Play Link in Super Smash Bros Melee
This guide will teach you how to effectively use Link in Super Smash Bros. Melee and will turn you into the hunter of the game.
Contents
Steps
- Learn the basic moves.
- Analog Stick: Move it lightly to walk or move it all the way to run. Tap it hard to dash to one side. Move lightly down to crouch or tap it quickly to drop through a floor (that has floor underneath it, of course). Tap up to jump and tap up again to do a mid-air jump. X and Y also allow you to jump as well.
- Crouch: That shield Link sports isn't purely for... well, sport. It also is able to block ranged attacks from your opponents (i.e. Sheik's needles or Samus' charge shot). Crouching also severely reduces your knock-back from your opponents. Since it is much harder to phase Link, crouching makes it aggravatingly difficult to remove him.
- L and R buttons: These are used to deploy your shield. Many players forget how important using the shield is; it can save your life! Just don't let it run out (it shrinks), or you will be severely stunned.
- L/R:+direction: (You use it to roll) Roll! For God's sake, if you get nothing else from this guide, roll! Rolling is an absolute must. It is the key to victory and will save you from hundreds of points of damage. Rolling will keep your enemies guessing as to when and where you will attack, and allows you to deal damage without taking damage. Use rolling as often as possible!
- Z Button: Grab. Note that since you get a long range grab with the hook-shot, it will take a moment for the hook-shot to retract, so be careful.
- While in the air, L (+ direction, it's optional): Mid-air dodge. Use this correctly to trick an enemy or survive a big blast (like Samus' charge shot) in mid-air.
- A Button: Quick attack. It is the most basic attacks, use it to attack your foes. Tap it quickly, multiple times for multiple quick stabs. Good for getting an enemy off-balance for a moment.
- A Button+Tapping of Analog Stick (left or right): Smash Attack 1: A slower but stronger swipe. Use this often to send your enemies soaring!
- Smash Attack 2: Using this effectively can damage foes extremely fast. Press A again after using a smash attack to do a second smash attack. Note that you can charge your smash attack and you can time your second slash to be more effective. In multiplayer games, you can use the C-stick to do a quick smash attack in any direction, but note that you can only do a second smash if and only if you press the A button at the right time afterward, as if you were doing it with A-smash.
- A Button+Analog Stick Up: Quick upper swipe to knock enemies off balance.
- A Button+Tapping of Analog Stick Up: A series of several strong swipes that you can link with other moves to score consecutive hits.
- A Button+Analog Stick Down: Use this to trip your enemy and get consecutive hits. If you hit the ground, it'll take a second to take your sword out of the ground.
- A Button+Tapping of Analog Stick Down: Use this to trip enemies on both sides of you, or to deal extra damage if you have the time.
- While in air Tap A Button: If you simply tap A, you'll do a light kick that tends to hit enemies even if they are in the middle of an attack.
- While in air A Button+Tapping of Analog Stick: This will swing your sword and spin you around, dealing considerable aerial damage. Also good for attacking a grounded enemy from the air to knock them into the perfect position to use another attack.
- While in air A Button+Tapping of Analog Stick Down: A very strong attack, quite capable of killing someone, you will plant your sword straight down and nail anyone you hit. Hold it down and score up to three consecutive hits (note each hit will be weaker).
- While in air A Button+Tapping of Analog Stick Up: Use this for enemies that are above you. It does leave you slightly vulnerable.
- Learn strong and special attacks.
- B Button: Bow: Hold down B to use your bow. Excellent for long range damage. Be weary; enemy shields can deflected back the arrows at you, and in which case, you should use your shield also. If you crouch, Link's Hylian shield may actually protect him.
- B Button+Tapping of Analog Stick Left or Right: Boomerang: Use this with a direction and a smash attack to send it further. Throw it at angles to keep your enemies guessing where it will hit as well as off-balance. Since it is a boomerang it will come back but hurt the enemy and not you.
- B Button+Analog Stick Up: Spin attack. Extremely effective move. Excellent for getting back on the stage (if you're falling), as well as knocking enemies away, ground or air. Use it when you have enemies on both sides of you. Extremely effective when many enemies are around.
- B Button+Analog Stick Down: Take out a bomb. You can do a bunch of things with these, even if they aren't very powerful. You can keep enemies off-balance (allowing you to go in for an attack), you can disarm motion sensors and Bomb-ombs, and create a little chaos. You can press B+down to throw it or tap A+Tap Analog left or right, or press Z.
- A Button+Dash: While running, press A to do a rushing swipe. This will knock enemies off their feet allowing time for another attack.
- Use Link's unique powers. There are only a few, but they work very well.
- Blocking Projectiles: Normally when playing Smash Bros., you would use the R button to create a colored circular shield that slowly disappears. However, when playing as Link, it's best not to. Instead, do absolutely nothing. Link himself is holding on to a shield, which is nothing like the one summoned by the R button. It is able to block most projectiles. The advantage of it is that it cannot disappear or be broken by extremely powerful attacks.
- Bomb Jumping: During your recovery, pull out a bomb with Down+B. Just before you use your third jump, throw it upwards. Then, Up+B into the bomb. When it hits you, you can use your third jump again.
Using Your Moves Effectively
- Use your smash attack often. Try to get a few in a row and time your second hit so that you land both. The second slash sends enemies further.
- Strong attacks are still good when you don't have time for smashes.
- Use quick attacks and the consecutive slashes to get cheap damage.
- Find combos that work for you. One easy one is the rush attack + spin attack (rush in, he gets knocked off his feet, then use spin attack to deal more damage/send them flying).
- Keep enemies on one side of you.
- If there are 2-3 enemies at once attacking you then use down B to draw a bomb and throw it at them with A.
Tips
- Learn to anticipate enemy movement and attacks. A good way to practice this is using Marth and his counter, or just do a match and only use defensive moves.
- Play against a variety of characters to learn their moves. When you know your enemy, you know how to counter him.
- Bombs do not need to be thrown. By pressing Z in the air without any directional input, Link will merely drop the bomb straight down, while he suffers from no recovery time whatsoever. Don't land on the bomb, though.
- Bombs and Boomerangs are also good to use to keep distant attacks for more cheap damage.
- Priority of items. Always get the healing items first, then everything else. Motion sensors, poke-balls, bombs, freezes, use them all as much as you can. Don't forget you can throw them at enemies to damage 'em up. Never let an item go to waste. Practice with items to know how to use them. Some examples: Use a smash with the home run bat to get a free kill (be careful), throw bombs into crowds of enemies, plant motion sensors in common places enemies will be (edge of the map), use the Poke Ball close to enemies, try not to throw it off the stage by accident.
- Never give up. Even if it looks like you might die, try to get back on the stage. Every bit of damage counts, and gives you that much more of an advantage next life. Then again, if it's entirely hopeless drop quickly by pressing down on the control stick, you will drop faster and give your opponent less time to set up for when you come back
- Use quick attacks and the consecutive slashes to get cheap damage.
- Keep enemies on one side of you. You can deal heavy amounts of damage if you go into the group and use your smash moves, but Link can be fairly weak against foes that surround him. Use your spin attack to get some space (if they get close enough).
- Against a tank (strong character) use your smash attack often. They are less likely to dodge out of the way.
- Use the special things on the stage to your advantage (example: land on the clouds in Yoshi Land).
- Practice makes perfect. The faster you are, the better you can be.
- Find combos that work for you. One easy one is the rush attack + spin attack (rush in, he gets knocked off his feet, then use spin attack to deal more damage/send them flying).
- Strong attacks are still good when you don't have time for smashes.
- The hook-shot is your friend when it comes to returning to the stage. When returning, and you find yourself unable to reach with a sword spin, gain a little extra distance with an air dodge in the desired direction, and press A while doing so. The hook-shot should pull link closer to the stage and by pressing the button again, will also give him some vertical recovery as well.
- Play through the single player campaigns to get better.
- Stand near the edge to have a good chance of killing them with the spin attack or smash attack.
- When getting back on the stage, use your jump first, then the spin attack. Remember the spin attack brings you up a little, so practice timing it to get back on the stage.
- Use the spin attack just right so that you grab the edge (so you are hanging off). Then, you can press L to roll (fooling your enemy), jump button to jump over them, or A to attack them, allowing you time to either attack them or escape.
- Sense things that are coming. If someone gets the big star (not the invincibility one), get out of there!
- Use mid air dodges wisely since you only get to use it once before landing, and renders you unable to act until you land. The spin attack also does this when you use it in the air.
- Use the stage barriers to your advantage. Let's say you have a high % of damage on you. If you get hit hard into a wall, rather than just letting yourself get ricocheted, press L and you will actually stabilize yourself by dodging off the wall. Note that faster characters (like Fox, Young Link, or Samus) can actually jump off walls by pressing the control stick in the direction in which they want to jump while they are against a wall.
- Play against high level computers to get better. Play against actual people to get even better than that.
- Remember, Link is a well balanced character! He can take quite a beating before getting knocked off the stage, can keep enemies at bay, and fight up close. So, don't give up just because you're fighting an opponent with a much better character like Sheik or Fox. Try to adapt your game to deal with the specific challenges each opponent can throw at you.
- Against quicker characters, use faster moves. If you are able to land a smash, make sure you get other consecutive hits. Not letting an enemy up is a key strategy.
- Use your smash attack often. Try to get a few in a row and time your second hit so that you land both. The second slash sends enemies further. If the opponent guards the first strike, wait until the last possible moment to pull off the second strike. By then, your opponents shield may have shrunk to allow you to hit them, or they have dropped their shield thinking you have stopped the attack.
- If someone is waiting on the edge for you, you have a few options to get out of a dangerous situation:
Warnings
- Practice makes perfect, so if you have difficulty at first, calm down, practice, and don't freak out. Link might not be the perfect character for everybody and you might lose excessively. If that happens, then you might want to consider changing characters to suit your fighting skills. Remember, this is for people who want to be good with him and actually have some idea on how to fight with him.
- This is a beginners guide. If you are just starting to game and want to play as Link, it might help, but if you are planning on playing competitively, some of these things will not work.
- Link's hook-shot recovery to get back to the stage will not work if Link has air dodged to close to a wall.
Things You'll Need
- Gamecube/Nintendo Wii
- Gamecube controller
- Super Smash Bros Melee
- Television
