White_Pointer
Smash Journeyman
- Joined
- Jun 2, 2015
- Messages
- 295
- NNID
- wh1tepointer
One technique I've been using to get KO's against reflector characters with a reasonable amount of success is actually baiting out reflectors. I haven't seen this discussed here, so I thought I'd bring it up, even though the concept itself is pretty basic so I don't claim to have come up with this.
Basically, it involves you taking advantage of the fact that a full charge shot beats Samus' missiles, even reflected missiles. If you notice your opponent is a bit reflector happy, and is reflecting or attempting to reflect missiles, this setup should work on them. It will rely on you firing off a few missiles at them first to get an idea of how they react, so you can then get a hard read on the CS kill shot.
Have a full charge shot ready to go, and fire out a homing missile or super missile. A homing missile is often times better, as it's slower and allows you to run up to them and feint like you are going in for an attack, making them more likely to reflect (although they may be paranoid about the charge shot and be reflecting stuff anyway, so no real need to feint an attack). However the super missile also works, just keep in mind you'll have less time to react after the reflect happens, and/or the opponent will actually have more time to see it coming. Once you have a read that they are going to pull the reflector out, fire off the charge shot. The shot will beat out the reflected missile, and if you time it properly, will hit the opponent during the end lag of their reflect move.
Different reflectors work in different ways obviously, so you need to adjust your timimg depending on the character.
- Fox, Pit and Dark Pit can hold their reflectors out for a longer period of time (the Pits in particular can hold down b for up to 90 frames - that's a full 1.5 seconds), although most players will drop the reflector after the missile, especially if you've been conditioning them. Delay it just slightly just to be sure if you have to, but you should be able to get a read on your opponent
- Falco's stays out longer and can actually still reflect when it's returning to him, so be careful not to mistime the CS. Hold onto it ever so slightly longer before letting it go
- Mario's and Doc's are very quick reflectors with not much end lag, so you need to time the CS so it arrives immediately after the missile does. If you are even slightly too late they will have time to shield after reflecting the missile
- Ness and Lucas if they decide to reflect your missile should be pretty easily timed, their fsmash has decent end lag on it. If they attempt to absorb, they'll likely be hit by the missile which may combo into the CS anyway
- Palutena's is kind of odd, I *think* it can only reflect one projectile per use and it has some cooldown before being able to be used again so you should be able to nail this timing
- Zelda's reflector has a deceiving length of active reflection frames on it, so be careful not to fire it off too early here
- Mewtwo is hard to nail down exactly, I don't know if the reflect property is active for the entire duration of the move or not. Seems to be somewhere between Mario and Zelda at any rate so use best judgement
- ROB...well...no ROB should ever be trying to reflect missiles back at you, but if you run into one that is silly enough to do it, you have an eternity the fire the CS
- Villager...unfortunately this strategy won't work against any decent Villager, unless you make a Zeus-like hard read on when they throw a pocketed missile back at you
As I said, I don't believe this to some kind of revolutionary secret technique, but I hope this helps at least some fellow Samus mains out.
Basically, it involves you taking advantage of the fact that a full charge shot beats Samus' missiles, even reflected missiles. If you notice your opponent is a bit reflector happy, and is reflecting or attempting to reflect missiles, this setup should work on them. It will rely on you firing off a few missiles at them first to get an idea of how they react, so you can then get a hard read on the CS kill shot.
Have a full charge shot ready to go, and fire out a homing missile or super missile. A homing missile is often times better, as it's slower and allows you to run up to them and feint like you are going in for an attack, making them more likely to reflect (although they may be paranoid about the charge shot and be reflecting stuff anyway, so no real need to feint an attack). However the super missile also works, just keep in mind you'll have less time to react after the reflect happens, and/or the opponent will actually have more time to see it coming. Once you have a read that they are going to pull the reflector out, fire off the charge shot. The shot will beat out the reflected missile, and if you time it properly, will hit the opponent during the end lag of their reflect move.
Different reflectors work in different ways obviously, so you need to adjust your timimg depending on the character.
- Fox, Pit and Dark Pit can hold their reflectors out for a longer period of time (the Pits in particular can hold down b for up to 90 frames - that's a full 1.5 seconds), although most players will drop the reflector after the missile, especially if you've been conditioning them. Delay it just slightly just to be sure if you have to, but you should be able to get a read on your opponent
- Falco's stays out longer and can actually still reflect when it's returning to him, so be careful not to mistime the CS. Hold onto it ever so slightly longer before letting it go
- Mario's and Doc's are very quick reflectors with not much end lag, so you need to time the CS so it arrives immediately after the missile does. If you are even slightly too late they will have time to shield after reflecting the missile
- Ness and Lucas if they decide to reflect your missile should be pretty easily timed, their fsmash has decent end lag on it. If they attempt to absorb, they'll likely be hit by the missile which may combo into the CS anyway
- Palutena's is kind of odd, I *think* it can only reflect one projectile per use and it has some cooldown before being able to be used again so you should be able to nail this timing
- Zelda's reflector has a deceiving length of active reflection frames on it, so be careful not to fire it off too early here
- Mewtwo is hard to nail down exactly, I don't know if the reflect property is active for the entire duration of the move or not. Seems to be somewhere between Mario and Zelda at any rate so use best judgement
- ROB...well...no ROB should ever be trying to reflect missiles back at you, but if you run into one that is silly enough to do it, you have an eternity the fire the CS
- Villager...unfortunately this strategy won't work against any decent Villager, unless you make a Zeus-like hard read on when they throw a pocketed missile back at you
As I said, I don't believe this to some kind of revolutionary secret technique, but I hope this helps at least some fellow Samus mains out.
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