Features

Button shortcuts

Gameplay

Skip results screen or quit endless friendlies Hold L + R + X when match ends

Salty runback Hold L + R + Y when match ends

Force "continue" on results screen for all players (useful if someone's AFK) Hold Start on results screen

Reset GameCube controller X + Y + Start

Only useful on console. Generally not needed on Dolphin.

Share stocks in team battles A + B

Open Code Menu L + R + D-Pad Down

This shortcut can be disabled from Code Menu itself (Code Menu Activation). To enable it again, enter the Code Menu through the menu Versus → Codes.

Reset Code Menu page Y

Reset single Code Menu line X

Scroll through options faster Hold Z

The Code Menu has many features, like enabling the Debug Mode, displaying hitboxes, hitstun, body collision state, ledge grab boxes, collision points, locking the camera and so much more! It's definitely worth exploring.

Debug Mode

Enable Debug Mode See Code Menu

Pause (Freeze) Start

Frame advance Tap/hold Z

Normal pause X + D-Pad Up

Switch characters — 1x step B + D-Pad Left / B + D-Pad Right

Switch characters — 10x steps B + A + D-Pad Left / B + A + D-Pad Right

Looking for Hitbox, Hitstun, Body Collision state, Camera Lock, Ledge Grab Box Display, Collision Points (SCD) etc.? Click here: Code Menu

Character selection screen

Scroll through multiple (3x) costumes at once Hold L or R while switching costumes

Play a secret character for Bowser, Wario or Ice Climbers Hold L while going from character screen to stage screen

Play a secret costume for any character Hold R or Z (different secret costumes!) while going from character screen to stage screen (Nunchuck: C or Z)

Select a random character Drop the character token on the side / empty space

Swap a port's color between 12 choices Press L or R while hovering over a tag (e.g. "PLAYER1") or pencil icon

Can also be changed in the Code Menu under HUD Colors.

Open tag list Press A on the pencil icon near your character

Toggle rumble X

Modify controls Y

Overwrite a tag with a new one Press Z on existing tag

Useful when tag list is full. If the new tag name exists, it will switch to the existing tag instead of overwriting because tags must be unique.

Move a tag to the top Start

Scroll 5x faster Hold L or R

Works in any scrollable list on the CSS, like the tag list, controls list when pressing Y in the tag list, or HP list in stamina mode.

Stage selection screen

Swap stage selection screen layouts / presets L / R in the random stage selection menu

Included presets are as follows: Legal stages (default), PMBR, 2023 Proposed, 2024 Proposed, Australia, Japan, and All stages

Ban a stage X

Ban all stages not in random selection Press X while hovering on the random button

Unban all stages B

Play an alt stage Hold L, R or Z when selecting a stage (each button loads a different alt)

Open alternate stage selection menu Hold a L or R and press Start over a stage

R + Start is exclusively for 1:1 stages while L + Start is for different layouts and for-fun stages.

Enter music selection screen Press Y while hovering over a stage

Start a stage with a specific music track Press Start on the music track in the stage's tracklist from the music selection screen

Play both on an alt stage and with a specific music track Hold the button for the desired alt (like L), press Y to open the music selection menu (can release alt button) and then pick the desired music track and press Start to start the alt with that music track

The alt button might need to be held for about a second even if the music menu is already open, otherwise the game might go to the default stage instead of the alt

Toggle hazards temporarily for selected stage Z while hovering over a stage

The frame of stage icon indicates the hazard mode.
Orange: Hazards ON, Blue: Hazards OFF.

Toggle hazards temporarily for all stages Z while hovering over Random button

The color of the random button and of the stage icon frames get updated according to the above mentioned colors for individual stages with green (default) meaning hazards according to random stage selection menu.

Loading alts etc. with a Wiimote (might be bugged sometimes)

`B + Left`	=	`GC L`
`B + Up`	=	`GC R`
`B + Right`	=	`GC Z`
`B + Down`	=	`GC X`
`A`	=	`GC R`
`C`	=	`GC X`
`-`	=	`GC X`
`- & +`	=	`GC Y`

Interrupt stage loading and return to character selection Hold L + R + A after picking a stage

Replays

Speed up playback Hold A

Slow down playback Hold B

Using Debug Mode/frame advance, drawing DI can be enabled, pausing on any frame, and checking any possible DI trajectories during replay playback (e.g. find the best survival DI for any move)

Misc

Set a music track in My Music to minimum frequency L

Set a music track in My Music to maximum frequency R

Select stage alts at the beginning of a Classic/All-star run D-Pad directional inputs

Reset training mode Hold Z while quitting

Reroll the playing music track Hold A and press B when paused

Show currently playing music track Start (Pause)

Boot to training mode Hold L or R (GameCube, Classic Controller) or R or B (Wiimote) during boot screen

Boot to Title Screen instead of menu Hold Start (GameCube) or + (Wiimote) during boot screen

Boot to Replay Menu Hold Z (GameCube), ZL or ZR (Classic Controller) or C/- (Wiimote) during boot screen

Game modes

New Special Brawl mode: War mode — KO players to steal their stocks!
Big Head and Random Angle modes in Code Menu
A new mode has been added to Random Angle in the Code Menu: Static Random Angle! This will randomize angles for moves, then keep them that way for the entire match to allow for strategized setups.
New Team Battle option added: Random Teams! New team pairs will be shuffled at random after every game
Players on the same team spawn on the same side of the stage
CPUs can now be set to level 0, “Ally”. Having an Ally as a teammate will allow players to control their own character and the CPU character simultaneously.
Special BOSS mode
- If someone has a tag containing the word “BOSS”, “boss”, “Boss”, or “ボス”, then only players with those tags will experience special mode behaviors
- When used with “CPU Characters Can Use Tags”, assign the tag first, then switch the character to be a CPU!
- Also works in Zero-To-Death mode
- Also works in Stamina mode: the players without boss tags will have percentage gauges while the Boss tag players will have HP and only one stock! Also applies to other settings of the mode like blast line wrap-around.

Training, practice and controls

UCF-style shield dropping
New C-stick control options!
- Tilt C-stick
- Charge C-stick — like in other platform fighters
- Taunt C-stick
- Attack C-stick — not new but changed to support Neutral Air using diagonals
These are correctly named in the tag list controls editor, but in the Options → Controls menu, they have different names. Tilt: "Down Taunt / Footstool", Charge: "Side Taunt / Footstool", Taunt: "Up Taunt / Footstool".
"Shield" option in Training mode no longer gives infinite shield (activate in Code Menu instead)
CPUs will now select between one of the 5 options of DI, instead of perfectly random DI, to better simulate how it would be with an actual opponent
Training mode: New Selectable CPU Behaviors: Shield, Crouch, DI in, Slight DI In, No DI, Slight DI Out, DI Out, and Slight DI (which picks between middle 3 options)
Solo in Versus mode: When the game settings are changed from "stocks" to "time" and the time set to infinite, a match can be started without a second player or CPU. This can be useful in combination with the Camera Lock feature of the Code Menu for e.g. movement practice.

Subspace emissary (campaign)

Roy, Mewtwo & Knuckles are unlocked post-Tabuu clear
Does not save on autosave, so unlock message will appear on the auto save file upon entering post-Tabuu clear)
Hold L when selecting a level to override character selection and have all characters selectable
Hold R during character selection to randomize cursor
Hold Y during character selection to be able to select the same character twice
Hold X while selecting a fully cleared level to start Time Attack mode, beat the level as fast as possible while defeating enemies to earn the highest score
Hold Y while selecting a level to toggle displaying timer

Items

Three new item frequency settings have been added to the Item Switch: Very High, Intense and Bomb Rain
Press Start on Assist Trophies in the Item Switch menu to toggle which Assist Trophies are active in a gameplay session
Press Start on Containers in the Item Switch menu to toggle different properties for them, for example explosions!
Press Start on Pokémon in the Item Switch menu to toggle the appearances of Pokemon other than Mew, Celebi and Jirachi (these Pokemon are excluded as they are tied towards rewards and achievements)
New item mode: Mayhem! Certain items spontaneously activate for maximum chaos! Is enabled like an item in the Item Switch menu.
New item: Flipper! The Flipper from Balloon Fight has returned. Toggle on Bumpers to randomly have a chance of a Flipper spawning if Ex items are also enabled
New item variant: Melee Screw Attack! The Melee version of the Screw Attack has returned, being able to be thrown. Toggle on Screw Attacks to randomly have a chance of its Melee variant spawning if Ex items are also enabled. Currently it does not send opponents into freefall.
Zapdos and Articuno have been added, behaving like in Melee. Toggle on Moltres if Ex items are also enabled to summon them from a Pokéball
The Goomba Assist Trophy has been added. Toggle on Hammer Bros. while EX items are also enabled to summon them.
Crates, Rolling Crates and Barrels can spawn enemies if enabled. Currently they can spawn Goombas and Hammer Bros.
New EX item: the Double Cherry! Those Ice Climbers won’t be the only ones to pair up now. Can be manually turned on or off by pressing START on the EX Item choice in Item Switch

More features

Dolphin auto-saves replays from a netplay session. Use the Replay Manager executable to manage them.
Hazards are now toggle-able for select stages, which will swap things such as animations, collisions, and hazards when toggled between (Currently supported stages are Smashville, Yoshi’s Island, Green Hill Zone, Fountain of Dreams, Dream Land, and Dead Line). Hazards can be toggled in two menus:
- permanently in the random stage selection menu
- temporarily on the stage selection screen using Z (see the SSS shortcuts section for details)

Other explanations

How does the `TOGGLE PAGE` button in the random stage selection menu work?

This button currently works the same as in vanilla Brawl and its appearance can be confusing. The label of the button, e.g. TURN PAGE ON is supposed to be read as an action instead of the current state. Like its text label, its appearance shows the state that the page will be turned to when pressed, not the current state. As soon as all stages on the page are set to ON, the action and therefore the text label and appearance of the button change to OFF, and vice versa. This is different from a "select all" feature tha's common in user interface design.

The button doesn't have any effect on the random stage selection other than toggling the whole page.

How does `Press DPad to select percent` in the Code Menu work?

Pressing any DPad direction will reset the percent to the value of Select percent.

Comparisons with Melee and Brawl

Properties from Melee
Wavedashing	✅
L-canceling	✅
Automatic L-canceling can be enabled in the versus settings but is not allowed in most tournaments.
Crouch canceling	✅
Crouch canceling reduces knockback to 0.67x like in Melee.
Light shield	❌
L-cancel without tech	✅ — Light press `L` / `R` like in Melee
Jump-canceled grab (JC Grab)	✅
Boost grab	✅
Shield dropping	✅
Short hop fast fall L-cancel (SHFFL)	✅
Moonwalk	✅
Moonwalking can also be performed with C-Stick Moonwalking.
Dash dancing	✅ — instant
Ice Climbers: Wobbling	❌
Spacies: Waveshining	✅ — also available to Wolf
Peach: Vegetable (Down Special)	Can't pull Bob-ombs or Swords
Samus: Super wavedash	✅ — 2 frame window instead of 1 frame
Luigi: Misfire	✅
A Misfire can be stored using `L` / `R` during the move's startup. The next Side-B will be a guaranteed Misfire with -3% damage. This can be repeated. Misfire also has a 1/6 (16%) chance compared to Melee's 1/8 and the chance for Misfire increases on every consecutive regular Green Missile. This means that at the start of a match or after a Misfire the chance is 1/6, then 1/5 etc. until the seventh Green Missile is a 100% guaranteed Misfire.
Double jump cancel	✅
V-canceling	❌
Glancing blow (Phantom hits)	❌
Properties from Brawl
Tripping	❌
Reverse aerial rush (RAR)	✅
B-reversing	✅
Wavebounce	✅
Wavebounce Video Tutorial
Reverse ledge grab	❌ — only at apex of Up-B, like Melee
Pivot grab	✅
Autolanding	❌
Dash attack canceled up smash (DACUS)	✅
Hitstun canceling	❌
Momentum canceling	❌
Buffering	❌ — like Melee
A 3-frame buffer can be enabled in the versus settings (like Brawl) but is not allowed in most tournaments.
Footstool Jump	✅
Dash pivot cancel	❌
Platform cancel	❌
TODO more to check: Hilldash

Other resources

Melee & P+ gameplay differences — Google Docs

Attributes (Frame data, weights, knockback values, ranges etc.) — Google Docs

Stage stats — Google Docs

All Stages — Google Docs

_{Thank you to the community members of the P+ Discord server that helped with the contents of this page.}