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As a modern guide, this guide should be referenced over the other, older guides.
By JMoney, Guest Contributor
Introduction
Hello everyone, my name is JMoney and while a majority of my amiibo training has been focused on training top tiers — the beefy boys like K Rool are my weakness — in an effort to force myself to grow as a trainer, I wanted to branch out and train an amiibo with lower rep and much less defined training methods. For no reason in particular, I latched onto everyone’s favorite space princess, Rosalina and her spunky pal, Luma.
This guide is by no means an end-all-be-all for the character, however it is my goal to put together the most comprehensive guide for this character to this point. I have done a great deal of training and labbing and have had success with my two main bins.
Andromeda: This was my first Rosalina that I felt really played the way I intended her to and has had a very successful run on amiibots using her aggressive offstage playstyle. For one reason or another, that amiibots success did not translate very well to tournaments, leading me to my next bin…
Asteria: This is my second iteration of the character that I thought was truly tournament ready and a step up from Andromeda. After experimenting with neutral b on Andromeda, I moved away from that entirely with Asteria and focused more on upping her smash attack usage and dialing down the aggression while still keeping the offstage gimp happy playstyle that made Andromeda so unique. This iteration of Rosa has had significantly more tournament success.
Training Rosalina & Luma
Offstage Play vs. Ledge-Trapping
Rosalina is in a tough spot on the tier list — she is a bottom 4 amiibo in her own tier, which includes incredibly hard matchups like Mario, Wii Fit, and Marth/Lucina. Her tier placement plus her low weight and inconsistent attack power mean that she is not going to be able to go punch for punch with a lot of amiibo and come out on top.
It is with this in mind that I recommend an aggressive offstage playstyle. My thought process is that because Rosa will have a difficult time winning straight up, her best strategy is to go offstage and chase early kills with Forward air and Down air. There is inherent risk — Rosalina does have a habit of drifting just past the ledge with her recovery — but when dealing with a character that is already a bottom feeder in her own tier, the risk is worth it.
Aggression vs. Defense
Although above I advocated for an “aggressive offstage” play style, the aggression should be seen more in a high attack-off-cliff value, not necessarily in a high offensive value. One of the changes I made from Andromeda to Asteria that I think significantly helped her tournament viability was toning down her offensive value from 88 to around 75. That, on top of having high shield and parry values, allowed her to remain aggressive enough to land hits but also increased the rate at which she parried and shielded attacks which is critical for such a light character.
The Move Set
Brief Note: When talking about the move set for this character it’s important to remember that Rosalina can perform any move with or without Luma. In general, having Luma provides a move with extra damage and launch. Luma isn’t always around to provide extra muscle however, so when discussing which moves to use, it is important to pick moves that are effective both with and without Luma.
Jab: I think that either option (rapid jab or three-hit combo) is better off left out of your Rosa training. This character struggles to kill and doesn’t have time to mess around with weak moves. Down tilt is a better choice for a quick “get off me” option.
Forward Tilt (Milky Way): A floating roundhouse kick with a 7-frame startup, this move should be your main mix-up to prevent Forward smash from staling. I prefer this move to down tilt because it has superior damage and knockback which helps to set up edge guards.
Up Tilt (Saturn Ring): This move has potential to be really good as an anti-air, but it is outclassed by up smash in range, damage, and consistency. I recommend leaving this move out and focusing on the vastly superior up smash.
Down Tilt (Glitter Low Kick): While I prefer forward tilt for its damage and knockback, down tilt has some utility being one of Rosalina’s fastest moves coming out on frame 5. It’s not a bad idea to train in a little bit of this move as an up-close mix up option.
Dash Attack (Rise Up): This is an essential move for any Rosalina because it is one of her few burst options and its launch angle is perfect for setting up aerial follow-ups and edge guards. It also functions as a sneaky multi-hit with its delayed secondary hitbox making it great vs. shield. Set your dash attacker value to 100 and profit.
Forward Smash (Galaxy Smash): This should be your most heavily used move up close. Yes, it is slow (coming out on frame 16) and yes it can be parried, but Rosa needs to kill somehow, and this is by far her hardest hitting move. With some assistance from Luma forward smash is incredibly powerful. This move is a must have and will likely be one of Rosalina’s main sources of kills.
Up Smash (Bend Back): This should be Rosalina’s primary anti-air. Its hitbox is enormous and sweeping while the damage and launch that it provides is tremendous. It is also reasonably fast as far as kill moves go coming out on frame 8. I honestly believe that this is Rosalina’s second best move outside of dash attack.
Down Smash (Twin Galaxy): An underrated move for Rosalina as the first hit comes out deceptively quick (frame 6) and the AI is capable of using it quite well as a roll catch option. The launch angle of this move is also a nasty horizontal one meaning that when used near the ledge it can send the opponent offstage at an angle that is tough to recover from.
Neutral Air (Rosalina Loop): This is by far Rosalina’s worst aerial. While it does hit in a 360-degree arc around her, the knockback is so little that it will often lead to her being punished. Skip this one.
Forward Air (Galaxy Somersault Kick): This is in contention for Rosalina’s best aerial move. Its long-lasting hitbox makes it hard to avoid, especially offstage. This should be Rosalina’s primary edge-guarding tool as it kills insanely early when it connects fully offstage. Make this her top-used aerial.
Back Air (Galaxy Drop Kick): This aerial gets overshadowed by some of Rosalina’s other aerial options but it provides some utility. Because Rosalina is so tall, she can connect with this move from a decent distance making it a great spacing option while falling through platforms. I advocate for a little bit of this move in your training.
Up Air (Saturn Ring U): Rosalina’s secret weapon is her ability to get kills off the top with up air. It is quick hitting (coming out on frame 8) and has a surprising amount of vertical launch. As a secondary anti-air, this move does wonders. Absolutely include this in your training.
Down Air (Saturn Ring D): While not as consistent as you want it to be, this is still a great tool in Rosalina’s offstage toolkit. Although this move can spike the opponent, it very rarely does — in fact the move often launches the opponent upward. It is also by far Rosalina’s slowest aerial option coming out on frame 17. That said, it is still worth including for an offstage Rosa because it can still function as an excellent gimping tool.
Neutral Special (Luma Shot): While I did experiment with this, I don’t think that it made much of a difference in overall performance. This move actively causes separation of Rosalina and Luma, and in my experience has caused countless Luma deaths. Luma gives Rosalina a huge power spike on all her melee attacks and if Luma is constantly dead it results in an overall debuff. Avoid this move.
Side Special (Star Bits): This move should be avoided simply for the fact that it is not effective without Luma. She will not recognize that this move will not work without Luma and thus attempt to use it at times where it won’t be effective. Avoid this move.
Down Special (Gravitational Pull): This move causes projectiles to be pulled in and neutralized. You do not have to train Rosalina to use this move as she will do so on her own. I do not recommend training this more because it has no inherent offensive value.
Grabs: I recommend grabbing quite a bit while training your Rosalina amiibo. Rosalina has a few built-in combos off of her grabs: Down throw to Forward Air, Down Throw to Back Air, Down Throw to Neutral Air, and Up throw to Up Air. Rosalina will also use back throw at the ledge to get opponent offstage, setting up an edge guarding opportunity. Train your Rosa to grab, you won’t regret it.
So How Does Luma Even Work?
While Rosalina will not alter her move selection based on the presence of Luma (to her detriment at times such as with Side Special), Rosalina is aware of where Luma is in space and in relation to the opposing amiibo. Rosalina recognizes where Luma is and will sometimes throw out moves knowing that while she won’t connect, Luma will.
Spirit Loadouts
Anything Goes
- Armor Knight + Physical Attack ^
- Super Armor
- Slow Super Armor + Physical Attack ^
- Slow Super Armor + Airborne Endurance
- Armor Knight + Airborne Endurance
Big 5 Ban
- Physical Attack ^ + Air Defense ^ + Magic Attack ^
- Physical Attack ^ + Critical Health Stats ^ + Magic Attack ^
- Physical Attack ^ + Critical Healing and Metal
Raid Boss
- All Anything Goes Setups
- All Big 5 Ban Setups
- Instadrop + Shield Damage ^
- Shield Damage ^ + Physical Attack ^ + Hyper Smash Attacks
In Conclusion…
While Rosalina is a low-tier Amiibo by every definition, I have found labbing her character out and training her to be one of the most rewarding experiences in my amiibo training career. There is no better feeling than having a deep tournament run with a low-tier character.
I hope this guide inspires you to train your own Rosalina Amiibo as the character is in desperate need of representation in the current meta. Thank you all for taking the time to read this. Train hard and be good.
— Justin
Amiibo Doctor 