- Game Versions
- Smash Wii U
Hey all,
My name is TyranaHax amd I’m a big fan of Samus in the Wii U version so I decided to make her my main. I haven’t really seen anything like this for her and I thought I’d give a rundown of her move set and a couple combos / tips. This is a pretty big wall of text that I hope to constantly improve on.
I’d also like to note, that I’m not a pro, but I’m a competitive player and always looking to improve.
If something you see isn’t accurate or you’ve found other uses, please let me know in the comments and I’ll update the section and credit you for it. This will be a living guide that I want to keep updated as her gameplay evolves.
Samus at her core has a lot of weaknesses but a good amount of strengths and tricks to push her skill up quite a bit. She’s one of those characters that can be hard to master if you aren’t using the right moves at the right times. Her combos can just be insanely fun too.
An important word you’re going to see a lot of is Spacing, this has a lot to do with her overall floatiness as a character and the speed of her skill set.
Let’s start will a breakdown of her moves:
Ground Game
Samus has a pretty lackluster ground game aside from projectiles. You’ll have a lot of moves that set up for aerial combos which is where Samus shines. Ground moves are generally slow and have poor kill potential aside from F-smash.
Jab
Jab 1 Damage: 3%
Jab 2 Damage: 8%
Samus has a simple 1, 2 jab combo. It’s slow and unreliable to say the least. The first hit has moderate hit stun, while the second has more knockback. Landing both at early percentages will give you the biggest bang for your buck, otherwise their primary use is to create a bit of spacing.
The first jab goes straight out from samus, while the other is an overhand swing with an arcing hitbox. The second jab is a good chunk of percentage, but you can generally be shielded, shield grabbed or jabbed between hits 1 and 2 because of its speed.
Forward Tilt
F-Tilt Damage: 6%
Angled F-Tilt Damage: 7%
F-Tilt is another good move to help create spacing. It has pretty decent distance, it’s quick, and can be used straight out from her, or angled diagonally up or down.
Great uses for F-Tilt are used to create the spacing the samus needs to function and getting through low shield opponents. You can do a pretty quick dash to pivot Ftilt to trick your opponents. Angled F-Tilts will generally have a greater success and can rack up a tiny bit of extra damage. Knockback for a normal and angled F-Tilt are the same.
Down Tilt
D-Tilt Damage: 12%
D-Tilt is one of Samus’ staple moves for reading rolls, beating dash attacks and catching opponents off guard. Sadly, with how high most of the blast zones are, this move doesn’t have any reasonable kill potential.
D-Tilt has great damage and its start up is fast… like, really fast. It also has a wide hitbox. Ending lag is pretty bad though so it’s hard to follow up with aerials and can be easily punished if you miss or it gets shielded. I use it as a tool for tech traps.
Up Tilt
U-Tilt Damage: 13%
Such a great move. It’s fast, has a large hitbox, minimal ending lag for follow ups, and can kill on stage at around 140% on Mario.
There are some great uses for U-Tilt. The last few frames are a spike, so you can read a roll and spike someone off the stage then follow up with some aerials, like Fair at earlier percentages.
The other main use is for edge guard, as it has such a large hitbox and a small one below the foot you can spike people who miss the ledge sweet spot.
Dash Attack Dash Attack Damage: 10%
Samus has a pretty decent Dash attack because it can combo at early percents and has a moderately long duration.
One of the negatives of Samus’ dash attack is the chance for it to miss if you activate too early, which can lead to it getting read by other players quite often.
But, on the positive side, it has a lot of follow up. At early percents you can do a dash attack into a U-smash for a good damage combo. My personal favorite is dash attack into U-air as it can combo into other moves which will be covered in the U-air section.
Forward Smash
F-Smash Damage: 12%
F-Smash Sweet Spot Damage: 14%
F-Smash Angled Damage: 13%
F-Smash is going to be one of your main kill moves when on the stage. Once again, like F-Tilt this move can be angled up or down and hits for about 1% more damage.
This is going to be your most most reliable ground kill moves, as none of Samus’ other ground moves have the kill potential. Make sure you use a down angled F-Smash to punish rolls and get through low shields. You’ll has a lot of issues with up angled F-smashes missing on small opponents. One important note about this move is that it does have a sweet spot. The edge of the canon hits hardest and has a way stronger knockback. You’ll kill earlier if you can get the spacing right. Angled F-Smashes do NOT have a sweet spot.
Ending lag is decently long, but start up is pretty fast.
To get the most out of F-Smash, learn your spacing and the sweet spot.
Down Smash
D-Smash Damage: 10%
D-smash lost a lot. It doesn’t have kill potential, but can be used to catch rolls.
You’ll mainly be using D-Smash to catch people rolling as that is its primary use. There isn’t too much to say about it because it’s not that impressive. It has two hitboxes, one in front and one behind. The whole move takes a while to make its way around to the 2nd hitbox, making it easily punishable by people behind you. Timing is key when using this move to try and punish other players.
Up Smash
U-Smash Damage: 19%
Oh U-smash, you’re almost good.... well, not really. There so many problems with this move.
U-Smash is a multi-hit move that can dish out a lot of damage if you can land all the hits, but it’s easily readable and hard to land on average sized characters while on the ground. You need to be directly next to another character for it to connect on the first hit and it won’t bring opponents into the full attack. Dash into U-Smash stops Samus’ in her tracks and had no slide at all. Priority is pretty low, and long ending lag.
I generally try to avoid using U-Smash because there are so many other options available.
Grabs
Samus has a pretty solid grab game, with her long distance plasma laser. Use the range to your advantage but be careful, you can be easily punished if you miss a grab. Pivot grab has a huge range and can even punish some players rolls. Beware of the weakness of missed grabs, but enjoy the power of the combos from throws.
Grab Attack
Grab Attack Damage: 1%
It’s a simple ***** slap.
Forward Throw
F-Throw Damage: 9%
Forward throw doesn’t have any follow ups but gives a pretty decent damage percent. Knockback is too far for combos and doesn’t have kill potential.
Down Throw
D-Throw Damage: 6%
This throw… it’s the best. This is your bread and butter. It combos into U-Air and into F-air. You’ll have the most options after this. Knockback will lead to combos until pretty high percents and can lock up heavy characters pretty well.
Three of my favorite damage combos with D-throw are:
D-Throw > U-air > Jump > U-air > Up B - This can rack up around 35% damage.
D-Throw > U-Air > Jump > B-air
D-Throw > U-Air > Jump > B-air
Beware of F-air follow ups on characters like Diddy, it’s pretty hard to land if they have good DI.
Back Throw
B-Throw Damage: 8%
Not many follow ups, primary use is getting people off the stage.
Up Throw
U-Throw Damage: 9%
The only follow up I’ve found is a jump into Up B, but it’s really risky. No kill potential.
Aerials
Now that you’ve read about a lot of the weaknesses of Samus’ ground game, let’s get to where she shines, the air! Samus has a lot of floatiness, which you can use for a lot of movement and spacing for your aerials. These will be your kill moves and a lot of your combo moves.
Neutral Air
N-air Front Hit Damage: 8%
N-air Back Damage: 7%
N-air, you’re so fast, you have 2 hitboxes, you can combo, and you have pretty solid priority. This is a completely different move than the sex kick from brawl, melee, and 64.
N-air has a lot of off stage potential. It’s great for chasing opponents off the stage to the blast zones because of its speed. It can also be followed up by a F-air. It has great approach in air battles, but suffers from the difficulty of short hopping it as the start up on the first hit is so fast. You need to hit the attack pretty late for it to connect, which leaves you open to grabs.
Use it, abuse it, and fall in love with it.
Forward Air
F-air Damage: 12%
F-air has a lot of combo potential. You can D-throw > F-air, D-Throw > U-air > F-air, Dash Attack > F-air. Use this move for spacing and for off stage chasing, it’ll be one of your aerial bread and butter moves. The priority is great and gives you such a large aerial hitbox, players, especially Little Mac will fear this aerial.
Be warned, against heavier characters, like DK and Bowser, the first few hits do NOT have much hitstun and can be broken out of.
Another rule of thumb is to never approach a ground opponents with F-air. The landing lag is so bad if you don’t finish the animation or it gets shielded, that you can be easily punished.
Back Air
B-air Damage: 12%
B-air is so good. High priority, it’s fast, and has great kill potential. This is going to be one of your big aerials for controlling the air space. Landing lag is so so and I wouldn’t recommending doing a RAR (Reverse Aerial Rush) into a player unless you are 100% sure you can hit them.
Learn to love this move as you’ll be using these to get most of your kills.
Up Air
U-air Damage: 9%
U-air is one of your big follow ups from D-throw and dash attacks. It has a decent enough knockback to lead to other aerials, like F-air, B-air or Up B, but enough knockback to keep you safe. I wouldn’t try to fight players approacing from the air because of the so-so priority, but keep this move handy for its combo potential.
Note that the hitbox is only from Samus’ shoulders and up to her feet, her head has no hitbox
Down Air
D-air Damage: 14%
Down air is pretty fantastic. It’s fast, it can spike in the first couple frames, has a wide hitbox, and it has almost no landing lag.
Focus on getting good at Short Hop Fast Fall D-airs. You’ll get some really great pressure can some great stage bounces to lead up to other combos because of no landing lag.
Off stage potential is strong, but people can usually see this coming from a mile away. I still need to get better at D-air myself.
Z-air
Z-air Close Damage: 1%
Z-air Range Damage: 3%
Z-air is something I’m still trying to get use to. It’s extremely fast and has almost no landing lag. Use it to create the spacing that samus needs to set up for aerials and projectiles. It’s great for stopping approaching enemies and forcing them to air dodge as well.
For recovery, the range is moderately long. Use it when approaching from the side or from below the stage for maximum effectiveness.
Specials
What makes Samus, Samus? Her specials of course! You’ll use these to take advantage of all the spacing you create with your ground moves and some aerials.
Neutral B - Charged Shot
Uncharged Damage: 3%
1 Second Charge Damage: 11%
2 Second Charger Damage: 19%
Fully Charged Damage: 25%
Charged shot is going to be one of your best kill moves, hands down. It takes 3 seconds to full charge on the ground. If you are charging and roll, it’ll save where you are charged at so you can complete it. Use it to surprise your opponents and catch them when rolling. You’ll be able to punish so many players with this if they don’t see it coming.
If you want to have the most success with Samus, make sure you ensure you’re using Charged Shot effectively and building it up throughout the match. The damage and kill potential make it such a threat that it forces players to react and change their play style. Put the fear in them.
Wherein lies one of its problems. It’s such a devastatingly a strong move, people have a pretty good idea of when you’ll use it. Be creative, be tricky, and don’t always use it at the same time. One of Samus biggest strengths is that she has a lot of moves that she can change up to surprise people with different attacks.
If you Neutral B in the air, you will fire off whatever charged shot you currently have stored, whether it’s a uncharged shot or a 2 second shot.
Use uncharged shots to harass opponents for a quick, small hit stun. This is good to throw out inbetween rockets for a change up.
Another warning, if you use a fully charged shot in the air, you’ll suffer a decent knockback on yourself. Be warned as Samus’ Up B doesn’t have much horizontal recovery. I’ve died because of this knockback before.
Side B (Tilt) - Homing Missile
Homing Missile Damage: 5%
Samus has two versions of her Side B. The first is Homing Missile, where the input is the same as doing a F-tilt, but with B.
You can have up to two homing missiles out at once. These projectiles track your enemy and move at an average speed. Once they reach the last bit of travel, they lose their speed and travel at a crawl. They travel at full speed for about Half of Final Destination, then fizzle out. Slow missiles can force your opponents to react differently on the ledge if you can get the spacing right by forcing them to arc over the ledge at opponents who recover from below the stage.
Use Homing Missiles to create spacing and pressure on your opponents. Short hop missiles work, but the landing lag is pretty long and can be punished. These have no kill potential, unless it’s a gimp.
Side B (Smash) - Power Missile
Power Missile Damage: 10%
Power Missiles have lost a lot since their heyday, but they can still create pressure and catch your opponents off guard. You can only have ONE Power Missile out at a time. If you try and fire one while another is traveling, it’ll be an empty shot.
Throw in Power Missile to force people to roll to set up for a charged shot. Use them in between Homing Missiles to change the pace of speed of projectiles your opponents are dealing with. Power Missiles have pretty much no kill potential.
Down B - Bomb
Hit Damage: 4%
Bomb Damage: 5%
Bombs are still something that I’m experimenting a lot with. There are some cool tricks you can use to get the maximum usage out of them, along with using them to boost your recovery.
Bomb jumping is where you drop a bomb, have it hit you and you’ll get a small vertical jump from it. Use bomb jumping to try and mind game your opponent when approaching from above or from the side of the stage. You need to be precise when dropping bombs and hit directly down, or you’ll fire missile and probably die in the process.
Dash Bomb Fakeout is what I like to call it when you dash at an opponent and right when you get to them, you drop a bomb and DI away from them. This will leave a bomb right in front of them and can punish if they try to grab.
I’ve learned that the ending lag for bombs is pretty long. If you are using them to recover below the stage, be careful, it makes using your Z-air difficult because of the delay.
Overall, I still need to experiment with bombs. If you have any tips for them, let me know and I’ll add it to this section.
Here's a great bit about bombs from /u/Ichi_sama reddit!
Up B - Screw Attack
Screw Attack Damage: 11%
Screw Attack is fast and can rack up some solid damage. It’s best used out of shielding as an attack or of course, for recovery. Be warned that a lot of the horizontal movement has been removed from it and it’s harder to recover now. Focus on approaching from below the stage so that you can sweetspot the ledge, it’s really important.
As for combo potential, There are some good follow ups out of U-air. There is a little bit of kill potential if you can land these closer to the vertical blast zone. Be warned though, if you miss, you’ll be easily punished.
TL;DR
To sum everything up, Samus has a pretty poor ground game, with a strong aerial and projectile game. Use your throws and ground attacks to push people into the air and take advantage of them. Spacing is important,or you’ll be punished. Don’t be afraid to go off stage once you get comfortable with your aerials, it’s where she shines.
I’ll be streaming a lot and hope to keep getting better with Samus. She’s so much fun and pretty underestimated / underrepresented in the scene right now.
Feel free to join me on stream @ www.twitch.tv/tyranahax or follow me on twitter www.twitter.com/tyranahax
Once again, please let me know if you have some cool advance techniques for Samus or other combo’s you’ve figured out. I’ll update this and credit you for it.
http://img.pandawhale.com/123987-swiggity-swooty-comin-for-dat-hRxY.gif
My name is TyranaHax amd I’m a big fan of Samus in the Wii U version so I decided to make her my main. I haven’t really seen anything like this for her and I thought I’d give a rundown of her move set and a couple combos / tips. This is a pretty big wall of text that I hope to constantly improve on.
I’d also like to note, that I’m not a pro, but I’m a competitive player and always looking to improve.
If something you see isn’t accurate or you’ve found other uses, please let me know in the comments and I’ll update the section and credit you for it. This will be a living guide that I want to keep updated as her gameplay evolves.
Samus at her core has a lot of weaknesses but a good amount of strengths and tricks to push her skill up quite a bit. She’s one of those characters that can be hard to master if you aren’t using the right moves at the right times. Her combos can just be insanely fun too.
An important word you’re going to see a lot of is Spacing, this has a lot to do with her overall floatiness as a character and the speed of her skill set.
Let’s start will a breakdown of her moves:
Ground Game
Samus has a pretty lackluster ground game aside from projectiles. You’ll have a lot of moves that set up for aerial combos which is where Samus shines. Ground moves are generally slow and have poor kill potential aside from F-smash.
Jab
Jab 1 Damage: 3%
Jab 2 Damage: 8%
Samus has a simple 1, 2 jab combo. It’s slow and unreliable to say the least. The first hit has moderate hit stun, while the second has more knockback. Landing both at early percentages will give you the biggest bang for your buck, otherwise their primary use is to create a bit of spacing.
The first jab goes straight out from samus, while the other is an overhand swing with an arcing hitbox. The second jab is a good chunk of percentage, but you can generally be shielded, shield grabbed or jabbed between hits 1 and 2 because of its speed.
Forward Tilt
F-Tilt Damage: 6%
Angled F-Tilt Damage: 7%
F-Tilt is another good move to help create spacing. It has pretty decent distance, it’s quick, and can be used straight out from her, or angled diagonally up or down.
Great uses for F-Tilt are used to create the spacing the samus needs to function and getting through low shield opponents. You can do a pretty quick dash to pivot Ftilt to trick your opponents. Angled F-Tilts will generally have a greater success and can rack up a tiny bit of extra damage. Knockback for a normal and angled F-Tilt are the same.
Down Tilt
D-Tilt Damage: 12%
D-Tilt is one of Samus’ staple moves for reading rolls, beating dash attacks and catching opponents off guard. Sadly, with how high most of the blast zones are, this move doesn’t have any reasonable kill potential.
D-Tilt has great damage and its start up is fast… like, really fast. It also has a wide hitbox. Ending lag is pretty bad though so it’s hard to follow up with aerials and can be easily punished if you miss or it gets shielded. I use it as a tool for tech traps.
Up Tilt
U-Tilt Damage: 13%
Such a great move. It’s fast, has a large hitbox, minimal ending lag for follow ups, and can kill on stage at around 140% on Mario.
There are some great uses for U-Tilt. The last few frames are a spike, so you can read a roll and spike someone off the stage then follow up with some aerials, like Fair at earlier percentages.
The other main use is for edge guard, as it has such a large hitbox and a small one below the foot you can spike people who miss the ledge sweet spot.
Dash Attack Dash Attack Damage: 10%
Samus has a pretty decent Dash attack because it can combo at early percents and has a moderately long duration.
One of the negatives of Samus’ dash attack is the chance for it to miss if you activate too early, which can lead to it getting read by other players quite often.
But, on the positive side, it has a lot of follow up. At early percents you can do a dash attack into a U-smash for a good damage combo. My personal favorite is dash attack into U-air as it can combo into other moves which will be covered in the U-air section.
Forward Smash
F-Smash Damage: 12%
F-Smash Sweet Spot Damage: 14%
F-Smash Angled Damage: 13%
F-Smash is going to be one of your main kill moves when on the stage. Once again, like F-Tilt this move can be angled up or down and hits for about 1% more damage.
This is going to be your most most reliable ground kill moves, as none of Samus’ other ground moves have the kill potential. Make sure you use a down angled F-Smash to punish rolls and get through low shields. You’ll has a lot of issues with up angled F-smashes missing on small opponents. One important note about this move is that it does have a sweet spot. The edge of the canon hits hardest and has a way stronger knockback. You’ll kill earlier if you can get the spacing right. Angled F-Smashes do NOT have a sweet spot.
Ending lag is decently long, but start up is pretty fast.
To get the most out of F-Smash, learn your spacing and the sweet spot.
Down Smash
D-Smash Damage: 10%
D-smash lost a lot. It doesn’t have kill potential, but can be used to catch rolls.
You’ll mainly be using D-Smash to catch people rolling as that is its primary use. There isn’t too much to say about it because it’s not that impressive. It has two hitboxes, one in front and one behind. The whole move takes a while to make its way around to the 2nd hitbox, making it easily punishable by people behind you. Timing is key when using this move to try and punish other players.
Up Smash
U-Smash Damage: 19%
Oh U-smash, you’re almost good.... well, not really. There so many problems with this move.
U-Smash is a multi-hit move that can dish out a lot of damage if you can land all the hits, but it’s easily readable and hard to land on average sized characters while on the ground. You need to be directly next to another character for it to connect on the first hit and it won’t bring opponents into the full attack. Dash into U-Smash stops Samus’ in her tracks and had no slide at all. Priority is pretty low, and long ending lag.
I generally try to avoid using U-Smash because there are so many other options available.
Grabs
Samus has a pretty solid grab game, with her long distance plasma laser. Use the range to your advantage but be careful, you can be easily punished if you miss a grab. Pivot grab has a huge range and can even punish some players rolls. Beware of the weakness of missed grabs, but enjoy the power of the combos from throws.
Grab Attack
Grab Attack Damage: 1%
It’s a simple ***** slap.
Forward Throw
F-Throw Damage: 9%
Forward throw doesn’t have any follow ups but gives a pretty decent damage percent. Knockback is too far for combos and doesn’t have kill potential.
Down Throw
D-Throw Damage: 6%
This throw… it’s the best. This is your bread and butter. It combos into U-Air and into F-air. You’ll have the most options after this. Knockback will lead to combos until pretty high percents and can lock up heavy characters pretty well.
Three of my favorite damage combos with D-throw are:
D-Throw > U-air > Jump > U-air > Up B - This can rack up around 35% damage.
D-Throw > U-Air > Jump > B-air
D-Throw > U-Air > Jump > B-air
Beware of F-air follow ups on characters like Diddy, it’s pretty hard to land if they have good DI.
Back Throw
B-Throw Damage: 8%
Not many follow ups, primary use is getting people off the stage.
Up Throw
U-Throw Damage: 9%
The only follow up I’ve found is a jump into Up B, but it’s really risky. No kill potential.
Aerials
Now that you’ve read about a lot of the weaknesses of Samus’ ground game, let’s get to where she shines, the air! Samus has a lot of floatiness, which you can use for a lot of movement and spacing for your aerials. These will be your kill moves and a lot of your combo moves.
Neutral Air
N-air Front Hit Damage: 8%
N-air Back Damage: 7%
N-air, you’re so fast, you have 2 hitboxes, you can combo, and you have pretty solid priority. This is a completely different move than the sex kick from brawl, melee, and 64.
N-air has a lot of off stage potential. It’s great for chasing opponents off the stage to the blast zones because of its speed. It can also be followed up by a F-air. It has great approach in air battles, but suffers from the difficulty of short hopping it as the start up on the first hit is so fast. You need to hit the attack pretty late for it to connect, which leaves you open to grabs.
Use it, abuse it, and fall in love with it.
Forward Air
F-air Damage: 12%
F-air has a lot of combo potential. You can D-throw > F-air, D-Throw > U-air > F-air, Dash Attack > F-air. Use this move for spacing and for off stage chasing, it’ll be one of your aerial bread and butter moves. The priority is great and gives you such a large aerial hitbox, players, especially Little Mac will fear this aerial.
Be warned, against heavier characters, like DK and Bowser, the first few hits do NOT have much hitstun and can be broken out of.
Another rule of thumb is to never approach a ground opponents with F-air. The landing lag is so bad if you don’t finish the animation or it gets shielded, that you can be easily punished.
Back Air
B-air Damage: 12%
B-air is so good. High priority, it’s fast, and has great kill potential. This is going to be one of your big aerials for controlling the air space. Landing lag is so so and I wouldn’t recommending doing a RAR (Reverse Aerial Rush) into a player unless you are 100% sure you can hit them.
Learn to love this move as you’ll be using these to get most of your kills.
Up Air
U-air Damage: 9%
U-air is one of your big follow ups from D-throw and dash attacks. It has a decent enough knockback to lead to other aerials, like F-air, B-air or Up B, but enough knockback to keep you safe. I wouldn’t try to fight players approacing from the air because of the so-so priority, but keep this move handy for its combo potential.
Note that the hitbox is only from Samus’ shoulders and up to her feet, her head has no hitbox
Down Air
D-air Damage: 14%
Down air is pretty fantastic. It’s fast, it can spike in the first couple frames, has a wide hitbox, and it has almost no landing lag.
Focus on getting good at Short Hop Fast Fall D-airs. You’ll get some really great pressure can some great stage bounces to lead up to other combos because of no landing lag.
Off stage potential is strong, but people can usually see this coming from a mile away. I still need to get better at D-air myself.
Z-air
Z-air Close Damage: 1%
Z-air Range Damage: 3%
Z-air is something I’m still trying to get use to. It’s extremely fast and has almost no landing lag. Use it to create the spacing that samus needs to set up for aerials and projectiles. It’s great for stopping approaching enemies and forcing them to air dodge as well.
For recovery, the range is moderately long. Use it when approaching from the side or from below the stage for maximum effectiveness.
Specials
What makes Samus, Samus? Her specials of course! You’ll use these to take advantage of all the spacing you create with your ground moves and some aerials.
Neutral B - Charged Shot
Uncharged Damage: 3%
1 Second Charge Damage: 11%
2 Second Charger Damage: 19%
Fully Charged Damage: 25%
Charged shot is going to be one of your best kill moves, hands down. It takes 3 seconds to full charge on the ground. If you are charging and roll, it’ll save where you are charged at so you can complete it. Use it to surprise your opponents and catch them when rolling. You’ll be able to punish so many players with this if they don’t see it coming.
If you want to have the most success with Samus, make sure you ensure you’re using Charged Shot effectively and building it up throughout the match. The damage and kill potential make it such a threat that it forces players to react and change their play style. Put the fear in them.
Wherein lies one of its problems. It’s such a devastatingly a strong move, people have a pretty good idea of when you’ll use it. Be creative, be tricky, and don’t always use it at the same time. One of Samus biggest strengths is that she has a lot of moves that she can change up to surprise people with different attacks.
If you Neutral B in the air, you will fire off whatever charged shot you currently have stored, whether it’s a uncharged shot or a 2 second shot.
Use uncharged shots to harass opponents for a quick, small hit stun. This is good to throw out inbetween rockets for a change up.
Another warning, if you use a fully charged shot in the air, you’ll suffer a decent knockback on yourself. Be warned as Samus’ Up B doesn’t have much horizontal recovery. I’ve died because of this knockback before.
Side B (Tilt) - Homing Missile
Homing Missile Damage: 5%
Samus has two versions of her Side B. The first is Homing Missile, where the input is the same as doing a F-tilt, but with B.
You can have up to two homing missiles out at once. These projectiles track your enemy and move at an average speed. Once they reach the last bit of travel, they lose their speed and travel at a crawl. They travel at full speed for about Half of Final Destination, then fizzle out. Slow missiles can force your opponents to react differently on the ledge if you can get the spacing right by forcing them to arc over the ledge at opponents who recover from below the stage.
Use Homing Missiles to create spacing and pressure on your opponents. Short hop missiles work, but the landing lag is pretty long and can be punished. These have no kill potential, unless it’s a gimp.
Side B (Smash) - Power Missile
Power Missile Damage: 10%
Power Missiles have lost a lot since their heyday, but they can still create pressure and catch your opponents off guard. You can only have ONE Power Missile out at a time. If you try and fire one while another is traveling, it’ll be an empty shot.
Throw in Power Missile to force people to roll to set up for a charged shot. Use them in between Homing Missiles to change the pace of speed of projectiles your opponents are dealing with. Power Missiles have pretty much no kill potential.
Down B - Bomb
Hit Damage: 4%
Bomb Damage: 5%
Bombs are still something that I’m experimenting a lot with. There are some cool tricks you can use to get the maximum usage out of them, along with using them to boost your recovery.
Bomb jumping is where you drop a bomb, have it hit you and you’ll get a small vertical jump from it. Use bomb jumping to try and mind game your opponent when approaching from above or from the side of the stage. You need to be precise when dropping bombs and hit directly down, or you’ll fire missile and probably die in the process.
Dash Bomb Fakeout is what I like to call it when you dash at an opponent and right when you get to them, you drop a bomb and DI away from them. This will leave a bomb right in front of them and can punish if they try to grab.
I’ve learned that the ending lag for bombs is pretty long. If you are using them to recover below the stage, be careful, it makes using your Z-air difficult because of the delay.
Overall, I still need to experiment with bombs. If you have any tips for them, let me know and I’ll add it to this section.
Here's a great bit about bombs from /u/Ichi_sama reddit!
Up B - Screw Attack
Screw Attack Damage: 11%
Screw Attack is fast and can rack up some solid damage. It’s best used out of shielding as an attack or of course, for recovery. Be warned that a lot of the horizontal movement has been removed from it and it’s harder to recover now. Focus on approaching from below the stage so that you can sweetspot the ledge, it’s really important.
As for combo potential, There are some good follow ups out of U-air. There is a little bit of kill potential if you can land these closer to the vertical blast zone. Be warned though, if you miss, you’ll be easily punished.
TL;DR
To sum everything up, Samus has a pretty poor ground game, with a strong aerial and projectile game. Use your throws and ground attacks to push people into the air and take advantage of them. Spacing is important,or you’ll be punished. Don’t be afraid to go off stage once you get comfortable with your aerials, it’s where she shines.
I’ll be streaming a lot and hope to keep getting better with Samus. She’s so much fun and pretty underestimated / underrepresented in the scene right now.
Feel free to join me on stream @ www.twitch.tv/tyranahax or follow me on twitter www.twitter.com/tyranahax
Once again, please let me know if you have some cool advance techniques for Samus or other combo’s you’ve figured out. I’ll update this and credit you for it.
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