Best Axe Combos, Strings, and Tips in Brawlhalla

Axe is a staple of the current meta, with big button s, excellent zoning, and high kill potential. As a cost for nearly flawless stage control, Axe has little to no offstage capacity, but that doesn’t stop it from dominating almost every other weapon in the game. If you like zoning, but also like aggression, then Axe is for you.

How to Play Axe: Tips and Tricks

Neutral Game

The neutral game for Axe is nearly algorithmic. None of your Light moves are very safe in neutral, as they have high recovery, but they have good reach. Because of this, you mostly use positioning to force your opponent to react, then react with a punish.

If you’re trying to approach your opponent from the air, try sticking to DAir or SAir, and make sure to use dash jumps, along with just floating into the opponent. If you’re on the ground, SLight is your only real option for approaching a grounded opponent, but DLight is good for floaty players, and NLight is a good kill move.

Offstage Game

Axe has zero offstage potential. The most you can safely do is dash jump fastfall into a DAir off the corner - anything else puts you in a disadvantage, even against unarmed. 

Whenever you’re recovering, make sure to only use jumps and dodges near the stage, as every aerial move has very large windows for punishment.

Edgeguarding

Axe’s weakness offstage means that you don’t need to try to confirm kills beyond the corner. You can stand on the corner, using NLight and SLight to catch corner approaches, and DLight and NAir to catch aerial approaches. 

A lot of Axe NSigs, such as Xull, Barraza, and Ulgrim, also work for cornerguarding.

The Axe Moveset

NLight

A solid grounded move. Decent reach, nice damage, but be wary of the recovery. Also a good kill option at later percentages. 

SLight

The grounded combo starter. Can be followed up with NAir or SAir, depending on positioning (Use SAir if the move lands with you stacked on the opponent). Try mixing up doing SLight from standing and cancelling a dash with it to make sure that your opponent never knows what you’ll be doing.

DLight

If this isn’t the best anti air in the game, it’s very close to the top of the list. Low recovery, high diagonal priority, and a disjointed hitbox add up to make this an amazing move.

NAir

A force field with high drift that can juggle. Because of its small wind for punish, you should try to spam this, along with DLight, when the opponent tries to float above your SLight or NLight.

SAir

The main kill confirm for Axe. SAir, like the rest of Axe’s aerial kit, has abnormally high drift, so make sure to dash jump into this to catch opponents off guard.

DAir

The aerial combo starter. If the back half of grounded DAir (the special move used when DAir is inputted near the ground) hits the opponent, an XPivot DLight is true. Make sure to approach with DAir as much as you do with SLight to keep the opponent on their toes.

Ground Pound

One of the more unconventional Ground Pounds. Spirals quickly around the player twice, use this as a dodge read out of SLight > NAir. Also really good for cornerguarding when the player tries to dodge onto stage.

Recovery

Axe recovery has some pros and cons. It has decent recovery, and does very high damage and knockback, but is extremely easy to punish. Can be used as a dodge read out of NAir, or DAir at high percentages. DO NOT use recovery on the corner of the stage, as it is extremely punishable

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Best Axe Combos and Strings in Brawlhalla

SLight > NAir

The bread and butter combo of Axe. Use this as much as possible, as it has confirmable strings (Jump > Ground Pound works as a great dodge read, for example).

SLight > SAir

One of the easiest kill confirms on Axe. The only caveat to this is that you have to land the SLight as close as you can to your opponent.

DAir > Xpivot DLight

Good aerial approach tool, with decent damage. If your opponent gets used to SLight > NAir, try switching over to this. If you mess up the DAir, you can just try to dribble instead. At medium orange or higher, you can follow up a DAir with a SAir for an easy kill.

OTHER GOOD AXE COMBOS AND STRINGS
Side Light > Neutral Air
(Land) > Side Air > Neutral Light
Side Light > Down Light
Down Air > Down Light
Side Light > Jump > Neutral Air > Gravity Cancel > Down Light
Side Light > Neutral Air > Jump > Ground Pound
Side Light > Jump > Down Air > Side Air
Side Light > Jump > Ground Pound
Recovery > Recovery > Recovery > Recovery > (Land) > Recovery
Side Light > Neutral Air > Recovery
Side Light > Down Light > Jump > Recovery
Side Light > Jump > Side Air
Down Air > Side Air
Side Light > Jump > Down Air > Neutral Air > Down Light
Side Light > Side Air
Side Light > Jump > Neutral Air > Jump > (Read) Spot-dodge > Gravity Cancel > Side Light > Jump > Neutral Air > Recovery
Side Light > Jump > Gravity Cancel > Down Light > Gravity Cancel > (Legend) Neutral (weapon) Sig/Heavy
Side Light > Jump > Neutral Air > Jump > Side Air
Side Light > Jump > Down Light > Side Air
Side Light > Neutral Air > Gravity Cancel > Down Light > Recovery

For more specific strings and combos for legends with Axe please check out:

• Best combos and strings for Teros
• Best combos and strings for Brynn
• Best combos and strings for Barraza
• Best combos and strings for Azoth
• Best combos and strings for Ulgrim
• Best combos and strings for Jhala
• Best combos and strings for Xull
• Best combos and strings for Rayman
• Best combos and strings for Volkov

Very Few True Combos

You may ask, why so few true combos? The reason for this is that the game wants to reward aggressive play, so they want you to force the opponent to dodge before you go all in. Because of this, movement, especially in neutral, is extremely important. I would recommend trying to practice dashing in and out of the opponents range. This is called dash dancing, and is commonly utilised at higher ELOs, as it can bait the opponent into some highly disadvantageous situations.

Axe Theory: Dribbling, Not Juggling

The main tech that is unique to Axe is its ability to dribble. Dribbling is the same concept as juggling, but instead of bouncing the opponent in the air, you bounce them downwards off the stage, using Dair. If you hit 3 consecutive DAirs, you’ve already done about 40 to 60 damage, which is almost kill percentage for Axe.

Learning to dribble effectively on Axe is not only important, but can teach you other techniques, like how to move in the air, or how to predict angles of knockback.

Axe is one of the best weapons in the game right now, and Blue Mammoth Games doesn’t seem keen to nerf it any time soon. If you want a weapon with a low skill floor that boasts many great features, you might consider picking up the Axe. If not then you might want to check out our weapon tier list for brawlhalla. If you don’t know what legend to pick who has a Axe we recommend you to check out the best legends with axe in Brawlhalla.