The Snake Guide Version 0.2
Introduction
Hey guys, this is a guide to playing as Snake in SSBB. Snake is a newcomer to the franchise, and was the first 3rd party character to be confirmed for a Super Smash Bros. game. Snake is a very interesting character to play as, but also very difficult. However, he’s very satisfying with his sneaky moves and explosive attacks.
This guide is designed to develop the Snake metagame and to further your knowledge of playing as Snake. Remember that Brawl is still in early days and there is much more to be discovered. I will be updating this guide when I can and when I feel it is necessary.
Version History
0.1 22/3/08: Started writing Snake guide.
0.15 24/3/08: Added: The beginnings of ‘Defence and Offense’ and basic playing
Expanded what I already had.
0.2 2/4/08
Snake
First of all, let’s take a look at Snake’s character. Snake comes from the Metal Gear series. His original form, Naked Snake appeared in Metal Gear Solid 3 as the greatest soldier of the 20th century. The other Snakes (Solid and Liquid) are his genetic successors – Les Enfants Terribles. Naked Snake became Big Boss. Metal Gear was all about ‘Tactical Espionage Action’ and Snake’s moves are designed to reflect that. He’s cool, his moves are flashy, he’s a total flirt and his arsenal of explosive devices is fun to use.
Sora decided not to give Snake his FAMAS rifle or SOCOM pistol because remember kids – guns are bad!
Pros and Cons of Snake
Pros:
- A bunch of really powerful moves
- Sneaky underhand moves
- Adept at controlling the stage
- Good recovery, which doesn’t give general stun after using.
- Great edge guards
- Pretty nice aerials.
- Throws which actually have some uses.
- Has great costumes
- Has a box
Cons:
- Lacks combos (except his natural combos)
- Lacks conventional KO moves.
- Only has a box for taunting.
- Can be blown up by own explosives
All of this makes for an interesting but hard to use character. You need to have good eyes and good awareness of the stage. The next thing we shall look at before general strategies is his moveset. It’s cool.
Snake’s moves
OK, let’s looks at Snake’s moves. I’ll divide them into Ground, Aerial, Grab/Throw and Special. I’ll cover the basics of each move, and then go into them in more depth later. I’ve added the damage data, but frame data is still to come.
Damage is measured in %.
Remember, the moves get weaker the more you spam them. You’re gonna have to vary them for max potential.
Ground Moves
Neutral A:
‘The combo from Metal Gear Solid’
Damage:
First hit – 4
Second hit – 7
Third hit – 7
Knockback:
Low, low and quite good.
Speed: Real quick
Press A to use Snake’s standard jab. If you hold down A, Snake will do a really spazzy and possibly glitchy rapid punch when attacking thin air. When an enemy is hit by these attacks, he performs a full ‘Punch, punch, kick’ combo which you will have seen him do to many a guard in MGS. The punches have low knockback, but will often pop them up an annoying distance for jab-resetting (if you enemy is lying down, you can use a jab to get them to stand up, but Snake’s jab pops them too far away to do much with). The final kick has nice knockback for a natural combo and can be used to knock an enemy from the stage to begin edge guarding. Don’t expect any total KOs from this move until really high damage and even then it will probably due to bad DI.
This move should be used quite a lot. It is reliable (mainly because of the spazzy thing he does when there is no enemy near, meaning that if the enemy is just coming into range it will still hit with the full combo) and gives Snake space. Snake likes space.
Forward Tilt:
Knee and a smack
Damage:
Knee – 8
Smack – 12
Knockback:
Knee – hardly any
Smack – Very nice
Speed: Good
.
Snake’s forward tilt also has a natural combo. You can choose to just knee, or follow through with the full whack. This move is quick and a great one to use if you can get close enough. It has good knockback. Won’t KO until very high %s but is a good set up for edgeguarding.
Don’t use this move too much. It’s very tempting to but you really don’t want its power to diminish. Wait until the enemy is on a high %, or use to it early on to rack up some quick damage, then save it again until high %.
Up Tilt:
Dodgy split kick
Damage: 13
Knockback: Wayhay!
Speed: Good
Snake kicks high above his head and looks flashy while doing it.
This move is great. At high %s it KOs nicely and at low %s it gives Snake space. Think of it like Fox’s up tilt in Melee. Really nice, fast, deceptively high-priority attack which will catch many opponents off guard. Once again, save it until they’re on higher %s. It has really good range in front as wel!
Down Tilt:
An average Dtilt spinny thing.
Damage: 10
Knockback: Good
Speed: Good
A break-dance-like spinning kick, very close to the ground.
This move is good. It’s real low to the ground so could possibly be used to avoid some attacks. The knockback is great for giving Snake space, and since you won’t be using it to KO at any %, feel free to spam it whenever you need to. The kick sends them vertically a nice distance, but probably won’t KO. A nice move to have in Snake’s set.
Forward Smash
RPG
Damage: 23
Knockback: Amazing
Speed: Really slow
Cons: Really hard to hit with
This move looks cool and feels cool, but it’s really hard to hit the enemy with. Snake pulls out an RPG launcher and fires at his feet. This move will kill at relatively low %s if you can hit them with it. If you use it by an edge, he doesn’t fire an RPG over the edge, like it looks like he should. The explosion happens just the same. A time when it might be possible to hit with this is an anticipated roll, tech or roll-from-edge. Apart from that, don’t try it in combat. Looks like it should be a good edgeguard, but it isn’t really.
Up Smash
Mortar
Damage: 10 (4 for the close range mortar hit)
Knockback: High
Speed: Slow but doesn’t really matter
Cons: Awkward to use
This is a weird Smash. Snake pulls out a mortar launcher which he fires straight up. It then comes back down. The more you charge it, the higher it goes. It seems to glide in a direction slightly, but whether this direction is consistent or random, or whether you can control it a bit is unknown to me. This move is really nice for attacking enemies as they fall down from one of your up moves. Well, perhaps not attacking, more for pressuring. I’ll go into Snake’s pressure possibilities later. If you use this move at really close range, Snake knocks them up into the shell itself, which is quite a nice touch.
This move is probably more dangerous on landing and, seeing is it won’t hurt you, doesn’t hurt to pop one up if you have the space before a scrap in an area of the stage.
Down Smash
Mine
Damage: 14
Knockback: High
Speed: Slow, but once again is rarely an issue because you won’t be using this in combat.
Cons: Can hit Snake!
Snake lays a mine in the ground which is barely visible (sometimes, he lays a more powerful mine which is easily visible). It stays down for quite a while but eventually just disappears. This is really powerful. It is activated when someone steps on it or another entity touches it, such as an item, Pikmin, weapon, etc. Knowing where to place these is a useful skill. It depends on the enemy you’re fighting, and stage of course, but generally, if the stage has platforms, you can use it on a platform to limit your opponent’s options. Snake needs a lot of room to do this move, so you should use it while the enemy is recovering (if edge guarding is futile or not an option) or a move which gives Snake room like up throw, for example.
Once laid, try to trick your enemy or force your enemy into stepping on it, by throwing them, or DIing past it, with hope that they will follow into it. Because it is barely visible, if there is a time when you don’t think your enemy is likely to spot you laying it (won’t work on good players, but on your average smasher…), such as while aiming PK thunder for a recovery, go ahead and lay it.
Do not use this mine if you are on high damage and your opponent is on low damage! You will come off worse!
Also note that you can only have one mine laid at a time.
Crawl
‘Prone’
Damage: None
Knockback: None
Speed: Slow
Crouch and move to go prone and crawl. This move is more useful than I first thought. I’ve been applying around with it recently and you can avoid so many projectiles and attacks, including arrows, lasers and even Wizard’s Foot. Can be used on stages like Pokémon Stadium I because you can crawl under the windmill and generally any stage with small spaces like Mushroomy Kingdom 1:2
Dash Attack
Roll
Damage: Average
Knockback: Average
Speed: Quick
Pros: Hard to punish, long range, fast.
Snake does a roll from MGS and lands in prone position. It looks cool and is a usable attack because of its range. It goes straight past the enemy as well so it is hard to punish. Use this move regularly. No reason not to, really.
Aerials
Onto Snakes aerials. This guy has a pretty good aerial game. Learn to use these well.
Neutral Air
Triple spinning flying kick to flying front kick.
Damage: 6, 5, 4, 14
Knockback: Quite low until final kick.
Speed: Fast enough
Not a conventional sex-kick. Think of it more like C Falcon’s Nair. Snake does a cool triple spinning kick and then a front kick ahead. It’s a nice move to have. Good for making space and if you can catch a falling enemy in all the kicks it feels, looks and is really nice. But that’s hard to do… so…
A good way to use it is on a platformed enemy. Use it as you rise through the platform to carry them through all the kicks, including the 4th.
Forward Air
Midair axe-kick!
Damage: 14
Knockback: Good (has meteor)
Speed: Annoyingly not speedy, like DK’s fair.
This is a cool move. Our hero does a massive downward kick. It can be shorthopped, but you’ll have to get it in early else you won’t hit with it. It is easy to shield grab, sadly. This move is probably better as an edgeguard, but is often not the best edgeguard choice. How it works is it comes out annoyingly slow. If it hits with the top part of the kick it has vertical/diagonal knockback, whereas if it hits with the lower part, it meteors. A sexy looking finish, but maybe not your best choice.
Use it on a grounded enemy to pop them up into the air.
Back air
Back kick
Damage: 14
Knockback: High
Speed: Quick to come out
Cons: Pretty laggy and hard to follow up (unless in edgeguard situation).
This move is great. It can be used to knock an enemy off the edge and then used again to edgeguard! What could be better? It’s easy to hit with, like Doc’s from Melee. Use this move a lot at higher %s. Snake does a dropkick backward, basically. IT will kil at high damage as well.
Up Air
Up kick
Damage: 14
Knockback: Good enough
Speed: Quick to come out.
This is a nice move to have. You can use to on an enemy who is high in the air to finish them off nicely. Snake kicks into the air and looks cool. It should be pretty obvious how to use this one. Not much to say other than use it well.
Down Air
Step kick
Damage: 6, 5, 5, 13
Knockback: Pretty low until the last hit. Then it’s pretty cool.
Speed: quick
This is like a drill kick but instead of drilling he just stamps down repeatedly. Works well when shorthopped, works well to guard you as you land, just like pretty much any Dair. However, the final stomp has big knockback. If you can time it right, use it. You may as well. It is hard and unreliable, though…
This move is hard to dodge in the air because of its multiple hits and long duration. Characters with vertical recovery can be stopped using this stomping attack in many cases. Use it as an edgeguard against these types.
Good for general fighting. If you’re going to shorthop this attack, start the kicks straight away because then you have more chance with hitting with each of them and your opponent has less chance to shield grab because he or she is already getting nailed by kicks :D
Grabs and Throws
Snake’s grabs and throws are fairly standard, except one… use the normal ones to give you space and set up edge guards. Also remember to use it to throw people toward your mines/C4.
Grab attack
Neck snap
Damage: 2
Snake does a necksnapping motion and a crack is heard. Deals some damage. Nothing else to say.
Up Throw
Suplex
Damage: 10
Throw distance: Normal
Snake throws the enemy up. Unfortunately this doesn’t set up for a Mortar or anything like that, but it’s nice when you need room to breath and you can chase the enemy with an aerial.
Back/Front throw
Damage: 9
Throw distance: Normal
I’ll put these in the same place because they are pretty much the same but in different directions, of course. Use to throw toward mines and set up for edgeguarding. Back throw goes further and can be used on some stages (ones with walk off edges) to get KOs. Otherwise, silly DI says you won’t KO with these throws.
Downthrow
Sleeper Hold
Damage: 12
Throw distance: None
Snake lays the opponent down on the ground. It deals a whopping 12 – 13 % initially. Then they can just get up. However, it is possible to chain this. Here’s what you do:
Grab them, do a neck snap for good measure and then use your down throw. It will lay them down and your opponent will instinctively try to get up by rolling away. Chase the roll and repeat. It’s easier on characters that don’t roll as far. That’s at a basic level. If your enemy catches on and doesn’t roll away, you can assume they’re going to go for a ‘get up attack’. If they do this… just shield grab it and repeat. You can do this for quite a while with a bit of pre-empting and fast reactions.
Also remember you can use this with the hope that they will accidentally roll toward your mines. Have fun with this, cos it looks so cool.
Special Moves
Neutral B
Frag Grenade
Damage: 13
Knockback: High
Speed: Quick for what it is.
This grenade is great. It has many uses. First of all though: Basic operation. When you arm the grenade, you can hold it a while to ‘cook’ it and shorten the fuse. When you throw it, you can do a normal throw or press forward and B to do a fast long throw or a press back and B to do a short lob.
When used like this, remember that you aren’t really trying to score hits with the grenade. It’s nice when it does happen, but really, you’re trying to control the stage. Let’s say you have a C4 and a mine buzzing about. Chuck a grenade to try and force your opponent toward one of them.
You can have two grenades in play at a time.
Another good way to use it is for recovery. Use the short lob toward the stage to clear a space to land. If you get knocked diagonally up, just chuck a grenade and then fly to toward it. It will explode before you get there, and it means you’re safe to land there.
I will cover nicer ways to use this grenade in the ‘advanced strategies’…
Over B
Nikita Missile
Damage: 14 for a hit while the missile is in motion… 7 if you press shield to drop it onto them
Knockback: Pretty high
Speed: Hmmm… varies
Range: Good
This missile is cool. You can fire it and then control it. The longer you spend travelling in the same direction, the faster it gets. Snake is pretty vulnerable while using this, so remember to use the shield button to cancel it, which is useful in itself.
This move isn’t really useful as a normal projectile. It is not spammable in most situations. However, against characters who rely on an aerial approach (especially the big ones), you can use it to fly up and hold them off. If they air dodge it, remember to cancel right away.
Its best uses are for edgeguarding, really. You can guide this to them while off the edge and repeat until you’ve batted them right off. You can also drop it off the edge by cancelling it so it lands on the enemy.
If your opponent relies on tether recovery, fly it to about the place between the edge and where they will be once they’ve fired the recovery line. When they zip toward the stage… BOOM! Wallspiked! A great finish.
Another interesting property of this is it doesn’t seem bothered too much by being attacked. Attacks generally just scramble the direction it moves. The stronger the attack, the more it confuses the missile. So… if you end up in a projectile-spam battle, you can use the missile to break through their projectiles. A grenade would probably serve you better though.
Down B
C4
Damage: 17
Knockback: High
Speed: fast in air
One of the reasons I love Snake. You should use C4 here and there to limit your opponent’s moves. It can hurt Snake, but you control it, so it shouldn’t be a problem (It can actually help). Basic operation: Down B to arm, Down B to detonate. Simple, right?
After a bit, they blow up by themselves but, unlike mines, changes in the stage don’t make them disappear. So you can place one on a disappearing platform and when the platform disappears, the charge will just fall down to the platform below.
In fact, placing them on platforms is good because you’re gaining control of parts of the stage which your enemy wants control of (most likely). This charge is clearly visible, though, so don’t expect your enemy to just not notice it… unless you put it on a dark area of floor… maybe
C4 can be used in the air. This is the best time to use it, in my opinion. When you’re doing a recovery, fly high above the level and drop a C4 as you fall. This is a safe time to use it and you can place it on platforms easily. You could also detonate it straight away if you liked.
Place near edge to guard them. Stops their recovery, stops them edgeguarding you if they know you can blow them up when they try.
You can stick C4 to people. When you stick it to someone, it behaves like a gooey bomb. Stick it to them at very close range and then detonate it when you like. They can transfer it to people (including you) by running past. This is very hard to do because you have to be real close, but if you powersheild an attack it is possible.
Can also be used for other things…
Up B
Cypher
Damage: 6
This is a great recovery. Up and B makes you fly up and you can control it horizontally. You can go pretty far with it and, because you can use any attack after you’ve let go, means you can fly anywhere you like relatively safely. It’s a really good move, in short. However, be careful – you can get stuck under levels really easily!
Use it as a platform for dropping C4 as well.
Cypher’s damage dealing capabilities can be handy as well. More on that later.
Thanks to JesiahTEG for the damage info. You can see his list right here
http://smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=153756
Playing as Snake
Alright then! How to actually play as this guy! I’m gonna do a little basic guide, then look at some more in-depth tactics and techniques later. Playing as Snake is a lot about pressure. And it’s also about knowing where your traps are and how to manipulate the enemy into going near these traps.
First of all though, general fighting
In Smash Bros, characters have always had ‘general fighting moves’ – moves which you can use in lots of situations just to deal damage. For example, in Melee, Fox would often use Nair, Doc would use Bair, Falco would use Dair and Peach would use turnips a lot. Knowing these is handy for general fighting. So with Snake you have...
Basic Damage Dealers
Neutral A
What a handy move. Hold down A to unleash some punches and a kick. You can use this in lots of situations and it comes out really fast so you can use it after other moves (for example, if your opponent dodges your nikita missile, just cancel it and hold A to send Snake into that spazzy punch thing as the enemy approaches). Great for clearing space and knocking enemies off. When fighting, you can just roll past and attack and hold down A to punch them up.
Dash Attack
This move is good to approach because… it just is. It’s really good, hard to punish and knocks your enemy upward. And it looks sweet.
Nair and Dair
These moves are cool for fighting, but you risk being shield grabbed. Short hop them and let them out as fast as possible to get maximum use from them. Better in really tight situations because they have less chance to see it coming.
Tilts
Yeah these are pretty good. You might want to save these for higher %s rather than just general damaging, though.
Basic advanced stuff
It’s called ‘Basic advanced’ because it’s the advanced stuff that you will use as a base for other advanced stuff.
Grenade dropping
Pull the pin on your grenade and, while holding B, shield. You will drop the grenade. Now when you pick it up, it is like a normal item. You can throw in any direction and also move with it.
You can also achieve this by doing a short lob and then catching it.
Bair Platform Drop Cancel
This is a really annoying name to use for this technique, but it works. If anyone has a cool one, post it :D. I’ll call it BPDC for now. Basically, push back on the C stick and down on the control stick at the same time while on a platform. Snake will stay on the platform but do a quick back air. Practice this a few times, it shouldn’t take long to learn.
Infinite recovery
Fly on your Cypher and pull out your C4. Detonate it right away. The explosion gives you your third jump back! Cypher again! Repeat! It can kill you at higher %s though, so be wise.
When you press Down and B you might kill yourself if you fast fall. Make sure you only press it lightly.
Try it – C4 yourself! **** that was a bad pun…
Bair Rush
This is a good way to use Bair as an approach without having to keep jumping backward (it’s cos we can’t wavedash anymore
). Basically, you run, tap back, jump and then use Bair. Takes a bit of practice to do consistently, but since Snake’s Bair is so good, it is worth learning. A nice way to get them off the stage.
Let’s move on to some specific tactics, now.
Offensive tactics
An offensive Snake can be quite scary. Playing offensive is really useful on enemies which need time to do things. Examples include Olimar, who needs time to get his Pikmin and any character which relies on a charged move, like DK, who loves to have a fully pumped giant punch.
Charge in often with Dash Attack, score massive whacks with your aerials and tilts. You know what to do. Spam those grenades! And when they’re even at about 70%, you might be able to get a sneaky ‘you rolled into my RPG’, but don’t push it.
Use Sleeper Hold to rack up damage by chaining it and Neutral A to deal more and more pain. Once they reach a damage between 100 and 200, just use a Bair or tilt to send them off the stage and get ready to guard the edge. I will cover guarding the edge later. Use uptilt as a finisher as well.
Offensive techniques
I’ve already listed Bair rush, but that is certainly one.
A nice little one you can do with grenade is pick up a dropped grenade (see above) and, once you have learnt the fuse timing, rush in and dodge past the opponent so you are protected by the dodge and the opponent gets blown up.
Shorthopped aerials are generally a good way to go.
This section needs expanding.
Defensive tactics
Snake has loads of these. Generally, you will want to use grenades a lot, use your Neutral A a lot and use throws to give you space. Seriously, if Snake has space, he has many options. Your tilts will clear the enemy away as well. Use your shield well. You can do so much out of it, including your aerials (Dair works well), your Neutral A and other moves. Running away is fine! You can do this to give you time to lay traps and grenade.
Make sure to make good use of that air dodge. It is very useful in lots of situations and you can do some cool moves from it (I will expand on this when I have some reliable strategies) which you can use.
Defensive techniques
These are specific techniques you can use to boost Snake’s defensive game.
Grenade Drop Defence
This is the cool way to use grenades. This can be done defensively or counter-offensively. Pull the pin on your grenade and hold it. Then as you’re about to get attacked, press shield. Snake drops his grenade at his feet and shields. You defend the attack, the opponent attacks the grenade, the grenade explodes, you still have your shield up so you don’t get hurt!
The cool Mortar Slide one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvbNohOQ3p8&NR=1
Haven’t got round to trying this one yet properly, but it looks really cool.
^^ still needs expanding.
Cypher spike defence
You can use Cypher to protect you when you’re about to get spiked. Just let go of your little flyer and it will hit opponents who are above you trying to spike you. Then use Snake’s C4 recovery to get back on (more on this in a bit).
C4 sticking from powershield
You can powershield attacks then stick a C4 to your opponent. Takes some practice, but it’s a nice way to stick
.
Forced Catching
If your enemy is approaching with an attack and you have a grenade throw it before they attack and they will likely press A and catch the grenade. Now run like hell before they throw it back!
Not very reliable, but you can sometimes do this accidentally. Basically, keep throwing grenades! It will happen sometimes!
Misc. Stuff which was in 0.1 and doesn’t really fit in a category yet
Hobson’s Choice
My little edgeguard. Leave a mine by the edge when they’re recovering and begin charging an upsmash. This makes recovery very hard. If they recover to the edge, they get mined. If they try the stage, they get Mortared. A nice little situational edgeguard.
Platform trap laying
Not really an advanced move, but it’s nice to control 2 platforms with your traps. Keeps your opponent on edge. Have a C4 on one and a mine on the other. Gives you good stage control, see. Keep your eyes open for opportunities to use them.
This is the end of V 0.15.
Soon to come in V0.25:
Recovery/air/edge gameplay
Pressuring guide
PM me (SWF) or email me on
smo@xploderous.com
You can add me on msn at
smo@xploderous.com to discuss stuff.
Feedback, comments, things that need changing. Chat about Smash. Whatever
Thanks.
