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Fox User Manual

SCOTU

Smash Hero
Joined
Mar 16, 2007
Messages
6,636
Location
Northville, MI
Current Version Notes:

Updated: 9/19/2008

Index
[1.00] Attacks
[1.01] Jab
[1.02] Straight
[1.03] Rapid A
[1.04] Ftilt
[1.05] Dtilt
[1.06] Utilt
[1.07] Dash Attack
[1.08] Fsmash
[1.09] Usmash
[1.10] Dsmash
[1.11] Nair
[1.12] Fair
[1.13] Dair
[1.14] Bair
[1.15] Uair
[1.16] Laser
[1.17] Shine
[1.18] FireFox
[1.19] Fox Illusion
[1.20] Grab
[1.21] Fthrow
[1.22] Bthrow
[1.23] Uthrow
[1.24] Dthrow​
[2.00] Combos
[2.1] Combos From Dair
[3.00] Physics / Misc
[3.1] Jump
[4.00] Edge Returns
[4.01] Stand Up
[4.02] Roll
[4.03] Jump
[4.04] Attack
[4.05] Ledge Hop
[4.06] Illusion Return
[4.07] Shine Return
[4.08] Wall Jumping
[4.09] Stalling
[4.10] Note on Edge Returns​
[5.00] Edge Guarding
[5.01] Above the Stage
[5.02] Using Drift to recover
[5.03] Using a recovery move above the edge
[5.04] Below the Edge
[5.05] Abusing Tethers
[5.06] Grab Edgeguarding
[5.07] Prevent your opponent's return from the edge​
[6.00] You Must Recover!
[6.01] Preventative Recovery
[6.02] Using Drift to Recover
[6.03] Air Dodging During Recovery
[6.04] Fair Recovery
[6.05] Illusion Recovery
[6.06] FireFox Recovery
[6.07] Shine Stall​
[7.00] Camping
[7.01] Objective
[7.02] Implementation
[7.03] Camping Smart​
[8.00] Counter Camping
[8.01] Using the Laser
[8.02] Using the Shield
[8.03] Using the Shine
[8.04] When to Counter Camp​
[9.00] Approaching
[10.00] Advanced Techniques
[10.01] Short Hop
[10.02] Fast Fall
[10.03] Jump Canceled Usmash
[10.04] Short Hop Laser
[10.05] Jump Canceled Shine
[10.06] Dash Attack Cancel
[10.07] Pivot Grab​
[11.00] Winning
[11.01] Mindgames
[11.02] Observation
[11.03] Mix Ups
[11.04] Efficiency
[11.05] Your Opponent
[11.06] You

[12.00] Matchups
[13.00] Stages

Key to Index:
Done
New
Incomplete
Not started


[1.00] Attacks
Key # = direction on stick (as in on a numpad, 6 is forward, 2 is down, etc...)
A = A button
B = B button
C = Cstick/ smash Cotrol + A
Z = Z/ R + A
j = jump/ aerial
Hits: #F, this is the frame number that the attack starts to have a hitbox
Hitlag: #F, this is the number of frames of hitlag this move exerts (see http://allisbrawl.com/forum/topic.aspx?id=3527)
Damage: when a long string of #'s is listed, this indicates how much damage the attack will do on successive strikes of the same attack (i.e. it's decay progression)
Knockback: The # here is the direction (in degrees) that the opponent is sent flying at. This is the angle formed by the direction they're sent at and the direction fox is facing. (negative #s indicate downward knockback, posative is upward)

[1.01] Jab
Input: 5A
Hits: 2F
Hitlag: 5F
Damage: 2 1 2 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1
Knockback: 15

Fox's jab is a critical aspect of his game. This is his fastest move, and has many uses. One of these uses is comboing off of the dair. The jab will always combo from a dair. This attack will link directly into the straight, but you can avoid this by "jab cancelling". Jab cancelling is simply pressing down right after doing a jab, thus buffering a crouch instead of doing the straight. The best use for this is to jab cancel into a grab. This will almost always work because the jab renders enough hitstun to often make shielding the only viable thing to "interrupt" a jab combo, but since the grab doesn't care about shields, it lends you a free grab.

[1.02] Straight
Input: 5AA
Hits: 3F
Hitlag: 5F
Knockback: 80

Fox's straight is his built in follow-up to his jab. You can apply the concept of jab cancelling to perform some action other than rapid-Aing. It's often reasonable to do jab>straight>grab, in the same fashion as the jab>grab.

[1.03] Rapid Kicks
Input: 5AAA
Hits: 9F
Hitlag: 5F

A pretty horrible attack to use. This can be used as a followup to the straight, but shouldn't, because you can do better things, such as grab. This attack is easily SDI'd out of, and will almost always result in you getting hit hard in the back during ending lag. Even if you connect with it, it's a bad trade for you.

[1.04] Ftilt
Input: 6A
Hits: 6F
Hitlag: 7F
Damage: 6 5 5 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 3
Knockback: 45

A very nice attack on the ground for fox. reasonably fast, w/ good range. This can be used to stop a bunch of approaches, and when spaced as far as possible, is difficult to punish if shielded. This attack can be angled upward or downward by titlting the control stick a bit up or down when performing it. The differences are minute, except for which angle it attacks, so that should be the determining factor.

[1.05] Dtilt
Input: 2A
Hits: 8F

Hitlag: 7F
Damage: 9 8 7 7 6 5 5 5 4 4 4
Knockback: 60

A pretty bad attack here. Comes out slow, doesn't have much range, does mediocre damage, doesn't cover you well, has a lot of lag afterwards, and doesn't set up into anything. There's almost no reason to use this attack over the ftilt/ dsmash.

[1.06] Utilt
Input: 8A
Hits: 3F
Hitlag: 7F
Damage: 10 9 8 7 7 6 5 6 5 5 5
Knockback: 105

This is udoubtedly one of Fox's best attacks. This hits extremely quickly, does decent damage, and at low %s sets up for more of itself or grabs/ usmashes. This attack combos directly from the dair starting at early %s for most characters. Note that this attack hits behind fox first, then above him, meaning it covers your back well. At low %s, this attack can lead into a dair against large/ heavys (while not combo into it, it's difficult to escape, since air dodgeing will get you hit).

[1.07] Dash Attack
Input: dash A
lol, totally forgot to research everything on this.

I'll get back on this w/ more data.
Ankoku: "it's like... a worse version of his nair"

This Move does not combo into anything. At anything less than mid percents, it has far more ending lag than hitstun, leaving you vulnerable to counterhit even when you hit. Furthermore, at higher percents than leaving you vulnerable, you can't follow it up, as they'll still have frame advantage on you.

[1.08] Fsmash
Input: 6C
Hits: 14F
Hitlag: 9F
Damage: 15 14 12 11 10 9 8 8 7 7 7
Knockback: 45

This attack has one use, and one use alone. Punishing spot dodges/ rolls. It comes out slow, and hits for a long time, with tons of lag afterwards. Use this attack where your opponent is rolling towards or spot dodging at, and it'll take care of business. Other than that, don't use this attack, because it's very slow, and leaves you very open.

[1.09] Usmash
Input 8C
Hits: 10F
Hitlag: 10F
Damage: 17 16 13 13 11 10 10 8 8 8 8
Knockback: 80

This is another one of fox's best attacks. This thing kills like a beast. This attack also has very good range/ priority. The way it sweeps out from bottom to top makes it excellent at beating out aerial approaches. This combined w/ the fact that you can do it out of a dash immediately makes this an extremely useful tool for punishing a whiffed attak. Dash > usmash! This attack is so strong that it will KO a snake at ~110% on most stages w/ DI (undecayed). This should be your #1 High % KO attack, so make sure it's undecayed for that. If you land this attack just before KO %, be sure to land a few lasers/ grab attacks before using it directly again, and it should KO. One of the nicest things about this attack is that at KO %s, Fox's dair will combo into this attack, making it an extremely leathal way to deal with your opponents while you're in the air.

[1.10] Dsmash
Input: 2C
Hits: 6F
Hitlag: 10F
Damage: 14 13 11 10 10 8 8 7 7 6 6
Knockback: 30

A fairly respectable move. Does good damage, but more importatnly, it hits with the speed of a tilt, hits on both sides at the same time, and has decent ragne. This is one of the best attacks to use to get your opponent of the stage, where you can properly dispose of them via edgeguarding. Whats better is, that this attack will combo out of a dair at mid %s, making it even easier to rack up damage and get your opponent offstage. This attack also serves as a good high % KO move due to it's speed.

[1.11] Nair:
Input: j5A
Hits: 4F
Hitlag: 7F
Landing Lag: 9F
Damage: 9 8 7 7 6 5 4 4 4 4 4
Knockback: 45

Fox's fastest aerial, and a sex kick (it has a lasting hitbox). An excellent choice for edgeguarding, this move can be used to intercept a recovering foe and hit them back out. You can continue to follow them w/ a double jump and still be fine.

[1.12] Fair
Input: j6A
Hits: 7F
Hitlag: 7F
Landing Lag: 18F
Knockback: 80

Another of Fox's best attacks. This attack is extremely versatile. This is your best aerial approach option. If your opponent shields this attack, drift away from them, and they'll be hardpressed to punish it. This attack is also very usefull for recovery. If you perfrom the fair directly after double jumping, you'll gain a lot of extra height, while covering you're recovery. Furthermore, this attack is Fox's first choice as an aerial intercept attack, due to its range, lastingness, and ability to slow his vertical movement on falling.

[1.13] Dair
Input: j2A
Hits: 5F
Hitlag: 6F
Landing Lag: 11F
Knockback: -80

This is the basis for Fox's combo game. This is how Fox will start almost all of his comboing, and this attack does a lot of damage by itself. The only catch, is that it's range and priority are balls, and it doesn't make for a safe approach. Use only against whiffed attacks.


[1.14] Bair
Input: j4A
Hits: 9F
Hitlag: 9F
Landing Lag: 2F
Damage: 15 14 12 11 10 9 8 8 7 7 7
Knockback: 135

This aerial has virtually no lag upon landing, making it a very safe move to use. Combined w/ it's reasonable knockback, this move can be an effective edgegaurd, and this attack deals massive amounts of damage for a one hit aerial.

[1.15] Uair
Input: j8A
Hits: 10, 12F
Hitlag: ?/8
Landing Lag: 22F
Knockback: 90

One of Fox's KO moves. This attak has a lot of landing lag, so don't miss. To make up for this, and it's slow startup, this attack has beastly knockback in a completely vertical direction, making it an extraordinary KO move.

[1.16] Laser
Input: 5B
Hits: 10F, repeating every 10F
Hitlag: N/A
Landing Lag: Autocancel
Damage: 3 2 3 2 2 2 1 2 1 2 1
Knockback: N/A

An extremely good move for several reasons. First, this attack can be used aerially to send fire downstage while maintaining mobility. This attack forces many characters to approach Fox, because they cannot deal w/ his camping. If this is the case, you're already winnig, because that puts you on the advantage. While it's possible to short hop tripple laser, it's generally better to only do two and fast fall, to shorten the time you're defenseless in the air (also keeping you more mobile). Another reason this attack is good is that, while you're spamming away, you're recouping your attack decay list for stronger KO attacks, while not trading much damage output on the lasers.

[1.17] Shine

Input: 2B
Hits: 3F
Hitlag: 9F
Ending Lag: 17F
Damage: 5 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 2 2 3
Knockback: 0

This move has two uses: reflecting projectiles, and stalling decent. This attack doesn't combo into anything, and is the same speed as his utilt, which is better, and is slower than his jab (if you were considering using it for a fast attack). However that being said, this is the best reflector in the game. It starts reflecting very quickly, has a relatively short put away time, and can be held out for however long is necessary. Note that during reflection lag, you can perform a roll, a spot dodge, or a jump (also JC usmash). This attack can also be performed rapidly in the air to slow your decent to make you harder to juggle and to throw off edgegaurders.

[1.18] FireFox
Input: 8B
Hits: starting on 21
Hitlag: 5 for burn, 7 for hit
Moves: 43-72F
Landing Lag: 19F
Knockback: 85

Fox's vertical recovery move. It has substantial startup time, so be sure to start as far away from the stage as you can. The ability to choose different angles is invaluable as a mixup.

[1.19] Fox Illusion
Input: 6B
Hits: 22F
Moves: 21-26
Damage: 4 3 3 2 3 2 3 2 2 1 2
Knockback: 120

Fox's other recovery move. This attack has less startup than the firefox, but only travels horizontally. You can press b during the motion of this move to stop your movement, causeing your opponent to have a harder time guessing where you'll end.

[1.20] Grab
Input: 5Z
Grabs on 6F

[1.21] Fthrow
Damage: 7 6 6 5 5 4 4 3 4 3 3
Knockback: 45

Only use this throw to get your opponent offstage if it will. Does not combo into anything. Howver, if your opponent is not expecting it, it's possible to fthrow>grab at low %s (because they're prone to shielding after being thrown).

[1.22] Bthrow
Damage: 8 7 7 6 5 5 5 5 4 4 5
Knockback: 45

Again, only use to get your opponent offstage. Doesn't lead into anything, and doesn't have the ability to catch your opponent offguard. DI will lessen the # of lasers that hit after thrown, so this attack will only do full damage if not DI'd.


[1.23] Uthrow
Damage: 8 7 7 6 5 5 5 5 4 4 5
Knockback: 90

This attack is only good for putting your opponent above you. If you feel you'll benefit from that (i.e they predictably air dodge), then use this throw when not near an edge. If DI'd the throw will deal less damage because fewer lasers will hit.

[1.24] Dthrow
Damage: 9 8 7 6 6 6 5 5 5 5 5
Knockback: 60

Fox's best throw to use if not by an edge. This will deal the most damage, and since none of fox's throws lead into anything, use this if you can't get them offstage.

[2.00] Combos
(the real kind)


[2.01] Combos off of Dair

Combos off of Dair on various characters
listed by earliest % dair combos into the following attacks
The more hits of the dair, the more likely you are to connect with your followup, so some of these %s probably wont work in an actual match because you'll be unable to hit w/ as many hits as you need, and likely will be somewhere between 3-6% higher than these.


Format: Character jab utilt dsmash usmash
snake 0 1 46 81
MK 0 0 54 71
DDD 0 0 47 80
Marth 0 1 34 68
G&W 0 0 36 75
Wario 0 0 48 79



[3.00] Physics / Misc

[3.01] Jump
Airborne on Frame 5 (1 frame slower than in melee)

[4.00] Edge Returns

The idea behind edge returns for you to get from the edge back to the stage safely. It's also key to make sure that you're not baited/ predicted in your returns, and is critical to mix up these returns to keep them safer. So in this section, I'll present the methods fox can use to return from the edge.

Methods:

[4.01] Standing Up - The fastest way to get onto the stage, leaving you right at the edge. Press towards the stage on the control stick to get up. You'll get up slower when over 100%. Use this method if your opponent isn't right by the edge, or you need to get up fast.

[4.02] Rolling - Puts you on the stage reasonably far from the edge, weilding more invincibility than any other method, but also leaves you the most vulnerable. There's an immense cooldown time as the 2nd half of the roll is not invincible. Use this method when you expect your opponent to attack the moment you're off the edge: the startup invincibility is enough to get past this sort of attack. The roll onstage will be significantly longer when over 100%, weilding both more startup invincibility and more lag afterwards. Press shield to roll onto the stage

[4.03] Jumping - Gets you off the edge quickly, leaving you in the air. This is clearly a double edged sword. It's good in that it allows you get away from the edge quickly, forcing your opponent into the air to keep you from returning, but also gives you the ability to get to platforms, or to cover your return w/ an aerial/ air dodge. Press jump to jump return.

[4.04] Attacking - the fastest way to aggressively get onstage. It returns you to the stage w/ an attack. Press attack or special to get up attack. The getup attacks for <100% and for >=100% are vastly different. The under 100% one is fast, with a lot of range. The over 100% loses most of it's range, and is a lot slower, but has more invincibility on startup, meaning you can use it when you think they're going to attack the moment you get up.

[4.05] Ledge Hopping - Ledge hopping is a way to perform aerials near the stage in an aggressive fashion upon return. To ledgehop, drop from the edge (either w/ down or away), then use your double jump to return to the stage. This is often accompanied by an aeiral attack, usually either nair, dair, or fair. This is for when your opponent is right by the edge, and cannot deal w/ an aerial at the moment. This, also is a double edged sword, because if you're hit out of your ledgehop, you're sent flying w/o your double jump. If your opponent is far away, consider ledge hopping lasers.

[4.06] Illusion Return
- used to GTFO the edge and get as far instage as possible. Use the normal edge jump, but as soon as you're above the stage, cut the jump short w/ an illusion. Can also be used off a ledgehop instead of an edge jump to delay the illusion.

[4.07] Shine Return - performed the same way as the illusion return, but w/ a shine. This has a bit of lag, but is a very quick attack off the edge, and returns you to the stage quickly near the edge.

[4.08] Wall Jumping - you can drop from the edge, perform a walljump (if the stage permits), and illusion back to the stage, often good to mix up from ledgehops, as your opponent may thing you're going to ledgehop, and immediately attack, but you've walljumped away from the edge, and now illusion in when it's safe.

[4.09] Stalling - Often times, it's not safe to return to the stage at the moment, so you need to stay on the edge, but keep yourself safe. You can stall by letting go of the edge, and and double jumping back to it. Thanks to brawl's HUGE edge grab boxen, you can grab the edge from way under where you should be able to be hit from. Another way to stall, in a more aggressive fashion is to ledgedrop a fair and return to the edge. If you drop a little before double jumping, then fair, then right after the peak of your jump, FF, you'll be fairing almost the entire time you're not invincible, covering you quite well.

[4.10] Note on Edge Returns


One important thing to not here is always make sure you know when you've used a recovery move to get to the edge. If you've used fox's side-b or up-b, and haven't landed on the stage yet, there's something that you'll need to watch out for. After using a recovery move, a flag is set in memory that say's you've used a recovery move. It is removed once you've landed (not just stand) onstage. When you land from either doing nothing, or something that autocancels, you recieve "normal landing lag". If you fell from less than or equal in height to your full hop height, you'll receive 16 frames of lag; if you fast fell, or fell from heigher than your full hop, you'll receive 32 frames of lag. However, you'll think, no way is there that much lag just from landing. And you're mostly right. "Light landing" is IASA on frame 2, and "Heavy Landing" is IASA on frame 5, meaning that you can perfrom any action starting at frame 2 (or 5), cancelling the remaining landing lag. HOWVER, here's the catch: if that recovery flag is still up, you cannot IASA your landing. So if you up-b to the edge, then get up, the next time you land, you'll have either 16 frames of lag, or a hideous 32 frames of lag depending on if you fast fell or high fell or not. To avoid this attrocious monstrosity, make sure that the next time you land on the stage, it's with aerial landing lag that's minimal, so that you've landed, but w/ lag less than 16/32 frames, reseting the flag.

[5.00] Edgeguarding
Edgeguarding is key in brawl to playing a strong game. Since characters can live to such high %s with good DI if not KO'd by the boundaries, you (as a good player) must capitalize on them being off stage. The goal of edgeguarding is to keep your opponent from returning to the stage/ edge. This can be done from on stage, off stage, or by preventing them from returning to the stage from the edge if you failed the first time. Edgeguarding is more than just charging a smash at the edge or jumping out and hitting your opponent. Edgeguarding is about figuring out how your opponent is going to recover and preventing them from doing so.

[5.01] Above the Stage
It is often the case that your opponent will have survived a blow and by DI were sent upward towards the death zone. They will often drift back towards the stage. They'll have 3 options: 1) use their drift to just land on the stage/ grab the edge (possible double jump) 2) use a recovery move above the edge either to get to the stage or to the edge, or 3) drop below the edge and use a recovery move.

[5.02] Using Drift to recover
- It's your responsibility when your opponent is offstage to determine whether or not this is a valid method of recovery for them. If not, then you don't have to worry about it. If they can, this is often the prefered method of recovery. Things you'll have to watch out for are air dodges to avoid your attacks, double jumps to avoid attacks/ recover to a different location, and attacks aimed at you. If The attack, simply avoid/ shield it, and send them back where they just came from. Your goal should be to intecpet them and keep them offstage. This often involves baiting an air dodge/ double jump, and then punishing. Your nair and fair both last a long time, so they're good at punishing air dodges. Fox's bair is also good as it comes out fast, and sends hard and at a good angle, but is easily air dodged, so watch for one, and if they do, bair them.

[5.03] Using a recovery move above the edge
- This is worst when it gives them the option to go either to the stage, a platform, or the edge. If their recovery will have lots of lag after landing on the stage/ platform, they'll probably be aiming for the ledge. A good way to deal with this is to get in a position that you can quickly get to the edge for an edgehog, but still be able to attack onstage for an onstage recovery attempt. This is the situation where you just stand by the edge so you can quickly edgehog or jump>attack or just attack.

[5.04] Recovery from below the edge
This is where most characters are vulnerable. Many characters have up-bs that have significant startup times. If this is the case, you'll want to run off the stage/ drop from the edge w/ a nair, a dair, or a shine to hit them out of their startup. If that's not the case, then make sure to edgehog with the right timing if they can't make it to the stage, or to hit them out of their recovery as it travels towards the edge. The best place (usually) to intercept this sort of recovery is from the edge itself.

[5.05] Abusing Tethers
Basically, tether recoveries blow when they're a character's main recovery move. All you need to do is be on the edge when they want to recover to kill them. However, many tethers will hit you if you're vulnerable on the edge. To avoid this, either edge stall, or stay on the stage until right before you think they'll recover (then edgehog right before they do). if you miss this edgehog, you're now in a position to be edgeguarded. Make sure you double jump back to the stage as quickly as you can after noticing missing this, often with an attack to cover yourself, and you may still be able to keep them from getting to the stage from the edge.

[5.06] Grab edgeguarding
Snake and Sonic are susceptible to a special type of edgeguarding. Since neither of them sweetspot, and their recovery has the following property: you can do attacks after it, their up-bs have a special flag. This flag keeps track that they've used their up-b, and resets when they land, get on the stage, or get hit. This is to prevent them from up-bing after an up-b. (other characters have this flag too, such as G&W and Rob, and possibly every other character, but since G&W sweetspots the edge, he's not susceptible, and since Rob can up-b after an up-b, it's only used to keep track of how much fuel he has). What you can do to these two character is this: if they up-b near the edge, you can grab them. Whatever you do, do not grab attack or throw. They will jump break out. Their up-b flags will not have been reset, since none of the conditions have been met. They'll fly away to their doom. Laught at them. It may be possible for Snake to C4 jump off of this, so be ready for it, but it's not too comon to see. To avoid this, snakes will often air dodge out of their up-bs near the edge. If they do, edgehog quickly, and they'll die. Laugh harder.

[5.07] Prevent you opponent's return from the edge
If your opponent has managed to make it back to the edge, or if they've ended up on the edge for other reasons, They will have to return to the stage. This is where you try to cover as many options as you can. They can jump, roll, stand up, attack, or ledgehop. It's often easy to bait out an attack or ledgehop by just being by the edge. If they getup attack, sheild it, then kill them. If they ledge hop, they won't have invincibility, so take a step back, and rail them on their way towards the stage (i.e. w/ fsmash/ dsmash/ bair). If you're by the edge, it's also fairly easy to account for them just stading up. However, it'll be harder for you to deal with a roll or a jump. If they roll, either attack where they're going to be, or grab them and throw them back out. If they jump, it's just like any other situation where they're in the air above you. The key here is to be patient, don't throw out attacks instaneously, but instead watch. Once you see what action they're doing, take the appropriate countermeasure.

[6.00] You Must Recover!
Recovery is one of the most important aspects of this game, as it makes the difference between life and death. It's also one of the areas where it's easy to distinguish an experienced player from a noob. Recovery is just as much about getting back to the stage as it is about getting around your opponent. Being offstage is a tricky spot to be in, because you're only one hit away from dying, and the name of the game is prediction; prediction where your opponent gets to see what you're doing before you do it.

[6.01] Preventative Recovery (Includes DI)
The best way to recover is to not have to! The cliche Isai advice is "don't get hit" and it certainly applies here. If you got hit, you messed up somewhere, but don't fret, learn from it, see why you got hit, and don't get hit again. Well, since you are getting hit, here are some things you can do to prevent that attack from killing you: SDI (if it's a multihit move) to avoid the strong part of the attack, DI the attack so that you don't die, Attack after hitstun to slow your momentum, or air dodge out of hitstun on deathly strong hits to survive an extra few %.

Normal DI - Directional Influence (DI) is the term you've heard used all over, but what is it? DI is the act of "bending" your trajectory in by holding the control stick perpendicular to the base knockback of an attack. More info can be found here: http://allisbrawl.com/forum/topic.aspx?id=3527 The goal of DI is to do one of two things: prevent a strong attack from killing you, or prevent a weak attack from comboing. Ideally, a strong horizontal attack should be DI'd Upward (often towards the stage as well since most moves have knockbacks that are up and away). This will not only make it a farther path for you to travel before hitting a death zone, but also it puts you higher up, allowing more time to drift back to the stage. Strong Vertical moves probably want to be DI'd horizontally (often Away w/ some down because most vertical sending attacks send mostly up, but with some outward). This puts more room between you and the top death zone. The other use for DI is to avoid being comboed off of weak hits. Typically you DI weak attaks AWAY from opponents so that it makes it harder to follow up (one notable exception is Sheik's Ftilt which should be DI'd towards).

Smash DI - Smash Directional Influence (SDI) is completely unrelated to DI. SDI gives you a small teleport in the direction you press on the control stick during hitlag (the window of when an attack is hitting you; both you and your opponent are freezeframed until you're sent flying). This is primarily used to escape multihit attacks before they connect with the strong ending hit. An excelent example is Pika's Dsmash. This move should rarely (if ever) connect with it's last hit once you know about SDI. Smash DI that mofo sideways to get knocked out sideways before the strong hit at the end. SDI is also used to escape rapid-a's and various other multihit attacks (i.e. Rob's dsmash, zelda's f/usmash, MK's mach tornado, etc...)

Using an Attack to stop momentum - Fox has several moves that are good for this. Most notably his shine. After being hit away (sideways), shine as soon as you come out of hitstun (mash down-b while flying; make sure not to DI downwards =/ ) This will stop a lot of fox's horizontal momentum, allowing you to start to drift back to the stage, possibly stopping you from dying off the side. The shine is no good to do this vertically, however, so instead use the dair when sent vertically.

Air Dodging out of hitstun - In brawl, you can air dodge out of hitstun before you could normally do an attack even. Air dodging early as a momentum slower can add an extra 5% on to your life. This should only be used against strong attacks that look like they'll KO you otherwise. This is because oftentimes air dodging will take longer than waiting until the hitstun wears off and doing a fast attack.

[6.02] Using Drift to recover
"Drifting" is simply holding towards the stage while falling. If you're close enough/ high up enough to use this as the main form of your recovery, that's good. This method gives you the most options to deal with your opponent with. You can air dodge, double jump, attack (nair/ dair; double jump>fair), shine stall, illusion to the stage/ platform/ edge, or drop below the edge and double jump fair, up-b. As you can see, you have a lot of options to work with.

[6.03] Air Dodging During Recovery
Brawl's air dodge system allows for the use of an air dodge, followed by the rest of your recovery. Many experienced players will attemp to bait an air dodge by jumping towards you in an aggressive fashion. My advice here is to air dodge as late as possible, since air dodge invincibility comes out faster than most aerial attacks. Also, it's often beneficial to fast fall your air dodge, to cover more distance while invincible (to separate you from your opponent). An alternate to the Air dodge method of escaping aerial interception is to double jump over your opponent (often followed by a fast fall to get to the ground/ edge fast).

[6.04] Fair Recovery
Fox's fair has a nice little "hellicoptor" effect to it, that when used immediately after a double jump, grants you a very generous verticle boost. In addtion to this boost, it covers you pretty well! A pretty solid 2 for 1. Decent in both situations of being below the stage and coming close to the edge and when you're above the edge and want to get to a platform. If you can space it right, you can fair recovery to just above the edge, then FF for the last part of your fair and grab the edge while covering yourself pretty much the whole time.

[6.05] Illusion Recovery
Fox's main recovery special. This has longer range than his up-b, comes out faster, and has less lag at the end. It trades having different angles like the firefox to being able to be shortened to various lengths. It's important to be able to nail all of the lengths with consistancy (one of the few things that actually requires practice in this game). The catch in recovering with this move is to avoid being hit, and to avoide being edgehogged. Mix up where you recover to based on where your opponent is, and how they've behaved to it before. Something that will sometimes catch an opponent offguard is to make like you're illusioning to a platform, but shorten it so you can FF straight to the edge. Other times, actually go to the platform so they'll have a hard time guessing. Overall, the edge is better to go to straight from this moves since you'll have no lag at the end, but being to predictable with that gets you edgehogged.

[6.06] FireFox Recovery

Fox's other recovery special. This move gives fox the ability to travel in a variety of directions (inlcuding some slightly curved paths: good for escaping under tough edges like FD's), but has substantial startup time and ending lag. Best used not directly below the edge, preferably as far away from the stage as you can. The key with this is to try to figure out what angle youre opponent thinks you're going to take, and then take a different one that they're not covering. The aforementioned slightly curved angles are simply the angles that aren't directly in the slots of the control stick (on a GCN controller), but rather somewhere in between them. The only real use for these are, as earlier stated, recovering under tough picky edges.

[6.07] Shine Stall
A very usefull technique for throwing your opponent off is to make sporadic use of aerial shines as your falling down. Use them at moments that would stop you from being right where your opponent is about to attack, or right before you do an illusion to throw off their timing, or just randomly while falling and drifting towards the stage isn't important. Two things to note: 1) this stops your momentum, so it will hinder drifting back to the stage, and 2) this cancels your Fast Fall flag, so if you were fast falling, you no longer are, and can resume afterwards to really screw up timings.

[7.00] Camping
"Camping" refers to using projectiles at a distance to gain control of a match. While some people will call this "cheap" what they dont' know, is that "cheap" is a scrub's term for "good, and easy to do".

[7.01] Objective
This is an important aspect to both Brawl, and Fox. Control of a match is necessary to be it's victor. One way to do this is to take supremacy through camping. What do I mean by this? You're trying to use your laser, your shine, and your shield to force your opponent into situations disadvantageous for them. Making use of the shdl and full hop lasers, fox can send a truckload of damage in optical form downstage. If your opponent is playing a character that is incapable (or the player them self are incapable w/ a character that can) dealing with fox's lasers, they will be forced to approach, because they cannot sit back all day and let you have your way. While being forced to approach is bad for them, the alternative of not approaching is worse.

[7.02] Implementation
The game you're playing here is one of patience. You are attempting to make your opponent impatient, rash, and predictable, but this requires you to be patient and continue to camp. Use your lasers as much as you can to keep pressure on your opponent. Make full use of long stage alleys (i.e. under platforms) to keep surpressive fire at a maximum. When your opponent decides to use platforms switch gears and either go under the platforms to cross the stage to put more distance, or full hop laser to hit them on the platforms.

[7.03] Camping Smart
Like at any other point in the game, you're trying to outsmart your opponent. This means you've got to be continuously thinking about things while camping. I'll now highlight a few things that you should consider while camping.

Plan of Escape - You should always be looking for a way out of the situtaion you're in in a way that allows you to keep space between you and your opponent. Whether it's through the use of platforms, through baiting your opponent, or use of the edge, always have a back door. Don't get cornered!

Watch for Approaches - You should be continuously monitoring your opponent, trying to figure out how they'll get passed your lasers and approach you. That's why you put space between you. It gives you time to figure out how (s)he's going to approach, and figure out how you'll deal with it.

Look for Openings - You should also always be watching for your opponent to make a mistake while approaching, and take advantage of that and switch off camping for a bit and go aggressive to punish their mistake.

[8.00] Counter Camping
Counter camping is the art of out camping an opponent who is trying to camp you. Fox has an excellent counter camping game because he has a fast, spamable projectile that racks up damage quickly, and he has the best reflector in the game.

[8.01] Using the Laser

You're going to have to use your laser as the ultimate way to force your opponent to give up camping to approach you. Oftentimes, your opponent's projectiles are going to stun you, but they will have cooldown time. In this time, fire some rounds downstage while they can't return fire. SHDLs (short hop double lasers) are good for this, as they allow you to send two lasers quickly downstage and let you return to a state where you can powershield/ shine. Be sure to use platforms to get around projectiles to, and platfrom dropped lasers work well too. Refer to "[7.00] Camping" for more ideas on spamming the laser.

[8.02] Using the Shield

The shield is your number 1 tool to avoid enemy projectiles. Be sure to have lots of playtime against ppl who camp, fore each character with projectiles. Make sure you know how every projectile moves, how to get around it, and importatnly, what speed it moves at. This last is imortant because it allows you to Powershield it. Make sure when powershielding to only tap shield, as you'll immediately drop your shield and be ready to retaliate. The shield is also good because you can dash into it. This can be used to both close the gap between your opponent, or make said gap larger. In the air, it's ofen a reasonable idea to substitute an air dodge for the shield. During heavy bombarments of projectiles, shielding, then SHDLing out of shield back into a shield is often a viable tactic. Remeber, the point of using the shield here is not really to stop the projectile, but rather to allow you to counter with lasers after they've fired their stuff.

[8.03] Using the Shine
The shine is another tool you have to counter camp. This one, unlike the shield, reflects the projectile back, doubling the damage (explosives are exempt). It's often better to shine some projectiles because they'll cover you and/or help you camp, rather than just let you avoid it. Something to note about the shine and it's reflective properties: when the projectile connects with your shine, it will leave you with a bit of reflection lag. At first this may seem like a bad thing. However! It's actually a good thing. During this lag (on the ground), you can input either a jump (up on control stick or jump button) or a roll (with left or right on the control stick), that will cause you to immediately leave the shine in favor of whatever action you chose. The developers probably added this mechanic to prevent locking your opponent in reflection by continuously hitting their reflector w/ projectiles. What you're going to use it for, however, is if you shine a projectile, you can immediately jump out of shine into an SHDL, sending both the porjectile they sent at you, and two lasers back their way.

[8.04] When to Counter Camp

Counter Camping, while fox is good at it, is not always the best thing to do.
When you should do it
  • When you're far away from your opponent, and they're camping
  • When you know you're better at camping than your opponent's character
  • When you know you're better at counter camping than your opponent
  • When you're more patient than your opponent
  • When you're at high %s and they're at low %s
When you shouldn't do it
  • When you're close to your opponent (fox's non-stunning laser loses at close range)
  • When your opponent is out camping you
  • When you're at low %s, and your opponent is in KO %s

[10.00] Advanced Techniques
The Advanced Techniques section covers many techniques not covered in-game, how to do them, what they do, and how to use them.

[10.01] Short Hop
The short hop (sh) is an extremely valuable part of Fox's game. The most basic way to perform it is to press a jump control, and release that control before he leaves the ground (i.e. you have a 4 frame window to release). What this does is give Fox a shorter jump; meaning that he can perform aerials closer to the ground, or just do jumps that take less time in general. When combined w/ a Fast Fall, creates the way to do an aerial taking the least amount of time to perform. "Empty Short Hops" are short hops that you don't do any attack in. These are good for fakeouts to draw out shields/ spot dodges, or to dodge attacks.

[10.02] Fast Fall
The Fast Fall (ff) allows fox to fall at a much faster rate than normal. To perform this, press down on the control stick while aerial and not moving upward. When combined with a short hop can create very low, very fast aerial strikes. This can also be used to get to the ground faster when above it, or to drop down faster to get back to the stage while recovering or to throw off an edgeguarder's timing. One thing to note is that there are two types of "Normal Landing Lag" (lag caused by landing w/ nothing or w/ something that autocancelled): "Light landing lag" and "heavy landing lag". Heavy landing lag results from fast falling or from falling from higher than the height of your full hop. The difference between these two are that light landing lag is 16F long (IASA 2), and heavy landing lag is 32F long (IASA 5), meaning that once you hit the ground, if you Fast Fell, you'll have a bit more lag, possibly throwing off your timing if you're not paying attention.

[10.03] Jump Canceled Usmash
The Jump Cancelled (JC) Usmash is usefull for doing a Usmash driectly out of shield, often resulting in a KO. This is performed by initiating a jump, but before you leave the ground (4 frame window) you input the command for an up smash. The typically used method is jump w/ up, and usmash w/ up-c. This makes the usmash possible anytime you could jump, but otherwise unable to usmash (i.e. out of shield). This can be used offensively as well, dash towards them, shield; if they attacked, JC usmash them for a KO.

[10.04] Short Hop Laser
The short hop laser (SHL) is the specticle of Fox's camping/ long range pressure game. Fox can do 1, 2, or 3 lasers in one short hop, but typically only 2 are done (short hop double laser = SHDL), because you fast fall your short hop to keep yourself moving faster. Using lasers like this instead of standing gives the benefit of not having much lag at the end of your lasers, and allows you to move while shooting them. Another benefit of doing this is that since you're using multiple instantiations of the laser, you're decaying it faster; more importantly, you're removing the decay on attacks whose knockback's decay actually matters. When SHLing or SHDLing you should have all your focus on your opponent, try to figure out how he'll deal with the lasers before he gets to you, so you're ready for his approach, and punish accordingly. A tried and true method for perfroming this is to slide your thumb from y to b (double tap b) and then use the control stick to fast fall at the right time.

[10.05] Jump Canceled Shine
This is not a true Jump Cancel (JC) like the JC usmash/ Up-B, but has a similar effect. Since the shine stops vertical movement, if you shine the frame you leave the ground, you'll cancel all the movement of your jump and shine in a way that when by the time it's over, you're back on the ground. The best method for doing this is to slide your thumb from y to b while holding down. You MUST shine exactly 5 frames after you jump for this to work properly. What does this do for you? It allows you to do a shine when you could jump, but otherwise not shine (i.e. out of shield or the startup of a dash). Frankly, this sucks out of shield because it takes 8 frames to hit (whereas a shieldgrab is only 6); leaving one option for it: out of the initial part of a dash. That being said, it's not that usefull, since it's only good for shining out of the startup frames of a dash. THIS IS NOT IN ANY WAY FASTER THAN A NORMAL GROUND SHINE. The normal ground shine hits on frame 3 with 17 frames of lag; the JC shine hits on frame 8 with 17 frames of lag.

[10.06] Dash Attack Cancel
The Dash Attack Cancel (DAC) is using the momentum of your dash attack to make a usmash slide farther. You do this by starting a dash attack, and then immediately doing a usmash. This is the same glitch that is the root of "snakedashing". Fox doesn't gain much distance from this, so it's almost the same as just doing a dashing usmash (except the DAC usmash hits a few frames later due to the dash attack), but I figured I'd include this anyways.

[10.07] Pivot Grab
To perform the pivot grab, during a dash or run, tap backwards and then grab. This is the fastes way to turn around grab out of motion. It's uses are situational, and include examples such as running away from an attack to cause it to whiff, then pivot grabbing them, or empty SHing towards an opponent, and if they shield, you can dash behind them and pivot grab.

[11.00] Winning
As a competitive gamer, something you're trying to do is to win. Playing this game competitively means more than just being able to perform all the different attacks, and techniques, it means to outplay your opponent. Anyone can run around doing various advanced techniques, but it is the exceptional player who can overcome any mental challenges. To be playing this game competitively means that you're already familiar with all of it's aspects and each match is just a battle of your mind against your opponents.

[11.01] Mindgames
This horrid term that has plagued the smash community for years means little or nothing. When people use this term, they're often referring to tricking an opponent into a disadvantageous situation. However, this in and of its self means nothing. Bad players will often try to list off some "mindgames" that they do. One cannot do this as "mindgames" refers to something intangible and impossible to describe. What I will do is go through various aspects of the mental game and how to work on improving your thought process to help make you a better player.
 

Captainbrawl

Smash Apprentice
Joined
May 21, 2008
Messages
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Location
Georgia
Really good guide.

Helped alot.

For the AT's section...Why not put Fox's HOVER F-AIR in it? Its great when used against tall characters like Ganon/Snake.
 

-Mars-

Smash Hero
Joined
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Messages
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Excellent......i'll finish reading it when I have more time.......it's rather massive.
 

718_ROOKI3

Smash Lord
Joined
May 14, 2008
Messages
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Nana locking Snake's all over New York City
Wow! I can't picture myself posting something like this, def. leave it up to those that got the drive to wanna do it. But best believe i've already been incorporating all this into my Fox since i mained him from jump start.

Good piece of work tho, Its the best info posted so far (in my opinion)
 

Fenrir VII

Smash Master
Joined
Sep 9, 2005
Messages
3,506
Very good info...

I disagree with some of the attack analysis, but overall, very good job, man. Fox is kind of a lost art in Brawl...so it's nice for people to put out info like this. : )
 

SCOTU

Smash Hero
Joined
Mar 16, 2007
Messages
6,636
Location
Northville, MI
Really good guide.

Helped alot.

For the AT's section...Why not put Fox's HOVER F-AIR in it? Its great when used against tall characters like Ganon/Snake.
I think i know what you're talking about, but that's just a property of the fair, not an advanced technique.



Also, Thanks for all the positive comments guys (and or girls, but i doubt it)!
 

Onomanic

Heaven Piercer
Joined
May 4, 2008
Messages
2,263
Location
Westwood, NJ
This truly does call for a sticky. I'm adding this to my Character data files in my Smash folder (because I like to read; sue me)
File+Print lol
 

_eXp_

Smash Rookie
Joined
Aug 17, 2008
Messages
5
I really thought you put alot of effort in to this guide. the part that helped me best was the recoveries and camping but im not to clear about counter camping cuz my friend loves to camp and i lose to him
 

Orrax

Smash Rookie
Joined
May 16, 2008
Messages
16
Location
AZ
Awesome guide. Makes me want to main Fox again, haha.

I definitely agree with the requests for a sticky.
 

_X_

Smash Lord
Joined
Jan 30, 2006
Messages
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Location
Australia, Victoria, Melbourne East
scotu said:
[10.03] Jump Canceled Usmash
The Jump Cancelled (JC) Usmash is usefull for doing a Usmash driectly out of shield, often resulting in a KO. This is performed by initiating a jump, but before you leave the ground (4 frame window) you input the command for an up smash. The typically used method is jump w/ up, and usmash w/ up-c. This makes the usmash possible anytime you could jump, but otherwise unable to usmash (i.e. out of shield). This can be used offensively as well, dash towards them, shield; if they attacked, JC usmash them for a KO.
What's the difference/advantage to this rather than just Running/Hyphen Smashing?
 

RPK

Smash Lord
Joined
Aug 28, 2005
Messages
1,710
Location
Santa Clara, California
You can do it out of a shield when punishing idiots who think its a bright idea to run into your shield at high percents...Thus...Superior...Can also be charged...
 

_X_

Smash Lord
Joined
Jan 30, 2006
Messages
1,138
Location
Australia, Victoria, Melbourne East
You can do it out of a shield when punishing idiots who think its a bright idea to run into your shield at high percents...Thus...Superior...Can also be charged...
You can charge a hyphen smash... >_>

But yeah, thanks for the pro tips.

Guess that means you can do it out of the shine too... <_<
 

-Mars-

Smash Hero
Joined
Jul 26, 2007
Messages
6,515
Location
UTAH
Hey Scotu you never did update the summary on the dash attack. Maybe mentioning that it combos into utilt at lower percentages or something along those lines would be nice. I know you probably just forgot about it.
 

TKD

Smash Lord
Joined
Jul 25, 2007
Messages
1,587
Location
Tijuana, México
Yes! A Fox guide! Add matchups please!!! Starting with MK of course. I want to play either Fox or Falco vs MK at tournaments. I just don't know which yet.

Very good guide, I used to unblock and press up on the C-Stick, I'm gonna JC Upsmash out of shield from now on.
 
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