In a recent livestream, HugS went into detail on the gameplay strategy and match-up information for his Super Smash Bros. Ultimate main, Mii Gunner. In this article, we’ll go over all of the helpful information he discussed, shining a light on how to succeed in the early meta as one of the more underused characters in Smash Ultimate.

General Information:

HugS recommends using Mii Gunner’s 1232 custom moveset in most match-ups. This includes Stealth Burst in the Side-B slot, as it is a quick projectile which can begin to kill some characters around 110-120% and is excellent for punishing opponents who are far away. For his Up-B, Mii Gunner should use Arm Rocket, which can be angled and is the greatest of his recovery tools.

Bomb Drop is generally his best option for Down-B, as it can cover tech rolls in and deals a good amount of shield damage. However, Echo Reflector is better against characters with strong projectiles, such as the Belmonts. Unsurprisingly, our Melee Samus main makes good use of Charge Blast in Mii Gunner’s Neutral-B slot, which can be used to kill confirm after moves like neutral-air and forward-air when fully charged (depending on the opponent’s DI), or to break an opponent’s shield after they have shielded a Bomb Drop.

Mii Gunner does a good job covering the large stretch of horizontal space in front of him, where he can force his opponent to shield or to otherwise react to options such as forward-air. However, Mii Gunner struggles a bit more to deal with opponents up close or behind him. In addition, the aerial horizontal space in front of him can be difficult to control if he has not established firm control of the grounded space.

If Mii Gunner has used his projectiles to control the ground, then he can use neutral-air to fend off opponents predictably approaching from the air. Notably, a turnaround neutral-air is ideal in this case since its hitbox starts off at Mii Gunner’s back, making the back hitbox the fastest one to come out. Generally, Mii Gunner’s difficult match-ups are those in which he cannot adequately control any of the space in front of him.

Going forward, we’ll look at Mii Gunner’s match-ups based on the tiers in which HugS placed them. Note that, due to a lack of match-up experience, the following characters were not considered: Bayonetta, Bowser Jr., Diddy Kong, Duck Hunt, Greninja, Ice Climbers, Ken, Kirby, Lucario, Mega Man, Mii Brawler, Mii Swordfighter, Mr. Game & Watch, Olimar, R.O.B., Robin, Ryu, Sheik, Shulk, Toon Link, Wii Fit Trainer, and Zero Suit Samus.

Most Favorable:

Mii Gunner does excellent against heavies like Bowser, Charizard, and Donkey Kong, as Mii Gunner can keep them at a distance and easily retreat if they try to approach. If Mii Gunner can trap them on a platform, he can safely short hop up-air and may even shield poke if he drifts towards the weaker back part of their shield.

Naturally, killing these heavyweights is a bit difficult. However, by conditioning these opponents to commit to punishable options, Mii Gunner can still catch them with a kill move like forward smash, up-air, down smash, down tilt, back-air, Side-B, Neutral-B, Down-B, or up smash.

While not heavyweights, Mewtwo and Rosalina are both large and not particularly fast in the air. As a result, Mii Gunner has an easy time walling them out with aerials. Stealth Burst is an excellent counter to the special moves Zelda tries to make use of in neutral. Piranha Plant is a very slow and quite susceptible to Mii Gunner’s Bomb Drop, while also lacking good projectiles of his own.

Favorable:

Ganondorf’s mid- to long-range attacks and his Flame Choke allow him to get in and punish Mii Gunner for using laggy moves, but Mii Gunner can still keep Ganon out effectively if he plays safe and avoids throwing out punishable attacks. In a similar vein, Mii Gunner can keep out Incineroar without too much trouble, but he must respect the Alolan Whip at mid-range. He can also edgeguard Incineroar effectively by throwing out a Charge Blast, forcing him to Side-B high, which Mii Gunner can then punish to force Incineroar back offstage. Down-B is also particularly good for controlling the ground against these characters, as Mii Gunner can punish their attempts to hit the bomb away with a forward smash.

Mii Gunner also does well against Dedede. While Dedede may want to land with Inhale to cover himself against a Charge Blast, Mii Gunner can simply punish him with Stealth Burst, which Dedede cannot inhale. This gives Mii Gunner a mix-up which Dedede is hard pressed to deal with. Ledgetrapping Deded is a bit more difficult, but he can do it by dropping a bomb at the ledge and then covering a potential jump from the ledge with a well-spaced forward-air or a RAR back-air.

Keeping up the trend of Mii Gunner doing well against heavies, he can counter King K. Rool, as K. Rool’s projectile spam strategy can be easily countered with Stealth Burst, which will go through projectiles and outright land or pressure K. Rool’s shield. K. Rool also has a difficult time approaching Mii Gunner.

Mii Gunner can get rid of Pac-Man’s Fire Hydrant with one Stealth Burst, while also dealing with his predictable aerials quite effectively. Isabelle also has a hard time combatting Mii Gunner. Even with her range, moves like Stealth Burst and forward-air counter her toolkit quite well. Mii Gunner can wall out Palutena in a similar way using his Side-B and Down-B.

With Echo Reflector and Stealth Burst equipped, Mii Gunner is able to beat out Simon and Richter in a projectile war. This dominance on stage gives Mii Gunner an edge in the match-up, even if Mii Gunner is a little too slow to edgeguard them properly.

Corrin lacks the strengths of many other sword fighters in the match-up, giving Mii Gunner the edge. Luigi is also a favorable match-up, as Mii Gunner can actually edgeguard him fairly well. Against Ivysaur, Mii Gunner can land his attacks quite easily while also combatting any projectile spam from Ivysaur. He is also able to Up-B around or wait out Ivysaur’s down-air spike quite easily.

Mii Gunner can stay out of the range of Lucas’ PK Fire while challenging with his own projectiles and stopping Lucas’ approach attempts. And since Lucas’ PSI Magnet only protects him from projectiles in front, Mii Gunner can punish his Down-B by exploding the Stealth Burst right behind him.

Samus and Dark Samus like to rely on projectile spam while intercepting approaches with forward-air. However, Mii Gunner can out-projectile these opponents, and makes good use of the Echo Reflector and Stealth Burst in these match-ups.

Dr. Mario’s Megavitamins are solid, but Mii Gunner can fairly easily avoid them and continue to stuff Dr. Mario’s approaches, while also edgeguarding Dr. Mario quite effectively. Mii Gunner can also edgeguard Falco well, in addition to punishing Reflector attempts by exploding the Stealth Burst behind Falco.

Even:

Mii Gunner’s match-up against Jigglypuff is fairly even. While she can avoid his ground control fairly easily, her approach options do not pose a very serious threat to Mii Gunner, and he can also kill her quite easily. Up smash out of shield is particularly good for punishing an incoming Jigglypuff.

Despite their status as high tiers, Peach and Daisy have even match-ups against Mii Gunner. While they can float to avoid the grounded space in front of Mii Gunner, he has available mix-ups for challenging this. For instance, dropping a bomb on the ground threatens that space, preventing Peach or Daisy from landing, giving Mii Gunner the opportunity to punish them in the air with a neutral-air, forward-air, or back-air. Also, if Mii Gunner’s up smash manages to trade with their down-air, they will get caught on the ground, allowing Mii Gunner to jab lock into a forward smash or down smash.

Mii Gunner’s match-up against is Ness is even, since Ness’ Down-B covers his whole body, allowing him to absorb projectiles more easily than Lucas. Ness can also handle Mii Gunner up close more effectively than Lucas. Mii Gunner is evenly matched against Mario, with Mario excelling up close and Mii Gunner excelling at a distance.

Ike can swat away Mii Gunner’s bombs quite easily, although he does not have a very quick forward approach, making the match-up even. Mii Gunner’s forward smash and Down-B are also quite good against Ike’s recovery.

Snake does a good job controlling the stage with projectiles, but once again, Stealth Burst helps to even the playing field by punishing Snake’s laggy options from afar. Mii Gunner can also punish Snake’s high recoveries with his high-reaching up-air and has options like forward smash and forward-air to combat Snake on the ground.

Unfavorable:

Little Mac can be difficult for Mii Gunner to deal with, as he is fast enough to control the horizontal space that Mii Gunner wants to control. And while Mii Gunner has moves which are certainly good for edgeguarding Mac, he can be a bit slow when it comes to throwing out an edgeguard move quickly enough.

Many of the sword characters in Smash Ultimate have good tools for approaching and punishing Mii Gunner. These include Marth, Lucina, Roy, and Chrom. These characters can circumvent Mii Gunner’s ground control and fall into him with aerial approaches, while also swiping away Mii Gunner’s bombs.

Many characters with multiple jumps are hard for Mii Gunner to counter, since they can avoid Mii Gunner’s ground control more easily. These include Ridley, Pit, Dark Pit, and Meta Knight. Yoshi also does well against Mii Gunner due to his high aerial mobility, and the difficulty Mii Gunner has dealing with Yoshi’s Egg Throw. Mii Gunner can begin to do a bit better in this match-up if he respects Yoshi’s aerial drift, however. While he has a hard time getting in, Link can still win the projectile game against Mii Gunner.

Squirtle is a rushdown character who does well against Mii Gunner. Wolf can also give Mii Gunner issues due to his high speed, good aerial drift, and solid range. Mii Gunner has some strengths against Inkling, as Inkling cannot easily edgeguard Mii Gunner and Mii Gunner can punish a lazy Inkling with Stealth Burst and also punish Inkling’s Roller with a neutral-air out of shield. However, Inkling’s rushdown approach is hard for Mii Gunner to counter and Inkling can also continually push Mii Gunner away with back-airs.

“Get f***ed”:

Characters who have an easy time getting in against Mii Gunner are incredibly difficult for him to deal with. These include Wario, Fox, Pichu, and Pikachu. Because Mii Gunner’s aerials are generally slow, they must be executed at a distance in order to keep opponents away. As a result, characters who have high aerial mobility or can otherwise approach quicker than Mii Gunner can put an aerial out give him a lot of trouble.

Captain Falcon does very well against Mii Gunner, as he is a very mobile character who is not easily held back by projectiles. Young Link is also quite strong, as he has solid approach options and projectiles which are not strictly horizontal, making them harder for Mii Gunner to counter.

Sonic is fast enough to stay out of Mii Gunner’s range until a punish opportunity presents itself, at which point Sonic can dash in to punish, something which Mii Gunner is very hard-pressed to fight against. Cloud can charge limit while Mii Gunner plays his patient playstyle and can easily combat a Mii Gunner who tries to play more aggressive, putting the match-up inherently in Cloud’s favor.

Though Mii Gunner is a character many Smash Ultimate players choose to ignore, HugS believe Mii Gunner to be a high mid-tier, if not a low high-tier character. With proper spacing, ground control, and conditioning, Mii Gunner has what it takes to win against a large portion of Smash Ultimate’s cast.