Elessar
Nouyons TO
Original guide can be found in the link below:
http://allisbrawl.com/forum/topic.aspx?id=147637
Props to sook for writing the guide and to blubba for getting the pasta permit (as well as inspiring this guide xD).
It's time for all of us to strap on our hover boots and show the community that getting Link OoS does not equal an autowin.
--------------------------------------------------------
How to Recover
When I first started playing this game, I would play L_Cancel a lot (still do). Most of our matches would go like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr95Y_HQuYo
Well I got pretty annoyed about that, I got tired of being gimped. Today, he gimps me about once every 10 matches. How did I change it? Well, a while after this match I played Blubba Pinecone, who is known for his offstage game, and it was an eye-opener to just how much Link can do offstage. This was also around the time when Ark made his DI vid. And so, I was able to make adjustments.
Here's the problem today. Many of you have great DI, and you're proud of it, as you should be. But you always recover the same exact way. It's either DI, jump, bomb pull, throw rang, upb or it's DI, jump, FF airdodge tether. But since you made it safely to the ledge using those tactics it doesn't matter right? Wrong. If you recover the same way each time, you will get gimped eventually.
This guide is not on how to recover with Link. This guide is on how to recover the right way with Link. When I say right way, I mean you're not making it back because of a combination of luck and a lack of punishing on the opponent's part. In other words, recovering the right way minimizes your chances of being gimped.
Disclaimer: I am going to be using video examples of you guys in this guide. Let me make this clear: I don't care if you were having a bad day. I don't care if it was just a messed up button input. I don't care if that's not how you usually recover. I don't care. A bad recovery is a bad recovery, period.
Step 1: The Fear
The first and foremost thing that prevents Link players from having a good offstage game (and therefore preventing them from making smart recoveries) is that they're afraid of the offstage. They're afraid of not making it back to the ledge, so they never go offstage. These are the people who tend to never try for nair gimps, boomerang gimps, footstools, etc. They just throw projectiles and always let the opponent take the ledge. My advice:
Get over it. Stop being afraid.
Most of you play wifi. Well, wifi is the perfect training ground for experimentation. Why? Because no one cares about winning on wifi anyway. So start experimenting with nair gimps, start going offstage a little. Start eliminating that fear.
Step 2: The Range
So you finally got over the fear of going offstage with Link. Congrats. Now you need to learn just how far he can go offstage, which many of you do not know btw. Some people still get surprised when I tell them Link can go to the bottom bubble of BF and still make it back. So to learn his range, listen to Blubba's advice:
Go to training mode and pick BF. Jump off and see how far down you can go while still being able to make it back. Go down as far as possible. Then go as far down diagonally as possible. Then horizontally. Memorize these distances.
Repeat this process for every stage. Learn all his ranges possible. Learn when to press upb so you'll overshoot the ledge if needed (in case of edgehog).
An optional thing you can do is do this process for every stage with a bomb in hand afterwards. Do you need to? Not really. Do you need to do it without a bomb? Yes.
Step 3: The Second Jump
Ok, this is where stuff gets serious. A lot of you don't realize just how key the second jump is. I see it being wasted all the time. And it makes me facepalm every time you do. Here are the 2 reasons why the second jump is so important:
1) It significantly boosts the distance Link can go if used in conjunction with his upb
2) It creates momentum
Read that second one again. It creates momentum. Link's recovery is momentum based. Do you realize how huge that is? Stop wasting this jump.
I'll give an example. Most of you have seen my recent recovery against L because I keep flaunting it. If you haven't seen it, here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU8iX9rBZ2Q at 2:50
The only reason I made it back was because I used my second jump right before the upb. That vid actually contains a lot of different types of recoveries that I plan to go into later on.
Here are examples of where the second jump was wasted and as a result, the recovery failed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTorQI42uZM at 0:25 and 3:11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCvxQC9yaQc at 3:58
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=193k7mqNmfo at 2:25
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F6CiD2NXzQ at 0:54
I'll go into detail later on WHY using the second jump at these times was incorrect, but for now I just want you to see how important the second jump is.
Sometimes you're at such a high percentage that a DJ is necessary for you just to stay alive. Note, this type of situation should only be when you go flying to the corner of the stage and are still unsure on whether you'll survive. If you use your DJ at this point, you need to very, very careful. Be really wary about what your opponent can do, and weigh them against your remaining options, and pick the best one.
Step 4: Taking the Hit
A lot of you brag about your great DI. Well, time to put it to use. The fad of "throw Link offstage = dead" is a dying joke. People know it's not true anymore. That means 95% of the time, they will chase you offstage. Now, most of you see the guy coming at you and decide "omg he's coming at me I can't let him hit me *throw rang*"
Or you tend to airdodge.
Have you ever considered that maybe the rang animation or the airdodge will last too long and throw you out of recovery range? Have you ever considered just taking the hit and DIing it so it actually helps you recover? This isn't something I see often, and it's more important than you think.
Here's an example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idTPDxJ6p-0 at 0:45
SFP could have easily made it back if he just hadn't airdodged the bomb. You don't always have to avoid the edgeguards. Recovery is more important.
Give up the percentage to make it back. Think - the game rewards you for taking off 3 stocks. It doesn't care what percentage the player is at when he dies. So take the hit, and force him to work more to kill you. Because the more he plays, the more likely he'll make mistakes you can capitalize on.
Step 5: Drifting
Sometimes step 4 doesn't always work. Sometimes the opponent will come at you with a move you just cannot be hit by, such Kirby's dair, Falco's dair, Ike's dair, Peach's turnip, MK's dair, etc. In this case, once again, do not airdodge unless you are really high up. And chances are if you're high up, they're not gonna use a dair, they'll use a fair or uair. Which means when they dair, you're going to be low.
So now weigh your options. Remember, you're not thinking this once you're already low, you're thinking about this as soon as you go offstage. If you take the hit low, you die. If you airdodge, you die. You're getting closer and closer to the stage and into their dair range, so you need to think fast. *But wait*. You still have your second jump. And based on your positioning, you know they're going to attempt a move you can't be hit by.
So here's what you do. You drift away from the stage and wait for them to come out at you and attempt their edgeguard. Then as they begin their aerial, start drifting back towards the stage underneath and jump+upb behind them.
Here's what I mean:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEVz9NGotoQ at 2:25
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU8iX9rBZ2Q at 0:19 and 0:54
But what if you're out of range and you won't make it back? Think about your positioning now, You're in the middle of the opponent and the stage. The opponent just failed at gimping you. They see another opportunity for a stage spike. Chances are, they will hit you. And that just goes back to step 4. If you can't DI that move enough and get hit into the stage, well, tech it.
Sometimes you'll be in a position where you won't need to drift away from the stage, but you'll still go underneath and around them. For example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buPFe1z5qvI at 2:30
In this case, I saw he was coming at me but I knew he wouldn't make it to me in time, so I just went underneath and around him back up to the ledge. Remember, recovering low is usually Link's safest recovery option.
Step 6: Recovering High
This is something I see a lot of players forget about. There are situations when you just DI'd correctly and you know that going low is going to get you gimped. Even recovering at a normal height is very risky. At those times, you need to recover high. Just DI, jump and upb, then freefall to the stage. The chance that you'll take a hefty amount of damage is pretty high, but remember what I said about taking the hit - sometimes it's worth it.
I'll give an example. A few months ago I played Tutu's Sheik. He's reeeeally good at gimping, and every time I tried to recover low, I got gimped. Pretty consistently too. And, well, I kinda pride myself on my ability to recover, so I was really surprised. What I eventually started doing was just recovering high. And guess what? I stopped getting gimped. I started taking a lot of damage, yeah, but I was staying alive. Sheik, bar usmash, has mediocre KO moves, and I was too high for fair to be effective, so I was living up to 200%+ against Sheik once I started recovering high, whereas I was getting gimped at 130% when I recovered low.
Here's another example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU8iX9rBZ2Q at 1:22
Follow me here. As soon as I flew offstage, I MC'd and jumped. So now I'm thinking, MK's most probably going to edgeguard with fair or dair or nair, and I have no second jump. Recovering low would be really risky and not guaranteed. So I choose to recover high. Same thing again at 1:29.
Obviously, you can't always recover high at high percents. For instance, recovering high against Link is risky because it's a free dair. Against Fox, a free usmash. Against D3, a free utilt. You get the idea.
Step 7: Making the First Move
Link's aerial spin attack has a lot of priority. This is something everyone knows in theory but never notices in game. Sometimes when you see an opponent coming at you, instead of drifting away from the stage because it might not be safe in that particular situation, upb early. No, this is not the same thing as recovering high. You're still at normal height, but you're just using your upb early.
What does that do? It's a counter-edgeguard. You're attacking him with an aerial spin attack. Basically, instead of going around him, you're going right at him and telling him to move out of the way. Why does this work? Because the spin attack has high priority.
Here's an example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU8iX9rBZ2Q at 0:19
I could go around him, but it would be difficult, and I know that since he just used a dair there's a very slight lag time before the next one comes out, of which I can take advantage of and upb right into him.
Sorry for using the same match again and again, but I did say this match had a lot of recoveries I wanna address lol.
Step 8: Mixups
Ok so, here at this part, you've just DI'd, and now you're floating towards the stage. Let's say you've determined you don't need to drift away from the stage, or recover early either, or recover high. But here comes the opponent. Almost all of you will throw a rang at this point. If you're Kirin, an arrow. Which is fine, but for one thing; you never mix it up. If you always throw a rang, your opponent will figure out when you throw the rang, or they'll bait the rang throw, and then gimp you afterwards.
How many of you have considered fair offstage? Nair? DJ slow-fall dair? A footstool? Zair? Throwing a bomb to make you both explode? Using upb early so you recover high AND attack him?
You have to know all of your options in a given situation. Get rid of the rang habit. Get rid of the same projectile habit. Sometimes don't throw a rang but use a fair. Sometimes DJ and footstool them if you can. Or throw out a zair at them - that'll throw them off and make them go wth?
For instance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEVz9NGotoQ at 2:34
I just pulled the bomb. Most of you would, after pulling the bomb, throw a rang at the ledge, and then upb with the bomb in hand. Maybe you would have made it. But it's predictable, and you'll get punished for it sooner or later. I saw that he wasn't going to chase me, but rather hog the ledge, so I threw the bomb right at him, clearing the ledge for me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5BKEds1-t4 Now look at 3:20. Looks likes a similar situation, but clearing the ledge didn't work. Why? For one thing, his frames weren't out yet. For another, Deva used his second jump too early, which guaranteed the MK dair to connect.
Step 9: Knowing your Momentum
Link's recovery is momentum-based. We know that. So pay attention to your momentum. Draw mental paths on the screen on where you will be if you continue to fall based on your momentum. Predict where you will go based on how you're moving. This is a key concept that only comes through practice.
What I mean by this is, if you know how your momentum is at that situation, you know whether or not how difficult it will be to get to the ledge, how much room (or lack of) your opponent has for an edgeguard, and how much time you will have to repel/go around any opponents coming at you.
I'll give an example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buPFe1z5qvI at 2:30 again
Remember I said I knew I didn't need to drift away from him? That's because I knew how my momentum was. I knew I'd end up at that point right where I double jump because in my mind, I drew a mental path on where Link would end up. Then, knowing the full range that Link can recover from, I jumped at that point and upb'd safely to the ledge.
Here's another example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU8iX9rBZ2Q at 0:54
Watch carefully. When I get thrown off, I pull a bomb immediately. Then I fall straight down a little. At the point where I throw the bomb, I'm within recovery range. However, I don't have the horizontal momentum needed to make the ledge yet. Literally half a second later, I do. Like.... when the bomb passes the ledge, I have the necessary momentum. At that point I knew I could upb, but L's dair was preventing me from doing so, so I waited a little and then recovered around him. This is what I mean; you need to know your momentum.
Step 10: Whiplashing
Learn this tech. Some of you call it situational, some of you call it overrated, some of you call it too hard to do consistently. Learn it regardless. It can help sooooooooo much in some situations it's not even funny. It also takes the pressure off your shoulders to always have amazing DI.
Obviously, you're not going to get that mach2, Legan-style whiplash right off the bat. Start off practicing at low percents, like 120% or so and use Bowser's dtilt or Falco's dsmash or something easy like that. As you get better and better at it, increase it to higher percents. Then in a MU where you think you might be able to use it, keep it in mind. Don't go out of your way to do a whiplash. Only use it when it's the best option.
For instance, if you're at 200% and just got with the first hit of Snake's ftilt, and you know the second hit is coming, DIing up might save you or it might not. But if you have room for the whiplash, go for it.
Step 11: Putting It All Together
Ok so, if you haven't picked up on it yet, this is what I was leading up to. You have to know absolutely everything you can do in a given situation when recovering. And not only that, but you have to read what your opponent is going to do. As soon as you get sent offstage, you have to consider every single possible way they can edgeguard you. You have to consider every single possible thing you can do to them in return. You have to consider multiple scenarios, all in a matter of less than 2 seconds. You have to consider priority issues, air speed, ranges, etc.
For instance, most of you will throw a rang or arrow at Wario's fair. Wario's fair will cut right through both. So when you get sent offstage against him, you have to immediately know that the rang/arrow options are out.
Read. Read. Read. Know everything that will happen, before it happens. That is the key to recovering with Link.
Alright, this next part is the critique section. This next part is why I put the disclaimer. I'm going to critique a looot of recoveries, so you'll see what you have to consider every time you go offstage. This part is long. Really long. A lot of you are going to want to skim over it. I suggest you do not, because this is the meat of the guide, the real core, the extremely important key aspects to this guide more than anything. It'll be long, but it'll be worth it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr95Y_HQuYo
I didn't know how to recover at this point. However, if there's something that you should notice, it's that I was thinking what to do even back then. The first I get gimped, I use upb. The next time I get gimped, you can see I was thinking "ok, upb didn't work last time, lemme try zair." Did it work? No. What I should have done was preserved my second jump and dropped down low, then recovered after L used his bair. But the point is, you need to think like that. You need to mix up your recovery.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU8iX9rBZ2Q
The famous match I've used again and again for this guide.
0:18 - After MK's dthrow, I was expecting L to dash at me, so I attempt to zair. He doesn't though, he fairs. At that point, I know I'm going offstage, and I'm not going to go very high. I know he is going to edgeguard me with dair, fair, or nair. Now, right after the dthrow, I am within range to DJ back onto the stage. But if you look carefully, had I done that, I would have jumped right into MK's dair with no second jump.
Knowing this, I drift away from the stage and lure MK away from the ledge. Then once I was near the edge of Link's range, I had 2 options, either upb into MK and use my priority, or go around him. Since he was right in my face, going around him would be tricky, and since he had just used a dair, I knew there would be a lag time before the next would come out. So I chose to upb into him and made it safely to the ledge.
0:54 - This time my percentage is higher, and so I go a bit higher from the bthrow. Now, at the peak of the knockback, I have a few options. I can DJ now to switch my momentum, then FF tether, but what if he speed hugs? I'm done. I could DJ and recover high, but do I need to? I could simply fall and airdodge tether, but what if he hits me with dair before I pull myself to the ledge? So I choose to fall and pull a bomb. I try to repel him away from the ledge by throwing the bomb; I miss. But I know I still have my second jump, and I expect he's going to edgeguard me with dair again, because that's his most reliable edgeguard. He doesn't, he uses uair. A bit surprising, but it would have just hit me upwards, so I wouldn't have minded taking the hit. I know that he knows I upb'd into him last time, so he'd be expecting it this time. So I choose to go around and under him this time, recovering extremely low and behind him. However, he knows that I know that he knows I upb'd into him last time, so he's actually expecting a mix up, and as a result, attempts to bair stage spike me. Accounting for this, I make sure recover as far away from him as possible when coming up. I make the ledge safely.
1:22 - I get hit by nair, and I didn't DI it well, so I'm forced to use my second jump. Why, you ask? Well, knowing my momentum, if I preserve it I'll come close to the left side boundary, and at that point out of range from the ledge. So if I choose to save my jump and recover low, I'll be out of range to recover. That forces me to use it now. Well, great, now I have to recover with no 2nd jump, which is a problem. He too, draws a mental path of where I'll fall and attempts to nair me. Seeing that he is going to intercept my line, and knowing I'll have absolutely no way of recovering if I get hit by that, I choose to recover high. I eat a shuttle loop as punishment, but at least I didn't die.
1:28 - Almost identical situation. I once again didn't DI the dsmash that well, and so I'm forced to use the second jump again, because this time I really am in the side barrier. I pull a bomb to be safe this time, because I know I'm farther than last time, and, knowing my momentum, see that I'll fall barely into recovery range if I choose to recover low. L knows this too, so he starts covering that path. Once he sees me recover high again, he goes back on stage. He knows that if he edgehogged me, the bomb would hit me up past the ledge again (because of my high percent) so he realizes there's no point in an edgehog. I make the ledge safely.
1:56 - I get dthrow'd again. Going farther than I expected to go, I immediately realize my zair attempt to stop his dash failed because of the higher knockback. I know I need to adjust fast, and though I have my second jump, getting hit with a MK aerial would be deadly at the height L is flying at. So I choose to drift away. He attempts a dair again, which I had been expecting, so I take advantage of his lag and throw a bomb at him. I hope that the bomb would stun him long enough for me recover underneath him - it doesn't. He is able to dair KO me. So in this case, I didn't make a successful recovery. But based off the situation I was in, I made the best of what options I had. By the time the zair ends, had I used my DJ I would have gone straight into his dair. Maybe I shouldn't have thrown the bomb. Maybe I should have gone underneath him with the bomb still in hand. Who knows? Regardless, I chose one of the 2 safest options I could, and then hoped it would work. In this case, it didn't.
2:22 - I get hit with a dash attack that sends me offstage. I attempt to the zair his approach once again. It fails, once again. At that point, I do the same thing I did last time the zair failed - drift away from the stage. He attempts the same edgeguard once again, nair and dair. This time I have no bomb, and since I've avoided him for a bit now, I know he won't expect me to upb early into him. I take advantage of the lag time between the dairs (you can actually hear another starting up) and attack him head-on. I recover to the ledge safely.
2:51 - I get hit with nair just as I inputted a dsmash. It comes out as a dair. Now I'm thinking "fudge, dair takes forever to end, no way I'm making it back." I know L is thinking the same thing. I'm ready to SD, but then I realize it just might end in time, so I start mashing jump. L sees it ends in time too, so he quickly goes to the ledge for an edgehog. He was too early on it though. My 2nd jump comes out and at its peak, where you get the highest boost to your upb, I use the spin attack. I smack him off the ledge and recover safely.
3:10 - I get hit by a dsmash. I attempt to whiplash, but I don't come anywhere close. When the zair ends, I have no option other than to use my 2nd jump, or else I'm going to the bottom corner. I start drifting toward the stage, and once I'm on the edge of Link's recovery range, begin to upb. Unfortunately the MK dair comes out first and kills me, so I was unsuccessful. However, given the situation I was in I used all the right options I could.
3:45 - I get hit by uair. L's been letting me DJ near the top platform for my last stock a few times, so he expects I'm going to do it again. He shuttle loops and catches me after my 2nd jump has been used, and sends me offstage. As soon as I get hit by that, I know I'm done. I remember thinking "fudge I just got gimped." I get sent too far to tether to the ledge, so my only option is to upb to the ledge. L knows this, so he runs off and dairs, effectively gimping me. The error with this recovery was that I had wasted my second jump. If I had still had it, I could have drifted away from the stage, baited the dair, and then recovered. But without it, my options were limited.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTorQI42uZM
0:20 - Xyro bthrows and notices Legan DJ immediately. Keep watching.
0:25 - Xyro dthrows and knows Legan is going to use his second jump immediately, so he zairs to push Legan off the stage and then he has a guaranteed dair. The problem is pretty obvious - Legan is too careless with his second jump, especially with his back against the edge of the stage. As a result, he had no option of drifting away, or going underneath, or anything. Easy gimp.
1:30 - Legan gets bthrow'd offstage and he didn't DI it too well. He can't DJ immediately and recover high because he won't make it. He chooses to drift toward the stage and attempt to jump+upb, but gets hit by dair. In this case, he recovered correctly. He had the right idea in not jumping immediately. He knew Xyro was going to attempt either a dair or nair, because those are Samus' main gimping moves. Xyro was too far for a nair, fair, or zair to hit, and pulling a bomb would have done nothing. Throwing a rang wouldn't have hit Xyro at all, so he had no choice but to hope his upb would go through the dair. It didn't, so he was unsuccessful. But he had the right thought-process. He minimized his chances of getting gimped. Xyro was just good enough to make those small chances possible.
3:11 - Legan gets ftilted. He's near the ledge. Xyro knows he's going to jump. From then on, it's the exact same thing as 0:25. Too careless with the second jump.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCvxQC9yaQc
3:58 - ALSM gets hit with a charge shot and doesn't DI it too well. Luckily it doesn't send him far at all, not even past Link's recovery range. However, he double jumps way too early. As soon as he does that he has 2 options, recover immediately or go low. Xyro knows if ALSM recovers immediately then a zair wall is guaranteed, so he knows ALSM will go low, and so he goes straight down for the dair. What ALSM should have done is drifted toward the stage fend off the falling Xyro with a fair or rang, then jumped and upb'd to the ledge. Too careless with the second jump.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=193k7mqNmfo
2:25 - Afro gets hit with an fsmash. He doesn't need to momentum cancel, and Haze is a good distance away, so he assumes it's safe to jump. Marth is quick enough to get to the ledge and of course, he's going to edgeguard with fair to nullify projectiles. This is exactly what happens. Afro sees that, but luckily he has a bomb. It explodes them both, so he's saved. But then he tries throwing a rang, which of course gets beaten by Marth's fair. Afro is hit away and is forced to drift closer, throwing another rang then attempting an upb very close to Marth, hoping the Marth will use upb to save him.
Afro's strategy wasn't bad. He attempted to recover via the bomb exploding them both, he even attempted to take the hit from the dolphin slash. But it could have been better. And guess what? It all started with him using that 2nd jump. What he should have done is expected Haze to edgeguard with fair, and so without jumping, just fall and throw a rang at Marth before he's jumped and used a fair. Or if he could have fallen, let Marth come off the ledge, baited the fair, and then jumped underneath him and recover behind him. Either of these options would have worked.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F6CiD2NXzQ
0:53 - Scabe is hit with fsmash. His DI on it is meh, so he chooses to DJ right afterwards. What he doesn't realize is, he's only on the edge of the bubble, and since he didn't FF, he could have drifted back towards the stage easily after the bair. But he wastes his second jump instead. So at 0:57, just before Falco's bair, Scabe decides not to airdodge, because it would mean sure death. So he decides to take the hit. Not a bad idea, but he didn't DI the bair, so it killed him. What he should have done is thrown out a fair right at 0:57, to hit Falco away, then attempt an upb at the ledge, given his situation. Of course, if he had never used his second jump, he could drifted back towards the stage, thrown a rang AND a fair, to hit Falco away, and then DJ+upb to the ledge.
Another thing he could have done, since he used his DJ immediately, is pull a bomb and recover high. Based off his positioning, he probably wouldn't have enough momentum to reach the ledge alone, which is why he'd need the bomb, and the chances of the Falco hitting him with bair (helping him) would be pretty high too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiOtYxGLrNA
0:57 - Legan gets fthrow'd. He chooses to fall and throw a boomerang at the ledge, then attempts to jump+upb, and gets gimped by bair. His strategy wasn't terrible, but there are a few flaws. For one thing, the rang is aimed at the ledge, not above it. Which means he didn't intend to hit Falco before he was on the ledge, he was just throwing it out of habit. There's a few things he could have done instead. Let's review his options. For one thing, he could have just jumped and upb'd directly onto the stage (recovered high). Or he could have jumped toward the stage and footstooled the Falco, but that's risky, so it's not a good idea. He could fallen just as he did and thrown out a fair/nair to repel the bair. He could have pulled a bomb and thrown it at the dropping Falco, then jumped and upb'd. The safest option would probably have been to recover onstage directly. So this time around, a little bit more thought could have avoided that gimp.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dc-onoJZrIM
0:41 - ALSM gets fthrow'd and doesn't DI it great. He chooses to DJ immediately and planned to tether but he saw Oli speed hug and chose not to, then upb'd after. This worked out for him fine. But it wasn't the smartest thing to do, part of it was kind of lucky. What he should have done is fallen low enough so that he's out of Oli's edgeguard range but still in Link's recovery range to the stage. Meaning, his upb would just barely overshoot the ledge and he'd land on stage, IF Oli chose to speed hug. If not, he'd hit the ledge. Any projectile in his situation would have been too slow, and any aerial wouldn't have been effective. He could have also recovered high, but it's not needed in this situation. Again, what he did worked out for him, but it wasn't the smartest move to make.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEVz9NGotoQ
2:26 - I get bthrow'd and I instantly know that if DJ he could stand on the ground and fsmash, or he could fair, uair, nair or shuttle loop me. So I choose to drift away from the stage where I know he can't hit me without chasing me, which he does. He first attempts a uair, which doesn't come close to hitting. Then he attempts the expected dair, which I go under nicely. After it has ended, I jumped and recover behind him, leaving him no opportunity to hit me as I go up because i'm out of his range.
2:34 - I get hit with dsmash, and I DI it pretty well. I know L is going to chase me as always, so now at the peak of my knockback I have a few options. I could jump and recover high, but I don't really need to because recovering low isn't really dangerous. I know he's probably going to edgeguard me with nair or dair, both of which get beaten by bombs. So I pull a bomb and fall. Then I see that he decides not to chase me, but just hog the ledge. So to clear the ledge, I throw the bomb at him, and it works. Then I recover safely to the ledge.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5BKEds1-t4
3:20 - Ah, the grab release scenario. The one most of you have trouble with because you're not sure what to do. I'll tell you what you shouldn't do ever: DJ immediately to gain your momentum back. That's just begging for a gimp. The thing about the grab release arc is that it's set, it has nothing to do with momentum. So after it ends (roughly at the same horizontal height as where you were grabbed) you can just hold towards the stage and voila, there is your momentum without ever having used your second jump. From here, you can recover low and behind the opponent's edgeguard. However, one weakness about recovering low is that the opponent can footstool you while you use your second jump, and it's instadeath. So if your opponent picks up on this trick, DJ bair and then upb. The reason for the bair is that it ends the quickest, and any time a character footstools off another character doing an animation, the first character will fly very high while the footstooled character remains unaffected. So this would actually cause your edgeguarder to go very far away from you and let you recover more easily.
Deva didn't consider all this. He used his second jump immediately and tried to clear the ledge with a bomb, not thinking about how the MK's invinciframes hadn't run out yet. And so, it was an easy gimp.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyO9p2xCMiM
I was really impressed with Waffz. In this match, he recovers properly almost every single time.
0:30 - Waffz gets hit with dancing blade and instead of using his second jump immediately, tries to whiplash. He mistimes it, but that's ok because he still has his second jump. Therefore, he's able to make Marth chase him offstage, and then he recovers low while putting Marth offstage. And would ya look at that - he actually takes off a stock because of it. Why did that happen? Because by recovering properly, not only did he make the ledge safely, but also put his opponent in a bad position.
0:46 - Waffz gets hit again with dancing blade. Now, Marth is far away, so Waffz could have jumped and upb'd onto the platform if he wished to do so. However, that would land him some unnecessary damage, because there are better options. So he chooses to drift back towards the stage, not using his second jump until he needs to, which is after he's baited the edgeguard. As a result, he's able to recover behind the Marth, once again recovering and putting Marth offstage. He could have gotten another KO, but he overshot the ledge. No worries, the important thing is that he recovered properly.
0:56 - Waffz gets hit with a fair offstage, and he has no second jump. He knows he has to be really careful now. He attempts to drift toward the stage and land on the platform. He misses. Luckily the Marth saves him, although he would have died if the Marth hadn't. Waffz had the right idea though. Drawing a mental path in his mind, he knew he wouldn't be able to make the ledge, so he went for the platform. He just misjudged and upb'd a little too late. He should have upb'd at 0:58 instead of 0:59, and he would have made it.
1:29 - A perfect recovery. Simply beautiful. Marth knows he can't chase offstage with a fair because Waffz will drift right beneath, and his dair is too slow, so he just jumps right back on stage. Waffz doesn't use his second jump until he needs to, and he uses it in conjunction with his upb to get the max height, so even if Marth were to speed hug, he'd overshoot the ledge and land on stage. A great recovery.
1:36 - Waffz gets hit with dancing blade again. This time he doesn't even need to use his second jump, so he preserves it just in case Marth were to hit him out of his upb. If that happened, he'd still have his second jump. Very smart. But that doesn't happen, and so he makes it to the ledge easily.
1:44 - Dancing blade again. Not sure what happened with the zair and Z drop, but it didn't get him punished at all. He still used his second jump to go underneath and around Marth, and recovered safely. He even almost got a second KO, just like the first one, but his mistimed his zedge. Regardless, it was yet another perfect recovery.
2:10 - Dolphin slash hits him away quite far. The SV platform is about to turn around, he won't make it there if he tried. He is forced to use his second jump and upb toward the stage in vein. Maybe he might get lucky and the Marth would attempt to hit him again. Unfortunately this doesn't happen, but it could. He had the right idea. He was unsuccessful, but he made the most of the options available to him.
2:26 - Dancing blade hits him off again, but since his percentage is so low, he barely goes anywhere. He quickly evaluates that a tether would not be punished in any way whatsoever, and so he tethers the ledge safely.
2:54 - Dancing blade yet again. He attempts a whiplash but misses. Was that the smartest option? Maybe not, because Marth's fair might have hit Waffz if he caught the ledge and was in the process of reeling himself in. But after he realizes he missed, he knows the Marth is going to edgeguard with a fair or dair, so he makes sure to go low enough to be able to under and around those 2 moves. Then he recovers behind Marth to the ledge safely. Once again, the Marth is offstage and he's at the ledge. He misses the zedge once again, but regardless, he made the recovery.
3:17 - He gets bthrow'd and uses his second jump in an attempt to bair. Smart? Not really, because he gets hit offstage with a fair. Is he dead, or is he considering his options, knowing his momentum, and looking at his distance from the ledge? Hint, it's the latter. He drifts toward the stage until he has enough momentum for his spin attack to get him to the ledge, and baits the fair edgeguard from the Marth by going underneath it, then goes for the ledge. Though it seems far, Link's autosnap range is large. As a result, he still makes the ledge. Another fantastic recovery.
3:23 - He gets hit by dsmash and uses his second jump immediately. This is where he messed up. He didn't die because of Marth's uair, but this was not a smart move. He could have drifted away from the stage, knowing the Marth would chase him, and then gone underneath and around, making the ledge and once again putting himself on the ledge with the Marth offstage. However, he gets hit with Marth's uair and chooses to FF. As he FFs, he wants to make sure nothing will hit him, so he fairs as a counter-edgeguard, a smart thing to do. As a result, he still makes the recovery. So in short, the first part was not smart, but the second part was.
3:41 - Dancing blade yet again, this time at a high percent. Just to stay alive, Waffz is forced to use his second jump. Now he knows he has to be careful. He sees, for some reason, that Marth is not edgeguarding with fair, which will cut through Link's projectiles, but rather his bair. Perhaps he's going for a tipper bair KO. Since the rang is useful again, Waffz throws a rang, hitting Marth and allowing him to recover successfully. And this time he doesn't miss the zedge.
An alternative option would be just to recover high, which, if the Marth had been edgeguarding with fair, would have been the proper option. But this method worked out just fine, and Waffz made the right decisions.
Bravo, Waffz. You really impressed me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uycsszwvn88
3:51 - Legan hits by a purple pikmin, it knocks him pretty far off. He chooses to use second jump almost immediately, followed by a rang and then upb, which leaves him just short of the ledge. What he didn't think about, or realize, or both, is that he never actually got knocked out of recovery range. He should have just fallen and drifted toward the stage, jumped at the last possible second, and then upb'd in conjunction with it. Maybe if L timed his edgehog perfectly, he wouldn't have made it anyway, but he would have minimized his chances of being gimped and maximized his chances of making it back. He was sure to make the ledge, had he known his options and recovered correctly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF7Sioa6Ubg
2:26 - Mage gets fthrow'd, falls and pulls a bomb, then jumps and throws it. This method isn't bad, it's just not the greatest. He was close to what he should have - after pulling the bomb, throwing it was a smart idea because Lucario was still on stage and a bomb would cancel both Lucario's approach if he tried it as well as an Aura Sphere. However, he shouldn't have jumped when he threw it, because what if the Lucario had launched an Aura Sphere and it just happened to avoid the bomb and hit Mage? What then? He's offstage with no jump, and that's a problem. What he should have done was just fall after throwing the bomb, then jumping and upb'ing in conjunction to the ledge. In this scenario, he wasn't punished for the method he used, but it just wasn't the best.
You guys get the idea - you need to be aware of everything and anything that could possibly happen, and pick the best option out of all of them. This is how you put it all together.
Step 12: Never Give Up Son!
Sometimes I see you guys just SD because you're almost positive you're not going to make it back. Guess what, sometimes in those situations, you could have made it back, had you tried. Brawl has autosnap in it. Link's autosnap range is ridiculously huge. I've seen him do autosnaps when he was a full body length away from the ledge. What's more, if you try to come back from the ledge, sometimes (not always) an opponent will feel the need to hit you again, which will in some cases help you recover. So never give up!
If you follow this guide, you're not going to recover every single time. But you are going to minimize your chances of being gimped and maximize your chances of recovering successfully. If, at the end of all this, with everything considered and done properly, you still can't recover, then you can blame Sakurai and Link's horrible recovery. I hope you guys enjoyed this guide, it was really hard to write, and I hope it helps you in the future.
http://allisbrawl.com/forum/topic.aspx?id=147637
Props to sook for writing the guide and to blubba for getting the pasta permit (as well as inspiring this guide xD).
It's time for all of us to strap on our hover boots and show the community that getting Link OoS does not equal an autowin.
--------------------------------------------------------
How to Recover
When I first started playing this game, I would play L_Cancel a lot (still do). Most of our matches would go like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr95Y_HQuYo
Well I got pretty annoyed about that, I got tired of being gimped. Today, he gimps me about once every 10 matches. How did I change it? Well, a while after this match I played Blubba Pinecone, who is known for his offstage game, and it was an eye-opener to just how much Link can do offstage. This was also around the time when Ark made his DI vid. And so, I was able to make adjustments.
Here's the problem today. Many of you have great DI, and you're proud of it, as you should be. But you always recover the same exact way. It's either DI, jump, bomb pull, throw rang, upb or it's DI, jump, FF airdodge tether. But since you made it safely to the ledge using those tactics it doesn't matter right? Wrong. If you recover the same way each time, you will get gimped eventually.
This guide is not on how to recover with Link. This guide is on how to recover the right way with Link. When I say right way, I mean you're not making it back because of a combination of luck and a lack of punishing on the opponent's part. In other words, recovering the right way minimizes your chances of being gimped.
Disclaimer: I am going to be using video examples of you guys in this guide. Let me make this clear: I don't care if you were having a bad day. I don't care if it was just a messed up button input. I don't care if that's not how you usually recover. I don't care. A bad recovery is a bad recovery, period.
Step 1: The Fear
The first and foremost thing that prevents Link players from having a good offstage game (and therefore preventing them from making smart recoveries) is that they're afraid of the offstage. They're afraid of not making it back to the ledge, so they never go offstage. These are the people who tend to never try for nair gimps, boomerang gimps, footstools, etc. They just throw projectiles and always let the opponent take the ledge. My advice:
Get over it. Stop being afraid.
Most of you play wifi. Well, wifi is the perfect training ground for experimentation. Why? Because no one cares about winning on wifi anyway. So start experimenting with nair gimps, start going offstage a little. Start eliminating that fear.
Step 2: The Range
So you finally got over the fear of going offstage with Link. Congrats. Now you need to learn just how far he can go offstage, which many of you do not know btw. Some people still get surprised when I tell them Link can go to the bottom bubble of BF and still make it back. So to learn his range, listen to Blubba's advice:
Go to training mode and pick BF. Jump off and see how far down you can go while still being able to make it back. Go down as far as possible. Then go as far down diagonally as possible. Then horizontally. Memorize these distances.
Repeat this process for every stage. Learn all his ranges possible. Learn when to press upb so you'll overshoot the ledge if needed (in case of edgehog).
An optional thing you can do is do this process for every stage with a bomb in hand afterwards. Do you need to? Not really. Do you need to do it without a bomb? Yes.
Step 3: The Second Jump
Ok, this is where stuff gets serious. A lot of you don't realize just how key the second jump is. I see it being wasted all the time. And it makes me facepalm every time you do. Here are the 2 reasons why the second jump is so important:
1) It significantly boosts the distance Link can go if used in conjunction with his upb
2) It creates momentum
Read that second one again. It creates momentum. Link's recovery is momentum based. Do you realize how huge that is? Stop wasting this jump.
I'll give an example. Most of you have seen my recent recovery against L because I keep flaunting it. If you haven't seen it, here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU8iX9rBZ2Q at 2:50
The only reason I made it back was because I used my second jump right before the upb. That vid actually contains a lot of different types of recoveries that I plan to go into later on.
Here are examples of where the second jump was wasted and as a result, the recovery failed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTorQI42uZM at 0:25 and 3:11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCvxQC9yaQc at 3:58
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=193k7mqNmfo at 2:25
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F6CiD2NXzQ at 0:54
I'll go into detail later on WHY using the second jump at these times was incorrect, but for now I just want you to see how important the second jump is.
Sometimes you're at such a high percentage that a DJ is necessary for you just to stay alive. Note, this type of situation should only be when you go flying to the corner of the stage and are still unsure on whether you'll survive. If you use your DJ at this point, you need to very, very careful. Be really wary about what your opponent can do, and weigh them against your remaining options, and pick the best one.
Step 4: Taking the Hit
A lot of you brag about your great DI. Well, time to put it to use. The fad of "throw Link offstage = dead" is a dying joke. People know it's not true anymore. That means 95% of the time, they will chase you offstage. Now, most of you see the guy coming at you and decide "omg he's coming at me I can't let him hit me *throw rang*"
Or you tend to airdodge.
Have you ever considered that maybe the rang animation or the airdodge will last too long and throw you out of recovery range? Have you ever considered just taking the hit and DIing it so it actually helps you recover? This isn't something I see often, and it's more important than you think.
Here's an example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idTPDxJ6p-0 at 0:45
SFP could have easily made it back if he just hadn't airdodged the bomb. You don't always have to avoid the edgeguards. Recovery is more important.
Give up the percentage to make it back. Think - the game rewards you for taking off 3 stocks. It doesn't care what percentage the player is at when he dies. So take the hit, and force him to work more to kill you. Because the more he plays, the more likely he'll make mistakes you can capitalize on.
Step 5: Drifting
Sometimes step 4 doesn't always work. Sometimes the opponent will come at you with a move you just cannot be hit by, such Kirby's dair, Falco's dair, Ike's dair, Peach's turnip, MK's dair, etc. In this case, once again, do not airdodge unless you are really high up. And chances are if you're high up, they're not gonna use a dair, they'll use a fair or uair. Which means when they dair, you're going to be low.
So now weigh your options. Remember, you're not thinking this once you're already low, you're thinking about this as soon as you go offstage. If you take the hit low, you die. If you airdodge, you die. You're getting closer and closer to the stage and into their dair range, so you need to think fast. *But wait*. You still have your second jump. And based on your positioning, you know they're going to attempt a move you can't be hit by.
So here's what you do. You drift away from the stage and wait for them to come out at you and attempt their edgeguard. Then as they begin their aerial, start drifting back towards the stage underneath and jump+upb behind them.
Here's what I mean:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEVz9NGotoQ at 2:25
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU8iX9rBZ2Q at 0:19 and 0:54
But what if you're out of range and you won't make it back? Think about your positioning now, You're in the middle of the opponent and the stage. The opponent just failed at gimping you. They see another opportunity for a stage spike. Chances are, they will hit you. And that just goes back to step 4. If you can't DI that move enough and get hit into the stage, well, tech it.
Sometimes you'll be in a position where you won't need to drift away from the stage, but you'll still go underneath and around them. For example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buPFe1z5qvI at 2:30
In this case, I saw he was coming at me but I knew he wouldn't make it to me in time, so I just went underneath and around him back up to the ledge. Remember, recovering low is usually Link's safest recovery option.
Step 6: Recovering High
This is something I see a lot of players forget about. There are situations when you just DI'd correctly and you know that going low is going to get you gimped. Even recovering at a normal height is very risky. At those times, you need to recover high. Just DI, jump and upb, then freefall to the stage. The chance that you'll take a hefty amount of damage is pretty high, but remember what I said about taking the hit - sometimes it's worth it.
I'll give an example. A few months ago I played Tutu's Sheik. He's reeeeally good at gimping, and every time I tried to recover low, I got gimped. Pretty consistently too. And, well, I kinda pride myself on my ability to recover, so I was really surprised. What I eventually started doing was just recovering high. And guess what? I stopped getting gimped. I started taking a lot of damage, yeah, but I was staying alive. Sheik, bar usmash, has mediocre KO moves, and I was too high for fair to be effective, so I was living up to 200%+ against Sheik once I started recovering high, whereas I was getting gimped at 130% when I recovered low.
Here's another example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU8iX9rBZ2Q at 1:22
Follow me here. As soon as I flew offstage, I MC'd and jumped. So now I'm thinking, MK's most probably going to edgeguard with fair or dair or nair, and I have no second jump. Recovering low would be really risky and not guaranteed. So I choose to recover high. Same thing again at 1:29.
Obviously, you can't always recover high at high percents. For instance, recovering high against Link is risky because it's a free dair. Against Fox, a free usmash. Against D3, a free utilt. You get the idea.
Step 7: Making the First Move
Link's aerial spin attack has a lot of priority. This is something everyone knows in theory but never notices in game. Sometimes when you see an opponent coming at you, instead of drifting away from the stage because it might not be safe in that particular situation, upb early. No, this is not the same thing as recovering high. You're still at normal height, but you're just using your upb early.
What does that do? It's a counter-edgeguard. You're attacking him with an aerial spin attack. Basically, instead of going around him, you're going right at him and telling him to move out of the way. Why does this work? Because the spin attack has high priority.
Here's an example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU8iX9rBZ2Q at 0:19
I could go around him, but it would be difficult, and I know that since he just used a dair there's a very slight lag time before the next one comes out, of which I can take advantage of and upb right into him.
Sorry for using the same match again and again, but I did say this match had a lot of recoveries I wanna address lol.
Step 8: Mixups
Ok so, here at this part, you've just DI'd, and now you're floating towards the stage. Let's say you've determined you don't need to drift away from the stage, or recover early either, or recover high. But here comes the opponent. Almost all of you will throw a rang at this point. If you're Kirin, an arrow. Which is fine, but for one thing; you never mix it up. If you always throw a rang, your opponent will figure out when you throw the rang, or they'll bait the rang throw, and then gimp you afterwards.
How many of you have considered fair offstage? Nair? DJ slow-fall dair? A footstool? Zair? Throwing a bomb to make you both explode? Using upb early so you recover high AND attack him?
You have to know all of your options in a given situation. Get rid of the rang habit. Get rid of the same projectile habit. Sometimes don't throw a rang but use a fair. Sometimes DJ and footstool them if you can. Or throw out a zair at them - that'll throw them off and make them go wth?
For instance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEVz9NGotoQ at 2:34
I just pulled the bomb. Most of you would, after pulling the bomb, throw a rang at the ledge, and then upb with the bomb in hand. Maybe you would have made it. But it's predictable, and you'll get punished for it sooner or later. I saw that he wasn't going to chase me, but rather hog the ledge, so I threw the bomb right at him, clearing the ledge for me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5BKEds1-t4 Now look at 3:20. Looks likes a similar situation, but clearing the ledge didn't work. Why? For one thing, his frames weren't out yet. For another, Deva used his second jump too early, which guaranteed the MK dair to connect.
Step 9: Knowing your Momentum
Link's recovery is momentum-based. We know that. So pay attention to your momentum. Draw mental paths on the screen on where you will be if you continue to fall based on your momentum. Predict where you will go based on how you're moving. This is a key concept that only comes through practice.
What I mean by this is, if you know how your momentum is at that situation, you know whether or not how difficult it will be to get to the ledge, how much room (or lack of) your opponent has for an edgeguard, and how much time you will have to repel/go around any opponents coming at you.
I'll give an example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buPFe1z5qvI at 2:30 again
Remember I said I knew I didn't need to drift away from him? That's because I knew how my momentum was. I knew I'd end up at that point right where I double jump because in my mind, I drew a mental path on where Link would end up. Then, knowing the full range that Link can recover from, I jumped at that point and upb'd safely to the ledge.
Here's another example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU8iX9rBZ2Q at 0:54
Watch carefully. When I get thrown off, I pull a bomb immediately. Then I fall straight down a little. At the point where I throw the bomb, I'm within recovery range. However, I don't have the horizontal momentum needed to make the ledge yet. Literally half a second later, I do. Like.... when the bomb passes the ledge, I have the necessary momentum. At that point I knew I could upb, but L's dair was preventing me from doing so, so I waited a little and then recovered around him. This is what I mean; you need to know your momentum.
Step 10: Whiplashing
Learn this tech. Some of you call it situational, some of you call it overrated, some of you call it too hard to do consistently. Learn it regardless. It can help sooooooooo much in some situations it's not even funny. It also takes the pressure off your shoulders to always have amazing DI.
Obviously, you're not going to get that mach2, Legan-style whiplash right off the bat. Start off practicing at low percents, like 120% or so and use Bowser's dtilt or Falco's dsmash or something easy like that. As you get better and better at it, increase it to higher percents. Then in a MU where you think you might be able to use it, keep it in mind. Don't go out of your way to do a whiplash. Only use it when it's the best option.
For instance, if you're at 200% and just got with the first hit of Snake's ftilt, and you know the second hit is coming, DIing up might save you or it might not. But if you have room for the whiplash, go for it.
Step 11: Putting It All Together
Ok so, if you haven't picked up on it yet, this is what I was leading up to. You have to know absolutely everything you can do in a given situation when recovering. And not only that, but you have to read what your opponent is going to do. As soon as you get sent offstage, you have to consider every single possible way they can edgeguard you. You have to consider every single possible thing you can do to them in return. You have to consider multiple scenarios, all in a matter of less than 2 seconds. You have to consider priority issues, air speed, ranges, etc.
For instance, most of you will throw a rang or arrow at Wario's fair. Wario's fair will cut right through both. So when you get sent offstage against him, you have to immediately know that the rang/arrow options are out.
Read. Read. Read. Know everything that will happen, before it happens. That is the key to recovering with Link.
Alright, this next part is the critique section. This next part is why I put the disclaimer. I'm going to critique a looot of recoveries, so you'll see what you have to consider every time you go offstage. This part is long. Really long. A lot of you are going to want to skim over it. I suggest you do not, because this is the meat of the guide, the real core, the extremely important key aspects to this guide more than anything. It'll be long, but it'll be worth it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr95Y_HQuYo
I didn't know how to recover at this point. However, if there's something that you should notice, it's that I was thinking what to do even back then. The first I get gimped, I use upb. The next time I get gimped, you can see I was thinking "ok, upb didn't work last time, lemme try zair." Did it work? No. What I should have done was preserved my second jump and dropped down low, then recovered after L used his bair. But the point is, you need to think like that. You need to mix up your recovery.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU8iX9rBZ2Q
The famous match I've used again and again for this guide.
0:18 - After MK's dthrow, I was expecting L to dash at me, so I attempt to zair. He doesn't though, he fairs. At that point, I know I'm going offstage, and I'm not going to go very high. I know he is going to edgeguard me with dair, fair, or nair. Now, right after the dthrow, I am within range to DJ back onto the stage. But if you look carefully, had I done that, I would have jumped right into MK's dair with no second jump.
Knowing this, I drift away from the stage and lure MK away from the ledge. Then once I was near the edge of Link's range, I had 2 options, either upb into MK and use my priority, or go around him. Since he was right in my face, going around him would be tricky, and since he had just used a dair, I knew there would be a lag time before the next would come out. So I chose to upb into him and made it safely to the ledge.
0:54 - This time my percentage is higher, and so I go a bit higher from the bthrow. Now, at the peak of the knockback, I have a few options. I can DJ now to switch my momentum, then FF tether, but what if he speed hugs? I'm done. I could DJ and recover high, but do I need to? I could simply fall and airdodge tether, but what if he hits me with dair before I pull myself to the ledge? So I choose to fall and pull a bomb. I try to repel him away from the ledge by throwing the bomb; I miss. But I know I still have my second jump, and I expect he's going to edgeguard me with dair again, because that's his most reliable edgeguard. He doesn't, he uses uair. A bit surprising, but it would have just hit me upwards, so I wouldn't have minded taking the hit. I know that he knows I upb'd into him last time, so he'd be expecting it this time. So I choose to go around and under him this time, recovering extremely low and behind him. However, he knows that I know that he knows I upb'd into him last time, so he's actually expecting a mix up, and as a result, attempts to bair stage spike me. Accounting for this, I make sure recover as far away from him as possible when coming up. I make the ledge safely.
1:22 - I get hit by nair, and I didn't DI it well, so I'm forced to use my second jump. Why, you ask? Well, knowing my momentum, if I preserve it I'll come close to the left side boundary, and at that point out of range from the ledge. So if I choose to save my jump and recover low, I'll be out of range to recover. That forces me to use it now. Well, great, now I have to recover with no 2nd jump, which is a problem. He too, draws a mental path of where I'll fall and attempts to nair me. Seeing that he is going to intercept my line, and knowing I'll have absolutely no way of recovering if I get hit by that, I choose to recover high. I eat a shuttle loop as punishment, but at least I didn't die.
1:28 - Almost identical situation. I once again didn't DI the dsmash that well, and so I'm forced to use the second jump again, because this time I really am in the side barrier. I pull a bomb to be safe this time, because I know I'm farther than last time, and, knowing my momentum, see that I'll fall barely into recovery range if I choose to recover low. L knows this too, so he starts covering that path. Once he sees me recover high again, he goes back on stage. He knows that if he edgehogged me, the bomb would hit me up past the ledge again (because of my high percent) so he realizes there's no point in an edgehog. I make the ledge safely.
1:56 - I get dthrow'd again. Going farther than I expected to go, I immediately realize my zair attempt to stop his dash failed because of the higher knockback. I know I need to adjust fast, and though I have my second jump, getting hit with a MK aerial would be deadly at the height L is flying at. So I choose to drift away. He attempts a dair again, which I had been expecting, so I take advantage of his lag and throw a bomb at him. I hope that the bomb would stun him long enough for me recover underneath him - it doesn't. He is able to dair KO me. So in this case, I didn't make a successful recovery. But based off the situation I was in, I made the best of what options I had. By the time the zair ends, had I used my DJ I would have gone straight into his dair. Maybe I shouldn't have thrown the bomb. Maybe I should have gone underneath him with the bomb still in hand. Who knows? Regardless, I chose one of the 2 safest options I could, and then hoped it would work. In this case, it didn't.
2:22 - I get hit with a dash attack that sends me offstage. I attempt to the zair his approach once again. It fails, once again. At that point, I do the same thing I did last time the zair failed - drift away from the stage. He attempts the same edgeguard once again, nair and dair. This time I have no bomb, and since I've avoided him for a bit now, I know he won't expect me to upb early into him. I take advantage of the lag time between the dairs (you can actually hear another starting up) and attack him head-on. I recover to the ledge safely.
2:51 - I get hit with nair just as I inputted a dsmash. It comes out as a dair. Now I'm thinking "fudge, dair takes forever to end, no way I'm making it back." I know L is thinking the same thing. I'm ready to SD, but then I realize it just might end in time, so I start mashing jump. L sees it ends in time too, so he quickly goes to the ledge for an edgehog. He was too early on it though. My 2nd jump comes out and at its peak, where you get the highest boost to your upb, I use the spin attack. I smack him off the ledge and recover safely.
3:10 - I get hit by a dsmash. I attempt to whiplash, but I don't come anywhere close. When the zair ends, I have no option other than to use my 2nd jump, or else I'm going to the bottom corner. I start drifting toward the stage, and once I'm on the edge of Link's recovery range, begin to upb. Unfortunately the MK dair comes out first and kills me, so I was unsuccessful. However, given the situation I was in I used all the right options I could.
3:45 - I get hit by uair. L's been letting me DJ near the top platform for my last stock a few times, so he expects I'm going to do it again. He shuttle loops and catches me after my 2nd jump has been used, and sends me offstage. As soon as I get hit by that, I know I'm done. I remember thinking "fudge I just got gimped." I get sent too far to tether to the ledge, so my only option is to upb to the ledge. L knows this, so he runs off and dairs, effectively gimping me. The error with this recovery was that I had wasted my second jump. If I had still had it, I could have drifted away from the stage, baited the dair, and then recovered. But without it, my options were limited.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTorQI42uZM
0:20 - Xyro bthrows and notices Legan DJ immediately. Keep watching.
0:25 - Xyro dthrows and knows Legan is going to use his second jump immediately, so he zairs to push Legan off the stage and then he has a guaranteed dair. The problem is pretty obvious - Legan is too careless with his second jump, especially with his back against the edge of the stage. As a result, he had no option of drifting away, or going underneath, or anything. Easy gimp.
1:30 - Legan gets bthrow'd offstage and he didn't DI it too well. He can't DJ immediately and recover high because he won't make it. He chooses to drift toward the stage and attempt to jump+upb, but gets hit by dair. In this case, he recovered correctly. He had the right idea in not jumping immediately. He knew Xyro was going to attempt either a dair or nair, because those are Samus' main gimping moves. Xyro was too far for a nair, fair, or zair to hit, and pulling a bomb would have done nothing. Throwing a rang wouldn't have hit Xyro at all, so he had no choice but to hope his upb would go through the dair. It didn't, so he was unsuccessful. But he had the right thought-process. He minimized his chances of getting gimped. Xyro was just good enough to make those small chances possible.
3:11 - Legan gets ftilted. He's near the ledge. Xyro knows he's going to jump. From then on, it's the exact same thing as 0:25. Too careless with the second jump.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCvxQC9yaQc
3:58 - ALSM gets hit with a charge shot and doesn't DI it too well. Luckily it doesn't send him far at all, not even past Link's recovery range. However, he double jumps way too early. As soon as he does that he has 2 options, recover immediately or go low. Xyro knows if ALSM recovers immediately then a zair wall is guaranteed, so he knows ALSM will go low, and so he goes straight down for the dair. What ALSM should have done is drifted toward the stage fend off the falling Xyro with a fair or rang, then jumped and upb'd to the ledge. Too careless with the second jump.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=193k7mqNmfo
2:25 - Afro gets hit with an fsmash. He doesn't need to momentum cancel, and Haze is a good distance away, so he assumes it's safe to jump. Marth is quick enough to get to the ledge and of course, he's going to edgeguard with fair to nullify projectiles. This is exactly what happens. Afro sees that, but luckily he has a bomb. It explodes them both, so he's saved. But then he tries throwing a rang, which of course gets beaten by Marth's fair. Afro is hit away and is forced to drift closer, throwing another rang then attempting an upb very close to Marth, hoping the Marth will use upb to save him.
Afro's strategy wasn't bad. He attempted to recover via the bomb exploding them both, he even attempted to take the hit from the dolphin slash. But it could have been better. And guess what? It all started with him using that 2nd jump. What he should have done is expected Haze to edgeguard with fair, and so without jumping, just fall and throw a rang at Marth before he's jumped and used a fair. Or if he could have fallen, let Marth come off the ledge, baited the fair, and then jumped underneath him and recover behind him. Either of these options would have worked.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F6CiD2NXzQ
0:53 - Scabe is hit with fsmash. His DI on it is meh, so he chooses to DJ right afterwards. What he doesn't realize is, he's only on the edge of the bubble, and since he didn't FF, he could have drifted back towards the stage easily after the bair. But he wastes his second jump instead. So at 0:57, just before Falco's bair, Scabe decides not to airdodge, because it would mean sure death. So he decides to take the hit. Not a bad idea, but he didn't DI the bair, so it killed him. What he should have done is thrown out a fair right at 0:57, to hit Falco away, then attempt an upb at the ledge, given his situation. Of course, if he had never used his second jump, he could drifted back towards the stage, thrown a rang AND a fair, to hit Falco away, and then DJ+upb to the ledge.
Another thing he could have done, since he used his DJ immediately, is pull a bomb and recover high. Based off his positioning, he probably wouldn't have enough momentum to reach the ledge alone, which is why he'd need the bomb, and the chances of the Falco hitting him with bair (helping him) would be pretty high too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiOtYxGLrNA
0:57 - Legan gets fthrow'd. He chooses to fall and throw a boomerang at the ledge, then attempts to jump+upb, and gets gimped by bair. His strategy wasn't terrible, but there are a few flaws. For one thing, the rang is aimed at the ledge, not above it. Which means he didn't intend to hit Falco before he was on the ledge, he was just throwing it out of habit. There's a few things he could have done instead. Let's review his options. For one thing, he could have just jumped and upb'd directly onto the stage (recovered high). Or he could have jumped toward the stage and footstooled the Falco, but that's risky, so it's not a good idea. He could fallen just as he did and thrown out a fair/nair to repel the bair. He could have pulled a bomb and thrown it at the dropping Falco, then jumped and upb'd. The safest option would probably have been to recover onstage directly. So this time around, a little bit more thought could have avoided that gimp.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dc-onoJZrIM
0:41 - ALSM gets fthrow'd and doesn't DI it great. He chooses to DJ immediately and planned to tether but he saw Oli speed hug and chose not to, then upb'd after. This worked out for him fine. But it wasn't the smartest thing to do, part of it was kind of lucky. What he should have done is fallen low enough so that he's out of Oli's edgeguard range but still in Link's recovery range to the stage. Meaning, his upb would just barely overshoot the ledge and he'd land on stage, IF Oli chose to speed hug. If not, he'd hit the ledge. Any projectile in his situation would have been too slow, and any aerial wouldn't have been effective. He could have also recovered high, but it's not needed in this situation. Again, what he did worked out for him, but it wasn't the smartest move to make.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEVz9NGotoQ
2:26 - I get bthrow'd and I instantly know that if DJ he could stand on the ground and fsmash, or he could fair, uair, nair or shuttle loop me. So I choose to drift away from the stage where I know he can't hit me without chasing me, which he does. He first attempts a uair, which doesn't come close to hitting. Then he attempts the expected dair, which I go under nicely. After it has ended, I jumped and recover behind him, leaving him no opportunity to hit me as I go up because i'm out of his range.
2:34 - I get hit with dsmash, and I DI it pretty well. I know L is going to chase me as always, so now at the peak of my knockback I have a few options. I could jump and recover high, but I don't really need to because recovering low isn't really dangerous. I know he's probably going to edgeguard me with nair or dair, both of which get beaten by bombs. So I pull a bomb and fall. Then I see that he decides not to chase me, but just hog the ledge. So to clear the ledge, I throw the bomb at him, and it works. Then I recover safely to the ledge.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5BKEds1-t4
3:20 - Ah, the grab release scenario. The one most of you have trouble with because you're not sure what to do. I'll tell you what you shouldn't do ever: DJ immediately to gain your momentum back. That's just begging for a gimp. The thing about the grab release arc is that it's set, it has nothing to do with momentum. So after it ends (roughly at the same horizontal height as where you were grabbed) you can just hold towards the stage and voila, there is your momentum without ever having used your second jump. From here, you can recover low and behind the opponent's edgeguard. However, one weakness about recovering low is that the opponent can footstool you while you use your second jump, and it's instadeath. So if your opponent picks up on this trick, DJ bair and then upb. The reason for the bair is that it ends the quickest, and any time a character footstools off another character doing an animation, the first character will fly very high while the footstooled character remains unaffected. So this would actually cause your edgeguarder to go very far away from you and let you recover more easily.
Deva didn't consider all this. He used his second jump immediately and tried to clear the ledge with a bomb, not thinking about how the MK's invinciframes hadn't run out yet. And so, it was an easy gimp.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyO9p2xCMiM
I was really impressed with Waffz. In this match, he recovers properly almost every single time.
0:30 - Waffz gets hit with dancing blade and instead of using his second jump immediately, tries to whiplash. He mistimes it, but that's ok because he still has his second jump. Therefore, he's able to make Marth chase him offstage, and then he recovers low while putting Marth offstage. And would ya look at that - he actually takes off a stock because of it. Why did that happen? Because by recovering properly, not only did he make the ledge safely, but also put his opponent in a bad position.
0:46 - Waffz gets hit again with dancing blade. Now, Marth is far away, so Waffz could have jumped and upb'd onto the platform if he wished to do so. However, that would land him some unnecessary damage, because there are better options. So he chooses to drift back towards the stage, not using his second jump until he needs to, which is after he's baited the edgeguard. As a result, he's able to recover behind the Marth, once again recovering and putting Marth offstage. He could have gotten another KO, but he overshot the ledge. No worries, the important thing is that he recovered properly.
0:56 - Waffz gets hit with a fair offstage, and he has no second jump. He knows he has to be really careful now. He attempts to drift toward the stage and land on the platform. He misses. Luckily the Marth saves him, although he would have died if the Marth hadn't. Waffz had the right idea though. Drawing a mental path in his mind, he knew he wouldn't be able to make the ledge, so he went for the platform. He just misjudged and upb'd a little too late. He should have upb'd at 0:58 instead of 0:59, and he would have made it.
1:29 - A perfect recovery. Simply beautiful. Marth knows he can't chase offstage with a fair because Waffz will drift right beneath, and his dair is too slow, so he just jumps right back on stage. Waffz doesn't use his second jump until he needs to, and he uses it in conjunction with his upb to get the max height, so even if Marth were to speed hug, he'd overshoot the ledge and land on stage. A great recovery.
1:36 - Waffz gets hit with dancing blade again. This time he doesn't even need to use his second jump, so he preserves it just in case Marth were to hit him out of his upb. If that happened, he'd still have his second jump. Very smart. But that doesn't happen, and so he makes it to the ledge easily.
1:44 - Dancing blade again. Not sure what happened with the zair and Z drop, but it didn't get him punished at all. He still used his second jump to go underneath and around Marth, and recovered safely. He even almost got a second KO, just like the first one, but his mistimed his zedge. Regardless, it was yet another perfect recovery.
2:10 - Dolphin slash hits him away quite far. The SV platform is about to turn around, he won't make it there if he tried. He is forced to use his second jump and upb toward the stage in vein. Maybe he might get lucky and the Marth would attempt to hit him again. Unfortunately this doesn't happen, but it could. He had the right idea. He was unsuccessful, but he made the most of the options available to him.
2:26 - Dancing blade hits him off again, but since his percentage is so low, he barely goes anywhere. He quickly evaluates that a tether would not be punished in any way whatsoever, and so he tethers the ledge safely.
2:54 - Dancing blade yet again. He attempts a whiplash but misses. Was that the smartest option? Maybe not, because Marth's fair might have hit Waffz if he caught the ledge and was in the process of reeling himself in. But after he realizes he missed, he knows the Marth is going to edgeguard with a fair or dair, so he makes sure to go low enough to be able to under and around those 2 moves. Then he recovers behind Marth to the ledge safely. Once again, the Marth is offstage and he's at the ledge. He misses the zedge once again, but regardless, he made the recovery.
3:17 - He gets bthrow'd and uses his second jump in an attempt to bair. Smart? Not really, because he gets hit offstage with a fair. Is he dead, or is he considering his options, knowing his momentum, and looking at his distance from the ledge? Hint, it's the latter. He drifts toward the stage until he has enough momentum for his spin attack to get him to the ledge, and baits the fair edgeguard from the Marth by going underneath it, then goes for the ledge. Though it seems far, Link's autosnap range is large. As a result, he still makes the ledge. Another fantastic recovery.
3:23 - He gets hit by dsmash and uses his second jump immediately. This is where he messed up. He didn't die because of Marth's uair, but this was not a smart move. He could have drifted away from the stage, knowing the Marth would chase him, and then gone underneath and around, making the ledge and once again putting himself on the ledge with the Marth offstage. However, he gets hit with Marth's uair and chooses to FF. As he FFs, he wants to make sure nothing will hit him, so he fairs as a counter-edgeguard, a smart thing to do. As a result, he still makes the recovery. So in short, the first part was not smart, but the second part was.
3:41 - Dancing blade yet again, this time at a high percent. Just to stay alive, Waffz is forced to use his second jump. Now he knows he has to be careful. He sees, for some reason, that Marth is not edgeguarding with fair, which will cut through Link's projectiles, but rather his bair. Perhaps he's going for a tipper bair KO. Since the rang is useful again, Waffz throws a rang, hitting Marth and allowing him to recover successfully. And this time he doesn't miss the zedge.
An alternative option would be just to recover high, which, if the Marth had been edgeguarding with fair, would have been the proper option. But this method worked out just fine, and Waffz made the right decisions.
Bravo, Waffz. You really impressed me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uycsszwvn88
3:51 - Legan hits by a purple pikmin, it knocks him pretty far off. He chooses to use second jump almost immediately, followed by a rang and then upb, which leaves him just short of the ledge. What he didn't think about, or realize, or both, is that he never actually got knocked out of recovery range. He should have just fallen and drifted toward the stage, jumped at the last possible second, and then upb'd in conjunction with it. Maybe if L timed his edgehog perfectly, he wouldn't have made it anyway, but he would have minimized his chances of being gimped and maximized his chances of making it back. He was sure to make the ledge, had he known his options and recovered correctly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF7Sioa6Ubg
2:26 - Mage gets fthrow'd, falls and pulls a bomb, then jumps and throws it. This method isn't bad, it's just not the greatest. He was close to what he should have - after pulling the bomb, throwing it was a smart idea because Lucario was still on stage and a bomb would cancel both Lucario's approach if he tried it as well as an Aura Sphere. However, he shouldn't have jumped when he threw it, because what if the Lucario had launched an Aura Sphere and it just happened to avoid the bomb and hit Mage? What then? He's offstage with no jump, and that's a problem. What he should have done was just fall after throwing the bomb, then jumping and upb'ing in conjunction to the ledge. In this scenario, he wasn't punished for the method he used, but it just wasn't the best.
You guys get the idea - you need to be aware of everything and anything that could possibly happen, and pick the best option out of all of them. This is how you put it all together.
Step 12: Never Give Up Son!
Sometimes I see you guys just SD because you're almost positive you're not going to make it back. Guess what, sometimes in those situations, you could have made it back, had you tried. Brawl has autosnap in it. Link's autosnap range is ridiculously huge. I've seen him do autosnaps when he was a full body length away from the ledge. What's more, if you try to come back from the ledge, sometimes (not always) an opponent will feel the need to hit you again, which will in some cases help you recover. So never give up!
If you follow this guide, you're not going to recover every single time. But you are going to minimize your chances of being gimped and maximize your chances of recovering successfully. If, at the end of all this, with everything considered and done properly, you still can't recover, then you can blame Sakurai and Link's horrible recovery. I hope you guys enjoyed this guide, it was really hard to write, and I hope it helps you in the future.
