Zero Suit Samus (SSBB)

Zero Suit Samus in Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Universe	Metroid
Other playable appearances	in SSB4 in Ultimate
Availability	Starter
Final Smash	Power Suit Samus
Tier	B (9)

“	Samus in her unarmored form. Her physical abilities far outclass standard humans.	”
—Brawl manual description

Zero Suit Samus (ゼロスーツサムス, Zero Suit Samus), often abbreviated as ZSS, 0SS, or Zamus, is a newcomer that appears in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. She is voiced by Alésia Glidewell, who also voices Krystal from Star Fox and the Assist Trophy Knuckle Joe.

Zero Suit Samus can be played as by using Samus' Zero Laser, inputting Samus' up and down taunt rapidly, or by holding the L/R button (Gamecube/Classic controller), Z button (Nunchuk), or the - button (with a name that sets the minus button as Shield) while selecting Samus. In The Subspace Emissary she can be selected over Samus in The Great Maze and the post-game by hovering over Samus' slot and pressing the aforementioned buttons. She also can transform back by using her Final Smash, Power Suit Samus.

Zero Suit Samus ranks 9th on the current Brawl tier list, placing her in the B Tier. She has an amazing aerial and juggle game, possessing very high jumps and low-lag aerial attacks that do good knockback and damage, with her back aerial being especially useful. She also has very fast mobility, noticeable especially in her jumps, and some of the game's most versatile recovery options, including her midair jump, side and up specials, and down special. Zero Suit Samus also has an effective spacing tool in her Plasma Whip (albeit not being very fast), powerful KO options, such as her back aerial, Plasma Whip, and Flip Jump, as well as a great combo starter and KO setup in her down smash. Her Power Suit Pieces, in addition, are among the most powerful items in the game, and at the beginning of a match are very effective at damaging and shutting down the opponent. However, she has a poor ground game, with her tilts and smashes doing below average damage and mediocre knockback (though some of her ground attacks are still effective for combos), and a grab that despite its range, is one of the laggiest in the game, even when used as a pivot grab (unlike some other tether grabs). Because of this, her out of shield and defensive game (outside of maneuverability) are poor, due to lacking safe options on shield (her grab is unreliable due to its heavy lag), making herself prone to heavy shield pressure, and despite her good air game, she lacks reliable options for enemies below her; this can make her vulnerable to juggling from characters such as Meta Knight. Zero Suit Samus is additionally reliant on tether recoveries that can be edgehogged, although her high jumps and Flip Jump make her suffer less from this than other characters with tethers. Her advantages lead to rather above average matchups across the board, but this also causes her to suffer against higher-tiered characters. Despite her flaws, Zero Suit Samus has achieved strong tournament results.

Attributes

Zero Suit Samus is a tall lightweight who boasts excellent mobility overall. She has the fourth fastest dashing and walking speeds, tied with Bowser and Marth for the 11th fastest air speed, tied with Wolf and Sonic for the third highest traction, tied with Ness, Pikachu, and Zelda for the sixth fastest air acceleration, and tied with Diddy Kong for the third highest jump. Her falling speed and gravity are above-average (15th and 13th highest, respectively). She is also able to crawl and wall jump, much like in her home series. On the downside, she has only a few amount of reliable KO options, with only her forward aerial, back aerial, up aerial, Plasma Whip, and Flip Kick reliably KO'ing under 125%. This puts her in the "hit-and-run" archetype group.

She starts the match with a huge advantage over most characters in that she has readily throw-able projectiles that are extremely powerful and combo well with her glide toss. She can dash quickly, crawl, wall jump, combined with one of the highest initial jump and second jump, allowing her to reach characters that are higher. Many of her attacks have the advantage of coming out fast, and can combo most heavy weights with her aerials very easily.

Her side special has a huge sweetspot at the end (one of the biggest in the game, second to Zelda's side special) and the sour spot has the ability to push the opponent into the sweet spot, effectively KOing most characters around 110% if it's not stale. Her down smash has deceptively long range, and sets up many combos, as well as KOing ones. Zero Suit Samus is unique in the fact that many of her moves have large hit boxes and easy to hit sweet spots, this can devastate opponents as they are dealt a barrage of aerials and fast ground attacks. Her up smash is excellent because it has fast start-up and its great to stop incoming opponents from above and puts them in good position for juggling.

One of her few KO moves is her up aerial, a very fast flip kick that can KO as low as 90% if opponent is near the upper blast line and a very large sweetspot for such a powerful move. Both of her high jumps compliment this strategy. It is most often used to combo with a down throw or an up smash. She also has 3 meteor smashes, her flip jump kick, if hit when she sticks her foot out, will spike opponents hard (even without doing this, the kick is still somewhat powerful and can KO most characters at fairly moderate damage percentages with strong horizontal knockback), her up special, if hit at the tip, will meteor smash anyone it hits and her down aerial (although this is an unreliable spike). Both of these can be used for any situation, giving her multiple surprise KO methods.

Zero Suit Samus, if mastered, is extremely dangerous and many characters can find themselves down a stock or worse if they aren't careful. Her attacks and combos require a lot of precision which makes her a difficult character to learn and play effectively. The stale move negation can complicate her to get a KO, in spite of her having only a few KO moves and good edgeguarding skills. All of her tilts are quick (her up tilt has high ending lag), with decent range, and have the added bonus of launching her opponents into the air. She has a situational though passable out of shield game (making herself prone to heavy shield pressure). Her aerial game is powerful with lethal kicks and long-ranged attacks, but her very high short hop makes approaches with aerials difficult. Her projectile, the Paralyzer, can set opponents up for KO's and does a little bit of damage. However, it's slow and needs to be charged up to go far. Her tether grab has incredible range (tied with Olimar´s Red Pikmin, only losing to White and Blue Pikmin, although her grab possesses the longest range in aerial opponents), but it leaves her vulnerable if it misses which is dangerous for a such light character. Her smashes compliment her perfectly. Her up and down smashes are useful for their range. The down smash is perfect for set up KO's, and the up smash makes for an excellent launcher, and can stop opponents' midair combos, while her side smash is quite weak, in terms of damage and power, with high ending lag and considerable start-up lag, but with good range, even behind her. In terms of recovery, she can use her Plasma Wire and Whip as a tether recovery, but it can be stopped by edge-hogging, although due her air speed and second jump being fairly high and combining with flip jump she can usually come back to the stage without relying on her tether.

Moveset

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack			2%	Knifehand strike, pistol whip, elbow strike. First hit out on frame 1, being one of the fastest moves in the game. The third hit its easily powershield, although the jab is inescapable against aerial opponents.
			2%
			3%
Forward tilt	↗		6%	Does an around-the-body 45° kick. Can be angled. At low percentages, it can make opponents trip if tilted down. However, at mid-high percentages, angle upward or forward will cause tripping more often. Very low knockback. Has a start-up of 6 frames. Can lock, like the dash attack.
	→		6%
	↘		9%
Up tilt			5% (hit 1), 6% (hit 2)	Does a handstand split while spinning in place, legs moving up vertically. Pretty good knockback at higher percentages, and at low percentages it sets up combos well. Has a start-up of 3 frames. Replaces her down smash as a semi-effective means of hitting opponents on both sides. Good OoS, although it is situational.
Down tilt			6%	Does a prone leg-sweep. Knocks upwards from afar, knocks diagonally at close range. Hits on frame 5. Can combo into other moves well at low and high percentages alike.
Dash attack			7% (clean), 5% (late)	Does a sliding kick forward with her leg extended. Similar to Fox's dash attack. Hits on frame 6. Can easily be followed with tilts at low to mid percentages, and can lock if buffered properly. Has transcendent priority.
Forward smash			10% (front), 6% (back)	Whips forward with her plasma whip. Great range, but has very poor knockback and noticeable startup lag and high ending lag, being very punishable (especially to shield grabs). Hits on frame 20. This move also attacks enemies from behind her. Within ZSS's data, her forward smash actually contains a very powerful hitbox dealing 13% (KBG: 100, BKB: 35), but because of its hitbox being attached to the base of her plasma whip and being at the bottom of the ID stack (3), it will never connect under normal circumstances.
Up smash			4% (hit 1), 1% (hits 2-5), 3% (hit 6)	Spins in place, extending the Plasma Whip up above her head in a swirl. Hits multiple times, has long vertical disjointed range and decent horizontal range. Has fast startup (8 frames). Only the tip of the plasma whip does knockback (which is very low). It's easy to SDI out of it before the last hit connect.
Down smash			11%	Aims down and shoots paralyzer gun at the ground in front of her, creating a lightning effect. Only hits in front. Low damage and delayed knockback, but stuns the target in place for a short time depending on the damage that the opponent has. Unique attack that can be followed up by a side smash, a grab or another move. Double down smash followed by up smash (or whatever is appropriate at the time, like an aerial) is an effective combo and can easily rack up damage. Also moves her forward a little. Can infinite Fox at mid percentages and other fastfallers to a lesser extent. Hits on frame 20.
Neutral aerial			10%	Spins the Plasma Whip around herself. Fairly long range, but with below average knockback. Always deals 10% damage, regardless of stale-move negation, and does not refresh stale-move negation on other moves, decent spacing option.
Forward aerial			6% (hit 1), 10-11% (hit 2 clean), 7% (hit 2 late)	Two forward kicks, with the second kick being stronger and slightly faster than the first. Because of the knockback of the first kick, it is difficult to hit with both kicks unless taking advantage of upward and forward momentum from a jump. Second kick can be landed without first kick, but it requires correct timing. First hit on frame 6, second hit on frame 16.
Back aerial			13% (foot), 12% (leg)	A backward kick that has high knockback. Can bait, combo at lower percentages, KO at high percentages, and can be bufferred or used twice in a short hop. Has a disjointed hitbox. Hitbox out on frame 8.
Up aerial			10% (clean), 7% (late)	Flip kicks both legs above her head. Has good KO potential on lighter characters at around 90% if they are near the upper blast line. Sweetspot is directly in front of her. Hitbox out on frame 4. At low percentages, it can chain into itself, like Meta Knight´s up aerial, being a very useful juggling move. Hits slightly behind her too with low knockback, good for setting up back aerials or up tilts on a grounded opponent.
Down aerial			5% (aerial), 4% (grounded), 5% (landing)	A stall-then-fall. Zero Suit Samus stalls momentarily in midair, and then shoots down diagonally. If it hits in midair, the move meteor smashes opponents but it is very weak and dangerous if she doesn't land onstage, as it will not stop until for some time, similar to Toon Link's down aerial, although, unlike Toon Link´s down aerial, it will always meteor smash. The move generally isn't used often due to being easy to SD with. It also has very high ending lag and landing lag, like most stall-then-falls, and is easily punishable. However, its extremely fast vertical descent speed makes it an effective way to counter juggling, especially since her falling speed is below average. Start-up of 14 frames. Upon hitting the ground, it hits a second time, knocking anyone close away a fair bit.
Grab			—
Pummel			2%	Knees her victim. A fairly fast pummel.
Forward throw			2% (hit 1), 7% (throw)	Hits opponent forward with her gun. Can chaingrab most characters at lower percentages.
Back throw			2% (hit 1), 4% (throw)	Kicks opponent behind herself. Extremely low knockback, rarely used due to there usually being better options available.
Up throw			2% (hit 1), 8% (throw)	Flips into the air and kicks the opponent upward. This is her most powerful throw knockback wise, being the only one capable of guaranteed a KO in Sudden Death. However, it has somewhat high ending lag, with a down throw being the preferred way to get opponents into the air for combos.
Down throw			2% (hit 1), 5% (throw)	Slams opponent on ground and then axe kicks them. Ideal for combos, knocking opponents in a great position to followup with an up aerial or, depending on the opponent's DI, a forward or back aerial.
Forward roll Back roll Spot dodge Air dodge		—	—
Techs		—	—
Floor attack (front) Floor getups (front)			6%	Flips her legs around near the ground in a spin and gets up.
Floor attack (back) Floor getups (back)			6%	Flips her legs around upward in a spin and gets up.
Floor attack (trip) Floor getups (trip)			5%	Flips her legs around on the ground in a spin and gets up.
Edge attack (fast) Edge getups (fast)			8%	Gets up while doing a kick forward.
Edge attack (slow) Edge getups (slow)			10%	Gets up slowly and punches forward.
Neutral special		Paralyzer	4-6%	Fires a paralyzing shot.
Side special		Plasma Whip	3% (wire), 16% (tip)	Fires the whip forwards a distance. Tip hitbox has high knockback. The wire can push the opponent in the tip.
Up special		Plasma Wire	4-6%	Zero Suit Samus fires her whip upwards, pulling anyone above her downwards. If used on someone who is on the ground next to Zero Suit Samus, it will knock them up, hitting multiple times, until they hit the end, at which point it will pull them back down. If used on an airborne opponent while off the stage, it will pull them down and they will keep going, effectively spiking them, though the tip of the Plasma Wire must connect with the opponent to cause this effect.
Down special		Flip Jump	12% (kick clean), 9% (kick late)	Zero Suit Samus does a small flip jump, if the attack button is pressed after the jump she will stick out her foot in a 45 degree angle, which has sex kick properties.
Final Smash		Power Suit Samus	25% (spin), 10% (shock)	Zero Suit Samus radiates energy, dragging in items and enemies towards her, then somehow regains her Power Suit.

On-screen appearance

• Her Power Suit falls off as she stands up (similar to the result of the Zero Laser). Power Suit pieces can then be used as throwing items.

Taunts

• Up taunt: Throws her gun into the air, spins and catches it behind her and says "Is that all?".
• Side taunt: Activates her whip, flicks it and says "Try me".
• Down taunt: Samus spins multiple times quickly on one foot, twirling her plasma whip around her like a rhythmic gymnast and says, "You're mine".

Up taunt	Side taunt	Down taunt

Idle poses

• Checks her Paralyzer.
• Stands straightly with Paralyzer besides her head, then looks around.

Crowd cheer

	English	Japanese
Cheer
Description	Ze-Ro Suit Sam-Us!	Sam-Us
Pitch	Group chant	Group chant

Victory poses

A flourish originating from Metroid that played whenever Samus obtained a power-up, addition to her Power Suit, or defeated Ridley and Kraid.

• Up: Backflips to the screen.
• Left: Slashes with her energy whip and says "Be still."
• Right: Side kick flex.

Up	Left	Right

In competitive play

Matchups

Super Smash Bros. Brawl Character Matchups

Avg.

Zero Suit Samus is soft countered by six characters, has eight even matchups, soft counters thirteen characters, counters six characters, and hard counters three characters. Against other top/high tier characters, she has six disadvantageous matchups, two even matchups, and one advantageous matchup. According to the current SmashBoards matchup chart, her matchup spread has the eleventh highest unweighted rank, tenth highest total, and the eleventh highest weighted total. Zero Suit Samus tends to do well against characters who she can juggle and beat in the air easily, as well as characters who lack considerable range and ability to counter her great movement speed. However, she has trouble against characters with good projectiles, especially if they have a reflector to counter her Power Suit Pieces. This is perhaps most noticeable with Falco, who has both a very useful projectile and a ranged reflector. Zero Suit Samus also has a bit of trouble against characters who can space against her easily, such as Marth who can do so on the ground and in the air alike. She is one of only four characters (along with Meta Knight, Toon Link, and Peach) to have an advantage against the Ice Climbers, as she can outspace them with her Plasma Whip to avoid getting grabbed as easily.

Notable players

See also: Category:Zero Suit Samus professionals (SSBB)

•  Apollo
•  Charby
•  Choco
•  Dazwa
•  DRN - 64th on 2014 SSBBRank.
•  Kamemushi
•  Nick Riddle - 32nd on 2014 SSBBRank.
•  quiKsilver - Best Zero Suit Samus in Germany. 58th on 2014 SSBBRank.
•  Sakasaka
•  Salem - Won Apex 2013, defeating professional players. 18th on 2014 SSBBRank.
•  Shaky - Ness player who also mained Zero Suit Samus. 34th on 2014 SSBBRank.
•  Snakeee
•  V115 - Best Zero Suit Samus in Canada. 26th on 2014 SSBBRank.

Tier placement and history

Zero Suit Samus was originally a mid tier character, ranked 21st on the first tier list (September 2008). However, as Zero Suit Samus mains such as Snakeee and Nick Riddle showed how effective her aerial game and combo abilities are, she rose to 16th place on the second tier list (January 2009), then stayed at 15th until the fifth tier list (September 2010), where she jumped into the high tiers, at 13th place. She rose again to 12th in the sixth tier list (July 2011), and 10th in the seventh list (April 2012). Due to Salem winning Apex 2013 using only Zero Suit Samus, she rose to 9th place in the eighth and current tier list, as of April 2013. Some people even believe that she belongs in the bottom of the top tiers; whether her current position is accurate or should be higher has been disputed.

Role in The Subspace Emissary

Zero Suit Samus in the Subspace Emissary.

Zero Suit Samus is first seen breaking into the base of the Subspace Army. Soon she comes across Pikachu being drained of its electrical power. Samus uses her whip to break the container the Pikachu is being held in, summoning a security force of R.O.B.s. Later, she comes across her Power Suit, but is confronted by two Shadow Bug clones mimicking the Power Suit.

After reacquiring her Power Suit, Samus and her new companion Pikachu come across Ridley. He grabs Samus and starts to drag her against the wall, until Pikachu returns Samus' favor and uses Thunder on Ridley, causing him to drop Samus. An infuriated Ridley attacks. Once they defeat him, the duo exits the base and come across a cave.

Samus and Pikachu make their way to the Subspace Bomb Factory and find the Ancient Minister with the R.O.B. Squad. They prepare to fight, but then realize that he looks very sad. Soon, Captain Falcon, Olimar, Diddy Kong and Donkey Kong find the factory and enter. A hologram of Ganondorf appears and orders the R.O.B. Squad to activate the Subspace Bombs in the factory. The Ancient Minister tries to stop them, but is set on fire when Ganondorf orders them to retaliate. After The Ancient Minister is revealed to be a R.O.B. himself, the characters set out and all join the quest.

Samus helps the others to fight Meta Ridley, flees the island, gathers with almost all the rest of the characters, enters the subspace, is defeated by Tabuu and revived by the King Dedede, Ness and Luigi. She can help to defeat Tabuu in the end.

Playable appearances

After Zero Suit Samus reclaims the Samus suit, the players have the option to use her Zero Suit form in other levels.

• The Research Facility (Part I)
• The Research Facility (Part II)
• The Subspace Bomb Factory (Part I)
• The Subspace Bomb Factory (Part II)
• Entrance to Subspace
• The Great Maze (if rescued in Subspace (Part I)

Exclusive stickers

Since Samus and Zero Suit Samus share the same trophy base, there are some cases in which certain stickers will not affect one of them. Since Smash Balls don't appear in Adventure Mode, if one transforms into Zero Suit Samus, they will be unable to change back until the end of the level (or, in The Great Maze, a save point). Aside from use of items, only Leg, Weapon, and Energy stickers will affect both characters. That said, all of Zero Suit Samus's moves consist of Leg or Weapon attacks barring the first hit of the jab, Forward Throw and Down Smash.

In Event Matches

Solo Events

• Event 16: Power Suit ON!: The player plays as Zero Suit Samus and must turn into Samus by obtaining a Smash Ball. Two other Zero Suit Samuses are also featured in this event, who will attempt to stop the player.
• Event 20: All-Star Battle x1: Zero Suit Samus is one of the eight opponents fought in this event along with Wario, Meta Knight, Pit, Olimar, Lucas, Diddy Kong, and the Pokémon Trainer.
• Event 23: Molten Norfair: Samus must survive the lava wave on Norfair by getting inside the safety capsule while fending off against both Fox and Captain Falcon. It's possible for the player to turn into Zero Suit Samus by quickly inputting her up and down taunts in rapid sucession.

Co-op Events

• Co-Op Event 6: Unwanted Suitors: As Zelda and Zero Suit Samus, both players must defeat an invisible Captain Falcon and an invisible Luigi on Port Town Aero Dive.
• Co-Op Event 7: Battle of the Dark Sides: Link and Samus, must defeat Dark Link and Dark Samus in a 200 HP Stamina match on Bridge of Eldin. It's possible for Samus to turn into Zero Suit Samus if the player wishes.
• Co-Op Event 21: The True All-Star Battle: Both players select a character and take on the entire roster on Battlefield. Note that Zero Suit Samus may take Samus's spot in the lineup.

Trophies

Zero Suit Samus's main and Final Smash trophies can be obtained by clearing Classic Mode and All-Star mode respectively with Zero Suit Samus.

Zero Suit Samus

Samus Aran without her mighty Power Suit. In this condition, she does not have the firepower she's famed for but is in full possession of the agility and athleticism she gained through her childhood training with the Chozo. Without the armor, she's also much, much faster. The weapon she carries is a self-protection device known as a Paralyzer that stops enemies cold.

: Metroid: Zero Mission

Power Suit Samus

Zero Suit Samus's Final Smash. Samus loses her Power Suit when she fires the Zero Laser, but she can restore it—that is, she can return from her Zero Suit form to her familiar armored form. That being said, Zero Suit Samus is very quick with great reach, so there are tactical reasons to fight as is. If that's your preference, don't pick up any Smash Balls.

: Super Smash Bros. Brawl

• 

  Classic

• 

  Power Suit Samus

Alternate costumes

Trivia

"Zaro Suit Samus"

• Zero Suit Samus's grab, while a tether grab, is not a tether recovery, although it becomes one in Super Smash Bros. 4. She shares this disability with Yoshi, Ivysaur, and Olimar.
• Brawl is the first instance of Samus having dialogue performed by a voice actress; her only voice prior to Brawl was in the form of grunts and cries of pain in the Metroid Prime series. Metroid: Other M is the only game outside of the Smash Bros. series in which Samus has a voice actress.
• Zero Suit Samus, Falco, Peach, Pikachu and Meta Knight are the only five characters who have speaking parts in all three of their taunts.
• Strangely, Zero Suit Samus's up tilt and up aerial have a slash effect along with making a slashing sound, despite that she uses her legs rather than any slashing tool. Kirby's up smash also shares this trait.
• Zero Suit Samus speaks English in the Japanese version of Brawl while taunting.
• Zero Suit Samus is the only character to not appear anywhere on the character selection screen in Brawl.
  • Similarly, Sheik is the only character to not appear in Melee's character selection screen.
• When selecting Zero Suit Samus on the tournament mode and SSE character selection screens, her name is misspelt as "Zaro Suit Samus".
• Zero Suit Samus and Sonic are the only characters who are never fought in any form in The Subspace Emissary.
• Whenever Zero Suit Samus gets Star KO'd or Screen KO'd, her Paralyzer vanishes. A similar effect happens whenever she gets hit by Blue Falcon.
• Zero Suit Samus is the only female newcomer introduced in Brawl.

External links

• Zero Suit Samus's page at Smash Bros. DOJO!!.
• Zero Suit Samus Character Guide on SmashBoards
• Zero Suit Samus's Moves - History Behind Super Smash Bros. Brawl, by CrappyCaptureDevice (part 2 of Samus's Moves)