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by Staples, Guest Contributor and Unusually Happy Writer
Hi-diddly-ho, internet neighborinos, I’m Staples! I’m known for quite a few amiibo, notably my seven Luigi amiibo, being Zucchini, Mr. Met, and Gooigi, to name a few. My Luigis have accumulated the most wins for the character, including the first ever major win (64-127 entrants) for Luigi.
The Big Luigi Question
If you are a new trainer, you may be wondering: Can the Luigi amiibo do the 0-to-death combo out of his grab?
The answer, simply put, is no. Luigi, much like the rest of the cast, cannot learn complicated combos like that. Amiibo in general cannot combo very well, aside from a few small, hard-coded strings. If you try to train Luigi with his 0-to-death in mind, the amiibo will end up very jumpy and start mashing random aerials. This does not make for a good Luigi.
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AI Issues
Next, let’s go over some of Luigi’s AI flaws. Luigi cannot be taught to taunt. So that means not going for a down taunt at ledge. Luigi can get stuck in what is known as a taunt loop, where he will begin to taunt nonstop until he is hit. This leaves Luigi EXTREMELY vulnerable to an attack. (Fun fact: Kirby has this issue as well.) Luigi’s other main flaw is use of his side special, Green Missile, on stage. Luigi has Green Missile on stage hard-coded into his AI, but avoiding it at all costs, both using it and being hit by it, will reduce his usage of it by a lot.
Best Spirits for Luigi
Vanilla tournaments are the cream of the crop in the current meta, but if you want to put spirits on Luigi, do so before you train him. Put on your supports first, and then your primaries. His primary stats should be as close to 2100/2100 as you can make them. As far as support spirits are concerned, Luigi, like most other characters, benefits most from both Super Armor and Armor Knight + Move Speed up, though these setups are banned in pretty much all spirits tournaments, and they are by far the most boring spirits setups.
Luigi can also benefit well from Instadrop + Landing Lag down, as seen from Omega Luigi, trained by LML123. Omega Luigi stood the test of strength even against several Bowser amiibo during one of the largest amiibo tournaments ever, being Captain Kidd’s 50K Subscriber tournament. Instadrop is starting to be seen as a broken support spirit, and is being banned in more and more tournaments. If you’re looking for a tournament-legal spirits Luigi, you can use a combination of physical attack, toss and meteor, floaty jumps, fist attack, fire and explosion attack, move speed up, landing lag down, shield damage up, critical health healing + metal, shield durability up, and, if you’re feeling a bit risky, trade-off ability could work on Luigi as well. Using physical attack twice or leaving an empty slot for supports also works well for Luigi.
Overall Playstyle
Off-stage play is not Luigi’s strong suit. In fact, Luigi’s offstage play in the amiibo meta is piss-poor. He lacks good killing options offstage, and his recovery is very linear, meaning he only is able to move well only horizontally or vertically, due to a flaw in his design and from his down special, Luigi Cyclone, being nerfed as a recovery tool in between Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. I’d recommend to use more ledge trapping moves, such as down tilt, down smash, or if you’re in the mood for a pretty whacky Luigi, downward angled forward smash. This move is very inconsistent for ledge trapping, so be wary of that. Luigi will default to using his fireballs at the ledge, which isn’t bad at all, but it also isn’t really good either. If you absolutely must go offstage, spiking with down air is your best bet for a spicy Luigi. Be careful offstage in general.
While training Luigi, walking is more beneficial than running, as is the case with most of the cast. The amiibo’s playstyle is more of a bait and punish type of play. Parrying is key for this character, as he has incredibly strong options that can come from parrying, such as his smash attacks and his up special, Super Jump Punch. Speaking of up special, make sure you’re taking at least 1 stock every game with it. Let him kill you with the sweet spot by drifting off stage without recovering and just letting him hit you with it in general, because it helps the amiibo learn it better rather than just spamming it. Luigi’s move priority is dash attack, then up special, then down special, then forward smash. Down smash, up smash, short grab strings, and tilts can be incorporated for a little bit of flavor.
How to Train the Luigi amiibo
If you want a more in depth, step by step guide, here is what I can recommend by level threshold:
- Levels 1-10: Use nothing but up b and dash attack. Up b is Luigi’s best killing move, and he should be hitting it frequently. Dash attack and down b are also very good, as they are hard-hitting multihits.
- Levels 11-20: Keep consistently using up b, dash attack, and down b. Here, you can occasionally throw in some forward smashes and down smashes to prevent staling. Use up smash to catch landings.
- Levels 21-30: You should keep doing everything you’re doing, and maybe decrease his up b and dash attack usage, depending on how much he does these moves and if you like it. At this point, you can begin incorporating a little bit of ftilt to prevent staling of other moves. Begin shield flickering at a standstill to get him to learn parrying.
- Levels 31-40: You can pretty much stop using dash attack unless your Luigi isn’t using it at all. Reinforcing up b is always key, because sometimes Luigi will forget about it. Also at this stage, you can incorporate some basic grab combos at low percents, being:
- up throw -> up air
- down throw -> forward air -> forward air
- down throw -> down air
- down throw -> back air
Down throw strings are the more important ones to use, especially the second string on the list, being dthrow-fair-fair. Continue shield flickering, parrying, and using everything else listed and reinforce his key moves if he is forgetting to use them.
- Levels 41-45: Keep using those grab combos, and let him hit you with some. Make sure he’s still using up b, dash attack, down b, and smash attacks. Almost prioritize parrying at this point.
- At level 46, you’re pretty much done. Turn learning off, and put him against a level 9 CPU, yourself doing the nothing method, or some of your other vanilla amiibo. If your Luigi does not turn out as you desired, reset him and try again from square 1.
Why It Works
This method works because Luigi has the potential to be a super strong competitor in an amiibo tournament, and although he performs very poorly offstage, Luigi can use his strong options on stage to secure stocks and clutch out victories he was almost certain could not be pulled off. By prioritizing multi-hit moves like his dash attack and Luigi Cyclone and his strong moves like forward smash and Super Jump Punch, Luigi can be one of the most fierce competitors in a bracket. I hope to hear from you and your endeavors on training the Luigi amiibo, and how it came out in the end. Good luck!
Staples
Amiibo Doctor 