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Pummeling?

DeadDraco

Smash Rookie
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Does anyone out there pummel when they grab? And more so do you like it? be honest
 

crazybenjamin

Smash Journeyman
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414
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Pummeling can be the difference between a successful KO and an unsuccessful one. But sometimes, when I grab a highly damaged opponent, I forget I can pummel and just throw the opponent immediately.
 

channel_KYX

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Jan 29, 2019
Messages
195
I pummel a lot, to the point were I sometimes grab for the pummel and then grab release as a mixup. I mostly use it to refresh other moves.
Great thing to have in the game.
 

Spiny Top

Smash Cadet
Joined
Jan 5, 2019
Messages
49
At low percent don’t pummel, at mid percent pummel 1-2 times, at high percent 3-4 times, at very high percent 5-6 times.

You are otherwise just robbing yourself of free damage, or getting to greedy and risking them escaping your grab.
 

DeadDraco

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I pummel a lot, to the point were I sometimes grab for the pummel and then grab release as a mixup. I mostly use it to refresh other moves.
Great thing to have in the game.
I like the way you think! We need to play sometime...
 

DeadDraco

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At low percent don’t pummel, at mid percent pummel 1-2 times, at high percent 3-4 times, at very high percent 5-6 times.

You are otherwise just robbing yourself of free damage, or getting to greedy and risking them escaping your grab.
You're right. There is also a little indicator where the enemy starts to flash yellow when they're about to escape. I always just pummel until they flash yellow because sometimes I catch my opponent not mashing and get like double the damage on the grab
 

MrGameguycolor

Smash Lord
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It varies from character to character, usually, it's preferred to make the throw if it has a fast animation to avoid DI.
Mario's D-Throw and Bowser's B-Throws are great examples of this.
If you're at high percents with a slower, more reactable throw that you know won't kill, then you might as well tack on the extra damage.
 
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Spiny Top

Smash Cadet
Joined
Jan 5, 2019
Messages
49
It varies from character to character, usually, it's preferred to make the throw if it has a fast animation to avoid DI.
Mario's D-Throw and Bowser's B-Throws are great examples of this.
If you're at high percents with a slower, more reactable throw that you know won't kill, then you might as well tack on the extra damage.
Good point. Also true if you are going for a bury throw. As ROB (my main) I never pummel when down throw burying because I want to give them as little time as possible to mash before comboing into up smash or SH Uair.
 

Spiny Top

Smash Cadet
Joined
Jan 5, 2019
Messages
49
Even if I manage a grab at zero, I try to get one pummel in. It's free damage.
You certainly can feel out your opponent to see if you can get away with that. Someone on point with their mash would probably get away. A lvl 9 CPU would
 

DeadDraco

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You certainly can feel out your opponent to see if you can get away with that. Someone on point with their mash would probably get away. A lvl 9 CPU would
Actually with characters like shiek or toon link, at least one pummel is always guaranteed. Even on a lvl 9
 

BitBitio

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Jul 8, 2019
Messages
205
I don’t pummel because I prefer to practice with CPUs, which means they mash really fast but I really should because it actually can make a noticeable difference.
 

DeadDraco

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I don’t pummel because I prefer to practice with CPUs, which means they mash really fast but I really should because it actually can make a noticeable difference.
Especially with Kirby. The pummel is so fast
 

DeadDraco

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I often do. Sometimes too much and they get out.
The grab release could be used as a mix up you know. Especially against me, I have no clue what to do if I'm ever released from a grab so i just end up eating follow ups
 

Lusitania

Smash Rookie
Joined
Jul 26, 2009
Messages
17
What's the point of pummeling at a high percent? Why not just kill them with a throw?
 

Arthur97

Smash Master
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Jun 7, 2016
Messages
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The grab release could be used as a mix up you know. Especially against me, I have no clue what to do if I'm ever released from a grab so i just end up eating follow ups
Maybe if I was expecting said release and knew what to do with that fighter upon the release. As it stands, Yoshi is about the only one I can do much of anything with it.
What's the point of pummeling at a high percent? Why not just kill them with a throw?
Well, it might secure the stock by making sure their damage is high enough, but it can also unstale other moves as pummels count in the staling queue.
 
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Lusitania

Smash Rookie
Joined
Jul 26, 2009
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17
Sorry, I've been out of the loop for a while, haha. Returning to Smash after 10 or so years.
What do you mean by "unstale"?
 

BitBitio

Smash Journeyman
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Jul 8, 2019
Messages
205
Sorry, I've been out of the loop for a while, haha. Returning to Smash after 10 or so years.
What do you mean by "unstale"?
Stale move negation is a mechanic that causes attacks to be weaker the more you hit opponents with them. The “staleness” of an attack is measured by its number of appearances in an internal queue. This queue has nine slots. The more appearances an attack has in this queue, the weaker it is. “Unstaling” refers to the use of attacks other than the one you are trying to unstale. So if you grab an opponent and your back air is in the first slot of the queue, pummeling them once will move the back air one slot down the queue to the second slot and put the pummel in the first slot. You can remove the back air from the queue by attack the opponent enough times with other attacks to move it out of the queue. This mechanic is meant to encourage using a variety of attacks and also makes it wise to save your KO moves until the opponent is at kill percent to ensure that it will deal the maximum damage and knockback. It may also be used as a combo strategy, as it may cause an opponent to not be launched as far by an attack so you follow up with more ease. Beefy Smash Doods made a YouTube video about it, it’s called Stale Move Negation and I would highly recommend it as it explains it better than I can.

Hopefully that was a satisfactory answer. Also, welcome back! Have a nice day.
 
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Furret24

Smash Master
Joined
Feb 28, 2015
Messages
3,576
Pummeling is free damage and unstales moves. Unless you wanna catch people offguard when doing certain throws or are in FFA/teams, I don't see why not. You can get an extra 5-10% per grab, which can add up, and potentially be the difference in a kill/kill confirm or the opponent surviving.
:162:
 

MarioMeteor

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If your opponent is above 60%, there’s never a reason not to pummel. It’s literally free damage unless they have mashing speed of the gods.
 

DeadDraco

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What's the point of pummeling at a high percent? Why not just kill them with a throw?
Sometimes the throw might not kill just barely, or their di might save them. Pummeling a few times ensures that death
 

asia_catdog_blue

Smash Ace
Joined
Dec 31, 2010
Messages
994
Which ones?

1. There doesn't seem to be any "OOMP!" in the impacts on the attacks. Because of how fast they move. the animations seem half-a**ed.

2. Repetition. Many of them use their knee(and often the wrong one). Sometimes a headbutt(and using the side of the head instead of the front). Why not bash their skull with your weapon? Or punch them in the face? A Bear Hug? Choke them? Wolf, Bowser, PAC-MAN, K. Rool, & Ridley should bite them!

Zangief from Street Fighter does! and speaking of Street Fighter...

https://www.fightersgeneration.com/nf8/char5/dhalsim-sf2-throw-ken.gif

https://www.fightersgeneration.com/nf/char/gif/dhalsim/dhalsim-sfa3-yoga-punch-ken.gif
 
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channel_KYX

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Jan 29, 2019
Messages
195
There doesn't seem to be any "OOMP!" in the impacts on the attacks.
Of course not, they are pretty weak.
Because of how fast they move. the animations seem half-a**ed.
Well, I mean... If an attack is supposed to to only take a few frames, of course they will look somewhat choppy.
Many of them use their knee(and often the wrong one).
There is no wrong knee. Either you use the back one for power or the front one for speed.
Why not bash their skull with your weapon?
Some do, but maybe it's an animation thing. Or maybe it's supposed to be fast and weak and using a weapon might feel odd if they are too fast with it.
Wolf, Bowser, PAC-MAN, K. Rool, & Ridley should bite them!
This I can fully support.
 

Arthur97

Smash Master
Joined
Jun 7, 2016
Messages
3,463
Why should they bite them? Yes, Wolf is a wolf, but he's also a high tech mercenary. Fox is also a fox and he doesn't bite, nor does Falco peck them.

Bowser is already overly portrayed as monstrous in Smash, we don't really need a bite.

It would be a bit awkward for Pac-Man to bite as a pummel given his body shape.

I'm not sure King K. Rool has ever actually used his mouth to attack despite being a crocodile.

Ridley, maybe, but his tail is also a very important part of his attack set.
 
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Saikyoshi

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I hear a general rule of thumb is that most fighters get around 1 pummel for every 20% damage the opponent has, but don't quote me on that.
 

Mario & Sonic Guy

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While pummeling is weaker in Ultimate than in previous Smash Bros. installments, the small increase in damage dealt can potentially mean the difference between securing the KO, or not. Also, higher damaged targets can't break free from grabs as quickly as those who have low damage, so that gives players a greater opportunity to build up damage before executing the throw.
 

DeadDraco

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ICan'tMash
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1. There doesn't seem to be any "OOMP!" in the impacts on the attacks. Because of how fast they move. the animations seem half-a**ed.

2. Repetition. Many of them use their knee(and often the wrong one). Sometimes a headbutt(and using the side of the head instead of the front). Why not bash their skull with your weapon? Or punch them in the face? A Bear Hug? Choke them? Wolf, Bowser, PAC-MAN, K. Rool, & Ridley should bite them!

Zangief from Street Fighter does! and speaking of Street Fighter...

https://www.fightersgeneration.com/nf8/char5/dhalsim-sf2-throw-ken.gif

https://www.fightersgeneration.com/nf/char/gif/dhalsim/dhalsim-sfa3-yoga-punch-ken.gif
Yeah, unfortunately the animations do indeed suck...
 

DeadDraco

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I hear a general rule of thumb is that most fighters get around 1 pummel for every 20% damage the opponent has, but don't quote me on that.
I like that rule!
 
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