• Welcome to Smashboards, the world's largest Super Smash Brothers community! Over 250,000 Smash Bros. fans from around the world have come to discuss these great games in over 19 million posts!

    You are currently viewing our boards as a visitor. Click here to sign up right now and start on your path in the Smash community!

Guide [ Tobias XelKythe's Luigi FAQ ]

TobiasXK

Smash Ace
Joined
Aug 9, 2004
Messages
579
Location
austintown
Now before the actual guide I've got stuff to say. For one, this guide is dated. It was first released about a year ago, and was written even further back. That's why it's undergoing updates. Now, I'm posting the guide basically as is, just because we need one here on the boards. Anything that needs to be changed, added, any new ideas? Post. It'll be addressed in the update, and you'll be credited. I'm updating it currently, and so I will be changing and adding stuff in this topic.

I've left out character matchups because they were empty. That will be added with the update, as I now know a LOT more about that sort of thing. I'm also adding a section on Stages, so that you know where your advantages lie. If you have any input, feel free to let me know. Counterpicks are rather important, and I want an intuitive section on Character Matchups and Stage Picks to help people out.

***NOTE: THIS FIRST POST OF THE GUIDE WILL DEAL MOSTLY WITH TECHNIQUES. YOU PROBABLY ALREADY KNOW ALL OF THIS STUFF. IT'S MAINLY FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE TOTALLY NEW, AS I HOPE TO OFFER NOT JUST A DEFINITION, BUT ALSO EXPLANATION AND DESCRIPTION OF USE. FOR PEOPLE NEW TO LUIGI BUT NOT NECESSARILY NEW TO COMPETITIVE SMASH, YOU CAN GLANCE THROUGH FOR IDEAS OR JUST SKIP THIS ALTOGETHER.

THE SECOND POST WILL BE THE OVERVIEW, MOVESET, STAGEPICKS AND CHARACTER MATCHUPS.

-=Luigi FAQ=-
Written by: Tobias Xel'Kythe

Special thanks to Magus17, my former mentor and the guy who got me started on Luigi and this guide.

[ Table of Contents ]

[01. Happy Smashing]

[02. Things to know]

[04. Standard Techniques]

-{04A. Shielding}
--{04Aa. Rolling}
--{04Ab. Spot Dodging}
--{04Ac. Shield Grabbing}
-{04B. Air Dodging}
-{04C. Teching}
-{04D. Ledge Game}

[05. Advanced Techniques]

-{05A. Wavedashing}
-{05B. L-Cancelling}
-{05C. Short Hopping}
--{05Ca. Shffls}
--{05Cb. Wavedashed Aerials}
-{05D. Advanced Ledge Game}
--{05Da. Recovery}
--{05Db. Ledge-hopping}
--{05Dc. Edgehogging Tactics}
-{05E. Dash Dancing}
-{05F. Dash-Cancelling}
-{05G. Jump-Cancelled Grabs}
-{05H. Crouch Cancelling}
-{05I. Directional Influence}
--{05Ia. Smash DI}
--{05Ib. CCDI}
-{05J. Advanced Shielding}
--{05Ja. Shield-Aerials}
--{05Jb. Shield-Wavedashing}

[06. An Overview of Luigi]

-{06A. Old School vs. New School}
--{06Aa. Old School Luigi}
-{06Ab. New School Luigi}

[07. Luigi's Arsenal]

-{07A. Tilts}
-{07B. Smashes}
-{07C. Aerials}
-{07D. Throws}
-{07E. Specials}
-{07F. Others}
-{07G. The Taunt}

[08. A Note to the Players]

[09. Character Matchups ]

[10. Stage Picks ]

***NOTE: To navigate the guide more quickly, hit CTRL+F to use your browser's built-in searh function and search one of the topic headings in the Table of Contents to find the corresponding section.

[01.] Happy Smashing

Happy Smashing

[02.] Things to Know

Basically this little bit covers miscellaneous terms, abbreviations and jargon that will appear throughout the guide. Anything listed here that you don't know of will undoubtedly be explained in the Standard or Advanced Techniques sections. You lot should know this.

1. Nair/ANA: Neutral Aerial Attack
2. Fair/AFA: Forward Aerial Attack
3. Uair/AUA: Up Aerial Attack
4. Bair/ABA: Backward Aerial Attack
5. Dair/ADA: Down Aerial Attack

***Those same N, F, U, B, and D may be tagged at the beginning of -throw, -tilt, or -smash, respectively.

6. DI (directional influence): You do it all the time when you're recovering and probably when you're being comboed, as well. It's tilting the control stick when you're in the air to influence the direction you drift. Later on, I'll go a little bit in depth with this to help you out with how to DI effectively and at the right times.

7. CC'ing: Crouch Cancelling (holding down when you're hit on the ground to reduce knockback)

8. CCC'ing: Crouch Cancel Countering (crouch cancelling and using an attack to counter)

9. Priority: Priority is basically the ability of an attack to "beat out" another or take precedence. Really, it's a combination of the timing of the attack, the hitbox (the part of the attack that deals damage), and the recieving hitboxes of your opponent. It's complicated and doesn't matter. Don't worry about priority.

10. Lag: Lag is the delay before or after an attack's animation, where you can't really do anything. Simple enough.

***Some lag can be cancelled or reduced

11. WD: Wavedash (this will have it's own section, but in short: Jumping and using the airdodge immediately at a diagonal into the ground, so that you don't leave the ground, but slide, instead)

12. Sex kick: A neutral aerial attack that has a long lasting hitbox and generally good priority, because of a long window where the attack can hit. Luigi's nair is a sex kick.

***They were named this by MattDeezy's crew because they function like a *****, hittin' it as long as they're out.

13. Ledge: The edge of the stage where you can grab onto.

14. Shffl: Short hop fast fall and L-cancel

15. Whiff: To miss. Swingin at air. Be thwarted in your attacking plan by a well-placed spotdodge or wavedash.

16. Ping: The ping sound that you hear during Jigglypuff's Rest, a Homerun Bat Smash, or... LUIGI'S SWEETSPOTTED UP+B. "Ping" will refer to hitting with Lui's Superpunch so that it makes the ping sound and actually does something...something sexy.

17. Chop: Luigi's fair

[04.] Standard Techniques

In this section, I'll outline the standard techniques such as shielding, rolling, etc. These will likely be things that you already do, but you could improve your game by using even the simplest of techniques to their greatest effectiveness.

- {04A.} Shielding

It's a shield! You use it to block! You press R or L and the standard bubble shield pops up, covering all of Luigi. It gradually decreases in size and can then be angled by tilting the control stick to block attacks aimed at parts where Lui is no longer covered. After a long while or a bit of abuse, the shield will break, leaving you stunned and vulnerable. You don't want that to happen, obviously, so don't hold the shield up for extended periods of time. You can also press L or R very lightly to bring up a light shield that is bigger, weaker, and also diminishes slower than the regular shield. If youtime your shield perfectly, you can also powershield attacks. This will block the attack instantly without hurting the shield at all or having to hold the shield up. You will know that you have powershielded if you see a white flash. Projectiles will also be deflected if you power-shield them. To powershield, you want to put up your shield as soon as an attack or projectile is close enough to the character for it to intersect with your shield when you put it up. As you can imagine, this is a very small window, but with alot of versus matches, your ability to powershield will become better (mostly from simply being quick enough to shield when you see an attack coming, where you'd normally just get hit).

Now Shielding is extremely basic, but many newer players hardly ever shield, opting to roll or just get hit, instead. I advise that you get into the habit of shielding, however, as it's a very useful defense. And from the shielding position, many options become open to you. For instance, you can jump out of the shield, meaning you can perform your aerial attacks or your up+B directly from your shield. But we'll talk more about that in a bit. Moreover, though, you gain the ability to roll, SpotDodge (or sidestep dodge) and Shield Grab. Despite the existence of Rolling and Spotdodging, you do want to work on your timing with shielding and get used to shielding alot. In a high-paced match, being able to shield attacks and quickly counter is VERY useful. Now then...

***NOTE:You may want to get into the habit of shielding with the trigger that you don't use to Wavedash. We haven't gotten to waveadashing yet, but just keep it in your mind.

-- {04Aa.} Rolling

To roll, you simply need to shield and hit left or right on the control stick. Luigi has a relatively quick roll, and it has it's uses, as it allows you to dodge attacks and move at the same time. Naturally, however, there is a downside. Rolling has a fair bit of lag tacked on at the ends of the animation. You also always roll the exact same distance. This means that rolling can quickly become very predictable, and an experienced player can easily hit you immediately after you come out of a roll.

Once you read up on wave-dashing in the next section, you will see that wavedashing is generally better than just rolling for Luigi, but you don't want to neglect his roll. There are times when rolling benefits you, and you always want to have as many options open to you as possible.

-- {04Ab.} Spot Dodging

A spot dodge, or sidestep dodge, is performed by simply shielding and hitting down on the control stick. It is a short stationary dodging maneuver that can be used to dodge almost any attack or grab, though certain attacks are hard to spotdodge. For instance, Doc's pills travel slowly enough that if you spot dodge them, alot of the time, they'll still hit your back once the sidestep is over. Homing missiles are another.

Spot dodging is quicker than rolling, so if you are good at timing them they are far more useful in most cases. They lag less, as well, meaning that you can come out of sidestep dodging a smash attack or grab and counter with a down-smash or whatever you please.

Specifically with Luigi, however, spotdodging becomes useful when moving, as well. Lui's low traction makes it so that if you dash and spotdodge, you still will slide forward a bit. Also, well-placed spotdodges in the middle of wavedashes help Luigi approach against projectiles like frequent SHLing (Short Hop Lasering) from Falco.

Spot dodging is a useful tool, and you'd do well to become comfortable with using it.

-- {04Ac.} Shield Grabbing

You can hit Z to grab. Yes, you can also hit L/R and A at the same time and grab. However now that you're starting to shield more, why not grab from the shield? You hold up the shield to block an attack, hit A, and you've grabbed them. This becomes very useful with dealing with fast attacks like shffl'd aerials. Luigi's grab range isn't the greatest, but it's still good. Learn how long it is, so that you don't end up grabbing at air.

- {04B.} Air Dodging

To airdodge, press L/R when you're in the air. You can also tilt the control stick to air-dodge in any direction. Airdodging can be useful to evade midair attacks and projectiles, but after an airdodge, you are left free-falling...and Luigi doesn't fall very fast, so you will VERY easily be hit before you reach the ground. My advice is that if you're high enough in the air that airdodging down won't get you to the ground or really close to it, and you need to dodge an attack, use your second jump if you have it, or try to beat it out with Luigi's sex kick (n-air) or his tornado.

Another use of airdodging is recovery, when you just need that little push to snap to the edge of the stage, and don't want to drop lower and up+B. You should probably be using it more in this way than to actually dodge attacks. You can also just come in higher and air-dodge through your edgeguarder (probably at a diagonal down to get onto the stage more quickly).

***NOTE: If you want to airdodge to the ledge with Luigi, you will need to airdodge above the ledge, so that you freefall or a second after the airdodge is complete. Otherwise, Luigi will be incapable of grabbing on to the edge.

The best thing about airdodging though? It allows wavedashing, which is the very first part of the next section of this guide. Stay tuned.


- {04C.} Teching

Yet another gift in the L/R triggers... Teching is staple. In fact, you probably already do it. When you're hit hard and end up tumbling in the air, you can hit L/R just before you smash painfully into the ground to gracefully recover with a handstand-esque maneuver that we call 'teching', from the technical bonus in Street Fighter.

While Luigi is catching himself, upside down, you can also then hit right or left to do a techroll, which goes slightly farther than the normal roll and allows you to get out of the way immediately after you land.

You can also tech on cielings, and walls, and if you hit up on the control stick while you walltech, you will perform a pseudo wall-jump, even though Luigi can't normally walljump.

Now teching is amazingly useful, as it greatly speeds up your recovery time, and also allows you to escape combos such as those started with throws like Fox's down throw, which can be teched out of. However, if you're tumbling high in the air, you may not always want to wait until you float to the ground to tech. Instead, you can smash left and right on the control stick to return to your normal free fall where you can attack and whatnot.


- {04D.} Ledge Game

Basically this is a little segment on how you can get up from the edge, as there are four basic ways of doing this. The first, of course, is just standing up. Tilt the control stick up and Luigi gets up onto the stage slowly. It's rarely the best course of action. You can also hit X/Y to jump from the ledge, L/R to roll, or A/B to attack. There are two different ledge attacks, one when you are under 100% and one when you're over. The first does 8% and is somewhat quick. The second one is very slow and laggy, but does 10% damage. It also has some invincibility frames which aren't redeeming at all. hese are the basic options, and none of them apart from rolling or the occasional low-damage ledge attack will really be used against opponents with any sort of edgeguarding game... However, this is the standard techniques section. I'll teach ou some better alternatives for getting up from the ledge in the next section. And on we go!


[05.] Advanced Techniques


This section will cover the more advanced little nuances of playing at a competitive level, explaining techniques like Wavedashing, L-cancelling, etc. There will also be some things that are very easy to do and aren't really "advanced techniques" but are somewhat neglected by most non-tourney players, like crouch cancelling and DIing intelligently.

- {05A.} Wavedashing

You've been wondering what the **** wavedashing is? Here it is, as promised.

-=How do you do it?=-


Wavedashing isn't particularly tricky, but it does take nimble fingers. To wavedash, you'll need to jump and immediately airdodge at a diagonal into the ground. Ideally, you'll want to be able to have the airdodge register before you even see your character leave the ground, so the jump and the airdodge need to be all but simultaneous, as Luigi has a 5 frame jumping animation (which is only 1/12th of a second). If you do it correctly, your Luigi should slide for a bit in his landing position and some white smoke will kick up. If you see Luigi jump a tiny bit before he/she slides, then it's still a wavedash, but you'll want to learn to airdodge quicker. A good wavedash will give the impression of just the slide... a character standing there and then sliding across the ground, with nothing in between.

An easier way to wavedash is to do it directly out of a crouch. If you're already holding the control stick at a diagonal down, then all you have to do is hit X/Y and L/R at almost the exact same time. I recommend this only to see what it looks like, though, because getting in a habit of crouching before every wavedash kinda destroys some of it's speed and usefulness.

-=But what IS wavedashing, actually?=-

Wavedashing is a technique that turns an extremely low angled airdodge into a slide on the ground. It's the product of the physics engine of the game. It uses an airdodge into the ground to cut off the jumping animation, and the left over momentum plus low traction causes your character to slide. Accordingly, low traction yields long wavedashes and high traction yields short wavedashes. For this reason, Luigi has the single longest wavedash in the game. Traction on the stage also matters. For instance, an oil spill on Flatzone or the UFO on Fourside will give <i>any</i> character a super long wavedash.

Because it's an aspect of the physics, there are two other things that will affect the length of a wavedash. The first is the timing of the airdodge. Delay the airdodge a little bit while you're characters a touch higher off the ground, and the wavedash will be slower and shorter. If you wait until you're coming down from a full jump, then the falling momentum adds to the airdodge and the wavedash gets longer. The second thing that alters the length of a wavedash is the angle of your airdodge. A shallow angle closer to perfect left/right gives you a longer wavedash. If you tilt the control stick in a steep angle below the corner for the 45 degree down-right/down-left angle on the controller, you get a shorter wavedash. You can even airdodge straight down. You won't move at all, but it cuts off your jump quickly. The normal wavedash is right in the 45 degree down-left/down right, but learning to control how long your wavedashes are can be very useful... especially for
Luigi.

Essentially though, all extraneous information aside, wavedashing is moving while standing still. It allows you to perform any possible move or attack, just as though you were standing neutral...only with wavedashing, you can move at the same time.

-=Okay, so how is this useful?=-

If you didn't read that last little short paragraph, allow me to reiterate. When you're wavedashing, you can do ANYTHING. It gets rid of the inhibitions that go along with running such as lag at the end of the animation. When you're wavedashing you have every possible attack open to you, and you can also roll, shield, spot dodge, jump, wavedash, crouch, or dash. Wavedashing also lets you move backwards without turning around, allowing for quick dodges and immediate retaliation. But let's look at the uses a touch more in depth...

MOVEMENT: Basic. Luigi tends to have this as his main form of movement, using it for approaches, moving between combos, evasion, landing from the air, etc. It can also be a wayto dodge an attack and retaliate immediately, something that rolling does not allow you to do A backwards wavedash gets you a quick dodge and then you can retaliate, if you're close
enough, or wavedash forward immediately and retaliate. Wavedashing also allows quick movement when coming down from the air. You can jump to avoid a projectile such as a super missile, and then place the airdodge to wavedash right before you land, meeting your opponent with a quick pop, or wavedashing back to avoid the followup. You can also wavedash the landings of attacks that finish in the air, such as short-hopped bairs, fairs, uairs and dairs with Luigi. Because the animation finishes entirely in the air, you can airdodge and wavedash without having to land first. This becomes very useful for linking hits and following up on attacks with Luigi.

WAVESMASHING: Since you can attack directly out of a wavedash, you have alternatives that you will probably prefer over the standard dash attack in some instances. For instance, as a Luigi player, you will likely take the down smash over the dash attack. Ergo, the wavedash + down-smash. Incidentally, certain smashes like that one also gain increased
range because of the movement in a wavedash. This "WAVESMASHING", however, also refers to "WAVETILTING" and "WAVENEUTRALA-ING." Since you can do any attack out of a wavedash, you keep quite a few options open. Down-smash and f-tilt tend to be what you'll wavedash the most with Luigi, but you're also allowed to jump/short hop and hit with an aerial, so that
happens, as well.

WAVESHIELDING: When you first learn to WD, you will likely end the dash with the shield up, due to holding the trigger for too long. You will probably want to try and work past this so that it doesn't happen all the time. However, waveshielding will allow you to advance on characters without inhibitions or threat (apart from being grabbed). Moving with the shield up can be dead useful in approaching, and the fact that you can wavedash out of a shield adds some extra goodness as well. Along with shielding during a wavedash also come rolling and spot-dodging, both with their advantages. Wavedashing into spot-dodges can be great to avoid projectiles without sacrificing movement in certain instances, such as when facing
SHLs from Falco. Waveshielding also allows shield-grabs from your wavedashes, too, so you can have some fun with that, as well.

EDGE-HOGGING: If you are hanging onto the edge of the stage, no other character can grab onto it. So if a recovering opponent has used all 3 jumps and is hoping to grab the edge and you're already there...they're screwed. If you wavedash backwards off the edge of the stage, you will automatically hang from the edge. Once you can wavedash consistently, this
is a touch quicker than jumping or SHing backwards off the edge. If you roll from the edge after edge-hogging, you gain a few frames of invincibility, and the ledge is still considered occupied, so this can help evade certain up+b attacks while still causing them
to miss the ledge.

***NOTE: If you've hit someone from accross the stage and need to edgehog quickly, you can wavedash forwards towards the edge, and tilt the opposite direction while you slide so that Luigi will turn around in mid-wavedash and then grab onto the edge.

MIND GAMES: This is the main aspect of wavedashing. The speed and mobility that wavedashing allows along with the freedom to do anything grants you the ability to have excellent mind games that utilize wavedashing... However, this is not something that can really be taught. Once you can wavedash consistently, you'll start noticing places where you can use it and as your mind games improve, you should be able to come up with some pretty neat stuff using wavedashing. You can check out pro videos for ideas, but I can't guarantee you'll actually see the mind games. Mind games are more in the fight, in the head of the player... Whether in high-level or just regular play without advanced tactics, you still want your opponent to be tricked into a position where you can attack them. Dash forward, and your opponent is probably going to attack, right? you get hit. Dash forward, wavedash back... your opponent attacked before you wavedashed back and now suffers from the lag of their failed attack. So you punish. That's a really simple and generic example, but it gets the point accross. Mind games... Simply put, mind games are the game.

Here's some more assorted information about wavedashing's uses... You can wavedash straight from the ledge by dropping and immediately jumping and airdodging onto the stage. This can get you back onto the stage quickly to meet an approaching opponent. Wavedashing also cancels the things that jumping cancels... For instance, since you can jump out of a shield, you can wavedash out of a shield. Stages with platforms also open up some new opportunities with waveadshing, since you can jump up through a platform and then airdodge so you wavedash accross it. This allows for some versatility on stages like Battlefield, where Luigi can have scarily fast, fluid movement around the entire stage.

For the most part, though, you'll find use for wavedashing on your own. These things are just outlines of some more general uses. With some practice, wavedashing becomes second nature. Most who do it get to the point where they can accomplish it 100% of the time with no problem. Wavedashing is not always necessary to your game, as there are some pros that
don't wavedash, however it is very useful... ESPECIALLY for Luigi, who simply makes orgasmically beautiful use of it. It is also not a glitch, or in any way cheap. It is merely an aspect of the physics in the game, and is referred to in the actual game as the "super dash technique" or something in Debug. It's the most versatile of the advanced techniques and can help ANY character's game. It's not necessary, but it sure as hell isn't useless. It's moving while standing still! So experiment with it. I'm sure you'll find some nice ways for it to improve your game.

A big read, I know, but Wavedashing is very important to a Luigi player, and is a big part of the reason that he has the potential that he does.


- {05B.} L-cancelling


L-cancelling is generally considered ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY in competitive play. In actuality however, Luigi rarely truly needs it. You should still learn to do it, though, for the times when you need it with Lui, and for your other characters.

L-cancelling stands for "Lag-cancelling." If you land after performing an aerial attack when the animation isn't 100% finished with (if it were, you'd just be freefalling), you suffer lag on the ground...dead time where you can't do anything. In high-level Smashing, that's just unacceptable, as the game is very fast-paced. L-cancelling reduces the lag by 50%. Luigi's aerials tend to finish entirely in the air, though, so they only need to be L-cancelled in certain situations.

How do you do it, then? After you perform your aerial, you need to hit L/R/Z just before you hit the ground. The window for this is small, so it needs to be timed more precisely than teching. If you're just learning how to L-cancel right now, you may want to try it out with Link's d-air or Bowser's B-air, as those are the most noticeably L-cancelled attacks. When you first learn to L-cancel, your shield may pop up for a split second. If that's what happens, start letting go of L/R/Z earlier. The entire point of L-cancelling is defeated when your shield pops up and goes down rendering you immobile for a second.

These will mostly get used for Luigi when you do short hopped, fast falled sex kicks, which ALWAYS should be L-cancelled so that you can follow up immediately.


- {05C.} Short Hopping


Short hopping. It's a short hop...as opposed to a full Jump. To short hop, you simply press X/Y/Up (whatever you use to jump) and release it quickly, before the jump animation is over (still 1/12th of a second, but it's pretty easy, actually). This will give you a jump about half as high as Luigi's normal jump, allowing you to use your aerials to attack foes on the
ground. Short hopped aerials make perfect followups to downsmashes or throws, and are going to be your most used type of attack (hell, short hopped sex-kicks are pretty much spammed.)

You can also Tornado out of short hops, as kind of a fakeout, where they're expecting a regular aerial, but are met with the huge range of the sliding Luigi tornado, instead.

Just short hopping an aerial is not usually something, you'll do with Luigi, however. You are more likely to shffl them (explained next), waveland them (explained after shffls), or double them up, such as using double b-airs, double f-airs, or following a short hopped aerial with a sex kick right near the ground in case your opponent shields (short hopped
double aerials should always be L-cancelled). To avoid being shield grabbed, you can also hold forward during an f-air or something so that you drift through their shields behind them and hit them with a b-air right near the ground, or something like that.

***NOTE: Another option after a shorthopped aerial is double jumping into more aerials!!!

Now, then. SHFFLs and SHWDs (fake term, but it's better than saying SHA?AWD).


-- {05Ca.} SHFFLs (Short hopped Fastfalled L-cancelled aerials)

You know how to short hop. You know how to L-cancel. To fastfall, you simply press down on the control stick when you're in the air floating downwards (after your jump/short hop has peaked). So then, to "shuffle" an aerial, you short hop, do your aerial, hold down to fast fall, and L-cancel. It's alot of things to do in just over a second, but you'll get used to it with some practice.

Now shffls are great. They're a big part of most people's games and while they aren't exactly spammed with Luigi, they do get used. For instance, most sex kicks that you use as approaches or launchers will be shffled.

Now, I'm going to take a moment to explain this, one of the bigger flaws that I find in Luigi... Luigi has a not-so-short short hop and a not-so-fast fastfall. Now really, his short hop isn't as high as certain other characters, but his floatiness causes him dead time at a height where you're just kinda hanging there for a second waiting for the jump
to peak so you can actually fastfall, which doesn't make you fall very fast at all. His short hop, along with his floatiness and quick aerials allows him double aerials in a short hop, and wave-dashed landings and whatnot, so that has it's upside and it's downside. However, for shffls, his short hop and fastfall are weird. To make up for Lui's time spent lingering in the air when you're trying to shffl a chop, you'll need to learn to stagger your aerials. I started doing it long ago, without ever really realizing it until recently... Now what you want to do is to start your short hops early. If you're
right next to them when you short hop for your shffled f-air, you will get grabbed or simply swatted away. So you short hop early, DI towards them, then f-air, fastfall and L-cancel as soon as the jump peaks. Now this'll look weird (staggered, really... which it IS...) --- you'll be floating not-so-fast, and then put out a fastfalled L-cancelled chop ridiculously quick. If you learn to space those and hit with them, though, they make great ends to grounded combos, or finishers to a mad dash (or wavedash) across the stage to catch up with your opponent.

***Short hop backwards to chops fastfalled forward are good news.

The other solution to the "high short hop, slow fastfall" problem is...


-- {05Cb.} Short Hopped Wavedashed Aerials

Yup. Short hopped wavedashed aerials. For a visual example of what these are, see my sig. You short hop and immediately perform your aerial attack of choice (anything but the sex kick will work). After the attack is done, if you started it early enough, you should be drifting back to the ground. Airdodge at a diagonal into the ground, and you'll wavedash instead of just landing stationary.

This aspect of Luigi's game greatly adds speed and mobility to his game. Where his aerial maneuverability is quite poor when you're trying to link hits in the air, on the ground, you can easily follow up and catch people by wavedashing short hopped aerials (even if you are higher up and hit them too far, you can always fastfall, wavedash before you hit the ground and catch up). Wavedashing your aerials also allows you to edgehog quickly if you need to. You can f-air someone off of the stage, wavedash the landing, tap the other direction to turn around, and there's a timely edgehog that will likely piss your foe off a fair bit.

Now wavedashing isn't your only option here. Since the attacks finish in the air, you can also tornado, or rejump and hit again if you whiffed or something like that...or rejump and TORNADO... Play around with this stuff for a while, and your Luigi will become quite versatile, with great speed and many options.

You can also use Luigi's quick-finishing aerials to recover from whiffs, as you can try again, rejump or wavedash away, etc. It's one of the greatest things about being Luigi, the fact that there is so much you can do.

***Mix them up. If you SHWD everything, they know that you'll be starting your aerials as soon as you short hop and can dodge early and hit you. If you shffl everything, they know that the timing is staggered and the attacks will be lower to the ground. Apart from knowing when you should use each, taking into account how high your opponent is, etc., you should
also know to mix it up so that you don't become predictable.


- {05D.} Advanced Ledge Game

Whether you're on the ledge, trying to get to it, trying to use it, or wanting to stop others from getting there, you want to have a good knowledge of your options with Luigi's ledge game beyond the little things mentioned before. In this bit, I'll explain some of the intricacies of using the edge to your advantage, as well as better ways to edge-hog or get
back up onto the stage. Here goes...


-- {05Da.} Recovery

"Omg Luigi's recovery sucks." Actually, it doesn't. It's sketchy as hell, but when you know what you're doing, it's definitely manageable. First things first... DI. The very first step to recovering successfully takes place the second you are hit. DI upwards when you're hit with an attack that'll send you out off of the stage. In doing this, you'll find that you will transfer alot of the horizontal knockback into vertical knockback. What this accomplishes is two things: 1.) You slow down in the air and don't get sent off a side blast line, and 2.) You gain height, giving you more possible recovery. Now then, you also want to make sure that you keep your 2nd jump...

Now to start your trip back to the stage, you should use uncharged green missiles in little bursts. This will get you your horizontal recovery and will also help you recover low. (***NOTE: If you're super close to the stage and can recover above it, you may as well just missile overhead and fastfall, using your 2nd jump and airdodge to avoid your edgeguarder once you're over the stage.) It also makes you green missile multiple times, giving you a greater shot at misfiring. If you're somewhat close to the stage and nearthe same height as the ledge, you can also use a charged missile to get right next to the stage underneath the ledge. Either way you should end up below your edgeguarder. From here, you can jump and up+B or airdodge to the edge, depending on how far you are. You'll want to learn how to sweetspot the edge, or time your up+B so that you snap right to the ledge without popping up above it where you can be hit (some edgeguarding attacks hit below the ledge, but if you sweetspot, you have a better chance of not being screwed).

Now in times of dire need of vertical recovery, with an extremely dextrous thumb, you can also use Luigi tornado to recover. To do this, you need to hit down+B and continue tapping B ungodly fast (you can also hold directions to drift more to the side). If you tap fast enough, Luigi will rise an insane amount before he starts to fall again. You want to use your 2nd jump as soon as possible after you rise with the tornado so that you don't lose too much height.

***NOTE: For every tornado where you attempt to rise, you must first have done a tornado on the stage. Performing a grounded tornado is "loading" the rising one, so to speak. If you can use the Tornado to recover, make it a habit of using a grounded tornado at least after each stock, just in case.

Well there you go. You got to the ledge. Congrats. Now what?


-- {05Db.} Ledge-hopping

You've still got an edgeguarder just waiting for you to come back up so they can pop you off again... Here's where ledge-hopping aerials gets you some space for a safe return to the stage.

So how do you ledge hop, then? First you need to know the fundamental technique that is ledge-dropping. To do this, press down when you're on the edge. You can also hit down on the C-stick, but I don't know why you'd do that. Difficult, neh? Now to ledge-hop, you simply ledge-drop and jump immediately. Perform your attack, drift back onto the stage, L-cancel, and that's that... basic Ledge-hopping. Now with Luigi, you've got options. For starters, you can ledge-hop any aerial, whereas some characters are limited... Also, a ledge-hop is just a touch higher than Luigi's short hop, meaning you've still got your double aerials, wavedashed aerials, tornadoes and whatnot open to you.

I'd say ledge-hopped f-airs are the most common ledge-hops for Luigi, but barely. Since you have so many options, you can vary it easily. Other ones I see/use alot are ledge-hopped d-airs into sex kicks when they shield (people usually shield ledge-hopped aerials). Tornadoes from the edge are also cool, but be careful with the timing on those, so you don't just drop because you did it before you were over the stage... I ledge-hop sex kicks occasionally, as well, and sometimes just wavedash through them if they shield prematurely or something like that.

Of course, you don't always want to ledgehop, so you keep open the options of rolling off the edge or using Luigi's ledge-attacks.

Now you can also ledge-hop attacks to edgeguard when you're in the edgehog position on the ledge. B-airs and d-airs are usually best for this. D-airs for when they approach from below-ish, and b-airs when you want to jump out off of the edge and hit them out of reach. Be careful, though. When you ledge-hop outwards too far, you will actually need to missile back and up+b to the edge. I tend to just wait nowadays, and edgehog. If they look like they are going to make it back, I ledgehop a b-air forward and fastfall it onto the stage to hit them if they pop up above the edge.

***NOTE: The better way to use ledgehops to edgeguard is to just drop and immediately use your aerial, when people approach really close, or to hit BACK, use your aerial, and then jump back to the stage. This gets rid of the risks that go along with actually using a ledgehopped aerial to edgeguard.

Learn to ledge-hop well, as there are times when you can actually retreat to the edge during a fight and hit them as they follow you there (which they will...almost always, for some reason). And naturally, it's a better way of getting back onto the stage than a slow laggy stand up or ledge-attack when you're above 100%.


-- {05Dc.} Edgehogging Tactics


Edgehogging is great. Your opponent makes it so close to the stage but fails to grab on because you're already there. Some people call it cheap. I call some people whiney and otherwise pathetic idiots. A kill you get from an edgehog is still a legitimate kill, so don't be hesitant to edgehog. With Luigi's great wavedash, he's almost MEANT to edgehog, as he can get from one side of the stage to the edge of the other side quite quickly.

Now that's generally how you'll edgehog---by wavedashing backwards off of the edge. Alternately, if you're facing the wrong way, you can wavedash forwards towards the edge and tilt the control stick the other way while you're sliding to turn around to where you'll grab onto the edge. You can also hit people off the stage with an aerial and wavedash the landing straight into an edgehog...

When you get onto the edge, you have a small window of invincibility frames, meaning that if you edgehog just before an opponent reaches the edge, their up+B will not hurt you. However, if you've been hanging there for a while, they can swat you away and take the ledge, recovering safely. This is why you've got alternatives to just hanging there. If you roll from the edge or use a ledge-attack, you have invincibility frames and a small amount of time where the ledge is still considered "occupied" at the beginning of the animation. So when you've got an up+b headed your way that's going to hit you, off, just
roll (or use the ledge attack over 100%, depending on which is necessary --- generally, rolling should work just fine).

You might get into a habit of edgehogging almost every time an opponent is off of the stage, which is fine, because from the edgehog position, you can jump up with ledge-hopped aerials to edgeguard your recovering foe if they're too close. Also, another great thing about edgehogging is that there aren't a great many ways for your opponent to get around it in most cases. Intelligent DI and good recovery skills can get them to where edgehogging won't help you, but otherwise, if they try to avoid the edgehog at the last minute by recovering over you, you can very easily just pop back up onto the stage and
hit them out again or use a kill move like Luigi's up+B ping while they lag.

Edgehogging is very useful. However, don't forsake your other means of getting kills. You should learn to spot when edge-hogging will do the trick and when using another means of edgeguarding such as wavedashing off the stage and using your f-air chop or d-air will work better. Learning to know the distances of each characters' recoveries will help avoid mistakes when edgehogging, such as getting hit, or having to ledge-hop an aerial outwards to hit them away (this is generally not good, for reasons mentioned in the previous section). It's much better to edgehog at the right times, and edgeguard at the right times.

***NOTE: The grappling beam or a hookshot will go through your edgehog. However, if you hit them while they're connected to the stage, they die, so drop b-airs on Link, YL, and Samus.


- {05E.} Dash Dancing


It barely even seems like a techique. Rather, it seems like fidgeting. However, dashdancing is very useful. Dash-dancing is dashing back and forth rapidly, allowing only the initial dash animation to show in each direction. To do it you just smash left and right repeatedly on the control stick. What it is is a mindgame technique, basically. Dashing forwards and
backwards, your opponent isn't quite sure what you're going to do, which way you're going to go... Perhaps they approach cautiously, and you end the dashdance and strike. Perhaps they approach too cautiously and quickly roll/wavedash back trying to fake you out. Wavedash out of dashdance? Crazy fast and easy to catch people with. There isn't a great deal to say about dashdancing alone, as it's a mindgame; you'll need to use it yourself and see what use you can put it to. However couple it with what you'll learn in the next little bit and you'll have some more ideas of how to use it...


- {05F.} Dash-Cancelling


Dash with Luigi, and it'll take a good while before you stop moving and gain the ability to do anything. This is because of his low traction plus the fact that the dash animation has lag at the end, anyways. Dash-cancelling solves this problem. Hit down while you're running, and you'll end the running animation, allowing for a quick smash or even another dash forward towards your confused opponent. Dash-cancelling gives you the ability to do running downsmashes, which, though they aren't quite as useful as wavesmashes, do have their moments. It also works nicely with dash-dancing, letting you stop immediately to do something. For instance, though this isn't seen much with Luigi, if you really wanted, you could dash out of the way of an attack, dash back towards your opponent, dash-cancel and retaliate. It's just like a wavedance, basically, but shorter, quicker and more viable in certain circumstances. It also aids with your dashdance mind games, as the immediate halt can throw off opponents or let you hit the ones who chose to approach foolishly. Again, though, there isn't a great deal to be said here. Onward.


- {05G.} Jump-Cancelled Grabs


These'll be called JC Grabs now for the duration of the guide, because JC is 11 letters and a hyphen shorter. >.> Anyways, JC grabs. Now the idea here is simple. You run. You jump. You grab. However, since you can't grab in the air, there's some timing involved. Basically you hit jump and grab at pretty much the same time. It's very easy to do. The result of these JC grabs, is that you do your standing grab out of a dash. "Whoamfg, who cares?" Dash grabs are laggy and slow. Standing grabs are quicker and less punishable. That is the great beauty to JC grabs.

Now you can accomplish the moving standing grab by wavedashing, as well. Here's where you gauge which one to use. Closer up, JC grabs are better, as the initial dash animation is short, and even if they move, you can still run after them or choose to wavedash. If you try to wavegrab closequarters, you'll almost always overshoot them. Using JC grabs also means you can grab out of a dashdance. So if you're dashdancing and they approach. JC grab. Or, if you dash towards someone to grab them and they roll behind you...dash back, JC grab.

These three dash-related techniques that we've just discussed are important. Wavedashing will not solve everything for you, because turning around in situations where you need to do it quickly, just doesn't happen with wavedashing, nor is wavedashing super useful close up to your enemy. Learn when to dash, when to wavedash. When to JC grab, when to wavegrab.
When to Wavedance, when to dashdance. It's important that you realize that spamming random wavedashes will get you nowhere, because Luigi has OPTIONS, and becoming predictable isn't the best one. ^.^


- {05H.} Crouch Cancelling


Not even remotely an advanced technique, but important and neglected... CCing helps you survive, just like DIing properly. CC an attack at low percentages and you won't move a bit and be free to counter with probably a downsmash, as that's the most logical choice. CC at higher percentages and you'll slide back, but still won't suffer the tremendous knockback
of certain attacks. CC at really high percentages, and you'll slide( or bounce --- if this happens, make sure to tech on the edge of the stage) off of the stage and accidentally fast fall to your death. Point? Don't ALWAYS just crouch cancel everything. Watch your damage and whatnot to see where you should stop CCing big hits and start DIing up and towards the
stage. Of course, you should also be playing a defensive game instead of just taking all hits and trying to make the best of it, but when you're not quick enough, CCing and DIing well can kinda make up for it.

Now CCing has downsides even at lower percents. Multi-hitting attacks will hit you multiple times. Case in point: CC Peach's down-smash, and you eat over 50% easy. The same goes for little combos, so crouch cancelling is not something you do unless you have to, because it will very easily hurt you more than it helps. If you don't think you'll be quick enough to
counter the next hit while you're CCing, then wavedash out of the way. You're already crouching, so you really just have to hit X/Y and L/R at this point. If you CAN CCC in time however, that quick d-smash is nice to turn their assault into your combo.


- {05I.} Directional Influence


DI is one of the big things separating the good players from the just decent ones. I myself am no expert on DI, as being able to DI properly in all instances comes from simply playing a ****load of matches and seeing what works. However, I do have a DECENT working knowledge of DI, and so I'll try and help.

The basics. When you're being comboed, chances are that intelligent DI can get you out of it. Alot of the time with simple combos, DIing up and/or backwards will allow you to drift out of range to jump, tornado, waveland, tech, or whatever. However, you also want to try and be less predictable with your DI. If someone tries to chain throw you or something and
you always DI a certain way, they'll predict it and move accordingly. Throwing your enemy offguard with your DI habits to break combos is almost as important as actually getting out of them, because combos in smash are usually situational and improvised.

DI will also be used when you're hit hard and to aid in recovery. When you're hit with an attack with big horizontal knockback (a KO attack, basically, like an f-smash or something) you generally want to try and hold the control stick UP and towards the stage (in that diagonal). This will transfer some horizontal knockback into vertical, meaning that you're
higher up and thus aiding in recovery as you have more time to get to the stage. Most less-experienced Smashers just DI directly against the attack, but that won't work as well. DI UP.

There are better ways of DIing hardhitters, though, Smash DI and CCDI, as explained next.


- {05Ia.} Smash DI


This is what is thought of as exact-moment DI. Smash DI is tapping and holding the control stick in the desired direction (in most cases diagonal up/forward) RIGHT AT THE MOMENT THAT YOU ARE HIT. This can be done whether you are on the ground or in the air and will greatly reduce the power of your knockback by trying to balance out momentum from two sides. You can also Smash DI out of combos or setups so that you don't just drift out of them slowly. Mostly, though, it's to cut down on the knockback of KO moves and help you survive longer.


- {05Ib.} CCDI


CCDI is an application of Smash DI that goes a little bit further. The CC is Crouch Cancel, just like it always is, and that means you can only CCDI when you're on the ground. What you need to do is crouch cancel in the moment(s) prior to the attack hitting and then Smash DI right when it connects. CCing reduces knockback. Smash DI reduces knockback. Together, the two in CCDI can help you perform incredible feats of survival at high percentages and against very powerful attacks. It's difficult to time, but very very useful.

If you wish to see CCDI in action, there's a very simple way to do it in Training Mode with 2 controllers. Pick Bowser and Luigi. Set the training mode dummy to Human control. Get your Luigi's damage up to 100% and F-smash him with Bowser. Watch the diagonal knockback that ROCKETS Luigi immediately offscreen into the blast line. Now, get Luigi back up to 100%. This time, when you F-smash with Bowser (you'll have to switch controllers quick if you don't have a friend to help you with this) hold down with Luigi while Bowser rears his head and then Smash up/forward right when the attack connects. If you've done it right, you should go pretty high up, but not into the blast line, and only be about a few feet in front of Bowser in horizontal distance.

CCDI DRASTICALLY improves your survival.

So yea. DI? Very important. Learn to DI well and it'll be quite helpful to your Luigi.


- {05J.} Advanced Shielding


Not really "Advanced Shielding", but just some stuff to consider:


-- {05Ja.} Shield-Aerials


Jump-cancelling the shield into an aerial? It's a good idea. For those times when a grab just won't reach far enough or they approach from behind or above, aerials out of Luigi's shield are perfect. I generally do this with the sex kick, to cut through whatever they happen to be trying, but feel free to use the others where you see fit. As said before, this isn't really advanced in any way, but just something you may not have thought about until now. Next!


-- {05Jb.} Shield-Wavedashing


Anything that can be jump-cancelled can be wavedashed out of. For those times when you block a tippered f-smash and feel like immediately wavedashing into a superpunch for the kill on androgyny... and other times, as well. I first saw this in an Azen/Anden match where Anden's Jigglypuff wavedashes out of the shield, under his opponent's attack and rests the guy to instant death. It was sexy, and got me thinking. Luigi's an amazing wavedasher. Luigi's got a shield. Why the **** not? Into smashes, superpunch pings... anything, really... It's just great to use, so keep it in mind.

We've now concluded the techniques bit and move on to more about Luigi's attacks and playstyles. Havin' fun yet?
 

TobiasXK

Smash Ace
Joined
Aug 9, 2004
Messages
579
Location
austintown
[06.] An Overview of Luigi

Luigi is a bundle of priority with aerial dominance, super-low traction, slow floatiness, and a sweet pink suit. He's got a ground game that sets up perfectly for his air game and an aerial game that kicks all sorts of ***. All bias aside, Luigi is perfect for what he does.


- {06A.} Old School vs. New School

For starters, Old School Luigi is the white and green costume, and New School is the green and blue. PimpUigi is pink and red, Squigi is the blue. However all of that is barely relevant; names coined by a certain Luigi player coughPimpUigicough*. Moreover, however, Luigi's gameplay has evolved. Watch an old vid of Kamaal/Rock, and it'll be quite different from what you see in a newer vid of Yagi or KA Master. While they follow the same fundamental principles and ideas, they have their distinctions. This brings us two unique playstyles in my eyes: the Old School Luigi and the New School Luigi. Whether or not you agree with the existence of these playstyles or you think I'm just stupid doesn't really matter... Regardless, reading my thoughts on the two will give you a collective overview of how Luigi is played.


-- {06Aa.} Old School Luigi


This is how I started. A downsmash and sexkick spamfest. Wavedashing into a downsmash is your main, and almost ONLY approach. Occasionally, you can sub it with a wavedash into an up-smash instead. Fulljumped aerials are fine, such as sexkicks rejumped into the followup aerials. If you can get 4 aerials into one trip to the air, why the hell not? I think of the Old School Luigi as a slower more simple Luigi. Still quite effective, but somehow floaty and with less all-over-the-place madness. Juggles are your friend, as are simple tilt combos or use of the AAA attack. You can roll, too; it's not a sin just yet. Float like a butterfly, sting like a mother****ing lemon to the eye.


-- {06Ab.} New School Luigi


Speed. With short hopped wavedashed aerials and far more use of grounded or short-hopped tornadoes, this Luigi is fast. We use wavedashing in more ways than just the standard approaches or dodges, and spotdodge more. Shffl's and double aerials in a short hop are used to quicken the pace of the game and salvage whiffed attacks, as are rejumped tornadoes following whiffed aerials. The down-smash, while still useful, is used less, with more emphasis on sex kicks or throws to set up aerial assaults. This is a quick, crazy comboing Luigi past standard juggles. The new fluidity and speed take improvised combos to a new level, and bring Luigi up to speed with the faster characters. Blitzkrieg.

***

My style? A combination of both, of course. As you know, my philosophy is that the more options you have, the more chances you have of picking something that works. Slow floaty juggles when they have their place, short hopped wavedashed aerial chains when they have theirs. Luigi tends to be effective with anyone who remotely knows what they're doing just because his game lends itsself perfectly to the desired style. YOu WANT a ground game that leads into his air game, which kills, and Luigi just naturally allows that. Hopefully you have got something of an idea about how one plays Luigi at this point. If you're not quite there yet, though, don't worry. Coming up is the full list of Luigi's attacks, along with strategies and little combos and ideas. End.


[07.] Luigi's Arsenal (Attack List)


In this section, we should theoretically have the real meat of the FAQ. Every attack will be listed, along with the damages they do, how to use them, and little tips and combos as applicable.


- {07A.} Tilts


Tilts are your weaker attacks, which is weird, because the manual calls them "strong attacks"... To do a tilt, you tilt the control stick about halfway and hit A. You won't be using tilts a great deal, but Luigi has some good use for a few of these little attacks, so get to know them.

|NEUTRAL TILT: Jab, Jab, Bump.
|-----------------------------
|After first hit: 3%
|After second hit: 5%
|After 3rd hit: 10%


This isn't even a tilt at all. Rather, it's a 3-hit gatling combo performed by tapping A three times, though you can choose to perform one or two hits instead of the full 3.

Now basically, this little neutral A gatling is your standard beginner combo. It's a low-percent combo starter that you'll probably rarely use. Past beginner levels of skil, the full combo is barely ever seen because it can be DIed out of quite easily, and the last hit lags and knocks them away, anyways, meaning you don't really get a followup. However, don't write the first two hits off as completely useless.

The first or first two two jabs work great at low percents (probably 0%-20ish%), as they can be followed with a quick smash or grab. In fact, the hitstun and minimal knockback even allow them to combo into a Superpunch. Pop pop ping. A, A, Up+B. Quick. Painful. Keep that in mind (though you may have to move to get the ping hit at higher percents --- doing it while wavedashing lets you automatically move after the two jabs, placing you for the superpunch). Pop, Pop, Ping! isn't the greatest Up+B setup, of course and is very much not guaranteed. It does work at times, though.

Another use for the first jab is cancelling out weaker attacks or projectiles. It's pretty fast and can be followed up with a quick smash when you cancel out someone's attack.

All in all, you won't be using this too much, as there are far better ways of getting in good damage at the beginning of a match, but if you feel like tacking on a 20-or-so percent combo before you bring out the big guns, keep this option open as a starter.


|FORWARD/BACKWARD TILT: Roundhouse
|---------------------------------
|Damage Dealt: 10%


In the event that you actually need to use a tilt attack, this will likely be the one you use. The roundhouse has decent priority and range and combos nicely at lower percentages. At mid-range percents, the knockback lends itsself to easy followups with a wavedashed grab or attack. It's a fairly useful attack, and gets somewhat neglected because it's a tilt. It
can also be angled up or downward for varying effects (generally, the downward f-tilt is next to useless, as it has very little knockback and isn't particularly quick).

The roundhouse hits somewhat high, meaning you can use it on opponents who have been lifted off of the ground. At low percents or against fastfallers, this is a good followup to a down throw and can usually be followed with a down-smash for an easy 30-ish percent. You can also throw down, b-tilt, and short hop backwards to fastfall a sex kick on them, poppin
them up in the air a bit, where you can do another tilt (probably an up tilt), short hopped aerial, smash, or grab.

The f-tilt can even lead into KOs. At higher percents where it has some knockback to it, an f-tilt near the edge can knock your opponent off, where you can quickly wavedash off of the stage to chop them out too far to recover. Since you're sending them out almost perfectly horizontal from the edge of the stage, they'll have a hell of a time trying to get back.

Another good use of the roundhouse is edgeguarding. It may seem strange to use a tilt, of all things, to edgeguard, but it's quite common and Luigi's f-tilt does the trick. It hits out quite horizontally and absolutely KILLS horizontal momentum. Against a character like Marth who needs horizontal momentum with his forward B to help him recover, this is a great
tool. Naturally, it'll be avoided if they sweetspot the edge with up+B. However, if they pop up above it, your f-tilt will knock them out just out of reach of the edge with no hope of recovering.

The roundhouse is useful; learn when to use it. Knowing when to use certain things is a big part of your skill in SSBM. You don't always want an attack with big knockback, constantly trying to KO. Sometimes you want something that'll combo into your kill, or just rack on damage to get them flying further later on. The f-tilt/b-tilt is great for that.


|UPWARD TILT: Kittenswipe
|------------------------
|Damage Dealt: 9%


Not the most fearsome of names, but it's accurate, so I'm calling it kittenswipe. It really does look like what an infantile feline does in an attempt to get at the ball of yarn you cruelly dangle above it, just out of reach.... moreso than anything else, anyways.

Luigi's up tilt hits slightly behind him, very slightly in front of him, and, of course, above him. Alot of people will call this a completely useless attack, but I differ. In fact, I used to think this was only useful at low percents sparingly, but it's quickly become my most-used tilt. It's actually a great combo starter and launcher all throughout the match.

For starters, it can juggle fastfallers for a bit, and the damage you can get through combos utilizing u-tilt is quite good. It also hits upwards, meaning that once their damage gets higher, you can follow with aerials instead. The fact that it hits slightly behind you also helps it follow up throws at low percents. You can also do down throw, short hop back and fastfall a sex kick to pop them off the ground, and then u-tilt to keep them up for the followup. It also comes out nicely after tornado pops, greatly helping Luigi's combo game by letting you chase people down with tornado, and then u-tilting to continue your combo.

At higher percents, the knockback gets pretty high, and this attack can be used to start a juggle by launching them, or just launch into a chop. The up tilt is very useful, and works very well with Luigi's new combo game. It's perfect for setting up 70+% combos and keeping them going.


|DOWNWARD TILT: Crouch Kick
|--------------------------
|Damage Dealt: 9%


Mostly harmless. Really, this attack is just shy of worthless, despite what I've been saying. It is slow, has unhelpful trajectory, can't really combo, has fairly low damage for a single hit. I don't use this attack. Ever.

Now the only somewhat viable way to use this attack is to hit people up above the ledge if they approach from below or if they've been hanging there for too long. You d-tilt them in the head, they pop up a bit, and you f-tilt them and jump out to chop, or just shffl a chop for the KO.

That's it. I won't think really hard and come up with other super-specific times when you can possibly use this attack, because it's just not worth it. Down smash is quick, strong, knocks upward perfectly, and can be used almost ANY time that you'd even consider using the down tilt.

Well actually, there is one other thing that goes along with the d-tilt. D-tilt, up+B. It's very unexpected, and though it can be DIed out of, someone surprised by the fact that you are actually using the d-tilt likely won't DI properly in this instance. It catches people off-guard. Now it only really works against fastfallers and if they don't DI out, but it's there, as a rare but somewhat possible occurrence.

And on we go, to Luigi's Smash attacks.


- {07B.} Smashes


Smashes are your powerful ground attacks. Tap a direction on the control stick and hit A. You can hold A to charge the smash and release it whenever you want. Charging smashes does not happen often in a high-level match, because they take a long time and are easy to see coming and doge. And they lag, meaning you get punished. Learn to have liberal use of the C-stick for your quick uncharged smashes, which are much more useful and viable. Here we go!

***NOTE: You can charge C-stick smashes by holding Z or A, for what it's worth.


|FORWARD/BACKWARD SMASH: The Pimp Hand
|-------------------------------------
|Damage (Uncharged): 13%
|Damage (Fully Charged): 17%


It's an open handed poke that looks almost explicitly aimed towards hymen-breaking. >.> It launches them forward and up and has decent power. However, this'll be the least useful of all his smash attacks because of range, startup and trajectory. It has some use, though.

Basically, it's the simple forward launch. You can follow it by chasing them with wavedashing and pop 'em with an f-air chop. The f-smash can lead into edgeguards and KOs and with horizontal knockback, it can even get the best of fastfallers and KO them in itsself. Luigi's f-smash can also be tilted up or downward for varying trajectories, so you can play around with that as you see fit, to hit under shields or launch at certain angles.

I rarely use this attack, preferring a shffled fair for horizontal knockback, but it can be useful, nonetheless.


|UPWARD SMASH: The Head Butt
|---------------------------
|Damage (Uncharged): 17%
|Damage (Fully Charged): 23%


This attack is quick, powerful, and like any good ground attack, it hits upwards.

This attack is more or less a stronger version of his up tilt. It also hits slightly backwards, as well as up, so it can lead into bair combos and whatnot.

The head butt can be used as a combo starter, launching into juggles following throws, or actually as a ground KO move. Now percents have to be somewhat high to KO with his u-smash, but it's quick, so when you're opponent is surviving way longer than they should be, you might want to go for the vert kill.

At lower percents or against fastfallers (this is a common phrase for this guide...), you will find that you can actually combo with smashes. A downsmash can lead into an upsmash or two before you start your aerial game up. It's simple C-sticking and isn't too flashy, but use what works, neh? Even something as simple as repetitively up-smashing can work, so why not?

This and Luigi's down smash are his main ground attacks for the most part, as they both do good damage, hit upwards, and are dead useful while wavedashing. Learning to use attacks like these effectively is simple enough, so I don't intend to drone on with combos that are situational or anything like that. You'll know how to use it.


|DOWNWARD SMASH: Breakdancin' Lui
|--------------------------------
|Damage (Uncharged): 17%
|Damage (Fully Charged): 23%


Best. Smash. Ever. No joke. Luigi could not ask for a more ideal smash. It has priority. It has speed. It has range (and increased range when you wavedash it). It has power. It hits STRAIGHT UP. It's the perfect smash attack and will be your most used smash, easily.

The down-smash is a launcher. Wavedashing into a downsmash is a very common approach with Luigi, and while wavedashing, you can actually charge the downsmash (you may want to do this by C-sticking and holding Z to charge, because holding down on the control stick slows and stops your wavedash by crouching).

Another great thing is that, like most other downsmashes in the game (exception: Mewtwo), it hits on both sides of Luigi. That means you are able to protect your back with a downsmash instead of having to rely on the subpar back-smash. It also means that it's range while wavedashing is great. It hits in front of you and behind you, and since you're wavedashing, the hitboxes aremoving forward covering a good range of space.

This attack is staple. It'll be your all-purpose wavesmash, your crouch cancel counter, your combo on fast fallers, your launcher for juggles and combos, and a ground KO move at high percents. The possibilities with this attack are endless. You can follow it with anything: another smash, an aerial, a grab, whatever. I don't have a lot to say about it other than that. The uses are infinite, so get used to thumbing the c-stick down.

Now we go on to Luigi's aerials, which will have more explanations to go along with them as their uses have more specifics to them.


- {07C.} Aerial Moves


As the word "aerial" implies, these are the A attacks that you can do in the air. Simply astonishing. Now, as said before, most of Luigi's aerials are very quick coming out, so use that to your advantage. Each aerial is quite useful, so learn how and when to use each effectively. Here are the quick overviews:


|NEUTRAL AERIAL: The Sex Kick
|----------------------------
|Damage Dealt: 15% and less


The sex kick stays out for a while, and you can hit with it for as long as his foot is out, though the damage decreases the longer it's been out. The hitbox for this attack is also Luigi's entire model, so it's very easy to hit with. It has very high priority and hits people straight up into the air. This attack is very useful and you'll come to use it quite often as you play Luigi.

Now, like I said just now, the power of this attack decreases the longer the kick has been out. It's quite important that you learn when to use strong hit n-airs (right when the kick comes out) and when to use weak hit n-airs, as each acts differently. For instance, to juggle or launch, strong hit nairs are best. However, if you just want a little pop up, the
weak hit nair is better. In fact, weak hit nairs can even get you a Superpunch Ping against fast fallers.

Luigi's sex kick is his best tool against pretty much anyone. It outprioritizes quite a few attacks, and can be used to beat people out in the air, cancelling their own aerials, or to break juggles and combos. Simultaneously, the vertical knockback lends itsself to great convenience with your followups.

On the ground, you'll want to shffl your sex kicks so that once you pop them up, you can recover quickly and follow up with a smash or tilt at lower percents, or another aerial at higher percents. Against fastfallers, you can even use shffled sex kicks to combo or follow them with grabs, catching a Space Animal out of the air and throwing them.

Sex kicks can't be short hopped and wavelanded, however, but you CAN waveland them from ledgehops, or as you jump through platforms. This sex kick is also great for shield stabbing people who are above you on platforms. Do it while rising, and it will hit right under their shield for a perfect chop setup.

To hit people who are in the air, you can full jump and sex kick on the way up, so that after you hit them, you can rejump and perform your second aerial. It is a very good combo starter and when you use it to break priority, you effectively turn their combo into your own.

The sex kick can also be used as the chaser to a short hopped aerial. When your opponent shields your aerial, DI backwards a bit and follow it with an L-cancelled sex kick just before you hit the ground. If their shield is small enough, it'll hit under it, and it will also cancel their shield grab or whatever counter they have planned. Even if you haven't whiffed or been shielded, you can also do this when they crouch cancel.

Ledge-hopped sex kicks are also useful against edgeguarders who aren't Falco (I say this because if you ledge hop a sex kick to hit a Falco standing near the edge, he'll just d-air immediately and kill you). It's best used against lighter characters or floaty ones, as it hits them up away from the edge, and you can fast fall, L-cancel, and then pop them with something else to turn the tables and become the edgeguarder.

Some other cool things you can do with the sex kick are use it to help edgeguard. Your chop may not be the easiest to hit with when faced with an up+B like FireFox coming your way, but if you sex kick, you'll hit them out of it, and can rejump the f-air for the kill. You want a weak hit nair here, of course, so sex kick a tiny bit early, so that you don't get the initial strong hit (that would send them too high). It's not the best idea, but it's still something. You can also drop fast falled sex kicks on characters lying on the ground to punish missed techs or to hit people right AS they tech.

This sex kick is your most used aerial, and quite possibly your most used attack. It's just far too useful. It starts combos, leads into KOs, follows and preceeds any aerial, breaks juggles and combos (this proves very useful fighting a characterlike Sheik), and sets up nicely for pretty much anything you can think of. It's almost spammable. In fact, if you
find yourself in a Luigi ditto, it's almost guaranteed to digress into a sex kick spamfest.

Adopt the PimpUigi philosophy: SEX 'EM TO DEATH.


|FORWARD AERIAL: The Chop
|------------------------
|Damage Dealt: 12%


The f-air chop is lightning fast, and has good knockback, hitting out and upward in a neat arc. At low and mid-percents the knockback is decent, but not too big for a follow up by wavedashing or running. At high percents, this is a KO move and a very effective edgeguard if you know how to use it. Learning to space and aim with this attack is very important, as
this attack has power and speed and will be your second most-used aerial, probably.

For starters, as explained before, you're going to want this move shffled if you intend to hit someone on the ground. Practice this staggered shffl so that you can avoid an attack and then chop while they are lagging.

Alternately, get really good at shwd f-airs. By really good, I mean having the chop come out immediately after you leave the ground. If you're quick enough to do it on the way up, it's easy to hit people on the ground, where as if you do it at the peak of a short hop, it doesn't work quite so well.

One of the mind games that I often use to lead into a shffled f-air hit is to approach my opponent, short hop an f-air just out of reach and wavedash back. They will often try to grab or attack after the whiffed chop, but the WD back puts me out of reach of that (I wavedash more downwards than anything else, so that I drift just BARELY out of range. That way, I am able to immediately dash/wavedash forward and retaliate). Get back next to them, and drop a shffled fair on them. Mindgames are very situational, of course, and can't really be taught. That was just an idea, because just running in like a dumb**** trying to chop is rarely going to work.

Another commonplace setup for the f-air chop is Luigi's up throw. Throw them, turn around, and leap up to chop them. I'm not a big fan of this myself as it works best at lower percentages, and at these low percents, you can get double b-airs or a b-air chain instead.

If they're off the ground already, screw shffling it. You can short hop and wavedash it, chaining it with more fairs or other attacks...Or if they're higher up, just full jump the chop, fastfall and wavedash your landing to catch up. Sometimes, that's a better choice, as they won't be allowed to hit the stage and tech. It can be better to meet them with a sex kick rejump fair to put them higher up just so that you can fastfall, wavedash and continue juggling them.

Edgeguarding with the f-air is kinda tricky. I would imagine most prefer using the b-air as it acts something like a sex kick, but the f-air can be a more powerful tool. Generally, you are going to want to use this below or level with the ledge on opponents who haven't used their up+B yet, or on people recovering high. To hit people at or below the ledge, you simply have to wavedash towards the edge, facing forward, hold forward and chop once you're off the stage. Hitting people using their up+B is slightly more tricky. Without precise timing, you're not going to hit them clean. It's better to stay slightly out of range and chop once their up+B is finished. For instance, it isn't uncommon to see Fox or Falco up+B straight up above the edge, because they will need extra height to DI and drift towards the ledge and can't sweetspot from below except in certain circumstances. This is a very easy recovery to chop, you just pop them as their attack stops.

***NOTE: If you've mistakenly leapt out to chop a recovery that is going to **** you, sex kick to break priority and rejump a fair or get back to the stage, depending on how far out you are. No sense dying trying to edgeguard; it's just embarrassing.

And finally, the ledge-hopped fair. This is a very popular way of getting back onto the stage. In fact, if you're a little bit of a risk-taker, you can find that playing the ledge can be quite useful... DIing out of combos and retreating onto the edge with a landing WD. Here you have your invincibility for a second and the ability to ledge hop a chop right in the face of your opponent, who more often than not will have unthinkingly followed you. And what's more? The ledgehopped fair can be wavedashed on landing, so their failed combo becomes your kung fu onslaught. If you always ledgehop chops, though, they'll start hitting you out, so mix it up. If you drop lower before jumping, the chop will be lower and later. If you drift back away from the edge before going for it, you can avoid an attack then move in for your chop. Vary the spacing and timing. And of course, vary the attack.

And last but not least, I will mention double fairs. Marth is famous for them, but Lui can do them too. And easier, as well. Now double fairs are really not the most useful thing in the world. If you hit with the first, you're not going to hit with the second unless they CC or something. If you miss with the first, it's unlikely that you are going to hit with the second, except at low percents against heavy fastfallers, like Falco. So why the hell am I mentioning this at all? Because you need to mix things up and because there are places where this works. If they powershield or if they're the kinda person who spotdodges shffls, they'll be in for quite a surprise when the second chop comes around and swats them off. You can also dash short hop a fair and hold forward so that the first may be too far, but you still get the second in range. Against a short wavedash back or simply whiffing the first on purpose, that can be useful. Double fairs also land against fastfallers nicely.

Double fairs aren't spammable, however. You're much better off wavedashing the landing or tornadoing if they dodge you. Short hop fair wavedash back. It's a good idea for testing the waters a little bit... Cautious and spry, weaving in and out. I do it probably too much because I don't like being hit at all >.>

Next aerial, then.


|UPWARD AERIAL: Flip Kick
|------------------------
|Damage Dealt: 13%


As with all flip-type attacks, Luigi's up aerial can send opponents in different directions depending on how you hit with the flip. So if you're the kind of Smasher who wants to make good use of this attack, you'll want to learn how it hits at the different parts of the animation and be able to space and time it appropriately so that you can control where your
opponent goes.

Now, wherever your feet are when you hit them, that's the trajectory, basically. It's easy enough to recognize, but it's markedly harder to actually use that knowledge.

The move's main use is juggling. Whether you want u-air juggles like Mario and Doc utilize or you're in the air and this is the only attack that will reach, the flip kick will keep your opponent in the air. However, Luigi's sex kick tends to be better for this, so you only need to use it when it's the only attack that will reach.

The u-air also can lead into other aerials nicely (much like the sex kick, but quicker) when you use it while rising. Sexkick, f-air, and b-air flow perfectly out of it, depending on how they DI.

The other viable use is to hit with it near the beginning of the flip for more horizontal knockback as a combo finisher, edgeguard, or just to get some breathing room.

This move rarely needs to be shffled, as you'll mostly use it when you're already in the air with juggles and whatnot, nor will it ever really need to be SHWD'd (though it looks hella sexy when you do it --- I do all four SHWD'd aerials back and forth as a taunt).

All-in-all, it's not the most versatile attack, but it's still useful. And it hits above you with range that none of Luigi's other aerials can offer.


|BACKWARD AERIAL: Back Kick
|--------------------------
|Damage Dealt: 11%


SHWD b-airs, double bairs, shuffled bears... The backwards kick is great. It's rangey, hits outwards with pretty good knockback, and generally breaks priority or clanks.

First use: Edgeguarding. Jumping backwards off the stage with a b-air will kick people out a good distance functioning as a very effective edgeguard. You can also ledgehop/ledgedrop these on recovering foes or hit BACK when you're on the edge, b-air, and jump back to the stage. He makes use of it just like Doc and Mario do. Bob$ b-airs? Not quite. But good enough. And if you're adventurous, spot your opponent recovering from below, wavedash forward off the stage and bair them into the wall. It's quick, so even if they wall tech, you can still hit them again and/or make it back up. And if they DON'T walltech... Well, they're dead, yea?

Apart from that, though, the back kick is hella useful on stage, as well. It's one of the easier aerials to SHWD, and is also pretty easy to hit with and chain. As mentioned in earlier sections, this aerial is your best followup to a throw alot of the time, either doubled up, SHWD'd, or shffled. Also mentioned, prior, a SHWD b-air near the edge is the perfect blend of knockback and edgehogging.

Basically, the b-air is one of Luigi's better approaches in the non-wavesmash category. His long legs reach out far behind him, and the ability to SHWD lets you move back and forth with it, weaving in and out or just chasing your opponent down. The SHWD b-air can also lead nicely into grabs at mid-lower percents with certain characters. You short hop it to kick them, and the wavelanding (which will probably be naturally tilted more towards the side) gets you a very long and fast wavedash that lets you snatch your tumbling foe right out of the air. I first did it against Captain Falcon at around 40% and used it as a cool chain throw thing.

But yea, the b-air is great. I know I haven't said nearly as much as I did with the Chop or the Sex Kick, but the b-air attack is VERY very useful. There just aren't many specific things to say about it, really. Experiment with the back kick and incorporate it into your game.


|DOWNWARD AERIAL: Spin Kick
|--------------------------
|Damage Dealt: 16%


Love this attack. Really. The beautiful thing about Luigi's d-air is that it hits two very different ways. Sweetspotted at the hip, the attack is a spike, sending opponents straight down. If you hit elsewhere, it hits out with knockback very similar to his f-air Chop, but it's quicker and harder to spot, and therefore harder to DI against.

Already, you should be able to see this attack's value as an edgeguard, what with the neat ability to spike OR knockback outwards. It can be used after wavedashing off the stage or just jumping out, or hitting people getting up from the ledge. It's also a good ledge-hop to edgeguard with, like his b-air, but for when people are already right next to the stage
or sweetspotting from below.

However, that's far from the only time you'll use it. Short hopped, this is an EXTREMELY fast aerial and the knockback lets you use it similarly to the Chop. It's also very easy to follow a short hopped d-air with a tornado, since you're already holding down (unless you c-stick it). The tornado can help out a bunch if you whiff or get shielded against when
you d-air.

The d-air also makes a pretty good ledge-hop back onto the stage. Because it's quick, it can beat out your opponent's reaction so that you hit them before they get you. It can also, like the Chop, be wavedashed on landing to catch the opponent you knock away or be followed with a sex kick to stop the shield grab.

Now the d-air as a spike is actually a meteor smash, meaning that if they react quickly enough to jump or Up+B right when they are hit, it will cancel out the knockback. However, if you can meteor with it well, this can be solved fairly easily. Because the d-air is so quick, you can easily use it again if they Meteor cancel. You can also use a non-spike dair for the second one, to hit them away, or into the stage for a possible stage spike, or just use another aerial. The point is, don't be to discouraged by the fact that the d-air spike can be cancelled out, because you can easily make up for it.

So yea, not TOO much to say here, as it is generally used similarly to the f-air on players on the ground or as an edgeguard, but it's useful and can be used in most situations---even if need be to break out priority when you're being juggled or hit someone leaping up to hit you. Love the d-air, really. The multiple hitboxes attribute is something I'd love to see on more attacks, as it makes Luigi's spin kick hella awesome.



- {07D.} Throws


To throw, simply grab someone and tilt one of the 4 cardinal directions on the control stick to throw them in that way.

Throws are a better part of Luigi's game than alot of people let on. He has two very useful throw setups in the d-throw and u-throw, decent power with the back throw, and a pretty useful, though situational f-throw. I use grabs in my game alot, personally, as I think it is a very effective way of setting up for his aerials. I have pretty much covered the more useful ones already, but I can reiterate, right? These'll be short.

|GRAB ATTACK: Head Butt
|----------------------
|Damage Dealt: 3%


The standard grab attack, hitting A when you're holding an enemy. It's not much damage, but it's still damage. A rule of thumb would be for every 15-ish% of damage your enemy has, it is safe to hit them once without them breaking out of your grab. You should pretty much always do this when you've got an opponent in your grasp; after all, damage is damage, no
matter how little it is, and at higher percents, it stacks on nicely.

|FORWARD THROW: Forward Throw?
|-----------------------------
|Damage Dealt: 8%


Probably the least useful of Luigi's throws, but not useless. I personally never used it at all up until recently. I've discovered, however, that with good foresight and spacing, this attack does make a pretty good setup at times. You wavedash to follow the DI and the tech if they get it. At lower percents, it leads into a d-smash or other launcher for a juggle.
At higher, you can just chase them down and chop, or weak hit nair and chop. Be quick about it, though, people don't stay helpless in the air for long. Learn to chase people after f-throws.

That lot's really all I have to say on the forward throw. Moving on, then...

|UPWARD THROW: Upward Throw?
|---------------------------
|Damage Dealt: 7%


Up throw. What a beautiful setup. I've mentioned most of this stuff earlier in the guide, of course... Up-throw leads into double b-airs, or short hopped wavedashed b-airs. It leads into turnaround f-airs. It can chain fast fallers, following DI and maybe the tech/techrolls that they choose. If you've got good spacing, you can also follow an up throw with a u-air at low/mid-low percents for a back-hitting u-air, connecting with the end of the flip. Super-useful? Probably not, but you can do it near the edge for a knockoff->edgehog by wavelanding the flip kick, I guess.

Basically, this is your throw setup at mid-low percents. It's a nice little combo starter at that range and at higher percents can launch for juggles.

|BACKWARD THROW: Backward Throw?
|-------------------------------
|Damage Dealt: 10%


This is your power throw. Many inexperienced players will mistake this for the best throw. In Super Smash Bros., the throws were all intended to send people flying and get KOs. In SSBM, they changed it so that most characters only have the one power throw, and 3 weaker ones for space-clearing and setups. The back throw is Luigi's power throw, and really isn't all too powerful. You could possibly get a KO with it at a pretty high percent, or use it as a launch into edgeguarding to attempt to get a KO that way. Not much to say. I don't use it much, really.

|DOWNWARD THROW: Downward Throw?
|-------------------------------
|Damage Dealt: 7%


Your other very useful throw setup. I covered this one in various earlier parts of the FAQ as well... You can shffl sex kicks backwards to follow up at low percents or against fastfallers. You can follow with a shffled b-air at low or up into doubles or shwds at higher percents. It can lead you into a b-tilt followed by the wavedash for the followup, or maybe u-tilt juggles. Those are some fairly basic and/or common uses for the down throw... It's a set up throw. Make your own followups.

***NOTE: The d-throw can also concievably chain throw characters like Mario and Link, with JC grabs.



- {07D.} Special Moves


B attacks! Not a huge part of competitive Smash for most characters, apart from using them for recovery or projectile spams, but hey. They're still there.

|NEUTRAL B: Green Fireball
|-------------------------
|Damage Dealt: 6%


The fireball goes straight horizontal. It travels slowly. You can wavedash farther than a fireball goes if you put your mind to it. It's slow coming out and it lags...ALOT. Short hopping it doesn't help the lag, either, like with Fox/Falco's laser. You CAN, however, cancel the lag from a fireball by grabbing onto the edge of the stage during the animation, so feel free to jump off the stage, lob a fireball and grab the edge! -.-;

All sarcasm aside, though, there are some uses for fireballs. Damage is good, right? If, by some chance, they get hit by a fireball, they get stunned and you tack on 6 damage. Great! >.> You can also use Luigi's fireball to interrupt Fox/Falco's forward B while they're recovering to effectively screw them with their fast falling speeds.

Really though, fireballs are just something to throw out there when you've got some space (but not too much) and aren't in danger of a quick retaliation. I barely ever use them unless I'm screwing around and doing the infamous "SHORT HOP FIREBALL!" (not useful at all).

There's also a mindgame to it. Because people don't like being hit. And if you concentrate hard enough on not getting hit by something, you'll get hit by it. Fireball spam? Annoying and stupid. But it could just work, and if they get hit, quick followup.


|FORWARD/BACK B: The Green Missile
|---------------------------------
|Damage (Uncharged): 9%
|Damage (Fully Charged): 26%
|Damage (Misfire): 25%


Couple of quick notes on the Green Missile for those who don't understand it's workings. You charge it. The longer you charge it, the further you go. However, the longer you charge it, the more lag you have at the end. This makes charged missiles while recovering not the best idea, because you will fall afterwards and might not be able to make it back up. There is also a 1/8 or 12.5% chance of the attack misfiring. A misfire goes VERY far and will do 25% damage plus MASSIVE knockback if it hits someone. You'll be able to tell if you've misfired by the fact that Luigi will have EXPLODED across the screen. Misfires also, sexily enough, have about the same amount of lag as an uncharged missile.

When you become a Luigi player, you may magically become very lucky with this attack. The 1/8 or 12.5% chance of misfire will seem like bull**** when you misfire 6 or 7 times per match. That is me. And as such, I do use Green Missile as an attack. My advice, however, is to not do that. Green Missile is super weak without a misfire, HORRIBLY laggy and easy to see coming, and using it is basically just a good way to let your opponent kick your ***. It has no place in a serious competitive match unless you're just that much of a risktaker.

I mean, if you pull ahead in a match and have a feel for it, you can try and combo into a misfire. I've done it. I know PimpUigi loves it as well. Hell, I got off 5 in a row against Cyphus' Doc, who I now consider 3rd or 4th best Doc in the country. Misfires are just stylish. While I do advise that you don't go for them, I know you won't listen. It's even hypocritical for ME to tell you to write it off as an attack. Just... use discretion. When you're really ahead in the match, go for combos or edgeguards with it. Whatever. But don't put yourself in a position to lose just because you try to misfire.

Stick with missile for recovery. As explained earlier, you want to use the Green Missile in uncharged or slightly charged bursts (depending on the distance to the stage: use your best discretion. When you use an uncharged missile and you just BARELY don't make it to the stage, it's annoying). This way, you get better recovery and don't fall too much after the missiles. You also recover lower most of the time, so that you can try to sweetspot the edge from below. You ALSO get more chances of misfiring, and those are just a pleasantly nasty shock for your edgeguarder.


|UP B: The Super Punch!
|----------------------
|Damage (Regular): 1%
|Damage (Ping hit): 25%
|Damage (Aerial sweetspot):15%


First things first: The ping hit. If you use Up+B when you are RIGHT next to your opponent, you will hear a ping sound reminiscent of Jigglypuff's Rest or a Homerun smash, and your opponent will fly upwards, engulfed in flame, taking a clean 25% damage. You might remember this from Super Smash Bros. on N64 where it was SUBSTANTIALLY easier to do. In SSBM, you will rarely hit with it, and if you aren't close enough, you will do a mere 1% damage with like ZERO knockback, and you'll lag for a very long time while your opponent ***** you.

So yea, it's not the most reliable of attacks, but it's a killer when it lands. Your best bet to landing this attack is a mistake on your opponent's part. Say you spotdodge a missed L-cancel. Good time, along with other laggy whiffed attacks. Or if they roll or get up from the edge and you can place it well, that's another good time. Now there are ways of comboing into it, some much more effective than others. For instance, I'm sure you've heard at least one tale of dash attack -> Up+B, or maybe down+B -> Up+B. Really not the best ideas. For tornado to superpunch to work, you have to do a stationary down B which is already a thing that you rarely want to do (or you can nado a fastfaller against a wall). It also doesn't work on most characters or people. Dash attack is super slow and most people will just hold L/R during the punches so that their shield pops up before you get to Up+B. Or, they'll DI or just plain hit you out of it.

However, there are some that work. There is the Pop, Pop, Ping! as mentioned earlier...Down tilt to Up+B... And the down throw, dash attack, Up+B... But none of those are guaranteed, they just happen to actually work sometimes depending on what happens. That last one, the down throw, dash attack, Up+B will be explained in the next bit along with the Dash Attack.

On Corneria, it's also common to see people attempt to hang on the fin, d-air spike their opponent, L-cancel and Up+B. If it hits, you've got your superpunch. If it doesn't work out so well, your lag will be cancelled by you grabbing on to the fin where you also have your invincibility frames. It's one of the safer ways.

And there's sex kick setups. Rising sex kick (weak hit) -> Ping, or rising sex kick rejump Ping. They work sometimes, for aerial sweetspots.


Note that in cases such as the sex kick setups, the up+B aerial sweetspot will not make the Ping sound but a boom-sound similar to tipper hits. The knockback is also less, and the damage, as well. It's unfortunate, because Aerial Sweetspots are much more practical to hit with.

All in all, you're best forgetting this as an attack unless you spot one of those golden opportunities where your opponent can't move or avoid it. It's best used for your vertical recovery. Recovery-wise, the attack goes STRAIGHT up. You don't get horizontal with it, so you had better be directly under the ledge, and the perfect distance below when you use it, to sweetspot the edge.

Although, there IS one other thing that has popped up somewhat recently in regards to this attack. Up+B 1-coin hit as an edgeguard. Doesn't sound smart? It really isn't. However when used against a fastfaller or someone hanging from a grapple/hookshot, the hitstun and nontechable knockback CAN effectively **** recovery. So that's that. If you're weird and kinda ballsy, knock yourself out trying to edgeguard with Up+B. It turns them around in the air, so yell CAPE'D! >.>

***NOTE: The Up+B also rides along angled sides of stages, such as the one on Final Destination, giving you more distance with it to get to the ledge.

***Aerial Sweetspot information courtesy of Lixivium.


|DOWN B: The Luigi Tornado
|-------------------------
|Damage Dealt: 19% tops


This move owns. It really does. It's ridiculously better than the tornadoes that Doc and Mario have and has become a pretty useful piece of Luigi's game. The attack can slide very far and has good priority and speed. The very last hit has some knockback to it, as well... Tornado does, however, have a great deal of lag at the end, making it punishable if you
miss and very un-spammable.

As you know, you can tilt left or right while performing the Luigi Tornado in order to slide in that direction. This ability proves to be quite useful. For instance when you're being juggled or comboed, you are able to break priority with the tornado, and then hit a direction once you get to the ground, so that you slide away. You can also use this to chase opponents after short hopped aerials or a forward throw or something. You can even slide forward, pop them, and then drift out of range again. The last hit, as I said, will launch a little bit, so if that connects, it's great for you to lag in safety and then try and follow up.

If you intend to travel a long distance with the tornado to hit your opponent, realize that it's probably not going to work. You will be hit out of it, so it's generally not the best idea as an approach. However, Luigi's traction makes for some interesting things. Someone with a projectile with hitstun, like Doc's Pill or Falco's Laser will generally just use that to hit you before you get close and then try to follow up. If you hold forward after you're hit, you'll still slide forward... you'll be neutral though, just as though during a wavedash. The weak stun of the attack can cancel out the tornado but not cancel out your forward momentum. If you expect this and can react quickly enough, you can get in a smash or something after being hit when they expect you to stop.

Luigi tornado can also be ledgehopped as a little surprise for approaching edgeguarders. Be careful with this, though. You can't really just ledgehop and tornado, or you'll fall. You have to be above the stage at least a little bit (and tilting towards it) when you tornado, so that you will land on the stage and slide. This can catch opponents offguards sometimes,
and get you far away from the ledge back near the middle of most stages.

Now, the tornado can also be used to recover. It's a very difficult thing to do for many people as it requires your thumb to be able to tap a button EXTREMELY quickly. What you do is hit Down+B and continue tapping B as fast as ****ing possible. You can also tilt a direction to influence the way you drift. If you are fast enough, you will rise a rather substantial distance. You start falling immediately, however, so be ready to use your jump or up+B as soon as possible. The thing with Luigi's tornado is that it needs to "reload" after each attempt to rise. Unlike with the other two Marios, you can't just keep doing it. Before each rising tornado, you must have performed a tornado that touched the ground of the stage. Therefore, it's a good idea to tornado on the stage after KOs, just in case you need to use it for vert recovery when your opponent respawns and tries to kill you.

So there's the tornado. It's a truly remarkable move and will easily be your most used B move outside of recovery. This move owns.


- {07E.} Other


This will be where we will list other attacks that don't fit any other categories.

|DASH ATTACK: Drunken Brawl Punches
|----------------------------------
|Damage Dealt: 11% tops


Dash A.

Use this attack sparingly. One of the big allures with wavedashing is that it allows you an alternative to using this attack. Luigi's dash attack hits multiple times with semi-decent damage, but is VERY slow and laggy and punishable. I literally never use it.

However, I can't just close off this explanation without mention of the infamous myth of dash attack to Up+B. Yes, it works... kinda. It works when people don't move, or if they crouch cancel or happen to be a metal fastfaller... It works when it's unexpected. However, if you dash attack, people are EXPECTING the superpunch. Guaranteed. If they are smart they
will DI, and then they will hold L/R for the duration of the attack, and the shield will come up as soon as you're done, and they'll shield the Up+B or roll away.

However, the dash attack CAN get you an Up+B in some instances. Full credit for this next bit goes to MattDeezie, as I heard it from him a while back in a post on Smashboards and would have never known about it otherwise.

Basically, against the larger heavier characters, like Bowser, if you down throw and dash attack, you have a chance of a free Up+B. Here's what has to happen, though... Every hit of the dash attack must connect, and your opponent must land face down. If that happens, you're set. See, most of the time, when you're on the ground, you have attacks that you can use, or you can roll. However, in this instance, IF everything happened correctly, they will not have those options. They will be forced to simply stand up slowly, and there's a free Superpunch Ping for you. Have at.

|LEDGE ATTACK: There's two types!
|--------------------------------
|Damage (Under 100%): 8%
|Damage (Over 100%): 10%


The first attack, which will occur when you press A/B on the ledge when you have less than 100% damage is Luigi flipping up onto the stage with both legs in front of him, kicking away his edgeguarder. This is really the only one you should use, as the second one is way slow and it's quite easy to be knocked out of it, even KOed. You've got better alternatives like rolling or ledgehopping an attack, but remember the value of mixing things up.

|GETTING UP ATTACK: Also two types!
|----------------------------------
|Damage (Face-up): 6%
|Damage (Face-down): 5%


Sometimes it's almost worth not teching so that you have the option of using these. Let's face it. A lot of people are going to expect you to tech, so they run up to attack following the tech. You don't do it, though, so you lay on the ground with temporary invincibility and hit them as they run up. It's good stuff. Not the best, but meh.

There are two, of course. When you land on your back, you do one, and when you land facedown you do another one. The one when you are face-up is a d-smash esque sweep kick, and the face-down one has Luigi stand up, pull his arm back and punch. This one is not as good as the other one is, really.

As cool as they are, I really don't use them too much. They're nice, but I can tech well enough that I don't end up on the ground constantly. Also, with upward DI and tapping out of the tumbling state, I tend to try and wavedash when I land after getting hit. Most FAQs don't mention stuff like the getting up attacks, though, so I thought I'd put them in here.

|THE TAUNT: Poser Power
|----------------------
|Damage Dealt: 1%


Yep. Stand close enough and that feeble little kick will actually put a 1% bruise on your opponent's shin. Better yet, though, if they're hanging from the ledge when you do it, they get spiked straight to hell. It's actually a meteor, but if you're landing this attack it's probably on someone who didn't know about it and won't meteor-cancel it.

You could also theoretically try to time it so that it hits people in the air right when they get near the edge. I've actually done it alot in real matches. It's usually surprising enough to not get cancelled. It's actually reall easy to do to Ganon and CapFalc. Still just a novelty, really, but hella cool when it happens. Plus, it's Luigi-only, so there's your elitism in your character and bragging rights for KOing with a taunt.


[08.] A Note to the Players


This needs to be said: Words are just words. I know I've got about a million of them here and I've been making them out to be pretty important, but in the end, words are just words. Knowledge is just knowledge. Neither is skill. Don't just know Luigi well; PLAY Luigi well.

Play the game. Develop your own style of Luigi that works well for YOU instead of just taking everything you hear or see as the concrete way of playing the character. One of the most annoying things that I find in Smashers is that they try so hard to be THE pros, while they could just BE pros themselves. Don't just emulate what you see in vids or do all the stuff you read in a guide (>.>). The same stuff doesn't work for everyone, so if you want to both be a good Luigi AND still have fun with the game, find what works for YOU. And through that process, you will learn alot about Luigi just from experience...

At the same time, though, you CAN learn from FAQs and vids and incorporate what you learn into your OWN style.

This is what it's all been leading up to... The final bit of advice to being a good Luigi: If there's ANY way you can go to a tourney, GO. Don't worry about getting utterly ***** at your first tourney. Playing people better than you is the single best way to improve at this game, so take advantage of stuff like that. If you go to a tourney, don't worry about the bracket too much... Just try your best and play as many friendlies as you can, outside of the brackets. Experience will help you out alot and greatly improve your Luigi.

Here's hoping you become the best. Good luck.
 

Lixivium

Smash Champion
Joined
Mar 26, 2006
Messages
2,689
Awesome. I've been looking forward to this for a while.

One note about the Up-B:

If you sweetspot it in the air, it has significantly less knockback, and also does 15% damage (I think) instead of 25%. Instead of the "Ping" sound, you'll hear a "Boom" like that of a Marth tipper.
 

TobiasXK

Smash Ace
Joined
Aug 9, 2004
Messages
579
Location
austintown
I knew the knockback was less, and the sound was different. Never really paid attention to damages. I didn't even do the damage tests, Magus did. Thanks, I'll add that info real quick.
 

TobiasXK

Smash Ace
Joined
Aug 9, 2004
Messages
579
Location
austintown
Formatting this thing for SWF was a terrible ordeal. So starting tonight, I'll try and whisk through content updates and whatnot, and then keep doing so as more people offer input.

Any info on character matchups and stages is more than welcome. I know alot more about it now than I used to, but there are still gaps to fill and things to double check, so any help from you more experienced Lui players out there would be grand.
 

Lixivium

Smash Champion
Joined
Mar 26, 2006
Messages
2,689
Another use of the fireball:

I don't know if you use it yourself, but I've seen Thunders and Ultra Luigi throw out a double-jumped or ledgehopped fireball when recovering. Cmart thinks it gives you just enough breathing room to grab the edge. Worth a mention.
 

maelstrom218

Smash Lord
Joined
Apr 23, 2004
Messages
1,040
Location
Madison, WI
Great stuff, TXK. I've been waiting for this for ages (even though I've already read it >_>), but it's nice to have it up on Smashboards like it should be.

And yes, I feel for you in terms of how difficult formatting text is for Smashboards. When I finished my Mario FAQ, I spent 3 hours straight just for formatting. Yar.
 

TobiasXK

Smash Ace
Joined
Aug 9, 2004
Messages
579
Location
austintown
Lixivium said:
Another use of the fireball:

I don't know if you use it yourself, but I've seen Thunders and Ultra Luigi throw out a double-jumped or ledgehopped fireball when recovering. Cmart thinks it gives you just enough breathing room to grab the edge. Worth a mention.
Oh, I do do that myself sometimes. Fireballs or chops. Yea, even though fireball sucks they do dissuade people jumping out and whatnot. Breathing room is exactly right.
 

TobiasXK

Smash Ace
Joined
Aug 9, 2004
Messages
579
Location
austintown
It works well enough. Fireball with distance, and I throw out a chop once I'm close enough that a fireball's lag could hurt.
 

VgtPrncfllSyns

Smash Ace
Joined
Nov 25, 2005
Messages
707
Location
O Fallon, Missouri
This needs a sticky, and "Protect X" label. GET ZEE RECRUITS!

One you get character sections going, I'll help out with some, then you can build off them and correct.
 

Player00

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Jan 8, 2006
Messages
344
Oh, a Luigi guide! I wished something like this would pop up on smash boards. Luigi is one of those characters that I hardly know anythings about. Will comment after I read throughly, but at a glance it looks very nice.
 

Zulu

Smash Rookie
Joined
Jun 22, 2006
Messages
8
good faq it helped my luigi game alot just hope in SMBB the tiers are more even i'll use luigi no matter what i just want to be able to win big tournys with him.
 

Xx swift xX

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Oct 5, 2005
Messages
164
Location
Las Vegas, NV
well, the tier before the current one had luigi at the bottom of high tier if i remember correctly. This means he's good. btw, it's SSBB, super mario bros breakout doesn't exist. srry

EDIT: wups, forgot to post about the guide. yeah, i knew nothing of luigi before this guide. well, besides his wavedash and chop were the sh**. lol :laugh:
 

dlen06

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Jun 21, 2006
Messages
90
Location
NY
thanks a lot because this pretty much explained everything i was confused about. Not just with luigi, but with the game itself. I'll remember most of this next time i play. Thanks again.
 

bbb

Smash Champion
Joined
May 28, 2006
Messages
2,051
Location
LATE05
Oh, I don't think it got covered that Lui's F-tilt can be made higher or lower by tilting the stick diagonally, and the higher one can take people right out of the air and hits at a more vertical trajectory, also the lower one can get under shields but has VERY little knock-back, especially in comparison to the other f-tilts.

Edit: woops, sorry! double post.
 

Lixivium

Smash Champion
Joined
Mar 26, 2006
Messages
2,689
That's because you can't use a lot of this stuff when playing against Doc. Watch the videos with Gea's Mewtwo. Tobias plays more like a new school Luigi in those matches.
 

Durchlauf

Smash Rookie
Joined
Feb 9, 2005
Messages
22
Location
America Town
Haaaaaaa!?

Hey, thanks for writing this guide. It's really helped me improve my game, not just with Luigi, but others.

Luigi rocks. I use him as my main, and this will help me improve some.
 

Smash G 0 D

Leave Luck to Heaven
BRoomer
Joined
Oct 5, 2005
Messages
3,571
Location
Charlottesville, VA
Nice. I didn't read the whole thing, but I saw alotta PimpUigi references. This should be stickied, new Luigi's need something to work on.
 
Top Bottom