Does ZSS have any weaknesses?

[Team Orchid]

Hi there, wannabe Zelda main here currently learning my edgegaurds, general offstage play, and matchups. So far almost every opponent I've faced has something I can do against them even if the odds are against me. For instance even against a swordie that completely outranges me in melee I can use my knight and fire from out of their range or if I'm feeling ballsy wind into them.

However Zero Suit Samus has not shown any weaknesses when I fight her. She's too fast for my wind and projectiles (and her own when I reflect it) her whip outranges my melee options, and she kills at percents on par with my lightning kicks assuming she doesn't combo into her spike. Fighting a ZSS main has been nothing but frustration for me and I just want to know what I can even do to stop her.

 

[yknowlikenia]

as someone who's played around with both zss for a long while, i feel that zss has trouble approaching, albeit if you have good reacting time. she has a good dash but other than that, if you can shield her approaches or react to a grab, then she's usually a sitting duck for a brief moment (her grab is definitely a big weakness if it doesn't catch you).
generally, zelda was never a good matchup to zero suit, so you're fighting an uphill battle. she usually loses to those who can outrun her without trouble.

 

[Bobert]

ZSS doesn't really like having to rely on her grab because of how laggy it is. Try to bait her into using it so you can punish her with grab combos of your own. ZSS will spend a lot of time in the air because her ground game isn't that great, so you can probably catch her with an up tilt starter mid jump if she's jumping around carelessly.

 

[pichuthedk]

I lost to a decent Zelda around 2nd week or so when game released , for me personally it just feels like very little is safe on shield for a Zelda.

I was having things like my f-tilt (spaced mind you) not be parried and she would jump out of shield and fair or bair me getting the sweet spot and totally taking half my stock.

This Zelda said she feels like I have a hard time approaching which is true because zss kind of relies on speed and being able to out pace you.

Zelda just has a better neutral then zss whether zss is faster or not makes little difference when Zelda can just have better range and pressure tools, (i.e phantom on any stage with a platform)

 

[ThegreatVaporeon1]

ZSS is tall so shes easy to hit. When shes offstage, try to look for her down b and punish her after she does it so she doesn't have it anymore.

 

[Justin Allen Goldschmidt]

Literally ducking under her aerials can make life hard for her. Short and small characters especially can really throw-off ZSS's offense. On her defense, I'm not totally sure. I suppose she loses to the same stuff most characters would, such as safe pokes early kills. Olimar probably ruins her life, but don't quote me.

 

[pichuthedk]

Literally ducking under her aerials can make life hard for her. Short and small characters especially can really throw-off ZSS's offense. On her defense, I'm not totally sure. I suppose she loses to the same stuff most characters would, such as safe pokes early kills. Olimar probably ruins her life, but don't quote me.

He's pretty annoying but I'm not a mid level zss and I don't really practice constantly on dealing with characters that can just bully you with hitboxes.

I find a lot of characters can bully her super easy because flip jumps invincibility is u reliable unlike it was in brawl with intangibility on startup.

 

[DavemanCozy]

So taking the feedback in this thread, I've noted that if you overcommit then ZSS can rule the matchup, with her better range and superior movement. But if you bait her into relying on her grab or committing herself to an aerial, her weaknesses are more pronounced.

Makes sense to me