Previously viewed as one of the worst characters in the game, Taz has been the beneficiary of some recent buffs. Whilst he may still not be dominating the meta, the timing has rarely been better to pick up Taz and take him for a spin. Here’s how to play Taz in MultiVersus.
The Basics
Taz is a Brawler-type character, which means that much like Shaggy — who we’ve discussed before, he’s intended to be played in a “rushdown” style. He’s at his best when he’s chasing down his opponents and putting on pressure. Most rushdown characters are fairly simple, and for the most part so is Taz; however, he has one defining feature that sets him apart from all the rest.
Taz’s passive ability means that some of his attacks deal stacks of “Tasty”. Tasty is a debuff that, upon reaching max stacks, will turn your opponent into a cooked chicken that is incapable of attacking for a limited time. It takes 16 stacks for Tasty to trigger. When a Tasty opponent is hit, they can drop pieces of chicken that you or your partner can pick up to eat and heal.
A lot of Taz’s game-plan focuses around threatening the opponent with the Tasty debuff. We’ll talk more about which moves apply Tasty as we get into the meat of this MultiVersus Taz guide.
Taz’s MultiVersus Combos
As an aggressive rushdown character with low range and fast attacks, Taz is very combo-centric. Learning how to optimize every opening you get will be key. Here are Taz’s three best combo starters and some of the combos you can get off them:
- Down Special (You Spit What You Eat!) is one of Taz’s few projectiles and thus not a move you’d have pegged as a viable combo starter, but it is! The chewed apple Taz spits does a decent amount of hitstun, and Taz is so fast that he’s almost always able to close in from midrange and capitalize on that with a follow-up, especially when dodge-cancelling — which is something Taz should be doing a lot! You should use Taz’s Down Special in neutral often. It can combo into almost any of his aerials at any %, but most crucially…
- Down Air (Sunder Down Under) is perhaps Taz’s best overall combo starter. It’s easy to weave in and out with this move due to its armor-breaking properties and low cooldown. It can true combo into Forward Air — and if you successfully dodge cancel after that, you should be able to thrown in a Grounded Side Attack too! Down Air can also true combo into Neutral Special, and is one of Taz’s few combos that doesn’t require a dodge cancel to work.
- Grounded Side Attack (Well-Seasoned) is — as is the case with most characters in MultiVersus, a multi-hit attack in which you can cancel the first hit for a more optimal follow-up. For Taz, the first hit of Grounded Side Attack can be cancelled into the armor-breaking Grounded Down Attack, the juggle-starting Grounded Up Attack and pretty much anything your heart desires in the likely scenario that your opponent attempts to dodge between the first and second hits. (This attack also applies Tasty, making it one of Taz’s best moves overall.)
As a combo-oriented character, Taz has far more viable combo starters up his non-existent sleeves than this. Neutral Air and Forward Air are also very effective for this purpose, so give ’em a whirl and see what they’re capable of!
How to Use Taz’s Specials
Taz’s specials present some interesting options to spice up his aggressive gameplay. Where his normals let you get in, his specials are more about adding depth to his approach.
- Neutral Special (Chew ‘Em Up, Spit ‘Em Out) is one of Taz’s worse moves. It has low range, long startup and is quite committal relative to the reward for landing it. It is, however, quite an interesting move with a variety of implications. Aside from eating enemies with this move, Taz can also eat projectiles! This provides him some much needed (but niche) counterplay against ranged characters, and allows him to power up his Down Special when he does so. Chewing on a Cooked (Tasty) enemy also applies Weaken.
- Up Special (Dogpile! Dogpile!) is an interesting move but one that serves a somewhat similar purpose to his superior Side Special. This move’s travel speed is slow, but its hitbox is generous and it can be a good option to cover the ledge or even (on occasion) to use out of disadvantage. Really, this move is only made viable by a signature perk to be covered later.
- Down Special (You Spit What You Eat!) has already been covered. It’s one of Taz’s best moves. Both a midrange projectile with potential to be powered up by Neutral Special and a great combo starter. What hasn’t yet been mentioned is that it also deals 2-3 stacks of Tasty by default, and has potential to deal even more when powered up! This is just a great move that you should be using in neutral a lot.
- Side Special (Taz-Nado) was so powerful in its early incarnation that it had to be nerfed quite dramatically. Whilst not as powerful as it once was, this far-reaching moving hitbox is still very potent at scaring people out of center-stage and covering ledge. Taz’s Side Special is also a great punish tool for when people attempt to dodge in-between the first and second hits of Grounded Side Attack, which is surprisingly often!
MultiVersus: Taz’s Best Perks
Here are some of the best Perks to use with Taz in MultiVersus:
- Speed Force Assist increases your movement speed by 4% (and 8% when stacked.) This being good for Taz shouldn’t take much explanation. As mentioned before, Taz often needs to dodge cancel to make combos like Down Special — Aerial Attack true. Speed Force Assist could even eliminate the need for these dodge cancels.
- Coffeezilla is very viable for Taz as lots of his best moves have cooldowns. Almost all of Taz’s specials, but most importantly Down Special and Side Special, have cooldowns that will be reduced with this perk, and being able to use them more often will be a huge benefit to any Taz gameplay.
- Tasmanian Trigonometry is even named after Taz! A perfect match! Taz has very weak recovery and offstage game, and thus Tasmanian Trigonometry’s effect of having increased influence over your knockback direction will allow you to stay on stage more and not have to deal with the struggle of recovering as much.
- Percussive Punch Power has your team deal 5/10% additional damage with attacks that deal horizontal knockback. Taz is an extremely horizontal character, so this just makes sense.
Signature Perks
Finally, Taz’s Signature Perks in MultiVersus are:
- I Gotta Get In There! makes it so that allies can jump into Taz’s Up Special (Dogpile! Dogpile!), giving it more damage, knockback and making it last longer. Whilst this may mean that this perk is only viable in 2v2, it is largely better than the alternative in that scenario. Extended duration on the Dogpile in particular can make this an absolutely brutal move to get past at the ledge.
- Iron Stomach makes it so that Taz burps up a powerful anvil when using Down Special after swallowing a projectile. This is more situational than it may seem, as trying to use the already committal Neutral Special when being bombarded with projectiles is risky to say the least. The reward is decent, and this perk can at least be used in 1v1 and 2v2 — but in teams, the former perk should be your go-to.
And that’s all, folks! Enjoy buttering up opponents with the kind of seasoned offense that no other character in MultiVersus presents! Happy climbing!
