Just throwing this out there just in case, Ftilt point blank whiffs can be useful in a few ways; primarily because it crosses up. If you know it's about to happen and your opponent does not, you can often catch them by surprise if you're ready.
It can also cross up a shield while sill doing damage to it, and possibly bait out a shield grab.
This is overall very situational but it's there so it might as well be turned to our advantage in some way. Just keep in mind that this will generally not work on other big characters.
Edit: So I recently got the chance to update my Wii U which means that Dr. Jero is back in the game! Well, the lab game at least...
Anyway, after playing around with up throw, I decided to try it under battlefield platforms at low percents on Zero suit and I noticed that she goes into hitstun breifly but then hard lands
Without factoring rage or staleness, Zero suit is forced to hard land on the platforms this way from 0-50% Now interestingly enough, the higher her percent, the longer it takes her to hard land and the more time you have to do whatever you want. Basically, this means that you take the frames of hitstun she's undergoing and add four to that and there's your new follow up window. More importantly, this also creates opportunities to go for mix-ups and platform pressure.
Now unfortunately, the moment she begins tumbling out of up throw is also when the forced landing no longer works. So no free platform tech chase unfortunately, at least not on battlefield's lower platform anyway, you can force it on smashvile but only if zero suit is trying to d.I away and even then only from 51-52%. It works on lylat's middle platform but the ship has to be tilting and there are already enough variables involved here. The most viable stage is probably Town and city, It works on the middle platform of Town and city's opening transition as long as it's positioned correctly. It also works on the stationary side platforms but she needs to be between 75 - 78% for the landing to be absolutely forced regardless of D.I. Keep in mind thst this does not factor rage or staleness so the real numbers may fluctuate but those are probably the most stable conditions regardless.
I'm going to continue testing this against the rest of the cast. As usual, I will update this if I find anything relevant. I'm also open to requests! Hope this helps!
Updates:
Up throw to platforms vs...
Shiek:
Battlefield lower: 0-51% inescapable hard landing
Battlefield upper: 90-96% punishes D.I away with forced tech landing.
Town and city first layout side platforms: 74% inescapable tech landing.
74-82% punishes d.I away with tech landing.
King Dedede:
Battlefield lower: 0-51% forced hard landing.
Battlefield upper: 105-127% forced tech landing.
105-139% punishes d.I away.
Town and city side platforms: 79-110% forced tech landing.
79-122% punishes d.I away.
Smashville: 0-61% forced hard landing.
62-63% forced tech landing.
62-75% punishes d.I away.
The numbers on Smashville and Town and city II are exactly the same. King Dedede has the best vertical resistance of any character (as far as I know) so these numbers are very likely to be as good as it gets. These are amazing numbers though, so that still leaves plenty of room for great numbers on other characters.
Falcon:
Battlefield lower: 0-56% H.landing
Upper: 110-112% T.landing
110-123% D.I punish
U-throw -> U-tilt -> Upper: 20-22% T.landing
Mac:
Battlefield lower: 0-4% H.landing
Upper: 81-95% T.landing
81-105% D.I punish
Sonic:
Battlefield lower: 0-16% H.landing
Upper: 84-91% D.I punish
Ganondorf:
Battlefield lower: 6-58% H.landing
Upper:113-123% D.I punish
Mega man:
Battlefield lower: 0-30% H.landing
Upper: 90-99% T.landing
90-110% D.I punish
So for now I am just going to focus on battlefield numbers but I may add other numbers later. Ganondorf was interesting because he's the first character so far who actually pops out too low to land on the lower platform at 0% and his numbers are not as great as I was expecting, I guess they could be worse though.
I also finally got to look at the new uptilt! (I've been waiting months to properly lab this move!) So you know when you block a move and try to punish with a grab or something but your opponent is mix-in a lot of spot dodging or rolling behind you? Turns out up tilt is a solid answer for that, but there's a small catch, you have to do it on reaction to the roll/dodge and not preemptively.
This means you have to let them go first but if they are just playing scared or evasive anyway that's not so much a problem because they aren't going to initiate the first attack anyway.
You could also mix this up with down tilts, especially if they have a low shield. Otherwise, it's just a simple tactic that should help keep your opponent honest. Hard reads with fsmash work too, though.
Against spot dodge, it works best on tall characters because the active frames cover them for more time but it should work decently on any character.
If you want a faster way to initiate an attack while still having coverage, this input might be useful. (Hold jab, hold up, tap jab) this should give you an option select between jab combo and up tilt if done correctly. This option select does lose to shield however, so don't spam it, save it for when they are being wary of the grab but you feel like they may still initiate an attack first.
The tried and true fortress out of shield is also a good choice in this case and it isn't a bad option, but the rewards are not as high.
So yeah, I got the opportunity to play around with N-air, and I gotta say, while I have sorta mixed feelings about it, it's potential as a shield breaker cannot be ignored.
So let's go ahead and take a look at what makes this such a great shield breaker. First and foremost, it's fast, fast enough to be difficult to react to. This means that your opponent is less likely to change their mind and stop shielding.
Secondly, it's an aerial, which shields are typically the natural enemies of, so players are already naturally conditioned to shield when you're approaching from the air.
Thirdly, It's multi-hitting, and if it connects properly, they should work as a true blockstun, but there can also be gaps depending on position which I guess could add room to create subtle mix ups. This also means that it isn't completely ruined by perfect shield as the remaining hits should still be able to deal some damage.
Finally, it does huge damage! Almost as much as a down tilt, and in fact one down tilt combined with one neutral air will break a shield just as landing two down tilts is enough to break shields.
This means Bowser does not need to only land the down tilt block string two times for shield breaks, which gives him more freedom and mix-up potential with his non-bomb shield break capabilities.
This could also help Bowser as he's trying to land, if you happen to know that your opponent has a low enough shield, why not land with a neutral air? They shield because it's only natural to shield sn aerial but then you hit for 18-24% on their shield and break it.
But overall it just seems like another way to add pressure through the match if you opponent has to constantly worry about if it's safe to shield or not and maybe it'll even be another reason to use fire breath a bit more, it can whittle shields down quite effectively.
Overall, it's just an idea for now, but the facts are there and I do believe it's worth a shot if it hasn't been tried already.
Again, hope that helps.
