Zone
Smash Champion
I figured I should start sharing my knowledge more. For people who may have either forgotten or perhaps don't know of certain things Zelda is capable of. I have decided to Update this with a random tidbit here and there. Take it as you want. If you feel something I say is useless, please speak up. I normally try to be really unbiased. Let me know what you think. I'll share more knowledge if people find this helpful. Zelda forumns feel more dead and I enjoy talking to people about Zelda. Everything I post is up for Debate, I don't have things like Action replay to share frame data or anything.
Getting to the Edge Faster.
1.)Platform Cancelling: Try to use the edge of platforms. For example, I'm sure people have seen platform cancelling on the edge of platforms. Well Take for example, Poke'mon Stadium, if Zelda stands in the exact center on one of the Platforms when the stage is in nuetral mode. The end of Zelda's Up+B upon landing will have nearly no lag on the opposite platform. Work on zelda's positioning so you know where you can tele to get to the edge faster with little lag.
2.)Edgehogging?: While running on the ground for the edge. I've seen many people try to run off the edge, into a Up+B, and into a sweet spot. I believe, Instead Zelda players should start working on running all the way towad the edge. And when you get crazy close, Wavedash toward the edge. So you can reset your option to Dash dance and choose one of the first 2 options.
a.)Pivot edge hog: If you dash dance toward the edge, then back away from it just as Zelda falls off. Zelda will be turned around and grabbing the edge. This is the fastest Method imo. I don't really have ways to do severe testing but I feel it's pretty obvious. This is pretty hard, and may result in possibly failed Edge guard. In fact it's so hard it's near impossible to do consistently. So option b is the better choice.
b.)Moonwalk to edge: Dash Dance toward the edge, and near the end, reverse Zelda's Direction with the dash dance, made capable by the wavedash you did. And Moonwalk toward the edge. I found this to be slightly slower than choice a. But until that's mastered I suggest doing this option. So Zelda's moonwalk isn't as useless as I had once thought.
c.)Farore's Wind: I see alot of Zelda players use this method to grab the edge. IMO it's only slightly slower than choice b, But the main thing that turns me off to it, is the hitbox it puts out if your opponent is already near the edge. For example, let's say falcon wasn't going to make it on stage, Only for the edge, and it was really apparent. He's gaining fast to the edge, your hit box could give him another up+b when his death woulda been garanteed. Now please note, often times depending on percent, you may be able to combo out of your up+B, Depending on hit stun, and opponent DI of course. I've done the Farore's Edge hog method before, popped a Falcon upward, and was able to get off the edge, and a N-air him. Although flashy and cool. I woulda preferred to not hit him and get that kill.
d.)Not on the base floor: Let's say you got a nice kick off on but you know it's not going to kill them, Marth was only like 35%. You are already standing on the edge of the platform, or your in the air. I believe it's faster to use choice c, like above, except now it's because your not on the base ground. If you are still in the air after the kick, just DI off stage, into a Up+B sweet spot. If you say double jump platform cancelled a kick. Probably faster to run off the edge and DI out into a Up+B sweet spot. Than obviously to take the time to get on the base floor.
Platform Game
Synopsis:
This is a general coverage of her platform game. A more in-depth look will happen if I decide to go into specific character match ups. As with all characters Zelda needs to know her platform game to maximize her limited potential. As a general rule to most characters, Zelda does not want to be above a character. Zelda's down-air, is very weak, and doesn't have good priority and even if it can trade hits, it's excessively harder to time than most characters up-airs. In conclusion she's easily juggled or vulnerable when someone is directly vertically below her. Also note, that not all of her platforming tricks will be mentioned below. They will be mentioned in other categories such as recovery ect. So I'd like to first mention Defensive options, then follow up with Offensive options.
Defense
1.) Light Shield
Very important when you are stuck on a platform and someone is beneath you, particularly mostly dealing with Marth. Zelda's feet are very vulnerable to being shield poked, so anytime you are on a platform above someone. And an attack is obviously approaching. You'll want to most likely light shield which will better cover her feet. Please note that while lightshielding Zelda is pushed around a little easier, which could result in her stumbling off an edge of a platform if she's standing on the far edge.
Wave land
This will make Zelda's game a little faster around the platforms which goes good for defense and offense, but first is first, about defense. Baiting falls into the defense category from my perspective up until the counter action is made. Baiting is important for Zelda, because her safe approaches are very very limited, and predictable. Wave landing off platforms away from people chasing you can give you an opening when they swing to miss. Or putting ur DI to the left as your being juggled, and a character goes to follow your DI while you have full control of your character. Wave-landing in the opposite direction can save you from their prediction of where you were about to be. Mixing is always good. Don't always go one way if they start picking up on repeating patterns that you make that is bad. Mix it up when you realize they are catching on to patterns. I mean you wouldn't want to always tech one direction even if it's considered slightly safer? Eventually they'll catch on and start punishing that choice.
Using Platforms as a shield.
People like Falcon may try and Down-air you from above a platform, because his hitbox is gay and can sometimes pull peolpe from underneath a platform above it. Depending on the stage, you could duck those attempts, or of course try to get out of there. Light shield will help as well because people tend to shield poke best at the top of shields and the bottom. You could try and trade hits with a move like uptilt. Also if someone is coming for a double jump down-air like Falco. You can double down, through a platform into a l-cancelled up-air and cover most of the platform ground. Which will beat his down-air. And possibly open up combo opportunities. I won't re-add this into offensive since this generally counts as both.
Offense
Double Jump platform cancel.
On a stage like battle field you can jump, then immediately use your double jump much like Samus. Zelda will land pretty much perfectly on her feet. This opens up for quicker kicks that are prepared to be l-cancelled the moment they are released. Instead of jumping, and having to fast fall and delaying a kick. This is also good for getting to the platform so you can tech chase after up-throwing a falcon or somewhat above. Usually much like Jigglypuff, likes to tech chase to rest. You usually want to tech chase to kick if you believe they'll roll. If they are directly above you however, and they learn to stop rolling and tech in place to avoid a kick. You could try and up-tilt through the platform depending on stage. Or double jump, and do something while being on the same ground level. Double jump N-air into l-cancelled Up+Smash or whatever. This works even if they are just standing there with their shield up. So you can throw an attack out. More than likely try and stay behind them if you can to avoid a easy shield grab if he shields both your aerial and ur ground move.
Wave landing
You can wave land to run away and avoid hits. But you can also use it to approach. People who are aerial lovers love to chase after zelda with aerials. You can run away, and they'll think they need to throw their attack further out to catch you. Once they think this, and you already plan on wavelanding back toward them after a jump. This can catch them off guard and leave you with the first attack. Works best with N-air in most occasions and can usually lead to another move. Kick, is another option, though a little harder to land the sweet spot because of the lag it takes to jump, then waveland. So is up-air, which is less likely to be as useful, but could have its' uses against a float cancelling peach.
Delay
Remember even if you don't use double jumps to cancel your aerials. Against a more experienced player who is use to fighting Zelda, they generally are afraid of the kick and will hold thier shield long enough so you can fastfall and land it. But they will still take their risk here and there and go for the hit when you jump at them. But as I said Generally you can delay the kick long enough so you can safely l-cancel it into something instead of being stuck in the air after you kick, so they can more easily retaliate. Inexperienced players may just try and hit you when you approach not knowing that simply shielding a jump'd kick nearly gives them a free hit unless zelda's DI'ing away as she kicks. So they tend to just attack you leaving your better option to just kick immediately. It's all relative information. Knowing your options, and what options your opponent tends to lean to. I may have spoken in stereotypes, or speaking too general, but study your opponents. Learn as much as possible from the first match you play whether you win or lose. So next match you are more prepared.
*NEWLY ADDED* Forcing them into your uptilt or upsmash.
If you notice they are shielding on the edge of a platform if you knocked them up there and they are waiting for the kick. or whatever. They are shielding, and it happens to be near the edge. You can often up-air, and the explosion will force them to tumble off the edge. L-cancel that into a Up-tilt, or Up-Smash. Or if it's on the edge of a platform near the edge of the ground stage, go for a down-smash and try to knock them off. It's good to note however alot of characters can simply hold down while shielding so when you force them off they fast fall and sometimes faster than you can uptilt.
Show me your feet I'll show you mine
If their feet are poking out of their shield feel free to attempt to place a really nicely accurately placed foot at the most bottom of their feet for a kick shield poke.
Spacing
Light shield
This can be used to space you away from a barrage of attacks like falco's pressure game or fox's pressure game. and get you closer to safety. You can even change to heavy shield toward the end when you hit the right spacing and then punish them for it, Be very careful not to change to heavy shield just as either fox of falco or any good shield poker like Marth just as they down tilt. If you still want to heavy shield, you can aim it down to cover your feet just incase of down tilt, but then this leaves your head more open. It's all relative to reading the opponent. Light shield can space you away from over head pokers like Ganon's F-air.
Wavedash - Dash Dance
By themselves I guess they are pretty crap. Wavedash more crap than Dash dance. however combined they make a really good spacing and rushing back in tool. I believe I mentioned it before how you use wave-dash to reset your ability to dash dance. And you use dash dance to make it easier to pivot an attack or rush in with a dash attack. Surely just running away and turning around to dash attack is too slow unless it's a dash dance. But what if you need to run farther? That's why wave-dash can save you by resetting your dash dance. Good for getting out of the fire, and back in with water. Baiting so to speak. Mix up your baiting. If you hit your opponent with 2 baited dash attacks. Don't keep using it cuz it was working, they'll change up their strat sooner or later.
Retreating Aerials
Far more important than approaching ones. Because if these are shielded, your more likely safe than you are if your approaching one was shielded. Zelda's double b-air's are not fast enough in between to spam on someone's shield. It may scare someone who doesn't know how to fight Zelda. But it won't scare someone who knows. They'll just do something out of shield and punish you. Sometimes even with really good spacing. Like Marth for example. No matter how far you are he can pretty much just jump out of shield with a f-air. Unless of course, you do a retreating aerial on him. IF it hits. good you got a hit. If not? atleast your at a safe distance. Now you may have seen me or some other Zeldas approach with kick and get 2 in a row. I'm not saying NEVER approach. Just the approaches that you make should feel way more solid that you are going to hit them. Don't forget alot of empty hops. Spamming kicks in their direction when it's not giving any pressure is bad. Empty hops so when they come in. you can just put the kick out with good timing. or if you predict a juke (fake approach). L-cancel into jab or something, or call it and keep holding the kick.
Edge guarding
Learn how far everyone rolls into the stage. Learn how high you should go for a kick when they choose to jump into the stage. Learn that alot of falcos like to come over with lasers so show them a naryu's love. Naryu's love can kick anything's anus that comes over the edge if timed correctly. The one person you may not ever want to mess with near the edge is Shiek. Just get away and either toss 1-2 din's fire. Don't spam Shiek can reach you before can probably blow it up. You can try to space f-smash, or crounch cancel shiek's approach over the edge into a down smash. But I believe it's very risky. Shiek's edge game is pretty good. Learn your favorite match ups if not all. How far they can reach into the stage with an aerial. How far they waveland. What are your opponents favorite ways of coming over the edge? Does shiek like to hit you with f-air and go back to the edge? if so naryu's out of shield can usually hit her before she makes it back. ect. I mean you have to really experiment. To learn. You can't just wing it everytime you are at the edge. Really think about the options at hand. And the methods that work against that option. Alot of people like to repeat things, which makes knowing their style worth knowing. So you can counter their style.
You can also space your edge-stall. Down-drop up+B trick is most popular and safe, and usually puts your hit box closer into the stage. GAwes told me that the back drop into Up+B gave you more invincibility frames. But instead, I just believe you up+b way faster doing it that way making the window open for being hit less likely to be targeted. I'm not entirely a pro at frame counting ect. But I read thanks to Magus420 that Zelda can be invincible forever. It's just very very very precise timing. No room for any extra frames to mess up.
Tag
I know it's cool to let everyone know who you are when you wear your tag. But in all honesty it hurts Zelda when she's trying to recover, or do ANY up+B tricks cuz her tag follows her while she is invisible. So just don't wear a tag ever. EVER.
Shield Play:
Aiming your Shield:
A: Covering yoru body:
What usually first comes to mind about aiming your shield is to cover up exposed parts to avoid a shield poke. Light shield will cover your whole body but there are times where you want to have less shield stun from a hit to hopefully punish your opponent. For example, Falco and Fox sometimes enjoy down tilt pokes. If you can call this, you want to aim your heavy shield down to cover your feet, and since down tilt is one of foxes more laggier moves, you can promptly punish him. Same applies to covering your head for a head poke, Like falcon stomping you from a platform above while your shield is low.
B: The Sooner you block the Better:
Aiming your shield at an aerial attack, can increase your chances of punishment out of shield. Why? Well let me give you an example.
Lets say Falcon is falling through the platform, and you're below him. You don't have enough time to uptilt trade. If you aim your shield up at him, He will hit your shield sooner with his one hit attack. He will now have more distance to travel from the point in which he hit your shield to the ground to connect another move. If you had shielded normally w/o aiming it up. He would hit your shield later, than the first scenario, thus meaning he has less time between the ground and the point in which he hit your shield. The earlier he hits your shield, the more time you have to punish him.
Now same goes for horizontal approach. a Fox flying short hop N-air, you'll obviously want to aim the shield left or right more, for the same effect as above. Now you might think "well if I move it left or right, he's still at the same height from the ground no matter which way I aim it. this may be true, and would matter if he was moving only vertically, but he's not his horizontal momentum means his distance from hitting the shield to the ground is now a diagonal from the air to the ground, and you happen to be intercepting it earlier. If he chooses to run up to you stop AT your shield, then proceed to do a normal standing jump-Nair, it does not matter where you aim your shield because he's already in your shield space. if he's doing his attack already in your shield space, he has more control over when he hits your shield than you do.
Shield platform dropping:
If you don't already know, you put up your shield, then aim it forward to down in a circle fashion until you fall through. (You might need to circle a little farther than down to fall through). This is good for trying to punish someone spamming a laggy move from underneath. lets say Marth is right under you, and he shoots an uptilt. If you're fast enough you can shield drop through the platform and perhaps go for a N-air, or just airdodge his 2nd attempt into a grab or something. Because we all know against marth or falcon, that you want to get out from being above them.
Power Shielding:
Magus quote for this section will cover all you need to know:
Counters
By counters I mostly mean Priority a good thing to learn is which of your moves beat your opponents move when and at what time? Some moves priority changes as the move continues on. I'll cover most of these when I finally reach Character specific match ups I know alot of info in.
Edgeguard priorities:
I'm only going to cover the High and Mid tier characters for this. Minus the the Ice climbers until someone else gives me their two cents. My Zelda vs Ice Climbers experience is limited. Because I've been going falcon almost every time I get the opportunity.
Fox:
Up+B Higher than the Ledge:
Simply by reflex, if he's close enough jump out and kick him before his Up+B finishes. you can also out space it. Most of the time they sweet spot the ledge so if you can't make it, Kick low at the edge slightly out. But they do have the option to up+B into the middle of the stage, which is a little more risky, but truly rewarding for them if you went for the edge kick. If you miss him immediately get away from the edge and space yourself for when he jumps over. In my opinion Fox has the best options when he is up+B'ing above the edge out of your range/speed to reach him.
Up+B below the ledge:
If you can't reach him in time, you can down air the edge, into a edge cancel chase. But if you can get him in time it's best to run out and kick him. If you whiff your toe and hit him with the weak kick. DI toward where his Up+B would start up again and hit him with your up+B so that you are guaranteed to reach the edge first, Thus giving you ANOTHER edgeguard opportunity for your failure. It's like a free retry.
If you're holding the edge, Drop down and kick him. If he's directly beneath you. You can try to back drop into a kick at the edge, but this is risky, because he could totally wall-tech into a shine or something. I normally just drop down Down-air, Then immediately jump and prepare to down-air his Up+B again with another one. Then proceed to up+B back to the edge. This is far easier to do if you were holding the ledge because you are already facing the right direction for a Up+B vertically back to the stage. But if you are standing, You can down-air the edge. Run off down air, Jump down air again if he meteor cancels. and thanks to Axe(for me anyways) You can turn your Up+B around even if you're facing the wrong way, by slightly tapping toward the edge after your up+b is already heading upward.
but if you can kick them away. That's the best option.
I tend to not want to use Down-tilt against the fox fire. Especially don't try to use the meteor spike part of zelda's thighs to meteor them. Fox fire will beat you almost everytime.
I like the down-air for setups better. I like where it puts them. If they up+B again immediately unless they M2k angle. They are most likely coming over the edge and you can kick them.
Fox illusion Past you:
Down-smash is the best option almost everytime. It's easier to land, and sets them up for a kick the best when they are low%. If you down-smash and they go past you after hit stun. You did down smash a bit too late. I've tried stuff like jab. But down-smash sets up alot better for gimps/ and enough kick back at high % to kill.
DO NOT use nayru's love for illusions, If Fox chose to Up+B at this time his up+b would hit you perfectly in time just as it ends. And thus putting you above him and you don't want to be there. Nayru's love if used for edguarding is best against air dodges, and up+B's pass the stage. or approaches over the edge.
Fox illusion toward the edge:
You can try to down-smash which is good if they don't sweet spot. But this is where I believe the downtilt comes into play. Down tilt can reach out farther and pokes pretty low. I believe you can hit them before they get to the edge with down-tilt and at lower percents they end up below the stage mostly. At higher percents you pop them up. knock them back out if they didn't DI away from ur down-tilt at high%.
Wall jump, Air dodge into stage, and Wall Jump into Forward B:
these can mess up your timings if you are expecting something else. Don't freak out from the wall jump wait for the illusion and proptly apply the above strategies for illusion. If he spot dodges too high, Kick him. If he manages to spot dodge behind you. go for a grab if he's high enough. If he spot dodges in low Down-smash or Nayru's love. Down-smash being the best option if you can nail it everytime. But nayru's love lasts alot longer so if you do it too early, nayru's love can still knock them off.
Getting to the Edge Faster.
1.)Platform Cancelling: Try to use the edge of platforms. For example, I'm sure people have seen platform cancelling on the edge of platforms. Well Take for example, Poke'mon Stadium, if Zelda stands in the exact center on one of the Platforms when the stage is in nuetral mode. The end of Zelda's Up+B upon landing will have nearly no lag on the opposite platform. Work on zelda's positioning so you know where you can tele to get to the edge faster with little lag.
2.)Edgehogging?: While running on the ground for the edge. I've seen many people try to run off the edge, into a Up+B, and into a sweet spot. I believe, Instead Zelda players should start working on running all the way towad the edge. And when you get crazy close, Wavedash toward the edge. So you can reset your option to Dash dance and choose one of the first 2 options.
a.)Pivot edge hog: If you dash dance toward the edge, then back away from it just as Zelda falls off. Zelda will be turned around and grabbing the edge. This is the fastest Method imo. I don't really have ways to do severe testing but I feel it's pretty obvious. This is pretty hard, and may result in possibly failed Edge guard. In fact it's so hard it's near impossible to do consistently. So option b is the better choice.
b.)Moonwalk to edge: Dash Dance toward the edge, and near the end, reverse Zelda's Direction with the dash dance, made capable by the wavedash you did. And Moonwalk toward the edge. I found this to be slightly slower than choice a. But until that's mastered I suggest doing this option. So Zelda's moonwalk isn't as useless as I had once thought.
c.)Farore's Wind: I see alot of Zelda players use this method to grab the edge. IMO it's only slightly slower than choice b, But the main thing that turns me off to it, is the hitbox it puts out if your opponent is already near the edge. For example, let's say falcon wasn't going to make it on stage, Only for the edge, and it was really apparent. He's gaining fast to the edge, your hit box could give him another up+b when his death woulda been garanteed. Now please note, often times depending on percent, you may be able to combo out of your up+B, Depending on hit stun, and opponent DI of course. I've done the Farore's Edge hog method before, popped a Falcon upward, and was able to get off the edge, and a N-air him. Although flashy and cool. I woulda preferred to not hit him and get that kill.
d.)Not on the base floor: Let's say you got a nice kick off on but you know it's not going to kill them, Marth was only like 35%. You are already standing on the edge of the platform, or your in the air. I believe it's faster to use choice c, like above, except now it's because your not on the base ground. If you are still in the air after the kick, just DI off stage, into a Up+B sweet spot. If you say double jump platform cancelled a kick. Probably faster to run off the edge and DI out into a Up+B sweet spot. Than obviously to take the time to get on the base floor.
Platform Game
Synopsis:
This is a general coverage of her platform game. A more in-depth look will happen if I decide to go into specific character match ups. As with all characters Zelda needs to know her platform game to maximize her limited potential. As a general rule to most characters, Zelda does not want to be above a character. Zelda's down-air, is very weak, and doesn't have good priority and even if it can trade hits, it's excessively harder to time than most characters up-airs. In conclusion she's easily juggled or vulnerable when someone is directly vertically below her. Also note, that not all of her platforming tricks will be mentioned below. They will be mentioned in other categories such as recovery ect. So I'd like to first mention Defensive options, then follow up with Offensive options.
Defense
1.) Light Shield
Very important when you are stuck on a platform and someone is beneath you, particularly mostly dealing with Marth. Zelda's feet are very vulnerable to being shield poked, so anytime you are on a platform above someone. And an attack is obviously approaching. You'll want to most likely light shield which will better cover her feet. Please note that while lightshielding Zelda is pushed around a little easier, which could result in her stumbling off an edge of a platform if she's standing on the far edge.
Wave land
This will make Zelda's game a little faster around the platforms which goes good for defense and offense, but first is first, about defense. Baiting falls into the defense category from my perspective up until the counter action is made. Baiting is important for Zelda, because her safe approaches are very very limited, and predictable. Wave landing off platforms away from people chasing you can give you an opening when they swing to miss. Or putting ur DI to the left as your being juggled, and a character goes to follow your DI while you have full control of your character. Wave-landing in the opposite direction can save you from their prediction of where you were about to be. Mixing is always good. Don't always go one way if they start picking up on repeating patterns that you make that is bad. Mix it up when you realize they are catching on to patterns. I mean you wouldn't want to always tech one direction even if it's considered slightly safer? Eventually they'll catch on and start punishing that choice.
Using Platforms as a shield.
People like Falcon may try and Down-air you from above a platform, because his hitbox is gay and can sometimes pull peolpe from underneath a platform above it. Depending on the stage, you could duck those attempts, or of course try to get out of there. Light shield will help as well because people tend to shield poke best at the top of shields and the bottom. You could try and trade hits with a move like uptilt. Also if someone is coming for a double jump down-air like Falco. You can double down, through a platform into a l-cancelled up-air and cover most of the platform ground. Which will beat his down-air. And possibly open up combo opportunities. I won't re-add this into offensive since this generally counts as both.
Offense
Double Jump platform cancel.
On a stage like battle field you can jump, then immediately use your double jump much like Samus. Zelda will land pretty much perfectly on her feet. This opens up for quicker kicks that are prepared to be l-cancelled the moment they are released. Instead of jumping, and having to fast fall and delaying a kick. This is also good for getting to the platform so you can tech chase after up-throwing a falcon or somewhat above. Usually much like Jigglypuff, likes to tech chase to rest. You usually want to tech chase to kick if you believe they'll roll. If they are directly above you however, and they learn to stop rolling and tech in place to avoid a kick. You could try and up-tilt through the platform depending on stage. Or double jump, and do something while being on the same ground level. Double jump N-air into l-cancelled Up+Smash or whatever. This works even if they are just standing there with their shield up. So you can throw an attack out. More than likely try and stay behind them if you can to avoid a easy shield grab if he shields both your aerial and ur ground move.
Wave landing
You can wave land to run away and avoid hits. But you can also use it to approach. People who are aerial lovers love to chase after zelda with aerials. You can run away, and they'll think they need to throw their attack further out to catch you. Once they think this, and you already plan on wavelanding back toward them after a jump. This can catch them off guard and leave you with the first attack. Works best with N-air in most occasions and can usually lead to another move. Kick, is another option, though a little harder to land the sweet spot because of the lag it takes to jump, then waveland. So is up-air, which is less likely to be as useful, but could have its' uses against a float cancelling peach.
Delay
Remember even if you don't use double jumps to cancel your aerials. Against a more experienced player who is use to fighting Zelda, they generally are afraid of the kick and will hold thier shield long enough so you can fastfall and land it. But they will still take their risk here and there and go for the hit when you jump at them. But as I said Generally you can delay the kick long enough so you can safely l-cancel it into something instead of being stuck in the air after you kick, so they can more easily retaliate. Inexperienced players may just try and hit you when you approach not knowing that simply shielding a jump'd kick nearly gives them a free hit unless zelda's DI'ing away as she kicks. So they tend to just attack you leaving your better option to just kick immediately. It's all relative information. Knowing your options, and what options your opponent tends to lean to. I may have spoken in stereotypes, or speaking too general, but study your opponents. Learn as much as possible from the first match you play whether you win or lose. So next match you are more prepared.
*NEWLY ADDED* Forcing them into your uptilt or upsmash.
If you notice they are shielding on the edge of a platform if you knocked them up there and they are waiting for the kick. or whatever. They are shielding, and it happens to be near the edge. You can often up-air, and the explosion will force them to tumble off the edge. L-cancel that into a Up-tilt, or Up-Smash. Or if it's on the edge of a platform near the edge of the ground stage, go for a down-smash and try to knock them off. It's good to note however alot of characters can simply hold down while shielding so when you force them off they fast fall and sometimes faster than you can uptilt.
Show me your feet I'll show you mine
If their feet are poking out of their shield feel free to attempt to place a really nicely accurately placed foot at the most bottom of their feet for a kick shield poke.
Spacing
Light shield
This can be used to space you away from a barrage of attacks like falco's pressure game or fox's pressure game. and get you closer to safety. You can even change to heavy shield toward the end when you hit the right spacing and then punish them for it, Be very careful not to change to heavy shield just as either fox of falco or any good shield poker like Marth just as they down tilt. If you still want to heavy shield, you can aim it down to cover your feet just incase of down tilt, but then this leaves your head more open. It's all relative to reading the opponent. Light shield can space you away from over head pokers like Ganon's F-air.
Wavedash - Dash Dance
By themselves I guess they are pretty crap. Wavedash more crap than Dash dance. however combined they make a really good spacing and rushing back in tool. I believe I mentioned it before how you use wave-dash to reset your ability to dash dance. And you use dash dance to make it easier to pivot an attack or rush in with a dash attack. Surely just running away and turning around to dash attack is too slow unless it's a dash dance. But what if you need to run farther? That's why wave-dash can save you by resetting your dash dance. Good for getting out of the fire, and back in with water. Baiting so to speak. Mix up your baiting. If you hit your opponent with 2 baited dash attacks. Don't keep using it cuz it was working, they'll change up their strat sooner or later.
Retreating Aerials
Far more important than approaching ones. Because if these are shielded, your more likely safe than you are if your approaching one was shielded. Zelda's double b-air's are not fast enough in between to spam on someone's shield. It may scare someone who doesn't know how to fight Zelda. But it won't scare someone who knows. They'll just do something out of shield and punish you. Sometimes even with really good spacing. Like Marth for example. No matter how far you are he can pretty much just jump out of shield with a f-air. Unless of course, you do a retreating aerial on him. IF it hits. good you got a hit. If not? atleast your at a safe distance. Now you may have seen me or some other Zeldas approach with kick and get 2 in a row. I'm not saying NEVER approach. Just the approaches that you make should feel way more solid that you are going to hit them. Don't forget alot of empty hops. Spamming kicks in their direction when it's not giving any pressure is bad. Empty hops so when they come in. you can just put the kick out with good timing. or if you predict a juke (fake approach). L-cancel into jab or something, or call it and keep holding the kick.
Edge guarding
Learn how far everyone rolls into the stage. Learn how high you should go for a kick when they choose to jump into the stage. Learn that alot of falcos like to come over with lasers so show them a naryu's love. Naryu's love can kick anything's anus that comes over the edge if timed correctly. The one person you may not ever want to mess with near the edge is Shiek. Just get away and either toss 1-2 din's fire. Don't spam Shiek can reach you before can probably blow it up. You can try to space f-smash, or crounch cancel shiek's approach over the edge into a down smash. But I believe it's very risky. Shiek's edge game is pretty good. Learn your favorite match ups if not all. How far they can reach into the stage with an aerial. How far they waveland. What are your opponents favorite ways of coming over the edge? Does shiek like to hit you with f-air and go back to the edge? if so naryu's out of shield can usually hit her before she makes it back. ect. I mean you have to really experiment. To learn. You can't just wing it everytime you are at the edge. Really think about the options at hand. And the methods that work against that option. Alot of people like to repeat things, which makes knowing their style worth knowing. So you can counter their style.
You can also space your edge-stall. Down-drop up+B trick is most popular and safe, and usually puts your hit box closer into the stage. GAwes told me that the back drop into Up+B gave you more invincibility frames. But instead, I just believe you up+b way faster doing it that way making the window open for being hit less likely to be targeted. I'm not entirely a pro at frame counting ect. But I read thanks to Magus420 that Zelda can be invincible forever. It's just very very very precise timing. No room for any extra frames to mess up.
Tag
I know it's cool to let everyone know who you are when you wear your tag. But in all honesty it hurts Zelda when she's trying to recover, or do ANY up+B tricks cuz her tag follows her while she is invisible. So just don't wear a tag ever. EVER.
Shield Play:
Aiming your Shield:
A: Covering yoru body:
What usually first comes to mind about aiming your shield is to cover up exposed parts to avoid a shield poke. Light shield will cover your whole body but there are times where you want to have less shield stun from a hit to hopefully punish your opponent. For example, Falco and Fox sometimes enjoy down tilt pokes. If you can call this, you want to aim your heavy shield down to cover your feet, and since down tilt is one of foxes more laggier moves, you can promptly punish him. Same applies to covering your head for a head poke, Like falcon stomping you from a platform above while your shield is low.
B: The Sooner you block the Better:
Aiming your shield at an aerial attack, can increase your chances of punishment out of shield. Why? Well let me give you an example.
Lets say Falcon is falling through the platform, and you're below him. You don't have enough time to uptilt trade. If you aim your shield up at him, He will hit your shield sooner with his one hit attack. He will now have more distance to travel from the point in which he hit your shield to the ground to connect another move. If you had shielded normally w/o aiming it up. He would hit your shield later, than the first scenario, thus meaning he has less time between the ground and the point in which he hit your shield. The earlier he hits your shield, the more time you have to punish him.
Now same goes for horizontal approach. a Fox flying short hop N-air, you'll obviously want to aim the shield left or right more, for the same effect as above. Now you might think "well if I move it left or right, he's still at the same height from the ground no matter which way I aim it. this may be true, and would matter if he was moving only vertically, but he's not his horizontal momentum means his distance from hitting the shield to the ground is now a diagonal from the air to the ground, and you happen to be intercepting it earlier. If he chooses to run up to you stop AT your shield, then proceed to do a normal standing jump-Nair, it does not matter where you aim your shield because he's already in your shield space. if he's doing his attack already in your shield space, he has more control over when he hits your shield than you do.
Shield platform dropping:
If you don't already know, you put up your shield, then aim it forward to down in a circle fashion until you fall through. (You might need to circle a little farther than down to fall through). This is good for trying to punish someone spamming a laggy move from underneath. lets say Marth is right under you, and he shoots an uptilt. If you're fast enough you can shield drop through the platform and perhaps go for a N-air, or just airdodge his 2nd attempt into a grab or something. Because we all know against marth or falcon, that you want to get out from being above them.
Power Shielding:
Magus quote for this section will cover all you need to know:
Counters
By counters I mostly mean Priority a good thing to learn is which of your moves beat your opponents move when and at what time? Some moves priority changes as the move continues on. I'll cover most of these when I finally reach Character specific match ups I know alot of info in.
Edgeguard priorities:
I'm only going to cover the High and Mid tier characters for this. Minus the the Ice climbers until someone else gives me their two cents. My Zelda vs Ice Climbers experience is limited. Because I've been going falcon almost every time I get the opportunity.
Fox:
Up+B Higher than the Ledge:
Simply by reflex, if he's close enough jump out and kick him before his Up+B finishes. you can also out space it. Most of the time they sweet spot the ledge so if you can't make it, Kick low at the edge slightly out. But they do have the option to up+B into the middle of the stage, which is a little more risky, but truly rewarding for them if you went for the edge kick. If you miss him immediately get away from the edge and space yourself for when he jumps over. In my opinion Fox has the best options when he is up+B'ing above the edge out of your range/speed to reach him.
Up+B below the ledge:
If you can't reach him in time, you can down air the edge, into a edge cancel chase. But if you can get him in time it's best to run out and kick him. If you whiff your toe and hit him with the weak kick. DI toward where his Up+B would start up again and hit him with your up+B so that you are guaranteed to reach the edge first, Thus giving you ANOTHER edgeguard opportunity for your failure. It's like a free retry.
If you're holding the edge, Drop down and kick him. If he's directly beneath you. You can try to back drop into a kick at the edge, but this is risky, because he could totally wall-tech into a shine or something. I normally just drop down Down-air, Then immediately jump and prepare to down-air his Up+B again with another one. Then proceed to up+B back to the edge. This is far easier to do if you were holding the ledge because you are already facing the right direction for a Up+B vertically back to the stage. But if you are standing, You can down-air the edge. Run off down air, Jump down air again if he meteor cancels. and thanks to Axe(for me anyways) You can turn your Up+B around even if you're facing the wrong way, by slightly tapping toward the edge after your up+b is already heading upward.
but if you can kick them away. That's the best option.
I tend to not want to use Down-tilt against the fox fire. Especially don't try to use the meteor spike part of zelda's thighs to meteor them. Fox fire will beat you almost everytime.
I like the down-air for setups better. I like where it puts them. If they up+B again immediately unless they M2k angle. They are most likely coming over the edge and you can kick them.
Fox illusion Past you:
Down-smash is the best option almost everytime. It's easier to land, and sets them up for a kick the best when they are low%. If you down-smash and they go past you after hit stun. You did down smash a bit too late. I've tried stuff like jab. But down-smash sets up alot better for gimps/ and enough kick back at high % to kill.
DO NOT use nayru's love for illusions, If Fox chose to Up+B at this time his up+b would hit you perfectly in time just as it ends. And thus putting you above him and you don't want to be there. Nayru's love if used for edguarding is best against air dodges, and up+B's pass the stage. or approaches over the edge.
Fox illusion toward the edge:
You can try to down-smash which is good if they don't sweet spot. But this is where I believe the downtilt comes into play. Down tilt can reach out farther and pokes pretty low. I believe you can hit them before they get to the edge with down-tilt and at lower percents they end up below the stage mostly. At higher percents you pop them up. knock them back out if they didn't DI away from ur down-tilt at high%.
Wall jump, Air dodge into stage, and Wall Jump into Forward B:
these can mess up your timings if you are expecting something else. Don't freak out from the wall jump wait for the illusion and proptly apply the above strategies for illusion. If he spot dodges too high, Kick him. If he manages to spot dodge behind you. go for a grab if he's high enough. If he spot dodges in low Down-smash or Nayru's love. Down-smash being the best option if you can nail it everytime. But nayru's love lasts alot longer so if you do it too early, nayru's love can still knock them off.
Another less flashy alternative would be dash -> forward WD, tiny dash dance, backward WD. it's good with marth but having to WD twice as zelda kinda sucks which is why I do the moonwalk more often
