How To Button-Mash Better In Smash Ultimate

The only thing less fun than losing in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is getting buried.

Nine of the 76 fighters in Smash Ultimate fighters have the ability to rudely push you halfway into the ground. When you’re in that state, you’re vulnerable to everything. If they’re nice, your opponent might throw out a mean-spirited taunt. If they’re not nice, they’re going to knock you into high heaven with a charged smash attack. When you’re in this position—half-buried and disconcertingly frozen in time—you have a choice: You can wait, or you can rapidly press the buttons on your controller, which will get you out of the dirt faster.

Button-mashing is a great way to throttle your heart rate and destroy your controller. Typically, the way people go about it is to hit as many buttons and triggers as possible, as quickly as possible. This can feel immensely frustrating because, while your fighter is paralyzed, you’re randomly thrashing about in hopes of hitting some secret, ideal button combo to save yourself, at maximum, the second or two it would take for your opponent to take your stock.

But just because you’re button-mashing doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be smart about it. Here’s some free advice. If there’s any strategy to button-mashing, it’s all about what counts as an input. You might want to ignore the joysticks, because they’re finicky about counting inputs. Your taunt buttons won’t help much, either. Instead, focus on mashing your A, B, shield, and grab buttons. Also, some bad news for the real chaotic mashers: Pressing a lot of buttons at once may only count as one input, so make sure you’re alternating presses.

You’re going to want to hit as many inputs as possible within as little time as possible. That means that, ideally, these inputs will be close together on the controller. You could just sort of wave your hand over all the buttons on the right of your controller. You could also ignore the buttons entirely and just do a ton of 360s on your joystick—even if some of these inputs don’t register, it might still be the fastest method for you. You could also plan ahead by going into your controller settings before the match and mapping A, B, shield, and grab onto your D-pad, then move it in circles to try to escape the dirt.

Here’s a great video that goes more in-depth:

Fair warning, though, for those who will heed this advice: If you’re the kind of Smash Ultimate player who whines about playing against Inkling or King K. Rool because you hate getting buried, knowing how to get out will completely erase your right to complain. 

source: gamezpot.com