Xyro77
Unity Ruleset Committee Member
The Future of Samus: THE LEDGE
This thread will slowly turn into what XYRO thinks is the the future of Samus in Brawl. Over the past month or 2, ive been able to beat people CLEARLY better than me(razer/atmosk/royr/kismet......ect). Not by spamming or by out smarting them or by going metaknight. Ive beat them by literally LIVING on the ledge. I spend 99% of my game on the ledge or running around to get to the ledge. So by knowing how samus works and applying that while im on the ledge, it has granted me SO MANY options and at the same time reduced SO MANY of the enemys options.
PART 1: The way you view Samus/Brawl.
I need ALL of you to take how you feel about samus, how you feel about brawl, how you feel about whats FAIR and NOT FAIR, how you feel about Samus vs whoever and throw it all out the window. Kiss it goodbye and lob its *** out the 50th floor of some big *** building. I need ALL of you to realize that you CANNOT play fair with Samus any more. You CANNOT think to yourself "i feel so bad when i do abc/xyz/123 to the foe, it feels wrong." I need ALL of you to take what ever morals you have with Samus and flush it down the potty. I need ALL of you to really change the way you think about all of this because its time to play as HOMO and boring and as ******** as possible from now on. Think of it this way, will a metaknight/ddd/snake/falco/olimar/FBI/CIA/DVD/VCR take it easy on you? Will they think thier move set is too powerfull for you so they will not try as hard vs you? BULL ****! They will HOMO your *** up as much as possible to get that win. Well its time to take that HOMO and ram it up thier ***!!!
"but why, Mr. Lesbian?!?!?!?!?!!?!?"
Because if you do, you will be able to beat every character in the game but 3 or 4 on just about ANY stage. I kid you not! If you do what i am about to explain to you in this thread, you will be able to beat people that are clearly better than you. I know it sounds like "WTF, you are stupid" but its the truth!!!! Have faith, i have never sent you down a path you cannot win.
PART 2: Grab/tether/get-up attack(over and under 100%) ledge data.
In this section i will take a second and give you some basic ledge info when it comes to Samus. This isnt game breaking but it is good to know and it will help you later on down the road. Just give it a chance to sink in.
When Samus does a ledge get-up attack UNDER 100%
ledge attack quick: (<100%)
invulnerable frames 1-24
Hitbox on frame 25-29
When Samus does a ledge get-up attack from OVER 100%
ledge attack slow: (>100%)
invulnerable frames: 1-42
Hitbox on frame 38-42
When Samus GRABS the ledge:
Invincibility Frames - 46
Ledge Grab Lag Frames - 24
Ledge Drop Frame - 26
When samus TETHERS the ledge:
Invincibility Frames - 23
Ledge Grab Lag Frames - 1
Ledge Drop Frame - 3
Extra Info
-You can only re-grab the ledge after 30 frames from letting go. For tethers it's like 1 frame.
-You cannot buffer a ledge drop. So you have to be frame perfect on the ledge drop if you want to take advantage of every invincibility frame.
-Invincibility frames start as soon as the character does their ledge reach animation. For tether users, they start when their tether is fully retracted.
-The maximum amount of invincibility frames on ledge drop is 21 frames for everyone.
Now we all know that when a character auto snaps to the ledge from a UP+B or jump you can see that you dont have to aim EXACTLY at the ledge right? Well samus is the one character that has the LARGEST auto snap from her UP+B in the game(she can be farther away from the ledge than any other character and can still auto snap to it). He also has the LONGEST horizontal tether in the game.
PART 3: The timer/ledge stalling rules and limits.
Stalling rule: The act of deliberately avoiding any and all conflict so that one may make the game unplayable. Running away from an opponent to reach a better position is not stalling.
When we ledge stall it is totally punishable(GW/meta/pit and MAYBE lucario and fox can stop us) so the rule above that states "one may make the game unplayable" is N/A when it comes to us. We are safe.
Timers/ledge grab limits: Most events have a 7-8 min timer AND a 50-100 ledge grab limit. Do some quick math to see how long it take for you to eat up all 100 grabs(assuming u just fall to UP+B). Then figure how much is left over and make the needed changes lke take more time while up+B or stay on the stage for a certain amount of time THEN eat up your ledge grabs or camp platform for a bit.....ect. Some levels( norfair, brinstar, japes, castle seige prt 2, pirate ship, pkmn stadium mountain/fire/water,Smashville moving platform) allow you to stay near the ledge but never even come close to eating up all your ledge grabs. There are ways around the ledge limit. Be creative and THINK about it.
PART 4: What can we do from the ledge?
This section will be a list of options that I KNOW you can do while on or from the ledge. I will leave certain not very usefull or very situational stuff out and put it in the video section later on.
Zair:
We can zair from the ledge and through the ledge(which can cover HALF the stage) to nail the foes feet. On certain stages like Halbert/Delphino/brinstar we can cover MORE than half the stage with our zair by going slightly under the stage. We can also wall jump certain stages like BF/FD and zair the opposite way of the ledge to prevent the foe from coming back off. We can also do the classic re-tether gimp to stop peoples UP+B recoveries.
Lock-on missles/Super missles/Charge shot
Again, wall jumping these puppies can send the projectiles off stage to gimp the foe. Wall jumping them on FD can make them travel the floor of FD. Stages like dephino/halbert allow you to shoot missles THROUGH the stage. Whats even more important is the charge shot going through ALL the stages due to the tech called "reverse charge shot" you can also reverse throw amor pieces/bombs/bananas while near the ledge and fire a charge shot through the stage as you fall off.
F-air and U-air
You can F-air/U-air people from the ledge and have the potential of shield poking which can lead to many thing suck as up+b, D tilt,d-smash, jabs, grabs.....ect. You can also try the LESS risky/pretty safe RETREATING fair/uair. Fair/uair from ledge on certain stages where there is a breakable item(brinstar/luigis mansion polls....ect) will extend the time the hit box is out which can lead to easier hits. On certain stages like halbert and Delphino you can even go under the stage for a quick hit or 2 from uair or fair.
The whole point of me explaining this basic stuff is to get you to realize that getting the percent lead or getting free damage isnt really that hard because it involves LITTLE risk and decent damage output if you land it right. If by doing fair/uair/missles/Charge shot and it hurts/combos the foe, you did your job. No go back to the ledge and relax. In other words, get the damage in and go back to/stay on the ledge.
PART 5: The problems we face and how we counter it.
1. What if the foe decides to stay on the other side of the stage and not approach and/or power shields everything? Our CS/Missle/Zair to grab stuff can be landed at LEAST ONCE. Land it then head to the ledge and go from there. In other words, get a percent lead and then go for ledge.
2. Meta/GW can and will stop your attempts to stay on the ledge. GW/meta nair and UP+B crushes all ledge stalling techniques. There is no cure for it. Pits Nair/Uair can mess us up. Lucarios Dair can mess us up if we do not keep our eyes open. Foxs shine can screw us all to hell if we do not pay close attention. Other than that there is little to NO WAY any other character can stop us, its all a matter of seeing thier attempt coming and avoiding it.
Example:
DDD will run off ledge and bair and then attempt to repeat bair you once hes off the stage.
Marth will run off and Bair and then fair and then UP+B.
Snake will drop nades and C4 and set it all off or be dumb and run off and bair.
Diddy will drop a banana then follow it off stage to attack you.
See? its all common sense, easy to avoid stuff and they cant be creative with it. And some times they are so worried about trying to hit you while you are on the ledge they leave them selfs open for zair through stage or other stuff.
3. What if they choose a stage that you REALLY cant ledge stall on like rainbow cruise/brinstar? Then platform camp/run(samus has really good jumps and ways to stall in the air[bombs]). This can be done on nearly ANY level to nearly ANY character. You just need to THINK about what you are doing and dont be so predictable. This can also be mixed with the ledge limit rule to help you save some of you ledge grabs for later on in the match.
PART 6: Videos
Coming soon.......
PART 7: Too long didnt read
Get % or stock lead, stay on the ledge untill timer runs out.