
*Link has too much lag
*Can potentially be gimped by any character at any %
*Terrible mobility
*Short, easily gimped recovery
*Mistakes in spacing/timing are easily punished
*Power Shielding>Link (003A)
*No perfect stage picks
*Many common strong disadvantage MUs
*Link is simply a bad character
How these work to place Link where he is (004)
*If you go all Link in tourneys
*During a game Link’s bad traits work together against him
*Link has his work cutout for him...
*Link really does have good things going for him but
Master Spacing (005)
*Tip of attack spacing
*Descending Spacing
*Combining projectiles spacing (005A)
*Spacing Recoveries
*Punishing Dodges and Lag (005B)
*Resetting Bad Spacing
*Certain Death
Stages(006)
*Common Legal Stages List
*Quick Summaries explanation
*Starters (006A)
*Counter Picks
Link’s Game (007)
*Before the game starts
*At the start consider
*The main battle
*Approaching (007A)
*KOing
*Returning from the ledge
*Walkthrough of a game (007B)
Offline/Wifi Differences (008)
Q&A (009)
Credits(010)
Conclusion (011)

Introduction (001)

Hey. It’s late in the game for a guide but many people are interested in using Link so I’ve brought the facts together and added video examples from my games to make understanding Link as straightforward as possible. There are no current Link guides either.
I wanted to show the things this guide explains in real game situations that aren’t a bunch of theory crafting. Most examples last for 3 to 10 seconds after the embedded link starts. Recently the larger part of my Smash playing has been through wifi and so are many examples (the games with ‘wifi’ in the title); I have played in 3 regional tourneys, 1 local, 2 wifi tourneys and 2 wifi ladders going all Link and know my stuff. The examples were picked to show each point as best possible. Players can’t and shouldn’t be judged by clips like these; I needed specific examples is all.
This guide covers Link in a well rounded, competitive sense. It assumes you know the dynamics of Brawl, attacks etc, basic terms ( http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=302576 ), you’re DIing/SDIing attacks, teching, momentum canceling etc, properly and is not a starter guide. (Link’s hitbubbles and frame data: http://allisbrawl.com/forum/topic.aspx?id=124952 )
Because Brawl’s metagame is developed and practically everything is already known this guide will work a little differently from others. It focuses on using Link effectively and skips redundant explanations of moves etc. The layout was designed to show categories/areas of gameplay within a brawl and not a step by step ‘this move does this, next move does that’ and help understand Link’s game as a whole. Offline and wifi play differences will briefly be examined and compared. BTW, I have a hand tremor that occasionally makes me do unintended things, most notably upward attacks like Usmash instead of Fsmash; those are mistakes.
Cold facts: Link has gotten the raw deal in the Smash Bros series. In Brawl he is ranked the 3rd worst character ( http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=321738 ) as I write this and he’s there for good reasons. Although a good Link can win a game here and there and demolish worse players, at a high competitive level he simply doesn’t have what it takes to realistically compete. Like life, Brawl is not fair. Link’s bad placing does partially attribute to the fact that he’s arguably the hardest character to learn and play properly.
On the positive side, Link is one of the most strategic, spacing oriented characters and super fun to play if you think that way. He does have many great tactics, tools and is incredibly versatile. Link is not a character who must be played a specific way but his entire game revolves around spacing. As a Link player you must control the spacing and instinctively use the best options for you’re spacing at all times.
Veteran Links have a motto: Do work. That says it.

Pros and Cons- know Link’s strengths and weaknesses so you can play Link at his best.

Pros (002)

*Heavy and can live forever.

I’ve survived several times past 230% and it’s possibly to exceed 250% with great DI (not explained in this guide, see this: http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=221969 ). Link should live to at least 180% in most cases before he dies off the ceiling or side death zones.

Dair momentum cancel upward launches because Dair has a special property that automatically starts fast falling even as Link rises which works against the upward momentum. Dair really helps: Link survives Wario’s Uair on Brinstar at 153% before being hit. Bair other launches.

Link can DI down and mash ‘grab’ to tether a ledge at any % (but shouldn’t if he can recover easily with his double jump) and cancel all momentum; this is called whiplashing. The tether must ‘find’ a ledge in reach so only use whiplash when you are almost certain the opponent will use a low angle launching attack. Jigglypuff’s Rollout/Dsmash/Fsmash, Zelda’s Dsmash, Yoshi’s Dtilt/Dsmash, Meta Knight’s Dsmash, Wolf’s Dsmash and others can be predictable for whiplash recoveries. Mashing grab makes Link airdodge then cancels the dodge with Zair. Link’s Zair searches for a ledge to grab frames 1-5 then stops searching and releases the attack version on frame 10. If it finds a ledge in those 5 frames it will tether it; the faster Link is launched, the more distance is covered in those frames.

Bomb explosions cancel all momentum and create their own; they renew Link’s UpB recovery too.

Link is the 12th heaviest character with the 2nd fastest fall speed (DeDeDe having the fastest); both these traits work together to make him difficult to launch far. Being gimped is his big problem.

*Great disjointed reach on standard attacks.

Link’s sword reach is about even with Marth’s. He loses spacing battles more from his lag than having the shorter attack. Link’s legs become disjointed during Bair and Nair about as much as Link’s sword is. Hitbubbles for Fair cut 1 and Jab 1:

Compare to MK’s Fair and Ftilt:

Link’s reach is good. But now compare his frame data vs MK’s (note I’m comparing Link’s jab combo with MK’s Ftilt combo):
Fair
Link
Frame 13: Hitbox out: 9 damage, 2 frame duration.
Frame 25: Hitbox out: 12 damage, 2 frame duration.
Frame 50: Autocancel.

MK
1-5 startup
6-7 hitbox out
8-9
10-11 hitbox out
12
13-14 hitbox out
15-39 aerial cooldown

Jab Link
Jab 1
Frame 6: Hitbox out: 4 damage, 2 frame duration.
Frame 7: You can start Jab 2.
Frame 19: IASA. At this point you can do any action, but pressing A will still do Jab 2.
Frame 27: Animation is over. At this point pressing A will restart Jab 1 rather than doing Jab 2.
Jab 2
Frame 5: Hitbox out: 3 damage, 2 frame duration.
Frame 9: You can start Jab 3.
Frame 20: IASA
Jab 3
Frame 5: Hitbox out: 5 damage, 5 frame duration.
Frame 36: IASA
52 frames total for all 3 jabs as fast as possible (if I read the data correctly 7+9+36=52)

Ftilt (all 3 cuts as soon as possible) MK
1-2 startup
3-4 1st hit hitbox out
5
6-7 2nd hit hitbox out
8
9-10 3rd hit hitbox out
11-40 cooldown

Keep this in mind when spacing with Link. MK’s the best but a large amount of Link spacing any opponent is factoring Link’s lag and using tip-of-attack spacing (explained in a later section).

Link also reaches high above him with upward attacks. Unfortunately he will attack sideways or vertically but not both together well. Ftilt and Utilt are the only good standard attacks that curve around Link; Usmash can but not enough to make up for its ending lag. To help connect use SH/jumps, platforms and Link’s projectiles.
Zair’s not a traditional standard attack but works as a very long disjointed sideways air attack that rivals Ike’s Fair. Zair’s the missing link to sword and projectile spacing.

*Extremely versatile attacker. All of Link’s moves serve a purpose (with the arguable exception of Dtilt). Link can attack the same place in several possible ways. This means Link has a great mix-up game and should use it. It also makes Link have to work and think hard to fight well. Falco and simply SH laser to camp, Link must moving SH/jump while angling his boomerang, playing mindgames with bombs, quickdrawing, partially chagrining arrows, and Zair for example. Maximizing Link’s attack potential takes experience, skill and patience. Eventually you’ll get a feel for your options and use different tactics without stalling. Various tactics are explained throughout this guide in the appropriate places.

Dtilt:

Dtilt can spike but the hit bubble arrangement and ledge snaps make it extremely difficult and Link has better options than to risk sour-spotting Dtilt vs a recovering opponent.

The yellow hitbubbles in 2 spike (never mind the rest of the old image). Unfortunately the non-spiking, sour hitbubbles launch up a good distance that has almost no knockback growth with damage and no good follow ups. If anything they help the opponent into a better recovery position. The (blue) sour hitbubbles out prioritize the spiking ones so a spike will only happen if the blue don’t touch at all. Link can spike facing backwards but his hurtbox overlaps the hitbubble.
Dtilt’s slow to start (hits frames 12-14 and ends 31) and does 12 damage. Use it for a less committing low shield poke alternative to Dsmash or try to spike an opponent as they rise through a floor or plank if you feel lucky. I do not recommend this move.

*3 different projectiles

that can’t be absorbed by PSI Magnets and Game and Watch’s Bucket and a 2 hit Zair (the only 2 hit Zair in Brawl, 4% and 6% consistent damage) to space with.
Link can, should and needs to flood the screen with projectiles and combine his range and standard attacks. Having 3 projectiles also allows Link to stop every character’s planking without moving too close. Ftilt is a great anti-planking attack too (more later).
Each projectile can vary significantly, especially bombs. Link’s arrows can hold a charge in place as long as you want and fire at any time after the startup lag. Boomerangs can be ground bounced/angled and tilted or smashed. Bombs have tons of tricks; I’ll cover them in greater detail later.
This could be a subcategory of versatile attacker. Link needs to use all his move together to be effective though; he can’t neglect any projectile or Zair but also must use each at the right time/spacing.

*Several good KOing attacks.

Link’s Fsmash1 & 2, Dsmash, Ftilt, Utilt, Ground Spin Attack, Fair 2nd cut, Uair, and Dair all are reliable to KO with once the opponent has enough damage. Usmash, Nair, and Bair 2nd kick can KO at higher %s but are better for dealing damage and spacing. Link’s Uthrow will KO around 160%-200%+ depending on the opponent. vs Ness and Lucas, Link has a guaranteed ground grab release jab/dash attack/Dsmash; they will only air break if they’re held in the air (over a slope or ledge) or the player mashes jump and Ness/Lucas escapes during a pummel. Link has no normal air grab releases vs any character because his low holding stance.
What this means is Link doesn’t need to worry about staling KO moves much. Link’s projectile spam freshens moves quickly too. He has good power and damage for most attacks but only Dair has great power.

*Several landing canceling attacks (002A)

boost Link’s short hop (SH) and platform game. Fair, Nair, Bair and Zair all landing cancel without extra lag. Link’s fast fall (FF) speed lets him transition quickly from an air attack to ground spacing, for example SH>Zair>FF>land (maybe repeat) and immediately jab, Smash or whatever. Uncharged arrows will have their starting lag cut if Link starts to fire an arrow just before he lands; this is called quickdraw.

*Surprisingly good intercepting game.

Link’s recovery is terrible and he’s vulnerable off stage. Despite this he intercepts well. There is the obvious and safest option of projectile intercepting from onstage. Charging an arrow after launching sideways hits opponents far from the stage. Charged arrows will hit Snake out of his UpB recovery and Link can charge another fast enough to keep hitting Snake away until he dies if nothing (like grenades) interrupts Link. Link can space his boomerang so its wind gimps in various ways, using the push at the end of its outward journey or the pull as it returns. Or BOTH together, lol. Gale guarding is when Link jumps off stage right next to it and throws his boomerang into the stage so it bounces back in the returning all wind phase. If Link’s spaced right the boomerang will pass by him during the bounce and he won’t catch it. The gale wind can be very useful.
Ftilt reaches out and below the stage and stops recoveries before they reach the ledge.
Link’s Zair tether lets him renew his invulnerability from grabbing the edge up to 3 times. Tap away from the stage and ‘grab’ twice in a row immediately to tether edgehog 1 time. On rare occasions Link can tether the ledge and hang with the tether extended to edgehog horizontal recoveries. Lylat’s tilt often makes Link’s tether miss so drop from the ledge and add a quick jump and dodge before tethering; this can apply to parts of Rainbow Cruise, the 3rd phase of Castle Siege and a few other tilting ledges too.

Offstage interceptingis a VERY high risk/high reward gambit. Link is so easily gimped that many players fear going offstage with him. If you know what you’re doing a few moves can be extremely effective offstage because the opponent can’t dodge or shield like on the ground and usually must move predictably (to the edge) which makes them easy to hit. Link can run off the stage, Bair or Nair and recover safely. His other aerials last long enough that Link will be too low to reach the edge by the time they end and should be SHed or jumped off the stage (Link can barely recover with Uair and Fair but they’re too risky to run off and use. Dair and Zair will end too late). No mater what don’t try something Link can’t recover from. Link shouldn’t stray far from the ledge.
Dair is very powerful-Link’s most powerful attack, always launches upwards and has the highest priority of normal attacks. Link auto FFs when using Dair unless he’s rising when it starts so you must SH or jump it to bounce and survive. Dair will beat any recoveryas long as Link’s positioned above, the hitbubbles don’t touch Link first and the recovery isn’t invulnerable/armored (Ike/Peach/Snake(cipher part) UpB hitbubbles go up too far, DK/Game and Watch [FONT=&quot](Ike/Peach/Snake(cipher part) UpB hitbubbles go up too far, DK/Game and Watch (G&W)/Charizard start of UpB is invulnerable, Dedede (DDD) has armor for the up moving part of his upB but will take damage). Dair beats Meta Knight’s (MK) Shuttle Loop, Space Animal’s UpB and SideB recoveries and many others. Yoshi’s 2nd jump has armor frames that protect him against up to 17% damage in a single hit so Link’s Dair which does 18% sour will hit Yoshi out of it. [/FONT]
Nair is faster, safer with less commitment but lower power and priority than Dair. Both eat most range attacks and protect around Link. Nair and Dair respectively (Nair’s hitbubbles shrink slightly later in the attack) :

Link can tether edgehog to stall before or after the intercepting attack. Some opponents are too good in the air to chase off stage; beware aerial ‘grab’ type attacks like inhale, bite, egg lay and so on. After double jumping, mashing jump can footstool opponents if Link’s lower half is touching their upper hurtbox without risk of wasting a jump. Link is vulnerable to footstool jumps too and probably won’t survive one offstage; be aware of Link and the opponent’s relative positions. Bombs thrown down, up or dropped offstage can set useful traps. Link should only intercept when you know you can pull it off.
If the opponent recovers high, Link’s up angled boomerang, up thrown bombs, Usmash, Uair and Fair are good for juggling/intercepting.
When played right, Link is dangerous in keeping the opponent from recovering.
Note: Wifi lag can kill Link offstage with 1 mistake; if Link doesn’t grab the ledge or his upB buffers wrong Link will easily die. Intercepting and everything offstage is even more dangerous on wifi. Offline or on, have a planB to make sure Link does not die too.

*Link has many anti-projectile tools and works well with items.

All of Link’s standard attacks’ hitbubbles will clank with medium-strong range attacks and probably eat weaker range attacks. Link can Zair, Dair etc strait through Mario’s fireballs. Well timed jabs clank with ZSSamus’ power suit pieces (not recommended). This is why long lasting aerial attacks and SHs are useful; Nair/Zair/Dair have no gaps in their attacks and eat weak range attacks. Link can FF Nair down through Snake or Olimar’s Usmash, hit them and take no damage; Dair’s bounce property, even when FFed, won’t let Link do this. Spaced right, Dair will bounce full power Aura spheres, moving powersuit pieces, Snake’s missile etc.

Arrows (uncharged) and Link’s Boomerang usually cancel with other range attacks like Pikachu’s thunder jolts. Charged arrows have higher priority. Link’s Boomerang wind pulls items away (Snake’s grenades, Link and Toon Link’s bombs, etc). The wind detonates Snake’s Dsmash mines too. If Link’s Boomerang is reflected the wind will pull him but gives no hitstun or damage and Link’s attacks will cancel the wind from his reflected boomerang. Normally the wind cannot be canceled.

Bombs have extremely high priority and trigger explosions with transcendent attacks. Bombs will explode when they ‘impact’ solid stage elements with enough force, their hurtbox takes too much damage (roughly 6%), they touch the opponent or an explosion or their wick burns down after 7 seconds (you can see bombs begin flashing then flash faster and faster before exploding). Note: fire attacks ‘hurt’ bombs like other range attacks and don’t trigger detonations but Red Pikmin will. Red Pikmin clinging to Link can cause bombs to detonate the instant they leave Link’s hand and hurt him. Because bombs are a throwing item they have a hurtbox that can stop transcendent attacks as well. Link can throw a bomb strait through Bowser’s Fire Breath, and most weak range attacks. Bombs cancel with Aura spheres after a certain charge to full power, Samus’ Charged Beam, and Dedede’s Gordos. When Link throws his bombs forward they will stop banana peels and most turnips in place because higher priority. Link’s Zair can destroy Toon Link’s bombs but no Zair will stop Link’s.

The Hylian Shield Link caries is mostly worthless in battle except for on rare occasion blocking a quick range attack you didn’t see to shield. If a range attack touches the shield when in effect (Link’s standing and not twirling his sword or crouching without holding an item) before (or at the exact same time) the attack hits Link it will be blocked and Link will be pushed back slightly (even by Fox’s lasers); this can be good vs big predictable attacks like Zelda’s Din’s Fire, PK Flash and PK Freeze to save Link’s Smash shield from pressure. When crouching Link never drops his guard. If you have the lead, Link can crouch to defend against some characters’ planking. Note: true explosions are their own category and will not be blocked; neither will wind except from Link’s reflected boomerang. The Hylian Shield is very useful in the Subspace game but too small, limiting and inconsistent for completive play.

Link can do everything he can with bombs with other character’s throwing items. Grenades, turnips, bananas, peanuts, ZSS powersuit pieces, ROB’s gyro, etc. Turn the tables by holding a banana or gyro etc and spamming boomerang, arrows and Zair, then when the opponent approaches, Fsmash or Spin Attack them. Catch items with dash attack, airdodge, the start of any aerial or a well timed press of ‘Z’ in the air or ‘A’ on the ground.
Characters have a limit to how many of each item they can have on screen and holding their item will keep them from bring out new ones. Diddy can have 2 bananas, ROB 1 gyro, ZSS always starts with 3 power suit pieces and cannot get new ones; holding any of these can be useful in limiting the opponent’s game. Don’t worry about holding Peach’s turnips or Diddy’s peanuts. Link/TL/Snake are limited to 2 bombs/grenades which explode after a short time so holding them is not helpful.

Reminder: airdodge and press grab or attack during the dodge to Zair without throwing the item Link’s holding; this works for tether recoveries too. When holding an item perform an action and hold down attack during the lag then tap the ‘C’stick left or right while holding attack to Fsmash with the item. Or simply keep holding attack after Link catches or picks up an item. Note: While you are holding attack in ‘item Fsmash ready’ mode, Link will not throw or drop the item like normal until you release attack.

*Link can setup locks (002B)

like jab lock, arrow lock and footstool bomb to Dair. To ‘lock’ (knock the opponent down in a way that forces them to automatically stand without the normal options of rolling and getup attacks- basically it gives you a free hit of your choice when near), make an opponent fall with a 'wobble' animation landing, which can be done with the boomerang’s attack (50% trip rate vs ground and near-ground opponents and good hitstun), a bomb>footstool>FF Nair, by shield pushing an opponent off a platform and other ways too. Then hit them with a weak attack, (Link's uncharged-partially charged arrows or jab1) to start a lock. If the wobble motion is hit by an attack that can cause locks with fast timing the opponent will wobble again. Link’s jab can repeat this if Link steps forward>jabs>step>jab>step>jab etc until the end of the stage where usually a partially charged Fsmash punishes the forced standup; this is a jab lock. Link cannot lock with jab2 so you must have the timing down. Arrows are too slow to lock with more than 1.

Huggles828 said:
When I jab lock I try to count in my head to a rhythm. "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2..." just learn the timing. Unlike CPR where the timing is easy (ironically, your compressions should be to the beat of "Another One Bites the Dust") I have yet to find a good song or tune to associate with jab locks.

If Link is locked by an opponent, which can’t happen if you tech landings, then DI like crazy toward the edge of the stage and Link will take less hits.

Jab canceling isn’t a true lock. It works like a lock to have weak jabs chain into more powerful attacks. Jab once or twice>tap down to cancel the 3rd jab buffer>grab/Dsmash/Spin Attack or maybe Fsmash/Utilt/start another jab cancel depending on how the opponent DIs. Jab>jab>Spin Attack is a good chain if you’re on wifi with weird lag or haven’t got the timing of jab canceling down because Spin Attack is a special move and won’t start the 3rd jab if input early: A>A>up+B as fast as you can enter it will work.
Jabs can be DIed and/or interrupted by fast moves. (Except for with ‘B’ move follow-ups, which Spin Attack is the only good one) You must wait until at least frame 7 to tap down (and release to neutral) to cancel jab 1 into another attack or jab>jab>wait 9 frames>tap down (and release to neutral)>use another attack after jab 2. The timing and attacks can be varied for mind games however there are no guarantees. Jab canceling is still an effective tactic most of the time is you don’t get greedy or predictable.

*The Link MU, being bottom tier, is uncommon and you might surprise someone who doesn’t know it.

*Link’s Bombs, Dair and Zair are some of the best moves in the game.

*He’s freaking Link! ‘nuff said.

Cons (003)

*Link has too much lag for his moves to compete with high tiers. This is explained throughout the guide.

*Can potentially be gimped by any character at any %. Instantly turning the tide of battle against Link.

His recovery is short both vertically and horizontally. Link must have great DI and clever recovering projectile cover and strategy to survive. One way to think about it is basically 95% of Link recovering is DI, projectile cover, his weight, strategy, mix-ups and 5% is his actual recovery. Note: Link’s tether recoveries are not 100% consistent; if Link’s barely too far, has already tethered the ledge 3 times without landing, the opponent’s edgehogging, the stage tilts (Lylat etc) or on rare occasion for no good reason, his clawshot will not grab the ledge or Zair. Tap down to cut the tether and immediately UpB recover if this happens.

*Fast falling speed with low jumps, bad sideways air movement speed and bad ground speed makes Link terrible in terms of mobility. As if poor mobility wasn’t bad enough, none of Link’s projectile will KO until unrealistically high %s and Link is put in a terrible position if he loses the stock lead. The threat of being timed out makes matters even worse.

*Mistakes in spacing/timing are easily shield grabbed or punished. And Link will be punished hard.

Link can be chain grabbed (CGed) by the following characters: Ice Climbers 0% to death (duh), Falco until 52%+, Yoshi, DeDeDe across the stage, and Pikachu. A few other characters (Peach, Marth) have guaranteed re-grabs or some grab release/throw follow up until 30%ish. At low %s Link’s not difficult to re-grab for characters without guaranteed options too.

Holding a bomb or having one fall and explode can stop any CG but isn’t reliable because re-grabs are faster than bomb pulls. If you are CGed sometimes the opponent will mistime something and Link can escape; the best thing to do is, vs: ICs- rotate the Cstick and control stick like crazy and mash jump, immediately pull a bomb if Link escapes, Falco- DI away and mash grab to Zair him, Falco’s Dair spike won’t guaranteed KO Link until the end %s of the CG so double jump and UpB to recover or smash both sticks sideways towards the stage to SDI the Dair hit and tap shield to tech the stage wall (if solid) then grab the ledge, Yoshi- mash jump and be ready to dodge or pull a bomb, stages with low platform interfere too, Dedede and Pikachu- hold shield and mash down to spotdodge then jump and bomb pull. Other CGs, like Lucario’s ForcePalm can be DIed and dodged to escape.
He can be juggled to medium %s by several Utilts at low damage, Sheik can Ftilt lock Link to around 80% if spaced right (DI in towards Sheik and up to escape). Link’s fall speed, bad mobility, bad roll dodges, lag and lack of good escape or GTFO options and Out of Shield or OoS options makes him easy to grab and chain attacks on. Spotdodging is Link’s fastest ground escape, his airdodge is decent, Nair starts frame 6 and is a great combo breaker along with Zair. Footstool jumps will quickly reset a situation. Sometimes rolling away is the best option; Link has bad roll dodges but they can be safer than using Link’s slow attacks or bad mobility. More about this in the ‘Resetting Bad Spacing’ section.

Being CGed, juggled, chained and punished nulls Link’s weight advantage quickly.

*Power Shielding (PSing)>Link’s versatile attacks and mobility (003A).

Link can setup great attack situations and flood the stage with projectiles but PSing beats all of it and most opponents can shield and respond faster than Link can act to maintain his spacing. Brawl is a heavily block and grab based game and Link loses hard to that. Bad OoS options and a slow, punishable grab kill Link’s potential before he has a chance.

*No perfect stage picks.

Link can be great on several stages but vs some opponents picking those stages is bad too. Link does better vs Falco/Dedede etc on Brinstar but if the opponent counter picks MK or Marth it’s very bad. With Norfair banned, no matter which stage Link chooses the opponent can choose a character who benefits more from there. Link gets murdered on several stages vs bad MU opponents too. Frigate Orpheon is his worst stage in general. More about stages later in ‘Stages’ section (006).

*Many common strong disadvantage MUs. http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=316173 . Several matchups (MUs) are somewhat arguable but this gives the idea. Link will frequently have a large disadvantage. It isn’t merely 2 or 3 bad MUs that drag him down. Although a few are realistically unwinnable at high competitive levels.

*Link is simply a bad character. There’s not much to say here; higher characters outclass Link. He needs to be buffed with less lag, better power, mobility etc. Though Link has tools to deal with many situations, his stats suck, and he often is completely shutdown by the opponent (DDD’s CG, Falco’s laser camping, MK’s everything...).

Sad

.

How these work to place Link where he is (004)

*If you go all Link

(which I’ve done for 4 live tournaments), there are a hundred ways the opponents can ‘counter’ what ever you do. If they have a pocket Falco or whoever it means your workable stage choices are about 1/4th what they would be if you knew they were sticking to one character. Generic stages like Pokemon Stadium 1 (PS1), Battlefield (BF), and maybe a few others are not going to help you but at least they won’t s**** you like Rainbow Cruise (RC) if the opponent counter picks R.O.B.
Even with that and -4 and -3 MUs set aside, Link will have to work harder, smarter and make fewer mistakes to win. Under the Unity Ruleset, sets are best of 3, so you can’t play super and win 1 game vs MK (whoever) to move up; you must win 1 more of the next 2. You have to ban 1 stage and play another game on their CP, which can easily be terrible for Link. If you lose you chose the next stage minus their ban then they chose what character to use. It’s a steep uphill climb no matter what.

*During a game Link’s bad traits work together against him.

Lag, bad OoS, risky grab, bad mobility, bad recovery, fast falling speed, slow sideways air speed, easy to grab, can be CGed by several characters, easy to gimp, easy to shield, and easy to damage/juggle are a horrible combination of cons. Say you’re fighting a bad MU like DDD: mistake in spacing>shield grabbed>CGed across the stage>thrown offstage>DDD Bair walls with his multiple jumps and gimps Link. That’s a very high price to pay for getting sloppy. DDD is one of Link’s worst MUs (with MK and Falco) so other fights will be a little more forgiving. Link still has to work insanely hard to stay ahead and he can lose a stock and the lead so easily there is little or no room for error.

*Link has his work cutout for him.

Link must use everything he’s got to win. Keep the opponent guessing with spam/attack mix-ups and mindgames, don’t let them catch their breath by constantly pressuring and using Link’s projectile in the most efficient way, make attacks flow together by combining projectiles, aerial and buffered ground attacks, use the best options for Link’s spacing, adapt as needed, read the opponent’s style and habits, enter the controls correctly, do not recklessly fish to land attacks and above all else know you will make mistakes/get grabbed etc and don’t lose your cool when things go wrong, instead reset the situation and make up for it.

*Link really does have good things going for him and can do really well. The problem is no mater how close a match is, a loss is a loss :/ . With that considered, Link is ranked the 3rd worst character and is there for a reason.

Master Spacing (005)

Link is all about spacing.
*Tip of attack spacing:

Even though his standard attacks hit well with all their hitbubbles, Link needs to space like Marth’s tippers. Projectile and Spin Attack spacing doesn’t apply to this. Because Link’s windup lag he needs the distance to be safe when attacking. To give you an idea of this: Link’s fastest ground attacks are jab and Dsmash starting frame 6. Snake’s Ftilt1 starts frame 4, Squirtle/ZSS have frame 1 jabs and Ike’s jab starts frame 2 (this has good info on frame data: http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=258564 ). Most characters easily win with speed so Link’s great reach is vitally important. Often characters get closer but if you space with the tip of Link’s attack reach he can hit them before they mean trouble. Tip of attack spacing also is longer than most grabs. Standing shield grabs can’t immediately punish Link’s reach with the exceptions of tether grabs (minus Lucas and Yoshi who can’t standing grab good spacing), DDD and maybe Charizard, who have the best and 2nd best normal grab ranges in the game.

Tip spacing helps when attacking opponents who are above Link too. Utilt reaches high enough to ensure if the opponent air dodges they will still have significant vulnerability before landing unless they have very fast fall speeds. It’s relatively fast and swings to Link’s sides a useful distance. Usmash can outlast dodges but has gaps between its 3 cuts that fast downward attacks can pass through; starting so the tip will hit first worsens chances for the opponent to slip through before the 2nd or 3rd cut connects. Usmash’s cool down lag being punished is less of a risk if the opponent is still in the air because Usmash started earlier. Think of Usmash as a longer lasting Utilt. By combining landing canceling attacks and Utilt or Usmash (both reach through low platforms) Link can deal several cuts of platform pressure quickly. Usmash’s cool down lag prevents it from being a great upward attack; it’s better for punishing dodges and lag.

Uair outlasts air dodges and will cover dodging opponent’s movements longer when they come down on the tip. Because Uair’s long attack duration and long upward reach Link risks very little vs potential attacks like Bowser/Yoshi’s downB that fall fast when Uair starts earlier rather than later. Uair from directly below is a very disjointed attack wall that will beat most Dairs and special moves that shoot downward and at worst trade with ones it won’t out reach. Uair can be jumped and cancel before landing. Like with Usmash, Link can effectively land the attack and have it end sooner with less risk this way.

Tip spacing for landing canceling attacks means Link has better ground spacing to jab etc after he does land. And Link can better avoid shield grabs and rush attacks. All of Link’s aerials have long lasting hitbubbles or 2 hits so beginning earlier has better odds when challenging opponents with quick aerials.

In every aspect this spacing makes the most of Link’s great disjointed reach and is safer. The trick is hitting the opponent or spacing so they could be hit which factors Link’s lag/reach/movements, the opponent’s, and their relative positioning etc. You don’t want to throw out too short attacks hoping the enemy will move into them. Note: Link’s multiple hit standard attacks have slightly better reach and are more powerful with their final hit (Jab3, Fsmash2, Usmash, Dsmash (2nd cut is behind Link), Fair, Bair, Zair, UpB in the air) but these single hit attacks are most powerful at the beginning (Nair, Uair, Dair, ground Spin Attack).
As a general guideline, tip of attack spacing means try to connect with the farthest out hitbubble with jabs/Ftilt/Utilt/Fsmash/Usmash/Fair/Bair/Uair/Zair; many hitbubbles follow Link’s sword during the attack.
For Fsmash this is the extent of Link’s reach:

Link steps forward for Fsmash1 & 2 and his attack does not cover behind him (unlike Toon Link’s Fsmash). Ftilt steps forward but starts behind Link and is a good alternative to Fsmash1 vs opponents who roll behind Link. You can judge the tip hitbubble for all Link’s sword swings visually by hitting with the sky blue energy streak area.

*Descending Spacing

(Everyone love pictures) This is a combination of several screenshots to show relative aerial attack spacing. Light blue represents the approximate normal falling speed hitbubble area, dark blue is fast falling. These images are accurate through testing but not 100% to the frame. The far right ones were pasted there for clarity; Link didn’t jump that far. All moves are aimed right but not necessarily with Link facing right as he falls.

1 Starting point (because Link’s fast fall speed and long lasting actions this shows distances based on if Link started from the 2nd platform height, except with Zair), 2 double jump height (from platform), 3 Nair hitbubbles, 4 FF airdodge distance, 5 Bair hitbubbles, 6 Zair hitbubbles (Zair hits twice but has no actual gaps, the 3 blue spots are roughly the 1st hit’s start, 2nd hit’s start and ending respectively), 7 Dair (slow fall) auto cancel height. Dair’s auto cancel height is important to learn. If you can space Dairs to auto cancel without lag you have a lot more freedom using them. When you get the feel of descending spacing attacks you can start much higher than the opponent, hit just before landing (even with Fair’s powerful 2nd cut and Bair) and transition immediately to ground moves.
Notice: several of Link’s moves are in affect for a longer distance than the height he can double jump; I started each move double jumping from the second platform up. Forward momentum is included; the same distance applies to backwards falling. Pair disjointed hitbubbles with their range attack canceling properties and Link is largely safe during fast falling moves. His fast falling airdodge is intangible for a long distance and can be canceled anytime by pressing grab to Zair/tether the ledge. Auto cancel aerials keep attacking until they land or end. Short grounded opponents will be hit if the move is spaced right; Zair can be spaced to hit G&W while he’s ducking from the tip of its reach with great spacing/timing. Be sure to buffer actions as Link lands.
If there’s no need for the second hit of Fair/Bair/Zair FF and transition to ground attacks.
Nair is Link’s most useful FF aerial because it has a large gapless disjointed attack around Link’s lower body, landing cancels, beats most range attacks and if fast to start (frame 6). A common mix-up is to jump/SH and quickly FF Nair then buffer a ground option. FF Nair trades with or beats most attacks and is an important attack to use in combination with Link’s platform and bomb tactics (more later).
Dair’s priority makes intercepting Link as he recovers down dangerous unless the opponent has great disjointed upwards attack options. Beware of Pikachu’s DownB, Toon Link’s Uair, bombs and such attacks. Many Usmashes/Utilts will outreach Dair and you need to avoid its landing lag; be sure to start high enough (from a platform or upward launch) or guide Dair offstage slightly so it cancels and won’t be punished. Link has a great chance Dair-ing down to the stage vs aerial opponents if their Uairs have gaps. Dair attacks frames 13-64 (when it auto cancels too) and Link can slow fall it until the opponent’s Uair suffers cool down lag then FF like a rock to hit them. This works vs gaps in Usmash/Utilts but if the opponent shields or dodges Link’s landing lag will be punished. Dair should not be a common descending attack because the lag and Link can’t do anything else for it’s duration in the air (79 frames). Note: Dair’s first attack frame (13) has more power than the rest but all the hitbubbles are equally strong. FFing Dair only prevents the bounce animation and increases the fall speed (but it still counts as 2 hits- you can’t FF through Olimar’s Usmash); Dair’s power, damage, angles etc are unchanged.

To further cover his descents Link should use bombs. Throw them down, slow drop (press grab with no direction), invincibomb (in the air tap shield and attack at the same time, Link will drop his bomb while airdodging), throw bombs up and they’ll fall with greatest delay, drop a bomb and catch it with a FF aerial (usually Nair/Dair) as Link falls, all with his other options in mind. 2 bombs from one Link can be onscreen at once. Make your bombs fall where they’re most needed. A good mindgame is to land and throw the bomb sideways at the opponent. Link can drop a bomb, FF, land and shield the explosion to prevent being grabbed. Purposefully detonating a bomb to launch Link up and reset a bad situation is an option; try to hit the opponent too. Link can survive upward launches at high %s and a bomb’s damage is almost always better than what the opponent was planning. Note: Normally bombs’ ‘impact’ explosions will not be triggered by Link; he can jump through them (unlike Melee). Reflectors will not change the trajectories of bombs traveling strait up or down but will make the bomb explode if it touches Link. Wind has a strong effect that moves bombs no matter how they’re thrown.

Zair is a poor choice to use while recovering down to the stage; however its great reach covers landings very well. Toon Link players use this tactic too. Remember, a well timed Zair can hit every opponent. The attack is only at the claw while it extends; the chain part can travel down through solid platforms if the claw doesn’t touch them (which would cancel the attack). Link can also grab or Zair tether the ledge if he’s in danger of having his landing punished.

Save Link’s double jump for mindgames when needed. Link’s bad sideways air speed means he will land close to where he’s falling. Opponents can take advantage of this and punish landings with shield grabs/attacks. Your first priority when descending is to land safely.

*Combining projectiles spacing (005A)

Link’s projectiles were programmed to be used and spaced together. Uncharged arrow and bomb spacing:

(Distance of) 1 quickdraw, 2 SH arrow, 3 jumped arrow, 4 weak bomb toss, 5 strong bomb throw, 6 SH/jumped bomb throw.
(Stated earlier) Link’s Gale Boomerang will start the wind effect and push at the end of its outward path and pull returning. This can lead to wind push gimps. There is an easy way to space the wind push. The horizontal distance where the wind push starts (thrown strait, ground bounced, angled up or down, thrown from the air or on the ground, it doesn't matter) is:
Tilted Boomerang throw: 1 (where an uncharged arrow and weak bomb toss lands)
Smashed: 2 (where a short hopped uncharged arrow lands)
Any Link who knows how to space their spamming can easily judge the proper distance. Smashed boomerang end of outward reach spacing:

(From top to bottom: Up angled, ground bounced, thrown strait)
Notice: Link’s boomerang has the same sideways reach no matter what angle it’s thrown. With vertical distance factored, it will travel farther and slightly faster if angled. Inputting angles that are in between notches on the hole around the control stick will result in shallower throw angles. The steepness of slopes in stages will influence the bounce as long as a strait vertical barrier isn’t hit. The boomerang will travel down as far as it can travel up from the plane where Link throws it if nothing gets in the way (not shown).
Bomb throws are Link’s fastest attack, which can be done OoS too. Often it is best to hold a bomb and use other attacks then throw it when you need a quick, high priority attack. Link can always shield/spotdodge/airdodge bombs exploding in his hands safely when their fuse runs out. Bombs and less-so arrows curve with gravity as the fly. Beware, some small characters can duck forward thrown bombs and arrows and even use low attacks under them without being hit.

Remember to move while spamming. SHs are best and Link can move around in many ways including FF tethering the ledge, jumps and slides etc to space and mix-up his camping. I use the term ‘camping’ but Link can’t truly camp for more than a few seconds. Camping for Link means moving and throwing projectiles to support spacing and deal damage. Because Link’s moving he needs to take advantage of his projectiles’ curves. Angle and ground bounce boomerang throws, throw bombs down, hold them etc as needed, charge arrows partially to increase their range and power: play mindgames and make the most of Link’s incredibly versatile projectile game.
Link’s spamming is slow so he needs to flood the screen with projectiles. Once he does this it forces the opponent to deal with them and gives Link’s fighting (figurative) momentum. He can play more offensively, land other attacks easily and chain several different moves together while keeping the opponent off balance. It’s important to recognize and take advantage of momentum when Link has it and reset bad situations or switch to defense when (not if) he loses it.

Using the gale wind:

Here's where I disagree with most Links but I think the wind metagame is very underdeveloped. The wind can be a great spacing tool imo.
These examples are intentional and only wind, not including the normal boomerang attack uses.
2 hit combos like Dsmash 1st and 2nd hit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS9ZL...ailpage#t=165s
Forcing spacing (at the end the wind pushes out then pulls in).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS9ZL...ailpage#t=101s
Using the wind push to gimp lag or free falling (people say this never works but it does; vs good people on and offline if used sparingly).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isGgo...ailpage#t=326s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME5Oh...ailpage#t=243s
Edge stalling aid vs characters who anti-plank with guided range, flamethrower etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kwvkp...ailpage#t=126s
It's a great range attack disruptor that stays out a long time (also moves items like grenades and bombs and detonates Snake's Dsmash mines).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pgth...tailpage#t=76s
Crossovers and disrupting spacing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdeC5...tailpage#t=85s
Basically the wind is an all around good spacing tool (but not attack)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDlxf...tailpage#t=61s

*Spacing Recoveries

Intro note:
When launched sideways, momentum cancel and start DIing towards the stage. If Link is holding a bomb he can throw it backward and begin momentum canceling then Bair to catch it at medium-high to high %s. Don’t use Link’s 2nd jump right away unless you absolutely must. The 2nd jump creates forward and brief upward momentum and cancels FFing. Predicted low sideways launches can be whiplashed (see section (002)
Pros, ‘Heavy and can live forever’). Returning down from sharp upwards launches was covered in ‘Descending Spacing’; this section focuses on the most common side recoveries.

Recovering back from a sideways launch:
Most characters will attack Link as he approaches the ledge or quickly edgehog. Throwing Link’s boomerang at the ledge slightly before the opponent would edgehog defends against both. Beware, several aerials will eat Link’s boomerang; evasion is the only truly safe recovery. If Link’s high enough he can Fair attack opponents who jump out to intercept him (Fair has a 50 frame duration). Zair also works but the lag’s longer so Link must start higher and be far enough from the ledge that it doesn’t register as a failed tether (you can’t tap down and stop Zair’s attack like when it acts as a tether).
In the ‘Descending Spacing’ section I showed how far Link can FF airdodge safely. When Link is above the stage most opponents won’t try to edgehog, FF airdodge then tether the ledge to zip past opponents who jump to intercept Link; it works while holding a bomb. Link’s airspeed is poor, try to DI and return from as high as possible.
Note: Characters who don’t have multiple jumps cannot change the direction they’re facing in the air without using special moves. Link can throw a bomb/boomerang left or right to change the direction he’s facing in the air (he will face the direction he threw). Link can reverse arrows too (tap backwards>immediately let go of the control stick and fire an arrow) but this interferes with DIing back to the stage. This is important because Zair always fires the direction Link is facing.
Link can FF to quickly escape then double jump, tether or UpB to cancel the extremely fast falling if he starts high enough.

Try to pull a bomb when you have upward momentum but don’t throw it. Holding a bomb is Link’s insurance; when it explodes Link will be launched up with slight forward momentum (that is needed for UpB to travel forward) and his UpB recovery will be restored. Bombs will launch farther if Link has higher damage however, unless a bomb explodes when Link is very near the ceiling border or well over 260%, the chances of it killing Link are almost nonexistent (unlike Snake and his C4 recovery). A Link player named FSK made a series of videos showing how bombs can aid Link’s recoveries: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=ZMCpDCkFB2Y#t=26s (It’s even possible to travel under Final Destination safely).

Whatever the attack Link uses to defend with while he recovers, always start a little preemptively. Link’s moves last onscreen but if the opponent hops out and kicks Link away first he’s dead. Play it safe.
Needless to say, mix-up your recoveries. Just because Link can FF and tether the ledge doesn’t mean he shouldn’t also UpB to it, double jump and slow fall Dair onto the stage and so on.

On the ledge:
When you tether a ledge don’t reel in right away if Link could be in danger. Link can wait it out (this is great for edgehogging too). If he hangs too long the tether will automatically reel its self in (not break). Be careful, Link is vulnerable until he actually grabs the ledge (Zair tethers don’t have the instant ledge snap reel in the special move tethers do).

In game examples:
Note: all the same game http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_wZ427-XGA
Sure Link's recovery sucks and is exploitable http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=L_wZ427-XGA#t=67s
but he does have tools to help like projectile cover http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=L_wZ427-XGA#t=42s
A fast fall speed to dodge attacks and an UpB that can outlast edgehogs http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=L_wZ427-XGA#t=122s
A good airdodge that covers a large distance when FFed and can be canceled with Zair tethers http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=L_wZ427-XGA#t=131s
Good weight and momentum canceling and a high priority Dair that bounces http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=L_wZ427-XGA#t=148s
and bombs http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=L_wZ427-XGA#t=176s

*Punishing Dodges and Lag (005B)

General:
Link’s too slow to punish windup lag except for occasionally Dash Attacking, Zair or throwing a bomb.
Cool down lag and dodge punishing is Link’s strong area. His long reaching standard attacks/Zair, projectiles and priority let him interrupt attacks that are in effect with good spacing. Link has tools to punish action lag, like landings etc too.

Specific Moves:
Fair cuts twice with the 2nd cut being strongest, landing cancels and is a relatively safe dodge punisher against both air and ground opponents. It is very useful for preventing opponents on a ledge to return onstage and is Link’s safest dodge punishing move because it protects in front of Link well and he doesn’t have to commit to a laggy move. Bair is like a faster, weaker Fair (starting frame 5) and can punish dodges but is better used for spacing because its speed. Zair can also punish but is a better spacing tool as well.
Uair punishes air dodges from below and Dair’s long duration makes it a powerful air punisher. Dair can punish characters landing on platforms just above Link. It’s priority makes it great to SH over laggy forward attacks (Fsmashes etc) and land on their lag. Nair can punish although it’s a weak choice.
Ground Spin Attacks are easily blocked and punished hard; hitting a shield 1 time will nullify the rest of the attack. They do have some uses. Spin Attacks can be charged to delay the hitbubbles and its frames 9 (earliest release) through 36 attack creates a long lasting, disjointed wall on either side of Link that almost guarantees to punish the opponent’s vulnerable lag. If you notice the opponent has a habit of spotdodging and/or rolling, Spin Attacks are a good answer. Spin Attacks are good when the opponent cannot shield them; punishing landings, even if the opponent airdodges, is one such situation, stopping rush attacks that can’t cancel, like Jigglypuff’s Rollout, Yoshi’s Egg Roll, Wolf’s Fsmash, etc is another. But be aware that Link’s Dsmash reaches farther to the sides (Spin Attack, Dsmash):

Spin Attack’s hitbubbles technically follow Link’s sword and are not completely without gaps, they get weaker with each rotation (the last 180 degree spin has no attack at all) and you must hit or suffer terrible lag, 76 total frames (earliest attack release)! If any hitbubbles do connect, even the weak ending ones, Link should be safe. Spin Attack and Dsmash punish opponents who roll behind Link.
Ftilt is only 1 frame slower to start than Fsmash1 and ends the same frame (39), it begins high and the hitbubbles track Link’s sword down and forward until it ends a bit under the stage (frames 14-18).

Ftilt often passes through dodges coming towards Link because it cuts forward with only 4 frames of attack. Ftilt’s big curve that extends under the stage makes it great for punishing ledge stalling and returns to the stage or if the opponent is vulnerable on the ledge from hanging too long. The slow start means you must anticipate the stalling.
Usmash punishes above and behind Link and works if the opponent likes to hop closely around Link, is right on top of him, or you predict the opponent will dodge Utilt. It punishes close ground opponents, keep in mind that the hitbubbles reach in front of Link but will miss small characters. The important thing to keep in mind about Usmash is unless at least the last cut connects, it can be punished hard. See the ‘Resetting Bad Spacing’ section below.

Ground moves can be used as jab cancel endings for quicker starts. Combine in the move that is best suited for the situation after 1 or 2 jabs: Spin Attack if the opponent is jabbed out of the low air, grab if they have a habit of shielding, Dsmash to launch them up and away etc.
Link’s Clawshot tether grab lasts frames 11-19 then has cool down lag until it ends at frame 85 (standing) or 95 (dash and pivot). That’s a lot of lag to punish if Link misses.

Only the grabbubble on Link’s hand and not the one that extends with the claw will grab aerial opponents. With his ‘hand grab’, like normal grabs, Link can grab Snake, G&W or Sonic out of their UpB recoveries, hold them without pummeling until a grab break is forced and they will not be able to jump or use momentum creating special moves (Snake can drop a C4 and literally blow himself up and G&W can use his 2nd jump if he saved it). Because most of the grab’s range misses air opponents even if it touches them, and the poor starting speed, Link’s grab is better for defense and risky for offense. The tether range is good though. It’s range is relative to where the grab started (and won’t be pushed with the shield push) so Link’s clawshot can shield grab attacks that would be safe on shields vs normal grabs.

From afar charged arrows with perfect timing are guaranteed to punish landing lag (usually only 4 fames). Bomb must be thrown a little closer; their big explosions punish landings and launch the opponent up again. Boomerang’s wind can distort spacing but the attack’s too slow to punish landings. All of Link projectiles punish backwards rolls.

*Resetting Bad Spacing
Link needs good spacing but he can’t keep opponents out of his happy spacing bubble all the time. Rather than try to fight with a spacing disadvantage use these tactics to reset the situation.

Ground:
Link’s OoS (Out of Shield) options are bad: OoS UpB Spin Attack starts frame 9 and if shielded once leaves him open (ends frame 76), use only to punish a dodge. Usmash starts frame 8 (earliest) but is only good if the opponent is above or right next to Link and it can be DIed easily (action ends frame 64). Grab starts frame 11 and also has absurd cool down lag (85 frames) if you miss, the grab duration is 8 frames (good normal grabs usually are about 2 frames duration, starting 6 and ending 30). –All of theses are relatively slow to start, high risk/bad reward. Unless you know you will land them I recommend options with less commitment.

Link’s jump takes 7 frames and can be done OoS. At least it moves Link away. Airdodge starts frame 3 so Link can OoS retreating jump/SH and airdodge in 10 frames. Nair starts 6, Bair 5 and Zair 10 (add 7 frames for Link’s jumping lag); these are much safer attacks because Link can move as he performs them and landing cancel. OoS retreating (backwards) SH to Zair is very hard to punish. Note: Because Link has a Zair, if you keep holding shield as you attack in the air, all standard attacks will activate Zair. This makes OoS backwards SH Zair easy to do: keep holding shield until Zair starts.

Shield drop lag is 7 frames, so add 7 frames extra windup to any ground attack if you don’t use an OoS option.
Link has one of the best spotdodges in the game, Frames 1-19 intangible, 20-25 cool down lag. Buffered attacking from spotdodges has less vulnerability than dropping Link’s shield. Spotdodge to Dsmash or jab has 19 frames of intangibility, 12 vulnerable frames and attacks (shield drop to Dsmash has 13 vulnerable frames). Don’t neglect Link’s spotdodge or be afraid to spotdodge a few times in a row if needed as long as you’re not predictable. Utilt starts frame 7 and hits a little in front, good distance above and behind Link, ending frame 35 and is probable Link’s overall best GTFO ground move because the attack area and relatively small amount of lag. Jabs are faster but only hit directly in front of Link.

Although Link’s rolls are bad, they move Link away (don’t ever roll towards the opponent) with frames 3-19 intangibility (ending frame 37), which isn’t much worse than his other options when used sparingly. Sometimes rolling is the only safe option.

Simply DIing out and running away a short distance is effective and allows Link to perform another action if needed.

Air:
Nair is Link’s all purpose attack chain breaker, tap attack then try to FF it.
Dropping an item is one of the fastest options, even from hitstun (tap ‘grab’). Usually Link will be holding a bomb but it works with any throwing item.
Link can almost always footstool jump.
Use Link’s FF and airdodge. He needs to return to the ground before he can get in a better position. Ledges mix-up spacing and are good surprise escapes with FFing and tethers if used unpredictable (of course). Backwards SHing off a ledge buys Link room to spam or pull a bomb then he can quickly tether the ledge and flow into another tactic to regain stage control.

Bombs:

If Link is already holding a bomb he’s in a much better situation even with bad spacing. Bomb (item) throws are Link’s fastest OoS attack, provided Link is holding one. Blowing yourself up resets bad situations but Link doesn’t have to throw his bomb or even be vulnerable. The 7 second (think 6 when you play to be safe) wick burning down automatically detonates the bomb; Link can hide in his shield, spotdodge repeatedly or perform a well timed dodge to attack while intangible.
Escaping CGs was explained in the ‘Mistakes in spacing/timing are easily shield grabbed or punished’ section.

*Certain Death
If you know you will not survive cause as much harm as possible before you die.

Add damage with a bomb (you know won’t explode in time to save you) or partially charged arrow. Throw your boomerang to stop interceptions but also to unleash its wind. Sometimes you take the opponent down with you and maybe turn the loss into a win.

Stages(006)

*The most common legal stages in tournaments are:

Starters
Battlefield (BF)
Smashville (SV)
Final Destination (FD)
Lylat Cruise (Lylat)
Pokemon Stadium 1 (PS1)
Yoshi's Island- Brawl (YI)

Counterpicks
Battleship Halberd (Halberd)
Castle Siege (CS)
Brinstar (Brin)
Delfino Plaza (Delfino)
Rainbow Cruise (RC)
Frigate Orpheon (Frigate)
Pokémon Stadium 2 (PS2)
Jungle Japes (Japes)
Pictochat (Picto)

The list might vary depending on the tourney or event. Some stages (like Pictochat) will probably be banned in most tourneys and the list can change. It’s good to know all the stages listed to be safe. I recommend turning off all other stages in the random stage choice options and practicing by fighting on these legal stages chosen at random.

*Quick Summaries
Several stages are debatable in how good they are for Link. Part of this is based on my subjective opinion but I’ll keep them in general consensus as much as possible. (Excuse the abbreviations.)

Character Categories
The following categories (CGers, Gimpers, Space Fars, Runaways, Sharkers, Balanced, GTFOs and Go Aggros) characters fit are listed most relevant to least; use them as a guide to which stages Link should pick or ban vs these characters:

Chain Grabbers (CGers)- grab game can seriously hurt Link and is a large part of their MU:
ICs, DDD, Falco, Pikachu, Yoshi, Diddy (his banana attack chains are similar to CGs when it comes to stages)

Deadly offstage gimpers (Gimpers)- Do not let these characters back Link into a corner and don’t fight them offstage; they can easily gimp Link and recover safely (more so than normal):
MK, ROB, Jigglypuff, Kirby, DDD, G&W, Lucario, Mario, Sonic, Pit

Space far and camp hard (Space Fars)- Link gets wasted by these characters at close range and needs to keep spacing and camping hard while moving:
Bowser, DK, ICs, DDD, Kirby, MK, Marth, Peach, Sheik, Snake, Luigi

Don’t let them run (Runaway)- characters who are fast and mobile enough that they can space Link simply by moving out of his midrange attack area. They take advantage of Link’s slow projectiles and terrible mobility. Losing the lead and being timed out by them is a large threat. Link must approach a few of them simply because he is out-camped:
Sonic, Jigglypuff, Falco, TL, Pit

Sharkers- characters that attack up from the air under pass through stages (like a shark fin) and are relatively safe:
MK, DDD, ROB, Pit, Jigglypuff, G&W, Kirby

Tricky camping/spacing balance (Balanced)- Link can’t just passively camp these characters and needs to switch spacing aggressive/defensive attacks both standard and long range with the flow of battle. Essentially Link needs to play this way vs almost every character to some degree:
C Falcon, Diddy, Fox, G&W, Ganon, Marth, Ike, Lucario, Lucas, Ness, Mario, Luigi, Wario, Olimar, Pit, Pokemon Trainer (PT), ROB, Zelda, Snake, Sonic, Toon Link (TL), Wolf, Yoshi, Samus, Zero Suit Samus (ZSS), Link

GTFO!- It’s a battle of Link trying to keep the opponent at a distance and the opponent trying to approach:
Bowser, C Falcon, DK, Ganon, Ike (a little), Luigi, Zelda

Go aggro!- Link can confront these characters aggressively with tip of attack spacing:
Samus, TL, Link

Keep these categories and their level of importance (most to least) in mind. When choosing stages and reading their summaries below.

Stages
*Starters (006A):

BF
A good starter and stage vs CGers, Runaways, Balanced and go aggro characters. Terrible vs Space Fars and GTFOs.
BF really lets Link’s platform game shine. Move around the platforms spamming and FF aerials a lot. Note that small characters can move safely under the platforms without bomb explosions on the platforms touching them. There are gaps in between the middle and side platforms that vertical bombs will fall through and explode on the ground.
The platforms also make it harder for slow falling characters to recover down to the stage when Link’s juggling with bombs, Utilt etc. Link can platform poke from under well with his long upward reach.
No one has great tricks that are special to BF. The middle platform allows for earlier ceiling KOs is all. The stage is small but the surrounding airspace is medium large.

SV
Small stage with a moving platform and slightly smaller borders than BF. Personally, I see SV as a more cramped FD. Some people like SV, others don’t. It’s considered the most neutral stage in Brawl and the fights are neutral too but give Link nothing to work with. Most Sharkers can easily cross under SV before Link can cover the far side. Don’t take CGers here. Lucario can’t wall cling which jeopardizes his attack-less UpB recovery. Snake’s mines and C4s move with the moving platform making SV a bad starter vs him. Balloons can be Dair bounced and occasionally stop range attacks. That’s about it.

FD
If there’s any chance the opponent will play a CGer or Runaway, strike FD. It’s bad but manageable vs Go aggros, and good vs Gimpers, space fars and GTFOs.
Link needs platforms to spam well and FD doesn’t have them. The medium-large FD does give Link a lot of room to back up before being pinned against the end of a stage. Besides vs CGers/Runaways, FD is good but never great.

Lylat
A worse version of BF with a high ceiling and close side boarders. The small stage tilts back and forth which can mess up Zair tethers and kill bad recoveries. Bad vs gimpers, Space Fars and not great vs any category. The thing to consider with Lylat is ‘does it hurt the opponent’s game more than Link’s?’ PK Thunder recoveries, strait line (Zelda, Wolf etc), short and low recoveries all suffer. On the other hand, Link loses safe tether edgehogging. Multiple jump and ‘forgiving’ recoveries are rarely affected negatively. CGs may be interrupted by the stage’s tilt sometimes. There will always be a better stage choice than Lylat; Link isn’t completely destroyed by anyone here but characters like Lucario with movements that fit the stage can be hard to deal with. I wouldn’t recommend it.

PS1
If I had to pick 1 legal stage and go all Link on it for an entire tourney, PS1 would be my choice (or Jungle Japes if it’s legal). Its biggest downside is being large and boosting runaways’ games. Beside that PS1 offers some means of dealing with every category of character and is great vs Gimpers, Space Fars, Balanced and GTFO characters. Its neutral phase has 2 platforms and is slightly smaller than FD; the perfect size to optimize Link’s spamming and not let characters who out-camp him go out of range. The 4 elemental changes create good terrain for Link to space and platform camp. Be careful not to get pinned against solid walls in the Fire and Rock phases. Link’s UpB can be guided left or right if it gets stuck under the flat bottom ledges. Many recoveries must precisely sweetspot the ledge or risk dying. Characters cannot travel under the stage to the other side because PS1 is held up by a pillar at the center.
Tricks: Kirby’s Bthrow will stage spike sometimes when done on one of the thin stage edges. Olimar’s Pikmin can grab characters hanging from a ledge and they will sometimes grab-break under the stage. During the fire phase, Falco can shine through the solid burning tree, ZSS can Dsmash and ForwardB through it too. Wolf can scar from the left side to the right side of the tree and Link/TL can phantom boomerang facing left through it by using the small slope by the trunk. If Ness or someone tries a guided attack like PK Thunder from the left of the tree Link’s phantom boomerang can wind gimp them. The water phase windmill can do weird things to launches. The Forest phase has nothing special and is a great layout for platform camping.

YI
A bad medium sized starter vs most characters. 5 special things about this stage are: 1 the middle platform is pass-through and tilts back and forth diagonally like Lylat; projectile spam will travel through the tilt from below but not from above. The height can rise to where Link can’t Utilt etc platform poke too. 2 the ‘platform ghosts’ will occasionally raise a temporary platform to the left or right of the stage; these have very little chance of saving Link but it is smart to free fall over where one might rise instead of touching the stage side just incase. 3 2D shyguys will fly onto the screen; they can be Dair bounced and eat a range attack before dying. 4 Every surface besides support ghost platforms is angled and the outer ledges slope down; Link’s spam has an even harder time hitting low characters and a few characters can take advantage of the slopes. Link can use the slopes to bounce his boomerang at weird angles and extend Dsmash/Dtilt farther down or up depending on if he’s facing down or uphill. 5 the pillar holding the main platform is solid and curves in like an hourglass; most recoveries will push against it and continue up but Sheik/Zelda’s warps must be precise and sweetspot the ledge or die if they touch the curved walls. Link can bomb the pillar all the way down to get a small upward boost. YI hurts Link’s camping and spacing a lot; it’s not good vs anyone but Runaways and go aggros. The angled floors allow little characters to rush under Link’s spam so I wouldn’t recommend taking Sonic here. The seasonal changes are only visual effects that don’t change how the stage is played.
Tricks: several Dtilts/Dsmashes most notable Wolf/TL’s Dsmash will launch at dangerous angles when used on the downward slopes by the ledges. Dtilts can reach far offstage at low angles that kill bad recoveries. Wolf can trigger his ForwardB ‘scarring’ and travel along the floor when facing inward from near the ledge. Don’t take Wolf or TL here. Kirby’s ‘stone’ attack can be extended because slopes too. Although YI has a negative influence on Link it won’t cripple him like some stages and hurts other mid-range spam games too. But beware the characters who like this stage.

*Counter Picks

Halberd
You always start on a large stage with walk-off borders in the hanger. Be sure to go to center because in a few seconds the side floors will drop out, KOing anyone on them. Now the floating pass-through platform acts as a medium-large stage. It’s a great size for Link to move and spam. Link can fortify himself under the center platform, which is higher than most low platforms and better protects Link from above, and spam for damage then return to moving camping. You’ll want to watch out for sharkers. Fortunately bombs are effective vs them because the flat stage layout. Characters with long vertical recoveries will sometimes skip the ledge and recover through the bottom of the stage; Dair punishes these when spaced well. Gimpers have a difficult time hitting Link offstage but are deadly when intercepting.
The platform will land on a very large flat stage with one central pass through platform. You can run off the pass through phase 1 platform as it lands and shark from the bigger solid one beneath (the thrusters won’t affect you).
The 2nd phase platform is big but has close side borders and a very low ceiling (a little lower than during phase 1). Good upward launching characters, including Link like this. Link does ok vs runaways because they have little room above the stage and can die early even from bombs when hit. CGers can use the big flat platform to deal a ton of damage with 1 grab. The center platform can save Link from a lot of spam pressure from characters like Falco and Pikachu etc. The canon in the background will sometimes target a character and follow their movements for a short time then fire a huge laser. If it hits you SDI out. The claw will also start waving around, targeting a character (you can tell who it will attack but the movements and battle confusion make it difficult). The claw has a 1 hit, moderate power attack and it’s easy/best to shield or dodge as it attacks to be safe. These further help break CGs. Be aware that the stage sides curve down inward and stage spikes can launch Link at dangerous angles.
Eventually the stage will switch back to the pass-through phase and alternate the last 2 phases thereafter.
Halberd is one of Link’s best stages. Keep in mind that opponents get the same boosts as Link. Fox’s Usmash, DDD’s Utilt etc can KO much earlier than normal. Link has a great camping and KOing boost on Halberd and is harder to force offstage. CGers and Sharkers are the biggest threat. If you’re worried about a Snake who is good at KOing with Utilt or characters who camp and launch up well then you should choose a different stage that helps Link more and them less.

CS
This CP has 3 phases and changes in a row every 2 minutes then repeats. The 1st is medium with a good layout for platform camping. Be carefully not to get blitzed and gimped offstage. The ledges do extend slightly out and it’s possible to be caught under them but Link shouldn’t worry about this too much.
In between phases a short transitional period will occur; this is large, flat and supports walk-off CGs. Be sure to position Link so he will end up on the solid stage part of the next phase (1 to 2, it doesn’t matter but for 2 to 3 and 3 to 1 go to the center); the floor will drag characters down to their deaths if they’re too far out. A glitch on this and other changing stages that rarely happens will drag a character through the solid stage at the end of the transition phase, then it’s tough luck but being in the air and not dead center lowers the already very low chances.
Phase 2 is very large and has walk off sides on the ground and slanted upper side platforms. The statues holding the middle platforms stop range attacks and slightly increase hitbubble duration. Once they have taken enough damage these will fall and so will the platforms they hold. Link’s bad mobility and limited camping can cripple him here. CGers, runaways and Balanced characters can take advantage of this big time and phase 2 is not great vs any category. The statues block most other range attacks too so Link can take advantage of Zair and his good reach vs characters with spacing oriented range attacks. It can be a great place to platform bomb camp opponents who chase Link. Dair bounces the statues and its landing lag can be avoided by doing this. The real threats are CGers, and Space Fars. Beware range attacks like PK Flash/Freeze, Zelda’s Din’s Fire, ROB’s Beam, big explosions (Snake’s attacks), returning boomerangs, Zairs and ZSS’ whip attacks; they travel through the statues unaffected. Runaways are only a pain if Link is behind and has to chase them.
Phase 3 is basically a FD that tilts like Lylat. This can support Link’s curving projectile camping. Be careful when off stage recovering or gimping because the tilt and curve under the ledges can easily kill bad recoveries.
CS is not a good stage for Link but has no devastating downsides except vs CGers and the threat of being timed out. I might consider taking Ness, Lucas, Mario and other characters who aren’t superfast, have limited recoveries and use their range attacks for interruptions to CS. If the opponent has the same limitations as Link then CS gives Link a lot of room to space them. Link has less risk of being pressured off stage here than most places.

Brin
Brinstar is a medium-small stage returning from Melee. Against many opponents this is Link’s best CP. The platform layout is perfect for platform camping with a lot of bomb and aerial attacks. The breakable pillars on either side and that cluster of little round breakable Metroid whatevers will make Dair bounce to avoid landing punishes and extend hitbubble duration; they have hurtboxes that stop range attacks but bomb explosions continue through. Because the floor is slanted and divided by the breakable part, ground DAC approaches are stopped and the opponent must hop/jump to get around; this make Link’s Zair easier to hit with and Link harder to approach in general. The stage can be divided if the middle breaks; the gap has no ledges to grab and is dangerous for Link. Broken parts will quickly ‘heal’ fortunately.
Yellow acid rises and falls and sometimes will cover every platform besides the very top one. When a character touches the acid they take 14% damage and are launched up. Link can survive side launches by intentionally dropping into the acid and bouncing up to the stage. If the opponent falls in the acid they are easily bombed or hit by Dair, which kills early because the low stage ceiling and is relatively safe.
Brin has 2 throwing tricks Link can do, 1 is more of a glitch. When the acid is just under the platform, Link’s Dthrow moves opponents down enough that they will take damage from the acid too (Link can be slightly higher on a slope and this will still work on large opponents). Because Link has a tether grab, if he grabs the opponent from a distance and the breakable part of the lower platform is in the way, the opponent will go into the being grabbed animation but will not be pulled in and Link’s pummels will miss. Fortunately throws work fine.
Brin is the best CP vs CGers and Runaways, great vs Go Aggros and good vs most Balanced characters and Gimpers.
Some Space Fars that aren’t covered by the above categories can control the stage too well from within (DK, MK, Marth, Peach) and GTFOs should be taken to a bigger stage but can be manageable. Sharkers do well but Link can bomb camp them well. Good platform hoppers (including Link) can be a pain because they aren’t shut down like other characters. A big problem with CPing Brin is MK has insane s*** he can pull off there and he is THE most common opponent (when legal). Characters who control the stage really hurt Link (Peach, DK and G&W come to mind).
Tricks: MK’s dash grab to Dthrow will break the stage and drop Link under it when positioned right. I think Kirby can do this too but he must grab Link on the breakable floor. ROB’s gyro will bounce on the acid for an extended weak attack. Ganon’s Flame Choke (ForwardB) in the air will be interrupted if it lands in acid, immediately launching Ganon up but keeping his victim in the animation longer; they can fall to their death if the acid is near the floor border and if they don’t they will be launched up where Ganon can Dair spike. As with most strange slants, Kirby’s Rock move can slide and attack. Kirby has an infinite rock glitch that works on several slants but I’m not sure exactly where. The acid (lava and water will do this too) has a property where spikes push down through it until their hitstun wares off. If armored or invincible moves descend too far down in the acid they sometimes miss the upper level that launches up and keep falling to floor border; I’ve seen Olimar’s whistle and Kirby’s Rock do this but it’s possible for any armor/intangibility (including FF air dodges) if the acid is low enough (very unlikely).
The breakable parts extend hitbubble duration (don’t underestimate this for long attacks), have hurtboxes (stop some kinds of transcendent range attacks) and setoff ‘triggered attacks’ like Link’s bombs and PK Fires.

Delfino
This stage has several phases and returns to a medium-large pass-through flying platform with different smaller platform layouts as it takes the brawl on a tour of Delfino Plaza from Super Mario Sunshine; be ready to catch the touring platform in the middle of each area before it rises to the next location (or die).
Link is good on Delfino; most platform layouts give him a good setup to camp and Link has lots of room and uneven terrain to move in. It’s great vs Space Fars, GTFOs, Balanced characters and not bad vs gimpers because the layouts make staying onstage and grabbing the ledge easier. Link can seriously camp and doesn’t have trouble KOing. It’s a stage to be patient, camp and only go on the offensive when a good opportunity presents its self; Link will get opportunities. Get to know Delfino’s phases, which are visited in a random order, where the grab-able ledges are, and know where to be during transitions.
CGers, Runaways and Sharkers can be big trouble. Several phases have flat walls that Link can be infinited against and walk-off borders that CGers murder on; play very safe until a better phase. Runaways have room to avoid Link and can take advantage of the stage changes to hit and run more effectively. Sharkers are in paradise here; Link has a good anti-sharking game but they get a large boost and probably a good deal of free damage on Link as the stage moves around. Characters who fit multiple bad categories for Delfino (MK, DDD, Pit, Jiggly, etc) can be dangerous and should not be brought here.
Delfino also has water. When a character falls in they sink then swim strait up to the surface (which means Link gets a free FF Dair on them). On the surface they can swim left or right and jump out of the water. Don’t recklessly try to Dair an opponent because they can swim away and punish Link in the water. Remember Link can also bomb>Dair. Link will drop his bomb harmlessly if he falls in water. Expect air dodges as opponents jump out. Characters in water too long will sink and drown on the floor border; the float time (like in Zelda: Wind Waker) is reset when a character lands on solid ground. Spikes kill swimming characters fairly early and the stage lifting for the next phase heightens the danger. (The Zora tunic will not help, sadly)

RC
This very large stage scrolls through a set cycle every 2 minutes. Platforms appear and disappear. You can only touch them when they’re completely solid.
It starts on a flying ship. The right ledge is lower than it looks and the left (front of the ship) can catch recoveries under it and will tilt after a little while which can cut tethers. The layout makes this medium sized phase easy to camp on. If you get pinned by rapid attacks against the ‘cabin’ wall DI up and right.
The ship will crash on an area with several magic carpets and platforms (after 33 seconds); try to keep climbing so if Link falls he can recover. It’s possible to be caught on or under the ship as it sinks so don’t linger or hold the ledges it bumps into long. This whole upward reach scrolls and is a big platform camping climb. Note: characters can be caught under or stage spiked on the wooden blocks that fall when stepped on (like in Mario 64). Magic carpets will not move unless a character stands on them and eventually flash and disappear. Play it safe using defensive tactics and moving spam. Link is at high risk of being gimped here and the next movement phase.
When the stage scrolls right (1 minute in) be extra careful not to be in a position where Link is easy to throw or pressure offstage. Being on higher ground is safest and lets Link bomb camp and jump to the next platform easily. The swinging pendulum platform can be dropped through; don’t accidentally SD when using a down option like bomb pulls; it’s not a good place for Link but he can easily gimp other limited recoveries too. Note: If Pokemon Trainer is the opponent, the trainer will float on a carpet in the background; do not confuse this with one you can jump on (a few stages can be a little confusing with PT in the background).
After 1:15 the pendulum will vanish and you must jump to a stretch of platforms over a slanted ‘boardwalk’ with several falling wooden blocks as the stage scrolls right. Walk off CGs can kill Link here. Beware if Link is grabbed on a collapsing block the falling animation is not stopped and he can be thrown and trapped under the stage; opponents with good recoveries can survive. This stretch is another great moving camp area and has a low ceiling border. Practice knowing which platforms are drop-through, which can only be risen through and which are solid. Wooden collapsing blocks are always 100% solid.
After 1:49 the stage slowly begins scrolling down. You can wait for a block to fall or drop through the far right platforms but you must move down or the ceiling border will fall and kill Link. Upward launches KO at extremely low %s as this happens; bombs, Utilt and Dsmash are deadly, same goes for Uair and Dair as Link falls. Characters can grab the opponent and pummel to stall, waiting for the stage to scroll down and Uthrow then quickly drop to safety for a guaranteed KO with good timing. The ship from the start will sail under catching players around 1:51 in but dropping earlier results in death.
Until 2:00 has passed the ship phase resembles the start but platforms remain above that can save lucky characters (and smart tech-ers) from upward launches. After 2:00 the cycle starts over.
RC can be great vs several opponents (Ness etc) and a nightmare vs others. RC’s great or good vs Space Fars, GTFOs and Balanced characters if Link can space them and exploit there recoveries. Several characters including ones in these categories can hurt Link and do well on RC (DK comes to mind). Link can moving/platform camp to his full potential and force KOs on RC but must be able to space his opponent as well as he can on more neutral stages.
Gimpers are murder here, Sharkers get a big boost, CGers have situational but deadly advantages on some parts and difficult time landing grabs on others. Link’s mobility (or lack of) makes RC bad vs Go Aggros and Runaways.

Frigate
Link’s overall worst stage. The reason is Link’s terrible recovery and mobility are so easy to take advantage of by throwing/hitting Link off the right side of Frigate’s 1st phase (which it always starts on). There is no grab-able ledge and the platform moves up and down visiting 3 levels. Even if Link lands on it he’s vulnerable to be launched off again and again until he dies. Play extremely safe and DI hits to avoid being gimped off the right. Even in bad situations never give up.
Aside from that Frigate is a medium-small stage that flips between 2 phases more randomly than other transforming stages. A siren will sound before it changes; try to jump directly over the stage to prevent being caught under it during the flip. The platform layout is actually good for Link in both phases. The 2nd is like a variation of the flying phase of Halberd with YI platform ghost elements.
It’s a shame the first phase kills Link’s potential because otherwise this would be a great alternative to Battlefield, maybe better.
I would not take anyone here except for friendlies or Link dittos. Olimar, Ivysaur (PT), Ness, Lucas also suffer greatly and Zelda, ZSS, ICs are hurt without compensation.

PS2
A medium-large stage that is intended to be a sequel to PS1. It has many similar aspects, size (slightly smaller than PS1), neutral layout and 4 ‘elemental’ stage changes. The borders and pillar preventing characters from traveling under the stage are similar too. The ledges are more forgiving to strait recoveries and this is 1 less advantage for Link who can deal with PS1’s flat overhangs.
Unfortunately the different phases don’t help Link like PS1. The neutral, starting phase is smaller with closer platforms and not as well suited for Link’s spacing but still good.
The ground/digging phase has a great layout that supports Link’s curved spamming and platform game. He can position himself to throw bombs over the dirt pile and cover a large amount of the stage while staying relatively safe.
PS2’s ice phase is the only time ice appears on a legal stage. Characters can run then release the control stick to perform attacks while sliding. Hylian Guard Sliding can be useful to approach with, for once. Link does well here. Note: ICs have a special trait that they never slide on ice and treat it like normal terrain.
During the wind/air phase PS1 acts like a low gravity special brawl on an almost flat stage. The wind low gravity applies offstage too. Link falls fast and shouldn’t have trouble returning down to the stage despite not having any moves that send him downward. By throwing bombs upward and Utilt/Usmash/Uair-ing Link can juggle big and/or slow falling characters. Link’s good at launching up. Be careful not to jump and be lifted above the opponent or go into free falling (only UpB will make Link do this). Bombs fall slowly because the wind so plan carefully because Link is limited to 2 onscreen at a time. They’re very useful thrown any way during this phase. Beware, some attacks easily carry opponents up past the ceiling border in low gravity (MK’s tornado etc).
The Electric/Metal phase is the worst for Link. Try to platform camp and avoid the conveyer belts as much as possible. If Link keeps being pushed back to the ledge when trying to climb off it, try a ledge jump.
To be honest, PS2 was illegal in the tourneys I attended. Therefore my experience is limited. Maybe I can have another Link help with a write up later. Think of PS2 as a smaller, worse PS1.

Japes
Link loves this very large stage. The ceiling is very high and side borders are close to the outer platforms. The middle platform is positioned in between 2 small side platforms that are raised a little, above the middle platform is the only pass through platform at a slightly higher level than the sides. All 3 solid platforms have grab-able ledges on both sides (6 total)- this means whiplash heaven with a high ceiling.
To sweeten the stage even more a rapid river flows right to left under the platforms which characters can swim in and jump out of instead of fall to their death. If you fall in don’t mash jump, wait until Link surfaces (you hear him gasp for air like in Zelda games) then hold down jump. After that double jump, UpB or tether a ledge as needed. The current quickly carries characters to the left border for a side kill. Link’s recovery is short and he has a better chance to jump out safely the farther stage right he falls in. Try to fight on the right rather than left because the river’s flow. Klaptraps (the little blue alligators with huge mouths from Donkey Kong Country) float past every 10 seconds and will spike characters they touch down to the bottom border or deep enough they can’t surface in time (character spikes can do this too if you have enough damage). Klaptraps are great anti-planking stage hazards (it’s possible to tech the stage and live). The only downside is the river forces characters into a ‘swimming’ state (unlike when Japes was in Melee) and Link drops the bomb he’s holding. Don’t play in the water, just use it to recover.
Japes’ layout allows Link to space and camp extremely well from every part of the stage. Link can actually give Falco a hard time here; Falco’s CG to Dair spike only kills if done from the far left because the water saves Link and he can jump out in time from the right and Link can somewhat counter spam on the platforms (Brinstar’s better though).
If Link has the lead he can camp on the right platform and avoid CGs by throwing bombs up as he camps. Angling Link’s versatile spam gives it a huge boost and less adaptable spam is limited (falling spam like Mario’s fireballs needs to be from higher levels, strait lasers can be jumped or ducked etc). The 3 different but all low platform levels and ledges boosts Link’s standard attack/Zair spacing game by giving him plenty of room and platforms to work with. Notice: If Link is in the middle and Zairs facing a near side platform the game can register it as a failed tether from too far and it won’t attack.
Great vs CGers (like a Brinstar with more room and a high ceiling), Gimpers, Space Fars, Sharkers (Klaptraps stop sharking), Balanced, GTFOs and okay vs Go Aggros. Japes is like the CP version of PS1, in the sense of how Link plays. The only real threat is being timed out which Runaways are good at. Be aware that Link isn’t the only character who likes Japes. Characters with good airspeed like Wolf, Yoshi, Jiggly etc can use the space to outmaneuver Link. Other versatile spammers like Ness, Lucas, Snake, ROB, Samus, Toon Link and Yoshi can pull their own spamming BS. The high ceiling gives light characters a break from early star KOs and all characters live longer. Even if the opponent gets a boost, Link can’t go wrong with Jungle Japes besides being timed out. His MUs are still bad so don’t count on having an advantage, just less disadvantage.
Japes is often banned, unfortunately.

Picto
You probably will not see Pictochat legal, maybe a local or wifi here and there will allow it. This very large stage is good to know anyway because it can be great or s**** you over depending on what happens. Picto imitates the ‘Pictochat’ function that Nintendo DS systems use their touch screens for, hence the scribbles and ‘Now entering: _____’ at the start.
The scribbles cycle randomly and have different durations but Picto will not repeat the same scribble until the cycle restarts. There seems to be a 6 or 7 second break in between them. The default ‘break’ stage is flat with a high ceiling, close side borders, ledges that slant down a short distance and transition into a strait wall down to the bottom border on both sides (characters can’t be caught under the ledge, the wall continues down after the visible line ends).
Play around on Picto for a while to get a sense of what each scribble does and what Link can interact with. The right side of the stage is safer than the left, in general. I won’t explain every scribble. The hazards to watch out for are:
4 pointy spears will poke up from the ground, the points have decent upwards launch power and damage.
A wide ‘u’ with a mine cart rolling back and forth on it; characters can stand on top the cart but the sides hurt with decent launch power.
A solid line will cut the stage in half from the bottom left to top right also making the left ledge not grab-able. Link can get pinned under the right side of the line at the left corner by fast attacks, grab tricks etc. Aside from jab locks, Link has no moves he can use to pin opponents with.
A solid face will appear to the right blowing wind left, this can push ground and air Spin Attacks offstage killing Link.
2 fireballs appear over the center-ish area. They deal fire damage and can bounce characters between them but have very low chances of KOing.
3 spikes stick out from the right and left sides starting about as high as a full jump. These have high sideways launch power and can KO off the top if a character falls down on them.
A big missile will appear full jump height on the left and another at ground level on the right. They will slowly move inward, past each other and explode if nothing detonates them earlier. The lower right missile launches at an angle intended to blast characters into the left which launches up. Both have good power and damage. Link’s bombs will detonate them early if needed.
In the center a parana plant grows. Only its sharp teeth can hurt but have good damage and upward launch.
When dealing with hazards be patient. It you blitz you’re playing to Link’s weakness, with the exception of dash attack/DAC and those are strictly situational. Bombs upward launch angle is great for forcing opponents into hazards. Shield grabs setup an easy Bthrow/Fthrow/Uthrow into the hazards. If the opponent is dodging or trying to escape a hazard add to their misery with bombs, Utilt etc.
The reasons you would choose Picto are:
It’s a big stage that can boost Link’s platform game.
The random changes add surprise risks that you might want if the opponent likes to jump around or something.
Better stages are struck or banned.
You’re feeling lucky.
Picto can be thought of as a worse PS1 with random risks that on rare occasion tip the scales with luck. Probably why it’s banned.

Link’s Game (007)

Here is where everything comes together. Link’s fighting will vary significantly depending on the stage, character, opponent and player. Why Link is so difficult to learn is he can’t simply spam or aggressively attack. He must make the right choices for spacing and his situation out of many complex options. I mentioned before Link can’s truly camp for more than a short time; Link is not fast enough or mobile enough to wall opponents out in any way and must maintain a spacing game vs faster opponents throughout most of the match. Be sure you know how to SDI and DI out of moves and momentum cancel properly (not explained in this guide, see http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=221969 ).

*Before the game starts

consider stage factors and what the opponent can do where. The stage section covers that (006). Know the MUs and know the stages.
If you’re like me it helps to loosen your hands by shaking them out and stretching. Be in a good state of mind; as cheesy as this sounds, deep breaths really do help. Make sure your controller/hands aren’t sweaty. Even for casual games you should start in a good space.
Depending on your connection for wifi games you might want to ask the opponent to let you test the lag for a few seconds and try a ledge hop Fair.
For tourneys make sure you have the right tag and control scheme. See which Wii you’re playing on in case you want to record the match and make sure the character selected is still Link and not Olimar or ICs.

Factors: what are Link’s strong areas?
During a game:

*At the start consider:

stage position (should Link jump to a platform etc), is Link in immediate danger (from a projectile or blitz move), can Link maybe throw his boomerang (angled?) or partially charge an arrow (Link can hit Olimar with a slightly charged arrow on small/medium if he tries to pull all 6 pikmin for example) for an early hit, is pulling a bomb more important than starting to build moving camping momentum by getting projectiles out. Link needs (figurative) momentum to camp and space effectively so that will be the most common starting goal unless the opponent can CG in which case Link should SH and pull a bomb.
Be sure not to do the same thing every time. Link can hold his bomb while throwing out other attacks and can start camping with any of his 3 projectiles from retreating/approaching/platform hopping SHs or jumps (005A). Remember Link has poor side air speed but very fast falling speed and can attack downward (see Descending Spacing) and at angles and use platforms.
Do not: Retreat to the edge- Link needs room to work, shield (you’re probably safe to move and it wastes several frames), blitz in with DAC or grab- both are easy to see and punish, double jump. Only taunt if you know you’ll win.

*The main battle:

Okay, technically here is where everything comes together. Focus on spacing and don’t let yourself be baited into hasty actions. Link loses to carelessness and is punished hard; shielding starts frame 2. Link has many tools that work together and must use them together. Build damage with passive aggressive spacing/camping as much as possible. If the opponent can’t touch Link as he attacks it’s optimal. Reading the opponent and punishing is essential with any character as is being unpredictable. Link can land power hits by chaining weaker attacks and spam to stronger lingering attacks and punish forced actions. You don’t want to commit to the ending lag of Dsmash, Spin Attack, Fsmash, Dair, and so on without insurance they will connect or Link can avoid punishment. Play a safe game, for Link, with aggressive pressuring, using a variety of his safer moves (bombs, arrows, boomerang, Zair, Fair, Bair, Nair, jab, Utilt) then flow into power moves with an opening. With Link’s versatile attacks he can build inundating momentum and must spam projectiles relentlessly while switching between tip of attack close combat and moving camping. Grab’s best used for punishing. Attack fast safely, not recklessly and don’t waste time that should be used to feed Link’s attack momentum.

In doing this play to the opponent’s weaknesses. Falco can shoot lasers forward and CG so hold a bomb, jump lasers to spam and platform camp. MK can tornado Zair and boomerangs so get bombs into play as fast as possible. ZSS has a great juggling game, SH spam down at an angle and try to launch her in the air. Link’s tool may be low-tier but are more versatile than most characters. Never challenge an opponent’s strong points if you can avoid it. You will take damage, however if Link’s not caught in a bad position he can take the pain. Being grabbed by a CGer, hit out of a double jump, hit low offstage, being juggled or trapped in whatever the enemy’s strong area is, will kill Link quick. Controlling the situation as best Link can and resetting bad spacing are crucial. Low tiers need every advantage they can get.
Use the best options available; if Link can land an early double Fsmash or Dair then go for it. Link needs to space and spam so much that KO moves used wisely should always be fresh and Link has lots of moves that can KO. But power moves are harder to land so don’t fish for KOs. Keep the opponent off balance and make good reads and an opportunity to KO will present its self in Link’s normal game. Don’t let chances to chain or KO slip by either. It’s all about recognizing the best options for Link’s spacing.

*Approaching (007A)

You will have to approach sometimes. Or even worse, approach because the opponent has the lead. Keep the ‘Main Battle’ section in mind as you do. The difference in approaching is only moving toward the opponent and a few more risks. Link can’t blitz but sometimes gets away with a quick dash attack, DAC or FF Nair, etc because the opponent doesn’t expect a careful player to. Always beware of grab ranges. Olimar is one of the best examples of this; approach but never run or jump into his grab. Stop and spam a bomb or boomerang or Zair if necessary.
You don’t have to approach primarily from the side. Jump and throw a bomb down, crossover past the opponent and spam, and so on. Platform poke too.
Bombs are great ‘get out of jail free’ cards for approaching. They explode after 7 seconds and can break grabs, attack while Link’s shielding/dodging/invincibomb and launch the opponent or both characters up which caters to Link’s fast falling speed. They are extremely versatile, work with Zair- another good approaching tool and many moves.
Here are some tactics for approaching. Link is weaker approaching with no great options so he must be patient and unpredictable.
Air dodge to Zair- good to start chains and is relatively safe.
Fake an aggressive approach but halt and spam projectile or Zair outside the opponent’s reach. Link can jump/SH, throw a bomb up so the explosion might hit the opponent and retreat slightly to make spamming safer.
Bomb forward throw and punish reaction- bombs eat fast range attacks and let Link dash in without being shot down.
Dash and spotdodge slide then jab or Dsmash- this is good to get past tether grabs. If the opponent SH attacks expecting you to shield you can follow up with Utilt or backwards Ftilt.
Shield dash in spurts, preferable with a bomb- try to PS range attacks then switch to tip of attack spacing combat.
Fsmash, wait, Fsmash and Fsmash2- this works for Fsmash2 spammers like me if used sparingly. People only expect 2 Fsmash cuts and the timing of a new Fsmash throws them off. This is great to continue shield pressure.
SH tip of attack Fair to jab is safe vs opponents without great reach or grab ranges.
Dash in holding a bomb, jump, down throw the bomb (or drop it), FF Nair to land barely behind the opponent on their shield- Fast and a good mix up to side approaches with Zair.
Mix and match approaches as long as spacing’s maintained.
SH>thrown boomerang and try for an arrow lock.
Dash attack and DAC can be used as surprise gambits or if the opponent SH/Jumps and can’t shield grab.

If you have the lead it is usually better to stick with Link’s stronger defensive fighting.

*KOing

Landing power hit is difficult for Link. As mentioned you must catch the opponent off balance somehow and be quick to grasp opportunities. Link is versatile enough that he can alter follow ups and strategies in his game to KO once the opponent has enough damage while keeping his normal pressure. Link cannot blitz without momentum/opportunity or fish to KO.

Link has good power but not great power. He can usually KO light opponents around 110-130%+, medium weights 140-160%+ and heavy weights 160-200%+ by sheer power. Keep in mind Dair will kill off the top much earlier than Utilt and so on. Also Uthrow KOs at 160-200%+. The %s will vary a bit.

In the ‘Several good KOing attacks’ section I introduced Link’s KO moves: Fsmash1 & 2, Dsmash, Ftilt, Utilt, Ground Spin Attack, Fair 2nd cut, Uair, and Dair. And at considerably higher %s Usmash, Nair, Bair 2nd kick, and Uthrow. These power KOing attacks were also explained in several other sections for punishing, spacing etc. No move is strictly limited to one purpose. When you need to KO integrate these into Link’s game more like jab>jab>Dsmash instead of grab. Fair instead of Bair/Zair more. Things like those. Be careful not to get greedy and fish for Dairs or other punishable moves; Link can follow a Utilt with a Uair instead when in doubt for example. Keep practicing good spacing and remember Link can KO basically as well with any part of his attack that connects (with some slight differences). Note: Dsmash (starts frame 6) and Utilt (frame 7) are Link’s fastest KO moves.

Raw power isn’t Link’s only tool for KOing he has a good gimping, edgehogging and intercepting game as well (see Surprisingly Good Intercepting Game) section. If power doesn’t finish the job these tactics still can.

Sometimes Link needs to push to land a KO. This section describes strategies to help Link’s game flow into KO setups. Always look for lock opportunities (explained in section: Link can setup locks 002B) even when not going for a KO too.

Attack where the opponent must go- charge Spin Attacks to punish landings, make Fair walls, Dair so the opponent will rise into it, Ftilt ledge hops/recovering to the stage, Uair/juggle opponents as they fall and count their remaining jumps, edgehog, etc. Characters must land or go for a ledge sometime.

Punish habits- if the opponent likes to ledgehop or roll onto the stage then charge a Spin Attack, if they ledge jump or stall SH Dair over them (Dair outlasts all dodges/invulnerability), Dsmash players who roll behind Link, Spin attack spotdodgers, grab shield happy players, backwards Utilt or Ftilt SH-ers instead of Dsmash/Fsmash, etc. Stay unpredictable in your actions and read the opponent for better choices of attack.

Chain attacks- locks, jab cancels, Zair>land>attack, boomerang>dash attack>Fair/Uair, force predictable movements and punish, etc. This is Link’s game: Zair, 3 projectiles, good reach, a good jab cancel, great dodge punishing/long lasting attacks and tons of KO attacks and they all work together. Inundate the opponent!

All that good stuff talked about earlier. Be careful to maintain spacing, not blitz (except for very rare mix-ups), keep the opponent off-balance, not slack with pressuring, and not get predictable.

*Returning from the ledge

Link can’t plank more than a few times safely. He can stall and do a variety of things to get his feet safely back on the stage.

Normal options:
Ledge stand- lets Link act quickly without worrying about losing his 2nd jump. Good for when there’s no danger.
Ledge roll- like Link’s other rolls, this give him brief invulnerability followed by lots of lag. It doesn’t move him far either. Rolling is a bad option.
Ledge attack- Link’s attack with less than 100% damage is faster and chops like his Ftilt but makes him vulnerable before the attack starts. His >100% ledge attack stabs a good distance into the stage and the hitbubbles appear before his invulnerability runs out. Ledge attacks are like easier, safer but slower and weaker ledgehops. Both are easy to shield grab.
Ledge jump- Link’s safest normal option. He can pull a bomb right away and keeps his 2nd jump. SH attack will cut Link down if you’re predictable with these.

Ledgehops:
Ledgehops are the first thing most experienced players predict so be careful not to hop into an attack. The big downside of ledgehops is the use Link’s 2nd jump and he’s in a terrible position if hit out of them. From holding a ledge: tap away>tap towards the stage and jump>input an action.
Link can ledgehop all his aerials (including Zair’s 1st hit), all his projectiles (for if the opponent’s farther away, bomb pulls and airdodges. Fair’s the most common aerial to ledgehop but Nair is easier and has a similar result. Ledgehops are Link’s best option in general but no ledge returns are completely safe. Remember airdodging is a safer option then attacking.

Ledgestalling:
Prepare bombs and mix-up timing with ledgestalls. Tap down or away (down is recommended)>jump>preform action>re-grab the ledge.
Link can fire an uncharged arrow, throw his boomerang or a bomb, pull a bomb, or fake a ledgehop Fair but not land onstage. Link can ledgehop>airdodge>Zair tether the ledge>ledge hop a different action for mindgames.
Because Link’s Zair tether he can quick tether the ledge after stalling up to 3 times. Each time Link grabs the ledge he gains invulnerability. It’s possible to quick tether the ledge>tap back to let go>tap ‘Z’ twice to tether and reel in>repeat 3 times total and ledgehop with more invulnerability than usual because it stacks on the previous ledge grab’s if you’re fast enough. Link can hang from his extended clawshot tethering the ledge for a short time before it automatically reels in too.
Tether characters and Pikachu can let go of ledges faster than other characters but have less invulnerability; the invulnerability left after they let go of the ledge (soonest possible time) is the same for the entire cast though.

Mix it up, use the best options and be careful because Link can be gimped by opponents who run off the stage easily or from mistakes and his recovery sucks.

*Walkthrough of a game (007B)

To show what I mean here is a step by step analysis of a live game vs Peach. It has many good examples of Link’s dos and don’ts. I’ll try not to involve specific MU information and focus on Link’s strong and weak areas instead.

Start-0:10
The Zair was late. Good Fair spacing. Reset the bad situation under Peach’s Dair with DI and a dodge. Peach crossed over; she likes SH attacks so backwards Utilt was a good GTFO move at 0:09.
0:11-0:23
At 0:12 I foolishly approached. Notice how Peach chains attacks and punishes quickly for 24%. At 0:15 I DI out, FF Nair>buffered jabs to reset the spacing. Peach Utilts the jab cancel. I landed in front of her which was bad and could have been shield grabbed but she fortunately dropped her shield and was caught in the jab combo at 0:17. Followed with a tip-of-attack Zair. The backwards boomerang was a mistake, I was too close, and my Bair’s bad spacing was shield grabbed at 0:22. Notice how the wind broke her grab.
0:24-1:00
Utilt is a good answer to SH approaches. 0:26 Peach avoided my Bair follow up. She spaced her dash attack well. By 0:30 I’ve dropped a bomb to cover that side and buffered another Utilt upon landing. Zair couldn’t be punished on her shield. I was dumb to roll backwards and Peach punished the lag at 0:34. Tether ledgestall. I ledgehop airdodged and caught the turnip but threw it down to fast. When I attempted to jab cancel Fsmash Peach retreated and hopped over my Fsmash2 (which was dumb, hoping she’d run into it) and punished the lag at 0:41. I used a bomb and boomerang to keep from being pressured off the stage and recovered by 0:47. Dumb use of my 2nd jump and bad spacing. Peach was able to land and grab at 0:50 because these miscalculations. My Dair was close enough to bounce as she power shielded; I tried to hit before she landed. Peach then tried a grab release tactic which I read well, spotdodged to a buffered Dsmash for the KO at 0:56.
1:00-1:50
Never attack an invulnerable opponent. Invincibombs are a good tactic vs rush attacks but only if the opponent can be hurt. 1:05 Link’s recovery is bad; I tried to reach the platform. If Peach had edge hogged I would have died there. 1:09 airdodge>tether recovery. 1:12 Fair spaced too low landing canceled to Utilt for a hit. I spam and use the ledge to regain spacing around 1:20. 1:23 tip of attack Fair walls. Notice Peach is faster and invades Link’s ‘bubble’ quickly. 1:27 another spotdodge>Dsmash. Zair>retreat and pull a bomb, ledge tether>ledge jump>pull another bomb. If I had invincibombed instead of accidently throwing it Peach would have taken the hit. Notice I’m surviving at 177%; Link can live forever if he avoids gimps. At 1:42 that Bair might have worked if she hadn’t tripped but I landed too close and was punished. 1:47 spotdodge>Dsmash, by now I’m testing my luck with that pattern but it’s a good tactic. Spacing that Bair too late/close let her KO me at 200%, 1:49.
1:50-2:30
1:51 throwing the boomerang back can aid spacing but pulling a bomb would have been much smarter. Peach uses the ledge to wear out my invulnerability frames and I foolishly try to rush attack when vulnerable. 1:55 that Fsmash was because I SDIed too long, bad timing. 1:58 jab1 cancel>Fsmash spaced well but if she had shielded I would have been punished. I hesitated and let Peach grab the ledge. Fortunately getting that bomb out stopped her shield grab at 2:03. 2:09 hasty, bad spaced attacks let peach stall and Fair me. Notice I space a lot of aerials then FF landing cancel>buffer Utilt to counter Peach’s SH height spacing game. 2:20 the bomb missed but it let the boomerang hit. Followed quickly by a Zair which should have been chained to an Ftilt to space her SH. Zair covered landing but Peach is smart and backs away and counters with turnips. I noticed this aggressive fast style and gambled a Dair successfully for the KO. Had Peach retreated I could have guided it offstage and grabbed the ledge to avoid the landing lag.
2:32-End
This time I ran out Peach’s invulnerability, forced an action by throwing my bomb and hit with the boomerang. 2:38 I spaced way too close. 2:45 good intercepting by Peach; Link can throw bombs up like Peach threw that turnip. I should have upB-ed a little later and caught the ledge with the tip but the turnip threw off my spacing. My spamming’s slow. Peach cancels my arrow with her turnip. At 3:00 the Fsmash2 only hit because I spaced the first cut with tip of attack spacing; Peach thought she could roll behind Link. 3:08 safe Fsmash on her shield. Peach timed her forward to hit between Fair cuts 1 and 2. 3:10 Peach’s frame 2 jabs make shield grabbing her landings difficult to time; Link needs his space to fight properly. Peach plays aggressively around 3:20ish, Link needed to reset the situation. 2 jabs canceled to Fsmash, Peach was in the air and couldn’t shield it. 3:40 My spamming was not mobile and could have been faster. 3:51-3:56 Dropping lots of bombs for cover. Peach was good to catch that one. 3:59 Ftilt would have won the game here. I’m Fsmash happy this game and its cost me a lot. 4:02-4:16 we both play a good back and forth spacing battle here; I should have added more projectiles from a little farther to gain the upper hand. 4:19 that’s my hand tremor making me upB instead of throw a boomerang. These things happen, you have to roll with the punches.

Summery

My spacing was on and off but I reset bad situations well. My attacks flowed together nicely and were mostly quick and hard to punish. The laggy attacks I threw out with bad judgment were punished pretty well by Peach.
I should have camped harder with more SHs and made Peach approach. I neglected Ftilt for Fsmash out of habit and had a few spacing duels when I could have out-camped Peach. After landing that Dair I fished for those and Fsmash and Peach caught on. My ledge game was decent but got more and more patterned near the end. Overall we both spaced well and played fast which led to both good choices and choices that were thrown out too hastily. We made spacing each other difficult and narrowly missed attacks many times.
As Link I challenged Peach’s spacing too close and neglected my spamming. The ending could have gone either way if not for that upB.
Good game

Offline/Wifi Differences (008)

Offline is always better but good connection wifi can be legit too. The problem with judging skill on wifi is even vs the same person the connection can vary tremendously.
Generally PSing is harder, grabs are easier to land, mistakes are harder to punish, precision drops and SDs are more common on wifi.
Link’s projectiles are harder to shield and laggy moves like grab and Usmash are harder to punish on good wifi. If the lag gets worse it really kills Link’s game because he is a precision character who has to commit to his attacks; if Link’s interrupted or button lag fails to register an input he can buffer wrong. Bad lag destroys Link, any mistakes offstage mean death, his slow moves are easy to see coming, DIing attacks in lag wrong can make Link Dair offstage or end up in a worse position then he started and Link gets juggled before he can react. A myth is Link is better online but more accurately it’s like this: (Link is) Best Great connection wifi>>Offline>>>>>Okay wifi>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>any worse connection Worst.
For example, these were both ladder games against the same person. My recording device shows the lag; Link plays much worse when the lag increases past a point:
Good Connection vs Bad Connection. Keep in mind that lag can turn even the best Link into a scrub. I consider myself a great Link but ALSM is easily one of the best Links and has me beat. You can see the negative lag influence on both of us really clearly. Those were friendly dittos but I recommend not using Link at all if the lag’s bad enough because you simply can’t play well.
Links lag game is very different from offline. This is a good example of how Link plays best in bad lag. Dsmash, Fair and running back then Fsmashing and double Fsmash play a primary role. Usmash is used to hit the opponent away when they’re close, shield grabs still work, projectiles are used less and at farther distances, spotdodges are common. It’s tempting to spam Dair but Link needs to FF Nair when returning down to the stage instead and only Dair to punish lag or predictable actions (ledge jumps).
IMO this is about when it starts to get too bad to play; notice the game’s (top right) timer counts back from 8:00 minutes and starts when the video is 4 seconds in, at 3:20 the game’s timer says 4:45 remaining- lag ate 9 seconds of the 3:16 time seen by the player. This is a good way to calculate lag on replays that weren’t recorded from the Wii. Now you try; how much more time do you see then the games sees from start to finish? (pause before it starts playing)

Q&A (009)

Q ^So, what’s the answer?
A

The game saw 6:42, we saw 8:42 (because the game started 7 seconds into the video) that’s 2:00 of lag!

Q What control scheme do you recommend?
A I use a Game Cube controller with default settings except tap jump off and ‘R’ set to attack. Bomb Fsmashing is much easier with a trigger button set to attack and tap jump can really mess Link up. Pro controllers will work fine too.
I discourage wii remote + nunchuk, especially with shake smashes, and wii remote by its self. Don’t B-stick either. You need to have 2 good sticks for Link.
Everyone has individual preferences so go with what works for you.

Q Link has a million Advanced Techniques (ATs), which ones should I learn?
A Anything ledgehop/ledge stall
Zair tether edgehogging
Arrow locks and jab locks + setups
Jab canceling
Anything involving bombs- including footstool bomb combos and Zair or Fsmash with a bomb in hand
Quickdraw arrows
Reverse arrows (in the air tap backward then 'B' right after)
Landing reverse jabs (like when you Bair then tap backwards before you land and jab in that direction)
Wind Gimps
Dash Attack Cancel (DAC), sometimes referred to as Dash Attack Cancel USmash (DACUS)

See this thread Fox Is Openly Deceptive made for a full list of ATs, combos and how to perform them: http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=277706

Q How do I make both cuts appear when I ledgehop Fair?
A Link’s ledgehop works the same way most other character’s ledge hops do. Link’s fast falling speed and low 2nd jump (2nd lowest in Brawl, only Peach’s is lower but she can float) mean you must be very precise and fast with control inputs. When holding a ledge, tap away from the stage>immediately tap towards the stage and jump together>keep holding the controlstick towards the stage and immediately press attack; with good timing Link should Fair with both cuts on solid stages or 1 cut onto pass through stages like the flying platforms on Delfino and Halberd. Practice until you get it down. Ledge hop Nair is more forgiving and has a similar attack if you’re worried about messing up Fair.

Q What are Link’s best and worst stages?
A Best: PS1, Halberd, Brinstar, Jungle Japes. Worst: Frigate Orpheon, YI (Brawl). The rest are situational.

Q What is Link’s best throw?
A All of Link’s throws do 7% damage. Throw in the direction that puts the opponents in the worst position. Link will not move himself from his grabbing location for throws which means he can safely throw the direction of stage hazards. Dthrow can push opponents under Brinstar enough that the acid will burn them if it’s almost the level that Link is standing. Because a programing error Dthrow’s first hit will miss Jigglypuff and only deal 4% damage to her. Uthrow can kill around 160%-200%+.
If direction doesn’t matter then use Bthrow because it ends the quickest giving Link a slight frame advantage more than his other throws.
Link only has 2 guaranteed grab related tactics: throwing a bomb up>grab>Uthrow the opponent into the bomb and his ground grab release Dsmash/jab/dash attack on Ness/Lucas. No, Link doesn’t have any true follow-ups or CGs at any % besides those. Some characters cannot jump right away after Fthrow/Bthrow/Dthrow but this does not give Link enough time to follow-up attack.

Q What is the difference between ‘cute’ and ‘hot’ girls?
A By rule of thumb, FFVII’s Aeris is cute and Tifa is hot.

Q When should I pull bombs?
A Bomb pulls last 40 frames, ground or air. Good times to pull bombs are:
Anytime Link is moving in the air (including dropping) without risk of being hit or missing a recovery and is not doing anything else (like attacking).
Anytime Link is in the air and might land into a chain grabber's grab.
The only times it's better to ground bomb pull is if the opponent is recovering and you want to throw the bomb from the ground, like up at them or bomb slides etc. Basically when Link jumping will add lag frames and not help his spacing/positioning is when ground bomb pulls are better.
A situational time to ground pull is if you want to spam several bombs in a row. Holding down and rapidly tapping 'B' will make Link bomb pull>throw>pull>throw etc as fast as possible. Spaced right (so the bomb barely touches the ledge tip and explodes) this can be very dangerous to many plankers but if they're frame perfect the planker can avoid bombs.

Specifics (all these only apply when it's safe):
On the ledge, drop>2nd jump>bomb pull>regrab the ledge.
Traveling upward from a launch that won't kill you.
Platform drops.
Retreating SHs.
Falling back down to the stage from above.
When Link's boomerang and maybe arrows are already spamming the screen.
Platform hopping.
...as much as safely possible.

Q Why are Link players so damn sexy?!
A We just are

Q What are ‘transcendent’ attacks?
A Attacks with hitbubbles that only interact with hurtboxes and never with other hitbubbles. Because this, even if the transcendent attack is weak it will interrupt strong attacks. Armor frames and such still protect vs transcendent attacks and reflectors/Hylian shield protect if the attack is a range attack too.
A good way to test if an attack is transcendent is it will always stop MK’s tornado (which has weird protective properties in its hitbubbles).
Transcendent attacks include:
True explosions (Link/TL’s bombs, Snake’s grenades and explosives, Peach’s rare Bob-bomb), Space animal lasers and shines (hitbubble duration), Wolf’s blaster bayonet and part of Ftilt, all of MK’s sword standard attacks except glide attack, Ike’s eruption, Ganon’s Utilt, Diddy’s bananas, Sheik’s needles, ICs’ blizzards, Lucario’s force palm, Lucas/Ness’ PKThunder tails and PKFlash/Freeze, Pikachu’s DownB thunder (descending), ROB’s Robo Beam, Zelda’s Fsmash/Usmash/Utilt/Nair/Uair.
Note: I might have overlooked a few minor examples.

Q What characters are good secondaries for Link?
A MK. Seriously though, it depends mostly on your preferences. Link has almost all bad MUs so any high tier character will have better MUs no matter who you choose. Several Link mains use Marth for their high tier.
If you don’t want to use high tiers, Zelda is a good low tier and G&W is a good mid tier secondary because they have little vulnerability to CGs, cover Link’s weak points and Link can somewhat deal with their bad MUs. IMO, Wolf plays the closest to how Link plays; he has a faster, very similar close spacing game. Wolf and Link share most bad MUs and weaknesses though. To overcome several high tier MUs with one character you need to use a high tier or be willing to fight with mostly strong disadvantages.

Credits(010)

I would like to thank...

Nintendo and all the fine companies who made the Smash Bros series possible. They reserve all rights etc.

The Brawl Backroom for making tier and MU lists.

Science Revolution! for the standard smash terms list.

xX Crow Xx for his frame data and hitbubble thread.
http://allisbrawl.com/forum/topic.aspx?id=124952

hotgarbage for MK’s frame data.

Fox Is Openly Deceptive for making Link’s AT thread.
http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=277706

Everyone who has contributed to any character or Smash Bros in general with guides, data and so on. Great work; I probably borrowed a little from it. Also thanks to whoever made the cool gifs I included. *shrug*

Some of the icons were copied from this site: http://zelda.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_items_in_The_Legend_of_Zelda:_Twilight_Princess

Swordguard for the in-depth thread about DI.

FSK for his ‘The Adventures of Link: Under the Stage!!!’ videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMCpDCkFB2Y (part 1 of 3)

Huggles for his quote about jab locks and help.

http://www.smashboards.com/ and http://allisbrawl.com/ -2 great Smash sites.

http://www.youtube.com/ for letting people upload videos such as the ones in my guide. And everyone who opposed SOPA and PIPA. Don’t let your guard down...

Everyone who read the guide and gave suggestions or helped in any way.

All the Brawl players I’ve played, except a few salty ones lol. Most games were very enjoyable and people were cool/helpful.

And all the Link players out there. Keep up the good, hard work!

Conclusion (011)

I hope this helps Link players, old and new, mains and players seconding him. Link’s guides were so out dated that he was losing players and forum activity. Now it’s your turn to do work as Link players.
I also recommend watching pro Links like Legan, KirinBlaze, AeroLink the SoulMaster (ALSM), Mr.R, LordXav1er, Scizor, Catpukee, AfroTwist, Ninja and maybe dated videos of Deva and ArkiveZero for tournament videos.
Good luck!

Rizen · Jul 10, 2012

My computer crashed and other things so this won't be completed anytime soon. I missed a few offline events and am inundated with other stuff.
Tourney vids/advice contributions are welcome because I still only have dated c***. Tourney doubles write-ups and vids would be appreciated because I never entered doubles.
The guide's incomplete and might never be completed but has good info so here it is. Ironically the section where I put everything together in 'Link's Game' is missing.
7/10/2012

Edit:
Finally! A few minor edits and I will be done. This guide was 50 pages on Word (12point font, Times New Romen, double spaced)!

LordXav1er · Jul 10, 2012

Great Work Rizen!!!!

Man I'll be keeping this bookmarked and reading it a lot as I find time to!

zFlashyStyle · Jul 11, 2012

I Shall Read This Later~

Rizen · Aug 7, 2012

*first update in a long time. I haven't given up on this...

Anonano · Aug 7, 2012

Well, after mentioning that I don't think it's perfect, I do think that you put a lot of effort and care into it as it is and certainly gave it your best. So in the end you did a good job. It's a pity there's not more people here to appreciate and comment on it. :lol:

In general, I think what this guide needs at this point is just reviewing it and revising it.

Rizen · Aug 7, 2012

Thanks.
Yeah it's definitely an incomplete WIP. I haven't revised it hardly at all yet, lol.

Anonano · Aug 8, 2012

So, a little specific feedback on areas that need improvement.

The character categories section need a deeper differentiation between characters imo. Obviously there's a lot of characters that just flat-out wreck Link in a dozen categories (why he's way lower than them lol) but it would probably be good, for the sake of differentiation and keeping things simple, to just classify them according to their primary strengths and strategies against Link.

I like the inclusion of all the pictures of hitboxes, ranges, etc. that you included! I've actually referred here several times to look over all that data. Tons of information (so much that I haven't read all of it lol).

I like the battle strategy section (At the Start, Main Battle, etc). You kept it (mostly) to the overall important stuff to consider in a battle.

Just a little bit of specific feedback for ya. Good job!

Sarix · Aug 11, 2012

Nice work Rizen. I recommend organizing it so it's easier to read though, maybe some collapses for sections, just my 2 cents.

Rizen · Aug 13, 2012

Update
I'm typing this on word and AiB doesn't have collapse formatting but what the heck, I'll add it.
Much better organized but far from completed.

Luigisama · Aug 13, 2012

not sure if this is there. I skimmed through standard attacks. link's jab cancel is impressive. I've seen kirinblaze do double jab to dsmash to score kills. I think it works.

Rizen · Aug 19, 2012

Updated and added jab canceling under 'Link can preform locks'. Thanks

edit: Updated again, better organized, added Dtilt.

#HBC | Red Ryu · Aug 20, 2012

Needs to be stickied, I'll do so immediately.

Onomanic · Aug 20, 2012

Grats on the sticky!!

Rizen · Sep 5, 2012

Thanks everyone! I'm basically done with the exception of spelling/grammar checking! (finally!)

SHAWDY · Feb 1, 2013

Great guide Rizen! I need to read some more of this but very well done!

FooltheFlames · Feb 28, 2014

Awesome guide; whats even moar awesome is the name, for a Brawl Link guide that is.

thedoctr11 · Jun 1, 2014

Amazing work. Thank You!

*** · Feb 18, 2016

First, thank you for the guide. It was very comprehensive, and it has very useful tips.

I have a few things which tend to work for me to suggest. First, I tend to game in general using guerilla tactics; there is something about retreating which gives me time to recenter myself and plan the next few seconds of gameplay. As such, I will often use Link's attacks to knock opponents away from him, or duel against one player if I am not in close combat with more than one opponent, as Link does really well face-to-face due to his good range, projectiles, and excellent priority. In Royale situations, my Usmash and Dsmash are used to parry opponents coming toward Link, with considerable damage and nice knockback. Uair and Dair are good for eliminating a battered opponent, Uair for keeping a floaty or somewhat floaty opponent in the air (though Link is obviously too slow to juggle well). Please know I'm an inexperienced player.

Unbreakable Spirit: Using Link in Brawl

Smash Legend

Smash Legend

Smash Ace

Smash Apprentice

Smash Legend

is the mano, ya know?

Smash Legend

is the mano, ya know?

Smash Ace

Smash Legend

Smash Champion

Smash Legend

Red Fox Warrior

Heaven Piercer

Smash Legend

Smash Apprentice

needs hugs~<3

Smash Apprentice

Smash Rookie

Information

Network