The hero of time - A Link guide
Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2016 9:01 pm
[center]The hero of time - A Link guide[/center]
Disclaimer
This guide will be and always has been censored from the moment I started writing it. This was in order to not trigger certain people fit the family friendly environment of this section.
It's also written in the context of Vanilla SMBX 1.3, so there may be some lunalua stuff that I won't take into account.
He's a character that unarguably differs from the rest of the cast in SMBX. You may also remember him the guy who's list of smbx episodes where he's a protagonist consists of ten million snes-styled versions of zelda 2 like if it was the only style available.
In this wall of text, we'll be seeing how he adapts to the game's mechanics along with some interactions that you may or may not know about.
This guide was written with the purpose of encouraging people to design levels arround Link, as well as providing some tips that will boost your gameplay or at least reduce the thirst for bleach that pops up whenever you're playing as this character.
1.-Terms
2.-Terrain interactions and Mobility
(i'm going to blatantly rip off some smash terms btw)
Up-air - The attack that Link performs by pressing up before jumping.
Down-air (dair) - The attack that Link performs by pressing down while falling.
Neutral air (nair) - The attack that Link perform when the run button is pressed while in the air.
Stomping - Hitting on enemy by simply jumping on them, rather than using a dair on them.
Fairy state - The state Link takes when he transforms into a fairy.
2.1-Knockback
When Link takes damage, he will suffer knockback, which means he'll get pushed in the opposite direction he's facing, it does not matter where the attack comes from, neither does the NPC (projectiles count as NPCs), Link will always get pushed backwards.
Keep in mind though, link will only suffer knockback from NPCs, meaning he does not recieve any knockback from hurt tiles such as spikes, the epileptic SMB3 jellyfish, etc.
That being said, here's the distance Link gets knocked back when hit by an NPC without any input pressed.
That stuff looks crazy, doesn't it?
The thing is, knockback can be severely reduced when holding the forward input, to the point where Link will actually end up above the area where he was hit by the NPC!
If this happens with a flying npc, you can end up on top of them and practically get a double jump by stomping them on some cases.
Either knockback distance could be used to your advantage, although it's suggested to go for the knockback reduction most of the time, you could also do some clowny ship and turn your back to an enemy just before it hits you to reach a longer horizontal distance. although it's VERY unlikely that this'll be useful, it can happen.
With all of this in mind, let's talk about a tricky scenario Link will usually find himself in: Riding a moving platform with enemies arround.
(The koopa on this picture is a paratroopa set on "chase" mode)
In here, most of the interactions mentioned actually don't even apply. When you are standing on the platform and you get hit, you will either suffer no knockback or you will literally fall through the platform, disregarding you holding the forward input or not.
But, if you are in the air, you'll get punished HARD if you get hit. Because even if you reduced the knockback and manage to dair/stomp on a flying enemy, your momentum is still going to be messed up and you will have a very hard time landing back on the moving platform, meaning you should only get off of the platform when it's the optimal choice (ex. when you're sure you're going to kill the enemy).
I advise staying on the platform, since it's easier to land a direct hit. But in either scenario, you could either make big plays, or you could die to bullship!
2.2-Climbable TIles
Whenever Link tries to climb something, he won't normally do so like every other character. Instead, he'll be in Fairy state.
This is actually one of his biggest strengths, because if he gets hit, he'll be knocked back and will transform back to normal, but he won't take any damage. This is especially useful if you have to go through a bunch of unavoidable rinka spam (i'm looking at you, touhou level designers), you can just tank it all without taking any damage. Remember though: Knockback still applies to you, so be careful of not falling into lava!
Another useful thing about this, is that link will remain in fairy state for a few miliseconds after going outside of the climbable tile's range. So if you need a bit of extra momentum to get somewhere, you can definitely give this some use!
2.3-Spikes
This one is pretty straightforward. Whenever you down air into some spikes, you'll actually be able to bounce on them!
You can keep holding the jump button to increase the height of your bounce, or you can just hold the down button to perform hops shorter than Ignoritus! This works in basically any hurt tile. Except for lava, you'll be pretty dead if you touch lava!
2.4-Breakable blocks
You can shatter breakable blocks with your sword, and you can also hit any item block to get the items inside them.
...that's basically it.
Though, with all of the stuff here in mind, i'll be explaining an inconsitency once we get to specific NPC interactions.
3.1-Bosses
See these guys?
When playing as any other character, most of them can be relatively difficult. But when you're playing as Link, these bosses can't particularly do much to you.
Most of them will get dumpstered by the sword relatively quickly. In specific, fighting smb2 bosses is laughable. All of them will be stunned whenever you hit them with the sword, so you can just walk up to them and dumpster them. You can also destroy Birdo's eggs with your sword, and you can also block Wart's projectiles with your shield.
Larry and Ludwig can also take damage from your sword when they hide in their shell and start spinning, so you can just hop on them with dairs until they die. They don't take long to die, although they'll take less damage from the sword than by stomping them, so if they're outside of their shell, try to stomp them if you can.
One thing to note about Larry and Ludwig is that you can't block the projectiles they shoot at you with your shield. Which is weird, because you can block all of SMB1 and SMB3 Bowser's projectiles, I'm not sure why this is the case.
And while we're at it, Bowsers will also take any damage you can dish out to them. You can actually jump on them while using dairs, but this is a bit dangerous as the SMB1 bowser throws hammers, and the SMB3 bowser's jump can sometimes hurt you through your attacks.
So in conclusion, bosses are a lot less dangerous as Link than they are as any other character, so if you think you can pull it off, you can actually use them as normal enemies in a level! Don't go crazy though, as they can still be a humongous pain if the level design isn't easy to navigate on.
3.2-Specific interactions
This is a very important point, because there's some counter-intuitive stuff in regards to NPCs. An example is the projectile inconsistency i talked about in the Bosses part of the guide (see above).
While Link can down air on most things (even spikes and bosses), there's enemies that ignore this interaction. These are confusing because they're enemies you can spin jump on as the other characters.
For example, while you can use down air attacks on these enemies (along with Rinka projectiles but i was too lazy to activate the secret menu):
...you actually CAN'T do that to the following enemies for some reason!
These are mostly enemies you can spin-jump on with any other character, so it'd make sense if you were able to use Link dairs on them, right? Well, for some reason, that's not the case, you'll just end up taking damage normally.
So memorize these enemies, otherwise you'll end up regretting your descisions at some point.
And while you can kill AND block rinka projectiles with your shield, you can only block fireballs, hammers, snifit projectiles, smb3 statue fireballs, etc. This is relatively straightforward, but i felt the need of mentioning it.
I might've missed some NPCs, so if you find something that adds up/contradicts my list, feel free to point it out!
3.2-Power ups
Most of link's power ups are similar to the ones of the other characters, but all of them have at least one difference in comparision to them.
Fire Link, Ice Link, and Shadow Link will all shoot their projectile straight in front of him, while Shadow Link's projectile moves at a greater speed compared to the other two.
Fairy Link and Gold Link will go into Fairy state for a short time whenever the jump button is used in mid air. But if it's done while Link has enough momentum (when he's running), he'll be able to fly for a long period of time.
You will normally turn into a statue as Gold Link when pressing the Alt-run button like you would with any other character under the tanooki suit power up.
In my opinion, Gold Link is the strongest power up for Link, as it offers him mobility, survivability, and offense.
3.3-Bombs and keys
Bombs are one of Link's weapons. Whenever he hits an SMB2 bomb with his sword (the angle of the attack doesn't matter), he'll pick it up and he will be able to throw them with the alt-run button.
You can hold up to 9 bombs.
This only works on SMB2 bombs, if you hit an SMB3 bob-omb, you'll just knock it back, and if you hit an SMB2 bob-omb (the black one), it'll explode in your face!
The way Link picks up bombs is the same way he picks up keys, although he can only pick one at a time.
The moment Link touches a door with a key in his possession, the door will open and the key will be consumed. Same deal with the SMW keyholes.
3.5-Rupees
The rupees will replace coins when Link is the character currently being played. Most coins will turn into green rupees (which are worth 1 coin) when the level starts. while blue rupees (worth 5 coins) and red rupees (worth 20 coins) will have to be placed manually, or obtained through other means, such as hitting blocks that contain multiple rupees or killing enemies.
When killing enemies, the chance of them dropping a rupee is completely random. It doesn't matter what enemy it is: a green koopa troopa can drop a red rupee when killed.
There's also an inconsitency i can't really figure out in terms of special blocks. For example, if it's set to 5 rupees, it'll drop 5 green rupees. But if it's set to 99 rupees, it'll drop an amount that is nowhere near 99, so be careful of that.
Rupees can be obtained with relative ease as Link, so don't be surprised if the player ends up with an absurd ammount of lives at the end of a level.
And that wraps it up! I might add more stuff in the future, but unless it involves fixing a mistake, i probably won't!
Be sure to post your opinion about this guide, and don't be scared of pointing out flaws/stuff i missed. Criticism is always appreciated.
I'm looking forward to seeing great levels from you guys in the following community contest. You can prove that Link can actually be fun to play if the level design isn't complete garbage!
Disclaimer
This guide will be and always has been censored from the moment I started writing it. This was in order to not trigger certain people fit the family friendly environment of this section.
It's also written in the context of Vanilla SMBX 1.3, so there may be some lunalua stuff that I won't take into account.
-INTRODUCTION-
Alright so we're going to talk about this dude right here.
He's a character that unarguably differs from the rest of the cast in SMBX. You may also remember him the guy who's list of smbx episodes where he's a protagonist consists of ten million snes-styled versions of zelda 2 like if it was the only style available.
In this wall of text, we'll be seeing how he adapts to the game's mechanics along with some interactions that you may or may not know about.
This guide was written with the purpose of encouraging people to design levels arround Link, as well as providing some tips that will boost your gameplay or at least reduce the thirst for bleach that pops up whenever you're playing as this character.
-TABLE OF CONTENTS-
1.-Terms
2.-Terrain interactions and Mobility
- 2.1-Knockback
- 2.2-Climbable TIles
- 2.3-Spikes
- 2.4-Breakable Blocks
- 3.1-Bosses
- 3.2-Specific interactions
- 3.3-Power ups
- 3.4-Bombs and keys
- 3.4-Rupees
1.-Terms
(i'm going to blatantly rip off some smash terms btw)
Up-air - The attack that Link performs by pressing up before jumping.
Down-air (dair) - The attack that Link performs by pressing down while falling.
Neutral air (nair) - The attack that Link perform when the run button is pressed while in the air.
Stomping - Hitting on enemy by simply jumping on them, rather than using a dair on them.
Fairy state - The state Link takes when he transforms into a fairy.
2.-Terrain interactions and mobility
2.1-Knockback
When Link takes damage, he will suffer knockback, which means he'll get pushed in the opposite direction he's facing, it does not matter where the attack comes from, neither does the NPC (projectiles count as NPCs), Link will always get pushed backwards.
Keep in mind though, link will only suffer knockback from NPCs, meaning he does not recieve any knockback from hurt tiles such as spikes, the epileptic SMB3 jellyfish, etc.
That being said, here's the distance Link gets knocked back when hit by an NPC without any input pressed.
That stuff looks crazy, doesn't it?
The thing is, knockback can be severely reduced when holding the forward input, to the point where Link will actually end up above the area where he was hit by the NPC!
If this happens with a flying npc, you can end up on top of them and practically get a double jump by stomping them on some cases.
Either knockback distance could be used to your advantage, although it's suggested to go for the knockback reduction most of the time, you could also do some clowny ship and turn your back to an enemy just before it hits you to reach a longer horizontal distance. although it's VERY unlikely that this'll be useful, it can happen.
With all of this in mind, let's talk about a tricky scenario Link will usually find himself in: Riding a moving platform with enemies arround.
(The koopa on this picture is a paratroopa set on "chase" mode)
In here, most of the interactions mentioned actually don't even apply. When you are standing on the platform and you get hit, you will either suffer no knockback or you will literally fall through the platform, disregarding you holding the forward input or not.
But, if you are in the air, you'll get punished HARD if you get hit. Because even if you reduced the knockback and manage to dair/stomp on a flying enemy, your momentum is still going to be messed up and you will have a very hard time landing back on the moving platform, meaning you should only get off of the platform when it's the optimal choice (ex. when you're sure you're going to kill the enemy).
I advise staying on the platform, since it's easier to land a direct hit. But in either scenario, you could either make big plays, or you could die to bullship!
2.2-Climbable TIles
Whenever Link tries to climb something, he won't normally do so like every other character. Instead, he'll be in Fairy state.
This is actually one of his biggest strengths, because if he gets hit, he'll be knocked back and will transform back to normal, but he won't take any damage. This is especially useful if you have to go through a bunch of unavoidable rinka spam (i'm looking at you, touhou level designers), you can just tank it all without taking any damage. Remember though: Knockback still applies to you, so be careful of not falling into lava!
Another useful thing about this, is that link will remain in fairy state for a few miliseconds after going outside of the climbable tile's range. So if you need a bit of extra momentum to get somewhere, you can definitely give this some use!
2.3-Spikes
This one is pretty straightforward. Whenever you down air into some spikes, you'll actually be able to bounce on them!
You can keep holding the jump button to increase the height of your bounce, or you can just hold the down button to perform hops shorter than Ignoritus! This works in basically any hurt tile. Except for lava, you'll be pretty dead if you touch lava!
2.4-Breakable blocks
You can shatter breakable blocks with your sword, and you can also hit any item block to get the items inside them.
...that's basically it.
Though, with all of the stuff here in mind, i'll be explaining an inconsitency once we get to specific NPC interactions.
3.-NPC interactions
3.1-Bosses
See these guys?
When playing as any other character, most of them can be relatively difficult. But when you're playing as Link, these bosses can't particularly do much to you.
Most of them will get dumpstered by the sword relatively quickly. In specific, fighting smb2 bosses is laughable. All of them will be stunned whenever you hit them with the sword, so you can just walk up to them and dumpster them. You can also destroy Birdo's eggs with your sword, and you can also block Wart's projectiles with your shield.
Larry and Ludwig can also take damage from your sword when they hide in their shell and start spinning, so you can just hop on them with dairs until they die. They don't take long to die, although they'll take less damage from the sword than by stomping them, so if they're outside of their shell, try to stomp them if you can.
One thing to note about Larry and Ludwig is that you can't block the projectiles they shoot at you with your shield. Which is weird, because you can block all of SMB1 and SMB3 Bowser's projectiles, I'm not sure why this is the case.
And while we're at it, Bowsers will also take any damage you can dish out to them. You can actually jump on them while using dairs, but this is a bit dangerous as the SMB1 bowser throws hammers, and the SMB3 bowser's jump can sometimes hurt you through your attacks.
So in conclusion, bosses are a lot less dangerous as Link than they are as any other character, so if you think you can pull it off, you can actually use them as normal enemies in a level! Don't go crazy though, as they can still be a humongous pain if the level design isn't easy to navigate on.
3.2-Specific interactions
This is a very important point, because there's some counter-intuitive stuff in regards to NPCs. An example is the projectile inconsistency i talked about in the Bosses part of the guide (see above).
While Link can down air on most things (even spikes and bosses), there's enemies that ignore this interaction. These are confusing because they're enemies you can spin jump on as the other characters.
For example, while you can use down air attacks on these enemies (along with Rinka projectiles but i was too lazy to activate the secret menu):
...you actually CAN'T do that to the following enemies for some reason!
These are mostly enemies you can spin-jump on with any other character, so it'd make sense if you were able to use Link dairs on them, right? Well, for some reason, that's not the case, you'll just end up taking damage normally.
So memorize these enemies, otherwise you'll end up regretting your descisions at some point.
And while you can kill AND block rinka projectiles with your shield, you can only block fireballs, hammers, snifit projectiles, smb3 statue fireballs, etc. This is relatively straightforward, but i felt the need of mentioning it.
I might've missed some NPCs, so if you find something that adds up/contradicts my list, feel free to point it out!
3.2-Power ups
Most of link's power ups are similar to the ones of the other characters, but all of them have at least one difference in comparision to them.
Fire Link, Ice Link, and Shadow Link will all shoot their projectile straight in front of him, while Shadow Link's projectile moves at a greater speed compared to the other two.
Fairy Link and Gold Link will go into Fairy state for a short time whenever the jump button is used in mid air. But if it's done while Link has enough momentum (when he's running), he'll be able to fly for a long period of time.
You will normally turn into a statue as Gold Link when pressing the Alt-run button like you would with any other character under the tanooki suit power up.
In my opinion, Gold Link is the strongest power up for Link, as it offers him mobility, survivability, and offense.
3.3-Bombs and keys
Bombs are one of Link's weapons. Whenever he hits an SMB2 bomb with his sword (the angle of the attack doesn't matter), he'll pick it up and he will be able to throw them with the alt-run button.
You can hold up to 9 bombs.
This only works on SMB2 bombs, if you hit an SMB3 bob-omb, you'll just knock it back, and if you hit an SMB2 bob-omb (the black one), it'll explode in your face!
The way Link picks up bombs is the same way he picks up keys, although he can only pick one at a time.
The moment Link touches a door with a key in his possession, the door will open and the key will be consumed. Same deal with the SMW keyholes.
3.5-Rupees
The rupees will replace coins when Link is the character currently being played. Most coins will turn into green rupees (which are worth 1 coin) when the level starts. while blue rupees (worth 5 coins) and red rupees (worth 20 coins) will have to be placed manually, or obtained through other means, such as hitting blocks that contain multiple rupees or killing enemies.
When killing enemies, the chance of them dropping a rupee is completely random. It doesn't matter what enemy it is: a green koopa troopa can drop a red rupee when killed.
There's also an inconsitency i can't really figure out in terms of special blocks. For example, if it's set to 5 rupees, it'll drop 5 green rupees. But if it's set to 99 rupees, it'll drop an amount that is nowhere near 99, so be careful of that.
Rupees can be obtained with relative ease as Link, so don't be surprised if the player ends up with an absurd ammount of lives at the end of a level.
And that wraps it up! I might add more stuff in the future, but unless it involves fixing a mistake, i probably won't!
Be sure to post your opinion about this guide, and don't be scared of pointing out flaws/stuff i missed. Criticism is always appreciated.
I'm looking forward to seeing great levels from you guys in the following community contest. You can prove that Link can actually be fun to play if the level design isn't complete garbage!
