Sephiroth Combos & Neutral Guide: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

sephiroth is a mid-range glass cannon with incredible damage output speed and kill potential he has one of the longest effective boxing ranges while also having a flurry of powerful projectiles which can make closing the gap extremely difficult for some characters he's got a flexible recovery is exceptionally mobile and to top it all off has a comeback mechanic in his one-wing form boosting his mobility and power all while providing super armor to his smash attacks as with most glass cannons sephiroth struggles the moment he gets hit as he doesn't boast any amazing defensive option outside of his counter he also struggles against characters who can easily find a way in as his lackluster frame data inhibits his ability to box and just like mewtwo sephiroth is one of the lightest characters in smash ultimate which is seemingly a death sentence when combined with his large hurt bucks so while separate's offensive capabilities is one of the most threatening his disadvantage state keeps him in check and really emphasized the glass cannon motto don't get hit as such players who like sephiroth are those willing to play discipline neutral gathering information and not committing too hard until they have enough information to strike [Music] sephiroth has a unique comeback mechanic in his one wing form which significantly increases his movement speed and damage output all while giving him 20 of super armor on his smash attacks an extra jump and extra frames of shield stun you will get the wing around 80 when you are tied in stocks but this will vary if stocks and percents are not equal generally speaking the further behind in stocks and percent you are the earlier the wing will come out conversely the bigger your lead is the later you'll get it and if your lead is too large the wing will disappear until your next stock usually occurring after a kill as these buffs suggest the one wing serves to make sephiroth better equipped to deal with threats and execute his overall game plan and strategy [Music] [Music] sephiroth stresses good spacing and conditioning to succeed since he has an extremely long range sword to make up for his rather lackluster startup and high recovery frames and his sweet spots further cement this point in neutral you'll want to stay in mid range where you can pressure with forward air back air f tilt and shadow flare also so you can avoid the risk of getting grabbed or punished at a shield you'll mainly want to focus on how your opponents react to your pressure fortunately for sephiroth most if not all options can be punished as you can bait and anti other jumps down and forwards health their shield drops are rolled in and grab if they stay in shield the only option that isn't super punishable is roll away but it's still a win since you gain stage control and push your opponents into a corner gathering this information is essential to playing out the set and is a huge reason why you may want to play defensive at the start then transition into aggression as the game plays out when you have a better understanding of your opponent's tendencies [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] his job functions as a close range boxing option as it's his fastest grounded attack unfortunately sephiroth can't make full use of its jab blocking potential as you can only follow up with down and sometimes up tilt it's a simple move and will only really be used to further pressure a shield f till is a slow long range sword swing with a sweet spot in the upper middle part of the blade it can be angled up and down the former being used for anti-arrows while the ladder can catch those on the ledge it is safe on shield when spaced and can take a stock at mid to high percents at the edge while its combo potential is relatively minimal sephiroth still finds use for it in neutral and lets trapping [Music] [Applause] [Music] up till is an upward sword thrust designed to take stocks and juggle it has a sweet spot at the tip which will kill at very early percent there is a hitbox in front of sephiroth that will scoop opponents on the ground effectively making the move a huge anti-air and a niche option to counter approaches while the hitbox is very long there isn't much horizontal coverage potentially limiting its usefulness in neutral [Applause] [Music] downtown is a quick slide typically used to cross up opponents and shrink separates her box potentially avoiding projectiles or attacks it will only cross up a shield if you hit with the early part of the attack [Music] it's also an effective option to 2 frame recovering opponents which can then lead into a juggle or the entire stock dash attack is a powerful lunge forward serving as a burst option and kill move at high percent it has a strong hit at the start followed by a lingering weak hit it can't start any combos nor does it kill until high percent however you'll still find use out of it as a burst option following a forward or back air on shield or simply to catch a landing [Applause] [Music] yay [Music] f smash is a slow but extremely powerful sword slash specifically designed to close out stocks it has sour spots at the tip and near the hilt and a sweet spot at the upper mid part of the blade it can't be comboed into from anything other than a giga flare and is an extremely committal option as such it's best to save this for a hard read or shield break punish combined with [Music] gigaflare his up smash is an insanely long range sword swing above just like f smash it has sweet spots located at the upper mid section of the blade and has sour spots everywhere else it can cover an entire battlefield platform with the correct positioning which can make it an effective option for platform pressure or to simply catch landings despite its high recovery frames the added shield stone it has makes it a deceptively hard move to punish usually leading to minimal chip damage down smash is your go-to move to break shields in addition to being an effective ledge trapping tool it has sweet spots at the tip but the hitboxes will vary depending on how the move connects if the sword hits the ground the move gains an extra hitbox slightly above the sword this extra hitbox makes positioning at the lodge pretty important since it allows sepharat to easily pressure shields which if combined with shadow flares will result in an effective shield break setup [Music] neutral air is his fastest aerial making it a primary attack against close range rushdown fighters who have already closed the gap there are generally two main ways to use this move rising and landing rising neutral air is mainly used as an out-of-shield option and anti-air which can then potentially lead into combos at low percent however this is not safe on shield as there are enough recovery frames where opponents can punish him landing neutral air is better suited for shield pressure and combos as sephiroth can effectively bypass the recovery frames it is safe on shield against anyone without a frame five out of shield option which can be a great mix-up from your forward and back air pressure in terms of combos landing there can lead into follow-ups until mid to high percent even resulting into kill confirms without di but you'll typically be following up with forward air back air or another neutral layer [Music] uh [Music] [Applause] foreign as its long range long lasting and very non-committal it has a sweet spot at the tip and sour spots everywhere else which further incentivizes spacing around shields while it can't start any combos forwarder is amazing for virtually all other aspects in safari's gameplay whether it's pressuring a shield stopping an approach or edge garden what makes forward error distinct is its mechanic to stick to walls offstage which inherently creates recovery and ledge mix-ups for sephiroth when stuck to the wall sephiroth can jump by pressing up or press down to drop he can stick to the walls three times before landing on stage however this will not reset if you grab the ledge [Music] back air is an extremely powerful sword slash designed specifically to pressure shields and take stocks it has a sweet spot in the middle of the sword providing the most damage and knockback this will function as sephiroth's other main way to pressure shields outside of forward air and neutral air as it is safe when spaced while adding a ton of shield stun due to the high recovery frames you'll mainly want to land with the move to give your opponent the least amount of opportunity to punish the only time rising is optimal is out of a combo or edge guard typically from a neutral layer or back throw which can take a stock at extremely early percents up air is a humongous sword swing above it has a sweet spot in the middle of the sword but it doesn't really matter due to the amount of space the move covers this makes for an effective option to catch landings and continue a juggle however it's a huge commitment due to the high startup recovery frames and landing lag this coalesces into a mixed bag in terms of functionality as it's great for option read and juggle scenarios but it is limited use for everything else there are some situations where landing with the move can lead into option coverage situations but those scenarios are pretty niche [Music] last of the aerials is down air a stall and fall that spikes at the beginning and sends up for the rest with a landing hitbox once sephiroth touches the ground what separates itself from other stalin falls is the sheer size which allows sephiroth to consistently spike opponents through the stage this straight up invalidates linear vertical recoveries and makes recovering against sephiroth a daunting task [Applause] [Music] neutral special is a chargeable projectile that adopts three different behaviors depending on the charge no charge is flare a slow moving fireball with long travel time dealing moderate damage and knockback second charge is mega flare a faster fire projectile that explodes on impact or if the maximum travel distance is reached and last up is gigaflare a very slow projectile with a massive explosion upon impact or maximum travel distance due to the high startup and recovery frames on all three projectiles they aren't amazing by themselves as they can easily be punished most of the time you'll want to save them for edge guarding and let's trapping when your opponent's options are limited [Applause] okay what truly makes neutral beasts so good is the ability to be reversed to mix up your movement and conditioning to perform a b reverse jump in one direction neutral special and immediately flick your control stick in the opposite direction [Music] and while you can technically wave bounce you won't get a ton out of it due to how slow sephiroth drips when charging sephiroth can cancel the charge at any point but cannot store it meaning no matter how long you charge before the cancel it'll always bring you back to flare however the main reason to cancel the charge is to force a reaction from your opponents as the sheer power and size of the projectiles demand some kind of response outside of the normal charge cancels sephiroth can tap shield cancel the charge without bringing up his shield this is performed by charging neutral special and then tapping the shield for less than 4 frames this combined with b reverses can effectively mix up your movement and pressure which will likely force your opponent into a shield which you can then punish [Music] shadowflare serves to put added pressure and damage on your opponents sephirol can connect anywhere from one to three orbs at a time depending on how long he charges it not to mention each charge will slightly increase the range of the projectile an opponent can have a maximum of five orbs at a time and the orbs will detonate after around 4 seconds but the time will increase as you add on additional orbs or hitting your opponent before but no matter how many orbs there are the opponent will always get launched away from sephiroth like most other specials shadowflare can be be reversed but it has a unique property and that can be reversed in any time this can create mind games where you can change it in one direction then reverse it at the last second in most situations sephiroth wants to connect shadow players to put added pressure on his opponent to shield or make some kind of defensive option its other uses are to launch his opponents in such a way where the orbs will detonate and take the stop [Music] connecting at close range is not safe on hit as shadowflare has very little hits done as such you'll want to treat this like joker's side special keeping it at a range and constantly moving around while using the move [Music] so [Music] his up special has two different forms blade slash and octo slash [Music] blade slash is performed by tapping up special and is generally faster and less committal all while dealing lower damage and knockback it will reliably sweet spot the ledge and can be angled in all directions making it a very flexible recovery move and sometimes even leading to a reverse edge outside of this the low landing lag and ability to angle in all directions makes for a decent ledge or landing mix up however it's important to always mix up your options and not telegraph it holding up special will give you octo slash a much longer range harder hitting and more committal version of blade slash it will never sweet spot the ledge unless you use it at max distance but the opponent can still intercept sephiroth before the move comes out and it's extremely risky to land on stage with it due to the astonishing 56 frames of landing lag meaning that if it gets shielded sephiroth is eating a major punish octoslash will always send opponents in the direction that sephiroth is facing meaning the optimal way to recover vertically is to use upbeat when facing the blast zone as anyone caught in the slashes will get sent off stage and potentially lose their stock [Music] once you're on the ledge optoslash can be a very high risk high reward mixup out of the ledge jump which will catch any high commitment punishes [Music] [Music] conversely you can opt to use octa slash as an option to two frame recoveries though the timing can be tricky down special is scintilla a very wacky yet powerful counter with unusual properties sephiroth puts up a wall that will counter any hit under a certain damage threshold in which case those attacks will just be blocked this means sephiroth can still get hit from above below and behind even when the counter is out the more damaging the move is the stronger the counter will be over the counter window is whipped the wall will dissipate and become a series of weak hits providing sephiroth with a little bit of protection despite its unique properties it's usually smart to treat cintilla like other counters being as an effective edge guarding tool in certain matchups or a mix-up landing option [Music] last up is sephiroth's throws which are extremely straightforward in what they're designed to do forward throw serves to send your opponents off stage or force a tech situation which can then be punished accordingly [Music] backrow serves as a combo and potential kill confirm at low and mid percents respectively at low percents sephiroth can follow up with short hop bear which will eventually transition into full hop or double jumps admit in hyper sense factor into back air can take a stalk against anyone that doesn't die away up throw will be one of sephiroth's go-to combo throws at low percents as you can reliably connect neutral layers or catch jumps with up airs a throw into up tilt will also connect without di but it's generally not optimal [Music] finally we have down throw seproth's other combo throw low and mid percents will allow you to connect a forward air or reverse aerial rush back air rare back air in particular can potentially take a stock against anyone that doesn't die away sephiroth is a character who only gets better the faster you pick up on your opponent's options his gameplay relies on your sword fundamentals which are easy in concept but difficult to optimize and to top everything off his specials allow the flexibility and style that everyone is looking for he's devastating when he has the advantage but is incredibly fragile when backed into a corner a true definition of a glass cannon however you choose to play the one winged angel just remember this one phrase don't get hit thank you all for watching and special thanks to the sephiroth discord server for helping me compile the information for the guide if you mean sephiroth and want to learn more about his metagame be sure to join the server which is linked in this video's description these guides take a lot of work to make so if you did enjoy it let me know by leaving a like and subscribing if you would like to see more if you have a suggestion for what character you want me to cut for next let me know in a comment below and that's all i have for now and i will see you all later [Music] bye

Channel: NotBae

Views: 15,277

Rating: 4.9680424 out of 5

Keywords: NotBae, Mewtwo, Pokemon, Nintendo, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Smash Ultimate, Elite Smash, Sauce Bros, Competitive Smash, Smash Online, Sephiroth, Combos & Neutral, Combos, Neutral, Guide

Id: TZMhTJy9LFM

Length: 23min 44sec (1424 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 30 2021