Teach Me How to Ike!

[Lord Raven]

Use Fsmash a lot. It's gotta hit sometime! Eruption is an amazing move. Keep smashing, his smashes do a lot of damage. His dair is good in every situation. If you can't land a smash, just jab jab and try again! Also use Counter a lot because if it works then you outsmart your opponent.

[Maou]

first of all: the most important thing to remember is to aetherspike suicide as much as you possibly can :^)

you can even drag people along with you!

don't play a whole lot of ike but notable changes I can think of would be that his dtilt was sped up a lot, and combos into aerials super well (but no longer spikes), and iirc his fair was sped up a lot as well. I think nair combos better? dtilt being amazing is worth reiterating

probably worth checking out smashboards' ike strategy thread

note that the thread talks about VI (vector influence) instead of DI, that was halfway patched out in favor of traditional DI

in this game, for survival DI, hold towards the stage to survive vs. horizontal knockback (directly towards, no angling involved). vertical survival DI is unchanged (hold perpendicularly to the knockback). there are a lot of people still unaware of this.

as far as customs go...

- furious eruption (neutral b) is a straight upgrade (stronger and better range, but hurts you slightly). tempest has a rage-inducing windbox that is hilarious for edgeguarding, if you're into that.

- close combat (side b) is as well (goes straight through enemies without stopping, but weaker)

- (up b) aether wave is a super unsafe projectile and imo generally not worth it, and aether drive has a tendency to get you caught under stages a lot when recovering.

- (down b) as far as I've heard, counter customs are essentially up to personal preference

smashboards has a thread on ike's customs that's worth checking out

if you don't have a wii u anymore tho, I'd probably avoid using radically different customs if you don't have a chance to practice without them

if you're looking for videos to watch, I'd search for Ryo's (= Ryuga) Ike (he also played in Brawl)

post on smashboards with links to matches from his most recent tournament (on sunday)

the first post in that thread has a bunch of ryuga vids from the 3DS days (notable thing I remember is that you can shark with (standard) aether from really far under stages and you'll get snapped to the ledge anyways

for reference, the best Ike player we have on SF is probably Jedi?

pretty sure that the last hit (when he hits the ground) has diagonal knockback, and you get the meteor by ledge-canceling it (hard, since you can't grab backwards) or aetherciding?

pedit: just checked; the landing hit is 60° knockback; additionally, the meteor is on aerial opponents only

Thank you! Definitely appreciate the links and tips.

First off, learn to not just attack unsafely on an opponents shield, Ike's safest option on shields is well, his grabs. Which don't do too much but can be used to set things up. He can't punish shields all that well, sadly so just bait enemies out or grab em.

Ike is at his best in mid-air as his nair is quite fast and wide sweeping, use this with short hopping to get the most out of it, its one of your better approaches.

Ike's jab is one of his best strings, simply because its fast, it cancels a few things and it does ok damage, sadly it got nerfed from its brawl iteration.

LEARN. TO. TILT. REALLY. WELL, Ike's smashes baring Usmash are pretty situation, his tilts are his bread and butter, learn proper spacing with how lengthy his sword is, capitalize on it, dtilt launches opponents into the air, and gives you the ability to go into Ike's best zone, the air.

Uair has a startup which you can use as a read, if you can read an airdodge and they think you are doing something else go for it, Fair is pretty fast and can Ko decently. Just don't go TOO far off stage, dair is pretty strong, but situational.

Ike's specials, Eurption has a REALLY REALLY BIG HITBOX, use it sparingly as it leaves you open, but once in awhile, throw it. Because almost no one realizes how big the hitbox is,

Aether, situational use out of maybe dthrow if the opponent is heavy enough/doesn't know how to DI at low %'s, great for vertical recovery and can be used to hit people from under the stage. Just don't try to do it too many times in a row.

Quickdraw's main use is as a recovery. I don't really use it for much else.

Counter only if you can read your opponent and if something else wouldn't be a better punish (also a good GET AWAY FROM ME move).

Learn Ike's move speed, learn his reach. These are two things you NEED to understand to play Ike at the competitive level. Also short hops, if you can't short hop i'd advise trying to learn how to do that. It helps alot.

Ike's main weakness is projectiles, and the faster characters, but reading them can lend some quick KO's as the speedier characters tend to be the lighter ones.

Projectiles, just try to approach carefully. Liberal use of nair, his jab and maybe counter to cancel them out depending on the situation.

Also my favorite Ike combo is probably, nair to utilt to aerial of my choice.

Booton's post is really good look at it :P

Is your tournament using customs?

A lot of good tips here, thanks! And yes, there will be customs in the tournament.

Nair does not auto cancel, it would be even more amazing if it did though and is a buff I think Ike needs. Fair and bair are Ike's auto cancels.

You have to pull back away from the ledge so that Ike just barely grabs it, I get spikes with Aether quite frequently this way. If you're not good at judging that distance, the best way to ease into learning the correct spacing is to Aether at a distance where Ike will just barely grab the stage as you're moving forward. This can result in a spike against greedy players who are heading off stage in an attempt stage spike or gimp Ike. Thus using Aether earlier and from the correct distance can catch them and send them to their doom. Ideally you want to try to hit them so they are hit by or get caught in the spinning part of Ragnell before/as Ike jumps, once they're caught you just space the move correctly so that you'll just barely grab the stage.

Here are some tips I can offer as an Ike main:

- Jab 1 and 2 are really good. You can also mix it up with jab 1 into dtilt or dash grab.

- Ike has a good grab game, as such, pivot grabs can be very useful.

- Empty hops into grabs can be useful against opponents who spend a lot of time trying to shield grab you.

- Just like pivot grabs, pivot ftilts can be quite useful as well and can even KO.

- Dthrow combos into aether, nair, fair, uair and bair at low percents, dependent on character's weight and your rage. (dthrow to Aether does not work on really floaty characters such as Mewtwo and Jigglypuff. Oddly enough it also does not work on Lucina, despite working on Marth.)

- Uthrow combos into uair, bair, fair and nair at mid-high percents.

- Nair can lead into fair, uair and bair.

- Dtilt leads into several things and is a great tool.

- Usmash, utilt, ftilt, bair and off stage fair are your safest KO moves. Dthrow can kill at very high percents. Eruption is great KO option against a lot of low recoveries, generallly you want to charge eruption just enough so that the hitbox extends far enough down to catch them before they can cling to the ledge. There is also a 1 frame of vulnerability upon grabbing the ledge, this can catch teleporting recoveries off guard. I'd recommend learning the timing for punishing recoveries with Eruption.

- When it comes to edge guarding, Ike has several tools at his disposal. Eruption and dair against low recoveries. Walk off bair for stage spikes. Ledge trump bair as a surprise. Walk off can fairs work against a few characters. Counter is also an option against some characters, it is fairly effective against Luigi's cyclone.

- Learn the height in which you can use quickdraw and receive no landing lag, this is a powerful tool when recovering on stages with platforms and can sometimes save you from juggles as well. Outside of that, the only real offensive use I've found for it is to punish people who are charging smash attacks or stuck in end lag. If it's a tight window and quick draw is your only option to punish, it's better to get some damage than none.

I hope some of these tips help.

Awesome post, thanks!

[Jedi]

A lot of good tips here, thanks! And yes, there will be customs in the tournament.

Ok then, we have some more to go over,

Ike's customs

Tempest: Make it a wind attack, which can edgeguard and can also stall yourself in midair

Furious Eruption: Gives Eruption an even bigger hitbox.

Close Combat: Makes side b go through people and clash with projectiles, pretty solid option although still somewhat gimpable

Unyielding Blade: Can't go as far, but has super armor and hits like a truck

Aether Drive: Makes Aether go more horizontal, you have to be careful using this one as its very easy to suicide if you don't know what you're doing with it. Can add some odd off stage pressure to someone on stage

Aether Wave: Makes Aether slightly faster and has a small wave at the end of it.

Paralyzing Counter: Makes your counter do 1% but also stuns them, use a quicker then Fsmash attack to follow up.

Smash Counter: Has a slight delay but a bigger hitbox and harder hit.

My personal set is 2212

Which is Tempest, Close Combat, Aether and Paralyzing Counter

Edited June 10, 2015 by Jedi

[Lord Raven]

I love using Close Combat also because it doesn't stop when someone shields it.

[Jedi]

I love using Close Combat also because it doesn't stop when someone shields it.

Very much so! I just wish it still couldn't be gimped by some stuff :/

[euklyd]

I, too, wish my main had an ungimpable recovery.

[Jedi]

Yeahhh.. hmm maybe I should start trying Aether Drive out more.

Edited June 12, 2015 by Jedi

[euklyd]

OH RIGHT

op, tell us how it goes!

[Maou]

Didn't make it out of my pool but I had fun. Guess I seriously underestimated how bad Ike is. :(

One of the highlights of the tournament was Mew2King getting eliminated by a wiimote+nunchuck Megaman.

Edited June 17, 2015 by Maou

[euklyd]

did you stay to play friendlies? that's half the point of going to a tournament imo

also are you planning on going to any other tourneys in the future?

[Jedi]

Didn't make it out of my pool but I had fun. Guess I seriously underestimated how bad Ike is. :(

He's not bad per say he just takes alot of skill to utilize properly, don't be so hard on yourself and your character.

Also I'd say with the buffs he just got, he's solidly in mid tier now.

[Anacybele]

Yeah, I'm much better with Ike partly thanks to his buffs now! The other part is tips from this thread. Oh yeah. :D

[Maou]

Oh, another highlight was watching the smash dlc update on the projector screen with a crowd of people. Got to see a lot of funny reactions. :)

did you stay to play friendlies? that's half the point of going to a tournament imo

also are you planning on going to any other tourneys in the future?

Yep, I played plenty of friendlies. Had more fun with those than the actual tournament.

If there are any more tournaments that are close enough to where I live then I would be more than happy to attend. :)

He's not bad per say he just takes alot of skill to utilize properly, don't be so hard on yourself and your character.

Also I'd say with the buffs he just got, he's solidly in mid tier now.

Well I don't put any time into competitive smash but it kinda says something when I decided to troll the last match of my pool with Wii fit trainer and did better than any of my previous matches with Ike. :/

Not to mention that I've used Wii fit trainer like once when the game came out.

Those buffs do look pretty good for Ike, too bad the tournament was scheduled before the patch. :(

Edited June 18, 2015 by Maou

[Booton]

Didn't make it out of my pool but I had fun. Guess I seriously underestimated how bad Ike is. :(

One of the highlights of the tournament was Mew2King getting eliminated by a wiimote+nunchuck Megaman.

That's unfortunate, but at least you had fun! I wouldn't say Ike is bad at all, he just takes more work than most characters. Ike highly rewards a player with solid fundamentals and a strong read game. I will say that he's definitely much better after the buffs he just received in the recent patch.

[Mackc2]

Tip 1: Ike Hates counters Do not let him get hit by one EVER

Tip 2: If You use his B sideways in midair there is no ending lag so you can follow up with an aerial

Tip 3: use neutral Combo for damage as it is his fastest attack and if the opponent is caught in it does respectable damage

Tip 4: Wait for an opening, Opponent missing a punishing smash or just leaving themselves open

Tip 5: Using Ike requires you to read your opponent especially if using counter

Wait never mind I'm too late

Edited June 20, 2015 by Mackc2

[DeadGame]

Been playing the new Ike for a while now and.. HOLY!

I mean, I was completely fine with how he handled before he patch, but this is just amazing.

He just ascended from solid mid-tier to at least No.1 mid-tier or perhaps even low high tier. (Sakurai, have mercy!)

My brother leveling up just like in his games. 'Tis beautiful, 'tis so beautiful.

[Sentacotus]

Been playing the new Ike for a while now and.. HOLY!

I mean, I was completely fine with how he handled before he patch, but this is just amazing.

He just ascended from solid mid-tier to at least No.1 mid-tier or perhaps even low high tier. (Sakurai, have mercy!)

My brother leveling up just like in his games. 'Tis beautiful, 'tis so beautiful.

That would not be an understatement. ZeRo even said himself that at his best Ike is like low high tier and at least top mid tier.

[DeadGame]

That would not be an understatement. ZeRo even said himself that at his best Ike is like low high tier and at least top mid tier.

Yeah, somebody just showed me that video an hour ago or so. I don't care too much about what that Zero says, to be honest, but he has a point, I guess.

(Not about that part where he considered Ike to be the worst fighter before the patch, though, that's just ridiculous from his side.)

[Jedi]

Yeah, somebody just showed me that video an hour ago or so. I don't care too much about what that Zero says, to be honest, but he has a point, I guess.

(Not about that part where he considered Ike to be the worst fighter before the patch, though, that's just ridiculous from his side.)

He said he was the worst before any of the patches, which quite honestly may have been true, because I remember using Ike when 3DS first came out, the difference between even just the first patch and now is so incredible.

[DeadGame]

He said he was the worst before any of the patches, which quite honestly may have been true, because I remember using Ike when 3DS first came out, the difference between even just the first patch and now is so incredible.

You were able to do some alright stuff with him back them. And I'm not just saying that because he's my bro, he really wasn't all that bad at all and especially not trash.

Any good Ike player would've agreed on that.

Anyways, now he's a beast.

If only now Sakuari decided to give him back his old Bud Spencer/ Steamhammer soundeffects for Ragnell... (His biggest nerf from brawl.)

Edited July 11, 2015 by Ragnar

[Tsunami922]

If only now Sakuari decided to give him back his old Bud Spencer/ Steamhammer soundeffects for Ragnell... (His biggest nerf from brawl.)

I agree that this is his biggest nerf, and is probably the main reason I don't play him much in 4.

[Zera]

If only now Sakuari decided to give him back his old Bud Spencer/ Steamhammer soundeffects for Ragnell... (His biggest nerf from brawl.)

You sure? I just watched some SSB4 Ike footage and his sword still sounds incredibly punchy.

[Sentacotus]

If Ike keeps getting buffs maybe we'll get this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50loXTf3ZsY&spfreload=10

SSS tier lol.

[DeadGame]

You sure? I just watched some SSB4 Ike footage and his sword still sounds incredibly punchy.

Nah, it sounds like ripping paper now. (Sorry if you can't unhear that after reading this.)

Seriously, nothing beats the Bud Spencer Slash of Power.

[Great Geargia Gateway]

Nah, it sounds like ripping paper now. (Sorry if you can't unhear that after reading this.)

Seriously, nothing beats the Bud Spencer Slash of Power.

Really? I thought it was a splash after a bellyflop.