Let’s make this real simple: Bugs Bunny in MultiVersus is good. Like, really good. Like, if he’s not the best character in the game, then he’s almost certainly one of the game’s top tiers. With this in mind, he is very likely to be subject to some nerfs across the game’s lifespan. But, very little is likely to fundamentally change about the character. His moveset will always be the same, as will its applications – and his fundamental identity as a character will surely be untouched if the designers are as competent as they’ve shown themselves to be so far.
So whether he’s an undisputed top tier or something slightly lesser, ruining someone’s day and bombarding them with an onslaught of cartoonishly violent weaponry will always be on the menu. Let’s take a look at how you can really mess up your opponents online with the only fighting game character we can recall who uses kissing as a weapon. About time.
Essential Bugs Knowledge
Bugs is a Mage-type character, meaning he’s primarily intended to fight at long-range and keep opponents at bay with a variety of projectiles. He’s what a more typical fighting game might call “a Zoner”. Part of what makes Bugs so powerful is that while he’s very good at doing that, he also has some serious hands up close. To make a comparison for the many Smash Bros players out there who are yet to take a dive into MultiVersus, Bugs is a bit like Villager — if you made him way, way faster, and gave him Ike’s pre-patch Up Air. Yeah.
Now that I’ve sold you, let’s talk details. Of all the many powerful moves Bugs has at his disposal, his Up Air attack (Swing Batta Batta!) stands out. Up Air is god. Up Air is love and Up Air is life. If any move is on the chopping block to get nerfed, it’s this one – and frankly, it’ll probably deserve it. Bugs’ Up Air is a powerful juggling tool that comes out fast, has a wide arc (this move can literally hit people on the ground) and deals some serious damage and knockback. It is — in my opinion — simply without flaw at the moment, and combined with some of his Specials we’ll talk about in a bit, can make getting back to the ground against Bugs a total nightmare. It sits in an elite tier of 2 moves that practically define Bugs as a character. The other being:
Down Air. (Downward Mallet Swing) This is an incredibly fast, non-committal spike that you can practically spam with impunity any time an opponent is off-stage. It’s very scary to be off-stage against Bugs because of just how recklessly he can swing with this move, and trying to dodge a dunking will get the blood flowing no doubt.
Not only that, it’s also one of Bugs’ best combo starters. Down Air true combos into – you guessed it – Up Air very reliably, the window for this combo is very wide! And this little 2-hit combo can be set up by other combo starters. Now, let’s talk about that combo game, shall we?
Bugs Combos You Should Learn
Bugs primarily has 3 combo starters, and when you’re not firing off projectiles or spacing opponents out with Forward Air, these are what you’ll be looking for.
Down Air (Downward Mallet Swing) we’ve already covered. At varying % ranges this can combo into Neutral Air, Up Air, Grounded Up Attack into Neutral Air/Up Air and any other number of combinations. Bugs really has a pretty crazy combo game and trying to cover every possible combination would have us here all day, just play around with this Down Air a bit in training mode and you’ll immediately see what I mean.
Neutral Air (Helicopter Punch) has quite a small hitbox and is generally hard to open an opponent up with, I personally find myself using this move as a combo extender more often off a Down Air or something, but maybe you’ll have more luck getting in with this. If you do manage to hit this move, especially in the air, the possibilities are basically endless. Up Air, Down Air, another Jump Neutral Air, the world is your oyster if you hit this move, it’s practically designed to pop opponents up at the perfect angle for any follow-up your little heart desires. It can also be used in conjunction with Down Air for a very tight-to-input but very powerful “Nair Loop”, in which you can true combo repeating Down Airs and Neutral Airs on an opponent over and over again, give it a try in The Lab.
Grounded Side Attack (Why I Oughta!) is one of those grounded moves you wanna cancel before the final hit. Just using this move as the move list tells you will have it ending with a very underwhelming punch that sends your opponent away and has no combo potential. Instead, after landing the first hit in which Bugs spins his fists at his opponent (a hit that breaks armour by the way, and is thus very good against the likes of Wonder Woman and Superman), you pretty much get to use your imagination. I personally am partial to Grounded Side Attack into Grounded Up Attack (Rabbit Kick) into Down Air into Up Air – but again the possibilities are almost endless. Rabbit Kick is a great way to follow up that first hit and launch your opponent up for basically anything you want, though. You could get a Neutral Air off this baby, you could get a Down Air, hell you could probably get a cappuccino if you asked it nicely enough.
Special Attacks
Now we come to the real wacky stuff: Bugs’ specials. There’s a lot going on with these moves and a lot of applications for them that the game won’t even tell you, so fasten your seatbelt and get ready to learn about all the ins and outs of Bugs’ specials in MultiVersus.
Neutral Special (A Safe Investment) has Bugs place down a target, after which a few seconds a safe will come crashing down. You or your teammate can attack this safe to either launch it or send it rolling across the stage in a variety of ways, and if it makes contact with an enemy it’ll damage them and deal knockback relative to how fast it was travelling.
Opponents can attack and destroy the safe, but crucially they can’t make it move. If you do this move in the air, Bugs will paint the safe into existence and drop it below him instantly instead.
A couple fun facts: firstly, the safe will sometimes spawn an item like dynamite after being destroyed that you can throw at your opponents and, even more juicy – if you spike the safe with a Down Air, it itself becomes a spike. So knock this sucker off stage gently with a weak attack, then Down Air it above some offstage opponents and watch them plummet. A classic.
Up Special (Special Delive-Rocket) Bugs spawns and launches a powerful ACME rocket upwards that he’ll initially be clinging to. You can wall jump on this rocket and if you use your Side Special in the air, you’ll also spawn and ride the rocket horizontally instead and can use your Down Special (Bunny Burrow) on it. A wacky one; if you Bunny Burrow on a horizontally travelling rocket and pop out at the head of the rocket, you’ll re-direct it into going upwards instead. This is an advanced technique that Bugs players call “Rocket Tunneling,” it’s hard to say if it’s intentional or a glitch waiting to be patched out – but for now it’s a pretty crazy, out-there technique that could seriously catch an opponent off-guard.
This rocket travels slowly but does a ton of damage and knockback if it makes contact with an opponent, and as you can ride it – also has some utility as a way to get back to stage if you’re being pressured and are otherwise out of resources like jumps or dashes. If you fire the rocket upwards and miss, it’ll come crashing back down with the same impact about 10 seconds later – listen out for a cartoonish whistling sound effect that signals that the rocket’s about to come back down in about 5 seconds. If you fire the rocket sideways, it never comes back. You will be missed.
I for one am partial to firing the rocket upwards after a juggle with an Up Air or Grounded Up Attack, if you read your opponent’s aerial movement or just get lucky – you can cheese out some seriously early kills with this thing. It hits hard. Also, another fun tip – the rocket can travel through the rabbit holes created by your Down Special! Try firing one up and make a hole right where it’s gonna come back down and watch the rocket roller coaster madness unfold!
Oh, if you try to use this move while it’s on cooldown, it becomes a very weak move in which Bugs gingerly uses his ears to helicopter upwards. This move is intentionally bad, but does have a hitbox, and could be used to really flex on some opponents if you’re feeling particularly evil.
Side Special (Ain’t I A Charmer) Bugs blows a kiss that Charms (stuns) your enemies and Enrages (buffs) your teammate. The stun lasts quite a while and can lead to some brutal punishes, but all told this is probably the worst of Bugs’ specials as it’s slow to start up and can only be done from the ground. There is a signature perk that can make this move very powerful indeed, however, and we’ll cover that in just a bit.
Down Special (Bunny Burrow) Bugs burrows underground and can move freely for a few seconds, creating a tunnel that he automatically pops out of a few seconds after. You can also cancel this and create the tunnel exit whenever you want by jumping at any point during the duration. Upon popping out, Bugs will lightly hit any opponent he makes contact with, and now he and his teammate can freely enter the tunnel and travel between the entrance and exit by walking over to either and crouching. Projectiles like your safe and rocket can also be dropped through the tunnel and will come out of the other side, creating some crazy mixups and onstage scenarios.
Bugs is invulnerable whilst underground, and any attack that would hit him otherwise is considered to be dodged. If you do this move in the air, Bugs simply leaps straight into the ground from above.
Additional Bugs Tricks to Know
Bugs is far from out of tricks even with all this cartoon nonsense, though. Bugs’ Grounded Down Attack sees him equip a pie that can now be thrown with the same input. This pie is an excellent projectile and can be charged to increase its velocity both in the ground and air. The pie’s trajectory can be influenced by Bugs’ own attacks, and it heals any teammates it passes through and damages and slows any enemies it hits, which is a hugely useful debuff. Just be wary that you only get 2 pies before a cooldown, and that while a pie is equipped you also can’t use the almighty Down Air, as Bugs will just throw a pie whilst airborne.
Bugs also has a passive! When crouching, he automatically rifles through an ACME box that can generate random projectiles such as a stick of throwable dynamite or even Shaggy’s signature sandwich. These projectiles are – frankly, less good than pretty much anything Bugs can do with his regular moveset, but they’re good fun if you’re looking to engage in a bit of the ol’ tomfoolery.
Which Perks to Use for Bugs Bunny
Coffeezilla:
Finally, let’s talk about Perks. I’m not trying to tell you how to live your life, but I am trying to tell you that I and almost every Bugs player think you should absolutely use Coffeezilla as one of your perks if you’re using this character. Coffeezilla reduces the duration of your ability cooldowns by 10% and considering that Bugs quite literally has 6 moves with cooldowns (which is surely the most in the game? I haven’t checked that but like, that is a lot) then I struggle to see how this perk will ever be better on any other character than Bugs.
Deadshot/Make It Rain, Dog:
Other perks are more up to personal taste but I personally like ones that increase the potency of my projectiles like Deadshot and Make It Rain, Dog which increase your projectile damage and speed respectively. I have heard some rumblings of I Dodge You Dodge We Dodge however, which gives your team a 10% ability cooldown refund after dodging an attack because as you may recall was mentioned earlier – Bugs’ Bunny Burrow practically gives you a free dodge for every attack you burrow past whilst underground. A neat little idea.
Signature Perks
Signature perks are also down to personal taste but I’ve always favored Lingering Love as I think most Bugs players do. This perk makes it so that your previously underwhelming Side Special now lingers in the air for a few seconds at the cost of reducing its stun duration. This is a powerful effect and worthy tradeoff that allows you to control space and keep enemies out even more effectively than you already were. Comin’ Through Doc, which gives Bugs and allies a shockwave effect upon leaving his tunnel is not a bad perk at all, and can open up some combo opportunities with Bugs’ Side B, but I personally find it somewhat more situational and hard to reap the benefits of.
And there you have it! Congratulations! You are now a graduate of my class in the dark arts. I hope you’ve learned a devious new trick or two, and take to the servers of MultiVersus to terrorize some poor souls with all your kissing and creampies (not that kind). Best of luck, and enjoy ruining people’s days with all the many tricks this rabbit hides up his incredibly silly sleeves.
