SocalProjectM's Smash 101: Zero Suit Samus (Video Tutorial)

[Myst007_teh_newb]

Hi all!

It's JFalls. We've recently been recording character tutorials at our local tournament, and I feel like this is a good place to put the one I did on ZSS.

https://youtu.be/pI8fE7xejtc

Do keep in mind that I am but one player with a limited perspective on the character. There are other players who do her in different styles, so please do not treat this video as dogma. Just wanted to post this here for posterity and hopefully spark some discussion.

 

[MAK]

This is awesome dude. I was actually looking for something like this, thanks!

 

[Avro-Arrow]

I saw this! It was a good video. Using dd grab, whip and blaster in neutral isn't enough lol. Not when she's arguably the most mobile in the air after Puff.

Personally I like side b more than you do but I'm not playing against top players lol. To me, side b is either punishable or you have to give up some stage advantage to make it safe a lot of the time. Either way, there's a cost for using it in a lot of situations.

 

[ikon]

i like how you went into recovery options with a wall, but what about ones without a wall? or the stages like battlefield or smashville where the walls are slanted into the center? the main options i've been trying to use are:

1) conserving the double jump and using down b for horizontal distance and doing like a dj uair to force them off

2) pull an ivysaur and shoot a laser either parallel with the stage to hit them before they move to grab ledge or throw it at the ledge (i think this works a bit less well since laser doesn't linger and the edgeguarder can reasonably react to it i think and refresh invincibility)

3) dj fair (i think) moves the stage collision hitbox or w/e higher up than usual since her legs are horizontal and could potentially kick people off the ledge with the thigh or something on the fade into the stage and it scares a lot of people off

it'd be cool to hear about more

 

[Dawnz_]

Great video! I'm glad we're getting stuff like this from top players In PM

 

[Myst007_teh_newb]

i like how you went into recovery options with a wall, but what about ones without a wall? or the stages like battlefield or smashville where the walls are slanted into the center? the main options i've been trying to use are:

1) conserving the double jump and using down b for horizontal distance and doing like a dj uair to force them off

2) pull an ivysaur and shoot a laser either parallel with the stage to hit them before they move to grab ledge or throw it at the ledge (i think this works a bit less well since laser doesn't linger and the edgeguarder can reasonably react to it i think and refresh invincibility)

3) dj fair (i think) moves the stage collision hitbox or w/e higher up than usual since her legs are horizontal and could potentially kick people off the ledge with the thigh or something on the fade into the stage and it scares a lot of people off

it'd be cool to hear about more

ZSS definitely has less flexibility on stages without walls. What you describe basically covers the bulk of it. Something to also keep in mind is the boosted up-b. This allows you to gain extra height off of a double jump and can usually put you in range to recover high and air dodge onto stage. Essentially the name of the game is to avoid getting edge hogged, whether that means kicking your opponent off the ledge or recovering high. Once you're edge hogged, there is essentially no mixup potential anymore and you have to accept the punish. With that being said, fade out every once in a while anyways, even if it means that you have to regrab the ledge. You never know when your opponent is autopiloting and will get off the ledge early to try and punish.

 

[ikon]

hey jason can you explain/elaborate on some stuff

1) crawl bouncing? i saw you mention this on reddit somewhere and i was curious about what it was.

2) for tech chasing, in what scenario would you use crawl? the main one that i can think of is if they're in a tech chase scenario near the corner since their tech options are severely limited and you could feasibly cover all of them despite the slower speed when crouching/crawling. and i think in pm specifically, you can dash in any direction directly out of a crouch, but i'm not sure if this carries over to crawling (i'll test later).

if the crawling for micro-spacing thing's primary use is to make spacing out the victim's tech options easier, why wouldn't you pull a falcon and go straight for a wavedash out of something like dthrow every time? you can adjust the wd length anyway to cover wakeups, and even things like wakeup shine can be spaced out with a jc grab. is there something i'm missing?

3)

can someone explain to me why dtilt would be used outside tech chasing? it comes out fast (hitboxes on frames 5-8), but it has 18 frames of lag, no iasa, it loses to cc (it doesn't break marth's until 88%), and even if it does hit for a big reward, if you whiff or hit shield, you are going to get destroyed and there are way less risky mixups you can do with similar rewards with other moves

i remember a few moments in your mu analysis video vs nashun back in 3.5, you used and referred to a jab dilt/run up dtilt as shield pressure mix-up strings. i don't deny that they are a mixup, but the high risk/high reward nature of the option seems unnecessary when you have much safer options that don't lead into zss getting grabbed or oos'd.

to my knowledge, zss doesn't have any iasa on her dtilt and she doesn't have the same options out of the move like marth and roy do to make it a safe poke to contest space. it seems like using dtilt outside of a punish scenario or as a guaranteed starter like pivot dtilt on a bad aerial (though i would call this a punish scenario anyway since the bad aerial is a lost neutral) is an unnecessarily risky option.