Super Smash Bros. The Advanced Techniques

A c o m p i l a t i o n i n c l u d i n g t h e techniques of shor t hopping, fast fa l l ing, z-cance l ing , teching, and sh ie ldgrabb ing

Contents

GENERAL

MOVEMENT

Short Hop

Fastfall

Teching

Reflex Tech

Initial Dash

Dashdancing

Pivoting

Z-cancel (L-cancel)

Ledge Cancel

Taunt Canceling

Jump-cancel (JC)

ATTACKING

Jabs, Tilts, Smashes, Dash Attacks

Nair, Fair, Uair, Dair, Bair

Spike

Priority

Hitbox

Stale Move Negation

SHIELDING

Shieldstun

Shield Adjustment

Shield Break Combo

Shieldgrabbing

Drop Counter (Edgeshielding)

Shielddropping

THE EDGEGAME

Edgeguard

Edge Get-up

Edgehog

Ledgehop

Sweetspotting

GETTING HIT

Hitstun

Knockback

Crouch Cancel

Combo

Hitlag

MISCILLANEOUS

Baiting

Gimping

Sandbagging

Metagame

Tier List

Advanced Slob Picks

Other Slang

CHARACTER SPECIFIC

MOVEMENT

Double Jump Cancel

Rising Tornado

Rising Pound

Changing Direction In Midair

Samus's Bomb Jump

Falcon Punch Recovery

Link's Bomb Recovery

Teleport Dash

Extended Quick Attack

ATTACKING

Jab Cancel (Jab Grab)

Shine

Shine Cancel

SHDL

DJC Counter

Yoshi’s Strong Upb

Punch Cancel

Infinite Throw Trap

Samus’s Fast Charge Cancel

SHIELDING

Parry

ADVANCED

MOVEMENT

Advanced Jumping

Advanced Falling

Advanced Dash Pivoting

Advanced DJC

ATTACKING

Link’s No-clip Boomerang

Link’s Invisible Bomb Glitch

On Grabbing

IASA Frames

Sliding Fsmash

SHIELDING

Shielddashing

Advanced Shielddropping

Advanced Dodging

THE EDGEGAME

Ledge B-cancel

Dash Pivot Edgehog

Shine Edgehog

Falcon’s Dive Boost

Yoshi’s Downb Recovery

Fox’s Shortened Upb

Ness’s Wallride Recovery

Buffered Ledge Drop

GETTING HIT

Directional Influence (DI, SDI)

EXPERT

MOVEMENT

Pikachu’s Double Vertical Upb

Mario & Luigi’s Extra Vertical Upb

DJC-rushing

B-cancel

Auto-cancel (perfect landing)

Kirby’s Sliding Upb

Kirby’s Fast Rock Drop

Crouch Pivoting

THE EDGEGAME

Link’s Descending Upb

B-move Ledge Boost

Yoshi’s DJC Ledge-grab

Fake Ledge Jump

Falcon’s Extended Dive

Falcon Dive Cancel

GETTING HIT

x2 DI

MISCILLANEOUS

Drop Cancel

See the end of this guide for notes, acknowledgements, and other details.

G E N E R A L

Movement

Short Hop

Pressing jump for a short amount of time results in a much shorter jump than usual.

Technical details: Before a character jumps from the ground, they must first crouch down for a split second (called

the pre-jump animation). If the control stick or jump button is released during this crouch, then the character short

hops.

Fastfall

Press down after the apex of your jump to fall much faster than normal. There will be a flash of light on your

character when you do so.

Teching

Press Z just before you land from getting hit to make your character get up quickly. Holding left or right will make

your character roll along the ground. Predicting and following an opponent’s tech is called techchasing. (Tech is

also obviously a common abbreviation for “technique”.)

� � Teching allows Jigglypuff to escape DK’s downb trap by rolling to the right

Reflex Tech

If you get hit away with high momentum and come in contact with any ground, teching towards the direction you

came from will greatly lessen the knockback, and in most cases allow you to recover. You'll still slide a fair distance,

sometimes off the stage altogether.

Initial Dash

After the initial dash animation (having entered the normal dash), it takes time for a character to stop the dash

and turn around. However, during the initial dash, you can immediately turn around and dash in the opposite

direction.

Note that the initial dash (also just called a dash) and the normal dash (also called a run) are states, not measures

of distance. Even if you were to turn around from running and go only a short distance before turning again, you’d

still be in the normal dash and have the turnaround lag.

Dashdancing

Chaining initial dashes in opposite directions.

Pivoting

You can dash in one direction and then smash the other direction while holding A. You immediately do a smash

attack the direction you were evading from. In general, a dash pivot attack is where you dash forward, quickly

press backward before the initial dash is over, and attack (usually a quick jab, tilt, or smash).

Z-cancel

Pressing Z right before you hit the ground after an aerial attack to cancel landing lag. Most noticeable with Link's

sword plant. Not all aerials need to be canceled (e.g. Ness’s down aerial). Also called lag cancel.

Samus’s back aerial:

� � Without Z-cancel (notice how Samus loses balance)

� � With Z-cancel

Ledge Cancel

1. Grazing a ledge while falling cancels all landing lag (even a normal landing still has some lag) and, in most cases,

counts as having landed (exceptions include DK’s upb, which doesn’t reset, often causing players to fall to their

doom). No need to Z-cancel for aerials. Also called a slide-off.

2. You can cancel a normal dash (eliminate braking lag) by stopping at an edge (involves letting go of the control

stick right before reaching the edge), allowing you to attack and/or move instantly. Initial dashes cannot be

ledge-canceled normally without sliding off.

Taunt Canceling

1. If you ledge cancel into a taunt, the “teetering at the edge” animation will override the taunt animation,

sometimes with the taunt sound still playing.

(Advanced: You can ledge cancel an initial dash by taunt canceling, which stops the slide-off momentum. So

this tech actually has a tactical use! If you can do this on-the-go throughout matches, though, I want to see

how you hold your controller o_O)

2. You can also taunt cancel by taunting on the respawn platform.

Jump-cancel

1. Cancelling the shield, dash, or other animation with a jump.

2. Cancelling the pre-jump animation of a character with an attack (also called buffering). You can only do this

with usmash and upb (jump-canceling was designed for these two attacks so it would be easier to perform them

without accidentally jumping). This means you can do a usmash or upb out of shield (OOS) and in the middle of

a dash.

Attacking

Jabs, Tilts, Smashes, Dash Attacks

Pressing A without direction = neutral A or jab (in this guide: jab, AA, AAA, rapid A)

Pressing A with stick already tilted = tilt attack (ftilt*, utilt, dtilt refer to forward, up, and down tilts)

Pressing A while tapping stick = smash attack (fsmash*, usmash, dsmash refer to forward, up, and down smashes)

Pressing A while your character is running = dash attack

High Ftilt Normal Ftilt Low Ftilt

*You can angle ftilts (above) and some fsmashes by holding them in a certain direction (down-left, up-right, etc.)

Nair, Fair, Uair, Dair, Bair

Refers to neutral, forward, up, down, and back air attacks. (Also used: AFA for “aerial forward A”, and so on.)

Translation: “Four directions + 1” (the +1 is the nair at the center)

Spike

An attack that makes the opponent fly straight down. A tornado spike is a spike done with Mario’s downb (hit

them with your feet at the end). A thunder “spike” is an upward kill done with Pikachu’s downb. Not every

character has a spike (Link and Pikachu don’t have any) and some characters have multiple spikes (e.g. DK, Kirby).

Priority

Refers to an attack’s hitbox’s ability to trump another attack hitbox if both collide. For ground vs. ground attacks,

if an attack is stronger than another by more than 8% damage, it wins (otherwise the attacks clank). Aerials and

grabs don’t use priority rules, so their success is determined by their range and whether they reach the opponent’s

hurtbox in time. However, while clashing aerials can cause damage to both players if the hitboxes reach their

targets at the same time, simultaneous grabs result in only one player succeeding. Grabs done on the same frame

favor the player with the higher controller port priority (P1>P2>P3>P4).

Hitbox

Most commonly, the area of an attack that is able to damage your opponent. This area is only represented by the

character’s model on screen, and is not always consistent with what you see on screen. Some attacks, like Kirby’s

utilt and Mario’s dtilt, have hitboxes that extend beyond the character’s actual model. The character itself is

represented by hitboxes as well. The range the attacking hitbox goes beyond the attacker’s hitboxes is referred to

as the disjointedness of the attacking hitbox. An obvious example of a well disjointed hitbox is any of Link’s sword

attacks, while many other non-obvious examples exist for the reasons mentioned previously. You either

understand these from experience, or use cheat devices to see them.

In general, the “boxes” that underlie the mechanics of character-to-character and character-to-stage interactions

are called collision boxes.

Red represents a damaging hitbox, yellow represents a damageable hitbox (popularly called a hurtbox).

Green and blue represent invincible areas. As seen here, DK’s hands are invulnerable when using his upb.

Stale Move Negation

If you hit with a move more than once, it will become “stale” (have less damage and knockback). It takes a

sequence of three other moves to make a stale move “fresh” again. This was intended by the designers to

encourage move diversity—using a character to its full potential, instead of spamming one move over and over

again (you may have noticed in single player they even have a “Cheap Shot -99” bonus for you if you spam an

attack for over 35% damage). This may also explain many random moments when you thought an attack would kill

someone but it didn’t—it might have been stale.

The practical applications of this involve more than conserving moves—oftentimes moves are deliberately

weakened so they can be used in specific setups and combos.

Shielding

Shieldstun

The period of time after getting hit while shielded where you cannot do anything.

Shield Adjustment

By tilting the control stick slightly, you can adjust the position of your shield.

By tilting his shield up, Falcon blocks Samus’s nair

Shield Break Combo

A combo that keeps the opponent in shieldstun until the shield breaks.

Shieldgrabbing

Hold your shield with Z, and grab by pressing A. Used against people who spam dash attacks and other ground

attacks. Does half the damage of a regular grab.

Drop Counter

By shielding at an edge, attacks that knock you off will allow you to retaliate instantly with an aerial attack.

Shielddropping

You can drop through a platform while shielded by holding down. Faster than crouching then dropping.

The Edgegame

Edgeguard

Attacking your opponent as they are coming back to the stage.

Edge Get-up

The term for pressing up (normal get-up), A (attacking get-up), or Z (rolling get-up) when holding on to an edge.

When you have over 100% damage, these animations are slower and sometimes change altogether (e.g. DK’s

attacking get-up loses considerable range, and Falcon’s attacking get-up gains huge priority).

Edgehog

Holding onto an edge so an enemy cannot grab it to recover. At over 100% damage, it takes your character longer

to roll back onto the stage, edgehogging for longer than normal.

Ledgehop

Falling from the ledge and jumping immediately. Looks like you jumped from the ledge.

Sweetspotting

Recovering so you just barely grab the edge, avoiding higher attacks. Grabbing the edge gives you invincibility

frames almost immediately. This term is also sometimes used for hitting with the strongest part of an attack.

Getting Hit

Hitstun

The period of time after getting hit where you cannot do anything (except DI during the freeze fames, explained

later). Hitstun duration is determined by the attack and the character being hit. A character, like Samus, that

suffers little hitstun is said to have good hit-recovery.

Knockback

How far an attack sends its target. Not necessarily correlated with attack power (Yoshi’s dair has high damage but

low knockback). Not necessarily correlated with accumulated damage either (Fox’s reflector has unchanging

knockback regardless of the enemy’s percent).

Crouch Cancel

Crouching to cancel some of the knockback and hitstun generated by an attack.

Combo

A sequence of attacks that keeps the opponent in hitstun. A combo that starts from the first hit on an opponent

and lasts until they are knocked out is called a 0-to-death combo. A large part of the game involves designing and

executing combos (few preset combos unlike in other fighting games).

Note: the training mode counter will wrongly reset if the opponent hits the wall or is grabbed.

Hitlag

The lag the attacker gets from hitting an opponent or a shield. Explains why techniques like DJC chains or Z-

canceling can be done consistently with nobody around, but when you actually hit someone with them you often

miss their timing (this is one of the most common beginner issues when trying to learn those techniques).

Hitlag is most obvious with multi-hit attacks such as such as Mario's downb, Samus’s upb, Pikachu’s fair, and drill

attacks. In fact, the lengthy hitlag of these attacks allows for more DI.

Miscellaneous

Baiting

Trying to get the opponent to use a certain move or tactic to the baiter’s advantage.

Gimping

A gimp kill is a very low percent kill that can put a large swing on the outcome of a match. Characters with low

vertical or slow recoveries, like Link and Donkey Kong, get gimped the most.

Sandbagging

Sandbagging is the act of playing poorly on purpose. In friendly matches, players may sandbag to keep others from

learning their style, or to be allowed into easier divisions for tournaments. Other times, in professional matches

when a small amount of money is on the line, players sandbag in hopes of winning more money at a later time

(though the term is nowadays rarely used this way).

Metagame

In the general sense, the term ‘metagame’ refers to trends within how that game is played by its players, or a

subset of its players. At any time, certain characters, strategies, tactics, tricks, skills, etc. may be popular. The

metagame evolves over time as players adapt to it in order to gain an advantage, and then others adapt to these

adaptations, and so on.

Tier List

A ranking of each character's metagame, based on tournament settings. They usually rank how well the characters

are played at that time, at their peak, in tournaments, or how they are expected to perform in the future.

Individual match-ups against other characters affect but do not entirely determine a character's ranking (although

the newest Smashboards list for SSB is mostly based off of match-ups). Sometimes a character carries an

advantage over a higher-ranked character—such a match-up is known as a counter; e.g. Luigi counters Jigglypuff.

Advanced Slob Picks

Common system used in tournaments: in a set, the loser of the previous game picks the next stage, then the

winner chooses a character, then the loser chooses a character.

Other Slang

That you may encounter:

Rapetent, Isai’s house, The Pit—Nicknames for the green hut area on Hyrule.

Jab jail—Fox’s continuous-jab combos.

Sex kick—Nair

The Gentleman—The third hit of Falcon’s AAA, when it is not continued into rapid A.

The Doug Hug—Falcon’s upb (his full name being Douglas J. Falcon)

TAS—Tool-Assisted Speedrun (but used to refer to any tool-assisted demonstration of a game using slow motion

and save/reload states). Used to show the limits a game can be taken to.

Ditto—A match where both players choose the same character, e.g. “Fox dittos”

John–Any excuse for losing other than an acknowledgement of a skill gap. “No johns”

X-stocked—if someone got X-stocked, they lost a game with their opponent still having X stocks left

JV X-stocked—the opponent won with X-1 stocks but with 0% damage on his/her finishing stock.

C H A R A C T E R S P E C I F I C

Movement

Double Jump Cancel (DJC)

Ness and Yoshi can cancel their double jump with an attack. Allows aerials to come out and end even faster than

short hopping and fast falling. DJC can be used to chain aerials quickly, or break shields easily. One of the more

famous techniques due to its popular TAS demonstrations.

Rising Tornado

Mashing B during their tornado moves allows Mario and Luigi to gain height. Holding a direction will also cause

them to move a bit diagonally. Improves vertical recovery and also horizontal recovery to some extent.

Rising tornado with maximum input:

The absolute maximum height they can reach from ground level with this technique. Despite appearances, it is only just

enough for both of them to land on the center platform of Dreamland. They both gain the same height—Luigi’s just taller.

Rising Pound

By holding up just after pressing B (the Pound move), you can make Jigglypuff rise. This gives Jigglypuff substantial

horizontal recovery (also, by holding down, you’ll do a descending Pound).

Changing Direction In Midair

Some characters, like Samus, cannot turn around in midair with their upb. However, they can use their B attacks

instead to turn around.

Samus’s Bomb Jump

Samus can increase her horizontal recovery slightly by using her bomb in midair. Caution: If Samus hasn't used her

second jump, it is erased after using a bomb.

Falcon Punch Recovery

Using a Falcon Punch while in the air gives Captain Falcon slight horizontal movement. Also, the attack can be

angled in midair by hitting up or down right after hitting B, which can boost his vertical recovery slightly as well.

Link’s Bomb Recovery

Link can recover using his bomb in various ways:

1. If you have the bomb already when knocked off, jump, upb, then after the explosion, do another upb.

2. After getting knocked off, take out a bomb, smash throw it up, jump, then upb the bomb so it propels you

toward the edge, do another upb.

3. After getting knocked off, take out a bomb, tilt throw it below you, use bair on the bomb so it propels you

toward the edge, jump, upb (or jump before taking out the bomb).

Teleport Dash

Jigglypuff, Fox and Samus have the ability to “teleport”. Contrary to its name, the teleport does not look like a

teleport. Instead, the teleporting character slides a short distance, looking similar to a wavedash in SSBM. Fox and

Samus’s teleports are much shorter than Jigglypuff’s (theirs are hardly noticeable).

To do a teleport, first be in the normal dash, then tap the control stick in the opposite direction, and jump three

frames (i.e. immediately) afterwards. Alternate method: Run, then quickly turn the stick 270 degrees starting

downward. You will always end a teleport with a jump unless you use a jump-canceling attack, or the length of the

teleport exceeds your distance from the edge, in which case you simply fall off the edge.

As Jigglypuff, if you jump-cancel the slide with an upb, you will get an extended teleport.

Extended Quick Attack

Pikachu’s upb can be extended if you let go of the control stick before it is finished. You can do this with both parts

of a double upb, the second part obviously being safer to perform it on.

Attacking

Jab Cancel (Jab Grab)

Pikachu, Mario, Ness, and Luigi can cancel their jabs into a grab. Useful for throw setups.

Shine

Fox's reflector, usually when it’s used as a point-blank attack. Because of its set knockback, it is often used for low

percentage KOs, called shine spikes. An aerial shine is canceled if it touches the ground.

Shine Cancel

Canceling an extremely low aerial shine. Faster than a regular shine on the ground. To shine cancel, press jump

then immediately downb. The same effect can be achieved by jumping up to a platform and shining right above

the platform’s height.

SHDL

Short hop double laser. With practice, Fox can actually fire two lasers in one short hop.

DJC Counter (Yoshi)

Both Ness and Yoshi can double jump cancel, but Yoshi has the added advantage of having resistance during his

second jump. This allows him to go right through enemy attacks (taking damage but no knockback or hitstun) and

counter immediately.

Second-jump resistance allows Yoshi to go through Fox’s edgeguarding attempt.

Yoshi’s Strong Upb

Yoshi’s egg is different from other projectiles in that doing a strong throw of it doesn’t involve tapping the control

stick as you throw. Instead, keep holding B after you’ve pressed upb. The longer you hold it down, the farther it

goes.

Punch Cancel

DK can cancel his fully charged B attack by pressing Z during the winding animation.

“Infinite” Throw Trap (DK)

The Infinite Throw Trap (also called cargo-stalling) is a technique in which DK grabs the opponent repeatedly

without throwing the grabbed opponent.

After grabbing the opponent, Donkey Kong can choose to deal damage to him/her by either tapping forward, R, or

A. This causes Donkey Kong to piggyback the opponent. During this time, Donkey Kong can walk around with or

throw the opponent until they struggle free via button mashing (if the opponent doesn't button mash, he/she will

be latched on indefinitely). Once the opponent struggles free, if DK is standing still, he can grab again almost

immediately. The opponent has a few frames in which to escape or counter. The pattern repeats as follows:

Donkey Kong grabs the opponent, he latches onto it dealing some damage, the opponent struggles free, Donkey

Kong grabs again, and so on.

Note that this is escapable, and thus not really a true infinite (in fact, it is possible to escape DK’s fthrow altogether

given maximum escape input, as proven in TAS videos).

Samus’s Fast Charge Cancel

On the ground, cancel Samus’s charging animation without the shield coming up by pressing Z very quickly (think

the difference between jumping and short hopping, except even faster).

Shielding

Parry (Yoshi)

Yoshi can block any attack without suffering any knockback or shieldstun. Block and quickly release right as an

attack hits you. Yoshi will get hit while in his invincible frames; he will then go into his egg and break out quickly (if

you blocked 2 frames before the attack, you won’t see the egg). Yoshi can then jump or grab to counter before the

opponent has a chance to react. Similar to powershielding in Melee.

A D V A N C E D

Movement

Advanced Jumping

1. Full jumps and short hops done with the control stick are higher than their C-button counterparts (the control

stick’s short hop in particular is referred to as the short stick jump). Knowing this is most useful in Break the

Targets / Board the Platforms, but it also has uses in maneuvering around stages, such as Hyrule, and in combos.

This only applies to the first jump; double jumps go the same height whether you use the joystick or a C-button.

2. Additionally, for any C-button jump, holding left or right when you jump (such as when you’re running) reduces

the height of the jump (called a slanted jump). Applications of slanted jumps are similar to those of joystick vs.

C-button jumps. For instance, Pikachu’s green hut combo cannot end with a slanted jump aerial, and Link

cannot leave the same area if his jump is slanted. SHDL is easier with non-slanted short hops.

The height difference between a slanted and a straight jump is greater than between a stick jump and a C-button

jump.

Advanced Falling

1. You can fastfall running straight off a platform (which you probably already know from experimenting). The real

mechanics behind this are that in the air, at any frame you are considered to have a downward velocity (except

during most attacks) you can fastfall if you haven’t already done so. Getting hit resets this ability.

2. Sometimes, fastfalling isn’t the best option. Two reasons: One, obviously if it makes you predictable, and two,

fastfalling actually has 8 frames of landing lag compared to the normal 4 (this holds true for z-canceling aerials

during both types of falls as well).

3. When you’re in freefall (after doing an upb), hold down to pass through platforms without landing on them.

Advanced Dash Pivoting

1. By releasing the control stick before a dash pivoted smash attack, you will slide a small distance during the

attack.

2. Shine pivot: Fox can turn around while in his reflector. Use with shine-cancel to turn around immediately out of

a normal dash.

Advanced DJC

From mooseproduce:

“You can't cancel Ness' first jump. Well, I guess you could - his upb and downb both stop his vertical speed. But

that doesn't really count.

The reason his double jump can be cancelled is because as opposed to a normal jump, which just sets your

vertical speed to some upwards value, Ness and Yoshi's double jumps actually animate a small circular

movement, and then set the character's speed to some upwards value. So, if you cancel the circular animation

early, then your speed never gets changed to an upwards value and you simply fall.

[Ness’s extra horizontal DJC]

What's interesting about Ness' DJC is that his backwards double jump actually sets his horizontal speed to some

value during the circular animation. So if you cancel his backwards double jump at certain frames, you maintain

the speed of those frames. So for instance, a backwards-DJC’d nair will, when timed properly, send you flying off

backwards until the nair animation ends. You can do stuff like backwards-DJC-nair from the middle of Dreamland

to the edge, and grab the ledge.”

[DJC 2]

Another consequence of their double jumps’ circular motions is that if Ness or Yoshi double jump close enough to

the floor (over ledges works, too), the double jump is canceled without any need for an attack. Holding backwards

on the control stick makes this easier (and Yoshi’s is easier than Ness’s overall). The clearest use for this is landing

on a platform faster when jumping up to it.

Attacking

Link’s No-clip Boomerang

When thrown at an angle, Link’s boomerang can go through various walls in the game which wouldn’t be

permeable otherwise:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwchJZKdpuo

Kirby’s can go through even more walls:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkmL2pk4UKE

Link’s Invisible Bomb Glitch

If Link picks up his bomb as it explodes (either by being invincible or standing at the right distance away), he will be

carrying an invisible bomb and an invisible mine will remain in the spot he picked it up from until he throws the

bomb. The bomb can be tossed at opponents and picked up again for further use.

On Grabbing

Sometimes you’ll see two of the same characters standing a small distance apart, and one player grabs and misses,

then the other player grabs and succeeds, even though neither player appeared to change their position. There

are two possible explanations for this:

1. Idle animations. If you leave your character alone, you’ll notice they’ll start swaying or doing whatever, called

their idle animation. This can actually change their model’s collision boxes. So for example, if Falcon does that

pose sometimes with his elbow out, his elbow will have actually advanced forward in position. When two

characters are close, but not quite in each other’s faces, this can make all the difference between getting grabbed

and getting a grab.

2. Grabbing animations. The actual animation for a missed grab also moves the character’s arm’s hurtbox forward

into range. So grabs often succeed if done a frame or two after an enemy grab misses.

IASA Frames

“Interruptible-As-Soon-As” Frames, abbreviated "IASA frames," are the period of time during which an animation

can be interrupted with another motion before the animation finishes. They are usually found after attacking

hitboxes have disappeared. Examples include being able to roll in the middle of Mario’s taunt, shielding during

Luigi’s taunt, and fastfalling halfway through Jigglypuff’s Pound attack.

Sliding Fsmash

By delaying the A input for an fsmash, the dash will register for a short distance before the fsmash comes out.

Similar to how usmash can be done in a certain window after pressing up.

Shielding

Shielddashing

Shielding during the normal dash stops the dash immediately, sometimes useful for braking. However, if you

shield fast enough after the initial dash, you will slide across the ground while shielded, called shielddashing. Do

not press Z too soon after the initial dash because you will roll. This tech works best with Falcon, Fox and Luigi.

Example use: sliding underneath short hop aerials.

Advanced Shielddropping

It is already noted before that you can drop through platforms while shielded. However, its usefulness on

platforms extends beyond the convenience of falling from a shield.

As explained by Isai:

“In SSB64 this is almost always the quickest way to jump from a platform (block and fall through to use your

double jump instantly) therefore letting you avoid attacks that target your landing point more easily by jumping

off of the platform the moment you land on it.

Using this technique to use your double jump instantly from a platform (faster than pressing down + jump) gives

you the height of a double jump right away which can be pretty useful when combined with attacks. So you

could have the height and speed of a double jump into an upb attack as well.

Falling through platforms while blocking also lets you dash/run and fall through the platform at ANYTIME during

the dash/run since blocking stops you. As you fall through in this way you can keep your forward momentum by

holding southeast (if east is forward) on the joystick or just fall straight down by holding southwest (if west is

back).

And of course the basic block and fall through the platform with an attack makes you less vulnerable to

opponents underneath the platform you are blocking on. You are not forced to jump away or something.

It basically gives you many more options when you're dealing with platforms.”

Advanced Dodging

1. Block-jump: A well timed jump can block many grabs. To do it: Jump out of shield. Two frames of invincibility

at the beginning of the jump. Also works against some attacks, though not long lasting ones like Pika’s fsmash.

2. “Walk-Into” Dodge: Isai used this to effect when his Link’s usmash was shielded against by a Falcon. Predicting

that the Falcon was going to shieldgrab, he deliberately dashed forward into the Falcon, causing Falcon to miss

the grab, while doing a second usmash, which connected. A related point of this is to realize that grabs,

normally thought of as point-blank moves with a maximum distance at which they work, also have a minimum

distance at which they can work.

3. On ducking: Things you probably didn’t know about ducking: Kirby can duck under part of Falcon’s dash attack.

The idle animation of Mario while ducking actually raises his hitbox, making him hittable by e.g. Fox’s lasers.

Luigi’s, on the other hand, doesn’t suffer from this. Experiment with ducking—many attack hitboxes are not

what they seem…and many ducks are lower/higher than they appear.

4. Odd tricks: Falcon charging at a laser-shooting Fox while doing short hop aerials will cause several lasers to miss.

Falcon's standing leg is invincible while doing a high-angled ftilt so projectiles and low attacks will pass right

through.

The Edgegame

Ledge B-cancel

Some characters can let go of a ledge, use a B-move then immediately grab the ledge again. This is done by

jumping slightly above the ledge, using the move, then falling back to grab the ledge. The shorter the time spent

above the edge, the harder it is to counter. DJC characters get the most use out of this. B-moves that can be used

like this include:

DK's B (Requires cancelling with Z, staller)

Yoshi's B (Useful anti-edgeguard, KO)

Yoshi's upb (Useful repulsion of edgeguarder)

Yoshi's downb (Interesting, but impractical)

Ness's upb (Fairly impractical)

Ness's downb (Staller)

Dash Pivot Edgehog

An edgehog performed from a distance by pivoting after an initial dash and using the turnaround slide to fall off

and grab the edge. Easiest with Falcon and Luigi. Ness and Fox can do this with their normal dash as well.

Fastfalling can help you grab the ledge faster. You can also do a quick bair off the edge if you delay the pivot so

you don’t grab the edge. DK can do a pseudo-pivot edgehog by running off the edge and turning around

immediately via cancelling a fully charged punch.

Falcon’s Dive Boost

When used from the ground, the first frame of Falcon’s upb has an extended hitbox that allows him to latch onto

enemies at a distance, appearing like an extra boost.

Yoshi’s Downb Recovery

Downb gives Yoshi little vertical recovery. He rises a bit before going down. This can rarely help Yoshi grab the

ledge when recovering from the bottom.

Fox's Shortened Upb

Angle it against the stage instead of sweetspotting normally. If done right, you’ll blast only a short distance up the

wall before sweetspotting the ledge. Angling it too low will result in death; too high and you’ll be an easy target.

Ness’s Wallride Recovery

Hitting certain walls or edges at a downward angle with PK Thunder 2 (Ness hitting himself with PK Thunder)

makes Ness shoot upwards. Places where it can be done include Dreamland and Hyrule.

Buffered Ledge Drop

With Kirby and Jigglypuff, you can immediately fall off the edge right after their fsmashes end if you buffer shield,

left, down, or right before the animations end. Also works with Link’s dash attack and Luigi’s dashgrab.

Getting Hit

Directional Influence (DI)

Directional influence in SSB is a way of altering your position right after being hit using control stick inputs during

the attack’s freeze frames (frames where the target is frozen after being hit—you can see this best by going into ¼

speed in training mode and using Samus’s Charge Shot). The window of DI input varies depending on the attack,

but you generally won’t get more than 10 frames to DI in. You can DI to adjust your position during each of those

frames, allowing you to, for example, hit a wall to escape a combo. However, you cannot expect someone to DI

perfectly (there are 60 frames a second in the NTSC version!)—human limitation prevents you from being this fast

and accurate. There are two known methods of DI:

Smash DI

Smash DI involves tapping the control stick in the direction you wish to DI to. Smash DI is most useful when only

one direction needs to be pressed. Realistically speaking, you only get every other frame for DI, since you have

to let the control stick snap back into neutral position between taps.

Slide/Quarter-circle DI

Slide DI involves sliding the control stick in a 90 degree range centered on the direction you wish to DI to. For

example, if you wanted to slide DI to the right, you'd have to slide the control stick up & down between the

diagonals at the right side of the octagon. Slide DI is most useful when more than one direction is needed (like

up and leftwards) since you don’t have to let the control stick snap back between inputs.

The term “DI” in SSB is different from its usage in SSBM and SSBB—“DI”, as it is known in Melee, is a way of

modifying your launch trajectory from a hit or a throw; in SSB, “DI” adjusts your position during the freeze frames

the hit caused. This is why you cannot DI throws in this game—they have no freeze frames! The “DI” here also

exists in Melee though, where it goes by the name of the first method here— “Smash DI” (abbreviated to “SDI”).

However, the mechanic is not really a strict form of Melee’s regular DI in concept or execution, so it really ought to

have a separate name, e.g. “positional influence”, which would be more accurate (for both games actually).

Unfortunately, the current convention is already well-established and not likely to change.

(For a more in-depth guide to this important tech, see Ant-D’s indexed thread)

Jigglypuff can DI this high from Fox’s dsmash with perfect input.

E X P E R T (have everything else down pat): Either difficult to do or very situational

Movement

Pikachu’s Double Vertical Upb

Pikachu can do his upb twice vertically. To do this, for the second part of the upb, you have to tilt precisely at “60”

in a cardinal direction. “60” (on Mupen64) is where the game borderline recognizes your tilt as a second input to

the upb. Any less and the second upb won’t happen. (See the Smashboards Ant-d thread for more info.)

Mario & Luigi’s Extra Vertical Upb

You probably know that you can adjust Mario and Luigi’s upbs to be more horizontal and less vertical by aiming the

control stick horizontally. However, there is a third kind of upb. Press the opposite direction at the beginning of

the jump to move even more in the vertical direction and even less horizontally than normal.

The timing is quite tricky because if you hold the opposite direction too long Mario/Luigi will turn around and do

the upb in the opposite direction. You have four frames after the upb starts to do it which is quite possible for a

human.

If done correctly you can jump from the floor to the second platform of the building in Hyrule Castle, which you

can't do when you only press up/down or nothing.

DJC-rushing

From JPleal10 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqnHJh7Qyag):

“With this versatile new tech, Ness can boost his ground moving speed up to 137%.

We all know initial dashes are what matter in terms of character moving/running speed. Comparable to a Fox-

Trot (which sadly works only in Melee), DJC-Rushing is just about cancelling your initial dash by performing a fast

DJC. Each time you succeed to do so, you'll have a new initial dash to perform, instantly. By repeatedly applying

this technique, Ness is able to increase his dashing speed significantly as stated above.

Initial dash (faster than) Normal dash

In spite of being a considerably difficult technique to pull off or even get used to, its usefulness resides on new

ways of reaching distant enemies for continuing combos, escaping projectiles/grabbers, or just trying to be

unpredictable. I relate this being similar to Jiggs' teleport in terms of practicality and utility.

I found no differences between the US & JAP versions for this tech. Ness is the only DJC character to be able to

boost his speed with this (Yoshi is the only one whose initial dash is actually slower than his normal dash, thus,

this would slow him down instead).”

B-cancel

Some B-moves, like DK’s punch charging and Mario’s fireballs, when done in the air a certain time before landing,

cancel all landing lag, allowing an immediate dash. Used most explicitly in TAS attempts of Board the Platforms

(BtP) and Break the Targets (BtT), but also implemented in high level games.

Auto-cancel

If you jump up through a platform and just barely land on it during parts of some attack animations, you will

automatically cancel all lag (don’t need to Z-cancel, and normal landing lag is gone, too). Mainly used by DK as part

of his uair chain combo on Hyrule’s lowest platform, the middle of Peach’s Castle, and the lower platforms on

Dreamland. There are probably other uses (besides BtT/BtP of course), but this is the most well known.

Kirby’s Sliding Upb

Found by DsG. Kirby can get an extra horizontal boost to his upb similar to the Teleport.

“To do it: Dash, wait for it to finish which is about 14 frames, turn, then do an upb 20 frames after you decided

to do so.”

This is not the same as sliding with the upb in midair, or hovering across the ground. You actually slide on the

ground and the distance gained is substantial.

Kirby’s Fast Rock Drop

There are methods to do Kirby’s downb coming off a ledge that are faster than running off the edge and using

downb. Most useful on BtP runs, but can also be useful for combos and mindgames.

There are three ways to do it:

1. Walk towards the edge, then downb when on the edge. The extra momentum of the walk moves the rock

enough to make you fall, but the rock comes out quickly since you do it on the ground.

2. Pivot edgehog, do the rock while turning. Same principle as above.

3. Fsmash to downb

Crouch Pivoting

From Ant-d:

“During a normal dash it is possible to turn around without lag by pressing down first, then the direction you're

turning to.

Yeah I found this by 'accident' when making my Ness video. I wanted to immediately turn but I couldn't, so I

guessed that maybe holding (really, tapping) down for 1 or 2 frames then turning would work. And it did. I tried

to do a smash attack other than usmash and I don't think it worked. I'll test it now.

Edit: You can't smash. You can jab though, but that's it. I should add that the timing seems to randomly change

from pressing down for 1-2 frames. I think this would be very, very hard to pull off normally.

Holding down when dashing really does help you to stop. That is if you want to stop and perform an attack.”

The Edgegame

Link’s Descending Upb

Some B moves done while ledge-canceling can cause the character to slip off. If Link does a dash to ledge-canceled

upb at the edge, the boost will make him slide off, resulting in a descending upb. A difficult related trick is Link’s

descending upb to edgehog, which requires tricky positioning of a dash pivot.

B-move Ledge Boost

Not the same as the slip-off “boost” mentioned in the Link’s descending upb technique. This causes the characters

to boost farther than if they had normally run off the edge.

Do these at the ledge, as when you’d taunt cancel but a bit later (more precise than taunt canceling):

Kirby’s B

Kirby’s B with Yoshi’s power

Kirby’s B with Link’s power

Link’s B

This one doesn’t need to be as precise; it can be done considerably far from the edge:

Kirby’s B with Jigglypuff’s power

Yoshi's DJC Ledgegrab

This allows Yoshi to grab the ledge backwards. Jump off, do whatever, then reverse and double-jump. You can

grab the edge if done right (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91hVs34-LCc).

Fake Ledge Jump (Jigglypuff, Samus)

From JPleal10 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEHfk71_HO0&feature=related):

“Can be done by Jigglypuff & Samus only (probably due to being floaty and having the ability to teleport).

How to do it: You just basically dash against a ledge which finishes diagonally up, like the ones shown in the

video (can be done in other stages, too), then smash the analog stick to the opposite direction you are facing

approximately 3 frames before going off the edge. Jigglypuff/Samus will do a "fake jump" in air, with the

possibility of getting back to the stage without the need of performing a second jump. Teleporting as you

approach the edge will likely have the same result.

As what you can see from the video, this may prove to be quite a good edgeguarding move, especially against

characters with mid-low priority in their upb such as Falcon or Fox.

Stages where it can be done:

● Peach's Castle (shown in video).

● Congo Jungle (up-left/right platforms).

● Planet Zebes (up-right platform).

● Yoshi's Island (main platform, up-left/right platforms).

● Sector Z (shown in video).

● Saffron City (low-left moving platform).”

Falcon’s Extended Dive

Hold backwards for 1-3 frames. Falcon gains one extra frame of height (you can fall for 1 frame more than usual).

Falcon Dive Cancel

From JPleal10:

“Captain Falcon can cancel his second jump in air while recovering by using his upb into sweetspotting the edge.

I would say this is similar to Ness using his downb or upb move to grab the ledge by cancelling his second jump

as well.

To do it you must use your second jump, then upb at the exact frame for Falcon to cancel his Dive into grabbing

the ledge. Too far away, or too close, and this would not be realizable (unlike Ness). I find it quite useful against

good edgeguarding characters such as Pikachu, Ness, or Mario.”

Getting Hit

x2 DI

A method of DI that is basically Slide DI optimized. Typically, sliding the control stick in Slide DI results in inputs

that alternate between diagonal and cardinal directions. For example: up-left, up, up-right, up, up-left, etc (if you

were DI-ing upwards). x2 DI skips the cardinal direction input in between, and goes straight from diagonal to

diagonal: up-left, up-right, up-left, up-right. This results in truly twice the amount of DI that normal Smash DI

provides. Useful mostly in TAS due to how hard it is to do consistently, but I could see players improving their DI

technique based around this knowledge.

Miscellaneous

Drop Cancel

From JPleal10 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TBfiEuzYAc):

“Who needs DJC when you can just drop-cancel aerials ridiculously fast with ANY character?

SSB64 has also its own version of DC. The main difference with Melee being that it needs the use of

diagonal/rising platforms to work.

How to do it:

1) Dash for 3 frames or more across a platform that slopes down.

2) Press Z (shield button) for 1 frame.

3) Next frame, smash the analog stick down ↓ while s^ll pressing Z.

4) Immediately do an aerial (a fast one like nair will do the trick).

5) Z-cancel the aerial. Lighter characters will be able to instantly move after the attack (no landing lag).

Useful for continuing combos, edgeguarding, or even for disorientating your opponent with a surprising attack. It

can also break shields, but would take too much technical skill (the reason of why I chose to show this possibility

with tool assistance).

There is another part of DC which involves the use of rising platforms. I may do that as a separate video (most

people already know about it anyway).

Can be done in all versions of smash, (A) Link* being the only character unable to do it due to poor horizontal

speed in air.”

*According to ShootingStar, (A) Link can DC on the right-most slant of Peach’s Castle, due to its steepness.

Notes:

Edition: 6 (revisions include DJC2, DC, and priority update)

Last update: 11/2010 by dch111

Thanks to:

• Members of Smashboards (whose archives provided the bulk of the content in this compilation)

• SmashWiki and other SSB sites/Youtube/GameFAQs

• Official Japanese SSB website (most images)

• People who’ve played this game throughout the years

FAQ:

• On the scope of this work

As you can see, it doesn’t really go over the basics of the game; rather, it is meant for players who have

already been playing for some time but want to get to the next level. This list contains most of the

advanced techniques that exist in SSB. However, it doesn’t go over the many other factors to winning

such as spacing, positioning, and other strategies/combinations that aren’t outright techniques. Other

things like frame data, weights, fallspeeds, etc. can be useful to know, but are not included in this work.

• What version of SSB is this for?

The NTSC version (the other versions are PAL (for Europe and Australia) and the Japanese version). There

are various differences between all three, including (see Smashboards for a full list) different air speeds,

PAL running at 50 frames per second (rather than 60), and the Japanese version having less hitlag

(therefore less DI, more combos), and an additional turn slide tech (reminiscent of the teleport).

However all of the techniques in this guide can be done in all versions.

END