Rick Sanchez, the irreverent scientist, alcoholic, and war criminal, recently joined MultiVersus as a Mage-type character. That means his fighting style is based around throwing horrible things all over the screen. He’s listed as an Expert character. That ought to mean he takes a little more skill than other characters, but in this case it means he’s just stronger (and more expensive). Skilled players can use his abilities to cause a catastrophe of damaging effects. In this MultiVersus Rick Guide, I’ll explain how the madman gets the job done.
MultiVersus Rick Guide – Basic Attacks
In the first section of this MultiVersus Rick guide, I’ll review Rick’s basic attacks. Even his simplest moves have some wild properties.
- Neutral Ground/Air Attack: For his neutral attack, he wields a gun. Rapidly pressing the button fires quick shots. These are the brand-new “Light Projectile” type, meaning “projectile that barely does anything”. It’s Fox’s laser from Melee – can’t stun, but great at harassing the enemy whenever you have some space. Charging it, however, turns it into Wolf’s laser from Brawl: a slow moving projectile with moderate damage and light knockback. It’s pretty basic and can’t kill, but it covers a good distance and lingers for a while. This attack is usable in the air, allowing Rick to annoy higher-up enemies. It can also be charged in the air: charging a shot while jumping or falling lets you use the otherwise dead air time to fire a big projectile.
- Side Ground Attack: Rick’s ground string has three parts. A laser-blade swipe, a forward kick that knocks the enemy away, and a missile fired in a low arc. The idea being, after the kick creates distance, the missile hits at range, and then Rick can go back to being obnoxious with his gun. The first and third hits can be charged, if you’re certain to hit. The missile isn’t very strong, and destroys itself against the ground, but it can travel far off the edge of the stage. If you kick the enemy offstage, a hit with the follow-up missile will send them flying back at a low angle for a cheap kill. Be aware, however, that this string is not a true combo. Even laser sword into kick often misses based on the enemy’s position. Be prepared for counterattacks.
- Up Ground Attack: Rick lashes upward with a plasma whip. It hits pretty hard, but only on targets directly above him. Best used as anti-air.
- Down Ground Attack: A fart bomb, placed at Rick’s feet. After a half-second, it farts, knocking enemies upward. It’s a neat trick that leaves your enemy in a vulnerable position, but the timing of the fart makes it tough to use if the enemy’s already in your face. Try deploying it pre-emptively against enemies trying to rush you down. It can also drop off ledges as an effective edge guard.
- Side Air Attack: A crotch thrust from Rick’s shield belt. It’s a quick, simple strike, but this is one of Rick’s best knockback moves. It can easily kill offstage enemies. Throw some projectiles out, then nail them with this while they’re trying to jump over them.
- Up Air Attack: Rick thrusts a Mega Seed upward. Its knockback and damage are lower than its radiant aura implies, but it inflicts a very brief Silence effect, preventing enemies from using cooldown moves. Alternately, you can use the attack on your teammate to make them Educated, shortening their cooldowns. Depending on your opponents and allies, the seed might have different optimal applications. Either use puts the seed on cooldown, though, so you can only pick one. Why does the seed have this effect? It’s not important, don’t think about it.
- Down Air Attack: Rick fires a burst of flame from his rocket boots. It’s a pretty standard down air, but it does lots of damage and causes burn. Onstage, you can combo after the hit for even more damage.
MultiVersus Rick Guide – Special Attacks
In this section of the MultiVersus Rick guide, I’ll review his special attacks. They’re even wackier than his normals (which are already pretty wacky).
- Neutral Ground Special: Pressing the button summons Mr. Meeseeks. Pressing a direction chooses his attack: forward for a rushing projectile, up for a quick uppercut, and down for a slow golf club swing. The golf club, evoking memories of Melee Peach, has a very long windup, but is meant to be used defensively. He swings right away when hit, and if he intercepts an enemy projectile, he reflects it back. With two charges on a fairly short cooldown, this is one of the most versatile and powerful tools Rick has. The staggered timing on Meeseeks’ attacks allows Rick to do team combos, Marvel vs. Capcom style. For true pros, Meeseeks has a secret: jump before giving him a command, and he’ll stay in place. From there, he’ll mimic the command you give to the next Meeseeks summon, meaning both Meeseeks will use the command at once, whether it’s a rush forward or golf club charge. Put it all together, and you can set up some brutal combos in the training room that will never actually land in a real match. One last note: Golf Meeseeks will reflect Rick’s own charged laser with proper timing, which more than triples its damage and knockback. The effect is so extreme, this might actually be a bug, so exploit it while you can. (UPDATE: Too late! This was apparently fixed in a server-side patch.)
- Neutral Air Special: This is a super-rare neutral air recovery move! It summons a Meeseeks to carry Rick a short distance through the air. It doesn’t affect the cooldown or positioning of on-stage Meeseeks, so use this whenever you need it.
- Side Ground Special: Rick summons a portal. He can aim it nearly anywhere in front of him with a targeting cursor. It has a few interesting uses. It doesn’t hurt enemies, but anyone knocked into it teleports next to Rick – if he’s quick, he can deploy it mid-combo to drag enemies to him. Allies can trigger it deliberately if they need an escape. If Rick uses the move a second time, he automatically teleports to the open one. Anytime someone uses a portal, a second one is created where they used to be. The “used” portals stay in place for a while, transferring projectiles between them, but unusable for player transport. Altogether, these portals can let Rick travel quickly, extend a combo, save an offstage ally, and/or launch projectiles in odd directions. There’s a long cooldown, so make sure you’ve chosen correctly.
- Side Air Special: The same portal as the ground special, with one major difference: If no portals are out yet, Rick automatically travels to the new one he summons. This lets him use it as an emergency recovery, or a very quick instant pursuit option. The same cooldown applies, though.
- Up Ground/Air Special: A downward blast from Rick’s jetpack, propelling him upward and hitting enemies both above and below. It’s chargeable. On the ground, charging increases height, and a full charge includes a second blast halfway up. This makes a good kill move, easily dunking offstage enemies below you, and finishing off enemies at the top edge of the screen. Its range is similar to Rick’s down air attack. Use down air attack for damage, and up special for kills.
- Down Ground/Air Special: A polymorph grenade! It blows up after a couple of seconds. Allies in the blast get bigger and stronger, including the sizes of their (and your) projectiles. Enemies in the blast turn into miniature Reindogs that take extra damage and can’t attack. The enemy polymorph effect is devastating, effectively removing an opponent from the fight for a few crucial seconds. The ally effect is very brief, but can make decent bait. Fire the grenade and stand in it: you get buffed if the enemy cowardly stays away, and can punish hard if they pursue you into the blast. The effect also strengthens Rick’s Meeseeks, if you’re setting up a truly disgusting combo.
How to Win Team Battles as Rick
Here are some specific strategy tips. Between his Mega Seed, portal summons, and buff grenade, Rick makes a decent team player. His “Mage” classification, however, means he takes a little setup to reach his full potential. That also means it’s hard to coordinate his helpful effects without good communication. Imagine a randomly matched teammate jumping for you to put the Mega Seed in them! It’s just not going to happen.
Your role, then, is to be as annoying as possible by covering the screen in laser blasts and Meeseeks. If they’re engaged with your teammate, enemies won’t be able to evade. Don’t use too much of the weak laser – you want your foes flinching so they don’t hit your ally. When you see a vulnerable target, pursue and destroy with Rick’s deadly offstage abilities.
Rick is powerful, but prefers fighting at a distance when he can. His ideal teammate, then, is a frontline Brawler or Tank who can keep annoyed opponents from reaching you. Superman is a great option, with a high defense and kill potential to pair with Rick’s high damage, but lower kill potential. Cooldown-heavy characters like Taz or Wonder Woman are good allies as well, since you can help them out with Mega Seed.
How to Win 1v1 Battles as Rick
Rick has the tools to compete 1v1, but he has to be a little careful. Charged projectiles and complex setups don’t work when the enemy walks up and steps on your foot. Use quick attacks like Rick’s side air to start with, and anytime you have some room, start unloading your projectiles. Charging your laser midair works great here, and can catch enemies by surprise. Overall, you want to limit your enemy’s space with lingering effects, then punish while they try to avoid them.
Best Perks For Rick
For the last section of the MultiVersus Rick guide, here are his perks. Rick has three Signature Perks, each one focusing on a different aspect of his playstyle.
Squanchin’ Pyrotechnics is for Ricks who like weird portal setups. You can use the fire portals to strengthen your laser blasts and other projectiles if they’re aligned right. Use them offensively by placing a portal, then knocking the enemy in for fire damage. Or just get a damage buff after using them for recovery. This adds a little extra utility to Rick’s portals, but as always, they won’t help at all if you blow the cooldown on a poor placement.
Hephaestus, Who? is for nobody. Do not use it. It pulls enemies to you on a fully charged plasma whip. Sadly, hitting with a fully charged attack is hard, and hitting with the whip is hard, therefore hitting with a fully charged whip is super duper hard. In theory, it can extend those training room combos even farther when combined with Meeseeks or an ally, but it’s hard to imagine this paying off in-game.
Bit of a Stickler Meeseeks is for Ricks who like to combo with Meeseeks. This doubles the damage of a Meeseeks that hits someone who’s already being hit. Since the Meeseeks often hit first, the most frequent way to take advantage of this perk is with the long windup golf club, like in the perk’s icon. Timing a combo between Rick and Meeseeks could be tough but extremely rewarding this way. The perk is also more useful in teams, since your ally can trigger the effect as well.
The simplest option is Squanchin’ Pyrotechnics for the fire buff after portal use, but Bit of a Stickler Meeseeks should do the most extra damage overall (in teams).
For secondary perks, cooldown should be priority thanks to the value of Meeseeks, portals, morph grenade, and even Mega Seed. Coffeezilla is earned early and is great to start with, but the best cooldown reduction is considered to be I Dodge You Dodge We Dodge. An alternative is I’ll Take That, which refunds cooldown against debuffed enemies, if you can secure a debuff from your ally or are using Ice To Beat You.
Projectile buffs make sense for Rick, especially Ice To Beat You as mentioned. That also includes Shirt Cannon Sniper, which increases the damage of long-range shots for extra obnoxious projectile spam. Finally, Rick’s low weight means he should take dodge buffs over damage resist buffs, meaning Fancy Footwork or Slippery Customer, which can also help him escape when the enemy finally reaches him.
