Beginner's guide to Ganondorf

[Darches]

Greetings! My friends say I'm a pro at Ganondorf so here's a simple guide on how to use him a bit better. Be sure to see the links for advanced tips.

Who is Ganondorf?
If you don't know who Ganondorf is and haven't played at least most of the Zelda games, your life is incomplete. Get to it.
In Smash, he's the slow and crappy version of Captain Falcon. But he's very fun to use and he's excellent for crushing noobs. My accuracy with Ganondorf is ~1/3, but with Ganondorf that's fine because your opponent will be really feeling it. Don't worry if you lose... Just blame it on the tier list and have fun punching people with THE POWER OF DARKNESS. Thankfully Smash 4 has better effects so you can see more darkness when you attack.

Playstyle
You can't camp because you lack all camping capabilities, so you must approach like C. Falcon, except you're incredibly slow. You must apply a defensive, spaced approach with shielding, dodging, short hop nair, and maybe even wizard's foot. Simply pressure your foe to the edge with fear, then PUMMEL THEM. The key is to read your opponent's moves and dish out pain accordingly. Ganondorf relies on mind games and edge play. He's very good at edge-guarding because of his powerful aerials and resistant to it because of his Ganoncide technique.

You're going to have a miserable time against anyone with good range, speed, or projectiles.

Moveset
Neutral jab: One of your most useful tools, this attack comes out FAST and can be used to counter punishes. It has decent range and works well when used after low end-lag attacks like dash attack. It can be used both offensively and defensively, but it's punishable by fast characters.

Ftilt: Nicknamed the Sparta kick. Ganondorf's only "real" move (from Twilight Princess). Short range, but fast and deadly semi-spike. You just kick people out of the game. Roll past a punishable attack and kick your foe near the edge for kills. One of your best killing moves.
Dtilt: Practically identical to F-tilt, but with more horizontal range and vertical knockback. This move is good for setting up a juggle, but unfortunately Ganondorf is bad at follow-ups. It's decent for spacing and KO's lightweights easily.
Utilt: Volcano KICK! This is like Warlock Punch, but with more range. Similarly, it should almost never be used. It's good for edguarding, extreme spacing, and just being scary, but is easily punished. It's idiot proof and can break shields too!

Dash attack: It's a fast, powerful, high priority shoulder charge with vertical knockback. Unfortunately, the range is terrible due to Ganondorf's speed. It's decent for approaching and negating projectiles with sheer power. At low percents you can follow up with a jab or uair. It kills at higher percents, too. If your foe trys escaping a juggle, you can try chasing them with a dash attack. If they hit the ground before you and you predict back rolls... just keep running! Eventually they will hit the edge, and that's when you strike.

FSmash: Extremely punishable and powerful! It should be used on hard reads to deal extreme damage and send foes flying. At high percents nothing can survive.
DSmash: Much weaker knockback but still decently powerful when used on the edge. It excels at punishing rolls.
USmash: Terrible range but great power and low end-lag. Its poor range makes it a bit useless IMO but sometimes people fall right into it :/

Nair: Your fastest air move, with the least landing lag. It's good for breaking combos and trading blows with fast/aggressive players.
Fair: Pretty slow and ineffective move, but it has excellent power and the actual attack is quick. Can be used for spacing and being scary. An offstage hit has great kill potential.
Bair: Just like Fair, but much faster in every respect. Abuse this. It has poor range though.
Uair: It's like C. Falcon's uair but slower and stronger. It's your best juggle tool and can kill at very high percents. It has a great combination of speed, power, and range. It's often a good idea to mix up your jumps (full, short, single, double) and falls (slow, fast) with this move to trick foes. Safe to whiff on purpose.
Dair: The thunder boot. The most powerful spike in the game (also has semi-spike on chest hitbox). It's a bad approach option, but it can kill at high percents and be used to punish bad recoveries with death. Is your opponent trying to tether onto the stage? Jump down and give them the boot! Do you predict a stage recovery attack? Jump to avoid it while punishing with Dair, killing at higher percents.

Grab: If you can't smell their shield, then you're not close enough.
All throws: Pretty bad.

Warlock Punch: Pretty much 100% useless. To have armor, you must use the it on the ground and NOT rotate it. This armor can be used against certain moves for unexpected kills. For example, if a Meta Knight recovers with a drill rush through you, you can tank the hits and make him regret his life choices. But it will only work once.
Flame Choke: Your REAL grab. it has good range and can be used to set up a tech chase or mind game. Some characters who fail to tech properly will always be hit by Dtilt. You can run up to people and reverse Flame Choke to punish rolls or dodge attacks with style. It can be used offstage to "Ganoncide", earning you the most enjoyable victory. After a Flame Choke, you should try to predict your foe and consider your entire ground arsenal for use, minus Utilt. Excellent for speeding up/trolling multiplayer smashes where you no longer stand a chance for victory.
Dark Dive: Basically useless. It's pretty average recovery. The attack ends with a small punch that can catch people off guard.
Wizard's Foot: Can be used to punish rolls, punish slow attacks/grabs, get offstage, and clash with projectiles. The aerial version can break weak shields and kill lightweights easily, but is a bad option for returning down to the stage. Slow movement and bad end-lag makes this move unsafe.

Some matchups
How do I beat Samus?
Jump over the ridiculous grab and avoid the charge beam. Use your sparta kick to force a tether recovery, then punish with thunder boot. That's all I got :(

How do I beat Ness?
When executed properly, you can roll past his fire and land a free sparta kick! Also, you can always land Dtilt after Flame Choke if he doesn't tech... He's probably still gonna kick your ass, though.

How do I beat Sonic?
Block everything until he throws out a Dair or other unsafe move, then punish with sparta kick. You seeing a trend here?

How do I beat Fox?
You don't. If you're close enough, I recommend tanking the lasers and approaching mercilessly to scare him. Remember, he's a lightweight! Sparta kick him when you get the chance.

Moving forwards

Once you feel comfortable with Ganondorf, you can switch to Captain Falcon if you want to win more. Falcon is simply better... But you can't Ganoncide!

Edited July 7, 2015 by Darches

[A2ZOMG]

I main Ganon and find your guide pretty horribly short sighted. You really just don't seem to know anything about the character, given your lack of detail of Ganon's followups, pressure options, trap setups, and everything.

You probably haven't bothered watching any of the good Ganon mains for that matter like Ray_Kalm, Vermanubis, and Gungnir, all who have placed top 4 in large tournaments as Ganon. I imagine though given your tone in this guide you probably aren't interested in learning anything and just assume Ganondorf is bottom tier (he's not, judging by tournament results he's solidly mid tier). But you can prove me wrong.

Edited July 7, 2015 by A2ZOMG

[Darches]

This is a beginner guide.

Ganondorf does not have followups.

[DreadFighter]

This is a beginner guide.

Ganondorf does not have followups.

I could post a ton of follow ups just based on a missed tech of flame choke on specific characters. There are also "more advanced" techs like Wiz Kick Cancel and such that are not in your guide. I agree with A2.

He is more than a simple slow Falcon clone.(You could at least make one that is less general and more helpful, given a lot of this is general knowledge)

[A2ZOMG]

This is a beginner guide.

Ganondorf does not have followups.

True combos:

D-throw -> DA

D-throw -> U-air/N-air

D-throw -> F-air (if they DI towards you, very easy to set up by the ledge)

Flame Choke -> D-tilt on most characters if they don't techroll

N-air -> D-tilt (especially if frame canceled, which can be buffered out of fullhop airdodge + fastfall N-air)

D-air -> stuff (especially if frame canceled)

Late DA -> U-air

Tipman U-air -> footstool -> aerial wizkick

Wizkick ledge cancel -> U-air/N-air

And that's only just true combos. Ganondorf allows a lot of creativity for followups when you read airdodges and jumps, and can end a stock instantly when he does so. Watch Pon play Ganondorf. He's really good at making gamechanging reads offstage.

And being a "beginner's guide" is no excuse for having blatantly incorrect information.

Edited July 8, 2015 by A2ZOMG

[Comet]

^amazing person just because he actually knows stuff

op didn't mention wizard kick spikes 0/10

ganon's jab is fast for him but it's pretty slow for a jab, with the hitbox coming out on frame 5 iirc

Edited July 8, 2015 by Comet

[A2ZOMG]

^amazing person just because he actually knows stuff

op didn't mention wizard kick spikes 0/10

ganon's jab is fast for him but it's pretty slow for a jab, with the hitbox coming out on frame 5 iirc

Ganon's Jab is 8 frames, and generally speaking one of his worst moves given in most situations, a F-tilt or D-tilt is more rewarding and safer, both being 10 frames startup.

There's only a few situations where the slightly faster startup of Jab actually helps, but most of the time you really should be trying to use something else.

Edited July 8, 2015 by A2ZOMG