Smash Bros Ultimate: Metroid Character Guide

I. Samus/Dark Samus

A. Biography

As you probably already know, Samus Aran is the main protagonist of the Metroid series. She’s an intergalactic bounty hunter who saved the galaxy many times. The Space Pirates raided her home planet when she was four, and everyone, including her parents, was killed. Being the only survivor, she was adopted by an ancient and wise race of bird-looking aliens, the Chozo, who infused her with their DNA to help her surpass the limits of her body. They also offered her the famous Power Suit, which can be upgraded from many sources of technology. Later, she took down the entire army of the Space Pirates, including their leaders Ridley and Mother Brain, all by herself. In the Super Smash Bros. series, she uses various power-ups from the original games, such as the Screw Attack, the Super Missile, and even the Grapple Beam, and she wears the most iconic version of her suit, the Varia Suit, which protects her from extreme temperatures. Some of her alternative colors refer to other suit upgrades she had in the past such as the Fusion Suit, the Gravity Suit and Light Suit.

Dark Samus is the main antagonist of the Metroid Prime series. She was originally a Metroid from the planet Tallon IV which mutated due to exposure to extremely high concentration of Phazon, eventually becoming the Metroid Prime. When Samus defeated the Metroid Prime, it took and absorbed her Phazon Suit and part of her DNA from her before disappearing and coming back to life as her Phazon doppelgänger, Dark Samus. Being part-Metroid, part-Samus, and 100% Phazon, she’s an extremely dangerous and virtually invincible entity who was able to bring Samus to the verge of death. She’s capable of controlling the minds of people and creatures corrupted by Phazon, which includes the Space Pirates and their commander, Ridley. Dark Samus was originally a very unpredictable, unstable and feral being, but she grew more and more intelligent as she absorbed humongous quantities of Phazon energy, eventually becoming able to lead an entire army of Space Pirates to attack the Galactic Federation headquarters on Norion. Fortunately, this attack failed thanks to Samus, who almost died of Phazon corruption. After many battles against her, Samus finally defeats Dark Samus for good on planet Phaaze, the origin of all Phazon in the universe, which was destroyed in the process.

B. Differences between them

Samus and Dark Samus don’t have many major differences aside from the fact that Dark Samus has completely different animations for most of her moves, which makes her feel like she’s a totally different character!

The most notable differences in their gameplay are :

– Samus deals fire damage with her Forward Aerial, Down Tilt, Forward and Up Smash Attack, while Dark Samus has Phazon-like effects on her attacks, which deal electric damage.

– Samus has a smaller hurtbox  when she’s somersaulting, making it easier for her to dodge attacks in the air than Dark Samus.

– The hitbox of their Up Smash Attack. Dark Samus hits slightly lower than Samus with this move, allowing her to hit smaller opponents on the ground. (note that Samus and Dark Samus’s Up Smash Attack was fixed in patch 3.1.0 and is nearly impossible to escape anymore. Its launch power was also reduced if the opponent isn’t hit by the four explosions as of patch 4.0.0. In addition, Up Smash Attack’s knockback scaling was significantly improved, causing it to kill in earlier percents).

– The hitbox of their Forward Smash Attack. Dark Samus has a bit less range than Samus on this move, and also has more ending lag.

– Dark Samus has more ending lag on her Down Tilt.

– Dark Samus’s rolls are slightly faster than regular Samus’s, but she doesn’t enter the Morph Ball, which make her hurtbox much bigger than Samus at the end of her roll. This makes her more vulnerable and easier to punish.

– Dark Samus’s neutral special, Charge Shot, is fired slightly lower than Samus’s, allowing her to hit certain opponents hanging on the ledge of a stage. It also makes it easier for them to jump over the shot. Her shooting animation is also less obvious than Samus.

– Samus’s Missiles travel a slightly longer distance than Dark Samus’s, which also look more organic.

– Dark Samus has a more Phazon-looking version of Samus’s Final Smash, which is fittingly called Phazon Laser. However, as she doesn’t have Speed Boosters in her back, she can’t hit opponents behind her as easily as Samus with it.

C. Attacks

– Neutral Special: Charge Shot

Samus/Dark Samus charges her beam, making her unable to move. However, she can cancel it by jumping, shielding, rolling or spot dodging. She is also able to charge and shoot it in the air, and can shoot it earlier by pressing B again. It deals a lot of damage when it’s fully charged, but the uncharged version can be used to combo into her grab for example.

– Side Special: Missile/Super Missile

Samus/Dark Samus shoots a Missile or a Super Missile depending on the input. If you do it like a Smash Attack, she will shoot a Super Missile, which does much more damage and can launch opponents. If you do it like a Tilt Attack, she will shoot a regular Missile, which deals less damage and moves slower but will follow opponents for a short distance.

– Down Special: Morph Ball Bomb

Samus/Dark Samus turns into the famous Morph Ball, jumps a little bit and leaves a bomb under her. The bomb detonates after a few seconds, but it deals more damage and explodes on contact with an opponent. The Morph Ball isn’t affected by momentum so you can use it to slow down your fall and bait your enemy! Samus turns back into the Morph Ball and performs a short jump if she’s near the bomb when it explodes.

– Up Special: Screw Attack

Samus/Dark Samus jumps vertically in the air, dealing damage to any enemy she’s in contact with. The last hit launches enemies, but she can’t grab ledges behind her until the end of the animation, so be careful! It’s also a very good option out of shield because of its very low startup lag.

– Grab: Grapple Beam

Samus/Dark Samus’s Grapple Beam is an incredibly good tool. She can use it to grab enemies at a much longer distance than any other character in the game. She can also use it as a tether recovery to grab the ledge of a stage and stun opponents in the air, knocking them back in the process! However, its animation on the ground is quite slow and has a bit of ending lag, making it easy to punish you if you miss.

– Final Smash: Zero Laser/Phazon Laser

Samus/Dark Samus fires a giant horizontal laser, hitting everything in its way. It is better used from a distance to launch opponents out of the stage as it doesn’t have much launch power.

D. Combos and tips

Samus/Dark Samus is an excellent character but can prove hard to master. She has a variety of tools to help her dominate her opponent, but she still has some weakness such as a lack of good landing options coupled to a slow fall speed, or getting easily punished after missing a grab. Her learning curve is quite high but will reward the players who make the best use of her mind game potential.

One of the easiest combos is to grab an opponent, down throw, then jump and hit them with her Forward Aerial Attack. It’s very effective at lower percentages of damage, but she can also use her Up Aerial instead if the enemy is launched too high. She can also start it by stunning her enemy with an uncharged Charge Shot to prevent them from dodging her Grappling Beam. Also, her Up Throw knockback scaling was drastically improved in 7.0.0, making it a reliable kill move at higher percents.

You might want to try shooting a full Charge Shot as much as possible, but sometimes not shooting it inflicts a lot more pressure on your opponent. Someone playing as Wolf or Ness, for example, will try to reflect it back at you or absorb it, so keeping it until the right moment might give you a chance to hit them hard or force them to make a mistake! Shooting it before it’s completely charged can also surprise your opponent and lead into a grab combo or even a Smash or Dash Attack!

If you use your Grapple Beam while jumping, it won’t grab your enemy but will instead deal a little bit of damage and more importantly knock them back (the distance increases with their amount of damage. Damage and hitbox duration were increased in patch 7.0.0). You can use it to prevent them from coming back on the stage; it’s very effective on characters with weak horizontal recoveries.

When you use your Grapple Beam to grab a ledge, Samus/Dark Samus will be hanging with it until you press the jump or attack button. That can be used to bait opponents that try to edge guard you. However, you’re not invulnerable until you reach the ledge, making it easy to be meteor smashed. You can travel this distance very quickly if you press jump/attack right after grabbing the ledge.

Samus/Dark Samus’s Neutral Aerial Attack is an extremely fast and strong move, in spite of its short range and hitbox. You can kill most characters quite early with it if you hit them with the first frames of animation of this move. It’s also a very reliable move for edge guarding.

You can ledge trap by setting a Morph Ball Bomb on the edge of a stage and using your Up Tilt Attack right after your opponent detonates the bomb! You can also drop the bombs off the stage to deal damage to them while they try to reach the ledge.

Samus/Dark Samus’s jab is one of the worst in the entire game because the second hit comes too slowly after the first, allowing your opponent to shield between the two hits. You should avoid using the second hit if you ever want to use her jab, or you might get punished! Try using your grab or you Down Tilt Attack instead.

Sometimes you’ll want to stall a bit to be able to finish charging your Charge Shot, or simply try to harass your opponent. You can do this by using your Forward Tilt or your Down Smash Attack, both having good horizontal launching power. (Down Smash knockback scaling was significantly improved in patch 7.0.0, making it a much more reliable K.O. option).