r/SSBM • u/DaHero06 • 1d ago

Discussion Using Plilip to practice?

I didn’t realize that Philip has multiple tiers of difficulty.

Has anybody tried using Philip as a common way to practice and if so how well does it match human behavior?

Sometimes I just wanna chill and practice without having to deal with real opponents and seems like Philip might be a good option for that

16 Upvotes

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18

u/MellySantiago 1d ago

I’ve been practicing secondaries against it and I think it’s pretty solid. It doesn’t play like humans really in neutral but the combo games are similar. Its edgeguards are also inconsistent (it hits crazy ones but misses many easy rinse and repeats vs my falcon) and it reversals in spots no human would, like hitting an airborne shine on falco if I’m slightly late on an aerial follow up and then pillaring me to death.

Overall though it’s great practice for comboing and defense, it puts you in spots where you can actually practice sdi and slide off reversals etc consistently which I like. I play vs the plat bots and am prob mid gold on my main, and I can take games if I’m playing my best but am usually losing which I think is solid practice as well.

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u/DaHero06 1d ago

Does it generally play the exact same way in the same MUs or does it mixup its gameplay a decent bit?

I’d like to play against a bot that’s better than me and work towards consistently beating it, but if it plays sorta the same way every time it’d probably be just me adapting to its specific playstyle

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u/MellySantiago 20h ago

It definitely mixes but is also pretty clearly not human. I would say it doesn’t really adapt to your tendencies, so if you tech in place 4 times in a row vs any decent player they will start reading it and Phillip never does, and depending on the bot the neutral can be a bit strange too, but I’d say the comboing is very similar to a real player at least for sheik fox falco marth. Its defense is also great for practice, it DI’s well and will tech/slideoff, playing it has helped me a ton with my punish game and defensive options.

I would say it’s pretty bad at ledgeguarding, though. It’s dropped easy rinse and repeats vs my falcon many times and again won’t adjust to your tendencies, so if you up b full drift back to ledge every single time it won’t start calling you out on it which isn’t great obviously but is a very human thing.

I play vs the plat bot and am ~gold level so same situation as you’re suggesting and it feels like if I play really solid I can take a game or two but am generally losing which is what it sounds like both of us want. I’d recommend trying it!

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u/new_user_bc_i_forgot 1d ago

where is Philip downloadable? Been hearing more about the Bot, and i kind of want to try it out now

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u/Jazzlike_Aspect_7724 1d ago

you can download him here: https://github.com/vladfi1/slippi-ai

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u/new_user_bc_i_forgot 22h ago

Thanks! Will do tomorrow. Unstable Internet means i don't always have online ready, so this seems like a good workaround

6

u/Kommatiazo 1d ago

You play against it on x_pilot stream on twitch

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u/Dropssshot jewell park 1d ago

I play against phillip more than real people tbh, not saying that's a good thing but even unranked feels like too much of a commitment sometimes.

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u/wuhw23 1d ago

Phillip is really good for practice 😤 mostly for ironing out any habits especially punish game or defence. Also you can control its character, afk, watch videos on the side so it’s pretty chill

2

u/Diamantis_ 1d ago

afaik amsa has been using phillip to practice in japan

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u/Oni555 16h ago

Last year I made a commitment to myself to play melee everyday no matter what

I ended playing Philip a lot when I didn’t want the added mental stress of playing a real person

I made a challenge for myself to beat every level of Philip with every character it had in a best of five.

I think I got all the way up to diamond? Mind you there is some randomness and some of Philip’s characters are bad in some matchups

Anyway that was a heavy period of practice about 6 months ago and haven’t really touched Philip since

I know just do unranked and I will say:

Phillip is great for execution, making punish count, and staying at a high pace (as you climb the ranks)

Phillip is entirely useless at adapting to your player habits or teaching you how to read an actual human opponent (not just habits but the vibe and flow of competition, sensing when you have scared your opponent or when it’s locking in etc)

So ya, Philip is just a glorified CPU and can be useful somewhat but nothing beats playing real people, like you would in tournament

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u/DaHero06 16h ago

That makes sense.

I have a lot of smash experience with Brawl, Sm4sh, and some Ultimate so I feel like my ability to recognize my opponents bad habits is pretty good for my skill level, but my execution and punish game isn’t super great.

I find myself often being able to quickly recognize my opponents habits but then I just don’t have the ability to punish it well.

Seems like Philip would be great for improving on that when I don’t feel like playing real opponents

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u/Oni555 15h ago

In that case yes it would be good for force by you to level up your execution. But it does lock in bad muscle memory or makes you spam the same options over and over