Combo's short-for combinations have been a staple of fighting games since their inception. As the first platform-style fighter Smash introduced a new style of combos that to this day is one of the most unique and exciting things the series has to offer. There are tons of combos in every Smash game. Yes, even Brawl. And Ultimate is no exception. In this video, we'll help you understand how combos work and show you how to get the most out of them. And you're not getting the most out of Pro Guides if you don't check out our website at proguides.com. We've just launched our new Pro course with both MK-Lay-O and ESAM, and you can also take advantage of our play with Pro's platform to learn from the best. In order to understand combos in Smash Ultimate, we first need to understand Hitstun and Knockback. Every time a move hits you, you'll be unable to control your character for a period of time. This is known as Hitstun. Hitstun has its own Hitstun value, which scales and increases as your damage percent gets higher. As the name suggests, Knockback is the process of being launched by an attack after it hits. Like Hitstun, Knockback scales and increases with percent. While most moves have both Knockback and Hitstun, some attacks like Fox's Laser have neither, simply applying damage alone. Combos are achieved by connecting multiple moves during each other's Hitstun windows. So after you connect one attack, you'll need to position yourself to chase after the Knockback it creates and then connect your follow-up attack while the opponent is still in Hitstun to combo the two attacks. Although comboing generally requires the opponent to be in Hitstun, you can technically still true combo in opponent in between their Hitstun and the start of their defensive option of choice. Here dodges all have at least one frame of startup, and for moves with Greater Hitstun, the game actually lets you air dodge before you can do anything else. Also your double jump doesn't immediately get you out of the range of an attack, so you might get hit as you start jumping away. A huge factor in connecting combos that's completely unique to Smash is DI. Because the opponent can influence the direction of their Knockback, some follow-ups will only be possible with specific DI, and you'll also need to read or react to DI to follow up properly. Newer players tend to struggle with this aspect. Very often players will learn a combo and simply input the follow-up right after the starter without watching where the opponent goes. Between HitLag and the cooldown of each attack, most combos give you a small yet sufficient moment to react to the opponent's trajectory and adjust accordingly for your follow-up. Since air dodge is almost always the fastest way out of Hitstun, there are plenty of 50-50 scenarios where your opponent will get hit if they don't air dodge, but if you wait, you can punish their air dodge. Combos are also affected, sometimes drastically, by a character's weight and fall speed. Characters take less knockback and hitstun the heavier they are and less vertical knockback the faster they fall. Because of this, fast-foilers tend to be very susceptible to combos, staying closer after upwards hits, making vertical follow-ups easier. Conversely, floaty characters with low fall speeds tend to be harder to combo, especially if they're also heavy. Their floatiness compensates for the decrease in knockback from their weight, resulting in characters who have a ratio of high vertical knockback to low hitstun. Lastly, rage and staling can also affect your combos. In case you didn't know, your knockback and hitstun are slightly increased as your own percent gets higher. This is known in the competitive community as rage. Despite also increasing hitstun, this increase in knockback typically makes follow-ups more difficult. The more you use a particular attack, the more stale it becomes, lowering its knockback and damage output. In some cases, this can improve combos due to sending the opponent closer for a follow-up. Let's talk about different kinds of combos. In order to start a combo, a move must have an appropriate ratio of cooldown, knockback, and hitstun. In general, good combo starters tend to have low cooldown, low knockback, and high hitstun so you can quickly and easily follow up. On the ground, many uptILTS and downtILTS act as combo starters, often sending the opponent upwards without too much knockback. Many are also a very common combo starter. Lots of characters have an up-throw or down-throw that launches the opponent up or up in a way leading to an aerial follow-up. Many areas act as combo starters too. Most areas have very low landing lag in Ultimate, so falling areas are often great for setting up a combo. Rising areas have great combo potential too if the character can act again before landing or if they land quickly after the hitbox ends. Multi-hit moves like Palatine's Nair are perfect for this because they stay active until the character lands. The kinds of combos you'll want to go for often very significantly by percent. At lower percent, you'll want combos that rack up damage and bring your opponent closer to kill percent. This is also conveniently easier for most low percent combos because the lower knockback of these percents allows you to chase after your opponent for more follow-up extensions. At higher percent, knockback is much higher so you'll rarely link more than two hits in a combo. At these percents, you'll want a kill confirm that allows you to perform a combo that takes the opponent's stock. Kill confirms aren't limited to just high percent situations, but outside of spike setups, it's hard to take stocks at lower percent. The same kinds of attacks typically start combos at different percents, but the follow-ups will be more likely different and require you to travel further to chase the higher knockback. So how can you get the most out of your combos? Well, because your character has a limited amount of jumps, keeping your combos horizontal will let you chase after your opponent for more time, but it's very dependent on what combo options your character has. On a stage with platforms, vertical combos can be extended further by landing on platforms to refresh your jumps. Some characters also have moves that drag opponents back downward during combos. This also extends follow-ups by avoiding your vertical limitations and essentially ignores the increase in knockback at higher percent as well. As you can probably tell, there's tons of variety to combos and no matter how much you understand them in general, you'll need to learn and discover your own character's options to optimize your combo game. Before you start labbing, it's a great idea to study footage of your character to see what combos top players go for. These players have already put countless hours into learning and practicing their combos and you'll see them facing opponents who are also completely aware of any escape options to have. So this will save you a lot of guesswork. Anything you can't or don't learn by studying footage, you can find in training mode. Training mode is an essential tool for practicing and discovering your combos. You can set the percents for both characters and test multiple combos at any percent. The combo meter in training mode sadly isn't 100% accurate, but most of the time if a combo shows up on the meter, it's true. Besides for the meters and consistencies, training mode lacks the ability to adjust your opponents to the eye or force them to choose a defensive option, but with the help of a training partner, you can explore all of the possibilities. We bet you can't wait to start labbing out your combos, but before you do, make sure to subscribe to Pro Guides and click that notification bell. Hey, I think that's a true combo, and we'll catch you around in another video.