AvaricePanda
Smash Lord
**NEW** Single Naner Lock Guide!
~by Avarice
~by Avarice
Table of Contents
[1.0] Introduction/What is it?
[1.1] How to Perform
[1.2] Help/FAQ
[1.3] Information
[1.4] Videos!
[1.5] Character Specific Discussion
[1.6] Genesis Challenge
[1.0] Introduction/What is it?
The Single Naner Lock was a Diddy banana tech found back in late November by ADHD. The lock, while a very useful technique, was never often used due to the frame-tight timing needed, which could vary slightly per character, and the difficulty of setting up the lock.
The tech has been in the minds of Diddys for the past half year, yet neglected in serious play. The main purpose of this guide is to seriously reconsider the mentality behind this tech; learning it is a very worthwhile investment, and setting it up is not as hard as one might have thought.
The tech has been in the minds of Diddys for the past half year, yet neglected in serious play. The main purpose of this guide is to seriously reconsider the mentality behind this tech; learning it is a very worthwhile investment, and setting it up is not as hard as one might have thought.
~the tech itself~
The Single Naner Lock is a lock performed by (in the most basic terms) jumping over your opponent, down-throwing a banana, catching the banana with an auto-cancelled dair, and repeating the process. This is inescapable and works on every character in the game except for Luigi. The lock lasts until you get to the end of the stage, and can potentially lead to a free spike. On a lot of characters, this lock dishes out 20-30% damage (depending on where you start the lock) and puts the opponent in a bad position.
However, against some characters like Lucario and Falco, this can be an infinite lock because it’s possible to down-throw a banana at the opposite end of the character’s hurtbox, making him trip the other way, and you can follow up to the other direction and repeat.
Many have opted out of learning this because they’d rather perform a safer glide toss to dash attack, rather than a 30% lock to potential spike. However, an infinite can’t be overlooked. You can punish landing lag or an attack hitting your shield with death against these characters. Don’t be lazy.
However, against some characters like Lucario and Falco, this can be an infinite lock because it’s possible to down-throw a banana at the opposite end of the character’s hurtbox, making him trip the other way, and you can follow up to the other direction and repeat.
Many have opted out of learning this because they’d rather perform a safer glide toss to dash attack, rather than a 30% lock to potential spike. However, an infinite can’t be overlooked. You can punish landing lag or an attack hitting your shield with death against these characters. Don’t be lazy.
[1.1] How to Perform
~The Original Post:
(well, cropped)
Step-By-Step:
-Short-hop towards the opponent with a banana in hand
-Downthrow your banana very soon after
-Fast Fall and do an Autocancelled Dair, recatching the banana
-Short-hop again IMMEDIATELY afterwards, still towards your opponent.
You should continue to keep going left or right while doing this, keeping a steady momentum.
Controller Steps:
-Left or Right with Analog stick
-SH with X or Y
-Tap C-stick down twice
-As you’re tapping C-stick down the second time, rotate analog stick from left or right to down to Fast Fall
-IMMEDIATELY short hop again with X or Y, holding left or right as you do it.
~notes~
-Holding your analog stick down may not be necessary to fast fall since c-stick down fast falls anyway, but it feels smoother for me to use the analog stick to fast-fall, even if it’s not doing anything and I’m just moving the stick.
-The timing is almost universal. It will very slightly between characters. To make it simpler, categorize characters in Small, Medium, and Tall. In those groups, the timing is more similar and you’ll be less likely to mess up going between them.
-Each group has its benefits when starting out. At first, it seems like it’d be easiest to SNL larger characters like D3 and Bowser. Larger characters have larger hurtboxes and you’ll be less likely to mess up which direction you lock, but timing is often more frame-tight for larger characters. Smaller characters, like MK and Pikachu, have smaller hurtboxes, so you could accidentally trip them to the right or left when you don’t mean to; however, the timing seems a little more loose to actually lock these characters.
-Because of this, don’t only practice on one group of character. I found small characters to be easiest to do this on (MK), but don’t be afraid to practice other groups once you’ve gotten the basics down with one. Eventually, practice each group. You may get the timing to lock MK down, but you face a Snake in tournament, get a great chance to use the lock, but mess up.
-Even if you mess up, it still sometimes pays off. Two common ways that people mess up the lock are by not auto-cancelling the d-throw, meaning you get a free dair, or by spamming c-stick down and throwing the banana on the ground when you catch it, giving you a free Dsmash.
-If you want to be sure you’re doing it correctly, go to Training mode and set the computer to walk. If you don’t mess up, the computer won’t be able to roll out.
-If you mess up and hit the opponent’s shield, you can still double down-throw on their shield and chip it. Then you can opt to Fsmash to chip off their shield, or simply grab.
-This takes practice to get consistently, so don’t fret.
-Each character has a different roll animation. Some roll animations, like GnW’s, are easy to lock because it takes him a bit longer to get up from a trip. Some roll animations, like Lucario’s, don’t go far from a trip, so you can get more banana throws in an pass across a stage (although you can infinite him anyway).
-Luigi can’t be naner locked because he slides from a trip.
-Why-am-I-messing-up questions can be found in the Help/FAQ part of the guide.
Recommended Characters to Start Practice
General Lock: GnW (long trip animation, short), ROB (long trip animation, medium), DK (long trip animation, tall)
Infinite: Lucario (doesn’t go far from a trip, medium)
General Lock: GnW (long trip animation, short), ROB (long trip animation, medium), DK (long trip animation, tall)
Infinite: Lucario (doesn’t go far from a trip, medium)
~Ending the Lock~
As aforementioned, the banana lock can lead to a spike at the edge of the stage. Depending on where they trip last on the stage, they go far enough offstage to lead to a dair (and because the dair is part of the lock anyway, the spike isn’t difficult to do). With characters with short trip animations (Wario, Jigglypuff, Lucario, Sonic) the spike is guaranteed.. Spiking characters with longer trip animations is difficult because the last trip has to be right on the ledge, and there’s no way of spacing where you start the lock beforehand to lead up to a spike.
If this is the case, you can end the lock with a number ways. One of the easiest is doing a fast-fall in fair place of an auto-cancelled dair. If you’re looking for a kill, do the first couple of steps but don’t catch the banana when it bounces back up; instead, fast fall, land, and do a Dsmash for the kill.
~Infinite Single Naner Lock~
Some characters can be infinited by this. It’s possible to dthrow the banana on the opposite end of the opponent as you’re doing the lock, and the opponent will trip in the other direction, giving you room to start the lock again in the opposite direction. A list of who can be infinited vs. who can’t can be found in the Information section of this guide.
This is really difficult. Don’t fret if you can’t do this after some minutes of practice. Learning it is worthwhile. For me, the easiest character to infinite is Lucario. I’ve gotten him to 108% in training mode with the banana hits alone, which I’m guessing would be 60-70% in an actual game due to stale moves. 60% plus a follow-up is huge for punishing a laggy hit near you or on your shield.
As aforementioned, the banana lock can lead to a spike at the edge of the stage. Depending on where they trip last on the stage, they go far enough offstage to lead to a dair (and because the dair is part of the lock anyway, the spike isn’t difficult to do). With characters with short trip animations (Wario, Jigglypuff, Lucario, Sonic) the spike is guaranteed.. Spiking characters with longer trip animations is difficult because the last trip has to be right on the ledge, and there’s no way of spacing where you start the lock beforehand to lead up to a spike.
If this is the case, you can end the lock with a number ways. One of the easiest is doing a fast-fall in fair place of an auto-cancelled dair. If you’re looking for a kill, do the first couple of steps but don’t catch the banana when it bounces back up; instead, fast fall, land, and do a Dsmash for the kill.
~Infinite Single Naner Lock~
Some characters can be infinited by this. It’s possible to dthrow the banana on the opposite end of the opponent as you’re doing the lock, and the opponent will trip in the other direction, giving you room to start the lock again in the opposite direction. A list of who can be infinited vs. who can’t can be found in the Information section of this guide.
This is really difficult. Don’t fret if you can’t do this after some minutes of practice. Learning it is worthwhile. For me, the easiest character to infinite is Lucario. I’ve gotten him to 108% in training mode with the banana hits alone, which I’m guessing would be 60-70% in an actual game due to stale moves. 60% plus a follow-up is huge for punishing a laggy hit near you or on your shield.
[1.2] Help/FAQ
This section is going to cover specific mess-ups and other questions while doing the naner lock.
Q: Can you do this with other aerials, such as bair/uair instead of auto-cancelled dair?
A: NO. The opponent would have a chance to roll out with any other aerial. The auto-cancelled dair is necessary because you have to jump right as you land. There’s slight landing lag with any other aerial.
Q: When I try to do it, I keep not being able to auto-cancel my dair and lags when I hit the ground.
A: Either you aren’t fast-falling right as you dair (again, I’ll have to test the analog stick’s influence on this) or you’re throwing the banana too early when you short-hop, so when you dair to catch it, you aren’t at the apex of your jump and you can’t fast-fall. Remember that timing differs between types of characters.
Q: When I try to do it, I’m not able to catch my banana after I dthrow.
A: You’re either not pressing c-stick down fast enough, or more likely, you’re just dthrowing the banana too late.
Q: When I try to do it, after the first or second throw, they just roll out.
A: The time at which you throw the banana could have an effect, but I think the main cause is that you aren’t jumping early enough. You have to short-hop IMMEDIATELY after you land with the auto-cancelled dair; there’s no lag, so you can even buffer a jump for best results. Waiting a split-second or running on ground then jumping won’t work; you have to jump immediately.
Q: I can’t seem to ever get the spike.
A: There isn’t a way to consistently get it, as you have to make them trip right on the ledge, most of the time. It’s often not worth trying for the spike unless they’re large character’s, as if you whiff the spike, you’re fast-falling right under the ledge, and a character like MK or Jiggs can just gimp you.
Q: I can’t do it to the right.
A: LOL. No one can, it seems. A lot of Diddys feel more natural doing this to the left than to the right. There really isn’t a difference between directions other than the direction you’re going, but naner locking in the direction you’re not used to going feels awkward. Make sure you practice both ways.
Q: What if I whiff this and it hits their shield, they roll away, or I just miss?
A: You still have a lot of options even if you miss. For example, if you hit their shield, then you can go around their shield and bair, pushing them into the banana and making them trip while still chipping off their shield. There are many other things that you can do, you can find a lot of it in the Variants and Other Stuff section.
Q: This is too hard! Why even learn it?
A: Infinite. You can punish lag with a guaranteed kill. …yeah.
Q: But what about the characters you can’t infinite?
A: It’s still worth it for most characters in the cast, because you can put them in a bad position afterwards. When naner locking DK, you can finish with fair at the ledge to put him in a bad position, and edge guard him (Diddy ***** DK at edge guarding him). When naner locking ROB, you finish with a nair at the ledge and put him above you, and you also get a free banana throw up to hit him. ROB sucks when he’s above you. Plus, you’re getting 30% damage at least (including finisher Fsmash or fair or whatnot) every time you do it. It may take a couple weeks to do consistently, but it’s worth it in the end.
Q: How should I go about practicing this?
A: 10-15 minutes a day in Training mode helps. It’s a small chunk of time, and if you do it daily, you’ll see yourself improving until you get it consistently.
[1.3] Information
Characters that can not be Single Naner Locked:
Luigi
Ice Climbers (together no, individually yes)
Characters that can be Single Naner Locked:
Bowser
Captain Falcon
Diddy Kong
Donkey Kong
Falco
Fox
Game & Watch
Ganondorf
Ice Climbers (individually, not together)
Ike
Jigglypuff
King Dedede
Kirby
Link
Lucario
Lucas
Mario
Marth
Meta Knight
Ness
Olimar
Peach
Pikachu
Pit
Pokemon Trainer (all pokemon)
R.O.B.
Samus
Sheik
Snake
Sonic
Toon Link
Wario
Wolf
Yoshi
Zelda
Zero Suit Samus
Characters that can be Single Naner Lock Infinited:
Lucario
Sonic
Wario
Jigglypuff
Pikachu?
(there's more; still in progress)
note: I'll need help testing the infinite. I've been messing around with trying to buffer a dash and jump upon landing, and seeing if you can still infinite. If that's possible, infiniting characters would be easier (well much harder, but more possible infinitable characters).
Naner Lock Difficulty Ratings:
(note: these are my personal ratings and may not be universal, however I based my personal ratings on trip animations and trip lengths. For example, GnW is under easy because he has a long trip animation, giving you more room for error)
Easy:
Game and Watch
Peach
Lucario
R.O.B.
Pikachu
Sonic
Jigglypuff
Wario
(WiP)
Medium:
Meta Knight
Bowser
Mario
Marth
Donkey Kong
(WiP)
Hard:
Wolf
(WiP)
[1.4] Videos!
(WiP)
Single Naner Lock Guide Video - Part 1 of 2
~by Avarice
Single Naner Lock Guide Video - Part 2 of 2
~by Avarice
eventually well be number 1 in the tier list someday xD
