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Samus on her home stage: Planet Zebes.

Samus' throw is pretty dismal, and the range is more of an impediment than an asset. Do not attempt to get into throw-fests with other characters unless you are sure you know what you are doing. When Samus misses her grab, she is vulnerable to anything for quite some time as her grapple comes back in. This aside, the grapple does have a range advantage, and can be used to pull one enemy from another melee for free damage, or hit a charging enemy off guard. At maximum range, the grapple also can just barely grab a hammer-wielding enemy for a throw, but this is tricky to pull off.

Like all characters who can spike, Samus can also juggle towards the ground, using ground attacks to keep an enemy pinned while she racks up damage. Her smash punch is pretty powerful, but also reasonably quickly executed and should definitely make up the brunt of your melee combos. The back jump kick, pressing and attacking in the direction opposite of which she's facing, is also reasonably powerful and can easily send enemies off the edge in an arial bout.

A-attacks[edit]

Normal
A button Jab ...She punches forwards, then smashes her Arm Cannon on your face. That's it.
Left control+A button
Right control+A button
Dash Attack Samus shoulder tackles the opponent, knocking them upwards. While it can be a combo starter under the right circumstances, it's sheild stun is abysmal, however, and even at moderate percents, opponents can easily punish you.
Tilts
Light Up control+A button Upward Tilt She brings her foot upward, then axe kicks downwards. It's most useful against a wall, but if the opponent's above you, you can use it's wide hitbox to hit them.
Light Down control+A button Downward Tilt The intergalactic bounty hunter preforms a grounded roundhouse kick. The animation would later be used for her d-smash in all future games. At very high percents, this move has some KOing potential near the ledge, but unless her other moves are stale, she has better options.
Light Left control+A button
Light Right control+A button
Forward Tilt A fast kick forwards that also happens to have low end-lag. One of her more reliable moves for giving Samus breathing room.
Smashes
Hard Up control+A button Upward Smash Samus fires 5 blasts of flame directly above her (Fun Fact: this is the VERY first time she's ever fired flame, predating Metroid Prime). Officially named "Cover Fire" in SSB4, it can deal up to 50%, but isn't a good KO move regardless. This one is best saved for heavyweights and fast-fallers.
Hard Down control+A button Downward Smash Samus sweeps her leg forwards then backwards, knocking opponents sideways. It can sometimes be used to edgeguard; however, it's the weakest d-smash in Smash 64.
Hard Left control+A button
Hard Right control+A button
Forward Smash This is the "Smash Punch" mentioned above. It's decently quick, with good knockback and acceptable range as well.
Aerials (used in the air)
A button Neutral Air Attack Just a basic sex kick, angled upwards slightly.
Up control+A button Upward Air Attack She preforms an upwards drill kick with her feet extended, dealing mulitple hits. A flat out terrible move, largley due to it's number of hits and how hard it is to land them.
Down control+A button Downward Air Attack Swipes her arm cannon underneath herself, meteor smashing everyone underneath her. This should be a primary attack, if only for the fact that it's meteor smash is very powerful and and can kill earlier than the magority of her other attacks, and on the ground, it can combo into moves like b-air.
Ssb masterhand.jpg Left control+A button Forward Air Attack The bounty hunter fires several bursts of flame ahead, dealing up to 20%. It's..... admittedly not the best move, as it's difficult to land every hit, but if you land the last one, it can get a sweet combo going.
Ssb masterhand.jpg Right control+A button Backward Air Attack As mentioned above, Samus kicks behind herself. Among her strongest moves when sweetspotted; however, due to her bad short hop and few means of comboing into it, landing the sweetspot is a chore.

B-attacks[edit]

Buttons Attack Explanation
B button Charge Shot Samus charges up her signature Charge Shot. This is chargeable in the same way as DK's Giant Punch; Pressing Z saves the current level of charge, and B lets you continue it. at full charge, continues traveling untill it hits someone or goes offscreen, making it excelent for edgeguarding, especially with it's intense power. Uncharged, it can be used to space. Up control+B button Screw Attack
Down control+B button Bomb Attack

Special[edit]

Bomb Attack +Left control
Bomb Attack +Right control
Bomb Recovery This is not so effective when recovering from a low position off the platforms, but when knocked far to the side Samus can easily recover from distances most other characters wouldn't dream of. Using Samus' bomb attack and pushing the direction you want to go, Samus will roll into a ball and drop a bomb - but she will remain lateral, not falling further while rolling. After the bomb attack she will return to normal form and begin falling again, which is when you can initiate another bomb attack. In this method, Samus can slowly but surely move back towards the platforms, using her final Up control+B button recovery to get back on the platform if she needs. A strength of this particular tactic is that, if high enough, it gives some flexibility in returning to the side platforms. Samus could recover, drop further bombs and land on the platforms, drop fast to grab the edge, or come back with another attack.
Downward Air Attack Spike While jumping, do the attack and Samus should do a quick spin kick towards the ground. Timing is crucial when doing a Spike (which can be done with other characters, but not all of them), but when you have knocked an enemy off the side, jumping out to meet them while they are still not over the platform, then executing the attack will send them quickly towards the ground with very little chance of recovery. This attack can easily KO low precentages, as long as they are knocked off.
Hold B button Charge Shot This charges up a shot, but you can also interrupt this charge and do other things. What does this mean? Every spare chance you have, you should be charging. Enemies must always be wary that you have a fully charged shot, that can do upward of 25% damage and send them flying. This will not only obviously make them more cautious toward you, letting you take the initiative, but also gives you a ranged attack to send at them when they least expect it. Do not make the obvious mistake of simply lobbing projectiles from the far side of the map hoping to hit someone randomly. First off, an uncharged shot is good for little more than annoyance in most cases. So you should only attack with a charged shot. Secondly, you must look at your enemies' current tactical positions - are they recovering, which direction are they moving, etc.

Shoot when you are almost guaranteed to land a hit, when they are in the air recovering, attacking someone else, or otherwise preoccupied mentally or physically. If they see it coming, but their character is simply in no position to move out of the way, fire. There is no reason that the attack must be ranged; a charged shot could be a perfect end to a melee combo, or it can be fired at relatively short distances at a charging enemy. Further uses of the charge shot include using excellent timing to hit an enemy that is recovering from the edge. If an enemy is already off the edge, recovering, a charged shot usually is enough to send them out for good. Charged or uncharged shots are also good for getting the last damage in on an enemy, ensuring that the kill is yours (whether you actually earned it or not).