Super Smash Bros. Melee/Techniques/Basics

Basic Movement
To walk left and right, use the control stick accordingly. To dash quickly, Smash the control stick in the direction you want to go. A Smash Attack is done by quickly flicking the control stick in a direction and pressing A simultaneously. You can hold Down on the control stick to duck. You can use the X button, Y button or Up on the control stick to jump, and then again in midair to double jump. By letting go of X or Y quickly, you can also Short Hop to gain slightly less vertical momentum.

Jab
A Jab is done by pressing A While having your left control stick in a Neutral Position. Every character can Jab. Most characters have 2 hit or 3 hit Jabs, which you can use by pressing A multiple times or holding A. Some characters, like Captain Falcon even have multiple variations of the Jab. To do them, you can Mash A repeatedly or hold A to vary the outcome.

Tilts
Every character has 3 Tilts. They are done by pressing A while tilting the left control stick Up, Down, and Forward. Attacks using the control stick tend to strike in that direction. Tilt attacks are generally weaker than other options, but they are often faster, and there is less risk involved for missing them. Some, like Marth's Up Tilt are great in neutral and combo easily, while other's such as Fox's Down Tilt can be used to get your opponents off you or to Kill Confirm.

Aerials
Aerial Attacks are performed by pressing A while holding a direction while airborne. Alternatively, they can be performed by flicking the C-Stick in a direction while airborne. They are fast, and the majority of them are useful combo tools. There are 5 Aerial Attacks which a character can do. These are Neutral Air, Forward Air, Back Air, Down Air, and Up Air attacks. These moves are oftentimes more useful and Tilt Attacks and Special Moves, and in the cases of some characters such as Jigglypuff, can be a character's entire game plan.

Landing Lag from Aerial Attacks can also be halved with a technique known as L-Cancelling

Smash Attacks
Smash Attacks are powerful ground-based attacks that are useful for both delivering damage and sending opponents flying, How to Smash Attack is explained in the "Basic Movement" section above. Every character has three smash attacks, done by flicking your left control stick quickly and pressing A simultaneously. There are 3 variations of the Smash attack these are, The Forward Smash, The Up Smash and Down Smash. You can hold the button and control stick in place during a smash attack to charge it up. Doing so results in a slightly stronger smash attack. Oftentimes however, charging smash attacks will result in being caught and punished by your opponents, since Smash Attacks often are slower to use than other attacks. Be Careful.

You can also push the C Stick forward, up or down to do automatically non-charged smash attacks. Holding the Z button while doing so will allow the smash attack to charge. This will not work in Solo Modes

Special Attacks
Every character has four different Special moves, and most of these are very different, so you'll need to experiment to learn and master them all. To use them, simply press B, Forward/Back+B, Up+B or Down+B. The attacks tend to strike in the direction that the control stick is facing, although how so varies a lot from character to character. Some attacks are different or do not work in midair. Up+B attacks can usually be used to propel yourself upwards and/or forwards to help you recover after using your second jump, although a few characters do not have this feature. B Attacks vary a lot in strength. Some have unique properties of function differently as well For example, Princess Peach's Neutral B (no direction) move is to hold out Toad (from the Super Mario Series) as a shield. Marth's Down+B is a counter, which negates any attacks dealt on the player who used it and follows up with a counterattack.

Damage and Recovery
When an attack hits you, in most cases, you will take damage, and be knocked back. The knockback and damage of a move varies, but as a general rule of thumb, Slower and Heavier attacks tend to deal more damage and knockback, while Faster lighter ones will deal less. This of course is a tradeoff between safety of your move and strength of it. The damage of every player is displayed at the bottom of the screen, in the player Hud. As you take more damage, your percent increases. And as your percent increases, the knockback that you take when flung does as well. When flung back, try to recover back to the stage by holding the control stick in the direction of the stage and using your double jump and Up+B attack strategically in order to make it back. Using your Up+B will put you into freefall, which will prevent you from using your double jump, so plan accordingly. Failing to recover will result in you falling down the pit and losing a life. Note that if you are weak enough, you may get flung so far you won't even get a chance to recover. In these cases, it is optimal to try to DI.

Item Grab
To grab an item, walk next to it and press A. Almost all items are grabbed this way. For Attack Items, you'll probably have to press A again to use them or throw them. To throw away an item, press Z, L+A or R+A, and you can aim it by pressing the control stick as you throw. You can grab items in midair or on a platform above you by simply jumping and pressing the Z button. For information on the various items of the game, see the Item List.

Shielding
Pressing L or R will create a strong circular Shield around yourself to protect you from attacks. The Shields gradually shrink over use, and when they get small enough, it becomes possible for your opponents to poke at vulnerable areas not covered by your shield. Lightly moving the control stick while Shielding will move your Shield around your body, useful for protecting your most vulnerable areas when your Shield is small. Shields slowly regenerate back to their original size over time. If you let your Shield get too small, it will break, stunning you and leaving you completely defenseless for a long time, although being attacked will snap you out of it. Shields will protect you from attacks, however they cannot protect you from being Grabbed by opponents.

Pressing L or R lightly, or holding the Z button, will allow you to create a larger, yet weaker Shield known as a Light Shield It still behaves basically the same way, but the recoil from attacks will be greater, and it will not hold up as well against attacks. Note that using the Z button way to shield will have a delay as your character attempts to grab before shielding.

Grabbing and Throwing
Pressing Z, R+A or L+A will cause your character to attempt a Grab. If you are close enough to an opponent, you will hold them in your arms. The amount of time that you can hold a character for is dependent on their damage percent, as the higher their percent is, the harder it is for them to break out, which is done by mashing. Once you are holding them, you can press A to Pummel them, and you can throw them Forward, Backward, Up, or Down by pushing the control stick in the corresponding direction. Different characters have different throws, and some of these are very unique, such as Donkey Kong's forward throw.

Ledgehanging
When you fall close enough to the edge of most stage's ledge, your character will automatically grab on. When hanging on, your character is invulnerable for a short period of time. Your character can hold on for a long but definite amount of time. There are a few options you can do from the ledge. To climb back up, press Forward or lightly Up on the control stick, and your character will do a Neutral Getup back onto the platform. You can press A or B while cliffhanging to climb up and instantly do a Getup Attack Or you could press L or R to come up and do a Getup Roll. Pressing X, Y or Up will cause your character to do a Getup Jump. Pressing Down on the control stick will cause your character to let go of the ledge. The execution of these edge recoveries will vary depending on your character's health, as most options at ledge will be significantly slower the higher your percentage is.

Pausing
To pause the game midfight, simply press the Start button anytime in the round. Once the game is paused, only the player who paused will have any control until the game is unpaused. When paused, the camera will focus on the player who paused, but you can look around while in this mode. Use the control stick for different angles and press X and Y to zoom in and out. Press L or R to cycle through the different players. To quit the round, hold down L, R and A and then press Start. This will cause the entire round to end. On some one-player games, you can press Z to simply reset the round. Press Start while paused to unpause the game. The ability to pause can be turned on and off in Custom Rules: Addition Rules: Pause.

Dodges
There are three ground-based dodges that you can execute. When you have your shield active with L, R or Z, press Left or Right on the control stick to do a Rolling Dodge in the according direction. While doing a dodge, you cannot be hit. It is impossible to dodge off a cliff, so don't worry about that. Press Down on the control stick while shielding to do a Sidestep Dodge to become invincible for a very brief time. Because it is so brief, it is usually only useful for dodging gunshots and the like.

Midair Dodge
Press L or R anytime while midair when not attacking or being hit, and your character will do a dodging animation and be invincible for a brief moment. You can air dodge in any direction by holding the analog stick in that direction prior to pressing R or L. After the dodge animation is over, you will become prone to attack, unable to attack or jump until you are hit or touch the ground.

Taunting
Taunting isn't useful for fighting. It is merely a taunt that each character has that you may execute after doing a cool move or KOing someone to celebrate. To execute, simply press Up on the D Pad. Every character's taunt is unique and some last longer than others, but they don't aid in fighting and usually are just for congratulating yourself, although doing Luigi's taunt correctly can earn you some points for Bonus Matches. A small fraction of the characters have taunts that actually do something though, for example, Kirby's taunt causes him to throw away copied abilities and Luigi's taunt can actually do 1% of damage if his foot kicks a foe. Computers will always (if they can) taunt when they have KO'd (or think they have KO'd) an opponent.

Item Catching
If an item is thrown at you, pressing A right before it hits will cause your character to catch it. This works for all throwable items, excluding the very heavy ones, and is especially useful against thrown Bob-ombs or Pokéballs, as they will become yours. It is possible to do this in midair. It is very risky, because if not timed exactly right, you will fail to catch it and the item will hit you. You can also use the Z button in the air to catch something, which tends to be easier for many people. Air Catching can also "catch" items on the ground on stages where you can jump from under a platform. This is useful if you wish to get to items very quickly.

Power Shielding
Every character can reflect with their shield. When a projectile is coming your way, press L or R to shield right before it hits. If timed properly, it will reflect the attack backwards instead of just lightly bouncing off. This also works against your opponent's physical attacks, if timed correctly. This move takes a lot of practice to perfect, but is very useful.

Meteor Smash
A meteor smash launches the foe straight down and can be meteor canceled by jumping or Up+B at the right moment. This gives you a chance at recovering. Although not all characters have a meteor smash, the more common ones do. Mario (not Dr. Mario), Yoshi, Capt. Falcon, Gannondorf, Ness, Ice Climbers, Kirby, Zelda (but not Sheik), Link and Young Link, Mewtwo, Samus, and Marth are some of the characters that have a meteor smash.

Generally, a meteor smash is Down+A in the air. However, some meteor smashes are available on the ground (Link's Down+A on the ground), and others are Forward+A in the air (Yoshi or Mario)

As a side note: Luigi's taunt is a meteor smash. If you kick a cliffhanger, it is basically a kill, but it takes so long to taunt that it probably isn't a good idea to do that in practice.

Standing Recovery
If you character is falling to the floor, you can press L or R to immediately recover into a standing position instead of hitting the ground hard and lying on the floor. If you hold left or right while doing this, you will perform a tech roll. This can also be used when you are thrown into walls, and with a fast enough reaction time, you can recover being hit hard into a wall which would have had you ricocheting off the level. This is called teching.

Wavedashing
Wavedashing is a technique that typically requires much practice to master. It is performed by air dodging diagonally into the ground and when done correctly, the user's character will slide, crouch momentarily and create a small cloud of dust. A wavedash usually follows a jump immediately - the user's character should never visibly leave the ground. In fact, this use of wavedashing is so prevalent that the term "wavedashing" usually refers to the jump as well as the air dodge and slide. The following sections will deal with wavedashing from a jump, but it is a very useful mid-air tactic as well.

How to Wave-Dash
A little primer on how to wave-dash. The buttons that are used to perform a wave dash are (in order): If this is your first time trying a wave-dash, you might want to go to training mode and slow the frame rate to a speed you find acceptable, as this will help with timing your moves. Also, Luigi is recommended for learning to wave-dash because his is the most noticeable if performed correctly. To wave dash, perform these moves in this order: The time between each move is very small, only a few frames (100 or so milliseconds), so timing is critical.
 * Jump Buttons (X or Y or the Control Stick)
 * Control Stick (Diagonal Direction: Downwards towards the left or right)
 * Shield/Dodge Buttons (R or L)
 * Jump
 * Move
 * Dodge

Press X or Y or use the Control Stick to jump, and then quickly, jerk the control stick in the direction you wish to go on the ground, downwards, towards the left or right. The direction cannot be upwards, it must be towards the ground, or you might accidentally pull off an air dodge. Then press the R or L buttons (until they click on the controller). If you have pulled it off correctly, you will notice that you will slide quickly across the stage and kick up some white smoke in your wake. In a sense, you will look like you are dashing across without using your feet, and the white smoke is the wave. by claw

Troubleshooting
Here are some things to rectify if you find you are not getting the desired result: by claw
 * If you are shielding instead, you are not jumping correctly.
 * If you are just jumping, you are pressing the R or L buttons incorrectly.
 * If you are air dodging instead, you are not moving quick enough. Make sure you are jerking the control stick towards the ground and not upwards.
 * If you are shield dodging instead (you're doing a roll or sidestep dodge), you are pressing the R or L buttons before you move. You must define your orientation and directional influence before you press the L or R buttons.

Applying Wavedashing to the game
Note: Only when you are certain you can wavedash without consistently failing should you start to use the move without restriction. Messing up a wave dash in a serious 1 vs. 1 match can mean a certain fall.

Here are a few situations where you can apply wavedashing:
 * Wavedashing can be a quick way to adjust your position relative to the enemy.
 * It is also useful as a dodge when better alternatives do not exist (especially for characters with poor rolls such as Samus or Mr. Game & Watch).
 * It serves as a shield exit, allowing a character to react offensively after shielding an enemy attack.
 * You can also wave dash to evade Samus's grappling hook or Link's hook shot as the speed at which a wave dash is performed is quicker than the speed at which those weapons reach out; though, some wave dashes for certain characters do not dash as far and you will still be caught.