Category |
Description |
Character
|
Recovery
|
CPUs never attempt to fight off or evade edge guarders.
|
All
|
CPUs only use their midair jumps and up special move to recover (or side special with Luigi) - never any alternate recovery methods such as side special moves, air dodges, or wall-grapples (as they never use grab aerials on the whole). They also never use wall jumps to aid their recovery in stages where these are possible.
|
All
|
CPU Luigi always uses Green Missile and never uses Super Jump Punch to recover, even when necessary. He also never charges the former move, most of the time failing to recover if the attack is not a misfire, even though he uses the move consecutive times. This leads to him self-destructing easily on stages that emphasize vertical recoveries, like Mushroom Kingdom II or Brinstar Depths.
- CPU Luigi will also use Green Missile even after having already got back to the stage with his midair jump, leaving him open to attacks.
- Also due to this unique recovery method, CPU Luigi never meteor cancels attacks like other CPUs do, even at level nine.
|
|
The CPUs shown at the right always aim in the same upward diagonal trajectory when recovering with their up special, even if using such a trajectory results in them failing to make it back while a more desirable trajectory would have allowed them to recover successfully. CPU Fox and Falco, however, may aim their up special straight at a foe on occasion if they are close enough.
|
|
CPU Sheik always aims horizontally or vertically (depending on her position from the edge) with Vanish, never diagonally.
|
|
A CPU Jigglypuff uses Sing instead of Pound or an air dodge after running out of midair jumps when recovering, guaranteeing a failed recovery if it cannot grab the ledge. Additionally, it always does so at exactly a certain distance away from the lower blast line each time. This is because CPUs, with the exception of Luigi, will never use their side special as a recovery move. Furthermore, despite Sing not granting any recovery aid, CPUs consider all up specials as recovery moves.
|
|
CPU Ness uses PK Thunder 2 to recover only if he is set to level nine, and always aims it in an upward, barely horizontal trajectory. A lower level CPU Ness will fall and get KO'd if the midair jump is not enough to make it back to the stage.
|
|
CPU Peach rarely uses her ability to float: she only uses it near the bottom of the stage after falling off with an attack, and unusually doesn't move around when doing so, simply stalling her eventual fall, and always holding it to the maximum length. This allows players to edgeguard her in a simple and easy way, while she would have survived otherwise.
- CPU Peach also tends to use Peach Parasol immediately to recover when close to the edge, even when she could have used a midair jump to recover more effectively.
|
|
CPU Pikachu and Pichu always use both dashes of Quick Attack/Agility even if it's aiming the move towards a platform, nudging itself away from it with the second dash and self-destructing, though CPU Pikachu is less likely to SD.
|
|
When CPUs are caped by Mario or Dr. Mario offstage before they use up special after using their midair jump, they will use aerial attacks even if that causes them to miss the ledge. Depending on the attack's duration, this will often cause them to fail a recovery that was possible.
|
All
|
Repeated or Held Inputs
|
CPUs never charge attacks that require button holding, including smash attacks (with the exception of the Ice Climbers' forward smash), Shield Breaker, Hero's Bow, Skull Bash, Green Missile, Rollout (which in particular suffers from the CPU's behavior, since it has no effect other than leaving the user vulnerable if used without being charged), and the Super Scope, among others, the only exceptions being Zelda with Din's Fire, Sheik with Needle Storm and Ness with PK Flash.
|
All
|
CPU Peach will sometimes get stuck at the bottom of certain plateaus on various stages, most notably the one on Hyrule Temple's far left side. She attempts to jump over the plateau but will immediately activate her unique second jump, whose properties keep her from getting over. As a result, she will repeatedly use her double jump in the corner until an opponent approaches her, an attractive item appears, or she is struck by an attack.
|
|
CPU Link and Young Link never use the second hit of their forward smash; as a result, they have more difficulty KOing, as Link's forward smash is relatively weak when the first hit connects, while Young Link's first hit deals low, set knockback to set up the second, more powerful attack.
|
|
CPUs never hold indefinitely extendable attacks such as rapid jabs, Fire Breath, Reflector, Inhale or Hand Slap past their minimum length. They also never hold the Fire Flower's flames, and never fire the Super Scope continuously.
|
All
|
CPU Kirby under the effect of Stone never ends the transformation early. Besides allowing players to easily punish a CPU Kirby with powerful attacks, this causes him to self-destruct on some stages; if he hits a breakable platform above the lower blast line or is on a slope that ends offstage, he will end up sliding down and plummeting offstage.
- In addition to this, if a player is under a platform and a CPU Kirby uses Stone, he will continuously use Stone until the player moves or successfully attacks Kirby.
|
|
CPU Mario, Luigi, and Dr. Mario never move around nor rise when using their respective down specials.
|
|
Attack Patterns
|
CPUs tend to heavily spam their neutral attacks and dash grabs against foes at close range, often forgoing other attacks like tilts, smashes or non-projectile specials. They also never approach foes on the ground with aerial attacks unless they were previously in midair. The difficulty of higher-leveled CPUs stems from not their more advanced fighting tactics, but the degree in which they can interrupt approaching foes with frame-perfect neutral attacks or grabs.
- When attacking with aerials out of knockback or to reach foes on platforms, CPUs often use their neutral aerial over other types of aerials, even with characters whose other aerials are better.
- When airborne, higher-leveled CPUs also tend to immediately use their neutral or down aerials when a foe is below them.
|
All
|
CPUs tend to periodically use projectiles when walking towards the player from afar, even if they can be reflected or absorbed. They do so even when crossing pits on some stages, causing them to be left open to edge guards or self-destruct.
|
All
|
CPUs always throw a grabbed opponent in a random direction, which, combined with their excessive use of throws, results in CPUs throwing the foe into the stage when attempting to edgeguard, or using a certain throw when a different one would have KO'd the foe. Some CPUs also tend to overuse a specific throw, such as Fox overusing his down throw to combo it into a shine (which can be easily avoided by teching), or Mario and his clones frequently using their back throws.
|
All
|
When an opponent is knocked down or hanging on a ledge, CPUs only use down tilts and down smashes to attack them, usually spamming the one they use first instead of switching between the two, even when some attacks like Captain Falcon's down smash can't hit foes on ledges.
|
All
|
CPUs cannot properly recognize the height differences that occur when standing on slopes, leading to things like a CPU flailing above an opponent with its jab when higher up on a slope.
|
All
|
Movement
|
CPUs never dash to move, acting almost immediately out of their initial dash to perform dash grabs and dash attacks, causing their approaches to be extremely slow and predictable.
|
All
|
CPUs never initiate a fast fall intentionally, only doing so occasionally when trying to attack with a down aerial while falling down.
|
All
|
Taunting
|
AI players have poor taunting habits. After the CPU respawns, if the player was previously KO'd by it, the CPU will occasionally walk to the player and taunt for no apparent reason.
|
All
|
Upon KOing a character, CPUs usually taunt, regardless of what is occurring around them. Additionally, when KOing an enemy horizontally from the middle of the main platform, they will walk to the edge nearest to where the KO occurred before taunting. When Star KOing an opponent, they won't taunt until the animation is finished, leaving them unnecessarily vulnerable during long taunts.
|
All
|
Shielding & Dodging
|
While high-leveled CPUs always powershield projectiles when not in lag, they almost never shield or dodge other oncoming attacks, even at level nine; they never sidestep on the whole to dodge, only doing so when trying to shield and fall through a soft platform simultaneously.
- After jabbing and grabbing the player many times, CPUs tend to roll forward to attack from the other side, allowing the player to punish them with correctly timed attacks.
|
All
|
Like in Smash 64, CPUs still shield attacks when invincible, and still attack other opponents when they have respawn invincibility. When respawning themselves, they also reenter the fight instantly regardless of what is happening on the stage.
|
All
|
While CPUs always attempt to dodge certain attacks such as Yoshi Bomb, their dodges are often poor in these cases. For example, a CPU near an edge attempting to dodge such an attack may still roll towards the edge, resulting in the attack still hitting and KOing the CPU while it would have survived by dodging differently.
|
All
|
When air dodging, CPUs also tend to shift themselves in the direction they were already moving, or may not move at all, even if it causes them to unnecessarily fail to avoid the attack they were trying to.
|
All
|
Other
|
CPUs have almost nonexistent edgeguarding abilities: they normally just stand on the edge of the stage and throw off a typical jab or grab when the foe comes near, which often has poor KO power and instead allows the foe to recover again. Only CPU Mario, Dr. Mario, and Captain Falcon jump offstage instead to edgeguard foes.
|
Almost All
|
CPUs never tech on walls or ceilings unless launched very close to them, causing them to be easily KO'd by stage spikes when they could have survived otherwise.
|
All
|
CPUs do not recognize pits as if they were an offstage area, leading to the CPU just walking and falling into them as the CPU attempts to carelessly attack an opponent near the pit, which often results in the CPU self-destructing.
|
All
|
Other than Fox and Falco using their Reflectors, CPUs always reflect projectiles with powershields only, even when some characters like Mario and Zelda have more effective reflectors, or when these can be absorbed for Ness and Mr. Game & Watch. In this case, they will prioritize shielding projectiles over anything else, often causing them to break their shields when shielding many rapid-fire projectiles such as Fox's Blaster shots.
- This also means CPUs do not reflect Poké Balls correctly, as powershielding them does not change the Pokémon's owner.
|
|
Despite their overuse of grabs, CPUs will continuously attack a Kirby player under the effect of Stone instead of simply grabbing him, allowing an easy escape.
|
All
|