Application of Bomb Drop

[Code Bread]

What ways are there to incorporate Bomb Drop to your Samus plays?
Double Bomb Drop stalls in midair (is there a name for that technique?) seem to make you fall lose more air that not using it. Is that wrong? Something I've been using on smashbuddies is a retreating Bomb Drop; run toward the opponent then bomb drop and move back to bait a reaction and punish.

 

[aozf05]

I've tried to argue for some uses of the bomb but Brawl pros keep shutting it down. But it's different enough in this game that it may be useful. The fact that it can explode when attacked by enemies has proven useful to me on some occasions.
I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that using bombs to stall in midair is less effective in this game, but I find that it still has its uses. When I'm being juggled, i sometime wait for my opponent to jump for an attack, then I drop a bomb and move out of the way. It helps sometimes. I also use bombs at the edge when my opponent is trying to recover to create an opening.
Mainly I use bombs like an air dodge though.
I mean, bombs aren't incredibly useful, but I find that they're useful enough to keep my opponent wary and guessing since Samus's moveset isnt that great either. I myself am having trouble comboing her moves together in a seamless way and dropping a bomb here and there sometimes creates just enough of an opening to go on the offensive or chain another attack. Occasionally I'll have a bomb out incidentally and it'll help me chain, so I still have to figure out how to incorporate it intentionally.

 

[GdspdUblkprzdnt]

General dickery, nothing too concrete yet. Use them to cover your enemies grab options if they're trigger happy with them. Input an attack while it goes off to keep you from going into morphball and to cover more options. I've had things like down b and down tilt work however inconsistently. Bombs can also cover options for your smash attacks. Lay a bomb on a ledge and charge an up smash. It covers quite a few of their basic ledge options if you can time it right but this is all just really inconsistent. I was hopeful for applications besides gimmicky stuff but none have presented themselves yet.

 

[Code Bread]

After some testing online, playing both good and bad players, I've learned some tricks with Bomb Drop.
It has pretty significant significance on ledge plays. Not only for stalling, but for reads as well. If your opponent is on the ledge or off stage, it's great for setting traps. If your opponent is recovering low, drop a bomb off stage. If they're recovering high, drop a bomb on stage. On stage, you're controlling the stage and your opponent has to play around it. It sets up for either free fsmashes or free charge shots almost every time. Off stage, opponents rarely take the bomb into account and literally jump into it. This sets up for (much) easier edgeguards, or if they're close enough, free spikes.

 

[BlackCephie]

Think of bombs as just another tool in the box. I mainly use bombs to cover myself in close range. They interrupt enemy grabs and combos. I also use them when i know my opponent is expecting a missile. For example if im poking my opponent with zair to missile, i might throw in a zair to bomb to throw off a possible rush in. Samus is great at conditioning her enemy, so use bombs intermittantly to throw them off the path that you have created for them.

 

[LightlyToasted]

One of my favorite things to do down b into a side smash.I drop a bomb and then the momentum from the morphball to move a bit away. If they are close they either shield the morph ball bomb, allowing you to grab from the short distance, or they don't, which it knock most characters right into a side smash. If they rolled the bomb completely, you can get a fast dash attack in. Though I normally use this for racking up dmg, since a fast side smash doesn't send too far until higher percent.

I know it was also used for edgeguarding in brawl, and I have seen some cases where a bomb on someone ON and NEAR the edge, knocking them downward and off with incredible force, a pseudo spike. Anyone else notice this?

 

[Code Bread]

A bomb into fsmash is good coverage that I've been using. Especially when the opponent is near the ledge, where most players tend to limit their own options. I've never seen a bomb hit with downward knockback.

 

[shinhed-echi]

In short, I use them on the ground and away from opponents (as a fake retreat to bait opponents to following me), so that when they dash at me, they get a bit tense around it, and either shield it, or get hit by it, which is when I grab them from a distance, managing to land a few pummels in.

On the edge, they're pretty useful too. I've managed to land a few spikes between ALL Smash games doing this.

 

[n00b]

I am getting more mileage out of using bombs as offensive presence, just small obstacles on screen that allow for grab setups, covered dash attacks, crossup aerials, shield pressure, and so on. I am starting to use them similarly to how I would use missiles in Brawl. I find they aren't as good to wiggle out of combos or whatever, they are too slow and leave you far too vulnerable to be used in defensive applications like we might imagine them to (or at least, how I did anyway). I use them when it's safe for me to throw one out, to control space and flow, when the opponent is already restricted in some way. It's not like I can use it against a Fox to try to run away from him or disrupt combos, he's too fast and mobile for that. But characters like Yoshi maybe who get stuck in shield a lot, slower characters with less mobility, etc, would have more trouble navigating bombs.

 

[Grambles]

Pretty much everything Code Bread's already mentioned. I use it a lot to keep space, and give myself a little extra time to charge up B. It's important to play around the bomb if you're dropping it in combat. That tiny bit of knock back is often enough to escape their pressure, or to punish them. It's pretty good at getting out of a grab, or stopping a dash attack

I've had a few times when I've dropped the bomb in the air, landed behind them, f-smashed, or fired a charge shot, that would've killed them, only to have the bomb catch their launch. That's really frustrating.

But, more often than not, it'll explode first and give a nice 9 extra damage to whatever you use in junction with it.

 

[BlackCephie]

This guy has been well praised in the Samus video thread, and for good reason.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fC-NAuwq_4I

One important thing to note is that he is mainly dropping the bombs from a short hop FORWARD, then vectoring backwards JUST enough to not get punished, but still in range to frame trap with a multitude of attacks. This means that the bomb is dropping in front of him downward with enough time for the active hitbox frames to start up by the time the opponent would have a chance to rush through it. You still want to stick close to the bomb in case they hit or grab you. Simply dropping the bomb on the ground isn't nearly as effective since they can just run through it and capitalize on your temporary vulnerability. Short hopping forward, downb, vector backwards also allow you time to regain the ability to act right in time for bomb to explode and doubles as a viable position to be in in case you want to zair, nair or even dair punish a dash attack, so you have options in case you see the bomb as not the best option at the moment. You want to move far enough away to not get punished when you move backwards, but not so far that you lose the advantage of being near the bomb. You will also notice that this player stand over the bomb in cases when the opponent heeds it and doesnt approach, then throws out a jab to keep himself from going into morph ball. This technique is really invaluable when dealing with rushers and aggressive speedy dudes, and generally just creating and maintaining space. All of this requires a good sense of spacing, but general you want to mix this in with missiles, zair and charge shot to remain unpredictable, but also have something always covering you. You are essentially attacking and defending at the same time, which is pretty cool. If your opponent doesn't respect the bomb, its because you aren't trapping them with it correctly. Practice makes perfect!

 

[KayJay]

0% to Death Bomb kill.
The opponent was obviously not prepared for this.

 

[Xygonn]

I use it to edgeguard. I find this to be very useful on a low approaching opponent. Bomb over the edge time to hit as they get close to the edge (hopefully before snap on). Little bit of push away from the bomb into the stage -> down tilted fsmash or dsmash.

Reposting this video from another thread:

https://vid.me/bhMd

I also will drop a bomb as I approach from above, forcing the opponent to move or shield and try to get a read off of it. Either move back ff then grab if it looks like they are going to stay put or come straight down and bair or nair if they roll

 

[S.F.L.R_9]

I've never posted around here before, but I love Metroid and I play Samus in every Smash soooo.. hi!
If you use a bomb as you run off the ledge you fall downwards rather quickly (can move left or right as you fall) which can lead to some easy edgeguards/gimps. It's kind of like the missle ledge cancel except you fall down, go a bit farther (retains the bombs momentum), and the bomb still comes out, giving another thing your opponent has to dodge.
Examples:
Predict opponent recovering low --> morph bomb off edge --> dair spike

MB off ledge --> move towards the opponent and nair/dair/whatever

 

[SanAntonioSmasher]

This guy has been well praised in the Samus video thread, and for good reason.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fC-NAuwq_4I

One important thing to note is that he is mainly dropping the bombs from a short hop FORWARD, then vectoring backwards JUST enough to not get punished, but still in range to frame trap with a multitude of attacks. This means that the bomb is dropping in front of him downward with enough time for the active hitbox frames to start up by the time the opponent would have a chance to rush through it. You still want to stick close to the bomb in case they hit or grab you. Simply dropping the bomb on the ground isn't nearly as effective since they can just run through it and capitalize on your temporary vulnerability. Short hopping forward, downb, vector backwards also allow you time to regain the ability to act right in time for bomb to explode and doubles as a viable position to be in in case you want to zair, nair or even dair punish a dash attack, so you have options in case you see the bomb as not the best option at the moment. You want to move far enough away to not get punished when you move backwards, but not so far that you lose the advantage of being near the bomb. You will also notice that this player stand over the bomb in cases when the opponent heeds it and doesnt approach, then throws out a jab to keep himself from going into morph ball. This technique is really invaluable when dealing with rushers and aggressive speedy dudes, and generally just creating and maintaining space. All of this requires a good sense of spacing, but general you want to mix this in with missiles, zair and charge shot to remain unpredictable, but also have something always covering you. You are essentially attacking and defending at the same time, which is pretty cool. If your opponent doesn't respect the bomb, its because you aren't trapping them with it correctly. Practice makes perfect!

Anyone using these techniques currently against competitive players using the faster/top tier characters? This video is kind of old, so wasn't sure how well this still works. I'd like to learn this play style, but not if it can't do well at the competitive level. And if this does work, what are the opponents best options to fight these tactics?

 

[BlackCephie]

Anyone using these techniques currently against competitive players using the faster/top tier characters? This video is kind of old, so wasn't sure how well this still works. I'd like to learn this play style, but not if it can't do well at the competitive level. And if this does work, what are the opponents best options to fight these tactics?

Well one thing ive noticed is bomb out of ftilt as a nice spacing technique. On hit i like to reset my position and create pressure at the same time by doing this.