Note: This guide is not wholly comprehensive.

Greninja’s moveset is critically underrated. The truth is that his tools are tough to figure out right away in how they are used, and this is part of what makes Greninja such a tough character to pick up. Oftentimes, if a player wants to learn Greninja, they are simply forced to play a lot with him to get a natural feel for how he moves. They also typically give up trying to learn the character after many bouts on wifi, failing to obtain a feel for his moves.

A great way to learn how a character moves and how it feels is to keep in the back of your mind, not just what it can be used for, but also what it should not be used for. For those reasons, with all of the moves down below I will be adding a list of all situations that the move should not be used in (unless already explicitly stated).

Notes:

This guide is primarily made with the playstyle of a mix of offense/defense in mind. This is the easiest way to get into playing Greninja. I will be going in depth on other playstyles in a future article.

This guide is meant to break down how a good Greninja player thinks/uses his tools; this also gives guidance on how I think certain moves ought to be used.

Basic smash terminology is required to fully grasp this guide.

In order to use all of this information to its fullest, you need to have experience with smash 4 in the first place. Hopefully you can short hop fast fall (shff)

Sh stands for “short hop” and fh stands for “full hop”

Although I highly stress the importance of using aerial options and learning to build your mind games around those aerial options, do not think that you should not take opportunities you see on the ground and do not think I am saying that grounded Greninja is terrible.

Transition elements in the following paragraph may be bumpy.

I use “he” as the neuter pronoun towards an unknown subject.

The neutral is what really hinders new players. What tools to use and when can be a complicated task, but right now we need to focus on movement. Sure, learning about tools are great, but you can only use them properly when you account for how you are moving with Greninja. Greninja players often use lots of short hops, and for good reason. Eventually, you will need to get into the situation of using the air. A critical problem with this is that although Greninja thrives on shorthops and maneuvering in the air, his aerial versus aerial game is garbage (outside of back air and drift backs). That makes moving around with Greninja even trickier, as he needs to avoid aerial confrontations, and yet he still needs to use that space in the air to exert his strong neutral options. This is not well supplemented with Greninja’s “meh” ground game (please don’t kill me: in smash 4 almost everyone’s grounded game is “meh” to me. Keep in mind I write this as a melee player). Dash attack, grab, and shield are the only viable options he has on the ground in the context of approaching, and typically a spaced aerial will beat or stalemate any one of these, hence why it is better to try to obtain advantage from the air (top Bayonetta players know this to be true, and I will explaining how to exploit that/why it is a better strategy for them in a future article). If you choose to be on the ground you need to be able to take advantage of run up shields while also being able to roll, spotdodge, and jump out of shield in a heart beat. Shield is very strong in this game, and the options out of shield are too. For these reasons, some Greninja choose not to aerial nearly as much and instead play the waiting game with shurikens. As a short-term solution, it is viable, but this is a very short term solution (not to mention some characters have no need to approach Greninja, as they have a projectile game of their own). Mixing up playing the (neutral game) aerial game with throwing shurikens is the optimal balance that you want to be looking for, but you need to do it intelligently. When do I aerial and when do I shuriken? With some situations, the answer is obvious, such as when you are near an opponent is holding shield. For other situations, the answer is rarely clear, and you end up having to rely upon mix up reads accompanied with inner game knowledge. Both of these things come with experience, so you need to play a lot.

Unfortunately, I do not have all the answers when it comes to movement. For that, I turn your attention towards this advice given by Venia, the best Greninja in the United States.

In order to take his advice of having unpredictable movement, I would suggest doing what PPMD does: practice movement patterns in training mode. Try all kinds of different things and consider alternatives when you think they could be useful as counter reads. For a somewhat clearer picture of what I am talking about, go here: https://smashboards.com/threads/falco-discussion-thread.256826/page-439#post-14739329

Although Venia’s advice is targeted towards the intermediate to advanced Greninja players, you can still gain a lot from what he says. What Venia is describing is lots of little pieces that make up a part of Greninja’s neutral. I say “a part” because this advice is mainly talking about offensive movement that ends up scoring you big conversions and getting you into your opponent’s head. Another part of Greninja’s neutral has to do with the implementation of water shuriken. This is the (sometimes) defensive part.

Greninja’s projectile is one of the best in the game. It is quick uncharged and requires experience in order to react to it with shield: something that not everyone has given how few Greninja players there are. This move serves as a great poking tool, and should be used when an opponent is trying to coax you into giving up space. This move can also be used to pressure an opponent offstage. Modifying one of Venia’s thoughts, shuriken will only hit when an opponent isn’t expecting it. So, as with your movement, switch it up! Doing short hops, b-reversals, and wavebounces with the shuriken are all viable mix ups. Venia also pointed out a while ago on twitter that Greninja’s shuriken charge duration is a mix up in and of itself. Practice using different timings in different situations.

An extremely important thing to be aware of when playing Greninja is developing bad habits. This is a problem for every character, but it especially hurts Greninja players. This is because a Greninja needs to be free thinking (mix ups) which plays into being able to overwhelm opponents with speed.

General Bad Habits (avoid!):

When recovering you skip the ledge and try to jump on stage.

When recovering from the ledge you are not proficient in angles so you try to skip the ledge and go straight onto the stage with hydro pump.

Over-reading with the Up Smash. (Aka trying to catch landings with Up Smash more than once in a match).

Trying to go for the footstool combo without a solid read (aka spamming neutral air in neutral on an opponent’s shield).

Rolling almost every time when met with a certain situation. An example of this would be rolling behind an opponent after he hits your shield. FIND THESE SITUATIONS!

After you play a match, record it and watch for bad habits. Look at all the situations in which you get hit and ask yourself “what prompted this? When I was in the position that I was did I have an intelligent purpose?”

So, when in the air there are a couple of things that Greninja wants to do. While pressuring with aerials, you want to see if the opponent is shielding in case there is an opportunity for a tomahawk grab. Cross ups on shield are great, and it is good to do these with either a short hop or a short hop + jump as things to throw off the opponent. Generally, moving in the air is a good way to avoid projectiles and grounded hitboxes. Practice jumping around with various aerials and jumping patterns (i.e. sh+fh no ff/fh+ff/sh+fair no ff). Stalling midair with water shuriken to using an aerial like neutral air is something iStudying has recently been implementing into his game, but results tend to vary. If you are in the air and you might have trouble landing, you can try hydropumping down to the stage, but this can be caught onto and read if you do not mix it up properly.

Forward air is one of Greninja’s most powerful tools. Forward air is great in particular because of its power, range, and low landing lag. This is a kill move and an excellent tool to use in neutral; it hits run up dash attacks, grabs, and shields (also typically safe) when used drifting away; it is used as a pressure tool, as when an opponent is hit with it from mid to high percents he will lose stage control, thus making him forced to be wary of it; it deals 14% in damage and can be followed up with after as a mixup with a grab, dash attack, other aerial, and etc. at lower percents. Fade away forward air is also great for opponents like Sheik and Diddy who just love to use their forward air. So: when in neutral, using forward air is a way of pressuring the opponent even if not in close proximity.

DO NOT USE:

When you are close up next to an opponent’s shield (drift away please).

After an up throw or as a vertical combo follow up

Offstage

As a way to challenge other aerials

Neutral and Back air have always been kind of niche in use. Neutral air is one of the primary components of the flashy punish game that Greninja mains have displayed to the world on twitter. This is a move best used with a good read, and at almost any (180 and below) percentage it has guaranteed followups. So how should you incorporate it into your gameplay? Well if you don’t feel like using it as a read and you want something more guaranteed, try either crossing it up on shield or going for a direct hit, except you immediately follow with a jab afterwards. This creates a scenario where if the opponent isn’t shielding he gets launched. This puts you in advantage state, though you cannot follow up. If he blocks it with shield then your jab pushes him away and catches a shield grab. If he chooses to continue shielding you can stop after jab 2 and typically get away with it. With neutral air you can also read a dash grab or dash attack and shff it in place, and it catches people often enough. Back air can be used to run off edge guard, and for this its three consecutive hits serves it well because it throws off the timing of an opponent’s tech. Back air also has important use in contesting aerials (Sheik comes to mind). It has its first active hitbox on frame 5.

DO NOT USE:

(Nair) Offstage

As an approach option

As a combo ender (nair)

(Nair) in aerial versus aerial

There is only one move that I feel you should actively try to avoid using: Substitute. This move is possibly the worst counter in the game, likely tied with Lucario. Bad frames makes utilizing this move require a hard read, and even if you get this hard read it might not hit. Like Lucario’s counter, Substitute can simply be shielded if the move that activated the Substitute was one with low end lag. Other Greninja mains would also argue not to use Shadow Sneak, but I believe that move at least has situations where using it is a perfectly viable option. Which brings us to the next point.

Shadow Sneak is useful in two situations. One is for recovering after being launched at a horizontal angle when you only have one jump left. This is risky in theory, as opponents can read the option and attempt to throw a hitbox near the end of your hitboxes. The other situation has to do with niche reads when your opponent is at a high percentage and you are at a relatively low percentage. Tomahawk to Shadow Sneak, dash-in to immediate shadow sneak and many more do-it yourself mix-ups exist. This is extremely risky, which is why I only advise that you use it when you are at a low percent (probably just don’t if you do not have a confident read). If it hits on shield your opponent can simply drop shield and throw out a smash attack. If you straight up whiff, your enemy can dash towards you for a grab or very quick aerial. Neither Shadow Sneak nor Substitute need to be explained by me, as their uses are not quite as specialized as the moves that trip up most other Greninja players. Regardless, I feel that if an aspiring Greninja main is to read this guide, I ought to make it complete.

Now let’s get into the meat of things. I will go from moves that are the least useful to moves that are the most useful, so in that case we are going to start with forward tilt. Note that just because I rate this move as the least useful, does not mean that I think it is not actually useful.

Forward tilt is played in the neutral much less than Greninja’s other options simply because Greninja doesn’t like playing the close-up game, and it does not provide opportunities for follow ups or kill confirms. The move is used largely for shield pressure in combination with pivots. Sometimes this move be used as a mixup with walking, but walking isn’t Greninja’s best movement option. I see the most practical use coming out of it when dealing with players that play characters that can approach with pogostick (ie. Cloud/Fox fullhop down air). On the subject of forward tilt being used to stuff out approach options, it can also stuff out both dash attack and dash grab. Hitting the opponent when they do either of these options leaves a wide open read for a run up shield from them the next time they try to dash up, but since it is a pivot-away forward tilt, you will not be in a position to be punished (except bouncing fish out of shield shiek, but nobody does that). The read tree can continue from there. Pivot away to forward tilt is borderline free damage when opponents resort to these basic approaching tactics. Forward tilt CAN be used to cover stuff like fox/falco side b from the ledge, but if you have a read on that you might as well use forward smash. Once again, this is not actually that helpful to new players trying to learn Greninja, since to any seasoned smash player it is fairly obvious that forward tilt has minimum applications.

DO NOT USE:

Up close or as an out of shield option

As a combo follow up

To edge guard

I do not recommend using up tilt as an anti-air. Others will tell you crouching hurtbox makes it harder to be hit with by Greninja, but this doesn’t matter unless you have a read on the aerial the opponent is doing, when he will do it, and how he will drift. The sad fact of life is that it has barely any horizontal range. This makes trying to use it as an approach with a combination of pivots and foxtrots a huge no-no (it leaves you wide open). It has its practical applications for comboing and kill-setups. Powershielding an opponent’s aerial after they fall through a platform is a guaranteed up tilt combo or kill confirm. Up tilt to up air is a useful kill setup, but it is tough to land the up tilt on opponents in the first place. Again, not a difficult move when it comes to discerning applications.

DO NOT USE:

As an approach option

As an anti-air

Down-tilt. Is a kill setup, and can combo into itself at low percents (up to three times against fox). I highly recommend using this move after a neutral aerial at extremely low percents on fastfallers. This is due to it being able to combo into itself and then afterwards be an easy setup for a grab. Or you could just do one down tilt and then perfect pivot to up tilt. This tool is decent for use on shield after an aerial, but unfortunately it can be shield grabbed. Primary usage of this move is to kill confirm into fair at around 150%. Not a good mix-up tool.

DO NOT USE:

On shield, unless you have a read

Up-smash is possibly one of the most interesting of its kind in sm4sh. It is very powerful and fast. This is extremely useful as a jump read to get early kills, but you might be punished severely for it. It is extremely useful for covering landings, as it can cover both air dodge and no air dodge. Practicality past the aforementioned and killing power is nil.

DO NOT USE:

As an approach option (sorry, wrong game version)

As a combo starter (sorry, wrong game version)

As an edge guarding tool.

When making reads at low percents, it simply isn’t worth it.

Use these resources for follow up information on technical things regarding Greninja:

Great Greninja to Follow (find out when these people are playing and observe!):

https://twitter.com/King_Venia

https://twitter.com/RealElex

https://twitter.com/iStudying

https://twitter.com/oisiitofudesu

https://twitter.com/somesh125

https://twitter.com/D_AuraGreninja

https://twitter.com/lea_gekkouga

https://twitter.com/Jw_Smash (young player with lots of potential)

https://twitter.com/NinjaLink (Has Greninja knowledge and does great analysis streams)