How to play Shaggy in MultiVersus

If you're looking to pick up Shaggy when you play Warner crossover fighter MultiVersus, you'll need to know what the Scooby-Doo star can do. Here's a guide to the moves, abilities, and combos you'll need to embrace the meme.

Shaggy is a melee fighter built around a chargeable Rage state, which powers up his special moves and gives them armour. He is listed as a 'recommended' character in the MultiVersus open beta (along with Wonder Woman), and it's easy to see why — his move set is pretty straightforward, his up and side specials serve as fantastic recovery tools, and he can even power up and heal his teammates. Shaggy is also one of the most efficient characters for farming the MultiVersus achievements, since his Rage-boosted sandwich throw can meet the conditions for a bunch of different cumulative achievements at once. Here's a breakdown of what his kit does...

Current data based on open beta build, and will be updated to reflect changes in later releases. Button references use default Xbox controls.

Shaggy MultiVersus character guide

Role:	Bruiser
Horizontal/Vertical KO Bias:	Hybrid
Universe	Scooby-Doo
Unlocked:	1,500 Gold / 700 Gleamium / 1 Character Ticket

Shaggy's passive abilities

It's, Like, Off-The-Charts: This is Shaggy's Rage mechanic. While in Rage state (triggered by fully charging Zoinks! by holding Y), his special attacks hit harder (and sometimes multiple times) and cover more distance, while several change completely. Each also has armour during the special move, and on hit, it applies a full stack of the Weakened debuff to the enemy, but Rage is used up after any powered-up special attack. This also allows Shaggy to give his allies a lesser version of Rage upon entering the state himself, giving their next attack the same debuff effect but without the power and range boosts or added armour.

Shaggy's normal attacks

Neutral X — Knuckle Sandwich: A single chargeable straight punch. Has armour while charging, and can be dodge or jump cancelled during the wind-up.
Side X — Combo Meal: A linear one-two punch combo followed by a headbutt. Generous window between each hit of the combo to delay each follow-up to mess with opponents' dodge timings. Can be cancelled into anything (including special attacks) any time before the final hit.
Up X — Like, Overhead Swing!: An arcing 180-degree swipe above Shaggy. Can be charged, but not cancelled. Charged version has exceptional lift, even at low damage.
Down X — Power Stomp: Shaggy strides forward and performs an armoured stomp that also breaks through enemy armour. Can be charged and dodge/jump cancelled, and will maintain forward movement without striking if timed correctly. On hit, input the move again to follow up with a clap attack that applies a Slow debuff for a short time, although this will only combo at low damage.

Air Neutral X — Flurrious Feet: Shaggy runs in the air, striking multiple times beneath him. This attack breaks through armour and while not especially strong, its three quick hits can help in stacking an ally's debuffs on opponents quickly.
Air Side X — Like, Knee Strike: A fast flying knee that deals good knockback even at low damage. Can be charged, and even if you start the charge late in a jump, Shaggy will hover just above the ground to complete the attack before landing. Cannot be cancelled.
Air Up X — Flying Slacker Smack: An aerial version of Like, Overhead Swing! that cannot be charged. Useful for confirming a top-screen KO, and can combo into it from Power Uppercut at low damage.
Air Down X — Get Down, Man: A somersaulting spike attack that launches foes downwards, bouncing them on ground or driving them down off the side of the stage for a bottom-screen KO. Quite long wind-up and recovery, but still a decent spike.

Shaggy's special attacks

Neutral Y — Zoinks!: Hold Y to charge up Shaggy's Rage. A full charge takes around two seconds, although you don't need to do it all at once — partial charges are retained for a brief time, so you can use several shorter charges instead of one long one so long as you don't let the build-up (denoted by Shaggy's glowing chest) decay too much. Completing the charge puts Shaggy in his Rage state as explained above in It's, Like, Off-The-Charts, as well as dropping a Scooby Snack that will heal whoever picks it up. Shaggy hovers in the air while charging, so you can fling yourself off the stage to try for a charge at a safe distance, or there's a window for a free full charge after a double KO in 2v2 (or when you take a stock if your ally has the other opponent occupied). If already enraged, Zoinks! changes to be a powerful team defence tool, teleporting to your buddy and unleashing a shockwave that pushes enemies back to potentially prevent them completing a combo for a KO.
Side Y — Chiller Instinct Kick: After a brief wind-up, Shaggy unleashes a fast-moving horizontal flying kick that deals considerable knockback at higher damage. Can be dodge/jump cancelled during the impact window, setting up combo opportunities at low damage. A solid horizontal recovery tool, too.
Up Y — Power Uppercut: A rising punch that will look familiar to Street Fighter fans, which carries opponents into the air along with Shaggy as he leaps. The enraged version adds multiple additional hits during startup, useful for stacking debuffs as well as the extra lift. Minimal recovery time after hit so easy to follow up with further attacks, but leaves you very open if whiffed — use the first two hits of Combo Meal to hit-confirm the uppercut if you want to play safe. Alternatively, you can use quick fall (hold down on the stick during startup) to all but eliminate Shaggy's vertical movement from a ground Power Uppercut, or to land much faster after an air one.
Down Y: — Like, Feed The Hunger: Shaggy pulls a sandwich out of the ground, as you do. Repeat the input to toss the sandwich as a projectile, healing any allies it passes through before damaging and knocking back any enemy it strikes. During Rage, this move changes based on whether or not Shaggy already has a sandwich. If he does, this attack will toss a larger, more powerful projectile. If not, he instead performs a ground slam that sends out a shockwave which does big damage. If used in the air without a held snack, this move becomes Like, C'mere Man!, a powerful ground pound attack with a really strong launching effect. During Rage, a multi-hit shockwave with great range is added to the slam, letting you do great damage from a safer distance.

Shaggy's signature perks

One Last Zoinks: Upon reaching 100 damage taken in one life, Shaggy automatically enters Rage a single time. Potentially a handy comeback mechanic in a close fight, and the first of the two special perks you unlock so it'll be your only option until level ten, but the alternative just seems more reliable. Does combo well with the Last Stand perk (which unlocks just before it), though, offering a guaranteed 10% damage boost on your free Rage attack.
Hangry Man: While holding a sandwich, the charge time for Zoinks! is significantly reduced (roughly halved) in exchange for consuming the snack. This both sets up mind games where your opponents need to worry about whether you toss the sandwich or chow down to get mad, and make getting into Rage mode that much more convenient. You do lose access to the Rage sandwich toss, though, if that's a concern.

Shaggy tips and tricks

Mix up your timings with Combo Meal to force opponents into burning dodges or dodging into the delayed follow-ups. The less predictable you can be with timings, the more opportunities you'll have to hit-confirm into your powerful specials — enraged ones in particular, since you waste your entire charge if you don't land them.
Try to have a sandwich in hand when charging Rage — with the Hangry Man signature perk, this will let you charge much faster, and without, it effectively gives you an additional enraged attack as you can lob a powered-up version of the sandwich before using your enhanced special move.
Power Uppercut combos are nuts against opponents who don't (or can't) dodge, and it's possible to string three together with a couple of other tricks to get a top-screen KO on an undamaged opponent on some stages. In reality, of course, players are likely to be wise to this and dodge one of the uppercuts if they can, so again, mix up your timing and dash directions a little if you're going for these kinds of big juggles.
Fake out opponents by dodge cancelling your chargeable moves. This will allow you to change up into other attacks that hit either before or after the foe would have been expecting them to land (and when they would likely try to dodge). To fully sell this, use a few max-charge moves early in the match to lull enemies into expecting a full charge every time, then switch things up later to land some free big hits.
If you're looking to train additional perks, consider Hit 'Em While They're Down to pile on the pain against anyone hit by your Rage specials, Up, Up, and A-Slay/Percussive Punch Power depending on whether you get most use out of Power Uppercut or Chiller Instinct Kick, or Triple Jump is always useful for additional mobility. If you want to go for even riskier KOs, Second Wind Beneath Your Wings gives you both your air specials back after an elimination, meaning you should easily be able to make it back to safety after even the craziest plays. The elemental projectile ones may also serve you quite well if you're a serial sandwich lobber, and/or if you're paired with a ranged fighter who will get more use out of them when stacked.
Don't sleep on Shaggy's neutral X charged wind-up punch. It has armour so should tank a hit, it packs a wallop to help pile on early damage, and it has great knockback, especially at higher damage levels. All of that makes it also good for sniping opponents trying to return to the stage using horizontal recovery attacks, and you can always jump/dodge cancel the charge if they get wise to it and instead try for something else like a cheeky spike as they hang back from the wind-up punch.

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Written by Luke Albigés

Luke runs the TA news team, contributing where he can primarily with reviews and other long-form features — crafts he has honed across two decades of print and online gaming media experience, having worked with the likes of gamesTM, Eurogamer, Play, Retro Gamer, Edge, and many more. He loves all things Monster Hunter, enjoys a good D&D session, and has played way too much Destiny.