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PK Cross: An Advanced Ness Guide

Earthbound360

Smash Hero
Joined
Jul 3, 2006
Messages
5,725
Location
Bowie, MD
NNID
Mikman360
HEY LOOK AT THIS!
Apparently this thread is what makes people want to play me. I seem to have become quite popular as an online opponent. People who want to face me, please visit this thread first:
http://smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=175135&page=7
And this too! Check out my good friend Rels site:
http://www.brawlnews.com/forums/index.php


Hey guys. I've been waiting to post a bunch of these Ness advanced tactics lately, but I couldn’t find the time to make a huge guide. So, instead, I decided to list make a list and update it daily. I was hoping Ademisk's thread would take flight, but sadly it didn't.

This will consist of a bunch of techniques, tactics, and strategies that should prove to be useful in a way to Ness. They will be either Ness specific, or a general tactic that Ness can do and put to use. Some will be well known and obvious, some will be probably only known by me. Whether or not it is well known will depend on the time I have that day to post. They will have descriptions and ways to use them.

I will continue updates until I cannot think of anymore. Then they will not be daily, but whenever we find something new about Ness that could help his advanced game, you can rest assured that it will make it's way into this guide.

Today's Update is!... is...*hyperventilates*

Ah guys, I knew this day would come, and it has. I am running out of ideas. Yes, I'm starting to struggle with ideas. Now is the time to contribute to keep the thread alive. I don't think I will have daily updates after a certain time period. I don't know when it will come, but I know it will be soon.

With s****l starting up soon (yes I *** out that place because it's a sin to talk about it during summer), I doubt I'll be as able as before.

Please don't hate me guys. I mean, I gave you updates almost all throughout summer right? I'm sorry.

Contributions

There are many things that I probably don't know about Ness, and contributions are greatly appreciated. With the PKT mindgames section formed, there are many possibilities that I would like to know about. So if you've got anything useful to mention, please, feel free to do so.

I am planning on adding a search key and shorter, simpler descriptions when I have the time.

And one more thing...
IT'S FRIGGIN PK FLASH!!!

The title is a joke okay?

My Controller Setup

People have been asking me about my controller setup. My current setup feels comfortable to me and allows me to pull off almost all of the techniques in this topic.

Tap Jump: Off-I just hate tap jump. I can't utilt on the ground or use the uair or PKT without jumping first. With PKT this is really bad because if you use the double jump before PKT in the air and you get hit out of PKT, you lose your double jump.
C-stick: Specials-Allows me to B-stick, Firebound, still PK Jump, and makes a lot of other techniques a lot easier like the hothead and the reverse ledgefire.
Z: Jump-Allows me to PK Jump. I cannot claw X and B at the same time, but I can easily press Z and B at the same time. It also makes doing usmash out of shield easy without tap jump and the offensive PKT ledgestall is almost perfect by press Z to double jump.
R: Attack-Makes double aerial shuffling much easier.
Y: Grab-Just because I needed a new grab button.

Update List

5/17/08-PK Flash Lag Cancel
5/18/08-Advanced PKF: PKF Lag cancel, PK Jump, and Firebound
5/19/08-PK Pivot
5/20/08-B-Reversal
5/21/08-Reverse Aerial PSI Magnet
5/22/08-B-Stick/Wavebounce
5/23/08-Aerial Cancels: Ground cancel and Auto cancel
5/24/08-Double Aerial shuffle
5/25/08-PK Fire Cancel
5/26/08-Aerial Rise and Footstooling: Aerial to footstool, PK Brainshock, and shorthop footstool to nair
5/27/08-Bat Reflection
5/28/08-PSI Magnet Lag Cancel
5/29/08-Reverse Aerial Rush
5/30/08-Lagless PK Thunder-PKT Lag Cancel and PKT2 Lag Cancel
5/31/08-PSI Wind
6/1/08-Using the Usmash: Hyphen smash, Reverse hyphen smash, and Usmash out of shield (Jump cancelled usmash)
6/2/08-PSI Magnet Fall Stall
6/3/08-Quick Dash Attack (QDA)
6/4/08-Ledgedashattack
6/5/08-PK Thunder Ledgestalls: Defensive, Offensive, and Thundergrab
6/6/08-Footstool Rise
6/7/08-Reverse Grab
6/8/08-Angled Ftilt
6/9/08-More Advanced PK Fire-Still PK Jump, Reverse PK Jump, Reverse Firebound, Ledgefire, and Reverse Ledgefire
6/10/08-Pillar Spike
6/11/08-Jab Lock and Discovery of the Reverse Ledgefire
6/12/08-Ledgedrop (Extra info on the QDA-See post #112)
6/13/08-Double Jump Cancel and Hothead
6/14/08-Charging the Yo-yo: Yo-yo Shielding, Yo-yo Shield Stabbing, Ledge Yo-yo, Hanging, and Yo-yo Spike
6/15/08-Shuffle
6/16/08-Shieldgrab
6/17/08-Fireblocking
6/18/08-PSI Magnet Stopping *PROVEN TO NOT WORK!!!*
6/19/08-Floorblast
6/20/08-Surface to Air Missile and Full Range PKT2
6/21/08-Pivot Cancel
6/22/08-Jab Cancel, Firedash, and Ledgeshooting
6/23/08-Tailwhipping
6/24/08-Ledgebending
6/25/08-Edge Cancelled PKT2
6/26/08-Snaking and Stage Cancelled PKT
6/27/08-Anti-landing
6/28/08-Temporary cease of updates
6/29/08-Temporary cease of updates
6/30/08-Temporary cease of updates
7/1/08-Temporary cease of updates
7/2/08-Temporary cease of updates
7/3/08-Temporary cease of updates

7/4/08-Short Hop Horizontal PK Fire
7/5/08-Hilldash
7/6/08-Water pressure
7/7/08-PK Thunder Swell Surprise
7/8/08-Inverse PKT2 Recovery
7/9/08-PK Thunder Reverse Edgeguard
7/10/08-How to Use PK Fire Smartly
7/11/08-Turnaround B
7/12/08-Pummel Rhythm
7/13/08-Ledgecrawl
7/14/08-Item Double Jump Cancel and Alternate PKT Ledgestall (Under Offensive PKT Ledgestall)
7/15/08-Footstool Cancel
7/16/08-Thunderslide
7/17/08-Heavens Descent
7/18/08-Second Jump Renewal and Infinite Second Jump Renewal
7/19/08-Flexwhip
7/20/08-Double Jump Ledgestall
7/21/08-PK Thunder Shield Scrape
7/22/08-PKT2 Against Walls
7/23/08-Yo-yo Glitch
7/24/08-Invinciblast
7/25/08-PK Thunder Mindgames: Circles
7/26/08-PKT2 Circles
7/27/08-Shocker
7/28/08-Off-screen PKT and PKT2
7/29/08-Thunder Bait
7/30/08-PSI Magnet Wavedash
7/31/08-PKT2 Fake
8/1/08-Improved Ledgefire
8/2/08-Improved Reverse Ledgefire
8/3/08-Ledgespike
8/4/08-Aerial Fake Out
8/5/08-Dsmash Effectiveness Character List
8/6/08-Backstab
8/7/08-Item PK Jump/PK Throw and Item DJC Update
8/8/08-Headshot and Item Techniques: Jump Cancelled Throw and Ledgethrow
8/9/08-An even more improved reverse ledgefire
8/10/08-Thunder Shift and Flash Shift
8/11/08-Dtilt Lock
8/12/08-Temporary Cease of Updates
8/13/08-Temporary Cease of Updates
8/14/08-Temporary Cease of Updates
8/15/08-Temporary Cease of Updates

8/16/08-Dealing With the Deathgrab and Super Grab Break
8/17/08-Adjustable PK Jump
8/18/08-Shield Pierce
8/19/08-False Recovery Aid
8/20/08-Ledgwhip
8/21/08-How to Use PK Flash Smartly
8/22/08-PKT2 Phase and Ref's PK Thunder Demonstration Video
8/23/08-Easier way to do advanced PK Fire techniques (see the end of the advanced PKF section), easier reverse firebound, and more on the deathgrab.
Table of Contents
This is the order of the techniques listed in the guide. The update of the day will be in italics.

Bat Reflection
Jab Cancel
Jab Lock
Dtilt Lock
Pummel Rhythm
Dealing With the Deathgrab
Super Grab Break
Dash Mechanics
Stutter Step
Foxtrot
Pivot Cancel
Dash Pivot Cancel
Dash Dance
True Pivot
=========
Hilldash
Double Jump Ledgestall
Angled Ftilt
Dsmash effectiveness Character List
Using the Usmash
Hyphen Smash
Reverse Hyphen Smash
Usmash Out of Shield
=========
Charging the Yo-yo
Yo-yo Shielding
Yo-yo Shield Stabbing
Ledge Yo-yo
Hanging
Yo-yo Spike
=========
Quick Dash Attack
Ledgedashattack
Ledgespike
Shieldgrab
Reverse Grab
Ledgedrop
Ledgecrawl
Shuffle
Reverse Aerial Rush
Water Pressure
Aerial Cancels
Ground-Cancel
Auto-Cancel
=========
Double Aerial Shuffle
Aerial Rise
Second Jump Renewal
Inifnite Second Jump Renewal
Footstooling
Aerial to Footstool
PK Brainshock
Hothead
Short Hop Footstool to Nair
Footstool Rise
Headshot
Footstool Cancel
=========
Turnaround B
B-Reversal
Firedash
B-Stick/Wavebounce
Ledgeshooting
Double Jump Cancel
Advanced PK Fire
PK Fire Lag Cancel
PK Jump
Still PK Jump
Reverse PK Jump
Adjustable PK Jump
Firebound
Reverse Firebound
=========
Ledgefire
Reverse Ledgefire
Pillar Spike
PK Pivot
Fireblocking
Short Hop Horizontal PK Fire
PK Fire Cancel
How to Use PK Fire Smartly
Ref's PK Thunder Demonstration Video
Snaking
Thunder Shift
Shield Scrape
Shield Pierce
Anti-landing
False Recovery Aid
Ledgwhip
Full Ranged PKT2
Inverse PKT2 Recovery
Surface to Air Missile
PKT2 Phase
Thunderslide
Ledgebending
Invinciblast
Floorblast
Edge Cancelled PKT2
PKT2 Against Walls
Wallhugging
Wallbouncing
Wallblast
=========
Flexwhip
PK Thunder Swell Surprise
Heavens Descent
PK Thunder Reverse Edgeguard
PK Thunder Ledgestalls
Defensive PKT Ledgestall
Offensive PKT ledgestall
Thundergrab
=========
Lagless PK Thunder
PKT Lag Cancel
PKT2 Lag Cancel
=========
PK Thunder Mindgames
Circles
Backstab
PKT2 Circles
PKT2 Fake
Thunder Bait
Aerial Fake Out
Shocker
Off-Screen PK Thunder and PKT2
=========
PK Flash Lag Cancel
Flash Shift
How to Use PK Flash Smartly
PSI Magnet Lag Cancel
PSI Magnet Wavedash
Psychokinetic Wind
PSI Magnet Fall Stall
Reverse Aerial PSI Magnet
Item Techniques
Jump Cancelled Throw
Item Double Jump Cancel
Item PK Jump/PK Throw
Ledgethrow
=========
Yo-yo Glitch

Now, onto the list.

Bat Reflection
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL17H3TO3h8
:rotfl:

This is a pretty well known technique, but it's still not something too basic.

Since 64, Ness was able to reflect projectiles with his fsmash, the bat. That has not changed since then.

Ness can still reflect things, and it's very easy now as compared to Melee. The whole bat reflects projectiles, and this can be useful and fun.

Try to use this on slow projectiles, or ones that are slow to come out, like the Aura sphere or a boomerang. Just make sure you know the startup time on Ness' bat.

Something fun to do is just charging up a bat a good distance away from the opponent, just in range of their projectile that you wish to reflect. Sometimes, they do not want to approach, fearing the bats power, so instead, they use a projectile thinking that they can hit you out of the bat.

Careful though, they do not always do this. Make sure you space yourself well enough for you to be able to tell if they will approach or use a projectile. I they approach, release the smash and escape. Best used on slower characters like Link.

Note that this is not always a good idea. Fun, but not always the best idea.

You can even reflect a gyro that is spinning on the ground. It makes it yours without being very conspicuous. Most ROB players probably will not realize what you have just done.

Jab Cancel

The jab cancel allows you to do any attack you want immediately after the first or first two hits of a jab combo. So instead of the normal jab jab kick combo, you can use jab jab usmash for example.

Jab cancelling is faster than jabbing then waiting for that time period for the first jab combo to end. So instado f jabbing, waiting, then jabbing again, you can jab immediatley.

To do this, first do a jab. When the jab animation starts to end, crouch. But before you even see the crouch come out, use another jab (or any attack you desire). Ness is actually cancelling the jab combo with the crouch, but you then cancel the crouch animation with an attack. The timing is tricky though since you can't expect really fast and repeated jabs; it has a certain rhythym to it. You have to time the press down and the press of the A button. I can't really tell you the timing, so you will have to experiement to see just how fast you can use this.

An easier way to do this is to just hold crouch and away from the direction you are facing. So if you are facing east, hold southwest and vice versa. Ness should be crouching, but if you press the A button, he will not do the dtilt, but instead the normal A jab. So now all you have to time is the press of the A button. You don't have to time pressing down anymore, but you do have to hold that direction for all the time you do this.

Remember that you can also do the first two jabs then jab cancel. So you can jab jab then attack.

This can be used for constant and repeated first jabs as in the ones that start the combo. This means you can just jab jab jab and jab some more without ever completing the whole combo. It can be used for shield pressure, but Ness doesn't really need it since his dtilt serves the purpose of a really quick and weak attack. But do note that the initial jab has a bit more range than the dtilt.

Jab cancelling is best put to use for Ness by allowing him to jab jab then use another attack instead of that weak little kick. Your best options would probably be an usmash or a grab. So jab jab yo-yo or jab jab grab. If you use the crouching method of holding down, you can use the grab button to do the jab jab grab combo. Just press grab grab, then wait until Ness starts to crouch, then press grab again. Though the above two attack combos are the most effective, my most used combo is probably the jab jab ftilt because it is so easy. Do one jab, then hold diagonally down towards the opponent. After the first jab, do the second one in rapid succession, then after that punch, wait until Ness starts to crouch and just press A. It should automatically do an ftil, even though you are crouching.

You can also jab cancel during a jab lock to increase the speed you can repeatedly jab someone and keep them locked. It's also good when you have someone locked up against a wall.

Jab Lock
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIP7QY0anuw

Ahh... the jab lock. I LOVE this thing, even if it isn't the most universal technique out there. Ness is one of the lucky few to have a jab lock.

The jab lock is a TRUE combo, something rare in Brawl. It is inescapable should you perform it correctly, and can really rack up damage.

To do it, you must catch an opponent on the ground, lying down like when you hit them down. Then go up to them and do a SINGLE jab. After that jab, they will bounce up and move a bit. Walk forward just a little, then do another single jab. The opponent should bounce again. Just keep repeating this jab walk jab walk cycle to keep them bouncing. They can't get up! It's near infinite until higher percents, until the end of the stage, or until YOU mess up.

Be careful though. When being infinited, people mash buttons and jiggle the stick a lot attempting to escape. If you take too long of a time in between jabs, they will most likely roll away or attack you as they get up. Also, since they will be jiggling the control stick, they will be DIing away or behind you (yes behind you! You have to turn around). You can keep the lock up, just make sure you keep track of where they go. This can really throw you off.

This is a difficult tactic at first, but it becomes easier the more you do it. Just jab, press forward a bit, and be sure to let go before you jab again to make sure you don't use an ftilt. You also have to time it so that you don't use the double jab combo, so you cannot repeatedly jab as fast as possible. Prctice this first on computers since they won't DI during the lock, then try it on real people who go crazy with the DI.

Jab cancelling helps this also. It allows Ness to be able to do continuous standstill single jabs without having to move forward or wait too long. This is useful for if they DI towards you or if you want to jab a lot more and faster in place. This also gives Ness another option for finishing the jab lock as described below and a way to help with the walled semi-infinite (also described below).

Ness' jab lock is quite good really. He has ways to get people on the ground, and many attacks that help in the jab lock. He even has a second altrenative to his jab lock.

This alternative is his dtilt. The dtilt will work like a jab lock but only at higher percents like 100%. The dtilt doesn't push enemies as far away as the jab, and this is a good thing. The best part about this is it starts right when the normal jab lock ends. At around 100%, people are pushed far away from you when you jab lock, so start using the dtilt. A great part about the dtilt is that it has no timing. Unlike the jab, you don't have to move forward every time you hit and then wait a bit. You can just repeatedly dtilt without waiting, then follow them after a few, then do it again. You can usually fit in 3-5 dtilts in place without DI.

To jab lock, people must be on the ground. It can be hard to get them to land like that, so here are a few ways you can do it.

1. A low ground spike

2. A nair at around 40% will knock people on the stage down at a low angle. Be sure to have a little forward momentum to follow them as they land.

3. A sweetspotted fair at around 50% will have the same effect as above.

4. Short hop footstool to fair on the grounded opponent (see semi-lock attacks below to understand how the fair is used)

5. A sourspotted dsmash on fast falling characters. Works best on Wolf and Sonic. You can use the sourspot by charging the yo-yo a bit without hitting with the powerful swing.

6. On techable stages, try launching someone at the wall or roof and hope they don't tech. The best and most tournament legal stages to do this on are Luigi's mansion, Poke'mon stadium, and Isle delfino. On Luigi's mansion, try a uthrow, dthrow, or dash attack. On Poke'mon stadium, all of the above will work, or an fthrow (depending on the position of the water wheel). On isle delfino, use a nair or jab combo near a wall to make them bounce off of it and hit the floor.

Ness also has other attacks that work with the jab lock. These attacks keep opponents locked on the ground and set up for more jabs. It's hard to explain, so just see it this way. Jabs keep opponents bouncing on the ground, and there are some other attacks that Ness has that do this also, but in a limited way. These are useful for keeping enemies still to start a jab lock. Sometimes, you get someone on the ground, but you can't rush up to them in time and then stop in front of the to jab. These attacks can help you out, or just add more damage to the jab lock.

1. Ness' fair sourspotted. It's PERFECT for setting up the jab lock. You can knock someone onto the ground, then jump towards them using an fair as you land to ground cancel it. This will keep them still and you can then auto cancel the fair and start a jab lock. I was talking about the fair after footstools above. After you footstool someone (make sure it's a short hopped footstool!), drop down as fast as you can and use an fair as you land. You will lock them in the fair and then be able to jab lock.

2. Ftilt at VERY low percents. Only works once. You can lock someone with an ftilt to keep them grounded, then continue the jab lock like normal. Hardly works on lighter characters.

3. Nair to fair double shuffle. Someone is grounded and you double shuffle an nair, then use fair. Very cool looking, good damage, but hard and situational. This works only at VERY low percents at the beggining of a jab lock. Once you get to higher percents, this will not work at all as the opponent will get up when you nair them because of the knockback. This combo only works once.

Now since the jab lock has to end at some late point, you have to end it. But how can we end this?

1. The rest of the jab combo: This is easy and a decent way to finish it if you are near the edge. It will just push them away and off.

2. Ftilt: A very good option. Good knockback and speed, just enough to hit them during their stun time.

3. Dtilt: A great option since it leads into the dtilt lock. Builds up extra damage and could push the opponent off. They usually mash buttons so they may screw up their recovery when they are pushed off.

4. Quick dash attack: A decent option. It pops up the enemy for combos.

5. Usmash: Good option, but not for pushing people off the edge. Best suited for combos afterwards.

6. Fair: A great option. Just make sure you short hop the fair and use it as soon as you jump, not near the peak.

7. Nair: Probably the best option as it has great knockback and speed. Just do the same rules as the fair because you have to be fast!

There are creative and useful ways to abuse this on certain stages. On walk off stages, you can push people off the edge or keep them locked for a VERY long time if they try to DI away from the edge of the stage and behind you. So they either get locked longer and hit with a strong follow up, or pushed towards the edge of the stage then knocked off with the follow up. Remember to use the dtilt after high percents.

On a stage with walls, the jab lock goes on until high percents, and the dtilt jab lock goes on even LONGER. Semi infinite!!! Use the jab cancel to make jabbing at the wall faster since you do not have to walk anymore.

When either of these stage uses are about done, finish with the nair or ftilt for knocking the opponents away afterwards.

Dtilt Lock

I'm not sure why I didn't see this before.

This is NOT the same thing as the jab lock using the dtilt. Instead of using the heavy bounce animation that the jab lock uses, the dtilt lock uses a smaller bounce animation. The difference between these bounce animations is very noticable with Wolf, so try it on him. His small bounce just makes him twitch a bit on the floor, while his high bounce makes him jump off of it a good amount.

Like the jab lock, you must get an opponent on the ground. Then simply go up to them and rapid mash the dtilt.

This is different than the dtilt jab lock because it works at any percent BEFORE the dtilt jab lock would. Think of it this way: Ness' dtilt makes Wolf do his small bounce animation at any percent below 100. After 100%, Wolf bounces higher. This little animation actually makes a huge difference.

The small bounce animation has a very quick recovery time, meaning you cannot keep moving and chaining dtilts with this animation. When they start bouncing higher, then you can hit them repeatedly like a jab lock: hit move hit move hit move and so on.

Ness' dtilt is so amazingly fast that it CAN repeatedly hit an opponent in this animation without giving them a chance to stand up. It's completely inescapable and not counterable for as long as they are stuck in the low kicks. However, once they DI out of the dtilt fury, they WILL get up. There is nothing you can do to continue the lock, but it does mean lots of damage to grounded foes. The reason you cannot keep following them as they move is because of that quick getup time.

Now, you can use this whenver you could normally jab lock, but why would you need to? Well, here are a few reasons:

1. It's easy. Very easy compared to the real jab lock since you just stay still as you do it.

2. It produces good damage also. Maybe not as much as the basic jab lock under most curcumstances, but it racks up damage faster.

3. You don't have to move meaning you get all that damage in one spot. This is probably going to mean more damage on grounded opponents when you are near the edge.

4. It leads into the dtilt JAB lock! Say Wolf is at about 90%. Right now, the dtilt will not jab lock on its own, but it's almost there. Dtilt lock Wolf and he will eventually pass 100% making him experience his high bounce animation after a dtilt. THEN you can dtilt jab lock, as in follow his bouncing.

5. You can finish a basic jab lock with it. After a bunch of real jabs on an opponent, you may find yourself at the edge of the stage. Like I mentioned in the jab lock section, the dtilt lock is a great way to finish the jab lock because it racks up good damage.

If you play on a stage with walls and you manage to jab lock a guy up to the wall, you can stop jabbing and just go straight to the dtilts, no matter what their percntage is :)

Pummel Rhythm

Ness' grab pummel is pretty quick and repetetive. Some people just mash the grab or attack button asfast as thy can to get in quick damage before a throw. But did you know there is a certain rhythm to it that can make Ness pummel faster? I'm sure you've noticed this a few times. Ness will pummel slowly... thn all of a sudden at a very fast rate.

If you mash at the pummel button as quickly as you can, odds are you are not going to get as many pummels in as you can. But there's is a certain timing to your pressing to pummelling that will let you beat up your opponent as much as possible.

I can't really describe the timing to you, but try it out in training mode. If you grab someone then pummel as much as you can right after the grab, you usually get in about 4-5 grabs with plain mashing. But with the proper timing, you can get in 6. The ratios may change at higher percent or with opponent reaction.

Dealing With the Deathgrab :mad:

Ness (and Lucas) were screwed by Sakurai withone super gay glitch. Their grab release animations are extra long, longer than the animation the grabber experiences. It allows them to be regrabbed again and again while taking pummel damage in the process. You cannot jump break for the most part because pummels prevent that, forcing a ground grab break. This allows Ness to be grabbed again. :urg:

It can be infinite or painfull if not handeled correctly, but we are finding ways around it since it can be very fragile. It needs to have a quick pummel rate and it ends at the end of the stage (just like most chaingrabs).

It is possible to escape most characters deathgrab on Ness though, but there is still a problem with 2 characters (will be described in a bit).

Now, minus the two death characters, you can escape anyone elses deathgrab attempt by this method. First, DI back as you are grab released. All you have to do is hold back during the grab. After being released, you should slide back a bit farther than normal. After sliding back, time a spotdodge ASAP. It's a timing you need to figure out. Basically, hold back, hold shield, then when you are released, hit down while still holding shield. Do NOT roll! It's not fast enough.

Some characters have a very slow pummel rate (Ivysaur, Bowser, etc.). Thankfully, their slow pummel animations are one of the only things preventing Ness from being infinited. With these characters, just attempt a grab break as quickly as you can. Since they pummel so slow, you have the ability to jump break in between their pummels. Use the super grab break described below.

Now there are 2 death characters meaning if they grab you, you WILL get hurt. They can grab you and pummel you to death pretty badly because they hardly move anywhere during their deathgrab. They pummel too fast to jump break and their grabs are too long distance and quick to spotdodge out of. They are Marth and Charizard. So really watch out for these two. Especially Marth. Charizard has a harder time grabbing you and is a generally better matchup for Ness than Marth. They hardly move at all, but after a certain percent, you move very slightly forward with every grab break. Before that, it's a standstill pain combo.

So how can we deal with the TRUE deathgrab? Well, here are some tips.

Stage counterpicking. DO IT! It's probably the safest thing to do. Great stages are ones that shapeshift, have hazards, small platforms to fall off of, or slants. Here are some reccommendations.

Pirate Ship: Slants, canonballs may save you also, but the slants are the best part.
Corneria: Super slanted, just one thing. AVOID GETTING UNDER THE BACK FIN AT ALL COSTS!!!
Norfair: The platforms here are so tiny that the deathgrab shouldn't hurt you too much before you fall off.
Onnett: Ness' home is safe because the cars come often and rescue you.
Poke'mon Stadium 2: Shifting stages can really help. Ice formation, electricity formation, earth formation, they all help. Just make sure you don't get wall trapped on the earth formation. I don't think the wind formation helps at all.

And remember, avoid wall stages at ALL costs. If you are pinned up against the wall, your only hope is for your opponent to screw up. Avoid walk-off stages also since you can get deathgrabbed to the ends of the earth, and avoid long stages also like Final Destination.

Another tip is to camp by the edge. Just stay there and make sure if you are grabbed, you are facing TOWARDS the stage with your back off the edge and the grabber facing the edge. If you stay there, you should be able to escape in a short while since you will be slowly creeping towards the edge.

Use the super grab break. It TREMENDOUSLY helps. You take much less damage and gain the distance you need to reach the edge of the stage much quicker.

While you are trying to escape, hold down the shield button the whole time while tapping DOWN on the C-stick. This makes you shield as soon as possible when you are released. Now on someone who deathgrabs correctly, the shield will NOT come out and you will be grabbed again, but this means that if they time their grab wrong at all, you CAN shield. You then have to spotdodge, but timng that with the control stick may be hardsince you were just spinning it around like crazy. If you tap down repeatedly on the C-stick, it will make you spotdodge as when you shield instantly allowing you to escape! But remember, this is only if they screw up the timing a bit.

Jump breaks now...
It's normally impossible to do a jump break if Marth or Charizard pummel quick enough, but if they take one break, that's your chance. Should you escape during that time frame (should be easy with the super grab break), you WILL jump break guaranteed. This is because Marth and Charizard are so tall and Ness' feet don't touch the ground after being released. So yeah, try to break out fast and if you do, realize that it will be a jump break ad play it safe.

Now a generous Marth player backed us up here. I'll quote him.

I posted this in the Lucas forums too...

This is known among some but not to all so I'll clarify some common misconceptions.

Everyone knows about the grab release Marth has on Lucas and Ness... here lies my problem:

• Lucas and Ness are lifted off the ground when Marth grabs them... that means that the release will ALWAYS be a jump break... UNLESS the break happens while lucas/ness is getting grab attacked. This will force a ground break. So if you get grabbed, don't worry about hitting the jump button it has nothing to do with doing a jump break, just spam.

• If Lucas/Ness jump break, then you guys have no problem you can jump away air dodge lots of options.

• If it's a ground break, Marth can grab again, but ONLY if you stand right in front of him. This means, While you're being grabbed always DI back with the analog, so if you do ground break you can break away from him.

• If the Marth is fast enough, he can dash grab and do this again. However, there are two limitations to this.
- One is the fact that he's spamming grab attack to force the ground break and minimize the chance of a jump break. This means when you do ground break his shield automatically comes up from spamming Z or R + A, and the frames to lower the shield and try a dash grab is enough for Lucas and Ness to escape. It is humanly impossible to react fast enough because your button input to do the next grab attack is in when the break happens.
- The second is that if you're near the edge, you'll just DI off and grab the ledge. So play near the edges. Your b-throw will kill at lower percents, and your both not bad off the edge.

• If the Marth grab attacks slow enough, however, he can react fast enough to do the dash grab. However, if he isn't doing the grab attack fast enough, the chances to do a jump break GREATLY increases.

Pretty much, you can get out either way. It's unreliable for Marth and not worth forcing, as it was before.

A lot of people think you have to hit jump to do the jump escape, or that Marth can continue with the dash grab. But I've tested this a lot as the Lucas/Ness player and the Marth, and I'm convinced this doesn't work.
All in all, it's not a very big problem in my opinion. Seriously, with stage counterpicking, super grab breaking, carefulness, and just the fact that humans make mistakes (by humans I mean those cheap deathgrabbers), the deathgrab just isn't something too bad. I've experienced it and I feel like I can still play. It's bad of course, but it's not as bad as some people think. It's not just "don't get grabbed," it's "don't get grabbed from the left side of FD facing right" as said by Ademisk.

And hey! One more thing. Don't just apply this to Marth and Charizard, use this on ANYONE who tries to do those annoying deathgrabs.

Super Grab Break

Thanks again to Ref for this. You can always rely on him for new stuff.

This is AMAZINGLY useful. It heavily decreases the amount of damage you take from a deathgrab, maximizes your distance, and can support surprise breaks. You may get grab released earlier than the opponent may expect and they may mess up with the next grab or pummelling.

Now remember the science behind grab breaks. Every button press makes you get closer to the grab break, and so does every rotation of the control stick. The C-stick really helps for some reason also, probably because it is inputting 2 commands at once.

To do it, have the C-stick set to specials or smashes (tilts may also work). Now rapidly spin the control stick smoothly, and tap the C-stick repeatedly. Remember to let the C-stick go back to the neutral position. I reccommend flicking the C-stick. If you B-stick (and probably if you tilt also), you have to smash the stick to maximize the effect.

Spin control stick and flick C-stick, got it?

And remember to use this even outside of the deathgrab. It could make people overestimate how long they can pummel you and allow you to escape a throw.

Dash Mechanics

The dash mechanics in Brawl are very intriguing. They all work together and can blend into one another so well that these techniques had to be all put all together at once. They almost all lead into one another.

Stutter Step

Pretty simple and easy to do. All this does is add a pinch of range to Ness' fsmash. Can be used for spacing or increasing the range of Ness' bat.

To do this, just dash one way. Right when you dash, perform a smash. Ness should step in one direction about the size of his shoe and fsmash. The smash should be performed very quickly after you move.

This can be done two ways. You can step forward and smash forward, or step back and smash forward. It's very easy to step and smash in the same direction. You can just tap forward, wait a split second, then press A. To step back and smash forward, you can tap back, then quickly press forward and A. The easiest way to do this is to do this is use the C-stick to smash.

Forwards of course adds range, and backwards can be used for helping sweetspot. That little distance you move oculd be the difference between w 90% killing tipper and a 120% killing sourspot.

This can even lead to a dash attack if you use a quick dash attack (AT abbreviation QDA).

Foxtrot

This is using your initial dash animation repeatedly to move. You dash, let go of the stick, and dash again repeatedly.

To do this, start your dash animation, and right when it ends, tap the stick again.

This is mainly used for leading into pivot smashes, true pivots, and stutter stepped moves. This whole section covers these.

Pivot Cancel

Dash one way then skid backwards to turn around. If you hold back for the perfect amount of time then quickly release the stick, Ness can go directly into a basic standing animation. Then you can do any attack you like.

The timing for this can be tricky. You want to skid backwards then release the stick right when Ness is removing his hand from the ground.

An easier way to do this is to just use an attack directly out of the skid animation. Easy to use the fsmash and PKF, but you can do any attack including the jab if you want. It eve works with shields, jumps, and ANOTHER dash animation $_$

This is useful to trick opponents into thinking that you are vulnerable when you turn around. There is so much you can do out of the dash pivot. And since you can dash again out of the skid, it's easy to work this into your dash mechanics sandwich.

Dash Pivot Cancel

During a dash, you can reverse your direction and you will perform a long skid animation. During this time, you can do certain things. You can attack or start another dash in the opposite direction you are turning.

Since you can start another dash animation during a skid, this can lead into true pivots, pivot smashes, or stutter steps.

The most pronounced effect of this is when you skid in one direction, and time a fsmash in the opposite direction perfectly. This is what happens:

Ness dashes one way
He skids to turn around
He turns around again during the skid to fsmash
He slides BACKWARDS while he does the smash.

This can be hard to do sometimes, Easily done with the C-stick smashes. Dash forward,skid backwards, and tap the C-stick in the direction you wanna slide.

Even if you fail to slide, you can at least a regular pivot cancel. Useful for mindgames and landing the slow bat.

Dash Dance

Press left right left right repeatedly very quickly to dash one way, then dash the other way over and over again.

Since this involves the starting animations of dashes, again, this can be lead into pivot smashes, true pivots, and stutter steps.

Alone, it is usedfor mindgames. You can fake out running towards people, turn arorund, and then dash at them later. It also turns Ness around allowing him to use aerials facing the opposite way.

Like I said, aerials are useable right out of a dash dance, and so are forward smashes and quick dash attacks!

True Pivot

A true pivot lets you use a starting dash animation one way and perform any attack in the opposite direction. This can be used to dash away to dodge an attack then counter.

To do it, do a starting dash animation and foxtrot to start a second dash animation right when the first one ends. But before you actually get going, hit the stick in the opposite direction you are dashing and perform any move.

Useful for defense and counters and again, landing the all powerful bat tipper since it spaces you well. This also works magnificently with the quick dash attack. It has more speed and range than the bat and sets up for stuff. Use this for when the bat won't reach or when it is too slow.

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Man, these dash tactics can be so useful for landing the fsmash! But don't limit it to just that!

There is so much you can do when you combine all of these. You have to experiment with them and use them to their fullest potential.

They are great for mindgames, and it helps with spacing and landing the fsmash whenever you want to out of a dash. Here are some specific ways you can utilize this.

PK Fire to fsmash

Sometimes landing an fsmash after a PKF can be hard because you have to be right next to them to land the bat. You can walk up to them and smash, but sometimes they DI out and escape before you can hit them. Don't you wish you could run up to them and smash? Well, you can! PKF has such a range that the pivot smash has perfect range to land a tipper.

Use PKF, dash forward, release the stick, and right when the dash animation ends, fsmash!

Fsmash anywhere out of dash

Link misses his usmash a good distance away from you and you wanna punish him with a bat. So, the quickest way to do this is to dash up to him and use a pivot cancel or a dash pivot cancel. You won't have to stop and them smash.

PK Pivot anywhere out of dash

PK Pivot is a useful and easy technique explained in another section. To do it, you must use the starting dash animation. Since Foxtrotting lets you repeatedly use them with any spacing, you can now PK Pivot universally. Check out the PK Pivot section for instructions.

Easier true pivot
I call this Bat pivot since I use it a lot and it's easier to say.

Doing a true pivot can be hard sometimes, so I found an easier way tp true pivot an fsmash. Dash one way, then when the first dash animation ends, start another dash animation. Right when it starts, turn it into a quick dash dance to turn around, and then stutter step an fsmash to smash where you were a while ago. Hard to understand? es I know, but hopefully this diagram can help.

N = Ness
_____= Ground
---> = Ness' dash
X = Smash

1. Start a dash animation one way
_____N------->____

2. When it ends, start another dash animation.
____________N>__

3. Before you really move anywhere, turn it into a one turn dash dance to flip your direction
_____________<N_

4. Stutter step in the direction you are facing and fsmash!
___________X<N__

The timing is a bit tricky, but it's VERY useful for, again, dodging and countering.

Pivot cancel mindgames

If you skid in front of someone, they might think "Oh, he's vulnerable! HAMMERTIME!"
But what happens when you know what you're are doing? A bat ends up in their face. Oh yesh.

You can also skid away from them, the perform a pivot smash in their direction!

General combination

Just think about how each of these work and you can find your own ways to use this.

Stutter stepping and dash dancing can be done with any dash animation before you move very far.
The starting dash animation leads into fox trotting and pivots.
The starting dash animations end leads into stutter steps, dash dances, and more starting dash animations.
Dash dances lead into stutter steps.
Pivot cancels lead into stutter steps, dash dances, starting dash animations, and foxtrots.
Foxtrotting leads into all of this.

Hilldash

Ness' double jump is so unique that it gives him an interesting ability to psuedo-wavedash.

This only works on failry steep hills though, and it only works going up it. However, it moves Ness up the hill quickly and laglessly allowing you to use any attack you want out of a moving standing position meaning it can have almost all of the uses of a wavedash in Melee.

To do it, approach a steep hill. Hold forward and jump and double jump immediately. Ness shouldn't rise up at all, but you will see the little circualr sparkles of the double jump and Ness will slide up the hill.

So like I said, this could be like a Melee wavedash with a few limits (though very large). You can slide up to someone and use the bat, dsmash, or any tilt. Normally, you cannot use any of those attacks out of a dash, so this is a good option.

This works well on Yoshi's Island from Melee and Corneria. This can also work on steep slopes that appear on certain occasion like Pirate Ship (hit a rock) or Pictochat (large thick lines).

It's not too useful, but it could help.

Double Jump Ledgestall

This is a safer alternative to the PKT ledgestall that doesn't involve PKT at all. It can only be done on certain stages.

Try it on Final Destination first, it works there. Drop down from the ledge, then double jump under it. Not completely under the level, just under the ledge. Normally, you would hit your head on the roof and fall, but if you use an aerial or an airdodge, you will stall under the lip. Now during that stall time, if you DI back, you will move back to the ledge and regrab it.

It's kinda hard at first, so try with the fair first, its the easiest. The dair is the hardest.

This can be used as a safer ledgestall since you won't get hit by recovery moves down there, and you can still use PKT2 to recover if you miss the edge or you get edgehogged. It can also be used to punish wall clingers, and with the airdodge, it's very safe from attacks, even aerials from behind.

Lik I said, it's stage specific. It has to be on a stage with a roof under the ledge. An example is Lylat Cruise or Pokemon Stadium (classic). On certain stages with very thin ledges, some aerials will even go through the floor and hit opponents on top! Cool!

Angled Ftilt

Ever since Super Smash Bros. 64, Ness has been able to change the angle of his ftilt. His ftilt, a spin kick, can be directed upwards or downwards rather than straight forward like normal.

Doing this is simple. Just press forward and diagonally in the vertical direction you wish to kick in. If you wanna kick up, diagonally up, and the same goes for downwards.

The main uses of this are obivious: the direction you want to attack in. They are high up, go upwards. They are low down go downwards, but there aare some other differences and uses as well.

The damage done by each direction is different. Upwards does the most at 12%; Fowards does less at 11% while the downwards kick does the lest dealing only 10%.

Forward has the most horizontal range. If you want to hit forward, this will usually do the trick as it has the most range in front of Ness. It's also easiest to do.

The downwards kick can trip if you hit with the edge. It also makes a decent edgeguard. It hits low to get people coming up to the ledge and can outrange sweetspot ranges. If your opponents can duck under your attacks sometimes (Like Sheik and Kirby), you can use the downwards kick to hit them. You can even shield stab certain chcaracters with this. Ususally the most exposed part of the character when they shield is their feet. So poking at the opponent down there could help. Also, one more thing: Ness can use a downwards kick while he crouches. You can now stay completely still and be ready to ftilt whenever you need to. Just crouch and hold forward a bit. Press A and you'll ftilt every time. More useful than the dtilt if you want knockback. This helps to do repeated ftilts without moving at all. Thisalso prevents tripping since you will not walk.

The upwards kick is useful for combos and damage. It does the most and can be used with any attack that pops enemies upwards (and Ness has a lot of those). These attacks include the utilt, dash attack, and aerials. It also has the most vertical range.

Dsmash Effectiveness Character List

Ness' dsmash can act wierd on certina characters. This isn't a technique section, but it's something for informational purposes.

The was Ness' dsmash works is he swings the yo-yo out behind him first. As it goes back, it has a very weak, set knockback hitbox. This hitbox is the same one that is used when charging. So charging the dsmash is actually just extending the first hitbox that comes out. The knockback is used to set people up for th stronger hit, charged or not.

Now when it begins to swing back (actually, a little before it swings back if you don't charge it), the hitbox changes into that strong knockback hitbox that we all want to hit with. So the weak hitbox appears first to set up for the second hitbox.

A simple way to use the dsmash is quick and uncharged. People use it to hit behind them a lot, so it is good for hitting opponents behind you. The strong hitbox almost always connect after the weak one, BUT, on certain characters, this is not the case.

For these characters, when hit with an uncharged dsmash from behind, they take the weak hitbox, then fly over Ness avoiding the sweetspot. You can almost never use an unchargd dsmash on them and land both hits. Here are the characters:

Link
Sheik
Bowser
Ganondorf
King Dedede
Wolf
Sonic

As to why it doesn't work on them, I have no clue.

A lot of the smaller characters (this includes Mario) can also get a similar effect to this if you either use the dsmash on them when they are too close to Ness' back, or if they are far enough to get hit with the weak hitbox RIGHT when it changes.

Do not think that the dsmash is useless though, even on the above characters. All it takes to solve the problem is to charge the dsmash a bit. They will fly up, so wait for them to come down. Right when they are in the range of the sweetspot, release the charge and hit them hard.

You can also hit with the very edge of the dsmash from behind on these characters. Like I said earlier, the strong hitbox actually appears a bit before the yo-yo swings forward, and it can sweetspot even while going backwards with proper spacing. So, move forward a bit and let her rip!

And one more thing to take into account is opponents reaction. The way the opponents DIs and what actions they take after they get smashed could change results, even on the characters who aren't hurt by both hits.

Using the Usmash

The usmash is such a wonderful smash. I think it is highly underrated. There is so much you can do with it! It sets up, it hits twice, it punishes spot dodges, it's quick, it has good range, it blocks attacks, and more! There are many tactics to this, but that will be saved for another section.

This will give you tips on using the usmash effectively.

Hyphen Smash

This is basically using the usmash out of a dash. Simply dash and use an usmash during the dash to instantly stop dashing and use the yo-yo. You maintain a bit of the dash momentum. Very useful for when you charge the yo-yo.

This can be used for the ledge yo-yo technique. It gets the yo-yo to hang very far down on the ledge, and exalts the yo-yo spike, the coolest spike in the game :chuckle:

Reverse Hyphen Smash

This is essentially the same as the regular hyphen smash only one difference: Ness turns around as he performs this maneuver.

Ness can probably put this technique to use better than any other character in the game. This is because of his ability to charge his yo-yo (yet again).

This is how you do it with the basic controls.

Run forward
Tap back
Jump
Press up and A

The steps after the first one must be done in very rapid succession. You will twist the stick from the side to the top very quickly as you jump and press A. If you have tap jump on, you do not need to press a jump button. If you do not, you have to press back, then a jump button, and then do an usmash.

If you are like me and you B-stick, there is a very easy way to do this. Run forward, tap the C-stick backwards to auto-RAR, and press X then up and A in rapid succession.

The reason this is possible because you are actually jump cancelling a RAR. You are really doing a RAR, but using the usmash right before you take off, allowing Ness to turn around and smash.

How is this useful? well first of all, think about what I said earlier. This is particularly useful for Ness because of the charging ability of the yo-yo. This is good for punishing people who roll behind you when you approach. You run up to them, they roll behind you, but then you use a reverse hyphen smash and charge the yo-yo. THey lose their invincibility frames and they get hit by your charging yo-yo. Refer back to that RAR diagram of the fair, only replace the fair with a usmash.

Also, remember how Ness' usmash is unique with the way its hitbox moves. It hits in fron of him first, then goes behind him. This can be used for mindgames and creatively hitting with a particular hitbox. Imagine you running up to someone and doing this. They shield and you use the usmash the other way completely missing them. They think "He missed! Now i can counter!" and you swing the yo-yo back to hit them.

Usmash Out of Shield

Normally, shieldgrabbing is a natural option for Ness players because of Ness' amazing throws. However, his short arms cannot always help you out. Instead, you can use the longer ranged usmash, which sets up for attacks just as nicely.

Now a little thing to note. This is NOT the same as letting go of your shield and then performing a usmash. This is done DIRECTLY out of shield and you do not have to release the shield button to do this. If you do try to release the shield then usmash, you experience a bit of lag when you deactivate the shield.

The easiest way to do this is with tap jump on. Simply shield, press up and a split second afterward, press A. Input the directions above very close together,but not at the same time.

Without tap jump, you have to press a jump button. So using X, you have to shield, press X, then up and A at the same time. X (or whatever your jump button is) has to come first, then you do an usmash like normal.

__________________________________________________

Ness' usmash is so wonderful. Use these to make you love the usmash more and be able to use it more fluidly.

BTW, jump cancelling the usmash is starting a jump animation then cancelling it into a usmash. This was programmed into the game so that you could use the usmash easier without the worry of you accidentally jumping first.

Jump cancelling is used in the reverse hyphen smash and the usmash out of shield. A turn around during a dash and shield can only be cancelled by a jump, and the jump can be cancelled by the usmash. Get it? No? Well who cares. As long as you can do it, you don't need to understand the science :p

Charging the Usmash

Ness' usmash and dsmash are very unique. Unlike other smashes, they do not become more powerful when you charge them. That sucks right? WRONG!
Instead of increasing in power, his yo-yo smashes extend their hitbox duration. That means it hurts people while it charges, and since you can charge smashes for a very long time, Ness has some of the longest lasting smashes in the game. Very useful in many ways.

After the charge hitbox hits something, it cannot hurt that one opject anymore, at least with the charge hitbox. So should you hit someone and they don't get hurt by it (shield, clash attacks, etc.) you have to release the charge to hit them again.

Here's a little tip also. Since the yo-yos last so long, they re great for punishing invicilbility frames like in a spotdodge. Just charge it on them and you will hurt them as soon as their invincibility wears off. THis also works great on Pokemon Trainer when he swaps Pokemon, Zelda or Sheik when they transform, or Samus if she decides to chage into Zero Suit Samus using taunts. This is a main component of the ledge yo-yo.

Yo-yo Shielding

Ness' yo-yo charge can block attacks for him then counter all on its own. Pretty nifty huh? It's like a cooler but more difficult version of all those counet specials.

To do it, you must obviously charge your yo-yo. Now when someone attaacks it, they will clink with it and then stop. When they stop, they will probably push your yo-yo towards you. Now quickly after they hit the yo-yo release it. The yo-yo will sling back out at them and hit them. This is very useful on dash attacks and ledge attacks.

This can also block many projectiles like fireballs, PK Fire, boomerangs, bombs, gyros, and more! After blocking a projectile, you have two options that would benefit you. You can keep charging the yo-yo if you know your opponent will approach, then release it as they get closer to hit them. You can also release the charge as soon as you block the projectile to avoid punishment.

Credit to Uffe for the great list of what Ness' usmash will block. Dsmash was not tested, but has more power than the usmash and should produce similar effects, if not better.

Yo-yo + Fireball = Canceled Fireball
Yo-yo + Turnip = Canceled Turnip
Yo-yo + Banana = Canceled Yo-yo (The banana goes through causing Ness to slip)
Yo-yo + Peanut = Canceled Peanut (May drop peanuts for health)
Yo-yo + Egg = Canceled Egg
Yo-yo + Egg Roll = Canceled Egg Roll
Yo-yo + Arrow = Canceled Arrow
Yo-yo + Bombs = Canceled Yo-yo (Ness takes damage)
Yo-yo + Boomerang = Canceled Boomerang
Yo-yo + Needles = Canceled Yo-yo
Yo-yo + Homing Missile = Canceled Homing Missile (Must be timed correctly)
Yo-yo + Super Missile = Canceled Super Missile (Must be timed correctly)
Yo-yo + Charged Shot = Canceled Yo-yo
Yo-yo + Bombs = Canceled Bombs
Yo-yo + Laser = Canceled Yo-yo
Yo-yo + Gyro = Canceled Gyro
Yo-yo + Final Cutter = Canceled Yo-yo (From behind, the yo-yo cancels Final Cutter)
Yo-yo + Mach Tornado = Canceled Mach Tornado (Sometimes cancels the yo-yo)
Yo-yo + Sword Drill = Canceled Yo-yo/Sword Drill (It might depend on who brought out the attack first)
Yo-yo + Waddle Dee/Doo = Canceled Waddle Dee/Doo
Yo-yo + Pikmin = Canceled Pikmin
Yo-yo + Thunder Jolt = Canceled Thunder Jolt
Yo-yo + Shell Roll = Canceled Shell Roll (This causes Squirtle to go the other direction)
Yo-yo + Razor Leaf = Cancelled Razor Leaf
Yo-yo + Aura Sphere = Canceled Aura Sphere (The higher percent Lucario has, the harder it is to cancel)
Yo-yo + Rollout = Canceled Rollout
Yo-yo + PK Thunder = Canceled PK Thunder (This obviously needs to be timed)
Yo-yo + PK Jibaku = Canceled ?
Yo-yo + PK Fire = Canceled PK Fire
Yo-yo + Yo-yo = Nothing (One yo-yo is knocked back and the other makes a full circle)
Yo-yo + Psy Burst = Anything goes (If the yo-yo hits Lucas first, he takes damage. If the yo-yo is near Lucas but doesn't hit him, Ness may possibly take damage)
Yo-yo + Sausage/Fish = Canceled Sausage/Fish
Yo-yo + Pump = Canceled Pump
Yo-yo + Manhole = Canceled Manhole
Yo-yo + Grenade = Anything (The yo-yo goes a full circle and the Grenade falls back slightly)
Yo-yo + Nikita = Canceled Nikita (The missile from the Nikita flies upward. This requires timing)
Yo-yo + Air Spin = Canceled Air Spin (This requires perfect timing. You're better off using another attack)
Yo-yo Shield Stabbing

Ness' yo-yo smashes are great options on shields. Simply charging it up on one is a very good option.

They shield stab which is attacking and hurting someone even when they have their shield up. This works better the weaker their shield is. This is because after getting weaker, the shield leaves part of the opponents' hitbox exposed. Since Ness' yo-yo smashes last so long and stay in that one place, it can really pierce defenses.

This is great for pressuring shields also. It severley weakens them since they cannot do much. If they put down their shield, release the charge and you will hit them. If they spot dodge, keep charging, and release when they are done. If the roll behind you, hit them with the back swing. The best option for them would be to power shield then roll away, but that shouldn't happen too much.

Ledge Yo-yo

This is very useful for opponents hanging on the ledge. It gets them almost all of the time. All this is is charging the yo-yo so that the circle sits on the edge. This waits out their invincibility framesso that they are pressured to take quick action. Here are their options:

Get up-Keep charging
Ledge attack-Yo-yo shield. Clink with their attack then release the charge. Sometimes, you just take prioirty.
Roll-Release charge and hit with the backswing.
Jump-Keep charging.
Drop off-Most people will do this, and there is nothing you can do for the most part, unless they are a huge character. There is something you can do to prevet this though which is explained below.

This is more easy and reliable with the usmash, but the dsmash has more power.

Hanging

This really helps the ledge yo-yo maneuver. What you have to do is dash at the edge and use a hyphen usmash with the right spacing. If you do it right, you will slide as you charge your yo-yo and start to charge it off the edge. It will hang just below it.

This isn't really useful for preventing sweetspotting since most characters can use their recoveries and sweetspot the edge right through the yo-yo. However, it does prevent double jumping up to the ledge since you cannot sweetspot the edge out of a double jump. Also, certain characters cannot sweetspot the ede with their recovery moves like Snake and Wario. This will work great on them.

Like I said eariler, this helps with ledge yo-yo. When you hang the yo-yo, it drops low enough below the ledge to hit people even if they drop off. This provides a counter for another option that opponents have on the ledge, but sometimes eliminates another option depending on your spacing. Sometimes, this will allow ledge attacks to hit Ness. You have to guess what they will do at this point. You can either stop ledgedropping or ledge attacking.

Yo-yo spike
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJHtfk8gK1U

This is by far the s3xiest spike in the entire game. If anyone says that Ganon or Falco has the best spike in the game, say no because Ness does with his yo-yo.

Anyways, this is done using the usmash. In truth, it's not a true spike, but rather a stage spike. The usmash's charge hitbox pops people upwards, so hitting someone on the ledge can pop them upwards into the ledge and make them bounce ownwards to their doom.

This is hard to do, but oh so satisfying. To do it, you must use a ledge yo-yo. If you are lucky, your opponent will get hit by it. If they wait too long, they will get hit. This usually doesn't happen, but if they ledgedrop, which many people do often, the the yo-yo spike is possible. Take into account their DI too. Wrong DI could lead to yo-yo spikes even outside these conditions.

Since this is a stage spike, this will only work on solid stage, mainly ones shaped like Final Destination, Battlefield, and Smashville (yay for neutral stages! :) ). this means no Pirate Ship or Delfino Plaza (boo for Ness' good stages! :mad: )

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Use Ness' yo-yos more. I think they are awesome smashes, especially that usmash. Charging them is too useful in my opinion, and the ledge yo-yo is such a delicious option.

Quick Dash Attack

Ness has a very good dash attack. Great range, many hits, sets up for things, and it's disjointed. You could almost call this a projectile. It can even semi-spike with the early sparks. Why not use it?

A very good way to use the dash attack is with the quick dash attack. It allows you to pull off a dash attack out of a standing animation instantaneously. Normally, you have to wait a while after pressing forward to use the dash attack because pressing A too early will result in a stutter stepped bat. If you use the quick dash attack, you can use the dash attack whenever you want. You can short hop an aerial, land, and follow up with the dash attack.

To do this, tap a direction very quickly on the control stick then press A. You MUST release the direction you press the control stick in very quickly, otherwise, you may stutter step instead.

This can be done by pressing either forward, diagonally upwards, or diagonally downwards, but I find diagonally downwards to be the easiest. If you use forward, you must release the stick very quickly, faster than any other direction, otherwise, you mas stutter step an fsmash. The up may cause you to jump if you have tap jump on, or maybe do an usmash since you CAN usmash out of a dash. But since you cannot dsmash out of a dash or stutter step by pressing down, diagonally downwards can lead to the best results.

You can also do this by dashing and doing a quick dsmash. Easiest with the C-stick, and harder, but possible with the control stick alone. I prefer tapping the stick though since it feels more natural.

Also, you do not have to face the direction you wish to use the QDA in. You can face left and use one moving right.

A very good use for this is with the dash mechanics and jab locking.

With the dash dance, you can use the QDA any time you want and play with your opponents' mind. Also, with true pivoting, you can use the QDA instead of the bat or any other move you choose. This is helpful because the bat has less range and speed than the dash attack, so when punishing longer ranged and shorter lag attacks like Marth's fsmash, a QDA will most likely be the better option. It's also faster than PKF.

In a jab lock, the QDA is the only way to connect a dash attack when the lock is done.

Ledgedashattack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml56MRBZ-BQ

Did you know Ness' dash attack can semi-spike? Yes, it can; during the first two sparks of his 3 spark fury.

You can do this by hitting someone off the edge with the sparks. Now how exactly can you do this for an edgeguard? With ledgedashattacking of course! Ness is one of the characters who can put this to use the best.

Ledgedashattacking allows a character that is teetering on the edge to instantly dash forward without actually going anywhere, but only complete the starting dash animation. So while standing at the edge, you can do little standstill dashes.

Since you can start a dash animation by the edge, you can even do a dash attack! To do this, first, teeter off the edge. Then, do a quick dash attack by quickly tapping the stick towards the edge, most effectively by tapping diagonally downwards. You should do a little starting dash animation. At this time, press A to shoot the sparkles off the stage to hit opponents. Remember, you have to tap the stick and let go of it fairly quickly.

As I said earlier, this can semi-spike with the first two sparkles, completely throwing off opponents. It's good range also makes it good to shoot off stage. Even if you don't hit with the first two sparks only, the third on will pop the opponent above Ness where he can follow up with an aerial, likely an uair.

Ness' dash attack is also failry lagless. You can repeat many dash attacks on the edge with this just in case you miss.

Ledgespike
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtrHdz8Lq2s

Apparently, ledge actions are NOT completely associated with full invulnerability frames in Brawl. None of them, rolls, attacks, standups, jumps, nothing. There is a point of vulnerability right in the beggining of it.

What does this mean? A well timed spike as shown in the video will send opponents plummetting to their doom humiliatingly. But the timing is strict, so predict your opponents ledge action.

Actually, any attack will work, but spikes are the most rewarding. Try it.

Shieldgrab

Another very important technique for Ness. This is a must for anyone who wants to use Ness seriously.

Shieldgrabbing has been aroundsince forever since grabbing is shielding and attacking (both have obviously are old as dirt). TO shield grab, all you must do is shield, then press either the grab button or the attack button. This allows you to shield then quickly grab right out of it.

Since Ness has GODLY throws, he needs to grab a lot, and once you master this, you will be grabbing more than ever.

This is great for blocking an attack and then countering it during the lag. If you slide too far from your opponent to grab them, you have to release the shield, dash, and do a dash grab, but it will still produce a similar effect.

Reverse Grab

A reverse grab is a quick turn aroundduring a dash that makes you grab when done. You can dash left, and then turn around and grab instantly, stopping your dash.

To do it, dash one way, then tap backwards and press grab at the same time.

Ness can put this to very good use for 2 main reasons: his throws and his dash grab animation.

Ness bthrow is a very powerful move as you probably already know. Using a reverse grab can get you to put your back towards the blastzone leading to easier kills. His fthrow can alswork well with this since it can easily get opponents off the stage and setup for edgeguarding or even a spike.

Ness also does a wavedash like movement during his dashgrab. It's usually good and adds range to the grab, but occasionally puts you PAST the enemy. You can avoid this with a reverse grab as it stops Ness completely.

Ledgedrop

A very good option on the ledge since Melee. Ledgedropping is, while hanging in the ledge of course, pressing down or back to drop off, then double jumping. This is much more effective than doing normal ledge jumps and using ledge attacks.

One good way to use this is to get up ff the edge safely. Do a rising fair and you will almost always get back on safely, that is, if you use it in the right situations. Ness' fair has awesome priority and range that it provides the perfect defense. You can even do another fair as you come down, or any other aerial minus the dair.

This technique is also a major part of ledgefire and reverse ledgefire moves since they are done with a double jump off the edge. It also makes up the offensive PKT ledgestall.

You can also use this for edgeguarding. You can attempt to edgehog someone and then use a bair if they try to hit you.

This provides a very effective method for spiking. Again, hang on the egdg, and when someone tries to make their recovery path cross Ness, drop down, double jump, and do a rising dair. The timing can be tricky, and you have to use the jump a little late, but it's very useful. I spike many people like this.

You can even airdodge out of it to stay invincible and make it back onto the level safely.

This of course, works with any aerial you choose. Whatever aerial suits your situation would be good. If someone is overy you, you canuse the uair, andif you want to get people away from you, a nair will also work.

After you jump off, you don't have to get back onto the stage either. You can drop back onto the ledge again if you need to for safety.

Ledgecrawl

Okay, try to do a normal ledgejump. Now after jumping, press B. Ness will stop rising from the ledgejump and use PK Flash. Now, try again, but try to do it as close to the start of the jump as possible. If you time it right, Ness can use PK Flash off the edge almost immediately after getting up off of it. It will look like he doesn't even leave the ground.

This getting up onto the stage from the ledge and then using a special is called ledgecrawling. You can use PSI Magnet and PK Thunder also.

Say someone jumps around the ledge trying to spike you. If you ledgecrawl a PK Flash or thunder, you can immediately get up and counter with a move! There are a few reasons as to do this rather than a ledgehopped aerial.

Ledgedrops risk Ness of getting hit since he has to approach the opponent. PK Flash and thunder have range and keep Ness right by the ledge. It also is a safer option than the ledgedrop because it's faster. You have to wait a while on the ledge before you can ledgedrop, and when you do ledgedrop, remember what you are doing: you are dropping off the ledge then jumping back on. So if you are hit out of this, you will lose your second jump for recovery and be hurt badly! If you do a basic ledgejump, you are at less of a risk of being hit off since you will not bewasting your second jump, and you will not be dropping below the ledge.

PSI Magnet is a good optionfor just getting back up quickly without having to do a ledge attack or pull yourself up normally. After 100%, ledge attacks and climbing back up takes forever. Ledgecrawling a PSI Magnet is faster if you deactivate it as quickly as possible. You can edgehog someone, but then they decide to land on the stage. You want to get up as quickly as possible to punish them upon landing. The quickest get would be the ledgecrawled PSI Magnet. Also, there's the very obvious use for healing. Say Lucario is charging up aura sphere facing the edge. You can ledgecrawl PSI Magnet and heal yourself instantly!

Since you can use PK Thunder, you can also use PKT2! Imagine surprising someone trying to spike you off the ledge with a PKT2. In fact, with perfect spacing, it is possible to trap them in an inescapable PK Thunder Swell Surprise leading to misery for them, satisfaction for you, and great excitement for the crowd watching. This could also be used in the situation of edgehogging above. You try to edgehog someone, they try to land on the stage, and you PKT2 them upon landing :chuckle:

Shuffle

I should've added this a long time ago :laugh:
Anyways, the shuffle is a technique that allows Ness to pull of quick aerials low to the ground and in rapid succession. This is a carry over Melee.

Actually, it's kind of a carry over, but not a full fledge exactly the same move as before. In Melee, shuffle was taken from SHUFFL (short hop fast fall L-cancel). Now L-cancelling is gone so auto-cancelling aerials is your best bet.

You must know how to short hop and fast fall to shuffle. TO short hop, tap the jump button and release it quickly, and to fast fall, after the eak of any jump, hit down on the control stick to increase the speed of your descent.

Anyways, to shuffle, you just short hop then use an aerial. Then quickly fast fall it. This is a crucial part to Ness' game as he reiles on aerial attacks mainly. Since this allows Ness to do many low to the ground aerials, this can help him out a lot in the long run.

Reverse Aerial Rush

This is a good method for getting Ness to land bairs. It allows Ness to run, jump forward, and turn around before he takes off. This is much different than turning around then jumping because it maintains dash momentum and isn't so obvious.

To do it, run forward, and during the normal dash animation, tap backwards and jump. You should jump and be instantly be facing the opposite direction.

This has one obvious use, and probably one of the most useful ones: Landing his bair. Ness' bair is SO much more powerful than his fair, and though it lacks the range that the fair does, it can be used to kill easily. RARed bairs are a great way to kill for Ness.

Another way to use this is with PK Jumping and Firebounding. PK Jumping and Firebounding only work when you face the way you shoot. You can now run away from an opponent, RAR to turn around, then PK Jump into their face! You CAN use the reverse versions of this as a substitute, but remember, they are much harder to do.

This is also great for edgeguarding. Ness' bair will almost always kill off stage under normal conditions. Mostly a better option than his fair.

Mindgames can also be useful with this. You do not have to use a bair out of this. You can do any aerial you want. Scare the opponent. A great mindgames with this is to punish rollers. Run up to them and if you know they will roll behind you, do this. RAR and then do an fair in the direction they roll. This is better than predicting the roll and them intercepting with a biar because it's near impossible to sweetspot that after a roll, and it doesn't last as long.

It's kinda hard to picture. Check out this diagram.

N = Ness
O = Opponent
.....> = Roll path
---> = Ness' path
+ = Direction Ness is facing
___ = Floor
X = Attack
@ = Roll destination

1. Opponent is here, Ness runs up to him
O___<--+N___

2. Opponent rolls, Ness anticipates it and RARs
O....>N+_@____

3. Opponent is now behind Ness, but Ness is facing him.
____N+_O____

4. Ness DIs towards him and fairs
_____NXO____

BTW, if you have specials set to the C-stick, you can use an easier method to RAR called the "Auto-RAR." WHile running, simply hit the opposite direction you are running on the C-stick. You can short hop this also by quickly tapping the C-stick.

Note that you cannot RAR during the starting dash animation.

Water Pressure

Okay, we know about water spikes right? When someone is floating, you can jump out and spike them to the bottom of the pool. Hey, no diving! Anyways, this is a great way to KO with Ness, making water stages his favorite kind. His spike is the most powerful in the game you know.

But though the deadly heel of Ness is powerful, it's not like it will water spike KO at 0%. Or will it?

When water spiked, opponents will sink, then swim up. THey can only swim up and have to control over anything else. This makes their recovery very predicable. So predictable that you can spike them RIGHT when they surface! Cool! That means you can spike them AGAIN, and when they sink and rise, you can spike again. Simply repeat until they are KOed.

This means once you water spike an opponent once, if you use this, basically that first water spike means death. There's no escaping.

It's a bit hard, and the timing can be tricky. Eventually, your jumps out of the water will appear to get shorter. At this point, you may have to use your double jump early to time a water spike right.

Oh, and don't be predictable with your water spike if two people get in the water. Don't jump out as soon as possible, try to read your opponent. Let them try to hit you, but just swim away. Then when they fall in, go for the kill. Also, make sure you don't sink yourself! You time in the water is limited based on your damage.

Aerial Cancels

These techniques were put together to aid Ness airgame since that's where he plays. His aerials are viscious and can combo, kill, edgeguard, spike, and be chained because of their great speed.

This part is about Ness' aerials and the ground. Ironic? Yesh

Ground-Cancel

This is a good method that contributes to Ness' aerial comboing. To ground cancel, you just hit the ground during the hitbox of the move. What purpose does this serve?

Think about Ness' fair and how it works. It has many weak hits, then a stronger one at the end. Sometimes, we don't want that. We just wanna hit with the weak hits so that the opponent remains nearby to take another blow.

So, just use an fair right before you hit the ground. This will strike with the weaker hits, but not the last hit, producing combos.

The use of auto-cancelling exalts this. Just look below.

Auto-Cancel

People get the definition of this term messed up a lot and it pisses me off.
This term means langing on the ground during an aerial attack to instantly stop the aerial and experience IASA frames which are useable in the very first frame upon landing. This means aerials with virtually NO Landing lag. However, to experience this speed, you must take an action during the IASA frames.

Now, don't be one of those people who think auto-cancelling is using and finishing an aerial out of a short hop before you land so that you don't have lag. That's not it...

Anyways, there are only certain aerials in this game that auto-cancel. Ness has 3, and they are useful for the most part: His fair, uair, and bair.

The fair is obviously one of the best choices. It's made for combos, and ground-cancelling this makes it even better because you do not hit with that knockback filled hit at the end. You can use a fair late in a short hop and then auto-cancel it, then follow up with many attacks like all of Ness' tilts, his usmash, jab combo, and grab. This can even lead into short hopped aerials if you are quick enough.

The uair is also a good choice. It provides Ness a true combo. A good way to utilize this is to auto-cancel an uair and then follow up with a utilt. This leads even better into fast aerials.

Bair is the least used really because of it's huge knockback and hitbox position. Ness hits people behind him normally with this move, and turning around to attack takes a while. But that's not to say it has no uses. It does, but only at low percents. If you hit them in front of you, it can lead into the things the fair generally leads into. It can be comboed into a dsmash if they end up behind you.

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Double Aerial Shuffle
http://youtube.com/watch?v=3myya7rcfO0

This is when Ness uses two aerials in one short hop. Good for spot dodgers and aerial combos.

Only certain combinations of aerial can be used in one short hop. The list is as follows. Please note that the aerial combo only works in the direction you read it. For example, bair to fair works, but fair to bair does not. They all have uses which I will explain.

Nair nair-Use this for a very easy double aerial shuffle. It's the quickest one and can combo into itself at lower percents. This is great to do out of shield. After hitting a shield, most people stop dodge to avoid punishment. Well, you do this out of shield, the spot dodge one, and get hit by the other! Gets people out of your way.

Nair fair-Up to mid percents, this can be used to knock people away, and then combo with an autocancelled fair. I recommend you use this whenever you hit with a nair.

Nair uair-Gets people up into the air and is a perfect way to land a autocancelled uair. Doing so without the nair to start may be difficult. Leads to aerial setups and low percent combos.

Fair nair-One of my favorites. Ness' fair is one of his best approaches, so using an fair to nair will be a good approach ending with solid knockback at the end. If you don't intend to ground cancel your fair, use this. Sometimes, the fair will just brush the opponent and leave them there to hurt you if used wrong, but with this, you have no fear of that. VERY useful.

Bair nair-DAMAGE! Low percents only since bair will knock people away.

Bair fair-In those strange cases in which you bair someone and they get hit in front of you. Can be used in combos because of the fair, but I don't use this one that much.

Bair uair-EVEN MORE DAMAGE! This is what you should do if you wanna kill people with Ness' aerials since Ness' uair and bair are so sick. RAR a bair up to them. If you miss, use an uair which will more likely hit. Bound to kill anyone after 130%.

Basically, the posibilities for the uses are thought up of on the spot. Here's what you really need to know.

Dair is COMPLETELY unusable in this.

Startup time
From quickest to slowest

Nair
Fair
Uair
Bair
Dair

Lag
From least to most

Bair
Nair
Fair
Uair
Dair

Start this with a nair to get knockback and avoid punishment if you miss.
End with a nair to get people away.
Generally used for speed.

Start with a bair for an attempt at a kill that can't easily be punished since it leads into almost eveything.
There is no ending with a bair.
Generally used for kill attempts and damage.

Start with an fair as an approach.
End with an fair for range and combos.
Generally used for range and combos.

There is nothing starting with an uair.
End with an uair for low percent combos and aerial setups.
Generally used for damage, kill attempts, setups, and combos.

On stages with lower ground, even more combos are possible if you understand the speed of the aerials individually. Stages like this include Yoshi's Island, Pirate Ship, and Corneria.

Aerial Rise
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D4INA4rlvQ (Swingset variation)

Not quite sure if this has a name, but I made it up because it is SO useful for Ness.

Anyways, and aerial rise is when you short hop an aerial, then double jump and use another aerial as you rise to hit and run (or jump, whatever). This is very effective for Ness because of how his aerials affect the opponents and how his double jump makes him move a bit forward and stall in a low position for a while. Basically because of his unique aerials and double jump.

A very effective way to use this is with two fairs. Short hop an fair, double jump, and use an fair as you rise.

This can be used with any aerial out of a short hop, excluding the dair, and then lead into any aerial of your choice. The dair only works on tall characters.

The video above shows the swingset which is a variation of the aerial rise. It attacks forward then backwards with Ness' aerials. You can even use other aerials. The point is to fake an attack forward to cause opponents to roll behind you to ambush them with another aerial.

Since PK Jumping and Firebounding start with double jumps, you can also do an aerial then use a PK Jump/Firebound. Something strange though, the timing feels different when you do this. It feels like you have to hit jump FIRST, then special.

This can also lead into footstools. Short hop, aerial them, double jump towards them, and right when you double jump over them, press the jump button again to footstool them. This is different that going from a short hopped aerial to a footstool, but in general, produces the same effect. Check the footstooling section for lovely bonuses.

Second Jump Renewal
http://youtube.com/watch?v=CKLYcE1-k9I

This is a cool glitch! This allows Ness to double jump, use an aerial, then double jump again WITHOUT TOUCHING THE FLOOR!

This however, is very difficult, but luckily, very easy compared to other for Ness. To do it, after a double jump, perform any aerial at the peak of the jump. The timing is tricky, but if you timed the aerial right, Ness should be able to double jump again without landing, BUT, he can only double jump again right before he touches the ground. Sorry, no recovery plus bonus or anything. So double jump, aerial at the top, then double jump again right before touching the ground.

Ness can do this with ALL his aerials, plus PKF! It only works with PKF at a certain height though, as in high enough off of the ground for the lag to time out.

Although it is hard, this technique can be done to increase aerial mobility and overall performance. You can use multiple aerials and even fast fall it (it apparently makes the timing of the renewed second jump easier).

And... it even has an extension...

Infinite Second Jump Renewal

So, to SJR, you have to double jump, aerial, then double jump again right? Well wait, that ends with a double jump? You thinking what I'm thinking? Oh yes you are. I know. I'm psychic.

Since it ends with a double jump and starts with a double jump, you can constantly SJR repeatedly. That means infinite airtime whoo!

Imagine the possibilities of NEVER having to land. You can avoid attacks, pull out your own, juggle, combo, and maneuver like you could never do before!

One thing though, PKF cannot be used in ISJR because it has too much lag :(
Man, PKF would've been awesome too since it shoots down at the stage that Ness is jumping away from.

But yeah, if you thought SJR was hard, phew, doing it repeatedly will be even more difficult. Muscle memory is the key here. Master this, and Ness will be an aerial ace.

Footstooling
http://youtube.com/watch?v=_1N0D0SdIr4

Ness' aerials work together with footstools and aerial rises. The details are below. They provide a safe escape, a surefire hit, and a good aerial combo.

Aerial to Footstool

Very fun and could be pretty useful. It's like the aerial rise only more effective and difficult. It's more effective because the footstool stuns opponents, and almost always assures a hit.

This can be done with any of Ness' aerial, again, excluding the dair (WHY R U SO SLOW!?).

Start with the nair since it is the easiest to use. Short hop an nair and DI towards the opponent. The press jump and you should do a footstool.

This works with the bair in the same way, but remember that high knockback makes this useful only at lower percents.

The fair is probably one of the best choices since every now and then your opponent escapes the sparkle fury and is left ready to attack. This often happens if you use an fair too close, so to avoid any fears of punishment, use the footstool right after.

The uair is possible, but you have to use an aerial rise, and it's very hard. The high knockback and trajectory also makes it inconvenient, but it's still doable. To do it, you short hop, uair, double jump while DIing towards the opponent, and footstool by pressing jump again. Maybe you will not have to do it with a double jump if the oppoent DIs towards you, but who would do that?

The footstools can lead to a safe escape, or the following.

PK Brainshock

After you footstool, use PKT. It should instantly hit the opponent and stop Ness as he rises. This could lead to combos, or even a jab lock if the opponent doesn't catch this.

Hothead

When you footstool someone, you can double jump right after. Since you can double jump out of a footstool, you can double jump cancel PKF.

This means you can land a PKF after a footstool for an awesome footstool combo which can lead into anything since you will be right next to the burning opponent.

To do it, footstool someone, double jump, and then use PKF at the start of the double jump to DJC it and drop a flame on them. You have to move a bit when you double jump so that PKF will hit them.

A very good and effective way to Hothead someone is with the B-stick. Footstool someone, double jump after, then while you double jump, hold forward and press backwards on the C-stick to B-stick a PKF and double jump cancel. So footstool, double jump, B-sticked DJC.

This can be used with any of the aerial to footstool combos minus the uair since you have to double jump to get to your opponent and footstool them after you hit them because they get too much knockback. The only time you can use uair to footstool to hothead is if your opponent is stupid enough to DI towards you when you uair them and get in range of a footstool without you having to double jump.

Short Hop Footstool to Nair

FYI, you can short hop footstools. It decreases their height obviously, but apparently, makes aerials more likely to hit. This can be seen in Ness' nair.

Ness' nair is the only aerial he has that can connect after a short hopped footstool, so quickly tap a jump button and nair for a nice combo with aerial footstooling.

This doesn't work on all characters though. Read the list or perish.

Characters it works on:
Mario
Luigi
Wario
Link
Toon Link
Samus
Fox
Falco
Wolf
Pikachu
Marth
G&W
Sheik
Yoshi
Sonic

There are 2 characters that this works on ONLY if the direction Ness is facing and the direction they are facing match up with the description below.

Falco-Ness must be facing the opposite direction Falco is. If not, this move scrapes him.
Charizard-Ness must be facing the same direction Charizard is. If not, this move misses.

One more thing. This kinda works on the Ice climbers. If you footstool them while they stand still, you footstool Nana and can hit them both since the hitstun makes Ness stay still long enough to hit them both. In fact, most of the time you footstool Nana.

If you do and Popo doesnt do anthing, the nair will connect.

On a lone Ice climber, this does not work.

Footstool Rise

Whee! I love this discovery of mine. Look at the list of characters above that Ness can footstool and follow up with an attack. Fairly small, only about half of the cast, but now, Ness can do it to everyone (except Diddy)!

To be able to follow up a footstool with a nair on anyone, you have to footstool, double jump RIGHT after you footstool, then use the nair. The way that Ness' double jump stalls him in the air is what allows him to hit opponents. Remember, this doesn't work on Diddy Kong.

What's even better than following up a footstool with an nair? I'll tell you what: following a footstool with a BAIR!!! that's right, now we can use bairs on opponnts, minus a select few. This can be a very powerful technique, at one cost: IT'S FREAKIN' HARD TO DO! Yeah, I haven't mastered the timing yet. If you are still practicing the nair combo, this is gonna make it feel like a piece of cake. This does not work on Diddy, Ivysaur, Bowser, Lucas, and Ness (how ironic).

Be warned! Some characters are very hard to combo with this, especially the bair. You have to double jump IMMEDIATELY after the footstool and use the aerial ASAP. Characters like Kirby and ROB are very easy to do this on, while Metaknight and Lucario are on the more difficult side. This is due to their heights and footstool animation.

For some of the harder characters, you must have perfect to-the-frame timing. If you footstool someone, then double jump and use the aerial with perfect timing, you should see no sparks when Ness jumps. This indicates you did it right. You may also have to DI a bit in the direction the character you are footstooling moves their head in. Very hard, but the bairs could be worth it.

This can be combined with aerials to footstools of course, but will not work with the combo uair to footstool. The reason is because you have to use your double jump to footstool someone after an uair because they are knocked too far. Unless they are dumb enough to DI towards you while you do this, you will not be able to use that jump to link the footstool to an aerial.

Headshot

This is a footstool technique that involves using the item double jump cancel. After footstooling someone, you can DJC and throw the item down at them.

I realize that it is possible to follow through with the normal footstool and throw the item at them and still hit them, but there is one bunous to doing the headshot as compared to a basic footstool to downwards item toss: you end up right next to the opponent.

After you footstool, double jump, then toss the item down. You will end up right next to them after you hit them with the item and be able to string together more attacks depending on the item used (Diddy's bananas and Wario's wheels are great for this).

Footstool Cancel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6-Z7nSX_0Q

PSI Magnet stops all vertical rising, so after you footstool someone, you can cancel the jumpby using PSI Magnet. This can be used on the ground after footstools to prevent rising up and allow you to land immediately to connect with any attack. However, the opponent will be able to react, so you will either have to take them by surprise or respond to whatever reaction they may have. There is one thing that helps though: The Psychokinetic wind. After a footstool, using PSI Magnet makes the wind push the opponent a bit away from Ness, mostly outside of everyone's grab range. So if you footstool cancel, you can get away from certain attacks and counter with your own.

The main use of this however is in the air. After footstooling someone in the air, they cannot take ANY action until they hit the ground, and they cannot tech either. So, you can use this to set up for jab locks as shown in the video! Also, it can be used for regular combos also since you will not fly over the opponent now. You can use dair to footstool, footstool cancel, then bair or whatever you want!

_________________________________________________

It’s good to know both of these because aerial rising is very useful in general, and if you use it enough, you may find yourself footstooling opponents naturally. Helpful to know how to follow it up.

Turnaround B

Ness' PK Flash goes a good distance in front of him. But when you try to direct PK Flash behind Ness, you will notice it doesn't go as far. You want the maximum distance usually. Sure you can get on the ground and turn around, but what if you want to turn around and use it in the air? You can do it with PK Fire and PSI Magnet, but not PK Flash right? Actually, you can!

To turn around with a B move, tap the direction you wish to face on the control stick FIRST, then press B immediately afterwards. Ness will turn around and use PK Flash.

Note that this is different from the B-Reversal because it maintains momentum instead of reversing it.

B-Reversal

Ness can use the B-reversal just like many characters. He can use all of his specials to B-reverse minus PKT. It reverses the direction Ness is facing, AND his momentum (if you have any). This is different from the basic turnaround B because it changes momentum. Best used with PKF, so skip down to there first if you really wanna use this.

To B-reverse, use a B move, and right before the animation starts, smack the control stick in the opposite direction Ness is currently facing.

Try this first with PK Flash. It's the easiest. Try it first. Press B and press backwards right after you press B. Ness will use PK Flash first, but then push backwards a bit and change direction. There's not much use for this, but it can be used for uncharged PK Flash mindgames (the best kind).

You can do this with PSIM also, but I really see no point other than spacing with the Psychokinetic Wind. It's hard to do also, and B-sticking this will usually be easier.

The most useful special to use this with is PKF.

You can jump away from an opponent to dodge an attack, and then reverse you're momentum and direction with the B-reversal to counter. It won't help much, but it will give you a bit more forward range to continue a combo or strike.

This is the main component of Firedashing.

Firedash

The most useful way to utilize B-reversing for Ness is out of a dash. I call this the Firesdash. This is VERY useful on defense. It's like a PK Pivot, only you can use it ANYWHERE during a dash, meaning you can run VERY far and turn around to counter! Now PKF can counter anywhere during a dash period.

To do Firedash, dash forward, press B while holding forward, then backwards VERY quickly, almost as if you are pressing them at the same time. Done correctly, you should turn around mid dash and use PKF.

You are actually running forward and using PKF forwards, but then turning it around producing the Firedash effect. Just remember to press back AFTER you hit forward B.

The way I do this is to use the C-stick on special. Dash forward, hit side on the C-stick (either left or right, it doesn't matter), then hit backwards after hitting C. You don't have to use this method, but I find it much easier since I don't have to have such strict timing with my control stick.

This is useful for dodging the longer ranged attacks. You can also pretend like you are retreating and then strike when the opponent lets their guard down!

B-Stick/Wavebounce

This is a well known technique, but for Ness, I find that it is improperly underrated. I think it's useful, but others may disagree. Probably because they don't wanna give up C-stick attacks, but I think you can do any technique with the C-stick attacks without the C-stick, while B-sticking is very difficult.

Anyways, the effect of this is Ness uses his special in the air, then stops moving forward COMPLETELY, and instead, gets pushed BACKWARDS. PKF reveals the better uses of this technique again. Man, PKF is just awesome.

In order to B-stick, you must set the C-stick to specials in controls.
Now, while airborne, hold forward, and press backwards on the C-stick while still holding forward. The effect is you stop moving forward and shoot backwards.

This can be done with 3/4 of Ness' specials (all but PKT again).

This is best put to use with PKF.
Like his other specials, the pushback is relatively low, but that doesn't stop it from being useful.

To make this useful, you have to get creative.

One way to utilize this is by full jumping a B-sticked PKF and lag cancelling it. It prevents you from punishment should you miss, and with PKFLC, it's even safer.

This is a main component of Ledgeshooting which is described below.

The final use is obvious: For Firebounding! You cannot Firebound without the B-stick, and the Firebound magnifies the distance Ness' B-stick pushes him back. This pushes Ness just as far back as Lucas' B-stick if you lag cancel and DI backwards.

To do it with PSI magnet, hold forward, and press down and to the side of the C-stick. So if you hold west, to B-stick, you press Southeast on the C-stick.

Again, this can be done to help spacing in combination with the Psychokinetic Wind in order to help set up better for a bat or something else. The pushback is relatively low, but that's what makes it better used for spacing with the Psychokinetic Wind. Nothing THAT useful though.

PK Flash is hard to do this with. To use a neutral B, you have to lightly tap the C-stick in a diagonal direction opposite of the direction you are holding forward.

B-reversing it is an easier alternative though, and it produces almost the same effect. But the difference is that when you B-stick this, Ness does not change direction. This is more useful then since PK Flash has greater range in front of him rather than behind. But it is harder. You can use this for uncharged PK Flash mindgames again. A theoretical way you can use this is to increase your offstage range on PK Flash. You can jump a bit off the edge, B-stick this to push yourself back on, and use that tiny range boost to hit someone you are edgeguarding. Probably useless, but hey, it's there.

Ledgeshooting

All this is really is a B-sticked PKF out of a basic ledgejump.

Do a normal ledge jump while holding forward, then B-stick. You will jump off the ledge, shoot PKF down at the stage, and be pushed back just enough to regrab the ledge and cancel the landing lag on PKF and keep you safe from harm. It provides invincibility in some parts, cancels lag, and gets edgeguarders away from you if they are a few steps from the ledge. This can be used as a safe way to get up also since after B-sticking, you can choose to return to the stage or not since you can double jump after you shoot PKF and before you regrab the edge. If you hit, double jump and recover. If you miss, regrab the ledge for safety.

Since you can double jump after you shoot PKF and before you grab the edge, you can get back on safely of course, but also use aerials and PK Jumps. Great for landing more blows on the burning opponent.

Remember, this is only used for when opponents are a bit backed from the ledge. If they are close, use a ledgedropped aerial, a PKT ledgestall, or something else. Use it in combination with those techniques to strengthen Ness' ledgegame and scare opponents away from Ness the edge. If they are too close, PKT or aerials punish, and if they back up, ledgeshooting and ledgefire will get them. This will force most opponents to back off completely and just let you back on stage.

Double Jump Cancel

In Melee and 64, double jump cancel was jumping, cancelling the jump with a double jump, then cancelling the double jump with an aerial. This allowed Ness players to get many aerials out quickly and low to the ground. In Brawl, cancelling double jumps with aerials is no more, and that means no DJC. Or does it?

You can still cancel the rising of Ness' double jump, but not with his aerials. With PKF, you can though.

You can only cancel the rising durng the first few moments of the double jump, about 1/4 of the way up. So double jump and use PKF shortly afterwards. If you use PKF too late, you will rise high up and not cancel the double jump.

This is useful for increasing the range of PKF a bit since you can swing forward with good momentum and land right by the opponent should you hit. If you compare the distance of a full forward momentumshort hopped PKF to a short hopped DJCed PKF, you will notice that you can almost double your horizontal distance from a short hop.

However, this is NOT lag cancellable since you land too low, and could lead to punishment if you fail. If you use it high up in the air however, you will be safer.

This is a component of the ledgefire technique described in another section of this guide.

Advanced PK Fire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vR_4HMVK9Ks

I have been experimenting with PKF lately, and I find it to be a very useful move if used with advanced techniques. The only trouble is pulling them off since they can be hard, but with proper technique, I think Ness' PKF might evolve to be almost as spammable as Lucas'.

This section was put together because all of the PKF techniques I am about to post work together VERY well and makes Ness' PKF use much more effective..

PK Fire Lag Cancel (PKFLC)

A VERY useful technique in my opinion. MASTER THIS!!! To use it, you must use PKF while airborne, and only at a certain height. This height can easily be achieved by full jumping and using PKF right as you take off. It also works perfectly with a short hopped PK Jump or Firebound (see next sections).

To do this, again, use PKF in the air at the correct height. Then, before you touch the ground, do an airdodge. Ness should land with no lag.

NOTE: This technique only cancels LANDING LAG. Not all PKF lag, but that very long landing lag that you get when you use PKF in the air and too close to the ground.

This mechanic is strange, but understandable. After using PKF in the air, Ness experiences a lag in which he can do anything he wants to doing the air, but if he takes no action and lands, he experiences a lot of landing lag, even though he was able to maneuver.

To see this, just try a full jumped PKF as soon as you get off the ground and do nothing until you land. When you do land, shield ASAP. You will notice it takes a while to take it out. Now do it again with a lag cancel. Your shield will activate MUCH faster.

There are other ways to do this also.
You can use an aerial right before you touch the ground so that you hit the ground right before the aerial actually begins. This produces the same effect, but may feel a bit more difficult. Most easily done with the dair since it has such a long startup animation.

Another way to do this is use an fair, uair, or bair when you land. These aerials auto cancel and you can take action immediately afterwards.

The final way is to double jump, and this could probably be the most useful way to lag cancel PKF since it leads into the following techniques. But remember, you cannot use this lag cancel if you have already wasted your double jump.

A note on this. If you PKFLC, you are able to DI while you airdodge or use the aerial. Useful for moving closer to your PKF if it hits, or backing up if you missed. For some reason, your DI is limited while you are in the falling animation of an aerial PKF, so cancelling it allows you to do so.

PK Jump
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QHePOJRNKE

Probably one of Ness' most useful approaches. Hard to do at first, but man does this pay off.

The effect of this is Ness shoots PKF airborne and lunges very far forward, landing right in front of where PKF would detonate wre it to hit something. This makes it very useful for PKF combos, and makes them MUCH more effetive than a normal ranged PKF would. That huge leap that Ness takes is also very useful for approaching opponents and catching them off guard since it moves so quickly. The range boost is also insane, and it increases the range of PKF to the max. He also starts his double jump, and cancels the rising about half way up. A very strange, but useful effect because it compliments the angle that PKF shoots down at.

To do this, you, again, must be airborne (this just proves even more that Ness was made ot take on the air). While you are in the air, hold forward. Now double jump and use PKF at the same time. Done correctly, Ness should do what I described above.

ALWAYS lag cancel this. I mean, really, when you PKFLC this, you can aviod any punishment if you miss, and you can combo this into a BAT if you hit! Luckily, a PK Jump puts you at the perfect height for it to be cancelled. I like to cancel this with an auto cancelled fair since I can add a little bit of damage to a burning foe before I smack a home-run.

This has very many uses. One is for an amazing approach which I think is one of Ness' bests.

This is the main component of the ledgefire attack which is explained in another section.

Another way to utilize the PK Jump is using while being comboed. Say you are being comboed and you are knocked away at the natural 45 degree angle. Your opponent is rushing up to you, so what can you do PK Jump! You will completely stop your backwards momentum and shoot forward, probably shooting the confounded opponent with PKF.

One of the most useful ways to use PK Jump is out of a full hopped PKFLC. You jump, PKF, and then lag cancel it with a PK Jump. This is the quickest way to get 2 PKFs out in the air. It allows you to quickly spam PKF in many places repeatedly. Remember to lag cancel the PK Jump also!

This is your very best friend when approaching characters with long range or camping projectiles. This thing hops over projectiles very quickly and shoots down foes from afar. Like I said, this approach is VERY effective and could mean the best for Ness against people with porjectiles.

Still PK Jump

The name is what it is: A PK Jump that keeps Ness still, at least, horizontally. Ness normally shoots forward when he does a PK Jump, but sometimes, you don'twant that. For example, you short hop an nair and the opponent flies a bit in front of you. A normal PK Jump will shoot you past him, but you still wanna follow up with PKF. So, you can use a still PK Jump to land PKF!

This can be hard to do since PKF is a forward B move and you will naturally move forward when you do this. To Still PK Jump, you have to use PKF and press the stick forward and let go VERY quickly.

THe easiest way to do this is with the C-stick set to specials. Just jump and press forward on the C-stick at the same time.

The uses are pretty obvious for spacing, but there are some other notable things about the still PK Jump. The still PK Jump will not change whether you face forwards or backwards. You can use this and shoot PKF left while facing right and you will still gain the full height of the PK Jump. Also, remember how PK Jumping can be used for ledgefire? Ness would lunge off the edge and onto the stage while shooting PKF, but if the opponent was too close to the edge, he would shoot PAST them. With the still PK Jump, you can use this ledgefire attack and not have to worry about shooting past the enemy. Of course it will have less range than the previously stated. Be warned though, this still has he risk of the original PKF ledge attack: If you mess up, you will fall and probably die since you have just wasted your double jump.

Reverse PK Jump

At last! I have found a way to use the PK Jump even if you are facing the opposite direction! Normally, if you were facing one way and tried to PK Jump and shoot PKF in the opposite direction, Ness would hardly rise up at all and do a wimpy little pop upwards. Now, we can use the full height PK Jump without having to turn ourselves around!

This is a hard technique so be warned. This will be difficult if you haven't mastered the PK Jump. To do it, do a normal PK Jump. Hold forward, jump and PKF at the same time, but RIGHT after you use PKF, hit backwards. Ness should start to PK Jump one way, but the quickly turn around before he even stats to get anywhere.

Like I said, it's hard at first. Try it out first by just jumping forward and holding forward. Then press the PK Jump buttons and press backwards right after. Remember to press the buttons first.

The uses are obvious. You don't have to worry about the direction Ness faces when he wants to use PKF now. A good way to use this is hit someone with a short hopped bair, then follow it up with a reverse PK Jump. You can also have a little mindgame going on if you use this right. You can run away like a coward and then turn around, leap forward, and kill the chaser. Remember, you don't have to be moving forward, just pressing forward.

Adjustable PK Jump

Thanks to Masky for this technique. A normal PK Jump sends you very far forward, sometimes too far. A still PK Jump gives you the double jump boost at a near standstill position, but sometimes the range isn't enough.

Well Masky has told me that you can actually get a distance between that with a PK Jump. To do it, tilt the control stick only slightly forward for your PK Jump instead of all the way to the side.

This is VERY difficult to do normally, but having the C-stickset to specials makes it SO much easier. Use this method:

1. Jump
2. Double jump and hit forward on the C-stick
3. Tilt the control stick very slightly forward. The best and easiest way to do this is to hit diagonally upwards or downwards on the control stick, a bit more towards the top or bottom of the control stick. What I mean is hit instead of hitting northeast exactly,try to hit somewhere in between notheast and north (this is just an example, other directions work also).

This helps to space even better with the PK Jump.

It even works with the reverse PK Jump. You have to adjust the start of the PK Jump, but tapping backwards to reverse the PK Jump can use any direction.

Firebound
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z7OFvZI6mQ

This is a very cool and pretty useful PKF maneuver. Almost the same as PK Jumping, only imagine getting that huge forward momntum to push you backwards, allowing for a more defensive PKF. You again, double jump, and only rise about half the distance and follow a very cool looking S shaped curve. The heighet again, can be lag cancelled and works with the angle that PKF is shot.

This is a combination of PK Jumping and wavebouncing/B-sticking. To do this, you must be able to B-stick with the C-stick.

It follows similar steps to the PK Jump. While airborne, hold forward, and double jump and press the C-stick in the opposite direction. So basically, hold forward, double jump, and B-stick at the same time.

It has less range than a PK Jump, but more defense.

This has many uses as does the PK Jump. Remember, you can lag cancel this also.

It's a VERY defensive maneuver. If you lag cancel it then DI backwards, you can move backward seven further. This distance covered is the same length as Lucas' normal B-stick, which means it can be very effectively used for ranged defense.

If you lag cancel it, it can lead into a dash attack, usmash, or grab if you hit the opponent with PKF.

It can be used to stop being comboed just like the PK Jump, only the range is different.
Again, it can be used in combination with a full jumped PKF lag cancel to quickly abuse PKF.

Reverse Firebound

Same principles as the reverse PK Jump. This lets you jump use a Firebound while facing one way to go the opposite way. To do it, just do a normal Firebound and press backwards immediatley when you start the move.

I have found another way to do this that may feel easier to you. Jump forward and then let go of the control stick. Now press the C-stick backwards and flick the control stick forward and let it go quickly, VERY quickly.

If you run away and do this, you get moved very far back. Great on defense since your dash momentum helps the pushback effect.

___________________________________________

These are difficult, and easy to mess up. You may often find yourself DJCing PKF instead by accident.

Someone in my thread told me about an easier method to PK Jump and Firebound, although his name escapes me (Sorry! >.<)

Now PK Jumping and Firebounding consist of holding forward, jumping, and using PK Fire. With tap jump on, you can just hit diagonally upwards and sideways on the C-stick (set to specials) at the same time. The game reads you as holding forwards, jumping with the tap jump, and using the C-Stick to PK Fire. This method is VERY easy as you just have to tap 2 sticks at around the same time. To PK Jump with this, hit the C-stick forwards, and hit it backwards to Firebound.

Experiment with all of the above techniques to make Ness' PK Fre one of his better attacks. I use these and I have fallen in love with PKF. Remember, to PK Jump and Firebound, you don't need to have forward momentum. You just need to hold forward.

Also remember, normal PK Jumping and Firebounding ONLY work if you shoot PKF in the same direction you are facing. For some reason, you cannot face backwards and PK Jump in the same direction, or Firebound in the opposite direction. Using the RAR could help you out here, and so can reverse aerial PSI Magnets also. You CAN do it without turning around, but it's much harder.

If mastered, I can imagine PKF becoming very useable for Ness.

Try to find the height that you can lag cancel also to find out how often you can use it. It doesn't have to be out of a PK Jump, Firebound, or full jumped PKF only. You can PKFLC out of a ledge jump (the normal one where you press jump while hanging). You can also use PKF as you fall and lag cancel it when you use it at the right height.

Ledgefire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vR_4HMVK9Ks (Replay at 4:20)

I originally posted this as a subsection in the PK Jumping part, but I think it deserves it's own name now since I've discovered more about it.

Ness has a special way to get up from the ledge that I call ledgefire. You can hang on the edge and leap back on with PKF shooting downwards in front of you.

To do it, press back off the edge and then hold forward and PK Jump. So that's backwards, forwards, jump and B.

You can even do a shorter ranged ledgefire if you use a still PK Jump, and it's less risky as you have a better chance of returning should you mess up.

After some experimenting, I found another, much safer way of doing this. Do a basic ledge jump and double jump as soon as possible. While holding forward, use PKF to double jump cancel it. Much safer and easier. Like the original ledgefire, the range can be altered by using the C-stick to do PKF.

It acts like a more deadly, long ranged, and surprising ledge get up attack. The range is very useful and hits just about as far as Bowser's gigantic ledge attack. Very useful and hurts more than regular ledge attacks.

You can also use the still PK Jump with this. Normal PK Jumping has more range, but sometimes too much since it can shoot you past enemies who are too close to the edge. Still PK Jumping prevents this mistake at the cost of some range.

WARNING!: The said technique is VERY difficult and VERY risky. Only use this in a battle once you can PK Jump competently and only when you need it. A failure can result in you dropping off the edge and using PKF, making rcovery difficult, but even worse, it could lead to you using a DJCed PKF that would make you instantly lose a stock.

Reverse Ledgefire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vR_4HMVK9Ks (Last replay)

Okay, I feel pretty stupid for not realizing this before, but there is a MUCH easier and less risky way to perform a reverse ledgefire. I will describe it below, but I have decided to keep the original, more difficult, and more risky way to do it also. Reverse ledgefire 1.0 is first, then version 1.2. After the quote box, the most effective and safe reverse ledgefire method will be posted.

You should use the C-stick specials for this maneuver. The best way to do this is, while hanging on the edge, press back to drop off, then press jump and press C-stick away from the stage at the same time to do a still PK Jump. Ness will do the still PK Jump and get back onto the stage while shooting PKF down. Even though it's called a still PK Jump, Ness moves towards the stage just a tiny bit, just enough to get back on.
Just make sure you input the still PK Jump buttons very quickly after you release back or you may not make it back onto the stage. Also, remember to release back on the control stick as soon as possible.

There is also a more effective method, but more difficult method to do the reverse ledgefire. With this method, Ness is pushed farther back onto the stage, and the PKF is shot down closer to the ledge than the above method. THe timing is also less strict, but the button presses are much more difficult.

To do it, hang off the ledge and press back to drop off. Then hold forward, press back on the C-stick, and double jump at the same time. This means just do a basic Firebound off the ledge. Immediately after the firebound, hit backwards on the control stick. This is hard to follow.

Hang on the ledge
Press back on the control stick to drop off
Hold forward
Press C-stick back and jump to firebound
Hit back on the control stick.

What you are doing is a Firebound off the edge then B-reversing it.

Hard to do and a bit risky because, like the normal ledgefire, failure could result in a DJCed suicide. It's not as risky though since you will drop straight below the ledge instead of under it, and you may instead to a messed up reverse PK Jump instead which can be easily recovered from. But the reward is so flashy and very useful in pillar spiking and general edgeguarding.
Okay, now for the most useful method. To do this, do a basic ledge jump by hanging on the ledge and just juimping. Then right after you press jump, press it again before you even get high off the ledge. Immediately after the double jump, double jump cancel it with a PK Fire shot backwards.

So ledge jump, double jump, double jump cancel, and shoot PKF backwards. Make ure you do not hold forward during the PKF so that you don't accidentally push Ness past the ledge. Very easily remedied by B-sticking.

The result of this is Ness gets off the ledge, leaps onto the stage and shoots PKF downwards below the ledge. This is the only way to get PKF off the edge whil hanging on the edge in a quick manner. If you don't understand, here's a diagram that I hope will help.

____ = Floor
///// = Wall
N = Ness
*** = PKF
X = Opponent
..... = Nothing

1. Ness is on the edge, someone is recovering from an angle below.
____________
...................N
................../..........X
................/

2. Ness uses Reverse ledgefire. He leaps back onto the stage while doing it.

___________N_
..................../
................../.........X
................/

3. Ness then automatically shoots PKF down off the stage hitting the recovering opponent.

__________N_
................./*
.............../.....*X
............./

4. Ness wins. No picture needed because I am sure any Ness player has seen Ness win before.

Pillar Spike
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5Wcyi-Bjow

Use PKF as an edgeguard. If you hit someone with it, it drags them downwards and could even lead to their doom. It also makes a little impenetrable wall between them and the stage. But why just watch? Take action!

After hitting with PKF, jump out and spike them. Very good, and very cool.

The best way to do this is to jump off the stage, then hit someone with PKF. Then double jump through the flame pillar as you spike. Remember to spike as you rise, not at the top of the jump.

You can also utilize the angle that Ness' PKF goes at when shot in the air. Short hop a PKF by the edge and then jump off then spike.

There are ways to enhance this and make it more usable. One way is with reverse ledgefire, which I still haven't quite cracked yet. You can hang on the edge to edgehog to force opponents to recover onto the stage making their recovery predictable. Then you reverse ledgefire and pillar spike. You can even just go for an edgehog, and resort to this should you change your mind.
Another advanced technique that Ness has that will help is the aerial horizontal PKF. If you can master this, you can fake people out with a short hop, but then use a horizontal PKF. It also goes lower than a normal grounded PKF which could hit opponents recovering from under the ledge.

This can be escaped and DIed out of, but it canbe hardsince you will have to DI AWAY from the stage. If they do this, it's the perfect setup for a nair or bair.

Here's a list of characters and its effectiveness on them by the original founder Cazcom

I decided to add the list of characters this is easy to execute on (for me at least). Easy means I can execute it 90% of the time, hard is about 50%, and nearly impossible means I'm lucky if I get it.
____________
Easy
____________
Snake
Mario
Luigi**
Bowswer
Olimar
Ness
Lucas
Donkey Kong
Zelda
Gannondorf
Fox
Falco
Wolf
DeDeDe*
Pikachu**
Link***
Toon Link***
Samus***
Kirby*
Pokemon Trainer
Lucario
Jigglypuff*
Pit*
Captain Falcon
Ice Climbers
Ike
_____________
Hard
_____________
Sheik***
Marth
R.O.B.*
MetaKnight*
diddy kong
_____________
Near Impossible
_____________
Mr. Game & Watch
Sonic
Yoshi
Zero Suit Samus
Peach****


* = May be more difficult to execute because of the opponents additional jumps
** = May be harder to execute because of the opponents ForwardB
*** = May be more difficult because of the opponents ability to grab the edge with a whip/chain/etc
**** = peach is a floating *****
PK Pivot

Originally called Pivot PKF, but PK Pivot sounds so much cooler. I hope that's alright with the creator, NESSBOUNDER.

This is a simple, yet useful technique. It allows Ness to dash away from an attack to dodge it, and then turn around to counter the lag with a PKF. He dashes away at the length of one starting dash animation at most. He can use PKF any point within that range.

Doing this is simple. Dash one way, then use PKF in the opposite way. Remember, this has to be in the starting dash animation.

If you B-stick like I do, then great, this is easier. Dash one way and press the C-stick in the opposite direction. Remember, you have to release the control stick first, so just tap it then use the C-stick.

This is useful for, like I said earlier, dodging attacks. Many Ness users have reported its good cause because of its ease of use and effectiveness. You can easily dodge grabs, smashes, short dash attacks, and even aerials! That's the most useful thing to dodge in my opinion. People shuffle the aerial and seem to land right where PKF would be.

NOTE: This is different than the pivots in the dash mechanics section because you don’t have to repeatedly use dash animations. The PKF automatically cancels the animation in any direction you choose.

Fireblocking

This is a technique that abuses the fact that anything tangible will set off PKF. When set off, PKF will make its pillar even without hitting an opponent. Basically, hitting some things other than opponents makes a defensive barrier.

You can hit almost any projectile that is tangible, but some good things to hit with PKF are grenades, waddle dees/doos, pikmin (not red), and gyros. People often use such projectiles as an approach, and using PKF on these will stop them from approaching on the ground. It also prevents more of them from coming and can destroy some of them. It stops waddle dees and pikmin and destroys grenades and pikmin.

There are also stage components that set off PKF for you like the pillars in Luigi's Mansion and the statues in Castle Seige.

Another thing you can do with PKF is hit an invincible opponent when they descend off of the stock platform. Yes, hit them while they're invincible. This will set off PKF of course and force them to move awa. If they stay there, as soon as the invicibility wears off, they will get burned. This is great for people who have to do something right when they return, like Olimar who has to pluck Pikmin, Snakes who decide to plant C4s and mines, or any characters with chargeable specials like ROB, Samus, and Lucario.

Short Hop Horizontal PK Fire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBA6pm65dmI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgUz9hpT3zs&feature=related

A very difficult technique, but under the right circumstances, could prove to be one of Ness' most impressive and useful techniques. Too bad it's so friggin hard to do.

What limits Ness from spamming PK Fire as much as Lucas? That's right, the angle. Lucas can short hop all over the place shooting PKF around the stage. Ness' PKF trajectory prevents a similar action.

But wait! Ness CAN short hop around and shoot horizontal PKFs all over the stage with the SHHPKF *pant*
Imagine a Lucas style PKF only with the repetetive burning bonus. Chilling huh?

The way to do it is to jump (preferrably a short hop of course for mobility and quick landing) and just use PKF at the perfect time as you land. There is a certain height in which using PKF while airborne will result in a horizontally shot PKF upon landing. So you can jump forward and shoot PKF forward and such.

Now for the limits...
For one, the timing is very precise. It's really hard to do. You must use PKF in the air so that you land as late as possible in PKFs startup animation without actually shooting it. So right when you land, PKF should just be coming out.
Also, when you do this, PKF travels so low to the ground that it actually goes INTO the ground and gets eaten by the stage. That means it goes pretty much no where on flat stages like Final Destination. However, if there is no ground in front of you, or the ground in front of you is lower that where you stand, the PKF WILL go all the way out. Imagine how deadly Ness could be on Pirate Shipe if you could master this timing.

A little note though. On flat surfaces, Ness' PKF will get eaten when doing this of course, but it does travel a very very short distance before actually getting eaten by the stage. So technically, this works on Final Destination also, but its range is so short on flat surfaces that it's pretty much useless.

PK Fire Cancel

Run up to an edge and right before you run off of it, use PKF. You should shout PKF but experience no lag and completely cancel the move.

This can be used for simple mindgames and to trick opponents into recovering defensively while you hug and edgehog.

How to Use PK Fire Smartly

Okay, people have been complaining lately about PK Fire not being a very great move. They complain that it is too easy to DI out of. Then when they find an opponent who can get out easily, they give up on using the move. My message? DON'T. It's still useful. How?

Okay, first off, you must realize the basic thing about PKF. Even if they get out, they take damage. That's good. Having a projectile is good, but this is obvious.

Something else you should realize is that a PKF from the ground hitting the opponents feet is the easiest kind to DI out of. Especially at higher percents. An aerial PKF hitting their head however is tons harder to get out of, and can have better combo potential.

How can you land these well enough to combo? Full jump PKF with a lag cancel is good. PK Jump also works well. Double jump cance; PKF close enough and you might get some quick hits in, and a Hothead is a great way to land PKF in the perfect spot.

Now here's one of the most important points in this entry: Reading the opponent. They once they are trapped in PKF, they have a few options. They can shield if they manage to touch the ground. So what do you do? You can pressure their shield with dtilts or the yo-yos (probably the usmash). Also, you can grab them, easy. If they spotdodge, then... that's a bad option really. Dtilt or yo-yo them to hurt them as their invincibility ends.

People also DI out of the sides of PKF, usually, rolling out. When you know someone will roll, its easy to punish them. Run PAST the flame pillar since you know they won't stay there. After getting past the flames, do a hyphen usmash, dash attack, or grab if you are confident. This is a common reaction to PKF, so expect to run past flames a lot. They will go away from the flame. I don't think anyone has the guts to move towards Ness. If they do, well hey, that's an unexpected action, but easily punished one :chuckle:

Opponents can also double jump out of PKF, and they will probably DI away from Ness also. If they do this, that's great! What is the point of like half of Ness' attacks? I'll tell you: to get people in the air. So what now? Run past the flames and follow up with an aerial. Very nice. Apparently PKF is a aerial setup now also.

So just read opponents and you can still do great things with PKF.

Now, people say they can't combo with just PKF alone, without all the reading. If you use a full jump PKF or a PK Jump and lag cancel either one with a nair, uair, or most useful, the fair, the aerial is bound to hit immediately after landing PKF. So PKF to f/n/uair works.

Ref's PK Thunder Demonstration Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lpdm8wgSNg

Great visual aid here for lots of PK Thunder techniques mentioned in this guide. The ledgestall can be tighter and quicker, but it still provides a good general picture. Thanks Ref! Great job!

Snaking

Just a basic mindgame. When using PKT, don't make it go straight, snake it! Make it travel a curvy and confusing path. It could make turning easier and promote tailwhipping. It confuses opponents and makes your actions less predictable. Mindgames? Mindgame$!

Thunder Shift

This was brought to my attention by my good friend Ref. Apparently, you can control PKT with the C-stick.

Now let me provide details. First of all, this can be done with teh C-stick set to smashes or specials. It may be possible with the C-stick set to tilts, but I have not tested that yet. If someone wants to test that for me, that would be nice.

So to use this, use PKT of course, then tap the C-stick in the direction you want PKT to shift.

This doesn't actually control PKT in the sense that the control stick does. It slightly shifts towards the direction input. I mean very slightly, at almost an impossible angle to press with just the control stick.

This is most effective with the C-stick set to smashes. It goes a very nice distance and can be tapped repeatedly. With the B-stick however, the effects are more minimal. You must smash the C-stick constantly instead of just tapping it sideways like with the smash C-stick. Also, you cannot tap as rapidly because you have to let the C-stick return to the neutral position. The best way to thunder shift with the C-stick set to specials is to flick the stick to the side and let go. Repeatedly using either method will move PKT more and more in that direction.

This is useful because, like I said earlier, making PKT move that slightly is nigh impossible with the control stick alone. Here are some ways you can use this.

1. For perfect vertical recovery. This is great. To recover almost perfectly vertical, you would send PKT straight down, then bring it back straight up into Ness. Normally, this sends you at like an 87 degree angle. Close to a perfect verticcal, but not quite. A perfect vertical could mean a stock to you sometimes. If you try to aim PKT a bit more to the side to make that 87 a 90, you increase your risk of completely screwing up. With PKT shifting though, you can just tap the C-stick sideways a bit and make a perfect vertical PKT2 :)

2. For mindgames with the full-ranged PKT2. Try sending PKT above Ness as it moves completely horizontally JUST above him. Picture this:

---> = PKT
NNN = Ness
O = Opponent
_____ = Floor
... = Nothing

---->
.......NNN.......O
_________

Now observe how PKT is JUST above ness, very slightly. If it were to move down just the slightest bit, it would trigger a PKT2 or floorblast. Hitting the leftmost N with PKT would make Ness PKT2 into the opponent ahead. Hitting Ness right in the middle will make him floorblast, while a PKT hitting the rightmost N will mae Ness PKT2 away from the opponent. Use the PKT shift to carefully choose which point of Ness to hit. It will make PKT move down at a precise spot just enough to make Ness PKT2. Remember, this is only going to work if PKT is close enough to Ness to hit with a small PKT shift.

This isn't the only way to use the PKT shift with the full-ranged PKT2. There are many ways considering how the PKT shift can accurately decide the point of PKTs impact on Ness. Experiment, and use it for PKT2 precision.

3. The PKT2 fake. It's in the mindgames section. Sometimes, you may try to do a PKT2 fake, but loop the PKT too close to Ness and end up doing a PKT2 anyways. If you have the same problm as I do, a PKT shift can move PKT far enough from Ness to not hit him. This is good if you really fake them out well by keeping PKT as close to Ness as possible without touching him.

Stage Cancelled PKT

Don't you hate it when you use PKT and mess up, then get punished by the opponent? Well, should you mess up, try to hit the stage as soon as possible. This will end PKT and allow you to recover more quickly rather than letting it time out.

So mess with this, try it out. If you cannot see the difference, or you want to just see how far you can make it go, try this. Go to training mode and make your oppoents ROB (because he's just tall enough and doesn't change his vertical height with his standstill animation). Now stand on level ground (Final Destination wioks fine). Use PKT and hold sideways towards ROB as it comes out. If you kept holding sideways, it should have either hit ROB or scraped the top of his head. Now do the same thing again, only this time, while you hold sideways on the control stick, repeatedly tap up on the C-stick (remember to flick it if you B-stick). If you did it right, the PKT should move upwards just enough to miss ROB.

Tailwhipping

Tailwhip? Yes the tailwhip. It's among one of the most important Ness ATs out there since Melee and is so useful and universal. USE THIS!

So we all know how Ness' PKT works right? It's a little sphere with a little strand hanging out the back of it. This is the tail, and the ball is called the head. Whenver the head hits something, it dissappears, does 8%, and pulls the opponent in the direction it came from. In contrast, the tail does NOT make PKT dissappear, and instead of pulling people towards the point of impact, it stops them and stuns them in midair.

The head of PKT also has very poor priority and is broken by many attacks. The tail however, has near infinite priority and will not be broken at all. Wonderful!

Now how is this useful? Let me answer your question with my own; how is this NOT useful?

It gives Ness' PKT ultimate priority and keeps thunder alive. Since the thunder is still going, you can proceed to hit them with the head, more parts of the tail, floorblast, or even a PKT2! It also racks up good damage and stuns for quite a while. There is a lot you can do with tailwhipping.

Since it has insane priority, it blocks certain projectiles too. An example of this is Pikachu's Thunder jolt.

It's also good for edgeguarding certain characters, mainly the ones with fragile recoveries that will be screwed if they mess up like Wolf and Pit. Tailwhip them to make them just drop and do NOT hit them with the head.

The tail of PKT is huge now as compared to past games. It's probably the biggest projectile in the game now. Why is this useful? For dodging of course? Send PKT up to someone in the air and tailwhip them. If you control PKT right, there's no airdodging around the tail because it's way too long. (Wait, what did I just say?)

PKT mindgames were created with the tailwhip. The tailwhip is like the foundation of ALL advanced PKT techniques. There are some techniques that would be nothing without tailwipping like flexwhipping, PKT swell surprises, and the PKT reverse edgeguard. Use this. Master this. Sleep with this. Once you master tailwihpping, mindgames come naturally. Don't worry though, PKT mindgames will be described later.

Shield Scrape

Ness' PKT has a very pecualiar effect against shields. It can totally keep them on with creative use.

Use PKT and send it towards an opponent. As they use their shield, send PKT towards the very edge of it and allow it to hit just barely. Done right, PKTs head should go through the shield, still alive, but the tail wihll be dragging through the shield, repeatedly hitting it! It keeps them in the shield and you still have control of PKT. Its kinda like dtilting someone repeatedly while using PKT.

The uses can be very interesting actually. It doesn't do much damage to the shield alone, but it can help. First off, mindgames. Who would seriously, know what to do during this? Opponents will be confused and may panic enough to land PKTs head or even a PKT2 combined with other mindgames. It could help for shield pressure because you cannot put down your shield during this. It can also shield stab bigger characters with PKT. If the opponent releases their shield, then the tail WILL hit them. It also sets up for the following technique.

Practicing this is pretty hard, so just imagine where you can scratch the oter edge of someone's shield to try to do it. It's better than not hitting with PKT at all of course, so why not do it?

Shield Pierce
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvdpZTd9sZg

Wow this is cool! Apparently, you can get PKTs HEAD to go right through the center of a shield. To do this, you have to first perform a shield scrape OR have an opponent start shielding the tail after getting hit by it. After the shield scrape, loop the head of PKT into the shield right after. It should go through the shield completely, even the center!

This provides constant shield attacks, even though it won't eat up the shield very well, but like the shield scrape, it keeps opponents shielding and confuses them as to what to do. It does this even better than a basic shield scrape since PKT will be hitting them more in the shield. You now also have an unblockable projectile, just be sure to use this at a good range so you are not punsihed because by the time you make thesecond loop with PKT, you will not have time to wrap it around back to Ness for a PKT2 or floorblast. You can use this at a range of projectile spam also. It's a bit risky, but from that good range and with proper aiming, you can avoid punishment and stay safe.

Anti-Landing

Every time someone lands, there is a time period in which NO action can be taken. This means, even if they airdodge as they land and then shield immediately, they will still have a point of vulnerability.

Now how can we take advantage of this? With huge, long ranged, and long lasting attacks? What? Did you say PK Thunder?

Yes, PKT is a GREAT anti-landing move. You can punish opponents for just landing if you send a PKT to them. What can they do? Airdodge? Loop PKT around their landing spot and you will hit them. This also pops them up again making it so they have to land again. THis is perfect for juggling, and this improves Ness' offensive game a lot and as NESSBOUNDER said, Ness is probably one of the best juggles in the game.

You can even use the yo-yo. It's huge duration (charge it) makes it perfect for getting opponents who airdodge to the ground back up into the air. The only problem is the range.

False Recovery Aid

This is a simple concept to understand. This can be used as a pseudo edgeguard as it hurts opponents off the edge, but not always keeps them off.

To do it, hit someone recovering with the head of PKT. Hit them so that they are popped up towards you, usually onto the stage or very near it. After hitting them with PKT, hit them with another edgeguard attack like the bat or an aerial.

Try to lag cancel PKT too. It will help avoid lag punishment and allow you to follow up the PKT with more or better attacks. Add some tailwhipping in there for added damage, and smake PKT for a dash of mindgames.

This is escapable after getting hit with PKT, but it can sometimes surprise the opponent and ruin their reaction. If they airdodge, use the yo-yo for an anti-landing or time a well placed attack. If they use an aerial, read it and counter.

Use this when you know you can't pull off a proper edgeguard as it can lead to good damage. Use it on people who have aerials that you do not necessarily have to fear getting hit by during the lag of PKT. Just throw it in as a good way to damage every now and then and as a surprise. Don't overuse it as it is possible to escape and people will catch on.

Opponent: You saved me, thanks!
Ness player: *crack* You're welcome!

Ledgewhip

Ok, I know this is a Lucas technique also, and it's MUCH more effective for Lucas and overall a better technique, but Ness has his own little version of this that can work sometimes.

So the concept of this technique is to aim for an opponent trying to sweetspot the edge, or at least going near it. You tailwhip them to make them drop a bit under the stage then you use PKT to knock them into the stage, stagespiking them.

To do this, send PKT down by the ledge so that the tail covers it, or blocks anyone trying to get to it. Now use the head of PKT to PULL the opponent towards the lip of the stage. Remember, PKTs head pulls people in the direction it came from. Now let me go more into detail on how to land the head correctly.

First of all, you want to lang the head so that the knockback pulls them into the stage as early as possible because the hitstun will extend after the stagespike. Also, try to land the head as close to the stage as possible, as in wrap the head around so that it just barely passes the ledge.

Now I also have to describe how to hit with the head of PKT. After the tailwhip, you have 2 ways of wrapping PKT around to hit the target. The first way is to make a 6 shape like below. You send PKT far enough away from the stage to make a circle under the ledge then hit with the head in their front. This is easier on stage with slanted edges or very thin ones like Smashville and Lylat Cruise.



The second way is to make a circle around the opponent and hit them in their front with the PKT coming from behind them. It's a bit tricky to aim, but it's generally more effective than the above method because you don't need all that room by the stage.



This trick is stage specific. It needs solid stages (So no Delfino Plaza or Halberd Skies) and it needs to have a sharp ledge that can stagespike like Final Destiantion or Smashville. I reccommend Lylat Cruise or Smashville for this technique, but moreso Smashville because Ness does bad on Lylat Cruise; He gets motion sickness easily and hates flying, just like me.

This technique works best as a low percent gimping technique on fragile or just plain bad recoveries. Use it mainly when they are recovering from far to the side or low. You can tailwhip any which way you want, but the PKT head impact placement is a bit strict. This won't work as well at higher percents because PKT will pop them up too high and over the ledge rather than into it. Don't use it at TOO low percents either because PKT will have minimal hitstun.

This technique is hard to aim and pull off, and it's also escapable. If the opponent DIs right, they can go straight up with PKT, and it's also techable. They can also survive if they grasp the stagespike or have good recovery, and some characters can take action after the tailwhip. You have to work fast.

Like I said, sometimes it won't KO on its own. In fact, people can usually Up B out of it, but usually, on the right characters, an edgehog will cause them to die. You can also follow up with a spike or any edgeguard move you want.

Should you mess up, do not fret, for it is not an extremely punishable technique. Also, if you mess up as in you hit with the head of PKT and they recover, you can turn it into a False Recovery Aid.

Full Range PKT2

This is more of a property of PKT2 rather than a technique, but can be used for mindgames with PKT.

PKT2s direction is NOT influenced by the trajectory of PKT when it hits Ness, but rather the point of impact on Ness. So this means PKT can be going straight left but still hit Ness straight up. This goes for any directions. PKT goes left and hits you right, PKT goes down and hits you right, etc. The only excpetions may be the vertical ranges due to gravity.

This can be used for tricking people into thinking you will go one way when you fly another.

Inverse PKT2 Recovery

Eaten thunder sucks right? well, f someone is trying really hard to eat your thunder by getting to the back of you, you have 1 option to avoid death: The inverse PKT2 recovery.

Say you are edgeguarding someone. You jump out, bair them, they almost die, but not quite. You then hit them with an fair. They are still alive, but you need to get back to the stage. But the opponent is behind you and the stage is in front of you. You have no double jump, so you must use PKT2 to make it back. But alas, that opponent spells death with his body as a meatshield for PKT.

That's when you use this. Just send PKT around in FRONT of Ness. Now hitting yourself in the direction you just sent PKT in can be difficult, but it IS possible. This could save your life.

Another way to use this is when you are attempting a Heavens descent from off stage as you recover. Say you try to send PKT onto the stage while you are off to get rid of that annoying edgeguarder. Well you do, but he just runs away. No time to stage cancel it because your thunder is too high. Just bring it back to Ness and shoot him towards the stage.

If you're really daring, you could even use this to set up a PKT reverse edgeguard!

Surface to Air Missile

The SAM is a PKT2 into the air from the ground. This uses the mechanics of the full ranged PKT2.

Since PKT2s direction is affected by the point of impact instead of the trajectory of PKT, Ness IS able to get off of solid ground using PKT to go into PKT2.

To do it, simply aim PKT at Ness' shoes. Hit him low enough so that he will rise up when he uses PKT2.

This is useful for PKT mindgames since people do not always realize Ness can go airborne off of solid ground with PKT. It also gives it more vertical range obviously. Since Ness will end PKT2 in the air, he will also cancel some of the lag. It will not be a perfect PKT2 lag cancel, but it will be less laggy than a grounded PKT2. It's also harder to shield grab Ness after a SAM since he can go over shields, lag cancel, throw off grab timing since he's airborne, and DI away as he falls down. Another situation that this could be used in is when using PKT2 near the edge. Since this trades some horizontal distance for vertical distance, you can use this to prevent yourself from shooting off the edge.

Another thing. This is very easy on stages with pass through floors like Delfino Plaza and Battlefield. PKT can go right through the bottom and shoot Ness in any direction he wants to.

You can also do this easily on any ledge. Just stand on it so that part of Ness is hanging off the edge and hit that part with PKT to get Ness airborne.

Also, on most stages with thin edges (Like Final Destination, Smashville, and Battlefield), if you stand Ness by the edge, but not directly on it so that he is completely on the ground, you can use PKT in a special way to get a SAM. If you are close enough, you can direct PKT into the bottom of the stage right under Ness and if you did it right, PKT will be able to pass through a part of the stage to hit Ness into PKT2.

PKT2 Phase

PK Thunder can be used to do PKT2 of course, and it's obvious hitting youself anywhere on Ness' body will cause this. But if something is in the way between Ness nad PK Thunder, then obviously the PKT2 won't excecute... or will it?

Some of you may have noticed that PKT2 can be done even sometimes when it seems like someone is in the way. Yes, it DOES go through some opponents to a certain extent, even if Ness' visual hitbox isn't going completely through them and making full contact with PK Thunder.

Want to prove it? Try it on the stage. Yes, THE STAGE. PK Thunder can go through a part of the stage and hit Ness even though Ness isn't standing with a part of him hanging off the ledge. This works best on stages with slanted edges like Final Destination, Battlefield, and Smashville. With proper spacing, you can get PK Thunder to travel even through the edge of the stage to hit Ness into PKT2. Try this on the fin of Corneria, it's the easiest.

So uses? Well, this can REALLY help lang PKT2 sometimes because it can really confuse opponents and broadens the precision and timing you need to land a close range PKT2. Just think about the possibilities of having PK Thunder going through an oppoent who tries to approach leading to a SWEETSPOTTED PKT2!

Another use is for the ledge version of this. It can be used for mindgames of course. It leads to a surface to air missile, much higher than a normal one, and opponents may not expect you to be able to reach such an altitude from the ground. You can even use this with the ledgecrawl for a quick an unexpected PKT2, though probably not too useful.

Thunderslide

Get on a platform. Run off of it, and as soon as you get off, use PKT. Ness should slide in the air as he uses it. Now, since he's sliding towards PKT, he can hit himself with it faster than normal. This can result in quick and unexpected PKT2s. If you hit Ness as soon as possible, you will shoot quickly upwards at a high angle. This can be useful to surprise opponents on stages with many platforms like Battlefield when they're above you. It also works on flat stages if someone is in your path.

Ledgebending
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3WM9Zw7HrQ

This is such a s3xy looking technique, and it can be useful too! When Ness shoots at the right side ledge of the stage with PKT2 and impacts at th correct point, he will have his direction relfected over the Y axis. This means when he PKT2s southwest into the edge, he will ledgebend and start shooting northwest. His angle depends on the direction you are going when you shoot the edge.

It's quite amazing really, but it's tricky finding the right point to shoot into the ledge. When you ledgebend, Ness' PKT2 hitbox is still active, so yes, you CAN hit people with this. No one expects it and it's hard to punish and see coming. It will also most likely lag cancel PKT2 at certain angles.

Note that this is a stage specific maneuver and it's very difficult on some levels. It's very hard to do on Final Destination, but very easy on Battlefield. The stage also has to have a solid right side ledge, so this will not work on the Halberd or Delfino Plaza.

If you master this, you will be awesome. It's unpredictable and PKT2s hitbox is deadly so you can really punish edgeguarders with this.

Invinciblast

When someone is KOed, they come back invincible for a while. During this invicibility, you can use PKT2s unique stall characteristics to land an unexpected blow!

When you hit something with PKT2, Ness stops for a while, and puases in invicibility, unable to be harmed. Cool, invicibility that can be used against other invicible opponents.

So, when someone comes down off of the recovery platform, PKT2 from the air to the ground diagonally into them. Make sure you hit with the sweetspot of PKT2. Also, try to PKT2 into them near the end of their invincibility which lasts a few seconds. With correct spacing and timing, your oppoent will get hit by the sweetspot of PKT2 as soon as their invicibility ends.

People usually walk into you trying to take advanatage of their invincibility time, so counter them with this when they do. If they use fast characters, they may be able to run away or attack you out of it, but it's not likely.

Floorblast

Because of PKT, Ness (and Lucas) can set himself on the ground, flat on his face without hurting themselves. To do this, direct PKT into Ness from above to shoot him downwards directly into the stage. You can do this aerially or grounded.

This at first seems useless and just a mere trick, but this is very useful as a matter of fact. It makes it so Ness experiences no lag from PKT or PKT2. Hitting the floor is lagless and safe.

First of all, it's mainly used in PKT mindgames. You can ring PKT around the opponents to intimidate them then ring it back around to Ness. If they see this coming and you know you cannot PKT2 them, don't be predictable and blast into them; floorblast! This keeps you unpredictable and safe since you have no lag.

You can also try to PKT your opponent, but should you miss, try as hard as you can to floorblast since you can't get punished for doing so.

Once you floorblast, it also plays a little mindgame on its own. While action cancelled (lying on the floor) on the ground, Ness can roll either way or do a getup attack called a flex kick. Flex kicks are very useful since they have invicibility frames during the attack and have insane priority. People think Ness is very vulnerable when action cancelled, but on the contrary, Ness is set up for an invincible and high priority attack. You can even do this constantly to annoy your opponent, and when they finally realize your flex kicks, roll behind them instead.

Edge Cancelled PKT2

A very interesting property of PKT2. When you floorblast, you bounce a bit when you hit the ground. During this bounce, landing will result in a normal floorblast. If you go off the edge during this bounce however, Ness will stop PKT2 completely, sparkle a bit, and go into a regular fall animation. You can then do aerials or anything out of it.

To do it, shoot at a steep enough angle at the ground to floorblast, but put a little angle in it so that Ness will bounce sideways when he floorblasts. He will bounce, fall off, sparkle a bit, then go into a basic fall animation.

You can really play with the opponent's mind with this, and you can aim for PKT2, and then use an aerial if you miss. It's best used on stages with platforms like Battlefield.

PKT2 Against Walls

PKT2 acts very strangely in general, and when it comes to walls, this is no exception. Ness' (and Lucas') PKT2 acts so strange around walls that I felt that people would like to know about this kind of stuff.

Wallhugging

Now, wall hugging is usually a basic technique for most characters that recover with basic recovery specials (Fox, Luigi, Marth, etc.), but since PKT2 is so unique, Ness has a little twist to his recovery.

For Ness to be able to wallhug, he has to shoot at the wall at a shallow angle. meaning you have to be as least prependicular to the wall as possible, otherwise, you will wallbounce (described below). Also, for some strange reason, you can only do a full wallhug on the left side of the stage. This means you can only hug wall starting left and shooting right into them. It's some programming error.

Technically, you can wallhug up the right side of a stage, but only for a very small distance, and after the distance, you will wallbounce.

You need to know this for wall edge stages like the Halberd and Yoshi's Island. It can also help a bit on stage with those slanted edges.

Wallbouncing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFQ3cshnAog

So wallhugging works only on the left side of the stage, but wallbouncing works only on the right side. Weird huh? THis isn't always helpful, because sometimes you try to shoot or the ledge and you bounce away from it, so basically, it's something to watch out for.

However, as the video above showed, you can sometimes recover with it! It's a very strange mechanic. You bounce towards the direction you came from, which is why people who try to recover die after a wallbounce. This is because they mostly recover up and bounce back down. However, if oyu shoot down into the wall at the right angle, you can bounce back up and sweetspot the edge! Amazingly cool, but probably not all that useful.

You might be able to nab people recovering under the stage like ROB, or maybe a wall clinger like Lucario. But remember, after hitting the wall, the hitbox dissappears.

Sometimes, wallbouncing will let you recover even from below! Strange, and I'm not sure what causes it,but i have hit the wall and bounced to the ledge to sweetspot it.

Like wallhugging, this technique has a technicality. You can do it on the left wall, but you have to shoot into it at a very steep angle. On the right side, any angle will make you wall bounce.

Wallblasting

It's basically another verion of floorblasting with a similar effect. If you blast into a wall, you can get yourself on the floor just like a floorblast.

To do it, shoot directly into a wall to wallbounce. After the wall bounce, Ness will shoot backwards in a little arc. After the arc, he goes into the helpless animation. If you hit the ground before he goes into the helpless animation, Ness will land action cancelled.

So you can bounce back a good distance before you hit the ground, but if you shoot directly into the wall from the ground, Ness will hardly bounce back anywhere and hit the ground right next to the wall.

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So PKT2 acts really wierd with walls. This bouncing is the main peculiarity, so play with it and see what it's like. Try it out on Shadow Moses Island. Also learn to wallhug, and remember the facts with it (it only works on the left side of a stage!). Same goes for the wallbounce (don't wallhug on the right side of a stage!).

Flexwhip

Using the tail of PKT keeps it alive, meaning that Ness can do anything he wants with himself and PKT. Like a swell surprise, you can use PKT2, but you can also combine it with a floorblast, meaning you can PKT the opponent, then floorblast.

After the floorblast, you can bait opponents to come your way and flex kick them. Flex kicks are safe, aided with invicibility and high priority.

The best way to use this is to use PKT while someone is coming down on you. Snake PKT with wise mindgames to entrap foes in the tail to stun them long enough for you to floorblast. Then,when they think that they can catch you in the lag, floorblast and flex kick when opponents near.

Another way to use this is to put PKT in front of you and tailwhip oncoming opponents. Then, fake a PKT2 in their direction, but instead, floorblast. Then, opponents may think they can attack you, so counter them with a well timed flex kick.

PK Thunder Swell Surprise
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9ZgV-7KvXQ

This is a beautiful way to KO someone. Everyone loves doing this (every Ness player that is lol). Don't let the name of the video fool you fool you. It's been in Melee, and it was named this in that game, but it's much better now since PKT is faster, the tail is longer, and it stuns opponents perfectly to get hit with PKT2. You also don't have to restrict it to the basic pattern used in the video. You can get REALLY creative with this.

To do this, tailwhip someone with PKT to stun them, then bring PKT around to yourself to PKT2 into them. You have to do the tailwhip near you to keep them stunned long enough. You can even get creative with PKT and tailwhip them more than once. You should be hitting them with the sweetspot.

Landing this is easier than people might think. All it requires is a little mindgames. You can juggle someone and fakt them into this move. You have to have full understanding of the height that PKT will go over Ness' head when you make the tightest turn possible. This makes it a very deadly move.

Heavens Descent

If Ness is being juggled, he can use PKT creatively to protect himself.

Since you can control PKT (duh) you can send PKT under Ness to hit that juggler out of the way. Be careful when you do this. You shouldn't do this mindlessly. First of all, read your opponent. Space it well and make sure you use it when the opponent is in the air already trying to get you, or at least if you know they are far enough for you to land safely. Second, try as much as you can to lag cnacel it. If that's too hard, you can also sweetspot. Thirdly, mindgmae it. Don't just go for the opponent right away (unless you are sure it will hit). Snake it, tailwhip, and stage cancel if you miss. This technique is very delicate. Be careful with it, and it will help.

Be careful of PKTs priority. Be wary that it has poor priotiy and will be cancelled by many aerials. You can use the tail instead.

Now, Ness doesn't HAVE to use PKT on its own. You can easily twist it into a PKT2. Send it under you to fend off opponents and make a wall between you and the opponent with the tail, then bring it up over Ness to PKT2. Great for mindgames. It's hard to describe the pattern, so just try it and figure it out. The time you take to send it under you and back to PKT2 can be strict, so make sure you realize when PKT will time out. With the PKT2, you can do anything really. PKT2 into the opponent for offensive surprises, PKT2 away for defense, floorblast for stability, or PKT2 to the edge for safety. If you're really good with your control, you can even lag cancel PKT2. Try to use a full ranged PKT2 action with PKT2 here since PKT is running out of time, and you will trick opponents allso.

This technique is good, but difficult to use right. Mindgames, spacing, timing, and reading is all necessary to use this well. Do it right, and it can serve you well.

PK Thunder Reverse Edgeguard

Edgeguarders are a pain, and so is eaten thunder. This technique allows Ness to defend himself as recover and even counter the edgeguarding!

To do it, when knocked off the stage with only PKT left, use it near an opponent, but instead of hitting yourself right away, tailwhip them first. This will stop their approach and probably scare them into making a retreat. After the tailwhip, try to save yourself.

After tailwhipping, you have 3 options:

1. PKT2 back to the stage and edgeguard them.
2. PKT2 to the ledge and edgehog people with poor recoveries like Olimar.
3. PKT2 THEIR ***!!!

Careful with option 3 though. You must realize that PKT2 gets shorter after hittin something. Only use that when you are close enough to the stage.

Getting the tailwhip in can be hard. Your spacing and timing must be very precise. Use PKT a bit early when the opponent approaches, and if you're feeling daring, you can even try an inverse PKT2.

PK Thunder Ledgestalls

Ness has been given the gift of the ledgestall. A way to stay safe on the edge from most attacks. However, Ness' ledgestall is a bit different than others and can be used different ways. This section explains those ways.

Defensive PKT Ledgestall

This is most easily achieved with tap jump off. If you have it on, you will either have to drop a bit lower under the lip before you use PKT, or hit Up and B at the exact same time so that you don't accidentally double jump first.

This is how you do it without tap jump. While hanging in the ledge, press back to drop off. Then immediately use PKT once you get off, steer PKT into the stage. You really shouldn't see it at all. With tap jump on, you have to drop down a bit more or use PKT without accidentally jumping first.

With this, Ness can hang on the edge, let go, and regrab it for invincibility frames. People very close by will get zapped, but it's not really meant for hitting people.

This is good for just hanging on the ledge safely. It's the quickest way for Ness to drop off and regrab it, and the safest since he's right under the lip to protect him (unless your opponent can hit through that, but the hitbox will still protect you.).

This can be put to good use with edgehogging. You can hang on the ledge, then use a PKT ledgestall. Ness will regrab the edge and get invincibility frames! This will protect him from and recovery moves that hit the edge.

WARNING!: Be careful with this technique. Only use it if you have mastered the timing. Ness has to start the ledgestall a bit before most character need to use their recovery move. If done incorrectly, you can get hit out of it, or worse, get edge hogged yourself!

Another basic use is to hang on the ledge as long as you want. Hanging there without doing anything will cause you to fall off if you do nothing, but with this, you repeatedly gab the edge and thus, avoid falling off the edge.

ANOTHER WARNING!: This does NOT work on stages that you can pass through the floor like Halberd, Delfino Plaza, and Pirate Ship. You have to use the offensive one for the stall on these stages.

Offensive PKT Ledgestall

This technique is like the above, only PKT is actually used to hit people. This technique is done more easily with tap jump on. Without tap jump, you have to jump before you use PKT.

With tap jump on, simply press back and then up then B. You should press Up and B at almost the same time, but not quite. This will make Ness double jump and then quickly stop his risingwith PKT. Now after you activate PKT, turn it into a tight circle into the stage. PKT should make a semi-circle and then hit the floor of the stage. Without tap jump on, after you press back, you have to squeeze in a jump button before you use PKT.

Ness will shoot PKT onto the stage to hit people away and then re-grab the edge. The great part about this is that Ness' PKT pulls people in the direction they it came from. Since it will be coming onto the stage from off the edge, it will pull them off the stage! They will probably DI that way also since they were probably trying to attack you when you used it.

Use this when you are hanging on the ledge and opponents are all on top of you trying to get you off. It's pretty safe since most aerials cannot go straight through the PKT and hit Ness. The PKT stalls them in the air when they hit it and buys Ness just enough time to regrab the edge and get invincibility. It can be used as a safer option than the ledgedrop because it keeps Ness on the edge, gives him invincibility, and protects him with the bolt. It even gets enemies away completely.

WARNING!: This DOES protect him from most aerials because they hit PKT and give Ness time to grab the edge. However, if they use a multi-hit aerial, you are in danger of being hit still. Be careful of this, ESPECIALLY with Yoshi and Kirby whose dairs hit repeatedly AND spike.

This can also be used for edghogging, but it's slower than the defensive version, so why use this instead of that?

Apparently there is ANOTHER way to ledgestall with PK Thunder. This method provides PKT a tad more range as it goes farther onto the stage, but take note that it trades range for some defense as Ness is a bit more exposed. The difference is minimal though.

Anyways, to do it, hang on the edge and do a normal edge jump. If you attempt to ledgecrawl with PKT during the very first frame or two of the ledgejump, Ness will get up, but still be considered off the stage. So, after using PKT, direct it into the stage. Like a normal offensive PKT ledgestall, Ness should drop down to the ledge again and regrab it.

Thundergrab

If you haven't noticed, PKT2 automatically sweetspots the edge, meaning shooting into it makes you quickly grab it. Ness double jump however, doesn't (as with all double jumps). However, if you ever wanted to grab the edge instantly out of the double jump, now you can!

Double jump towards the edge. Once you get close enough, DI under the lip of the stage and use a PKT ledgestall. Either one will work. Defensive will be quicker and offensive will be... well... more offensive.

This can be used to make a safer sweetspot rather than jumping onto the stage where an opponent can more easily hit you.

A good way to use this is when you are returning to the stage and you still have your double jump. Say someone is on the edge trying to hit you as you return. You use the fair and hit them away, but you fall past the edge and go under it since you cannot sweetspot the edge during an aerial. You want to get back of course, but not land on top of the stage. So you double jump and right before you pass the ledge, you use PKT and steer the thunder into the stage. Safe sweetspot. GGs people.

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Ledgestalls are use to me. I find myself using the offensive one a lot. A fun little mindgame is to use a few defensive ones, and then when someone comes by to hit you thinking that you aren't doing much, use a quick offensive one. These in combination can provide safe returns to the stage, better sweetspotting, and contribute to Ness' already good edgegame.

Lagless PK Thunder

This section covers the weird mechanics of cancelling the lag on PKT and PKT2 for Ness. It's all about when you land.

PKT Lag Cancel

Ness has many lag points when he uses PKT. In the air, it is mostly determined by the animation he was correctly in when it was cancelled. Normally, when PKT is cancelled in the air, Ness does a small flip, then falls bottom first. Ending PKT means hitting something to make the bolt go away, be it a stage element, character, item, anything other than Ness himself. For these examples, lets just aim for hitting the stage itself.

If you end PKT on the ground, you experience quite a bit of lag. Ness shakes his head and snaps out of the incantation.

If you end it close to the ground, but in the air, Ness will start to flip, but won't be able to complete the flip. His head should bob down under his legs, and when he hits the ground, he experiences a little lag as he shakes.

If you end it way too high up in the air, Ness lands on hit bottom and experiences land fall special lag which was increased greatly from Melee to Brawl for almost everyone. He will bend down completely and white puffy clouds appear. This height is not easily achiaved on your own, so this isn't something too horrible to worry about. To see this in action, spawn a spring in training mode, jump on it, and double jump at the peak. Then cancel PKT as soon as possible.

If you full jump then double jump, that height will allow you to cancel a LOT of the lag from Ness' PKT. He just puts his arms down very quickly.

Now if you end it at the perfect height, Ness will try to flip and fall on his bottom, but land and have NO lag. He even slides a bit when he does this. Great, now how do we do this? You have to end PKT at the perfect height.

The height to cancel this cannot be achieved on your own. For help, spawn a spring in training mode. Jump on it, and at the peak of the jump, double jump and use PKT about 1/4 of the height of the double jump. So basically, spring jump, quick double jump, and then cancel PKT. When you land, you should have NO lag. If you hold forward as you land, Ness slides a bit. Cool.

PKT2 Lag Cancel

This technique revolves around the same physics as the PKT Lag cancel, only the height is different. For testing, go to Hyrule Temple on the largest airborne platform there. It is tan and has broken pillars. I will also be referring to using PKT2 as quickly as possible, meaning making the sharpest turn you can as soon as it comes out to hit Ness.

If you end PKT2 on the ground, Ness spins for a bit then slides. That's a basic PKT2 with all the lag.

Now, try short hopping and doing a PKT2 as quickly as you can. You should experience the normal land fall special lag. Lots of it. We don't want that.

While standing on the platform, walk off of it and drop down about 1 Bowser height then PKT2. You should experience a lot of lag where Ness shakes his arms and head.

Now walk off of it and drop below it about the height of a Smash Ball. PKT2 and land on the platform. You get a little lag where Ness just quickly puts his arms down. Great, we're almost there.

This time, stand right at the edge. Walk off and as soon as you walk off, PKT2 as quickly as you can. Now Ness should land on the platform with NO lag.

This works on any stage anywhere, but I just wanted you to understand the heights easily, and this is easiest to understand at Hyrule Temple.

Basically, to PKT2LC, just end PKT2 about a full jumps height off the stage.

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If you've comprehended what I've been telling you, you should see a pattern. Landing then cancelling the move makes lots of lag. When used in the air, the lag can be shortened. The closer you are to the ground when you cancel it, the more lag you have. The higher you are, the less lag you have-UNTIL Ness completes his flipping animation. So you wanna try to aim for landing as late as possible during this animation, but if you land too late, he completes the flip and undergoes that horrible land fall special lag.

The best way to get a grasp on PKTLC is to remember when to land during Ness' flipping animation. Just go for the latest time. So hit someone (or the stage) at the perfect time and height and fast fall it to land with the right timing. PKT lag cancel can be used in Heaven's Descent (another AT for Ness).

For PKT2LC, just get used to the heights and try to lag cancel when you can. This can provide safer recoveries for the PKT2 lag cancel.

PK Thunder Mindgames

Not a technique bunch, but a VeRy important part of Ness' advnaced play.

THis section will be updated day to day with more and more PKT mindgames. There's a ton to know, and experimentation is needed, but this can give you some ideas of what you can do wiwth PKT techniques and creativity.

Circles

One of my favorite mindgames. It's simple, useful, and annoying to the opponent :bee:

To do it, use PKT from a safe distance, but not too far from the opponent so that PKT doesn't time out. Now go towards them with PKT. Odds are they'll shield, dodge, or roll. When they do said actions, circle PKT back towards yourself, then back into them later. You should have a good chance of hitting them.

If they shield, they usually put down their shield once they see PKT heading back, then you can strike them before they put up their shield. If they just keep their shield up in panic, you can really waste the power of the shield.

If they dodge, just pop PKT into them once they are done. Same goes for the roll, only you have to pull PKT back a bit more.

Circling is one of my favorite mindgames and most used. It feels so natural and annoying. This is a starter mindgame I reccommend for PKT enthusiasts.

Also, at last resort should they somehow get past PKT, you can always bring it back to Ness to PKT2 out of the danger zone, or floorblast it.

Backstab

This is a fun and annoying mindgame, and it can prove useful too of course.

Send PKT towards an opponent. Make sure you send it close enough to them to make sure they think you will hit them directly. As they shield or spotdodge or whatever, turn PKT upwards and back down. You should make something like a half circle around them with PKT, and you usually hit them in their backs. Basically, you are alerting them with PKT, sending it a bit up making them dodge or shied early, then bringing it back down after a point of stalling to hit them. People can spotdodge early or let shields down thinking you won't hit them with PKT.

The shape doesn't have to be EXACTLY like that, and you don't HAVE to hit their backs, but the point of the backstab is to send PKT towards them, fake them out with a direct hit, then stall it a bit and hit them after they react early.

PKT2 Circles

PKT2 circles is like the basic PKT circles, but you fit in a PKT2 somewhere in there.

One way to do this is to send PKT behind you as if to PKT2 into an opponent. But instead of instantly blasting into them in a most obvious fashion, make a circle behind Ness with PKT. Then after the circle, PKT2 later.

Most people like to shield and counter PKT2, or sometimes they jump. If you PKT2 at them late, they can take the action early and get hit later. At the very least, this should protect you from being countered out of PKT2. If they are the type of opponents that are bad at reading or have poor reactions and they shield the whole time, their shield will have been heavily weakened by the time PKT2 hits them.

PKT2 Fake

A simple on here. Use PKT and send it behind you and circle it near you as if to PKT2 into an opponent. Instead of doing the obvious, send PKT a bit above Ness so that it doesn't hit him at all and heads towards the opponent. THen use PKT to hit them.

This is a nice one, but the payoff isn't too high. But it is good to mix up with PKT2 Circles.

Thunder Bait

It's kind of a like a relative to the PKT2 circle mindgame. As the name suggests, this mindgame involves using PKT to bait opponents towards Ness for all sorts of outcomes. With this, use PKT when a good distance away from the opponent, about in the range of PKT2. Now send PKT ahead of you in between you and the opponent. Act like you are going to hit them with PKT, so they play defense. After they start shielding or dodging or jumping or whatever, bring PKT back to Ness.

Now, here's where you have to get tricky. The opponent can sometimes have time to react after their defensive maneuver. So, you have a few choices here. You can PKT2 into them if you are daring and the reward can compensate for the risk. If thy have slow reaction, then this will work still. This is helpful for when they try to rush in thinking they can beat PKT in a race back to Ness to lag punish him.

To maximize the usefulness of this mindgame, snake it, be unpredicable, put PKT in front of the approaching opponent, do everything you can to make them lose the race between PKT to Ness.

Your next option would be to floorblast. If you think they will shield it, do NOT PKT2 into them to get shield punished. Instead, floorblast to cut lag time and stay on the safe side.

Finally, if they are very precautious and taking things slow, you can just stage cancel PKT. Not always the best option due to the la you still suffer, but still and option. The best part about this option is that it doesn't have to be near Ness at all.

You can also PKT2 away for a safe getaway.

This one is very good to use and I use it often. It works well mixed up with basic PKT circles. Just make sure you know your spacing well and know the speed of your opponent and PKT. Think, who can win the race back to Ness? Sonic? Probably. Ganondorf? Probably not.

There's another variation of this mindgame that can be useful as well. Jump in the air and use an inversed PKT2 by sending PKT under Ness. Opponents may think you are trying to hit them and dodge early when you whip it behind you to PKT2. Use a full-ranged PKT2 to maximize mindgame potential, speed, and angle.

Shocker

This is a very good and rewarding technique. To do this, find an opponent in the air that seems to be vulnerable to a juggle. Jump under then, and use PKT a bit under them. They may airdodge, and if they do, loop PKT around to yourself, and PKT2 into them after the airdodge. You can even send PKT into them to tailwhip them a few times to do a swell surprise.

Use this during a juggle because opponents might start seeing a uair coming instead. Also, try to make sure your timing and spacing is correct. It may differ with characters who have faster fall speeds and different aerial mobility.

Aerial Fake Out

After kncking someone in the air, a good idea is to juggle right? Uairs are great for juggling, but they can get predictable. So you have to mix up your juggling. You can also juggle with PKT, but that alone also gets predictable. So lets throw in a mindgame.

Knock someone into the air and then jump up to them as if to uair them. INstead of going for the headbutt, use PKT a bit early and under the opponent. They may airdodge with the wrong timing and you can land a hit. A good thing to add to the aerial fake out is a double jump right before you use PKT. The noise may alert the opponents to airdodge with bad timing.

Should you miss, try to lag cancel PKT or use and PKT2 maneuver be it a shocker or floorblast.

Off-Screen PK Thunder and PKT2

In past games, the screen would pan out to let you see PKT when it got too far. In Brawl however, it does not. Drawback? I think NOT!

Okay, so the idea of this is pretty basic. Send PKT off screen to surprise oppoents with an attack they don't even see coming! Just make sure you have perfect control and know where PKT is. They often think you have lost control and try to rush in to attack you in the lag.

A great thing to do with this is turn it into PKT2! Send PKT off screen and pretend like you have lost control. When they come in for the kill, blast them while continuously laughing at their predictability (mandatory).

PK Flash lag cancel

There is a way to use PK Flash and cancel the lag from it (even thought the lag is relatively low to start with).

In order to perform this maneuver, you must use PK Flash in the air and release it at a certain height from the ground. The height is a somewhere between the max height of a short hop, and the max height of the full jump. Best put to use with quick, uncharged PK Flashes.

If done correctly, Ness should land with a very quick animation.
Done wrong and Ness can do the following.

1. If you land before he actually releases it (release too late), he will land and then go through his animation of releasing PK Flash like normal.
2. You release too early and Ness goes through his aerial release animation and has land fall special lag (the kind you get when you land from a helpless animation).

Doing this will cancel the aerial release lag and the landfall special lag.

Flash Shift

I thought I should mention this, even though the uses are close to none. This follows the same principals as the thunder shift. With the C-stick set to specials or smash, you can slightly move PK Flash either left or right. Not much of a use since you do not need to be as precise with PK Flash as PKT, but it does work. Remember with the B-stick, you have to constantly flick the stick.

How to Use PK Flash Smartly

Ok, I'm tired of PK Flash being called PK Cross, and also being called useless.

First of all, PK Flash does NOT have to be used fully charged!!! **** how much do I have to emphasize this!?

The best uses it has are for mindgames and UNCHARGED.

UNCHARGED
UNCHARGED

UN-FREAKIN-CHARGED!!!

Ok, now that i got that out of my system, let me describe how to use the uncharged Flash. First of all, realize that an uncharged PK Flash is FAST. It has more range than the uair and more priority than PKT. PKT can be cancelled by a lot of aerial attacks, and PKT2 is slowish. The uair is dangerous at times against certain aerials like Lucario's dair or ROBs nair. PK Flash has nice range and speed and it lag cancels.

Now use this with a little trick. Jump uner someone to fake a uair, and since the FLash hitbox is bigger, you can hit with it at a lower position, so basically, use it at a height a bit lower than where you would uair to make them dodge late or have improper reaction.

You can also charge it a LITTLE to increase its height a bit. try not to be obvious or vulnerable, and PK Cro-err... Flash and it will be good to you.

Now for mindgames. PK Flash moves slowly in an intimidating fashion. It has a huge hitbox and can be released at ANY time. It is obviously extremely powerful in terms of knockback and damage.

This is easy to use as a baiting technique. People think you are vulnerable and have tons of lag. It's great range can help get opponents to come by. It also has insane priority and cannot be stopped by most if any attacks.

Flash WILL make people airdodge. Use this to your advantage. Make them miss the edge, make them vulnerable to a close range attack, or what have you. Sometimes, it makes people use counter moves, double jump, or Up B away. Read them and strike. Remember, PK Flash has extremely low lag which can also be cancelled. This is great for edgeguarding as it will help you land a lot nice attacks.

Now more information on to land a fully charged PK Flash.

Now for an edgeguard (which seems to be the first impression that this move shows). It CAN be used as an edgeguard, but it's not as siple asit seems. First of all, this has to beused as SOON as you knock someone off, as in this has to be your first intention because PK Flash falls slowly. This is to use the Flash AWAY from the ledge. Make sure it is out of sweetspot range because the ledge gives invincibility. This rule doesn't have to apply to characters who do not auto-sweetspot the ledge with their recovery moves like Sonic or Snake. Just make sure their recovery isn't so amazing that they cannot just move around the Flash.

If you want to use this on the edge, then go ahead, it's possible. To use it on the edge though, you have to time it so that it starts to descend right when the opponent gets to the ledge. This means the Flash will explode in range of the opponent on the ledge by the time their invincibility wears off. Most people however, will NOT allow this to happen.

For those smarter people (most of them), you should land PK Flash near the edge right when their invicibility starts to endand they take a ledge action. People usually stay on the edge then take a late ledge action. Remember, the rules for the ledgespike can apply here. there is a small frame of vulnerability after a ledge action which you can hit them in. You can time it to hit them then, OR right when they lose their invulnerability after the ledge action. Yes this is possible to time.

You can also use PK Flash on yourself. Yes, you will be fine, do not worry. The only thing you need to worry about is deadly grabs or quick attacks that you can get hit by quickly out of a dash like Squirtle's dthrow or certain usmashes. It's a mindgame here. People think they can get to Ness and punish him before the Flash gets low enough to hit them. This is a bigger gamble for them than for you. Their punishment has to be quick to come because if they are not quick enough, they will blow up. Usually a dash attack or grab comes your way. A lot of people will fear jumping into the range of the descending Flash. This is a good occassional mindgames and gamble, but do not uveruse this as it is not completely safe. Remember, do NOT commit to PK Flash as in follow through with the whole plan even if something goes wrong. If you know you will get hit first, release the Flash and shield. Don't think to yourself "no wait, I can hit him!" just release and shield. Remember, PK Flash's lag is pretty low.

Now in combination with other advanced techniques. B reverse it when you need to because PK Flash goes farther in front of you compared to a reverse Flash. Also use the lag cancel because it keeps you from being vulnerable upon landing.

PSI Magnet Lag Cancel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8uw5-b7e0s&feature=related

Very useful on campers, and very easy to do also. You should be able to get the hang of this instantly.

When you use PSIM and you absorb something, Ness goes through a quick animation. During this animation, you can cancel the PSIM by shielding or jumping.

Since you can shield and jump, you can spot dodge, roll, usmash, PKT, or double jump.

This is easy to do, so after you absorb something, just jump or shield to cancel the lag.

PSI Magnet Wavedash

This technique gives a similar effect to wavedashing and using PSI Magnet at the same time.

To do it, crouch down while holding diagonally downwards. Now jump and use PSIM in quick succession. Basically, you are jumping and then using PSIM with the control stick going diagonally.

This should give Ness some forward momentum as he uses PSIM. The distance you move depends on when you use PSIM. The earlier you use it in a jump, the faster it comes out of course, but the distance you slide decreases. By letting the jump come out a bit more when you hop forward, you will slide further with the magnet.

This is useful for Certain close range or long lasting projectiles. For example, Bowser is using Firebreath and you just escaped from the end of it. You want to get back in to heal yourself quickly, so you use the PSIM Wavedash to move forward into the flames with PSIM up. Just be sure to be aware of the startup time on PSIM. This can also be used for Charizards flamethrower and Pikachus thunder in a similar fashion.

My favorite way to use this is with quick long range projectiles coming at you fast. Sometimes, the startup time on PSIM is too slow, and it's really annoying when Wolf is shooting that blaster towards you and you can't absorb it in time. PSIM Wavedash backwards to buy yourself that little extra time you need to start up the magnet and enjoy your free health.

Psychokinetic Wind

Ness' PSI Magnet has a very strange after effect. When deactivated, it pushes opponents away from Ness.

This can be used for defense and to space attacks, mainly the bat. Someone tries to smash you, you use the PSI Wind and you push them out of their range so that you are safe. This protected you yes, but it also made your opponent whiff a smash, meaning that you can come in and punish! This wind effect seems to be perfect for landing a tipper bat, so go for it!

It generally can help you by accident also. Say Falco is laser spamming. You start absorbing, then he stops and rushes at you trying to hyphen smash. You get intimidated and deactivate PSI magnet, pushing him just far enough for him to miss. Phew...

Another way people have put this to their advantage is situational, but possible. Use it to push people off ledges. Sometimes, this takes them by surprise and they do not react very quickly. One person has mentioned pushing someone off as they attempted a dsmash. Instead, they used a dair and fast fell it, allowing their Ness to spike them with ease.

One of my favorite uses is to deflect certain projectiles. Projectiles like grenades, bombs, Pikmin, and other items can be pushed back with PSI Wind, sometimes even far enough to hit the user! Since you are technically not reflecting it and making it your own projectile, the projectile will not hurt any nearby opponent if it is not volatile. So Pikmin can be pushed, but will not attack Olimar.

Bombs and grenades however, fly very far when PSI wind hits them, and they can hurt the user! This is great, ESPECIALLY for grenades. Why? Because grenades do not explode on contact and willl not take Ness out of PSIM when they hit him. They do damage, but cause no flinching, and they fly FAR. Use this on Snakes who camp and use grenades.

They can even push grounded items on the floor, like gyros and Wario's bike wheels. I do not see any benefit from pushing the wheels, but here's a fun little trick you can do with the gyros. IF ever you see one spinning in front of you, hit it with the bat. It won't look like much, but you have just made that gyro your own. Now push it towards the ROB with PSI wind. This will surely surprise him :chuckle:

All in all, it's nothing too useful (except for maybe on Snake), but it's there to help.

PSI Magnet Fall Stall

PSI Magnet temporarily stops Ness from falling in the air. You can use this in the air to throw off foes who are trying to hit you, or juggle you. For example, you are falling down towards A Bowser. He jumps up to hit you with an uair, but you use the PSIM fall stall to stay just out of his reach. You then fast fall and drop under him to counter with an uair.

There are other ways you can use this. You can use this for recovery since Ness' isn't so great. You can fall stall to help avoid certain edgeguard attacks, and then use your double jump and fair to make a safe return.

PSIM also stops movement when launched. People naturally use their double jumps after getting hit by an attack to help survive. Well, if you airdodge then use PSIM, you can get a similar effect, then save your double jump to make a safer return.

When you combine a little forward falling momentum with the PSIM, you slow your fall and move forward a bit, allowing you to fall forward like normal, only descending at a slower rate. You can use this multiple times, but you have to regain a little momentum again afterwards.

Reverse Aerial PSI Magnet

Pretty simple. All this is is using PSI Magnet to reverse the direction Ness faces in the air since you cannot normally do so with just A attacks and his double jump. You can kinda do this with his other specials, but PKF has too much lag to be useful, and PKT and PK Flash make Ness helpless afterwards.

To do this, while airborne, use PSI Magnet by pressing diagonally in the opposite direction Ness is facing and B. So if Ness is facing east, press southwest on the control stick and B. Works if you use the C-stick also.

This can be used well for edgeguarding. You can jump off, hit with the fair to push them a bit, turn Ness around, and then kill with his bair!

Another way this can be used is in conjunction with PK Jumping and Firebounding. Remember, PK Jumping and Firebounding are MUCH easier if you shoot PKF the same way you are facing. If you change your direction with the Reverse Aerial PSIM, you can PK Jump and Firebound even if you are normally facing backwards in the air!

I use this a lot when I am KOed. When you are KOed, you return to the stage facing right. This is annoying sometimes because apparently all of my opponents cower to the left side of the field when I get KOed. So, while on the platform, I use the Reverse Aerial PSIM and use a PK Jump or Firebound.

Item Techniques

These techniques help with items of course! In normal tournaments, items are banned, but this doesn't mean you'll never see them. There are many characters that produce items themselves like Link, Diddy Kong, and Wario.

Ness' awesome double jump allows Ness to do some crazy cool things with items. Check them out!

Jump Cancelled Throw

Ness can't glide toss, but jump cancelled throws are a fine substitute. Simply jump and toss the item at the same time. If you dash and do this, you will slide a good distance. It's great for extra range on throws, and you can dash forward and throw items backwards, then slide away! It's really useful as a defensive toss. Also, it's one of the few way you can dash one way and toss the item backwards without having to slow down. It even gets rid of some lag on the toss.

Item Double Jump Cancel

This is something that just occurred to me recently. You can also double jump cancel with an item by throwing it. So jump, double jump, then throw the item. This is great for increasing the range of Ness' item throw or for spacing throws. It can be used on Wario's wheels, Samus' armor, ROB's gyro's and any itme you want.

Remember, like the normal double jump cancel, it only cancels the jump during the first few frames of the jump.

I have be playing with this a lot more recently, and I find it to be pretty useful. As before stated, the spacing is great. Ness can't glide toss to his advnatage, so a quick DJC item throw is a good substitute. It's also great for running one way then quickly reversing your momentum to throw the item the other way. The way Ness stalls in the air can also be used to trick opponents into reacting early. It can let you use items out of shield, off the ledge, or even after a PSIM cancel! Experiment with it. It may be mor useful than it seems at first.

Item PK Jump/PK Throw

Wow this is cool. Apparently, anything that you can double jump cancel with allows you to PK Jump. So if items DJC, items can also PK Jump! Cool!

So basically, all you need to do is the same thing for a PK Jump, only using the commands to throw the item instead of using the special. If it's a throwing item, like most items that will be present in tournaments without items (as in bananas and armor pieces), just jump and press A. If its a non throwing item, you have to press the throw button to throw it. The only time this will really ever occur in a tourny is when Peach pulls one out and lets you take it.

Fun fact, if you have a shooting item, shooting it and jumping at the same time will also make you item PK Jump! Not really useful for normal tournies since items are banned, and no character produces shooting items. But if you go to a tournament in which items are used, or in just causual matches, you can use this.

This can be used for spacing and combos of course. You can pick up a banana from Diddy, PK throw it, hit him, then combo with an aerial. Remember, you fly forward with it if you want to, so you can hit with the item, follow it, the hit again.

Also, since you dont need to hold forward to throw items, you can do still PK throws also. But like the basic PK Jump, PK throws cannot be done backwards. And since you aren't using a B move, you can't B reverse it. Also, dropping the item by pressing the throw button doesn't make you PK Throw.

Ledgethrow

This is either like ledgefire or ledgeshooting depending on how you use it. This allows you to throw items off the ledge and either get back onto the stage or return to the ledge.

To get back onto the stage, you can press back on the ledge and do a forward momentum PK Throw. Another way to do it is to do a basic ledge jump and DJC item toss it. This is useful not only for quickly getting up and throwing the item at nearby foes, but also because it's one of the quickest and safest ways to get up from the ledge. It throws the item close to the ground also, which can be useful with very bouncy items like Zero Suit Samus' armor pieces.

Now you can also throw the item and get back on the ledge very quickly, much quicker than just jumping off, throwing the item, and regrabbing the ledge. There are a couple of ways to do this also. One way is to do a NO momentum PK Throw after dropping off the ledge. After the throw, DI backwards back onto the ledge. Another way is to drop off the ledge, double jump up, then throw the item to DJC. Becareful though, as the timing can be a bit strict and timing it wrong could make you fall past the ledge without grabbing it.

This can be useful for edgeguarding with an item. You can hang on the ledge and throw the item down as someone near, or upwards to hit people who sweetspot the ledge. After throwing the item up, you regrab the edgforcing them to recover onto the stage. When they do, the item may drop down and hit them. Crafty. You can also just use this to quickly regrab the edge and regain invulnerability frames to support an edgehog.

Remember one more thing, you can throw the item any way you want to with these techniques, unless you have to use a PK Throw, in which you are not able to throw backwards, but these techniques have DJC substitues which allow throws in any direction.

________________________________________________________

These techniques can give you a nice helping hand against those opponents with items that are useful to them. Depending on the item user and what they are using, the techniques that may help you may vary. For examply, the PK Throw is very useful for Diddy's bananas, but the jump cancelled throw range boost really helps with Zero Suit Samus' armor pieces. Not all of these techniques are extremely useful, but they are good to know.

Yo-yo Glitch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zoggv25pPns

Not a technique or advanced strategy at all, but it's something cool that would be worth keeping in a stickied thread.

There is a YYG in Brawl that allows you to keep Ness' yo-yo hangning out just like a little boy who doesn't know how to use a yo-yo would. He just drags it around, still completely able to do his attacks. Looks really cool.

Now to get into the more advanced stuff.

This glitch can be done by doing this.

1. Charge the usmash
2. Have an attack of greater priority go through the charge hitbox
3. Release the charge
4. Get hit before Ness puts away the yo-yo

NOTE: If an attack hits the sweetspot of the usmash (the second hitbox) the glitch is cancelled.

A very easy way to do this is in training mode. Use Ness (duh) and Lucario.

1. Have Lucario fully charge an Aura sphere.
2. Charge Ness' yo-yo
3. Shoot aura sphere at Ness' chrging yo-yo so it clanks
4. Here's the tricky part. RIght after the sphere clanks with the charging hitbox, release the charge so that Ness whips the yo-yo up out of the way and the aura sphere goes through and hits him.

If done correctly, you should achieve the glitch. If you need help with the timing, set it to 1/4 speed. Also, this is most easily done in training mode because the attack decays outside of training mode making the aura sphere go away as soon as it hits the yo-yo when diminished.

Some things to know about this

Ness is completely able to do anything he normally could.
Using either yo-yo attack during the effect of this glitch ends it.
Being KOed does NOT end it.
The circle of the yo-yo stays on top of platforms if you drop through them. The string will stay with Ness and be completely detached from it. The circle also gets stuck behind obstale if Ness is somehow put between one and the yo-yo.
If you get past the objet in the way, the circle warps back to the string.
A hitbox surrounds the circle part. It is the weak hitbox and can only hit a single opponent 1 time.

Uses? Not many. Maybe on a team match for an intersting strategy in edgeguarding or something, bbut hey, if you have insane luck and do it or something, you know how this thing functions. You can hit the opponent once with it without even doing anything.
 

Ref

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Yay someone else who knows the Pk Flash lag cancel, Good luck updating this guide I'll be looking forward to it.
 

Proverbs

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If you like you can include the strategy I'm developing for Green Greens. However, if you feel that it is not fit to be on here/not that great, then that's fine. Although I would like to see the reasoning behind it. I've recently discovered it is much more difficult than the strategy makes it sound and I'm looking to incorporate a lot more into this stage-specific strategy. I'm currently seeing how Tailwhipping will help it and I'm thinking using it might be essential to doing this effectively. Unfortunately, I'm not entirely used to how tailwhipping works in Brawl as compared to Melee.
 

Tyr_03

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lol I was so ready to flame when I read the title.

Proverbs: First of all I wouldn't be surprised at all if Green Greens gets banned pretty soon because of the exploding field glitch on it. It's happened to me before in a match and it's freaking annoying. Not sure exactly what causes it yet and I don't think anyone else knows for sure yet either.

Tailwhipping is next to useless in Brawl unless it leads directly into a PKT2. Characters don't fall fast enough for it to be effectively used for gimping. Using it only land will just hold them in place a second and deal a little extra damage. It's not really worth worrying about.
 

Earthbound360

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lol I was so ready to flame when I read the title.
:laugh:

Proverbs: First of all I wouldn't be surprised at all if Green Greens gets banned pretty soon because of the exploding field glitch on it. It's happened to me before in a match and it's freaking annoying. Not sure exactly what causes it yet and I don't think anyone else knows for sure yet either.
What's this?

Tailwhipping is next to useless in Brawl unless it leads directly into a PKT2. Characters don't fall fast enough for it to be effectively used for gimping. Using it only land will just hold them in place a second and deal a little extra damage. It's not really worth worrying about.
Whoah whoah whoah Tyr, I think you've gotten too into Lucas' PKT.
Tailwhipping is NO WHERE near useless in Brawl. Maybe a bit less useful for edgeguarding, but onstage, it's very useful. It sets up for PKT2 and it kills of course.
It also add nice damage and keeps the thunder alive allowing you to hit with the head later.
Since the tal is so long, it makes PKT2RE MUCH easier. I often do it on accident on someone who tries to hit me off stage.
It's very useful for falling opponents because it's huge size makes it very difiicult to airdodge, if it is even possible.
The huge size makes it very useable.

I think you are thinking Ness' PKT is too much like Lucas'. You seem to make quite a few assumtions on Ness' PKT that do not apply to Lucas. Ness' PKT is very useful onstage unlike Lucas, and is not really meant for an edgeguard, unlike Lucas'. They use their thunders very differently and I dont think they should really be compared at all.
 

thesage

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Wait whut? PKT is great offstage. Hit people with super gay recoveries or gliders. They still recover, but it's extra damage.

Pkt ledge camping is useful.
 

Proverbs

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Tailwhipping is next to useless in Brawl unless it leads directly into a PKT2. Characters don't fall fast enough for it to be effectively used for gimping. Using it only land will just hold them in place a second and deal a little extra damage. It's not really worth worrying about.
EarthBound360 is right about Tailwhipping, but I was referring to using it while PK Thunder camping on Green Greens so that they don't just shield the head of it, forcing me to use it a second time. It also leads to possibly stunning them for a second, and then quickly moving to hit a bomb with the thunder to deal 20%+ damage.

But let's hope Green Greens isn't banned as I can see it becoming one of Ness' best stages.
 

Masky

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Needs to be a section on pivoting PK Fire. Honestly you can almost pretend you're Lucas if you do it right. I'll upload a match sometime of me doing this.

Also I have a couple I could contribute later that I haven't posted about yet if they're needed...
 

Earthbound360

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That'll be in for sure. Im just posting those 3 together since they work together SOOOOO well.
I mean, if you master it, you can spam it probably

I unfortunately, have a little practice to do on Firebounding.
 

Tyr_03

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Tailwhipping's uses as I said earlier are for setting up for PKT2. Hitting with JUST the tail is otherwise useless. If you hit with the tail followed by the head it racks up damage. And yea PKT2RE is good with the tail but that's the same as a set up into PKT2. Tailwhipping just for thundercamping is hard because a lot of times the shield will eat the thunder since it expands larger than the character even if you're just going for a tailwhip. But that depends on the situation and how low their shield is.

Why Green Greens will most likely be banned in time
http://youtube.com/watch?v=NQG9TEiGjKo

I've set it up with PKT2.
 

Earthbound360

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Tailwhips can sometimes confuse the opponent as they recover.

For instance, f Luigi is recovering from below, he will naturally use Super jump punch and DI towards the stage. Well if you tailwhip him as he rises, he will lose all that height, probably not realizing what had just happened. By then, he will have DI uder the lip of FD by accident, leading to a stage gimped doom.

Like I said, they can be useful for circling and snaking PKT around in the air. Makes it hard to dodge.

You can also use the tail to hit opponents and then floorblast. Great for baiting enemies into a flex kick. Or, since tailwhipping keeps the thunder alive, you can use it afterwards to PKT2 away from danger. Yes, I know you said Taiwhip to PKT2 already, but this is more for escaping danger.

But you are right on the part of hitting with just the tail for the heck of it being not so useful. I find using the tail useful for leading into PKT2, a floorblast, or second PKT2 hit. But it makes a decent edgeguard on fragile recoveries, and its huge size makes it useful for getting airborne foes.

BTW, that glitch was crazy, but it seems like you have to TRY to get it to happen. It seems like a powerful attak must be involved, and I doubt anyone would reallybenefit from this which is why people wont do it.
 

Tyr_03

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Well here's the thing with the exploding field glitch. So far no one can reproduce it consistently. It doesn't have to be a strong attack because I've seen Ike do it with a Nair. What we do know is there has to be multiple bombs and the character who blows them up can't be hurt. But if someone could make this happen when they wanted. It would mean infinite camping. They can't touch you because there is an impentrable wall of fire between the islands. This means endless PK Thunder spam until time runs out. So basically the better projectile player or the person with more stocks who initiates this wins. Even if we can only do it accidently it makes the stage really stupid and would mean a lot of rematches because it would throw off the entire set otherwise. I really think it's going to be banned.
 

Earthbound360

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Oh, its completely impenetrable? But at 39 seconds, Ganon made it through.
I thought it was just a small section where the blocks were.
 

Tyr_03

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If you go high enough you can get past it. But how hard would it be to send PK Thunder straight up so that if they tried to get over it you could actually hit them back into the field? It could be terribly broken if properly exploited. It's a pretty large section depending on where you activate it. There are several vids of it on youtube if you're curious.
 

Earthbound360

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Hmm... I guess.

Well that sucks then. If Proverbs strategy is as useful as he makes it sounds, that's be another stage Ness does good on that gets banned (*grumbles* Corneria...).
 

Tyr_03

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lol yeah. but we'll see. We might have some time atleast until someone figures out how to do it consistently. It's surprisingly not very well tested or widely known. So I think we have some time before the tournaments start banning it for good.
 

Earthbound360

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Any particular reason Corneria was a counterpick n Melee but now is banned?

Also, how do you get a thread stickied? Just bump it aaround requesting a sticky from a mod? Or do you ask one?
 

Aevin

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Awesome information! Definitely still need to put some of this to use. One AT per day, huh? That's an awfully big commitment, especially if you run out of ideas ... Still, it's awesome that you're willing to put so much effort into it, unlike certain others. *shifty eyes*

I always hunt down a mod when I want something stickied, but they always seem so difficult to get a hold of. Try and find one who's online and contact them by AIM, as they always seem to ignore PMs. *grumble*
 

Earthbound360

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Thanks Aevin. Where have you been anyways? Haven't seen you posting in a while.

Well, I'll have to stop posting ATs eventually. I mean, I'll be posting one every day until I run out, but that could take a while. even then, new ATs are bound to be discovered and they will be updated into the guide if they prove to be useful.

Gotta get this stickied.
 

Aevin

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I go through strange spurts where it seems ... difficult to come here.

Anyway, I added some of your AT's to the guide, and soon I'll make a better "additional resources" kind of section which links directly to here.
 

_clinton

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So...has anyone else ever tried to use PK Thunder2 as an approach? Also...have I ever talked about how much I hate fighting Wolf as Ness?
 

Earthbound360

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What I am afraid of doing when I approach with PKT2 is getting lag punished though.

And yes. Screw Wolf

Im working on an update now BTW
 

Proverbs

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I stall with PK Thunder 2. A couple of times I'll sweetspot again and again from the edge. However, I have noticed that you can sweetspot the edge AND hit with PK Thunder 2, not only that, but you might hit with the first hit of it (which is supposed to do the most damage/deliver most knockback?). I did this on Link on Pokemon Stadium 2. Because Brawl's ledgegrab area is HUGE we might be able to pull of a mindgame by luring people into thinking we're only sweetspotting the edge, but hit the enemy at the same time. Maybe this always happens but the enemy just isn't close enough, as Link was REALLY close to me at the time--but it did look like I just barely made the edge. Thought this was useful information.
 

Earthbound360

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Proverbs, you lost me at "Because Brawl's ledgegrab..."
I dont understand the mindgame.

A reddescription would be nice.
 

Proverbs

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Simply put: You can sweetspot the edge AND hit your opponent at the same time.

Maybe it was because I hit Link first and that caused me to sweetspot the edge, but I PKT2'd horizontally just above the edge (I think it was above) which caused me to hit Link and after the whole time stop (as powerful attacks do, like Zelda's sweetspots and Samus' fully charged charge shot) I grabbed the edge.

Get it?


So if this looks like you're going to grab the edge with PKT2, and end up doing it so you hit your opponent AND get the edge, it's a mindgame. Understand? They think you're going to grab the edge and move in before you do, and figure that if they don't spike/edgeguard you but you PKT2 anyway, you'll just get the edge and they'll be fine, when in reality you will get the edge but hit them anyway.

EDIT (Wow, I understand why it sounded unclear now): It would probably help to know that I was an eight of an inch (or so) from the ledge--basically right next to it, so I would sweetspot it like one does in thunderjacketing, but Link was so close that it hit him, or maybe it was the way I hit the ledge (More ledge options are possible because the distance one has to be from the ledge to grab it in Brawl is HUGE compared to Melee).

So, for visual aid:
1=Ness
2=Link
.=Ledge
_=Ground
1 .2__________________________________

Get it? I was just across from the ledge a tiny bit, and -maybe- a little above and I sweetspotted the ledge AND hit Link (but I hit Link first).
 

Earthbound360

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Ah, I get it.

Tried it, it works, but I think it's just you sweetspotted and hit Link because his hitbox was hanging off the ledge.
 

Proverbs

Smash Lord
Joined
Feb 21, 2008
Messages
1,698
Location
Seattle, WA
Ah, I get it.

Tried it, it works, but I think it's just you sweetspotted and hit Link because his hitbox was hanging off the ledge.
Test it out, and if you don't have time I'll test it when I get time. Even if he was hanging off the edge, this is still useful information. They'll have to be close no matter what, but we should figure out just how close and see if we can use this.


EDIT: I tested this out and I've come to half of a conclusion. I don't think his hitbox was just hanging off the ledge. Whenever I do that he eats the PK Thunder typically. I think there's more to this. I wasn't able to recreate it, though. But I might have the video saved.

Also, EB360, I could really use your input on my Green Greens topic. I know I say that all the time and people are probably sick of it, but I'm uncovering more and would like some input. This weekend I should be able to give it a test run on a decent human player--the other half of Team Awesome ;D
 

Earthbound360

Smash Hero
Joined
Jul 3, 2006
Messages
5,725
Location
Bowie, MD
NNID
Mikman360
Okay, see if you can send me the video or if you can post it.

Also, I am into this Green greens strat you are talking about. Apparently, you find it very useful. Can you try it on me online? If not, give me specifics and/or post videos.

Big updates peoples
 

Proverbs

Smash Lord
Joined
Feb 21, 2008
Messages
1,698
Location
Seattle, WA
Let me check today if I have the video o_x;; Some of my practice matches weren't under 3 minutes, but if they were and had anything worth keeping, I saved them. So hopefully I'll have it. If not I can see if I can make a video by constant retrial.
 

Levitas

the moon
Joined
Jul 20, 2007
Messages
5,734
Location
Ann Arbor, MI
RE the pk pivot thing: You can cancel a dash animation into any standing animation directly. For example, dash back, reverse fsmash. This isn't unique to pk fire.
 

eHerbieInReverse

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Jan 17, 2008
Messages
115
Location
San Diego, California
Levitas, doesn't the reverse Fsmash have severely less range in the dash than PK Pivoting? It seems like PK Fire has almost triple the running range that you can still turn around and PK Fire. Though, I haven't tried this with other character's Side-B's... Peculiar. I should do that. haha.
 

cecil777

Smash Rookie
Joined
Oct 13, 2007
Messages
4
and to think i was all ready to tell you off for using the term "PK Cross"...
this guide should be very helpful for people like me who want to use ness, and win with him.
i commend you on your efforts to help enhance every ness player's game.
you must be an earthbound fan to work on a list of techniques like this for my main man, ness.
ok, keep up the good work!
 
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