Yoshi (Clash)

Yoshi
Coming Soon
Universe	Yoshi / Mario
Appears in	64, Melee, Brawl, Clash
Debut	Super Mario World (1991)
Availability	Starter
Tier	S / S (4 / 3)

Yoshi is a starting playable character in Super Smash Bros. Clash. He's a resident of Yoshi's Island, this specific Yoshi being the one who cared for Mario & Luigi as babies, protecting them from threats like Baby Bowser and Kamek. Ever since then, Yoshi has become one of Mario's most loyal companions. Yoshi, at first, is a bit clueless about The Dark Tournament until he finds out of the horrors Bowser caused in the Mushroom Kingdom. He then sets out to go find Mario, fighting anyone who gets in the way... until he gets into the Pirate Homeworld and meets some new "friends".

Yoshi is a little unusual of a character. His moveset overall is very awkward to learn how to blend together to form his play style, still making him extremely difficult to play. His improvements have made it so it's not as difficult (although still much harder than other characters) to play well, though.

Yoshi has a very powerful rushdown game, a long life span and some of the best normals in the game, along with arguably the best set of supers among the cast. These combined with fantastic match-ups, including a 55-45 match with Mewtwo, place him at 3rd (4th with Secret A) on the March 13th Tier List.

Changes from Brawl to Clash

Buffs

• Double jump super armor is stronger; having about 0.130 in armor.
• Double jump goes a little higher.
• Now has a Zair / Tether Attack.
• Egg Lay can grab ledges.
• Forward Aerial will always Meteor Smash, like it did in Melee.
• Forward Aerial spike is stronger.
• Aerial Egg Roll travels horizontally better, like it did in Melee.
• Side Smash now hits on frame 12 instead of frame 15.
• Up Smash now hits on frame 10 instead of frame 12.
• All throws deal 2% more damage.
• Up Throw now launches.
• Grounded Yoshi Bomb can be used as an anti-air grab move, like Bowser Bomb.
• Yoshi Bomb is much stronger.
• Down Strong now semi-spikes.
• Super Dragon mode gained access to a new move: Mini-Quake.
• Super Dragon mode can now be grounded; Yoshi doesn't always have to be in the air during it.

Nerfs

• Jab hits on frame 4 / 12 compared to 3 / 10.
• Down Aerial does less damage to shields.
• Up Strong does less damage; 10% / 9% compared to 11% / 10%.
• Up Aerial super armor frames removed.
• Increased recovery lag after a grab release, effectively getting rid of his grab release insanity.
• Super Dragon fire breath does less damage.
• Super Dragon is slightly harder to control.
• Super Dragon lasts about 13 seconds instead of 20.

Pros & Cons

Yoshi is weird. Really damn weird. Yoshi's moveset is just awkward in every way and doesn't have a very consistent set of properties, although this can be a plus. It takes a lot of time to learn how to play him well due to the mastery his moveset and advanced techniques require, but a good Yoshi must be feared.

Yoshi's recovery has been improved a ton, since he's almost impossible to knock him out of it now and he also has tethers. He also has many quick attacks with good priority, has good edgeguarding, is really good at combos and has great mobility. His Final Smash 2 is also easily one of the best Final Smashes in the game, having huge priority, range, being able to be comboed out of and really limits the other fighters' options when Yoshi has it. His Final Smash 1 is no slouch either.

Yoshi's combo ability is inconsistent; you basically have to know what works on who. Yoshi doesn't have many reliable finishers, has an absolutely awful grab game (even though his grab is decent), and lacks really good approach options. Yoshi's roll is still really bad for dodging attacks and you're better off running away. Yoshi, as stated earlier, is also really hard to use well.

A good Yoshi is very hard to come by and it's easy to see why everyone hates him in these games. However, his improvements really expand upon his game and it can be a really tough fight when up against a good Yoshi.

Pros

• Heavy weight with good recovery means he takes a while to die.
• Some very damaging combos.
• Very fast and agile; doesn't have a lot of problems moving around.
• Fast, high priority attacks.
• Probably has the best pair of Final Smashes in the game.
• Good edgeguarding game.
• Overall good offensive game and fairly decent defensive one.

Cons

• Has some problems approaching the foe.
• Abysmal out of shield options and dfensive rolls.
• Extremely high learning curve.
• Most of his combos are very specific in terms of who they work on, so basically you have to know how to approach every match-up.
• Grab game is not good at all.
• Has a harder time finishing off characters than the other fighters do.

Moveset

Ground Moves

Normals

• Neutral Attack: Yoshi kicks with his left leg, then again with his right leg. Very fast and has great priority, making for a solid "get off me" move. Also does good damage for a jab. Fairly decent move to start combos.
  • Damage: 3% (first hit), 6% (second hit)
• Side Strong Attack: Yoshi spins around and attacks with a tail swipe. Another extremely high priority move for Yoshi, and the vertical knockback makes this a good way to start juggles.
  • Damage: 9%
• Up Strong Attack: Yoshi flicks his tail upwards while crouching. Another good way to start juggles, although it doesn't have as high priority as your Side Strong. Hitting with the tip of the tail does less damage.
  • Damage: 10% (tail), 9% (tip)
• Down Strong Attack: Yoshi does a low swipe with his tail. Huge range on this, fairly decent priority. Semi-spikes too, making for a decent edgeguarder. Hitting with the tip of the tail does half damage, but has an increased chance of tripping.
  • Damage: 10% (tail), 5% (tip)
• Dash Attack: Yoshi does a dashing headbutt. Good damage and knockback, decent for getting your foe off stage to start Yoshi's good edgeguarding game. Fairly difficult to combo into and unsafe on block though.
  • Damage: 9%

Smash Attacks

• Side Smash Attack: Yoshi rears back, and then smacks the foe with his head. One of Yoshi's most powerful moves, good range and priority on it and now comes out fairly quickly. Will combo out of a weak Nair or a Bair at mid percents, possibly other moves. One of his most reliable finishers really, made much easier to utilize in Clash.
  • Damage: 16% (uncharged), 22% (charged)
• Up Smash: Yoshi crouches, then swings his head upward in a "rainbow" arc. Has a very wide hitbox; most characters can get hit from behind Yoshi on start-up. Comes out quickly and is powerful, making it one of Yoshi's most reliable vertical killing moves. Will still combo out of a grab release, but only works on a few characters and needs to be done QUICKLY.
  • Damage: 16% (uncharged), 22% (charged)
• Down Smash Attack: Yoshi flicks along the ground twice with his tail. Pretty weak for a Smash Attack, not even being able to kill reliably under 150%. It's speed and range makes it work well to get people off you, set up more attacks and other things, though. First hit does more damage, but they deal the same knockback regardless.
  • Damage First Hit: 14% (uncharged), 20% (charged)
  • Damage Second Hit: 13% (uncharged), 18% (charged)

Aerial Moves

• Neutral Aerial: One of Yoshi's boots enlarges while he throws out a kicking attack. Has sex kick properties and combos out of a Down Aerial, working very well to add in shield damage. The intial frames of the move are fairly powerful knockback wise, and the latter frames work well to jump-in with and start a combo. Very versatile move.
  • Damage: 12% fresh, 9% mid, 6% late
• Forward Aerial: Yoshi rears back, then slams his head forward. Like it did in Melee, this move is a poweful Meteor Smash at any point in the hitbox. Range is very small and it's difficult to use in combos, even in air combos, though.
  • Damage: 16%
• Back Aerial: Yoshi flicks his tail four times away from him, hitting anyone from behind. High priority, low landing lag and works well to set up other attacks like a finishing move. Fairly easy to DI out of though.
  • Damage: 4% for hits 1 and 4, 3% for hits 2 and 3
• Up Aerial: Yoshi flips himself up to face vertically, then flicks upwards with his tail. A very fast, high range and very powerful attack, making Yoshi's preferred move to kill someone in the air with. Has quite a few set-up options too. Almost no horizontal range and doesn't have as much as priority as Yoshi's other aerials, though.
  • Damage: 13%
• Down Aerial: Yoshi's famed Flutter Kick. Yoshi poses and then swings his feet several times downward. Hits fourteen times for huge damage if they all connect, and will wear down shields extremely quickly. Can be used to Meteor Smash, but it isn't very strong. Extremely high priority, but high lag on every end of the scale reduces it's effectiveness as a jump-in. The kicks do the most damage if they hit at the center of the hitbox.
  • Damage: First 7 hits do 3% at the center and 2% anywhere else, hits 8-14 do 2% at the front and center and 1% in the back. Can deal up to 33% total.

Grabs and Throws

• Grab: Yoshi pulls out his tongue and tries to grab the other fighter with it. Yoshi's grab, being a long-ranged "tether", is a weird one. Yoshi's grab range is very good, but it's the shortest of all the current long-ranged grabs, being tied with Ivysaur's. It comes out slowly and is extremely unsafe on whiff, making it pretty bad to use to punish attacks with. The dash version is still quite laggy, but the range is a little better. Yoshi's pivot grab, though, is very fast and has less recovery than his standard grab. Generally if you want to grab randomly you should be using the pivot.
• Pummel: Yoshi chews on the opponent. Nothing special.
  • Damage: 2%
• Forward Throw: Yoshi spits the foe out in front of him. A pretty mediocre throw, although it will combo into a couple dashing attacks.
  • Damage: 9%
• Back Throw: Yoshi spits the foe out backwards. Very similar to the above.
  • Damage: 9%
• Up Throw: Yoshi throws the foe upward. A very good Launcher, for an Up Throw: Yoshi's air combo connects pretty solidly after one of these. Outside of air combos, it works well to set up an Up Aerial.
  • Damage: 7%
• Down Throw: Yoshi throws the foe onto the ground, where they'll then bounce off. This throw does lower knockback than the above and does more hitstun, so unless you're going for the air combo you should be using this throw.
  • Damage: 6%
• Tether Attack / Air Throw: Yoshi's Tether is unique in that it also functions as his air throw. If it hits anyone, he'll throw them backward for good damage and knockback. The tether covers a good deal of distance; about the same as Link's tether. The air throw is also a Meteor Smash and can start OTG combos at low percents.
  • Damage: 10%

Special and Super Moves

Standard Special Move: Egg Lay

Yoshi very quickly pulls out his tongue, and anyone who gets hit by it is swallowed and spit out of Yoshi as an egg. Being a grab this is unblockable.

Very low lag on this move but the damage and follow-up options are both awful for a command throw. This can also be teched out of, unlike most special grabs, although the time frame to do so is very small. Does more damage if the opponent breaks free of it late.

This attack does 7%. If escaped early, it adds on 1% and escaped late it does 4%, for a maximum of 11%. Against generic monsters you fight in single player mode, like members of the Subspace Army, the intial lay does increased damage 13%.

Side Special Move: Egg Roll

Yoshi encases himself into an egg and rolls around the battlefield. Yoshi's egg automatically breaks if it hits a wall.

While this move will lose a priority battle to a pencil, it is a decent way to cover some distance, inflict some damage to shields and starts up quickly. Usually after hitting with it you can juggle them for more hits.

The aerial version will cover distance faster than your standard jump will (and that's pretty fast to start with), but if you finish it in the air (start in the ground or the air) Yoshi will be left in helpless.

Not a move you'll be using too often, but it isn't completely awful.

This attack does more damage depending on how fast Yoshi is traveling, minimum 4% and maximum 12%. Does 1% chip per hit regardless.

Up Special Move: Egg Throw

Yoshi takes out an egg out of... somewhere and throws it out onto the field. Holding on to the Special button will determine how far the egg travels, and you can use the control stick to navigate the path your eggs take.

Helps your recover a little and can let you change directions mid-air, not to mention it's an alright mean of anti-airing people from a distance. Very difficult to use in projectile wars though because of the angle it travels and the fact it comes out and recovers fairly slowly.

Can be useful to keep out grapplers, build up Clash Attack Meter and even edgeguard though. (although Yoshi has better edgeguarding options, namely his Final Smash 1, Nair, and his three Meteor Smashes)

This attack does 9%. When blocked, it does 2%.

Down Special Move: Yoshi Bomb

Yoshi jumps into the air and then slams onto the ground with his rear. A couple stars pop out after the attack, which do damage but can be reflected and absorbed by moves like Mr. Game & Watch's Oil Panic. If Yoshi is in the air, obviously the jump into the air is skipped.

The aerial version is much stronger now, KOing at around 110%. You can still use it to edgehog and edgeguard people decently.

On the ground, simply doing it like normal will have Yoshi jump into the air and slam onto the ground. Does two hits: The jump into the air is one, and the slam into the ground is one. The two hits also now guarantee to combo into eachother, assuming the first hits. If both connect this will usually kill around 100%.

Generally this move is difficult to punish on block though, although the priority isn't very high so Yoshi can be hit easily coming down.

There is also another version of this move, but it is only doable on the ground. Pressing special in the first 6 frames of the move will have Yoshi instead pull out his tongue at a 45 degree angle and, if contact is made with anyone, he'll slam them into the ground. As the buff/nerf list suggests, this is best used to count aerial attacks. The foe actually bounces off the ground and with good timing, you can even juggle them for more hits at low percents. This comes out much slower than the real Yoshi Bombs do though.

The intial hop does 4%. The drop, if done on the ground, does 15% and 3% chip damage. The drop if done in the air does 12% with 2% chip damage. The stars do 4% each. The anti-air tongue grab does 17%.

Clash Attack: Raging Flutter

• Uses 1 bar of Yoshi's Clash Attack Meter.
• Done by holding Up for 2 seconds, then tapping Down + Special + Attack. Mash Special / Attack to increase the damage and hits.

Yoshi does a really fast version of his Down Aerial that is also a stall-then-fall. After all the intial kicks are done, Yoshi does a forward kick that will send the foe away for high knockback.

Has less priority than the normal version though. The early kicks basically all combo into eachother if one connects. Mashing the buttons will cause Yoshi to kick faster, resulting in more hits and more damage. It is extremely difficult to mash out for maximum damage, but it is very worth it considering what the payoff for that work is. Yoshi doesn't have much use for his Clash Attack Meter aside from this move though, so you may as well look for ways to land it.

While it does start up fastm this move is REALLY unsafe on block because Yoshi's boot sticks out for a while once he does the final kick. Almost everyone can punish it with a Final Smash; some can do it on hit and early percent.

Note that you can charge this while moving on the ground by holding Up Forward or Up Back while moving on the ground, but this only works if you have tap jump off.

This attack does 16-30 hits, depending on how much mashing you did, each worth 1%. Every 6 hits does 1% chip. The final kick does 11% with 2% chip. If you did it right, you can deal up to 41% with this move.

Final Smash 1: Super Dragon

• Requires his entire Super Smash Meter to be filled.
• Done with Forward, Down, Down Forward + Special + Attack.

Yoshi's eyes glow, and then he grows wings, gains the ability to breath fire and create small earthquakes. He stays in this mode for about 13 seconds,

This is a bit different now, in terms of how to manuever it anyway. Yoshi will always be in flight mode when he is airborne, but touching the ground will actually have him BE on the ground. Anytime Yoshi touches the ground he causes a small earthquake that has a very low hitbox. It does decent damage and knockback though, doing 23% and 5% chip.

Pressing a Special button will have Yoshi throw out a fire ball with a really big hitbox. They are very powerful, come out and recover quickly, travel extremely fast and do decent damage. These do 17% damage, with 3% chip when blocked.

When you're in the air for a little while and don't do anything, Yoshi starts to breath fire. This fire hits 11 times for 4% each and does 1% chip for each hit.

Simply ramming into people will deal 8% damage with 2% chip for decent knockback.

Still a REALLY good Final Smash. Yoshi has been really lucky with this, being blessed with two absolutely amazing Final Smashes.

Final Smash 2: Raging Tongue

• Requires half his Super Smash Meter to be filled.
• Done with Forward, Down Forward, Down, Down Back, Back + Special + Attack to get Type 1.
• Done with Forward, Down Forward, Down, Down Back, Back, Forward + Special + Attack to get Type 2.

If you do the first motion, Yoshi reels back and then extends his tongue quickly to Final Destination length,, although it goes slower as his tongue extends further. If it connects, Yoshi flies into the center of the stage and slams the foe back and forth along the ground several times before jumping and then slamming them into the stage center.

If you do the second motion, Yoshi does a faster version of his standing grab. If it connects, he does the above, but it deals slightly more damage, is unblockable and can not grab multiple opponents.

You can also angle both versions during the hyper flash.

Ok, quite simply, this move is crazy good. It has very little start-up lag (grabs on frame 0 if you do the close version), has ridiculous priority, great range for both versions AND does really high damage. You can really scare your opponent when you have this when far away (amazing anti-air) or up close. (it's unblockable, you do the math)

This move can not be used to finish off a foe since it leaves them on the ground, but there is one MAJOR plus to this: Like Shuma-Gorath's old Chaos Dimension tricks in Marvel Super Heroes, after performing this Yoshi is in normal fall state and can do aerials. Meaning, you can jump in on the grounded opponent with an aerial (usually Back or Neutral) to pick them up and go into an OTG combo. You can do some utterly ridiculous, almost unfair combos in terms of damage with this attack.

A serious contender for best Final Smash in the game; generally you'll always be taking this into matches and if you want to be a good Yoshi you'll want to know how to use this properly.

The first version does 82-115% and the second version does 87-122%, both depending on how much the Super Smash Meter was filled.

Competitive Tactics and Advice

Combos

Basic

• 1. Dash Attack, cancel into Yoshi Bomb (normal ground)
  • Damage: 28%
  • Note: Works best at low percents and on most characters. Does quite a lot of damage for a 2-attack, 3-hit combo.
• 2. Down Aerial, Neutral Aerial
  • Damage: Varies
  • Notes: Works almost all the time against grounded or airborne opponents; be wary of lighter characters when hitting them airborne though.
• 3. Back Aerial (3 hits), land, Side Smash
  • Damage: 26%
  • Notes: Works best around 50-80%. Good combo to get the foe off stage.
• 4. Up Throw, jump and follow up with Neutral Aerial, Back Aerial (4 hits), Forward Aerial (Flying Screen)
  • Damage: 45%
  • Notes: Yoshi's air combo is limited in terms of moves, but it does do good damage. Near the edge of the stage you can stick in an OTG Down Smash for an extra 10%.

Advanced

• 5. Raging Tongue, move yourself forward and hit with a late Neutral Aerial (OTG), dash backward and pivot grab, Up Throw, Neutral Aerial, Back Aerial (2 hits), Forward Aerial (Flying Screen), Down Strong (tip) (OTG), jump off stage and Forward Aerial them
  • Damage: 118-158%
  • Notes: Yoshi's 0-death combo that works on everyone except R.O.B., but it is quite difficult to do, especially on Bowser or Ganondorf. Works with basically any Raging Tongue charge on either version, but low charge is preferred if you want to hit with the Fair at the end. You need to do the pivot EXTREMELY quickly (you may need to buffer the dash motions) or the foe will either be out of range or recover from hitstun and air dodges. Against high armor characters the Forward Aerial will not connect before they recover from hitstun; use a Neutral Aerial instead, although it's possible to survive it on larger stages. Also, of course, is an OTG combo, so if your foe predicts right and dodges the correct way this won't connect at all. Still, if this combo connects properly, it is basically a free stock and is a huge reason Yoshi is so good in this game.
• 6. Forward Throw, Raging Tongue (long range)
  • Damage: 83-113%
  • Notes: Needs to be done really REALLY fast unless against someone like Game & Watch, but works on everyone, even R.O.B. Best at low percents. Does slightly less damage than a Raging Tongue by itself would do, but you can still follow that up with the combo above for huge damage and possibly a KO.