• Welcome to Smashboards, the world's largest Super Smash Brothers community! Over 250,000 Smash Bros. fans from around the world have come to discuss these great games in over 19 million posts!

    You are currently viewing our boards as a visitor. Click here to sign up right now and start on your path in the Smash community!

On the mIC

Psi Sig

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Mar 15, 2014
Messages
262
Location
Poughkeepsie
1.8
  • ledge trumping Popo clarified
  • Mid-Stage Handoffs updated

Hey this is meant to be a quick guide that covers the basics of Ice Climbers for commentators.

“Usually in a battle, there is a 6 frame delay from one Icy to the next. Desynching is when the Icy's break their typical 6 frame difference by doing a certain set move or set of moves. Desynching widens the gap in timing to more than 6 frames, and is usually a considerable separation between the Icy's. Widening the gap makes it so the player can control both the Icy's simultaneously, have both Icy's do different moves from each other. Every move can be done by Nana or Popo alone except:

Exceptions from desynchs - If you have Popo do blizzard, Nana will also do blizzard at the soonest moment possible for her (assuming she's close enough) if she's not close enough, she will scramble to find you, and when she does get to you, she will blizzard in the opposite direction you are facing. Also: Nana will never over B or up B by herself” - Exarch
For clarification sake this is a Soft Desync. A Hard Desync is when Nana is complete out of the Popo's Range of Influence and is making her way back to him

Range of Influence(THE BOX)
OK the most important thing to know about the ICs is the Popo's, the climber the player is controlling, range of influence over Nana, the AI, and how it functions differently in this game than in Melee. To quote exarch's guide from the Melee forums. "Nana's Box- While the Icys are desynched, Popo can move anywhere by himself, and leave Nana in the dust; however Nana cannot do the same. Instead Nana is stuck inside an imaginary box around Popo. It extends in front, behind, above, and below Popo, but Nana will not turn the opposite direction of Popo(except following a Popo blizzard.)"

Now, this box in PM is bigger and more important for IC's to be aware of due the the Resync Desync. In PM Nana does not need to fully resync to be controlled again as in melee. The moment Nana enters "The Box" She will do any action input as shown here:

This is important to know because it help differentiate Nana being clutch/inept or the player being aware/making a mistake.
For Example: Nana is knocked off stage and is making her way back. Popo goes to the edge to wait/defend her return. The opponent approaches causing Popo to shield as Nana re-enters "The Box". Nana airdodges and dies.

Mid-Stage Grab Options, and Infinites
There are no functional mid-stage infinite, there is talk of a one-frame input to control Nana throws but no one has been able to do in real time so this wont be delved into, if that ever changes this will be updated.

The most common follow ups to a mid-stage grab are D-air, and Grab. Other follow ups include Squall Hammer and Footstool.
  • D-throw -> Short Hop D-air: The most common follow up, D-air has set knock back and is a great way to take someone to the ledge for a quick kill. However it can be SDI'd out of making the follow up grab not posible, it is important to recohnize the difference between someone SDIing and someone dropping it.
    • And to expand the IC player reads the SDI s/he can do a Full Hop to adjust for the SDI. When not SDI'd Full Hop D-air will send the opponent behind the ICs
  • Grab
    • Mid-Stage Handoff (D or F Throw -> Grab): When Nana is not close enough to a ledge she will almost always throw up. There are Two exceptions to this, both Stemming from the "Nanaquin" which can be seen here:
      When Nana grabs someone out "The Box" she usually will not do anything until Popo gets close enough that Nana returns into his range of influence, she will then proceed to throw(Up, Forward or Backward depending on stage position).
      • HOWEVER There is a one-frame window that allows players to control which direction Nana throws.
      • This allows for the Cuckhold (or Corner Carry) "After landing a grab with synced Climbers, press and hold forward on the control stick. Popo will forward throw and Nana will run forward. At the correct timing, input a pivot grab. Nana will regrab the opponent as soon as they exit Popo's throw, and she will then forward throw them back towards you. You can then run forward and have Popo grab the opponent as they exit Nana's throw." - CF$
  • Throw -> Side B: Easily SDIable (not sure what else needs to be said)
  • D-Throw -> Footstool: Two things can be done out this you can use this to setup a techchase/jab reset situation or as I'm sure many have seen re-grab out of it. It is important to know that until about 40% this can be mashed out of infinite after that DI'ing out makes it harder to get the re-grab
  • Happy New Year - Found by Godlike Kitten: Happy New Year is using Forward or Down throw into the late hit of Dash Attack, usually followed up by Up-B(Which is a kill move) or can be used to re-grab Fast-fallers

IC's At The Ledge

  • Yes Fair is a Spike
    • D-Throw -> F-air: Can be DI'd in so you can Tech on side of the stage
    • F-Throw -> F-air: As long the IC's time it correctly the opponent is dead.
  • Hand-offs(The Ledge Infinite): When Nana is near a ledge she will throw toward the nearest ledge(also counts the ledges on platforms standing on one). Popo can re-grab off of Nana's F-throw and repeat, now while you can run out space to grab, @OverlordZelos found that by dash-dancing and using a dash grab it extends Popo's grab range enough to keep the the Hand-off going indefinitely
Inspired by A big Teletuby's reddit post spreading more info about the climbers which can be read here: https://www.reddit.com/r/SSBPM/comments/4gpy16/a_basic_guide_to_pm_ice_climbers_grab_options/


Forgot to mention their recovery.
  • A synched Side-B can go much high than belay can
  • Up-B "Belay" is a tether, unlike all other tether it can be done indefinitely.
    • Also when Nana is within tether range, Where she goes straight to the ledge, if an opponent grabs the ledge before Popo reaches it will cancel the animation either causing Popo to drop like a rock or not go as high as he normally would. This is most likely due to the change that made it possible to ledge hog tethers and the game not counting the ledge as occupied until Popo reaches it. This is the only instant that an opponent can grab the ledge at the same time as Nana
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom