Up throw Rest

Up throw Rest being performed on Fox.

Up throw Rest is an infamous Jigglypuff combo in Super Smash Bros. and Super Smash Bros. Melee, though more notable in the latter game. It is used against low-percent fast fallers such as Fox, Falco, and Captain Falcon, and occasionally works on Roy due to his high falling speed and gravity. As the name directly states, it is simply performed by using Jigglypuff's up throw (or forward throw in the case of Smash 64), then jumping towards the target and using Rest. At medium percentages, an up aerial can be interposed to ensure the Rest hits.

The combo works because the space animals' high gravity and falling speed significantly decreases the distance they are launched after a vertical launching move, allowing Jigglypuff to cover the distance needed to jump into them and Rest before they get out of hitstun. While the target's initial damage must be low enough for Jigglypuff to get there in time, the immense power of Rest means the combo can still score a clean KO depending on the stage and positioning, which puts a large swing in the match.

The combo can be escaped by DIing up throw horizontally, though since Jigglypuff's up throw is so fast, an immediate throw out of grab cannot be reacted to, so opponents must be preemptively DIing for the throw before being grabbed. It is also possible to tech on a platform should there be any on the stage. Should the Rest connect, the victim should attempt to DI sideways rather than up, as being Star KO'd will allow Jigglypuff to wake up before they can respawn and make a punish attempt.

This technique also works in the original Super Smash Bros. against Fox, Captain Falcon, Yoshi, Donkey Kong and Link. In the original game, DI does not exist, and SDI cannot be used on throws, which makes the combo more reliable to score KOs. Due to up throws not existing in this game, it instead uses Jigglypuff's forward throw in its place (which was changed to its up throw in later games). However, due to Rest not being as strong as in Melee, it has to be used at medium percents.

Up throw Rest is no longer possible in Brawl and future games, due to the much slower falling speeds in conjunction with the introduction of hitstun cancelling making it no longer possible for Jigglypuff to reach an opponent in time to combo off of a throw with such high base knockback. However, if custom moves are enabled in Smash 4, Jigglypuff can perform the combo again against any character with Leaping Rest, though due to the move's much weaker power compared to default Rest, it cannot KO until around 80-100%, and due to it having even more ending lag than default Rest, if the move misses or the opponent survives, the opponent will be able to freely punish with nearly any move, making the combo's practicality questionable. Additionally, in Ultimate, patch 13.0.0 made the similar down throw into Rest combo possible by reducing down throw's base knockback and shaving a frame of ending lag off; however, it is only a true combo at or near 0% and only against large bodied heavyweights such as Donkey Kong, at which percents it cannot KO at all, making it only a risky way to deal a lot of damage at the start of a stock.

Trivia

• In the early days of Melee on Smashboards, this combo was sometimes called the "Space animal slayer", though simply calling it "Up throw Rest" would become the prominent name and "Space animal slayer" fell into obscurity. Some commentators also used to call it the "Hunger strike", after famed Jigglypuff top player Hungrybox, though this name too failed to catch on among most of the playerbase.

External links

• A video showing the percentages at which up throw Rest combos when the up throw is not DI'd.