With today’s article, the Recovery 101 series comes to its conclusion as we take a look at proper recovery techniques for the lowest of the low in Melee. Many of these characters lack significant representation at any level, and there’s a good chance you’ve never even seen some of these get used in tournament. Nevertheless, some bright-eyed newcomer may be looking to become the next low tier hero and climb the ranks of at least their local PR. So for those unfortunate few who feel drawn to play these bottom-of-the-barrel characters, let’s discuss the ideal recovery sequences for each of Melee’s six worst characters.

Mewtwo:

Despite his status as one of the worst characters in the game, Mewtwo notoriously boasts one of the best recoveries in the game. His incredibly high double jump often enables him to make it back to the stage with little trouble, or at least position himself to easily Up-B to the ledge. His floatiness also grants him quite a bit of time to position himself before executing his Up-B, Teleport. Teleport covers a substantial amount of distance itself, making Mewtwo very difficult to edgeguard unless he wastes his double jump offstage.

Notably, Mewtwo can perform the rising aerial technique, where he increases the height of his second jump further by executing an aerial attack at the peak of his jump. Conversely, he can try to catch an opponent at the ledge off-guard by executing an aerial before the peak of his jump, thus cancelling the double jump and falling into his opponent with the attack. Of course, this technique may be risky if the opponent is prepared and shields, thus allowing them to punish Mewtwo’s landing.

Aside from these primary tactics, Mewtwo has a few more interesting, though generally less useful or necessary, tricks up his nonexistent sleeve. By launching a fully charged Shadow Ball, Mewtwo will travel a good bit of distance in the opposite direction. Of course, doing so requires Mewtwo to be offstage facing away from the stage, a situation Mewtwo should rarely find himself in. In addition, his Side-B, Confusion, causes Mewtwo to do a slight hop before the command grab initiates. However, this boost is quite negligible in comparison to the other tools Mewtwo has at his disposal.

Zelda:

We touched on Zelda’s recovery briefly in the very first article in this series when we discussed the tendency of Sheik players to Transform into Zelda while recovering. Unfortunately for Zelda, she probably won’t have any reason to Transform into Sheik during her recovery, unless she’s deadset on wall jumping at some point. As a result, Zelda’s recovery is generally a little more predictable than Sheik’s and has less room for mix-ups. Interestingly, Zelda's air dodge gives her a surprising amount of vertical distance, allowing her to travel even higher than her double jump!

Even so, it is important to note that Zelda’s Up-B, Farore’s Wind, does travel a very long distance, and her low fall speed grants her access to substantial aerial drift while recovering. Her Side-B, Din’s Fire, also allows her to glide a little bit horizontally, although the fact that it leaves her helpless makes it almost always inferior to her Up-B. Ultimately, Zelda has little trouble making it back to the stage after being launched away, although she does face a high chance of being punished if she does land on the stage since the low count of Farore’s Wind angles can make it difficult for Zelda to Up-B straight to the ledge.

Ness:

Ness’ recovery is lacking in variability and is generally easy to edgeguard. While he does have a plethora of unique angles on his Up-B, PK Thunder, accessing these angles is quite difficult as it requires Ness to direct the PK Thunder trail into his own body at very precise angles. In addition, Ness’ opponent can simply jump into the thunder trail to absorb it, instantly causing Ness to fall helpless. On the plus side, the second portion of his Up-B, PK Thunder 2, deals massive damage and knockback, potentially discouraging Ness’ opponents from attempting to edgeguard him. Besides his Up-B, he could also attempt to utilize his Down-B, PSI Magnet, in order to slow down his fall speed temporarily.

Pichu:

Despite being worse than Pikachu in almost every way imaginable, Pichu actually has a few techniques which can make his recovery slightly better than that of his evolved form. His general recovery sequence can be likened to Pikachu’s, as he uses his Side-B, Skull Bash, to position himself closer to the stage (or potentially to travel a large horizontal distance if it is charged), and then uses his Up-B, Agility, to make his way to the ledge. Unfortunately, both of these attacks deal recoil damage to Pichu, a fact which makes his recovery more detrimental in the long run than Pikachu’s.

Despite this, Pichu’s extra techniques prevent him from being a carbon copy of Pikachu in terms of recovery. By performing a Perfect Agility, wherein he lands immediately after the beginning of either the first or second portion of his Up-B, Pichu eliminates all but one frame of landing lag, allowing him to act out of his recovery incredibly quickly. On top of this, Pichu has the dubious distinction of being the worst character in the game who is capable of wall jumping, giving him another slight advantage when he finds himself offstage on applicable stages.

Bowser:

Bowser’s recovery is one of his many poor features which keep him at the bottom of Melee’s tier list. His only recovery move is his Up-B, Whirling Fortress, which provides a decent amount of horizontal distance and very lackluster vertical distance. He does occasionally have the option of turning his recovery into an edgeguard sequence against his opponent if he can wall tech their attack and retaliate with a Side-B, although this is difficult to perform, and requires Bowser to make it back to the ledge in the first place, a difficult enough task for him as is.

Kirby:

Kirby’s recovery is naturally solid, as he possesses slow air speed and five midair jumps. In addition, his Up-B, Final Cutter, can act as a recovery move, unlike that of his high tier puffball counterpart, Jigglypuff. However, he lacks significant mix-ups like Jigglypuff, making his recovery pretty predictable even if it is more drawn-out. Kirby may also gain an additional boost to his recovery if he copies an opponent’s Neutral-B that is useful for recovering, such as Peach’s Toad or Mewtwo’s Shadow Ball. Of course, these are highly situational, and Kirby ought not plan to use these things as part of his regular recovery sequence.

With that, we complete our series on recovery techniques for every character in Super Smash Bros Melee. Though recovery is among the most basic aspects of gameplay in the Super Smash Bros. series, it is undoubtedly one of the most important, and something competitive players cannot overlook. For those higher up in the tier list, knowing potential mix-ups on top of general flowchart recoveries is crucial in order to avoid being edgeguarded. As for the characters in this article, well, players should at least know how to not SD and hope their opponents don’t know how to edgeguard.

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