Super Smash Bros. Melee/Fox

Basic Techniques

Standard Attacks

Button(s)	Description/notes
	A... well, a quick punch. 3-4% damage.
	Two quick punches. 3-4% damage each.
+	A series of very fast and weak kicks which you can continue for as long as you wish (minimum five kicks).
Forward +	A basic yet quite effective kick doing about 7% damage. Very little lag, and a decent setup.
Dash +	Fox uses his running momentum to do a jumping kick that hits once for decent damage.
+	Fox swishes his tail along the ground. Despite its appearance, this move only hits in front of Fox, not behind him. About 10% damage. Sends the opponent straight up. Surprisingly good. Fox's 2nd best tilt.
+	Fox defies conventional vulpine anatomy by kicking the spot directly above his own head somehow. About 9% damage. Extremely useful as a juggle out of an upthrow or another vertical setup. Probably Fox's best tilt.
Smash Forward +	Fox does a little sideways flip forwards and kicks you very, very hard. About 12% damage uncharged, and up to 20% charged. Very strong, with good horizontal knockback and fairly short lag.
Smash +	Fox defies anatomy again by doing the splits impossibly quickly and hitting whoever is on either side of him. This move is best used as a ledge guarding technique, since it sends people downwards and sideways.
Smash +	Infamous in the SSBM community, Fox's Flip Kick (usually referred to as the "upsmash") is truly something to be feared. Like many of Fox's moves, this one is fairly quick yet impossibly strong. It sends people straight up and is one of the most satisfying attacks to hit somebody with in the game. About 16% damage uncharged and 24% charged.
(When lying down)	Fox gets up, punches in front of him then kicks behind him.
(When holding onto a ledge)	Fox combines climbing up from the ledge with a spinning kick attack. Very quick for this type of attack. While it gets good range, Fox finishes with a back flip which places him right next to the edge he climbed up from.

Aerial Attacks

Button(s)	Description/notes
	A kick that stays deployed for a while and continues to do damage for its entire duration (although it gets progressively weaker as it stays out longer). Great knockback when it first comes out. Very useful for "sloppy" aerial intercepts and other attacks where short timing windows would be difficult to hit with.
Forward +	Fox kicks five times as he hurtles through the air. Very cool and does decent damage if you can land several kicks. However, you usually can't, making this move mediocre at best. Very dangerous to use off a ledge since it will take forever for the attack to end and you will fall to your death.
Back +	Similar to his neutral air, only Fox sticks his foot behind him and slightly up, and the attack gets progressively weaker as it stays out. Probably better than his neutral air, as well, as it has slightly better range and damage.
+	A move with virtually no knockback and slightly above mediocre damage, Fox kicks the opponent in what can really only be described as a "drill" motion. See "drillshining" in advanced techniques.
+	Now THIS is an aerial attack. Fox does a little back flip and kicks the opponent. The move actually hits twice, but the hits are so quick that you'll rarely miss the second hit. The first hit does about the same amount of damage as the second, but has zero knockback. The second is the powerhouse. This monster of an attack is almost as powerful as a smash attack and can be used as a juggle, finisher, or just to deal out some hot steaming pain.

Special Attacks

Button(s)	Attack	Description/notes
	Blaster	The only attack in the game that does not cause the victim to flinch at all. Unwise to use on close-range enemies. Instead, use the short-hop blaster to add minor damage at a distance. A useful characteristic of Fox's blaster is the ability to gain a kill by shooting someone who is falling/flying off the stage. If the last damage done to an enemy flying off the stage is from Fox's blaster, he steals the kill.
+	Fire Fox	In an attack sharing its name with the best internet browser ever, Fox engulfs himself in flames and yelps out an enthusiastic "Hiii-yaaah!!!" as he rockets in any direction (which you specify with the control stick). It has a nice big hitbox and is fairly quick, so it's usually a safe way to return to the ledge providing you are coming from above rather than below.
+	Reflector	Known as "Shine" among smash casuals, Fox's reflector's intended function is to reflect projectile attacks. Be advised that it can actually break like a shield if you abuse it, as it will add power to whatever it reflects. However, it has a few more useful and interesting functions. See advanced techniques.
()+	Fox Illusion	Fox dashes forwards and produces several nifty little blue versions of himself behind him. It's better to use this to get back on the ledge than Firefox, because it's faster. However, it only goes horizontally. As an attack, it's not too spectacular.

Throws

Button(s)	Description/notes
	Fox throws the opponent down onto the ground and shoots the poor fellow a few times with his blasters. This throw is your best bet against any friends you might have who are unable to tech roll efficiently, because you can follow it up with a shine or down smash to rack up some serious damage. However, if your opponent learns to tech roll away from the throw, you're better off with the up throw.
Forward	Fox punches the opponent forward, inflicting medium damage and causing medium knockback. When the opponent is at low damage Fox can follow up the throw by running forward and attacking, opening up combo possibilities.
	Your best bet against people who don't fall for down throw combos, this is a sweet setup, especially against fastfallers such as Falco (or another Fox). The possibilities are endless, but one of the best things to do is to follow it up with an upsmash or some uptilts.
Back	Throws backward and fires a few lasers.

Advanced Techniques

Short Hop Blaster

If you jump, pull out your blaster, and land, the blaster is automatically put away, as opposed to the normal half-second or so delay when normally putting away the blaster. Thus, short-hopping while using your blaster is a much safer way of adding damage at a distance.

Another technique to use is Short Hop Double Laser, abbreviated SHDL. When shorthopping press b at the very first frame you may use blaster and you can fit in another laser during the jump. This tactic is used in high levels of play to rack up damage and cover area.

Shine Spike

The shine/reflector, when used in direct contact with a victim, knocks said victim away from Fox. The advantage to this is that the shine is the least laggy move in the game - it deploys in ONE FRAME! This can be abused very nicely by knocking the opponent off the stage, then jumping after them and shining them right on the top of the head, sending them down and outwards into oblivion. If you find this description confusing, consider it like a meteor smash only less powerful but easier to use, a lot trickier and a lot cooler.

Remember that you may use this tactic to gimp recoveries, but only attempt it if they are below the stage. Using it while they are above the stage only puts them down closer to the ledge, puts them in position to attack, and allows them the opportunity to gimp your recovery attempts.

Waveshining

You should first master Fox's wavedash (see advanced techniques). With that done, note that you can "cancel" a shine by wavedashing immediately after it. This can be used to shine the opponent, wavedash after him, shine him again, and repeat to your heart's desire (until they fall off the edge). It's basically a potential infinite combo, restricted only by the fact that the victim will fall off the edge. The timing is a bit tricky. Also, note that not all characters can be waveshined, as different characters react differently to being shined. Falco, for example, falls flat on his face afterwards, and is thus un-waveshinable. Link, on the other hand, gets torn apart.

Drillshining

This technique may seem a bit daunting at first, but is actually a rather easy way to rack up some good damage with Fox. It entails using the drill kick (aerial down a), L-canceling (see general techniques) and shining immediately. It can be repeated over and over if you can time it well enough, and if you get somebody up against a wall with it it's an infinite combo.

Chain Throwing

Although Fox is not the first character who comes to mind when you think chain-throwing, he can do it to Falco and other Foxes. Simply upthrow, turn around, catch, upthrow, repeat. Eventually their damage will get too high and they will recover before you can catch them. They might also be able to DI out of it. Still, pretty tricky stuff.

Star Fox Easter Egg

While playing on Corneria or Venom in vs. or training mode, very quickly, tap , sort of like short hopping with . If done in less than 2 frames or so, Fox will eventually spin around quickly and hunch over with a clenched fist. After holding this position for about 10 seconds, a conversation among the other three Star Fox members will trigger. If Fox is hit during the hunch, it will be interrupted. This can be done only once per battle, whether it is fully executed or not. This serves no purpose other than to ensue a brief laugh, surprise your friends, or insight nostalgia from SF64.

The popular belief that mashing and is because somewhere along the line, you'll accidentally do down on the , without trying. To make this easier you can slow down the game speed in training mode, then turn the speed back to normal once Fox does the spinning animation.

Fox Illusion techniques

Stand away from your opponent and blast them with your Blaster. When they get too close for comfort, simply illusion through them. Run away and start all over again. Try just continually illusioning through your opponent; it is very annoying. While both of these techniques are okay, your foe will soon find a way to stop them, so enjoy them while they last.

Cancelling illusion

Just before Fox takes off with a whoosh, press just as you hear the whoosh. Fox will either not move forward at all or just move a little.

"Fox Trot"

With some characters, including Fox, the initial dash animation is faster than actual dashing. You can move faster than usual by initiating a dash (by tapping) then waiting a second then initiating another dash. A further advantage of the fox-trot is that you can stop the dash animation instantly without any turning animation (DDing) at any point in your movement.