Media Ridley Match Analyses, Tips/Discussion

[RAzul]

Hey guys, I’ve been playing with Ridley for about 5 hours in total or so. Really been learning the strengths and weaknesses of his kit. Here are a couple of games against two of my friends that I felt were strong displays of what’s possible.

My tips?:
* Jab is a strong option because of its damage and pressure relief
* Up air is GREAT for juggling
* Down throw > FTilt is a great option at 0%. (I cant yet say its consistency in terms of if it’s true or not cuz I labbed it a couple times in Training and my friends would get caught and not, so more testing with DI is needed.
* Drag down Nair > Jab is a cool aerial combo to land with when spaced right
* Skewer (Down B tail pierce) is VERY situational and read based. Don’t throw it out for funsies because if it doesn’t hit the sweet spot, it’s pointless. I landed it in my match vs. Snake because I got the right read and tried it, and it worked. That was the only time I threw it out in both matches though. The Down Smash that I used after it is NOT true, but a mixup. After you land Skewer, you can’t immediately follow up, so it’s a tech chase opportunity.
* Fireballs (Neutral B) I found to be REALLY good when you have stage control. I was able to gimp both Snake and Lucina quite effectively with it. Seems if the opponent’s not careful with their double/multi-jump, this can be an excellent tool, EVEN FROM MID STAGE WHEN FULL CHARGED! Angling it the right way is key.
* Side B (floor drag move) is great for stage control but don’t throw out blindly as it has a relatively lengthy cooldown. Though it can be mashed out of, it DOES kill and is a good neutral reset or takeover option.
* Dash attack KILLS. EXCELLENT KB, but also punishable if thrown out without thought so be careful.
* Up B (recovery) has TERRIBLE start up BUT, if you save your jumps, it’s got reach medium range upwards. As of rn, the angles for it going left, right and down are NOT great. My hope? It gets some heavy/super armor line Chrom on active frames, it becomes 8-way directional and it’s a TAD be faster.

P.S. I’m an Inkling main as of now but I have a soft spot for Ridley. I will be practicing with him as a pocket option in my arsenal. I believe I voted for him in the Smash 4 ballot as well and just LOVE the Metroid Prime series so when he was announced, I was very pleased. Even got his amiibo!

Any other tips, suggestions or questions, let me know. Otherwise, enjoy!

 

[Anomilus]

I have to test it out, but Plasma Breath may have one additional use. As known, getting hit while charging causes Ridley to take 25% damage and leaves him stunned. Very bad on the stage in the middle of a scuffle. But it also seems to completely negate any knockback that would have been inflicted. Which means it's possible Ridley can use Neutral B off stage in anticipation of a edgeguarding blow. Take the 25% damage, avoid the debilitating knockback.

Thing is, I'm pretty sure the CPU used this tactic as well (wasn't off stage, but it was in mid-air when I was trying to knock it closer to the boundary).

 

[RAzul]

I have to test it out, but Plasma Breath may have one additional use. As known, getting hit while charging causes Ridley to take 25% damage and leaves him stunned. Very bad on the stage in the middle of a scuffle. But it also seems to completely negate any knockback that would have been inflicted. Which means it's possible Ridley can use Neutral B off stage in anticipation of a edgeguarding blow. Take the 25% damage, avoid the debilitating knockback.

Thing is, I'm pretty sure the CPU used this tactic as well (wasn't off stage, but it was in mid-air when I was trying to knock it closer to the boundary).

Is that so...hmmmm. Worth testing. I wanna do that with a friend of mine and get back to let y’all know. If so, that’s amazing. That’s somewhat like Olimar’s Down B Pokémon recall where he gains the damage inflicted on him but negates knockback.

 

[Anomilus]

Yeah, I went and tested it, and it definitely works. But you have to already be charging plasma. It won't work with a low-level charge.

Another very useful tip: F-Tilt neutralizes most projectiles. I was fairly sure it was, but I had to test it. Against Samus, a well-timed F-Tilt neutralizes non-fully charged shots and Super Missiles. And in an actual battle I could stop K.Rool's projectiles dead in their tracks. So definitely keep that in mind if you're being zoned and don't have the opportunity to counter-zone with Plasma Breath.

 

[RAzul]

Yeah, I went and tested it, and it definitely works. But you have to already be charging plasma. It won't work with a low-level charge.

Another very useful tip: F-Tilt neutralizes most projectiles. I was fairly sure it was, but I had to test it. Against Samus, a well-timed F-Tilt neutralizes non-fully charged shots and Super Missiles. And in an actual battle I could stop K.Rool's projectiles dead in their tracks. So definitely keep that in mind if you're being zoned and don't have the opportunity to counter-zone with Plasma Breath.

This is an incredible tip. Thanks so much man!

 

[Yoshisaurus Rex]

Yeah, I went and tested it, and it definitely works. But you have to already be charging plasma. It won't work with a low-level charge.

Another very useful tip: F-Tilt neutralizes most projectiles. I was fairly sure it was, but I had to test it. Against Samus, a well-timed F-Tilt neutralizes non-fully charged shots and Super Missiles. And in an actual battle I could stop K.Rool's projectiles dead in their tracks. So definitely keep that in mind if you're being zoned and don't have the opportunity to counter-zone with Plasma Breath.

Hmmm does F-Tilt work on the Belmont axe and cross?

 

[S-bow64]

I've spent some time playing Ridley since the last 2 days and I have to say, this character is really good and have a lot of untapped potential. So here is what I found :

Ridley might have one of the best low risk high reward edgeguard in the game (granted there 70+ chars to test) in the form of f-tilt and up-b.
Angled down f-tilt hit below the stage and send in very low angle making further recoveries either impossible or really hard (really depend of characters), I managed to challenge a lot of recovery with this including Ryu's up-b which still hit from below.

The downward up-b which spike (learned that yesterday on this board) can be used from the stage to prevent low recoveries. All you need to do is stand on the edge and up-b, Ridley is still going to snap the ledge at shoulder lenght while spiking the opponent and it work against recoveries with hitboxes too.

Plasma breath is good to force low recoveries. A single plasma ball also confirm into dash attack even at max distance and is really good for mix ups. I managed to do a down throw -> fair -> jump uncharged neutral b (which hit because opponent tried to jump) -> FF fair to dash grab. It look like an amazing tool with lot of uses depending on charge.

Gonna keep looking for stuff, really loving the character so far. Seems like people are really sleeping on him right now.

 

[Yoshisaurus Rex]

I did a bit of testing on the F-Tilt in training mode and yes, it does work against the Belmont cross and axe. Unsure about holy water though.

 

[ｐｓ＿]

He works against spammy characters (Megaman, Belmont, every Link, etc.) since his plasma breath at full-charge can pour through their stuff. He also only needs a few solid hits to rack up damage and projectile-heavy characters tend to be lightweight, so if you can erase+avoid their garbage they become easy prey. Skilled ones have kept me away and off the stage, but they had to work very hard to do it.

Proper zoner characters (Zelda and Corrin come to mind) decimate Ridley. Plasma breath doesn't erase their ranged options. Zelda in particular has her get-off-me-diamond (whatever that's called) even if you managed to catch her, and Corrin can just pile dragon dildos onto you all match. The lesson to learn is "everything hits Ridley if it's allowed to fly."

He does alright against heavier characters (Ganondorf, DK, Bowser) if only because they lack any real answer to plasma breath (recovery, a projectile*.) Granted this can go either way, since both sides are very large and susceptible to combos, but Ridley can generally accomplish more than them with less hits. Get them off-stage first and it's not hard to keep them there.
*K. Rool has projectiles, but they can be stopped by plasma breath. His recovery also doesn't save him from being hit by it.

Anime swordsmen are a nightmare. Spamming forward aerial attacks works and I'll often get carried to a quick death if I'm sent off stage, no matter what I do. Faster frame data, longer reach and being 2big are the key culprits. This isn't exclusive to us, granted, it's just extra effective due to Ridley's large hurtbox and bad recovery. On the flip side, they have no answers to side-B off stage (assuming you can even land it), so if you can bait Ridleycide you may as well try.

Face-to-face man-fight characters are a mixed bag. Mario, Dr. Mario and Yoshi can ruin your day since they combo so reliably against big characters. (I guess everybody can combo big characters if you let them, but these guys do it quickly & have many options to initiate it.) Meanwhile Ridley seldom loses against Little Mac or Wolf (or at least the ones I've fought) since they don't combo you as long.

Characters I would describe as "easy wins": King Dedede, Ness, Ice Climbers, Wii Fit, Bowser Jr., Duck Hunt, Incineroar, Game & Watch, Pac-Man.

Characters who make me want to kill myself: Mewtwo, Roy, Lucina, Jigglypuff, Bayonetta, Cloud.

tl;dr - if Ridley can't be locked in combos all game and if he can delete your zoning options, he does alright.

 

[Ridley_Prime]

Yeah, I went and tested it, and it definitely works. But you have to already be charging plasma. It won't work with a low-level charge.

Another very useful tip: F-Tilt neutralizes most projectiles. I was fairly sure it was, but I had to test it. Against Samus, a well-timed F-Tilt neutralizes non-fully charged shots and Super Missiles. And in an actual battle I could stop K.Rool's projectiles dead in their tracks. So definitely keep that in mind if you're being zoned and don't have the opportunity to counter-zone with Plasma Breath.

F-tilt can also apparently work as edgeguarding for poking someone whose ledge hanging, and I guess kill a ledge hanger if they're at a relatively high %.

https://twitter.com/Endurrrssb/status/1074205612437692416?s=20

 

[Greaseman]

That's awesome that he can poke projectiles with F-tilt. I didn't realize that.

I would say that the hardest matchups are heavy pokers like Link, Palutena, Zelda, and the Belmonts. I don't think that the swordsmen are nearly as hard to deal with and I think that Ridley vs Cloud favors Ridley. IMO Ridley's biggest issue is just that he sucks on stages like battlefied, which is all that most people have enabled for quickplay, and that's because he has basically no answer to being juggled. They need to allow for a more robust stage selection, without necessarily having to opt for every stage just sans hazards. I think Ridley has a strong advantage against almost every heavy character, including K. Rool.

Ridley has more potential than people are estimating. His kit looks extremely binary and bland, so people started sleeping on him the moment he wasn't blatantly broken. However, his kit is actually full of powerful nuance that I think we are going to see come out a lot and make him dominant in a lot of matchups. That being said, I don't expect him to ever fair well against campy ranged characters.

 

[Ridley_Prime]

Posted this earlier in the social thread, but for Battlefield, I think Ridley has to rely a lot on applying pressure under the platforms, like so.

https://twitter.com/ArtifactSmash/status/1072307380476633090

Oh, also, Skewer while trying to get back to the stage can be a good surprise counter against someone whose edgeguarding, depending; i.e. release yourself from a ledge, double jump, and down B.

 

[Ridley_Prime]

With I guess as good as people say Chrom is now, would say keep in mind that fireball edgeguarding consistently eats his recovery for breakfast.

https://clips.twitch.tv/ObedientSmilingBottleLeeroyJenkins

https://clips.twitch.tv/embed?clip=OilyDaintySageOneHand

 

[E.G.G.M.A.N.]

How are you guys feeling about the K Rool match-up? I find it troublesome to edgeguard him when he's recovering low.
His up-b eats n-air(or pretty much anything) coming from above, and it covers so much distance he can come back even from the edge of the blast line on BF/FD.
Seems like the only option is to stage spike from the side with b-air, but it they're good enough, they can tech that and still make it back regardless.

 

[AggroFrag]

How are you guys feeling about the K Rool match-up? I find it troublesome to edgeguard him when he's recovering low.

His up-b eats n-air(or pretty much anything) coming from above, and it covers so much distance he can come back even from the edge of the blast line on BF/FD.

Seems like the only option is to stage spike from the side with b-air, but it they're good enough, they can tech that and still make it back regardless.

I've yet to test it, but I know that an Up-B angled downwards will spike aerial opponents.
This could work to edgeguard K. Rool, but 1) It's risky and can cost you a stock if you dont snap to the ledge and 2) I'm unsure if Ridley Up-B will beat out K. Rool's Up-B.
If anyone has experience doing this please correct me if I'm wrong

 

[E.G.G.M.A.N.]

I've yet to test it, but I know that an Up-B angled downwards will spike aerial opponents.
This could work to edgeguard K. Rool, but 1) It's risky and can cost you a stock if you dont snap to the ledge and 2) I'm unsure if Ridley Up-B will beat out K. Rool's Up-B.
If anyone has experience doing this please correct me if I'm wrong

That's true, I haven't tried that as it's very finicky with getting the positioning correct so you don't kill yourself. I wonder if you trade a down angled up-b with his up-b to spike him and then recover after getting hit? It would make things so much easier.

EDIT: Tried up-b, K Rool's up-b is still beating it. Maybe an up-b > ledge trump > back air would be better than going for the spike.

 

[S-bow64]

That's true, I haven't tried that as it's very finicky with getting the positioning correct so you don't kill yourself. I wonder if you trade a down angled up-b with his up-b to spike him and then recover after getting hit? It would make things so much easier.

EDIT: Tried up-b, K Rool's up-b is still beating it. Maybe an up-b > ledge trump > back air would be better than going for the spike.

Downward Up-b has the least amount of protection, unfortunately K Rool hitbox during recovery is just bonkers you can't challenge it.

Instead of bair turn around and fair, multi hitting moves tend to be harder to tech because timing or run up to the edge and stop pushing the stick toward the end, do a backward roll and you'll find yourself at the perfect distance where uncharched plasma balls just graze the legde and go down.

You could try to time a backward up-b but I can't imagine the timing.

 

[E.G.G.M.A.N.]

Downward Up-b has the least amount of protection, unfortunately K Rool hitbox during recovery is just bonkers you can't challenge it.

Instead of bair turn around and fair, multi hitting moves tend to be harder to tech because timing or run up to the edge and stop pushing the stick toward the end, do a backward roll and you'll find yourself at the perfect distance where uncharched plasma balls just graze the legde and go down.

You could try to time a backward up-b but I can't imagine the timing.

Funny thing, I discovered the up-b spike(standing, not jumping) actually does work, after a couple hours of trying. But man, the timing is tight. So far I've gotten 3 different outcomes:

Too Early: You whiff completely, grab the ledge first, get trumped by K Rool
Too Late: K Rool grabs the ledge, you get hit
Perfect: You grab the ledge, get your i-frames, K Rool catches the very end of the hitbox and gets a one way ticket to the blast zone

I haven't mastered the timing yet, there's very little margin of error between the three, but if you could get this down consistently, you'd have his number for sure.

 

[S-bow64]

Ahh, that's interesting.

Yes you can D-Up-b from the ledge and still snap afterward, I did manage to spike a Marth one day like that but I didn't think we could spike and get I-frames at the same time.

K Rool hurtbox is big enough so it wouldn't be that hard to get consistently but that's definitly worth labbing. A spike that allows you to hit under the ledge and snap at the same time while bypassing recoveries hitboxes...Damn, now I'm motivated !

By the way, for those having troubles with Chrom and want easy kills, his Up-b doesn't have a hitbox on the way up until he begin to spin (Ike does though). So just throw a f-tilt when he does his first slash before rising and you'll get him every time, that's a stock right there.

 

[RAzul]

You guys have been ridiculously helpful. Ridley community unite!

 

[Grie]

Is it just me or it feels like ridley plays a lot like sm4sh diddy. A character that as a great neutral but he as to win and reset it all the time. He dosen’t have what made diddy’s neutral amazing (is small size and banana for short) but he does have great edgeguarding and huge kill power to compensate.

 

[0RLY]

KRool stuff

You can down angled ftilt to beat nearly every recovery, including KRool's. The timing is very strict though. An easier option is to: ledgejump, drift back, dair. It doesn't work if you touch the propeller. You have to aim for his face, which can be impossible if KRool rides up the wall of the stage.

 

[E.G.G.M.A.N.]

You can down angled ftilt to beat nearly every recovery, including KRool's. The timing is very strict though. An easier option is to: ledgejump, drift back, dair. It doesn't work if you touch the propeller. You have to aim for his face, which can be impossible if KRool rides up the wall of the stage.

I was actually talking about when he is hugging the side of the stage, that's what makes it so tricky. You're sure you can consistently f-tilt him before magnet hands kicks in? It doesn't appear to have the vertical reach to do that unless he's coming more from the side than below.

 

[Ridley_Prime]

Just to put it out there I guess, there’s a current glitch with Ridley and Sonic that makes Sonic disappear and lose a stock prematurely.

ホーミングアタック厳禁ですかねこれは… pic.twitter.com/eILIm1yrkZ

— ばうt (@bauto_DZ) December 27, 2018

 

[Yoshisaurus Rex]

Just to put it out there I guess, there’s a current glitch with Ridley and Sonic that makes Sonic disappear and lose a stock prematurely.

ホーミングアタック厳禁ですかねこれは… pic.twitter.com/eILIm1yrkZ

— ばうt (@bauto_DZ) December 27, 2018

Funny, I was just about to say that GameExplain made a video on that.

 

[Gleam]

So what you're saying is, Ridley currently has a 100-0 advantage match up with Sonic.

Ridley has a lot of subtle combo potential with his F-airs and N-airs, some of which can be checked out in the combo topic I made. However I've noted other true combos involving Down throw to F-air, usually between 20%-40% damage. You can do a true combo on Lucina from 40%-70% damage with a short-hop double F-air off the ledge of FD and on the 70% scale that can effectively put her out of potential recovery range.

Without proper DI in effect, I've even directly put Lucina into the side blast zones from 80% with just two F-airs. Might be something about the sweetspot or something.

You can even potentially get a good double Short-Hop F-air off the stage an end it with another F-air or N-air which usually just sends the opponent right into the blast window. You can even get back on stage with a combination of Side-B and Up-b but there's little room for error and since the final F-air/N-air isn't a true part of the combo it's not guaranteed to hit.

There's basically this window where the opponent is between 40% and 80% that gives Ridley free reign with his F-airs off stage. Any less and there's not enough hitstun for a true a combo and anything after 80% sends the opponent to far away for the same cause. Against characters with good recoveries it's a nice but it won't give Ridley victory and I'd refrain from trying to do anything crazy like adding a third F-air in such a situation.

But against people like Chrom, Ganondorf, Incineroar, Roy, Ike, Cloud, Lucina and Marth (just to name a few) you hit them with the combo off the stage when they're around 60% and 80% chances are, they aren't coming back. But as you can tell it's essentially a "Golden Window of Opportunity."

As another note, I did some more testing I saw that against Cloud, it wasn't a true combo at 70-80% unlike with Lucina and the others. it had to be done at around 40-60%, so again there's certainly some difference in how the combo will work with the other characters.

 

[Luigifan18]

Just to put it out there I guess, there’s a current glitch with Ridley and Sonic that makes Sonic disappear and lose a stock prematurely.

ホーミングアタック厳禁ですかねこれは… pic.twitter.com/eILIm1yrkZ

— ばうt (@bauto_DZ) December 27, 2018

What the heck did I just watch?!?

 

[StormC]

Just to put it out there I guess, there’s a current glitch with Ridley and Sonic that makes Sonic disappear and lose a stock prematurely.

ホーミングアタック厳禁ですかねこれは… pic.twitter.com/eILIm1yrkZ

— ばうt (@bauto_DZ) December 27, 2018

Ridley is King Crimson, confirmed.

 

[Ridley_Prime]

Apparently you can cancel the animation of skewer and it still does the damage?

huh, I guess I canceled the animation of Ridley's Down B but still took 50% damage... #SmashBros #NintendoSwitch pic.twitter.com/J9TzIgR7wD

— Draconif (@Draconif_) January 2, 2019

This bears investigating/labbing.

 

[S-bow64]

The other Ridley got grabbed at the same time but hitbox wins against grab so he got released, you can see him do the animation.

What surprises me is that he didn't get the grab release damage though. But it really is a one sided trade, something similar happened to me against a Meta Knight during his Nado. I managed to Side-B him through the Nado but then I took damage and his Nado got cancelled.

Side-B might be able to go through some moves but that doesn't seem that advantageous since the grab get cancelled afterward.

 

[ChrisMDB]

Hello fellow Ridley mains, I've been a lurker here many times in the past but with the launch of Ultimate I figured it was finally time to make an account.

With around 200 online matches under my belt I can say I absolutely love Ridley, but I hate playing as him - chiefly because of his matchups with sword fighters. Incineroar, Little Mac, any character with a questionable recovery really just gets bullied by Ridley and I love that. Zoners are fine (with the exception of the Links), but that's probably more of my matchup knowledge showing than anything (I mained Tink in Brawl and Sm4sh). MarthCina, Roy, the Links, Mii Swordfighter (this one is especially obnoxious with the spammable tornado and chakra), Ike, even Robin are all just ridiculous with their ability to outrange Ridley's attacks with their disjoints and juggle him for days.

It's especially frustrating considering I've been kicked out of Elite Smash three times now (once by an Ike, once a Lucina that 3-stocked me before I could deal 20%, and a Cloud) by the matchmaker essentially counterpicking me on my first match in. Do I just need to practice the matchups more or are these just unwinnable once you reach a certain skill level? In a tournament I'd whip out my Tink faster than you can blink but online I'm just at the mercy of the matchmaker unfortunately.

I guess what I was trying to say through this rambling is: I love Ridley and really don't want to drop him just to main Toon Link for the third game in a row (I just did this with Sm4sh having to drop D3 because he just plain sucked), have you found any success against sword fighters in your matches? Any tips on how to counter them without hovering near the ledge and side-b > stage spiking them?

If you'd like any advice on playing against zoners I'd be more than happy to oblige as well, figured I'd cut this off here as it's kinda long.

 

[S-bow64]

Hi and welcome, it's nice to see people taking interest into Ridley.

To answer your main problem, you're right about swordsmen, that's a tough match-up (the toughest actually) but I'm only talking about most of the FE cast, the Links are actually quite manageables because of the fact that they rely on projectiles.

Against Link you might want to slow the game down a notch and play safe, platforms are good but if you don't have any then jump, jump a lot, stall your landings as much as you can until you find an opening. Neutral B is really good but only if you have platforms to play with, you'll have to use them sparringly and from max distance and charging them to 3 Plasma balls is going to be mandatory so you can destroy Boomerang, bombs and try to land something on Link even forcing a shield is good.

Basic Link rely much more on Boomerangs and Bombs and those are easy to react to, if you're on the right distance and on your toes you can punish a bomb pull most of the time. If you don't see a Bomb in game then Link is gonna pull One Every Time (Like that's going to be literraly his next action), that's his greatest pressure tool, might be his only one tbh.
If he Nair onto your shield and he's behind you, roll away, don't stay near him 'cause you're not going to punish him especially if he has a bomb near him. Ridley's Nair hit behind last so you're not going to punish someone who managed to cross you up unless you know that your Bair can hit them faster or have better reach than any of their tilts or aerials for that matter.
Jumping Fair is quite good to negate Boomerang too so keep that in mind (it's not hard to parry either) And if you know that a Boomerang is behind you at some point, Do Not approach Link (and that's true for the three of them) 'cause you're gonna get crossed-up and eat something really nasty afterward, if you're hanging on the edge then stay there until the boomerang comes back.

Young Link is more arrow oriented so jumping is better to approach but beware of the Boomerang though, he has shorter range and much less knockback than Link so you are allowed to play a little bit riskier than Link but be cautious. Toon Link is the easiest to keep away because of his slow projectiles but his confirms are deadlier than Young Link so you really need to keep him away with Neutral B But because of his floatyness it's easier to punish his aerials OoS and since his better confirms are Bombs and Boomerang he'll want to be close to you (he don't have a lot of throwing power), so if you shield a Bomb, just Nair and throw it back to keep the pressure. Just watch out for his Fair and Bair but I'm sure you already know the character.

For Fire Emblem chars, I'll try to keep it fast since it's more or less the same crap with those :

Ike : keep him away and use Plasma Breath a lot, don't try to contest him ( don't ever try to contest a FE chars btw ), stay grounded if he's in the air and try to parry his Nair to counter ( Ike will use exclusively his Nair if he's smart ) or use U-tilt that's a good anti-air. If he's grounded, make space and throw more Plasma balls, D-tilt is a good poke but don't throw stuff too much or you're gonna get hit by some bs hitboxes. His tilts are slow so you might be able to cross him up with Nair. The offstage game is : Throw plasma to force low recovery. If he Side-B intercept with Uair or U-smash, if he Up-b you either try a D-tilt from max distance to avoid taking the hit instead or you run to the edge and release the stick right before falling and do a roll backward and throw Plasma Balls (uncharged or slightly charged, too much charge will make them go farther), that's the right distance where Plasma balls just graze the ledge, you'll get him everytime because Ike doesn't snap right away and lose his armor at the end.

Chrom / Roy : Wait for the nerf. That character is just nuts, fast on the ground, fast in the air, you can't contest crap, you won't even trade against them. Just run the best you can and try to find an opening for some Plasma (charge 2 or 3). Jump a lot but don't stay in the air too much as you can't outspeed them in the air and you'll get wreckt. These characters do tend to over extend ( Hurr durr as you might call it) so if you manage to make them lose patience, you get some free openings. Don't be affraid to play lame, these two deserve it. Chrom offstage is really fun though, he doesn't have any hitboxes on the way up of his Ether sooo just F-tilt Down and he lose a stock, they may try to air dodge to the ledge but 2 framing that is not That difficult. When on the ledge DON'T ROLL IN ! Oh and their F-smash 2 frames but there's not much we can do against that.

Marth / Lucina : Same thing but more manageable due to lower general speed, so you'll have more breathing room, don't contest, Plasma balls blah blah blah. Try Fair for their recovery ooor Downward Up-B, at worse you whiff it and get trumped but if you land it or trade, that's a spike right there.

Robin : Just throw Plasma balls, it out range all their projectiles minus Thoron and arcthunder is not that good anymore on shield from far away, they are way too slow, so just zone them, that Levin sword is too dangerous to throw hitboxes so stay in the air when they are close and avoid direct combat unless they do something unsafe, they don't have good frame data, if you shield an aerial you should be able to Nair or Bair afterward. Poke with D-tilt here and there and go back to Plasma Balls they deserve it.

For Cloud : Just stay safe, you can contest him in the neutral better than the FE cast but he still have a disjoint. His aerials are not as safe and powerful as they were before so you can play footsies a little more against him. If he has Limit, just run and throw Plasma and maybe some aerials but don't be mindless, Limit Blade beam is transcendant and fast. Cloud is gonna burn his limit sooner or later (15 seconds), when he doesn't have it, he's gonna try to charge it so harass him during that time.


To summarize, playing against swordsmen (and women) is a patience game because you get for some unknown reason outranged by everything and they thought that having good frame data and speed was a given for them. So just stall them until you get an opening ( aka until they messed up because they got tilted) and be victorious.

That was pretty long, damn.

 

[ChrisMDB]

Thank you very much, I'll probably screenshot this and make it my set of notes until I get the hang of these, lol. My main fear with the Links was that Plasma would be nullified by their bombs (as Tink's used to simply delete projectiles that were weak and clash with strong ones like Samus' fully charged neutral B), now that I know that shouldn't be the case those matchups will be far more manageable.

 

[RAzul]

Hi and welcome, it's nice to see people taking interest into Ridley.

To answer your main problem, you're right about swordsmen, that's a tough match-up (the toughest actually) but I'm only talking about most of the FE cast, the Links are actually quite manageables because of the fact that they rely on projectiles.

Against Link you might want to slow the game down a notch and play safe, platforms are good but if you don't have any then jump, jump a lot, stall your landings as much as you can until you find an opening. Neutral B is really good but only if you have platforms to play with, you'll have to use them sparringly and from max distance and charging them to 3 Plasma balls is going to be mandatory so you can destroy Boomerang, bombs and try to land something on Link even forcing a shield is good.

Basic Link rely much more on Boomerangs and Bombs and those are easy to react to, if you're on the right distance and on your toes you can punish a bomb pull most of the time. If you don't see a Bomb in game then Link is gonna pull One Every Time (Like that's going to be literraly his next action), that's his greatest pressure tool, might be his only one tbh.
If he Nair onto your shield and he's behind you, roll away, don't stay near him 'cause you're not going to punish him especially if he has a bomb near him. Ridley's Nair hit behind last so you're not going to punish someone who managed to cross you up unless you know that your Bair can hit them faster or have better reach than any of their tilts or aerials for that matter.
Jumping Fair is quite good to negate Boomerang too so keep that in mind (it's not hard to parry either) And if you know that a Boomerang is behind you at some point, Do Not approach Link (and that's true for the three of them) 'cause you're gonna get crossed-up and eat something really nasty afterward, if you're hanging on the edge then stay there until the boomerang comes back.

Young Link is more arrow oriented so jumping is better to approach but beware of the Boomerang though, he has shorter range and much less knockback than Link so you are allowed to play a little bit riskier than Link but be cautious. Toon Link is the easiest to keep away because of his slow projectiles but his confirms are deadlier than Young Link so you really need to keep him away with Neutral B But because of his floatyness it's easier to punish his aerials OoS and since his better confirms are Bombs and Boomerang he'll want to be close to you (he don't have a lot of throwing power), so if you shield a Bomb, just Nair and throw it back to keep the pressure. Just watch out for his Fair and Bair but I'm sure you already know the character.

For Fire Emblem chars, I'll try to keep it fast since it's more or less the same crap with those :

Ike : keep him away and use Plasma Breath a lot, don't try to contest him ( don't ever try to contest a FE chars btw ), stay grounded if he's in the air and try to parry his Nair to counter ( Ike will use exclusively his Nair if he's smart ) or use U-tilt that's a good anti-air. If he's grounded, make space and throw more Plasma balls, D-tilt is a good poke but don't throw stuff too much or you're gonna get hit by some bs hitboxes. His tilts are slow so you might be able to cross him up with Nair. The offstage game is : Throw plasma to force low recovery. If he Side-B intercept with Uair or U-smash, if he Up-b you either try a D-tilt from max distance to avoid taking the hit instead or you run to the edge and release the stick right before falling and do a roll backward and throw Plasma Balls (uncharged or slightly charged, too much charge will make them go farther), that's the right distance where Plasma balls just graze the ledge, you'll get him everytime because Ike doesn't snap right away and lose his armor at the end.

Chrom / Roy : Wait for the nerf. That character is just nuts, fast on the ground, fast in the air, you can't contest crap, you won't even trade against them. Just run the best you can and try to find an opening for some Plasma (charge 2 or 3). Jump a lot but don't stay in the air too much as you can't outspeed them in the air and you'll get wreckt. These characters do tend to over extend ( Hurr durr as you might call it) so if you manage to make them lose patience, you get some free openings. Don't be affraid to play lame, these two deserve it. Chrom offstage is really fun though, he doesn't have any hitboxes on the way up of his Ether sooo just F-tilt Down and he lose a stock, they may try to air dodge to the ledge but 2 framing that is not That difficult. When on the ledge DON'T ROLL IN ! Oh and their F-smash 2 frames but there's not much we can do against that.

Marth / Lucina : Same thing but more manageable due to lower general speed, so you'll have more breathing room, don't contest, Plasma balls blah blah blah. Try Fair for their recovery ooor Downward Up-B, at worse you whiff it and get trumped but if you land it or trade, that's a spike right there.

Robin : Just throw Plasma balls, it out range all their projectiles minus Thoron and arcthunder is not that good anymore on shield from far away, they are way too slow, so just zone them, that Levin sword is too dangerous to throw hitboxes so stay in the air when they are close and avoid direct combat unless they do something unsafe, they don't have good frame data, if you shield an aerial you should be able to Nair or Bair afterward. Poke with D-tilt here and there and go back to Plasma Balls they deserve it.

For Cloud : Just stay safe, you can contest him in the neutral better than the FE cast but he still have a disjoint. His aerials are not as safe and powerful as they were before so you can play footsies a little more against him. If he has Limit, just run and throw Plasma and maybe some aerials but don't be mindless, Limit Blade beam is transcendant and fast. Cloud is gonna burn his limit sooner or later (15 seconds), when he doesn't have it, he's gonna try to charge it so harass him during that time.


To summarize, playing against swordsmen (and women) is a patience game because you get for some unknown reason outranged by everything and they thought that having good frame data and speed was a given for them. So just stall them until you get an opening ( aka until they messed up because they got tilted) and be victorious.

That was pretty long, damn.

Thanks a ton for this. Reason the morning.

 

[Erimir]

He works against spammy characters (Megaman, Belmont, every Link, etc.) since his plasma breath at full-charge can pour through their stuff.

Confused as to why Mega Man would be letting you fully charge Plasma Breath a lot without ever hitting you during charge, or why he'd be throwing weak projectiles at it. Charged Plasma Breath is pretty well telegraphed, why am I throwing a Metal Blade when I know you're about to spew out a bunch of fireballs?

Even so, Mega Man's projectiles aren't all bad against Plasma Breath. Pellets are stopped by it, but they also stop a fireball each. They also take a lot less time and Mega Man can walk and jump while using them, so you can use them to block a fireball or two, jump, get closer and if you're too close, they can hit you during the charge. Mega Man's F-Smash is transcendent so it will pass through the fireballs.

But most usefully, worn Leaf Shield can block the fireballs (it's not guaranteed, particularly if Mega Man is in the air, but it will usually stop them). And when thrown, not only does Plasma Breath not stop Leaf Shield, but it simply plows through and destroys every fireball, most likely ending up hitting Ridley.

I dunno how I'd say the Mega Man-Ridley matchup is overall, but charging Plasma Breath is definitely not going to invalidate Mega Man's projectile game or generally be something a Mega Man can't deal with.

Characters I would describe as "easy wins": King Dedede, Ness, Ice Climbers, Wii Fit, Bowser Jr., Duck Hunt, Incineroar, Game & Watch, Pac-Man.

Also curious why you think Wii Fit is an easy win... so far, I haven't found Ridley especially difficult with WFT.

 

[Ridley_Prime]

Yeah, despite Ridley’s reveal trailer that might tell you otherwise, I do actually find Mega Man a harder matchup for him than the Belmonts, tbqh.

 

[S-bow64]

Confused as to why Mega Man would be letting you fully charge Plasma Breath a lot without ever hitting you during charge, or why he'd be throwing weak projectiles at it. Charged Plasma Breath is pretty well telegraphed, why am I throwing a Metal Blade when I know you're about to spew out a bunch of fireballs?

Even so, Mega Man's projectiles aren't all bad against Plasma Breath. Pellets are stopped by it, but they also stop a fireball each. They also take a lot less time and Mega Man can walk and jump while using them, so you can use them to block a fireball or two, jump, get closer and if you're too close, they can hit you during the charge. Mega Man's F-Smash is transcendent so it will pass through the fireballs.

But most usefully, worn Leaf Shield can block the fireballs (it's not guaranteed, particularly if Mega Man is in the air, but it will usually stop them). And when thrown, not only does Plasma Breath not stop Leaf Shield, but it simply plows through and destroys every fireball, most likely ending up hitting Ridley.

I dunno how I'd say the Mega Man-Ridley matchup is overall, but charging Plasma Breath is definitely not going to invalidate Mega Man's projectile game or generally be something a Mega Man can't deal with.

I'm not going to argue the Megaman MU here but I still want to point out some things, granted his comment was a month old people thoughts and understanding about characters and their tools change all the time.

First and foremost, the thing to understand is Ridley is not going to fully charge his Plasma balls in the neutral. That's something people were doing when the game was new or the first week or so. That takes too long and the only reward for that is two extra balls and a bit of extra damage, however charging to three Plasma balls takes less than a second, it is reactable but you sure as hell not going to negate them with pellets. They are close and fast enough to proc a multi parry (for all 5 or at least 4) if you happen to parry the first one, I don't believe Megaman fires pellet that fast.

Leaf Shield might nullifies the balls but if you use it to counter the Plasma Charge (so on reaction), I'm pretty sure you're the one who's gonna get punished or at least be in a slight disadvantage depending on distance unless the Ridley decided to fully charge his Neutral B and you are far enough from him. Leaf Shield is quite laggy even more so than Plasma Breath and F-smash shouldn't really be in the equation as it's quite slow and laggy and unless it's charged, the range is really small (for a projectile). A competent Ridley is not going to be at that range to throw Plasma Balls and Megaman shouldn't consider F-smash as an option in this situation.

The only tool that could punish Ridley on reaction effectively during charge is the Saw Blade. But to be honest unless there's platforms, Ridley shoudn't use Neutral B against Megaman, jumping and baiting is what he should do against projectiles.

To summerize, all the projectiles that Megaman possess that can out range Plasma Breath are too slow or too laggy and those that are faster get outranged themselves unless it's Saw Blade and you still have to aim it well (as in trying to hit Ridley and not contest the Plasma Balls). I'm not saying Ridley has the advantage or anything but should the MU be played like that I can assure you that Megaman is not going to get a lot of punish with these tools.

But I agree about charging Breath tho, that's bad and that does absolutely nothing against a projectile user but you still have to consider the range it has and the speed of your character. Pressure is pressure as long as you force the opponent to do something.

 

[Erimir]

First and foremost, the thing to understand is Ridley is not going to fully charge his Plasma balls in the neutral. That's something people were doing when the game was new or the first week or so. That takes too long and the only reward for that is two extra balls and a bit of extra damage, however charging to three Plasma balls takes less than a second, it is reactable but you sure as hell not going to negate them with pellets. They are close and fast enough to proc a multi parry (for all 5 or at least 4) if you happen to parry the first one, I don't believe Megaman fires pellet that fast.

Right, I did notice that it was a first week comment. Was just pointing out that Mega Man's projectiles don't even get simply nullified by Plasma Breath even if you have the time to set up.

Pellets are fast enough for the three pellet combo to cancel out three fireballs. I haven't done training to figure out the limitations of that, but it probably depends on distance, since I think the fireballs have a little less gap between them than the pellets do, so you may need a little distance to ensure that the second or third fireball doesn't hit. If you're not in Mega Man's face, he should be able to pellet away three fireballs just fine.

Leaf Shield might nullifies the balls but if you use it to counter the Plasma Charge (so on reaction), I'm pretty sure you're the one who's gonna get punished or at least be in a slight disadvantage depending on distance unless the Ridley decided to fully charge his Neutral B and you are far enough from him. Leaf Shield is quite laggy even more so than Plasma Breath

But Leaf Shield allows you to run through the fireballs, and while the throw has end lag, he may be able to get in your face and hit you with it. You can also use the opportunity to retreat.

I mean, if your plan is just to throw a fireball or two unexpectedly in Mega Man's face to get some damage, sure. But that's not really a plan to deal with Mega Man's projectiles, so it doesn't really disagree with what I was saying anyway... Which was you can't really use it to keep Mega Man out or nullify his projectile game.

The only tool that could punish Ridley on reaction effectively during charge is the Saw Blade.

While they have less range, pellets have less startup than Metal Blade.

But to be honest unless there's platforms, Ridley shoudn't use Neutral B against Megaman, jumping and baiting is what he should do against projectiles.

Right, so you're agreeing with me anyway. I understand it was a first week comment, but I figured it was worth discussing what projectiles do vs Plasma Breath. I didn't actually realize until checking that Leaf Shield will usually completely nullify Plasma Breath (usually when worn, always when thrown).

There are some characters whose projectiles are less effective at dealing with Plasma Breath though.

To summerize, all the projectiles that Megaman possess that can out range Plasma Breath are too slow or too laggy

Leaf Shield is not slow and laggy. Startup is fairly fast and the projectile itself is fast. The endlag from throwing it is a problem... if it doesn't hit or cause the opponent to go into shield. And importantly, you can move during it, which means you can block the fireballs and either continue approaching, or retreat and turn around to throw it from a longer distance. And your options for punishing it are going to be reduced due to Plasma Breath not being a particularly fast move either (assuming you don't just get hit by LS).

 

[JJBro1]

What are you supposed to do with shulk??? He's absolutely unapproachable. His sword is longer than anything ridley he's quicker out of shield. I had no answer. I'll post replays soon.

 

[Great Potato]

How should Ridley go about dealing with Dedede Gordo pressure? He's got a large frame and they travel in difficult trajectories and can juggle into itself, I played a few matches against a Dedede and it felt like I got turned into a magnet for the things. It especially made edge-guarding difficult since they were often able to shut down my approach off-stage.