Down the Rabbit Hole

“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
"Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad."
"How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here.”


"Have I gone mad?"
"I'm afraid so, but let me tell you something, the best people usually are."

― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland



The year is 20XX. You're stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Tower. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying strips of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway. When you walk back to your spartan campsite, you'll eat a meal of the spoils of your hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Then you'll sit down with your fellowmen and plug your CRT into the bicycle generator that's been run by that one dude who hurt his arm. You'll play smash bros into the wee hours of the night before settling down in your bed of leaves beneath the clear night sky, above which the gods are playing Project M Gold Version.

― that's Fight Club and Hax for ya




Intro

This guide is inspired by Kadano’s Perfect Marth Class guide, as well as everything ever said by Magus (here with links). This is also intended to be a sequel to the Advanced How To Play video guide.

When I first decided I wanted to get good at smash, I did some research. When I saw how many techniques there were too learn, and by extension how many different situations there were to use them in, I kinda ignored it. I couldn't believe it was possible to master such a diverse range of situations. Coz there wasn't like an overarching right answer for all of them. There were several hundred situations and several hundred techniques that the smasher had to pick from.

I didn't realize that that was actually what it meant to be good at smash - being able to master those several hundred situations and know when to use them. Most people can get by with mastering only the couple dozen fundamental situations, but you can add a lot to your game by including these extra techniques (20XX hype!). I hope this can help you grind tech skill with the goal of learning the footsies it takes to master any situation.


At this time, I also want to mention Drastic Improvement. You should read and follow that guide before you do anything else ever.


There's also these three unbelievably insightful youtube series.

Metagain by Kurtis Trainor:
https://www.youtube.com/user/meleemechanics/feed

Melee Mechanics by Kadano:
https://www.youtube.com/user/sauc3melee/feed

PewPewUniversity:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeYF2Hikh9LhQAZhrcXGNUg/feed


Chair of Contents:

Changelog:


1. The Neutral Game

The neutral game is how the game starts. Both players are grounded, and thus have all of their grounded options available to them. Neutral game is over when 1 player has a definitive advantage over the other. If your opponent uses a move and you don't, you have the advantage (unless they hit you) because they have no options until their move is done, while you can still react with any of yours.

During Neutral, each player is trying to bait the opponent into doing something unsafe. Each is trying to position themselves to punish that mistake. They do this by weaving in and out of each other's ranges, and are successful at it by having a good knowledge of character's animations.

Critical points are times in neutral when an interaction between the players would result in a potential stock being taken. You can do very well in this game if you can master avoiding your opponent's critical points and maximizing the occurrence of your own, as long as you can take advantage of your critical points. An important option outside of neutral is returning to neutral to avoid an opponent's critical point.

Spacing: Some ppl define it as 'hitting with the absolute tip of your attacks'. The definition I'll go with is 'acting in accordance with your knowledge of both you and your opponent's zones of control'. 'Spaced attacks' refers to throwing out attacks outside of your opponents zone, i.e. safe attacks which your opponent cannot safely punish. This can be an attempt to bait out an unsafe punish.
Zoning is when you matchup strategy takes into account both you and your opponent's zones of control. Just b/c characters have moves that can cover an area does not mean that they can safely cover that area. Zoning depends on attack speed and endlag, hitbox placement, movement attributes and most importantly the opponent's respective attributes.

Mixups: Although there are a lot of options that are ideal framewise, melee is a game where almost nothing is inescapable. Examples of inescapable states of smash are when you're getting wobbled or waveshined, or in Brawl when you get hit by MK's Mach Tornado (although over time, things are discovered to deal with these, like Power Shield Canceling against Mach Tornado). Most of the time, there are distinct punishes that are common knowledge to top level players (ex, teching in place is the least punishable tech option, but it is still punishable; it's just supa hard...).
This is why mixups are an important part of this game, and are in my opinion one of the hardest things about the game. One of the hardest skills in this game is picking up on ppl's habits. Mixups are an attempt to appear habitless. They are also a valuable way of controlling and predicting your opponent's actions. One of the most exaggerated examples of mixups I have ever seen is KirbyKaze vs Nintendude at Apex 2015. KK goes to extreme lengths to completely ignore Nana for game 1. Not only does this psych out Nintendude, but allows KK to add in going after nana as a mixup that nintendude was not ready for during the last stock of that first game. Of course, nintendude probly should've picked up on that fact, and known that KK might be fishing for the fulfillment of his mixup.
Other examples of mixups include recovery mixups. Take Fox for example; when he chooses to UpB, he can go to the ledge or recover high. There is a complex game of mixups b/w the edgeguarder and the edgeguard breaker in this scenario. The edgeguarder can ramen noodle the edge, cover the edge with an attack, or try to cover all the angles above the edge that the fox could use. However, he could also prepare to cover the ledge to convince the fox not to go there, but actually cover recovering high. And over the course of the set, each player will try their best to be inpredictable, or to try to trick their opponent into believing they've finally figured out their habits before turning the tables on them with a mixup.

Mindgames can affect gameplay, but are not necessary. Solid, safe gameplay (i.e. the manipulation of advantage) is always preferable to mindgames that depend on your opponent's ability to deal with them.

a. Do Nothing

This is one of your most important options. One the most important skills in smash is patience. You must combine your knowledge of you and your opponents options, as well as your evaluation of their safety and utility, with your patience. Of course, don't just sit there and get hit, but what you gotta do is freak your opponent into being hasty.

b. Ground Attacks

Hitting attack initiates a jab, and hitting it again continues the jabbing sequence. Hitting attack while dashing performs a dash attack. Hitting attack while walking or while tilting the control stick performs a tilt attack (Utilt, Dtilt, Ftilt). Hitting attack and a direction at the same time (or hitting the c-stick in a direction) performs a smash attack (Usmash, Dsmash, Fsmash). Holding attack allows you to charge it (for the c-stick, you have to hold z to charge).
Note: Some Ftilts and Fsmashes can be tilted up or down.

Phantom Hits: A somewhat mysterious phenomena that happens when you're attack so barely hits that it doesn't fully connect. Phantom hits do zero knockback and half the normal damage. The attacker is exempt from hitlag on a phantom hit, but the defender does experience hitlag (but no hit stun, since there is no knockback). If the hitbox is a lingering one, it is possible to get a solid hit in after the phantom hitlag if your opponent is moving towards you. Phantom hits cannot be ASDI'd.

c. Grab

Z or Shield + A initiates a grab. You can do a dash grab while dashing, but on the whole, dash grabs are laggier than standing grabs.

You can jump cancel a dash into a standing grab, which is generally the best way to do a moving grab. You could also wavedash -> standing grab, but wavedashing has 10 frames of lag).

A pivot grab is simply grabbing on the pivot frame. It is necessary to continue Marth's chain grab on Fox past 18% without getting shined.

Sheik and Fox have noticeable boost grabs (also called Dash Attack Canceled Grabs). By inputting a grab right after initiating a dash attack, you can retain the momentum boost of Sheik and Fox's initial dashes while performing a dash grab (Sheik and Fox are pretty much the only characters whose initial dashes give a boost right at the beginning and transfer it to the boost grab; you can input boost grab with other characters, but it will look exactly like a dash grab).

Some Uthrows are influenced by weight (similarly to how being above 100% slows down your ledge getup options - your character is tired). Thus, throwing a heavier character increases the end lag of a throw, but doesn't delay the hitstun. Thus, Marth may find it hard to safely follow up after Uthrowing Samus, because samus's frame disadvantage is reduced by the amount that her weight increases the throw's endlag.

You can mash out of a grab (easier at lower %s, harder if your opponent pummels). Don't forget to mixup your pummels! Check out this video about knowing where you'll end up after mashing out.

d. Walking

By tilting the control stick left or right, you can walk (at varying speeds depending on the degree of the tilting). Different characters have different relative speeds. You retain all ground options while walking, so characters like Marth with a really fast walk have a significant movement option.

e. Dashing

By jamming the control stick left or right, you enter your initial dash animation. If you hold that direction, you will eventually transition into your running animation. The initial dash can be quickly turned around (in 1 frame), while the running dash has a very laggy turnaround (you should jump out of the running turnaround animation). You can cancel an initial dash or a run with a shield, and you can cancel the run animation with a crouch (but you can't crouch during the initial dash). The only special you can use during the initial dash is sideB, but you can use any special out of a run.

There are actually two kinds of pivots. A smash pivot turns you around frame 1, but a tilt turn takes 5 frames before turning you around (see here, and it's source here).

Dash dancing: By utilizing the speed of the initial dash's turnaround, you can dash back and forth. This is an excellent fake out maneuver. You can weave in and out of your opponent's range, making it difficult for them to judge when it is neutral and when somebody is in danger. They may feel pressured to do something about it, and you can easily change your direction to avoid their response and then turn around and punish them. Marth, Fox, and Falcon all have really fast and far-moving initial dash animations, which gives them very good dash dances.

Pivots: An interesting thing about the 1 frame initial dash turnaround is that you can do any grounded move during that 1 frame. This is most commonly used to Fsmash with Marth out of his dash dance. But if you're really good at pivoting, you can pivot tilts. I feel that this will explode someday before 20XX, and people will get really surprised if you Utilt them out of your dash dance.

Small-Step Fsmash: You can do an Fsmash a few pixels further in front of you by canceling your initial dash within 3 frames with an Fsmash. You can also do this within 3 frames after entering the running animation.

Tree-grabbing: You can grab out of a run by crouching out of your run, dashing again, then pivot grabbing.

Stickywalking: Your dashing and running speed can be subtly adjusted by moving the control stick a little bit back from its max position.

Moonwalking: You can completely reverse your dashing direction by continuing the sticky walk all the way to the opposite direction. You just have to make sure not to cross through the neutral position. Do this by moving your thumb in an oval position (you don't want to move it down coz then you'll crouch out of your dash). Moonwalking looks really weird and can mindgame your opponent. Only some characters can easily moonwalk; most (like Marth) have to initiate it by walking first.

Run-canceling (Teeter Canceling): You can run into an edge without runnin off the edge by letting go of the control stick before getting there. This can allow Sheik to pseudo-extend her dashdance on platforms by run-canceling back and forth on it.
You can also run cancel anywhere by crouching.

Shield Pivots: pivoting into a shield gives you as much time after shielding as you want to initiate the grab, making the frame precision less demanding.

f. Wavedashing

After jumpsquat (see "Jumping"), you can cancel the jump with an air dodge. By air dodging diagonally into the ground, you can slide across the stage. There are 10 frames of landing lag from air dodging into the ground, but after that you can perform any grounded move while sliding. Wavedashing is a very useful tool for micromanaging your spacing, and for faking your opponent out and/or avoiding their approaches. Wavedash length depends on character traction and your control stick angle (thus Luigi, ICs, and M2 have the longest wavedashes). The maximum length wavedash is performed by angling your control stick as close to horizontal as possible (this is why you see top players like mango often doing weird horizontal air dodges - they're going for perfect wavedashes). Wavedash speed (i.e. how long it takes to execute the wavedash) depends on the length of the character's jump squat timing.

Wavedashing also refers to wavelanding, which is doing a diagonal airdodge into the ground from the air. This can be a good movement option or can be used after some SHFF's for extra mobility. But mostly wavelanding is used for landing on platforms.

Triangle dashing is when you let yourself off the ground before air dodging, granting some invincibility.

g. Projectile Spamming/Camping

Some characters have projectiles, and some don't. You can pressure an opponent without projectiles to approach by throwing stuff at them.

You can also stall. Stalling for the sake of stalling is frowned upon. However, if you have the lead, and time is running out, you have no incentive to approach. Just run away and take the win.

Stalling can also be used to wait for the perfect moment to strike. M2K is infamous for this, and a lot of people think he's stalling, but he's actually planning and biding his time.

Characters like Falcon can platform camp effectively by wavelanding on and off of platforms while covering their opponent's approaches. Jigglypuff's aerial supremacy allows her to stall offstage, and her aerial mobility allows her to evade chases. Some characters (notably Sheik and spacies) can stall on the ledge by regrabbing it with special moves to refresh invincibility.

h. Jumping

All characters have a grounded jump and an aerial double jump. Some characters (Puff) have extra aerial jumps (though each successive one gives less vertical height for her). UpB's that can be used for recovery are referred to as third jumps. When a grounded jump is initiated, they enter a jump-squat animation (which has a different length depending on character - it's usually 4 frames) during which they are still grounded. During jumpsquat of a tap-jump (tap as in jumping with the control stick), attack can be used to cancel the jump into a Usmash, and special can be used to cancel the jump into an UpB. A character's grounded jump can be shortened into a short hop by releasing the jump button during jump-squat. A backwards jump (most characters do a back flip) can be inputted by tilting the control stick back during jumpsquat.

Drift (air speed or aerial mobility): While in the air, different characters have a different air speed. Jigglypuff is infamous for having a significantly higher aerial mobility than anyone else. A lot of people erroneously call this DI (but it is entirely unrelated to DI), as in "let go of the ledge, jump, then DI over the stage to do a Dair from the ledge without killing yourself".

Air dodge: You can airdodge by fullpressing a trigger, and can air dodge in a direction by combining the fullpress with an analog stick direction input. After air dodging, you go into freefall.

Freefall: This is a limited character state that happens after any air dodge, most third jumps, and some other special moves. You can still input a fast fall, and you can also grab ledge. Once you land, you will experience a landing animation that goes at different speeds depending on the move that caused the freefall (air dodging always induces 10 frames of landing lag). Special moves with KO potential typically have longer landing lag.

Fast Fall: After the apex of a jump, by pressing down on the control stick you can initiate a fast-fall, which doubles your falling speed.

Aerials: While airborne, pressing attack (a or z) and a direction (or moving the c-stick in a direction) will initiate an aerial (Fair, Bair, Uair, Dair, or Nair). Neutral airs are often a special lingering/decaying hitbox called a sex kick (by the way, Doc's sex kick gets stronger rather than decaying). Characters with grapples can use Z to do a Zair or a wall grapple. Landing while performing an aerial results in landing lag (watch Link Dairing into the ground). An L-cancel can be used to halve the landing lag by pressing a trigger within 7 frames before hitting the ground.
Note: Marth and Roy have unique Bairs in that they turn them around after completion. This allows them to full hop Bair off the ledge -> ledgegrab. If you're fast enough, Marth can even do this out of a SH.

Medium [sic] Hop: If you watch mango practicing drill shines in b/w stocks, his shffls actually look faster than normal, and that's coz they are. Normally, each character's SH time is constant. However, you can make the game calculate gravity for 1 extra frame. The game doesn't calculate gravity on a jump until the 2nd airborne frame. The game always calculates gravity for every frame of an aerial. Thus, if you are frame perfect with your aerial, your SHFFL will be a little faster. If you do this for a full jump, it's essentially a medium hop. This can affect the timing window for doing multiple actions in a short hop (ex, Marth's SH Double Fair/SH Bair -> ledgegrab/waveland is easier if you do it on the 2nd airborne frame rather than the 1st.

Aerial options are on-the-whole inferior to grounded options, which gives a grounded player an advantage over an airborne one (see "Opponent Above You" and other types of advantage). However, there are several techniques that allow the fast execution of aerials, somewhat minimizing their inferiority to grounded moves.

SHFFL (Short Hop Fast Fall L-cancel): All characters can perform quick aerials and integrate them into their ground game by short hopping an aerial, fast falling it, and L-canceling it.
L-canceling is, in my opinion, one of the best things to be good at in smash, coz it demonstrates a fundamental mastery of the game. Many beginners can L-cancel their empty SHFFL's, but only pros can still L-cancel after the timing is changed by using falling aerials, landing on platforms, hitting somebody (and getting hitlag), or hitting a shield (and getting shieldlag).

DJC (Double Jump Cancel): Peach, Yoshi, M2, and Ness have unique double jumps that dip down before rising up higher than most double jumps. Performing an aerial during their double jumps cancels their upwards momentum. Thus, instantly double jumping out of your ground jump and canceling the upwards momentum with an aerial (making sure to L-cancel it) allows these characters to use aerials faster than their SHFFLs. DJC can also be used to combo in interesting ways by halting momentum. Note that these characters have inferior ledge options because their ledge hop is lagged down by the dip.

Float Cancel: Peach has the ability to float (either from the air, or from the ground - a ground float is useful here), and an aerial performed out of a float will induce no aerial landing lag (just the normal 4 frames empty-land lag).

Auto Cancel: Some moves have landing lag that can be skipped if you land during certain frames of the startup and ending lag. Instead of the aerial's land lag, you just get normal empty-land lag. I don't know much about brawl, but I know this was very important for their meta coz they didn't have L-canceling.

Ledge/Edge Cancel (see also):
As far as I can tell, there are 2 types of ledge canceling - teeter canceling, and slide-off canceling. They may both be due to teeter canceling, but I'm not sure about that.
The teeter animation is really interesting b/c it has immediate IASA. Ledge canceling with the teeter animation involves overriding a landing lag animation with the teeter animation. This is done by sliding into or onto an edge of the stage or a platform after landing. All aerials can have their land lag edge canceled, while only some special moves can be edge canceled (Sheik's UpB is normally extremely punishable unless edgecanceled; Falcon's UpB is nice when edge canceled; Spacie SideB's can be edgecanceled - I think on level platforms you have to drop thru just before doing them; Marth's UpB can be edge canceled, but I do know that there are no angles that you can UpB from to edgecancel it if you started out grabbing the ledge; low tiers don't really matter, but I've done it with Zelda & M2's UpB's).
Edge canceling can also happen when you slide off an edge after landing, leaving you in freefall. I am not sure if this is b/c you effectively pass thru the teeter animation or if it is a different mechanic of canceling landing lag by no longer being grounded. This can be used to grab the ledge right after performing an aerial (see also Fast Falling to the Ledge).
An interesting application of edge canceling is that you can edge cancel your tumble animation. This is performed similarly to edge canceling moves, except you are limited to DI movement options rather than your usual aerial mobility options. You can DI in a way that maximizes horizontal movement, but make sure not to overshoot the edge if you want to edge cancel. By the way, if you tech, you will remain grounded and cannot slide off the edge to edge cancel.
Here is a sort-of answer to my question about how the teeter affects the ledge cancel.

Platform Cancel: The mystical (and forbidden) fastest way to do aerials. See "Platform Game" for an explanation.

See here for info on landing lag.

When your opponent is above you is a really good time to use your do-nothing option. The pressure is all on them, b/c there are very few ways to get back down without punishable lag (or a good fake out). If they attack you, most characters are equipped with powerful anti-air attacks that you should be able to use to beat out their attempts. You can also easily dash dance to dodge and punish. The decision to jump into the air in chase is very nuanced, and I haven't mastered when to do that myself. I have found several threads where conversations between Kadano, Magus, Scar, and KirbyKaze (and others) have gone into great depth about what is guaranteed and when you can safely jump in pursuit (ex, Falcon's Dthrow to Knee, etc). Wavelanding can be used to better integrate your aerial and ground games.

When you're the one in the air, there aren't really any safe options. You can try to fake 'em out, getting them to commit to an option that leaves a safe escape for you. Or you can do read their punish and try to air dodge around it. Also, don't forget to UpB into them when they mess up their spacing.

Special moves are extremely varied, but there are some traits that many of them share.
B-Reversal: Many neutral specials can be done in the opposite direction from where you were facing during your flight before hitting B.
Some specials have a built in turn around (Marth/Falcon's UpB's).
Some specials halt or slow vertical or horizontal momentum (Shine slows significantly, Transform & Rest slow moderately, Marth's SideB boost once then slows descent).
Some (namely Marth's SideB) give a once-per-flight recovery boost. Note that you should not use use Marth's first SideB until after your knockback is finished, since it maintains horizontal movement. Thus, you should side B once you have achieved your maximum horizontal movement speed towards the stage. Note also that landing during weird states (like while using Counter) will not refresh your SideB boost. You most do a normal landing to refresh it.
Many UpB specials induce a significant landing lag afterwards; some of these can be ledge canceled (Marth/Falcon/Sheik; also Spacie DownB's).
Some NeutralB's actually cancel lag by landing (lasers, needles, Bowser's firebreath, Samus's smashed bullets); Spacie UpB's also cancel when they hit the ground.
Some specials can be tilted (Rising Pound; the angle of Marth/Roy's UpB's can be changed, Roy's more than Marth's), shortened (Spacie SideB's by pressing B again at different times, Peach's Umbrella can be stopped and started).
There are at least 2 special moves (Falcon/Fox UpB) which can be canceled early on Battlefield, resulting in a "cure" for getting Battlefielded (see here, here, and here).

i. Crouching

While in neutral position, holding down will initiate a crouch. Many characters have smaller hurtboxes while crouching; some (like Puff & Kirby) can completely avoid moves with hitboxes that don't cover the floor (the puffballs can crouch under a lot of grabs, and even Gdorf's DownB).
Crouching gives you access to Dtilt, Dsmash, and crouch canceling.
True "Crouch" Canceling simply means that you receive reduced damage and knockback when hit, but can also give you the ability to retaliate with any ground attack under certain circumstances if hit while at a low percent (see Crouch Canceling under "Getting Hit"). Try this out for an idea of how CC'ing can affect knockback and hitstun. I didn't fiddle very much with it, but the default sample halved hitstun and reduced knockback by about 1/4.
CC Grab: While crouching, inputting a grab will result in a Dtilt. All you have to do is JC grab.

j. Shielding

Shielding is the inherent counter to attacks. However, a shielding character suffers from shieldstun, often giving the offender a frame advantage if spaced well (you can delay your aerials on shield so that they are in shieldstun when you land and would be vulnerable to their retaliation). Your shield also shrinks the longer it is held and the more it is hit. In addition, when you shield, you are restricted to your Out of Shield (OoS) options. Therefore, a grounded player has an advantage over a shielding one.

-Mechanics of the shield:

Shield Pushback:

Shield Damage: Different moves deplete your opponent's shield at different rates. Marth's NeutralB is called Shield Breaker for a reason. Also, Peach can sometimes pull a Mr. Saturn, which does massive shield damage. Puff's Pound is another one that does a lot of shield damage. All other variation is only insignificantly more than default shield damage except these low tiers: Roy's fully charged NeutralB (unlike Marth's, Roy's deals normal shield damage unless FULLY charged), Kirby if he copies Marth/Roy's abilities, DK's SideB (nowhere near Pound's), and GW getting a #3.

Lightshield: Not fully clicking down the trigger (or grabbing with Z and holding it down after the grab, which maximizes your light shield) will initiate a larger and longer lasting shield that also receives a much greater shield pushback than a full shield.

Shieldstun: When a move hits a shield, the shielding character receives stun that prevents OoS options. Hitlag does occur for both characters. A knowledge of frame advantage on shield of various moves is an integral part of top-level footsies.
One tip for, say, Spacie shield pressure is to hit the shield with late aerials so that the shieldstun is as fresh as possible during the time that you grounded and would otherwise be vulnerable to OoS options.

Shield poke: The shield does not necessarily completely cover your hurtbox, especially after it is shrunk from hits or from being held. Shield pressure can reduce it to the point that an attack lands on your hurtbox. Shield tilting can counter this.
I'm not sure if this really applies, but when an attack lands, the hitbox's duration is extended a certain amount, and this may influence shield pokes. I will do more research on whether a hitbox can be used to shieldpoke after it has already struck a shield.

Power Shield:
MD/VA has a strong pool of players that are really good at power shielding (I'm refering to the VGZ crew that attends S@X). One of them goes to my school (lloD). He says he got good at power shielding coz of dance dance revolution and guitar hero and stuff like that. Coz the falco has to SH his lasers at a certain tempo - that's the beat for guitar hero. Then all you have to do is hit the shield button once the laser animation reaches the right spot, just like in guitar hero.
Also, powershielding a hit is something Mango says is very important. Mango even goes so far to say that it is what separates Armada and him from all other smashers. It allows you to avoid situations where you would be limited to OoS options, as well as providing frame advantage, or at least less frame disadvantage. In his match analysis of his set vs Armada @ Evo, Mango is so proud of a point right near the end where Armada power shields his Nair, then he power shields Armada's FC'd Bair, after which Armada reads Mango's jump and gets a moderate punish. They reset to neutral and dance around each other until Armada again power shields a nair and then throws out a Dsmash, which clanks with Mango's Usmash. Then Mango does a scrubby UpB which leads into a winning edgeguard.
There is also a new technique discovered called Light Power Shielding, which expands the capabilities of PS'ing. For example, there are some situations in which Falco's lasers would travel too quickly for the game to register that they were in your power shield window. Another example is that Marth's hurtbox can stay outside of his normal power shield sphere if he power shields out of his crouch, but LPS'ing can cover that b/c it is so big.

I have disparate info about shield duration.
-ssbwiki: Max Shield Health is 60 hp. While held, a normal shield depletes at 8.4 hp/sec. While not held, it regenerates at 4.2 hp/sec (half as fast as the depletion). So a nearly depleted shield will take ~15 seconds (900 frames) to completely restore.
-m2k: Normal shields last 216 frames (3.6 secs), while light shields last 1820 frames (30.3333 secs).
Kadano has posted about Marth's Shield Breaker here. I found the Magus post he was referring to, but I wasn't comfortable posting the link coz it's on what looks like a backup smashboards website, but I'm not sure if it's a safe site or not. You can google 'smashboards magus max shield health' and find it yourself.

Shield Break: When your shield breaks, you get stuck for a long time, and your opponent can do whatever they want (charge a smash, etc). The stun time is less if you're at higher percents. Puff is unique in that she will always die when her shield breaks (unless she hits a ceiling).

-OoS (Out of Shield) options:

Letting go of shield: This is generally not a good idea b/c it's so laggy.
Puff/Peach/Zelda take 14 frames.
Fox/Falco/Sheik/IC/Doc/Pika/Luigi/Mario/DK/Kink/Ness/Pichu/Kirby take 15 frames.
Marth/Falcon/Samus/Gdorf/Roy/M2/GW/Bowser take 16 frames.
Yoshi takes 17 frames.
Note: Some call this shield dropping, but I prefer to reserve that term for dropping thru a platform while shielding.

Spot Dodge (Sidestep): See the frame data section at the bottom for vulnerable/invincible frames.

Rolling: Rolling is not the best option b/c is has so much lag at the end, and is easy to react to. Note that some characters have faster or slower rolls, or have more or less lag on rolling forward or backward. See the frame data section at the bottom for more info.

Shield Grab: You can input a grab while in shield. A smart opponent will space themselves out of range of a shield grab, or just cross you up. However, approaching with a shield, as a mixup, can be a way to snare a safe shield grab.

Jumping OoS:
The ability to jump OoS allows the following actions OoS:
1. Aerials: Some characters have effective OoS SHFFLs. Sheik's Nair OoS is OP, as is Peach's. Spacie aerials are all really strong, as are Puffs. Marth's only good OoS aerial is his Dair. Falcon's only decent one is his Nair (tho Stomp is a'ight).
2. Wavedash: Other than jumpsquat and the 10 frame landlag, this is a good option b/c it grants you mobility and grounded options from your neutral stance.
3. Upsmash/UpB: Jumping OoS with tap jump allows an Usmash or grounded UpB during jumpsquat. A lot of top tier characters have really good Usmashes (Spacies, Sheik), or at least decent ones. Pika also has a really good Usmash. Marth's UpB sweetspot is at the beginning, so that's really good OoS. Mario's UpB can be canceled, so that's great OoS. Bowser's UpB OoS is like the best in the game, but that is literally the only thing about him that isn't utter trash.
4. Rest/Shine OoS: You can cancel the jump after jumpsquat with momentum-canceling special moves. Since both rest and shine are frame 1, these make extremely powerful OoS options.

Shield Drop: This is a powerful OoS option that is discussed in the Platform Game section.

Shield SDI (SSDI, or simply Shield DI): There is a shield mechanic similar to SDI that you can use when hit while shielding, but you can only go left or right. I am only assuming that it applies during hitlag on shield, but I do know that there is something similar to ASDI in that holding left or right moves you a smaller distance during hitstun. You can only SSDI left or right, and you cannot double stick SSDI - slamming the control stick @ 45 degrees gives you less horizontal movement, but doesn't count as being different from a perfectly horizontal SSDI input. You also cannot ASSDI with the C-stick.

See here for frame data on OoS options.

Shield Pressure
Some characters have the tools necessary to pressure a shielded opponent and force them to use an unsafe OoS option or risk getting their shield broken.
Species can do this by alternating late aerials (Dair/Nair/Bair) with shines. By using late aerials, the shield stun prevents the opponent from breaking out with OoS options. This can be continued until the shield breaks or the character is pushed off the stage.
Other characters (Sheik/Marth/etc) can apply pseudo shield pressure, but they don't have frame advantage so much as less frame disadvantage than most characters.
See here for info on space shield pressure.

2. Getting Hit

Inevitably, one player is going to take advantage of a critical point in neutral, you the other will get hit. The attacker must wait for the end lag (or landing lag) of the move used to hit you, but after that they get back all their normal options. When you get hit, you have some control over your character, but it is very different from any other situation in smash.

a. Mechanics of a Hit

Damage: Each move has a standard amount of damage (in percent) dealt. Damage increases knockback. Also, characters at higher percents take longer to mash out of grabs/etc. Ledge getups take longer when you're above 100%. Hoop damage (1% per second spent outside the camera) stops above 150%.

Stale Move Negation is the decay of damage dealt with repeated use of a move. It depends on how often and how recently a move has been used (the game cues the last 9 moves used).

According to Magus, sometimes a difference of 1% can change whether or not you can follow up a move because stun increases as an integer, but its increase rate is multiplied out over a spread of percents, resulting in you skipping between stun integers over wider rangers of percents.

Knockback:
Base Knockback:
Knockback Growth:

Hitstun:
http://smashboards.com/threads/kadano’s-perfect-marth-class—advanced-frame-data-application.337035/page-9

Tumble:

Flinching:

Hitboxes & Hurtboxes:

Priority:

Pushback:

Note: When you are hit, you will almost always be turned to face the direction from which you got hit (except Peach's Dsmash; there may be more).


Defensive Options:
There are two main actions someone in hitstun can take: teching and DI.

b. Directional Influence (DI):

Normal DI: While in hitstun, you can influence your direction by holding the control stick in a direction non-parallel to your trajectory. Holding perpendicular yields the greatest change in DI. Normal DI can be used either to escape combos or to survive.

Combo DI: When you get hit, you can sometimes avoid your opponent's followups with combo DI, which is almost always DOWN AND AWAY. Knowing when to DI and in which direction is a component of matchups, discussed later.

Survival DI: When your opponent hits you off the stage, you can use DI to live longer. If you are hit horizontally in such a way that you would cross the left/right blast zone, you can DI up and possibly use up all the hitstun before leaving the blastzone (if hit up, you can DI towards the nearest corner for the same reason). Even if the attack would not kill you, DI'ing up and towards the stage when sent just a little way off the stage makes it easier to recover and gives you more options to counter your opponent's recovery-breaking.

For both combo and survival DI, sometimes instead of anticipating a combo followup or your looming recovery, you can DI towards a platform and try to tech on it.

(Normal DI, ASDI, and SDI are completely different game mechanics)

Automatic Smash DI (ASDI): On the first frame of hitstun, if you are holding the control stick in a direction, you will move a little bit in that direction. The c-stick outprioritizes the control stick, so you can ASDI and use survival/combo DI at the same time.

Smash DI (SDI): At any point during hitlag, you can move your character a little more than ASDI by smashing the control stick or the c-stick in a direction. You can do this multiple times if you're fast enough, as long as each successive input is not in a direction in the same quarter of the control stick as the last one. The most efficient SDI is when you combine "Double Stick" SDI with "Quarter Circle" SDI. Double Stick DI is when you SDI with both the control stick and the c-stick (for SDI there's no outprioritizing). Quarter Circle SDI is when you move the stick between 2 corners of the stick's range to maximize the frequency of inputs.
SDI is commonly used to escape multi-hitting moves. The most famous one is Fox's Uair. If you SDI hard enuff on the weak first hit, you can avoid the strong 2nd hit. For Uthrow->Uair, you can combo DI the Uthrow behind Fox so he has to run backwards then jump. You can then SDI back towards him and take advantage of his momentum. The first hit of Fox's Uair has 4 frames of hitlag for you to SDI in, with ASDI possible on the first frame of hitstun.
Other moves to SDI out of are Marth's (4 frames hitlag) and Falcon's (5 frames hitlag) Nairs and multi-hitting Dairs like Fox's (4 frames hitlag per hit), Falco's (? frames hitlag - to avoid the shine), Peach's (? frames hitlag), and Puff's (3 frames hitlag per hit).
SDI is an important part of high level play. Many times matches would be over so much faster if a player had not SDI'd away from a drill before the shine, escaping the spacie combo.
See also: Shield DI under OoS.

Strongbad's post on Vectoring was enlightening to me b/c it put into perspective the uniqueness of DI in melee as opposed to other fighting games.
A tech cannot be inputted for 40 frames after a full press of a trigger. If you L-cancel with a light press, you can avoid situations where you might be unable to tech.
"Amsah Tech": The Amsah tech is when you are grounded and are hit by an upwards sending attack and you ASDI down in order to tech. This only works at mid-low %'s. A major example is when you flub a rest with Puff, you can tech a Falcon punch at lower percents. Note that this only works for attacks with an upwards trajectory - you cannot tech if the attack doesn't send you up off the ground.
Named after the European Sheik player, it's when you ASDI down from an upwards-hitting attack to tech on the ground. You can also tech if you get knocked over when crouch canceling. And in PM you can tech tripping on bananas.

Forbidden DI: You cannot SDI up while grounded and hit with an attack that does not send you up. This has to do with the nature of your ECB - you cannot transition from being grounded to being airborne solely based on SDI. In a similar way, you cannot SDI into a wall impact (though you can still wall tech that way).

c. Teching & Tech Chasing:

Teching in place, in terms of invincibility frames and endlag, is by far the best option for the defender. The thing is, a tech chaser can cover both missed-tech and tech-in-place with the same option. Thus, the defender must use mixups to convince the tech chaser that covering 2 options at once is not always their best option.

Some characters have faster or slower tech rolls that are easier to react to (namely Falcon). Teching in place is the best option (i.e. least laggy). However, it can still be read and punished, so mixing up tech options is crucial to escaping tech chases. Tech chasing can be made easier by covering as many options as possible once the tech chaser leaves neutral (ex, Marth's dtilt can cover a tech roll distance from him and the area right behind him due to the interruptibility of his Dtilt, allowing him to pivot grab out of it if they tech behind him). An important mixup option is no tech, which leaves you vulnerable unless you tricked your opponent into not covering it, after which you have options to your getup options.

Getup Options:
-Holding up to get up is the least laggy option, but as said before, can be read. Get up -> shine is a really nice option for spacies, tho.
-Holding left or right will roll you away. This grants the least amount of invincibility.
-Hitting attack does the getup attack, which has the most lag and can be easily shield grabbed. Most getup attacks are double swipes that will hit first on the side where their feet are facing.

Jab Reset:
When knocked down, you may be vulnerable to a jab reset, which is when you are hit with a move that does insignificant knockback.
There are 2 jab reset animations.
You can always use a getup option if fox's shine resets you. You can never get out of a falco laser reset. Peach's jab depends on weight - chars lighter than falco (and falco) can cancel w/ getup option.
Those are all 0 KBG moves. Sheik's jab and/or needle can't be gotten out of until ~40%. Puff's can't be gotten out of until ~100%. Other characters' thresholds are listed here.
You can also use any kind of DI up to try to end your hutstun before landing from the knockdown bounce, which is what triggers the getup animation shenanigans. Watch this video in slow motion for an example.

Crouch Cancel: Crouch canceling isn't as annoying as you think. Crouching only reduces hitstun and launch speed.
What's annoying is that crouching involves the same button inputs as ASDI'ing down. Thus, you can retaliate when hit even if you aren't crouching (ex, if you're in another animation when you're hit).
You can only execute a move from a crouch cancel if the attack has an upwards trajectory, because you need to get hit off the ground and then ASDI down to land, which triggers a landing animation that cancels the hitstun.

Fast Falling to the Edge: When you are hit and then collide with the ground and slide across the ledge, you can live a lot longer by fastfalling to grab the edge just before sliding off.

3. Platform Game

No-Impact Landing (Lagless Landing): When you rise through a platform at the apex of your jump, you can skip the standard (usually 4 frames) empty landing lag. Ganon is able to use this from a ledge hop to get 18 grounded invincibility frames when combined with ECB manipulation. Falco's full hop does it on the top platform of BF.
What I call empty landing lag is also called "heavy" landing. Thus, "light" landing is No-Impact landing.

Platform Cancel: Platform canceling actually involves ECB (Environment Collision Box) manipulation. The ECB determines what animation you do based on environmental interactions. Platform canceling is a forbidden move - the designers tried to keep it out by making the ECB only refresh every ~10 frames, so that if you platform drop -> say, Falcon Uair, you will already sink before the game notices you should have platform canceled. I haven't tested it, but either the ~10 frames gets janked up by hitlag, or hitlag allows you to stay high enough for the ~10 frames.

Shield Drop:
The history of the need for shield dropping has to do with the fact that empty landing on a platform induces a 30 frame wait period before you can do a normal platform drop.
Isai Drop: After the 3rd grounded frame, doing any action will end the 30 frame wait period. Other than shield dropping, the fastest way to do this is by walking forward, then normal dropping on the 1st frame.
'Hardcore' Shield Drop: At the boundary between tilting the control stick down while in shield and spot dodging is a small window where you can trigger a shield drop (a separate technique from releasing your shield). This leaves you actionable frame 1 (as opposed to a normal platform drop that has some lag).
SHAI Drop: There are ways to induce a shield drop without needing to have inhuman control stick finesse. There is a property of the game in that you cannot roll in a direction that you were holding towards on the last frame (ex, you can't roll forward on the first frame of a dash, or if you hold forward while dashing). Another property exploited for the SHAI drop is that at the lower diagonal corners of the control stick, the inputs for rolling, shield dropping, and spot dodging overlap. However, there is a priority to deal with this: roll beats shield drop which beats spot dodge. Therefore, you can force a shield drop by having held the direction you would roll towards on the frame before you put the control stick in the corner of its range. While shielding, you can do this out of a shield tilt, and while dashing, you can shield cancel your dash into a shield drop.
There is one final way to force a shield drop. While dashing, there is a 4 frame buffer window for shield drop, but only a 2 frame window for buffering a spot dodge. Therefore, if you hit down while dashing, wait 2 frames, then hit shield 3 or 4 frames later, you will shield drop.

M2K asserts that the best way to get off a platform is to shield drop or wavedash off. Jumping off will often leave you vulnerable, while the other 2 put you lower and may allow you to get beneath your opponent and have positional advantage over them.

Platform Coverage

Waveland Regrab

4. Ledge Game

Invincible Ledge Dash:

Aerial Interrupts:

5. Offstage Game

. Edgeguarding:

Fastfalling to the ledge:

Edge hog:

PC Drop:

. Recovery/Edgeguard Breaking:

Ledge Tech: Ideally, if you never get hit, you'll never need to learn this. But since there's always someone better than you, this can help you live longer and have more chances to win.

While tumbling, if you hit a trigger within 20 frames of colliding with a surface, you tech. Teching on the ground leads to a tech chase, but teching on a wall allows immediate action OR a wall tech jump by pressing away from the wall.

When recovering to the ledge, you can tech against the ledge when your opponent attacks you by hitting a trigger (usually) just before Up-B'ing. At lower percents, ASDI'ing into the ledge should be enough to get you close enough to tech, but at higher percents, you may need to SDI into the ledge.

I practiced this first as Marth in training mode. Spawn a motion-sensor bomb, roll to the ledge, and set it. Then jump off, making sure not to set it off, Up-B into the ledge, and try to tech.

After you can do that, practice teching during matches. For me it was really hard to get myself to actually do it, b/c I spent time trying to read my opponent's edgeguard. Just hit the button. You'll look so cool after you're able to get it.

I got really good at teching crazy stuff after playing a lot with my training partner, who's got a flashy Lucario (this is in PM). He'd go for a lot of those super-charged aerial Side-B's, and I would DI like hell towards the ledge to get the most ridiculous techs off the bottom of the stage. So now in melee when Marth's Dair me, sometimes I can totally surprise them by teching off like the bottom thingy of BF or something.

If you ledge tech jump with Marth, you need to Bair or Side B immediately or else the jump will send you too far away to recover.

. Wall Jump

. Wall Grapple

. Surviving near the Blast Zones:

Survival DI:

"Air Teching":

Buffer Jump (out of hitstun): http://smashcurriculum.com/2014/09/16/σ-melee-mechanics-tumble-and-jump-buffering/

http://smashboards.com/threads/kadano’s-perfect-marth-class—advanced-frame-data-application.337035/page-9

6. Frame Data

Note: there are different ways of interpreting frame counts (whether you mean to include the final frame as part of the lag or as the first actionable frame). I will try to be consistent with this example: empty landing lag is 4 frames, which means you can input an action on the 4th frame (I think I said that right? Don't kill me if I'm wrong, and again, I'm sorry this is confusing. It's like when ppl say a combo works @ X%, do they mean before or after the hit).
See the link in the Shield Drop section for info on frame notation (Shai's section called "Frame Notation").

Note: IASA (Interruptable As Soon As, also known as Interruptability) is when you can get out of an animation early by inputting something else (ex, after Marth's dash attack, he has a bit of endlag without changing his animation, then he rocks back a little bit for the rest of the lag. You can't avoid the endlag right after the move, but you can interrupt the move after he settles back).

Note: About Buffering, there are 2 kinds of buffering in smash.
1. True Buffering is the way it is in Brawl and most other fighting games, as well as a couple of things in melee. It is when you press a button, and the game cues that input, and executes it as soon as possible. In brawl, this allows players to due things quickly without requiring frame perfect execution. There are a few things in melee that use this kind of buffering: L-canceling has a 7 frame buffer window and teching usually has a 20 frame buffer window).

-To L-cancel, a trigger must be at least light pressed within 7 frames of landing.

-After empty landing on a platform, there are 30 frames during which a normal platform drop-thru cannot be executed (this limit is nulled after any action is taken).

-Empty landing lag (from a jump) is 4 frames for all characters except: Pichu (2), DK/Gdorf (5), and Bowser (6); No-Impact Landings bypass this and occur during unique momentum shifts (ex, apex of jump). SH lasers, Needle Cancels, and Float Cancels are all 4 frames (i.e. normal landing lag). Samus's aerial smash Missile induces 5 frames land lag.

-Wavedashing or landing from an air dodge induces 10 frames land lag.

-To tech, fully press a trigger within 20 frames of impact. You cannot tech within 40 frames of fully pressing a trigger. During hitlag frames except the last 2 frames of hitlag, the tech buffer window is only 1 frame.
-Teching in place takes 26 frames and gives invincibility frames 1-20. That's 6 frames endlag.
-Most tech rolls last 40 frames and are invincible frames 1-20. That's 20 frames endlag.
-Getting knocked down, i.e. missing a ground tech, gives 26 frames lag.
-Getting up from being knocked down takes 30 frames. Most characters are invincible frames 1-23. That's 7 frames endlag. Exceptions: DK (24), Marth/Roy (22), & IC/Peach/Sheik/Zelda (20). DK has normal invincibility if he landed on his back.
-Getup attacks typically last 49 frames, with 2 hits and invincibility frames 1-26. That's 23 frames endlag. They are dependent on both character and whether you landed on your back or belly.
-Most getup rolls last 35 frames and are invincible frames 1-19. That's 16 frames endlag. They are dependent on character, landing position, and direction (forward or backward).
-Wallteching has IASA at frame 6. A walltech jump can be inputted frames 1-4, to be executed on frame 6. Wallteching grants invincibility frames 1-14. Gdorf gets 5 extra invincible frames if he refuses the walljump & IASA (w/out IASA, the animation takes 31 frames for all characters except IC-25 & DK-30). Wall tech jumping has IASA frame 1.
-The animation after teching on a ceiling takes 26 frames except DK/Puff/Kirby (25). Most characters are invincible frames 1-17 except Bowser (1-18), DK (1-15), Falco/Fox/Yoshi (1-14), Link/Marth/Pichu/Pika/Roy/Y.Link (1-13), Samus (1-12), & Falcon/Gdorf (1-11). Peach/Zelda get no invincibility.
-Hitting a ceiling/wall w/out teching grants 15 frames of invincibility.
-See here for character-specific info on reacting to tech rolls.

-Spotdodges have 2 frames startlag (except Bowser-4 & Falcon/Zelda-3).
-Most have 7 frames endlag (except Peach/IC/Ness/Roy/Marth-9, M2-11, Falcon/Gdorf/Zelda/Puff-12, DK-14, Bowser-18, & GW-20).
-Most are invincible frames 2-15 (13 total), except GW (2-12; 10 total) Peach/IC/Ness/Roy/Marth (2-18; 16 total), M2 (2-21), Gdorf (2-20; 18 total), Falcon/Zelda (3-20; 17 total), & Bowser (4-24; 20 total).
-Most last 23 frames except Peach/IC/Ness/Puff/Marth (28), Falcon/Gdorf/Zelda/GW (33), DK/M2 (38), & Bowser (43).

-Rolls have 4 frames startlag (except Yoshi-1 and Puff-2).
-Most (those with fastest rolls of 31 frames) have 12 frames endlag (except Yoshi-1, Samus-14 GW/Puff-16, Link/Y.Link/M2-18, & Bowser-20); the extra lag adds to the total length of the roll, giving Bowser the slowest roll.
-Marth/Roy have 12 endlag backward but 16 endlag forward.
-This gives everyone frames 4-19 (15 total) invincible except Yoshi (1-34), Samus (4-30), and Puff (2-18).
-Marth/Roy are 4-19 forward and 4-23 backward.

-The fastest jabs hit frames 2-3 & last 16 frames (Doc, Mario, Luigi, Peach, Falco, Fox, Sheik, Pichu, & Pika). That's 13 frames endlag.
-IC's jab also lasts 16 frames, but hits 4-7. That's 9 frames endlag.
-Yoshi's (18 total; 13 endlag), Gdorf's (19 total; 14 endlag), & Falcon's (22 total; 17 endlag) hit 3-5.
-Kirby's (16 total; 12 endlag), Samus's (18 total; 14 endlag), & Ness's (20 total; 16 endlag) hit 3-4.
-GW's (16 total; 10 endlag) & Roy's (27 total; 21 endlag) hit 4-6, while Marth's (26 total; 19 endlag) hits 4-7.
-Puff's (18 total; 12 endlag) hits 5-6, while DK's (25 total; 18 endlag) hits 5-7.
-Link/Y.Link's (20 total, unless you try to shield out of the IASA, in which case it's 24/23 respectively; 12 endlag, or 16/17) hit 6-8.
-Bowser's (25 total; 16 endlag) hits 7-9, M2's (30 total; 22 endlag) hits on 8, & Zelda (27 total; 12 endlag) hits on 11, 13, & 15.

-For info on moves that have more varied frames, see this chart.
Note: For most of that chart, I used a different method of calculating the parameters of frames. I hope you can just get my drift coz it would be so much more trouble than I already went thru making it to fix it.

-For info on hitlag and shieldstun from moves, see here.

7. Matchups (MU's)

MU's could literally refer to the matchup chart you can find on ssbwiki. However, I take it to mean the near perfect understanding of each characters movesets, animations, movement, as well as their best options. It means knowing what your opponent should want to do with their character, and knowing what you should want to do with your own character.

Some of the gods (Mango, M2K) have started posting match analyses, and they are a great source of matchup knowledge. I'll try to compile stuff I've learned from them and others here.

Note: Port Priority can influence some matchups. When 2 events happen simultaneously (i.e. on the same frame), the player whose port is closest to P1 out-prioritizes the other.


-as Fox
*Fox can perform several invincible actions from the ledge on the side platforms of YS from the ledgehop.
*Hitting with just the 2nd hit of Uair can prevent people from SDI'ing it.
*The "Wakeup" Shine is shining right after an empty getup, which can be hard to punish. You could also try it right after a spotdodge or roll or whatever.
*Good shield pressure is when you hit with your aerials as late as possible, which lets the shieldstun cover your landing lag before the shine.

-against Fox
*The first hit of Uair has 4 frames of hitlag for you to SDI during. You should also DI the Upthrow behind him, b/c then he'll have to run backwards into his jump in a very precise manner, and you can also take advantage of his momentum towards you to boost the effect of your SDI'ing towards the way he came from.

-as Sheik
*One of Sheik's best tools is Nair OoS (SHFFL'd, of course). Her Nair comes out frame 3 and is super big and starts out as a strong sex kick. Her Usmash OoS is also pretty good.
*Her Bair sweetspot is right above the heel. Her Fair and Ftilt have some disjoint. And finally, comboing with the reverse hit of Bair is the sexiest thing in the world.
*Reverse Needle Cancel (RNC): Since Sheik's NeutralB can be canceled so quickly (a needle store completes in 15 frames), she can make use of the B-turnaround technique to completely turn herself around in the air (Spacies have to jump out of their shine when they turnaround). This can be used to mix up your edgeguarding or approaches (ex, you can jump towards your recovering opponent, RNC, and then either do a rising Bair or grab ledge.
I like to call this technique Needle Storing, to reserve the word cancel.
*Needle Cancel (Needle Land Cancel): Needles have no landing lag, just like lasers, as long as you release them after the apex of your jump and below the height of your full jump. This makes for combos like SH Needle -> grab, etc.
*Needle Store Platform Landing: Just like how Spacies can shine while rising through platforms to land without lag, Sheik can use Needle Storm while rising through a platform to transition to a standing needle store. This is apparently faster than wavelanding. I've found I can do this with diagonal jumps on YS quite consistently.
*Vanish Stalling (Shino Stalling): Sheik can stall on the ledge by dropping down, UpB'ing, then holding down/towards the ledge (making sure to let go of down just before the explosion so you don't fastfall past the ledge). B/c Vanish has its own invincibility, you don't need to be frame perfect to stay invincible. Due to your ECB, if you do the lowest possible Shino Stall (with the explosion happening right at the ledge), you will have more grounded invincibililty if you then do an immediate ledgedash.
*It is possible to turn around Sheik's UpB by slightly reversing the control stick while going straight up. You can also shorten the distance traveled by holding the control stick between all the way up and neutral.
*There are a variety of fancy ways to grab ledge with Sheik. If you run off the ledge while doing an UpB, you can then vanish and reappear on the ledge. You can also SH RNC ledgegrab, or even do the runoff RNC ledgegrab. Here is an analysis of the fastest ways to grab ledge, and here is a video of them.
*When recovering, there are several things you can do to help your recovery:
1. FAIRING DOES NOT BOOST YOUR RECOVERY! This is a myth which I believe started from the Sheik S#!T video guide. You can Fair out weak projectiles, or Fair your opponent if they just sit there and let you.
2. Assuming your opponent grabs ledge, your best option then is to air dodge on stage.
3. Another good option is to ledge cancel your UpB.
4. When you get hit far, you can DI up into the corner and then transform into Zelda and back (I don't suggest using Zelda's Teleport unless it's your last stock, b/c if you do recover, you're gonna be like "dangit, now I'm Zelda"). Transforming slows your decent, giving you time to edgeguard break.
*Since a perfect needle grab on shield can be shield grabbed depending on port priority, you should try your best to get port priority as Sheik.

-against Sheik
*To edge guard Sheik, just grab ledge. Ain't nothing she can do 'bout it. She may try to airdodge on stage, or ledge cancel her UpB. Just make sure you're invincible if she explodes near you by getting up at the right time or refreshing your invincibility right before it.

-as Marth
*When techchasing on platforms with Marth, make sure to use his Uair and/or Fair in such a way that the hitbox covers as many options as possible (I used to just hit with the tip of the Uair, intending to tipper, but that's dumb coz you could easily just cover the whole platform, rather than tippering only in one spot. That would be dumb).
*When wall tech jumping, you need to Bair or SideB immediately or else your momentum will carry you too far away to recover.
*You have 6 frames to jump/waveland/Fair again out of a SH Fair if you Medium Hop it. You have 7 frames if you wait until the 2nd airborne frame. The hitbox is out frames 4-7, so if you're only able to get the back hit of the 2nd Fair, you can go back and calculate your frames, oh boy.
*You have 3 frames to jump/waveland out of a SH Bair if you Medium Hop it. You have 4 frames if you wait until the 2nd airborne frame.
*Having low port priority makes chain grabbing spacies easier coz reasons.
*I've heard PPMD say that Marth should never spotdodge, and in fact he should spend as little of the game in shield as possible. He says you should instead avoid attacks with Marth's dash dance in almost every situation where you would other wise use a shield option.

-against Marth
*The "Marth Killer" is lightshield facing away from the ledge when Marth tries to sweetspot the ledge w/ his UpB. The extended hitbox will hit you, and you can Shield DI off the ledge to grab it out from him. M2K likes to be fancy and do it backwards into a Fair to the face. You can also do this with a full shield, but it takes more intentional SSDI.
*M2K said in his match analysis that Marth's recovery is so linear, that here's all you need to do to edgeguard: Ramen Noodle right before he UpB's, and either roll immediately so you can punish his landlag or wait on the ledge and punish w/ a ledgehopped attack. But don't wait on the ledge and then roll. That's dumb.

-against Puff
*DI down when you get rested to prevent a star KO, so you can punish.
*(as Marth): Charged Shield Breaker is an excellent punish, b/c even if they get their shield up, it's Shield Breaker. And Puff dies when her shield breaks. Also make sure to try to position yourself from center stage to give them less room to DI.

-against Peach
*Turnips are easier to catch midair from above or below than from the side, coz the hitbox is a small dot in the middle, while the turnip's grabbox extends further above and below it.
*Each time a turnip is thrown (not dropped), it's grab box gets bigger.

-as Falcon
*A pro tip I heard from Scar is that you can get more out of your combos if you remember the fast fall in your SHFFL. There is a time and place for full jump aerials, but what you don't want to do is just short hop & L-cancel some Upairs at your opponent. The best thing to do is SHFFL super fast, then have the choice of waiting for your opponent to commit to a defensive option or position yourself better.

8. Stages

Since I wrote the guide linked to in the title of this section, I'll just leave it at that.




Appendices

This can serve as a sort of glossary until I make one myself.


Why CRT's?
Melee is like the only game that needs to be played with CRT's. This is b/c there is a frame delay b/w inputs and visualization when you try to play it on flat screens. It's got something to do with how the flatscreens have to convert the data for the HD stuff.


I have no idea how this relates to smash, but it sounds relevant:

"You cannot deploy non-hostile, non-destructive technical skill – unless you realize basically that you yourself are this whole domain of nature – that’s the real you. You are not in a fight against nature. You’re not here to conquer nature, because there’s nothing to come – it’s all you! So when you use technology, [when] you bulldoze everything in the search, you’re fighting yourself… you’re fighting yourself…"

― Alan Watts
















Extra Junk:
(I'm so ashamed of most of it that I've gone and buried it in a mess of spoilers, teehee).