Advice on beating Ike

[Mallet]

I just cannot seem to beat Ike and about half my friends wanna use him as their main character. Luigi and Olimar are probably my best characters and no matter what I just cannot get past Ike's incredible power, plus he gets priority every time I clash with him due to the sword. I just need to know some weaknesses to this character.

 

[Miller]

Uhmm Olimar? Just grab Ike and continue from there, Olimar has incredible grab range when using the blue one. Also, Spam your pikman on him, do damage like that, play really defensive, make him come to you. When he comes, you can shield grab > throw him away, and pull out more Pikman if you already used some of them. Just play smart and you shouldn't loose.

 

[Enoch-Fox]

he is slow
dont get hit
etc.

 

[Chaosblade77]

Olimar should be able to take Ike. As an Ike main, I don't know if I should be giving advice... but I'll do it anyway.

My biggest problem is facing off with people that have good projectile games. Luigi can't really claim much in that area but Olimar's Pikmin can be devastating. Other than that, fast characters tend to pose a problem (not as much as projectiles) but you said your best characters are Luigi and Olimar and neither are exceedingly fast.

I'd say if you want to beat those friends, just work on getting better with Olimar and over time you should pick up some strategies that will help you. Not sure about Luigi, he doesn't really have any advantages at all on Ike from what I have seen.

 

[HuffmanD]

i main ike, and actually he's not hard to counter. all his moves have some windup time; some more than others. this makes it easy to stall him, and overall break his stride.

particularly mario, and falco are his primary counters. zelda CAN be a sick counter, but if you get past zeldas fire spam, she can go down very fast.

as olimar, i've noticed that if you get a pikmin on ike, and ike uses his side b, his side b won't go as far and instead just kill the pikmin on him. so ike is more likely to use his dash attack to close distance, which makes it easy to shield grab.

but just like miller said, spam pikmin, and then start juggling him: olimar's air game is rediculous.

 

[redgreenblue]

With luigi... roll behind him when ever you can and tornado upwards, air dodge, repeat. For Olimar, roll behind him and fsmash. If he manages to get an attack on you, quickly shield and wait until the frame when his priority is gone and grab.

The only way to defeat heavy hitters is outlasting their attacks.

 

[theONEjanitor]

just remember that ALLLL of ikes moves are super slow, except jab and b-air. if Ike jumps at you, you should be able to jump at him with any character and do a quick aerial before he can hit you.

just an idea

 

[Tin]

Don't get jabbed. Don't think you can outspeed the jabbing because Ike's jabs are retardedly fast. When he charges up a Side B, try to avoid it or shield it, do not grab immediately afterwards because he will (most likely) follow up with a jab since Side B is practically lagless. Either wait until he finishes jabbing then grab or just shield it out and roll away.

 

[kitsuneboy_geoff]

I've had a bit of trouble fighting Ike was my Pikachu, as well. I manage to beat him most of the time, but I'm in constant danger of just being pwned by attacks like his f-air and f-tilt and (worst of all) jab, which come out must faster than his smashes. I guess I just have to learn his moves a bit better so I can point dodge them.

 

[Rangles]

As olimar spam your pikmin throw and use them as meatshields to cut ike's side B early.

Just keep your distance and use keep stacking the damage on him. Build up his percentage and then throw away.

 

[rushehidaka]

Ike is really predictable, just memorize his animations and you'll never lose to an ike again

 

[kook321]

ilk has horrible recovery. as to get him in that position, camping and spaming projectiles. Also due to lag and slow moves, if you get close stay close and pressure him.

 

[Sajun88]

Yeah I haven't really fought a good Ike player yet online, the only Ike I have fought are level 7-9 CPUs. From what I've seen though Ike's disadvantages are what everyone said above. He's slow and has bad recovery, and in my opinion his hitboxes are a little wierd but that shouldn't have any effect on a CPU. I've found the best way to beat him is to just play defensively. Most of his attacks are easy to see coming and as long as you play it safe you should be able to get a nice hit in and then you can edge guard him. Course I play a mean Wario and he handles Ike pretty well. But for like Olimar you should play really defensively as Olimar can't take very many hits from someone so strong. I'm no kind of good with Olimar but when I do play with him I find myself throwing pikmin at the opponent till he comes in close then getting a nice Fair or down/foward smash in. The Fair with a red pikmin is amazing and the down/foward smashes both have insane range.

 

[Enshoku]

Ike is really predictable, just memorize his animations and you'll never lose to an ike again

That's horrible advice. It's like telling someone to memorize fox's animations in melee. 4 friends Ike free-for-alls are nuts, as olimar pikman spamming would:

a) stop his quickdraw
b) damage him quite a bit
c) get you out of sword range

 

[Mallet]

K, thanks for all the tips guys. I guess I'll either keep practicing with Olimar or use Diddy, Wolf, or MKnight since they are fast. None of them are mains, but chars I've been playing around with.

 

[Enshoku]

K, thanks for all the tips guys. I guess I'll either keep practicing with Olimar or use Diddy, Wolf, or MKnight since they are fast. None of them are mains, but chars I've been playing around with.

or use toon link, those dang level 9 toon link's gimp me with arrows, then throw a nice lil' cell shaded present at my face. The boomarang also has a large hit box.

 

[Nemireck]

I've taken to maining Olimar and I've found that Ike's moveset is so slow that you can get 3-4 pikmin dealing tons of damage to him with a few spammed Forward-Bs. Play from a good distance from his big scary sword and keep damaging him with your Pikmin throws until there's a strong attack opening, then send him flying One of my favourites is to wait for him to attempt a jumping attack while I have a line of Pikmin behind me, an Up-B will send him flying so you can attempt some other attacks. Olimar isn't one of the fastest characters in the game, but Ike is SLOOOOOOOOOOW, and Olimar can still beat him to the punch.

I've found getting Ike airborn and attacking from below is a good start, his Dair has a bit of a startup on it so you can usually beat him to that move, if he starts it too early you can feint to the side and use a Fair or Bair on him.

Ike is strong, just don't get hit

 

[Enshoku]

I've taken to maining Olimar and I've found that Ike's moveset is so slow that you can get 3-4 pikmin dealing tons of damage to him with a few spammed Forward-Bs. Play from a good distance from his big scary sword and keep damaging him with your Pikmin throws until there's a strong attack opening, then send him flying One of my favourites is to wait for him to attempt a jumping attack while I have a line of Pikmin behind me, an Up-B will send him flying so you can attempt some other attacks. Olimar isn't one of the fastest characters in the game, but Ike is SLOOOOOOOOOOW, and Olimar can still beat him to the punch.

I've found getting Ike airborn and attacking from below is a good start, his Dair has a bit of a startup on it so you can usually beat him to that move, if he starts it too early you can feint to the side and use a Fair or Bair on him.

Ike is strong, just don't get hit

want to fight online?

 

[GDX]

Pikmin never stay on Ike, almost all of his A attacks he can knock them off of himself while attacking you at the same time.

I personally think you have to stay extremely defensive the entire time. Widdle him down while avoiding his attacks. Stretch the fight out. The longer the fight, the more likely they are to get impaitent and open themselves up by playing outside of their style. Like others have said, don't attempt to outspeed his jab, cause you really cant. It is indeed ******** fast.

If you see him doing his leftB recovery to get back to the stage, try to jump in front of him in midair if you have low-mid damage. once he hits something in midair he just falls straight down as he cant do anything else until he hits the ground. yes youll take a hit, but if done right ike will take a life loss

If at all possibly, even though Olimar's air game is good (I hear, i dont know from experience) stay out of the air as much as possible. his air attacks either have large hitboxes so you cant hit him back (uair and fair), or are really fast (bair). If you are in the air and he is on the ground, dont try to punish him as you come down. his upsmash has some deceptive speed, and it covers all 180 degrees around him, and most of the time you wont make it before he will. If you start to get alot of damage from Ike, you have to stay calm. Then you will be stressing to hit back only to get ROFLed yourself.

oh, and no matter who you are, dont play Ike on battlefield. He's OP on that map >.>

 

[kaibyaku]

Ike generally has to start his attacks earlier due to slow start-up times. I'd suggest trying to make your opponent think you're going to attack, but then back away, roll back or something, and then punish right after the attacks. Of course, try not to become too predictable.

 

[rove]

Ike is extremely slow, keep your distance.
When the time is right, strike hard.
And try to trick ike into doing things you want him to do.

 

[Chaosblade77]

ilk has horrible recovery. as to get him in that position, camping and spaming projectiles. Also due to lag and slow moves, if you get close stay close and pressure him.

Ike's recovery isn't all that bad, I can recovery from almost anywhere other than below the stage to the far left or right.

Also, taking advantage of Ike's speed is easier said than done. I've taken out a few pretty good Sheiks and Foxes in 1 vs 1 with Ike and while it was tough, it wasn't anywhere near impossible. Speed doesn't beat Ike, projectile/campy, overly defensive play does though as long as you can avoid the side B and not get hit by a follow up attack when it misses.

 

[nightSN]

i use lucario and use his aura ball and his long range attacks, and double team doesnt hurt, just watch out for ikes ^smash because its his fastest smash AND its goes 180 degrees

 

[Nemireck]

want to fight online?

I don't know how good I am compared to to anyone, but I'm always down for a match, and hey, if you're better than me it means I'll have someone better than me to kick my *** for a while and I can get better PM me your friend-code and I'll add you!

 

[Cannabis]

i've found that Diddy works well against Ike. Bananas on the ground take his sideB outta the game, and if he jumps over them he's so slow that Diddy can get in an aerial before he has time to do anything. Plus Diddy is fast and has great priority.

And as someone said before, a character with projectiles works well against him. Staying away and playing defensive is the safest way to a win against Ike.

 

[ShuffleTrain]

Use platforms to get around him. Tech chase him.

Try to anticipate what your FRIEND will do, not what will IKE do, and punish.