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Min Min

Note*: Min Min's ARMS have different frame advantages on shield. Ramram will be this color, Dragon will be this color, Power Dragon will be this color, and Megawatt will be this color.

Jab1 (-15) & Jab2 (-20):
NAir (Frame 7)
GSA (Frame 9)

Jab3 (-23):
GSA (Frame 9)
USmash (Frame 10)
Grab (Frame 16)

Rapid Jab Finisher (-28):
Grab (Frame 16)

FTilt, FAir & BAir (-31/-31/-29/-30):
GSA (Frame 9)
Grab (Frame 16)
(These moves can, and probably will, be spaced out. The punishes are only if she did not space them out. She can use her other arm, as well)

UTilt (-29):
GSA (Frame 9)
USmash (Frame 10)
DSmash (Frame 20)

DTilt (-17):
GSA (Frame 9)
USmash (Frame 10)

Dash Attack (-23):
GSA (Frame 9)
USmash (Frame 10)

FSmash (-31/-29/-29/-28):
GSA (Frame 9)
Grab (Frame 16)
(These moves can, and probably will, be spaced out. The punishes are only if she did not space them out. She can use her other arm, as well)

USmash (-34):
GSA (Frame 9)
USmash (Frame 10)
DSmash (Frame 20)

DSmash (-33/-32):
GSA (Frame 9)
USmash (Frame 10)
DSmash (Frame 20)

NAir (-9/-9/-8):
NAir (Frame 7)
GSA (Frame 9)

UAir (-5):
Unpunishable
(Safe on shield)

DAir (-20):
GSA (Frame 9)
USmash (Frame 10)

Arms Jump:
--

Arms Hook:
--

Arms Change:
--

• Neutral Moves: NAir, Dash Attack, DTilt, ARMS.

• Kill Moves: ARMS Smash Attacks/Tilts + Dragon Laser, Megawatt NAir, USmash, DSmash.

• Kill Confirms: Megawatt NAir > Megawatt FAir > FSmash, (DTilt) > Ram Ram NAir > 2x ARMS, landing UAir > followup, Ram Ram FTilt/FAir > FSmash.

The actual safety of Min Min’s NAir:

• Min Min’s NAir isn’t as safe in reality as the numbers would indicate. Min Min has to start the NAir higher than normal to land the lower hit on shield.

• While this means the actual hit is slightly more unsafe, Min Min can space the move upon landing. Young Link can use GSA out of shield sometimes, but the window is tight on Megawatt.

• Min Min can knock opponents away from a range. Her shield damage makes it so that a run-up shield isn’t a consistent option available to the opponent. Young Link could jump around, roll through, or shield ARMS, but each option has their own risk.

• Min Min’s ARMS can be shot while walking and jumping. Her ARMS have different properties, as the one she switches is her primary arm. Her second arm is always a Dragon ARM. Using this walking capability with her tilts, Min Min can space her tilts during the move, moving further out of your range, but also closer to the corner.

• A portion of Min Min’s mix-up game in neutral stems from how she uses the second ARM (where and when she uses it, and what to cover with it). This general principle helps to get an idea of the purpose in Min Min’s move usage, as opposed to blindly hopping in for an opening.

• Closing the distance against Min Min is a matter that happens over time. Often you’ll have to close the distance slowly, as running in quick creates more vulnerability, which Min Min can cover.

• When Min Min full hops to anti-air a full hop, that can be a chance to run-in and close distance, as she can’t fire ARMS to the ground right away.

• Ram Ram allows Min Min to cover horizontal and vertical space at once. The trade-off for this is that it has low killpower.

• Min Min’s blindspot is directly above her and diagonally above her, where she struggles to hit the opponent with her ARMS. She can instead cover this space with her full hop NAir, which covers the space around her.

• She can’t reliably cover her blindspot and zone Young Link in the same instance.

• This means the answer is not simple, but not necessarily specific and complicated either. Smart jump, roll, run-in and shield usage works. It’s about assessing the information of neutral at that moment to make a smart decision and timing on which options to use.

• Min Min’s Dash Attack is a quick burst option that, despite not giving very high reward, has low-endlag and can then set up for tech chases with no/downwards DI.

• Between her Dash Attack and DTilt, Min Min can use these options to get the opponent off of her by intercepting their movement. She can use these faster than ARMS when the opponent is closer. Avoiding these moves means playing outside of their range, which also means dealing with unpunishable ARMS.

• Fire Arrow as an option is challenged with abnormally high-risk in this MU. Min Min can, at any point, contest a Fire Arrow with an ARM, clanking and damaging/killing Young Link for firing it. This interaction is uncommon, and it is instead Young Link that is faced with anti-burst options, rather than the other way around. This is a MU where Min Min’s win condition isn’t necessarily getting in. Thus, there is little use in the anti-burst option if the opponent’s win condition doesn’t involve burst range.

• Instead, Fire Arrow has a use at a close mid-range, where you can catch Min Min on the startup of Fire Arrow.

• Boomerang’s risk is higher for similar reasons as Fire Arrow. Min Min isn’t going to jump as a means to get in. She swings her ARMS at a far distance, where she can just clank them regardless. A good angle to throw Boomerang at is full hop down, an angle that she would have to jump to cover, and directly lingers closer to the ground, enabling follow-up potential.

• Bomb being an item provides a unique use in the MU. If Young Link has time to pull one, he can bring it to midrange/close quarters combat against Min Min and threaten a ranged option faster than her ARMS. It’s not realistic to always have one in hand, since Min Min can swat you away for pulling one, but should you get the chance to pull one when she backs off, then Young Link can now attack Min Min from midrange as opposed to close quarters combat.

• NAir allows Young Link to clank with an ARM if timed correctly outside of roll, jumping in, and run up shield. Timing how NAir is used needs to be changed to be consistently usable. (Using NAir to clank Min Min’s ARMS is like taking a page out of all of the swordies and rushdowns clanking our Fire Arrows and Boomerangs).

• Short hop rising NAir, short hop landing NAir, full hop rising and landing NAir, and even double jump NAir/delayed double jump NAir all achieve this.

• There are two different types of ARMS; Min Min tilts and Smash Attacks. Tilts allow Min Min to move around, while Smash Attacks force Min Min to be stable, albeit doing much more knockback. If the first ARM used is a Smash Attack, Min Min can’t buffer an attack with the second arm until the first one returns to her, regardless of tilt or Smash Attack.

• Min Min can’t angle Ram Ram in the air. She can’t angle it downwards to cover opponents underneath.

• DI-ing down on Dragon NAir can avoid combo follow-ups by giving Young Link time to shield, except Grab.

• When Min Min lands a Ram Ram tilt, she has time to combo into tilts again, then Young Link has a window to escape.

• DI Min Min's FThrow out and away. If you DI down, Min Min will be able to cover all tech chase/out of tumble options.

• DI Min Min’s BThrow out at low %s where the throw itself won’t kill, otherwise Min Min can set up the BThrow into a Power Dragon Laser to kill early. Airdodge if necessary, Min Min can’t act immediately.

Boxing
(How do I escape this situation?):

• Generally, the risk/reward for Fire Arrow and Boomerang out of hitstun or out of the corner isn’t present against Min Min, since she plays from a further range than Young Link and can hit him in projectile startup safely. Be wary of Boomerang usage in the corner, as Min Min can swat it away safely.

• Megawatt can net kills at early percentages for Min Min if she catches DI out (dashback/drifting back in the air). Megawatt FSmash/FTilt catching a dashback or fade back from a jump can kill as low as 80%. The opposite is true, however. Good DI can allow Young Link to survive much longer against Megawatt.

• Ram Ram is Min Min’s best tool for coverage in corner pressure, since it’ll cover both jumps and grounded approaches. It doesn’t offer as high of a reward as Megawatt, though.

• Ram Ram is the least riskiest ARM to clank with NAir though, since it won’t outright kill from a tilt.

• Ram Ram NAir is a win condition for Min Min in advantage state, as it can directly convert into double ARMS offstage and net early kills. It can be unsafe on shield, though.

• Be patient with jumps out of the corner. Min Min can cover this reliably with the stage control behind her. Either jump, cross-up, or engage Min Min in close quarters combat in corner pressure.

• Min Min can break shields quickly/damage them with Dragon and Megawatt. Use shield in moderation with this in mind.

Platform Pressure
(What tools do they have? How can we escape this pressure?):

• On platforms, Min Min can use a tilt ARM to cover all options in a platform tech chase. Timing mix-ups/rolling away, or in from the ARM timed correctly, can avoid it. With Ram Ram, she can cover the platforms while standing on they ground.

• Min Min’s USmash reaches platforms from below the platform.

• Min Min can catch jumps away from the platform by chasing in the air with tilt ARMS.

• Although Min Min can hit platforms, there’s a significant reason why having platforms is good against her. They give ground to land on that isn’t the floor of the stage, giving access to shield above the ground, more places to land, and reset jump/airdodge.

• Taking platforms into account, as they offer more approach and escape routes against Min Min than without them.

Landing
(How do they cover it? What are my best options?):

• Try not to use projectiles other than Bombs to land. Min Min's ARMS go through every projectile, while a Bomb stops it. The risk of using a projectile while trying to land is high as a result. Min Min can hit Young Link for the projectile usage while entirely out of range.

• Landing directly on Min Min is not an option either, as her Frame 8 USmash becomes reactable.

• NAir can be used to clank with ARMs as a landing tool but should be used with prediction and/or reaction. Blindly using NAir to check an ARM can result in a whiff punish.

• Min Min’s Dragon Laser can cover airdodges after the airdodge is expended to cover the ARM. It’s sometimes possible to drift out and only get hit by the Laser, which the airdodge can be expended for.

• Since Min Min can throw out ARMS upon landing, she can punish landing lag on aerials with no risk.

Offstage
(How Do I Escape This Position And What Do I Look Out For?):

• Pulling a projectile offstage to intercept Min Min is risky, as again, she can swing ARMs out of the projectile's range and punish Young Link for it.

• Min Min will often stay onstage and prefer to go for a Ram Ram 2-frame. Get low quickly, and hug the wall of the stage to recover and minimize the chances of her landing the 2-frame.

• If Min Min fires Dragon ARMS offstage, drifting back to airdodge the laser and then recover can give enough time for Young Link to get back to the ledge before Min Min can attack elsewhere.

• NAir can be used to clank with Ram Ram tilts offstage as an edgeguard, which are used to intercept all other options.

• Another edgeguard to be wary of is Min Min’s NAir/runoff NAir offstage. She can use this to send Young Link at an angle where he’s vulnerable, or can be hit by ARMS. If possible, drift back to avoid the Dragon/Ram Ram NAir, and then hit Min Min with ASA to recover and whiff punish.

• Min Min can cover high recoveries by launching herself high quick with Arms Jumps, her grounded Up Special. This gives Min Min quick access to double jump height, and allows her to rain down double Dragon Lasers for edgeguard coverage.

Ledge:

• Min Min can ledgetrap entirely from center stage. This effectively removes ledge attack and ledge roll as ledge options.

• Min Min can throw out the second ARM after utilizing the first one, baiting a getup with the first and punishing the timing with the second.

• If Young Link does a neutral getup into a Megawatt FSmash, Min Min can immediately follow-up with a Power Dragon Tilt to shield break.

• Min Min can catch drift forwards and backwards off of a ledge jump with ARMS, so the mix-up of drifting away after a ledge jump is removed. To avoid an ARM, a rising airdodge input would be needed.

• If Min Min misses a 2-frame with her Dragon ARM, that is not your opportunity to escape the ledge. Stay on the ledge until Min Min uses her second ARM.

• Either Bomb or Fire Arrow can be tossed from the ledge to potentially hit and interrupt Min Min's ledgetrapping from roll distance. This is risky though, since attempting to do so costs Young Link his double jump, guaranteeing a stock loss if launched back offstage. Unless the Bomb will immediately explode, use it as a safety net and launch a Fire Arrow instead.

Juggling/Boxing:

• Min Min’s USmash out of shield is Frame 8. While this does mean that Young Link can land aerials on her shield, Min Min can catch followup inputs on her shield to get a stock. If she guesses wrong, Young Link has enough time to punish her out of shield. Be wary of jumping around her shield, as Min Min can use USmash to catch jumps.

• Crossing up Min Min’s shield provides additional safety, as she can no longer use NAir in the front to hit opponents out of shield.

• Min Min can play from the corner comfortably, since her gameplan is playing from an extreme distance. The goal of corner pressure is to cause discomfort and force options, which is hard to do to a character that’s comfortable in the corner, since she can hit opponents center stage while in the corner.

• When corner pressuring Min Min, focus on dodging ARMs and using that downtime to close the distance. Up close, Young Link can use quick frame data to stuff out Min Min more reliably.

• However, by going that close, Min Min can also use a quick cross-up DTilt/Dash Attack to get out of the corner and hit Young Link away. Using NAir/Jab/DTilt/BAir up close can stuff Min Min out quick. NAir is reliable, since it can also clank arms.

• If you get close to Min Min, but don't have enough time to whiff punish, consider backing off slightly to catch Min Min buffering an escape option out of the corner.

• Fire Arrow has around the same startup as Min Min’s tilts (all arms have a Frame 14 startup). Fire Arrow can be used at closer ranges to beat out tilts before startup. There is some risk, though, as the tilts can clank with the Fire Arrow. Fire Arrow won’t clank with the ARMS after their active frames end, or just after the ARM reaches their max distance. If out of range of the ARM, time the Fire Arrow to go through the ARM appropriately.

• Boomerang in advantage for corner pressure, ledgetrapping, and juggling is inconsistent because of it's higher risk against Min Min. She can catch Young Link throwing Boomerang with ARMS safely, and get free openings off of it.

• Since Min Min likes playing from the corner, she can still get the first say in the situation. You’ll still have to prioritize navigating her ARMS to then get up close and force an uncomfortable situation.

• Min Min is more vulnerable when trying to land as opposed to in the corner. She lacks hitboxes to cover her landing below, other than NAir and DAir, which don’t reach far. Aim to stay directly below Min Min when juggling. If she’s landing away from Young Link, she might try and use her ARMS to hit Young Link away upon her landing.

• Min Min’s DAir autocancels on Frame 41, which is high up given how fast DAir sends Min Min downwards. It can autocancel if she does it from high up. If Min Min does charged Arms Jump > double jump, she’ll be at the height where DAir autocancels.

• Min Min lacks a quick button out of tumble to get opponents off of her, which allows Young Link to string multiple hits and trap airdodges. She can use DAir as a landing mix-up, since it halts her momentum briefly before crashing down.

• When directly below Min Min, UAir’s lingering hitbox will catch DAir and can be used to stuff out NAir before the hitbox reaches below.

• Advantage state against Min Min is more consistent when juggling as opposed to boxing her. In most scenarios, it’s preferable to be directly under her when she’s landing, as she can’t reliably cover space below her.

Offstage:

• Min Min can throw out her ARMS while she’s drifting towards the stage to recover. She’ll likely throw Dragon ARM straight out to hit the opponent standing at the ledge. Jumping from a platform over it and then drifting down to edgeguard gets around it. Watch where the ARM goes, since the Laser is auto-aim.

• Min Min can die to edgeguards at low percentages if she doesn’t have a double jump. All Young Link needs is to land a NAir/BAir offstage. An easy way to set up a good angle to edgeguard is to dashback full hop B-Reverse Fire Arrow from the ledge.

• If Min Min still has her jump, opting for BAir as an edgeguard tool instead of NAir will give Young Link more time to attempt catching Min Min’s double jump after.

• Once Min Min tethers to the ledge, she can reel in right away and avoid edgeguard attempts offstage. Using ledgeslip NAir with correct timing will cover Min Min’s reel into the ledge.

• When edgeguarding Min Min, the worst case scenario is giving her a free ledgetrap. This usually happens when an edgeguard attempt fails and Min Min gets to snap ledge first. While the risk/reward is there since Min Min will die if she gets hit by a NAir, sometimes it may not be worth giving that opening to Min Min. Using BAir to edgeguard from a jump off of the ledge gives Young Link enough time to double jump back onstage as opposed to grabbing the ledge.

• Using BAir to hit Min Min recovering above the ledge also can give Young Link enough time to frametrap Min Min’s airdodge, covering the tether right after with a NAir facing towards the ledge.

• When Min Min uses Arms Hook in the air, it briefly stalls her fall. Her tether only works 3 times before it fails.

• Min Min jumps and throws her ARMS off of the ledge to hit Young Link pulling projectiles. Threatening ledge traps with normals and movement/shield is more consistent against characters that can threaten attacks off of the ledge reliably.

• Min Min can use DAir off of the ledge to check the opponent for being too slow on a punish.

• If you expect Min Min to dropdown and double jump to throw ARMS from the ledge, DSmash at the right time immediately kills Min Min for attempting it.

• Min Min’s ledge jump extends her hurtbox as she jumps off of the ledge. Min Min stretches her ARMS out while jumping over the ledge, meaning that she can get hit by an attack below her during the startup of her ledge jump.

Ledge Info:

Young Link Ledge Coverage, Labbed By Sachit:

DTilt: Hits

DSmash: Hits

FTilt: Hits

Most Reliable Move: All

Animation Info: Aim for Min Min’s ARM grabbing the ledge. The ARM has a hurtbox.

Note: Easy difficulty, FTilt reaches farthest.

• Min Min Kill Throws: BThrow, UThrow (DI Down and Away)

• Min Min gains Power Dragon for 30 seconds after she throws an opponent. Young Link can remove it by Grabbing her or making her miss a tech (Fire Arrow platform tech chase!)

• Battlefield:
  Great. The platforms allow Young Link to have much more freedom getting around ARMs and being able to set up. The triplats let Young Link to escape vertically instead of horizontally, which is needed.

• Small Battlefield:
  Good

• Final Destination:
  Terrible. Without any platforms, Young Link doesn’t have as much freedom in maneuvering around ARMS. This limits Young Link to the ground, and makes it more difficult to close the distance against Min Min.

• Smashville:
  Bad. While the small space and platform layout are nice on first impression, the fact that Min Min can cover the entire stage with ARMS makes it a volatile stage pick.

• Town & City:
  Terrible. The changing platform layout means that the center platform won’t always be available, meaning that the layout is mostly FD. The small side zones net Min Min earlier Megawatt kills, and she has an easier time intercepting Young Link’s recoveries here, since it’ll take him more time to recover.

• Lylat Cruise:
  Good. The platforms give Young Link maneuverability around Min Min's ARMS, the ability to close distance quickly, and slants to extend the range of Fire Arrows. Getting off of the ledge could be more difficult, though.

• Pokémon Stadium 2:
  Indifferent. Neutral stage for both characters, it gives Young Link platforms to maneuver around ARMS, while Min Min has space to zone.

• Kalos Pokémon League:
  Indifferent. Although this stage is mostly flat, the platforms on the sides and walls give Young Link more options in recovery, ledge escapes, and edgeguarding, since Min Min has less freedom to snap the ledge on stages with walls.

• Yoshi’s Story:
  Great. Similarly to BF, the platforms allow Young Link freedom in maneuvering. Having access to platforms gives more escape/approach routes against Min Min. The walls also allow much easier time in edgeguarding against Min Min.

• Hollow Bastion:
  Indifferent. This stage’s extended length, compared to SV, means Min Min can’t cover the ENTIRE stage, giving Young Link the functionality in the MU that SV would have. However, it can still be difficult to escape disadvantage at times with Min Min hiding under the center platform.

• Young Link vs Min Min MU VoD Playlist: YL vs Min Min

• @IzAwSmash on YouTube: How to beat Min Min

• (MinMinCord Resources) Min Min Kill Confirms by exo#5375

• (@PinkShirtGuySSB on Twitter) Min Min’s hurtbox extension during ledge jump showcase: PinkShirtGuySSB's Tweet