Snakeee
Smash Master
First everyone thought that ZSS is easily gimped and has to rely only on her tether recovery. Actually, most people still do. Seems to me like the biggest complaint I've heard about ZSS is the most laughable one. The reason being is that few people have fully implemented her recovery, which is actually one of the best in the game. She has so many options on recovery. The main point of this topic is to show what exactly you need to be doing when you recover, and how she can survive even to the 200% range and above.
1. Up-B during your second jump - this is crucial and needs to be timed correctly. When you do it right you get a great boost from the second jump.
2. Down-B - this is obvious, but for newer ZSS players, realize that you control the direction of this move with the joystick. The next ,however, is less obvious....
3. Down-B footstool jump - when your opponent thinks they have you edgehogged, you can use the down-B footstool jump (press to jump during the down-B) to gain a great distance. The best part is that you can do this if you are further from them than you might think as it's range is much better than a normal footstool, and you barely have to be at their height. So when you see your opponent grab the edge get ready to do this.
On another note from the edge a ledge hop down-b footstool on an opponent edgeguarding from the stage can be very useful depending on their character.
So basically you have one "up B boosted" jump, one stalling type jump (down B), and one special footstool jump.
If you're still not going to make it to the edge you have the options to
1. Forward B them on your way down
2. Up B spike them from underneath. If you time this right you can still grab the edge with another Up-B after you spike them!
3. Hit the opponent with an aerial, usually b-air or up-air.
For all tactics make sure your opponent's invincibility from the edge has worn off.
Some more tips
-You want to generally recover slightly above the stage and usually forward B at the highest point you can grab the edge (which is higher than the stage). You should switch this up sometimes with recovering low, especially against characters that may hit you as you tether.
-I often use the Up-B Second jump, and sometimes the down B even if I dont need it to throw off my opponent and be able to space a good recovery.
-Try to save your jumps. I tend to edge guard very aggressively, yet I try to keep myself with options if my edge guarding backfires on me. If you're way off the stage and you've already used your 2nd jump and down B you are finished by a simple edge hog.
-DI is very important. This is a general rule, but due to James Sparrow stressing it I'll add it here. You want to try to DI a KO move generally into the top corners of the stage to survive. If you end up DIing downwards this is the worst thing you can do, and is the main way ZSS actually can be edge hogged. So try to realize what moves send you in what direction, and DI accordingly.
Theres also a little discovery I made but I don't know if it deserves it's own topic so I'll just list it here.
If you Up-B at the start of a footstool jump (including down-B footstool) she DOES get the height boost.
Now for surviving attacks that would normally KO ZSS even with proper DI.
- The down B I've recently found to have much more use in survival than using an aerial, but obviously only for horizontal survival. The down B is the fastest thing ZSS can do out of hitstun by far is to up air and then immediately down B . I've begun to survive at very high percents because of this. The main problem however, is that you waste your down B immediently and you lose the ability to do a down B footstool and other recovery options. For that reason, I typically only do this if I'm pretty sure that the attack will KO me by itself. I mash down and B as soon as I take the hit (while DIing of course). It's good to have good reaction time and quick fingers though, because you want to be able to stop pressing B as soon as you start the down B or else you'll do the attack out of it.
* UPDATE: This works only for recovering horizontally. If you do it near the top of the stage the Up B will actually kill you.
- The best way to avoid being killed vertically is DIing (left or right), and doing an up air (which is best done with the C-stick). The up air is the fastest aerial, and will break the hitlag easier than anything else. If you need to do the up air without the C-stick, be careful because holding up may cause you to die here.
Extra notes about Down B
- Down B escapes any sort of Weak hitstun. I don't know all the specifics, but weak hits are more easily broken out of.
- ZSS can escape chain grabs by some characters if you down B fast enough.
- For one example of how well it works, Chu Dat was unable to follow up with anything at all while I was at 0% with Kirby's forward throw o_O.
* I'm finding it impossible to down B out of Falco's cg now if it is buffered
1. Up-B during your second jump - this is crucial and needs to be timed correctly. When you do it right you get a great boost from the second jump.
2. Down-B - this is obvious, but for newer ZSS players, realize that you control the direction of this move with the joystick. The next ,however, is less obvious....
3. Down-B footstool jump - when your opponent thinks they have you edgehogged, you can use the down-B footstool jump (press to jump during the down-B) to gain a great distance. The best part is that you can do this if you are further from them than you might think as it's range is much better than a normal footstool, and you barely have to be at their height. So when you see your opponent grab the edge get ready to do this.
On another note from the edge a ledge hop down-b footstool on an opponent edgeguarding from the stage can be very useful depending on their character.
So basically you have one "up B boosted" jump, one stalling type jump (down B), and one special footstool jump.
If you're still not going to make it to the edge you have the options to
1. Forward B them on your way down
2. Up B spike them from underneath. If you time this right you can still grab the edge with another Up-B after you spike them!
3. Hit the opponent with an aerial, usually b-air or up-air.
For all tactics make sure your opponent's invincibility from the edge has worn off.
Some more tips
-You want to generally recover slightly above the stage and usually forward B at the highest point you can grab the edge (which is higher than the stage). You should switch this up sometimes with recovering low, especially against characters that may hit you as you tether.
-I often use the Up-B Second jump, and sometimes the down B even if I dont need it to throw off my opponent and be able to space a good recovery.
-Try to save your jumps. I tend to edge guard very aggressively, yet I try to keep myself with options if my edge guarding backfires on me. If you're way off the stage and you've already used your 2nd jump and down B you are finished by a simple edge hog.
-DI is very important. This is a general rule, but due to James Sparrow stressing it I'll add it here. You want to try to DI a KO move generally into the top corners of the stage to survive. If you end up DIing downwards this is the worst thing you can do, and is the main way ZSS actually can be edge hogged. So try to realize what moves send you in what direction, and DI accordingly.
Theres also a little discovery I made but I don't know if it deserves it's own topic so I'll just list it here.
If you Up-B at the start of a footstool jump (including down-B footstool) she DOES get the height boost.
Now for surviving attacks that would normally KO ZSS even with proper DI.
- The down B I've recently found to have much more use in survival than using an aerial, but obviously only for horizontal survival. The down B is the fastest thing ZSS can do out of hitstun by far is to up air and then immediately down B . I've begun to survive at very high percents because of this. The main problem however, is that you waste your down B immediently and you lose the ability to do a down B footstool and other recovery options. For that reason, I typically only do this if I'm pretty sure that the attack will KO me by itself. I mash down and B as soon as I take the hit (while DIing of course). It's good to have good reaction time and quick fingers though, because you want to be able to stop pressing B as soon as you start the down B or else you'll do the attack out of it.
* UPDATE: This works only for recovering horizontally. If you do it near the top of the stage the Up B will actually kill you.
- The best way to avoid being killed vertically is DIing (left or right), and doing an up air (which is best done with the C-stick). The up air is the fastest aerial, and will break the hitlag easier than anything else. If you need to do the up air without the C-stick, be careful because holding up may cause you to die here.
Extra notes about Down B
- Down B escapes any sort of Weak hitstun. I don't know all the specifics, but weak hits are more easily broken out of.
- ZSS can escape chain grabs by some characters if you down B fast enough.
- For one example of how well it works, Chu Dat was unable to follow up with anything at all while I was at 0% with Kirby's forward throw o_O.
* I'm finding it impossible to down B out of Falco's cg now if it is buffered
