Best Combo Material

[Mike 223]

What Tool Material Would You Say Is Best For Combos With Steve?

 

[subterrestrial]

overall diamond is objectively the best, but gold is rly clutch in some matchups like seph, yoshi, lucina etc

stone is underrated tho

 

[Mike 223]

overall diamond is objectively the best, but gold is rly clutch in some matchups like seph, yoshi, lucina etc

stone is underrated tho

Yeah, Stone Is Way More Powerful Then Wood, Wood F-Smash (Uncharged) Doesn't Kill At 100% But Stone Does. (Wood Launches Them A Bit Far Tho)

 

[Mike 223]

overall diamond is objectively the best, but gold is rly clutch in some matchups like seph, yoshi, lucina etc

stone is underrated tho

Do You Think You Could Tell Me All The Matchups Gold Is Good In? Might Help Me Become A Better Player.

 

[subterrestrial]

Do You Think You Could Tell Me All The Matchups Gold Is Good In? Might Help Me Become A Better Player.

IMO Gold is best used in matchups where the opponent's character has extreme versatility and or is heavily specialized. For example: against characters that have better close quarters frame data (Lucina, Joker, Pika) or characters that simply outrange Steve (Lucina, Shulk, Sephiroth). Gold can also be used to approach but if you're being forced to approach as Steve you're probably already in a disadvantageous position.

Also Gold can really be beneficial when the opponent has better airspeed than Steve. Because Steve's airspeed is subpar in the air and characters that can weave around him can really give him trouble (like Wolf). Defending against jump-ins and horizontal aerial approaches is one of Steve's few weaknesses; because all he can really do is read it and intercept, magma up smash antiair, or build a ceiling lmao. Uptilt is a decent antiair but his axe is pretty small and the hitbox starts behind him so it can potentially get stuffed out. But with Gold uptilt is amazing, its ridiculously fast and usually comes out faster than whatever aerial the opponent is approaching with. Gold uptilt is also SAFE ON SHIELD, so overall its a great low-risk high reward move that leads into combos and even has kill confirms at higher percents. Also don't forget you can walk around while using uptilt, honestly the only real downside of the Golden Axe is the durability, so make sure you're keeping track and have another material ready for when it breaks. Sometimes I even postpone mining diamond so I can repair the Gold Tools (with more gold) BEFORE they break. Its a really underrated option tbh.

The Gold Sword is also rly good close quarters due to the walking jab, its sooooo fast that you can usually poke out of block strings and shield pressure without getting hit or even trading. Like seriously walking backwards with the Golden Sword is so good lol. Even simply jabbing on shield with Gold is a guessing game due to the low endlag, easy punish if they try to grab. ALSO the Golden Sword aerials are amazing out of shield options because Steve is usually lacking OOS. Again, just be mentally aware of the durability because tools breaking in neutral automatically puts Steve in disadvantage.

Gold Pickaxe is just a solid quick aerial, but you do mine slightly faster so there's a plus. (BTW you mine faster with ALL Gold tools not just the pickaxe). The weaker durability is more detrimental with the pickaxe tho, because suddenly being unable to fair or bair could easily lead to losing stage control, a stock, or the entire game. Plus you'll usually use the pickaxe to mine, so you literally need one at all times. I know I stressed the importance of repairing/upgrading gold tools before they break, but keep in mind that you can mismatch tools if they DO break.

For example: if your Gold Sword breaks but your other tools are still intact, you can repair the Sword with a material such as Iron while keeping the Gold ones. Not many expect the vast differences in frame data when you have 2 different materials in your toolkit, so its a good mixup at times. Obviously this doesn't apply to Diamond, since it overwrites all Gold Tools and upgrades them all.

Overall the only real downsides to using Gold is the weaker durability and the cost, because its also used for powered minecarts. Powered Minecart is heavily essential to Steve's meta since its one of his few burst options. So its up to you to weigh the pros and cons during the match and decide which would benefit you more. IME using Gold for powered Minecarts is more consistent, but Gold Tools also have their niche in his kit. (not saying gold is bad, powered minecart is just that good.) Just remember to hop out of the minecart occasionally so its a grab, and mixup the timing for when you do hop out, to avoid getting predictable.

I'm happy to help btw, Steve was one of my most wanteds and I'm glad he actually made it into smash ultimate lmao I lowkey still cant believe it

 

[Mike 223]

Thanks For The Help!