Always Hit / Pass to Your Teammate
You should almost always pass to your teammate unless your next move will kill, either off the top or the side. This also applies to grabs. Depending on your character composition, you should generally throw toward your teammate to continue the combo.
There are a few important exceptions. Fox should usually up-throw into bair to pass because his forward and back throws are poor for team setups. Jigglypuff comps should often prioritize grab hold to guarantee a rest kill. Also, if your teammate is occupied — comboing, edge guarding, recovering, or getting hit — then adjust accordingly. There’s no point in passing if they can’t follow up.
In general, you want to combo in a way that leaves the opponent at a high enough percentage to be passed horizontally with full-hop attacks. Passing back and forth with alternating full-hop attacks is much easier than using short-hop heights because the higher the opponent is off the ground, the more time you have to react and reposition.
Try to determine whose “turn” it is for the next hit in a team combo. This is usually based on positioning relative to the launched opponent. If an opponent is launched directly above your teammate and they can continue the combo, it’s their turn. If the opponent DI’s toward you instead, then it becomes your turn to follow up, even if both players are actionable.
Back Up Before a Pass
You generally want to back up when your teammate is about to pass to you, especially at higher percentages.
A common mistake is jumping straight upward to continue a combo. This often leaves you too close to react properly. Instead, run away from your teammate in the direction the opponent is being passed. This creates space and gives you more time to react to the opponent’s trajectory and choose your follow-up.
Think of it like a football receiver running before the ball is thrown. The higher the opponent’s percent, the farther and faster they’ll fly, so you need to compensate by creating more space beforehand.
Let Hitstun Breathe
When you or your teammate lands a launching move, don’t both try to follow up immediately.
If both players attack at the same time, the combo usually ends because both teammates become stuck in lag simultaneously. Instead, alternate attacks so one teammate acts while the other recovers from animation lag. There are often plenty of hitstun frames available before needing to pass back.
Good doubles combos should feel rhythmic.
Always Watch Your Teammate
This can feel awkward at first, but actively practicing this skill will improve your doubles awareness tremendously.
Watching your teammate gives you more time to position for follow-ups, recognize when they need help, and react faster to opportunities. You should often prioritize awareness over tunnel visioning your own neutral.
Check Percents Before Throwing
When you grab an opponent, always check their percent.
If they’re at kill percent, hold the grab and let your teammate secure the kill. For example, if Sheik grabs someone at 90%, holding the grab so Fox can up-smash is usually much better than forcing a less reliable setup or tech chase.
This is especially important against floaty or heavy characters that can otherwise be difficult to kill. If the opponent is not at kill percent, then throw to your teammate normally or continue your own punish if your teammate isn’t nearby.
Team Roles
Usually, one player should be more aggressive while the other plays more supportively. This depends on team composition, playstyle, matchups, and game state. Fox is generally the aggressive player, while the slower floatier characters usually lean more defensive or supportive.
The aggressive player generally approaches more, plays further forward, and creates openings. The support player protects the aggro player, converts openings into combos or kills, and helps stabilize bad situations.
These roles are fluid and can change constantly depending on positioning, stocks, percents, or survivability concerns.
Always Try to Sandwich
This is one of the most important concepts in doubles neutral.
Do not let your aggressive player fight alone while the support player sits far behind. Even in a 2v1 situation, simply waiting behind your teammate is usually suboptimal.
Instead, the aggro player should try to move behind the target while the support player closes space from the front. This creates a sandwich position where both teammates pressure simultaneously and remove escape routes like dash-backs.
In standard 2v2 neutral, hard committing to the backline isn’t always ideal, but creating sandwich pressure occasionally is extremely strong. Like any neutral option, though, it becomes predictable if overused.
Space Around Your Teammate, Not Just the Enemy
When sandwich pressuring, your attacks should not overlap into your teammate’s space.
Each player should maintain their own zone while pressuring the opponent between them. If both teammates overextend into each other’s space, they risk hitting one another, overlapping coverage, or creating openings.
This also applies vertically. If an opponent is on a platform and both teammates are pressuring from opposite sides, one player shouldn’t recklessly jump onto the platform while the other is already covering that area.
Good teams establish invisible boundaries and respect each other’s zones.
Pressuring
When shield pressuring, teammates should alternate timings instead of attacking simultaneously.
Alternating pressure locks opponents down longer, covers more defensive options, and forces panic responses. If both players attack at the same time, they often cover the same option while becoming vulnerable together.
For example, if both teammates attack a shield simultaneously and the opponent rolls away, both players are stuck in lag. Instead, one player should pressure while the other reacts to rolls, jumps, or throws out a panic option.
You can also combine grabs with hitboxes to cover multiple defensive choices at once. This kind of layered pressure forces opponents into much more difficult guesses.
Think of doubles pressure like a 2v1 game of rock-paper-scissors: two teammates covering different options is much stronger than both covering the same one.
Prioritize Creating 2v1 Scenarios Instead of Edge Guards
After launching someone offstage, you should usually prioritize creating a 2v1 situation rather than hard committing to edge guards.
This is especially true against floaty characters like Puff, Peach, and Samus. Their recoveries take a long time, are difficult to edge guard consistently, and often give their teammate enough time to interfere.
Instead, use the temporary 2v1 opportunity to pressure the remaining opponent, create sandwich setups, or build huge damage. This is often much more valuable than gambling on an edge guard.
Even against spacies, recovery mixups like double jump, side-B, and varied up-B angles can be a waste of time due to how difficult they are to cover. A strong 2v1 opening often leads to more consistent damage and kills.
Experienced teams also make edge guards difficult by stalling recoveries, protecting teammates, or interrupting edge guards with lasers and needles.
When Edge Guards Are Worth It
Edge guards are still strong under the right conditions:
- the opponent has very limited recovery options,
- the enemy teammate is occupied,
- or your teammate can safely prevent interruptions.
However, in a true 2v1 scenario with only three players alive, you should almost always edge guard together.
Performing a 2v1 Edge Guard
In true 2v1 edge guards, one player should usually grab ledge while the other covers on-stage options. This removes recovery mixups much more cleanly.
Generally, whoever is closest grabs ledge. If there’s time to choose, the teammate who is worse at covering on-stage options should usually take ledge instead.
Avoid situations where both teammates cover the same recovery option or accidentally hit each other trying to edge guard.
Commit roles clearly:
- one player covers ledge,
- the other covers stage.
Communication
Communication matters both during games and outside of them.
Simple in-game callouts like “I need help,” “I need ledge,” “I have ledge,” “Kill,” or “No jump” can make a huge difference. The more useful information you provide, the easier it is for your teammate to react correctly.
Outside the game, discuss strategy. Talk about sandwich opportunities, opponent habits, role assignments, and who should prioritize grabs in specific matchups or team comps.
Even if your strategy differs from this guide, being on the same page matters far more than playing “correctly.” Good doubles teams are synchronized because they communicate well.
Tell them to read this guide xDDDD!
General Bonus Tips
Light Shielding
Light-shield spam is extremely strong in doubles, especially against inexperienced teams that mash hitboxes without properly grabbing or layering pressure.
Stalling for Respawns
When waiting for your teammate to respawn, use platforms, light shield, or ledge invincibility to stall safely. In general, avoid fighting 1v2 whenever possible.
Always Try to Recover
Even if you think you’re dead, attempt recovery anyway. Teammates can often save you with lasers, needles, floating movement, or interruption tools.
Fast-fallers should usually recover high, and up-B is generally better than side-B because it gives your teammate more time to save you. Recovery stalling techniques like shine stalls or Zelda/Sheik down-B stalls can also buy valuable time.
Risky Saves
Risky saves — like Fox jumping out with up-B — are often not worth it, especially at low percent or against characters that edge guard Fox easily.
Playing at High Percent
At high percent, survivability becomes more important than forcing aggression. This is especially true on last stock or during 2v1 situations.
Strong doubles players rarely lose proper 2v1s if percents are even and skill levels are comparable. At high percent, focus more on support, staying alive, and enabling team edge guards.
Watch Your Teammate
This is one of the most important skills in doubles.
Watching your teammate improves awareness, positioning, follow-ups, and defensive reactions. You’ll also naturally see opponents more often because they’re usually interacting with your teammate anyway.
Wrap-Up
Find a Consistent Teammate
Practicing with a static teammate improves doubles fundamentals dramatically.
Pickup games can help, but most players lack strong doubles fundamentals, and inconsistent teammates make structured practice difficult. Playing regularly with the same teammate or group helps develop synergy, communication, awareness, and team-specific strategies.
Most importantly, have fun :).
Doubles is super sick, underdeveloped, and unexplored. I truly believe it is a very underrated way of playing the game. I think people are often frustrated or turned away from the format because they don't know how to properly play and it can feel janky without knowing some of the fundamentals, which is understandable because there is so much more happening on the screen compared to singles.
Part of why I wrote this guide was to fix that issue and give people interested in doubles some direction to work with so they don't get as frustrated or feel as lost when learning the game and end up writing off the 2v2 format completely.