Remember last time you and nana were separated, then she randomly SD-ed. Or that other time where snake f-smashed her and you were out of range to save her? Or when metaknight started air comboing her into a gimp and you stood there watching without any means to counter this. This is why I decided to make an analysis of Nana's AI in order to understand and use it to our advangtage.
List of known facts:
1. When within your range, Nana will use any attack you use after a set delay, copying the input and not the output.
2.Even within range, some moves will allow you to desynch from Nana for long enough to use different inputs.
3.B-Moves will instantly desynch ics for a short period of time.
4.Out of your range, you can use Up-B and Side B resynch both ice climbers.
5.Whenever out of range, Nana will hold the control stick towards you and try to reach you, resetting output after every time she is interrupted(she gets hit, then start pressing towards you directly after).
6.Nana determines her path using the angle rather than the obstacles between you and her!
7.Whenever offstage, Nana still abides by those rule but will jump and Up-B by herself.
Application:
A) Teaching Nana to DI!
Whenever Nana is out of range, she is automatically holding in your direction and will reset the input on first frame of hitlag when she gets hit. The result of this is that she will not only SDI once in your direction, but also automatically ASDI/DI in your direction. If for example you are to the right of snake and nana is coming from the left and he forward tilts her, chances are her SDI will get her behind him before the second attack hits her. This is also very useful for example whenever MK is too high for you to hit but he is consistently U-Airing Nana in the hope of doing a 0 to death finishing with tornado. If you stay under him, Nana will DI downward meaning that it will extremely easy for him to finish the combo. On the other hand, if you run to either side of the stage, Nana will angle her DI more horizontally which will allow her to get out of the combo because she has good SDI abilities due to the new angle created by going to the sides as seen here.
B) Controlling Nanas movement from afar to escape bad positions
Whenever Nana is stuck away from you, she will by default follow the angle to get to you no matter what. This can be a problem when she is high up in diagonal away from you but going directly towards the opponent which is going to consistently attack her as she moves towards you. The best way to fix this is by changing the angle radically by running across the stage to get nana to go another way. This can be seen here. This is very noticeable whenever Rob for example tries to N-Air multiple time Nana out of your range and you want her to get out of his range because she is technically aiming at him.
C)Forcing Nana to jump to potentially escape fatal moves
Whenever Nana is across the stage she usually directly runs towards you which results in her getting directly punished by receiving a fully charged forward smash from many characters. This can be especially dangerous vs characters such as snake. Many people tend to use Up b or ice block to try and save nana from the hit but the ice block is often too slow and up B leaves you in a position just as punishable. Since nana act according to the angle and not the distance, you want to radically change your angle to something more vertical so that Nana will jump since as soon as your reach a certain angle she jumps. Ice block keeps you longer and the air and even allows you to sometimes to stop the F-Smash.
D)Understanding the various AI problems with nana.
Nana sometimes cannot recover from under the stage and dies instead of recovering, this is because she goes by angle and not by path as seen here. You can try to go more to the left to help her or use up b since the range goes through even solid objects.
Whenever Nana is right by you and she is falling and you are near the edge of the stage and she is about to grab it, if you shield an attack she will automatically airdodge, miss the ledge and die since she copies the input.
Whenever you use a b move and up directly after, since you are desynched you will both up b at the same time but desynched meaning you will both die.
Problems remaining to be analyzed: Get up options for nana and more
List of known facts:
1. When within your range, Nana will use any attack you use after a set delay, copying the input and not the output.
2.Even within range, some moves will allow you to desynch from Nana for long enough to use different inputs.
3.B-Moves will instantly desynch ics for a short period of time.
4.Out of your range, you can use Up-B and Side B resynch both ice climbers.
5.Whenever out of range, Nana will hold the control stick towards you and try to reach you, resetting output after every time she is interrupted(she gets hit, then start pressing towards you directly after).
6.Nana determines her path using the angle rather than the obstacles between you and her!
7.Whenever offstage, Nana still abides by those rule but will jump and Up-B by herself.
Application:
A) Teaching Nana to DI!
Whenever Nana is out of range, she is automatically holding in your direction and will reset the input on first frame of hitlag when she gets hit. The result of this is that she will not only SDI once in your direction, but also automatically ASDI/DI in your direction. If for example you are to the right of snake and nana is coming from the left and he forward tilts her, chances are her SDI will get her behind him before the second attack hits her. This is also very useful for example whenever MK is too high for you to hit but he is consistently U-Airing Nana in the hope of doing a 0 to death finishing with tornado. If you stay under him, Nana will DI downward meaning that it will extremely easy for him to finish the combo. On the other hand, if you run to either side of the stage, Nana will angle her DI more horizontally which will allow her to get out of the combo because she has good SDI abilities due to the new angle created by going to the sides as seen here.
B) Controlling Nanas movement from afar to escape bad positions
Whenever Nana is stuck away from you, she will by default follow the angle to get to you no matter what. This can be a problem when she is high up in diagonal away from you but going directly towards the opponent which is going to consistently attack her as she moves towards you. The best way to fix this is by changing the angle radically by running across the stage to get nana to go another way. This can be seen here. This is very noticeable whenever Rob for example tries to N-Air multiple time Nana out of your range and you want her to get out of his range because she is technically aiming at him.
C)Forcing Nana to jump to potentially escape fatal moves
Whenever Nana is across the stage she usually directly runs towards you which results in her getting directly punished by receiving a fully charged forward smash from many characters. This can be especially dangerous vs characters such as snake. Many people tend to use Up b or ice block to try and save nana from the hit but the ice block is often too slow and up B leaves you in a position just as punishable. Since nana act according to the angle and not the distance, you want to radically change your angle to something more vertical so that Nana will jump since as soon as your reach a certain angle she jumps. Ice block keeps you longer and the air and even allows you to sometimes to stop the F-Smash.
D)Understanding the various AI problems with nana.
Nana sometimes cannot recover from under the stage and dies instead of recovering, this is because she goes by angle and not by path as seen here. You can try to go more to the left to help her or use up b since the range goes through even solid objects.
Whenever Nana is right by you and she is falling and you are near the edge of the stage and she is about to grab it, if you shield an attack she will automatically airdodge, miss the ledge and die since she copies the input.
Whenever you use a b move and up directly after, since you are desynched you will both up b at the same time but desynched meaning you will both die.
Problems remaining to be analyzed: Get up options for nana and more
haha
