A New Neutral

[WhiteCrow]

Recently I have changed mains to Snake and I'm finding his neutral game a bit difficult to grasp. How often should I be explosion camping and against which characters? What aerials are the best for SHFFLing? When can you reliably tranq an opponent? He has so many powerful tools but I don't know yet how to implement them for confirms and c4 sticks.

As I gain match up knowledge I'm sure I'll be coming back here for advice. Is there a Snake social thread or discord?

 

[Applebutter61]

Here is what I have found in practicing Snake. For SHFFLing, Dair is pretty powerful. Dair is generally safe against shield, and is a meteor on the last hit, making it lead into pretty much anything you want afterward, such as another Dair. However, if you fastfall Dair, you won't get all 4 hits.

When an opponent is playing defensive and is waiting for you to approach them, grenades are your friend. Further, be sure to have a Claymore out as much as possible. Lesser players/players not good with MU often forget where you put landmines and run into them. It's pretty funny really. Further, tranq darts are good for punishing getups out of missed techs and landing lag from recovering.

There is a thread for C4 setups in the snake discussion here, I recommend giving it a look. Also, don't forget crouch cancelling. Even at mid to high percent, snake can crouch cancel and get in an f-tilt, d-tilt, or grab, etc.

If you are interested in studying neutral in general, youtube is a great source. Here is one video in particular that I really enjoyed. Don't be afraid to check out more.

 

[WhiteCrow]

Here is what I have found in practicing Snake. For SHFFLing, Dair is pretty powerful. Dair is generally safe against shield, and is a meteor on the last hit, making it lead into pretty much anything you want afterward, such as another Dair. However, if you fastfall Dair, you won't get all 4 hits.

When an opponent is playing defensive and is waiting for you to approach them, grenades are your friend. Further, be sure to have a Claymore out as much as possible. Lesser players/players not good with MU often forget where you put landmines and run into them. It's pretty funny really. Further, tranq darts are good for punishing getups out of missed techs and landing lag from recovering.

There is a thread for C4 setups in the snake discussion here, I recommend giving it a look. Also, don't forget crouch cancelling. Even at mid to high percent, snake can crouch cancel and get in an f-tilt, d-tilt, or grab, etc.

If you are interested in studying neutral in general, youtube is a great source. Here is one video in particular that I really enjoyed. Don't be afraid to check out more.

Thanks for all the info! I thought dair was a meteor on all hits so that is good to know; I've been trying to fast fall it into grab and keep getting CC'd.

The problem with down smash is that I get comboed into it almost as much as my opponents, and when I'm at kill % that is detrimental. Do you ever plant C4 on stage and use it like down smash? I definitely need to tranc more...

 

[Applebutter61]

As far as c4 goes, I generally don't have it out on the stage. This is so when an opportunity arises to put it on the opponent, it is available.

For landmines... it is inevitable that Snake is going to be hit with his own explosives from time to time. If having a landmine out a lot doesn't help, then don't do it I guess XD. However, don't just not use it. One really great thing to do is to put it at the very edge of the stage to instantly punish characters going for the ledge and fail to sweetspot it when ledgegaurding. Another thing is to plant a landmine when an opponent is trying to land from high above from being juggled or such. This manipulates where they can and can't land. In fact, that is what the land mine is probably best used for: manipulation. I also want to add that Snake has a very high weight, so when fighting against light characters, having a landmine out is probably always advantageous, even if you are getting hit as much as half the time.

Tranq.... lol. I would think that, if anything, someone playing snake would overuse the tranq due to it's high reward, especially at high percent. If you can shoot someone with a dart at 80% (or more), you get the kill right then and there by putting a sticky on them, grabbing them, giving a few pummels for good measure, up throw, explode the sticky, boom. KO. Easliy the most sastisfying way to kill in the entire game. However, it is easy to overuse because it's punishable, and I find myself reloading when I didn't realize I needed to, leaving me WAY open for punishment.

I have heard that the Snake discord is great for learning on this subject. I personally don't have discord, but I would recommend it regardless.

Btw, watch the video? XD

Edit: fixed some stupid spelling errors.