theONEjanitor
Smash Champion
i dunno, most of you don't need this, but this is just somethings I've noticed in my own experience. i'm not like really good or anything, but i saw a pretty drastic improvement after I realized these tips. This is intended for people who are pure noobs like people that don't really win that much.
If you're like me, you learned about all the advanced techniques, and then went back to play your friends and you noticed that you really weren't doing THAT much better against them, and you're like wtf. Thing is advanced techs don't win you the game. learning when to use them does. But here are things that help you win.
1. Learn the game. Like learn percentages, learn what combos work on what characters. Learn it all. A good way to start is to use training mode, but a better way is to find someone to play with who knows how to DI. For example you can pretty much 0-death falco on some stages if you're good at DI chasing with Marth. but if you never knew that, you wouldn't even try to do it.
2. Have a plan. Don't just say, i'm going to just keep attacking. Have a plan. Your plan changes depending on who you're fighting. It's okay if its a bad plan, just have a plan, and if it doesn't work, find out why, and fix it next time. and keep doing that until you stop losing lol. Have a plan for all situations. Like if they jump, what are you going to do. How are you going to edgeguard. What will do when they have high percents. Notice, doing #1 (learning the game) is pretty necessary before you can make a good plan. If they sheidl what will you do. Like I play marth. Against Fox, the plan is to get into a grab, and go for chaingrabs. edgeguarding with down tilt and edgehops or fsmashes... i know the game is very variable and situations change, but you should have an idea.
3. Don't get hit. I never really understood isai's advice until now. when you get hit, that' s a bad thing. Especially against certain characters like Fox, who can turn a simple dair into a waveshine waveshine grab upthrow upair ftw...or sheik who can ftilt ftilt fair ftw. Don't get hit. It seems easier said than done, but not really. Well I mean, obviously you're going to get hit, but you should focus on limiting it. To do this just don't play stupid.
3a. Ways to not get hit #1: Don't be obvious/Don't attack the air. If you're marth, there's no reason to just throw out a random Fsmash for no reason. That's a good way to get hit. Alot of people do this. Just attack and hope it connects. That's not a good way to play. Also, don't just jump at people. That's a good way to get hit. aerial attacks are generally easy to counter. You should always have a reason to do any attack or maneuver on the game, and "it might hit them" is not a good reason. Think about WHY you're doing the attacks you're doing. Don't pick Falcon and make your approach to try and short hop knee. No one's going to fall for that. You're going to get hit. Use set ups for your strong moves. Or reserve your strong moves for when your opponent has made a mistake.
3b. Ways to not get hit #2: Learn your 'safe" moves. Every character has moves that are more or less "safe" to do without too much punishment. These are usually the moves that are used for "approach" and to set up for more high risk moves. For example, Falco has the ultimate safe move which is the SHL. it is very hard to punish a SHL. Falco's side-B, however, is a very unsafe move. You will almost certainly be punished if you spammed this move. A good way to learn these moves is to watch videos of good people. This is why C-stick marths, and C-stick Peaches don't do well competitively. Smash Attacks are almost invariably unsafe. Sometimes with a wavedash applies they can be more safe, but generally smash attacks are reserved for times when the opponent is unaware or vulnerable. Projectiles are almost always "safe'. Another thing to remember is that just because a move connect doesn't mean its safe. A good example of this is the UpB move. These moves are almost always unsafe to use as attacks, because even if you connect with them, the extreme lag they have make them punishable. I know a Luigi Player who constantly attacks with side-B, which not a very good idea, because that move is not safe, even if it connects.
4. Learn character specific strategies and use them. If you play Falco, you should be SHLing and pillaring. I mean, when you can win a tourney without doing this manuevers let me know, but until then these are just tried and true techniques that work. You don't have to copy Forward's entire play style, but if you notice, Forward, PC Chris, DaShizWiz and all Falcos have varying playstyles, you can tell them apart, but one thing they all do is pillar and SHL. Every character has strategies. And if you find a new strategy, that's great, use it if it works. Just make sure you use it. "Hitting" the opponent is not enough. Sure you can F-smash with Marth, but they can recover from that at lower percentages. Instead, why not SHDF them and finish with a Ken combo? Sometimes these character specific strategies require significant tech skill, but a lot of times they don't. Most non-competitive Fox players don't know about the Upthrow to Upair, and its not hard to do at all, and it makes a noob Fox like ten times better. If you play fox you should be upthrowing to upair. No question. This forum has forums for every character, use them for ideas. A better idea is to go to tournaments and get advice from the people who are whipping your ***. If you main strategy consists of dash dancing until i can grab or f-smash them. you need to go back to the drawing board.
The last tip that i'll give to struggling noobs is this:
5. Edgeguard. Agressively. If you don't edgeguard, you won't win, ever. If you edgeguard bad, you probably won't win. Generally, waiting at the edge and F-smashing when they get close enough is NOT a good way to edgeguard. It works for Marth vs. like Falcon sometimes, but for most characters this won't work. Learn what your characters good edgeguards are. Doc's Bair is great for edgeguarding, for example. use ledgehops if your character is good with those. Some characters aren't too good with ledgehops like Roy, Ness, or Zelda...but some are great like Sheik and Marth. Grab that edge! Edgehogs account for maybe 50 percent of all kills in this game. Get on the ledge, Unless you're playing Peach or Jigglypuff, you probably need to get on the ledge. If you're opponent is helpless (like after an up b), and their only chance of survival is grabbing the edge, you'd better get there first. and even in cases where they have a choice of either grabbing the ledge or going on the stage, MAKE them go on the stage, get on that edge! Then alot of times you can just hop on the stage and do your CHARACTER SPECIFIC COMBOS to take advantage of their landing lag,
i dunno hope this helps. I had to learn all this the hard way, and this has really helped me cross that bridge into really playing competitively.
If you're like me, you learned about all the advanced techniques, and then went back to play your friends and you noticed that you really weren't doing THAT much better against them, and you're like wtf. Thing is advanced techs don't win you the game. learning when to use them does. But here are things that help you win.
1. Learn the game. Like learn percentages, learn what combos work on what characters. Learn it all. A good way to start is to use training mode, but a better way is to find someone to play with who knows how to DI. For example you can pretty much 0-death falco on some stages if you're good at DI chasing with Marth. but if you never knew that, you wouldn't even try to do it.
2. Have a plan. Don't just say, i'm going to just keep attacking. Have a plan. Your plan changes depending on who you're fighting. It's okay if its a bad plan, just have a plan, and if it doesn't work, find out why, and fix it next time. and keep doing that until you stop losing lol. Have a plan for all situations. Like if they jump, what are you going to do. How are you going to edgeguard. What will do when they have high percents. Notice, doing #1 (learning the game) is pretty necessary before you can make a good plan. If they sheidl what will you do. Like I play marth. Against Fox, the plan is to get into a grab, and go for chaingrabs. edgeguarding with down tilt and edgehops or fsmashes... i know the game is very variable and situations change, but you should have an idea.
3. Don't get hit. I never really understood isai's advice until now. when you get hit, that' s a bad thing. Especially against certain characters like Fox, who can turn a simple dair into a waveshine waveshine grab upthrow upair ftw...or sheik who can ftilt ftilt fair ftw. Don't get hit. It seems easier said than done, but not really. Well I mean, obviously you're going to get hit, but you should focus on limiting it. To do this just don't play stupid.
3a. Ways to not get hit #1: Don't be obvious/Don't attack the air. If you're marth, there's no reason to just throw out a random Fsmash for no reason. That's a good way to get hit. Alot of people do this. Just attack and hope it connects. That's not a good way to play. Also, don't just jump at people. That's a good way to get hit. aerial attacks are generally easy to counter. You should always have a reason to do any attack or maneuver on the game, and "it might hit them" is not a good reason. Think about WHY you're doing the attacks you're doing. Don't pick Falcon and make your approach to try and short hop knee. No one's going to fall for that. You're going to get hit. Use set ups for your strong moves. Or reserve your strong moves for when your opponent has made a mistake.
3b. Ways to not get hit #2: Learn your 'safe" moves. Every character has moves that are more or less "safe" to do without too much punishment. These are usually the moves that are used for "approach" and to set up for more high risk moves. For example, Falco has the ultimate safe move which is the SHL. it is very hard to punish a SHL. Falco's side-B, however, is a very unsafe move. You will almost certainly be punished if you spammed this move. A good way to learn these moves is to watch videos of good people. This is why C-stick marths, and C-stick Peaches don't do well competitively. Smash Attacks are almost invariably unsafe. Sometimes with a wavedash applies they can be more safe, but generally smash attacks are reserved for times when the opponent is unaware or vulnerable. Projectiles are almost always "safe'. Another thing to remember is that just because a move connect doesn't mean its safe. A good example of this is the UpB move. These moves are almost always unsafe to use as attacks, because even if you connect with them, the extreme lag they have make them punishable. I know a Luigi Player who constantly attacks with side-B, which not a very good idea, because that move is not safe, even if it connects.
4. Learn character specific strategies and use them. If you play Falco, you should be SHLing and pillaring. I mean, when you can win a tourney without doing this manuevers let me know, but until then these are just tried and true techniques that work. You don't have to copy Forward's entire play style, but if you notice, Forward, PC Chris, DaShizWiz and all Falcos have varying playstyles, you can tell them apart, but one thing they all do is pillar and SHL. Every character has strategies. And if you find a new strategy, that's great, use it if it works. Just make sure you use it. "Hitting" the opponent is not enough. Sure you can F-smash with Marth, but they can recover from that at lower percentages. Instead, why not SHDF them and finish with a Ken combo? Sometimes these character specific strategies require significant tech skill, but a lot of times they don't. Most non-competitive Fox players don't know about the Upthrow to Upair, and its not hard to do at all, and it makes a noob Fox like ten times better. If you play fox you should be upthrowing to upair. No question. This forum has forums for every character, use them for ideas. A better idea is to go to tournaments and get advice from the people who are whipping your ***. If you main strategy consists of dash dancing until i can grab or f-smash them. you need to go back to the drawing board.
The last tip that i'll give to struggling noobs is this:
5. Edgeguard. Agressively. If you don't edgeguard, you won't win, ever. If you edgeguard bad, you probably won't win. Generally, waiting at the edge and F-smashing when they get close enough is NOT a good way to edgeguard. It works for Marth vs. like Falcon sometimes, but for most characters this won't work. Learn what your characters good edgeguards are. Doc's Bair is great for edgeguarding, for example. use ledgehops if your character is good with those. Some characters aren't too good with ledgehops like Roy, Ness, or Zelda...but some are great like Sheik and Marth. Grab that edge! Edgehogs account for maybe 50 percent of all kills in this game. Get on the ledge, Unless you're playing Peach or Jigglypuff, you probably need to get on the ledge. If you're opponent is helpless (like after an up b), and their only chance of survival is grabbing the edge, you'd better get there first. and even in cases where they have a choice of either grabbing the ledge or going on the stage, MAKE them go on the stage, get on that edge! Then alot of times you can just hop on the stage and do your CHARACTER SPECIFIC COMBOS to take advantage of their landing lag,
i dunno hope this helps. I had to learn all this the hard way, and this has really helped me cross that bridge into really playing competitively.
