If you're a fan of Leffen, you probably love edge guarding. There are definitely plenty of characters in Smash Ultimate who can't accomplish much offstage, but there are likewise many who can go super deep and obliterate most recovery attempts. In this video, we'll take a look at the 10 characters we think are the best at edge guarding in Smash Ultimate and determine who is the most devastating offstage. Have you checked out ProGuides.com? If you're looking for character guides, tear lists, and instant access to coaches, ProGuides.com is the place to be. We've also got courses with top players like MKLAYO, Zero, and D-SAM so you can learn Smash from your favorite pros. So what even is edge guarding exactly? The edge, sometimes referred to as the ledge, is the term used for the grabbable ends of the stage. Beating the edge itself is not so literally the premise of edge guarding, but more so the edge is usually the goal destination of a recovering player. Because of this, edge guarding is the term for the process of attacking opponents off of the stage as they attempt to recover. Because no character can stay in the air forever, being offstage is a very temporary state for anyone. Whether you're the recovering character or the edge guarding character, you'll eventually either recover back to the edge or be KO'd off of the bottom blast zone if you stay offstage for too long. Despite this, the player in the edge guarding position is still at a great advantage because they are almost always closer to the stage and or have more recovery resources available. Characters who are good at edge guarding will have one or more of the following. Good recovery to enable them to go very far offstage and make it back. Good range so they can hit opponents without going off as far and require less precision. With good frame data so they can swing quickly on reaction and throw out multiple attacks in one offstage sequence. Let's start by looking at Lucina, perhaps the most simple edge guarder in the game. Lucina's back air and forward air both have great range and knockback. They also come out pretty quickly so Lucina can run offstage and easily swing it opponents in front of or behind her. Although less reliable, her down air also has tons of range and the potential to spike opponents if spaced correctly resulting in early KO's. Lucina also has a less common edge guarding option with her counter. Using a counter allows the character to edge guard without worrying about trading or getting hit by an opponent's recovery move and is a great option against characters who need to recover with a hitbox. Lucina's counter also activates very quickly and doesn't put her too low to recover if it misses. Speaking of recovery, Lucina's up-be travels very far vertically, is intangible on frame 1 in the air and has a fast hit that can add another attack to her edge guarding. Marth has all of these same edge guarding traits but is less consistent due to his sour spots and temper. Pikachu is an extreme edge guarding machine. He has one of the best recoveries in the game so he can go almost anywhere and make it back quickly. His aerials all come out pretty fast and have low lag so he can throw out many and place them wherever the opponent is. Every one of his aerials besides upper is also active for a while so he doesn't need to be incredibly precise with timing. Speaking of smash ultimate, Pikachu's down arrow also has a spike hitbox which he can even use twice in a row against telegraphed recoveries. Why did he need this? Against most characters, if you recover high and the opponent goes for a low edge guard, you'll make it back to the stage just fine. Pikachu on the other hand can go low and still cover high recoveries with his thunder. Pikachu shares almost exactly the same edge guarding streams as Pikachu. Mr. Game & Watch has no mercy for recovering opponents. His edge guarding is among the easiest and yet most effective in smash ultimate. Game & Watch's back air is a multi hit move that stays active for a long time. It also has lots of range with disjointed hitboxes and low cooldowns so he can throw out multiple bears with little worry of getting hit or even missing. Since Game & Watch is a pretty floaty character, he can also spend more time off stage in general. His back air alone is one of the best edge guarding options in the game, but where the turtle fails, the key is the...key. Yeah. Game & Watch's down arrow is really good. You get where we're going with this. Like his back air, his down arrow is also disjointed with lots of range below him that can interrupt so many recoveries really easily. Oh and it could spike too. Game & Watch can go super low and far off stage thanks to the incredible travel distance of his upbeat. Like Lucina and Marfs, his up-be also has a tangibility and its own hitbox to protect him while adding another edge guarding option. Joker is looking like the best character in the game right now and his edge guarding prowess is a big reason why. Joker's back air is very fast and has extremely low end lag in the air. This allows him to throw out multiple back airs off stage and recover thanks to the great distance on either variation of his recovery. His back air uses his dagger which offers a disjoint with decent range. With our send, back air maintains the same frame data but with even more range and significantly stronger knockback. Our send also adds a spike hitbox to his down air for an even deadlier option. With our send, Joker's down beat becomes one of the best and most reliable counters in the game. Down guns are also a unique edge guarding move that Joker can opt for. By shooting his gun's downward, he can interrupt recoveries with very low knockback to steal jumps and gimp opponents from a safe distance. He may not be a character that typically comes to mind when you think of edge guarding but he has one move that single handedly puts him on this list. Nikita Snakes remote missile often referred to as Nikita is basically an airborne bomb that can be freely controlled by the player. Nikita deals as much damage as an average aerial and has plenty of KO potential. Besides for how easily it can be aimed towards any opponent, this move is so useful because Snake and Edgeguard reliably without even going off stage at all. Snake can edge guard without Nikita too using his powerful aerials or dropping grenades and C-Force to greet recoveries with a bang. There won't often be a list of characters who are good at some aspect of gameplay and ultimate without mentioning Palatana. Yep, she's great at edge guarding too. As with many other situations, Palatana can edge guard effectively with… wait for it? Nair… yes, a grandiose revelation, I know. Nair is active for a long time and always sends the opponent away from the direction Palatana is facing. Her forward air and back air are also useful off stage with a bit more precision required. Obissionally, Palou's down air is one of the fastest spikes in the game. If going deep off stage doesn't seem like the best idea in some matchups, Palatana could stay on stage and easily too frame almost anything with her down till, which sets up for further edge guarding. Ganondorf may not be the greatest character overall, but his edge guarding stands out and holds up with the best. Most importantly, Ganond's aerials pack a punch. Even if he doesn't land his downer spike, which can KO some characters under 10%, his up air, back air, forward air and neutral air all send the opponent away from Ganond with great knockback. All of his aerials also have surprisingly low end lag, which means the Ganondorf can potentially throw out two KO moves in an off stage sequence and still recover afterward. His hip boxes are large and reliable and neutral air has two hits to eliminate the need for timing precision. Although his up V isn't the greatest recovery move, the grab attack from it can KO early as well. Jigglypuff is another example of a not-so-great character who can edge guard really well. Her floating-ish coupled with multiple double jumps and amazing aeromobility let Jigglypuff stay off stage for long sequences and get to wherever the opponent is. Her neutral air and forward air stay active for long periods of time and launch the opponent away from her and thus further off stage. She can link these aerials together reliably to carry opponents to the blast zone, setting up for further edge guards if she can't straight up KO them. Back air is a bit more difficult to connect off stage, but it offers strong knockback for fairly early edge guard KOs close to the blast zone. We mentioned that range is a great attribute for edge guarding and Shok has some of the best range in the game. His forward air in particular covers pretty much the exact space you be aiming for in a typical edge guard situation and he can throw out multiple fairs and one edge guard sequence, especially with Jump Manado War. Jump hard to allow Shok to go very far off stage and let's him get there quickly too. With smash art, one fair can be enough to close out stocks at mid-percent. His downer spikes and stays active longer than most downers with tons of range as well. Shok can also reverse his air slash recovery to hit opponents as he recovers. Last but not least we have Inklin. With one of the best recoveries in the game, Inklin can go off as far as she needs to to get to her off stage opponents. Her back air has amazing frame data and makes reactive edge guard spacing extremely reliable. Although it's a bit slower, forward air is stronger and stays active for a while for less precise edge guards. Neutral air has super low end lag so she can drop down quickly with it and go for a second aerial to trap the opponent's options and downer although laggy is a spike. Inklings of B also has a very weak hip box as it begins which can give opponents similarly to jokers down guns. At the end of the day, you don't want to be off stage against any of these characters but there is one in particular that can easily oppress just about anyone. Mr. Game & Watch Game & Watch's back air and downer are disjointed and active for long periods of time making for easy and consistent edge guards that don't really care how good your recovery is for the most part. And his recovery is virtually uncontestable so he never has to worry too much about going off stage carelessly. Who do you think is the best edge guard or in Smash Ultimate? Let us know in the comments and be sure to subscribe and click that bell to keep up with more Smash content from Pro Guides.