as i've been developing my Brawl Samus technique, i've noticed that there are two distinct tactics that i found to be hugely important to taking my Samus's game to the next level, and hopefully some of you looking for that extra edge will be able to find this to be helpful as well.

the first one, of course, is short hopping the Zair. this is incredibly important for keeping your opponent out of your grill. mastering this technique ensures that Samus always has the space she needs to launch her projectile volley, and it forces your opponent to stay on his/her toes. it only does 4% damage, but it is incredibly effective, especially against larger characters. i've found it a lot more difficult to hit smaller characters like Olimar and Pikachu, but when it works, it works well. what also works very well is stringing multiple Zairs together and pushing your opponent all the way off the edge of the stage. at high enough percents, i've actually been able to KO people off the side of the screen with just this move. what works even better off the side of the stage, though, is Samus's second most important move...

the Dair. it's no secret - Samus kills at higher percents than most characters. this is mostly because her strongest kill moves only work in close quarters, and unfortunately are very easy to avoid and/or out prioritize. knowing this, i've found that the Dair is an AMAZING asset on the ground and even better over the edge. short hop this move on the ground, and if your opponent is at a high percent, this move will KO them. but use your Zair and chain your opponent over the edge, and go in for the meteor spike. you can kill at much lower percents spiking your opponent when they are trying to recover, and i've found that most of my KO's come from this technique since i've learned how to do it well. there are many ways to lure your opponent into this situation, but all of them require you to win the midair battle. but don't be afraid to take the leap of faith - Samus is well equipped for off-stage combat. jump off the stage backwards, or drop from the ledge and Samus will still have a midair jump, the screw attack, her bomb jumps, and her grapple beam to get back to the stage after the deed is done. just be careful your opponent doesn't turn the tables on you (watch out for Kirby ).


so what do ya think? a pretty accurate summary? or not? is there another tactic even better than these? discuss.

Sounds like some great tactics

Thanks for the info. I've just picked up playing Samus today and this helps. I'm still not proficient with Zair, but I've got the timing of Dair down pretty well.

If it's approved by Tudor, then it must be good. Haha!

I like using d-air while on the stage. It helps me combine that with the Screw Attack.

also, a couple of new things that i noticed about the zair when playing in training mode:

i don't know if you noticed this or not (at least some of you probably have), but if you connect with the very tip of the zair, it actually does 7% damage as opposed to only 4%. its knockback is also significantly increased. from the middle of final destination, it knocks kirby all the way off of the stage, even at around 20% or so. depending on how he DI's, sometimes he ends up two jumps out and below the egde of the stage; when this happens, he is super vulnerable to a dair.

also, holy crap! i didn't realize how fast and effective her foward tilt is! i've been using her downward foward tilt instead of a down smash, and it is really freaking nice.

I also figured out these same things when I was practicing to become better with Samus. I actually find that the Dair is more effective with the short jumps as you said. And yes, she has fantastic recover, even after she meteor smashes an opponent to their death.

depending on the character, u can chain samus's uair straight into the dair off the edge and it makes u look uber pro

That's very interesting, Fuu. I'll have to try that out. I like using the d-air when I am thrown out, and someone else is right by me. Sometimes a b-air is good, too. If Samus' foot connects, rather than her thigh, it's sure to defeat my opponent who is outside the stage with me. The foot has a greater knock-back and percent, rather than if you hit your opponent with Samus' thigh.

Sounds like solid info I need to start following. My Samus has been STRUGGLING, but I blame that partially on a change in my playstyle as well over the past few months.

I really want to get her back to being my 2nd main under Sheik/Zelda, but it's been an uphill battle... with these notes in mind, it looks like it's time for me to do some serious training again.

everything written here is spot on. and in regards to the original post, i can't agree more about going over the edge with samus. she's so floaty that you will rule the air. also agree 100% with the zair and dair being the 2 most important techniques. something of hers that i have seen downplayed and shouldn't be is her bombs. not saying anyone on here downplays them, just something in general. a lot of people seem to just forget about them, but i really like some of the weird things they can do. for instance, i enjoy spamming bombs on the ground and just moving laterally. it's great to move through opponents, almost like rolling, but its also pretty good for spacing when you just need to gtfo of there. of course bomb jumping everyone knows about, but they're also good for slowing down the fall if necessary.

i love fighting off stage and i have made my self comfortable with it. another thing as well i might add is abuse the foward tilt for for two reasons. it has better reach and you can save her foward smash for when they get in ko distance. Also, i have noticed that after neutral kick foward tilt is good.

can somebody tell me wat a Dair and a Zair is???

Dair = Down Air and Zair= Z(grab button)in the Air

hey mooch, remember me.
umm about zair, it can do eitehr 4 or 7 damage, it actually has a sweetspot, i dont think it has more knockback, but i do know for a fact that you can do 7% and id have to show a video to explain where the sweet spot is exactly, i really havent used samus since that ast time i played you. lol pm me if you want me to get a video up

non sweetspotted always 4%, and the tip of the zair is the sweetspot and will always do 7%. the damage is never lower since as discovered zair doesnt suffer from stale move negation

I dont really try to get the kill with dair up the top... I use it alot during the match, making it only kill viable for "comboing" or spiking. Saving the dairs power for a star KO seems like a waste.

leave the star ko's to dtilts lol

Zair's sweetspot does have more knockback. and you can link 2 zairs (w/ the second one sweetspotting) for a kill

yea the zair is sooo annoying. lol i loves it.

Nice info, everything is accurate