Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s development cycle was quite a journey. There were many additions and changes, but the highlight of the journey was the characters that joined the roster as DLC. Out of all the characters, Sora was the greatest of them all. Whether you love or hate the character, his addition to the roster as not only the final character, but also the most requested, felt just as magical as it was bittersweet.
Sora is an easy character to understand but a hard one to fully figure out. This is especially true when it comes to beating him in battle. Read on to understand his best and worst aspects and how you can use these to get the upper hand on him.
Sora’s Strengths
Sora’s biggest strength is his amazing combo game. He can string many of his attacks together to rack up damage and carry opponents. This is mostly thanks to his best aerial attacks being multi-hit combos that can be cancelled and continued by landing, as well as his floatiness. The way that these attacks carry opponents can also result in him getting kills off of them, specifically the Neutral Air (or NAir) which keeps opponents in front of him.
Sora is also great at edgeguarding. If an opponent is trying to recover, Sora doesn’t have to work hard to find the right positioning to attack. This is thanks to his moves providing various areas of effect and utility. This is especially true for his Neutral-B, which cycles through three different spells:
- Firaga can fire a steady stream of projectiles in front of him with decent hitstun.
- Thundaga can catch opponents recovering high above him.
- Blizzaga can freeze opponents and let them fall to the blastzone (if they don’t mash out, that is).
There’s also his counter Down-B, which can interrupt any hitbox completely to knock opponents away with a followup attack.
Paired with his great edgeguarding capabilities is his amazing recovery. Sora’s second jump gives him a great boost in height. Paired with that is his Up-B and Side-B. The former is a great tool for both recovering and killing opponents off the top of the stage, and the latter can be used out of the Up-B for even greater recovery possibilities. This is helped by the fact that he can use the Side-B up to three times in quick succession, with the second and third inputs going in whatever direction he wishes. All of this gives Sora an excellent offstage and aerial presence.
Sora’s Weaknesses
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Sora’s floatiness can be a hindrance for him. While it assists him in offstage interactions, it makes it difficult for him to get out of juggling situations. There’s also his DAir; while it’s great for edgeguarding opponents below the ledge, it’s terrible for helping him land due to its predictability and low priority over other moves. This gives Sora a disadvantage state that he really struggles in.
On the topic of low priority, the same can be said for the rest of his normals. While they have great active frames and combo potential, his attack range is short, less than that of the average sword character. Most disjointed attacks can win out over Sora’s moves. Even attacks that aren’t disjointed can win some of the time if they’re timed properly.
And finally, there’s his overall speed. Sora isn’t the slowest character, but his run speed isn’t the best. Due to his overall floatiness, he doesn’t go very far in the air either. This makes it hard for him to close the distance against enemies and carry out his game plan.
Strategy & Counterplay
Sora will typically try to find openings in your defense to get a combo started, either by approaching with an aerial or trying to get a Down-Throw. Alternatively, he’ll also use Firaga once or twice to help close the distance. Try to play careful and grounded at low percents, not taking any risky options while preventing him from doing what he wants. This can be done by walling him out with your attacks to keep him at bay; the most he can do at a distance are his spells, which are either readable, limited in range, or have openings that can be exploited, such as the space between each lightning bolt in Thundaga.
Sora excels in the air, but his aerial disadvantage is bad. One of the ways you can beat him is by trying to keep him directly above you as much as you can. The only ways he can land or defend against attacks from below are with his DAir and his counter. However, his DAir is easily punishable on top of being beat by other moves, and his counter can be inconsistent in terms of activating on top of simply not working if the opponent attacks against it correctly.
Good & Bad Matchups
Naturally, Sora does best against characters that are easy to combo. These are characters that are heavy, have fast fall speed, or are very large. Avoid characters like Donkey Kong, Ridley, King K. Rool, and Bowser. He also beats characters with low range and bad recovery/aerial mobility. It’s because of this that you’ll want to use characters other than Kirby, Ice Climbers, Incineroar, and Dr. Mario.
Characters that are better for beating Sora are either fast or typically outrange him with their own attacks. In the case of the latter, these are the average sword characters, but most disjoints will do. Consider using characters like Pikachu, Diddy Kong, Lucina, Cloud, or Sephiroth. He also can’t do much against projectiles due to his slow movement speed. His counter negates damage from them, but it doesn’t reflect them; he gets nothing out of countering projectiles unless it’s directly in front of the user. Try zoning him out with projectiles from Palutena, Mega Man, Young Link, and Samus.
