- This article is about Zero Suit Samus's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. For other uses, see Zero Suit Samus.
Zero Suit Samus (ゼロスーツサムス, Zero Suit Samus), often abbreviated as ZSS, 0SS, or Zamus, is starter newcomer in Super Smash Bros. Brawl from the Metroid universe. Zero Suit Samus was confirmed as a newcomer at E3 2006 alongside Meta Knight, Wario, Snake, and Pit.
Zero Suit Samus ranks 9th on the current Brawl tier list, due to her amazing air and juggle game (her up aerial having the largest disjoint in the game), great spacing tools in Plasma Whip and Downward Smash, high vertical aerial mobility, longest tether recovery and extremely quick attacks. However, she lacks options out of shield, safe options on shield, and aerial options below her, which creates a weakness to long-range hitstun-inducing projectiles such as Lasers, arrows, etc. She also sports what many players consider the worst grab in the game, despite its long reach, it is slow, predictable, and very easy to punish.
Transforming from Samus to Zero Suit Samus[]
Midplay[]
Samus can also remove her Power Suit while in battle by doing the Up Taunt, Down Taunt, and Up Taunt in quick succession. It appears to be rather difficult to achieve, as DOJO!! states, "It's not easy [...] Try it out next time you feel like showing off."
There is a very easy way to do it with either the GameCube/Classic Controller or Wii Remote + Nunchuk:
1. Hold the GameCube/Classic controller/Wii Remote sideways so the left and right hand thumbs are on the Up and Down taunt Control Pad buttons respectively.
- For the Wii Remote + Nunchuk, put your thumbs on the 1 and 2 buttons.
2. Press Up Taunt first. This is the only thing that actually needs to be pressed in the right order.
- Press 1 on the Wii remote to activate the Up Taunt first.
3. During Samus's Up Taunt, rapidly press both Up and Down four times before the taunt ends.
- For the Wii Remote + Nunchuk, press the 1, then 2 buttons repeatedly. Do not press 1 and 2 at the same time, or else this will activate the Side Taunt.
Transforming should be very easy using this method. For the GameCube Controls, using one thumb to mash the directional pad works fine.
Another, very similar method is to place the index finger on the button for Down Taunt and the middle finger on the button for Up Taunt. Then, starting with the Up Taunt, just rock back and forth, Up-Down-Up. If done quickly, with several passes during the triggered Up Taunt, it's quite likely to trigger the transformation. This is mostly for the GC controls, but applies to the others as well.
The last easy way is to pick up the timer that appear while Samus still in the stage. This allow her to move slower, making it slightly easier to transform by doing the Up, Down and Up Taunts.
Starting as Zero Suit Samus in Brawl[]
Select Samus on the character screen and hold the following button before the match starts with the corresponding controller that is being used:
- GameCube/Classic controller: Hold the L or R button.
- Wii Remote and Nunchuk: Hold the Z button.
- Wii Remote: Hold the Minus (-) button.
- To select Zero Suit Samus as a CPU opponent: Have a control set for the desired player number and select Samus. Next, hold down the corresponding button for that controller when starting the match.
In all cases, the button has to be held only until the Select Stage screen is reached. If done correctly, at the Roster image in the upper-left area, Zero Suit Samus' face will be present instead of her Power Suit's helmet.
Starting as Zero Suit Samus in Adventure Mode[]
After Samus regains her power suit during the Subspace Emissary, Zero Suit Samus can still be selected by highlighting Samus on the character select screen and pressing the following buttons:
- GameCube Controller: Wiggle the C Stick in any direction
- Classic controller: Wiggle the Right Stick in any direction.
- Wii Remote with Nunchuk: Press the C button.
- Wii Remote: Press the Minus (-) button.
This technique can also be used to select an alternate form during tournament mode, and works for all other multi-form characters in addition to Samus.
Attributes[]
Strengths[]
- Excellent overall mobility with great dashing speed, good air speed and air acceleration, and high jumps.
- Starts off each match with her three Power Suit Pieces. These are powerful projectiles that deal great damage and knockback and synergise greatly with her long glide toss, allowing her to shut down the opponent's options and granting her great stage control.
- Outstanding aerial and juggle game with her powerful low lag aerials.
- Possesses large hitboxes and easy to connect sweetspots on several of her attacks.
- Many different KO options with her up aerial, forward aerial, back aerial, Plasma Whip, and Flip Kick.
- Amazing combo starter and KO setup move with her down smash.
- Has some of the game's most unique and versatile recovery options with her high midair jump, Plasma Whip, Plasma Wire, and Flip Jump.
Weaknesses[]
- Lightweight and can be KO'd somewhat easily.
- High short hop which makes it difficult to approach with her aerials.
- Mediocre ground game as none of her grounded moves are reliable finishers (although many of them are useful for comboing).
- Poor out of shield game (outside of armor pieces)
- Extremely laggy grab which is easily punishable if it whiffs.
- Reliant on tether recoveries which can leave her vulnerable to edgehogging if she has exhausted her other options.
Summary[]
She starts the match with a huge advantage over most characters, in that she has readily throwable projectiles that are extremely powerful and combo well with her glide toss. She can dash quickly, crawl, wall jump, has decent air speed and a high initial jump and midair 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 Move, Plasma Whip, has a huge sweetspot at the end (one of the biggest in the game, second to Zelda's Din's Fire), and the sourspot has the ability to push the opponent into the sweetspot, effectively KOing most characters around 110% if it's not stale. Her Down Smash has deceptively long range, and sets up many combos, including KOing ones. Many of her moves have large hitboxes and are easy to sweetspot. This can devastate opponents, as they are dealt a barrage of aerials and fast ground attacks. Her Up Smash is excellent because each hit refreshes her other moves, and is great for setting up or stopping an opponent's combo.
Another great KOing move is her Up Aerial, a very fast flip kick that can KO as low as 90% if the opponent is near the upper blast line and possesses 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 2 spikes, her Flip Jump Kick (if hit when she sticks her foot out, will spike opponents hard, but even without doing this, the kick is still very powerful, and can KO most characters at fairly medium percents with horizontal knockback), and her Up Special Move, Plasma Wire, (if hit at the tip, will spike anyone it hits). Both of these can be used for any situation, making her KO options very wide.
All of her tilts are quick, with decent range, and have the added bonus of launching her opponents into the air. 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 kills and does a little bit of damage. However, it's slow and needs to be charged up to go far.
In terms of recovery, her air speed and second jump are fairly high, and combined with her Flip Jump, she can most of the time make it back to the ledge with using a tether, but her Plasma Wire and Plasma Whip, like all tether recoveries can be stopped by edgehogging.
Overall, Zero Suit Samus, if mastered, is extremely dangerous, and many characters can find themselves down a stock or worse if they aren't careful. However, Zero Suit Samus is a light character, especially for her height. Her attacks and combos require a lot of precision, which makes her a difficult character to learn and play as effectively. A Zero Suit Samus player must know precisely when to use her few finishing moves so as not to devalue them due to Stale-Move Negation.
Moveset[]
Normal Attacks[]
- Neutral Attack - Palm Strike, Pistol Whip, Hip Thrust. Hits for 2%, 2%, 3%, respectively, for a total of 7% damage.
- Dash Attack - Leaps off of the ground, with a leg extended horizontally, traveling forward a bit. Similar in appearance to Fox's. Can easily be followed with tilts at low to mid percents, and can lock if buffered properly. 7% damage.
- Forward Tilt - An around-the-body kick 45 degrees from horizontal (when tilted upward). Can also be angled closer to horizontal (with forward held) or a quick, short ranged low leg sweep (when tilted down). Very low knockback. 6% damage.
- Down Tilt - Similar in appearance to Sheik's Down Tilt, a prone leg-sweep. Knocks upwards. Can combine with other attacks well. 6% damage.
- Up Tilt - Does handstand-splits while spinning in place, legs moving up vertically. Two hits for 5% then 6%, totaling 11% damage. Pretty good knockback at higher percents, and at low percents it sets up combos well. Replaces her Down Smash as a semi-effective means of hitting opponents on both sides.
Smash Attacks[]
- Forward Smash - Slashes forward with the whip. Good disjointed range, but poor knockback, and high starting and ending lag. Hits slightly behind her as well. 10%-14% damage in front, 6% damage behind.
- Down Smash - Aims down and shoots Paralyzer 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 how long it was charged. A rather unique attack, and it can be followed up by a Side Smash. Double Down Smash followed by Up Smash (or whatever is appropriate at the time) is an effective combo. Also moves Zero Suit Samus forward a little. Can infinite Fox at mid percents and other fast fallers to a lesser extent. 11-15% damage.
- Up Smash - Samus spins, extending the Plasma whip up above her head in a swirl. Hits multiple times, long vertical disjointed range and decent horizontal range. Only the tip of the plasma whip does knockback. 12-16% damage.
Aerial Attacks[]
- Neutral Aerial - Samus spins the whip around her body. Fairly good knockback and long range. Always deals 10% damage, regardless of decay, and does not refresh decay on other moves.
- Forward Aerial - Two forward kicks, each slightly faster and only slightly weaker than Samus's Back Aerial. The second kick is stronger 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. 6% then 11%, for a total of 17% damage.
- Back Aerial - Backward kick, similar in appearance to Samus's Back Aerial, but is a bit faster and has a larger hitbox. High knockback, and arguably her best KO move in the air. 13%
- Up Aerial - Flipkicks both legs above her head, similar to Fox's Up Aerial. High KO potential on lighter characters at as little as 60%, especially if they are near the upper blast line. Sweetspot is directly in front of Samus. 10% sweetspotted, 7% otherwise.
- Down Aerial - A Stall-Then-Fall. Samus stalls momentarily in midair, and then shoots down diagonally, similar to Sonic's or Sheik's Down Aerial. If it hits in midair, the first hit knocks the target into the second hit. Upon hitting the ground, it hits a second time, knocking anyone close away a fair bit. Like most Stall-Then-Fall moves, this can be used to cancel some vertical knockback if used while being knocked back. This move can Meteor Smash, but it is very dangerous when not over land as it will not stop until it is used at very high altitudes, similar to Toon Link's Down Aerial. Extremely fast vertical descent speed makes for an effective solution to her falling speed. 4% on contact, 5% landing, total of 9% damage possible.
Grabs and Throws[]
- Grab - Reaches forward with Plasma Whip. Very long range, especially her pivot grab, but is extremely laggy if misses. Zero Suit Samus's grab have a start-up of 16 frames.
- Pummel - Knees her victim. 2% damage.
- Forward Throw - Hits opponent forward with gun. Can chain grab most characters at low percents. Deals 2%, then 7%, for a total of 9% damage.
- Back Throw - Kicks opponent. Deals 2%, then 4%, for a total of 6% damage.
- Up Throw - Flips into the air and kicks the opponent. Deals 2%, then 8%, for a total of 10% damage.
- Down Throw - Slams opponent on ground and slams them with her leg. Appearance similar to Captain Falcon's Up Tilt. Ideal for combos. Deals 2%, then 5%, for a total of 7% damage.
Special Moves[]
Other[]
On-Screen Appearance[]
Her Power Suit falls off as she stands up. Power Suit pieces can then be used as throwing items.
Taunts[]
Zero Suit Samus, Falco, Meta Knight, and Peach are the only four characters with speaking parts in all three of their taunts.
- Up: Throws her gun into the air, spins and catches it behind her and says "Is that all?".
- Side: Activates her whip, flicks it and says "Try me".
- Down: Samus spins multiple times quickly on one foot, twirling her plasma whip around her waist like a rhythmic gymnast and says teasingly and seductively, "You're mine".
Cheer[]
"Zero Suit Sa-mus!"
Victory Poses[]
Victory Theme: Metroid Power-Up Theme
- A slow crescent kick, ending with her knee raised up beside her leg with her foot arched in a feminine manner.
- A series of acrobatic backflips to the screen.
- Slashes with her energy whip and says "Be still."
Credits Music[]
- Ending (Metroid)
In Competitive Play[]
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. Her matchup spread is very good overall. 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.
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 showed her effective aerial game and combo abilities 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 rose to 13th place. She rose again to 12th in the sixth tier list (July 2011), and 10th in the seventh list (April 2012). After Salem won 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 remains disputed, but her combination of mobility, powerful low lag aerials, strong recovery, and excellent stage control with her Power Suit Pieces makes her much better than initially thought.
Role in The Subspace Emissary[]
Samus is first seen breaking into the base of the Subspace Army. Soon she comes across a 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 her 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, Captain Olimar, Diddy and DK find the factory and enter. A hologram of Ganondorf appears and orders the R.O.B. Squad to activate the bombs. 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 fight Meta Ridley, flees the island, is defeated by Tabuu and revived by the others. She can help to defeat Tabuu in the end. She is the only character to have a different sound when her name appears when she reveals herself and her face.
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). Leg, Energy, and Weapon damage are stickers that both characters can use, so they may be useful.
Costume Gallery[]
Gallery[]
Trophy description[]
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 (Nintendo)
- Metroid: Zero Mission (Game Boy Advance)
Trivia[]
- Zero Suit Samus's grab, while a tether grab, is not a tether recovery. She shares this 'deficiency' with Yoshi, Ivysaur, and Olimar; of which only Yoshi actually has a problem, as the latter two have Up Specials that function as tethers already, as does Samus.
- Samus is usually a silent protagonist in the Metroid series. However, Zero Suit Samus speaks in each of her taunts, and in one victory pose. She had previously never spoken outside of Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion, and Metroid Zero Mission, and then only in text. Brawl is the first instance of Samus's dialogue being performed by a voice actor. Samus's only voice prior to Brawl was in the form of grunts and "pain" noises in the Metroid Prime series. However, she is not the first or only character in the Smash series to get a true voice. In the video game Metroid: Other M, Samus speaks and has dialogue provided by a voice actress.
- Zero Suit Samus makes a slashing sound similar to a sword slicing attack when she strikes with her legs, possibly due to her legs being svelte and nimble like a sword. Examples of this are her Up Tilt, Up Aerial, and Down Tilt. Falco and Zelda make the same sound in Melee, when using Down Tilt and Forward Tilt, respectively.
- Zero Suit Samus is the only character not to appear on the character selection screen.
- Zero Suit Samus is the only newcomer in Brawl that is female.
External links[]
- Zero Suit Samus's page at Smash Bros. DOJO!!.
- Zero Suit Samus Character Guide at SWF
- Zero Suit Samus's Moves - History Behind Super Smash Bros. Brawl, by CrappyCaptureDevice (part 2 of Samus's Moves)
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Metroid universe | ||
---|---|---|
Characters | Samus Aran (64 · Melee · Brawl · 3DS/Wii U · Ultimate) Zero Suit Samus (Brawl · 3DS/Wii U · Ultimate) Ridley (Ultimate) Dark Samus (Ultimate) | |
Side Characters | Bosses | Ridley · Meta Ridley |
Assist Trophies | Metroid · Dark Samus · Mother Brain | |
Mii Fighter Costume | Samus Aran | |
Background characters | Ridley · Kraid · Parasite Queen | |
Stage Hazards | FG II-Graham · Joulion · Zero · Ridley | |
Enemies | Geemer · Kihunter · Metroid · Reo | |
Stages | Planet Zebes · Brinstar · Brinstar Depths · Norfair · Frigate Orpheon · Pyrosphere Brinstar Escape Shaft | |
Item | Screw Attack | |
Music | List of Music (Metroid series) | |
Collectibles | Trophies | Melee Trophies · Brawl Trophies · 3DS Trophies · Wii U Trophies |
Stickers | List of Stickers (Metroid series) | |
Spirits | List of spirits (Metroid series) | |
Masterpieces | Metroid · Super Metroid |