Skler
Smash Master
How to Play Link and Not Lose Too Much.
Attractive title, isn't it? I'd like to say first of all that Link is not good in Brawl up to this point in time, and he probably won't ever be considered good. That being said, I figured I'd make a Link guide because he's still fun to play and I don't want everyone to think Link players = free win.
This guide will not list all of Link's attacks, how much damage they do and how far they send opponents. This guide will teach you how to play Link, not everything there is to know about him. I will assume you all know the basic smash terminology, so I will not list words either. I won't be listing combos (like anything is garunteed in Brawl), I will be listing what you should try to do with your attacks depending on what is going on. I will also explain how to deal with certain situations (being outspammed, playing slow characters, approaching and defending) but I will not be specific. Good players are not created by memorizing guides, they are made by learning general knowledge and figuring out what works best for them. I'm laying down basic guidelines, I'm not telling you exactly how to react in each situation.
I. Link's projectile game part I: How to win against characters worse than Link
II. Link's projectile game part II: How to fight characters that can deal with projectiles
III. Link's projectile game part III: How to fight characters that can spam back
IV. Link's approach game: You're probably screwed
V. Link's aerial game: Finally, good news
VI. Link's defensive game: Holy ****, he's good at this!
VII. Link's shield game: Why is everything I do so slow!?
VIII. Link's "combo" game: Uhm, you can hit them twice sometimes
IX. Link's recovery: I sure hope you DIed that hit correctly
X. Link's edgeguard: I wish you could go farther away from the stage
XI. Link tricks: Shhh, don't tell anybody!
XII. Link's Character Matchups: Incomplete!
XIII: Afterword
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I. Link's projectile game part I: How to win against characters worse than Link
Link, as you should know, has three different projectiles. They aren't the best, but they still give him the upper hand against certain slow characters that lack projectiles. Spamming for an entire game might not seem like fun (and it isn't), but it will win you the game against characters such as Ganondorf and DK. They are both slow and have no projectiles, all you need to do is run away while throwing boomerangs, bombs and shooting arrows. You never even need to touch them and you will win on either time limit or having bombs KO them 3 times.
II. Link's projectile game part II: How to fight characters that can deal with projectiles
This goes for the characters like Marth, Metaknight and Diddy, they have no spam (they may have a projectile, but not a spammable one) but they can approach you in spite of all your projectiles. Randomly throwing out all of your projectiles will not work against them as they can either catch them (bombs), cancel them with attacks or shield them before continuing their approach. In these cases you will have to resort to actual fighting, but your projectiles are still useful. The beauty of Link's projectiles is that they are highly controllable, you choose where they go and how quickly they get there. Against characters that can handle spam you must limit their options, make it so they have to approach in a way that gives you the advantage. If they usually rely on an aerial approach you can throw a boomerang up or toss a bomb in the air, if they need to approach on the ground you can FJ double arrow, throw boomerangs directly in front of you or lob a bomb at them. If they have an incredible offensive game but have a poor defensive game you can use projectiles to shield your approach and force them to play a more defensive game.
III. Link's projectile game part III: How to fight characters that can spam back
This will explain the best way to fight characters with good spam games, characters like Toon Link, Falco, Wolf, and DDD (believe it or not, his spam is better than yours). These are your hardest matches because Link is bad at approaching. In these matchups you must use your projectiles to create openings in their spam game. For example, if you are against a Wolf who is spamming his blaster you would want to jump over his shots and throw a projectile at him in order to stop his spam for a moment. Once you create an opening you may either pull a bomb (if you want to fight spam with spam, which I don't suggest doing unless you are at a % where you can be KOed easily, in which case they will approach you) or get close to them.
IV. Link's approach game: You're probably screwed
Link does not have any safe approach options. You will only be able to successfully approach an opponent if you can out think them or if they play a bad character. Spacing is your friend if you have to approach. Know the range of the other character's best move and stay out of it while throwing out attacks with good range and low lag (jabs, aerial clawshot, even the fsmash when spaced properly is hard to get by). If you notice they love to shield FJ a dair (done as soon as you leave the ground) and tap them with it. Not only does it weaken their shield a ton, but it also has no lag since you bounce off the shield and the move ends right before you land. You can also approach with the shield in hopes of your opponent attacking it, allowing you to punish them, but this can backfire if they decide to grab you or use quick poking attacks. Another interesting way to deal with shielders is to SHFF a nair and land behind them, unless they have a good usmash you should have enough time to turn around and start jabbing the back of their shield.
V. Link's aerial game: Finally, good news
Link has one of the strongest aerials in the game. His dair can KO most characters at 100% on almost any stage (depending on DI). The problem is the dair is laggy and does not have a huge hitbox. The dair when C-sticked makes you fall very quickly, faster than most characters in Brawl fall, and you can use it to catch up to floaty characters that chased you into the air. Anyways, enough on the dair, it's powerful but isn't easy to land. Develop your own tricks for it.
If you find yourself hit in the air and pursued (characters like Toon Link love following people into the air) don't be afraid to throw out fairs. The fair has good range and high knockback. Landing the fair can KO your opponent, and at the very least it will knock the opponent far enough away to let you reach the ground in peace. If they're behind you in the air the bair is quick and has good range, but it doesn't have the disjointed hitbox the fair has. I usually just airdodge through their attack and hope I can reach the ground before them if I feel the bair won't connect. The nair has almost no use in air to air combat, the only time to use it if is you need a quick attack and the opponent is right next to you.
VI. Link's defensive game: Holy ****, he's good at this!
Link has a sword. This fact makes Link pretty tough to approach, and when you add his clawshot and projectiles to the sword you have a very difficult to approach character. Any short hopped approaches can be stopped with the clawshot, and ground approaches can be stopped by projectiles and spaced moves with good range. The dsmash is a beautiful defensive move now, as it is extremely fast and pushes the opponent out of range even if it is shielded. If your opponent approaches you from anywhere higher than a shorthop you can either utilt, usmash or uair them. Link's uair has amazing priority and can stop **** near any approach from above him.
VII. Link's shield game: Why is everything I do so slow!?
Link's options out of the shield are simple. Let down the shield and do an attack if they used something slow and in range, grab if they used something really slow and in range, roll if your being pressured by well spaced, low lag moves, jump out of shield if you feel an aerial is a good idea (it usually isn't since Link's jump is slow), spin attack if they did something moderately slow (or behind you) and are at a % where the spin can give you some breathing room or usmash out of shield if they did something really close and kind of slow. Link's shield options are pretty slow (although they are powerful), so you should usually be defending yourself with attacks, not with your shield.
VIII. Link's "combo" game: Uhm, you can hit them twice sometimes
Link can't combo unless his opponent has bad DI or walks into a utilt at about 30%. That being said, Link does have impressive range and the ability to put opponents into bad positions after he hits them. Let's say you're playing against Ike and you hit him with a utilt at about 50%. He goes too high to combo, but you can still follow his DI and be ready to attack where he will land. You can use projectiles to force your opponent to land where you want him to and ready an attack for when he gets there. Link can't combo, but he can sure as hell land consecutive hits.
IX. Link's recovery: I sure hope you DIed that hit correctly
Link has a bad recovery. The most you can do when hit off the stage is DI well and airdodge through any attempted edgeguards. Sometimes I toss a boomerang down and towards the stage in an attempt to drag the opponent off the edge with the gale (or at least force them to shield it) but nobody falls for that. It deters them from jumping out at me (because they can't stop themselves from being dragged off if they're in the air) but they can still go over/under it. All you can really do is airdodge and upB. Good luck.
Once on the edge you still have to get back up on the stage. As you know you can stand up, attack up, jump up, roll up or edgehop. I'll talk about the edgehop, since it's the only one that people may not be very familiar with. You can edgehop any aerial you have, even the aerial clawshot (although it takes a lot of practice and has almost no range). With the fair you can even pull off both hits if you're quick enough, and the nair allows you to edgehop it and regrab the edge without even having to upB. The option you choose should depend on where the opponent is and what he is doing. I'll let you guys figure out what works best for you in each situation, just make sure you know your options and keep yourselves unpredictable.
X. Link's edgeguard: I wish you could go farther away from the stage
Since Link has a bad recovery his edgeguarding is pretty limited. You can jump out with any aerial you want (please don't use the uair) and make it back, but you can't go too far from the edge. The bair can be used twice jumping from the edge grab itself as long as you start to DI back after the fist bair is finished, and with it's increased knockback I'd say it's one of your better options. You can always toss projectiles at them (the gale actually has a use now), but since everyone has a great recovery that will hardly stop them from getting back. Your best bet if to jump out with an aerial or two, grab the edge and then go back out for more hits. Use the dair if they're at a high %, nobody suspects the dair. Nobody.
XI. Link's tricks: Shhh, don't tell anybody!
Link, being the oh so resourceful hero he is, has some neat little tricks he can do (or "mindgamez" if you will). This is the only section I will give you specific things to do, because most people aren't creative enough to figure this stuff out on their own. For example, if your opponent is near the edge you can fsmash their shield to push them off the edge and catch them with the second hit before they can grab the edge. Useful? Yes. Situational? Very. Surprising? Moderately
Link can also SH a bair and double jump out of it. This is extremely useful when you consider that if you dash and hit back quickly before jumping you will jump backwards in the direction you were dashing. If you do all that jazz with the dashing and end up SHing a bair at your opponent's shield you can bait a shieldgrab (or any response) from them and land with any aerial on them (or use any aerial on the back of their shield if they don't try to grab/usmash you, or even just land behind them). I would have mentioned this in the approach section, but if you make a habit of using this your opponent will just smack you out of the bair.
Jab Lock- If the opponent misses a tech in front of you just use Link's jab on them. The jab will cause them to bounce, you may then walk forward and jab again (It's just like Falco's laser lock, but with jabs.). You can keep going thing until the opponent falls off the stage, or until you want to try and predict their tech (or lack thereof). The easiest way to get them into this is a close up Gale Boomerang, since it knocks the opponent close enough for jab followups and forces them to either tech or get locked.
I'd mention a ton of crap about the Gale Boomerang here, but except for as an edgeguard it has a really good chance of backfiring on you (assuming your opponent understands the gale boomerang).
XII. Link's Character Matchups: Incomplete!
This is where I'll put all of Link's matchups (in no particular order for now), I'll gradually update this section until it includes everyone.
1. Sonic
Sonic is his name and speed's his game! With that being said, throw all of your projectiles at him. Sonic has some strange approaches he can use (spindash cancelled into a jump, upB into dairs that autocancel) but nothing that you can't stop with some good old fashioned projectiles and stabs. Sonic's main approaches will be on the ground, so keep your boomerang low this match to mess with him. Sonic is also really light, the dair should KO him around 90% on most stages. Go air to air with Sonic as much as possible, most of his aerials are pretty bad (with the exception of the bair and uair, sort of) and he lacks the mobility he has on the ground there. Bombs send him in the air, he's bad in the air. Think about it.
Last but not least, don't approach Sonic, he has to come to you.
XIII. Afterword
Maybe this "guide" helped you. Maybe I'll expand on it later. Maybe I should have organized my thoughts better. Maybe I'm too lazy to care. When it's all said and done I hope you took something away from this, guides that tell you exactly what to do suck (use the nair then bair into a fair -> aerial clawshot -> dair, I swear it works!!!!111) so I tried to do something different. It's all just my thoughts on how to play Link and not lose too much.
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