[Scarekrow77]

This is a guide, to the best of my experience, about ZSS (Zero Suit Samus). I mained her when I got Brawl and still have good knowledge of her abilities. The guide will explain her advantages, disadvantages, and etc., plus the overall effectivness of her moveset. This is not explaining how to be the best ZSS out there, it is just to help those who are having trouble utilizing her, use ZSS to her full potential. If you have any questions or something you don't understand feel free to PM me. Also, if you want to practice your ZSS on me I'd be more than welcome. (Oh yeah you can also add to my rep if you feel like it... you know, if you want to <.<)

Specials: I'll start of with ZSS's special moves first.

Neutral B--- The neutral B attack is a defensive move that shoots out a stun laser. You can't store it like normal Samus's beam, but it doesn't take long to fully charge at all. It is rather slow so it might not always land, but if it hits, it will freeze the opponent in place for a couple seconds, depending on how long you charged it. Also, the longer it is charged, the farther it goes. It's good for setting up combos into pretty much anything and is good if you need to close the distance between you and your attacker. It comes out fast and doesn't have much lag, so isn't too dangerous to use. Also good for mind-games (lulz, mind games).

Side B--- ZSS's side B is definately one of, maybe the best of her attacks. It's pretty much a more powerful side smash attack when landed correctly. It comes out kind of slow, but it has good range, and the sweetspot at the end does great damage and knock-back. Plus, if your opponent is too close to you when you bring it out, the hilt of the stungun will knock them into the sweetspot. If your really unlucky, your opponent might be standing in the wire where they won't take any damage at all. Not very punishable since it has little lag at the end, unless you miss at close range. As a bonus, ZSS's side B can teather to the ledge.

Down B--- This is quite the interesting attack. It allows ZSS to do an extra flip giving her some invincibility frames, and it lets her attack defensively. If you hit an attack button during the flip, ZSS will stick her foot out to kick in the direction you tilt your control stick. This move can be a bit complicated though. Let's say your jumping in one direction, but want to flip the other, then you need to tilt your control stick the other way while doing down B (diagnally). Hitting the attack button while flipping will make ZSS kick inward by default, but to kick in the direction you flip, you need to tilt your control stick that way as well. Anyway, if you land your kick with the sweetspot, the end of ZSS's foot, then your opponent will be dealt some deadly knock-back. Another good thing to keep in mind is if you get the top of your enemy's head with your foot, it will spike them down, making for a good meteor smash off the stage. Anyway using this efficiently does take some practice, keep that in mind. (This is also a good back-up recovery if you're being edge-hogged)

Up B--- ZSS's up B is easily the greatest teather in the game. Offensively, ZSS will throw her beam upwards knocking foes up, and pulling them back down. Has a long range, so can be safely used against an opponent trying to DAir you. As a recovery move, this teather has incredibly long range, and can be used multiple times before hitting the ground. You can't do much about opponents who ledge-guard, but if your lucky, you can spike them off the ledge and grapple onto it before you fall to your doom. If nothing else, bring them down with you. The attack is the same on the air our ground. Comes out fast, little lag.

Smash Attacks:

Side Smash--- ZSS's forward smash is where she whips out her tazer to "slash" people, if you will. Unlike her side B, this attack will hit anything in front of her with a better-then-average range and comes out pretty fast. Not as powerful, but it still gets the job done. It also reaches a bit behind ZSS, so any foe standing close enough behind her will get tazed as well. Unfortunately, this attack has some punishable lag afterwards so be careful where you use it. Its speed differences are pretty much the opposite of ZSS's side B.

Up Smash--- Now, the up smash is similar to ZSS's up B, but works differently. She will whip her tazer around in the air shocking the opponent multiple times before sending them back upwards. Unlike her up B, the up smash doesn't reach quite as high, but it has a much wider aerial strike-range. Very useful when your opponent is airborne. Quite the defensive move if your opponent tries anything in the air because they can reach you. Also, If your opponent is next to you while performed, they will knocked up with the whip. This move takes a little while to finish, so it can be dangerous if your opponent is grounded.

Down Smash--- The down smash is almost like the neutral B, stunning the opponent when it lands. ZSS will shoot her stungun at the ground a short distance in front of her, damaging and stuning the foe. Very useful defensive move. It takes a second to come out, but has basically no ending lag. The shock will hold your opponent for about two seconds so another smash, or B attack afterwards is a good combo choice. Grabing a stunned opponent will work too, though. A couple warnings though about attacks after the down smash: If you choose to use side B, make sure thatyour opponent gets caught by the sweetspot only, because the knockback from the hilt of the stungun will sometimes hit them out of the spark's range. Another thing is that using the down smash again won't keep them stunned, but only do damage and knock them back out of the stun. If your lucky, you can get three down smashes in before your opponent gets knocked away.

Tilts (like the smash attacks but without the "smash"):

Side Tilt--- The side tilt is basically just a quick light kick that can put some distance between ZSS and her opponent. If aimed diagnally toward the ground though, then it will do more damage than normal. Useful for getting you enemy off guard.

Up tilt--- A very useful move that knocks your enemy upwards. ZSS will do some kind of spin-kick/handstand that will catch any opponents next to her and toss them upwards. It's very good for setting up some combos with ZSS's other moves since it sends them directly above her. I recommend following up with this after landing a dash attack. Works about 95% of the time for me.

Down tilt--- A nice little sweep kick that knocks enemies in the air. This can be a decent substitute for the up tilt if you want to get an enemy in the air. This tends to work well with a forward air if you manage to get your enemy high enough. Has some decent reach, about as much as ZSS's forward tilt.

Aerials:

Neutral Air--- ZSS's neutral is more of a defensive move, but can very useful. She will swing her whip pretty much around herself that will knock enemies away doing decent damage. It's better to use if you're being combo'd and need to get out, or trapped in a crowd. It has some lag after using it, so be prepared not to do anything in the air for a second or two.

Forward Air--- Quite a few attacks can combo into this. ZSS will do two kicks in the air, and the second kick can be a real powerhouse if it lands. Very good KO move if your get your opponent off the stage with it. One problem though is if your opponent is at high damage the first kick might knock them out of the way of the second one, so be cautious.

Back Air--- Back air is a very good move. It's practically just like normal Samus' BAir, however it's perhaps a bit more powerful. She will do a quick back kick in the air, nothing more to it really. Has a lot of KO potential. Try to set your enemy up for one of these. If you land it at high percent, chances are you'll KO your enemy.

Up Air--- Up air is another one of ZSS's great KO moves. She will do a quick kick flip in the air that can be performed multiple times in succession. It can KO at about 80-90% in the air depending on the character, but is a very good choice if your opponent is above you.

Down Air--- Now down air is much like some of the other characters' down air in the game when ZSS will do a fast rocket-like kick and come down onto onto the ground. It is sort of at an angle in front of ZSS so make sure you take that into account as well. It has two damage parts to the attack, one where the kick connects with your opponent and one where it hits the ground. This attack is good if you need to get out of the air quickly, or need to strike a vulnerable enemy down below. Be careful you don't use this when off the stage, because it won't stop until you hit the ground, or the bottomless infinity where you KO yourself.

A-Combo & Dash Attack:

A-Combo--- Ok so ZSS's a-combo can be a good way to rack up some early % really quickly. It's three quick strikes of the arms the comes out really fast and has almost no lag. It does maybe around 7% per complete 3 hits, but at low %, it won't knock your enemy so far away, allowing you to stay in range and keep attacking. It cannot be shielded right away until after the third hit, so bear in mind your opponent will be stuck for a second.

Dash Attack--- ZSS has a decent dash attack, just a good kick, nothing too special about it. However at low %, there are quite a few moves that it can combo into. Not much else to say, I'll explain some of its uses in the combo section.

(Continued in second post)