Space Pirate Rush Sacrificial KOs - "Xenociding"

[God Robert's Cousin]

Space Pirate Rush, Ridley's side special, has applications as a Ganoncide-type of move when used at the ledge of a stage. Ideally, you should be using this move to release your opponent either underneath the stage or as an edgeguard far away from it, but I've tested the viability of using the move to drag characters to the complete bottom. Ridley dies first unfortunately, but about half the roster can't make it back after Ridley's death, meaning if you have stock-advantage, you can use this to quickly gimp characters. Personally, I want to make it a thing to get this called a Xenocide, between sounding cooler than Ridleycide and pretty much killing Ridley (the xenomorph always involved) just as much as his victims, but that's just me.

Anyway, I've done some labbing with the roster and this is what I've found so far.

Tested under the following conditions:

• Default Battlefield in Training Mode, specifically at the very edge of the right ledge of the stage.
• Used Lv. 9 CPUs at 0%, behavior set on Stop and all other default Training settings applied.
• CPUs do not use any method of recovery that isn't jump and up-special.

Characters That CANNOT Recover




All Pokemon
All Variants
All Variants
2222 Set

Characters That DO NOT Recover, But Might Be Able To With Better Testing

• Link - Remote Bombs should be able to blast Link up, though unknown if execution is short enough that low of the stage.
• Jigglypuff - Should be able to reach the stage via air-dodging upwards.
• Wario - Should be able to use bike for extra vertical height.
• Mega Man - Might be able to use air-dodge upwards after bouncing off Rush.
• Wii Fit Trainer - CPU may or may not be going maximum vertical height the move provides, falls just short of the ledge.
• Shulk - Only tested with default Shulk, still need to see whether or not Monado Arts Jump can reach enough height.
• Duck Hunt - Same as Wii Fit Trainer.
• Ridley - Is definitely the same height as the ledge, but for some reason CPUs recover slightly too far away from it. Should be possible but haven't seen it myself.
• Simon - Might be able to recover with up-air tether. Probably can't, but still yet to conclude.
• Richter - Same as Simon.

Characters That CANNOT Recover By Default, Will USUALLY Work On

• Young Link - Should be able to use bomb recovery, but would have to have available before Ridley grabs him.
• Toon Link - Same as above.

Characters That CAN Recover By Default, Will CONDITIONALLY Work On

• Ice Climbers - If Nana is still alive, they can recover. Nana tends to die after this happens once, however, and Popo cannot make it back up by himself.
• R.O.B. - If enough fuel is available in their recovery, they can make it back. Cannot reach ledge if they only have half or less available.
• Villager - Same as R.O.B.
• Robin - If Elwind's durability is depleted, can't recover.
• Isabelle - Same as R.O.B.

Characters That CAN Recover, Will NEVER Work On




1111 & 3333 Sets

Here's the work that still needs to be done:

• Against characters that already cannot recover, the height Ridley can release and still make it back to the stage without dying
• Testing on other stages
• Doubling down to assure blue-category characters can't recover
• Labbing the yellow, green and orange-category characters further
• Percentages characters can mash out of Space Pirate Rush and be able to recover from
• Usage in other areas of the stage, such as off-stage and hazardless Kalos Pokemon League platform-height

Since I lack someone to lab this with and can only go off theory-crafting for good chunks of these, any bit of help you guys can contribute would be a huge benefit towards learning Ridley's matchups and would be appreciated. I'll update this thread as more data becomes available.

 

[BlackCephie]

Love this move. Still messing with it in mixups but oh man the possibilities.

 

[Ridley_Prime]

This thread should be pinned if anything. Good informative writeup for 'ciding.

 

[God Robert's Cousin]

This thread should be pinned if anything. Good informative writeup for 'ciding.

Unfortunately, I've learned that even less of these are true "can't recovers" than I initially thought. Peach for example can consistently make it back to the stage provided they properly jump immediately after being released. As I learned from a brief moment of labbing with someone else, apparently if opponents mash while grabbed by Space Pirate rush, their vertical height is decreased. All this tell us is that CPUs mash and don't optimize their recoveries, even at a base level.