Wavedash
Introduction to Wavedashing
How to Wavedash
Wavedashing isn't particularly tricky, but it does take nimble fingers. To wavedash, you'll need to jump and immediately airdodge at a diagonal into the ground. Ideally, you'll want to be able to have the airdodge register before you even see your character leave the ground, so the jump and the airdodge need to be all but simultaneous for most characters. If you do it correctly, your character should slide for a bit in his/her landing position and some white smoke will kick up. If you see your character jump a tiny bit before he/she slides, then it's still a wavedash, but you'll want to learn to airdodge quicker. A good wavedash will give the impression of just the slide... a character standing there and then sliding across the ground, with nothing in between.
An easier way to wavedash is to do it directly out of a crouch. If you're already holding the control stick at a diagonal down, then all you have to do is hit X/Y and L/R at almost the exact same time. I recommend this only to see what it looks like, though, because getting in a habit of crouching before every wavedash kinda destroys some of it's speed and usefulness.
"Also note that timing varies for certain characters. Fox's 4-frame jump allows the jump and airdodge to be at almost the same time, where Bowser's 9-frame jump requires a delay before the airdodge."
What is Wavedashing?
Wavedashing is a technique that turns an extremely low angled airdodge into a slide on the ground. It's the product of the physics engine of the game. It uses an airdodge into the ground to cut off the jumping animation, and the left over momentum plus low traction causes your character to slide. Accordingly, low traction yields long wavedashes and high traction yields short traction. For this reason, characters like Luigi, the Ice Climbers, and Marth have notable long wavedashes, while Peach and Zelda have short, seemingly useless wavedashes. Traction on the stage also matters. For instance, an oil spill on Flatzone or the UFO on Fourside will give any character a super long wavedash.
Because it's an aspect of the physics, there are two other things that will affect the length of a wavedash. The first is the timing of the airdodge. Delay the airdodge a little bit while you're characters a touch higher off the ground, and the wavedash will be slower and shorter. If you wait until you're coming down from a full jump, then the falling momentum adds to the airdodge and the wavedash gets longer. The second thing that alters the length of a wavedash is the angle of your airdodge. A shallow angle closer to perfect left/right gives you a longer wavedash. If you tilt the control stick in a steep angle below the corner for the 45 degree down-right/down-left angle on the controller, you get a shorter wavedash. You can even airdodge straight down. You won't move at all, but it cuts off your jump quickly. The normal wavedash is right in the 45 degree down-left/down right, but learning to control how long your wavedashes are can be very useful.
Essentially though, all extraneous information aside, wavedashing is moving while standing still. It allows you to perform any possible move or attack, just as though you were standing neutral...only with wavedashing, you can move at the same time.
How is this useful?
If you didn't read that last little short paragraph, allow me to reiterate. When you're wavedashing, you can do ANYTHING. It gets rid of the inhibitions that go along with running such as lag at the end of the animation. When you're wavedashing you have every possible attack open to you, and you can also roll, shield, spot dodge, jump, wavedash, crouch, or dash. Wavedashing also lets you move backwards without turning around, allowing for quick dodges and immediate retaliation. But let's look at the uses a touch more in depth...
Strategies
Movement
Basic. For some characters, wavedashing can be better as movement than the normal dash. For instance, Luigi and Samus gain a great deal of speed and mobility from wavedashing. Luigi tends to have this as his main form of movement, using it for approaches, moving between combos, evasion, landing from the air, etc. It can also replace crappy rolls such as the ones Samus and Yoshi are cursed with. A backwards wavedash gets you a quick dodge and then you can retaliate, if you're close enough, or wavedash forward immediately and retaliate. Wavedashing also allows quick movement when coming down from the air. You can jump to avoid a projectile such as a super missile, and then place the airdodge to wavedash right before you land, meeting your opponent with a quick pop, or wavedashing back to avoid the followup. You can also wavedash the landings of attacks that finish in the air, such as short-hopped bairs or fairs with Luigi. Because the animation finishes entirely in the air, you can airdodge and wavedash without having to land first. This becomes very useful for linking hits and following up on attacks.
Wavesmashing
Since you can attack directly out of a wavedash, you have alternatives that you will probably prefer over the standard dash attack in some instances. For instance, pretty much any Luigi player will take the down smash over the dash attack. Ergo, the wavedash + down-smash. Incidentally, certain smashes like that one also gain increased range because of the movement in a wavedash. This "wavesmashing", however, also refers to "wavetilting" and "wave neutral a-ing." Since you can do any attack out of a wavedash, you keep quite a few options open.
Waveshielding
When you first learn to WD, you will likely end the dash with the shield up, due to holding the trigger for too long. You will probably want to try and work past this so that it doesn't happen all the time. However, waveshielding will allow you to advance on characters without inhibitions or threat. Moving with the shield up can be dead useful in approaching, and the fact that you can wavedash out of a shield adds some extra goodness as well. Along with shielding during a wavedash also come rolling and spot-dodging, both with their advantages. Wavedashing into spot-dodges can be great to avoid projectiles without sacrificing movement in certain instances. Waveshielding also allows shield-grabs from your wavedashes, too, so you can have some fun with that, as well.
Edge-Hogging
If you are hanging onto the edge of the stage, no other character can grab onto it. So if a recovering opponent has used all 3 jumps and is hoping to grab the edge and you're already there...they're screwed. If you wavedash backwards off the edge of the stage, you will automatically hang from the edge. Once you can wavedash consistently, this is a touch safer than jumping or SHing backwards off the edge. If you roll from the edge after edge-hogging, you gain a few frames of invincibility, and the ledge is still considered occupied, so this can help evade certain up+b attacks while still causing them to miss the ledge.
Mind Games
This is the main aspect of wavedashing. The speed and mobility that wavedashing allows along with the freedom to do anything grants you the ability to have excellent mind games that utilize wavedashing... However, this is not something that can really be taught. Once you can wavedash consistently, you'll start noticing places where you can use it and as your mind games improve, you should be able to come up with some pretty neat stuff using wavedashing. You can check out pro videos such as ones of Yagi's Luigi for ideas, but I can't guarantee you'll actually see the mind games. Mind games are more in the fight, in the head of the player... Whether in high-level or just regular play without advanced tactics, you still want your opponent to be tricked into a position where you can attack them. Dash forward, and your opponent is probably going to attack, right? you get hit. Dash forward, wavedash back... your opponent attacked before you wavedashed back and now suffers from the lag of their failed attack. So you punish. That's a really simple and generic example, but it gets the point accross. Mind games... Simply put, mind games are the game.
Here's some more assorted information about wavedashing's uses... You can wavedash straight from the ledge by dropping and immediately jumping and airdodging onto the stage. This can get you back onto the stage quickly to meet an approaching opponent. Wavedashing also cancels the things that jumping cancels... For instance, since you can jump out of a shield, you can wavedash out of a shield. This also allows for waveshines, or wavedashing out of the shine, a vital part of various infinites with Fox, whether the waveshine is forward to follow the opponent or downward, just to cut off the shine without leaving you in the air. Stages with platforms also open up some new opportunities with waveadshing, since you can jump up through a platform and then airdodge so you wavedash accross it. This allows for some versatility on stages like Battlefield.
For the most part, though, you'll find use for wavedashing on your own. These things are just outlines of some more general uses. The ways you can use it vary with each character, but pretty much the entire cast can benefit from it regardless of whether their wavedash is as long as Luigi's or as short as Peach's. The best wavedasher in the game is arguable Samus', simply because she can put it to great use. Quite like with penises, the longer isn't always the better. It's more of how you can use it.
With some practice, wavedashing becomes second nature. Most who do it get to the point where they can accomplish it 100% of the time with no problem. Wavedashing is not always necessary to your game, as there are some pros that don't wavedash, however it is very useful. It is also not a glitch, or in any way cheap. It is merely an aspect of the physics in the game, and is referred to in the actual game as the "super dash technique". It's the most versatile of the advanced techniques and can help ANY character's game. It's not necessary, but it sure as hell isn't useless. It's moving while standing still! So experiment with it. I'm sure you'll find some nice ways for it to improve your game.
Credits
FAQ by Tobias Xelkythe and XiF, all rights reserved. [1]
How it is considered legal
Looking into AR, it is listed as "LANDFALL_SPECIAL", which most likely means the developers knew it was possible.
