Super Smash Bros. Melee/Movelists/Samus

Basic Techniques

Standard Attacks

Button(s)	Description/notes
A	A weak jab. Very unremarkable.
A A	A jab-to-punch combo. Also not very good.
Forward + A	A fairly quick kick.
Dash + A	Samus lunges at you and hits you with her shoulder.
Down + A	Samus hits the ground with her power beam and causes a small explosion. It launches the enemy upwards.
Up + A	Samus raises her leg, holds it there for a moment, then brings it crashing down. This can be used to counter some air attacks if timed properly.
Smash Forward + A	Samus punches you really hard with her gun. It is not as fast as Samus' other moves and shouldn't be used frequently.
Smash Down + A	Samus swings her leg on the ground 360 degrees around her entire body, hitting anything standing in front of or behind her.
Smash Up + A	Samus shoots flames into the air, catching an enemy who is attacking from above. This move can juggle an opponent for 5 hits, with the last one sending them upwards. Samus requires a little recovery after using this move so she is left vulnerable for around a second.

Aerial Attacks

Button(s)	Description/notes
A	A kick that stays deployed for about 2 seconds. Gets quite decent priority and is very useful for attacking enemies from above. An optimal strategy is to deploy the kick as you fast-fall onto the opponent.
Forward + A	Samus shoots some flames in front of her. No knockback, but fairly decent damage.
Back + A	Samus swings her foot behind her. Roughly equivalent to her sex kick, only behind her instead of in front.
Down + A	This is Samus' meteor smash. She hits the opponent with her gun, and he skyrockets downwards into oblivion. This move does damage about a second after you start it, so you want to start it as you're still moving upwards.
Up + A	Samus contorts herself into what can best be described as a screw shape, and juggles the opponent by spinning around quickly causing continuous damage. The final hit kicks them away.
Z	A unique attack, where with most players Z doubles as A in mid-air, Samus will use her Grappling Beam when you press Z in mid-air. It does damage if you hit an opponent with the extending tip, and can hook onto walls. You can only use this move once in the air and you cannot grapple onto walls continuously. Also, when you have hooked the beam onto a wall, hold down Z or A again to retract the beam to bring Samus up.

Special Attacks

Button(s)	Attack	Description/notes
B	Charge Shot	Press once to charge up. Press B again to fire. Does most damage when fully charged, which takes a few seconds. Tap left or right to roll if you anticipate that you will be unable to finish the charge. Can be fired in the air, but not charged.
Up + B	Screw Attack	Samus curls up into a ball and shoots upwards as she spins very quickly, doing moderate damage to anyone she hits. Can be used to reach a ledge that is too high after bomb jumping fails you.
Down + B	Bomb	Samus morphs into her famous Maru Mari/morph ball form and lays a bomb. These bombs explode after about a second, and do a low amount of damage. They can be used as a dodge to make Samus "slippery", but are best used as a recovery move. See bomb jump in the advanced techniques.
Forward + B	Homing Missile	Samus fires a homing missile which does moderate damage and slows down the further it goes. Generally not as good as the Power Missile below.
Smash Forward + B	Power Missile	Samus fires a missile which sacrifices the homing capabilities in favour of a stronger and faster missile. For effective use tactics, see missile cancel in the advanced techniques.

Throws

Samus will extend her Grappling Beam and reel her opponent in if the tip connects. It's best to use this while dashing, because the animation is faster.

Button(s)	Description/notes
Down	Samus whips the opponent into the ground. This is Samus' best throw because it allows her to combo out of it, with a smash attack or a charge shot for example.
Forward	Samus flings the opponent forwards. Not very remarkable.
Up	Not surprisingly, Samus throws the opponent upwards. This could be used as an aerial setup.
Back	Samus throws the opponent backwards.

Advanced Techniques

Bomb jump

A must for Samus players, the bomb jump is one of Samus' best assets. She can use it to get back onto a ledge from extremely long horizontal distances. The technique is executed by repeatedly laying bombs (down + B button) and guiding oneself so that one lands on them and bounces into the air towards the ledge. This is repeated over and over until the player reaches the ledge. A Samus player who has mastered the bomb jump can recover from just about any hit except for a meteor smash or a hit that sends her off the screen instantly.

Samus can actually jump using her Bombs to propel her. She cannot stay in the air indefinitely, but it is very useful as a recovery. Basically, after being knocked off the stage, lay a bomb, fall a little, lay another bomb(causing you to stall long enough for the first bomb to explode), then push the control stick in the direction you wish to go (DI), then repeat the process. Samus can also grapple the stage when she gets close enough.

Missile cancel

The missile cancel is the fastest way to fire missiles. It is performed by firing a power missile just before Samus hits the ground. This cancels out the lag of the missile and allows the player to perform another action (including firing another missile) immediately afterwards.

Super wavedash

This causes Samus to shoot across the screen at a distance approximately the width of the Final Destination stage, with nearly instant speed. It would be very useful as a form of evasion, but it is very difficult to execute consistently. It is performed by laying a bomb, then, right after Samus hits the ground, you'll see an unmorphing animation. Thats when you smash the control stick as quickly as possible in the opposite direction the player wants to travel, and then in the direction the player wants to travel. The timing for this technique is extremely precise - it can only be executed in the window of 2 frames. You must sycronize when you slam forward and backward by hitting backwards then at the time of the morphing "gel" animation, press forward.

Extended Grab

Press up and down on the d-pad while tapping Z. You can only grab by pressing Z again and home to the other players by holding R. It may take many tries to get right.

Samus can extend her grapple by rapidly pressing up and down on the D-Pad and pressing the Z-button while her grapple is extended. If done successfully her grapple will be 2-3 times longer and have the ability to home in on enemies by pressing the L button, to grab, you must press Z again as it lands on the enemy. The process of extending the grapple can leave you open, so it helps to jump into a grapple to make things less easy on your opponent. Also, the grapple resets each life.

Alt. method; works 100% of the time: simply do a short hop, immediately when you become airborne hold L and simply rotate the D-pad (fast as you can) counter-clockwise once and press A. Shortly after you rotate the pad once you should hit the ground. Now you will have an extended Grapple Beam!

Wall Grapple

When using Link, Young Link, or Samus, pressing Z or A+L or A+R to use the character's hookshot (Link and Young Link) or grappling beam (Samus). This can be done during the aforementioned characters' air dodges. It can connect to most solid ledges or walls and will allow the character to hang there; pressing A reels the character back up towards the stage. A triple jump attack (Up+B) can be performed immediately afterwards. The air dodge can be used to position the character properly before using this recovery technique, since the hookshot/grappling beam will not connect if the character is too close or far from a wall. If it hits an enemy it does some damage and has minimal knockback.

In general, this move is more effective than the Up+B for recovery, except in stages like DK 64 where it won't work.