No Stack Bubble Combos

This is meant to be a basic starter guide of what is possible when landing a Side Special (Tongue) on an unstacked opponent. I will preface this guide by stating my intentions are not to provide optimal combos, but rather provide a general understanding of options that are available to you. An optimal bubble combo is one that follows and reacts to the opponent’s bubble drift, so don’t be afraid to be creative with the combos I have listed below.

Basic Combos Copied to clipboard

Fair Spike > Up Air 1 > Bair (27%)
Fair Spike > Up Air 1 (Hitfall the first hit of Up Air) > Bair provides solid damage and has the added benefit of being a DI mixup. Depending on how you position yourself after the Up Air 1, you can either opt for sweetspot Bair and hopefully catch your opponent holding out or the Reverse Hit for the possibility of a combo extender.

Reverse Bair > Reverse Bair > DACUS (31%)
Reverse Bair > Reverse Bair > DACUS is a simple combo that provides a very generous amount of damage and adds an additional two stacks onto your opponent.

Reverse Bair > Dash Attack > Fair (26%)
Reverse Bair > Dash Attack > Fair is a nice bread-and-butter combo that will stage carry your opponent, with the possibility of leaving them offstage for a potential edge-guard.

Reverse Bair > Dash Attack > Up Air 1 > Bair (30%)
Compared to the combos listed above, this will be more towards the harder end of “basic”; borderline intermediate. Instead of going for Fair, as shown in Basic Combo 3, you can instead alter the route into a string of Up Air 1s leading into a Bair, Nair, or Fair finisher. Do remember that the opponent is able to escape Up Air 1 strings with either an airdodge or a Jump.

Dart Throw Combos Copied to clipboard

Dash Attack > Aerial Dart Throw > Fair (23%)
A bread-and-butter combo that sacrifices potential damage for the chance of adding even more stacks onto your opponent. The Fair finisher allows you the chance to knock the opponent away for an edgeguard or a chance to recharge your darts back to full stack.

Up Air > Aerial Dart Throw > Fair (26%)
For a slight increase in difficulty, you’ll be able to achieve similar results as the above combo but with an additional 3% added to your opponent. The slight increase in difficulty comes from the fact that you must perform a dash prior to the falling Up Air.

Dair2 > Grounded Dart Throw > Dash Attack (22%)
Depending on how close you are to your opponent after the Neutral Special, you can very well combo into Jab and from there tilt cancel. So even though this string does the least amount of damage in this category, it provides the most potential for versatility.

Reverse Bair > Reverse Bair > Aerial Dart Throw > Reverse Bair > Dash Attack (32%)
While the moves used are pretty basic, its very important that you perform a slight dash after each Bair or else the opponent will be too far to follow up. Once rising needle throw is over, make sure you’re able to get out falling Bair as soon as possible to prevent the opponent from teching.

Kill Options Copied to clipboard

Up Air 1 > Up Air 1 > Up Strong (27%)
Up Air 1 is a fantastic move to keep your opponent from drifting too far away from you. Two Up Air 1s into an Up Strong provides the perfect timing to land the Up Strong right as the opponent exits the bubble.

Fair Spike > DACUS (28%)
The classic go-to kill option that does its job very well in a multitude of situations. Please note that during kill range, this combo is very much avoidable through DI down then immediately up, but the difficulty of such DI allows it to land far more often than it should.

Reverse Bair > DACUS (26%)
An alternate kill option that is recommended if you notice that your opponent is drifting downward during bubble drift.

Fair > Fstrong (26%)
Ranno’s Forward Strong is probably the move most players wouldnt expect him to opt for in terms of bubble options. It’ll add a nice mix up to your repertoire and is great on stages with average to below-average side blastzones such as Rock Wall and Air Armada.

I hope this has given you an idea of the multitude of combo options you have available on a bubbled opponent, even with no stacks. Now go and find even more for yourself!