MasterWarlord
Smash Champion
One day Pokeset posted the day after it was made. >>>Venusaur/Ninetales
Golem is a Rock/Ground Pokemon, the final evolution in the Geodude line. Golem was one of the original four Pokemon that evolved by trading, one of the biggest marketing schemes Pokemon’s ever managed to pull off. Golem was originally in the Overused tier (Which only consisted of a grand total of about 15 Pokemon, a very exclusive club) in the original games, being strong competition for Rhydon. While his stats were a tad worse, Explosion was more then enough to keep him in the running. As time went on, both Rhydon and Golem tended to get outclassed as more new Pokemon came out, their three quadruple weaknesses sealing their fates. In the 4th generation Rhydon got a new evolution in Rhyperior. . .Considering even with this Rhydon/perior is still Underused though, needless to say Golem is doomed to Neverused. . .
It’s time for a comeback. . .Time to relive Golem’s original glory days! What better place to get fame then Smash Bros? If it can make nobodies like the Ice Climbers big names, then surely it can do the same for Golem, much less considering he’s a Pokemon. As a random Pokemon, Golem is automatically more recognizable then Edward Elric.
Weight: 10
Size: 9.5
Traction: 9
Falling Speed: 8
Aerial Movement: 4
Movement: 2
Jumps: 2
Golem starts digging into the stage. Unlike most underground moves, Golem does NOT magically vanish into the ground – he actually starts destroying ground and digging into the stage, making more room that can be walked around in. Golem can make a hole as large as himself over .2 seconds, and there’s no limit to how long he can keep digging, but Golem can’t dig through the edges of the platform he’s on, only the interior.
While staying underground once you’ve done a lot of digging can be a good survival technique, if Golem or a foe gets hit into the edge of one of these holes by an attack that would KO them or would KO them if they had 20% more damage, they’ll go flying through the wall, albeit with only 75% of the usual knockback. So, no, hiding underground with Golem won’t let you survive forever. In fact, it’s a rather poor idea, as the fact you’re down lower means you’ll have to go up higher to reach the ledge, and Golem’s recovery is primarily horizontal
If you input this as a smash next to a hole you already started digging into, Golem will crouch down and sweep his arms together to make some ground to close up the hole, trapping any foes inside over .2 seconds. Of course, they can still get out by attacking the ground Golem closed up and it only has 25 stamina. If Golem inputs this move as a smash over regular ground, then he’ll close up the opening underground as he goes into it (25 stamina again), giving him more time to dig around.
Golem crashes down onto the ground with impressive force, causing the ground under him to sink downwards Ganondorf’s height, the ground to his sides sloping down to connect the ground that sunk down to the rest of the stage. Golem can make as much ground sink down as he wants, but the lowest any ground can go is quadruple Ganon’s height if there’s nothing under it (Meaning it can go down forever on a stage like Yoshi’s Island). This has .35 seconds of lag on either end, though if you want to speed up the process of setting up the stage how you want even further you can do some digging. If you Earthquake over an area you dug, the stage will sink down past where you dug in addition to the standard of Ganondorf’s height.
Golem’s body is a hitbox that does 6% and set knockback away as he crashes down, and anyone on the platform he crashes down onto is dealt 10% and set vertical knockback. Not too impressive? Well, anybody underground with their feet firmly planted on the ground on the platform Golem’s on will take 25% and .7 seconds of hitstun.
On standard ground or the air, Golem performs Defense Curl, tucking in his head and curling up his limbs around his rocky shell over with half a second of lag to enter and exit the stance. While in the stance, Golem takes 75% of the usual damage and knockback, nothing worthwhile to accommodate the lag.
If Golem activates on the slope or the tip of a slope, Golem will go into the position much more quickly and start sliding down it, his body going faster/him becoming more powerful based off how steep the slope is. The ideal set-up for Golem is to have one side of the stage not sunk down by Earthquake at all while having the opposite side sunk down all the way, the middle sunk down just the right amount to make a nice bridge. If you can manage to pull this off and hit the foe at the bottom of the slope, then this deals 37% and KOs at 50% (On a stage Final Destination’s width). Pretty insane, but that's only with the best possible slope and assuming they just sit there idly at the bottom while you roll down from the top, waiting to get run over. Around halfway through the “perfect run”, Golem gains superarmor/anti-grab armor, and even before then he still gets the usual bonus from Defense Curl.
In the air, Golem throws his arms up into the air and lets out a cry, causing several rocks to fall down from the sky in a line in front of him. The rocks that fall further away from Golem fall more quickly then the rocks that fall closer to Golem, meaning that by the time they reach Golem (.15 seconds) that they’ll of formed a downward slope. The rocks are solid and during the brief moment they perfectly form a slope as they fall (They slow down here for some leeway), you can Rollout along them to “slide” down the rocks for a horizontal recovery. This obviously gives you zero vertical recovery, but the slope the rocks give you to slide down is 80% as long as Final Destination, giving Golem excellent horizontal recovery. Despite the rocks being solid, they only deal 3% and very weak set vertical knockback that sends foes through them as they fall, preventing them from being cheap sources of gimping. Aside from recovery, the aerial Up Special can also give you an even higher starting point to Rollout down a slope to the foe, giving you an artificial starting point.
On the ground, 10 rocks fall skyward over .3 seconds to land directly in front of Golem dealing the same set knockback/3% as they fall, though the knockback is now sideways so the rocks don’t combo into each other. Once they land on the stage, they don’t do much beyond vanish in 10 seconds. . .But if you the rocks land on the slope/the tip of a slope, they’ll start sliding down the slope, allowing you to camp from the top. The rocks still only do 3%, but now the sideways knockback is useful for camping and it’s possible to hit with more then just one.
If a foe is trapped underground and you use Rock Slide to place some rocks over the opening they need to attack to get out, then the rocks will fall down onto them when they open it up, dealing the same damage/knockback as when you first summoned them. Due to the enclosed space the foe is inevitably trapped in, the sideways knockback probably won’t do much to save them from getting hit multiple times by the rocks unless they retreat further down into the hole, but then you can just close up the hole again!
Golem enters the same pose from Defense Curl, but curls up much more tightly and glows red over 1 second before exploding in an explosion half the size of a Smart Bomb’s, dealing 40% and knockback that kills at 45% to anything in the vicinity. Of course, this also kills Golem instantly, and he’ll always die first. Besides, while Golem is invincible during the starting lag, he gives more then enough time for any remotely competent foe to get away from him with the lag and the relatively short range on the move. . .
The main way you actually score suicide KOs with this is underground. If used there, then any ground you’ve dug will instantly cave in as if you Earthquaked from above, instantly KOing anybody there AND helping to set-up the slope for the next stock. Unfortunately, Golem still dies first here. . .
Golem jabs forward with his left fist, then his right, and so on. Each hit deals 3% and weak set knockback, and there’s .15 seconds in-between each jab. You can hold this down like most similar jabs, but foes generally won’t get hit more then once by this, making it rather poor outside a GTFO move.
While this trips the foe at low percents (30% and below) and it can stack, the move knocks foes too far away for it to combo. However; if used at the bottom of a slope facing up the slope, the foe will slide back down the slipe to you while they’re tripped, making for a free 30%. This also of course works splendidly against walls underground, though any infinite jab works well against walls and most foes can do the same to you.
Golem lifts up his shoulder and puts it in front of him as he runs. A keep dashing version of Ganondorf’s dash attack, really, but with much worse power – 5% and weak set knockback. No, Golem’s arm does not randomly out-prioritize projectiles to make this an approach.
If used on a slope, this powers up the move due to Golem running faster downhill during this attack. It’s still not much to get excited about as the knockback will always be set, but the thing you need to be interested in here is the fact that you can instantly cancel this into Rollout, Golem keeping up all the momentum that he had from shoulder charging. Considering Golem goes a good bit faster with Rollout then this attack, it means that you can play mindgames with the foe into making them think you’re going to Rollout them then Shoulder Barge them instead. Golem’s still going very fast either way, so if they dodge incorrectly they’ll get hit. This move has all the threat of a potential Rollout without forcing you to commit to one.
Golem does a wind-up punch as he reaches backward and leans back on one foot before lobbing a punch forward. As it sounds, this has an awkard .6 seconds of lag, yet deals an unremarkable 9% that KOs at 160%. If used next to a rock from Rock Slide, though, Golem will pick up the rock as he leans back and fling it forwards, it dealing the same knockback. While the lag makes it far from ideal to keep an approaching foe at bay, the rock out-prioritzes most other projectiles, allowing you to play the camping game against fellow campers. This move can also be angled, meaning you can throw it down a slope to make one of the rocks you slide down your slope have an extra punch behind it.
Golem turns to face the screen and flexes as he roars, instantaneously creating a giant red aura around himself half the size of a Smart Bomb explosion, dealing only 5% but superb knockback. Unfortunately the superb knockback is superb set knockback, so it’s not gonna KO any time soon, but it gives Golem plenty of space and the massive disjointed priority destroys most projectiles. This move alone is the only GTFO move Golem needs while he sets everything up, but this unfortunately can’t be spammed, as with every use Golem becomes 10% lighter and his attacks lose 10% of their power. Golem can’t lose more then 70% of his power/weight in this fashion.
. . .So when do you use this exactly? If you use at the start of a match as a GTFO move to help set-up, you’ll be too weak to actually use what you set-up. If you use it later on in the match when you’re about to die, you’ll just make yourself die sooner due to the weight reduction.
The ideal way to use this move is at the start while using dsmash and digging to set-up, then to get the foe underground and explode on them to finish up. If they’re underground when you explode, any lost power won’t matter due to the cave in automatically KOing the foe.
Golem roars as he starts rapidly kicking up mud for .35 seconds. The mud is a horribly weak hitbox as it goes forward Bowser’s width before hitting the ground, dealing 6%. Once it hits the ground, though, it forms a generic tripping trap as wide as Bowser. . .That only lasts 3 seconds. As if the effect wasn’t tacked on enough, you’ll struggle to make much use of a generic trip trap in 3 seconds, yes? Well, if you use this one a slope/next to one, the mud will quickly slide down the slope, giving you a MOVING generic tripping trap. Doesn’t sound quite as generic now, does it? Furthermore, when the foe trips on the mud when they’re on a slope, they’ll slide downwards a Battlefield platform’s width.
Golem swings his body in an arc so that he slams into the platform he’s hanging on from below. If anybody is foolish enough to be under that portion of the stage, they take 15% and get spiked. The first time Golem does this, the end of the ledge will become angled up slightly, making it good if you’re on a wonky stage like New Pork/Hyrule and can just the ramp to continue your Rollout onto another portion of ground.
The second time Golem does this, the end of the ledge will be angled straight upwards, making Golem be launched vertically if he Rollouts into it. This is the only thing preventing Rollout from being a suicide KO and you just Rolloutting off the stage.
On the third use, the ledge will actually be awkwardly angled backwards, meaning Golem will be launched back up the slope. Unfortunately he won’t have enough momentum to make it back up if your slope is that big, but this means you have another shot at Rollouting over somebody who dodged you. Considering this makes Rollout a bit slower to end though, you may want to stick with the purely vertical ledge. Your call.
Golem smacks the foe with both arms and headbutts them at once. This deals an impressive 25-35% and pitfalls foes. This has poor range and as much lag as Ike’s fsmash, but Golem has superarmor/anti-grab armor during the start-up lag. Unfortunately, Golem can’t really take advantage of the pitfall status that well. . .Pitfall a foe at the bottom of the slope, go up the slope, then Rollout back down the slope? They’ll of gotten out of it long before then. Using this twice on the same foe deals knockback that kills at 200%.
However; if a foe gets pitfalled on ground right over where Golem dug (Kirby’s height maximum between the solid ground and the underground), they’ll be shot through the solid ground underground! Needless to say, this is obviously an easier way to trap them underground then getting them in through one little opening and sealing them in.
Golem points forward in the direction he’s facing during the charging, then lets out a smug smirk as he releases the charge and a sandstorm laglessly starts up. The sandstorm lasts for 10-30 seconds and covers the entire screen, blowing in the direction Golem was facing when he activated the attack. If foes are going against the sandstorm, it cuts their movement/aerial movement in half, and every 5 seconds they’ll take 1% and flinch. Nothing much, but if they don’t get used to dodging it it’ll randomly interrupt a lot of their attacks. This attack can make approaching Golem on top of his slope much more tedious.
Golem turns towards the screen and puts his hands on his legs during charging, then lifts up one of his legs (The leg on the side he was facing) and slams it down into the ground in a sumo-esque fashion. This only has .25 seconds of lag and Golem’s leg is a hitbox that deals 12-19% and knockback that kills at 200-170%.
Of course, that’s not the main point of the move. . .It makes the ground on the platform Golem was on stretch out to be deeper. No, Golem doesn’t make the ground sink here – he makes more of it so that he has more to play with, essentially. How else do you expect him to dig in paper thin platforms like the Delfino Plaza stage transition platform? The ground that comes down is created varies between Kirby-1.5X Ganon’s height based off charge.
Golem roars skyward for for .4 seconds of lag as he stalls in midair briefly, then a massive amount of rocks fall from the sky double Bowser’s width. They fall as such so that they cover up an entire vertical portion of the screen for 1 second, vanishing upon hitting the ground. The rocks deal 1% and flinching every 0.1 seconds. If Golem presses up on the control stick while overlapping with the rocks, he can climb then like a ladder, although he’s also able to move left and right instead of just up and down to maneuver away from foes if necessary. Unfortunately Golem doesn’t gain much vertical height due to having climb faster then the rocks fall – if you get on the rocks at the soonest possible moment and climb them the entire time, you’ll climb up 1.35X Ganondorf’s height. Still, considering the fact this doesn’t put Golem into helpless and the fact it’s entirely ungimpable make it a welcome addition to his recovery.
Golem can also use this attack as a sort of wall that foes must DI through to get to him, taking plenty of damage in the process. They can still wait it out, of course, but considering Golem’s projectiles and other moves are unaffected by the mass falling rocks and they out-prioritze enemy projectiles, there’s not much else they can do.
Golem kicks forward with his feet hastily over .28 seconds, though with Golem’s usual poor melee range. The kick deals 10% to any foe it comes into contact with a Battlefield platform’s worth of set knockback, the move also propelling Golem backwards the same distance. As if he wasn’t impossible enough to gimp, going out to Golem actually HELPS his recovery! This is a good attack for ending aerial combat due to it separating Golem and the foe and it being rather quick. The move can also be angled at a diagonal downward angle so Golem isn’t helpless to being juggled.
Golem’s body is a high priority hitbox as he gets propelled backwards that deals 13% and knockback that kills at 160%, though that’s rather irrelevant outside FFAs, right? Wrong. Golem can Mega Kick off of walls, namely the ones underground, helping to make him a deadlier combatant there.
Golem turns around as he does a headbutt, his head turning a darker gray color and shining briefly with a mere .2 seconds of starting lag. This deals a rather “meh” 7% and knockback that kills at 200%, though the fact the move’s so fast makes it Golem’s best option for participating in genuine aerial combat, yes? Well, it would, if not for the half a second of ending lag. . .But during this ending lag, Golem’s head has superarmor/anti-grab armor, and the size of his small head is exaggerated for the move much like Bowser’s fist in his ftilt. Another option for safely getting out of aerial combat. While not as good, this one doesn’t require you to actually hit with it.
Golem reaches up into the air, his arms short ranged low priority weak hitboxes that deal 6%. At least you can use it for juggling due to its’ speed, right? Eheh heh. . .
You might notice that the move has a grab-like animation, but the thing is Golem isn’t reaching out to grab the foe for a generic suicide KO – he’s attempting to grab a ceiling. If you grab a ceiling, Golem will hold onto with both arms and you’ll be able to climb along the ceiling back and forth at his usual movement speed. The relevant application of this is if you have a large portion of ground you’ve dug underground, so you can stay at the top of the hole away from foes while they struggle to get out. While clinging to the ceiling, you have a good few button inputs. . .
While one might wonder how Golem gets to the ceiling if he makes an underground pit deep enough that the foe is having trouble getting out of, that’s no problem for Golem due to him having a wall climb. Unlike those fancy wall runs of those various Junahu/Mendez sets, Golem can wall climb forever. Foes can also wall climb on Golem’s walls to prevent Golem from making a pit so deep that it’s inescapable, though they climb very slowly, much slower then Golem.
A fairly elementary stall then fall, dealing Ganon dair esque knockback/damage but killing Golem in the process. Unusable off-stage. On-stage, it’s still pretty useless due to the awkward lag.
If Golem lands on ground that’s been dug in with no more then Kirby’s width in solid ground separating him from the dug ground, Golem’s legs will crash through the solid ground, getting him stuck. In this position, Golem has permanent superarmor and anti-grab armor, and the only limitations to him are that he can’t move, Rollout with Side B (Though he can still Defense Curl), utilt, or use any attacks that involve his legs. Pretty ridiculous move, but the foe can uproot Golem by going underground and hitting his legs which are dangling about, Golem taking the knockback of the attack. Even here, though, Golem’s not entirely defenseless. Those attacks that involve his legs? If he inputs them he’ll flail his legs around, making them low priority hitboxes that deal 5% and set downward knockback. Inputting utilt causes Golem to uproot himself from the ground early.
When you have such a high percentage that you really don’t mind it going up further and the foe is about to make it up your massive mountain, you can dair to force them to go back down the mountain and into the only opening to go underground to get to your legs! They can whale on you all they want from up-top, you won’t die. One could theoretically just keep popping out before the foe could reach them and then just use the dair before the foe could get to them, but if Golem uses this in the same area twice (Or anywhere within a Battlefield platform of it) within 30 seconds he’ll crash through the ground the second time, destroying it as if he dug through it and falling to the bottom of the pit with 2 seconds of hitstun.
If by standard you mean standard fare for a non-grab oriented heavyweight. Golem’s grab is terrible, on par with Ganondorf’s (Which is still landable, mind you, just far from ideal). . .But it’s well worth grabbing with Golem. His throws are BEASTLY.
Golem headbutts the foe for 3% over .35 seconds. Standard pummel fare. Don’t risk going for too many pummels when you’ve got those superb throws.
Golem kicks up some mud onto the enemy, dealing a paltry 4% to them and only knocking them back a Battlefield platform. However; the mud will stay on the foe for 12 seconds, and if they dash during this time they’ll trip, slipping downwards a Battlefield Platform if on a slope. Oh, and if a foe reaches a slope during the initial set knockback of the attack, they’ll slide down the whole freaking way. This attack gets the foe to the bottom of your slope, and forces them to WALK back up to it to get to you at HALF SPEED due to your Sandstorm. Jesus Christ. As if that wasn’t enough, if you hit a foe with Mud Sport (The trap or the initial hitbox) when a foe is Mud Slapped, Mud Slap’s duration resets.
Golem smacks the foe to the ground behind him for 5%, then pulls up a massive boulder from the ground that’s the size of his shell and smacks it behind him. Golem turns around and waves to the foe mockingly, chuckling slightly for .25 seconds of ending lag. The boulder runs the foe over and they essentially get “grabbed” by it, stuck to it as they roll as far as Golem would go if he used Rollout, only going a Battlefield Platform if the terrain isn’t sloped.
If you haven’t used your ledge attack more then once, then the foe will roll straight off the edge, making this an alternative to Rollout definitely worth looking into. . .Or at least it would be if the foe couldn’t button mash out if there’s no ground underneath the boulder. Any button mashing the foe did before then still counts too, they just can’t break out until they go off-stage. If the slope is steep enough so that the foe rolls fast enough and/or they have enough damage to make this too hard to escape in time, this can be an alternative KO move.
Even if you aren’t using this as a KO move, the move without a doubt has alternative uses. Make an opening to the underground at the bottom of the slope so that the foe will go underground and ricochet back and forth a bit underground before finally coming to a halt. Considering foes take 4% per second while being rolled around, this can be a nice damage racker and buy you more time to set-up whatever.
On a stage like Hyrule Temple or New Pork City, you can set up ramps via ledge attack in such a way that you can roll the foe across the entire goddamn stage as they get launched to the next platform. Say on New Pork, you launch the foe from the right off a ramp so that they land on the elevated section on the left, then you have a reverse ramp that sends them back over to the right side, then they roll back down the right side and fall off into the bottom section. The fun never stops!
Golem holds onto the foe tightly as he turns to face the camera, then leaps off the top blast zone with them in a similar manner to Kirby/Meta Knight’s uthrow before crashing down with the foe, crashing down into the ground to make it sink down an absolutely massive amount – quadruple Ganondorf’s height. At this point Golem lets the foe go and they’re launched upwards with 16% and intense vertical knockback. Because of the fact the foe will be so far down when they go up, though, this only KOs at 160%.
Golem jumps on top of the foe, crushing them under his massive girth for 12% and sending them through the ground double Ganondorf’s height, destroying any ground in their way as if Golem was digging, stopping early if they reach the bottom of the platform’s depth (Likely if Golem hasn’t increased the depth via Earth Power). Golem proceeds to top the ground with three large rocks which stay over the foe, then Golem is free to leave as the foe is left in their tomb. The rocks at the top have 50 stamina, meaning it’ll take a good bit longer for the foe to get out then if you trapped them underground normally, giving you plenty of time to set-up further. As if that wasn’t enough, this obviously gets Golem some free ground dug.
Golem lets out a massive roar as the screen zooms in on him, then crashes down to the ground if he’s in the air (PLEASE don’t use this off-stage) or simply does a sumo-stomp if on-stage, causing the platform he’s on to split in half at point he used the final smash. Anybody underground instantly gets KOd as the underground collapses as if Golem exploded there. The stage shortly falls off the bottom blast zone, then rocks will start raining from the sky in mass covering the entire screen, functioning identically to the rocks in his nair. Golem can climb up them just fine with absolutely nowhere to stand on, but any survivng foes will have to rapidly keep jumping/using recoveries while constantly getting hit by mass flinching hits. While Golem is far from a aerial combatant, he can come down to the foe’s level and hit them with a diagonally downward angled fair to make life all the more hellish for them.
The falling rocks last for 10 seconds before the rocks finally clear to reveal the stage now resting on top of a massive amount of rocks (Better then having landed on whatever’s below the blast zones, at least), increasing the depth of the stage by the depth of Yoshi’s Island. A godly final smash indeed.
Golem doesn’t have an instantenous set-up, but his set-up game doesn’t make him fall behind at all like most similar characters. Golem can spam dsmash to increase the depth of the stage and dig around all day, taking damage like the beast he is. It doesn’t matter. You can abuse your utilt to get lots of breathing room to do this relatively undisturbed to get a massive amount of underground space. Once you’ve spammed dsmash enough, you’ll want to dig all the way down on one side of the stage, then slowly leave a bit more solid ground as you work your way over to the other side of the stage where you won’t dig at all. After you’re done digging. If you can manage to get in some grabs during this time, uthrow/dthrow can also assist in this, uthrow getting you more immediate ground while dthrow prevents the foe from bothering you for a while.
Once you’ve dug a sufficient amount, you’re ready to cave in the tunnel to make your slope with Explosion. The ideal ways of getting the foe underground are fsmash and dthrow. If you’re doing the former, leave a bit of extra solid ground on what’s going to eventually become the bottom of the slope (Two Ganondorfs worth), but dig the rest as you would normally. . .Then dthrow the foe on the correct side you need to dig on and quickly go underground. From here, you can make an opening far away from them and go over to where the foe is, then just dig ever so slightly to link the section they’re in with the main cave. . .Then you can activate the big bang to cave in the foe and equalize the damage percentages and gain back all that lost power/weight from utilt.
So now the foe and Golem are down to 2 stocks and Golem’s perfectly set-up. If you want, you can simply repeat the process to make the slope even more insanely steep to make things even easier on the last stock, though on the last stock suicide KOs aren’t an option due to Golem dying first. Still, Golem might want to do some more digging anyway without the intention of exploding rather then advancing immediately to the next phase of his game. If you can manage to dig an underground maze with lots of swervyness and what-not while still having some solid ground inbetween the swerves, then when the foe finally reaches you at the top of your slope you can dthrow/fsmash them underground. Of course, you’ll of placed the only way out of the cave at the bottom of the slope, and they’ll have to run through the entire goddamn maze you’ve created to get out. While they’re busy doing that, you can set up usmash and/or spam dsmash some more, and when they do finally get out they’ll have to climb up the freaking slope again. Oh, and if you have a small portion at the top with no ground dug underneath it (So it won’t collapse when you Earthquake), you can go over there to Earthquake to hit underground foes.
The main phase you’re working to get to is camping at the top of the slope with Rock Slide/Throw and Mud Sport. The foe will be struggling to get up, especially with Sandstorm in effect, and when they finally do you can sadistically force them to repeat the whole journey with fthrow/bthrow. Did I mention that once they get close to reaching you that there’s a giant falling wall of rocks from nair coming down, forcing them to stay away or take damage to get to you? If you’ve set up an underground maze, you can of course use dthrow/fsmash to send them into it. If you want to set up a more complicated underground maze, you can also make an opening at the top and make the maze go primairily back and forth rather then up and down so the foe can roll the whole way through it with strength. When Golem reaches high percentages, he doesn’t even need to force the foe back down the slope/underground himself – he can use dair to force the foe to go underground themselves! This can be a particularly nice way to lead into a KO with rollout if you’ve set up a nice underground Rollout track with Dig. When they finally get there to smack you out, you can just fall through the ground and rollout them to force them to run from you Indiana Jones style. Aside from this, Bthrow is generally the more conservative KO option. If you get too impatient, though, you can always shock the foe by actually moving from your well fortified position by coming down the slope to meet them with Dash Attack only to cancel it into Rollout.
Golem obviously wants to set up his slope here so that the top is at the left, as this makes KOing Probopass much easier then it’d be otherwise. This also makes it considerably more difficult for Probopass to advance up the slope to approach Golem, but considering Probopass can send up his mini-noses to camp back at you he doesn’t feel that much of a need to approach anyway. Probopass is more specialized in traditional camping then you are meaning his attacks will generally do more damage, but because Probopass will have to take his mini-noses so far away from you he’ll be entirely defenseless, taking all your Rock Slides with little chance to resist them beyond using the disjointed hitboxes of his mini-noses to block them, though it’s complicated to both do this and hit Golem at the same time. If Golem is foolish enough to leave an underground opening at the bottom, Probopass can hide down there to be immune to Rock Slide, though Golem shouldn’t be stupid enough to do that. It’s a close match-up in damaging once Golem gets to his camping phase on the slope, though Golem generally has a much easier time scoring KOs due to it being impossible for Probopass to get to the left side of the screen.
However;, Probopass is actually good at pressuring Golem as he sets-up at the start with his mini-nose camping, them not particularly minding Golem’s utilt and some of their attacks even able to hit him through it. Furthermore, because Golem is using the utilt so much he’ll be nice and light, and during this phase of the fight using Probopass’ Side Special as a KO move is actually feasible due to him actually being able to go backwards. If Golem stays primarily underground as he sets-up, though, Probopass won’t have many opportunities to do this, and if all Probopass can do is damage him it doesn’t matter since Golem can just explode. Eventually Golem to come up to get Probopass underground to explode upon him, though, making the start of the match quite a heated battle, though slightly in Probopass’ favor. Considering Golem has to win the part of the match-up where Probopass is slightly better before he gets to the part where he’s better, the match-up isn’t in Golem’s favor, but it’s not in Probopass’ favor due to Golem’s advantage being larger when he does get it.
Golem’s gimping is pretty mediocre. Fair isn’t –bad- for it, but when combined with Golem’s poor vertical recovery/high fall speed he really can’t afford to go out far after Venusaur to use it. That said, Golem’s got more then enough power to send Venusaur up farther then he can recover, and Venusaur’s very helpless to try to approach up Golem’s massive defensive mountain and will be about ready to cry when he has to go through the whole freaking thing again. . .And again. AND AGAIN. Despite Venusaur taking eons to reach Golem and barely doing anything once he gets there, Venusaur will undoubtedly heal off the damage at the bottom of the slope/underground, meaning Golem really isn’t accomplishing all that much. Golem will want to not send Venusaur underground once he reaches the top of the mountain, instead opting for the bottom of the slope so he can keep pelting him with rocks. . .But inevitably Venusaur will heal faster then Golem can damage, and Venusaur enjoys this going on and on to get more solar power. That said, Golem can very easily set-up an absolutely perfect slope on Venusaur and score two underground explosion suicide KOs on Venusaur. With such an insanely massive slope, if Golem lands one Rollout, Venusaur is going off further then he can recover, period, whether or not he’s at 0%. Considering how long this goes on for, Venusaur will inevitably have a full power Solarbeam, but considering Venusaur struggles so much for damage and he only has one shot at it while Golem can Rollout again and again makes it a difficult match-up for him.
Swalot’s Down Special, his main tool for feasibly landing grabs, is rather throwaway here since Golem has all the tools he needs to make Swalot approach while Swalot has no tools whatsoever to make Golem approach. Considering Swalot is so horrible at approaching, he’s gonna have a field day with this match-up, falling victim to pretty much every trick in Golem’s book. If Swalot can manage to get in some poison-damage he can play a slight stalling game with Golem, but that’s about it. When Swalot –does- reach the top of the mountain, he generally does have an easier time landing a grab then Golem, but Swalot’s grabs won’t mean much until Golem finally has 200% while Swalot has to go through hell to get to Golem again when Golem gets his grab. If nothing else, though, Swalot can score his KOs with relative ease. . .Once he finally has that percentage. . .Once he finally gets up Golem’s mountain and –DOESN’T- get sent back down before he can grab him. . .The main thing preventing the match-up from being too terrible for Swalot is that Golem is right at the edge when in his camping phase, ready to for you to bthrow him off and start some gimping on him. If the bthrow alone doesn’t kill him, though, it’s doubtful Swalot’s awkward gimping will finish the job.
Arbok is excellent at approaching, allowing him to get up Golem’s mountain with relative ease, though the fact his dashing speed is as high as it is makes him suffer more from Sandstorm, and Arbok isn’t particularly adept at getting around Golem’s utilt as he sets up. Considering the fact Golem prefers to shield rather then dodge, though, what with his stereotypical heavyweight large shield/slow dodges, Arbok will be getting in plenty of grabs, which are pretty much everything for him. Considering when he gets to Golem the rock monster will be at the far side of the stage Arbok has little trouble scoring KOs. Damage isn’t an issue either, as Arbok can just casually wait for Golem’s damage to go up while he can’t do much of anything about it if Arbok just wants to wait for the damage to rack up rather then approach. Considering Golem gets the first two stocks with relative ease with an ideal set-up, though, it’s not an unwinnable match-up for Golem.
Golem has the perfect grab-game for Ninetales to take advantage – Golem badly wants to land grabs at many points during his game for his delicious throws meaning he’ll be spamming the grab, but the grab is bad and easy to force Golem into grabbing Ninetales’ tails with. Golem will want to primarily be relying on fsmash to get Ninetales underground for the suicide KOs at the start of the match and to send her underground to force her to approach up Golem’s mountain again, considering all his other options are throws. Considering the lagginess of fsmash, though, using it and it alone for this proves troublesome for Golem.
It’s not all lollipops and rainbows for Ninetales either, though, as while Golem will go for several natural unprovoked grabs on his own, Golem almost never will buy into Ninetales’ attempts to force him to grab her unnaturally. There are very few instances to use the dair/uair combo as well seeing Golem is never in the air, there’s a ceiling above him when he’s setting up and there’s ground preventing you from going under him when he’s at the top of his mountain.
Unfortunately for Golem, Ninetales can abuse her uair to casually go in an L shape to approach Golem rather then marching up Golem’s mountain, and by the time Golem manages to get Ninetales down again (If he doesn’t fall for grabbing Ninetales’ tails) the mere 5 second cooldown will of already passed. However; considering Golem has such an easy time setting up on Ninetales due to her being unable to force him to grab when he doesn’t want to, he can easily make a nice long maze, then use bthrow to send Ninetales down it to get the damage he’s struggling to get otherwise. Considering this requires a grab, though, Ninetales enjoys this significantly. . .Though the fact Golem KOs Ninetales so much earlier keeps him in the running, particularly when we take into account the fact Ninetales’ primary KO move is vertical – when Golem reaches high percents, he can come down from his mountain and try to silently bthrow Ninetales off the edge. Of course, Ninetales can still just use fsmash instead of uthrow for the KO, so it’s not like this shuts Ninetales out. Indeed, this is a very close match-up with both characters having lots of checks and counters to each other’s movesets.
Houndoom can’t really do all that much to threaten Golem as he digs around to set-up, but when he comes up to try to force Houndoom underground to explode him he’ll have a hellish time doing so, especially thanks to his new awkward low weight from utilt. The absurd power of Houndoom’s fsmash can finish Golem off pretty easily during this phase, and if Houndoom misses the pay-off for Golem isn’t that much larger then if he misses any other attack, seeing Golem –has- to get Houndoom underground due to having 30% power.
If Golem manages to get past the phase, though, which is doable, the match-up turns to his favor as he enters the camping phase of his game. Houndoom’s projectiles will just go straight into the mountain and disingrate while Golem’s projectiles will slide down to hit Houndoom. Because Golem so easily stays on just one portion of the stage during this phase, Houndoom struggles to take much advantage of his various lingering fire hitboxes/flashfire boosts. One would think Houndoom’s broken throws would level the playing field, but they only work if Houndoom has enough damage for Golem to stay in his grab for obscene periods of time, and even if Houndoom does pull them off Golem doesn’t really mind being unable to use his smashes/dash. Even if he did, Golem can just send Houndoom back down the slope and force him to re-approach while he regains the abilities. Houndoom’s relatively poor recovery/low weight don’t do him any favors here.
Despite the two separate phases favoring one characters over the other, the fact Golem has to earn his way to the phase where he dominates seals the deal for Houndoom. . .Albeit narrowly, considering when Houndoom wins his phase Golem can still potentially pull off a comeback from a stock behind considering the fact that the ball will be staying in Golem’s court for the remainder of the match.
GOLEM
Golem is a Rock/Ground Pokemon, the final evolution in the Geodude line. Golem was one of the original four Pokemon that evolved by trading, one of the biggest marketing schemes Pokemon’s ever managed to pull off. Golem was originally in the Overused tier (Which only consisted of a grand total of about 15 Pokemon, a very exclusive club) in the original games, being strong competition for Rhydon. While his stats were a tad worse, Explosion was more then enough to keep him in the running. As time went on, both Rhydon and Golem tended to get outclassed as more new Pokemon came out, their three quadruple weaknesses sealing their fates. In the 4th generation Rhydon got a new evolution in Rhyperior. . .Considering even with this Rhydon/perior is still Underused though, needless to say Golem is doomed to Neverused. . .
It’s time for a comeback. . .Time to relive Golem’s original glory days! What better place to get fame then Smash Bros? If it can make nobodies like the Ice Climbers big names, then surely it can do the same for Golem, much less considering he’s a Pokemon. As a random Pokemon, Golem is automatically more recognizable then Edward Elric.
STATS
Weight: 10
Size: 9.5
Traction: 9
Falling Speed: 8
Aerial Movement: 4
Movement: 2
Jumps: 2
SPECIALS
GROUNDED DOWN SPECIAL - DIG
GROUNDED DOWN SPECIAL - DIG
Golem starts digging into the stage. Unlike most underground moves, Golem does NOT magically vanish into the ground – he actually starts destroying ground and digging into the stage, making more room that can be walked around in. Golem can make a hole as large as himself over .2 seconds, and there’s no limit to how long he can keep digging, but Golem can’t dig through the edges of the platform he’s on, only the interior.
While staying underground once you’ve done a lot of digging can be a good survival technique, if Golem or a foe gets hit into the edge of one of these holes by an attack that would KO them or would KO them if they had 20% more damage, they’ll go flying through the wall, albeit with only 75% of the usual knockback. So, no, hiding underground with Golem won’t let you survive forever. In fact, it’s a rather poor idea, as the fact you’re down lower means you’ll have to go up higher to reach the ledge, and Golem’s recovery is primarily horizontal
If you input this as a smash next to a hole you already started digging into, Golem will crouch down and sweep his arms together to make some ground to close up the hole, trapping any foes inside over .2 seconds. Of course, they can still get out by attacking the ground Golem closed up and it only has 25 stamina. If Golem inputs this move as a smash over regular ground, then he’ll close up the opening underground as he goes into it (25 stamina again), giving him more time to dig around.
AERIAL DOWN SPECIAL - EARTHQUAKE
Golem crashes down onto the ground with impressive force, causing the ground under him to sink downwards Ganondorf’s height, the ground to his sides sloping down to connect the ground that sunk down to the rest of the stage. Golem can make as much ground sink down as he wants, but the lowest any ground can go is quadruple Ganon’s height if there’s nothing under it (Meaning it can go down forever on a stage like Yoshi’s Island). This has .35 seconds of lag on either end, though if you want to speed up the process of setting up the stage how you want even further you can do some digging. If you Earthquake over an area you dug, the stage will sink down past where you dug in addition to the standard of Ganondorf’s height.
Golem’s body is a hitbox that does 6% and set knockback away as he crashes down, and anyone on the platform he crashes down onto is dealt 10% and set vertical knockback. Not too impressive? Well, anybody underground with their feet firmly planted on the ground on the platform Golem’s on will take 25% and .7 seconds of hitstun.
SIDE SPECIAL – DEFENSE CURL/ROLLOUT
On standard ground or the air, Golem performs Defense Curl, tucking in his head and curling up his limbs around his rocky shell over with half a second of lag to enter and exit the stance. While in the stance, Golem takes 75% of the usual damage and knockback, nothing worthwhile to accommodate the lag.
If Golem activates on the slope or the tip of a slope, Golem will go into the position much more quickly and start sliding down it, his body going faster/him becoming more powerful based off how steep the slope is. The ideal set-up for Golem is to have one side of the stage not sunk down by Earthquake at all while having the opposite side sunk down all the way, the middle sunk down just the right amount to make a nice bridge. If you can manage to pull this off and hit the foe at the bottom of the slope, then this deals 37% and KOs at 50% (On a stage Final Destination’s width). Pretty insane, but that's only with the best possible slope and assuming they just sit there idly at the bottom while you roll down from the top, waiting to get run over. Around halfway through the “perfect run”, Golem gains superarmor/anti-grab armor, and even before then he still gets the usual bonus from Defense Curl.
UP SPECIAL – ROCK SLIDE
In the air, Golem throws his arms up into the air and lets out a cry, causing several rocks to fall down from the sky in a line in front of him. The rocks that fall further away from Golem fall more quickly then the rocks that fall closer to Golem, meaning that by the time they reach Golem (.15 seconds) that they’ll of formed a downward slope. The rocks are solid and during the brief moment they perfectly form a slope as they fall (They slow down here for some leeway), you can Rollout along them to “slide” down the rocks for a horizontal recovery. This obviously gives you zero vertical recovery, but the slope the rocks give you to slide down is 80% as long as Final Destination, giving Golem excellent horizontal recovery. Despite the rocks being solid, they only deal 3% and very weak set vertical knockback that sends foes through them as they fall, preventing them from being cheap sources of gimping. Aside from recovery, the aerial Up Special can also give you an even higher starting point to Rollout down a slope to the foe, giving you an artificial starting point.
On the ground, 10 rocks fall skyward over .3 seconds to land directly in front of Golem dealing the same set knockback/3% as they fall, though the knockback is now sideways so the rocks don’t combo into each other. Once they land on the stage, they don’t do much beyond vanish in 10 seconds. . .But if you the rocks land on the slope/the tip of a slope, they’ll start sliding down the slope, allowing you to camp from the top. The rocks still only do 3%, but now the sideways knockback is useful for camping and it’s possible to hit with more then just one.
If a foe is trapped underground and you use Rock Slide to place some rocks over the opening they need to attack to get out, then the rocks will fall down onto them when they open it up, dealing the same damage/knockback as when you first summoned them. Due to the enclosed space the foe is inevitably trapped in, the sideways knockback probably won’t do much to save them from getting hit multiple times by the rocks unless they retreat further down into the hole, but then you can just close up the hole again!
NEUTRAL SPECIAL – EXPLOSION
Golem enters the same pose from Defense Curl, but curls up much more tightly and glows red over 1 second before exploding in an explosion half the size of a Smart Bomb’s, dealing 40% and knockback that kills at 45% to anything in the vicinity. Of course, this also kills Golem instantly, and he’ll always die first. Besides, while Golem is invincible during the starting lag, he gives more then enough time for any remotely competent foe to get away from him with the lag and the relatively short range on the move. . .
The main way you actually score suicide KOs with this is underground. If used there, then any ground you’ve dug will instantly cave in as if you Earthquaked from above, instantly KOing anybody there AND helping to set-up the slope for the next stock. Unfortunately, Golem still dies first here. . .
STANDARDS
NEUTRAL ATTACK – SMACKDOWN
NEUTRAL ATTACK – SMACKDOWN
Golem jabs forward with his left fist, then his right, and so on. Each hit deals 3% and weak set knockback, and there’s .15 seconds in-between each jab. You can hold this down like most similar jabs, but foes generally won’t get hit more then once by this, making it rather poor outside a GTFO move.
While this trips the foe at low percents (30% and below) and it can stack, the move knocks foes too far away for it to combo. However; if used at the bottom of a slope facing up the slope, the foe will slide back down the slipe to you while they’re tripped, making for a free 30%. This also of course works splendidly against walls underground, though any infinite jab works well against walls and most foes can do the same to you.
DASHING ATTACK – SHOULDER BARGE
Golem lifts up his shoulder and puts it in front of him as he runs. A keep dashing version of Ganondorf’s dash attack, really, but with much worse power – 5% and weak set knockback. No, Golem’s arm does not randomly out-prioritize projectiles to make this an approach.
If used on a slope, this powers up the move due to Golem running faster downhill during this attack. It’s still not much to get excited about as the knockback will always be set, but the thing you need to be interested in here is the fact that you can instantly cancel this into Rollout, Golem keeping up all the momentum that he had from shoulder charging. Considering Golem goes a good bit faster with Rollout then this attack, it means that you can play mindgames with the foe into making them think you’re going to Rollout them then Shoulder Barge them instead. Golem’s still going very fast either way, so if they dodge incorrectly they’ll get hit. This move has all the threat of a potential Rollout without forcing you to commit to one.
FORWARD TILT – ROCK THROW
Golem does a wind-up punch as he reaches backward and leans back on one foot before lobbing a punch forward. As it sounds, this has an awkard .6 seconds of lag, yet deals an unremarkable 9% that KOs at 160%. If used next to a rock from Rock Slide, though, Golem will pick up the rock as he leans back and fling it forwards, it dealing the same knockback. While the lag makes it far from ideal to keep an approaching foe at bay, the rock out-prioritzes most other projectiles, allowing you to play the camping game against fellow campers. This move can also be angled, meaning you can throw it down a slope to make one of the rocks you slide down your slope have an extra punch behind it.
UP TILT – SUPERPOWER
Golem turns to face the screen and flexes as he roars, instantaneously creating a giant red aura around himself half the size of a Smart Bomb explosion, dealing only 5% but superb knockback. Unfortunately the superb knockback is superb set knockback, so it’s not gonna KO any time soon, but it gives Golem plenty of space and the massive disjointed priority destroys most projectiles. This move alone is the only GTFO move Golem needs while he sets everything up, but this unfortunately can’t be spammed, as with every use Golem becomes 10% lighter and his attacks lose 10% of their power. Golem can’t lose more then 70% of his power/weight in this fashion.
. . .So when do you use this exactly? If you use at the start of a match as a GTFO move to help set-up, you’ll be too weak to actually use what you set-up. If you use it later on in the match when you’re about to die, you’ll just make yourself die sooner due to the weight reduction.
The ideal way to use this move is at the start while using dsmash and digging to set-up, then to get the foe underground and explode on them to finish up. If they’re underground when you explode, any lost power won’t matter due to the cave in automatically KOing the foe.
DOWN TILT – MUD SPORT
Golem roars as he starts rapidly kicking up mud for .35 seconds. The mud is a horribly weak hitbox as it goes forward Bowser’s width before hitting the ground, dealing 6%. Once it hits the ground, though, it forms a generic tripping trap as wide as Bowser. . .That only lasts 3 seconds. As if the effect wasn’t tacked on enough, you’ll struggle to make much use of a generic trip trap in 3 seconds, yes? Well, if you use this one a slope/next to one, the mud will quickly slide down the slope, giving you a MOVING generic tripping trap. Doesn’t sound quite as generic now, does it? Furthermore, when the foe trips on the mud when they’re on a slope, they’ll slide downwards a Battlefield platform’s width.
RELEVANT LEDGE ATTACK – RAMP
Golem swings his body in an arc so that he slams into the platform he’s hanging on from below. If anybody is foolish enough to be under that portion of the stage, they take 15% and get spiked. The first time Golem does this, the end of the ledge will become angled up slightly, making it good if you’re on a wonky stage like New Pork/Hyrule and can just the ramp to continue your Rollout onto another portion of ground.
The second time Golem does this, the end of the ledge will be angled straight upwards, making Golem be launched vertically if he Rollouts into it. This is the only thing preventing Rollout from being a suicide KO and you just Rolloutting off the stage.
On the third use, the ledge will actually be awkwardly angled backwards, meaning Golem will be launched back up the slope. Unfortunately he won’t have enough momentum to make it back up if your slope is that big, but this means you have another shot at Rollouting over somebody who dodged you. Considering this makes Rollout a bit slower to end though, you may want to stick with the purely vertical ledge. Your call.
SMASHES
FORWARD SMASH – STONE EDGE
FORWARD SMASH – STONE EDGE
Golem smacks the foe with both arms and headbutts them at once. This deals an impressive 25-35% and pitfalls foes. This has poor range and as much lag as Ike’s fsmash, but Golem has superarmor/anti-grab armor during the start-up lag. Unfortunately, Golem can’t really take advantage of the pitfall status that well. . .Pitfall a foe at the bottom of the slope, go up the slope, then Rollout back down the slope? They’ll of gotten out of it long before then. Using this twice on the same foe deals knockback that kills at 200%.
However; if a foe gets pitfalled on ground right over where Golem dug (Kirby’s height maximum between the solid ground and the underground), they’ll be shot through the solid ground underground! Needless to say, this is obviously an easier way to trap them underground then getting them in through one little opening and sealing them in.
UP SMASH – SANDSTORM
Golem points forward in the direction he’s facing during the charging, then lets out a smug smirk as he releases the charge and a sandstorm laglessly starts up. The sandstorm lasts for 10-30 seconds and covers the entire screen, blowing in the direction Golem was facing when he activated the attack. If foes are going against the sandstorm, it cuts their movement/aerial movement in half, and every 5 seconds they’ll take 1% and flinch. Nothing much, but if they don’t get used to dodging it it’ll randomly interrupt a lot of their attacks. This attack can make approaching Golem on top of his slope much more tedious.
DOWN SMASH – EARTH POWER
Golem turns towards the screen and puts his hands on his legs during charging, then lifts up one of his legs (The leg on the side he was facing) and slams it down into the ground in a sumo-esque fashion. This only has .25 seconds of lag and Golem’s leg is a hitbox that deals 12-19% and knockback that kills at 200-170%.
Of course, that’s not the main point of the move. . .It makes the ground on the platform Golem was on stretch out to be deeper. No, Golem doesn’t make the ground sink here – he makes more of it so that he has more to play with, essentially. How else do you expect him to dig in paper thin platforms like the Delfino Plaza stage transition platform? The ground that comes down is created varies between Kirby-1.5X Ganon’s height based off charge.
AERIALS
NEUTRAL AERIAL – ROCK CLIMB
NEUTRAL AERIAL – ROCK CLIMB
Golem roars skyward for for .4 seconds of lag as he stalls in midair briefly, then a massive amount of rocks fall from the sky double Bowser’s width. They fall as such so that they cover up an entire vertical portion of the screen for 1 second, vanishing upon hitting the ground. The rocks deal 1% and flinching every 0.1 seconds. If Golem presses up on the control stick while overlapping with the rocks, he can climb then like a ladder, although he’s also able to move left and right instead of just up and down to maneuver away from foes if necessary. Unfortunately Golem doesn’t gain much vertical height due to having climb faster then the rocks fall – if you get on the rocks at the soonest possible moment and climb them the entire time, you’ll climb up 1.35X Ganondorf’s height. Still, considering the fact this doesn’t put Golem into helpless and the fact it’s entirely ungimpable make it a welcome addition to his recovery.
Golem can also use this attack as a sort of wall that foes must DI through to get to him, taking plenty of damage in the process. They can still wait it out, of course, but considering Golem’s projectiles and other moves are unaffected by the mass falling rocks and they out-prioritze enemy projectiles, there’s not much else they can do.
FORWARD AERIAL – MEGA KICK
Golem kicks forward with his feet hastily over .28 seconds, though with Golem’s usual poor melee range. The kick deals 10% to any foe it comes into contact with a Battlefield platform’s worth of set knockback, the move also propelling Golem backwards the same distance. As if he wasn’t impossible enough to gimp, going out to Golem actually HELPS his recovery! This is a good attack for ending aerial combat due to it separating Golem and the foe and it being rather quick. The move can also be angled at a diagonal downward angle so Golem isn’t helpless to being juggled.
Golem’s body is a high priority hitbox as he gets propelled backwards that deals 13% and knockback that kills at 160%, though that’s rather irrelevant outside FFAs, right? Wrong. Golem can Mega Kick off of walls, namely the ones underground, helping to make him a deadlier combatant there.
BACK AERIAL – IRON HEAD
Golem turns around as he does a headbutt, his head turning a darker gray color and shining briefly with a mere .2 seconds of starting lag. This deals a rather “meh” 7% and knockback that kills at 200%, though the fact the move’s so fast makes it Golem’s best option for participating in genuine aerial combat, yes? Well, it would, if not for the half a second of ending lag. . .But during this ending lag, Golem’s head has superarmor/anti-grab armor, and the size of his small head is exaggerated for the move much like Bowser’s fist in his ftilt. Another option for safely getting out of aerial combat. While not as good, this one doesn’t require you to actually hit with it.
UP AERIAL – CLING
Golem reaches up into the air, his arms short ranged low priority weak hitboxes that deal 6%. At least you can use it for juggling due to its’ speed, right? Eheh heh. . .
You might notice that the move has a grab-like animation, but the thing is Golem isn’t reaching out to grab the foe for a generic suicide KO – he’s attempting to grab a ceiling. If you grab a ceiling, Golem will hold onto with both arms and you’ll be able to climb along the ceiling back and forth at his usual movement speed. The relevant application of this is if you have a large portion of ground you’ve dug underground, so you can stay at the top of the hole away from foes while they struggle to get out. While clinging to the ceiling, you have a good few button inputs. . .
- Horizontal Movement via control stick
- Explosion via neutral B
- Canceling the move into Dig via Side B if you reach ground on either side of yourself
- Climbing up through the ground to the surface via Up B without making an opening
- Using the grounded version of Rock Slide via down B. There’s a bit more of a gap between when each rock falls, but you can move during it and they’ll always fall under your current location, allowing you to camp
- Releasing your hold on the ceiling via A/Shield
While one might wonder how Golem gets to the ceiling if he makes an underground pit deep enough that the foe is having trouble getting out of, that’s no problem for Golem due to him having a wall climb. Unlike those fancy wall runs of those various Junahu/Mendez sets, Golem can wall climb forever. Foes can also wall climb on Golem’s walls to prevent Golem from making a pit so deep that it’s inescapable, though they climb very slowly, much slower then Golem.
DOWN AERIAL – CRUSH
A fairly elementary stall then fall, dealing Ganon dair esque knockback/damage but killing Golem in the process. Unusable off-stage. On-stage, it’s still pretty useless due to the awkward lag.
If Golem lands on ground that’s been dug in with no more then Kirby’s width in solid ground separating him from the dug ground, Golem’s legs will crash through the solid ground, getting him stuck. In this position, Golem has permanent superarmor and anti-grab armor, and the only limitations to him are that he can’t move, Rollout with Side B (Though he can still Defense Curl), utilt, or use any attacks that involve his legs. Pretty ridiculous move, but the foe can uproot Golem by going underground and hitting his legs which are dangling about, Golem taking the knockback of the attack. Even here, though, Golem’s not entirely defenseless. Those attacks that involve his legs? If he inputs them he’ll flail his legs around, making them low priority hitboxes that deal 5% and set downward knockback. Inputting utilt causes Golem to uproot himself from the ground early.
When you have such a high percentage that you really don’t mind it going up further and the foe is about to make it up your massive mountain, you can dair to force them to go back down the mountain and into the only opening to go underground to get to your legs! They can whale on you all they want from up-top, you won’t die. One could theoretically just keep popping out before the foe could reach them and then just use the dair before the foe could get to them, but if Golem uses this in the same area twice (Or anywhere within a Battlefield platform of it) within 30 seconds he’ll crash through the ground the second time, destroying it as if he dug through it and falling to the bottom of the pit with 2 seconds of hitstun.
GRAB-GAME
GRAB - STANDARD
GRAB - STANDARD
If by standard you mean standard fare for a non-grab oriented heavyweight. Golem’s grab is terrible, on par with Ganondorf’s (Which is still landable, mind you, just far from ideal). . .But it’s well worth grabbing with Golem. His throws are BEASTLY.
PUMMEL - HEADBUTT
Golem headbutts the foe for 3% over .35 seconds. Standard pummel fare. Don’t risk going for too many pummels when you’ve got those superb throws.
FORWARD THROW – MUD SLAP
Golem kicks up some mud onto the enemy, dealing a paltry 4% to them and only knocking them back a Battlefield platform. However; the mud will stay on the foe for 12 seconds, and if they dash during this time they’ll trip, slipping downwards a Battlefield Platform if on a slope. Oh, and if a foe reaches a slope during the initial set knockback of the attack, they’ll slide down the whole freaking way. This attack gets the foe to the bottom of your slope, and forces them to WALK back up to it to get to you at HALF SPEED due to your Sandstorm. Jesus Christ. As if that wasn’t enough, if you hit a foe with Mud Sport (The trap or the initial hitbox) when a foe is Mud Slapped, Mud Slap’s duration resets.
BACK THROW – STRENGTH
Golem smacks the foe to the ground behind him for 5%, then pulls up a massive boulder from the ground that’s the size of his shell and smacks it behind him. Golem turns around and waves to the foe mockingly, chuckling slightly for .25 seconds of ending lag. The boulder runs the foe over and they essentially get “grabbed” by it, stuck to it as they roll as far as Golem would go if he used Rollout, only going a Battlefield Platform if the terrain isn’t sloped.
If you haven’t used your ledge attack more then once, then the foe will roll straight off the edge, making this an alternative to Rollout definitely worth looking into. . .Or at least it would be if the foe couldn’t button mash out if there’s no ground underneath the boulder. Any button mashing the foe did before then still counts too, they just can’t break out until they go off-stage. If the slope is steep enough so that the foe rolls fast enough and/or they have enough damage to make this too hard to escape in time, this can be an alternative KO move.
Even if you aren’t using this as a KO move, the move without a doubt has alternative uses. Make an opening to the underground at the bottom of the slope so that the foe will go underground and ricochet back and forth a bit underground before finally coming to a halt. Considering foes take 4% per second while being rolled around, this can be a nice damage racker and buy you more time to set-up whatever.
On a stage like Hyrule Temple or New Pork City, you can set up ramps via ledge attack in such a way that you can roll the foe across the entire goddamn stage as they get launched to the next platform. Say on New Pork, you launch the foe from the right off a ramp so that they land on the elevated section on the left, then you have a reverse ramp that sends them back over to the right side, then they roll back down the right side and fall off into the bottom section. The fun never stops!
UP THROW – SEISMIC TOSS
Golem holds onto the foe tightly as he turns to face the camera, then leaps off the top blast zone with them in a similar manner to Kirby/Meta Knight’s uthrow before crashing down with the foe, crashing down into the ground to make it sink down an absolutely massive amount – quadruple Ganondorf’s height. At this point Golem lets the foe go and they’re launched upwards with 16% and intense vertical knockback. Because of the fact the foe will be so far down when they go up, though, this only KOs at 160%.
DOWN THROW – ROCK TOMB
Golem jumps on top of the foe, crushing them under his massive girth for 12% and sending them through the ground double Ganondorf’s height, destroying any ground in their way as if Golem was digging, stopping early if they reach the bottom of the platform’s depth (Likely if Golem hasn’t increased the depth via Earth Power). Golem proceeds to top the ground with three large rocks which stay over the foe, then Golem is free to leave as the foe is left in their tomb. The rocks at the top have 50 stamina, meaning it’ll take a good bit longer for the foe to get out then if you trapped them underground normally, giving you plenty of time to set-up further. As if that wasn’t enough, this obviously gets Golem some free ground dug.
FINAL SMASH – FISSURE
Golem lets out a massive roar as the screen zooms in on him, then crashes down to the ground if he’s in the air (PLEASE don’t use this off-stage) or simply does a sumo-stomp if on-stage, causing the platform he’s on to split in half at point he used the final smash. Anybody underground instantly gets KOd as the underground collapses as if Golem exploded there. The stage shortly falls off the bottom blast zone, then rocks will start raining from the sky in mass covering the entire screen, functioning identically to the rocks in his nair. Golem can climb up them just fine with absolutely nowhere to stand on, but any survivng foes will have to rapidly keep jumping/using recoveries while constantly getting hit by mass flinching hits. While Golem is far from a aerial combatant, he can come down to the foe’s level and hit them with a diagonally downward angled fair to make life all the more hellish for them.
The falling rocks last for 10 seconds before the rocks finally clear to reveal the stage now resting on top of a massive amount of rocks (Better then having landed on whatever’s below the blast zones, at least), increasing the depth of the stage by the depth of Yoshi’s Island. A godly final smash indeed.
PLAYSTYLE
Golem doesn’t have an instantenous set-up, but his set-up game doesn’t make him fall behind at all like most similar characters. Golem can spam dsmash to increase the depth of the stage and dig around all day, taking damage like the beast he is. It doesn’t matter. You can abuse your utilt to get lots of breathing room to do this relatively undisturbed to get a massive amount of underground space. Once you’ve spammed dsmash enough, you’ll want to dig all the way down on one side of the stage, then slowly leave a bit more solid ground as you work your way over to the other side of the stage where you won’t dig at all. After you’re done digging. If you can manage to get in some grabs during this time, uthrow/dthrow can also assist in this, uthrow getting you more immediate ground while dthrow prevents the foe from bothering you for a while.
Once you’ve dug a sufficient amount, you’re ready to cave in the tunnel to make your slope with Explosion. The ideal ways of getting the foe underground are fsmash and dthrow. If you’re doing the former, leave a bit of extra solid ground on what’s going to eventually become the bottom of the slope (Two Ganondorfs worth), but dig the rest as you would normally. . .Then dthrow the foe on the correct side you need to dig on and quickly go underground. From here, you can make an opening far away from them and go over to where the foe is, then just dig ever so slightly to link the section they’re in with the main cave. . .Then you can activate the big bang to cave in the foe and equalize the damage percentages and gain back all that lost power/weight from utilt.
So now the foe and Golem are down to 2 stocks and Golem’s perfectly set-up. If you want, you can simply repeat the process to make the slope even more insanely steep to make things even easier on the last stock, though on the last stock suicide KOs aren’t an option due to Golem dying first. Still, Golem might want to do some more digging anyway without the intention of exploding rather then advancing immediately to the next phase of his game. If you can manage to dig an underground maze with lots of swervyness and what-not while still having some solid ground inbetween the swerves, then when the foe finally reaches you at the top of your slope you can dthrow/fsmash them underground. Of course, you’ll of placed the only way out of the cave at the bottom of the slope, and they’ll have to run through the entire goddamn maze you’ve created to get out. While they’re busy doing that, you can set up usmash and/or spam dsmash some more, and when they do finally get out they’ll have to climb up the freaking slope again. Oh, and if you have a small portion at the top with no ground dug underneath it (So it won’t collapse when you Earthquake), you can go over there to Earthquake to hit underground foes.
The main phase you’re working to get to is camping at the top of the slope with Rock Slide/Throw and Mud Sport. The foe will be struggling to get up, especially with Sandstorm in effect, and when they finally do you can sadistically force them to repeat the whole journey with fthrow/bthrow. Did I mention that once they get close to reaching you that there’s a giant falling wall of rocks from nair coming down, forcing them to stay away or take damage to get to you? If you’ve set up an underground maze, you can of course use dthrow/fsmash to send them into it. If you want to set up a more complicated underground maze, you can also make an opening at the top and make the maze go primairily back and forth rather then up and down so the foe can roll the whole way through it with strength. When Golem reaches high percentages, he doesn’t even need to force the foe back down the slope/underground himself – he can use dair to force the foe to go underground themselves! This can be a particularly nice way to lead into a KO with rollout if you’ve set up a nice underground Rollout track with Dig. When they finally get there to smack you out, you can just fall through the ground and rollout them to force them to run from you Indiana Jones style. Aside from this, Bthrow is generally the more conservative KO option. If you get too impatient, though, you can always shock the foe by actually moving from your well fortified position by coming down the slope to meet them with Dash Attack only to cancel it into Rollout.
MATCH-UPS
VS. PROBOPASS – 50/50
VS. PROBOPASS – 50/50
Golem obviously wants to set up his slope here so that the top is at the left, as this makes KOing Probopass much easier then it’d be otherwise. This also makes it considerably more difficult for Probopass to advance up the slope to approach Golem, but considering Probopass can send up his mini-noses to camp back at you he doesn’t feel that much of a need to approach anyway. Probopass is more specialized in traditional camping then you are meaning his attacks will generally do more damage, but because Probopass will have to take his mini-noses so far away from you he’ll be entirely defenseless, taking all your Rock Slides with little chance to resist them beyond using the disjointed hitboxes of his mini-noses to block them, though it’s complicated to both do this and hit Golem at the same time. If Golem is foolish enough to leave an underground opening at the bottom, Probopass can hide down there to be immune to Rock Slide, though Golem shouldn’t be stupid enough to do that. It’s a close match-up in damaging once Golem gets to his camping phase on the slope, though Golem generally has a much easier time scoring KOs due to it being impossible for Probopass to get to the left side of the screen.
However;, Probopass is actually good at pressuring Golem as he sets-up at the start with his mini-nose camping, them not particularly minding Golem’s utilt and some of their attacks even able to hit him through it. Furthermore, because Golem is using the utilt so much he’ll be nice and light, and during this phase of the fight using Probopass’ Side Special as a KO move is actually feasible due to him actually being able to go backwards. If Golem stays primarily underground as he sets-up, though, Probopass won’t have many opportunities to do this, and if all Probopass can do is damage him it doesn’t matter since Golem can just explode. Eventually Golem to come up to get Probopass underground to explode upon him, though, making the start of the match quite a heated battle, though slightly in Probopass’ favor. Considering Golem has to win the part of the match-up where Probopass is slightly better before he gets to the part where he’s better, the match-up isn’t in Golem’s favor, but it’s not in Probopass’ favor due to Golem’s advantage being larger when he does get it.
VS. VENUSAUR – 70/30, GOLEM’S FAVOR
Golem’s gimping is pretty mediocre. Fair isn’t –bad- for it, but when combined with Golem’s poor vertical recovery/high fall speed he really can’t afford to go out far after Venusaur to use it. That said, Golem’s got more then enough power to send Venusaur up farther then he can recover, and Venusaur’s very helpless to try to approach up Golem’s massive defensive mountain and will be about ready to cry when he has to go through the whole freaking thing again. . .And again. AND AGAIN. Despite Venusaur taking eons to reach Golem and barely doing anything once he gets there, Venusaur will undoubtedly heal off the damage at the bottom of the slope/underground, meaning Golem really isn’t accomplishing all that much. Golem will want to not send Venusaur underground once he reaches the top of the mountain, instead opting for the bottom of the slope so he can keep pelting him with rocks. . .But inevitably Venusaur will heal faster then Golem can damage, and Venusaur enjoys this going on and on to get more solar power. That said, Golem can very easily set-up an absolutely perfect slope on Venusaur and score two underground explosion suicide KOs on Venusaur. With such an insanely massive slope, if Golem lands one Rollout, Venusaur is going off further then he can recover, period, whether or not he’s at 0%. Considering how long this goes on for, Venusaur will inevitably have a full power Solarbeam, but considering Venusaur struggles so much for damage and he only has one shot at it while Golem can Rollout again and again makes it a difficult match-up for him.
VS. SWALOT – 70/30, GOLEM’S FAVOR
Swalot’s Down Special, his main tool for feasibly landing grabs, is rather throwaway here since Golem has all the tools he needs to make Swalot approach while Swalot has no tools whatsoever to make Golem approach. Considering Swalot is so horrible at approaching, he’s gonna have a field day with this match-up, falling victim to pretty much every trick in Golem’s book. If Swalot can manage to get in some poison-damage he can play a slight stalling game with Golem, but that’s about it. When Swalot –does- reach the top of the mountain, he generally does have an easier time landing a grab then Golem, but Swalot’s grabs won’t mean much until Golem finally has 200% while Swalot has to go through hell to get to Golem again when Golem gets his grab. If nothing else, though, Swalot can score his KOs with relative ease. . .Once he finally has that percentage. . .Once he finally gets up Golem’s mountain and –DOESN’T- get sent back down before he can grab him. . .The main thing preventing the match-up from being too terrible for Swalot is that Golem is right at the edge when in his camping phase, ready to for you to bthrow him off and start some gimping on him. If the bthrow alone doesn’t kill him, though, it’s doubtful Swalot’s awkward gimping will finish the job.
VS. ARBOK – 35/65, ARBOK’S FAVOR
Arbok is excellent at approaching, allowing him to get up Golem’s mountain with relative ease, though the fact his dashing speed is as high as it is makes him suffer more from Sandstorm, and Arbok isn’t particularly adept at getting around Golem’s utilt as he sets up. Considering the fact Golem prefers to shield rather then dodge, though, what with his stereotypical heavyweight large shield/slow dodges, Arbok will be getting in plenty of grabs, which are pretty much everything for him. Considering when he gets to Golem the rock monster will be at the far side of the stage Arbok has little trouble scoring KOs. Damage isn’t an issue either, as Arbok can just casually wait for Golem’s damage to go up while he can’t do much of anything about it if Arbok just wants to wait for the damage to rack up rather then approach. Considering Golem gets the first two stocks with relative ease with an ideal set-up, though, it’s not an unwinnable match-up for Golem.
VS. NINETALES – 50/50
Golem has the perfect grab-game for Ninetales to take advantage – Golem badly wants to land grabs at many points during his game for his delicious throws meaning he’ll be spamming the grab, but the grab is bad and easy to force Golem into grabbing Ninetales’ tails with. Golem will want to primarily be relying on fsmash to get Ninetales underground for the suicide KOs at the start of the match and to send her underground to force her to approach up Golem’s mountain again, considering all his other options are throws. Considering the lagginess of fsmash, though, using it and it alone for this proves troublesome for Golem.
It’s not all lollipops and rainbows for Ninetales either, though, as while Golem will go for several natural unprovoked grabs on his own, Golem almost never will buy into Ninetales’ attempts to force him to grab her unnaturally. There are very few instances to use the dair/uair combo as well seeing Golem is never in the air, there’s a ceiling above him when he’s setting up and there’s ground preventing you from going under him when he’s at the top of his mountain.
Unfortunately for Golem, Ninetales can abuse her uair to casually go in an L shape to approach Golem rather then marching up Golem’s mountain, and by the time Golem manages to get Ninetales down again (If he doesn’t fall for grabbing Ninetales’ tails) the mere 5 second cooldown will of already passed. However; considering Golem has such an easy time setting up on Ninetales due to her being unable to force him to grab when he doesn’t want to, he can easily make a nice long maze, then use bthrow to send Ninetales down it to get the damage he’s struggling to get otherwise. Considering this requires a grab, though, Ninetales enjoys this significantly. . .Though the fact Golem KOs Ninetales so much earlier keeps him in the running, particularly when we take into account the fact Ninetales’ primary KO move is vertical – when Golem reaches high percents, he can come down from his mountain and try to silently bthrow Ninetales off the edge. Of course, Ninetales can still just use fsmash instead of uthrow for the KO, so it’s not like this shuts Ninetales out. Indeed, this is a very close match-up with both characters having lots of checks and counters to each other’s movesets.
VS. HOUNDOOM – 45/55, HOUNDOOM’S FAVOR
Houndoom can’t really do all that much to threaten Golem as he digs around to set-up, but when he comes up to try to force Houndoom underground to explode him he’ll have a hellish time doing so, especially thanks to his new awkward low weight from utilt. The absurd power of Houndoom’s fsmash can finish Golem off pretty easily during this phase, and if Houndoom misses the pay-off for Golem isn’t that much larger then if he misses any other attack, seeing Golem –has- to get Houndoom underground due to having 30% power.
If Golem manages to get past the phase, though, which is doable, the match-up turns to his favor as he enters the camping phase of his game. Houndoom’s projectiles will just go straight into the mountain and disingrate while Golem’s projectiles will slide down to hit Houndoom. Because Golem so easily stays on just one portion of the stage during this phase, Houndoom struggles to take much advantage of his various lingering fire hitboxes/flashfire boosts. One would think Houndoom’s broken throws would level the playing field, but they only work if Houndoom has enough damage for Golem to stay in his grab for obscene periods of time, and even if Houndoom does pull them off Golem doesn’t really mind being unable to use his smashes/dash. Even if he did, Golem can just send Houndoom back down the slope and force him to re-approach while he regains the abilities. Houndoom’s relatively poor recovery/low weight don’t do him any favors here.
Despite the two separate phases favoring one characters over the other, the fact Golem has to earn his way to the phase where he dominates seals the deal for Houndoom. . .Albeit narrowly, considering when Houndoom wins his phase Golem can still potentially pull off a comeback from a stock behind considering the fact that the ball will be staying in Golem’s court for the remainder of the match.
sorry, I'm just releasing all my pent up frustration over KO pummels and knockbackless playstyles, on you, because there's not really much else to complain about. There's a crapton of other sets which treat knockback like an extra effect, or try to KO in some quarantined isolated fashion. Yours just got the short straw
Thanks. Me and my ADHD brain have to write down EVERY idea we get so we don't forget. I plan to revise my sets based off comments I get (they're just concepts, right?) before I release them.
