SSBM/Link

Introduction

Hailing from the very popular Legend of Zelda series, Link is a low tier character that is very popular among newer players of the game, and non-tournament players. While low tier, Link can be used very well in tournaments, providing a threat to the top tier players

Popular Link players are The Germ and Aniki

"B" Moves List

• Up B - Link does a spinning attack, where his sword takes up a huge area around him
• Forward/Back B - Link tosses his boomerang in the direction selected
• Down B - Link pulls a bomb out of his backpack
• Neutral B - Link shoots an arrow out of his bow, B can be held to charge the shot, making it head in a much straighter angle

Move Analysis

• Up B

- This move has a great amount of knock back

- If you are shielding an attack, you can preform an Up B right out of the shield to punish

- If a recovering opponent hits the bottom or tip of the Up B, they will be knocked back farther, and sent downward, most of this time they will not be able to recover from this, especially if after you edgehog (grab onto the edge of the map so your opponent cannot)

- When using this move to recover, it does not matter what direction you are looking, you will grab the edge if you sweet spot

- If missed, you will create a huge amount of lag that will be easily punished

- If your opponent shields once at any time against any hit in the attack, it will no longer damage them for the rest of the attack

- Best used when comboed into, to punish, from shield or to finish a recovering opponent

• Forward/Backward B

- The boomerang will almost always return, use this to your advantage

- The move has a bit of a wind up time before Link throws his boomerang, during this time you can press a direction such as up or down to angle your boomerang in a significantly different angle

- A very spammable move, use it to tack on damage, stun your opponent or force them to dodge

• Down B

- After a bomb is in your hands you can toss it by pressing A and a direction. To give the bomb length press the direction you'd like to throw the bomb in and A at the same time. To drop the bomb in air, press Z without moving

- If an opponent shield a boomerang, or is hit by one, you normally have enough time to pull a bomb

- Bombs can be used to Bomb Tech for extra recovery, more on that later

• Neutral B

- Not a very useful move, only for hampering the recovery of an opponent, and then only at the tap of the B button, nothing more

Combos

Note: A Fast Faller would be Fox, Falco, Captain Falcon, Ganondorf

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While there are barely any guaranteed combos in Melee, one of the biggest ones belongs to Link. Link is very grab oriented for his combos, they perfectly set him up for high damage, high knock back attacks. Still, some characters recover very quickly from the throw part of the combos (Marth, Samus, others), use caution against them as they can counter with their own air attacks

Bold means required, Italic means optional

• Grab -> A (while opponent is grabbed) -> Down Throw -> Up B
• Grab -> A (while opponent is grabbed) -> Down Throw (on lower percent opponents) -> Down Smash -> Down Air(Recommended)/Neutral Air(Recommended)/Back Air/Up Air/Forward Air(Recommended)
• Grab -> A (while opponent is grabbed) -> Down Throw (on lighter characters)/Up Throw (on Fast Fallers) -> Up Tilt (slightly tilt the analog stick up without jumping and hit A) -> Down Air(Recommended)/Neutral Air(Recommended)/Back Air/Up Air/Forward Air(Recommended)

Link is also able to combo well with his Neutral Air and Back Air SHFFL. The Neutral Air SHFFL will knock characters back past the point of comboing at higher percents. His Up Tilt can juggle Fast Fallers very well. Once your opponent is at a high percent, Dash Attack is a great combo extender

Strategies

Linkology

Link is a very well rounded character for how low he is on the tier list. Many of his attacks are highly useful, he has a great air game, he can be constantly attacking his enemy from all over the screen with his items, does good damage once you get your combos in, yet he doesn't have that edge to him that the top tier characters have, like not having an easy to hit spike and not having too much priority. To do really well with him, you'll have to use your mindgames and technical skills to your fullest ability, and that means learning all that Link can do, which means learning Linkology

This Is Linkology (Advanced Link Tutorial By The Germ)

Since The Germ really only shows you the moves, I'll tell you how to do them and where they appear in the video, and how to use them

• Chapter 0: Pre-Linkology

- Short Hop ~ Jumping by pressing X or Y is nice, but it goes very high in the air. You can cut that down to about half by tapping X or Y very quickly. From this you open up fast air attacks

- Fast Fall ~ At the top of your jump hit down on your analog stick to fall much faster. Combine this with short hopping to hit crazy fast air attacks

- L/Lag cancel ~ When landing after doing an air attack, there is a lag animation. That animation can be incredibly shortened if you hit L, R or Z once you touch the ground after an air attack. This only works with A attacks. If you combine all three of these manuvers, you SHFFL

- SHFFL ~ Short Hop Fast Fall L cancel, combining all these techniques for insanely fast air attacks that are very possible of comboing a character, you can move in a direction while SHFFLing

- Crouch Cancel ~ If hit with a move with high knock back while crouching, you will be knocked back significantly less

- Sweet Spot ~ Grabbing exactly the edge of the stage when recovering, to lessen your chances of being edge guarded against

- Edge Guard ~ Attacking a recovering opponent to stop his recover and make him fall off the stage

- Edge Hog ~ Grabbing onto the stage so when your opponent tries to grab on or sweet spot, they cannot (if they come to the edge with an Up B attack, hit L to roll, the game will believe you are still on the edge, you'll have to figure the timing for each character)

Other terms and basic techniques can be learned here in All The Terms Thread of Smashboards.com

• Chapter 1: Linkology 101

- 0:15/Regular Wavedashing ~ Wavedashing is a way to make your character more mobile. By sliding across the ground, your character becomes much more mobile, able to quickly dodge attacks, close distance fast, or whatever you find it useful for. Jump/Short Hop with your character, then air dodge at an angle toward the stage, a bit back if you want to go backwards and vice versa, with the right timing you should slide across the floor

- 0:23/Perfect Wavedashing ~ This is just wavedashing, but tilting your analog stick at such an angle that you do the farthest possible wavedash

- 0:33/Shield Dashing ~ After and before a wavedash, hold L or R to instantly shield. Great for approaching or retreating from enemies safely

- 0:41/Reverse Grabbing ~ As mentioned above in the combo section, do a Back Air then quickly turn and grab. Very practical for starting your grab combos, hard to dodge if the Back Air makes contact.

- 0:59/Bomb Dashing ~ When you have a bomb, short hop and throw it, then you should have enough time to air dodge like you would to wavedash. Makes bombing more mobile and lets you avoid some attacks or gain more ground while doing it

• Chapter 2: Advanced Linkology

- Coming Soon

Match-ups