Introduction To Platform Fighter Neutral

Introduction

Preamble

So there's sorta two opening paragraphs I want to use here: one for complete beginners, and one for more intermediate players transitioning from other games. I think both are worth reading.

For the intermediate players: Lemme start this off by saying that platform fighters have some of the most diverse characters of any sort of one on one game. Different characters are going to have different strengths and weaknesses. Depending on who you play, you might need a lot better neutral, you might not need to worry about it as much, or you might end up with a really unorthodox neutral that's somewhat unique to your character.

For the complete beginners: what the heck do I mean by "neutral," or "neutral game", or sometimes, if I mispeak, "footsies?" Well, every kind of direct one-on-one competition has three phases: offense (or advantage), defense (or disadvantage), and neutral. In almost all fighting games, when the round starts off, you're in neutral. If you're a little familiar with sports, you can imagine this as being like the scramble at the start of a basketball game or hockey game, where neither team has the ball or puck. Or in Family Feud, this is like when both teams can buzz in once they think they have the answer. In short, neither you nor your opponent has a distinct advantage in neutral.

Advantaged and disadvantage

Before moving on with neutral, though, I think it will be good to qucickly cover what I mean by advantage and disadvantage as well. First, though it might go without saying, if you're in advantage, your opponent is in disadvantage. All fighters as I see them generally have two states of advantage: major and minor. I'm using sort of vague terms here, but you'll see why in a minute. Let's start with major (dis)advantage, because I think it's simplier in a way.

In platform fighters, major disadvantage is when your opponent has knock you off the stage and you're trying to recover. The reason why you're in disadvantage is not neccesarily because you're off stage, but because of a lack of options. Your opponent is on the ground; they can do whatever they want. Run, jump a dozen times, throw stuff at you, charge smash, grab ledge, whatever. All you can really do is drift, use one jump, a side special and/or up special, airdodge. You can attempt to grab ledge or land on stage. That's the real meaning of disadvantage: if you have less options than your opponent. Playing from that position is a whole nother topic by itself, so let me jump to minor disdvantage.

Minor disadvantage sort of comes in two flavors, but they're both related to positioning. When you're playing against very close range oriented characters, you're in minor disadvantage when they're right next to you. And, in particular, if they manage to get you to start shielding. Your options when shielding aren't as limited as when you're off stage, but they are still somewhat limted. During this time, your opponent will try to force you to make mistakes, and then punish you for them.

When playing against long range characters, you're in disadvantage when you're far away. They might get you to shield some as well, but generally they can't punish you for shielding just a bit. What they're trying to do is whiddle you down, force you to aproach them, because if you shield forever, they will punish you, very hard.

Neutral

What happens in neutral

With those brief asides out of the way, finally time to get to neutral. Again, note that this may look very different depending on your character (especially if both players are using a long range zoner like Snake or Palutena), but in most matchups this should be a good starting point.

The goal during neutral, in a broad sense, is to force your opponent to make a mistake while avoiding making mistakes yourself. These mistakes can come in a few forms (and probably smore more not listed here):

• Missing a move that's unsafe (on whiff)
• Getting shielding using a move that's unsafe (on shield)
• Getting outranged by your opponent's move
• Getting outsped by your opponent's move
• Staying in shield too long
  • Getting grabbed
  • Getting your shield broken
• This probably won't result in a neutral loss, but getting hit by projectiles

For each of these, let's look at some of the tools available to both force and avoid making the mistakes.

What are the tools to force these mistakes?

• Making your opponent whiff

  • Good spacing
    • Know where you are, even without looking
    • Know how fast you can move
    • Know how fast you can start moving and change direction/velocity
    • Know your opponent's ranges
    • Know your own ranges
  • Unpredictible movement
  • Varying your aproach timings (don't always run forward!)

• Getting shielding using a move that's unsafe (on shield)

  • There's not really anything you can do to force this, except maybe to frustrate your opponent, making them play worse in every area.
  • This is something you can and should still capitalize on, it's just not forceable.

• Outranging your opponent

  • Use long range moves, duh...
    • but keep in mind that longer range moves are generally slower, therefore you need...
  • Good spacing

• Outspeeding your opponent

  • Use fast moves, duh...
    • but keep in mind that faster moves are generally shorter range, therefore you need...
  • Good spacing

• Keeping your opponent in shield

  • Projectiles, if available (dependant on your character)
  • Safe on shield moves, if available (depentant on your character)
  • Crossups, if possible (dependent on your opponent's character)

• Hitting projectiles

  • Throw projectiles out, maybe?
  • Vary the timing and/or speed and/or angle and/or order of projectiles
  • Make sure you're not in range to be punished hard if you miss

What are the tools to avoid these mistakes?

For the most part, avoiding the mistakes is similar to forcing them. However, keep in mind a few things when playing against...

Close range characters:

• Grab out of shield is decently strong in almost all matchups, but knowing what moves from your oppone has that are and are not safe on shield will help greatly
• Some characters have up special out of shield that's stronger
  • Just because it's stronger on paper, don't underestimate unpredictability!
• Some characters have a short hop aerial out of shield that's strong
  • Ditto

Long range characters:

• The better your basic movement, the better you'll be able to weave through projectile walls
• Don't underestimate the power of just running at them and shielding! Most projectiles don't deal much damage to shield
  • If you let go of your left stick before starting to shield, the shield will activate much slower -- always shield and then stop running. This is just a quirk of Ultimate.

Characters with armor:

• You probably won't be able to out speed these characters, and you might not be able to outrange them, either. Instead, you need to really focus on your spacing, and on punishing their whiffs. These characters tend to hit quite hard, so try not to rely on shielding a ton.

Resources

How do I know what's unsafe on whiff, on shield?

Look up frame data! Or just get a feel for it through playing. But for the more data minded players, frame data can be helpful. Check out character specific Discords and subreddits (there's probably Facebook groups, too), as well as frame data sites. Here's a few links to get you started: https://smashcords.com/ https://ultimateframedata.com/ https://www.ssbwiki.com/

Who are some good players to watch / What are some good matches to watch?

TODO: I have absolutely no idea

What are some good training methods to practice neutral?

First, find your go-to pokes. Pokes have medium-high range and are fairly fast. A lot of times this will be fair, bair, or nair. It might also be ftilt or dtilt (be sure you know how to dash cancel into tilts). Of course, if you have faster projectiles, it might be those too.

Then find your best out of shield options.

Play some games where you only use these moves, at least until you get your opponent up to a high percent. Don't worry about smashes or big combos. Your goal is to not get hit, to hit your opponent. If you see them starting to shield a lot, try going for crossups (if your character has decent crossups has them) or grabs.

While playing those games, especially try to hit those moves at max range. If you can, find a partner so that both of you can practice at the same time.