L Pag
Smash Apprentice
THE SUCC
A guide on Dedede’s Neutral B, revision 1
A guide on Dedede’s Neutral B, revision 1
Dedede’s neutral B, inhale, is an versatile command grab that can be used as a mixup on shield, an offensive ledge option, or even as a kamikaze method of winning of a game.
GENERAL/FRAME DATA
Inhale is one of the more unique moves in the game. It is one of a very few command grabs, and unlike Kirby’s, has a very large windbox in front of it, allowing Dedede to suck opponents into his mouth with ease. However, it’s important to understand the complexities of this move that its uniqueness. Let’s start with the frame data:
Note: purple hitboxes represent grab boxes, red hitboxes represent windboxes
- Initial grab box: Frames 17-19
- Grab box/Wind box: Frames 20-58 (can be held for longer duration)
- Actionable on frame 77
Since inhale is a special move, it can be b reversed and wavebounced. It cannot be ledge cancelled.
After swallowing an opponent, Dedede moves much slower, and loses his double jump. If an opponent mashes while inside of Dedede, not only will they break out of the move much faster, but they can potentially cause Dedede to stumble, interrupting his movement. This can prevent you from spitting them out at times, and you cannot buffer inputs while stumbling.
When spitting an opponent out, they temporarily become a star. This star has a strong hitbox, and can be mashed out of early. Some characters can mash out early enough to punish Dedede, especially characters with the ability to double jump cancel. After leaving the star, even if they mash out, the opponent is forced upward. This does not consume one of their jumps.
Spitting an opponent out deals 10% to the opponent.
If you swallow an opponent who’s already exhausted their double jumps, they will gain them back after being spit out.
The initial grab box is the largest grab box on the move, and lasts for 3 frames. The large size of the grab boxes allows for many moves to be completely ignored due to grab armor.
The wind boxes give the move much more utility, as they can make it much harder for characters to escape, and can make your opponent mess up their spacing.
OFFENSIVE APPLICATIONS
The main utility of inhale comes from the grab box. At its core, inhale is a command grab, similar to Wario’s neutral, or even Lucario’s side b. Naturally, this means that it can ignore shields, just like a normal grab would. This opens up a plethora of options to Dedede, but one of the most prominent of these options is the down air or neutral b mixup.
As Dedede, you should be using your jumps to gain leverage over the opponent, which allows you to air camp and approach your opponent from above. Looking at the latter, there is an incredibly strong mixup with Dedede’s down air and inhale. If you approach from above, you’ll often be doing so with down air, so your opponent will eventually catch on and start shielding. When this happens, you can come from above with inhale instead, allowing you to punish their shield with the grab box.
Of course, this mixup can be used with more than just approaching from above, but if you’re already on the ground, you’re much better off just grabbing them, as you can usually get a much larger punish off of a grab than an inhale.
Another great offensive use is edge guarding- specifically swallowciding. Swallowciding allows you to take both yours and and your opponent’s stock at the same time. It is important to note that there is usually a better option, so swallowciding should be used for the purpose of mindgames/momentum, or in a last resort scenario to win a game
Before going further, I’d like to quickly clear up some confusion. If you swallowcide an opponent while you both only have one stock left, the match will go to sudden death. HOWEVER, most, if not all rulesets declare Dedede as the winner in this scenario, as he initiated the suicide kill.
Now, back to the “mindgames and momentum” aspect of the move. Nobody ever feels good getting swallowcided, or even ganoncided. One of the most common times swallowcides are used is when the Dedede is at a high percent, and they’re either even with their opponent in stocks, or has more stocks than their opponent. In this scenario, the Dedede has little to lose, as he was most likely going to die soon anyway. This can take away your opponent’s lead and leave the match even, or keep the same lead and stop any momentum your opponent had in its tracks.
DEFENSIVE APPLICATIONS
Inhale has just as many defensive uses as it does offensive. For starters, B turnarounds, B reverses, and wavebounces allow you to use the move while retreating, or to mixup your opponent.
One example of this is with the use of platforms. If an opponent is pressuring you from below, you can runoff and b reverse inhale. In this scenario, many players would shield anticipating a bair, but the inhale will ignore the shield and allow you to punish.
Inhale can be used in a similar way from ledge. You can drop from ledge, double jump away from the stage, and then b reverse inhale. This puts you back on the stage, and puts a grab box in front of you to beat an opponent’s shield, as they would most likely be anticipating a fair from
If you ever miss an inhale, it's arguably best to just hold it down. Many players will expect you to drop the inhale and punish accordingly, but keeping the wind box out can mess up their punish, or at least prevent them from getting more than one hit. Also, if they punish with a move that is not disjointed, there's a good chance you'll be able to grab armor it. Make sure you don't just hold the inhale all the time, however, as doing so will make your opponent approach their options of punishing it much more carefully.
Now, there are other applications for both offensive and defensive play, but the more we get into, the more situational they become. So in this case, I’m going to encourage you to explore the mechanics of inhale and find your own uses.
WHAT TO DO AFTER INHALE
After inhaling an opponent, your best option is usually to get as close to the ledge as you can, and spit them off. This will put them off stage, and hopefully allow you to edge guard. It’s important to note that mashing out of swallow is fairly easy, so you won’t often be able to get close enough to the ledge. When this happens, just spit them out wherever you can. If you don’t spit them out, they’ll simply mash out and you won’t gain any percent for spitting them out, and you’ll lose a potential punish.
As I mentioned earlier, spitting an opponent out causes them to turn into a star, and when breaking out of the star, they gain altitude. This put the opponent above and in front of you, but they are completely actionable. This means punishing them is not as simple as just jumping up and fairing them, so what do you do?
For simplicity’s sake, we’re going to look at the scenario in which Dedede spits an opponent off stage.
So, now that you’ve spit them off stage, the opponent has multiple options. Most players unfamiliar with the matchup will exhaust their double jump and try to get back to the stage from above. This is easily punished with a fair, and can lead to an easy gimp on many characters, since it potentially takes their double jump. After a while, players will catch onto this and stop jumping.
The next option many players gravitate towards is letting themselves fall to the ledge. In this case, you can usually just jump off stage and fast fall to them, then jump and fair them. If you don’t think you can get to them in time, you could also simply runoff fair, or run off the stage and up b snap to ledge.
The opponent might also just drift back to avoid any immediate edge guard. When this happens, run off the stage and up b snap to ledge. This forces them to recover high, which, for most characters, can be punished on reaction.
Finally, some characters will be able to jump out of the star and hit you before you can fair them. This is usually due to superior range, like with Ganon and Marth’s fair, or simply due to a move’s speed, such as Mario’s nair. In this case, you can either bait out the move and punish it, or jump up and down b instead of forward airing. Down b has almost as much range and comes out much faster, making it a better than fair at beating or trading with moves. However, this is a huge commitment due to the changes in Dedede’s momentum caused by down b and its long end lag.