Advance notes:
1. Unless specified otherwise, KO percents assume the target is Mario standing at the exact centre of Final Destination with Rage as a non-factor. Moves are also assumed to be totally fresh for the purpose of KO percents, but damage values are listed as they would be perceived in Training Mode (thus omitting the 1.05x damage increase for freshness). This naturally means that with ideal conditions these KO percents can be reduced significantly.
2. I'm very insistent on using "from" terminology in regards to KO percents if the target needs to be at the listed percent before the move connects. If a move is listed as KOing "at" a particular percent, assume that the listed percent is post-hit.
3. Any reference to Stage Builder Units (SBU) in this set refers to the Brawl stage builder, rather than SSB4.
A sudden transformation of Carbink. Its pink, glimmering body is said to be the loveliest sight in the whole world, and its regal appearance has earned it the title "The Royal Pink Princess". It can instantly create many diamonds by compressing the carbon in the air between its hands.
(Before anyone complains, yes, the above is modified slightly from the exact wording in the original sources.)
The Jewel Pokémon Diancie is #719 in the National Pokédex. Despite technically being genderless, Diancie is commonly portrayed as female, including in the Pokémon anime where she is the princess of a hidden underground kingdom known as the Diamond Domain. In the anime, she has the ability to communicate via telepathic speech, despite not being a Psychic-type Pokémon.
Statistics
Weight: 3/10 (80 points)
Height: Mega Man (though she's not as wide due to her stance)
Walking Speed: Kirby
Running Speed: Falco
Aerial Speed: Pikachu
Ground Traction: Ike
Aerial Control: Mega Man
Ground Jump Height: Mega Man
Midair Jump Height: 80% of Ground Jump Height
Short Hop Height: 60% of Ground Jump Height
Fall Speed and Gravity: Mega Man
Fast-Fall Speed: Almost unnoticeably slower than Marth. That is, her fast-fall speed is only 1.4x her normal max fall speed instead of the standard 1.6x, a trait she shares with Ryu.
Movement abilities: None outside the default.
Statistically, Diancie doesn't really do much of anything well. She weighs only as much as Meta Knight, and has a high falling speed with a comparatively slow fast-fall speed, which at face value means she gets comboed forever and killed early while simultaneously having difficulty escaping juggles. Her movement speed is lacking both on the ground and in the air, and she has short jumps with a comparatively-tall short hop. One of the few aspects of this that can be interpreted as a positive is her weak ground traction. This makes pressuring her shield more difficult and increases the potency of her pivot tilts and running Up Smashes, at the cost of weakening her out-of-shield punish game and giving her next to no fox-trotting ability. Another plus to her movement stats is her top-tier aerial traction. Despite her low maximum air speed, she can swerve in the air like a champ, which helps her get some mileage out of going airborne despite how fast she falls.
Movement animations, etc.
For her walk, Diancie hops along the ground, seeing as she doesn't have legs. This means her hurtbox is constantly bouncing up and down as she walks, hardly an ideal situation as far as projectiles are concerned, although it can potentially avoid some low-hitting attacks if the timing works out just right.
Her dash has her hover along the ground in a manner similar to Palutena, though she's nowhere near as fast and thus doesn't lean forward as much. Unlike her walk, she doesn't bounce up and down during this, so there's no chance of her floating over low hitboxes. The way she leans forward actually puts her at about 80% of her standing height, but does leave her a somewhat wider target overall.
Diancie's crouch isn't exactly much to write home about in terms of hurtbox shifting, which is probably to be expected given her build. She just lowers herself to be touching the ground, rather than floating ever-so-slightly above it, and does her best to dip her head low, putting her left arm up in a high block to cover her head defensively. It puts her at about 85% of her standing height, so it's really not great in that regard. It does have a redeeming feature, though. While crouching, Diancie has extremely light armour, about on par with Bowser's passive armour. It won't always do much for her, but it can at least deny Mega Man's lemons and sometimes cause rapid jabs to drop combo against her. And of course, it's in addition to the usual defensive benefits of crouch-cancelling.
Special Moves:
Side Special: Diamond Combination
First Movement: Rock Throw
With the initial input, Diancie holds out her left arm and clenches her hand into a fist, drawing carbon out of the air with a visible distortion effect to form a chunk of refined, but uncut, pink diamond that's about the size of Ryu's Hadouken. She then sharply throws it at high speed with her left hand, either forward on the ground or at a -30° angle forward and downward in the air, though either version can be angled up to ±30° by holding up or down on the Control Stick. If thrown straight forward from the ground, it will travel 2 Battlefield platforms before striking ground thanks to gravity, assuming a level surface. On impact with the ground, the diamond chunk sticks there. If the thrown diamond chunk strikes a foe, it'll deal 6% with weak downward knockback and immediately lose all horizontal momentum, but will not vanish and the hitbox will not end either, instead weakening to a mere 3% with very weak knockback at the Sakurai Angle (despite the change in damage output and knockback, it's still technically the same hitbox and won't hit the same foe twice). It will still stick to the ground if it hits ground after hitting an opponent. If used in the air, Diancie gains a slight amount of vertical momentum, in a manner similar to Brawl Marth's Dancing Blade.
The diamond chunk left stuck to the ground by Rock Throw has 15 HP and will be destroyed if it takes that much total damage, else it will disintegrate harmlessly into sparkling diamond shards after 12 seconds elapse. The diamond chunk behaves like an immovable character in terms of solidity, so it's possible to move through it but horizontal speed will be reduced when doing so. There's more to it than that, but that's for later.
After the initial Rock Throw attack, Diancie has multiple options, similarly to Marth's Dancing Blade. Press the Special button in conjunction with a direction on the Control Stick for different follow-ups, which will generally target the landing point of the Rock Throw diamond (or the position at which the Rock Throw diamond struck a target, if it landed offstage; follow-ups are impossible if the Rock Throw diamond goes offstage and does not hit a target). Exactly what follow-ups are available depends on whether the Rock Throw diamond landed onstage or not. Like the first attack in the sequence, the follow-up attacks give Diancie a slight burst of vertical momentum, making it slightly easier to complete a full Diamond Combination in the air.
Attacks in the Second Movement are, in most circumstances, not quite true combos out of Rock Throw, but they remain useful strings regardless.
Second Movement (Up): Rock Slide
Diancie thrusts her left arm into the air, instantly summoning a multitude of pink diamond chunks (eight of them, to be exact) into existence, accompanied by a heavy distortion effect. Each of the diamonds is about the size of one of a collapsed Unira item. The diamond chunks are lobbed in an arc to land in a 1.5 SBU radius spread around a point slightly behind the Rock Throw diamond's location (or the position at which it hit a target if it fell offstage). The arc is higher if this move is used on the ground than if it's used in the air. The diamonds thrown by this move will stick in the ground just like the one from Rock Throw. On hitting a foe during its arc, a Rock Slide diamond deals 2.5% with weak knockback at the Sakurai Angle, and unlike the Rock Throw projectile does not lose horizontal momentum at all. 20% damage maximum if all hits somehow connect. Including this move in a Diamond Combination shifts the targeted point of the next attack in the sequence back slightly.
Rock Slide diamonds that stick in the ground have 13 HP and are destroyed after taking that much total damage, or disintegrate harmlessly into sparkling diamond shards after 10 seconds elapse. Like the Rock Throw diamond, they behave like immovable characters in terms of solidity.
The long-duration barrage of Rock Slide is ideal for catching foes who think they're smart for trying to sidestep dodge the second hit of the Combination, and its area of effect is even great enough to catch some rolls, though characters with especially long rolls such as Little Mac are likely to escape anyway.
Second Movement (Neutral): Power Gem
Diancie draws her left arm across to the right side of her body as four translucent crystals of faintly-glowing pink energy form above her head. She then swipes her left arm across her body in a dramatic gesture, and the four crystals shoot forward in succession towards a point just past the Rock Throw diamond's location. Upon hitting either a foe or the ground, the energy crystals align themselves to form an inward-curving arc above the struck location. They will hover there for a maximum of 3 seconds before flickering out of existence. A Power Gem crystal deals 3% damage with slight knockback at a 0° angle, whether it is flying at a target or simply hovering in the air.
Power Gem serves as a good way to limit the mobility of a foe who thinks they can simply jump out of a Diamond Combination. The semi-spiking knockback can make it an effective gimping tool against characters with high gravity and/or weak recoveries, especially in combination with the potential to effectively close off a small area using a dome-shaped ceiling.
Second Movement (Down, Onstage Only): Rock Tomb
Diancie makes a sharp upwards gesture with her left arm. A trio of pointed spires of pink diamond extend out of the ground in a ring-like formation just past the Rock Throw diamond's position, all pointed inwards to the centre of the ring. The farthest spire is in the main stage area, with all the others being at least slightly in the foreground or background, so that only the tips are in the same z-axis position as the main stage. The tips of the spires, about 3/4s of a Stage Builder Unit above ground level, serve as one singular grab hitbox as they approach full extension (the centre of the hitbox is actually slightly lower than the tips, enabling Rock Tomb to grab shorter characters even if the spires intersect above their head, though characters like Kirby and Olimar can still crouch under it), impaling the foe for 9% damage and holding them in place (on human characters, the spires pin them at upper chest height). The foe can escape by mashing out with grab difficulty, and will be subject to an aerial grab release should they successfully do so. Integrating Rock Tomb into a Diamond Combination shifts the targeted point of the next attack in the sequence up slightly, for those attacks that can be shifted upwards.
The diamond spires stick around even after the foe mashes out, lingering for 5 seconds before harmlessly disintegrating into a multitude of tiny diamond shards. The spire that's in the main stage area will impede movement like other diamond chunks (but less so since it's thinner), but the other two will not. The spire that's in the main stage area has 10 HP and is destroyed after taking that much total damage.
Rock Tomb is ideal for snatching foes who think they can simply shield a Diamond Combination. It's best used at mid-high percents, however, as a foe who's only lightly damaged is likely to mash out and escape the Diamond Combination's finale.
Attacks in the Third Movement are frequently true combos out of the Second Movement, though it is somewhat percent-dependent as they tend to combo more reliably when Diancie and/or her foe are at higher percents.
Third Movement (Up, Onstage or Power Gem only): Dazzling Gleam
From whatever pose Diancie ended the Second Movement, she clenches her left hand into a fist as a muted pink light shines out from her enclosed palm. All the crystals placed by the current Diamond Combination (including both diamonds stuck in the ground and hovering Power Gem crystals) flash with a harsh pink light for a moment. Anyone within 1/4 of a Stage Builder Unit of one or more of the affected diamonds as they flash takes 12% and is launched straight up with strong base knockback and good knockback growth, possibly being KO'd starting at around 155%.
Dazzling Gleam serves as a solid emergency KO option for Diancie, should she have difficulty landing her other KO moves or simply be disinclined to engage the foe in close quarters at the moment.
Third Movement (Neutral, Onstage or Power Gem Only): Ancient Power
Diancie throws her right arm out to the side, and a barrage of seven diamond chunks fires out in sequence. They have a glowing pink outline and travel in a horizontal arc (through the foreground if facing right, or the background if facing left) towards the target point. They each deal 2% and flinching on hitting a target. Upon arriving at the target point, regardless of whether they hit anything or not, they begin a horizontal orbit with a 1 SBU radius around the target point. They remain an active hitbox while orbiting, and linger for 3.5 seconds before disintegrating harmlessly.
Finishing a Diamond Combination with Ancient Power is an excellent way to limit foes' horizontal movement. In conjunction with a Power Gem, Diancie can significantly limit a foe's movement options for a short time, leaving them vulnerable to follow-up attacks.
Third Movement (Down, Onstage Only): Earth Power
Diancie holds her left arm out, then curls her left hand into a fist and makes a downward slamming gesture. The ground in a 1.5 SBU diameter around the target point erupts with orange-and-brown energy and chunks of earthen debris, covering half an SBU into the air. This serves as a long-lasting hitbox dealing 10% and strong upwards knockback, frequently capable of KOing around 140%. Additionally, any diamond chunks stuck to the ground within the blast are detached from the ground and launched with radial knockback, but do not take damage. Rock Tomb spires are instead shattered, dealing 2% to foes and minions within 1/4 of an SBU of them but not damaging diamond chunks or items.
The Second Movement of Diamond Combination has significant endlag should Diancie choose not to cancel into the Third Movement, as with Marth's Dancing Blade. This makes it usually a better idea for Diancie to complete the full Diamond Combination than to not complete it. Rock Tomb, however, may be able to lead to other follow-ups than a Third Movement at especially high percents. Though, those percents are the same percents that usually lead to a KO if Diancie simply opts for Dazzling Gleam or Earth Power.
Diamond Combination's power is limited against an offstage foe because so many of the follow-ups rely on solid ground, but Rock Throw > Rock Slide or Rock Throw > Power Gem can still serve to gimp a foe.
Neutral Special: Moonblast
Upon this move being input, Diancie leans forward as a pink light grows in the large gem on her forehead. She stays this way, charging, until the input is pressed again or until the charging is cancelled by shielding, jumping, or dodging. The charge is storable with standard storable projectile mechanics, and reaching full charge takes about a second and a half. When the move is released, Diancie leans forward to fire a pink laser blast, similar in shape to a fully-charged Robo Beam and has identical range to it as well. Like the Robo Beam, Moonblast can be angled and will bounce off of a solid surface once if it strikes it at a sufficiently shallow angle. Charging the move does not significantly increase the width of the beam, but does increase its speed, and also increases the length of the beam's tail. It starts only about as long as a Falco laser and grows from there up to the length of an extended Thoron, and its speed scales about the same. The beam lengthens as it travels in a matter similar to a fully-charged Robo Beam until it reaches its maximum length based on its charge level, meaning Diancie doesn't have to channel it in the same way Robin must channel an extended Thoron and is instead free to act fairly quickly after firing. The beam is a piercing projectile dealing 4-14% damage depending on the level of charge and has high hitlag. The beam's damage is multiplied by 0.8x each time it strikes a hurtbox (so the first hit deals normal damage, the second deals 0.8x, the third 0.64x, the fourth 0.512x, etc).
Upon hitting a foe (or other damageable entity that can flinch, such as a cucco, or a minion or Assist Trophy belonging to a foe), a Moonblast beam impales the victim, holding them in place on the first frame of their hitstun animation for as long as the beam remains in contact with them. Because charging the beam increases the length of the beam's tail, it also increases the duration of the impale effect. Also of note is that hitting multiple foes with a single beam will allow the impalement to last longer as the hitlag comes into effect multiple times and stalls the beam's movement. When the beam leaves contact with the impaled foe, they'll be launched weakly at the Sakurai Angle; Moonblast is not a KO move. Moonblast will not impale a foe who is already the victim of an impalement effect, instead launching them immediately on contact. A foe also cannot be impaled by Moonblast for one full second after any other impalement effect they were the subject of has ended. Moonblast can impale a grabbed foe, but the foe will then gain grab immunity for the duration of the impalement effect and an additional one second afterward. Likewise, a foe can be grabbed out of a Moonblast impalement, but they will then gain impalement immunity for the duration of the grab and one second afterward. Moonblast can be blocked by a shield as normal, and will not impale a shielding foe. Only the arrow-shaped head of the beam has an active hitbox (even though the tail counts as part of the beam for purposes of its impalement effect as well as for purposes of reflectors, absorbers, Villager's Pocket, and the like), so it can be sidestep dodged.
Moonblast will also interact with the crystals left by Diamond Combination. Upon hitting a diamond chunk or Power Gem, including the floating diamond chunks left by Ancient Power, a Moonblast beam will experience hitlag as if it had struck a foe. The beam will then refract through the crystal, redirecting toward the nearest crystal it has not yet refracted through. If no such crystal exists within its remaining range, it will instead refract towards the nearest foe within its remaining range. If no such foe exists, it targets the nearest minion within its remaining range that is owned by an opposing player (including Assist Trophy characters and poké ball Pokémon that have hurtboxes or otherwise react to being attacked). If there aren't any minions in range either, it continues in the direction it was moving when it hit the crystal. A Moonblast beam can only interact with each individual crystal once; should its position intersect a crystal it has already interacted with, the beam will pass through as if the crystal was not there at all. Moonblast does not deal damage to crystals belonging to the user.
Obviously, Moonblast can't refract into the foreground or background, so it won't go in a ring all around a lingering Ancient Power. Instead, the beam will frequently end up bouncing back and forth between opposite sides of the ring of Ancient Power diamonds as they enter and exit the foreground until it either hits every diamond chunk in the ring or reaches the end of its range.
Moonblast interacts differently with the spire Rock Tomb leaves in the main stage area, as well. While the beam will still refract towards it like it would any other Diamond Combination crystal, upon striking a Rock Tomb spire the beam is lensed in such a way that it becomes a wide blast like the light of a flashlight, emanating from the Rock Tomb spire at an angle based on the direction the beam hit from (striking the "underside" of the spire causes it to aim at an upward diagonal, while hitting the "top" of the spire releases the blast at a downward diagonal). This blast covers a total distance equal to 1/4 the beam's remaining range, widening as it goes, and deals half the beam's normal damage. Instead of impaling the foe as the beam does, this refracted blast causes a paralysis effect, similar to the likes of Zero Suit Samus's Paralyzer. Its duration is most often quite a bit shorter than the impalement effect would have been, though unlike the beam's impalement this paralysis scales based on the foe's percentage.
Down Special: Style Switch: Stone Edge <–> Shining Sword
When Diancie starts a match, her idle pose has her wielding a long, thick blade, made of chunks of unrefined pink diamond held together by pink Fairy-type energy, in her right hand. But with an input of Down Special, Diancie will take a moment to reform her weapon into a lithe, elegant sword of refined and cut pink diamond that glows with an inner light. With this change in weapon comes a change in the entirety of her ground and aerial kits with the exception of her Specials. Which is to say, Diancie has two movesets: a Stone Edge Style moveset, and a Shining Sword Style moveset, and she starts the match using Stone Edge Style. As far as the actual animation goes, Diancie holds her current weapon out in front of her (horizontally with both hands if using Stone Edge Style, or vertically with just her right hand if using Shining Sword Style), and closes her eyes as the air heavily distorts around her weapon and it deconstructs into diamond particles. Then, Diancie strikes a pose, ending in the other Style's startup position as the particles of diamond reform into the appropriate weapon and the distortion effect ends. Finally, Diancie opens her eyes and quickly returns to her idle pose. All in all, the animation takes 0.4 seconds to complete.
As Diancie opens her eyes, her body flashes steel-grey for an instant as she uses Iron Defence. For the short remainder of the animation after that point, as well as for the next 4 seconds after the animation ends, Diancie has a passive 5% Heavy Armour (her body maintains a very slight steel-grey tint while the armour is active, and flickers opaque steel-grey once again as the armour ends). On moves which already have damage-based Heavy Armour, 2.5% is added to the existing Heavy Armour's damage threshold. In addition, any attack which is not strong enough to bypass the Heavy Armour deals 1% less damage (so an attack that would deal 6% instead deals 5%), stacking with any other damage reduction effect present on other moves (as with Ryu's Focus Attack, the Heavy Armour checks against the attack's original damage value, not the modified value post-damage reduction). The Special button can be held during the move to cause Diancie to delay opening her eyes, simply standing in that pose as her whole body gains a steel-grey tint that starts almost transparent and slowly grows in opacity (upon release, the tint flashes to full opacity for an instant before vanishing). For every half second Diancie charges in this way, the duration of the Heavy Armour and accompanying damage reduction extends by 2 seconds, the Heavy Armour's damage threshold increases by 1.5%, and the damage reduction reduces damage by a further .5%, maxing out at one second of charge for 8 seconds of 8% Heavy Armour (moves which already have damage-based Heavy Armour add 4% to their Heavy Armour's damage threshold) with moves that fail to break through the armour dealing 2% less damage. The charge scaling is continuous as opposed to working in stages, which means that every frame of charge will add 4 frames to the duration, 1/20th of a percent to the Heavy Armour's damage threshold, and 1/60th of a percent to the strength of the damage reduction. While Iron Defence's buff is active (regardless of the level of charge), Diancie's knockback-based armour while crouching improves to the point that, generally speaking, a move must be strong enough to KO Diancie outright by launching her all the way over the blast line in order to cause knockback to her at all. The damage reduction also applies to Diancie's armour while she's crouching with this buff (the knockback calculation to determine whether an attack breaks her armour uses the attack's unmodified damage value, as with the percent-based Heavy Armour).
The Iron Defence buff granted by this move does not stack with itself, though using it a second time while the previous buff is still active will override the previous one if the new one is greater in duration than the previous one's remaining duration and is at least equal in armour threshold/damage reduction. The Heavy Armour from Iron Defence is not present while Diancie is asleep, dazed, buried, in hitstun, grabbed, in the process of being thrown, or otherwise incapacitated, though it is present while Diancie is waiting in a tripped or prone state or hanging from a ledge. The buff ends if Diancie is KO'd.
While ordinarily Diancie might be inclined to stick with a single Style for most of a match, the temporary armour and damage reduction upon switching Styles grants an inherent benefit in making the most of both Styles regardless of the matchup or other match conditions. Also unique to Diancie is that the same input counts separately on the Stale Moves queue between Styles; that is, Stone Edge Style FTilt is considered a distinct move from Shining Sword Style FTilt on the Stale Moves queue, and so on through all the other moves that change between Styles (Special Moves are not affected by this, even in those cases where they have different animations between Styles).
Idle animations:
Stone Edge Style:
Diancie's body is twisted to the right, though she remains facing forward. The Stone Edge sword in her right hand drags behind her, its tip touching the ground.
The Stone Edge blade itself is composed of chunks of unrefined pink diamond that aren't actually connected through direct physical contact, instead being held together by glowing pink Fairy-type energy. The blade is about as wide as the Buster Sword and the weapon including the hilt is as long as Diancie is tall. Strikes with the Stone Edge sword connect with a powerful slamming sound, like Ike's Ragnell. The sword somewhat resembles the image above, but recoloured appropriately.
Diancie's body is twisted to the left, though she remains facing forward. The elegant sword of pink diamond in her right hand is held out in front of her almost as if she's fencing.
The sword itself has a cross-guard, unlike the Stone Edge sword. It's a fair bit shorter than the Stone Edge blade; if Diancie were to hold it out vertically in front of her, the blade of the sword would measure from the very tip-top of Diancie's head to the lowest part of the frilled "shirt" that makes up Diancie's upper body. (Poor Diancie. Even she's not immune to Smash 4's weapon length-nerfing ways.) Strikes with the Shining Sword have a sharp sound to them similar to Meta Knight's Galaxia in Brawl.
Up Special: Diamond Storm
(Grounded)
With a fierce expression and a telepathic "Diamond…", Diancie twirls in place once as the air around her seems to distort heavily. Hold the Control Stick in a direction during this part of the animation to determine where Diancie aims. With a final telepathic cry of "STOOOORM!", Diancie releases the attack. From the end of the twirling animation until the last hitbox of the attack vanishes, Diancie has 18% Heavy Armour and receives 3% less damage from attacks that fail to break through the armour.
Control Stick Neutral/Down:
Diancie sharply raises her left arm (in Stone Edge Style) or spreads her arms upward (in Shining Sword Style), and the distortion in the air coalesces into a mass of pink diamond shards that swirl in a violent whirlwind around her, covering almost a full Stage Builder Unit to either side of her, as well as being slightly greater than Diancie herself in height. Deals a maximum of 9 hits over the course of about a second, with each hit dealing 2% damage. All hits cause very slight upward knockback, including the last hit. For the first eight hits, there's also a windbox at and just beyond the outer reaches of the attack that subtly pulls foes horizontally inward, it's weaker even than the wind effect on Ganondorf's Up Tilt. The final hit is instead accompanied by a windbox over the whole area of the attack that pushes horizontally away from Diancie with slightly greater power. All hits of this attack are technically projectiles, in the same way as Lucario's ranged Force Palm is a projectile: each individual hit can be reflected to change its ownership, causing it to hit Diancie instead, but this won't affect the remaining hits of the attack since Diancie has Heavy Armour during the move, and in all probability won't even damage Diancie due to the Heavy Armour's accompanying damage reduction. Endlag is low enough that the move will always be safe on hit, but not low enough to take advantage of the hitstun.
Control Stick Up:
Diancie sharply raises her left arm (in Stone Edge Style) or spreads her arms upward (in Shining Sword Style), simultaneously turning her gaze upward. The distortion in the air coalesces into a 1 Battlefield platform-wide mass of pink diamond shards around Diancie that then travels 2 Stage Builder Units straight up. Deals a maximum of 9 hits over the course of about a second, with each hit dealing 2% damage. All hits cause very slight upward knockback (though the final hit is marginally stronger), and the attack is accompanied by a windbox over its area of effect that causes a mid-weak upward push that's strongest near the base of the attack. The combined force of the windbox and the knockback can easily be used for various aerial follow-ups depending on the foe's percent, though they're often not guaranteed.
Control Stick Forward/Backward:
Diancie thrusts her left arm forward (in Stone Edge Style) or thrusts both arms forward with her blade braced against her left hand (in Shining Sword Style). If performed in the opposite direction Diancie is facing, she performs an extra half-rotation during the initial spin so that she faces the other direction. The distortion in the air coalesces into a 1 Battlefield platform-tall mass of pink diamond shards around Diancie that then travels 2 Stage Builder Units forward. Deals a maximum of 9 hits over the course of about a second, with each hit dealing 2% damage. All hits cause slight horizontal knockback away from Diancie, and the attack is accompanied by a windbox over its area of effect that causes a weak horizontal push that's strongest closer to Diancie. It serves as a fairly generic spacing tool due to its wide area and low endlag.
All directional variants of grounded Diamond Storm also increase the durability of diamond chunks and Power Gem crystals they hit due to the diamond shards integrating into them. Specifically, diamond chunks gain 1 HP per 1% damage the Diamond Storm would have dealt, and both diamond chunks and Power Gem crystals gain 0.1 seconds of duration per 1% damage the Diamond Storm would have dealt (their timers also do not decrease while they are being hit by Diamond Storm). This can exceed the original max HP and duration of affected diamond chunks/crystals.
(Aerial)
Diancie lets out a sudden telepathic cry of "Diamond STORM!" and holds her free hand out in front of her as she halts in midair completely. The air just in front of her hand distorts heavily as five pink diamond shards emerge and move to hover around Diancie. The point that the diamonds emerge from is a hitbox right as they appear. It deals 6% and weak, set upward knockback. As the diamond shards move into position, Diancie orients her body so that her head is in the direction the Control Stick is held (default: 30° angle forward and up), rather like the gif above. Then Diancie bursts straight in that same direction for 3.5 SBU, blasting through anyone in her path while the ring of diamond shards surrounding her deals 5 rapid hits of 2% damage, the first four of which drag the foe along with Diancie and the last of which weakly launches the foe a short distance in the opposite direction. Puts Diancie in helpless fall if she ends the move in the air. If she aims it downwards, she'll interrupt the move on impact by bouncing off the ground for some lag but no helpless fall. The move can also ledge snap at any point. Diancie has 11% Heavy Armour throughout the dash portion of the move and takes 1% less damage from attacks that fail to break through the armour, so a foe has to either go deep or hit hard in order to block her recovery.
Obvious practical applications for this move include string setups (but very few true combos) and Meteor Smashing your foe as you go for the ledge. Heck, you can even introduce the concept of Pineappling to stages other than Dream Land 64! The knockback isn't particularly powerful on any of the hits though, so you'll have to get crafty to gimp foes with this move.
Smashes and Dash Attacks:
Mechanics:
Diamond Resilience
Diancie's Smash Attacks and Dash Attack are all armoured, in both Stone Edge Style and Shining Sword Style, and this armour comes with accompanying damage reduction against attacks that fail to break through the armour. This percent-based Heavy Armour is strongest when it starts near the beginning of the animation (on the first frame after the charge window) and degrades as the animation progresses, down to half of its starting strength at the lowest, before vanishing completely the exact frame the attack's final hitbox is gone. The accompanying damage reduction's strength behaves similarly. For Smash Attacks, the strength of the Heavy Armour and damage reduction scales with charge, using the same 1.4x scaling as the Smash Attack's damage; this obviously doesn't apply to the Dash Attacks as they can't be charged.
Diamond Smash
Normally, Diancie's attacks can not hit or damage her own diamond chunks, and Smash Attacks and Dash Attacks hold to this. However, if the B button is held during one of her Smash Attacks/Dash Attacks, it gains the ability to hit her diamond chunks and Power Gem crystals, and will also gain a buff to reach and damage output using the shards of the diamond chunk(s)/crystal(s) it just destroyed. As a general rule, all Diamond Smash attacks also shatter Diancie's own weapon on the final hit, causing her to switch Styles. The Stone Edge Style's Diamond Smashes all shave at least a few frames off their endlag compared to their normal counterparts, as well.
The threat of a Diamond Smash forces foes to respect Diancie when she's standing amidst her own diamond chunks. She can use the increased space she controls in neutral to find time to set up an Iron Defence or charge Moonblast, or can hit a foe with a Diamond Smash to switch Styles and launch the foe away so that she can then switch back and gain an Iron Defence in the process.
Stone Edge Style:
FSmash:
Initial Heavy Armour strength: 24%
Initial Damage Reduction: 4%
Full Decay Heavy Armour strength: 12%
Full Decay Damage Reduction: 2%
Diancie braces herself as she leans back slightly, holding that position if she charges the attack, then leaps straight up to the height of her normal jump. She does a single frontflip during the course of the jump, then brings her hefty blade crashing down in front of her. Uncharged, it deals 19% with high base knockback at a 45° angle, and can KO from 95% at centre stage.
When performing this move, Diancie occasionally lets out a telepathic cry of "Va t'en!" (French equivalent of "Go away!" or "Get lost!")
This Smash Attack is slow. That much should be obvious from the description of its animation. In fact, it's almost as slow as Ike's Forward Smash. Unlike Ike's, however, this Smash Attack has very strong Heavy Armour and the leap upward can get Diancie out of the way of attacks, though of course it can also put her in the path of attacks if she isn't careful, leading to her eating extra damage. Though Diancie has plenty of armour and damage reduction to be used and abused, Diancie is still a lightweight with a high falling speed and mediocre recovery and should avoid tanking more hits than necessary.
By holding the B button, this Smash Attack gains the ability to strike diamond chunks, as well as Power Gem crystals even though they don't have HP. If it does so, a Diamond Smash triggers. All diamond chunks and Power Gem crystals it struck are destroyed, and Diancie's own weapon shatters on impact. The shards of the shattered diamonds and shattered weapon blast forth in a 90° spread of shrapnel that adds 0.5 SBU to the attack's horizontal and vertical range. This spread of shrapnel deals a single hit with the unmodified Smash Attack's damage and knockback (that is, 19% and KOing from 95% at centre stage), but deals only 2% damage to foes who are also hit by the sword hitbox. The shrapnel blast's reach increases by 0.1 SBU for each diamond chunk after the first that is used in the Diamond Smash, and its reach also scales with charge using the same scaling as Smash Attack damage output. The endlag animation changes, too: Diancie takes up her Shining Sword Style stance, and the diamond shards gather together to form the aforementioned Style's weapon in her hand.
DSmash:
Initial Heavy Armour strength: 22%
Initial Damage Reduction: 3.5%
Full Decay Heavy Armour strength: 11%
Full Decay Damage Reduction: 1.75%
Diancie turns slightly to the right and tenses her arms during startup and charge, then spins counterclockwise for 2 rotations, dragging the tip of her Stone Edge blade along the ground in a wide circle and causing it to release a shower of sparks. As the second rotation completes, Diancie swings the blade around to her front for the third time, this time lifting it so it becomes a diagonally-upward slash. The result of all this is that the move hits in front of Diancie three times and behind Diancie twice. Animation-wise, it's a little like if Shulk spun the other direction for his Down Smash. The first hit in front of Diancie deals 12% uncharged, the first hit behind Diancie deals 11% uncharged, the second hit in front of or behind Diancie deals 9% uncharged, and the third hit in front of Diancie deals 15% uncharged. The first four hits (two in front, two behind) send foes at the Sakurai Angle with fairly strong base knockback and decent knockback growth, with the first hit in front capable of KOing from around 135% uncharged and the others being proportionately weaker based on damage output, while the final hit in front sends foes at a 55° angle and can KO from around 115% uncharged. Due to the strong knockback, multiple hits will almost never connect against the same foe unless they're shielding or have Heavy/Super Armour.
Incidentally, a foe in front of Diancie who shields the first hit without perfect-shielding will be caught in shieldstun and forced to shield all three hits if they don't slide out due to shield-push and/or shield DI; if Down Smash is fresh and charged for at least 16 frames, this will result in an instant shield break if the foe doesn't have some sort of buff to shield durability (such as that granted by Shulk's Monado Shield).
If the last hit of this attack strikes a shield (whether it breaks the shield or not), Diancie lets out a telepathic cry of "Écrasé!" (French for "Crushed!" The reason for the incorrect grammar is that "Be crushed!" just doesn't have the same ring to it in French, where it translates as either "Aie écrasé!" or "Ayez écrasé!")
The most powerful hit of this Smash Attack is exceedingly difficult to land, as one might expect. While this does cover rolling opponents, the fact that the hits behind Diancie are weaker could be seen as a downside. As with Shulk's Down Smash, a sidestep dodge with perfect timing can allow the foe to evade two hits in a row, but this will almost certainly lead to the final hit smacking them in the face. Though the move has slightly more vertical coverage than Shulk's Down Smash, there's still just enough time between the hits for a foe to potentially dash in and hit Diancie. Not that this is generally a good idea, seeing as Diancie's Heavy Armour will still be very much active.
This Smash Attack's Diamond Smash version behaves somewhat unusually, in that the first two hits to the front and the first hit to the back cannot destroy diamond chunks, always leaving them with at least 1 HP. Each hit that connects with a diamond chunk/Power Gem crystal sucks up diamond shards to form a trail behind the blade. This trail of diamond shards extends 0.25 SBU beyond the reach of the blade itself and covers up to Diancie's waist height, with the range increasing by 0.1 SBU with each time a diamond chunk/Power Gem crystal is hit. It deals multiple slashing hits that pull the foe in, usually totaling a maximum of 4% damage before the next main hit of the attack connects and launches them out. (Though of course the foe can be an idiot and SDI outwards to maximize damage from the multihits while simultaneously ensuring they get hit by the strong third front hit of the attack instead of the weak second front/back hit.) If the third forward hit of the attack connects with a diamond chunk or Power Gem crystal, Diancie's weapon will shatter as will all diamond chunks/Power Gem crystals it connected with (regardless of their remaining HP), launching forward a 45° shrapnel blast of diamond shards covering 0.5 SBU beyond the reach of the actual blade (+0.1 SBU per diamond chunk/Power Gem shattered beyond the first, and then scaling with charge) that deals a single hit with the Smash Attack's unmodified damage and knockback (15% and KOing from 115% uncharged). The attack's normal hitbox also deals 2% more damage and slightly greater knockback, for 17% and KOing from 110% uncharged. The endlag animation changes too, with Diancie spinning backward a "step" and ending in her Shining Sword Style neutral stance as the diamond shards gather and reform into the Shining Sword in her hand. If the final hit does not connect with a diamond chunk or Power Gem crystal, however, the multihitting trail of diamond shards follows it as with the earlier hits instead, and it doesn't cause Diancie to switch Styles.
USmash:
Initial Heavy Armour strength: 20%
Initial Damage Reduction: 3%
Full Decay Heavy Armour strength: 10%
Full Decay Damage Reduction: 1.5%
Diancie braces herself to charge, then hops about her short-hop height upward while moving very slightly forward. As she ascends, she sharply lifts her Stone Edge blade upward in a crescent slash. She then performs a crescent slash overhead as she hits the apex of her jump and starts to descend again, and is then stuck in endlag until shortly after she lands. As one may expect, this covers in front of, above, and slightly behind Diancie and has quite a lot of reach. The first slash deals 7% damage with set knockback that will send foes into the second slash. The second slash deals 10% and knockback dependent on the foe's location relative to Diancie: foes within the first third of the arc are sent upward and can be KO'd from 125% uncharged, while foes within the later portion of the attack are launched diagonally up and behind Diancie and can be KO'd from around 120% near the edge.
The attack's Diamond Smash variant has the first hit (which like the DSmash's first hit cannot destroy diamond chunks, always leaving them with at least 1 HP) lift the diamond chunk(s) and/or Power Gem crystal(s) into the air, with each one serving as an additional hitbox dealing 2% damage and flinching. The second hit then shatters all diamond chunks and Power Gem crystals caught in the attack (regardless of remaining HP) along with the blade itself, launching a spread of shrapnel that covers the first 90° of the attack's arc with 0.5 SBU more range (+0.1 SBU per diamond chunk/Power Gem crystal beyond the first, and scaling with charge) and deals the hit's normal unmodified damage (10% uncharged) and radial knockback typically KOing from 125% uncharged. The attack's normal hitbox also causes an additional 2% damage and KOs 5% sooner. The attack's endlag animation changes too, with Diancie doing a full backflip off of the momentum from the second hit and landing in her Shining Sword Style stance as her weapon once again reforms in her hand.
Dash Attack:
Initial Heavy Armour strength: 22%
Initial Damage Reduction: 3.5%
Full Decay Heavy Armour strength: 11%
Full Decay Damage Reduction: 1.75%
Diancie spins clockwise for two full rotations, at first retaining some forward momentum but slowing down as the move continues. Her sword arm is curled in close to her body for half of the first rotation as the Stone Edge blade's inertia causes it to drag, then she suddenly swings the blade out and holds it out for the rest of the first rotation and all of the second one. The second rotation ends with the blade dipping as Diancie laggily halts its momentum, having to put all her effort into pulling back against the motion. The Stone Edge blade is a hitbox from when Diancie initially swings it out to right before it dips at the end of the second spin, meaning in total there are two hits in front of Diancie and two behind. The first hit to the front deals 6.5% with Autolink Angle knockback, then the first hit to the back deals 12% with solid base knockback and mediocre knockback growth at the Sakurai Angle, then the second hit to the front deals 7.5% with about the same knockback as the prior-mentioned back hit. At the end of the second rotation right before the blade starts to dip lower is a sourspot for 4% and knockback at the Sakurai Angle with just enough base knockback to be safe on hit and almost-nonexistent knockback growth. The two forward hits of this attack are a natural combo for a total of 14% damage.
The attack's Diamond Smash has Diancie's blade shatter on the first impact with one or more diamond chunks or Power Gem crystals, also shattering the aforementioned diamond chunks/crystals. The remainder of the attack is instead made with a storm of diamond shards swirling gradually upwards around Diancie, having 0.5 SBU more horizontal range than normal (+0.1 SBU per diamond chunk/Power Gem crystal beyond the first) and dealing a multitude of slashing hits that totals 9.5% damage (+2% damage per diamond chunk/Power Gem crystal beyond the first) if the Diamond Smash is initiated with the first hit to the front (so the attack's total damage is 16% if the first hit connects), and weak upward knockback that sets up nicely for Shining Sword Style aerials. Diancie does an additional half-rotation to end the move in her Shining Sword Style stance as the storm ends and the diamond shards gather to her hand to form the Shining Sword. This gives the attack significantly less endlag than it normally has.
Shining Sword Style:
FSmash:
Initial Heavy Armour strength: 24%
Initial Damage Reduction: 4%
Full Decay Heavy Armour strength: 12%
Full Decay Damage Reduction: 2%
Diancie holds her sword pointed upward in front of her, close to her body, while charging. Upon release, she draws the sword across to the left side of her body, then strikes with a swift horizontal slash. On hit, the slash deals 17% with decent base knockback and very good knockback growth, capable of KOing from around 130% uncharged. The move is comparable in some ways to Meta Knight's FSmash, though with even longer startup and longer reach. Like Meta Knight's FSmash, the endlag is quite short for a Smash Attack. Also like Meta Knight's FSmash, the hitbox lasts for only a single frame.
This FSmash is rather more useful as a pseudo-counter against mid-power hits than her Stone Edge Style FSmash, due to its less dramatic startup animation. The shorter endlag also effectively means that more of the move is covered by heavy armour, though the slightly shorter startup and significantly shorter hitbox duration also means the heavy armour decays more quickly.
The attack's Diamond Smash is simple: all diamond chunks and/or Power Gem crystals it hits shatter along with the blade itself, forming a 30° spread of shrapnel that travels 0.5 SBU beyond the normal reach of the attack (+0.1 SBU per diamond chunk/Power Gem crystal beyond the first, and scaling with charge) and deal the attack's normal unmodified damage (17% and KOing from 130% uncharged). The attack's normal hitbox also has boosted damage at 19% and KOing from 125% uncharged. The endlag animation changes as well, with Diancie carrying the swing's momentum all the way through to end in her Stone Edge Style stance, as the diamond shards then gather to her hand to reform into the Stone Edge blade.
DSmash:
Initial Heavy Armour strength: 18%
Initial Damage Reduction: 2.5%
Full Decay Heavy Armour strength: 9%
Full Decay Damage Reduction: 1.25%
Diancie points her sword forward, her elbow bent, for the charge animation. (If you look closely, you'll see her eyes are narrowed and her mouth twisted into a frown, her overall expression appearing both fierce and calculating.) Upon release, she pulls her sword in close to her body and then stabs forward. Then she spins to her right, slashing across her body to hit foes both in front of and behind her. The stab in front deals 4% with high hitlag and negligible knockback, then the slash to both sides deals 10% with middling base knockback and high knockback growth at a 30° angle behind Diancie, resulting in a total of 14% damage uncharged and KO potential from around 140% (145% if back hit only due to less damage dealt). The stab forward is followed immediately by the slash across in a single precise motion. The result of the immediate succession of the two hits combined with the first hit's high hitlag is that a foe struck by the stab appears to have been impaled on Diancie's sword and then tossed away behind her, even though no part of the attack is actually a grab at all. This attack leaves Diancie facing the opposite direction. The lag on this attack is incredibly front-loaded, with a third of a second of startup and only a quarter of a second of endlag.
The very short endlag on this attack makes it difficult to punish. Jumping over it and attacking from above is a viable tactic, but the timing to both avoid the heavy armour and not get shielded is not as lenient as a foe might like.
This attack's Diamond Smash can trigger only if the first hit connects with at least one diamond chunk/Power Gem crystal, and the first hit cannot destroy diamond chunks, always leaving them with at least 1 HP. When it does, the second hit shatters both all diamond chunks/Power Gem crystals it hit as well as the Shining Sword, creating a planar wave of diamond shards that reaches out 0.5 SBU (+0.1 SBU per diamond chunk/Power Gem crystal beyond the first, and scaling with charge) beyond the blade's reach on either side and covers a 30° spread. This wave of diamond shards deals a single hit of 10% damage and KOing from 140% (145% if first hit doesn't connect due to less overall damage dealt) uncharged. Meanwhile, the normal hitbox has its damage boosted to 12% and KOing from 135% (140% if first hit doesn't connect due to less overall damage dealt) uncharged.
USmash:
Initial Heavy Armour strength: 20%
Initial Damage Reduction: 3%
Full Decay Heavy Armour strength: 10%
Full Decay Damage Reduction: 1.5%
Diancie looks upward and draws her right arm in close to her body, pointing her sword upward. Then she performs a swift, forceful stab straight up. Unlike Marth's USmash, Diancie doesn't leave her sword held up, instead pulling it back in just as sharply as she stabbed it upward in the first place. The stab upwards deals 8% and strong upward knockback (good base, fairly normal growth), potentially capable of KOing from 135% with no rage from the main platform of Battlefield, and ripping the sword back out deals 9% and upward knockback that has less base knockback but more knockback growth, capable of KOing from around 120%. That is, of course, a total of 17% damage uncharged. Normally, despite the first hit's strong knockback the two hits are close enough together to combo into each other. However, the second hit doesn't cover quite the same area as the first, being the same overall size but very slightly lower, and there's also the (exceedingly rare) possibility that a foe may be launched so fast by the initial hit that the second fails to connect, though in they're guaranteed to be KO'd anyway in a scenario such as this.
The Diamond Smash version of this attack triggers only if the first hit connects with at least one diamond chunk or Power Gem crystal. The first hit cannot destroy a diamond chunk, always leaving it with at least 1 HP, while the second hit will destroy all diamond chunks/Power Gem crystals it hits regardless of their remaining HP, in addition to shattering the Shining Sword. This results in a downward 90° fan of diamond shrapnel starting just above Diancie's hand that travels up to 0.5 SBU (+0.1 SBU per diamond chunk/Power Gem crystal beyond the first, and scaling with charge) below ground level, stopping if it hits a floor or wall. Uncharged, it deals 9% damage and 80° angle knockback up and away from Diancie that can KO from around 125%. The normal hitbox is also boosted to 11% damage and knockback capable of KOing from around 115% uncharged. The endlag animation changes too, as Diancie's movement of ripping the sword out is more dramatic so that she ends in the Stone Edge Style neutral stance as diamond shards gather to her hand to form the Stone Edge blade.
Dash Attack:
Initial Heavy Armour strength: 22%
Initial Damage Reduction: 3.5%
Full Decay Heavy Armour strength: 11%
Full Decay Damage Reduction: 1.75%
Diancie twists to the left, drawing her weapon in, then performs a sharp forward thrust. She retains some amount of forward momentum even while drawing her weapon back, though she slows down almost to a stop as the startup continues, then gains another forward burst as she strikes. As is usual for Diancie, the startup on this move is punishable. Like the Shining Sword Style's Smash Attacks, the endlag is surprisingly low for the move's reach. The hitbox is thin and does not last long before Diancie quickly pulls away. It deals 12% and good base knockback with mediocre knockback growth at an 85° angle. As an armoured launcher, this provides a relatively safe way to start an aerial string or combo.
The Diamond Smash version of this move is relatively simple. The Shining Sword shatters on impact with the diamond chunk(s) and/or Power Gem crystal(s), also destroying the aforementioned diamond chunks/crystals. This produces a 45° spread of diamond shrapnel that travels 0.5 SBU (+0.1 SBU per diamond chunk/Power Gem crystal beyond the first) at a 45° angle upwards and forwards. This shrapnel spread deals the same damage and knockback as the unmodified attack's normal hitbox, while the attack's normal hitbox is boosted to deal 14% damage but retains similar knockback. The endlag animation changes to have Diancie make a sharp lifting motion upward, then follow the motion through until she ends in Stone Edge Style's neutral stance.
Standards:
Stone Edge Style:
Jab: Diancie's jab in Stone Edge Style is a two-hit combo.
A: Diancie swings the Stone Edge blade in a wide slash diagonally up from the lower right. It's a bit laggy for a jab, but has a surprising amount of horizontal and vertical reach. The area covered by the swing is as tall as Diancie herself, in fact. Deals 4% with weak, set knockback to lead into the second hit.
AA: Diancie follows up with a wide, diagonally-upward slash from the lower left. It hits the same area as the first jab, dealing 5% and knocking foes diagonally away with solid base knockback and surprisingly good knockback growth; it can KO from around the 185% range. There's enough of a gap between hits for a foe who shields the first one to shield-grab Diancie before the second one comes out if they're up close and personal with Diancie, but the endlag of the full combo is surprisingly low for a Stone Edge Style attack.
DTilt: Bulldoze
Diancie rapidly slams her pointed lower body against the ground like a jackhammer, creating rapid-fire earthshaking hitboxes around Diancie that hit half a Stage Builder Unit to either side of her. Each shockwave resembles a miniature version of the shockwaves from Donkey Kong's Hand Slap. Diancie "stomps" down 4 times, generating a shockwave each time. The first three shockwaves deal 1.5% with weak set downward knockback to hold the foe in place, then the final shockwave deals 2.5% and sends foes upward with very low base knockback and surprisingly high knockback growth. Total damage is 7%.
Of all of Diancie's attacks in Stone Edge Style, this is the quickest to come out (and it actually is quick, rather than just "quick by comparison") and has the shortest real endlag. However, its long-ish duration, ground-only hit area, and comparatively short reach make it punishable with aerials if the foe jumps over it, and since it's a tilt it lacks the heavy armour of her smashes and dash attacks. Still, its endlag is short enough that at low percents, Diancie can even combo into the Stone Edge Style jab from this move.
FTilt
Diancie performs a strong overhead chop. This arcing slash, visually similar to Link's FTilt, covers a greater area around Diancie than the aforementioned attack as her weapon's exaggerated size comes into play, with its arc covering 130° from above and behind Diancie to the ground in front of her. Its startup is shorter than that of Link's FTilt but its endlag is longer, with Diancie sweeping the blade along the ground to rest behind her as she returns to her neutral stance. It deals 12% regardless of where it hits in its arc, but the knockback is not so uniform. For the first 5° of its arc (realistically just the first frame the hitbox is out, but to my knowledge Smash
does count subframes and slow motion is also a possibility), grounded foes will be launched straight up while airborne foes will be launched at a semi-spike angle forward. For the next 55° of its arc, foes will be launched at that same semi-spike angle regardless of whether they're grounded or airborne. For the remaining 70° of its arc, it causes knockback at the Sakurai Angle. The exact strength of the knockback is extremely similar regardless of how it hits, having solid base and enough growth to KO from around 150% with the Sakurai Angle hitbox on a grounded foe.
Though it is on the slow side in endlag, it's still useful due to its power and reach. Its wide area is great for shutting down approaches, but be careful when spacing with it as a narrow miss will get Diancie punished. Combined with Diancie's low traction, its wide arc gives it great utility out of pivot. A short dash into pivot FTilt is a very reasonable response to an aerial approach, especially near the ledge as Diancie can quickly turn the situation to her advantage.
UTilt
Diancie sweeps her Stone Edge blade up in an uppercut slash that covers a 90° arc. Its startup is not as bad as one might expect from Diancie, though its endlag is pretty punishable as Diancie lets gravity do the work in dropping her blade back to her side. It deals 13% and launches straight up with low base knockback and high knockback growth, capable of KOing from around 140% or comboing into a direct hit with Moonblast at low percents.
Shining Sword Style:
Jab: Diancie's jab in Shining Sword Style is a 3-hit combo.
A: Diancie pokes forward with her blade. A subtle twist of the wrist and extension of the arm results in a swift, simple stab. Its range isn't the absolute greatest ever for a swordfighter's jab, but it's still solid. It is by far the fastest option in her entire kit, coming out on frame 2. Deals 3% and flinching to lead into the next hit.
AA: After the initial stab, Diancie twists her arm and flicks her wrist to perform a precise cut upwards. The strike's restrained motion gives it little in the way of actual vertical reach, so it's not going to be serving as anti-air any time soon. Deals 3% and very weak, not-quite-set knockback that's generally upwards-ish but varies based on the foe's position relative to Diancie to ensure it leads into the next hit. Diancie can end the combo here if she wants and go for read-based follow-ups instead, as this attack's endlag isn't too punishing.
AAA: A twist of the wrist and a flick of the arm brings the blade back down in a precise vertical strike. Above the elbow, Diancie's arm barely moves at all. This final strike in the combo again deals 3%. It launches foes on a semi-spike trajectory with pretty decent base knockback, but low knockback growth that won't KO any time soon.
FTilt
Diancie twists backward her own character width, pulling back her blade to her right side. After holding that position for a moment, Diancie "steps" forward to her original position with a sudden stab for 10% and middling Sakurai Angle knockback. Diancie reverts to her normal idle pose almost immediately after landing the attack, only having to bend her arm and straighten her posture slightly to do so. If not overly staled, this attack is safe on shield, unless perfect-shielded or spaced as poorly as possible.
In particular, a fresh FTilt has a 1-frame advantage on shield drop. The consequences of this should be immediately apparent, such as the obvious utility as an amazing poking tool in neutral and ability to get free follow-ups if a foe gets greedy and tries to punish. Notable is that it loses this frame advantage with any amount of staling at all; if it's not fresh, it doesn't have advantage and is merely neutral. If it's staled enough to deal less than 8.75%, it's no longer neutral on shield and instead has a slight disadvantage.
The step back during startup also makes it yet another pseudo-counter in Diancie's arsenal, this one usable against more powerful melee attacks that would pierce the Heavy Armour of her Smashes and Dash Attacks. That same step back adds to this move's utility as a pivot tilt, as well. It's tempting to use this move often, but much of its utility vanishes if you do so.
UTilt
Diancie raises her right arm quickly and, with a flick of her wrist, slices upwards in a small arc that hits almost entirely above her, ending straight up above her. It deals 8% with mid-weak upwards knockback. It has the quickest startup of Diancie's Shining Sword Style tilts, though its endlag isn't quite as insanely short as the other tilts. It can combo into itself once or twice at low percents, especially against foes tall enough to be picked up from the ground by this attack. After that, though, may as well follow up by bouncing a Moonblast off of a diamond chunk to strike the foe. If they air dodge to evade the Moonblast, Diancie can punish with either another Up Tilt or an aerial attack.
DTilt
From her crouch, Diancie pulls her left arm back toward her "hip", twisting her whole body to put the maximum force into a low thrust of her blade. This thrust deals 9% and diagonally upward knockback for most of the blade, which can be useful for repositioning a foe or starting a short combo. The very tip of the blade as the thrust reaches full extension, however, is a sourspot dealing 5% and weak horizontal knockback with a very high chance to trip. It has noticeably more startup and endlag than, say, Marth's DTilt, but it's still a reasonably quick move.
Aerial Attacks:
Stone Edge Style:
NAir
Diancie flips in midair, swinging her blade in a full 360° arc around her starting from behind and slightly above her. It's visually similar to Mii Swordfighter's Neutral Aerial, except that the arc it covers is more similar to Cloud's. Deals 9% and mid-weak Sakurai Angle knockback throughout the whole swing. The attack is legitimately quick to come out, but the swing itself is almost leisurely in its pacing. Has punishable landing lag and less than ideal aerial endlag, but autocancels from a full hop.
This is Diancie's general-purpose, bread-and-butter aerial in Stone Edge Style. Useful for spacing, follow-ups, creating further follow-up opportunities, hitting from odd angles, and general damage output. Diancie doesn't really have the mobility required to create true combos out of NAir, but that doesn't stop it from being useful for strings.
FAir
Diancie swings the blade in an upward arcing slash in front of her. The attack actually hits below Diancie first before arcing up to cover the front. Deals 9% at the bottom of the swing, but 13% at the front. Foes struck at the bottom are launched at a 0° angle with knockback that lacks in direct KO power but is suitable for gimping. Foes in front are launched at a 70° angle with knockback that KOs from 180% at ground level, but can easily KO significantly earlier if Diancie and her foe are both in the air. It has surprisingly reasonable startup, but high endlag and less-than-ideal landing lag, and it won't auto-cancel from a full hop; the minimum height for it to autocancel is a short hop plus a midair jump.
Also notable is that in order to swing perfectly vertically, Diancie has to tilt her whole body slightly. As a result, her lower body and her head are out of the main plane during the attack. (If facing right, her head will be in the foreground and her lower body in the background.)
BAir
Diancie turns and strikes with a diagonally-upward swing behind her. Startup is decidedly average, making it somewhat impressive when taking the move's significant reach into consideration. It deals 13% with diagonally-upward knockback that can KO from around 180%. It also causes Diancie to turn around, letting her follow up with forward-facing attacks, but does have not-insignificant endlag that's just barely short enough for Diancie to midair jump before landing if she uses a rising BAir. It autocancels if used near the peak of a full hop, and also has a significant autocancel window at the beginning of the move which makes landing with BAir a faster way to turn around than actually pivoting on landing.
UAir
Diancie thrusts her right arm, holding her Stone Edge blade, straight up, making for a move similar to a mirrored Cloud UAir. The hitbox covers the upper half of Diancie body along with a small area behind her as it comes out, and by the end of the strike's extension it covers just above her head and a small area to either side. Startup is pretty average, not super quick but enough to look quick when used effectively, again in a manner similar to Cloud's UAir. Drawing further parallels, the hitbox stays out for quite some time. Unlike Cloud's UAir, this has high landing lag and mid-high endlag, enough that it will only end before landing if Diancie uses it from a full double jump. It deals 15% with upward knockback capable of KOing from around 105% as the strike comes out, though this decreases to 9% and KOing from 180% as Diancie holds the blade out.
Diancie's head and upper body are off the central plane during the attack, as otherwise they'd be physically in the way of her attack.
DAir
Diancie flips once in midair to deliver a slow arcing slash below her, hitting a massive 170° arc centred directly below her. This attack has long startup; enough that Diancie typically must initiate it from the start of a full hop in order for the endlag to complete just after the peak of the jump. In exchange, it has shortish endlag (though this boon is made up for by the move's long active duration) and surprisingly short landing lag. It deals a solid 15% damage to anyone it hits. As one might expect, the first half of the arc is a powerful Meteor Smash, capable of gimping foes at absurd percents under the correct circumstances. The majority of the second half of the arc instead sends foes at a 0° angle behind Diancie, again with powerful knockback capable of gimping at crazy percents if used right. At the very tip of the arc's second half is a sourspot of sorts that launches almost straight up with mid-strong knockback that doesn't scale well. With this attack's short landing lag, Diancie can actually combo out of this if she can land it.
Shining Sword Style:
NAir
Diancie slashes upwards in front of her with a flick of her wrist, then spins to strike both sides. The first hit causes knockback that will always lead into the next hit, no matter what direction Diancie is moving. As a result, this can launch foes at fun angles (fun for Diancie, not the opponent!) if the move is interrupted before the second hit comes out. The most obvious application is to fast-fall so that Diancie lands between hits, causing a weak Meteor Smash. The second hit launches foes at a low, almost-horizontal angle, not quite low enough to semi-spike most foes. Deals 3% on the first hit, then 6% on the second. A fairly quick move all around, with Diancie able use it twice in midair off of a full hop despite her high falling speed, though she'll only get to perform the first hit of the second one before landing. 9% damage total.
FAir
Diancie leans forward in midair and stabs forward with her blade only once for just an instant, dealing 6% and weak knockback at a high diagonal. It can KO at Sudden Death percents. It has pretty quick startup, next to no endlag or landing lag, and very good horizontal reach but little vertical coverage. The move is quick enough to be performed twice during a full hop. With Diancie's weak jump and high fall speed, that's rather impressive. At low percents, this move can combo out of Dash Attack.
BAir
After a delay as Diancie readies her blade, holding it braced horizontally in front of her, she suddenly spins and, in a single swift, precise motion, slices horizontally behind her. The attack makes up for its startup and finicky precision by dealing 18% and almost completely horizontal knockback that can KO from 80%. And it looks really cool in the process. The blade when held in front of her is also a defensive hitbox that deals no damage or knockback to foes but will clank with any incoming attack (provided the attack in question isn't transcendent). IN addition, the move autocancels if Diancie lands during its startup while the blade is still held in front of her.
UAir
After a delay, Diancie twists in midair and performs a quick stab above her, similar to Meta Knight's UTilt but with increased startup lag compared to the aforementioned move. This deals a good 13% and upward knockback with high knockback growth capable of KOing from around 125%, but the hitbox doesn't linger long at all. It also has unusually long endlag for a Shining Sword Style move, but its landing lag is far from terrible. Best used as a finisher for Diancie's combos, short as they are, or to close off a stock. At mid-low percents, if Diancie can get close enough to the foe it can actually be used immediately before landing to start a combo, but this requires careful precision and is more than a little risky.
DAir
Diancie flips upside down in midair and spins, holding her sword out to stab below her. Unusually for Diancie, this is a multi-hit move, hitting up to 5 times for 1.2% per hit over the course of 25 frames. The first four hits have autolink angle knockback to keep the foe locked in the move, while the final hit is a weak Meteor Smash, a little stronger than the final hit of Kirby's DAir. This attack also has a landing hitbox for 4% and surprisingly decent knockback at a 45° angle, capable of KOing from around 210%. Unlike most landing hitboxes which have a fairly wide range, this one is pretty specific in its placement, only hitting foes who are both on the ground and directly touching Diancie. This is balanced out by the move having surprisingly low landing lag for one that possesses a landing hit. Additionally, the move will autocancel, skipping the landing hit as well, if Diancie lands more than 6 frames after the multi-hit portion of the move has ended. With her high fall speed, this is unlikely to be the case, but it's still something to note. 10% damage maximum.
Grab
Diancie's grab animation varies depending on which style she's using, but the basic concept is the same with it being a simple grab forward with her free hand. Frame data is perfectly standard for a competent grab, but the reach is a bit short (though not as short as Ganondorf's).
Pummel: Draining Kiss
For her pummel, Diancie… leans in and kisses the grabbed foe. There's a flash of silver energy just as her lips make contact with the foe, and the foe flinches in pain in her grasp. The pummel deals 1.5% per tick and is somewhat below average in speed. How underwhelming. More notable is the fact that with each pummel, Diancie heals herself of 1% damage.
Now here's where things get interesting. Diancie has two sets of throws, one for each of her Styles.
Stone Edge Style:
FThrow
Diancie shoves the opponent away sharply, dealing 1% and leaving them stumbling back, then moves to perform an uppercut slash with the Stone Edge blade so that it grinds against the ground, causing it to come apart into a multitude of diamond fragments. The fragments continue to follow the motion even as they separate from the rest of the weapon. Diancie transitions her uppercut motion into something more akin to a palm strike, and the diamond fragments form into a wall slightly taller than Diancie that continues forward a short distance and slams into the foe for 8% and moderate semi-spike knockback that's unlikely to KO until Sudden Death percents. Afterward, the wall collapses back into diamond fragments that return to Diancie's grasp and reform into the Stone Edge blade.
Oddly for a Stone Edge Style move, the wall's surface seems rather polished, like actual cut diamond instead of a rough uncut diamond. This wall interacts with Moonblast as if it were one of Diancie's diamond chunks from Diamond Combination. By holding forward on the Control Stick, Diancie can extend the end of the throw's animation to hold the wall out longer. She can hold it out for up to a second, in fact.
BThrow
Diancie swings the opponent around behind her, then swings the hefty Stone Edge blade into their side for 5%. Then, she sends a pulse through the energy holding the blade together, causing it to explode into a multitude of diamond fragments and dealing an additional 4% while sending the foe flying at a 50° angle. Then the fragments converge on the foe, dealing a further 5% over multiple hits and lightly spiking the foe. Finally, the fragments loop around back to Diancie and reform into the blade in her hand. Diancie cannot act out of the move until her blade reforms, so this throw has quite a bit of endlag. 13% damage total.
The main purpose of this throw is simply pure damage output, though it can potentially be used to set up a gimp.
UThrow
Diancie tosses the opponent upward lightly, then strikes with an uppercut slash that deals 1.5% and sends the foe higher into the air. The Stone Edge blade shatters on impact into the same multitude of diamond fragments as before. Diancie holds out her right hand in the foe's direction almost as if Flame Choking the air, as the diamond fragments form a swirling vortex around the foe for multiple hits totaling 4% damage. Then, Diancie forcefully closes her right hand into a fist, and the diamond vortex crushes in on the foe for one final hit of 5.5% and strong mostly-vertical knockback, capable of KOing from around 150%. Then the diamond fragments return to Diancie's grasp and form back into a sword as she returns to her idle stance with a flourish. 11% damage total.
This is Stone Edge Style's KO throw. Not a lot else to say about it, although it certainly looks cool.
DThrow
Diancie shoves the foe to the ground and then slams the Stone Edge blade down on them in an overhead strike dealing 2.5%. The blade then breaks apart into fragments once again. The fragments then ascend skyward in a manner similar to the Yellow Devil's movement, piercing through the foe as they do so for multiple hits totaling 1.5% damage, and reform into the Stone Edge blade, pointed downward, about 1.5 SBU up. Then the reformed blade drops out of the air and stabs into the foe for 3.5%. Finally, Diancie hops forward a step and rips the blade out of the ground (and the foe) for a further 2.5% and exceedingly weak horizontal knockback that serves to jab lock the foe. The motion of ripping the blade out causes her to "step" back a character-width. 10% damage total.
This is a combo throw, best suited to mid-range follow-ups as it leaves Diancie with a bit of distance from the foe. She can follow up with such things as jab or pivot FTilt if she just walks or dashes forward slightly, but it also nicely sets up a free Diamond Combination.
Shining Sword Style:
FThrow
Diancie holds her weapon overhead with her right hand as she shoves the foe away with her left. Her sword separates and transforms into five small diamonds. Four of them fly forward and impale into the foe for 1% damage each, suspending them in midair by their arms and legs (at least in the case of humanoid characters). The final diamond hangs in the air in front of Diancie. She snatches it out of the air with her right hand and wields it like a kunai, lunging 1 SBU forward and piercing straight through the foe for 4% and a mid-weak diagonal launch as the other diamonds lose their hold on the foe from the impact. The diamonds that had been pinning the foe fly back to Diancie as soon as they're forced to release their hold, reforming into the sword along with the one in her hand. 8% damage total.
As it sounds, this is a combo throw. At low to mid percents, the foe will end up somewhere just above Diancie's head from the combination of the knockback and Diancie's movement. UTilt or short-hop FAir are good follow-up options. At especially low percents, the foe can end up slightly behind Diancie. Against foes with a large hurtbox and low fall speed, a full hop BAir can be a follow-up option in this situation.
BThrow
Diancie shoves the foe away and moves as if to sling her sword at the foe. It separate into the same five small diamonds as before, which impale into the foe at the chest, both arms, and both legs (or equivalent locations for non-humanoid characters), each dealing 1% and holding the foe in place. Then, Diancie steps off to her right and flings her left arm out to point behind her. Suddenly, the diamond shards rocket off in that direction for 1 SBU, still carrying the pinned foe. The foe receives a further 1% per diamond shard as the diamond shards suddenly halt in midair, leaving the foe to be launched almost straight horizontally from the retained momentum. This throw is unlikely to KO until Sudden Death percents, but is still useful for leaving a foe in a disadvantageous position offstage. 10% damage total.
UThrow
Diancie tosses the foe upward lightly and moves as if to follow up with an uppercut slash. Instead, however, the sword again breaks apart into the five small diamonds, which impale into the foe and pin them just as in the BThrow, each doing 1% in the process. With the foe pinned horizontally in the air by the diamonds, Diancie winds up for a right-handed uppercut. Then, suddenly, the diamonds all drop away, leaving the foe in tumble as if footstooled, and gather to form a massive diamond gauntlet around Diancie's fist as she performs a strong uppercut for 6% and strong vertical knockback capable of KOing from around 150%. Then the gauntlet separates back into the five diamonds, which then reform back into the sword as Diancie returns to idle stance. The animation of the weapon transforming back gives this throw significant endlag. Incidentally, Diancie can hold the ending pose of this throw for up to a second by holding up on the Control Stick, leaving her holding her pink diamond gauntlet overhead. During this time, the diamond gauntlet interacts with Moonblast as if it were a diamond chunk from Rock Throw. 11% damage total.
Shining Sword Style's UThrow combines the KO power of Stone Edge Style's UThrow with the reflection utility of its FThrow. It's truly a potent tool.
DThrow
Diancie tosses the foe to the ground, then "steps" back a character-width and motions as if to sling her sword at the foe. Once again, the sword splits into five small diamonds that pin the foe to the ground, each dealing 1% as they impale into the foe. After holding the foe like that for just a moment, Diancie makes an upwards gesture with her right hand and the diamonds rip back out of the foe for another 1% each and return to Diancie's grasp, reforming into the sword. As the diamonds rip out of the foe, the second-last hit releases the foe from the grab state and drops them into prone, while the last one jab-locks them. Diancie can act out of the move as soon as her sword is back in her hand. 10% damage total.
Like the Stone Edge style DThrow, this is a combo throw suited to mid-range follow-ups. Outside of the obvious Diamond Combination or Moonblast, walk forward to jab works. Short hop fast-fall FAir works too.
Playstyle: Diamond Defence
Diancie as a character is inherently flawed. She's a lightweight, but her primary method of scoring KOs is by using her Heavy Armour to trade. In addition, despite being a lightweight she has highly underwhelming movement abilities both on the ground and in the air.
Making up for these faults are the options provided by her Specials. The Heavy Armour granted by Iron Defence renders Diancie almost impossible to combo for any significant length of time. Neutral Special's pinning effect allows Diancie to approach despite her slow movement, and allows her to put together reflection combos with the right setup. Diamond Combination slows a foe's approach with semi-solid obstacles in addition to dealing good damage from mid-range, and by covering the stage with diamond chunks Diancie can potentially cause a foe to enter hitlag even when they whiff an attack, making them more easily punishable. Diamond Storm on the ground is an effective way for Diancie to force a foe away from her should she require some space.
This seems like a good place to talk about Diancie's two Styles. Stone Edge Style gives her above average damage output and massive arcing hitboxes. Shining Sword Style sacrifices both of those traits for finicky precision, but makes Diancie very difficult to punish. Diancie will have to make the most of both in order to win, especially since Iron Defence is tied into her Style Switch.
Diancie's grab is important. The pummel's minor healing improves her sustainability, helping offset the damage she'll inevitably take when she uses her Heavy Armour to approach and to secure KOs. Down Throw for both Styles lets Diancie use Diamond Combination safely without having to attempt to get some distance from the foe. The two throws that provide temporary diamond chunks for Moonblast to refract off of are great damage-dealing tools with Diamond Combination already in play.
Stay one step ahead of the opponent, and Diancie can survive to ridiculous percents. But diamond is not as tough as it is hard; strike from the correct angle and it can be cut or even shattered. The Diamond Pokémon herself is much the same.
Final Smash
Mega Evolution ~ Spectacular Talent!
"
The hearts of the people….
Their wishes are my power!"
In an animation similar to the start of Lucario's Final Smash, Diancie Mega Evolves! However, as Diancie bursts out of the sphere she's sealed in when Mega Evolving, the shattering sphere is a hitbox dealing a token 4%, and the burst of light as she emerges covers the whole screen, masking the transition to a cinematic.
Royal ☆ Ascension
"
Foolish peons, begone from my presence at once. Royal Star Ascension."
If the initial hitbox connects with a foe, a cinematic similar to the gif above plays. Diancie flies into the night sky to stand in the crescent moon as if it were a throne. The camera transitions to behind her as she flings an arm out and a circular shockwave spreads around her, knocking the stars around her out of the sky and causing them to fall and rain down on the stage. The view reverts back to the normal stage, with the background changed to the starry sky from the cinematic and Diancie standing in the crescent moon (on stages such as Gamer, the starry sky and crescent moon will be visible through the window, while on some other indoor stages there's no visible change at all. On Wii Fit Studio, the scene will actually be in the foreground beyond the camera, and visible in the reflection of the mirror), as all foes the initial hitbox connected with are struck by the barrage of falling stars (on indoor stages with no windows, the stars fall from directly above rather than coming in from the background, while on Wii Fit Studio they fall in from the foreground), which combined deal a total of 40% damage. However, if multiple foes are caught in the move, especially far apart (such as opposite sides of Diancie when the move was initiated), it's entirely possible that they won't all be struck by every star as each star in the barrage targets a pseudo-random foe among those caught in the attack. (The distribution of damage will be relatively even amongst all victims.) The final star in the barrage to strike each foe will send them flying with radial knockback away from Diancie, capable of KOing at 90% (post-hit) depending on direction (obviously you don't want to be Meteor Smashed by this). After the barrage of stars ends, Diancie either flies back down to the stage (if the starry sky background is visible; on Wii Fit Studio she flies in from the foreground above the camera) or teleports back in (if the starry sky background is not present due to it being an entirely indoor stage, such as Pyrosphere).
Roaring Fantasia
"
Open your eyes and see
The beauty that lies in power!
Be crushed by the brilliance! ROARING FANTASIA!"
If the initial hitbox does not connect with any foes, something altogether different happens. A cinematic like the gif above plays, though the crystal inside of the peak, as well as the shockwave, are pink instead of blue, and the shockwave is intense enough to totally obscure the camera, masking the transition back to the normal stage. Upon transitioning back, the background of outdoor stages (as well as the view out the window on Gamer, and the reflection of the foreground through the mirror on Wii Fit Studio) has changed to a zoomed-out view of the mountain peaks from the cinematic, with the spherical shockwave of pinkish-white light emanating from the far peak in the centre and rapidly approaching the stage. As the shockwave is a sphere it hits the centre of the stage first and very rapidly expands outward from there. Anyone struck by the shockwave takes 20% damage and is launched straight up with knockback that can KO from 70%, but it's easy enough to sidestep/roll/airdodge through it due to how fast it travels and the fact that only the blast front is a hitbox (meaning the hitbox is only ever present in any location for a single frame). It can be shielded, but doing so will break your shield unless perfect-shielded (which is more difficult to accomplish than simply dodging). In the wake of the shockwave, Diancie teleports back to the stage. On indoor stages with no possibility of a background change, Diancie is instead back in her place on the stage the instant the cinematic ends, and the shockwave emanates from her position. The way to avoid being hit by this full-screen attack remains identical, however.
But wait, that's not all! Diancie isn't done yet after
Royal ☆ Ascension or
Roaring Fantasia. She's still in her Mega Evolved state, free to move and attack. She has a number of statistical changes at this point, but not all are beneficial.
+ Diancie gains 5 points of weight, making her as heavy as Zelda.
+ Diancie's walk, run, and lateral air movement are 1.35x as fast. As a result, her run speed is now between Cloud and Charizard, her walk speed is now ever-so-slightly greater than Diddy Kong's, and her lateral air speed is now between Wario and Roy.
+ Diancie's traction is also greatly increased, making it near perfect.
= Diancie's walk animation changes to resemble her normal dash animation with her floating along the ground, and her dash animation changes to have her lean further forward due to her increased speed.
+ Mega Diancie's initial dash is very long and has very little endlag, making it similar to Cloud's.
= Diancie's jump height and midair jump height are increased, and her natural fall speed decreased. Her gravity is slightly decreased as well. Fast-fall speed remains the same, but the reduced fall speed makes it now match the standard 1.6x multiplier. (This means her new fall speed is very slightly slower than Marth's.)
+ Diancie's short hop is shorter, but the decreased fall speed and gravity make it give the same total air time.
+ Startup and endlag on all of Diancie's attacks is reduced.
Moonblast and
Iron Defence charge time are similarly affected.
+ Landing lag on all of Diancie's aerials is 2/3rds its normal duration.
+ Autocancel windows on all of Diancie's aerials start earlier. They all autocancel out of a short hop.
+ Moonblast and
Rock Throw auto-cancel on a short hop, like Melee Fox's blaster.
= Aerial
Diamond Storm's last hit now has the same knockback as the first four hits, and the move does not cause helpless fall (though Mega Diancie can only use it once in midair before having to either land or receive knockback). This makes it a combo tool for Mega Diancie.
+ All of Diancie's attacks deal 1.4x damage.
+ Diancie passively reflects any projectile that deals 15% damage or less, sending it back at its normal speed and power.
= Mega Diancie is significantly taller than normal Diancie. Her weapons are longer to accommodate her increased height, giving her greater reach.
– Diancie's passive knockback-based armour while crouching is gone.
– All of Diancie's percent-based Heavy Armour effects have their damage thresholds reduced to 2/3rds their normal amounts. The accompanying damage reduction effects have their strength reduced to 2/3rds their normal values, as well.
Diancie remains in her Mega Evolved state for 12 seconds. Make good use of her new, aggressive style!
Misc. animations, voice clips, etc.:
Down Special: As Diancie opens her eyes and returns to her idle stance, she sometimes lets out a telepathic cry of "En garde!" Other times, she'll call out the name of the Style she changed to.
Rolls/Dodges: Diancie's rolls resemble Mewtwo's, with her floating out of the way of attacks. Her sidestep dodge has her hurriedly hop to one side, then back into the main fighting area.
Up Taunt:
Diancie leans forward slightly, a happy smile on her face. "Okie-dokie!"
Side Taunt (Stone Edge Style): Diancie simply gives a slight bow. Diancie alternates between two different quotes with this taunt:
"I promise not to go easy on you."
"Promise me you will not hold back."
Side Taunt (Shining Sword Style): Diancie spins her sword and points it forward with a flourish. Alternates between the same quotes as the Stone Edge Style Side Taunt.
Down Taunt:
Diancie gets a sudden case of the giggles. That last KO was just too funny! She ends up having to pick her sword up off the ground afterwards, since she dropped it to have her giggling fit.
Victory pose #1: Diancie cheerfully hums the first 9 seconds of the
gym leader victory theme from Pokémon X & Y. She tapers off at the end and after looking thoughtful for a moment, goes: "…Wait, that wasn't the right song, was it?"
Victory pose #2: Diancie does a polite curtsey towards the camera. "Thank you for the fine match. That was a lot of fun!"
Victory pose #3: Diancie bows formally in the manner expected of royalty, with only a slight dip of her head. "My apologies, but I must be going." Then she walks offscreen, right past the camera. "So with that, I bid you farewell."
A few unprofessional alt colours:
(these weren't created by me)
And this last one is her shiny colouration.
Edit: Changelog:
— Shining Sword Style Down Smash second hit: 9% -> 10%; total damage 13% -> 14%.
— Rock Throw diamond chunk: 10 HP -> 15 HP
— Rock Slide diamond chunk: 5 HP -> 13 HP
— Rock Tomb diamond spike: 5 HP -> 10 HP
— Stone Edge Style BAir totally reworked to be a utility aerial rather than a KO move.
— Stone Edge Style Dash Attack first hit changed to use Autolink Angle.
— Shining Sword Style Down Smash second hit knockback angle: Sakurai Angle -> 30°.
— Shining Sword Style Dash Attack knockback: base increased; growth nerfed; angle: Sakurai Angle -> 85°.
— Focus Attack-like damage reduction added to all of Diancie's Heavy Armour effects. If an attack doesn't bypass the Heavy Armour, it also deals less damage.
— Diamond Smash mechanic implemented. Diancie can now gain increased damage/range and a free weapon switch by hitting a diamond chunk or Power Gem crystal with a smash attack.
— Diamond Storm now increases health and duration of diamond chunks/Power Gem crystals it hits.
— Rock Throw diamond chunk size increased to match Ryu's Hadouken.
— Rock Slide diamond chunks size increased to that of a collapsed Unira item.
— Iron Defence buff nerfed. Initial Heavy Armour threshold: 7% -> 5%. Initial damage reduction: 2% -> 1%. Full charge Heavy Armour threshold: 11% -> 8%. Full charge duration: 10 seconds -> 8 seconds. Full charge damage reduction: 3% -> 2%.
— Grounded Diamond Storm Heavy Armour threshold: 20% -> 18%. Damage reduction: 3.5% -> 3%.
— Aerial Diamond Storm Heavy Armour threshold 12% -> 11%. Damage reduction: 3% -> 1%.
— Smash Attack initial Heavy Armour nerfed by 4% across the board.
— Smash Attack initial damage reduction nerfed by 2% across the board.
