Everyone knew about D3's down throw "chain throw" before even the Japanese release. Most of us realize you can get out of it kind of easily but it still remains a force in this game. The D3 player is at an advantage in each segment of the chain throw because if someone tries to get out of it, the D3 player can read it and usually punish before the opponent has an opportunity to punish D3.

Key points:

1. The chain grab doesn't work on everyone.
2. The chain grab can be comboed into walls infinitely on all those who don't fall after the down throw.
3. Some characters can get grabbed infinitely without walls.
4. Some characters can get grabbed inescapably for only a short period of time.
5. When chain throwing you MUST use shield cancel grabs. Having a dash grab whiff during a chain throw is a sure-fire way to get punished.
6. After any down throw you can link a forward tilt on everyone in the cast except Luigi* which is an unavoidable natural combo.
7. Changing your X button to throw (who uses it to jump?) and using that rather than Z to perform your wall or no wall infinites makes life far easier and the timing becomes naturally easier (at least for me).

Character-specifics:

Get infinited with or without walls:
Bowser
DK

Victim of inescapable chain grabbing for a short while (unless you punch them first, see below):
Mario
Luigi*
Samus (NOT Zero Suit)

Chain grabbable (don't fall after the down throw, infinited into walls):
Peach
Diddy Kong
Yoshi
Link
Wario
Ganondwarf
Toon Link
Pit
Ice Climbers**
R.O.B.
Dedede
Wolf
Captain Falcon
Ivysaur
Charizard
Lucario
Marth
Ike
Ness
Lucas
Snake
Sonic

Cannot be chain throwed (fall after the down throw, cannot be infinited into a wall):
Zelda
Sheik
Zero Suit Samus
Kirby
Metaknight
Olimar
Fox
Falco
Pikachu
Squirtle
Jigglypuff
Mr. Game and Watch


Chain throw infinite specifics:

With wall infinite:
After a down throw one of 3 things happen: they fall on the ground and can tech away and hit by forward tilt after, they stay standing and move a decent distance away, they stay standing and don't move very far at all. For all of the people who stay standing, they can get grabbed infinitely on any wall, which makes stages with any walls really nice counterpicks for D3. Usually the best way to kill someone out of this infinite is a up tilt since it is quick enough to strike during the opponent's recovery and has nice knockback, especially at over 150%, making it an infinite combo.

Without Wall Infinite:

NOTE: DO NOT TEST THESE IN PRACTICE MODE. PRACTICE MODE HAS NO MOVE DECAY AND THEREFORE IS INACCURATE. TEST ONLY IN BRAWL TIMED MATCHES SET TO INFINITE. LIKE PRACTICE MODE, BUT TAKES INTO ACCOUNT THE DECAY.

DK and Bowser are so big and move so very slightly after the down throw that D3 can catch them while in recovery frames after the throw and just throw again, over and over. The timing is weird but not too hard to master after an hour tops. Usually with Bowser I tilt the stick slightly forward to ensure I get the next grab. If you don't do it, I've noticed that the follow up throws tend to whiff. To follow up I usually do a forward or back throw (depending on where I am on the level) after doing a lot of damage. up tilt connects after sometimes, but I usually like to be safe and just do all throws.

Strange Infinite-like chain throw:
This also works on Samus, Mario, and Luigi. However, I've noticed that as the throw gets stale (used more than 5 times) these 3 character move just out of D3's throwing range. Now, people with experience with the infinite, please let me know if the timing changes and I just can't get it, but I've been only able to successfully link 5 throws together on each of these characters regardless of what percent those characters are at, if D3's throws are not staled. I tested this at all kinds of different percents and even tried doing D3's neutral A combo to see if I could do more throws after what I would assume to be making the throw not stale again. And, to my surprise, no matter what percentage they were at, I always got exactly 5 throws linked together. After linking a forward tilt after, it did approximately 44% dmg to each character, not bad for a single grab combo. I'm still testing this out but really, I think that's all that needs to be done.

UPDATE: These three are now official infinites, just only starting at around 50%, depending on how good the person is at breaking throws. To circumvent the move decay done to the down throw, you need to hit them once or twice with an A while grabbing. Which is why it is crucial it is done at high percents. At low percents, people will simply break out. Ankoku brought it to my attention that the move decay list is only 9 moves deep. So, to prevent the move decay, you need to jab a couple times inbetween each down throw. It makes it harder to infinite these three, but at least we have some grasp on an official infinite with them now. Get them to high percents and then just forward throw them. They can do very little to get out of it.

Here's a video of it working on Samus:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzC8eMCi3As

Be sure to note that the person in the video is in training mode, so the damage decay isn't in effect so the Samus can be thrown without being punched inbetween. I'll try to make a video of my own ASAP.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23UyrHXK36A

There's a video faq for you all made and narrated by me so you all can hopefully get a good idea of what I'm talking about.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ybQpNsMF8_I

There's a video of it in action in tournament. There's actually quite a bit of funny stuff in that one [smile]XD[/smile]

That's all for now. If anyone has any questions or comments please post!

D3 BEST IN DA GAME.

* Luigi. Luigi falls in a strange way after the down throw that leaves him safe from a forward tilt follow up and also allows him to recover before D3 can complete another chain throw. Even if D3 DOES get another throw in, the distance they move is quite a lot, making the chain throw not as effective. Luckily for us, he can at least be grabbed 5 times in a row before we have to worry about it.
**Ice Climbers. While the Iceclimbers can be chain grabbed, it's highly useless because if you accidentally grab Nana, your only choice is to forward throw IMMEDIATELY before Popo punishes you for grabbing. Nana will also punish if you hold Popo for too long, but that's not as big a deal. The interesting thing is, if you do the exact timing that is required for the without wall infinite chain throw, you can down throw Popo and then grab Nana right after before she follows Popo. With this, you can successfully separate the two for a very short while if you then back throw Nana while Popo is still in recovery. If you do this by the edge, Nana will also have a tough time getting back, while you distract Popo with something else. At higher percents, this is an effective way of splitting the Ice Climbers apart. However, Nana can still take inputs from the player while Popo is being held. Your best best is to do it FAST, before your opponent has a chance to stop the throws.

For the shield canceled grabs, I just shield and press A. It seems to be really easy for me to chain grab people that way with D3.

EDIT: Oh, I like to call Dedede "3D" more then D3 for some reason [smile]XD[/smile].

lolz, no big deal. I like D3.

And that's what shield cancel grabs are. Canceling your momentum of the dash with a shield and then hitting A so a dash grab doesn't come out. Or at least that's what I thought they were...

Oh wait, I'm dumb, I didn't see the part where you said changing the z-button to x was for the infinites, and not for the actual easy chain grab. Tiredness and reading un-comprehension ftw!

i dont get the infinite without wall?.....dos'nt make sense to me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzC8eMCi3As

This is done in training mode, on Samus, taken with a camera phone (best video I could find out there) Note that he can grab Samus more than 5 times in a row without punching because he is in training mode where there is not damage decay. As you can see in the video, they get regrabbed during recovery, so they can't get out of it.

ya i experienced that infinite last night for the first time on bowser. was pretty sick. good guide, im going to sticky it.

but im still having trouble timing the grab after the dthrow on chars like bowser and dk to get that true infinite. i changed my r button to grab and am using that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23UyrHXK36A

There's a video faq for you all.

great vid. i figured out the bowser one before watching this, but cant quite get the dk one without moving a little bit forward like you have to do with bowser.

you can link down throw into down tilt near the edge to kill people or hit them at a good spot to edge guard them at least, vs fatties it always works, vs some chars like robot they have to be mostly on stage for it to work, do some experimenting with down throw -> down tilt combo for me if you get the chance, it will help.

Wow, that's a good call! I'll test that out. I think it'll only work on the characters that don't move too far away. I'll make a list of characters that down tilt works after down throw sometime tonight. I got a tournament tomorrow so I'll test it out tonight in prep for that.

I did the infinite grab on a luigi player in a tournament I had today. However, the luigi had stupid flaming shoryu set ups and ending up coming back to win. It was by far one of the most entertaining matches I've ever played in. I'll post the match in my faq after it is edited.

hmmm i can get the infinite timing down pretty well, but it appears as if my grab button sometimes arbitrarily shields instead of grabbing. does it activate my shield if my timing is off?

Yeah, you're doing it too early. Try mashing the throw button and you'll get the same results.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ybQpNsMF8_I

There's a video of it in action in tournament. There's actually quite a bit of funny stuff in that one [smile]XD[/smile]

all but the last stock were pretty hilarious.

that was pretty good. D3 was dashing around a fair bit but i dont think he tripped.

I see a lot of people who down throw and f-tilt when they can't chain throw a character.

Isn't it better to just backthrow? It doesn't 16% compared to downthrow and f-tilt that does like 12%-13% together. I mean unless you're setting them up for something.

Is there some kind of mind game that I'm not getting?

it's called "stale moves mindgame"

I don't get it. You're not suggesting that replacing one move (back throw) with another 2 moves (downthrow ftilt) is preventing stale moves are you?