New mega man main with a question

[PacStar]

Hello mega man mains! (Mega Men...Triple Ms...Mega Maniacs?)

I have recently developed an interest in mega man because I'm drawn to his seemingly endless toolbox. I love any character that allows me to express my creativity with a wide assortment of tools. So many possibilities that I can play with to my heart's content!

But I'm curious...does mega man have much of an advantage state? I'm aware of his footstool combo and such, but how does mega man lead to bigger damage outside of pellet strings? What is his combo game like?

I ask because I'm not a big fan of the hyper-incremental game and like to take my punishes far.

Thank you all in advance!

 

[Piipp]

Hello mega man mains! (Mega Men...Triple Ms...Mega Maniacs?)

I have recently developed an interest in mega man because I'm drawn to his seemingly endless toolbox. I love any character that allows me to express my creativity with a wide assortment of tools. So many possibilities that I can play with to my heart's content!

But I'm curious...does mega man have much of an advantage state? I'm aware of his footstool combo and such, but how does mega man lead to bigger damage outside of pellet strings? What is his combo game like?

I ask because I'm not a big fan of the hyper-incremental game and like to take my punishes far.

Thank you all in advance!

Mega Man's advantage state is very flexible. Your approach options consist of lemons, grab, leaf shield, metal blade, and pretty much just doing what you can to force them to shield, back them into a corner, or setting up an edge guard situation. MegaMan is very good at maintaining stage control and has a very strong edge guarding game with tools like Metal Blade (which can be zdropped or thrown), Leaf Shield (which can setup for a footstool) and a frame 4 Bair.

While playing neutral, you can either space lemons and attempt to force an approach, or approach with lemons yourself. Most players hold shield after being hit with a couple lemons so do what you will with that information.

Mega Man is a character with a lot of tools to deal with certain situations and I've been maining him for a while now. Anyways I hope you enjoy him!

 

[CopShowGuy]

Mega Man with momentum mostly is due to your opponent losing their calm. I'd actually say Mega Man's advantage state isn't very huge when he gets it. He can get a good bit of stage control that's hard to take away from him but his punish game usually consists of a few good hits and then it ends.

 

[GrandTale]

Mega Man's combo game is fairly limited but poor DI can change that. At low percents you can get nair strings that travel across the stage and can lead to jab locks if the opponent doesn't tech. Item throw metal blade can lead to back air, pellet strings, up air strings when metal blade is thrown down above the opponent (and they fall towards the way you are going). Crash bomb is something people seem to forget about when I play them, as I use it when i get knocked off stage and place it either on the opponent waiting to punish or onto the stage and watch the opponent get stage spiked. Up air strings combined with rush is something I've been practicing and it's been working wonders for me, i've almost killed people at 10% on FD, but even then they take about 40% from air shooter damage.

Mega Man doesn't thrive on combos, it's really a combination of pellet damage and whatever you can combine with metal blade, but he is one of the best off stage gimpers you can get, with stuff like bair, leaf shield gimp, hard knuckle, (when it doesn't clank with multihits or clouds up b...) nair if you're feeling like that guy, and even z drop metal blade can net you either a stage spike or combo into back air if you're close enough.

Just remember that you're playing Mega Man, he's one of the hardest characters in the game because of his high learning curve. However like you said his creativity is amazing and you can use that to your advantage. Just remember that you can't up b with leaf shield on and you can only have one metal blade on screen (unless villager pockets it, then you get it back). Just take it slow and you'll see how much fun he is. Also one more thing, tab jump off and use up b first before using your jump, that way even if you get hit during up b you get it back and still have your jump for recovery.

 

[Mythzotick]

I'd also recommend having c-stick set to tilt/attack instead of smash attack for more aerial control when using an aerial move, a lot less likely to sd from using hard knuckle/dair offstage, and an easier time landing mega upper/u-tilt. It may be nice to glide toss if you have smash attack on, but I just find tilt c-stick to be a more optimal choice.

Like what GrandTale said. If you can land all hits with an auto-canceled air shooter/uair and then immediately follow up with another full air shooter, that's roughly 40% damage just off of 2 hits and potentially even a stock at high percents or extremely early if they accidentally jump. Metal blade is also really good for starting a combo since it has almost no knockback with just enough hitstun for getting a combo/kill confirm and you can either use the regular input that comes in 8 different directions or the item version of it; which is even faster and can be used for z-drops. An extremely versatile move to have.

 

[Azazel]

Megaman has an interesting advantage. It's very dependent on abusing the stage for an opening so megaman doesn't have reliable huge damage "bread n butter" combos, but he does have some devastating ones if given the opportunity.

at low percents sh nair > sh nair > sh nair is not a true combo but catches charcter with slow double jumps like mewtwo and drags them across the stage like sheik fair > fair > fair

Some d-throw combos.

D-throw > nair > Fair (light fast fallers)
D-throw > Nair-nair > DJ fair > u-air (heavy characters)

D-throw > bair (floaty characters)

D-throw > nair-pellet-pellet (this works better with fast fallers since tey don't realize their hitstun was canceled and they pummet fast)
The pellet at the end kills their knockback and keeps them close for a follow-up like usmash (to catch landing)

You can do a pseudo chain grab
D-throw > perfect pivot > Reverse nair > Bair spike > grab
but it's execution heavy and not very reliable

Megaman has some nasty platform combos, it's can result in 0-deaths like mario uair combos
D-throw > nair > fast fall onto platform > dash grab > d-throw > bair
D-throw > Nair > nair(land on platform)-ftilt-(walk off platform)nair

The first and second hit of Bair have an angle of 0 if it connects with a grounded target and will always prattack. you can use this to edgeslip opponents off platforms and get a lemon lock


There is one specific instance where you can actually true combo into an edgeslip > lemon lock off of D-throw

Battle field, center stage,
D-throw > Perfect pivot > Full hop reverse nair > bair spike > platform drop Bair prattack > edgeslip > lemon lock.

from here you can probably do a 0-death combo.

Metal blade (neutral special not the item) also can lead to combos

Full Hop Metalblade diagonally backwards > bair spike > short hop z-catch > ground footstool > infinte

This perfectly fits his frame data
Full hop is 51 frames
backwards metalblade is 45
2nd hit of bair is frame 7 so it perfectly fits the Full hop with 51 frames. (45+7-1*=51)
*-1 frame because it's an overlapping one since these are FAFs

This works at 60% ish
full hop Diagonally forward > fair > bair

forward toss metal blade is 43 frames
fair is frame 9.

Off stage metal blade > bair/nair/fair are confirms

Metal blade item is megamans only long lasting bread and butter combo starter.
forward toss > grab
forward toss > bair works basically all percents

Frame traps

Nair-nair-nair is it's one airdodge frame trap if you follow their airdodge

 

[Azazel]

 

[Diamond Octobot]

I think Mario could have jumped away or NAir'ed through in most of your concepts...
They could only work as mixups, and they don't even do their job that well IMO.

 

[Azazel]

I think Mario could have jumped away or NAir'ed through in most of your concepts...
They could only work as mixups, and they don't even do their job that well IMO.

Admittedly nair combos are susceptible to di away (basic combo di) but I have definitely found uses

D-throw > nair > dash grab works.

D-throw > nair-pellet-pellet is an interesting mix-up. It keeps them close and confuse and you can catch landing with shield > grab or superior hitboxes like usmash

I'd use these nair combo offstage, that's when it's most effective.

D-throw > nair-nair > fair is a combo although they can di out of the fair, but being dragged far off stage makes them di in for the fair.

D-throw > nair-nair > fair > nair

The last nair is a mix-up. It beats out a lot of moves.
Because smash uses tracers, by mega man falling it "drags" the hitbox and effectively makes it disjointed and conversely the opponent is above mega man and falling and the hitbox is dragged but in the opposite direction and giving no hitbox advantage.
Also if they airdodge you can follow it and do nair-nair-nair instead as a suicide gimp

Another mix-up not shown in the video was
D-throw > Nair-nair > fair > rush > bair

This catches double jumps. This really catches opponents off guard. Basically bair is a superior hitbox and the opponent has to be ready to DJ airdodge

Maybe one day I'll make a thorough video with commentary. Like I've learned a bunch of weird quirks. Like you can't do a triple lemon lock with a Max range lemon because the "bounce" lock animation duration is based on hit stun. If you hit a max range lemon it doesn't have enough hit stun to link into other lemons and they immediately neutral get up. So if you want the most time for a follow-up you want to end with a jab or up close ftilt

 

[Megamang]

Umm, guys.


Uair traps. Hit a uair and theyre taking 22% or airdodging into your next uair or bair. Then theyre offstage.

Zdrop into the middle of a hurtbox can do 20%+ a free aerial.

P PacStar if youre looking for advantage pressing, I suggest labbing ledge coverage and edgeguarding. with a frame 4 bair, big range dair, fast nair, Rush and amazing aerial acceleration (the best air accel actually!) Megaman is a fierce offstage threat. I find my comebacks mostly come offstage. Dair and Bair can edgeguard ******** like Bayo even! ZSS wont get traditionally gimped unless she screws up, buuuut bair kills light characters very very early at the ledge.

Say someone BF/Monkey Flips/Flip Kicks over you? Uair does damage, threatens kills if they jump... use bair to force them back offstage, dair to kill them for unsafe snaps... etc etc.

With zdrop blade, there is almost certainly even more stuff you can do that we haven't labbed yet. Think of it as a slow falling thunder to gimp!

Another one id like to add is ledge jump zdrop can be buffered and stage spikes people trying to follow you and ledge snap.

Orrrr.. landing uair is a strong string starter. Try FH fair to uair (buffer it, its a tight window) to open them up for uair/bair/landing trap setups.


Mega doesnt have BnBs like Mario, but making each neutral win count is an art that he must accel at if he wants to stay a tournament threat.