The 3.5 Shellshift Guide

[Daftatt]

First off, shellshift is pretty complicated. This video is a half an hour because of that. You will NEED the Shellshift Guide infographic I made to follow along with this video.

Feel free to post questions and whatnot, I put a damn lot of time into the lab on this one and I'm confident I can answer any question you might have about how squirtle works on a frame by frame level.

Also I updated the squirtle tech tree.

Spoiler

Changes:

- removed the slingjump aerials section, they are all incredibly useful so there is no use ranking them.

- fixed the "Soft-reversal/Hard-Reversal" text, it now correctly explains the difference between B-turnaround and B-reversal.

- Removed the following techs: waveshift, shellsling nair. there are ALWAYS better options than shellsling nair, and upon frame analysis waveshift was actually a variation on wavesling so it doesn't get it's own listing.

- Up-ranked: Short hop B-turnaround watergun

- Down-ranked: Slingjump B-reversal Watergun, Slingjump B-reversal Bubble, Hydrojab, Hydroplane-dtilt, Hydroplane Jab, Hydroplane F-tilt, Hydroplane F-smash, Forward Hydroplane F-smash

I've played A LOT more P:M squirtle since when I first put up the 3.0 tree and I've learned a lot. Honestly all those moves that got downranked were just too situational, I'll keep them listed for those who want to just grind tech skill though. I just left hydroReversals alone, JCOnyx is literally the only squirtle main who uses them so I'm not in a position to rank them.

- removed the "Shorthand" name from all the ATs, except Reverse Hydroplane Up-smash which is still RHUS.

All of the moves that are colored as useful are actually useful now all the time. The Blue ATs are pretty much your fundamentals as a squirtle player.

Enjoy

 

[Jamwa]

Reverse Hydrocrawl is still alive and well in 3.5

Awesome guide dude (y)

 

[TopKek.GG]

Awesome video. Thanks Daftatt, great work.

 

[JCOnyx]

In addition, here are my video's showcasing HydroCrawling and HydroReversing. Now everything Squirtle related discovered to date seems to be covered within just these three videos. It's only almost an hour of ones time to watch all of it though lol.

 

[Daftatt]

In addition, here are my video's showcasing HydroCrawling and HydroReversing. Now everything Squirtle related discovered to date seems to be covered within just these three videos. It's only almost an hour of ones time to watch all of it though lol.

yusss. Hydrocrawl lives.

Just want to point out that for hydroreversal, if you purely just want to the movement from zipping back all of a sudden out of shellshift you can just jump cancel whatever frame you want and wavedash back (that's what I do). Of course options out of wavedash don't come out immediately and they do with hydroreversal. But just a tip for anyone looking to hydroreversal for a movement mixup, just wavedash backwards out of shellshift.

 

[Phyvo]

I've been labbing it up with squirtle recently and the tech tree is a little confusing even after the video. The video talks about hydroplaning smashes from shellshift with pivots but the tech tree implies that somehow you can do it without any other inputs. When I've attempted shellshift f-smash/d-smash without pivots nothing interesting happened. I'm not sure how hydroplane Usmash fits into the diagram either... I get it to work by jump cancelling instead of pivoting, but that's not mentioned on the diagram at all (except for RHUS).

 

[JCOnyx]

You can hydroplane DSmash by simply hitting down and behind on the C-Stick on the correct frames. It's technically still a hydrocrawled DSmash since the C-Stick is inputting that crouch for you, but without the need to actually hydrocrawl yourself.

The same applies to the hydroplaned FSmash, except you hit the C-Stick behind you on the correct frames and it'll give you a hydropivot FSmash since the C-Stick is inputting that pivot for you.

You can simply hydroplane the UpSmash by jump canceling as you stated. The chart really doesn't go into detail on these since they were his most well known techniques before hydropivoting and crawling were explored, and Daftatt most likely thought that it wouldn't need to be stated. It probably would be a good idea to explain these things somewhere in the OP though.

 

[Fedora~]

Wow, so much knowledge... After watching your video I feel enlightened. Hopefully this will inspire new Squirtle mains to explore more of his movement options. So slippery!

 

[Phyvo]

Thanks for the explanation. One thing though, I'm getting the hang of a lot of other things but the hydropivot is driving me nuts. Any tips about that in particular? I tried it frame by frame and it seems like the timing for releasing the pivot is super precise.

 

[JCOnyx]

You literally can only pivot for 1 frame then have to revert the control stick back to neutral. I still have a hell of a time, even doing things like perfect pivots just doesn't come naturally to me. It all comes down to just practicing the motion, it doesn't seem like just flicking the stick is fast enough so maybe you have to just barely get the stick past the deadzone then let go. It's really not that easy.

 

[dirtboy345]

You literally can only pivot for 1 frame then have to revert the control stick back to neutral. I still have a hell of a time, even doing things like perfect pivots just doesn't come naturally to me. It all comes down to just practicing the motion, it doesn't seem like just flicking the stick is fast enough so maybe you have to just barely get the stick past the deadzone then let go. It's really not that easy.

Is it still only one frame if you use the c stick method?

 

[JCOnyx]

The C-Stick only inputs the direction for 1 frame I believe, so if you press it in the right direction no matter what you'll get it.

 

[Daftatt]

While you can use the C-stick method, it's convoluted and awkward even if you use custom controls. Practicing pivoting with the control stick is in my opinion still worth it to not pervert your control scheme and make the input more complex than it needs to be.

If you flick the stick too hard then it may remain outside of neutral for more than one frame (as in you are pushing it farther to the side of the neutral zone than the stick can retract in 1 frame), the simple solution is to practice flicking the stick more and more gently until it works consistently. Since each controller has a different neutral range and control stick looseness you will have to learn the feel for how much force to flick the control stick with through practice. This exercise not only lets you hydropivot in the most effective manner but also improves your overall precision with the control stick movements which improves how you play literally every character.

 

[dirtboy345]

Well I have L set to attack anyways, and you can input L in the middle of shellshift and c stick at the same time, the other method doesn't seem worth it.

 

[Daftatt]

Well I have L set to attack anyways, and you can input L in the middle of shellshift and c stick at the same time, the other method doesn't seem worth it.

Ahh, I guess I'm assuming people here also play melee and would want to maintain ease of transition between the two.

 

[dirtboy345]

Ahh, I guess I'm assuming people here also play melee and would want to maintain ease of transition between the two.

I do play Melee, but I don't use L for anything, I wavedash OoS with just R

 

[Garred]

Just picked up Squirtz. any tech I can get my hands on is helpful. thanks for the post.

 

[PlateProp]

@ D Daftatt Dude, cstick dsmash is like the easiest thing ever

Also you needa get rid of that sling jump crap. It's just a RAR with really tight timing

 

[Daftatt]

@ D Daftatt Dude, cstick dsmash is like the easiest thing ever

Also you needa get rid of that sling jump crap. It's just a RAR with really tight timing

It's literally the most important thing to do consistently on the character, it's the foundation of nearly all squirtle movement. You should use it more plate I've watched your matches

 

[PlateProp]

It's literally the most important thing to do consistently on the character, it's the foundation of nearly all squirtle movement. You should use it more plate I've watched your matches

First of all I do use it more, and I've only put up one recorded match

Secondly, the whole sling naming system is just dumb as ****, and we ALL agreed that previously named tech should stay the same with the whole Tacus debacle. A slingjump is just a RAR, and should be called as such

 

[Mage.]

Noob question on the slingjump or RAR or whatever the hell its called but an answer would be much appreciated.

I've noticed that you can also transfer squirtle's momentum and fling across the stage right around the frames when he turns around in his shell. Is this also a slingjump? If it is, is it better to use this type of slingjump? Or is the one within the few first frames better? If the latter is true then why is it better? I'm asking this because I've noticed the latter slingjump that you do at the first frame or so of the turnaround is much trickier to get down but can catch someone off guard. On the other hand, the former slingjump is much easier to execute and I can follow up with a bubble though much more predictable. But yeah, any answers on this appreciated.

 

[Daftatt]

Noob question on the slingjump or RAR or whatever the hell its called but an answer would be much appreciated.

I've noticed that you can also transfer squirtle's momentum and fling across the stage right around the frames when he turns around in his shell. Is this also a slingjump? If it is, is it better to use this type of slingjump? Or is the one within the few first frames better? If the latter is true then why is it better? I'm asking this because I've noticed the latter slingjump that you do at the first frame or so of the turnaround is much trickier to get down but can catch someone off guard. On the other hand, the former slingjump is much easier to execute and I can follow up with a bubble though much more predictable. But yeah, any answers on this appreciated.

so if you look at the windows, there are pretty much two momentum boosts, the slingjump window (first few frames) and the hydroplaning window which more or less starts half way through the move after the hitboxes.

You can get momentum boosts out of both, slingjump is better for approaching simply because you don't have to wait 15 frames through shellshift but it's significantly harder to consistently get frame perfect (actually it's effectively a 2 frame window). Also the slingjump sends you flying backwards, which means you can use bair to approach which has the most disjoint of any aerial (so it's safest).

Jumping out of the latter part of shellshift, the hydroplane window, is useful for when your opponent rushes you during the first part of shellshift (since you can't shield during the first 15 frames of SS) and you want to respond with an aerial to try and stuff them or just to get out of the way. However you'll be facing forward at this point (assuming you're jumping towards the opponent) and you can't use bair so it's considerably more risky (fulljumping with dair is the safest option to simply avoid being hit).

If you want to jump like falcon at the opponent with an aerial, using the hydroplane window for a boost will heavily telegraph your approach which is bad if your opponent begins to catch on. Using the slingjump window gives you 5 frames before you can input an aerial (instead of minimum 19 for jumping out of the hydroplane window)

If you're opponent shields your jump-aerial out of the hydroplane window (since it's so telegraphed) you can use this to your advantage and instead hydrograb. This a pretty important mixup but nomatter what you're going through 15 frames of being unable to shield and committing to an approach, which is why you want to also mix in wavedash back out of the hydroplane window and also hydropivot shield. The entire hydroplane mixup goes like this.


Squirtle shellshifts then...

If the opponent sends out a hitbox into your path (smart opponent) -> hydropivot shield or wavedash backwards out of SS (you just can't beat out most hitboxes)

if the opponent shields (expecting an aerial or hydroplaned hitbox) -> hydrograb

if the opponent approaches you (stupid opponent) -> hydroplane a move (like d-smash or hydrograb) or aerial out of the hydroplane window

if the opponent crouches (only matters for lower percents when they can CC) -> jump-Bubble which always beats CC, you could also hydrograb but they usually can stuff you with a dtilt (marth for instance)

if the opponent jumps (to avoid a hydroplaned grab or move) -> jump-Uair or hydroplane U-smash

If you don't want to commit you can always dash back into a shellshift on frame 15 (called quickshifting) which resets the entire situation, do this if you aren't comfortable with the spacing between you and your opponent (too close, too far) or you are trying to bait out a move (an opponent who knows you can't shield during SS may throw out a heavy hitting large lag move like a smash attack) that you can hydrograb on the next shellshift

summary: one is not better than the other in all situations, but slingjump is faster which makes it more useful for followups and raw approaches, jumping out of the hydroplane window is useful only when you're prepared to implement the mixup shown above and is still considerably more risky due to the prolonged state of being unable to shield.