SSBM Compendium of Knowledge: 2007 Edition
Last Update: December 23, 2007
Introduction: The following is the SSBM Compendium of knowledge, first created by Bumble Bee Tuna in 2003. Its current form is the result of several people’s efforts (listed in credits) over that time period. This list should be viewed as a general reference but cannot possibly include all the knowledge out there. Although this list does contain some character specific information, much more exists and you must take it upon yourself to track down the information. Making use of the search function and the Character Specific Forums is a great way to get started.
A Note on MLG and Smashboards: Smashboards contains the largest community of Smashers with over 85,000 registered members. Major League Gaming ran the largest and most professional Smash tournaments in the country through the end of 2006 and continues to sponsor underground tournaments through their grassroots series. Because of this there are many links back and forth between the two sites. Smashboards contains the vast majority of Smash knowledge with Character Specific Forums Forums to break down the game even further while MLG offers extra (useful) Smash content in relation to their professional circuit.
Credits (people who have made notable contributions)
Abbreviations:
Form #1
Air Recovery: When someone sends you flying from an attack, you can tap back and forth on the joystick to recover faster in the air, without needing to use up one of your jumps.
Auto-Float: Coined by Super Doodle Man. Auto-floating is holding down during your first jump in order to start floating at any desired height (This only works for Peach).
Bomb Jumping: Samus can actually jump using her Bombs to propel her. She cannot stay in the air indefinitely, but it is very useful as a recovery. After being knocked off the stage, lay a bomb, fall a little, lay another bomb (causing you to stall long enough for the first bomb to explode over your character), then push the control stick in the direction you wish to go, then repeat the process. Samus can also grapple the stage when she gets close enough.
Link also has the ability to bomb jump, but it is not quite as effective and much more difficult to pull off. The gist is that once you’re off the edge, pull a bomb out, throw it, and proceed to up B, if you do it correctly then the bomb will blow up on you and you will be able to perform another up B move.
BYOC: Stands for “Bring Your Own Controller”. Don’t expect any tournament or Smashfest to provide controllers for you.
C-Stick - Warning: Through the years many illusions regarding the C-Stick have arisen. It should be noted that the C-Stick is used by just about everyone at the advanced levels of the game and that it is not banned from use at any legitimate tournament.
C-Stick - General: The C-Stick does not perform a smash attack any faster then pressing a direction and A. Therefore, outside of finger movement, they are the same speed. Aerial Attacks are commonly performed using the C-Stick, especially the Dair. You can charge the C-Stick by pressing the C-stick and Z at the same time. The C-stick actually makes certain moves that are previously impossible, possible. Example: Floating backwards with Peach and performing her Fair.
Chain Grabbing/Throwing: Characters such as Sheik, Marth, Ice Climber's, and Mario (there are others too) can chain throw. This is just throwing the opponent at a given direction in order to catch them again. The process is then repeated many times, but some characters can escape chain throws at certain (higher) percentages. Some characters have pseudo chain grabs
Crews and Crew Battles: Groups of people who Smash together usually form a crew. Crews are usually unique to a region or location within a region. An offshoot of crews is the concept of a crew battle, where two crews delegate stocks to each member of the crew and subsequently fight until one crew loses all stock.
Crouch Canceling (CC): If you crouch while your opponent is hitting you, you will get knocked back a short distance, and if the attack is weak you are unfazed and can counter attack. This is mostly used against people who spam dash attacks. Abbreviated as "CCing", this is a very useful tactic. Some people call the counter attack (if you counter with your downward tilt attack) a "CCC" (Crouch Cancel Counter). It is worth noting that if you have a very high percentage when CCing, you will do a grounded somersault which makes you very vulnerable to a follow-up attack.
Dash Attack Cancel: If you dash attack and immediately hit Z, you will start your dash attack animation, but instead you will grab. This is only useful if your dash attack makes you lunge forward greatly, like with Sheik, with some characters it is longer than a dash grab, with others it is shorter.
Dashing vs. Walking: If you lightly hold the joystick, your character will walk slowly. If you tap the joystick, you will run (dash). While walking, you can still perform any attack, but while dashing you can only do the dash attack by pressing A, grab by pressing Z, or if you get advanced you can roll the joystick up and hit A to do an upwards smash attack out of the dash. To smash attack out of a walk, use the C-stick.
Dash Canceling: The dash can be canceled by holding down on the control stick.
Dash Dancing (DD): Tapping the joystick back and forth quickly to keep turning around in the opening dash animation, used as a fake-out tactic because you can dash in either direction at any time.
Dash Grab: While dashing, you can hit Z to perform a grab, known as a dashgrab. No dashgrab looks the safe as a standing grab. This will give (most) grabs greater range, but ALL characters suffer more startup and cooldown frames. Good examples are Luigi, Doctor Mario and Mario.
DeSyncing: The process through which you separate the attacks of each individual Ice Climber. It can be done in a variety of ways, most commonly with dodging or using your shield. It is one of the underlying techniques of an advanced Ice Climber’s player.
Directional Influence (DI): Will alter your trajectory to help you survive better. Easiest way to do it is to just DI everything that sends you in a somewhat horizontal direction upwards and DI upwards-sending attacks in the same direction as the opponent is facing (or the opposite if they hit you with the back of the attack). Also, DI can be combined with CC to help you survive upwards attacks better. CC the attack and immediately DI once you're hit. The window of frames depends on the attack. At lower percentages, it is usually best to DI away from the opponent, at higher percentages, it is usually best to DI toward the opponent and up, attempting to aim a hit toward the top corners of the kill zones.
Disjointed Hitbox: A disjointed hitbox is an area that an opponent can attack without having to worry about being hurt. Disjointed hitbox’s are often confused with rules of priority. To better understand how they work it’s best to tinker with Marth or Ness’s F-air.
Doc’s Up-B Cancel: Doctor Mario can actually cancel his Up-B. After you press Up B (Up and slightly to the right/left preferably), to cancel it, quickly tap in the opposite control stick direction within 4 frames. If you perform it correctly Doctor Mario will perform the beginning of the attack but will never leave the ground. Potential uses depend on the knock back and stun the opponent receives.
Dodge/Sidestep: To dodge, shield and press down on the control stick. You are not invincible for the entirety of the dodge, just the middle portion. Like rolling, dodging has startup and ending frames during which you are immobile and open to attack, how long these frames last depends on your character.
Double Jump Cancel (DJC): This can only be performed with certain characters (e.g. Ness, Mewtwo, Peach, Yoshi) who have unique attributes regarding their second jump. These characters can manipulate their second jump with an attack to create obscure trajectories. It's quite frequent that a character will DJC (tap X/Y twice very quickly) an attack very low to the ground, like Ness's Bair. One advantage of a double jump canceled attack is that it can actually be lower than a short hop.
Edge/Ledge Guarding: The act of keeping your opponent from returning safely to the edge upon his recovery.
Edge/Ledge Hogging: Holding onto the side of the edge so that your opponent may not grab on during his recovery, caused because only one character may be holding onto the edge at a given time.
Tips
Extended Grapple: Samus can extend her grapple by pressing back and forth (left and right) on the D-Pad and pressing the Z-button while her grapple is extended. If done successfully her grapple will be 2-3 times longer and have the ability to hone in on enemies by pressing the L button, to grab, you must press Z again as it lands on the enemy. The process of extending the grapple can leave you open, so it helps to jump into a grapple to make yourself less open. Also, the grapple resets each life.
Fake Turnip Throw: This move is executed by Peach to fake opponents out. You can actually throw a turnip downwards as you’re landing from the air (preferably from an auto-cancel) and you will perform about half of the throwing animation frames, but still keep the turnip.
Fast Falling: Pressing down at the peak of your jump to increase your fall speed, important for certain techniques like shuffling and short hop lasers.
Float Canceling: While L-canceling is usually best to shorten the delay after performing an air attack, peach has the ability to Float Cancel her aerial’s. Float canceling is a pretty simple technique, basically do an attack while floating, then release the float, when you hit the ground after the attack you will have only four frames of recovery time, no matter what attack you performed.
Frame: 1/60th of a second. SSBM runs at 60 frames per second, and when you execute an attack on the control stick it takes place the very next frame.
Grab/Throw: Press Z, R and A, or L and A to attempt to grab your opponent. After you grab them you can attack them with A, and then throw them by tapping the joystick in the direction you want to throw them. Eventually, they can wriggle free (faster by pressing buttons and moving the joystick/c-stick) so you can't just attack them with A forever. A grab is the only move that is unaffected by shielding (although hitting L/R does reduce the time of the grab).
Hitbox: The area that an attack covers and can deal damage.
Hitlag and Freeze Frames: Each attack has a few frames of hit lag during which the attack connects (usually just one, but sometimes as high as 2-3). During this time your character is frozen in place, but DI can still be inputted. This property has lead to the practice of Smash DI.
IASA (Interruptible As Soon As): All moves have IASA-frames. After performing a move, you can perform another move (and most often, a jump or a dash) before the first move actually ends. The best example of this is Marth's down tilt. If you perform it and try to jump, you have to wait for the full 49 frames until the move is over. However, if you perform it and try to follow up with any attack (smash or tilt), the down tilt will stop after 20 frames (its hit box will have come out) and go directly into that move. To do an IASA-cancel, you just have to attack after IASA frames of that move have begun but before the animation of the move ends.
Infinites: Several characters have infinites, of which none are regularly banned at tournaments except as a means to stall.
Item Grabbing: On the ground, you can pick up items by pressing A. In the air, you can pick up items by pressing Z. You can use the Z button to pick up items in the air and not have to wait and stop on top of the item to use A. You can grab hearts as they float to the ground. Very useful. Watch out item grabbing with the Links or Samus in the air. They will send out their grappling beam/hooks and if you are moving toward the edge you might fall off and be unable to recover.
Item Catching: Same as item grabbing. When someone throws an item at you, you can catch it by pressing A right when it's about to hit you (on the ground) or Z (in the air). A safer way to air catch is to air dodge and press Z when the item is passing by. It will still catch the item even though you're dodging. I don't know if this works with ground dodging too.
John's: A john is just an excuse used to make a victory or loss illegitimate because of external or internal factors during a match. Common johns include cell phone distractions, controller “malfunctions”, coughing, talking, itching, and in game suicides.
Juggling: A term for continually hitting your opponent up in the air so they don't get to land.
Jump Canceled Up Smash: Every character can up smash from a dash, simply roll the control stick upwards and hit A after you dash.
Jump Canceled Shines: Fox and Falco can cancel their jump by using their shine move, most commonly used when performing Fox’s shine infinite or when Fox/Falco wants to shine straight from a shielding position. Simply jump and quickly press down B. Technically you are jump canceling the shield into a shine, but this is how the term is usually referred.
Jump Canceled Grabs: Jump canceled grabs are helpful for many characters whose lag from a standing grab is less than the lag from a dash grab. Simply dash, then press Y/X or up on the control stick before hitting Z to perform a jump canceled dash grab.
L-Canceling (LC): This is a tactic to reduce the recovery time of air attacks. Right before you hit the ground, if you're in the middle of an air attack, press L (or R, or even Z) to decrease the recovery time. There are 7 frames during which an attack can be L-canceled. You must press L/R/Z in the 6 frames before hitting the ground or the very frame during which your character hits the ground. The result is that the lag of the air attack will be cut in half. Practice with Link’s Dair or Bowser’s Bair to see the full effects.
Edge Hop: Edge hopping is purposely falling off of a edge (press away/down on the control stick), followed by jumping (hitting up/X/Y) onto the level. People usually use an attack on the way up to ensure they are not hit off of the level when landing. Most people press away from the edge since pressing down has the risk of fast falling. You can also edge hop into a waveland, a common practice when you know the opponent is planning attack and you wish to waveland into a shield.
Ledge Teching: Ledge teching is a somewhat odd technique in that it should be used whenever the situation arises, but how common you are caught in a situation requiring a ledge tech is dependant on your character. The gist is rather simple, when you are off the ledge but still next to it and are hit by an opponents attack, press the L/R button. This will allow your character to tech the side (ledge) of the stage similar to how a character can tech the ground after an attack. Pressing away from the stage allows your character to tech and wall jump at the same time. The only difficult part of this technique is learning the timing, for the easiest practice have a friend edge guard your character using Marth’s Forward Smash.
Luigi’s Ladder: To perform this trick you need two Luigi’s. Get close enough to each other so that your up B’s will hit, but will not hit with the fire part. Then, both players just continuously press Up B over and over and you will be able to climb into the air indefinitely. This tactic can be used as a stall in team tournaments and is usually banned.
Metagame: The metagame refers to a number of different things. First, there can be a player versus player metagame, which two players who may have a significant skill gap overall happen to have close matches due to repetition of play (experience) and knowledge of the other person’s tactics. The second is the overall level a person plays at, usually referred to in a generality, like the high level metagame. Lastly the metagame, as a definition, is how a person thinks during a match, similar to the term mind games.
Meteor Canceling: If you jump at the exact moment someone is Meteor Smashing you, you will recover quickly and jump and there will be a little flashy graphic. It only works on spikes deemed official "Meteor Smashes" by the game though.
Meteor Smash: Many characters have a Meteor Smash. This is a smash that sends your opponent downward and is designated by the game as a special move. Meteor Smashes, while powerful, can be meteor recovered, which makes them less effective than spikes.
Mind Games: One of the most misunderstood terms within the community. Mind games are first were used to describe a single trick used against an opponent, but have since come to describe how a player thinks during an entire match. The only real difference between the top level players in the country are their mind games, in other words, the level at which they think and predict their opponents. Mind games are essentially a synonym for the less used term metagaming.
Missile Canceling: This is a Samus technique, but it is also much like Falco Short hop lasers. Before you land on the ground from jumping, fire a missile, the landing will cancel the missile animation and reduce normal missile firing lag. You can also cancel missiles with bombs.
Moon Walking: Moon walking can be performed by many characters but the most effective moon walker is Captain Falcon. To moon walk, dash in a direction and quickly do a half circle rotation (during which you should be pressing down at some point). To understand exactly how it is done and for some of its applications click here
Needle Canceling: This is very similar to Samus’ Missile Canceling technique. The only difference is that this move uses Sheik and her ability to cancel her lag created by releasing her needles in the same fashion that Samus cancels her missile lag. You can also store needles in midair or on the ground by pressing L/R.
Phantom Hit: Phantom hits occur when you barely hit the opponent. It's more like you should have missed but didn't, than you should have hit but didn't. The one on the receiving end will only receive half of the damage they normally should have received and will have no knock back.
Pillaring: Two forms of this concept have arisen over the years. The first, its formal definition, involves a Falco player chipping away at an opponents’ shield by alternating between shuffled dairs and his shine attack. The second, more commonly used definition (but actually incorrect) is the actual shine to dair combo where the opponent receives damage.
Pivoting/DA DASH: Discovered by Phillybilly, a former member of New York’s Deadly Alliance, pivoting is a difficult technique to pull off at first. The easiest way to get a sense of the technique is to watch the dash dance of Marth or Sheik. You'll notice that there is a frame during the dash dance that the character seems to be standing upright. This is where the pivoting idea comes in. At that upright frame you may perform any move that you could otherwise perform from the standing position. This could actually be quicker than wavedashing backwards and into an attack with certain characters, where instead you dash back just a bit and pivot into an attack. To pull it off, dash one direction, then quickly tap the opposite direction and perform your attack. The attack has to be performed as your character is pivoting to change his direction.
Power Shielding/Shield Reflecting: If you press the shield button all the way down within 3 frames of you being hit, you will block the attack without putting up your shield and be able to retaliate immediately. The computer does this frequently. If the attack is a projectile, you will reflect it back at your opponent and your shield will come up. With practice many players have been able to consistently power shield projectiles such as Falco’s lasers.
Priority: If two attacks come out at the exact same time, they will clank, no matter if it's a jab against a jab, or a jab against a smash. Even if one of the moves is disjointed, they will both clank. The only thing priority is based upon on the ground is that certain attacks reach out much further than they look like they should reach out (due to there hit box). The same goes for aerial priority. If two aerials hit at the same time, the one with more priority will override the other. The lower prioritized person will suffer a hit while the higher prioritized person doesn't. But only if the higher prioritized isn't in range. Aerial priority is all about range. Let's take Peach's Bair against Captain Falcon's fair, for instance. The reach Captain Falcon's fair has is pretty much his knee itself. Peach's Bair's reach is her butt and then a large piece of air around it. In order to hit CF when he's fairing, you only have to hit his fair.
In order to hit Peach while her bair is extended to its utmost ability, you have to hit her butt. But wait, Peach's bair has a great priority when it's fully out because the bair will hit quite a distance around her butt! So in order to hit Peach while she's Bairing, you have to make it so that the hitbox of your attack makes it inside of that big circle around her butt without your own hitbox making it inside of the circle. If both hitboxes make contact with attacking hitboxes, both will get hit.
Reset: Canceling the opponent’s tumbling or stun animation by hitting them with an attack with relatively low knock back. A very easy to see example of this is down throwing with Fox or Falco and immediately jabbing them. If they do not tech, you will “reset” their position and be and be able to follow up with other hits, grabs, etc. There are two different reset states, one where you hit your opponent while they’re lying on the ground and another if they are standing or air borne (usually during a tumble).
Rising Pound: JiggyPuff’s pound can give horizontal distance with almost no loss in vertical height. To perform it, do the pound, then slide the control stick upward, the effects are quite obvious if it is performed correctly.
Roll: A moving dodge done by tapping the joystick to the left or right while pressing L or R. Newer players rely on it a bit too much, but it is still very useful at the higher levels, so don't always count it out.
Sand Bagging: There are essentially two ways players sand bag. The first is when a small amount of money is on the line, where the stronger player may intentionally play poorly in hopes of winning a larger sum of money later on. The second and more common way of sand bagging is when a strong player doesn’t use his best character and intentionally plays poorly during friendly matches, usually to keep the other player from learning his style or to have an excuse for losing later on.
Sex Kick: The nickname given by Matt Deezie's crew to the nair attack of some characters, this nickname has since become common place after several years of usage. It is defined as a kick that sticks out and still hits people even when the foot is no longer moving (Samus, Mario, Doc, Yoshi, etc). Some people use it as a term for all nair’s, although such a reference would be incorrect.
Shieldhitstun: When you hit a shield with an attack, you will suffer shieldhitstun. During these frames, you can't do anything.
Shielding – General: Every character can shield attacks, as such, shielding comes with a few unique properties that should be learned. Every character has a light and full shield that have different uses, and every character (except Yoshi) can jump out of their shield. Jumping out of the shield allows the shield to be canceled instantaneously, because of this, you can wavedash or up smash out of your shield. You can also pass through platform by lightly and slightly moving the control stick downwards while your shield is up (instead of dropping your shield then pressing down to move through the platform). You can move your shield around different parts of your body by slowly moving your control stick toward a given direction.
Shielding – Light Shield: To light shield, gently hold down L/R or hold down Z. Light shielding covers more of your body and causes your character to slide away further from oncoming attacks. A disadvantage to light shielding is that you cannot powershield attacks. The light shield can also be used as a quick edge hog against different opponents (known as the light shield edge hog). This is particularly dominant in the Marth-Falco match up, to perform it, roll toward the ledge as Falco, put your light shield up and tilt the shield down and toward the returning Marth. Marth’s up B attack should then hit the inside of the shield, cause Falco to grab the ledge and edge hog Marth.
Shielding – Full Shield: The full shield is smaller and darker than the light shield has a few advantages. You can powershield attacks using the full shield by timing the shield just as the oncoming attack/projectile is about to hit your character. The full shield has less knock back, meaning you may want to use if to perform an attack out of the shield right after the shield-stun from an attack wears off.
Shield Toggling: You can toggle between the light and full shield by holding down L/R and A, then pressing Z repeatedly.
Shield Stun: When hit by attacks while shielding, you will lag for a number of frames during which you can't do anything. The number of shield stun lag frames varies depending on which character hit you and with what attack, the lag is not based on who you are. This is different from shieldhitstun in that it is the person shielding, not the attacker, that receives the lag.
Shield Grabbing: An essential technique that tends to separate experienced players from novices more than any other tactic. Because grabbing can be done by Shielding (L/R/Z) and hitting A, you can therefore grab the moment the shield-stun wears off of your character from the attack move. This is a major defensive move and eliminates a lot of options for your opponent if you can use it well.
Shine/Reflector: Fox and Falco’s reflector is commonly referred to as shine.
Short Jumping/Hopping (SH): If you tap the jump button quickly, you will do a shorter jump than usual. Short hops actually come out faster than full jumps. This is very useful in quickening the pace and removing vulnerabilities in your character.
Short Hop-FastFall-L-Cancel (SHFFLC): An abbreviated form of describing the quickest combination for performing an aerial attack (excluding characters that can double jump cancel). Most refer to this as shuffling. Short hop, perform your air attack, fast fall, and then L-cancel.
Short Hop Blaster/Laser (SHB/SHL): A common way to tell a new Falco player from a skilled one is whether or not they SHB. This reduces the recovery time from firing a laser and is almost as fast as repeatedly pressing B while standing. The major difference between this and the standing blaster is mobility and recovery time (the time it takes Falco to put his blaster away).
Smash DI: A form of directional influence during which you input the DI during the freeze frames (also known as hitlag) of an attack. Some attacks have multiple frames during which the attack connects (a Samus charge shot), because of this you can actually input multiple Smash DI’s during this period. By holding the C-Stick in a direction while getting hit, you can also perform an ASDI (Automatic Smash DI). For more information on Smash DI view this: Guide to Smash DI
Smashfest: Smashfests are held by players just looking to play smash with other people. To find out if there are any fests near you check the Regional Zones. Fests are usually held by individual players or there respective crews. There are also events known as biweeklies which are essentially Smashfests every 2 weeks. If you want to get your name out there and become more known in the smash community, fests are the way to do it.
Stages (MLG Tournament Legal):
The top of a box represents Singles, the bottom of a box represents Doubles.
Red means banned
Yellow means able to be counter-picked
Green means neutral (on random)
Super Wavedash: The Super Wavedash can only be performed by Samus, it is difficult to learn but once you get the timing it becomes easier. To perform it, Lay a bomb, then hold the controller in one direction, just as you land from the laying the bomb quickly press the control stick in the other direction. It's important to note the move has nothing to do with the bomb. Instead, it has to do with the morph-ball state, which you can only get to by laying a bomb. You must switch control stick directions between the 41st and 42nd frame of the bomb animation to pull it off correctly. For more information please view: The Samus Super Wavedash Sticky
Teching/Wallteching/Techrolling: The name given for instant recovery techniques. When you are sent flying from an attack, if you hit L or R before hitting the ground or the wall (or ceiling), you will recover instantly. On the ground, you will stand up, on the wall you will stop bouncing around. If you hold to the side as you do it, you will recover in a rolling dodge. If you hold up as you walltech, you can jump off of the wall.
Tech Chasing: Some characters, such as Captain Falcon, are good at tech chasing. This is a common tactic during which the opponent follows your tech, proceeds to throw, then follows however you tech the throw.
Tiers: Tiers are a general breakdown of how each character stacks up in comparison to the other characters in the game. The tier list assumes a few things. First and most importantly is that it is based on the current metagame (which is based on the mind-games and technical skill of the top players). Current is the vital point here, it is not based on future potential, but on current potential (as a note here Fox is considered to have the most potential in the game). Second, the tier list assumes those playing are of near equal skill, and that they are both near the top of the technical (human) ability for their given character.
What exactly does all this mean? Essentially under most circumstances the higher tiered character will beat the lower tiered character. It is a simply a list of overall advantages, which characters have more advantages in more match ups than other characters. What it doesn't mean is that Sheik will always destroy Marth simply because she is located 2 spots above Marth on the tier list. The impact of the tier list at the top levels of play is minimal once you move into the High Tier and above. Instead, counter characters begin to play a larger role. This also brings up a large portion of the confusion regarding the tier list because a lower ranked character can be a counter to a character ranked much higher. The easiest example here is the Ice Climbers versus Sheik. While Sheik has more advantages in more match ups, the Ice Climbers are one of the few characters that can chain grab her, and as a result they are her only hard counter.
To get a slightly more in depth look at tiers, largely covering the previous tier list, view this: The Ever Evolving Smash Tiers
Triangle Jumping: Similar to wavedashing, except you dodge after you've actually jumped off the ground. This is very useful against characters like Marth in avoiding the attack (sword) while getting close enough in proximity in order to attack. It is also used as a fake out method for approaching.
Tumble: After some attacks your character may enter a tumble, during which he cannot perform an A attack or jump. Tumbles must be wiggled out of before control of the character can be regained (although you can still up B out of a tumble).
Turnip Canceling: Similar to Samus’ Missile Cancel, except this technique involves Peach canceling the lag from pulling out turnips. To do this, just pull out a turnip and while standing on a platform followed by immediately dropping through it as you begin to pull the turnip from the ground.
Vidjo Drop: Because of Peach’s float she has the unique ability to utilize the IASA-factor (Interruptible As Soon As-Factor) in a special way, known as the Vidjo drop. Under normal conditions throwing or dropping a turnip requires the loss of floating for that jump. However, if you perform an aerial attack and time hitting A or Z at just the right moment, you can actually cancel that attack and toss or drop the turnip while maintaining your float. The Dair is the easiest to perform the Vidjo Drop with because the move has 6 ISAI frames, meaning you can drop or toss the turnip 6 frames before the animation actually ends and still be floating.
Wall-Bombing: Peach has the ability to perform the Wall-Bomb by pressing Forward B while next to a wall. If you Smash Forward B then the Bomber will actually raise you up a tiny bit. Repeat the process and you can actually climb any wall in the game. This move could also be used as a stall, so forms of it are banned at most tournaments and it is only allowed as a recovery.
Wall-Jumping: With certain (more agile) characters, you can jump toward a wall and then tap the joystick away from it to jump off of the wall. This doesn't use up any jumps and is useful for getting out of pits on certain stages.
Wall of Pain (WoP): Jiggypuff’s general strategy is usually focused on the Wall of Pain. This is the repetition of Jiggles high priority air moves, such as her Bair.
Wavedashing - How To: Wavedashing is difficult to pull off at first, but with practice it eventually becomes second nature. To perform a Wavedash, jump (hit X/Y), then immediately airdodge (hit L/R) into the ground at an angle. Each character has different timing based on their jump animations/duration. For the most noticeable results, select Luigi, who is known for his long wavedash.
Wavedashing - Uses:
Wobbling See under Infinites
Zoning: Controlling a specific area of a stage in order to have the most advantageous position.
Tier List (As of October 14th, 2008)
Introduction: If you have any other questions regarding the tier list that are not covered in the definition already answered in the linked topic, send a PM to AlphaZealot. Tier list topics will generally be closed.
More information on the tier list: Tier Topic
Top Tier[/COLOR][/B]
Sheik(9.7)
Falco(9.2)
High Tier
Peach(8.4)
Captain falcon(8.0)
Jigglypuff(8.0)
Ice Climbers(7.9)
Middle Tier
Samus(6.8)
Doctor Mario(6.2)
Ganondorf(6.0)
Luigi(5.8)
Donkey Kong(5.4)
Mario(5.3)
Low Tier
Link(4.7)
Pikachu(4.3)
Young Link(4.2)
Roy(3.6)
Zelda(3.0)
Mr. Game & Watch(3.0)
Bottom Tier
Ness(2.5)
Yoshi(2.5)
Bowser(2.2)
Mewtwo(1.8)
Kirby(1.5)
Pichu(1.2)
Last Update: December 23, 2007
Introduction: The following is the SSBM Compendium of knowledge, first created by Bumble Bee Tuna in 2003. Its current form is the result of several people’s efforts (listed in credits) over that time period. This list should be viewed as a general reference but cannot possibly include all the knowledge out there. Although this list does contain some character specific information, much more exists and you must take it upon yourself to track down the information. Making use of the search function and the Character Specific Forums is a great way to get started.
A Note on MLG and Smashboards: Smashboards contains the largest community of Smashers with over 85,000 registered members. Major League Gaming ran the largest and most professional Smash tournaments in the country through the end of 2006 and continues to sponsor underground tournaments through their grassroots series. Because of this there are many links back and forth between the two sites. Smashboards contains the vast majority of Smash knowledge with Character Specific Forums Forums to break down the game even further while MLG offers extra (useful) Smash content in relation to their professional circuit.
Credits (people who have made notable contributions)
- AngeloBangelo (Organized Information, Nov 05)
- BBT (Initial Creator)
- CORY (Mod #1)
- M3D (Mod #2)
- MBR at Smashboards
- PopFizz at MLGPro
- Phanna for the Stages Picture and Breakdown
- Yuna (Large Update, Nov 05)
- MLG's Guide to Competitive Smash: Part 1
- MLG's Guide to Competitive Smash: Part 2
- MLG's Guide to Competitive Smash: Part 3
- The King of Smash: MLG Interviews Ken
- PC Chris: The East Coast’s Golden Boy
- Azen and Chillin: The Great 2v2 Overthrow
- Scratching the Record: MLG Interviews KoreanDJ
- Super Usurper: MLG Interviews Azen
- Not So Innocent: MLG Interviews HugS
- In Pursuit of a Takeover: MLG Interviews KoreanDJ
- A Deadly Union: MLG Interviews Husband and Wife
- Definitely No Chump: MLG Interviews Bum
- Get Your Tournament
- Major League Gaming
- SSBM Statistics List
- Super Doodle Man's Frame Data
- The History of Smash
- Not So Common Sense
- Revenge of a Buzz Saw
- Wavedashing Guide
- Wifi Wars
Abbreviations:
Form #1
- Bair - Back Air
- Dair - Down Air
- Fair - Forward Air
- Nair - Neutral Air
- Uair - Up Air
- ABA - Aerial Back Air
- ADA - Aerial Down Air
- AFA - Aerial Forward Air
- ANA - Aerial Neutral Air
- AUA - Aerial Up Air
Air Recovery: When someone sends you flying from an attack, you can tap back and forth on the joystick to recover faster in the air, without needing to use up one of your jumps.
Auto-Float: Coined by Super Doodle Man. Auto-floating is holding down during your first jump in order to start floating at any desired height (This only works for Peach).
Bomb Jumping: Samus can actually jump using her Bombs to propel her. She cannot stay in the air indefinitely, but it is very useful as a recovery. After being knocked off the stage, lay a bomb, fall a little, lay another bomb (causing you to stall long enough for the first bomb to explode over your character), then push the control stick in the direction you wish to go, then repeat the process. Samus can also grapple the stage when she gets close enough.
Link also has the ability to bomb jump, but it is not quite as effective and much more difficult to pull off. The gist is that once you’re off the edge, pull a bomb out, throw it, and proceed to up B, if you do it correctly then the bomb will blow up on you and you will be able to perform another up B move.
BYOC: Stands for “Bring Your Own Controller”. Don’t expect any tournament or Smashfest to provide controllers for you.
C-Stick - Warning: Through the years many illusions regarding the C-Stick have arisen. It should be noted that the C-Stick is used by just about everyone at the advanced levels of the game and that it is not banned from use at any legitimate tournament.
C-Stick - General: The C-Stick does not perform a smash attack any faster then pressing a direction and A. Therefore, outside of finger movement, they are the same speed. Aerial Attacks are commonly performed using the C-Stick, especially the Dair. You can charge the C-Stick by pressing the C-stick and Z at the same time. The C-stick actually makes certain moves that are previously impossible, possible. Example: Floating backwards with Peach and performing her Fair.
Chain Grabbing/Throwing: Characters such as Sheik, Marth, Ice Climber's, and Mario (there are others too) can chain throw. This is just throwing the opponent at a given direction in order to catch them again. The process is then repeated many times, but some characters can escape chain throws at certain (higher) percentages. Some characters have pseudo chain grabs
Crews and Crew Battles: Groups of people who Smash together usually form a crew. Crews are usually unique to a region or location within a region. An offshoot of crews is the concept of a crew battle, where two crews delegate stocks to each member of the crew and subsequently fight until one crew loses all stock.
Crouch Canceling (CC): If you crouch while your opponent is hitting you, you will get knocked back a short distance, and if the attack is weak you are unfazed and can counter attack. This is mostly used against people who spam dash attacks. Abbreviated as "CCing", this is a very useful tactic. Some people call the counter attack (if you counter with your downward tilt attack) a "CCC" (Crouch Cancel Counter). It is worth noting that if you have a very high percentage when CCing, you will do a grounded somersault which makes you very vulnerable to a follow-up attack.
Dash Attack Cancel: If you dash attack and immediately hit Z, you will start your dash attack animation, but instead you will grab. This is only useful if your dash attack makes you lunge forward greatly, like with Sheik, with some characters it is longer than a dash grab, with others it is shorter.
Dashing vs. Walking: If you lightly hold the joystick, your character will walk slowly. If you tap the joystick, you will run (dash). While walking, you can still perform any attack, but while dashing you can only do the dash attack by pressing A, grab by pressing Z, or if you get advanced you can roll the joystick up and hit A to do an upwards smash attack out of the dash. To smash attack out of a walk, use the C-stick.
Dash Canceling: The dash can be canceled by holding down on the control stick.
Dash Dancing (DD): Tapping the joystick back and forth quickly to keep turning around in the opening dash animation, used as a fake-out tactic because you can dash in either direction at any time.
Dash Grab: While dashing, you can hit Z to perform a grab, known as a dashgrab. No dashgrab looks the safe as a standing grab. This will give (most) grabs greater range, but ALL characters suffer more startup and cooldown frames. Good examples are Luigi, Doctor Mario and Mario.
DeSyncing: The process through which you separate the attacks of each individual Ice Climber. It can be done in a variety of ways, most commonly with dodging or using your shield. It is one of the underlying techniques of an advanced Ice Climber’s player.
Directional Influence (DI): Will alter your trajectory to help you survive better. Easiest way to do it is to just DI everything that sends you in a somewhat horizontal direction upwards and DI upwards-sending attacks in the same direction as the opponent is facing (or the opposite if they hit you with the back of the attack). Also, DI can be combined with CC to help you survive upwards attacks better. CC the attack and immediately DI once you're hit. The window of frames depends on the attack. At lower percentages, it is usually best to DI away from the opponent, at higher percentages, it is usually best to DI toward the opponent and up, attempting to aim a hit toward the top corners of the kill zones.
Disjointed Hitbox: A disjointed hitbox is an area that an opponent can attack without having to worry about being hurt. Disjointed hitbox’s are often confused with rules of priority. To better understand how they work it’s best to tinker with Marth or Ness’s F-air.
Doc’s Up-B Cancel: Doctor Mario can actually cancel his Up-B. After you press Up B (Up and slightly to the right/left preferably), to cancel it, quickly tap in the opposite control stick direction within 4 frames. If you perform it correctly Doctor Mario will perform the beginning of the attack but will never leave the ground. Potential uses depend on the knock back and stun the opponent receives.
Dodge/Sidestep: To dodge, shield and press down on the control stick. You are not invincible for the entirety of the dodge, just the middle portion. Like rolling, dodging has startup and ending frames during which you are immobile and open to attack, how long these frames last depends on your character.
Double Jump Cancel (DJC): This can only be performed with certain characters (e.g. Ness, Mewtwo, Peach, Yoshi) who have unique attributes regarding their second jump. These characters can manipulate their second jump with an attack to create obscure trajectories. It's quite frequent that a character will DJC (tap X/Y twice very quickly) an attack very low to the ground, like Ness's Bair. One advantage of a double jump canceled attack is that it can actually be lower than a short hop.
Edge/Ledge Guarding: The act of keeping your opponent from returning safely to the edge upon his recovery.
Edge/Ledge Hogging: Holding onto the side of the edge so that your opponent may not grab on during his recovery, caused because only one character may be holding onto the edge at a given time.
Tips
- Rolling has the longest invincibility frames while you still actually occupy the edge, therefore, time a roll just as your opponent performs his up-B to keep him from grabbing on and yourself from getting hit.
- Wavedash while facing away from the edge to grab on quickly.
- Short hop for those characters who have shorter wavedashes and quick fall speeds.
- Autofloat back onto the edge for Peach.
- Aim the Up B of Pichu or Pikachu toward and then into the edge (very difficult).
- Use Young Link or Link’s Up B while standing next to the edge and then roll the control stick toward the edge (very difficult).
Extended Grapple: Samus can extend her grapple by pressing back and forth (left and right) on the D-Pad and pressing the Z-button while her grapple is extended. If done successfully her grapple will be 2-3 times longer and have the ability to hone in on enemies by pressing the L button, to grab, you must press Z again as it lands on the enemy. The process of extending the grapple can leave you open, so it helps to jump into a grapple to make yourself less open. Also, the grapple resets each life.
Fake Turnip Throw: This move is executed by Peach to fake opponents out. You can actually throw a turnip downwards as you’re landing from the air (preferably from an auto-cancel) and you will perform about half of the throwing animation frames, but still keep the turnip.
Fast Falling: Pressing down at the peak of your jump to increase your fall speed, important for certain techniques like shuffling and short hop lasers.
Float Canceling: While L-canceling is usually best to shorten the delay after performing an air attack, peach has the ability to Float Cancel her aerial’s. Float canceling is a pretty simple technique, basically do an attack while floating, then release the float, when you hit the ground after the attack you will have only four frames of recovery time, no matter what attack you performed.
Frame: 1/60th of a second. SSBM runs at 60 frames per second, and when you execute an attack on the control stick it takes place the very next frame.
Grab/Throw: Press Z, R and A, or L and A to attempt to grab your opponent. After you grab them you can attack them with A, and then throw them by tapping the joystick in the direction you want to throw them. Eventually, they can wriggle free (faster by pressing buttons and moving the joystick/c-stick) so you can't just attack them with A forever. A grab is the only move that is unaffected by shielding (although hitting L/R does reduce the time of the grab).
Hitbox: The area that an attack covers and can deal damage.
Hitlag and Freeze Frames: Each attack has a few frames of hit lag during which the attack connects (usually just one, but sometimes as high as 2-3). During this time your character is frozen in place, but DI can still be inputted. This property has lead to the practice of Smash DI.
IASA (Interruptible As Soon As): All moves have IASA-frames. After performing a move, you can perform another move (and most often, a jump or a dash) before the first move actually ends. The best example of this is Marth's down tilt. If you perform it and try to jump, you have to wait for the full 49 frames until the move is over. However, if you perform it and try to follow up with any attack (smash or tilt), the down tilt will stop after 20 frames (its hit box will have come out) and go directly into that move. To do an IASA-cancel, you just have to attack after IASA frames of that move have begun but before the animation of the move ends.
Infinites: Several characters have infinites, of which none are regularly banned at tournaments except as a means to stall.
- Wobbling: Named after the player who first used the technique to success in a tournament (not to the discoverer, the move has actually been around since 2004), wobbling is when the Ice Climbers grab an opponent and infinite using the forward tilt in a well timed repetition. It works against any character on any stage starting at a low percentage until the Ice Climbers player decides to end the infinite. The only stipulations are that the Ice Climbers must land a properly spaced grab and that both Ice Climbers must be present to perform the infinite.
- Shine Infinite: The shine infinite is performed by Fox in several different ways. Most common is to shine and wavedash repeatedly. This infinite ends when Fox runs out of room to perform it, although against some characters it is possible to reverse the infinite by wavedashing behind the character and starting the chain over again. The other variant requires a wall, where Fox will shine, wavedash downwards, and shine again. It is also possible to shine, jump, shine repeatedly, but requires the shine to come out very quickly after Fox leaves the ground (so that he may land, shine, and jump again). This iteration of the shine infinite takes less than 10 frames to perform (much quicker than using a wavedash).
Item Grabbing: On the ground, you can pick up items by pressing A. In the air, you can pick up items by pressing Z. You can use the Z button to pick up items in the air and not have to wait and stop on top of the item to use A. You can grab hearts as they float to the ground. Very useful. Watch out item grabbing with the Links or Samus in the air. They will send out their grappling beam/hooks and if you are moving toward the edge you might fall off and be unable to recover.
Item Catching: Same as item grabbing. When someone throws an item at you, you can catch it by pressing A right when it's about to hit you (on the ground) or Z (in the air). A safer way to air catch is to air dodge and press Z when the item is passing by. It will still catch the item even though you're dodging. I don't know if this works with ground dodging too.
John's: A john is just an excuse used to make a victory or loss illegitimate because of external or internal factors during a match. Common johns include cell phone distractions, controller “malfunctions”, coughing, talking, itching, and in game suicides.
Juggling: A term for continually hitting your opponent up in the air so they don't get to land.
Jump Canceled Up Smash: Every character can up smash from a dash, simply roll the control stick upwards and hit A after you dash.
Jump Canceled Shines: Fox and Falco can cancel their jump by using their shine move, most commonly used when performing Fox’s shine infinite or when Fox/Falco wants to shine straight from a shielding position. Simply jump and quickly press down B. Technically you are jump canceling the shield into a shine, but this is how the term is usually referred.
Jump Canceled Grabs: Jump canceled grabs are helpful for many characters whose lag from a standing grab is less than the lag from a dash grab. Simply dash, then press Y/X or up on the control stick before hitting Z to perform a jump canceled dash grab.
L-Canceling (LC): This is a tactic to reduce the recovery time of air attacks. Right before you hit the ground, if you're in the middle of an air attack, press L (or R, or even Z) to decrease the recovery time. There are 7 frames during which an attack can be L-canceled. You must press L/R/Z in the 6 frames before hitting the ground or the very frame during which your character hits the ground. The result is that the lag of the air attack will be cut in half. Practice with Link’s Dair or Bowser’s Bair to see the full effects.
Edge Hop: Edge hopping is purposely falling off of a edge (press away/down on the control stick), followed by jumping (hitting up/X/Y) onto the level. People usually use an attack on the way up to ensure they are not hit off of the level when landing. Most people press away from the edge since pressing down has the risk of fast falling. You can also edge hop into a waveland, a common practice when you know the opponent is planning attack and you wish to waveland into a shield.
Ledge Teching: Ledge teching is a somewhat odd technique in that it should be used whenever the situation arises, but how common you are caught in a situation requiring a ledge tech is dependant on your character. The gist is rather simple, when you are off the ledge but still next to it and are hit by an opponents attack, press the L/R button. This will allow your character to tech the side (ledge) of the stage similar to how a character can tech the ground after an attack. Pressing away from the stage allows your character to tech and wall jump at the same time. The only difficult part of this technique is learning the timing, for the easiest practice have a friend edge guard your character using Marth’s Forward Smash.
Luigi’s Ladder: To perform this trick you need two Luigi’s. Get close enough to each other so that your up B’s will hit, but will not hit with the fire part. Then, both players just continuously press Up B over and over and you will be able to climb into the air indefinitely. This tactic can be used as a stall in team tournaments and is usually banned.
Metagame: The metagame refers to a number of different things. First, there can be a player versus player metagame, which two players who may have a significant skill gap overall happen to have close matches due to repetition of play (experience) and knowledge of the other person’s tactics. The second is the overall level a person plays at, usually referred to in a generality, like the high level metagame. Lastly the metagame, as a definition, is how a person thinks during a match, similar to the term mind games.
Meteor Canceling: If you jump at the exact moment someone is Meteor Smashing you, you will recover quickly and jump and there will be a little flashy graphic. It only works on spikes deemed official "Meteor Smashes" by the game though.
Meteor Smash: Many characters have a Meteor Smash. This is a smash that sends your opponent downward and is designated by the game as a special move. Meteor Smashes, while powerful, can be meteor recovered, which makes them less effective than spikes.
Mind Games: One of the most misunderstood terms within the community. Mind games are first were used to describe a single trick used against an opponent, but have since come to describe how a player thinks during an entire match. The only real difference between the top level players in the country are their mind games, in other words, the level at which they think and predict their opponents. Mind games are essentially a synonym for the less used term metagaming.
Missile Canceling: This is a Samus technique, but it is also much like Falco Short hop lasers. Before you land on the ground from jumping, fire a missile, the landing will cancel the missile animation and reduce normal missile firing lag. You can also cancel missiles with bombs.
Moon Walking: Moon walking can be performed by many characters but the most effective moon walker is Captain Falcon. To moon walk, dash in a direction and quickly do a half circle rotation (during which you should be pressing down at some point). To understand exactly how it is done and for some of its applications click here
Needle Canceling: This is very similar to Samus’ Missile Canceling technique. The only difference is that this move uses Sheik and her ability to cancel her lag created by releasing her needles in the same fashion that Samus cancels her missile lag. You can also store needles in midair or on the ground by pressing L/R.
Phantom Hit: Phantom hits occur when you barely hit the opponent. It's more like you should have missed but didn't, than you should have hit but didn't. The one on the receiving end will only receive half of the damage they normally should have received and will have no knock back.
Pillaring: Two forms of this concept have arisen over the years. The first, its formal definition, involves a Falco player chipping away at an opponents’ shield by alternating between shuffled dairs and his shine attack. The second, more commonly used definition (but actually incorrect) is the actual shine to dair combo where the opponent receives damage.
Pivoting/DA DASH: Discovered by Phillybilly, a former member of New York’s Deadly Alliance, pivoting is a difficult technique to pull off at first. The easiest way to get a sense of the technique is to watch the dash dance of Marth or Sheik. You'll notice that there is a frame during the dash dance that the character seems to be standing upright. This is where the pivoting idea comes in. At that upright frame you may perform any move that you could otherwise perform from the standing position. This could actually be quicker than wavedashing backwards and into an attack with certain characters, where instead you dash back just a bit and pivot into an attack. To pull it off, dash one direction, then quickly tap the opposite direction and perform your attack. The attack has to be performed as your character is pivoting to change his direction.
Power Shielding/Shield Reflecting: If you press the shield button all the way down within 3 frames of you being hit, you will block the attack without putting up your shield and be able to retaliate immediately. The computer does this frequently. If the attack is a projectile, you will reflect it back at your opponent and your shield will come up. With practice many players have been able to consistently power shield projectiles such as Falco’s lasers.
Priority: If two attacks come out at the exact same time, they will clank, no matter if it's a jab against a jab, or a jab against a smash. Even if one of the moves is disjointed, they will both clank. The only thing priority is based upon on the ground is that certain attacks reach out much further than they look like they should reach out (due to there hit box). The same goes for aerial priority. If two aerials hit at the same time, the one with more priority will override the other. The lower prioritized person will suffer a hit while the higher prioritized person doesn't. But only if the higher prioritized isn't in range. Aerial priority is all about range. Let's take Peach's Bair against Captain Falcon's fair, for instance. The reach Captain Falcon's fair has is pretty much his knee itself. Peach's Bair's reach is her butt and then a large piece of air around it. In order to hit CF when he's fairing, you only have to hit his fair.
In order to hit Peach while her bair is extended to its utmost ability, you have to hit her butt. But wait, Peach's bair has a great priority when it's fully out because the bair will hit quite a distance around her butt! So in order to hit Peach while she's Bairing, you have to make it so that the hitbox of your attack makes it inside of that big circle around her butt without your own hitbox making it inside of the circle. If both hitboxes make contact with attacking hitboxes, both will get hit.
Reset: Canceling the opponent’s tumbling or stun animation by hitting them with an attack with relatively low knock back. A very easy to see example of this is down throwing with Fox or Falco and immediately jabbing them. If they do not tech, you will “reset” their position and be and be able to follow up with other hits, grabs, etc. There are two different reset states, one where you hit your opponent while they’re lying on the ground and another if they are standing or air borne (usually during a tumble).
Rising Pound: JiggyPuff’s pound can give horizontal distance with almost no loss in vertical height. To perform it, do the pound, then slide the control stick upward, the effects are quite obvious if it is performed correctly.
Roll: A moving dodge done by tapping the joystick to the left or right while pressing L or R. Newer players rely on it a bit too much, but it is still very useful at the higher levels, so don't always count it out.
Sand Bagging: There are essentially two ways players sand bag. The first is when a small amount of money is on the line, where the stronger player may intentionally play poorly in hopes of winning a larger sum of money later on. The second and more common way of sand bagging is when a strong player doesn’t use his best character and intentionally plays poorly during friendly matches, usually to keep the other player from learning his style or to have an excuse for losing later on.
Sex Kick: The nickname given by Matt Deezie's crew to the nair attack of some characters, this nickname has since become common place after several years of usage. It is defined as a kick that sticks out and still hits people even when the foot is no longer moving (Samus, Mario, Doc, Yoshi, etc). Some people use it as a term for all nair’s, although such a reference would be incorrect.
Shieldhitstun: When you hit a shield with an attack, you will suffer shieldhitstun. During these frames, you can't do anything.
Shielding – General: Every character can shield attacks, as such, shielding comes with a few unique properties that should be learned. Every character has a light and full shield that have different uses, and every character (except Yoshi) can jump out of their shield. Jumping out of the shield allows the shield to be canceled instantaneously, because of this, you can wavedash or up smash out of your shield. You can also pass through platform by lightly and slightly moving the control stick downwards while your shield is up (instead of dropping your shield then pressing down to move through the platform). You can move your shield around different parts of your body by slowly moving your control stick toward a given direction.
Shielding – Light Shield: To light shield, gently hold down L/R or hold down Z. Light shielding covers more of your body and causes your character to slide away further from oncoming attacks. A disadvantage to light shielding is that you cannot powershield attacks. The light shield can also be used as a quick edge hog against different opponents (known as the light shield edge hog). This is particularly dominant in the Marth-Falco match up, to perform it, roll toward the ledge as Falco, put your light shield up and tilt the shield down and toward the returning Marth. Marth’s up B attack should then hit the inside of the shield, cause Falco to grab the ledge and edge hog Marth.
Shielding – Full Shield: The full shield is smaller and darker than the light shield has a few advantages. You can powershield attacks using the full shield by timing the shield just as the oncoming attack/projectile is about to hit your character. The full shield has less knock back, meaning you may want to use if to perform an attack out of the shield right after the shield-stun from an attack wears off.
Shield Toggling: You can toggle between the light and full shield by holding down L/R and A, then pressing Z repeatedly.
Shield Stun: When hit by attacks while shielding, you will lag for a number of frames during which you can't do anything. The number of shield stun lag frames varies depending on which character hit you and with what attack, the lag is not based on who you are. This is different from shieldhitstun in that it is the person shielding, not the attacker, that receives the lag.
Shield Grabbing: An essential technique that tends to separate experienced players from novices more than any other tactic. Because grabbing can be done by Shielding (L/R/Z) and hitting A, you can therefore grab the moment the shield-stun wears off of your character from the attack move. This is a major defensive move and eliminates a lot of options for your opponent if you can use it well.
Shine/Reflector: Fox and Falco’s reflector is commonly referred to as shine.
Short Jumping/Hopping (SH): If you tap the jump button quickly, you will do a shorter jump than usual. Short hops actually come out faster than full jumps. This is very useful in quickening the pace and removing vulnerabilities in your character.
Short Hop-FastFall-L-Cancel (SHFFLC): An abbreviated form of describing the quickest combination for performing an aerial attack (excluding characters that can double jump cancel). Most refer to this as shuffling. Short hop, perform your air attack, fast fall, and then L-cancel.
Short Hop Blaster/Laser (SHB/SHL): A common way to tell a new Falco player from a skilled one is whether or not they SHB. This reduces the recovery time from firing a laser and is almost as fast as repeatedly pressing B while standing. The major difference between this and the standing blaster is mobility and recovery time (the time it takes Falco to put his blaster away).
Smash DI: A form of directional influence during which you input the DI during the freeze frames (also known as hitlag) of an attack. Some attacks have multiple frames during which the attack connects (a Samus charge shot), because of this you can actually input multiple Smash DI’s during this period. By holding the C-Stick in a direction while getting hit, you can also perform an ASDI (Automatic Smash DI). For more information on Smash DI view this: Guide to Smash DI
Smashfest: Smashfests are held by players just looking to play smash with other people. To find out if there are any fests near you check the Regional Zones. Fests are usually held by individual players or there respective crews. There are also events known as biweeklies which are essentially Smashfests every 2 weeks. If you want to get your name out there and become more known in the smash community, fests are the way to do it.
Stages (MLG Tournament Legal):
The top of a box represents Singles, the bottom of a box represents Doubles.
Red means banned
Yellow means able to be counter-picked
Green means neutral (on random)
Super Wavedash: The Super Wavedash can only be performed by Samus, it is difficult to learn but once you get the timing it becomes easier. To perform it, Lay a bomb, then hold the controller in one direction, just as you land from the laying the bomb quickly press the control stick in the other direction. It's important to note the move has nothing to do with the bomb. Instead, it has to do with the morph-ball state, which you can only get to by laying a bomb. You must switch control stick directions between the 41st and 42nd frame of the bomb animation to pull it off correctly. For more information please view: The Samus Super Wavedash Sticky
Teching/Wallteching/Techrolling: The name given for instant recovery techniques. When you are sent flying from an attack, if you hit L or R before hitting the ground or the wall (or ceiling), you will recover instantly. On the ground, you will stand up, on the wall you will stop bouncing around. If you hold to the side as you do it, you will recover in a rolling dodge. If you hold up as you walltech, you can jump off of the wall.
Tech Chasing: Some characters, such as Captain Falcon, are good at tech chasing. This is a common tactic during which the opponent follows your tech, proceeds to throw, then follows however you tech the throw.
Tiers: Tiers are a general breakdown of how each character stacks up in comparison to the other characters in the game. The tier list assumes a few things. First and most importantly is that it is based on the current metagame (which is based on the mind-games and technical skill of the top players). Current is the vital point here, it is not based on future potential, but on current potential (as a note here Fox is considered to have the most potential in the game). Second, the tier list assumes those playing are of near equal skill, and that they are both near the top of the technical (human) ability for their given character.
What exactly does all this mean? Essentially under most circumstances the higher tiered character will beat the lower tiered character. It is a simply a list of overall advantages, which characters have more advantages in more match ups than other characters. What it doesn't mean is that Sheik will always destroy Marth simply because she is located 2 spots above Marth on the tier list. The impact of the tier list at the top levels of play is minimal once you move into the High Tier and above. Instead, counter characters begin to play a larger role. This also brings up a large portion of the confusion regarding the tier list because a lower ranked character can be a counter to a character ranked much higher. The easiest example here is the Ice Climbers versus Sheik. While Sheik has more advantages in more match ups, the Ice Climbers are one of the few characters that can chain grab her, and as a result they are her only hard counter.
To get a slightly more in depth look at tiers, largely covering the previous tier list, view this: The Ever Evolving Smash Tiers
Triangle Jumping: Similar to wavedashing, except you dodge after you've actually jumped off the ground. This is very useful against characters like Marth in avoiding the attack (sword) while getting close enough in proximity in order to attack. It is also used as a fake out method for approaching.
Tumble: After some attacks your character may enter a tumble, during which he cannot perform an A attack or jump. Tumbles must be wiggled out of before control of the character can be regained (although you can still up B out of a tumble).
Turnip Canceling: Similar to Samus’ Missile Cancel, except this technique involves Peach canceling the lag from pulling out turnips. To do this, just pull out a turnip and while standing on a platform followed by immediately dropping through it as you begin to pull the turnip from the ground.
Vidjo Drop: Because of Peach’s float she has the unique ability to utilize the IASA-factor (Interruptible As Soon As-Factor) in a special way, known as the Vidjo drop. Under normal conditions throwing or dropping a turnip requires the loss of floating for that jump. However, if you perform an aerial attack and time hitting A or Z at just the right moment, you can actually cancel that attack and toss or drop the turnip while maintaining your float. The Dair is the easiest to perform the Vidjo Drop with because the move has 6 ISAI frames, meaning you can drop or toss the turnip 6 frames before the animation actually ends and still be floating.
Wall-Bombing: Peach has the ability to perform the Wall-Bomb by pressing Forward B while next to a wall. If you Smash Forward B then the Bomber will actually raise you up a tiny bit. Repeat the process and you can actually climb any wall in the game. This move could also be used as a stall, so forms of it are banned at most tournaments and it is only allowed as a recovery.
Wall-Jumping: With certain (more agile) characters, you can jump toward a wall and then tap the joystick away from it to jump off of the wall. This doesn't use up any jumps and is useful for getting out of pits on certain stages.
Wall of Pain (WoP): Jiggypuff’s general strategy is usually focused on the Wall of Pain. This is the repetition of Jiggles high priority air moves, such as her Bair.
Wavedashing - How To: Wavedashing is difficult to pull off at first, but with practice it eventually becomes second nature. To perform a Wavedash, jump (hit X/Y), then immediately airdodge (hit L/R) into the ground at an angle. Each character has different timing based on their jump animations/duration. For the most noticeable results, select Luigi, who is known for his long wavedash.
Wavedashing - Uses:
- Edgehogging
- Mind-games
- Spacing
- Wavedashing forwards/backwards into an attack
- Wavedashing into/out of shield/shine
- Wavedashing into a grab
- Wavedashing combined with normal dash dancing
- Wavedashing upon landing (just the dodge into the ground required)
- Wavedashing into platforms for quicker landings (just the dodge into the ground required)
- And much, much more!
- Attending any large scale tourney will greatly increase your knowledge of the usefulness of this technique (along with many others).
- Every 'Pro' knows how to wavedash and can perform it at will.
- Learning to wavedash does not mean immediate ownership of your friends.
- If you are just hearing of this technique, you are not as good as you may have previously thought, and you are not beyond learning this technique (to stifle the common egotistical beginner argument lodged against this technique). Learning it will bring more rewards than shunning it, so see past the difficultly of learning it and don't be afraid to do a little work.
- Is wavedashing the most important general technique to learn? No. That most likely resides in L-Canceling/Shuffling. Is wavedashing an important technique? Yes.
- Wavedashing must be incorporated into your game over a period of time to fully achieve its desired effects.
Wobbling See under Infinites
Zoning: Controlling a specific area of a stage in order to have the most advantageous position.
Tier List (As of October 14th, 2008)
Introduction: If you have any other questions regarding the tier list that are not covered in the definition already answered in the linked topic, send a PM to AlphaZealot. Tier list topics will generally be closed.
More information on the tier list: Tier Topic
Top Tier[/COLOR][/B]
Fox(9.9)
Marth(9.9)
Sheik(9.7)
Falco(9.2)
High Tier
Peach(8.4)
Captain falcon(8.0)
Jigglypuff(8.0)
Ice Climbers(7.9)
Middle Tier
Samus(6.8)
Doctor Mario(6.2)
Ganondorf(6.0)
Luigi(5.8)
Donkey Kong(5.4)
Mario(5.3)
Low Tier
Link(4.7)
Pikachu(4.3)
Young Link(4.2)
Roy(3.6)
Zelda(3.0)
Mr. Game & Watch(3.0)
Bottom Tier
Ness(2.5)
Yoshi(2.5)
Bowser(2.2)
Mewtwo(1.8)
Kirby(1.5)
Pichu(1.2)
