Samus Questions & Answers

[Gravekeeper]

I've got something to ask- has anybody looked closely at the u-tilt's properties? I was fighting Zelda and ended up spiking her diagonally. It was in Pokemon Stadium, she was teleporting back to the stage from underneath and I hit her just as she came out of invisibility just a bit below the edge (I ended up burned by her poof). It looked to me like Samus might be able to reach a bit down with her u-tilt. Either that or Zelda got slammed into the stage wall first and bounced off of it.

Here's a youtube video of the match in question, it happens at around 2:06.

 

[numinous]

on the fair, the last hit smash seems to be like link's up+b spin attack. the last hit smashes whether you hit all of the previous ones or not.

i noticed a couple times that you found yourself attacking the wrong direction. is anyone else finding that a problem w/ this new version of smash?

 

[Gravekeeper]

on the fair, the last hit smash seems to be like link's up+b spin attack. the last hit smashes whether you hit all of the previous ones or not.

i noticed a couple times that you found yourself attacking the wrong direction. is anyone else finding that a problem w/ this new version of smash?

This was only my second time Samusing in Brawl, but yes, I was having turning-around problems all night, but I don't quite know why. My friend tells me there's a buffer system now, so that you input a move before another is done and it'll sort of queue. So, if this is true, then I might be mashing the button, and trying to turn around when Samus already has the previous command to do something else.

 

[Deus_Vult]

What would you say are her KO moves?

 

[Gravekeeper]

What would you say are her KO moves?

I've only played a little, but the b-air is definitely the finisher by excellence. Her f-smash seems just a little bit weaker, but is still pretty reliable at the very least to get people to leave the ground efficiently. Her d-tilt, which I lovingly call 'The Barbecue', comes out quick and launches people upwards with zeal, as well as the d-smash.

If the u-tilt I asked about in my previous post was not a fluke, or something else (like Zelda slamming into the stage somehow), then you might have a pretty mean attack to get people trying to come back from below (though the auto-ledge-grabbing might hinder that). The meteor is your friend now that Samus can short hop- abuse slow character and big characters as much as you want, like for example, a certain character's Super Dedede Jump attack.

Finally, the weakened Charge Shot is still good for picking off people in the air- though try not to be predictable or you'll get air-dodged.

 

[numinous]

What would you say are her KO moves?

her bair is amazing for ko's. dair is good too. it can bounce them off the ground more easily in brawl. if they don't tech it's more likely to rebound them off the top of the lvl. charge blast is good. her dtilt seems to have more smash and is now ko-able at higher damage ranges (120% or so depending on weight). if you don't spam them too much, which is hard to do, her fsmash is good, fast, and reliable.

generally they seem to have reduced her smash all around and given her incredible landing speed. she's about as fast on the landings her l-cancel was in melee.

 

[UnSaxon51]

Near as I've been able to tell, Samus looks a lot shinier but seems pretty nerfed overall.
The obvious exceptions are her Dtilt and Bair, but Nair, Smash Missile and Charge Shot look MUCH weaker compared with Melee. Considering that Samus was one of my mains, I hope I'm either missing something or that there are significant equalizing measures.

 

[Gravekeeper]

Near as I've been able to tell, Samus looks a lot shinier but seems pretty nerfed overall.
The obvious exceptions are her Dtilt and Bair, but Nair, Smash Missile and Charge Shot look MUCH weaker compared with Melee. Considering that Samus was one of my mains, I hope I'm either missing something or that there are significant equalizing measures.

Yup, you're missing something. Just because she doesn't play like Melee doesn't mean she doesn't play well- Brawl doesn't play like Melee, so don't try to force it to.

Samus's grapple and autocancelling are downright amazing buffs- stick with her, and forget about Melee- you might like what you find if you do.

 

[numinous]

Yup, you're missing something. Just because she doesn't play like Melee doesn't mean she doesn't play well- Brawl doesn't play like Melee, so don't try to force it to.

Samus's grapple and autocancelling are downright amazing buffs- stick with her, and forget about Melee- you might like what you find if you do.

all too true. once you realize it's not melee 2.0 it gets a lot better. i wanted 2.0 and fought liking brawl, but grudgingly i accepted brawl for what it is and started enjoying it.. they really did a much better job to balance ALL of the characters.

 

[Hylian]

I suggest you read my article if you are having a hard time transitioning to brawl.

http://smashbrawlrankings.com/index.php?topic=755.0

 

[THE RED SPARROW]

all too true. once you realize it's not melee 2.0 it gets a lot better. i wanted 2.0 and fought liking brawl, but grudgingly i accepted brawl for what it is and started enjoying it.. they really did a much better job to balance ALL of the characters.

The game is also about being able to hit your opponent off the stage and making them not come back. Regardless of Brawl not being Melee 2.0 if any character has a problem doing this because of a certain inherent flaw, saying that this is "Brawl no Melee" isn't going to give the character super powers to win.

For example: People say Marth plays "like Melee" because he plays well, but in reality he's playing "like Brawl" but he's still good at getting kills and getting them fast.

This isn't directly referencing to Samus, but just in general. Let's not forget what the basics of "SMASH" Brothers is all about.

 

[-Q-]

I don't know if anyone else mentioned this, but For real, I think Up Tilt is Samus's best killing move in this game. It has a ton of knockback, decent speed coming out. I hat ehow the Neutral Air got so nerfed, I find it slightly harder to land back airs on people. But the Up Tilt is really good against people coming from above.

 

[UnSaxon51]

Yup, you're missing something. Just because she doesn't play like Melee doesn't mean she doesn't play well- Brawl doesn't play like Melee, so don't try to force it to.

Wow, you were so right. Samus isn't bad, she's just... different. Also, Hylian's article is really good and helped me get a better feel for Samus and Brawl in general. I don't think I'll be keeping her as one of my mains (Diddy and MK are just too awesome), but she definitely still has some fun play possibilities. And, of course, ZSS is also pretty sweet.

 

[Gravekeeper]

Wow, you were so right. Samus isn't bad, she's just... different. Also, Hylian's article is really good and helped me get a better feel for Samus and Brawl in general. I don't think I'll be keeping her as one of my mains (Diddy and MK are just too awesome), but she definitely still has some fun play possibilities. And, of course, ZSS is also pretty sweet.

See? Like I said, autocancelling combined with tilts makes for sweet Samusing. And I know what you mean about other characters- I was already set on maining Samus, PT and Sonic, with a little Jigglypuff thrown in for good measure, but the best thing you can do is try all the characters- I ended up liking Ike enough to consider having him at least as a secondary.

 

[Jasona]

samus's attacks don't seem to lose damage when she spams them

 

[pressthebutton]

what should i be doing to punish rolls? in melee, all i did was cc dsmash, but w/o cc, i've been getting torn apart lol. my friend simply rolls behind me and grabs me all the **** time.

when i'm shielding, and my opponent is a little farther than ftilt distance away, how should i react? in melee, i would wavedash out of shield, but yea. im lost lol

 

[Paradigm]

what should i be doing to punish rolls? in melee, all i did was cc dsmash, but w/o cc, i've been getting torn apart lol. my friend simply rolls behind me and grabs me all the **** time.

I'm lost as to why you would cc against a roll. CC'ing limits the knockback from when you're hit so you can keep within range to immediately retaliate (amongst other things). It won't do anything if you're opponent is rolling, doubly so if they try to grab afterwards.

Punish a roll either by starting up a damaging combo (with a dtilt or zair, for instance) or smacking 'em with a single strong attack (dsmash, fsmash, charge shot, etc).

when i'm shielding, and my opponent is a little farther than ftilt distance away, how should i react? in melee, i would wavedash out of shield, but yea. im lost lol

Yeah, I had trouble with this at first as well. Remember that your shield drops a lot faster now, so you can honestly just drop it and walk forward a bit then ftilt. Another option against a taller opponent is to jump out of it and immediately zair.

 

[MrNaruhodou]

How do I approach a spammy pit?

 

[teknomuffin]

Alright, I remember in Melee, you were able to sort of Chain Bomb. I never really knew how to do this, but I began playing Samus more often than before. But anyhows, can you still do this? And if so, how exactly do you go about doing so?

 

[DoctorSwole]

I have a really stupid question to ask but I'm confused. For Samus' missile attacks I'm having a hard time getting which one I want. How do I do a homing missile as opposed to a Super Missile?

On Smash DOJO it says: "To launch the Super Missile, do a side smash move and hold the special-move button. If you’re using the Wii Remote held sideways, press and hold the 1 Button and the direction."

I'm using the Game Cube controller. I just don't understand how to get the one I want consistently, it seems really iffy for me. I seem to get the SM by pushing sideways and B at the same time while I get a HM when I push sideways then B. What am I really supposed to do? And what is the Smash DOKO talking about doing a side smash attack while holding B, that seems impossible with a Gamecube controller...

 

[Paradigm]

How do I approach a spammy pit?

I played almost nothing but Pits for a few hours Friday night. And some how we always ended up on the bridge or FD.

While you can't powershield-reflect projectiles anymore, the window for powershielding (with all the benefits other than reflection) is a lot larger in Brawl. What I ended up doing was just dashing at him and powershielding each arrow. As was demonstrated in a thread I think Rohins started, you slide a bit after shielding even if you JUST started the dash, so even with the ridiculous fire rate you can still make some progress.

Once you get close enough, I've found the two best options are to immediately shorthop and zair, if you spaced it properly, or if you ended up a bit closer an ftilt works well. If you get even closer than that the Pit should probably be able to punish you, but you may as well try and throw out your fastest moves - jab, dtilt or screw attack.

To change it up and try and be tricky, you can go in the air (maybe feinting a zair) and airdodge any arrow attempt.

If you gets platforms they end up giving you more options - airdodge on your way to/from them and powershield when you land. On Battlefield dropping through a platform and zair'ing covers most of the stage and might be fast enough to be employed between arrows.

teknomuffin -

I'm not really sure what you're talking about. A couple guesses:

You can have a bomb go off near you and give you a short jump, to help with recovery, just as you could in Melee. When you're off the edge, just spam down-B, and after you get popped up from a bomb hold towards the stage for a bit, then spam out two bombs again.

The bombs no longer go off immediately on contact but have a certain amount of dead time now, which means you can't spam them on someone's shield as you could in Melee.

Note well - you can't do any moves for a short amount of time after getting popped up by your own bomb, which makes it a huge liability. I still think it has uses, but be careful with it.

Doc Swole -

You know how to smash "normally", right? The way you had to do it in Smash 64? Smack the stick at the same time that you hit the button. If you do that with the B button rather than A (as you would with a smash) to the side, you will Super Missile. If you're holding the directly (which would, with A, cause an ftilt on the ground if you're not dashing) well before you hit the B button, you'll homing missile.

 

[fransisco4]

what is a zair?

 

[RaigothDagon]

lol, doing grapple, the z button on gc controller, when in the air

 

[Eten]

Once you get close enough, I've found the two best options are to immediately shorthop and zair, if you spaced it properly, or if you ended up a bit closer an ftilt works well. If you get even closer than that the Pit should probably be able to punish you, but you may as well try and throw out your fastest moves - jab, dtilt or screw attack.

I'm just adding to what you've said.

Most pit's are pretty consistent in how they punish. If you're out x distance, they use angel ring. If they come up close, most moves like fsmash, jabs, etc. get used. If the person rolls behind them, they dsmash. This is what makes the Zair handy, since it's beyond the angel ring range thus able to overcome the spam.

 

[Doctor]

Here's a quick question and I am sorry if this has already been investigated. Due to concern about dealing with chain grabs from both Ice Climbers and King Dedede, is it possible to use bombs to interrupt it. Since the bomb is timed, one could make sure to always make sure that there was a bomb nearby, so that it would interrupt the chain grab.

The main issues are:
Can the chain grabing character simply move you away from the bomb before it explodes so that they are not interrupted?
Is there enough time between laying bombs to actually take any other offensive action?

 

[Rohins]

Here's a quick question and I am sorry if this has already been investigated. Due to concern about dealing with chain grabs from both Ice Climbers and King Dedede, is it possible to use bombs to interrupt it. Since the bomb is timed, one could make sure to always make sure that there was a bomb nearby, so that it would interrupt the chain grab.

The main issues are:
Can the chain grabing character simply move you away from the bomb before it explodes so that they are not interrupted?
Is there enough time between laying bombs to actually take any other offensive action?

I recommend upB for getting out of chain grabs. Haven't messed with downB though.

 

[Doctor]

That sounds like a good idea if they already have you in a chain grab, because its low start up lag should allow you to exploit any windows in their chain grab to escape. Unfortunately, to my knowledge, this method does not work on infinite grabs, since there is no window to escape, so perhaps more proactive effort is needed to stop or avoid infinite grabs.

I apoligize for not making the distinction between chain and infinite grabs in my original post. I had infinite grabs in mind, but I guess it could really be applied to any grab situation if it proves to work.

 

[ToyzSoldier]

Does her grab come out as fast as any other non-tether grab?

 

[PK-ow!]

Doc Swole -

You know how to smash "normally", right? The way you had to do it in Smash 64? Smack the stick at the same time that you hit the button. If you do that with the B button rather than A (as you would with a smash) to the side, you will Super Missile. If you're holding the directly (which would, with A, cause an ftilt on the ground if you're not dashing) well before you hit the B button, you'll homing missile.

My game seems really super sensitive to smash input when I try doing missiles. It's weird because I otherwise have trouble smashing and running.
So there's obviously a difference, now. It's not just a matter of smash stick input.

The only possibly relevant thing is, I'm using R to fire my missiles. It seems I need to time the control stick movement with when I depress the trigger, even though it only inputs B when you click it.
Looks like I may have to switch Z to special.

 

[kongfucius]

Do we have an official Samus matchup thread? If not, somebody make one. I'm tempted to but I am listed as a noob so my thread will not be viewed as being one of prestige.

unless...there are no more samus players hanging around.

 

[0RLY]

Samus isn't that popular, we don't have enough people to contribute effectively. If you want, you can just look at other character's match up charts and see what they say about Samus. They're usually biased though... which is why match-up charts aren't very effective.

 

[XxBlazingSpeedxX]

How do you stop somebody where all they do is roll then do a smash attack then block your smash. it ticks me off so much when i play somebody like this, i dont know how to stop it. Cause when i roll to evade his smash to counter or i block then do a smash or screw attack he always blocks it or evades and does another smash and then repeats the process. I also tried zair but it will hold them off for a while but eventually they get to close and since samus is slower then most characters in the air it is hard to stay and camp.

 

[Jasona]

How do you stop somebody where all they do is roll then do a smash attack then block your smash. it ticks me off so much when i play somebody like this, i dont know how to stop it. Cause when i roll to evade his smash to counter or i block then do a smash or screw attack he always blocks it or evades and does another smash and then repeats the process. I also tried zair but it will hold them off for a while but eventually they get to close and since samus is slower then most characters in the air it is hard to stay and camp.

the most common way i know of to stop a roll spammer is to dsmash them. dsmash facing him and when he rolls to evade the back half of your dsmash usually hits him before he can react. another option is to dtilt, instead of smashing, out of your shield after you have blocked his attack. the dtilt comes out faster, ends sooner and reaches farther than samus' smashes. if he is really close when you decide to block his attack, then jab out of your shield and either immediately run away or dtilt him. the jab is very fast and usually throws off an opponents rhythm enough to do something about your current situation
the really cool thing about dtilting someone and having them fly away is that it gives you time to get a charge blast. charge blasts are amazing

 

[Fatmanonice]

How do you perform the missle cancel? Samus isn't even one of my secondaries but recently I've been messing around with other characters in order to learn their ATs and basic strategies that work/don't work against certain character match ups. With that being said, it would be useful to know.

 

[SarahHarp]

Jump up (preferably short-hop) and shoot a missile right before you land. When you do land, it'll cancel the ending lag of the missile-shooting animation, allowing you do do another attack the instant the missile comes out of the cannon.

 

[Fatmanonice]

Jump up (preferably short-hop) and shoot a missile right before you land. When you do land, it'll cancel the ending lag of the missile-shooting animation, allowing you do do another attack the instant the missile comes out of the cannon.

Oh, so it works just like Link and Toon Link's quick draw. Thanks.

 

[PK-ow!]

How do I ledgehop a zair?

 

[Paradigm]

It's just like most ledgehops, just make sure you're well over the ledge before hitting Z. The specific distance depends on the stage.

Drop -> jump -> DI towards/onto stage -> when you're far enough hit Z.

 

[Zero.]

I was just wondering if most samus mains use the c stick for aerials or the a button + joystick?. Also is there any advantage to using the c stick for aeirials?

 

["C"let]

I saw a video a while a go with the samus ledgegrab technique which keeps her grab invincibility basically the guy was grabbing and letting go very fast.....what's the name of this technique? and how is it exactly done?