Samus is known to struggle edge-guarding certain characters in certain situations due to her slower aerial speed, but more than makes up for this shortcoming with her fantastic hitboxes and pressuring projectiles. Improving your edge-guarding with Samus comes first from understanding how many tools she has to protect the ledge and deny access back to stage. After fully realizing her move set, practice makes perfect when putting these edge-guard tactics to good use.

Up-tilt

Up-tilt is possibly Samus’ best move for covering a recovery to the ledge. Up-tilt is a sweeping kick with high knockback that first starts up in the air above her, and then comes down to the ground in the shape of a half-circle in front of her. The move has a bit of startup lag (hits on frame 14-17) before the hurt-box is active, making timing one of its obstacles of use. Covering options like Fox’s and especially Falco’s side-Bs is particularly hard with this move, as both those recovery options have fast start up.

Where up-tilt really shines is when the opponent is slightly above ledge height and is recovering to ledge, or freefalling to the ledge to make it back to the stage. Because the move has good extended range and is disjointed at the tip of its hitbox, Samus can easily knock away characters attempting to grab the ledge. A Captain Falcon recovering high with up-B to ledge is an easy target to be sent off stage again by a Samus up-tilt. When up-tilt is on frame 17, the hitbox goes slightly beneath the ledge if used by the ledge. This gives Samus a good move to shut down recovery attempts from below the stage as well.

This is especially good for punishing misplaced Marth up-Bs, Falcon up-Bs, Fox/Falco up-Bs, Samus up-Bs, and Luigi up-Bs. While the hitbox is slightly disjointed, it’s not uncommon to trade with this move, especially with Fire-Fox/Fire-Bird. Be careful of Falco’s Fire-Bird, if you’re at high percentage as Samus and you trade your up-tilt with Falco’s up-b, you might end up losing your position near the ledge or even losing your stock to the stage’s top blast-zone. A good way to avoid this situation is to slightly wavedash back from the ledge before throwing out the up-tilt and spacing well enough to hit the recovering Fox/Falco with the disjointed portion of the hitbox.

F-tilt

F-tilt is also one of Samus’ best moves when edge-guarding, as it has a long reaching hitbox and has much faster start up than up-tilt. With the hitbox being active from frame 6-8, f-tilt is a good tool in edge-guarding as Samus, but can be used for different situations than up-tilt. Due to f-tilt’s faster startup, it has a more successful time covering Fox and Falco’s side-B recoveries. Whether recovering above the ledge onto the stage, or directly to the ledge, Samus can angle the f-tilt to cover both these options. By angling the f-tilt downward right at the ledge with good timing, Samus can hit Fox/Falco out of the side-B recovery for an easy edge-guard.

Reacting to missed sweet-spot Marth up-Bs can be difficult, as they usually only miss the spacing by a very short distance and fall to the ledge unharmed. Samus can actually capitalize on these situations with f-tilt much more successfully than with up-tilt. By throwing out a quick f-tilt at the falling Marth, the move has fast enough startup to land a hit in the short time Marth is falling to ledge. Additionally, if Marth is at a high enough percent, Marth cannot recover from the move as it has decent knockback and it will result in a successful edge-guard. F-tilt is also going to be the best option for denying air-dodge recovery either to stage or toward ledge due to the speed of the move. Samus can also angle the f-tilt upwards to catch opponents falling back down to stage. However, if you have a good read on where they’re going to be, Up-Tilt is the stronger option as it has more knockback.

Run Off N-air

Run off n-air gives Samus a long lasting and powerful hitbox that she can place deep off-stage to punish recovering opponents. This move does it all, as it is Samus’ second strongest aerial, right behind sweet-spot b-air. Running off with n-air is useful in almost any situation where the recovering opponent is extended from stage and slightly below or at ledge height. The move lasts for an impressive 25 frames, making it hard to avoid off stage when pursued by it. Because of the dimensions of the hitbox, Samus can hit Fox and Falco out of their up-Bs, shut down Marth up-Bs below stage, deny Falcon getting to the ledge, and catch Sheiks before the startup of their vanish.

Here's a clip of me using this technique in a local Melee tournament:

Due to the higher knockback properties of the move, using run off n-air is an excellent way to deny Fox/Falco side-B recovery options to stage/ledge. This works well because the n-air comes out on frame 5, making it fast enough to react to the space animals’ quick recovery. Timing a quick run off n-air to halt the incoming Spacie usually sends them either too far away to have any hope of recovering, or sets them up for an additional off-stage n-air or d-air meteor smash. Caution should be utilized, however, because in the case of edge-guarding Falco with this technique, a slow reaction time could result in you getting meteor smashed by Falco’s side-B and losing your stock.

Rising N-air

While run off n-air is used for chasing the opponent off stage, rising n-air is more so used when the enemy is approaching you at the ledge rather than Samus initiating the chase. In order to rising n-air most effectively, ledge will have to be held in order to refresh your invincibility. The ledge provides 30 frames of invincibility to the player after it is grabbed which can be used to impressively buff rising n-air as an edge-guarding technique. By combining the invincibility of the ledge with rising n-air, Samus can simply use the move in the middle of a deep Marth up-B, or in the middle of the hitbox of Fire-Fox and Fire-Bird.

In order to land the edge-guard as the opponent approaches, simply fall from ledge by pressing back on the control stick and double jump back to ledge. Continuing this process refreshes the invincibility given to you by the ledge. This move is not only used in shutting down recoveries to the ledge, but also punishing the landing lag of recovery options once they’ve landed on stage. Rising n-air is one of Samus’ best options when trying to punish a Sheik’s up-B onto stage. Rising up from the ledge with n-air will most often connect with the Sheik stuck in the landing lag of their up-B and send her flying to the other side of the stage.

Chasing B-air

Chasing an off-stage opponent with back air is one of Samus’ most powerful options in edge-guarding due to the sheer power and knockback of the move. This can be rather difficult as Samus does not have great aerial drift,and the move is very precise. However, the move still remains her strongest aerial, so using it against opponents is quite effective. Due to the strict spacing of the strong hitbox, it is best to not use b-air against characters who have fast recoveries with hitboxes. Rather, covering a drift to ledge from either a high-placed up-B or air-dodge can be punished well with b-air. Even catching an opponent off-stage before they use their up-B or double jump can be effective when done with b-air. Going deep off-stage to land those b-air hits is more difficult than a simple run-off n-air, but sometimes can provide the extra power needed to secure the edge-guard.

Bomb Over Ledge

Bomb over ledge is used for disrupting a character’s low stage recovery. This tactic is most often showcased when fighting Marth. By placing a bomb right over the lip of the ledge, it can knock Marth out of his own up-B if it makes contact with him, and force him to panic up-B, usually resulting in a non-sweet-spotted recovery to the ledge. Additionally, Marth can foresee the bomb over the ledge and go for a more unsafe up-B further away from stage and drift to ledge. However, if the Marth chooses to do this, a simple n-air will hit him back off-stage and then you can repeat the process. This makes edge-guarding Marth, which typically can be tricky as Marth is equipped with a momentum stalling side-B, much easier to secure. This can also interrupt some other characters such as Captain Falcon and Mr. Game & Watch’s up-Bs who generally recover from underneath the ledge.

Missile/Charge Shot Coverage

Missile coverage at ledge is a great option when you can combo both types of missiles together. Throwing out a super missile and a homing missile at the same time creates a chasing hitbox and a linear hitbox for an opponent to avoid. This often forces the opponent to change their recovery style and choose to avoid a specific missile, often leading to a hit by the other. This is especially effective against opponents who are recovering high above stage and are falling toward the ledge. By using side platforms to shoot the homing missile and dropping back to stage for the strong missile, it can force opponents to either fast-fall and approach ledge unfavorably, or just force them to get hit by a missile.

Charge shot has great application in edge guarding, whether it be a small charge or a big charge. Small charge shots can basically freeze a recovering opponent horizontally, while still causing them to fall laterally and lose the ability to recover. Falcos and Marths struggle hard when getting hit by these weak charge shots when recovering, as lateral recovery can be a weakness for them. Fully charged charge shots however usually have enough knockback to make recovering near impossible for most of the cast, as the move sends opponents sideways and slightly up at high speeds.

Ledge Grapple Mind Games

Lastly, a technique made popular by the Samus player “Goomy”, utilizing your grapple to bait out safety at the ledge is an amazing and extremely underutilized tool in Samus’ kit. By simply letting go of ledge with invincibility after holding it, and giving the impression that ledge is then available to an opponent, air-dodge right back to ledge and use your grapple to immediately take back ledge. This is an excellent move you can use to bait out many characters to sweet-spot their up-B to ledge when it’s not available. This strategy is especially useful against Marth, who Samus can have a difficult time edge-guarding. This move has application past this matchup, but I’ve found it to have a lot of success here.

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