by Destruktow
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Wolf is a very funny amiibo with a lot of very funny AI flaws, and it’ll sometimes cost you Grand Finals (in a funny way!)
AI Issues
Wolf has some stupid built-in options, including:
- Down Throw to Side Special being hardcoded. This will always kill Wolf if he goes over the ledge, but doesn’t kill the opponent.
- Reflecting offstage to reflect projectiles results in an SD because the endlag of Reflect is too high for him to recover.
- Wolf’s AI was recently patched, and the new patch messed up his Side Special. He’ll end up hitting the air above the opponent.
- Wolf will randomly use Up Special straight up on stage, and for no reason at all. You can’t keep him from doing this.
Your best option to alleviate these issues is to simply never let him hit you with Side or Up Special.
Overall Playstyle
Obviously, start with our typical training guide first as a foundation for training Wolf.
Take a few notes first:
- Stay grounded
- Don’t edgeguard
- Walk everywhere, unless you’re using Dash Attack (and minimize your run time when using Dash Attack)
- Parry everything
The ideal Wolf will dominate the stage and be unmovable due to his impressive parrying.
How to Train the Wolf amiibo in Smash Ultimate
We’re not going to get too far into the later levels with Wolf, because he heavily prefers Up Tilt out of Parry at later levels, and we don’t want to let him learn that. You’ll need to pack in all this training into his earlier levels to avoid this and other AI problems.
Your main five moves on Wolf will be:
- Grab into Up/Down Throw (use them as often as the other)
- Forward Tilt
- Up Smash
- Down Smash
- Neutral Special (Blaster)
You’ll want an even mix of these moves, but be sure you only use Blaster when at a distance. Don’t go overboard with Blaster: a few uses will get the point across.
Up Throw combos into Forward Air (which is significantly preferable compared to Up Air), and Down Throw combos neatly into Dash Attack. Be very specific about using these attacks as follow-ups, and don’t substitute them for anything else. Forward Air shouldn’t be substituted for Up Air because Up Air will often replace Up Smash as an anti-air tool, and we would prefer Wolf use Up Smash instead. Dash Attack has to follow Down Throw because of the AI Issues listed above. You’ll need to combo with these quite frequently to make sure your amiibo understands that both of these moves should be used. As a result, it’ll often use them in conjunction with each other.
Forward Tilt racks up damage and keeps the opponents away, and in rare cases it can land a KO. You might try using it as an option to 2-frame edgeguard the opponent, but that’s not a requirement by any means.
Up Smash is a solid KO move, and we’re going to prioritize it as our anti-air attack. When you use it, do it with Wolf in front of you, because it chains two hits together, rendering it more effective in teaching the amiibo.
Down Smash is probably our best KO move: the tipper hitbox kills at the ledge at about 50%. You should aim to hit the tipper, but remember that amiibo can’t see sweetspotted parts of hitboxes, so if you miss the tipper you’ll be fine. You really only have to connect the attack itself. Be extra certain to use Down Smash at the ledge, and try to 2-frame edgeguard with it. If your Wolf can learn to 2-frame with Down Smash… that’s a lethal Wolf.
Use Neutral Air to land and nothing else. Neutral Air is out forever and is a very safe landing option for Wolf, while other options just reset the neutral.
Other Options
You could also try Back Air, and Forward Smash. Back Air is sort of like Charizard’s Back Air: it’s a smash attack, but in the air. It’s really useful if you’re training with Ladder Method because it tends to keep Wolf from getting too jumpy, and is a good band-aid for when the AI inevitably decides to go aerial despite your training.
Forward Smash is useful in very small amounts. It’s slow and short-ranged, so I kill with it only two or three times and only late in the training. It’s a third KO option that might come in handy.
Why It Works
This training setup works because Wolf’s other options are simply bad. If I didn’t mention a move in this list, it’s because that move is either part of an AI flaw, or is just outclassed by another option.
Have fun training Wolf!
Amiibo Doctor 