Link Advanced Technique Guide

[Pug]

It certainly seems like it would be more useful for a defensive player. As Empty is normally all over his opponent like knockers in a wind-tunnel I can see there'd be fewer opportunities to use it.

 

[EmptySky00]

Lmfao I don't know what that means xD

I'm all for doing flashy random unnecessary stuff #spincancelisstaple but it's a pretty large commitment is all. It would be so sick to snipe someone who's recovering with it though.. I'd feel amazing.

 

[jtm94]

Alright so I have been trying to help Empty solve a conundrum for about 30 minutes. I am trying to find the value in performing the platform-drop-spin-attack-bomb-launch-thing. Through minutes of rough estimation I have calculated his throw speed to be around 30 feet/second based on his height being 5 Feet and 7 inches. I have been told that the spin attack gives a slight increase in speed to the bomb in comparison to his normal throw. With the approximate measure of a slight being .2 I have deduced an increase of 6 feet/second is gained.

With all of this in mind I have calculated the additional kinetic energy the bomb contains when launched via the spin-attack assuming a bomb weighs roughly the same as 2 professional league softballs. If via the normal throw it has 16.7079 joules and via the spin-attack it has 24.0804 joules 7.3725 more joules than before, a 44.13% increase in Kinetic Energy is gained! The end result is similar to a baseball traveling at 41.8665 MPH! But the real question is how does it stack up? By hand Link throws the bomb with the force of a baseball moving at 34.3150 MPH, 7.5515mph slower than if he launched a baseball with spin-attack. In conclusion, though 7.5mph is a decent difference in speed your foe will be unlikely to notice a difference in pain upon contact with the bomb. The speed increase will only moderately increase the potential lethality against non-helmet-wearing characters, I would not risk it against Captain Falcon or Olimar in specific as the gain would be null.

 

[EmptySky00]

But hey, it's just a theory.

A SMASH THEORY

 

[Deleted member]

I'd rank them like this.

The Tiers of Link Tech:

Absolutely necessary:
Bomb Jumping
AGT
Boomerang Spacing and Control
D-Throw to D-Air
DACUS
Tether recovery and ledge regrabs
L-Canceling

Good To Have:
Pivot Grabbing
Bomb Punting
Arrow Sniping
SHAGing (I might be biased on this one)

Very Situational:
Wave Dashing (Link's Wave Dash is among the worst)
Hylian Bomb
Quick Draw (Arrow Cancels)

(Almost) Completely Useless:
Reverse Grabs: When Link overlaps certain character (most notably Sonic) he can grab them when facing away from them.

I actually use reverse grabs a lot when my friend plays his (bad) spacie character. Link actually has quite a bit of range behind him.

 

[EmptySky00]

It's probably one of my favorite things to catch people with lol.

 

[EmptySky00]

I just realized I discovered something new(?) and potentially decent if honed.

If you do a reverse JC spin cancel ledge hog and hold the control stick inward, you don't fall onto the ledge but instead drift back onstage. You suffer the landing lag still so I always took it as a misinput of me trying to style too damn much (reverse spin cancel looks more flashy). But I also just did it so that the first part of the grounded spin attack came out.. And I killed someone like this before. So I hypothesize if inputted correctly, you can get the first swing of the grounded one to come out before leaving the ground, thus cancelling the 80 frames of animation lock lol. If we can incorporate the onstage landing thing we might be able to do something with it for our platform/edgeguard game. Anyone want to try messing around with this?

 

[J3f]

I just realized I discovered something new(?) and potentially decent if honed.

If you do a reverse JC spin cancel ledge hog and hold the control stick inward, you don't fall onto the ledge but instead drift back onstage. You suffer the landing lag still so I always took it as a misinput of me trying to style too damn much (reverse spin cancel looks more flashy). But I also just did it so that the first part of the grounded spin attack came out.. And I killed someone like this before. So I hypothesize if inputted correctly, you can get the first swing of the grounded one to come out before leaving the ground, thus cancelling the 80 frames of animation lock lol. If we can incorporate the onstage landing thing we might be able to do something with it for our platform/edgeguard game. Anyone want to try messing around with this?

I tried it out in training. It's nearly pixel perfect most of the time I did a falling spin attack off the ledge.

 

[EmptySky00]

I can get the spin back onto stage super easy. I need to test out the hitboxes and how to get the strong hitbox to hit before falling.

 

[Boss N]

I'm having trouble getting the DACUS down, I think it's because I don't know what action Z is supposed to be mapped to. (an attack, shield or a grab?) I use a classic controller pro (the one with the sticks on the bottom not the xbox impersonator ones) I have both L + LZ mapped as shield and R + RZ mapped as Grab and when I do the command instructed on the video I just dash and up smash without the slide. Help.

 

[EmptySky00]

I'm having trouble getting the DACUS down, I think it's because I don't know what action Z is supposed to be mapped to. (an attack, shield or a grab?) I use a classic controller pro (the one with the sticks on the bottom not the xbox impersonator ones) I have both L + LZ mapped as shield and R + RZ mapped as Grab and when I do the command instructed on the video I just dash and up smash without the slide. Help.

On the GC controller the Z button is grab. I have my trigger button mapped to Attack. So you just need an attack button and a C-stick functioning... thing. The C-stick is supposed to input the dash attack then you just use up and the trigger you have mapped to attack (or grab.. I guess?) to cancel it out. Make sure you're getting the dash attack first. Also, if your timing is off you won't get a big slide so that might be your problem.

 

[Hylian]

I just realized I discovered something new(?) and potentially decent if honed.

If you do a reverse JC spin cancel ledge hog and hold the control stick inward, you don't fall onto the ledge but instead drift back onstage. You suffer the landing lag still so I always took it as a misinput of me trying to style too damn much (reverse spin cancel looks more flashy). But I also just did it so that the first part of the grounded spin attack came out.. And I killed someone like this before. So I hypothesize if inputted correctly, you can get the first swing of the grounded one to come out before leaving the ground, thus cancelling the 80 frames of animation lock lol. If we can incorporate the onstage landing thing we might be able to do something with it for our platform/edgeguard game. Anyone want to try messing around with this?

I've shown this off on my stream before. Also works on platforms .

 

[EmptySky00]

I've shown this off on my stream before. Also works on platforms .

You suck -_- I wanted to discover a Link tech damn it.

And I know it works on platforms.

 

[Hylian]

You suck -_- I wanted to discover a Link tech damn it.

And I know it works on platforms.

I have some more people probably don't know about as well. Planning on showing something off next time I stream practice.

 

[Deleted member]

I don't know if anyone knows this but I found a really reliable kill move against spacies today. Since Fox and Falco are fast fallers, dthrow doesn't work very well against them. But, at around 70%+ you can dthrow into a guaranteed up b which usually kills.

 

[jtm94]

I don't know if anyone knows this but I found a really reliable kill move against spacies today. Since Fox and Falco are fast fallers, dthrow doesn't work very well against them. But, at around 70%+ you can dthrow into a guaranteed up b which usually kills.

I don't play Link and I know this works. How well does upthrow on spacies work as far as converting into stuff?

 

[EmptySky00]

Upthrow works very well. Upthrow bair reset grab is good. Upthrow Uair juggles. Upthrow strong hit Nair to set up for edgeguards. Fair to kill. Etc. Upthrow even chain grabs spacies lol. And yeah we knew dthrow up B worked. I was just doing that against Umbreon when he decided to go spacies in the middle of beating the absolute hell beat out of me and making me eat Sheik bair e_e

 

[Pug]

Hey Hylian have you ever soft thrown a bomb up then grabbed someone and thrown them into it? I call it the Pugnator combo and no one can prove I didn't think of it first.

 

[Hylian]

Hey Hylian have you ever soft thrown a bomb up then grabbed someone and thrown them into it? I call it the Pugnator combo and no one can prove I didn't think of it first.

This has been done in melee since like 2001 lol.

 

[EmptySky00]

<_> I think he's mocking me.

I did put a disclaimer that I didn't think of the Empty Combo first so ha. I've diplomatic immunity.

 

[NaijaboyIrin]

I use Usmash or Utilt out of Uthrow on FF'ers. If they DI away I dash attack.
Does anyone else think that Link's DA is amazing? DA combos for days in so many matchups if you can read the DI.

 

[EmptySky00]

I think it's pretty good personally.

Though dash attack into dash attack looks like ass. Gotta have more style man. Dash attack - Reverse hit bair - regrab - dthrow - dair.

Take that, you unnamed mofo.

 

[Boss N]

I think it's pretty good personally.

Though dash attack into dash attack looks like ***. Gotta have more style man.

I've made it work on several occasions, and if it ain't broke why fix it? Better to be practical and simple imo.

 

[EmptySky00]

Nah it's better to style on the opponent and have fun doing it and win anyway than bore myself senseless IMO.


Simplicity isn't my thing. I try not to over complicate it to the point of not working though.

 

[Pug]

Nah it's better to style on the opponent and have fun doing it and win anyway than bore myself senseless IMO.


Simplicity isn't my thing. I try not to over complicate it to the point of not working though.

This. Anyone can just win, but looking totally awesome while doing it is where the real satisfaction is.

 

[EmptySky00]

I feel like as long as you're not being ridiculously sub-optimal for the sake of looking good then it's perfectly justifiable. So what if it demands a little extra input? That's the fun of it.


This is probably why I'll never be a good tournament player.


Nah I jest. Next tournament I go to I'm ****ing some people up.

 

[Hylian]

I'm a big fan of stylish play .

 

[EmptySky00]

See, Hylian's with me.

I hate how you out-style me though <_<

 

[Pug]

We're all on the same team here. The great thing is we can all learn from each other and increase in both skill and style alike!

 

[Heero Yuy]

I'm particularly a fan of HDL's very adaptive Link and Lazarond's simple yet powerful Link.

Styling is really fun every now and then, but I put the most emphasis in mindgames if anything. I like to play flashy only when I play against people I'm better than, because it adds spice to the game.

Just to throw this out there, but the flashiest Links in Smash I've seen include Izaw (by far), the Germ, and Hylian.

 

[EmptySky00]

Izaw was my inspiration so that's why I like flash lol.

 

[Boss N]

Can anyone describe Link's defensive options? There's a DK player in my area (I think his tag is Icey-Lite in case anyones heard of him) and the way he moves is UNREAL, like I can't get a single hit on him because he seems to bum rush through everything I throw and rip me a new one with every punish.

Also what exactly is neutral game? My coach is saying it's something I need to work on but has a hard time describing exactly what it is.

 

[EmptySky00]

Link has a great MU against DK. I have a really really good DK player over here who was great in Melee. I can do pretty well on the virtue of just being Link and him being DK lol.

Neutral game is the state where neither player has a distinct positional advantage. Once you start getting hit and he puts you in a bad position, you are no longer in neutral.

How do you think your projectile game is? That alone should be able to shut DK down if you're good enough with it. Zair is also pretty good because he's a huge target. Don't let him shield grab you too. You can't just swing on his shield because his grab range is insane.

I suggest working on movement as well.

All in all you should be able to do pretty well by keeping away and throwing **** at him until you can hit confirm and convert.

 

[Deleted member]

Link has a great MU against DK. I have a really really good DK player over here who was great in Melee. I can do pretty well on the virtue of just being Link and him being DK lol.

Neutral game is the state where neither player has a distinct positional advantage. Once you start getting hit and he puts you in a bad position, you are no longer in neutral.

How do you think your projectile game is? That alone should be able to shut DK down if you're good enough with it. Zair is also pretty good because he's a huge target. Don't let him shield grab you too. You can't just swing on his shield because his grab range is insane.

I suggest working on movement as well.

All in all you should be able to do pretty well by keeping away and throwing **** at him until you can hit confirm and convert.

Exactly, DK is slow and has a hard time getting around Link's projectile's so you should always be approaching with projectile combos like boomerang to pretty much any move.

Watch out for DK trying to space his attacks against you. Link has the power to outspace DK though so if you see it coming you can back up a bit and throw a fair or boomerang.

 

[EmptySky00]

You don't even have to approach most of the time. You can hit confirm boomerang from like half screen. Zair can combo after it for good followups if you're not close enough for much else. DACUS is great for getting in after a boomerang hit. Etc. I say this because again you don't want to let him shield grab you.

 

[Heero Yuy]

tl;dr throw things and swing your sword once he's hit.

 

[Drexel]

Gale guarding doesn't exist anymore. You're better off going for a Nair edge guard or invincible Bair than a pointless boomerang bounce that won't really affect most recoveries and puts you in a bad position for your trouble. QDA I should have mentioned you're right. It's instinctual at this point for me so I don't even think about it. DI Zair recovery is... I've never used it ever. So I didn't think of it. I might amend the OP to add the things I forgot.

Well, in Brawl it does and I have used it to decent effect, not in Project M though as Link's boomerang is different. QDA and the DACUS really has helped me against other players, (mainly my brother), because it surprises them/him with that quickness. The DI Zair recovery is really situational for characters like Fox, Falco and Jigglypuff and their down smashes, but I have not used it at all. And I'm glad to say I finally got the Bomb Plant and Bomb Punting down and am learning how to do some cool combos to rack up damage. So I might get Link to be my main in Project M instead of Lucario, because he is really starting to click.

 

[EmptySky00]

Fox and Jigglypuff generally don't Dsmash. Especially Fox because he has about a thousand other kill options that are infinitely better. Falco will sometimes do it I guess. But at that point you have bigger problems because you are indeed Link and they are indeed Falco.

 

[GoldHazard]

Both space animals use dsmash often. It's a reliable horizontal edgeguard move and the hitbox extends below the ledge which is a useful move to punish enemies recovering below the stage and in some instances it can be a safer alternative to shinespiking.

 

[EmptySky00]

You're not going to be able to do that if he's hitting you from the ledge though.

I mean onstage he's not going to be dsmashing you for a kill. I was speaking in the context of the Zair tech thing. My bad <_>