Wogrim
Smash Lord
This thread is all about the best ways to gimp, edgeguard, and edgehog every character's recoveries. Some characters can be gimped easily with a walkoff Knee, while others will wreck you if you try such nonsense.
The best course of action ALWAYS depends on where your opponent is and ALWAYS depends on if their second (and more for some characters) jumps remain, since that can change where they are. For a common notation of where your opponent is for discussing the best ways to gimp each character, please refer to this picture depicting the zones your opponent may be in.
The Zone Diagram:
Zones:
The Zones are slanted such that someone DIing towards the stage will stay in the same zone until they get very close (horizontally) to the ledge. The slope may not be the same for all characters, but the idea is.
>Safe: The opponent is safe in that they can simply DI back onto the stage, which means that they can choose to airdodge or attack if they wish without any worry of grabbing the ledge.
>Grab: Someone in this zone can grab the ledge if you're not on it or attack you if you're on it. Up-B's from this zone generally don't sweetspot the ledge, which means they generally cause a lot of fall time (and then landing lag unless they DI to the ledge).
> Option: This zone is called Option because someone in this zone has the option to up-B to the ledge or straight onto the stage.
> Danger: The Danger Zone is such that they have to grab the ledge to survive
> X: Most characters can't recover from this zone
> Wall: Used for walljumps and wallgrabs; this is particular to FD, but I included it since it's such a common stage
> Under: Under the stage/lip is dangerous for most characters so I gave it a name
Zone Modifiers:
These are independent of the zones but very important
> Early: Even a full-arcing recovery like Falcon's will not be able to grab the ledge on the way up. For recoveries that have somewhat poor horizontal distance (like Ganon or Marth, who go into freefall after the peak of their up-B), they won't hit the ledge until they are in freefall (for Option) or not at all (for Danger). In other words, most people won't up-B from this area if they're going for the ledge.
> Upper Mid: Low-horizontal recoveries will be close but still may not sweetspot, and no-horizontal recoveries like Ike or Kirby are likely to cause suicide.
> Lower Mid: This is the ideal area for most characters to sweetspot the ledge from, so you usually want to do your gimp before they get to this zone (unless you can outprioritize their recovery like with Link), and you can expect most characters to use their up-B from this area.
> Late: Recoveries with a forced horizontal component (can't go straight up) will often get the user stuck under the lip, and even recoveries with very little horizontal component don't need to wait this long. Your opponent most likely won't intentionally recover from this area.
> Above: Anywhere above stage level
> Even: Even with stage level (important for horizontal recoveries)
> Below: Below stage level (you have much better options with the opponent below the stage level)
General Zone Movement:
> Midair jumps: most charaters have a single midair (also known as second or double) jump. For almost all of these characters, this jump moves them up very near 1 Zone. Characters with multiple midair jumps generally move about 1/2 a zone with their midair jump. Note that all midair jumps are a lot less effective if they are done straight up instead of towards the stage
> Up-Bs: these are what the Zones are primarily designed around. Up-Bs for most characters will grant a 2-zone increase
> Side-Bs: some characters have side-Bs that give them a decent horizontal boost. It moves them up one zone when used towards the stage. If they charge it, the extra horizontal distance gained is lost through height because they fall straight down as they charge it, so that part doesn't matter.
> Stalls: Characters like Fox or Mario can stall in midair by removing their momentum. Although they lose vertical momentum, they also lose horizontal momentum, so they don't move much as far as Zones are concerned.
> Attacks and Airdodges: In the Early/Upper/Lower/Late/Under scheme they'll usually go down 2-3 sections. If they are not DIing towards the stage, they'll go down 2 Zones. Some attacks that are really fast may cause less dramatic results. Because of this, there are areas from which attacks and airdodges will guarantee suicide, which makes recoveries from lower zones to be very predictable and gimpable.
Gimps and stuff:
This section will include all the stuff like walkoff knees and all that good stuff, mostly regarding which areas each one covers (it will use a modified version of the Zone Diagram)
Setups:
This will be a section regarding the trajectories of moves that knock an opponent offstage (this will also have a separate modified version of the Zone Diagram)
Character-Specific:
This section will have advice for each character based on what zone they're in, since not all the gimps will work on all the characters
The best course of action ALWAYS depends on where your opponent is and ALWAYS depends on if their second (and more for some characters) jumps remain, since that can change where they are. For a common notation of where your opponent is for discussing the best ways to gimp each character, please refer to this picture depicting the zones your opponent may be in.
The Zone Diagram:
Zones:
The Zones are slanted such that someone DIing towards the stage will stay in the same zone until they get very close (horizontally) to the ledge. The slope may not be the same for all characters, but the idea is.
>Safe: The opponent is safe in that they can simply DI back onto the stage, which means that they can choose to airdodge or attack if they wish without any worry of grabbing the ledge.
>Grab: Someone in this zone can grab the ledge if you're not on it or attack you if you're on it. Up-B's from this zone generally don't sweetspot the ledge, which means they generally cause a lot of fall time (and then landing lag unless they DI to the ledge).
> Option: This zone is called Option because someone in this zone has the option to up-B to the ledge or straight onto the stage.
> Danger: The Danger Zone is such that they have to grab the ledge to survive
> X: Most characters can't recover from this zone
> Wall: Used for walljumps and wallgrabs; this is particular to FD, but I included it since it's such a common stage
> Under: Under the stage/lip is dangerous for most characters so I gave it a name
Zone Modifiers:
These are independent of the zones but very important
> Early: Even a full-arcing recovery like Falcon's will not be able to grab the ledge on the way up. For recoveries that have somewhat poor horizontal distance (like Ganon or Marth, who go into freefall after the peak of their up-B), they won't hit the ledge until they are in freefall (for Option) or not at all (for Danger). In other words, most people won't up-B from this area if they're going for the ledge.
> Upper Mid: Low-horizontal recoveries will be close but still may not sweetspot, and no-horizontal recoveries like Ike or Kirby are likely to cause suicide.
> Lower Mid: This is the ideal area for most characters to sweetspot the ledge from, so you usually want to do your gimp before they get to this zone (unless you can outprioritize their recovery like with Link), and you can expect most characters to use their up-B from this area.
> Late: Recoveries with a forced horizontal component (can't go straight up) will often get the user stuck under the lip, and even recoveries with very little horizontal component don't need to wait this long. Your opponent most likely won't intentionally recover from this area.
> Above: Anywhere above stage level
> Even: Even with stage level (important for horizontal recoveries)
> Below: Below stage level (you have much better options with the opponent below the stage level)
General Zone Movement:
> Midair jumps: most charaters have a single midair (also known as second or double) jump. For almost all of these characters, this jump moves them up very near 1 Zone. Characters with multiple midair jumps generally move about 1/2 a zone with their midair jump. Note that all midair jumps are a lot less effective if they are done straight up instead of towards the stage
> Up-Bs: these are what the Zones are primarily designed around. Up-Bs for most characters will grant a 2-zone increase
> Side-Bs: some characters have side-Bs that give them a decent horizontal boost. It moves them up one zone when used towards the stage. If they charge it, the extra horizontal distance gained is lost through height because they fall straight down as they charge it, so that part doesn't matter.
> Stalls: Characters like Fox or Mario can stall in midair by removing their momentum. Although they lose vertical momentum, they also lose horizontal momentum, so they don't move much as far as Zones are concerned.
> Attacks and Airdodges: In the Early/Upper/Lower/Late/Under scheme they'll usually go down 2-3 sections. If they are not DIing towards the stage, they'll go down 2 Zones. Some attacks that are really fast may cause less dramatic results. Because of this, there are areas from which attacks and airdodges will guarantee suicide, which makes recoveries from lower zones to be very predictable and gimpable.
Gimps and stuff:
This section will include all the stuff like walkoff knees and all that good stuff, mostly regarding which areas each one covers (it will use a modified version of the Zone Diagram)
Setups:
This will be a section regarding the trajectories of moves that knock an opponent offstage (this will also have a separate modified version of the Zone Diagram)
Character-Specific:
This section will have advice for each character based on what zone they're in, since not all the gimps will work on all the characters
