AERIALS:

Nair; This move is an anomaly. Reversed it has some of the positive properties of fox b-air in that they share a similar shape. Still working on developing a fat DJC nooch that resembles the one held by peach.

1. I know this move reversed covers Falcon up b and other linear recoveries.

2. The only aerial that can be used to hit grounded opponents with the FH version. (hold y + A)

2a. Rising nair starts knocking down fox at 40%

3. UPDATE The lowest nooch currently uses Tap jump + Y + Z. Make sure that you return the gray stick to neutral.

Bair; There are four essential hitboxes to the move and all can be essential for comboing into itself and into a kill. Straight weak and strong, reverse weak and strong. Bair should also be used in floaty match ups to make sure that when you win neutral you win stage control also, against

1. If your opponent is holding in, you can either reverse weak -> Nair/Bair/Upair

2. If your opponent is holding away,

3. Starts knocking down fox at 18%

Upair; Good juggling move, can be used to punish smash attacks on shield and killing puff. Also when recovering from below the stage, try to do a full double jump and come back to stage with an up air. Seems to catch enough people off guard because of how he shifts his head back and forward. and can begin juggles.

 1. When Ness does his up air he shifts his head behind and in front of where he currently was, catches puff coming from behind-top and in front-top.

2. Waveland off up air fast fall is afast mixup to catch people coming on your platform camping

Dair; Dopest move in Ness' arsenal. Hit: 20-28. Auto Cancel: <19 29>. Meaning that he is getting no lag as long as you land without a hit box. Hitting with the hit and then auto canceling is the key. If done correctly Ness should be positive after the exchange but still not safe against Shine OOS. (% + 4.45)/2.235. How many frames of shield stun the opponent would be in. The mixups you can engage in in what is basically the only safe move that Ness has in 2018 are mind boggling at times. Run off stage double jump dair works for no reason. Being above people with a dair you can suffer no lag against and double cancel after is a scary prospect for those who aren't familiar with Ness or the mechanic.

1. Dair up tilt on and off of shields (Is a tech trap against spacies)

2. Hup landing

3. Dair wave landing

4. The pinnacle move for movement with double jump cancelling.

5. When you're coming down from a platform, you can hold down and A to fast fall hup cancel, speeding up movement.

Fair; Essentially one of the more locked away options. It's a disjoint that isn't really a disjoint because it isn't fast, is cc able, and doesn't true combo into anything. But the last hit of this move is crazy.

1. Fair grab is a meme trap

2. Last hit of fair is really good for edge-guarding spacies and other characters who spend time above the stage to recover. Try to hit with the last hit mostly.

TILTS:

Ftilt; Poor mans Samus f tilt. Meaning, still good. This thing has crazy knockback on it. Should be used like Marth with extended wave dashing + ftilt. Also useful as an edgeguarding tool as it comes out fast and knocks away unlike the rest of Ness's moves. Frame data (7-11) and the shape of the move is something he points away from his body, unlike most of his moves. Really good move in neutral imho. Faster than shield grab roflmao.

 Dtilt:  Jab reset move.

1. If you use d tilt on a platform it catches people coming up to fight you, constant hitbox that tells them to bugger off.

2. D dilt should be used as an axe jab exactly one hit only.

UPtilt; One of the most locked away moves. F5-9 coming out faster than shield grab after a hup cancel. One of the safest things to do in the game is dair-> uptilt as it can shield poke a lot of the time, due to players releasing shield.

1. It is possible to use as an anti air thanks to the somewhat disjointed propeties of f5-6 making his head invincible. IT can trade with fox drill if REVERSED.

2. UP tilt combos into itself, or you can catch them with up air or up b.

Dash Attack:

Should not be used out of full run, basically it's a mixup depending on you space your dash dance.

1.Latest hit sends them up. Best poking tool for players trying to dash away.

2. MIddle hit makes them stay there. Still useful if they're by the ledge and can't punish you with their strongest attacks. You should never GO for this hit.

3. CLosest hit makes them go behind Ness if they hold in. Sometimes can combo into up tilt.

SMASH!

Fsmash:

Huge disjoint, but it doesn't have much of a hitbox below the bat which doesn't make it ideal against any character who even tries to sweet spot the ledge. Avoid going for it against any decent players.

1. up-b into f smash works on Marth cause it opens his drift up for a 2 frame.

Upsmash;

Go to move for getting the yo yo glitch. Although the most interesting property of this move is that the constant hitbox is in the front and when it ends it goes behind Ness. So anyone trying to reposition because of the move simply will find themselves in a worse spot than if they just didn't care.

1. Only move in Melee with an actual constant hitbox

2. Can be placed on the lips of stages.

3. Reverse up smash can combo and reach the ledge to catch people.

4. Charging and threating to catch them coming in with up smash is actually a decent reward safe option in neutral.

Dsmash

; THE most locked away option in his kit. Weird quirk about this move is that it sends you up, meaning it knocks down at 0%. Meaning it can beat DI down into crouch. As michael points out, it is also the only moves that comes out that fast and behind him like that so it shouldn't be counted out at all.

1. Second swing works as an edgeguard, can combo into f smash !

2.(first) Back hit comes out frame 12 so not super fast but it's the fastest thing behind him... but his has been proven to kill puff at 120+.

3. Always knocks down on fastfallers, knocks down floaties on platforms with away di.

Specials:

DownB; Used against spacies and Samus to absorb their energy and is literally not usable in most any other situations.

NeutralB; ROFL. If you're styling you can edge guard fox and Marth

SideB; One of the more usable specials in how the move can be edge cancelled. One can also take a note from Mario/Doc/Sheik in that he can do normal SH side b's to reach center stage from the safety of a platform, it does have lag, and it can be punished. But the fact that they have to give up some semblence of center stage to punish you means you have a chance to use that and get back in with a DJC Dair, bair, or simply floating down with them. One lame thing about Side b is that you can never get a true follow up afterwards outside of nairing through the fire and flames.

1. Side B NUT is trapping a spacie to fall all the way down and die. Really cathartic to hit this one.

UpB; The all time holiest of moves. Peoples ability and patience with up b is analogous with someones ability and patience with Ness. Using what is essentially your biggest disability as a character into a possibility is what divides the chumps from the champions.

1. Upb aimed at yourself aims you at that angle. When aimed at someone else it knocks them away in the opposite direction, (I don't know what it would look like if you hit someone from below).

2. Pk thunder 2 angles are crazy.

3. PK thunder breaking glitch is still being figured out.

4. Chasing with the head keeps super floaties up for free percent, puff peach etc.

And the all time craziest idea thus far; (Melee is played in 4:3, and thus there are parts of my recovery like angle and timing that is completely a mixup). Using up-b hidden away in the dark abyss of the edges of the screen buffs his recovery tremendously. This can catch everyone as long as you know Ness angles very deeply.

5. Do not be afraid to use up-b aggressively in neutral, because it has as much hitstun as a falco shine on people. crazy

DOUBLE JUMP:

Double jump is it's own move.

There are 3 main kinds of angles. Neutral back and forward and they shift Ness in certain ways so yeah, go figure out that if you want a chance of dodging moves with your double jump because if you can't use it you will die.

Double jump cancelling and double jump aerials are different and the first one is all about cutting out the hitbox and landing in sub wave dash frames. If done correctly, Ness DJC dair is faster than wavedash by 25% (frames).

Tap jump -> Y-> down on both sitcks-> L cancel (Or just Press Z for attack and l cancel)

If you want to do aerials right with Ness you need to be able to double jump in and out and vice versa. Because Ness drift by itself, isn't even good. Game and watch is 2x faster than Ness in the air, double jump "rubberbanding" is the bulk of his movement.

Ongoing notes for certain matchups, unorganized of course.

1. PK thunder keeps peach in the air for free percent.

2. Spacie killer is: f throw (bad or no DI) into reverse PK thunder

3. puff punish rest should be Pk flash or bat, depending on what kills or if a plat in the way of the flash.

4. Falcon can escape the chain grab with a jump and a jump and only and this is annoying but up air catches him (27%)

5. Peach turnips + rising nair is good

6. Agaisnt puff simply taking center and making her approach is deadly

7. Shooting really high and for the platforms when it looks like you can't make it are mixups to getting back on stage.

8. Marth killer = reverse pk thunder into bat

9. Ness killer = Reverse pk thunder. If they SDI in (aka simna and bigpoopz) keep reeling them in until they are bairable

10. Yoshi can't deal with fair the same way he can't deal with Fox drill

11.  Perfect shield -> PK fire works.

Random techs that require more focus as Ness possibly idk:

1. Shield pivots

2. Perfect Pivots

3. Crouching cancelling punish attacks

4. Perfect wavedashes

5. DJ land

6. Perfect shielding