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Dash Platform Dropping - A New Advanced Tech

Shai Hulud

Smash Lord
Joined
Dec 21, 2006
Messages
1,495
Location
Oregon
This tech has existed conceptually for some time in that people are aware of the shield drop, but not actually how to do it (at least, I have never seen anyone do it with any consistency, and I have never seen a thread explaining how to do it). Doing a platform shield drop is very difficult because if you press down too quickly, you spot dodge, and if you don't press quickly enough, you just sit there. What follows is a technique I developed for shield-dropping from dashes 100% of the time. It's quite simple, and I present it and an accompanying video as my 1000th post, a small gift to whomever is still playing Melee (may it live forever).

So the way this works is that shielding from a dash allows you to platform drop by pressing the control stick at an angle 45 degrees below the horizontal (that is, one side of the octagon below the horizontal). If you try to do this from a standing shield, you will roll. But since you're dashing, you can't roll, and will instead drop through the platform. If you press past 45 degrees below the horizontal, you will spot dodge, and if you don't tilt the stick all the way to 45 you will just sit there. You must press exactly (within a few degrees anyway) 45 degrees. In practice you can drop on the first frame the shield pops up, and it's not that hard to do once you get the hang of it. Note that shielding from the initial dash cancels your momentum, but shielding from a full run does not, so if you try the shield drop from a full run and aren't quick enough, you may slide off the platform before you drop through it.

Method Summary

1. Dash on a platform
2. Simultaneously shield and rotate the stick to 45 degrees below the horizontal. To drop through as fast as possible, shield close to the end of the -45 degree rotation (the closer, the better).

That's it. You can fast fall or do anything else you normally can do once you start the platform drop.

I made a short video explaining the technique a little more and showing the dash platform drop (or Shai drop) in action.

The Dash Platform Drop

How to fast-fall a Shai Drop

1. Dash
2. Do the Shai drop as usual, but continue the rotation of the control stick from 45 degrees below horizontal to directly down. You must time the shield to coincide with the start of the second part of the rotation (or earlier, but for the fastest drop you should time the shield when the stick is at -45 degrees).

How to "buffer" a Shai Drop

You can drop through your shield by tilting 45 degrees below horizontal in any situation where pressing left/right will not cause you to roll. This includes, shielding from walking, dashing, running, shielding during any landing lag (if you are holding left/right during the landing lag), holding left/right during the lag of a spot dodge, roll, or waveland and shielding, and pressing left/right during any stun on your shield. Note when I say "buffer" I don't mean the drop will be completed automatically, but that you are "buffering" the left/right input during some kind of lag so as not to register a roll. This isn't really buffering but I don't know a better word for it.

Regarding the name, the descriptive terms "Dash Platform Drop" or "Dash Shield Platform Drop" are fine, but for the sake of brevity and my own vanity I suggested "Shai drop" on account of not knowing what else to call it. You can call it whatever you want, though.

FAQ

Q: Isn't this just the Isai drop?
A: No, the Isai drop is used to cancel platform landing lag from a jump by walking and then pressing down.

Q: Isn't this just the shield drop?
A: Well, yes and no. You are dropping through the platform from shield, but if you do the Shai drop properly you will drop through in 1 frame, before the shield animation even comes up. Specifically this is a technique for consistently doing frame perfect shield drops from a dash.

Q: Should I light-shield or full-shield?
A: You can do it either way, but it is easier light-shielding and you are less likely to make mistakes. You can also do it out of Z-shield if you are holding left/right when the shield comes up.

Q: When doing this I will sometimes do a shield drop then immediately airdodge (not intentionally). What am I doing wrong?
A: You're falling through with light-shield (analog trigger function) and completing the trigger depression to the digital function. You don't need to press the trigger all the way down. You can, but if you do you should do it faster so you won't accidentally air dodge. Just light-shield instead.

Q: Sometimes when I try to Shai drop I just sit there in my shield. What am I doing wrong?
A: you are either not rotating the stick all the way to -45 degrees, or the rotation itself is not smooth enough. If difficulty persists, try shielding slightly before -45 degrees instead of AT -45 degrees. This will make the drop a little slower, but if the rotation is quick there will be little difference.

Q: How much does how fast you move the control stick matter? Or is it purely determined by how far you move it?

A: If your technique is correct, you will drop through at the point you hit -45 degrees no matter how fast the rotation. You can still drop through without the shield animation coming up even if the rotation is relatively slow. Where speed comes in is if you want to drop through at a precise location from a fast dash, because if you are slow, your character will continue the dash during the rotation (although not quite at full dash speed). So, yes, speed is important, but not so much because you need to be fast to drop through, just that you need to be fast to drop through from tight dash dances at exactly the point where you want to drop through.

Q: Nana seems to get stuck on the platforms a lot. Does this tech work with ICs?

A: Yes it does. If Nana is synched with Popo she will fall through with Popo if your technique is correct. However, dash-dancing tends to confuse Nana and will desynch the climbers (in a bad way). If this happens Nana may not drop through.
 

RomeDogg

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Mar 6, 2007
Messages
437
Location
Spearfish, SD
Awesome sh*t, nice to see people still dedicated to Melee and bringing the Melee meta game to its fullest.

Can't believe this wasn't found out ealier though.
 

Goldkirby

Smash Ace
Joined
Dec 11, 2006
Messages
529
Location
Los Angeles
Whoa, that's pretty cool. I'm gonna have to test that out later. Good explanation of that tech Shai. <3 Melee.
 

JFox

Smash Hero
Joined
Oct 25, 2005
Messages
5,310
Location
Under a dark swarm
So the dash allows you to shield drop with more ease? How much time do you have after the dash has completed before it becomes difficult to shield drop once more? I mean, can I dash, lightshield for 5 seconds while my opponets respawn invincibility wears, and then still easily shield drop through the platform?

Very interesting BTW. Nice job. I think its good you provided a video, cuz that made things more clear. :)
 

TheZhuKeeper

Smash Champion
Joined
Jul 2, 2007
Messages
2,908
Location
Philadelphia, PA
Mastered =D

Very cool technique. The only application I've found for Falco is to use it for double dairs. Sometimes the first dair will send an opponent too far horizontally but with this, I might be able to hit them with a second dair even if they DI to the side.

Something else you can do is to use this to bait someone into rolling / spot dodging when both you and and your opponent are on a platform, especially if your opponent is shielding. I can totally imagine people spot dodging just because they see you running at them xD

I remember doing this many times by accident, but thinking it was just a regular shield drop. I never realized how useful this could be. Thanks a lot Shai!
 

Shai Hulud

Smash Lord
Joined
Dec 21, 2006
Messages
1,495
Location
Oregon
So the dash allows you to shield drop with more ease? How much time do you have after the dash has completed before it becomes difficult to shield drop once more? I mean, can I dash, lightshield for 5 seconds while my opponets respawn invincibility wears, and then still easily shield drop through the platform?
As long as you are already holding left/right you can do the shield drop. So you can dash, shield for however long you want, as long as you are still holding left/right, and then do the shield drop.

You can also do this during any kind of lag on your shield in which the left/right input won't register as a roll. For instance, if a Falco is pillaring your shield on a platform you can hold left/right + shield and once you're no longer in shield stun you should be able to shield drop.

The dash platform drop seems by far the most useful for Fox, given his great vertical speed, but I imagine most characters can come up with at least some uses.
 

Lovage 805

Smash Champion
Joined
Nov 14, 2007
Messages
2,197
Location
I left my wallet in
Fantastic job Shai. Just like m2k said, Melee has infinite possibilities. This technique is actually useful, I can't wait to tell people about it in a melee/brawl tournament tomorrow, as well as freak people out with it.
 

Oskurito

Smash Lord
Joined
Jan 28, 2006
Messages
1,948
Location
Hell
Nice found! I've been dropping through platforms since... I started playing falco seriously =P but this seems to be a more interesting/cool/useful way to do it, but I have to master it and play someone to know all of its benefits tho.

Props to you. Shai drop? it doesn't sound too bad, I might be calling it shai drop.
 

Dark Sonic

Smash Hero
Joined
Jun 10, 2006
Messages
6,021
Location
Orlando Florida
This will be amazing for spacing with Marth. Tipped shieldstabbing uairs FTW. Even better since this can be done from a dash dance and stops momentum.

Sweet.
 

festizzio

Smash Champion
Joined
Apr 10, 2006
Messages
2,896
Location
Alhambra, CA
This is great! You can also do it the same way without dashing, you have angle the joystick at 45 degrees still, press it gently enough to not spot-dodge/dodge roll, and still press it fast enough to be able to fall through the platform. It's a little bit more difficult than doing it while running I've found.

I like the name though! :D
 

Tom

Bulletproof Doublevoter
BRoomer
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Apr 11, 2006
Messages
15,021
Location
Nashville, TN
shai looks like a doctor in real life

good **** man =D see you and your purple fox at Georgia's Melee Tournament
 

MikeHaggarTHAKJB

Smash Master
Joined
Apr 12, 2008
Messages
3,186
Location
Göteborg, Sweden
thats so smart! this'll make it way easier for me to play fluently on platform stages (the fact that I dont is one of my biggest weaknesses. need to play less FD :p). and fastfalling from a platform drop will be easier for me to considering the position im holding the control stick. thanks alot!
 

TheManaLord

Smash Hero
Joined
Jun 4, 2006
Messages
6,283
Location
Upstate NY
Except isai already has a tech and this has nothing to do with the isai drop. Shai drop ftw.
Isai drop is dropping through platform whilst in a shield so they are very closely related... and you should know that naming something after yourself is taboo ;p
 

Shai Hulud

Smash Lord
Joined
Dec 21, 2006
Messages
1,495
Location
Oregon
Isai drop is dropping through platform whilst in a shield so they are very closely related... and you should know that naming something after yourself is taboo ;p
Isai dropping is cancelling the platform landing lag from a jump by WALKING and then pressing down. No shielding is involved. Call the dash platform drop what you want I don't really care. Shai drop is just easier to say than "dash platform drop" although almost no one will know what you're talking about.
 

SpaceFalcon

Smash Lord
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Oct 3, 2007
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Do this with marths platform canceled f-air and this if you do it fast enough, you might even powershield a couple things.
 

Bluebottel

Smash Cadet
Joined
Dec 13, 2006
Messages
61
Location
Sweden
It seems like the explanation for this goes something like this:

Dashing/moving forward prevents platform fallthrough. The shield then stops all momentum but the startup frame(s) of the shield can be cancelled to a platform fallthrough.

Nice find, this willl definately throw people off guard.
 

Shai Hulud

Smash Lord
Joined
Dec 21, 2006
Messages
1,495
Location
Oregon
It seems like the explanation for this goes something like this:

Dashing/moving forward prevents platform fallthrough. The shield then stops all momentum but the startup frame(s) of the shield can be cancelled to a platform fallthrough.

Nice find, this willl definately throw people off guard.
The most important thing is that shielding when dashing prevents rolling in the direction you're dashing, which is what lets you drop through the platform by angling the stick -45 degrees. From a standing shield this just makes you roll. You can cancel the shield by falling through the platform at any point while the shield is up, as early as frame 1.
 

phanna

Dread Phanna
BRoomer
Joined
Apr 3, 2006
Messages
2,758
Location
Florida
This is the shield drop, and nothing else. Several years old. Some people dash before doing it, some people don't suck that bad and can do it by itself.

For anyone who is confused about Isai drop, shield drop, etc:

Platforms 101
 

Shai Hulud

Smash Lord
Joined
Dec 21, 2006
Messages
1,495
Location
Oregon
This is the shield drop, and nothing else. Several years old. Some people dash before doing it, some people don't suck that bad and can do it by itself.
No **** it's the shield drop. I specifically said this is a technique for doing the shield drop easily.

So the great Phanna can do the shield drop regardless, who cares, most people can't (even people who "don't suck that bad") and a lot of people appreciate this thread, so if you have nothing to contribute then go away.
 

Benjamin Linus

Smash Apprentice
Joined
May 19, 2008
Messages
173
Location
On the Island
This is an amazing find. the current use i have been applying is to shield on a platform when an opponent is chasing me. after hitting my shield i can drop under and then come back up with an attack while they are still vulnerable.

i think this find is as useful as shield-gaurding or ledge-shielding.
 
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