In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, what makes or breaks a character is often their mobility. If a character’s movement options are somehow lacking, they’re bound to be on the lower end of the tier list if the rest of their kit can’t compensate. That’s what creates the difference between characters like Min Min and Ganondorf — both have bad mobility, but one’s tools make up for it far better than the other. One character, however, has mobility in spades and tools to complement it. And that would be Greninja, the Water-type starter of Pokémon’s Kalos region.
Greninja, as the name implies, is a ninja-based character that is often played as such. In the hands of a skilled player, Greninja can provide a challenge that’s very difficult to overcome. Here are Greninja’s strengths, weaknesses, and what you can do against him.
Greninja’s Strengths
Greninja’s primary strength is his great mobility. He has plenty of tools for moving around and finding the right position to get things done. A contributor to this is his aerial game, with high jumps and fast-falling speed. As for the ground, his dash speed and the quickness of his attacks make him great at whiff punishing. His dash attack, in particular, excels at this due to the quickness and movement it provides him.
Another strength lies in his safe moves and combos. His normals provide many ways to pile on damage without being very risky for Greninja to use. This includes aerial attacks like NAir, Up-Air, which can lead to drag-down combos thanks to the multi-hit, and DAir at certain percents and instances. There’s also Down-Tilt, a very useful combo tool and whiff punish option thanks to Greninja’s ability to crawl. A lot of these combo tools can also lead to reliable kill confirms ending with FAir and Up-Smash, making it especially dangerous to throw out risky options against Greninja at high percents. Under the right circumstances, his counter Down-B can lead to kill confirmations as well due to the various directions he can attack afterward.
Finally, there’s his edgeguarding potential. Greninja has several tools for dealing with opponents offstage. One of them is his previously mentioned mobility and aerial game, allowing him to attack opponents with ease. His Side-B, in particular, is great for attacking and killing opponents far offstage, especially if they air dodge early. Up-B’s windbox properties allow him to push opponents away from the stage with it. His Neutral-B can also gimp opponents, on top of offering him better positioning opportunities due to it stalling him in the air. There’s also his BAir, which hits multiple times, and DAir, which can spike if he hits the opponent properly with it. If Greninja’s opponent is offstage, he has many ways to make it hard for you to get back.
Something that should be mentioned is his grab game. His grab range is among the best of those that aren’t long-ranged tethers. The throws he can use out of grabs give way to the previously mentioned attributes, such as Up-Throw and Down-Throw setting up combos, Back-Throw killing at high percents, and Forward-Throw for both setting up edgeguards and offering mixup potential with Down-Throw.
Greninja’s Weaknesses
Greninja’s apparent weakness is his inability to deal with pressure very well. If Greninja is stuck shielding, he doesn’t have great tools to answer back. The best thing is his BAir, but the problem with that is it only hits behind him, and his high jump height means that it’ll likely miss against most characters. His best option for escaping shield pressure, in general, is to dodge or jump away to reset neutral.
He also doesn’t have great means for getting out of the disadvantage. Thanks to his fast fall speed, it’s hard for Greninja to escape combos. His Down-B can potentially reverse the situation, but it’s highly punishable if it’s anticipated. His other tools either have relatively long startup (FAir), minimal or ineffective range (NAir and BAir), or long landing lag (DAir).
Strategy & Counterplay
Greninja excels at utilizing his movement to punish those that attack with unsafe options. He’ll definitely try to do this against you if you try to jump in on him. If you feel the need to jump in against him, make sure it’s with something safe or decent range. A safe move is harder for Greninja to punish, and a ranged attack isn’t something he can contest very well.
If you manage to get in against Greninja, do your best to apply pressure when he’s facing you. He can’t do much against you unless you’re behind him but dodge and jump, so make sure to rack up damage with combos while you can. Also, make sure to anticipate options like DAir or Down-B when juggling him, so you can punish him hard off of the endlag of the moves.
When Greninja is trying to come back to the stage, you should try to punish his recovery options however you can. His Side-B is the only way he poses a threat in terms of trying to make it back to the stage since his Up-B doesn’t have a hitbox. Position yourself properly to punish Side-B, preferably somewhere above him, if he does it and makes it back onto the stage. Other than that, you can just punish his Up-B with a lingering hitbox near the ledge; his ability to go in two different directions of his choice with Up-B won’t do much for him in this scenario.
Good/Bad Matchups
Greninja performs well against many characters thanks to his tools. He does best against characters that he can whiff punish easily. These are characters with options that are slow in terms of either startup or ending, as well as those with attacks that Greninja can avoid regardless due to his small hurtbox. Characters like Ridley, Isabelle, Byleth, and Zelda aren’t great at fighting him. He also does better against characters that he can combo and kill really well, which tend to be characters with poor disadvantage states or bad recoveries. This includes characters like Little Mac, Incineroar, King K. Rool, and Robin.
Characters that perform well against Greninja are those that can keep him at a disadvantage. These tend to be combo-heavy characters, like Peach, Pikachu, Zero Suit Samus, and Diddy Kong. He does worst against characters that he can’t combo, usually due to them having great disadvantage states or means of escaping it, on top of being generally hard to hit by his standards. The previously mentioned characters fit into this mold, as well as Inkling, Young Link, Wario, and Snake.
