Amaterasu’s major mechanic is her Celestial Brush, and the ink it uses. She has 10 ink pots that refill over time, and can be seen on the UI, and her Celestial Brush Techniques use different amounts of it. These techniques are mostly used through use of her Neutral Special: Celestial Brush. The move freezes Amaterasu in place (if you use it for a second time in the air or hold the button too long, Amaterasu will simply just fall slower), overlays a parchment filter over her, and allows the user to paint various shapes with the brush, each with different effects:
- Power Slash
- Drawn with a horizontal line. This, and other techniques that require lines, can be quickly executed by flicking the control stick. For a horizontal line, you’ll want to flick it left or right.
- Ink Cost: 2 pots.
- A slash attack occurs in front of Amaterasu. It doesn’t do a particularly high amount of damage, but it covers a decent amount of ground, and deals extra shield damage.
- Cherry Bomb
- Drawn by making a circle with the control stick.
- Ink Cost: 4 pots.
- A bomb as large as Amaterasu is tall appears in front of her. This bomb can be pushed around by players, and launched by all attacks that aren’t fire based. It will detonate after a set period of time, if Amaterasu hits it with Power Slash, or if anyone hits it with fire. The explosion isn’t particularly powerful, or even as big as something like Steve’s TNT, but it doesn’t hurt Amaterasu, so she can use it as a trap or pressure tool without worry. Unless it gets reflected that is.
- Water Lily
- Drawn by making a circle with the control stick while Amaterasu is swimming.
- Ink Cost: 1 pot.
- Creates a platform underneath Amaterasu’s feet that floats on the water.
- Veil of Mist
- Drawn by making two horizontal lines.
- Ink Cost: 6 pots.
- Surrounds Amaterasu in a purple mist that lingers for a bit. This mist completely obscures Amaterasu, and other characters as short, or shorter than her (for reference, she’s about a head shorter than Mario, maybe a little taller). If an opponent enters the mist, they will be slowed down slightly. Not as much as with the Timer item or Witch Time, but enough to put them at a disadvantage. It’s pretty costly, but the reward can be quite good.
- Deluge
- Drawn by making two vertical lines.
- Ink Cost: 1 pot.
- Adds a rain effect to the stage. The only time this has an actual effect in battle is when it’s used on the Distant Planet stage, though I’m sure the residents of the Living Room won’t be happy when they get home.
- Galestorm
- Drawn by making a loop motion with the control stick.
- Ink Cost: 4 pots.
- Causes green swirls to fly past Amaterasu, blowing away opponents directly in front of her. She can use this to mess with recovering opponents, though it does not hit under her, so low recoveries can be safe if she doesn’t jump down to meet you.
- Whirlwind
- Drawn by making three horizontal lines.
- Ink Cost: 8 pots.
- Creates a tornado originating from Amaterasu that lingers for a second. This attack only hits airborne opponents, but will deal a lot of damage, and can K.O. if it does. The attack also doesn’t protect Amaterasu, so projectiles and other attacks will ignore it. Due to the high ink usage this attack has, you will need to be sure that it will be useful in the moment you decide to use it, or you could be left stranded.
- Fireburst
- Drawn by making the infinity sign with the control stick.
- Ink Cost: 5 pots.
- Creates a burst of flames around Amaterasu. This attack is a powerful K.O. move, and can even act as a decent edge guarding tool, or comboed into with her multi-hit attacks with the Divine Retribution. However, like with the other big elemental techniques, its cost is quite high, so don’t miss.
- Thunderbolt
- Drawn by making a lightning bolt symbol with the control stick.
- Ink Cost: 6 pots
- Creates a lightning bolt a bit short distance in front of Amaterasu that deals multiple hits. It doesn’t deal as much damage as Whirlwind or knockback as Fireburst, but it does open up opponents for combos if you can hit with it.
- Ice Storm
- Drawn by making three slashes to make a snowflake symbol.
- Ink Cost: 4 pots.
- Two icicles are summoned above Amaterasu; one to the left of her, and one to the right. Once they form, they drop, freezing any opponents they hit. This attack is the least costly of the big elemental techniques, but it offers the least damage, K.O. power, or utility.
These attacks have no right to be near instantaneous, so to account for the fact that pro thumbs go
brrrrrrr, there is a minimum amount of frames that the Celestial Brush will be active before executing the technique. This time isn’t particularly long, and is dependent on the technique.
Amaterasu’s Up Special is Vine & Bloom. Just like in the Neutral Special, it will give you access to the Celestial Brush, but this time, you can draw free form wherever you like, limited only by the amount of ink you have. When you’re done, an upside down flower will appear where your line ended, and the line becomes a vine that whisks Amaterasu away through the path you drew. Vine & Bloom grants a ton of distance if you have the ink for it, but it also leaves you open to attack both before and during your trajectory. However, it doesn’t put you into freefall, so you can mix things up with the Tsumigari.
One last thing to worry about with these attacks is that if you run out of ink, three ink pots will recharge at the same time, but you have to wait until they do before using the Celestial Brush again. To make things worse, you will be completely unable to use the Divine Instruments during this time, making all of your attacks quite pitiful, and turning your Side Special into the same thing as your Forward Aerial.
