@ Psalm
These aren't all the possible dsmash followups but this is like a general outline for what you should be doing in most situations. Again as NR said, your dsmash followups depend on a lot of things, like staling, positioning, stage layout, how comfortable you are with all the timings and spacings of the followups, etc.
- From 0, if you don't have a dsmash lock on the opponent, then just dsmash x2 --> fair (doesn't work on MK, he doesn't pop out high enough), or dsmash x2 --> dash attack --> utilt. They both do 39%. You can also just replace the 2nd dsmash with a falling nair, though this makes the dash attack --> utilt harder.
- All of these can be SDI'd to avoid the full damage
- If you have a dsmash lock, do that and then followup according to w/e percent it finishes at by looking at what's below. I'll note that if you're doing the dsmash lock on a character on whom it lasts really long (eg Fox and Wolf go up to 100ish), then finish it off with a sideB because that might kill them and if it doesn't, your more reliable kill moves (bair/fair/uair) are still fresh.
- If the double dsmash puts them at dash attack lock percents, then do that and finish the DAL with an utilt to maximize guaranteed damage, dtilt to potentially continue the combo (eg DA x3 --> dtilt --> uair, and now you're juggling them)
- DAL starts working at about 40-50, if it's fresh. I find 45 is a good number for most relevant characters.
- If the double dsmash puts them at high-but-not-kill %s then usually fair will no longer work as the first hit will knock them too far away for the second, so instead you can just go for dsmash x2 --> nair/uair/bair. Bair does the most damage (12/13 depending on which part of it hits) but it's also one of your kill moves so if you don't want to stale it, the others are fine. Nair always does 10 and never stales nor refreshes your other moves, uair does a bit more when fresh but since it's usually stale, it'll usually do less damage than nair.
- I'm not sure, but I think at these %s fair will still work if you do a full hop rather than a short hop.
- At these percents you can also start to go for dsmash x3 --> uair/bair (bair is much harder)
- If the dsmash combo puts the opponent at kill %s, whether or not you do 2 dsmashes is entirely your choice and depends on things like whether 1 dsmash puts them at kill % or not, how comfortable you are with the timing, etc. But yeah just go for dsmash x2 --> your aerial of choice (uair/fair2/bair), or dsmash x1 --> sideB. The followup depends on how much % they're at (therefore also depending on whether you used 1 dsmash or 2), and how stale each of your kill moves are. Just note that dsmash x2 --> sideB won't work (it might be possible but I don't think it is. If it is, the timing is really really strict). You can also kill with dsmash x3 --> uair/bair depending on how comfortable you are with the timing for these. If you're comfortable with all the timings, and you keep your kill moves as fresh as possible, then you have a lot of leeway here. If you're only comfortable with some timings and only some kill moves are fresh, you have fewer options.
- I'll note that for bair/fair2, the tip of the foot is where the strongest hitbox is.
- If you have guaranteed air releases at %s where the pummels+throw combination deals more damage than the conventional followups, then use them. eg With MK you might be better off at the high-but-not-kill %s range going for double dsmash x2 --> grab --> air release chaingrab with some pummels --> finish with uthrow, and that'll deal a good ~35-45% depending on how many pummels you get in there. The pummels will also help to refresh your other moves.
