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Super Smash Bros. - Final Smash Direct Dec. 15th @ 2pm PST
Sterica
YesRegistered User, Moderator mod
YesRegistered User, Moderator mod
Recent News
December 9th: Final Nintendo Direct for Smash 4 announced for December 15th.
November 12th: Cloud announced as new challenger. I hate that I have to type that.
September 30th: Super Mario Maker stage added to Wii U and 3DS. Pirate Ship stage added to Wii U, and Duck Hunt stage added to 3DS. Mii Fighter Costumes Wave 4 released.
The next generation of Super Smash Bros. is here! For the uninitiated, Smash Bros. is a fighting game, only it's got some platforming elements and the goal is to knock your opponent off the stage instead of depleting their HP. Oh, and it stars some of Nintendo's most famous characters alongside a handful of third-party legends. The game can get quite deep, offering a ton of options for play so you can tailor things the way you like it. You can have a chaotic eight-player battle with just pokeballs spawning, or a super-serious 1v1 affair. After fifteen years since its humble debut on the Nintendo 64, Super Smash Bros. has become one of the most beloved franchises out there, being both a sweet fighting game and awesome homage to all things Nintendo. And this time we got DOUBLE the smashing to do, as Nintendo has released the new Smash Bros. on both the 3DS on Wii U. We're maximum smash saturation in here.
The Golden Smash Rule: Do not bring up competitive vs. casual bullshit. I do not understand why people think a game can only be played one way, and that the one way just coincidentally happens to be their way. Regardless, it will not be tolerated here. Complaining about arrogant tournament players or filthy casual scrubs will net you an infraction. This was something that plagued the Brawl threads, and thus far the modern Smash threads have been refreshingly clean of all that garbage.
Got all that? If so, then read on and...
Get Ready to Smash
Cut Characters
A new addition to Smash 4 is the Omega (Ω) version of each stage. The Ω Stage is basically Final Destination while retaining the skin and theme of the original version of the stage, so you can play Final Destination with a Mega Man or Pokemon theme if you desire it. Stages in italics are paid DLC.
Both
- Battlefield
- Boxing Ring
- Dream Land
- Duck Hunt
- Final Destination
- Gaur Plain
- Midgar
- Peach's Castle
- Peach's Castle
- Super Mario Maker
- Suzaku Castle
- Wily Castle
- 3D Land
- Arena Ferox
- Balloon Fight
- Brinstar
- Corneria
- Distant Planet
- Dreamland
- Find Mii
- Flat Zone 2
- Gerudo Valley
- Green Hill Zone
- Golden Plains
- Jungle Japes
- Living Room
- Magicant
- Mushroomy Kingdom
- Mute City
- Pac-Maze
- Paper Mario
- Pictochat 2
- Prism Tower
- Rainbow Road
- Reset Bomb Forest
- Spirit Train
- Tomodachi Collection
- Tortimer Island
- Unova Pokemon League
- WarioWare, Inc.
- Yoshi's Island
- 75m
- Big Battlefield
- Bridge of Eldin
- Castle Siege
- Coliseum (Fire Emblem)
- Congo Jungle
- Delfino Plaza
- Flat Zone X
- Gamer
- Garden of Hope
- Great Cave offensive
- Halberd
- Jungle Hijinx
- Kalos Pokemon League
- Luigi's Mansion
- Lylat Cruise
- Mario Circuit
- Mario Circuit
- Mario Galaxy
- Miiverse
- Mushroom Kingdom U
- Norfair
- Orbital Gate Assault
- Onett
- Pac-Land
- Palutena's Temple
- Pilotwings
- Pirate Ship
- Pokémon Stadium 2
- Port Town Aero Drive
- Pyrosphere
- Skyloft
- Skyworld
- Smashville
- Temple
- Town & City
- Wii Fit Studio
- Windy Hill Zone
- Wrecking Crew
- Wuhu Island
- Yoshi's Island
- Yoshi's Woolly World
The 3DS version features over 100 songs, and the Wii U version has an album-crushing 400+ songs. Once again, you get a handful of songs per stage and you can pick which songs play, but the Wii U has far more songs per stage and greater control over song frequency than the 3DS. Songs can be found here, but here are some choice tracks.
3DS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUaJmum_XWs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dndbyEzvtlA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drC3KlXFqmMWii U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBMgPX1JOK0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NeXl4YjvUQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmfgVYPODSk
How do I find people to Smash?
Check out the Friend Codes Sheet for competition. Don't forget to add yourself and your region (if you're comfortable with it) so people can get an idea of what lag might be like.
HOW DO I UNLOCK THE CHARACTERS AND STAGES?
I'll keep this in spoilers for those that want to be surprised. Note that the two versions have different unlock methods. Both games have the alternate "play X matches" requirement, which can be satisfied by playing off or online, with just bots, 1 stock matches. The game is not picky. Every time you satisfy a character's unlock requirement, you will be challenged by that character to a 1v1 match with one stock each. Should you lose, that character will keep challenging you whenever you finish with just about any offline match or mode.
3DS
Characters
Stages
- Ness: Beat Classic Mode once OR 10 Matches
- Falco: Complete Classic Mode without continuing OR 20 Matches
- Wario: Complete 100 Man Melee OR 30 Matches
- Lucina: Beat Classic Mode with Marth without using any continues OR 40 Matches
- Dark Pit: Beat Classic Mode with three characters OR 50 Matches
- Dr. Mario: Beat Classic Mode with Mario or Mr. Game & Watch on Intensity 4.0+ OR 60 Matches
- ROB: Collect 200 trophies OR 70 Matches
- Ganondorf: Beat Classic Mode with either Link or Zelda on Intensity 5.0+ OR 80 Matches
- Mr. Game & Watch: Beat Classic Mode with ten characters OR 90 Matches
- Bowser Jr. Beat Classic Mode with Bowser on 6.0+ Intensity OR 100 Matches
- Duck Hunt: Beat Classic Mode with eight characters OR 110 Matches
- Jigglypuff: Collect 30+ equipment items OR 120 Matches
Stages
- Balloon Fight: Use Villager 3 times in VS mode
- Dream Land: Use Ultra Sword (Kirby's Final Smash)
- Flat Zone 2: Unlock Mr. Game & Watch, then complete Challenges #1-35
- Magicant: Unlock Ness
- Mute City: Win 3 VS matches using Captain Falcon
- Pac-Maze: Use Super Pac-Man (Pac-Man's Final Smash)
- WarioWare, Inc.: Unlock Wario
Wii U
Notice: Bowser Jr., Ganondorf, Jigglypuff, and Ness are unlocked by default.
Characters
Stages
Characters
- Falco: Complete Classic Mode OR 10 Matches
- Wario: Complete 100-Man Smash OR 20 Matches
- Lucina: Beat Classic Mode on Intensity 5.5+ OR 30 Matches
- Dark Pit: Beat All Star Mode on Normal or higher (does not have to be True All Star) OR 40 Matches
- Dr. Mario: Complete a Hard or higher Master Order OR 50 Matches
- ROB: Clear Crazy Orders with a chain of 10+ OR 60 Matches
- Mr. Game & Watch: Beat Classic Mode with five characters OR 80 Matches
- Duck Hunt: Get a score of 1 or higher in Cruel Smash OR 100 Matches
Stages
- Kongo Jungle 64: Clear "The Original Heavyweights" event.
- Pac-Land: Play Smash Tour on all three maps.
- Smashville: Clear the "Playing Tricks" event.
- Flat Zone X: Destroy 100+ blocks in Trophy Rush as Mr. Game & Watch.
- Duck Hunt: Unlock the character Duck Hunt.
- Pokemon Stadium 2: Clear the "When Lightning Strikes" event.
How do I unlock alternate moves!?
Some custom moves are hidden behind challenges. They are:
Wii U
- Dire Hyrdant (Pac-Man): Score at least 200000 points in a single game of Target Blast on Stage 2.
- Accele-Reflector (Falco): Get a chain of at least 150 in Trophy Rush while playing alone and as Falco.
- Ripping Boomerang (Link): Play as Link and score 50 KOs or more in Solo Endless Smash.
- Rock Hurl (Charizard):Play as Charizard and get a score of 100m (328 ft.) or more in Solo Home-Run Contest without using the bat.
- Guiding Bow (Pit/Dark Pit): Get a score of 25 or more in a single Rival Smash while playing as Dark Pit.
- Exploding Popgun (Diddy Kong): Score at least 150000 points in a single game of Target Blast on Stage 1.
- Dashing Assault (Marth/Lucina): Clear the "The Falchion's Seal" event on normal difficulty or higher.
- Tornado Hold (Mega Man): Clear a Master Orders ticket while playing as Mega Man.
3DS
- Huge Header (Wii Fit Trainer): Get a max combo of 10 or more in Training.
- Lightning Falcon Kick (Captain Falcon): Play StreetSmash for the first time.
- Liftoff Loid (Villager): Battle 2 or more times on the Tortimer Island stage in Smash.
- Giant Bomb (Link): Destroy 300 blocks in Trophy Rush.
- Close Combat (Ike): Destroy 1000 blocks in Trophy Rush.
- High Speed Drill (Meta Knight): Win 5 Smash battles with Meta Knight.
- Exploding Popgun (Diddy Kong): Destroy 3000 blocks in Trophy Rush.
- Effortless Blade (Marth/Lucina): Clear 100-Man Smash within 3 minutes.
- Explosive Punch (Mario): Score 200000 or more in Target Blast.
Now for the rest. The best way to get customizations on the 3DS is to play Classic at a comfortable difficulty and watch the slots. Wait for the thing you want and hit the home button. When you resume play while spamming the A button, the roulette will land on that spot. If the roulette is transitioning between two items, it will land on the item coming up. Keep in mind that eventually the roulette will stop on its on, so you may have to settle for less, but this method should net you anywhere from 6+ customizations a run.
The Wii U more varied since the 3DS trick doesn't work. Some go by high intensity Classic, others do Master/Crazy Orders since you can cherry-pick customs for specific characters (a franchise icon with a gift typically means a custom for a character from that franchise, although sometimes it can be equipment). Crazy Orders can be particularly lucrative if you have a knack for it, as Crazy Hand will vomit up additional goodies that you can pick up during the final fight with it. Smash Tour also vomits a lot of items in general, especially if you crank up the number of turns. Buuuut that involves playing Smash Tour so your mileage will definitely vary there.
Another option for both versions is Trophy Rush. Pick Donkey Kong, max out the time, and spam down B while dodging obstacles. You should be able to pick up three customizations every 2.5 minutes this way. The final alternative is to grab a speedy character in Smash and just scour the map for treasure chests. They usually drop one customization per chest, so you might have a big payout.
How do I get better at Smash?
Check the second post.
Where can I find people to play with? I missed the other two times you linked the friend codes sheet.
Here it is.
Too many trailers! Click the spoiler to see them all.
E3 2013 Trailer/Villager Reveal Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvudMu-5kIU
Mega Man Reveal Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX2KNyaoNV4
Wii Fit Trainer Reveal Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQB8cJTCgrI
Roslina & Luma Reveal Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPdutb_6DZU
Little Mac Reveal Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmtrmAvL5aw
Greninja/Charizard Reveal Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEJBPMcbRkk
Palutena Reveal Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqTW13AYniY
Pac-Man Reveal Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVz-2VuAYlY
Lucina & Robin Reveal Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9ytrX0wweA
Shulk Reveal Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUl1EkUJ46k
Bowser Jr. Reveal Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI7mc5OMssw
Duck Hunt Reveal Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t5DetuBMOY
Mewtwo Reveal Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-zJOntZRHo
Lucas Reveal Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpHAU6xovC4
Roy Reveal Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8XIj05irtU
Ryu Reveal Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kalsCPXfaQ
Cloud Reveal Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc3CY31kMJ4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvudMu-5kIUMega Man Reveal Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX2KNyaoNV4Wii Fit Trainer Reveal Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQB8cJTCgrIRoslina & Luma Reveal Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPdutb_6DZULittle Mac Reveal Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmtrmAvL5awGreninja/Charizard Reveal Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEJBPMcbRkkPalutena Reveal Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqTW13AYniYPac-Man Reveal Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVz-2VuAYlYLucina & Robin Reveal Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9ytrX0wweAShulk Reveal Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUl1EkUJ46kBowser Jr. Reveal Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI7mc5OMsswDuck Hunt Reveal Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t5DetuBMOYMewtwo Reveal Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-zJOntZRHoLucas Reveal Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpHAU6xovC4Roy Reveal Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8XIj05irtURyu Reveal Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kalsCPXfaQCloud Reveal Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc3CY31kMJ4
Sterica on
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Posts
Please note that tournaments have a cap on players so things finish in a reasonable amount of time. You can still sign up even if a tournament is capped in the hopes of filling in for a no-show.
Upcoming Tournaments
(Rules are placeholders until the Tuesday before the tournament)
Current Player Rankings
(Rankings are used to determine brackets in tournaments. Your ranking is your average placement in ranked tournaments.)
Hall of Champions
2014
2015
First things first: pick a main.
Ideally your main should be a character you enjoy playing and you like them as a character. You will probably perform...not as well as you could if hearing Pikachu yell its name all the type bugs the living hell out of you. Then you need to play the hell out of that character. Yes, the game's controls boil down to A or B + direction, but every character has nuances that you need to know. Ganondorf's up tilt comes out super slow, slower than most fully-charged smash attacks, and unlike those you cannot cancel it early. So that's something you generally want to avoid! Link and Toon Link will take no damage from projectiles if their shields get hit, which can be fairly important in certain matchups.
The most important thing to learn about your main is their kill moves. You need to know what reliably kills and around what damage percentages they start to kill (note that this number is going to be a range since heavier characters will require more damage to KO before lighter ones). Ness is known for his deadly back throw, which can kill around 100%, but Olimar's up throw only kills around 120% and only if he's using a blue pikmin to perform the throw. Some attacks have "sweetspots" where hitting a certain part of their hitbox turns the move into a kill move. Captain Falcon's infamous knee aerial can kill, but only if sweetspotted. Learning ALL of the properties of your character's attacks are incredibly important, but knowing kill moves is a priority since, well, getting KOs are what win you games.
But what about the tier list?
First off: there are no tier lists. Not yet. Everything you've seen so far about tier lists in Smash Bros. 4 has been either useless opinion polls or just lists made up of tournament performance. We won't be seeing any real tier lists until we're well into 2015, so don't worry about that. Second: maining a character isn't a marriage vow or death pact. You can main pikachu and learn its every nuance until you feel that pikachu being kinda shit is holding you back. At that point you can find a sweet high tier character to play and, as a bonus, you will have pikachu to whip out as an alternative character just in case pikachu has a more favorable matchup against whatever character is beating your new fancy high-tier main. It's also worth noting that some players take advantage of playing lower tier characters because their absence in tournaments means few players are accustomed to fighting them, which does gives you a decent edge. And hey: tiers aren't set in stone. They are constantly changing as players find new techniques and tactics, and that's only done by playing the crap out of a character. Who knows, you could be the one to unlock Donkey Kong's hidden potential.
A final word on tiers: fitting your playstyle matters. Everyone knows Fox is the top tier character in Melee, but not everyone plays Fox in Melee. Why? Because for other players maybe Falcon, Marth or Peach fit them better. A lot of players picked Falco over Fox because Falco is considered easier to play so you can have more consistent results. A really good example of this are the Ice Climbers: a very technical character that not everyone is going to get. Rosalina is probably a similar character in that she'll be very highly rated but difficult to learn.
Build then KO
There are generally two parts to fighting Smash: racking up damage on your opponent, and then going for a KO. There are exceptions to this: many characters have spikes, moves that sent a character straight down at a very high speed. Mario's forward air is a good example of this, and it's a good way to get ahead in stocks or catch up from a deficit since it can kill at such a low percentage. Another example is Little Mac's KO Punch, a special move that, if it connects, will KO a character at under 50% damage. So always be aware of these low-percentage kill moves, but generally speaking it's all about building up the damage until you can reliably get some kills.
This process comes about fairly naturally. As your opponent takes damage, they get knocked back farther by your attacks. This will make it harder for you to follow up attacks with additional attacks, so your ability to stack on the damage gets reduced as time goes on. This is when you start going for kill moves. So example: Mario is well-known for his up tilt comboing into itself. Up tilt up tilt uptilt, maybe an up air to finish. It's really hard to get out of this combo when your damage is low, so it's a very effective way to soften up opponents. Once the damage is racked up, Mario can start going for kills with his forward smash or back throw. This varies for just about EVERY CHARACTER, and should be a reason why you need a main. Get a main, damn it.
I know this is really basic shit, but it's why a good Dedede will use down throws at low percents to follow up with an up or forward air, and then later on they'll switch to the higher damage back throw when follow-ups are no longer guaranteed. It's why Donkey Kong will switch to back air even though the range is lower than other aerials: back air kills, whereas at best forward air can spike.
The Myth of Priority
So you attack and Marth attacks. You end up taking damage and Marth gets out scot-free. Why? Some call this "priority" which leads to the misperception that attacks have some invisible number, and if your attack has the better number it has "priority" over the other attack and goes through. But this is dirty, filthy lies and is just shorthand for the stuff that is going under the hood.
First and foremost, priority is based on damage. If an attack does more damage (10% or so) then it has priority over the other attack. This can explain why you got thwacked by Bowser's forward smash despite coming in with a weak dash attack. If attacks are roughly the same damage, you get that cling effect you might have seen where both attacks cancel each other out. A common way to see this in action is with weaker projectiles, like Mario's fire ball cancelling out pikachu's thunder jolt. For aerial attacks, this cannot happen! If attacks are within the same damage range, then they will just keep on going until they hit their mark or get interrupted by the other attack. An aerial CAN be cancelled out by a ground attack, but this leaves the ground attacker in an advantageous situation because they get the fast cling animation from cancelling out whereas the aerial attacker has to finish their now useless aerial animation.
Next up are hitboxes and hurtboxes. Hitboxes are the actual geometry that the game uses to know if an attack whiffed or hit, and hurtboxes are a similar thing, but for telling when a character gets hit. These boxes tend to use far more simplistic shapes than the game art, and thus you cannot trust the character models to give the whole story on hitboxes! If an attack's hitbox hits your hurtbox, then you generally take damage. Simple, right?
But not all hit boxes are created equal! If an attack has a longer hitbox, then it can hit your hurtbox before your hitbox can hit theirs. This is why range is such a great property to possess on attacks!
Now we get into the subtle stuff: disjointed hitboxes, armor, and transcendent attacks. Disjointed attacks are pretty simple: it's an attack that has a hitbox that doesn't share your character's hurtbox. The easiest example of this are Dedede's mallet or Lucina's sword. These attacks are considered much safer because they'll trump most other attacks. Weapons are not the only disjointed hitboxes, as certain attacks (notably a lot of aerials) will make a part of the character's body invincible while throwing out the attack. A common example is a lot of aerials that involve kicks will make the legs invulnerable during part of the attack animation, effectively giving you a disjointed hitbox. It's worth noting that a disjointed attack can still be cancelled out. However, sometimes you can lose to a disjointed hitbox if your attack beats theirs (does way more damage) but because of the disjointed hitbox their attacks hit your hurtbox before you can do the same.
Armor means a character will not flinch or be knocked back so long as the damage/knockback is below a certain threshold. Some characters will simply ignore ALL knockback, and that is commonly referred to as super armor. Yoshi's double jump is known for having regular armor: you can knock him back but it requires a very heavy attack to do so. Bowser has a weaker form of armor, allowing him to resist knockback from weaker attacks. Little Mac is perhaps the most infamous for having super armor, gaining it on all of his smash attacks. This attribute is very important in priority, as an attack with armor is going to land against other attacks. The armored character still takes damage, but they will knock you back while they stay put. Needless to say, you do not want to try and trade smash attacks with Little Mac, and trying to perform an aerial on Ike while he is using his Up B can be very risky due to these properties.
Transcendent attacks sound fancy, but are very simple: they basically do not interact with other attacks. If you fire a transcendent projectile at a regular projectile, then they will go through each other with no issues. This is offensively advantageous, as you have attacks that can only be defended against via things like shields and dodging. Defensively it is rather poor since you can cancel out things like projectiles or other enemy attacks since they go through each other. Falco's blaster shots are an example of a transcendent attack.
Spacing, Zoning, & You
So now we have the general stuff out of the way. You got a main, you know your game plan is to BUILD DAMAGE and then KO, and you know how attacks interact with each other. Now you need to learn how to properly space and zone.
Spacing is generally about keeping yourself at the maximum range where you attacks still effectively either BUILD DAMAGE or KO. I am emphasizing effectively because some attacks have multiple hitboxes usually known as sweet or sour spots. A sweetspot is where the attack does lots of damage and/or knock back, and the sourspot is basically the part of the attack that doesn't due the awesome stuff. Marth is well-known for just about all of his sword-based attacks having sweetspots on the tip where they do increased damage and knockback. So when I say "maximum range" I mean "max range where the attack is worth a damn" and not just the farthest away you can hit.
Anyways, spacing is done so you can BUILD DAMAGE OR KO while still being far away enough that the opponent has a reduced chance of retaliating. Attacks that do this are generally called "safe" because you can throw them out and your opponent has very few opportunities to "punish" or attack back should your attack fail to land. Little Mac's forward tilt is a good example of a good spacing move: it comes out quickly, it has little ending lag so you can perform another action quickly after using it, it can KO at high percents, and the distance is just wide enough so that it outranges the grabs of any player that shields it. Spacing and safe moves vary heavily on the matchup, however, and in the case of Mac's forward tilt it can be considerably less safe against opponents with long-range "tether" grabs like Link or Pac-Man.
Zoning is kinda the opposite of spacing: you use attacks that force your opponent to back off and leave an area where their attacks could hit you. Projectiles are perhaps the easiest way to zone, as they force opponents to back off or use defensive measures in response. Typically long-range, disjointed attacks make for excellent spacing tools. Zoning is also important for recovering to the stage, as something like Ganondorf's forward air is fairly potent and can scare an edgeguarding opponent to air dodge or retreat, allowing Ganondorf to safely recover. While the point of zoning attacks aren't to necessarily KO opponents, at high percentages kill moves can become effective at zoning since your opponent may not want to risk losing a stock.
FAQ
This is really basic stuff, but this whole guide is made for people just crawling into the competitive scene all naked and crying for air.
Why are items banned?
To make this really simple: they are too random and their effects are generally too swingy. Nobody wants to see the Grand Finals of a thousand-dollar tourney end because someone got lucky and grabbed a Heart Container while their opponent was respawning.
But...Final Smashes!
Experiments to make Final Smashes work flatly failed. They spawn way the hell too often, even on low frequency, and there's still the whole randomness factor. It turned games into "grab the Smash Ball" which isn't very competitive or fun to watch.
Why are so many stages banned?
Because they either have a hazard that dominates play (Pyrosphere is all about getting Ridley on your side) or they have features easily abused by certain characters (Hyrule Temple is so huge that fast characters can get one KO and then spend the rest of the match fleeing their opponent until time runs out). It's worth noting that other fighting games tend to not even have hugely variable stages as a thing, so Smash having about 10 or so legal stages is not that weird.
Why not timed matches?
Because it tends to lead to ties, whereas that is significantly harder with stock matches (you have to end the match with even stocks and damage).
I grabbed the ledge and immediately got hit. WHY?
In Smash 4 you can only get ledge invulnerability on your first ledge grab. After that you must wait a short period or else you will be vulnerable when you grab the ledge. This was done to stop the incredibly boring and awful tactic that was planking.
What is DI? Vectoring?
Directional Influence allows you to change the trajectory of you character when hit by holding the stick in a certain direction when struck. You don't change the force of the hit, but by changing the angle you can turn a once lethal attack into something survivable. The best way to survive an attack is to move the stick in a way that is perpendicular to where you are being launched, preferably in a direction closer to the stage. More advanced techniques include using DI to make it so you launch farther away in order to limit the ability of your opponent to combo you.
Vectoring was a new system similar to DI that was removed in the last patch. It was basically a more intuitive system that had the drawback of making matches take longer.
How does seeding in tournaments work?
Basically the first round puts "the best" players up against "the worst" so the top ranked player fights the lowest ranked player and so forth. This may seem unfair, but the point of seeding is to create progressively more exciting matches as the tournament progresses. Having half of the top ranked players eliminated in the first two rounds makes for a very poor tournament where the remaining good players fight very easy matches against the less skilled players. If there's any consolation, in double-elimination tournaments the first round of losers should be the bottom half of the players if the seeding is accurate.
Stage selection scares me. How does it work?
Your first match has the stage randomly selected from a pool of "starter" or neutral stages. Basically, they don't favor any characters too much (no stage is truly neutral). Matches after that use the following process:
1. Winner of the last match bans up to however many stages the tournament rules allow (usually 1 or 2)
2. Loser picks a stage that A. wasn't Banned and B. they haven't won a match on in that set. The loser can pick from the starter stages as well as special counterpick stages that are known for given particular characters easier or harder times.
3. If someone has yet to win enough matches to end the set, then return to step #1.
If you have the option to switch characters between matches, then that is done before stage selection, starting with the winner. Once they've picked or declined to pick a new character, the winner tells the loser their character choice and then the loser can opt to switch or not. From there you proceed to step #1.
What's a meta?
Basically what is being played in your area/tournaments. Sometimes you can play around this to your advantage, but it's typically a poor idea to try and counter the meta with characters you never play. An example may be a meta where Mega Man is exceedingly popular. You might want to play a character with reflectors like Fox or Pit to counter a lot of Mega Man's moves. Meta can also describe just the general playstyle of your area, such as a tournament scene with lots of aggressive players that will tend to opt for riskier maneuvers more often than not.
Rorus, you said this wasn't terribly difficult to get into and then wrote a short story worth of words about it. You suck.
At least you don't have to remember a dozen quarter motions?
Selling Board Games for Medical Bills
I played against a very conpetent Japanese Sheik on For Glory. Awesome matches, but all three went to Sudden Death because we just couldn't KO each other.
Granted, Sheik and Mega Man are known for not having the best KO options in a game where KOing is pretty hard, and FG being set to 5 minutes rather than 8 doesn't help. But still, it's kind of obnoxious how tough it can be to secure a KO hit when both players are spacing and/or zoning well.
I hate to do it, but a lot of tourneys have gone to 2 stock. Hopefully the game can speed up so three is standard, but on the bright side planking is gone so hopefully we'll never go down to one stock matches like some Brawl tourneys.
You can control that. Shield-stepping lets you move slightly in the direction of your choice when shielding a hit, so most likely you're holding away from them at the time.
Selling Board Games for Medical Bills
Ganondorf's forward tilt is his boot.
And one for Jenny and the wimp.
Why I fear the ocean.
Switch (JeffConser): SW-3353-5433-5137 Wii U: Skeldare - 3DS: 1848-1663-9345
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aren't these just modders trying to drum up more ebay bids
No. People wouldn't purposefully mislead others for a profit.
Selling Board Games for Medical Bills
My body is ready
I'm pretty certain. Even Kirby has a very obvious seam on his backside.
If you are having issues, then notify or PM me.
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Selling Board Games for Medical Bills
Selling Board Games for Medical Bills
Well me too, now!
Gonna be a hell of a night
You got 30 minutes! Let me know if you are having problems and I can check you in manually.
I don't get it
I think he means... whatever the hell you just said.
I recognize "Lucina" and "sucks" but in that sentence, in that order...
Just no clue.
Why I fear the ocean.
Twitch: KoopahTroopah - Steam: Koopah
Selling Board Games for Medical Bills
You got 15 minutes! Let me know if you are having problems and I can check you in manually.