Robin, Foxtrot, and you.

[Dark Lady]

Robin can foxtrot. Yay.

Robin can foxtrot REALLY FAST. Like, if you double tap your joystick, Robin registers BOTH inputs! Think of it like an instant trot. Give insta-trot a shot! Mash that circlepad in one direction and you'll see it.

What this means:

In 3DS edition, You can use this instead of a standard dash. It -feels- faster, can't verify this; but it's also safer than a dedicated dash thanks to: pivots, perfect pivots, etc.

In Wii U edition, where breaking your circlepad is generally not a factor (Because you're using a Gamecube controller, riggghhhttt????? :D) This makes Robin's mindgame DEADLY. When mixed up with Dash Dances, oh my goddess, the destruction you reign upon your opponent's brain will be apocalyptic.

Keep in mind, your insta-trot is not too special. You gotta share this trait with a few others, because reasons.

Other characters that got some trot love:
Donkey Kong
Peach
Rosalina and Luma
Zelda
Ganondorf (Although supposedly useless on him)
Wii Fit Trainer
Little Mac
Lucina

 

[Ultimastrike]

I'll give this a try when I get home. Though...I may need some tutoring on how to foxtrot in the first place XD

 

[Dust the Baptist]

I'll give this a try when I get home. Though...I may need some tutoring on how to foxtrot in the first place XD

just go to foxtrot left or to foxtrot right and thats how it's done its really useful for mindgames like Dark lady said.

 

[Hong]

I'll give this a try when I get home. Though...I may need some tutoring on how to foxtrot in the first place XD

Foxtrot is essentially using the start of the dash animation, but not the dash itself.

It took its name because Fox in Melee has an incredible initial dash animation.

 

[AlienWarhead]

It seems to be working by tapping in one direction over and over again, I guess Robin is a bit faster, but it's hard to tell with Robin's slow dash speed. Sometimes I can forward smash out of foxtrot, are there other advantages to foxtrotting?

 

[~ Valkyrie ~]

Sometimes did this out of instict and while it stuck for me on Pit and Kirby, it seemed good on Robin, but strangely forgot about it. Might give it a try soon again and add it on my repertoire...

 

[Zareidriel]

Anyone find any use for this now the Wii U version is out? I tried doing anything with it but it's very tricky. Gotta work on that dexterity!

It seems like it might be useful to fake-out your opponent, at the most basic, but it must have more tactical uses than that. Such as doing a dash away to dodge an attack followed by a dash toward the opponent who has whiffed, and follow it up with a dash attack? With this tech, that move might take all of 1/2 second.

 

[CosmicFuzz]

It seems to be a tad bit faster to me. I've hit some max distance arcfires and have been able to follow up on it using FoxTrot where I would miss just using the run.

This isn't a concrete example and it may just be my mind or even the opponent's DI, I'll have to do some more testing.

 

[Zareidriel]

What? Is Foxtrot just faster than running? o_o

 

[Dark Lady]

Maybe. Who knows. I just use it to get around now and need to work a bit harder on pivoting to cancel it. The full run is really slow and, even with shield cancelling, just doesn't feel very effective unless i'm up against Link or Samus. And also, you can do things like perfect pivoting out of the insta-trot.

 

[Zareidriel]

That actually might be a very good point, Dark Lady; why would we Robins, with our so-very-slow dash speed, not utilize the mode of transport that gives us more options? Even if Dashing and Trotting have approximately the same speed, it might be beneficial for us to always be Trotting. That logic might even render regular Dashing-across-the-screen almost completely obsolete.