Pyrostormer
Smash Lord
Alright well we all know our little robot buddy doesn't have the easiest time killing. Even though he has moves with some decent power in them like Fsmash, Nair, Bair, and Usmash, landing them in the heat of battle is easier said then done. Especially when it comes to Usmash, most ROBs consider it a blessing if they can land that at all during the course of a tournament. ROB's killing problems are not helped by the fact that in most matchups, you'll have to spam some of the first 3 moves to survive, meaning that they'll be stale come killing time (for example, vs. Game and Watch you'll need to use Fsmash and Bair for spacing, meaning Nair will usually be your only reliable killer).
So I figured I should probably try and help the ROB boards out a bit today and list some of the more reliable ways that you can trick your opponent into falling for your kill moves. The higher up the ladder of Professional Smash you go, the less reliable these will be - because your opponents learn too fast, or they don't leave themselves open long enough for these to work. But fret not, because nobody is good enough to avoid everything =).
1. Dthrow!!!!
One of the cool things about ROBs Dthrow is that it's knockback never really increases with your opponents % like most other moves in the game. Fox's shine is a good example of this - go into training mode, pick Fox, and shine your opponent at 0%. They don't go very far at all...then set their damage to 999%. And hey, they go the exact same distance! That's why Shine was such a good move in Melee (when you could WD out of it) - a shine on a grounded opponent always had a guaranteed followup at any %. Sadly (or maybe it's a good thing, because Brawl has no hitstun X.x), unlike Fox's Shine, there IS a small increase in knockback. But...you'll find that even at 300% an unstaled Dthrow will not kill anyone on FD(even Jigglypuff). What use could such a ****ty move have? Well, it gets them in the air, of course! ROB is a pretty versatile air character, and a Nair or Bair is actually much easier to land when the opponent is above you then you'd think if you pull a Metaknight and bait an airdodge. Dthrow at 120% will put most opponents a little higher then the reach of your full jump + double jump. So, all you need to do is Dthrow, wait half a sec or so, jump up and bait the airdodge. If they use their double jump when they see you coming, Up-B will be your savior. Nair is really good in this situation because it's a great move for eating through airdodges. Go up next to your opponent, scare them into airdodging, and proceed to ****.
2. Falling Uair
This is dangerous against characters with really good vertical kill options (Snake, Olimar) because they won't be afraid to Utilt/Usmash you if they see you coming from above. Against other opponents, with enough trickery, this can be a great way to setup the rarely used but often wished for Usmash. Because this is Brawl, it's not a guaranteed combo (well maybe at low enough %s it is, but don't expect it to be a True Combo when it comes time for killing), but again, trickery is the name of the game. If you think they'll jump, jump and Nair them. If you think they'll airdodge, read their DI and running Usmash. If you think they'll sit there and accept it like the scared *****es they are, then ****.
3. Dair
There are 2 great things about Dair: 1. It has no lag as long as you make sure the hitbox of the moves comes out, 2. It has pretty decent hitstun as far as Brawl is concerned. This lets you use Dair in many creative ways that most ROBs don't use much. One, it's actually one of the better spikes in the game because you can run offstage, Dair, and then just move your control stick back towards the stage and land without lag. Against characters that like to recover from below (GaW, Marth, Toon Link, Luigi, Diddy, Zero Suit (if you miss the hug, you can hurry and hit her before she tethers all the way to the ledge, it looks so sexy), Kirby (pretty easy on him actually because his Up B doesnt auto ledgecling), Lucario, Olimar (same as ZSS)), this can be a guaranteed kill if you have good timing, and even if you flub it, you can move back to the stage without lag and do whatever you want when they get off the ledge. This can be better than hugging in situations where the opponent will make it back to the stage even if you grab the ledge (GaW does this a lot), or if they have a slowish recovery that can hit you once your ledge invinicbility runs out (Toon Link).
Another use of Dair can be found onstage. From around 90-110%, an onstage Dair links very nicely into an Usmash. It's a really hard move to land, but it's guaranteed out of a grounded footstool if you're good enough to get it. Or, if the opponent is stuck in lag or something and you want to go for something cool looking instead of charging an Fsmash or something boring, then do this!
4. Glide Tossed Gyro
Depending how far away from your opponent you are, a glide toss (where you land the gyro, of course) can actually lead to guaranteed kill moves. This is something I'm too lazy to take pictures and stuff for, so you'll just have to bear with me here. Using ROB as a unit of measurement...
3 ROBs away = Full Glide Toss to Usmash
2.5 ROBs away = Full Glide Toss to angled up Fsmash
1.5 ROBs away = Weak Glide Toss to angled up Fsmash
are the ones I use the most. They're actually pretty hard to land, but if you have a gyro in hand against a sitting duck opponent, go for it. The glide toss is pretty fast and goes pretty far, so you'll be able to surprise a few people the first few times you use it.
5. Down-tilt Lock
Did you know ROBs Down tilt has locking properties, just like Falco's laser, ICs Ice Blocks, Ness's Jab, and many other things? If your opponent ever lands on the ground when they MISS A TECH, (random tripping doesn't work for locks, they have to miss a tech), then you can chain them across the stage with Dtilts. Once you get them to the end (or however far you want to take them), then they're forced to getup in place where they're laying. This is time for you to charge your Fsmash and ****.
Locks like this are really hard to land though, so setting that up is a challenge in and of itself. A great way to get a lock started is to hit a shielding opponent off a platform. They'll enter a falling state, and on stages with low platforms like Battlefield, 99% of your opponents will miss the tech. If you ever have an opponent above you on a platform, run under them and Usmash. It sends a shielding opponent pretty far, and if they were close enough to the edge they'll fall off. Once they (hopefully) miss their tech, start the lock and end it with a kill move of choice.
At higher %s, this lock becomes REALLY hard to do because the Dtilt sends the opponent so far. The dtilt also loses locking properties after a certain %, which I don't feel like checking. So just be careful with it, don't get TOO greedy.
And that's all I feel like writing. Hope you all enjoyed this/found it useful.
- Stingers
So I figured I should probably try and help the ROB boards out a bit today and list some of the more reliable ways that you can trick your opponent into falling for your kill moves. The higher up the ladder of Professional Smash you go, the less reliable these will be - because your opponents learn too fast, or they don't leave themselves open long enough for these to work. But fret not, because nobody is good enough to avoid everything =).
1. Dthrow!!!!
One of the cool things about ROBs Dthrow is that it's knockback never really increases with your opponents % like most other moves in the game. Fox's shine is a good example of this - go into training mode, pick Fox, and shine your opponent at 0%. They don't go very far at all...then set their damage to 999%. And hey, they go the exact same distance! That's why Shine was such a good move in Melee (when you could WD out of it) - a shine on a grounded opponent always had a guaranteed followup at any %. Sadly (or maybe it's a good thing, because Brawl has no hitstun X.x), unlike Fox's Shine, there IS a small increase in knockback. But...you'll find that even at 300% an unstaled Dthrow will not kill anyone on FD(even Jigglypuff). What use could such a ****ty move have? Well, it gets them in the air, of course! ROB is a pretty versatile air character, and a Nair or Bair is actually much easier to land when the opponent is above you then you'd think if you pull a Metaknight and bait an airdodge. Dthrow at 120% will put most opponents a little higher then the reach of your full jump + double jump. So, all you need to do is Dthrow, wait half a sec or so, jump up and bait the airdodge. If they use their double jump when they see you coming, Up-B will be your savior. Nair is really good in this situation because it's a great move for eating through airdodges. Go up next to your opponent, scare them into airdodging, and proceed to ****.
2. Falling Uair
This is dangerous against characters with really good vertical kill options (Snake, Olimar) because they won't be afraid to Utilt/Usmash you if they see you coming from above. Against other opponents, with enough trickery, this can be a great way to setup the rarely used but often wished for Usmash. Because this is Brawl, it's not a guaranteed combo (well maybe at low enough %s it is, but don't expect it to be a True Combo when it comes time for killing), but again, trickery is the name of the game. If you think they'll jump, jump and Nair them. If you think they'll airdodge, read their DI and running Usmash. If you think they'll sit there and accept it like the scared *****es they are, then ****.
3. Dair
There are 2 great things about Dair: 1. It has no lag as long as you make sure the hitbox of the moves comes out, 2. It has pretty decent hitstun as far as Brawl is concerned. This lets you use Dair in many creative ways that most ROBs don't use much. One, it's actually one of the better spikes in the game because you can run offstage, Dair, and then just move your control stick back towards the stage and land without lag. Against characters that like to recover from below (GaW, Marth, Toon Link, Luigi, Diddy, Zero Suit (if you miss the hug, you can hurry and hit her before she tethers all the way to the ledge, it looks so sexy), Kirby (pretty easy on him actually because his Up B doesnt auto ledgecling), Lucario, Olimar (same as ZSS)), this can be a guaranteed kill if you have good timing, and even if you flub it, you can move back to the stage without lag and do whatever you want when they get off the ledge. This can be better than hugging in situations where the opponent will make it back to the stage even if you grab the ledge (GaW does this a lot), or if they have a slowish recovery that can hit you once your ledge invinicbility runs out (Toon Link).
Another use of Dair can be found onstage. From around 90-110%, an onstage Dair links very nicely into an Usmash. It's a really hard move to land, but it's guaranteed out of a grounded footstool if you're good enough to get it. Or, if the opponent is stuck in lag or something and you want to go for something cool looking instead of charging an Fsmash or something boring, then do this!
4. Glide Tossed Gyro
Depending how far away from your opponent you are, a glide toss (where you land the gyro, of course) can actually lead to guaranteed kill moves. This is something I'm too lazy to take pictures and stuff for, so you'll just have to bear with me here. Using ROB as a unit of measurement...
3 ROBs away = Full Glide Toss to Usmash
2.5 ROBs away = Full Glide Toss to angled up Fsmash
1.5 ROBs away = Weak Glide Toss to angled up Fsmash
are the ones I use the most. They're actually pretty hard to land, but if you have a gyro in hand against a sitting duck opponent, go for it. The glide toss is pretty fast and goes pretty far, so you'll be able to surprise a few people the first few times you use it.
5. Down-tilt Lock
Did you know ROBs Down tilt has locking properties, just like Falco's laser, ICs Ice Blocks, Ness's Jab, and many other things? If your opponent ever lands on the ground when they MISS A TECH, (random tripping doesn't work for locks, they have to miss a tech), then you can chain them across the stage with Dtilts. Once you get them to the end (or however far you want to take them), then they're forced to getup in place where they're laying. This is time for you to charge your Fsmash and ****.
Locks like this are really hard to land though, so setting that up is a challenge in and of itself. A great way to get a lock started is to hit a shielding opponent off a platform. They'll enter a falling state, and on stages with low platforms like Battlefield, 99% of your opponents will miss the tech. If you ever have an opponent above you on a platform, run under them and Usmash. It sends a shielding opponent pretty far, and if they were close enough to the edge they'll fall off. Once they (hopefully) miss their tech, start the lock and end it with a kill move of choice.
At higher %s, this lock becomes REALLY hard to do because the Dtilt sends the opponent so far. The dtilt also loses locking properties after a certain %, which I don't feel like checking. So just be careful with it, don't get TOO greedy.
And that's all I feel like writing. Hope you all enjoyed this/found it useful.
- Stingers
