Samus is one of the most unique characters in Super Smash Brothers Melee, as she is known not for having crazy combos but for having an incredible ground-based neutral and variety of projectiles. Samus’ game plans revolve around influencing her opponent to play how she wants by using her long-range normal moves combined with her projectiles. We’re going to breakdown some of the main uses for Samus’ missiles, in terms of where you should think about using them as well as why you should use them in certain situations.

We got to chat with Hugo 'HugS' Gonzalez about Samus’ missiles and some of the resources out there. He shared some of his thoughts about missile use for any Samus players possibly struggling with using them. For anyone who might not be too familiar with the terminology involved with missiles, here is a guide from smashboards with relevant frame data and abbreviations on different techniques. HugS had this to say about this guide:

HugS: “This guide has a lot of decent information that's still applicable today. The basics of missiles, such as frame data and different ways to missile cancel, have not changed. However, the guide is a little dated in that it suggests a few techniques that are largely useless in today's meta, such as full hop fast falled missile canceling, and triple bomb missiles, which have never been relevant in any meta to date.”

Where/When Should I Missile?

Missiles are pretty comparable to how fireballs work in traditional fighting games. It is important to realize where you are on stage in relation to your opponent before deciding to use a missile and, with platforms playing such a key role in SSBM, you need to think a bit differently than a traditional fighting game player would.

I asked HugS about what the pros and cons are when it comes to using missiles, here’s what he had to say:

HugS: “Pros are that you get a moving hit-box to cover you as you move in, can be used to force people out of shield, can stuff approaches, and can help with edge-guards.

Cons are that they can be beat by most grounded moves, are pretty laggy to start up, and can be reacted to pretty easily.

Missiles tend to be more viable vs bigger characters who have a harder time simply jumping over them or who become really exposed as they try dodging them. They're also great versus generally grounded approaching characters, like Ice Climbers, Luigi, and Samus.”

The key when firing a missile is you want to take both your position and your opponent’s position into the equation. A decent rule of thumb is that if your opponent can’t directly reach you, you can probably use a missile if that’s what you see fit. Using a close-range missile isn’t necessarily the best idea, however you could certainly choose to use a missile if your opponent is close-enough. You want to be thinking in terms of mid-range and long-range (safe distances) when judging the distance to your opponent.

If you might be having trouble figuring out what distances you want to use missiles, you need to think about how the stage is divided up into five parts: left off-stage, left stage, center stage, right stage, and right off-stage. In this case, the left and right areas are referring to the area underneath the side platforms in addition to the actual ledge on that side of the stage.

When deciding the best timing for your missile, you want to think about how far away your opponent is in relation to you. When trying to control as much space as possible using missiles, you also want to be as safe as possible. If you want to focus your gameplay around missiles/improve your missile usage, ask yourself if you are in a safe space, or at least one of these “stage-parts” away from your opponent. A couple examples: you’re under the left-side platform and your opponent is somewhere on right-stage, you’re in center stage and your opponent is off-stage, or if you’re occupying either left or right stage space and your opponent is off-stage and needs to use a recovery move. These are just a couple general examples.

You also want to use the platforms to your advantage when you can. Samus is one of the few characters that can really abuse the platform system in SSBM. By combining rising missiles (check out this video Esam did awhile back about rising missiles on Battlefield's side platforms), you can cover the mid-height of most stages, and then you can fall through a platform and perform a missile cancelled missile (MCM) to essentially have two missiles out at the same time and control a large amount of the stage from a safe distance. Here’s what HugS had to say about stage and platform use:

HugS: “Some platforms lend themselves to great missile usage, such as Battlefield with Esam's missile method or on Stadium with the platform missile barrage.”

If you’re playing against a fast character, they will have better opportunities to run in and punish your start-up or end lag if they think you will do a missile. Since missiles (smash missiles rather than homing missiles) are a horizontal projectile, it can be pretty easy for your opponent to just do a jump with momentum in order to get up in your business, so you need to think a couple steps ahead. Here’s what HugS had to say on this:

HugS: “You have to understand the timing it takes to get a missile out off a jump or while standing relative to the opponent's distance and approach options. There isn't really a trick to it. Full understanding is the rule of thumb.”

If you think your opponent will do a full momentum jump paired with a move (Falcon’s neutral-air, Fox’s neutral-air, Sheik’s forward-air) in order to get in on you, you can react to whether or not they jump and either shield, up-b, or up-b out of shield if they’re playing aggressive. One of the best counters to this is also the above paragraph, by having the first missile come out at that mid-height on most stages you can catch your opponent’s jump/move and gain stage advantage from it.

The Main Purposes and Uses for Missiles

Missiles are Samus’ way of controlling stage horizontally from a safe distance. While missiles aren’t used too often in terms of combos, they do rack up damage if your opponent chooses not to deal with them properly. Your opponent, in response, is going to have to do one of four main options (some characters may have more options): shield, move, crouch-cancel, or attack.

Here’s what HugS had to say about getting advantage from missiles:

HugS: “[Missiles] are a decent way to get some space and slow down the pace of the matchup vs some characters. You won't really be gaining an advantage unless the missile hits, which would be due to a mistake from your opponent. Which does happen.”

There are basically two layers of missile use. The first layer is that Samus’ missile is a move that causes damage and knockback, but the second layer of use is seeing how your opponent reacts to the missile. When you use a missile, you’re either going to achieve the first layer and earn damage and knockback if your opponent doesn’t deal with your missile or learn how your opponent reacts to the missile. For each of the three options above, here are some advantages you can press for when you notice your opponent choosing that option.

Shield - If you notice your opponent is opting to shield your missiles, you want to take note of what they do directly after shielding. When you see your opponent shield a missile, ask yourself a couple questions:

Are they putting up their shield prematurely expecting a missile?

Are they moving out of their shield and attempting to punish me or gain stage?

Are they trying to do a move out of shield in response?

If you think of these general questions once you’ve shot your missile, you’re preparing yourself for adapting to what their next move is. You might not be able to react in time the first time around, but if you’re already preparing to take note of what happens when your opponent shields, you can make reacting easier next time by preparing for whatever option they’re most likely to do after shielding. You should be able to figure out what to do next from there, but here are a couple example situations and what you can do to get an advantage.

If you notice they are comfortable wavedashing forward and back out of shield once the missile hits, note which direction they like to move. If they like to move away from you after shielding a missile, now you know you can gain more stage/center stage by wavedashing forward. A decent option when you’ve used a missile and are deciding to approach is to grab your opponent’s shield if the missile hits.

Move - Take note of how your opponent moves after you fire a missile. If they tend to jump over your missile, look for when they decide to jump in order to counter with either a move or another missile at their jump height. Jumping is really the only way to move around missiles for opponent without either giving up stage entirely (which would probably never happen) or using wavedash out of shield, so looking for how they maneuver around missiles vertically can give you opportunities to catch them out of their jump.

Crouch-cancel - This option can be used by most high and mid-tier characters in order to take the missile and perform a counterattack if you’re too close to them. If you see your opponent deciding to crouch-cancel missiles, you can either choose to hold your ground and continue to use projectiles assuming your opponent isn’t going to chase you down, or you can run behind your missile and set up an attack or grab to hit your crouching opponent. In general, you can follow behind your missile in order to set up your next close-range attack or grab.

Attack - Missiles are a unique projectile as they can be clanked with like a physical move. Most characters can perform an attack that will clank with the missile’s hit-box if timed correctly, resulting in the missile essentially ‘being useless.’ There is one element of this exchange that you can use to your advantage, knowing that your opponent is going to use a move to clank with the missile. Knowing your opponent is going to do a move in order to clank with the missile can let you prepare for a counter-measure by putting out another attack after the missile to punish the end-lag from your opponent’s move.

Concluding Thoughts

Overall, missiles are a tool that can be used to apply pressure while also forcing your opponent to choose as option to deal with them. You want to think about missile use not as a way to deal damage, but rather as a way to make your opponent move to the pace you set. It's important to remember that you want to be prepared for whatever option your opponent chooses to use when you