Zelda? Zelda. New player looking for advice

[MasterExocuter]

I've recently delved into the world of competitive play, and in my many travels, people have asked me, "Why do you main Zelda? She's a bad character."

Well, first off, Zelda is fun. I don't know about you guys, but kicking ass with a low tier character is just fun, especially when your opponent can't pull any Johns
"Zelda OP, cheap cheap cheap.."
It doesn't happen.

Secondly, each kick I land just feels so good. especially when I combo with Zelda, which brings me to my third point.

pretty much all my knockouts revolve around either the kick, the forward smash, or the down smash. Though the kick is good, it's predictable, and most of the time people just kick and kick at the opponent until they finally land one. This got me thinking back to a couple of nights ago, when I actually pulled off a cool Zelda combo (despite countless people telling me Zelda could not combo) and furthermore, this was on a higher level marth main, who would otherwise kick my ass. Besides down throw into kick and foreward tilt into back kick, what other kick combos are there with Zelda? Also, I would like to work on a player's guide to Zelda, so any Zelda mains post your personal combos/tactics/ tricks that tend to work most of the time.

 

[PkL8]

Use dash a* to combo, smack them around then juggle them dude.They cant do **** if u can land, wave then up a* you will have that Marth wondering what the hell jest happened. *also a short hop back kick will insta KO if u hit then in the forehead.

 

[MasterExocuter]

Thanks for feedback, also encountered a tricky Marth ledge guard earlier today, any advice on annoying f-smashing ledge guarding Marth?

 

[PkL8]

a kick to the face might do it on the length. but it has to be perfect.

 

[.K1]

Lol zelda can't "insta-ko". I don't know who told you that. As for combos, its kinda dependant on stage / opponents DI, just like most stuff. She doesnt have a lot of solid flowchart stuff like a ken combo or like fox's shine combos. Zelda has a lot of good ledge cancel combos that are possible.

Regarding dealing with marthw who fsmash as a ledge guard, you just need to figure it out. Are they using only fsmash? Are they reacting to you? Are they staying back and going for tippers?

You have a few options. You can always teleport ledge stall until they get bored / get impatient. You can ledge hop air dodge. You can ledge hop fair / nair if they're in range (then buffer a roll so you don't get shield thrown). You can simply ledgeroll.

Just gotta mix it up.

 

[PkL8]

After a descent combo or forward smash juggle dude.

 

[.K1]

...her fair/bair dont kill until like....40%ish. unless they have terrible DI and youre on Yoshis or something. I have never killed a single good player (on stage) with fair/bair until at LEAST 35/40%.

 

[Upke]

Better late than never...

For Marths who spam fsmash, fair can beat it. The trick is to get in slightly quicker than they expect and put the kick out just a few frames before the fsmash hitbox comes out. There's a nice little window where his hurtbox is extended into kick range but his hitbox doesn't reach your hurtbox yet. I don't know how many frames this is, but it's not that hard. I like to float around, even double jump if I need the extra time, then I wait until less than a character length above and about the same away, then I fastfall kick so that they don't have time to react to my change in fall speed.

As for early KOs, I think I've backthrown a Falco at 0% and read his jump phantasm attempt and baired him out of it, then did either a dropzone kick or Nayru's. So I guess that was probably around 30%. I've also killed Jiggs at 22% on YS but she had horrible DI so that doesn't mean much.

 

[HRR2b23]

Another thing she can do against fastfallers is DI chase UThrow into a fair or bair. It works against the spacies at around 50%ish (which is conveniently when she can no longer chainthrow them) and I don't know the exact percentages but I believe it's slightly higher for C Falcon. As for the Marth matchup mixups on the ledge are probably your best option. If they are reacting to your fair onto the stage, try puposely airdodging back onto the stage, it won't work every time but if they don't see it coming you will make it back alive. It's also possible to try and stall until they throw out an FSmash and then kick them during the endlag.

 

[X WaNtEd X]

I'm finding Nair is also good for setting up combos. What I like to do is use it as shield pressure. Sh fair/bair to Nair in one jump.

 

[HRR2b23]

I'm finding Nair is also good for setting up combos. What I like to do is use it as shield pressure. Sh fair/bair to Nair in one jump.

Going along with this, nair can also be used to generate shield pressure against people on platforms above you.

 

[NASAsocal]

another thing you might want to be fully aware of even if it's obvious is to do toes out of shield, great mind game/challenge for them to jump right into it, just don't sit in your shield and get grabbed, also if you are up against a super fast/technical spacie up smash is a really great momentum stopper, and if they smash di downward/weak spot crouch cancel you can down smash. I feel that Zelda is all about challenging the other opponent but from a safe distance, people get cocky against a character as bad as Zelda take advantage of that.

 

[gijn]

Few things I've been working on have been helping me win the neutral game against a lot of the cast.

1. Chained Pivot Jab- people usually seem to step in after a jab to get back on top of zelda so use that fault to your advantage by pivot jabbing. the space gained from the pivot should keep you out of range and if you practice the timing you can keep opponents back by doing 2 or 3 pivot jabs in a row and change their approach.

2. Dsmash out of crouch cancelled dash- covers a lot of options if opponent doesn't have high range fsmash.

3. Reverse Naryu's Love out of dash cancelled jump- for example if you downthrow and tech chase you can jump reverse Naryu's on top of their get up attack or tech. The invincibility frames protect yourself and maintains pressure on the opponent. The Reverse momentum also gives the chance for the hitboxes of Naryu's love to sweetspot and push them further away. From facing backwards and the additional space gained from the reverse momentum you can bair or moonwalk bair. If you misread the tech, pulled out your Naryu's and they went the opposite direction you can dash attack forwards towards the centre of the stage or shield so you can Upsmash OoS aftewards.

4. Shield Dropping- 2 options for the shield drop. Offensive option is to drop through the platform before the opponent gets to you (as they start jump animation most of the time) and do a rising bair/fair or do a falling uair (falling uair is a lot harder to get out on low platforms) and defensive is just to drop through if they are ontop of you you can try a rising nair after the shield drop but usually I find myself in a bad position afterwards.

5. Short Wavedash '5 o'clock' f-tilt- you should be perfect WD all of the time but for a mix up can do a short WD and do a '5 o'clock' f-tilt. it's one of zelda's moves that can actually clank with opponents so it's pretty safe to spam and in the WD it should give you enough space to get it out.

6. Don't be afraid of using a single din's fire to slow down an approach. only throw it a couple of feet in front like for 1.5 seconds or if they are off stage and approaching ledge from distance. it's highly situational but can help (disclaimer: never use multiple din's fire in a row)

7. Always Reverse Moonwalk onto ledge (if you can't do that roll then moonwalk to start with). You can mess up the wavedash onto the ledge and leave yourself helpless/falling to your own death. Moonwalking is really cool plus if you do it too early you can do an edge cancelled bair or dair depending on where they are in relation to the ledge.

8. Most Importantly try not to advertise the kicks!

feel like I'm giving away secret's but there's not may Zelda players so gotta have that solidarity

 

[NASAsocal]

3. Reverse Naryu's Love out of dash cancelled jump- for example if you downthrow and tech chase you can jump reverse Naryu's on top of their get up attack or tech. The invincibility frames protect yourself and maintains pressure on the opponent. The Reverse momentum also gives the chance for the hitboxes of Naryu's love to sweetspot and push them further away. From facing backwards and the additional space gained from the reverse momentum you can bair or moonwalk bair. If you misread the tech, pulled out your Naryu's and they went the opposite direction you can dash attack forwards towards the centre of the stage or shield so you can Upsmash OoS aftewards.

I didn't know about this one at all, and it's really great, good stuff man

 

[ChivalRuse]

Marth players who spam f-smash are the easiest to beat (with any character). Zelda happens to be very good at punishing f-smash. You can shield it and SH bair or fair out of shield, and it will get the lightning hit 95% of the time. You can also wavedash out of shield grab, which I like to do, but that's just because wavedash out of shield punishes just make my opponent feel like he's getting outplayed more and I feel like that throws them off mentally more.