New to Samus: Tell me your moves?

[SinkingHigher]

Hi everyone!

*First time Samus poster*

I'm new to Samus. I never really played her in Melee, but I'm getting fond of her in Brawl.

I've played around with her moves, but I want to get serious with her.

So, can you share some advice with me?

Mostly, I will be fighting characters the shape/weight of Snake, Ike or Link, if that helps.

 

[NoobCake]

While not a Samus player myself, I've seen players use her Zair alot (pressing Z while in midair) which results in her shooting out her grappling beam. Its fast, has good range, and I'm told it auto-cancels when you land. Hope that helps

 

[SinkingHigher]

So I can grab people while in the air?

 

[0RLY]

No, but it's a ridiculously long ranged melee attack. That means it can't be reflected or absorbed. Using zair (aerial grapple) will be vital to gameplay. Missile canceling is firing a missile before landing. This will cancel the ending lag of shooting missiles. Screw attack out of shield will be your main form of defense because Samus' shield grab sucks. There's some ground information, now go and make up your own combos! =P

 

[Xyro77]

a very handy tech the the Reverse grab. Simply get into your full run animation and then slam the opposite direction and grab at he same time. u will tunr and grab immediatly.

remember, a fully extender Zair is 7% with increased knockback while a none extended zair is only 4% ad little knock back.

 

[Undrdog]

Not to mention Powershielding that stupid Zair is mostly a matter of luck at this point. So using it with little fear of a counter attack is a huge plus.

I'll reiterate what ORLy said about the Screw Attack as well as it is VERY important to Samus' game. Up-Bs will always lose their knockback and damage via Stale Moves so don't worry about spamming this attack. So long as it hits, you should be relatively safe. The Screw Attack has INSANE priority and makes me, a Pit player, very sad. Keep in mind the top of the Screw Attack isn't as prominent as the rest of the attack. Meaning even though it looks like it should hit, sometimes a hitbox won't appear at the top of the attack.

 

[SinkingHigher]

Thanks guys.

I'm doing well aerially, stringing combos together and such. It's just a little hard to get KOs. I'm used to landing sweetspots with Zelda's fair and bair, but Samus seems to only have a couple of strong KOers.

D-tilt
D-air.

The charge shot works well, but it can be easily avoided/air dodged by good players. The F-Smash works well too, I like it's range, but I dunno. There's just something weird about it.

What do you guys do with the bomb-drop? I found it to be useful when escaping certain Final Smashes, or just stalling for time with non-projectile players. It doesn't seem to do much else though.

I like the missles. I LOVE doing:

Air-seeker >> Missle-cancelled seeker >> Smash-missle >> Charge Shot.

Fun fun fun. :D

 

[Undrdog]

Try, Jump >> Homing >> Missile Canceled Homing >> Jump >> Homing >> Missile Canceled Homing >> Repeat.

Also, keep in mind that her U-Tilt is a killer, though sometimes hard to land. Her Fair cancels with zero lag upon hitting the ground. Only the final hit with the Fair gives real knockback, meaning canceling it on the ground into a U-Tilt is very possible.

The bombs to many Samus players are pretty useless. However they do have their uses. If you see your opponent faltering, or you simply feel you can out fight them in the present circumstance, you can drop a bomb on occasion. What this can do is lead you into some nice combos. Attacks that normally have too much knockback for you to follow up, can be accomplished by knocking an opponent into one of your bombs at appropriate times. Doing so near the edge can work to your advantage. However, recovery and last second spacing are probably at the moment the most important applications of Samus' bombs.

 

[Crystanium]

Here are attacks that I like to perform:

• F-air + d-tilt: What you do is use your f-air, and then upon landing, use d-tilt. Simple, really. Just hope your opponent doesn't block. This can also be performed while returning from the edge. What I do is a backwards jump while returning from the edge, followed up by f-air + d-tilt. I haven't tried d-smash. That could probably work as well.
• D-air + Screw Attack or u-air: This can only occur if your opponent in grounded. In other words, if your opponent is in the air, and you use d-air, this attack won't work...effectively. The reason why I like this is because the d-air slams your opponent upward, and then you can execute the Screw Attack or u-air. I use the Screw Attack. So far, only one person has been able to escape from this. But he only did that once.
• Super Missile + Charge Shot: I incorporated this attack method from Melee. In order for this to work, you have to have the Charge Shot fully charged. Well, it doesn't have to be fully charged, but it has to be charged up enough. I find this effective against opponents who like to shield or use a special attack that is capable of reflecting or countering. This is especially useful against Marth and Ike, since once they counter, they're left open and hit by the Charge Shot.

Keep in mind that these attack methods alone don't insure your victory. Playing smart and using them properly does.

 

[Solo Assass1n]

I'd just like to mention, if you are truly planning on getting serious with Samus, it will require hours of devotion. You can't play her as easily as a Marth, without practice.

 

[Jmex]

Here are attacks that I like to perform:

• F-air + d-tilt: What you do is use your f-air, and then upon landing, use d-tilt. Simple, really. Just hope your opponent doesn't block. This can also be performed while returning from the edge. What I do is a backwards jump while returning from the edge, followed up by f-air + d-tilt. I haven't tried d-smash. That could probably work as well.
• D-air + Screw Attack or u-air: This can only occur if your opponent in grounded. In other words, if your opponent is in the air, and you use d-air, this attack won't work...effectively. The reason why I like this is because the d-air slams your opponent upward, and then you can execute the Screw Attack or u-air. I use the Screw Attack. So far, only one person has been able to escape from this. But he only did that once.
• Super Missile + Charge Shot: I incorporated this attack method from Melee. In order for this to work, you have to have the Charge Shot fully charged. Well, it doesn't have to be fully charged, but it has to be charged up enough. I find this effective against opponents who like to shield or use a special attack that is capable of reflecting or countering. This is especially useful against Marth and Ike, since once they counter, they're left open and hit by the Charge Shot.

Keep in mind that these attack methods alone don't insure your victory. Playing smart and using them properly does.

I used to do this alot in melee as well as Brawl now. Also i like to do dair while the opponent is at low percentages, followed by immediately jumping followed by another dair, i usually get 2-3 off, im guessing because of the hit stun the opponent gets when hit.

 

[Aran]

@Sinkinghigher

If you're having trouble landing the charge shot, you're shooting from too far out. Think of it as an extraordinarily long ranged smash. Use it to punish whiffed moves or whiffed spot/airdodges, or anywhere else you would normally use a fsmash if you were another character, because Samus' fsmash has a weird hitbox. If you use it like that instead of as a mid-long range attack, you'll find that there's no more chance of them dodging the hit than any other attack you try to land.

On another note, uncharged shots, however, SHOULD be used as mid/long ranged attacks to interrupt the opponent's flow and increase your control over the field.

 

[SinkingHigher]

Thanks Aran. I've been practicing using the uncharged shots to interupt games. I figured the Charge Shot was meant to replace the F-Smash. Do you mean by "weird hitbox" that I need to hit them with the tip of the attack? Will that do more damage?

Solo Assassin, I do plan on taking the time to get to know her. (har)

I've found Samus really easy to pick up right from the beginning. I will practice, of course, but she's one of those characters that you just get.

Thanks again for the replies everyone. Really useful stuff. There should be a sticky with all this stuff. Preferably on every character page.

 

[Crystanium]

You can't play her as easily as a Marth, without practice.

QFT. I selected Random for my character while on Wi-Fi. I ended up with Marth. My friend played as Link. I won with Marth, and when my brother told him that over the Internet that I don't play as Marth, my friend said, "I'm done for the night."

 

[Aran]

When I said "weird hitbox", I meant it just seems short compared to other characters and compared to the previous games. A lot of times I'll do an fsmash in what seems like a reasonable range, and it still whiffs. I think they centered it near her body, because I've occasionally hit people right behind me. I've pretty much given up on fsmash and use ftilt a lot along with charge shot for ko's. Speaking of which though, USE that ftilt. It has good range, decent priority, and comes out fast. I love that move so much now.

 

[0RLY]

Fsmash is crap, never use it... it has next to no range, doesn't combo, and doesn't kill until 140%. By then, your opponent will be playing it reeeaally safe to make sure they aren't hit.

Full hop >> immediately homing missile >> super missile cancel >> Charge Shot.

Don't fire the charge shot if you see them jump. It may be hard to fh>homing>super at first, but you'll get used to the timing later. If your opponent shields, the super missile will wear down your opponent's shield enough for the charge shot to land.

 

[Paradigm]

Fsmash is crap, never use it... it has next to no range, doesn't combo, and doesn't kill until 140%. By then, your opponent will be playing it reeeaally safe to make sure they aren't hit..

If your opponent is at 140% and you find they've left themselves open to an fsmash use it. if they're playing super defensively you may be able to call a sidestep and punish it with an fsmash.

It's not exactly a great move but 'never use it' is crap. Just don't expect much from it before they're at KO-able damage, and don't rely on it as your only option for a KO.