NiTEWiNG's Guide to Brawl ! (Newcomer guide) [Unfinished]

Before we start, I want you all to know, this guide is for people that just got the game, and haven't a clue what exactly is going on.



Let's begin, shall we?



Terms / Abbreviations!

Jab: Basic A attack.

ftilt (Forward Tilt): Moving either left, or right on the control stick, and pressing A. (NOTE: By control stick, I do NOT mean the C Stick)

utilt (Up Tilt): Moving the control stick in an upward direction and pressing A

dtilt (Down Tilt): Moving the control stick in a downward direction and pressing A

Note: For ftilt, utilt, and dtilt, don't Smash the stick. Just push it gently.


fsmash (Forward Smash): Moving the control stick on a right, or left motion, while simaltaniously pressing the A button. (Or use the C Stick)

usmash (Up Smash): Moving the control stick in an upward direction and pressing A

dsmash (Down Smash): Moving the control stick in a downward direction and pressing A

nair (Neutral Air): While in midair, press the A button.

fair (Forward Air): While in midair, move the control stick in the direction that you are facing, and press A. Or move the C Stick to the direction you are facing.

uair (Up Air): While in midair, move the control stick in an upward direction and press A. Or move the C Stick in an upward direction.

bair (Back Air): While in midair, move the control stick in the OPPOSITE direction that you are facing and press A. Or move the C Stick in the OPPOSITE direction you are facing.

dair (Down Air): While in midair, move the control stick in a downward direction and press A. Or move the C Stick in a downward direction.

B: Simply the B button, which is also known as your "special" move, (but we will stick with B, since its just more common"

sideb: Move the control stick in a left, or right motion and press B

upb: Move the control stick in an upward motion and press B. (This will, in most cases, (depending on your character), will be your recovery)

downb: Move the control stick in a downward motion and press B

fthrow (Forward Throw): Press the Z button and move the control stick in the direction that you are facing.

bthrow (Back Throw): Press the Z button and move the control stick in the OPPOSITE direction that you are facing.

dthrow (Down Throw): Press the Z button and move the control stick in a downward motion

uthrow (Up Throw): Press the Z button and move the control stick in an upward motion

zair: While in the air, press the Z button to preform a unique attack. (Note: Only Link, Toon Link, Samus, and Lucas can do this)

Move Terms

nado: Meta Knights Mach Tornado, (basic B move)

nade: Snake's gernades. (basic B move)

nanner: Diddy Kong's bananas. (downb move)

jolts: Pikachu's basic projectile. (basic B move)

Advanced Techniques (ATs)

Glide Tossing (GT): While holding an item, use your shield and initate a roll, during the roll, move the C Stick in the direction u want to throw.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDtdmdkzaro&playnext=1&list=PL473F6EB944F5B5F7&index=50

Chain Grabbing (CG): Grabbing an opponent, throwing them, and regrabbing them without any chance for escape.

Short Hop (SH): Quickly press the Jump button and release, if you hold it in, it will do a full hop / jump.

Spike: Using a move that shoots the enemy downward off the stage, diminishing there chance of recovery.

DI (Directional Influence): Moving the control stick in a certain direction while being hit. This will help you stay alive longer.

FF (Fast Fall): Pressing down on the control stick while in midair, this causes you to fall to the ground faster

Tech: Pressing the shield button while in a tumbling state, right before you hit a wall/ground. This will give you a few immunity frames and gets you on your feet faster.


DACUS (Dash Attack Cancelled Up Smash): When you cancel your dash attack into an Up Smash. This video can explain better then I can. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI0_LanROgk


Tier List and Rule Set

The Tier List is a chart in which the BBR (brawl back room), come up with as the best characters. Meta Knight is on top, while Ganon is on the bottom. Symbolising that Metaknight is da bess, and Ganon is da worss
http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=287382


This current ruleset was made by MLG, but it might change due to MLG kicking Brawl out of there tournaments.
http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=271261


Training Methods

Truly, this is more of your own preference. I started out practicing through Classic Mode, gave me a feel of different enemies. I always practice against level 7 CPUs, but to start out, stick with level 3. Never, ever, EVER practice against level 9 CPUs. They are perfect at shielding, and are just unhuman like, which you never want to play against.

Meeting friends and playing against them on Wifi is a great way to practice and get better. You can find people with the following links:

http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=208726

http://www.allisbrawl.com/

My preference is the first link, which leads you to http://www.fsmash.org/ . Very friendly community, easy to use website, it's just perfect. (Thank-you P.I. !!!)


That mostly raps up everything I can think of at the moment. Please comment or messege me if I should add something else.

Reserved for OP

you sure this hasn't been done before lol

Ohh, I guarantee it has, but I don't see any, so...

Lol @ SH'ing and FF'ing being AT's.

Btw, you should put that B attacks can also be refered to as Specials (ex: Side Special).

Bleh, and put up DACUS and other stuffs.

I only put SH and FF as AT's because, sell, a lot of ATs require them, I will change it if wanted though.

And DACUS and more are coming up, i've been delayed do to the holidays, and i'm now making Let's Play videos.

Sorry for the slowness of updating. School is getting the best of me.

Nice guide This is actually exactly what I was looking for. I never knew what any of those terms meant, so whenever people said something like, "I fair'd him" I would say, "I did the side-A move." Hah.

I do have some questions though, I am still fairly unknowledgeable about what the C-stick attacks are called. You said that Fsmash was aiming the control stick in a right or left direction and at the same time pressing A, or moving the C-stick in the same direction. That is all I saw about C-stick though. Would it be the same as Dsmash for moving the C-stick down, and Usmash by moving the C-stick upwards?

Also, I notice this with Fox seeing as he is all I play, but I am sure it is the same with all characters. Whenever I am in the air and I move the control stick to the right or left and press A, it is the same thing as moving the C-stick right or left while in air. Wouldn't that mean that the C-stick could be applied for all moves that require a push of A? Except for tilts and jabs obviously.

Sorry to sound like a complete noob, but I am, haha. Great guide though.

Gatlin: you got it. cstick is actually quite important so you can do retreating fairs.

@Gatlin: Sort of right. You can't jab combo, ftilt (strangely enough) or nair. But you can do nearly everything else with it, including dash, dtilt and utilt.

I think it should be mentioned that zair is also used a tether recovery. Also, I remember reading that there aren't any spikes in Brawl, or at least there are only semi-spikes and meteor smashes. The only real spike would be Luigi's taunt where he kicks the grounf.

Lastly, you should also add information about stages and stuff like that.

Hah, ok thanks for clearing that up guys

sorry for the delay on the guide, school is biting me right in the @#&

Since this is for people who "just got the game" as you say, chances are they may not have a gamecube controller, just a wiimote and attachment (nunchaku or classic controller) so you may want to add controls for those in.

I could have sworn I updated this a long time ago, it apparantly didn't go through.

Updated.

A few ideas:
You should also include the term "meteor smash" for spikes.
Most people call their non-directional B attack neutral B, not just B.
Your explanation of throws should be in terms of grabs, not buttons. For example if you were explaining how to do an aerial, you wouldn't say "press Y then a direction on the C stick." A better way of saying it might be "after grabbing the opponent, press this direction on the control stick."
You should include how to do aerials with the C stick too.
Explain tilts better. We call them tilts for a reason.
Maybe include links to guides for the AT's. (especially DI)
Mention that you can only fast fall after you have reached the peak of your jump.

Good guide so far. This should be helpful to newcomers.

Thankyou very much for the feedback. Updating asap.

Something I wrote for a friend who was interested in learning Smash. You might find it worth amending to.

Elements of Brawl
- A Moves
- B Moves
- Grabs
- Shield
- Spot Dodge
- Rolling
- Air Dodge
- Percent
- Move Decay
- Directional Influence
- Auto Canceling
- The Stage

A Moves
These moves are broken down into several categories, and due to the variety of moves, the bulk of your damage in a match comes from doing damage with them. Simply pressing the A button results in doing a jab, as long as no motion is pressed on the analog. Most characters have a three hit jab. Not all of them are linked properly due to Directional Influence. For most characters, Jab is their fastest move, and thus is often used to go directly into a grab.
Tilts are done by slightly pressing the control stick forward, and then executing the A button, or by having already pressed the stick in a direction, and then pressing the A button. These moves offer a wider control of space when utilized, and some of them even have kill potential such as Snake’s up Tilt. Tilts can only be performed on the ground.
Smash attacks are performed by pressing the direction and A button at the exact same time. In doing so, you perform a powerful move in the direction of your opponent. These can also be performed with using the C-Stick. These moves almost all universally have kill potential. They cannot be used in the air, and more importantly tend to have large amounts of lag after their use.
Aerials are done by simply being airborne while pressing a direction and the A button. You may also use the C-stick to perform this as well. The nomenclature for aerials is the direction of the the stick and then followed by ‘air.’ Neutral air would be Nair, forward air Fair, and so forth. These moves have a variety of uses such as spacing, and even killing.

B Moves
Every character has utility moves through pressing the B button on the controller. These moves can be anything from doing a choke hold to shooting a laser. Regardless of being in the air or not, the moves tend to be executed the exact same way aside from a few exceptions. Each character has four B moves: neutral, forward, up, and down. Most B moves lack the ability to KO their opponent, though there are some notable exceptions such as Marth’s Dolphin Slash, Meta Knight’s Shuttle Loop, Snake’s Down Smash, and so forth.
Every character except Yoshi has the ability to use their Up B to gain vertical height while recovering. Once you utilize your Up B, you aren’t capable of performing any movements aside from a few cases such as Sonic, Snake, and Rob.

Grabs
Grabs are performed by pressing Shield+A, or the Z button on the controller. Grabs can be done while standing, dashing, or pivoting after a dash/walk. Once you have grabbed an opponent, you can pummel them by pressing the A button, or you can immediately throw them by pressing up, down, back, or forwards to throw them. Every character has a different throwing capacity, and most characters lack throws that have the ability to kill opponents through raw power. Throws are mostly used for Utility and putting your opponent where you want them.
There is a subset of throws known as Chain throws. Pending the weight of the character, characters such as Falco, King Dedede, Pikachu, and -always- Ice Climbers are able to utilize multiple throws against their opponent. An example would be Falco, who is able to do his down throw five times in a row on an opponent which can lead to an easy thirty to forty damage from his first grab. Most Chain grabs become impossible to do as your percentage climbs, but King Dedede has a set knockback Down Throw, which allows him to chain grab at any percent for damage.
For characters with weaker throws [Marth] you can use them to create opportunities for attacking based on baiting your opponent. For example, Marth can use his forward throw to put his opponent in front of him in the air. Everyone knows that Marth has a tremendously disjointed forward air, and so most will air dodge. At low percent, you can regrab them and repeat the process, or simply attack after the air dodge is performed.

Shield
Unlike a traditional fighting game, Brawl has a spherical energy field that surrounds a character when you press the shield button. As you hold it, and take damage the size of the shield shrinks. Due to this shrinking, your shield can be poked with properly spaced attacks from your opponent, but you can angle your shield to counter attack this with your analog stick. Whenever you aren’t shielding, your ‘energy field’ is constantly replenishing itself over time.
Shielding requires three frames to come out and in order to drop requires seven frames. You can however, jump out of shield to avoid the lag additional lag. If you shield an attack without holding the shield button down, it is considered a ‘Perfect Shield.’ This means that there is absolutely no lag when you are dropping your shield which opens up many unique punishment opportunities. Due to this, Perfect Shielding is crucial in the game in order to approach opponents. Much like Parrying in Street Fighter 3, it allows you to move forwards against projectile zoning characters.

Spot Dodge
They can only be done on the ground, and are executed by pressing down + shield. After a short start up of around 2-4 frames pending the character selection, the character will appear to step into the back ground for a short duration. During this time period, the character is immune to taking damage, but there is a moment of lag after performing a spot dodge. In terms of potency, they are less useful than Shielding, as long as you are capable of perfect shielding. A spot dodge tends to last at least twenty frames, and so your opponent may finish their attack before you are out of your spot dodge.

Rolling
Pressing the shield button + back or forwards will result in your character moving in either direction with a period of invincibility in the middle of the roll while on the ground. Only a few select characters have decent rolls in this game that are used in tournament play such as Lucario. Most players channel their inner idiot and do what is called a ‘Panic Roll’ when they are under pressure in shield. Though it may get them out of the situation, the resulting position is almost always worse.

Air Dodge
Performed while pressing Shield in the air, your character will continue to move in the direction that they were going [you have control as well] and become invincible for a short period of time. There is however a period of lag after air dodging, where you are free falling. Knowing when to air dodge, and when not to is crucial when playing competitively. You have to decide if your opponent is baiting you to air dodge so they can punish your defensive measure, or if they are going to attack instantly and test your reactions.

Percent
This is your health bar, except it functions beyond just being a meter that rises up as you’re dealt damage. As damage is dealt to your character, the more momentum you gain from getting hit by a move. At low percents, moves are able to combo due to your knock-back being almost insignificant. Most kill moves do not have killing power until the opponent is over one hundred percent. Of course, every kill move has its own launch power and every character has a different level of weight.
This is what makes Smash unique, because as long as you are able to predict and counter your opponents kill moves, you are able to stay alive even when your opponent can kill you in one move. Your goal is to intelligently do damage to your opponent so that you can score a kill, while avoiding taking substantial levels of damage in return.

Move Decay
Brawl tracks the last eleven moves that you hit your opponent during your current life. The more you hit your opponent with a move, the less launching power it has and the less damage it does. Due to this, move selection is important because you must constantly consider which lesser move can be used to replenish the strength of your better moves. Due to this system, you cannot simply throw out smash attacks with reckless abandon, nor can you rely on one move to space your opponent away. It also causes players to save moves that would normally function as great counter moves, to be able to use them to kill with, and also prompts some players to intentionally bait their opponent into using a move to reduce its kill potential.

Directional Influence
Whenever you are hit by a move, you are able to guide the launching angle of your character and you are able to reduce the momentum that you are sent on. The importance of proper DI is unbelievable. Poor DI creates combos for your opponent and gets you killed at early percents, while proper DI allows you to live to the high hundreds, or even into two hundred percent.
Around the stage, there is a great boundary box, and when you hit this unseen boundary, your character dies. Using simple geometry, your goal would be to attempt to control your character to achieve a launch direction towards the corners of the stage to allow you to have a greater distance to travel. This is often achieved by holding the analog stick perpendicular to the direction a move would hit you. However, at low percents, holding perpendicular causes you to DI into your opponent’s next move, which allows them to score even more damage on you. Typically, if you’re getting comboed in Brawl after fifty percent consistently, you are DI’ing into your opponent.
Even still, there is an even GREATER level of Directional Influence known as SDI. SDI is performed by using the C-stick during the hitlag of a move to dramatically alter the course of where you are being hit while quickly moving it in a quarter circle multiple times in the direction you want to go. At low percents, it can be used against Multi-hit moves such as Rob’s Down smash to pop out of them after the first hit. With proper SDI, you’re able to take less damage from your opponent and live far longer than previously imagined.
Due to the complexity of DI, it has to become an instinct which can only be learned from play experience. A common way to increase your DI potential is when hit by a strong move, hold the stick perpendicular to the attacks launch direction, perform your fastest aerial [this may mean air dodge] once you’re out of hit stun, and then jump.

Auto Canceling
Pending the timing of using an aerial, when you hit the ground you experience tremendously less lag than you would normally expect. This allows certain aerials to be used for spacing, and applying pressure on your opponent. Some characters such as Marth have tremendously potent Auto canceling moves, while other characters such as Ganon have very little to offer. A proper auto-cancel typically means the lag of an aerial is only 2-4 frames, compared to the normal timing.

The Stage
Unlike a traditional fighting game, Brawl has complete freedom of movement around the stage. There isn’t an invisible barrier that allows for corner pressure, instead there are actually real corners, or most importantly the edge of the stage. The edge functions as the traditional corner of a fighting game. When you have your opponent near or on the edge, their options drop considerably. Brawl is a game where you are constantly fighting for stage position, since if you’re in the center of the stage when you’re hit by a potentially killing blow, you have a further distance to travel so that your DI can allow you to survive a longer time.
When someone is on the edge of the stage, they have a limited amount of options except when it comes to characters with multiple jumps such as Meta Knight and Pit. When characters first grab the edge, they latch on with frames of invincibility. When they attempt to come back on the stage, they can roll, perform a get up attack, jump off the edge onto the stage, or fall off the edge and jump back onto the stage. This creates a rock, paper, scissors game for most characters in the game, and a proper read results in pushing your opponent back off the stage to reset the situation.
Knocking your opponent off the edge, and then denying them the ability to get back onto the stage can result in getting an early kill known as a gimp. Some characters due to the set nature of their recoveries are much easier to gimp than others, but many characters lack the ability to freely leave the stage and perform gimps on their opponents.

The Phases of Brawl
- Character Selection - Counter Picking
- Stage Selection - Avoidance of traps and gimmicks
- The First Stock - Setting the Tempo with an early lead.
- Edge Guarding - Denying your opponent the ability to get back on stage.
- Recovering - The ability to return to the stage without incurring damage.
- Punishment/Risk - Dishing out damage while being safe.
- Taking a Stock - Either through brute force or a ‘gimp’.
- Space Control - The ability to deny/control area.
- Neutrality+ - The ability to return to a neutral or positive posture.
- Defense - Maintaining the lead.
- Offense - Building damage through the recognizing of strings.

Common Mistakes
- Air dodging immediately after being hit/thrown by an opponent, which then allows you to be attacked again.
- Running up to an opponent and holding shield.
- Constantly repeating the same failed tactic.
- Following a flow chart to recover.
- Getting juggled off stage when you have lost your second jump.
- Failure to utilize the counter-picking system.
- Spot dodging excessively and without reason.
- Utilizing laggy moves against an opponent that is positioned to block.
- Hastily returning from being on the edge rather than waiting for your opponent to make the first move.
- Playing Low Tier characters for every match up.
- DI-ing into your opponent when they are hitting you with moves with low knockback.
- DI-ing ‘negatively’ so much that it impacts your ability to recover onto the stage.
- Allowing your opponent to get below you for any period of time, such as you being on a platform.
- Failing to auto cancel aerials properly.
- Getting caught by a stage lip when recovering onto the stage.

Permission to snag the entire post? With credit ofcourse. Great read and defidently worthy