(UPDATED 08/21/2020) Original Ice Climbers Ultimate Desync Guide made 12/4/2018

[IggyNieves]

Hey everyone. I will be removing this entire guide. It has come to my attention that at the time of this being written, I had severely misunderstood the mechanics and specifications behind Ice Climbers. If you wish to learn IC's, I HEAVILY implore you to check out this #resources channel in this discord.

Join the Icicle Mountain - SSBU Ice Climbers Discord Server!

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I hope you find an immense amount of joy playing ice climbers. They truly are a unique and incredible character.

This channel in the smashcord's Ice climbers discord was meant to provide resources from all over in the community. I didnt mean to upset many of the mods of the Ice Climbers discord. This was simply what I thought was true and from my own testings. I understand that I was bad at testing. Sorry Spectrum, Tink Floyd, and Madmonk.

 

[IggyNieves]

I understand its horribly formatted, not too familiar with the site. Currently putting it down as a placeholder. If you have any questions or concerns feel free to message me on discord Iggy#2507

Need to update with Roll Back Desync and Turn Buffer Desync. Will add soon.

 

[ClimbersOfIce]

Any way you can record some more demonstrations? It's a little hard to understand how to excute the techniques by reading the given instructions alone..

 

[IggyNieves]

Any way you can record some more demonstrations? It's a little hard to understand how to excute the techniques by reading the given instructions alone..

Will get on it by tonight! Just a little difficult to upload footage with the whole copyright strikes thing going on atm.

 

[ClimbersOfIce]

Will get on it by tonight! Just a little difficult to upload footage with the whole copyright strikes thing going on atm.

Awesome. Cool guide btw. Nice to see people take interest in the IC's true potential in Ultimate so early on. With that said, how does the three frame buffer window for down throw feel? You think it could be done consistently? 3 frames is pretty tight..

 

[IggyNieves]

Awesome. Cool guide btw. Nice to see people take interest in the IC's true potential in Ultimate so early on. With that said, how does the three frame buffer window for down throw feel? You think it could be done consistently? 3 frames is pretty tight..

100% easy to get Nana to do one input during the throw. Just takes time and practice. Also the fact you need to do 2 3-frame windows to start a desync in neutral is very difficult. Playing Ice Climbers will come down to keeping your cool and micromanaging the two correctly. However the Nair Roll is very hard to do as it is 2 inputs within those 3 frames, I get about 60% consistency after 2 hours of practicing.

 

[ClimbersOfIce]

100% easy to get Nana to do one input during the throw. Just takes time and practice. Also the fact you need to do 2 3-frame windows to start a desync in neutral is very difficult. Playing Ice Climbers will come down to keeping your cool and micromanaging the two correctly. However the Nair Roll is very hard to do as it is 2 inputs within those 3 frames, I get about 60% consistency after 2 hours of practicing.

Thanks. Quick questions.
1. Wouldn't it be possible for nana to perform a special right after popo wiffs a grab by simply inputting the desired special as popo is in his wiff animation? How does the newly assigned special button make it easier? i understand that it makes it so that you don't have to input the special button when the assigned special button is already being held, you just have to input a direction as you grab with z. But whats the problem with just inputting Up, side, or down B as popo wiffs? Is the timing that tight?

2. Also, would it theoretically be possible in neutral to have nana buffer an attack right before popo actually lands the grab, and as a result have nana do an attack on the opponent that popo is currently holding? (Since Nana's attack was inputted right before popo actually has the opponent grabbed). Sorry for the specific questions. If I had the game in my hands I'd test it out but I can't yet...

 

[IggyNieves]

Thanks. Quick questions.
1. Wouldn't it be possible for nana to perform a special right after popo wiffs a grab by simply inputting the desired special as popo is in his wiff animation? How does the newly assigned special button make it easier? i understand that it makes it so that you don't have to input the special button when the assigned special button is already being held, you just have to input a direction as you grab with z. But whats the problem with just inputting Up, side, or down B as popo wiffs? Is the timing that tight?

2. Also, would it theoretically be possible in neutral to have nana buffer an attack right before popo actually lands the grab, and as a result have nana do an attack on the opponent that popo is currently holding? (Since Nana's attack was inputted right before popo actually has the opponent grabbed). Sorry for the specific questions. If I had the game in my hands I'd test it out but I can't yet...

1. No, direction and whiff grab must be at the exact same time. Otherwise Popo will also do a special.

2. We havent gotten her to be able to do that except for blizzard or squall. You can use either to bypass the taunt trigger in downthrow. The moment Popo grabs an enemy, and Nana is doing nothing, she will freeze in place, petrified until you throw and she will follow by taunting.

 

[ClimbersOfIce]

1. No, direction and whiff grab must be at the exact same time. Otherwise Popo will also do a special.

2. We havent gotten her to be able to do that except for blizzard or squall. You can use either to bypass the taunt trigger in downthrow. The moment Popo grabs an enemy, and Nana is doing nothing, she will freeze in place, petrified until you throw and she will follow by taunting.

Thanks a lot for the replies. The game is actually out in Australia so you can safely upload clips/footage of the game now. Would be really cool to see a more visual and demonstrative guide! A lot of cool info in this thread, thanks for taking the time.

 

[InescapableChaingrabs]

Found another desync not listed here on my own, though I still need to do better documentation. It's not the end all be all, but it's situationally useful.

Do a squall hammer combined with Nana and Popo, hold down before the animation ends, then press (not hold, while still holding down) some attack at a certain frame window at the end of the attack. Nana does the action, but Popo just ducks. This can't do ice blocks unfortunately due to holding down, though there might be some more complicated way to do it with this. Blizzard is doable, which is nice.

 

[BigNimrod]

Well first of all this is a Desync Guide not a guide on how to play ice climbers, why does no one post anything about what to do in neutral, your best options in disadvantage, how to play defensively, what is ice climbers goals in the fight, when to desync and when to stay synced up. Thats the information i want for these characters i could care less about desync methods.

 

[SuperMaxBrotherUltimate]

These tactics seem very useful and I keep trying them on my own but can't seem to pull them off. Videos would be extremely useful...

 

[IggyNieves]

Im getting footage tonight to upload tomorrow! Linking stuff in the doc so its easily accessible.

 

[D.M. MD]

You get a few more desyncing options with a+b smash turned on. If you want just Nana to do a special, you can press grab with b held like in the special hold method. But if you want her to do a smash attack, you can grab with a+shield or a+grab and hold out the a while the b button is being held, or just press shield+a+b or grab+a+b if the b button is not being held. There's no need to tilt the shield like in the button hold method.

Also, regardless of whether a+b smash is turned on, you can always have Nana do a tilt by herself after Popo grabs by pressing and holding the c stick oos (provided you have the c stick set to tilts) or do an aerial by herself by holding out the a button from a grab and pressing jump before the a-press is registered for Nana. Aerials have to be a+grey stick or c+grey stick as far as I can tell. Dunno why c stick doesn't work on its own here.

 

[Jboy313]

Well first of all this is a Desync Guide not a guide on how to play ice climbers, why does no one post anything about what to do in neutral, your best options in disadvantage, how to play defensively, what is ice climbers goals in the fight, when to desync and when to stay synced up. Thats the information i want for these characters i could care less about desync methods.

OF COURSE its a Desync guide... thats what it says in the title... dont click on a Desync guide then complain that it only talks about Desyncing...
The general play style of ice climbers have been the same for 10 years.. the main different now is no wobbling im sure there's plenty of other threads that have full guides, including Melee ones because of course you can desync in that game as well.

 

[Milun]

I may have found a new method to not only desynch, but also to cover a LOT of area with hitboxes. It goes like this:

- Have Tilt-stick on.
- Run right, then slam the direction stick and the C-Stick left at the same time.
- If you did it right, Popo will turn around and F-Tilt, and Nana will turn around, lunge left and do a Dash attack at the same time.

There's a lot of variations to it, and here's what else I've found:
- Obviously this works with the opposite directions too.
- You can do it with Popo doing Up / Down tilts instead while Nana dash attacks (just tilt left with the direction stick, and Up/Down instead on the C-Stick).
- If you use Smash Stick, Popo will do an F-Smash instead while Nana dash attacks (duh). What's interesting though is, I couldn't get him to Up-Smash while Nana did her thing. If your timing is right Popo will do an-Fsmash instead (despite the C-stick being held up). Down-Smash works the same as down-tilt though.
- If your timing is slightly off, Popo won't turn around, but Nana will (meaning Popo tilts in one direction, Nana dash attacks in the other).

So yeah. Those are my findings. I don't really play Ice Climbers, so please excuse me if this is something that's been discovered, but I thought it was pretty cool. One thing I like doing with it is, since dash attack has more lag than F-tilt, I follow it up with a jump with Popo and Fair. Since Nana is still on the ground, she'll F-Smash / F-Tilt (depending on whether I use direction stick or C-Stick for the F-tilt). I think this has a lot of potential.

 

[Winter]

These desync combos are disgusting (good stuff at day 3 i.e. 0:43 seconds)

 

[phi1ny3]

I'm having a hard time with buffered roll out of dthrow. Do I need to buffer SH nair as Popo while inputting the roll?

 

[Winter]

I'm also having a ton of trouble reproducing, even with frame-by-frame mode in practice. Can someone help break it down further?

 

[l!nk_aut]

The Landing Lag Desynch is way easier to perform, when it's not an empty shorthop, but you instead airdodge to the ground. I posted it in the community thread, but then I saw that this thread exists. Whoops.

Edit: If you shorthop and airdodge downwards on Battlefield under the lower platforms, only Nana will land on the platform. She's desynched and able to buffer an iceblock while Popo is free to move.

 

[Fusion_Blastoise]

Buffer a run into ice block on landing. Desynchs the climbers and pretty easy to do. Basically the same timing as in brawl.

Another manipulation of the landing lag method but without the need for an aerial and much more lenient than 1 frame.

Edit:

Doesn’t even need to be an ice block. Can do a jab, tilt, dash attack; blizzard. All work. It’s like the lag carries over into the dash and just makes the timing much easier.

Edit 2:
Vod for clarity. Apologies for potato quality.

 

[l!nk_aut]

Buffer a run into ice block on landing. Desynchs the climbers and pretty easy to do. Basically the same timing as in brawl.

Another manipulation of the landing lag method but without the need for an aerial and much more lenient than 1 frame.

Edit:

Doesn’t even need to be an ice block. Can do a jab, tilt, dash attack; blizzard. All work. It’s like the lag carries over into the dash and just makes the timing much easier.

Edit 2:
Vod for clarity. Apologies for potato quality.

That's actually super super easy to do when you have C-Stick set as "special".
Because you can just buffer (when you're landing) a dash and C-stick down at the same time for instant desynch blizzard.

 

[Winter]

I'm awful at the dashback / quick forward smash behind you, getting it maybe 1 in 10 tries. However, after practicing a bunch I'm getting the dashback / grab / spot dodge / forward smash almost reliably, and it can kill a super heavyweight like Bowser at the edge of FD at 90%. Feels real good

 

[phi1ny3]

For Cheerless throw -> smash, is it possible to consistently do the smashes buffered with tilt-stick, or should I go for smash stick again? I'm liking the ability to do utilt/dtilt out of dash, but I'm having trouble getting used to using an input+A for instant smashes again.

 

[ClimbersOfIce]

I'm having a hard time with buffered roll out of dthrow. Do I need to buffer SH nair as Popo while inputting the roll?

You're suppose to down throw then roll, then immediately Nair (u can press jump and A at the same time to make it quicker for the Nair)

 

[ClimbersOfIce]

Buffer a run into ice block on landing. Desynchs the climbers and pretty easy to do. Basically the same timing as in brawl.

Another manipulation of the landing lag method but without the need for an aerial and much more lenient than 1 frame.

Edit:

Doesn’t even need to be an ice block. Can do a jab, tilt, dash attack; blizzard. All work. It’s like the lag carries over into the dash and just makes the timing much easier.

Edit 2:
Vod for clarity. Apologies for potato quality.

A cool idea but unfortunately not that practical. Timing is tighter than it should be if you're trying to use this competitively. Not to mention sometimes nana will be the one attacking during the desync, other times popo will be the one attacking(yes, this matters). This creates inconsistency on top of the already difficult execution making it unviable for practical use. Short hop double buffered up air has a much more lenient window for desyncing and is much more practical. Same goes for buffered bair to landing buffered uair desync.

 

[phi1ny3]

What constitutes a "dash back"? Is that when you do a dash, then reset the stick to neutral?

 

[Wokosa]

What constitutes a "dash back"? Is that when you do a dash, then reset the stick to neutral?

It's when you are facing in one direction then dash in the opposite direction. You don't necessarily have to be standing still though.

 

[phi1ny3]

Thanks! Also, how does this guy pull off this desynch?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tabvAEC97fI#t=30m40s

It seems kind of like the buffered jab oos desynch, but I don't see shield being used.

 

[ClimbersOfIce]

Thanks! Also, how does this guy pull off this desynch?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tabvAEC97fI#t=30m40s

It seems kind of like the buffered jab oos desynch, but I don't see shield being used.

Running jab desync. If you perform a jab while running (quickly halt and jab) and then perform a special, nana will perform the special by herself. I discovered this a few weeks ago. You have to input the special immediately after the jab, though. It must be very very quick

 

[cachelak]

Found a version of desync grab+b or grab+a with better frame data, though harder execution. This is for whiffed grab, so this is neutral tech.

Press Z and A/B almost instantaneously, with Z first. Hold A/B continuously, and hold Z for a bit, letting go of it right before grab ends. If done correctly the following will occur:

• When holding A: Popo will grab a second time and Nana will execute an A move in the direction you specify
• When holding B: Popo will whiff a single grab and Nana will execute her neutral-B move on the first frame after grab.

This avoids the setup and having to hold B beforehand or having to roll/spotdodge, but again, the window of execution is tight.

 

[DrunkenSC2]

Found a version of desync grab+b or grab+a with better frame data, though harder execution. This is for whiffed grab, so this is neutral tech.

Press Z and A/B almost instantaneously, with Z first. Hold A/B continuously, and hold Z for a bit, letting go of it right before grab ends. If done correctly the following will occur:

• When holding A: Popo will grab a second time and Nana will execute an A move in the direction you specify
• When holding B: Popo will whiff a single grab and Nana will execute her neutral-B move on the first frame after grab.

This avoids the setup and having to hold B beforehand or having to roll/spotdodge, but again, the window of execution is tight.

I think when you hold a+b and have a+b smash on, Popo will grab a second time and nana will charge a smash with this method.

 

[phi1ny3]

I'd love to get the aerial lag neutral desynchs more consistently. The other methods I know how to do are way too slow esp with rushdown characters. What I usually run into is that despite what I think is supposed to be a buffered SH aerial (like uair), I only get one in, and can't even get the startup on the second one going before I'm back to the ground. And when I do, most of the time they don't properly desynch.

 

[cachelak]

Another video showing grab whiff desync and a+b:

smash desync:

 

[Blobulle]

Cheerless Grab Method - This desync will end up being your most used kill confirm as of right now. There are 4 ways of starting a cheerless grab, each with their pros and cons. Through: rolling, spot dodging, dash back, and foxtrot dash dance. Once you start any of these, buffer grab during any of said actions, and the moment Popo's hand goes for the grab, set stick to nuetral, release z, and input a command. This will take a single input for both climbers, so make it count! This desync can be used for smash attacks and combos.

• Dthrow + Dsmash (Timing Required)
• Fthrow + Fsmash (Can Charge)
• Fthrow + Fair
• Upthrow + Upsmash (Timing Required)
• BTHROW + FSMASH (THE YEET)
• Nana can combo by buffering spot dodge as you Dthrow; cancelling her taunt.

I can get most combos after a roll or a spot dodge, but I really want to master it when doing a dash back as it seems to be the most viable method in a real match.

However I can't seem to get it, 95% of the time when I dash back, press z, then immediately buffer an up smash, Nana doesn't do anything and taunt during the up throw.
Am I doing something wrong? Has it gotten harder since 2.0.0?

 

[Winter]

Great desync ledge trump:
https://twitter.com/v23God/status/1097427674002309121

 

[TheEpicPancake]

However I can't seem to get it, 95% of the time when I dash back, press z, then immediately buffer an up smash, Nana doesn't do anything and taunt during the up throw.
Am I doing something wrong? Has it gotten harder since 2.0.0?

I'm not the best at dash back desyncs myself, however I've noticed that grabbing at the last moments of the dash makes it more consistent for me, however smash attacking requires you to wait a moment until Nana stops or else she will dash attack or do a tilt. I have trouble getting the fsmash on the yeet to connect though, so idk if I'm doing it wrong.

 

[Blobulle]

I'm not the best at dash back desyncs myself, however I've noticed that grabbing at the last moments of the dash makes it more consistent for me, however smash attacking requires you to wait a moment until Nana stops or else she will dash attack or do a tilt. I have trouble getting the fsmash on the yeet to connect though, so idk if I'm doing it wrong.

Thanks for the tip, I'll try that!

 

[QuestionablyLoudVulture]

Can someone tell me a possible reason to why I can't get the jab desync to work? I've only been able to get it to work with the out-of-sheild animation. Even at 1/4 speed, nana always does the jab, regaurdless of whether or not they in the middle of an animation when I hit someone with a jab.

 

[PotatoJohn]

Found a desync where if you input a grab while immediately inputing any direction besides up, popo will grab while nana either spotdodges or rolls depending on with direction you input. You can do this while dash grabbing as well. It has no lag no nothin, just grab normally then two frames after you press the button input a direction, it turns a grab into a guaranteed up smash or f smash, and can set into into amazing combos