Post 1.0.6 Patch R.O.B. Up Throw Combos

[Saltyman]

Spent a long time working on these in training mode and actual matches.. footage is mostly CPUs because I have nothing to capture raw footage with unfortunately.

Lots of details in the video description, many of these are true combos on most characters and result in a lot more damage than down throw to up air.. Another side note: suicide up throw on Dreamland (a legal stage and popular pick in most tournaments) arguably makes R.O.B's more viable on a competitive level than it used to be. It is still an extremely powerful KO move with rage, can go through platforms, and with downthrow to up air kill confirm around 100% they really shouldn't be at 150%+.

Anyways.. without farther ado, my guide to R.O.B. Up throw combos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FruJn8VNLZo

There is NO commentary but anything that I do not think is obvious is stated directly in the video or description. Feel free to ask me any questions, there is potentially more that can be done with up throw at lower percents these are just some of the ones I am able to land consistently..

 

[Saltyman]

Just going to repost the video description here, it contains a fair amount of information even without the video




Mostly only going over combos which I haven't seen anywhere else for R.O.B. guides.. many of these do much more damage than Down Throw-Up Air (The "Beep Boop") and can result in very early KOs for R.O.B. even without rage as he has one of the strongest spikes in the game and several setups. Spamming the Beep Boop will also result in it staling his up air which can be very problematic.

For reference the Beep Boop does 20% damage when fresh. Up Throw does an additional 2% compared to Down Throw, can combo into more damaging moves, and has the potential to combo 2 or more attacks.. Maybe time to think twice about only using Down Throw?


Combos:

Up Throw-Up-Angled Forward Smash (can True Combo):
Works on most characters with the exception of short light characters (and wario for some reason) Only works at very low percents with minimal rage. Hitting the true sweet-spot does 28% with everything fresh and can lead into a gyro or laser.

Up Throw-Running Up Smash (can True Combo):
Pretty obvious, will work up to around 30% on bigger, heavier characters in my experience. Can followup with another running up smash, up air, or neutral air.

Up Throw-Foward Air (can True Combo):
Has some followups and can SHFF into a grab or smash attack. Or you can go for the fairside b.. Can also lead into projectiles but almost on R.O.B. everything does. Even projectiles.

Dash-Forward Air-Arm Rotor (can True Combo):
With rage or at high percents this can surprisingly lead into a KO near the ledge, and is quite difficult to escape with practice. Seriously, it's not the worst move.

Up Throw-Down Air-Various Followups:
This is pretty situational and requires you to read their DI or airdodge. If a character immediately airdodges out of upthrow you can punish them with a down air, but this usually will not be a combo. This can also be used near the ledge, which can lead directly into a spike at KO percents. Can lead into an up smash, forward smash, or another down air for early KOs on missed techs or grounded hits.

Up Throw-Neutral Air-Up Air:
Works around 20-40% depending on weight. This one seems more reliable on floaty characters compared to his other up-throw combos..

Up Throw-Up Air (can True Combo):
This one can KO a little earlier than the normal beep boop on some characters.. who knew?

Z-dropped Gyro or Gyro thrown down-Footstool Jump-SHFF Neutral Air or Down Air (Untechable):
Can also potentially lead to jab reset combos or a gyro toss if you manage to grab it. If the opponent does not get up fast enough it is possible to set up jab resets with this as well.

Grab+Pummels-Falling OR Spinning Gyro-Up Throw or Down Throw-Up Thrown Gyro (True Combo):
Yeah thats a bit hard to say.. This works and does a fair amount of damage if your opponent is dumb enough to get grabbed on top of a falling or stationary gyro. The spinning gyro will rack up damage while you are pummeling the opponent. Disrespect.

Grab+Pummels-Up Throw or Down Throw-Falling Gyro-Various Followups (can True Combo):
Basically the same thing, but you throw them into the gyro instead of letting it land on them. You can jump up and catch your opponent if you read the direction the gyro hits them, but I like to just stand there and recatch the gyro.. there's not much they can do about it and they already got disrespected *shrugs*



Random Gyro Tricks:

GYRO SPIKE: Face side of the edge you're near! (the gyro's knockback direction depends on how you are facing when you through it), place the gyro near the ledge if your opponent is off stage. Most get-up options will result in them hitting the gyro and getting popped above the ledge. With quick reactions and accuracy this will true combo into a spike. Depending on the character, stage, and rage level this can potentially KO at 0%, it seems to be a kill confirm earlier before 50%.

You can also essentially do the reverse of this and face the centre of the stage, stand close to the middle and use an upsmash when your opponent tries to get up. With good timing the gyro will hit them directly into your upsmash and prevent them from hanging onto the ledge. Doing this will also stage spike anyone holding onto the ledge for too long, granted the gyro hitbox comes into contact with them.

Another potential stage spike with the gyro is to face towards the stage and drop it on anyone trying to use a tether or unsafe recovery. The gyro will hit them towards the wall, and if they are close enough to it the hit be impossible to tech.

Additional notes: Most of these will work going through platforms as it doesn't effect the knockback or hitstun, it simply makes both characters end up higher. Unfortunately many will not work on small and light characters. For characters like Jigglypuff and Kirby downthrow to up air seems more reliable than any of the higher damage upthrow combos. Wario and some other small characters are also immune to upthrow-up angled fsmash regardless of their weight.

 

[Jams.]

Have you tested these combos with DI? I've looked into uthrow combos when it was first nerfed, and DI away completely ruins his follow-ups to the extent that uthrow->fair is the only consistently reliable follow-up.

Also, could you please give a reference percent and character for uthrow -> nair -> uair and uthrow -> dair (ie. works on Mario at 25%)? I can't get these to true combo in training mode. Thanks!

 

[Saltyman]

I actually can't seem to get those to register on a regular basis now either.. it might have been bad DI or human error on my part as I had the CPUs set to move =/ may have to correct those ones sorry. Seems like they are just a few frames too slow but their priority and hitboxes still makes it possible to land if the opponent doesn't move out of the way.

I have no problems landing upthrow->upangled fsmash on heavy weights and fastfallers or upthrow->running upsmash even against better opponents, same with upthrow->fair which has quite a few followups (already know it doesn't true combo directly into other aerials, but with good timing I've been able to SHFF into dsmash).

I don't have another person and time to test every character with DI unfortunately.. but I may be able to do some more testing later

Considering how easy it is to DI "true combos" in smash 4 anyways I don't plan on testing too extensively. I mostly wanted to bring attention to the fact he does have up throw combos as I haven't seen this discussed anywhere, and in my experience down throw to up air is DIable anyways so these can be good mixups at low percents, depending on the character.

Fixed up the description a bit for now, I can try to do some more work on these later in actual matches..

 

[Omegascizor456]

Up throw to fair is gaurunteed from what i can see at mid percents. could get into an edgeguard situation as well!

 

[Saltyman]

Up throw to fair is gaurunteed from what i can see at mid percents. could get into an edgeguard situation as well!

I get quite a bit of use out of that, great for creating a bit of space and it has a lot more mixups. Just not really anything consistent out of fastfalling into another fair or dash attack, but still good for working people towards offstage. More potential combos and followups out of throws are always good even if they aren't guaranteed imo, downthrow can be DIed anyways.

 

[Crome]

It's not really worth using Uthrow to combo. I tried it at a monthly last month and it didn't really affect anything. It's the same DI as downthrow except the move is slower, and you just end up staling it.

 

[Mister Eric]

It's not really worth using Uthrow to combo. I tried it at a monthly last month and it didn't really affect anything. It's the same DI as downthrow except the move is slower, and you just end up staling it.

You will net more total damage at earlier %s
Can also leave for combo/string opportunity
Also only has one direction to DI instead of two.
I vote keep trying.

 

[Saltyman]

O.o The based robot god himself

Staling up throw doesn't matter anymore, especially at low percents.. pretty sure you'll hit them more more than a few times before they get to 150%+

A lot of my success comes from doing things people won't expect, pretty much everything is DIable in smash 4.. also even the best players make human errors. More mixups are always good, in my opinion.

I did say these weren't always reliable, but a few of them are and if you have a charged laser or gyro it's easy to lead into them with forward air. Also, I don't play doubles at all but due to the lower knockback and higher damage I would imagine up throw is a better option.

 

[Plategoron]

I actually use uthrow as a combo throw, though only until 30% and without rage.
If your opponent DIs away, you can still land a fair(7%) or most hits of an uair(also 7%). Combined with the damage from the uthrow(12%), this adds to 19% damage, which is 1% less than the traditional beep boop.
However if your opponent doesn't DI properly, you can land utilt(->utilt)->uair, which would obviously be very worth it.
Not quite sure, if an USmash would be guarantied, when the opponent is DIing away, this would make the uthrow clearly superior at certain percents.

However, comboing with uthrow has the advantage of not staling your dthrow(and maybe the uair), meaning you can get beep boop-kills even earlier or at least get a little bit more damage out of them.
If you only use uthrow to combo at very low percents, it also will be fresh again, when the opponent reaches kill-percent.(teamgames are a different story though)

 

[Saltyman]

I actually use uthrow as a combo throw, though only until 30% and without rage.
If your opponent DIs away, you can still land a fair(7%) or most hits of an uair(also 7%). Combined with the damage from the uthrow(12%), this adds to 19% damage, which is 1% less than the traditional beep boop.
However if your opponent doesn't DI properly, you can land utilt(->utilt)->uair, which would obviously be very worth it.
Not quite sure, if an USmash would be guarantied, when the opponent is DIing away, this would make the uthrow clearly superior at certain percents.

However, comboing with uthrow has the advantage of not staling your dthrow(and maybe the uair), meaning you can get beep boop-kills even earlier or at least get a little bit more damage out of them.
If you only use uthrow to combo at very low percents, it also will be fresh again, when the opponent reaches kill-percent.(teamgames are a different story though)

I find most of the heavy or fastfalling characters can be caught with an immediate running upsmash at low percents (those grounded hitboxes are really nice now, don't have to be right on top of someone). Might be DIable but I can consistently hit characters like fox with at least one upsmash at lower percents. Upthrow is also much better for punishing air dodges at low percents as well which is one thing I'm really liking about it. I've actually had foxes dodge under my upairs before and punish me.. which is where I got this idea in the first place lol. This is also really nice on maps like battlefield or near the edge because it prevents them from DIing behind you.

Against lighter characters there's not a lot of benefit but R.O.B. seems to have problems comboing them either way. Sometimes I'll mostly go with down throw to up airs if I feel more comfortable doing that, but I'm really finding good opponents DI it too often and it becomes stale if you can't land anything else.