Closing out stocks in a timely manner is a crucial act that Joker can struggle with due to his generally low knockback potential (barring Arsène). This guide shows how to utilize Joker's F-air (Forward-Air/fair) and his Up Air (u-air/uair/upair) to end up with a reliable kill confirm. This is not an easy tech to master, as it requires tight input-timings as well as a solid game sense to execute it in an appropriate manner without getting punished. However, with enough practice anyone can pull it off.
There are three primary parts to this combo:
> We go through the entire motions of this combo just to end with a Smash attack and possibly picking up a kill. Why do we care about this? Isn't this just a roundabout way to land a smash attack?
Rather than attempting to land a raw smash attack we opt to land a faster and safer option, that being fair-1. We then convert the opening we get from a successful fair-1 to a smash attack. This setup involves less commitment that a raw smash attack, but yields a similar result. In higher levels of play your opponent will leave fewer openings for you to exploit. That's when this kill confirm comes in handy. Also, you look cool when you do it.
IMPORTANT: The timing window to execute this confirm in a real game is very tight. You do not have to time to hesitate or think about the next input.
Your goal should be to eventually be comfortable executing these moves where it no longer feels awkward doing the inputs. You won't be at first, but being comfortable executing these moves are what makes this kill confirm a viable tool for you to use. Lots of practice and experience attempting this kill confirm against real opponents is the only way to get used to it. Practicing the moves in Training Mode is the first hurdle, but practicing them in live games is the most important and difficult step.
A Fair-1 to pop the opponent onto the air.
Simply put, you want to hit the opponent with just the first part of F-air a.k.a. Fair-1. This is achieved by proper input timing. Regardless of whether you fast-fall or not, you want to input F-air just a bit before you hit the ground. If you successfully land a Fair-1 the opponent should get popped up into the air at about a 45-60 degree angle. Accidently hit them with Fair-2 and they'll get knocked away from you.
There really isn't a magic solution to this. Go into training mode and practice this against a dummy. It doesn't matter what damage they have. Try against characters of different size ranges like Pikachu, Mario, Link and get familiar with inputting F-air just a bit above the ground. Make sure you practice this for each direction and for both full and short hops:
A Short-hop Dragdown Up-air to bring the opponent back down.
Dragdown Up-airs are covered in-depth here
or, a quick demo below:
Finally, for the finisher you end with either a Down-Smash or Up-Smash.
Down-Smash or Up-Smash?: Down-Smash is the more reliable option as it works on every character in the cast, but depending where you are on stage, it may not kill even if they are at kill percent. Up-Smash is the more powerful KO option thanks to its knockback trajectory, but will not land on some of the cast. Certain characters will lower their hitbox below the minimum height required to get hit by Joker's Up-Smash. These characters include Bowser, Pikachu, or any other character who possess a low "crouching stance" upon landing from a dragdown-upair; humanoid characters will generally get hit by Up-Smash. However, on stages like Small Battlefield you can use the platforms to easily set up Up-Smash followups from below and not have to worry about this as much.
Now that the inputs are explained the next step is to practice.
Setting the Percent(%): When practicing the combo set the training dummy's percent to about 120-130% assuming they're a middleweight. Adjust the percent higher or lower if they're a heavyweight or lightweight. If the dummy is getting too high to reach with a short-hop by Fair-1 then the percent is probably too high. If they're getting knocked too low, then the percent is probably too low. There are some outliers where the character's weight won't predictably coincide with the Fair-1 knockback, such as Ness, who is a solid middleweight, but his extremely floaty attributes makes the ideal percent range closer to 100-110%~.
Practicing in Training Mode:
Practice the inputs over and over again until you feel used to it. The repetition, although boring, is important to develop muscle memory for the combo. You do not want to have to think about the combo's inputs in the middle of a game or you will already be too late to act. Make sure you practice this for both sides, as in, facing left or right.
Practicing in Live Games Pt.1: Once you feel somewhat comfortable with the combo the next and most important & difficult step is to practice this combo against live opponents. Jump into any mode where you can play against other players. Ideally, Quickplay will be the better option than Battle Arena for several reasons:
Practicing in Live Games Pt.2: Play as you normally would, until they hit kill percent or close to it, then, fish hard for the combo. That is, your objective is only to successfully land the confirm for each stock they hit kill percent. Your goal should not be to win games. Winning games is your "side quest". Landing the combo is your "main quest". Even if you waste two stocks just to land the combo, that's still a win. When attempting this combo against live opponents you will quickly realize just how much more difficult it is when your opponent is able and willing to defend and fight back compared to a training dummy. Practice this over and over again across many games. Once you finally get a somewhat solid grasp on executing this combo against real players, you should continue practicing it, but also consider implementing them into your gameplay, rather than simply going for it in the open.
In many cases, doing the combo in the most direct manner can be perfectly viable, but there are other ways of starting it that allow you to expand your punish options. This section will be relatively brief as the possibilities are endless, but provide alternate angles to consider how else to use the confirm.
Accurately predicting a Getup option can lead to a kill confirm.