Here's what I've found (not sure if any of these have been posted yet lol):
All on Pit CPU with DI set to "a lot"
D-Throw > B-Air works at all percents from 0-71
D-Throw > U-Air works all percents from 49-130ish. Average-weight characters will die at around 105-110. Heavyweights will die at around 120-130, but the combo works on them for much longer.
D-Air > Up Smash works all percents from 40-69
D-Air > U-Air work all percents from 70-110ish
U-Tilt > U-Air works all percents from 45-69
I'm definitely not the best, so a lot of these percents might be a bit off. Please correct my information if you catch a mistake!
Careful with AI testing-- their DI seems to be random, rather than necessarily optimal. Though, the numbers don't sound too far off (other than D-throw up air, which definitely feels reactable at post 90%, at least), and I don't think you can even DI a stage-bouncing spike, so knowing when Dair combos work takes a lot of stress out of trying to react around it. Up tilt -> Uair is news to me, though. Definitely sounds like a fun one to try-- might be able to bait an airdodge at high %s to fish for KOs past 70, if they're conditioned by the middle % combo into trying to mash airdodge out of it. Especially since Nair probably works as a mixup. Nice stuff there.
I've been on a mission to figure out Zelda's neutral game (approaching), how to handle projectiles (i.e. Links, Belmonts), and how to deal with having to drop shield (given that shield drop grab is generally not happening). Finally starting to see some nice results:
For approaching in neutral, retreating is, weirdly, the most important part. Nine times out of ten, it seems like the best answer to an opponent's approach (or lack thereof) is to mix up how you're moving. Dash dancing to space out someone's aerial approach and force a landing (or double jump), dashing into a dash approach to try and read them with a spotdodge buffered jab (or just dashing into a dash grab with a dash attack), dash dancing into Ftilts (especially when chased on a retreat), dashing away as someone approaches, but immediately dashing back when reading the jump to cover their landing with Uair/Usmash or such, or even just dash dancing a "step" or two away and jumping as they start to fall, if they can't cover the upwards diagonal angle safely (letting you FF Nair or fish for a Fair). There's a lot more nuance in the movement mindgames that you need to play, but trying some other characters has gotten me a much better grip on how neutral "works" now. It's all about the dash mixups until someone jumps, basically, and Zelda is much better at waiting out the air time and contesting landings (because SH Fair, Phantom, et cetera are all fantastic tools for sniping landings). tl;dr: Force a jump, dash away (or under), space out their landing to punish, ideally with a combo or by forcing them off-stage. Assuming Phantom doesn't free win neutral for you, that is, but that's a bit matchup dependent.
As for projectiles, while dash grab out of shield drop isn't exactly great, empty hopping out of shield becomes a lot better when advancing-- especially if you don't get greedy and just use the opportunity to take up residence just outside of panic dash attack punish range. I've hit a few Fairs now by landing just outside of Link's range, only to SH Fair that slow dash attack (or a dash grab), and even my misses put me in a decent position (sometimes even just a second empty hop into turnaround grab can easily punish dash attack endlag). It requires you to be close enough that they can't easily dash cancel a tilt out, and it's unreliable unless you've forced them to retreat a bit, but it definitely helps. Also, jump cancelled neutral B can screw with greedy dash-ins up close (especially OoS). High commitment, but decent when reading one of those powerpoint presentation flowchart Links or Belmonts, for sure. Other than that, specials in general are extremely helpful-- Nayru's is great for screwing with slow projectiles (hitting a boomerang's return can really screw with a Link, and covers your approach), up B can punish the windup for a grounded boomreang, axe, cross, or arrow (it feels greedy, but up B is so fast now that projectile windups are almost reactable at times), Phantom screws over bombs and arrows in particular (assuming you never get greedy with trying to charge it), and side B keeps surprising me by being way more useful than I expect. It moves quick enough to hit a boomerang read (or, more easily, a cross read), and it's a decent punish to poorly spaced axes or the like, as well. I definitely need to use more of Din's, as it feels almost mandatory to force approaches when there's no time to charge phantom (a short charged phantom into side B has proven to help a lot-- as has grabbing bombs and forcing approaches with side B or opening up an approach via neutral B on a boomerang). tl;dr: Specials and lots of empty hops make projectile camp much more manageable, and I need to lean on them more.
And then there's OoS, which is still my weakest point, for sure-- old habits die hard. Spot dodging a lot more has certainly helped, and you can even get a few dash grabs out of that, but parrying still feels a bit too incidental by compare (and it's harder for me to anticipate and react to, personally, outside of the hardest reads with perfect spacing). Jumping out of shield can be be buffered on shield stun, which makes it a lot easier to work with, and SH Fair on a
sour spot still doesn't feel terrible-- sweet spot is obviously a won trade, mind. Retreating empty hops that fast fall to a dash mixup feel relatively strong, as do the occasional short hop crossups (sometimes even into a fade back Bair). But I'm not finding may chances to convert a jump out of shield into any actual combos, which is ultimately what I'm looking for... spot dodging OoS has felt pretty decent, in any case, and I'm finding myself doing a lot of, say, shielding the first hit of Link's Fsmash and then spot dodging OoS into a jab or grab, but parrying obviously works just as well in most of those cases... that said, I've gotten more grabs by spot dodging after a shielded jab combo's predictably buffered grab than I have from anything else other than catching a landing. Plus, spot dodging out of a dash has been a nice mixup. tl;dr: Spot dodging more and shield hops feel equally important OoS. Jump cancelling Neutral/Up B feel sitationally
okay (Up B when forced to jump out of shield near ledge helps here and there), and aggressive OoS options still feel...
okay.
As for combos (yeah, the
actual topic, I know uwu), I'm mostly trying to figure out if there's any way to use sourspot landing Fairs as a combo confirm. Though, sourspotting Fair
intentionally is proving way more difficult than I expected, so I'll need more practice before I can try and figure anything out with that. Utilt is, of course, probably the best bet, but Dtilt almost certainly will work if Utilt does, jab might work out, and maybe even standing grab would work... though, grounded hitstun feels... well, nonexistent, as I see Ike jabbing through my grounded hits in nightmares every night now. As an aside, Uair that immediately fast-falls isn't terrible for juggling, even against swordies, but you've just got to keep in mind that it basically
needs to be timed such that you reach the apex of your jump early enough to fast fall as you use Uair, or you're just getting downstabbed. Trying to get that vertical spacing right has been... interesting? If, by interesting, I mean "the cause of just so many SD hops into Dairs, but because I screwed up-- not because it doesn't work".
Anywhos, going to try fighting more Inkling and Chrom next. Spending all that time practicing against camp has me losing my feel for fighting against more aggro fighters, now. ^^;