Hive
Smash Lord
Hmmm... so I thought it would be a good idea to make little miniguides like this about certain aspects of samus' gameplay. I think it would be a good idea to get information around for various usages and reference ^^ (plus this will allow me to review and discuss tactics ).
If people like the idea and like what I say, I figure I could make this into a sort of mini-series for all the major parts of her gameplay. ^^ (Over time I would like to add input on: Ledge Game and Capabilities, Projectile Game/Brickwalls and Spacing, Taking Advantage of Openings and Combos, and Her Offledge Game and Recovery.)
So first off her ledge game! And if I get a camera later I'll try to post little vids and stuff for these, kk? especially when we get to combos ^^
Ledge Game and Capabilities
If you are serious about maining samus, one of the things you really need to is how to perform her various ledge abilities and knowing which situations to use each. Even though she is a low tier character, surprisingly, she has one of the best ledge games in the entire game, only surpassed by, I'd argue, metaknight. Why? options.
Though many of her moves are more situational on land one really great thing about her being on the ledge is that all of these moves (with their various ranges) come in great at punishing people on the stage.
Another thing that is really good about her having so much potential on the ledge is that it compliments her various other abilities. For example her spam game is benefitted against characters who you don't want to play close range with because you can let yourself be forced off the ledge when they are pressuring you and regain spacing and damage from their setting up a buffer again. Her combo abilities are benefitted because many of her ledge options actually can directly combo into screw attack, dtilt, or dash grab, and also sets up opportunities for onstage combos to exist. Finally her ledge abilites can be used to gimp opponents who are off the level both with damaging/knockback attacks, and stalls. She's also one of the few characters I know of that can actually ko from the ledge successfully.
The Basics
Here are some things that are pretty basic to her and most people's ledgegames. If you are just starting to get used to ledge game know these first.
Attack- Her basic ledge attack is used by pressing A on the controller while you are on the ledge. Because Samus has so many options though this isn't actually used as much as other characters.
Evade- This is her basic evade manuver from the ledge. In order to do this press L or R (shield buttons). She will roll across across the ledge and will be invincible until she leaves the roll animation. This is good occassionally for getting around certain obstacles that might be in your way, and would prevent you from regularly coming up onto the stage. I actually don't use this too often, but occassionally...
(I'm also not sure if its still the same in brawl but I think that while you are rolling the ledge counts as occupied?)
Fulljump- Fulljumping from the ledge is when you have pressed X (or a similar jump button) on the ledge. She will jump fairly high, about what you'd expect from a fulljump. There are quite a few options you can do from this. For aerials you'll usually want to fastfall it though, and for spams you usually don't, if you are doubling them. It is also good occassionally as an escape tactic, against flamethrowers or to retreat to the smashville platform for example.
edit: you can also cancel a fulljump by using your morph bomb.
Ledgehop- Is by far the most important thing that you will learn to do from the ledge. In order to do this, while you are on the ledge, press down (dropping off) and then immediately jump and then forward. The result is that Samus will do a very low jump onto the stage that sets up most of her aerials, combos and options. Sometimes instead of pressing forward you will just drop and then press jump, this sets up a lot of her spams from the ledge.
Walljump- On most levels you can take advantage of the little walls under the ledge to chain into different moves. Not super important, but still occassionally useful. In order to do this drop, and then jump into the wall (or ledge) you want to walljump on. As you hit the wall press the opposite direction (away from the wall) and she will walljump. This is kwl for some tactics like walljump bair, shooting super missiles on final destination, and double missiles on battlefield.
Attacking From Beneath- Occassionally some stages will have ledges that sort of indent (like battlefield) and others will have ledges that don't have anything under them (like delfino). When this happens samus can use aerials through the stage form underneath it. To do this drop and then jump up below the ledge and initiate the move you want to do. (usually uair, and zair have the best results here. homing missile is good for stages like delfino where it can go through though.)
Ledgehop Air dodge- Idk i thought i'd put this in basics since it doesn't really fit anywhere else. occassionally ledgehopping into an airdodge and to shield or spotdodge on the stage is a good defensive play. It covers only a short distance and is fairly safe coming up.
Stalling
Stalling from the ledge is also very important to understand. When you are trying to gimp, force your opponent to act, avoid moves that will hit you on the ledge (like gw's dash attack stage spike) you NEED to know how to stall on the ledge and gain invincibility frames. There are two main ways to do this imo.
Screw Attack Stalling- is where you drop from the edge and immediately screw attack back up onto it. its easy, and if you do it right, you should be fairly invincible. This is good in situations where you are kinda forced to stall (like charizards flamethrower edgeguard on fd), but because it is laggier than the other form of stalling I will talk about it is not as good to do in situations where you only have to stall for a quick amount of time.
edit: she can also perform a screw attack cancel on the ledge by hitting the ledge and holding down (?) at a certain angle. It basically makes her hit the ledge and drop off without grabbing it, and regaining her screw attack.
You might think, why would this attack be useful then? exactly. it isn't. ^^
Tether Stalling- Is the other main form of stalling. To do this just drop and then immediately press z to tether back onto the ledge and then A to come up onto the ledge. It is very quick, can fool the opponent onstage into acting, buying you an approach. This is excellent for gimping an opponent from off ledge, you simply drop, tether, A to be on the ledge again before he tries to hit the ledge which will restart your invincibility frames. Also, if you wait to come back in contact with the ledge, it can also be used to bring you away from direct contact (with the ledge) which is great for dodging gws stage spike. The Drawback? The zair will only home into the ledge three times before you are forced to use a different method of stalling, so using them wisely is important (but not too difficult).
If you are in a situation where you need those three tethers again and there is some space on the ledge you may also ledgehop onto the stage and bomb and DI back onto the stage to regain them. (Its hard to describe, but basically it works pretty fast, while you are in the bomb animation you can di on and off the stage again). Its similar to the bomb edgeguard she has.
Aerials From the Ledge
Alright now for the good stuff! ^^ Attacking from the ledge is obviously important and aerials from the ledge are one of your best bets, they gain good damage, and can combo into other moves.
Ledgehop Fair- Is probably one of my most spammed things from the ledge ever next to ledgehopped zair. Is it important. **** yes, it is! ^^
In order to do this ledgehop and fair onto the ledge, pretty simpe! ^^
This image shows the approximate range of what you'd expect the ledgehop fair to have. The blue in the picture (and in the following pictures) shows where I believe this move has priority. what I mean by priority are spaces where it is a good idea to use this tactic. For example, ledgehop zair has a monstrous range, but using it when the opponent is semi near the ledge is actually pretty stupid, because there are other better moves to use there and it is also very punishable at that range.
Why is ledgehop Fair good? For one its hitbox lingers and can eat through shields. Many times the opponent will misjudge this actually and end up getting hit by the last shots of it.
Another reason is that you can ledgehop it onto the stage and then di back, sort of brushing the stage with the flames (edit: this is also very good against enemies who have caught on to your ledgehop fair and will punish it with upb or shield grab, doing this will give you safer hitboxes and will eat their shields if done right). It has less range then the full ledgehop but it is very good for getting semi-safe damage.
If you hit it just right it will push the enemy away giving you space... but and even better is when you use the fair to do little knockback. When this happens you can combo this immediately into dtilt or (my favorite) screw attack. Screw attack is very good because it sucks them into it and does great amounts of damage, and is set up by the opponent being close to you and often a bit above you. Dtilit is good too, but imo, it is harder to get this to work, because you have to have the fair hit in the right way and it depends on the person's percentage. Fair to screwattack though is a very very good thing to know though and can rack damage quickly, so get used to watching and predicting where the opponents is hit after the fair connects so you can get this to work.
one bad thing that happens occassionally if you use fair too much is that the opponent will learn how to shield it as you come up and then shield grab you. If this happens its time to change tactics, stall to open up an approach, or spam from the ledge.
One last thing I'd like to add to this is that on Yoshi's island because of the weird slant of the stage near the ledge, fair's range will be greatly reduced. However, because of this it will also chain into screw attack a lot better.
Ledgehop Uair
ledgehop uair is good for enemies who are very close to the ledge. It has a good hitbox, and and damage and come out pretty quick.
The main reason I like this though is that if the enemy is very close to the ledge it will almost always chain into screw attack if you hit it right, and so I actually will use this more than fair at that range. It also shield stabs a bit.
edit: Also I forgot to add before, but if an opponent is stupid enough to jump when he is near the edge you can ledgehop screwattack for a safer hit, or fulljump uair. the fulljump uair is especially good because if you catch the person into it it can lead into a uair->homing missile combo that also occassionally leads into jab->dtilt as well. Another combo that a fulljump uair can produce in this case is uair to fast fall fair to screw attack. Obviously both of these combos are really juicy, so get your hopes up when your opponent does this! ^^
edit@2: Ok, before i forget! on battlefield and other levels with platforms with platforms near the ledges, if you uair the person and they sort of get hit on top of the platform there is something fairly kwl you can do. After you uair onto the stage you can immediately shorthop and chargeshot onto the platform. If it hits- yay! if it is shielded, the knockback from it will push them off the platform and they will sort of be in a fall animation for an easy dash attack to up b damage! :D
edit3: Sometimes the trajectory for the uair and fair pushes the opponent sort of up and away from you on levels without the platforms i said above. When this happens you can follow it up for a shorthop zair (the ones that come out immediately after the jump)
Ledgehop Dair
Is actually very similar to uair imo, it can be done at close ranges to the ledge and can be combo'd into a screw attack or sometimes even jab to dtilt depending on the percentage. I will usually use uair in this situation, but dair is not uncommon at all, and is actually used more depending on who you talk to.
Ledgehop Bair (walljumped)-
I suppose this is also good to bring up, but is dependent on the stage actually. In order to do this you drop walljump off stage and then bair as you are near the ledge. It has a small range on the ledge, but because bair has very good knockback and ko potential it is good on occassion to use.
Zairing from the ledge!
Ledgehop Zair- Is probably one of the most important and one of the hardest things you will learn to do from the ledge (at first). But over time you should be able to do this consistently and on demand. In order to do this you ledgehop from the ledge and then zair (or airdodge zair in my case) as you are above and a bit beyond the ledge. When done right the zair will not home onto the ledge but will hit targets on stage (and be fully extended).
As you can see from this image ledgehop zair has a frightening range, and as such is used when your opponent is at medium to large distances from the ledge. They almost never predict how much range this has lol ^^. One good thing to keep in mind is that ledgehop zair, like all zairs does 7% damage on the tip and 4% in the body and doesn't degenerate.
If you fulljump the zair you can get two in as well as you would normally.
Zairing Through the Stage- This is also a very useful technic, and one I use a lot.
Like the ledgehop zair it also has pretty huge range, but where does it have advantages?
For one because you are using it through the stage (by jumping up forward and under the ledge so that it doesn't home in) it gives you a pretty safe hitbox. I have never ever been punished using this from moves on the ledge, except for snakes nades. Snake's nades are pretty annoying because if you zair through the stage in many places your the zair will cause the nade to explode and your arm which is outstretched from the tactic will be hit by the explosion's hitbox. But overall this is a very good move to pull off for several other reasons, against flamethrower edgeguards you can still hit them without having to approach from on top of the stage, and against DDD you can usually hit him when he tries to edgeguard you without risking a grab. It also produces a really nice "wtf" moment for the other person lol ^^
Another great reason to use this is delfino. While you are on the moving platform if you do this right, the zair can basically cover about 4/5 of the stage. scary!
On Pokemon Stadium 1 too, if you zair under the ledge it produces a weird hitbox on the stage. The reason for this is that only the tip of is able to go through and so it produces a sort of "bubble" hitbox at about mid range.
A good place to practice this imo is battlefield or smashville. It is a little hard at first, but definitely something you should get used to.
Uair (and Fair) From Underneath the Ledge-
Are great to use if the opponent is near the ledge because they provide a relatively unpunishable attack. In some places though, like, Pokemon stadium 1, if you jump under the ledge and fair the opponent sometime they will have dtilits and other moves that can still hit you from there, and worse case scenario spike you. However, on most neutral stage it is pretty safe.
(it has about the same range as the ledgehop fair picture btw)
Spams!
(also for this pic, I misspoke for the zair what that is is the range of the fulljumped double zair (the second one))
Spams from the edge provide a great way for samus to attack from long distance, and to create openings.
Fully Charged Charge Shot- is just about the kwlest thing you can ever have if you are on the ledge. Just ledgehop, blast and then hit the ledge again. It comes out very fast, and the opponent almost never suspects it at mid ranges. It has KO potential, and stuns them. Two things to watch out for are doing it from too far a distance gives them time to react, and things like snakes mines and nades actually cause the chargeshot to stop and hit the nade instead. T.T When this happens it makes me very sad. Especially when it gets like 2cm away from snake. Also, sometimes enemies will reflect it back at you as well.
Super Missiles- Provide great knockback and can actually clear the way for you sometimes. In the case of snake's mine, if you ledgehop a little backwards and super missile the missile will actually take out the mine which is pretty kwl.
On Final Destination if you walljump of the bottom you can also pull off a super missile on the stage as you are coming up. Looks kwl, but its risky if the enemy has even the slightest chance of predicting it.
It also provides a decent amount of shield pressure as well if the enemy is low.
Super missile is probably my favorite missile spam from the ledge, not much to say though ^^
Homing Missile- Is pretty good, comes out quicker than super missile, but provides less knockback and damage. Its done the same way, just ledgehop a little back away from the ledge and fire and then hit the ledge again.
If you fulljump it you can pull off two before you hit the ground.
And on Battlefield if you walljump off the side you can pull off two on the stage before you hit the ledge again ^^
On Delfino they are also good to use to actually fire from underneath the stage (they will go up and through). Which is good for long range opponents and those on platforms.
When the opponent is off the ledge you can also fire the homing missile behind you from the ledge to screw up their recovery. ^^
Uncharged Charge Shot- Lastly the uncharged charge shot can be used from the ledge as well, its not as good as the missiles but excels in one area imo- It can be fired at a faster rate from the ledge (and comes out faster). So its good as a surprise attack, especially if you are trying to mix up your spams from the ledge.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
<phew>! well, I think That's most of it, hope you enjoyed. I'll also try to add some stuff and edit this later, like percentages, and some of the vids from the ultimate samus database, kk? Sorry if I misspelled/said anything wrong, I did this kinda quick, and I will review it later. ^^
If people like the idea and like what I say, I figure I could make this into a sort of mini-series for all the major parts of her gameplay. ^^ (Over time I would like to add input on: Ledge Game and Capabilities, Projectile Game/Brickwalls and Spacing, Taking Advantage of Openings and Combos, and Her Offledge Game and Recovery.)
So first off her ledge game! And if I get a camera later I'll try to post little vids and stuff for these, kk? especially when we get to combos ^^
Ledge Game and Capabilities
If you are serious about maining samus, one of the things you really need to is how to perform her various ledge abilities and knowing which situations to use each. Even though she is a low tier character, surprisingly, she has one of the best ledge games in the entire game, only surpassed by, I'd argue, metaknight. Why? options.
Though many of her moves are more situational on land one really great thing about her being on the ledge is that all of these moves (with their various ranges) come in great at punishing people on the stage.
Another thing that is really good about her having so much potential on the ledge is that it compliments her various other abilities. For example her spam game is benefitted against characters who you don't want to play close range with because you can let yourself be forced off the ledge when they are pressuring you and regain spacing and damage from their setting up a buffer again. Her combo abilities are benefitted because many of her ledge options actually can directly combo into screw attack, dtilt, or dash grab, and also sets up opportunities for onstage combos to exist. Finally her ledge abilites can be used to gimp opponents who are off the level both with damaging/knockback attacks, and stalls. She's also one of the few characters I know of that can actually ko from the ledge successfully.
The Basics
Here are some things that are pretty basic to her and most people's ledgegames. If you are just starting to get used to ledge game know these first.
Attack- Her basic ledge attack is used by pressing A on the controller while you are on the ledge. Because Samus has so many options though this isn't actually used as much as other characters.
Evade- This is her basic evade manuver from the ledge. In order to do this press L or R (shield buttons). She will roll across across the ledge and will be invincible until she leaves the roll animation. This is good occassionally for getting around certain obstacles that might be in your way, and would prevent you from regularly coming up onto the stage. I actually don't use this too often, but occassionally...
(I'm also not sure if its still the same in brawl but I think that while you are rolling the ledge counts as occupied?)
Fulljump- Fulljumping from the ledge is when you have pressed X (or a similar jump button) on the ledge. She will jump fairly high, about what you'd expect from a fulljump. There are quite a few options you can do from this. For aerials you'll usually want to fastfall it though, and for spams you usually don't, if you are doubling them. It is also good occassionally as an escape tactic, against flamethrowers or to retreat to the smashville platform for example.
edit: you can also cancel a fulljump by using your morph bomb.
Ledgehop- Is by far the most important thing that you will learn to do from the ledge. In order to do this, while you are on the ledge, press down (dropping off) and then immediately jump and then forward. The result is that Samus will do a very low jump onto the stage that sets up most of her aerials, combos and options. Sometimes instead of pressing forward you will just drop and then press jump, this sets up a lot of her spams from the ledge.
Walljump- On most levels you can take advantage of the little walls under the ledge to chain into different moves. Not super important, but still occassionally useful. In order to do this drop, and then jump into the wall (or ledge) you want to walljump on. As you hit the wall press the opposite direction (away from the wall) and she will walljump. This is kwl for some tactics like walljump bair, shooting super missiles on final destination, and double missiles on battlefield.
Attacking From Beneath- Occassionally some stages will have ledges that sort of indent (like battlefield) and others will have ledges that don't have anything under them (like delfino). When this happens samus can use aerials through the stage form underneath it. To do this drop and then jump up below the ledge and initiate the move you want to do. (usually uair, and zair have the best results here. homing missile is good for stages like delfino where it can go through though.)
Ledgehop Air dodge- Idk i thought i'd put this in basics since it doesn't really fit anywhere else. occassionally ledgehopping into an airdodge and to shield or spotdodge on the stage is a good defensive play. It covers only a short distance and is fairly safe coming up.
Stalling
Stalling from the ledge is also very important to understand. When you are trying to gimp, force your opponent to act, avoid moves that will hit you on the ledge (like gw's dash attack stage spike) you NEED to know how to stall on the ledge and gain invincibility frames. There are two main ways to do this imo.
Screw Attack Stalling- is where you drop from the edge and immediately screw attack back up onto it. its easy, and if you do it right, you should be fairly invincible. This is good in situations where you are kinda forced to stall (like charizards flamethrower edgeguard on fd), but because it is laggier than the other form of stalling I will talk about it is not as good to do in situations where you only have to stall for a quick amount of time.
edit: she can also perform a screw attack cancel on the ledge by hitting the ledge and holding down (?) at a certain angle. It basically makes her hit the ledge and drop off without grabbing it, and regaining her screw attack.
You might think, why would this attack be useful then? exactly. it isn't. ^^
Tether Stalling- Is the other main form of stalling. To do this just drop and then immediately press z to tether back onto the ledge and then A to come up onto the ledge. It is very quick, can fool the opponent onstage into acting, buying you an approach. This is excellent for gimping an opponent from off ledge, you simply drop, tether, A to be on the ledge again before he tries to hit the ledge which will restart your invincibility frames. Also, if you wait to come back in contact with the ledge, it can also be used to bring you away from direct contact (with the ledge) which is great for dodging gws stage spike. The Drawback? The zair will only home into the ledge three times before you are forced to use a different method of stalling, so using them wisely is important (but not too difficult).
If you are in a situation where you need those three tethers again and there is some space on the ledge you may also ledgehop onto the stage and bomb and DI back onto the stage to regain them. (Its hard to describe, but basically it works pretty fast, while you are in the bomb animation you can di on and off the stage again). Its similar to the bomb edgeguard she has.
Aerials From the Ledge
Alright now for the good stuff! ^^ Attacking from the ledge is obviously important and aerials from the ledge are one of your best bets, they gain good damage, and can combo into other moves.
Ledgehop Fair- Is probably one of my most spammed things from the ledge ever next to ledgehopped zair. Is it important. **** yes, it is! ^^
In order to do this ledgehop and fair onto the ledge, pretty simpe! ^^
This image shows the approximate range of what you'd expect the ledgehop fair to have. The blue in the picture (and in the following pictures) shows where I believe this move has priority. what I mean by priority are spaces where it is a good idea to use this tactic. For example, ledgehop zair has a monstrous range, but using it when the opponent is semi near the ledge is actually pretty stupid, because there are other better moves to use there and it is also very punishable at that range.
Why is ledgehop Fair good? For one its hitbox lingers and can eat through shields. Many times the opponent will misjudge this actually and end up getting hit by the last shots of it.
Another reason is that you can ledgehop it onto the stage and then di back, sort of brushing the stage with the flames (edit: this is also very good against enemies who have caught on to your ledgehop fair and will punish it with upb or shield grab, doing this will give you safer hitboxes and will eat their shields if done right). It has less range then the full ledgehop but it is very good for getting semi-safe damage.
If you hit it just right it will push the enemy away giving you space... but and even better is when you use the fair to do little knockback. When this happens you can combo this immediately into dtilt or (my favorite) screw attack. Screw attack is very good because it sucks them into it and does great amounts of damage, and is set up by the opponent being close to you and often a bit above you. Dtilit is good too, but imo, it is harder to get this to work, because you have to have the fair hit in the right way and it depends on the person's percentage. Fair to screwattack though is a very very good thing to know though and can rack damage quickly, so get used to watching and predicting where the opponents is hit after the fair connects so you can get this to work.
one bad thing that happens occassionally if you use fair too much is that the opponent will learn how to shield it as you come up and then shield grab you. If this happens its time to change tactics, stall to open up an approach, or spam from the ledge.
One last thing I'd like to add to this is that on Yoshi's island because of the weird slant of the stage near the ledge, fair's range will be greatly reduced. However, because of this it will also chain into screw attack a lot better.
Ledgehop Uair
ledgehop uair is good for enemies who are very close to the ledge. It has a good hitbox, and and damage and come out pretty quick.
The main reason I like this though is that if the enemy is very close to the ledge it will almost always chain into screw attack if you hit it right, and so I actually will use this more than fair at that range. It also shield stabs a bit.
edit: Also I forgot to add before, but if an opponent is stupid enough to jump when he is near the edge you can ledgehop screwattack for a safer hit, or fulljump uair. the fulljump uair is especially good because if you catch the person into it it can lead into a uair->homing missile combo that also occassionally leads into jab->dtilt as well. Another combo that a fulljump uair can produce in this case is uair to fast fall fair to screw attack. Obviously both of these combos are really juicy, so get your hopes up when your opponent does this! ^^
edit@2: Ok, before i forget! on battlefield and other levels with platforms with platforms near the ledges, if you uair the person and they sort of get hit on top of the platform there is something fairly kwl you can do. After you uair onto the stage you can immediately shorthop and chargeshot onto the platform. If it hits- yay! if it is shielded, the knockback from it will push them off the platform and they will sort of be in a fall animation for an easy dash attack to up b damage! :D
edit3: Sometimes the trajectory for the uair and fair pushes the opponent sort of up and away from you on levels without the platforms i said above. When this happens you can follow it up for a shorthop zair (the ones that come out immediately after the jump)
Ledgehop Dair
Is actually very similar to uair imo, it can be done at close ranges to the ledge and can be combo'd into a screw attack or sometimes even jab to dtilt depending on the percentage. I will usually use uair in this situation, but dair is not uncommon at all, and is actually used more depending on who you talk to.
Ledgehop Bair (walljumped)-
I suppose this is also good to bring up, but is dependent on the stage actually. In order to do this you drop walljump off stage and then bair as you are near the ledge. It has a small range on the ledge, but because bair has very good knockback and ko potential it is good on occassion to use.
Zairing from the ledge!
Ledgehop Zair- Is probably one of the most important and one of the hardest things you will learn to do from the ledge (at first). But over time you should be able to do this consistently and on demand. In order to do this you ledgehop from the ledge and then zair (or airdodge zair in my case) as you are above and a bit beyond the ledge. When done right the zair will not home onto the ledge but will hit targets on stage (and be fully extended).
As you can see from this image ledgehop zair has a frightening range, and as such is used when your opponent is at medium to large distances from the ledge. They almost never predict how much range this has lol ^^. One good thing to keep in mind is that ledgehop zair, like all zairs does 7% damage on the tip and 4% in the body and doesn't degenerate.
If you fulljump the zair you can get two in as well as you would normally.
Zairing Through the Stage- This is also a very useful technic, and one I use a lot.
Like the ledgehop zair it also has pretty huge range, but where does it have advantages?
For one because you are using it through the stage (by jumping up forward and under the ledge so that it doesn't home in) it gives you a pretty safe hitbox. I have never ever been punished using this from moves on the ledge, except for snakes nades. Snake's nades are pretty annoying because if you zair through the stage in many places your the zair will cause the nade to explode and your arm which is outstretched from the tactic will be hit by the explosion's hitbox. But overall this is a very good move to pull off for several other reasons, against flamethrower edgeguards you can still hit them without having to approach from on top of the stage, and against DDD you can usually hit him when he tries to edgeguard you without risking a grab. It also produces a really nice "wtf" moment for the other person lol ^^
Another great reason to use this is delfino. While you are on the moving platform if you do this right, the zair can basically cover about 4/5 of the stage. scary!
On Pokemon Stadium 1 too, if you zair under the ledge it produces a weird hitbox on the stage. The reason for this is that only the tip of is able to go through and so it produces a sort of "bubble" hitbox at about mid range.
A good place to practice this imo is battlefield or smashville. It is a little hard at first, but definitely something you should get used to.
Uair (and Fair) From Underneath the Ledge-
Are great to use if the opponent is near the ledge because they provide a relatively unpunishable attack. In some places though, like, Pokemon stadium 1, if you jump under the ledge and fair the opponent sometime they will have dtilits and other moves that can still hit you from there, and worse case scenario spike you. However, on most neutral stage it is pretty safe.
(it has about the same range as the ledgehop fair picture btw)
Spams!
(also for this pic, I misspoke for the zair what that is is the range of the fulljumped double zair (the second one))
Spams from the edge provide a great way for samus to attack from long distance, and to create openings.
Fully Charged Charge Shot- is just about the kwlest thing you can ever have if you are on the ledge. Just ledgehop, blast and then hit the ledge again. It comes out very fast, and the opponent almost never suspects it at mid ranges. It has KO potential, and stuns them. Two things to watch out for are doing it from too far a distance gives them time to react, and things like snakes mines and nades actually cause the chargeshot to stop and hit the nade instead. T.T When this happens it makes me very sad. Especially when it gets like 2cm away from snake. Also, sometimes enemies will reflect it back at you as well.
Super Missiles- Provide great knockback and can actually clear the way for you sometimes. In the case of snake's mine, if you ledgehop a little backwards and super missile the missile will actually take out the mine which is pretty kwl.
On Final Destination if you walljump of the bottom you can also pull off a super missile on the stage as you are coming up. Looks kwl, but its risky if the enemy has even the slightest chance of predicting it.
It also provides a decent amount of shield pressure as well if the enemy is low.
Super missile is probably my favorite missile spam from the ledge, not much to say though ^^
Homing Missile- Is pretty good, comes out quicker than super missile, but provides less knockback and damage. Its done the same way, just ledgehop a little back away from the ledge and fire and then hit the ledge again.
If you fulljump it you can pull off two before you hit the ground.
And on Battlefield if you walljump off the side you can pull off two on the stage before you hit the ledge again ^^
On Delfino they are also good to use to actually fire from underneath the stage (they will go up and through). Which is good for long range opponents and those on platforms.
When the opponent is off the ledge you can also fire the homing missile behind you from the ledge to screw up their recovery. ^^
Uncharged Charge Shot- Lastly the uncharged charge shot can be used from the ledge as well, its not as good as the missiles but excels in one area imo- It can be fired at a faster rate from the ledge (and comes out faster). So its good as a surprise attack, especially if you are trying to mix up your spams from the ledge.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
<phew>! well, I think That's most of it, hope you enjoyed. I'll also try to add some stuff and edit this later, like percentages, and some of the vids from the ultimate samus database, kk? Sorry if I misspelled/said anything wrong, I did this kinda quick, and I will review it later. ^^
