~How To Wield The Triforce of Power~ <vers 2.0>

Taking the guide down. Its been fun. Take care and care for one another.

THIS IS THE BEST GUIDE EVER...You explain everything with truth and without lies in this guide, I've seen other guides that do approximations and stuff but this one is exact in everything it says. Your Ganondorf seems the same as mine(although hes not my best and im sure mine isnt as good as yours) Fallen to sheiks,marths..the works. I dont know about that kirby thing though, never had a kirby vs ganondorf. And YOUR EXACTLY RIGHT about him being the strongest character in the game, f*** bowser and DK, notice: that these two "creatures" have moves that rack up damage ex: Bowser's up+b and DK's forward+b. OMG THAT CRAZY ISNT IT? LOOK AT GANONDORF, truthfully i cant name a single move that he has that cant KO you at 200% or less. Even his neutral A JAB has a knockback and its super fast, I mean light speed<><><><> in all my time of playing with ganondorf no1 has ever seen it coming. The weakest aerial he has is his backflip kick and THAT can even KO you at 150% or less. Just goes to show, this isnt always right------------------------------> POWER<SPEED ...... Theres really nothing I can add, you basically covered everything.

hehe...even better then the old one, and the old one was pretty **** good. im gonna pick up ganon again because of this.

Nice O_o

you took an already great guide and improved it, how is that possible? :D . Now i have to bookmark this also

Silven, I have no clue wtf you said in the first half of your post, but you should know that Ganondorf would suck if his power balanced out to his speed (which means if his speed was sucky BTW). The 2nd half of your post leads me to believe that you think he is slow. He has Excellent power and average speed. But of course, even average speed will prevent a character from going to top tier

And also, Ganondorf is strongest, but not by much. Bowser is a close second.

2.0 good **** son.

I only disagree with one part in the entire guide, and that's the fox thing. Ganon is 4th heaviest in the game, he does not die up well. Rather, every KO you're likely to get would be shinespike to edge hog.

Oh yeah, another guide to one of my best characters, you're making me better Shin.

Oh yea, I just remembered that Mow, thanks.

I'll put that in on version 3.0 when I discuss more about bane's and counter characters, and just matchups entirely.

Fox's shine spike is being used more often to me (thanks to DMStudios who plays as a TON of characters, he's handy to have around.) and I tend to die because of that, which sucks . . . -stares off to oblivion-

-finishes shaving-

thanks for replies folks.

One of my best friends play Ganondorf. Badly. I'm making him read this. Thanks.

For those random few that read this guide fully. I'd deeply appreciate anything you have that would help improve this guide. I have a hint that I need to write a sub-section near the Banes category that explains hints and how-to's against basically every other character. (they won't be nearly as big as the bane's though)

I dont' know if I should consider that for 3.0 or not.

Also, if there is any information in regards to different ways people use their Ganondorf, all that information I could use and compile in the next version.
Don't be afraid to speak up, i'm not one to bite heads off.

Thanks for reading.

Overall a really nice guide. I do have to complain that you used the moves names instead of f-air for example. Move names are not universal and memorizing them to read your guide is quite a pain. Please use the direction/button set up... please!!!

Also about the projectile dodging with f-b, you might wanna say that they dodge lasers. As that's most likely the most important projectile they'll ever need to dodge.

Mow, although Ganon happens to be the 4th heaviest, floatiness and the fact that he can be comboed into up kills easily does make a difference. Drill, shine, up tilt, flip kick, up smash, dash attack, all lead to or are up kills that work very nicely on Ganon. And when Ganon's in the air, he doesn't have much protection his bottom in terms of quickness. The spike is slow, air dodge leaves you open, and down-b lags like a mother. But overall shines are the leading cause of Ganon death.

HavocLord: "The spike is slow, air dodge leaves you open, and down-b lags like a mother."

Ever tried neutral air? It can work sometimes when people are going up at you. Air dodge leaves you open when you're in the air.. when you're close enough to the ground it not only dodges but gives you a chance to get your own hit in.

Also about the gerudo dragon, I don't think you mentioned that if you use it at the very beginning of a jump, like right above the ground, it can be a mind game device and a good attack at the right angle. You're so close to the ground that the recovery is much quicker than it would be done simply on the ground. And if I'm not mistaken you can combo off this pretty easily. The drawback is it's easier to hit through, and if I'm not mistaken just a little slower to start, factoring in the lag on the jump. The range is also shorter, but this isn't necessarily a disadvantage.

If you did mention this and I missed it, you may destroy me.

According to my research, Ganondorf is the fifth hardest character to KO vertically.
I think I've seen Ganondorf's down+B do 24% or 22%. You have to use it in the air, and hit the victim with the ensuing shockwave that comes when you reach the ground as well.

I just thought that you haven't discovered these itty bitty little combo's that are easy to perform but are actually quite good, they wokrs wonders especially when your opponent has his/her back to the wall or edge, especially if the opponent doesn't posess a good way to come back from the edge, so it won't work on Jiglypuff, Samus and Peach, at least on the edge, if they have their back to the wall, the only one that posesses a good change of stopping you is Luigi, and also these are ment for racking the damage from 0 to who knows where.

(on the ground) A, Dtilt, Ftilt.

Continue using those tilts for so long you please and if you are facing a wall finsh it before the opponent starts going too high with a fair, uair or dair, depending on the opponent. And if you are facing the edge, the most approriate move to finish is the dair, but you must take to accord that the opponent might be Luigi, who will hit you before you can hit him, so you should use uair instead. DI can neutralise this but if it is the wall you should be able to continue this with a quick Thunder Punch, it should push the opponent back. Notice that i've only tested this on comps (cause I haven't got anyone good to play against) and can therefore be not working one.

And the next one better at lower % like 13(this is also tested on Comps)

Ok, now I'll get it:A, Ftilt, shffled fair and downb.
if done near but not too near the edge you and the opponent will be in the air, if you can or dare you could try to get to a distance that you could upb from, it will nearly always mean a certain death to you opponent. but if you miss the upb you're the one dying instead. A bit risky, but if it succeeds it will be an instant death.

Give some info about do they work or not, will you?

One thing that your great guide would need might be things for newbs, and I think that these are great against comps so they could actually fit in it, but hey, what do I know

and as I told, they were tested on comps, so they might not work on humans.

Many improbvements, i didnt read the whole thing like last time, but i did check through the parts i found bothering last time and fonund them inproved.

Nice work

Woah that must of taken a long time to do,, but its nice. Ganondorf is my best guy and I didn't know he could chain grab, and I always thought th -> B sucks. I gotta try some of this stuff out now

By the Triforce, this guide r0x0rz!

Thanks to you, Shin, I have truly learned what one can do with the King of Darkness. Thanks. I have learned that Ganon is speedy in his attacks. I can crush any level 9 CPU (something that proves you are not totally bad with him) with his awesome power. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to crush my friend with his awesome might.

the ony con I see is that he used the actual names for the moves instead of notations.... I know you don't need my criticism...

Just realised a combo that you haven't got in your guide, it's as simple as simple can be, just requires a bit of luck. First, for this to be fully effective, make sure that you will be next to and back against the edge and your opponent straight ahead of you, do a few dtilt's until you opponent decides to DI away (this is where the luck comes to play) if he decides to DI behind you, stop him dead in his tracks with a Thunder Punch, but if he DI's away from you simply do a dash attack. If you hit it right (the last possible moment, I think), your opponent will fly up and behind you and you should response with a uair,but make sure that it will hit with the last part of the attack so that the opponent will fly on a more downwards trajectory and over the edge, giving you all the possible edge guarding possibilites Ganondorf has.

If you hit a tad too early and are feeling lucky (or completely blinded by your rage) you could try to hit your opponent further from the edge with Wizards Foot from the ground, time it so that your opponent has just used his/her second jump and is a bit above you as you should be gliding through the air to hit your hapless foe into oblivion. But if you miss, it will most likely mean you death.

Felt like bumping this guide back up as well.

Edit: Another lil' combo I just tested, pin your opponent into a wall and start using Thunder Punch (your timing must be absolutely perfect for this to work), and as you opponent gets over your head, use uair for good results. This must be done when your opponent is at low damage so that he won't fly out of your combo, he/she will when the damage get's over 50%, the perfect timing is quite hard but doable after a couple of hours of trying.

Easily the best guide I've read on smashboards so far, though thats not really saying much Read it from the first line to the very last one, you bring several interesting points to my attention. I definitely need to start wavedashing with my Ganondorf, even if it's only for wavelanding. Two things I think are missing in the guide :

1- You don't talk a single bit about Ganondorf's roll, beside the wavedash-roll part. Considering Ganondorf's roll is very quick and his wavedash doesn't take him far, I think it's safe to say the G-ster relies quite heavily on rolling.

2- A very simple and effective combo is the double spike (short-hop above your opponent's head and pop him up with your aerial down+A, L-cancel and then jump up and spike him back down to ground level), which I call the stampede. Works with plenty of characters, but the sheer power of Ganondorf's spike makes it superior when playing as him. Not only does it hit for a very respectable 42%, but it's one of the few combos which cannot be DI out of and it can be followed with some mind games. If your foe fails to tech after the second hit, you can go stampede on his *** once more. If he rolls away upon hitting the ground, try to follow up with a running attack, an aerial forward+A or a wavelanding and pretty much anything.

i read it from start to finish, and i must say, EXCELLENT guide. I read the first version fully, and this second one seems even better. If a couple things were explained more, it would help greatly:

1) Which of combos work on floaty characters and which ones work on light characters? I tried a few of the combos mentioned and at the suggested percentages (these combos mainly involved the gerudo dragon) and i only got halfway because of super-floaty DI or too fast a fall. which brings to the second part:

2) you emphasize gerudo dragon a lot in combos and i can see why. Could you give some advice on ways of properly landing the attack? It tends to be slow and people see it and immediately either hit through it or shieldgrab it. I try setting up into it, but they always recover too fast and counter with some aerial before i land the hit.

But overall, this is quite possibly the most instructional guide i've read yet.

personally, this is the best guide i've read
exellent job!!!
i love how you take each move..and put its attibutes immediately following, its very easy to read quickly that way, w/out literally SAYING, "this attack can do 12 to 15 percent"
and the breaking down of them individually is superb.
i have no complaints whatsoever. and will experiment my gannon w/ some of you're suggestions

2) you emphasize gerudo dragon a lot in combos and i can see why. Could you give some advice on ways of properly landing the attack? It tends to be slow and people see it and immediately either hit through it or shieldgrab it. I try setting up into it, but they always recover too fast and counter with some aerial before i land the hit.

Obviously you can't just charge blindly at someone with this. It's one of those moves you've got to hold back and unleash when you think it'll catch the opponent off-guard. The delay before the attack, when Ganondorf pulls back a little, is ideal for faking out on your foe and make him throw an attack at thin air right before you run up to him. It isn't exactly easy to punish Ganon when he uses this move anyway. The huge knockback it causes when shielded makes it impossible for anyone beside Marth and the peeps with long-range grabs to shield-grab Ganon's huge butt. When side-stepped, it makes Ganondorf go into the uppercut animation anyway, letting him recover before getting hit by a counter-attack instead of falling down to the ground. And unless you're playing as someone with a really good roll or wavedash, you can't back off from it fast enough to avoid the blow and retaliate. Short-hopping most likely won't let you get high enough to avoid the blow, and a full jump gives Ganon time to recover. All in all, the trick is to use this move without getting to the point where it becomes predictable. Never use it from the full length,and be ready to pay the cost if the opponent spots it. A fair trade, in my opinion.

EDIT : Restrictions make you stronger!

I've got another example which proves this. My friend, who's been playing as Ganondorf for a very long time, has been spiked countless times thanks to the G-man's crappy recovery. With so many opportunities to practice meteor canceling, he's now freaking good at it. It has got to the point where I'll often be the one getting killed if I try to spike his Ganondorf, since he'll cancel the hit and catch me with his up+B move, making me bounce off the side of the stage and fall to my death. Obviously this ability proves very useful no matter who he plays as, so Ganon's poor recovery actually helped him become a better player.

I gotta say thanks for this guide! I've been meaning to try to get really good with one of the slower/bigger characters. I use Falco, Young Link, Marth and Peach..all characters who are pretty fast, so this will add good variety to who I play well as, as I've decided to get really good with Gannondorf. Thanks I just read the whole guide and its going to help a lot =)

As a player eager to learn how to master gannon, I found this guide very helpful. I have most of his moves down and have gotten over 654 K.O's with the character. I don't mean to sound like a ignorant newb, but this seemed like the best place to ask, can somebody please clarify the wave dash to me? I re-read that section over and over and I can't really comprehend the directions for it.

Wow, Shin, great guide, pretty much all a Ganondorf Fan like me can ask for. I noted one minor error but it doesn't really matter: the leg whip can do past 21 damage. Maybe you should emphasize the effeciveness of Shffl'ing attacks a little more. One thing I didn't understand was the ledge-hanging wavedash. When you described it, you said that you have to drop from the edge you are hanging from, then jump, then wavedash onto the platform. Whenever I let go of the edge, though, I cannot get above it with a single jump. I never end up above the level of the platform so I can never wavedash into it. Ahh, but who cares... Great guide... I especially liked the way you portrayed the spirit you must be in to master Ganondorf. The "Encouraging your Ganondorf" section is a gem the likes of which I have not seen in other guides. I thing if I practice and apply what I read, I could improve my Ganondorf.

P.S. I am interested in your philosophy about this notorious villain, Shin, pm or something if you'd like to share.


Ganon the Dwarf: The wavedash consisits of jumping (preferably short hooping, jumping low) and wavedashing diagonally down, towasrds the ground as soon as or shortly after your character takes off. If you air dodge diagonally into the ground, your character will slide. Basically, jump, as soon as you leave the ground air dodge diagonally back towards the ground so that your air dodge is "cancelled out." You should also check out the SWF Compendium of SSBM knowledge in the Melee discussion forum, in case I am not being articulate enough, and also to familiarize yourself with the terms used on smashboards.

Don't feel like a newb, there's no way to know of Wavedashing and all this crazy lingo unless you visit the site or have friends who are serious smashers. I was like "What the ****!" when I first visited the site and saw stuff like "Wavedashing," "L-cancelling," and whatnot. . Anyway, I'm a fellow Ganon fan/user, trying to improve, so I wish you luck in mastering this incredible character!

Thanks, I'm trying to test out the wavedash think something might be off with the timing.

And another thing I found that was very original about this guide is that you said you should try and play him as a fast character when he isn't. I doubt any other guides out there would go out on a limb and do that.

One thing I didn't understand was the ledge-hanging wavedash. When you described it, you said that you have to drop from the edge you are hanging from, then jump, then wavedash onto the platform. Whenever I let go of the edge, though, I cannot get above it with a single jump. I never end up above the level of the platform so I can never wavedash into it.

Click to expand...

Yea, jumping to a WD back on is rather tough w/ ganon because his jump is so horrible (you can't even drop off and jump back on w/ an attack cause he doesnt go high enough). Your just off with your timing. It has to be done really quick, pretty much airdodge right when you hit the peak of your jump, dont forget to angle it horizontal or a bit downward or else you'll just get an airdodge. Instead of pressing the control stick down, press it to the side (to drop off the ledge)... maybe that'll help, i unno.

Thanks ArC_Man, I'll try out what you said. The ledge hanging wavedash does not seem SOOO useful, however. I dunno, but I think it would be pretty difficult to pull this off 100% of the time, and it's quite risky (you may air dodge to your doom if you screw up) I think it's best to know this while still using other means of recovering. Like Shin said in the guide, it's the fastest way to get up, but by no means the safest.

Y'know, on levels with flat ledges where you can go through the floor.. You actually can attack and get back up at the same time (while traversing a considerable horizontal distance).

Nice guide. I been using the Dark Dragon combo alot. I even pulled off a Dark Dragon combo followed by a Thunder Dash.

Great guide

Your guide is simply put amazing.
I enjoyed reading it very much.
Two thumbs up.

As for myself I've been hording and editing my own guide, and I've decided to post it. So, here it goes.. =)

Originally posted by ~Shin_Ganondorf~
[BSomebody is going to rush at you and do a dash attack, lets say the infamous SHIEK dash attack. - easily countered, and made a mockery of. Shiek is the bane of Ganondorf, and the dash attack is one of Shieks best combo starters, if you block this move, you may or may not grab her, because she's so freaking small. Its much easier to make her look slow by wavedashing backwards. She will end up right next to you, so you can jump on her head and glove her body in lightning with the Thunder Drop, or perhaps if the Shiek player does not duck, shield -grab her and give her a taste of her own throw combo's (downthrow abuse) [/B]

Click to expand...

Actually, its not her dash attack that is threatening, its the fact that she can decide to cancel her dah attack into a grab, giving her the "range of her dash attack.

Nice one Cablepuff. ~.o Lol.

Thanks ArC_Man, I'll try out what you said. The ledge hanging wavedash does not seem SOOO useful, however. I dunno, but I think it would be pretty difficult to pull this off 100% of the time, and it's quite risky (you may air dodge to your doom if you screw up) I think it's best to know this while still using other means of recovering. Like Shin said in the guide, it's the fastest way to get up, but by no means the safest.

Click to expand...

Mwuaahahahaa! Of course its not SAFE, it'll KEEEEEEL you MANY times before you get it down. Try to get in touch with your random japanese side. Life, winning, proving worth, throw it all away to practice IN matches. I see it this way for this move.

Its the fastest way of recovering from an edge, hands down. Ganondorf is slow . . . hmmm.

On a random occurance two combatants smack each other to opposite sides of the battlefield. Immediately you both should feel happy, this is a climactic clash ending with us flown appart and looking to grab the edge. Problem, Ganondorf is sure to get on the ledge and back in the fray, but he's slow. While fox is running to your side of the edge you could JUST be recovering.

If your INTO your ganondorf enough like I am, there becomes a very DIRE need to become the most fierce and fastest devil out there. I'll risk my death, feeling the spirit of the fight in my soul, and from the edge wavedash recovery into a wavedash-run. All of the sudden, Ganondorf isn't so slow anymore, your opponent would compare this to the time on Final Destination when he waited on one side of the screen for you to come back from death knowing that you have to drop, land, then begin running, and instead of that, ganon fastfalls, wavedash-run's and gets there amazingly fast for a suprise attack.

Its speed, its shiek speed i'm pulling out of my character. And thats utter amazement for some people who havn't seen Ganondorf with that sort of disregard to the way he was meant to be built. Slow and powerful? pssh, not for me, never again. I don't play Ganondorf, I play Shin Ganondorf, there's a frikkin difference.

Wavedash recovery also has a random side effect.

If you jump onto a platform and don't see a landing animation, it basically means you jumped the perfect ammount so you trick the game into just giving you a spot up there (try to understand that . . . ugh, i should make vidios)

Wavedash Recovery sometimes turns into a short hop, land on the platform with an IMMEDIATE SHIELD. Still the fastest recovery . . . instead of invincibility frames which can be measured and countered by advanced players, you pop up with a shield . . . something you can controll with shield grabs, rolls, sidestep dodges, and etc (of course your opponent will most likely hit you back off the ledge to hang there.

and I think i'm done
(doesn't bother re-reading)

-firmly plants his zwiehander sword into the unforgiving obsidian floor of his territory-





. . .

-random dancing-

on the topic of recovering from a ledge... i found out that ganon CAN attack while getting back onto the platform (O_o). Drop off, jump and use u-air. Then you can l-cancel do w/e that comes after a shfflc'ed u-air O_o.

no im not goin crazy... if u watch Cj vs masashi vid (ganon vs roy).. cj does this once (which made me go try it out a buncha times and it works!)

I hardly ever post, but after reading this guide... wow... great job. I'm a Ganondorf player as well and I'm thankful for the amount of time you put in this guide for us Gerudo-Lovers.

If you need someone to proof read, help out, do some research, or whatever with this guide, PLEASE ASK ME! I'll be more than welcome to do it (**** I WANT TO!). Just PM.

Totally incredible FAQ!
I've been Wavedashing and L-Canceling with my Ganondorf for quite a while now but I think I could take my King of Dark Waters (Plays blue Ganondorf ) to a whole new level, especially by incorporating Neutral-Air and Forward-B into it. Thanks, you've relit my Ganondorf-flame.

-Against CPUs, I typically start a Gerudo Dragon, follow up with a Vulture Kick, then finish them with a Skull Crusher, running like mad to follow the DI.

-I can't shuffle very well, though I can L-cancel about 40% of the time.

-I can wavedash easily, but somehow I always go into a shield and I can't follow up easily...

-The Dorf is my principle character...and I will use Dorf as my name in the Smash World...

Holy cow! This FAQ helped me so stinking much with Ganondorf! Now people actualy fear me when I'm him.