I have been playing Brawl like a madman, and of all the characters I like Wolf the best.
General information
Wolf is NOT a Fox clone. Aside from the Landmaster, his B moves and some misc attacks are the only things that weakly resemble Fox and even those are as different as Mario and Luigi if not moreso. Wolf is a new character entirely. This is the only time I will mention this.
Wolf's attacks come out fast and are reasonably powerful. While he's heavier than average, he attacks more like a medium weight than a heavyweight. He threatens a wide area around him. Think you're safe on a Battlefield platform when Wolf is under the other one? Nope, He can Side-B you in about 20 frames, and sweetspot it to boot. I was a Falco main in Melee, and Wolf plays more like Melee Falco than any other Brawl character in my opinion - though still not very much. It seems that the Melee Falco style is gone in Brawl. Wolf can combo more than most. Additionally, Wolf has a huge number of kill moves. None of these kill at low percents, but once your opponent's damage is up there, you have a lot of choices. To boot, these kill moves aren't even slow, except his spike, which is still one of the better spikes in the game. In general, Wolf's moves do not leave him open for long, so punishing him is difficult against anything but his recovery and a few things like the dash attack and forward air.
Wolf is above average weight. See my analysis of the relative weights of characters here: http://smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=143406
Strengths
-Falls somewhat faster than most other brawlers. This is both a blessing and a curse.
-Attacks that come out fast, with minimal lag before and afterward. Difficult to punish most attacks.
-Huge array of kill moves, both for star KO and Side KOs.
-Well equipped with a spammable projectile, a reflector, a spike, and recoveries usable when still on the stage. All B moves are useful.
Weaknesses
-Falls somewhat faster than most other brawlers. This is both a blessing and a curse.
-Throws do not combo. Back throw can be jumped out of before combos, Down throw followups can be shielded. This also means no chain throwing.
-Recovery is below average. Doesn't have the obscene recovery distance of most newcomers and Wolf falls straight down after Up+B, like Zelda does. This makes it very easy to get traped under stages, and since recoveries are punishable, once Wolf's offstage, he generally stays offstage.
Moveset
Damage percentages are maximums (no overuse penalty), and all smashes are uncharged.
KO percentages are against Mario standing (even for aerials) in the center of Final Destination and are for KOs against the sidewall or off the top with no DI. For multiple hit moves like Jab, Fsmash, etc or for moves with variable knockback depending on spacing like Ftilt and Utilt, it is assumed that the attack lands in the best way possible for kills. The best kill move percentages are in red.
Tilts
Jab: (3% then 2% then 4%. KO 232%) Wolf swipes his claws forward. Press A more for up to 3 swipes. The third swipe has some knockback to it but will only push them a little away from you.
Foward Tilt: (5% then 6%. KO 165%) A double handed bash and claw. Reasonable hitbox size directly in front of Wolf. It has two hits to it, one when his hands are extended forward and upwards, and once when he brings them down. Also, it LOOKS like a sweetspot attack is it stops the defender for a bit before knocking them, but this happens regardless of whether you tipper. It kind of acts like Marth's sword in that it can tipper. If you hit them from well within its range you won't do as much knockback. Still, even if not tipped it has good knockback for a tilt.
Down tilt: (6%. KO 259%) Wolf kicks along the ground. Nothing much special about this - average damage and low knockback. It sometimes trips the opponent.
Up tilt: (10%. Star KO 130%) Wolf raises his foot to head level and does a bunny hop. Kind of goofy looking, and knocks upwards. Knockback is low if your opponent is in the air but high (killable) if they're on the ground. It knocks further the closer they are to you even though its horizontal range is minimal so if you're going for a Star KO you need to be all up in their face. You can combo this into an aerial at low percents. Vegeta214 contributed that the Utilt can go through platforms. Nice!
Dash: (9%. Star KO 191%) This is a flip kick that resembles Fox's up smash in its animation. Direction of knockback is more vertical the closer you are to your opponent when you use it. Of course, it's not nearly as powerful as a fox up smash. If you miss or get shielded, this leaves you wide open to a counterattack. For this reason, I prefer up smashing out of a dash (Use the C-stick and you don't have to stop the dash), which is a more powerful upward attack with a bigger hitbox and less lag afterwards.
Smashes
Foward smash: (5% then 10%, or just 10%. KO 151%) The reason scrubs will *love* Wolf and a huge reason why he is to be feared when he's not anywhere near you. Out of nowhere Wolf dashes forward as fast as a Fox illusion and about half as far, with his claw out. Very little startup lag, but there's some ending lag. If you're close to the enemy a first hit will push them along with you so they get hit by the smash at the end. The knockback is respectable and killable but not as much knockback as his other kill moves (Dsmash, Fair, Bair...). I cannot emphasize the range of this move enough. It's about the same as a melee marth fsmash. What's more, at low percents he can combo Fsmash + Fsmash + Fsmash or Fsmash + Fsmash + Side B (sometimes even sweetspotted).
Down smash: (14% in front, 13% behind. KO 117%) Wow, this is fast. Wolf quickly claws the ground in front of him, then behind him. The thing is, though wolf's arms are short, there's a "whoosh" graphic in front of them in the animation which extends the hitbox. This is a definite kill move as it sends opponents quite far and the trajectory is almost completely horizontal. If I had to give up all but one of my smashes, this is the one I keep. As amazing as Fsmash is, Dsmash trumps it. Wow.
Up smash: (6% then 12%. Star KO 124%) This is a cool looking move. Wolf does a handstand-split then pushes off the ground with his hands and clamps his feet together above him. The thing about this move is that it has great vertical reach. It will hit people on Battlefield platforms. It will hit people on Lylat Cruise platforms. It's a beast of a move, since the first part has respectable horizontal reach and almost always combos into the last part. Also, there is almost zero ending lag after the attack finishes.if someone approaches you on the ground after you mispredict a Usmash, they're probably going to get Dsmashed anyway.
Airs
Forward Air: (11%. Star KO 143% from the ground) Wolf claws in front of him. This comes out quick and has great knockback. It's a fantastic kill move because the direction enemies fly in is almost all upwards. This star KOs early on most characters and in Brawl that's really something. However, if you land during this move it takes Wolf quite some time to get back up and ready again, and it's easily punishable.
Back air: (11%. KO 140%) Wolf kicks behind him. This is yet another kill move, but this one horizontally. It's not quite as strong as the down smash for horizontal KOs but sends in a very similar direction. Vegeta214 contributes that because of Bair's reach, you can turnaround shorthop approach with it. Kashakunaki contributes the "Wolf Wall" technique enabled by this move - see the Glitches and Techniques section.
Down Air: (15%. Star KO 181% from the ground) This move spikes. Wolf claws downwards with both hands knocking the opponent straight down. There is no sweetspot necessary, it just works. It comes out pretty slowly for Wolf, about as fast as Melee Captain Falcon's spike. Because of Brawl's low gravity, you can jump, spike, and double jump + recover reasonably easily. A great surprise kill.
Up air: (12%) Wolf claws above him. This move has medium knockback. According to Vegeta214, you can juggle well with it.
Neutral air: (8% for the first frame, otherwise 1% per hit) Wolf does some front flips. This move has pretty much zero knockback except for right when you start it, and can hit multiple times otherwise.
Throws
Grab and attack: (1%) Wolf knees the opponent in the face with his spiked kneecap armor. Apparently the spikes have safety tips as this only does 1%, but you can do it very fast over and over. FURIOUSLY.
Forward throw: (7%) Nothing really special about this. Wolf claws them forwards. Too much knockback to combo, but too little to kill.
Back Throw: (7%) This is a really weird throw. Wolf jumps up and kicks the opponent behind him. Not very much knockback, and the knockback is upwards. You can jump up and do an aerial after it. It probably won't combo (not enough throw stun), but it's something.
Up throw: (7%) Again, not much special about it. Wolf jumps up and claws them upwards.
Down throw: (12%) Wolf throws them downwards, but they land in front of him. Leads into forward smashes at low percents, but there's not enough throwstun for it to combo (opponent can shield). This is kind of like Melee Falco's down throw -> down smash combo in that skilled players won't be hit by the followup smash but it will take scrubs by surprise.
Specials
B: (6% laser, 4% melee. Melee KO 451%, laser never KOs) Blaster. This looks like it is going to be a huge factor in tournament play. Wolf's blaster fires a short, fat, green laser that has a slower rate of fire than Falco's, moves slower through the air, and has limited range. However, it has a HUGE hitbox and is VERY campable. Most of the lag of this attack is before the projectile comes out. Wolf with blaster spam is quite difficult to approach. You can short hop it but you won't cancel any of the lag so it's only useful for shooting in the air or moving around while shooting. You can turn around before shooting if you're in the air. Wolf's blaster's limited range is a blessing in disguise as when it's reflected it will often vanish just before it hits you. Also, Wolf's blaster has a BAYONET attached. If you blaster someone point blank, they will be knifed and shot at the same time. Awesome. Vegeta214 contributes that the melee part is good against airboard opponents, as Wolf raises his gun before bringing it down each shot.
Side B: (3%, 10% or 15% if sweetspotted) This is kind of like a bizarre Fox Illusion. Wolf dashes diagonally forwards and upwards. There is very little delay before it comes out, about a third to a half of melee illusions. There is not much damage and knockback when it hits, and it doesn't meteor. However, when you hit someone at the END of the side B, this is the sweetspot. When it sweetspots, it hits oppponents with great force. As a recovery move, it's a bit harder to sweetspot the ledge than it is for most Brawl characters who don't even have to think about sweetspotting ledges for their recoveries to work perfectly. Also check out the Glitches and Techniques section for two Side-B glitches. It can be illusion cancelled by pressing B again before it goes off, but the timing is extremely fast because of the low startup time. Vegeta214 contributes that you can waveland from illusion cancels, but can't attack during the waveland, the Side-B can slightly adjust its angle to better autosweetspot ledges, when you sweetspot enemies with it they fly in the direction they are relative to Wolf (the sweetspot has a decent sized hitbox), and illusion cancelling can lead to two different shortened distances, one about half the normal distance and one barely moving at all.
Down B: (3%) Shine! Wolf has a RED shine that he carries on his back. It looks quite cool. As a reflector, there's really not much to it. As with some other reflectors in this game, some projectiles like Samus missiles get reflected at mach speed. Items and projectiles affected by gravity bounce off instead of getting reflected. For example, something that comes from above and to the right will bounce off downwards and to the right. As a melee attack, it comes out quick, has a big hitbox, and knocks in the same direction as Melee Fox's, but the knockback and hitstun is exceedingly minimal that shine spiking is not practical. It cannot be jump cancelled and unlike Fox's, does NOT stop your fall momentum. You can hit (fsmash is decent) out of it but the opponent has enough time to shieldgrab you if you try it. -_-
Up B: (Last hit does 3%, others build up 2% each) This is an interesting move. Like a Fire fox, you can control its direction, and it goes about as far as Fox's (Longer than most opponents expect). To give you a better idea of its range, if you do this in one corner of the middle part Onett and your opponent is in the opposite corner, it will just barely hit them. It has about half as much startup lag as the up+Bs other space animals use. Wolf kicks through this move (think falcon kick) but anyone hit gets trapped into it. The last part of it is a second kick in a horizontal direction if you moved vertically, or just a hitbox with knockback in the current kick if you went horizontally. Because this move has a lot of priority you can move forward with it, again like a falcon kick to attack enemies. The graphical effect for this isn't fire, but wind. Watch out when you try to recover with this, because once it's done you go straight downwards. You can't up+B close to the ledge and "lean" into it as well as you could with melee space animals. Like his Side+B, sweetspotting the ledge is harder than other Brawl characters' recoveries. Vegeta214 contributes that If you up+B under a stage you will usually get trapped under the ledge, as it doesn't follow walls nearly as well as Melee space animals did with their up+Bs. You need to try and sweetspot the edge without letting anything (like a sloped wall) getting in your way in such cases. Unfortunately, most of the levels in Brawl have ledges like this. There's a pretty cool trick you can do with Up+B after ledgegrabbing, see the Ledgehopping section for details.
Misc attacks
Get up attack: Looks like Melee Falco's. damage and knockback is similar.
Both ledge get up attacks also look and act like Melee Falco's.
Vegeta214 says Wolf has an excellent roll. I agree that it's quick and goes far enough, but it's not quite as fast or as distance-covering as Lucario's or Metaknight's. Still, it's decent and rolls seem more useful in Brawl than in Melee.
Glitches and Techniques
Ledge Glitch: If you Side-B recover enough above the ledge so it doesn't sweetspot the ledge but not enough to put you on the ground, sometimes you won't ledgegrab, but fall straight down. This is interesting in that it does NOT put you ito special fall. You can recover by Up-Bing straight up which will sweetspot the ledge. I don't know any practical use for this, though I suppose it can be a mindgame if it's reliably repeatable.
Surface Glitch: If the ground obstructs your Side-B you will follow the ground instead of your usual diagonal trajectory. A good example is the Yoshi's Island Melee stage (the Super Mario World one). If you side-B up the pipe from the left side, you'll continue downwards and to the right along the pipe's right side. This can also be done at a specific point by the far left ledge of Melee Corneria, and in weird places like the teleport platform to the next stage in All-Star mode.
Foxtrot: I don't claim any credit for discovery of this, but this dash dance variation looks like it's going to be a significant part of Wolf's high end play, allowing you to do things like Fsmashes out of a dash. More info can be found in this post.
Ledgehopping: This is a pretty common technique and isn't Wolf-specific, but fits better here than in other categories. Ledgehopping is when you're hanging off the ledge, but drop fomr it by pushing away from the stage with the control stick, then using your double jump and an attack to agressively get back onto the stage using a different attack than your reguilar "A" ledge get-up attack. There are 3 attacks Wolf has that are practical for ledgehopping.
-Blaster. Vegeta214 brought this to my attention. Ahh, the good old ledge hopped blaster. Melee Falco players know this technique all too well. Wolf's blaster in particular is good for this because it threatens both people stanging on top of the ledge (with the blaster's bayonet as a bonus) and those a bit back ready to counter a get-up attack. This is the most difficult ledgehop to do, as the timing is a bit tight to blaster towards the stage and get enough air to land on it. Back Jump B Forward.
-Neutral air. One of the few uses for neutral air in my opinion. At low percents you can generally combo a ground attack after this hits. Back Jump A Forward.
-Forward air. The easiest ledgehop to pull off. Since the knockback is upwards, you can often jump up and back air them to turn the tables, or kill with this alone if they're at high percent. The only problem is that it leaves you open if you miss, more than other ledgehops. Back Jump Forward (hold) A.
-Up+B. There's a pretty cool trick you can do with Up+B after ledgegrabbing. You can ledgehop backwards and up+B back into the ledge. If you aim above the ledge enough not to sweetspot it but not high enough to be on top of the stage, you'll kick into the ledge hitting the top of the stage (of course hitting opponents on the ground) and immediately ledgegrab after this.
-You can full-hop double aerial most of Wolf's aerial attacks. Kashakunaki contributes the following application of this technique, which he calls the "Wolf Wall"
Zelda - "Don't get too cocky"
Don't laser camp, because she will respond with fireball camping just outside your blaster range. Her projectile is a lot more powerful than yours, and has a HUGE hitbox, so that's an uphill battle, since both of you have reflectors. If you want to make her approach you, just chill with your shine up. When you do close in, you'll have trouble with her smashes as they have big hitboxes. The good thing is that while she's been buffed for Brawl, she's still pretty slow compared to you so if you can predict what she's going to do, your counterattacks will easily outspeed hers. Stay close and keep the pressure on.
Samus - "What? Is that all you've got?"
Samus really doesn't have any options versus Wolf. If she tries to missile spam, your shine will send them back at high speeds, so you force her to approach you through your oddly superior projectile spam. However, she has no good approach! Her only real kill options are Bair and Dtilt and those are pretty easy to predict and avoid with a fast character like Wolf.
Ike - "Can't let you do that"
Ike has two great tricks up his sleeve. One is Side-B approach. Ike has virtually no lag after a missed Side-B and often follows up with a jab, grab, or Utilt, all very fast attacks for a slowpoke like Ike. You can completely stop this nonsense with blaster spam. He has no reflector and will have to jump to approach you. You can see most of his aerials coming a mile away, but his backair (Ike's other trick) is fast. As fast as yours, with a bigger hitbox and as much knockback as your Dsmash. Fortunately, its hitbox is just to the side of him so he usually has to shorthop ground opponents, which again is quite difficult with your blaster spam. This forces Ike to use his slow attacks, which Wolf can pretty easily dodge.
Pit - "What the heck?"
Don't camp with your blaster as his projectile spam will beat yours every time. Consequently, either you'll have to approach him or just chill with your reflector up until he comes for you. (though he has the same options) His aerials wall of pain better than Brawl Jigglypuff's and he has enough jumps to get all he can out of it. On top if that, his recovery gives him a long period of free motion in the air so if your hit doesn't KO during the hitstun, he'll be coming back for more. He's fast enough that his melee attacks will generally trade evenly with yours, but you have him beat on reach. So space your attacks. Proper spacing of things like your Fsmash and Bair will give you the upper hand. Mix it up with your B moves as well, to keep him guessing. His bow and your shine come out about the same speed so don't let him spam you into bad spacing. Also, don't be afraid to occasionally blaster when he's not expecting it. He outprojectiles you, but that doesn't mean blaster is completely useless against him.
Meta Knight - "No way! I don't believe it!"
A character who can easily punish Wolf's mistakes. Let that sink in for a minute. Ok. The key to fighting a good MK is unpredictibility. You really need to mix it up and use moves that younormally wouldn't. If the MK isn't in a good position to punish, you can get away with missing. Also, beware of his edgeguarding. MK isn't terribly good at killing in general, but Wolf suffers greatly from MK's edgeguarding, so you'll have to mix up your recoveries too. Keep in mind MK's disjointed hitboxes, attack speed, priority, and low lag when you go on the offensive. Once you get a feel for your opponent, these can be overcome. Don't forget that MK has to hit you a lot more than you hit him for a KO.
Other Cool Stuff
Up Taunt: Wolf howls. Awesome.
Side Taunt: Wolf does a few kicks. This is not an attack.
Down Taunt: Wolf hits the ground and growls.
Wolf howls when he's star KO'd
Wolf wears light armor that's spiked on the kneecaps shoulderpads, and collar. He wears a chain on his pants, and makes a metal "clink" sound when he lands from a jump. Wolf is sleeveless. His body armor stops at the shoulderpads and he doesn't wear anything on his arms but has gloves/bracers with holes for the claws. If you pause and zoom in, you can see that he wears a necklace (though this may be dog tags) as well. Wolf wears a HMD ("Scouter" for you DBZ fans) like other Brawl Space animals that changes color along with his costumes, which can be found here.
Wolf has a special taunt on Lylat Cruise. Mash the down taunt button until you see an animation just like Fox and Falco's special taunts for Corneria/Venom in Melee. What? nothing happened? You'll see, it's a delayed special taunt. It doesn't happen until the background changes, and instead of being generic, it will be relevant to what's going on in the background. A few lines of dialog will be said between the Star Wolf Team and the Star Fox team generally. Also, Fox and Falco's special taunts for Lylat Cruise are activated and work in the same manner.
History of this guide
Most recent changes first
March 22:
-Drack's final edition of the guide. Reworded bits and pieces from EVERY section. Now, ownership has been passed to Kashakunaki who wants to continue what I've started and is more than qualified. Thanks everyone for your contributions and for reading my work!
March 7:
-Added Meta Knight matchup
Feb 17:
-Added up+B Ledgehop trick, added special taunt
Feb 11:
-Added ledgehopping, changed dash attack description, added Kashakunaki's "Wolf Wall" technique.
Feb 10:
- Added weight analysis
Feb 8:
-Added Vegeta214's contributions
-Updated "Other Cool Stuff", added Strengths and Weaknesses.
Feb 7:
-Glitches and Techniques section added, KO percentages added. Tilts in particular surprised me. Utilt kills earlier than Ftilt! Updated matchups
Feb 6:
-Guide initially posted, Added Specials and Matchups, Added "Other Cool Stuff" and damage percentages, Updated intro and Specials.
If you have any questions or contributions, Please post them and I'll add the answers or contributions (with credit) to the guide.
General information
Wolf is NOT a Fox clone. Aside from the Landmaster, his B moves and some misc attacks are the only things that weakly resemble Fox and even those are as different as Mario and Luigi if not moreso. Wolf is a new character entirely. This is the only time I will mention this.
Wolf's attacks come out fast and are reasonably powerful. While he's heavier than average, he attacks more like a medium weight than a heavyweight. He threatens a wide area around him. Think you're safe on a Battlefield platform when Wolf is under the other one? Nope, He can Side-B you in about 20 frames, and sweetspot it to boot. I was a Falco main in Melee, and Wolf plays more like Melee Falco than any other Brawl character in my opinion - though still not very much. It seems that the Melee Falco style is gone in Brawl. Wolf can combo more than most. Additionally, Wolf has a huge number of kill moves. None of these kill at low percents, but once your opponent's damage is up there, you have a lot of choices. To boot, these kill moves aren't even slow, except his spike, which is still one of the better spikes in the game. In general, Wolf's moves do not leave him open for long, so punishing him is difficult against anything but his recovery and a few things like the dash attack and forward air.
Wolf is above average weight. See my analysis of the relative weights of characters here: http://smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=143406
Strengths
-Falls somewhat faster than most other brawlers. This is both a blessing and a curse.
-Attacks that come out fast, with minimal lag before and afterward. Difficult to punish most attacks.
-Huge array of kill moves, both for star KO and Side KOs.
-Well equipped with a spammable projectile, a reflector, a spike, and recoveries usable when still on the stage. All B moves are useful.
Weaknesses
-Falls somewhat faster than most other brawlers. This is both a blessing and a curse.
-Throws do not combo. Back throw can be jumped out of before combos, Down throw followups can be shielded. This also means no chain throwing.
-Recovery is below average. Doesn't have the obscene recovery distance of most newcomers and Wolf falls straight down after Up+B, like Zelda does. This makes it very easy to get traped under stages, and since recoveries are punishable, once Wolf's offstage, he generally stays offstage.
Moveset
Damage percentages are maximums (no overuse penalty), and all smashes are uncharged.
KO percentages are against Mario standing (even for aerials) in the center of Final Destination and are for KOs against the sidewall or off the top with no DI. For multiple hit moves like Jab, Fsmash, etc or for moves with variable knockback depending on spacing like Ftilt and Utilt, it is assumed that the attack lands in the best way possible for kills. The best kill move percentages are in red.
Tilts
Jab: (3% then 2% then 4%. KO 232%) Wolf swipes his claws forward. Press A more for up to 3 swipes. The third swipe has some knockback to it but will only push them a little away from you.
Foward Tilt: (5% then 6%. KO 165%) A double handed bash and claw. Reasonable hitbox size directly in front of Wolf. It has two hits to it, one when his hands are extended forward and upwards, and once when he brings them down. Also, it LOOKS like a sweetspot attack is it stops the defender for a bit before knocking them, but this happens regardless of whether you tipper. It kind of acts like Marth's sword in that it can tipper. If you hit them from well within its range you won't do as much knockback. Still, even if not tipped it has good knockback for a tilt.
Down tilt: (6%. KO 259%) Wolf kicks along the ground. Nothing much special about this - average damage and low knockback. It sometimes trips the opponent.
Up tilt: (10%. Star KO 130%) Wolf raises his foot to head level and does a bunny hop. Kind of goofy looking, and knocks upwards. Knockback is low if your opponent is in the air but high (killable) if they're on the ground. It knocks further the closer they are to you even though its horizontal range is minimal so if you're going for a Star KO you need to be all up in their face. You can combo this into an aerial at low percents. Vegeta214 contributed that the Utilt can go through platforms. Nice!
Dash: (9%. Star KO 191%) This is a flip kick that resembles Fox's up smash in its animation. Direction of knockback is more vertical the closer you are to your opponent when you use it. Of course, it's not nearly as powerful as a fox up smash. If you miss or get shielded, this leaves you wide open to a counterattack. For this reason, I prefer up smashing out of a dash (Use the C-stick and you don't have to stop the dash), which is a more powerful upward attack with a bigger hitbox and less lag afterwards.
Smashes
Foward smash: (5% then 10%, or just 10%. KO 151%) The reason scrubs will *love* Wolf and a huge reason why he is to be feared when he's not anywhere near you. Out of nowhere Wolf dashes forward as fast as a Fox illusion and about half as far, with his claw out. Very little startup lag, but there's some ending lag. If you're close to the enemy a first hit will push them along with you so they get hit by the smash at the end. The knockback is respectable and killable but not as much knockback as his other kill moves (Dsmash, Fair, Bair...). I cannot emphasize the range of this move enough. It's about the same as a melee marth fsmash. What's more, at low percents he can combo Fsmash + Fsmash + Fsmash or Fsmash + Fsmash + Side B (sometimes even sweetspotted).
Down smash: (14% in front, 13% behind. KO 117%) Wow, this is fast. Wolf quickly claws the ground in front of him, then behind him. The thing is, though wolf's arms are short, there's a "whoosh" graphic in front of them in the animation which extends the hitbox. This is a definite kill move as it sends opponents quite far and the trajectory is almost completely horizontal. If I had to give up all but one of my smashes, this is the one I keep. As amazing as Fsmash is, Dsmash trumps it. Wow.
Up smash: (6% then 12%. Star KO 124%) This is a cool looking move. Wolf does a handstand-split then pushes off the ground with his hands and clamps his feet together above him. The thing about this move is that it has great vertical reach. It will hit people on Battlefield platforms. It will hit people on Lylat Cruise platforms. It's a beast of a move, since the first part has respectable horizontal reach and almost always combos into the last part. Also, there is almost zero ending lag after the attack finishes.if someone approaches you on the ground after you mispredict a Usmash, they're probably going to get Dsmashed anyway.
Airs
Forward Air: (11%. Star KO 143% from the ground) Wolf claws in front of him. This comes out quick and has great knockback. It's a fantastic kill move because the direction enemies fly in is almost all upwards. This star KOs early on most characters and in Brawl that's really something. However, if you land during this move it takes Wolf quite some time to get back up and ready again, and it's easily punishable.
Back air: (11%. KO 140%) Wolf kicks behind him. This is yet another kill move, but this one horizontally. It's not quite as strong as the down smash for horizontal KOs but sends in a very similar direction. Vegeta214 contributes that because of Bair's reach, you can turnaround shorthop approach with it. Kashakunaki contributes the "Wolf Wall" technique enabled by this move - see the Glitches and Techniques section.
Down Air: (15%. Star KO 181% from the ground) This move spikes. Wolf claws downwards with both hands knocking the opponent straight down. There is no sweetspot necessary, it just works. It comes out pretty slowly for Wolf, about as fast as Melee Captain Falcon's spike. Because of Brawl's low gravity, you can jump, spike, and double jump + recover reasonably easily. A great surprise kill.
Up air: (12%) Wolf claws above him. This move has medium knockback. According to Vegeta214, you can juggle well with it.
Neutral air: (8% for the first frame, otherwise 1% per hit) Wolf does some front flips. This move has pretty much zero knockback except for right when you start it, and can hit multiple times otherwise.
Throws
Grab and attack: (1%) Wolf knees the opponent in the face with his spiked kneecap armor. Apparently the spikes have safety tips as this only does 1%, but you can do it very fast over and over. FURIOUSLY.
Forward throw: (7%) Nothing really special about this. Wolf claws them forwards. Too much knockback to combo, but too little to kill.
Back Throw: (7%) This is a really weird throw. Wolf jumps up and kicks the opponent behind him. Not very much knockback, and the knockback is upwards. You can jump up and do an aerial after it. It probably won't combo (not enough throw stun), but it's something.
Up throw: (7%) Again, not much special about it. Wolf jumps up and claws them upwards.
Down throw: (12%) Wolf throws them downwards, but they land in front of him. Leads into forward smashes at low percents, but there's not enough throwstun for it to combo (opponent can shield). This is kind of like Melee Falco's down throw -> down smash combo in that skilled players won't be hit by the followup smash but it will take scrubs by surprise.
Specials
B: (6% laser, 4% melee. Melee KO 451%, laser never KOs) Blaster. This looks like it is going to be a huge factor in tournament play. Wolf's blaster fires a short, fat, green laser that has a slower rate of fire than Falco's, moves slower through the air, and has limited range. However, it has a HUGE hitbox and is VERY campable. Most of the lag of this attack is before the projectile comes out. Wolf with blaster spam is quite difficult to approach. You can short hop it but you won't cancel any of the lag so it's only useful for shooting in the air or moving around while shooting. You can turn around before shooting if you're in the air. Wolf's blaster's limited range is a blessing in disguise as when it's reflected it will often vanish just before it hits you. Also, Wolf's blaster has a BAYONET attached. If you blaster someone point blank, they will be knifed and shot at the same time. Awesome. Vegeta214 contributes that the melee part is good against airboard opponents, as Wolf raises his gun before bringing it down each shot.
Side B: (3%, 10% or 15% if sweetspotted) This is kind of like a bizarre Fox Illusion. Wolf dashes diagonally forwards and upwards. There is very little delay before it comes out, about a third to a half of melee illusions. There is not much damage and knockback when it hits, and it doesn't meteor. However, when you hit someone at the END of the side B, this is the sweetspot. When it sweetspots, it hits oppponents with great force. As a recovery move, it's a bit harder to sweetspot the ledge than it is for most Brawl characters who don't even have to think about sweetspotting ledges for their recoveries to work perfectly. Also check out the Glitches and Techniques section for two Side-B glitches. It can be illusion cancelled by pressing B again before it goes off, but the timing is extremely fast because of the low startup time. Vegeta214 contributes that you can waveland from illusion cancels, but can't attack during the waveland, the Side-B can slightly adjust its angle to better autosweetspot ledges, when you sweetspot enemies with it they fly in the direction they are relative to Wolf (the sweetspot has a decent sized hitbox), and illusion cancelling can lead to two different shortened distances, one about half the normal distance and one barely moving at all.
Down B: (3%) Shine! Wolf has a RED shine that he carries on his back. It looks quite cool. As a reflector, there's really not much to it. As with some other reflectors in this game, some projectiles like Samus missiles get reflected at mach speed. Items and projectiles affected by gravity bounce off instead of getting reflected. For example, something that comes from above and to the right will bounce off downwards and to the right. As a melee attack, it comes out quick, has a big hitbox, and knocks in the same direction as Melee Fox's, but the knockback and hitstun is exceedingly minimal that shine spiking is not practical. It cannot be jump cancelled and unlike Fox's, does NOT stop your fall momentum. You can hit (fsmash is decent) out of it but the opponent has enough time to shieldgrab you if you try it. -_-
Up B: (Last hit does 3%, others build up 2% each) This is an interesting move. Like a Fire fox, you can control its direction, and it goes about as far as Fox's (Longer than most opponents expect). To give you a better idea of its range, if you do this in one corner of the middle part Onett and your opponent is in the opposite corner, it will just barely hit them. It has about half as much startup lag as the up+Bs other space animals use. Wolf kicks through this move (think falcon kick) but anyone hit gets trapped into it. The last part of it is a second kick in a horizontal direction if you moved vertically, or just a hitbox with knockback in the current kick if you went horizontally. Because this move has a lot of priority you can move forward with it, again like a falcon kick to attack enemies. The graphical effect for this isn't fire, but wind. Watch out when you try to recover with this, because once it's done you go straight downwards. You can't up+B close to the ledge and "lean" into it as well as you could with melee space animals. Like his Side+B, sweetspotting the ledge is harder than other Brawl characters' recoveries. Vegeta214 contributes that If you up+B under a stage you will usually get trapped under the ledge, as it doesn't follow walls nearly as well as Melee space animals did with their up+Bs. You need to try and sweetspot the edge without letting anything (like a sloped wall) getting in your way in such cases. Unfortunately, most of the levels in Brawl have ledges like this. There's a pretty cool trick you can do with Up+B after ledgegrabbing, see the Ledgehopping section for details.
Misc attacks
Get up attack: Looks like Melee Falco's. damage and knockback is similar.
Both ledge get up attacks also look and act like Melee Falco's.
Vegeta214 says Wolf has an excellent roll. I agree that it's quick and goes far enough, but it's not quite as fast or as distance-covering as Lucario's or Metaknight's. Still, it's decent and rolls seem more useful in Brawl than in Melee.
Glitches and Techniques
Ledge Glitch: If you Side-B recover enough above the ledge so it doesn't sweetspot the ledge but not enough to put you on the ground, sometimes you won't ledgegrab, but fall straight down. This is interesting in that it does NOT put you ito special fall. You can recover by Up-Bing straight up which will sweetspot the ledge. I don't know any practical use for this, though I suppose it can be a mindgame if it's reliably repeatable.
Surface Glitch: If the ground obstructs your Side-B you will follow the ground instead of your usual diagonal trajectory. A good example is the Yoshi's Island Melee stage (the Super Mario World one). If you side-B up the pipe from the left side, you'll continue downwards and to the right along the pipe's right side. This can also be done at a specific point by the far left ledge of Melee Corneria, and in weird places like the teleport platform to the next stage in All-Star mode.
Foxtrot: I don't claim any credit for discovery of this, but this dash dance variation looks like it's going to be a significant part of Wolf's high end play, allowing you to do things like Fsmashes out of a dash. More info can be found in this post.
Ledgehopping: This is a pretty common technique and isn't Wolf-specific, but fits better here than in other categories. Ledgehopping is when you're hanging off the ledge, but drop fomr it by pushing away from the stage with the control stick, then using your double jump and an attack to agressively get back onto the stage using a different attack than your reguilar "A" ledge get-up attack. There are 3 attacks Wolf has that are practical for ledgehopping.
-Blaster. Vegeta214 brought this to my attention. Ahh, the good old ledge hopped blaster. Melee Falco players know this technique all too well. Wolf's blaster in particular is good for this because it threatens both people stanging on top of the ledge (with the blaster's bayonet as a bonus) and those a bit back ready to counter a get-up attack. This is the most difficult ledgehop to do, as the timing is a bit tight to blaster towards the stage and get enough air to land on it. Back Jump B Forward.
-Neutral air. One of the few uses for neutral air in my opinion. At low percents you can generally combo a ground attack after this hits. Back Jump A Forward.
-Forward air. The easiest ledgehop to pull off. Since the knockback is upwards, you can often jump up and back air them to turn the tables, or kill with this alone if they're at high percent. The only problem is that it leaves you open if you miss, more than other ledgehops. Back Jump Forward (hold) A.
-Up+B. There's a pretty cool trick you can do with Up+B after ledgegrabbing. You can ledgehop backwards and up+B back into the ledge. If you aim above the ledge enough not to sweetspot it but not high enough to be on top of the stage, you'll kick into the ledge hitting the top of the stage (of course hitting opponents on the ground) and immediately ledgegrab after this.
-You can full-hop double aerial most of Wolf's aerial attacks. Kashakunaki contributes the following application of this technique, which he calls the "Wolf Wall"
MatchupsKashakunaki said:
Zelda - "Don't get too cocky"
Don't laser camp, because she will respond with fireball camping just outside your blaster range. Her projectile is a lot more powerful than yours, and has a HUGE hitbox, so that's an uphill battle, since both of you have reflectors. If you want to make her approach you, just chill with your shine up. When you do close in, you'll have trouble with her smashes as they have big hitboxes. The good thing is that while she's been buffed for Brawl, she's still pretty slow compared to you so if you can predict what she's going to do, your counterattacks will easily outspeed hers. Stay close and keep the pressure on.
Samus - "What? Is that all you've got?"
Samus really doesn't have any options versus Wolf. If she tries to missile spam, your shine will send them back at high speeds, so you force her to approach you through your oddly superior projectile spam. However, she has no good approach! Her only real kill options are Bair and Dtilt and those are pretty easy to predict and avoid with a fast character like Wolf.
Ike - "Can't let you do that"
Ike has two great tricks up his sleeve. One is Side-B approach. Ike has virtually no lag after a missed Side-B and often follows up with a jab, grab, or Utilt, all very fast attacks for a slowpoke like Ike. You can completely stop this nonsense with blaster spam. He has no reflector and will have to jump to approach you. You can see most of his aerials coming a mile away, but his backair (Ike's other trick) is fast. As fast as yours, with a bigger hitbox and as much knockback as your Dsmash. Fortunately, its hitbox is just to the side of him so he usually has to shorthop ground opponents, which again is quite difficult with your blaster spam. This forces Ike to use his slow attacks, which Wolf can pretty easily dodge.
Pit - "What the heck?"
Don't camp with your blaster as his projectile spam will beat yours every time. Consequently, either you'll have to approach him or just chill with your reflector up until he comes for you. (though he has the same options) His aerials wall of pain better than Brawl Jigglypuff's and he has enough jumps to get all he can out of it. On top if that, his recovery gives him a long period of free motion in the air so if your hit doesn't KO during the hitstun, he'll be coming back for more. He's fast enough that his melee attacks will generally trade evenly with yours, but you have him beat on reach. So space your attacks. Proper spacing of things like your Fsmash and Bair will give you the upper hand. Mix it up with your B moves as well, to keep him guessing. His bow and your shine come out about the same speed so don't let him spam you into bad spacing. Also, don't be afraid to occasionally blaster when he's not expecting it. He outprojectiles you, but that doesn't mean blaster is completely useless against him.
Meta Knight - "No way! I don't believe it!"
A character who can easily punish Wolf's mistakes. Let that sink in for a minute. Ok. The key to fighting a good MK is unpredictibility. You really need to mix it up and use moves that younormally wouldn't. If the MK isn't in a good position to punish, you can get away with missing. Also, beware of his edgeguarding. MK isn't terribly good at killing in general, but Wolf suffers greatly from MK's edgeguarding, so you'll have to mix up your recoveries too. Keep in mind MK's disjointed hitboxes, attack speed, priority, and low lag when you go on the offensive. Once you get a feel for your opponent, these can be overcome. Don't forget that MK has to hit you a lot more than you hit him for a KO.
Other Cool Stuff
Up Taunt: Wolf howls. Awesome.
Side Taunt: Wolf does a few kicks. This is not an attack.
Down Taunt: Wolf hits the ground and growls.
Wolf howls when he's star KO'd
Wolf wears light armor that's spiked on the kneecaps shoulderpads, and collar. He wears a chain on his pants, and makes a metal "clink" sound when he lands from a jump. Wolf is sleeveless. His body armor stops at the shoulderpads and he doesn't wear anything on his arms but has gloves/bracers with holes for the claws. If you pause and zoom in, you can see that he wears a necklace (though this may be dog tags) as well. Wolf wears a HMD ("Scouter" for you DBZ fans) like other Brawl Space animals that changes color along with his costumes, which can be found here.
Wolf has a special taunt on Lylat Cruise. Mash the down taunt button until you see an animation just like Fox and Falco's special taunts for Corneria/Venom in Melee. What? nothing happened? You'll see, it's a delayed special taunt. It doesn't happen until the background changes, and instead of being generic, it will be relevant to what's going on in the background. A few lines of dialog will be said between the Star Wolf Team and the Star Fox team generally. Also, Fox and Falco's special taunts for Lylat Cruise are activated and work in the same manner.
History of this guide
Most recent changes first
March 22:
-Drack's final edition of the guide. Reworded bits and pieces from EVERY section. Now, ownership has been passed to Kashakunaki who wants to continue what I've started and is more than qualified. Thanks everyone for your contributions and for reading my work!
March 7:
-Added Meta Knight matchup
Feb 17:
-Added up+B Ledgehop trick, added special taunt
Feb 11:
-Added ledgehopping, changed dash attack description, added Kashakunaki's "Wolf Wall" technique.
Feb 10:
- Added weight analysis
Feb 8:
-Added Vegeta214's contributions
-Updated "Other Cool Stuff", added Strengths and Weaknesses.
Feb 7:
-Glitches and Techniques section added, KO percentages added. Tilts in particular surprised me. Utilt kills earlier than Ftilt! Updated matchups
Feb 6:
-Guide initially posted, Added Specials and Matchups, Added "Other Cool Stuff" and damage percentages, Updated intro and Specials.
If you have any questions or contributions, Please post them and I'll add the answers or contributions (with credit) to the guide.
