Samus (Super Smash Bros. Melee)

This article is about Samus' appearance in Super Smash Bros. Melee. For the character in other contexts, see Samus Aran.

“	A space warrior with an arsenal of long-range projectile weapons.	”
—Description from Melee's manual.

Samus
Universe	Metroid
Also appears in	SSB Brawl SSBWU/3DS
Availability	Starter
Tier	C (10)
Character Statistics
Number of Jumps	2
Can Wall Jump	Yes

Samus (サムス, Samus) is a starter character in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Returning as a veteran from the previous game, Samus, similarly to Link, reprises her role as a short-ranged fighter with numerous ranged options. In addition, she received some powerful buffs, causing her to improve from a bottom-tiered character in Super Smash Bros. to a high-mid tiered character in Melee.

Samus is currently ranked 10th on the current tier list, placing her in high-mid tier, a significant improvement from her 8th place position in Super Smash Bros.. This is mainly due to her numerous and effective projectiles, which adds to her KOing power and her approach on the ground. She also has a good air game, complimented with a powerful back aerial. Samus' recovery is among the best in the game; her bomb jumps, ability to wall jump, grappling beam, and heavy weight all contribute to making her among the toughest characters to KO horizontally. She also possesses techniques exclusive to her, such as the Super Wavedash and Extended Grapple, that aid her approach on opponents. However, she is floaty, allowing her to be juggled and KO'd vertically easily, and she has a below average combo ability due to a relatively low air speed. She also happens to be easy to combo in general despite being floaty, due to being a heavyweight with a tall stature. Her primary combo starter, her grab, is also very laggy if it misses, though it can be extended in the NTSC version. Regardless, Samus has a large amount of advantageous matchups, three of which are close to unloseable (against Roy, Yoshi and Pichu).

Attributes

Samus is a unique character. Although a tall heavyweight, she is unusually floaty, uncharacteristic of characters in her weight class. Her slow falling speed (the second slowest in the game, tied with Zelda) allows her recovery to travel more distance and gives her better potential combo game. However, it also makes her more susceptible to vertical KOs, even with her high weight, and it also gives her a poor SHFFL.

Arguably Samus's most valuable asset is her high range. While lacking a disjointed hitbox, Samus has a variety of long-reaching attacks and long-ranged projectiles that can assist with her ground-based approach. Charge Shot can quickly become one of her most powerful attacks, while her Missiles can act as both an approach option when non-tapped and as a powerful finisher when tapped. Samus's average traction and low falling speed also grant her a long wavedash that can mesh well with her long-ranged smash attacks, as well as her modestly-ranged tilts; assuming the player has particularly good timing, Samus also has access to the longest wavedash in the game, the Super Wavedash, which can also potentially surprise enemies due to its speed. While laggy, Samus is also owner of the longest grab in the game, and a technique unique to the NTSC release of the game can allow her to extend its reach by three, in addition to allowing it to home in on enemies.

Samus's recovery is also among the longest and most flexible in all the game. While Screw Attack grants relatively little horizontal and vertical distance, its multiple hitboxes can potentially frustrate edge-guarders, especially due to its final blow. Samus, however, owns arguably more options for her recovery than any other character in the game. Her average air speed and low falling speed aid her approach toward ledges, while her natural ability to wall jump can aid her recovery on stages with walls underneath the ledge, such as Fountain of Dreams or Dream Land. Samus's down special, her bombs, can allow her to bomb-jump onto the stage without the loss of jumps, and her grab air can allow her to enter "safe zones" underneath the stage, as well as acting another long recovery technique. Owing to these variety of options, edge-guarding against Samus can be extremely difficult, especially for characters with poor recoveries. For Samus herself, this long recovery also grants her a powerful edge-guarding game of her own, aided by her fast and powerful neutral and back aerial attacks.

Despite having a good approach on the ground, Samus's aerial approach suffers due to her strange variety of attributes. Her below-average falling speed and high jumps give her a poor SHFFL, despite the presence of low ending lag for her aerials when L-canceled. Her low falling speed also can prevent her from quickly pursuing enemies that have been knocked into the the ground; as such, Samus can have particular difficulty in comboing fast fallers, even with her variety of throws. Tying into this, Samus's grab is extremely laggy and can easily be punished if she fails to grab an opponent with it.

Samus also has a very poor defensive game; Samus's shield cannot easily cover her body and thus invites shield stabbing. While boasting an average sidestep dodge, Samus's rolling dodge is among the worst in the game, due to its low speed. While Screw Attack can potentially act as a decent out-of-shield option, Samus's other options are slow and laggy, such as her up smash and grab.

Changes from Smash 64 to Melee

Samus has been drastically buffed from Smash 64 to Melee. She is often considered the most buffed character from Smash 64 to Melee along with Jigglypuff, due to increased power, attack speed, range, combo ability, and recovery, and by going from a low tier to a semi-viable tournament contender.

Attributes

• Samus's attacks are generally faster in terms of both startup and ending lag.
• Samus has slightly faster air speed.
• Has much more combo ability, though still not too favorable.
• Samus has significantly improved recovery with many more options, due to Screw Attack giving much more vertical distance, and her now being able to bomb jump and wall grapple (the latter of which is further improved by the directional air dodge).
• Samus has a slower dashing speed.

Ground Attacks

• Up tilt now meteor smashes grounded opponents, making it more useful for both combos and KOing.
• Down tilt: Has a new animation which is more powerful, being able to KO under 200%.
• Dash attack: Is stronger and due to its improved knockback, it no longer leaves Samus in a vulnerable position at moderate percentages.

• Dash attack no longer deals extra shield damage.

• Up smash: Has a lower maximum damage output (50% to 29%), and the individual hits no longer deal extra shield damage.
• Down smash: is faster and more powerful.

• Its animation has been changed to her old down tilt in Smash 64.

Aerial Attacks

• Back aerial: Is slower and has less range and power (though it is still quite powerful when sweetspotted).
• Down aerial: Is much stronger, being the fifth strongest meteor smash in Melee.

• As with almost every meteor smash from Smash 64 to Melee, down aerial has much slower startup.

Special Moves

• Charge Shot: The fully charged version now deals extra shield damage.

• The projectile now dissipates after traveling a certain amount of distance, rather than continuing on forever until it hits something.

• Missile: Samus's new side special move, which makes her shoot missile which homes in onto an opponent. Using this move as a smash attack makes shoot a Super Missile, a much stronger projectile that doesn't home onto opponents.
• Screw Attack: Is unable to "trap" opponents within the multiple hits as easily.
• Bomb: No longer disables Samus's midair jump before landing when used in midair. It also deals extra shield damage, and is a better gimping move on recovering opponents near the edge, due to the generally faster falling speeds in Melee.

PAL differences

Like some other characters, Samus has received some changes in the PAL version of Melee.

• Extended grapple is no longer possible.
• Can no longer bomb out of a grapple.

Moveset

		Image	Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack				3%	Samus performs a quick jab followed by a downward swing with her arm cannon. The second hit can be easily shielded or shield grabbed, making it difficult to connect both hits.
				7%
Forward tilt	↗			11%	A spinning horizontal kick forward that has good range, excellent for stopping close-up foes in their tracks. You can aim this attack up or down.
	→			10%
	↘			9%
Up tilt				13% (grounded), 12% (aerial)	Samus raises her leg and brings it down in an axe-like fashion. This attack pops grounded opponents into the air, which can open up a follow-up attack.
Down tilt				14%	Samus fires her arm cannon at the ground in front of her.
Dash attack				13% (clean), 9% (late)	Samus rams into the opponent using her shoulder.
Forward smash	↗			15%	Samus thrusts her arm cannon forward. Deals surprisingly good knockback for a low-damaging smash attack. This attack can be angled up or down.
	→			14%
	↘			13%
Up smash			Cover Fire	4% (hits 1-3), 5% (hit 4), 6% (hit 5)	Samus fires multiple shots out of her arm cannon in an arc over her head. Deals below-average knockback.
Down smash				16% (front), 15% (back)	Samus does a sweepkick attack that hits on both sides. When this attack hits an opponent in the front of you, they will be launched backwards; and when it hits behind you, they will be launched forwards.
Neutral aerial				14% (clean), 10% (late)	Samus performs a midair jump kick attack that has sex kick properties. Deals horizontal knockback.
Forward aerial				5% (hits 1-5)	Samus blasts her arm cannon in a downward arc in front of her.
Back aerial				14% (foot), 10% (leg)	Samus performs a reverse back kick that very useful for edge-guarding.
Up aerial				3% (hit 1), 1% (hits 2-5), 4% (hit 6)	Samus does a spiraling drill kick upwards.
Down aerial				16%	Samus swings her arm cannon in an arc below her. A powerful meteor smash, being the fifth most powerful in the game.
Grab aerial			Grapple Beam	4%	Samus shoot out a long energy beam that's useful at keeping enemies at a distance.
Grab			Grapple Beam	—	Samus sends out her Grapple Beam to catch the opponent. It is the longest grab in the game which can be extended by using the extended grapple technique.
Pummel				3%	Chops the foe with her free hand.
Forward throw				9%	Samus brings her opponent up with her Grapple Beam and launches them forward.
Back throw				8%	Samus flings the opponent away with her Grapple Beam.
Up throw				7%	Samus holds the opponent above herself with her Grapple Beam, then launches them upward.
Down throw				6%	Samus picks the foe up with her Grapple Beam and slams them onto the ground.
Floor attack (front)				6%	Samus gets up and kicks on both sides.
Floor attack (back)				6%	Samus stands on her arm cannon and does a spinning double kick.
Edge attack (fast)				10%	Samus returns onto the stage and thrusts one foot out.
Edge attack (slow)				10%	Samus slowly climbs onto the stage and attacks with her arm cannon.
Neutral special			Charge Shot	3-25%	When the B button is pressed, Samus will start charging a ball of energy that gets larger, stronger, and faster with more charge. Pressing the B button again during the charge will fire the shot, while pressing the L or R button will cancel the charge and allow Samus to store her current charge. When used in the air, Samus will fire the shot, regardless of its charge level.
Side special			Missile	5% (homing), 12% (super)	Samus fires a homing missile at a nearby opponent. When inputted smash attack, Samus will instead fire a Super Missile that travels farther and deals more damage, but only travels horizontally. Samus can only fire two Missiles at a time.
Up special			Screw Attack	Ground: 2% (hit 1), 1% (hits 2-12) Air: 1% (hits 1-12)	Samus leaps into the air while curling up in a ball, striking anyone caught in her tracks multiple times. This attack is mainly a recovery move.
Down special			Bomb	4% (contact & explosion)	Samus drops a timed bomb in her Morph Ball form, which explodes after a few seconds. If Samus come sin coneact with an exploding bomb, she will leap a small distance upward, which can help her when recovering.

Taunt

• Samus holds her arm cannon upright.

Crowd cheer

	English	Japanese
Cheer
Description	Sa-mus Sa-mus!	Sa-mu-s!
Voices	Group chant	Group chant

Victory poses

Template:Victory/SSBM

Matchups

Super Smash Bros. Melee Character Matchups

Avg.

In 1-P Mode

Classic Mode

In Classic Mode, Samus can appear as an ordinary opponent, as an opponent in the team battle alongside either Captain Falcon or Fox, as a giant opponent, as a metal opponent, or as an ally in team and giant battles. When alone, Samus appears either on Brinstar or Brinstar Depths; while when on a team with Captain Falcon, she appears on Big Blue.

Adventure Mode

Samus is fought on the Brinstar stage. After Samus is defeated, the planet will start to explode and the player must jump up a series of platforms to get to the top of the Brinstar Escape Shaft. Failing to reach the top in time will cost the player one life.

All-Star Mode

Samus and her allies are fought on Brinstar.

Event Matches

Samus is featured in the following event matches:

• Event 3: Bomb-fest: The player chooses any character and must defeat Link and Samus on Princess Peach's Castle. Link and Samus will only use their bomb special moves, and only items that create explosions (such as the Motion-Sensor Bomb and the Bob-omb) will spawn on the stage.
• Event 8: Hot Date on Brinstar: The player chooses any character and must defeat Samus in a three-stock match on Brinstar. The player starts and respawns with 102% damage, while Samus starts and respawns with 130%.
• Event 15: Girl Power: The player chooses any character and must defeat Samus, Peach, and Zelda in a two-stock match on Fountain of Dreams. The character the player chooses is tiny, while the female combatants are normal-sized.
• Event 17: Bounty Hunters: The player plays as Samus, teamed up with Captain Falcon (with Friendly Fire turned off), and must defeat Bowser before Captain Falcon does on Jungle Japes. The event results in failure if Captain Falcon delivers the finishing blow or if Bowser self-destructs.
• Event 20: All-Star Match 2: Samus is the first opponent the player must fight in this series of staged battles. The player battles her on Brinstar, which will transition to the next stage if Samus gets defeated. With a timer of four minutes, the player must defeat her along with Link, Zelda, Captain Falcon, and Fox.
• Event 27: Cold Armor: The player uses Samus must defeat three metal Samuses on the Brinstar Depths. The player-controlled Samus has one stock, while each metal Samus have two.
• Event 36: Space Travelers: The player uses Ness must defeat Samus, Kirby, Fox, Captain Falcon and Falco. The player battles the first three characters on Fourside and battles the last two on Battlefield.

Trophy descriptions

In addition to the normal trophy about Samus as a character, there are two trophies about her as a fighter, unlocked by completing the Adventure and All-Star modes respectively with Samus on any difficulty.

Samus

This intergalactic bounty hunter's full name is Samus Aran. Clad in a Power Suit made by the Chozo race and infused with their enhanced blood, she cleared the planet Zebes of a Metroid infestation. Samus is an orphan, the sole survivor of a Space Pirate raid that destroyed an Earth colony named K-2L.

• Game: Metroid

Samus Aran (Smash Red)

Samus has an abundance of projectile weapons, making her a long-distance attack specialist. The most powerful weapon in her arsenal is her Charge Shot, but be warned: it can be reflected. Her Missiles have homing capabilities, but when fired as Smash Attacks, they fly on a straight trajectory and have boosted power.

• B: Charge Shot
• Smash B: Missile

Samus Aran (Smash Blue)

While Samus's arsenal of missile weapons is indeed formidable, her enemies are in for a rude awakening if they guard against nothing else. Her Grappling Beam captures foes and latches on to walls, and the Screw Attack drags foes upward in a series of spins that doubles as a recovery move. Samus can also use her Bombs to perform Bomb Jumps.

• Up & B: Screw Attack
• Down & B: Bomb

Character Trophy

Smash Red

Smash Blue

Alternate Costumes

Samus's alternate costumes in Super Smash Bros. Melee.

Trivia

• Samus is the only returning character from Smash 64 with the least changes in her moveset. The only changed attacks were the Down Tilt (which is now is a cannon explosion) and the speed of her Down Aerial. Also, Samus' Up Smash and Forward Aerial were given updated effects.