Linkle guide
Linkle Guide by Game Brain
Intro and Unlocks
Linkle has a really unique playstyle consisting of damaging enemies in a large area and a combination of ranged and close up attacks along with her strong attack providing insane dueling potential making her ideal for basically any scenario. She is unlocked upon completing “Sorceress in the Woods” in Legends or by redeeming a code or purchasing her as DLC on Wii U. In Wii U she has all three ranks of her weapons unlocked. In Legends however, you only start of with the Simple Crossbows. The Hylian Crossbows are obtained in “Linkle’s Tale: The Demon Lord’s Plan”, the Legend’s Crossbows are found in B-5 in the Master Quest map and finally, the Legend’s Crossbows + are found in D-6 of Twilight Map.
Unique Gauge
I will elaborate on this under the “Strong Attack” section but basically, this gauge is filled up when any of your attacks land and deal damage to enemies. The easiest way to charge it up is to use attacks with projectiles that hits multiple projectiles at once such as Light String and C3. The gauge is not depleted at once and can be used at any point even if it is only slightly full.
Unique Mechanic - Bomb
At the end of every combo Linkle can hold H (or L in the case of Light String) to charge and release a bomb that explodes and deals damage a short distance away. The button can be released earlier but the bomb will travel a shorter distance and do less damage. The positive side of this is the amount of damage that comes with it and the amount of waveclear. The downside is that every “full” combo basically involves this and charging it makes Linkle vulnerable to attacks. In this guide I will be referring to this mechanic individually in each combo and how it actually affects each combo and whether you should use it or not. Also, do note that, if not blocked, the bombs can stagger enemy generals for about 40-60 frames.
Special Attack
Linkle spins and shoots in a full circle and then releases a huge explosion of fire damage thats hits all enemies around her. To get the most out of this attack, I highly recommend to position yourself in the middle of an enemy wave pretty much ensuring you take the whole wave down. To get the most damage on an enemy general, it is best to have them against a wall which will cause more of your shots (the first part of the attack) to land on them. I do recommend Special + due to the synergy of Focus Attack and Strong Attack but I will explain this below.
Focus Spirit
Normal - Linkle fires a giant bomb in the area in front of her and then quickly jumps and dashes back down landing at the same time the bomb does and creating a massive explosion dealing fire damage to enemies. This is best used to clear large waves of enemies. Forced - Linkle does a starts spinning around and becomes cloaked in fire. Once she spins in a full circle 3 times she stops, causing a small explosion. Once again this is best used for waveclear.
Strong Attack (C1)
I want to be honest. In my opinion this is one of the best attacks in the game. Not because it does a huge amount of damage, but because of how it can be used. To use your strong attack, you first need to charge up your unique gauge. It doesn’t need to be full however, your strong attack can be used regardless. By holding down the H button, Linkle starts shooting out arrows which do damage and knock up enemies. Holding down the button shoots out more arrows and continues to deplete your gauge. Enemies that are knocked up continue to remain knocked up while you shoot at them. This is incredibly important meaning you do damage that can’t be blocked and additionally, the enemy can’t retaliate either. Linkle can move back, front, left and right while using this attack but the camera remains locked on to whatever she is shooting. This attack is incredibly well used with your Focus Attack. A good combo is to start of with max Unique Gauge and at least one Focus Attack. You start by hitting your enemy with the Focus Attack and then before he/she can recover, you use your Strong Attack Knocking them up and getting more free damage off. If you get 6 or more enemies into the air and you have at least 1 badge which allows you to use Focus Attack sooner you should easily be able to use it again once you Unique Gauge is depleted. This basically results into 2 free Focus Attacks along with a Strong Attack that your enemy doesn’t even have a chance to block. The damage can be even further increased by adding Fire + which increases the power of Focus Attack and arrows, Strong Attack I + for your strong attack and Special + to ensure you can pull off this combo correctly. I highly recommend using this against tough generals either at a start or end of a fight. This attack can’t be animation cancelled, however if you let go of the H button Linkle will stop shooting and you will be able to dodge. PLEASE NOTE: this means that you WILL be left vulnerable for about 10 frames, meaning that you will still take damage from things like fire or other damage per second attack or spells.
Light String (L+L+L+L+L+L+L)
Alright, this combo is basically mashing your light attack and hoping for the best. However there are a few ways that allow you to manipulate it. Basically Linkle starts of by firing arrows in multiple directions, then shooting arrows in the area in front of her, jumping and shooting in the air and finishing off by launching two bombs. There are a few things to note about this combo. First of all, it can be cancelled at nearly any point. Practically, by dodging, the animation will immediately stop. The only part of the combo this does not apply to is when Linkle jumps in the air. If you try to cancel it, it will cancel immediately upon landing and the ground and execute whatever command you had given. The second thing to note is that you can move while using the combo meaning you can manipulate yourself to land more damage with each successful part. The third thing to note is that after you perform the jump you are left vulnerable for around 70 frames. However, while mid-jump you can dodge all ground projectiles/attack. Things like sword hits or melee attack will still hit you along with another few interactions such as Poe projectiles and Cia whip.Generally you can dodge weak ground attack but any good strong attack has a chance of hitting you and ending the combo. The reason this combo is so important however, is because it is one of the fastest ways to charge your Unique Gauge. I highly recommend jumping in the middle of a crowd of enemies and using this to clear the wave, and, by moving you should position in a way that will allow your two bombs to hit another wave maximizing the efficiency of the combo. This combo is highly inefficient for dueling with generals as it shoots in multiple directions and should only be used for charging the unique gauge and clearing large waves of enemies. Fire + is strongly recommended as it highly increases your damage output of this ability. Additionally I personally recommend VS Undead in order to be able to clear waves of enemies in difficulties that require a higher level warrior (this is mostly for Wii U as Legends is pretty balanced in terms of requirements).
C2 (L+H+H+H)
Considerably one of Linkle’s weakest combos. It can however be useful in certain situation. Link shoots and then launches herself in the air while doing a powerful kick. H can be pressed once more, causing linkle to fire in all direction and do a powerful kick on her way down. Finally, you can press H one last time to shoot a bomb. The main problem with this attack is the amount of lag and delay it causes. If you decided not to go for the full combo, Linkle simply drops down. The problem is she can take damage while falling. That leaves her open for about 130 frames which is more than 2 seconds. If you decided to go for a L+H+H combo then she cannot follow up with any other attack, she is restricted to dodging and blocking. If you go for the full combo it is basically inefficient since the finisher of the combo is totally different from the rest. The use of this combo is to diminish the weakness gauge quickly or do damage to a small wave of enemies. However, by throwing a bomb at a slight distance it changes the damage focus. One good thing comes out of this, which is why this combo can be used. If you follow up with this combo, assuming an enemy general doesn’t block it, you can immediately chain your strong attack into it as the bomb will slightly stagger a general for about 40 frames which should be good enough for you to start shooting at them. Again this is an extremely unique situation and for most cases you will probably not press H a third time. One thing to note, this combo cannot be cancelled until the part where you throw the bomb as it all takes place in the air. VS Beast and VS Dragon help if you are focusing around this combo as it will help you take out all the large monster bosses much easier.
C3 (L+L+H+H)
Pretty simple combo. Linkle shoots twice and then launches herself forward while spinning in fire. Once again, you may choose to launch a bomb. Let it be noted that you can’t cancel this combo during the fire spin but it can be cancelled at any other point. This combo has similar usage to Light String and is mostly used for filling the unique gauge, which is why I won’t elaborate that much on it. However a good scenario to use it in is when reaching a keep that contains an enemy general such as an enemy base. There, not only you can waveclear really quick, but you can also stagger the General allowing you to perform another combo. This move barely has any lag/delay except of course the charge up of the bomb. To fully maximize the potential of this combo I recommend using Fire + as the flaming spin does fire damage. If against an enemy general I recommend following this up with a C4 as I will explain below.
C4 (L+L+L+H+H)
This combo should be using for dueling with generals as it has limited use for waveclear. However it is probably Linkle’s best tool for 1 on 1 fights assuming the nearby troops don’t need to be killed. Linkle fires a few shots, jump into the air and immediately does a sliding kick on her way down. Then she can follow up with another bomb. Alright, here is where we get techy and actually start caring for frames. Linkle’s time to jump and come back down is around 55 frames which is the exact amount it takes any AI to stop blocking after an attack has stopped. This causes dueling with generals to become extremely easy if the attack is perfectly timed. In case they are already blocking from your second light attack however there is a huge chance they will not stop blocking in time. Additionally, Linkle land on the same animation she uses to charge her bomb. The means that if, instead of letting go of H and then pressing it again, you hold the H button after you press it for the first time, the charge up will immediately begin the frame she lands down, decreasing the window she is open for damage. This makes the C4 bomb slightly better than the ones in C2 and C3 for staggering without being threatened. The best time to use C4 actually, as I stated earlier, is after using C3. Since C3 is a short combo you use it to waveclear around the general, and then, after the general is staggered, you follow up with a C4. Since he is staggered, the general won’t block your first two shots meaning that if timed correctly by executing a C3 you can land a free C4. For this I actually don’t recommend any specific weapon skills. However I do recommend to have a VS skill of the general you are fighting in a specific stage.
C5 (L+L+L+L+H+H)
Alright, here is my least favorite combo since it is the one that has sprung the controversy that Linkle is easy to play and a button masher character. I won’t elaborate too much about it, but many consider this move to be far superior to other. I am stating it here: I personally believe that all of Linkle’s moveset is good and can be used in certain situations which is why I am making this guide. Let’s get into this now. Linkle does the first part of her C1 (up to and including the shooting in all directions) and then follows by throwing bombs everywhere around here. Once again she can charge and release a single bomb in the end. Basically this move is Linkle’s best move for waveclear. Let me emphasize this. It is probably one of the best waveclear combos in the game. However there is a small problem which actually limits its usage. What many people don't notice is that it actually doesn’t charge up here unique guage as much. Meaning, that if you are planning to waveclear and then fight a general, it would actually be better to use your C1. Also, due to lag and time it takes for the move, if you don’t kill 20+ (or 30+ on Wii U) enemies, then it becomes time inefficient and it would be better to use C3. Not many people realise this however, and on Legends actually (since they are rebalanced and many made easier) it is easy to spam this combo basically through Linkle’s story and the first three maps and just get away with it since it has so good waveclear. This is basically what makes people say that Linkle is an easy character. Personally, I highly discourage this as it makes you not learn a character and will make your life much harder if you play on the last 2 maps or on Wii U in general. Basically let's compare the situations of usefulness between Light String and C5. Light String should be used when clearing a wave and knowing that a fight with a general is incoming. C5 should be strictly used when finding yourself in a massive enemy wave knowing that you need to destroy all of it and there is not major incoming fight. Light String for example could be useful in mission where you need to defeat multiple enemy generals. On the other hand C5 could be used on mission that require you to get a certain number of kills in a limited time. One last thing that I forgot, this combo can be cancelled at any point except the part were Linkle fires bombs around her. I wouldn’t recommend any weapon skills as this combo is made for waveclear and you basically one shot what you need to kill.
C6 (L+L+L+L+L+H+H)
No starting comment for this one. Linkle does the majority of Light String (up to and including the part where she fires arrows in the area in front of her) and then following up by doing two things at once. From one side shooting arrows and from the other bombs. Then she jumps into the air and does a small flaming spin. Like any other combo you can press and hold H at the end to shoot another bomb. This combo has one similarity to C4. By pressing and holding H once you actually finish and thus immediately charge up your bomb. That means that first, you don’t need to press the button and second you have decreased time in which you can take damage. This ability is pretty straight forward, use it to deplete weakness gauge’s and generally to kill monster bosses. Even though the times that you can use it in are limited it is really good at depleting the weakness gauge when you do use it. To maximize damage I do recommend using Strong Attack VI + since you throw out a large amount of projectiles and this will amplify the majority of them. Additionally, if you have Fire + due to having it for another combo it will also benefit you here. However do not use Fire + just for this combo.
Summary and Overall Weapon Skills
I know this has been long but please hang on with me for a tiny bit longer. Overall what you are aiming for is using Light String, C3, and C5 to waveclear and Light String and C3 to charge up your unique gauge. Additionally, Special + should charge up your special gauge. When fighting enemy generals using Strong Attack and Focus Attack together is recommended, along with C4. Finally, when taking down large monsters, C2 and C6 will deplete their weakness gauge easily. For weapon skills in general i recommend Strong Attack I +, Strong Attack VI +, Fire +, VS Undead, VS Dragon and then either Strong Attack II + or Strong Attack IV +. For the rest of the slots customize them based on what you are facing in the desired mission.
Closure
Before anything I would like to say that since Legends came out, the only character I have been playing, unless forced to play something else, is Linkle. I find her to be incredibly fun and her combos to be incredibly creative. Thank you for reading this guide, I hope I did my best in informing you about Linkle as a whole. This was my first character guide so I hope it is satisfying enough. I would also like to thank my friend Foti for reading through the guide and helping me with grammar since English is not my first language. If you have any questions, comments or notice any mistakes contact me at /u/YoungXehanort.
Guide by Zack
- Source: [3]
I'd like to respectfully disagree with most of this guide, and post my own thoughts and experiences with this character. I like some of what you've shared here, and certainly wouldn't say that people shouldn't read the guide--if there's people with different views on what's optimal, it often means that there's a deeper, more complete answer that can be found by combining them. You can't always theory-craft in a vacuum, after all!
Special
Because of how much AoE she has on everything, the AoE of her Special doesn't feel like anything to write home about. It is safe, however, and can be used if you've ended up in a dangerous spot where you're likely to get hit. It gives you instant breathing room, and does solid damage.
Strong Combo Strings
C1 is good for damaging enemies in front of you safely (read: if you're not currently surrounded, as you're very open during the start up and even during the attack itself). It also has the uniqueness of being able to walk with it, meaning it's horizontal AoE is incredible if you strafe. I find this the best for horizontal clearance or clearing while moving, but C6 or R7 better for clearing keeps much of the time. C1 can be used as a tool to very safely do damage as well, as it has great range and mobility. It's great for grabbing outposts, too, because it typically takes less time to use than a big string--though C2 or even C3 gives it a run for it's money in this situation. It's also great for extending hitstun after a combo where you've thrown an enemy away--dash after them, and transition into C1. If you just threw them away, you've probably got the resource gauge and safe positioning to do so.
C2 is fantastic. It doesn't look like much at first, but the follow ups and utility makes it shine. Using it on an enemy that can be thrown into the air by it lets you ensure you break their WPG in one go. Doing the Strong air string follow up lets you blast the enemy away, and the weak air follow up lets you keep them close. Strong typically clears things around you better, weak typically is better for pure 1-on-1. This is one of those attacks that lets you do the weak air follow ups, then still use the strong air follow ups, too. This can be great if you've picked up a bulky enemy you still want to throw away afterwards, but otherwise just let yourself fall down from the weak air string. You can also hit the enemy once with something else, then use C2, and it'll juggle them with the WPG. Captains, for whatever reason, aren't very good at blocking this and have a tendency to land in a heap--but the endlag doesn't matter, because if you broke their WPG and used the Weak follow up, you're right in front of them when you land or already doing a Weak Point Smash. Be aware that some smarter enemies may be able to act out of the strong air follow ups, but weak air is fast enough to get them.
C3 is very powerful in conjunction with C2. C3 -> Dash ->C2-> is a strong evasive tool. You won't always land the C2, but you'll be able to use the weak or strong air string. It's also a solid option for finishing off remaining HP of an enemy after a C1, and for clearing enemies while approaching a captain, as you said.
C4 is indeed very strong. C3 -> C4 is especially useful if there are other enemies around, as the C3 will knock them away. C2 is still a faster pop-up, though, and quite a bit safer to use. But C4 is your go-to for dealing damage to a single enemy. Abuse it, and enjoy bouncing off of people's heads!
C5 has almost no use at all, unless you were going for a C6 and failed to break a guard and don't even have so much as a few enemies around you, as it tends to handle that better than C6. It's an AoE, but it's unlikely to hit anything that R4 didn't already snare into the combo, so you're almost always better off just continuing the weak string. And it's also unlikely to hit much of anything at all, because while you shoot in a circle, the AoE is just the bombs, meaning you can miss entirely. It also is far lower damage than it ought to be for how long it takes to use. Expect to need to use other attacks to clean up after this one if you've accidentally, or intentionally, used it.
C6 is situational, and a choice between it and R7. Both are extremely powerful horde clearing tools, that are even decent at damaging larger enemies if you can safely get them off. Their AoE and damage is almost the same. The primary difference is that more of C6s damage can be aimed into a different direction than the one you're facing after R5, and that R7 will always send enemies flying off into the distance, while you can control where they end up better with C6. R6 sends you doing a flip in front of you, while C6 has Linkle run around with her bows out, letting you aim and snag more enemies. It's highly likely that many of the grunts you're juggling are already dead, so you can do damage to something alive with C6. R7 is still very strong, but tends to be better if you already have the enemies you're wanting to damage caught up in the combo, and if you want them thrown way away from you to give you breathing room. You can also stop at R6, keeping enemies close if you need to damage them more. C6 also tends to work better against a commander or lager enemy, if you were, say, clearing a base with a weak string, killed everything and then want to transition to the commander, as it's much easier to aim the swap. Lastly, pivoting is extremely fast during C6--you can easily use the combo relatively in place, if you so wish.
Weapon Skills
On weapon skills, I'd advise against Fire +. She has enough AoE as is, and doesn't really need the boost. It also means more enemies will be jarred away from you at odd times, which isn't always for the best. It can have uses for defensive reasons to keep enemies away though, because she does have so many ranged tools. For offense, there's likely a better pick that's going to amount to more, as you don't want redundant AoE. Stick to Strong Attack X for the moves you like, and later of course get the powerful AUG abilities once you're able to. I haven't gotten Hasty Attacks on her yet, but it'd solve nearly every small time when she's vulnerable and make her an even better character for staying safe while wreaking everything in her path.