MultiVersus: Steven Universe - how to play?

Steven Universe is a support character who, despite his role, can still deal a ton of damage and wreak havoc on the battlefield. He's a challenging character to play and demands spending some time learning. This is mostly due to his shields he can use to block projectiles and as platforms which can deflect enemies.

• General tips
• Recommended build
• How to win as Steven Universe?

General tips

1. Steven has access to many tools which can support him and his allies. His Down Special can heal allies, he can attach explosive tethers to his allies and grant them shields which can take up to three hits before breaking.
2. Many of Steven's moves allow him to glide through the air. He can do so by holding down the jump button, dodging while standing still or using his Up Special and Side Special. This is very useful when you're outside the arena and need to return, or when you want to reposition yourself.
3. Steven's Side Special actually hides two moves. The first one is firing a shield to the side - the longer you hold down the button, the farther it'll go. This attack has a long cooldown. Using Side Special before the cooldown ends executes a short dash kick.
4. The Neutral Dodge shield can be used both on the ground and in the air. Remember, though the shield can take three hits, you share the hit counter with your ally. This means, for example, if your ally gets hit two times and you get hit once, the shield will break.
5. Steven has access to a unique status affliction, Rose's Gaze. You can inflict it by knocking enemies away. Stacking Rose's Gaze up to 10 traps the enemy in a Bubble. To inflict it, use Neutral Special and Neutral Attack.
6. Bubbled enemies are disabled for a while and can't participate in combat, though they also can't be hurt. Don't even try attacking Bubbled enemies. Instead focus on their ally, now having a numbers advantage against them.
7. Positioning your shields correctly can deal immense damage. This happens if the enemy gets launched and starts wildly bouncing off the shields, walls and the floor. Be careful - the shields are a double-edged sword. The enemies can also use them against you to bounce you away.
8. You can activate two shields at the same time, one horizontal, one vertical.
9. Steven's Down Special, aside from healing, creates a watermelon which after a moment shapeshifts into Watermelon Steven and starts fighting alongside you. Watermelon Steven mainly uses a charge attack which inflicts Rose's Gaze and deals damage, but he can be easily knocked off the arena.
10. Most of Steven's powerful moves have cooldowns, which means perks that shorten cooldowns can be really useful to him.

Recommended build

Steven Universe has access to two signature perks. One of them is much simpler to use, though pales in comparison to the second one. The easier perk is Green Thumb. Your Watermelon Steven will grow overtime, dealing more damage the longer he lives. This park is useful, though Watermelon Steven is easy to kill early on and it's prone to strange behaviors. Nevertheless, there's no shame using this perk if you haven't fully mastered the shields yet.

The second perk is Bounce Bubble. After hitting a shield, enemies become stunned for longer and their speed increases. This bonus means that if you manage to bounce an enemy off a few times, they'll start moving so fast they won't be able to control their character properly. This is difficult though, and it takes time to learn how the shields work and how to place them properly. If you want to main Steven, Bounce Bubble will be the better choice.

1. Collateral Damage - an offensive perk, which grants your team a +1 damage bonus to enemies who bounced off a wall or the floor. This is the best of Steven's perks, as the shields let you deal a lot of extra damage. When an ally chooses this perk, you will deal +2 damage.
2. Coffeezilla - a utility perk, which shortens your team's skill cooldowns by 10%. When an ally chooses this perk as well, the bonus increases to 15%. Many of Steven's moves have cooldowns, so this perk compliments his build well.
3. I Dodge You Dodge We Dodge - a utility perk, which shortens your team's skill cooldowns by 10% after dodging an enemy attack. Similar to Coffeezilla, the bonus increases to 15% when stacked with an ally.

Some of the perks synergize great with Steven, though they are pretty situational. Nevertheless, they're worth considering and using sometimes:

1. Snowball Effect - an offensive perk, thanks to which your team deals 7% more damage to the most heavily wounded enemy. To clarify, this means the enemy with the highest number under their health bar. The bonus increases to 15% when stacked.
2. Absorb 'n' Go - a defensive perk, which lets you recover from cooldowns 7% faster when knocked back by a projectile. The bonus increases to 15% when stacked. This perk works great if the enemy team has many characters with access to projectiles, such as Velma or Tom & Jerry.
3. Tasmanian Trigonometry - a utility perk which lets you knock enemies back 15% farther. The bonus increases to 25% when stacked.

How to win as Steven Universe?

When starting off, try staying away from enemies. Set up some shields where you want to fight if the enemies let you. You can do so in the way pictured above if the enemy is between the shields you set up. Your standard combo, consisting of three Side Attacks, should launch that enemy into the vertical shield and bounce them off right into the horizontal shield.

When your enemy is high up in the air, use Up Special to create a shield below them and bounce them off. You can get onto the shield yourself to reset your jump, attack and dodge counters.

Remember to often use the attacks with cooldowns, such as your Down, Side and Neutral Special.

If an ally is in trouble, you can step back and grant them a shield with your Neutral Dodge. You can also use Neutral Special and tether to them to damage the enemies with the incoming blast.

If you or your ally were heavily damaged, create Watermelon Steven to heal. We recommend doing this when the enemies are far away or if one of them is Bubbled. You can also use your Neutral Attack to launch the watermelon into the air, making it more difficult for the enemies to destroy it right away.

Remember not to attack Bubbled enemies - just ignore them. They're immune to all damage while Bubbled, so don't bother with them.