Having trouble beating that sibling of yours, or finding yourself losing more than you'd like in For Glory? Want to become a tournament player someday? Well, maybe you'll already know everything in this guide, but if you don't, these tips are practically guaranteed to improve your smash game--applied with practice of course.
Some of them are small, some of them are not. Don't be frustrated if something doesn't work out right away--keep practicing and you'll improve drastically. Just keep one tip in mind at a time, and once you master that one move on to the next.
Well let's go right into it! (these aren't in any sort of order)
1) WATCH YOUR OPPONENT--LITERALLY
In a match, you shouldn't be watching yourself, but staring at your opponent. Have your character in your peripheral vision of course, but this concept is like playing basketball. Do the pros watch themselves dribble, or are they comfortable enough with their dribbling skills to watch their defender and think about their next move instead? Pros don't watch themselves dribble. In smash, you HAVE to be watching your opponent and assessing the situation--constantly. This allows you to avoid throwing out dumb, punishable moves, it improves your spacing, and it allows you to make better reads and recognize punish situations more quickly.
2) MAXIMIZE YOUR MOBILITY
Too often, I see players online who don't short hop, who don't fast fall, and who just aren't as quick with their character as they can be in general. BE FASTER. Smash really rewards speed, so here are a few easy things you can do to be faster:
>Fast Fall after every non-combo aerial. To do this, press down while in the air. You have to wait until after the apex of your jump in order for it to work.
>Short Hop to use aerial attacks against a ground-level opponent. To do this, just press the jump button for an extremely short time. NOTE: You can short hop immediately to any aerial except up air. For up air, you have to wait a short time before you can input the up air.
>Dash to (perfect) shield--if you dash and press the shield button while still holding the direction you're running, you're shield will, without any lag, appear and break your sprint. It only works effectively it you are still holding the direction you are running when you input it though.
>Just don't stand there. Do something--throw out spacing tools or projectiles or try to bait something.
>Character-specific things. A lot of characters can amp up their mobility with special moves. If you're a Sheik player, you should use your down b not just for edgeguards and combos, but also to keep your character moving or recovering more effectively.
3) LEARN HOW TO EDGEGUARD EFFECTIVELY
Edgeguarding is so huge. A good edgeguarder can steal stocks at extremely low percents, or frustrate his/her opponent more and make them feel pressured more often. In order to improve at this, either:
>Watch pros who use your character and see what they like to do
>Mess around in training, just throwing the CPU off the stage with decent percent and seeing what you can do to stop their recovery.
I'm considering making an entire guide on different edgeguarding options, so stay tuned folks
4) ROLL LESS, READ MORE
In my opinion, you should always ROLL WITH A PURPOSE. Roll if you have a plan, like "oh, I'll just roll behind my opponent's attack and grab or jab combo, but if they roll behind me I'll be prepared to throw out a tilt. If they shield I'll grab, and if they spot dodge I'll hit them with an f-tilt." (That process is something that ZeRo does a lot in his playing).
A lot of players roll because they feel like they've lost control of a situation and want to create a neutral scenario where they think they can approach their opponent more effectively, especially if they feel that they are too close to their opponent (distance wise) to really react well. This doesn't work. A roll just gives your opponent an indicator of where you'll be in the next second--without invincibility, waiting to be punished. Never roll for the sake of rolling--always roll with a purpose in mind, and then you'll notice that you'll be able to make better reads, because you'll be watching and reacting to your opponent's actions rather than trying to get away from them.
I'm not saying its never ok to roll, and you don't have to think for 30 seconds before every roll either. Just don't roll for no reason at all. A good rule of thumb that I like to follow is that if I ever see myself rolling twice, I'm probably doing it wrong.
5) LEARN TO TECH
What's a tech? A tech is when you press the shield just before you hit a wall or floor in order to avoid the "bouncing" animation--you just get up or roll up immediately. It can save you from stage spikes, it can protect you from punishes, and it can protect you from getting killed in the middle of final destination from Ganon's down air. This just takes practice, but once you get it down, you'll see all the difference it makes.
6) LEARN TO DI/VECTOR
What's DI or Vectoring(actually different things, but sandwiched together in smash 4)? It's when you hold or mash the control stick in a certain direction in order to alter the direction or distance that your character travels--essentially it can save you from dieing, sometimes allowing you to live twenty or more percent longer.
General rules of DI/Vectoring in SMASH 4:
>If launched up, hold the control stick left or right.
>If launched up but to the left or right a bit, hold the control stick to the bottom corner of the screen in the direction you're flying
>If launched directly at the corner, hold toward the other corner
>If launched horizontally, hold the stick toward the middle of the stage
>>If you have a special move like Marth's counter or flopping fish (Shiek) that can cancel momentum in certain situations, throw those out too. That's situation and character-specific, though.
Good DI works wonders. Do it.
7) PUT YOURSELF IN A SITUATION TO MAKE A WIN-WIN READ
What does that mean? Remember when I talked about rolling, about ZeRo's common strategy of rolling behind the opponent's attack and dealing with whatever comes out? Well that's an example of a win-win read--a situation where no matter what you're opponent does, you have a plan to deal with it quickly and destructively. Well, that applies in more situations. With Sheik's down throw you can jump and wait. If the opponent air dodges, immediately use a vanish, if they don't you can hit them with an up air that would require the reaction time of a computer to deal with. A similar technique can be used to edgeguard with back airs--just jump off facing the stage, start falling, and strike like a laser if the opponent does anything but air dodge. These kinds of setups require skill to create in-game, but if you can create them effectively you will wreck. If you want to see it done well, watch ZeRo in his For Glory series. He does it all the time.
8) WATCH THE PROS. HAVE A 3DS OUT. OR WRITE DOWN THINGS
When I watch vgbootcamp or clashtournaments channels, I have my 3DS out. Why? So that if I see something really cool, I can pause the video and perform it in training. Do it a few times, and then close the 3DS and keep watching. Watching the pros is great for learning, but writing down cool things they do or practicing them is a real improvement starter. Don't worry if that sick combo takes you 10 minutes to actually pull off, just give it a go. EMULATING OR FOLLOWING A PRO PLAYER CAN MAKE YOU REALLY GOOD.
9) TRAINING IS YOUR FRIEND
Mess around in training. Try to find true combos that no one on the internet has ever seen. Get comfortable with your character. Try setting the CPU to "attack" at a decent difficulty (whatever's right for you) and then just have an endless smash with infinite respawns. Try things that might kill you and see if they can actually work. Mess around with sequences of moves or setups that you like to do. FIGURE OUT EVERY POSSIBLE GRAB COMBO THAT YOUR CHARACTER CAN DO AND WHICH ONE IS BETTER TO DO WHEN. This is SO HUGE. Training is amazing, so use it. If you don't like training, try practicing things against low-level computers instead where it doesn't matter as much when you screw up (especially helpful for practicing precise or tricky true combos)
10) DON'T MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE TWICE. RECOGNIZE YOUR BAD HABITS, AND FIX THEM
A lot of players like to roll or jump right back into the action as soon as they get hit. A good player will read this like a book, and punish you hard for it. If this happens to you, don't keep doing it. If you make a mistake that is punished, don't do it again. I literally beat a guy in for glory once who was a really good player but for some awful reason always rolled toward me whenever hit. I won that match taking only 4% damage. Don't be that guy. Don't roll for the sake of rolling, ACTUALLY WAIT TO GET UP and MAYBE THROW OUT A GETUP ATTACK AT THE RIGHT TIME OR ROLL STRATEGICALLY. Don't waste your jump immediately to get back on stage. A good player will recognize that and hit you right away and make it much more difficult for you to recover. If you have trouble with this, try recording a match with a computer or against someone online and watch it, pausing it whenever you get hit and saying, "ok, I got hit there because I didn't space my forward air with Sheik correctly and I got grabbed. Next time, I will watch my opponent better and try to space myself in a way that I don't get grabbed, but if I screw that up, I'll throw out the first two hits of my jab combo to prevent a grab."
Bonus TIP YAYYY!!!
Whenever you are in the lead, play defensively. The opponent has to come to you, and there is no reason to take unnecessary damage or be risky trying to get a kill. Play more safely and re-actively, and opportunities will begin to present themselves as the opponent gets more frustrated.
Bonus TIP 2 YAY!!!!
Find a pro on youtube who mains your main, and watch them closely. Pikachu mains? Check out matches with Esam. Sheik mains? Check out matches with ZeRo or Mr.R or Nientono or False. Shulk mains? There's a guy out there named Relaxed who's really stylish. It doesn't matter if they are the best in the world or not--every tournament player has something to offer in their playing, and frankly watching more than one can better well-round the use of your character.
Bonus TIP 3 YAY!!!
PLAY THE MINDGAMES. Fake out your opponent. Walk away as the opponent's jumping on stage and then throw out an turnaround side smash that they are never expecting. Throw out a bait attack. PLAY THE MINDGAMES, AND BECOME THE ULTIMATE TROLL. It's quite effective.
That's all I got this time! I hope you enjoyed my tips. Please, if I didn't write up something correctly, feel free to write a fix in the comments. But no harsh judging please--we are all here in smashboards to help each other, not to get mad at each other for stupid things. I hope you enjoyed folks!
Some of them are small, some of them are not. Don't be frustrated if something doesn't work out right away--keep practicing and you'll improve drastically. Just keep one tip in mind at a time, and once you master that one move on to the next.
Well let's go right into it! (these aren't in any sort of order)
1) WATCH YOUR OPPONENT--LITERALLY
In a match, you shouldn't be watching yourself, but staring at your opponent. Have your character in your peripheral vision of course, but this concept is like playing basketball. Do the pros watch themselves dribble, or are they comfortable enough with their dribbling skills to watch their defender and think about their next move instead? Pros don't watch themselves dribble. In smash, you HAVE to be watching your opponent and assessing the situation--constantly. This allows you to avoid throwing out dumb, punishable moves, it improves your spacing, and it allows you to make better reads and recognize punish situations more quickly.
2) MAXIMIZE YOUR MOBILITY
Too often, I see players online who don't short hop, who don't fast fall, and who just aren't as quick with their character as they can be in general. BE FASTER. Smash really rewards speed, so here are a few easy things you can do to be faster:
>Fast Fall after every non-combo aerial. To do this, press down while in the air. You have to wait until after the apex of your jump in order for it to work.
>Short Hop to use aerial attacks against a ground-level opponent. To do this, just press the jump button for an extremely short time. NOTE: You can short hop immediately to any aerial except up air. For up air, you have to wait a short time before you can input the up air.
>Dash to (perfect) shield--if you dash and press the shield button while still holding the direction you're running, you're shield will, without any lag, appear and break your sprint. It only works effectively it you are still holding the direction you are running when you input it though.
>Just don't stand there. Do something--throw out spacing tools or projectiles or try to bait something.
>Character-specific things. A lot of characters can amp up their mobility with special moves. If you're a Sheik player, you should use your down b not just for edgeguards and combos, but also to keep your character moving or recovering more effectively.
3) LEARN HOW TO EDGEGUARD EFFECTIVELY
Edgeguarding is so huge. A good edgeguarder can steal stocks at extremely low percents, or frustrate his/her opponent more and make them feel pressured more often. In order to improve at this, either:
>Watch pros who use your character and see what they like to do
>Mess around in training, just throwing the CPU off the stage with decent percent and seeing what you can do to stop their recovery.
I'm considering making an entire guide on different edgeguarding options, so stay tuned folks
4) ROLL LESS, READ MORE
In my opinion, you should always ROLL WITH A PURPOSE. Roll if you have a plan, like "oh, I'll just roll behind my opponent's attack and grab or jab combo, but if they roll behind me I'll be prepared to throw out a tilt. If they shield I'll grab, and if they spot dodge I'll hit them with an f-tilt." (That process is something that ZeRo does a lot in his playing).
A lot of players roll because they feel like they've lost control of a situation and want to create a neutral scenario where they think they can approach their opponent more effectively, especially if they feel that they are too close to their opponent (distance wise) to really react well. This doesn't work. A roll just gives your opponent an indicator of where you'll be in the next second--without invincibility, waiting to be punished. Never roll for the sake of rolling--always roll with a purpose in mind, and then you'll notice that you'll be able to make better reads, because you'll be watching and reacting to your opponent's actions rather than trying to get away from them.
I'm not saying its never ok to roll, and you don't have to think for 30 seconds before every roll either. Just don't roll for no reason at all. A good rule of thumb that I like to follow is that if I ever see myself rolling twice, I'm probably doing it wrong.
5) LEARN TO TECH
What's a tech? A tech is when you press the shield just before you hit a wall or floor in order to avoid the "bouncing" animation--you just get up or roll up immediately. It can save you from stage spikes, it can protect you from punishes, and it can protect you from getting killed in the middle of final destination from Ganon's down air. This just takes practice, but once you get it down, you'll see all the difference it makes.
6) LEARN TO DI/VECTOR
What's DI or Vectoring(actually different things, but sandwiched together in smash 4)? It's when you hold or mash the control stick in a certain direction in order to alter the direction or distance that your character travels--essentially it can save you from dieing, sometimes allowing you to live twenty or more percent longer.
General rules of DI/Vectoring in SMASH 4:
>If launched up, hold the control stick left or right.
>If launched up but to the left or right a bit, hold the control stick to the bottom corner of the screen in the direction you're flying
>If launched directly at the corner, hold toward the other corner
>If launched horizontally, hold the stick toward the middle of the stage
>>If you have a special move like Marth's counter or flopping fish (Shiek) that can cancel momentum in certain situations, throw those out too. That's situation and character-specific, though.
Good DI works wonders. Do it.
7) PUT YOURSELF IN A SITUATION TO MAKE A WIN-WIN READ
What does that mean? Remember when I talked about rolling, about ZeRo's common strategy of rolling behind the opponent's attack and dealing with whatever comes out? Well that's an example of a win-win read--a situation where no matter what you're opponent does, you have a plan to deal with it quickly and destructively. Well, that applies in more situations. With Sheik's down throw you can jump and wait. If the opponent air dodges, immediately use a vanish, if they don't you can hit them with an up air that would require the reaction time of a computer to deal with. A similar technique can be used to edgeguard with back airs--just jump off facing the stage, start falling, and strike like a laser if the opponent does anything but air dodge. These kinds of setups require skill to create in-game, but if you can create them effectively you will wreck. If you want to see it done well, watch ZeRo in his For Glory series. He does it all the time.
8) WATCH THE PROS. HAVE A 3DS OUT. OR WRITE DOWN THINGS
When I watch vgbootcamp or clashtournaments channels, I have my 3DS out. Why? So that if I see something really cool, I can pause the video and perform it in training. Do it a few times, and then close the 3DS and keep watching. Watching the pros is great for learning, but writing down cool things they do or practicing them is a real improvement starter. Don't worry if that sick combo takes you 10 minutes to actually pull off, just give it a go. EMULATING OR FOLLOWING A PRO PLAYER CAN MAKE YOU REALLY GOOD.
9) TRAINING IS YOUR FRIEND
Mess around in training. Try to find true combos that no one on the internet has ever seen. Get comfortable with your character. Try setting the CPU to "attack" at a decent difficulty (whatever's right for you) and then just have an endless smash with infinite respawns. Try things that might kill you and see if they can actually work. Mess around with sequences of moves or setups that you like to do. FIGURE OUT EVERY POSSIBLE GRAB COMBO THAT YOUR CHARACTER CAN DO AND WHICH ONE IS BETTER TO DO WHEN. This is SO HUGE. Training is amazing, so use it. If you don't like training, try practicing things against low-level computers instead where it doesn't matter as much when you screw up (especially helpful for practicing precise or tricky true combos)
10) DON'T MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE TWICE. RECOGNIZE YOUR BAD HABITS, AND FIX THEM
A lot of players like to roll or jump right back into the action as soon as they get hit. A good player will read this like a book, and punish you hard for it. If this happens to you, don't keep doing it. If you make a mistake that is punished, don't do it again. I literally beat a guy in for glory once who was a really good player but for some awful reason always rolled toward me whenever hit. I won that match taking only 4% damage. Don't be that guy. Don't roll for the sake of rolling, ACTUALLY WAIT TO GET UP and MAYBE THROW OUT A GETUP ATTACK AT THE RIGHT TIME OR ROLL STRATEGICALLY. Don't waste your jump immediately to get back on stage. A good player will recognize that and hit you right away and make it much more difficult for you to recover. If you have trouble with this, try recording a match with a computer or against someone online and watch it, pausing it whenever you get hit and saying, "ok, I got hit there because I didn't space my forward air with Sheik correctly and I got grabbed. Next time, I will watch my opponent better and try to space myself in a way that I don't get grabbed, but if I screw that up, I'll throw out the first two hits of my jab combo to prevent a grab."
Bonus TIP YAYYY!!!
Whenever you are in the lead, play defensively. The opponent has to come to you, and there is no reason to take unnecessary damage or be risky trying to get a kill. Play more safely and re-actively, and opportunities will begin to present themselves as the opponent gets more frustrated.
Bonus TIP 2 YAY!!!!
Find a pro on youtube who mains your main, and watch them closely. Pikachu mains? Check out matches with Esam. Sheik mains? Check out matches with ZeRo or Mr.R or Nientono or False. Shulk mains? There's a guy out there named Relaxed who's really stylish. It doesn't matter if they are the best in the world or not--every tournament player has something to offer in their playing, and frankly watching more than one can better well-round the use of your character.
Bonus TIP 3 YAY!!!
PLAY THE MINDGAMES. Fake out your opponent. Walk away as the opponent's jumping on stage and then throw out an turnaround side smash that they are never expecting. Throw out a bait attack. PLAY THE MINDGAMES, AND BECOME THE ULTIMATE TROLL. It's quite effective.
That's all I got this time! I hope you enjoyed my tips. Please, if I didn't write up something correctly, feel free to write a fix in the comments. But no harsh judging please--we are all here in smashboards to help each other, not to get mad at each other for stupid things. I hope you enjoyed folks!
- Applicable Games
- Smash 3DS, Smash Wii U
