The Ninja With an Actual Scarf

Sheik is one of the top characters in smash 4, and one of my personal favorites. Playing Sheik is for those who enjoy comboing heavy characters to death, stopping approaches in their tracks, and overall edge guarding maniacs. Although if you enjoy characters who can kill straight up, Sheik may not be for you because to kill with her your opponent has to be very high percent, you have to sweet spot up smash, or edge guard very well.

Sheik is typically played two ways, either very up close and aggressive, or far away, utilizing her ranged options and bouncing fish more often than not. I personally stick to the more aggressive style as I feel staying just out of range of the opponent and then going in to get hits works very well for me and then occasionally just going all in at times but you can use a mix of both as well. I’ll go over the ranged/evasive style first and then the aggressive style, ending with specific sections and then overall things you want to do with Sheik. Don’t think that just because you are only playing one style (aggressive or ranged) that you shouldn’t read the other section as well because both are important to know and I will be including important techniques in each section that might not be in the other one. I might feel a certain part pertains slightly more to one over the other and I don’t like restating things so you might miss a trick by skipping over a section. Also I will refer to Sheik’s up special as vanish, side special as grenade, down special as bouncing fish, and neutral special as needles for those who don’t know all the exact terms for her moves.



Moveset Percents

• • Jab
    • 2%, 3%, 0-1% multi hits, 3% final hit
  • F-tilt
    • 4%
  • U-tilt
    • 5%, 6%
  • D-tilt
    • 5%
  • F-smash
    • Uncharged: First hit 5%, second hit 8%. Fully charged: FH 7%, SH 11%.
  • U-smash
    • UC 11%, FC 15%. Sweetspot UC 15%, FC 21%.
  • D-smash
    • UC: FH 3%, SH 6%. FC: FH 4.5%, SH 8.5%. (Never does more than 13% FC)
  • Fair
    • 5%
  • Bair
    • 7%
  • Uair
    • 1%, 1%, 1%, 4%
  • Dair
    • 8% in the air, 2% when Sheik hits the ground.
  • Nair
    • 8% first frames, 7% first frames behind Sheik, 5% after.
  • Side Special
    • Explosion: 13%
    • Suck in effect: 1% repeatedly
    • Hit with the grenade while using side b: 1%
  • Up Special
    • Disappear: 12%
    • Reappear: 5%
  • Down Special
    • 12%
  • Neutral Special
    • 1-2% uncharged
    • 7-11% fully charged
  • Down Throw
    • 6%
  • Up Throw
    • 5%
  • Back Throw
    • 7%
  • Forward Throw
    • 7%
  • Pummel
    • 3%
  • Dash Attack
    • 6.5% (early) 4.5% (late)

Ranged Sheik
The first thing about ranged Sheik is that needles are used A LOT. Sheik’s needles are a very good option in this game as they go very fast and stop approaching opponents who are dashing at you. They can be charged up and saved for later although make note that when used in the air they travel diagonally downwards, going at a sharper angle downwards but still a bit sideways. This can be useful to edge guard if your opponent tries to recover low you can just short hop into aerial needles which is a very important edge guarding mechanic. So with ranged Sheik you want to throw out lots and lots of needles. This forces opponents to stay in their shield more than they want to which can get in their way a lot. Once you have them trapped in shield you can dash grab them a bit more than you would since there is a higher chance that they will stay in shield expecting needles to come flying their way.

Sheik’s other ranged option is her grenade but it typically doesn’t work too well since it is very predictable and has ending lag so I advise that you stick to needles as they are a better and safer option. If you don't want to be approached, you can mix up jumping over your opponent and using bouncing fish to get to the other side of the stage (done by jumping or double jumping and then using bouncing fish and holding the control stick to whichever way you want to go since bouncing fish moves differently depending on whether or not you hold the control stick in a direction) or just running through them. Don't spam bouncing fish though as it has pretty bad end lag.

Another option I use that is a very good mix up is vanish. This move teleports Sheik from one place to another and while Zelda’s “Farore’s Wind” has kill power at the end of the move when Zelda reappears, vanish has kill power at the beginning of the move when Sheik disappears. This move does have slight start-up lag so you have to compensate for that when choosing to use this move. When using this I suggest either angling the control stick down after using the move so you will reappear in the same spot or at your opponent so even if you whiff it, if they are approaching you then you will appear behind them which is harder to punish unless they read it well. If they start reading either one or the other then be sure to switch it up.

You can also deal with approaches from further away with bouncing fish, catching them as they run at you. You can space opponents by short hopping into fairs or bairs, both having little end lag, repeatedly to keep them away and make a wall of hitboxes. Also when being approached, you can short hop backwards a little bit to avoid either a dash attack or grab and then fair. I feel like ranged Sheik does well on Final Destination since they have no platforms to escape needles. Overall with ranged Sheik you want to spam needles, keep opponents away, cover approaches, and run away.


Aggressive Sheik
Sheik’s that play aggressively can be very dangerous as she is a character with many tools to support this style. Her moves that you want to rely on when playing aggressively are fair and bair, to a lesser extent up air and nair, and almost never dair as it has awful landing lag although it does spike akin to Ganondorf’s down special. With this style you typically want to short hop into a lot of fairs and bairs, approacing with them to keep the opponent away sort of like the puff’s wall of pain and looking for lots of grabs. Once you establish this wall your opponent should be forced into shield and I like to jump right in their face but then double jump over them and bair if they try to shield grab me expecting me to land in front of them with an aerial. You can also full hop some space away from the opponent and then just run in and grab since they will expect you to attack again.

Sheik’s forward and back jump both have a flipping animation which can throw off people and make them think you are going to air attack. If this happens and they shield you can just fast fall after a short hop and go up and grab them. Sheik can put on a lot of pressure with her aerials forcing opponents to stay back and if you play well not many can challenge her in the air. If you get them in the air you should charge your needles for a bit while you have the time then run and shield where they will land, preparing for an OOS (out of shield) option like jumping out of shield into fair or bair. I like placing myself right in front of where they will land by dashing into shield so I can just sit in shield until they land to try and bait an air dodge and then shield grab to get them in the air again.

You can dash into up smash and something similar can be done with d/f-smash by running into shield and then immediately dropping your shield and following with whatever move you want. However when doing this make sure to drop the shield first or you might accidentally dodge. Another form of this is to do a series of quick dashes (or foxtrotting) which is done by inputting right<right<right<right and the same with left which is something you can attack out of once you stop.

When playing aggressively you also want to use bouncing fish a lot both for edge guarding and approaching. With this move the only way to combat it while on the ground is to dodge or jump so that they will be above it and dair or do a falling nair. Otherwise it will either hit the opponent as an attack or when it hits their shield you will bounce away, unharmed. Typically when I do this I hold in towards the opponent after hitting them or their shield which lets me bair if they try to combat/punish, and if it hits it puts me in a better position to keep up pressure. Remember to always use the second kick after landing bouncing fish which is done by pressing special again as this reduces lag significantly.

Sheik’s fair and nair have only 10 frames of end lag and her bair only has 12 frames (60 frames = 1 second) so you can use these out of short hop or just anything from the air to cover OOS options and then grab or jab when you land. However, you can be shield grabbed from this if your opponent reacts quickly enough. If they catch you doing this once though then next time just jump up and pretend like you will go in for an aerial then just land and grab.

Sheik’s smash attacks all have pretty bad ending lag so I wouldn’t advise using them all too often as they are easily punished. Also if you get a fair on a foe that is on the ground at mid-mid high percent it you will want to combo it into more fairs, as many as you can ending with bouncing fish when fairs won’t reach or you are out of jumps. For this combo you really just have to “play it by eye” to know whether or not to jump and if you need to fair or bouncing fish depending on where the opponent is at the time. Sometimes I just throw out aerials even though I know they won’t hit since it keeps the opponent on their toes and expecting an aerial so a mix up can catch them off guard. At very low percents since fair and nair have so little landing lag you can combo them into grab but it is a bit harder with light characters. Overall you want to space your opponents very well with short hop aerials and then feint an aerial and go for a grab.



Throws
Sheik’s typical combo throws are forward throw and down throw typically while she also has two other combos using up throw and back throw which I’ll go over later.


Forward Throw-
Forward throw combos into bouncing fish at low percents although if players DI up and towards you they can escape it (it is almost always a true combo at 0% except with few characters who DI up and away or up and in including Luigi). To combat DI at lower percents, after initiating the bouncing fish hold back so it will not advance forwards as much or hold forward if they DI away. Another low percent combo opportunity is in up smash which does more damage than bouncing fish but is easier to get out of. At later percents forward throw combos into either fair, up air, or nair depending on DI but you typically want to go for nair if you can since it does the most damage and you don't want to stale fair and up air. You can f throw<fair<falling up air/u tilt which leads into more combos although you can't do a rising fair, it has to be falling and that extra time may allow opponents to escape. F throw still can combo into bouncing fish at higher percent but you typically have to jump at least once first. You should also mix up going straight for the bouncing fish with baiting the air dodge by delaying your attack. Forward throw reliably combos into fair from nearly any percent especially on heavy characters but on light ones as well. I tried this combo with 0% rage on Jigglypuff (the lightest character in the game) and with quick double jumps I was able to true combo into fair until about 140% (note this is without DI since I did this in training). With 100% rage f throw to fair can easily kill around 130-140% so keep that in mind.


Down Throw-
Down throw combos into up air or bair very safely at low to medium percent, but can be air dodged out of at higher percents. Down throw into bair at low-mid percents combos into a reversed bouncing fish. Also at very low percent you can down throw into up air then jump again and up air again. While this isn’t too practical it can help get a bit extra damage if you accidently down throw instead of forward throw early. Down throw into up air does kill at high percents but only if they DI terribly, are heavy, there is a low ceiling, or simply don’t air dodge or try to escape. Down throw can also combo into weak hit of bair which combos into another bair at low-mid percents but make sure you move forward a bit when you jump after the down throw or the bair won’t hit. This is also very hard to do and isn’t very useful or practical but is still a combo. You can also dair out of down throw at low percents on decently heavy opponents, bringing them back to the ground and setting up for another grab or down tilt if they stay on the ground or an aerial follow up if they bounce up (not a true combo at all, only really works if you read an air dodge).

Ok so I'm not sure how people haven't figured this out yet but Sheik gets a confirmed footstool out of d throw until about 30-35% on heavies, 20-25% on midweights, and 10-15% on floaties. No seriously. The footstool can be landed later than those percents but it's confirmed until then. This makes it the most optimal punish that Sheik can get off of a grab. So the string I've found to be most effective is grab<d throw<footstool<fast fall nair<repeat (the nair can be switched with a weak bair if they go behind you, so you should use that if they go behind you and use weak nair for no DI or forward DI). The nair jab locks until about 40ish% so this can be continued as long as your opponent is at a low enough percent and you have enough room left on the stage. Strong nair works at low percents, 25ish and below but weak nair works longer. Typically people won't DI after the footstool but if they do you just have to move a bit left or right while (fast)falling. If you try this out in training mode on a cpu set to stop they will nearly always DI towards the middle of the stage so you can practice catching DI behind and in front that way and practice without DI on a cpu set to control. So once you've run out of space on the stage, you have two options. My preferred way is ending the combo by u tilting them out of the jab lock getup, followed by a SH fair, then a DJ fair, then a bouncing fish. This effectively makes it a kill setup that works at 40% which is amazing for Sheik. This works best of fast fallers and sometimes you have to fast fall right before the DJ fair. You just have to get used to it. The other option should be used if you don't feel confident in getting the nair lock again, they're too close to the edge and the nair would push them off, or they're at too high of a percent for the nair to lock. In this situation you want to fast fall fair them before they can get up from the footstool then continue with SH fair<DJ fair<BF. Note that the combo off of u tilt is extremely percent dependent. It only works from 35-45ish%, so if they're at 50-60%, then after the fair or u tilt you should go for full hop needles<DJ fair<BF. The bouncing fish can be confirmed in these combos if you execute it perfectly but if you feel like it won't be then just pause and if they air dodge it will still work. I demonstrate it in match here. Now after the u tilt I did a full hop instead of a short hop. It still works, but not as well as with a short hop so go for that if you can. As you can see me doing you can push your opponent forward a bit while they're getting up from the jab lock which helps if they're too far from the ledge.

P.S. Floaties are evil, it takes so long for them to hit the ground after the footstool that they can just jump out. Don't try this on them. Also this doesn't work on fast fallers since they hit the ground too quickly after the footstool to be locked. In their case just use the 0-84% combo ZeRo posted on his channel if you want to be optimal. That combo can be avoided with away DI since the perfect pivot isn't long enough but if they DI any other way it will catch them.


Up Throw-
Up throw is something I typically use for kills. It is essentially the same as down throw but you can act out of it quicker and it doesn’t send your opponent as high, but your opponent can also act out of it sooner. I also mentioned this combo in my advanced reading guide, and it is done by jumping after the up throw (maybe double jump) perhaps a bit to the left or right if they used DI, and then hope they air dodge so you can have your combo. Just use vanish when you are in the right position and if they are at a high enough percent it will kill them since vanish has start-up lag and will not activate until after the air dodge. I typically press down after using vanish while doing this combo so if I whiff it I will get back to the ground soon. You should only use this at high percents and should not be used for anything other than killing. You can also mix this up as well by using down throw so your opponent won't catch on to you using vanish after every up throw. It's also a very good move to force your opponent to do something. Really their only options are jump, air dodge, and attack. So you can just wait and react to whatever they do.


Back Throw-
Sheik’s last throw is her back throw which I typically avoid using. This is really only for playing someone who isn’t used to Sheik as an experienced player can punish you badly for this. What you want to do after the back throw is either short hop, full jump, or double jump (depending on how far the opponent is sent) into a reversed bouncing fish, which is done by pressing backwards immediately after initiating bouncing fish. You have to be careful since if you press side on the control stick early you will use grenade and if you press it late you will do a regular bouncing fish with short horizontal movement. For this you have to hold the opposite direction in order for bouncing fish to travel far enough to hit and can kill if you back throw near the edge of the stage. This is not a true combo (true combos being inescapable), so use it sparingly or not at all. Also this works better if you throw out of a pivot grab immediately so your momentum will already be going towards where you are throwing. It can be a true combo on heavy characters like DDD & Bowser Jr. (Bowser Jr. is actually heavier than Ganondorf and is tied in weight with Charizard surprisingly) at early percents and is nearly a true combo at higher percents although you may have to run into it a short bit as well as jumping or run without jumping depending on how high they get sent and is semi-reliable as a kill option. The last way this move can be used is if you consistently go for bouncing fish after back throwing then the next time you use it you can actually run into an up smash if you read an air dodge which will sweet spot and can net you early kills. This will not work however on people who choose to jump away after getting thrown. The final use for this is to mix up DI. I saw ZeRo use this several times in tournament and was wondering why he did it since it isn't one of Sheik's normal combo throws. However, the DI that is good against d throw and f throw is bad DI against back throw. So you can possibly get a BF, fair, up air, etc off of this.


Throw Wrap Up
Overall you want to try to go for the footstool combos at low percent, d throw or f throw at mid percent, and down throw combos or back throw mix up at kill percent. On heavy characters still use down throw or forward throw to up air/fair/bouncing fish at kill percent as it is a better option. Sheik has very good throws so be sure to get the best out of them.



Edge Guarding
With Sheik you definitely want to edge trump a lot which can done by amateurs by jumping and landing on the edge of the stage right after the opponent does, but this can be hard to time. For more experienced people you want to walk straight off the ledge and immediately grab it. This takes practice but I’ll explain how to do it.


Trumping
First pretend that your character is on Final Destination since everyone knows what it looks like. On the right side of the stage, you want to move the control stick to the right until you go off the stage and then immediately move it clockwise from 3 o’clock to 4, to 5, until about 10 or 11 o’clock. Make sure to stay on the edge of the control stick, as far as it can go and move it very quickly or you may miss the ledge and end up falling, putting yourself in a bad spot. If you do miss it you still have your mid-air jump and recovery but you will be in an unfavorable position. Make sure to bring it back up to 10-11 o’clock and not just to 8 or 7 since if it is still facing down and you miss the ledge you will fast fall making it harder to recover. Moving it to the right makes you walk straight off the stage and then moving it around clockwise lets you grab the ledge right away. Make sure to time it right so you grab the ledge just after, and not before the opponent or else they will take the ledge from you. This works the same on the left side of the stage but with opposite inputs obviously. On the left side of the stage you want to hold it at 9 o’clock (to the left) then bring counter-clockwise to 8, then 7, and so on until 2 or 1.

This works with every character and can really mess up an opponent’s recovery. It is also slightly easier on the 3DS (at least for me) since the circle pad can be maneuvered more smoothly than the control stick on the GC controller. I would say that when standing at the very end of the stage when you are in the animation where your arms are cartwheeling for some characters or they have their toes on the stage and are leaning over the edge makes this a lot easier to pull off, although also much easier to read. Also if they are in this animation if you tap away from the stage you will go a bit further than if you hold away from the stage, so if you hold away from the stage instead of tapping and hold the button just long enough so that it isn't considered a tap, but not too long then you will also snap to the ledge without any other needed inputs. This however takes a bit longer and isn't as crisp as the other method.


Punishing
Since in smash 4 when someone grabs the ledge twice they have no invincibility, this forces your opponent to either recover high after being ledge trumped where you can jump off the ledge and bair or bouncing fish them away, or recover low where you can do a regular get up followed by punishing them when they grab the ledge a second time since their invincibility is gone. You can also just press away from the ledge, jump and bair immediately after trumping which can be followed by another bair at lower percent or a reverse bouncing fish to kill at higher percent. Keep in mind though that you can't do something off the ledge right after grabbing it, you have to wait a bit.


Punishing A Re-grabbed Ledge
Sheik has 6 viable ways to punish someone who grabs the ledge without invincibility. Your off stage option is running off the stage and bairing right away to stage spike, and the five on stage options are down tilt, dash attack, vanish, bouncing fish, and dair. All of Sheik’s smashes can hit certain characters on the ledge but they're inconsistent, d and f smash almost never get the last hit, and you're much better off using a different option. Up Smash will hit on Mario, Yoshi, Bowser Jr, Donkey Kong, Duck Hunt (when he sticks his head up), Meta Knight, Pikachu (when he/she sticks his/her head up), Ness (WHSHHU), Villager (WHSHHU), Olimar, WFT (WHSHHU), Lucas (WHSHHU), Dr. Mario, and Charizard but you should only use it at kill percent.

Down tilt is good to use if you have little time and pops the opponent up so you can easily follow up with fair, reversing into bair, or holding inwards on a bouncing fish. Vanish does hit people on the ledge but only if you are very close and has a little startup lag so you have to use it a bit early and time it well. If you do use vanish make sure to hold down so you appear in the same place right on the ledge ready to edge guard again if they don’t die.

Dash attack is only useful if you can barely make it to the edge for the punish and just need some damage. Be aware that dash attack will hit on the same list of characters and in the same conditions as the list for up smash but won't hit on the rest of the cast.

I would rate running off into bair the overall best option but can be teched by advanced players, down tilt is what you want to do if you have little time or your opponent is at 160%+ and you want the confirmed fair after for an easy kill, and vanish and dair should be used only as a kill option at high percents, dair killing earlier than Vanish typically since it spikes but is slightly harder to land.

Bouncing fish is a substitute kill option if vanish is stale but has to be spaced very well so that you hit the top of your opponent's fingers grabbing the ledge with the tip of Sheik's foot. Also it can be difficult to hit bouncing fish on Rosa, Peach, Wario, Diddy, Little Mac, Kirby, Robin, Palutena, (Dark) Pit, ZSS, Samus, Ganondorf, Zelda, Fox, Falco, Lucario, R.O.B. (sorta), C. Falcon, Wii Fit (while she's not doing her pull up), Mewtwo, Mega Man, Pac-Man, and Shulk (sorta). For those characters it works better if you space it more towards their character model below the ledge instead of their hands.

Dair is something that can be used to spike but it only spikes at the beginning of the move so you have to short hop and be close enough to get the hit but still onstage so you don't SD. Word to the wise, don't stand on the edge and just jump up and dair, you will die. It's much smarter to go to the edge of the stage, turn around, and then short hop and immediately dair. Dair won't hit on Wario and it's difficult to hit Fox and Sonic with, you must input the dair very soon after you short hop.


Punishing High Recoveries
For opponents returning high, you just want to jump up and fair or bair, and to those recovering low you can either throw out a grenade, run off the stage and fair, or short hop off the stage facing the other way and bair if you aren't confident ledge trumping. You can use nair to edge guard since it has a lasting hitbox making for an easy hit. Just make sure not to fast fall this move since it's a while before you can move and you may end up killing yourself accidently. You can also while edge guarding drop down and then just vanish back to the ledge placing yourself so that the hitbox from disappearing hits the opponent.


Vanish
Another trick you can do is to run towards the edge of the stage and then use vanish right before you leave the stage. Your momentum will carry you out horizontally about a dodge length and then you can just hold back towards the stage to recover safely. This puts out a safe hitbox and is a very good method of edge guarding horizontally. If you input vanish too late you will go up diagonally which can also be used to edge guard but if you do it to early then you will just vanish on-stage. While testing this I often found like I did things such as using grenade backwards and needle reversing both on and off the stage. This is a result of moving the control stick back towards the stage too early in fear of not recovering. Don't worry, you have about a second after inputting vanish before you have to go back towards the stage so don't press back too early. This also works from platforms.

Also, this is kind of random but you should start on Battlefield's left platform (this works on the right one as well I'm just using left as an example) and then roll to the right so that you're as close to the right side as possible. Then full hop and dair at the peak of your jump twice. That was just my weird way of explaining the positioning you have to be at on the platform. From here, Vanish diagonally down and to the left, then left go of the control stick once you reappear. This will trump your opponent and will likely come as a surprise. You can follow this up with a trump option like bair<BF so this intricate setup can net you kills. Btw the positioning is just a bit the the left (or right for the right platform) of the middle. Just remember that a slight miscalculation in position on the platform or control stick movement will get you killed so don't just try this in the middle of a match and expect to get it perfect on your first try. You can do this onstage too as a separate mix-up doing the same thing effectively. Just space it by having one of Sheik's feet (doesn't matter if it's front or back) inside the ring around the yellow swirl in Battlefield's center and the other foot inside the circle. Then just Vanish towards whichever ledge you are closer to (have a foot in the ring on the right side if you want to go to the right ledge and vice versa). This works on any stage but there's a nice little ring on BF to help with the spacing for it. There are indicators on FD too but I already explained that intricate BF thing so I don't want to have to explain something equally precise, just figure it out if you care enough to incorporate this into your gameplay. A pretty good overall spacing tool though is getting as close to the ledge as possible, rolling away once, then turning around and doing a SH then dair at the apex of your jump twice. Although you should only do this to get an idea of any indicators in stages since you prooooobably won't have time to do this in match (unless you're playing a R.O.B. who loves to camp right below the ledge and up air a ton).

Another edge guarding use it just dipping below the stage and Vanishing. This is an amazing edge guard for people who like to recover low and rely on quick moves or hitboxes on their up b to get back like Mario and Link. You can either run off the stage and do it or if you're on the ledge just press away and then Vanish immediately. Even if you miss there's still the possibility of getting a trump afterwards but don't count on it. You can see a nice application of it here.


Needles
Finally, short hopping into aerial needles go diagonally downwards which I stated before is good to edge guard. If you have needles fully charged and want to gimp someone's recovery then you can go to the edge of the stage, turn away from the ledge, then when they are about to recover jump off the stage and shoot the needles, they will go diagonally back towards the stage, putting out a hitbox on anyone trying to recover. This completely slaughters Diddy Kong, never let him safely recover low. Needles can also be used onstage to hit someone trying to recover low, they just have to be timed. However most people are accustomed to this so when they get level with the stage they will always air dodge. You can bait this by standing at the ledge with fully charged needles, then just bouncing fish or fair where they will be after the air dodge is finished for an easy gimp.



Kill Power
First of all Sheik has abysmal kill power and you have to get your opponent to very high percents in order to net a kill by means other than edge guarding or landing a precise hit.


Kill Moves
Sheik’s typical kill moves in no particular order are as follows. Fair (if you get desperate), bouncing fish, vanish, f-smash, up air, grenade, and sweet spotted up smash (the sweet spot is at the top of the attack where Sheik’s hand meet. This move auto sweet spots if you are standing on the ground against someone standing on either of Battlefield’s lower platforms if you space it correctly horizontally). F-smash typically only kills on the side of the stage near the edge, but since it has two hits one after the other like Pit’s f-smash, it can help combat spot dodgers a tiny bit. Sweet spot up smash is probably the hardest to pull off but also kills the earliest, and if you hard read someone will jump up off the ledge if you time this right it will sweet spot.


Stage Picks To Kill More Efficiently
With Sheik you want to pick stages with a low ceiling since her easiest kill option to land is up air which shoots opponents up. The typical starter stages from highest ceiling to lowest ceiling are Battlefield, FD, Lylat (same ceiling as FD), Smashville, Town & City, and finally Halberd (this is a counterpick) with the lowest ceiling. You don't however want to pick a stage with a low ceiling against a character like Fox who kills off the top even earlier than you do. Finally, Smashville, Battlefield, and to some extend Lylat and T&C are pretty good stages for Sheik since she can control the small main platform very well (on the first two) and can continue fair strings using the platform on Smashville for early kills. She can auto-sweetspot u smash/tilt on all stages if your opponent is on a platform (use reason with the platform thing, don't try to land an up smash on BF's middle platform. It does work on the middle platform in the (Town Section of T&C however when it is down.) Finally, remember that a shield is bigger than a character, therefore it can hit their shield for good pressure.


Vanish
Vanish is a fairly safe kill move and can be used if someone is approaching you from anywhere very reliably since even if you miss you can teleport away. The only cons are that it has start up lag so you have to start it early, and when you reappear (while you can do it in any direction) it has pretty bad ending lag unless you auto cancel it. You can also read air dodges with this move which may grant you an early kill.


Short Kill Option Descriptions
Fair kills while edge guarding at high percent but that is more of a last resort option. If you have your opponent shielding at the edge then if you can get a shield poke with fair around 160-170% with sufficient rage it can land you the kill. Bouncing fish also kills very well when edge guarding and otherwise, it just requires good spacing. While grenade does kill it is abysmally easy to see coming and typically only will kill if you place it expertly while edge guarding.

You can short hop into lots of bairs/fairs then mix it up with a bouncing fish which can kill but typically you want to kill by short hopping into tons of hitboxes with little ending lag and edge guard until your opponent dies. Until that happens, just rack up damage any way you can since you’ll need a lot of it to kill with Sheik.



Needle Storm
Most if not all of Sheik's specials have versatility in one way or another, and her needles are no exception. Grounded, in the air, either way they have many uses even as a kill setup. Also you should know that needles don't have priority over DDD's side b or PacMan's fruit and if you press forward or back while charging on the ground Sheik will roll in the direction, skipping having to cancel with shield.


Needles To Bouncing Fish
It took me a while to figure out how to do the following craziness shown in the video that EE and Seagull freaked out over.
CLICK ME
To do this you basically have to full hop and then IMMEDIATELY and I mean immediately use needles followed by holding down and pressing special as fast as you can followed by holding forward after bouncing fish activates to make sure it goes far enough to land the hit. This will be a pretty long so just look at the section that has the controller you use then go to the bottom.

DS, Classic, Gamepad, and Pro-
You do this on the 3DS by being at the right positioning horizontally obviously (which is about a dodge lengths away from the opponent) and then press on the y button and quickly slide your thumb to the b button which will make you full hop since you aren’t tapping y, you are holding it, and pressing b which will cause the needles to come out. That is the only hard part and this method makes it way easier so after you do that just hold down on the control stick and spam b, holding forward to extend the bouncing fish once it comes out which should occur just before you hit the ground like shown in the video. This method also works for classic controller, pro controller, and gamepad since you can slide your thumb from y to b on those as well.

Gamecube-

If you use the typical control setup for the gamecube controller you can do this however it won’t work if you have tap jump turned off which many people do. With tap jump on then just jump with that then press b right afterwards following with the rest of the combo. However with tap jump off you can only use y or x to jump so it is nearly impossible to press b soon enough after pressing y or x without accidentally short hopping or having to move your left thumb to the right side of the controller to press one of the buttons. For most people who play with tap jump off, I suggest setting one of the back buttons to jump. I use L to grab and R to shield since I was used to that after playing the 3DS version first, so I made Z jump, but for other people just turn the button that you don't need for grab or shield into jump. Most people have both L and R as shield, so you will have to decide which one you use more than the other. The rest is fairly self explanatory, just press b right after jumping. I also recommend holding whichever button you set to jump for a little bit just to make sure you don't accidentally short hop instead. You can also do this by curling your pointer finger around the x and y buttons and having your thumb on b but that's really awkward and you should only do that if you reeeeaaallly don't want to switch your controls.

Wii-

Control changes don’t matter with wii remote & nunchuk since the jump button is on the nunchuk and special is on the wii remote, and for the small number of you out there who use the wii remote sideways you use different thumbs for jump and special so you need no control change either.

Start reading again here

This only works at high percent and depends on the opposing character’s weight (it is a bit harder to pull off on light characters and easier on heavy ones). On Mario it will work around 70%-110ish and after that you might have to use your double jump before the bouncing fish or just jump and then fair. It works the easiest with a full charge of needles since with a less then full charge when using them into the air Sheik will go into the charging animation instead of throwing them. It can be done by pressing b twice quickly but it is recommended to use a full charge since it is a better confirm and is easier to do. This combo can be performed when reading a normal get up from the ledge, your opponent is recovering diagonally to get under the ledge, reading an approach, or even just thrown out in the neutral. For even greater use you can b reverse the needles which really mixes up opponents and even puts you closer to them making the combo work at later percent although you have to be very fast with your inputs. Even when it misses you can just jump instead of using bouncing fish for an easy escape. You can also mix up by using a nair right before you land since you can throw something out just before you land after full hop needles. While this can be hard to pull off at first this is very effective to use for killing and is definitely worth the 15 minutes or so of practice it takes to learn.

Another pseudo kill setup that I often use to get kills is when my opponent and I are in the neutral (neither of us control the stage) and the opponent is near the ledge, I use needles (doesn't matter if they are charged or not) and if they are at high enough percent, it will send them off the stage. Now I find more often than not they usually opt to just jump right back onstage instead of going for the ledge, and that puts them right at the perfect height for you to sweet spot a running up smash.


Needle Reversing
While running, you can do something called needle reversing, which is done by using your neutral special while running and then immediately pressing in the opposite direction you were running in. This will charge (or throw) your needles in the opposite direction if done correctly and can stop people trying to run after you. If you press the opposite way too quickly then you will roll and if you do it too soon then you will use a grenade which is really bad in the neutral. You can do the same b reversal technique with bouncing fish which does more damage than reversing needles but also has to be spaced correctly and can be punished much more easily. This tech is very useful especially in conjunction with the next one as it makes Sheik's movement much crisper.


Needle Canceling
If you start charging needles in the air over the ledge press b to shoot them out or air dodge, both will cancel the charging and allow you to recover or else you will just fall. Also if you charge needles in mid air they can be canceled into any other of Sheik's specials which is done by air dodging and then immediately inputting the special afterwards. If you spam b and air dodge then it looks really weird and you can make your opponent think you're just going to keep canceling into more needles at which point you can cancel into bouncing fish or vanish for a surprise attack depending on the situation.

This can also be done on the ground but you have to press shield very lightly and quickly for it to work, and it will put you into a neutral state. This allows you to run, put your control stick back to the neutral state, then immediately press b and cancel it with a light shield tap. This is one of the harder Sheik techs to perform but it definitely has use as a bait or just to mix up your opponent. The way I suggest practicing this is by first practicing running to needles. Just run, move the control stick to it's neutral state, then press b. Next, you should practice doing needle canceling while standing. Press b then immediately press shield lightly (since gamecube shoulder buttons are kind of clunky I recommend sliding your finger off the side to do this). There are two ways this works. The first one is getting the cancel when Sheik is still standing (which is what you want) and the second is after she has started crouching to charge the needles. The first one basically lets you act faster which is great and can only be done right after you start charging needles. Now just put these two things together and you have an awesome movement tool that allows you to do any attack at any moment you're on the ground, which has pretty obvious applications.

The second needle cancel (the one that isn't immediate) is still useful to be able to land while charging needles then move immediately after. You should practice using aerial needles along with b reversing to move around platforms while canceling them the instant you touch the ground. You'll know you've done it right if there isn't a big cloud of dust that comes up when you land (if there is, you pressed shield too early and air dodged.

I personally like to jump in the air and start charging needles as a bait then as soon as I hit the ground cancel them and spot dodge, run away, jab, or any option I feel at the time. This especially works if you have been canceling needles to shield earlier in the match and have your opponent accustomed to that. Another good use is to short hop behind your opponent, b reverse needles, then cancel with a grab. On that note, you can buffer any move out of aerial needles by using that move (whether it's jab, grab, whatever you want) and then pressing shield in that order right before you hit the ground. This will make you go immediately from charging needles in the air to any grounded move which is very useful.


Sudden Death Applications
This doesn't really apply in a competitive setting but in sudden death needles = win. Seriously the only problem is you might be juggling them so long that the bombs start spawning and kill you. I would get them up with needles then tomahawk a lot until they air dodge or try to attack leaving themselves open then just fair. Needles kill better from close than far away so you can also use them once to send the opponent in the air and then get close but not too close and use them again to kill.



Burst Grenade
Sheik's grenade replaced her chain from the last two smash games which is a welcomed improvement and gives her a few new options.


Onstage Application
If you use Sheik’s grenade on the ground, you typically want to run up and grab if your opponent doesn't roll or jump since they will either be sucked in, eat the explosion and you can grab them to boot, or they will try to just shield through it and you get a free grab unless they roll.

Sometimes I use grenade onstage when I am somewhat far away from the opponent and then while the opponent is busy looking at where the explosion is, I use needles or bouncing fish using the smoke to mask Sheik a little bit. If you throw the grenade onto a shielding opponent, they will typically roll back. I closed out a stock on my friend because I baited his roll with the grenade, and then used a bouncing fish to where he rolled to (gotta love those missed inputs that lead to discovering a new combo). Regardless of which way your opponent rolls or even if they jump out of shield, you can still get a good punish. Other then that it has very little onstage use since it has so much lag.

When a grenade hits any attack while it's in the air, it will fly a bit in the direction you threw it as well as slightly upwards and explode. This is most useful against projectiles since it will cancel out your opponents projectile while putting a hitbox out at the same time. The downside to this however is that the smaller the projectile your opponent throws out the harder it is to hit with the grenade. Link's arrows are especially pesky in this regard, so watch out for those. Also if you read your opponent throwing a projectile and then they don't, the move has pretty bad end lag so you will likely be punished. This technique is most useful against the neutral b of Bowser and Charizard.

Be careful against characters like Mario and Pac-man since if you throw out the grenade and F.L.U.D.D. or the water from hydrant pushes you off-stage you won't be able to recover.


Edge Guarding Uses
Typically when I don't want to commit to any edge guard I just double jump, jump, short hop, or just throw a grenade out onstage right next to or a small distance away from ledge. You can hold b and it will just keep going until it hits the ground or if it leaves the stage so learning the timing in order edge guard with this is important. It is very good at dealing with characters that have tether recoveries since if you place it right they will swing right into the explosion.

Burst Grenade sucks opponents in (weirdly doing a bit of damage as well) which helps to make it hit, but that property can also be used for something else. You have to have perfect placement on this but you can place the grenade so that the it pulls the opponent away from the ledge but doesn’t explode on them which can hamper their recovery and even get you a stock. To do this you either need lots of practice and mad skill or plain luck (also this is typically only useful vs Ness or Lucas but if you find some other way then that's great).

This move can also be used in conjunction with a ledge trump. You want to jump above the ledge, then time your grenade (which should be thrown offstage) so that you trump your opponent right afterwards. This will trump them right into the grenade which can kill if done correctly. Even though this can be escaped, it still forces an air dodge if they do get trumped so right after you should cover that option with a bair or even better, with a Vanish or BF. Here you can see this concept being used.


Getting Back Onstage
You can also, while on the ledge, press away, jump, use grenade, and then auto snap back to the ledge to cover your get up. I HIGHLY advise against this unless you are extremely sure in your ability to perform or are at very high percent and it doesn't matter too much if you die since if you miss the ledge after using grenade you go into the helpless state and will fall and die. Also if you hold b you won't snap to the ledge either so if you want to try this then make sure to release b after throwing the grenade.


Optimal Shield Break Punish
So in the event that you ever break a shield (this barely ever happens), Burst Grenade should be incorporated into your punish. The most optimal punish Sheik has is nade to u smash. You do this by throwing the nade so that it gets as close to your opponent as possible without hitting them then doing a running u smash. You want to u smash either right at or just past where their character is.



Vanish
Vanish is one of Sheik's strongest kill moves and coupled with the fact that you can use it to kill near the top of the screen makes it even more versatile. This move functions like a counter that always has a hitbox and even helps you escape if missed, the only drawback being the extra startup.


Neutral
Vanish can be an important tool in the neutral to get kills. If you read an approach one time it's an easy kill. You can even read a spot dodge while approaching, there's another kill. Read an airdodge into the ground, bam there you go. Also if you use it on a platform and hold down or down diagonal it will act as if the platform isn't there. I mean, it's no quick attack but it can go directly from any Battlefield's platforms to any of the other ones without having to fall at all (it's pretty difficult to get from one of the lower ones to the higher one without falling but it's possible).


Aerial Movement
While in the air you can move vanish one way before teleporting only when in the air, such as if you press left on the control stick right after activating it and then hold the control stick to the right before you disappear you will move left a bit before disappearing and reappearing on the right. I typically use this to make it so when I disappear it is right on the opponent if they are a tiny bit away and is a valid kill option although dangerous because if you hold to one side too long you can put yourself off the edge. This also gives you a bit more movement if you shift it up over any other direction.


Windbox
When appearing vanish has a windbox, this usually does nothing but if you use it right on the edge and then hold down it can push away people away trying to a tiny bit which can hamper some recoveries.


Lag Canceling
If Sheik's vanish is used diagonally upwards from the ground, then it will have almost none if any landing lag which can catch people off guard. It will have the same effect if used in the air you just have to reappear the same distance from the ground as a diagonally used vanish on the ground. This is an excellent way to make people think your landing can be punished and then punishing yourself.


Ledge Vanish
This technique makes it so you can put out a strong hitbox onstage while at the same time staying on the ledge and also having invincibility! This video explains it well and is only about a minute long so give it a watch.
You do have to be extremely careful and practice this technique to make sure you get it down because one wrong input can mean either an easy punish for your opponent or even a SD. Another use for this move at the ledge is to Vanish about a half roll length from the ledge while your opponent is on it so that if they roll, regular get up, or attack, they will get hit by it.

On kind of the same note, maybe when you were first using Sheik you were trying to recover but got in the uncomfortable position of being above the ledge and trying to recover down to it. Now maybe you held downwards and materialized below the ledge and died. Or maybe you just decided to go onstage where you got grabbed by a ZSS and died at 40%. But what you really want to do is hold down, then right after the explosion let go of the control stick. The nice thing about this is that you time if from hearing the explosion itself. I could literally do it with my eyes closed because of this. Remember that the closer you are to the ledge the harder this is to time and messing up will kill you so... don't mess up.


Extended Vanish
Just watch this video and practice what they say. Anything I could say here is just explained better by them so... yep.



Bouncing Fish
Bouncing fish is in my opinion one of Sheik’s best move changes since Brawl or any game for that matter and greatly improves her defensive and offensive game. Sheik has a very strong punish option with bouncing fish and whenever you see someone whiff an attack you are rarely too far so that a bouncing fish can’t punish them. This does a respectable 12% and gets you up and away from them after use. Just make sure you always press special again to do the second kick or you won’t be able to move for about 2 seconds or until you hit the ground.


Dealing With Approaches
If someone is approaching you can do bouncing fish but hold in on it so that it doesn’t go far, you will pop over them whether they grab or dash attack and if you held it in enough to limit it’s horizontal movement to almost zero, then it will hit them.


Projectiles
Bouncing Fish is excellent for punishing projectile spamming as it goes over nearly every projectile in the game except for Yoshi’s eggs, some of Pac-man’s fruit and a few others. As soon as you see spamming or charging of any projectile then use this move to go over it for an easy punish. It works especially well on charging moves like Greninja’s shurikens and Link’s arrows. Make sure to hold forward if you want bouncing fish to travel further or hold back if you want it to go closer as it makes a big difference on the distance it goes.


Reversing
Bouncing fish can be done the opposite way as well which is done by immediately pressing back after initiating bouncing fish. This is hard to pull off as you can often not press it fast enough and bouncing fish regularly but close by or grenade if you press it too early.


Punishing
Bouncing fish works very well to punish rolls, especially back rolls. If you read a roll (make sure to be absolutely positive they will roll as this has bad ending lag if you miss) just place a bouncing fish where they will roll to.


Escaping In The Air
This is also a good move to use to escape in the air like Diddy’s side special. If someone is approaching you from below just use this in a side direction to escape them, but don’t get too predictable with it.


Ledge Bouncing Fish
Omega stages (Halberd is a bit weird) have about a 45 degree angle sloping inwards on the edges of the stage or flat sides. The following trick works the best on the flat stages since you have a longer flat space so it is both easier to pull off and you have more options. What you want to do is after you are on the edge, press away from the ledge to fall off then bouncing fish after a certain amount of time and press special again to strike again after you have gone the other way. If you don’t do it soon enough however on a slanted stage you may hit the side and then instead of popping up to get a hit you will just snap back to the ledge since after about 1 second off the ledge you will auto grab it again. This video explains it fairly well but I have another trick in mind to add to this.

First of all, as he said at the end on a stage with a flat side you have much more options than with a slanted one so you will want to choose an omega stage like that over FD. I listed the stages with flat side at the bottom of this guide. In the video it shows him pressing special as soon as he can after hitting the side of the stage but what he didn’t say is you have about 1 ½-2 seconds after hitting the side of the stage where you can still press special again. Using this you can press away from the ledge, bouncing fish, hit the stage, maneuver yourself left or right as much as you want, and have a long period where you can press b to do the second kick whenever you want making it great for edge-guarding.


Bouncing Fish From The Ledge
You can also press away from the ledge and reverse bouncing fish either far out or close by to edge guard very well. This one is a bit trickier to perform since you have to press back right after using bouncing fish and risk for accidentally using grenade is high. If you don’t use your jump before performing either of these then when it is over you can still jump and then use vanish to recover. Definitely practice these things a lot and any bouncing fish techniques off the edge since if you accidentally use grenade you lose the ability to jump and recover so you will die.


In The Neutral
If you use bouncing fish on an opponent's shield, you can wait until they approach you and if they dash at you right before they punish activate the second kick. If done correctly, then it will hit them and can be used to kill. This is another reason why I advise holding inwards after hitting a shield since it makes it easier to land the second kick. Again, this move does have some pretty bad end lag so don't spam it since you will get punished. Overall this move is a must learn and good to know for any Sheik player’s style no matter what that is.



Combos
Sheik has many low knockback moves which can lead into a multitude of combos. Fair combos immensely well into many, many things and her throws lead to even more. Heavy characters are Sheik’s combo food. I got a combo on a Ganondorf online that went from 6% to death. On the far left side of the stage I got grab<jump fair<holding forward another fair<short hop into another fair<f tilt 3 times<jump fair<while holding forward another fair<get back down to stage<jump fair<double jump fair. I’m fairly sure sometime during this I took away his double jump (I hit him right after he tried to jump out of my combo) and he probably could’ve recovered if I hadn’t but you get the point. As you can see Sheik’s fair is like Jigglypuff’s, you can string it into itself over and over.

Up tilt combos into fair and bouncing fish which can set up for kills. Down tilt combos well into fair, up air, or even up smash at higher percents which can get the kill and into f tilt at lower, which combos into every thing over the rainbow. Sheik's f tilt probably has the most follow ups out of any move in the game (bar Luigi's pre-patch down throw MAYBE). You can f tilt to grab, jab, up tilt, down tilt, more f tilts, fair, bair (if you turn around before you jump), up air, nair, up smash (sort of), and even vanish for the kill. You want to use one of the first five options at low percent, the next four at mid percent, up smash if you read an air dodge, and obviously vanish if you read an air dodge at kill percent.

F tilt can even help reset fair combos so when you land it kind of acts like another fair to keep the combo going but with less sideways knockback. It's important to know the MU when using f tilt, since characters with frame three nairs like PacMan (I feel like everyone quotes Luigi's frame 3 nair too much) can break out. So you have to get a feel for each character and get into a rhythm where you f tilt and then shield (typically it's a perfect shield) then continue the f tilts. Also, this is super specific but watch out for Pikachu since he may try to use down b to escape. In this situation you should do a pivot f smash and charge it since the thunderbolt hitting him will put him in lag and if you space your f smash so that it barely avoids this hitbox then you will get a nice punish.

Your other option is reading their jump out of the combo with an up air. Typically if they are at the edge of your f tilt range they will jump away however if they are close then they will jump straight up. This takes away their double jump so you can easily juggle them or read their landing option afterward. At high percents you should always read rolls with a pivot f tilt since if it is very safe and if it connects you can get an up air after which can kill.

Anyone who has seen VoiD play knows that he loves perfect pivot u tilt and f tilt. Setting your c stick to tilts allows you to continue your f tilt strings for a longer time than before, therefore getting more damage out of them. If your opponent if getting away to the side, do a perfect pivot f tilt. If they are escaping above you, then finish it with a perfect pivot u tilt. You can see one of the combos he does here where he gets 46% off of one grab, and notice how he uses a perfect pivot to extend the combo. And here is where you can see the moment where he whiffs his combo. Right after the perfect pivot u tilt, he goes for a perfect pivot f tilt to extend the combo, although he misses the perfect pivot so a dash attack comes out. It still works, but not as well as it could've. You will likely find that when you try to perfect pivot tilt, when you input the tilt too soon or miss the perfect pivot then a dash attack will come out which is very unsafe so this definitely will take a lot of practice if you want to implement it into your gameplay.

Now u tilt has a bunch of combos. There's the one I mentioned in the down throw section: u tilt<SH fair<DJ fair<BF, which leads into a kill. You can also get any aerial but dair, bouncing fish, or even another u tilt or an f tilt at low percent. Since there are so many follow up options, this makes it a very potent time to bait an air dodge and possibly get a sweet spotted u smash out of it. This really is just a set up into a bunch of things so try it out and see how much you can get off of it (the most well known being BF, needles to BF, or needles to fair to BF all of which kill). This move may be hard to land but brings great reward so it's definitely worth it.

Jab 1<jab 2<f-tilt/grab or even jab 1<jab 2< jab 1<jab 2< jab 1< jab 2 up to three times works very well to start a combo and get a string going. If your opponent is close to you then you can do more jabs but you have to be very fast, similar to Fox's pre-patch combo (although not as good. This is not confirmed btw). Another good combo with Sheik is short hop<fair/nair<fast fall<f tilt/utilt<repeat across the stage. This is another place where you have to know the MU because people with fast aerials or specials like Ryu or Mario may be able to escape (although Bowser and DK die to it). This works at low percents and is easier on heavier opponents, as with most combos. Also there are some sort of weird combos.

If you are doing a bunch of f tilts at low percent and end with an f smash you can get a bouncing fish after the f smash for extra percent. This is only guaranteed if your opponent misses their tech but I consistently get it on good players since many people don't see it coming. Also if you magically manage to get a dair on an opponent on the ground through some read it kind of combos into up air or you can read an air dodge and go for vanish. At lower percents you can get a dash attack or grab off of it. I felt like this section should be longer but most of Sheik's combos got covered in the "Throws" section so this is pretty much it.



Final Sheik info
First off if anyone has something for me to add here that I didn't already add above I would be glad to hear it.

• • Sheik typically has very good matchups against defensive characters like Toon Link and Samus since she can just sit and use needles or bouncing fish, and characters who approach on the ground a lot as well like Sonic and C. Falcon, using needles there as well to stall their fast approaches and force them into shield where you can do a mix up and punish them. She also does well against aerial characters since her own come out very fast and I think Sheik combats Jigglypuff rather well. However, Sheik can struggle with characters that have big aerial hitboxes like Shulk and has to stay up in their face and not give them any room. She also can be hampered by Rosalina since Luma sucks up all needles until it dies making it hard to hinder Rosalina although Sheik still combos Rosa very hard since she has a big hurtbox and is light and floaty. Lucario also combats Sheik very well since because it takes Sheik lots of percent to kill, Lucario's aura will get very strong in the process so make sure to kill Lucarios early.

• • With Sheik you should use an omega stage with a flat side like green hill zone on 3DS and windy hill zone on Wii U over Final Destination since she can hold onto the side of it like Greninja and Diddy Kong as well as easily use bouncing fish off any part of it with the technique I mentioned in the bouncing fish section. If you still have your double jump when latching to the ledge then you can jump off then jump again and back air someone on the ledge or do your second jump away from the ledge and bouncing fish back on. You can also still use your recovery move after either the first or second jump.

• • Omega stages that have a flat side on 3DS from left to right then top to bottom: Golden Plains, Paper Mario, Mushroomy Kingdom, Gerudo Valley, Yoshi’s Island, Dream Land, Unova Pokémon League, Reset Bomb Forest, WarioWare Inc., Distant Planet, Tortimer Island, Boxing Ring, Balloon Fight, Living Room, Find Mii (slanted inward slightly but still mostly vertical sides), Tomodachi Life, PictoChat 2, Green Hill Zone, Wily Castle, and PAC-MAZE.

• • Omega stages that have a flat side on Wii U from left to right then top to bottom: Mushroom Kingdom U, Luigi's Mansion (not really but pretty much), Jungle Hijinx (not really but pretty much), Woolly World, Yoshi's Island, Kalos Pokémon League (NRBPM, it's also either very hard or impossible to wall cling/jump on this stage), Onett, Coliseum (NRBPM), Gamer, Garden of Hope, Wii Fit Studio, Boxing Ring, Duck Hunt, Wrecking Crew, Windy Hill Zone, Wily Castle, and PAC-LAND (NRBPM, it's either very hard or impossible to wall cling/jump on this stage).

• • Smash 4 is 60 frames per second. Sheik’s nair and fair have 10 frames of ending lag, bair has 12, up air has 21, dair has 30, and air dodge has 22.

• • With about half the characters if you are right in their face up smash auto sweet spots (which is usually accomplished by dashing into up smash). This works with every character except Mario, Luigi, Wario, G&W, Diddy Kong, Toon Link, Kirby, Meta Knight, Little Mac, Fox, all the pokémon, Duck Hunt, Ness, Villager, Olimar, Dr. Mario, Pac-man, Mega Man, and Sonic. Also at low percents if you sweet spot up smash a grounded opponent the soft spot on the sides of the attack will also hit causing 26ish% uncharged and 36ish% fully charged.
  
  
  • Three characters whose head appears over the stage when holding the ledge can be hit with needles, Charizard, Ness, and Donkey Kong when they do their pull up animation. Nipping one of them can be deadly if they buffer an attack especially Donkey Kong since his recovery is so bad. Strangely the needles seem to nip the top of Lucas's hair when he does his own pull up and small sparks even show but don't do any damage or knockback.

• • With Sheik you should pick stages with few or no platforms like Smashville and Final Destination if you like defensive play since they make it harder for your opponent to combat needle camping. Personally, because I don't use needle camping much, I prefer stages with lots of platforms like Battlefield since you can just jump all around with Sheik's fast movement and fall speed and bait people effectively. However, it does mess with needles to bouncing fish but for me it's worth it.

• • If you press away from the ledge<lengthened bouncing fish<jump<vanish you can go under some stages. The bouncing fish is interchangeable with the jump for all stages on Wii U except for Final Destination, (Big) Battlefield, Wuhu Island (this one is a bit weird since it changes a lot) and Omega Stages Temple, Norfair, Port Town Aero Dive, Lylat Cruise, Flat Zone X, Palutena's Temple, Skyworld, and 75 m, and on the 3DS all stages except 3D Land, Rainbow Road, Jungle Japes, Spirit Train, Brinstar, Corneria, Prism Tower, Mute City, Magicant, Flat Zone 2, and Gaur Plain where the bouncing fish must be used before the jump. It is typically easier to use the bouncing fish before the jump regardless, and the following stages are the ones you can go under with the jump either after or before the bouncing fish. Unless it says "both" afterwards assume that you can only do it with the Omega version. The stages on the Wii U are: Delfino Plaza (both), Mario Circuit (both, main stage only on regular mode), Mario Circuit (Brawl), Kongo Jungle 64 (both), Skyloft (both), Port Town Aero Dive (regular only, this one is a bit weird since you can go through the stage and there aren't any ledges to grab in it's normal form), Halberd (both), Lylat Cruise (regular only), Skyworld (regular only), Town and City (both), Smashville (both), Pilotwings (both, on regular mode red plane only. You can also stand on the things the yellow plane uses to land in water to camp making it almost impossible to hit you but there is no ledge to grab), and Wuhu Island. There are no stages on the 3DS where you can use the jump before bouncing fish to travel under the stage.

• • Using any aerial besides up or down (dair is situational) are good out of shield options after a short hop and perhaps accompanied with fast falling on shorter characters. If they use a laggy move you can even u tilt OOS since it has tons of follow ups. Just be sure to know your options and don't automatically grab every time.

• • Fox trotting (tapping dash over and over both towards and away from your opponent) and running to shield are both good options with Sheik to approach and are excellent at baiting your opponent to make a move and if they still play defensively look at how they do so and what reactions they make and punish accordingly.

• • Sheik has a chain grab which can be done on most characters up to about 60% and is done by down throwing followed by short hop up air but canceling the up air by fast falling and then regrabbing. This video explains it in more detail. www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwktuMYUoU8

• • Running and then doing a pivot f tilt is a great way to punish someone rolling backwards and you can do any easy follow ups after the f tilt as well and it is very hard to punish.

• • Sheik's pummel is very slow and does 3%. In my experience you should do one pummel per 50%for example one pummel at 50%, two at 100% and so on.

• • Something I recently discovered is that when an opponent misses a tech on one of the side platforms on Battlefield you can up tilt to jab lock them (you can do it three times actually assuming there is enough platform left, just move forward between tilts although two is typically all you should go for). This might take a while to get right, I suggest f tilting your opponent onto the platform to set up for the jab lock. F tilting Mario at 50% with 0% rage is just enough to get him on the platform to give you an idea of what percent this works at (this can also be set up with d tilt, f throw, d throw, and dash attack). The timing of the u tilt is a bit finicky, since you have to land the first hit but not the second. The hardest part is if your opponent bounces up after missing their tech this may cause the first hit of u tilt to miss and the second to hit. You should aim to u tilt when they land after bouncing up. This is better than just punishing a missed tech with a normal u smash by itself since you will get the extra damage from the u tilt and you will also be able to charge your u smash for a longer period of time. An u tilt is also much safer and harder to punish if they do tech. The second hit of u tilt isn't terrible though, it still combos into things like bouncing fish and fair so it's pretty much a win-win.

• • For some reason when fair is the last move you used with Sheik you won't be able to grab the ledge. If you pay attention Sheik also has a different animation while falling if her last move was fair than after the rest of her aerials (besides dair of course) and from just jumping.
• Sheik's crouch can go under some moves like Ryu's side and neutral b and Ganondorf's down b, making it so you don't have to shield them and effectively negating some of their neutral. Although as you crouch walk your hurtbox raises so make sure to stay still (Sheik's moving crouch doesn't get hit by Ganon's down b for example though, so you have to know the MU).