The Beginner’s Guide to Training the Dr. Mario amiibo in Smash Ultimate

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by fammydamammy (Guest Contributor)

I’m fammydamammy, also known as “Fammy,” and I am known for many amiibo, one of which is my Dr. Mario amiibo, Dr. Hart. My Dr. Mario amiibo is one of the best in the scene, currently holding a total of nine vanilla amiibo tournament wins, with one of them being a supermajor, consisting of 128 entrants.

Doc note: You’ve probably heard of Fammy from the Wario guide he contributed.

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AI Issues

Dr. Mario’s AI is very solid, aside from one aspect from it: Down Special SDs. The Dr. Mario amiibo has a tendency to use their Down special at ledge, drift off the ledge, and SD due to Doc’s poor recovery. To minimize the chances of this happening, it is best you avoid Down Special entirely.

The only instances the amiibo should use it is for recovery, and as a follow up from a Down throw, which are both already hard-coded.

Overall Playstyle

The Dr. Mario amiibo in amiibo vs amiibo fights should walk and stay grounded for a majority the match so that he can utilize his strong grounded options such as Forward smash, being one of the strongest in the game.

Dr. Mario is a good contender for the strongest grab game out of any amiibo, with Back throw being a kill throw, Down throw and Up throw having follow-ups that can lead to major damage or KOs, and forward throw being good at getting opponents offstage.

In addition to that, Dr. Mario’s Neutral Special, Megavitamins, are a solid projectile the AI can use very effectively, being able to use them at a distance to rack up damage or use them up close to lead into grabs.

How to Train the Dr. Mario amiibo

When training, I strongly recommend mirror matching your amiibo, meaning Dr. Mario vs Dr. Mario the entire training session. Once you see your amiibo use the moves you want to use, turn the learn button off so that it will level up without changing the base amiibo data. Do note that the amiibo get a better AI as they level up and will not play poorly because you turned off learning at an early level.

Most competitive amiibo tournaments are vanilla, meaning no spirits, but if you intend to train your amiibo with spirits, it’s best to add spirits before any training happens because of how adding spirits will shuffle an amiibo’s move values, with that being said, an even 2100/2100 is the most viable option for every amiibo. For support spirits, Super Armor, Slow Super Armor, Great Autoheal, Autoheal, and Armor Knight are the best spirits in the game but are banned from the current spirit amiibo tournament ruleset. Legal support spirits to consider for Dr. Mario include Physical Attack ↑, Foot Attack ↑, Fist Attack ↑, Air Defense, Trade-Off Ability, and Hyper Smash Attacks. You may think Jump ↑ would be useful to boost Dr. Mario’s poor recovery, but I wouldn’t recommend using it due to it making the AI whiff almost all of his coded-in combos, which are very important to the amiibo.

Overall playstyle

Now to go over what moves you should teach Dr. Mario, going from most important to least important.

Forward Smash is one of the strongest of it’s kind, and is fairly quick for how powerful this move is. Make sure the amiibo learns to use it a lot.

Grabs are one of Dr. Mario’s best assets in amiibo, whether it’s back throw to kill or Down throw to combo, Make sure your amiibo grabs a ton. Note that Dr. Mario is already pre-programmed to combo off his throws, meaning that you don’t have to teach him say, Down throw to Forward air in order for the amiibo to do Down throw to Forward air. During training, I recommend either using just a regular Down throw, or Up throw > Up air > buffered falling Up air.

List of Dr. Mario’s pre-programmed grab combos as of 9.0.0:
Up Throw > Up Air > Up Air
Up Throw > Up Air
Down Throw > Up Air
Down Throw > Forward Air
Down Throw > Down Air
Down Throw > Down Special
Down Throw > Up Special

Forward Tilt is a great-off-me tool that comes out quick, frame 5, and has little end lag. Make sure the amiibo uses this move frequently.

Neutral Special is an excellent projectile that can be used at a distance to rack up percent or can be used up close to lead into grabs. Be careful not to teach too much of it though, as you can easily train a Dr. Mario that uses it too much. Try to make sure your amiibo uses them, but doesn’t forget about it’s other options. Don’t worry about teaching Neutral Special into Grab, as the amiibo will learn to do it on their own.

Down Smash is another strong get-off-me tool just like Forward Tilt but can now kill and hit opponents from behind. Use it frequently alongside Forward Tilt.

Up Smash is a strong anti-air that should be used when the opponent is above them in the air.

Down Tilt is quick and the amiibo knows that it can follow it up with Up Air, Back Air, or Up Special. Prioritize Forward Tilt over Down Tilt, but Down Tilt should still be used every so often.

Up Air and Back Air are both great moves that the amiibo can use in the air to hit opponents, but since the Dr. Mario amiibo should primarily stay grounded don’t go too heavy on these.

Why It Works

Unlike in regular competitive smash, Dr. Mario is considered high-tier in competitive amiibo due to having more powerful moves and kill moves than regular Mario, who is widely considered to be mid-tier in amiibo, with his only noteworthy flaws being that he has one of the worst recoveries in the game and the Down Special SD bug.

That concludes my Smash Ultimate Dr. Mario amiibo guide, thanks for reading and good luck training!
-fammydamammy