Ike-Striking Hard and Quick

1)Who Ike is and his game-plan

2)Combos

3)Stages

4)Frame-data and other numbers

5)Some things to chew on

6)Wow, you're still here



When you take a glance at him, Ike seems like a typical sluggard who doesn't have any speed to give him a neutral-game. While that is partially true, your spacing attacks are more efficient than you'd think at their job and could really give your opponent a bad time when hit by them.

• Your down tilt and jab are very precious to you on ground and your bair and nair are just as important in the air, although fair is pretty good too. Your neutral consists of more than those moves, though. Fair has lag when used with a SHFF, but not a full hop or a short hop without a fast fall, while nair's lag is (usually) negligible, as long as you space it well.
• Since your attacks can't be challenged easily (since you have disjoints with almost all of your attack), people are going to want to put up their shield when you jump at them. After conditioning them to do that with some spaced nairs and fairs, you can jump up, like usual, watch them shield, like usual, and fast fall and grab. This is called a tomahawk grab and is very powerful in low-mid level play. Higher up, people will be able to react more easily with a spotdodge or such. lf that's the case, read and punish.
• That happens to be a pretty big part of your plan as well, since most of your attacks are slow and hit like a truck.
• Your dash attack is a really huge attack that can actually be used as an anti air, as well as normal punishing.
• Tilts, especially your side tilt, are your best punishing moves and your safest, while smashes are for hard reads or terrifying your opponent by charging them right in front of them. If they sit there, in shield, there really isn't much they can do.
• Eruption is a marvelous edgeguarding tool against linear, telegraphed recoveries. It hits below the stage some and has super armor after some time charging it. It's also incredibly strong and has a surprisingly big hitbox above you as well.
• The knockback from taking any of your smashes would send them back a considerable distance, lessening your punishablilty. I'm not saying to throw out smashes left and right, but one or two in an advantageous position can probably shaken your opponent while making you feel really good about yourself. l'd say that's pretty important with the game in general, but especially with your power.
• You have the potential to utterly destroy everything and that's what your goal should be, to put it bluntly. All that matters is your opponent's mindset. Once the opponent is no longer afraid of you, they can more likely than not combo you all over the place and gimp you, which is rather easy, once they learn how to avoid Aether's hitboxes or have a windbox (looking at you, F.L.U.D.D). But if they're afraid, they'll be less wiling to take the risks needed to gain an advantage.
• This all also depends on you having a good mindset. As long as you recover correctly with mixing up Aethers and Quick Draws, you're almost unkillable, which lets you gain rage to more easily wipe out characters like Sheik or Pikachu who can really struggle at killing. After all, you're like the 7th heaviest character in the game.
• Even if you don't get a nice, meaty bair or smash, you've got a nice chance of eventually killing in neutral with ftilt, fair, or bair at center stage. lt'll take some time, sure, but it's not nothing.

Your combos are fairly simple (and mostly consists of fairs), but they can get the job done. Most of them come from your down tilt or grabs, basic stuff.

• Down\Up throw into fair, 19%*. Down throw-fair stops working on Zelda at around 57% (and at 40%, you'll have to double jump, while Up throw-fair works until around 90%, since Up-throw has less knockback growth. At lower percents, the opponent won't be sent into their tumble animation, so be wary of how they try to avoid you, if at all. In any case, this combo is very DI dependent, especially with the up throw at lower percents. Try to mix in some smashes if you know they'll try to airdodge out.
• First hit of jab into dtilt, 11%. A cute mix-up with your jab that links into a plethora of small strings. Also a very safe thing to try on it's own.
• Dtilt into up smash, 25%(uncharged). Very early game combo. The opponent will probably react in some way after getting hit by the dtilt, either by jumping out, airdodging, or attacking back. Doesn't work well with jab-dtilt, since the punch sends the opponent too close to the tip of your slash to efficiently combo. With the opponent being hit at the base, they're much easier to up smash. If they airdodge, charge the move up. Your disjoint should protect you from most characters. However, beware of counters.
• Dtilt into fair, 20%*. This CAN be airdodged out of early on, but it becomes a true combo for a window of time mid-game (around 40%-60%). Weird, huh? Plus, if they airdodge the fair at the start of the match when it isn't guaranteed, you frametrap into another dtilt!
• Nair into dtilt into fair, 29%*. Only somewhat possible at 0% for middleweights or heavier, this is just another tool to show that you mean business.
• Nair into fair, 21%*. A landing nair sends opponents upwards, setting up for aerials, usually fair at most percents, but linking it with uair (20% instead) is viable at around 60% and is a read based combo that works at up to 90%, the same time it'd kill. The uair follow-up isn't something l'd recommend you doing often, as uair's a primary kill move.
• Back hit of nair into bair, 23%. Again, not a true combo until mid percent, but this works pretty well until the opponent's above 80%.
• First hit of jab into dair, 18%. This is just something stupid that l like to confuse the opponent with. After the spike, follow up with uair or bair.
• Up throw into footstool into dair into Forward smash, 46%. This is pretty hard to do, but it feels so good to land this one. Plus, just imagine how the opponent would feel. Works well until around 20%. What happens after the dair is what is called a jab-lock.
  
  When an opponent is prone and gets hit by an attack that doesn't launch them, such as Pikachu's Thunder Jolt or Mega Man's lemons, they will be forced to use a neutral get-up. CPUs, for whatever reason, ignore this. You need to follow where the opponent tumbles to and dair as son as you fast fall to chase the opponent.​

You certainly want platforms, since your huge attacks can already cover so much space, especially your up smash. How the blast zones are arranged doesn't really matter to you, but smaller is a bit better. You want to have places to escape to with Quick Draw as well. Battlefield, Smashville, Town and City, and even Delfino Plaza are pretty good stages for you, in my opinion. l wouldn't say any normally legal stage is TERRIBLE for you, but Lylat can screw over your Quick Draws some with the tilting.




Frame data and other numbers

lf you've been on Smashboards for more than 12 seconds, you'll have heard quite a bit of numbers mentioned, especially frame-data. ln Smash 4, a frame is a 60th of a second, as the game runs at 60 fps (frames per second). That means Little Mac punches 60 times a second (frame 1 boiz). lf you're just starting out, this won't be too important to you. Hell, l don't think it's too important. l was just looking back at this guide l made months ago, and thought some basement dwellers would appreciate the you'll see below, which l basically copied from Kurogane Hammer, which supplies frame data, first active frames (FAFs), angles, knockbacks, and more for Smash 4, Melee, Rivals of Aether, and Pokken. Maybe you'll like to check it out, regardless of whether you know what it means. l dunno. Here, take this Sorry, too lazy to actually put them into the actual guide. Plz dun't h8, m8.

• Figuring out how and when to use these moves takes some time and practice, so you need to be kinda dedicated to play this way.​
• B reversing your Eruption can disrupt people trying to punish your landings.​
• Many characters' combos can be acted out of, not just your own. Spamming Counter can get some opponents off of you, but they'll be wary of the counter the next time they start to combo you. They'll be hesitant, leaving you safer. So don't spam it all the time. Spam it just enough.​
• Aether can latch onto opponents in the air and drag them down. It's an anti-air as well as a recovery.​
• Windboxes and waterboxes (aren't they the same thing in function?) easily gimp Aether and can make Quick Draw easier to interfere with by slowing you down.​
• If you clip someone with the upward throw and descent of Aether while recovering, jump onto the stage, wait for the inevitable panic airdodge, and punish.​
• Since most people think you're slower than you actually are, they'll be happy to punish a missed smash or tilt. You can try to bait and punish this way.​
• You play more on mental momentum than other characters, please try to keep a positive lookout on the match.​
• Look for streams or sets on Youtube with MVG Ryo, an amazing Ike who got me into the character and plays so patiently, it's painful to watch.
• Overall, you're a tanky, punishing character who has speed in some of his attacks and a huge sword. Think of it like Ganondorf and Lucina mashed together.

This has been my first guide l've made on here, so l may have made a number of mistakes. As l said, l've been playing lke myself for quite some time, but l honestly don't have that much experience offline. l'm more of a For Glory tryhard than anything else (although l do go on Anther's a lot too), so l'm afraid this isn't the best information that can be given. I'm pretty new to Smashboards and l plan to do more guides on these more underrated characters. Any feedback would be appreciated. Thank you for reading.