Doraki
Smash Lord
Introduction :
The most important part of this guide is explaining in details how Directionnal Influence (DI) precisely works, how it is done and how it works with Teching.
DIing is basically anything you can do when you are taking a hit to affect your trajectory. (I'm not talking about Aerial Control, which has nothing to do with being hit)
DI can be divided in 3 parts : Smash DI (SDI), Automatic Smash DI (ASDI), and Regular DI (I'll keep it at DI)
Good DI will allow you to change your trajectory at high % so that you don't die, tech or wall-tech a lot of things if you're hit near a wall, and gives you means to escape from almost any sort of combo.
Smash DI :
When you take a hit, there are frames of hitlags where you're frozen and stay in place before being sent flying. The number of hitlag frames varies between 2-3 up to around 18 with Samus's Fully Charged Shot, or burner hits in BtT stages.
During those frame, you can move around using Smash DI.
If you smash the Control Stick in one direction, your character will move instantly in that direction. It doesn't go very far, but it can still save your life sometimes.
If the hit is techable, Smash DI can be used to move yourself into a wall or a ceiling and you'll be able to tech. If you miss the tech, you might bounce on the wall/ceiling
However Smash DIing into the ground can't make you tech (it would clearly be broken)
Forbidden Smash DI :
If you are on the ground and are hit by a non-techable move that sends you horizontally or downwards, you won't be able to Smash DI up.
I call this Forbidden Smash DI. It would in fact be broken because you would take the hit airborne, you would land on the ground without any stun.
The developpers saw this and prevented that from happening.
Forbidden Smash DI makes sure you stay stunned on the ground when you're hit by Fox's Aerial Down A, Fox's shine or any other relatively weak hit nailing you into the ground.
(However I've seen CPUs breaking that rule in Adventure mode )
Multiple Smash DIing :
If you are fast with the control stick you can sometimes input several Smash DIs
This is basically what you do when you use the so-called "Quarter-circle DI".
In the Perfect Control Video, there is a clip where a Mario on Jungle Japes takes a Charge Shot from the left, use Smash DI on each frame of hitlag alternating between down-left and up-left, and finally Smash DIs up into a ceiling and wall-tech-jumps there.
Regular DI :
After the hitlag, your character starts flying from the hit.
Regular DI will influence your trajectory, it has been known for more than a year now.
DIing along the same line of the defaut trajectory doesn't affect it at all. What does work and what saves your life at high % is having a DI perpendicular to the defaut trajectory.
Automatic Smash DI :
An Automatic Smash DI takes place there on the 1st frame after the hitlag.
It's automatic because you don't have to smash anything to do it, the game just reads the position of your control stick or C-stick on the last frame of hitlag.
The C-stick outprioritizes the control stick. You can hold 2 different directions, the game will use the C-stick for the ASDI : you can DI one way and ASDI another way.
The ASDI is exactly like Smash DI except that it goes less far, and you don't see it very well because you're sent flying at the same time.
On techable hits, it can make you tech on walls or ceiling just as well.
One very important thing is that you can tech on the floor as well if the ASDI makes you go down on that frame.
The instant ground techs on other moves than Fox's shine all come from this.
ASDI Down, the true Crouch Cancelling effect :
If you're grounded and take a move that sends you upwards but not very fast, ASDIing down'll make you go downwards on that frame. You'll then either bounce/tech if the hit is techable, or just land with no stun.
If you're grounded and take a move that sends you down, if it's untechable, Forbidden Smash DI applies and you'll stay stunned on the ground whatever you try to do (DI doesn't seem to work in those cases, too.)
If it's techable, you'll see a green flash on the ground at the beginning of the hitlag and you'll be sent up. You can try to ASDI down that and you may bounce/tech that hit.
For example, Fox's Aerial Down A sends you downwards and is never techable.
Falco's Aerial Down A sends you downwards and becomes techable at low/middle %
Falco's Phantasm sends you up if you're grounded but sends you down when you're in the air, and it's always techable.
Fox's shine sends you horizontally when you're grounded.
DI on throws and phantom hits :
Most throws don't have any hitlag window, so only Regular DI can be used when you're thrown.
Jigglypuff's forward throw is so far the only exception I know of, it has hitlag and can be DI'd like a regular hit (thanks Magus for this)
Phantom hits doesn't send you anywhere, but you can still use SDI or ASDI when you're taking a Phantom hit.
Phantom hits happen when your hitbox and the move's hitbox are tangent. A very bad idea is to SDI or ASDI into the hitbox of the move while it's still there, because you'll then take the hit like normal.
Crouch Cancelling :
CCing is what happens when you're crouching while taking a hit.
It tremendously reduces the knockback of the move, reduces the hitlag, and the move is weakened so you must be at higher %age to tech it (or it makes the move completely untechable, like Fox's shine)
You have to be crouching to crouch cancel, if you're not crouching you're not crouch cancelling.
Usually you're DIing down with the control stick when you're CCing, which makes you ASDI down on the weakened move, thus makes you land right after the hitlag (or bounce on the ground if you're at high %age) :
CCing weakens the move and ASDI down makes you stay grounded.
Teching :
Teching is simple : In order to tech a hit you have to press L in a 20-frame window before bouncing on a wall/floor/ceiling.
The tricky thing put in by the developpers is that pressing L during the hitlag of a move will prevent you from teching, except if it's the last frame of hitlag and you're bouncing on the next frame or if you're SDIing into the wall and pressing L on the same frame.
That's why in order to tech a hit while you're recovering or in order to ground tech you absolutely have to press L before being hit or have insane precision/reflex.
If you tech on a wall, you can perform a wall jump, with any character. You have to hold up or jump in the first few frames after the tech.
How Smash DI helps edge teching :
When you get hit near the edge, for example by Marth's f-smash, your trajectory don't send you into the wall at all.
At middle %, a simple ASDI towards the stage will make you hit the wall, as long as you aren't sent away too fast. It works just like how ASDIing down makes you stay grounded .
However, at higher %age, this won't be enough. Moreover, the more damage you get from the hit, the longer you'll stay in hitlag before you tech, which means a more difficult timing for pressing L, because those hitlag frames are removed from the 20 frames window for the tech.
Now, if you learn to press L and do a Smash DI around 15-20 frames later, the tech will be guaranteed :
Instead of waiting for hitlag to end and use ASDI to touch the wall, the hitlag will transfer into teching the moment you did the smash DI.
This is very easy : Press L, then slam the stick towards the stage. Regardless of what your opponent is doing, it'll most likely work.
As to what happens afterwards, the moment when you tech doesn't matter, everything will be as if you only teched at the end of the hitlag : you will start moving again at the end of the hitlag and you'll still have invincibility frames then.
I think that using smash DI also makes wall-jumping easier since you have more time (the remaining hitlag frames) to press up on the control stick.
Teching isn't button mashing :
In order to tech, you have to get a precise timing and not resort to button mashing.
Whenever you press L, it enables you to tech in the 20 following frames, but it also prevents you completely from using L to tech again in the following 40 frames.
It's not obvious, but it's very important when you're being comboed.
Has it ever happened to you, when you're being comboed,that you missed a tech even though you pressed L at the right time ?
This is the reason it didn't work. You had pressed L earlier and you didn't wait enough time before pressing L again to tech.
Note that if this happens, you can keep missing techs.
A guaranteed way to miss every tech is to press L too often, like twice per second.
When you're comboing, listening to your opponent's controller can be useful in some cases. Sometimes you know he won't be able to tech the following move of your combo.
Also, L-cancelling involves pressing L so you may want to learn to L-cancel without pushing the shoulder button the whole way (it's unnecesary), or to L-cancel with Z.
Just in case.
How to use DI :
To escape from a combo, use proper Smash DI, ASDI and proper DI. Know what you can do, where you want to go, and how DI affects your trajectory.
To walltech more moves when you're recovering, Smash DI and ASDI towards the wall.
To survive from a powerful move, DI to the perpendicular of your trajectory and preferably upwards, while ASDIing towards the stage with the C-stick.
To ground-tech a hit, DI to the perpendicular of your trajectory and preferably down, while ASDIing down with the C-stick.
IMO CCing should only be used to Crouch Cancel Counter. Why be sent flying when you could shield instead ?
Final words
The invisible ceiling glitch has nothing at all to do with this !
I'll do my best to answer any question and to update this guide with any useful information =)
The most important part of this guide is explaining in details how Directionnal Influence (DI) precisely works, how it is done and how it works with Teching.
DIing is basically anything you can do when you are taking a hit to affect your trajectory. (I'm not talking about Aerial Control, which has nothing to do with being hit)
DI can be divided in 3 parts : Smash DI (SDI), Automatic Smash DI (ASDI), and Regular DI (I'll keep it at DI)
Good DI will allow you to change your trajectory at high % so that you don't die, tech or wall-tech a lot of things if you're hit near a wall, and gives you means to escape from almost any sort of combo.
Smash DI :
When you take a hit, there are frames of hitlags where you're frozen and stay in place before being sent flying. The number of hitlag frames varies between 2-3 up to around 18 with Samus's Fully Charged Shot, or burner hits in BtT stages.
During those frame, you can move around using Smash DI.
If you smash the Control Stick in one direction, your character will move instantly in that direction. It doesn't go very far, but it can still save your life sometimes.
If the hit is techable, Smash DI can be used to move yourself into a wall or a ceiling and you'll be able to tech. If you miss the tech, you might bounce on the wall/ceiling
However Smash DIing into the ground can't make you tech (it would clearly be broken)
Forbidden Smash DI :
If you are on the ground and are hit by a non-techable move that sends you horizontally or downwards, you won't be able to Smash DI up.
I call this Forbidden Smash DI. It would in fact be broken because you would take the hit airborne, you would land on the ground without any stun.
The developpers saw this and prevented that from happening.
Forbidden Smash DI makes sure you stay stunned on the ground when you're hit by Fox's Aerial Down A, Fox's shine or any other relatively weak hit nailing you into the ground.
(However I've seen CPUs breaking that rule in Adventure mode )
Multiple Smash DIing :
If you are fast with the control stick you can sometimes input several Smash DIs
This is basically what you do when you use the so-called "Quarter-circle DI".
In the Perfect Control Video, there is a clip where a Mario on Jungle Japes takes a Charge Shot from the left, use Smash DI on each frame of hitlag alternating between down-left and up-left, and finally Smash DIs up into a ceiling and wall-tech-jumps there.
Regular DI :
After the hitlag, your character starts flying from the hit.
Regular DI will influence your trajectory, it has been known for more than a year now.
DIing along the same line of the defaut trajectory doesn't affect it at all. What does work and what saves your life at high % is having a DI perpendicular to the defaut trajectory.
Automatic Smash DI :
An Automatic Smash DI takes place there on the 1st frame after the hitlag.
It's automatic because you don't have to smash anything to do it, the game just reads the position of your control stick or C-stick on the last frame of hitlag.
The C-stick outprioritizes the control stick. You can hold 2 different directions, the game will use the C-stick for the ASDI : you can DI one way and ASDI another way.
The ASDI is exactly like Smash DI except that it goes less far, and you don't see it very well because you're sent flying at the same time.
On techable hits, it can make you tech on walls or ceiling just as well.
One very important thing is that you can tech on the floor as well if the ASDI makes you go down on that frame.
The instant ground techs on other moves than Fox's shine all come from this.
ASDI Down, the true Crouch Cancelling effect :
If you're grounded and take a move that sends you upwards but not very fast, ASDIing down'll make you go downwards on that frame. You'll then either bounce/tech if the hit is techable, or just land with no stun.
If you're grounded and take a move that sends you down, if it's untechable, Forbidden Smash DI applies and you'll stay stunned on the ground whatever you try to do (DI doesn't seem to work in those cases, too.)
If it's techable, you'll see a green flash on the ground at the beginning of the hitlag and you'll be sent up. You can try to ASDI down that and you may bounce/tech that hit.
For example, Fox's Aerial Down A sends you downwards and is never techable.
Falco's Aerial Down A sends you downwards and becomes techable at low/middle %
Falco's Phantasm sends you up if you're grounded but sends you down when you're in the air, and it's always techable.
Fox's shine sends you horizontally when you're grounded.
DI on throws and phantom hits :
Most throws don't have any hitlag window, so only Regular DI can be used when you're thrown.
Jigglypuff's forward throw is so far the only exception I know of, it has hitlag and can be DI'd like a regular hit (thanks Magus for this)
Phantom hits doesn't send you anywhere, but you can still use SDI or ASDI when you're taking a Phantom hit.
Phantom hits happen when your hitbox and the move's hitbox are tangent. A very bad idea is to SDI or ASDI into the hitbox of the move while it's still there, because you'll then take the hit like normal.
Crouch Cancelling :
CCing is what happens when you're crouching while taking a hit.
It tremendously reduces the knockback of the move, reduces the hitlag, and the move is weakened so you must be at higher %age to tech it (or it makes the move completely untechable, like Fox's shine)
You have to be crouching to crouch cancel, if you're not crouching you're not crouch cancelling.
Usually you're DIing down with the control stick when you're CCing, which makes you ASDI down on the weakened move, thus makes you land right after the hitlag (or bounce on the ground if you're at high %age) :
CCing weakens the move and ASDI down makes you stay grounded.
Teching :
Teching is simple : In order to tech a hit you have to press L in a 20-frame window before bouncing on a wall/floor/ceiling.
The tricky thing put in by the developpers is that pressing L during the hitlag of a move will prevent you from teching, except if it's the last frame of hitlag and you're bouncing on the next frame or if you're SDIing into the wall and pressing L on the same frame.
That's why in order to tech a hit while you're recovering or in order to ground tech you absolutely have to press L before being hit or have insane precision/reflex.
If you tech on a wall, you can perform a wall jump, with any character. You have to hold up or jump in the first few frames after the tech.
How Smash DI helps edge teching :
When you get hit near the edge, for example by Marth's f-smash, your trajectory don't send you into the wall at all.
At middle %, a simple ASDI towards the stage will make you hit the wall, as long as you aren't sent away too fast. It works just like how ASDIing down makes you stay grounded .
However, at higher %age, this won't be enough. Moreover, the more damage you get from the hit, the longer you'll stay in hitlag before you tech, which means a more difficult timing for pressing L, because those hitlag frames are removed from the 20 frames window for the tech.
Now, if you learn to press L and do a Smash DI around 15-20 frames later, the tech will be guaranteed :
Instead of waiting for hitlag to end and use ASDI to touch the wall, the hitlag will transfer into teching the moment you did the smash DI.
This is very easy : Press L, then slam the stick towards the stage. Regardless of what your opponent is doing, it'll most likely work.
As to what happens afterwards, the moment when you tech doesn't matter, everything will be as if you only teched at the end of the hitlag : you will start moving again at the end of the hitlag and you'll still have invincibility frames then.
I think that using smash DI also makes wall-jumping easier since you have more time (the remaining hitlag frames) to press up on the control stick.
Teching isn't button mashing :
In order to tech, you have to get a precise timing and not resort to button mashing.
Whenever you press L, it enables you to tech in the 20 following frames, but it also prevents you completely from using L to tech again in the following 40 frames.
It's not obvious, but it's very important when you're being comboed.
Has it ever happened to you, when you're being comboed,that you missed a tech even though you pressed L at the right time ?
This is the reason it didn't work. You had pressed L earlier and you didn't wait enough time before pressing L again to tech.
Note that if this happens, you can keep missing techs.
A guaranteed way to miss every tech is to press L too often, like twice per second.
When you're comboing, listening to your opponent's controller can be useful in some cases. Sometimes you know he won't be able to tech the following move of your combo.
Also, L-cancelling involves pressing L so you may want to learn to L-cancel without pushing the shoulder button the whole way (it's unnecesary), or to L-cancel with Z.
Just in case.
How to use DI :
To escape from a combo, use proper Smash DI, ASDI and proper DI. Know what you can do, where you want to go, and how DI affects your trajectory.
To walltech more moves when you're recovering, Smash DI and ASDI towards the wall.
To survive from a powerful move, DI to the perpendicular of your trajectory and preferably upwards, while ASDIing towards the stage with the C-stick.
To ground-tech a hit, DI to the perpendicular of your trajectory and preferably down, while ASDIing down with the C-stick.
IMO CCing should only be used to Crouch Cancel Counter. Why be sent flying when you could shield instead ?
Final words
The invisible ceiling glitch has nothing at all to do with this !
I'll do my best to answer any question and to update this guide with any useful information =)
