Sonic Boost Drop Dash Technique

[_DX_]

A Gfycat member made a Brawl Minus Technique about Sonic. This technique is called "Sonic Boost Drop Dash" (SBDD or BDD for short)

How To Do :
It is very uncomplicated to do. My easiest stage is Peach's Castle.

1) Go to a stage that has platforms. (Battlefield, Smashville, etc.)
2) Stand on top of a platform and hold Side B.
3) The first few frames are the ones that you cancel (Meaning unhold Side B).
4) Cancel your Side B and hold down on your analog stick
5) You will have more momentum from your dropping animation

Another way to do this is Down Smash

This is done by doing a Down Smash and holding your analog stick down.


If your doing it completely wrong :
1) You won't have any momentum if you do it too early


What to watch out for :
If your too close to the blastzone, you will die easily.

 

[MelonKeepR]

Looks very interesting. What exactly is happening, here?

 

[player_03]

What exactly is happening, here?

More than I originally thought. There's too much for my usual post with one or two Gfycats, so I'm going to have to make a YouTube video to explain it fully. (DX, would you mind if I went ahead and explained this?)

 

[_DX_]

Yeah. You can make a video on it. Can I still make the information? For those who need help with it.

 

[player_03]

This technique is called "Sonic Boost Drop Dash" (SBDD or BDD for short)

That's what I meant when I said there's more going on than I originally thought. Dropping through the platform is only a small part of what this move can do.

I'll get to work on that video.

 

[player_03]

Ok, let's be realistic here: I'm not going to finish a video for this anytime soon. Have some gifs instead.

To start, let's head to Big Blue. If you've seen Sonic's introduction video, you already know that he can outrun the stage with Boost Dash. And you also know that his regular dash is too slow to keep up.

You'll die off the right if you use Boost Dash, and you'll die off the left if you just run. But what if I told you there was an option in between?

[Edit: something went wrong with the embed. Click here to watch the gif at normal speed instead of ~500 fps.]

Shown here is a third type of dash: it has the regular dash animation (no blue circle), but it has most of the speed of Boost Dash. After a little while, it slows down to regular dash speeds.

For lack of a better name, I'm going to call it the "Half Boost Dash." (Cue pannenkoek2012 memes.) Here's how to do it:

1. Do a Boost Dash for at least one frame.
   
2. Release B.
3. Don't release the control stick for at least one frame.

While half-boosting, you can dash attack, usmash or dsmash, shield, grab, jump, crouch, or fall through a platform. While boosting on the ground, all you can do is dash attack and cancel into a half-boost. If you run off the edge of the platform while boosting, you'll continue boosting through the air. If you run off while half-boosting, you'll lose most of your speed.

Basically, Half Boost Dash is a faster dash, but Boost Dash is its own move.

But what about the "Boost Drop Dash"? Here's what you need to know:

• The name is misleading: you can't drop through a platform while boosting. You have to cancel into a half-boost first.
• You must spend a minimum of one frame in the half-boost state. But there's no maximum, so take your time.
  
• When you drop through a platform, you keep your speed. (Unlike running off an edge, which makes you lose it, as shown above.)
• You can cancel the ledge-drop animation into an aerial attack.

[Click here for a demonstration.]

Half-boosting is also good for sliding grabs. The sequence goes boost -> half-boost -> jump -> grab, and you'll do a sliding grab that goes all the way across an average stage. The first three steps need only a frame each, so you can do this as fast as your fingers can move.

 

[MelonKeepR]

~snip~

Yeah, I've played around with "Half Boost Dash"ing in Target Test a few times.


It doesn't help, by the way.

 

[player_03]

That makes sense. Boost Dash is faster and actually breaks targets.

Half-boosting might help in very specific situations. For instance, sliding usmash or utilt would be helpful if you wanted to attack targets above the ground without actually leaving the ground. Boost dropping would mostly help if there was a fall-through platform above targets arranged in a diagonal line.

That said, those two situations don't come up in the five existing Target Test stages. You'd have to make a custom stage.

 

[AGentleStar]

Basically, Half Boost Dash is a faster dash, but Boost Dash is its own move.

But what about the "Boost Drop Dash"? Here's what you need to know:

• The name is misleading: you can't drop through a platform while boosting. You have to cancel into a half-boost first.
• You must spend a minimum of one frame in the half-boost state. But there's no maximum, so take your time.
  
• When you drop through a platform, you keep your speed. (Unlike running off an edge, which makes you lose it, as shown above.)
• You can cancel the ledge-drop animation into an aerial attack.

[Click here for a demonstration.]

Half-boosting is also good for sliding grabs. The sequence goes boost -> half-boost -> jump -> grab, and you'll do a sliding grab that goes all the way across an average stage. The first three steps need only a frame each, so you can do this as fast as your fingers can move.

I like the sound of that. I used Half-boosting a lot in my TAS video of Sonic vs. CPU Mario. What it does is it increases the speedcap for Sonic, and when used in conjunction with his jump-cancelled grab, Sonic goes ridiculously far. It gives him one of the best grabs in the game imo, but it's difficult to pull off irl.

 

[player_03]

What it does is it increases the speedcap for Sonic, and when used in conjunction with his jump-cancelled grab, Sonic goes ridiculously far.

For anyone who hasn't seen this in action, I used it at the end of my video:


I did the sliding taunt by crouching out of a half boost dash and then canceling the crouch into a taunt. (And then canceling the taunt into itself a few times.)

 

[AGentleStar]

For anyone who hasn't seen this in action, I used it at the end of my video:


I did the sliding taunt by crouching out of a half boost dash and then canceling the crouch into a taunt. (And then canceling the taunt into itself a few times.)

Sonic is really fun to TAS. He can do so much with his speed, it's ridiculous. lol