Tips Against Zelda

[Thanatoast]

Being a fan of the Zelda series, I tend to play Zelda a lot in Minus. The way that she can combo and zone at the same time is pretty nice, and it's always satisfying to get that dair spike. However, in my particular friend group, when I play Zelda, a lot of the players do not seem to have fun fighting against her (or me, I'm not sure if there is a difference with this). Usually this comes with the the fact that she has two distinct hitboxes with her smashes and aerial attacks.
Now, I've tried to explain that combat Zelda, one must simply know where the hitboxes are at, as they are rather static (in front of her, about 1/3 Final Destination length away horizontally, one Zelda-Jump vertically) and that if one can get in close, she's screwed. Her close-range game isn't horrible, but it certainly isn't great.
Since my friendgroup sometimes frequents the forums and can see my constant tirades against characters that wreck me, perhaps the pros on here can give them some tips on fighting Zelda and her superb long-range game.

 

[Bent 00]

combat Zelda, one must simply know where the hitboxes are at, as they are rather static (in front of her, about 1/3 Final Destination length away horizontally, one Zelda-Jump vertically) and that if one can get in close, she's screwed.

That's pretty much it. You have to be aggressive against Zelda -- she may seem too good at a distance, but she's very fragile once you get close.

Casual players have a hard time understanding this. I think it's because of the invisible ranged hitboxes; it's too hard for casuals to remember where they are. Perhaps someone could make a "training build" of Zelda that always has those potential hitboxes lit up? A training build of perma-Metal Mario would be useful too.

 

[Thor]

It's important to remember that if you shield Zelda's hitboxes, she can teleport into you, but if she doesn't, you're free to basically do whatever afterwards. And if she teleports and you're ready for it, you can often punish the teleport when she did an attack on your shield if you guess grab vs attack correctly.

It's also important to remember that it's waaaaaaay easier to say that you can do something than actually implement it, especially when your opponent knows the flaws and is actively trying to work around them.

I agree Zelda can be frustrating to fight, but I think people need to keep in mind what being aggressive really entails. Some characters can zone her back quite effectively [DDD, Falco, Snake], and it's less important to rush into close quarters than it is to run to safe zones where she has to use a tilt to cover herself, as the tilts/jab are less rewarding. If you can space between fsmash's second hit and fsmash's first hit, then a dash dance there is quite deadly, or even just standing there and moving in response to Zelda, because if Zelda does fsmash, you can run forward and arrive at her in fsmash endlag, while if she does another hitbox, dash away and dash in and she's stuck again.

It's also important not to fight her purely on the ground - while she can angle stuff, jumping over [or doing a SHAD through] fsmash can be quite helpful to get to that middling range. However, fighting her high in the air risks lightning kick stuff, so I'd recommend mostly remaining on the ground, and trying to know exactly when to jump [which is also quite difficult to do].

So instead of aggression that rushes her down hard, you need to have a very controlled attempt to close the gap [quickly], to avoid her most potent hitboxes, shield the rest, and then begin to do some damage.