How’s it going, I’m dr jay and I’m back with another guide, this time on Samus and Dark Samus
Intro:
Samus to me has always felt like the chess players character, she has always been pretty slow so her combo game relies less on fast inputs and more on clean, precise moves and lots of reads and reactions. One second samus is waiting across the stage charging her neutral b and preventing bad approaches with missiles, but like a space cobra, the next second samus can punish a single mistake with a long string of hard hitting moves. Basically, playing Samus forces both you and your opponent to slow down and think a bit, while waiting for the right moment to make split second reactions. In ultimate, I feel that samus has received a number of buffs that push both her and her new echo fighter Dark Samus into a tier that I would consider makes them at least as tournament viable as melee samus, being one of the best mid tier characters. Samus and Dark Samus are nearly identical, so if you play one you can pretty much play the other to the same degree of proficiency. However there are definite reasons to pick one samus over the other in certain matchups.
Samus vs Dark Samus
First off, here are the differences between the two sami and what these differences mean. First off Dark Samus has a faster back roll, while samus has a faster forward roll. Its barely noticeable but Dark Samus has an easier time rolling back to punish an attack like melee samus with wave dash back. Anyways, the roll differences don’t matter much between the two characters, especially since just pivoting out of dash to out space attacks or even triangle jumping is often better than rolling now, so it’s just a good fact to know.
Samus’ attacks that have explosions count as fire attacks, meaning they will set off bombs on contact, while Dark Samus’ explosions are electric and thus do not do so as easily. Again, not an important difference.
Samus’s shield is smaller to compensate for her slightly shorter hurtbox compared to dark samus. I think that when perfect shielding becomes second nature for top level players having a bigger shield could come in handy. Samus’ f smash has slightly longer range than Dark Samus which could be useful in some matchups, but dark samus’ up smash can catch enemies lower to the ground than samus without really sacrificing vertical range.
Now what I think the most important difference is is their projectiles. Dark samus’ projectiles all go lower to the ground. The big takeaway here is that Dark Samus is better against shorter characters, characters with extremely low ducks like shiek, characters with shorter short hops, and characters that use explosives. In any situation where these factors don’t apply, or against characters that are almost always in the air, samus is better mostly due to her slightly longer f smash.
Ok so now you know when to pick each one, but how do you play them? Well aside from those differences everything about samus and Dark Samus plays the same, so I’ll be pretty much lumping them together from here on out to avoid repetition.
General strategy:
As I mentioned in my intro, samus should be played very patiently. Samus’ charge shot can not only be charged in the air and quickly canceled with a double jump or air dodge, but the charge shot charges faster and does more damage than in smash 4. Basically, samus lives and dies by her neutral b. You should charge it after every knockout or basically ever second you can. An uncharged neutral b can be helpful, but it’s really nothing compared to the threat of a fully charged one, so being patient and not engaging until you have a charge shot is honestly very often your best option. One cool new trick that you can do with the charge shot is pivot with it in the by pressing b then immediately flicking your stick in the direction opposite from where she’s facing; then, you can cancel the charge with a double jump to basically do a tricky midair reverse aerial rush into her back air, which has way more knockback power and is faster than forward air. Charging your shot while recovering is an awesome move if you still have double jump, but just remember that firing a charge shot will push you back with its recoil making it harder to recover, so keep that in mind before you go blasting away.
Their missiles are also amazing projectiles, with a tilted or homing missile being a powerful mixup as it covers against jumping opponents and stay out for a while while moving relatively slowly, and a power or smash missile stays in front of samus for amount before flying quite fast with increased knockback Both are good to follow behind for an approach, at low percents they are a great combo starter and can be a true lead into a charge shot. I also like to use missiles to cover techs and get ups from far away, as an edgeguarding and recovery tool, and as a defensive tool for stalling while charging your neutral b. Just keep in mind that only one power missile can be out at a time, but honestly spamming power missile wouldn’t be very optimal anyway.
Some other general strategy notes would that She is quite heavy and her recovery game is pretty darn good, so you can afford to go for more trades and get hit more often than most other characters. While missiles, dash attack, and her tether grab can be decent approach tools, samus really prefers a defensive style of play. She’s also quite floaty, but really doesn’t mind being a short hops distance away from the ground. Just don’t let yourself get juggled, because samus can’t get out of being juggled very easily. However, she hits very hard so once you catch your opponent making a mistake you can punish them heavily.
Offense-
samus’ offensive game mostly relies on shield breaks, projectile coverage and follow ups, and quick evasions into counter attacks. Your opponents need to evade your missiles or perfect shield them as samus can get a shiek break in a lot of ways. Charge shot annihilates most of your opponents shield, to the point where even a morph ball bomb would break it. Landing just one or two hits and safely resetting back into neutral is really not a bad way to play samus, as her high offensive power and defense makes up for her lack of mobility and speed. However, combos with samus are more than doable, and are in my opinion stronger than ever, but they just aren’t always true combos, they’re strings.
What I mean by that is this: her down throw, her tilts, her jab sort of, and her aerials all knock your opponent into perfect positions for follow ups at many percents, but your opponent can very often just barely di or air dodge out of an immediate follow up. Of course there are true combos with the samus’s, but they aren’t universal as in they only work at certain percents which varies by the immense roster of characters. Unless you’ve become extremely experienced with all of the different matchups that samus can go against, which is impossible because the game came out like a couple of weeks ago, most of the time you will have to heavily read where and when your opponent Di’s or airdodges in order to extend a combo. You only have a split second to follow up any attack with samus as most of her moves are not that fast, so if you aren’t quick enough to react to where they go just make an educated guess as to where they will be and move towards that location maintaining a relatively safe distance. Then, once you’re well positioned, you will usually follow up any attack with some kind of aerial. It’s important to wait until you are quite sure that your aerial will hit, or its end lag will be punished due to Samuses slow fall speed. So if you realize at the last second that you followed up in the wrong direction or will be hit by an opposing aerial, just disengage and continue your charge shot and missile game.
The longer the game goes on, the higher both of your percents will get, and that is when samus really shines. Samus can survive a lot of attacks even at relatively high percents, while her up throw, dash attack, smash attacks, and aerials can all knock your opponent out pretty efficiently. Once you get a knockout, you get a free charge shot, and with short hop charging you don’t have to sacrifice stage positioning between stocks as much as before to get a full charge. Then you can play defensively to rack up some very valuable percent on your opponents new stock before finally being knocked out starting the process over again, but with a percent lead. She’s almost snobally, and her comeback potential is immense.
Defense:
Samus’s defense comes mostly from zoning with her projectiles, but she can also utilize her very long tether grab and her weight as defensive tools. (This will probably sound brand new to most people, but if you go to the general tips section of the vault you can find a tip marked “grab parry” which describes a mechanic in which if you get grabbed you have a brief moment to grab your opponent back cancelling out the interaction. I do not know how long the reaction window is for this, but if it’s anywhere around 3 frames or higher then I can guarantee that top players will
utilize this mechanic. Samus’s tether grab does not bypass this with its range as far as i can tell). Obviously samus is not very mobile, so your evasion needs to be quick and precise if you want many chance of counter attacking. However, if you are at a low enough percent you can counter attack right out of hitstun. This should mostly be done with crouch cancelling, as crouching greatly reduces knockback and hitstun allowing for an easy counter attack. Aside from this, your defense is in your positioning. Samus is easily juggled, and her moves are a lot slower than those of most top tier characters, so strategically think about where you are in relation to your opponent and try to stay next to or below them most of the time. Samus’ air speed is really not great, but pne way to throw your opponents off while you’re in the air is to drop a morph ball bomb with down b, as your hurtbox becomes smaller and your relative air speed becomes much faster for a short time. The bomb itself doesn’t do much damage at all, but can be combod into and if your opponent shields the bomb you can shoot a charge shot at them for a shield break.
Samus’ recovery obviously involves her fast up special, but her bombs can be bounced on to stall or gain horizontal distance, and her aerial tether grab or zair is an easy way to recover from next to the stage. Use your projectiles to cover you approach back to the stage, and don’t waste all of your recover options all at once. A good samus always mixes it up.
For my final note on defense, I present to you a Chinese military myth from the novel the romance of the three kingdoms that illustrates a defensive technique called the Empty fort strategy. I promise you’ll learn something very useful from this so bear with me a moment. In the late Han dynasty during the Three Kingdoms period, the first of a series of shu military campaigns known as Northern Expeditions was led by Zhuge Liang to attack rival state, Cao Wei.
In the first Northern Expedition, Zhuge Liang's efforts to conquer the Wei city Chang'an were undermined by the Shu defeat at the Battle of Jieting. With the loss of Jieting, Zhuge Liang's current location, Xicheng, became exposed and was in peril of being attacked by the Wei army. In the face of imminent danger, with the main Shu army deployed elsewhere and only a small group of soldiers in Xicheng, Zhuge Liang came up with a clever ploy to hold off the approaching enemy.
He ordered all of the gates to be opened and instructed soldiers disguised as civilians to sweep the roads while he sat above the gates, putting on a calm and composed image by playing his guqin or lute. When the Wei army arrived, They were surprised by the calm scenery and immediately retreated after suspecting an ambush. Zhuge Liang later explained that his strategy was a risky one, and only worked because he had a reputation for being a careful military tactician who hardly took risks, so the enemy came to the conclusion that there was an ambush upon seeing Zhuge's relaxed composure. The moral of this story is that the threat of an attack, can be just as powerful as an actual attack. Samus’s charge shot, up b out of shield, tether grab, and hard hitting attacks are threats that a good player should be afraid of challenging directly. Understand this and use it to your advantage when deciding wether to shoot your charge shot and approach as opposed to playing it safe and waiting for a better opportunity while holding onto your biggest threats. Your charge shot, missiles, and defensive tilts force you opponent out of certain areas and make their movement a bit more predictable. You can try to overwhelm your opponent after landing a hit or catching a whiffed attack, but often just waiting an extra moment for a perfect opportunity is a better option with samus and Dark Samus. Let your opponent preemptively evade or defend against a nonexistent attack, and then put the pressure on them. Patience is key, my space bounty hunter friends.
Counterplay and conclusions:
Counterplay against samus is straightforward, but can be difficult for the inexperienced. First and foremost, do not go running around spamming any kind of attack unless you are up air juggling her or something. Be very aware of her punish potential, and plan your attacks carefully. However, samus prefers a long, drawn out game so do not wait for her to approach you, as she can just charge her neutral b or start zoning with missiles. When approaching samus, try to do a quick dash in and out and bait a defensive tilt or jab from her. Then punish the endlag of whatever she throws out, preferably with something that knocks her straight up. I have to say that the hardest counters to samus, and the reason why I do not think she or Dark Samus will ever be above b tier in top level play, are the fire emblem characters and mewtwo. All of them are much faster than samus and can easily approach her by knocking away her missiles with their disjointed hitboxes. They also have destructive juggling potential, as their up Airs can lead to an absurd amount of damage on samus and Dark Samus. They can even reflect or counter her charge shot in very risky situations. Fox and falco I think also do very well against samus. However, as any good fighting game player knows, a good enough player can beat just about anyone in any matchup. In conclusion, I believe that samus as a secondary or dual main is a very good choice for someone looking to play a mid tier or for having a backup counterpick for some matchups.
Anyway I hope you learned something from this guide, as I always try to avoid staying the obvious liking listing each characters moves. If you enjoyed this video, please give it a like, subscribe to my channel, or check out some of my other smash ultimate guides. Peace!
