Super Smash Bros. Brawl/Character strategies

This page is under construction; I'm working on it, but it may take a week or two to finish. If you have questions about the character that I haven't put on the page; E-mail me at josiah@hilbig.org

Hi, this is the Page for ADVANCED STRATEGIES ON ALL THE CHARACTERS:

I believe very strongly about characters fighting the way the were meant to. It makes me very angry when I see light characters using the tactics of a heavy character. I also believe that there is no ultimate strategy for all characters, or that any type of character is any better than any other. I believe that the strategies of characters are completely dependent on the weight class of the character. And that all characters are to be treated not only evenly, but differently, they all have different characteristics and fighting styles.

It also makes me angry when I hear people arguing about which character is better. this page is about unfolding each and every character; their ideal strategy, their fighting style, and other things that are helpful for those of you who are unsure about their playing style and which character they should use.

Strategies for Specific Classes
This is to help you find the perfect strategy for your character...

Light
Light characters are all about Speed and Combos. These two aspects of a characters attacks are vital and are your biggest asset when fighting. Even more are combos you design yourself, such as throwing someone up and hitting them whilst in the air, jumping up again and hitting them higher, and higher, and higher! This is known as juggling. But as I was saying, Combos are important to light characters but speed is also important. In terms of light characters: the faster, the better.

Because light characters are light; they generally go flying further than heavy characters when hit. So they tend to have very good recovery moves. For example: Mr. game & watch is one of, (If not the lightest) characters in the game. So he obviously goes flying the furthest, but he also has a terrific recovery move! Not only does it send him flying high up into the sky; but he can glide back down slowly afterwards, and not only that; but it's one of the few recovery moves in the game that doesn't leave him vulnerable after use.

Anyway; Speed and Combos: very helpful.

OH!! ONE LAST THING!! A lot of light characters go flying far when hit. So shielding is another useful strategy you can't live without: Get into the hang of sheilding, then rolling or dodging, and repeating the process. This is a good strategy for most characters but Light ones more than others.

Medium
Obviously Medium weighted characters are in the middle, they can have powerful attacks that take a while to charge and then leave them slightly vulnerable, but they often have fast combos that build up damage slowly, so the question I am asked a lot is; "When I use a Medium character, should I use a strong attack, or a fast one?" And this really depends on not only YOUR playing style, but the weight of your character. I know all medium characters are about the same in terms of weight; but there are also sub classes: Very Light, Medium-light, Medium-Heavy, and very Heavy. So if your MEDIUM character is more of a light character than they are a heavy character; treat them like a light character; with fast combos and other speedy attacks. And vice versa: If your medium character is heavier than usual, treat them like a heavy character. Remember, treat your character at the absolute extreme!

But for a character like Mario or Luigi Who are almost EXACTLY in the Middle, what do you do? Well Luigi DOES have a combo. (Down Special) But he has no extremely strong attacks that follow the characteristics of a heavy character so my point is:

If you can't decide judging on weight, look at their moves. Which brings me to my next point: Samus Aran... (With Power Suit) Ok, her Standard Special move is a strong attack, and her Up special move is a fast combo... Wrong!! Don't assume her standard Special move is a strong one. Just because it's strong when you charge it up, doesn't mean it's strong when you don't. Donkey Kong on the other hand, his Standard Special Move is also a chargeable one, but when you don't charge it up a lot, it still deals a lot of damage, and It's slow as well. DING-DING-DING! Heavy move alert! So my final point is... Don't assume ANYTHING! ESPECCIALY WITH CHARGEABLE ATTACKS!

Heavy
I have developed what I think is the perfect strategy for heavy characters; and I rely on it every time i use one: The three Ps:


 * Patience
 * Precision
 * Power

Patience is all about waiting for the right moment to strike; many heavy character moves leave the character vulnerable for some time, so don't go attacking all the time, wait for the time to strike.

Precision is the next most important thing to be careful of. When you DO get a chance to attack, (Which isn't all that often) make sure you ACTUALLY HIT YOUR OPPONENT! Too many times I have seen people wait for ages to get the right chance to strike, and then they completely miss their opponent which nearly brings me to tears because they immediately lose the game, they needed to attack so badly but they wasted it when the got the chance.

And finally: Power: As I said before, you don't get that many chances to strike, so if you get a perfect opportunity; don't waste it by using a weak attack, You're a heavy character, you're renowned for having the strongest attacks in the game!! If you're going to attack, do it properly! And unleash your most powerful asset!!!

Summary

 * Light - Speed and combos (Don't forget to shield every now and then)
 * Medium - Follow the sub weight class of your character, and if not, Look at your moves.
 * Heavy - Patience, Precision, Power. (In order of importance)

Strategies for Specific Characters
This is where I go into extreme detail with strategies/techniques:

Bowser
Bowser's throws are where his most successful techniques lie. For such a slow moving character, having such quick throws is a blessing, so abuse the power of the BOWSER THROW!!! That is all.

Oh, by the way, his throws have limited range, which shouldn't be a problem because all his attacks are Melee (If you don't know what melee attacks are, go look it up.) so, you should be able to grab and throw almost all the time. So, yeah, just stay close and abuse your throws.

But do remember that combos are also a necessity, because heavy characters are slow they don't often get to land a good combo so use on at every chance you get. (But don't forget the Thee Ps. (Patience, Precision, and Power)

Captain Falcon
When the Raptor Boost is used in the air it immediately sends opponents flying to the ground. The trick is using this to your advantage, it works especially well to edge-guard, as it's very hard to recover from a fall if your being sent to the ground, especially if you have very high damage, and even more so against characters who's recovery move has limited vertical range.

He also excels with his throw combos, which makes it easy to set up combos. Every now and then set up a good 4 or 5 downward throws at once without letting your opponent recover from them too much.

The last thing is falcon punch is good when you have the chance: don't go throwing out falcon punch every second move, wait 'til you get the chance, freeze them, stun them, hit 'em with a pit fall, JUST DO WHATEVER IT TAKES! to get them in a position where you can land a good falcon punch without having to think twice.

Diddy Kong
I have designed a strategy for Diddy Kong I call; the Banana Nut Combo!! =)

Diddy Kong's Advanced strategies are a more focused version of his more simple strategies. They revolve mostly around Banana Peel and Peanut Popgun combos. Diddy Kong is not the strongest Melee fighter so try to keep away from your opponents. A rel annoyance to characters with no projectiles is to throw two banana peels behind you before shooting your opponent with your peanut popgun, and immediately tossing both your banana peels at your opponent to give yourself enough time to fully charge anoter peanut popgun, then repeat the process. And then Monkey Flip your way to the opposite side if they try to get a bit too close.

But just because Diddy owns when far away with His "Banana Nut Combo", doesn't mean he can't excel in Melee fights, he's just not as dangerous.

Donkey Kong
There isn't much to talk about here, except when your opponent has been KOd, begin to charge your Punch, by the time they Respawn, you should of finished charging.

Another thing that is extremely helpful is head butting them into the ground and following with a smash attack, you can try to use your punch but it doesn't always attack fast enough.

And the last thing to remember is that DKs throw range is slightly larger that usual, so it's easier to execute than others.

Ike
Many of Ike's strategies revolve around Quick Draw. Try to stay away from your opponents but close enough that you can unleash Quick Draw at any time. This is where the fun begins... Instead of Attacking with quick draw, every now and then; cancel the attack and use a Smash attack or something, Because canceled Quick Draw has very little recovery time, you can throw in any type of attack, and this confuses your opponents as to whether you're going to use Quick draw or cancel it. But that's not all... If your charging Quick Draw, you're opponent may try to attack, so cancel it and use Counter instead!! For a character with Medium-Slow attacks; You can get the advantage in almost all your situations, and this makes you rule the field in a 1-on-1, during a free for all it's not quite so simple, but it still works.

Because of this strategy, Ike can out-do almost all his opponents if they're heavier than him, and it woks against many medium characters too. On smaller, faster characters however, it's not quite the same. Against fast opponents you have to be the heavier character, so rely on the three Ps: -Patience -Precision -Power Patience is all about waiting for the right moment to strike; many heavy character moves leave the character vulnerable for some time, so don't go attacking all the time, wait for the time to strike. Precision is the next most important thing to be careful of. When you DO get a chance to attack, (Which isn't all that often) make sure you ACTUALLY HIT YOUR OPPONENT! Too many times I have seen people wait for ages to get the right chance to strike, and then they completely miss their opponent which nearly brings me to tears because they immediately lose the game, they needed to attack so badly but they wasted it when the got the chance. And finally: Power: As I said before, you don't get that many chances to strike, so if you get a perfect opportunity; don't waste it by using a weak attack, You're a heavy character, you're renowned for having the strongest attacks in the game!! If you're going to attack, do it properly! And unleash your most powerful asset!!!

Meta Knight
Meta Knight is best in a 1-on-1. If you find yourself in a huge mob of people, its best to get out of there. In a 1-on-1; Meta Knight rules the stage, his Dimensional Cape leaves his opponents guessing, and can be used to dis-orientate them.

Meta Knight is not about raw power OR speed, more agility and deceptiveness. The trick to mastering Meta Knight is learning how to master Shuttle Loop and Dimensional cape. Until then, work on fast damage with combos such as Mach Tornado and Drill Rush. Shuttle Loop is mostly about recovering, but for such a fast attack, it has very high damage. Especially as it's not mainly used to attack. But in times of need; It can be handy to edge guard as well as score quick KOs.

Another thing to remember is Meta Knight has no projectile attacks, so on Heavy-class/Slow characters such as Bowser, Ike, King Dedede, Marth, and a few others who are weak to projectiles due to they're lack of speed; combos are the way to go, also, with many Heavy-weight characters; many of they're attacks leave them vulnerable to smash attacks, so slowly build up damage on them and unleash your final blow when they've left themselves open.

As for faster characters; such as Pikachu, Sonic, and Kirby. Meta Knight is left very little options, so the best thing to do is focus on throws and combos such as throwing your opponent into the air and following up with a Aerial assault. These characters can almost always out run Meta Knight; which is frustrating as Meta Knight is usually the faster character is Brawls. And being a Light-weight class; his attacks are not that strong, so being faced with a character who has faster attacks makes you the heavy character in the brawl, which makes things difficult as Meta Knight does not have the offensive onslaughts of a Heavy character. But the best thing to do is play like a heavy character: play with patience and precision. Meaning you slowly build up damage as safely as you can, and destroy them as soon as you get the chance, but be precise; heavy characters can't afford to miss their opponent because it leaves them vulnerable. (obviously in Meta Knight's case he's still a Light character after all so you don't need to worry about that.

Last but not least; Keep your damage low. Once again I am referring to Meta Knight as one of the lighter characters in the game, so he flies very far if hit hard, so don't let that happen, if your damage is getting to high, (about 50-70% is getting dangerous) try not to let it get any higher, so stop using smash attacks and go back to combos and Mach Tornado. If you in the zone where you can easily be KOed in one hit, (90%+) be incredibly careful and try to stay out of the air, Mach Tornado has almost no gravity and all of his Special attacks leave him very vulnerable so try to stay on the ground.

Mr. Game & Watch
Mr. Game and watches recovery move one of the few recovery moves that doesn't make you vulnerable. He can cancel the attack into any smash attack or even quickly fall to the ground. This opens up many options.

Another good tactic is his downward throw combo. You can use many atqacks after his downward throw, including Judge. His other throws can also lead into aerial attacks.

If your fighting a 1-on-1 with a projectile user who's projectiles can be absorbed by Oil Panic: at the start of the match; back away slightly and your opponents first instinct is to open fire, absorb as many attacks as you can before they realize that their tactic wont work against you.

One more thing, Mr. Game and Watch is 2D. That obviously make him one of (If not the lightest) characters in the game. So during a battle where they have little time to KO people, in a free for all, generally you will be picked on so your opponents can get quick and easy KOs because you go flying so far. So just be careful of that.

Pokémon Trainer
The trick to mastering the Pokémon Trainer is knowing when to switch pokémon. When you are desperate for a KO, or your chance of being KOd is a little close for comfort, change to Charizard for an Offensive AND defensive boost. You lose speed when you do but you get a triple jump as oppose to a double because Squirtle and Ivysaur's Third jumps aren't all that reliable to escape from a dangerous situation.

When your opponents damage is low, switch to Squirtle to slowly build up damage. When their damage is getting higher, switch to Ivysaur for a slight damage boost and to relieve Squirtle's exhaustion. When their damage is soaring; switch to Charizard to finish them off. Then repeat the process.

Finally, if time is running low and you think you can jjust squeeze in one last KO, switch to Charizard to try and land a good smash attack.

Squirtle
Being light, Squirtle is fast, and light. So having 0% at the start of the match means you don't have to worry about being KOd due to his lack of weight. He can also attack from a reasonable distance.

Ivysaur
Ivysaur is a Solid, all-rounder who has moderately fast combos and can also land a few heavy blows when needed.

He is also fast enough to make a quick getaway if things aren't going your way. And bullet Seed is extremely helpful in many occasions.

Charizard
Charizard is a slow, heavy character with very strong attacks so use him to quickly polish off the perfect attack strategy.

Samus
Both Samus' are good at both close and long range. But apart from that they are completely opposite! Power Suit Samus is a lot stronger at a distance, where as Zero Suit Samus is a lot stronger close up! They appeal to completely different players styles!

Power Suit Samus
Long range attacks are Power suit Samus' spe-cial-ity, and they can be used in conjunction to create devastating combos even at a distance. Which makes for great ways to initiate the battle, especially considering they are very good to set up smash attacks immediately afterwards. But don't let that keep you right out of the way, both of her other attacks are designed for close range so she's more of an all-rounder.

Zero Suit Samus
Zero Suit Samus has a far more advanced game so I've been told, I don't know much about her but I do know that she is very good in close range battles.

The one thing I do know is that her smash attacks are good for combos against slower moving characters.

My Predictions on certain characters versing others
This is where I would put my money if i was betting on completely even competition. (Like a level 9 Computer vs. a level 9 Computer. (Depending on the class of their character)

Light vs. Light
Generally the faster character will win because the heavier character has to play like the heavier character which doesn't work because being the heavier character is not in their nature.

Light vs. Medium
This is less one sided but the lighter character should win in many situations, but it depends on the weight of the Medium character, generally speaking, the heavier the Medium character is, the more chance they have at winning, but it's most likely the lighter character will win because they can build up damage quickly and finish them off without thinking twice because the characters will fly further than a heavy character.

Medium vs. Medium
There is no telling who will win, this is based mostly on luck, whoever gets the best items will win. (maybe) But the actual moves come into play a lot, whoever has the widest range of attacks is more likely to win. (generally) If a medium character who had mostly slow moving, strong attacks vs. a character who had fast combos, projectiles, and very strong smash attacks. The player with the wider variety would win for sure.

Medium vs. Heavy
Another tricky one. Once again, the character with more variety in they're moves is going to win (In most cases.)

Heavy vs. Heavy
I love watching this type of battle, really it comes down to strategy, if the players are Humans, it's about how well they know their character, and their opponent. My ideal strategy for a heavy character is the three Ps: -Patience -Precision -Power Patience is all about waiting for the right moment to strike; many heavy character moves leave the character vulnerable for some time, so don't go attacking all the time, wait for the time to strike. Precision is the next most important thing to be careful of. When you DO get a chance to attack, (Which isn't all that often) make sure you actually hit your opponent! Too many times I have seen people wait for ages to get the right chance to strike, and then they completely miss their opponent which nearly brings me to tears because they immediately lose the game, they needed to attack so badly but they wasted it when the got the chance. And finally: Power: As I said before, you don't get that many chances to strike, so if you get a perfect opportunity; don't waste it by using a weak attack, You're a heavy character, you're renowned for having the strongest attacks in the game! If you're going to attack, do it properly! And unleash your most powerful asset!!!

Light vs. Heavy
I have to be honest with you: I don't know, but I can tell you that if the heavy character has lots of variety in their moves; that's where their biggest advantage is; It's the same with the lighter character.

And another thing that applies to all the characters: If the character you're using doesn't fit their class, they get a huge disadvantage.

For example: Meta Knight is a light character: all his moves are designed to be light, quick, fast combos. That's because he IS a light character. But if his moves were slow, strong, and designed to get quick KOs; he wouldn't fit the design of himself, and give himself a huge disadvantage.

But other that that; Heavy vs. light is very even competition, it's even more equal than Medium vs. Medium!!

So, sorry about that...

Summary

 * Light vs. Light - Pretty even
 * Light vs. Medium - Slightly less even but still a draw
 * Medium vs. Medium - Very even
 * Medium vs. Heavy - Another Draw
 * Heavy vs. Heavy - Extremely even
 * Light vs. Heavy - A DRAW!! WHAT A SUPRISE!!!!

I'm beginning to see a pattern. lol

FAQs
If you have a question you'd like to ask me, E-mail me at josiah@hilbig.org

Q. I can't get the hang of throwing! I've never thrown at all in the old days but I tried your tactic and I always forget, but I still manage to get past the game anyway.

A. Keep working on it, and just remember, If you can get past the game on Extreme, or defeat a level 9 Computer (Fairly) You're throwing enough. (You don't necessarily have to throw all the time) But it's also easy to set up combos. (Especially in team battles!) Also; it may be your character, some characters aren't best with throwing, so experiment with a few more characters and see if it's easier to get used to with others.

Q. I can't get past any bosses easily, It always take me about 4-5 tries, and It took me 15 mins to get past the final boss! What am I doing wrong?

A. lol, I had the same problem a Loooooong time ago, way back when I played on the Nintendo 64; In the very first Super Smash Bros. You had to get past the "Classic mode" (as it's now called) on Normal difficulty or harder with 3 lives and no continues. And I used Link every time. (This was before I started using light characters) and It didn't work because of the strategy I was using. But the character also didn't help. So I used DK. And y'know what? Getting past the Master Hand was EASY!! So my point is; either you don't know how to use the character you're using, or your character isn't designed to defeat that certain boss. Each boss has their own strengths and weaknesses. So experiment.

Q. I can't beat my brother! I've used all your strategies and tactics but he owns me every time! I try using all the characters but nothing works! What do I do!!

A. rofl!! I have had this question asked to me so many times and your not doing anything wrong! He's just naturally better at the game. (Most likely) I can't help you. And it's not your character, but If he's using a light character, try using Sonic, my little brother almost always beats me by doing that. OR use the same character as him, that way you can't blame me, or yourself, or your character, you can just blame yourself...

Q. I can't get past a certain level is the Subspace Emissary.

A. Click Sorry, this aint my problem, nor is it my specialty. Sorry.

Q. Who is the best character.

A. lol!!! Man you crack me up!!! Jeez man that was a good one!!! Oh, you were serious. Uhh, In my opinion, Meta Knight, but don't actually take that seriously, it all depends on your fighting style.

Q. Who do you actually use?

A. Meta Knight. =)