edde
Smash Ace
EddE's TL Tips + some general TL Knowledge
Special Credits (thanks to these people this guide is way better than what it would actually be)
-PK-ow!
-BattleChrist
-Kizzu
-Aether
-YumClock
-Lobos
-BattleChrist
-Kizzu
-Aether
-YumClock
-Lobos
- Recent Updates
- Techniques
- How-to, Dos, and Don'ts
- Notes
- Combos & Kill Moves
- Move tips
Recent Updates
- (07/07/08) [How tos, Dos and Dont's] > How to UpB kill
- (07/07/08) [How tos, Dos and Dont's] > Edge chasing with projectiles
- (07/07/08) [Combos and Kill moves] > 17% > 10%
Techniques
LEARN TO ARROW CANCEL (quickdraw)
Quickdraw is performed by hitting the b button right before landing (almost same timing as melee's lLcancel), this technique allows you to do double arrow short hop approaches, spam arrows twice faster, shoot an arrow after an aerial if opponent rolled back, throw a bomb and shoot an arrow... possibilities are endless.
Tip: For double arrow shooting cancelling second one, make your gamecube controller jump with r button, the timing with x/y buttons is pretty hard and with the stick can end up doing an up+b)
credit: battlechrist for posting YouTube vid; possibly discovery?
battlechrist's Quickdraw trick
Do a quickdraw double arrow, but, as soon as you shoot arrow #2, turn the controller stick to your opposite direction, result is you doing a 180 spin while shooting arrow #2 but arrow #2 will go same direction as arrow #1... works great for setting bair combos (when performed incorrectly, you will shoot arrow #2 in opposite direction, still good for bair combos, but has less stun and damage effects on your opponents by a little bit and it wont be as flashy XD)
Learn the Jump-canceled throw
To perform, with any item (in this case, sine its toon link, use bombs)... draw a bomb, press x/y (or r button, my TL control scheme is with r jump, makes it easier and the finger movement feel just more natural) to jump and simultaneously throw the bomb backwards (i suggest you to use the c-stick, ofc, the original smash c-stick, dont know how others work)... result is you will dash, perform a wavedash turning 180° throwing the bomb... this is a mindgame, and also works with opponents that are chasing you in some circumstances, like anti campers lol
Fight backwards
Facing back you have a huge advantage... you can bair, bair is your ultimate combo/damage racking move, and you also have uair/nair options, fighting backwards means here to give your opponent your back all match, exploit your floatiness, will make you nimble, harder to hit and will allow you to combo
Tether hogging
For Zelda and characters who recover like Zelda, the recovery has this final hit when her up+b ends, its hard to calculate to hog and it gets you off the edge if it hits, most of the time stage spiking, your solution to this is simply tether hog... this is irelevant vs characters like sheik, since her up+b doesnt hit in the end, so, regular hog does good enough and whoever hogs a MK or a marth this way wins the nobel prize of stupidity (good stuff we got a startegy vs somebody that counters TL ;D)
Wall Jump Gimp
this is kind of a personal techniquue that works bst on FD and only on stages with walls (like yoshi's)... drop yourself off stage, wall jump on that part (you know what part i mean, where our up+bs got always stuck on the first days) and nair (fair also works, use fair when your opponent is at higher %s, fair when hes at lowers)... dont get too predictable or youll be calling your opponent to stage spike you
Persistent edgehog invincibility
When edgehogging, press the control stick back and then Z instantly, then push the control stick up... regains your edge grabbing invincibility frames, great against recoveries that hit the edge, like spacies', psikids', etc... ofc, to perform good, you must calculate...
NOTE: if you press the stick away while hanging from tether, you'll have only the third jump left and tether is prolly not long enough to reach back, its important that after you tether you pull controller stick up, means, you get no invincibility frames and can end up in you suiciding
DOWNSMASH
Downsmash opponents at 20% or less: sends them away from stage on low %s, this can easily set a gimp
Attack Barrage
its not a specific technique, this is preformed at its best with a bomb on hand... for example... throw bomb up, do a quick draw and a diagonal nair... this wont do all the 3 hits unless you do a lucky pinball, but, its an easy way to land hits, works very well if you kno whow to perform it... my favorite is throw boomerang up, throw bomb up and try hitting nair/fair
Turnaround Boomerang Dash
how to perform: dash, jump (r jump suggested) and throw boomerang backwards... youll turn aroun djumping throwing your boomerang, its a good alternative plus it makes your jump cancelled throws less predictable... also good for keeping away somebody who pressures you running
How-to, Dos, and Don'ts
Bomb lag cancel
basically, throw a bomb down and dair... ON THE FLOOR, this reduces the 5 minute lag upon landing a dair on the ground, ofc it costs 7/3%... better than getting hit by a smash (i need to test this thing further, might be an answer to spike safely on air)
credit: from aether´s guide
Zero lag Boomerang catch
Do an attack or charge another attack (smash, upb, neutralb) while toon receives the boomerang, this reduces the animation lag to 0
After paying more attention to the boomerang catch, it only produces lag if you catch it while dashing or just standing... shielding, charging a smash, doing any other attack takes away all the lag
Nair
how to land both nair hits (does 20%):... do nair when your really close to your opponent and moving throw him... like a running jump, if you run through him both hits will land
Don't dair heedlessly
everybody is aware its a spike and its easy to dodge, just use it when you create a situation where you know you will land it... like, going down chasing someone, if he airdodges you have a dair, if he goes too far away, hell prolly do up+b, up+bs are easy to chase and to predict, so, its an almost guaranteed dair, if they dont dodge, do either a fair or nair to knock them farther, dair would be worth doing if they dont dodge since the have the time window to dodge when you dair
Hyphen Smash (Dash>C-Stick up for those who don't know)
A great approach move, yet still very predictable, DONT spam it
Horizontal gimping suggestions
most chars are punished worst when they are gimped by a horizontal knockback (the less upwards the better), so, what i suggest you guys is this... if you like chasing characters offstage, your nair is your best move, if it hits from the side youre facing on the farthest spot of the blade (and if you land a strong nair) the knockback will be horizontal/downwards, which, gimps really well and sometimes knocks them offwall due to the force of this move... fair has a disadvantage since its slower and has more vertical knockback (yet blows them even farther away tough) and bair has even morr vertical knockback
Outcamping and camping smartly
TL other than having his 3 awesome projectiles, has a shield, if you stand still, your shield will block about every single projectile (including max aura sphere, max charge shot, wolf/fox/falco bullets, etc), this wont block samus's missiles pk fires/thunders (i think), pikmin, falco's short hopped laser/double laser and kirby's upb... luckily, TL can outcamp with just projectiles about every of those moves, but, when you face wolf, you are headed for a world of pain, hes hardest char to outcamp, hes got reflector, rediculous fsmash and bullets, so, you need to camp him carefully, mess with his mind... to start the long range fight, stand still, wait for a good moment to throw an arrow and keep standing still, when he turns reflector, if he keeps reflector for long, hyphen smash/dash/upb him (beware of his fsmash), if he doesnt, just stand still, aim bombs for his feet and throw arrows he wont expect... so, this shield of TL, combined with his 3 projectiles and a smart player can outcamp about every character
[How to UpB kill]
Well, this is a pretty easy and effective maneuver, to do this, your opponent needs 30%+ (or you can start from 0% doing some chained bairs) after the 30% the bairs will have a more significant vertical knockback, you know when your opponent is ready to get up b'd when you require of the second jump to follow th ebair chain, after you use the bair after the second jump do an upb, its important you catch him and drive him the most away from the stage possible to increase effectivity (its quite safe, TL's amazing DI will easily get you back to stage)
Edge chasing with projectiles
In some cases, it is better to chase off stage with projectiles... for example, MK, if you try to gimp him, he will most likely gimp you, or ganon that will prolly take you down with him... or to just change your edge chase style to confuse your opponent. How i suggest you to do this is, first get a bomb, then aim the boomerang for the opponent (most of the times downwards) and you can either, throw the bomb up and spam arrows, or just spam arrows to keep bomb, the arrow spam stops horizontal recoveries, like falco's sideb and can end up making them selfdestruct acidentally... also, you can throw th eboomerang, uthrow bomb and chase aiming for a fair/nair
Notes
Quickdraw Approach
Shorthop, nair (fair and bair work too, best one is nair imo), arrow (to do easily with perfect timing slide you finger from x button to a button and finally press, dont continue the slinde, to b button)
Hogging
Either learn to speed hog or do this kind of hog i designed for when i didnt knew about the speed hog which is run to edge> before going off stage change your direction, short hop (reverse aerial rush) > prezz z (tether), if done correctly youll hang faster than a regular hog, if not, your tether will not aim for the edge
Camping
Throw boomerang and keep quickdrawing/arrow cancelling, note: try to be on a bow-holding animation for when the boomerang returns, this reduces the boomerang receiving aniomation lag... as long as youre quickdrawing double arrows, youll do fine with boomerang, also try to have a bomb in hand inany case, remmeber you can throw it and shoot an arrow if its exploding (arrow cancels also)
Using tether to cancel air momentum
well, yesterday i proved this as an effective way to survive attacks that have huge horizontal and even some with donwards knockback... any time somebody does such move to you that will send you flying horizontally/downwards, if near the edge, spam the z button, the tether will probably hang (failed to me just once out of like 6)... to set an example, yesterday vs an MK, i was at 120%, near the edge and he down smashed me... as soon as i knew i was gonna get killed if i didnt do this, i spammed L (air dodge), tapped the regular stick to DI, tapped the c-stick to DI, and spammed z, this resulted in my toon link being launched at high speed but saved because the tether hung me before the distance too long
Throwing according to your situation
TL's grab game is pretty hollow itself, if grab misses you get smashed, throws dont have great knockback and they dont do good damage... but, TLs throws can put you in situations that can favour you a lot
-dthrow at lower %s to start a bair chain or utilt/usmash to bair, up to you how to attack, beware of fast powerful aerials like lucari'os dair or MK's aerials so you dont get punished doing this
-uthrow at higher %s to go for an uair which is your best kill move, use bombs to pressure them more if possible
-use fthrow or bthrow to get them off stage
Tilts and uses i suggest
when i first wrote this guide, my TL game included no tilts except for the up one, the uptilt is one of TLs best moves since it can both combo and kill, but, i left behind his ftilt, a move with a pretty useful knockback, if landed well it does decent damage, horizontal/downwards knockback, can kill near edge at higher %s and is quite fast and good for spacing, on the other hand, you have his dtilt, very very spammable, yet i dont see many uses for it, maybe to trip an opponent or confuse him or poke his shield
Combos & Kill Moves
BEST Damage rack -> Kill
this technique consists on hyphen smash followed by an uptilt (or 2) followed by a short/long jump bair followed by a footstool dair or a jump2 dair... this technique is an almost guaranteed kill if performed correctly near the edge and works different depending on heavyweights and air tractions (hard to pull on wario while easiest to pull on ganon)
on lightweights:
hyphen smash>utilt>shorthop>bair>jump2>dair (50%)
hyphen smash>utilt>long jump>bair>footstool dair (50%) (easier version to pull... at least on MK)
on heavyweights (NOTE: lightqeight versions also work on heavyweights)
hyphen smash>utilt>utilt>shorthop>bair>jump2>dair (59%)
hyphen smash>utilt>utilt>long jump>bair>footstool dair (59%)
(combo only works at 0% so its a great game starter, try it on trainig mode on ganon, then test with other chars to get a better feel of the move.. also, if the knockback makes your bair impossible, nair is always an option, eventhough combo will end there)
Bair, DJ, dair
Kind of like a reverse Ken combo, easy to pull, 100% effective kill move, works best at lower %s... on higher percents or on fastfallers, a tip to perform this is, after the bair, jump above your opponent, dont dair, if he is starting an attack dair, if he airdodges, time your dair... or option 3 comes in... spam x/y buttons to do a footstool (be aware, cause, if you land footstool, you must do a quick dair - I mean really quick - else it wont spike)
Bomb, Upsmash
When on the ground, spam bombs throwing them up, if you land a hyphensmash into a floating bomb, youll get a really nice kill, havent tested if the bomb makes hyphen smash's knockback more critical, but, every time ive landed an hyphen smahs into a floating bomb it has killed, ofc, all those kills were at 100%+
uthrow, bair, DJ, dair
if performed correctly, either racks up 30%+ or kills
Semi-guaranteed uair (90-110% killer move)
On a flying opponent, get a bomb, run below where theyre gonna land, throw the bomb up (calculating that it will hit, if its not possible the bomb hit, then it wont work), if they air dodge, use your jumps to uair them, if they get hit by the bomb, you still have chance to uair... use uair strategically also, throw yourself off stage and do an uair... its the least expected aerial move offstage... ofc everybody expects either dair fair or nair, even sometimes bair
Footstool -> dair:
Be quick, or dair wont spike... ofc, only do this if youre 100% sure you landed the footstool... its easy to pull if youre focused on your game
Bomb -> dair
Bombs have this really little useful knockback + flinch frames that can lead you to a dair... to perform this, get a bomb, with just 1 jump (if you use jump 2 it will prolly fail) throw down your bomb (if it hits opponent on left, it launches them to the right and vice versa), if bomb lands, do a dair... if applied correctly, you have a new killer move or damage racker
Bomb gimp
several characters on the game use the strategy of going to a spot where their recovery has a 100% vertical spot which is right below the edge (marth, spacies if they go up, kirby if he has no jumps left, samus, etc)... what you need to do is throw a bomb down with the intention of making the bomb's knockback move them below the stage making their recovery nearly impossible or getting stage spiked (doesnt work on yoshi's island that good since the main platform goes all the way down, but this works pretty well on FD, battlefield, smashville, etc)
Lobos's air grab technique
this move consists on hitting the opponent with zair>grab... its an almost instant combo, its usefulness is because tethers can't grab airbone opponents, this combo will put the opponent on the ground with zair (0 landing lag) which will allow you to grab, performig an instant grab combo (almost combo -.-).... note: this combo is easier to pull on tall chars like marth/dk while its harder on smaller ones like ollie/MK
Lobos's flashy air grab
pretty much same than the tip above, just with a ridiculous timing... but its flashiness is worth it XD... to perform throw a bomb while airbone, zair>grab... way too flashy to be real, leaves your opponent both confused and amazed (same rule applies, larger characters are easier to grab this way)
17% > 10%
This is a quite good maneuver when you want to rack extra damage fast... to do this do jab>jab>upb, does 17% rather than the 10% the normal jab combo does, and its almost as fast, its extremely hard to avoid, and since very few people use it, its not a well known maneuver.... this is technically a jab cancel, but its an easy one that rarely fails
Move tips
Bomd Dropping
Bomb dropping is a technique in which you drop a bomb on the floor... the timing is tricky, its possibly more or as strict as an L cancel in melee... what you need to do is as you carry a bomb, jump and at th every moment before hitting the ground, press z, if done correctly, youll drop the bomb and it won't explode... there is a way of pulling this fast, now timing and practice here get harder: short hop (i would reccomend r jump), pull a bomb as TL is ascending, and either spam z or time z to drop the bomb correctly (spam z for slower fingers, time z for faster fingers)
Free forward smash
Takes practice, do a bomb drop, grab anybody near the bomb and keep them grabbed, when it explodes, the one left more vulnerable and open will be your opponent, if performed correctly, you have a 100% guaranteed fsmash- NOTE: havent tested this, upthrow bomb, grab someone and wait for the explosion, might work aswel, all i know is that the one i previously mentioned works well
Bomb trap
Drop bomb as explained right above (Bomb Dropping), do a dair beside the bomb and the bomb will slide
credit: kizzu
Bomb barrier
Drop a bomb as in Bomb trap, and leave it there. While it lives, it will stop about any projectile... a 2 second break vs spammers lol
credit: kizzu
Z-bomb
on the air, if you hit z while holding a bomb, you will drop it (slower fall than down throw) but, its very effective as a mindgame and has no execution lag at all, which means you can drop the bomb and do an aerial
Jab cancel
A+A+wait a second+any smash... works really good on somebody that isnt expecting it, dont use this too much (there is a tip people use, that is to hit shield button as they hit second jab hit then smash, its just buffering, reduces human lag (guess what, we aint perfect ;/), not game/character lag)
Boomerang flinch jab cancel
Basically, throw a boomerang, if your lucky to trap your opponent on a jab combo while boomerang is returning, do hit 1, hit 2, leave him, if timing is correct, boomerang will do hit 3 and guarantee you any smash, in this case i would suggest forward, upsmash as second option if he flies high
Upb for punishing
Upb is one of TL's best moves, you can give it various uses according to situations:
-if somebody likes rolling and spotdodging a lot, hell surely hate your upb
-if somebody's recovery reaches for the stage rather for the edge, upb can be a good alternat for punishing if your hyphen smash got too weak or if you would like to set a combo
-if you bair chain somebody at higher %s, the knockback will start going higher vertically, this means, when you bair him after your second jump and you can only reach him with upb, do this, the upb will most likely trap him to the last hit and the last hit at higher %s can easily kill most chars near an edge... TL's amazing aerial DI will take you back safely to the stage