Bravo_10
Smash Apprentice
I'm posting here to share my thoughts on Link's ledge tech. I'm not sure if this is a very explored area of Link's metagame, and most Link players I watch don't seem to use his ledge options to their full potential.
Yesterday I did some testing in debug mode to study Link's invincible ledge dash. Now I'm not an expert with this at all yet, but as far as I can tell, a frame-perfect invincible ledge dash gives you 9 frames of invincibility once the wavedash is over. Nothing like Fox can do, but pretty good compared to the likes of Marth. With 9 frames of invincibility, you have enough time to begin up-B, u-tilt, or d-smash and have the hitbox come out while Link is still invincible. You can also do a really quick nair and only lose your invincibility on the frame the hitbox activates. Downside - this seems to be incredibly difficult to do; Link has only 3 frames of cliff catch animation, so you have to let go of the ledge 4 frames sooner than everybody else when they do their ledge dashes, and so far I haven't been able to get a frame perfect jump-airdodge to maximize my invincibility. However I think it's worth practicing if we're able to get the timing down.
Link also has a fully-invincible ledge stall that you can do by simply down-dropping, then jumping back up to the ledge. You have to let go frame-perfectly (as soon as your cliff catch ends) in order to be totally invincible during this, otherwise you won't be allowed to regrab the ledge before your invincibility runs out. Link can also Hax dash and retain full invincibility during it, but this is hard to do repeatedly because of the quick cliff catch.
Most Link players use ledge hop aerials to come back to the stage; they suffer from poor range and are predictable, but they're still not bad. If you're ledge stalling and ledge hop to the stage with full invincibility, you have enough invuln frames to have the hitbox of every aerial come out while still invincible. This can be really useful for edge guarding space animals. The incredibly low landing lag of up-B makes it hard to punish this move when it lands on stage, but if Fox has to up-B past you, you can ledge hop dair or reverse fair him straight out of the sky without worrying about being burned by his Firefox. Plus in case it needs to be said, you have enough invincibility to do all of your aerial bomb throws from a ledge hop, and you can throw bombs invincibly after a ledge dash.
The biggest weakness I see in Link's edge game is in covering opponents who stand on a side platform, but close to the center of the stage. Falco players do that to me a lot, and they come down with bair if I do anything other than ledge dash -> shield. Link's aerials just don't quite cover it, and his perfect ledge dash seems barely not long enough to u-tilt that position. If you're feeling frisky, you can Hax dash -> double jump -> bomb smash throw to throw a bomb across most stages' side platforms, but this feels really unsafe to me.
Good luck coming back to the stage, guys.
Yesterday I did some testing in debug mode to study Link's invincible ledge dash. Now I'm not an expert with this at all yet, but as far as I can tell, a frame-perfect invincible ledge dash gives you 9 frames of invincibility once the wavedash is over. Nothing like Fox can do, but pretty good compared to the likes of Marth. With 9 frames of invincibility, you have enough time to begin up-B, u-tilt, or d-smash and have the hitbox come out while Link is still invincible. You can also do a really quick nair and only lose your invincibility on the frame the hitbox activates. Downside - this seems to be incredibly difficult to do; Link has only 3 frames of cliff catch animation, so you have to let go of the ledge 4 frames sooner than everybody else when they do their ledge dashes, and so far I haven't been able to get a frame perfect jump-airdodge to maximize my invincibility. However I think it's worth practicing if we're able to get the timing down.
Link also has a fully-invincible ledge stall that you can do by simply down-dropping, then jumping back up to the ledge. You have to let go frame-perfectly (as soon as your cliff catch ends) in order to be totally invincible during this, otherwise you won't be allowed to regrab the ledge before your invincibility runs out. Link can also Hax dash and retain full invincibility during it, but this is hard to do repeatedly because of the quick cliff catch.
Most Link players use ledge hop aerials to come back to the stage; they suffer from poor range and are predictable, but they're still not bad. If you're ledge stalling and ledge hop to the stage with full invincibility, you have enough invuln frames to have the hitbox of every aerial come out while still invincible. This can be really useful for edge guarding space animals. The incredibly low landing lag of up-B makes it hard to punish this move when it lands on stage, but if Fox has to up-B past you, you can ledge hop dair or reverse fair him straight out of the sky without worrying about being burned by his Firefox. Plus in case it needs to be said, you have enough invincibility to do all of your aerial bomb throws from a ledge hop, and you can throw bombs invincibly after a ledge dash.
The biggest weakness I see in Link's edge game is in covering opponents who stand on a side platform, but close to the center of the stage. Falco players do that to me a lot, and they come down with bair if I do anything other than ledge dash -> shield. Link's aerials just don't quite cover it, and his perfect ledge dash seems barely not long enough to u-tilt that position. If you're feeling frisky, you can Hax dash -> double jump -> bomb smash throw to throw a bomb across most stages' side platforms, but this feels really unsafe to me.
Good luck coming back to the stage, guys.
Last edited:
