Dedicated amiibo trainers who have worked with Ken might be concerned for Terry — and understandably so. After all, Ken is a fellow fighting game-type character introduced in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and his AI is notorious for its incredible incompetency regarding its own moveset. Luckily, this doesn’t apply to Terry; following in the footsteps of Joker, Mr. Bogard’s AI has been blessed with an impressive knowledge of its entire kit. Terry has great potential, as he’s a heavyweight fighter with powerful combos and strong single-hit attacks. Before we continue, we’ve got even more information on Terry available over at his wiki page. Check it out if you’ve got a moment! Otherwise, let’s jump right into today’s training.
Spirits
If Terry is the first amiibo you plan on seriously training, you’ve chosen a somewhat difficult fighter to start with. We can make that work, though! First, you might want to quickly read over our in-depth Spirits guide before you keep scrolling. We say this in all of our character-specific posts, but be careful when giving your FP a Spirit team. They’re known to shuffle training values, and in some cases, your FP might even start to taunt uncontrollably! In short, if you want to give your FP a Spirit setup, do so when it’s at Level 1. Here are a bunch of bonus builds you could use on Terry:
- Banned bonuses: Since Terry is a heavyweight fighter, he benefits from the three-slot Super Armor Spirit effect. As its name implies, the Super Armor bonus grants its user full super armor. Said armor can be broken if the user has sustained enough damage, though. Another option is Armor Knight plus Trade-Off Ability ↑, and this setup gives the user huge buffs in attack, defense, and speed (but no super armor).
- Tournament-legal bonuses: As a quick note, neither Power Geyser nor Buster Wolf is boosted by the Fire & Explosion Attack ↑ Spirit effect despite their fiery visuals. So don’t use that bonus, because it won’t do anything! Some bonuses you could use include Physical Attack ↑ (you could also try two of these at once if you like), Trade-Off Ability ↑, Critical-Health Immunity, Critical-Health Stats ↑, and Air Defense ↑. Be sure to read the paragraph below for important information regarding these Support skills.
- Raid Boss bonuses: For a Raid Boss, any of the above Spirit effects work! You could also use Great Autoheal, but that is slightly counterproductive given that Terry needs to be at 100% damage or more to gain access to his Super Special Moves.
If you apply your FP with a move speed buff, you have to apply the Floaty Jumps Support skill as well. Otherwise Terry’s AI will miscalculate its up special when recovering and self-destruct at any percentage, and we don’t want that happening. Of the bonuses listed above, Trade-Off Ability ↑ and Critical-Health Stats ↑ are the only ones that increase Terry’s move speed — so if you use either of these, be sure to include Floaty Jumps somewhere in your FP’s setup as well. Keep its stats balanced (2100 / 2100) and its Spirit-type Neutral.
Competitive Training
When training Terry, your best movement option is walking. Don’t jump, dash, or roll — just be patient and stay grounded. While training Terry, never go off-stage. His up special doesn’t grant him much distance and it leaves him vulnerable to incoming meteor smashes. Shield and parry as often as you can, and don’t worry about Super Special Moves — they’re hard-coded and the AI will learn to use them on its own by the time it reaches Level 43. Here are all the moves you should be worrying about using, then:
- Power Wave should be used from afar to rack up damage and secure an opportunity to move in and attack. Feel free to use several Power Waves in a row, and smash the special move button to get extra distance and power.
- Neutral attack is Terry’s bread-and-butter. At low-to-mid percentages, you can use two hits of the jab to combo into a down special (Power Dunk). Alternatively, you can use two jabs to combo into a forward tilt and then into Power Dunk. Every once in a while, you can swap out Power Dunk in favor of Burning Knuckle.
- Burning Knuckle is also strong on its own. AI opponents don’t react very well to moving hitboxes, and it just so happens that Terry has a really good one!
- Crack Shoot is the AI’s favorite move, and for good reason: it works well against AI opponents thanks to its multi-hit nature. When you’re at a distance, you can fire off a Power Wave and then use Crack Shoot to approach.
- Forward smash, down smash, and up smash can all be used to KO. Down smash is best used at the ledge, specifically when Terry’s Super Special Moves aren’t active. Up smash is your anti-air move, and it can either rack on damage or KO outright.
- Neutral air can be used to secure a safe landing. Don’t go out of your way to use it, though — only attack with neutral air if your FP launches you upward and you’re close to it while landing.
There’s just one move to avoid, and it’s Rising Tackle (outside of recovery). As mentioned earlier, most Terry FPs will automatically learn to use their Super Special Moves after they’ve taken 100% damage or more. If you find that yours is past Level 43 and doesn’t use them, you can fix this! Enter a three-stock match with your handicap at 100% and start attacking the FP with Buster Wolf and Power Geyser. Assuming you’re facing right, you can use Buster Wolf by pressing ↓ → ↓ → on the control stick and then the attack button. This means you’ll have to tilt the control stick down, right, down, and then right again, and then press A. For Power Geyser (facing right), press ↓ ← → on the control stick and then the A button.
Raid Boss Training
An optimal Raid Boss Terry amiibo is actually quite similar to how you’d play Terry in competitive matches (human-versus-human games, that is). Compared to the training strategy listed above, Raid Boss Terry FPs should rely less on smash attacks and even more heavily on combos. Since you’re training your FP to fight human opponents, you’re free to dash and jump around as often as you’d like. You should still keep Terry on-stage, though, as his recovery is still highly exploitable. Especially by humans! Here are all the moves you should attack with:
- At low-to-mid percentages, use the first two or three hits of neutral attack to combo into Power Dunk. It’s a great damage-racker, and it can even KO at later percentages! You can also opt to combo the two jabs into Burning Knuckle or Crack Shoot instead.
- Down tilt can lead into two hits of jab to create one of the combos listed above. Alternatively, you can choose to link a down tilt into a down smash or Crack Shoot. Down tilt is a versatile move, so use it fairly often!
- Neutral aerial should be used to land. In this instance, it can also combo into a jab to set up for a Power Dunk combo. You can also use neutral air out of a short hop for some quick damage. Forward air and back air can be used to land as well.
- Use grabs every once in a while, and when you do, throw your FP towards the nearest ledge to rack up damage.
- Forward tilt, forward smash, dash attack, up air, Power Wave, and Rising Tackle can be sprinkled in as well, though none of these are essential to Terry’s success.
Don’t use up tilt or down air, as they serve no purpose for a Raid Boss. Crack Shoot works well against other FPs, but not so much against human players; Terry’s AI may spam the move, so try not to go overboard with it. We discussed this in the last section, but just in case you didn’t read it, here’s a quick recap: Terry’s AI automatically learns to use its Super Special Moves by the time it reaches Level 43. This means you don’t have to use them if you don’t want to. If you find that your FP is at max level and is not using them, feel free to set yourself at high handicap and jump into a match where you use nothing but Power Geyser and Buster Wolf.
Wrap-Up
Thank you so much for reading! Terry is certainly the most complex of the March 2021 amiibo, so training a strong one is no simple feat. Once you’ve finished raising yours, you can submit it to a tournament! Our Discord server posts new tourneys on a regular basis, so be sure to join so you can access all the latest amiibo competitions! Most of our tours require file submissions, and we have a guide available on how you can do that. And if you like what you read here today, please consider donating to support the site’s upkeep! We’ve also got a Patreon page if you have a moment to take a look. Until next time — happy training!
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