TKD
Smash Lord
Dare you not know some of these, you're forgiven. I'm in the mood to type stuff.
I haven't read it, but Uzi's guide may contain all of this. This is just really short.
http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=228287
Aerials that can be short-hopped without landing cool-down:
- Uair: It has to be performed as soon as Fox leaves the ground, after the jump can be canceled into Usmash. Performed too late, there's landing cool-down.
- Bair: It has to end/be performed early enough before falling, no fast-fall. Hardest one depending on the target (smaller targets are harder).
- Fair: The easiest one. Buffering the fair and not fast-falling results in no landing cool-down. Hit-boxes run out before Fox reaches the ground though, so this is still punishable.
Special move techniques:
- Triple short-hop blaster: Buffer the first shot. The "special" button needs to be pressed thrice in a row quickly.
- Illusion canceling: Press the "special" button during Fox Illusion. It causes Fox to stop mid-illusion and fall while maintaining forward momentum to gain distance. This technique holds 3 possibilities. Canceling ASAP (short), canceling during the middle and cancelling near the end. Canceling near the end allows Fox to glide the farthest distance away, which is the best escape method (unless it reaches too far to land on a platform you want). The medium cancel is the most common, since it's easier to get that than the perfect one. The shorter cancel is actually used to cover as small a distance as possible, which is good in less situations.
- Grabbing the ledge during Firefox: If you hold down or away during the ledge sweet-spot frames, Fox will never grab the ledge. You need to let go of these directions for Fox to hold on.
- Reflector canceling: For a brief moment immediately after reflecting a projectile, Fox can roll, spot-dodge or hop by pressing up, down, either direction or the jump command. Jumping after reflecting offers mobility, as it's not good to stay put.
- About jump-cancel shines: These should be called "buffered shines from jumps", as jumps can't be canceled by \/B. They can only be canceled by /\B and Usmash.
Other:
- Air-jump fair allows Fox to gain great height. Essential for recovery.
Fighting techniques:
- Fast-fall Nair into the opponent's back-side gives Fox the advantage in mix-up. It's safe on block by itself. A punish attempt out of block from the opponent can be power-blocked by Fox for punishment. Fox can attempt to utilt the opponent as well, or chase the opponent's roll/etc. if they have tendencies of sorts. If the nair connects, it gives Fox either a chance to chase the opponent for a follow-up or simply a bit of damage and neutral position.
- Dair to Usmash combos at high percents and is effective against lighter characters. If the opponent to be Usmashed is behind Fox, a turn-around Usmash must be buffered from the Dair for it to combo. To do this, you need to hold the Control Stick towards Fox's backside as soon as you notice the opponent will end up behind Fox, and during the last 10 frames before Fox can move (while he's landing), let go of the control stick and tap the C-stick up (since you don't need to let go of the C-stick for its commands to be buffered). The moment Fox is able to move, Voilá! Turn-around Usmash is performed. This is easy once you know how to perform it. If you find it difficult, you can practice Wario's dthrow chain-grabs a bit (preferably on Bowser because it's around 0-160%), since they require similar execution.
- Bair can land without cool-down. Depending on the target's height, this becomes possible even while fast-falling from above, to impossible even without fast-falling. An example of a hard character to do this against while they're standing is Ness (you can't fast-fall it btw). An example of an impossible character would be Kirby. Depending on execution difficulty, it's better to simply fast-fall and/or space the bair making it safe on block. It doesn't have considerably long landing cool-down anyway.
- SH Fair can connect against very tall targets, which are only a few characters. This is very useful sometimes.
- The moments utilt doesn't combo into utilt and the opponent can hit Fox with an aerial, one can block, and punish if they perform the possible aerial (by unblocking and performing utilt, possibly something else). At very low %, like 0%, utilt doesn't combo into anything, so it's possible to simply surprise the opponent by turning around and grabbing them.
- Fast-fall air-dodge works great as Fox, just not right into the opponent. If the opponent has a tendency to expect a fast-fall air-dodge, one can fall into them with an aerial (bair/nair are the safest, dair can hurt the most). Besides landing, it's possible to perform \/B to wait a bit, get away by performing Fox Illusion, or jump.
Recovery details:
- When below the stage, sometimes it's better to recover to the ledge on the other side. To reach, it may be necessary to air-jump fair. If necessary, one can turn-around shine before the air-jump fair to face the right direction.
- If Fox falls from the side of the stage from a grab release, shield push etc., it's better to air-jump air-dodge into the stage if there's risk of Fox being edge-guarded to death (starting for example with marth's/mk's dtilt). After the air-dodge, Fox may be hit (or not), most likely grabbed, but after DI'ing that, it's possible to regain one's position, which is the obvious choice besides losing a stock. Otherwise, performing air-jump fair into the stage works and may surprise the opponent.
- Moves like Marth's /\B and MK's dair can be DI'ed directly downwards+away so it sends Fox horizontally straight, this is useful in stages like Smashville to recover to the opposite side of the stage when otherwise Fox would be stage-spiked. This idea was actually quite creative of me, while not so much...considering there was only one move that could KO and it was DI'able. After playing better and taking less risks, I think this situation becomes less and less common though.
- Fox can let go of the ledge and air-jump reaching the Smashville platform, which is good to know. It requires one to jump ASAP after letting go, so I recommend letting go by tapping the Control Stick back, not down, which would probably make it unpractically hard.
About momentum reduction/trajectory enlargement:
- Uair is Fox's quickest aerial, which should usually be performed. If it's only necessary to avoid being star KOed (upwards), Dair's good too (by tapping C-stick downwards, which is said to automatically fast-fall, so watch out). Uair into air-jump fair works the best to enlarge sideways trajectory and avoid a KO. If the knock-back Fox suffers isn't enough to KO him anyway, it's better to perform \/B, which doesn't stop momentum at all, but elevates Fox slightly, after the Uair (just don't tap "down" before the \/B imput, as you'll fast-fall too early). This makes Fox stay high and conserve the jump for it to be performed at whatever moment is required. EDIT: If Fox is being sent upwards, notice which side he is traveling into and hold the Control Stick towards said side. This is easier if you know a match-up, since, for example, Snake's Utilt sends people up and into him. You have to help your character keep moving towards a side because this makes his trajectory larger, making it harder for him to be star KOed. Don't pay too much attention to this, but what I do is C-stick up/down, tap downwards + direction (since I'm not sure if the C-stick makes you fast-fall automatically during knock-back), then hold the Control Stick fully towards the side. If I can be KOed sideways, I'll always Uair since it's better.
Someday I could become able to make a complete guide on Fox, but I think it's good to shed a bit of light meanwhile. Also, none of this is final and your own ideas could be better/wider than some of these.
I haven't read it, but Uzi's guide may contain all of this. This is just really short.
http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=228287
Aerials that can be short-hopped without landing cool-down:
- Uair: It has to be performed as soon as Fox leaves the ground, after the jump can be canceled into Usmash. Performed too late, there's landing cool-down.
- Bair: It has to end/be performed early enough before falling, no fast-fall. Hardest one depending on the target (smaller targets are harder).
- Fair: The easiest one. Buffering the fair and not fast-falling results in no landing cool-down. Hit-boxes run out before Fox reaches the ground though, so this is still punishable.
Special move techniques:
- Triple short-hop blaster: Buffer the first shot. The "special" button needs to be pressed thrice in a row quickly.
- Illusion canceling: Press the "special" button during Fox Illusion. It causes Fox to stop mid-illusion and fall while maintaining forward momentum to gain distance. This technique holds 3 possibilities. Canceling ASAP (short), canceling during the middle and cancelling near the end. Canceling near the end allows Fox to glide the farthest distance away, which is the best escape method (unless it reaches too far to land on a platform you want). The medium cancel is the most common, since it's easier to get that than the perfect one. The shorter cancel is actually used to cover as small a distance as possible, which is good in less situations.
- Grabbing the ledge during Firefox: If you hold down or away during the ledge sweet-spot frames, Fox will never grab the ledge. You need to let go of these directions for Fox to hold on.
- Reflector canceling: For a brief moment immediately after reflecting a projectile, Fox can roll, spot-dodge or hop by pressing up, down, either direction or the jump command. Jumping after reflecting offers mobility, as it's not good to stay put.
- About jump-cancel shines: These should be called "buffered shines from jumps", as jumps can't be canceled by \/B. They can only be canceled by /\B and Usmash.
Other:
- Air-jump fair allows Fox to gain great height. Essential for recovery.
Fighting techniques:
- Fast-fall Nair into the opponent's back-side gives Fox the advantage in mix-up. It's safe on block by itself. A punish attempt out of block from the opponent can be power-blocked by Fox for punishment. Fox can attempt to utilt the opponent as well, or chase the opponent's roll/etc. if they have tendencies of sorts. If the nair connects, it gives Fox either a chance to chase the opponent for a follow-up or simply a bit of damage and neutral position.
- Dair to Usmash combos at high percents and is effective against lighter characters. If the opponent to be Usmashed is behind Fox, a turn-around Usmash must be buffered from the Dair for it to combo. To do this, you need to hold the Control Stick towards Fox's backside as soon as you notice the opponent will end up behind Fox, and during the last 10 frames before Fox can move (while he's landing), let go of the control stick and tap the C-stick up (since you don't need to let go of the C-stick for its commands to be buffered). The moment Fox is able to move, Voilá! Turn-around Usmash is performed. This is easy once you know how to perform it. If you find it difficult, you can practice Wario's dthrow chain-grabs a bit (preferably on Bowser because it's around 0-160%), since they require similar execution.
- Bair can land without cool-down. Depending on the target's height, this becomes possible even while fast-falling from above, to impossible even without fast-falling. An example of a hard character to do this against while they're standing is Ness (you can't fast-fall it btw). An example of an impossible character would be Kirby. Depending on execution difficulty, it's better to simply fast-fall and/or space the bair making it safe on block. It doesn't have considerably long landing cool-down anyway.
- SH Fair can connect against very tall targets, which are only a few characters. This is very useful sometimes.
- The moments utilt doesn't combo into utilt and the opponent can hit Fox with an aerial, one can block, and punish if they perform the possible aerial (by unblocking and performing utilt, possibly something else). At very low %, like 0%, utilt doesn't combo into anything, so it's possible to simply surprise the opponent by turning around and grabbing them.
- Fast-fall air-dodge works great as Fox, just not right into the opponent. If the opponent has a tendency to expect a fast-fall air-dodge, one can fall into them with an aerial (bair/nair are the safest, dair can hurt the most). Besides landing, it's possible to perform \/B to wait a bit, get away by performing Fox Illusion, or jump.
Recovery details:
- When below the stage, sometimes it's better to recover to the ledge on the other side. To reach, it may be necessary to air-jump fair. If necessary, one can turn-around shine before the air-jump fair to face the right direction.
- If Fox falls from the side of the stage from a grab release, shield push etc., it's better to air-jump air-dodge into the stage if there's risk of Fox being edge-guarded to death (starting for example with marth's/mk's dtilt). After the air-dodge, Fox may be hit (or not), most likely grabbed, but after DI'ing that, it's possible to regain one's position, which is the obvious choice besides losing a stock. Otherwise, performing air-jump fair into the stage works and may surprise the opponent.
- Moves like Marth's /\B and MK's dair can be DI'ed directly downwards+away so it sends Fox horizontally straight, this is useful in stages like Smashville to recover to the opposite side of the stage when otherwise Fox would be stage-spiked. This idea was actually quite creative of me, while not so much...considering there was only one move that could KO and it was DI'able. After playing better and taking less risks, I think this situation becomes less and less common though.
- Fox can let go of the ledge and air-jump reaching the Smashville platform, which is good to know. It requires one to jump ASAP after letting go, so I recommend letting go by tapping the Control Stick back, not down, which would probably make it unpractically hard.
About momentum reduction/trajectory enlargement:
- Uair is Fox's quickest aerial, which should usually be performed. If it's only necessary to avoid being star KOed (upwards), Dair's good too (by tapping C-stick downwards, which is said to automatically fast-fall, so watch out). Uair into air-jump fair works the best to enlarge sideways trajectory and avoid a KO. If the knock-back Fox suffers isn't enough to KO him anyway, it's better to perform \/B, which doesn't stop momentum at all, but elevates Fox slightly, after the Uair (just don't tap "down" before the \/B imput, as you'll fast-fall too early). This makes Fox stay high and conserve the jump for it to be performed at whatever moment is required. EDIT: If Fox is being sent upwards, notice which side he is traveling into and hold the Control Stick towards said side. This is easier if you know a match-up, since, for example, Snake's Utilt sends people up and into him. You have to help your character keep moving towards a side because this makes his trajectory larger, making it harder for him to be star KOed. Don't pay too much attention to this, but what I do is C-stick up/down, tap downwards + direction (since I'm not sure if the C-stick makes you fast-fall automatically during knock-back), then hold the Control Stick fully towards the side. If I can be KOed sideways, I'll always Uair since it's better.
Someday I could become able to make a complete guide on Fox, but I think it's good to shed a bit of light meanwhile. Also, none of this is final and your own ideas could be better/wider than some of these.
