Cdtrjyty

I'm trying to finish the Subspace Emissary in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I've been stuck on the boss battle against Tabuu (in normal and easy modes). I know the secret to one of his moves, the one with the energy blasts, you have to sidestep or roll. Although I can never seem to get the timing correct, or even perform the correct maneuver. I had a friend who managed to dodge that attack several times by pressing random buttons, but that hardly helps because it never works for me.

I've gotten his health bar a little past two thirds of the way before, but it was that repeated move that took me out. Recognizing his other moves and dodging them are fairly easy, but that single move always kills me. If anyone had any tips, it would be really appreciated.

Any character that has strong air attacks and can stay in the air long enough to avoid Tabuu's many attacks that hit along the ground should be good for fighting him. Be careful when using exceptionally light characters though, because they also die faster when being hit by these attacks.

In order to avoid the Off Waves attack, you need to spot dodge by holding the shield button and pressing down on the joystick while standing on the ground.

You can view strategies for fighting Tabuu in these YouTube videos. I've listed the times when Off Waves happens, so you can see what timing you need to dodge the waves:

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  SSBB: Final Stage Tabuu beaten by only Zelda SSE (Off Waves at 2:02 and 3:13)


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  Super Smash Bros Brawl, Pit vs Tabuu on Intense mode (Off Waves at 1:24, 2:44, and 4:04)

Characters who can stay in the air for a long time while dealing decent damage are good against Tabuu. I used Kirby, Meta Knight, and Pit for sure, probably Jigglypuff (although his aerial offense isn't that hot); I don't remember who else. Conversely, characters who have a hard time staying in the air will have a hard time attacking Tabuu (Ganon and Ike are especially bad since they fall so fast), since he doesn't spend a lot of time on the ground. Even with characters like Kirby and Pit who can mostly fly, it's still not easy! Keep at it.

As you discovered, the Off Waves, where he goes into the background and opens his wings with massive blasting, is by far his toughest attack to avoid. I think I mostly just died to it; if you play well enough that this is the only attack that kills you, you should beat him on your 5th character, leaving you one death of margin. Characters who can fly for a long time (see above) will have an easier time air-dodging this attack than trying to sidestep it, because the air-dodge input is a lot easier to do than sidestep (at least for me). Bowser is possibly worth mentioning here, because his air dodge and sidestep are both slightly longer in duration than most characters, and even if you botch the timing, he's so heavy that Off Waves might not actually kill him like it's supposed to.

Most of Tabuu's other attacks can be dodged just by flying for a long time, which is why I picked the flying characters.

Using Kirby's rock attack, (though dealing no damage to him whatsoever) does not work, you still go flying off the stage with 0%! As stated before high-flying characters would be good against a boss like Tabuu. Don't look into the cutscenes, don't use Sonic! A strong character would be good too so i suggest Meta Knight with multiple recovery moves, multiple jumps, and...being the only SS tier character in the Brawl roster